William A. James Sr. has done it again. He delves into the emotional side of why Vinegar Hill, a 20-acre-tract, was deemed an unbearable slum, and had to be destroyed immediately in 1963. Everything wrong with Charlottesville was blamed on the innocent inhabitants of the "Hill." When three notorious hoodlums killed a UVA student, and Gabe Owens informed on them, most of the City Council and the UVA President swung into action. They masterminded a plan to demolish the homes and businesses of all Blacks on the "Hill," for the crimes of one or two people. The above were helped along by the actions of three "racist" police officers who had murdered William Griot, to keep him from divulging the secret that they were actually Blacks. This novel is intriguing, mysterious, spiritual, and down-home soulful all at once. In this novel, James enters the mind of the reader from page one, and does not let him/her go.

From the New York Times best-selling author of Brooklyn, Colm Tóibín’s first collection of poetry explores sexuality, religion, and belonging through a modern lens Fans of Colm Tóibín’s novels, including The Magician, The Master, and Nora Webster, will relish the opportunity to re-encounter Tóibín in verse. Vinegar Hill explores the liminal space between private experiences and public events as Tóibín examines a wide range of subjects—politics, queer love, reflections on literary and artistic greats, living through COVID, and facing mortality. The poems reflect a life well-traveled and well-lived; from growing up in the town of Enniscorthy, wandering the streets of Dublin, and crossing the bridges of Venice to visiting the White House, readers will travel through familiar locations and new destinations through Tóibín’s unique lens. Within this rich collection of poems written over the course of several decades, shot through with keen observation, emotion, and humor, Tóibín offers us lines and verses to provoke, ponder, and cherish.

William A. James Sr. has done it again. He delves into the emotional side of why Vinegar Hill, a 20-acre-tract, was deemed an unbearable slum, and had to be destroyed immediately in 1963. Everything wrong with Charlottesville was blamed on the innocent inhabitants of the "Hill." When three notorious hoodlums killed a UVA student, and Gabe Owens informed on them, most of the City Council and the UVA President swung into action. They masterminded a plan to demolish the homes and businesses of all Blacks on the "Hill," for the crimes of one or two people. The above were helped along by the actions of three "racist" police officers who had murdered William Griot, to keep him from divulging the secret that they were actually Blacks. This novel is intriguing, mysterious, spiritual, and down-home soulful all at once.

In a stark, troubling, yet ultimately triumphant celebration of self-determination, award-winning author A. Manette Ansay re-creates a stifling world of guilty and pain, and the tormented souls who inhabit it. It is 1972 when circumstance carries Ellen Grier and her family back to Holly's Field, Wisconsin. Dutifully accompanying her newly unemployed husband, Ellen has brought her two children into the home of her in-laws on Vinegar Hill--a loveless house suffused with the settling dust of bitterness and routine--where calculated cruelty is a way of life preserved and perpetuated in the service of a rigid, exacting and angry God. Behind a facade of false piety, there are sins and secrets in this place that could crush a vibrant young woman's passionate spirit. And here Ellen must find the straight to endure, change, and grow in the all-pervading darkness that threatens to destroy everything she is and everyone she loves.

A very funny book. The marvelous stories it tells with such economy and force could be the basis for many novels, motion pictures and folk song.

From the 1920s through the 1950s, the center of black social and business life in Charlottesville, Virginia, was the area known as Vinegar Hill. But in 1960, noting the prevalence of aging frame houses and "substandard" conditions such as outdoor toilets, voters decided that Vinegar Hill would be redeveloped. Charlottesville's black residents lost a cultural center, largely because they were deprived of a voice in government. Vinegar Hill's displaced residents discuss the loss of homes and businesses and the impact of the project on black life in Charlottesville. The interviews raise questions about motivations behind urban renewal. Instructors considering this book for use in a course may request an examination copy here.

