The Dark Playground

The Dark Playground
Author: Duane Barton
Publisher: America Star Books
Total Pages: 272
Release: 2009-03
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 9781608367559

Imagine a playground in the daytime. Usually there are children playing, laughing, and having fun. Maybe families are having picnics or are just spending quality time together. Everyone is happy. Now picture that same playground at night. Itas like a whole different place. Itas the same playground, except now that some darkness is added, it becomes foreboding and maybe even scary. With almost anything in life, if even a little darkness is added, the same holds true. These thirteen stories demonstrate just how scary things can be when darkness in different forms is added to the most normal of things, and also how quickly things can turn for the worst and be totally unexpected when you think you have everything figured out.

Solving the Procrastination Puzzle

Solving the Procrastination Puzzle
Author: Timothy A. Pychyl
Publisher: TarcherPerigee
Total Pages: 130
Release: 2013-12-26
Genre: Self-Help
ISBN: 0399168125

"Previously published as The Procrastinator's Digest in Canada by Howling Pines Publishers in 2010."

Sinners' Playground

Sinners' Playground
Author: Caroline Peckham
Publisher:
Total Pages: 608
Release: 2022-01-25
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 9781914425110

I hate the Harlequin boys. Fox, JJ, Chase and Maverick. The four names tattooed onto my heart more permanently than the ink on my skin. Once upon a time, they broke my heart, stole my life and sent me away from everything I'd ever known. But they don't just live in this town anymore, they rule it. And the view here may be beautiful, but the sun, sea and sand hide dark secrets. The gangs. The lies. The violence. It all lurks beneath a veil so thin that once you've seen through it, you can never close your eyes to the truth again. But I don't plan on closing my eyes. I have four devils set in my sights. And this dead girl no longer has anything to lose.

Satan's Playground

Satan's Playground
Author: Paul J Vanderwood
Publisher: Duke University Press
Total Pages: 410
Release: 2010-04-09
Genre: History
ISBN: 082239166X

Satan’s Playground chronicles the rise and fall of the tumultuous and lucrative gambling industry that developed just south of the U.S.-Mexico border in the early twentieth century. As prohibitions against liquor, horse racing, gambling, and prostitution swept the United States, the vice industry flourished in and around Tijuana, to the extent that reformers came to call the town “Satan’s Playground,” unintentionally increasing its licentious allure. The area was dominated by Agua Caliente, a large, elegant gaming resort opened by four entrepreneurial Border Barons (three Americans and one Mexican) in 1928. Diplomats, royalty, film stars, sports celebrities, politicians, patricians, and nouveau-riche capitalists flocked to Agua Caliente’s luxurious complex of casinos, hotels, cabarets, and sports extravaganzas, and to its world-renowned thoroughbred racetrack. Clark Gable, Jean Harlow, Louis B. Mayer, the Marx Brothers, Bing Crosby, Charlie Chaplin, Gloria Swanson, and the boxer Jack Dempsey were among the regular visitors. So were mobsters such as Bugsy Siegel, who later cited Agua Caliente as his inspiration for building the first such resort on what became the Las Vegas Strip. Less than a year after Agua Caliente opened, gangsters held up its money-car in transit to a bank in San Diego, killing the courier and a guard and stealing the company money pouch. Paul J. Vanderwood weaves the story of this heist gone wrong, the search for the killers, and their sensational trial into the overall history of the often-chaotic development of Agua Caliente, Tijuana, and Southern California. Drawing on newspaper accounts, police files, court records, personal memoirs, oral histories, and “true detective” magazines, he presents a fascinating portrait of vice and society in the Jazz Age, and he makes a significant contribution to the history of the U.S.-Mexico border.

Tell Me: A Dark Mafia Romance

Tell Me: A Dark Mafia Romance
Author: Quinn Marlowe
Publisher: Spitfire Press
Total Pages: 123
Release: 2024-06-25
Genre: Fiction
ISBN:

Everyone thought they knew who I was. Well. They thought they had an idea. The truth is, they don’t have a clue, and I’ve worked very hard to keep it that way. My past, my connections, my true identity… Those are all things that belong to me, and me alone. Because if they knew who I actually was, everything would change. And I’ve never been willing to let that happen. But when my adopted families, the Rossis and Brennans, find themselves in an impossible situation, at war with an unidentified stranger who has an unknown number of men, things get serious quickly. The Rossis and Brennans are outnumbered, outgunned, and in trouble, and for the first time in my memory, the Rossi brothers don’t know how to get out of a sticky situation. Quick thinking and luck aren’t going to save them when they’re outmanned. Charm isn’t going to give them the salvation they need. Because they need an army. And they don’t have one. I, however… Well, I do. If I take the chance of going home. If I face not only my father, but also my family and the man I was supposed to marry, but ran out on. Lucien Boudreaux is just as charming as the Rossis and twice as dangerous. He took my virginity. He stole my heart and then broke it. So I broke his right back. And now I’m going back to New Orleans to see whether he’s forgiven me yet. Because the Rossis need me. And when it comes to the Rossis, I’ll do anything it takes to save them. Even if it means facing my past, and the man who might still have a tight enough hold on my heart to change my life. Tell Me is the second in the New York Rogues: Brooks Peterson series, and is a spicy, spooky, suspenseful story full of guns, intrigue, and lost-but-not-forgotten loves who come back to haunt you. This story takes place on the same time as Her Master, the last in the Rossi series.

