Pay Dirt Road

Pay Dirt Road
Author: Samantha Jayne Allen
Publisher: Minotaur Books
Total Pages: 267
Release: 2022-04-19
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 1250804280

Friday Night Lights meets Mare of Easttown in this small-town mystery about an unlikely private investigator searching for a missing waitress. Pay Dirt Road is the mesmerizing debut from the 2019 Tony Hillerman Prize recipient Samantha Jayne Allen. Annie McIntyre has a love/hate relationship with Garnett, Texas. Recently graduated from college and home waitressing, lacking not in ambition but certainly in direction, Annie is lured into the family business—a private investigation firm—by her supposed-to-be-retired grandfather, Leroy, despite the rest of the clan’s misgivings. When a waitress at the café goes missing, Annie and Leroy begin an investigation that leads them down rural routes and haunted byways, to noxious-smelling oil fields and to the glowing neon of local honky-tonks. As Annie works to uncover the truth she finds herself identifying with the victim in increasing, unsettling ways, and realizes she must confront her own past—failed romances, a disturbing experience she’d rather forget, and the trick mirror of nostalgia itself—if she wants to survive this homecoming.

Pay Dirt

Pay Dirt
Author: James P. Quirk
Publisher: Princeton University Press
Total Pages: 583
Release: 2018-06-05
Genre: Sports & Recreation
ISBN: 0691187940

Why would a Japanese millionaire want to buy the Seattle Mariners baseball team, when he has admitted that he has never played in or even seen a baseball game? Cash is the answer: major league baseball, like professional football, basketball, and hockey, is now big business with the potential to bring millions of dollars in profits to owners. Not very long ago, however, buying a sports franchise was a hazardous investment risked only by die-hard fans wealthy enough to lose parts of fortunes made in other businesses. What forces have changed team ownership from sports-fan folly to big-business savvy? Why has The Wall Street Journal become popular reading in pro sports locker rooms? And why are sports pages now dominated by economic clashes between owners and players, cities with franchises and cities without them, leagues and players' unions, and team lawyers and players' lawyers? In answering these questions, James Quirk and Rodney Fort have written the most complete book on the business and economics of professional sports, past and present. Pay Dirt offers a wealth of information and analysis on the reserve clause, salary determination, competitive balance in sports leagues, the market for franchises, tax sheltering, arenas and stadiums, and rival leagues. The authors present an abundance of historical material, much of it new, including team ownership histories and data on attendance, TV revenue, stadium and arena contracts, and revenues and costs. League histories, team statistics, stories about players and owners, and sports lore of all kinds embellish the work. Quirk and Fort are writing for anyone interested in sports in the 1990s: players, players' agents, general managers, sportswriters, and, most of all, sports fans.

Pay Dirt

Pay Dirt
Author: Richard Herzog
Publisher:
Total Pages: 210
Release: 2021-10
Genre:
ISBN: 9781636924007

"I will always love you. I will never leave you..." Richard Herzog heard those sweet words from his high school teacher just three months after his sixteenth birthday. Love and security were two missing pieces of his childhood, and Richard wanted and needed them more than anything. But those words would haunt him for nearly forty years. Raised in the "City that Care Forgot," and in an environment which taught less than it cared, Richard spent his formative years helping and supporting others-friends, neighbors, and an English teacher. After a student placed a condom box on the teacher's desk, Richard felt compelled to help her. He was an ordinary freshman attempting an extraordinary feat, but she was no ordinary person. A former college homecoming queen, she was smart, beautiful, and had a passion for literature-and one student. She had taken her marriage vows, her degree, and her knowledge to an all-male Catholic school located one mile south of the Mississippi River, where the Big Muddy runs west until it bends north into the setting sun. What began as platonic progressed into a period in which she weaved him into a web of sex, lies, and broken promises. After she had ended the relationship, Richard spiraled down a destructive path, until he crossed the bridge onto the road of twelve-step recovery. Honest, painful, and often funny, Pay Dirt is a beautifully written memoir that tells a story of lost innocence, sexual abuse, addiction, perseverance, and ultimately redemption.

