The first young adult page-turner from New York Times bestselling author Gregg Hurwitz. In one terrifying night, the peaceful community of Creek's Cause turns into a war zone. No one under the age of eighteen is safe. Chance Rain and his older brother, Patrick, have already fended off multiple attacks from infected adults by the time they arrive at the school where other young survivors are hiding. Most of the kids they know have been dragged away by once-trusted adults who are now ferocious, inhuman beings. The parasite that transformed them takes hold after people turn eighteen--and Patrick's birthday is only a few days away. Determined to save Patrick's life and the lives of the remaining kids, the brothers embark on a mission to uncover the truth about the parasites--and what they find is horrifying. Battling an enemy not of this earth, Chance and Patrick become humanity's only hope for salvation. At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

Life in the desert is a waiting game: waiting for rain. And in a year of drought, the stakes are especially high. John Alcock knows the Sonoran Desert better than just about anyone else, and in this book he tracks the changes he observes in plant and animal life over the course of a drought year. Combining scientific knowledge with years of exploring the desert, he describes the variety of ways in which the wait for rain takes place—and what happens when it finally comes. The desert is a land of five seasons, featuring two summers—hot, dry months followed by monsoon—and Alcock looks at the changes that take place in an entire desert community over the course of all five. He describes what he finds on hikes in the Usery Mountains near Phoenix, where he has studied desert life over three decades and where frequent visits have enabled him to notice effects of seasonal variation that might escape a casual glance. Blending a personal perspective with field observation, Alcock shows how desert ecology depends entirely on rainfall. He touches on a wide range of topics concerning the desert’s natural history, noting the response of saguaro flowers to heat and the habits of predators, whether soaring red-tailed hawk or tiny horned lizard. He also describes unusual aspects of insects that few desert hikers will have noticed, such as the disruptive color pattern of certain grasshoppers that is more effective than most camouflage. When the Rains Come is brimming with new insights into the desert, from the mating behaviors of insects to urban sprawl, and features photographs that document changes in the landscape as drought years come and go. It brings us the desert in the harshest of times—and shows that it is still teeming with life.

This is a story about the West Texas drought of the 1950s, written by a man who as a teenage boy grew up on a drought-stricken Schleicher County ranch during those years. Seven years of relentless dry weather saw crops writher, top soil blown away, farms lost, and ranches forced into bankruptcy. Lakes went dry, towns were short of drinking water, and dust storms were numerous. Cowboys became oil field roughnecks. Farmers became store clerks. The drought changed West Texas forever. For some, the drought tore families apart, but the main characters of this story relied on each other to get through the tough times. This book, therefore, is also a love story about two people who met and married in a faraway place and who returned to his family’s Menard County ranch to put down their roots, only to see their dreams dashed by the drought. They were forced to make some bold decisions, but through it all they hung on to each other, which allowed their close relationship to blossom into an incredible love affair.

An inspirational short story about how one family overcame the odds to end up living the life of their dreams. Through their own personal struggles and trials, they implement strategies to overcome these. They used the principles of the law of attraction to create their dream life; a testament to the fact that anyone can do the same.

The New York Times Bestseller from the author of Travel Light, Move Fast "One of the gutsiest memoirs I've ever read. And the writing--oh my god the writing."—Entertainment Weekly A child of the Rhodesian wars and daughter of two deeply complicated parents, Alexandra Fuller is no stranger to pain. But the disintegration of Fuller’s own marriage leaves her shattered. Looking to pick up the pieces of her life, she finally confronts the tough questions about her past, about the American man she married, and about the family she left behind in Africa. A breathtaking achievement, Leaving Before the Rains Come is a memoir of such grace and intelligence, filled with such wit and courage, that it could only have been written by Alexandra Fuller. Leaving Before the Rains Come begins with the dreadful first years of the American financial crisis when Fuller’s delicate balance—between American pragmatism and African fatalism, the linchpin of her unorthodox marriage—irrevocably fails. Recalling her unusual courtship in Zambia—elephant attacks on the first date, sick with malaria on the wedding day—Fuller struggles to understand her younger self as she overcomes her current misfortunes. Fuller soon realizes what is missing from her life is something that was always there: the brash and uncompromising ways of her father, the man who warned his daughter that "the problem with most people is that they want to be alive for as long as possible without having any idea whatsoever how to live." Fuller’s father—"Tim Fuller of No Fixed Abode" as he first introduced himself to his future wife—was a man who regretted nothing and wanted less, even after fighting harder and losing more than most men could bear. Leaving Before the Rains Come showcases Fuller at the peak of her abilities, threading panoramic vistas with her deepest revelations as a fully grown woman and mother. Fuller reveals how, after spending a lifetime fearfully waiting for someone to show up and save her, she discovered that, in the end, we all simply have to save ourselves. An unforgettable book, Leaving Before the Rains Come is a story of sorrow grounded in the tragic grandeur and rueful joy only to be found in Fuller’s Africa.

