Belinda Hurmence

Light Paperback (1 lb or less)

Iowa

Twenty-Seven Oral Histories of Former South Carolina Slaves

During the 1930s, the Federal Writers' Project undertook the task of locating former slaves and recording their oral histories. The more than ten thousand pages of interviews with over two thousand former slaves were filed in the Library of Congress, where they were known to scholars and historians but few others. From this storehouse of information, Belinda Hurmence has chosen twenty-seven narratives from the twelve hundred typewritten pages of interviews with 284 former South Carolina slaves. The result is a moving, eloquent, and often surprising firsthand account of the last years of slavery and first years of freedom. The former slaves describe the clothes they wore, the food they ate, the houses they lived in, the work they did, and the treatment they received. They give their impressions of Yankee soldiers, the Klan, their masters, and their newfound freedom.Belinda Hurmence was born in Oklahoma, raised in Texas, and educated at the University of Texas and ColumbiaUniversity. She has written several novels for young people, includingTough Tiffany (an ALA Notable Book),A Girl Called Boy (winner of the Parents' Choice Award), andThe Nightwalker. She has also editedMy Folks Don't Want Me to Talk About Slavery andWe Lived in a Little Cabin in the Yard, companion volumes to this book. She now lives in Raleigh, NC.

Before Freedom When I Just Can Remember

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Patrick Leigh Fermor

Jan Morris

Paperback (1 to 2 lbs)

Pennsylvania

On Foot to Constantinople: from the Hook of Holland to the Middle Danube

This beloved account about an intrepid young Englishman on the first leg of his walk from London to Constantinople is simply one of the best works of travel literature ever written. At the age of eighteen, Patrick Leigh Fermor set off from the heart of London on an epic journey—to walk to Constantinople. A Time of Gifts is the rich account of his adventures as far as Hungary, after which Between the Woods and the Water continues the story to the Iron Gates that divide the Carpathian and Balkan mountains. Acclaimed for its sweep and intelligence, Leigh Fermor’s book explores a remarkable moment in time. Hitler has just come to power but war is still ahead, as he walks through a Europe soon to be forever changed—through the Lowlands to Mitteleuropa, to Teutonic and Slav heartlands, through the baroque remains of the Holy Roman Empire; up the Rhine, and down to the Danube. At once a memoir of coming-of-age, an account of a journey, and a dazzling exposition of the English language, A Time of Gifts is also a portrait of a continent already showing ominous signs of the holocaust to come.

A Time of Gifts

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#american #history #1930s #introduction #culture #society 

New York

History

This book provides an insightful overview of the major cultural forms of 1930s America: literature and drama, music and radio, film and photography, art and design, and a chapter on the role of the federal government in the development of the arts. The intellectual context of 1930s American culture is a strong feature, whilst case studies of influential texts and practitioners of the decade - from War of the Worlds to The Grapes of Wrath and from Edward Hopper to the Rockefeller Centre - help to explain the cultural impulses of radicalism, nationalism and escapism that characterize the United States in the 1930s.Key Features:* 3 case studies per chapter featuring key texts, genres, writers and artists* Chronology of 1930s American Culture* Bibliographies for each chapter* 22 black and white illustrations

American Culture in The 1930s

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Jennifer Chiaverini

Florida

A Novel inspired by true events

One of BookBub's best historical novels of the year and Oprah magazine's buzziest books of the month. From the New York Times bestselling author of Mrs. Lincoln's Dressmaker, an enthralling historical saga that recreates the danger, romance, and sacrifice of an era and brings to life one courageous, passionate American--Mildred Fish Harnack--and her circle of women friends who waged a clandestine battle against Hitler in Nazi Berlin. After Wisconsin graduate student Mildred Fish marries brilliant German economist Arvid Harnack, she accompanies him to his German homeland, where a promising future awaits. In the thriving intellectual culture of 1930s Berlin, the newlyweds create a rich new life filled with love, friendships, and rewarding work--but the rise of a malevolent new political faction inexorably changes their fate. As Adolf Hitler and his Nazi Party wield violence and lies to seize power, Mildred, Arvid, and their friends resolve to resist. Mildred gathers intelligence for her American contacts, including Martha Dodd, the vivacious and very modern daughter of the US ambassador. Her German friends, aspiring author Greta Kuckoff and literature student Sara Weitz, risk their lives to collect information from journalists, military officers, and officials within the highest levels of the Nazi regime. For years, Mildred's network stealthily fights to bring down the Third Reich from within. But when Nazi radio operatives detect an errant Russian signal, the Harnack resistance cell is exposed, with fatal consequences. Inspired by actual events, Resistance Women is an enthralling, unforgettable story of ordinary people determined to resist the rise of evil, sacrificing their own lives and liberty to fight injustice and defend the oppressed.

