This biography of the first foreign-born samurai and his journey from Africa to Japan is “a readable, compassionate account of an extraordinary life” (The Washington Post). When Yasuke arrived in Japan in the late 1500s, he had already traveled much of the known world. Kidnapped as a child, he had ended up a servant and bodyguard to the head of the Jesuits in Asia, with whom he traversed India and China learning multiple languages as he went. His arrival in Kyoto, however, literally caused a riot. Most Japanese people had never seen an African man before, and many of them saw him as the embodiment of the black-skinned Buddha. Among those who were drawn to his presence was Lord Nobunaga, head of the most powerful clan in Japan, who made Yasuke a samurai in his court. Soon, he was learning the traditions of Japan’s martial arts and ascending the upper echelons of Japanese society. In the four hundred years since, Yasuke has been known in Japan largely as a legendary, perhaps mythical figure. Now African Samurai presents the never-before-told biography of this unique figure of the sixteenth century, one whose travels between countries and cultures offers a new perspective on race in world history and a vivid portrait of life in medieval Japan. “Fast-paced, action-packed writing. . . . A new and important biography and an incredibly moving study of medieval Japan and solid perspective on its unification. Highly recommended.” —Library Journal (starred review) “Eminently readable. . . . a worthwhile and entertaining work.” —Publishers Weekly “A unique story of a unique man, and yet someone with whom we can all identify.” —Jack Weatherford, New York Times–bestselling author of Genghis Khan

In the 1960s Shaw Brothers Studios revolutionised martial arts filmmaking. Movie mogul Sir Run Run Shaw developed a way to churn out lavish blockbusters quickly and cheaply. An assembly line approach kept his filmmakers busy but access to an extraordinary pool of resources meant they could "ask for the moon". This book is a case study exploring how a brilliant, driven entrepreneur and his audaciously creative filmmakers conducted a bold experiment in business and movie-making innovation.

Taimak, The Last Dragon is an intimate look at the life and career of Taimak as he faced the challenges of racism, child abuse, a broken home life and low self-worth to become a man who captured the "glow."

DIVA collection of essays that examine the production and consumption of Asian American popular culture, from musical expression to television cooking shows./div

Ellen Franck isn't in love with Big Bird. After all, he's a big yellow Sesame Street character -- and she's an intelligent single woman with a fabulous job. On the other hand, Big Bird is looking like a better candidate for fatherhood every day: he's tall, affectionate, and steadily employed. And right now, for Ellen, thirty-five years old and dying to have a baby, almost any father will do. In her hilarious and heartbreaking new novel, Laura Zigman, bestselling author of Animal Husbandry, explores what happens when the life we've chosen isn't that life we expected it to be. And at this point Ellen Franck is rethinking all her choices. Mired in a relationship with a man who is better at brooding than breeding, sister to a woman who can't seem to stop having babies, and working under a boss who is about to have the baby shower of the decade, Ellen knows the path to motherhood is clear. All she has to do is leave her relationship, horrify her family, find an anonymous father, and become independently wealthy. Piece of cake.

“The Quantum Spy takes us to a whole new level of intrigue and espionage. It’s also unbelievably timely. In short: David Ignatius knows his stuff.” —Wolf Blitzer A hyper-fast quantum computer is the digital equivalent of a nuclear bomb; whoever possesses one will be able to shred any encryption and break any code in existence. The question is: who will build one first, the U.S. or China? In this gripping thriller, U.S. quantum research labs are compromised by a suspected Chinese informant, inciting a mole hunt of history-altering proportions. CIA officer Harris Chang leads the charge, pursuing his target from Singapore to Mexico and beyond. Do the leaks expose real secrets, or are they false trails meant to deceive the Chinese? The answer forces Chang to question everything he thought he knew about loyalty, morality, and the primacy of truth.

Deploys martial arts as a lens to analyze performance, power, and identity within the evolving fusion of Black and Asian American cultures in history and media.

A celebration of the most obscure, bizarre, and brain-busting movies ever made, this film guide features 250 in-depth reviews that have escaped the radar of people with taste and the tolerance of critics ― Goregasm! I Was a Teenage Serial Killer! Satan Claus!Die Hard Dracula! Curated by the enthusiastic minds behind BleedingSkull.com, this book gets deep into gutter-level, no-budget horror, from shot-on-VHS revelations (Eyes of the Werewolf) to forgotten outsider art hallucinations (Alien Beasts). Jam-packed with rare photographs, advertisements, and VHS sleeves (most of which have never been seen before), Bleeding Skull is an edifying, laugh-out-loud guide to the dusty inventory of the greatest video store that never existed.

For over a decade, Small Dojo Big Profits has guided martial arts instructors through the risky yet highly rewarding process of starting and running a highly successful and profitable martial art school. Eschewing the conventional wisdom that says you must have a huge school with 300 or more students to be financially successful, the author instead shows you how to take on less risk while working smarter and not harder by running a lean, mean, efficient martial arts studio operation. Author Mike Massie has started three successful martial arts studios from scratch, and has the distinction of opening his first studio with no start-up capital, zero credit, and in a town where he was a complete stranger. Yet, he was able to go from teaching in part-time locations to running his own full-time studio in under a year, and he achieved this while staying in profit from month one. The process he followed is the same one this book is based upon, and this updated version of Small Dojo Big Profits also draws on the author's experience in starting and growing two more successful studios during the recent mortgage crisis and economic recession. A common sense martial arts school start-up and business operations manual, this completely updated version of the classic martial arts business guide is perfect for anyone who wants to maintain their integrity while building a successful martial art school. If you're looking for the best source of complete information for starting, launching, growing, and running a martial art school from scratch, this is it.

With a star that rose from unforgettable child acting roles, such as A. C. Slater in Saved by the Bell, to the forefront of today’s entertainment media, Mario Lopez is nothing short of a pop culture sensation. Now, as he turns forty, Mario looks back on his life with a newfound perspective and a humorous sensibility of how things have changed with age, divulging for the first time the endearing, surprising, and sometimes difficult experiences that shaped him into the loving father and husband he is today. In Just Between Us, Mario shares a behind-the-scenes look into his successes and disappointments in the entertainment business and how his tight-knit family and long-standing values helped keep him grounded, no matter what. With wit and candor, Mario reveals his most intimate never-before-told stories, including the details of his often tumultuous and largely public love life—giving readers a look at the ups and downs of his romantic past leading up to his happily-ever-after with his beautiful wife and their two children. This is Mario Lopez unfiltered, for the first time ever.