Lombardi's Left Side

Until a mere generation ago, black football players were largely unproven as quarterbacks since they were excluded from a position that demanded strategic thinking instead of brute force. So, talented players headed north, rising to stardom in Canada. John Danakas profiles the pioneering athletes who donned new team colours and changed their sport.

[Fry Reading Level - 4.8]

Twenty years after the fact, the mere mention of the 1992-93 NHL season brings back vivid memories for hockey fans across North America. The last time that the Montreal Canadiens hoisted the Stanley Cup, Wayne Gretzky's last appearance in a playoff final, and Mario Lemieux's most inspirational season, these years are rightly considered some of the greatest in NHL history. Now, in A Season in Time: Super Mario, Killer, St. Patrick, the Great One, and the Unforgettable 1992-93 NHL Season, acclaimed hockey writer Todd Denault looks back to those heady days.

The story of a truly magical age for hockey in North America, a time that came to be known as "the last great season," where hope reigned, where the unthinkable seemed possible, and some of the greatest legends the game has ever seen took to the ice, A Season in Time is a true trip down memory lane. Covering the stories of Mario Lemieux, Wayne Gretzky, Patrick Roy, and Doug Gilmour, and capturing the frenzy and excitement that hasn't been seen since, the book is essential reading for hockey lovers of all ages.

• Captures the passion, the glory, and the magic of one of the greatest NHL seasons of all time
• Celebrates the twentieth anniversary of the 1992-1993 season
• Covers everything from Patrick Roy's legendary goaltending exhibition to Wayne Gretzky's famous high stick on Doug Gilmour to Kerry Fraser's blown call

Insightful and informative, A Season in Time is a loving look back at a season for the ages.

Baggage Claim gives you a first-class peek into the wacky world of Montana Moore, a thirty-five-year-old flight attendant with enough baggage from her past relationships to fill an entire Samsonite showroom. Montana is an incurable romantic. A dreamer. The kind of woman who has her head in the clouds while her heart splatters swiftly to the ground.

With her mother having just tied the knot for a record-breaking fourth time and her baby sister, Sheree, rushing to jump the broom, five-time maid of honor Montana is dangerously close to becoming not only the oldest, but the only woman in her entire family never to be married.

Having convinced herself that there's no way in heaven or hell she's showing up at her sister's Christmas Eve engagement party without a prospect of her own, Montana concocts her wildest and most romantically ridiculous plan yet: a thirty-day, thirty-thousand-mile trek in search of a husband.

Will it be Damon Diesel, a young hip-hop producer whose motto is "Making the green scream and the dolla holla!"? Or will she win over the Reverend Curtis P. Merewether, pastor and founder of Greater House of Deliverance, Tabernacle of Praise, Worship, and Miracles? Of course Langston Jefferson Battle III, superattorney turned city councilman, needs a wife now that his sights are set on the United States Congress. Or perhaps her lifelong mate is Quinton Jamison, a multimillionaire textile guru twenty years her senior. Only time -- or the lack of it -- will tell.

Morgan Chase, a thirty-four-year-old contracts lawyer, is pushed to her romantic wit's end when she discovers that her boyfriend of nine months, investment banker Marcus Alexander, has been diversifying his "portfolio" with another woman. After a few hours of venting with her girlfriends, and more than a few drinks, Morgan decides that the only way you can guarantee that a man will act right after you've been intimate is if you make him sign a contract before you've been intimate.

That very same night, Morgan heads back to the office to create the first-ever relationship contract -- a legal document full of conditions, consideration, and most important, consequences.

Sparks fly, tempers flare, and emotions hit the fan when the man Morgan finally convinces to sign her contract is caught red-handed with another woman. What follows is an ingeniously plotted and thoroughly entertaining fusion of comedy, romance, and courtroom mayhem.

Detective Stephen Caracappa achieved the distinguished rank of first grade detectve while under the hire of the Luchese crime family.

Detective Louis Eppolito worked the heart of Brooklyn's mobland; he himself was the son of a Gambino crime family soldier.

Detective William Oldham, the lead investigator on major organized-crime cases, quietly and relentlessly tracked Caracappa and Eppolito for more than seven years.

The Brotherhoods is the riveting account of the notorious rogue cops charged with murdering for the mob, and the brilliant detective who stalked them. With unparalleled access to both the NYPD and organized crime, a gallery of unforgettable characters, and sweeping from Manhattan to Las Vegas to Hollywood, this is the ultimate wiseguy story, packed with psychological intrigue, criminal audacity, and paranoid, blood-soaked fury.

Now with updates on the trial's shocking outcome and the ongoing legal battle.