Resistance Women

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Lily King

English anthropologist Andrew Banson has been alone in the field for several years, studying the Kiona river tribe in 1930s New Guinea. Haunted by the memory of his brothers' deaths and increasingly frustrated and isolated by his research, Bankson is on the verge of suicide. Then he encounters the famous and controversial American anthropologist Nell Stone and her wry and mercurial Australian husband, Fen, who have just fled the bloodthirsty Mumbanyo. Nell and Fen and, in spite of Nell's poor health, are hungry for a new discovery. When Bankson finds them a new tribe nearby, the artistic, female-dominated Tam, he ignites an intellectual and romantic firestorm between the three of them that burns out of anyone's control.

Euphoria

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Kentucky

Robert S. McElvaine

See pictures. Some underlining and highlight the first half of the book. Slight stain on the corner. No bends or tears

Virginia

America 1929-1941

One of the classic studies of the Great Depression, featuring a new introduction by the author with insights into the economic crises of 1929 and today. In the twenty-five years since its publication, critics and scholars have praised historian Robert McElvaine’s sweeping and authoritative history of the Great Depression as one of the best and most readable studies of the era. Combining clear-eyed insight into the machinations of politicians and economists who struggled to revive the battered economy, personal stories from the average people who were hardest hit by an economic crisis beyond their control, and an evocative depiction of the popular culture of the decade, McElvaine paints an epic picture of an America brought to its knees—but also brought together by people’s widely shared plight. In a new introduction, McElvaine draws striking parallels between the roots of the Great Depression and the economic meltdown that followed in the wake of the credit crisis of 2008. He also examines the resurgence of anti-regulation free market ideology, beginning in the Reagan era, and argues that some economists and politicians revised history and ignored the lessons of the Depression era.

The Great Depression

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Lisa See

#paperback #fiction #lisasee #1930s #historicalfiction #historical 

Massachusetts

A Novel

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • “A fascinating portrait of life as a Chinese American woman in the 1930s and ’40s.”—The New York Times Book Review “Superb . . . This emotional, informative and brilliant page-turner resonates with resilience and humanity.”—The Washington Post (One of the Best Books of the Year) San Francisco, 1938: A world’s fair is preparing to open on Treasure Island, a war is brewing overseas, and the city is alive with possibilities. Talented Grace, traditional Helen, and defiant Ruby, three young women from very different backgrounds, meet by chance at the exclusive and glamorous Forbidden City nightclub. The girls become fast friends, relying on one another through unexpected challenges and shifting fortunes. When their dark secrets are exposed and the invisible thread of fate binds them even tighter, they find the strength and resilience to reach for their dreams. But after the Japanese attack Pearl Harbor, paranoia and suspicion threaten to destroy their lives, and a shocking act of betrayal changes everything. Praise for China Dolls “A sweeping, turbulent tale of passion, friendship, good fortune, bad fortune, perfidy and the hope of reconciliation.”—Los Angeles Times “Bravo! Here’s a roaring standing ovation for this heartwarming journey into the glittering golden age of Chinese nightclubs.”—Jamie Ford, author of Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet “Lisa See masterfully creates unforgettable characters that linger in your memory long after you close the pages.”—Bookreporter “Stellar . . . The depth of See’s characters and her winning prose make this book a wonderful journey through love and loss.”—Publishers Weekly (starred review)

China Dolls

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Cheryl Honigford

Arkansas

It's October 1938, and radio is king. Vivian Witchell is determined to be a star, and with her new role in the popular detective serial The Darkness Knows, everything she's dreamed of is finally within her grasp. Until the night she steps into the employee lounge and stumbles upon the body of the station's most renowned-and most reviled-actress. Clutched in the dead woman's hand is a threatening letter indicating that Vivian could be the next victim. Suddenly, Vivian's biggest worry isn't remembering her lines-it's staying alive.

The Darkness Knows

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#paperback #penguinclassics #anthology #1930s #thirties #auden #macneice #betjeman #thomas #spencer

Auden, Day, Lewis, Spender, MacNeice and the other key poets of the Thirties were children of the First World War, obsessed by war and by communalism, by the class-struggle and a passionate belief in poets as people whose actions are as publically important as their poems.For them, the Spanish Civil War epitomized the mood of the times, as their symbolic obsessions were transmuted into tragic reality. But from within their strongly defined unity of ideals, an astonishingly varied body of poetry emerged.

