English Local

Award-winning El Paso-native journalist Richard Parker offers a radical work of history that re-centers the American story around El Paso, Texas, gateway between north and south, center of indigenous power and resistance, locus of European colonization of North America, centuries-long hub of immigration, and underappreciated modern blueprint for a changing United States.

1907: A world of steam and steel, of brass and bravery. Spaceships ply the lanes above the Earth, running on coke furnaces and a prayer, while the atomic-powered Circumferential Rail runs the route between Paris, France, and Houston, Texas. Where there is cargo, and passengers of means, pirates soon follow, and this is how Jonathan Orbital, heir to the Circumferential Rail finds himself embroiled in a conspiracy surrounding a kidnapped French woman with a valuable secret.

After four years working in a New York brothel to pay off a debt to the mob, Nina is nearly paid up and ready to go home. She just needs to see one more client, a recluse who always pays a half-million in cash for a night with the brothel's best girls, but this last trick soon becomes a battle for Nina's soul. Meanwhile, the brothel's sadistic madam has been secretly hoarding money so she can move up in her family's organization, and she's depending on that windfall to tip the scales in her favor, but her driver Ramón has other ideas, making off with the money in a bid for his own freedom.

A weary Elven veteran finds himself banished to the far end of the world, and even then, still manages to find trouble.

The first of the seven books set in the Liaden Universe tells a rich and sweeping story of warring families and star-crossed lovers in a fantastic, other-world galaxy.

Life is a work in progress, as ever-changing as a sandy shoreline along the beach. During the years Joan Anderson was a loving wife and supportive mother, she had slowly and unconsciously replaced her own dreams with the needs of her family. With her sons grown, however, she realized that the family no longer centered on the home she provided, and her relationship with her husband had become stagnant. Like many women in her situation, Joan realized that she had neglected to nurture herself and, worse, to envision fulfilling goals for her future.

On May 15, 2003, David McCullough presented "The Course of Human Events" as The 2003 Jefferson Lecture in the Humanities in Washington, DC. The Jefferson Lecture is a tribute to McCullough's lifetime investigation of history.

Ophelia Simmons is back home at the Paradise, the former brothel where her romance-author mother raised seven daughters, contemplating her next career move and dodging Great Aunt Bernie's matchmaking attempts. She is about to meet her match in Jake Brennan, the ruggedly handsome owner of a local winery where Aunt Bernie convinces her to take a job for the summer. At first Ophelia and Jake's personalities clash, but soon enough sparks start flying.

A fantastic book! Timothy Egan describes his journeys in the Pacific Northwest through visits to salmon fisheries, redwood forests and the manicured English gardens of Vancouver. Here is a blend of history, anthropology and politics.

Drawing on a rich trove of documents never before available to scholars, the author sketches the early pioneers, their daily lives, their beliefs, and their struggles to survive and prosper in this isolated mountain community. In moving detail, this book brings to life its struggle to survive, and the tragedy of its demise.

We never know what will happen next in Florida. We know only that, any minute now, something will. Every few months, Dave Barry gets a call from some media person wanting to know, "What the hell is wrong with Florida?" Somehow, the state's acquired an image as a subtropical festival of stupid, and as a loyal Floridian, Dave begs to differ. Sure, there was the 2000 election. And people seem to take their pants off for no good reason. And it has flying insects the size of LeBron James. But it is a great state, and Dave is going to tell you why.

Little more than a century ago, the southern coast of California - bone-dry, harbor-less, isolated by deserts and mountain ranges - seemed destined to remain scrappy farmland. Then, as if overnight, one of the world’s iconic cities emerged. At the heart of Los Angeles’ meteoric rise were three flawed visionaries: William Mulholland, an immigrant ditch-digger turned self-taught engineer; D.W. Griffith, who transformed the motion picture from a vaudeville-house novelty into a cornerstone of American culture; and Aimee Semple McPherson, a charismatic evangelist.

On the morning of July 3, 1994, a misreported forest fire on Storm King Mountain in Colorado became one of the greatest tragedies in the annals of firefighting. In this dramatic reconstruction of the disaster and its aftermath, John N. MacLean tells the heroic and cautionary story of nature at its most unforgiving.

Inventing Paradise: The Power Brokers Who Created the Dream of Los Angeles traces the improbable rise of Los Angeles through the prism of six visionaries who had outsize influence on the city’s growth: Phineas Banning, Harrison Gray Otis, Henry Huntington, Harry Chandler, William Mulholland, and Moses Sherman.

In the heart of America, a metropolis is quietly destroying itself. Detroit, once the richest city in the nation, is now its poorest. Once the vanguard of America’s machine age - mass production, automobiles, and blue-collar jobs - Detroit is now America’s capital for unemployment, illiteracy, foreclosure, and dropouts. With the steel-eyed reportage that has become his trademark and the righteous indignation that only a native son can possess, journalist Charlie LeDuff sets out to uncover what has brought low this once-vibrant city, his city.

Almost since the day of her arrival in Hadrian's Well, Undersheriff Joanna Donovan has found herself at loggerheads with the Colorado State Police. Cooperation was non-existent as politics continually got in the way of law enforcement. But now, a brutal encounter with the preternatural has forced out Joanna's old nemesis and the new acting captain comes asking for Joanna's help in identifying an unknown preternatural killer. But is she really looking for aid, or seeking to win the old feud by tarnishing Joanna's reputation? It's quite the dilemma, but if Hadrian's Well and the state don't ...

Timothy Blake, ex-consultant for the FBI, now works in body disposal for a local crime lord. One night he stumbles across a body he wasn’t supposed to find and is forced to hide it. When the FBI calls Blake in to investigate a missing university professor, Blake recognizes him as the dead man in his freezer. Then another man goes missing. And another. There’s a serial killer in Houston, Texas, and Blake is running out of time to solve the case. His investigation takes him to a sex doll factory, a sprawling landfill in Louisiana, and a secret cabin in the woods.

David E. Stuart incorporates extensive new research findings through groundbreaking archaeology to explore the rise and fall of the Chaco Anasazi and how it parallels patterns throughout modern societies in this new edition.

Are you captivated by the melodic Arabic language, but feel chained by the barriers of script, pronunciation, and dialect variations? Do you aim to grasp the Levantine dialect of Arabic for enhanced travel experiences, deepened cultural understanding, or for academic or professional advancement? Language learning, especially for Arabic, can seem overwhelming. Still, it doesn’t have to be complicated, especially with a guide specifically tailored to help you overcome these hurdles, with practicality and fun in equal measure!

From its inception, Atlantic City has always been a town dedicated to the fast buck, and this wide-reachinghistory offers a riveting account of its past 100 year, from the city's heyday as a Prohibition-era mecca of lawlessness to its rebirth as a legitimate casino resort in the modern era.