Search results for ""rare bird books""

Silver Medalist for Best West-Mountain Regional Novel 2017Winner of the 2017 International Book Award for Best Literary FictionFinalist for Best New Fiction at the Best Book AwardsFinalist for the Red City Review Best Literary Fiction AwardForty million people visit Vegas every year but most never get past the strip. What about the people who live there? What brought them there? What keeps them there?Told from the perspective of a seasoned blackjack dealer, The Investment Club tells the stories of a self-destructive, dwarf entrepreneur, a drug-addicted musical performer-turned-stripper, a retired, widowed New Jersey policeman, a bereaved, divorced female sportscaster, and a card-counting, former Catholic priest before and after their fateful meeting at the El Cortez Casino in downtown Vegas.As the five learn the greatest return comes from investing in one another, their lives stabilize and take on new, positive directions. But their love and support for each other can take them only so far before they must determine the meaning and value of their own lives.

Read more less

From Memorial Day until the student workers and tourists leave in the fall, the island community of Put-in-Bay, Ohio, thrives on alcohol, drugs, sexual experimentation, and any other means of forgetting responsibilities. To Brad Shepherd—recently forced out of his job as a junior high math teacher after the overdose death of a student—it's exactly the kind of place he's looking for.Allured by the comfort and acceptance of the hedonistic atmosphere, Brad trades his academic responsibilities and sense of obligation for a bouncer's flashlight and a pursuit of the endless summer. With Cinch Stevens, his new best friend and local drug dealer, at his side, Brad becomes lost in a haze of excess and instant gratification filled with romantic conquests, late-night excursions to special island hideaways, and a growing drug habit. Not even the hope from a blossoming relationship with Astrid, a bold and radiant Norwegian waitress, nor the mentoring from a mysterious mandolin player named Caldwell is enough to pull him out of his downward spiral. But as Labor Day approaches, the grim reality of his empty quest consumes him. Brad must accept that identity cannot be fabricated, but emerges from within when one has the courage to let go.

Read more less

Notes to Boys: And Other Things I Shouldn't Share in Public is a mortifying memoir from bestselling author and tv/film writer Pamela Ribon. Miserably trapped in small town Texas with no invention of the internet in sight, Ribon spent countless hours of her high school years writing letters to her (often unrequited) crushes. The big question is: Why did she always keep a copy for herself? Wince along with Ribon as she tries to understand exactly how she ever thought she'd win a boy's heart by writing him a letter that began: "Share with me your soul," and ends with some remarkably awkward erotica. You'll come for the incredibly bad poetry, you'll stay for the incredibly bad poetry about racism.

Read more less

Brother Stephen dies suddenly. That's when things get complicated. Is Stephen's death his wake-up call? This possibility slowly dawns on him. Soon, though, he is behind the wheel of a Prius, driving through his afterlife, listening to himself being interviewed on NPR. "It's just like high school, Terry. You know, maybe it is high school," he tells her, in the interview, as she questions him about lawsuits filed by students who claimed to have been molested by pedophile Brothers. As an administrator of his Roman Catholic religious order, he was caught in the middle of these heartbreaking cases. In fact, the lawsuit he was dealing with the moment he died is one that strikes especially close to his heart. He once knew the plaintiff--he once knew her very well--but he also knew the Brother who is named in the lawsuit. Now that he's dead, he's more determined than ever to get to the truth. He spends his afterlife unraveling this terrible mystery, learning more about the plight of the survivor and that of the accused, but the biggest mystery he faces is one about himself.

Read more less

"A great Russian novel…in the grand Russian tradition." —Le FigaroRussian Gothic, a short and intense novel by Belgium-based Belorussian novelist Aleksandr Skorobogatov that, since its initial publication in Russia in 1991, has gone on to sell over a million copies worldwide and hailed as an early masterpiece of post-Soviet literature, eliciting comparisons to Gogol and Bulgakov. Russian Gothic is a dark tale of the descent into paranoia and violence of Nikolai, a veteran of the Soviet-Afghan war. When a mysterious figure, Sergeant Bertrand, appears on his doorstep and starts insinuating that Nikolai’s wife, Vera, may be having an affair, Nikolai’s faith in his wife, the only person to stand by him after his return to civilian life, starts to crumble—with devastating consequences.Skorobogatov, the author of five

