Urban City

This love letter to the cities of the world—from the airline pilot–author of Skyfaring—is "a journey around both the author's mind and the planet's great cities that leaves us energized, open to new experiences and ready to return more hopefully to our lives" (Alain de Botton, author of...

Michael thought he'd found the perfect woman. A companion whose own powers neutralize his werewolf curse, and bring the balance he has always wanted. But his plans on settling down, and giving up the vigilante lifestyle are fleeting. The neo-Nazi Proud Fighters for America have seeped their way across the continent, and have nefarious plans for the city that never sleeps. With Michael's powers nullified in Lex's presence, the couple is forced to divide - and Michael turns to his ex-girlfriend's knowledge of the occult, and an ally he thought was his enemy, to fight this rising evil.

A revenant searches for a way to atone for past sins, a college grad accepts a job with paranormal responsibilities, a man battles demons in his mind and in real life, and a private detective with a secret prowls 1930s-era Chicago on the hunt for a killer while a full moon rises. From the mind of best-selling author Kirk Dougal comes four short tales of dark urban fantasy filled with magic, the undead, and more than a little fur.

Jede Stadt hat eine Seele. Manche so alt wie die Mythen. Andere so jung und ungestüm wie Kinder. Und New York City? Hat gleich mehr als eine. Gerade erst erwacht und so unterschiedlich, wie das Leben in New York, müssen sich die Wächter der Stadt zusammenschließen, um sie vor dem Grauen zu schützen, das unter ihr lauert. Städte sind lebendig. Sagt man so. Doch das ist mehr als nur ein Sprichwort und wenn eine Stadt erwacht, sucht sie sich einen Avatar, der sie verkörpert. Doch im Fall von New York ist etwas schief gelaufen.

Jess and Hannah Ballard's determination to protect the Gateways brings them to Edinburgh's Old Town, where a strange phenomenon threatens to disturb the delicate balance between the worlds of the living and the dead. Spirits who wish to cross over are vanishing, and it is up to the Ballard sisters to discover why.

Die Stadt Tirgaslan versinkt im Verbrechen. Zwergensyndikate kontrollieren die von Neonlicht beleuchteten Gassen, Orkgangs treiben ihr Unwesen. Als Privatdetektiv hält sich der Kriegsveteran Corwyn Rash mit Mühe über Wasser. Doch als die betörende Nachtclub-Sängerin Kity Miotara sein heruntergekommenes Büro betritt, ändert sich alles. Von der Schönheit der Halborkin und der Aussicht auf eine satte Belohnung geblendet, beginnt Rash zu ermitteln - und muss feststellen, dass Kity nicht mit offenen Karten spielt.

Star Kyrell. Innocent. Pretty. Daughter of a kingpin. The kryptonite to Eddie Kane, an undercover operative for the FBI and Star’s personal bodyguard. Not only is Star plagued with the reputation of being the drug lord's princess, but she is also the ward to some pretty menacing and not so kind employees of her father.

City of Big Shoulders links key events in Chicago's development, from its marshy origins in the 1600's to today's robust metropolis. Robert G. Spinney presents Chicago in terms of the people whose lives made the city - from the tycoons and the politicians, to the hundreds of thousands of immigrants from all over the world. In this revised and updated second edition that brings Chicago's story into the 21st century, Spinney sweeps his historian's gaze across the colorful and dramatic panorama of the city's explosive past.

The gods are back, and they are tearing this world apart. Zeus, Dagon, Loki, Lugh and countless other deities have come back to this Earth and rule over their individual districts with no goal other than satiating their own petty desires. The sole remaining functional province, Hellenica, decides to act. The deities build the Academy and are about to recruit 16 young gods with the hopes of training them to police this world.

The rise of Texas cities is a fascinating story that has not been previously told. Yet it is essential for understanding both the state's history and its contemporary character.

Pete Axthelm follows the 1969 - 70 season of the New York Knicks and provides a parallel focus on basketball as it was then played in the black neighborhoods of New York City. Throughout, he writes clearly, intelligently, and passionately about the game, bringing alive the players’ efforts, accomplishments, and failures.

As human activity and environmental change come to be increasingly recognized as intertwined phenomena on a rapidly urbanizing planet, the field of urban ecology has risen to offer useful ways of thinking about coupled human and natural systems. On the forefront of this discipline is Marina Alberti, whose innovative work offers a conceptual framework for uncovering fundamental laws that govern the complexity and resilience of cities, which she sees as key to understanding and responding to planetary change and the evolution of Earth.

On a rainy night in New York City’s Hell’s Kitchen, a woman throws a doll from the fifth-floor window of a gutted tenement, then leaps herself. From his own apartment a few blocks away, freelance photographer David Corman listens to the radio reports as they come over his headset. Corman is a man at the edge, threatened with eviction, besieged by his wife’s attempt to regain custody of their daughter, yet reluctant to give up the life that permits him to roam the night. In the woman’s dying fall, he sees the chance to sell a story....

Burned-out after years of doing development work around the world, William Powers spent a season in a 12-foot-by-12-foot cabin off the grid in North Carolina, as recounted in his award-winning memoir Twelve by Twelve. Could he live a similarly minimalist life in the heart of New York City? To find out, Powers and his wife jettisoned 80 percent of their stuff, left their 2,000-square-foot Queens townhouse, and moved into a 350-square-foot "micro-apartment" in Greenwich Village.

The Iron City is a prison, a maze, an industrial blight. It is the result of a war that saw the goblins grind the fae beneath their collective boot heels. And tonight, it is also a city that churns with life.

Leo Hollis presents evidence that cities can deliver a better life and a better world in the future. From exploring what slime mold can tell us about traffic flow, to looking at how traditional civic power structures are being overturned by Twitter, to investigating how cities all over the world are tackling climate change, population growth, poverty, shifting work patterns and the maintenance of the fragile trust of their citizens, Cities Are Good for You offers a new perspective on the city.

Following a devastating betrayal, Beth Bradley, a sixteen-year-old graffiti artist, is suspended from school. Running from a home that she shares with her father who has never recovered after Beth's mother's death, Beth stumbles into the hidden city and meets Filius Viae, London's asphalt-hued crown prince. And her timing couldn't have been more perfect.

For Veronica “Roni” Ryder, the journey to becoming leader of the Parallel Society has been tough. She has fought people and monsters, experienced magic and mayhem, traveled the Earth and universes beyond. But one creature, one vile monstrosity, has been her most daunting rival–Yal-hara.

Why is it so much easier for the Democratic Party to win the national popular vote than to build and maintain a majority in Congress? Why can Democrats sweep statewide offices in places like Pennsylvania and Michigan yet fail to take control of the same states' legislatures? Many place exclusive blame on partisan gerrymandering and voter suppression. But as political scientist Jonathan A. Rodden demonstrates in Why Cities Lose, the left's electoral challenges have deeper roots in economic and political geography.

Michael Andrews and Gail Sommers have finally found the love that had eluded them for so long. But their romance has uncovered an ancient evil curse neither of them could have anticipated. It does more than bring down a plague on their houses - it unleashes something far more sinister that can destroy humanity. Now they must choose: battle the evil forces out to destroy them, or continue to meet in secret while the rest of the world burns.