In 1881, Los Angeles was a rough, frontier community more in touch with the past than the future. The city had two dailies, the Herald and the Express, and the founding of the Times drew only modest attention. Then, in 1882, Harrison Gray Otis launched a formal column, LETTERS FROM THE PEOPLE. Hundreds of letter writers used the column to call attention to the matters they thought should be the immediate concern of all Angelenos. While historians have recorded the euphoria of skyrocketing real estate prices, mass migration from the east, the Americanization of the city, and the growth of specific industries and institutions, life in Los Angeles can only be fully understood by examining the concerns of its citizens. The topics discussed reveal a Los Angeles that was occupied with concerns that still divide us today: education, crime, unequal justice, immigration, the treatment of minorities, women's rights, health care, transit, water, the river, lack of infrastructure, and government's negative effect on the business climate. Derived from more than 2,000 letters to the editor, LETTERS FROM THE PEOPLE is an in-depth anthology supplemented with much historical data about the writers and events that shaped early Los Angeles on the eve of its explosive growth.

Gratitude and happiness go hand-in-hand -- and The Thank-You Project provides an easy-to-follow approach for creating more of both. Who helped you become the person you are today? As Nancy Davis Kho approached a milestone birthday, she decided to answer that question by sending thank-you letters to the many people who had influenced her, helped her, and inspired her over the years: family, friends, mentors, teachers, co-workers, even a couple of former friends and exes. While her recipients always seemed genuinely pleased to read the letters, what Nancy never expected was the profound and positive effect the process would have on her. As it turns out, emerging research proves that actively appreciating the formative people in your life, past and present, can lead to a lasting increase in your happiness levels--and The Thank-you Project offers a charming, entertaining roadmap to see, say and savor your way there.

Todd (kinesiology and health education, U. of Texas, Austin) discusses the diverse spectrum of women's exercise in the antebellum era-- especially exercise systems related to an ideal of womanhood--and the ways that purposive training influenced American women physically, intellectually, and emotionally. She also considers the contributions of several physical education figures: Sarah Pierce, Mary Lyon, William Bentley Fowle, Catherine Beecher, David P. Butler, Dio Lewis, and the phrenologist Orson S. Fowler. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR.

Reese’s Book Club x Hello Sunshine’s April 2018 book pick A shirt-grabbing, page-turning love story that follows a one-of-a-kind family through twists of fate that require nearly unimaginable choices. Happiness begins with a charming courtship between hopelessly attracted opposites: Heather, a world-roaming California girl, and Brian, an intellectual, homebody writer, kind and slyly funny, but loath to leave his Upper West Side studio. Their magical interlude ends, full stop, when Heather becomes pregnant—Brian is sure he loves her, only he doesn't want kids. Heather returns to California to deliver their daughter alone, buoyed by family and friends. Mere hours after Gracie's arrival, Heather's bliss is interrupted when a nurse wakes her, "Get dressed, your baby is in trouble." This is not how Heather had imagined new motherhood – alone, heartsick, an unexpectedly solo caretaker of a baby who smelled "like sliced apples and salted pretzels" but might be perilously ill. Brian reappears as Gracie's condition grows dire; together Heather and Brian have to decide what they are willing to risk to ensure their girl sees adulthood. The grace and humor that ripple through Harpham's writing transform the dross of heartbreak and parental fears into a clear-eyed, warm-hearted view of the world. Profoundly moving and subtly written, Happiness radiates in many directions--new, romantic love; gratitude for a beautiful, inscrutable world; deep, abiding friendship; the passion a parent has for a child; and the many unlikely ways to build a family. Ultimately it's a story about love and happiness, in their many crooked configurations.

The present compandium of letters and abridged memoirs written by the noted Russian short story writer Anton Pavlovich Chekhov to his family and friends was first published in this form in the year 1920.