Why does Oklahoma have that panhandle? Did someone make a mistake? We are so familiar with the map of the United States that our state borders seem as much a part of nature as mountains and rivers. Even the oddities?the entire state of Maryland(!)?have become so engrained that our map might as...  more

Why does Oklahoma have that panhandle? Did someone make a mistake? We are so familiar with the map of the United States that our state borders seem as much a part of nature as mountains and rivers. Even the oddities?the entire state of Maryland(!)?have become so engrained that our map might as well be a giant jigsaw puzzle designed by Divine Providence. But that's where the real mystery begins. Every edge of the familiar wooden jigsaw pieces of our childhood represents a revealing moment of history and of, well, humans drawing lines in the sand. How the States Got Their Shapes is the first book to tackle why our state lines are where they are. Here are the stories behind the stories, right down to the tiny northward jog at the eastern end of Tennessee and the teeny-tiny (and little known) parts of Delaware that are not attached to Delaware but to New Jersey. How the States Got Their Shapes examines: Why West Virginia has a finger creeping up the side of Pennsylvania Why Michigan has an upper peninsula that isn't attached to Michigan Why some Hawaiian islands are not Hawaii Why Texas and California are so outsized, especially when so many Midwestern states are nearly identical in size Packed with fun oddities and trivia, this entertaining guide also reveals the major fault lines of American history, from ideological intrigues and religious intolerance to major territorial acquisitions. Adding the fresh lens of local geographic disputes, military skirmishes, and land grabs, Mark Stein shows how the seemingly haphazard puzzle pieces of our nation fit together perfectly.

For eight weeks in 1945, as Berlin fell to the Russian army, a young woman kept a daily record of life in her apartment building and among its residents."Spare, unpredictable, minutely observed, and utterly free of self-pity" (The Plain Dealer, Cleveland), the anonymous author depicts...  more

For eight weeks in 1945, as Berlin fell to the Russian army, a young woman kept a daily record of life in her apartment building and among its residents."Spare, unpredictable, minutely observed, and utterly free of self-pity" (The Plain Dealer, Cleveland), the anonymous author depicts her fellow Berliners in all their humanity as well as their cravenness. And "with bald honesty and brutal lyricism" (Elle), she tells of the shameful indignities to which women in a conquered city are always subject.  

The outspoken memoirs of "Ricky Ricardo" -- the man who loved Lucy.

The one and only New York Times bestselling autobiography by Lucille Ball... "Filled with light and laughter." (New York Times Book Review) "Lucy fans will find this book fascinating." (Detroit News) "A winner." (New York Newsday) "Intensely moving."(San Francisco Chronicle)

subtitle: The shocking confessions of "The Most Dangerous Man Alive" Distilled from hundreds of hours of interviews, Manson's story reveals an enormous amount of new information about his life and how it led to the 1969 Tate-LaBianca murders, and provides grim insight into the...  more

subtitle: The shocking confessions of "The Most Dangerous Man Alive" Distilled from hundreds of hours of interviews, Manson's story reveals an enormous amount of new information about his life and how it led to the 1969 Tate-LaBianca murders, and provides grim insight into the making of a criminal mind. 

A pact analysis of a true British murder case from 1860. It is a summer's night in 1860. In an elegant detached Georgian house in the village of Road, Wiltshire, all is quiet. Behind shuttered windows the Kent family lies sound asleep. At some point after midnight a dog barks. The...  more

