In Their Own Words

The scariest aliens in the galaxy follow a simple rule: destroy all opposition.

Destroyer of Worlds, Edward M. Lerner's latest collaboration with New York Times best-selling author Larry Niven, is now available (also in audio formats, for those who prefer to listen to books).

The brilliant, xenophobic Pak are fleeing the chain reaction of supernovae at the galaxy's core. Nothing and no one is going to impede their migration. Devastated worlds--any civilization that could possibly have interfered--lie shattered in their wake. And now the Fleet of Worlds is in their sights....

The trillion Puppeteers who inhabit the Fleet might have the resources to confront the threat--but Puppeteers are philosophical cowards. They don't confront anyone. They need allies to investigate the situation and then take action. Who better than the Puppeteers' newly independent one-time slave world, New Terra?

Sigmund Ausfaller, former Earth intelligence agent and current paranoid, finds himself leading the war against the Pak. With his own allies, the enigmatic, aquatic Gw'oth, Sigmund prepares to face everyone's mutual enemy. And neither humans nor Gw'oth have any intention of becoming cannon fodder....

Edith Rignaldi clearly understands that she and husband Joe remain together for the sake of their children. It is why they married in the first place. But she never foresaw the lifeless emotional landscape they both now occupy after 18 years together.

Teachers in a small, God-fearing Tennessee town, they cannot insulate themselves entirely from the cultural encroachment of the late '80s: the inexorable march of the feminist and gay-rights movements, the spread of the AIDS epidemic. When the faithful, steadfast Joe is finally overwhelmed by his desire for men, the lives of all four Rignaldis explode.

With the town turned against the disgraced family, the teenage children Dana and Jeremy repudiate their parents to seek their own answers. And as for Edith--a woman named Linda enters her life. A woman unlike any Edith has ever known.

The journey of Edith and Linda lands them in an African town named Arusha, on a godly mission to witness the Rwanda peace talks. It is a place where Edith will face the ultimate challenge to her emotionally and sexually shut-down life and to everything she has ever believed in.

Arusha is the compelling story of four achingly real people--and you will not soon forget any of them.

Bill Evans's gentle ballad reminds Greta and Sunday of all they shared and all they couldn't share when they first met in 1964 and fell in love. Sunday Morgan was the first Negro in Greta's otherwise white high school in Milwaukee. Both serious students from troubled families, they had everything in common but their color. Their relationship fell apart when Sunday returned from Mississippi after Freedom Summer.

Thirty-two years later, Sunday and Greta meet again by apparent coincidence after a life-threatening incident forces Sunday to confront the meaning of courage. Their second meeting marks the time in their lives that they begin to live their lives forward, rather than remain haunted by past fears.

During a deadly Chicago heat wave that's claiming hundreds of lives, Robert, who's stuck in his apartment alone, fears he's going to be the next victim. In the apartment above him lives a shell-shocked Vietnam veter­an who talks obsessively about the corpses of his war experience while alternately listening to Die Meistersinger and Madama Butterfly.

One day, Robert ventures forth into the searing heat to gas up his car. Immediately he encounters enigmatic Lucy who is trying to escape her brutal fiancé, Matthew Gliss. On a whim, Lucy invites Robert to her apartment where she shows him her mysterious tattoo and tells him of her dangerous life with Matthew Gliss. She warns Robert that if Matthew ever catches them together he should run, not walk, because Matthew won't think twice of killing him.

So begins the risky, short-lived relationship that leads to a chilling climax. Each of Robert's increasingly hallucinatory recollections of what happened during the heat wave leads him to profoundly question his own culpability. This carefully crafted, gritty psychological tale offers a distinct urban flavor rich in metaphor and wordplay.

When the gas pipeline exploded, it took a small miracle--or rather myriad miracles--to save Brent Cleary's life. Only now the small miracles have a mind of their own. And an agenda.

Doing research for his latest novel, techno-thriller author Edward M. Lerner consulted extensively with university experts from across the life sciences, from biology to biophysics, from neurology to psychology, and with practicing MDs. The result is a fast-paced, near-future thriller taut with technological and medical suspense. Nanotech is the really tiny, next big thing--and it's the stuff of Small Miracles.

Selected by Martin Espada, My Kill Adore Him is the latest winner of the Andres Montoya Poetry Prize. The book is a collection of poems that interrogates masculinity, race, language, consumerism, and cultural identity.

Among the characters encountered herein are a dying pope, a diligent hangman, a banker's daughter (who couples with the plumber), a young woman who would force her way into a library, a starving cat, children and the aged and the dead, a bridegroom who falls into sleep for 50 years, a death-row marriage pair, the snake and the lion, crocuses and forsythia. Silence, seasons, war, and love are all explained (or, it may be, clarified). Wordplay occasionally intrudes. The poems are organized into six categories: politics and war, nature, decay and death, love, scrutiny and introspection, words and books.

We are not alone, and it's our own damn fault....

Something demonic is stalking the brightest men and women in the computer industry. It attacks without warning or mercy, leaving its prey insane, comatose--or dead.

Something far nastier than any virus, worm, or Trojan horse program is being evolved in laboratory confinement by well-intentioned but misguided researchers. When their artificial life-form escapes onto the Internet, no conventional defense against malicious software can begin to compete.

As disasters multiply, computer scientist Doug Carey knows that unconventional measures may be civilization's last hope. And that any artificial life-form learns very fast....

Fools' Experiments is a near-future technothriller of artificial life and artificial intelligence. The novel draws on author Edward M. Lerner's 30 years at Bell Labs, Hughes Aircraft, and other high-tech companies.

A first-generation American man breaks through the usual pattern for immigrant families in the first half of the 20th century. He moves intellectually to a broader perspective into a bigger, more interesting world and to financial and social success. As his family, especially his wife, becomes even more absorbed in American culture, he perceives them to be moving away from him. Ultimately Bosco embarks on his personal odyssey, a serarch for inner peace and serenity.

How to Become President of the United States is a fictional and rather lewd pseudo-autobiography, written more than 25 years ago, of what it once took to get elected to high office.

This collection gathers the best of the many poems published in chapbooks and periodicals by Robert Flanagan from 1969-2009. New York poet Colette Inez says, "These intelligent, sharply focused poems that recall a gritty past of rented apartments, cracked tar, the fight game, and turf wars in working class urban America. Flanagan has also published a USMC novel, Maggot--which went through 12 printings--three collections of short stories, and two stage plays produced by community and professional theaters.