Read more less

Named to Kirkus Reviews' Best Books of 2016The Oath tracks the intertwined lives of Dr. Katz and SS Doktor Bloch, who both survive Auschwitz and the war to practice medicine in the United States, never losing the stains upon their souls. Katz, a respected Jewish French surgeon captured by the Nazis, volunteers to serve at Auschwitz, believing he can protect his wife and children from the gas chambers by helping Joseph Mengele and other SS physicians with their human studies. There he meets Tamara Lissner, a Czech teenager who miraculously survives death in the chambers, but when he hides her in his lab, she becomes witness to the medical torture Katz is forced to impose upon fellow Jews as he assists Doktor Bloch in his cold immersion experiments. After the war, Doktor Bloch avoids criminal prosecution through "Operation Paperclip," a clandestine government program that welcomes German scientists to America (including Werner von Braun), ignoring Nazi ties and their participation in the war.Years later, Tamara reenters Dr. Katz's life, helping him deal with the shame and guilt of his actions at Auschwitz. But just when Katz is coming to terms with his past, he receives a call from former Auschwitz inmate Martin Brosky, who has devoted his life to bringing painful retribution to Nazi criminals who have evaded capture. Martin insists that Michel help him kill Bloch, and Michel must now weigh the risks of defying Martin against the sweetness of revenge, knowing well that his own sordid complicity at Auschwitz could be revealed.Show Additional Fields

Read more less

In this elegant but pocketable edition, passionate bibliophile Michael Ross has curated 106 favorite literary quotes from the collection of over 1500 well-read books on his shelves—but this isn't your typical rehashing of Bartlett's quotations. Michael Ross brings together quotes from such a new perspective even the authors themselves will probably find this book useful and insightful.Authors quoted include Tom Robbins, John Gardner, A.A. Milne, Anne Tyler, Bernard Malamud, Elizabeth Goudge, John O'Hara, Jim Harrison, Vladimir Nabokov, Ivan Doig, Richard Russo, Graham Swift, John Casey, George Garrett, Martin Davies, Cormac McCarthy, Willa Cather, Richard Brautigan, Colin Wilson, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Gore Vidal, Leon Uris, Walker Percy, V.S. Naipaul, Thornton Wilder, John Updike, Anthony Burgess, Paul Auster, Richard Powers, Richard Russo, William Martin, Robert Penn Warren, John Gardner, Aldous Huxley, John Hersey, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Antoine Laurain, Dave Eggers, Honore de Balzac, John Cheever, Oscar Wilde, Edward Abbey, Garrison Keillor, Lorrie Moore, Doris Lessing, Elia Kazan, Tom Wolfe, Sinclair Lewis, William Kotzwinkle, Eric Ambler, Thomas McGuane, Graham Greene, W. Somerset Maugham, Ethan Canin, Milan Kundera, and Hunter S. Thompson.Also included are original illustrations by Cara Lowe of Hunter S. Thompson, Willa Cather, John O'Hara, Thomas McGuane, Eric Ambler, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Honore de Balzac, Dave Eggers, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Anthony Burgess, John Updike, Richard Brautigan, Cormac McCarthy, Richard Russo, Elizabeth Goudge, and Anne Tyler.

Read more less

The American Gargoyles have one mission: to save their home. The once-celebrated but now-forgotten Wentworth Building is targeted for destruction by an egomaniacal developer who wants to knock it down to build a giant mirror so he can look at himself all day. Working together, the sooty statues go from being ignored stone carvings to brave and brainy heroes cheered by the entire city.

Read more less

Life isn’t easy when you’re single, pushing fifty, and still haunted by the ghosts of your rock 'n' roll past—but if anyone can find the funny in it, Bobbie can.The second book by Sunset Strip video vixen Bobbie Brown, Cherry On Top documents Brown’s transformation from 1990’s sex symbol to comedy queen, revealing the dramatic ups and downs of her biggest reinvention yet.Once the hottest girl on the Sunset Strip, the blonde beauty in the video to Warrant’s 1990s hit, “Cherry Pie” is now in her late forties, and she’s letting her mouth run wild as a headliner on the comedy stage just a few doors down from the rock clubs she once frequented. She’s still smoking hot, but telling jokes about farting on men’s balls isn’t helping her find The One...Hilarious, sweet, and bitingly honest, Cherry On Top reveals how one gorgeous, potty-mouthed blonde took back Hollywood in middle age, and embarked on a fresh search for love—one fart joke at a time.

