A chilling survey of the American landscape. Investigative journalist Jeffrey St Clair guides readers through the environmental wreckage of North America, from the plutonium-contaminated fields of the Hanford Nuclear Reservation to Indian Point Energy Center, the world's most dangerous nuclear plant. St Clair also delivers a forthright critique of the appropriation and disempowerment of the mainstream environmental movement, finding rejuvenated life, hope and inspiration in grassroots campaigners who are still driven by a desire for social justice.

Some people are born under a bad sign, born outside of society, born to end up on the wrong side of the law. Born Under A Bad Sign traces the lives of three such individuals. Little Joe Dean. A hustler raised on the mean streets of New York City, who learned the in and outs of drug dealing as a young boy, who learned how to kill in the Vietnam War, who learned that raising a family comes with a price. Joyce Cassel. A young woman raised on a farm in Storm Lake, Iowa, who was sexually abused by her father, who ran away from home as a teenager, who turned to prostitution to survive. Jason Dean. The son of Little Joe and Joyce, who found himself torn between the love for his father and mother, who failed at every attempt to fit in at school, who joined a gang to find his identity.

Book Review A born-agains harrowing autobiography retraces his path from an emotionally impoverished childhood, through a successful criminal career and, finally, to the redemption of the confessional. Razo assures his reader that his story will be unembellished, with no false modesty or undue embarrassment, and after the first few pages, its clear he will keep his word. Razo begins his meditation with his earliest memories of growing up working-class in the dusty, sunny atmosphere of post-war San Diego. Despite the citys burgeoning diversity and sense of opportunity, his veteran fathers American Indian heritage runs the family into trouble and teaches Razo some early lessons on the harsh realities of American culture. Though his family does help keep him in school for a while, his mother and father are over-extended with Razo and his five sisters. Though the emotions run hot between his mother and fatherusually it seems between rage and a begrudging commitmentthere is little feeling left over for the children. Razo doesnt shirk from any topic and provides some unique insights into the awkward presexuality that develops between the members of such a large cloister of siblings, especially when there is only one male to go around. Its a brave choice and makes good on Razos promise of full disclosure. Through the machinations of poverty, prison, drugs and kung fu, Razo eventually impresses a major player with his martial arts and so finds himself one of Hells Angels and on his way toward an illicit seven-figure salary. These years arent overworked with analysis, and even when some regret seeps in, it seems a bit half-hearted (he was having fun, after all). The ragged emotions of such a life, though familiar territory in fiction and nonfiction alike, are still made interesting by their sheer detail and a narrative voice that isnt polished enough to hide the authors hell-bent and engaging character. Razos life is colorful to be sure, and he was even a successful off-roading champion for a spell, but the real interest is Razos unlikely negotiations of the mortal pitfalls of the drug trade amid so many murderedand murderousfriends. Skeptical readers will conclude the author was saved more by a plea deal than by holy intervention, but its Razos storyand there is no doubting that hes told it as he lived it. A harrowing, willful account of a life led hard and fast. -Kirkus Discoveries

Our climate is changing fast. The future is uncertain, probably fiery, and likely terrifying. Yet shifting weather patterns have threatened humans before, right here in North America, when people first colonized this continent. About 15,000 years ago, the weather began to warm, melting the huge glaciers of the Late Pleistocene. In this brand new landscape, humans managed to adapt to unfamiliar habitats and dangerous creatures in the midst of a wildly fluctuating climate. What was it like to live with huge pack-hunting lions, saber-toothed cats, dire wolves, and gigantic short-faced bears, to hunt now extinct horses, camels, and mammoth? Are there lessons for modern people lingering along this ancient trail? The shifting weather patterns of today—what we call "global warming"—will far exceed anything our ancestors previously faced. Doug Peacock's latest narrative explores the full circle of climate change, from the death of the megafauna to the depletion of the ozone, in a deeply personal story that takes readers from Peacock's participation in an archeological dig for early Clovis remains in Livingston, MT, near his home, to the death of the local whitebark pine trees in the same region, as a result of changes in the migration pattern of pine beetles with the warming seasons.

The EPA was established to enforce the environmental laws Congress enacted during the 1970s. Yet today lethal toxins still permeate our environment, causing widespread illness and even death. Toxic Loopholes investigates these laws, and the agency charged with their enforcement, to explain why they have failed to arrest the nation's rising environmental crime wave and clean up the country's land, air and water. This book illustrates how weak laws, legal loopholes and regulatory negligence harm everyday people struggling to clean up their communities. It demonstrates that our current system of environmental protection pacifies the public with a false sense of security, dampens environmental activism, and erects legal barricades and bureaucratic barriers to shield powerful polluters from the wrath of their victims. After examining the corrosive economic and political forces undermining environmental law making and enforcement, the final chapters assess the potential for real improvement and the possibility of building cooperative international agreements to confront the rising tide of ecological perils threatening the entire planet.

Imperiled Life theorizes an exit from the potentially terminal consequences of capital-induced climate change. It is a collection of reflections on the phenomenon of catastrophe—climatological, political, social—as well as on the possibilities of overcoming disaster. Javier Sethness-Castro presents the grim news from contemporary climatologists while providing a reconstructive vision inspired by anarchist intellectual traditions and promoting critical thought as a means of changing our historical trajectory. Javier Sethness-Castro is a libertarian socialist and a rights advocate. Imperiled Life is his first book.

Shot down on a mission, 19-year-old bomber pilot Henry is alone in a treacherous land. Desperate to get back to his family and the girl he loves, he is forced to rely on the kindness of strangers and the cunning of the French Resistance. But in his battle to survive the deadly journey across Nazi-occupied Europe, he must face a terrible choice: can he take someone's life to save his own?