"Joe King Oliver is at a crossroads: with his grandmother on death's door, he tasked with tracking down his estranged father, a man he discovers has been out of prison for more than a decade. He also seeks to protect another family, a mysterious woman and her young daughter on the run from an abusive billionaire who'll stop at nothing to retrieve them. Heartfelt, pulse-pounding, and undeniably sexy, Been Wrong So Long It Feels Like Right shows Walter Mosley at his very best"-- Provided by publisher.

"This is the story of three revolutionary American musicians, the maestro jazzmen who orchestrated the chords that throb at the soul of twentieth-century America. Duke Ellington [...], Louis Daniel Armstrong [...], William James Basie [...]. What is far less known about these groundbreakers is that they were bound not just by their music or even the discrimination that they, like nearly all Black performers of their day, routinely encountered. Each defied and ultimately overcame racial boundaries by opening America's eyes and souls to the magnificence of their music. In the process they wrote the soundtrack for the civil rights movement. Based on more than 250 interviews, this exhaustively researched book brings alive the history of Black America in the early- to mid-1900s through the singular lens of the country's most gifted, engaging, and enduring African American musicians." -Från bokens baksida.

"Show Boat" stands as one of the most significant and influential works in the history of American musical theater. Born from the collaboration between legendary composer Jerome Kern, lyricist Oscar Hammerstein II, and novelist Edna Ferber, this masterpiece revolutionized the stage by integrating a serious, complex narrative with a sophisticated musical score. Set against the sweeping backdrop of the Mississippi River from the 1880s through the 1920s, the story follows the lives of the performers, stagehands, and dockworkers aboard the 'Cotton Blossom' floating palace. This powerful drama explores enduring themes of racial prejudice, tragic romance, and the evolving landscape of American society. Through iconic compositions such as "Ol' Man River," "Can't Help Lovin' Dat Man," and "Make Believe," "Show Boat" captures the soul of a nation in transition. The work broke new ground by addressing social injustice and systemic inequality with a depth previously unseen in musical comedy, forever changing the trajectory of the Broadway stage. As a cornerstone of the American canon, "Show Boat" remains a poignant and musically rich exploration of love and hardship along the Great River. This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important, and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work was reproduced from the original artifact, and remains as true to the original work as possible. Therefore, you may see the original copyright references, library stamps (as most of these works have been housed in our most important libraries around the world), and other notations in the work. This work is in the public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work. As a reproduction of a historical artifact, this work may contain missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.

When the commanding officer of the U.S.S. Caine is transferred, a new captain, strict disciplinarian Philip Francis Queeg, replaces him. But Queeg's actions go beyond strictness into psychopathology as he brings the ship and its crew to the brink of destruction. This necessitates a brutal shipboard court-martial that threatens by turns to clear or condemn him. In adapting his novel for the theater, Herman Wouk focused on the heart of the story: the trial and the man at its center. The result is a grimly effective picture of Queeg's disintegration from perfectionist to paranoid that acts as an indictment not only of an individual but of a society that produces such men.

I'm going out and have a real life. I'm going to be somebody. - Esther Blodgett Few Hollywood films have had the impact of the original version of A Star Is Born. Released in 1937 and starring Janet Gaynor and Fredric March, it was nominated for nine Academy Awards and won two (for best original story and best cinematography). Since then, the movie has been remade three times, attesting to its continued allure. But none have matched the genius and wit of the original. A Star Is Born speaks to the longing for fame and its costs. Young Esther Blodgett leaves her home in North Dakota to make her way as an actress in Hollywood. She attracts the attention of cinema heartthrob Norman Maine, who not only falls in love with her but sees her star potential. He shepherds her through to acclaim. In the meantime, Norman Maine's career plunges in the opposite direction. He was once a favorite leading man, but his alcoholism plunges him into escapades that embarrass the studio and destroy his talents as an actor. Esther's love for Norman is undying, but in the end she cannot protect him from himself. This magnificent and poignant story illumines the ups and downs of celebrity--its pains, its pleasures, its glamor, and its uncertainties. We experience the splendor of Hollywood at the height of its Golden Age. We are also see the heartbreaks and tragedies that accompanied it.

