Sweet America

Born into slavery, Henrietta Wood was taken to Cincinnati and legally freed in 1848. In 1853, a Kentucky deputy sheriff named Zebulon Ward colluded with Wood's employer, abducted her, and sold her back into bondage. She remained enslaved throughout the Civil War, giving birth to a son in Mississippi and never forgetting who had put her in this position. By 1869, Wood had obtained her freedom for a second time and returned to Cincinnati, where she sued Ward for damages in 1870. Astonishingly, after eight years of litigation, Wood won her case: In 1878, a Federal jury awarded her $2,500.

On a moonless night in the summer of 1793 a crime was committed in the back room of a New York brothel—the kind of crime that even victims usually kept secret. Instead, seventeen-year-old seamstress Lanah Sawyer did what virtually no one in US history had done before: she charged a gentleman with rape. Her accusation sparked a raw courtroom drama and a relentless struggle for vindication that threatened both Lanah’s and her assailant’s lives.

More than any other sport, boxing has a history of being easy to rig. There are only two athletes and one or both may be induced to accept a bribe; if not the fighters, then the judges or referee might be swayed. In such inviting circumstances, the mob moved into boxing in the 1930s and profited by corrupting a sport ripe for exploitation. In Boxing and the Mob: The Notorious History of the Sweet Science, Jeffrey Sussman tells the story of the coercive and criminal underside of boxing, covering nearly the entire 20th century.

Violet Iverson and her young daughter, Ella, are piecing their lives together one year after the disappearance of her husband. As rumors swirl and questions about his loyalties surface, Violet believes Ella knows something. But Ella is stubbornly silent. Something - or someone - has scared her. And with the island overrun by troops training for a secret mission, tension and suspicion between neighbors is rising.

The Intersection of Peachtree Street, historically the residential and commercial street of Atlanta’s white elite, and Sweet Auburn Avenue, the spiritual main street of Atlanta’s community, mirrors the often separate but mutually dependent worlds of whites and blacks in this Southern city. In Where Peachtree Meets Sweet Auburn, Gary M. Pomerantz traces five generations of two families—the Allens, descended from slave owners, and the Dobbses, from slaves. These families produced the two most influential mayors of the modern South, Ivan Allen Jr., and Maynard Jackson Jr.

Using more than a thousand eyewitness records, Liberty Is Sweet is a “spirited account” (Gordon S. Wood, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Radicalism of the American Revolution) that explores countless connections between the Patriots of 1776 and other Americans whose passion for freedom often brought them into conflict with the Founding Fathers. “It is all one story,” prizewinning historian Woody Holton writes.

The settlement of North America was the beginning of a new era in human history. The oppressive laws, habits, and customs of the Old World no longer held such power over those who had made the treacherous journey across the Atlantic. No reigning monarch or dictatorial power ever stepped onto the ground of North America. Yet, despite this, the men and women of the 13 colonies of North America were still not free until they threw off the shackles of England's government and asserted their own rights.

In the aftermath of the Battle of Kings Mountain, can God’s grace and love overcome fear and prejudice? Left to care for her siblings at their mountain farm while her father is away fighting the British, Truth Bledsoe stumbles across a starving Tory hiding in a cave. When simple charity leads to friendship and the possibility of more, can she believe him when he says his political leanings have changed? Can she trust him? Can she trust her family to keep him secret? (This title was formerly published as part of A Pioneer Christmas Collection by Barbour Publishing. It has been revised and ...

For Amy Ettinger, ice cream is not just a delicious snack but a circumstance and a time of year - frozen forever in memory. As the youngest child and only girl, ice cream embodied unstructured summers, freedom from the tyranny of her classmates, and a comforting escape from her chaotic, demanding family. Now as an adult and journalist, her love of ice cream has led to a fascinating journey to understand ice cream's evolution and enduring power, complete with insight into the surprising history behind America's early obsession with ice cream.

Desiree Summer hates being the new girl in the small, close-knit town of Wishful Hollow, especially when she’s assigned to take on the town’s most eligible bachelor who’s turned speed dating into an art. She has a life ahead of her full of horses and places to go, but she also wants to please her recently widowed father. All bets are off when she meets Kyle Landon, the dreamy writer who collects the eerie and foreboding folktales in the hills and hollows. She follows him into the deep, dark woods, enchanted by his tales and haunted by old ruins whispering of lost love never found. ...

