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Editorial Content for Just Say Yes: A Marijuana Memoir

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Reviewer (text)

Tom Callahan

JUST SAY YES is one of the most unusual and refreshing memoirs ever written about the use of intoxicants. Many writers have written about the impact of drugs or alcohol on their lives. Generally, these cautionary tales chronicle how the author hits rock bottom. Read More

Teaser

As someone who has smoked weed almost every day for 50 years, author Catherine Hiller has produced an entertaining and positive narrative about long-term cannabis use. She describes climbing filthy tenement stairs in NYC to get her bi-monthly supply, giving advice about grass to an octogenarian couple, going to the Burning Man festival, filming Paul Bowles, smoking pot in the Caribbean, interviewing John Updike about marijuana, and being among the film crew at Woodstock.

Promo

As someone who has smoked weed almost every day for 50 years, author Catherine Hiller has produced an entertaining and positive narrative about long-term cannabis use. She describes climbing filthy tenement stairs in NYC to get her bi-monthly supply, giving advice about grass to an octogenarian couple, going to the Burning Man festival, filming Paul Bowles, smoking pot in the Caribbean, interviewing John Updike about marijuana, and being among the film crew at Woodstock.

About the Book

JUST SAY YES may be the first marijuana memoir ever published: a look at a life through a cannabis lens. As someone who has smoked weed almost every day for 50 years, author Catherine Hiller has produced an entertaining and positive narrative about long-term cannabis use: "Weed is the spine of this memoir, as drink is the center of so many others." Hiller describes climbing filthy tenement stairs in NYC to get her bi-monthly supply, giving advice about grass to an octogenarian couple, going to the Burning Man festival, filming Paul Bowles, smoking pot in the Caribbean, interviewing John Updike about marijuana, and being among the film crew at Woodstock. With ruthless honesty, she observes weed's effect upon every aspect of her life: marriage, motherhood, friendship, work and sex.

Editorial Content for Reykjavik Nights: An Inspector Erlendur Novel

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Reviewer (text)

Joe Hartlaub

William Wordsworth famously noted that “the child is father of the man.” It is that truism that makes REYKJAVIK NIGHTS so interesting. Read More

Teaser

In this prequel to his critically acclaimed Inspector Erlendur series, Arnaldur Indridason gives devoted fans a glimpse of Erlendur as a young, budding detective. The beat on the streets in Reykjavik is busy: traffic accidents, theft, domestic violence, contraband…and an unexplained death. When a tramp he met regularly on the night shift is found drowned in a ditch, no one seems to care. But his fate haunts Erlendur and drags him inexorably into the strange and dark underworld of the city.

Promo

In this prequel to his critically acclaimed Inspector Erlendur series, Arnaldur Indridason gives devoted fans a glimpse of Erlendur as a young, budding detective. The beat on the streets in Reykjavik is busy: traffic accidents, theft, domestic violence, contraband…and an unexplained death. When a tramp he met regularly on the night shift is found drowned in a ditch, no one seems to care. But his fate haunts Erlendur and drags him inexorably into the strange and dark underworld of the city.

About the Book

In REYKJAVIK NIGHTS, a stunning prequel to his critically acclaimed Inspector Erlendur series, Arnaldur Indriðason gives his devoted fans a real shock.

Erlendur is a young officer assigned to traffic duties. He is not yet a detective. He works nights. Reykjavík’s nights are full of car crashes, robberies, fights, drinking and sometimes an unexplained death.

One night a homeless man Erlendur knows is found drowned. Then a young woman on her way home from a club vanishes and both cases go cold.

But Erlendur’s instincts tell him that the fates of these two victims are worth pursuing. He is inexorably drawn into a world where everyone is either in the dark or on the run.

Editorial Content for How I Shed My Skin: Unlearning the Racist Lessons of a Southern Childhood

Reviewer (text)

Barbara Bamberger Scott

Growing up in Jones County, North Carolina, coming of age in the 1960s, Jim Grimsley has a powerful tale to tell --- about change, and the fears and triumphs that go with it. Read More

Teaser

Jim Grimsley was 11 years old in 1966 when federally mandated integration of schools went into effect in the state and the school in his small eastern North Carolina town was first integrated. What he did not realize until he began to meet these new students was just how deeply ingrained his own prejudices were and how those prejudices had developed in him. Now, more than 40 years later, Grimsley looks back at that school and those times --- remembering his own first real encounters with black children and their culture.

