Tough As Nails

God's ways are higher than our ways. His thoughts are higher than our thoughts. We are called to follow, to take the next step, to keep coming. We don't know what God is doing and He has a reason for that. I know I have tried to "help" many times, and God has graciously cleaned up my messes, set me back on my feet, and kept my feet on the path as I followed Him. I know these poems will bless you. They have blessed me. Sometimes I just "stood on the side" and wrote what God was saying. I wasn't even part of it, but I wrote the words and was amazed. I am still amazed today. And God is getting great glory for Himself.

The complete collection of fifteen stories starring one of pulp fiction’s most hardened PIs, with accompanying illustrations It’s hot in St. Louis, and Donahue is looking for a hired gun. An ex–New York cop who got canned from the NYPD after raiding the wrong gambling joint, Donahue has spent four years on the job as a private detective—punishing work that’s turned him from a tough customer into one of the most hard-boiled operatives in the country. A killer named Micky Shane has skipped New York for St. Louis, and Donahue has come to find him. When he does, it won’t be good for Donahue—but it’ll be a whole lot worse for Shane. In his days writing Donahue stories for Black Mask magazine, Frederick Nebel was as popular and well respected as Dashiell Hammett and Raymond Chandler. Although his name is no longer widely known, these classic tales of two-fisted justice have lost none of their grit or their bite.

Called “God’s angry man” for his unyielding demands in pursuit of personal and artistic freedom, Oscar-winning filmmaker Richard Brooks brought us some of the mid-twentieth century’s most iconic films, including Blackboard Jungle, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, Elmer Gantry, In Cold Blood, and Looking for Mr. Goodbar. “The important thing,” he once remarked, “is to write your story, to make it believable, to make it live.” His own life story has never been fully chronicled, until now. Tough as Nails: The Life and Films of Richard Brooks restores to importance the career of a prickly iconoclast who sought realism and truth in his films. Douglass K. Daniel explores how the writer-director made it from the slums of Philadelphia to the heights of the Hollywood elite, working with the top stars of the day, among them Humphrey Bogart, Cary Grant, Elizabeth Taylor, Jean Simmons, Sidney Poitier, Sean Connery, Gene Hackman, and Diane Keaton. Brooks dramatized social issues and depicted characters in conflict with their own values, winning an Academy Award for his Elmer Gantry screenplay and earning nominations for another seven Oscars for directing and screenwriting. Tough as Nails offers illuminating insights into Brooks’s life, drawing on unpublished studio memos and documents and interviews from stars and colleagues, including Poitier, director Paul Mazursky, and Simmons, who was married to Brooks for twenty years. Daniel takes readers behind the scenes of Brooks’s major films and sheds light on their making, their compromises, and their common threads. Tough as Nails celebrates Brooks’s vision while adding to the critical understanding of his works, their flaws as well as their merits, and depicting the tumults and trends in the life of a man who always kept his own compass. Best Books for General Audiences, selected by the American Association of School Librarians Outstanding Book, selected by the Public Library Reviewers

THE STALKER WAS GETTING CLOSER…TO THE WOMAN THIS MAN LOVED! Protecting people was Mike Landis's job. And this former military man now living in the urban jungle was good at it. But his new client was the last person on earth he wanted to see and the only woman who knew what was beneath his tough exterior. He could help her, but at what cost? It was a game of cat and mouse, as a dangerous stalker was getting closer to Brianna Kent every day. Was it a colleague? Someone from her past? Mike and Brianna couldn't deny their attraction for each other, but could they figure out who the stalker was and catch him before he caught them?

Inside This Special 20-Page Report From Tactical Training Specialist Mike Gillette You’ll Find Out… 1. The most important character traits all tough guys MUST have. 2. That toughness has nothing to do with the size of your muscles or physical strength. 3. Why guys today have become mentally weak wimps. 4. What EVERY Medal of Honor recipient has in common. 5. How to take control of anger & get rid of self limiting beliefs.

Gail O'Sullivan Dwyer graduated from the United States Military Academy at West Point in 1981-- only the second Academy class to have women among its members.