Slender Fantasies

Slender Fantasies
Author: Richard Hicks
Publisher: Xlibris Corporation
Total Pages: 462
Release: 2001-03-07
Genre: Humor
ISBN: 1453582665

Meet Ralph Plotkin—a Los Angeles lawyer whose career has gone into the tank. A recovering compulsive gambler who has stolen from his client's trust fund, Ralph is under investigation by the State Bar, and owes money to a Korean Mafia loan-shark. Reduced to crashing posh Hollywood parties to forage for food, Ralph is about to skip out to Mexico, when he encounters Iris Labelle, a wannabe actress and resigned anorexic and bulimic, who suggests that maybe her eating disorder stems from her childhood doll. The Bobbie Doll. Not to be confused with Barbie, this child-like androgynous doll (who sometimes wears a nose-ring and tattoo) is flat-chested and Twiggy-thin—just like Iris. Enter Charlie Kim—a Swarthmore grad posing as the head of the Korean Mafia who wants to be the next Steven Spielberg—and his cleaver wielding cousin, Genghis. When they threaten to make kimchi out of Ralph's index fingers, Ralph promises payment from the proceeds of a lawsuit against the manufacturer of the Bobbie Doll. It seems the doll suffered from a design defect—it was unnaturally thin—which caused young women to suffer from anorexia and bulimia. "A sure winner. We're suing for millions," says Ralph. Readers who join Ralph in his efforts to promote a nuisance suit into a nationwide class action, will encounter intrigue, conspiracy, agents and double-agents, and a bizarre cast of malady-ridden characters that include a militant woman's movement, a knuckle-cracking, megalomaniac defense attorney, the octogenarian, hypochondriac Chairman of a Korean conglomerate and his shaman priestess, a forensic psychiatrist suffering from agoraphobia, and thousands of emaciated young women who started out life with the Bobbie Doll—the doll of the Eighties and Nineties. Slender Fantasies is a fast paced satire of the legal profession, that will keep you turning pages until the final plot-twisting denouement, when Ralph, facing insurmountable odds, stands alone in a David and Goliath courtroom confrontation to prove that playing with dolls—at least the Bobbie Doll—-really can be dangerous to a young girl's health.

Body Work

Body Work
Author: Sylvia K. Blood
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 164
Release: 2004-03-01
Genre: Psychology
ISBN: 1134483597

Are scientific 'facts' about body image enough to define conceptions of normality? Reassessing Experimental Psychology from a critical perspective, Sylvia Blood demonstrates how its research into Body Image can be misused and prone to misuse. Classifying women who experience distress and anxiety with food, eating and body size as suffering 'body image disturbance' or 'body image dissatisfaction', it can reproduce dominant assumptions about language, meaning and subjectivity. Experimental psychology's discourse about body image has recently become more widely influential, becoming popularised through domains such as women’s magazines, in which psychological experts provide 'facts' about women's 'body image problems', and offer advice and psychological treatments. With acute cross-disciplinary awareness Body Work: The Social Construction of Women's Body Image exposes the assumptions at work in the methods and status of experimental approaches. Penetrating beyond the usual dichotomy between experimental and popular psychology, this book illuminates some of the ways in which women's magazines have embraced experimental psychology's treatment of the issue. Drawing on her experience in Clinical Psychology, Sylvia Blood highlights the damaging effects of uncritically experimental views of body image. She goes on to elaborate not only an alternative model of discursive construction but also the implications of such a theory for clinical practice. Merging theory and clinical experience, Sylvia Blood exposes the fallacies about women’s bodies that underpin experimental psychology's body image research. She demonstrates the dangerous consequences of these fallacies being accepted as truths in popular texts and in the talk of 'everyday' women.

