Written like a personal letter to an old friend, "Bill and Jill From Federal Hill" chronicles a family's stories as told with the backdrop of a turbulent American century. Through two wars, countless military relocations, a great hurricane, and two businesses, it's the story of how Bill and Jill Caldarone raised their family, gave back to the community, had fun, remained true to their roots and stayed happy and together for over 70 years."

Investigative reporter Jill Lewis has bought her small, hometown newspaper in Delavan, Wisconsin. Now she's torn between two very different men: John, her FBI agent fiancé, and Tommy, the young, charming senator who saved her life. But at least she can count on some peace and quiet as she tries to untangle her heart and make up her mind, right? Wrong. When a scuba-diving accident in Lake Delavan leads her to a remarkable discovery the same day as a top senator's aide is brutally murdered in the same lake, Jill is back in action. But someone wants it all kept quiet. Can she uncover the truth in time? Or has her luck run out?

THE TRUTH LIES ON THE OTHER SIDE... South Baltimore's Angel Café is a trendy new eatery where patrons can enjoy exotic tea, aromatic coffee, and the psychic readings of clairvoyant Tia Melody. The star and main attraction of the restaurant, Tia claims to channel an otherworldly guide, Valentine, and somehow knows all there is to know about her expanding list of patrons. Kat Valenti is a workaholic attorney still coming to grips with the death of her fiancé, Peter, who died two years ago. Although drawn to the Angel Café, she is skeptical of Tia's readings -- until her late fiancé 'contacts' her to shed new light on how he died. Kat's wariness only grows as more clues turn up about Peter's death -- and all of them lead back to the Angel Café. Tia Melody is no simple fortune-teller, and Valentine is no benevolent spirit. Valentine's true power may be almost limitless -- and he doesn't want to tell the future anymore... He wants Kat.

This collection of articles presents a critical, issue-oriented approach to law and society, emphasizing its important relationship to contemporary social problems. By exploring the interstitial area between the sociology of law, social problems and social movements, the initial chapters trace out a theoretical trajectory which points to the need to move beyond traditional and social constructionist approaches. A variety of empirical studies together explore the contradictory dynamics of class as they relate to race and gender in both a national and global context, illustrating the dialectical interplay between the state and social movements. Employing a wide range of perspectives so as to convey the great diversity found in the contemporary sociology of law and justice studies, these authors collectively share a broad consensus concerning the need to explore how social movements and the larger political economy play a pivotal role in shaping state reactions to the challenges presented by contemporary social problems. With its integrated presentation of theoretical perspectives and empirical studies, this unique anthology will be useful in a variety of sociology, criminology, and justice studies course offerings such Law and Society, Social Problems, Crime and Social Justice, Social Movements, Law and Social Control, Social Change, Law and Public Policy, Introduction to Legal Studies, and others. Undergraduate and graduate students alike will appreciate that these articles, selected for their academic rigor, are highly readable and strongly oriented towards high profile social issues, including those of class, race, and gender inequalities as well as social movement and legal struggles in community, national and global settings.

I think this will make Watergate look like childs play. Former Alabama Gov. Don Siegelman, on Karl Roves alleged involvement in his prosecution Was Don Siegelman the victim of a Republican conspiracy led by Karl Rove, or was he perhaps the most corrupt governor in Alabama history? On February 24, 2008, 60 Minutes delivered a bombshell claims that President Bushs political advisor Karl Rove had assigned an Alabama woman to tail Governor Don Siegelman and take photos of him having extramarital sex. The piece also presented an open and shut case that powerful Republicansincluding Rove and Bob Riley, Siegelmans successor as Alabamas governorhad somehow ordered the Justice Department to prosecute Siegelman. In this book, Eddie Curranthe investigative reporter whose stories initiated the criminal investigationdelivers a far different portrait of the one-time golden boy of Alabama Democratic politics. Curran leads readers on a first-person account of his discoveries, including Siegelmans use of his office to collect more than $1.3 million in legal fees while governor; the sale of his home through a straw man for twice its value; and a host of scandals involving the likes of Waste Management Inc., and Richard Scrushy, the deeply corrupt HealthSouth Corp. chairman prosecuted along with Siegelman. The Governor of Goat Hill is both a scathing portrayal of a New South governor gone bad and an indictment of some of the top names in American journalism, who bought into a bogus conspiracy for no reason other than it led to Karl Rove. This is a book you will either love or hate. One thing you definitely wont find it to be is boring. If you believe Don Siegelman got shafted by over-zealous, intensely partisan prosecutors you will find the case presented against him in great detail, making it easier for you to contradict with opposing evidence. I consider Don Siegelman a personal friend and this book has not changed my mind. He is a man of great ability and it will be up to the reader to decide if he abused the trust that was placed in himor was the victim of a witch hunt orchestrated at the highest levels of American government. Bill Stewart, Professor Emeritus of Political Science, University of Alabama