Nagai Kafu was one of the most important Japanese writers of fiction during the first half of the twentieth century. He is best known for his evocative descriptions of the moods and fancies of Tokyo: its gardens and canals, its streets and alleys, its people, and above all its women - especially the kept women, geisha, and prostitutes. During the Rains and Flowers in the Shade, which appear here in English for the first time, are set in the Tokyo of the 1930's. Most of the seedy neighborhoods that Kafu so lovingly describes have long since vanished, either in the bombing raids of 1945 or in the rebuilding that followed. Kafu's sympathies are clearly with the women that figure in these stories. A man wedded to the past, happy only in retrospect, Kafu saw in the world of the demimondaine the last tattered vestiges of the old Tokyo, when it was called Edo. He also saw in their day-to-day life the only honest way to live, the love with the least falsehood, in a materialistic, hypocritical society. During the Rains (1931) is the story of the vicissitudes of an amiable and lascivious Ginza cafe girl. It is considered to be among Kafu's masterpieces by many writers, critics, and scholars, including Donald Keene: "One of Kafu's finest achievements....The exceptional praise that During the Rains won from discriminating critics was occasioned chiefly by the novelistic interest. The detached analysis of a group of people makes the story read like a work of French Naturalism, though a few passages...evoke the beauty of place and season in the typical Kafu manner." Flowers in the Shade might almost be called a continuation of During the Rains. Its hero, kept by a wealthy woman in his student days, ends up in his forties being supported by a prostitute. Donald Keene says that Kafu "makes us see and all but smell the dingy rooms he describes, without ever allowing us to pass judgment on them or their inhabitants. Kafu neither approves or disapproves of his characters, and if he tells us in detail about their past it is not in order to demonstrate how environment and heredity have determined their lives...but to assuage our curiosity as to how Jukichi came to live off women, how a particular woman happened to become a prostitute or a procuress, and so on." The present volume contains a Preface by the translator that briefly summarizes Kafu's life and career.

The memoir of a kid from the Midwest. Grows up in Illinois and Missouri then describes his career as he joins the military, training to work on Helicopter Missile Systems, goes to war then completes his career flying the AH-64A Apache as a Master Aviator and Chief Warrant Officer Four.

An anthology of sixteen award winning stories, short stories by Sangeeta Saikia Pathak is all about the varied human emotions ranging from love & romances, family drama & intrigues to the terror let loose by gunshots and slogans reigning in the air during the crucial hours of agitations (andolaan) from her homeland, Assam!!! With her award winning stories based mostly in Guwahati, Assam there are some vivid references to the natural beauty of her place like the majestic waters of the river Brahmaputra, the tea-gardens of Upper Assam, the Kamakhya Hills, the Kaziranga National Park, the premier college and Universities of Assam besides the overcrowded market places like Fancy Bazar, Maligaon and Uzanbazar….

As the great Mel Brooks said, “ Humor is just another defense against the universe” — and in these chaotic times, an irreverent and chaotic book like When the Rains Came, will definitely help you gird your loins AND laugh your head off. This entertaining collection of flash fiction, has been mysteriously spun out of the very deep, extended, chaotic, intense, personal experiences of a unique, one-of-a-kind person. David Wolinsky is a retired army officer, an entertainment attorney, restaurateur, businessman, a former memeber of Mensa, and currently, a writer who lives in the Pacific Northwest with his cat Barney.If you are seeking a Zagat-style description, Wolinsky' s work has been described as, “ well-crafted,” “ surprising,” and “ highly entertaining.” He' s been compared to Mel Brooks, and it has been said that he offers “ some of the best Jewish humor of recent times.” His “ brand of funny” was so good it even caused someone to “ publicly snort chicken noodle soup out of my nose.”