Promo

Jim Grimsley was 11 years old in 1966 when federally mandated integration of schools went into effect in the state and the school in his small eastern North Carolina town was first integrated. What he did not realize until he began to meet these new students was just how deeply ingrained his own prejudices were and how those prejudices had developed in him. Now, more than 40 years later, Grimsley looks back at that school and those times --- remembering his own first real encounters with black children and their culture.

About the Book

HOW I SHED MY SKIN chronicles award-winning novelist Jim Grimsley’s years of learning --- and then unlearning --- racism. A young white child in a small Southern town, he was taught early that blacks and whites should not mix, until, inexplicably, he found himself sitting among black students in his sixth grade classroom in 1966, the first year of the federally mandated integration of his school. He did not realize just how deeply ingrained his own prejudices were --- despite the fact that prior to starting sixth grade he had never actually known any black people.

As Dorothy Allison so eloquently put it, “The boy in this narrative is becoming a man at a time of enormous change, and his point of view is like a razor cutting through a callus. Painful and healing. Forthright and enormously engaging.”

Editorial Content for Thieves Fall Out

Contributors

Reviewer (text)

Tom Callahan

In its short decade-long history, Hard Case Crime has rescued lost novels from some of our greatest writers, including James M. Cain, Michael Crichton and Donald E. Westlake, as well as the great filmmaker Samuel Fuller. For those authors alone, Hard Case and its founder and editor, Charles Ardai, have assured their place in literary history. Read More

Teaser

Lost for more than 60 years and overflowing with political and sexual intrigue, THIEVES FALL OUT provides a delicious glimpse into the mind of Gore Vidal in his formative years. By turns mischievous and deadly serious, Vidal tells the story of a man caught up in events bigger than he is, a down-on-his-luck American hired to smuggle an ancient relic out of Cairo at a time when revolution is brewing and heads are about to roll.

Promo

Lost for more than 60 years and overflowing with political and sexual intrigue, THIEVES FALL OUT provides a delicious glimpse into the mind of Gore Vidal in his formative years. By turns mischievous and deadly serious, Vidal tells the story of a man caught up in events bigger than he is, a down-on-his-luck American hired to smuggle an ancient relic out of Cairo at a time when revolution is brewing and heads are about to roll.

About the Book

In 1953, Gore Vidal had already begun writing the works that would launch him to the top ranks of American authors and intellectuals. But in the wake of criticism for the scandalous content of his third novel, Vidal turned to writing crime fiction under fake names: three books as "Edgar Box" and one as "Cameron Kay." The Edgar Box novels were subsequently republished under his real name. The Cameron Kay never was.

Lost for more than 60 years and overflowing with political and sexual intrigue, THIEVES FALL OUT provides a delicious glimpse into the mind of Gore Vidal in his formative years. By turns mischievous and deadly serious, Vidal tells the story of a man caught up in events bigger than he is, a down-on-his-luck American hired to smuggle an ancient relic out of Cairo at a time when revolution is brewing and heads are about to roll.

One part Casablanca and one part torn-from-the-headlines tabloid reportage, this novel also offers a startling glimpse of Egypt in turmoil --- written over half a century ago, but as current as the news streaming from that region today.

Editorial Content for Picnic in Provence: A Memoir with Recipes

Contributors

Reviewer (text)

Maggie Harding

After her successful debut memoir, LUNCH IN PARIS, Elizabeth Bard continues the journey that began in New York, led to Paris and eventually to the village of Cereste in the French countryside. It's the kind of adventure that makes you long for a fantasy of your own. Read More

Teaser

Ten years ago, New Yorker Elizabeth Bard followed a handsome Frenchman up a spiral staircase to a love nest in the heart of Paris. Now, with a baby on the way, Elizabeth takes another leap of faith with her husband when they move to Provence and open an artisanal ice cream shop. Filled with enticing recipes such as stuffed zucchini flowers, fig tart and honey-and-thyme ice cream, PICNIC IN PROVENCE is the story of everything that happens after the happily ever after.

