"A memoir, lavishly illustrated with the author's own photos, of train travel along the legendary rails of America reflecting a lifetime's love of observing and riding trains while tracing the evolution of American passenger trains from the 1950s to the present"--Provided by publisher.

A novel of rare genius, The Man with the Golden Arm describes the dissolution of a card-dealing WWII veteran named Frankie Machine, caught in the act of slowly cutting his own heart into wafer-thin slices. For Frankie, a murder committed may be the least of his problems. The literary critic Malcolm Cowley called The Man with the Golden Arm "Algren's defense of the individual," while Carl Sandburg wrote of its "strange midnight dignity." A literary tour de force, here is a novel unlike any other, one in which drug addiction, poverty, and human failure somehow suggest a defense of human dignity and a reason for hope.

Rivals, friends, lovers Daniel and Dylan are the top swimmers in the world; Alex and Alí, the top tennis players. They play for God, country, family, and the need to escape their troubled pasts. In their quest to be the best, they also harbor a secret: Each is in love with his rival. The four hit it off at the Summer Olympics in New York and reconnect on an island vacation that gives new meaning to doubles, round-robin, and preliminary heats. By then, the shifting professional fortunes of each couple have begun to signal a change in their personal relationships as well, one that will lead to new alliances and betrayal and engulf them in tragedy. Told from their alternating viewpoints, Water Music is about power, jealousy, dominance, and submission. It’s about how the past informs the present and the future and how the choices made by nations, our families, and ourselves color our lives. Ultimately, it’s the story of how we come to accept those choices and learn to live with loss through love.

FROM CYNICISM TO HEROISM Xavier Thorn, his wife killed, stripped his life down to the essentials he needed to strike at the Mafia - an angry cynicism that he yearned to turn to heroism and courage, along with an arsenal of weapons and explosives and the vision of a one-man crusade for justice that he saw nowhere in a thoroughly corrupt society. But he didn't reckon on confronting two mysterious women, profane Chelsea and angelic Columbine. The trio embarks on a stormy and erotic on-the-road adventure with plot twists and turns that keep the reader guessing. After a surprising and outrageously comic attack on a New Orleans Mafia Don, ensuing confrontations with Mafioso enforcers and a vicious motorcycle gang dispatched to kill them all test their mettle and their commitments to one another.

When Judy first began corresponding with an elderly man in Belfast in 2001, she was a former teacher who was interested in learning more about Ireland. She and Harry exchanged almost daily emails and immediately became friends. Harry soon realized Judy needed to tell someone about her abusive marriage to find an inner peace. He encouraged her to write her story. Hi Harry is the true story of how alcohol turned a loving husband into the violent man Judy was married to for ten years. He was a Dr. Jekyll / Mr. Hyde personality, keeping Judy forever on edge: Who would he be today? The abuse she suffered slowly escalated until finally she knew the next time Mr. Hyde appeared, he would kill her. Emotionally destroyed, with little self-worth or confidence left, Judy relied on her dedication to her four children to find the courage to escape and make a new life for her family. Hi Harry is her story—a true testament to the power of a mother’s love.