The Sucker

During the San Francisco earthquake of 1906, seven-year-old Thomas Moran finds himself accidentally embarking on a career in pickpocketing. In the following years he becomes a master of his dubious craft and grows to manhood traveling from state to state across America. His picaresque journey takes him through Prohibition and the Depression; into the desperate highs of the Hootchy-Kootchy and the dying vineyards of California, accompanied by an array of richly drawn characters frantically clutching at the crumbling American dream. Italian and Chinese gangsters, con artists, corrupt clergy, and speakeasy bootleggers all have a part to play in Tommy's destiny, but it is Effie, the great love of his life, who offers him the chance to change his future, and tries to save him from himself. Colorfully written, engaging, and richly evocative of an extraordinary period in American history, The Sucker's Kiss marks the literary debut of master storyteller Alan Parker.

Financial illiteracy is the #1 economic crisis in the world, impacting more than 5 billion people across the planet. The few who know how money works take advantage of those who do not - the suckers. This book is designed to help you break the cycle of endless debt, foolish spending and financial cluelessness so you can stop being a sucker, start being a student and take control of your financial future.

In early 2000 the bottom dropped out of the life of writer David Denby when his wife decided to leave him. Propelled to make some money quickly, and seized by the 'irrational exuberance' of the stock market, then approaching its peak, Denby enthusiastically joined the investment frenzy. Over the next few months he listened raptly to bullish stock analysts, dreamy hi-tech gurus and boastful heads of companies. He plunged into a season of mania and was swept forward on currents of hope, greed and hucksterism - with cataclysmic results. American Sucker is a mesmerising account of those years of madness. What begins as a money chase and an engagement with rampant capitalism soon becomes an encounter with such timeless issues as love, envy, true value - and life and death itself. This is a classic tale of the bubble related not by a market guru or an investment professional but by a witty, perceptive and eloquent outsider.

Sixteen-year-old Pete relates how his twelve-year-old cousin's hero worship turns to hatred.

Selected, peer reviewed papers from the 2013 International Conference on Manufacturing Science and Engineering (4th ICMSE 2013), March 30-31, 2013, Dalian, China