Robin Skelton has arranged the poetry to make an illuminating 'critical essay' of the period, and in his introduction he brilliantly probes the moods and mores of an intensely troubled and creative decade.

Modern Classics Poetry of the Thirties

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One page has rust markings from a metal bookmark 

Louisiana

Hardcover (1 to 2 lbs)

Washington

London, 1939. The day war is declared, Mary North goes to the War Office, signs up-- and is assigned to be a teacher to a class evacuated to the countryside. Tom Shaw ignores the war until his roommate Alistair Heath has enlisted. The three meet, and become tested in ways they could not have imagined, entangling their lives in violence and passion, shaping their hopes and dreams.

Everyone Brave Is Forgiven

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Robert Weintraub

A Life of Tennis, Fame, and Mystery

“In Robert Weintraub’s exhaustive biography, The Divine Miss Marble, he transports the reader into Marble’s vibrant world. It’s a dreamy, indomitable life worth reading about as today’s tennis tries to return to form.”—The Washington Post “An intriguing book about a fascinating woman . . . Highly recommended.”—Library Journal (starred review) “Delightful and engrossing, this is a must for tennis fans.”—Publishers Weekly The story of 1930s tennis icon Alice Marble, and her life of sports, celebrity, and incredible mystery Who was Alice Marble? In her public life, she was the biggest tennis star of the pre-war era, a household name like Joe DiMaggio and Joe Louis. She was famous for overcoming serious illness to win the biggest tournaments, including Wimbledon. She was also a fashion designer and trendsetter, a contributor to a pioneering new comic called Wonder Woman—and friend to the biggest names in Hollywood and society, like Carole Lombard and Clark Gable, William Randolph Hearst and Marion Davies, and members of families named Bloomingdale, Loew, and du Pont. She helped integrate tennis with her support of Althea Gibson, and even coached two young women who became stars in their own right: Billie Jean King and Sally Ride. Yet her private life provoked constant speculation while she was alive, and her own memoirs added layers of legend upon stories. According to Alice, she married a man who was killed in the skies over Europe during World War II. But who was the man she loved, and had he even existed? She was widely known for her patriotism during World War II. Had she really nearly given her life for her country as a spy, shot during a wild car chase fleeing foreign espionage agents? In The Divine Miss Marble, bestselling author Robert Weintraub traveled the country to uncover her fascinating story. And the more he learned about her, the more her mysteries and contradictions deepened. Alice was a powerful woman who knew her worth, demanding equal pay to men decades earlier than other female athletes; yet she was held in sway by a domineering, highly successful coach with whom she had a volatile relationship. She was renowned for her California style, and had a brilliant mind and the guts to overcome a lifetime of physical trauma. For the first time here, we come closer than ever before to the truths of this unforgettable life, and somehow it’s a story even more extraordinary than everything we already know about the divine Alice Marble.

The Divine Miss Marble

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Matt Phelan

Tall tale. Thriller. Gripping historical fiction. This artful, sparely told graphic novel — a tale of a boy in Dust Bowl America — will resonate with young readers today. In Kansas in the year 1937, eleven-year-old Jack Clark faces his share of ordinary challenges: local bullies, his father’s failed expectations, a little sister with an eye for trouble. But he also has to deal with the effects of the Dust Bowl, including rising tensions in his small town and the spread of a shadowy illness. Certainly a case of "dust dementia" would explain who (or what) Jack has glimpsed in the Talbot’s abandoned barn — a sinister figure with a face like rain. In a land where it never rains, it’s hard to trust what you see with your own eyes — and harder still to take heart and be a hero when the time comes. With phenomenal pacing, sensitivity, and a sure command of suspense, Matt Phelan ushers us into a world where desperation is transformed by unexpected courage.

The Storm in the Barn

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California

Margery Allingham

Small crease lower front cover. Ask me about saving on bundles!

Minnesota

An Albert Campion Mystery #11

Among the beautiful people, George Well's suicide was last year's gossip. But Albert Campion refused to close the books on the case and soon finds himself in a deadly game of cat and mouse. A maze of adultery, blackmail and espionage leads to a series of bizarre murders in the world of the wealthy.

The Fashion in Shrouds #11

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Yangsze Choo

The Reese Witherspoon x Hello Sunshine Book Club Pick
INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER

"A sumptuous garden maze of a novel that immerses readers in a complex, vanished world." --Kirkus (starred review)

An utterly transporting novel set in 1930s colonial Malaysia, perfect for fans of Isabel Allende and Min Jin Lee

Quick-witted, ambitious Ji Lin is stuck as an apprentice dressmaker, moonlighting as a dancehall girl to help pay off her mother's Mahjong debts. But when one of her dance partners accidentally leaves behind a gruesome souvenir, Ji Lin may finally get the adventure she has been longing for.

