"In March of 2023, Alex Murdaugh was found guilty of murdering his wife Maggie and their younger son Paul at Moselle, their home in South Carolina's Lowcountry. By then the story had become headline news across the country, with its revelations of corruption in high places, massive fraud, opioid abuse, fake suicides, suspicious accidents, and the generational recklessness of the wealthy legal dynasty at its center. Featuring a cast of villains ranging from supposedly respectable bankers and lawyers to violent street gang members, the story has, not surprisingly, been the subject of several books and TV shows already. But few have focused on the enigma of Alex Murdaugh himself as brilliantly as James Lasdun's The Family Man. Having covered the case for the New Yorker, where his article became the magazine's most read story of 2023, the acclaimed novelist brings his long-standing interest in the darker drives of the human psyche to an investigation into the serial embezzlements, fatal boat crash and other events leading up to the slaughter at Moselle. Having traveled extensively in the Lowcountry interviewing people involved in the case (including Murdaugh's notorious 'Cousin Eddie') and attending hearings with Murdaugh himself, Lasdun looks at Murdaugh through a series of revelatory perspectives that include recordings of Murdaugh's jail conversations, the literature of criminal psychology, and the murder trial itself, to create a masterful portrait of his subject and an immersive account of the psychological and social processes by which a seemingly loving family man became a 'Family Annihilator.'"-- Provided by publisher.

"From one of today's foremost King scholars comes the revelatory origin story of the man, minister, and civil rights hero who shaped America. We know who Martin Luther King, Jr. became--but who was he before he stepped into our collective history? In Young King, Lerone Martin offers a new understanding of the preacher and activist's life by turning to his formative years. Until now, we have almost presumed that his path to greatness was a foregone conclusion. But the truth is more complicated. Lerone Martin strips away the mythos and gets to King's roots--his days as 'Little Mike' on Auburn Avenue, his academic struggles and flashes of brilliance, summers spent in the tobacco fields of Connecticut, his first experiences of racism and encounters with the police, his teenage missteps and adventures in love, and his winding road to seminary. We witness King in his search for a name, an identity, a God, a partner, and a life. Compassionately told and diligently researched, Young King is a testament to how history shapes a leader and a reminder that our heroes--like ourselves--are human, extraordinary and ordinary at once"--

""Heartland Rock," that most commercial of music genres, is beloved by some and derided by others, but known to virtually everyone. Unknown to most, however, the genre arose in large part in opposition to 1980s conservatism and the Reagan Revolution. In Won't Back Down, music critic Erin Osmon, acclaimed for her books on John Prine and Jason Molina, delves into the story of the music and its politics. She explores the lives and work of its key musicians, including Tom Petty, Bob Seger, Bonnie Raitt, Bruce Springsteen, John Cougar Mellencamp; '80s cultural developments that fostered it, such as the rise of MTV and the switch to CDs; how it became central to major moments of '80s political activism, including Farm Aid, Nuclear Freeze marches, and the fight for LGBTQ and other identity issues. Through it all she explains how some of the most popular music of the time was made--and by whom--reframing Heartland Rock beyond its white-male stereotype to show how important women like Lucinda Williams and Melissa Etheridge were. She also reveals how legendary figures like Prince were inspired by and expanded Heartland Rock, how it lured older, declining stars like Bob Dylan, Don Henley, and Neil Young out of artistic slumps. A clear-eyed critic with an ear for a great behind-the-scenes story, Osmon maintains that not all the music was good--some of it was awful, and often just an empty-hearted cash grab--but that at its best, Heartland Rock connected with millions of overlooked people longing to be heard by America's power structures"-- Provided by publisher.

Emotional Support Animals is a collection of comics and worksheets featuring adorable and irresistible emotional support animals offering words of compassion and wisdom, delivering smiles along with experience, strength, and hope. What if your therapist was a cardigan-wearing walrus sipping a cup of coffee? Emotional Support Animals answers this question in a series of sweet comics and engaging worksheets. Nicole Georges presents small doses of therapy in the form of humorous illustrations about serious subjects. Picture a pug assuring you that it's not cruel to say no or hold a boundary, or a crocodile reminding you that when you take care of yourself, you have more capacity to give. Inspired by Nicole’s experiences with grief and healing, her Anonymous Fuzzball comics touch on themes of self-worth, boundaries, and balance. Using quirky animals as her subjects, she proves that hard truths are easier to digest in an adorable package.