Read more less

Cofounded by former LA Weekly editor Joe Donnelly and current Los Angeles Times Arts and Entertainment editor Laurie Ochoa, Slake is a literary journal that sets a new template for the next generation of print publications -- collectible, not disposable; destined for the bedside table instead of the recycling bin. It's a whole new way of looking at Los Angeles and the world. We Dropped a Bomb on You is a devastating compendium of essays, fiction, and photo essays from the first four issues of Slake. Featuring previously unpublished work by Mark Z. Danielewski, Dana Goodyear, Gregory Bojorquez, Jonathan Gold, Richard Lange, and Iris Berry, this collection marks a return to storytelling with polished essay, memoir, fiction, poetry, and profile writing that is disappearing in a world of instant takes and unfiltered opinion.

Read more less

The Ultimate Anti-Cancer Cookbook takes "you are what you eat" to a whole new level with easy to use recipes, using everyday foods. Incorporating sound science, a chef's sensibility, and common sense, this indispensable reference gets tons of use while inspiring well-being with Pam Braun's delicious recipes that are virtuous for your body. Plus, readers learn about nutrition along the way.

Read more less

The line between passion and obsession runs through us all.Levi Combs never planned to rocket to stardom.Eva Florez knew he would the moment she saw him.Gabe Adams didn’t want anything to do with celebrities.But after Gabe’s sister sells his photos of Levi with a young starlet to a tabloid website, their lives become intertwined forever, bound by rage and retribution. Blending the nuance and insight of literary fiction with the big-screen magic of a Hollywood thriller, Focus Lost whisks readers into a world of temptation, indulgence, and revenge, daring them to take a bite of the forbidden fruit.

Read more less

New York Times Best Thriller of 2023New York Times Editors' Pick 2023For seventeen years, small-town public defender Andy Hughes has been underpaid to look after the poor, the addicted, and the unfortunate souls who constantly cycle through the courts, charged with petty crimes. Then, in the summer of 2020, he’s assigned to a grotesque murder case that brings national media focus to rural Patrick County, Virginia—Alicia Benson, the wife of a wealthy businessman, is murdered in her home. The accused killer, Damian Bullins, is a cunning felon with a long history of violence, and he confesses to the police. He even admits his guilt to Andy. But a simple typographical error and a shocking discovery begin to complicate the state’s case, making it possible Bullins might escape punishment. Duty-bound to give his client a thorough defense, Andy—despite his misgivings—agrees to fight for a not-guilty verdict, a decision that will ultimately force him to make profound, life-and-death choices, both inside and outside the courtroom. With its unforgettable characters, spot-on blueprint of the justice system, intricate plotting, and provocative, no-holds-barred ending, The Plinko Bounce demonstrates once again why Martin Clark has been called “the thinking man’s John Grisham” by The New York Times and praised as “hands down, our finest legal-thriller writer” by Entertainment Weekly.

Read more less

Attention Mushroom Hunters And Aspiring Aviators Of All Ages!Have you ever wanted to do something great? Something no one else believed you could do? Well here is your chance to learn how. Meet a little snail who wanted to fly and an old butterfly who questioned why. Travel with the little snail as he crawls up a mushroom determined to soar from the top. But every time the same thing makes him stop: fear. Sound familiar?Filled with inspiration and motivation, this magical conversation between an ambitious snail and seasoned butterfly encourages us to pursue our dreams regardless of who we are or where we come from. With words by award-winning author Doug Cooper aka Dougie Coop and illustrations by acclaimed Australian artist CJ the Kid, the rhythmic verse and playful style reminds us all we can achieve the impossible as long as we believe, trust, and persevere.

