About the BookBefore Christopher Columbus's arrival, the New World was populated by people who likely originated in Asia. Each physiographic area's predominant culture was defined by the foods and other resources available in that region. Fish and sea mammals provided the majority of food for coastal peoples; the acorn was a staple for California Indians. Plant life and wild game (especially the American bison, or buffalo) were sources for Plains Indians.Click the Buy butto...

"There is little credibility in healing a privileged world. If the Church is failing the powerless of this world, it is failing the Gospel totally."In 1971, two priests from a Catholic order left their monastery in order to reinvent the contemplative life amid a Liverpool community oppressed by poverty and systemic racism. Foreshadowing the 'new monastic' movement, the members of a 300-year-old religious order began to translate the radical, self-sacrificial values...

A new collection about violence and the rural Midwest from a poet whose first book was hailed as “memorable” (Stephanie Burt, Yale Review) and “impressive” (Chicago Tribune)Flyover Country is a powerful collection of poems about violence: the violence we do to the land, to animals, to refugees, to the people of distant countries, and to one another. Drawing on memories of his childhood on a dairy farm in Illinois, Austin Smith explores th...

The "memorable" (Stephanie Burt, Yale Review) and "impressive" (Chicago Tribune) debut from a remarkable new voice in poetryAlmanac is a collection of lyrical and narrative poems that celebrate, and mourn the passing of, the world of the small family farm. But while the poems are all involved in some way with the rural Midwest, particularly with the people and land of the northwestern Illinois dairy farm where Austin Smith was born and ra...

Jace had the prince in his hand and was seconds away from slaughtering the last member of the royal bloodline who had for so long oppressed or killed people like Jace. Now he had the power to stop it. Jace wanted to see the eyes of the prince as his soul was drained, but thats when he saw somethingsomething different. In this boys eyes he saw something that he used to see in himself. Jace dropped the prince, turned on his heel, and started to walk away. As he walked, the remaining blood of...

Today, two cultural forces are converging to make America's youth easy targets for sex traffickers. Younger and younger girls are engaging in adult sexual attitudes and practices, and the pressure to conform means thousands have little self-worth and are vulnerable to exploitation. At the same time, thanks to social media, texting, and chatting services, predators are able to ferret out their victims more easily than ever before. In Walking Prey, advocate and former victim Holly A...

The essence of an addict is as unique and personal as one’s fingerprints. After years of hopping on and off the train of destruction, Luke’s life comes to a screeching halt. Thrust into sobriety by a ten-year jail sentence for running guns across a state line, reality and illusionary realms become blurred. Luke, once known as the boy who shot his brother, delves into his past through a series of dreams. Travel the twisted road of addiction as Luke navigates his way through fixatio...

With the Cuppacio family now settled into Jagoda Bay, the past of Chicago can no longer haunt them from the graves holding the men who made their childhoods hell.Now, it's all about moving forward, elevating, and marriage . Choosing to unite with the Rinaldi Mafia brought fortune and requirements. In order for the men to have permanent seats at the Rinaldi table, they must marry, and their future brides must meet the standards set by the Rinaldi f...

Memory: the faculty by which the mind stores and remembers information.The crazy thing about memories, though, is that they can be good or bad. In Ezio's case, they're the fucking nightmares that have him popping pills to suppress them. His memories hang on to him like a loose thread, and no matter how hard his people try to snag it off, it's no use.In this sequel, Jisei finds herself knocking on death's door. Just when she and Ezio choose to stop toying wi...

Everyone in the Rinaldi Mob has a job to do—a role to play—and newly appointed Mafian, Jisei Harper, is no exception.Jisei is used to slumming it out on her own. From birth, she was dealt a bad hand, but instead of dwelling on it, she smiled, rolled her shoulders back, and played her cards. After years of struggling, she meets Mocha, a rich daddy's girl, and Scarlett, a naïve hoodlum who had it worse off than Jisei. Little did she know, these two new friendships wo...

Exhilarated (iɡˈziləˌrādəd): very happy, animated, or elated.Aphrodite Greer is finally starting to see better days. She's slowly accepting that she can have a beautiful life despite her daughter being dead without feeling guilty. That beautiful life has a name and it's Goal Navarro—the persistent head of the Navarro Cartel.Goal Navarro sees what he wants and goes after it. Being a man who's always on the move, he's finally found the lady that keeps him gro...

The house, the cars, the lovemaking, the Princess treatment, the loyalty, the beautiful child, the commitment: all of those make up Aphrodite's dream life.It took five years for Aphrodite "Pretty Pretty" to experience her version of happiness, but one slip-up threatened everything she'd silently yearned for. What Pretty Pretty thought was her happy ending turned into the total opposite.Not all heroes wear capes but they do face demons. In this final install...