Monthly Features
-
The Great Big Pumpkin Cookbook
More Than 50 Delicious Pumpkin Recipes, including Paleo Friendly, Gluten Free, Dairy Free, and Vegetarian Options to Enjoy All Fall Long!
Pumpkin is not just for pie! With help from Maggie Michalczyk, registered dietitian and creator of the popular Once Upon a Pumpkin blog, you can discover brand-new ways to use your pumpkin, whether fresh or canned. From snacks and side dishes to breakfast, dinner, and dessert, you’ll never get tired of the creative ways to use your pumpkin! Recipes include:- Homemade Pumpkin Pie Spice
- Pumpkin Ginger Oat Bowl (Dairy-Free)
- Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Banana Bread
- Pumpkin Donuts (Gluten- and Dairy-Free)
- Pumpkin Snickerdoodles
- Lemon Pumpkin Soup (Gluten-Free and Vegetarian)
- Pumpkin Mac and “Cheese” (Dairy-Free and Vegetarian)
- Pumpkin Spice Latte Pie
- Pumpkin Turmeric Hummus (Gluten- and Dairy-Free)
- And many more!
These fantastic recipes are not only delicious but feature paleo-friendly, vegetarian, and gluten- and dairy-free options! Recipes also feature ingredients from your favorite brands, including Libby’s, Simple Mills, Quaker, and siggi’s. Don’t leave your pumpkin for fall baking. Now with The Great Big Pumpkin Cookbook, you can eat all the pumpkin your heart desires all year round!
-
Indulge
Instant New York Times bestseller
Beloved actress and New York Times bestselling author Valerie Bertinelli returns with her most indulgent cookbook yet; a collection of 100 recipes to nourish the body and the soul.
in-dulge: to allow oneself to enjoy the pleasure of.
When Valerie Bertinelli turned 60, she said "Enough already!" and ended her battle with the scale for good. She stopped counting calories. She stopped thinking of certain foods as good or bad. She quit saying no and began saying yes, finally learning how to enjoy the pure pleasure of being alive - starting in the kitchen.
In short, she learned how to indulge.
With this gorgeous cookbook, Valerie shares her secrets for indulging so you can start living your best, most fulfilling life too. Whether it's splurging on fresh produce at the farmer's market, cooking an extravagant steak dinner for one, or serving an ice cream sundae bar at a dinner party, this book is a reminder that indulging can take many shapes and forms.
You'll discover the delicious recipes she cooks for her friends and family, including favorites like Garlic Confit BLT, Oven "Fried" Okra, Sausage and Olive Cheese Bites, Spaghetti al Limone, Salmon Burgers With Quick-Pickled Vegetables, Filet Mignon with Béarnaise Sauce and Chocolate Peanut Butter Dates, and more.
Written in Valerie's warmhearted and intimate style--including heartfelt essays about how to savor moments big and small--this cookbook is a permission slip to enjoy food, and more importantly, enjoy life.
-
Thanksgiving
We all know the story of Thanksgiving. Or do we? This uniquely American holiday has a rich and little known history beyond the famous feast of 1621.
In Thanksgiving, award-winning author Melanie Kirkpatrick journeys through four centuries of history, giving us a vivid portrait of our nation's best-loved holiday. Drawing on newspaper accounts, private correspondence, historical documents, and cookbooks, Thanksgiving brings to life the full history of the holiday and what it has meant to generations of Americans.
Many famous figures walk these pages--Washington, who proclaimed our first Thanksgiving as a nation amid controversy about his Constitutional power to do so; Lincoln, who wanted to heal a divided nation sick of war when he called for all Americans--North and South--to mark a Thanksgiving Day; FDR, who set off a debate on state's rights when he changed the traditional date of Thanksgiving.
Ordinary Americans also play key roles in the Thanksgiving story--the New England Indians who boycott Thanksgiving as a Day of Mourning; Sarah Josepha Hale, the nineteenth-century editor and feminist who successfully campaigned for Thanksgiving to be a national holiday; the 92nd Street Y in New York City, which founded Giving Tuesday, an online charity established in the long tradition of Thanksgiving generosity. Kirkpatrick also examines the history of Thanksgiving football and, of course, Thanksgiving dinner.
