Cassandra Khaw

Paperback (1 to 2 lbs)

Washington

From USA Today bestselling author Cassandra Khaw comes The Salt Grows Heavy, a razor-sharp and bewitching fairytale of discovering the darkness in the world, and the darkness within oneself.

"This brilliant novella is not to be missed." --Publishers Weekly, STARRED review

You may think you know how the fairytale goes: a mermaid comes to shore and weds the prince. But what the fables forget is that mermaids have teeth. And now, her daughters have devoured the kingdom and burned it to ashes.

On the run, the mermaid is joined by a mysterious plague doctor with a darkness of their own. Deep in the eerie, snow-crusted forest, the pair stumble upon a village of ageless children who thirst for blood, and the three "saints" who control them.

The mermaid and her doctor must embrace the cruelest parts of their true nature if they hope to survive.

The Salt Grows Heavy

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Daniel S. Pierce

Light Paperback (1 lb or less)

Moonshining in the Great Smoky Mountains

In the Great Smoky Mountains, moonshine making was a world unto itself. On the one hand, moonshining was about dynamite-totting lookouts, fast cars, snitching, quick cash, hidden stills, "revenuers," and deadly gunplay. On the other, it was a story of earnest farm families living in remote mountain valleys and practicing their traditional craft of moonshining so they could buy shoes for their children. Yet perhaps the most fascinating aspect of this book is the sudden resurgence of making moonshine in the Southern mountains today.

Join author and noted historian Dr. Daniel S. Pierce to learn about the traditions, foibles, and dangers of mountain "blockading" from the early 19th century to tomorrow.


Corn from a Jar

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Kelly Brenner

A City's Hidden Natural World

With wonder and a sense of humor,Nature Obscura author Kelly Brenner aims to help us rediscover our connection to the natural world that is just outside our front door--we just need to know where to look.

Through explorations of a rich and varied urban landscape, Brenner reveals the complex micro-habitats and surprising nature found in the middle of a city. In her hometown of Seattle, which has plowed down hills, cut through the land to connect fresh- and saltwater, and paved over much of the rest, she exposes a diverse range of strange and unknown creatures. From shore to wetland, forest to neighborhood park, and graveyard to backyard, Brenner uncovers how our land alterations have impactednature, for good and bad, through the wildlife and plants that live alongside us, often unseen. These stories meld together, in the same way our ecosystems, species, and human history are interconnected across the urban environment.

Nature Obscura

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William Miller

38 Women Pilots Who Died in WWII

There have been many books about the Women Airforce Service Pilots of WWII (WASP); however, hardly any about the 38 women who lost their lives while flying for the Army Air Corps. This book tells their story. When the war began, the men called these women "girls." They didn't believe this grand experiment could ever work-that the women of America-sisters and wives-could fly Army airplanes all over the country. Yet, these women were patriots and all they asked was a chance to do something that would help win the war. Of the 1,074 who flew as a WASP, 38 young women never came back-never had a future, and never heard their country say, "Thank you." Here, we remember them.

To Live and Die a WASP

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Jake Page

The Pueblo Indians and the First American War for Religious Freedom

The Pueblo Revolt of 1680 changed the course of history. It was the only war that American Indians ever won against the Europeans. In this new nonfiction account, Jake Page delves into the events leading up to the revolt, its aftermath, and the less well-known second revolt. In this new nonfiction account, Jake Page delves into the event leading up to the revolt, its aftermath, and the less well-known second revolt. Includes insights from Hopi oral history, and more fully explores the role of the Hopis in the revolt.

Uprising

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Jonathan Harr

A young Boston trial lawyer is drawn into a case involving two industrial chemical plants and a cluster of childhood leukemia victims that is to encompass nine difficult years and bring him to near bankruptcy. Reprint. 100,0000 first printing. Tour.

A Civil Action

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Yann Martel

Life of Pi

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Earl Swift

Hardcover (1 to 2 lbs)

A Year with the Watermen of Vanishing Tangier Island

THE NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER 



A brilliant, soulful, and timely portrait of a two-hundred-year-old crabbing community in the middle of the Chesapeake Bay as it faces extinction.

