American Bartender

Robb, J. D.; Blayney, Mary; Langan, Ruth & McComas, Mary: Dead of Night, Jove October 30, 2007 ISBN: 0515143677
,,Robb is indeed the headliner, but this all-new four-novella anthology definitely doesn't suffer from standout single syndrome--this one's all killer, no filler. In Robb's opener, a courageous female cop with a troubled past clashes with a bloodthirsty, unnaturally powerful mystery man who promises his enthralled victims immortality: charismatic con artist, or much worse? Blayney follows with the story of an enigmatic old coin that transports an American tourist and an oddly aristocratic bartender into a Regency-era adventure. In Langan's, another unsuspecting American time-traveler stumbles into romance with a 15th-century Scottish warlord who believes she's his kidnapped wife. And in McComas's, a bored housewife takes a magic carpet ride to an alternate universe do-over of her marriage. Though they don't always keep a straight face, occasionally tipping from fantasy into farce--for instance, a canny medieval Scottish ruler blithely accepting a 21st-century designer pant suit as regulation female barbarian dress--such lapses are minor; the biggest fault readers will find is that these intriguing characters are taken away so quickly (especially in Blayney's frustratingly rushed resolution).

Condition;Very Good ,Paperback ,Robb is indeed the headliner, but this all-new four-novella anthology definitely doesn't suffer from standout single syndrome--this one's all killer, no filler. In Robb's opener, a courageous female cop with a troubled past clashes with a bloodthirsty, unnaturally powerful mystery man who promises his enthralled victims immortality: charismatic con artist, or much worse? Blayney follows with the story of an enigmatic old coin that transports an American tourist and an oddly aristocratic bartender into a Regency-era adventure. In Langan's, another unsuspecting American time-traveler stumbles into romance with a 15th-century Scottish warlord who believes she's his kidnapped wife. And in McComas's, a bored housewife takes a magic carpet ride to an alternate universe do-over of her marriage. Though they don't always keep a straight face, occasionally tipping from fantasy into farce--for instance, a canny medieval Scottish ruler blithely accepting a 21st-century designer pant suit as regulation female barbarian dress--such lapses are minor; the biggest fault readers will find is that these intriguing characters are taken away so quickly (especially in Blayney's frustratingly rushed resolution).

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Dexter, Pete [edited by Rob Fleder, with a Foreword by Pete Hamill and an Introduction by the Author]: Paper Trails : True Stories of Confusion, Mindless Violence, and Forbidden Desires, a Surprising Number of Which Are Not about Marriage, NY Ecco/HarperCollins Publishers Inc. 2007 ; fester Einband / hard cover; Schutzumschlag / dust cover; sig.; 1. Ed. ISBN: 0-06-118935-9
0-06-118935-9 Fine in Fine Dust Jacket Dust Jacket Design By Allison Saltzman; Dust Jacket Photograph Lynn James/Getty Images; Book Design By Cassandra J. Pappas

