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| gangsters guide to sobriety: The Gangster’s Guide to Sobriety Richie Stephens, John Altschuler, Dave Krinsky, 2022-05-24 Richie Stephens is an actor who often plays hardened gangsters and criminals. This is easy for him because he was a drug trafficker, kidnapper, drug addict, alcoholic, and all-around criminal himself. His life twisted and turned in harrowing self-destructive adventures that took him from his native Ireland to San Francisco, Australia, and finally, Los Angeles, coalescing into a classic tale of a man trying to run from his problems by moving to new and more exotic locations—a hard and painful realization that comes at a point in which he’s about to take his own life. The only reason there is a story to tell is because he did not. Instead, he found help, and in doing so, found himself. More than that, he found that help comes in different forms, and oftentimes it just takes the right thought to hit at the right time for it all to make sense. The Gangster’s Guide to Sobriety chronicles Richie’s descent into the abyss of crime and dependency, and how his personal understanding of freedom allowed him to become the functioning positive force he is today. Richie’s story is sprawling and epic, but the key to the book is the same key to his recovery: the 12 Steps. With his own flair and original understanding of life and the world, he followed the 12 Steps to find the clarity he needed to save his own life and evolve into a positive force for others. As Richie says, “Hopefully if people see that someone as fucked up as me could change their life, then there is hope for anyone.” The Gangster’s Guide to Sobriety is gripping in its honesty and openness. Even at its darkest moments, there is a keen understanding of the absurd nature of life as the author comes to grips with his failings and his faith, while also entering a place of self-acceptance. This is a story of redemption and the power of the human spirit, and how sometimes you have to turn to something greater than yourself. |
| gangsters guide to sobriety: The Complete Idiot's Guide to the Mafia, 2nd Edition Jerry Capeci, 2005-01-04 You never go against the family. Here is the most comprehensive introduction to and explanation of the most infamous crime organization in history. Completely updated with more than 70 pages of new material and photographs, it includes information about the shifts in power and tightening of ranks of different families after convictions of their key members; new inside information on the role of the families in Chicago, Boston, Las Vegas, Rochester, and even Montreal; and updates on the DeCavalcante family who bragged they were the real “Sopranos” on FBI wiretaps. • More than 70 pages of new material. • Full of dramatic anecdotes and photos about everything from Capone to Gotti and beyond. • Written by acclaimed expert author and reporter of all things Mafia in his weekly online column “Gang Land” (ganglandnews.com). |
| gangsters guide to sobriety: Cowboys and Gangsters Samuel K. Dolan, 2016-05-02 Even after WWI had ended, the region of Arizona, New Mexico, and West Texas stubbornly refused to be tamed. It was still a place where frontier gunfights still broke out at an alarming rate. Utilizing official records, newspaper accounts, and oral histories, Cowboys and Gangsters tells the story of the untamed “Wild West” of the Prohibition-era of the 1920s and early 1930s and introduces a rogues’ gallery of sixgun-packing western gunfighters and lawmen. Told through the lens of the accounts of a handful of Texas Rangers and Federal Agents, this book covers a unique and action-packed era in American history. It’s a story that connects the horse and saddle days of the Old West, with the high-octane decade of the Roaring Twenties. |
| gangsters guide to sobriety: Smile Now, Cry Later Freddy Negrete, Steve Jones, 2017-02-14 Pioneering black-and-gray tattoo artist Freddy Negrete was twelve years old and confined in the holding cell of a Los Angeles juvenile facility when an older teenager entered—covered in tattoos. Freddy was in awe, not just of the art, but of what it symbolized, and he wanted what this kid had: the potent sense of empowerment and belonging that came from joining a gang. The encounter drove Freddy to join the notorious gang La Sangra, and it didn't take long before he was a regular guest at LA County's juvenile detention facilities. By the age of twenty-one, Freddy had spent almost his whole life as a ward of the state in one form or the other. Enthralled by the black-and-gray tattoo style that in the 1970s was confined to the rebel culture of Chicano gangsters and criminals, Freddy started inking himself with hand-poked tattoos. Everyone wanted a piece of Freddy's black-and-gray style--gangbangers but also Hollywood starlets and film producers. In a riveting narrative that takes the reader from Freddy's days as a cholo gang member to evangelical preacher to Hollywood body art guru to addiction counselor, Smile Now, Cry Later is, ultimately, a testament to that spark within us all, that catalyst which gives us the strength to survive, transform, and transcend all that can destroy us. |
| gangsters guide to sobriety: Barking to the Choir Gregory Boyle, 2017-11-14 In a moving example of unconditional love in difficult times, Gregory Boyle, the Jesuit priest and New York Times bestselling author of Tattoos on the Heart, shares what working with gang members in Los Angeles has taught him about faith, compassion, and the enduring power of kinship. In his first book, Tattoos on the Heart: The Power of Boundless Compassion, Gregory Boyle introduced us to Homeboy Industries, the largest gang-intervention program in the world. Critics hailed that book as an “astounding literary and spiritual feat” (Publishers Weekly) that is “destined to become a classic of both urban reportage and contemporary spirituality” (Los Angeles Times). Now, after the successful expansion of Homeboy Industries, Boyle returns with Barking to the Choir to reveal how compassion is transforming the lives of gang members. In a nation deeply divided and plagued by poverty and violence, Barking to the Choir offers a snapshot into the challenges and joys of life on the margins. Sergio, arrested at age nine, in a gang by age twelve, and serving time shortly thereafter, now works with the substance-abuse team at Homeboy to help others find sobriety. Jamal, abandoned by his family when he tried to attend school at age seven, gradually finds forgiveness for his schizophrenic mother. New father Cuco, who never knew his own dad, thinks of a daily adventure on which to take his four-year-old son. These former gang members uplift the soul and reveal how bright life can be when filled with unconditional love and kindness. This book is guaranteed to shake up our ideas about God and about people with a glimpse at a world defined by more compassion and fewer barriers. Gently and humorously, Barking to the Choir invites us to find kinship with one another and re-convinces us all of our own goodness. |
