Isn't it amazing how different people remember different things, whether it be about a long-ago incident or something that happened only yesterday? Once Upon a Midwest Sunset melds memories of a family who grew up in South Dakota in the mid-1900s. The stories will make you laugh, cry and remember. Just short of our post, two bulls were fighting! We watched in horror as their battle brought them closer to us. As a young girl, I just figured they were silly old ladies, having a good time. Looking back ... now I think they just needed to laugh. "Mmmmm, sugar cookies, my favorite!" At that moment I resolved to make even better mud cookies...Then she slurped loudly from the tiny nutshell, her pinky finger lifted daintily. "Some years are like that. In farming. In life. You just have to keep going." Praise for the author's works: ...This has become an author I can honestly say I would purchase any book she wrote. She has a most enlightening way of bringing you along in the story. ---K. A. ...emotional journey...laugh and cry...hope and faith. ---Amy R. If you like Chicken Soup for the Soul books, you will love this one! ---Dottie H.
"SOMETIMES ALL YOU CAN DO IS GO OUT WITH GUNS BLAZING. In the noir tradition of Chandler and Spillane comes SUNSET, a two-fisted tale of revenge and redemption. On the surface, Nick Bellamy looks like any other veteran retiree left behind by a modern world. In reality, Nick is a former enforcer, who stole a fortune and years of freedom from his former mob boss. Now, in the twilight of his life, Nick will lose everything he cares about except two things: revenge and the chance to die with his guns blazing. Writer CHRISTOS GAGE (Avengers Academy, GI Joe: Cobra) and artist JORGE LUCAS (THE DARKNESS) promise to hit hard with Minotaur Press's first original graphic novel that will make and make you forget all about your Prius and organic whole-grain trans-fat-free diet."
Billy Wilder's Sunset Boulevard was a critical and commercial success on its release in 1950 and remains a classic of film noir and one of the best-known Hollywood films about Hollywood. Both its opening, with William Holden as the screenwriter Joe Gillis floating facedown in ageing star Norma Desmond's (Gloria Swanson) pool, and lines such as 'I am big, it's the pictures that got small' are some of the most memorable in Classical Hollywood cinema. Steven Cohan's study of the film draws on original archival research to shed new light on the film's production history, and the contribution to the film's success and meanings of director Wilder, stars Holden and Swanson but also supporting actors Erich von Stroheim, Nancy Olson (who plays Betty Schaefer), Cecil B. DeMille, and Hedda Hopper, as well as costumier Edith Head, and composer Franz Waxman. Cohan considers the film both as a 'backstudio' picture (a movie about Hollywood) and as a film noir, and in the context of McCarthyism, blacklisting and the Hollywood Ten. Cohan explores how the film was marketed, its reception and afterlife, tracing how the film is at once a product of its own particular historical moment as the movie industry was transitioning out of the studio era, yet one that still speaks powerfully to contemporary audiences, and speculates on the reasons for its enduring appeal.
"We vampires are focused and tend to shape our own realities."My name is Katrina Rawlings, and I am a vampire. I declare that with neither pride nor ego. I am simply nature's most dangerous predator. On occasion, it's a very helpful quality. It helped me protect Caleb Taylor one day when he was very young. But that single, traumatic day is behind him now; wiped from his memory, or so I hope. He has finally matured into a rather striking young man, and believe me, I like what I see. I'm feeling hopeful for our future together, in fact. But an adversary from my past has returned to haunt me, and she's trying to get back at me through Caleb. That was her first...and last...mistake. I'll protect my Caleb at all costs, and I'll make her regret the day she was born. So, I suppose that I'm not just a vampire. I'm about to become someone's worst nightmare.
