In this heartfelt memoir from one of the youngest recipients of the transorbital lobotamy, Howard Dully shares the story of a painfully dysfunctional childhood, a misspent youth, his struggle to claim the life that was taken from him, and his redemption.At twelve, Howard Dully was guilty of the same crimes as other boys his age: he was moody and messy, rambunctious with his brothers, contrary just to prove a point, and perpetually at odds with his parents. Yet some...

Before Frank Shamrock became known professionally as "The Legend"—winning almost every mixed martial arts title in existence—he endured a childhood marred with abuse, neglect, and molestation that led to an equally troubled young adulthood. This riveting book tells his whole story: his neglect as a child by his hippie mother and absentee father, his salvation under the foster father who took him in when no one else would, his desperate act of armed robbery and subsequent incarceration in s...

Revised and Updated in September 2020!Secret Walks: A Walking Guide to the Hidden Trails of Los Angeles is a sequel to the popular Secret Stairs: A Walking Guide to the Historic Staircases of Los Angeles, and features another collection of exciting urban walks through parks, canyons, and neighborhoods unknown and unseen by most Angelinos. Each walk is rated for duration, distance, and difficulty, and is accompanied by a map.The walks, like...

It is 1955 in Las Vegas. Sammy and Satchmo are headlining the big hotels - where the casino operators and the color bar say a black man can't buy a drink or a meal or a room. Until now. The Chicago mob man Mo Weiner is bankrolling ex-boxer Worthless Worthington Lee and the city's first all-black hotel-casino. The Ivory Coast is rising up from the dust, on the wrong side of town. And out of the shadows steps Deacon, a white horn player with a dark past and a genius for jazz. Mo mistakes him...

Revised and Updated in September 2020!Containing walks and detailed maps from throughout the city, Secret Stairs highlights the charms and quirks of a unique feature of the Los Angeles landscape, and chronicles the geographical, architectural, and historical aspects of the city’s staircases, as well as of the neighborhoods in which the steps are located.From strolling through the classic La Loma neighborhood in Pasadena to walking the Sunset Juncti...

Containing walks and detailed maps from throughout the city, Secret Stairs highlights the charms and quirks of a unique feature of the Los Angeles landscape, and chronicles the geographical, architectural, and historical aspects of the city’s staircases, as well as of the neighborhoods in which the steps are located.From strolling through the classic La Loma neighborhood in Pasadena to walking the Sunset Junction Loop in Silver Lake, to taking the Beachwood Canyon hike thr...

If you ask Nicholas Borelli II--better known as Nicky Deuce--winter in New Jersey is awfully boring compared to summertime in Brooklyn, where he had the best two weeks of his life. Now it's cold out, he's back in school, and he has to live without Grandma Tutti's home cooked Italian meals and Uncle Franklie's funny tough-guy attitude.But not for long! Nicky's father is throwing a New Year's Eve party and the whole family is going to stay at their house and the gang from Brooklyn is...

In this New York Times bestselling book, the police chief who led one of the most suspenseful manhunts in American history takes readers behind the headlines into the notorious “D.C. sniper” case that held the nation spellbound.In October 2002, ordinary Americans feared for their lives, too frightened to pump gas at the local station or let their children play outside. For twenty-three nightmarish days, a series of random sniper killings terrorized the Washington, D.C. are...

Revised and Updated in September 2020!The hills of the East Bay contain one of the finest and densest urban hiking environments in the state of California—more than 400 paved pathways and public staircases lattice up and down the slopes of Berkeley and Oakland alone. Rising high above the city centers, with towering views of the San Francisco Bay, the Bay Bridge, and San Francisco itself, these elegant civic walking trails—many of them shaded in oaks and redwoods, ...

Attention would-be paesans: Can’t distinguish “gabagool” from “pasta fazool”? Not sure how to properly accessorize your track suit with gold chains? Does the phrase “go to the mattresses” make you sleepy? Now Steven R. Schirripa, The Sopranos’ own Bobby Bacala, exposes the inner mysteries of this unique Italian-American hybrid in A Goomba’s Guide to Life so that anyone can walk, talk, and live like a guy “from the neighborhood.”Über-goomba Steve S...

Move over Miss Lonelyhearts . . . Steven R. Schirripa, author of the runaway bestseller A Goomba’s Guide to Life, is back with more life lessons from the neighborhood. Recalling stories of his own colorful journey from the streets of Bensonhurst to the bright lights of Las Vegas and stardom as Bobby “Bacala” Baccalieri in the HBO hit series The Sopranos, Schirripa observes the finer points of amore in all its forms—love for his mother and her Sunday sauce, his wife and ki...

A gut-wrenching memoir by a man who was lobotomized at the age of twelve.Assisted by journalist/novelist Charles Fleming, Howard Dully recounts a family tragedy whose Sophoclean proportions he could only sketch in his powerful 2005 broadcast on NPR's All Things Considered."In 1960," he writes, "I was given a transorbital, or 'ice pick' lobotomy. My stepmother arranged it. My father agreed to it. Dr. Walter Freeman, the father of the American lobotomy, told me he wa...