A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR: Washington Post, NPR, Outside, Smithsonian, Bloomberg, Science Friday, Christian Science Monitor, Chicago Review of Books, and Kirkus 

"BEAUTIFUL, HAUNTING AND TRUE." -- Hampton Sides *  "GORGEOUS. A TRULY REMARKABLE BOOK." -- Beth Macy * "GRIPPING. FANTASTIC." -- Outside * "CAPTIVATING." -- Washington Post * "POWERFUL." -- Bill McKibben * "VIVID. HARROWING AND MOVING." -- Science * "A MASTERFUL NARRATIVE." -- Christian Science Monitor * "THE BEST NONFICTION BOOK OF THE YEAR."  -- Stephen L. Carter/Bloomberg

Tangier Island, Virginia, is a community unique on the American landscape. Mapped by John Smith in 1608, settled during the American Revolution, the tiny sliver of mud is home to 470 hardy people who live an isolated and challenging existence, with one foot in the 21st century and another in times long passed. They are separated from their countrymen by the nation's largest estuary, and a twelve-mile boat trip across often tempestuous water--the same water that for generations has made Tangier's fleet of small fishing boats a chief source for the rightly prized Chesapeake Bay blue crab, and has lent the island its claim to fame as the softshell crab capital of the world.

Yet for all of its long history, and despite its tenacity, Tangier is disappearing. The very water that has long sustained it is erasing the island day by day, wave by wave. It has lost two-thirds of its land since 1850, and still its shoreline retreats by fifteen feet a year--meaning this storied place will likely succumb first among U.S. towns to the effects of climate change. Experts reckon that, barring heroic intervention by the federal government, islanders could be forced to abandon their home within twenty-five years. Meanwhile, the graves of their forebears are being sprung open by encroaching tides, and the conservative and deeply religious Tangiermen ponder the end times.   

Chesapeake Requiem is an intimate look at the island's past, present and tenuous future, by an acclaimed journalist who spent much of the past two years living among Tangier's people, crabbing and oystering with its watermen, and observing its long traditions and odd ways. What emerges is the poignant tale of a world that has, quite nearly, gone by--and a leading-edge report on the coming fate of countless coastal communities.

Chesapeake Requiem

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G. Edward Griffin

Heavy Paperback (2 to 4 lbs)

A Second Look at the Federal Reserve

G. Edward Griffin is to be commended for this splendid work. At first glance The Creature from Jekyll Island is a huge book. While this may be daunting to some, once the book is actually started, it flows smoothly and reads quickly. There are so many fascinating tidbits of information here that the reader won't even be concerned about the size of the book. The title refers to the formation of the Federal Reserve System, which occurred at a secret meeting at Jekyll Island, Georgia in 1910. It was at this meeting, as Griffin relates, that the "Money Trust", composed of the richest and most powerful bankers in the world, along with a U.S. Senator, wrote the proposal to launch the Federal Reserve System (which Griffin calls a banking cartel) to control the financial system so that the bankers will always come out on top.

The Creature from Jekyll Island

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Donald B. Kraybill

An Essential Guide from the Foremost Expert on Amish Life

From America’s most trusted expert on Amish life comes Simply Amish, an essential guide to Amish life, culture, and faith. Why do the Amish reject technology and education—or do they? Why do their young people choose to stay Amish when their beliefs and practices put them so at odds with modern society? How are they different from the Mennonites? When it comes to learning about the Amish, it can be hard to sort out fact from fiction. Donald Kraybill has lived among, studied, written about, and befriended the Amish for many years, and Amish people read his books to learn more about themselves. Through stories from his friendship with the Amish and studies from his forty-year career, Kraybill takes readers on a gentle journey among a people known for their simplicity, rootedness in church and family, and commitment to peaceful living. Get answers to your questions about Amish life. Discover why this 325-year-old group still flourishes in the midst of twenty-first-century life. Includes color photographs.

Simply Amish Tp

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Tricia Martineau Wagner

True, Sensational, and Little-Known Stories from History

Profiles ten African American cowboys from nineteenth-century history detailing their lives and achievements in the American West.

Black Cowboys of the Old West

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Sybil Kein

The History and Legacy of Louisiana's Free People of Color

Who are the Creoles? The answer is not clear-cut. Of European, African, or Caribbean mixed descent, they are a people of color and Francophone dialect native to south Louisiana; and though their history dates from the late 1600s, they have been sorely neglected in the literature. Creole is a project that both defines and celebrates this ethnic identity. In fifteen essays, writers intimately involved with their subject explore the vibrant yet understudied culture of the Creole people across time—their language, literature, religion, art, food, music, folklore, professions, customs, and social barriers.

