A baby born three months early is brought to the Century of Progress Exposition in Chicago in 1933 by his father, who hopes the fair's famous baby doctor will save the infant's life.

In From Nothing to 90, Will Klein chronicles his life from hardscrabble beginnings as an adopted child in a Saskatchewan family struggling through the “Dirty Thirties” to early success as a newsboy and onto great business achievement despite numerous setbacks throughout his life. In colourful, humorous, observant prose, Will takes readers from Depression-era Saskatchewan through his rise in business in the early days of television to his leadership in a storied public service organization that takes him around the world and into a whirlwind of political machinations that threatens to destroy him. At its heart, From Nothing to 90 is an inspiring story about Saskatchewan: its history, hardships, and opportunities. But it’s also a book about individual initiative, seizing opportunity, and never giving up even after government betrayal and setbacks that might appear insurmountable.

“A mosaic mystery told in vignettes, cliffhangers, curious asides, and some surreal plot twists as Raffel investigates the secrets of the man who changed infant care in America.”—NPR, 2018's Great Reads What kind of doctor puts his patients on display? This is the spellbinding tale of a mysterious Coney Island doctor who revolutionized neonatal care more than one hundred years ago and saved some seven thousand babies. Dr. Martin Couney's story is a kaleidoscopic ride through the intersection of ebullient entrepreneurship, enlightened pediatric care, and the wild culture of world's fairs at the beginning of the American Century. As Dawn Raffel recounts, Dr. Couney used incubators and careful nursing to keep previously doomed infants alive, while displaying these babies alongside sword swallowers, bearded ladies, and burlesque shows at Coney Island, Atlantic City, and venues across the nation. How this turn-of-the-twentieth-century émigré became the savior to families with premature infants—known then as “weaklings”—as he ignored the scorn of the medical establishment and fought the rising popularity of eugenics is one of the most astounding stories of modern medicine. Dr. Couney, for all his entrepreneurial gusto, is a surprisingly appealing character, someone who genuinely cared for the well-being of his tiny patients. But he had something to hide... Drawing on historical documents, original reportage, and interviews with surviving patients, Dawn Raffel tells the marvelously eccentric story of Couney's mysterious carnival career, his larger-than-life personality, and his unprecedented success as the savior of the fragile wonders that are tiny, tiny babies. A New York Times Book Review New & Noteworthy Title A Real Simple Best Book of 2018 Christopher Award-winner

COLD CASE CHRONICLES tells the stories of victims –– some missing, some murdered and some with changed identities. All are true, and each are mysterious in their own ways. The cases in this nonfiction narrative date from 1910 through the 1950s and include evolutions in forensics, as well as historical context in order to view the men, women and children through the lens of time. Included are recent theories on the cases of Judge Joseph Crater (missing from New York City in 1930) and film director William Desmond Taylor (shot in Hollywood in 1922). Other chapters help to unravel the mystique of individuals with changed identities. Included, too, is a case of aerial sabotage, the "Boy in the Box," and unusual disappearances of young women, along with child abductions and four missing adventurers –– Everett Ruess, Joseph Halpern, and Glen and Bessie Hyde. Readers are encouraged to draw their own conclusions, consider how detectives would handle these and other cases today, and learn how genetic genealogy brings new hope for the future.

Caroline, known as “Lina” to her family, has always lived in the shadow of her older brother William Herschel’s accomplishments. And yet when William invites Lina to join him in England to assist in his musical and astronomical pursuits—not to mention to run his bachelor household—she accepts, finding a new sense of purpose. William may be an obsessive genius, but Lina adores him, and aids him with the same fervency as a beloved wife. When William decides to marry, however, Lina’s world collapses. As she attempts to rebuild a future, we witness the dawning of an early feminist consciousness—a woman struggling to find her own place among the stars.

Stories by writers with Southern backgrounds deal with the modern problems of life in the South

"Hidden, that is, until life steps in to release Arthur from his seclusion. On orders from Mr. Duvall, he must drive Agatha to her own confinement in that peculiarly American institution of the 1950s, a home for unwed mothers. The Duvalls' plan to give the baby away shocks Arthur from his emotional slumber. The story of these two people - a man who has lost his past and a girl who is forced to give up her future - winds its way to a conclusion that is both inevitable and wholly unpredictable."--BOOK JACKET.

"A classic tale of forbidden love, a Romeo and Juliet for the current moment." —San Francisco Chronicle A Vintage Shorts “Short Story Month” Original Selection Hector didn’t know how to stop Azmina from doing what she did whenever she came over, which was to clean. Hector is young and struggling in America, and his apartment is small, sometimes trash-strewn, and often full of sloppy roommates. But in his own room he carves out a space for Azmina, and with her finds forbidden first love. “Witness” is a luminous, moving story from the author of The Last First Day and The Rope Walk—a poignant look at the overlooked corners of once-grand metropolises and the inhabitants that call them home. An eBook short.

In The Rope Walk, Carrie Brown crafts a luminous story of a young girl's coming of age during a crucial summer in New England. On her tenth birthday Alice meets two visitors to her quiet town: Theo, the African American grandson of her father's best friend, and Kenneth, an artist who has come home to convalesce. Theo forms an instant bond with Alice that will indelibly change them both. The pair in turn befriend Kenneth, and decide to build a “rope walk” through the woods for him, allowing to make his way through the outdoor world he has always loved. But their good intentions lead to surprising consequences, and Alice soon learns how different the world of children and adults really are.

The importance of Chicago in American culture has made the city's place in the American imagination a crucial topic for literary scholars and cultural historians. While databases of bibliographical information on Chicago-centered fiction are available, they are of little use to scholars researching works written before the 1980s. In The Chicago of Fiction: A Resource Guide, James A. Kaser provides detailed synopses for more than 1,200 works of fiction significantly set in Chicago and published between 1852 and 1980. The synopses include plot summaries, names of major characters, and an indication of physical settings. An appendix provides bibliographical information for works dating from 1981 well into the 21st century, while a biographical section provides basic information about the authors, some of whom are obscure and would be difficult to find in other sources. Written to assist researchers in locating works of fiction for analysis, the plot summaries highlight ways in which the works touch on major aspects of social history and cultural studies (i.e., class, ethnicity, gender, immigrant experience, and race). The book is also a useful reader advisory tool for librarians and readers who want to identify materials for leisure reading, particularly since genre, juvenile, and young adult fiction, as well as literary fiction, are included.