| gangsters guide to sobriety: An Offer We Can't Refuse George De Stefano, 2007-01-23 The Mafia has maintained an enduring hold on the American cultural imagination--even as it continues to wrongly color our real-life perception of Italian Americans. Journalist and cultural critic De Stefano takes a look at the origins and prevalence of the Mafia mythos in America. Beginning with a consideration of Italian emigration in the early twentieth century and the fear and prejudice--among both Americans and Italians--that informed our earliest conception of what was the largest immigrant group to enter the United States, De Stefano explores how these impressions laid the groundwork for the images so familiar to us today and uses them to illuminate and explore the variety and allure of Mafia stories. At the same time, he addresses the lingering power of the goodfella cliché, which makes it all but impossible to green-light a project about the Italian American experience not set in gangland.--From publisher description. |
| gangsters guide to sobriety: Project Addiction scott a spackey, 2015-11 A Comprehensive usable guide to alter the course of addiction. Each specific drug & behavior is examined in detail.Learn how to Customize recovery strategies. |
| gangsters guide to sobriety: The Motion Picture Guide Jay Robert Nash, Stanley Ralph Ross, 1986 |
| gangsters guide to sobriety: TIP 35: Enhancing Motivation for Change in Substance Use Disorder Treatment (Updated 2019) U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 2019-11-19 Motivation is key to substance use behavior change. Counselors can support clients' movement toward positive changes in their substance use by identifying and enhancing motivation that already exists. Motivational approaches are based on the principles of person-centered counseling. Counselors' use of empathy, not authority and power, is key to enhancing clients' motivation to change. Clients are experts in their own recovery from SUDs. Counselors should engage them in collaborative partnerships. Ambivalence about change is normal. Resistance to change is an expression of ambivalence about change, not a client trait or characteristic. Confrontational approaches increase client resistance and discord in the counseling relationship. Motivational approaches explore ambivalence in a nonjudgmental and compassionate way. |
| gangsters guide to sobriety: Sought Through Prayer and Meditation Geno W., 2010-01-28 An inspiring collection of meditations, prayers, and insights designed to facilitate the weekly practice of the 11th step, heightening our conscious contact with God as we understand him. Each year, hundreds of men and women cross the threshold of the Wolfe Street Center in Little Rock, Arkansas. Many of them attend the Hour of Power, a weekly Sunday morning meeting focused on heightening one's spiritual awareness and growth by focusing on the Eleventh Step of Alcoholics Anonymous: Sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God as we understood Him, praying only for knowledge of His will for us and the power to carry that out. This special book, designed for weekly study, offers a prayer, a meditation, and related insights from the discussions that emerged during the Hour of Power. Sought Through Prayer and Meditation brings the insights of the collective consciousness of the Wolfe Street groups to recovering people everywhere. This book reminds us that if we are vigilant in our spiritual pursuit, we may well achieve what is promised: a glimpse of that ultimate reality which is God's kingdom. (Geno W.) |
| gangsters guide to sobriety: The Sober Lush Amanda Eyre Ward, Jardine Libaire, 2020-06-02 A sober hedonist's guide to living a decadent, wild, and soulful life--alcohol-free. In a culture where sipping rosé all day is seen as the epitome of relaxation, grabbing a drink the only way to network; and meeting at a bar the quintessential first date, many of us are left wondering if drinking alcohol really is the only way to cultivate joy and connection in life. Jardine Libaire and Amanda Eyre Ward wanted to live spontaneous and luxurious lives, to escape the ordinary and enjoy the intoxicating. Their drinking, however, had started to numb them to the present moment instead of unlocking it. Ward was introduced to Libaire when she first got sober. As they became friends, the two women talked about how they yearned to create lives that were Technicolor, beautifully raw, connected, blissed out, and outside the lines . . . but how? In The Sober Lush, Libaire and Ward provide a road map for living a lush and sensual life without booze. This book offers ideas and instruction for such nonalcoholic joys as: • The allure of the Vanish, in which one disappears early from the party without saying goodbye to a soul, to amble home under the stars • The art of creating zero-proof cocktails for all seasons • Having a fantastic first date while completely sober • A primer on setting up your own backyard beehive, and honey tastings For anyone curious about lowering their alcohol consumption or quitting drinking altogether, or anyone established in sobriety who wants inspiration, this shimmering and sumptuous book will show you how to keep indulging in life even if you stop indulging in alcohol. |
| gangsters guide to sobriety: I Am Legend Richard Matheson, 2007-10-30 The one remaining human in a world populated with vampires struggles to survive. |
