An accomplished Southern storyteller's colorful reflections on literature, booze, firearms, violence, and sexThis fourth collection of essays by Paul Ruffin highlights his idiosyncratic wit and practiced storytelling skills in memorable autobiographic pieces ranging from the comic to the confessional.The first section, "Things Literary, More or Less," includes the title essay, in which Ruffin takes the reader on a rollicking tour with iconic Southern writer...

Fourteen darkly comic and artfully crafted Deep South tales in the spirit of O'Connor"Mister, most stories about people are sad. The ones about animals sometimes turn out all right, but not them about people," muses a character in master storyteller Paul Ruffin's yarn of obsession and quest "In Search of the Tightrope Walker." Raging against this fated sadness—and often against a deadening and inescapable status quo—the characters in Ruffin's newest collection,

A collection of short stories about the rough and sometimes mysterious watersWriter Paul Ruffin celebrates the mysteries of the sea in the short story collection The Time the Waters Rose. From shrimp boat captains to shipyard workers, Ruffin's characters are men who drink, swear, fight, and sometimes kill, but what unifies them is that all-embracing magic of the Gulf coast and the barrier islands. While some are drawn to the Gulf for its mystery, others ar...

This book traces the evolution of the Browning Automatic Rifle from the Model of 1918, first to face combat in World War I, through its various configurations in all arenas of combat all the way to the present-day1918 A3 SLR developed and manufactured by Ohio Ordnance Works.The Browning Automatic Rifle, known simply as the BAR, was a shoulder-fired light machine gun fed by a twenty-round box magazine of 30-06, the same ammunition used by the 1903 Springfield. Weighing in at under t...

It should come as no surprise that poets are often exceptionally fine cooks, savoring food the way they savor words and at the same time recognizing that just as a gathering of words does not necessarily mean a good poem, neither does a mixture of ingredients necessarily mean a good recipe. In Cooking with the Texas Poets Laureate, the editors, all members of Dr. Paul Ruffin’s 2014 graduate Editing/Publishing class, solicited recipes and food-related poetry and prose from Texas Po...

Lonely Planet's local travel experts reveal all you need to know to plan the trip of a lifetime to Jordan.Discover popular and off the beaten track experiences from seeing the magnificent Rose City of Petra, to learning about Jordan's past through the ancient art of mosaic making, and bathing in the mineral rich waters of the Ma'in hot springs.Build a trip to remember with Lonely Planet's

Lonely Planet's Middle East is our most comprehensive guide that extensively covers all the region has to offer, with recommendations for both popular and lesser-known experiences. Wonder at the enchanting Petra, visit Ancient Egyptian sites and explore the ruins of Persepolis; all with your trusted travel companion.Inside Lonely Planet's Middle East Travel Guide:Lonely Planet's Top Picks - a visually insp...

This anthology of black writers traces the evolution of African-American perspectives throughout American history, from the early years of slavery to the end of the twentieth century. The essays, manifestos, interviews, and documents assembled here, contextualized with critical commentaries from Marable and Mullings, introduce the reader to the character and important controversies of each period of black history. The selections represent a broad spectrum of ideology. Conservative, radical...

When Don Reid published Eyewitness in 1973, the chronicle of his conversion from a supporter of the death penalty to an ardent opponent, the book was an immediate sensation. Perhaps never before in the history of the American penal system has a man witnessed more electrocutions than Reid, who as Associated Press and Huntsville Item representative watched 189 men die in ‘Old Sparky,' as the electric chair in the Texas Department of Corrections' death chamber was not so aff...

The need for both intrinsic and extrinsic fiber optic sensor technologies continues to grow. To meet the demands of this fast expanding applications-driven market, Fiber Optic Sensors, Second Edition presents both the latest advances in fiber optic sensor technology, such as the application of photonic crystal fibers to fiber optic gyroscopes, and recent application opportunities, including the use of fiber optic sensors as a minimally invasive medical treatment.Th...