Choke

Victor Mancini, a medical-school dropout, is an antihero for our deranged times. Needing to pay elder care for his mother, Victor has devised an ingenious scam: he pretends to choke on pieces of food while dining in upscale restaurants. He then allows himself to be “saved” by fellow patrons who, feeling responsible for Victor’s life, go on to send checks to support him. When he’s not pulling this stunt, Victor cruises sexual addiction recovery workshops for action, visits his addled mom, and spends his days working at a colonial theme park. His creator, Chuck Palahniuk, is the visionary we need and the satirist we deserve.

Previously published in hardcover: New York: Free Press, 2010.

A heartfelt novel about the disturbing "choking game" trend -- and one girl's struggle for self-acceptance.If she could -- if her parents would let her -- eighth-grader Windy would change everything about herself. She'd get highlights in her hair, a new wardrobe; she'd wear makeup. But nothing ever changes. The mean girls at school are still mean, and Windy's best friend Elena is still more interested in making up words than talking about boys. And then one day, Windy gets the change she's been looking for. New girl Nina -- impossibly cool, confident, and not afraid of anyone -- starts hanging out with Windy! Nina even wants to be "breath sisters." Windy isn't sure what that means, exactly, but she knows she wants to find out. It sounds even better than a BFF. Windy is right, at first. Being a breath sister gains her a whole new set of friends, girls she feels closer to and cooler with than anyone else. But her inclusion in the new crowd comes at a dangerous price. Windy wants to change everything about her life ... but is she really willing to give up everything in the process?

The Choke is a mesmerising, harrowing and ultimately uplifting novel from the 2015 Miles Franklin winner. Winner of the 2018 Indie Book Award for Fiction! 'It is quite a feat to write characters with such nuance...in harnessing her storytelling facility to expose the flaws in the system with what is becoming trademark empathy, Laguna is an author proving the novel is a crucial document of the times.' - Louise Swinn, The Australian I never had words to ask anybody the questions, so I never had the answers. Abandoned by her mother and only occasionally visited by her secretive father, Justine is raised by her pop, a man tormented by visions of the Burma Railway. Justine finds sanctuary in Pop's chooks and The Choke, where the banks of the Murray River are so narrow it seems they might touch - a place of staggering natural beauty. But the river can't protect Justine from danger. Her father is a criminal, and the world he exposes her to can be lethal. Justine is overlooked and underestimated, a shy and often silent observer of her chaotic world. She learns that she has to make sense of it on her own. She has to find ways to survive so much neglect. She must hang on to friendship when it comes, she must hide when she has to, and ultimately she must fight back. The Choke is a brilliant, haunting novel about a child navigating an often dark and uncaring world of male power and violence, in which grown-ups can't be trusted and comfort can only be found in nature. This compassionate and claustrophobic vision of a child in danger and a society in trouble celebrates above all the indomitable nature of the human spirit. Sofie Laguna, winner of the 2015 Miles Franklin Literary Award for The Eye of the Sheep, once again shows she is a writer of rare empathy, originality and blazing talent.

A standalone novel from Stuart Woods, the #1 New York Times bestselling author of the Stone Barrington and Holly Barker series... Murder is not a spectator sport. Chuck Chandler has choked on more than one occasion—first as a pro tennis player at Wimbledon, then as a womanizing coach at posh tennis clubs around the country. Now at Key West's Old Racquet Club, Chuck gets involved with the wrong married woman—the enticing Clare Carras, married to an enigmatic older man—and soon he is in way over his head. Enter Tommy Sculley, a retired New York homicide detective who has just joined the Key West force, and his young green partner, Daryl Haynes, who turns out to be smarter than he looks. Up to their necks in an investigation of a bizarre apparent homicide, the two detectives barely keep afloat in murky waters. Events take them from the Florida Keys to Los Angeles and back, as a plot emerges that involves not only the dangerous Clare, but a furious West Coast mob boss determined to get back what is his at any cost.

In the tradition of Steven Pinker's How the Mind Works, popular psychologist Sian Beilock, an expert on performance and brain science, reveals the astonishing new science of why we choke under pressure. She explains what happens in the body and mind when everything clicks and the perfect golf swing, tricky mathematical problem, or high-pressure business pitch suddenly become easy. With surprising insights on every page, Beilock examines how: attention and working memory guide human performance; how experience and practice, innate factors, and brain development interact to create our abilities;how these interconnected elements react to stress - explaining counterintuitive realities, like why the cleverest students do worst on standardized tests; why we may learn foreign languages best when we're not paying attention; why early childhood athletic training can backfire; and how our emotions can make us both smarter and dumber.the mind and body are in even closer communication than was ever thought - and breaks new ground on top of 30 years of integrative health investigations.

After suffering a trauma that would eventually shape his outlook on life, Jeremy Little finishes high school and leaves for Boston. He becomes obsessed with martial arts training, eventually opening his own school. Things seem to be looking up until one of his students kills a gay man. The resulting publicity destroys Jeremy's business and he returns home where he is forced to confront his old demons.

Gary Player is one of golf’s greatest champions. As one of the “Big Three” of golf’s golden era (with Jack Nicklaus and Arnold Palmer), he helped launch golf as a major international sport. He sits fourth on the list of most major victories on the PGA Tour and built a reputation of being fearless on the course and steely on the greens. Don’t Choke is his look at what it takes to achieve success when the pressure is on. Player explains how and why he became a champion and what it takes to win in big-time golf, but he also explains how learning to cope in pressure situations can help anyone. He will review the most pressure-packed situations in his eighteen major victories and how he managed to succeed when things were most tense. But this book is not all about golf. Player has had a long successful career in business since his playing days—designing golf courses, marketing golf equipment and sportswear, and more. If you want to do better in a boardroom or in your next job interview, Player’s advice will help. This personal glimpse into the mind of a champion offers lessons to everyone who has to face pressure—and today that is all of us. “Gary is one the greatest competitors who ever played the game.”—Arnold Palmer