"The impossible dream of the United States of America began with a declaration. Years before the Revolution was won, long before the Constitution was created, we were a nation because of our decision to be free. Though the universal hunger for freedom endures, these days our country often seems at cross purposes. Our very history is divisive. On one side, there are the unrelenting complaints about all the things we're getting wrong. Such critics seem intent on focusing on the darker chapters of our story. On the other side is a sanitized version of history that leaves little room for self-reflection. It's as if any admission of frailty or failure is an unpatriotic act. In, 'The Case for America', Bret Baier argues that neither of these pictures reflects our reality. To make the case for the nation's enduring value, he underscores our fundamental character: unity, freedom, resilience. Baier shares his own reflections alongside those of numerous historians, commentators, and business leaders in a moving ode to a nation."--Amazon.com.

"Emily Brontë was only twenty-seven-years old when she started work on one of the most important novels in the English language. In two years, she completed Wuthering Heights in 1847, while the world took almost a hundred years to catch up. It has taken the world even longer to know Brontë-enigmatic, less initially renowned than sister Charlotte of JANE EYRE fame, and with a legacy marred by the loss (and likely destruction) of almost all her personal papers. THIS DARK NIGHT is a portrait of Emily Brontë, her writing sisters, and the material and cultural world they lived in, tracing Brontë's passions from the incomparable moors outside her home to the storm, strife, and longing that populates her poetry and novel. Deborah Lutz reconstructs the texture of Emily's days as masterful writer and woman tending to a household in Victorian England. She places Brontë in the history of modern thought and emerges with a mythic figure: consummate artist, deeply idiosyncratic person, and creator of a cherished and extraordinarily influential work"--

"Per PBS News, up to a million pregnancies in the United States end in miscarriage every year with most occurring in the first trimester. One 2018 study of women who miscarried in the previous four years, published in the National Library of Medicine, found that 55 percent reported symptoms of depression, and 27 percent reported symptoms of perinatal grief"-- Provided by publisher.

"Francesca Albanese, the first woman to serve as United Nations Special Rapporteur on the occupied Palestinian territories, conveys the soul of a people through ten unforgettable stories of resilience and humanity. The spirit of a place lies in the people who inhabit it, in the stories that intertwine through its streets. And this is especially true of a land like Palestine, the witness to defining historical transitions and stage to one of the most painful chapters in contemporary history. With a voice both authoritative and deeply human, Francesca Albanese, who had been living in Palestine for many years while following the legal battles of numerous Palestinian families, takes on the role of narrator of the ongoing conflict, starting from the stories of the people she met. Albanese elegantly composes a gallery of stories, characters, and places that allow us to understand what Palestine was like until a year and a half ago, and what it has become today"-- Provided by publisher.

"In richly told stories and wild self-experiments, historian Joseph Moore tests history's best and worst financial advice to find what worked, what didn't, and why everyday people can still get ahead--including you. What if so-called timeless beliefs about money like "invest for the long run," "compound interest builds wealth," and "real estate always goes up" were shockingly new . . . and rarely true. From Benjamin Franklin to TikTok gurus, what "everyone knows" about personal finance has rarely stayed the same. Parents once taught children not to save and that stocks were only for suckers. Meanwhile, supposedly new phenomenon like Airbnb, crypto, skipping lattes, and complaints that nobody can get ahead are far older than we think. In How to Get Rich in American History, Joseph Moore shares the unexpected and counterintuitive lessons of the past--from the scams we keep falling for to the long allure of creating generational wealth--so we can avoid the same mistakes and make the most of our own finances today. Along the way, Moore tries these old ideas on himself, with hair-raising and hilarious results. His personal journey includes wild investments, get-rich-quick schemes, founding a cryptocurrency, and how he went from his working-class roots and facing financial ruin to retiring in his forties. Ultimately, Moore finds that despite today's loud pessimists, success has never been easier to achieve in American history than it is right now." -- Jacket flap.

