Pamela L. Gay

This vibrant and engaging story follows an alien princess disguised as a human boy as she navigates gender identity, romance, and the courage to reveal her true self. Taylor has the perfect life, but she's been hiding her true identity for six long years. Everything changes when she meets Katherine, a confident girl who inspires Taylor to come out of hiding, even if it means facing her greatest enemies. With stunning artwork and compelling storytelling from the brilliant Jadzia Axelrod, "Galaxy" is a must-read tale of self-discovery and shining brighter than the stars.

From the author of 1491—the best-selling study of the pre-Columbian Americas—a deeply engaging new history of the most momentous biological event since the death of the dinosaurs. More than 200 million years ago, geological forces split apart the continents. Isolated from each other, the two halves of the world developed radically different suites of plants and animals. When Christopher Columbus set foot in the Americas, he ended that separation at a stroke. Driven by the economic goal of establishing trade with China, he accidentally set off an ecological convulsion as European vessels carried thousands of species to new homes across the oceans. The Columbian Exchange, as researchers call it, is the reason there are tomatoes in Italy, oranges in Florida, chocolates in Switzerland, and chili peppers in Thailand. More important, creatures the colonists knew nothing about hitched along for the ride. Earthworms, mosquitoes, and cockroaches; honeybees, dandelions, and African grasses; bacteria, fungi, and viruses; rats of every description—all of them rushed like eager tourists into lands that had never seen their like before, changing lives and landscapes across the planet. Eight decades after Columbus, a Spaniard named Legazpi succeeded where Columbus had failed. He sailed west to establish continual trade with China, then the richest, most powerful country in the world. In Manila, a city Legazpi founded, silver from the Americas, mined by African and Indian slaves, was sold to Asians in return for silk for Europeans. It was the first time that goods and people from every corner of the globe were connected in a single worldwide exchange. Much as Columbus created a new world biologically, Legazpi and the Spanish empire he served created a new world economically. As Charles C. Mann shows, the Columbian Exchange underlies much of subsequent human history. Presenting the latest research by ecologists, anthropologists, archaeologists, and historians, Mann shows how the creation of this worldwide network of ecological and economic exchange fostered the rise of Europe, devastated imperial China, convulsed Africa, and for two centuries made Mexico City—where Asia, Europe, and the new frontier of the Americas dynamically interacted—the center of the world. In such encounters, he uncovers the germ of today’s fiercest political disputes, from immigration to trade policy to culture wars. In 1493, Charles Mann gives us an eye-opening scientific interpretation of our past, unequaled in its authority and fascination

In "Fall; or, Dodge in Hell," a tech billionaire's brain is uploaded to the cloud and creates an eternal afterlife - but it's not the Utopia it seems. This science fiction thriller tackles profound questions about technology, philosophy, and spirituality, with a grand drama of man and machine, angels and demons, gods and followers. Get ready for a mind-blowing literary saga that touches on revolutionary breakthroughs transforming our future.

Explore the fascinating and disturbing ways that American death and violence have been glorified and commodified in popular culture with this irreverent and witty road trip. From the locations of politically motivated murders to the making of the Lincoln Memorial, the author takes us on a journey filled with humor, honesty, and thought-provoking criticism. Along the way, we encounter mummies, show tunes, and even a nineteenth-century biblical sex cult. This travelogue is not only informative but also a disturbing and entertaining exploration of loss and violence in American history.

Australia es el sexto país más grande del mundo y la islamás extensa. Isla, país, continente. Seco, árido, yermo y climáticamente agresivo. Un país donde el gusano más peludo mata con su venenoso pinchazo, donde las conchas marinas no solo pican sino que persiguen, donde un tiburón puede zamparte o unas irresistibles aguas arrastrarte mar adentro. Ignorando estas amenazas, Bill Bryson viajó a Australia y se enamoró del país.¿Quién podría culparlo?. La gente es alegre, ingeniosa y atenta; sus ciudades son seguras, limpias, casi siempre se sitúan cerca del agua; la cerveza está fría y el sol brilla con frecuencia. La vida no puede ser mucho mejor que esto.