The Devereux plantation on Tobacco Road is haunted by a lifetime of forbidden affairs, devious plots and secret blood ties that will bind three families in misery, deception and murder for generations to come. The story begins in New Orleans in the mid 1800's just before the Civil War. The patriarchs of two affluent families, the Devereuxs and the Marchands, devised a plan to link their families and their fortunes to become a powerful force in New Orleans. But a forbidden love affair between the sole heir of the Devereux fortune, John and a beautiful slave girl, Marie could destroy them all.
As strangers surrounded her mother's casket, Molly sat with her sister, Babs, on a trunk. Much too young to understand what was happening, Molly had no idea what was in store for Babs or herself or that it would be the last night they would spend together. Before night's end it was decided that Molly would live with her Aunt Dora and that Babs would go with another uncle. The two girls were reluctantly separated. As Molly grew up, the sadness she endured was visible in her eyes. She missed her sister, Babs, who was facing struggles of her own. With her father a stranger and her aunt jealous of her beauty, Molly became a rebellious child who was abused and treated like the black sheep of the family. The destinies of the two sisters eventually took them to opposite sides of the country, and Molly struggled to find happiness amid a chaotic present and an uncertain future. When she eventually met the love of her life, she could only hope she finally found the one person who could give her what she has always wanted. In this personal narrative, which incorporates original poetry throughout, a woman recalls her heartbreaking coming-of-age journey, revealing the skeletons hidden within her closet and her search for unconditional love.
The New Yorker dishes up a feast of delicious writing–food and drink memoirs, short stories, tell-alls, and poems, seasoned with a generous dash of cartoons. “To read this sparely elegant, moving portrait is to remember that writing well about food is really no different from writing well about life.”—Saveur (Ten Best Books of the Year) Since its earliest days, The New Yorker has been a tastemaker—literally. In this indispensable collection, M.F.K. Fisher pays homage to “cookery witches,” those mysterious cooks who possess “an uncanny power over food,” and Adam Gopnik asks if French cuisine is done for. There is Roald Dahl’s famous story “Taste,” in which a wine snob’s palate comes in for some unwelcome scrutiny, and Julian Barnes’s ingenious tale of a lifelong gourmand who goes on a very peculiar diet. Selected from the magazine’s plentiful larder, Secret Ingredients celebrates all forms of gustatory delight. A sample of the menu: Roger Angell on the art of the martini • Don DeLillo on Jell-O • Malcolm Gladwell on building a better ketchup • Jane Kramer on the writer’s kitchen • Chang-rae Lee on eating sea urchin • Steve Martin on menu mores • Alice McDermott on sex and ice cream • Dorothy Parker on dinner conversation • S. J. Perelman on a hollandaise assassin • Calvin Trillin on New York’s best bagel Whether you’re in the mood for snacking on humor pieces and cartoons or for savoring classic profiles of great chefs and great eaters, these offerings from The New Yorker’s fabled history are sure to satisfy every taste.
A series of fascinating chapters analyze cookery books through the ages. From the convenience-food cookbooks of the 1950s, to the 1980s rise in 'white trash' cookbooks, and the surprise success of the Two Fat Ladies books from the 1990s, leading author Sherrie Inness discusses how women have used such books over the years to protest social norms.
Where in the landlocked state of Indiana can you sunbathe on a beach in the shadow of hulking steel mills, surf by an oil refinery, or scuba-dive to see old shipwrecks? A blend of Indiana and neighboring Chicago, Northwest Indiana is a one-of-a-kind place filled with wonders, like Frank Lloyd Wright-designed homes and a hike USA Today described as one of the country’s most scenic. And behind its unique “coastal” setting lie some equally intriguing hidden gems and untold stories. Secret Northwest Indiana: A Guide to the Weird, Wonderful, and Obscure leads a whirlwind tour of the Calumet Region that extends from Chicago’s far South Side, through the south suburbs and Northwest Indiana, and into Southwest Michigan. Read about a submarine inventor who sailed under Lake Michigan and the free-spirited Diana of the Dunes, who inspired preservation efforts that led to the Indiana Dunes National Park. Explore hidden Nike missile silos, bygone ski jumps, secret spots to photograph the jets taking off for the Chicago Air and Water Show, and the infamous Marriage Mill, where celebrities flocked to get hitched. Prepare for singing porta-potties, tree graveyards, and other strangeness. Local author and journalist Joseph S. Pete gives you a look behind the curtain in a region you might think you already know well. With his stories and tips, you’ll find no shortage of new secret places to explore in Northwest Indiana.
