They are icons of the literary world whose soaring works have been discussed and analyzed in countless classrooms, homes, and pubs. Yet for most readers, the living, breathing human beings behind the classics have remained unknown—until now. In this utterly captivating book, Dr. Elliot Engel, a leading authority on the lives of great authors, illuminates the fascinating and flawed members of literature’s elite. In lieu of stuffy biographical sketches, Engel provides fascinating anecdotes.

They are icons of the literary world whose soaring works have been discussed and analyzed in countless classrooms, homes, and pubs. Yet for most readers, the living, breathing human beings behind the classics have remained unknown—until now. In this utterly captivating book, Dr. Elliot Engel, a leading authority on the lives of great authors, illuminates the fascinating and flawed members of literature’s elite. In lieu of stuffy biographical sketches, Engel provides fascinating anecdotes.

Lightspeed: Year One compiles fiction published by the online science fiction magazine Lightspeed in its first year. Produced by Skyboat Media, and under the direction of Grammy and Audie Award–winning narrator and producer Stefan Rudnicki, the Lightspeed podcast features audiobook-style recordings of the stories published each month in Lightspeed.“The Cassandra Project” by Jack McDevitt, read by Stefan Rudnicki“Amaryllis” by Carrie Vaughn, read ...

In a world of blood, purity is king. Delve into a post-apocalyptic world where superhumans reign, and the purity of your bloodline determines everything. In this dystopian fantasy, people are divided by the powers they have and the air they are allowed to breathe.On the eve of what is every 16-year-old Percenters transition to adulthood, Jenavieve learns about the cruel oppression of Barrens, people without superhuman powers who live below the Sovereign Sky Cities - the only world ...

Gregory Benford and David Brin come together in this bold collaboration about our near human future in spacePrescient and scientifically accurate, Heart of the Comet is known as one of the great hard SF novels of the 1980s. First published in 1986, it tells the story of an ambitious manned mission to visit Halley's Comet, alter its orbit, and mine it for resources. But all too soon, native cells—that might once have brought life to Earth—begin colonizing the colonists. As ...

The author of three books on CIA operations, Douglas Valentine began his research into the agency’s activities when CIA director William Colby gave him free access to interview agency officials who had been involved in various aspects of the Phoenix program in South Vietnam. It was a permission Colby was to regret. The CIA would eventually rescind it and made every effort to impede publication of The Phoenix Program, which documented an elaborate system of population surveillance,...

The first tremors of the earth were felt at 7:22 EST. time. Every single person felt the rumbling and experienced the tremors that would forever alter the course of history. Most did not survive. These are the accounts of some of those who did.Following three sets of people, The Upheaval is filled with heartbreak and hope. The day starts out like any other but soon goes to calamity. From earthquake to fire to tsunami, they must face disaster from every angle—the world they...

“Te sorprenderás de la rapidez con la cual vas a aprender nuevas maneras de empezar una conversación con simplemente escuchar este CD y practicar las habilidades con todos los que llegues a conocer. Imagina cuánto éxito y confianza tendrás cuando entres a un salón lleno de gente y puedas conversar con cualquiera – ¡y es mas fácil de lo que piensas!” – Don Gabor¿Ya te cansaste de sentirte tímido y no poder hablar? Este programa garantiza enseñarte a comenzar, continuar y ter...

Are you chained to your addiction to smoking? Drinking? Sugar? Drugs? Food? Prescription painkillers? Caffeine? Internet porn? Gambling? Sex?When you are chained by an addiction, it can ruin your life, devastate your family, destroy your relationships, derail your career, lower your grades, and make you physically ill.Do you want to break free from your addictions?If so, you need to optimize your brain. The brain plays a central role in your vulnerability to addicti...

Expiration Day is an insightful coming-of-age novel set in the near future by debut author William Campbell Powell.It is the year 2049, and humanity is on the brink of extinction.Tania Deeley has always been told that she’s a rarity: a human child in a world where most children are sophisticated androids manufactured by Oxted Corporation. When a decline in global fertility ensued, it was the creation of these near-perfect human copies called teknoids that helped to...

Born in New York City’s black ghetto Harlem at the start of World War II, Samuel R. Delany married white poet Marilyn Hacker right out of high school. The interracial couple moved into the city’s new bohemian quarter, the Lower East Side, in summer 1961.Through the decade’s opening years, new art, new sexual practices, new music, and new political awareness burgeoned among the crowded streets and cheap railroad apartments. Beautifully, vividly, insightfully, Delany calls up this er...

The award-winning author of Timescape and Eater returns with a gripping new novel set in the same dynamic future as his wildly popular The Martian Race.Their historic mission to Mars made Julia and Victor the most famous astronauts of all time. Now, decades later, they are ordered by the Consortium to Pluto, where they will rendezvous with another starship led by the brilliant, arrogant Captain Shanna Axelrod. Here, on the frozen ammonia shore of Pluto's ...