The Lincoln Highway

The Lincoln Highway

Author: Amor Towles

Publisher: Penguin

Published: 2021-10-05

Total Pages: 593

ISBN-13: 0735222371

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#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER More than ONE MILLION copies sold A TODAY Show Read with Jenna Book Club Pick A New York Times Notable Book, and Chosen by Oprah Daily, Time, NPR, The Washington Post, Bill Gates and Barack Obama as a Best Book of the Year “Wise and wildly entertaining . . . permeated with light, wit, youth.” —The New York Times Book Review “A classic that we will read for years to come.” —Jenna Bush Hager, Read with Jenna book club “Fantastic. Set in 1954, Towles uses the story of two brothers to show that our personal journeys are never as linear or predictable as we might hope.” —Bill Gates “A real joyride . . . elegantly constructed and compulsively readable.” —NPR The bestselling author of A Gentleman in Moscow and Rules of Civility and master of absorbing, sophisticated fiction returns with a stylish and propulsive novel set in 1950s America In June, 1954, eighteen-year-old Emmett Watson is driven home to Nebraska by the warden of the juvenile work farm where he has just served fifteen months for involuntary manslaughter. His mother long gone, his father recently deceased, and the family farm foreclosed upon by the bank, Emmett's intention is to pick up his eight-year-old brother, Billy, and head to California where they can start their lives anew. But when the warden drives away, Emmett discovers that two friends from the work farm have hidden themselves in the trunk of the warden's car. Together, they have hatched an altogether different plan for Emmett's future, one that will take them all on a fateful journey in the opposite direction—to the City of New York. Spanning just ten days and told from multiple points of view, Towles's third novel will satisfy fans of his multi-layered literary styling while providing them an array of new and richly imagined settings, characters, and themes. “Once again, I was wowed by Towles’s writing—especially because The Lincoln Highway is so different from A Gentleman in Moscow in terms of setting, plot, and themes. Towles is not a one-trick pony. Like all the best storytellers, he has range. He takes inspiration from famous hero’s journeys, including The Iliad, The Odyssey, Hamlet, Huckleberry Finn, and Of Mice and Men. He seems to be saying that our personal journeys are never as linear or predictable as an interstate highway. But, he suggests, when something (or someone) tries to steer us off course, it is possible to take the wheel.” – Bill Gates


The Hunt for History

The Hunt for History

Author: Nathan Raab

Publisher: Simon and Schuster

Published: 2020-03-10

Total Pages: 272

ISBN-13: 1501198920

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Nathan Raab, America’s preeminent rare documents dealer, delivers a “diverting account of treasure hunting in the fast lane” (The Wall Street Journal) that recounts his years as the Sherlock Holmes of historical artifacts, questing after precious finds and determining their authenticity. A box uncovered in a Maine attic with twenty letters written by Alexander Hamilton; a handheld address to Congress by President George Washington; a long-lost Gold Medal that belonged to an American President; a note that Winston Churchill wrote to his captor when he was a young POW in South Africa; paperwork signed and filled out by Amelia Earhart when she became the first woman to fly the Atlantic; an American flag carried to the moon and back by Neil Armstrong; an unpublished letter written by Albert Einstein, discussing his theory of relativity. Each day, people from all over the world contact Nathan Raab for help understanding what they have, what it might be worth, and how to sell it. The Raab Collection’s president, Nathan is a modern-day treasure hunter and one of the world’s most prominent dealers of historical artifacts. Most weeks, he travels the country, scours auctions, or fields phone calls and emails from people who think they may have found something of note in a grandparent’s attic. In The Hunt for History, “Raab takes us on a wild hunt and deliciously opens up numerous hidden crevices of history” (Jay Winik, author of April 1865)—spotting a letter from British officials that secured the Rosetta Stone; discovering a piece of the first electric cable laid by Edison; restoring a fragmented letter from Andrew Jackson that led to the infamous Trail of Tears; and locating copies of missing audio that had been recorded on Air Force One as the plane brought JFK’s body back to Washington. Whether it’s the first report of Napoleon’s death or an unpublished letter penned by Albert Einstein to a curious soldier, every document and artifact Raab uncovers comes with a spellbinding story—and often offers new insights into a life we thought we knew.


Hidden History of Lincoln Park

Hidden History of Lincoln Park

Author: Patrick Butler

Publisher: Arcadia Publishing

Published: 2015-08-03

Total Pages: 192

ISBN-13: 1625853734

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Before Lincoln Park cemented its trendy reputation, plenty of odd and unruly history managed to settle into its foundation. A Viking ship, mob henchmen and ladies of the evening all took up residence in the same part of town where Dwight L. Moody went from selling soles to saving souls. Thanks to a Confederate ferryboat crewman, many of Lincoln's personal effects belong to the neighborhood named after him. Patrick Butler uncovers Lincoln Park's forgotten contributions to Chicago's heritage, from the "Pleasure Wheel" on Navy Pier to the city's cycling craze.


