This is a history of my relationships from childhood, adolescence, and adulthood. As a black man in America, I was forced to take God and my world around me seriously because I came from a dysfunctional background. I was the youngest of six children of my absent biological father, who I felt did not care for the five black sons he created. My book deals with all factual encounters with reference to my understanding of my relationships. It is important for me to explain to the world that God had my back when I left my home at a tender age to attend this prestigious university. I had no family whatsoever in the Chocolate City, and I was only twenty going on twenty-one by myself. These are my memoirs, my history, and my experiences that God helped me write. I believe I can change the way we look at relationships because many black people in America come from dysfunctional backgrounds, such as a single-parent household. My mother was the father and mother to six children: five boys and one girl. God was clearly in this equation. My book will bring more people together with reference to their newfound relationships. The key to a successful relationship is getting to know a person first before anything else happens, such as sex. In short, there are no perfect persons on earth, and there is no Utopia on earth, so the person you meet may not be the person that is meant to be with you. There should always be a six-month dating period. My book expresses the importance of getting to know their baggage before you make a commitment. My book is the history of my relationships that God allowed me to experience to grow as a black man in America.

DIVThe one essential guidebook to attaining the highest level of card mastery, from false shuffling and card palming to dealing from the bottom and three-card monte, plus 14 dazzling card tricks. /div

Card games offer loads of fun and one of the best socializing experiences out there. But picking up winning card strategies is a bit of a challenge, and though your buddies may think that picking up the rules of the game is easy, winning is a totally different story. With Card Games For Dummies, Second Edition, you’ll not only be able to play the hottest card games around, you can also apply game-winning strategies and tips to have fun and beat your opponents. Now updated, this hands-on guide shows you everything you need to know—the basics, the tricks, and the techniques—to become a master card player, with expanded coverage on poker as well as online gaming and tournaments. Soon you will have the card-playing power to: Pin down your opponents in Texas Hold’em Show off your power in Stud Poker Hit wisely in Blackjack Break hearts ruthlessly in Hearts Mix up the night with Gin and Rummy Build yourself a victory in Bridge Send them fishing in Go Fish This straightforward, no-nonsense guide features great ways to improve your game and have more fun, as well as a list of places to find out more about your favorite game. It also profiles different variations of each game, making you a player for all seasons!

AN INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • A REESE'S BOOK CLUB PICK Tired, stressed, and in need of more help from your partner? Imagine running your household (and life!) in a new way... It started with the Sh*t I Do List. Tired of being the “shefault” parent responsible for all aspects of her busy household, Eve Rodsky counted up all the unpaid, invisible work she was doing for her family—and then sent that list to her husband, asking for things to change. His response was...underwhelming. Rodsky realized that simply identifying the issue of unequal labor on the home front wasn't enough: She needed a solution to this universal problem. Her sanity, identity, career, and marriage depended on it. The result is Fair Play: a time- and anxiety-saving system that offers couples a completely new way to divvy up domestic responsibilities. Rodsky interviewed more than five hundred men and women from all walks of life to figure out what the invisible work in a family actually entails and how to get it all done efficiently. With 4 easy-to-follow rules, 100 household tasks, and a series of conversation starters for you and your partner, Fair Play helps you prioritize what's important to your family and who should take the lead on every chore, from laundry to homework to dinner. “Winning” this game means rebalancing your home life, reigniting your relationship with your significant other, and reclaiming your Unicorn Space—the time to develop the skills and passions that keep you interested and interesting. Stop drowning in to-dos and lose some of that invisible workload that's pulling you down. Are you ready to try Fair Play? Let's deal you in.

In this debut memoir, a James Beard Award-winning writer, whose childhood idea of fine dining was Howard Johnson's, tells how he became one of Paris's most influential food critics Until Alec Lobrano landed a job in the glamorous Paris office of Women's Wear Daily, his main experience of French cuisine was the occasional supermarket éclair. An interview with the owner of a renowned cheese shop for his first article nearly proves a disaster because he speaks no French. As he goes on to cover celebrities and couturiers and improves his mastery of the language, he gradually learns what it means to be truly French. He attends a cocktail party with Yves St. Laurent and has dinner with Giorgio Armani. Over a superb lunch, it's his landlady who ultimately provides him with a lasting touchstone for how to judge food: "you must understand the intentions of the cook." At the city's brasseries and bistros, he discovers real French cooking. Through a series of vivid encounters with culinary figures from Paul Bocuse to Julia Child to Ruth Reichl, Lobrano hones his palate and finds his voice. Soon the timid boy from Connecticut is at the epicenter of the Parisian dining revolution and the restaurant critic of one of the largest newspapers in the France. A mouthwatering testament to the healing power of food, My Place at the Table is a moving coming-of-age story of how a gay man emerges from a wounding childhood, discovers himself, and finds love. Published here for the first time is Lobrano's "little black book," an insider's guide to his thirty all-time-favorite Paris restaurants.

Using everyday items found in most homes, aspiring young magicians can dazzle friends and family with this best-selling kid's guide to performing magic tricks. With the help of this book, young magicians can magically make things appear and disappear, make rubber bands seem to go through fingers, and make ghostly names appear on water tumblers. There are eight fun categories of magic ranging from All Wet to Amazingly Mysterious. Of course, there's Pick-A-Card--Any Card! Each activity includes step- by- step directions complete with hundreds of delightful illustrations. Each trick is followed by an explanation of the scientific or mathematic principles that make it work.