Book picks similar to
8th Street Power & Light by Eric Shonkwiler
fiction
climate-fiction
contemporary
cuuntry-grit-lit
Nod
Adrian Barnes - 2012
Or almost no one. A few people, perhaps one in ten thousand, can still sleep, and they’ve all shared the same mysterious dream. A handful of silent children can still sleep as well, but what they’re dreaming remains a mystery. Global panic ensues. A medical fact: after six days of absolute sleep deprivation, psychosis sets in. After four weeks, the body dies. In the interim, a bizarre new world arises and swallows the old one whole. A world called Nod.
The Ancient
Muriel Gray - 2000
They don't think their incantation has worked; but that night a teenage drugrunner is gunned down across their makeshift altar. As his killers walk away, his body stirs. Not because it still contains a spark of life. But because something is stirring beneath it…Port Callao. The MV Lysicrates, a three-quarter-mile long supertanker, is being loaded with hundreds of tonnes of trash. Watching from the bridge, in a bleary state of hungover gloom, is second-in-command Matthew Cotton; more interesting is the arrival of a young American student who has missed the boat she should have been on.They should have paid more attention to the trash.
Dirtbags
Eryk Pruitt - 2014
But Calvin Cantrell doesn’t care for those jobs anyway. Instead, he dreams of becoming a famous serial killer. When sleazy restauranteur Tom London hires Calvin to kill his ex-wife, Calvin’s dreams begin. And so do Lake Castor’s nightmares.
A Tree Born Crooked
Steph Post - 2014
James is too late for Orville's funeral, but just in time to become ensnared in the deadly repercussions of his younger brother Rabbit's life of petty crime.When Rabbit is double crossed by his cousin in a robbery-turned-murder, James and a local bartender, the unsettling and alluring Marlena Bell, must come up with a plan to save Rabbit's skin. A whirlwind road trip across the desolate Florida panhandle ensues as James tries to stay one step ahead of the vengeful Alligator Mafia and keep his brother alive. With bullets in the air and the ghosts of heartache, betrayal and unspeakable rage haunting him at every turn, James must decide just how much he is willing to risk to protect his family and find a way home.
Completely Restored
Robert Kerr - 2009
Renovating it will allow them to indulge their passion for antiques and to get closer to an era they believe was a better time. Privately, Joe hopes that the project will also fill the void that has opened within their family life. They embark upon a grueling three-year renovation to restore the house to its former splendor, and everything seems perfect…until the morning Joe awakes to find a horse-drawn milk cart in his driveway and his family inexplicably transported back to the year 1909. Suddenly the Murphys’ dream for a simpler time becomes a shocking reality, one in which they will struggle to adapt to turn-of-the-century Iowa while seeking a way to return home. Completely Restored is a unique page-turner of a novel, filled with historical figures and events that help to teach a modern family about the simple joys of life.
Flypaper
C.K. Vile - 2015
Podunk USA should be far enough away, but for his most passionate fans, the end of the earth is still too close. Danielle, a fan who manages to find him, shows up and his writer's block vanishes. He's inspired. Dreams he didn't know he had are on the brink of coming true. He should know better. He's the teller of terror. There's no room in his life for fairytales.
Interstellar Caveman
Karl Beecher - 2019
Now, he’s being pursued by a homicidal interstellar tourist board, and calculating insurance dividends is as outdated as making stone axes. Sci-fi-hating technophobe Colin embarks on a desperate struggle to find a cure for his illness, as well as a place for himself in this strange new galaxy where toilets talk back, and door handles are a long-forgotten relic. Only by teaming up with his rescuer, hard-boiled, space-traveling archaeologist Tyresa Jak (that’s Doctor Jak to you), can Colin hope to succeed before time runs out. Along the way, this galactic odd-couple must evade the Erd Tourist Board - a powerful mega-corporation which will do anything to ensure the mythical Earth stays mythical - and deal with a crackpot religious cult who not only possess a cure for Colin’s illness, but who also believe there is more to this caveman from Earth than meets the eye.... Don't miss the start of this side-splitting intergalactic adventure that will keep you laughing into the night. It's perfect for fans of Guardians of the Galaxy, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, and Space Team. Also available on Audible, narrated by Steve West.
Extreme Makeover
Dan Wells - 2016
As more and more anomalies crop up in testing, Lyle realizes that the lotion's formula has somehow gone horribly wrong. It is actively overwriting the DNA of anyone who uses it, turning them into physical clones of someone else. Lyle wants to destroy the formula, but NewYew thinks it might be the greatest beauty product ever designed--and the world's governments think it's the greatest weapon.New York Times bestselling author Dan Wells brings us a gripping corporate satire about a health and beauty company that could destroy the world.