While the rites and rituals of the holiday have evolved over the centuries, its essence remains the same: family and friends feasting together in a spirit of gratitude to God, neighborliness, and hospitality. Thanksgiving is Americans' oldest tradition. Kirkpatrick's enlightening exploration offers a fascinating look at the meaning of the holiday that we gather together to celebrate on the fourth Thursday of November.
With Readings for Thanksgiving Day designed to be read aloud around the table.
-
EatingWell Soups
Satisfying to eat, loaded with healthy ingredients, and simple to make, soups are perennial favorites. EatingWell brings together 100 of its very best soups in this indispensable cookbook, illustrated with 100 color photos. The delicious recipes work for any occasion, from busy weeknights to special dinners, and the collection spans light and low-calorie to heartier--but still healthy--meal-in-a-bowl soups. A chapter on instant soups shows how to make tasty homemade "cup of noodle" jars--take them along and just add water! A resource chapter on techniques helps readers stocks their pantries, freeze soups, make stock, and more, and inspiring essays from soup makers around the country round out this enticing, healthy book.
-
Taste of Home Soups, Stews and More
Few things warm the soul like a bowl of comforting soup, heartwarming stew, stick-to-your-ribs chowder or family-favorite chili. Soups, Stews and More is filled with more than 300 delicious ways to ladle out comfort any night of the week. Filled with versatile recipes today's cooks rely on most from Taste of Home.
Featuring more than 300 succulent recipes, Taste of Home Soups, Stews & More makes an ideal addition to any home cook’s collection. Featuring everything from basic broths and weeknight classics to impressive first-course starters and holiday staples, this all-new cookbook offers the versatile recipes today’s cooks rely on most. You’ll also find soups sized right for smaller households, slow-cooked and Instant Pot greats, and handy kitchen tips that beat the clock. Take a look inside, and you’ll find that Taste of Home Soups, Stews & More has all the right ingredients for simmering up the perfect meal!
- SOUP-MAKING BASICS including instructions on homemade broth and fixing common soup conundrums (soup too salty, too bland, etc.).
- 300+ RECIPES and 250+ PHOTOS
- THREE ICONS: Fast Fix, 5 Ingredients and Freeze It
- PREP/COOK timelines with EVERY recipe
- Complete NUTRITION FACTS with EVERY recipe
- BONUS CHAPTER of soup mixes
-
Looking for Smoke
A REESE'S BOOK CLUB PICK
In her powerful debut novel, Looking for Smoke, author K. A. Cobell (Blackfeet) weaves loss, betrayal, and complex characters into a thriller that will illuminate, surprise, and engage readers until the final word. A must-pick for readers who enjoy books by Angeline Boulley and Karen McManus!
When local girl Loren includes Mara in a traditional Blackfeet Giveaway to honor Loren's missing sister, Mara thinks she'll finally make some friends on the Blackfeet reservation.
Instead, a girl from the Giveaway, Samantha White Tail, is found murdered.
Because the four members of the Giveaway group were the last to see Samantha alive, each becomes a person of interest in the investigation. And all of them--Mara, Loren, Brody, and Eli--have a complicated history with Samantha.
Despite deep mistrust, the four must now take matters into their own hands and clear their names. Even though one of them may be the murderer.
-
Sisters of the Lost Nation
Named a Most Anticipated Book by Barnes and Noble ∙ BuzzFeed ∙ GoodReads ∙ Book Riot ∙ CrimeReads ∙ Ms. Magazine ∙ SheReads ∙ Amazon Editor's Pick ∙ Tor.com ∙ and more!
A young Native girl's hunt for answers about the women mysteriously disappearing from her tribe's reservation leads her to delve into the myths and stories of her people, all while being haunted herself, in this atmospheric and stunningly poignant debut.