Kenneth Rexroth's relationships with women were equal parts passion and turmoil. He was married four times. In addition, both during and between marriages he indulged in numerous affairs. Interestingly his love poetry stands in stark contrast to the rather painful bent of his personal romantic life. Sacramental Acts culls the best of Rexroth's love poetry from his entire career. The result is an ode to a romantic ideal. Given the accessible style of Rexroth's love poetry, this title (now in paperback) makes a wonderful library addition for even the most casual poetry fan. On a more scholarly plane, Rexroth viewed human awareness and interaction as threefold concentric circles. At the center was the individual. The next ring was the "beloved". Outermost was society, et al. Sacramental Acts is the heart and voice of the second ring.

Politically charged and deeply insightful, this critical exploration of poetry maps the interior of our deepest feelings and fears through reflections on money, commerce, and the capitalist machine. Allegorically referencing the topical issues of labor and finance, each piece turns current concerns into timeless verse, with unrelenting courage and candor. Offering a modern lyrical style that reflects a lineage of the great Objectivists, each tautly crafted poem observes the intimacies and alienations of popular culture.

Barn Burned, Then was elected by Marjorie Welish for the 2008 Omnidawn Poetry Prize.

A cross-cultural collection of writings that through poetry, narrative, and photos grapple with some of the most pressing issues of the world we live in: war, poverty, health care, environment, family, beauty, and lastly--the ever-present need to connect--love. The book represents the efforts of dedicated artists around the globe, some who have been nominated or awarded literary prizes, to express a personal vision. Many of the writers here have experienced in some way the terrors of war and poverty, the lack of adequate medical care, and oppression. For them, this book represents both the vision of the world as it is and what it can be. It also expresses the belief that no matter our culture or belief, no matter what distance separates us--we are more similar than not. We are all very much human.

Bird Skin Coat, winner of the 2009 Brittingham Prize in Poetry, is brimming with startling moments of beauty found within a rusty and decayed landscape. With wild lyrical images of ascent and descent--doves and dives, sparrows and slugs, attics and cellars--this collection reflects Sorby's keen eye for blending images. As they shuttle between the Upper Midwest and the Pacific Northwest, these poems explore how the radical instability of the world is also the source of its energy.

They're about to save the world; they just don't want to get caught doing it.

Zeke, Milo, and Brandon are struggling to keep their environmental protest group, GreensWord, alive. It impresses chicks and sure beats getting jobs as corporate serfs in the real world. But their chief benefactor, movie star Matthew Barrington, threatens to cut off funding unless they stop global warming before his Malibu beach house slides into the storm-tossed ocean. In their desperate effort to save the beach house and their organization, the GreensWord trio is willing to try almost anything. No scheme is so illegal, so risky, or so outrageous they won't lend it an ear. But nothing is fast enough to stop global warming in time...until they think of the unthinkable solution.

Fortunately, they've watched enough TV to think that they know exactly what to do to foil any investigation of their noble crime. And if their drastic solution to global warming means they also take out the reigning Internet tycoon and his monopolistic Seattle software company, that's just organic frosting on the vegan cake.

Greensword is a dark comedy about the environment, extremism, stupid criminals, and the lengths to which people will go to avoid getting a real job.

One person can make a difference in the world. Of course, three people with a plan to stop global warming overnight can make a big difference.

The calm, contemplative poems of Steven Schroeder's new collection of poetry do not shy away from an engagement with the physical world, reaching through that physicality into a deeper sense of spiritual import. Schroeder revels in the radiance of the natural world, bestowing the seasons with the force of character.

Cats have nine lives. Shouldn't they be lived to the fullest?

"Domesticated" does not mean "docile." The ho-hum routine of sleep, eat, eat, and sleep is no way for any creature who ruled Egypt for a millennium to spend her day.

The Devious Book for Cats offers today's discerning kitties words of wisdom and advice on everything they need to know, including fail-safe tips on waking a human when you want to get fed, choosing the purr-fect gift, and staring like a pro, plus in-depth guides to cardboard boxes, catnip, and a brief history of the Felinism movement.

It's high time felines everywhere woke up from their cat naps and grabbed life's strings with both paws.

Cats: Discover the devious fun you can have when you're the one in charge!

Tom Roby, his book, and his title poem are all shape shifters. The poem takes the image of a plastic bag before the wind, goes beyond the record of aesthetic delight in natural phenomena seen in American Beauty, and tracks the bag's journey through a series of forms and meanings. Similarly, his book presents the discerning reader with a journey through the various intersections of his poet's voice and the many formal patterns he uses to convey his thoughts and feelings. As a worthy poet, he adopts a variety of persona, not merely from the various remembered stages of his life, but from a cast of narrators--humans, caricatures, personified beings, and omniscient sages--crossing them with a variety of perspectives and intentions--humorous, serious, ironic, challenging, insightful, soulful, and fantastical. Yet, throughout this variety of shape shifting, there is nothing bewildering, inconsistent, incoherent, tedious, or repetitive. These poems retain the undeniable strokes of Roby's work, and you know that same delight in seeing him always in his poems as you feel knowing the power of that plastic bag to carry effortlessly the weight of gull, butterfly, albino cat, jellyfish, and tetherless kite.

Avia is a book-length poem (272 pages) in the spirit of William Carlos Williams on international fighter aircraft combat, 1939-45.The frame: Lindbergh, after his Paris flight, dreams of coming back in the Spirit rather than going by ship as ordered. In the cockpit, voices arise--as they had over the Atlantic--but this time tell him of World War II: Britain, Malta, Africa, Russia, Europe, the Pacific. The dream excepted, 15 years of research guarantee factual authenticity including material (e.g, in the Russia section) not previously available in English. Lindbergh wakes to fight in the Pacific, collect aviation experts in Germany, and die reviewing his life and controversial views on Hawaii. The poem may be the most substantial thing of its kind in literature.

The book contains five sections: "Of the Perfected Angels" with a long poem on Matthias Grunewald; "Dying Trees" concerning the huge die-off of trees in the U.S. West; "War Stills" about the war in Iraq; "North of the Java Sea" on anthropological topics in Southeast Asia and Oceania; and "Sarawak," relating two months' work with a nonprofit in Borneo against deforestation.

