April White

Hardcover (1 to 2 lbs)

Oklahoma

How Women Revolutionized Marriage and Found Freedom on the American Frontier

From a historian and senior editor at Atlas Obscura, a fascinating account of the daring nineteenth-century women who moved to South Dakota to divorce their husbands and start living on their own terms

For a woman traveling without her husband in the late nineteenth century, there was only one reason to take the train all the way to Sioux Falls, South Dakota, one sure to garner disapproval from fellow passengers. On the American frontier, the new state offered a tempting freedom often difficult to obtain elsewhere: divorce.

With the laxest divorce laws in the country, five railroad lines, and the finest hotel for hundreds of miles, the small city became the unexpected headquarters for unhappy spouses--infamous around the world as The Divorce Colony. These society divorcees put Sioux Falls at the center of a heated national debate over the future of American marriage. As clashes mounted in the country's gossip columns, church halls, courtrooms and even the White House, the women caught in the crosshairs in Sioux Falls geared up for a fight they didn't go looking for, a fight that was the only path to their freedom.

In The Divorce Colony, writer and historian April White unveils the incredible social, political, and personal dramas that unfolded in Sioux Falls and reverberated around the country through the stories of four very different women: Maggie De Stuers, a descendent of the influential New York Astors whose divorce captivated the world; Mary Nevins Blaine, a daughter-in-law to a presidential hopeful with a vendetta against her meddling mother-in-law; Blanche Molineux, an aspiring actress escaping a husband she believed to be a murderer; and Flora Bigelow Dodge, a vivacious woman determined, against all odds, to obtain a "dignified" divorce.

Entertaining, enlightening, and utterly feminist, The Divorce Colony is a rich, deeply researched tapestry of social history and human drama that reads like a novel. Amidst salacious newspaper headlines, juicy court documents, and high-profile cameos from the era's most well-known players, this story lays bare the journey of the turn-of-the-century socialites who took their lives into their own hands and reshaped the country's attitudes about marriage and divorce.

The Divorce Colony

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Jason Brown

Paul Asay

Light Hardcover (1 lb or less)

Trading Your Plans for a Life That Matters

This riveting story of a top-earning NFL center and his family who walked away from it all to follow God's call to alleviate hunger as farmers-a life they knew absolutely nothing about-illustrates the sacrifice and ultimate reward of obedience to our heavenly Father even when it doesn't make earthly sense.

This riveting story of a top-earning NFL center and his family who walked away from it all to follow God's call to alleviate hunger as farmers-a life they knew absolutely nothing about-illustrates the sacrifice and ultimate reward of obedience to our heavenly Father even when it doesn't make earthly sense.

"A remarkable story where family, deep self-reflection, and an unshakable belief in a path predestined by God triumph over fortune and comfort."-John Harbaugh, head coach of the Baltimore Ravens

NFL lineman Jason Brown had everything in the world. He was the highest-paid center in the game. He lived in luxury. Millions of people saw and admired him every week. Then in 2012, Jason heard a call from God that changed everything.

Leaving behind an incredibly successful football career that paid millions, Jason turned toward a life he knew nothing about- farming. It was only the beginning of his journey. Through third-party mismanagement and a run of bad luck, Jason lost most of the money he'd saved from his NFL days-the same money he'd planned to use to start his new career and donate fresh produce to hungry kids. Only a miracle could save Jason's new dream.

And that's exactly what happened.

Centeredis an inspiring riches-to-rags-to-true-riches story of one man willing to risk it all for the sake of his family. For the sake of loving others. For the sake of seeking God's dreams first-and reminding each of us to do the same.

Centered

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Francine Mathews

Light Paperback (1 lb or less)

Rusty had been absent from the country for over a decade - ever since he was indicted for securities fraud. No one expected him to show up on Nantucket that night. No one, that is, except his killer. Peter Mason, the bog's owner, seems less than moved by his brother's brutal death. The two men had been nursing a decade-old grudge over a woman. Could Peter have killed Rusty, or was Rusty attacked by mistake in the fog - when the killer thought he was Peter?

Death in the Off-Season

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The third book in the recently revamped Nantucket mystery series.

