Sweet Chaos

A social and cultural history of the Grateful Dead, America's greatest folk/rock institution, by a "National Book Critics Circle Award"-winning author. 8-page photo insert.

Four-year-old identical twins Jace and Jem—born of the Breedline species, a race of humans that have special powers and the gift to change into wolf form—were tragically present when their mother, Katlyn Gray, was murdered. Only one family member the twins had left was their uncle, Katlyn's brother, Jackson. Jackson was found brutally beaten where their mother was murdered and left for dead. No other family members reached out to take the boys after they were found alone, still in the house where their mother lay dead and their uncle unconscious. A married couple, physicians at the emergency room where the boys are taken to—John and Sarah Chamberlain—instantly fell in love with them and became their foster parents in hopes of later adopting them. Jackson reunites with his nephews after coming out of a coma three months after his attack and approves of his nephews’ new home with John and Sarah. He lets the couple adopt them only if they promise to let him stay close by the boys and build a relationship as they grow up. Jackson Gray is their only link to what the boys are and what they will become later. The shocking new life they discover has other unknown species and mystical creatures that all must be kept a secret from the human world. When they are introduced into the Breedline Covenant, they grow up learning all about the Breedline laws and what will happen to them when they reach the age of eighteen. As they get older, Jace struggled with the loss of his mother and all the flashbacks of her death. His life continues to spin out of control with more devastation when their real father that is possessed by a Chiang-shih demon returns. His brother Jem stands by his side, constantly trying to keep him from self-destruction, and total disaster. Just when Jace has lost all hope for living, he meets Tessa Fairchild, his Breedline bonded mate. They are instantly captivated by each other, as Tessa feels an alluring, seductive connection towards him. He's also the sexiest man she has ever laid eyes on, but she has been fighting her on own demons trying to figure out why she has been haunted by mysterious dreams about a black wolf since childhood. Plus she is ten years older than him. Why would he want to date an older woman when this sexy, hot, god of a man could have any woman he wants? As Jace tries to win her over, and earn her trust, he finds out Tessa has no knowledge of being born an identical twin and that she is a Breedline species.

Three hundred years later, the ghosts from her past are hunting for revenge... The past always finds a way to bite you in the ass. As a three-hundred-year old vengeance demon, I’ve made a lot of enemies. The worst was Queen Maria, the Italian Court’s most devious succubus and a ruler who used me as a weapon of mass destruction to inflict pain and kill hundreds of humans in her torture chambers. Now she’s back, this time as a ghost, and she’s invited a new friend to the party—a vampire king who wants my head on a stake. Together they’re bringing a war to Chicago that will topple the carefully constructed world I’ve protected for centuries. But I’m Kali Sweet. I never run from my past…and I’m not about to hide from my present.

I was his weakness. He was my strength. Until I destroyed him.I was infatuated with Shane Wilder since the first time I saw him surfing. But we couldn't be together. Not yet, anyway. I was too young and screwed up. He was too focused on chasing his dream.So we became friends. We met on the rooftop for late-night confessions under the stars. Cruised along the Pacific Coast Highway with the wind in our hair and the sun on our faces.I took photos of all the beautiful and ugly and interesting things, while he traveled the world in search of the perfect waves.I told him I would wait for him. I never meant to lie.I never meant to ruin his life.I. Destroyed. Him. As his star faded, mine burned bright. But as everyone knows, all that glitters is not gold. Now I'm back after seven long years, hoping for a chance to right my wrongs and fix what I've broken. This time I can only hope that loving Shane Wilder will be enough to save him.

October 1967 during the height of the Vietnam War Craig Anderson, John Barilla, Michael Lindner and Rick Bailey, deserted the US Intrepid; smuggled from Tokyo to Sweden via Moscow with the help of a Japanese anti-war group, a draft-card-burning Buddhist priest from Nebraska, and the staff of the Russian Embassy in Tokyo. Their act of defiance made them headline news around the world as the Intrepid Four, and inspired other disillusioned young conscripted soldiers to follow their escape to Sweden. Operation Chaos tells the true story of this group of U.S. military deserters who found asylum in Sweden during the Vietnam War and how in falling in league with the American Deserters Committee and its mysterious founder Michael Vale they became a thorn in the side of the US government during the Cold War. Travelling widely to Paris, Stockholm, North Carolina, Washington and New York visiting protected archives and meeting with the original agents and dissidents Matthew Sweet here uncovers their life underground, how the US government waged a determined campaign to discredit deserting soldiers, the story behind the secret scheme code named Operation Chaos, how the CIA tried to infiltrate this radical political group, an international game of cat and mouse and spiraling series of events winding all the way to the Manchurian Candidate scare of 1973/4, and the hunt for the victims of “the brainwashing institutes of Sweden”. Sweet’s fascinating journey of discovery sheds new light on one of the great untold tales of the Cold War, where the facts are wilder than any work of fiction.

