The book opens with an introduction that encourages readers to explore its contents however they wish rather than feeling constrained to read in order from beginning to end. Science writer Thomas divides the information into six sections: “Earth,” “Near-Earth Space, “Our Solar System,” “Stars,” “Galaxies,” and “The Universe.” Readers can tighten their Kuiper Belt and […]
Williams has long worked magic with stories that, on the surface, seem quite quotidian, save that something unspoken—and occasionally sinister—lies beneath. The interactions of a woman and her driver in the opening story, “Flour,” are a case in point: She is well-off, but she invents an excuse to get rid of an expected weekend guest […]
Dovey Van Dalen is just an ordinary PI to most people who know her, but she’s actually a “mystic investigator,” retrieving magical objects that fall into non-magical hands. Some 180 years ago, as a young society girl in Copenhagen, Denmark, she met Elric, the jealous mystic who bound her to him as his lover and […]
One of Natalie Olsen’s two best friends died of cancer. Now she stands at the bedside of the other, Cara, who’s been left in a coma with little brain activity by a super-strong date-rape drug. Cara left a club with a stranger and was found unconscious at a bus stop. Another woman is in the […]
Australian stuntperson, survival expert, and TV personality Furneaux draws on her own bushcraft experience to offer an engaging guide to survival in the outdoors that’s at once comprehensive and compulsively readable. Organized into manageable sections, the book covers core outdoor survival principles, including shelter, water, and fire. Each section presents a historical example to learn […]
England, 1349. Sir Hugh de Grey, known as the Pale Knight, has just arrived home from his battles in France. He left behind a continent ravaged not only by war, but by plague, and he’s disheartened to find that the deadly pestilence has reached England ahead of his ship. At his estate, he finds his […]
It may seem premature to promote careers in wildlife conservation in an appeal aimed at a younger primary-grade audience, but Eason forges ahead anyway. She addresses “mission-ready” readers in her introduction and finishes with lines of relevant work from trained scientist to field guide, filmmaker, and even public relations specialist. In between, she engagingly positions […]
As the novel opens, Ben Roberts is a whip-smart wise guy with commitment issues (“I needed to see a therapist, but I didn’t trust them because I’m a reporter and I don’t trust anybody”) but driven by a fierce loyalty to his profession. When he’s laid off by the San Diego Sun, he changes from […]
A little over three years after he returned in triumph from his epic exploration of the North American West with William Clark, Meriwether Lewis was found dead in October 1809 of gunshot wounds at a small inn along the historic Natchez Trace in Tennessee. Ever since, historians have debated how he died, with most opting […]
Joseph “Breeze” Bye, a wheelchair-bound former professional baseball player, is on the cusp of finding major success in his second, post-accident career: painting. Breeze paints portraits of great pitchers—players who are as good as he was, before he was the victim of a hit-and-run. As a major exhibition of his work in New York City […]