Like music, art is a universal language. Although looking at works of art is a pleasurable enough experience, to appreciate them fully requires certain skills and knowledge." --Carol Strickland, from the introduction to The Annotated Mona Lisa: A Crash Course in Art History from Prehistoric to Post-Modern * This heavily illustrated crash course in art history is revised and updated. This second edition of Carol Strickland's The Annotated Mona Lisa: A Crash Course in Art History from Prehistoric to Post-Modern offers an illustrated tutorial of prehistoric to post-modern art from cave paintings to video art installations to digital and Internet media. * Featuring succinct page-length essays, instructive sidebars, and more than 300 photographs, The Annotated Mona Lisa: A Crash Course in Art History from Prehistoric to Post-Modern takes art history out of the realm of dreary textbooks, demystifies jargon and theory, and makes art accessible-even at a cursory reading. * From Stonehenge to the Guggenheim and from Holbein to Warhol, more than 25,000 years of art is distilled into five sections covering a little more than 200 pages.

There are hundreds of lives sown inside Pretty Little Mistakes, Heather McElhatton's singularly spectacular, breathtakingly unique novel that has more than 150 possible endings. You may end up in an opulent mansion or homeless down by the river; happily married with your own corporation or alone and pecked to death by ducks in London; a Zen master in Japan or morbidly obese in a trailer park. Is it destiny or decision that controls our fate? You can't change your past and start over from scratch in real life—but in Pretty Little Mistakes, you can! But be warned, choose wisely.

A “poignant” collection of real letters sent to Santa Claus—a town in Indiana—from the 1930s to the twenty-first century, from both children and adults (The New York Times). For countless Christmases, children—and sometimes adults—have stuffed their dreams, wishes, and promises into envelopes. Over many decades, millions of these letters have poured into Santa Claus, Indiana. Arriving from all corners of the globe, the letters ask for toys, family reunions, snow, and help for the needy—sometimes the needy being the writers themselves. They are candid, heartfelt, and often blunt. Many children wonder how Santa gets into their chimneyless homes. One child reminds Santa that she has not hit her brothers over 1,350 times that year, and another respectfully requests two million dollars in “cold cash.” One child hopes to make his life better with a time machine, an adult woman asks for a man, and one miscreant actually threatens Santa’s reindeer! Containing more than 250 actual letters and envelopes from the naughty and nice reaching back to the 1930s, this moving book will touch hearts and bring back memories of a time in our lives when the man with a white beard and a red suit held out the hope that our wishes might come true. “Often very affecting . . . also offers an unusual window into American history.” —Library Journal “The letters . . . are alternately silly and somber, hilarious and heartfelt.” —The Weekly Standard

When Agent Rx, chronic criminal and fugitive, goes off on a dust binge, he hits rock bottom and hits the road, leaving a trail of tears, violence and infamy in his wake. Meanwhile, Jordan Strong uncovers a highly classified method of time travel under the fixed scrutiny of various government agencies and chapters of the occult all coveting his guinea pig tits 'n appeal. Enlisting Rx's blue-collar bred double helix for tedium and accumulation of detail, they exploit parallel realities and paradoxical time lines to mine a collaborative novel transcribed from the voices of the dead. They stage the Phenotypical Exploitation, a kidnapping of Jane Bale and subsequent sale to NYC's dance music circuit, purveyor of drugs, sex and art. But their interests unravel when Agent Rx tries to reverse engineer the domestic trial of the century, bringing the novel, its author and the Exploitation's fatally erotic subject into notoriety for dollars on retrograde dimes. Together, they embark on a literary crusade of self-sabotage that threatens to fall off the cutting edge of a techno thriller, picaresque odyssey and log of skeletons. An upscale Polish call girl develops a posthumous reputation as the poster child for the right to die movement. The simultaneous advances in medical science and life expectancy coincide with the human colonization of Mars. A transgendered stick-up thug pulls off a career robbery, befriends a US President, gets used by the CIA, and becomes a father. A media star attempts to change her image. Paranormal visitations threaten the sanity of hard drug addicts, all the while a support group for movement disorders braces as a roundtable therapeutic free-for-all. Is a telephonic method of time travel the real deal, or an exploitation in itself, a device for dredging up juice from a cold vein? This is the story of two men among hundreds of ghosts and trees, from Cuba in the 1930s to New York in 2046. I know folks from the rust belt to the dust bowl who've never seen these trees. Go see them. You owe it to yourself.

Horror and the supernatural have fascinated people for centuries, and many of the most central figures appear over and over again. These figures have gained iconic status and continue to hold sway over popular culture and the modern imagination. This book offers extended entries on 24 of the most enduring and significant figures of horror and the supernatural, including The Sea Creature, The Witch, The Alien, The Vampire, The Werewolf, The Sorcerer, The Ghost, The Siren, The Mummy, The Devil, and The Zombie. Each entry is written by a leading authority on the subject and discusses the topic's essential features and lasting influence, from the classical epics of Homer to the novels of Stephen King. Entries cite sources for further reading, and the Encyclopedia closes with a selected, general bibliography. Entries include illustrations, sidebars of interesting information, and excerpts from key texts. Horror and the supernatural have fascinated people for centuries, with many of the most central figures appearing over and over again across time and cultures. These figures have starred in the world's most widely read literary works, most popular films, and most captivating television series. Because of their popularity and influence, they have attained iconic status and a special place in the popular imagination. This book overviews 24 of the most significant icons of horror and the supernatural.

DigiCat Publishing presents to you this special edition of "Abroad at Home: American Ramblings, Observations, and Adventures of Julian Street" by Julian Street. DigiCat Publishing considers every written word to be a legacy of humankind. Every DigiCat book has been carefully reproduced for republishing in a new modern format. The books are available in print, as well as ebooks. DigiCat hopes you will treat this work with the acknowledgment and passion it deserves as a classic of world literature.