Chess Bitch, written by the 2004 U.S. Woman's Chess Champion, is an eye-opening account of how today's young female chess players are successfully knocking down the doors to this traditionally male game, infiltrating the male-owned sporting subculture of international chess, and giving the phrase "play like a girl" a whole new meaning. Through interviews with and observation of the young globetrotting women chess players who challenge male domination, Chess Bitch shines a harsh light on the game's gender bias. For those who think of chess as two people sitting quietly across a table, Shahade paints a colorful world that most chess fans never knew existed.

    More like a bounty hunter, but I still put a foot up the @$$ of injustice and bring criminals down. Only, this time things didn't go as planned. This time, as I was delivering my criminals to be placed in the Abaddon Asylum, everything fell apart when an uprising tore down the system and led to my ship exploding before I could get out of there. Now it's up to me and some sexy lady allies (and then some!) I've teamed up with along the way to put things right. But we're not just going to stop the uprising. Our mission goes much deeper than that, into the planet itself where all manner of horrors await. Oh, and we call ourselves the Psychobitches. And yeah, I f@cking own it like a crown. NOTE: Read on, friend, if you're a fan of explosions galore, superpowers and leveling up, monster girls and tiny fairies who are all freaks in the sheets, and crazy ladies who could just as easily slit your throat as bring you to the point of more bliss than you've ever thought possible. Take it, it's yours!

    The Westerfield Trilogy includes: The Westerfield Affair Reserved to the point of being aloof, Lord Westerfield never attended balls or even considered taking a wife... until he met Miss Kitty Stanley and his orderly world turned on end. Determined to have the beautiful and animated sister of his friend from the gambling hall, but doubting his ability to effectively court her, Westerfield strikes a bargain with her brother for her hand.When the gentlemen present Kitty with the deal, she is furious with them both for neglecting to consult her, but her brother insists he will withdraw his support if she does not comply. Angry, she acts out at a ball, causing a scandal that mushrooms further when Lord Westerfield drags her unchaperoned to his home for a firm spanking.Upon baring her for chastisement, Westerfield is swept away by desire, and before he can stop himself he has completed the ruin of her reputation. He offers to release her from the betrothal contract, but her brother insists instead on a hasty marriage. As they attempt to recover from the scandal, their marriage is clouded by his shame and her insecurities. Will they have the courage to move past their rough beginning to kindle the passion they both crave? The Reddington Scandal When Phoebe's brother-in-law catches the notorious rake Lord Fenton in his home late at night, half-dressed and obviously attempting escape, he flies into a rage. In a desperate measure to avert bloodshed, Phoebe claims she is Lord Fenton's lover, thereby forcing him to take her as his wife to avoid a scandal.Knowing full well a philanderer like Teddy Fenton could never remain faithful, Phoebe intends to resist his charm rather than fall in love. Her handsome husband respects her request for a marriage in name only, but his marital dominance manifests itself in other ways. She soon learns that while he will not force her to his bed, Teddy is more than willing to take her over his knee and spank her bare bottom when her behavior warrants it.Teddy had never intended to take a wife, but upon having wed Phoebe, he is perplexed to discover that he now wants nothing more than to win the affection of his new bride. But just when it seems he might succeed, secrets from her past threaten to destroy their chance at happiness. Can this couple come to love one another as befits a man and wife, or will their marriage end in scandal after all? The Darlington Incident When spymaster John Andrews receives word that plans are afoot to sell England's secrets to her enemies during the Ides of March ball at the Westerfield Estate, he is determined to bring an end to this treasonous game. Posing as a gentleman by the name of Lord Darlington to stake out the event, he is ready for anything as he mingles with the members of the ton... except falling for his prime suspect, the lovely wallflower Miss Eliza Hunt, in whose trunk the secret documents are soon found.After new evidence leads him to believe Eliza may be innocent, John cannot wait to catch the traitors, clear her of all suspicion, and then ask for her hand. Though he fears he is not the sort of man worth having as a husband, he knows that if he wants Eliza as his own he will need to face the demons of his past and lay claim to the title and the birthright he abandoned long ago.Eliza knows Lord Darlington is not the gentleman he purports to be, but he is the first man to see beyond the birthmark on her face and treat her like a beautiful woman.

