Under Desert Skies

"The book tells the story of how an upstart planetary laboratory in Tucson, the Lunar and Planetary Laboratory (LPL), would help create the field of planetary science, breaking free from traditional astronomical techniques to embrace a wide range of disciplines necessary to study planets"--Provided by publisher.

There comes a time in life when we find ourselves in the desert place of burning questions. Why? Why me? But even as we shake our fist heavenward, the heart whispers another question. Who? Who are you, God? It is a question of relationship, a question we all murmur in the hardest places. Against the backdrop of the Sonoran Desert, Lynne Hartke asks her own hard questions as cancer arrives like a thief with one goal: to take it all. Hair. The contents of a stomach. A marriage. A life. As her days become a blur of doctors' appointments, treatments, and surgeries, she wrestles with a tumble of tangled emotions, a shaken faith, and self-doubt. Cancer is now not only threatening her own life, but, in a surprising twist, the lives of both her parents as well. Through her raw, lyrical words, Hartke invites fellow sojourners to discover that in life's hardest places, they are not alone in their fear, they are not foolish to hope, and they are never forgotten by a loving, pursuing God. Never.

Did you know javelinas are nearly blind or that pack rats like to collect treasures and live in pee palaces? When you read The Stinky, Curious, and Disgusting, you'll find out all kinds of interesting and fun facts about the animals living in the Southwest. The Stinky, Curious, and Disgusting is the first in the Under the Desert Skies book series inspired by famed children's author and illustrator Eric Carle. Together, Ana Lewis and her sister-in-law Corinne Lewis create books with creative paper images that bring the magic and wonder of the desert Southwest to young readers. The Stinky, Curious, and Disgusting features fun stories about javelinas, western screech owls, and pack rats. The stories are based on the authors' true experiences and will bring laughter and joy while teaching simple lessons to children.

“It isn’t so impracticable as you think, Mr. William Webster,” said Polly O’Neill Burton from the depth of a big camp chair. It was a warm April afternoon and tea was being served out under the elms not far from the Webster house. Mollie Webster sat before a big wicker table covered with the Webster tea service and china over a hundred years old. Dan Webster, who was a big, dark-haired fellow with blue eyes and his mother’s sweet nature, was carrying about teacups. He was followed by Ralph Marshall, who was spending a spring vacation from college at the Webster farm, and was now making himself useful by serving the hot muffins and cakes. Billy Webster sat apart from the others reading, while Bettina and Polly were on either side of Mrs. Burton’s camp chair; and Mr. Webster stood upright, smiling down on its occupant. “When was there anything that Polly O’Neill wanted from her girlhood up that wasn’t practical according to her view?” he demanded. The Polly in the camp chair reached up and took hold of his hand. “Do sit down, William, I suppose I must call you by that bugbear of a name, since we have another Billy and are getting so hopelessly old. We shall have to find another name for Polly as well, now that we are going to be together for a long time.” And having persuaded her brother-in-law to sit down beside her, the older Polly pulled one of the younger’s curls, “Why not Peggy, ‘Peg o’ My Heart,’ after the charming play? But see here, William, I have persuaded my husband to come around to my way of thinking, and he is not an easy person to manage. “Although she won’t confess it, Mollie is half persuaded; and when I can lead you to the light, then I must see Betty and Anthony. But, seriously, why not? It will be a wonderful experience for the girls and one we shall never forget in this life and perhaps in another. I have to spend a year outdoors. For that length of time I am not to be allowed to act for a single night. Richard must, of course, go on with his engagements. Now I never am able to see my family or my friends when I am working and I regret it a great deal more than any of you realize. “Instead of being sent off somewhere with my maid to a horrid hotel, where I shall probably die of the blues and the lonesomes, as I did once years ago before Bobbin and Richard rescued me, why won’t all of you or some of you come and camp in the desert with me?” Polly’s cheeks were glowing with two bright spots of color and her eyes darkening as they always did in moments of excitement or pleading. She had forgotten the sofa pillows back of her, upon which she was supposed to recline, like an invalid, and had raised herself upright in her chair with one foot twisted up under her.