Anna Horn is always looking over her shoulder. For the bullies who torment her, for the entitled visitors at the reservation’s casino…and for the nameless, disembodied entity that stalks her every step—an ancient tribal myth come-to-life, one that’s intent on devouring her whole.
With strange and sinister happenings occurring around the casino, Anna starts to suspect that not all the horrors on the reservation are old. As girls begin to go missing and the tribe scrambles to find answers, Anna struggles with her place on the rez, desperately searching for the key she’s sure lies in the legends of her tribe’s past.
When Anna’s own little sister also disappears, she’ll do anything to bring Grace home. But the demons plaguing the reservation—both ancient and new—are strong, and sometimes, it’s the stories that never get told that are the most important.
Part gripping thriller and part mythological horror, author Nick Medina spins an incisive and timely novel of life as an outcast, the cost of forgetting tradition, and the courage it takes to become who you were always meant to be. -
New Native Kitchen
Modern Indigenous cuisine from the renowned Native foods educator and former chef of Mitsitam Native Foods Café at the Smithsonian's National Museum of the American Indian
From Freddie Bitsoie, the former executive chef at Mitsitam Native Foods Café at the Smithsonian's National Museum of the American Indian, and James Beard Award-winning author James O. Fraioli, New Native Kitchen is a celebration of Indigenous cuisine. Accompanied by original artwork by Gabriella Trujillo and offering delicious dishes like Cherrystone Clam Soup from the Northeastern Wampanoag and Spice-Rubbed Pork Tenderloin from the Pueblo peoples, Bitsoie showcases the variety of flavor and culinary history on offer from coast to coast, providing modern interpretations of 100 recipes that have long fed this country.
Recipes like Chocolate Bison Chili, Prickly Pear Sweet Pork Chops, and Sumac Seared Trout with Onion and Bacon Sauce combine the old with the new, holding fast to traditions while also experimenting with modern methods. In this essential cookbook, Bitsoie shares his expertise and culinary insights into Native American cooking and suggests new approaches for every home cook. With recipes as varied as the peoples that inspired them, New Native Kitchen celebrates the Indigenous heritage of American cuisine.
-
Living Nations, Living Words
A powerful, moving anthology that celebrates the breadth of Native poets writing today.
Joy Harjo, the first Native poet to serve as U.S. Poet Laureate, has championed the voices of Native peoples past and present. Her signature laureate project gathers the work of contemporary Native poets into a national, fully digital map of story, sound, and space, celebrating their vital and unequivocal contributions to American poetry.
This companion anthology features each poem and poet from the project—including Natalie Diaz, Ray Young Bear, Craig Santos Perez, Sherwin Bitsui, and Layli Long Soldier, among others—to offer readers a chance to hold the wealth of poems in their hands. The chosen poems reflect on the theme of place and displacement and circle the touchpoints of visibility, persistence, resistance, and acknowledgment. Each poem showcases, as Joy Harjo writes in her stirring introduction, “that heritage is a living thing, and there can be no heritage without land and the relationships that outline our kinship.” In this country, poetry is rooted in the more than five hundred living indigenous nations. Living Nations, Living Words is a representative offering.
-
Indigenous Firsts
A celebration of achievement, accomplishments, and courage!
Native American Medal of Honor recipients, Heisman Trophy recipients, U.S. Olympians, a U.S. vice president, Congressional representatives, NASA astronauts, Pulitzer Prize recipients, U.S. poet laureates, Oscar winners, and more. The first Native magician, all-Native comedy show, architects, attorneys, bloggers, chefs, cartoonists, psychologists, religious leaders, filmmakers, educators, physicians, code talkers, and inventors. Luminaries like Jim Thorpe, King Kamehameha, Debra Haaland, and Will Rogers, along with less familiar notables such as Native Hawaiian language professor and radio host Larry Lindsey Kimura and Cree/Mohawk forensic pathologist Dr. Kona Williams. Their stories plus the stories of 2000 people, events and places are presented in Indigenous Firsts: A History of Native American Achievements and Events, including ...
