Adult

One day in the early 1950s, Walt Disney stood looking over 240 acres of farmland in Anaheim, California, and imagined building a park where people “could live among Mickey Mouse and Snow White in a world still powered by steam and fire for a day or a week or (if the visitor is slightly mad) forever.” On July 17, 1955, Disneyland opened its gates…and the first day was a disaster. But the curious masses kept coming, and the rest is entertainment history. In DISNEY’S LAND, Richard Snow presents the entire spectacular story, an epic of innovation and error that reflects the uniqueness of the man determined to build “the happiest place on earth” with a watchmaker’s precision, an artist’s conviction, and the desperate, high-hearted recklessness of a riverboat gambler.

It’s 1924, and Ginger Kelly has fled south to safety in the company of disgraced Prohibition agent Oliver Anson Marshall and her newly orphaned young sister, Patsy. But then Marshall is reinstated to the agency with suspicious haste and put to work patrolling for rumrunners on the high seas, from which he promptly disappears. Gin hurries north to rescue him, only to be trapped in an agonizing moral quandary by Marshall’s desperate mother. It’s 1998, and Ella Dommerich has finally settled into her new life in Greenwich Village, inside the same apartment where a certain redheaded flapper lived long ago. Ella is eager to piece together the history of the mysterious Gin Kelly, whose only physical trace is a series of rare vintage photograph cards for which she modeled before she disappeared.

Stubborn, aristocratic Mary Ball Washington was entrenched in the Old World ways of her ancestors, dismissing the American experiment even as her son led the successful rebellion against the crown. During his youth, ambitious George dove into the hard-scrabble work of a surveyor and rose through the ranks of the fledgling colonial army, even as his overprotective mother tried to discourage these efforts. While she passed down her strength and individuality to George, Mary also sought to protect him from the risks he needed to take to become a daring general and president. But it was this resistance itself that fanned the spark of George’s independence into a flame. The constant tug of war between the two throughout the early years helped define George’s character.

Structured as a triptych, AFRICAVILLE chronicles the lives of three generations of the Sebolt family --- Kath Ella, her son Omar/Etienne, and her grandson Warner --- whose lives unfold against the tumultuous events of the 20th century from the Great Depression of the 1930s, through the social protests of the 1960s to the economic upheavals in the 1980s. As it explores notions of identity, passing, cross-racial relationships, the importance of place, and the meaning of home, Jeffrey Colvin’s debut novel tells the larger story of the Black experience in parts of Canada and the United States.

It’s presidential primary season in Washington, DC, and both parties are on edge. At campaign rallies for all the candidates around the country, there are disturbing incidents of violence and protest and shocking acts of civil disobedience. When Wendy Upton, the highly respected centrist senator, receives an anonymous threat that could destroy her promising career, she hires Peter Rena to investigate her past and figure out which side is threatening her and what they are threatening her with. As Rena digs through the senator’s seemingly squeaky-clean past, he must walk the tightrope between two parties at war with each other and with themselves, an electorate that is as restive as it has ever been, and a political culture that is as much driven by money as it is by ideology.

Charlotte Collins, nee Lucas, is the respectable wife of Hunsford’s vicar and sees to her duties by rote: keeping house, caring for their adorable daughter, visiting parishioners, and patiently tolerating the lectures of her awkward husband and his condescending patroness, Lady Catherine de Bourgh. Intelligent, pragmatic and anxious to escape the shame of spinsterhood, Charlotte chose this life. Then she makes the acquaintance of Mr. Travis, a local farmer and tenant of Lady Catherine. In Mr. Travis’ company, Charlotte feels appreciated, heard and seen. For the first time in her life, Charlotte begins to understand emotional intimacy and its effect on the heart --- and how breakable that heart can be.

A young nun is sent by the Vatican to investigate allegations of misconduct at a Catholic school in Iceland. During her time there, a young student at the school watches the school’s headmaster, Father August Franz, fall to his death from the church tower. Two decades later, the child --- now a grown man --- calls the nun back to the scene of the crime. This trip brings her former visit, as well as her years as a young woman in Paris, powerfully and sometimes painfully to life. In Paris, she met an Icelandic girl who she has not seen since, but whose acquaintance changed her life, a relationship she relives all while reckoning with the mystery of August Franz’s death and the abuses of power that may have brought it on.

Inside a barn in Ann Arbor, Michigan, a scientist searching for an Alzheimer’s cure throws a switch --- and finds herself mysteriously transported into her husband’s body. What begins as a botched experiment will change her life --- and the world --- forever. Over two decades later, all across the planet, “flash” technology allows individuals the ability to transfer their consciousness into other bodies for specified periods, paid, registered and legal. Society has been utterly transformed by the process, from travel to warfare to entertainment. But beyond the reach of the law and government regulators is a sordid black market called the darkshare, where desperate “vessels” anonymously rent out their bodies, no questions asked, for any purpose --- sex, drugs, crime...or worse.

Selina Lennox is a Bright Young Thing. Her life is a whirl of parties and drinking, pursued by the press and staying on just the right side of scandal, all while running from the life her parents would choose for her. Lawrence Weston is a penniless painter who stumbles into Selina's orbit one night and can never let her go, even while knowing someone of her stature could never end up with someone of his. Except Selina falls hard for Lawrence, envisioning a life of true happiness. But when tragedy strikes, Selina finds herself choosing what's safe over what's right.

Acclaimed as the ultimate New York movie director, Sidney Lumet began his astonishing five-decades-long directing career with the now classic 12 Angry Men, followed by such landmark films as Serpico, Dog Day Afternoon and Network. His remarkably varied output included award-winning adaptations of plays by Anton Chekhov, Arthur Miller, Tennessee Williams and Eugene O’Neill, whose Long Day’s Journey into Night featured Katharine Hepburn and Ralph Richardson in their most devastating performances. With the help of exclusive interviews with family, colleagues and friends, author Maura Spiegel provides a vibrant portrait of the life and work of this extraordinary director whose influence is felt through generations.