| gangsters guide to sobriety: The Black Jacobins C.L.R. James, 2023-08-22 A powerful and impassioned historical account of the largest successful revolt by enslaved people in history: the Haitian Revolution of 1791–1803 “One of the seminal texts about the history of slavery and abolition.... Provocative and empowering.” —The New York Times Book Review The Black Jacobins, by Trinidadian historian C. L. R. James, was the first major analysis of the uprising that began in the wake of the storming of the Bastille in France and became the model for liberation movements from Africa to Cuba. It is the story of the French colony of San Domingo, a place where the brutality of plantation owners toward enslaved people was horrifyingly severe. And it is the story of a charismatic and barely literate enslaved person named Toussaint L’Ouverture, who successfully led the Black people of San Domingo against successive invasions by overwhelming French, Spanish, and English forces—and in the process helped form the first independent post-colonial nation in the Caribbean. With a new introduction (2023) by Professor David Scott. |
| gangsters guide to sobriety: Dobermanns Jay Horgan, 2017-11-03 As a breed, Dobermanns have acquired an unjustified reputation as 'devil dogs' due to their courage, loyalty, intelligence and physical strength. This book aims to dispel the myths surrounding this magnificent dog, and shows how Dobermanns can be loving and gentle family pets, as well as their more traditional role as guard dogs. Dobermanns - a practical guide for owners and breeders traces the development of the breed from its early beginnings in the nineteenth century through to the present day, and offers the reader advice on every aspect of rearing and caring for these beautiful dogs.Topics covered include: The history of the breed; Choosing a dog; Health and welfare; Showing and judging; Breeding. Superbly illustrated with 260 colour photographs. |
| gangsters guide to sobriety: Prohibition Edward Behr, 2011-05 Chronicles the Prohibition era in the U.S. from 1920 to 1933; and traces the rise of the Temperance movement, speakeasies, and gangsters including Pretty Boy Floyd, Lucky Luciano, and Al Capone. |
| gangsters guide to sobriety: Girl Walks Out of a Bar Lisa F. Smith, 2016-06-07 Lisa Smith was a bright, young lawyer at a prestigious firm in NYC in the early nineties when alcoholism started to take over her life. What was once a way of escaping her insecurity and negativity became a means of coping with the anxiety and stress of an impossible workload. Girl Walks Out of a Bar is Smith's darkly comic and wrenchingly honest story of her formative years, the decade of alcohol and drug abuse, divorce, and her road to recovery. Smith describes how her spiraling circumstances conspired with her predisposition to depression and self-medication, nurturing an environment ripe for addiction to flourish. Girl Walks Out of a Bar is a candid portrait of alcoholism through the lens of gritty New York realism. Beneath the façade of success lies the reality of addiction. |
| gangsters guide to sobriety: Narconomics Tom Wainwright, 2016-02-23 Picking his way through Andean cocaine fields, Central American prisons, Colorado pot shops, and the online drug dens of the Dark Web, Tom Wainwright provides a fresh, innovative look into the drug trade and its 250 million customers. More than just an investigation of how drug cartels do business, Narconomics is also a blueprint for how to defeat them. How does a budding cartel boss succeed (and survive) in the 300 billion illegal drug business? By learning from the best, of course. From creating brand value to fine-tuning customer service, the folks running cartels have been attentive students of the strategy and tactics used by corporations such as Walmart, McDonald's, and Coca-Cola. And what can government learn to combat this scourge? By analyzing the cartels as companies, law enforcers might better understand how they work -- and stop throwing away 100 billion a year in a futile effort to win the war against this global, highly organized business. Your intrepid guide to the most exotic and brutal industry on earth is Tom Wainwright. Picking his way through Andean cocaine fields, Central American prisons, Colorado pot shops, and the online drug dens of the Dark Web, Wainwright provides a fresh, innovative look into the drug trade and its 250 million customers. The cast of characters includes Bin Laden, the Bolivian coca guide; Old Lin, the Salvadoran gang leader; Starboy, the millionaire New Zealand pill maker; and a cozy Mexican grandmother who cooks blueberry pancakes while plotting murder. Along with presidents, cops, and teenage hitmen, they explain such matters as the business purpose for head-to-toe tattoos, how gangs decide whether to compete or collude, and why cartels care a surprising amount about corporate social responsibility. More than just an investigation of how drug cartels do business, Narconomics is also a blueprint for how to defeat them. |
| gangsters guide to sobriety: America Anonymous Benoit Denizet-Lewis, 2009-01-06 America Anonymous is the unforgettable story of eight men and women from around the country -- including a grandmother, a college student, a bodybuilder, and a housewife -- struggling with addictions. For nearly three years, acclaimed journalist Benoit Denizet-Lewis immersed himself in their lives as they battled drug and alcohol abuse, overeating, and compulsive gambling and sexuality. Alternating with their stories is Denizet-Lewis's candid account of his own recovery from sexual addiction and his compelling examination of our culture of addiction, where we obsessively search for new and innovative ways to escape the reality of the present moment and make ourselves feel better. Addiction is arguably this country's biggest public-health crisis, triggering and exacerbating many of our most pressing social problems (crime, poverty, skyrocketing health-care costs, and childhood abuse and neglect). But while cancer and AIDS survivors have taken to the streets -- and to the halls of Congress -- demanding to be counted, millions of addicts with successful long-term recovery talk only to each other in the confines of anonymous Twelve Step meetings. (A notable exception is the addicted celebrity, who often enters and exits rehab with great fanfare.) Through the riveting stories of Americans in various stages of recovery and relapse, Denizet-Lewis shines a spotlight on our most misunderstood health problem (is addiction a brain disease? A spiritual malady? A moral failing?) and breaks through the shame and denial that still shape our cultural understanding of it -- and hamper our ability to treat it. Are Americans more addicted than people in other countries, or does it just seem that way? Can food or sex be as addictive as alcohol and drugs? And will we ever be able to treat addiction with a pill? These are just a few of the questions Denizet-Lewis explores during his remarkable journey inside the lives of men and women struggling to become, or stay, sober. As the addicts in this book stumble, fall, and try again to make a different and better life, Denizet-Lewis records their struggles -- and his own -- with honesty and empathy. |