At 316 pages this is the largest selection of the author's poetry. It contains poems from 19 books starting with his first Old Savage/Young City (1964) to the St. Petersburg Poems (2001), with comments by Forrest Gander, Eliot Weinberger, Geoffrey O'Brien, and the author's photo by Cartier-Bresson on the back cover.

Jon Andrews is a fun-loving college football player who defies the stereotype by being as well-studied and thoughtful as he is physically intense. He enjoys studying medieval history almost as much as sacking quarterbacks. A trip to a medieval exhibit at a local museum sends a pair of bullets from the gun of a panicked robber his way and brings a stolen broadsword mysteriously into his possession. Before he can return it, the ancient weapon spirits him away to its own world. Gritty pain and true fear soon convince him that he is not simply dreaming when he finds himself in what appears to be medieval Europe. Captured by the king's soldiers, a wizard of the Holy Order reveals that the stranger carries the legendary sword Vandermine and that it is dead iron in the hands of anyone else. Jon is soon pressed into service joining a desperate quest to slay Cravos, the would-be conqueror of the kingdom and violator of all the laws of the Holy Order in unleashing forbidden and wildly destructive magics--power that once loosed threatens to bring to pass the prophesied second apocalypse.

Jon's companions on the quest are a veritable dream-team--the king's champions--the best in their respective disciplines. The further the reluctant hero travels the more he sees things that seem to have leapt straight out of books of mythology--not history. It is soon painfully obvious that being in great physical shape and wielding a magic sword is not enough. Thrust into a life or death struggle in a world he can't understand, Jon relies on his faithful comrades to give him the skills he needs to command Vandermine's full power before the reality of this impossible world catches up with him.

The journey for Jon is not merely physically daunting and dangerous, but mentally and emotionally taxing as well. Before he was torn out of the world he once knew, he was accustomed to being one of the stronger and more competent members of his team. However, the harsh realities of the ancient world that has called for him soon humiliate him making him feel like the weakest-link. Through training, suffering, and conquering with the king's picked men as he strives to fulfill the sword's errand, Jon gains the respect due a battle-hardened veteran--earning it the hard way.

Novelist David Desmond uses his background as a psychologist to create this laugh-out-loud tale of interior design-gone-wrong, offering a bird's eye view into the crazy world of the social elite of Palm Beach and Paris.

Oliver Booth wants nothing more than to join the ranks of Palm Beach's high society. But with his arrogant personality, his garish wardrobe, and incompetent stewardship of an antique shop filled with gaudy reproductions, he doesn't have a chance. Oliver's luck takes a turnabout when the society doyenne Margaret Van Buren sends him and his assistant, Bernard, to Paris on a shopping spree to furnish her new estate. What ensues is a series of hilarious, Voltaire-esque misadventures as Oliver bumbles his way through the milieu of the elite. A satirical look at the lengths some people will go to enter the insular circle of the privileged, David Desmond's novel is a witty glimpse into a world few of us know.

In this bittersweet story of loving through change and changing through love, John reunites with Melissa, his University of Chicago college sweetheart and soul mate. When he impulsively proposes marriage, she agrees to discuss it, but only after corresponding with him once every month for a year. As the year unfolds, John helps Melissa to come to terms with a traumatic event of their college years while she helps him to face the web of illusions that divide him from real engagement in his family and career. With the assistance and interference of old friends Doug and Sarah, John and Melissa remain true to love and duty while changing each other's lives forever.

Griever's Circuit is a cycle of 20 poems Roby wrote in memory of his wife Mary after she died of ovarian cancer in July 2003. It communicates the grieving process through familiar but powerful images found along a walk they often took together through Grant Park. The specific references and metaphors in this chapbook resonate with the deep emotions we all have when facing the loss of a loved one. The circuit energizes these feelings in a movement that overcomes the choke points of powerlessness and obsession, advancing from threat, anger, and despair to hope, renewal, and reengagement with life. Healing comes to the poet in a transcendent vision of Mary as the gifter of poems.

Can a woman love two men with equal passion, even if one of them is a drug-induced fantasy?

This book explores such a possibility within the world of dreams and multiple realities--mysteries that have puzzled thinkers since ancient times. Set in a feminist Utopia created by women after a nuclear holocaust, the work follows Helga, a talented journalist, through dreams of her beloved, childbirth, and reunion with Professor Funfiel, the Doppelgänger of her real life lover, Peter. In their adventures they examine the meaning of radical feminism, shopping, and women's rights.

Bâtisseurs du lendemain (Builders of the morrow) is an historical novel written in French.

Bâtisseurs du lendemain is Ludovic Comeau Jr.'s most significant literary project to date. In terms of time and paper, the 688-page book consumed at least twice as many resources as Comeau hoped it would when he started in March 2002, including a full year to consider revisions suggested by L'Harmattan, one of France's major publishers. Bâtisseurs du lendemain brings forth haunting images of the social and political fabric of a fictitious city that, like Haiti, Comeau's birth land, is celebrating the bicentennial of its independence. The story sheds light on historical and cultural dimensions of an "invented" nation whose spirit has been stifled by a dreadful oppression in the antagonistic person of the chief of State, le Prophète (the Prophet), whose rule spanned the second half of the 20th century, and into the third millennium. The narrative is shared by several individuals and collective voices framed by the voice of Maurice, the main protagonist, and his good friends, Jean-Jacques and Henri. The reader becomes an insider within the city where the charged one-day story takes place at the dawn of 2004, with flashbacks into the past to better inform the present. The novel offers intense dialogs where the author's ideas for the renaissance of the city and for the revitalization of the economy are spelled out in details. The interest of that day, which starts at 4:00 in the morning, lies in the anticipation, at the onset, of an "event" to take place in the late afternoon...

A love story spanning nearly fifty years, A Story for Rose was published in German prior to an English edition.

Angels, Thieves, and Winemakers collects more than 50 poems about wine from Joseph Mills, the author of Somewhere During the Spin Cycle and coauthor of A Guide to North Carolina's Wineries. The poems range from humorous observations about the industry to meditations on aging. In accessible, yet evocative, language, Mills suggests our relationship with wine can be seen as a metaphor for our lives and relationships with one another.

