A stunning novel of hopes and dreams, guilt and love—a book that offers a resonant new definition of what it means to be American and "illuminates the lives behind the current debates about Latino immigration" (The New York Times Book Review). When fifteen-year-old Maribel Rivera sustains a terrible injury, the Riveras leave behind a comfortable life in Mexico and risk everything to come to the United States so that Maribel can have the care she needs. Once they arrive, it’s not long before Maribel attracts the attention of Mayor Toro, the son of one of their new neighbors, who sees a kindred spirit in this beautiful, damaged outsider. Their love story sets in motion events that will have profound repercussions for everyone involved. Here Henríquez seamlessly interweaves the story of these star-crossed lovers, and of the Rivera and Toro families, with the testimonials of men and women who have come to the United States from all over Latin America.

For several nights in 1903 the small town of Van Meter, IA was terrorized by a giant bat-like creature that emerged from an old abandoned mine. The nature and origin of this mysterious visitor was never discovered. Over 100 years later three researchers set out to Van Meter to shine a light on this amazingly bizarre case. Filled with eyewitness reports, historic photos, and current accounts of paranormal events, this in-depth book looks to discover. Was it an unknown animal? Was is mass hysteria? Was it a hoax? Was it an extraterrestrial? Or was it something far stranger? Follow their investigation and find out what they discovered when they asked: "What really happened in Van Meter?" Book jacket.

"An unnamed American city feeling the effects of a war waged far away and suffering from bad weather is the backdrop for this startling work of fiction. The protagonists are aimless young men going from one blue collar job to the next, or in a few cases, aspiring to middle management. Their everyday struggles--with women, with the morning commute, with a series of cruel bosses--are somehow transformed into storytelling that is both universally resonant and wonderfully uncanny. That is the unsettling, funny, and ultimately heartfelt originality of Saïd Sayrafiezadeh's short fiction, to be at home in a world not quite our own but with many, many lessons to offer us"--

A Glimpse into the Infinite: In the vast expanse of the universe, where stars sparkled as distant dreams and galaxies swirled in majestic splendor, a story was about to unfold—a story that transcended time, space, and the limitations of the human experience. It was a tale woven with threads of cosmic wisdom, divine encounters, and the boundless potential that lay within the human spirit. Beyond the Stars beckoned, inviting seekers to embark on a journey of discovery—a journey that would stretch the boundaries of their imagination, expand their consciousness, and awaken within them the dormant sparks of divinity. It was a journey that would lead them beyond the confines of their limited perceptions, unveiling the infinite possibilities that awaited them in the cosmic tapestry of existence.

Examining a wide range of ekphrastic poems, David Kennedy argues that contemporary British poets writing out of both mainstream and avant-garde traditions challenge established critical models of ekphrasis with work that is more complex than representational or counter-representational responses to paintings in museums and galleries. Even when the poem appears to be straightforwardly representational, it is often selectively so, producing a 'virtual' work that doesn't exist in actuality. Poets such as Kelvin Corcoran, Peter Hughes, and Gillian Clarke, Kennedy suggests, relish the ekphrastic encounter as one in which word and image become mutually destabilizing. Similarly, other poets engage with the source artwork as a performance that participates in the ethical realm. Showing that the ethical turn in ekphrastic poetry is often powerfully gendered, Kennedy also surveys a range of ekphrastic poets from the Renaissance and nineteenth century to trace a tradition of female ekphrastic poetry that includes Pauline Stainer and Frances Presley. Kennedy concludes with a critique of ekphrastic exercises in creative writing teaching, proposing that ekphrastic writing that takes greater account of performance spectatorship may offer more fruitful models for the classroom than the narrativizing of images.

"In 1980, a UFO was tracked on military radar in Rendlesham Forest, England. It landed near two of the most strategically important military bases in NATO, and was approached by military witnesses who touched the hull. This explosive new book--perfect for fans of Annie Jacobsen's Area 51, and Leslie Kean's UFOs--tells the full story of this incident, which is set to become better-known than Roswell. Written by Nick Pope, an international bestselling author and former government UFO investigator, working closely with John Burroughs and Jim Penniston, the two officers at the heart of the encounters, this book reveals the first-hand witnesses' full stories for the first time and is is supported by numerous formerly-classified documents obtained under the Freedom of Information Act. Burroughs and Penniston are well-known in the believer community and are enthusiastic about promoting the book with Pope. An ex-Ministry of Defense official, Pope is the only government UFO investigator to have gone on the record on this subject. He has a huge US media profile as a UFO expert, making him the perfect person to team with Burroughs and Penniston to write and promote this book. The inside story of these events and their aftermath will change people's perceptions about the UFO mystery and about the true role played by government, the military and the intelligence agencies"--