A pact analysis of a true British murder case from 1860. It is a summer's night in 1860. In an elegant detached Georgian house in the village of Road, Wiltshire, all is quiet. Behind shuttered windows the Kent family lies sound asleep. At some point after midnight a dog barks. The family wakes the next morning to a horrific discovery: an unimaginably gruesome murder has taken place in their home. The household reverberates with shock, not least because the guilty party is surely still among them. Jack Whicher of Scotland Yard, the most celebrated detective of his day, reaches Road Hill House a fortnight later. He faces an unenviable task: to solve a case in which the grieving family are the suspects. The murder provokes national hysteria. The thought of what might be festering behind the closed doors of respectable middle-class homes -- scheming servants, rebellious children, insanity, jealousy, loneliness and loathing -- arouses fear and a kind of excitement. But when Whicher reaches his shocking conclusion there is uproar and bewilderment. A true story that inspired a generation of writers such as Wilkie Collins, Charles Dickens and Arthur Conan Doyle, this has all the hallmarks of the classic murder mystery -- a body; a detective; a country house steeped in secrets. In The Suspicions of Mr Whicher Kate Summerscale untangles the facts behind this notorious case, bringing it back to vivid, extraordinary life.

If Adam Gopnik’s Paris to the Moon described daily life in contemporary Paris, this book describes daily life in Paris throughout its history: a history of the city from the point of view of the Parisians themselves. Paris captures everyone’s imaginations: It’s a backdrop for...  more

If Adam Gopnik’s Paris to the Moon described daily life in contemporary Paris, this book describes daily life in Paris throughout its history: a history of the city from the point of view of the Parisians themselves. Paris captures everyone’s imaginations: It’s a backdrop for Proust’s fictional pederast, Robert Doisneau’s photographic kiss, and Edith Piaf’s serenaded soldier-lovers; a home as much to romance and love poems as to prostitution and opium dens. The many pieces of the city coexist, each one as real as the next. What’s more, the conflicted identity of the city is visible everywhere—between cobblestones, in bars, on the métro. In this lively and lucid volume, Andrew Hussey brings to life the urchins and artists who’ve left their marks on the city, filling in the gaps of a history that affected the disenfranchised as much as the nobility. Paris: The Secret History ranges across centuries, movements, and cultural and political beliefs, from Napoleon’s overcrowded cemeteries to Balzac’s nocturnal flight from his debts. For Hussey, Paris is a city whose long and conflicted history continues to thrive and change. The book’s is a picaresque journey through royal palaces, brothels, and sidewalk cafés, uncovering the rich, exotic, and often lurid history of the world’s most beloved city.

Most of the people in this book will die before the fifth paragraph. You probably haven't heard of any of them. That doesn't mean it s a book about nobodies. That doesn't mean it s a book about death. The obituaries collected here are at times humorous and at times heartbreaking. They shine a...  more

Most of the people in this book will die before the fifth paragraph. You probably haven't heard of any of them. That doesn't mean it s a book about nobodies. That doesn't mean it s a book about death. The obituaries collected here are at times humorous and at times heartbreaking. They shine a light into forgotten places and forgotten lives. Inside are countless lessons of life, taught by people we all pass on the street every day.

“It takes only nineteen seconds to walk the distance of the first powered flight. But when I was there the wind was up and cold on my face, and I felt as if I’d entered the black-and-white photograph I’d been seeing all my life. The sand is light gray, there’s a spill of...  more