"Although the first enslaved Africans arrived in Jamestown in 1619, European slavery in America began more than a century before. In a work distinguished not only by its original research but by its "passionate prose" (James F. Brooks), historian Linford Fisher demonstrates how the enslavement of Indigenous people began in the years just after 1492, ensnaring an estimated three to six million Natives throughout the Americas. Although largely erased from the public consciousness, Native enslavement continued for centuries to become a colossal phenomenon that affected nearly 600,000 Native Americans in North America alone, revealing the shocking truth that American colonizers enslaved Natives in roughly the same numbers as they imported enslaved Africans. From Virginia to California, from New England to Barbados, Stealing America traces the history of Indigenous enslavement and land dispossession, detailing how colonizers captured Natives and often deliberately mislabeled them as Black slaves to avoid detection. While the American Revolution pealed the bells of freedom for colonists, it paved a larcenous trail of westward expansion that subsequently plundered Indigenous land and stole the labor of Natives from nations such as the Cherokee, Navajo, Nisean, and many others. "This double theft," Fisher writes, "was central to the origins, growth, and eventual success of the English colonies and the United States -- not just initially but throughout all of American history." In this expansive narrative, Fisher weaves together accounts of major episodes in American history including early colonization, the American Revolution, and the Civil War with lesser-known stories of Native enslavement and land loss. Fisher upends conventional histories about the nature of American slavery, revealing enslaved Natives in places we have overlooked, including Southern antebellum plantations and the nineteenth-century American West. After Congress outlawed Native slavery in 1867, Americans forced Indigenous children into boarding schools and white homes, where they labored under forced assimilation. This practice was not reformed until the latter twentieth century, when Native nations finally secured increasing rights and self-determination. Nearly fifteen years in the making, this magisterial volume not only uncovers a five-century genocidal history but also illuminates the myriad ways Native Americans have fought for their sovereignty and maintained community. The most comprehensive work of its kind, Stealing America emerges as a saga of both persistent colonialism and Indigenous resilience, one that reframes American history at its core" --

"A new look at humanity's deep past to show us how our world was built not by inevitability, but by trial and error on a planetary scale. There's a familiar story about us humans: we went from hunting and gathering to farming, wandering bands to villages and cities, clans and chieftains to states and kings. But Lost Worlds offers a new narrative of humanity's deep history. Here beloved podcast host Patrick Wyman focuses on the 10,000-year span between the end of the Ice Age and the decline of the Bronze Age--the period when civilization as we understand it emerged, introducing social hierarchies, urbanism, complex political organizations, and the written word. In this nuanced retelling, human progress is no longer a straight march from caves to cities: Farming didn't always replace foraging, villages didn't automatically spark agriculture, and cities didn't necessitate rigid hierarchies. For thousands of years, humans merely improvised. By the end of the Bronze Age, the world had become unrecognizable: mammoths and giant sloths replaced by cattle and sheep, scattered nomadic bands replaced by millions living in cities, and farming on nearly every continent. Wyman argues that the rise of states and steady food production wasn't inevitable, but rather, the outcome of countless choices that reshaped the planet and made us who we are today."-- Provided by publisher.

"From Elise Ann Allen, journalist and Rome correspondent for Crux comes this intimate biography of Pope Leo XIV, including his first-ever public interview as Pope"-- Provided by publisher.

Democratic Party strategist Atima Omara believes that Black women between the ages of 18 and 45 are uniquely equipped to save American democracy. Omara draws on her political knowledge and expertise, as well as history, to examine how Black women have responded to failed strategic decisions by movement leaders and the modern Democratic Party in previous elections as a context for the present. She also provides actionable recommendations to organizers, donors, candidates, strategists, political party leaders, that everyday people can use in their communities to build an inclusive democracy that endures beyond one election cycle.

"Transform your mending pile into a wardrobe refresh!This is your ultimate guide to reclaiming your favorite clothes with a modern take on traditional mending techniques. Explore expert tips for tricky fabrics, creative fixes, and no-sew solutions, ensuring you're ready for any repair. With detailed instructions and 50 embroidery and mending stitches, Mend It! Fix It! turns mending into a modern, stylish art form. Learn the difference between darning and mending, find out how to patch with style, tackle techniques like sashiko and boro, and explore creative reinforcements with lace, crochet, and more. Master 50 mending stitches to refresh and renew your favorite clothes, saving money and reducing waste Discover how to make stylish repairs using darning, patches, reinforcements, eye-catching sashiko and boro stitches, and more to bring new life to your clothes Learn how to easily fix your garments using buttons, hems, emergency repairs, and no-sew tricks-these practical solutions will have your clothes looking their best in no time! "-- Provided by publisher.

