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Born This Way

Based on the hugely popular blog of the same name, Born This Way shares more than 100 different memories of growing up LGBTQ. Childhood photographs are accompanied by sweet, funny, and at times heartbreaking personal stories. This intimate little hardcover is a wonderful gift for all members of the LGBTQ community as well as their friends and families.

Like Dan Savage’s It Gets Better Project, Born This Way gives young people the courage to say, “Yes, I’m gay. And I was born this way. I’ve known it since I was very young, and this is my story.”

PAUL VITAGLIANO is DJ Paul V., a club and radio DJ, events promoter, music-reviews writer, blogger, and self-titled “promosexual.” His blog (bornthiswayblog.com) has achieved more than 3.9 million views since its debut in January 2011. He lives in Los Angeles.

Posted by impart

Thomas Jefferson’s Creme Brulee

In 1784, Thomas Jefferson struck a deal with one of his slaves, 19-year-old James Hemings. The Founding Father was traveling to Paris and wanted to bring James along “for a particular purpose”—to master the art of French cooking. In exchange for James’s cooperation, Jefferson would grant his freedom.

Thus began one of the strangest partnerships in U.S. history. As James apprenticed under master French chefs, Jefferson studied the cultivation of French crops (especially grapes for winemaking) so they might be replicated in American agriculture. The two men returned home with such marvels as pasta, French fries, champagne, macaroni and cheese, crème brûlée, and a host of other treats. This narrative nonfiction book tells the fascinating story behind their remarkable adventure—and includes 12 of their original recipes!

THOMAS J. CRAUGHWELL is the author of several nonfiction books, including Stealing Lincoln’s Body (Harvard University Press, 2007), which was adapted into a documentary by the History Channel. He lives in Bethel, Connecticut.

Posted by impart

Stuff Every American Should Know

A pocket-sized gift book packed with patriotic facts for ordinary Americans and history buffs alike.
 
This handbook is the perfect patriotic present for any engaged United States citizen. Who played the first game of baseball? What’s a bicameral congress? Where did Mount Rushmore come from? Who is Geronimo and why do we yell his name when we jump? Plus:

•  All about the Declaration of Independence
•  Ten Books Every American Should Read
•  Assassination Attempts on U.S. Presidents
•  The History of the Statue of Liberty
•  How to Bake the Perfect Apple Pie

Posted by impart

The Last Policeman

As Seen on Today with Hoda & Jenna

“A genre-defying blend of crime writing and science fiction.” –Alexandra Alter, The New York Times

Winner of the 2013 Edgar® Award for Best Paperback Original!

What’s the point in solving murders if we’re all going to die soon, anyway?

Detective Hank Palace has faced this question ever since asteroid 2011GV1 hovered into view. There’s no chance left. No hope. Just six precious months until impact.

The economy spirals downward while crops rot in the fields. Churches and synagogues are packed. People all over the world are walking off the job—but not Hank Palace. He’s investigating a death by hanging in a city that sees a dozen suicides every week—except this one feels suspicious, and Palace is the only cop who cares.

The first in a trilogy, The Last Policeman offers a mystery set on the brink of an apocalypse. As Palace’s investigation plays out under the shadow of 2011GV1, we’re confronted by hard questions way beyond “whodunit.” What basis does civilization rest upon? What is life worth? What would any of us do, what would we really do, if our days were numbered?

Posted by impart

Ten Tea Parties

Everyone knows the story of the Boston Tea Party—in which colonists stormed three British ships and dumped 92,000 pounds of tea into Boston Harbor. But do you know the history of the Philadelphia Tea Party (December 1773)? How about the York, Maine, Tea Party (September 1774) or the Wilmington, North Carolina, Tea Party (March 1775)?

Ten Tea Parties is the first book to chronicle all these uniquely American protests. Author and historian Joseph Cummins begins with the history of the East India Company (the biggest global corporation in the eighteenth century) and their staggering financial losses during the Boston Tea Party (more than a million dollars in today’s money).

From there we travel to Philadelphia, where Captain Samuel Ayres was nearly tarred and feathered by a mob of 8,000 angry patriots. Then we set sail for New York City, where the Sons of Liberty raided the London and heaved 18 chests of tea into the Hudson River. Still later, in Annapolis, Maryland, a brigantine carrying 2,320 pounds of the “wretched weed” was burned to ashes.

Together, the stories in Ten Tea Parties illuminate the power of Americans banding together as Americans—for the very first time in the fledgling nation’s history. It’s no wonder these patriots remain an inspiration to so many people today.

Posted by impart

Stuff Every Dad Should Know

On the heels of the successful Stuff Every Man Should Know and Stuff Every Husband Should Know comes the most important volume yet in Quirk’s handy guides to practical manhood: Stuff Every Dad Should Know. It’s full of the indispensible hands-on wisdom that all fathers need in order to instill that comforting sense of “dad awe” in their children, including:

• How to Fix a Boo-Boo
• How to Stop a Temper Tantrum
• Five Great Books to Read with Your Child
• How to Rid a Room of Monsters
• The Birds and the Bees for All Ages
• How to Photograph Your Child
• And many more!

Blending humor, practicality, and wholesome family values, Stuff Every Dad Should Know is a Father’s Day slam dunk and a must-have pocket reference for any dad or dad-to-be.

BRETT COHEN is the author of the 110,000-copy-selling Stuff Every Man Should Know and the coauthor of the follow-up hit Recipes Every Man Should Know. He lives in Pennsylvania with his wife and children.

Posted by impart