"In the veins of the men of Tataristan courses the blood of Mongol, Hun, Macedonian and Chinese…the fanaticism of Saladin’s and Tamerlane’s Islam, and a rich heritage of Chinese wile." This is the land and these are the countrymen of Ahmad Kamal’s ancestors. A Muslim of Tartar stock, Mr. Kamal was born in America. His great-grandfather fought against the Russians in Central Asia. More than a century later, his American descendant returned to renew the battle in the 1930s. Kamal entered Turkestan through India and Tibet, crossing in mid-winter the most formidable frontier in the world, the Himalayan passes. The account of this journey — under constant threat of extinction from falling avalanches of snow — begins a series of almost incredibly hazardous adventures, told with an authenticity that unrolls the whole richly colored tapestry of a strange, feudal, and barbaric land. AuthorBio: Ahmad Kamal was born on a Colorado Indian reservation in 1914 of Turco-Tatar parents who were forced into exile by the Tsar for participation in the 1905 Revolution. Kamal's genetic makeup imprinted all his endeavors be they as deep sea diver, combat pilot, horseman, warrior, and as exponent of national self-determination. He commanded the Basmachi Rebellion in Turkistan in the 1920's and 1930's, supported the independence of Indonesia and Algeria, and was commanding General of the Muslim liberation forces of the Union of Burma into the 1980's. Though he devoted his entire life to the independence of his fatherland from the Russian and Chinese yokes, he died a month short of the collapse of the USSR. Japan's press, Asahi Shimbun marked his exsistence stating: "Ahmad Kamal lived like a Samurai—and died like a Samurai."

Poet Langston Hughes' only novel, a coming-of-age tale that unfolds amid an African American family in rural Kansas, explores the dilemmas of life in a racially divided society.

Have you ever loved a magical book above all others? Have you ever wished the magic were real? Welcome to The Land of Laughs. A novel about how terrifying that would be. Schoolteacher Thomas Abbey, unsure son of a film star, doesn't know who he is or what he wants--in life, in love, or in his relationship with the strange and intense Saxony Gardner. What he knows is that in his whole life nothing has touched him so deeply as the novels of Marshall France, a reclusive author of fabulous children's tales who died at forty-four. Now Thomas and Saxony have come to France's hometown, the dreamy Midwestern town of Galen, Missouri, to write France's biography. Warned in advance that France's family may oppose them, they're surprised to find France's daughter warmly welcoming instead. But slowly they begin to see that something fantastic and horrible is happening. The magic of Marshall France has extended far beyond the printed page...leaving them with a terrifying task to undertake. At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

"Floating into the air with an enormous gum bubble, Alvin lands in a strange world where everything is gray. The trees, the flowers, the dirt, the sky, the animals, and even the people are all missing their color..." --

Many, many Christmas’s have come and gone and any stories told of Christmas characters like Frosty, Jack Frost, and Rudolph but somewhere in the discovery of these characters, “Hoh Ho the Elf” was missed. I guess if the loss of Ho Ho the Elf a few Christmas’s back didn’t happen he would still be in the missing pages of our Christmas history. Prior to the loss of “Ho Ho the Elf”, no one really knew the high importance he played in each year’s Christmas cheers and success. Santa’s Ho, Ho, Ho laugh sparks the glee and gladness of Christmas time throughout Santa Land, the North Pole, and around the world. Without Santa’s happy Ho, Ho, Ho laugh, darkness would smother and extinguish the brightness of Christmas spirit, love, and cheer at Santa Land in the North Pole and definitely affect the rest of the world.

Denis Johnson's New York Times bestseller, The Laughing Monsters, is a high-suspense tale of kaleidoscoping loyalties in the post-9/11 world that shows one of our great novelists at the top of his game. Roland Nair calls himself Scandinavian but travels on a U.S. passport. After ten years' absence, he returns to Freetown, Sierra Leone, to reunite with his friend Michael Adriko. They once made a lot of money here during the country's civil war, and, curious to see whether good luck will strike twice in the same place, Nair has allowed himself to be drawn back to a region he considers hopeless. Adriko is an African who styles himself a soldier of fortune and who claims to have served, at various times, the Ghanaian army, the Kuwaiti Emiri Guard, and the American Green Berets. He's probably broke now, but he remains, at thirty-six, as stirred by his own doubtful schemes as he was a decade ago. Although Nair believes some kind of money-making plan lies at the back of it all, Adriko's stated reason for inviting his friend to Freetown is for Nair to meet Adriko's fiancée, a grad student from Colorado named Davidia. Together the three set out to visit Adriko's clan in the Uganda-Congo borderland—but each of these travelers is keeping secrets from the others. Their journey through a land abandoned by the future leads Nair, Adriko, and Davidia to meet themselves not in a new light, but rather in a new darkness.

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • “For all those who have lived with Vonnegut in their imaginations . . . this is what he is like in person.”–USA Today In a volume that is penetrating, introspective, incisive, and laugh-out-loud funny, one of the great men of letters of this age–or any age–holds forth on life, art, sex, politics, and the state of America’s soul. From his coming of age in America, to his formative war experiences, to his life as an artist, this is Vonnegut doing what he does best: Being himself. Whimsically illustrated by the author, A Man Without a Country is intimate, tender, and brimming with the scope of Kurt Vonnegut’s passions. Praise for A Man Without a Country “[This] may be as close as Vonnegut ever comes to a memoir.”–Los Angeles Times “Like [that of] his literary ancestor Mark Twain, [Kurt Vonnegut’s] crankiness is good-humored and sharp-witted. . . . [Reading A Man Without a Country is] like sitting down on the couch for a long chat with an old friend.”–The New York Times Book Review “Filled with [Vonnegut’s] usual contradictory mix of joy and sorrow, hope and despair, humor and gravity.”–Chicago Tribune “Fans will linger on every word . . . as once again [Vonnegut] captures the complexity of the human condition with stunning calligraphic simplicity.”–The Australian “Thank God, Kurt Vonnegut has broken his promise that he will never write another book. In this wondrous assemblage of mini-memoirs, we discover his family’s legacy and his obstinate, unfashionable humanism.”–Studs Terkel