Michael Brick is one of those writers who never leaves your side, and what pleasurable company he provides.In reading this collection of his newspaper and magazine stories from Brooklyn, Houston, and beyond, picture the man. Tall, and lanky, and so proud to be Texan, wearing a brown vest and cowboy boots, his narrow reporter's notebook in his back pocket slapping at his flat ass, as if urging him onward because these blank pages needed filling.Brick's words breathe life int...

Inside the race to save a great American high school, where making the numbers is only the beginningBeing principal was never her dream. Anabel Garza, the young widow of a young cop, got by teaching English to immigrant children, taking college classes at night and raising her son.And Reagan High was no dream assignment. Once famous for its state football championships, educational achievements and award-winning design, the school was a shadow of its former self. “...

Recipient of three National Endowment for the Arts grants and with works exhibited at the prestigious Biennale de Paris, New York’s Whitney Museum, the de Menil Collection in Houston, and other venues, Bob “Daddy-O” Wade started “keeping it weird” in 1961 when he arrived in Austin with his ’51 custom Ford hot rod and his slicked-back hair. Primed to study art at the University of Texas, Wade’s coif and dragster earned him his trademark moniker, and the abstract, welded sculptures he fashio...

A collection of award-winning short stories by Harlan Ellison, an eight-time Hugo Award winner, five-time Bram Stoker Award winner, and four-time Nebula Award winnerHarlan Ellison’s work shaped the science-fiction, fantasy, and horror genres in the twentieth century, and this collection of his best-known and most-acclaimed stories is a perfect treasury for old Ellison fans as well as listeners discovering this zany, polyphonic writer for the first time....

When a young marine biologist discovers that she’s the victim of a deceptive US Navy research group, her world is suddenly turned upside down. Together Alison Shaw and her colleague Chris Ramirez, are left trying to pick up the pieces of their professional lives.But those pieces are about to put Alison on a path with two creatures that are destined to change everything. Beginning with one of the greatest technological achievements in human history. And an extraordinary computer sys...

Cary “Sol” Solomon isn’t just in a slump—he’s a mess. His stats have plummeted. Fans hate him. After he caps off two awful seasons with a catastrophic playoff flop, his team is done with him. Worse, thanks to his downward spiral, the addiction that’s nearly cost him his career before is rearing its ugly head.As luck would have it, though, the Seattle Sasquatches are desperate for goalies. When they snatch up Sol off waivers, maybe he has a chance to turn things around… if he can st...

An anthology more than half a century in the making, The Last Dangerous Visions is the third and final installment of the legendary science fiction anthology series.In 1973 celebrated writer and editor Harlan Ellison announced the third and final volume of his unprecedented anthology series, which began with Dangerous Visions and continued with Again, Dangerous Visions. But for reasons undisclosed, The Last Dangerous Visions was ...

"A Friend of Dorothy/Life on the Yellow Brick Road" is about the struggle for self-acceptance and discovering that a happy life is the sole responsibility of the individual traveler. A story that shares some of life's most difficult challenges using humor and honesty to navigate those sometimes treacherous paths. But inevitably "A Friend of Dorothy" is about the realization that the road to a joy filled life starts and ends in our own hearts.

Mustafa is a poor young boy working in a small repair shop under the burning summer heat. His biggest dream is simple: a pair of white trousers and white shoes. When he is sent to work at a brutal brick kiln for three days and three nights, he faces exhaustion, pain, and the harsh realities of poverty far beyond his age.Set in rural Anatolia, this emotional story explores child labor, survival, hope, and the quiet strength of a child refusing to give up on his dreams. Through power...

From the creator of Jurassic Park and EREgyptologist Harold Barnaby has just made the discovery of the century. While retranslating some old hieroglyphs, he has found clues to the location of a pharaoh’s lost tomb. But this discovery leads him to make the ultimate choice: rather than share his find with the rest of the world, Professor Barnaby is determined to locate the tomb and keep whatever treasure he finds inside for himself.But to pu...

Best of “The Strand Magazine”: 25 Years of Twists, Turns, and Tales from the Modern Masters of Mystery and Fiction“The Strand Magazine was always a giant voice in our corner of the literary world—and it still is today. This collection proves why—these unearthed gems and exciting new pieces shouldn’t be missed.” —Lee Child, bestselling author of the Jack Reacher seriesThis star-studded anniversary collection features over t...

Michael Crichton, the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Jurassic Park, returns to the world of paleontology in this recently discovered novel—a thrilling adventure set in the Wild West during the golden age of fossil hunting.The year is 1876. Warring Indian tribes still populate America’s western territories even as lawless gold-rush towns begin to mark the landscape. In much of the country it is still illegal to espouse evolution. Against this backdrop two ...