Chaos Theory suggests that the flapping of a butterfly's wings in China can produce a tornado on the other side of the world. If that is true, how could the effects of first love be any less devastating? "Chaos Theory As Applied to Love, Baseball, and the Rest of the Universe" examines life's most elemental forces: love, death, and, of course, baseball. Raised in a family of eccentric losers, George Seibenmann has only one ambition: to pitch for his high school baseball team. Ruth Hannon, on the other hand, is a young woman possessed of never-ending hope, grounded faith, and a deadly...

During the Great Depression, the common people - dispossessed of their farms, homes, and livelihoods - romanticized those who operated outside the system: Dillinger, Bonnie and Clyde, Pretty Boy Floyd. In "The Second Coming of Jesse James," these same common people hail Jack Carpenter - moonshiner, hell raiser, and third-rate bank robber - as a latter day Jesse James sent to deliver them from the scourge of banks and other "vested interests." When Jack tries to live up to his own myth, he sets out on a path leading to both tragedy and redemption.

All Adrianne wants is her father's attention. All her father wants is fame and riches. All the mayor wants is votes. And all the people want is jobs. All of them have their hopes pinned on The Big Squash, the 13-foot vegetable that sprouts almost overnight in Adrianne's garden. If the Guinness Book of Records officially declares The Big Squash to be "The Biggest Squash in the World," the publicity will draw a new fertilizer company to the town, which will brings jobs for the people, votes for the mayor, and fames and riches for Adrianne's father. Then maybe, just maybe, Adrianne will get her...

When Danny Dowd - a spoiled, upper-class white kid - is kicked out of college AGAIN, his father decides to teach him that not everyone is born with a silver spoon, not to mention a new BMW and stock options. Sentenced to spend the summer performing manual labor at a shipyard, Danny comes face to face with people from all walks of life, including Clement Buchman, a bluesmen who claims to be the bastard son of Jimi Hendrix. At summer's end, when Danny planned to begin the semester at a new college, he opts instead to continue working at the shipyards; eventually, he joins Clement's band, The...