It also features the tale of Scandinavian kings of the Middle Ages who diced for islands.

    It takes guts, grit, gunslinging--and one hell of a woman . . .MEET TENNESSEE SMITH: SHE SHOOTS FROM THE HIP.There aren't many options for an eighteen-year-old girl in the Old West. Especially an orphan like Tennessee Smith. She can either sell her body in a seedy saloon or take her chances as a mail-order bride. Tennie chooses the latter. Joining a wagonload of women across Indian territory, she arrives in the God-forsaken town of Ring Bit, Texas. Her husband-to-be is surprisingly decent. But after tying the knot in a quickie ceremony, he pops even more surprises on her. First, he introduces Tennie to his three young sons. Then he drops dead on their wedding night . . .Some women would hightail it out of there. Not Tennie. She'll do whatever it takes to save the ranch and raise those boys. Rusty is thirteen, Lucas is ten, and Badger is six. They need a mother. Tennie needs a job. And the town needs a marshal. Sure, the local gamblers, outlaws, and thieves have no use for the law. Then again, they never met a lawman, or woman, like Tennessee Smith . . .

    This rich collection, filled with interviews, essays, and color reproductions of testosterone-heavy thirty-five-cent magazines with names like Man's Exploits, Rage, and Escape to Adventure (to name a few), illustrates the culture created to help veterans confront the confusion of jobs, girls, and the Cold War on their return from World War II and the Korean War.Contributions from the original men's magazine talent like Bruce Jay Friedman, Mario Puzo, and Mort Künstler bring the reader inside the offices, showing us how the writers, illustrators, editors, and publishers put together decades of what were then called "armpit slicks." Reproductions of original paintings from Norman Saunders, Künstler, and Norm Eastman are featured within, and Bill Devine's annotated checklist of the many thousands of adventure magazines is essential for collectors of the genre.The expanded paperback edition includes wartime illustrations and advertisements from mass-produced magazines that preview the xenophobia and racist ideas later seen throughout men's adventure magazines of the '50s and '60s.

    Rebecca Litchfield is one who couldn t resist the haunting allure of the ruins of the Soviet Union. Time and again she risked radiation exposure, experienced arrest and interrogation, and was accused of espionage while collecting the stunning photography in Soviet Ghosts. Join her on an adventure through the ruins of soviet bloc, never before seen by western eyes. The emotional affect of this poetic collection will keep you coming back for more, while a series of expert articles offer in-depth analysis of the historical context. Contemplate the uncanny and disturbing emotional power of the imagery. Discover the story of the rise and fall of the USSR, the empire whose ghost continues to haunt Europe even today... Features A breathtaking collection of images from Pripyat, Chernobyl Stunning imagery of a vast, ruined Bulgarian communist monument. A road trip through the ruined abandonment in East Germany, Ukraine, Bulgaria, Hungary, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Latvia, Estonia, Lithuania, Croatia and Russia featuring decaying hospitals, military barracks, prisons, spy stations and sports halls and more. Photographer Rebecca Litchfield captures many abandoned locations, which were either part of the Soviet Union or occupied satellite states during this period of history, including forgotten towns, factories, prisons, schools, monuments, hospitals, theatres, military complexes, asylums & death camps across the former communist states. These photographs deliver a compelling narrative of both moral bankruptcy and flawed ideology. Featuring stunning imagery throughout, this compelling road-trip through the old USSR, breathes new life into these forgotten places, finding both beauty and meaning in their post-apocalyptic decay. Extended essays by Tristi Brownett, Neill Cockwill and Professor Owen Evans, offer considerable contextual depth to the locations imbuing them with a wealth of connection and wonder. By virtue of its holistic approach, the book also explores how and why these once thriving communities became abandoned, whether by natural disaster, man-made catastrophe or simply through the march of time."

    However, when her high school crush crosses her radar, she finds herself distracted.When Parker Ritchie loses his father, he’s devastated, but he’s also confused about the stipulation in the will that he get married. His bigger concern is losing the ranch. That is until the girl who got away pops back into his life.When a double date goes wrong, Amelia is in a position to help Parker save legendary Ritchie Ranch, but only if they tie the knot. Questions about who is behind the rash of vandalism on the property and a tragedy in the past threaten to keep them apart.Will Amelia and Parker’s marriage of convenience be exposed or turn into a happily ever after?This is book 1 in the Richie Ranch Clean Cowboy Romance series. Because of a mystery subplot, the first three books are best read in order for a deeper, richer experience. It is a sweet, small-town, cowboy “clean and wholesome” romance that’s Christian faith-friendly without swearing or mature content and contains a happily ever after.

