Leanna Moonbody has big dreams and even bigger plans. Not content to merely play for coins on the streets of Kingsfield, Leanna has her eyes on the horizon. With plans to move to the music capital of Saul and spend her days singing at the amphitheater, Leanna packs her bags and takes off on the journey of a lifetime. Along the way she's joined by a motley crew of adventurers who are as hilarious as they are haphazard. With a precarious trickster in their midst, Leanna's simple move turns upside-down as she and new pal Priestess Trixi make their way to Saul with a following in tow. Dodging lovesick stalkers, deranged halflings, and gathering adoring fans as they go, Trixi and Leanna take off into the sunset, ready to make their dreams come true in the most ridiculous ways possible.

“I only know one man who might be able to tell me where I come from, and that man is a liar and a fraud.” As far back as he can remember, the orphan Grady has tramped from village to village in the company of a huckster named Floyd. With his adolescent accomplice, Floyd perpetrates a variety of hoaxes and flimflams on the good citizens of the Corenwald frontier, such as the Ugliest Boy in the World act. It’s a hard way to make a living, made harder by the memory of fatter times when audiences thronged to see young Grady perform as “The Wild Man of the Feechiefen Swamp.” But what can they do? Nobody believes in feechies anymore. When Floyd stages an elaborate plot to revive Corenwalders’ belief in the mythical swamp-dwellers known as the feechiefolk, he overshoots the mark. Floyd’s Great Feechie Scare becomes widespread panic. Eager audiences become angry mobs, and in the ensuing chaos, the Charlatan’s Boy discovers the truth that has evaded him all his life—and will change his path forever.

In the crazed aftermath of the late '80s northern pop explosion there have been few survivors. The Charlatans, however, still prosper despite once being perceived as runts of the Manchester music scene. The cruellest of luck has visited heartbreaking death, nervous exhaustion, a jail sentence, and the prospect of falling almost totally out of fashion upon them. And yet, a deceptively tough band with a charismatic lead singer, their combination of unnerving honesty, sheer pop talent, great live shows, and a total and touching commitment to their fans has seen them survive some of the worst disasters that fate has thrown at any pop group. They have remarkable street suss that, with their small town backgrounds makes them totally at one with their huge following -- a relationship that has given them a fistful of number one albums. This is a tale of a love of pop and a lust for life. A story of northern pop and a band with guts and a passion for creativity. It traces the rise of the Charlatans from the fringes of the Manchester scene in the late Eighties to their current position at the top of British music, one of the key bands of the Nineties in possession of a rare and beautiful canon of great pop tunes.

This definitive work on the occult’s “great beast” traces the arc of his controversial life and influence on rock-and-roll giants, from the Rolling Stones to Led Zeppelin to Black Sabbath. When Aleister Crowley died in 1947, he was not an obvious contender for the most enduring pop-culture figure of the next century. But twenty years later, Crowley’s name and image were everywhere. The Beatles put him on the cover of Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band. The Rolling Stones were briefly serious devotees. Today, his visage hangs in goth clubs, occult temples, and college dorm rooms, and his methods of ceremonial magick animate the passions of myriad occultists and spiritual seekers. Aleister Crowley is more than just a biography of this compelling, controversial, and divisive figure—it’s also a portrait of his unparalleled influence on modern pop culture.

"The Eakins Press Foundation is proud to announce the publication of Magicians & Charlatans, by the art critic Jed Perl. In this collection of 26 essays, Mr. Perl writes with great urgency about the art scene of the past decade. The poet John Ashbery has said that "For years Jed Perl has been covering the art world with tremendous empathy and unsparing accuracy. His ability to recognize the traditional forms of art behind their continual transmutation has made his an almost solitary, essential voice." The essays range from highly controversial critiques of the painter Gerhard Richter, the art dealer Leo Castelli, and the Museum of Modern Art, to appreciations of the art of Bernini and Chardin, and the writings of Edmund Wilson and Meyer Schapiro." -- Publisher's description.