Clown Tear Junkies
Douglas Hackle - 2013
A deadbeat dad gains employment as a lady-in-waiting in a fairytale bromance where every character looks exactly like someone else from John Carpenter’s The Thing. The unknowing victim of a cruel prank, a simpleton spends his entire life waiting on a park bench for the hottest girl in school. Using only his twenty-sided die and good old-fashioned D&D magic, a man must continually resurrect the neighborhood kid regularly murdered on his own front lawn. An aging slaughterhouse worker and the iconic figure from Edvard Munch’s The Scream hit the clubs every weekend in a vain attempt to get laid.These and many more absurdities await in Clown Tear Junkies, the debut collection from Douglas Hackle.
All the Lies That Are My Life
Harlan Ellison - 1980
Introduction by Robert Silverberg. Afterwords by Norman Spinrad, Vonda N McIntyre, Robert Sheckley, Philip Jose Farmer, Thomas M Disch, and Edward Bryant.
El Secreto de Adan
Guillermo Ferrara - 2007
It is the year 2012 and humankind is about to learn its true origins. Adan and Alexia must hurry; according to Mayan Prophesy, the 21st of December of the year 2012 marks the end of our time - the possibility of Homo sapiens evolving to Homo Universalis. A passionate novel that unites the activation of DNA, the mystery of sexual alchemy, the Atlantis, Earth's ascent as forecasted by the 2010 Mayan Prophesy, covered-up conspiracies between the secret government and the Catholic church, and the discovery of the true origins of Adam and Eve.Everything you believe in will be put to the test. This thoroughly documented work offers a startling glimpse into 2012-facts, conspiracies, discoveries, clues, secret knowledge, scientific theory, prophesy, symbols, and spiritual and philosophical platforms.
Abyss
David Weddle - 2001
Amoral, shrouded in secrecy, answerable to no one, Section 31 is the mysterious covert operations division of Starfleet, a rogue shadow group committed to safeguarding the Federation at any cost. Mere days after the startling events of AVATAR, Dr. Julian Bashir faces his darkest nightmare when Section 31 compels him to undertake the mission to stop one of their own.But this renegade is no ordinary agent. Like Bashir, Dr. Ethan Locken is genetically enhanced, a human superior in body and mind. But Locken dreams of remaking the galaxy in his own image -- and creating a new human empire based on the example of the infamous Khan Noonien Singh. And as he begins to understand the terrifying truth about his opposite number, Bashir will learn more about himself than he ever wanted.
The Friar's Lantern
Greg Hickey - 2017
You will judge a man of murder.An eccentric scientist tells you he can read your mind and offers to prove it in a high-stakes wager. A respected college professor exacts impassioned, heat-of-the-moment revenge on his wife’s killer—a week after her death—and you’re on the jury. Take a Turing test with a twist, discover how your future choices might influence the past, and try your luck at Three Card Monte. And while you weigh chance, superstition, destiny, intuition and logic in making your decisions, ask yourself: are you responsible for your actions at all? Choose wisely—if you can.
The Debt Collector: Lirium. Season One
Susan Kaye Quinn - 2013
all while paying the price with black marks on their souls.Lirium plays the part of the grim reaper well, with his dark trenchcoat and jackboots—he's just in it for his cut, ten percent of the life energy he collects before he transfers it on to the high potentials, people who will make the world a better place with their work and their lives. That hit of life energy, a bottle of vodka, and a visit from one of Madam Anastazja's girls keep him alive, stable, and mostly sane... until he collects again. But when his recovery ritual is disrupted, he has to choose between doing an illegal hit for a girl whose story has more holes than his soul or facing the bottle alone—a dark pit he's not sure he'll be able to climb out of again."Absolutely riveting!""Quinn has a way of writing heart-breaking characters.""You'll be holding your breath, looking over your shoulder, and begging for more."Originally written as a serial, LIRIUM is Season One of the Debt Collector series and contains the complete story of Lirium. Each season is told from the perspective of a different debt collector.2015 Top SELF-ebook in Library Journal
The Nano Experiment
Richard Brawer - 2010
When her father is murdered, an innocent victim in a drive by shooting, her sheltered life spirals downward into gloom. Her once stay-at-home mother is forced to go to work cleaning offices at night. Instead of enjoying her carefree teenage years hanging with her friends, Eileen is relegated to babysitting her two younger sisters. One night she sneaks out on them. Trying to cook something, they die in a fire.Tormented and wanting to kill herself, Eileen runs away from home. Befriended by a drug dealer, she moves in with him. At twenty-one she is a single mother of two, falsely convicted of killing a state senator’s son. At thirty-two she is executed. Or is she?