Renato Tizzoni, a waterworks man in the beautiful Tuscan village of Sant'Angelo D'Asso, has an infectious zest for life. But recently his rich and vibrant world has lost its piquancy. His best friend has died; his lovestruck teenaged daughter has become a sullen stranger; and even his passionate marriage is showing signs of cooling. To make matters worse, his beloved town is about to change dramatically. Prompted by a dream, Renato resolves to rediscover the flavor of life through a trip to Rome. But his fellow townspeople want in on the journey, and before long, Renato finds himself at the Vatican on behalf of all of them. There, as luck would have it, he finds a way to save his marriage, his family, and even his village.

Originally published in 1942 under the title Minha Vida de Menina—Portuguese meaning “My Life as a Little Girl or “Young Girl”—this book is a diary that was kept by the author, Helena Morley (pseudonym of Alice Dayrell Caldeira Brant), when she was between the ages of twelve and fifteen (1893-1895), and living in Diamantina, a small diamond mining town in southeastern Brazil. The little girl describes her homework, her love of parades and dresses, her father who could scarcely make a living in the mines, and her most beloved grandmother. The diary was admired by French Novelist Georges Bernanos, and in 1957, award-winning American poet and writer Elizabeth Bishop, then resident in Brazil, translated it into English as The Diary of Helena Morley. “The more I read the book [Minha Vida de Menina ]the better I liked it. The scenes and events it described were odd, remote, and long ago, and yet fresh, sad, funny, and eternally true. The longer I stayed on in Brazil the more Brazilian the book seemed, yet much of it could have happened in any small provincial town or village, and at almost any period of history—at least before the arrival of the automobile and the moving-picture theatre.”—Elizabeth Bishop

The small Italian village of Sant'Angelo D'Asso has been hit with a spate of fortuna-bad luck-that hasn't let up all season. Endless rain, debilitating influenza, and bizarre deaths have all befallen this town, leaving its people with a diehard faith in the power of curses-and a deep longing for a miracle. Now that miracle may have swept into town, in the form of two mysterious newcomers: the sinfully beautiful Rosa Spina Innocenti and her grown son, Emanuelle Mosè, who seems to possess the ability to heal people and animals. In a short time, the pair convinces those eager to believe that they've been sent by a higher being. But just as the townspeople begin to succumb to the mystical appeal of this charming duo, another stranger arrives, threatening to tear apart this close-knit community that will do nearly anything-even turn on each other-for proof of a power greater than themselves

Jim Bowie is on a Quest for Vengeance—and the Lost Treasure of Jean Lafitte. Famous knife fighter James Bowie wants a seat in Congress. But to win it he needs money—and lots of it. When an old pirate friend—and his beautiful daughter—seek his help with a treasure map, he’s drawn into a wild race across the Gulf of Mexico, to Texas and beyond. Opposing them is Bowie’s most bitter enemy, a former captain of Lafitte’s calling himself The Last Great Terror of the Gulf. The two men’s fates have been long entwined, and their thirst for vengeance exceeds even their desire for the treasure. Who will feed the sharks? Find out in Bowie’s Gold.

Have you ever noticed that you talk about luck every day of your life? Luck is your silent companion, sometimes bringing awesome parking spaces, a chance meeting with a new love interest, or a small windfall. Most of the time you probably don’t even pay attention to luck. Chances are, you only really think about luck when you buy a lottery ticket or participate in a contest. Luck is so much more than that. If you take steps to live longer by eating right and exercising, why wouldn’t you also take similar steps to improve your good fortune? Barrie Dolnick and Anthony Davidson asked themselves this very question, and set out to study luck and decipher how it works. In this insightful and engaging book, they share the secrets they’ve uncovered so you can use luck more effectively in your day-to-day life. Where does luck originate? Does one need to be “born lucky” in order to be lucky? Answering these and many other pressing questions, Dolnick and Davidson investigate both ancient and scientific approaches to luck. From early man to famous rationalists, luck has been prayed for, played with, and courted. You’ll learn how ancient practices such as the I Ching, astrology, tarot, and numerology have been used to understand luck, and how great mathematicians studied luck–some guided by their own interest in gambling. Every- one wants to be lucky. Once you know the fundamentals of luck, the authors take you through your own Personal Luck Profile so that you can use this wisdom and try your luck. People do a lot of weird things to improve their luck–and now you can make smart choices and informed decisions about how to play with yours.

In one of those bars, in the town of Eureka, in the middle of a spring day when the light runs sweet, seven people gather: Cookie, a cowgirl, fry-cook, hard drinker; Chiara, a professor on sabbatical, and on the run; her sixteen-year old daughter, Izzy, of doubtful paternity; the painter Renato, whose lonesome years at work have concentrated his amorous disposition.

Key contemporary discussions of distributive justice have formulated egalitarian approaches in terms of responsibility. But this approach, Hurley contends, has ignored the way our understanding of responsibility constrains the roles it can actually play within distributive justice.

Renato Beluche played many roles in the turbulent world of the nineteenth-century Caribbean. He was a merchant sea captain as well as a successful Privateer. He was Simón Bolívar's favorite admiral as well as an active partner in the affairs of the Laffite brothers. He fought both as a revolutionary and as a defender against revolt. He was a patriot in the eyes of eight American nations and a brigand in the eyes of England and France. In tracing the course of Beluche's chameleonlike career, this biography by Jane Lucas De Grummond gives us a panoramic view of the complex affairs of the Caribbean during one of the most volatile periods in its history. Renato Beluche is the product of the more than forty years that De Grummond has devoted to the history of the United States, the Louisiana Gulf Coast, and Latin America. It draws together her knowledge not only of Beluche's exploits but also of the wars, revolutions ,and treacherous allegiances that shaped the development of the Caribbean.Renato Beluche was born in New Orleans in 1780, the son of a recently emigrated Frenchman whose wig-making business was a front for smuggling. In 1802 Beluche went to sea as a pilot's mate on the flagship of the Spanish fleet, and by 1805 he was master of a merchant schooner. By this time, the Laffite brothers had established a smuggling base at Grande Terre on the Louisiana coast. Flying the French flag, Beluche captured Spanish and English ships and sent them to Grande Terre, Cartagena, and New Granada.In 1813, Beluche became associated with the Venezuelan patriots who were rebelling against Spanish rule, and with their leader, Simón Bolívar. Beluche would spend the next decade in the service of the Venezuelan revolution, interrupted only by a brief period when he joined with Jean Laffite and the Baratarian smugglers who had come to the aid of General Andrew Jackson during the British invasion of the Gulf Coast.After serving as an artillery commander beside Dominique You in the Battle of New Orleans, Beluche was drawn back into the liberation of Venezuela. He participated in the Aux Cayes Expedition, the Battle of Los Frailes, the Battle of Lake Maracaibo, and the Siege of Puerto Cabello. In 1824, Beluche settled his family in Puerto Cabello, and after independence was finally won, he worked as a coastal shipping captain.In 1836 Beluche fought on the losing side of a rebellion against the Venezuelan government and was exiled for nine years. He returned in 1845 and helped crush another revolt that raged from 1848 until 1850. For the next decade he led an uncharacteristically quiet existence, and he died peacefully in Puerto Cabello in 1860. Renator Beluche's vigorous career on the sea had taken him to nearly every corner of the Caribbean; he had lived a life intertwined with the history of his world.