The ash of Mt. Vesuvius preserves a living record of the complex and exhilarating society it instantly obliterated two thousand years ago. In this highly readable, lavishly illustrated book, Butterworth and Laurence marshall cutting-edge archaeological reconstructions and a vibrant historical tradition dating to Pliny and Tacitus; they present a richly textured portrait of a society not altogether unlike ours, composed of individuals ordinary and extraordinary who pursued commerce, politics, family and pleasure in the shadow of a killer volcano.  Deeply resonant in a world still at the mercy of natural disaster, Pompeii recreates life as experienced in the city, and those frantic, awful hours in AD 79 that wiped the bustling city from the face of the earth.

Trapped miners from cave-ins long ago still calling for help.Ghostly women lurking in the shadows of city streets.Spectral holy men and outlaws from America's Spanish past making appearances in our modern age. They are all citizens of Haunted America, and this is HAUNTED HOMELAND.From a haunted castle in the wilds of Alaska to phantom clergymen in the Southwest and mysterious bouncing lights on the East Coast, this latest volume covers the places, the people, and the things that belong to the earthbound realm of the fantastic. Michael Norman has gathered together spectral events of all kinds--apparitions of the famous like Mary Surratt, Mary Todd Lincoln, and Mad Anthony Wayne; haunted crime scenes in Chicago and along the Indiana byways; as well as banshees, poltergeists, and even a ghost named George who has become an accepted resident in a house in North Carolina.Some of these tales date back to America's early days, such as the screaming woman of Marblehead, Massachusetts, while others rise from more contemporary sources, like noted mystery writer Mary Robert Rhinehart's encounter with ghost at a house on Long Island.A ghostly Supreme Court Justice, a specter known as The Texan, an abandoned Canadian bride reminiscent of Dickens's Miss Haversham, and many others make an appearance in this latest chronicle of the Haunted American landscape.

Prom night finds high school student Lisa Marie juggling too many boys and her two girlfriends each hiding a secret.

It hurts to be beautiful. Pretty, blond, popular Cameron Beekman has it all -- lots of girlfriends, a hot boyfriend, and a successful family. She's perfection. Gone are her days as the outcast, huge-nosed "Beakface." Which, as it turns out, was nothing a good nose job couldn't fix. While her little sister, Allie, struggles with doubts about her own approaching "procedure," Cameron wants more. She's headed to UC "Santa Barbie" and needs to look the part. After all, why settle for smart and pretty when smart and drop-dead gorgeous is just a surgery away?