Heroic Fantasy Short Stories

Heroic Fantasy Short Stories
Author:
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
Total Pages: 464
Release: 2018-12-15
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 1787552454

New authors and collections. Somewhere between epic historical fantasy, sword and sorcery and Tolkien-esque fantasy exists a thick vein of storytelling that would make Robert E Howard and H.G. Wells proud. Following the great success of our Gothic Fantasy, deluxe edition short story compilations, Ghosts, Horror, Science Fiction, Murder Mayhem and Crime & Mystery we present a compilation of savage swordplay, and high magic, of daring deeds and gaudy battles, in a blazing mix of classic and brand new writing, with authors from the US, Canada, and the UK. New, contemporary and notable writers featured are: Susan Murrie Macdonald, Beth Dawkins, Kate O'Connor, Voss Foster, Joanna Michal Hoyt, Lauren C. Teffeau, A. Creg Peters, Alexandra Renwick, Amy Power Jansen, Tony Pi, Therese Arkenberg , David Busboom, Erin Gitchell, M. Elizabeth Ticknor, Zach Chapman, and Michael Haynes. These appear alongside classic stories by authors such as Homer, John Buchan, A. Merritt, William Morris, and Clark Ashton Smith.

The Darkbow Collection - Six Epic Fantasy Novels

The Darkbow Collection - Six Epic Fantasy Novels
Author: Ty Johnston
Publisher: Ty Johnston
Total Pages: 2191
Release: 2014-11-18
Genre: Fiction
ISBN:

This specially-priced set collects the first six novels in the Kron Darkbow series of The Ursian Chronicles. CITY OF ROGUES: Book I of The Kobalos Trilogy Kron Darkbow seeks vengeance, and he plans to have it no matter the costs. Returning to the city of his birth after 15 years, he hunts down the wizard responsible for the deaths of those he loved only to find out another was responsible for the murders. That other is Belgad the Liar, a former barbarian chieftain who is now boss of the city's underworld. ROAD TO WRATH: Book II of The Kobalos Trilogy Kron Darkbow has fled the city of Bond, along with healer mage Randall Tendbones and professional duelist Adara Corvus. Everywhere they turn are enemies. Even the goal of their travels offers no peace, for the group rides to the land of Kobalos where Randall must face that nation’s Lord Verkain, the alleged Dark King of the North. DARK KING OF THE NORTH: Book III of The Kobalos Trilogy Kron Darkbow and companions have survived the mean streets of the city of Bond and the dangers of the Prison Lands, but now they dare to journey into Kobalos, a dark northern land ruled by King Verkain, a powerful mage rumored to be immortal and mad. Always on their trail is underworld crime boss Belgad the Liar and his crew of deadly killers. Not only does Belgad seek vengeance against Kron, but he also wants to capture Kron's friend, the healer Randall Tendbones, the last of Verkain's children whom the king wants dead. It is in Kobalos, in the darkest of hours, alone with enemies all around, Darkbow becomes the last hope for all. But to defeat his foes, first he must learn to defeat his own rage. GHOSTS OF THE ASYLUM: Book I of The Horrors of Bond Trilogy The streets of the city of Bond boil with discontent. Political struggles within a power vacuum bring dreams of dominance to some among the lower levels of the city’s underbelly. Common thugs and guild bosses alike conspire together, their goal to eliminate the figure of Kron Darkbow. Permanently. Kron has become a symbol on the streets, and his removal would not only clear the way for others, but also would be a sign of who has the real power in Bond. Amidst the chaos, buildings burn, riots go nearly unchecked, and even the city guard find themselves forced to retreat. DEMON CHAINS: Book II of The Horrors of Bond Trilogy A sick murderer stalks the streets of the city of Bond. The killer leaves behind tortured and twisted bodies sliced and ripped apart, often after the most horrible of violations. It falls upon Kron Darkbow to hunt this killer preying upon the weak and the strong alike, but he soon realizes there is more than one culprit involved in these horrible crimes. A dark mage and his demon partner are at fault, and with each death they grow more and more powerful. THE COMPANY OF SEVEN: Book III of The Horrors of Bond Trilogy An undead mage thousands of years old slinks through the city of Bond. Rising up from beneath the soil, he soon finds himself allied with escaped fugitives from the Prisonlands, a former knight, a pair of assassins and the chief of thieves. Each has their own wants, their own goals, but the wizard's are the most deadly to the citizens of Bond, and he refuses to be denied his destiny. Spotting healer and wizard Randall Tendbones as a threat, a plan is soon hatched to remove him permenantly, but swordsman Kron Darkbow might have something to say about that. But Tendbones is only the beginning, for the murder of thousands is in the works, and unless Kron can put a stop to the terrors stalking Bond, the devastation will reach across all levels of the city and beyond. epic, fantasy, sale, deal, trilogy, swords, sorcery, magic, heroic, dark