| gangsters guide to sobriety: Golden Gulag Ruth Wilson Gilmore, 2007-01-08 Since 1980, the number of people in U.S. prisons has increased more than 450%. Despite a crime rate that has been falling steadily for decades, California has led the way in this explosion, with what a state analyst called the biggest prison building project in the history of the world. Golden Gulag provides the first detailed explanation for that buildup by looking at how political and economic forces, ranging from global to local, conjoined to produce the prison boom. In an informed and impassioned account, Ruth Wilson Gilmore examines this issue through statewide, rural, and urban perspectives to explain how the expansion developed from surpluses of finance capital, labor, land, and state capacity. Detailing crises that hit California’s economy with particular ferocity, she argues that defeats of radical struggles, weakening of labor, and shifting patterns of capital investment have been key conditions for prison growth. The results—a vast and expensive prison system, a huge number of incarcerated young people of color, and the increase in punitive justice such as the three strikes law—pose profound and troubling questions for the future of California, the United States, and the world. Golden Gulag provides a rich context for this complex dilemma, and at the same time challenges many cherished assumptions about who benefits and who suffers from the state’s commitment to prison expansion. |
| gangsters guide to sobriety: Many Beautiful Things Vincent Schiavelli, 2010-05-11 Vincent Schiavelli is known to most of us as a character actor who has appeared in such films as Ghost, Man on the Moon, and One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. Schiavelli grew up in Brooklyn, speaking both Sicilian and English at home. Some of his earliest memories are of sitting at the kitchen table while his grandparents told stories of the life and the people they had left behind in Polizzi Generosa, a small city in the Madonie Mountains of Sicily. As Schiavelli grew older, those stories, and the city about which they were told, took on a mythic quality. When he was nearly forty he made his first trip there, and what he found was more extraordinary than the once upon a time fables of his childhood. In Many Beautiful Things, Schiavelli invites readers to join him in discovering the people, culture, and food of the city that has, in essence, become his second home. Equal parts memoir and cookbook, it is the best of both. Schiavelli is an accomplished and elegant writer who evokes a foreign and often closed culture from a unique perspective: an outsider fluent in the language with still-strong familial ties. The recipes -- which reflect the ancient influences of Greece, North Africa, and Spain -- are simple, rustic, and delicious, depending on local products and seasonal bounty. This is not your usual Southern Italian fare but a unique regional cuisine: Pumpkin Caponata, Ditali with Drowned Lettuce, Fried Ricotta Omelet, Potato Gratin with Bay Leaves, Almond Love Bites, Veal Shoulder Roasted with Marsala, and Baked Pasta with Almonds (rigatoni baked in a pork ragu with chopped toasted almonds) are just a few of the extraordinary dishes you'll find in this book, all of which can be reproduced by cooks with delectable results. Schiavelli provides a comprehensive list of mail-order sources. And if you want to visit Polizzi Generosa, there's a guide on how to get there, where to stay, and where to eat. Illustrated with black-and-white line drawings by Polizzi's best known artist, Santo Lipani (who also happens to be an extraordinary cook), Many Beautiful Things is a feast, both culinary and literary. |
| gangsters guide to sobriety: An Invisible Thread Laura Schroff, Alex Tresniowski, 2012-08-07 A cloth bag containing eight copies of the title, that may also include a folder. |
| gangsters guide to sobriety: The Scandal of Father Brown G. K. Chesterton, 2000-11-06 In this fifth and final set of Father Brown mysteries G K Chesterton's short, shabby priest continues, in his humorous, effortless but powerfully effective way to solve a wide range of high crimes and misdemeanours. |
| gangsters guide to sobriety: A Renegade History of the United States Thaddeus Russell, 2011-07-05 From the Publisher: In this groundbreaking book, noted historian Thaddeus Russell tells a new and surprising story about the origins of American freedom. Rather than crediting the standard textbook icons, Russell demonstrates that it was those on the fringes of society whose subversive lifestyles helped legitimize the taboo and made America the land of the free. In vivid portraits of renegades and their respectable adversaries, Russell shows that the nation's history has been driven by clashes between those interested in preserving social order and those more interested in pursuing their own desires - insiders versus outsiders, good citizens versus bad. The more these accidental revolutionaries existed, resisted, and persevered, the more receptive society became to change. Russell brilliantly and vibrantly argues that it was history's iconoclasts who established many of our most cherished liberties. Russell finds these pioneers of personal freedom in the places that usually go unexamined - saloons and speakeasies, brothels and gambling halls, and even behind the Iron Curtain. He introduces a fascinating array of antiheroes: drunken workers who created the weekend; prostitutes who set the precedent for women's liberation, including Diamond Jessie Hayman, a madam who owned her own land, used her own guns, provided her