Creole

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Judith Kelleher Schafer

Illegal Sex in Antebellum New Orleans

Winner of the 2009 Gulf South Historical Association Book Award When a priest suggested to one of the first governors of Louisiana that he banish all disreputable women to raise the colony's moral tone, the governor responded, "If I send away all the loose females, there will be no women left here at all." Primitive, mosquito infested, and disease ridden, early French colonial New Orleans offered few attractions to entice respectable women as residents. King Louis XIV of France solved the population problem in 1721 by emptying Paris's La Salpêtrière prison of many of its most notorious prostitutes and convicts and sending them to Louisiana. Many of these women continued to ply their trade in New Orleans. In Brothels, Depravity, and Abandoned Women, Judith Kelleher Schafer examines case histories from the First District Court of New Orleans and tells the engrossing story of prostitution in the city prior to the Civil War. Louisiana law did not criminalize the selling of sex until the Progressive Era, although the law forbade keeping a brothel. Police arrested individual public women on vague charges, for being "lewd and abandoned" or vagrants. The city's wealthy and influential landlords, some of whom made huge profits by renting their property as brothels, wanted their tenants back on the streets as soon as possible, and they often hired the best criminal attorneys to help release the women from jail. The courts, in turn, often treated these "public women" leniently, exacting small fines or sending them to the city's workhouse for a few months. As a result, prosecutors dropped almost all prostitution cases before trial. Relying on previously unexamined court records and newly available newspaper articles, Schafer ably details the brutal and often harrowing lives of the women and young girls who engaged in prostitution. Some watched as gangs of rowdy men smashed their furniture; some endured beatings by their customers or other public women enraged by fits of jealousy; others were murdered. Schafer discusses the sexual exploitation of children, sex across the color line, violence among and against public women, and the city's feeble attempts to suppress the trade. She also profiles several infamous New Orleans sex workers, including Delia Swift, alias Bridget Fury, a flaming redhead with a fondness for stabbing men, and Emily Eubanks and her daughter Elisabeth, free women of color known for assaulting white women. Although scholars have written much about prostitution in New Orleans' Storyville era, few historical studies on prostitution in antebellum New Orleans exist. Schafer's rich analysis fills this gap and offers insight into an intriguing period in the history of the "oldest profession" in the Crescent City.

Brothels, Depravity, and Abandoned Women

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Craig Howe

Lakota, Dakota, and Nakota Responses to the Lewis and Clark Expedition and Bicentennial

"Lakota, Dakota, and Nakota responses to the Lewis and Clark Expedition and bicentennial", subtitle appearing on front cover.

This Stretch of the River

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Laura Tohe

"On these pages, the Navajo code talkers speak, in English and Navajo, about past and present. Laura Tohe, daughter of a Code Talker, interviewed many of the remaining Code Talkers, some of whom have since passed on. The Navajo language helped win World War II, and it lives on in this book, as the veterans truly share from their hearts, providing not only more battlefield details, but also revealing how their war experiences affected themselves and the following generations. Their children and grandchildren also speak about what it means to them today. Beautiful portraits accompany their words."--Back cover.

Code Talker Stories

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Wendy Cole

Dora Dougherty Strother

An oral history of the Women Air Force Service Pilots (WASPs).

Women Pilots of World War II

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Volney Steele

A History of Medicine on the American Frontier

Describes the medicines and medical practices uses to treat a wide variety of illnesses and disorders on the American frontier.

Bleed, Blister, and Purge

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Steven M. Nolt

Third Edition

Authoritative, thorough, and interestingly written, A History of the Amish presents the deep and rich heritage of the Amish people with dozens of illustrations and updated statistics.

The Amish, one of America's most intriguingly private, unique, and often misunderstood religious communities, have survived for three hundred years! How has that happened?

While much has been written on the Amish, little has been revealed about their history. This book brings together in one volume a thorough history of the Amish people. From their beginnings in Europe through their settlement in North America, the Amish have struggled to maintain their beliefs and traditions in often hostile settings. Chapters include:

 * Migration and Persistence: The Amish in Europe, 1693-1801
 * Settlement and Struggle in a New World: The Amish in Eighteenth Century Pennsylvania
 * Merging Traditions: Amish Mennonites and Mennonites in North America and Europe, 1870-1937
 * Finding a Place in Modern America, 1900-1945
 * And more!


Now updated, the book gives an in-depth look at how the modern Amish church continues to grow and change. It covers recent developments in new Amish settlements, the community's conflict and negotiation with government, the Nickel Mines school shooting, and the media's constant fascination with this religious people, from reality TV shows to romance novels.

A History of the Amish

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Paul Bogard

Searching for Natural Darkness in an Age of Artificial Light

The "terrific ... moving, poetic, immersive, multifaceted, and thought-provoking" book (Publishers Weekly) that will open your eyes to the night. A brilliantly starry night is one of nature's most thrilling wonders. Yet in our world of nights as bright as day, most of us no longer experience true darkness. Eight out of ten Americans born today won't ever live where they can see the Milky Way. And exposure to artificial light at night has been cited as a factor in health concerns ranging from poor sleep to cancer. In his gorgeous debut, THE END OF NIGHT, Paul Bogard travels the globe to find the night, blending personal narrative, natural history, health, science, and folklore to shed light on darkness. Showing exactly what we've lost, what we have left, and what we might hope to regain, he attempts nothing less than a restoration of how we see the spectacularly primal, wildly dark night sky.

