This book will not teach you how to fight physically, but mentally–how martial arts training can give you a powerful, mental edge and a strong mindset. It's a book about how martial arts helped me on my personal journey–how martial arts helped me realize the power of respect, discipline, and honor. It will show the importance of controlling your focus and not letting anger, frustration, or fear destroy you. This is a simple story of an ordinary man who deeply has enjoyed growing and traini...

My name is Anthony Vano and I recently retired as a bartender. 'Tip the Bartender' is a collection of anecdotes, stories and conversations collected during my twenty years of slinging drinks from behind a bar.My favorite part of bartending is that it offers countless opportunities for amazing conversations with guests and fellow bartenders alike. Everybody has a story to tell or a confession to make. An exciting achievement. A haunting regret. A record to set straight. A powerful "...

'The Van In My Mind' presents four short stories featuring desperate people at a crossroads–grappling for meaning, purpose, and second chances.In "Angel In Vegas," a burned-out, numbed-out, mid-career advertising exec named Gus meets a mysteriously congenial soul at a Las Vegas casino. Can the old man persuade Gus to recover his spark–before it's too late?Motivational speaker and guru "Frank the Tank" peddles self-help and business advice to sold out arenas. If audiences un...

'The Van In My Mind' presents four short stories featuring desperate people at a crossroads--grappling for meaning, purpose, and second chances.In "Angel In Vegas," a burned-out, numbed-out, mid-career advertising exec named Gus meets a mysteriously congenial soul at a Las Vegas casino. Can the old man persuade Gus to recover his spark--before it's too late?Motivational speaker and guru "Frank the Tank" peddles self-help and business advice to sold out arenas. If audiences ...

In this hilarious follow-up to the bestseller I Funny, middle schooler Jamie Grimm is ready for the national comedy semi-finals ... but when his family and friends need his help, will he have to put his dreams on hold?In this follow up to the #1 New York Times bestseller I Funny, middle schooler Jamie Grimm has big dreams of being the best stand-up comic in the world-and he won't let the fact that he's wheelchair-bound stand in his way. After winning the N...

Comedian Mike Birbiglia’s hilarious New York Times bestseller is now a major motion picture co-written and produced by Ira Glass (This American Life) starring Birbiglia and Emmy-nominated actress Lauren Ambrose (Six Feet Under).Finalist for the Thurber Prize for American HumorSleepwalk with Me is a comedic memoir, but I’m only thirty-two years old, so I’d hate for you to ...

With his hated father dead, a man's life takes a dangerous turn.He doesn't cry when his father, Frank, dies. The old man was an abusive, self-absorbed drunk, and when cancer takes him to his deathbed, his son is there to watch. At Frank's final moment he leans over and whispers in his ear, letting the dying man know that he's glad to see him go.His only inheritance is a heavy, leather-bound book. He has never seen it before, and has trouble believing that hi...

Truth and lies are two sides of the same coin. But who's flipping it? A thought-provoking and brilliantly entertaining work of nonfiction from one of the world's leading deceivers, the creator and star of the astonishing theater show and forthcoming film In & Of Itself.Derek DelGaudio believed he was a decent, honest man. But when irrefutable evidence to the contrary is found in an old journal, his memories are reawakened and Derek is forced to confront--a...

From the Grammy-nominated star of Saturday Night Live and his equally talented sister comes a delightfully cynical look at life through a half-full glass.I HATE THIS PLACE is the book for anyone who's ever tired of crossing to the sunny side of the street, looking for that elusive pot of gold at the end of the rainbow, or reading self-help books that are meant to bring peace and prosperity. Guaranteed to shatter illusions, extinguish all hope, and keep the ...

She hasn’t been on a date in over a decade…Jackie Wagner is better now, thanks. Her divorce is final, she’s taken up painting to relax, and best of all—her kids are doing fine. But when her ex-husband announces it’s time to sell the house, Jackie scrambles to find enough money so her kids can stay where they’ve grown up. The problem is that her résumé is pretty dusty, and she has zero job skills other than being a wife and mother.Then a plum job falls in he...

An ex-con hits the streets of L.A. to find her twin sister’s killer. Is it a mission of justice—or a quest for vengeance?Cody Bonner, identical twin, daughter of a major movie star, a teenage street kid in Los Angeles, a bank robber at nineteen, and a prison inmate at twenty. When she’s released after six years, she returns to L.A. with a purpose: to learn the truth about her sister Julie, who washed up on a Malibu beach a year earlier. The connection between the t...

**In this thrilling and candid memoir, world record-holding and controversial Big Wave surfer Garrett McNamara—star and subject of the HBO mini-series, 100 Foot Wave—chronicles his emotional quest to ride the most formidable waves on earth.Garrett McNamara set the world record for the sport, surfing a seventy-eight-foot wave in Nazaré, Portugal in 2011, a record he smashed two years later at the same break. Propelled by the challenge and promise of bigger, more di...