My Thoughts Be Bloody

My Thoughts Be Bloody

Author: Nora Titone

Publisher: Simon and Schuster

Published: 2010-10-19

Total Pages: 498

ISBN-13: 1416586164

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Historian Nora Titone takes a fresh look at the strange and startling history of the Booth brothers, answering the question of why one became the nineteenth-century’s brightest, most beloved star, and the other became the most notorious assassin in American history. The scene of John Wilkes Booth shooting Abraham Lincoln in Ford’s Theatre is among the most vivid and indelible images in American history. The literal story of what happened on April 14, 1865, is familiar: Lincoln was killed by John Wilkes Booth, a lunatic enraged by the Union victory and the prospect of black citizenship. Yet who Booth really was—besides a killer—is less well known. The magnitude of his crime has obscured for generations a startling personal story that was integral to his motivation. My Thoughts Be Bloody, a sweeping family saga, revives an extraordinary figure whose name has been missing, until now, from the story of President Lincoln’s death. Edwin Booth, John Wilkes’s older brother by four years, was in his day the biggest star of the American stage. Without an account of Edwin Booth, author Nora Titone argues, the real story of Lincoln’s assassin has never been told. Using an array of private letters, diaries, and reminiscences of the Booth family, Titone has uncovered a hidden history that reveals the reasons why John Wilkes Booth became this country’s most notorious assassin. The details of the conspiracy to kill Lincoln have been well documented elsewhere. My Thoughts Be Bloody tells a new story, one that explains for the first time why Lincoln’s assassin decided to conspire against the president in the first place, and sets that decision in the context of a bitterly divided family—and nation. By the end of this riveting journey, readers will see Abraham Lincoln’s death less as the result of the war between the North and South and more as the climax of a dark struggle between two brothers who never wore the uniform of soldiers, except on stage.


Hidden History of Arlington County

Hidden History of Arlington County

Author: Charlie Clark

Publisher: Arcadia Publishing

Published: 2017

Total Pages: 176

ISBN-13: 1625859236

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For over two centuries, Arlington County has been a steadfast center for government institutions and a vibrant part of the Washington, D.C., community. Many notable figures made their home in the area, like Supreme Court chief justice Warren Burger, General George Blood 'n' Guts Patton and a beauty queen who almost married crooner Dean Martin. The drama of Virginia's first school integration unfolded in Arlington beginning in the late 1950s. In the 1960s, two motorcycle gangs clashed in public at a suburban shopping center. Local author, historian and Our Man in Arlington Charlie Clark uncovers the vivid, and hidden, history of a capital community.


Hidden History of New Orleans

Hidden History of New Orleans

Author: Josh Foreman

Publisher: Arcadia Publishing

Published: 2020-02-03

Total Pages: 192

ISBN-13: 1439668892

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The history of New Orleans is one of contrasts--heroes and villains, catastrophe and celebration, sinners and saints. In this New Orleans, a serial-killing axeman threatens to murder anyone not playing jazz. A fearless band of missionary nuns pushes to civilize the frontier. During World War II, Nazi U-boats lurk off the coast, while Denton Crocker's battle with local mosquitoes contributes to victory in the Pacific. From the streetcar strikers who lined the thoroughfares with IEDs to the unsung heroine of the Battle of New Orleans, Ryan Starrett and Josh Foreman offer a dose of history that would be hard to believe if it hadn't happened here.


Hidden History of Cole County, Missouri

Hidden History of Cole County, Missouri

Author: Jeremy P. Ämick

Publisher: Arcadia Publishing

Published: 2022-05-16

Total Pages: 160

ISBN-13: 1439674965

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Historic tales lie in the shadows throughout Cole County, notably in the vicinity of Russellville, Lohman and Stringtown. Pioneers such as Enoch Enloe found a home near Russellville following a broken wagon wheel while making the journey west in the 1830s. Stringtown has become a forgotten town that was once home to a self-proclaimed doctor who was brutally murdered. Millbrook claims business-minded visionaries such as John Scheperle Sr., who helped establish the legendary Centennial Mill. A few miles north in Lohman, the railroad became the impetus for growth and ushered in a period of relative prosperity. Historian and author Jeremy P. Ämick uncovers many fascinating tales passed down through the years.


The Lost President

The Lost President

Author: Ruth Dunley

Publisher: University of Georgia Press

Published: 2019-03-01

Total Pages: 214

ISBN-13: 0820354554

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Though few people have heard of A.D. Smith (1811–65), this nineteenth-century knight-errant left his mark on some of the key events of his times in several states, personifying the nineteenth-century impulse to move across the American landscape. Smith’s Quixotic trail began in upstate New York, wound westward to the Ohio and Wisconsin frontier, southward to the federally occupied Sea Islands of South Carolina, and finally ended aboard a northbound steamer. In Ohio, Smith became involved with a paramilitary group, the Hunters’ Lodge, which elected him the "President of the Republic of Canada." In Wisconsin he achieved notoriety as the judge who dared to declare the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 unconstitutional, lighting one of many fuses that sparked the Civil War. In South Carolina he fought passionately for the property rights of freedmen. Smith believed in civic movements based on Jeffersonian democracy and republican ideals. Civic participation, he believed, was a fundamental part of being a good American. This civic impulse resulted in his enthusiastic embrace of the reform movements of the day and his absolute dedication to radicalism. A detective story set against the backdrop of the volatile antebellum era, this gripping biography lays bare, in funny, accessible prose, just what it is that historians really do all day and how obsessive they can be—assembling a jigsaw puzzle of secret documents, probate records, court testimony, speeches, correspondence, newspaper coverage, and genealogical research to tell the story of a man like Smith, of his vision for the United States, and, more generally, of the value of remembering secondary historical characters.


Hidden History of Ashtabula County

Hidden History of Ashtabula County

Author: Carl E. Feather

Publisher: Arcadia Publishing

Published: 2015

Total Pages: 144

ISBN-13: 1626199531

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Picturesque Ashtabula County harbors a rich and sometimes strange history. Ohio's Western Reserve settlers were astonished by the ancient graveyards they found that yielded bones belonging to a gigantic race. Mr. Buck of Conneaut lived a secluded life married to himself, assuming the character and dress of the fictional Mrs. Buck. A legend persists to this day that the ship of a Spanish princess lies at the bottom of Pymatuning Lake. Author Carl E. Feather delves into the rich history of Ohio's largest county and uncovers its little-known secrets in the most unexpected places.