Gus His Gang

In Gus, Blain plays on every trope of the classic Western. Perfectly blending caricature and cinematic pacing, humor and high-octane action, he delivers an exuberant graphic novel ode to men and women chasing each other, and to the bonds of friendship that tie together three unforgettable cowboys.

An Irish Catholic neighborhood of the 1960s on Chicagos Southside that nurtured camaraderie, religion and racial fury; the frequently illegal antics of teenaged boys; the broadening experiences of college and the Army; an assortment of jobs from brutally boring factory work, to business in foreign embassies, to fighting fires; people met and befriended from the super rich to inept Korean golfers who feared tigers; religion, and how confusing it can be.

St. Louis was a city under siege during Prohibition. Seven different criminal gangs violently vied for control of the town's illegal enterprises. Although their names (the Green Ones, the Pillow Gang, the Russo Gang, Egan's Rats, the Hogan Gang, the Cuckoo Gang and the Shelton Gang) are familiar to many, their exploits have remained largely undocumented until now. Learn how an awkward gunshot wound gave the Pillow Gang its name, and read why Willie Russo's bizarre midnight interview with a reporter from the St. Louis Star involved an automatic pistol and a floating hunk of cheese. From daring bank robberies to cold-blooded betrayals, The Gangs of St. Louis chronicles a fierce yet juicy slice of the Gateway City's history that rivaled anything seen in New York or Chicago.

A man stood on a street­corner with a crimson hatbox in his hand. An archbishop approached him and asked what was in the box. "Wah Lee's skull. I cracked Vann's pete," is the enigmatic reply. From this simple encounter stems the trial of the century. The crimson box does indeed hold the skull of a long-dead Chinaman (or is it?), and the man did break into D.A. Vann's safe (or did he?) One thing is certain: a man died when the safe was cracked, and now somebody has to pay. And it just may be the man's lawyer, Elsa Moffit, attorney-at-law with no cases under her belt -- yet!

Dreams, dreams, dreams...aspirations, fantasies. I get it my way, you get it your way. Rajan (Raja) Chowdhary an Information technology graduate from Gurgaon (IT hub of North India) with a King in his name gets his way. My way, and your way is straight as an "Imarti" (Intricately designed Indian dessert in a circular shape) get in there and do it. Go round & round, will reach somewhere, somehow, someday, if still survive by the end of it. Raja thinks differently, he's wired differently. His philosophy belongs to the "School of Why waste time writing codes, doing lengthy bids; suck on to unpleasant faces (clients) and finally get caught up in performance management, office bullshit and never ending world of doing the same things over and over again to the grave with no guarantees. Set out in the backdrop of IT and services revolution leading to transcontinental migration, Raja shoulders the dream of billions. As Raja moved overseas, he was in for a 'shocker'. Little did Raja know the vagaries of corporate life that he may bump into and get smitten by the beautiful forces followed by chain of events, boardroom drama and some 'Corporate Masala' leading towards the Final Frontier? Who were those Beautiful forces? What were the chain of events and the final frontier..? Did Raja made it till the end. Did he get what he set out to achieve, his way. The Making of "International Citizen" provides a peep into cultural insights, while breaking few stereotypes. Finally the book answers some of the questions of getting where lots of professionals aspire to be one day, narrated in a witty and different approach.

An Afro-Americanist, Ana M Fraile currently teaches postcolonial literatures at the University of Salamanca, Spain. Her more recent publications include the book Planteamientos esteticos y politicos en la obra de Zora Neale Hurston (2003); chapters about Zora Neale Hurston, Gayl Jones, Alice Walker and Joy Kogawa in the Rodopi series Perspectives on Modern Literature, edited by Michael Meyer; and journal articles on African American women writers such as Toni Morrison. She is also the editor of bilingual (English/ Spanish) editions on the works of Jacob A. Riis, Como vive la otra mitad, Langston Hughes, Oscuridad en Espana, and Zora Neale Hurston, Mi gente Mi gente , and the co-editor of The Impact of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms(1982-2002): European Perspectives. She has been the recepient of numerous grants and scholarships, among which are the Fulbright research grant, and several scholarships granted by the Canadian Government in the framework of the Foreign Affairs Faculty Enrichment Program.

In People of the Pear Tree, Rex Shelley weaves two love stories of Eurasians in the torrid, tropical heat again the background of Japanese-occupied Singapore and Malaya during World War II, spicing his narrative with humour, intrigue and the ring of guerrilla gunshots on the fringes of the Malayan jungle. People of the Pear Tree is about people reacting to the disruptions and the brutality of war, clinging to traditions, family ties, finding outlets of love and passionate sex as starvation, malaria, dysentery, torture and death stalk them; of courage in battle and of gentle tenderness, sentimentality, and racial prejudices

When an army of giant robot AIs threatens to devastate Earth, a virtuoso pianist becomes humanity's last hope in this bold, lightning-paced, technicolor space opera series from the author of A Big Ship at the Edge of the Universe. Jazz pianist Gus Kitko expected to spend his final moments on Earth playing piano at the greatest goodbye party of all time, and maybe kissing rockstar Ardent Violet, before the last of humanity is wiped out forever by the Vanguards--ultra-powerful robots from the dark heart of space, hell-bent on destroying humanity for reasons none can divine. But when the Vanguards arrive, the unthinkable happens--the mecha that should be killing Gus instead saves him. Suddenly, Gus's swan song becomes humanity's encore, as he is chosen to join a small group of traitorous Vanguards and their pilots dedicated to saving humanity.