Bob Arctor is a dealer of the lethally addictive drug Substance D. Fred is the police agent assigned to tail and eventually bust him. To do so, Fred takes on the identity of a drug dealer named Bob Arctor. And since Substance D--which Arctor takes in massive doses--gradually splits the user's brain into two distinct, combative entities, Fred doesn't realize he is narcing on himself. Caustically funny, eerily accurate in its depiction of junkies, scam artists, and the walking brain-dead, Philip K. Dick's industrial-grade stress test of identity is as unnerving as it is enthralling.

St. Philip Neri is one of the best-loved saints of all time. Known as the ಘApostle of Rome', he set in motion a great renewal of Christianity at the heart of the Church's capital city during the 1500's. St. Philip's foundation of the Oratory began by stimulating young laymen to conversion, prayer, and apostolic works, and through them gradually brought about a reform of the entire Church, at all levels of society. St. Philip inspired many through his words, his miracles and his spiritual gifts, which show many similarities with other great saints such as Padre Pio and St. John Vianney. This account of Philip's life, written by his disciple Antonio Gallonio soon after the saint's death, captures well his holy zeal for God's work in the face of a corrupt and decadent Rome; his great sense of humor, which he would often use to remind people of hidden spiritual realities; and the many extraordinary miracles and conversions wrought by St. Philip both during his lifetime and after his death. This is the first ever English translation of the affectionate biography, published originally in Latin in the Jubilee Year 1600. Unusually for the time, it was written in chronological order; it also bears the original footnotes by Gallonio, in which he refers to eyewitnesses and makes comparisons with the lives of canonized saints, intending thereby to assist in the promotion of Philip's cause for elevation to the altars. Additional notes and a comprehensive index make this a most interesting and useful book for devotees of St. Philip, as well as a very readable introduction to the saint for those who do not yet know him.

Today we associate the Renaissance with painting, sculpture, and architecture—the “major” arts. Yet contemporaries often held the “minor” arts—gem-studded goldwork, richly embellished armor, splendid tapestries and embroideries, music, and ephemeral multi-media spectacles—in much higher esteem. Isabella d’Este, Marchesa of Mantua, was typical of the Italian nobility: she bequeathed to her children precious stone vases mounted in gold, engraved gems, ivories, and antique bronzes and marbles; her favorite ladies-in-waiting, by contrast, received mere paintings. Renaissance patrons and observers extolled finely wrought luxury artifacts for their exquisite craftsmanship and the symbolic capital of their components; paintings and sculptures in modest materials, although discussed by some literati, were of lesser consequence. This book endeavors to return to the mainstream material long marginalized as a result of historical and ideological biases of the intervening centuries. The author analyzes how luxury arts went from being lofty markers of ascendancy and discernment in the Renaissance to being dismissed as “decorative” or “minor” arts—extravagant trinkets of the rich unworthy of the status of Art. Then, by re-examining the objects themselves and their uses in their day, she shows how sumptuous creations constructed the world and taste of Renaissance women and men.

Once again the incomparable Gore Vidal interprets and animates history -- this time in a panoramic tour of the 5th century B.C. -- and embellishes it with his own ironic humor, brilliant insights, and piercing observations. We meet a vast array of historical figures in a staggering novel of love, war, philosophy, and adventure . . . "There isn't a page of CREATION that doesn't inform and very few pages that do not delight." -- John Leonard, The New York Times

This new selection brings together the best of Gore Vidal's essays, comment and criticism from his fifty-year writing career. With mercurial intelligence and often courageous - and outrageous! - forthrightness, Vidal explores his keystone subjects: primarily the worlds of literature and US politics; but also showbiz, sexuality and modern manners. His gaze ranges from the fiction of Calvino and Updike to the politics of pornography to the Clinton and Bush administrations, America post-September 11 and contemporary imperial ambitions. These essays are a witty and brilliant assessment of our times from the most memorable of American literary masters.

"May well be the finest of contemporary novels about the capital." THE NEW YORKER From the New Deal to the McCarthy era, follow the lives of Blaise Sanford, the ruthless Washington newspaper tycoon...his son, Peter, a brilliant liberal editor both fascinated and repelled by the imperial city...Peter's beautiful and self-destructive sister, Enid...her husband, Clay Overbury, a charismatic and ambitious politician...and James Burden Day, the powerful conservative senator. In WASHINGTON, D.C., the incomparable Vidal presents the life of politics and society in the nation's capital in the final stages of "the last empire on Earth."