Charles Bowden

"In a past age, humanity fled a dying Earth in massive arkships, which searched the galaxy to find a new home. One fleet found Centauri, a dense cluster of stars teeming with habitable planets. Now, thousands of years later, Centauri's settlers have evolved into advanced beings known as Celestials - and their great houses rule vast star systems. As the Celestials vie for supremacy, Earth's arkships continue to arrive and humans must serve these repressive masters. But is there a better life beyond the empire? Finn is a Centauri-born human who yearns for a brighter future. So, when another arkship arrives, he seizes the chance to become a Traveler. These heroes explore the unknowns of distant space, dedicated to humanity's survival. And they hope - one day- to find freedom. The Archimedes Engine is the first book in the Exodus series, a major action-adventure RPG."

A century ago, power on farms was provided by one and a half million heavy horses. Today, heavy horses are almost a thing of the past, except for one place: Sillywrea Farm in Northumberland, where John Dodd's family have lived for more than 150 years. This is the last farm in the country where all the work is done by horses. Together with his son-in-law David Wise and five huge Clydesdales, John runs his farm to the rhythms of the seasons, and although the work is hard, the pace is unhurried as John and David work through the year.

An odyssey into Mexico fueled by liquor and drugs..radical politics at the University of Wisconsin...homesteading in New England...cleansing the soul in the desert...a Midwestern pilgrimage seeking roots, finding ruin...Mezcal takes in all of these scenes as it charts the disintegration of the land, the loss of friends to drugs, the decline of American innocence. Charles Bowden speaks for those Americans whose values were molded over the past quarter century, and as one who has chosen to make his stand in the southwestern deserts. This autobiographical work is a tribute to survival in the face of madness, a reconciliation with the past. A book haunted by the ghosts of Richard Fariña and Jack Kerouac, Mezcal embodies the spirit of restlessness and the hope of finding a home.--From jacket flap

The first literary biography of Edward Abbey in a generation, this thoughtful memoir serves as a meditation on the writing life, the cult of readers, reputation, and the literary afterlife of a well-known writer.

The author follows a narcotics agent in an unnamed city in the center of the country, as he sets in motion his latest conquest, a $50 million heroin deal that originates in Colombia and has federal agents sitting at attention from Los Angeles to Washington, D.C., to New York City. As the bust unfolds, the agent reveals the unerring instinct and ceaseless vigilance that have led him through minefields and brought down kingpins. But now they have led him to a place where it isn't so clear who the heroes are or what the fight has been for. And still the warrior fights on, in a murky and unforgiving landscape.--From publisher description.

"Don't let the title fool you. It's about more than street signs: it's about life in the big city; it's about history and the loss of history; it's about neighborhoods that were and never were, but still could be; it's about illusion and the real thing...." Studs Terkel

Eager to contact her sister Ever, ghost Riley goes in search of the place where dreams are made, where she finds a renegade ghost boy who has been flouting the rules of Dreamland for decades.

Presents a view of the Southwest that seeks to measure how rapid growth has taken its toll on the land.

Includes essays by Joseph Brodsky, William H. Gass, Henry Louis Gates, Jr., Edward Hoagland, Edna O'Brien, Cynthia Ozick, Grace Paley, John Edgar Wideman, and Tobias Wolff, among others.