The Glass City

Winner of Prize Americana, Jen Knox's The Glass City and Other Stories employs weather as a mirror for the internal struggles of an indelible cast of characters. This shrewd yet playful collection of fabulist short fiction explores the dangers of extremes with subtle, elegant prose.

The story of Toledo glass—past, present, and future

Twenty-four-year-old newspaperman Ray Sargent is a hardened cynic in the ways of the world: he’s lost his parents and brothers, served in the Marines in France, survived the deadly flu pandemic of 1918, and written up everything from labor strikes to gambling dens. And he has a way with women—or so he supposes. But he’s never met a woman like Marian Newhouse, the beautiful, brilliant reporter with a mysterious past who shows up in Toledo, Ohio, just as the Midwest’s “glass city” is getting ready to host the biggest sports event in the world—a heavyweight championship fight between Jack Dempsey and Jess Willard. It’s a time when everything seems up for grabs in the United States, when a midsize manufacturing city becomes the locus of national attention, and when a man who thought he had life figured out finds himself surprised by the oldest surprise of all. As a suffocating heat wave descends and Toledo’s streets fill with out-of-town visitors, Ray befriends both boxers. On July 4, with the sun beating down on thousands in an open-air arena, a bell rings to settle the issue between Dempsey and Willard—but can Ray win Marian’s heart before she marries a man she barely knows?

"Includes a sneak peak at book four of the Mortal instruments, and a chapter from the new prequel series, the Infernal devices"--P. [4] of cover.

This irresistible little book offers a very different take on Vancouver, one of the world's most beautiful cities. Douglas Coupland applies his unique sensibility to everything from the Grouse Grind to glass towers, First Nations to feng shui, Kitsilano to Cantonese. Cleverly designed to mimic an underground Japanese magazine, this edition is fully updated and revised with riffs on Vancouver as a neon city, a land of treehuggers, and more.

When reclusive crime writer Daniel Quinn receives a mysterious call seeking a private detective in the middle of the night, he quickly and unwittingly becomes the protagonist in a thriller of his own. As the familiar territory of the noir detective genre gives way to something altogether more disturbing, Quinn becomes consumed by his mission, and begins to lose his grip on reality.

In 1967, Kathrine Switzer was the first woman to officially run what was then the all male Boston Marathon, infuriating one of the event's directors who attempted to violently eject her. In what would become an iconic sports image, Switzer escaped and finished the race. This was a watershed moment for the sport, as well as a significant event in women's history. Including updates from the 2008 Summer Olympics, the paperback edition of Marathon Woman details the life of an incredible, pioneering athlete, and the lasting effect she's had on women's sports. Switzer's energy and drive permeate the pages of this warm, witty memoir as she describes everything from the childhood events that inspired her to succeed to her big win in the 1974 New York City Marathon, and beyond.