“Beth Raymer’s crackling, hilarious memoir ricochets through the gambling underworld in Las Vegas, and is peopled with all manner of lovable wack-jobs, none of whom is quite as wacky—or lovable—as Raymer herself.”—Marie Claire Beth Raymer waited tables at a dive in Las Vegas until a customer sent her to see Dink, of Dink Inc., one of the town’s biggest professional sports gamblers. Dink needed a right-hand man—someone who would show up on time, who had a head for numbers, and who didn’t steal. Beth got the job. Lay the Favorite is the story of Beth’s years in the high-stakes, high-anxiety world of sports betting—a period that saw the fall of the local bookie and the birth of the freewheeling, unregulated offshore sports book, and with it the elevation of sports betting in popular culture. As the business explodes, Beth rises from assistant to expert, running an offshore booking office in the Caribbean. As the men around her succumb to their vices—money, sex, drugs, gambling—Beth improbably emerges with her integrity intact, wiser, sharper, nobody’s fool. A keen and compassionate observer of the adrenaline-addicted roguish types who become her mentors, her enemies, her family, Beth Raymer depicts an insanely colorful world teeming with pathos and ecstasy. NOW A MAJOR MOTION PICTURE “Candid, smart, funny, wild and crazy.”—Elle “Raymer gleefully shatters the myth of the modern gambler. . . . Seduced by her stories, we long for this strange, sleazy and alluring landscape.”—Los Angeles Times “[Raymer depicts] a sordid, florid microworld lurching along the edge of society, not to mention legality. . . . She never condescends or indulges in reality-show caricature; she finds charm in the charmless, a point of light in the most lost of souls.”—The New York Times Book Review “Lay the Favorite reads more like a novel than a memoir. The rich characters are drawn in depth, yet simply and honestly.”—The Wall Street Journal “Entertaining (and often quite funny) . . . a delight to read.”—The New Yorker
An eye-popping and hilarious joyride through the underworld of sports betting. Beth Raymer arrived in Las Vegas in 2001, hoping to land a job as a cocktail waitress at one of the big casinos. In the meantime, she lived in a $17-a-night motel with her dog, Otis, and waited tables at a low-rent Thai restaurant. One day, one of her regular customers told her about a job she thought Beth would be perfect for and sent her to see Dink, of Dink Inc. Dink was a professional sports gambler--one of the biggest in Vegas. He was looking for a right-hand man--someone who would show up on time, who had a head for numbers, and who didn't steal. She got the job. Lay the Favorite is the story of Beth Raymer's years in the high-stakes, high-anxiety world of sports betting--a period that saw the fall of the local bookie and the rise of the freewheeling, unregulated offshore sports book, and with it the elevation of sports betting in popular culture. As the business explodes, Beth rises--from assistant to expert, trusted and seasoned enough to open an offshore booking office in the Caribbean with a few associates, men who leave their families up north to make a quick killing, while donning new tropical personas fueled by abundant drugs and local girlfriends, and who one by one succumb to their vices. They lie, cheat, steal, and run, until Beth is the last man standing" -- from publisher's web site.
A young woman trapped in a deeply dysfunctional family in the seedy wilds of 1990s South Florida has to make a choice—save her family, or save herself—in this “riveting” (The Atlanta Journal-Constitution) novel from the acclaimed author of Lay the Favorite. “Marvelous . . . a hopelessly funny, rueful account of [a] hair-raising childhood . . . a true heroine for tough times.”—People (Book of the Week) A Jennette McCurdy Book Club Pick “Florida, we got it all. Motor sports, ribs, beer. You can drive on the sand right on up to the ocean. Fireworks every night.” That's how twelve-year-old C.C.’s father, who named her after his beloved Canadian Club whiskey, describes the appeal of their new home. The man is a born grifter, a used-car salesman who burned down his dealership in southern Ohio for enough insurance money to set up a life for himself, his wife, and his two young daughters in a place he picked largely at random, because the living seemed easy. C.C.’s mother is thirty-five going on seventeen, a housewife who just wants to drive a Mustang and hang out at the mall. C.C.’s sister goes from being a sweet, cheerful pre-teen to having a full-on drug addiction and listening only to heavy metal, after enduring forms of abuse within her family. In the midst of this chaos, C.C. is trying to stay afloat and make it out—to achieve some semblance of a stable life in America while coming up against the structural and cultural challenges of growing up in poverty. This tumultuous coming-of-age novel features an unforgettable protagonist, a character who narrates her life story with dark comedy and compassion for her family, even as she is failed by them. Those failures—and her self-taught methods for succeeding anyway—are the backbone of this surprisingly poignant story about hard bargains, family loyalties, and the grit of a woman determined to create a better life for herself than the one she was born into.
