The Cradle Place is a collection from Thomas Lux, a self-described "recovering surrealist" and winner of the Kingsley Tufts Award. These fifty-two poems bring to full life the "refreshing iconoclasms" Rita Dove so admired in Lux's earlier work. His voice is plainspoken but moody, humorous and edgy, and ever surprising. These are philosophical poems that ask questions about language and intention, about the sometimes untidy connections between the human and natural worlds. In the poem "Terminal Lake," Lux undermines notions of benign nature, finding dark currents beneath the surface: "it's a huge black coin, / it's as if the real lake is drained / and this lake is the drain: gaping, language- / less, suck- and sinkhole." In the ominous "Render, Render," the narrator asks us to consider a concentration of the essences of our lives: all that is physical, spiritual, remembered, and dreamed for, melded together to make the messy self we present to the world. Lux's voice is intelligent without being bookish, urgent and unrelentingly evocative. He has long been a strong advocate for the relevance of poetry in American culture. The Los Angeles Times praises Lux for his "compelling rhythms, his biting irony, and his steady devotion to a craft that often seems thankless." As Sven Birkerts noted, "Lux may be one of the poets on whom the future of the genre depends."

John Doe and his infant daughter, Jane, appeared on the steps of the Manor the night the earthquakes started and the gateway to the Otherworlds closed. The people on the remote island of Bluehaven have despised them ever since, blaming Jane and her father for their exile. Fourteen years after that night, the largest earthquake yet strikes. The Manor awakens, dragging John into its labyrinth. Accompanied by a pyromaniac named Violet and a trickster named Hickory, Jane must rescue her father and defeat an immortal villain who is trying to harness the mythical power of the Manor.

Early one summer morning, Matthew Bishop kisses his still-sleeping wife Marissa, gets dressed and eases his truck through Milwaukee, bound for the highway. His wife, pregnant with their first child, has asked him to find the antique cradle taken years before by her mother Caroline when she abandoned Marissa, never to contact her daughter again. Soon to be a mother herself, Marissa now dreams of nothing else but bringing her baby home to the cradle she herself slept in. His wife does not know -- does not want to know -- where her mother lives, but Matt has an address for Caroline's sister near by and with any luck, he will be home in time for dinner. Only as Matt tries to track down his wife's mother, he discovers that Caroline, upon leaving Marissa, has led a life increasingly plagued by impulse and irrationality, a mysterious life that grows more inexplicable with each new lead Matt gains, and door he enters. As hours turn into days and Caroline's trail takes Matt from Wisconsin to Minnesota, Illinois, and beyond in search of the cradle, Matt makes a discovery that will forever change Marissa's life, and faces a decision that will challenge everything he has ever known. Elegant and astonishing, Patrick Somerville tells the story of one man's journey into the heart of marriage, parenthood, and what it means to be a family. Confirming the arrival of an exuberantly talented writer, The Cradle is an uniquely imaginative debut novel that radiates with wisdom and wonder.

Paralyzed by drink and despair since the accidental death of his young daughter, Shelby, Detective Kyle Sommers nonetheless must lead a task force to catch a brutal serial killer. Nicknamed the Cradle Robber, this murderer has methodically snuffed out the lives of children all along the California coast. Now he's come to Portland. While investigating, Sommers learns that a strange man has been saving local children from various dangers-then mysteriously disappearing. With the help of Sherrie Nolan, a brilliant and embittered scientist, Sommers learns that the man is a time traveler who, grieving for his own murdered child, has vowed to use his brilliant mind to create a way for a future generation of children to live. And Sommers hungrily hopes to save children who have died in the past as well. Particularly Shelby. Laughed off the task force as word spreads of his theory, Sommers investigates on his own. Desperate to undo his tragic history and rebuild his career, Sommers determines that the way to stop the Cradle Robber is to get to the time traveler. But the Cradle Robber has hatched a diabolical scheme. Intent on continuing his carnage, the baby-killer has laid a trap for both Sommers and the time traveler . . . one sure to destroy every adult and child in the city. "David (Ship of the Damned) has contributed a fine novel to that popular genre, the well-told tale. One can only hope that the survivors will make a return appearance. " - Publishers Weekly At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

