Books about Batista from Amazon.com

People around the world know Dave Batista as World Wrestling Entertainment's "the Animal," the rope-shaking, spine-busting World Heavyweight Champion, one of the most popular Superstars in recent years.The crowd turned Batista from heel to babyface after they were electrified by his awesome physique and physical wrestling style.

Few fans, however, know that Batista didn't join the profession until he was thirty years old -- an age at which many wrestlers are thinking about hanging up their boots. Nor do most fans know the tremendous toll the climb to the top has taken on Batista's personal life. While successfully staying away from hard drugs and -- usually -- liquor, he found sex too tempting to resist.

"Women were my drug of choice," the Animal confesses. That addiction cost him his marriage, destroying a relationship that had helped him climb from poverty to the pinnacle of sports entertainment in less than two years.

Now, in Batista Unleashed, the WWE Superstar comes clean about the choices he made and the devastating effects they had on his family. He talks about the injury that stripped him of his title -- an injury he blames on Mark Henry's carelessness. While being sidelined cost Batista untold hundreds of thousands of dollars in lost income, it also set the stage for a tremendous comeback that cemented the Animal's reputation as a true champion.

Batista talks about growing up in the worst part of Washington, D.C., where three murders occurred in his front yard before he was nine. He speaks lovingly about his mother -- a lesbian -- and how hard she worked to keep the family not just together but alive. He talks candidly about his own criminal past: a conviction on a drug charge and another, since overturned, on assault. He speaks of his days as a bouncer and a lifeguard, and tells how bodybuilding may have saved his life.

Once he made it to the WWE, Batista realized he wasn't really ready for the big time. His career seemed headed for a fall until Fit Finlay took him under his wing. But his real education came when he joined Evolution and rode with Triple H and Ric Flair, two of sports entertainment's all-time greats. Batista talks about what they taught him, and details some of their wild times on the road.

But the champ also reveals a kinder, gentler side. While his soft-spoken manner in the locker room has sometimes been misinterpreted as arrogance, in truth Batista's always been somewhat shy and quiet. Emotional by nature, he reveals for the first time that the tears fans saw at WrestleMania 21, when he won the World Heavyweight Championship for the first time, were very real. And he speaks movingly about his problems with his ex-wives and teenage daughters, and how it felt to become a grandfather.

While his straight-shooting mouth has occasionally gotten him into trouble -- most notably in a backstage confrontation with Undertaker after some remarks about SmackDown! -- Batista is his own harshest critic. He explains his early limitations as a wrestler and the work he has done to overcome them. Interspersing his memoir with accounts from life on the road, Batista lightens the narrative with a surprising sense of humor. An Animal in the ring, he reveals himself as an honest and even humble man in everyday life..
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X-Factor's part in the "X-Cutioner's Song Saga" sets them against X-Force while the life of mutual mentor Professor X hangs in the balance! The mutant teams finally rally to the same side, only to be outnumbered by three-times the scheming as Apocalypse, Stryfe, and Mister Sinister vie to see who can kill them first! The Horsemen, the Mutant Liberation Front, and the Dark Riders are all in on a wild battleride leading to the Moon and a turning point in mutantdom's destiny! All this plus jousting in Genosha, trips into our heroes' deepest psyches and final battle with the deadliest enemies X-Factor's never heard of! Guest-starring the X-Men, Doc Samson, and more! Collects X-Factor #84-89, Annual #8.
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Meet Dena Vargas. Part woman, part tomboy, all lesbian She knows what she wants--well, most of the time. Let's face it. It's hard for any woman to choose in a world with so many options 'Although Christina Batista's novel Hersband falls squarely into the realm of lesbian erotica, there is much more here to recommend it. Dena Vargas searches for companionship, love and meaningful direction, giving the novel a time and flavor uniquely its own. She lives by an unshakable code of honor that resonates as loudly as her boundless energy and sense of humor. Her life is a fascinating mix of not-so-ordinary characters and events...that makes Hersband hard to put down' - Ellen Tanner Marsh, New York Times best selling author.
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"Written in an engaging style and based on solid scholarship, this work by Argote-Freyre should make us wonder how we have gone this long without an authoritative treatment of the life and times of the man second only to Fidel Castro in his importance to twentieth-century Cuba. A sorely needed contribution " Lisandro Perez, Florida International University