Songs of Insurgency presents a patchwork view of the post-9/11 zeitgeist. In these stories, the world is being dismantled: fear segues to paranoia, alienation to sadism, suicide, or a droning, dial-tone numbness. Theories of jihad quote Wittgenstein as the tiki bar’'s cover band rehashes a soundtrack of clichés. One character scans through radio channels at night, longing for the fulfillment of apocalyptic fantasy. Another drives ever westward, hotel after hotel, the details of each locale uneasily similar, repetitious. Yet amid all this dislocation and unease, just audible above the fake moans of the phone-sex line, some image of an alternative, authentic existence tests its wings.

A taut, unrelenting psychological thriller, Nothing to See Here introduces Alan Sarnower. A successful, caring, congenial and well-respected psychiatrist, Sarnower finds himself in extraordinary circumstances when his wife, Cassie, in the midst of a psychotic episode, suddenly leaves him and their young son.

When Cassie returns unexpectedly with a new lover and announces her intention to divorce, Sarnower's life and sanity begin to unravel. As the bizarre and vindictive divorce proceeds, Sarnower's once-disciplined life dissolves into a series of forgotten responsibilities and missed appointments. An affair with his seductive secretary provides only temporary relief from his frightening descent into mental illness.

As his comfortable suburban life recedes, Sarnower, now sicker than his patients, will be left with few choices.

As a common theme of twenty-five short stories, lives are seen as being determined in small steps. The collection encompasses happenings in different places and times, ranging from early-19th-century Italy or America to contemporary accounts either in America or South America. Several present the many facets of love. In some cases, unusual responses of a man or a woman are guided by unexpected expressions of love.

Fictions are presented as reflections of life. Seventeen vignettes feature situations in which the protagonists respond to challenges. The scenarios range from the old West, nineteenth century events to more contemporary venues. The personalities represented range from adolescence to old age. The challenges are in love, life and the maintenance of one's dignity and humanity.

Old Europe. Vilnius is just recovering from Soviet occupation. A scientist travels to the country of his parents and digs into the stories and numbers of the Holocaust and Gulag. His personal world begins to fall apart. Things happen that he cannot explain. Someone is leaving strange drawings in his apartment. Why? A story of travel, family, and loss.

Art by Tadas Gutauskas + photo illustrations. Cover design by Holly Russell Milstein.

China is the occasion, not the subject or the object, of the forty-seven poems collected in Steven Schroeder's Fallen Prose--lyrical glimpses of the "new" city in Southern light. Most of the poems in the collection are set in Shenzhen, a few in Zhuhai, Macao, Guangzhou, and Hong Kong--and one or two a bit further west, in Kunming. All attend to "control out of control on every edge" and listen for flashes of music in these places that shed new light on all the elsewheres where we keep on making cities that somehow manage to sing.

This book of poetry chronicles the life of a social activist from her growing awareness as an undergraduate at the University of Chicago, through her work in adoption and foster care, mental health, and on behalf of the homeless. From the myriad of stories she had heard on the streets, she has culled a sampling of voices and turned them into poetry.

This collection features a new translation of Japanese author Ryunosuke Akutagawa's stories, from the source for Kurosawa's film Rashomon to many humorous, chilling, and autobiographical pieces never published in English before.

The Internal Auditor is a fictional account - based on the real life auditing experiences of the author. The author was an internal auditor for Western Electric (Bell System) in Chicago's Hawthorne Works. It tells the story of what business was like in a large company. The story is part mystery, part documentary. It has sex, fraud, humor and some historical references.

Alvin Forman is an allergist, single father, suburbanite, and serial killer. How can a doctor who has sworn to protect life kill? What demons haunt him? And what happens when he loses the only thing that matters to him? These are the questions explored in this tension-filled, psychological thriller. A "why done it?" (as opposed to a "who done it?"), Do Not Go Gentle affirms modern forensic science's claim that there is no typical serial murderer; indeed, even the sweetest next-door neighbor may have a heinous hidden hobby.

The subjects and settings of Joseph Mills' poems range from Laundromats, groceries, and coffee shops, to cemeteries, the stars over the Grand Canyon, and even Purgatory, which is seen as a combination "dry cleaner/car wash." These poems, which deal mainly with traveling and motion, explore the simple encounters that can suggest the complexity of human interactions. In everyday language, the narrator considers topics such as how difficult it can be to find a poem to read at a wedding, what happens when a person drives non-stop from Salt Lake to Chicago, and why it would be convenient if people wore labels like wine bottles, so "we would have a better idea/who might improve with age/and who we should enjoy now."

The book is a collaborative effort between poet Ron Offen and New York City artist William Anthony. The project began when Ron Offen composed a poem based on a drawing by William Anthony. Anthony then created a drawing based on one of Offen's poems. After several such exchanges the idea for a book of such collaborative efforts took place, eventually resulting in the book's publication.

The Japanese shogun demands that two clans of ninjas to battle each other to the death. But a young man and a woman from the opposing clans have fallen in love, and try to stop the war. Superficially, this novel is an exciting X-men-style novel about battles between ninjas with supernatural powers. At its heart, however, the book is a meditation on serious issues, such as unquestioning obedience to power, and the legitimacy of war. A fun, light novel, this book will be of interest to teenagers, adults, and anyone interested in fantasy novels that come with some depth.

The Kouga Ninja Scrolls is the first Japanese fantasy novel ever published by Del Rey Books, and may very well be the first Japanese fantasy novel ever translated. It is one of the most popular fantasy novels ever published in Japan, and is the basis of many movies, including Shinobi. The original author liked to quote actual historical documents about ninjas within his book, and so this translation required translating ancient Japanese documents, some of which were many hundreds of years old.

Urbesque is a collection of short stories each dealing with the city and the man, in particular Pittsburgh and its residents. The tales are diverse, ranging from aphorisms on a Cadillac to two boys sitting in a library trying to come up with a new motto for Pennsylvania. What keeps all these stories together is the way that Pittsburgh looks at midday when you squint.

The Rotten Apple Gang is an emotional and insightful novel about a group of teachers at odds with the incompetent administrators in their school district. Vivid descriptions and colorful character portrayals will keep readers glued to this book. Filled with caustic humor as well, it is a look at the intrigues, both petty and profound, that often exist behind school doors. It is also a celebration of one of the most important professions we have in America today.