Eleven-year-old houseboy Ren is also on a mission, racing to fulfill his former master's dying wish: that Ren find the man's finger, lost years ago in an accident, and bury it with his body. Ren has 49 days to do so, or his master's soul will wander the earth forever.

As the days tick relentlessly by, a series of unexplained deaths racks the district, along with whispers of men who turn into tigers. Ji Lin and Ren's increasingly dangerous paths crisscross through lush plantations, hospital storage rooms, and ghostly dreamscapes.

Yangsze Choo's The Night Tiger pulls us into a world of servants and masters, age-old superstition and modern idealism, sibling rivalry and forbidden love. But anchoring this dazzling, propulsive novel is the intimate coming-of-age of a child and a young woman, each searching for their place in a society that would rather they stay invisible.

"A work of incredible beauty... Astoundingly captivating and striking... A transcendent story of courage and connection." --Booklist (starred review)

The Night Tiger

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#paperback #fiction #romance #classic #literary #literature #autobiography #1930s 

A story of Americans on the French Riviera in the 1930s is a portrait of psychological disintegration as a wealthy couple supports friends and hangers-on financially and emotionally at the cost of their own stability

Tender Is the Night

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Ohio

Kathleen Rooney

Light Hardcover (1 lb or less)

Illinois

Fall 2016 Library Journal Editors' Pick “In my reckless and undiscouraged youth,” Lillian Boxfish writes, “I worked in a walnut-paneled office thirteen floors above West Thirty-Fifth Street...” She took 1930s New York by storm, working her way up writing copy for R.H. Macy’s to become the highest paid advertising woman in the country. It was a job that, she says, “in some ways saved my life, and in other ways ruined it.” Now it’s the last night of 1984 and Lillian, 85 years old but just as sharp and savvy as ever, is on her way to a party. It’s chilly enough out for her mink coat and Manhattan is grittier now—her son keeps warning her about a subway vigilante on the prowl—but the quick-tongued poetess has never been one to scare easily. On a walk that takes her over 10 miles around the city, she meets bartenders, bodega clerks, security guards, criminals, children, parents, and parents-to-be, while reviewing a life of excitement and adversity, passion and heartbreak, illuminating all the ways New York has changed—and has not. A love letter to city life in all its guts and grandeur, Lillian Boxfish Takes a Walk by Kathleen Rooney paints a portrait of a remarkable woman across the canvas of a changing America: from the Jazz Age to the onset of the AIDS epidemic; the Great Depression to the birth of hip-hop. Lillian figures she might as well take her time. For now, after all, the night is still young.

Lillian Boxfish Takes a Walk

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F. Scott Fitzgerald

Daniel James Brown

Texas

The True Story of an American Team's Epic Journey to Win Gold at the 1936 Olympics

Describes the American rowing team's triumphant and unlikely win during the 1936 Olympics.

The Boys in the Boat (Young Readers Adaptation)

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#hardcover #botm #fiction #chracterstudy #dualtimeline #1930s #advertising #1930 #novel #kathleenrooney

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Belinda Hurmence

Before Freedom When I Just Can Remember

Patrick Leigh Fermor; Jan Morris

A Time of Gifts

David Eldridge

American Culture in The 1930s

Jennifer Chiaverini

Resistance Women

Lily King

Euphoria

Lily King

Euphoria

Robert S. McElvaine

The Great Depression

Lisa See

China Dolls

Cheryl Honigford

The Darkness Knows

Robin E. Skelton (Editor); Robin Skelton (Foreword by)

Modern Classics Poetry of the Thirties

Lily King

Euphoria

Chris Cleave

Everyone Brave Is Forgiven

Robert Weintraub

The Divine Miss Marble

Matt Phelan

The Storm in the Barn

Lily King

Euphoria

Margery Allingham

The Fashion in Shrouds #11

Yangsze Choo

The Night Tiger

F. Scott Fitzgerald

Tender Is the Night

F. Scott Fitzgerald

Tender Is the Night

Kathleen Rooney

Lillian Boxfish Takes a Walk

Lily King

Euphoria

F. Scott Fitzgerald

Tender Is the Night

Daniel James Brown

The Boys in the Boat (Young Readers Adaptation)

Kathleen Rooney

Lillian Boxfish Takes a Walk