The Road

The Road
Author: Cormac McCarthy
Publisher: Vintage
Total Pages: 257
Release: 2007-03-20
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 0307267458

WINNER OF THE PULITZER PRIZE • NATIONAL BESTSELLER • A searing, post-apocalyptic novel about a father and son's fight to survive, this "tale of survival and the miracle of goodness only adds to McCarthy's stature as a living master. It's gripping, frightening and, ultimately, beautiful" (San Francisco Chronicle). • From the bestselling author of The Passenger A father and his son walk alone through burned America. Nothing moves in the ravaged landscape save the ash on the wind. It is cold enough to crack stones, and when the snow falls it is gray. The sky is dark. Their destination is the coast, although they don't know what, if anything, awaits them there. They have nothing; just a pistol to defend themselves against the lawless bands that stalk the road, the clothes they are wearing, a cart of scavenged food—and each other. The Road is the profoundly moving story of a journey. It boldly imagines a future in which no hope remains, but in which the father and his son, "each the other's world entire," are sustained by love. Awesome in the totality of its vision, it is an unflinching meditation on the worst and the best that we are capable of: ultimate destructiveness, desperate tenacity, and the tenderness that keeps two people alive in the face of total devastation. Look for Cormac McCarthy's latest bestselling novels, The Passenger and Stella Maris.

Car Country

Car Country
Author: Christopher W. Wells
Publisher: University of Washington Press
Total Pages: 465
Release: 2013-05-15
Genre: Transportation
ISBN: 0295804475

For most people in the United States, going almost anywhere begins with reaching for the car keys. This is true, Christopher Wells argues, because the United States is Car Country—a nation dominated by landscapes that are difficult, inconvenient, and often unsafe to navigate by those who are not sitting behind the wheel of a car. The prevalence of car-dependent landscapes seems perfectly natural to us today, but it is, in fact, a relatively new historical development. In Car Country, Wells rejects the idea that the nation's automotive status quo can be explained as a simple byproduct of an ardent love affair with the automobile. Instead, he takes readers on a tour of the evolving American landscape, charting the ways that transportation policies and land-use practices have combined to reshape nearly every element of the built environment around the easy movement of automobiles. Wells untangles the complicated relationships between automobiles and the environment, allowing readers to see the everyday world in a completely new way. The result is a history that is essential for understanding American transportation and land-use issues today. Watch the book trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=48LTKOxxrXQ

Paydirt

Paydirt
Author: Garry Disher
Publisher:
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2023-12
Genre: Australian fiction
ISBN: 9781761281143

Wyatt is back. This time it's a payroll run in an outpost town transformed by a pipeline construction project that brings petty crime, prostitution-and opportunity. It's a town with secrets and Wyatt isn't quick to trust at the best of times. But he's on the run and can't afford to be choosy. First published in 1992, Paydirt is bestselling author Garry Disher's second Wyatt novel. There are currently nine books in the series and the first four are part of the Untapped Collection.

Dirt Road Revival

Dirt Road Revival
Author: Chloe Maxmin
Publisher: Beacon Press
Total Pages: 202
Release: 2022-05-10
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 080700751X

The Democratic Party left rural America behind. This urgent rallying cry shows how Democrats can win back and empower overlooked communities that have been pushing politics to the right—and why long-term progressive political power depends on it. Through 2 successful elections in rural red districts that few thought could be won by a Democrat, twentysomethings Maine state senator Chloe Maxmin (D-District 13) and campaign manager Canyon Woodward saw how the Democratic Party has focused for too long on the interests of elite leaders and big donors, forcing the party to abandon the concerns of rural America—jeopardizing climate justice, racial equity, economic justice, and more. Dirt Road Revival looks at how we got here and lays out a road map for progressive campaigns in rural America to build an inclusive, robust, grassroots politics that fights for equity and justice across our country. First, Maxmin and Woodward detail how rural America has been left behind. They explore rural healthcare, economic struggle, brain drain, aging communities, whiteness and racism, education access, broadband, Big Agriculture, and more. Drawing on their own experiences, they paint a picture of rural America today and pinpoint the strategic failures of Democrats that have caused the party to lose its rural foothold. Next, they tell the story of their successful campaigns in the most rural county in the most rural state in the nation. In 2018, Maxmin became the only Democrat to ever win Maine House District 88 and then unseated the highest-ranking Republican in Maine —the Senate Minority Leader—in 2020, making her the youngest woman senator in Maine’s history. Finally, Maxmin and Woodward distill their experiences into concrete lessons that can be applied to rural districts across the country to build power from the state and local levels on up. They lay out a new long-term vision for Democrats to rebuild trust and win campaigns in rural America by translating progressive values to a rural context, moving beyond the failed strategies of establishment consultants and utilizing grassroots-movement organizing strategies to effectively engage moderate rural voters.

