Pax Americana


Book Description

2034: Evangelical secret agents, fast food moguls, the voice of God in computer software, violence in the Bermuda Triangle! George W. Bush's foreign policy vindicated by a quick victory in Iraq, lucrative invasions of Egypt and Syria followed, bringing unparalleled prosperity to America and setting off thirty years of right-wing rule. But when a war in Iran goes bad--and the resulting cover-up goes worse--the democrats reclaim the presidency. This is the time of Pax Americana and its zealous anti-hero, government agent Tuck Squires. Reading the ironic silences between the lines of the thriller, and roaring like a jet engine, Pax Americana is a sacrilegious, conspiratorial monster; like a literary dogfight between Martin Amis and Robert Anton Wilson, loaded with prophecy, Baumeister's debut is an exorcism and an antidote for our era. 'Like an episode of Archer written by Kurt Vonnegut, Baumeister takes us into a hilarious and high-velocity world of espionage and global politics in this send-up of god, country, and the possibility of doing good in a world gone bad. It's fast-paced fun, watch out for paper cuts as the pages fly by.' -Shya Scanlon 'If there is to be an American peace, it's certainly not going to come on the pages of this lit match of a novel. Kurt Baumeister has fashioned exactly the old school pre- and post-Bond techno x-travaganza everyone bored with explorations of the louvre has been waiting for. Pax Americana is both dark satire and deeply satisfying, an adrenaline rush that runs through suspect politics, spirituality software, and the sacredly profane. It's a blast. Buy it now.' -Sean Beaudoin




Oddville


Book Description

Welcome to Oddville. Here you will find flying babies, giant robots, undead rock bands, evil scientists, brick-throwing cats, talking monkeys, and eight-year-old super-hero Melanie McKay, better known as Jetcat! It all begins with a kiss. When young Tod Johnson gives Melanie McKay a peck on the cheek, Daisy appears and takes to the skies. From there, it's a mad dash through town for Jetcat to catch the gravity-defying infant and bring her back to earth. These things are things that can only happen in a place called Oddville, and only from the mind of a cartoonist like Jay Stephens. These classic comic strips began in independent newspapers before jumping into their own collected book, which then disappeared for many years, only now to finally return. ODDVILLE is a curious, bizarre, and hysterical book unlike any other. And it contains the first ever appearance of Jetcat anywhere! Take a left at weird and head up the road for about a mile, and settle down in Oddville.




They Just Seem a Little Weird


Book Description

A veteran music journalist explores how four legendary rock bands—KISS, Cheap Trick, Aerosmith, and Starz—laid the foundation for two diametrically opposed subgenres: hair metal in the '80s and grunge in the '90s. It was the age when heavy-footed, humorless dinosaurs roamed the hard-rock landscape. But that all changed when into these dazed and confused mid-'70s strut-ted four flamboyant bands that reveled in revved-up anthems and flaunted a novel theatricality. In They Just Seem a Little Weird, veteran entertainment journalist Doug Brod offers an eye- and ear-opening look at a crucial moment in music history, when rock became fun again and a gig became a show. This is the story of friends and frenemies who rose, fell, and soared once more, often sharing stages, studios, producers, engineers, managers, agents, roadies, and fans-and who are still collaborating more than forty years on. In the tradition of David Browne's Fire and Rain and Sheila Weller's Girls Like Us, They Just Seem a Little Weird seamlessly interweaves the narratives of KISS, Cheap Trick, and Aerosmith with that of Starz, a criminally neglected band whose fate may have been sealed by a shocking act of violence. This is also the story of how these distinctly American groups-three of them now enshrined in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame-laid the foundation for two seemingly opposed rock genres: the hair metal of Poison, Skid Row, and Mötley Crüe and the grunge of Nirvana, Alice in Chains, and the Melvins. Deeply researched, and featuring more than 130 new interviews, this book is nothing less than a secret history of classic rock.




A Handful of Kings


Book Description

With explosive tension and masterful suspense, A Handful of Kings is a page-turning thriller about what really happens in the world of espionage, by an insider who has lived it. American diplomat Vicky Sorrell learns the hard way that all is fair in love -- and espionage. A Handful of Kings, the latest novel by prolific author and former foreign service officer Mark Jacobs, follows Vicky's fast-paced tour of duty -- one where she must decide who the bad guys are, who is lying, and who just might be telling the dangerous truth. Vicky is changing her life. She is leaving the foreign service and her lover at the same time. But before she departs the U.S. embassy in Madrid for home, a well-known American writer shows up with a strange request. Vicky knows that what the writer wants from her is not necessarily what he is asking. But curiosity leads her to play along, and she is quickly drawn into the murky underground of terrorists and spies into which the writer himself has been reluctantly led. The track she takes is full of wrong turns. And at the end of the tunnel, it's not light she sees but an unspeakable threat to people she loves. Recalling Graham Greene in The Comedians, Jacobs weaves an engrossing story that takes place over three continents and illuminates the unexpected ways people betray and defend one another and, ultimately, how they learn to love.




"Bozophobia"


Book Description

Franklin, a romantic failure of a clown, falls for a woman on the run. Is she the Baggy Pants Slasher? What does he really know about her? Yes, she hates clowns. Yes, she has a hair-trigger temper and a knack for creative violence. Yes, she has blackouts that coincide with a rash of deadly attacks on clowns around town. But a damsel in distress appeals to the hero inside every clown. If he's wrong about her, he's next on the hit list. If he's right, he just might save her from life in prison and win himself a happily ever after.




Edendale


Book Description

In northeast Los Angeles, wildfires rage and coyotes stalk the neighborhood streets. The wind blows heavy with smoke and, inside a rented bungalow on hilly Lemoyne Street, the air grows heavy with something else. Ropey closes his checking account and transfers his net worth to his sock drawer. Megan sharpens pencils and chops produce to obsession. Lyle tightens his grip on his girlfriend Egypt, whose growing dependence makes her question everything, especially Lyle. And Captain America, the cat of the house, finds his orange coat giving way to a nest of bleeding sores. As the fires burn ever closer, will the four friends wake up to their false paradise? Jacquelyn Stolos' eco-horror debut explores the ways rape culture can permeate relationships of all kinds, making us examine our agency in our own lives and the world at large.