In INGENIOUS, Richard Munson provides an incisive and rich account of Benjamin Franklin’s life and career, recovering this vital part of Franklin’s story, revealing his modern relevance, and offering a compelling portrait of a shrewd experimenter,clever innovator, and visionary physicist whose fame opened doors to negotiate French support and funding for American independence. Munson’s riveting narrative explores how science underpins Franklin’s entire story— from tradesman to inventor to nation-founder—and argues that Franklin’s political life cannot be understood without giving proper credit to his scientific accomplishments.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Richard Munson is an author and clean-energy advocate. His previous books include Tesla: Inventor of the Modern.

Alex Kenna is a mystery writer, prosecutor, and amateur painter. Her first novel, WHAT MEETS THE EYE, was a 2023 Shamus Award Finalist for best first P.I. novel. Her second novel, BURN THIS NIGHT, was released in November 2024. Alex lives in Los Angeles with her husband, sons, and giant schnauzer, Zelda.

In small towns throughout America, neighbors have gathered on summer evenings at Minor League stadiums, clambering into seats with popcorn and cheap beer in hand. Many of these Minor League towns were former textile and railroad hubs, hit hard in recent years by various economic forces, yet baseball persisted. That is, until 2020, when Major League Baseball (MLB) drastically contracted the minors, shutting down 42 teams. In HOMESTAND: Small Town Baseball and the Fight for the Soul of America (Doubleday), journalist and veteran Will Bardenwerper looks at the impact of this decision and what it says about America’s core values through the lens of one small town in upstate New York. This poignant memoir celebrates a working-class community that fought to keep their small baseball team alive. It’s not just a story about America’s pastime— it’s a story about America, and where we go from here.

WILL BARDENWERPER has contributed to The New York Times, The Washington Post, Harper’s and other outlets and is the author The Prisoner in His Palace: Saddam Hussein, His American Guards, and What History Leaves Unsaid. He served as an Airborne Ranger–qualified infantry officer in Iraq and was awarded a Combat Infantryman Badge and Bronze Star. Before working in the Office of the Secretary of Defense, he received a B.A. from Princeton and M.A. from Johns Hopkins University. He will be available for interviews for pieces timed to publication, as would several of the memorable people who make up the Muckdog fanbase.

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An in-depth history of the US Navy’s light aircraft carrier the USS Princeton and its operational exploits in the Pacific Theater of World War II.

About the Author:

David R. Leick served in the US Marine Corpsfollowing High School before attending California State University, Chico, where he earned a master’s degree and went into teaching. In 2005 he stepped away from the classroom to work as a security contractor in Afghanistan on the Ambassador’s Protective Detail before working more generally for the Worldwide Protective Service as a training manager. David now writes full time and lives in Lincoln, California.

Packed with personal accounts of the action, this is a vivid narrative history of the often-overlooked USAAF campaign in North Africa and Sicily in World War II.

About the Author:

Thomas McKelvey Cleaver has been a published writer for the past 40 years, with his work including the best-selling Osprey titles The Tonkin Gulf Yacht Club (2021), Going Downtown (2022), The Cactus Air Force (2022) alongside the late Eric Hammel, and most recently Clean Sweep (2023). Tom served in the US Navy in Vietnam.

A haunted woman stalked by a serial killer confronts the horrors of fairy tales and the nightmares of real life in a breathtaking novel of psychological suspense by a Bram Stoker Award–winning author.

About the Author Cynthia Pelayo is the Bram Stoker Award–winningauthor of Forgotten Sisters, Children of Chicago, and The Shoemaker’s Magician. In addition to writing genre-blending novels that incorporate fairy-tale, mystery, detective,crime, and horror elements, Pelayo has written numerous short stories, including the collection Lotería, andthe poetry collection Crime Scene.The recipient of the 2021 International Latino Book Award, she holds a master of fine arts in writing from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. She lives in Chicago with her family. For more information, visitwww.cinapelayo.com

The stupendous publication of Edna Ferber’s Giant in 1952 set off a storm of protest over the novel’s portrayal of Texas manners, money and mores with oil-rich Texans threatening to shoot, lynch or ban Ferber from ever entering the state again.
In Giant Love, Julie Gilbert writes of the internationally best-selling Ferber, one of the most widely read writers in the first half of the 20th Century – her evolution from mid-west maverick girl-reporter to Pulitzer Prize winning, beloved American novelist, from her want-to-be actress days to becoming Broadway’s acclaimed prize-winning playwright whose collaborators – George S. Kauffman and Moss Hart, among them, were, along with Ferber, herself, the most successful playwrights of their time.

bout the Author

JULIE GILBERT was born in New York City and was educated at Boston University. She is the author of four books, among them a biography of her great aunt, Edna Ferber, Edna Ferber and Her Circle and Opposite Attraction: The Lives of Erich Maria Remarque and Paulette Goddard, Gilbert is a member of The Dramatists Guild, The Writers Guild of America, East, The Authors Guild, Actors’ Equity, and League of Professional Theater Women. She has taught Creative Writing at New York University’s School of Continuing Education and currently heads The Writers Academy at The Kravis Center for the Performing Arts in West Palm Beach, Florida where she lives part time, as well as in New York City.

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Published to coincide with the 250th anniversary, this sweeping narrative is an astute exploration of thefive critical military events that changed the outcome of the Revolutionary War.

About theAuthor:

John R. Maass is a staff member of the NationalMuseum of the U.S. Army at Fort Belvoir. He received a BA in history from Washington and Lee University and a PhD in early American history at The Ohio State University. He is the author of several books on U.S. military history, including North Carolina & the French and Indian War (2013); Defending a New Nation, 1783-1811 (2013); The Road to Yorktown (2015); George Washington's Virginia (2017); and The Battle of Guilford Courthouse (2020).

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