Michael A Franco: 8 books

"Were you born stupid?" is a phrase I often heard my father ask me as the eldest of his seven children. This is a memoir of what now seems an enchanted childhood, written through a boy's eyes, set in the 1950's through 70's, growing up in Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA. It relates the trials...

Misty and Tyler were so bored!--until father brought them something left over from work. Guess what it was and what they made it into?

Did you ever wonder what lives in a pile of dust or in that sunbeam shining through your window with the swirling, shiny flecks? These little creatures, smaller than a pinhead, are walking, blind little living things that look like a walking stomach with a mouthpart. You’ll never guess what these tiny little beasts are always hungry for?

The horsehair worm is swallowed in larval form by an insect host. As the worm grows and matures inside the insect, the insect host seems to surrender its will to the horsehair worm.Three months after the horsehair worm parasitizes the insect, this host--almost zombie-like--is compelled to seek out...

This relative of the cricket has been called ‘Woh-tzi-Neh’ by native Americans, which translates as "skull insect" or “old, bald-headed man.” In Spanish, it was called " ñina de la tierra" or "child of the earth," because of its large, bald “baby face.” It ‘s also known by the names...

"This fascinating, massive, wide-ranging collection that editors Christopher K. Coffman and Daniel Lukes have gathered together into William T. Vollmann: A Critical Companion will soon be recognized as one of those rare critical books for which that egregiously overused term 'groundbreaking' is fully...

Scholars consider sound and its concepts, taking as their premise the idea that popular culture can be analyzed in an innovative way through sound. The wide-ranging texts in this book take as their premise the idea that sound is a subject through which popular culture can be analyzed in an...

How does citizen activism win changes in national policy? Which factors help to make myriad efforts by diverse actors add up to reform? What is needed to overcome setbacks, and to consolidate the smaller victories? These questions need answers. Aid agencies have invested heavily in supporting civil...