“Beth Raymer’s crackling, hilarious memoir ricochets through the gambling underworld in Las Vegas, and is peopled with all manner of lovable wack-jobs, none of whom is quite as wacky—or lovable—as Raymer herself.”—Marie Claire Beth Raymer waited tables at a dive in Las Vegas until a customer sent her to see Dink, of Dink Inc., one of the town’s biggest professional sports gamblers. Dink needed a right-hand man—someone who would show up on time, who had a head for numbers, and who didn’t steal. Beth got the job. Lay the Favorite is the story of Beth’s years in the high-stakes, high-anxiety world of sports betting—a period that saw the fall of the local bookie and the birth of the freewheeling, unregulated offshore sports book, and with it the elevation of sports betting in popular culture. As the business explodes, Beth rises from assistant to expert, running an offshore booking office in the Caribbean. As the men around her succumb to their vices—money, sex, drugs, gambling—Beth improbably emerges with her integrity intact, wiser, sharper, nobody’s fool. A keen and compassionate observer of the adrenaline-addicted roguish types who become her mentors, her enemies, her family, Beth Raymer depicts an insanely colorful world teeming with pathos and ecstasy. NOW A MAJOR MOTION PICTURE “Candid, smart, funny, wild and crazy.”—Elle “Raymer gleefully shatters the myth of the modern gambler. . . . Seduced by her stories, we long for this strange, sleazy and alluring landscape.”—Los Angeles Times “[Raymer depicts] a sordid, florid microworld lurching along the edge of society, not to mention legality. . . . She never condescends or indulges in reality-show caricature; she finds charm in the charmless, a point of light in the most lost of souls.”—The New York Times Book Review “Lay the Favorite reads more like a novel than a memoir. The rich characters are drawn in depth, yet simply and honestly.”—The Wall Street Journal “Entertaining (and often quite funny) . . . a delight to read.”—The New Yorker
A young woman trapped in a deeply dysfunctional family in the seedy wilds of 1990s South Florida has to make a choice—save her family, or save herself—in this “riveting” (The Atlanta Journal-Constitution) novel from the acclaimed author of Lay the Favorite. “Marvelous . . . a hopelessly funny, rueful account of [a] hair-raising childhood . . . a true heroine for tough times.”—People (Book of the Week) A Jennette McCurdy Book Club Pick “Florida, we got it all. Motor sports, ribs, beer. You can drive on the sand right on up to the ocean. Fireworks every night.” That's how twelve-year-old C.C.’s father, who named her after his beloved Canadian Club whiskey, describes the appeal of their new home. The man is a born grifter, a used-car salesman who burned down his dealership in southern Ohio for enough insurance money to set up a life for himself, his wife, and his two young daughters in a place he picked largely at random, because the living seemed easy. C.C.’s mother is thirty-five going on seventeen, a housewife who just wants to drive a Mustang and hang out at the mall. C.C.’s sister goes from being a sweet, cheerful pre-teen to having a full-on drug addiction and listening only to heavy metal, after enduring forms of abuse within her family. In the midst of this chaos, C.C. is trying to stay afloat and make it out—to achieve some semblance of a stable life in America while coming up against the structural and cultural challenges of growing up in poverty. This tumultuous coming-of-age novel features an unforgettable protagonist, a character who narrates her life story with dark comedy and compassion for her family, even as she is failed by them. Those failures—and her self-taught methods for succeeding anyway—are the backbone of this surprisingly poignant story about hard bargains, family loyalties, and the grit of a woman determined to create a better life for herself than the one she was born into.