Whistleblower

Whistleblower
Author: Richard Hicks
Publisher: Xlibris Corporation
Total Pages: 276
Release: 2007-06-25
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 1453506691

Mike Stratton, a disbarred attorney, recently released from a federal prison, wakes up in jail in Cardiff-by-the-Sea, California, his boyhood hometown, suffering from amnesia and charged with the rape and murder of Diane Lawson. Her half-naked body was found in his Winnebago, parked at a local campground. Stratton is found next to her; unconscious, and with a head and hand injury—his blood alcohol level off the scale. Stratton ́s last memory is arriving unannounced at his Encino home, where he discovered his wife, Shiela, playing house with Gordon Heller—his best friend, former law partner, and a co-participant in the insider-trading scheme that sent Stratton to prison. When C. J. Hagerty, the feisty and eccentric female attorney appointed to defend Stratton, wins a bail hearing, Stratton sets out to discover if he, or someone else, killed Diane Lawson. Her twin sister, Laura, stood to inherit a sizable estate. Her ex-husband, whom she dumped, was still in love with her. And then there is her boss, Martin Kolb, President and CEO of Quella Industries, a high-flying local defense contractor, who Diane threatened with a "whistleblower” lawsuit. Set against the background of colorful San Diego, and filled with surprises, this intelligent, tightly-crafted murder mystery and courtroom drama, will leave readers hanging on until the final plot-twisting denouement.

When Women Stop Hating Their Bodies

When Women Stop Hating Their Bodies
Author: Jane R. Hirschmann
Publisher: Ballantine Books
Total Pages: 383
Release: 2010-12-22
Genre: Self-Help
ISBN: 0307761967

“Will empower all women to stop believing that our bodies are the problems, dieting the solution.”—Harriet Lerner, Ph.D., author of The Dance of Anger In this revolutionary new book, bestselling authors Carol Munter and Jane Hirschmann explore the myriad reasons why women cling to diets despite overwhelming evidence that diets don’t work. In fact, diets turn us into compulsive eaters obsessed with food and weight. Munter and Hirschmann call this syndrome “Bad Body Fever” and demonstrate how “bad body thoughts” are clues to our emotional lives. They explore the difficulties women encounter replacing dieting with demand feeding. And finally, they teach us how to think about our problems rather than eat about them—so that food can resume its proper place in our lives. “Many women will find in these pages exactly what they need: determined, optimistic, and resourceful coaches, pausing at the right moments to acknowledge the difficulty of change, then passionately urging them to press on.”—Susan C. Wooley, Ph.D., Professor of Psychology, Codirector, Eating Disorder Center University of Cincinnati Medical Center

Fantasy Fictions from the Bengal Renaissance

Fantasy Fictions from the Bengal Renaissance
Author: Abanindranath Tagore
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Total Pages: 392
Release: 2018-06-09
Genre: Literary Criticism
ISBN: 0199092176

Fantasy Fictions from the Bengal Renaissance presents two masterpieces of Bengali literature by Rabindranath Tagore’s nephews, Abanindranath Tagore and Gaganendranath Tagore. The Make-Believe Prince is the delightful story of a king, his two wives, a trickster monkey, a witch, and a helper from another world who is not a ‘fairy godmother’. Abanindranath deploys traditional children’s rhymes and paints exquisite word-pictures in his original rendering of a tale which has its roots in Bengali folktale materials in various genres. Toddy-Cat the Bold sees a group of brave comrades seek help from a young boy to rescue the son of their leader from the Two-Faced Rakshasa of the forest. Here, a more numinous supernatural helper appears. Inspired by Lewis Carroll’s Alice books, it presents a comic, exciting, and mysterious journey quite unlike Carroll’s, with many traditional local touches and an unexpected ending.