Promo

Ten years ago, New Yorker Elizabeth Bard followed a handsome Frenchman up a spiral staircase to a love nest in the heart of Paris. Now, with a baby on the way, Elizabeth takes another leap of faith with her husband when they move to Provence and open an artisanal ice cream shop. Filled with enticing recipes such as stuffed zucchini flowers, fig tart and honey-and-thyme ice cream, PICNIC IN PROVENCE is the story of everything that happens after the happily ever after.

About the Book

Escape to Provence this summer with the "brave, funny" sequel to Elizabeth Bard's bestselling LUNCH IN PARIS (Diane Johnson).

Ten years ago, New Yorker Elizabeth Bard followed a handsome Frenchman up a spiral staircase to a love nest in the heart of Paris. Now, with a baby on the way, Elizabeth takes another leap of faith with her husband when they move to Provence and open an artisanal ice cream shop. Filled with enticing recipes such as stuffed zucchini flowers, fig tart and honey-and-thyme ice cream, PICNIC IN PROVENCE is the story of everything that happens after the happily ever after. With wit, humor and a scoop of wild strawberry sorbet, Bard reminds us that life-in and out of the kitchen-is a rendezvous with the unexpected.

Editorial Content for The Dead Lands

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Reviewer (text)

Norah Piehl

There has been no shortage of post-apocalyptic novels lately, and not just the zombie thrillers we've come to expect. "Serious" writers such as Emily St. John Mandel, Sandra Newman, Laura van den Berg and (later this year) Claire Vaye Watkins have all set their recent books in a country devastated by disease or drought, using these bleak landscapes and desperate conditions to remark obliquely on our own time and place. Read More

Teaser

In Benjamin Percy's new thriller, a post-apocalyptic reimagining of the Lewis and Clark saga, a super flu and nuclear fallout have made a husk of the world we know. A few humans carry on, living in outposts such as the Sanctuary --- the remains of St. Louis --- a shielded community that owes its survival to its militant defense and fear-mongering leaders. A small group led by Lewis Meriwether and Mina Clark hopes to expand their infant nation and reunite the States. But the Sanctuary will not allow them to escape without a fight.

Promo

In Benjamin Percy's new thriller, a post-apocalyptic reimagining of the Lewis and Clark saga, a super flu and nuclear fallout have made a husk of the world we know. A few humans carry on, living in outposts such as the Sanctuary --- the remains of St. Louis --- a shielded community that owes its survival to its militant defense and fear-mongering leaders. A small group led by Lewis Meriwether and Mina Clark hopes to expand their infant nation and reunite the States. But the Sanctuary will not allow them to escape without a fight.

About the Book

In Benjamin Percy's new thriller, a post-apocalyptic reimagining of the Lewis and Clark saga, a super flu and nuclear fallout have made a husk of the world we know. A few humans carry on, living in outposts such as the Sanctuary --- the remains of St. Louis --- a shielded community that owes its survival to its militant defense and fear-mongering leaders. 

Then a rider comes from the wasteland beyond its walls. She reports on the outside world: west of the Cascades, rain falls, crops grow, civilization thrives. But there is danger too: the rising power of an army that pillages and enslaves every community they happen upon. 

Against the wishes of the Sanctuary, a small group sets out in secrecy. Led by Lewis Meriwether and Mina Clark, they hope to expand their infant nation, and to reunite the States. But the Sanctuary will not allow them to escape without a fight.

Editorial Content for The Age of Selfishness: Ayn Rand, Morality, and the Financial Crisis

Reviewer (text)

Matthew Burbridge

Darryl Cunningham starts his analysis of the 2008 financial crisis from what is considered its philosophical source. THE AGE OF SELFISHNESS: Ayn Rand, Morality, and the Financial Crisis, covers everything in its title and more. Cunningham opens things up with a concise biography of Ayn Rand, whose life, influences and writings make up the bulk of the book’s first part. I’m no expert on Rand or her writings, but the opening section does well in keeping the breakdown on her background fair and even-tempered. Read More

Teaser

Tracing the emergence of Ayn Rand’s philosophy of objectivism in the 1940s to her present-day influence, Darryl Cunningham’s latest work of graphic-nonfiction investigation leads readers to the heart of the global financial crisis of 2008. Cunningham uses Rand’s biography to illuminate the policies that led to the economic crash in the U.S. and in Europe, and how her philosophy continues to affect today’s politics and policies, starting with her most noted disciple, economist Alan Greenspan (former chairman of the Federal Reserve).

