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Players Book Report 395 pages (Word Count: 854)
General Questions
Part A
1. What is the title of your book? Players: Con Men, Hustlers, Gamblers and Scam Artists.
2. What is the author’s name? Edited by Stephen Hyde and Geno Zanetti.
3. Which company published the book? (Give the publishing company’s name, not the printer’s name.) Thunder’s Mouth Press.
4. When was the book published? (Give the latest date of publication.) 2002.
5. In what city was it published? (If your book lists several cities, simply give the name of the first city listed.) New York City, New York.
The book Players is a very, very good book. It is a compellation of 36 short stories and excerpts from books about gambling, con men, scam artists, hustlers and various other people.
The first story is called The Lottery of Babylon by Jorge Luis Borges. This story was about an old lottery in Babylon. The lottery started out small with just paying out money but in time it got bigger and bigger and bigger. In the end of it the prizes changed from just money to a cult of people who played it, it went from just one winner to many winners, and many losers. Some people whose numbers are pulled won a great amount of treasure, or land or other great prizes. Some would get mediocre prizes like a small amount of money, some would get nothing. The people whose numbers were pulled and deemed losers could get killed, tortured or other horrible things.
One story that is quite longer then most of the other stories is Rudyard Kipling’s The Man Who Would Be King. This is a story narrated by a newspaper editor whose friends come in and tell him of their plan to become kings of Kafiristan, which is part of Afghanistan, and then to become kings of all of Afghanistan in the name of Briton. They go to Kafiristan and carry out their plan by acting like gods using guns against the primitive Afghanis and got people to follow them and to crown them kings. At the end their plan falls apart when he tries to marry a girl who bites him at the alter. The people see blood and realize he is not a god. Then they chase all of them out of Kafiristan.
Another story is called the Merry Antics of Izzy and Moe by Herbert Asbury. This story is about prohibition in the USA in the 1920’s.
In 1776, David McCullough gives a vivid portrayal of the Continental Army from October 1775 through January 1777, with sharp focus on the leadership of America’s greatest hero, George Washington. McCullough’s thesis is that had not the right man (George Washington) been leading the Continental Army in 1776, the American Revolution would have resulted in a vastly different outcome. He supports his argument with a critical analysis of Washington’s leadership during the period from the Siege of Boston, through the disastrous defense of New York City, the desperate yet, well ordered retreat through New Jersey against overwhelming odds, and concludes with the inspiring victories of Trenton and Princeton. By keeping his army intact and persevering through 1776, Washington demonstrated to the British Army that the Continental Army was not simply a gang of rabble, but a viable fighting force. Additionally, Mr. McCullough supports his premise that the key to the survival of the American Revolution was not in the defense of Boston, New York City, or any other vital terrain, but rather the survival of the Continental Army itself. A masterful piece of history, 1776 is not a dry retelling of the Revolutionary War, but a compelling character study of George Washington, as well as his key lieutenants, and his British adversaries, the most powerful Army in the 18th Century world. When I read this book, I went from a casual understanding of the hero George Washington to a more specific understanding of why Washington was quite literally the exact right man at the exact right place and time to enable the birth of the United States.
Lee, Harper. To Kill a Mockingbird. New York, New York: Grand Central Publishing, 1960. Print.
The novel Liars Poker by Michael Lewis is very interesting firsthand account of an inside look into the investment banking world, in particular bond trading at the firm Solomon Brothers in the 1980s. Lewis took an interesting and roundabout way to end up on Wall Street, studying art history at Yale and bombing his interview with Lehman Brothers but he eventually found himself at Solomon Brothers through a lucky encounter with two managing directors wives. Through his book Michael Lewis conveys the inner workings of investment banks in the 1980s to the average person using his own experience at Solomon Brothers. The book goes into Lewis’s own rise in the firm as well as the rise and fall of the entire Solomon Brothers Mortgage department.
Meyer, Michael. The Bedford Introduction to Literature. Ed. 8th ed. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin's, 2008. 2189.
Jackson, Shirley. “The Lottery.” Backpack Literature: An Introduction to Fiction, Poetry, Drama, and Writing. Ed. X. J. Kennedy, and Dana Gioia. 4th ed. Boston: Longman, 2012. 643-54. Print.
“The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson and “The Yellow Wallpaper” by Charlotte Perkins Gilman are two very meaningful and fascinating stories. These stories share similarities in symbols and themes but they do not share the same plot which makes it different from one another. Furthermore, “The lottery” was held in New England village where 300 people were living in that village. This event took place every once a year. Besides, the story begins where on one beautiful morning, everyone in that village gathered to celebrate the lottery. The surroundings were such that children were gathering stones while adults were chatting with each other. It was compulsory for every head of family or house to draw a slip of paper out of the box. In addition to that, the family that draws the slip in the black do will have to re draw in order to see who will win the lottery. Therefore, the winner of the lottery will be stoned to death. This is very shocking because in today’s lottery events, the winner will be awarded cash.
Cox, Jacob D. . Dayton, OH: Morningside Bookshop, 1983. . First published 1897 by Charles Scribner's Sons.
Jackson, Shirley. "The Lottery." Literature: Structure, Sound, and Sense. 5th ed. Ed. Laurence Perrine. San Diego: Harcourt, Brace, Jovanovich, Publishers 1998.
Barnhisel, Greg. "An overview of 'King of the Bingo Game'." Short Stories for Students. Detroit:
Weissman, Robert. A BAD BET Casino Economics and the Politics of Gambling [Online] Available http://prince.essential.org/monitor/hyper/mm1196.04. html,
Roberts, Edgar V., and Robert Zweig. "The Lottery." Literature: An Introduction to Reading and Writing. Boston: Longman, 2012. 140-45. Print.
Print. The. Lastname, First Name. Title of the Book. City of Publication: Publisher, Year of Publication.
The adrenaline-rushing feeling of gambling offers people the idea that opportunity lies within their hands. Unfortunately, there are far too many consequences to gambling to even begin to count. To win you must play, and to win big you must play big. As more gamblers can recall their losses rather than their winnings, gamblers are often dealt with poor hands and must play the risky game to stay alive. Even though gambling has so many faults, some still fall under its corruptions because of gambling’s deceiving fallacies.