employees with clothes on the cutting-edge of fashion, and gave food and shelter to the thousands left homeless by the 1906 San Francisco earthquake; there are also the criminals who pioneered racial integration, unassimilated immigrants who gave us birth control, and brazen homosexuals who broke open America's sexual culture. Among Russell's most controversial points is his argument that the enemies of the renegade freedoms we now hold dear are the very heroes of our history books - he not only takes on traditional idols like John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, Andrew Carnegie, John Rockefeller, Thomas Edison, Franklin Roosevelt, and John F. Kennedy, but he also shows that some of the most famous and revered abolitionists, progressive activists, and leaders of the feminist, civil rights, and gay rights movements worked to suppress the vibrant energies of working-class women, immigrants, African Americans, and the drag queens who founded Gay Liberation. This is not history that can be found in textbooks - it is a highly original and provocative portrayal of the American past as it has never been written before. |
| gangsters guide to sobriety: The Alcoholic Self Norman K. Denzin, 1987-01-01 Denzin offers a uniquely phenomenological approach to explain the development of an alcoholic's sense of self that is fragmented, defensive and subjective. He discusses behavioural and psychoanalytic theories of the problem and considers the views of alcoholics themselves. He places the disease within a broader social context, arguing that the alcoholic's internal conflicts reflect the dichotomies and contradictions in society. |
| gangsters guide to sobriety: Panther Baby Jamal Joseph, 2012-02-07 In the 1960s he exhorted students at Columbia University to burn their college to the ground. Today he’s chair of their School of the Arts film division. Jamal Joseph’s personal odyssey—from the streets of Harlem to Riker’s Island and Leavenworth to the halls of Columbia—is as gripping as it is inspiring.Eddie Joseph was a high school honor student, slated to graduate early and begin college. But this was the late 1960s in Bronx’s black ghetto, and fifteen-year-old Eddie was introduced to the tenets of the Black Panther Party, which was just gaining a national foothold. By sixteen, his devotion to the cause landed him in prison on the infamous Rikers Island—charged with conspiracy as one of the Panther 21 in one of the most emblematic criminal cases of the sixties. When exonerated, Eddie—now called Jamal—became the youngest spokesperson and leader of the Panthers’ New York chapter.He joined the “revolutionary underground,” later landing back in prison. Sentenced to more than twelve years in Leavenworth, he earned three degrees there and found a new calling. He is now chair of Columbia University’s School of the Arts film division—the very school he exhorted students to burn down during one of his most famous speeches as a Panther.In raw, powerful prose, Jamal Joseph helps us understand what it meant to be a soldier inside the militant Black Panther movement. He recounts a harrowing, sometimes deadly imprisonment as he charts his path to manhood in a book filled with equal parts rage, despair, and hope. |
| gangsters guide to sobriety: The Mob and the City C. Alexander Hortis, 2014-05-06 Forget what you think you know about the Mafia. After reading this book, even life-long mob aficionados will have a new perspective on organized crime. Informative, authoritative, and eye-opening, this is the first full-length book devoted exclusively to uncovering the hidden history of how the Mafia came to dominate organized crime in New York City during the 1930s through 1950s. Based on exhaustive research of archives and secret files obtained through the Freedom of Information Act, author and attorney C. Alexander Hortis draws on the deepest collection of primary sources, many newly discovered, of any history of the modern mob. Shattering myths, Hortis reveals how Cosa Nostra actually obtained power at the inception. The author goes beyond conventional who-shot-who mob stories, providing answers to fresh questions such as: * Why did the Sicilian gangs come out on top of the criminal underworld? * Can economics explain how the Mafia families operated? * What was the Mafia's real role in the drug trade? * Why was Cosa Nostra involved in gay bars in New York since the 1930s? Drawing on an unprecedented array of primary sources, The Mob and the City is the most thorough and authentic history of the Mafia's rise to power in the early-to-mid twentieth century. |
| gangsters guide to sobriety: TV Guide , 1999 |
| gangsters guide to sobriety: The Family Corleone , 2012-05-08 An exhilarating and profound novel of tradition and violence and of loyalty and betrayal, The Family Corleone will appeal to the legions of fans who can never get enough of The Godfather. New York, 1933: The city and the nation are in the depths of the Great Depression. The crime families of New York have prospered in this time, but with the coming end of Prohibition, a battle is looming that will determine which organizations will rise and which will face a violent end. For Vito Corleone, nothing is more important that his family's future. While his youngest children, Michael, Fredo, and Connie, are in school, unaware of their father's true occupation, and his adopted son Tom Hagen is a college student, he worries most about Sonny, his eldest child. Vito pushes Sonny to be a businessman, but Sonny-17 years-old, impatient and reckless-wants something else: To follow in his father's footsteps and become a part of the real family business. |