Derived from years of actual experience in conducting bereavement support groups with grieving children, this unique program offers direct advice and tools for creating and conducting your own bereavement support group for children. The Leader Manual gives step-by-step instructions for establishing the support group, along with activities for each individual session. The manual discusses the rationale and objectives behind bereavement programs, explains common grief reactions of children, and provides several techniques and skills that are particularly effective in grief counseling. The accompanying Participant Workbook contains worksheets for daily activities, and thus allows participants to see the program content in written form, while increasing communication with parents or guardians through the exchange of personal and emotional information. The workbook fosters participant interaction with its series of activity specific worksheets, which require written comments and drawings. The which require written comments and drawings. The six-step program is designed for children between the ages of 6 and 15, and contains sections devoted to death and grief, feelings and self-esteem, expression of grief, memories, funerals, and healing and coping skills. The new edition includes: an expanded number of sessions to accommodate the need for a lengthier healing process; a new session entitled Expression of Grief, which encourages participants to express their feelings, and which reassures bereaved children that they are not isolated in their experiences and feelings; new and revised activities appear throughout the leader manual, including Death Experience Discussion, Picture of Life/Death, Feelings Bingo, Funeral Story, and Telling about Your Death Experience; The participant workbook includes an updated and expanded bibliography section in each session. Leader Manual This manual provides rationale and objectives, procedures for establishing the program, grief reactions counseling.
This introductory theology text helps students articulate basic Christian doctrines, think theologically so they can act Christianly in a diverse world, and connect Christian thought to their everyday lives of faith. Written from a solidly evangelical yet ecumenically aware perspective, this book models a way of doing theology that is generous and charitable. It attends to history and contemporary debates and features voices from the global church. Sidebars made up of illustrative quotations, key Scripture passages, classic hymn texts, and devotional poetry punctuate the chapters. The first edition of this book has been well received (over 25,000 copies sold). Updated and revised throughout, this second edition also includes a new section on gender and race as well as new end-of-chapter material connecting each doctrine to a spiritual discipline.
“In this era of bountiful visual, qualitative and informationalised knowledge of the social world a conscientious guide to social research is ever more valuable…this is a knowledgeably written, highly engaging and genuinely interesting book." Dr Pamela Odih BSoc.Sc. PhD. Senior Lecturer Goldsmiths University of London, UK “A timely focus on intersectionality, decoloniality, as well as digital, participatory, collaborative methods and the relationship between knowledge, power and action, are all compelling new additions” Anastasia Christou, Associate Professor of Sociology, Middlesex University, UK “This is the best kind of companion for social researchers: a clear, concise, and practical overview of the foundations of the field…grounded in critical reflection about ethics and power, and skilfully assembled to both support and inspire.” Dr Oliver Escobar, Senior Lecturer, University of Edinburgh, UK “The longevity of May and Perry’s ‘Social Research’ is richly deserved…combining a sophisticated approach to the unity of theory, method, and context, with clarity and approachability.” Malcolm Williams, Professor and Co-Director of the Q-Step Centre, Cardiff University, UK “Equally valuable for the newcomer and the experienced researcher, the book is elegantly structured and beautifully written, as is always the case with May and Perry’s work.” Davydd J. Greenwood, Goldwin Smith Professor of Anthropology Emeritus, Cornell University, USA Corresponding Member, Spanish Royal Academy of Moral and Political Sciences Fully revised and updated, Social Research: Issues, Methods and Process 5th edition bridges the gap between theory and methods in social research and clearly illuminates these essential components for understanding the dynamics of social relations. The book is divided into three parts. Part One examines the issues and perspectives in social research, Part Two discusses the methods and Part Three is devoted to reflections on the process of research. Updates to this edition include: • Two new chapters on working across boundaries and digital research, reflecting critical developments that are shaping the landscape of social research • Broadening consideration of issues including intersectionality and de-colonial research methods, along with the relationship between knowledge, power, and action • Revised ‘Discuss, Discover, Do’ sections with expanded suggestions for follow-on activities • Carefully integrated reflections and lessons learned from the COVID-19 pandemic throughout to draw attention to critical issues The authors aim to support and inspire, with a clear and accessible writing style that enables students to identify the key issues in social research and how to successfully navigate them. Social Research 5e is the ideal companion to social research for students across the social sciences and for academics and practitioners wishing to remain well-informed on key developments in the field. Beth Perry is Professor of Urban Knowledge and Governance, and Director of the Urban Institute at the University of Sheffield, UK. Tim May is a Professorial Fellow at the University of Sheffield, UK and an Honorary Distinguished Professor at the University of Cardiff, UK.
Author, speaker, visionary, and founder of Living Proof Ministries Beth Moore has devoted her whole life to helping women across the globe come to know the transforming power of Jesus. An established writer of many acclaimed books and Bible studies for women on spiritual growth and personal development, Beth now unveils her own story"--
With humor and practical advice Baby Changes Everything encourages and guides over-35 new moms or "moms again" in emotional adjustments, medical issues, and changes in their relationships with others.
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