A "highly entertaining history [of] global hustling, cola wars and the marketing savvy that carved a niche for Coke in the American social psyche” (Publishers Weekly). Secret Formula follows the colorful characters who turned a relic from the patent medicine era into a company worth $80 billion. Award-winning reporter Frederick Allen’s engaging account begins with Asa Candler, a nineteenth-century pharmacist in Atlanta who secured the rights to the original Coca-Cola formula and then struggled to get the cocaine out of the recipe. After many tweaks, he finally succeeded in turning a backroom belly-wash into a thriving enterprise. In 1919, an aggressive banker named Ernest Woodruff leveraged a high-risk buyout of the Candlers and installed his son at the helm of the company. Robert Woodruff spent the next six decades guiding Coca-Cola with a single-minded determination that turned the soft drink into a part of the landscape and social fabric of America. Written with unprecedented access to Coca-Cola’s archives, as well as the inner circle and private papers of Woodruff, Allen’s captivating business biography stands as the definitive account of what it took to build America’s most iconic company and one of the world’s greatest business success stories.
Author: United States. Congress. Senate. Committee on Governmental Affairs. Subcommittee on Oversight of Government Management, Restructuring, and the District of Columbia
Revised and Updated in November 2020! Secret Walks: A Walking Guide to the Hidden Trails of Los Angeles is a sequel to the popular Secret Stairs: A Walking Guide to the Historic Staircases of Los Angeles, and features another collection of exciting urban walks through parks, canyons, and neighborhoods unknown and unseen by most Angelinos. Each walk is rated for duration, distance, and difficulty, and is accompanied by a map. The walks, like those in Secret Stairs, are filled with fascinating factoids about historical landmarks—the original Bat Cave from Batman, the lake where Opie learned to fish on The Andy Griffith Show, or the storage barn for one of L.A.’s oldest wineries. The book also highlights the people who made the landmarks famous: the infamous water engineer William Mulholland; the convicted murderer and philanthropist Colonel Griffith J. Griffith; Charles Lummis, who walked from Cincinnati to Los Angeles to take a job on the L.A. Times; and tobacco millionaire Abbot Kinney, who dug canals to drain the marshes south of Santa Monica and create his American “Venice.” Written in the entertainingly informed style that has made Secret Stairs a Los Angeles Times best-seller, Secret Walks is the perfect book for the walker eager to explore but tired of the crowds at Runyon Canyon or Temescal Park.
Winner of the 2016 PEN/ESPN Award for Literary Sports Writing The true story of the game that never should have happened--and of a nation on the brink of monumental change In the fall of 1943, at the little-known North Carolina College for Negroes, Coach John McLendon was on the verge of changing basketball forever. A protégé of James Naismith, the game's inventor, McLendon taught his team to play the full-court press and run a fast break that no one could catch. His Eagles would become the highest-scoring college team in America--a basketball juggernaut that shattered its opponents by as many as sixty points per game. Yet his players faced danger whenever they traveled backcountry roads. Across town, at Duke University, the best basketball squad on campus wasn't the Blue Devils, but an all-white military team from the Duke medical school. Composed of former college stars from across the country, the team dismantled everyone they faced, including the Duke varsity. They were prepared to take on anyone--until an audacious invitation arrived, one that was years ahead of anything the South had ever seen before. What happened next wasn't on anyone's schedule. Based on years of research, The Secret Game is a story of courage and determination, and of an incredible, long-buried moment in the nation's sporting past. The riveting, true account of a remarkable season, it is the story of how a group of forgotten college basketball players, aided by a pair of refugees from Nazi Germany and a group of daring student activists, not only blazed a trail for a new kind of America, but helped create one of the most meaningful moments in basketball history.
Adapted to a major motion picture by director Martin Scorsese, The Aviator stars Leonardo DiCaprio as Howard Hughes! His wealth was legendary. His passions were bizarre. Charles Higham's biography tells the truth about the money, the madness, and the man behind the enigma. Howard Hughes is one of the best known and least understood men of our times--famed for his wealth, his daring, and his descent into madness. Bestselling biographer Higham goes beyond the enigma to reveal the incredible private life of Howard Hughes: * his romances with the great stars of Hollywood--Katharine Hepburn, Bette Davis, Cary Grant, Tyrone Power, and numerous others * his forays into sadomasochism * his involvement with Richard Nixon and Watergate * his bizarre final years This is a compelling portrait of a unique American figure--in a story as revealing as it is unforgettable.
