Adult

Adding to a legendary career that includes a Pulitzer Prize, an Academy Award, Obie Awards, and Lifetime Achievement Awards from the National Cartoonist Society and the Writers Guild of America, Jules Feiffer now presents his first noir graphic novel. KILL MY MOTHER, a loving homage to the pulp-inspired films and comic strips of his youth, centers on five formidable women from two unrelated families, linked fatefully and fatally by a has-been, hard-drinking private detective.

When Rasl, a thief and ex-military engineer, discovers the lost journals of Nikola Tesla, he bridges the gap between modern physics and history's most notorious scientist. Soon Rasl finds himself in possession of humankind's greatest and most dangerous secret.

On June 14, 1940, German tanks entered a silent and nearly deserted Paris. Eight days later, France accepted a humiliating defeat and foreign occupation. WHEN PARIS WENT DARK evokes the detail of daily life in a city under occupation, and the brave people who fought against the darkness. Relying on a range of resources, Ronald C. Rosbottom has forged a groundbreaking book that will forever influence how we understand those dark years in the City of Light.

Cultural commentator John Strausbaugh's THE VILLAGE is the first complete history of Greenwich Village, the prodigiously influential and infamous New York City neighborhood. From the Dutch settlers and Washington Square patricians, to the Triangle Shirtwaist fire and Prohibition-era speakeasies; from Abstract Expressionism and beatniks, to Stonewall and AIDS, the connecting narratives of THE VILLAGE tell the story of America itself.

One of the them was a military genius, one murdered his mother and fiddled while Rome burned, another earned the nickname "sphincter artist". Six of their number were assassinated, two committed suicide --- and five of them were elevated to the status of gods. They have come down to posterity as the "twelve Caesars." Matthew Dennison offers a beautifully crafted sequence of colorful biographies of each emperor, triumphantly evoking the luxury, license, brutality and sophistication of imperial Rome at its zenith.

In the spring of 1553, three ships sailed northeast from London into uncharted waters. The scale of their ambition was breathtaking. Drawing on the latest navigational science and the new spirit of enterprise and discovery sweeping the Tudor capital, they sought a northern passage to Asia and its riches. This exceptional endeavour was one of the boldest in British history, and its impact was profound. Although the “merchant adventurers” failed to reach China as they had hoped, their achievements would lay the foundations for England’s expansion on a global stage.

THE OPIUM WAR is both the story of China’s first conflict with the West and an analysis of the country’s contemporary self-image. It explores how China’s national myths mold its interactions with the outside world, how public memory is spun to serve the present; and how delusion and prejudice have bedeviled its relationship with the modern West.

Now marking its bicentennial, the War of 1812 remains the least understood of America’s wars. Neither side gained a clear triumph, but in truth it was our second war of independence, settling once and for all that America would never again submit to Britain. It featured humiliating disasters and stirring successes. Here, Hugh Howard brings a forgotten conflict alive and offers a vivid portrait of two key figures at its center: President James Madison and his charismatic, courageous first lady Dolley. 

History is about so much more than memorizing facts. It is, as more than half of the word suggests, about the story. And, told in the right way, it is the greatest one ever written: Good and evil, triumph and tragedy, despicable acts of barbarism and courageous acts of heroism. MIRACLES AND MASSACRES is history as you've never heard it told. It's incredible events that you never knew existed. And it's stories so important and relevant to today that you won't have to ask, Why didn't they teach me this? 

It was the final speech of a long day when hundreds of thousands gathered on the Mall for the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. Martin Luther King Jr. lifted the crowd when he told of his dream that all Americans would join together to realize the founding ideal of equality. His speech still inspires us 50 years later, but its very power has also narrowed our understanding of the march. In this insightful history, William P. Jones restores the march to its full significance.