Based on the 506-page full guide to the great American national parks, how to avoid the crowds, walking tours, facilities and how to get there, this edition focuses on the major parks of Wyoming, Montana and South Dakota: Badlands, Devil's Tower, Grand Teton, Mt. Rushmore, Scott's Bluff and Yellowstone. It includes information on accommodations and dining, camping and tours. Unlike other guides, this explains in detail how to tour the parks: how much time to allow, how to avoid the crowds, what each place is really like, what you can safely skip and what you must not miss. It offers advice on planning if you have only a few hours, or if you have a few days to explore. Complete directions on getting to and from the parks are included, as well as how to get around once you're there, whether you want to tour independently or prefer to join a group excursion. It also profiles places to stay and eat in and near each park, with options to suit all budgets. Maps show each park's features, along with all surrounding access routes. Are you wondering when to visit? The author tells all about the climate and the crowds (or lack of them) in all seasons and recommends the ideal times to explore our nation's treasures. A unique section, Suggested Trips, contains customized itineraries, describing ways to combine visits to one or more parks with tours of nearby attractions. These routes are designed to last from four to 10 days and include complete directions and recommended places to stay each night. "Describes the parks in depth, giving advice on planning your time - vital when it comes to setting priorities. Invaluable." -- Physician's Travel & Meeting Guide. Maps are shown for every park. The print edition of the full book is 506 pages. "This is a straight-talking author who reminds me of a smart, blunt friend... no pussyfooting around." -- The Armchair Traveler, Daily Herald. "Although it does not include every site administered by the NPS, this book is very thorough in its treatment of the parks it covers. The author also describes 13 suggested driving trips of five to 12 days each, incorporating nearby attractions. Includes detailed information on accommodations/campgrounds, activities available in each park, handy tips and tidbits, maps and photos. A great travel reference book!" -- Amazon customer. "Touring America's national parks has become a passtime for me. I've been from Acadia to the North Cascades to the Grand Canyon and this book is an excellent reference. With an emphasis on travelling via automobile, it also has several suggested hiking trips in each park as well as other points of interest. They say that most people never get more than 100 feet from their cars in parks. Well, this is the book to help get you there, and point out the best routes outside of your car. It covers more territory than anyone could possibly see in a lifetime...but it's sure fun to try." -- Amazon customer
Curated from the archives of FORUM, the award-winning magazine of Florida Humanities, this anthology presents 50 often surprising and always intriguing stories of life in Florida by some of the nation’s most talented writers and scholars Once Upon a Time in Florida transports readers into the eventful life and times of this remarkable state through 50 stories vividly rendered by some of the nation’s most acclaimed writers and scholars, along with 150 evocative images. This collection opens more than 14,000 years ago with the first people to inhabit the peninsula and continues through the state’s territorial beginnings, the era of slavery, statehood, the Civil War, Reconstruction, the Jim Crow period, and Florida’s transformation into a complex, powerful megastate. Throughout, readers will encounter the unexpected: The myth-busting truths behind Ponce de Leon’s search for the Fountain of Youth; the real First Thanksgiving; the first legally sanctioned free Black town; the revealing wartime letters of novelist Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings; the Jacksonville principal who penned the lyrics now known as the Black National Anthem; and the little-known story of how Mary McLeod Bethune saved World War II‒era Daytona Beach. The stories also highlight Florida as a magnet for dreamers and doers, featuring the heady days of the Space Age seen through the eyes of a teenager; the secretive mission that brought Walt Disney to Orlando; the music culture that has churned out a stream of Rock and Roll Hall of Famers; and a look at how Florida’s glossy image has been indelibly shaped through the eyes of Hollywood. Told through the lens of the humanities, at its heart this anthology is the story of what it means to be a Floridian. In these pages, folklorist Stetson Kennedy travels the back roads with novelist Zora Neale Hurston, capturing vanishing stories and songs. Former U.S. Representative Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, the first Latina in Congress, remembers her family’s early days as Cuban refugees. Novelist Lauren Groff describes how the writings of literary giants taught her to love Florida. Columnist Bill Maxwell and novelist Beverly Coyle, who grew up in the waning days