Desert Oracle


Book Description

The cult-y pocket-size field guide to the strange and intriguing secrets of the Mojave—its myths and legends, outcasts and oddballs, flora, fauna, and UFOs—becomes the definitive, oracular book of the desert For the past five years, Desert Oracle has existed as a quasi-mythical, quarterly periodical available to the very determined only by subscription or at the odd desert-town gas station or the occasional hipster boutique, its canary-yellow-covered, forty-four-page issues handed from one curious desert zealot to the next, word spreading faster than the printers could keep up with. It became a radio show, a podcast, a live performance. Now, for the first time—and including both classic and new, never-before-seen revelations—Desert Oracle has been bound between two hard covers and is available to you. Straight out of Joshua Tree, California, Desert Oracle is “The Voice of the Desert”: a field guide to the strange tales, singing sand dunes, sagebrush trails, artists and aliens, authors and oddballs, ghost towns and modern legends, musicians and mystics, scorpions and saguaros, out there in the sand. Desert Oracle is your companion at a roadside diner, around a campfire, in your tent or cabin (or high-rise apartment or suburban living room) as the wind and the coyotes howl outside at night. From journal entries of long-deceased adventurers to stray railroad ad copy, and musings on everything from desert flora, rumored cryptid sightings, and other paranormal phenomena, Ken Layne's Desert Oracle collects the weird and the wonderful of the American Southwest into a single, essential volume.







Mojave Mysteries


Book Description

Author M.L. Behrman opens his cabinet of curiosities to bring you a deliciously spooky and bizarre collection of true accounts featuring everything from UFOs, unknown creatures, ghosts, hideous murders, demonic cults and some of the weirdest and most puzzling events ever to come out of the great Mojave Desert. Considered "the Rod Serling of the desert", M.L. Behrman offers an intensely interesting and perplexing assortment of stories from witnesses, both modern and historical, detailing their encounters with things that left them shaken, terrified - or worse! Fans of the supernatural and paranormal will find Mojave Mysteries a thrilling addition to their libraries and collections of strange, bizarre and unknown phenomenon.




The Mystic Mid-region


Book Description




Guide to 50 Interesting and Mysterious Sites in the Mojave


Book Description

A one-of-a-kind guidebook series to the Mojave backcountry from desert explorer and prospector Bill Mann. Covering hundreds of sites, with photos from the past and present, these guides will lead you to fascinating and historical places that few people know about. Includes GPS coordinates and vehicle requirements for all locations as well as color photos of most sites.




Gods Without Men


Book Description

In the desert, you see, there is everything and nothing . . . It is God without men. —Honoré de Balzac, Une passion dans le désert, 1830 Jaz and Lisa Matharu are plunged into a surreal public hell after their son, Raj, vanishes during a family vacation in the California desert. However, the Mojave is a place of strange power, and before Raj reappears inexplicably unharmed—but not unchanged—the fate of this young family will intersect with that of many others, echoing the stories of all those who have traveled before them. Driven by the energy and cunning of Coyote, the mythic, shape-shifting trickster, Gods Without Men is full of big ideas, but centered on flesh-and-blood characters who converge at an odd, remote town in the shadow of a rock formation called the Pinnacles. Viscerally gripping and intellectually engaging, it is, above all, a heartfelt exploration of the search for pattern and meaning in a chaotic universe. This eBook edition includes a Reading Group Guide.




The Other Americans


Book Description

***2019 NATIONAL BOOK AWARD FINALIST*** Winner of the Arab American Book Award in Fiction Finalist for the Kirkus Prize in Fiction Finalist for the California Book Award Longlisted for the Aspen Words Literary Prize A Los Angeles Times bestseller Named a Best Book of the Year by The Washington Post, Time, NPR, Minneapolis Star Tribune, Dallas Morning News, The Guardian, Variety, and Kirkus Reviews Late one spring night in California, Driss Guerraoui—father, husband, business owner, Moroccan immigrant—is hit and killed by a speeding car. The aftermath of his death brings together a diverse cast of characters: Guerraoui's daughter Nora, a jazz composer returning to the small town in the Mojave she thought she'd left for good; her mother, Maryam, who still pines for her life in the old country; Efraín, an undocumented witness whose fear of deportation prevents him from coming forward; Jeremy, an old friend of Nora’s and an Iraqi War veteran; Coleman, a detective who is slowly discovering her son’s secrets; Anderson, a neighbor trying to reconnect with his family; and the murdered man himself. As the characters—deeply divided by race, religion, and class—tell their stories, each in their own voice, connections among them emerge. Driss’s family confronts its secrets, a town faces its hypocrisies, and love—messy and unpredictable—is born. Timely, riveting, and unforgettable, The Other Americans is at once a family saga, a murder mystery, and a love story informed by the treacherous fault lines of American culture.




The California Deserts


Book Description

This highly readable, spectacularly illustrated compendium is an ecological journey into a wondrous land of extremes. The California Deserts explores the remarkable diversity of life in this harsh yet fragile quarter of the Golden State. In a rich narrative, it illuminates how that diversity, created by drought and heat, has evolved with climate change since the Ice Ages. Along the way, we find there is much to learn from each desert species-- whether it is a cactus, pupfish, tortoise, or bighorn sheep--about adaptation to a warming, arid world. The book tells of human adaptation as well, and is underscored by a deep appreciation for the intimate knowledge acquired by native people during their 12,000-year desert experience. In this sense, the book is a journey of rediscovery, as it reflects on the ways that knowledge has been reclaimed and amplified by new discoveries. The book also takes the measure of the ecological condition of these deserts today, presenting issues of conservation, management, and restoration. With its many sidebars, photographs, and featured topics, The California Deserts provides a unique introduction to places of remarkable and often unexpected beauty.