    However, the real appeal of Fred Harvey’s industry, the reason so many people still remember his businesses today, is because of the Harvey Girls.Far more than mere waitresses, the Harvey Girls were a group of courageous young women who ventured west to hire on with Mr. Harvey, not really knowing the scope of the challenges they would be facing. Ultimately, these women became the wives, mothers, daughters, aunts, sisters, and grandmothers who helped populated the west.Using the work experience they gained at Harvey Houses, they also became some of the country’s first female archaeologists, architects, doctors, lawyers, etc. In truth, Harvey Houses were a springboard for the women who helped shape the western half of the United States, in more ways than one, and this introduction to the series unfolds that riveting story.Then, Book 1 of the Harvey Girl series, A Love So Legendary,�tells the story of the first New Mexico Harvey House, set in the rough and tumble, isolated little town of Raton. When Mary Jane Colter hires on as a Harvey Girl, she has dreams that few women of her day and age are allowed to fulfill.Then she meets Tom Gable, the Raton Harvey House manager, and not only finds the love of a lifetime but a man who might just help her chase her wild dreams. Then a dangerous mystery puts their brand-new relationship to the test and risks their very lives.Love and legend collide as Mary Jane and Tom walk right out of the pages of history and into a timeless romance that could only ever take place in New Mexico, the Land of Enchantment. HARVEY HOUSE SERIES BOOK 1 A Love So LegendaryBOOK 2 A Love So UntamedBOOK 3 A Love So FaithfulBOOK 4 A Love So UnstagedBOOK 5 A Love So MiraculousBOOK 6 A Love So HealingBOOK 7 A Love So BoldBOOK 8 A Love So TrueBOOK 9 A Love So DevotedBOOK 10 A Love So EternalBOOK 11 A Love So CourageousBOOK 12 A Love So Enchanting Historical western romance short story series.

    Reginald Bray (1879-1939) was one of an ordinary middle-class Englishman quietly living out his time as an accountant in the leafy suburb of Forest Hill, London. A glimpse behind his study door, however, revealed his extraordinary passion for sending unusual items through the mail. In 1898, Bray purchased a copy of the Post Office Guide, and began to study the regulations published quarterly by the British postal authorities. He discovered that the smallest item one could post was a bee, and the largest, an elephant. Intrigued,he decided to experiment with sending ordinary and strange objects through the post unwrapped, including a turnip, abowler hat, a bicycle pump, shirt cuffs, seaweed, a clothes brush, even a rabbit's skull. He eventually posted his Irish terrier and himself (not together), earning him the name "The Human Letter." He also mailed cards to challenging addressessome in the form of picture puzzles, others sent to ambiguous recipients at hard to reach destinationsall in the name of testing the deductive powers of the beleaguered postman. Over time hispassion changed from sending curios to amassing the world's largest collection of autographs, also via the post. Starting with key British military officers involved in the Second Boer War, he acquired thousands of autographs during the first four decades of the twentieth centuryof politicians, military men, performing artists, aviators, sporting stars, and many others. By the time he died in 1939, Bray had sent out more than thirty-two thousand postal curios and autograph requests. The Englishman Who Posted Himself and Other Curious Objects tells W. Reginald Bray's remarkable tale for the first time and includes delightful illustrations of some of his most amazing postal creations. Readers will never look at the objects they post the same way again.

    A work of extraordinary imaginative invention, it might be described as “novelistic fantasy”—a pioneering new direction in fiction which created its own protean form as it was written. Patchen mingled narrative with dream visions, surrealism with satire, poetry with statements of principle, and explored the then almost uncharted territory of visual word structures twenty years before “Concrete Poetry” became a popular international movement.Sleepers Awake is a rallying cry to young and old, as Patchen advances his long struggle against inhumanity, oppression, war and hypocrisy. Now brutal, now lyrical, he gives us life and the world as we must take these if they are to have full meaning; the horror and the beauty, the joy and the suffering together.

    When the opportunity arises via a newspaper ad, she and her best friend slip away from their oppressive fathers and head for Richmond. Neither can relax until they’re far away from their tiny hometown. With wealthy young widow Lydia Harrison’s help, Josephine and six other young women have a new life waiting in Tarnation, Texas. Michael Buchanan is fairly content running his mercantile and being mayor of Tarnation. The town is dusty and tiny, but it’s growing. He believes it holds all he needs to be happy—except a wife. There are no available women in town, but he hopes Lydia Harrison’s Bride Brigade will offer a woman he can wed. He is immediately attracted to Josephine. But Josephine has every reason to mistrust men in general and politicians in particular. Will her misgivings ruin her chance at happiness?

