Urban City

From the raucous heights of Occupy Wall Street to the comical lows of the publishing industry, from million-dollar art auctions to Bushwick drug dens, Kings County captures New York City at a moment of cultural reckoning. Grappling with the resonant issues and themes of our time - sex and violence, art and commerce, friendship and family - it is an epic coming-of-age tale about love, consequences, bravery, and fighting for one’s place in an ever-changing world.

What does it mean to be truly human? When an orphaned kit fox named Tom is transformed by a witch’s spell into a 12-year-old boy, he’s given a deadline of summer’s end to become fully human. Befriended by fellow orphan Nora, he spends the summer enjoying normal human activities, always fearing that he won’t discover how to become fully human in time, and unaware that soon he and Nora will be fighting for their lives....

Fortunetellers. Demotivational speakers. Disillusioned shapeshifters. You never know quite who—or what—you'll run into in Psychic City, but that's what makes life interesting for a PsyOps agent.

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.

Danny is a Polack with a heart of gold. He grew up in New City, home of what was once the world’s largest slaughterhouse, the Chicago Stockyards. After Danny’s wife’s infidelity, he stepped out of what the US calls the “white man's” world. Standing over six feet tall, with a chiseled body, he can fix anything from leaky pipes to broken hearts.

This exploration begins by tracing the concentration of IT in Greater Silicon Valley and the resulting growth in start-ups, jobs, and wealth. This is followed by a look at the new working class of color and the millions earning poverty wages. The middle chapters survey the urban scene, including the housing bubble and the newly exploded metropolis, and the final chapters take on the political questions raised by the environmental impact of the boom, the fantastical ideology of TechWorld, and the tech-led transformation of the region.

In the sweltering summer of 1977, the Bronx is burning—but not all fires are created equal. Ezra Levine, a bodega night clerk with a hidden talent for earth magic, prefers to keep his head down and his powers under wraps. But when an ancient golem crumbles before his eyes and an otherworldly inferno threatens to consume his beloved borough, Ezra is thrust into a shadowy world of supernatural politics and age-old conflicts.

Police Officer Nate Hammond led a well-ordered life in Coldwater Bay until a chance meeting with a girl from his past drags him into an extraordinary adventure. Libby Parish never intended to visit her hometown again. Is the strange obsession to return related to a mysterious comic book? Or someone she left behind? Sucked into an alternate comic book universe, Nate and Libby find themselves in Second Chance City, home of half-hearted superheroes and a villain with a grudge. Can they find a way home or will their second chance at happily ever after end in death?

All Sophia Fontanelle wanted was to be left alone. On the run from New Orleans and its vampire council, she heads to Los Angeles to start a new life. But when the Caballero, the ancient peacekeeper rumored to be the great Zorro himself, is murdered, Sophia finds herself caught up in a fight to clear her name. Threatened by a 1950s-era gangster turned vamp by the Caballero himself, can she survive in Vamp City?

Brink City. It’s the hellhole of America and has been ever since the magical world collided with our own. All the undesirables, those magical creatures and races who couldn’t fit into polite society, ended up there. Underground monster matches? Illegal enchantments? Monstrous ladies of the night? Potions that make you a god for a day? They can all be found in Brink City. And it’s my new playground.

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.

"Warum hast du mich hergeholt?" "Weil wir einen Helden brauchen, der uns rettet. Weil ich einen Helden brauche..." Ich bin Andrew. Mitte zwanzig, Computernerd und mit meiner Nickelbrille und dem hageren Body bestimmt kein Supermodel. Auch kein Superheld, aber für diesen Zweck habe ich ja meine virtuellen Spiel-Charaktere. Mein Leben war ein ruhiger, gemütlicher Trott – bis zu dem Tag, als ich in ein verrücktes Paralleluniversum geriet. Ich rate euch eins: Lauft nie einem weißen Hasen hinterher.

Two years ago, Cal Kinsey was an up-and-coming cop in the Aurora Police Department. But during a fateful nighttime stakeout in search of a prolific killer, Cal witnessed the darkest corner of his dreams come to life. A rogue vampire slaughtered his partner - to put it nicely - and introduced Cal to the supernatural world he never knew existed in the shadows.

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.

In Saving America's Cities, Lizabeth Cohen follows the career of Edward J. Logue, whose shifting approach to the urban crisis tracked the changing balance between government-funded public programs and private interests that would culminate in the neoliberal rush to privatize efforts to solve entrenched social problems. A Yale-trained lawyer, rival of Robert Moses, and sometime critic of Jane Jacobs, Logue saw renewing cities as an extension of the liberal New Deal.

When rumors surface that the Black Queen might still be alive and living in a haunted chasm beneath Zagreb’s Bear Mountain, it prompts the Star Council to dispatch star daimon Leo Solar to Earth to investigate. After witnessing a bizarre event at a local music gig, former philosophy student Dario Taubek begins to notice a strange-looking man in a star suit. Curious, he follows him and what he discovers catapults him into a world he never knew existed. A world of magical trams, myths and monsters, celestial beings, and the legendary Black Queen.

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.

In this erudite and enjoyable Los Angeles Times best seller, Joel Kotkin explores the history of cities around the globe. He argues that urban areas must be places where there is a shared feeling of sacredness, civic identity, and moral order. These exciting concentrations of ideas and energy have long been and should continue to be meaningful in our daily lives.