Sweet America

On a moonless night in the summer of 1793 a crime was committed in the back room of a New York brothel—the kind of crime that even victims usually kept secret. Instead, seventeen-year-old seamstress Lanah Sawyer did what virtually no one in US history had done before: she charged a gentleman with rape. Her accusation sparked a raw courtroom drama and a relentless struggle for vindication that threatened both Lanah’s and her assailant’s lives.

Using more than a thousand eyewitness records, Liberty Is Sweet is a “spirited account” (Gordon S. Wood, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Radicalism of the American Revolution) that explores countless connections between the Patriots of 1776 and other Americans whose passion for freedom often brought them into conflict with the Founding Fathers. “It is all one story,” prizewinning historian Woody Holton writes.

Violet Iverson and her young daughter, Ella, are piecing their lives together one year after the disappearance of her husband. As rumors swirl and questions about his loyalties surface, Violet believes Ella knows something. But Ella is stubbornly silent. Something - or someone - has scared her. And with the island overrun by troops training for a secret mission, tension and suspicion between neighbors is rising.

The Intersection of Peachtree Street, historically the residential and commercial street of Atlanta’s white elite, and Sweet Auburn Avenue, the spiritual main street of Atlanta’s community, mirrors the often separate but mutually dependent worlds of whites and blacks in this Southern city. In Where Peachtree Meets Sweet Auburn, Gary M. Pomerantz traces five generations of two families—the Allens, descended from slave owners, and the Dobbses, from slaves. These families produced the two most influential mayors of the modern South, Ivan Allen Jr., and Maynard Jackson Jr.

Born into slavery, Henrietta Wood was taken to Cincinnati and legally freed in 1848. In 1853, a Kentucky deputy sheriff named Zebulon Ward colluded with Wood's employer, abducted her, and sold her back into bondage. She remained enslaved throughout the Civil War, giving birth to a son in Mississippi and never forgetting who had put her in this position. By 1869, Wood had obtained her freedom for a second time and returned to Cincinnati, where she sued Ward for damages in 1870. Astonishingly, after eight years of litigation, Wood won her case: In 1878, a Federal jury awarded her $2,500.

For Amy Ettinger, ice cream is not just a delicious snack but a circumstance and a time of year - frozen forever in memory. As the youngest child and only girl, ice cream embodied unstructured summers, freedom from the tyranny of her classmates, and a comforting escape from her chaotic, demanding family. Now as an adult and journalist, her love of ice cream has led to a fascinating journey to understand ice cream's evolution and enduring power, complete with insight into the surprising history behind America's early obsession with ice cream.

In Sweet Land of Liberty: A History of America in 11 Pies, food writer Rossi Anastopoulo cracks open our relationship to pie with wit and good humor. She traces the pies woven into our history, following the evolution of our country across centuries of innovation and change and examining how America’s relationship with this iconic dessert impacted culture across eras—and vice versa.

More than any other sport, boxing has a history of being easy to rig. There are only two athletes and one or both may be induced to accept a bribe; if not the fighters, then the judges or referee might be swayed. In such inviting circumstances, the mob moved into boxing in the 1930s and profited by corrupting a sport ripe for exploitation. In Boxing and the Mob: The Notorious History of the Sweet Science, Jeffrey Sussman tells the story of the coercive and criminal underside of boxing, covering nearly the entire 20th century.

The sheriff of Pine Falls, Nebraska, has his hands full. When Ernie Rucker passed away, he left his house and money to the town. It was put into a trust in the sheriff’s name with the specification that it be spent to benefit the community. The men in Pine Falls and surrounding area far outnumbered the women. When the sheriff learned the plight of eight desperate young ladies back east with nowhere to live, it caught his attention. He could bring the ladies to Pine Falls. It seemed like a perfect match, but once he set the wheels in motion, nothing seemed to go as planned. WARNING: The ...

She loved him. Kara Kerrington knew that with all her heart. He’d been there for her, from the moment they’d first met – at the scene of a terrible accident in which she was the injured party, through the weeks of courtship, for that was what she had to call it. Good, old-fashioned courtship. It was so much more than casual dating! Doctor Nick Sherman was kind and caring, strong, protective to the point of nearly being over-protective, and he believed that actions had consequences. She squirmed, knowing what the consequence would be when she saw him again. If only she could turn back ...

