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My Dearest Friend: Letters of Abigail and John Adams
by Margaret A. Hogan C. James Taylor(from Forward: J. Ellis)My two favorite Sceanes of John and Abigail Adams come from their retirement years at Quincy. In the first John is out in the fields working alongside his hired hands, swinging the scythe as he murmurs curses under his breath against Tom Paine and Alexander Hamilton. Abigail is duly recording his murmurings, seconding his denunciations, noting that Thomas Jefferson should also be added to the rogues' gallery. In the second scene, Abigail has descended to the basement of the Quincy house to shell peas. John accompanies her, bringing along a copy of Descartes to read to her while she prepares dinner. It is the combination of pungency and intimacy embodied in these two Sceanes that gives the correspondence between John and Abigail such enduring significance, though a few other factors contribute to the ultimate impact. They happened to be living through the most tumultuous and consequential chapter in America's birth as a nation, when the core values were declared and the abiding institutions created. They happened to be centrally involved in these declarations and creations. They happened to preserve about 1,160 letters between them, recording their thoughts and feelings with uncommon candor. (Martha Washington destroyed all but three of the letters she and George exchanged.) And both of them happened to be, each in their own distinctive ways, prose stylists of equally uncommon felicity. If you want to understand how the American republic was improvised on the run, this is a seminal source. If you want to understand how a husband and wife can sustain their love over a lifetime of struggle and
The Crown of Valencia
by Catherine FriendEx-lovers can really mess up your life. Kate Vincent's ex, Anna, certainly does. Not only does Anna interfere in Kate's love life, but she totally screws up the world by travelling back in time to 11th century Spain and changing one crucial event. As any sane person knows, you cannot alter an event in history without altering everything that follows - but Anna has an agenda, and a score to settle. When Kate follows Anna back to the 11th century to clean up Anna's mess before she and those she loves cease to exist, she finds herself fighting not only Anna and her hired thugs, but also another woman - the woman Kate has never stopped loving.
The Mandrake Broom
by Jess WellsLesbian-themed novel set during the 15th century--"the burning times."
The Mortal Groove (Jane Lawless #15)
by Ellen HartMinneapolis restaurateur and amateur sleuth Jane Lawless is in the middle of ringing in the New Year the best way she knows how --with her family, friends, and some excellent champagne-- when the biggest financial backers in Minnesota politics break up the party with a little backroom proposition for her father: How'd he like to be the state's next governor? Flattered, Ray Lawless, a retired defense attorney, agrees to run, and the latecomer's sprint to the state capital is going great until reporters and opponents start digging up the kind of dirt that is more valuable than gold out on the campaign trail. He and his family are fair game, but worse than that, so are the men running his campaign. Their secrets, involving the mysterious death of a young woman, have been buried since the summer they all came home from Vietnam. Unfortunately for Jane and her father, those secrets won't stay that way for long. The Mortal Groove, the newest addition to Lambda and Minnesota Book Award-winning author Ellen Hart's multilayered Jane Lawless series, is a haunting tale of dark secrets that is sure to satisfy.
The South Beach Diet Taste of Summer Cookbook
by Arthur AgatstonFrom the book: What better way to maintain your South Beach Diet lifestyle than with a cookbook that celebrates the freshest, healthiest foods of summer? In this new addition to the South Beach Diet cookbook collection, leading cardiologist Dr. Arthur Agatston brings you 150 fast and flavorful recipes that capture the casual essence of Miami Beach and other warm climates around the world. Whichever phase of the diet you're on, you'll find ideas for breezy breakfasts; crisp salads and light summer sandwiches; innovative grilling ideas for meats, poultry, fish, and shellfish; tempting vegetarian entrees; refreshing desserts; and cooling summer drinks. But this is far more than a single-season cookbook. Grilling, whether done outdoors or in, is a year-round pastime, and many of the recipes in this book can easily be adapted to what's best in the garden or the market at any time of year. Among the delicious dishes included are Greet-the-Sun Breakfast Pizzas, Heirloom Tomato Gazpacho, Classic Lobster Rolls, Farmers' Market Pasta Salad, Mediterranean Chicken Burgers, Grilled Pork Tenderloin with Peach-Lime Salsa, Spicy Grilled Sweet Potato Fries, Chocolate-Cherry Truffles, South Beach Diet Tiramisu, Iced Pom-Mojito Spritzers--and plenty more. Other books by this author are available from bookshare.
