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Bell, Book & Dyke: New Exploits of Magical Lesbians
by Karin Kallmaker Julia Watts Barbara Johnson Therese SzymanskiLesbian Magic. The best-selling quartet that brought you Once Upon A Dyke unveils four deliciously different takes on magic in lesbian lives. Reluctant witches, tempting books, and beautiful bells – and belles – delve into the mysteries of love, lust and power. Sex Magic. Be Skyclad with Julia Watts. Do it By the Book with Therese Szymanski. Find enchantment with Barbara Johnson’s Lily and lose your reason with Karin Kallmaker’s Unbeliever. Woman Magic. Black cats, haunted houses, strange brews and dancing bonfires heat up the pages of this diverting quartet of erotic, imaginative tales. Curl up with a bell, a book and a dyke and let the magic be real.
Roller Coaster
by Karin KallmakerLaura Izmani is starting over. Wiping her feet of her family, her past and her bad habits, she's determined to create a new life and career in sleepy--and very private--Woodside, California. Wealthy and famous families need home-cooked meals just like everybody else, and with several introductions and certain job in her pocket she's determined to succeed as a private chef. Only two things matter to Helen Baynor--her children and her career, in that order. She divides her time between home and New York and pays handsomely to make sure there are no gaps in watchful care over her kids. It's not ideal, but as an aging stage actress, she can't afford to let any Broadway part slip through her fingers. Two very different reasons bring Laura and Helen to the Beach Boardwalk for a symbolic ride on The Cyclone, the biggest, baddest roller coaster on the west coast. The same day, the same hour, the same first car. . . for the ride of their lives. Karin Kallmaker is a three-time winner of the Lambda Literary Award for both novels and short stories, as well as numerous other accolades over her twenty-year devotion to lesbian romance.
Love by the Numbers
by Karin KallmakerAs a behavioral scientist, Professor Nicole Hathaway's work strips away the foolish mystique that surrounds the human mating dance. When her academic tome is treated as a viral love manual" her ecstatic publisher books her to appear all over the U. S. and Europe. Worse yet, her quiet, managed life has been shattered by a series of incompetent assistants. And she's certain this Lily Smith creature isn't going to be any less a burden than the last assistant they sent her. Or the one before that. Or before that. . . Lillian Linden-Smith needs this job. With a relentless TV lawyer and public mob still out for her blood for crimes committed by her American royalty" parents, getting out of the country is her only hope for anonymity. If that means cleaning up and presenting an antisocial know-it-all Ph. D. for bookstores, clubs and lectures, fine. Dr. Hathaway may have succeeded in driving away all the others, but not this time. From their first meeting the sparks fly, and each is thinking: She has no idea who she's dealing with. It's hate at first sight in this love adventure from the author of Above Temptation, Roller Coaster and dozens of other best-selling, award-winning novels.
Indomitable: The Life of Barbara Grier
by Joanne Passet"Whatever else will be said about her--and you can bet there will be plenty, because Barbara was no stranger to controversy--the one thing that is true above all else is that she was the most important person in lesbian publishing in the world. Without her boldness and her audacity, there might not be the robust lesbian publishing industry there is today. ” --Teresa DeCrescenzo Barbara Grier--feminist, activist, publisher, and archivist--was many things to different people. Perhaps most well known as one of the founders of Naiad Press, Barbara’s unapologetic drive to make sure that lesbians everywhere had access to books with stories that reflected their lives in positive ways was legendary. Barbara changed the lives of thousands of women in her lifetime. For the first time, historian Joanne Passet uncovers the controversial and often polarizing life of this firebrand editor and publisher with new and never before published letters, interviews, and other personal material from Grier’s own papers. Passet takes readers behind the scenes of The Ladder, offering a rare window onto the isolated and bereft lives lesbians experienced before the feminist movement and during the earliest days of gay political organizing. Through extensive letters between Grier and her friend novelist Jane Rule, Passet offers a virtual diary of this dramatic and repressive era. Passet also looks at Grier’s infamous "theft” of The Ladder’s mailing list, which in turn allowed her to launch and promote Naiad Press, the groundbreaking women’s publishing company she founded with partner Donna McBride in 1973. Naiad went on to become one of the leaders in gay and lesbian book publishing and for years helped sustain lesbian and feminist bookstores--and readers--across the country. JOANNE PASSET is Professor of History Emerita at Indiana University East. Her previous books include Sex Variant Woman: The Life of Jeannette Howard Foster, Sex Radicals and the Quest for Women's Equality, Cultural Crusaders: Women Librarians in the American West, and Aspirations and Mentoring in an Academic Environment (with Mary Niles Maack).
