Janet Wasko

Paperback (1 to 2 lbs)

Illinois

The Manufacture of Fantasy

Since the 1930s the Walt Disney Company has produced characters, images, and stories which have captivated audiences around the world. How can we understand the appeal of Disney products? What is it about the Disney phenomenon that attracts so many children as well as adults? In this major new book, Janet Wasko examines the processes by which the Disney company - one of the largest media and entertainment corporations in the world - manufactures the fantasies which enthrall millions. She analyses the historical expansion of the Disney empire, examines the content of Disney's classic films, cartoons and TV programs and shows how they are produced, considering how some of the same techniques have been applied to the Disney theme parks. She also discusses the reception of Disney products by different kinds of audiences. By looking at the Disney phenomenon from a variety of perspectives, she provides a fresh and comprehensive account of one of the most significant media and cultural institutions of our time. This important book by a leading scholar of the entertainment industries will be of great interest to students in media and cultural studies and will appeal to a wide readership.

Understanding Disney

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Sara Gay Forden

Light Paperback (1 lb or less)

New Jersey

A True Story of Murder, Madness, Glamour, and Greed

SOON TO BE A MAJOR MOTION PICTURE Named one of the best books of the year by the Economist, House Of Gucci tells the remarkable story of the power of the Gucci Dynasty and their famed luxury goods house. While the business was achieving unprecedented success, the family found itself shrouded in personal tragedy. In 1993, Gucci's financial partner, InvestCorp, forced Maurizio Gucci, the last of the Gucci family to run the Gucci Corporation, out for draining company coffers with extravagant business practices. However, on March 27, 1995, the Gucci heir was slain as he approached his office building. In 1998, his ex-wife Patrizia Reggiani Martinelli was sentenced to 29 years in prison, for arranging his murder. Did Patrizia murder her ex-husband because his spending was wildly out of control? Did she do it because her glamorous ex was preparing to marry his mistress, Paola Franchi? Or is there a possibility she didn't do it at all? The Gucci story is one of glitz, glamour, intrigue, the rise, near fall and subsequent resurgence of a fashion dynasty. Beautifully written, impeccably researched, and widely acclaimed, House of Gucci will captivate readers with its page-turning account of high fashion, high finance, and heart-rending personal tragedy.

The House of Gucci

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Kristiana Gregory

Light Hardcover (1 lb or less)

Texas

Daughter of the Nile, Egypt, 57 B. C.

Written in a diary-style format, this work presents the experiences and feelings of the young queen-to-be while providing informative facts about her homelife, family and royal enviroment. 90,000 first printing.

Cleopatra VII

c753ff9a-c4ef-4e3d-b984-50f277e02933-1

Diane Ackerman

Pennsylvania

A War Story

In 1939 Poland, Antonina abi ski (portrayed by two-time Academy Award nominee Jessica Chastain) and her husband, Dr. Jan abi ski (Johan Heldenbergh), have the Warsaw Zoo flourishing under his stewardship and her care. When their country is invaded by the Nazis, Jan and Antonina are and forced to report to the Reich s newly appointed chief zoologist, Lutz Heck (Daniel Bruhl). To fight back on their own terms, the abi skis covertly begin working with the Resistance and put into action plans to save lives out of what has become the Warsaw Ghetto, with Antonina putting herself and even her children at great risk. The Washington Post praised the book as being simultaneously grave and exuberant, wise and playful, while Jonathan Safran Foer wrote, The Zookeeper's Wife will touch every nerve you have. A Focus Features release, it is directed by Niki Caro, written by Angela Workman. "

The Zookeeper's Wife

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Ibn Battutah

Ibn Battutah?ethnographer, bigrapher, anecdotal historian and occasional botanist?was just 21 when he set out in 1325 from his native Tangier on a pilgramage to Mecca. He did not return to Morocco for another 29 years, traveling instead through more than 40 countries on the modern map, covering 75,000 miles and getting as far north as the Volga, as far east as China, and as far south as Tanzania. He wrote of his travels, and comes across as a superb ethnographer, biographer, anecdotal historian, and occasional botanist and gastronome. With this edition by Mackintosh-Smith, Battuta's Travels takes its place alongside other indestructible masterpieces of the travel-writing genre.

