Some Luck

NATIONAL BESTSELLER • NATIONAL BOOK AWARD FINALIST • From the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of A Thousand Acres comes the first volume of an epic trilogy that takes us on a literary adventure through cycles of birth and death, passion and betrayal that will span a century in America. “Intimate.... Miraculous.... Staggering.... A masterpiece in the making.” —USA Today 1920, Denby, Iowa: Rosanna and Walter Langdon have just welcomed their firstborn son, Frank, into their family farm. He will be the oldest of five. Each chapter in this extraordinary novel covers a single year, encompassing the sweep of history as the Langdons abide by time-honored values and pass them on to their children. With the country on the cusp of enormous social and economic change through the early 1950s, we watch as the personal and the historical merge seamlessly: one moment electricity is just beginning to power the farm, and the next a son is volunteering to fight the Nazis. Later still, a girl we’d seen growing up now has a little girl of her own.

'Good Luck With That is a lesson in kindness, acceptance, and self-worth. I'm so glad I read this book, and I hope every woman gives herself this gift' Reader review ---- Emerson, Georgia, and Marley have been best friends ever since they met at a weight-loss camp as teens. When Emerson tragically passes away, she leaves one final wish for her best friends: to conquer the fears they still carry as adults. For each of them, that means something different. For Marley, it's coming to terms with the survivor's guilt she's carried around since her twin sister's death, which has left her blind to the real chance for romance in her life. For Georgia, it's about learning to stop trying to live up to her mother's and brother's ridiculous standards, and learning to accept the love her ex-husband has tried to give her. But as Marley and Georgia grow stronger, the real meaning of Emerson's dying wish becomes truly clear: more than anything, she wanted her friends to love themselves. A novel of compassion and insight, Good Luck With That tells the story of two women who learn to embrace themselves just the way they are. ---- Real readers have fallen in love with Good Luck with That 'A must read from the very talented Kristan Higgins, who just gets better and better with each book she writes' 5 star reader review 'What a book! Tears were flowing at the end' 5 star reader review 'If ever there was a book that demands to be discussed, it's this one. I wish I were part of a book club because Good Luck with That is the one I'd demand everyone read' 5 star reader review 'Wonderful story. I would highly recommend' 5 star reader review 'The people in this book caught hold of my heart and interest from the first few pages. Finished in three evenings and was sorry when it came to an end. Many a tear both sad and happy' 5 star reader review

This collection of "luck" trivia provides the history of certain good luck rituals and objects, such as charms, knocking on wood, and wishbones, includes quotations about luck, and suggests ways to change one's luck from bad to good

Longlisted for the 2014 National Book Award From the winner of the Pulitzer Prize a powerful, engrossing new novel--the life and times of a remarkable family over three transformative decades in America. On their farm in Denby, Iowa, Rosanna and Walter Langdon abide by time-honored values that they pass on to their five wildly different children: from Frank, the handsome, willful first born, and Joe, whose love of animals and the land sustains him, to Claire, who earns a special place in her father's heart. Each chapter in Some Luck covers a single year, beginning in 1920, as American soldiers like Walter return home from World War I, and going up through the early 1950s, with the country on the cusp of enormous social and economic change. As the Langdons branch out from Iowa to both coasts of America, the personal and the historical merge seamlessly: one moment electricity is just beginning to power the farm, and the next a son is volunteering to fight the Nazis; later still, a girl you'd seen growing up now has a little girl of her own, and you discover that your laughter and your admiration for all these lives are mixing with tears. Some Luck delivers on everything we look for in a work of fiction. Taking us through cycles of births and deaths, passions and betrayals, among characters we come to know inside and out, it is a tour de force that stands wholly on its own. But it is also the first part of a dazzling epic trilogy--a literary adventure that will span a century in America: an astonishing feat of storytelling by a beloved writer at the height of her powers.

Learn the fascinating facts and legends behind more than 100 charms, rituals and symbols thqt tradition decrees can bring good luck.

Six-year-old Scott Christian is thrilled when his family takes off in their forty-foot sailboat for a lengthy adventure to Hawaii, the South Pacific, and Australia. But in the middle of their third month at sea, everything changes forever for the boy. After a massive storm destroys the sailboat and robs him of his family, Scott wakes up alone on a large, uncharted jungle island. In order to endure the elements, Scott must rely on the survival skills his marine instructor father taught him. As Scott begins to create a new life on the island, he finds and raises an orphaned gorilla, Buddy. While both boy and beast grow older, they create an unusual yet loving family that includes more gorillas and two very spoiled foxes. Nearly seventeen years later when a group lands on the island to study it and its ruins, Scott soon discovers that the greatest surprises in life sometimes bring the greatest rewards. In this action adventure, a boy embarks on a coming-of-age journey on a deserted island where he creates a unique family and learns that happiness comes from the simplest things in life.

Being mistaken for someone else, being falsely depicted as an important international heroin importer and trafficker, and being made an unwilling accessory to murder aren’t everyday occurrences. Surely this is not how the police behave to get their man? But...what if they go further? What if, with the aid of a thuggish civil agent, the RCMP implement a buy and bust operation, a Final Solution to get rid of you? And what if a Mountie is killed in the process under very nebulous circumstances? A chilling scenario that becomes even more disconcerting when members of the RCMP commit perjury to insure your conviction and cover up the true circumstances surrounding their colleague’s death. But, what about you being sentenced to death as a result of this and a trial littered with lying witnesses and tainted evidence that sends you on a path meant to shatter your already broken life? And...what if, in the end, Canadian legal institutions and ministries opt to defend the undefendable in order to protect the RCMP’s integrity and the image of Canada? Known as Bang Kwang prison inmate 482/33, my name is Alain Olivier. I learned first-hand what it means to be treated as expendable when the RCMP screws things up during a sketchy buy & bust operation oversea. This was my struggle against all odds to survive in the jungle of Bang Kwang prison, a true story that has something for everyone—drugs, murder, threats, violence, conflict of interest, political corruption, coverups, and my faint hope that the Canadian government would come to its senses and bring me home.

Good Luck Sir... Sorry You Lose! is a lighthearted, sometimes quirky, look at the Las Vegas gaming business, through the eyes of a casino dealer. It follows the author's dealing career, told in chronological order, from 1980 until his retirement in 2018. During that time, he experienced lessons that were never taught in dealer's school, such as staying composed while encountering irate and contemptible personalities. And those were just the other dealers. Our author also delves into the mind-set of the true gambler. From the desperation of the local player trying to parlay his meager buy-in into the two-week late rent on his apartment, to the high-rolling whale who thinks nothing of continuing to wager two hundred thousand dollars per hand in baccarat. Throughout this book, there is some laughter and there is tragedy, but in the end, one comes to realize that this truly is a study in humanity.