The California Delta has become a major new destination for trophy striped bass, and there are more largemouth bass tournaments in the Delta than any other body of water in the world. Anglers from all over the country will learn how to fish the Delta's 2,000 levees and 1,200 miles of rivers as shown in 150 spectacular photos.

Bestselling writer Mickey Spillane, creator of the iconic Mike Hammer, plunges readers into a world of seedy violence, alluring beauties, and twisting allegiances and alliances. As the Cold War rages in the background, things are about to heat up for Morgan the Raider. Named for the famous English pirate, the notorious thief, heister, and conman may have knocked over his last Armored Car. Holed up in the hospital, he’s visited by feds who tell him they have him dead to rights for the robbery of $40 million. They offer him a lifeline: stay out of prison by granting another man his freedom. Before he knows it, Morgan is on the sun-drenched shores of the Communist island nation of Nuevo Cadiz, in service to the U.S. Government. The plan? Spring a political prisoner out of heart of a lawless, bloodstained Caribbean dictatorship—by getting thrown behind the same bars himself.

Race, Labor, and Violence in the Delta examines the history of labor relations and racial conflict in the Mississippi Valley from the Civil War into the late twentieth century. This essay collection grew out of a conference marking the hundredth anniversary of one of the nation’s deadliest labor conflicts—the 1919 Elaine Massacre, during which white mobs ruthlessly slaughtered over two hundred African Americans across Phillips County, Arkansas, in response to a meeting of unionized Black sharecroppers. The essays here demonstrate that the brutality that unfolded in Phillips County was characteristic of the culture of race- and labor-based violence that prevailed in the century after the Civil War. They detail how Delta landowners began seeking cheap labor as soon as the slave system ended—securing a workforce by inflicting racial terror, eroding the Reconstruction Amendments in the courts, and obstructing federal financial-relief efforts. The result was a system of peonage that continued to exploit Blacks and poor whites for their labor, sometimes fatally. In response, laborers devised their own methods for sustaining themselves and their communities: forming unions, calling strikes, relocating, and occasionally operating outside the law. By shedding light on the broader context of the Elaine Massacre, Race, Labor, and Violence in the Delta reveals that the fight against white supremacy in the Delta was necessarily a fight for better working conditions, fair labor practices, and economic justice.

When Michael Copperman left Stanford University for the Mississippi Delta in 2002, he imagined he would lift underprivileged children from the narrow horizons of rural poverty. Well-meaning but naïve, the Asian American from the West Coast soon lost his bearings in a world divided between black and white. He had no idea how to manage a classroom or help children navigate the considerable challenges they faced. In trying to help students, he often found he couldn't afford to give what they required--sometimes with heartbreaking consequences. His desperate efforts to save child after child were misguided but sincere. He offered children the best invitations to success he could manage. But he still felt like an outsider who was failing the children and himself. Teach For America has for a decade been the nation's largest employer of recent college graduates but has come under increasing criticism in recent years even as it has grown exponentially. This memoir considers the distance between the idealism of the organization's creed that "One day, all children in this nation will have the opportunity to attain an excellent education and reach their full potential" and what it actually means to teach in America's poorest and most troubled public schools. Copperman's memoir vividly captures his disorientation in the divided world of the Delta, even as the author marvels at the wit and resilience of the children in his classroom. To them, he is at once an authority figure and a stranger minority than even they are--a lone Asian, an outsider among outsiders. His journey is of great relevance to teachers, administrators, and parents longing for quality education in America. His frank story shows that the solutions for impoverished schools are far from simple.

Tom Hardy thought he would be able to take life a little easier in his new job in New Zealand as an air traffic controller at Milton Gorge Airport - but that was before he met his loony work colleagues, before the airport company became embroiled in a seedy (and highly unethical) takeover by a greedy American corporate, and before the sudden and suspicious death of his boss. Corporate Blue is a black farce that exposes the underbelly of corruption - a hilarious drama of what one man will do to find love in the face of absurd odds.

During the fifties the Cold War grew around us. Insidious, it rose to a crescendo in October of 1962 when John Kennedy proved the concept of peace by maintaining overwhelming deterence. The men who provided this deterence were professionals who believed in the righteousness of their country and the honor of its leaders. In the decades that followed that honor eroded. For whatever missguided reason Lyndon Johnson chose to escalate American presence in Vietnam even though Kennedy chose to pursue a policy of withdrawal prior to his assasination. Our professional military was not privy to the political maneuvering that was taking place, as Johnson was lying to the American public about the Vietnam buildup. We began covert ground and air operations in 1964. These operations were denied by the government but escalated continuously to the end of the war, with covert operations continuing for some years after the peace agreements. After the 'ghost attacks' by North vietnamese gun boats on August 4, 1964 congress passed the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution, abdicated its Constitutional duty to make any declaration of war and handed that decision to the President. This step, incidentally, deprived the American fighting man the legal protection of the Geneva Convention. This book reflects the attitude of the professionals who were tasked with prosecuting this war. I have chosen three incidents that I was personally familiar with and researched them in detail. They are the shoot down of Whaler Five Seven, Red Marker Four and Owl Seven. We have learned nothing from the mistakes of this war.