Blind Shuffle

An ex-magician-turned-amateur-detective hunts for a missing pregnant woman in this tale of New Orleans noir . . . Rusty Diamond abandoned the Crescent City years ago to pursue fame in Las Vegas, leaving Marceline Lavalle with a broken heart. Now Rusty has finally come back to New Orleans—but no one has seen Marceline for days. Five months pregnant, Marceline’s vanished without a trace, and her estranged boyfriend, a casino boss with criminal ties and a hair-trigger temper, claims no knowledge of her whereabouts. With the police not yet ready to declare foul play, Rusty launches his own investigation. The search for Marceline will take Rusty into dark corners far from the neon lights of Bourbon Street, where enormous profit can be made from human misery and desperate people hunt on the fringes. The journey will force him to confront the mistakes of his past, and offer him a shot at redemption—if he doesn’t wind up at the bottom of a bayou first . . . “I wanted to take a bite out of Blind Shuffle before breakfast but ended up reading straight through lunch. I finished it on a plane to Tijuana. This was my first Rusty Diamond novel . . . it won’t be my last. Dig in.” —Patrick Hasburgh, creator of 21 Jump Street

DIVThe one essential guidebook to attaining the highest level of card mastery, from false shuffling and card palming to dealing from the bottom and three-card monte, plus 14 dazzling card tricks. /div

This unusual book, containing an impressive variety of sleight of hand magic tricks, is sure to delight young and old alike and is the perfect introduction to magic of this type. Its 88 pages contain a wealth of anecdote on a variety of tricks and stunts that are guaranteed to liven up your dinner party. Thoroughly recommended reading for the budding magician. Extensively illustrated with black and white drawings and explanatory diagrams This book contains classic material dating back to the 1900s and before. The content has been carefully selected for its interest and relevance to a modern audience.

The assassination of the archduke of Austria-Hungary in 1914 triggered more than a monstrous war; it set off a revolution so violent that it reshaped the thoughts and affairs of mankind, perhaps for all time. Marshall's book is a clear one-volume history of the war to end all wars.

Number of Exhibits: 1 Received document entitled: REQUEST FOR AUGMENTATION OF RECORD BY AMICUS CURIAE THE CITY OF GARDENA IN SUPPORT OF PETITION FOR REHEARSING

Nearly 100 activities which can be used in school or in other settings to help preteens and teens deal with a variety of issues, including self-esteem, peer pressure, bullies, anger, and stress.

An exploration of the world of magic that teaches the reader many tricks--including how better to understand the real world. Alex Stone--journalist and part-time conjurer--is here to amaze you. But first he had to amaze his fellow magicians. Fooling Houdini is his fascinating, revealing, and nailbiting account of his attempt to win the 23rd World Championships of Magic, the "Magic Olympics," the largest and most prestigious competition of its kind. Alex Stone managed to qualify for entry and began preparing to astonish people who astonish others for a living. It didn't help his nerves that he was placed on the bill straight after Canadian magician Shawn Farquhar, winner of more magic competitions than anyone in history. Stone's preparations and participation provide his readers with in-depth exploration of the world of magic, and magic's meaning. He spills many professional secrets, arguing that what is important is to ask questions about what lies behind the tricks: how the mind perceives the world and parses everyday experience, about how the mind works--and why sometimes it doesn't, about why people need to believe. As we become more attuned to the limits of our own perception, we become better at distinguishing reality from illusion, at reading the angles and decoding the fine print, he says. We gain intuition and understanding into how people behave. We even learn ways to influence this behavior. This makes us less susceptible to all manner of deception. It is to gain and maintain this sixth sense that Alex Stone--a schoolboy prestidigitator--has continued performing magic well into adulthood. In Fooling Houdini he takes us into that other world, populated by truly astounding characters, and leaves us with a heightened sense of awareness about the supposedly real world.

Stories for the family to enjoy and learn about about our ancestors, where they came from, what they did for a living, where they lived and who their children were.

Shorn of her glorious raven tresses and dressed as a man, Lady Antonia Lamb became Lord Anthony Lamb, desperate to keep the property entailed to her twin brother, who is missing at sea. Trapped—and liberated—by her masquerade, Tony meets her new guardian, the devastatingly dangerous Adam Savage, who has returned from his plantation in Ceylon, determined to turn the innocent “boy” into a worldly man. A rake whose scarred face and ice-blue eyes made strong women weak, Adam Savage, legendary adventurer, vowed to take young Tony to the fleshpots of London; to teach him everything a young heir should know. But not even Savage guesses Tony's deepest secret, a masquerade destined to erupt in passionate abandon on one scorching, unforgettable night.