Chokehold: Policing Black Men
by Paul ButlerWith the eloquence of Ta-Nehisi Coates and the persuasive research of Michelle Alexander, a former federal prosecutor explains how the system really works, and how to disrupt it. Cops, politicians, and ordinary people are afraid of black men. The result is the Chokehold: laws and practices that treat every African American man like a thug. In this explosive new book, an African American former federal prosecutor shows that the system is working exactly the way it's supposed to. Black men are always under watch, and police violence is widespread - all with the support of judges and politicians. In his no-holds-barred style, Butler, whose scholarship has been featured on 60 Minutes, uses new data to demonstrate that white men commit the majority of violent crime in the United States. For example, a white woman is ten times more likely to be raped by a white male acquaintance than be the victim of a violent crime perpetrated by a black man. Butler also frankly discusses the problem
Crucible of Fire: Nineteenth-Century Urban Fires and the Making of the Modern Fire Service
by Bruce HenslerUrban conflagrations, such as the Great Chicago Fire of 1871 and the Great Boston Fire the following year, terrorized the citizens of nineteenth century American cities. However, urban rebirth in the aftermath of great fires offered a chance to shape the future. Ultimately residents and planners created sweeping changes in the methods of constructing buildings, planning city streets, engineering water distribution systems, underwriting fire insurance, and fire fighting itself. Crucible of Fire describes how the practical knowledge gained from fighting nineteenth-century fires gave form and function to modern fire protection efforts. Changes in materials and building design resulted directly from tragedies, such as fires in supposedly fireproof hotels. Thousands of buildings burned, millions of dollars were lost, the fire insurance industry faltered, and the nature of volunteerism changed radically before municipal authorities took the necessary actions. The great fires formed a crucible of learning for firefighters, engineers, architects, underwriters, and citizens. Veteran firefighter Bruce Hensler shows how the modern American fire service today is a direct result of the lessons of history and examines the efficacy of volunteerism in fighting fires. Crucible of Fire is an eye-opening look at today’s fire service and a thorough examination of what firefighters, civic leaders, and ordinary citizens can do to protect their homes and communities from the mistakes of the past. BRUCE HENSLER has thirty-four years of firefighting experience and degrees in fire science and public administration. His range of experience includes urban and suburban fire departments, as well as senior positions as a chief fire officer and deputy director of fire service training. A fire service and public policy analyst, he is also a paid-call fire officer for Rockport, Maine.
Lethal Affairs (Elite Operatives #1)
by Kim Baldwin Xenia AlexiouElite operative Domino is no stranger to peril and impossible situations. But her latest assignment to investigate journalist Hayley Ward will test more than her skills because this time she must decide between loyalty and love.
Thief of Always (Elite Operatives #2)
by Kim Baldwin Xenia AlexiouMishael Taylor, an Elite Operative top agent, is used to getting her way. When she's assigned to steal the priceless Blue Star Diamond from Dutch countess Kristine Marie van der Jagt, Mishael is caught off guard when the countess manages to steal her heart.
Death of a Dying Man (Micky Knight Mystery #5)
by J. M. RedmannFifth in the Mickey Knight mystery series based in New Orleans; lesbian detective.
Missing Lynx (Elite Operatives #3)
by Kim Baldwin Xenia AlexiouWhen a sadistic serial killer known as the Headhunter resurfaces, a government blunder forces the Elite Operatives Organization into action. Operation Mask falls to Lynx. She has the determination, skills, and most importantly, the right profile, but her youth and lack of experience in the field could put more than the mission in jeopardy. Her search takes her deep into the jungles of Asia, where she must battle not only the ruthless purveyors of the international skin trade, but also her growing feelings for a mysterious mercenary with her own agenda for the Headhunter.
Dying to Live (Elite Operatives #4)
by Kim Baldwin Xenia AlexiouBritish socialite Zoe Anderson-Howe's pampered life is abruptly shattered when she's taken hostage by FARC guerrillas while on a business trip to Bogota. While her father struggles to come up with the ransom, she must endure hardships that test her both mentally and physically. Elite Operative Fetch has been living in the Colombian jungle for six months on a mission to infiltrate the FARC and orchestrate the rescue of western hostages. When Zoe is added to her assignment, Fetch's sense of duty must override the disdain she initially feels for the self-indulgent tabloid queen. The task of freeing Zoe gains new urgency when it appears she may be the key to stopping a mysterious new virus that is racing across the globe, killing indiscriminately. The support Fetch counted on is needed elsewhere. Can she get Zoe out of there on her own, and will that be enough to save the millions of lives in peril? Fourth in the romantic intrigue series: Elite Operatives
Demons are Forever (Elite Operatives #5)
by Kim Baldwin Xenia AlexiouBehind closed doors, everyone suffers from some kind of demon. Veteran Elite Operative Landis "Chase" Coolidge's latest mission requires every bit of her considerable tracking skills because she has to locate a colleague kidnapped by a brilliant scientist responsible for the deaths of millions. Former op Phantom is along for the ride, desperate to find her missing lover. By day, Heather Snyder works in the New York fashion industry. But her secret life as a high-class call girl thrusts her into the middle of a global black market organ harvesting ring and draws the interest of the EOO. No stranger to the world of call girls, Chase revels in her latest assignment, until she discovers that Heather is the one woman who can change her roguish ways.
