Urban California

Jewel is young and beautiful, and with several hustles under her belt, she's all about making money. This doesn't leave much time for friends, but she'll always make time for Touch, the local hustler. He's been her friend since grammar school, when they made a lifelong pact to look out for each other. Lucky for them, their promise has never been put to the test - until now.

Jewel used to be content with being a ride or die chick, playing Bonnie while the men in her life played Clyde. But now she realizes that it was her connections and street smarts that helped her man, Calico, rise to the top, and Jewel wants to be the one in control. She's tired of taking orders from men. She's willing to do anything to be queen of the streets, but when a deal she makes with the enemy comes back to haunt her, her dream is turned into a nightmare. Hopeless and struggling to keep her head above water, Jewel meets Misty, who seems to be her savior.

Jewel climbed up the heap to become queen of the streets, diva of all divas. But now that she's expecting a baby, she's concerned about just one thing - giving her child a good life, away from the guns, the drugs, and the lies. However, that also means a life away from the glitz and glam that Jewel still craves, and she's not quite ready to give it all up...not until she's back on top. Flat broke and miles away from her fugitive baby daddy, Jewel will have to put every bit of her street savvy, as well as her sharp business skills, into action to gain back her place and her power.

Eden Alvaro is a licensed Vulture, picking through the aftermath of violence in demon-plagued LA, and fencing her finds to help support her family. But when a crooked cop reports her for a salvage she didn’t take, all hell breaks loose. Stripped of her license, Eden finds herself with a price on her head. When the mercenaries hunting her raid her home, brutalize her family, and abduct one of her sisters, Eden turns to the enigmatic Bishop - a man with a reputation for violence who, for the right price, can find just about anything or anyone.

Imperial San Francisco is the epic saga of how all great cities parasitize their hinterlands for the sake of those elites who own and run them by using the mass media at their command to shape the thought of those who unwittingly serve their interests. Using San Francisco as an example of how cities employ remote control technology to exploit water, energy, natural resources, and labor from an expansive imperium, it takes the listener from ancient Rome to the University of California’s role in the creation of nuclear weaponry and its first use.

In a moving example of unconditional love in dif­ficult times, Gregory Boyle, the Jesuit priest and New York Times bestselling author of Tattoos on the Heart, shares what working with gang members in Los Angeles has taught him about faith, compassion, and the enduring power of kinship. In his...

"Look... If you can't pick, then we will pick for you." Margot Trask is on a collision course with destruction - her love life is in shambles but she just can't stop herself from going back to the man who rejected her. Her paintings aren't finding collectors, and the home she inherited is on the verge of foreclosure. But a chance turn of events lands her in the private jet of Declan and Jackson Burke. They're charming but insistent, and they demand that if she won't date just one of them, she'll have to take them both. Little does she realize, their attentions are just what she needed to ...

A look at Urban Legends from California, Colorado, and Connecticut. Some of these legends may be well known, but many of them are only known by locals. Inside are eyewitness accounts, directions to some of the locations and legends that are terrifying, shocking and unbelievable.

After 14 years as a stay-at-home mom, Kate Connor has finally rejoined the workforce. But unlike most working moms, Kate can't rearrange her home obligations to fit the needs of her job. Well, not easily, anyway. And not without a few little white lies. Because the truth is, no one in her family has any clue that she's returned to the job of her youth. Which means no late nights working beside her husband at the kitchen table while the kids watch television. Although, when you think about it, that's not necessarily a bad thing.

Los Angeles, Zombie Apocalypse! By James Bachman When the outbreak spreads to the City of Angels, chaos reigns. Los Angeles descends into a nightmare as wildfires blaze, the infected roam the streets, and survivors scramble to escape a city consumed by death. In a world where the rich hide behind gates and the poor are left to fend for themselves, the lines between life and death blur—and survival comes at an unimaginable cost. Fast-paced, gritty, and unrelenting, Los Angeles, Zombie Apocalypse! plunges readers into a city where every moment is a fight to stay alive. Perfect for fans of ...

Quando noi italiani pensiamo alla nazione che vorremmo diventare, cosa ci viene in mente? Probabilmente vorremmo avere un'economia in grande crescita e la piena occupazione: un paese in cui chiunque voglia lavorare possa farlo. Vorremmo avere le migliori università del pianeta e bellezze naturali adeguatamente valorizzate, prodotti culturali dall'influenza globale e la possibilità di definire «made in Italy» non solo un paio di scarpe ma anche un'app capace di costruire il futuro e un'idea che sappia cambiare il mondo.

