American Nostalgia

Leave It to Beaver was not a documentary, a man's home has never been his castle, the "male breadwinner marriage" is the least traditional family in history, and rape and sexual assault were far higher in the 1970s than they are today. In The Way We Never Were, acclaimed historian Stephanie Coontz examines two centuries of the American family, sweeping away misconceptions about the past that cloud current debates about domestic life. The 1950s do not present a workable model of how to conduct our personal lives today, Coontz argues.

No other event in the last fifty years is shrouded in myth like the 1993 siege of the Branch Davidians in Waco, Texas. Today, we remember this moment for the 76 people, including 20 children, who died in the fire; for its inspiration of the Oklahoma City bombing; and for the wave of anti-government militarism that followed. What we understand far less is what motivated the Davidians’ enigmatic leader, David Koresh.

Isabel and Nicki Hoffman may be twins, but they're each one of a kind. Isabel loves dancing with her friends, while Nicki prefers skateboarding alone. In December 1999, the girls create a list of challenges to complete before midnight on New Year's Eve. But just before the new millennium arrives, disaster strikes. Will the most momentous night of their lives be a twin win or a sister setback?

From best-selling author Dennis McFarland comes an extraordinary Civil War novel: the journey of a nineteen-year-old private abandoned by his comrades in the Wilderness, struggling to regain his voice, his identity, and his place in a world - all utterly changed by what he has experienced on the battlefield. In the winter of 1864, young Summerfield Hayes, a pitcher for the famous Eckford Club, enlists in the Union army, leaving his sister, a schoolteacher, devastated and alone in their Brooklyn home.

Dick Kallman was an up-and-coming actor in the fifties and sixties—until he wasn’t. A costar on Broadway, a member of Lucille Ball’s historic Desilu workshop, and finally a primetime TV actor, Dick had hustled to get his big break. But just as soon as his star began to rise, his roles began to dry up and he faded from the spotlight, his name out of tabloids and newspapers until his sensational murder in 1980.

Black Water is a memoir about intergenerational trauma and healing, about connection and about how Don’s life informed David’s own. Facing up to a story nearly erased by the designs of history, father and son journey together back to the trapline at Black Water and through the past to create a new future.

Birdwild, shares excerpts from the award-winning poem, Black Cotton, the 2018 Author’s Pick for the “Colorism Healing Anthology of Essays and Poems, Volume 2.” It is a heartwarming story about the true meaning of family and togetherness from the author and educator, Bobbi Simmons. What the main character and protagonist Bree uncovers is that in her own family, skeletal enigmas from the past run deeper than the roots of the tall pine trees that stand along the side of the pastured fields of the Breeze farm, and that all will be unveiled.