“It takes only nineteen seconds to walk the distance of the first powered flight. But when I was there the wind was up and cold on my face, and I felt as if I’d entered the black-and-white photograph I’d been seeing all my life. The sand is light gray, there’s a spill of surf in the distance. Wilbur, running at the right of the plane, and Orville, the pilot, are in dark suits. The propellers blur against the sky as the machine rises. . . .”So begins Noah Adams’s adventure in search of Wilbur and Orville Wright, a journey that takes him across the country as he follows in the footsteps of the famous brothers in an attempt to know them more deeply, not just as inventors and pilots but as individuals as well.Adams, one of our most distinctive and talented storytellers, traveled thousands of miles and interviewed scores of experts and individuals to piece together his story. He finds a local boat captain to ferry him to Kitty Hawk, along the same route that Wilbur took in 1900, and spends several days talking with descendants of the families who first welcomed the Wright brothers a century ago and helped them conduct their gliding experiments. To experience first-hand the thrill of being in the air, Adams himself goes hang-gliding in the Outer Banks. To understand the aerodynamics of lift and drag and how the famous 1903 plane was constructed, he visits Ken Hyde, a Virginia pilot and vintage aircraft builder who is creating the world’s most accurate reproduction of the 1903 Wright Flyer. Adams goes to the prop shop and handles the tools and materials that the Wrights used to build their gliders and planes, and later he visits the wind tunnel at Langley Air Force Base where Hyde’s reproduction was tested for the first time.He also travels to France to visit the old racetrack at Le Mans where Wilbur startled the European aviation community with his demonstration flights in 1908, and he spends a few days at Wisconsin’s Oshkosh Fly-in, where builders of experimental aircraft and owners of vintage planes gather every year to dazzle the crowds. Adams himself takes to the air in a restored Ford Tri-Motor, America’s first airliner, which took its maiden flight seventy years ago.In Adams’s book we encounter the Wright brothers in a way that no writer has introduced them before. Through the lens of his own experiences as well as original reporting, letters, diaries, and other primary source material, he helps us understand the talent and intensity of the brothers and their family, including the fascinating, deeply complex, and at times tragic bond between Orville and Katharine, his younger sister.The Flyers is a wonderfully rich narrative that brings an unprecedented spirit of immediacy to one of history’s most dramatic stories.

Grace Truscott's shocking revelations in her biography of her Southern senator father rock her family and, indeed, Georgia to its very foundations. While writing a biography of her senator father, Grace Truscott raises disturbing questions about the murder of Ned Emory, the husband of her...  more

Grace Truscott's shocking revelations in her biography of her Southern senator father rock her family and, indeed, Georgia to its very foundations. While writing a biography of her senator father, Grace Truscott raises disturbing questions about the murder of Ned Emory, the husband of her father's black secretary, grapples with her family's troubled past, and copes with the difficulties of a new love. 

The good, the bad, and the ugly, served up Bourdain-style. Bestselling chef and No Reservations host Anthony Bourdain has never been one to pull punches. In The Nasty Bits, he serves up a well-seasoned hellbroth of candid, often outrageous stories from his worldwide misadventures. Whether...  more

The good, the bad, and the ugly, served up Bourdain-style. Bestselling chef and No Reservations host Anthony Bourdain has never been one to pull punches. In The Nasty Bits, he serves up a well-seasoned hellbroth of candid, often outrageous stories from his worldwide misadventures. Whether scrounging for eel in the backstreets of Hanoi, revealing what you didn't want to know about the more unglamorous aspects of making television, calling for the head of raw food activist Woody Harrelson, or confessing to lobster-killing guilt, Bourdain is as entertaining as ever. Bringing together the best of his previously uncollected nonfiction?and including new, never-before-published material?The Nasty Bits is a rude, funny, brutal and passionate stew for fans and the uninitiated alike.

The self-proclaimed Sun King, Louis XIV ruled over the most glorious and extravagant court in seventeenth-century Europe. Now, Antonia Fraser goes behind the well-known tales of Louis’s accomplishments and follies, exploring in riveting detail his intimate relationships with women. The...  more

