American Violence

For one night a couple checks in to an upscale hotel. The pair seem unlikely companions, from opposing strata of society, but their attraction is palpable to all who observe them - or overhear their cries of passion. In the course of 12 hours, con games, erotic interludes, jealousy, violence, and murder swirl around them. Will they part ways in bliss, in sorrow, or in death?

Hundreds of thousands of people cross the southern border of the United States illegally. Most come in search of the American Dream, while others come for more nefarious reasons. For those coming to better their lives, getting by the thin, green line of Border Patrol Agents is only a part of the challenge. The real challenge is to survive. Follow Bob Heath, a South Texas Border Patrol Agent, with only a couple of years of service, and Juan Geronimo, a family man and native of Mexico, who is forced to make the journey north to provide for his family. Their worlds, as different as night and ...

In 2012, in Paris, the novelist Édouard Louis was raped and almost murdered by a man he had just met. This act of violence left Louis shattered; its aftermath made him a stranger to himself and sent him back to the past he had sworn to leave behind. A best seller in France, History of Violence is a short nonfiction account with the victim as its subject. Moving seamlessly between past and present, between Louis’s voice and the voice of an imagined narrator, History of Violence has the exactness of a police report and the unflinching curiosity of memoir at its best.

In 2017, seven-year-old Ava in South Carolina wrote a letter to Tyshaun, an eight-year-old boy from Washington, DC. She asked him to be her pen pal; Ava thought they could help each other. The kids had a tragic connection - both were traumatized by gun violence. Ava’s best friend had been killed in a campus shooting at her elementary school, and Tyshaun’s father had been shot to death outside of the boy’s elementary school. Ava’s and Tyshaun’s stories are extraordinary, but not unique.

In 2017, sociologist Ranita Ray stepped inside a fourth-grade classroom in one of the nation’s largest majority-minority districts in Las Vegas, Nevada. She was there to conduct research on the lack of resources and budget cuts that regularly face public schools. However, a few months into her immersion, a disturbed Ray recognized that that greatest impediment to students was the “slow violence” that preys on their minds, bodies, and spirits at the hands of teachers and administrators who are charged with their care.

Nick Neely chronicles his 650-mile trek on foot from San Diego to San Francisco, following the route of the first overland Spanish expedition into what was soon called Alta California. Led by Gaspar de Portolá in 1769, the expedition sketched a route that would become, in part, the famous El Camino Real. It laid the foundation for the Golden State we know today, a place that remains as mythical and captivating as any in the world.

What starts in bed ends in the graveyard College student Aiden unravels during a summer break with his submissive girlfriend and their mutual "friend". A summer trip to a bizarre mansion in the woods, strange visions, lust and death. You will be horrified by the trail of depravity and destruction. WARNING: This bizarre tale of a disturbed teen with a secret past and a horrifying future contains graphic violence. For those who love Stephen King or Bret Easton Ellis (American Psycho) this novel takes you to the next level.

In Chicago, aka "Chiraq", the first 10 days of 2016 yielded 120 people shot. Baltimore's 2015 ended as its bloodiest and deadliest year - on a per capita basis. In 2014 Detroit's police chief called upon law-abiding citizens to take arms against its burgeoning violent, criminal subculture. Unfortunately these cities aren't anomalies. Year after year a seemingly unshakable reality of violence plagues Black communities nationwide.

Brown Enough, Christopher Rivas's first book, is a literary memoir about what it truly means to be Brown in America. Holding the weight of being a Latino man, Christopher wonders where he falls on the color line, widened through his experience as an ethnically am­biguous actor of color in Holly­wood and the many dangers and pitfalls that come from owning one's Brownness. Told through the lens of his personal stories and in a unique and literal voice, Christopher examines the deep history of his Dominican and Colombian heritage.

Bobbi has survived an abusive marriage with the son of a Senator. This as well as an attempt on her life when she decided that enough was enough. Now, she's happily married with a son of her own. Life should be blissful. Except for the memories, flashbacks and emotional trauma left by not just him, but others who were supposed to care for her. Follow Bobbi on her journey of healing from abuse. Kelvin, Bobbi's husband knows that something is not right. His wife isn't sleeping, eating or being herself. She has changed since the shooting that nearly took both of their lives and ended in the ...

