"A riotous journey into the heart of insanity also known as the State of Florida. Bravo!"--Gary Shteyngart, author of&nbsp;Lake Success Florida, circa 1980. Reed Crowe, the eponymous Florida Man, is a middle-aged beach bum, beleaguered and disenfranchised, living on ill-gotten gains deep in the jungly heart of Florida. When sinkholes start opening on Emerald Island, not only are Reed Crowe's seedy businesses--a moribund motel and a shabby amusement park--endangered, but so are his secrets. Crowe, amateur spelunker, begins uncovering artifacts that change his understanding of the island's history, as well as his understanding of his family's birthright as pioneering homesteaders.&nbsp; Meanwhile, there are other Florida men with whom Crowe must contend. Hector "Catface" Morales, a Cuban refugee, trained assassin, and crack-addicted Marielito, is seeking revenge on Reed for stealing his stash of drugs and leaving him for dead (unbeknownst to Reed) in the wreckage of a plane crash in the Everglades decades ago. Loner and misanthrope Henry Yahchilane, a Seminole native, has something to hide on the island. So does irascible and pervy Wayne Wade, Reed Crowe's childhood friend turned bad penny. Then there are the Florida women, including Heidi Karavas, Reed Crowe's ex-wife, now a globe-trekking art curator, and Nina Arango, a Cuban refugee and fiercely protective woman with whom Reed Crowe falls in love. There are curses. There are sea monsters. There are biblical storms. There's something called the Jupiter Effect. Ultimately, Florida Man is a generation-spanning story about how a man decides to live his life, and how despite staying landlocked and stubbornly in one place, the world nevertheless comes to him.

Florida Man: A Novel

Humor & Entertainment

Cooper, Tom

Humor

Random House]

Random House Trade Paperbacks

When the BP oil spill devastates the Gulf coast, those who made a living by shrimping find themselves in dire straits. For the oddballs and lowlifes who inhabit the sleepy, working class bayou town of Jeannette, these desperate circumstances serve as the catalyst that pushes them to enact whatever risky schemes they can dream up to reverse their fortunes. At the center of it all is Gus Lindquist, a pill-addicted, one armed treasure hunter obsessed with finding the lost treasure of pirate Jean Lafitte. His quest brings him into contact with a wide array of memorable characters, ranging from a couple of small time criminal potheads prone to hysterical banter, to the smooth-talking Oil company middleman out to bamboozle his own mother, to some drug smuggling psychopath twins, to a young man estranged from his father since his mother died in Hurricane Katrina. As the story progresses, these characters find themselves on a collision course with each other, and as the tension and action ramp up, it becomes clear that not all of them will survive these events.

The Marauders: A Novel

Literature & Fiction

United States

Crown

"A little Elmore Leonard, a little Charles Portis, and very much its own uniquely American self. . .Tom Cooper has written one hell of a novel." –Stephen King When the BP oil spill devastates the Louisiana Gulf Coast, the citizens of the bayou town of Jeanette scramble to replace their lost livelihoods. Among them is one-armed, pill-popping shrimper Gus Lindquist, who has nothing left but the dying glimmer of a boyhood dream: finding the lost treasure of pirate Jean Lafitte. With his metal detector and Pez dispenser full of Oxycontin, Lindquist steers his rickety shrimp boat into the savage Louisiana swamps. Along his journey, Gus meets a motley crew of characters: Wes Trench, a young Cajun man estranged from his father since his mother died in Katrina; Reginald and Victor Toup, sociopathic twin brothers and drug lords; Cosgrove and Hanson, petty criminals searching for a secret that could make them rich, or kill them; and Brady Grimes, a BP middleman out to make his career by swindling the townsfolk of Jeanette, among them his own mother. Funny, dark, and compelling, The Marauders throws these characters on a rollicking collision course that all of them might not survive.

Starting in 1955, and for the following 20 years, MiG-15 and MiG-17 formed the backbone of several Arab air forces. They played a prominent role in four major wars and dozens of minor incidents. Covering the first decade of this period, this study - Arab MiGs, Volume 1, the first in a series of publications - provides a unique and previously unavailable insight into the service history of both types with five Arab air forces. Even more so, it tells the story of people that flew MiG-15s and MiG-17s in Algeria, Egypt, Iraq and Syria. Several of whom became dominant political figures in most recent history of these countries. The reason why Arab countries began purchasing MiGs and thus became embroiled in the Cold War is approached and discussed from an entirely new and original - Arab - point of view. Details about combat operations during three major wars between Arabs and Israel, as well as the war in Yemen of the 1960s, are reconstructed on basis of primary evidence, foremost in form of original documents and participants' recollections.

ARAB MIGS VOL. 1: MiG-15s and MiG-17s, 1955-1967, Mikoyan Gurevich MiG-15 and MiG-17 in Service with Air Forces of Alge

History

Nicolle, David

Military

Casemate Publishers

This richly illustrated book describes the current organization and equipment of the Islamic Republic of Iran Air Force (IRIAF). Drawing on a wide range of digital photographs, IRIAF 2010 presents all types of combat, transport and training aircraft, as well as helicopters, currently operated by the IRIAF, many of which are supported by captions detailing individual aircraft histories. Following a summary of the air force's development since its early days in the 1920s, the centerpiece of this volume are 12 chapters that cover all major IRIAF bases and flying units stationed there, as well as a summary of the order of battle, in which all units are also represented in the form of patches worn by their pilots. Covering an often under-reported and misinterpreted topic, and one that is directly influential in the current standoff between Iran, the US and Israel, this book is a unique reference source for scholar and enthusiast alike.