Ill Will (Micky Knight Mystery #7)
by J. M. RedmannFirst, do no harm. But as New Orleans PI Micky Knight discovers, not every health care provider follows that dictum. She stumbles into a tangle of the true believers to the criminally callous, who use the suffering of others for their twisted ends. In a city slowly rebuilding after Katrina, one of the most devastated areas is health care, and the gaps in service are wide enough for the snake oil salesmen--and the snakes themselves--to crawl through. First, her investigation is driven by anger, but then it becomes personal as someone very close to Micky uses her cancer diagnosis to go where Micky cannot, into the heart of the evil where only the ill are allowed. Micky is her only lifeline out. Can Micky save her in time to get to the medical treatment she desperately needs to survive? This is the seventh Micky Knight mystery.
The Gemini Deception (Elite Operatives #6)
by Kim Baldwin Xenia AlexiouAgent Harper "Shield" Kennedy's specialty within the Elite Operatives Organization is security, although she's long lost any gratification from babysitting most VIPs. However, her new assignment--to safeguard the U. S. president--will prove to be the biggest challenge of her career. Shield's mission to protect the first female chief executive is complicated by threats to her own life when she begins to question the president's orders. Loner Ryden Wagner is content with her life as a florist until she becomes a pawn in a political deception involving the highest office in the land. Trapped in a dangerous game where one false move could cost Ryden her life, she has to rely solely on the president's new bodyguard. As an attraction between the two women grows, so does the urgency for answers, but will the truth bring them together or tear them apart? Sixth in the romantic intrigue series: Elite Operatives
The Shoal of Time (Micky Knight Mystery #8)
by J. M. RedmannMichele "Micky" Knight, a New Orleans PI, meets an out-of-town team of investigators who are working a human trafficking case. They want someone local to show them around. It sounds easy, and a woman with smiling green eyes is asking. But it stays easy only if Micky stops asking questions-and she's never been good at that. What starts out as a tourist tour of the underside of New Orleans turns into a risky game of cat and mouse, and twists even further as Micky is caught between the good guys and the bad guys, each willing to do whatever it takes-including getting rid of an inconvenient PI-to achieve their ends. Who can she trust? And who's trying to kill her?
My Boys and Girls Are in There: The 1937 New London School Explosion
by Ron RozelleOn March 18, 1937, a spark ignited a vast pool of natural gas that had collected beneath the school building in New London, a tiny community in East Texas. The resulting explosion leveled the four-year-old structure and resulted in a death toll of more than three hundred—most of them children. To this day, it is the worst school disaster in the history of the United States. The tragedy and its aftermath were the first big stories covered by Walter Cronkite, then a young wire service reporter stationed in Dallas. He would later say that no war story he ever covered—during World War II or Vietnam—was as heart-wrenching. In the weeks following the tragedy, a factfinding committee sought to determine who was to blame. What soon became apparent was that the New London school district had, with almost all local businesses and residents, tapped into pipelines carrying unrefined gas from the plentiful oil fields of the area. It was technically illegal, but natural gas was in abundance in the “Oil Patch.” The jerry-rigged conduits leaked the odorless “green” gas that would destroy the school. A long-term effect of the disaster was the shared guilt experienced—for the rest of their lives—by most of the survivors. There is, perhaps, not a better example than Bill Thompson, who was in his fifth grade English class and “in the mood to flirt” with Billie Sue Hall, who was sitting two seats away. Thompson asked another girl to trade seats with him. She agreed—and was killed in the explosion, while Thompson and Hall both survived and lived long lives, never quite coming to terms with their good fortune. My Boys and Girls Are in There: The 1937 New London School Explosion is a meticulous, candid account by veteran educator and experienced author Ron Rozelle. Unfolding with the narrative pace of a novel, the story woven by Rozelle combines the anguished words of eyewitnesses with telling details from the historical and legal record. Released to coincide with the seventy- fifth anniversary of the New London School disaster, My Boys and Girls Are in There paints an intensely human portrait of this horrific event.
