Neon Fever Dream

A dark secret hides in the swirling dust and exultant revelry of Burning Man. Asha Amarasuriya is bored and struggling to get by as a martial arts instructor in Oakland. When an enigmatic seductress offers her a golden ticket, Asha decides to take a leap of faith and head to Burning Man. But there is more than meets the eye at the infamous desert pilgrimage and Asha gets sucked into a quest to unravel a sinister mystery at the heart of Black Rock City. Will Asha and her friends survive to expose the shadowy conspiracy? By the time the Man burns, their lives will have changed forever.

On a blistering summer day, a bank robbery goes wrong, resulting in the deaths of all the hostages except Treva Williams. Pittsburgh psychologist and trauma expert Daniel Rinaldi is called in by the police to treat Treva. Soon an unforeseen series of events plunges the investigating officers, Sergeant Harry Polk, Detective Eleanor Lowrey, and Rinaldi into a vortex of mistaken identity, kidnapping, and surprising revelations about District Attorney Leland Sinclair's gubernatorial campaign. Is Sinclair somehow involved in the bank case? Rinaldi's attention is diverted by the suicide of a young patient and his growing attraction to Eleanor, as the recently-divorced Harry Polk spirals into an alcohol-driven, self-destructive free-fall. Then sudden death threats against Sinclair fuel a new frenzy of accusations and political maneuvering, and Rinaldi begins to make connections. Soon, what he knows - or thinks he knows - will pull him toward a shocking and possibly lethal confrontation.

Lenny Duncan's memoir about growing up Black and queer in the United States. He recounts his experiences hitchhiking across the country, spending time in solitary confinement, battling addiction, and discovering a deep faith.

INSIDE THE WORLD OF MIXED MARTIAL ARTS - AND MURDER... Angel Dare went into Witness Protection to escape her past -- not as a porn star, but as a killer who took down the sex slavery ring that destroyed her life. But sometimes the past just won't stay buried. When a former co-staris gunned down, it's up to Angel to get his son, a hotheaded MMA fighter, safely through the unforgiving Arizona desert, shady Mexican bordertowns, and the seductive neon mirage of Las Vegas...

Video games have captivated us for over 50 years, giving us entire worlds to explore, new ways to connect with friends, thought-provoking stories, or just a fun way to pass the time. Creating games is a dream for many, but making great games is challenging. The Game Designer's Playbook is about meeting that challenge. More specifically, it's a book about game interaction design; in other words, shaping what players can do and how they do it to make a game satisfying and memorable. Our time with a game is built on interaction, from basic things like pushing buttons on a controller, to making complicated strategic decisions and engaging with the narrative. If you've ever felt the adrenaline rush from beating a perfectly tuned boss fight or been delighted by the fanfare of picking up that last collectible, you've experienced good interaction design firsthand. The Game Designer's Playbook is about learning what makes for great (or terrible!) interaction design in games, exploring things like controls, feedback, story, and tutorial design by analyzing existing games. It also looks at how newer and still-developing tech like VR and streaming are changing the ways we play, and how you can bring great interaction design to your own games.

Seven years ago, Sebastian Munro changed his life immensely by transitioning and starting a graduate degree at the University of Ottawa. Now that his degree—and his cash flow—has run its course, however, he finds himself on a Greyhound bus back to his suburban town outside of Toronto in early 2006. Though his high school friends are well aware of his transition, many have yet to see Sebastian face-to-face. Instead of dreading the reunion, Sebastian looks forward to it—until his parents announce their divorce, his former best friend won’t speak to him, and he realizes he has become a stranger in a place that was once so familiar. Rather than returning to Ottawa, he is forced to stay in Durham Region when he witnesses a crime at the local restaurant run by a family friend. Until the trial finishes, and until an academic job comes through, Sebastian must learn to stay exactly where he is—whether he now wants to or not. When he reaches out to his former best friend’s older brother, Garrison, their budding relationship shapes and changes everything Sebastian thought he knew about his previous life, secret identities, and the power of home. Now that Sebastian has found a way to survive in his hometown as the person he always knew himself to be, he realizes he faces a decision especially as an academic job opportunity emerges. Does he continue with his new fantasy life in his hometown, thereby leaving his former academic and trans community aside—or does he go back to the life that made him who he is now and leave his family and friends one more time?

A collection of the year's best travel writing selected by Padma Lakshmi

‘Wow... amazing!... Finished in a day.’ Goodreads reviewer ‘Beautiful.’ Insights into Books Blog ‘Made me cry.’ Shalini’s Books and Reviews ‘I couldn’t put it down.’ Goodreads reviewer ‘I was stunned.’ Chicks, Rogues and Scandals ‘Breathtaking, heartbreaking... top of my best books of 2019.’ Fireflies and Freekicks Fiction Born in a honeysuckle-choked garden, a young woman discovers her true purpose in the world moments before she’s cast out of the only home she’s ever known. Haunted by loneliness, she begins a journey to fulfil her destiny. It is a path that will lead her into the arms of four very different men – a dreamer, a fighter, an artist and a lost soul. But could it be the secrets she left behind – and the one person she thought she had lost forever – that hold the answers to the questions she’s seeking? For while life may take you unexpected places, truth will bring you home… What readers are saying about The Beginning and End of Us: ‘Wow what an amazing book! This is my first from this author but won't be my last. Absolutely amazing. Loved the story... Finished in a day. I couldn't put it down it was so good.’ Goodreads reviewer ‘…James’ descriptive, expressive, lyrical writing builds and blends an enchanting world of surreal pleasure of the senses with a magical mournful melancholy. Colorfully illustrating the sights, sounds and tastes of all the places of Aphrodite’s journey, James captivates the reader… The Beginning and End of Us is an enchanting, spellbinding read.’ Goodreads reviewer ‘The words grip you, the emotions are vivid. Rose James wrote a very creative book and did an excellent job making the words on the pages come alive.’ Goodreads reviewer ‘This book takes you on a journey from the first page. This journey doesn't really have a beginning or an ending it simply is… This book is beautiful and will make you see the magical all around you.’ Insights Into Books Blog

Valyntina Grenier's FEVER DREAM / FEVER DREAM marks a poetic "double debut" with a tête-bêche chapbook, two titles bound upside-down with two front covers, which can be read from either side. With subtle humor, word play, and linguistic inventions, Grenier has written a surprising tour de force...

About the Book: This is a book of poetry that often reads like prose. Often bereft of rhyme, & sometimes deconstructing reason. Liminal People is an exploration of the multifarious reality of human existence, and how it can never be defined by the constraints of a singular perspective. The poems oscillate between finiteness & infallibility, trauma & memory, despair & disambiguation. We always belong to two or more worlds. We're always shaped by multiple narratives. The blueprint of the universe is mirrored in our subconscious, and we're all the product of constantly moving through time and space within our minds. It's the essence of this truth that Liminal People attempts to capture in verse. About the Author: Aalta (Shalini Maiti) was born in West Bengal, and raised across southern India. She identifies as a true-blue Hyderabadi. She's an alumnus of both KPS (Kodaikanal Public School) and HPS (Hyderabad Public School). An erstwhile corporate, she worked in online advertising with Google for 8 long years, before walking away to chase her dream of becoming an author. She now lives, blissful & broke, in Hyderabad. She's a bibliophile, epicure, feminist, freelancer, scribbler of untold stories, and the mother of five (dragon-like) cats. Liminal people is her first independently published book.