This "raucous retelling of the life of a consummate gambler, grifter and quintessential American character" (Kirkus Reviews) introduces Alvin "Titanic" Thompson (1892-1974), who traveled with golf clubs, a .45 revolver, and a suitcase full of cash. A terrific read for anyone who has ever laid a bet, Titanic Thompson recaptures the colorful times of a singular figure.

New York City, 1964. A young woman is stabbed to death on her front stoop a murder the New York Times called a frozen moment of dramatic, disturbing social change. The victim, Catherine Kitty Genovese, became an urban martyr, butchered by a sociopathic killer in plain sight of thirty-eight neighbors who didn t want to get involved. Her sensational case provoked an anxious outcry and launched a sociological theory known as the Bystander Effect.

That s the narrative told by the Times, movies, TV programs, and countless psychology textbooks. But as award-winning author Kevin Cook reveals, the Genovese story is just that, a story. The truth is far more compelling and so is the victim.

Now, on the fiftieth anniversary of her murder, Cook presents the real Kitty Genovese. She was a vibrant young woman unbeknownst to most, a lesbian a bartender working (and dancing) her way through the colorful, fast-changing New York of the 60s, a cultural kaleidoscope marred by the Kennedy assassination, the Cold War, and race riots. Downtown, Greenwich Village teemed with beatniks, folkies, and so-called misfits like Kitty and her lover. Kitty Genovese evokes the Village s gay and lesbian underground with deep feeling and colorful detail.

Cook also reconstructs the crime itself, tracing the movements of Genovese s killer, Winston Moseley, whose disturbing trial testimony made him a terrifying figure to police and citizens alike, especially after his escape from Attica State Prison.

Drawing on a trove of long-lost documents, plus new interviews with her lover and other key figures, Cook explores the enduring legacy of the case. His heartbreaking account of what really happened on the night Genovese died is the most accurate and chilling to date."

Baseball honors legacies-from cheering the home team to breaking in an old glove handed down from father to son. In The Dad Report, award-winning sportswriter Kevin Cook weaves a tapestry of uplifting stories in which fathers and sons-from the sport's superstars to Cook and his own ball-playing father-share the game. Almost two hundred father-son pairs have played in the big leagues. Cook takes us inside the clubhouses, homes, and lives of many of the greats. Aaron Boone follows grandfather Bob, father Ray, and brother Bret to the majors-three generations of All-Stars. Barry Bonds and Ken Griffey Jr. strive to outdo their famous dads. Michael Jordan walks away from basketball to play minor-league baseball-to fulfill his father's dream. In visiting these legendary families, Cook discovers that ball-playing families are a lot like our own. Dan Haren regrets the long road trips that keep him from his kids. Ike Davis and his father, a former Yankee, debate whether Ike should pitch or play first base. Buddy Bell leads a generation of big-leaguers determined to open their workplace-the clubhouse-to their kids. Framing The Dad Report is the story of Kevin Cook's own father, Art Cook, a minor-league pitcher, a loveable rogue with a wicked screwball. In Art's later years, Kevin phoned him almost every night to talk baseball. They called those nightly conversations "the Dad Report." In time, Kevin came to see that these conversations were about much more than the game. That's what this book is about: the way fathers and sons talk baseball as a way of talking about everything-courage, fear, fun, family, morality, mortality, and how it's not whether you win or lose that counts, it's how you share the game.

The first biography of the beloved entertainer who broke the prime-time color barrier
When "The Flip Wilson Show" debuted in 1970, black faces were still rare on television and black hosts nonexistent. Then came Flip--to instant acclaim. His show dueled "Marcus Welby, M.D." for the top spot in the ratings. His characters and catchphrases fixed themselves in America's consciousness, and he helped launch new talent, including Richard Pryor and George Carlin. But how did Clerow Wilson, a motherless Jersey City grade-school dropout, become the celebrity heralded on the cover of "TIME" as "TV's First Black Superstar"? Drawing on interviews with family, friends, and celebrities, Kevin Cook offers an inspiring salute to a self-made star who fell from grace, but not before blazing a trail for generations of entertainers to come.