The Mystery in Las Vegas


Book Description

One lucky lady! Two unlucky kids! Four rrroolllsss of the dice! Lots of neon! And a mystery that very likely includes a VAMPIRE! What seems like a city for adults only turns out to be an exciting town for kids who love neon, cactus, gigantic dams, rollercoasters atop tall hotels, chocolate, swimming pools and vampires. Vampires? Well, it seems so, but who knows in Las Vegas, a place where magic can be fake...yet the pretend be alllll too real! LOOK what's in this mystery - people, places, history, and more! Casinos Las Vegas facts and history Š Spiders and Scorpions Š Mojave Desert history Š Neon lights Š Elvis Presley impersonators Š The Las Vegas StripŠ history Š White Bengal Tigers Š Information on the hotels on the strip Š Rides in the Stratosphere Hoteltel Š Hoover Dam history Š Nellis Air Force BaseŠ Mojave Desert Š Fremont Street, Š Glitter Gulch Š Hoover Dam, Black Canyon Š Secret Garden of Siegfried and Roy Š Madame Tussauds Wax Museum Š Ethel M. Chocolate Factory Š Luxor Hotel Š Las Vegas Natural History Museum Š Flamingo Hotel Š Ice Canyon. Like all of Carole Marsh Mysteries, this mystery incorporates history, geography, culture and cliffhanger chapters that will keep kids begging for more! This mystery includes SAT words, educational facts, fun and humor, built-in book club and activities. Below is the Reading Levels Guide for this book: Grade Levels: 3-6 Accelerated Reader Reading Level: 4.6 Accelerated Reader Points: 2 Accelerated Reader Quiz Number: 126332 Lexile Measure: 750 Fountas & Pinnell Guided Reading Level: Q Developmental Assessment Level: 40




The Detective Joe Ezell Mystery Boxed Set, Books 1-3


Book Description

Join Detective Joe Ezell in 1940s Los Angeles As He Solves Three Murder Mysteries With A Woman of Mysterious Identity, a VA Nurse and an Aspiring Actress BOOK 1: Murder Me Twice - Joe Ezell, GI turned gumshoe, pays the bills by catching philandering husbands for rich dames wanting a divorce. When Faye Marten darkens his door, she doesn't quite fit the bill, but she is willing to pay. A few hours later, Hal Marten, the man Faye hired him to dog, arrives asking for help. The cops believe Hal murdered his now missing wife and Hal wants him to prove his innocence. But the deeper Joe digs, the more convinced he becomes that Faye and Hal aren't who they claim to be. The only question is: can he prove it and solve the murder before another victim is knocked off? BOOK 2: Stairway to Murder - World War II G.I. turned gumshoe, Joe Ezell is hunting a murderer. A Los Angeles VA hospital nurse has been found dead, and RN Mary McBride, the love of Joe's life, is next. Has the Black Dahlia killer struck again or was it one of the VA hospital doctors trying to keep a malpractice case under wraps? There are too many suspects, too few leads, and LAPD Detective Lynch is thwarting Joe's every move. If Joe doesn't succeed, he'll never get the chance to slip a ring on Mary's finger. BOOK 3: Murder on Ice - When aspiring actress Cookie Crumble is found dead in a refrigerator in a vacant apartment, the police immediately suspect the landlord's son whose father hires gumshoe PI Joe Ezell to find the true killer. With a long list of suspects from ardent fans, to jealous lovers, to the mobster who Cookie rebuffed, Joe goes undercover as an actor. Did Cookie's dreams of silver-screen fame lead to her murder? But the closer Joe gets to the truth, the more likely he is to get iced. Publisher Note: The Detective Joe Ezell Mystery Series is a "clean and wholesome" read with no sex or vulgar language and will be enjoyed by readers of cozy mysteries and classic detective "whodunit" mysteries in the spirit of Sam Spade and Humphrey Bogart. While not a true noir or hard-boiled mystery, this series captures the charm of film noir without the drugs, sex or beatings. "This is a wonderful series. The period facts are correct, the plots interesting and the characters believable." ~Lori Biever Launder ". . . charming glimpse of Hollywood in the 1940’s. A relaxing read even with the murder and mayhem." ~Tree House Reader, eBook Discovery Reviewer ". . . a gumshoe you'd like to spend time with . . . a sweet love story and a good mystery with a satisfying ending." ~Pete Croisant, eBook Discovery Reviewer ". . . when at last the clues come together, no-one could have imagined the bizarre outcome. This is a superb whodunit . . ." ~Melanie S., eBook Discovery The Detective Joe Ezell Mystery Series, in order Murder Me Twice Stairway to Murder Murder on Ice Murder on Stilettos Eye for Murder About the Author: Always a passionate lover of books, this New York Times bestselling author first answered a call to write in the 1980s and swiftly embarked on her own mythic journey. MURDER ON STILETTOS, the fourth book in her Joe Ezell Mystery series, written as P. J., is her forty-sixth release. With more than seven million copies in print of her historical, contemporary and futuristic books written under her own name as well as her pseudonyms, Cinnamon Burke, and P. J. Conn, she is as enthusiastic as ever about writing. A native Californian, Phoebe attended the University of Arizona and California State University at Los Angeles where she earned a BA in Art History and an MA in Education. Her books have won Romantic Times Reviewer’s Choice Awards and a nomination for Storyteller of the Year. Her futuristic, STARFIRE RISING, won a RomCom award as best Futuristic Romance of the year. She is a member of Romance Writers of America, Novelists Inc. and Sisters in Crime. She is the proud mother of two grown sons and two adorable grandchildren, who love to have her read to them.