Shooters, Heels and Heroes


Book Description

Enemies have called Rico Valentino a con-man, a tax evader and an outright liar. He's been shot at, he's been grilled in court, and some have claimed he's responsible for a few dead bodies that have never been found. What is known for sure is that Rico was a pro-wrestler seen on TV as Beatnick Rick and Rico Renaldo Valentino. He's played a few bit parts in "B" movies. He's been a wrestling promoter that helped launch his new career as an undercover for the FBI. In his spare time, he strums out a few ballads that commemorate his busts. He's been known as a tough guy, a smooth talker and a prankster. Federal agents have praised Rico's ability to slip into organizations such as the Aryan Nations and charm its leaders and then smile over their downfall. Rico's taught white supremacists how to put a death hold on their opponents, only to discover that Rico put his own death hold on them. He's worked for local police departments, the Alaska State Police and isn't shy about offering his undercover skills to any agency. He's walked into towns cold, spotted someone dealing drugs, and then persuaded a sheriff to give him $10,000 in cash to help nab the crook. He's charmed everyone and boasted he hasn't done an honest day's work in his life. Some of the crooks he's busted are incredulous, swearing that Rico couldn't have duped them even when they were hauled away in handcuffs. He's had his life threatened, only to shove the threat back down the throat of those who challenged him. From a kid growing up in the Great Depression in Nebraska, Rico learned to live larger than life.




Heroes of Aviation


Book Description

Written and published prior (the Preface is dated September 24, 1918) to the end of the Great War (now known as World War I) the author describes the advent of aerial warfare and gives a contemporaneous account of those aviators engaged in the conflict.




The Heroes


Book Description

They say Black Dow's killed more men than winter, and clawed his way to the throne of the North up a hill of skulls. The King of the Union, ever a jealous neighbor, is not about to stand smiling by while he claws his way any higher. The orders have been given and the armies are toiling through the northern mud. Thousands of men are converging on a forgotten ring of stones, on a worthless hill, in an unimportant valley, and they've brought a lot of sharpened metal with them. THE HEROES For glory, for victory, for staying alive.




Falling for the Hockey Hero Collection


Book Description

Looking for your hockey fix now that the season is over? Nothing will heat you up more than this collection of 9 steamy hockey romances! Whether it's an off-limits, forbidden romance with your coach, your brother's teammate, the team's trainer, or a second chance with your one-night stand or the one who got away, these stories will have you Falling for the Hockey Hero! Grab this FREE collection today! Collection includes: Dirty Pucking Player by Gwyn McNamee Away Game by Cathryn Fox Broken Laces by Elise Faber My Brother’s Best Friend by Emilia Rose Hot Shot’s Mistake by Gina Azzi Rebounding by Jami Davenport Anton by Kat Mizera Good Guy by Kate Meader Scoring Big by Kelly Jamieson




Paper Swordsmen


Book Description

The martial arts novel is one of the most distinctive and widely-read forms of modern Chinese fiction. John Christopher Hamm offers the first in-depth English-language study of this fascinating and influential genre, focusing on the work of its undisputed twentieth-century master, Jin Yong.




Of Cigarettes, High Heels, and Other Interesting Things


Book Description

This book deals with one the most interesting aspects of human life—the search for meaning. It discusses how the science of semiotics is equipped to provide insight on what meaning is and how we produce it. Why is it that certain people routinely put their survival at risk by smoking? Why is it that some women make locomotion difficult for themselves by donning high-heel footwear? Are there unconscious forces at work behind such strange behaviors? This book will attempt to answer such questions by claiming that these behaviors are meaningful in culture-specific ways. The discipline that studies such behaviors and their relation to meanings is called semiotics. Semiotics probes the human condition in its own peculiar way, by unraveling the meanings of signs, which motivate not only the wearing of high heel shoes, but also the construction of words and art forms. Now in its third edition, this landmark introduction to semiotics has been updated with a wealth of new content, focusing on the many developments in digital culture since the previous edition. With the addition of topics such as memes, Selfies, social media profiles, and even Mafia discourse, the new edition comprehensively covers new trends in culture while streamlining treatments of basic semiotics contents.




