Journey to the edges of the Great Lakes in this engaging history of picnicking, wilderness, and foodways. This stunning venture into the American picnic explores how innovation, exploitation, and the changing wilderness of Michigan's Upper Peninsula have shaped the experience of eating outdoors. From a photo of her grandmother picnicking in 1911, to the outdoor lunches of miners and loggers, to the picnics of vacationing celebrities like Henry Ford and Ernest Hemingway, author Candice Goucher opens an aperture into historic memories of picnics past to consider what the picnic sparks in our senses and to bring the borderlands of humans and nature into view. Through pictures, postcards, paintings, and recipes, Goucher traces the creation of a modern notion of wilderness as it emerged in the North American imagination and popular culture to navigate an entangled environmental and culinary history of the Upper Peninsula. Drawing on themes from Indigenous knowledge and the African American experience to labor activism and women's history, this tantalizing chronicle offers a taste of Americana, seasoned by the changing global forces of industrialization, transportation, immigration, tourism, war, and climate.

Ireland has a vibrant literary scene, and Dublin-based Liberties Press publishes some of the country's most exciting writers. Here's the Story includes extracts from nine novels, two short-story collections and three books of poetry recently published by Liberties Press. Here's the Story was published by Liberties Press in association with Solas Nua, the only organisation in the US dedicated exclusively to contemporary Irish arts, including film, music, literature, visual arts and theatre. Paperback copies were distributed for free by Solas Nua to readers in Washington D. C. on the 10th Irish Book Day, 17 March 2015. Within Here's the Story are extracts from novels by Jan Carson, Kevin Curran, Jason Johnson, Joe Joyce, Billy Keane, Caitriona Lally, Joe Murphy, Daniel Seery and Tara West, as well as short stories by Barry Reddin and Lane Ashfeldt, and poems by Moyra Donaldson, Gabriel Fitzmaurice and Michael D. Higgins.

Irish Book of the Year Finalist An Amazon “Best Books of the Year So Far” An Irish Times Book Club Selection An eccentric young woman searches for friendship, understanding, and belonging as she roams Dublin in this “wildly funny” debut from an exciting voice in Irish literature (New York Times Book Review) Vivian doesn't feel like she fits in—and never has. As a child, she was so whimsical that her parents told her she was “left by fairies.” Now, living alone in Dublin, she finds herself without a friend in the world. So, she decides it’s time to change her life: She begins by advertising for a friend. Not just any friend. She wants one named Penelope. Meanwhile, Vivian roams the city, mapping out a new neighborhood every day, seeking her escape route to a better world, the other world her parents told her she came from. And then one day someone named Penelope answers her ad for a friend. And from that moment on, Vivian's life begins to change. Debut author Caitriona Lally offers readers an exhilaratingly fresh take on the Irish love for lyricism, humor, and inventive wordplay in a book that is, in itself, deeply charming, and deeply moving.

Jeffrey R. Kerr-Ritchie's Freedom's Seekers offers a bold and innovative intervention into the study of emancipation as a transnational phe-nomenon and serves as an important contribution to our understanding of the remaking of the nineteenth-century Atlantic Americas. Drawing on decades of research into slave and emancipation societies, Kerr-Ritchie is attentive to those who sought but were not granted freedom, and those who resisted enslavement individually as well as collectively on behalf of their communities. He explores the many roles that fugitive slaves, slave soldiers, and slave rebels played in their own societies. He likewise explicates the lives of individual freedmen, freedwomen, and freed children to show how the first free-born generation helped to shape the terms and conditions of the post-slavery world. Freedom's Seekers is a signal contribution to African Diaspora studies, especially in its rigorous respect for the agency of those who sought and then fought for their freedom, and its consistent attention to the transnational dimensions of emancipation.

Its now 2078, and the Arikhan fleet has finally arrived determined on conquest. Opposing them is Grey Waters, the young Governor-General of the United Alliance, and a rag-tag fleet of warships lacking the technology to challenge the invaders but challenge them they must; from Jupiter space through the Asteroid Belt, on the red sands of Mars, and finally in the skies above Earth. The chances of defeating the Arikhan arent good, but if the price of victory is high, the brave youngsters rallied to the cause are willing to pay it. Tranquilitys Last Stand is the 9th is final book of the Waters of the Moon series. After eight books and twenty-nine years of adventures, the young man born on the moon and raised by computers faces the challenge he was destined for, and win or lose, you can be sure the world weve known will never be the same again.

