The story of Paricutin begins when sixteen-year-old Daniel Pulido has a premonition of the 1985 Mexico City earthquake. He warns his mother who is working at a children’s hospital— but she doesn’t believe him. Eight days later, Daniel is the sole survivor found in the rubble because a special microphone, lowered into the wreckage, picked up some of his mysterious ramblings. The Church attributes Daniel’s miraculous survival to God and broadcasts that Daniel’s “ramblings” were divi...

"Personally, I've got a lot invested in reaching my stunning current age, and I'm damned if I'm going to hang on to that youthful crap. (I liked the idea of being a sixty-year-old so much I started claiming that age before I turned fifty-nine.) Parts of it, I don't like--the loss of energy that seems its inevitable accompaniment, for example--but when I consider how I used to boil that energy away as a younger man, and the things I boiled it away on, I am happy to accept a shorter tether a...

“Know thy gadgets; first step in restoring some kind of wholeness to one’s life.” So observes John Jerome about his purpose for rebuilding a 1950 Dodge pickup. Yes, he needs the truck to haul manure, but Jerome also hopes that “by knowing every nut, lockwasher, and cotter pin I could have a machine that had some meaning to me.” Thus his year-long odyssey under the hood, among the brake shoes and valves, becomes more than a mechanic’s memoir; it is a meditation on machines, metaphysics, and...

With grace, style, and gentle, self-deprecating wit, John Jerome describes the back-breaking but soul-mending task of building a stone wall on his New England farm. The job begins on a whim—he decides to move one from his woods for the sheer pleasure of seeing it from the house—and as the wall progresses, the physical occupation leads Jerome to philosophical preoccupation. Thus Stone Work, first published in 1989, becomes a discourse on the meaning of craft, the stolidness of work...

In this engaging collection of essays, author and athlete John Jerome celebrates the simplicity and freedom of running. With contagious passion, he strips away fads and myths to offer basic guidelines for participants, from beginning joggers to those preparing for marathons.For years Jerome recorded his thoughts and experiences during his daily training. As he ran, he discovered not only physical benefits, but philosophical ones as well. His wry reflections take you on a joyous jou...

Private investigator Jack Morgan is on the hunt for a murderer in Las Vegas—and the murder ring he uncovers is unlike anything he's ever seen.Las Vegas is a city of contradictions: seedy and glamorous, secretive and wild, Vegas attracts people of all kinds—especially those with a secret to hide, or a life to leave behind. It's the perfect location for Lester Olsen's lucrative business. He gets to treat gorgeous, young women to five-star restaurants, splashy shows, ...

Detective Carson Ryder returns, on the trail of a brutal killer with mysterious motives.Two psychologists are murdered 2000 miles apart – one in Phoenix, Arizona, one in Miami, Florida.Amazingly, both have noted down the name of Carson Ryder – a detective with the Florida Center for Law Enforcement who specializes in catching psychopathic killers.Carson joins forces with troubled Phoenix Detective Tasha Novarro to trace a ruthless killer whose advan...

**From a New York Times–bestselling author, an undercover government agent tries to resist her attraction to the police officer she's investigating.San Antonio detective Rick Marquez never met a case he couldn't solve or a woman he couldn't charm. That is, until Gwen Cassaway joins his squad. Sparks fly as the two law enforcement agents butt heads over every case that crosses their desks. Before long, the seemingly innocent Gwen has lassoed the smooth-talking serge...

Tim Cahill reports on the road trip to end all road trips: a journey that took him from Tierra del Fuego to Prudhoe Bay, Alaska, in a record-breaking twenty three and a half days.

Dave Eggers and his students at the 826 Valencia and 826 Michigan writing labs compile fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and comics, as well as category-defying gems that have become one of the hallmarks of this lively collection.

While guarding an activist from an assassin, Cuddy makes himself the targetTo impress his girlfriend and remind himself of his long-neglected athleticism, John Francis Cuddy is training to run the Boston marathon. But the private detective's fitness regimen goes on the back burner when an old friend approaches him with a dangerous assignment. Euthanasia advocate Maisy Andrus has been receiving death threats, and the police are helpless to protect her. As he tries to...

Steve Hely, writer for The Office and American Dad!, and recipient of the Thurber Prize for American Humor, presents a travel book about his journey through Central and South America. Part travel book, part pop history, part comic memoir, Hely's writing will make readers want to reach for their backpack and hiking boots.The Wonder Trail is the story of a trip from Los Angeles to the bottom of South America, presented in 102 short chapters...