Martine Wexler is a writer who runs a secret bookmaking operation on the side, with the help of her son’s best friend. Martine, her son Tingo and her daughter Amelie (“Email”) are all in various stages of figuring out that life in an ordinary American city is only as ordinary as you make it. The world of this little family crosses orbits with a middle-aged Russian graffiti artist, a hopelessly smitten road musician, a heavily-tattooed foot fetishist, a psychic conversant in gear ratios, an atheist youth minister, and a longtime family friend who carries a lucky spray-painted quarter in her purse. It takes awhile, but Martine finally figures out that no matter when you hear the music, that's when it's time to dance.

A comprehensive travelogue and guidebook exploring island adventures on many of the 135 islands accessible by ferry or bridge in the Great Lakes Basin.

An island is a piece of land surrounded by water. But: what happens when bridges, causeways, tunnels- "fixed links"- irrevocably connect islands to mainlands? Is insularity, and its way of life, threatened? Or is it saved by virtue of a stronger integration with the world at large? Bridging Islands is a critical, interdisciplinary scoreboard of the pros and cons of bridging islands to mainlands. Internationally recognized scholars review the assorted socio-cultural, economic and political impacts of fixed links on small island communities. Included are chapters on Prince Edward Island's Confederation Bridge (celebrating its 10th anniversary in 2007), Cape Breton's Canso Causeway, islands in Quebec and Newfoundland, the Florida Keys, Ireland, France, Scotland, Sweden, and Singapore.

From krazydad, constructor of the wildly popular and addictive puzzles published in The New York Times as Two Not Touch, here are 360 of your favorite Star Battle puzzles. These puzzles will provide a healthy diversion for you in these challenging times, and help you make it to the other side with your sanity intact! Includes an instructive and pithy tutorial.