Take a trip on the Great Lakes with Sweetwater Sailors. This entertaining, historical and factual book brings you up close and personal with Great Lakes Merchant Mariners, both men and women, including the only American woman Captain of a large Great Lakes ore carrier. You'll have a first person perspective on the jobs they perform and what makes them continue working in a potentially dangerous profession, which keeps them away from home most of the year. Great Lakes merchant sailors provided photographs of their own experiences and collaborated with the author, Bob Ojala by sharing many interesting and funny stories of their years on the Great Lakes. If you're interested in the history of the Great Lakes, ships of all kinds, and women in atypical careers, will enjoy this book. The author spent four years in the U.S. Coast Guard, 17 years as a ship Surveyor with the American Bureau of Shipping, nearly 9 years with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and has managed in his own business as a marine consultant for 30 years. Bob is still active in the marine industry. His father was a Merchant Mariner for 32 years, giving Bob the interest in the Maritime Industry, his hundreds of contacts with sailors, and his respect for their profession.

The sea and Great Lakes have inspired American authors from colonial times to the present to produce enduring literary works. This reference is a comprehensive survey of American sea literature. The scope of the encyclopedia ranges from the earliest printed matter produced in the colonies to contemporary experiments in published prose, poetry, and drama. The book also acknowledges how literature gives rise to adaptations and resonances in music and film and includes coverage of nonliterary topics that have nonetheless shaped American literature of the sea and Great Lakes. The alphabetical arrangement of the reference facilitates access to facts about major literary works, characters, authors, themes, vessels, places, and ideas that are central to American sea literature. Each of the several hundred entries is written by an expert contributor and many provide bibliographical information. While the encyclopedia includes entries for white male canonical writers such as Herman Melville and Jack London, it also gives considerable attention to women at sea and to ethnically diverse authors, works, and themes. The volume concludes with a chronology and a list of works for further reading.

In 1913, a powerful and dangerous storm descends on the Great Lakes — and three sisters find their lives transformed amid the chaos in this "superb, character-driven adventure" (Publishers Weekly). Great Lakes galley cook Sunny Colvin has her hands full feeding a freighter crew seven days a week, nine months a year. She also has a dream—to open a restaurant back home—but knows she'd never convince her husband, the steward, to leave the seafaring life he loves. In Sunny’s Lake Huron hometown, her sister, Agnes Inby, mourns her husband, a U.S. Life-Saving Serviceman who died in an accident she believes she could have prevented. Burdened with regret and longing for more than her job at the dry goods store, she looks for comfort in a secret infatuation. Two hundred miles away in Cleveland, the youngest sister, Cordelia Blythe, has pinned her hopes for adventure on her marriage to a lake freighter captain. Finding herself alone and restless in her new town, she joins him on the season’s last trip up the lakes. On November 8, 1913, a powerful storm descends on the Great Lakes, bringing hurricane-force winds, whiteout blizzard conditions, and mountainous waves that last for days. Amidst the chaos all three women are offered a glimpse of the clarity they seek, if only they dare to perceive it. Kinley Bryan's debut, a Historical Novels Review Editors' Choice, is inspired by actual events during the Great Lakes Storm of 1913, as well as her own family history. "This is historical fiction at its best" (Molly Gartland, author of The Girl from the Hermitage).

The legendary frontman of Judas Priest, one of the most successful heavy metal bands of all time, celebrates five decades of heavy metal in this tell-all memoir. Most priests hear confessions. This one is making his. Rob Halford, front man of global iconic metal band Judas Priest, is a true "Metal God." Raised in Britain's hard-working, heavy industrial heartland, he and his music were forged in the Black Country. Confess, his full autobiography, is an unforgettable rock 'n' roll story-a journey from a Walsall council estate to musical fame via alcoholism, addiction, police cells, ill-fated sexual trysts, and bleak personal tragedy, through to rehab, coming out, redemption . . . and finding love. Now, he is telling his gospel truth. Told with Halford's trademark self-deprecating, deadpan Black Country humor, Confess is the story of an extraordinary five decades in the music industry. It is also the tale of unlikely encounters with everybody from Superman to Andy Warhol, Madonna, Jack Nicholson, and the Queen. More than anything else, it's a celebration of the fire and power of heavy metal. Rob Halford has decided to Confess. Because it's good for the soul. Named one of the Best Music Books of 2020 by Rolling Stone and Kirkus Reviews