Lonnie is drawn by Claire from his ordinary life of theft and blackmail into the world of L.A.'s ritzy nightlife. Along the way, he becomes an underground legend.

When Lonnie Milton meets Claire, his hum-drum life takes a turn in the swirling nightlife of Los Angeles. Dark, fast and brutally incisive, Fake Liar Cheat takes sharp aim at Los Angeles' cult of personality, laying bare the tabloid society and exposing the collective national confusion between fame and notoriety, style and substance.

Have you ever wondered why a trumpeter of family values would suddenly turn around and cheat on his wife? Why jealousy would send an otherwise level-headed person into a violent rage? What could drive a person to blow a family fortune at the blackjack tables? Or have you ever pondered what might make Mr. Right leave his beloved at the altar, why hypocrisy seems to be rampant, or even why, every once in awhile, even you are secretly tempted, to lie, cheat, or steal (or, conversely, help someone you never even met)? This book answers these questions and more, and in doing so, turns the prevailing wisdom about who we are upside down. Our character, argue psychologists DeSteno and Valdesolo, isn’t a stable set of traits, but rather a shifting state that is subject to the constant push and pull of hidden mechanisms in our mind. And it's the battle between these dueling psychological forces that determine how we act at any given point in time. Drawing on the surprising results of the clever experiments concocted in their own laboratory, DeSteno and Valdesolo shed new scientific light on so many of the puzzling behaviors that regularly grace the headlines. For example, you’ll learn: • Why Tiger Woods just couldn’t resist the allure of his mistresses even though he had a picture-perfect family at home. And why no one, including those who knew him best, ever saw it coming. • Why even the shrewdest of investors can be tempted to gamble their fortunes away (and why risky financial behavior is driven by the same mechanisms that compel us to root for the underdog in sports). • Why Eliot Spitzer, who made a career of crusading against prostitution, turned out to be one of the most famous johns of all time. • Why Mel Gibson, a noted philanthropist and devout Catholic, has been repeatedly caught spewing racist rants, even though close friends say he doesn’t have a racist bone in his body. • And why any of us is capable of doing the same, whether we believe it or not! A surprising look at the hidden forces driving the saint and sinner lurking in us all, Out of Character reveals why human behavior is so much more unpredictable than we ever realized.

NATIONAL BESTSELLER • “You wouldn’t expect a comic novel about a dictionary to be a thriller too, but this one is. In fact, [it] is also a mystery, love story (two of them) and cliffhanging melodrama.” —The New York Times Book Review An award-winning novel that chronicles the charming misadventures of a lovelorn Victorian lexicographer and the young woman put on his trail a century later to root out his misdeeds while confronting questions of her own sexuality and place in the world. Mountweazel n. the phenomenon of false entries within dictionaries and works of reference. Often used as a safeguard against copyright infringement. In the final year of the nineteenth century, Peter Winceworth is toiling away at the letter S for Swansby’s multivolume Encyclopaedic Dictionary. But his disaffection with his colleagues compels him to assert some individual purpose and artistic freedom, and he begins inserting unauthorized, fictitious entries. In the present day, Mallory, the publisher’s young intern, starts to uncover these mountweazels in the process of digitization and through them senses their creator’s motivations, hopes, and desires. More pressingly, she’s also been contending with a threatening, anonymous caller who wants Swansby’s staff to “burn in hell.” As these two narratives coalesce, Winceworth and Mallory, separated by one hundred years, must discover how to negotiate the complexities of life’s often untrustworthy, hoax-strewn, and undefinable path. An exhilarating, laugh-out-loud debut, The Liar’s Dictionary celebrates the rigidity, fragility, absurdity, and joy of language while peering into questions of identity and finding one’s place in the world.