Read more less

Punk rock legend Blag Dahlia returns with his third transgressive novel Highland FallsNina West is a deceptively petite young trickster who works at a funeral home in the suburban Illinois town of Highland Falls. Her short-term boyfriend Ace fronts the Dunderhearts, a band so unlistenable that only constant infusions of cocaine can make them tolerable. Ace’s grandfather Fredo owns the home and lets the band practice in the basement amid the corpses and formaldehyde while Ace drives the family Hearse.Nina’s brush with a Bolivian consulate official brings so much of South America’s favorite export into their orbit that Dunderheart’s bass player Lex, the only cute one in the band, drops dead just as Nina is about to have her way with him. Meanwhile, just down the street, Ricky Leiber returns to Highland Falls to claim the family home his parents have left him after their untimely demise. Looking forward to a life of anonymous indolence and television addiction, Ricky falls for Nina at his folk’s funeral. Ricky falls hopelessly in love with Nina, while Nina remains hopelessly in love with herself.From the suburban wastelands of Highland Falls, Illinois, all roads finally lead to Hollywood where a blood-soaked massacre vaults Nina to instant stardom and worldwide acclaim. It’s a happy ending guaranteed to captivate a miserable generation.

Read more less

The first Callie and Cash thriller is now available in trade paperback!For fans of Scott Turow, Lee Child, and Raymond Chandler“Weissbourd has created an entire genre—Seattle Noir… I devoured the novel in a single night and I think you will, too.” —Jacob Epstein, writer and executive story editor, Hill Street BluesCelebrated restaurateur Callie James is stunned when her estranged ex-husband, French investigative reporter Daniel Odile-Grand, strolls into her restaurant on what could have been any Seattle evening. After fourteen years, the story he tells is even more unlikely than his sudden appearance. As she throws him out into the darkness, her nightmare begins. Daniel is deliberately hit by a car, hurled through the front window of her restaurant—broken, bloody and unconscious…Reluctantly, Callie hides him. Returning to her restaurant, she is greeted by two assassins insisting that she produce Daniel or pay deadly consequences. Overwhelmed, and hopelessly out of her depth, Callie hires the only man she knows who can help her: Cash Logan. Callie can’t imagine relying on Cash, a soldier of fortune… and her former bartender, a man she had arrested for smuggling ivory through her restaurant two years earlier, a man who still hasn’t forgiven her. After a devastating attack on her restaurant, with danger in plain sight, Callie and Cash face kidnappers, murderers, weapons dealers, and treachery at every turn. Ultimately, Callie is forced to change— to become authentically self-aware—with stunning consequences.

Read more less

God of Sperm tells the remarkable story of Dr. Cappy Miles Rothman, the son of notorious gangster Norman "Roughhouse" Rothman, who went on to become a trailblazer in the field of reproductive medicine. Rothman started the California Cryobank, one of the world's largest repositories of reproductive genetic material and cord-blood stem cells. Among other achievements, Rothman also pioneered the use of microsurgery in urological procedures, postmortem sperm retrieval techniques, and was one of the first practitioners of andrology, a specialty dealing with male reproductive biology and medicine. How Cappy Rothman went from Mafia scion and man-about-town during the postwar Miami Beach--Havana era of gangster chic to one of the most consequential figures in modern medicine is an epic, only-in-America tale that is also a fine reminder of the broad horizons and wild possibilities life in the U.S. can offer.

Read more less

“I write stories that are only one sentence long,” I explain to you as I plant this book like a time-bomb in your public library, “because imperfection is easier to tolerate in small doses.”With unparalleled wit and wisdom, Gary Lippman’s We Loved the World But Could Not Stay is a collection of intricately constructed single-sentence stories that chronicles the outrageous and the everyday with insight and empathy, all while reimagining and reorganizing the very concept of the story and the basic building blocks of our language.

Read more less

Have you ever wondered what Angelina Jolie fears the most, or what Dustin Hoffman did to ease tension on a film set? What did Whitney Houston think about fame? Find out the secrets of the stars as you go behind the scenes of some of your favorite films with Reba Merrill, and international entertainment journalist who has interviewed hundreds of celebrities while promoting over 500 feature films. Follow Reba's personal journey as she conquers her own addiction and survives the challenging road to success in Hollywood, learning along the way that a celebrity's problems are not so different from our own.