The self-proclaimed Sun King, Louis XIV ruled over the most glorious and extravagant court in seventeenth-century Europe. Now, Antonia Fraser goes behind the well-known tales of Louis’s accomplishments and follies, exploring in riveting detail his intimate relationships with women. The king’s mother, Anne of Austria, had been in a childless marriage for twenty-two years before she gave birth to Louis XIV. A devout Catholic, she instilled in her son a strong sense of piety and fought successfully for his right to absolute power. In 1660, Louis married his first cousin, Marie-Therese, in a political arrangement. While unfailingly kind to the official "Queen of Versailles," Louis sought others to satisfy his romantic and sexual desires. After a flirtation with his sister-in-law, his first important mistress was Louise de La Valliere, who bore him several children before being replaced by the tempestuous and brilliant Athenais, marquise de Montespan. Later, when Athenais’s reputation was tarnished, the king continued to support her publicly until Athenais left court for a life of repentance. Meanwhile her children’s governess, the intelligent and seemingly puritanical Francoise de Maintenon, had already won the king’s affections; in a relationship in complete contrast to his physical obsession with Athenais, Louis XIV lived happily with Madame de Maintenon for the rest of his life, very probably marrying her in secret. When his grandson’s child bride, the enchanting Adelaide of Savoy, came to Versaille she lightened the king’s last years—until tragedy struck. With consummate skill, Antonia Fraser weaves insights into the nature of women’s religious lives—as well as such practical matters as contraception—into her magnificent, sweeping portrait of the king, his court, and his ladies.

The story of a young woman’s life, one outfit at a time. Tucked inside the fibers and buttons and pockets of the clothing in our closets are the stories of our lives, the lessons we’ve learned, the people we’ve loved. Like so many of us, Adena Halpern has used clothes to...  more

The story of a young woman’s life, one outfit at a time. Tucked inside the fibers and buttons and pockets of the clothing in our closets are the stories of our lives, the lessons we’ve learned, the people we’ve loved. Like so many of us, Adena Halpern has used clothes to conform, to seduce, to console, to show off, and to hide. Her ability to relate fashion to her inner life -- in a way that is about so much more than just the clothes -- has endeared her to many readers, one of whom called her “the real-life Carrie Bradshaw.” But fashionista, she’s not. Adena is: every teenage girl who had to have what all the other girls had, whether it looked good on her or not; the college coed who swooned for the boy in the leather jacket; the heartbroken young woman who chose a rebound dress over a rebound man; the woman who is forty-five minutes late to work because she has a closet full of clothes and nothing to wear. She is a lover of clothes and shopping whose passionate memories are always tied to not only the clothes that she wore, but to what everyone else was wearing, too. This is the affectionate and funny story of Adena’s life, an unconventional love story that readers will want to share. You will never look at your own wardrobe the same way again.

Irene Spencer did as she felt God commanded in becoming the second wife to her brother-in-law Verlan LeBaron. When the government raided their community-the Mormon village of Short Creek, Arizona-seeking to enforce the penalties for practicing polygamy, Irene and her family fled to Verlan's...  more

Irene Spencer did as she felt God commanded in becoming the second wife to her brother-in-law Verlan LeBaron. When the government raided their community-the Mormon village of Short Creek, Arizona-seeking to enforce the penalties for practicing polygamy, Irene and her family fled to Verlan's family ranch in Mexico. Here they lived in squalor and desolate conditions with Verlan's six brothers, one sister, and numerous wives and children. This appalling and astonishing tale has captured the attention of readers around the world. Irene's inspirational story reveals how far religion can be stretched and abused and how one woman and her children found their way out, into truth and redemption.

Historic Haunted America is an engrossing investigation into North American ghost legends, a comprehensive documenting yesterday and today's most shocking hauntings in the United States and Canada. From the ghost-ridden forts in Old Tucson to the "Inn of the 17 Ghosts" near Philadelphia, from...  more

Historic Haunted America is an engrossing investigation into North American ghost legends, a comprehensive documenting yesterday and today's most shocking hauntings in the United States and Canada. From the ghost-ridden forts in Old Tucson to the "Inn of the 17 Ghosts" near Philadelphia, from the haunted plantations of Louisiana and Georgia to a haunted community playhouse in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, Michael Norman and Beth Scott tell stories of the past and present so terrifyingly real that even the most skeptical reader will believe.