"The untold story of the many people behind one of America's most iconic photographs. Lunch on a Beam, also known as Lunch Atop a Skyscraper, shows ironworkers eating lunch on a steel beam during the construction of Rockefeller Center's RCA Building in 1932. It's a photo so famous you can likely picture it in your mind: seated in a row, eleven men chat and break bread 850 feet above the ground, the dense cityscape behind them. While the scene may look spontaneous, the photo was taken during a publicity shoot to promote Rockefeller Center's new skyscraper. And despite the image's renown, for years, little information was available about its subjects or its photographer. In Lunch on a Beam, Rockefeller Center archivist Christine Roussel interweaves the art, architectural, and social history behind the photograph with her personal experience as a confidante to the financiers who developed Rockefeller Center. She tells the stories of the fearless photographers, brazen publicity men, the ironworkers, and their immigrant and Indigenous communities. This portrait of eleven construction workers, she points out, is also a celebration of the nation's richest man. She examines how, in the depths of the Great Depression, John D. Rockefeller, Jr., took it upon himself to build a monument to American industry and sell it to the public. Featuring striking images from the Rockefeller Center Archives, Lunch on a Beam calls attention to the fascinating paradoxes contained in a single photo and celebrates the men who built an architectural marvel at great personal risk. This is a story of art and commerce, and the role of a photograph in the mythmaking of New York City"-- Provided by publisher.

"A curated collection of Martha's signature, timeless advice for home keeping, entertaining, and living well"-- Provided by publisher.

"The only woman in Forbes' Greatest Business Stories of All Time and the first woman to chair a company on the New York Stock Exchange, Mary Kay Ash has a life story that reads like a Barbara Taylor Bradford novel Growing up in Depression-era Texas, Mary Kathlyn Wagner is a dutiful daughter and diligent student with ambition aplenty and no place to use it. Married at sixteen, she is a grandmother at thirty-four. When she is not cooking or cleaning or taking care of the kids, she peddles cleaning products to other housewives. The work has no salary and no security but she sticks with it, sure that direct selling will somehow make her dreams come true. In 1963, after she has been divorced three times and widowed twice, she sets up her own company, selling second chance and self-invention for the price of a skin care showcase. Soon millions know her as the little lady in the big wig who gives away pink Cadillacs. From its unpromising start in a 500-square-foot Texas storefront, Mary Kay Inc. grows into a global phenomenon with 3.5 million reps in over 35 countries. She becomes the most famous saleswoman in the world. Maybe the most famous ever. Based on fifteen years of research, Selling Opportunity gives us a page-turning rags-to-riches story set against the background of direct selling in all its overstated, over-the-top glory. Here, for the first time, is the definitive history of a peculiarly American industry and a mid-century mindset that ennobled extreme self-reliance, sticking to your guns, and blind faith in the American dream"-- Provided by publisher.

"Tens of billions of birds share the planet with us, an astonishingly diverse array of species that are present nearly everywhere humans call home--and many places we do not. With their flamboyant plumage, joyous dawn serenades, extraordinary aerial feats, they have captivated human imagination for millennia. Undeniably delicate creatures with hollow bones and thin skin protected by downy feathers, how did such a seemingly fragile species break the bounds of Earth and begin to fly, how have they survived millennia, and how does their legacy shape our world? Hailed as 'one of the stars of modern paleontology' (National Geographic), Steve Brusatte now tells the extraordinary story of the dinosaurs' living legacy: birds. He begins by exploring how dinosaurs gradually developed the trademark features of birds one-by-one--feathers, wings, beaks, big brains, keen senses, and warm-blooded metabolisms. He investigates why birds where the only dinosaurs to survive the cataclysmic asteroid impact 66 million years ago and chronicles how these survivors rapidly proliferated to produce the diversity of avian species we know today"-- Provided by publisher.

"Indian American novelist Manil Suri grew up in a large crumbling apartment in Bombay which his parents, who were Hindu, shared with three other Muslim families. The single room his family occupied provided a safe haven from the hostilities that raged outside - sometimes over religious differences, but more often over the shared kitchen and common toilets. This refuge, however, was also a prison that held them captive - his parents stuck in a long and loveless marriage, Suri unable to explore the dawning realization he might be gay. At age 20, Suri managed to break free and come to the US, where he embarked on a journey of self-discovery, embraced his sexuality, and found a life partner. But the room, which still held his parents hostage, kept pulling him back to Bombay. By now real estate prices had risen so much that the neighbors had begun conspiring to occupy the room, which made Suri's parents dig in even more. Eventually, it was only his mother Prem left - someone who had staked all her happiness in her son, and yet was unable to escape the room's hold on her. Despite mysterious onslaughts seemingly orchestrated by the room against his mother and himself, Suri soldiered on, determined to prove to Prem that a happier life might await beyond the four walls that both enthralled and imprisoned her. A Room in Bombay is a page-turner that explores how physical attachments can shape our destiny, while delving into the difficult question of how much to prioritize our parents' welfare over our own. Based in part on over 2700 letters the author wrote home over three decades, it is ultimately a testament to the abiding, unbreakable bond tying a son to his mother"-- Provided by publisher.