The Spanish Pearl
by Catherine FriendWhen Kate Vincent and her partner travel to Spain, Kate is accidentally transported back in time ... way back in time ... to 1085. What does a woman like Kate do in a world of no antibiotics, no feminism, no Diet Coke? She denies it as long as possible, then sets her mind to getting home. Tricky with her now useless twenty-first century skills. Things don't go well. Kate is captured by a band of mercenary soldiers and becomes an unwitting pawn in the violent conflict between the Catholic kings and the Islamic Moors. In her struggle to stay alive and return to the future, Kate must flee exotic harems, filthy dungeons, and treacherous Moorish courts. But when a sword-brandishing woman with an astonishing secret sweeps into Kate's life, Kate is suddenly torn between two women, and between two centuries.
Alpha
by Catherine AsaroSequel to Sunrise Alley. The creator of a prescribed network of rogue androids has been destroyed, his multiple copies deleted - except for one. Alpha: a female android who seems to possess a conscience - so much so that her execution is delayed. Now, on the run, and with her former captor as hostage, Alpha moves to activate a long dormant master-plan.
American Speeches: Political Oratory from Abraham Lincoln to Bill Clinton
by Ted WidmerFrom the book: Public speeches have profoundly shaped American history and culture, transforming not only our politics but also our language and our sense of national identity. This volume collects the unabridged texts of 83 eloquent and dramatic speeches delivered by 45 American public figures between 1865 and 1997, beginning with Abraham Lincoln's last speech on Reconstruction and ending with Bill Clinton's heartfelt tribute to the Little Rock Nine. During this period American political oratory continued to evolve, as a more conversational style, influenced by the intimacy of radio and television, emerged alongside traditional forms of rhetoric. Included are speeches on Reconstruction by Thaddeus Stevens and African-American congressman Robert Brown Elliott, Frederick Douglass's brilliant oration on Abraham Lincoln, and Oliver Wendell Holmes's "touched with fire" Memorial Day Address. Speeches by Robert Ingersoll and William Jennings Bryan capture the fervor of 19th-century political conventions, while Theodore Roosevelt and Carl Schurz offer opposing views on imperialism. Ida B. Wells and Mary Church Terrell denounce the cruelty of lynching and the injustice of Jim Crow; Susan B. Anthony, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, and Carrie Chapman Catt advocate the enfranchisement of women; and Woodrow Wilson and Henry Cabot Lodge present conflicting visions of the League of Nations. Also included are wartime speeches by George Patton and Dwight Eisenhower; an address on the atomic bomb by J. Robert Oppenheimer; Richard Nixon's "Checkers Speech"; Malcolm X's "The Ballot or the Bullet"; Barry Goldwater's speech to the 1964 Republican convention; Mario Savio urging Berkeley students to stop "the machine"; Barbara Jordan defending the Constitution during Watergate; and an extensive selection of speeches by Franklin Roosevelt, Martin Luther King, John F. Kennedy, and Ronald Reagan. Ted Widmer, editor, is t
Everyone's Dead But Us
by Mark Richard ZubroTenth Tom and Scott mystery; on vacation the two men find themselves solving the murder of the owner of the resort they are staying in.
Grief
by Andrew Holleran"Reeling from the recent death of his invalid mother, an exhausted, lonely professor comes to our nation's capital to escape his previous life." "What he finds there - in his handsome, solitary landlord; in the city's somber mood and sepulchral architecture; and in the strange and impassioned letters and journals of Mary Todd Lincoln - shows him unexpected truths about America and loss. As he seeks to engage with the living world around him - a challenging student, the mother of a dead friend, even his landlord's neglected dog - he comes to realize that his relationship to his grief is very different than he had thought." "In Grief, Holleran summons voices from the past that eerily echo and speak to our own troubled times. It is a masterwork by one of America's singular voices, a writer who is beloved for his depth of feeling, his humor, the elegance of his prose, and his unflinching honesty."--BOOK JACKET.