Promo

Tracing the emergence of Ayn Rand’s philosophy of objectivism in the 1940s to her present-day influence, Darryl Cunningham’s latest work of graphic-nonfiction investigation leads readers to the heart of the global financial crisis of 2008. Cunningham uses Rand’s biography to illuminate the policies that led to the economic crash in the U.S. and in Europe, and how her philosophy continues to affect today’s politics and policies, starting with her most noted disciple, economist Alan Greenspan (former chairman of the Federal Reserve).

About the Book

Tracing the emergence of Ayn Rand’s philosophy of objectivism in the 1940s to her present-day influence, Darryl Cunningham’s latest work of graphic-nonfiction investigation leads readers to the heart of the global financial crisis of 2008. Cunningham uses Rand’s biography to illuminate the policies that led to the economic crash in the U.S. and in Europe, and how her philosophy continues to affect today’s politics and policies, starting with her most noted disciple, economist Alan Greenspan (former chairman of the Federal Reserve). Cunningham also shows how right-wing conservatives, libertarians and the Tea Party movement have co-opted Rand’s teachings (and inherent contradictions) to promote personal gain and profit at the expense of the middle class. Tackling the complexities of economics by distilling them down to a series of concepts accessible to all age groups, Cunningham ultimately delivers a devastating analysis of our current economic world.

Editorial Content for Killer, Come Hither

Contributors

Reviewer (text)

Stuart Shiffman

“Write what you know,” observed Mark Twain. Louis Begley’s initial foray into the world of mystery/thriller novels follows that rule, providing readers with an interesting change of pace from the more traditional style of hard-boiled detectives who solve their crimes while busting heads and consuming quantities of coffee, cigarettes, bourbon and beer. Read More

Teaser

A horrified and incredulous Jack Dana digs into the facts surrounding the death of his uncle Harry of an apparent suicide. Aided by Harry’s most trusted associate, Kerry Black, and by his college friend Scott Prentice, who now works for the CIA, Jack discovers that Harry had pierced the secret of his most important client, Abner Brown, a right-wing multibillionaire notorious for backing extremist causes. The stakes and dangers are huge. Harry’s death now seems anything but a suicide.

Promo

A horrified and incredulous Jack Dana digs into the facts surrounding the death of his uncle Harry of an apparent suicide. Aided by Harry’s most trusted associate, Kerry Black, and by his college friend Scott Prentice, who now works for the CIA, Jack discovers that Harry had pierced the secret of his most important client, Abner Brown, a right-wing multibillionaire notorious for backing extremist causes. The stakes and dangers are huge. Harry’s death now seems anything but a suicide.

About the Book

Jack Dana, a star student at Yale, joins the military after 9/11 --- only to have sniper fire cut short his career as a Marine Corps infantry officer. While recovering at Walter Reed Hospital, he begins to write a novel about his wartime experience. Jack’s uncle Harry, a surrogate father to him, as well as a partner at a leading New York law firm, helps Jack secure a publisher. Jack is thrilled when his book becomes a huge success, but after a celebratory trip to South America, Jack returns home to shocking news: Uncle Harry is dead, found hanged in his summer home. Horrified and incredulous, Jack digs into the facts surrounding the tragedy and comes to believe that his uncle’s death was no suicide. Delays of law are not for Jack, so he takes matters into his own hands --- embarking on a dangerous journey of justice and revenge.

