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"A primer for Big Bad City disillusionment, unsparing in its portrayal of New York's debilitating entropy."—The Village Voice. With a new introduction by Jonathan Lethem.

Tod Hackett is a brilliant young artist - and a man in danger of losing his heart. Brought to an LA studio as a set-designer, he is soon caught up in a fantasy world where the cult of celebrity rules. But when he becomes besotted by the beautiful Faye, an aspiring actress and occasional call-girl, his dream rapidly becomes a nightmare. For, with little in the way of looks and no money to buy her time, Tod's desperate passion can only lead to frustration, disillusionment and rage.

Book Two in "The Legend of the Locust" Trilogy.

The Sequel to "The Fourth World" leads our heroes: Fintan, Zack and Ayako to the other side of the universe in the adventure of a lifetime!

The events on Mars have shaken Fintan to his very core. He hears Nizhoni's voice in his head, and thinks he is breaking down. But when fate brings him back together with the Navajo, he realizes that all may bot be as it appears, and he returns to Area 51.

Having lived through a war with the mysterious Hunters, rejoining school life proves to be difficult, but he has his friends Zack and Ayako at his side. And when a new crop of children comes into the school to join Red Squadron, he makes new friends, including the enigmatic Rachel.

When humanity's first Starship, the Destiny, while on its maiden voyage to Saturn, crashes on an unknown world on the far side of the Galaxy, the voices come back to haunt Fintan, and lead him to the discovery of a lifetime...

Book Two in "The Legend of the Locust" Trilogy.

The Sequel to "The Fourth World" leads our heroes: Fintan, Zack and Ayako to the other side of the universe in the adventure of a lifetime!

The events on Mars have shaken Fintan to his very core. He hears Nizhoni's voice in his head, and thinks he is breaking down. But when fate brings him back together with the Navajo, he realizes that all may bot be as it appears, and he returns to Area 51.

Having lived through a war with the mysterious Hunters, rejoining school life proves to be difficult, but he has his friends Zack and Ayako at his side. And when a new crop of children comes into the school to join Red Squadron, he makes new friends, including the enigmatic Rachel.

When humanity's first Starship, the Destiny, while on its maiden voyage to Saturn, crashes on an unknown world on the far side of the Galaxy, the voices come back to haunt Fintan, and lead him to the discovery of a lifetime...

Buried deep below the Nevada desert, in a place often called Area 51, is a very special and ancient school where the best and brightest children come to learn the technology that will bring mankind to its next step of evolution -- a place amongst the stars. 'The Fourth World' follows four children through their entry into this school: 'Fintan Reilly' is a young, often bullied Irish boy who has a big destiny; Zach Adams, from Fresno, is his diametric opposite, and instant best friend; Ayako Katsuragi is a brilliant Japanese girl, a military brat who is as capable as she is smart and Nizhoni Benally is a Navajo from New Mexico, who is as tough as she is beautiful, and who somehow shares a secret past with Fintan. The book follows their first year in their new school, with an Alien as headmaster, and where they learn everything from Cosmic History through to how to fly a flying saucer, and comes to a shocking conclusion in a field trip to Mars where ancient secrets are uncovered.

Buried deep below the Nevada desert, in a place often called Area 51, is a very special and ancient school where the best and brightest children come to learn the technology that will bring mankind to its next step of evolution -- a place amongst the stars. 'The Fourth World' follows four children through their entry into this school: 'Fintan Reilly' is a young, often bullied Irish boy who has a big destiny; Zach Adams, from Fresno, is his diametric opposite, and instant best friend; Ayako Katsuragi is a brilliant Japanese girl, a military brat who is as capable as she is smart and Nizhoni Benally is a Navajo from New Mexico, who is as tough as she is beautiful, and who somehow shares a secret past with Fintan. The book follows their first year in their new school, with an Alien as headmaster, and where they learn everything from Cosmic History through to how to fly a flying saucer, and comes to a shocking conclusion in a field trip to Mars where ancient secrets are uncovered.

Imagine looking up to see an ominous black cloud on the horizon. Now imagine your growing horror as you watch that cloud reveal itself as an immense, miles-wide swarm of ravenous insects. In Locust, entomologist Jeffrey A. Lockwood reveals the bizarre history of a bug responsible for killing countless settlers on the American plains. First-hand accounts of the Rocky Mountain locust's horrific depredations are reproduced in the book, and Lockwood adds his own vivid reconstructions:

We expect grasshoppers and locusts to consume our gardens and fields, but when these insects begin to feed on fabric and flesh something seems demonically amiss.... Although the settlers may have been astonished by the locusts' voracity, they were appalled by the insects' fierce cannibalism.

Swarms of locusts would touch down like tornadoes on homesteads and farms, stripping away every growing thing and desperately eating other insects in search of much-needed fat and protein. These hordes were thought by many, including the Mormon settlers in Utah, to be divine punishments, or at least signs from above. After describing the effects this insect had on the American frontier, Lockwood delves into the entomologic mystery of the locusts' abrupt disappearance. Had they become extinct? Or gone into hiding in some ecological refuge? When Lockwood abandons history for science, his glee for his subject keeps the book moving, albeit slower than in the first few chapters. --Therese Littleton

In the Bible, they were kosher food. John the Baptist had his with honey. And who can forget when Charleton Heston as Moses cast them over Egypt to persuade Pharaoh to "let my people go?"