| gangsters guide to sobriety: Tattoos on the Heart Greg Boyle, 2011-02-08 How do you fight despair and learn to meet the world with a loving heart? How do you overcome shame? Stay faithful in spite of failure? No matter where people live or what their circumstances may be, everyone needs boundless, restorative love. Gorgeous and uplifting, Tattoos on the Heart amply demonstrates the impact unconditional love can have on your life. As a pastor working in a neighborhood with the highest concentration of murderous gang activity in Los Angeles, Gregory Boyle created an organization to provide jobs, job training, and encouragement so that young people could work together and learn the mutual respect that comes from collaboration. Tattoos on the Heart is a breathtaking series of parables distilled from his twenty years in the barrio. Arranged by theme and filled with sparkling humor and glowing generosity, these essays offer a stirring look at how full our lives could be if we could find the joy in loving others and in being loved unconditionally. From giant, tattooed Cesar, shopping at JCPenney fresh out of prison, we learn how to feel worthy of God’s love. From ten-year-old Lula we learn the importance of being known and acknowledged. From Pedro we understand the kind of patience necessary to rescue someone from the darkness. In each chapter we benefit from Boyle’s wonderful, hard-earned wisdom. Inspired by faith but applicable to anyone trying to be good, these personal, unflinching stories are full of surprising revelations and observations of the community in which Boyle works and of the many lives he has helped save. Erudite, down-to-earth, and utterly heartening, these essays about universal kinship and redemption are moving examples of the power of unconditional love in difficult times and the importance of fighting despair. With Gregory Boyle’s guidance, we can recognize our own wounds in the broken lives and daunting struggles of the men and women in these parables and learn to find joy in all of the people around us. Tattoos on the Heart reminds us that no life is less valuable than another. |
| gangsters guide to sobriety: The Hard Stuff Wayne Kramer, 2018-08-14 The first memoir by Wayne Kramer, legendary guitarist and cofounder of quintessential Detroit proto-punk legends The MC5 Voyeuristically dramatic. -THE NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW In January 1969, before the world heard a note of their music, the MC5 was on the cover of Rolling Stone. Led by legendary guitarist Wayne Kramer, the band was a reflection of the times: exciting, sexy, violent, chaotic, and even out of control. The missing link between free jazz and punk rock, the MC5 toured the country, played alongside music legends, and had a rabid following, their music acting as the soundtrack to the blossoming blue collar youth movement. Kramer wanted to redefine what a rock 'n' roll group was capable of, and though there was power in reaching for that, it was also a recipe for personal and professional disaster. The band recorded three major label albums but, by 1972-it was all over. Kramer's story is (literally) a revolutionary one, but it's also the deeply personal struggle of an addict and an artist, a rebel with a great tale to tell. From the glory days of Detroit to the junk-sick streets of the East Village, from Key West to Nashville and sunny L.A., in and out of prison and on and off of drugs, Kramer's is the classic journeyman narrative, but with a twist: he's here to remind us that revolution is always an option. |
| gangsters guide to sobriety: On Writing Well William Knowlton Zinsser, 1994 Warns against common errors in structure, style, and diction, and explains the fundamentals of conducting interviews and writing travel, scientific, sports, critical, and humorous articles. |
| gangsters guide to sobriety: Oversee God's People Brian Croft, Bryce Butler, 2015-08-04 The Bible gives instruction to those called to church leadership, challenging them to shepherd God’s people by exercising oversight. But what does that mean? And how is it done in a way that is faithful to God and effective in enabling growth, individually and corporately? The Practical Shepherding series of guides provides pastors and ministry leaders with practical help to do the work of pastoral ministry in a local church. In Oversee God’s People, pastors Brian Croft and Bryce Butler unpack what the Bible teaches about administration and the necessity of delegation in congregational leadership, offering practical suggestions to improve the structures, process, and relationships among leaders in your church. |
| gangsters guide to sobriety: Encounters with the nagual Armando Torres, 2004-11-26 Every human being is by right a warrior who has achieved his place in the world in a battle of life and death. Look at it this way, at least once, as sperm, we all fight the bullfight for life - a unique contest against millions of other competitors - and we win! Now the battle continues... A warrior knows that there is no guarantee of triumph over death. Even so, he fights his battle, not because he believes he will win, but because of the emotion of the war itself. For him, to give his war is already a victory. And while he fights he rejoices, because, for those who have already died, every second of life is a gift. I love my children because they are deposits of my energy, my wife because she washes my clothes, she cooks and I catch her, my dog because he takes care of the house, my country because I was born here, my god because he's going to save me.... The sorcerers have discovered the most refined form of love, because they love themselves. They have put the power of passion at the service of being, and it gives them the impetus to undertake the only quest that counts: that of oneself. |
| gangsters guide to sobriety: Hillbilly Elegy J D Vance, 2024-10 Hillbilly Elegy recounts J.D. Vance's powerful origin story... From a former marine and Yale Law School graduate now serving as a U.S. Senator from Ohio and the Republican Vice Presidential candidate for the 2024 election, an incisive account of growing up in a poor Rust Belt town that offers a broader, probing look at the struggles of America's white working class. THE #1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER You will not read a more important book about America this year.--The Economist A riveting book.--The Wall Street Journal Essential reading.