Editorial Content for The Winter Family

Contributors

Reviewer (text)

Joe Hartlaub

It doesn’t get much better than this. I’ve read several novels since THE WINTER FAMILY --- and make no mistake, all were good, some great --- and I still felt Clifford Jackman’s dark and haunting prose echoing and resonating in the background. It even gave me nightmares. This may sound twisted, but that’s a standard of top-notch writing, and the book is shot through with it. Read More

Teaser

Spanning the better part of three decades, THE WINTER FAMILY traverses America's harsh, untamed terrain, both serving and opposing the fierce advance of civilization. Among its twisted specimens, the Winter family includes the psychopathic killer Quentin Ross and the dangerous child prodigy Lukas Shakespeare. But at the malevolent center of this ultraviolent storm is their cold, hardened leader, Augustus Winter --- a man with an almost pathological resistance to the rules of society and a preternatural gift for butchery.

Promo

Spanning the better part of three decades, THE WINTER FAMILY traverses America's harsh, untamed terrain, both serving and opposing the fierce advance of civilization. Among its twisted specimens, the Winter family includes the psychopathic killer Quentin Ross and the dangerous child prodigy Lukas Shakespeare. But at the malevolent center of this ultraviolent storm is their cold, hardened leader, Augustus Winter --- a man with an almost pathological resistance to the rules of society and a preternatural gift for butchery.

About the Book

After being court-martialed for their actions during the Civil War, a band of hardened Union soldiers recast themselves as outlaws. Among these twisted men who’ve found brotherhood in battle are a psychopathic killer, a mean, moronic pair of brothers, an impassive ex-slave, a dangerous child prodigy and, at the malevolent center, their cold, stoic leader: Augustus Winter, a man with an almost pathological resistance to society's rules and a preternatural gift for butchery that is matched only by his eerie charisma.
 
From political thuggery during a Chicago election to work as bounty hunters in the deserts of Arizona, Winter and his crew follow a grim, borderland morality that plays out, time and again, in ruthless carnage.

Editorial Content for Positive

Book

Contributors

Reviewer (text)

Sarah Rachel Egelman

The ongoing trend of zombie fiction --- in book, television and film form --- has yielded many creative versions of this horror classic. In POSITIVE, David Wellington returns to basics with shuffling and mindless undead roaming the landscape, mysteriously infected by a never-explained but easily transmitted virus. The zombies themselves play second fiddle, actually, as the book is about one man who is navigating the dangerous and corrupt America that they have left in their wake. Read More

Teaser

The tattooed plus sign on Finnegan's hand marks him as a Positive. At any time, the zombie virus could explode in his body, turning him from a rational human into a ravenous monster. If he reaches his 21st birthday without an incident, he'll be cleared. Until then, he must go to a special facility for positives. But when the military caravan transporting him is attacked, Finn becomes separated. To make it to safety, he must embark on a perilous cross-country journey across an America transformed.

Promo

The tattooed plus sign on Finnegan's hand marks him as a Positive. At any time, the zombie virus could explode in his body, turning him from a rational human into a ravenous monster. If he reaches his 21st birthday without an incident, he'll be cleared. Until then, he must go to a special facility for positives. But when the military caravan transporting him is attacked, Finn becomes separated. To make it to safety, he must embark on a perilous cross-country journey across an America transformed.

About the Book

In the bestselling vein of Guillermo Del Toro and Justin Cronin, the acclaimed author of CHIMERA and THE HYDRA PROTOCOL delivers his spectacular breakout novel --- an entertaining page-turning zombie epic that is sure to become a classic.

Anyone can be positive...

The tattooed plus sign on Finnegan's hand marks him as a Positive. At any time, the zombie virus could explode in his body, turning him from a rational human into a ravenous monster. His only chance of a normal life is to survive the last two years of the potential incubation period. If he reaches his 21st birthday without an incident, he'll be cleared.

Until then, Finn must go to a special facility for positives, segregated from society to keep the healthy population safe. But when the military caravan transporting him is attacked, Finn becomes separated. To make it to safety, he must embark on a perilous cross-country journey across an America transformed --- a dark and dangerous land populated with heroes, villains, madmen and hordes of zombies. And though the zombies are everywhere, Finn discovers that the real danger may be his fellow humans.

Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome meets World War Z and I Am Legend in this thrilling tale that has it all: a compelling story, great characters and explosive action, making POSITIVE the ultimate zombie novel of our time.