The Collinwood Tragedy: The Story of the Worst School Fire in American History
by James Jessen BadalMarch 4, 1908, was an ordinary morning in Collinwood, Ohio, a village about ten miles outside of Cleveland. Children at Lakeview Elementary School were at work on their lessons when fifth-grader Emma Neibert noticed wisps of smoke, a discovery that led to a panicked stampede inside the school--the chaos of nine teachers trying to control and then save pupils in overcrowded classrooms. Outside, desperate parents and would-be rescuers fought to save as many children as possible, while Collinwood's inadequate volunteer fire department--joined by members of the Cleveland fire department--fought a losing battle with the rapidly spreading blaze. While some inside jumped from the building to safety, most were trapped. Ultimately, 172 children, two teachers, and one rescue worker were killed, and the Collinwood community was irrevocably changed. The fire's staggering death toll shocked the entire country and resulted in impassioned official inquiries about the fire's cause, the building's structure, and overall safety considerations. Regionally, and eventually nationwide, changes were implemented in school structures and construction materials. The Collinwood Tragedy: The Story of the Worst School Fire in American History describes not only the events of that fateful day but also their lingering effects. James Jessen Badal's extensive research reveals how the citizens of Collinwood were desperate to find someone to blame for the tragedy. Rumor and suspicion splintered the grieving community. And yet they also rose to the challenge of healing: officials reached out to immigrant families unsure of their rights; city charities, churches, and relief agencies responded immediately with medical help, comfort for the bereaved, and financial support; and fundraising efforts to assist families totaled more than $50,000--more than $1 million in today's terms.
Killer Show: The Station Nightclub Fire, America's Deadliest Rock Concert
by John BarylickOn February 20, 2003, the deadliest rock concert in U.S. history took place at a roadhouse called The Station in West Warwick, Rhode Island. That night, in the few minutes it takes to play a hard-rock standard, the fate of many of the unsuspecting nightclub patrons was determined with awful certainty. The blaze was ignited when pyrotechnics set off by Great White, a 1980s heavy-metal band, lit flammable polyurethane “egg crate” foam sound insulation on the club’s walls. In less than 10 minutes, 96 people were dead and 200 more were injured, many catastrophically. The final death toll topped out, three months later, at the eerily unlikely round number of 100. The story of the fire, its causes, and its legal and human aftermath is one of lives put at risk by petty economic decisions―by a band, club owners, promoters, building inspectors, and product manufacturers. Any one of those decisions, made differently, might have averted the tragedy. Together, however, they reached a fatal critical mass. Killer Show is the first comprehensive exploration of the chain of events leading up to the fire, the conflagration itself, and the painstaking search for evidence to hold the guilty to account and obtain justice for the victims. Anyone who has entered an entertainment venue and wondered, “Could I get out of here in a hurry?” will identify with concertgoers at The Station. Fans of disaster nonfiction and forensic thrillers will find ample elements of both genres in Killer Show.
Gone at 3: The Untold Story of the Worst School Disaster in American History
by David M. Brown Michael WereschaginBased on scores of interviews and an intimate understanding of a community torn by tragedy, Gone at 3:17 is the definitive study of the 1937 New London school explosion. This engrossing narrative of sorrow and survival burrows deep inside one of the greatest disasters in American history.
Art on Fire
by Hilary SloinArt on Fire is the apparent biography of subversive painter Francesca deSilva, the founding foremother of "pseudorealism," who lived hard and died young. But in the tradition of Vladimir Nabokov's acclaimed novel Pale Fire, it's a fiction from start to finish. It opens with Francesca's early life. We learn about her childhood love, the chess genius Lisa Sinsong, as well as her rivalry with her brilliant sister Isabella, who publishes an acclaimed volume of poetry at the age of twelve. She compensates for the failings of her less than attentive parents by turning to her grandmother who is loyal and adoring until she learns Francesca is a lesbian, when she rejects her. Francesca flees to a ramshackle cabin in Wellfleet, Massachusetts, working weekends at the flea market. She breaks into the gloomy basement of a house, where she begins her life as a painter. Much to her confusion and even dismay, fame comes quickly. Interspersed with Francesca's narrative are thirteen critical "essays" on the paintings of Francesca deSilva by critics, academics, and psychologists-essays that are razor-sharp satires on art, lesbian life, and the academic world, puncturing pretentiousness with every paragraph. Art on Fire is a darkly comic, pitch-perfect, and fearless satire on the very art of biography itself. Art on Fire is the latest winner of the Bywater Prize for Fiction and was a finalist for the Heekin Foundation Award, the Dana Awards, and the Story Oaks Prize. It was mistakenly awarded the nonfiction prize in the Amherst Book and Plow Competition.
