Poker Night at Samuel's


Book Description

Poker Night at Samuel's: A Jim Kuhl story By: Jim Kuhl About the Book Poker is a universally enjoyable and strategic card game. The setting at Samuel Newcastle’s mansion is comprised of a unique group of people. Such a delightful opportunity, each Wednesday night, for them to escape from their frenzied lives. Samuel had personally chosen each of these men and women because of their unique talents to help in his secret mission. An unexpected adventure begins when they are stranded at Samuel’s mansion because of a massive snowstorm. These diverse poker players start telling stories about themselves. But then they are informed by Samuel of an imminent danger, and they agree to become warriors. Their first task is to defend Samuel’s property from being attacked. After this experience, they officially become members of Samuel’s Secret Justice Society, a group that applies justice to those who otherwise may escape any type of judgment. Today’s world is full of fear, uncertainty, and a conception that justice is not equally applied to all. This book has a universal appeal because readers, regardless of background and social status, can use their imaginations to judge the characters and to consider how justice should be applied.




The Secret Casino at Red Men?s Hall


Book Description

The sleepy town of Mt. Holly, New Jersey, was more than it seemed. In the unsettled years following the Great Depression, it hosted the Secret Casino at Red Men's Hall, an underground playground that attracted Mafia bosses and players alike. Under the watchful and protective eye of author Samuel Valenza Jr.'s father, the casino was a thriving den for craps, roulette, poker, and slots players. the continuing cooperation of local law enforcement was assured each Saturday morning, when Officer Bucky Squires made his pickup of payoff money held for him in Mom's icebox. Growing up in this environment, the author's young life was scarred with violence, fear, hunger, betrayal, and homelessness, while his father enjoyed the high life with his powerful gangster associates. the author was just six years old when Frank "Paulie" Carbo, a prolific Murder, Inc. assassin, raided the casino and slaughtered his uncle, the casino handyman and 'gofer'--as a warning. the murder was the beginning of the end at Red Men's Hall, which fell under intense scrutiny from the authorities. Using the narrative style of a crime novel, Valenza recalls the intimate and often dangerous days of a life lived in the shadow of the Mafia.




Night Came with Many Stars


Book Description

A family saga--told in a captivating narrative that leaps forwards and backwards in time--of one family's struggle to survive in the rural United States over 100 years. Carol was thirteen when her daddy lost her in a game of cards. One year later--pregnant and with nowhere to go--she is taken in by Bessie and Martha, who run a secret refuge for "lost women." Fifty years on in the same small Kentucky town, Carol's thirteen-year-old grandson rides his BMX and watches wrestling, mesmerized by 1980s excess, while his community fights to stay employed in factories and on farms. Simon Van Booy has woven the many struggles and small triumphs of three generations of a single Kentucky family into an intimate portrayal of American life that includes the Depression, war, faith, the hardship of women, racial prejudice, and rural disenfranchisement. Van Booy captures the distinctive voices of each generation, time and again revealing the sacred bonds of family and friendship in times of crisis. With stark, poetic clarity, Night Came with Many Stars is a captivating journey through one century that reveals an America rarely seen.




Catalog of Copyright Entries


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Film Review


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Forever and a Day


Book Description

IN SAMUEL’S “SUGAR BABY,” WE MET SAMUEL MATTHEW AND HIS FAMILY. THE DRAMA OF SAMUEL’S LIFE CONTINUES WITH MARRIAGES, BIRTHS, DEATHS AS THE MATTHEW FAMILY LIVES LIFE TO THE FULLEST. IN - FOREVER AND A DAY - WE AGAIN VISIT THE MATTHEW FAMILY. When Samuel’s mother died from complications of childbirth, several months after Melanie was born, Samuel, who had declared Melanie his, took over complete care of the child he called Brownie. When Brownie was a child, he put the toddler in front of him as he rode his horse. He educated her, teaching her to walk and talk, how to protect herself at all times. She soaked up his instructions, becoming proficient on and with animals and everything he taught her academically. He read books to her, showed her the letters, sounded them for her, and encouraged her to say the words with him and after him. When she entered kindergarten, she had to be taught separately—she was so far advanced. She was allowed to stay in kindergarten class part of the time to bond with the children her age. A few years later, Samuel’s father died. Samuel buried himself in his anger. He decided he could no longer stay on the ranch. He had to leave. In his words, he had to “find himself.” So began a long journey in Samuel’s life with those he met along the way, with those who changed his life completely.




Pick-me-up


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Life


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Jesse James was His Name


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Critically examines the accounts of the activities of the James Brothers and presents a history of their careers.




5001 Nights at the Movies


Book Description

The intelligent person's guide to the movies, with more than 2,800 reviews Look up a movie in this guide, and chances are you'll find yourself reading on about the next movie and the next. Pauline Kael's reviews aren't just provocative---they're addictive. These brief, informative reviews, written for the "Goings On About Town" section of The New Yorker, provide an immense range of listings---a masterly critical history of American and foreign film. This is probably the only movie guide you'll want to read for the sheer pleasure of it.