Mockingbird: A Portrait of Harper Lee
by Charles J. ShieldsTo Kill a Mockingbird--the twentieth century's most widely read American novel--has sold thirty million copies and still sells a million yearly. Yet despite her book's perennial popularity, its creator, Harper Lee, has become a somewhat mysterious figure. Now, after years of research, Charles J. Shields brings to life the warmhearted, high-spirited, and occasionally hardheaded woman who gave us two of American literature's most unforgettable characters--Atticus Finch and his daughter, Scout. At the center of Shields's evocative, lively book is the story of Lee's struggle to create her famous novel, but her colorful life contains many highlights--her girlhood as a tomboy in overalls in tiny Monroeville, Alabama; the murder trial that made her beloved father's reputation and inspired her great work; her journey to Kansas as Truman Capote's ally and research assistant to help report the story ofIn Cold Blood. Mockingbird--unique, highly entertaining, filled with humor and heart--is a wide-ranging, idiosyncratic portrait of a writer, her dream, and the place and people whom she made immortal.
Night Vision (Jane Lawless #14)
by Ellen HartMinneapolis amateur sleuth Jane Lawless tackles a terrifying case of a film star's stalker who reemerges to taunt his victim after years of silence.
Outrageous
by Sheila Ortiz-TaylorMotorcycle-riding lesbian from L.A. comes to a small town in Florida to teach poetry. Sequel to Fault Lines and Southbound.
Self-Made Man: One Woman's Journey into Manhood and Back
by Norah VincentA journalist's observations on her time living as a man.
Slow Blind Drive
by Gwen O'TooleSlow Blind Drive is a conversation with the dead. A letter to an unlikely muse and a testament to the resilience of unconditional love. All at once haunting and horrific, erotic and endearing, this is the story of what it means to grow up a girl, to find solace in addiction, to have everything and give it away. It's a raw and sentimental account that follows a childhood friendship as it thrives and suffers through an intimate love, drug addiction, mental illness and betrayal. This is a story whose characters stay with you long after you've turned the last pages.
Spirit Car: A Journey to a Dakota Past
by Diane WilsonGrowing up in the 1950s in suburban Minneapolis, Diane Wilson had a family like everybody else’s. Her Swedish American father was a salesman at Sears and her mother drove her brothers to baseball practice and went to parent-teacher conferences. But in her thirties, Diane began to wonder why her mother didn’t speak of her past. So she traveled to South Dakota and Nebraska, searching out records of her relatives through six generations, hungering to know their stories. She began to write a haunting account of the lives of her Dakota Indian family, based on research, to recreate their oral history that was lost, or repressed, or simply set aside as gritty issues of survival demanded attention. Spirit Car is an exquisite counterpoint of memoir and carefully researched fiction, a remarkable narrative that ties modern Minnesotans to the trauma of the Dakota War. Wilson found her family’s love and humor--and she discovered just how deeply our identities are shaped by the forces of history.
The Teahouse Fire
by Ellis AveryA sweeping debut novel drawn from a history shrouded in secrets about two women--one American, one Japanese--whose fates become entwined in the rapidly changing world of late-nineteenth-century Japan. When nine-year-old Aurelia Bernard takes shelter in Kyoto's beautiful and mysterious Baishian teahouse after a fire one night in 1866, she is unaware of the building's purpose. She has just fled the only family she's ever known: after her French immigrant mother died of cholera in New York, her abusive missionary uncle brought her along on his assignment to Christianize Japan. She finds in Baishian a place that will open up entirely new worlds to her and bring her a new family. It is there that she discovers the woman who will come to define the next several decades of her life, Shin Yukako, daughter of Kyoto's most important tea master and one of the first women to openly practice the sacred ceremony known as the Way of Tea. For hundreds of years, Japan's warriors and well-off men would gather in tatami-floored structures-- teahouses--to participate in an event that was equal parts ritual dance and sacramental meal. Women were rarely welcome, and often expressly forbidden. But in the late nineteenth century, Japan opened its doors to the West for the first time, and the seeds of drastic changes that would shake all of Japanese society, even this most civilized of arts, were planted. Taking her for the abandoned daughter of a prostitute rather than a foreigner, the Shin family renames Aurelia "Urako" and adopts her as Yukako's attendant and surrogate younger sister. Yukako provides Aurelia with generosity, wisdom, and protection as she navigates a culture that is not accepting of outsiders. From her privileged position at Yukako's side, Aurelia aids in Yukako's crusade to preserve the tea ceremony as it starts to fall out of favor under pressure of intense Westernization. And Aurelia herself is embraced and rejected as modernizing Japan embraces and rejects an era of radical change. An utterly absorbing story told in an enchanting and unforgettable voice, The Teahouse Fire is a lively, provocative, and lushly detailed historical novel of epic scope and compulsive readability.