My name is Amber Reynolds. There are three things you should know about me: 1. I’m in a coma. 2. My husband doesn’t love me anymore. 3. Sometimes I lie. Amber wakes up in a hospital. She can’t move. She can’t speak. She can’t open her eyes. She can hear everyone around her, but they have no idea. Amber doesn’t remember what happened, but she has a suspicion her husband had something to do with it. Alternating between her paralyzed present, the week before her accident, and a series of childhood diaries from twenty years ago, this brilliant psychological thriller asks: Is something really a lie if you believe it's the truth?

You don't fight bodies you fight minds. In this slender volume, Maija Soderholm of Sonny Umpad's Visayan Style Corto Kadena and Larga Mano system presents the details of one of the most important and least understood aspects of personal combat. How to control the opponent's mind. The Liar, The Cheat, and The Thief explores the drills and the mindset of one of the last modern duelists. As Sun Tzu said "All warfare is deception". On the surface, this is a book about learning to deceive one's opponent in the fighting arts. And it would be a great addition to the canon if that were all it managed to be. Yet, a closer read suggests that this book is pretending to be less than it is to conceal some deeper lessons. We should hardly be surprised by this. Just as Musashi and others have taught us, the sword is a vehicle for understanding other things. In truth, what Ms. Soderholm has provided us is a guide not merely to reading one's opponent, but to writing him. The advantages of that having that ability are limited only by one's imagination, whether the context is the ring, the battlefield, or the boardroom. These are deep waters, and the tools provided are powerful - to be used cautiously and wisely. Rob Crowley, former MAJ, US Army Special Forces My focus, for many years, has been on surviving violent encounters. I don't duel. I don't square off and try to keep things fair. So why am I excited about a book on dueling, using weapons I don't even carry from a culture not my own? Because there are principles underlying all things, and sometimes the principles are easier to see if you force yourself to shift perspective. There are three things that the long blade teaches better than any other medium: distance, timing and deception. Maija Soderholm understands these nuances deeply. I've been waiting for this book for a long time. It will make me better in my totally unrelated field. Rory Miller, author of Meditations on Violence, Facing Violence and ConCom - Conflict Communications: A new paradigm in Conscious Communication After 35 years studying the Filipino martial arts, I thought I knew what 'flow' was until I met Maija; flashing smile hiding the glint of steel. To improve your art, watch, in the videos, how her feet and torso turn in different directions and the hands deliver the attack on a third line. Deception within deception. P.H. (Mac) McRedmond, Deputy Sheriff, Retired and 50 year martial arts student and instructor There are teachers and there are teachers. Rarely do you find the ability to both DO and TEACH at a high level of skill within the same person. I have seen Maija Soderholm's skill in technique and teaching ability firsthand, flowed with her on many occasions and been the recipient of embarrassing lessons in humility. As a 28 year practitioner of the martial arts, that's not an easy thing to bring about. Maija's Art of Deception is the brass ring. There's no holding back, nor is there any mystification - you can't simply let your mind relax, the game is more mental than it is physical and learning to integrate the two has been the stumbling block of many teachers. Maija's art isn't a *system* per se, but the essence of every martial art on the planet; It's a living, evolving manual of motion you can return to for years, and get something new every time. Maija never lets you relax in a drill, she constantly reminds you (sometimes painfully) that higher martial arts demands deeper concentration. No matter what art you train in or from what country, The Art of Deception is applicable across the board in a way few other methods even address. These are the "secrets" that most martial art masters hold close to the vest, and Maija puts them on display for everyone. Bobbe Edmonds, teacher, author, student, curry thief.