“A free-wheeling vehicle . . . an unforgettable ride!”—The New York Times Cat’s Cradle is Kurt Vonnegut’s satirical commentary on modern man and his madness. An apocalyptic tale of this planet’s ultimate fate, it features a midget as the protagonist, a complete, original theology created by a calypso singer, and a vision of the future that is at once blackly fatalistic and hilariously funny. A book that left an indelible mark on an entire generation of readers, Cat’s Cradle is one of the twentieth century’s most important works—and Vonnegut at his very best. “[Vonnegut is] an unimitative and inimitable social satirist.”—Harper’s Magazine “Our finest black-humorist . . . We laugh in self-defense.”—Atlantic Monthly

One of the fundamental questions of our existence is why we are so smart. There are lots of drawbacks to having a large brain, including the huge food intake needed to keep the organ running, the frequency with which it goes wrong, and our very high infant and mother mortality rates compared with other mammals, due to the difficulty of giving birth to offspring with very large heads. So why did evolution favour the brainy ape? This question has been widely debated among biological anthropologists, and in recent years, Maslin and his colleagues have pioneered a new theory that might just be the answer. Looking back to a crucial period some 1.9 million years ago, when brain capacity increased by as much as 80%, The Cradle of Humanity explores the implications of two adaptive responses by our hominin ancestors to rapid climatic changes - big jaws, and big brains. Maslin argues that the impact of changing landscapes and fluctuating climates that led to the appearance of intermittent freshwater lakes in East Africa may have played a key role in human evolution. Alongside the physical evidence of fossils and tools, he considers social theories of why a large, complex brain would have provided a major advantage when trying to survive in the constantly changing East African landscape.

A manifesto for a radically different philosophy and practice of manufacture and environmentalism "Reduce, reuse, recycle" urge environmentalists; in other words, do more with less in order to minimize damage. But as this provocative, visionary book argues, this approach perpetuates a one-way, "cradle to grave" manufacturing model that dates to the Industrial Revolution and casts off as much as 90 percent of the materials it uses as waste, much of it toxic. Why not challenge the notion that human industry must inevitably damage the natural world? In fact, why not take nature itself as our model? A tree produces thousands of blossoms in order to create another tree, yet we do not consider its abundance wasteful but safe, beautiful, and highly effective; hence, "waste equals food" is the first principle the book sets forth. Products might be designed so that, after their useful life, they provide nourishment for something new-either as "biological nutrients" that safely re-enter the environment or as "technical nutrients" that circulate within closed-loop industrial cycles, without being "downcycled" into low-grade uses (as most "recyclables" now are). Elaborating their principles from experience (re)designing everything from carpeting to corporate campuses, William McDonough and Michael Braungart make an exciting and viable case for change.

Lindon has a year left.When his time runs out, he'll have to fight an opponent that no one believes he can beat. Unless he learns sacred arts the right way, from scratch, he won't have a chance to win...and even then, the odds are against him.In the course of their training, he and Yerin travel to the Blackflame Empire, where they fight to master an ancient power.Success means a chance at life, but failure means death.In the sacred arts, only those who risk the most can travel far.

With his duel fast approaching, Lindon is locked away in prison. As a Blackflame, he is too dangerous to remain free. The Skysworn, protectors of the Empire, have imprisoned him to keep him under control until the day of his promised fight arrives. When it does, he will face Jai Long. But a new danger approaches the Empire, closer every day. A legendary creature of impossible size and an endless thirst for blood. A Dreadgod. Only the Skysworn stand between the people of the land and total annihilation. And Lindon may be forced to join them.