When two children make a grisly discovery on Sconset beach, Detective Meredith Folger finds herself with a perplexing case on her hands. The crime lab can tell her only that the newly unearthed skeletal remains belonged to a woman who was strangled to death somewhere between two and ten years ago-a conclusion that sends Merry sifting through old missing-persons files. But then a shocking piece of news changes everything.

The Massachusetts police have arrested a man they believe to be a serial killer. His five known victims were all women-all strangled. Is Merry's Nantucket skeleton the killer's first victim? And do the state cops have the right man? When the murderer strikes again, he'll draw Merry into a deadly cat and mouse game in which she's the final target....

Story Locale- Nantucket, MA

Series Overview- Following in the footsteps of her father and grandfather, who both held high positions on the local Nantucket police force in their day, 32-year-old detective Merry Folger must go the extra mile to prove her promotion to detective isn't just nepotism.

Death in a Mood Indigo

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The fourth book in the recently reissued Nantucket mystery series.

Merry Folger is more than ready for a romantic vacation with her fiance Peter when fate-and her police chief father-intervenes. Twenty-one-year-old Jay Santorski never should have drowned in the frigid waters off the Nantucket shore. What was the athlete, Harvard scholar, and part-time scalloper doing out alone in the storm-churned bay?

At her father's insistence-and over Peter's objections-Merry returns to the island to investigate, only to be confronted at every turn by false leads and dead ends. And Police Chief John Folger is behind too many of these roadblocks. For the first time, Merry begins to feel she cannot trust her lifelong role model-her own father

Death in a Cold Hard Light

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Fresh from her first murder case, Nantucket detective Merry Folger is unwillingly sucked into her second. When Joe Duarte, a fishing boat captain with decades of experience on the wild seas off Nantucket, is swept overboard during a spring storm, his death is pronounced accidental. But his estranged daughter, Del, is convinced it’s murder. She moves back to Nantucket to get closer to the truth, and enlists her old friend, detective Merry Folger, to help. But Del is also hiding secrets of her own, and the police are not inclined to help her with what they see as a wild goose chase. Merry has to defy her boss—her father—in order to investigate.

Death in Rough Water

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Freya Sampson

A Good Morning America Buzz Pick
A Library Reads Pick

June Jones emerges from her shell to fight for her beloved local library, and through the efforts and support of an eclectic group of library patrons, she discovers life-changing friendships along the way.
 
Lonely librarian June Jones has never left the sleepy English village where she grew up. Shy and reclusive, the thirty-year-old would rather spend her time buried in books than venture out into the world. But when her library is threatened with closure, June is forced to emerge from behind the shelves to save the heart of her community and the place that holds the dearest memories of her mother.

Joining a band of eccentric yet dedicated locals in a campaign to keep the library, June opens herself up to other people for the first time since her mother died. It just so happens that her old school friend Alex Chen is back in town and willing to lend a helping hand. The kindhearted lawyer's feelings for her are obvious to everyone but June, who won't believe that anyone could ever care for her in that way.

To save the place and the books that mean so much to her, June must finally make some changes to her life. For once, she's determined not to go down without a fight. And maybe, in fighting for her cherished library, June can save herself, too.

The Last Chance Library

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Phaedra Patrick

A Novel

The house cleaner of a famous author must carry out her employer's shocking last wish in this delightful new novel from beloved author Phaedra Patrick

Mother of two Liv Green barely scrapes by as a maid to make ends meet, often finding escape in a good book while daydreaming of becoming a writer herself. So she can't believe her luck when she lands a job housekeeping for her personal hero, megabestselling author Essie Starling, a mysterious and intimidating recluse. The last thing Liv expected was to be the only person Essie talks to, which leads to a tenuous friendship.

When Essie passes away suddenly, Liv is astonished to learn that her dying wish was for Liv to complete her final novel. But to do so Liv will have to step into Essie's shoes. As Liv begins to write, she uncovers secrets from the past that reveal a surprising connection between the two women--one that will change Liv's own story forever...

Look for Phaedra Patrick's previous charming bestsellers!

