In a collection of poems that moves from meditations on emotions to struggles with a cancer diagnosis, from the comfortable world of sun and sand to the jarring dark corners of the so, R. M. Ryan offers us insights into the experience of living. The Lost Road Adventures Club recalls the ephemera of times and places gone by: a rosary pulled from an old coffee can in a small, shabby church; the clicks of a record player needle at the end of a 45; dusty chalk coating the hands of a teenage boy laden down with textbooks. Though grounded in precise observation of the world as it is, Ryan’s poetry also offers the reader a boundless capacity for imagined adventure: “Why shouldn’t this road / outside of Verona, Wisconsin / / be called Epic Lane?” he asks. “Poems start / from everywhere.” Sometimes lighthearted and sometimes disheartening, his poems travel across the years as they help us reach a new understanding of what it means to be human.

The Adventure Club enters naval operations during World War I.

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER “I’ve changed a bit since high school. Back then I said no to using and selling drugs. I washed on a normal basis and still had good credit.” Introducing Laurie Notaro, the leader of the Idiot Girls’ Action-Adventure Club. Every day she fearlessly rises from bed to defeat the evil machinations of dolts, dimwits, and creepy boyfriends—and that’s before she even puts on a bra. For the past ten years, Notaro has been entertaining Phoenix newspaper readers with her wildly amusing autobiographical exploits and unique life experiences. She writes about a world of hourly-wage jobs that require absolutely no skills, a mother who hands down judgments more forcefully than anyone seated on the Supreme Court, horrific high school reunions, and hangovers that leave her surprised that she woke up in the first place. The misadventures of Laurie and her fellow Idiot Girls (“too cool to be in the Smart Group”) unfold in a world that everyone will recognize but no one has ever described so hilariously. She delivers the goods: life as we all know it.

Henry Gee, Senior editor for what many have called the most important magazine in science today - Nature - has written a spellbinding, fun, and accessible book explaining the scientific basis for how all that wizardy, sorcery, and magic really works in JRR Tolkien's fantasy epic, The Lord of the Rings and his other fictional books featuring Middle-earth. The author explores just how elves might be able to see much further than humans, why Frodo's sword turns blue at the sight of evil orcs, how the rings of power do their thing, and just about every other conundrum or piece of 'elvish magic' that have puzzled and delighted Tolkien fans for years. Throughout, Gee makes the point that science, fantasy , and nature are really more similar than one might think. Gee writes in a popular tone and style, fully explaining all science concepts and convincingly demonstrating how Tolkien's world of fantasy makes sense in a very real - scientific - way.