State of Grace
by Sandra MoranBirdie Holloway is a typical eleven-year-old growing up in a small, corn-fed Kansas town in the early 1980s--that is until her best friend, Grace, is brutally murdered. Suddenly, everything changes for Birdie, and everything she believes she knows about her insulated small town life is called into question. Obsessed in figuring out who killed her friend, Birdie spends years trying to find the murderer. Eventually, she connects with someone who is every bit as interested in the case as she is. Someone who knows how close she is to solving the murder. Someone who will kill again to keep her quiet. Sandra Moran authored the critically acclaimed novels Letters Never Sent, Nudge, The Addendum, and All We Lack. Final revisions on State of Grace, the first novel written, but the last to be published, were completed in September 2015. Less than a month later, she was diagnosed with Stage IV cancer. She passed away in early November. Bywater Books, in concert with her spouse, Cheryl Pletcher, has published the complete manuscript as it was written.
Harold and Maude
by Colin HigginsNineteen-year-old Harold Chasen is obsessed with death. He fakes suicides to shock his self-obsessed mother, drives a hearse, and attends funerals of complete strangers. Seventy-nine-year-old Maude Chardin, on the other hand, adores life. She liberates trees from city sidewalks and transplants them to the forest, paints smiles on the faces of church statues, and "borrows" cars to remind their owners that life is fleeting-- here today, gone tomorrow! A chance meeting between the two turns into a madcap, whirlwind romance, and Harold learns that life is worth living, and how to play the banjo. Harold and Maude started as Colin Higgins's master's thesis at UCLA film school before being made into the 1971 film directed by Hal Ashby. The quirky, dark comedy gained a loyal cult following, and in 1997 it was selected for inclusion on the National Film Registry at the Library of Congress. Higgins's novelization was released with the original film but has been out of print for more than thirty years. Fans who have seen the movie dozens of times will find this a valuable companion, as it gives fresh elements to watch for and answers many of the film's unresolved questions.
Let the Faggots Burn: The Upstairs Lounge Fire
by Johnny TownsendOn Gay Pride Day in 1973, someone set the entrance to a French Quarter gay bar on fire. In the terrible inferno that followed, thirty-two people lost their lives, including a third of the local congregation of the Metropolitan Community Church, their pastor burning to death halfway out a second-story window as he tried to claw his way to freedom. A mother who'd gone to the bar with her two gay sons died alongside them. A man who'd helped his friend escape first was found dead near the fire escape. Two children waited outside of a movie theater across town for a father and step-father who would never pick them up. During this era of rampant homophobia, several families refused to claim the bodies, and many churches refused to bury the dead. Author Johnny Townsend pored through old records and tracked down survivors of the fire and relatives and friends of those killed to compile this fascinating account of a forgotten moment in gay history.
Capable of Honor (Advise and Consent #3)
by Allen DruryFirst published in 1966. It is one of the most fundamental questions facing America today: How justifiably, or irresponsibly, do the volatile and unbiased American media—press, television and radio—attempt to interfere with, and control, the political process and the foreign policy of the nation? In a hotly fought Presidential primary, the news media fractures along ideological lines, supporting and distorting the candidates’ records, manipulating the news rather than covering it. Capable of Honor, the third novel in the grand, bestselling Advise and Consent saga, is a compelling blockbuster that shines a harsh and revealing spotlight on how the media shapes the news, guides public opinion, creates policy—and tries to shape history itself. FROM THE MASTER OF SPELLBINDING POLITICAL FICTION, AUTHOR OF ADVISE AND CONSENT.
Stepping Stone
by Karin KallmakerMotion picture producer Selena Ryan has the impossible: Fame and fortune and her integrity. Her reputation for playing fair in an industry rife with games has earned her respect from other producers, writers, and actors. She's learned the lesson that plenty of people would like to use her to get what they want--a starring role or some other way into the movies. Most of them feel no obligation to return any favors she might give. Burned badly by actress Jennifer Lamont, who used her and left her with a devastating aftermath, she's wary of everyone related to the industry. Surrounded by gatekeepers to keep the hopeful at bay, aspiring starlets have tried every trick in the book to make Selena's acquaintance. When Gail Welles literally lands in Selena's lap, she suspects another ploy. Jennifer's sudden announcement that Selena is still her one-and-only is equally ill-timed and suspect. Selena wants everyone to leave her alone, even if that means living without love. Lights, camera and action are the backdrop for this novel of taking chances by Golden Crown and Lambda Literary award-winning author Karin Kallmaker.