Meet 'The Coyote' - a legendary outlaw with a heart of gold in this exciting Western tale. Despite being accused of robbery and murder, he's a gentleman with a wry sense of humor and a romantic nature hidden beneath his smirks. Although seen as a heartless predator, the coyote is also a symbol of the independent spirit of the West and Southwest, a fitting nickname for Rathburn, our protagonist. With bounties on his head and criminals blaming him for their misdeeds, Rathburn must use his excellent skills as a gunman to clear his name and redeem himself.

In The Soldier’s Two Bodies, James M. Greene investigates an overlooked genre of early American literature—the Revolutionary War veteran narrative—showing that it by turns both promotes and critiques a notion of military heroism as the source of U.S. sovereignty. Personal narratives by veterans of the American Revolution indicate that soldiers in the United States have been represented in two contrasting ways from the nation’s first days: as heroic symbols of the body politic and as human beings whose sufferings are neglected by their country. Published from 1779 through the late 1850s, narrative accounts of Revolutionary War veterans’ past service called for recognition from contemporary audiences, inviting readers to understand the war as a moment of violence central to the founding of the nation. Yet, as Greene reveals, these calls for recognition at the same time underscored how many veterans felt overlooked and excluded from the sovereign power they fought to establish. Although such narratives stem from a discourse that supports centralized, continental nationalism, they disrupt stable notions of a unified American people by highlighting those left behind. Greene discusses several well-known examples of the genre, including narratives from Ethan Allen, Joseph Plumb Martin, and Deborah Sampson, along with Herman Melville's fictional adaptation of the life of Israel Potter. Additional chapters focus on accounts of postwar frontier actions, including narratives collected by Hugh Henry Brackenridge that voice concerns over populist violence, along with stranger narratives like those of Isaac Hubbell and James Roberts, which register as fantastic imitations of the genre commenting on antebellum racial politics. With attention to questions of historical context and political ideology, Greene charts the process by which veteran narratives promote exception, violence, and autonomy, while also encouraging restraint, sacrifice, and collectivity. Revolutionary War veteran narratives offer no easy solutions to the appropriation of veterans’ lives within military nationalism and sovereign violence. But by bringing forward the paradox inherent in the figure of the U.S. soldier, the genre invites considerations of how to reimagine those representations. Drawing attention to paradoxes presented by the memory of the American Revolution, The Soldier’s Two Bodies locates the origins of a complicated history surrounding the representation of veterans in U.S. politics and culture.

Based on true events, James Roberts' debut novel, Enjoy My Misery, is a story within a story - beginning with the seemingly endless struggles faced by Maria Michaels while growing up and then shifting narrative focus to the hardships of her sons, James and Jared. Readers are given the Michaels family history through the lens of both Maria and James, which brings their mother-son relationship to life on the pages. The book's duel perspective allows for an in-depth journey through one family's battles with depression, divorce, drug use, and death. Enjoy My Misery is just how it sounds - a series of unfortunate scenarios that entertain to the end, and underline that even when all else is lost, love and family ties can hold us together and keep us from losing sight of what matters most. Roberts' work of fiction is a must-read coming-of-age story, and what makes this Bildungsroman unique is its scope - by including two points of view, Enjoy My Misery reads at times like a diary full of dark family secrets and at times like a conversation with a trusted friend. Roberts completely immerses his audience in such events as police chases, cocaine binges, emergency room visits, and high school basketball tryouts. Enjoy My Misery will have you laughing, crying, and probably wanting to call your mom to tell her you love her. This work reflects, as Stephen Chbosky wrote in his The Perks of Being a Wallflower, "Even if we don't have the power to choose where we come from, we can still choose where we go from there. We can still do things. And we can try to feel okay about them."

In Shiny Objects, a cross between In Praise of Slowness and The Tipping Point, consumer behavior expert Professor James A. Roberts takes us on a tour of America's obsession with consumerism—pointing out its symptoms, diagnosing specific problems, and offering a series of groundbreaking solutions. Roberts gives practical advice for how to correct the materialistic trends in our lives which lock us into a cycle of financial hardship and stress. Shiny Objects, a new The Paradox of Choice for the modern reader, is more than a critique of capitalism—it's also an exploration into how we can live happier, fuller, more productive lives today.

2021 Independent Publisher Book Awards, Gold Medal Winner 2021 National Indie Excellent Awards Finalist 2020 Bronze Award for Travel Book or Guide from the North American Travel Journalists Association 2020 Bronze Winner for Travel in the Foreword INDIES Both a memoir in travel essays and an anti-guidebook, Bad Tourist takes us across four continents to fifteen countries, showing us what not to do when traveling. A woman learning to claim her own desires and adventures, Suzanne Roberts encounters lightning and landslides, sharks and piranha-infested waters, a nightclub drugging, burning bodies, and brief affairs as she searches for the love of her life and finally herself. Throughout her travels Roberts tries hard not to be a bad tourist, but owing to her cultural blind spots, things don’t always go as planned. Fearlessly confessional, shamelessly funny, and wholly unapologetic, Roberts offers a refreshingly honest account of the joys and absurdities of confronting new landscapes and cultures, as well as new versions of herself. Raw, bawdy, and self-effacing, Bad Tourist is a journey packed with delights and surprises—both of the greater world and of the mysterious workings of the heart.

From a tawdry '70s crime scene to the infamous Gilgo Beach murders, Jimmy Burke spent four decades chasing power and breaking rules at one of the country's largest police departments. In 1979, the gruesome slaying of a thirteen-year-old boy riveted the suburbs of Suffolk County, New York. As the county hustled to bring the case to a dubious resolution, a wayward local teenager emerged with a convenient story to tell. For his cooperation, James Burke was rewarded with a job as a cop. Thus began Burke's unlikely ascent to the top of one of the country's largest law enforcement jurisdictions. He and a crew of likeminded allies utilized vengeance, gangster tactics, and political leverage to become the most powerful and feared figures in their suburban empire. In his quest to maintain that power, Burke botched -- intentionally or not -- dire investigations like that of the famed Gilgo Beach serial killings and the county's MS-13 gang scourge. Until a pilfered bag of sex toys brought it all crashing down. Jimmy the King is the story of the rise, reign, and paranoiac fall of a corrupt cop and his regime--a crime family with badges and guaranteed pensions. Novelistic in detail and piercing in its political insight, this book will leave you questioning who modern policing serves, who it protects, and who it preys upon and abandons.

It is the most celebrated escape in the history of American slavery. Henry Brown had himself sealed in a three-foot-by-two-foot box and shipped from Richmond, Virginia, to Philadelphia, a twenty-seven-hour journey to freedom. In Narrative of the Life of Henry Box Brown, Written by Himself, Brown not only tells the story of his famed escape, but also recounts his later life as a black man making his way through white American and British culture. Most important, he paints a revealing portrait of the reality of slavery, of the wife and children sold away from him, the home to which he could not return, and his rejection of the slaveholders' religion--painful episodes that fueled his desire for freedom. This edition comprises the most complete and faithful representation of Brown's life, fully annotated for the first time. John Ernest also provides an insightful introduction that places Brown's life in its historical setting and illuminates the challenges Brown faced in an often threatening world, both before and after his legendary escape.