The poems, songs, and letters described and written in this work, the PoemsSongs and Letters volume by Vance, refer to people, places, or events either experienced by or known to the author. All accounts are true. Some, however, may be blessed with flavor and coloror flair, if you will. Those will be left to the individual readers interpretation or discretion. There has been no intent to mislead or wrongly inform during the assembling of this volume.

On a wet winter night in Paris, a boy is abandoned at the restaurant Troyon's. Without even having a name, the boy makes a new life for himself under the stern eye of the restaurant's owners, when through one of its guests he's introduced to the criminal underworld. Years later, the boy-now named Michael Lanyard, the Lone Wolf-is a seasoned jewel thief, learned in mathematics, mechanics, and the ways of elegant society. He finds himself on the run, and returns to Paris where he must choose...

The poems, songs, and letters described and written in this, the Awesome Oak volume by Vance, refer to people, places, or events either experienced by or known to the author. All accountings are true. Some, however, may be blessed with flavor and color, or flair, if you will. Those will be left to the individual readers interpretation or discretion. There has been no intent to mislead or wrongly inform during the assembling of this volume.

The book begins with religious pages then lead into normal, everyday poetry about patriotism, letters, work, love, and tears then ends with drinking and dying.The intent is to present a mix of easy-to-readand also not-easy-to-readpoems and songs that you may or may not want to read.

A New York Times BestsellerIn the spirit of Steve Jobs and Moneyball, Elon Musk is both an illuminating and authorized look at the extraordinary life of one of Silicon Valley’s most exciting, unpredictable, and ambitious entrepreneurs—a real-life Tony Stark—and a fascinating exploration of the renewal of American invention and its new “makers.”Elon Musk spotlights the technology and vision of Elon Musk, t...

Groundhog Day meets the worst super-spy, ever.Every time Rueben Peet dies, he "returns" to his body with the memories of what's to come. It seems that he gets to "repeat" his mistakes again and again.Good thing, too . . . Rueben is the worst super-spy ever.When New York City comes under threat of nuclear destruction, Rueben is the only one who can save the city. But even an infinite number of re-dos is not enough, for lurking in the background is a ...

Darien Mackey wasn’t looking for an adventure. For ten years, he’d been happy living in Brooklyn, working as a butcher in the same job, living in the same apartment, dating some “nothing-special” guys. Until one night his buddy Jacob talked him into taking ayahuasca, the soul-changing drug. And Darien had a vision…of a wolf, its all-too-human eyes on him, its paws on his chest, its enquiring mind in his own…Darien Mackey is changing. He’s more confident, more assertive, hungrier, h...

Five intergalactic criminal masterminds raid the tranquil world of Mount Pleasant, leaving behind only ruin and slaughter—and the orphaned child Kirth Gersen, who comes to manhood swearing to take bloody revenge. Now Gersen roams the galaxy, bringing vengeance to the Demon Princes one by one, in Jack Vance's classic series of hardboiled space opera.The fourth Demon Prince, Lens Larque, combines murderous criminality with a taste for horrific practical jokes. Escapi...

"The Tree ruled the horizons, shouldered aside the clouds, and wore thunder and lightning like a wreath of tinsels- it had come to be worshipped by the first marveling settlers on Kyril". Joe Smith arrives from Earth and soon is caught up in a political plot between opposing worlds. Ultimately he discovers the true, horrific nature of The Tree of Life...Cover art by Howard Kistler

VILLAIN OF MY HEARTA Small Town Enemies to Lovers Contemporary RomanceHe came to destroy the valley. She was the only thing standing in his way.Oliver Beckett was the villain of London’s high-finance world, cold, calculating, and ruthless. When he returns to the crumbling ruins of his family’s Vermont estate, his only goal is to sign the papers and leave the shadows of his past behind.But the Briar River has...

Enjoy the ride as Jack Vance takes you on an informal trip through his life. Starting with his memories of childhood in a privileged San Francisco family, Vance leads us through lean times, picking fruit during the Depression, pranks at Cal, experiences at sea during the War, his early writing, and life in California in general, before marrying Norma; then a hard-working adulthood distinguished by writing, travel, colorfully noisy parties, and through it all- a deep love of traditional jaz...

An exposé of "the systematic attempt of business to make us wasteful, debt-ridden, permanently discontented individuals," The Waste Makers is Vance Packard's pioneering 1960 work on how the rapid growth of disposable consumer goods was degrading the environmental, financial, and spiritual character of American society.The Waste Makers was the first book to probe the increasing commercialization of American life—the development of consumption for consumption's sake...