MALIBU MAN is the autobiography of the legendary first young virtuoso of the violaAlan de Veritch. Making his first of many solo appearances with the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra at the age of 13, by the age seventeen he had already collaborated in chamber music performances with such artists as: Jascha Heifetz, Gregor Piatigorsky, Josef Gingold, Pinchas Zukerman, and Itzhak Perlman to name but a few. By age 32, Alan de Veritch had exchanged his life as an internationally known concert and recording artist for what was to become that of an extremely successful businessman, community leader, guest speaker, author and world-renowned musical pedagogue. This autobiography clearly describes the background and many aspects of his amazingly unique existence from age 5 to present times while it comfortably guides its readers on a most enjoyable and informative journey through the highly eventful life of this truly extraordinary individual.

Recipient of three National Endowment for the Arts grants and with works exhibited at the prestigious Biennale de Paris, New York’s Whitney Museum, the de Menil Collection in Houston, and other venues, Bob “Daddy-O” Wade started “keeping it weird” in 1961 when he arrived in Austin with his ’51 custom Ford hot rod and his slicked-back hair. Primed to study art at the University of Texas, Wade’s coif and dragster earned him his trademark moniker, and the abstract, welded sculptures he fashioned from automobile bumpers in his frat house basement laid the foundations for the distinctive, larger-than-life art pieces that would eventually make him famous. Daddy-O is the creator of the forty-foot iguana that perched atop the Lone Star Café in New York City, the immense cowboy boots (entered in the Guinness Book of World Records) outside San Antonio’s North Star Mall, and Dinosaur Bob, who graces the roof of the National Center for Children’s Illustrated Literature in Abilene, Texas. He is widely recognized as one of the progenitors of the “Cosmic Cowboy Culture” that emerged in Texas during the 1970s. Daddy-O’s Book of Big-Ass Art features images of more than a hundred of Wade’s most famous pieces, complete with the wild tales that lie behind the art, told in brief essays by both Wade and more than forty noted artists and writers familiar with Wade’s work.

Following the first three installments in the mafia enforcer's adventures, this whodunit finds Wilson taking up with his old partner, Ruby. The pair set out to take down an armored car carrying a huge payday, but there's one problem--Ruby's kid Rick is the one who scouted the job, and he wants in on the deal. Despite his misgivings about Rick, Wilson signs on with the condition that he runs the job. The heist is a success, but the antihero soon finds himself at the heart of a double cross, learning the hard way that honor among thieves is a myth. Packed with suspense and surprising twists, this novel adds yet another ruthless chapter to the celebrated Wilson Mystery series.

Ten essays examine a variety of objects ranging from jewelry and terracotta objects to architectural and sculpture fragments, in the antiquities collection of the J. Paul Getty Museum. The contributors undertake comparative analyses with similar objects found in the holdings of other museums, and make extensive use of illustrations and drawings to documents their arguments. The articles are in English, German, and Italian.

In The Fraud, the most thrilling entry yet in Brad Parks's award-winning series, investigative reporter Carter Ross must chose who gets to live: him or his unborn child. A rash of carjackings terrorizing Newark become newsworthy when one such theft ends in the murder of a wealthy banking executive. The affable, wisecracking Ross is assigned the story, but he's weary of only writing about victims of crime who happen to be rich and white. To balance his reporting, he finds a Nigerian immigrant of more modest means who was also killed during a recent carjacking. When it turns out the two victims knew each other, sharing an unexplained round of golf at a tony country club shortly before their deaths, Carter is plunged onto the trail of a deadly band of car thieves that includes a sociopathic ex-convict. When his unborn child is put in harm's way, it becomes more than just a story for Carter. And he'll stop at nothing to rescue the baby-even if it costs him his own life. Parks, a rising star on the crime fiction scene known for his mix of wit and grit, delivers his most emotionally resonant book yet.