The author is a retired middle school teacher from Southern California; however, the theme of teacher-administrator tension is universal.

A Voice for My Grandmother, a 24-page limited-edition chapbook, is a fictionalized memoir about Singer's maternal grandmother.

Computing is mere decades young, a set of technologies we have scarcely begun to develop. It's already been quite a ride. Now: Imagine every gadget around you becoming ever faster, cheaper, tinier, more interconnected, more intelligent ... especially more intelligent.

The stories in Creative Destruction explore what we could face in the next half century or so: artificial intelligence, malicious software to makes us nostalgic for mere viruses, ever-more-perfect virtual reality, direct neural interfaces to computers, ubiquitous networks, and more.

The Internet: That was nothing.

This award-winning novel is an incredibly riveting story of the plight of pre-World War Italian and Hungarian families, pushed by politics and history out of their land toward America, and the moving reconciliation of a daughter, product of this America, with her past.

The Lost Atlas of Desire, Mapping the Old World and the New, containing an historical Gazeteer and Pastiche, Eleven Illustrative Plates, and a Guide to Parts Unknown is a collection of poetry exploring the problematics of love, sex, and geography.

Inspired by the concise works of Albert Camus, Sunquist's first novel, set in the mid-1970s, follows a UC Berkeley undergraduate in the Bay area and during his return to the Midwest. Not at home in either, his search for meaning is elusive in a post-Vietnam era America, making it all the more necessary to seek it. The question then becomes, where?

How a Chicago Kabbalist helps the Chicago Cubs win their first World Series since 1908.

"With a title that echoes that of an essential feminist work, Our Bodies, Ourselves, this colorful and appealing international survey of young women's art and writing goes beyond issues related to women's bodies to focus on dreams, ideas, and convictions. This reflects the heartening fact that never before have so many women been as well educated, gainfully employed, well traveled, and empowered. Curious about just how different the lives of women in their twenties and thirties are from preceding generations, editor Goldman, with the support of the International Museum of Women in San Francisco, sent out a query via the Internet asking, 'What defines your generation of women?' From several thousand replies, Goldman and her international editorial team selected more than 100 expressive submissions from women living in 57 countries around the globe. Replete with a wise and celebratory introduction by Isabel Allende and photographs and concise profiles of each contributor, this zestful volume presents women artists, musicians, poets, photographers, journalists, activists, teachers, and athletes. Some are famous, many have intriguing backgrounds, and all are creative, adventurous, and confident individuals who share "common visions and strategies" for engendering a freer, more tolerant, better-informed, and more hopeful world." (Reviewed by Donna Seaman. Copyright by the American Library Association.)

Tompa Lee, twenty-second-century 'street meat' from Manhattan, has clawed her way up to the lowest rungs of the Commerce Space Navy. Unfortunately, she is framed for a heinous act of terrorism and the alien Shons demand that she be turned over to them for trial. Dante Roussel is the Navy policeman ordered to deliver Tompa - but he learns that Shon justice demands a trial-by-combat with Tompa and her supporters battling three hundred accusers. Awmit is her only Shon supporter, an old, feckless nobody who witnessed Tompa's innocence. Appalled by the injustice of two against three hundred, Dante disobeys orders and charges off to help Tompa. In the face of overwhelming odds, Tompa Lee finally discovers the trust and love that she has never known--and in the process, becomes a legend.

Four gifted girls grow up in Chicago and remain lifelong friends. As they struggle, they are empowered by their connection.

A collection of short and long stories ranging from suspense and mystery to whimsical. Each examines a different human paradox in many environments from wartime Italy to yesterday's America and Latin America. They portray a triumph of human values over the vicissitudes imposed by situations over which the protagonists have no control.

A portrait of Mexico in a collection of contemporary Mexican fiction and literary prose. Includes works by Carlos Fuentes, Angeles Mastretta, Juan Villoro, Carlos Monsivais, Rosario Castellanos, and many others.

Good Mourning, America focuses on the immediate aftermath of 9/11 and explores how terror, tragedy, and the misappropriation of tragedy stirs a melting pot, adding plenty of spice and a wicked splash of dark comedy. Friendship, hope, and American ingenuity on the rebound, with a biting vengeance.

Play placed as a finalist for 2005 Eugene O'Neill National Playwrights Conference.

Just prior to the Second World War, and even more explosively in the 1950s and 1960s, a far-reaching revolution in aesthetics and prosody by black poets ensued. Little of this work has been reflected in anthologies and college syllabi, and the work of black experimental poets continues to be neglected. This anthology presents the groundbreaking work of poets carrying on the legacy of innovators such as Tolson, Brooks, Baraka, and Hayden, while showcasing brilliant work--much of it unpublished or out of print--by under-recognized poets such as Russell Atkins, Lloyd Addison, Elouise Loftin, Stephen Jonas, David Henderson, Tom Weatherly, and a wealth of others. A critical introduction by the editors introduces the anthology.

"With sensitivity, intelligence, and careful work [the editors] present a bumper crop of quite remarkable poetry"--Lorenzo Thomas

"A critical starting point from which literary historians and chroniclers of African American expressive culture can begin to revise the current accounting of black poetic experiment."--Meta DuEwa Jones

Originally published in 1950, the novel was reissued in 1954, when its style was "fixed" to remove colloquial mannerisms and tenses. More importantly, an entire section critical of the Vichy and of the purported liberation of North Africa was omitted, significantly altering the conclusion and, indeed, the whole thrust of the book. Nonetheless, it is this version by which the book is known to this day in French.

Based on the original 1950 text, this new translation is notable not only for bringing Feraoun's classic to an English-speaking audience but also for presenting the book in its entirety for the first time in fifty years.

Life, Sex, and Fast Pitch Softball is the story of 14-year old Mercedes Mayfield who, through a season as catcher for a softball team, is forced out of her affluent world, and gets to know some fascinating people--two of them her own parents.

The protagonist of this novel is both professor and priest, a man of radical beliefs who urges his followers to repudiate all religions, including Hindu. It is by viewing videos that he gains his insight, which he then shares with Hindu Americans who are mystified by their culture and confused about their identities. Throughout the book, Chandola's narrator exposes the reader to all phases of this religion and leads his followers with great purpose along a path of knowledge and awareness. Where that path leads--as well as how and what each character learns during the journey--constitutes the central drama of this book.