The Only Road

The Only Road
Author: Alexandra Diaz
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
Total Pages: 224
Release: 2016-10-04
Genre: Juvenile Fiction
ISBN: 1481457527

PURA BELPRÉ HONOR BOOK ALA NOTABLE BOOK “An important, must-have addition to the growing body of literature with immigrant themes.” —School Library Journal (starred review) Twelve-year-old Jaime makes the treacherous and life-changing journey from his home in Guatemala to live with his older brother in the United States in this “powerful and timely” (Booklist, starred review) middle grade novel. Jaime is sitting on his bed drawing when he hears a scream. Instantly, he knows: Miguel, his cousin and best friend, is dead. Everyone in Jaime’s small town in Guatemala knows someone who has been killed by the Alphas, a powerful gang that’s known for violence and drug trafficking. Anyone who refuses to work for them is hurt or killed—like Miguel. With Miguel gone, Jaime fears that he is next. There’s only one choice: accompanied by his cousin Ángela, Jaime must flee his home to live with his older brother in New Mexico. Inspired by true events, The Only Road is an individual story of a boy who feels that leaving his home and risking everything is his only chance for a better life. The story is “told with heartbreaking honesty,” Booklist raved, and “will bring readers face to face with the harsh realities immigrants go through in the hope of finding a better, safer life, and it will likely cause them to reflect on what it means to be human.”

The Minotaur Sampler, Volume 4

The Minotaur Sampler, Volume 4
Author: Stacy Willingham
Publisher: Minotaur Books
Total Pages: 214
Release: 2021-09-28
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 1250840953

Looking for a new book that will make your heart race? The fourth edition of The Minotaur Sampler compiles the beginnings of six can't-miss novels--either standalone or first in series--publishing Winter 2022 for free for easy sampling. Standalone: From debut author Stacy Willingham comes a masterfully done, lyrical thriller that is certain to be the launch of an amazing career. A Flicker in the Dark is eerily compelling to the very last page. Standalone: From the author of Every Last Fear comes a breakneck new thriller about a pair of small-town murders fifteen years apart, and the one man whose life is inexplicably linked to both. Alex Finlay returns with The Night Shift. First in Series: Multiple award-winning author Gigi Pandian introduces her newest heroine in Under Lock & Skeleton Key, where Tempest Raj returns home to work at her father’s Secret Staircase Construction Company. Standalone: A heart-thumping novel that will shake you to your core, The Resting Place is a masterful novel of suspense and horror from international star Camilla Sten. Standalone: Extraordinarily tense and deliciously mysterious, Anna Downes’s The Shadow House follows one woman desperate to protect her children at any cost in a remote village retreat where not everything is as it seems. . . First in Series: Friday Night Lights meets Mare of Easttown in this small-town mystery about an unlikely private investigator searching for a missing waitress. Pay Dirt Road is the mesmerizing debut from the 2019 Tony Hillerman Prize recipient Samantha Jayne Allen.

Bitter In The Mouth

Bitter In The Mouth
Author: Monique Truong
Publisher: Random House
Total Pages: 306
Release: 2012-04-30
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 1446499138

Growing up in Boiling Springs, North Carolina, in the '70s and '80s, Linda Hammerick knows that she is different. She has strong, almost paralysing associations between words and tastes; she doesn't look like everyone else; and she isn't popular at school. She finds her way through life with the help of her great uncle 'Baby' Harper, who loves her and loves to dance, and her best friend fat-thin-fat Kelly with whom she has been exchanging letters since they were seven. But then a tragedy and a revelation will make her question everything she thought she knew about herself and her family.