Maria loves tea parties and dancing and wearing her hair in pigtails, but more than anything in the world...Maria loves churros. She’ll do anything to get her hands on more of them, even enter a bullfight. To win, she must outsmart the other matadors who don’t think she’s big enough, fast enough, or strong enough. With determination and creativity, spunky Maria will dance her way to victory—and into readers’ hearts. Complemented by distinct, expressive illustrations, this charming story shows that you don’t have to fight to win, and you might even end up with more than you were hoping for.

A young matador who would rather draw pictures than fight bulls finds a new way to entertain the townsfolk.

When Singapore fell to the Japanese in February 1942, Churchill called it the “largest capitulation in British history.” Till today, the myth persists that this was due to the British forces’ being caught off-guard, with their guns facing the wrong direction—towards the sea. This book offers an alternative insight into why Malaya and Singapore were captured by the Japanese. The question of the landward defence of Singapore and Malaya was first raised as early as 1918, eventually taking the form of Operation Matador, the elaborate planning and preparations for which amply demonstrate that the British fully expected the Japanese to attack Singapore from the rear, and had formulated a plan to stop the Japanese at the Kra Isthmus. Yet, when the Japanese forces landed, they found Malaya and Singapore defended by an emasculated fleet, obsolescent aircraft, inadequate artillery and no tanks. The battle for Malaya and Singapore was lost even before the first shot was fired—in the corridors of power at Whitehall. Churchill’s half-hearted support for Operation Matador meant that Malaya was starved of the necessary reinforcements, and the commanders on the spot were expected to “make bricks without straw.” The question that remains: If implemented, might Operation Matador have stopped the Japanese?

Detailed account of a cattle-raising enterprise in West Texas, begun in the 1880's, presented by a historian.

An invitation too irresistible to refuse from the Museum of Cadiz leads archaeologist Annja Creed to the sun-drenched southern coast of Andalucia, Spain. In a region rich in Moorish and Roman ruins, she leaps at the chance to join a dig across the Bay of Cadiz, where she unearths a bronze bull statue that makes the entire trip worth every minute. Until the day after her discovery, when she sees the same artifact beside the body of a dead Spaniard, killed by the estocada, the final sword thrust used by bullfighters to bring down the bull. Whoever killed the man left clear signs of having taken something. And yet the bronze bull remained. What was so valuable the murderer chose it over a priceless artifact? How had her find come into this dead man's hands? With few leads and a growing body count, Annja's investigation takes her through a colorful world of flamenco and bullfighting to a renowned matador and an illegal—and deadly—collection of Visigoth votive crowns.

The Matador is an interplay of memories from Jamaican entrepreneur Lloyd Daley and historical context provided by author Rich Lowe. Mr. Daley built some of the most powerful amplifiers on the island of Jamaica, he worked at The Times Store as a lithographer, he had an electronics repair business, he formed the Matador Sound System, and he was a top selling music producer. Mr. Daley had to have a rough exterior to survive at the center of the sound system eruption in the mid 1950's in Jamaica, recording as a producer in the golden eras of Jamaican Boogie-Shuffle, Ska, Rock Steady and Reggae music. As a producer, Daley had consistency, quality, and was selective. Lloyd Daley recorded artists of the era who have come to be recognized over time: Members of The Skatalites, Dennis Brown, The Gladiators, The Wailing Souls, The Heptones, Little Roy, Freddie McKay, Alton Ellis, The Ethiopians, The Hippy Boys, The Abyssinians, Count Ossie, The Viceroys, and many more. Fellow sound system owner Prince Jackie commented, "The Matador is a man that never stand for no foolishness." As a sound system owner, Lloyd Daley battled with giants of the day like King Edwards, Coxson Dodd, Duke Reid, and Bells the President.

Now back in print, Perry's cult-classic Matador series picks up where "The Man Who Never Missed" left off. At Matador Villa, the training center for the best fighters in the galaxy, a dangerous drifter, a dark-skinned beauty named Dirisha Zuri, draws attention. The school wants her talents--and the galaxy desperately needs her deadly skills. Reissue.

As something of an expert on the medieval period, archaeologist Annja Creed jumps at the invitation from the Museum of Cadiz to assess its acquisition of Egyptian coins. She soon finds herself embroiled in a murder investigation that takes her through the colorful world of flamenco and bullfighting. Original.

As Chile descends into chaos, two disparate souls begin “an odd-couple romance, in the tradition of Kiss of the Spider Woman or The Crying Game” (Kirkus Reviews). It is the spring of 1986, and Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet is losing his grip on power. In one of Santiago’s many poor neighborhoods, a man known as the Queen of the Corner embroiders linens for the wealthy. A hopeless and lonely romantic, he listens to boleros to drown out the gunshots. Then he meets Carlos, a young, handsome man who befriends the aging homosexual and uses his house to store mysterious boxes and hold clandestine meetings. And as the relationship between these two very different men blossoms, they find themselves caught in a revolution that could doom them both. By turns funny and profoundly moving, Pedro Lemebel’s lyrical prose offers an intimate window into the mind of Pinochet himself as the world of Carlos and the Queen prepares to collide with the dictator’s own in “a wonderful snapshot of this period of Chile’s history . . . A touching tale of love and danger” (Booklist).

The Matador's Cape delves into the causes of the catastrophic turn in American policy at home and abroad since 9/11. In a collection of searing essays, the author explores Washington's inability to bring 'the enemy' into focus, detailing the ideological, bureaucratic, electoral and (not least) emotional forces that severely distorted the American understanding of, and response to, the terrorist threat. He also shows how the gratuitous and disastrous shift of attention from al Qaeda to Iraq was shaped by a series of misleading theoretical perspectives on the end of deterrence, the clash of civilizations, humanitarian intervention, unilateralism, democratization, torture, intelligence gathering and wartime expansions of presidential power. The author's breadth of knowledge about the War on Terror leads to conclusions about present-day America that are at once sobering in their depth of reference and inspiring in their global perspective.