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Reviews

Reviews

by Catherine Raven - Memoir, Nonfiction

When Catherine Raven finished her PhD in biology, she built herself a tiny cottage on an isolated plot of land in Montana. She viewed it as a way station, a temporary rest stop where she could gather her nerves and fill out applications for what she hoped would be a real job that would help her fit into society. In the meantime, she taught remotely and led field classes in nearby Yellowstone National Park. Then one day she realized that a mangy-looking fox was showing up on her property every afternoon at 4:15 p.m. She sat as close to him as she dared and began reading to him from THE LITTLE PRINCE. Her scientific training had taught her not to anthropomorphize animals, yet as she grew to know him, his personality revealed itself and they became friends.

by Kate Moore - Biography, History, Nonfiction

1860: As the clash between the states rolls slowly to a boil, Elizabeth Packard is facing her own battle. Her husband of 21 years is plotting against her because he feels increasingly threatened --- by Elizabeth's intellect, independence and unwillingness to stifle her own thoughts. One summer morning, Theophilus has her committed to an insane asylum. The conditions inside the Illinois State Hospital in Jacksonville, Illinois, are horrific, and there are many rational women on her ward who tell the same story: they've been committed not because they need medical treatment, but to keep them in line. No one is willing to fight for their freedom, and they cannot possibly fight for themselves. But Elizabeth is about to discover that the merit of losing everything is that you then have nothing to lose.

by Les Standiford - History, Nonfiction

Millions have sat under the “big top,” watching as trapeze artists glide and clowns entertain, but few know the captivating stories behind the men whose creativity, ingenuity and determination created one of our country’s most beloved pastimes. In BATTLE FOR THE BIG TOP, New York Times bestselling author Les Standiford brings to life a remarkable era when three circus kings --- James Bailey, P.T. Barnum and John Ringling --- all vied for control of the vastly profitable and influential American Circus. Ultimately, the rivalry of these three men resulted in the creation of an institution that would surpass all intentions and, for 147 years, hold a nation spellbound.

by Alan Maimon - Nonfiction, Sociology

When Alan Maimon got the assignment in 2000 to report on life in rural Eastern Kentucky, his editor at the Louisville Courier-Journal told him to cover the region “like a foreign correspondent would.” Maimon had landed in a place in the vice grip of ecological devastation and a corporate-made opioid epidemic. While reporting on the intense religious allegiances, the bitter, bare-knuckled political rivalries, and the faltering attempts to emerge from a century-long coal-based economy, Maimon learns that everything --- and nothing --- you have heard about the region is true. And far from being a foreign place, it is a region whose generations-long struggles are driven by quintessentially American forces.

by Dara Saville - Medicine, Nature, Nonfiction

An accomplished herbalist and geographer, Dara Saville has produced an ecological manual for developing relationships with the land and plants in a new theoretical approach to using herbal medicines. Designed to increase our understanding of plants’ rapport with their environment, this trailblazing herbal speaks to our innate connection to place and provides a pathway to understanding the medicinal properties of plants through their ecological relationships. With 39 plant profiles and detailed color photographs, Saville provides an extensive materia medica in which she offers practical tools and information alongside inspiration for working with plants in a way that restores our connection to the natural world.

by Elizabeth Nyamayaro - Memoir, Nonfiction

When a severe drought hit her village in Zimbabwe, Elizabeth, then eight, had no idea that this moment of utter devastation would come to define her life purpose. Unable to move from hunger, she encountered a United Nations aid worker who gave her a bowl of warm porridge and saved her life. This transformative moment inspired Elizabeth to become a humanitarian, and she vowed to dedicate her life to giving back to her community, her continent and the world. Grounded by the African concept of ubuntu --- “I am because we are” --- I AM A GIRL FROM AFRICA charts Elizabeth’s quest in pursuit of her dream from the small village of Goromonzi to Harare, London, New York and beyond.

by Neal Hutcheson - Biography, Essays, Nonfiction

Marvin “Popcorn” Sutton was raised in a Southern Appalachian community steeped in tradition. He learned to make moonshine at an early age and continued to pursue the perfection of the craft throughout his life. At the same time, he honed a natural talent for performance and came to fill not only the role but the appearance of the master moonshiners he had known as a child. Ultimately appearing in documentaries, television shows and heritage events, he brought the traditional craft of a secret brotherhood into the light. Now remembered as a folk hero who would literally live free or die, THE MOONSHINER POPCORN SUTTON captures the true story of the man behind the myth in a celebration of craft, heritage and irrepressible character.

by Dorothy Wickenden - History, Nonfiction

Harriet Tubman --- no-nonsense, funny, uncannily prescient and strategically brilliant --- was one of the most important conductors on the underground railroad and hid the enslaved men, women and children she rescued in the basement kitchens of Martha Wright, Quaker mother of seven, and Frances Seward, wife of Governor, then Senator, then Secretary of State William H. Seward. Beginning two decades before the Civil War, when Tubman was still enslaved and Martha and Frances were young women bound by law and tradition, THE AGITATORS ends two decades after the war, in a radically changed United States.

by Andrew Morton - Biography, History, Nonfiction

They were the closest of sisters and the best of friends. But when their uncle Edward Vlll decided to abdicate the throne, the dynamic between Elizabeth and Margaret was dramatically altered. Elizabeth would always look upon her younger sister's antics with a kind of stoical amusement, but Margaret's struggle to find a place and position inside the royal system --- and her fraught relationship with its expectations --- was often a source of tension. From the idyll of their cloistered early life, through their hidden wartime lives, into the divergent paths they took following their father's death and Elizabeth's ascension to the throne, Andrew Morton's book explores their relationship over the years.

by Carol S. Pearson - Nonfiction, Personal Growth, Psychology, Self-Help

Renowned archetype expert Carol S. Pearson guides you through the journey of discovering and understanding the archetypes active in your life. These universal themes may be invisible to you now, but through this book you will learn how they inspire the behaviors and relationships that drive your life story. As you become conscious of your archetypal potential, you can cultivate the hero or heroine within you by living your stories consciously, in your own unique way. WHAT STORIES ARE YOU LIVING? provides a roadmap for achieving deeper self-understanding, and includes clear steps for reshaping your life stories, awakening your authenticity, and finding meaning, direction and purpose.