--David Brooks, New York Times Hillbilly Elegy is a passionate and personal analysis of a culture in crisis--that of white working-class Americans. The disintegration of this group, a process that has been slowly occurring now for more than forty years, has been reported with growing frequency and alarm, but has never before been written about as searingly from the inside. J. D. Vance tells the true story of what a social, regional, and class decline feels like when you were born with it hung around your neck. The Vance family story begins hopefully in postwar America. J. D.'s grandparents were dirt poor and in love, and moved north from Kentucky's Appalachia region to Ohio in the hopes of escaping the dreadful poverty around them. They raised a middle-class family, and eventually one of their grandchildren would graduate from Yale Law School, a conventional marker of success in achieving generational upward mobility. But as the family saga of Hillbilly Elegy plays out, we learn that J.D.'s grandparents, aunt, uncle, and, most of all, his mother struggled profoundly with the demands of their new middle-class life, never fully escaping the legacy of abuse, alcoholism, poverty, and trauma so characteristic of their part of America. With piercing honesty, Vance shows how he himself still carries around the demons of his chaotic family history. A deeply moving memoir, with its share of humor and vividly colorful figures, Hillbilly Elegy is the story of how upward mobility really feels. And it is an urgent and troubling meditation on the loss of the American dream for a large segment of this country. |
| gangsters guide to sobriety: Substance Use and Abuse Victor N. Shaw, 2002-10-30 While the issues of substance use and abuse have been addressed from a variety of perspectives and approaches, the fundamental social issues have not been covered in any systematic way. This book represents the first academic effort to apply major sociological theories to the field of substance use and abuse in order to provide readers with a solid knowledge base from which they may develop more informed ideas about prevention, intervention, treatment, law enforcement, and social reactions to this ubiquitous social problem. Using a systematic framework, Shaw reviews the existing literature, explains key concepts, addresses fundamental issues, and discusses the policy implications for public health, social control, community, and work. This comprehensive sociological treatment of substance use and abuse is essential reading for educators in public policy, sociology, criminology, and deviance. Applying the major sociological theories of anomie, career, conflict, functionalist, rational choice, social control, social disorganization, social learning, social reaction, and subculture perspectives, Shaw provides an important overview of the issues involved with substance use and abuse. By utilizing such an approach, he demonstrates that public views, governmental policies, intervention strategies, and prevention programming can be informed by the different sociological theories. This unique consideration and analysis illustrates that no single view on substance use and abuse is absolute or sacred. Therefore, considering the issues from a variety of sociological perspectives will bring greater understanding to a pervasive social problem that continues to plague American society. |
| gangsters guide to sobriety: In Order to Live Yeonmi Park, Maryanne Vollers, 2015-09-29 “I am most grateful for two things: that I was born in North Korea, and that I escaped from North Korea.” - Yeonmi Park One of the most harrowing stories I have ever heard - and one of the most inspiring. - The Bookseller “Park's remarkable and inspiring story shines a light on a country whose inhabitants live in misery beyond comprehension. Park's important memoir showcases the strength of the human spirit and one young woman's incredible determination to never be hungry again.” —Publishers Weekly In In Order to Live, Yeonmi Park shines a light not just into the darkest corners of life in North Korea, describing the deprivation and deception she endured and which millions of North Korean people continue to endure to this day, but also onto her own most painful and difficult memories. She tells with bravery and dignity for the first time the story of how she and her mother were betrayed and sold into sexual slavery in China and forced to suffer terrible psychological and physical hardship before they finally made their way to Seoul, South Korea—and to freedom. Park confronts her past with a startling resilience. In spite of everything, she has never stopped being proud of where she is from, and never stopped striving for a better life. Indeed, today she is a human rights activist working determinedly to bring attention to the oppression taking place in her home country. Park’s testimony is heartbreaking and unimaginable, but never without hope. This is the human spirit at its most indomitable. |
| gangsters guide to sobriety: The Consumption of Inequality K. Halnon, 2013-09-18 The fads, fashions, and media in popular consumer culture frequently make recreational and ideological fun of poverty and lower class living. In this book, Halnon delineates how incarceration, segregation, stigmatization, cultural and social consecration, and carnivalization work in the production and consumption of inequality. |
| gangsters guide to sobriety: The Politics of Heroin in Southeast Asia Alfred W. McCoy, Cathleen B. Read, Leonard Palmer Adams, 1973 |
| gangsters guide to sobriety: Not God Ernest Kurtz, 2010-03-26 A fascinating account of the discovery and program of Alcoholics Anonymous, Not God contains anecdotes and excerpts from the diaries, correspondence, and occasional memoirs of AA's early figures. The most complete history of A.A. ever written, this book is a fast-moving and authoritative account of the discovery and development of the program and fellowship that we know today as Alcoholics Anonymous. |
| gangsters guide to sobriety: On Writing Well, 30th Anniversary Edition William Zinsser, 2012-09-11 On Writing Well has been praised for its sound advice, its clarity and the warmth of its style. It is a book for everybody who wants to learn how to write or who needs to do some writing to get through the day, as almost everybody does in the age of e-mail and the Internet. Whether you want to write about people or places, science and technology, business, sports, the arts or about yourself in the increasingly popular memoir genre, On Writing Well offers you fundamental priciples as well as the insights of a distinguished writer and teacher. With more than a million copies sole, this volume has stood the test of time and remains a valuable resource for writers and would-be writers. |
Organized Crime - Real Life - GangsterBB.NET
Organized Crime - Real Life This is for alleged real-life organized crime (a.k.a. Mafia) chat...