Read more less

In the last few years, the podcast industry has really boomed. Every journalist and celebrity worth their salt now has their own. But what makes Life In The Stocks special? Well, for one thing it’s the eclectic pool of speakers from a wide range of creative disciplines. It’s also the rawness, honesty, and vulnerability of the conversations that Matt Stocks shares with his guests: the interviews are completely candid, unchecked, and authentic.For the purpose of this book, Life In The Stocks: Veracious Conversations with Musicians & Creatives Volume Two, Matt collected highlights from the first eighteen months of the podcast, and presented the anecdotes, musings, and observations in a new format, to tell new stories and tie them together in a way that takes the reader on an emotional journey—from early childhood memories to the dizzying heights of fame, via creative enterprises, experimentation with mind-altering substances, battles with mental health, spiritual contemplations, the meaning of life, death, and a whole lot more.Full of inspirational, entertaining, shocking, tragic, heart-warming, and hilarious tales, Life In The Stocks: Volume Two is much more than just a collection of interview transcripts: it is an insight into the minds of some of America’s most enduring underground artists and an exploration of the history of alternative culture in the US, filtered via the perspective of someone from the UK. In short, it’s a unique and special cultural commentary, and one you will not want to put down.

Read more less

With dozens of full-color illustrations!This is a retrospective of musical poetry by heavy metal guitarist and frontman, Matt Pike, which spans twenty years beginning in 1998 with the album Art of Self Defense up to the latest release, the 2019 Grammy-Award winning record, Electric Messiah. Every chapter features brand-new artistic interpretations from the minds and hearts of an incredible cast of illustrators, tattooers, printmakers, and painters Pike has been trusted since the beginning to depict his vision. The cast of artists are Arik Roper, David V. D'Andrea, Santos, Brian Mercer, Skinner, Jondix,Stash, Tim Lehi, Jordan Barlow, and Derrick Snodgrass created brand new, never before seen works specifically inspired by each album, including one large illustration to define the chapter ahead and two additional vignettes that are directly inspired by the songs. Each has their own bold and iconic style that perfectly compliments the breadth of Pike's various works. These prolific artists transport the reader further into a far-away landscape of ominous Lovecraftian entities, shrouded in wondrous and esoteric darkness. Together, they have redefined the way we perceive Underground Doom Metal these past twenty years and it is our honor to showcase them together along with the incredible written word of Pike.

Read more less

For years, when traveling, I found myself getting in conversations with people when I took their pictures, and started to consult with them—showing them the digital shot, then retaking it until we had one they were happy with. It gave us a reason to interact, and a way to do so, even when we shared no language in common. These portraits are the result of those extended sessions, those moments of accidental intimacy on the road. Readers of my three travel books (Drinking Mare’s Milk on the Roof of the World, And the Monkey Learned Nothing, and The Kindness of Strangers) may recognize some of the people, because a number of them feature in those stories. But each stands on its own—each a testament to the human ability to connect across the fault lines that keep us precariously divided. And each is a tribute to the accidental intimacy of the road.

Read more less

Life in the Stocks: Veracious conversations with musicians & creatives is a collection of rock ‘n’ roll stories taken from the iTunes chart-topping podcast, Life in the Stocks—hosted by UK-based DJ, presenter, and writer, Matt Stocks (Ex-Kerrang! Radio/Metal Hammer).Featuring B-Real (Cypress Hill), Clem Burke (Blondie), Nick Oliveri (Queens of the Stone Age), Doug Stanhope (Comedian), Kyle Gass (Tenacious D), Steven Van Zandt (Bruce Springsteen/The Sopranos), Monique Powell (Save Ferris), Robb Flynn (Machine Head), Tom Green (Comedian), Steve-O (Jackass), Andrew W.K. and many more…

Read more less

Following the shocking death of a teenage boy, Barrett and Amelia are moved to revisit the passing of their own daughter, Edi, which occurred in the same small town nearly a decade earlier. Amelia finds herself caring for the recently deceased boy’s “sort of” girlfriend, who faces constant harassment and accusations from the townsfolk, while Barrett combs through Edi’s self-published fantasy novels in an effort to connect with her. As he reads, an increasingly bizarre wave of incidents crashes down upon the town involving a talking goat, Bigfoot, and a G-Man with alien thought patterns, to name but a few. As the Missouri River slowly floods, and the thin line between fact and fiction is washed away, Barrett and Amelia struggle against the great unknown and search desperately for inner peace. Blending whimsy and wonder with a mix of mayhem and malevolence, Water, Wasted takes readers on a tour of loss, redemption, and the great unknown.

