A double-helping of Sandra Bullock comedies. In 'Miss Congeniality' (2000), when the Miss United States beauty pageant receives a threat from a notorious criminal, hardnosed FBI agent Gracie Hart (Bullock) is assigned to go undercover as a contestant in the competition and track him down. Gracie is none too happy about this, and when top expert Victor Melling (Michael Caine) arrives to help transform her from a tomboy into a convincingly elegant Miss New Jersey, she proves to be a most difficult student. Nevertheless, after Gracie enters the pageant, she soon forms a strong bond with her fellow contestants, and begins to worry for their safety as the killer continues to elude arrest. In the sequel, 'Miss Congeniality 2' (2005), things haven't been going so well for Gracie lately. Reeling from a broken romance and frustrated to find her newfound fame is jeopardizing the undercover work she loves, Gracie reluctantly agrees to serve the Bureau in the only way possible: coifed and styled for the talk show circuit as 'the face of the FBI'. Though resistant at first, she soon warms to the attention and it's not long before she's getting into her new role a little too much. Her new partner Sam Fuller (Regina King), a tough, ambitious agent who is clearly not her biggest fan, is the first to point out that the pampered Bureau star is turning into FBI Barbie. But when Gracie's best friend, pageant winner Cheryl Frazier (Heather Burns), and emcee Stan Fields (William Shatner), are kidnapped in Las Vegas, Gracie's crime-fighting instincts kick back in. Not wanting to risk losing their greatest PR asset, the FBI top brass forbid her to get involved and charge Sam with keeping her in line. But when it comes to breaking a difficult case and helping her friends, there's nothing Gracie won't do.

Building suppliers, manufacturers, trade contractors, real estate brokers-if you sell products or services to home builders, this book will increase your success rate and business savvy. Learn the types of builders and what will get you in the door and writing orders. Steve Monroe draws on over 30 years of sales wisdom to provide proven tools that assess where you stack up as a sales or service professional, motivate you, and polish your performance, whether you aim to serve small-volume, custom, or large production builders. This second edition includes a companion CD with exercises that help you evaluate your current business practices and guide you to become an even more successful salesperson. The CD also has easy-to-use business forms that will bolster the amount of business you are doing with builders.

Dateline Chicago, 1946: Policy, the illegal lottery, makes millions of dollars for racketeers in Chicago's black community. But the numbers don't add up when kingpin Ed Jones is kidnapped. Who grabbed him? The mob? Another policy wheel operator? And why? Gus Carson, World War II veteran, a survivor of the sinking of his ship in the Pacific. A Chicago cop, he's suspended for a late night shooting at a brothel. Enter wealthy politico Arvis Hypoole. He hires Gus to find Jones. The caveat: He's got one week to do it. The challenge: Everyone's looking for Jones and most don't want to find him alive. Author Steve Monroe offers another slice of underworld life told through fact-based fiction. And his protagonist, Carson, is the conduit to the intrigue. Haunted and violent, he staves off pressure with a wisecrack or a hard cross to the jaw. He navigates through a world of gambling, nightlife, shady politics and murder, all the while seeking much more than the kidnapping victim. He's seeking redemption. And there is only one time and one city in which he can find it: '46, Chicago.

A slice of underworld life, '57, Chicago is a fact-based fictional thriller. The banker's dead-a mob killing with repercussions. Money's tied up. Three men are on a collision course: Al. He's a layoff bookie, thinks he can live as a middleman between his customers and the Outfit. His credo: Never take a position. The Lip. Desperate and dangerous, he's a fight promoter trying to create the fight of a lifetime. The Hammer. A great black hope. He's a boxer, thrust into an uncomfortable limelight. A potential heavyweight champ, his biggest fight is with himself. The cops swarm. The gangsters rage. One night. One fight. No way they can all win. The heat's intense, the stakes are high and the outcome's impossible to predict. The mystery: Who makes it out alive? It's a bloody, savage night in '57, Chicago.

Present day: A major mob bust going down. The FBI pulls back surveillance, a killer flees. There's slaughter in the 'burbs of Chicago; a murderer heads downtown. Why did he do it? Where is he going? Above all, what will he do next? Detective Wallace Greer and his partner, Romar Jones, are hot on the killer's trail. They give chase through the Gold Coast and its tony restaurants, under the El in the East Loop, by Lake Michigan and the Chicago River, following the evidence, but always slightly behind; bodies mark the route. Five days in a cold Chicago winter. Motives collide. Psyches split. There's no rest, no time; it's all angles and action. They have to head off the killer, prevent killings too close to home. But can they catch him? Kill him? There's only one way to find out.

"Bobby the Lip, " a scheming, down-on-his-luck sports promoter, intends to score big by setting up -- and fixing -- a bout between a big-time heavyweight and a young black contender. But everyone wants a piece of the action, and the Lip finds himself having to outsmart a hungry little crowd of crooks, bookies, detectives, and mob goons.

High bets knock the odds in the air as both the police and the mob begin to close in on the Lip, smelling the fix and a profit. And just before the big night, a couple of dead bodies turn up, threatening to upset the big plan.

Thick with period color and detail, Monroe's well-received debut novel brings a city and its dark underside to thrilling life, illuminating an era.

A scheming, down-on-his-luck sports promoter, Bobby the Lip tries to come up with a big score by arranging--and fixing--a bout between the reigning heavyweight boxing champ and a young African-American contender, only to find himself caught in a web of corruptions, underworld goons, police probes, a