- Suzanne Van Cooten, Ph.D., Chickasaw Nation, the first Native female meteorologist in the country
- Caleb Cheeshahteaumuck, Wampanoag from Martha's Vineyard, graduate of Harvard College in 1665
- Debra Haaland, the Pueblo of Laguna, U.S. Congresswoman and Secretary of the Interior
- Sam Campos, the Native Hawaiian who developed the Hawaiian superhero Pineapple Man
- Thomas L. Sloan, Omaha, was the first Native American to argue a case before the U.S. Supreme Court
- William R. Pogue, Choctaw, astronaut
- Johnston Murray, Chickasaw, the first person of Native American descent to be elected governor in the United States, holding the office in Oklahoma from 1951 to 1955
- The Cherokee Phoenix published its first edition February 21, 1828, making it the first tribal newspaper in North America and the first to be published in an Indigenous language
- The National Native American Honor Society was founded by acclaimed geneticist Dr. Frank C. Dukepoo, the first Hopi to earn a Ph.D.
- Louis Sockalexis, Penobscot, became the first Native American in the National Baseball League in 1897 as an outfielder with the Cleveland Spiders
- Jock Soto, Navajo/Puerto Rican, the youngest-ever man to be the principal dancer with the New York City Ballet
- The Seminole Tribe of Florida was the first Nation to own and operate an airplane manufacturing company
- Warrior's Circle of Honor, the National Native American Veterans Memorial in Washington, DC, on the grounds of the Smithsonian's National Museum of the American Indian
- The Iolani Palace, constructed 1879-1882, the home of the Hawaiian royal family in Honolulu
- Loriene Roy, Anishinaabe, White Earth Nation, professor at the University of Texas at Austin's School of Information, former president of the American Library Association
- Ben Nighthorse Campbell, Northern Cheyenne, U.S. representative and U.S. senator from Colorado
- Hanay Geiogamah, Kiowa /Delaware, founded the American Indian Theatre Ensemble
- Gerald Vizenor, White Earth Nation, writer, literary critic, and journalist for the Minneapolis Tribune
- Ely S. Parker (Hasanoanda, later Donehogawa), Tonawanda Seneca, lieutenant colonel in the Union Army, serving as General Ulysses S. Grant's military secretary
- Fritz Scholder, Luiseno, painter inducted into the California Hall of Fame
- The Native American Women Warriors, the first all Native American female color guard
- Lori Arviso Alvord, the first Navajo woman to become a board-certified surgeon
- Kay "Kaibah" C. Bennett, Navajo, teacher, author, and the first woman to run for the presidency of the Navajo Nation
- Sandra Sunrising Osawa, Makah Indian Nation, the first Native American to have a series on commercial television
- The Choctaw people's 1847 donation to aid the Irish people suffering from the great famine
- Otakuye Conroy-Ben, Oglala Lakota, first to earn an environmental engineering Ph.D. at the University of Arizona
- Diane J. Willis, Kiowa, former President of the Society of Pediatric Psychology and founding editor of the Journal of Pediatric Psychology
- Shelly Niro, Mohawk, winner of Canada's top photography prize, the Scotiabank Photography Award
- Loren Leman, Alutiiq/Russian-Polish, was the first Alaska Native elected lieutenant governor
- Kim TallBear, Sisseton-Wahpeton Oyate, the first recipient of the Canada Research Chair in Indigenous Peoples, Technoscience, and Environment
- Carissa Moore, Native Hawaiian, won the Gold Medal in Surfing at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics
- Will Rogers, Cherokee, actor, performer, humorist was named the first honorary mayor of Beverly Hills
- Foods of the Southwest Indian Nations by Lois Ellen Frank, Kiowa, was the first Native American cookbook to win the James Beard Award
- Diane Humetewa, Hopi, nominated by President Barack Obama, became the first Native American woman to serve as a federal judge
- Susie Walking Bear Yellowtail, Crow, the first Native American nurse to be inducted into the American Nursing Association Hall of Fame
Indigenous Firsts honors the ongoing and rich history of personal victories and triumphs, and with more than 200 photos and illustrations, this information-rich book also includes a helpful bibliography and an extensive index, adding to its usefulness. This vital collection will appeal to anyone interested in America's amazing history and its resilient and skilled Indigenous people.
