Mr Lucky, a tough teddy bear from Bayonne, NJ, journeys around the world and through the tunnels of time learning over a hundred poker variations from many fascinating characters.

At night, on a cliff in the Arizona desert, Colonel Sam Sawyer asks Rita Kelly, "Do you love me, Rita?" Once they were engaged to be married, but Native American Johnnie Lonetree, Sam's best friend, shattered that. Now all three are together again at Altamura Air Force Base. As a thunderstorm roars, Sam hears Rita's answer. Within seconds she loses her balance and tumbles down the side of the cliff. Is she alive? Why did she fall? Sam is Chief of Security at this crucial base which houses Selene, a supercomputer designed by Rita to control America's missile defenses. Johnnie has been sent by DARPA to test Sam's security and Rita's programming. Sam uses Selene's hidden cameras to spy on everyone on the base. With him, we learn the secrets of every character, including the psychological defense mechanisms they use to protect themselves from the slings and arrows of harsh reality. Soon Sam comes to suspect that someone, maybe Johnnie Lonetree, is plotting to destroy the US in a massive attack. Can he stop it?

Tony Valentine made his living and his name as a cop in Atlantic City–and is now known worldwide for his ability to spot the kinds of scams, grifts, and rip-offs that cost casinos billions every year. A man with a biting wit who drives a ’92 Honda, Tony is low-profile, old-school, and has seen it all–until he meets the luckiest man on earth. Ricky Smith was once a small-town loser. Then he went to Las Vegas, jumped out the window of a burning hotel, lived to tell the tale, and tore up the Strip on an incredible winning streak. Ricky didn’t just win at one slot machine or table game. He won at blackjack, roulette, and craps, and then beat the pants off the world’s greatest poker player. Tony knows that goofy, loudmouthed Ricky Smith–or anyone else, for that matter–couldn’t possibly be that fortunate. But when “Mr. Lucky” returns home to the little town of Slippery Rock, North Carolina, he keeps on winning everything from a horse race to a $50,000 lottery. Hired by a desperate casino, Tony starts to pry into Ricky’s past, his friends, and the strange little town that is benefiting from Ricky’s fame and fortune. Unfortunately for Tony, his cover is blown when he is forced to reveal a trick he has up his own sleeve: a pocket Glock he can shoot with laser-like precision. Suddenly, two men are dead, the cops are on Tony’s tail, and the investigation explodes in violence–putting the lives of Tony’s son and his young family in danger. For years, Tony’s son Gerry has dueled with his own criminal impulses. Now, the Ricky Smith case has lured Gerry through the gates of temptation and into a murderous confrontation with the Dixie Mafia. With Tony stuck on the slippery slope of Slippery Rock and Gerry fighting for his life, the Valentines are finding out just how bad good luck can get. Against a neon-tinted backdrop of adrenaline rushes, hard crashes, big money, and high-wire tension, the inimitable James Swain has set his best Tony Valentine novel yet: a funny, furious ride with an astounding array of crooks, marks, and one killer scam.

Learning cards are a wonderful way to reinforce basic principles, lessons, and skills. The Positional/Directional Concepts set includes 14 cards (5.5” x 8” each), featuring photographs of a plush puppy in different positions relative to a doghouse, 14 positional word cards, a 2-piece doghouse, and 2 puppies for use on a flannel or magnetic board. Positional concepts include over, under, inside, next to, between, behind, in front, and more. It includes resource guide with additional activity ideas and card descriptions in English, Spanish, and French, as well as supports NCTE, NCTM, and NAEYC standards.

Provide your mystery fans with background information on their favorite writers and series characters, and use this as a guide for adding contemporary titles to your collections. This book examines 100 of today's top mystery novels and mystery authors hailing from countries such as the United States, Great Britain, France, Italy, South Africa, and Australia. Equally valuable to students writing research papers, readers craving new authors or more information about their favorite authors, and teachers seeking specific types of fiction to support curricula, 100 Most Popular Contemporary Mystery Authors: Biographical Sketches and Bibliographies provides revealing information about today's best mysteries and authors—without any "spoilers." Each of the accomplished writers included in this guide has established a broad audience and is recognized for work that is imaginative and innovative. The rising stars of 21st century mystery will also be included, as will authors who have won the Mystery Writers of America Grand Master Award.

Stephen E. Ambrose’s D-Day is the definitive history of World War II’s most pivotal battle, a day that changed the course of history. D-Day is the epic story of men at the most demanding moment of their lives, when the horrors, complexities, and triumphs of life are laid bare. Distinguished historian Stephen E. Ambrose portrays the faces of courage and heroism, fear and determination—what Eisenhower called “the fury of an aroused democracy”—that shaped the victory of the citizen soldiers whom Hitler had disparaged. Drawing on more than 1,400 interviews with American, British, Canadian, French, and German veterans, Ambrose reveals how the original plans for the invasion had to be abandoned, and how enlisted men and junior officers acted on their own initiative when they realized that nothing was as they were told it would be. The action begins at midnight, June 5/6, when the first British and American airborne troops jumped into France. It ends at midnight June 6/7. Focusing on those pivotal twenty-four hours, it moves from the level of Supreme Commander to that of a French child, from General Omar Bradley to an American paratrooper, from Field Marshal Montgomery to a German sergeant. Ambrose’s D-Day is the finest account of one of our history’s most important days.

A fearful woman, picked up one night by Lucky in his taxi, is chased, promised protection, dropped off safely, and is later discovered and pulled from the Cumberland river, dead. As our headstrong hero begins to poke around, he encounters hostile publicity agents, police power abuse, and imported hit men, all searching for a missing item of considerable value to everyone involved. As Lucky unravels the threads of evidence, they lead into the music business in Nashville and the huge amount of money invested in a rising star. Along the way, spend time with Lucky behind the bar, behind the wheel, and behind the scenes of Nashville.