Keith Elliot Greenberg chronicles the growth of indie wrestling from bingo halls to a viable alternative to the WWE and speaks to those involved in the Alternative Wrestling League with remarkable candor, gaining behind-the-scenes knowledge of this growing enterprise. As COVID-19 utterly changed the world as we know it, only one sport was able to pivot and offer consistent, new, live programming on a weekly basis: professional wrestling. In 2017, after being told that no independent wrestling group could draw a crowd of more than 10,000, a group of wrestlers took up the challenge. For several years, these gladiators had been performing in front of rabid crowds and understood the hunger for wrestling that was different from the TV-slick product. In September 2018, they had the numbers to prove it: 11,263 fans filled the Sears Center Arena for the All In pay-per-view event, ushering in a new era. A year later, WWE had its first major head-to-head competitor in nearly two decades when All Elite Wrestling debuted on TNT. Acclaimed wrestling historian Keith Elliot Greenberg’s Too Sweet takes readers back to the beginning, when a half century ago outlaw promotions challenged the established leagues, and guides us into the current era. He paints a vivid picture of promotions as diverse as New Japan, Ring of Honor, Revolution Pro, Progress, and Chikara, and the colorful figures who starred in each. This is both a dynamic snapshot and the ultimate history of a transformational time in professional wrestling.

Alexander Being with Tavin is like eating those candies that start out sweet and then turn so sour, your eyes water. When she's happy, her radiance is stunning, but her glow is dimmed by her dark secrets. I knew from the moment I laid eyes on her, sucking on that lollipop, that there was something unique about her. I was right in more ways than one, and while I don't know the extent of suffering that her life entails, I'll do whatever I need to, to convince her she can trust me. I just need to hang on to her long enough to do that. Tavin When he wraps his arms around me, and his warmth makes me feel safe, it's easy to pretend that this is real. I knew going out with him was a bad idea, I just never imagined it would go this far. It was only supposed to be one night. One night to feel like a normal girl. I didn't plan for this and now, every day that passes puts us deeper in danger. All I can do is make the most of every moment with him, so when the time comes for this to end, then at least we'll be left with beautiful memories. Trigger Warning: This novel contains drug use, explicit sexual content, violence, and sensitive subject matter which may be triggering for some readers. *** A percentage of all sales is being donated to the To Write Love On Her Arms charity.

Contains excerpt of the next Nancy Drew clue book series "World Record mystery #8."

It has been a year of change since Gemma Doyle arrived at the foreboding Spence Academy. Having bound the wild, dark magic of the realms to her, Gemma has forged unlikely and unsuspected new alliances both with the headstrong Felicity and timid Ann, Kartik, the exotic young man whose companionship is forbidden, and the fearsome creatures of the realms. Now, as Gemma approaches her London debut, the time has come to test those bonds. As her friendship with Felicity and Ann faces its gravest trial, and with the Order grappling for control of the realms, Gemma is compelled to decide once and for all which path she is meant to take. Pulled forward by fate, the destiny Gemma faces threatens to set chaos loose, not only in the realms, but also upon the rigid Victorian society whose rules Gemma has both defied and followed. Where does Gemma really belong? And will she, can she, survive?

Sweet Chariot is a pathbreaking analysis of slave families and household composition in the nineteenth-century South. Ann Malone presents a carefully drawn picture of the ways in which slaves were constituted into families and households within a community and shows how and why that organization changed through the years. Her book, based on massive research, is both a statistical study over time of 155 slave communities in twenty-six Louisiana parishes and a descriptive study of three plantations: Oakland, Petite Anse, and Tiger Island. Malone first provides a regional analysis of family, household, and community organization. Then, drawing on qualitative sources, she discusses patterns in slave family household organization, identifying the most significant ones as well as those that consistantly acted as indicators of change. Malone shows that slave community organization strongly reflected where each community was in its own developmental cycle, which in turn was influenced by myriad factors, ranging from impersonal economic conditions to the arbitrary decisions of individual owners. She also projects a statistical model that can be used for comparisons with other populations. The two persistent themes that Malone uncovers are the mutability and yet the constancy of Louisiana slave household organization. She shows that the slave family and its extensions, the slave household and community, were far more diverse and adaptable than previously believed. The real strength of the slave comunity was its multiplicity of forms, its tolerance for a variety of domestic units and its adaptability. She finds, for example, that the preferred family form consisted of two parents and children but that all types of families and households were accepted as functioning and contributing members of the slave community. "Louisiana slaves had a well-defined and collective vision of the structure that would serve them best and an iron determination to attain it, " Malone observes. "But along with this constancy in vision and perseverance was flexibility. Slave domestic forms in Louisiana bent like willows in the wind to keep from shattering. The suppleness of their forms prevented domestic chaos and enabled most slave communities to recover from even serious crises."