The tragic and redeeming story of how one visionary woman built the biggest toy company in the world and created a global icon. Barbie and Ruth is the entwined story of two exceptional women. There's Barbie: the diminutive yet arrestingly voluptuous doll unveiled at the 1959 Toy Fair who...  more

The tragic and redeeming story of how one visionary woman built the biggest toy company in the world and created a global icon. Barbie and Ruth is the entwined story of two exceptional women. There's Barbie: the diminutive yet arrestingly voluptuous doll unveiled at the 1959 Toy Fair who became the treasure of 90 percent of American girls and their counterparts in 150 countries. She went on to compete as an Olympic athlete, serve as an air force pilot, work as a boutique owner, run as a presidential candidate, and ignite a cultural firestorm. And then there's Ruth Handler, Barbie's creator: the tenth child of Polish Jewish immigrants, a passionately competitive and creative business pioneer, and a mother and wife who wanted it all. After a business scandal that forced Ruth out of Mattel, the company she founded, she drew on her experience as a breast cancer survivor to start a business that changed women's lives. She was ultimately honored as a pioneer, humanitarian, and masterful entrepreneur. Based on original research, extensive interviews, and previously unavailable material, Barbie and Ruth tells the fascinating story of how two women forever changed American business and culture.

The story of one of the most important and beloved shows on television?how it got started, nearly failed, and was saved by ElmoWhen the first episode aired on November 10, 1969, Sesame Street revolutionized the way education was presented to children on television. It has since become the...  more

The story of one of the most important and beloved shows on television?how it got started, nearly failed, and was saved by ElmoWhen the first episode aired on November 10, 1969, Sesame Street revolutionized the way education was presented to children on television. It has since become the longest-running children?s show in history, and today reaches 8 million preschoolers on 350 PBS stations and airs in 120 countries. Street Gang is the compelling and often comical story of the creation and history of this media masterpiece and pop culture landmark, told with the cooperation of one of the show?s cofounders, Joan Ganz Cooney. Sesame Street was born as the result of a discussion at a dinner party at Cooney?s home about the poor quality of children?s programming and hit the air as a big bang of creative fusion from Jim Henson and company, quickly rocketing to success. Street Gang traces the evolution of the show from its inspiration in the civil rights movement through its many ups and downs?from Nixon?s trying to cut off its funding to the rise of Elmo?via the remarkable personalities who have contributed to it. Davis reveals how Sesame Street has taught millions of children not only their letters and numbers, but also cooperation and fair play, tolerance and self-respect, conflict resolution, and the importance of listening. This is the unforgettable story of five decades of social and cultural change and the miraculous creative efforts, passion, and commitment of the writers, producers, directors, animators, and puppeteers who created one of the most influential programs in the history of television.

Published as "Bareback" in the UK, and "Benighted" in the US. Biology is destiny. For those born feet-first, life is normal. Civil rights are enshrined in law, the world is a comfortable place, and every full moon night, you lock yourself in a secure room to fur up in peace. But for those...  more

Published as "Bareback" in the UK, and "Benighted" in the US. Biology is destiny. For those born feet-first, life is normal. Civil rights are enshrined in law, the world is a comfortable place, and every full moon night, you lock yourself in a secure room to fur up in peace. But for those born head-first, the damage done is more than just physical. For a non, locked in his or her human skin, is first and foremost a conscript, drafted at eighteen into DORLA, the Department for the Ongoing Regulation of Lycanthropic Activity. For a DORLA agent, insultingly referred to as a 'bareback', full moon creates a battle zone, where they patrol the silent night in search of citizens breaking the curfew. The rest of the month is a civil service nightmare, mopping up the after-effects of the trespasses, the fights and the maulings. DORLA has lasted centuries, since the Inquisition first set it up, and it's no less hated now than it was then. Lola Galley, twenty-eight and already a scarred veteran, is assigned to defend a curfew-breaker who mutilated a good friend of hers. She doesn't want the case, but she's used to doing things she doesn't want. Only something happens: her maimed friend is murdered before her client can be tried. Lola wants justice. She'll settle for the truth. But in a divided world, asking for the truth may bring answers that you don't want to hear.