Luggage By Kroger has been recognized as one of 2009's top true crime thrillers with a Silver Medal from the IPPYs (Independent Publisher Book Awards), a Bronze Medal from ForeWord Magazine, a Runner-Up citation in the true crime category of the National Indie Excellence Awards and a true crime finalist citation in the 2009 USA Book News Awards. The 2009 New York Book Festival also named it runner-up in general nonfiction. Finalist: ForeWord Magazine's 2008 Book-of-the-Year Awards. Remember the movie Fatal Attraction? And the movie Basic Instinct? And the movie Play Misty For Me? Toss all three of the movies in a blender, hit frappe and stand back. What comes out would be Gary Taylor's new book Luggage By Kroger. Self-Publishing Review Magazine. And what a story it turned out to be! Reader Views online review. A riveting true story that reads like a high-octane crime thriller Midwest Book Review Catherine was destined to become several important things to me. But most prominently, she would become my problem-solver. Before I met her, I had a bunch of problems. Then, all of sudden, with her in my life I had only one. In Luggage By Kroger, former Houston Post reporter Gary Taylor recounts his intensely personal involvement in the trail of controversy that has followed Texas attorney Catherine Mehaffey Shelton for nearly three decades. It's a trail littered with murder investigations and acts of violence that has warranted coverage by media outlets as diverse as People magazine, The Dallas Morning News, the Houston Chronicle, the Houston Press, CBS-News 48 Hours and the A&E channel's American Justice. It's a trail that has placed Taylor in the public eye as a true-life fatal attraction interview subject on talk shows from Oprah Winfrey to Sally Jesse Raphael. It's a story that has been twice-optioned for television docudramas and served as the lead segment on a prime-time TV special called Crimes of Passion. But the intimate details of Taylor's fatal attraction tale have remained under the radar until now. With his true crime memoir, Taylor invites the reader to grab a seat on the wild ride of an obsessive relationship, from its erotic beginning through the violent end and the trials required to clean up the mess. Laying bitterness aside, he employs self-deprecating humor to share comical anecdotes and maintain a reporter's detachment on what becomes a tale of self-discovery through a potentially deadly encounter that nearly cost him his life. Beyond that volatile relationship, Taylor's brief backstory offers a historical treasure trove of information from his days as a crime and courts reporter for The Post, covering some of the state's most significant criminal events: from the 1972 murder of Dr. John Hill, through the 1974 siege of Huntsville prison, the trial of officers accused in the death of Joe Campos Torres, early capital murder cases in the death penalty center of America and the Houston trial of Fort Worth tycoon T. Cullen Davis. Luggage By Kroger defies all efforts to pigeonhole it into one specific genre. In the end, however, it emerges as an action-packed and suspenseful memoir of a personal odyssey that should tantalize a wide range of reading interests.

"The Chicken Ranch was the one, great festering, frustrating sore on the face of law enforcement in Texas."The year was 1973. The State of Texas had just elected a new reform-minded governor and attorney general. And Houston's ABC-TV affiliate station at Channel 13 had just launched a new consumer-oriented investigative feature by hiring flamboyant former lawman Marvin Zindler to seize the spotlight. The roads from those disparate events crossed quickly in dramatic fashion to national acclaim in the Texas Hill Country village of La Grange, which had harbored the country's longest continually operating bordello-a little place known as the Chicken Ranch and beloved to generations of Texas school boys. When Zindler's sensational TV expose forced the Chicken Ranch to close, it triggered a national controversy that raged for years, highlighted by the creation of a successful Broadway musical called The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas. The movie version starred Burt Reynolds and Dolly Parton in the fictionalized account that boiled the story down to a basic theme still used in its marketing pitch: "Texas madam Miss Mona and her sheriff boyfriend try to save her chicken ranch from a TV muckraker."But lost amid the romanticized singing and the dancing and the nostalgic pining of The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas lies an authentic true crime history yarn just as entertaining and as much a part of the Lone Star State's many fabled legends. In I, the People, veteran Houston journalist and author Gary Taylor recreates the real story behind the closing of the Chicken Ranch and explains the forces that unleashed TV icon Marvin Zindler upon the national scene.ReviewsMidwest Book Review: The famed film 'Best Little Whorehouse in Texas' had its roots in reality, but its charm wears thin when it has connections to organized crime. "I, the People: How Marvin Zindler Busted the Best Little Whorehouse in Texas" is Gary Taylor's coverage of the story that tells of fellow journalist Marvin Zindler's personal crusade against the famous brothel the Chicken Ranch and the puppet strings of the Mafia behind it. For those who want the true story behind the story, "I, the People" is well worth considering.POD People: You may have heard of the "Chicken Ranch," AKA "The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas," from the musical or the movie of the later name. Well, Gary Taylor, intrepid Texan journalist, has the real story. Taylor has a wonderful eye for character, and the Chicken Ranch story is full of them. This book is a fascinating look at characters from an era when Texas transitioned itself from the Wild West to civilization. I highly recommend I The People.