Audiobooks
-
Gentlest of wild things
This stunning Greek mythology-inspired sapphic fantasy blends the story of Eros and Psyche with legends of the enthralling, vampiric empousa--from the New York Times bestselling author of Lies We Sing to the Sea!
Desire binds them. Hunger compels them. Love will set them free. . . .
On the island of Zakynthos, nothing is more powerful than Desire--love itself, bottled and sold to the highest bidder by Leandros, a power-hungry descendant of the god Eros.
Eirene and her beloved twin sister, Phoebe, have always managed to escape Desire's thrall--until Leandros's wife dies mysteriously and he sets his sights on Phoebe. Determined to keep her sister safe, Eirene strikes a bargain with Leandros: If she can complete the four elaborate tasks he sets her, he will find another bride. But it soon becomes clear that the tasks are part of something bigger; something related to Desire and Lamia, the strange, neglected daughter Leandros keeps locked away.
Lamia knows her father hides her for her own protection, though as she and Eirene grow closer, she finds herself longing for the outside world. But the price of freedom is high, and with something deadly--something hungry--stalking the night, that price must be paid in blood. . . .
-
First lie wins
Evie Porter has everything a nice, Southern girl could want: a perfect, doting boyfriend, a house with a white picket fence and a garden, a fancy group of friends. The only catch: Evie Porter doesn't exist. The identity comes first: Evie Porter. Once she's given a name and location by her mysterious boss Mr. Smith, she learns everything there is to know about the town and the people in it. Then the mark: Ryan Sumner. The last piece of the puzzle is the job.Evie isn't privy to Mr. Smith's real identity, but she knows this job will be different. Ryan has gotten under her skin, and she's starting to envision a different sort of life for herself. But Evie can't make any mistakes--especially after what happened last time.Because the one thing she's worked her entire life to keep clean, the one identity she could always go back to--her real identity--just walked right into this town. Evie Porter must stay one step ahead of her past while making sure there's still a future in front of her. The stakes couldn't be higher--but then, Evie has always liked a challenge...
-
Eruption
The biggest thriller of the year: A history-making eruption is about to destroy the Big Island of Hawaii. But a secret held for decades by the US military is far more terrifying than any volcano.
"The first summer blockbuster masterpiece... as thrilling and jaw-dropping as Jurassic Park."--Don Winslow, #1 internationally bestselling author of The Cartel and City on Fire
"This is heart-pounding storytelling at its finest. I dare you to try and put this amazing book down."--T.J. Newman, #1 internationally bestselling author of Falling and Drowning: The Rescue of Flight 1421
"The once-in-a-lifetime combination of Michael Crichton and James Patterson results in one of the most entertaining novels I've read in years."--Adrian McKinty, #1 internationally bestselling author of The Chain
Michael Crichton, creator of Jurassic Park, ER, Twister, and Westworld, had a passion project he'd been pursuing for years, ahead of his untimely passing in 2008. Knowing how special it was, his wife, Sherri Crichton, held back his notes and the partial manuscript until she found the right author to complete it: James Patterson, the world's most popular storyteller.
-
Confronting the presidents : no spin assessments from Washington to Biden
Authors of the acclaimed Killing books, the #1 bestselling narrative history series in the world, Bill O'Reilly and Martin Dugard begin a new direction with Confronting the Presidents.
From Washington to Jefferson, Lincoln to Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Kennedy to Nixon, Reagan to Obama and Biden, the 45 United States presidents have left lasting impacts on our nation. Some of their legacies continue today, some are justly forgotten, and some have changed as America has changed. Whether famous, infamous, or obscure, all the presidents shaped our nation in unexpected ways.The authors' extensive research has uncovered never before seen historical facts based on private correspondence and newly discovered documentation, such as George Washington's troubled relationship with his mother.