"An investigation of the forgotten trails of the Western United States"-- Provided by publisher.

"A finalist for the National Book Award and the Pulitzer Prize, Adrian Matejka has been a mainstay of contemporary American poetry for over two decades. Collecting hits from six extraordinary collections, Be Easy showcases Matejka's singular sonics and narrative vision in fresh, dynamic poems that lyrically complicate place, race, and identity in contemporary America"-- Provided by publisher.

"We are at a unique period in world history. While advances in digital technology have brought the world closer than ever, they have also been used as tools of oppression, driving misinformation and deepening divisions. AI-generated propaganda, radicalization pipelines, and profit-driven algorithms are reshaping political landscapes, often without our awareness. How did we get here, and what can we do? In Digital Coup, international lawyer, professor, and former national security professional Darin Johnson uses his expertise to explore how AI-driven disinformation and social media echo chambers unravel truth, deepen societal divisions, and erode democracy. Johnson walks us through the digital battleground where tech companies monetize political anxieties and extremists weaponize misinformation. He introduces us to the shadowy networks trafficking in data and disinformation, showing how AI's power is being wielded to manipulate, polarize, and exploit. This world, he argues, is shaped both by those who engineer these systems and by those who refuse to challenge them. With clear-eyed urgency, Johnson dismantles the myth of a neutral internet and calls for a radical rethinking of our digital future. Digital Coup is a vital intervention, offering both a wake-up call and a vision for a more informed, united, and accountable online world" --

"The Declaration of Independence depicted Native Americans as bloodthirsty savages, and from its founding the United States aimed to expand westward by seizing Indigenous lands. While white settlers saw these conquests as victories for 'true religion,' native people invoked the spirits in their own defense. Some claimed the powers of Christianity, while others drew on the English-language concept of religion to redefine their own ancestral traditions. As all sorts of people struggled to make their way within this new empire, a broad variety of new religious movements emerged. In this groundbreaking book, historian Tisa Wenger shows how the history of American religion unfolded on these settler colonial foundations. The imperatives of US empire, she argues, shaped the category and traditions of what we know as religion. Wenger also introduces the concept of 'settler secularism' to explain how white settlers defined and managed religion in their own image, in order to facilitate their own rule. She shows how the concept of 'religion' - whether as a special thing that requires protection or a mark of the primitive that must be transcended - has most often served the interests of those in power. Ultimately, settler colonialism organized American religion and created religious hierarchies that still influence the United States today"-- Provided by publisher.

"The ultimate fitness guide by former high ranking fighter and one of the top MMA trainers in the country, Santino DeFranco-with a foreword from the two-division UFC champion Henry Cejudo. To be "fight ready" is to exist in a state of optimal physical and mental preparedness that enables a fighter to execute and perform at a peak level at any moment. In Fight Ready, Santino DeFranco draws on his expertise from training world-class mixed martial artists and UFC fighters like Henry Cejudo, Tracy Cortez, Kamuela Kirk, and The Korean Zombie to show readers how to become fight ready inside and outside of the cage. Through healthy, gimmick-free, easy-to-understand techniques, Fight Ready helps readers learn how to lose weight and keep it off while improving their strength, endurance, and mental outlook towards their health. Highlighting successful and safe practices for readers at every stage of their fitness journey, Fight Ready simulates a customizable professional fight camp experience for readers to achieve their own diet and fitness goals-whether or not they ever intend to compete in MMA. In a market saturated by faux science and magic bullet diets, Fight Ready cuts through the noise to provide clear, practical diet and fitness advice that is actionable, sustainable, and battle-tested-all while offering VIP, behind-the-scenes access to the world of mixed martial arts and the Ultimate Fighting Championship. So, are you ready to become fight ready?"-- Provided by publisher.