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This is the first all-fiction anthology ever devoted to a sports team. It features short stories, play and novel excerpts, even a touch of Shakespeare -- all inspired by the Boston Red Sox.

A mysterious death takes a U of C graduate student back to her insular South Dakota hometown where an unassuming question opens up her own Pandora's box. The U of C campus and surrounding neighborhood, circa 1953, are the settings for much of the narrative.

Quintet is a collection of five novellas described below.

The Ultimate Success: A businessman, well respected in his community, commits business fraud, bringing disgrace on himself and his family. After faking a suicide he secludes himself with a mistress on a Pacific island only to be pursued and brought to justice by an insurance company's inspector. This novella is quite current in view of the dishonest CEOs in the news these days.

Family Agendas: A Jewish son marries a Catholic girl against his mother's wishes. His father does not keep his promise to turn the family business over to him. This novella deals with issues such as generational conflict, aging, religious prejudice and letting go.

Ambition: Concerns racial and religious prejudice in business, and the seeking of power. A liberal Jewish executive discovers his racial prejudice when he refuses to work for a black president. We humans are a well of unplumbed depths.

A Son's Father, A Father's Son: A story about the tragic consequences wrought by war on innocent participants. A celebrity father and his son find common ground in their respective shocking experiences in World War II and the war in Vietnam.

Doctor Banner's Garden: A retired elderly professor and her woman cohort are rejuvenated when three young college students enter their lives. The students, marveling at what these women have accomplished in their revealed pasts, come to seek their counsel. It's a story about aging and the significance of a human life. Doctor Banner's Garden is set in 1947 Chicago.

The five novellas have also been transcribed into full-length stage plays. Thus far, two have been given performance readings, and one is scheduled for a full staging in Maine in 2006.

Goodbye, Mr. Nigger is a story about the first black professor at a predominantly white southern university. Excited at the opportunity, the author's hero is quickly faced with severe prejudice and disrespect. The problem, extending from fellow faculty members to the student body, only grows worse when the professor begins an affair with a white colleague.

The author himself enjoyed a long, distinguished career in academia, and thus knows whereof he speaks and writes. Readers, likewise, will have their heartstrings tugged and their innermost feelings strained as this tense, provocative story unfolds. The writing is crisp and raw, certainly not for the squeamish or overly sensitive. Yet that is the nature of racism, and thus provides the complementary backdrop for a book that resonates with feeling and, perhaps, controversy.

Salvation Run brings together bikers and Lutherans, birth and death, love and betrayal in a funny, intense, and fast-moving tale. In Moorhead and Eagle Grove, Minnesota, secrets beneath staid Midwestern exteriors threaten to create an uproar if all is revealed.

Sandy, the wayward daughter of a Lutheran minister, finds herself pregnant by a loser with a penchant for violence. When he abandons her, she is rescued by Largo, a Harley biker whose gentle heart is hidden by leather, turbines, and tattoos. Her father has been having an extramarital affair with a local woman who has given birth to his brain-damaged child. Meantime, the parish's gay couple has their relationship severely tested when a newly outed teen is invited into their home after he is disowned by his parents.

As the characters push the limits and face uncertain life choices in these interweaving storylines, Gardner probes the themes of responsibility and, in an unsentimental way, the redeeming possibilities of love.

Contains 35 poems divided into three sections: Love Poems, Philosophical Poems, and Poems Comical and Satirical. Some of the Philosophical Poems, and the Poems Comical and Satirical were written while I was a grad student in physics at Chicago. Those were the days when we heard in Ida Noyes Hall such famous poets as Dylan Thomas, T.S. Eliot, and W.H. Auden. I sent an early version of this book of poems to Poetry, then edited by Karl Shapiro, who gave me some helpful hints in reply. Three of the Love Poems were written while I was an undergraduate at Harvard, two of them being translations from Heine and Brentano. Then, a couple were written while I was a Ph.D. student in physics at Stanford. The remainder were written while I was teaching physics at Holy Cross, and some after my retirement in 1994, here in San Diego. I submitted various versions of the book to contests without success, so in 2004, after turning 80, I said, Why not pay them have them published yourself, before it is too late? To borrow from Housman: "None of my three score years and ten/None of them will come again/And take from seventy springs, four score/It hardly leaves me many more. So to hell with contests I have said,/I'll publish them now before I'm dead." And so I did.

A fictional novel based on Mr. Sanford's actual experiences as an internal auditor for Western Electric Company & Bell System at Hawthorne Works in Chicago. It is set in the early 1970's and gives an insight into how businesses of today have gotten into moral decay, and how business of the 1970's worked. It is filled with fraud, theft, sexual harassment, and even explains how women of the 70's were discriminated against.

Four teams try to compete in the first Intergalactic Interspecies Games. Each team has private reasons for competing, and each has forces arrayed against their success. Each one that succeeds will contribute to a new destiny for all the worlds.

When Wars Were Won is less a novel about World War II and more a tribute to the men and women who endured that war. It is about friendship, love, heartbreak and the triumph of the spirit. Set amidst the last two years of the Pacific war, this story follows a young, navy Seabee (U.S. Naval Construction Battalions) from California to the harsh, tropical jungles of New Guinea and the Philippines. The war provides 20-year-old Hal Arnold with his first venture into real life, where his youth and naïveté are dashed and where reality and maturity emerge. Surrounded by colorful, oddball navy buddies, Hal learns more about himself and his fellow man than he ever thought possible. Hal's innocence quickly fades as he becomes friends with Seabee Barry Fortune, a slick, manipulative wartime profiteer whose cold-blooded eye is always looking for the next deal. "Billiard Ball," another Seabee, is a former college professor whose intellect is mildly out of place in the mess hall, but who provides Hal with a unique perspective on life. Best of all is kindly, solid Chief Winter who breaks through Hal's wartime despair with this sound advice: "Don't be sore at the world. Choose what good you can find, no matter how small, and focus on it." Hal struggles with his feelings for his friends, his own emotions regarding war and its inhumanity, as well as his developing love for a young Filipino girl. The joy, pain, and sacrifice of wartime survival all contribute to Hal's emergence as a man and guide him through adult life until his return to the Philippines 40 years after the war for a tragic reunion.

