Full Blue

Two generations--one out of college and one a New York Police Department detective--find it difficult to see eye to eye as they try to make a difference and save their rapidly changing neighborhood from ruthless politicians, a racist real estate speculator, drug dealers, and a terrorist. VICTOR ROMERO, a recent college graduate living on what remains of his loans, has aspirations of fulfilling his dream of buying a building in his Lower East Side neighborhood and maintain affordable rents. Unfortunately, a ruthless real estate speculator, and racist, named Rudolph Archer, a.k.a. Archie Bunker, has plans to the contrary. Victor's uncle, MITCHELL LEÓN, a middle-aged detective trying to make a difference in blue, moves back into the same Lower East Side neighborhood and is drawn into an unwanted high-profile homicide, and corrupt election, that is somehow linked to Victor's battle with Rudolph and, maybe, even the mayor and big business. Mitchell and Victor take a Dantean journey into the inferno that is New York City politics, and find that they are inextricably linked with very ambitious women and men--one of whom is a deadly international terrorist--in a game that adds new meaning to the "usual suspects" and operating in "the gray area" of life, lechery and the law... in a game that could get them both killed.

'When I was fourteen, I got drunk for the first time. Champagne drunk. My mouth was stretched in a smile so wide, that my jaw hurt. The sky had the colours of a bruise' When Nick Johnstone got drunk for the first time at the age of fourteen he discovered a cure for the depression and anxiety that had been humming in his head since childhood. Over the next ten years he drank to overcome shyness, to make the world bearable, to get through the days and to get through the nights. He also began to cut himself and he began to lie. Intelligent, sensitive, from a loving family, neither he nor his countless doctors, psychiatrists, counsellors and therapists could understand where his disorders came from. Then, when he was twenty-four he was admitted into hospital. Stripped of his 'cure', Nick Johnstone painfully began the process of recovery. Although love proves to be the strongest 'cure' of all, this is a story with no tidy or happy endings . Honest and gripping, by turns stark and lyrical, A HEAD FULL OF BLUE powerfully evokes the often unfathomable psychology and behaviour that drives addiction, examining self-harm as a coping mechanism rather than a taboo. It is an unusual, moving and thought-provoking memoir.

From one of Canada's top baseball writers and radio hosts: a retrospective of the Toronto Blue Jays that comes more than 20 years after Joe Carter's World Series-winning home run. A must-have for all Blue Jays fans, and a great read for Toronto and Canadian sports fans in general. In Full Count, Jeff Blair takes us back to the days when the Toronto Blue Jays were "the Cadillac of franchises," and shows us exactly what they did right to become baseball's premier club. Then he explores the disappointing aftermath, when the league's fourth-largest market became an also-ran: seemingly destined to languish behind the big-spending Yankees and Red Sox and free-wheeling Rays--until the offseason of 2012. Full Count will appeal to the casual fans wanting to re-live Blue Jays history, and to the serious fans who relish the nitty-gritty business decisions and behind-the-scenes details that made this team what it is today.

Publishes in-depth articles on labor subjects, current labor statistics, information about current labor contracts, and book reviews.