Pawn of the U.S. government. Right-hand man to the mob. Iron-fisted dictator. For decades, public understanding of the pre-Revolutionary Cuban dictator Fulgencio Batista has been limited to these stereotypes. While on some level they all contain an element of truth, these superficial characterizations barely scratch the surface of the complex and compelling career of this important political figure.

Second only to Fidel Castro, Batista is the most controversial leader in modern Cuban history. And yet, until now, there has been no objective biography written about him. Existing biographical literature is predominantly polemical and either borders on hero worship or launches a series of attacks aimed at denigrating his entire legacy.

In this book, the first of two volumes, Frank Argote-Freyre provides a full and balanced portrait of this historically shadowed figure. He describes Batista's rise to power as part of a revolutionary movement and the intrigues and dangers that surrounded him. Drawing on an extensive review of Cuban newspapers, government records, memos, oral history interviews, and a selection of Batista's personal documents, Argote-Freyre moves beyond simplistic caricatures to uncover the real man - one with strengths and weaknesses and with a career marked by accomplishments as well as failures.

This volume focuses on Batista's role as a revolutionary leader from 1933 to 1934 and his image as a 'strongman' in the years between 1934 and 1939. Argote-Freyre also uses Batista as an interpretive prism to review an entire era that is usually ignored by scholars - the Republican period of Cuban history. Bringing together global and local events, he considers the significance and relationship of the worldwide economic depression, the beginnings of World War II, and in Cuba, the Revolution of 1933, the expansion of the middle class, and the gradual development of democratic institutions.

Fulgencio Batista and most of Cuba's past prior to the Revolution of 1959 has been lost in the historical mists. Cuba had a rich and fascinating history before the Marxist Revolution and the reign of Fidel Castro. This captivating and long-overdue book uncovers it..
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Patience might look like she's merely a teenage girl, but in truth, she's an assassin for the King ... and the rightful heir to the throne, if secrets be known. Now, a strange visitor makes his intentions known: to help her usurp the throne and rule over their world as the one true Heptarch. Patience knows her every move is being watched and her life is in jeopardy whatever choice she makes. But she also knows that she is destined to one day encounter a strange creature called "Unwyrm," and that she will ultimately become its mate... or its destroyer! As Patience and a small band of companions travel across the world towards a place called Cranning, they experience an out-of-this-world adventure that reveals the truth behind the origins of humanity on their world... and the true source of the power that the Heptarch wields. Based on the popular novel by New York Times Bestselling author Orson Scott Card (Red Prophet), Wyrms is a science fiction epic with mythological style that is sure to enchant readers with its unique world and premise. Collects Wyrms #1-6..
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Analyzing the crucial period of the Cuban Revolution from 1959 to 1961, Samuel Farber challenges dominant scholarly and popular views of the revolution's sources, shape, and historical trajectory. Unlike many observers, who treat Cuba's revolutionary leaders as having merely reacted to U.S. policies or domestic socioeconomic conditions, Farber shows that revolutionary leaders, while acting under serious constraints, were nevertheless autonomous agents pursuing their own independent ideological visions, although not necessarily according to a master plan.

Exploring how historical conflicts between U.S. and Cuban interests colored the reactions of both nations' leaders after the overthrow of Fulgencio Batista, Farber argues that the structure of Cuba's economy and politics in the first half of the twentieth century made the island ripe for radical social and economic change, and the ascendant Soviet Union was on hand to provide early assistance. Taking advantage of recently declassified U.S. and Soviet documents as well as biographical and narrative literature from Cuba, Farber focuses on three key years to explain how the Cuban rebellion rapidly evolved from a multiclass, antidictatorial movement into a full-fledged social revolution..
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