The Curious Charms of Arthur Pepper
Rise and Shine, Benedict Stone
The Library of Lost and Found
The Secrets of Love Story Bridge

The Messy Lives of Book People

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Lia Huber

A Memoir of Food, Faith and Enduring Love (with Recipes)

A noted entrepreneur, food writer, and recipe developer serves up an evocative adventure story abouther quest to find healing, meaning, and a place at the table.
 
Hunger comes to us in many forms, writes Lia Huber--we long to be satisfied not just physically, but emotionally and spiritually as well. Nourished invites readers on Huber's world-roaming search to find the necessary ingredients to nurture all three.
     She begins her quest with an Anthony Bourdain moment in a Guatemalan village: she's slipping fresh vegetables into a communal pot of soup she's cooking up for chronically undernourished children. Village grannies look on disapprovingly... until the kids come back for more.
     From there, Huber takes readers to the Greek island of Corfu, where she learns the joys of simple food and the power of unconditional love; to a Costa Rican jungle house (by way of an 8,000-mile road trip), where she finds hope and healing; and finally to California's wine country, where she steps into the person she was meant to be and discovers her calling to nourish others.

Nourished

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Doris Payne

The True Story of the World's Most Notorious Jewel Thief

Soon to be a Major Motion Picture In the ebullient spirit of Ocean's 8, The Heist, and Thelma & Louise, a sensational and entertaining memoir of the world's most notorious jewel thief--a woman who defied society's prejudices and norms to carve her own path, stealing from elite jewelers to live her dreams. Growing up during the Depression in the segregated coal town of Slab Fork, West Virginia, Doris Payne was told her dreams were unattainable for poor black girls like her. Surrounded by people who sought to limit her potential, Doris vowed to turn the tables after the owner of a jewelry store threw her out when a white customer arrived. Neither racism nor poverty would hold her back; she would get what she wanted and help her mother escape an abusive relationship. Using her southern charm, quick wit, and fascination with magic as her tools, Payne began shoplifting small pieces of jewelry from local stores. Over the course of six decades, her talents grew with each heist. Becoming an expert world-class jewel thief, she daringly pulled off numerous diamond robberies and her Jewish boyfriend fenced the stolen gems to Hollywood celebrities. Doris's criminal exploits went unsolved well into the 1970s--partly because the stores did not want to admit that they were duped by a black woman. Eventually realizing Doris was using him, her boyfriend turned her in. She was arrested after stealing a diamond ring in Monte Carlo that was valued at more than half a million dollars. But even prison couldn't contain this larger-than-life personality who cleverly used nuns as well as various ruses to help her break out. With her arrest in 2013 in San Diego, Doris's fame skyrocketed when media coverage of her astonishing escapades exploded. Today, at eighty-seven, Doris, as bold and vibrant as ever, lives in Atlanta, and is celebrated for her glamorous legacy. She sums up her adventurous career best: "It beat being a teacher or a maid." A rip-roaringly fun and exciting story as captivating and audacious as Catch Me if You Can and Can You Ever Forgive Me?--Diamond Doris is the portrait of a captivating anti-hero who refused to be defined by the prejudices and mores of a hypocritical society.

Diamond Doris

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Elena Gorokhova

A Memoir

Elena Gorokhova's A Mountain of Crumbs is the moving story of a Soviet girl who discovers the truths adults are hiding from her and the lies her homeland lives by.

Elena's country is no longer the majestic Russia of literature or the tsars, but a nation struggling to retain its power and its pride. Born with a desire to explore the world beyond her borders, Elena finds her passion in the complexity of the English language--but in the Soviet Union of the 1960s such a passion verges on the subversive. Elena is controlled by the state the same way she is controlled by her mother, a mirror image of her motherland: overbearing, protective, difficult to leave. In the battle between a strong-willed daughter and her authoritarian mother, the daughter, in the end, must break free and leave in order to survive.

Through Elena's captivating voice, we learn not only the stories of Russian family life in the second half of the twentieth century, but also the story of one rebellious citizen whose curiosity and determination finally transport her to a new world. It is an elegy to the lost country of childhood, where those who leave can never return.

