Bandits

A comprehensive and rigorous introduction for graduate students and researchers, with applications in sequential decision-making problems.

A trailblazing study of the social bandit or rebel BANDITS is a study of the social bandit or bandit-rebel - robbers and outlaws who are not regarded by public opinion as simple criminals, but rather as champions of social justice, as avengers or as primitive resistance fighters. Whether Balkan haiduks, Indian dacoits or Brazilian congaceiros, their spectacular exploits have been celebrated and preserved in story and myth. Some are only know to their fellow countrymen; others such as Rob Roy, Robin Hood and Jesse James are famous throughout the world. First published in 1969, BANDITS inspired a new field of historical study: bandit history.

“Almost unbearable suspense. Leonard has produced another winner.” —People A wild ride with “the coolest, hottest writer in America” (Chicago Tribune), Bandits has everything Elmore Leonard fans love: non-stop thrills, unexpected twists and turns, unforgettable characters, and the most razor-sharp dialogue being rapidly exchanged anywhere in the crime fiction genre. Leonard stands tall among the all-time greats (John D. MacDonald, Dashiell Hammett, James M. Cain) and towers far above most of the writers currently plying the noir fiction trade. The master who created U.S. Marshal Raylan Givens, currently of the hit TV series Justified, is at the top of his game, ensnaring readers in an ingenious plot hatched by a former jewel thief and a radical ex-nun to scam millions from a sadistic Nicaraguan colonel. In fact, the Philadelphia Inquirer says Bandits “may well be his best.” Read it and decide for yourself.

Raccoons wreak havoc on a town during the night, rummaging through garbage cans, stealing food, and then running off into the hills to enjoy their loot.

Ralph Raccoon is too polite so his parents send him to Bandit School to learn to behave like a properly bad raccoon.

Multi-armed bandits is a rich, multi-disciplinary area that has been studied since 1933, with a surge of activity in the past 10-15 years. This is the first book to provide a textbook like treatment of the subject.

'Raw, poetic and compulsively readable ... I can't wait to buy a copy for everyone I know.' Kathryn Stockett, author of The Help The summer she turned thirteen, Molly Brodak's father was arrested for robbing eleven banks. In time, the image she held of him would unravel further, as more and more unexpected facets of his personality came to light. Bandit is her attempt to discover what, exactly, is left, when the most fundamental relationship of your life turns out to have been built on falsehoods. It is also a scrupulously honest account of learning how to trust again, and to rebuild the very idea of family from scratch. Refusing to fence off the trickier sides of her father's character, Brodak tries to find, through crystalline, spellbinding prose, a version of him that does not rely on the easy answers but allows him to be: an unknowable and incomprehensible whole – who is also her father. Unforgettable, moving, and utterly relatable, Bandit is a story of the unpredictable complexity of family.

On a beautiful day in Bakersfield, Brian Bigalow, his brother Brent and their sister Belinda wake to find that their belly buttons have been burgled! Accompanied by their British bulldog Barry, the Bigalows begin their search for the thieves who had borrowed their buttons. To their surprise, they discover The Belly Button Bandits, a group of bullying buccaneers who steal children’s belly buttons and hold them for ransom. Join the Bigalows in an exciting adventure through Bakersfield and be on the lookout for other hidden objects that begin with the letter B!