When seventeen-year-old Huck's vindictive math teacher wins the town poker tournament and takes the winner's watch away from Huck's father while he is in a coma, Huck vows to get even with him no matter what it takes.

“With a deft hand, Johnson shows us there's no such thing as "too young" when it comes to questioning big ideas like manhood, or even family.” –Jason Reynolds, New York Times bestselling author of Look Both Ways and Stamped Literary powerhouse and Coretta Scott King Honor- and Boston Globe / Horn Book Honor-winning author of The Parker Inheritance Varian Johnson explores themes of toxic masculinity and family legacy in this heartfelt, hopeful story of one boy discovering what it really means to be a man. SECRETS ARE ALWAYS A GAMBLE Ten-year-old Anthony Joplin has made it to double digits! Which means he's finally old enough to play in the spades tournament every Joplin Man before him seems to have won. So while Ant's friends are stressing about fifth grade homework and girls, Ant only has one thing on his mind: how he'll measure up to his father's expectations at the card table. Then Ant's best friend gets grounded, and he's forced to find another spades partner. And Shirley, the new girl in his class, isn't exactly who he has in mind. She talks a whole lot of trash -- way more than his old partner. Plus, he's not sure that his father wants him playing with a girl. But she's smart and tough and pretty, and knows every card trick in the book. So Ant decides to join forces with Shirley -- and keep his plans a secret. Only it turns out secrets are another Joplin Man tradition. And his father is hiding one so big it may tear their family apart...

The author, a computer science professor diagnosed with terminal cancer, explores his life, the lessons that he has learned, how he has worked to achieve his childhood dreams, and the effect of his diagnosis on him and his family.

Inspiration for The Deck of Life emerged from my clinical observations of patients in my practice of dermatology and internal medicine. I became increasingly aware of the connection between the genetic code as it relates to body build, temperament, and disease predisposition. It was further observed that these factors were influenced by the patient's "belief system" as it relates to personal characteristics, behavior, and reactions to life's situations. This book explores this unique relationship and our inherent ability to alter these features. It confirms the truth that we have a choice and an unlimited capacity to live a life stress free, with peace, happiness and longevity. In the pages of this enlightening book the reader is guided to discover his dominate and sub-dominate temperament. A better understanding of ourselves enables us to "play a winning hand" with the cards you're dealt in life. Consequently we will make decisions more wisely in the areas of health, career choice, choosing a mate, child-rearing, and the day-to-day communications and enjoyment of the people in our lives.

Nikki Jenkins's novel imagines the life of a woman who experiences the best and worst of everyone around her—and tries to redeem every relationship she has, no matter how crazy and convoluted they become. Natalie Kelley's world is in danger of falling apart, and she is the only one who can keep that from happening. Her husband, Anderson—who has an undeniable history of adultery—is once again preoccupied with something other than work. And that's not all. Natalie has to deal with her own spoiled mother, drug-addicted sister, man-crazy best friend, and her own children who are too young to take care of themselves. Natalie goes through three days of her life, desperately clinging to the only life she knows and supporting everyone who relies on her, all at once. Her husband's actions verge on the edge of abusive, and it is only a matter of time before Natalie discovers what has been drawing him further away from their love—and the results will shock everyone. Her struggles are contrasted with flashbacks that help make sense of the present, showing her relationships as they had been, and as they might yet become again. Through it all, Natalie strives to be available for everyone, but is even her indomitable spirit up to the task? Playing With the Hand I Was Dealt is an insightful debut about a woman's attempts to redefine "normal" in a life gone mad.

A New York Times bestseller • A New York Times Notable Book “The tale of how Konnikova followed a story about poker players and wound up becoming a story herself will have you riveted, first as you learn about her big winnings, and then as she conveys the lessons she learned both about human nature and herself.” —The Washington Post It's true that Maria Konnikova had never actually played poker before and didn't even know the rules when she approached Erik Seidel, Poker Hall of Fame inductee and winner of tens of millions of dollars in earnings, and convinced him to be her mentor. But she knew her man: a famously thoughtful and broad-minded player, he was intrigued by her pitch that she wasn't interested in making money so much as learning about life. She had faced a stretch of personal bad luck, and her reflections on the role of chance had led her to a giant of game theory, who pointed her to poker as the ultimate master class in learning to distinguish between what can be controlled and what can't. And she certainly brought something to the table, including a Ph.D. in psychology and an acclaimed and growing body of work on human behavior and how to hack it. So Seidel was in, and soon she was down the rabbit hole with him, into the wild, fiercely competitive, overwhelmingly masculine world of high-stakes Texas Hold'em, their initial end point the following year's World Series of Poker. But then something extraordinary happened. Under Seidel's guidance, Konnikova did have many epiphanies about life that derived from her new pursuit, including how to better read, not just her opponents but far more importantly herself; how to identify what tilted her into an emotional state that got in the way of good decisions; and how to get to a place where she could accept luck for what it was, and what it wasn't. But she also began to win. And win. In a little over a year, she began making earnest money from tournaments, ultimately totaling hundreds of thousands of dollars. She won a major title, got a sponsor, and got used to being on television, and to headlines like "How one writer's book deal turned her into a professional poker player." She even learned to like Las Vegas. But in the end, Maria Konnikova is a writer and student of human behavior, and ultimately the point was to render her incredible journey into a container for its invaluable lessons. The biggest bluff of all, she learned, is that skill is enough. Bad cards will come our way, but keeping our focus on how we play them and not on the outcome will keep us moving through many a dark patch, until the luck once again breaks our way.