of Jim Crow, share clear-eyed memories of experiences as different as black and white. And southern grit writer Harry Crews tells of a family memory evoked by the Suwannee River. There is much more to discover in this vibrant anthology, which celebrates the 50th anniversary of Florida Humanities, the state affiliate of the National Endowment for the Humanities, and presents selections from the timeless and treasure-filled archives of Florida Humanities’ award-winning FORUM magazine. Contributors: Jerald T. Milanich | J. Michael Francis | Michael Gannon | Kathleen Deagan | Darcie A. MacMahon | Larry Eugene Rivers | Robert A. Taylor | Casey Blanton | Rick Kilby | Gary R. Mormino | Stetson Kennedy | Betty Jean Steinshouer | Gordon Patterson | Rick Edmonds | Andrea Brunais | Steven Noll | Richard Foglesong | Eric Deggans | Bill Maxwell | Beverly Coyle | David R. Colburn | Nila Do Simon | Stephen J. Whitfield | Willie Johns | Ron Cunningham | Jon Wilson | Dalia Colón | Bill DeYoung | Maude Heurtelou | Lauren Groff | Maurice J. O’Sullivan | Michele Currie Navakas | Craig Pittman | Thomas Hallock | Edna Buchanan | Philip Caputo | Gary Monroe | Peter B. Gallagher | Bob Kealing | Jack E. Davis | Charlie Hailey | Terry Tomalin | Bill Belleville | Cynthia Barnett | Jack E. Davis | Jeff Klinkenberg | Harry Crews Distributed on behalf of Florida Humanities
Minnesota native Amy Thielen, host of Heartland Table on Food Network, presents 200 recipes that herald a revival in heartland cuisine in this James Beard Award-winning cookbook. Amy Thielen grew up in rural northern Minnesota, waiting in lines for potluck buffets amid loops of smoked sausages from her uncle’s meat market and in the company of women who could put up jelly without a recipe. She spent years cooking in some of New York City’s best restaurants, but it took moving home in 2008 for her to rediscover the wealth and diversity of the Midwestern table, and to witness its reinvention. The New Midwestern Table reveals all that she’s come to love—and learn—about the foods of her native Midwest, through updated classic recipes and numerous encounters with spirited home cooks and some of the region’s most passionate food producers. With 150 color photographs capturing these fresh-from-the-land dishes and the striking beauty of the terrain, this cookbook will cause any home cook to fall in love with the captivating flavors of the American heartland.
As the title of this collection suggests, the poems in Louis Daniel Brodsky's Once upon a Small-Town Time have a soothing sort of lullaby quality characteristic of bedtime tales. Conceived as a metaphoric road trip through three Midwestern towns and across a quarter century, the poems are steeped in an uplifting nostalgia, but without the cloying sentimentality. The observations are fond, even wistful, but never anything but fair and clear and unexaggerated in their effect.
In the quietude of a former steel town, long abandoned by industry, Joey seeks refuge from the chaos of hee old city life. Craving solitude and silence. Her world is upended by the arrival of Silas, a charming new contractor on the nothing-special job she's taken. His presence disrupts her carefully crafted isolation. Tall, eloquent, and undeniably intriguing, Silas embodies everything Joey is not. As they navigate this unexpected connection, Joey finds herself torn between the safety of her solitude and the allure of Silas's captivating games and comforting presence. Will she dare to open her heart to the possibility of love, or will the ghosts of her past keep her imprisoned in solitude forever?
"Powerful and important . . . an instant classic." —The Washington Post Book World The award-winning look at an ugly aspect of American racism by the bestselling author of Lies My Teacher Told Me, reissued with a new preface by the author In this groundbreaking work, sociologist James W. Loewen, author of the classic bestseller Lies My Teacher Told Me, brings to light decades of hidden racial exclusion in America. In a provocative, sweeping analysis of American residential patterns, Loewen uncovers the thousands of "sundown towns"—almost exclusively white towns where it was an unspoken rule that blacks weren't welcome—that cropped up throughout the twentieth century, most of them located outside of the South. Written with Loewen's trademark honesty and thoroughness, Sundown Towns won the Gustavus Myers Outstanding Book Award, received starred reviews in Publishers Weekly and Booklist, and launched a nationwide online effort to track down and catalog sundown towns across America. In a new preface, Loewen puts this history in the context of current controversies around white supremacy and the Black Lives Matter movement. He revisits sundown towns and finds the number way down, but with notable exceptions in exclusive all-white suburbs such as Kenilworth, Illinois, which as of 2010 had not a single black household. And, although many former sundown towns are now integrated, they often face "second-generation sundown town issues," such as in Ferguson, Missouri, a former sundown town that is now majority black, but with a majority-white police force.