Allison: When I left for California, I gave myself a new name and never looked back. Now my carefully crafted good-girl image is getting torn to shreds in the press thanks to my Oscar-winning A-hole of an ex-boyfriend. So I escape to the only safe haven I know and trust - my hometown - to take a breather while I plot my triumphant Hollywood comeback. However, when I arrive at my parents’ house, Jackson Burke answers the door instead. And suddenly the past comes rushing back.... Jackson: First kiss. First time. First love. Allison Murphy and I shared a lot of firsts.

Why won't people leave him alone? There was nothing wrong with being a loner.An odd lot of insurance company employees and a self-employed massage therapist are tossed together on a mission to rescue exotic animals from a black market gambler who plans to sell the critters as supper ingredients. Can the wannabe saviors make the winter journey from Minnesota to Arizona without falling in love – Or killing each other? A bright stand-alone romantic comedy of love-at-first-sight, second chances with family, and attempts to get to third base.

In the aftermath of the Battle of Kings Mountain, can God’s grace and love overcome fear and prejudice? Left to care for her siblings at their mountain farm while her father is away fighting the British, Truth Bledsoe stumbles across a starving Tory hiding in a cave. When simple charity leads to friendship and the possibility of more, can she believe him when he says his political leanings have changed? Can she trust him? Can she trust her family to keep him secret? (This title was formerly published as part of A Pioneer Christmas Collection by Barbour Publishing. It has been revised and ...

The settlement of North America was the beginning of a new era in human history. The oppressive laws, habits, and customs of the Old World no longer held such power over those who had made the treacherous journey across the Atlantic. No reigning monarch or dictatorial power ever stepped onto the ground of North America. Yet, despite this, the men and women of the 13 colonies of North America were still not free until they threw off the shackles of England's government and asserted their own rights.

In the late Fifties and Sixties, iconoclastic young rebels in Chicago opened two tiny theaters—The Compass and The Second City—where they satirized politics, religion, and sex. Developing scenes by improvising based on audience suggestions turned out to be a fine way to develop great actors, directors, and writers. Alumni went on to create such groundbreaking works as The Graduate, Groundhog Day, and Don't Look Up. Many of them also became stars on Saturday Night Live. Something Wonderful Right Away features the pioneers who founded the empire that transformed American comedy.

A book for young listeners, Mary Lou Retton: America's Sweetheart tells the inspirational life story of the most celebrated gymnast in United States history. Discover how a young girl from West Virginia achieved her dream of winning gymnastics' all-around title at the 1984 Olympics. Includes anecdotes from her personal life and career highlights.

Nothing exciting ever happens in Palmer. Except that one time the biker gang came to town, and they turned out to be a bunch of middle aged doctors and lawyers reliving their glory days. But Aunt Lorinda insists the man they saw beside the interstate is an escaped convict. It doesn’t help that someone really did escape from the penitentiary up the road. When a handsome stranger walks into town hours later, Sheriff Callen Steiner has a choice: believe the old woman who owns the diner, or believe the well-dressed stranger whose luxury car was stolen. Hayley Beasley can’t stand the way the...

Could the drummer boy help those stranded in the worst winter storm of the 18th century? Young Scout is looking for gainful employment at the end of the American Revolution. Called Scout because of his great exploring and tracking skills, the regimental sergeant says he's too young; only good enough to be a drummer 'boy.' Will his fellows accept his help as they try to find their way to friends and family for Christmas during one of the worst winter storms in history? Or will pride be their demise? After all, why should they follow a young Cherokee half-breed? Part of THE FAIRIES SAGA ...

Desiree Summer hates being the new girl in the small, close-knit town of Wishful Hollow, especially when she’s assigned to take on the town’s most eligible bachelor who’s turned speed dating into an art. She has a life ahead of her full of horses and places to go, but she also wants to please her recently widowed father. All bets are off when she meets Kyle Landon, the dreamy writer who collects the eerie and foreboding folktales in the hills and hollows. She follows him into the deep, dark woods, enchanted by his tales and haunted by old ruins whispering of lost love never found. ...

Martha Welch felt lost. The wagon train left her and her uncle behind when he became too ill to travel. He'd passed on just hours after they left. She was fighting tears when Wyatt Peterson, a local ranch owner, came across her on his way to Green Falls. He drove her wagon into town, where she planned to get a hotel room for a few days. The hotel was full, though. The sheriff suggested Wyatt take her to his ranch, where he had plenty of room and his housekeeper could help her adjust and make some plans. They began having feelings for each other, even though they each tried to convince ...