Stories depict a way-of-life of the Hispanic culture of South Texas where superstition still rules the lives of many. La Llorona scans the waters of the Rio Grande looking for her children; little Duendes create a ruckus to gain attention; the Grim Reaper skulks about the corridors of the big house biding its time; ghosts guarding treasure inhabit back yards and the brushlands along the Rio Grande; Sasquatch sloshes along on the shores of South Padre in freezing weather on an Easter weekend, and snakes love mothers’ milk and menstrual blood. Experience with ghosts or other supernatural phenomena is as prevalent today in South Texas as it has been for hundreds of years.

In his acclaimed bestselling book, Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival of American Community, Robert Putnam described a thirty-year decline in America's social institutions. The book ended with the hope that new forms of social connection might be invented in order to revive our communities. In Better Together, Putnam and longtime civic activist Lewis Feldstein describe some of the diverse locations and most compelling ways in which civic renewal is taking place today. In response to civic crises and local problems, they say, hardworking, committed people are reweaving the social fabric all across America, often in innovative ways that may turn out to be appropriate for the twenty-first century. Better Together is a book of stories about people who are building communities to solve specific problems. The examples Putnam and Feldstein describe span the country from big cities such as Philadelphia, San Francisco, and Chicago to the Los Angeles suburbs, small Mississippi and Wisconsin towns, and quiet rural areas. The projects range from the strictly local to that of the men and women of UPS, who cover the nation. Bowling Alone looked at America from a broad and general perspective. Better Together takes us into Catherine Flannery's Roxbury, Massachusetts, living room, a UPS loading dock in Greensboro, North Carolina, a Philadelphia classroom, the Portsmouth, New Hampshire, naval shipyard, and a Bay Area Web site. We meet activists driven by their visions, each of whom has chosen to succeed by building community: Mexican Americans in the Rio Grande Valley who want paved roads, running water, and decent schools; Harvard University clerical workers searching for respect and improved working conditions; Waupun, Wisconsin, schoolchildren organizing to improve safety at a local railroad crossing; and merchants in Tupelo, Mississippi, joining with farmers to improve their economic status. As the stories in Better Together demonstrate, bringing people together by building on personal relationships remains one of the most effective strategies to enhance America's social health.

From its earliest days, America served as an arena for the revolutions in alternative spirituality that eventually swept the globe. Esoteric philosophies and personas—from Freemasonry to Spiritualism, from Madame H. P. Blavatsky to Edgar Cayce—dramatically altered the nation’s culture, politics, and religion. Yet the mystical roots of our identity are often ignored or overlooked. Opening a new window on the past, Occult America presents a dramatic, pioneering study of the esoteric undercurrents of our history and their profound impact across modern life.

The Spine-Chilling Tales for Halloween embodies a curated collection that traverses the dark, enigmatic corridors of Gothic horror, supernatural mysteries, and eerie folklore. Capturing a broad sweep of literary stylesfrom the melancholic and haunting narratives of the Victorian Gothic to the cosmic horror and psychological depths explored in early 20th-century literaturethis anthology showcases the remarkable diversity and enduring appeal of horror fiction. Standout pieces, ranging from the ominous and unsettling to tales of the grotesque and uncanny, underscore the richness of the genre, without tying the collections significance to any single author, instead praising the collective mastery of its contributors. The authors represented in this volume are titans in the realm of dark fiction, each contributing uniquely to the tapestry of horror and suspense literature. From Charles Dickens ghostly narratives to H.P. Lovecrafts cosmic dread, and Mary Shelleys groundbreaking Gothic novel, their works have not merely defined but also continuously reshaped the boundaries of the genre. These writers, belonging to various historical and cultural epochs, collectively embody the evolution of horror literature, engaging with societal fears and individual anxieties in ways that remain profoundly impactful today. The Spine-Chilling Tales for Halloween is an indispensable tome for aficionados and newcomers alike, offering a panoramic view of horrors literary landscape. This anthology invites readers to immerse themselves in the depth and breadth of its pages, presenting a unique opportunity to explore a constellation of fears and fascinations across ages. For those seeking to delve into the shadows of the human psyche through the prism of varied literary craftsmanship, this collection promises an enriching journey through the many moods of horror and suspense.

Originally published: Dallas: Southern Methodist University Press, 2005.

Orientation: A Journey is an autobiographical account of a group of African American tourists who traveled on a tour to Europe, Asia and North Africa. The writer inserts fictional situations in the book to enable the reader to view the bareback narrative in relation to, or as a divergence from the autobiographical portions of the book. As a reality, these segments in the book are its core that lends itself to the fiction he creates, which propels the writer's rush of awareness, and bares his accelerated consciousness, enabling him to carry the fictitious segments of the book on a non-liner, narrative, course.

An account of the American Great Plains which comprise portions of the States of Colorado, Kansas, Montana, Nebraska, New Mexico, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Texas, and Wyoming, from the appearance of the first Europeans to the opening of the twentieth century.