A Time to Cast Away (Helen Black Mysteries #10)
by Pat WelchFormer cop Helen Black returns home from prison only to find dull temp jobs. She meets Alice one night at a local bar. Shortly after their brief encounter, she stops by Alice's apartment, only to find the woman dead and herself on the hot seat.
At Day's Close: Night In Times Past
by A. Roger EkirchBringing light to the shadows of history through a "rich weave of citation and archival evidence" (Publishers Weekly), scholar A. Roger Ekirch illuminates the aspects of life most often overlooked by other historians--those that unfold at night. In this "triumph of social history" (Mail on Sunday), Ekirch's "enthralling anthropology" (Harper's) exposes the nightlife that spawned a distinct culture and a refuge from daily life. Fear of crime, of fire, and of the supernatural; the importance of moonlight; the increased incidence of sickness and death at night; evening gatherings to spin wool and stories; masqued balls; inns, taverns, and brothels; the strategies of thieves, assassins, and conspirators; the protective uses of incantations, meditations, and prayers; the nature of our predecessors' sleep and dreams--Ekirch reveals all these and more in his "monumental study" (The Nation) of sociocultural history, "maintaining throughout an infectious sense of wonder" (Booklist).
Becoming Justice Blackmun: Harry Blackmun's Supreme Court journey
by Linda GreenhouseFrom the book jacket: A PULITZER PRIZE-WINNING CORRESPONDENT WITH UNPRECEDENTED ACCESS TO THE INNER WORKINGS OF THE U.S. SUPREME COURT CHRONICLES THE PERSONAL TRANSFORMATION OF A LEGENDARY JUSTICE. From 1970 to 1994, justice Harry A. Blackmun (1908-1999 wrote numerous landmark Supreme Court decisions, including Roe v. Wade, and participated in the most contentious debates of his era-all behind closed doors. In Becoming Justice Blackmun, Linda Greenhouse of The New York Times draws back the curtain on America's most private branch of government and reveals the backstage story of the Supreme Court through the eyes and writings of this extraordinary justice. Greenhouse was the first print reporter to have access to Harry Blackmun's extensive archive and private and public papers, and from this trove she has crafted a compelling narrative of Blackmun's life and of his years on the Court, showing how he never lost sight of the human beings behind the legal cases and how he was not afraid to question his own views on such controversial issues as abortion, affirmative action, the death penalty, and sex discrimination. She shows us the Court as a human institution, where nine very smart and very opinionated lawyers seek to make decisions and bring others around to their point of view, especially during Blackmun's twenty-four years on the bench, as the justices repeatedly tussled with one another over the contentious cases-the Pentagon Papers, Roe v. Wade, the Nixon tapes, Bakke v. Regents of the University of California, Planned Parenthood v. Casey-that came their way. And most affectingly Justice Warren E. Burger withered in the crucible of life on the high court, revealing how political differences became personal, even for the country's most respected jurists. Becoming justice Blackmun, written by America's preeminent Supreme Court reporter, offers a rare and wonderfully vivid portrait of the nation's highest court, including insights into many of the current justices. It is a must-read for everyone who cares about the Court and its impact on our lives. LINDA GREENHOUSE has covered the Supreme Court for The Yew York Times since 1978 and won a Pulitzer Prize in 1998 for her coverage of the Court. She appears regularly on the PBS program Washington Week and lectures frequently on the Supreme Court at colleges and law schools.
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.