“Nothing short of a masterpiece.” —NPR Books A New York Times Bestseller and a Washington Post Notable Book of the Year In the most ambitious one-volume American history in decades, award-winning historian Jill Lepore offers a magisterial account of the origins and rise of a divided nation. Widely hailed for its “sweeping, sobering account of the American past” (New York Times Book Review), Jill Lepore’s one-volume history of America places truth itself—a devotion to facts, proof, and evidence—at the center of the nation’s history. The American experiment rests on three ideas—“these truths,” Jefferson called them—political equality, natural rights, and the sovereignty of the people. But has the nation, and democracy itself, delivered on that promise? These Truths tells this uniquely American story, beginning in 1492, asking whether the course of events over more than five centuries has proven the nation’s truths, or belied them. To answer that question, Lepore wrestles with the state of American politics, the legacy of slavery, the persistence of inequality, and the nature of technological change. “A nation born in contradiction… will fight, forever, over the meaning of its history,” Lepore writes, but engaging in that struggle by studying the past is part of the work of citizenship. With These Truths, Lepore has produced a book that will shape our view of American history for decades to come.

From the author of Little Women: An American classic of young best friends in a rustic New England town. In post–Civil War New England, thirteen-year-old Jack Minot and Janey Pecq are inseparable best friends who live next door to each other in the town of Harmony Village. The pair does everything together—so much so that Janey is nicknamed “Jill” to fit the old children’s rhyme. One winter day, the friends share a sled down a treacherous hill and both end up injured and bedridden. Unable to go out and have fun, Jack, Jill, and their circle of friends begin to learn about more than the fun and games of their youth and discover what it means to grow up—exploring their town, their hearts, and the big, wide world beyond for the first time. This charming, wistful coming-of-age tale, written twelve years after Louisa May Alcott’s classic Little Women, examines the strange, tempestuous changes of adolescence with homespun heart and worldly wisdom.

Race remains a potent and divisive force in our society. Whether it is the shooting of minority people by the police, the mass incarceration of people of color, or the recent KKK rallies that have been in the news, it is clear that the scars from the United States’ histories of slavery and racial discrimination run too deep to simply be ignored. But what are the most productive ways to deal with the toxic and torturous legacies of American racism? Slavery’s Descendants brings together contributors from a variety of racial backgrounds, all members or associates of a national racial reconciliation organization called Coming to the Table, to tell their stories of dealing with America’s racial past through their experiences and their family histories. Some are descendants of slaveholders, some are descendants of the enslaved, and many are descendants of both slaveholders and slaves. What they all have in common is a commitment toward collective introspection, and a willingness to think critically about how the nation’s histories of oppression continue to ripple into the present, affecting us all. The stories in Slavery’s Descendants deal with harrowing topics—rape, lynching, cruelty, shame—but they also describe acts of generosity, gratitude, and love. Together, they help us confront the legacy of slavery to reclaim a more complete picture of U.S. history, one cousin at a time. Funding for the production of this book was provided by Furthermore, a program of the J. M. Kaplan Fund (https://www.furthermore.org).