First printing of Ecco hardcover edition. xxvi, 292pp. Orange quarter-cloth, black cloth, black ink spine lettering, blind-stamped publisher device front cover. Dust jacket price 25.95. Signed by Dexter to first blank page. Book and dust jacket appear in fine, unread condition. No remainder marks. "Pete Dexter (born 1943) is an American novelist. He was the recipient of the 1988 National Book Award for Fiction for his novel 'Paris Trout'. Dexter was born in Pontiac, Michigan. After his father died, when Dexter was four, he and his mother moved to Milledgeville, Georgia, where she married a college physics professor. He was a columnist for the Philadelphia Daily News, the The Sacramento Bee, and syndicated to many newspapers such as the Seattle Post-Intelligencer. Prior to that he worked for what is now The Palm Beach Post in West Palm Beach, Florida, but quit in 1972 because the paper's owners forced the editorial page editor to endorse Richard Nixon over George McGovern. He began writing fiction after a life-changing 1981 incident in which thirty drunken Philadelphians in the neighborhood of Grays Ferry, armed with baseball bats and upset by a recent column about a drug deal-gone-wrong murder, beat the writer severely. The brother of the homicide victim was a bartender at a Grays Ferry bar and Dexter and his friend Randall "Tex" Cobb went to the bar to talk to him because the family had called the newspaper to complain. In the fight that occurred outside the bar in the street, Cobb received a broken arm that helped end his professional boxing career, and Dexter was hospitalized with a several injuries, including a broken back, pelvic bone, brain damage, and dental devastation. Dexter lives and writes on Whidbey Island in the Puget Sound area of the state of Washington." - wikipedia. In the 1970s and 1980s, before he earned national acclaim for his award-winning novels ['Paris Trout'. 'Deadwood', 'God's Pocket' et al], Pete Dexter was a newspaper columnist. Every week, in a few hundred words, Dexter cut directly to the heart of the American character at a time of national turmoil and crucial change. With haunting urgency, his columns laid bare the violence, hypocrisy, and desperation he saw on the streets of Philadelphia and in the places he visited across the country. But he reveled, too, in the lighter side of his own life, sharing scenes with the indefatigable Mrs. Dexter, their young daughter, and a series of unforgettable creatures who strayed into their lives. No matter what caught Dexter's eye, it was illuminated by his dark, brilliant humor. Collected here for the first time are eighty-two of the best of those spellbinding, finely wrought pieces - with a new introduction by the author - assembled by Rob Fleder, editor of the bestselling 'Sports Illustrated 50th Anniversary Book'. 'Paper Trails' is searing, heart-breaking, and irresistibly funny, sometimes all at once. As Pete Hamill says in his foreword, these essays "are as good as it ever gets." " - dust jacket front flap. Signed by Author First Edition Fine Hard Cover 8vo - over 7¾" - 9¾" tall; First Edition

[SW: ESSAYS (single author)]

Details

Tiano, Jack. The American Bartenders School Guide to Drinks. New York, N. Y.: The Rutledge Press,
8vo ; 160 pages with index and note pages for your own drink recipes. Good plus hardback BCE with fair plus DJ, previous owner's name in ink inside first fly page. Copyright 1981 by author and publisher. Cover photo by Gordon Smith. Photographed at Harper's Restaurant, Darien, Connecticut. Edited by Jay Hyams and Sharyn Perlman. "From the experts - the one-and-only absolutely essential bar guide...with over 240 recipes fro the world's most popular drinks. Now you can do it at home - be a professional bartender who knows how to: Buy for and set up the perfect bar; Pour, stir, and mix the right way; Select the best size and shape glass; Create any kind of drink you want. Since 1968 the American Bartenders Scholl has trained thousands of men and women in the art of mixology. " ! ! Book & Read on!!.

Book Club (BCE/BOMC), Cloth, G/P.

[SW: Adult Beverages Entertaining Recipes Liqueur Liquor Mixology,]

Details

HANLEY, JAMES. A WOMAN IN THE SKY. New York: Horizon Press, 1973.
Turquoise cloth boards and spine, gilt title and author to spine. Upper corner bumped. DW not price clipped, black ping and light blue lettering. Limited printing of only 1500 copies printed. James Hanley, Dublin, Ireland, 1901-1985, novelist, playright, short story writer. First American edition. sm 8 vo., 224 pp. Photo of Hanley smoking to rear flap, ad for Another World to rear dw. Fine clean copy, in mylar jacket.

First American edition Hanley's second novel. With compassion, and without judgment Hanley writes a story of loneliness and age, and the need for saving the ties of companionship. His two female characters lean on each other and alcohol to ease the hardship of their ives. Against a background of awkward but well meaning strangers, social worker, bartender, kind neighbors, the desolation, and vulnerability of these women is revealed. Cloth Near Fine in Fine DJ

[SW: A Woman In The Sky first Edition, James Hanley first edition, Novels of Lonliness Aging Novel, James Hanley first edition, Aging companionship]

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