A Mountain of Crumbs

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Courtney Cole

An enchanted Christmas dress brings two generations of women together for the magic of the season in this delightful holiday story from New York Times bestselling author Courtney Cole. One Dress. Two Women. The Magic of the Holiday Season. When hopeful fashionista Meg Julliard must return to her hometown of Chicago to manage her late father's apartment building, she thinks her dreams of making it in the fashion business are over. Add in her father's eclectic roster of tenants who all need Meg's attention (ASAP!), a host of building related disasters, and a handsome handyman she keeps embarrassing herself in front of, and this has all the makings for the worst Christmas she's ever had. Ellie Wade, one of the building's longtime residents, is also not feeling the Christmas Joy this year. She is preparing to move into a nursing home (reluctantly), and is in the process of sorting through her belongings to downsize. Every corner of her apartment holds memories, some good, some bad. But there's one dress she hesitates to pack up as it represents both the best and worst night of her life. Ellie and Meg strike up an unlikely friendship and the story of Ellie's dress comes out. Ellie gifts the gorgeous dress to Meg, hoping that it will bring her more luck, on the condition that she wear it to the building's Christmas party. The dress magically fits, and while it eventually leads to the best night of Meg's life, it also acts as inspiration for Meg to follow a life-long dream of her own, a dream that will help save the crumbling Parkview West, and restore it to its former glory, and keep it as a safe home for all of the current tenants. The dress and the magic of the holiday season helps both Meg and Ellie find their own happy endings.

The Christmas Dress

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Bradford Pearson

Paperback (1 to 2 lbs)

A True Story of Football, Incarceration, and Resistance in World War II America

"One of Ten Best History Books of 2021." --Smithsonian Magazine

For fans of The Boys in the Boat and The Storm on Our Shores, this impeccably researched, deeply moving, never-before-told "tale that ultimately stands as a testament to the resilience of the human spirit" (Garrett M. Graff, New York Times bestselling author) about a World War II incarceration camp in Wyoming and its extraordinary high school football team.

In the spring of 1942, the United States government forced 120,000 Japanese Americans from their homes in California, Oregon, Washington, and Arizona and sent them to incarceration camps across the West. Nearly 14,000 of them landed on the outskirts of Cody, Wyoming, at the base of Heart Mountain.

Behind barbed wire fences, they faced racism, cruelty, and frozen winters. Trying to recreate comforts from home, they established Buddhist temples and sumo wrestling pits. Kabuki performances drew hundreds of spectators--yet there was little hope.

That is, until the fall of 1943, when the camp's high school football team, the Eagles, started its first season and finished it undefeated, crushing the competition from nearby, predominantly white high schools. Amid all this excitement, American politics continued to disrupt their lives as the federal government drafted men from the camps for the front lines--including some of the Eagles. As the team's second season kicked off, the young men faced a choice to either join the Army or resist the draft. Teammates were divided, and some were jailed for their decisions.

The Eagles of Heart Mountain honors the resilience of extraordinary heroes and the power of sports in a "timely and utterly absorbing account of a country losing its moral way, and a group of its young citizens who never did" (Evan Ratliff, author of The Mastermind).

The Eagles of Heart Mountain

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Julia Bryan Thomas

"A compelling story of love, courage and forgiveness. Highly recommended." -Historical Novel Society

"A sure bet for readers of personal war stories and those who want to know, 'What about the women and children?'" -Booklist

Inspired by true events, For Those Who Are Lost begins on the eve of the Nazi invasion of the island of Guernsey, when terrified parents have a choice to make: send their children alone to England, or keep the family together and risk whatever may come to their villages.

Ava and Joseph Simon reluctantly put their 9-year-old son, Henry, and four-year-old daughter, Catherine, in the care of their son's teacher, who will escort them on a boat to mainland England. Just as the ferry is about to leave, the teacher's sister, Lily appears. The two trade places: Helen doesn't want to leave Guernsey, and Lily is desperate for a fresh start.

Lily is the one who accompanies the children to England, and Lily is the one who lets Henry get on a train by himself, deciding in a split second to take Catherine with her and walk the other way. That split-second decision lingers long after the war ends, impacting the rest of their lives.

Perfect for readers of The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Society, For Those Who Are Lost is at once heartbreaking, thought-provoking, and uplifting.