Step into the realm of tranquility with "Sleepify: The Ultimate Sleep Aide," an immersive audiobook meticulously designed to usher you into a restorative night's sleep. Each narrative in this enchanting collection is crafted to gently soothe the mind, calm the senses, and guide you into a state of deep relaxation. From the whispering melodies of mystical forests to the rhythmic lullabies of ocean waves, every story invites you on a journey of serenity and tranquility. As you listen, you'll find yourself transported to ethereal landscapes where the burdens of the day dissolve, and peace envelops you like a warm, comforting embrace. Whether seeking solace from the clamor of daily life or struggling to quiet the incessant chatter of the mind, "Sleepify" offers a sanctuary of calm where you can find solace and renewal. But "Sleepify" is more than just a collection of bedtime tales—it's a powerful tool for relaxation and self-care. Each story is carefully curated to induce a state of deep relaxation, allowing you to release tension, unwind, and let go of the worries that weigh heavily on your mind. With its gentle rhythms and soothing melodies, "Sleepify" provides the perfect backdrop for drifting off into a peaceful slumber, leaving you refreshed, rejuvenated, and ready to embrace the new day. For those grappling with tinnitus, "Sleepify" offers a gentle respite from the persistent ringing in the ears. By offering a calming distraction and fostering a serene sleep environment, "Sleepify" can alleviate the discomfort and frustration associated with tinnitus, providing much-needed relief and restoring a sense of calm. So, if you're ready to embark on a journey of relaxation and renewal, join us on "Sleepify: The Ultimate Sleep Aide" and experience the transformative power of a good night's sleep. Just hit play and let yourself drift away into a world of tranquility, where peace, serenity, and sweet dreams await.

Thirty years before Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation, the antislavery movement won its first victory in the British Parliament. On August 1, 1834, the Abolition of Slavery Bill took effect, ending colonial slavery throughout the British Empire. Over the next three decades, "August First Day," also known as "West India Day" and "Emancipation Day," became the most important annual celebration of emancipation among people of African descent in the northern United States, the British Caribbean, Canada West, and the United Kingdom and played a critical role in popular mobilization against American slavery. In Rites of August First, J. R. Kerr-Ritchie provides the first detailed analysis of the origins, nature, and consequences of this important commemoration that helped to shape the age of Anglo-American emancipation. Combining social, cultural, and political history, Kerr-Ritchie discusses the ideological and cultural representations of August First Day in print, oratory, and visual images. Spanning the Western hemisphere, Kerr-Ritchie's study successfully unravels the cultural politics of emancipation celebrations, analyzing the social practices informed by public ritual, symbol, and spectacle designed to elicit feelings of common identity among blacks in the Atlantic World. Rites of August First shows how and why the commemorative events changed between British emancipation and the freeing of slaves in the United States a generation later, while also examining the connections among local, regional, and international commemorations. While shedding light on an important black institution that has been long ignored, Rites of August First also contributes to the broader study of emancipation and black Atlantic identity. Its transnational approach challenges local and national narratives that have largely shaped previous investigations of these questions. Kerr-Ritchie shows how culture and community were truly political at this important historical moment and, most broadly, how politics and culture converge and profoundly influence each other.

The Problem of Emancipation explores a long-neglected aspect of American slavery and the history of the Atlantic World, bridging a gap in our understanding of the American Civil War. It places the origins of the war in a transatlantic context, exploring the impact of Britain's abolition of slavery on the coming of the war, and revealing the strong influence of Britain's old Atlantic empire on the politics of the United States. This ground-breaking study examines how southern and northern American newspapers covered three slave rebellions that preceded British abolition and how American public opinion shifted radically as a result.

Winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award “Impeccably researched and seductively readable...tells the story of Sam Sharpe’s revolution manqué, and the subsequent abolition of slavery in Jamaica, in a way that’s acutely relevant to the racial unrest of our own time.” —Madison Smartt Bell, author of All Souls’ Rising The final uprising of enslaved people in Jamaica started as a peaceful labor strike a few days shy of Christmas in 1831. A harsh crackdown by white militias quickly sparked a full-blown revolt, leaving hundreds of plantation houses in smoking ruins. The rebels lost their daring bid for freedom, but their headline-grabbing defiance triggered a decisive turn against slavery. Island on Fire is a dramatic day-by-day account of these transformative events. A skillful storyteller, Tom Zoellner uses diaries, letters, and colonial records to tell the intimate story of the men and women who rose up and briefly tasted liberty. He brings to life the rebellion’s enigmatic leader, the preacher Samuel Sharpe, and shows how his fiery resistance turned the tide of opinion in London and hastened the end of slavery in the British Empire. “Zoellner’s vigorous, fast-paced account brings to life a varied gallery of participants...The revolt failed to improve conditions for the enslaved in Jamaica, but it crucially wounded the institution of slavery itself.” —Fergus M. Bordewich, Wall Street Journal “It’s high time that we had a book like the splendid one Tom Zoellner has written: a highly readable but carefully documented account of the greatest of all British slave rebellions, the miseries that led to it, and the momentous changes it wrought.” —Adam Hochschild, author of Bury the Chains

During the fourteen years Sydney Howard Gay edited the American Anti-Slavery Society's National Anti-Slavery Standard in New York City, he worked with some of the most important Underground agents in the eastern United States, including Thomas Garrett, William Still and James Miller McKim. Gay's closest associate was Louis Napoleon, a free black man who played a major role in the James Kirk and Lemmon cases. For more than two years, Gay kept a record of the fugitives he and Napoleon aided. These never before published records are annotated in this book. Revealing how Gay was drawn into the bitter division between Frederick Douglass and William Lloyd Garrison, the work exposes the private opinions that divided abolitionists. It describes the network of black and white men and women who were vital links in the extensive Underground Railroad, conclusively confirming a daily reality.