Read more less

Daughters of Darkness is a collection of fine art portraits of women in corpse paint. A nod to black metal and doom album cover art, Daughters of Darkness was photographed over 10+ years, with more than 400 models from all over the world, almost all of which did their own corpse paint and are fans of black metal. Daughters of Darkness features many celebrities, actresses, musicians, and models (some under the cover of corpse painted anonymity) all of whom donned only corpse paint for this book. Photographed by internationally renowned music and fine art photographer Jeremy Saffer, this project combines both his music photography and fine art photography worlds into a single project, which was conceived to capture the memory of flipping though albums in a music store and buying albums based entirely on the albums cover art (which often featured a nude portrait, someone in corpse paint, or both) prior to knowing the music or the band. Like the music that inspired it, Daughters of Darkness shows the duality of finding beauty in dark imagery, and finding darkness within beauty.

Read more less

Moctu and the Mammoth People is a compelling, well-researched story of a strong, young, dark-skinned Cro-Magnon boy who must fight his rival for leadership of his tribe and the right to mate the beautiful Nuri. Additionally, Moctu has confrontations with the Pale Ones, a fierce group of Neanderthals also called the People Eaters, as the two cultures interact in Paleolithic Italy 45,000 years ago.Besides having dangerous encounters with mammoths, wolves, and saber-tooth tigers, Moctu has to deal with his older rival, Jabil, who fights and undermines him at every opportunity. After Jabil murders several elders who go against him, he deftly shifts blame onto the Pale Ones. He takes over as the tribe’s leader and makes Moctu’s life miserable.On a hunting trip, Moctu is captured and enslaved by the Pale Ones. While with them, Moctu is shocked to discover that, although these primitive people know little about spear-throwers or making clothes, they can make fire, and he learns the skill. He meets the blond and fair-skinned Effie and over time, he recognizes that his hate for the Pale Ones was misplaced. Realizing that Nuri by now has been mated to Jabil, Moctu falls in love with Effie and has a child. But when he uncovers evidence that Jabil murdered his tribesmen, Moctu knows he must return home and mount a challenge. In the interim, Nuri has had to deal with emotional and physical adversities including coming of age and being mated to a man she despises. When Moctu returns, can he overcome Jabil? How will Nuri react? The interspecies conflict may also get Moctu or Effie killed.

Read more less

Featuring a foreword from legendary director Martin Scorcese,Woodstock: Interviews and Recollections combines stories, anecdotes, and perspectives from dozens of musicians and filmmakers about the making of the Academy Award-winning documentary Woodstock. Assembled by associate producer Dale Bell, the oral history takes readers behind the scenes—and behind the camera—at the decade-defining event.

Read more less

An oral history in the vein of Please Kill MeLeftöver Crack is a band of drug abusing, dumpster diving, cop-hating, queer positive, pro-choice, crust punks that successfully blend ska-punk, pop, hip-hop and death metal genres. They've been banned from clubs, states and counties and kicked off multiple record labels. They’ve received teen-idol adoration and death threats from their fans. They’ve played benefits for a multitude of causes while leaving a trail of destruction in their wake.But, if you dig below the crusty, black metal-patch encased surface, you'll find a contemplative, nuanced band that, quite literally, permanently changed the punk rock community. By combining catchy ska-punk with lyrics that referenced political theorist Michael Parenti, drug usage, and suicide, the band formed a unique mélange that was both provocative and challenging. In fact, the band’s hooks were so sharp that after releasing their debut LP, Mediocre Generica, an entire culture of “Crack City Rockers” grew around the band, pushing the youth towards both the positive and negative aspects of extreme punk rock.Of course, being the combustible band that they are, the band has gotten involved in its far share of fiascoes: full-scale riots in Phoenix and NYC, getting punched out by their own fans, showing up to tour Florida with machetes after receiving death threats from the local gang.Architects of Self-Destruction: An Oral History of Leftöver Crack traces the band's entire history by speaking to the band members themselves, fellow musicians, their fans, and of course, those that still hold a grudge against the LoC... FYI, that's a lot of people.

