A Lost Arcadia

There are many books of many kinds and this volume properly classified would probably belong to the "sui generis," "sic trasit gloria mundi" variety. If the reader has grown a little rusty on classic Latin I do not mind saying to him further that the latter phrase has been sometimes translated, "My glorious old aunt has been sick ever since Monday," but I do not think that this revised version has been generally accepted as strictly orthodox. This book cannot be said to have been written without rhyme or reason for its pages hold more rhyme than poetry and three reasons at least, have conspired to give it literary existence. A hundred years and more from now it may be that some far descendant of the author, while fingering the musty shelves of some old library, may find some modest satisfaction in the thought that his ancient sire had "writ" a book.

This is the story of Hephzibah, GA, a community in Richmond County, south of Augusta. The author, Walter A. Clark was a Civil War Veteran who wrote this book about 1910. There are many books of many kinds and this volume properly classified would probably belong to the "sui generis," "sic trasit gloria mundi" variety. If the reader has grown a little rusty on classic Latin I do not mind saying to him further that the latter phrase has been sometimes translated, "My glorious old aunt has been sick ever since Monday," but I do not think that this revised version has been generally accepted as strictly orthodox. This book cannot be said to have been written without rhyme or reason for its pages hold more rhyme than poetry and three reasons at least, have conspired to give it literary existence. First, I have written it to please my friends, who hear personal kinship to its records. I Second, I have hoped to please myself by making some little contribution to a bank account. whose surplus has never been a burden. Third, a hundred years and more from now it may be that some far descendant of the author, while fingering the musty shelves of some old library, may find some modest satisfaction in the thought that his ancient sire had "writ" a book.

Thomas is an aquarium toad of unknown parentage. He doesn’t know his past and the prospects for his future are dim. While he’s read extensively about faraway lands, Thomas has never ventured beyond the glass walls of home. But when happenstance leaves a door open into a brave new world, Thomas hopes he’ll finally discover where he belongs. As the story unfolds, this humble but educated toad finds himself in the middle of a civil feud between rival frog clans and a lost kingdom yet to be restored. Thomas wrestles with the tension of being a toad of two worlds, and learns that pride can overtake anyone, and that even victory can defeat the victor. Frog of Arcadia is an enchanting moral epic filled with cowardice and chivalry, pride and majesty, boorishness and heroism. But a divine order holds it all together and, at last, we all reap what we sow.

Sean Gandert paints a startling dystopia that will resonate with fans of Station Eleven and A Visit from the Goon Squad. The America of 2037 is a country distracted by, infatuated with, and addicted to Arcadia. The brainchild of reclusive genius Juan Diego Reyes, Arcadia is a wickedly immersive, all-encompassing social-media platform and virtual-reality interface. Although Arcadia has made the Reyes family fabulously wealthy, it's left them--and the rest of the country--impoverished of that rare currency: intimacy. When Juan Diego mysteriously vanishes, the consequences shatter the lives of the entire Reyes clan. As matriarch Autumn struggles to hold the family together, siblings Gideon, Holly, and Devon wrestle with questions of purpose and meaning--seeking self-worth in a world where everything has been cheapened. Outside the artificial safety of Arcadia, America has crumbled into an unrecognizable nation where a fundamentalist ex-preacher occupies the Oval Office, megacorporations blithely exploit their full citizenship, and a twenty-foot-high Great Wall of Freedom plastered with lucrative advertising bestrides the US-Mexican border. In a polarized society now cripplingly hooked on manufactured highs, the Reyes family must overcome the seduction of simulation to find the kind of authentic human connection that offers salvation for all.