On a hot day in July 1919, five black youths went swimming in Lake Michigan, unintentionally floating close to the white beach. An angry white man began throwing stones at the boys, striking and killing one. Racial conflict on the beach erupted into days of urban violence that shook the city of Chicago to its foundations. This mesmerizing narrative draws on contemporary accounts as it traces the roots of the explosion that had been building for decades in race relations, politics, business, and clashes of culture.

In April 1871, a group of Americans, Mexicans, and Tohono O'odham Indians surrounded an Apache village at dawn and murdered nearly 150 men, women, and children in their sleep. In the past century, the attack, which came to be known as the Camp Grant Massacre, has largely faded from memory. Now, drawing on oral histories, contemporary newspaper reports, and the participants' own accounts, prizewinning author Karl Jacoby brings this perplexing incident and tumultuous era to life to paint a sweeping panorama of the American Southwest.

Growing up in rural Oregon, Brandon Wolf grappled with the devastating loss of his supportive mother and with the embedded racism and homophobia of a community that made him feel like an unwelcome stranger. After the lack of connection and role models led him down a spiral of risky behavior, Wolf escaped to survive. In Orlando, he found what he’d been searching for: belonging—in a community that was a safe space with people he’d come to call his chosen family.

As a boy, Robert D. Kaplan listened to his truck-driver father's evocative stories about traveling across America as a young man, travels in which he learned to understand the country from a ground-level perspective. In Earning the Rockies, Kaplan undertakes his own cross-country journey to recapture an appreciation and understanding of American geography that is often lost in the jet age.

1919, the Year of Racial Violence recounts African Americans' brave stand against a cascade of mob attacks in the United States after World War I. The emerging New Negro identity, which prized unflinching resistance to second-class citizenship, further inspired veterans and their fellow Black citizens. In city after city, Black men and women took up arms to repel mobs that used lynching, assaults, and other forms of violence to protect white supremacy; yet, authorities blamed Blacks for the violence, leading to mass arrests and misleading news coverage.

A Western novel set in the mountain desert of Carmichael during the early 20th century. In the rugged landscape of Carmichael, a fictional town scarred by violence and honor, Michael Marshall’s battle for identity is just beginning. Trapped between his uncle Quentin’s rigid expectations and the bloodied legacy of masculinity, Michael's world descends into chaos when an encounter with local roughneck Cliff Simon leads to a deadly act of self-defense. As he grapples with his own nature and the consequences of his actions, Michael embarks on a flight for survival and self-discovery that ...

A literary fiction novel set in the American Rockies during the early 20th century. In the rugged heart of the Rockies, where the spirit of independence meets the weight of family legacy, “Strong Roots” tells the poignant story of Clay Forrest, a gentle giant wrestling with his identity and self-worth. With the demanding presence of his uncle Tony looming over him, Clay's journey of self-discovery is as treacherous as the mountains themselves, offering readers a powerful exploration of love, loyalty, and the quest for acceptance. The novel opens with George and Aaron Macpherson, ...

Everything about Kalvin King’s life is finally “hella” good. The seventeen-year-old high school Junior from Oakland has seemingly overcome the trauma of losing his mother at an early age. An unfortunate accident, plus his father’s need to relocate to South Central Los Angeles completely destabilizes Kalvin emotionally, bringing out pain he’d kept bottled up. Perhaps a fresh start in the City of Angels is exactly what Kalvin needs? Kalvin gets a rude awakening at his new school, Lincoln. Mexican American/Chicano males (homies and gangsters) mean-mug him, and call him, “m...te,”...

In an unsettling time in American history, the outbreak of right-wing violence is among the most disturbing developments. In recent years, attacks originating from the far right of American politics have targeted religious and ethnic minorities, with a series of antigovernment militants, religious extremists, and lone-wolf mass shooters inspired by right-wing ideologies. The need to understand the nature of far-right violence is greater than ever. In American Zealots, Arie Perliger provides a wide-ranging and rigorously researched overview of right-wing domestic terrorism.

Courtney Cooper and Jupiter Sanchez (Coop & Jupe!) have been next-door neighbors and best friends since they were seven years old. She's his partner in crime and other half. But lately, Cooper can't ignore he might want something more than friendship from Jupiter. When Rae Chin moves to town she can't believe how lucky she is to find Coop and Jupe. Being the new kid is usually synonymous with pariah, but around these two, she finally feels like she belongs. She's so grateful she wants to kiss him...and her.