In Confronting the Presidents, O'Reilly and Dugard present 45 wonderfully entertaining and insightful portraits of each president, with no-spin commentary on their achievements--or lack thereof. Who best served America, and who undermined the founding ideals? Who were the first ladies, and what were their surprising roles in making history? Which presidents were the best, which the worst, and which didn't have much impact? How do decisions made in one era, under the pressure of particular circumstances, still resonate today? And what do presidents like to eat, drink, and do when they aren't working--or even sometimes when they are?
These and many more questions are answered in each fascinating chapter of Confronting the Presidents. Written with O'Reilly and Dugard's signature style, authority, and eye for telling detail, Confronting the Presidents will delight all readers of history, politics, and current affairs, especially during the 2024 election season.
-
Confessions of the dead
In this chilling mystery, a small New England town is hit with a wave of crimes after the arrival of a mysterious stranger who brings more questions than answers.
Hollows Bend, New Hampshire, is a picture-perfect New England town where weekend tourists flock to see fall leaves and eat breakfast at the Stairway Diner. The crime rate--zero--is a point of pride for Sheriff Ellie Pritchett.
The day the stranger shows up is when the trouble starts. The sheriff and her deputy investigate the mysterious teenage girl. None of the locals can place her. She can't--or won't--answer any questions. She won't even tell them her name.
While the girl is in protective custody, the officers are called to multiple crime scenes leading them closer and closer to a lake outside of town that doesn't appear on any map ...
-
A calamity of souls
Set in 1968 in southern Virginia, a racially-charged murder case sets a duo of white and Black lawyers against an unfair system as they work to defend their wrongfully-accused Black defendants in this courtroom drama from #1 New York Times bestselling author David Baldacci.
Jack Lee is a white lawyer from Freeman County, Virginia, who has never done anything to push back against racism, until he decides to represent Jerome Washington, a Black man charged with killing an elderly and wealthy white couple. Doubting his decision, Lee fears that his legal skills may not be enough to prevail in a case where the odds are already stacked against both him and his client. And he quickly finds himself out of his depth when he realizes that what is at stake is far greater than the outcome of a murder trial.
Desiree DuBose is a Black lawyer from Chicago who has devoted her life to furthering the causes of justice and equality for everyone. She comes to Freeman County and enters a fractious and unwieldy partnership with Lee in a legal battle against the best prosecutor in the Commonwealth. Yet DuBose is also aware that powerful outside forces are at work to blunt the victories achieved by the Civil Rights era.
Lee and DuBose could not be more dissimilar. On their own, neither one can stop the prosecution's deliberate march towards a guilty verdict and the electric chair. But together, the pair fight for what once seemed impossible: a chance for a fair trial and true justice.
-
Book and dagger : how scholars and librarians became the unlikely spies of World War II
The untold story of the academics who became OSS spies, invented modern spycraft, and helped turn the tide of the war
At the start of WWII, the US found itself in desperate need of an intelligence agency. The Office of Strategic Services (OSS), a precursor to today's CIA, was quickly formed--and, in an effort to fill its ranks with experts, the OSS turned to academia for recruits. Suddenly, literature professors, librarians, and historians were training to perform undercover operations and investigative work--and these surprising spies would go on to profoundly shape both the course of the war and our cultural institutions with their efforts.
In Book and Dagger, Elyse Graham draws on personal histories, diaries, and declassified OSS files to tell the story of a small but connected group of humanities scholars turned unlikely spies. Among them are Joseph Curtiss, a literature professor who hunted down German spies and turned them into double agents; Sherman Kent, a smart-mouthed history professor who rose to become the head of analysis for all of Europe and Africa; and Adele Kibre, an archivist who was sent to Stockholm to secretly acquire documents for the OSS. These unforgettable characters would ultimately help lay the foundations of modern intelligence and transform American higher education when they returned after the war.
Thrillingly paced and rigorously researched, Book and Dagger is an inspiring and gripping true story about a group of academics who helped beat the Nazis--a tale that reveals the indelible power of humanities to change the world.