Alternate story lines, endings, and commentary for all 60 Sherlock Holmes stories by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Readers need to be familiar with Sir Arthur's stories to enjoy WFD. In 2 volumes.

36 poems, 60 haiku, and 24 quizzes about the Sherlock Holmes stories of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.

In a lush, verdant corner of Cambridgeshire called the Camford Downs rises the ancient English estate, Lostlindens, pride of its wealthy, eccentric, and suspicious proprietors Lucy and Manfred Elevenish. Lured by the promise of a first-hand look at an historic literary relic--a leather boot that once belonged to William Shakespeare--a group of energetic and independent American college students sets out for this grand mansion, a jaunt which promises to be the highlight of their six-week course ambitiously titled English Life in Literature. The leader of this course is none other than Hiawatha Musing, full-time professor of English and part-time sleuth, first introduced to readers in the 2003 novel Grave Circle. When, after the first night in the great house, not one but two people turn up dead, Hiawatha sends a desperate plea for assistance to his sister Antigone, professor of chemistry and accomplice in crime-solving. Together, Hi and Tig unravel the fascinating tangles that link the various temporary and long-term inhabitants of Lostlindens, dabbling in poetry, romance, and subterfuge along the way.

Four young people come together, break apart, and realign within the walls of Rodman & Ward, an old-line Boston law firm about to collapse at the height of the Y2K hysteria.

A collection of sonnets and other poetry.

A motorcyclist, Matt starts a road trip to realize a dream. But the trip becomes rather terrifying when new desires cause his old world to crumble around him.

A Rage in Chicago is about the dissertation process and the difficulty in obtaining a PhD. Regina Cummings writes under the pen name Regina Dionne.

A New Golden Age--or the Apocalypse! The moon has suddenly acquired its own satellite: a two-mile-across starship that represents a hitherto unsuspected Galactic Commonwealth. The F'thk, a vaguely centaur-like member species for whom Earth's ecology is hospitable, have been sent to evaluate humanity for prospective membership. The F'thk are overtly friendly but very private (information is a trade good). As Earth's scientists struggle to understand their secretive appraisers, odd inconsistencies emerge. As troubling as those anomalies is the reemergence of a bit of insanity humanity thought it had outgrown: Cold War and nuclear saber-rattling. The Galactics' arrival may signify the start of a glorious new era, or it may presage the cataclysmic end of human civilization. Which outcome do the aliens really desire? And what will they do if humanity refuses to play its assigned role?

In Bailemos cuando den las diez, Ines, the protagonist, seeks a niche in the world, but she is handicapped by her upbringing and cultural traditions. Vilches's novel presents a very rich literary fabric that combines artfully with elements of popular culture. Bailemos should be a great contribution to fiction published in Spanish in the United States.

The young copper trader's life depended on it--he had to get out. But his employer had no intention of letting him go. His career had been going so well...until he learned who he was really working for. Following a mysterious death at Longwell Metals, Drew Madison is promoted to the coveted executive role of copper trader. Flights on the corporate jet, a high-society Chicago lifestyle, and more wealth than he ever dreamed of are the perks of his new job. Yet, despite his excitement over this newfound world of prestige and privilege, he senses that something is wrong. Following his instincts, Drew learns that he has unwittingly become the key player in a nefarious scheme. He seeks help from those around him, but with everyone working their own angle, who can he trust? His danger becomes grave when the lives of his young daughter and wife are threatened. Caught in a perilous game of cat and mouse with those who seek to use him, Drew must take matters into his own hands and risk the ultimate loss to break free.

Short story collection touching on crucial events of the last decades of the last century, roughly from the assassination of JFK, through the rise and fall of the Khmer Rouge, ending with 9/11.

Three sisters, Lucinda, Vennie Lou, and Carrie, migrated from Troy, Alabama to Argo, Illinois in the1920s. They started a new clan in the small industrial town, best known for the huge corn factory. Life in the 1950s was hard in the segregated North, requiring different life-coping skills especially for Negro families. The sisters were survivors, and men like Rooster, Oliver, Captain, and Wallace were also survivors, but in different ways. Lil Man, an 8-year-old member of the family, was bathed in the excitement of his family and the notorious life style that centered in the Negro section of Argo, called the Horseshoe Bend, where bars, taverns, and gambling attracted Negroes from surrounding communities and big city Chicago. The decadence of the town was balanced by the strong family bonds that predominated Argo's Negro community. Secrets shared only by the three sisters insured the family bond would hold.

The Fall of Heartless Horse is a postmodern multigenerational family drama that is dark, hilarious, moving and wildly original. By turns lyric, comic, and tragic, it deals with greed, inheritance, heroism, capitalism, sex, and the intertwining of public and private histories. Kinney has brought to life an amazing cast of characters with a "novella in verse" combining elements from ancient Scottish sagas, songs, legal documents, New Age literature, and interviews. This startling, inventive debut, which draws on traditions of both poetry and prose, has been compared with the works of Lewis Carroll and Anne Carson, and evokes qualities of opera, epic, and melodrama as well. This soaring, energetic, one-of-a-kind text explodes different forms, gutting and reanimating them. A deeply affecting tale of ruthlessness, loss, rivalry, and the difficulty of finding one's place in the world.

An incident with consequences for the so-called "integrity of game" as profound as the "Black Sox" scandal and more profound than Pete Rose betting on baseball is backdrop for The Oddsmakers, a novel that gives new meaning to the proverbial once-in-a-lifetime dream. This dream appears as a box score from a game yet to be played. Oddsmakers traverse Las Vegas to the crossroads of sports and gambling from where they must forge a path to the rainbow's end. But Las Vegas is on the verge of a disappearing act worthy of Siegfried and Roy. The corporate takeover of the City and the information age raise the odds against them. Their demons threaten to turn the dream into a nightmare. Can the oddsmakers overcome and become oddsbreakers? Will their odyssey have consequences for the "integrity of the game?"

Bruhns's eighth romantic suspense novel spins the charming tale of cursed 200 year old pirate Tyree St. James' very last week on this earth, wherein he encounters pragmatic travel writer Clara Fergussen in picturesque Magnolia Cove, South Carolina. Together they solve a rash of arson cases involving eerily familiar historic houses and, unfortunately for both of them, fall in love, too.