    Now, Kurt’s bought a ranch and is determined to expand it so his brothers will have a legacy that has nothing to do with the legacy of their past. Finding a wife is not on his to-do list.But he wasn’t counting on sassy Mandy Brown coming to town with her undeniable charm and determination to go for her rodeo dreams.Now he’s got her on his mind and if the Mule Hollow matchmakers have their way he’ll soon have her on his heart.

    He’s a confirmed bachelor, she’s a runaway bride who needs his help.After confirmed bachelor, Cole Tanner catches the garter at his friend’s wedding he finds a dazed and confused runaway bride limping along the back roads of his hometown of True Love, Texas and stops to help.Tulip Jones obviously can’t say no to public marriage proposals—this is her second time to be a runaway bride! She needs help in more ways than one—can Cole teach her how to become a confirmed bachelorette and learn to say no?They’re a perfect match until love gets in the way!The billionaire bachelors of True Love, Texas are about to meet their matches...

    Never before has the story been told with more vitality and immediacy. Fehrenbach re-creates the Texas saga from prehistory to the Spanish and French invasions to the heyday of the cotton and cattle empires. He dramatically describes the emergence of Texas as a republic, the vote for secession before the Civil War, and the state's readmission to the Union after the War. In the twentieth century oil would emerge as an important economic resource and social change would come. But Texas would remain unmistakably Texas, because Texans "have been made different by the crucible of history; they think and act in different ways, according to the history that shaped their hearts and minds."

    Opening up to her son in her final days, his mother makes a stunning revelation of a previous marriage and sends McMurtry on a journey of an entirely different kind. Vividly, movingly, and with infinite care, McMurtry paints a portrait of his parents' marriage against the harsh, violent landscape of West Texas. It is their roots—laced with overtones of hard work, bitter disappointment, and the Puritan ethic—that McMurtry challenges by traveling to Tahiti, a land of lush sensuality and easy living. With fascinating detail, shrewd observations, humorous pathos, and unforgettable characters, he begins to answer some of the questions of what paradise is, whether it exists, and how different it is from life in his hometown of Archer City, Texas.

    A brave woman leaves everything... She leaves everything she knows for a future as a mail-order bride in an exciting new environment with a man she only knows through a single letter. She travels west in the hopes of finding freedom and a man who will love her.Katie Richards escapes the suffocating atmosphere of New York and her parent’s tiny apartment, giving up everything that she knows and trusts. However, one event after another prevents her from meeting her intended and she ends up in Kansas City working in a boarding house full of men.Although she could easily choose one of the men in Kansas City as a husband and forget about Matthew Carson out in Colorado, her loyal character keeps her true and a unexpected mentor shows her how to bring her personal faith to life.Matthew awaits his much-anticipated bride, but when she fails to show, he must go after her or risk losing his ranch.Both of them must pass a test of faith before they can find the future that they both dream of.Find out how God works all things out for the good of those who love him in the Wild West.A story of hope, sacrifice, romance, suspense, friendship, loyalty, and faith to God.This book is a sweet, clean western romance. It is a novella..??? Love In The West Series in Reading OrderBook 1 - The DreamBook 2 - The Newlyweds (Coming in 2 weeks time)Book 3 - Coming soon in 4 weeks time!Book 4 - Coming soon in 6 weeks time!

    Originating in the wild imagination of French poet and playwright Alfred Jarry and his schoolmates, resisting clear definition, purposefully useless, and almost impossible to understand, 'pataphysics nevertheless lies around the roots of Absurdism, Dada, futurism, surrealism, situationism, and other key cultural developments of the twentieth century. In this account of the evolution and influence of 'pataphysics, Andrew Hugill offers an informed exposition of a rich and difficult territory, staying aloft on a tightrope stretched between the twin dangers of oversimplifying a serious subject and taking a joke too seriously. Drawing on more than twenty-five years' research, Hugill maps the 'pataphysical presence (partly conscious and acknowledged but largely unconscious and unacknowledged) in literature, theater, music, the visual arts, and the culture at large, and even detects 'pataphysical influence in the social sciences and the sciences. He offers many substantial excerpts (in English translation) from primary sources, intercalated with a thorough explication of key themes and events of 'pataphysical history. In a Jarryesque touch, he provides these in reverse chronological order, beginning with a survey of 'pataphysics in the digital age and working backward to Jarry and beyond. He looks specifically at the work of Jean Baudrillard, Georges Perec, Italo Calvino, J. G. Ballard, Asger Jorn, Gilles Deleuze, Roger Shattuck, Jacques Pr?vert, Antonin Artaud, Ren? Clair, the Marx Brothers, Joan Mir?, Max Ernst, Marcel Duchamp, James Joyce, Flann O'Brien, Raymond Roussel, Jean-Pierre Brisset, and many others.