Read more less

"Something will happen to me on Desolation Peak…I can feel it." In the summer of 1956, Jack Kerouac hitchhiked from Mill Valley, CA, to the North Cascades to spend two months serving as a fire lookout for the US Forest Service. Taking only the Diamond Sutra for reading material, he intended to spend his time in deep contemplation and to achieve enlightenment. He wrote in his journal that he planned "to concentrate on emptiness of self, other selves, living beings, and universal self." In letters to friends he proclaimed, "Something will happen to me on Desolation Peak…I can feel it." Kerouac's experience on Desolation Peak forms the climax of his novel The Dharma Bums and has also been depicted in part 1 of Desolation Angels and a chapter in his nonfiction book Lonesome Traveler. None of these versions offers a full, true picture, however; and for that reason, Desolation Peak is essential reading. What separates Kerouac from all other writers is the depth that he went in exploring his own consciousness, and what will prove his most enduring legacy is the record he left of that exploration, revealing the psyche of a sensitive, tortured artist grappling with himself in the mid-20th Century. The highlight of Desolation Peak is the journal he kept, starkly revealing the depth of his poverty, the extremity of his mood swings, and the ongoing arguments with himself over the future direction of his life, his writing, and faith. Along with the journal, he worked on a series of projects, including "Ozone Park," another installment of the Duluoz Legend beginning in 1943, after his discharge from the Navy; "The Martin Family," an intended sequel to The Town and the City, and "Desolation Adventure," a series of sketches that became part 1 of Desolation Angels,. In writing it, Kerouac was re-committing himself to his more experimental, then-unpublishable style, declaring in the journal that "the form of the future is no-form." Also included in Collected Writings is "The Diamondcutter of Perfect Knowing," Kerouac's "transliteration" of the Diamond Sutra, his "Desolation Blues" and "Desolation Pops" poems, and assorted prose sketches and dreams.

Read more less

If you’re looking for the events that inspired the lyrics to all my songs? Those stories are in this book. If you’re looking for what I did when I was younger? That’s in here. What changed me, made me stop hating and hurting? It’s all here. This is my story and I’m sticking to it. That’s the one thing I have, the truth.Volume three of Black Heart Fades Blue, a three-part memoir by the founder and frontman for one of punk rock’s most notorious acts, Poison Idea.In 1980, Jerry A. formed Poison Idea, a Portland-based punk band that gave voice to disaffected and disenfranchised youth for over 30 years. As happened to so many punk bands, Jerry A. and Poison Idea also went all in on drugs and drinking as they toured the country, spiraling out of control and blowing both the band and their lives apart.Black Heart Fades Blue is not an apology or a nostalgic catalog of events, but a true reckoning with one's past and present. A memoir of a time and a place and a movement, as well as a deep conversation about the memories and moments we leave behind, Black Heart Fades Blue is a deep exploration of an unconventional life.

Read more less

Valentin Popov's art combines images of the superhero in American society with traditional religious iconic art from his native Ukraine. His work is in a number of major art museum collections including the National Museum of Ukrainian Art, the Fine Arts Museum of San Francisco, the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, and more. Ironic Icons is his first book.

Read more less

“She’d told herself, and her husband Tom, that she was coming to rescue Vicky. And she was. She would. She’d been rescuing her sister her entire life. But she’d never done anything remotely this extreme. She knew the region had been evacuated, and yet somehow hadn’t pictured everyone literally gone. . .The stark, devastated landscape heightened all her senses, as if her fear made the colors deeper, the smells headier, the sounds crisper. She couldn’t give in to the terror; if she did, it might never end. She had no choice but to finish what she’d begun.”A devastating earthquake has just hit the San Francisco Bay Area, cutting off the outside world completely. When Lily decides to fly from Nebraska to California and make the treacherous journey into the Bay Area to find her sister, she knows she's headed for a disaster zone, but nothing prepares her for what she finds.Those who survived and didn’t evacuate are making shelters, running meals programs, rigging their own technologies—and redefining the very meaning of community. Lily bands together with a couple of feral kids, a steadfast activist, and a bonobo researcher, among others, to forge a new life.A piercing, unforgettable story of hope in the face of crisis, The Evolution of Love asks what does it take for people to come together, what dangers must they fend off in their bid for survival, and what lengths will they go to rebuild home.