No one knows wedding cakes better than the owner of Lauren's Luscious Licks, Boston's hottest cake boutique. Lauren Gallagher is a pro when it comes to helping brides and grooms pick out the perfect Big Day dessert. But what her clients don't know is that her talent doesn't end there. Because while the happy couple is choosing between buttercream and royal icing, Lauren is predicting which relationships will last, and which marriages will crumble, simply by watching them pick a cake. Her latest prediction, however, is anything but sweet. Unless her marital Magic Eight Ball is off, one of her best friends is about to tie the knot with Mr. Absolutely All Wrong. Lauren's got to save her friend, and prove her cake theory is true, even if it means taking her predictive powers public. All of a sudden it seems everyone wants to learn Lauren's secret for relationship success, but is predicting a sure thing formula for true love, or a recipe for disaster? And while Lauren's trying to prevent a potential mismatch, she's got her own problems (involving an ex-boyfriend, his new fiancée, and the cake of Lauren's dreams).

Leap In Time is a themed anthology from an Australian perspective. Sixteen Australian authors examine time past, present, and future. While for a general reading audience, the book, which comes with an e-book and audio CD, also targets persons who are visually impaired or who are learning English as a second language.

Steve Schroeder's second poetry collection, Revolutionary Patience, will make you slow down, look around, and notice the little miracles of your everyday life. There is deep human warmth in Schroeder's reflections even when the weather in his poems is "too cold to snow." The contemplative mood of the book does not lead to heavy philosophizing--the author has kept philosophy in his philosophical books. Birds, plants, and seasons are not used as allegories or carriers of special messages, but are allowed to reveal their genuine poetry. The unassuming wit of the book makes one smile when reading it, and smile again later, when remembering a line or an image that sounded not just beautiful, but true.

Is conventional masculinity hazardous to young men's health? Boyz 2 Buddhas proposes that mindfulness meditation can help male teens deal with the unhealthy pressures of growing up today. After examining high school football--a popular activity that evokes troublesome aspects of male consciousness and behavior--David Forbes describes a meditation and discussion group he held with urban high school football players. The students meditated in order to play football in the zone, a state of higher awareness. Along the way they also learned to live their lives in the same manner, resulting in a more mindful, healthy way of growing up to be men. The counseling model illustrated in this book blends popular culture with contemplative practice, and addresses young men's need for greater personal meaning.

This guide is part of a curriculum that teaches sign communication with those who are deaf or hard of hearing. The three components of this curriculum are: the textbook, Sign Language Made Simple by Edgar D. Lawrence, the practice videotape, and the instructor's kit. The Instructor's Guide, authored by Reppert, includes 40 lesson plans, teacher resources, student handouts, tests and answer keys--everything an instructor needs for effective teaching of the subject. Reppert also produced the VHS practice videotape in which she is the video tutor, demonstrating all of the signs in the textbook. For ages 9-adult.

This is a collection of works by one of Latin America's most distinguished academic and literary families. Presented here, in a single volume, is a wealth of styles, subjects, and forms united, perhaps, solely by the uncommonly high quality of the writing itself. The anthology includes uncollected pieces and English translations by the Oxford poet Bruce Phenix.

As Easy as Breathing is the moving story of a woman's struggle and ultimate triumph over cancer, told through poems from her poetic journal, letters to her healing circle, and conversations with Spirit. This book is a spiritual journey through a dark night of the soul and into the light beyond. Margaret's body-mind-spirit was healed, her relationships were healed, her life profoundly transformed. She learned to live deeply, using everything as an opportunity for growth and clarity. Sometimes funny, always graceful, honest, and inspiring, this hope-filled book is particularly relevant in these troubled times.

Mystic Warrior is a contemporary thriller with a profound twist: it takes place in a world where psychic abilities and spiritual powers are used--and abused--by both ordinary people and those at the highest levels of government and world leadership--Robert Ludlum meets James Redfield. An entrepreneur tormented by mercenaries must develop his psychic skills to compete in a world where his previous beliefs about time, space, and human limitations no longer apply.

Everyone can have heaven, any heaven they want, but some people don't want to go. Mankind has largely retreated to the realms of virtual reality, where resources are unlimited and the problems of the real world--violence, conflict, sickness, and pain--can all be avoided. Unfortunately, those who stay behind in the real world pose the only risk to the immortality of those who have converted to virtual existence. Derek, a soldier in the Conversion Forces (ConFoes), seeks to enforce the Mandatory Conversion Act on the remaining mals (malcontent Luddites, gangbangers, and religious fanatics). He just wants to put in his time and join his family on one of the virtual worlds. But until then, he is forced to deal with his psychotic squad-mates, the increasingly brutal tactics of the ConFoes, and a female lieutenant from a mal religious faction that just may be a better soldier than he When Moore's Law meets God's Law, the result is forced conversion.

"A very wonderful and gracious work. With each reading it has taken on, for me, a greater dimension."-Jacob Lawrence, American Academy of Arts and Letters. "I cherish these poems--their verve, their leaps of thought, their swoops of speculation, their hilarity, their faith, their spirit, their sympathy."-William Stafford, Winner National Book Award, Consultant in Poetry, Library of Congress.

An English translation from Urdu of selected poems from Sant Darshan Singh's award-winning magnum opus, Mataa'-e Noor. Hundreds of verses in the Sufi tradition celebrate the torments and ecstasies that the lover of God suffers at the hands of the Divine. Also included are an introduction to the poet's life, an overview of his literary and mystical foundations, and a commentary on the poems.

Is this the greatest discovery of all time . . . or the biggest hoax? Bob Hanson, the chief scientist of a major aerospace corporation, has made an incredible discovery: a wrecked alien spacecraft adrift in the Asteroid Belt. The evidence is compelling--video images from the Prospector space probe he himself had created. The military enthusiastically embraces an investigation of the extraterrestrials, remarkably indifferent to the inconsistencies that begin to appear. Undeterred, Hanson keeps digging . . . and finds much more than he had ever bargained for. Soon on the lam, he, and everyone to whom he turns, is hunted. Before long only one conclusion remains unassailable: that his mysterious opponents play for keeps. Are aliens manipulating events on Earth? Did unscrupulous corporate executives invent the aliens in search of giga-buck government contracts? Has the Pentagon fabricated an alien menace for its own purposes? Or is the truth something 'really' unimaginable?