Urban Books’ popular Girls From da Hood series is back, bringing readers more dramatic tales about the lives of some tough, resourceful women who can hold their own when things get rough on the streets. This time, family bonds are put to the test. Jakki and School Boy are more than first cousins; they’re best friends and partners in crime with a reputation for getting theirs by any means necessary. The pair are ultimately forced to defend not only their family name but their loyalty to each other. With both wanting to stand at the head of the table, Jakki and School Boy feud, proving that there’s definitely no honor amongst thieves—family or not. Sanaa, a well-known gambling house owner, is at the top of her game, but after she decides to inject phony currency into her business, all hell breaks loose. Guns are drawn and opposing forces take sides. Luckily for Sanaa, her father and her brothers are well versed in the operations of the underworld. With millions of dollars still to be claimed, all the wolves come out, and the hunting season begins. Will the love of that mean green shatter families and friends, or will the players prove that money can't buy everything? With a gritty and promiscuous reputation, Star is indeed her mother’s child. When she meets Rello, a low-level hustler selling dreams of a better life, Star jumps at the opportunity to lock him down. However, when the connect’s package comes up short, Star’s lies start to unravel, and the true intentions of this wannabe wifey-to-a-kingpin are revealed.

An award-winning biography of one of the Confederacy’s most successful—and most criticized—generals. Winner of the 2014 Albert Castel Book Award and the 2014 Walt Whitman Award John Bell Hood died at forty-eight after a brief illness in August 1879, leaving behind the first draft of his memoirs, Advance and Retreat: Personal Experiences in the United States and Confederate States Armies. Published posthumously the following year, the memoirs immediately became as controversial as their author. A careful and balanced examination of these controversies, however, coupled with the recent discovery of Hood’s personal papers—which were long considered lost—finally sets the record straight in this book. Hood’s published version of many of the major events and controversies of his Confederate military career were met with scorn and skepticism. Some described his memoirs as merely a polemic against his arch-rival Joseph E. Johnston. These opinions persisted through the decades and reached their nadir in 1992, when an influential author described Hood’s memoirs as a bitter, misleading, and highly biased treatise replete with distortions, misrepresentations, and outright falsifications. Without any personal papers to contradict them, many writers portrayed Hood as an inept, dishonest opium addict and a conniving, vindictive cripple of a man. One went so far as to brand him a fool with a license to kill his own men. What most readers don’t know is that nearly all of these authors misused sources, ignored contrary evidence, and/or suppressed facts sympathetic to Hood. Stephen M. Hood, a distant relative of the general, embarked on a meticulous forensic study of the common perceptions and controversies of his famous kinsman. His careful examination of the original sources utilized to create the broadly accepted facts about John Bell Hood uncovered startlingly poor scholarship by some of the most well-known and influential historians of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. These discoveries, coupled with his access to a large cache of recently discovered Hood papers, many penned by generals and other officers who served with Hood, confirm Hood’s account that originally appeared in his memoir and resolve, for the first time, some of the most controversial aspects of Hood’s long career.

God bless you, England, on this glorious Year of Our Lord, 1145. Don't cross the Templars. Everybody knows that. But Will Scarlet, back from the crusades, hopped up on khat and cider, did. Stabbed thrice in the belly but somehow still alive, he's heading home to Nottingham. And things are not right in Nottingham. It's the wood, you see. Sherwood. Ice-age ancient, impenetrable, hiding a dark and secret heart. As the ancient sages say, If you go into the woods today, you may not come out tomorrow, and the person who comes out may not be you... The Hood is Lavie Tidhar's narcotic remix of an ancient English myth, a tale knotted from legends lost to time, shredded and restitched for each passing century. A tale for today.

The year 2011 brings us the sesquicentennial celebration of the American Civil War. Surprisingly, 150 years later, students continue to find themselves asking many of the same questions about the great national tragedy faced during the centennial in 1961. For example, did slavery cause the great conflict, or did constitutional questions act as the catalyst? Does the Battle of Gettysburg represent the turning point of the War, or did that occur elsewhere? In connection with the last question, Lost Cause advocates, those great pro-Confederacy propagandists, found convenient villains to blame for the Southern defeat. One of these, Confederate General John Bell Hood, plays an important role. This paper contends that in his case, the Lost Cause is wrong and that Hoods historical treatment has been false. Standard critical treatment of John Bell Hood over the years has tended to characterize the general as rash, overaggressive, and lacking in strategic imagination. For such critical historians, Hood appears as old-fashioned and someone limited logistically to the frontal assault. These accounts mainly stress his negative aspects as a soldier and tend to center around the Battle of Franklin. This thesis, by analyzing every battle that Hood commanded as a leader of the Army of Tennessee, particularly those fought around Atlanta, reveals him to have been a far more bold, imaginative, and complex leader than has previously been portrayed.

WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE MEETS ROBIN HOOD! At last the classic tale of Robin Hood gets the telling it deserves: in the high Shakespearean style of Elizabethan drama. Here is England's greatest legend as England's greatest poet might have imagined it. The critics were convinced at the play's Chicago premiere: "Pursuing persuasive parallels, the author forges links between plucky Robin and rowdy Prince Hal, between rotund Friar Tuck and rascally Falstaff, between intrepid Rosalind and a resourceful Maid Marian" (Chicago Tribune). "Robyn Hood keeps you on your mental toes to follow the intricacies and delights of a Shakespearean script you've never heard before-an almost unimaginable experience for Bardophiles" (Plays International). After 400 years, the play that was meant to be has finally arrived. It's Shakespeare's style and Robin Hood's story together at last!

Four girls, one mic, and lots of drama. When Mariposa (aka MC Patria) meets Ezekiel Matthews (aka MC EZ1) they quickly become best friends; together they have the best summer tossing lyrics and rhymes. After the summer ends, Mariposa realizes the only thing she really cares about—besides becoming the best emcee around—is getting Ezekiel to love her. Unfortunately, this realization comes at the same time Ezekiel gets a girlfriend—Jennifer Hoffman (aka J-Ho 5), an emcee with a huge buzz. When her school announces a talent show, Mariposa understands that this could be her last chance to impress Ezekiel. She decides to form a hip-hop crew—enter the world of the Sista Hood—MC Patria, Soul Siren, Pinay-1, and DJ Esa, all divas in their own way. While coming together isn't easy, they're forced to collaborate and their lives are changed forever.