The End of Night

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Harriet A. Jacobs

This autobiographical account by a former slave is one of the few extant narratives written by a woman. Written and published in 1861, it delivers a powerful portrayal of the brutality of slave life. Jacobs speaks frankly of her master's abuse and her eventual escape, in a tale of dauntless spirit and faith.

Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl

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Theodora Kroeber

Karl Kroeber

Lewis Gannett

A Biography of the Last Wild Indian in North America

OVER ONE MILLION COPIES SOLD The life story of Ishi, the Yahi Indian, lone survivor of a doomed tribe, is unique in the annals of North American anthropology. For more than fifty years, Theodora Kroeber's biography has been sharing this tragic and absorbing drama with readers all over the world. Ishi stumbled into the twentieth century on the morning of August 29, 1911, when, desperate with hunger and with terror of the white murderers of his family, he was found in the corral of a slaughter house near Oroville, California. Finally identified as an Indian by an anthropologist, Ishi was brought to San Francisco by Professor T. T. Waterman and lived there the rest of his life under the care and protection of Alfred Kroeber and the staff of the University of California's Museum of Anthropology.

Ishi in Two Worlds

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Patrick Holladay

Amy Mitchell-Roberts

Professor Tyler E. Bagwell

The Golden Isles are home to a long and proud African American and Gullah Geechee heritage. Ibo Landing was the site of a mass suicide in protest of slavery, the slave ship Wanderer landed on Jekyll Island and, thanks to preservation efforts, the Historic Harrington School still stands on St. Simons Island. From the Selden Normal and Industrial Institute to the tabby cabins of Hamilton Plantation, authors Amy Roberts and Patrick Holladay explore the rich history of the region's islands and their people, including such local notables as Deaconess Alexander, Jim Brown, Neptune Small, Hazel Floyd and the Georgia Sea Island Singers.

Gullah Geechee Heritage in the Golden Isles

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Todd McLeish

The Story of the Animal That Evaded Extinction on the Pacific Coast

"Captivating. . . .  a full portrait of this adorable and ecologically important animal." --Publishers Weekly

A science journalist travels the Pacific Coast in search of sea otters in this entertaining and inspiring book on the importance and history of this charismatic endangered species

Sea otters--the adorable, furry marine mammals often seen floating on their backs holding hands--reveal the health of the coastal ecosystem along the Pacific Ocean. Once hunted for their prized fur in the 18th and 19th centuries, these animals nearly went extinct. Only now, nearly a century after hunting ceased, are populations showing stable growth in some places. Sea otters are a keystone species in coastal areas, feeding on sea urchins, clams, crab, and other crustaceans. When they are present, kelp beds are thick and healthy, providing homes for an array of sea life. When otters disappear, sea urchins take over, and the kelp disappears along with all the creatures that live in the beds. Now, thanks to their protected status, sea otters are making a comeback in California, Washington, and Alaska.
 
In this hopeful book, science writer Todd McLeish embarks on an epic journey along the Pacific Coast--traveling from California to Alaska--to track the status, health, habits, personality, and viability of sea otters, and reveals how conservationists brought them back from the brink of extinction.

Return of the Sea Otter

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Isabella Tree

Eric Schlosser

Returning Nature to Our Farm

An inspiring story about what happens when 3,500 acres of land, farmed for centuries, is left to return to the wild, and about the wilder, richer future a natural landscape can bring. For years Charlie Burrell and his wife, Isabella Tree, farmed Knepp Castle Estate and struggled to turn a profit. By 2000, with the farm facing bankruptcy, they decided to try something radical. They would restore Knepp’s 3,500 acres to the wild. Using herds of free-roaming animals to mimic the actions of the megafauna of the past, they hoped to bring nature back to their depleted land. But what would the neighbors say, in the manicured countryside of modern England where a blade of grass out of place is considered an affront? In the face of considerable opposition the couple persisted with their experiment and soon witnessed an extraordinary change. New life flooded into Knepp, now a breeding hotspot for rare and threatened species like turtle doves, peregrine falcons, and purple emperor butterflies. The fabled English nightingale sings again. At a time of looming environmental disaster, Wilding is an inspiring story of a farm, a couple, and a community transformed. Isabella Tree’s wonderful book brings together science, natural history, a fair bit of drama, and—ultimately—hope.

Wilding

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Nemo

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