IRIAF 2010: The Modern Iranian Air Force

Taghvaee, Babak

Devlin, Liam F.

Historical Study & Educational Resources

Harpia Publishing

This second, expanded and fully revised edition of the groundbreaking book African MiGs examines the role and deployment history of MiG- and Sukhoi-designed fighters – as well as their Chinese derivatives – in no fewer than 23 air forces in Sub-Saharan Africa.This first volume, covering 12 air arms from Angola to Ivory Coast, will be followed by a second volume in 2011. In order to ensure precise documentation of every airframe delivered to and operated by the various air forces, special attention is given to illustrations as well as extensive tables of known serial numbers and attrition.The new volume is updated with much exclusive information, photographs and artworks. As such, it provides the most comprehensive and reliable source on the background of each of the features air forces, their organization and unit designations, deliveries of fighters built by MiG, Sukhoi, Chengdu and Shenyang, camouflage, markings and combat deployment.

African MiGs. Volume 1: Angola to Ivory Coast: MiGs and Sukhois in Service in Sub-Saharan Africa

Hinz, Fabian

Lepko, Mark

Weinert, Peter

Africa

Largely based on original, previously unavailable documentation from official archives, as well as interviews with participants and eyewitnesses, the second volume in this series is an unprecedented study of the developments of the Egyptian, Iraqi, Syrian, Algerian, Lebanese and Jordanian air forces during the late 1950s and 1960s. Not limiting themselves exclusively to the title of this series, the authors present the main topic – the introduction of supersonic fighters such as the MiG-19 and MiG-21 to service with these six air forces – against the geopolitical backdrop. For the first time, the authors explain how and why specific air forces developed in the way they did, why they received specific aircraft types, and also why they suffered a defeat with such dramatic consequences during the June 1967 War with Israel. The volume is completed by an in-depth study of the application of early MiG-21 variants in combat, development of tactical combat methods in Syria during the mid-1960s, and finally an order of battle for the Egyptian Air Force as of 4 June 1967. The latter provides not only precise details of the number of specific aircraft available to each operational unit, but also EAF unit commanders, numbers of pilots, and even anti-aircraft units protecting specific air bases.

ARAB MIGS VOL. 2: Supersonic Fighters: 1956-1967

Middle East

Completing an in-depth history of the deployment and operations of MiG and Sukhoi fighters (as well as their Chinese-built Chengdu and Shenyang variants) in sub-Saharan Africa, Volume 2 covers 11 additional air forces, from Madagascar to Zimbabwe. This encyclopaedic account is so far the only one of its kind to provide detailed analysis of aerial conflicts including those waged between Ethiopia and Somalia, Tanzania and Uganda, and in Sudan. This book also provides a detailed, contemporary order of battle for 23 air forces described in both volumes, and a chapter about Antonov bomber operations in Sudan.

African MiGs. Volume 2: Madagascar to Zimbabwe: MiGs and Sukhois in Service in Sub-Saharan Africa

The June 1967 War fought between an Arab alliance and Israel was a pivotal event in the modern history of the Middle East. This study provides the most complete and detailed coverage ever of the Arab air forces during the course of that conflict. Supported by original documentation, and hundreds of blow-by-blow accounts from participants and eyewitnesses from Egypt, Iraq, Jordan and Syria, the result is a fascinating and gripping narrative that uncovers many new stories for the first time. Numerous vivid descriptions shed light upon Israeli attacks on Arab air bases, dozens of air combats, efforts to continue fighting against all odds, failures of Arab security and intelligence, and conflicts within the military chains of command. These stories are complemented by descriptions of the tactics and weaponry deployed. Almost 350 photographs, diagrams and artworks combine with lucidly written text to produce one of the most informative and readable books on air warfare to have become available in recent years. Military historians and scholars interested in aviation and foreign affairs will find this volume of particular interest. As a unique work that presents the Arab point of view of a defining war, it stands as both a complement and a corrective to previous accounts of this much-misunderstood conflict.

ARAB MIGS VOL 3: The June 1967 War

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Cooper, Tom. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Cooper, Tom

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Cooper, Tom. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Florida Man: A Novel

Florida Man: A Novel

The Marauders: A Novel

The Marauders: A Novel

ARAB MIGS VOL. 1: MiG-15s and MiG-17s, 1955-1967, Mikoyan Gurevich MiG-15 and MiG-17 in Service with Air Forces of Alge

IRIAF 2010: The Modern Iranian Air Force

African MiGs. Volume 1: Angola to Ivory Coast: MiGs and Sukhois in Service in Sub-Saharan Africa

ARAB MIGS VOL. 2: Supersonic Fighters: 1956-1967

African MiGs. Volume 2: Madagascar to Zimbabwe: MiGs and Sukhois in Service in Sub-Saharan Africa

ARAB MIGS VOL 3: The June 1967 War