We might not be dealing with such biblical blights, but trials and misfortunes still invade our lives, making unwelcome visits that test everything we trust.

Jan Coleman draws a convincing parallel between the locust plagues of old and modern plagues of the heart. They come in many forms; loss of a marriage, death of a loved one, painful abuse, illness or personal failure. As she builds chapter themes around scripture verses from the Book of Joel, Jan highlights women whose lives are a testimony of God's restoration plan. It reminds us that God uses disaster and disappointment to stir people to a new sense of Himself.

Years ago, Jan faced the death of her dreams and felt like a swarm of locusts had swooped down and ruined her future. There were the creeping locusts whispering, "This isn't really happening;" the gnawing locusts whittling away her confidence; the stripping locusts exposing her deep anger. She found a promise of hope tucked in an obscure book in the Old Testament, a promise that shaped her life, the promise that God will "restore the years the locusts have eaten."

Chapter one is titled, "The Big Bug Blitz" and foreshadows the tone of the book which reads like a novel. "The locusts were at it again. I knew it the moment I saw the clouded look in her eye, by the trance-like way she kept pouring cream in her cofffee. 'I can't believe this is happening,' the stranger murmured to our prayer breakfast group. 'I don't think I can go on. I feel so alone.'"

Readers are drawn into Ginger's heart and the pain of a ruined dream. As Jan offers to mentor Ginger through her healing process, we are eyewitnesses to her struggles to trust God again. With biting honesty and wit, Jan reveals her own story of the loss of her marriage, her foolish choices and the ache of prodigal daughters. Ginger moves toward hope as Jan shares stories of other women who reveal their heartbreaks--Phyllis who lost her only child to a tragic car accident, Eileen who was nine months pregnant when her husband drown while diving, Susan whose secret affair with a pastor almost destroyed her, Lisa whose past of abuse brought a distrust for men and God, and author Liz Curtis Higgs whose "bad girl" days, her "locust years" are the heartbreak of her ministry today.

The stories in the book are different, but the feelings of damage and waste, emptiness, fear and regret are common to all. The consistent thread of hope lies in how these women partnered with God to redeem their losses in surprising and wonderful ways. Each of them found a deeper relationship with God and new purpose.

Written with a unique style of warmth and gentle humor, After the Locusts is an uplifting message for every woman; those who has known loss and those who want to offer comfort to others.

This book was converted from its physical edition to the digital format by a community of volunteers. You may find it for free on the web. Purchase of the Kindle edition includes wireless delivery.

This book was converted from its physical edition to the digital format by a community of volunteers. You may find it for free on the web. Purchase of the Kindle edition includes wireless delivery.

NO ONE HAS SATIRIZED New York society quite like Dawn Powell, and in this classic novel she turns her sharp eye and stinging wit on the literary world, and "identifies every sort of publishing type with the patience of a pathologist removing organs for inspection." Frederick Olliver, an obscure historian and writer, is having an affair with the restively married, beautiful, and hugely successful playwright, Lyle Gaynor. Powell sets a see-saw in motion when Olliver is swept up by the tasteless publishing tycoon, Tyson Bricker, and his new book makes its way onto to the bestseller lists just as Lyle's Broadway career is coming apart.
"For decades Dawn Powell was always just on the verge of ceasing to be a cult and becoming a major religion." -- Gore Vidal

In a masterly act of literary transformation, celebrated novelist Hanan al-Shaykh re-creates the dramatic life and times of her mother, Kamila.
 
Married at a young age against her will, Kamila soon fell head-over-heels in love with another man—and was thus forced to choose between her children and her lover. As the narrative unfolds through the years—from the bazaars, cinemas and apartments of 1930s Beirut to its war-torn streets decades later—we follow this passionate woman as she survives the tragedies and celebrates the triumphs of a life lived to the very fullest.

Amazon Exclusive: Marjane Satrapi Reviews The Locust and the Bird

Marjane Satrapi was born in Iran and now lives in Paris, where she is a regular contributor to magazines and newspapers throughout the world, including The New Yorker and The New York Times. She is the author of the internationally bestselling and award-winning Persepolis and Persepolis 2. She co-wrote and directed the Academy Award-nominated animated film version of Persepolis. Read Satrapi's exclusive Amazon guest review of The Locust and the Bird:

While I was reading Hanan Al Shaykh’s new book, The Locust and the Bird, my regret as an author was not to have known Kamila, Hanan’s mother, the extravagant narrator of this book. What a woman! What a storyteller! She reminds me of my beloved grandmother (who is in many of my books), and many other women of her generation that I knew, who were manipulative in order to survive, who lied in order to establish the truth, and, most of all, so full of life and passion. When I finished the book I had one major thought: this book needs to be made into a movie, but this is the kind of story one needs to be a real Lebanese in order to turn it into a movie. That was my other regret as a movie maker. But most of all I felt extremely lucky to spend time with someone so intelligent, full of humor and love. --Marjane Satrapi

(Photo © Maria Ortiz)

Though I never blamed her for leaving me at the age of 6, and for not being interested in me, nonetheless, I found myself building a wall between us. Throughout the years she never stopped explaining to me the reason for leaving my father to marry her lover. When I eventually listened to her story I found myself, as a novelist, face to face with a treasure wrapped in a tissue paper. --Hanan Al-Shaykh

(Photo © Hanan al-Shaykh)