Could the drummer boy help those stranded in the worst winter storm of the 18th century? Young Scout is looking for gainful employment at the end of the American Revolution. Called Scout because of his great exploring and tracking skills, the regimental sergeant says he's too young; only good enough to be a drummer 'boy.' Will his fellows accept his help as they try to find their way to friends and family for Christmas during one of the worst winter storms in history? Or will pride be their demise? After all, why should they follow a young Cherokee half-breed? Part of THE FAIRIES SAGA ...

Why won't people leave him alone? There was nothing wrong with being a loner.An odd lot of insurance company employees and a self-employed massage therapist are tossed together on a mission to rescue exotic animals from a black market gambler who plans to sell the critters as supper ingredients. Can the wannabe saviors make the winter journey from Minnesota to Arizona without falling in love – Or killing each other? A bright stand-alone romantic comedy of love-at-first-sight, second chances with family, and attempts to get to third base.

Inspired by a true story, The Bravest Among Us is Hillbilly Elegy meets Casablanca, the story of three unlikely heroes who come together in a tragic love triangle to bring The American Dream to reality for impoverished children. Aria, a grieving widow and once a teen mother, rises from humble beginnings to become a warrior for social justice. But which man will join her daring journey, the ambitious actor bent on capturing her heart or the wrongfully convicted ex-con sworn to protect her? One will risk everything to help her find hope, while the other will forsake his happiness for the ...

Nothing exciting ever happens in Palmer. Except that one time the biker gang came to town, and they turned out to be a bunch of middle aged doctors and lawyers reliving their glory days. But Aunt Lorinda insists the man they saw beside the interstate is an escaped convict. It doesn’t help that someone really did escape from the penitentiary up the road. When a handsome stranger walks into town hours later, Sheriff Callen Steiner has a choice: believe the old woman who owns the diner, or believe the well-dressed stranger whose luxury car was stolen. Hayley Beasley can’t stand the way the...

In the late Fifties and Sixties, iconoclastic young rebels in Chicago opened two tiny theaters—The Compass and The Second City—where they satirized politics, religion, and sex. Developing scenes by improvising based on audience suggestions turned out to be a fine way to develop great actors, directors, and writers. Alumni went on to create such groundbreaking works as The Graduate, Groundhog Day, and Don't Look Up. Many of them also became stars on Saturday Night Live. Something Wonderful Right Away features the pioneers who founded the empire that transformed American comedy.

Allison: When I left for California, I gave myself a new name and never looked back. Now my carefully crafted good-girl image is getting torn to shreds in the press thanks to my Oscar-winning A-hole of an ex-boyfriend. So I escape to the only safe haven I know and trust - my hometown - to take a breather while I plot my triumphant Hollywood comeback. However, when I arrive at my parents’ house, Jackson Burke answers the door instead. And suddenly the past comes rushing back.... Jackson: First kiss. First time. First love. Allison Murphy and I shared a lot of firsts.

In Sweet Land of Liberty: A History of America in 11 Pies, food writer Rossi Anastopoulo cracks open our relationship to pie with wit and good humor. She traces the pies woven into our history, following the evolution of our country across centuries of innovation and change and examining how America’s relationship with this iconic dessert impacted culture across eras—and vice versa.

A book for young listeners, Mary Lou Retton: America's Sweetheart tells the inspirational life story of the most celebrated gymnast in United States history. Discover how a young girl from West Virginia achieved her dream of winning gymnastics' all-around title at the 1984 Olympics. Includes anecdotes from her personal life and career highlights.

When Waties Waring left his wife of 30 years for a "Yankee spitfire", he dropped a turd into the local teacup. Charleston (SC) society banished him forever. He, in turn, became the first federal judge in US history to rule that separate but equal is not equal, the hallmark of civil rights in America. Robert Wintner, the author's, tale begins at Judge Waties Waring's funeral, the day Arthur Covingdale, an up-and-coming attorney, must come to terms with his own vengeful role. This narrative is based on actual events, with the course of history accurately represented.

As the saying goes, truth is stranger than fiction. But the saying doesn't go far enough, because truth is much stranger (and more entertaining) than any of us could possibly imagine. And the proof is right here.For almost 20 years, Chuck Shepherd, John J. Kohut, and Roland Sweet have been combing the nation's newspapers for true stories of bizarre human behavior.