Read more less

In 1961, the Di Priscos fled Brooklyn—and the FBI. The father was a gambler and bookmaker, and agents chased him into the Long Island woods because he was implicated in police corruption. At thirty-five he escaped to a strange place called California, where his wife and two of her four sons joined him. One member of the family graduated high school, and he would make books of a different sort. Joe didn’t seem called to a life of crime, but evidence is mixed. Once he was Brother Joseph in a Catholic novitiate, but later he was named prime suspect in a racketeering investigation. During Vietnam he seized his college administration building, and then played blackjack around the world, staked by big-money backers. He managed Italian restaurants with laughable ineptitude, but also did graduate study and taught for twenty years. Eventually Joe buries his unstable, manipulative, and beautiful mother and his brothers, including his heroin-addicted younger brother. Later, he cares for his father with Alzheimer’s. By turns heartbreaking and hilarious, Subway to California recounts Joe’s battles with personal demons, bargains struck with angels, and truces with family in this richly colorful tale that reads like great fiction.

Read more less

How do you find beauty and meaning in the most ordinary things when your life is being pulled away from you by the most extraordinary circumstances?On May 4, 2013, Cat Gwynn found a sizable lump in her right breast. Ten days later the acclaimed photographer was diagnosed with Triple Negative breast cancer—a disease long feared. Her mother had succumbed to breast cancer after a five-year battle. Now it was Cat’s turn to live with it. This meant sitting with mortality, difficult side effects, and every other uncertainty being thrown her way. As the treatment protocol intensified, her immune system became more compromised, requiring limited exposure to the world around her. Cat mapped it out: her day-to-day existence was now reduced to about a ten-mile radius.Surrendering to this confined reality, Cat decided to engage in a daily practice of seeking out images with her smartphone that would connect her to the immediacy of life. There was no filtering what she found, only a genuine curiosity to see things as they were and how she chose to frame them. Every thing, detail, and day mattered, all inspiration for mindful expression.Cat didn’t set out to make an art project about her experience with cancer, but over time realized it was a conceptual way to show her quest for well-being and willingness to uncover aspects of the world that are normally overlooked. By being present with deep truth, she was opening herself up to her own healing and reclaiming life in the most profound way.• • •Wellness is a state of being, no matter the circumstances you’re dealt. 10-Mile Radius is a wake up call. A gratitude practice in motion that moves through limitations and becomes a compass back to one’s self.

Read more less

A small town girl leaves her troubled family and starts stripping--which introduces her to a community that keeps her sober and saves her life--but a rollercoaster lifestyle ensues. She gets drugged, does enema shows, and unionizes the club. When she tries to quit and go to graduate school, her mother is diagnosed with terminal cancer. Broke and broken, she returns to sex work, which leads to her arrest and a new resilience. Spent is a memoir about a woman's journey through the sex industry, but it's also a story of family, community, and our constant struggle against loneliness.

Read more less

Natalie has made a promise: a vow of celibacy, signed and witnessed by her best friend. After a string of sexual conquests, she is determined to figure out why the intense romantic connections she's spent her life chasing have left her emotionally high and dry. As Natalie sifts through her past and her present, she confronts her complicated feelings about her plus-sized figure, her bisexuality, and her thwarted career in fashion design. Piecing together toxic relationship patterns from her past, Natalie finds herself strutting down fashion runways and rekindling her passion for clothing design in the present. All the while, her best friend, Anastaze, struggles with her own secret--whether or not to reveal her true identity to the thousands of fans of her popular blog and her potential first sexual partner. Clever, sexy, and hilarious, Vow of Celibacy delves into the perilous terrain of love and relationships, the uncertainty of early adulthood, and the sustaining force of friendship. This is an irresistible novel about the stories we can't help but tell ourselves about others, and it captures in perfect pitch what it's like to be a young woman coming of age in America today.

Read more less

This, the first of the Barnacle Split Editions, features two stories, one by Jesse Michaels, one by Sam McPheeters. Jesse Michaels' "Make No Mistake" revolves around the story of a young man whose chance encounter with a woman in a therapist's office tips off an unhinged adventure that completely changes his perspective on life. Sam McPheeters' "Sophisticated Devices" takes on the prison system, following a man released from prison navigating a world that is hostile to him and his past.

Read more less