GangsterBB.NET - GangsterBB.NET Forums for Mafia Movies & More
Talk about The Godfather & Scarface games, Grand Theft Auto, Gangsters, Vendetta and other video and online games here! Last Post 05/11/25 03:37 PM , by Hollander 599
Active Threads This Week - GangsterBB.NET
Anti-mafia blitz between Villaseta and Porto Empedocle, 19 arrests made AGRIGENTO – Blitz in Agrigento. The Carabinieri of the Investigative Unit, under the command of Colonel Vincenzo …
Gangsters: Organized Crime - GangsterBB.NET Forums for Mafia …
Jan 22, 2005 · Does anyone know if Gangsters: Organized Crime will run on Windows XP? I bought it earlier and after double-clicking on the 'Gangsters' Icon, it says "Sorry... Unable to …
Rockford Crime Family - GangsterBB.NET Forums for Mafia Movies …
Oct 5, 2011 · Like many other cities and especially Chicago, Rockford suddenly became active with bootleggers during the Prohibition era. Two gangsters on opposing sides of the fence …
accurate/current info bonanno family 2022. - GangsterBB.NET
Jan 11, 2022 · -as has become a topic of ongoing disagreements about the state of the mafia in america i thought i would share my thoughts starting with the bonannos. -i don't know if i will …
High-Speed Car Chasing - Chicago Outfit Style
Jun 9, 2023 · The gangsters started playing games with the agents by cutting thru to the opposite lanes at emergency crossings and heading the opposite direction. As they all went south they …
Chicago’s Black Hand Gangs 1910’s - GangsterBB.NET
Mar 4, 2014 · They weren't an organized gang with a leadership structure but a loose association of independent gangsters.There are also many examples of non Italian criminal groups …
THE GARMENT RACKET: HISTORY & OPINION
Nov 16, 2023 · Stereotyping--bigotry by any other name--is very much an ugly part of American life, past and present. Italians have always been smeared with the "Mafia/OC" tag. But,Jewish …
Maltese gangsters in London - GangsterBB.NET Forums for Mafia …
Feb 10, 2013 · The Maltese immigrants in the post-War Era in London had, much like the working class East Enders at the time, quite a reputation. They were known for being violent pimps and …
Organized Crime - Real Life - GangsterBB.NET
Organized Crime - Real Life This is for alleged real-life organized crime (a.k.a. Mafia) chat...
GangsterBB.NET - GangsterBB.NET Forums for Mafia Movies & More
Talk about The Godfather & Scarface games, Grand Theft Auto, Gangsters, Vendetta and other video and online games here! Last Post 05/11/25 03:37 PM , by Hollander 599
Active Threads This Week - GangsterBB.NET
Anti-mafia blitz between Villaseta and Porto Empedocle, 19 arrests made AGRIGENTO – Blitz in Agrigento. The Carabinieri of the Investigative Unit, under the command of Colonel Vincenzo …
Gangsters: Organized Crime - GangsterBB.NET Forums for Mafia …
Jan 22, 2005 · Does anyone know if Gangsters: Organized Crime will run on Windows XP? I bought it earlier and after double-clicking on the 'Gangsters' Icon, it says "Sorry... Unable to …
Rockford Crime Family - GangsterBB.NET Forums for Mafia Movies …
Oct 5, 2011 · Like many other cities and especially Chicago, Rockford suddenly became active with bootleggers during the Prohibition era. Two gangsters on opposing sides of the fence …
accurate/current info bonanno family 2022. - GangsterBB.NET
Jan 11, 2022 · -as has become a topic of ongoing disagreements about the state of the mafia in america i thought i would share my thoughts starting with the bonannos. -i don't know if i will …
High-Speed Car Chasing - Chicago Outfit Style
Jun 9, 2023 · The gangsters started playing games with the agents by cutting thru to the opposite lanes at emergency crossings and heading the opposite direction. As they all went south they …
Chicago’s Black Hand Gangs 1910’s - GangsterBB.NET
Mar 4, 2014 · They weren't an organized gang with a leadership structure but a loose association of independent gangsters.There are also many examples of non Italian criminal groups …
THE GARMENT RACKET: HISTORY & OPINION
Nov 16, 2023 · Stereotyping--bigotry by any other name--is very much an ugly part of American life, past and present. Italians have always been smeared with the "Mafia/OC" tag. But,Jewish …
Maltese gangsters in London - GangsterBB.NET Forums for Mafia …
Feb 10, 2013 · The Maltese immigrants in the post-War Era in London had, much like the working class East Enders at the time, quite a reputation. They were known for being violent pimps and …