The Travels of Ibn Battutah

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One page crease , and a crease on the back cover

California

Catherine de' Medici, Her Daughter Marguerite de Valois, and the Betrayal That Ignited a Kingdom

The riveting true story of mother-and-daughter queens Catherine de' Medici and Marguerite de Valois, whose wildly divergent personalities and turbulent relationship changed the shape of their tempestuous and dangerous century. Set in magnificent Renaissance France, this is the story of two remarkable women, a mother and daughter driven into opposition by a terrible betrayal that threatened to destroy the realm. Catherine de' Medici was a ruthless pragmatist and powerbroker who dominated the throne for thirty years. Her youngest daughter Marguerite, the glamorous "Queen Margot," was a passionate free spirit, the only adversary whom her mother could neither intimidate nor control. When Catherine forces the Catholic Marguerite to marry her Protestant cousin Henry of Navarre against her will, and then uses her opulent Parisian wedding as a means of luring his followers to their deaths, she creates not only savage conflict within France but also a potent rival within her own family. Rich in detail and vivid prose, Goldstone's narrative unfolds as a thrilling historical epic. Treacherous court politics, poisonings, inter-national espionage, and adultery form the background to a story that includes such celebrated figures as Elizabeth I, Mary, Queen of Scots, and Nostradamus. The Rival Queens is a dangerous tale of love, betrayal, ambition, and the true nature of courage, the echoes of which still resonate.

The Rival Queens

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Colum McCann

A Novel

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • LONGLISTED FOR THE MAN BOOKER PRIZE • NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY KIRKUS REVIEWS In the National Book Award–winning Let the Great World Spin, Colum McCann thrilled readers with a marvelous high-wire act of fiction that The New York Times Book Review called “an emotional tour de force.” Now McCann demonstrates once again why he is one of the most acclaimed and essential authors of his generation with a soaring novel that spans continents, leaps centuries, and unites a cast of deftly rendered characters, both real and imagined. Newfoundland, 1919. Two aviators—Jack Alcock and Arthur Brown—set course for Ireland as they attempt the first nonstop flight across the Atlantic Ocean, placing their trust in a modified bomber to heal the wounds of the Great War. Dublin, 1845 and ’46. On an international lecture tour in support of his subversive autobiography, Frederick Douglass finds the Irish people sympathetic to the abolitionist cause—despite the fact that, as famine ravages the countryside, the poor suffer from hardships that are astonishing even to an American slave. New York, 1998. Leaving behind a young wife and newborn child, Senator George Mitchell departs for Belfast, where it has fallen to him, the son of an Irish-American father and a Lebanese mother, to shepherd Northern Ireland’s notoriously bitter and volatile peace talks to an uncertain conclusion. These three iconic crossings are connected by a series of remarkable women whose personal stories are caught up in the swells of history. Beginning with Irish housemaid Lily Duggan, who crosses paths with Frederick Douglass, the novel follows her daughter and granddaughter, Emily and Lottie, and culminates in the present-day story of Hannah Carson, in whom all the hopes and failures of previous generations live on. From the loughs of Ireland to the flatlands of Missouri and the windswept coast of Newfoundland, their journeys mirror the progress and shape of history. They each learn that even the most unassuming moments of grace have a way of rippling through time, space, and memory. The most mature work yet from an incomparable storyteller, TransAtlantic is a profound meditation on identity and history in a wide world that grows somehow smaller and more wondrous with each passing year. Look for special features inside. Join the Random House Reader’s Circle for author chats and more. “A dazzlingly talented author’s latest high-wire act . . . Reminiscent of the finest work of Michael Ondaatje and Michael Cunningham, TransAtlantic is Colum McCann’s most penetrating novel yet.”—O: The Oprah Magazine “One of the greatest pleasures of TransAtlantic is how provisional it makes history feel, how intimate, and intensely real. . . . Here is the uncanny thing McCann finds again and again about the miraculous: that it is inseparable from the everyday.”—The Boston Globe “Ingenious . . . The intricate connections [McCann] has crafted between the stories of his women and our men [seem] written in air, in water, and—given that his subject is the confluence of Irish and American history—in blood.”—Esquire “Another sweeping, beautifully constructed tapestry of life . . . Reading McCann is a rare joy.”—The Seattle Times “Entrancing . . . McCann folds his epic meticulously into this relatively slim volume like an accordion; each pleat holds music—elation and sorrow.”—The Denver Post