    Stephen Moss sets out to master its mysteries, and unlock the secret of its enduring appeal. What, he asks, is the essence of chess? And what will it reveal about his own character along the way?In a witty, accessible style that will delight newcomers and irritate purists, Moss imagines the world as a board and marches across it, offering a mordant report on the world of chess in 64 chapters--64 of course being the number of squares on the chessboard. He alternates between "black" chapters--where he plays, largely uncomprehendingly, in tournaments--and "white" chapters, where he seeks advice from the current crop of grandmasters and delves into the lives of great players of the past.It is both a history of the game and a kind of "Zen and the Art of Chess"; a practical guide and a self-help book: Moss's quest to understand chess and become a better player is really an attempt to escape a lifetime of dilettantism. He wants to become an expert at one thing. What will be the consequences when he realizes he is doomed to fail?Moss travels to Russia and the US--hotbeds of chess throughout the 20th century; meets people who knew Bobby Fischer when he was growing up and tries to unravel the enigma of that tortured genius who died in 2008 at the inevitable age of 64; meets Garry Kasparov and Magnus Carlsen, world champions past and present; and keeps bumping into Armenian superstar Levon Aronian in the gents at tournaments.He becomes champion of Surrey, wins tournaments in Chester and Bury St Edmunds, and holds his own at the famous event in the Dutch seaside resort of Wijk aan Zee (until a last-round meltdown), but too often he is beaten by precocious 10-year-olds and finds it hard to resist the urge to punch them. He looks for spiritual fulfilment in the game, but mostly finds mental torture.

    But the galaxy is spiraling into all-out war.Captain Chhun's Dark Ops squad is reunited with Wraith. When their mission to deny Goth Sulluss the shipyards he so eagerly desires goes awry, Chhun and Wraith must find a way to stop the Black Fleet's advance - even if it costs them their lives.Meanwhile, an old friend from Nether Ops executes a covert operation that will turn the focus of the Last War of the Republic in a terrible new direction.Following Goth Sullus's ruthless onslaughts against the Republic, a desperate House of Reason searches for scapegoats - and finds one, deserving or not, in Commander Ellek Owens. His sentence is cruel, unjust - and final. Unless Victory Squad has anything to say about it.In the Umnar system, the soulless menace known as the Cybar seeks to break Prisma Maydoon - and to set the stage for the total annihilation of not only the Republic, but all life in the galaxy.

    Their father was murdered, leaving them sitting in their spaceship waiting for his return. They remember almost nothing from before that time, when two Calavari who were business associates of their father took them in and told them they could never be seen outside their full body armor. They've honored their father's dying wish, living and working on the Calavari's farm while exploring the barren wastelands looking for bits of technological salvage from the time before the great cataclysm. They don't know they're Human, just that they're different and they can't show their skin in pubic. The two siblings have lived almost their entire lives in their self-styled body armor and dream of leaving the farm and doing something that mattered...but there's nowhere to go. Nothing to do. Then one day that all changes and Esna is set forth on a rollercoaster ride of a life she could never have expected once the word 'Human' is once again spoken on the planet...only its a word of rage and fear, with the local aliens trying to kill whoever it is applied to, though they've never seen one before. Regardless, the word is tagged to her and she must run...with a little help. -------------- Excerpt from 'Lost Destiny': “Donovan!” he called out, running towards him with plodding footsteps as his nose picked up the scent of burnt flesh even before he saw the hole in the chest plate of the full body armor the man wore. Whatever race he was his blood flowed a sickly red, a fact that he’d prefer to not have known as he leaned over and gripped the man’s shoulders, prying him up into a sitting position. “What happened?” A shaking hand rose up to the neck of his armor, fumbling for the latch that Yammar finally helped him with. The helmet cracked opened with a hiss and the Calavari helped him pull it off, revealing the pale skin beneath that had alarmingly become even more so, now nearly white. “Gladers,” he said, wincing horribly as he half bent over. “Jumped me from behind. I got two of them, but the third…” “Where’s the latch for the chest piece?” Yammar asked, pulling back the cloak that covered most of the hard plates as he looked, but the man took a death grip on his lower arm and locked eyes with him. “My children. In the ship. You have to…please. I’m all they’ve got. They’re dead without you.” “Where’s the latch?” he repeated, searching around with his other three hands and finally finding something that looked promising. He pressed and turned the small button, being rewarded with another hiss as a crack formed along the side beneath the man’s left arm, but suddenly that arm went straight to Yammar’s giant head and gripped it tightly, forcing him to look into the dying man’s eyes. “Promise me. Promise me…” he said, wincing again. “I don’t know anything about your race,” Yammar said, feeling helpless. “Good…” the man spat in a cough but no blood came out of his mouth, though it was continuing to pour out of his chest and seep down over his waistband plates in spurts every time he jerked in pain. “Good. Don’t ask questions…just…make sure they wear armor…in public. Promise me.” “I promise.

