“GRIPPING . . . the kind of book you simply don’t want to stop reading.”—Neil Gaiman He calls himself Halloween. He is a unique student attending a most prestigious boarding school—the Idlewild Immersive Virtual Reality Academy. While his body sleeps, his mind interacts with those of his fellow students under the tutelage of the enigmatic artificial intelligence known as Maestro. An inexplicable energy surge has damaged the IVR and fragmented Halloween’s mind. Convinced this anomaly was deliberately triggered to kill him, Halloween is desperate to recover his memories—only to discover a devastating revelation about his true existence. “Idlewild builds, not just in tension but in what it demands from the reader, ending up as a dark exploration of hidden realities.”—The Guardian “Sagan provides plenty of suspense and perfectly captures the angry adolescent solipsism that makes kids into hackers and superheroes.”—Entertainment Weekly

Once considered the most famous African-American resort community in the country, Idlewild was referred to as the Black Eden of Michigan in the 1920s and '30s, and as the Summer Apollo of Michigan in the 1950s and '60s. Showcasing classy revues and interactive performances of some of the leading black entertainers of the period, Idlewild was an oasis in the shadows of legal segregation. Idlewild: Black Eden of Michigan focuses on this illustrative history, as well as the decline and the community's contemporary renaissance, in over 200 rare photographs. The lively legacy of Lela G. and Herman O. Wilson, and Paradise Path is included, featuring images of the Paradise Club and Wilson's Grocery. Idlewild continued its role as a distinctive American resort throughout the 1950s, with photographs ranging from Phil Giles' Flamingo Club and Arthur Braggs's Idlewild Revue.

Members Only addresses how exclusive private clubs maintain and perpetuate class-based privilege and racial/ethnic and religious segregation, and how such patterns of social exclusion heighten social inequality. Members Only continues Kendall's study of the upper classes, whic...

In 1912, white land developers founded Idlewild, an African American resort community in western Michigan. Over the following decades, the town became one of the country’s foremost vacation destinations for the black middle class, during its peak drawing tens of thousands of visitors annually and hosting the era’s premier entertainers, such as The Four Tops, Della Reese, Brook Benton, and George Kirby. With the civil rights movement and the resulting expansion of recreation options available to African Americans, Idlewild suffered a sharp social and economic decline, and by the early 1980s the town had become a struggling retirement community in the midst of financial and political crises. Meticulously researched and unearthing never-before-seen historical material, Ronald J. Stephens’s book examines the rapid rise and decline of this pivotal landmark in African American and leisure history, in the process exploring intersections among race, class, tourism, entertainment, and historic preservation in the United States. Featuring a wealth of fieldwork on contemporary Idlewild, the book also takes a candid look at recent revitalization efforts and analyzes the possibilities for a future resurgence of this national treasure.

In a last ditch effort to revive the Detroit gastropub he opened with his late husband, Asher Schenck hires a new staff. Among them is Tyler Heyward, a recent college graduate working his way toward med school. When they fall for each other, it's not race or class that challenges their love, but the ghosts and expectations of their pasts.

Desiree Johnson hasn't been home to Idlewild, Michigan, in over seventeen years, but she and her son Tyree rush there when she receives news about her father. Tyson Blackwell is taken aback by her return. Their summer relationship was once powerful, but he succumbed to family pressure and let Desiree go. Now that she's back, he vows it will not happen again--despite the presence of a wife in his life.

Idlewild and SoakZone has charmed people across Western Pennsylvania and beyond since the late 1800s. The park was developed by Pittsburgh's Mellon family as a picnic grove to boost traffic on the Ligonier Valley Rail Road. When C.C. Macdonald took the helm in 1931, rides, entertainment and other attractions came to Idlewild over the next half century, along with the adjacent Story Book Forest. After joining the Kennywood family of amusement parks, Idlewild added a Wild West town, Mister Rogers' Neighborhood of Make-Believe and a water slide complex. Author Jennifer Sopko tells the heartwarming history of a Pennsylvania amusement park that continues to delight generations of families.