PEN-Faulkner Award-winning author T. Coraghessan Boyle weaves together the stories of two families in Southern California: one affluent, the other destitute. As Boyle creates a counterpoint of personal needs, civic responsibility, and social custom, each family's quest for the American Dream fuels deep fear and anger that ultimately lead to a perilous confrontation.

When murder crashes his vacation, can a techie in paradise still catch some waves while snaring a killer? Marty Golden is ready to kick back at the beach. When his neighbor offers free rooms in Hawaii, the software engineer is quick to round up his girlfriend, sister, and nieces for the luau of a lifetime. But his arrival at the resort turns his sun-filled hopes into hunches about homicide after he encounters a very deceased and inconvenient body. Pressured into helping, a grudging Marty uses his sharp attention to detail to hone in on a crucial clue missed by the police. But his half-...

He’s determined to prove his friend innocent of homicide. He may make things worse… When Marty’s surfer-dude pal is arrested for murder, he must squeeze his amateur sleuthing into his packed schedule. With his high-tech job busier than ever and his nieces’ antics sidetracking him, Marty’s ready for a Thanksgiving holiday. All he has to do is solve two murders. But if he can’t even convince his sister to bake his favorite chocolate pie, how can he hope to save his friend? With the help of his girlfriend, some wacky coworkers and Buddy the rambunctious Labrador, Marty sets out to ...

Psychic spy John Herrel was once a healer. Now he’s a weapon. Captured, restrained, and experimented on by his own agency, John learns the horrifying truth: PSI has transformed his gift of healing into the power to kill with a single touch. Betrayed by his mentor Grant Simms and sold out to the ruthless Orlenda Kobach, John is slated to become the prototype for a new breed of psychic assassin. Even worse, Simms has ensured John’s team—Kylie, Noah, and Ayden—believe he’s turned traitor. Cut off from the woman he loves and haunted by visions of killing her with his deadly new gift, ...

In When Disaster Strikes Los Angeles, former EMT and CERT member Yoni Binstock turns a decade of emergency experience into a practical, city-specific guide to help Angelenos prepare before the shaking starts or the smoke rolls in. Inside, you’ll learn how to: • Prioritize LA’s real threats—from earthquakes and wildfires to flash floods and civil unrest. • Build a fast “grab-and-go” kit using supplies from your nearest Target, CVS, or corner mercado. • Prepare for power outages and water shutdowns in single-family homes and high-rise apartments. • Safely evacuate during ...

The tax demons want their pound of flesh. Or 52,000 dollars. Unable to pay what she owes, Eden is forced to fight a never-ending stream of bounty hunters while she tries to clear her name and find the cop who set her up. But demons are not known for their patience, and the new mercenary hired to bring Eden in dead or alive has magical abilities of his own - magical abilities oddly similar to Eden’s. Desperate, she turns to a friend for help, but Detective Juke demands a favor in return - help to find the demon or mage responsible for a killing spree.

The school secretary has a sharp tongue but is she a killer? Can Marty do the math or will he get schooled by a criminal mastermind? Marty Golden is frazzled. Struggling to juggle nieces, a rambunctious dog, a demanding job, and a serious relationship, the software engineer is never quite sure whether he’s coming or going. But when his nemesis begs for help after she’s accused of offing the school principal, the amateur sleuth agrees to hunt down the real culprit. Confounded to discover the cantankerous woman stood to take the dead man’s position, he strives to find anyone who could ...

Welcome to the City of Angels—where every dream has a shadow. Legends of Los Angeles peels back the glittering surface of Hollywood to reveal the ghosts beneath the spotlight. In forty haunting tales of fame, obsession, and ruin, Los Angeles becomes a city alive with secrets: a phantom director still filming his masterpiece, a cursed headshot that erases actors from reality, and a talk show that won’t stop broadcasting—no matter how many of its guests are dead. From Beverly Hills mansions humming with regret to the haunted neon of Sunset Boulevard, each story captures a different side...

America is obsessed with Los Angeles. And America has been thinking about Los Angeles all wrong, for decades, on repeat. Los Angeles is not just the place where the American dream hits the Pacific. (It has its own dreams.) Not just the vanishing point of America's western drive. (It has its own compass.) Functionally, aesthetically, mythologically, even technologically, an independent territory, defined less by distinct borders than by an aura of autonomy and a sense of unfurling destiny - this is the city-state of Los Angeles.