"The acclaimed bestselling author of Sandwich is back with a wonderful novel, full of laughter and heart, about marriage, family, and what happens when life doesn't go as planned. If you loved Rocky and her family on vacation on Cape Cod, wait until you join them at home two years later. (And if this is your first meeting with this crew, get ready to laugh and cry-and relate.) Rocky, still anxious, nostalgic, and funny, is living in Western Massachusetts with her husband Nick and their daughter Willa, who's back home after college. Their son, Jamie, has taken a new job in New York, and Mort, Rocky's widowed father, has moved in. It all couldn't be more ridiculously normal . . . until Rocky finds herself obsessed with a local accident that only tangentially affects them-and with a medical condition that, she hopes, won't affect them at all. With her signature wit and wisdom, Catherine Newman explores the hidden rules of family, the heavy weight of uncertainty, and the gnarly fact that people-no matter how much you love them-are not always exactly who you want them to be"--

Reefer Madness , a classic in the annals of hemp literature, is the popular social history of marijuana use in America. Beginning with the hemp farming if George Washington, author Larry "Ratso" Sloman traces the fascinating story of our nation's love-hate relationship with the resilient weed we know as marijuana. Herein we find antiheroes such as Allen Ginsberg, Robert Mitchum (the first Hollywood actor busted for pot), Louis Armstrong (who smoked pot every day), the Beatles, and more rapscallions standing up for, supporting, smoking, and politicizing the bounties of marijuana. With a new afterword by Michael Simmons, who has written for Rolling Stone , LA Weekly , and High Times , on the progress of the hemp movement and the importance of medical marijuana, Reefer Madness is a classic that goes on.

The hilarious and controversial host of HBO’s Real Time with Bill Maher has written his funniest, most opinionated, and most necessary book ever—a brilliantly astute and acerbically funny vivisection of American life, politics, and culture. Some of the smartest commentary about what’s happening in America is coming from a comedian—this comedian being Bill Maher. If you want to understand what’s wrong with this country, it turns out that one of the best informed and most thought-provoking analysts is this very funny pothead. The book was inspired by the “editorial” Bill delivers at the end of each episode of Real Time. These editorials are direct-to-camera sermons about culture, politics, and what’s happening in the world. To put this book together, Maher reviewed more than a decade of his editorials, rewriting, reimagining, and updating them, and adding new material to speak exactly to the moment we’re in. Free speech, cops, drugs, race, religion, the generations, cancel culture, the parties, the media, show biz, romance, health—Maher covers it all. The result is a hugely entertaining work of commentary about American culture in the tradition of Mark Twain, Will Rogers, and H. L. Mencken.

From bestselling author Patricia Polacco's family tree -- the true story of young Clara Barton. Animals and flowers were Clara's best friends. She had a special way with critters and found joy in the beauty that sprang from the soil. But whenever Clara talked, her words didn't come out right. As hard as she tried, she could not get over her lisp. Clara's older brother Davie understood that his sister was gifted. When folks made fun of Clara's stilted words, Davie was always at her side reminding her that she had a talent for healing creatures. Davie told his sister, "Some day you are going to be a very great lady." And that's exactly what happened. Clara Barton became one of the most famous medical practitioners of all time, and founded the American Red Cross.

A young readers' companion to the ten-part documentary series outlines provocative arguments against official American historical records to reveal the origins of conservatism and the obstacles to progressive change.

In this vibrant bilingual picture book biography of musician Tito Puente, readers will dance along to the beat of this mambo king's life. Tito Puente loved banging pots and pans as a child, but what he really dreamed of was having his own band one day. From Spanish Harlem to the Grammy Awards—and all the beats in between—this is the true life story of a boy whose passion for music turned him into the "King of Mambo." Award-winning author-illustrator duo Monica Brown and Rafael López bring the remarkable story of this talented legend to life in this Pura Belpré Honor Book. Supports the Common Core State Standards.