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER "Reilly pokes more holes in Trump's claims than there are sand traps on all of his courses combined. It is by turns amusing and alarming."-- The New Yorker "Golf is the spine of this shocking, wildly humorous book, but humanity is its flesh and spirit." -- Chicago Sun-Times "Every one of Trump's most disgusting qualities surfaces in golf." -- The Ringer An outrageous indictment of Donald Trump's appalling behavior when it comes to golf -- on and off the green -- and what it reveals about his character. Donald Trump loves golf. He loves to play it, buy it, build it, and operate it. He owns 14 courses around the world and runs another five, all of which he insists are the best on the planet. He also claims he's a 3 handicap, almost never loses, and has won an astonishing 18 club championships. How much of all that is true? Almost none of it, acclaimed sportswriter Rick Reilly reveals in this unsparing look at Trump in the world of golf. Based on Reilly's own experiences with Trump as well as interviews with over 100 golf pros, amateurs, developers, and caddies, Commander in Cheat is a startling and at times hilarious indictment of Trump and his golf game. You'll learn how Trump cheats (sometimes with the help of his caddies and Secret Service agents), lies about his scores (the "Trump Bump"), tells whoppers about the rank of his courses and their worth (declaring that every one of them is worth $50 million), and tramples the etiquette of the game (driving on greens doesn't help). Trump doesn't brag so much, though, about the golf contractors he stiffs, the course neighbors he intimidates, or the way his golf decisions wind up infecting his political ones. For Trump, it's always about winning. To do it, he uses the tricks he picked up from the hustlers at the public course where he learned the game as a college kid, and then polished as one of the most bombastic businessmen of our time. As Reilly writes, "Golf is like bicycle shorts. It reveals a lot about a man." Commander in Cheat "paints a side-splitting portrait of a congenital cheater" (Esquire), revealing all kinds of unsightly truths Trump has been hiding.

A USA Today bestseller! The Inheritance Games and One of Us is Lying for middle grade -- beloved author Alyson Gerber's new series is an unforgettable mystery featuring a secret society, a mysterious island, and dangerous family secrets. Weatherby is a fish out of water. When she lands a scholarship to the prestigious Boston School, she's excited to be in the same world as her dad, whom she's never met, and make real friends. But Weatherby has a secret she'll risk everything to protect, one that could destroy her new life. Every member of Jack's wealthy and privileged family has made their mark at the Boston School. Everyone, that is, except for Jack, who is entirely mediocre. He's desperate to prove his worth to his influential father. But Jack has a secret of his own . . . one with the power to ruin everything. When the money for their school trip to a private island-exclusive to Boston students-is stolen, Jack and Weatherby are invited to play a high-stakes game and solve the mystery of the missing money. If they win, they'll be selected to join the oldest, most powerful secret society in the world-and they'll be Boston royalty forever. If they lose . . . well, they better not lose. Beloved author Alyson Gerber crafts an unforgettable mystery that asks-are some secrets and lies impossible to overcome?

For Anyone Who's Ever Been a Teenager Who's teenage years weren't terrible? Remember the scary older kids? The sadistic gym teacher? The smelly kid who sat next to you in science class? Your first fumbling kiss? That time you threw up in the cafeteria? Your first attempt at putting on a condom? The period that arrived unexpectedly? That awful fight with your parents? The first time you got drunk? That note you wrote that you shouldn't have written? The day you forgot to zip your fly? That monster zit? When, you wondered, would it all end? In When I Was a Loser, John McNally, author of the novel America's Report Card, assembles twenty-five original essays--often hilarious, sometimes tenderhearted, always evocative--about defining moments of high school loserdom. Brad Land, Julianna Baggott, Owen King, Johanna Edwards, and many more fresh, talented writers explore their own angst, humiliation, heartache, and other staples of teen life. These essays perfectly capture what it was like to be in high school: to experience so many things for the first time, to assert independence while desperately trying to fit in, to feel misunderstood and unable to articulate the wild swings between heartbreak, anger, and euphoria. One writer recalls how his grandmother helped him with his home perm in preparation for the Senior Class picture; another recounts her discovery, sometime after hitting puberty, of the power she held over boys and men, while at the same time she felt herself at their mercy; a third remembers the casual cruelties visited on him by the cooler kids, and the cruelties he, in turn, inflicted on kids below him on the social ladder. Utterly candid and compulsively readable, these essays conjure up and untangle those raw and formative years. The writers cringe and laugh at the teenagers they were, but at the same time, they honor their adolescence and the way it shaped their lives. Because, in truth, beneath the layers of adult respectability, we all still carry a little bit of our teenage selves around with us.