What if armed, hooded men tried in broad daylight to pull you from a sidewalk in Tucson into a black van and failed? What if a second attempt designed to load you into an ambulance after being shot with a tranquilizer dart intended for large animals also failed? What if you learned that both attempts had been ordered by the most vicious drug lord in Colombia, although you had never heard of him before? Young Mike Morales subsequently learns from an antinarcotics task force in Tucson that drug l
Peter Benchley’s fascination with the sea and its magnificent inhabitants inspired such classic novels as Jaws and The Deep, making him the preeminent author of ocean adventure and suspense. The Girl of the Sea of Cortez was his most heartfelt, cherished story of the relationship between man and the sea, both those that live in it and those who love it. On an island in the Gulf of California, an intrepid young woman named Paloma carries a special legacy from her father—a deep understanding of the sea and a sixth sense about the need to protect it. Every day, Paloma paddles her tiny boat into the ocean and anchors over a seamount—a submerged volcanic peak sixty feet underwater that is clustered with spectacular sea animals and a wondrous web of marine life. It is there that an astonishing event takes place, when on one of her dives Paloma is shadowed by a manta ray—an animal so large it blocks the sun. She develops an extraordinary relationship with this luminous, gentle creature, but instinctively knows its existence is a secret she must fiercely protect. Benchley’s novel paints a poignant picture of humanity’s precarious relationship with the ocean, which unfolds alongside a heartrending story of familial bonds, often revealing that the ignorance of man is far more dangerous than the sea. Full of beauty, danger, and adventure, The Girl of the Sea of Cortez is triumphant—a novel to fall in love with. Praise for The Girl of the Sea of Cortez “It’s hard not to compare Benchley’s tale . . . with Hemingway’s classic The Old Man and the Sea.”—The Christian Science Monitor “Charming.”—The New York Times Book Review “For a hot summer’s day, The Girl of the Sea of Cortez is the next best thing to looking through a clear face mask into blue water swimming with fish.”—United Press International
This unprecedented collection, featuring previously unpublished pieces as well as others for the first time in their original from, reflects the wide scope of Ricketts's scientific philosophical, and literary interests during the years he lived and worked on Cannery Row in Monterey, California.
Middle-aged Troy Banalia is a burned-out lawyer from South Jersey who vacations in Baja California where he is entertained by the professional women of Tijuana. The wares of many ladies of the night are sampled by him until he meets the blonde bombshell Angelita. The sexual passion between them ignites immediately, and he soon falls madly in love with her as does she for him. When he returns to his law practice, a duplicitous client sells him out by telling the assistant district attorney a bunch of lies, which implicate Troy, in exchange for leniency. The beloved barrister becomes disbarred and is imprisoned. While serving a brief sentence, the broken Banalia decides to leave his former life behind and vows to return to Angelita and free her from the evil Hector, a.k.a. Solo, Lobo, her pimp. When he finds Angelita, the struggle between Troy and his armed entourage, the fearless private investigator Gary Brody and brave Mexican guide Jose Bravo, and the brutal gang of Solo Lobo, the gargantuan bodyguard Negro and cunning assistant Bruto, begins. Fueled by the backup of Brody and apt tutelage of Jose, Troy devises a series of plans to conquer Lobo once and for all and free Angelita forever. His affection for and friendship with his amigo nuevo grows during this learning process until his crestfallen companion eventually confides in him regarding the dark secret of why this honorable Mexican hombre is called El Bravo by those who know him. The battles for Angelita between the two warring camps commence at the top of Baja in this first novel, and continue south throughout the rest of the elongated peninsula to its inevitable end at the twin capes, Cabo San Lucas and San José del Cabo, in the sequel, Land’s End, Cabo. Along the way from Tijuana to Los Cabos, Troy drives with Angelita always by his side in their desperate trip of escape. The surreal landscapes abound during their journey across this magical land. And all the adventure takes place against the background of beauty that prevails in this pristine peninsula. An ode to Baja so to speak. The unexpected and perilous predicaments that transpire on this spectacular sojourn will test the fullest measure of their collective resolve and spiritual union. The Baja Expatriate and Land’s End, Cabo, both speak to the indomitable human spirit and the power of love. It is a story of personal redemption and the undeniable human need for freedom. An epic allegory about the never-ending battle between good and evil bestowed upon us by the master storyteller, Edwin Paul. It will inspire the reader to fight the good fight in one’s life, and to strive for what we all need in our lives, reciprocal love.
American philosopher John Dewey considered all human endeavors to be one with the natural world. In his writings, particularly Art as Experience (1934), Dewey insists on the primacy of the environment in aesthetic experience. Dewey’s conception of environment includes both the natural and the man-made. The World in Which We Occur highlights this notion in order to define “pragmatist ecology,” a practice rooted in the interface of the cultural and the natural. Neil Browne finds this to be a significant feature of some of the most important ecological writing of the last century. To fully understand human involvement in the natural world, Browne argues that disciplinary boundaries must be opened, with profound implications for the practice of democracy. The degradation of the physical environment and democratic decay, for Browne, are rooted in the same problem: our persistent belief that humans are somehow separate from their physical environment. Browne probes the work of a number of major American writers through the lens of Dewey’s philosophy. Among other texts examined are John Muir’s My First Summer in the Sierra (1911); Sea of Cortez (1941) by John Steinbeck and Edward Ricketts; Rachel Carson’s three books about the sea, Under the Sea-Wind (1941), The Sea Around Us (1951), and The Edge of the Sea (1955); John Haines’s The Stars, the Snow, the Fire (1989); Barry Lopez’s Arctic Dreams (1986); and Terry Tempest Williams’s Refuge (1991). Together, these texts—with their combinations of scientific observation and personal meditation—challenge the dichotomies that we have become accustomed and affirm the principles of a pragmatist ecology, one in which ecological and democratic values go hand in hand.
A Bottle of Rain is a kind of love story involving a mute clown, a blind gypsy fortune-teller, FBI agents, an award-winning poet told to teach fiction, and the last Kickapoo Indian girl born in Champaign County, who has returned to the Land of Lincoln in search of her parents. You'll get a brief history of computers, a not so brief history of the Kickapoo Indian Tribe (told in an unorthodox manner), a revisionist view of Abraham Lincoln.