For Those Who Are Lost

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Marie Benedict

Victoria Christopher Murray

The Instant New York Times Bestseller! A Good Morning America* Book Club Pick! "Historical fiction at its best!"* A remarkable novel about J. P. Morgan's personal librarian, Belle da Costa Greene, the Black American woman who was forced to hide her true identity and pass as white in order to leave a lasting legacy that enriched our nation, from New York Times bestselling authors Marie Benedict and Victoria Christopher Murray. In her twenties, Belle da Costa Greene is hired by J. P. Morgan to curate a collection of rare manuscripts, books, and artwork for his newly built Pierpont Morgan Library. Belle becomes a fixture in New York City society and one of the most powerful people in the art and book world, known for her impeccable taste and shrewd negotiating for critical works as she helps create a world-class collection. But Belle has a secret, one she must protect at all costs. She was born not Belle da Costa Greene but Belle Marion Greener. She is the daughter of Richard Greener, the first Black graduate of Harvard and a well-known advocate for equality. Belle's complexion isn't dark because of her alleged Portuguese heritage that lets her pass as white--her complexion is dark because she is African American. The Personal Librarian tells the story of an extraordinary woman, famous for her intellect, style, and wit, and shares the lengths she must go to--for the protection of her family and her legacy--to preserve her carefully crafted white identity in the racist world in which she lives.

The Personal Librarian

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Joe Coulombe

Patty Civalleri

Do Business Your Way and Still Beat the Big Guys

Build an iconic shopping experience that your customers love--and a work environment that your employees love being a part of--using this blueprint from Trader Joe's visionary founder, Joe Coulombe.

Infuse your organization with a distinct personality and culture that draws customers in a way that simply competing on price cannot.

Joe Coulombe founded what would become Trader Joe's in the late 1960s and helped shape it into the beloved, quirky food chain it is today. Realizing early on that he could not compete and win by playing the same game his bigger competitors were playing, he decided to build a store for educated people of somewhat modest means. He brought in unusual products from around the world and promoted them in the Fearless Flyer, providing customers with background on how they were sourced and their nutritional value. He also gave the stores a tiki theme to reinforce the exotic trader ship concept with employees wearing Hawaiian shirts.  

In this way, Joe laid down a blueprint for other business owners to follow to build their own unique shopping experience that customers love, and a work environment that employees love being a part of. 

In Becoming Trader Joe, Joe shares the lessons he learned by challenging the status quo and rethinking the way a business operates. He shows readers of all types:

 * How moving from a pure analytical approach to a more creative, problem-solving approach can drive innovation.
 * How finding an affluent niche of passionate customers can be a better strategy than competing on price and volume.
 * How questioning all aspects of the way you do business leads to powerful results.
 * How to build a business around your values and identity. 

Becoming Trader Joe

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Meghan MacLean Weir

[A] novel of family, fame, and religion that tells the emotionally stirring, wildly captivating story of the seventeen-year-old daughter of an evangelical preacher, star of the family's hit reality show, and the secret pregnancy that threatens to blow their entire world apart.

The Book of Essie

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Ronald Olivier

Craig Borlase

Jim Cymbala

My Journey to Freedom, Forgiveness, and Redemption

In one of America's most notorious prisons, a young man sentenced to life without parole miraculously found faith, forgiveness, redemption, and restoration. In 27 Summers Ronald Olivier shares his dramatic and powerful story and offers proof that God can bring healing and hope to even the darkest circumstances. As a teenager Ronald Olivier ran wild in the streets of New Orleans, selling drugs, stealing cars, and finally killing someone on what was supposed to be the happiest day of the year--Christmas Day. Facing the consequences of his crime, he remembered what his mother once said. "Baby, if you ever have real trouble, the kind that I can't get you out of, you can always call on Jesus." So he did. Ron was sentenced to life in prison without parole. Through the agony of solitary confinement and multiple transfers into increasingly dangerous prison environments, Ron kept seeking God for healing and hope. Finally, after being locked up for twenty-seven summers at the notorious Louisiana State Penitentiary--known as Angola--Ron was miraculously released. Remarkably, he became the director of chaplains at Mississippi State Penitentiary. Today, Ron loves to combat hopelessness, wherever he finds it, by saying, "Don't tell me what God can't do!" Readers will learn new insights about faith and patience from a man who spent almost three decades in a cruel and violent environment; be encouraged, like Ron, to find grace and forgiveness to overcome the pain of their past; and find hope that God can redeem and restore anyone. Ron's fascinating story brilliantly displays God's power to transform individuals, families, and communities, reminding us that there truly is nothing God can't do.