TransAtlantic

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A retelling of Mette Marie's life, as a child, on the North Dakota Prarie. Told to her son, Ruchard Thorud. 

Michigan

Mette Marie's Homestead Journal 

Charles Freeman

Heavy Paperback (2 to 4 lbs)

History

The Foundation of the Western World

Drawing on the most recent research, Freeman provides a new generation of readers with a comprehensive account of Greek history over 2000 years. He describes the early settlements, the wars with the Persian empire, the rise of Macedonia, and more.

The Greek Achievement

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#paperback #history #learning #nonfiction #pulitzerprize 

Virginia

The Revolutionary Generation

The introduction, discussion questions, suggestions for further reading, and author biography that follow are intended to enhance your reading group's discussion of Joseph Ellis's Founding Brothers: The Revolutionary Generation . We hope they will enrich your experience of this Pulitzer Prize-winning study of the intertwined lives of the founders of the American republic--John Adams, Aaron Burr, Benjamin Franklin, Alexander Hamilton, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, and George Washington.

Founding Brothers

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Leslie Wayne Salsbury

On rural Doylestown in southwest Pennsylvania, a most heart-rending story of romance that struggles to endure the furies of wartime plays out in Leslie Wayne Salsbury's Where Valor Proudly Sleeps. Written in a staid rhythm and prose apt for that time in the nation's history, the novel sets out with a strikingly authentic recreation of life in pre-Civil War Pennsylvania. Salsbury shows a richness of detail born out of diligent, even brilliant, research and a highly creative imagination. His characters speak out and tell us of a time and place where the most tumultuous and important battles of the Civil War were fought. On a fateful night, the two young lovers, Benjamin Wayneright and Alexandra Cadwalder, meet at a ball in the town armory. Introduced by Ben's teacher, Mrs. McIntyre, the two immediately find out how they are meant for each other. A most romantic night ensues and starts a strong, passionate relationship that will prove equal to the coming chaos of war. It is a story of heroic love: how two young lovers find their love blooming in the crucible of war and how they became a pair of strong hearts that influenced others in their town to defend the Union cause. Before the war came, Benjamin would lose his father and Alexandra was on the verge of losing hers to "bleeding cancers." Throughout forced separations, they remain true to each other. They survive the war but experienced firsthand the cost of preserving liberty and fighting for justice. They grow old in and around Doylestown, Bucks County. When Benjamin dies at a ripe old age, he is given a hero's burial by the town. Alexandra soon follows to reunite with her beloved.

Where Valor Proudly Sleeps

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Eva Wong

Florida

Stories of the Tao

Here, Taoist practitioner Eva Wong offers a colorful treatment of the history and evolution of Taoism, told through traditional teaching tales. These tales, which Wong first heard as a child growing up in Hong Kong, are gleaned from the local storytellers and the uncensored chronicles known as yeshi—the wild history of China, not monitored by the official imperial scholars and historians. The stories are by turns mysterious and intriguing, passionate and violent, and they are peppered with colorful characters, including hermits, politicians, social activists, revolutionaries, scholars, scientists, and mystics. Arranged chronologically from prehistory through the early twentieth century, these stories introduce the schools in the Taoist lineages, and capture the defeats and victories of Taoism, its periods of decadence and decay, and its renewal, maturation, and spiritual triumph. Wong puts these stories into context, and shows that Taoism is a dynamic spiritual tradition, constantly changing—and being influenced by—history.

