
Me & Agent E
By Patrick Hueller
Meet Paul Hoblin: first-time father, second-rate human. Paul has high expectations for his baby daughter and low expectations for himself. He needs her to be a super spy so she can save the world from any number of real-life threats, and so he doesn’t have to lift a finger to help. He wouldn’t mind getting a full night’s sleep every once in a while either.
Meet Agent E. She may be a baby, but she possesses the mental and physical dexterity of James Bond himself. Her mission: whip her lug of a father into shape by whatever means—high tech gizmos or dirty diapers—the situation requires. Did she choose to accept this mission? Negatory. The mission chose her.
The Ghost of the Wooden Squid
Random Acts of Poetry By Ryan Buynak
Ryan Buynak is a very good-looking young man who happens to be the future of American Poetry. He is a pop-culture casualty, and the voice of a generation. He returns in his third collection of modern prose, taking a trusty lighter to the poet stereotype and setting it on fire.
The Necessaries: Stories
By Misty Urban
What do you do when the thing you most need isn't what you thought?
The narrators of these thirteen wildly original and unforgettable stories all know what they want, and are surprised to find--in poignant and sometimes painful ways--that what they need is something else entirely.
Whether they are starting a romance or ending one, raising babies or rescuing a friend, writing an advice column and running a country, their worlds fall apart and then get rebuilt, in startling and tender ways, on the new discoveries rising from the rubble. Bold, sneaky, sometimes bewildered, and always jumping in feet first, these characters will steal your heart, turn it upside down, shake out all its contents, and give you back what you most need, polished, clear, and whole.
Hellbound Angel
By Nikki Avila
Hellbound Angel follows Leila, the anti-hero, and her gang of friends as they say goodbye to their home: demon infested San Jose, and attempt to traverse an apocalyptic version of California in hopes of reaching salvation in Caelo, Oregon. But where salvation from the physical is found, harm on the soul is too. The effects of running toward those who so easily discarded her as an infant causes Leila’s emotional state to swiftly deteriorate. Her human persona, the one she wears as a mask to hide the beast pacing inside, slips away more often. Rage – boiling in the depths of her, awaiting its chance to rise up and strike – slides to the forefront at the slightest irritation. These darker emotions play a fundamental part in the changing dynamics of the group’s relationships.
Half Dollar Rebel: Annals of Hard-Boiled Determination and Dogged Misanthropy
By James R. Parkinson
Unemployed, depressed, and ten thousand dollars in debt, one fed-up comedian moves from the Pacific Northwest to outer-borough New York City. His resume reads like the ingredient list on a pack of Marlboros, his video-game addiction is rivaled only by that of his cell phone, and he fires his therapist in favor of a ten-speed bicycle. He knows a life well-lived is one that costs some skin; through dating disasters, employment mishaps, tested friendships, financial upheaval, dieting backslides, Occupy protests, gay marriage disputes, and opening days of comic-book blockbusters, he may not exactly be on the verge of putting it all back together, but he’s well on his way to discovering the existential glue that will. This debut collection of narrative nonfiction essays from a noteworthy new talent is gritty and dark, yet quirky and eccentric, with pitch-perfect metaphors aplenty and a nearly Sisyphean humor derived from both inner and environmental struggle. Boasting a fresh, comedic-noir style, these are the trench-warfare tales of every tenacious, heartsick, alienated dude who just wants break through the irony-saturated din and find meaning on the other side.
Something's Missing
Written by Lauren Wood, Illustrated by Johnnie Cluney
In this adorably-illustrated, funny, and heartwarming book we meet one big happy family on the quest to uncover the one thing that would make their lives complete. While they try to uncover the missing piece, each family member makes a suggestion even sillier than the last. Parents and children alike will relate to this quirky tale. A perfect gift for expecting parents and the perfect way to help a soon-to-be older sibling welcome a younger one!