    In a body of work spanning over a half-century, he was variously a draughtsman, a printmaker, a sculptor and a painter. This short book is both a biography and a guide to his art. It focuses on the extraordinary works that Henri Matisse made during the last period of his life - the large-scale cut-outs on coloured paper, including his famous Blue Nudes, The Snail and Large Composition with Masks.

    After discovering and exploiting a dungeon-breaking cheat, Markos maxes out his dungeon level and begins to explore the world above his dungeon.When his dungeon helper, Jessica, comes across a dying young man being sexually tormented by a female ogre, Markos' decision to save his life becomes the turning point in Markos' new existence. Upon learning the truth of this new world as one where females dominate in both numbers and social status, Markos settles on a new goal: to conquer the land of Enwald and reassert male dominance as its king! Markos' first target of conquest is the Kingdom of Vessar, where his dungeon is located. Borrowing the body of Sibalt, the young man he saved, Markos journeys across the kingdom in search of information, allies, and companions to help achieve his goal to conquer the kingdom. WARNING: This 93,000 words book contains profanities and numerous mature situations involving sex and violence. In particular, the opening chapter depicts the violent murder of the main character. Furthermore, there are numerous explicit sex scenes as well as the enslavement of the MC's enemies. Reader discretion is advised.

    He certainly didn’t expect to be plunged into a world of politics, demons, monsters, petty drama and angry primordial deities, all while being guided by an off kilter, rant-happy warlock, who has more secrets than Quinn has problems. Nothing he can’t handle, right?

    Then he starts to have strange, unsettling dreams of goals he must reach before shadowy enemies can stop him. When these dreams begin to intrude into his waking life, and he starts to develop unusual abilities, he realizes that he may be more than human. Unfortunately, others realize the truth about DL, and they want his blood--literally!

    Their world-changing technology is sought by the government, and they are forced to go into hiding while they perfect it. Their adventures into orbit and beyond become a global sensation. As they navigate fame, family and those who are determined to stop them, little do they know that their little startup could have galactic consequences once they discover a derelict spaceship.

    The true measure of any leader is his or her ability to react based on past experience and gut feelings, respond in real time to current circumstances, and then to recover quickly and move on with new lessons learned. The Little Book of Leadership combines classic style with the latest innovations to challenges the reader to self-evaluate every facet of their leadership, coaching, and communication abilities in order to better formulate what actions can be taken to improve their natural skills. Ideas and answers are provided for every challenge.Chapters include information about the 12.5 leadership strengths: From insights to legacy and every element in between. Morale, Attitude, Resilience, Opportunity, Guts, Measurement, Coach, Celebration, Next-level, and Lost Secret of Leadership Foreword by Dr. Paul "Doc" Hersey, creator of Situational Leadership Other books by Gitomer: The Sales Bible: The Ultimate Sales Resource, Revised Edition, also by Wiley, The Little Red Book of Selling (Bard Press) The Little Gold Book of YES! Attitude (Pearson) Whereas other books rely on theory or philosophy, The Little Book of Leadership takes leadership into the real world of business, providing proven methods for becoming a successful leader.