title: A Bum Deal: An Unlikely Journey from Hopeless to Humanitarian
author:  Rufus Hannah 
description: *Starred Review* For a few years in the late 1990s and early 2000s, Rufus Hannah was a movie icon. He was the star of Bumfights, a series of underground videos in which homeless people fought each other for money and booze (mostly booze). This moving autobiography, cowritten with Hannahs friend Barry Soper, takes him from his early years as the son of alcoholic parents, through his time of homelessness and habitual drinking, to the present day (he now works as a property manager and travels the country giving talks for the National Coalition for the Homeless). But the books most fascinating and unsettling segment involves Hannahs years as a participant in Bumfights: he was beating people up and performing extremely difficult stunts, all for the promise of beer (and a vaguer promise of a small fortune, further down the road). Hannahs recollections of his mental state at the time, of the monster inside my gut that needed alcohol so bad, of feeling more like a pig than a man, are almost heartbreaking in their honesty and intensity. Expect this remarkable story of personal redemption to receive considerable media attention. --David Pitt
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  He is a hunter at heart…but her heart is no easy prey.
  
  Hannah Walpole suspected the etiquette lessons her parents insisted upon were
  a wasted effort. Now, looking around at the ton at her debut, she’s sure of
  it. Her home is the African continent. She simply does not fit in English
  Society. Nothing will convince her otherwise, especially not a devilishly
  handsome lord with black hair, vivid green eyes and a wicked reputation for
  debauching innocent young women.
  
  Lord Miles Whitely admires Hannah’s adventurous spirit and cool composure in
  the face of adversity. It doesn’t hurt that their first encounter provides him
  with the delightful opportunity to get his hands beneath her skirts.
  
  When the lady declares she cannot be seduced, he cheerfully takes up the
  gauntlet she has unwittingly thrown down. But Hannah has no intention of
  succumbing to his striking gaze or honeyed flattery. Until a crisis leads her
  to suspect he’s not truly the cad everyone warned her about…
  
  Wa