Puff piece reporter, Brandy Alexander, is determined to win the battle of self-improvement. She is eating better, (or at least telling people she is) working out (if sparring with a guy who fishes doughnuts out of the gutter and eats them counts) and checking her impulsive behavior at the door. But it's hard to stay on track when her own therapist gives her up as a lost cause. What's even harder for Brandy is turning down someone in trouble. Enter Crystal, a young teenage runaway whose friend, Star, has gone missing. Star was last seen getting into a mysterious stranger's car. In her efforts to reunite Crystal with Star, Brandy quickly becomes immersed in the dangerous subculture of homeless youth. As Brandy gets in over her head with hostile street gangs, pimps and others who prey upon the young teens, she looks to the tough and savvy Nicholas Santiago to help her navigate the mean streets. Soon, Brandy realizes that there is more behind Star's mysterious disappearance than she thought, and enlists the aid of ex-boyfriend, Detective Bobby DiCarlo, to help her solve an ever-growing tale of intrigue. Add to an already full plate planning her best friend's baby shower and nursing a broken heart, courtesy of Nick, and you've got the makings for the latest BRANDY ALEXANDER MYSTERY.

Collects more than 1,400 English-language proverbs that arose in the 20th and 21st centuries, organized alphabetically by key words and including information on date of origin, history and meaning.

Lists the meaning and origin of more than 1,700 traditional and contemporary English proverbs.

World famous actor Sam Neill and rap legend Chuck D rub shoulders with writers like JP Donleavy and Carmel Bird. Physicists, business leaders, publishers, political activists, soldiers, poets, athletes and comic book creators are brought together by their common experience of hitching a ride sometime in the past. Since the '60s and '70s - the heyday of hitching - people have thumbed rides worldwide. Money never changes hands, but all manner of social transactions take place. These tales will open your eyes and take you back - or forward. Just when you think you've heard it all, turn the page. You'll discover you haven't! Tom Sykes writes fiction and non-fiction. His stories and articles have been published in the UK, USA, Canada and Southeast Asia Simon Sykes is an author, linguist, musician, designer, and carpenter who hitchhiked extensively during the 1970s. This exciting new book follows on the heels of their popular British, and North American collections.

Courageous. Uplifting. Triumphant. The story of Kweisi Mfume is a classic American saga. Uprooted from the rural tranquillity of Turners Station and thrust upon the gritty streets of west Baltimore, the child born Frizzell Gray seemed fated to become another statistic of Black urban pathology. In a household shattered by domestic violence and emotional strife, Frizzell had only the strong arms of his loving mother to protect him and his three younger sisters. But when he was sixteen years old, his cancer-stricken mother died in his arms, and his world was shattered. To survive, he turned to the streets. He dropped out of school, worked odd jobs, and hustled for money. Torn apart by the rough code of street gangs and the Vietnam war that sent his best friends home in body bags, Frizzell had fathered five children out of wedlock by the time he was twenty-two. But fate stepped in. In a life-altering moment of revelation, Frizzell saw where he was headed and realized that everything about the old Frizzell Gray would have to die. As he embarked on the journey to transform himself, he affirmed his spiritual rebirth and took the name Kweisi Mfume, Ghanian for "Conquering Son of Kings." Today, a quarter-century later, Kweisi Mfume is among the most respected and influential leaders in the United States. Mfume's journey into the nations power elite was as rocky as it was colorful: from night GED courses to college student activism to militant radio disc jockey, where his first philosophical battles were fought against James Brown, the "Godfather of Soul." Mfume's emergence as a political figure broke every rule--he parlayed his burgeoning fame as a talk-radio provocateur to win a seat as a maverick member of the Baltimore City Council. He then took on the local political machine to represent a Congressional district that encompasses both the poorest of the poor and the richest of the rich. Once he arrived in Washington, Mfume proved to be a bold political strategist, facing off against Presidents Reagan, Bush, and Clinton on such issues as aid to the Nicaraguan contras, the Civil Rights Bill, Lani Guinier's embattled nomination for Attorney General, and sending U.S. armed forces into Haiti. As Chairman of the Congressional Black Caucus, he led the CBC through a period of unprecedented dynamism. And in international affairs, Mfume's relentless campaign to end apartheid has earned him the respect and friendship of Nelson Mandela. Far from a kiss-and-tell political memoir, No Free Ride illuminates the forces that helped shape a new wave of Black leaders left to carry the torch for Martin Luther King, Jr. and Malcolm X. Mfume moves beyond the divisive rhetoric of white fear and Black anger generated by the assault on affirmative action, the O.J. verdict, and the Million Man March. He exposes the myth of arrogant, self-righteous values and affirms the real value of values. And while Mfume asserts that " the government can't and won't solve every one of our problems," he doesn't hesitate to indict those who collude in the soul murder of America's poor and forgotten. In this candid and insightful memoir, Mfume reminds us that everything has a price, and that as citizens of a democracy, none of us can expect a free ride. His visionary blueprint for all Americans, white and Black, can guide us as we face the challenge of fashioning a society in which our two nations can at last become one.