Falling Hard

A founding editor of The First Post recounts his impulsive decision to take up judo when he turned fifty, an activity he came to love and admire in spite of grueling training sessions, in an account that also describes his research into judo history and his attendance at matches between famous competitors. Original.

Don Carpenter’s Hard Rain Falling is a tough-as-nails account of being down and out, but never down for good—a Dostoyevskian tale of crime, punishment, and the pursuit of an ever-elusive redemption. The novel follows the adventures of Jack Levitt, an orphaned teenager living off his wits in the fleabag hotels and seedy pool halls of Portland, Oregon. Jack befriends Billy Lancing, a young black runaway and pool hustler extraordinaire. A heist gone wrong gets Jack sent to reform school, from which he emerges embittered by abuse and solitary confinement. In the meantime Billy has joined the middle class—married, fathered a son, acquired a business and a mistress. But neither Jack nor Billy can escape their troubled pasts, and they will meet again in San Quentin before their strange double drama comes to a violent and revelatory end.

When Annie moves from London to small town Illinois, the last thing she expects to do is to join the Roller Derby team.

In Falling Hard: A Rookie's Year in Boxing, Chris Jones recounts his first year at ringside. He gets dressed down by Don King, gambles his way through Vegas, meets the troubled guy who found Evander Holyfield's ear, goes to Muhammad Ali's birthday party, and witnesses Prince Naseem Hamed explode while Mike Tyson implodes. Like the sport itself, Falling Hard is equal measures of victory and defeat — an intoxicating combination that leaves Jones down for the count more than once. Determined to stay objective, he instead becomes addicted to boxing's special brand of pain, and what begins as a simple curiosity soon escalates into an unhealthy obsession. Jones writes with the rhythm of the sport he covers: hard and fast, with the drama of fiction but the truth of journalism. Sometimes humorous, always suspenseful, Falling Hard is a travelogue for the fight game, boxing distilled to its essence by sportswriting's newest star.

Dr. Jordan Williams devotes her life to saving patients in the OR and pleasuring women in the bedroom. Jordan's new neighbor, single mom Emma, is the polar opposite. Family and fidelity mean everything to her. When Emma helps Jordan recover after a bad fall, they quickly grow closer. But neither counted on falling hard-for each other.

A collection of one hundred love poems written by teens.

When a business trip turns into an unplanned adventure, Francine Spencer finds herself in a life or death situation in the wilds of Montana. With her pilot knocked unconscious, she has to keep a cool head and use as much logic as she can muster to save them both from a plane crash. With a little ingenuity, and a whole lot of luck, she gets them both out of a very sticky situation until her pilot wakes up. Win Neer has finally met his match in the no-nonsense professional, Francine. She sets him on his heels as he tries his devil-may-care attitude with her. The time with her after the crash gives him an opportunity to get to know the real her, and to win her heart. But things are not always so certain in life... as Win discovers.

Annie struggles to fit in when she moves from London to the midwest. Will Roller Derby help?