Tales of the Dancing Dragon

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#paperback #biography #nonfiction #burlesque #history #autobiography 

South Carolina

A Nation Laid Bare: the Life and Times of Gypsy Rose Lee

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER America was flying high in the Roaring Twenties. Then, almost overnight, the Great Depression brought it crashing down. When the dust settled, people were primed for a star who could distract them from reality. Enter Gypsy Rose Lee, a strutting, bawdy, erudite stripper who possessed a gift for delivering exactly what America needed. With her superb narrative skills and eye for detail, Karen Abbott brings to life an era of ambition, glamour, struggle, and survival. Using exclusive interviews and never-before-published material, she vividly delves into Gypsy’s world, including her intense triangle relationship with her sister, actress June Havoc, and their formidable mother, Rose, a petite but ferocious woman who literally killed to get her daughters on the stage. Weaving in the compelling saga of the Minskys—four scrappy brothers from New York City who would pave the way for Gypsy Rose Lee’s brand of burlesque and transform the entertainment landscape—Karen Abbott creates a rich account of a legend whose sensational tale of tragedy and triumph embodies the American Dream.

American Rose - Signed 

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Robert Dallek

PS: EX-LIBRARY BOOK

An analysis of the history of the U.S. presidency details the lives of each president and looks at why some have become national heroes while others have faded into historical obscurity, revealing five qualities that successful presidents have typically brought to the Oval Office. 

Hardcover (1 to 2 lbs)

Massachusetts

The Making and Unmaking of American Presidents

An analysis of the history of the U.S. presidency details the lives of each president and looks at why some have become national heroes while others have faded into historical obscurity, revealing five qualities that successful presidents have typically brought to the Oval Office. Tour.

Hail to the Chief

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Pam Jenoff

For one woman in the aftermath of World War I, the city of light harbors dark secrets and dangerous liaisons.

The Ambassador's Daughter

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#paperback #fiction #youngadult #youngadultfiction #fantasy #timetravel #ya #historical #history #historicalromance 

Georgia

Gwyneth discovers that she, rather than her well-prepared cousin, carries a time-travel gene, and soon she is journeying with Gideon, who shares the gift, through historical London trying to discover whom they can trust.

Ruby Red

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Elizabeth Raum

7 books. Excellent condition transcontinental railroad, the Great Depression, and  the titanic are not included. Will update photo when home. 

Huge Paperback (6 to 8 lbs)

An Interactive History Adventure

"2 story paths, 54 choices, 14 endings"--Cover.

American history bundle 7 books

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C. Riley Snorton

A Racial History of Trans Identity

The story of Christine Jorgensen, America's first prominent transsexual, famously narrated trans embodiment in the postwar era. Her celebrity, however, has obscured other mid-century trans narratives--ones lived by African Americans such as Lucy Hicks Anderson and James McHarris. Their erasure from trans history masks the profound ways race has figured prominently in the construction and representation of transgender subjects. In Black on Both Sides, C. Riley Snorton identifies multiple intersections between blackness and transness from the mid-nineteenth century to present-day anti-black and anti-trans legislation and violence. Drawing on a deep and varied archive of materials--early sexological texts, fugitive slave narratives, Afro-modernist literature, sensationalist journalism, Hollywood films--Snorton attends to how slavery and the production of racialized gender provided the foundations for an understanding of gender as mutable. In tracing the twinned genealogies of blackness and transness, Snorton follows multiple trajectories, from the medical experiments conducted on enslaved black women by J. Marion Sims, the "father of American gynecology," to the negation of blackness that makes transnormativity possible. Revealing instances of personal sovereignty among blacks living in the antebellum North that were mapped in terms of "cross dressing" and canonical black literary works that express black men's access to the "female within," Black on Both Sides concludes with a reading of the fate of Phillip DeVine, who was murdered alongside Brandon Teena in 1993, a fact omitted from the film Boys Don't Cry out of narrative convenience. Reconstructing these theoretical and historical trajectories furthers our imaginative capacities to conceive more livable black and trans worlds.

