The King of Cards


Book Description

Told with candor and a poignant sense of lost innocence, The King of Cards is the story of Thomas Fallon, a successful novelist, who is treated to a homecoming that presents him with the pungent memories of his youth. The award winning author of Red Baker delivers up a touching and comic romp.




The King of Cards


Book Description

Ward once again explores the alchemy of stubborn yearnings and unrealized dreams amidst the well-tended rowhouses of his native city. There’s a mounting fury in Tommy Fallon’s heart in the fall of 1965. He’s finally found his life’s calling – thanks to the inspiration of Professor Extraordinaire Sylvester Spaulding. Young Tom wants to be lifted on the wings of genius, to ascend to a clean, well-lighted place where cultured people talk about deep things. But how can this college boy learn anything about life or art while living in his family’s house of pain? Pop Fallon’s youthful dreams of becoming a painter were dashed by the Depression and his own internal demons; he rarely comes out of the inner sanctum of His Holy Toilet, where he’s long been lost to the rituals of obsessive/compulsive behavior. Mom Fallon – beaten down by the vast resentment her husband harbors against her and all the other “Baltimorons” – is so starved for love that she enters the Miss Kissable Lips contest at the local radio station. Tom realizes he needs a refuge: a quiet, modest room of his own. There he won’t have to see the defeat in his parents’ eyes. There he’ll follow Dr. Spaulding’s lead by living inside the books that seem to be keeping his spirit alive. The King of Cards is the story of how Tom is saved from becoming a myopic, dispassionate snob when he answers an ad for off-campus housing. In the remarkable person of Jeremy Raines – World-Class Confidence Man with a Streak of Idealism, and Pied Piper to a ragtag band of followers – Tom finds a sense of adventure that is positively euphoric.




To Play the King (House of Cards Trilogy, Book 2)


Book Description

Newly elected Prime Minister Francis Urquhart takes on the new King, in the controversial No 1 bestselling second volume in the Francis Urquhart trilogy – now reissued in a new cover.




Red Baker


Book Description

When Red Baker, a Larmel steel worker in Baltimore, Maryland, gets laid off from his job he goes crazy: boozing, attempted philandering, running away from his future. Filled with unforgettable characters from Red’s angry but loyal wife, Wanda; his basketball-star son, Ace; his lifelong friend Dog, a casualty of the layoff; and Crystal, the go-go dancer at Lily’s bar who embodies Red’s fantasies of escape. Red Baker is a classic American novel about a man with no identity who tries to replace the one he’s lost.




Joshua Jay's Amazing Book of Cards


Book Description

Demonstrates how to perform different types of card tricks with step-by-step instructions and photographs.




House of Cards


Book Description

Enter once more the world of Roland Deschain—and the world of the Dark Tower…presented in a stunning graphic novel form that will unlock the doorways to terrifying secrets and bold storytelling as part of the dark fantasy masterwork and magnum opus from #1 New York Times bestselling author Stephen King. “The man in black fled across the desert, and the gunslinger followed.” With these unforgettable words, millions of readers were introduced to Stephen King’s iconic character Roland Deschain of Gilead. Roland is the last of his kind, a “gunslinger” charged with protecting whatever goodness and light remains in his world—a world that “moved on,” as they say. In this desolate reality—a dangerous land filled with ancient technology and deadly magic, and yet one that mirrors our own in frightening ways—Roland is on a spellbinding and soul-shattering quest to locate and somehow save the mystical nexus of all worlds, all universes: the Dark Tower. Now, in the second in the graphic novel series adaptation Stephen King’s The Dark Tower: The Drawing of the Three, originally published by Marvel Comics in single-issue form and creatively overseen by Stephen King himself, the full story of Roland’s saga continues. Sumptuously drawn by Piotr Kowalski, Jonathan Marks, Juanan Ramirez, and Cory Hamscher, plotted by longtime Stephen King expert Robin Furth, and scripted by New York Times bestselling author Peter David, The Drawing of the Three adaptation is an extraordinary and terrifying journey—ultimately introducing a generation of new readers to Stephen King’s modern literary classic The Dark Tower, while giving longtime fans thrilling adventures transformed from his blockbuster novels.




Fortune Telling with Playing Cards


Book Description

Previously published as Simply Fortune Telling with Playing Cards. There is a certain romance attached to playing cards: from the riverboat gamblers on the Mississippi to genteel parlor games and the current popular surge in poker tournaments. How many of us while away our bored moments with a game of solitaire? This user-friendly guide will show you how to turn an ordinary deck of cards into a fun and simple tool for telling the future. Learn the past, present, and future with a regular deck of playing cards--no trivia, no special talents, no psychic ability. If you can read this, you can learn fortune telling with a regular deck of cards. The author explains the meaning of each of the 52 cards in the deck, plus the Joker, presents several layouts for general readings, and answers specific questions.




A History of Playing Cards and a Bibliography of Cards and Gaming


Book Description

Intricate, absorbing study based on research and card collections from around the world tells the story of playing cards and their manufacture, plus provides a fascinating overview of heraldry, geography, history, and the social and political activities of man over the past six centuries. Includes an enormous annotated bibliography of more than 900 items on playing cards and games, and over 1,400 illustrations. Praised by The New York Times as "the most authoritative and complete treatment of its kind."




Fortune Telling Using Playing Cards


Book Description

Will luck be a lady tonight? Or must we play the hand we're dealt? There is no need to use tarot cards to learn what the future holds: a regular deck of playing cards will do the trick - as long as you know how to read them. Fortune Telling Using Playing Cards teaches readers how to translate the four suits of the tarot into the more familiar hearts, diamonds, spades, and clubs found in the common playing card deck. Readers will learn the meaning of the cards, their individual symbolism, keywords, astrological associations, and the significance of their numbers. There are even suggestions on how to do a quick reading when you're short on time - so you will always know what's in the cards.




Games and Fun with Playing Cards


Book Description

Here's a collection of 124 games, tricks, puzzles and stunts with cards that will provide hours of entertainment for all ages. 20 varieties of solitaire, old stand-bys — Go Fish, Crazy Eights, Old Maid — and lesser known games — Authors, Frogs in the Pond, Persian Pasha — and much more.