The author reflects on the history of her family's California restaurant, Nepenthe, and her experiences growing up there; and provides eighty-five recipes and photographs.

"It will take the whole night at least," he said, "to implant all my eggs." The colony planet is a death trap. Only the tiniest fraction of humanity survives the gruesome rejection virus.And then the aliens arrive.The Nepenthe, too, seek a new home world, but discover instead a species capable of incubating their precious eggs: humans.The two dying races can either reach an agreement to help each other live on ... or prepare for extinction.Publisher's Note: The We Are Nepenthe series contains tentacles, shapeshifting aliens and squirm-in-your-seat depravity. A one-click read for the seriously adventurous only.

A searing ghost story from California's infamous Emerald Triangle.

Kaffe Fassett comes home to Big Sur each year to paint still lifes with Erin Lee Gafill. This book chronicles a decade of creative conversation between these two award-winning artists. This book serves as a catalog for the Color Duets show at the Monterey Museum of Art, summer 2020,

I'm human. He's not. As the First Daughter of Planet Earth, it's my duty to set an example. When we enter an agreement to re-build the planet, our prized offerings for bargaining are our young, eligible females, starting with me. It's my place to lead by example and I'm only too eager. I can hardly wait to see what handsome, mysterious stranger has been matched for me. Who will sweep me off my feet? I never expected tentacles. The Match Program put together by the Britonian race assures my people that mates from a human planet would be a perfect pair up for us in exchange for our plentiful gold. But those females think of us as monsters. Instead of them allowing us to honor them, they shiver in fear and wish for us to treat them as slaves. They have been taught this way from birth. On a planet of beautiful, plentiful females repressed by their own males, who are really the monsters?

Fantasy author Patricia A. McKillip, the 21st century's response to Hans Christian Andersen, has mastered the art of writing fairy tales -- as evidenced by previous works like The Tower at Stony Wood, Ombria in Shadow, and In the Forests of Serre. Alphabet of Thorn is yet another timeless fable suitable for children and adults alike. In the kingdom of Raine, a vast realm at the edge of the world, an orphaned baby girl is found by a palace librarian and raised to become a translator. Years later, the girl -- named Nepenthe -- comes in contact with a mysterious book written in a language of thorns that no one, not even the wizards at Raine's famous Floating School for mages, can decipher. The book calls out to Nepenthe's very soul, and she is soon privately translating its contents. As she works tirelessly transcribing the book -- which turns out to be about the historical figures of Axis, the Emperor of Night, and Kane, his masked sorcerer -- the kingdom of Raine is teetering on the brink of chaos. The newly crowned queen, a mousy 14-year old girl named Tessera who wants nothing to do with matters of state, hides in the woods as regents plot revolution. The queen's destiny, however, is intertwined with Nepenthe's ability to unravel the mystery of the thorns.