When master storyteller D. J. Herda left Chicago, he took forty years of memories with him. Now he has unleashed them all in their wild-and-wooly, sexually charged, hit-and-hit-harder glory. Whimsical, haunting, riveting, and erotically packed, these are the stories of life in the Windy City. All the cops, dicks, cons, dames, skirts, and criminals a body could ever hope to meet. Or maybe not! You'll lose yourself in these hauntingly vivid tales that run the gamut from Crime and Punishment to Humor, Pathos, Spirituality, and Coming-of-Age. All here in Chi-Town Blues. Among the stories unfolding within this book:1. Double Jeopardy - A story of life, love, and lethargy at play when a con sets out to run a grift and nearly gets taken for the ride of his life, instead.2. Fisher of Men - A curious mix of a young man, his favorite uncle, and their fishing trip to Lake Michigan ... and murder's doorstep.3. Greatness - How a drunk and a loser can...

Expecting to treat some mildly ill children from the streets of Bolivia on a quick “service trip,” an idealistic young medical student gets more than he bargained for when he takes a year off from Harvard Medical School to work at an orphanage in La Paz. As he comes to know the children, and sees how they live, Chi Huang is drawn deeper and deeper into their complex and desperate lives. The doctor soon realizes that to truly help these children, he will have to follow the example of Jesus: live among them, love them in spite of their brokenness, and cling to his faith in God's goodness, even when it appears it is nowhere to be found. A true story that will inspire and challenge readers to greater faith and action. The book includes a Foreword by Harvard professor and world-renowned expert on the moral and spiritual development of children, Dr. Robert Coles.

Chi Vu takes the central figure in a traditional Buddhist folktale, a deranged killer who wears his victims' fingers in a garland around his neck, and turns him into a menacing abbatoir worker who carries bloody chunks of meat home to his lodgings in plastic bags, in this suburban Gothic tale set in 1980s Melbourne, when the flight of Vietnamese refugees to Australia was at its height. The novella gives a compelling insight into the relations formed between refugees who have been displaced from their families or their communities, and lead isolated lives haunted by suspicion and fear. At the same time the novella's macabre humour and surreal effects point to redemptive possibilities, in demonstrating how these old fears are played out and resolved in their new settings.

Wong is a chi warrior and a master of weapons. While his skill and focus are unrivaled, a recent revelation has him shaken to the core. Demons and beasts roam the forests. They come with teeth, claws, masks, and swords. Wong is outnumbered and terribly outmatched. What can he do in the face of such odds? He can slay them. And he can bring a few friends along the way. This is a story of Shaolin warriors, monks, ninjas, sumos, and dark creatures of the night. They are bound by conflict, friendship, secrets, and an ancient prophecy that will change everything.

Wong is a chi warrior and a master of weapons. While his skill and focus are unrivaled, a recent revelation has him shaken to the core.

Demons and beasts roam the forests. They come with teeth, claws, masks, and swords. Wong is outnumbered and terribly outmatched. What can he do in the face of such odds? He can slay them. And he can bring a few friends along the way.

This is a story of Shaolin warriors, monks, ninjas, sumos, and dark creatures of the night. They are bound by conflict, friendship, secrets, and an ancient prophecy that will change everything.

In "Tale of the Broken Spoke," Skip Rhodes, an enigmatic tour guide, unknowingly threatens the looters of ancient Native ruins. Skip's sidekick, Kukulkan Bonifacio Baltazar, a half-Mayan, half-Yaqui plumber to the stars, and Lilac Williams, Skip's hot-tempered ex-girlfriend who teaches yoga and firearm training, join together to uncover an artifact smuggling ring and investigate a cold-case murder— all while being distracted by an intergalactic swindle perpetuated by an Arizona sidewinder straight out of the old west. Set in artsy Sedona, Arizona, "Tale of the Broken Spoke" introduces a quirky cast of characters including new age spiritualists, chakra and crystal experts, mystics and fortune tellers, vortex believers, alien researchers and abductees, tribal politicians, and archeologists. In eccentric fashion, these characters provide clues and insight into the mysteries facing Skip and his team.The clues take them deep into red rock canyons and on...

'A long-time confidante of the rain and snow, I am ninety years old. The rain and snow have weathered me, and I too have weathered them'.At the end of the twentieth-century an old woman sits among the birch trees and thinks back over her life, her loves, and the joys and tragedies that have befallen her family and her people. She is a member of the Evenki tribe who wander the remote forests of north-eastern China with their herds of reindeer, living in close sympathy with nature at its most beautiful and cruel.An idyllic childhood playing by the river ends with her father's death and the growing realisation that her mother's and uncle's relationship is not as simple as she thought. Then, in the 1930s, the intimate, secluded world of the tribe is shattered when the Japanese army invades China. The Evenki cannot avoid being pulled into the brutal conflict which marks the first step towards the end of their isolation.In...

The magisterial and authoritative biography of one of the towering and mysterious figures of the twentieth century.Ho Chi Minh's epic life helped shape the twentieth century. But never before has he been the subject of a major biography. Now William Duiker has compiled an astonishing work of history that fills this immense void.A New York Times Notable Book and one of the Los Angeles Times Best Books of 2000.

Heralded as a literary masterpiece and a best-seller in the Chinese-speaking world, The Great Flowing River is a personal account of the history of modern China and Taiwan unlike any other. In this eloquent autobiography, the noted scholar, writer, and teacher Chi Pang-yuan recounts her youth in mainland China and adulthood in Taiwan. Chi's remarkable life, told in rich and striking detail, humanizes the eventful and turbulent times in which she lived.The Great Flowing River begins as a coming-of-age story set against the backdrop of China's war with Japan. Chi depicts life in pre-occupation Manchuria and gives an eyewitness account of life in China during the war with Japan. She tells the tale of her youthful romance with a dashing pilot that ends tragically when he is shot down in the last days of the war. The book describes the deepening political divide in China and her choice to take a job in Taiwan, where she would remain after the Communist victory. Chi...