Luggage By Kroger has been recognized as one of 2009's top true crime thrillers with honors from five different national book competitions. The scorecard: * True Crime Silver Medal from the 2009 IPPYs * True Crime Bronze Medal and Finalist for Book-of-the-Year from the 2008 ForeWord Magazine Book-of-the-Year Awards * True Crime Runner-Up in the 2009 National Indie Excellence Awards * True Crime Finalist in the 2009 USA Book News Awards * General Nonfiction Runner-Up at the 2009 New York Book Festival In this true crime memoir, former Houston Post reporter Gary Taylor recounts his true-life fatal attraction involvement in the trail of violence that has dogged Texas attorney Catherine Mehaffey Shelton for nearly three decades, prompting coverage by newspapers, TV, movies and even Oprah Winfrey. Now Taylor invites readers to grab a seat on the wild ride of an obsessive relationship: erotic beginning to violent end and the trials required to clean up the mess. The result is an adventure odyssey of self-discovery through an encounter that nearly cost him his life.

He is pulled to this place. He has been here before. This is a place rarely but always cautiously journeyed. Occasionally he arrives by invitation, sometime by assignment. Today he is there poking his nose into something not his business. He is here without invitation, a boys risky intentional mistake. He stands tiptoed on top of the old wooden shoeshine kit pulled from the back of the closet. Slowly, cautiously, all so quietly, he awkwardly pulls at the loose, cutting, metal handles. He is aware, very aware, and constantly alert to the silence of footsteps in the hallway, the creaking sounds of the loose banister. He has opened his dads top drawer. This is a place of wonderment when there with permission. This visit, however, is without approval. It is unsupervised. Todays visit is driven by uninvited curiosity and accompanied with apprehension a childs exaggerated anxiety. It is also a nice place, a warm safe place. Follow the stories of Dan, Jim, David, Bob, Peter, Steven, and Dave, as they share memories of their fathers top drawers and how those memories shape them and their relationships as husbands, fathers, and sons. For when they went searching through their dads top drawers as wide-eyed boys, they found more than trinkets, pictures, and mementos. With each uncovered treasure, they learned more about the man they so admired, what he valued most, and what they were to become. The top drawer is something visible and not so visible. The drawer holds things that present who dads really are. There are patterns of family behavior, character traits, moments of intimacy, and markers of some of lifes greatest moments. Children often dont know they are opening that drawer. May Top Drawer Dads provide a message of appreciation and love to a father or father-to-be. Please share your story at www.topdrawerdads.com.

Thomas Mann (1875-1955) won the Nobel Prize for literature in 1929. This is a collection of his shorter works. "Death in Venice", later filmed by Lucion Visconti starring Dirk Bogarde, was published in 1911. It is a poetic meditation on art and beauty, where the dying composer Aschenbach (modelled on Gustav Mahler) becomes fixated by the young boy Tadzio. The other stories are: "Tonio Kroger"; the collection entitled "Tristan"; "The Blood of the Walsungs"; "Mario the Magician"; and "The Tables of the Law". A number of essays are also included.

“This coffee-table book is the first-ever collection of works devoted to celebrating black models. Fashion devotees will find glorious images of supers such as Iman, Tyra Banks, Naomi Campbell, Joan Smalls, and Adwoa Aboah alongside interviews and personal essays.” —Vogue Filled with revealing essays, interviews, and stunning photographs, Supreme Models pays tribute to black models past and present: from the first to be featured in catalogs and on magazine covers, like Iman, Donyale Luna, and Beverly Johnson, to the supermodels who reigned in the nineties—Tyra Banks, Naomi Campbell, and Veronica Webb. The book also observes the newest generation of models—Adut Akech, Jourdan Dunn, and Joan Smalls—who are shaking up the fashion industry by speaking out about racial prejudice while becoming social media sensations. Written by celebrity fashion stylist and journalist Marcellas Reynolds, Supreme Models features more than 70 women from the last 75 years. Reynolds writes, “I hope that everyone who reads this book learns something about the models included within—and more about the business of fashion and modeling. But what I want most is for Supreme Models to be a source for the little boys, or girls, who like my childhood self, need to see themselves represented in a positive light.” The book, filled with gorgeous photographs of the women, details their most memorable campaigns, covers, editorials, and runway shows. Black models have been influencing fashion and pop culture for decades, reshaping beauty standards and boundaries. Supreme Models is a celebration of their monumental impact.