A House Of Cards

The Number 1 Bestseller that inspired the hit Netflix series starring Kevin Spacey and Robin Wright. Politics, intrigue and passion in the corridors of power. Chief Whip Francis Urquhart has his hand on every secret in politics - and is willing to betray them all to become prime minister. Mattie Storin is a tenacious young political correspondent. She faces the biggest challenge of her life when she stumbles upon a scandalous web of intrigue and financial corruption at the very highest levels. She is determined to reveal the truth, but she must risk everything to do so… 'This blood-and-thunder tale, lifelike and thoroughly cynical, certainly carries the ring of authenticity . . . a great triumph' Independent

A blistering narrative account of the negligence and greed that pushed all of Wall Street into chaos and the country into a financial crisis. At the beginning of March 2008, the monetary fabric of Bear Stearns, one of the world’s oldest and largest investment banks, began unraveling. After ten days, the bank no longer existed, its assets sold under duress to rival JPMorgan Chase. The effects would be felt nationwide, as the country suddenly found itself in the grip of the worst financial mess since the Great Depression. William Cohan exposes the corporate arrogance, power struggles, and deadly combination of greed and inattention, which led to the collapse of not only Bear Stearns but the very foundations of Wall Street.

Robin Dawes spares no one in this powerful critique of modern psychotherapeutic practice. As Dawes points out, we have all been swayed by the "pop psych" view of the world--believing, for example, that self-esteem is an essential precursor to being a productive human being, that events in one's childhood affect one's fate as an adult, and that "you have to love yourself before you can love another."

This book is to date the first monograph-length study of the popular American political TV series House of Cards. It proposes an encompassing analysis of the first three seasons from the unusual angles of discourse and dialogue. The study of the stylistic idiosyncrasies of the ruthless main protagonist, Frank Underwood, is completed by a pragmatic and cognitive approach exposing the main characters’ manipulative strategies to win over the other. Taking into account the socio-cultural context and the specificities of the TV medium, the volume focuses on the workings of interaction as well as the impact of the direct address to the viewer. The book critically uses the latest theories in pragmatics and stylistics in its attempt at providing a pragma-rhetorical theory of manipulation.

House of Cards is the story of Mridula, a bright young woman with enormous enthusiasm for life who hails from a Karnataka village. A chance meeting with Sanjay, a talented but impoverished doctor, leads to love—and the couple marry and settle in Bangalore. The more Mridula sees of the world, the more she realizes how selfish and materialistic people can be. But she does not take the ups and downs of life to heart, and lives each day with positive energy. Trouble brews when Sanjay quits his government job and starts an immensely successful private practice. With affluence comes the neverending ambition for more, and the inevitable slide into corrupt practices. For a long time, Mridula has no idea that Sanjay has sold his soul; when the truth hits her, she has no recourse but to walk out on him. But can she really find a space of her own? This intricately woven novel explores human relationships in telling detail, and holds up a mirror to our society with candour and with conviction.

Set in the Rocky Mountains, Sebastian Morales is smart, gorgeous, and just turned 30. He is also the youngest Priest to be ordained in the sleepy little town of Morris, nestled just below Vail, Colorado. Born in a remote village in Spain, Father Morales’ life was perfectly scripted as he obtained his dreams. Now, in America, he is tasked with revitalizing an aging congregation. The job seems easy until he meets Ian Stephens. Ian is troubled and trapped between his own dreams and the responsibility he feels for the care of his aging homophobic mother. Escorting his mother to Sunday Mass one morning, Ian and Father Morales’s lives intersect, changing both forever. Ian believes he saw something in the Father’s eyes that morning, a spark, an intuition, or was he just fantasizing about the seductively alluring priest? Ian is willing to risk it all to find the answer, in turn feeding his own sexual desires and causing boundaries to be questioned by everyone. After an unforeseen yet unforgettable kiss between the two, will an Ancient House of Cards be toppled when they are made to confront the moral dilemma that neither of them can escape?

Is Democracy overrated? Does power corrupt? Or do corrupt people seek power? Do corporate puppet masters pull politicians’ strings? Why does Frank talk to the camera? Can politics deliver on the promise of justice? House of Cards depicts our worst fears about politics today. Love him or loathe him, Frank Underwood has charted an inimitable course through Washington politics. He and his cohorts depict the darkest dealings within the gleaming halls of our most revered political institutions. These 24 original essays examine key philosophical issues behind the critically-acclaimed series—questions of truth, justice, equality, opportunity, and privilege. The amoral machinations of Underwood, the ultimate anti-hero, serve as an ideal backdrop for a discussion of the political theories of philosophers as diverse as Plato, Aristotle, Nietzsche, Machiavelli, Hobbes, and Marx. From political and corporate ethics, race relations, and ruthless paragmatism to mass media collusion and sexual politics, these essays tackle a range of issues important not only to the series but to our understanding of society today.

Presents a study of baseball card collecting in the upper Midwest from the late 1980s into the 1990s