Effortless

Effortless
Author: Greg McKeown
Publisher: Currency
Total Pages: 274
Release: 2021-04-27
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 0593135644

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • A Times (UK) Best Book of the Year • From the author of the million-copy-selling Essentialism comes an empowering guide to achieving your goals. It all starts with a simple principle: Not everything has to be so hard. “In a world beset by burnout, Greg McKeown’s work is essential.”—Daniel H. Pink, author of When, Drive, and To Sell Is Human “At a time when fear, uncertainty, and our ever-growing list of responsibilities have come to feel like much too much to handle, Effortless couldn’t be timelier, or more necessary.”—Eve Rodsky, author of Fair Play Do you ever feel like: • You’re teetering right on the edge of burnout? • You want to make a higher contribution, but lack the energy? • You’re running faster but not moving closer to your goals? • Everything is so much harder than it used to be? As high achievers, we’ve been conditioned to believe that the path to success is paved with relentless work. That if we want to overachieve, we have to overexert, overthink, and overdo. That if we aren’t perpetually exhausted, we’re not doing enough. But lately, working hard is more exhausting than ever. And the more depleted we get, the more effort it takes to make progress. Stuck in an endless loop of “Zoom, eat, sleep, repeat,” we’re often working twice as hard to achieve half as much. Getting ahead doesn’t have to be as hard as we make it. No matter what challenges or obstacles we face, there is a better way: instead of pushing ourselves harder, we can find an easier path. Effortless offers actionable advice for making the most essential activities the easiest ones, so you can achieve the results you want, without burning out. Effortless teaches you how to: • Turn tedious tasks into enjoyable rituals • Prevent frustration by solving problems before they arise • Set a sustainable pace instead of powering through • Make one-time choices that eliminate many future decisions • Simplify your processes by removing unnecessary steps • Make relationships easier to maintain and manage • And much more The effortless way isn't the lazy way. It's the smart way. It may even be the only way. Not every hard thing in life can be made easy. But we can make it easier to do more of what matters most.

Dr. Fell and the Playground of Doom

Dr. Fell and the Playground of Doom
Author: David Neilsen
Publisher: Yearling
Total Pages: 258
Release: 2017-08
Genre: Juvenile Fiction
ISBN: 1101935812

Jerry, Nancy, and Gail seek answers for the mysterious injuries occurring on Dr. Fell's new neighborhood playground that seem to heal as if by magic.

What Would Freud Do?

What Would Freud Do?
Author: Sarah Tomley
Publisher: Cassell
Total Pages: 335
Release: 2017-06-01
Genre: Psychology
ISBN: 1844039668

What Would Freud Do? uses the key ideas of more than 80 psychological thinkers, past and present, to shine new light onto today's everyday problems. Ever wondered what a great therapist like Freud or Jung would have to say about your horrible boss, your phone-checking addiction or an occasional wish to cheat on your partner? Ever wished someone would explain why you sometimes act like an idiot just when you want to look good, or generally keep doing things you don't really want to do? From Erich Fromm on how to find Mr/Mrs Right, to Jaak Panksepp on road rage and Magda Arnold on how to deal with 'banter', these theorists have intriuging suggestions for ways to see and do things differently. Divided into five sections, including 'What am I like?', and 'Why am I acting like this?', other questions include: -'My family's a nightmare -- shall I cut them off?' -'Is my partner lying to me?' -'Why do I keep buying the same brand all the time?' -'How can I stop people unfriending me on social media?' -'Why do I lie when she says "Does my bum look big in this?"' With Sarah Tomley's enlightening commentary throughout, this book provides the answers to the most deep and meaningful (or, indeed, shallow and meaningless) questions that you have ever pondered. A pocket guide to facing the hurdles and obstacles of life, with the advice of all the greatest psychologists at your fingertips.

Serotonia

Serotonia
Author: Bret Harvey
Publisher: iUniverse
Total Pages: 121
Release: 2008-03
Genre: Body, Mind & Spirit
ISBN: 0595447333

In the dreams of Bret Harvey, a huge orange fireball has destroyed much of the landscape. It is a desert now, lifeless and filled with broken houses. Food is scarce. To see a human is rare. The Dark Ones, with their childlike voices and fingers like long knives, are constantly pursuing Harvey. Welcome to Serotonia, the very unpleasant world where Harvey's dreams take place. It's a world created by the use of selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) to help Harvey cope with his depression, anxiety, and post-traumatic stress disorder. The side effects of the drug cast a spell on his subconscious, creating a sequence of chilling dreams, which he retells in Serotonia. The dreams expose some of the most raw and haunting parts of his psyche. In succession, the dreams tell the story of what is wrong in his life and how Harvey must face it. He returns to Serotonia each night, trying to discover what the Dark Ones really want. Serotonia leads him through a rabbit hole of terror while he tries to find the sense of peace that we all search for and learns how to cope with the darker side of himself.