The Fantasy Collection of Robert E. Howard

The Fantasy Collection of Robert E. Howard
Author: Robert E. Howard
Publisher: Good Press
Total Pages: 1971
Release: 2023-12-30
Genre: Fiction
ISBN:

The Fantasy Collection of Robert E. Howard is a compilation of some of the most iconic works by the renowned author. Howard is widely regarded as the father of the sword and sorcery genre, and this collection showcases his masterful storytelling skills and vivid imagination. Filled with action-packed adventures, mythical creatures, and dark magic, this book immerses readers in a fantastical world unlike any other. Howard's writing style is characterized by its fast-paced narrative and vivid descriptions, drawing readers into a world of heroes and villains battling for supremacy. The literary context of the collection highlights Howard's influence on modern fantasy writers, making this a must-read for fans of the genre. Robert E. Howard's life experiences, love for history, and interest in mythology greatly influenced his writing. His exploration of ancient civilizations and folklore is evident in the depth of his world-building and character development. As a prolific writer, Howard's dedication to his craft shines through in the fantastical worlds he creates, leaving a lasting impact on the genre. I highly recommend The Fantasy Collection of Robert E. Howard to readers who enjoy epic tales of bravery, magic, and adventure. Howard's timeless stories continue to captivate audiences with their enduring themes of heroism and struggle against evil, making this collection a true classic in the realm of fantasy literature.

Classic Tales of Science Fiction & Fantasy

Classic Tales of Science Fiction & Fantasy
Author: Jules Verne
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
Total Pages: 1483
Release: 2016-10-01
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 1626868190

Blast off into the unknown with this collection of ten classical works of science fiction and fantasy. Long before we ventured into outer space or explored the most remote regions of the planet, writers have spun stories of what might lie in those unknown worlds, or what awaits humanity in the future. Classic Tales of Science Fiction & Fantasy is a collection of ten novels and short stories that blazed the trail for the popular genre. Works by acclaimed authors such as Jules Verne, H. G. Wells, Edgar Rice Burroughs, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Jack London, and H. P. Lovecraft will transport the reader to distant places and times—and set the imagination ablaze!

MURRAY LEINSTER: The Ultimate Sci-Fi & Fantasy Collection (45 Titles in One Edition)

MURRAY LEINSTER: The Ultimate Sci-Fi & Fantasy Collection (45 Titles in One Edition)
Author: Murray Leinster
Publisher: Good Press
Total Pages: 2924
Release: 2023-11-18
Genre: Fiction
ISBN:

Murray Leinster's 'The Ultimate Sci-Fi & Fantasy Collection' presents a comprehensive anthology of 45 titles showcasing the author's versatility in the realm of speculative fiction. From imaginative space operas to thought-provoking alternate timelines, Leinster's writing resonates with readers through his intricate world-building and engaging plots. His ability to blend science fiction and fantasy elements seamlessly adds depth and complexity to his narratives, making this collection a must-have for fans of the genre. Leinster's distinct literary style, characterized by his vivid imagery and captivating storytelling, solidifies his place as a pioneering figure in the golden age of science fiction literature. Each title in this collection offers a unique perspective on futuristic societies, alien encounters, and technological advancements, making it a fascinating and enriching read for any sci-fi enthusiast. Murray Leinster's timeless works continue to inspire and captivate readers, cementing his legacy as a prominent voice in speculative fiction.