The author recalls his wartime experiences first aboard the cruiser USS Vincennes, which was attacked and sunk by a surprise Japanese attack, and later on the submarine USS Pollack.

From the earliest times, people have used lotteries to make decisions--by drawing straws, tossing coins, picking names out of hats, and so on. We use lotteries to place citizens on juries, draft men into armies, assign students to schools, and even on very rare occasions, select lifeboat survivors to be eaten. Lotteries make a great deal of sense in all of these cases, and yet there is something absurd about them. Largely, this is because lottery-based decisions are not based upon reasons. In fact, lotteries actively prevent reason from playing a role in decision making at all. Over the years, people have devoted considerable effort to solving this paradox and thinking about the legitimacy of lotteries as a whole. However, these scholars have mainly focused on lotteries on a case-by-case basis, not as a part of a comprehensive political theory of lotteries. In The Luck of the Draw, Peter Stone surveys the variety of arguments proffered for and against lotteries and argues that they only have one true effect relevant to decision making: the "sanitizing effect" of preventing decisions from being made on the basis of reasons. While this rationale might sound strange to us, Stone contends that in many instances, it is vital that decisions be made without the use of reasons. By developing innovative principles for the use of lottery-based decision making, Stone lays a foundation for understanding when it is--and when it is not--appropriate to draw lots when making political decisions both large and small.

Money. Gobs of it. In the blink of an eye - or the drop of a ball— it's all yours. Everyone dreams about striking it rich by winning a lottery. We all feverishly line up to purchase our tickets, and watch TV or scan the newspapers to see if we have won, even though the odds are better that we will be struck by lightning. Still, we perservere, because no matter what else happens this week, you can be sure that someone, somewhere, will win the big one. Lotteries are an unparalleled popular phenomenon. But what happens after the winners are revealed, and the checks have been issued? How does winning a lottery change one's life? Luck of the Draw profiles past winners of big lotteries, and how their windfall impacted their lives, mostly for the better, but interestingly sometimes for the worse, such was the case of a Florida widow who won $5 million in 1984; three years later, she lost her mansion and fancy cars, and owed the IRS $500,000 for back taxes. Eventually she was arrested for trying to hire a contract killer to take out her daughter-in-law, whom she blamed for her lottery misfortune. The book also depicts the past, present and future of lotteries in North America and the world over, and includes a special chapter on the revived phenomenon of big-time TV game show winners. Who wants to be a millionaire? Seemingly, everyone. In a country where eighty percent of adults have played a lottery, creating a multi-billion dollar industry, Luck of the Draw is an insightful inside look at lotteries, its winners, and its losers.

Piers Anthony takes us back to Xanth in this luckiest volume yet!

Drawing the short straw is bad luck ... isn’t it? A treaty between three warring realms calls for a mass wedding ceremony amongst their eligible princes and princesses to solidify the peace. But since the number of males and females differ, one of the marriages must be between two of the princes. Prince Obren of Canna draws the short straw, sealing his fate, and Prince Dukan of Butari volunteers to be the other half of the nontraditional marriage. The two princes fought nobly in the years-long war and are willing to do whatever it takes to finalize the treaty, ending the conflict that took the lives of their loved ones ... Obren’s brother and Dukan’s lover. Each harbors a dark secret, and King Rogan of Canna has long nurtured a deep hatred of Obren, blaming him for bringing home the deadly virus responsible for the untimely death of his much-adored wife. Obren and Dukan can’t deny their chemistry, but can they overcome the ugly truths complicating their path to a friendly, respectful, and -- dare they hope -- loving relationship? Will King Rogan stop at nothing to dash Obren’s chance at happiness, or does that short straw represent good luck, after all?

Life’s not a fairytale for women like me, divorced and creeping up on middle age…until a hot younger man finds my lost shoes. Crashing weddings is so not my thing. I’d much rather stay home and watch HGTV . . . and ignore the fact that my life is messier than those fixer-upper houses. Because my jerk ex left, and the only thing keeping a roof over my sons’ heads is my crappy telemarketing job. But then I get a challenge from the Bad Luck Club, the group I joined to turn my luck around: Do something that breaks the rules. One ill-advised confession to my best friend later, I’m strapping on a pair of heels and crashing the wedding of two of the owners of Buchanan Brewery. The last thing I expect is to meet someone, let alone the sexy younger bartender who calls me out and finds my lost shoes, something straight out of Cinderella. And the very last thing I expect is to fall for him. It feels like I’m in a dream come true, a fairy tale, but the crap part about dreams is that they have to end. Or do they?