Adult

Sensual, painterly, even prayerful, these 50 poems and 50 full-color original pictures by Sheryl Loeffler deepen into a land of legend and myth, an island populated, past and present, by saints, beggars and pirates, all of whom are blessed by "vivid geometries" of light. Sheryl Loeffler portrays Malta as a country awash in splendor and contradiction, "this land where Christians call God Alla."

Elle Harrison and her pals, Jen, Becky and Susan, travel to Mexico where Jen has scheduled cosmetic surgery. Soon after they arrive, Elle sees the woman in the suite next door fall from her sixth floor balcony. When the room is later occupied by another patient, Elle finds her brutally mutilated body on that same balcony. As dangers swirl and intensify, Elle is forced to face her unresolved issues with her late husband, Charlie, even as she races to find the connections between the murders.

To Annie Gallagher, stories are more than entertainment --- they’re a reminder of her storyteller father. After his death, Annie left Ireland, finding work at Hawkins House. But when authorities threaten to shut down the boardinghouse, Annie fears she may lose her means of funding her dream: a memorial library to honor her father. Furthermore, the postman shows a little too much interest in Annie and in her father’s stories.

As the historian Andrew C. Isenberg reveals, the Hollywood Wyatt Earp is largely a fiction --- one created by Earp himself. The lawman played on-screen by Henry Fonda and Burt Lancaster is stubbornly duty-bound; in actuality, Earp led a life of impulsive lawbreaking and shifting identities. When he wasn’t wearing a badge, he was variously a thief, a brothel bouncer, a gambler and a confidence man.

WHEN THE UNITED STATES SPOKE FRENCH offers a fresh perspective on the tumultuous years of America as a young nation, when the Atlantic world’s first republican experiments were put to the test. It explores the country’s formative period from the viewpoint of five distinguished Frenchmen who took refuge in America after leaving their homes and families in France, crossing the Atlantic, and landing in Philadelphia. Through their stories, we see some of the most famous events of early American history in a new light.

In Hollywood during the Roaring Twenties, Celeste DuFrane has it all. Her father’s work with color movie film opens doors that lead to the stardom she’s always aspired to. But after losing her mother, she discovers that half the estate has been left to a woman accused of killing Celeste’s baby sister before Celeste was even born. Then a surprising discovery begins to fill in the missing pieces: Marguerite DuFrane’s written confession, penned shortly before her death.

From the moment Charles Dickens, the century's best-loved novelist and London's greatest observer, arrived in the city in 1822, he obsessively walked its streets, recording its pleasures, curiosities and cruelties. Now, with him, Judith Flanders leads us through the markets, transport systems, rivers, slums, alleys, cemeteries, gin palaces, chop-houses and entertainment emporia of Dickens' London, to reveal the Victorian capital in all its variety, vibrancy and squalor.

UNREASONABLE MEN takes us into the heart of the epic power struggle that created the progressive movement and defined modern American politics. Recounting the fateful clash between the pragmatic Roosevelt and the radical La Follette, Wolraich’s riveting narrative reveals how a few Republican insurgents broke the conservative chokehold on Congress and initiated the greatest period of political change in America’s history.

In UNDER A WILD SKY, William Souder reveals that John James Audubon not only composed the most famous depictions of birds the world has ever seen, he also composed a brilliant mythology of self, for he discovered that selling subscriptions to his bird paintings, an essential step to underwrite his work, required he sell his own story first. The author charts the life of a driven man who, despite frequent failure, no clear path to success, and rigorous physical and artistic work, became the historical figure we know today.

TUDORS VERSUS STEWARTS brings alive a neglected aspect of British history --- the blood-spattered steps of two small countries on the northern fringes of Europe towards the union of their crowns. Beginning with the dramatic victories of two usurpers --- Henry VII in England and James IV in Scotland --- in the late 15th century, Linda Porter's book sheds new light on Henry VIII, his daughter Elizabeth I and his great-niece, Mary Queen of Scots, still seductive more than 400 years after her death.