Author: Wendy Shortman

When you first hear about author Yann Martel’s new book, you may be unsure of how to react. It’s not often that you hear of a metaphorical story about the Holocaust from the eyes of two animals.

You Can’t Always Get What You Want is a quintessential addition to any die-hard rock and roll fan’s bookcase. In this revealing and fascinating memoir, Sam Cutler, former tour manager of The Rolling Stones and the Grateful Dead, provides his personal account of life among iconic figures of the music industry in the ‘60s and ‘70s.

In Sharan Newman’s book, The Real History of the End of the World, the author provides an array of historical and religious perspectives of how the world will end.

For the award-winning journalist Elinor Langer, it all started on a family vacation to Hawaii 15 years ago. Langer was critical of a misleading statement in a guidebook to Maui, and she realized that there was more to the story of America’s annexation of Hawaii than she knew.

John Wayne Cleaver fits the perfect prototype of a serial killer. He’s obsessed with fire, has tortured animals and wets the bed. These three characteristics, called the MacDonald triad, are commonly found in 95 percent of serial killers.

Peter Nathaniel Malae’s debut novel What We Are is a rough and tumble ride through the mind of a half-white, half-Samoan man on a journey to find himself in America, a country he despises, and as part of a generation he can’t stand, the “me generation.”

“We all have the crazy in us, is my theory, and when I write, I keep that in mind. That’s why my characters are so damaged,” said Mark Henry, author of the dark comedy zombie book, Battle of the Network Zombies.

Do They Know I’m Running? is a heart-wrenching novel about family loyalty and the empty promises of the American dream for a Latino family.

After volunteering with Hurricane Katrina refugees, and from her own experience facing disaster in Hurricane Rita, Chitra Divakaruni gained a new perspective on the way people react in crisis situations.

“There’s so much interest in food around this country, whether or not it’s organic, or if it’s local,” Gabriel Thompson said. “It would be a good move for all those people working around food justice not to just think about where their food is coming from, but who it’s coming from.”

Born in a national forest in the High Sierra between California and Oregon next to Mt. Shasta, Brenda Peterson lived her early years within millions of acres of wilderness.