When Beth Kephart met and fell in love with the artist who would become her husband, she had little knowledge of the coffee farm he came from. Kephart's "lush. . . poetic evocation of Salvadorian life, its magic and tragedies" ("Los Angeles Times") offers her testament to the ties that bind.

Upon attaining a degree in Earth System History from the University of Saurat, Rachel Elam, the school's star atol player, her fianc, and two friends receive a fully financed tour to study the old, disregarded planet called Earth. All of her life she has been enchanted by the planet, the origin of many life forms in her galaxy. She is excited to explore it now. Retired cop Sodedo Ronah, a true curmudgeon, runs the travel bureau and knows that Earth is not a place where the young graduate and her friends should visit. However, he is forced by sworn code to keep the true use of the planet a secret. Knowing that he is forced to allow a journey that will end in disaster, he and a colleague set out to help the young travelers. Upon their arrival, Rachel and her friends quickly discover that Earth is now being used by society as a prison for the most violent criminals in the populated planetary systems. With their survival at stake, Rachel must rely on her courage, intellectual resourcefulness, and her athletic prowess to escape the planet and save her friends and herself.

Joe wakes up in a barley field with no clothes, no memories, and no idea how he got there. Before he knows it, he's off on the last great journey of his life. With his soul guide Baker and a charge to have courage from a mysterious, alluring, and somehow familiar Stranger, Joe sets off through a fantastical changing landscape to confront his past. The quest is not without challenges. Joe's past is not always an easy thing to relive, but if he wants to find peace—and reunite with the Stranger he is so strongly drawn to—he must continue on until the end, no matter how tempted he is to stop along the way.

Indiana often calls itself the Crossroads of the Nation. It's not also perhaps the very nexus of US weirdness. Armed with Oddball Indiana, you'll soon discover the strange underbelly of the Hoosier State, from brain sandwiches to square donuts. Indiana has monuments to Michael Jackson, the comic strip character Joe Palooka, and the World's Largest Egg. It's where Alka-Seltzer and Wonder Bread were invented, where A Christmas Story actually took place, and where the good but angry citizens of Plainfield conspired to dump President Martin Van Buren in a mud puddle. Along with humorous histories and offbeat observations, Oddball Indiana provides addresses, websites, hours, fees, and driving directions for each of its 350+ entries.

In this updated edition, it's plain to see that the state of Illinois has only gotten weirder. Where there was once just a single Popeye statue in downstate Chester, today the town has monuments to Olive Oyl, Swee' Pea, Bluto, the Sea Hag, and more. The creepy Piasa Bird petroglyph on the bluff in Alton now has a roadside pullout with picnic tables, and the two-story outhouse in Gays has a new contemplative garden. With almost twice as many destinations as its predecessor, this edition boasts detailed information on each site—address, phone number, website, hours, entry fees, and driving directions—as well as maps, photos, and a wealth of regional history in the descriptions. Some new sites include Henry's Rabbit Ranch, the World's First Jungle Gym, Ahlgrim Acres (a miniature golf course at a funeral home), the Leather Archives and Museum, General Santa Ana's two wooden legs, the World's Largest Sock Monkey, the Friendship Shoe Fence, a truck stop with a marionette show, and a coin-operated fire-breathing dragon. There is more between Chicago and St. Louis than cornfields and plenty of fascinating places in the Windy City that aren't on Michigan Avenue, and here is a chance to see these underappreciated sites throughout the state.