The Hero


Book Description

On an enemy planet inhabited by the Darhel, an alien race with extraordinary empathic abilities, a human hunter stalks his alien prey, a Darhel who must overcome his sensitivities to kill his stalker, or be killed in the process.




Shooting Terror


Book Description

Shooting Terror highlights the disturbing immediacy of acts of terror and how cinema responds to them. It follows the changing representations of terrorism in Hindi cinema by fielding in-depth textual analyses of films such as Roja, Maachis, Black Friday, Tere Bin Laden, Uri: The Surgical Strike, among others. It traces how terror and the terrorist have come to be viewed in the Indian cultural space and lays the grounds for a multivalent, perspectival reading of cinema and terrorism. Moving from the threat of terror condensed in the Mogambo-esque villain in Mr. India, to the showcasing of terror and the terrorist in their lived-in realities in Haider and Shahid, the book explores the fraught connections between terror and the themes of devastation and trauma; between terror and the urban cityscape. It also seeks to highlight the place of humour and satire in films on terrorism and the presence of the reactionary far right in these films. One of the first books to present a composite picture of terrorism in contemporary Hindi cinema, this volume will be of interest to researchers and academics of cultural studies, media and film studies, and the study of sociopsychological violence in media and culture.




A New Century of Heroes


Book Description

There are heroes who walk among us: the clam digger who rescues a man from a burning retirement home; the dancer who prevents a robber from shooting two policemen at a nightclub; the former Marine, blinded during the Korean War, who saves two women from drowning in a river. What they have in common—besides the willingness to risk their own lives to save that of a friend or a stranger—is an unwillingness to brag about their actions. In 1904, moved by the stories of two men who died trying to rescue others in the devastating Harwick Mine Disaster that killed all but one of 180 men, Andrew Carnegie conceived of a fund to reward selfless acts of bravery and courage. Since its creation 120 years ago, the Carnegie Hero Fund Commission has awarded more than 10,000 medals and distributed more than $44 million in awards, grants, tuition, and other assistance. Published under the auspices of the Carnegie Hero Fund Commission, the original edition of A Century of Heroes received an award of excellence in 2005 from Communication Arts and, along with its accompanying video, remains a part of the awarding materials given to each Carnegie hero. Updated and expanded, A New Century of Heroes profiles more than 200 medal recipients: ordinary men, women, and children who undertook extraordinary acts to save the lives of others. It also reveals the tireless efforts of investigators who roamed the United States and Canada, collecting data on the hundreds of nominations received each year for consideration and conducting thousands of interviews with rescuers, witnesses, and individuals whose lives were saved. Their maps, diagrams, and marked-up photographs, many of which are included in this volume, illustrate the high standards and strict requirements imposed by the Commission to ensure that a Carnegie Medal recipient truly deserves the appellation “hero.” Only about one in ten nominees is selected for recognition. The heroes featured in this book offer a cross-section of the thousands of honorees who have received the award. They represent only a few of the inspiring stories that uphold the Carnegie Hero Fund’s legacy, reminding us that true heroes are found, not on television or in comic strips, but in the uncommon strength that lives inside all of us.




The Heroes


Book Description

This enhanced eBook contains: # An introduction from Joe Abercrombie # The full text of THE HEROES # THE HEROES Audio edition # A critical afterword from the editor Plus: # THE FOOL JOBS short story, featuring characters from THE HEROES # A 20,000 word 'planning' document which contains all of Joe's behind-the-scenes notes, plans and timeline for THE HEROES # A before-and-after chapter showing the first draft, the last draft, and many stages in between if one of the most critical chapters of the book # A full behind-the-scenes interview with Joe Abercrombie covering the writing process, the importance of maps, the genesis of and influences on the novel, the six main characters and their story arcs, and the cover . . . amongst other things! # 'Blog archive' - all of Joe's blog posts from the period when he was writing THE HEROES. This is half-diary, half book progress updates, and includes illustrations, links to interviews, events, award ceremonies and reviews of games and books from Joe as well as incidents from his life # Cover file: view the several elements of the cover in all their final and rough stages, plus the different stages the cover itself went though during the design process. Comes with commentary from Joe Abercrombie, Dave Senior, Didier Graffet and Laura Brett - teh design team that won a publically-voted design award for the cover of BEST SERVED COLD # A full author biography, and an author photo gallery