27 Summers

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Ron Douglas

More Than 200 Simple and Delicious Secret Restaurant Recipes--All for $10 or Less!

New York Times bestselling author Ron Douglas reveals even more copycat recipes from your family's favorite restaurants--all for $10 or less!

In his blockbuster New York Times bestselling cookbook, America's Most Wanted Recipes, Ron Douglas proved that you don't need to break the bank or even leave your house to enjoy the meals you love most. With his copycat recipes from the most popular chain restaurants across America--including The Cheesecake Factory, KFC, Olive Garden, P.F. Chang's, Red Lobster, Outback Steakhouse, and many more--your family can have these meals "on demand" from your very own kitchen.

Now, Ron gives readers even more delicious, time-saving, and easy-to-make restaurant recipes--and he guarantees that they'll all cost $10 or less. Eating on a budget has never been easier. These best-kept secrets will save you thousands of dollars a year and put delicious meals on the table that the whole family will enjoy.

More of America's Most Wanted Recipes

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Delicious Recipes from Your Family's Favorite Restaurants

Ron Douglas reveals the secret recipes from America’s restaurants—The Cheesecake Factory™, The Olive Garden™, P.F. Chang’s™, Red Lobster™, and many more—and shows readers how to make them at home for a fraction of the price. The average American family eats out three or more times per week, which translates into hundreds of dollars spent on food each month. In these hard economic times, families simply can’t afford to keep paying these high prices. And Ron Douglas has spent the past five years of his life ensuring that we won’t have to. With the help of a test kitchen and more than 45,000 tasters, he uncovered the carefully guarded recipes of the most popular meals at restaurants across the country. With his easy-to-follow steps, families can now enjoy the meals they love most at a price they can actually afford. KFC’s Famous Fried Chicken, Chili’s Southwest Chicken Chili, Olive Garden’s Breadsticks, and Cheesecake Factory’s Oreo Cheesecake are just a few of the many famous and delicious recipes included. And because each recipe has been tested by Ron’s incredible network of tens of thousands of testers, they are indistinguishable from the originals. These best-kept secrets can save you thousands of dollars a year and will put delicious meals on the table that the whole family will enjoy.

America's Most Wanted Recipes

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Rossi Anastopoulo

A History of America in 11 Pies

A delicious and delightful narrative history of pie in America, from the colonial era through the civil rights movement and beyondFrom the pumpkin pie gracing the Thanksgiving table to the apple pie at the Fourth of July picnic, nearly every American shares a certain nostalgia for a simple circle of crust and filling. But America's history with pie has not always been so sweet. After all, it was a slice of cherry pie at the Woolworth's lunch counter on a cool February afternoon that helped to spark the Greensboro sit-ins and ignited a wave of anti-segregation protests across the South during the civil rights movement. Molasses pie, meanwhile, captures the legacies of racial trauma and oppression passed down from America's history of slavery, and Jell-O pie exemplifies the pressures and contradictions of gender roles in an evolving modern society. We all know the warm comfort of the so-called "All-American" apple pie . . . but just how did pie become the symbol of a nation? 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. For centuries, pie has been a malleable icon, co-opted for new social and political purposes. Here, Anastopoulo traces the pies woven into our history, following the evolution of our country across centuries of innovation and change. With corresponding recipes for each chapter and sidebars of quirky facts throughout, Sweet Land of Liberty is an entertaining, informative, and utterly charming food history for bakers, dessert lovers, and history aficionados alike. Ultimately, the story of pie is the story of America itself, and it's time to dig in.

Sweet Land of Liberty

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Ben McGrath

An American Odyssey

"This quietly profound book belongs on the shelf next to Jon Krakauer's Into the Wild." --The New York Times
 
The riveting true story of Dick Conant, an American folk hero who, over the course of more than twenty years, canoed solo thousands of miles of American rivers--and then disappeared near the Outer Banks of North Carolina. This book "contains everything: adventure, mystery, travelogue, and unforgettable characters" (David Grann, best-selling author of Killers of the Flower Moon).

