John Collier's edgy, sardonic tales are works of rare wit, curious insight, and scary implication. They stand out as one of the pinnacles in the critically neglected but perennially popular tradition of weird writing that includes E.T.A. Hoffmann and Charles Dickens as well as more recent masters like Jorge Luis Borges and Roald Dahl. With a cast of characters that ranges from man-eating flora to disgruntled devils and suburban salarymen (not that it's always easy to tell one from another), Collier's dazzling stories explore the implacable logic of lunacy, revealing a surreal landscape whose unstable surface is depth-charged with surprise.

... June Skinner Sawyers traces Springsteen's development as a performer, from his days as a New Jersey teenager gigging at clubs and coffeehouses with the musicians who form his now legendary E Street Band to his transformation into an international icon who sells out stadium-sized arenas for weeks at a stretch. In addition to in-depth analyses of each album he has cut, this celebratory volume features hundreds of photographs that take you back to the most memorable moments of Bruce Springsteen's career, from his pick-up gigs at Asbury Park's Stone Pony and the phenomenal Born in the USA world tour to his campaign concerts for Barack Obama in 2008 and his stellar halftime performance at Super Bowl XLIII in 2009.

Nazisploitation! examines past intersections of National Socialism and popular cinema and the recent reemergence of this imagery in contemporary visual culture. In the late 1960s and early 1970s, films such as Love Camp 7 and Ilsa, She-Wolf of the SS introduced and reinforced the image of Nazis as master paradigms of evil in what film theorists deem the 'sleaze' film. More recently, Tarantino's Inglourious Basterds, as well as video games such as Call of Duty: World at War, have reinvented this iconography for new audiences. In these works, the violent Nazi becomes the hyperbolic caricature of the "monstrous feminine" or the masculine sadist. Power-hungry scientists seek to clone the Führer, and Nazi zombies rise from the grave. The history, aesthetic strategies, and political implications of such translations of National Socialism into the realm of commercial, low brow, and 'sleaze' visual culture are the focus of this book. The contributors examine when and why the Nazisploitation genre emerged as it did, how it establishes and violates taboos, and why this iconography resonates with contemporary audiences.

He's known the world over for his heyday with Dawn, but that glittering 1970's whirl was just one chapter in Tony Orlando's rich life. Orlando began his showbiz career as a teen heartthrob with the single "Halfway to Paradise" and had a second successful act as a record company A&R man before he was lured back into the limelight as a performer. Fans from the l960s to the present day have loved his voice, his stage presence and his hits, like "Knock Three Times" and "Tie a Yellow Ribbon 'Round the Old Oak Tree." Now, Tony has written an autobiography as warm and heartfelt as his songs. Halfway to Paradise is rich with stories from the music world-from doo wop to the disco era, from early recording with Gerry Goffin and Carole King to recent concerts in Branson, Missouri and across the United States. It's also full of behind-the-scenes detail of how it felt to be at the top of the entertainment heap-with his #1-rated CBS show, Tony's life in front of and behind the camera was grand, but sometimes not all it seemed. Orlando succumbed to one of the familiar antidotes to the pressures of a big life: drug use, with its predictable toll on family and friendships. And even as his career was soaring, he was unable to save his best friend Freddie Prinze from a fatal downward spiral. With a return to roots-and to the close-knit family that has always sustained him-Tony restored the order and creativity that have allowed him to thrive through four decades of exuberant entertaining. Halfway to Paradise is a wise, funny and spirited life story, and a must-read memoir for fans.

Revenge is a one-way ticket straight to Hell… For Ghost Hunter and retired Marine, Shane Ryan, every day is another battle. A never-ending struggle against bloodshed, violence, and supernatural evil. And although Shane and Detective Jacinta Perez emerged from their last fight victorious, the war goes on. Called once again to Detroit to investigate a string of suspicious suicides, Shane Ryan quickly confirms that all is not as it seems. Something is cutting a bloody swatch through the criminal underworld of this urban wasteland. A sinister entity that targets criminals and forces them to take their own lives. To stop the trail of mayhem and bloodshed, Shane will have to confront the consequence of a past error in judgment—a ghost bent on ridding the world of all evil. One by one, it will send them all to the fiery pits of hell… And it promises Shane Ryan he will be joining them soon.

Hell's Interstate is an action-packed crime novel about two desperate men traveling down the highway to Hell. Financing their travels by robbing convenience stores along the Interstate, the one predictable fact about their next robbery will be the fact that they will leave no witnesses. Reed Haskell, the ringleader, knows how to rob a store and do it fast, but what he doesn't know is that someone is watching his partner, Vernon Sanger, very closely. Michael Smith, an apparent vagrant they came in contact with one rainy night along the Interstate, keeps showing up wherever they go, and he is not shy about intervening in their business. How he continues to appear, and why he shows up when he does, neither man has an answer to. Although Vernon is curious about the man, for some reason the otherwise unflappable Reed is quite unsettled by him. Does Reed know more about Michael Smith than he's willing to admit, or does he just suspect the purpose of Michael's persistent interference? If Reed was truly in the dark as to Michael's identity and purpose, he'd not have long to wait before being enlightened. As for Vernon, that enlightenment lies over ten years away.

Most of the commuters who daily cross the Alfred Zampa Memorial Bridge do not know much about its namesake. Yet Alfred Zampa (1905-2000) lived a remarkable life that touched not only the bridge named in his honor, but many of the other bridges around the Bay Area. An active ironworker from 1925 on, he typified a worker who was hardy and tough, but with the skill to perform extremely precise work under hazardous conditions. He often worked hundreds of feet above the San Francisco Bay with only the spindliest of support, and he fell from the Golden Gate Bridge in 1936. Caught by the safety net, he became a charter member of the ultra-exclusive "Halfway to Hell" club. Zampa died at the age of 95, six weeks after attending the groundbreaking of his namesake Alfred Zampa Memorial Bridge, the only bridge named in honor of a building tradesman. The Images of America series celebrates the history of neighborhoods, towns, and cities across the country. Using archival photographs, each title presents the distinctive stories from the past that shape the character of the community today. Arcadia is proud to play a part in the preservation of local heritage, making history available to all.