"A quest to explore some of the most spectacular ancient cities in human history--and figure out why people abandoned them. In Four Lost Cities, acclaimed science journalist Annalee Newitz takes readers on an entertaining and mind-bending adventure into the deep history of urban life. Investigating across the centuries and around the world, Newitz explores the rise and fall of four ancient cities, each the center of a sophisticated civilization: the...

"Thorin Oakenshield and the Dwarves of Erebor have reclaimed the vast wealth of their homeland, but now face the consequences of having unleashed the terrifying Dragon Smaug upon Lake-town. Meanwhile, Sauron, the Dark Lord, has sent forth legions of Orcs to attack the Lonely Mountain, and Bilbo Baggins finds himself fighting for his life as five great armies go to war. As darkness converges, the races of Dwarves, Elves, and Men must decide {u2013}...

Grammy Award winner Sturgill Simpson releases his much-anticipated new album and accompanying Netflix anime film. Produced by Simpson, the album was recorded primarily at the McGuire Motor Inn in Waterford, Michigan, with his bandmates Bobby Emmett, Chuck Bartels, Miles Miller, who all serve as co-producers along with GRAMMY nominee John Hill. The album is a marked departure from 2016's acclaimed A Sailor's Guide To Earth, which won Best Country Album...

"Chevengur is a philosophical novel that is also rich in psychological, social, and sensuous detail. Although it was never publishable in the USSR, it now stands as one of the most celebrated of Soviet novels, and along with The Foundation Pit, it is themost ambitious and moving of Andrey Platonov's efforts to take the measure of a world undergoing revolutionary transformation. The full text of Chevengur is here translated into English for the first...

"With the war between the Mexican state and the drug traffickers operating within its borders having claimed over 70,000 lives since 2006, noted journalist and author Michael Deibert zeroes in on the story of the notorious Gulf Cartel, their deadly war with their former allies Los Zetas, the cartels' connections in Mexican politics and what its trajectory means for Mexico's--and America's--future. Punctuated by the disappearance of busloads of full...

At the end of the last century, Johnstown, Pennsylvania was a booming coal-and-steel town filled with hardworking families striving for a piece of the nation's burgeoning industrial prosperity. In the mountains above Johnstown, an old earth dam had been hastily rebuilt to create a lake for an exclusive summer resort patronized by the tycoons of that same industrial prosperity, among them Andrew Carnegie, Henry Clay Frick, and Andrew Mellon. Despite...

An isolated Alaskan town is plunged into darkness for a month each year when the sun sinks below the horizon. As the last rays of light fade, the town is attacked by a bloodthirsty gang of vampires bent on an uninterrupted orgy of destruction. Only the town's husband-and-wife Sheriff team stand between the survivors and certain destruction.

Biological war has decimated life on earth. Los Angeles is a windswept ghost town where Robert Neville tools his convertible through sunlit streets, foraging for supplies. He gets undercover before sundown, when other 'inhabitants' emerge.