Told with wit, humor, and occasional irreverence, these stories range from a delightful reminiscence of growing up a "hyphenated American" with roots and heart in both worlds, to the story of a young New Mexican bank clerk who fights his own special struggle between the old ways and the new.

“We could have been called a lot of things: brazen vandals, scared kids, threats to social order, self-obsessed egomaniacs, marginalized youth, outsider artists, trend setters, and thrill seekers. But, to me, we were just regular kids growing up hard in America and making the city our own. Being ‘writers’ gave us something to live for and ‘going all city’ gave us something to strive for; and for some of my friends it was something to die for.” In the age of commissioned wall murals and trendy street art, it’s easy to forget graffiti’s complicated and often violent past in the United States. Though graffiti has become one of the most influential art forms of the twenty-first century, cities across the United States waged a war against it from the late 1970s to the early 2000s, complete with brutal police task forces. Who were the vilified taggers they targeted? Teenagers, usually, from low-income neighborhoods with little to their names except a few spray cans and a desperate need to be seen—to mark their presence on city walls and buildings even as their cities turned a blind eye to them. Going All City is the mesmerizing and painful story of these young graffiti writers, told by one of their own. Prolific LA writer Stefano Bloch came of age in the late 1990s amid constant violence, poverty, and vulnerability. He recounts vicious interactions with police; debating whether to take friends with gunshot wounds to the hospital; coping with his mother’s heroin addiction; instability and homelessness; and his dread that his stepfather would get out of jail and tip his unstable life into full-blown chaos. But he also recalls moments of peace and exhilaration: marking a fresh tag; the thrill of running with his crew at night; exploring the secret landscape of LA; the dream and success of going all city. Bloch holds nothing back in this fierce, poignant memoir. Going All City is an unflinching portrait of a deeply maligned subculture and an unforgettable account of what writing on city walls means to the most vulnerable people living within them.

When it comes to adventure, there's nothing like riding the trail with thesecelebrated heroes: one of the roughest, toughest lawmen in the old west; ananti-hero gunfighter driven by whiskey and guilt; and an outlaw woman whosedemons will drive her into the pages of history! It's 1877, Dodge City, Kansas. Wyatt Earp is the town's new Marshall,and it doesn't take him long to get on the bad side of brutal cowboys used todoing things the outlaw way. When Earp sets out to clean up Dodge City, somefolks don't cotton to his methods...and now only Doc Holliday and the Mastersonbrothers, Bat and Ed, stand between Wyatt and a marker on his head! From debutante to debaucher, Belle Starr recounts her life's story toan eager journalist., painting an image of a woman driven to the outlaw life bytoo much hunger, too many bad men, and her most personal demon! When it comes to Hell ...The Cisco Kid knows the score! This timehe's chasing the Brujera on a road that leads straight into a trap set by aTexas Ranger and his cunning Indian partner. But the road to fire and brimstoneis full of distractions, from a mysterious and alluring woman whose motives areshrouded in dreams, to the father of his murdered girlfriend - a powerful Shamanwho will step from the fires of the abyss to stake his own claim on Cisco'slife!

***Over a half-million sold! And available now, the Wall Street Journal Bestselling sequel The Unicorn Project*** “Every person involved in a failed IT project should be forced to read this book.”—TIM O'REILLY, Founder & CEO of O'Reilly Media “The Phoenix Project is a must read for business and IT executives who are struggling with the growing complexity of IT.”—JIM WHITEHURST, President and CEO, Red Hat, Inc. Five years after this sleeper hit took on the world of IT and flipped it on it's head, the 5th Anniversary Edition of The Phoenix Project continues to guide IT in the DevOps revolution. In this newly updated and expanded edition of the bestselling The Phoenix Project, co-author Gene Kim includes a new afterword and a deeper delve into the Three Ways as described in The DevOps Handbook. Bill, an IT manager at Parts Unlimited, has been tasked with taking on a project critical to the future of the business, code named Phoenix Project. But the project is massively over budget and behind schedule. The CEO demands Bill must fix the mess in ninety days or else Bill's entire department will be outsourced. With the help of a prospective board member and his mysterious philosophy of The Three Ways, Bill starts to see that IT work has more in common with a manufacturing plant work than he ever imagined. With the clock ticking, Bill must organize work flow streamline interdepartmental communications, and effectively serve the other business functions at Parts Unlimited. In a fast-paced and entertaining style, three luminaries of the DevOps movement deliver a story that anyone who works in IT will recognize. Readers will not only learn how to improve their own IT organizations, they'll never view IT the same way again. “This book is a gripping read that captures brilliantly the dilemmas that face companies which depend on IT, and offers real-world solutions.”—JEZ HUMBLE, Co-author of Continuous Delivery, Lean Enterprise, Accelerate, and The DevOps Handbook

This is a fantastic collection of western-themed stories, many feature the man's signature surprise endings. There are tales of cowpunchers, desperados and ranchers in love. Most explore happy times, though death and sorrow do pay an infrequent visit. More than once the folly of male/female relationships is explored with predictably humorous results.

In this outstanding, funny, and edgy debut, Going tells an engaging story of two unlikely friends who meet when a high-school dropout talks a boy out of suicide--and who ultimately save each other.

In Hollywood Hoofbeats, author Petrine Day Mitchum tells stories in page-turning detail, covering topics such as behind-the-scenes portraits of both famous movie horses and those virtually unknown; personal accounts from their trainers, owners, and costars; simple and complex horse stunts, from a fall in mid-gallop to a race across a bridge during a live explosion; and historic black-and-white photos and richly colored contemporary stills.

The first biography of the seminal music group WAR whose many hits include "Spill the Wine," "All Day Music," "Why Can't We Be Friends?" "Slippin' into Darkness," "The Cisco Kid," and - of course - "Low Rider." They combined rock, funk, soul, R&B, jazz, and a strong Latin vibe in their music, they have been awarded two Platinum and eight Gold records in their career. Their album "The World is a Ghetto" was the bestselling release of 1973 and was #444 on the list of "Rolling Stone's Top 500 Albums" list. This unauthorized book follows the group from their early incarnations when Harold Brown and Howard Scott met to form the Creators and then the Night Shift, to their partnership with former Animals lead singer Eric Burdon, to a highly successful career on their own with the core original lineup of Brown, Scott, Lee Oskar, Lonnie Jordan, B.B. Dickerson, Papa Dee Allen, and Charles Miller. The story also follows the band through their later, leaner years, the tragic deaths of two members, and the conflicts that led to a fissure and a split of performing entities that continues to this day. Featuring original interviews, archival research, and musical analysis and commentary, "Slippin' Out of Darkness: The Story of WAR" tells the tale of one of the most unique bands in the history of Classic Rock-era music.

For worriers everywhere, this book is a funny, sympathetic antidote to worry from a Hans Christian Andersen Medalist. Full color.