Black on Both Sides

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Daniel Wolff

Twelve Great Americans and the Educations That Made Them

An engaging, provocative history of American ideas, told through the educations (both in and out of school) of twelve great figures, from Benjamin Franklin to Elvis Presley.

How Lincoln Learned to Read tells the American story from a fresh and unique perspective: how do we learn what we need to know? Beginning with Benjamin Franklin and ending with Elvis Presley, author Daniel Wolff creates a series of intimate, interlocking profiles of notable Americans that track the nation's developing notion of what it means to get a "good education." From the stubborn early feminism of Abigail Adams to the miracle of Helen Keller, from the savage childhood of Andrew Jackson to the academic ambitions of W.E.B. Du Bois, a single, fascinating narrative emerges. It connects the illiterate Sojourner Truth to the privileged Jack Kennedy, takes us from Paiute Indians scavenging on western deserts to the birth of Henry Ford's assembly line. And as the book traces the education we value - both in and outside the classroom - it becomes a history of key American ideas.
In the end, How Lincoln Learned to Read delivers us to today's headlines. Standardized testing, achievement gaps, the very purpose of public education - all have their roots in this narrative. Whether you're a parent trying to make sure your child is prepared, a teacher trying to do the best possible job, or a student navigating the educational system, How Lincoln Learned to Read offers a challenge to consider what we need to know and how we learn it. Wide-ranging and meticulously researched, built mostly on primary sources, this is an American story that begins and ends with hope.

How Lincoln Learned to Read

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#hardcover #history Total War: Great Battles of the 20th Century By Charles Winchester Hardcover.

Has some wear to dust jacket. A small tear on dust jacket. This is shown in pictures.

Binding is in good condition. No writing on pages. No bent pages.

See pictures for accurate item description and condition. Any questions please ask. My items come from a smoke free pet friendly home.

Heavy Hardcover (2 to 4 lbs)

The great battles of the 20th century 

Total War 

Kelcey Wilson-Lee

Oregon

The Forgotten Children of King Edward Longshanks

Revealing the truth behind the life of a royal princess in medieval England, the colorful story of the five remarkable daughters of King Edward I.

Virginal, chaste, humble, patiently waiting for rescue by brave knights and handsome princes: this idealized--and largely mythical--notion of the medieval noblewoman still lingers. Yet the reality was very different, as Kelcey Wilson-Lee shows in this vibrant account of the five daughters of Edward I, often known as Longshanks.

The lives of these sisters--Eleanora, Joanna, Margaret, Mary and Elizabeth--ran the gamut of experiences open to royal women in the Middle Ages. Edward's daughters were of course expected to cement alliances and secure lands and territory by making great dynastic marriages, or endow religious houses with royal favor. But they also skillfully managed enormous households, navigated choppy diplomatic waters, and promoted their family's cause throughout Europe--and had the courage to defy their royal father. They might never wear the crown in their own right, but they were utterly confident of their crucial role in the spectacle of medieval kingship.

Drawing on a wide range of contemporary sources, Daughters of Chivalry offers a rich portrait of these formidable women, seeing them--at long last--shine from out of the shadows, revealing what it was to be a princess in the Age of Chivalry.

Daughters of Chivalry

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Kansas

Freedom's Journey

Williamsburg-Three Hundred Years re-creates in photographs and words significant moments from the history of Williamsburg. It brings to life events that occurred in this important town and stories about the people who experienced them.

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