Other books that might interest you

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  Interview in Weehawken - As Told...

  Harold C. Syrett, Jean G. Cooke

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  This annotated collection of original documents takes readers inside the historic rivalry that ended in America’s most famous duel. 
   
  The subject of a critically acclaimed biography and a sensational Broadway musical, the conflict between Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr has long fascinated historians. This closely annotated volume of primary source documents offers a riveting account of the disastrous duel between these two early American statesmen. 
   
  From the summer of 1804, we have the fiery correspondence between Hamilton and Burr, notes and accounts from their seconds-in-command, and other documents that provide an immediate sense of the personalities and times. The introduction and conclusion provide a concise and informative perspective on the parallel lives of Hamilton and Burr and of the duel’s lasting impacts on American history.

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  Duck and Cover - A Nuclear Family

  Kathie Farnell

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  A wry memoir of innocence, perplexity, and growing up as a white girl in a (very slowly) changing South. Based on her perspective as a smart-mouthed, unreasonably optimistic white girl growing up in Cloverdale, a genteel and neatly landscaped neighborhood of Montgomery, Alabama, in the late 1950s and early 1960s, Kathie Farnell recounts those decades when Montgomery’s social order was slowly—very slowly—changing. Normandale Shopping Center had a display of the latest fallout shelters, and integration was on the horizon—though many still thought the water in the white and colored drinking fountains came from separate tanks. Farnell’s household, more like the Addams family than the Cleavers of Leave it to Beaver, included socially ambitious parents, two younger brothers, a live-in grandmother, and Libby, the family maid. Her father was a one-armed rageaholic given to strange business deals, such as the one resulting in the family unintentionally owning a bakery. Mama, the quintessential attorney, could strike a jury but was hopeless at making Jello. Granny, a curmudgeon who kept a chamber pot under her bed, was always at odds with Libby, who had been in a bad mood since the bus boycott began. Farnell deftly recounts tales of aluminum Christmas trees, the Hula-Hoop craze, road trips in the family’s un-air-conditioned black Bel Air, show-and-tell involving a human skeleton, belatedly learning to swear, and even the pet chicken she didn’t know she had. Her well-crafted prose reveals quirky and compelling characters in stories that don’t ignore the dark side of the segregated South, as told from the wide-eyed perspective of a girl who is sometimes oblivious to and often mystified by its byzantine rules. Little did she know that the Age of Aquarius was just around the corner.

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  Mourning Headband for Hue - An...

  Nha Ca

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  “An intimate―and disturbing―account of war at its most brutal, told from the point of view of civilians trying to survive the maelstrom.” —Publishers Weekly   Vietnam, January, 1968. As the citizens of Hue are preparing to celebrate Tet, the start of the Lunar New Year, Nha Ca arrives in the city to attend her father’s funeral. Without warning, war erupts all around them, drastically changing or cutting short their lives. After a month of fighting, their beautiful city lies in ruins and thousands of people are dead. Mourning Headband for Hue tells the story of what happened during the fierce North Vietnamese offensive and is an unvarnished and riveting account of war as experienced by ordinary people caught up in the violence.   “A visceral reminder of war’s intimate slaughter.” —Kirkus Reviews   “[A] searing eyewitness account . . . It makes for an intimate―and disturbing―account of war at its most brutal told from the point of view of civilians trying to survive the maelstrom.” —VVA Veteran

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  Bleeding Fabulous - the life of...

  Mark Ward

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  The story of how a boy came to be infected with blood borne viruses, and in spite of multiple death sentences, lived to become the world's first ever LGBTQ+ Ambassador for Haemophilia.
  'Faced daily with my own mortality, I chose to live fabulously—each of my fifty-five years has been full of love, laughter, adventure… and feather boas.'
  Mark Ward is the founder of Haemosexual—an online support and information resource championing equality, education and better healthcare for everyone with a bleeding disorder, no matter what their sexual orientation. Mark's battle to secure a public enquiry into the Infected Blood Scandal—which is finally due to report in May—has led him to places he never expected, and to meet people he never dreamt of.
  'Mark is a survivor, literally, of the HIV visited upon him through contaminated blood, but rather than merely revelling in the simple fact of life, he has heroically dedicated himself to ensuring life remains possible for others.'—Sam Stein KC
  This forthright (and fabulous) memoir, recounts the journey of an unlikely lad from Letchworth who grows up to be a renowned and respected rights campaigner. With foreword by Sam Stein KC.
  'This is a remarkable book—brave, funny and honest. Ward is a gifted writer with a profound story to tell and he does it beautifully.' — Peter Moffat
  'This is a story of one of the worst cover ups of our time, and the author's part in the fight to expose it, but it is also the story of a human being who managed to live a life filled with joy despite the mistreatment he endured. An inspirational tale.' — Elkan Abrahamson, Director of Covid Enquiry Department, Jackson Lees Law Group
  'This is a profound and important book from a courageous individual who has lived through the darkest episode of medical history, and contributed to the resolution for the thousands impacted in the UK' — Brian O'Mahony, CEO of Irish Haemophilia Society

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  Literary Rogues - A Scandalous...

  Andrew Shaffer

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  A Wildly Funny and Shockingly True Compendium of the Bad Boys (and Girls) of Western LiteratureRock stars, rappers, and actors haven't always had a monopoly on misbehaving. There was a time when authors fought with both words and fists, a time when poets were the ones living fast and dying young. This witty, insightful, and wildly entertaining narrative profiles the literary greats who wrote generation-defining classics such as The Great Gatsby and On the Road while living and loving like hedonistic rock icons, who were as likely to go on epic benders as they were to hit the bestseller lists. Literary Rogues turns back the clock to consider these historical (and, in some cases, living) legends, including Edgar Allan Poe, Oscar Wilde, Zelda and F. Scott Fitzgerald, Ernest Hemingway, Dorothy Parker, Hunter S. Thompson, and Bret Easton Ellis. Brimming with fasci- nating research, Literary Rogues is part nostalgia, part literary analysis, and a wholly raucous celebration of brilliant writers and their occasionally troubled legacies.

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  The Man Who Made Movies - WKL...

  Paul Spehr

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  The story of W.K.L. Dickson—assistant to Edison, inventor, and key figure in early cinematography: “Valuable and comprehensive.” —Communication Booknotes Quarterly 
   
  W.K.L. Dickson was Thomas Edison’s assistant in charge of the experimentation that led to the Kinetoscope and Kinetograph—the first commercially successful moving image machines. In 1891–1892, he established what we know today as the 35mm format. Dickson also designed the Black Maria film studio and facilities to develop and print film, and supervised production of more than one hundred films for Edison. 
   
  After leaving Edison, he became a founding member of the American Mutoscope Company, which later became the American Mutoscope & Biograph, then Biograph. In 1897, he went to England to set up the European branch of the company. Over the course of his career, Dickson made between five hundred and seven hundred films, which are studied today by scholars of the early cinema. This well-illustrated book offers a window onto early film history from the perspective of Dickson’s own oeuvre.

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