Helmet for My Pillow is a gripping memoir that transports readers to the frontlines of World War II through the eyes of Robert Leckie, a young Marine who fought in some of the most brutal battles of the Pacific Theater. With raw honesty and vivid prose, Leckie recounts his experiences from boot camp to the bloody battles of Guadalcanal, Cape Gloucester, and Peleliu, offering a deeply personal perspective on the sacrifices, camaraderie, and horrors of war. This powerful narrative serves as a testament to the courage and resilience of the men who fought and died in the Pacific, making it an essential read for anyone seeking to understand the realities of combat and the human cost of war.

This is the amazing, true story of Gerald Sanford, a former New York City police officer and FDNY firefighter who retired and moved to Naples, Florida. Retirement didn’t take, and he found himself working at North Naples Fire Control and Rescue District, which is how he stumbled on an early 1900s antique fire helmet. He instantly knew the helmet was from New York City. By an amazing coincidence, Sanford presented the fire helmet back to the FDNY firehouse in the Bronx the day before the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. With the city in ruins, Sanford volunteered to serve the FDNY in one of his former roles—press secretary. In this memoir, he recalls volunteering after 9/11 as well as his earlier years working for the NYPD and FDNY, including his observations of political figures such as Mayor Ed Koch, Mayor David Dinkins, Mayor Rudy Giuliani, and others. Join Sanford as he shares an incredible story about Sept. 11 and how an antique leather helmet led two fire departments to forge a lasting bond.

Winner of the Independent Publisher Book Award for Best Visionary Fiction: “A lyrical, thoughtful, viral meme of a book” (Christopher Moore, author of Noir). It all starts when a mischievous artist kicks off a game of graffiti tag by painting the phrase, “Uh-oh” on an overpass. Next, an anonymous interlocutor writes back: “When?” Then someone slyly answers: “Just a couple of days.” But exactly what will happen in just a couple of days? Readers don’t have long to wait before Professor Blip Korterly is arrested and his molecular biologist friend Dr. Flake Fountain is drafted into a shadow-government research project to develop the ultimate weapon: a biological agent that will render its targets unable to understand symbols, thus disrupting humanity’s ability to communicate. Soon, an accidental outbreak turns into a merry-hearted, babble-inducing apocalypse that will either destroy humankind or take it to the next step in evolution. Praised by Tom Robbins who said it “may be the most unusual, the most original novel I have ever read,” Tony Vigorito’s debut novel is an underground hit that ponders what might happen at the end of time. “Vigorito’s . . . irreverent, whimsical style . . . has attracted a cult following... The final apocalyptic vision is a twist not seen since Kurt Vonnegut’s Cat’s Cradle. Recommended.” —Library Journal

In a wild and battle-scarred galaxy, assassins, pirates, smugglers, and cutthroats of every description roam at will, fearing only the professional bounty hunters-amoral adventurers who track down the scum of the universe...for a fee. When Darth Vader seeks to strike at the heart of the Rebellion by targeting Han Solo and the Millennium Falcon, he calls upon six of the most successful-and feared-hunters, including the merciless Boba Fett. They all have two things in common: lust for profit and contempt for life... Featuring original stories by Kevin J. Anderson, M. Shayne Bell, Daniel Keys Moran, Kathy Tyers and Dave Wolverton.

Dispatches from the new front lines of parenthood When the two-time National Book Award finalist Melissa Fay Greene confided to friends that she and her husband planned to adopt a four-year-old boy from Bulgaria to add to their four children at home, the news threatened to place her, she writes, "among the greats: the Kennedys, the McCaughey septuplets, the von Trapp family singers, and perhaps even Mrs. Feodor Vassilyev, who, according to the Guinness Book of World Records, gave birth to sixty-nine children in eighteenth-century Russia." Greene is best known for her books on the civil rights movement and the African HIV/AIDS pandemic. She's been praised for her "historian's urge for accuracy," her "sociologist's sense of social nuance," and her "writerly passion for the beauty of language." But Melissa and her husband have also pursued a more private vocation: parenthood. "We so loved raising our four children by birth, we didn't want to stop. When the clock started to run down on the home team, we brought in ringers." When the number of children hit nine, Greene took a break from reporting. She trained her journalist's eye upon events at home. Fisseha was riding a bike down the basement stairs; out on the porch, a squirrel was sitting on Jesse's head; vulgar posters had erupted on bedroom walls; the insult niftam (the Amharic word for "snot") had led to fistfights; and four non-native-English-speaking teenage boys were researching, on Mom's computer, the subject of "saxing." "At first I thought one of our trombone players was considering a change of instrument," writes Greene. "Then I remembered: they can't spell." Using the tools of her trade, she uncovered the true subject of the "saxing" investigation, inspiring the chapter "Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex, but Couldn't Spell." A celebration of parenthood; an ingathering of children, through birth and out of loss and bereavement; a relishing of moments hilarious and enlightening—No Biking in the House Without a Helmet is a loving portrait of a unique twenty first-century family as it wobbles between disaster and joy.

A journal devoted to the interests of adult education.