-
The author's guide to murder : a novel
Agatha Christie meets Murder, She Wrote in this witty locked room mystery and literary satire by New York Times bestselling team of novelists: Beatriz Williams, Lauren Willig, and Karen White.
There's been a sensational murder at historic Castle Kinloch, a gothic fantasy of grey granite on a remote island in the Highlands of Scotland. Literary superstar Brett Saffron Presley has been found dead--under bizarre circumstances--in the castle tower's book-lined study. Years ago, Presley purchased the castle as a showpiece for his brand and to lure paying guests with a taste for writerly glamour. Now it seems, the castle has done him in...or, possibly, one of the castle's guests has. Detective Chief Inspector Euan McIntosh, a local with no love for literary Americans, finds himself with the unenviable task of extracting statements from three American lady novelists.
The prime suspects are Kat de Noir, a slinky erotica writer; Cassie Pringle, a Southern mom of six juggling multiple cozy mystery series; and Emma Endicott, a New England blue blood and author of critically acclaimed historical fiction. The women claim to be best friends writing a book together, but the authors' stories about how they know Brett Saffron Presley don't quite line up, and the detective is getting increasingly suspicious.
Why did the authors really come to Castle Kinloch? And what really happened the night of the great Kinloch ceilidh, when Brett Saffron Presley skipped the folk dancing for a rendezvous with death?
A crafty locked-room mystery, a pointed satire about the literary world, and a tale of unexpected friendship and romance--this novel has it all, as only three bestselling authors can tell it!
-
In too deep : A Reacher novel
Reacher had no idea where he was. No idea how he had gotten there. But someone must have brought him. And shackled him. And whoever had done those things was going to rue the day. That was for damn sure.
Jack Reacher wakes up alone, in the dark, handcuffed to a makeshift bed. His right arm has suffered some major damage. His few possessions are gone. He has no memory of getting there.
The last thing Reacher can recall is the car he hitched a ride in getting run off the road. The driver was killed.
His captors assume Reacher was the driver's accomplice and patch up his wounds as they plan to make him talk.
A plan that will backfire spectacularly . . . -
Carson the magnificent
A much-anticipated biography--twenty years in the making--of the entertainer who redefined late-night television and reshaped American culture.
In 2002, Bill Zehme landed one of the most coveted assignments for a magazine writer: an interview with Johnny Carson--the only one he'd granted since retiring from hosting The Tonight Show a decade earlier. Zehme was tapped for the Esquire feature story thanks to his years of legendary celebrity profiles, and the resulting piece portrayed Carson as more human being than showbiz legend.
Shortly after Carson's death in 2005 and urged on by many of those closest to Carson, Zehme signed a contract to do an expansive biography. He toiled on the book for nearly a decade--interviewing dozens of Carson's colleagues and friends and filling up a storage locker with his voluminous research--before a cancer diagnosis and ongoing treatments halted his progress. When he died in 2023 his obituaries mentioned the Carson book, with New York Times comedy critic Jason Zinoman calling it "one of the great unfinished biographies."
Yet the hundreds of pages Zehme managed to complete are astounding both for the caliber of their writing and how they illuminate one of the most inscrutable figures in entertainment history: A man who brought so much joy and laughter to so many millions but was himself exceedingly shy and private.
Zehme traces Carson's rise from a magic-obsessed Nebraska boy to a Navy ensign in World War II to a burgeoning radio and TV personality to, eventually, host of The Tonight Show--which he transformed, along with the entirety of American popular culture, over the next three decades. Without Carson, there would be no late-night television as we know it. On a much more intimate level, Zehme also captures the turmoil and anguish that accompanied the success: four marriages, troubles with alcohol, and the devastating loss of a child.
In one passage, Zehme notes that when asked by an interviewer in the mid-1980s for the secret to his success, Carson replied simply, "Be yourself and tell the truth." Completed with help from journalist and Zehme's former research assistant Mike Thomas, Carson the Magnificent offers just that: an honest assessment of who Johnny Carson really was.