For decades, Dick Conant paddled the rivers of America, covering the Mississippi, Yellowstone, Ohio, Hudson, as well as innumerable smaller tributaries. These solo excursions were epic feats of planning, perseverance, and physical courage. At the same time, Conant collected people wherever he went, creating a vast network of friends and acquaintances who would forever remember this brilliant and charming man even after a single meeting.

Ben McGrath, a staff writer at The New Yorker, was one of those people. In 2014 he met Conant by chance just north of New York City as Conant paddled down the Hudson, headed for Florida. McGrath wrote a widely read article about their encounter, and when Conant's canoe washed up a few months later, without any sign of his body, McGrath set out to find the people whose lives Conant had touched--to capture a remarkable life lived far outside the staid confines of modern existence.
 
Riverman is a moving portrait of a complex and fascinating man who was as troubled as he was charismatic, who struggled with mental illness and self-doubt, and was ultimately unable to fashion a stable life for himself; who traveled alone and yet thrived on connection and brought countless people together in his wake. It is also a portrait of an America we rarely see: a nation of unconventional characters, small river towns, and long-forgotten waterways.
 

Riverman

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Erin French

A Cook's Story; Remaking a Life from Scratch

From Erin French, owner and chef of the critically acclaimed The Lost Kitchen, a TIME world dining destination, a life-affirming memoir about survival, renewal, and finding a community to lift her up Long before The Lost Kitchen became a world dining destination with every seating filled the day the reservation book opens each spring, Erin French was a girl roaming barefoot on a 25-acre farm, a teenager falling in love with food while working the line at her dad’s diner and a young woman finding her calling as a professional chef at her tiny restaurant tucked into a 19th century mill. This singular memoir—a classic American story—invites readers to Erin's corner of her beloved Maine to share the real person behind the “girl from Freedom” fairytale, and the not-so-picture-perfect struggles that have taken every ounce of her strength to overcome, and that make Erin’s life triumphant. In Finding Freedom, Erin opens up to the challenges, stumbles, and victories that have led her to the exact place she was ever meant to be, telling stories of multiple rock-bottoms, of darkness and anxiety, of survival as a jobless single mother, of pills that promised release but delivered addiction, of a man who seemed to offer salvation but in the end ripped away her very sense of self. And of the beautiful son who was her guiding light as she slowly rebuilt her personal and culinary life around the solace she found in food—as a source of comfort, a sense of place, as a way of bringing goodness into the world. Erin’s experiences with deep loss and abiding hope, told with both honesty and humor, will resonate with women everywhere who are determined to find their voices, create community, grow stronger and discover their best-selves despite seemingly impossible odds. Set against the backdrop of rural Maine and its lushly intense, bountiful seasons, Erin reveals the passion and courage needed to invent oneself anew, and the poignant, timeless connections between food and generosity, renewal and freedom.

Finding Freedom

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Kerry Winfrey

A charming and heartwarming new romantic comedy by the acclaimed author of Waiting for Tom Hanks, Kerry Winfrey. Teddy Phillips never thought she would still be spending every day surrounded by toys at almost thirty years old. But working at a vintage toy store is pretty much all she has going on in her life after being unceremoniously dumped by her longtime boyfriend. The one joy that she has kept is her not-so-guilty pleasure: Everett's Place, a local children's show hosted by Everett St. James, a man whom Teddy finds very soothing . . . and, okay, cute. Teddy finds the courage to write to him, feeling slightly like one of the children who write to him on his show. He always gives sound advice and seems like he has everything figured out--and he pretty much does: Everett has a great support system, wonderful friends, and his dream job. But there is still that persistent feeling in the back of his mind that something is missing. When a woman named Theodora starts writing to Everett, he is drawn to her honesty and vulnerability. They continue writing to each other, all the while living their lives without meeting. When their worlds collide, however, they must both let go of their fears and figure out what they truly want--and if the future they want includes each other.

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Sweet Land of Liberty

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Very Sincerely Yours

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