"Fine artist, activist, and Titans actor Chella Man uses his own experiences as a deaf, transgender, genderqueer, Jewish person of color to talk about cultivating self-acceptance and acting as one's own representation"-- Publisher marketing.

As a child, Alan Rabinowitz stuttered uncontrollably--except when he spoke to animals, then he was fluent. Follow the world-renowned wild cat conservationist Dr. Rabinowitz's remarkable life as he finds a voice to speak for those who can't speak for themselves.

I am a story. So are you. So is everyone. Julius Lester says, "I write because our lives are stories. If enough of these stories are told, then perhaps we will begin to see that our lives are the same story. The differences are merely in the details." Now Mr. Lester shares his own story as he explores what makes each of us special. Karen Barbour's dramatic, vibrant paintings speak to the heart of Lester's unique vision, truly a celebration of all of us.

"The Bradford-Shmulkin family is falling apart. A very modern blend of Russian, Jewish, Korean, and New England WASP, they love one another deeply but the pressures of life in an unstable America are fraying their bonds. There's Daddy, a struggling, cash-thirsty editor whose Russian heritage gives him a surprising new currency in the upside-down world of twenty-first-century geopolitics; his wife, Anne Mom, a progressive, underfunded blue blood from Boston who's barely holding the household together; their son, Dylan, whose blond hair and Mayflower lineage provide him pride of place in the newly forming American political order; and, above all, the young Vera, half-Jewish, half-Korean, and wholly original. Observant, sensitive, and always writing down new vocabulary words, Vera wants only three things in life: to make a friend at school; Daddy and Anne Mom to stay together; and to meet her birth mother, Mom Mom, who will at last tell Vera the secret of who she really is and how to ensure love's survival in this great, mad, imploding world"--

This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important, and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work is in the "public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work. Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.

LITERARY STUDIES: GENERAL. Fascinating, incisive, intelligent and never afraid of being controversial, Elaine Showalter introduces us to more than 250 writers. Here are the famous and expected names, including Harriet Beecher Stowe, Willa Cather, Dorothy Parker, Flannery O'Connor, Gwendolyn Brooks, Grace Paley, Toni Morrison, and Jodi Picoult. And also many successful and acclaimed yet little-known writers, from the early American bestselling novelist Catherine Sedgwick to the Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Susan Glaspell. A JURY OF HER PEERS is an irresistible invitation to discover great authors never before encountered and to return to familiar books with a deeper appreciation. It is a monumental work that enriches our understanding of American literary history and culture.

A brilliantly written and groundbreaking book about Dylan's music - now the recipient of the Nobel Prize for Literature 2016 - and its musical, political and cultural roots in early 20th-century America Growing up in Greenwich Village in the 1960s Sean Wilentz discovered the music of Bob Dylan as a young teenager. Almost half a century later, now a distinguished professor of American history, he revisits Dylan's work with the critical skills of a scholar and the passion of a fan. Drawing partly on his work as the current historian-in-residence on Dylan's official website, Sean Wilentz provides a unique blend of biography, memoir and analysis in a book which, much like its subject, shifts gears and changes shape as the occasion demands.

This compelling story of lesbian life in the twentieth century traces the evolution of lesbian identity and subcultures from the early years of the century--when career opportunities first enabled women to support themselves and spend their lives in "romantic friendships" with other women--to the diversity of today's life styles. Faderman uses journals, unpublished manuscripts, songs, news accounts, novels, medical literature, and numerous personal interviews with lesbians of all races, ages, and classes, to uncover and relate this often surprising narrative of lesbian life in America. Lesbian identity could emerge, Faderman maintains, only during that time, with the sexual freedom of the 1920s and the 1960s, as well as the social freedom made possible by World War II, the education of women, and the civil rights and women's movements. The term "lesbian" did not become current until the late nineteenth century, when European sexologists began to explore female same-sex loving. Where close relationships between women had once been accepted--even encouraged--the sexologists stigmatized same-sex pairing as deviant, but at the same time fostered a lesbian consciousness which was necessary before lesbian communities could be formed. This book tells how women who accepted the label "lesbian" altered the sexologists' definitions, creating identities and ideologies for themselves.--Adapted from book jacket.