The next frontier in fermenting and home brewing is vinegar: the essential ingredient for enhancing your home cooking. Just about everyone has at least one bottle of vinegar in the pantry, but not many realize how much better the homemade kind tastes—the flavor is incomparable. And it's easy make; all you need is a bottle of your favorite alcoholic beverage, a starter (or mother of vinegar), and a few weeks of hands-off time. Vinegar Revival shows you how to use homemade or store-bought vinegar--made from apple cider, beer, wine, fruit scraps, herbs, and more--to great effect with more than 50 recipes. Here are drinks and cocktails (Strawberry Rhubarb Shrub, Switchel, and Mint Vinegar Julep), pickles (Cured Grapes and Pickled Whole Garlic), sauces and vinaigrettes (Roasted Hot Sauce and Miso-Ginger Dressing), mains and sides (Saucy Piquant Pork Chops and Roasted Red Cabbage), and dessert (Vinegar Pie and Balsamic Ice Cream). Whether you want to experiment with home brewing or just add a little zing to your meals, Vinegar Revival demystifies the process of making and tasting vinegar.

The never-before-told story of Brooklyn’s vibrant and forgotten queer history, from the mid-1850s up to the present day. ***An ALA GLBT Round Table Over the Rainbow 2019 Top Ten Selection*** ***NAMED ONE OF THE BEST LGBTQ BOOKS OF 2019 by Harper's Bazaar*** "A romantic, exquisite history of gay culture." —Kirkus Reviews, starred “[A] boisterous, motley new history...entertaining and insightful.” —The New York Times Book Review Hugh Ryan’s When Brooklyn Was Queer is a groundbreaking exploration of the LGBT history of Brooklyn, from the early days of Walt Whitman in the 1850s up through the queer women who worked at the Brooklyn Navy Yard during World War II, and beyond. No other book, movie, or exhibition has ever told this sweeping story. Not only has Brooklyn always lived in the shadow of queer Manhattan neighborhoods like Greenwich Village and Harlem, but there has also been a systematic erasure of its queer history—a great forgetting. Ryan is here to unearth that history for the first time. In intimate, evocative, moving prose he discusses in new light the fundamental questions of what history is, who tells it, and how we can only make sense of ourselves through its retelling; and shows how the formation of the Brooklyn we know today is inextricably linked to the stories of the incredible people who created its diverse neighborhoods and cultures. Through them, When Brooklyn Was Queer brings Brooklyn’s queer past to life, and claims its place as a modern classic.

PART MEMOIR AND PART ELEGY, READING MY FATHER IS THE STORY OF A DAUGHTER COMING TO KNOW HER FATHER AT LAST— A GIANT AMONG TWENTIETH-CENTURY AMERICAN NOVELISTS AND A MAN WHOSE DEVASTATING DEPRESSION DARKENED THE FAMILY LANDSCAPE. In Reading My Father, William Styron’s youngest child explores the life of a fascinating and difficult man whose own memoir, Darkness Visible, so searingly chronicled his battle with major depression. Alexandra Styron’s parents—the Pulitzer Prize–winning author of Sophie’s Choice and his political activist wife, Rose—were, for half a century, leading players on the world’s cultural stage. Alexandra was raised under both the halo of her father’s brilliance and the long shadow of his troubled mind. A drinker, a carouser, and above all “a high priest at the altar of fiction,” Styron helped define the concept of The Big Male Writer that gave so much of twentieth-century American fiction a muscular, glamorous aura. In constant pursuit of The Great Novel, he and his work were the dominant force in his family’s life, his turbulent moods the weather in their ecosystem. From Styron’s Tidewater, Virginia, youth and precocious literary debut to the triumphs of his best-known books and on through his spiral into depression, Reading My Father portrays the epic sweep of an American artist’s life, offering a ringside seat on a great literary generation’s friendships and their dramas. It is also a tale of filial love, beautifully written, with humor, compassion, and grace.

In 1798, Irish patriots, committed to freeing their country from England, landed with a company of French troops in County Mayo, in westernmost Ireland. They were supposed to be an advance guard, followed by other French ships with the leader of the rebellion, Wolfe Tone. Briefly they triumphed, raising hopes among the impoverished local peasantry and gathering a group of supporters. But before long the insurgency collapsed in the face of a brutal English counterattack. Very few books succeed in registering the sudden terrible impact of historical events; Thomas Flanagan's is one. Subtly conceived, masterfully paced, with a wide and memorable cast of characters, The Year of the French brings to life peasants and landlords, Protestants and Catholics, along with old and abiding questions of secular and religious commitments, empire, occupation, and rebellion. It is quite simply a great historical novel. Named the most distinguished work of fiction in 1979 by the National Book Critics' Circle.