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America's First Families are unknowable in many ways. No one has insight into their true character like the people who serve their meals and make their beds every day. Full of stories and details by turns dramatic, humorous, and heartwarming, The Residence reveals daily life in the White House as it is really lived through the voices of the maids, butlers, cooks, florists, doormen, engineers, and others who tend to the needs of the President and First...
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Harley-Davidson bikers • Grand Canyon river rats • Mormon archaeologists • Spelling bee prodigies • For more than fifteen years, the bestselling, award-winning author of Blood and Thunder and Ghost Soldiers has traveled widely across the continent exploring the America that lurks just behind the scrim of our mainstream culture.
This sparkling mosaic of our...
This sparkling mosaic of our...
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Time magazine once hailed Charles Kuralt as "the laureate of the common man." and in this final collection. Kuralt once again portrays the people, the places, and the things that define our nation. Culled from his final project, a series of brief television essays in the spirit of his famous On the Road reports, Charles Kuralt's American Moments introduces a host of American characters and scenes, and imbues them with charm, simplicity, and elegance....
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A Pulitzer Prize finalist, Betty DeRamus is an award-winning journalist who rummaged through musty records and forgotten memoirs to resurrect this book's unsung heroes. Despite the risks, some American slaves partook of the "forbidden fruit" of marriage. And when the dreaded separation inevitably occurred, slave spouses grieved deeply and sometimes made Herculean efforts to re-unite. DeRamus recounts the tales of soulmates who braved bloodhounds,...
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Dotson has been crisscrossing the country for more than forty years--logging more than four million miles--in search of people who have quietly but profoundly changed our lives and our country for the better. Now, in American Story, he presents a road map to the unsung heroes with thoughtful solutions to problems we all face, incredible ideas that work, and blueprints to living our dreams.
9) That's not in my American history book: a compilation of little-known events and forgotten heroes
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History classes reduce America's story into a dry litany of dates, names, and places. That's Not in My American History Book tackles the messy details, reclaims disregarded heroes, and sets the record straight. This book explains why July 4th isn't really Independence Day, reveals 19th century mudslinging that labels Andrew Jackson a "murderer," and even unveils the only vice president with a number-one pop hit. With insight, wit, and irreverence,...
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History is about so much more than memorizing facts. It is, as more than half 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. This is history as it's never been told before, stories so important and relevant that the listener will instantly know why they weren't taught them before.
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"If you think Joan Rivers said funny, outrageous, and ridiculous things ONSTAGE, wait 'til you read the funny, outrageous, and ridiculous things she said OFFSTAGE...things that will make you laugh out loud...and keep Melissa in therapy for the foreseeable future. The only thing my mother loved more than making people laugh was lying...or as she'd say, "embellishing." Her motto was: "Why let the truth ruin a good story?" This book contains some of...
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A Selection of the Progressive Book Club From the sites of famous sit-ins, marches, and strikes to the locales of events that led to landmark Supreme Court decisions, this inspiring travel guide journeys to more than 400 of the places in the United States that are important to progressive politics. Organized by state, it includes the stories of hundreds of women and men of action who, through creativity and hard work, changed American society for...
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"Read here the storied history of the United States. The stories in this book are part of what Abraham Lincoln called the 'mystic chords of memory.' They are the symbols that define the essence of the United States, that mark its historic course, and connect its people."--P. [4] of cover.
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The President's Table offers a sweeping visual history of the American Presidency as seen through Presidential entertaining from George Washington to George W. Bush.
In this lavishly illustrated history of Presidential dining, historian Barry Landau brings the backstory of the American Presidency to life. Interweaving stories of dining and diplomacy, he creates a spellbinding narrative from the early days of provincial entertaining in the capital,...
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Amusing and informative, Hey Ranger! teaches as it entertains with tales of boat ramp misadventures, lost Afghani campers, encounters with wild animals, dumb crooks, and more. One chapter, "Tales from the Wild Side," brings together unusual incidents from National Park Service reports, and the concluding essay, "Don't Be a Victim of Your Vacation," advises visitors on how to avoid being a story on the evening news.
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Kelly Oxford likes to blow up the internet. Whether it is with the kind of Tweets that lead Rolling Stone to name her one of the Funniest People on Twitter or with pictures of her hilariously adorable family (human and animal) or with something much more serious, like creating the hashtag #NotOkay, where millions of women came together to share their stories of sexual assault, Kelly has a unique, razor-sharp perspective on modern life. As a screen...
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"Carefully selected by the creative minds at The Moth, and adapted to the page to preserve the raw energy of live storytelling, OCCASIONAL MAGIC features voices familiar and new. Alongside Adam Gopnik, Krista Tippett, Andrew Solomon, Rosanne Cash, Ophira Eisenberg, and Wang Ping, storytellers from around the world share times when, in the face of challenging situations, they found moments of beauty, wonder, and clarity, shedding light on their lives...
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"If you are the kind of mom who shapes your kiddo's organic quinoa into reproductions of the Mona Lisa, do not read this book ... But if you are the kind of parent who accidentally goes ballistic on your rugrats every morning because they won't put their shoes on and then you feel super guilty about it all day so you take them to McDonald's for a special treat but really it's because you opened up your freezer and panicked because you forgot to buy...
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"Two-time Pulitzer Prize-winner Gene Weingarten explores the events of a random day in U.S. history, offering a diorama of American life that illuminates all that has changed--and all that hasn't--in the past three decades. On New Year's Day 2013, two-time Pulitzer Prize-winner Gene Weingarten asked three strangers to, literally, pluck a day, month, and year from a hat. That day--chosen completely at random--turned out to be Sunday, December 28, 1986,...