American Epic

In the early 1800s, three young men strode onto the national stage, elected to Congress at a moment when the Founding Fathers were beginning to retire to their farms. Daniel Webster of Massachusetts, a champion orator known for his eloquence, spoke for the North and its business class. Henry Clay of Kentucky, as dashing as he was ambitious, embodied the hopes of the rising West. South Carolina's John Calhoun, with piercing eyes and an even more piercing intellect, defended the South and slavery.

On October 24, 1944, more than 200 American soldiers were surrounded by German infantry deep in the Vosges Mountains of Eastern France. When their food, ammunition, and medical supplies ran out, the area's army headquarters turned to the 442nd Regimental Combat Team, a segregated unit of Japanese American soldiers, to achieve what other units had failed to do: rescue the "lost battalion".

In the scorching summer of 1878, with the Gilded Age in its infancy, three tenacious and brilliant scientists raced to Wyoming and Colorado to observe a rare total solar eclipse. One sought to discover a new planet. Another - an adventuresome female astronomer - fought to prove that science was not anathema to femininity. And a young megalomaniacal inventor, with the tabloid press fast on his heels, sought to test his scientific bona fides and light the world through his revelations.

Over one million Black men and women served in World War II. Black troops were at Normandy, Iwo Jima, and the Battle of the Bulge, serving in segregated units and performing unheralded but vital support jobs, only to be denied housing and educational opportunities on their return home. Without their crucial contributions to the war effort, the United States could not have won the war. And yet the stories of these Black veterans have long been ignored, cast aside in favor of the myth of the “Good War” fought by the “Greatest Generation.”

In his final speech "I've Been to the Mountaintop," Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his support of African American garbage workers on strike in Memphis. Although some consider this oration King's finest, it is mainly known for its concluding two minutes, wherein King compares himself to Moses and seems to predict his own assassination. But King gave an hour-long speech, and the concluding segment can only be understood in relation to the whole.

From the moment Isabel Archer arrives in England, the soon-to-be heiress is in high demand. But the idealistic American rejects two proposals - and convention altogether. Headstrong Isabel prefers to shape her identity and confront her own destiny. When she is finally swayed, it’s by the manipulative charms of expatriate Gilbert Osmond. Where once was promise and determination is now the fear that the independence she’s pursued might have been forever lost.

A captivating and intimate debut novel interwoven with folktale and myth, Wendy Chen’s Their Divine Fires tells the story of the love affairs of three generations of Chinese women across one hundred years of revolutions both political and personal. In 1917, at the dawn of the Chinese...

The riveting true story of America’s first homegrown Muslim terror attack, the 1977 Hanafi siege of Washington, DC.

Young Alvin Maker, the seventh son of a seventh son, is a Maker. Lolla-Wossiky—an Indian whose fate is closely linked with Alvin's—has heard black noise in his head since he watched white men murder his father. Unable to hear the green music he needs to live well, Lolla-Wossiky depends upon alcohol to still the black noise—until he meets Alvin.

When painter Winslow Homer first sailed into the Gulf of Mexico, he was struck by its "special kind of providence." Indeed, the Gulf presented itself as America's sea - bound by geography, culture, and tradition to the national experience - and yet, there has never been a comprehensive history of the Gulf until now. And so, in this rich and original work that explores the Gulf through our human connection with the sea, environmental historian Jack E. Davis finally places this exceptional region into the American mythos in a sweeping history that extends from the Pleistocene age to the 21st century.

Now under the protection of Council Priest Jusaan, Raymond and Hanshee are spirited to the center of the Kingdom of Pith: Stronghold. Behind nearly impenetrable walls of natural rock lies the beating heart of royal power and religious authority: the Citadel. As the honored guests of the Temple of the One Spirit and the Royal House, the duo is introduced to a life of pampered luxury, a stark contrast to their previous existence in the wilds east of the Ursal Mountains.

The compelling saga of the Realm continues when a darkening sun threatens to destroy the world. Grand Wizard Kelm races to retrieve the Icon of Earth - an ancient relic with the magical power to counter the threat. However, mistrust and mishaps run rampant as he encounters unlikely allies and a technologically advanced enemy willing to stifle his efforts at all cost.

Half-Cuban, half-Puerto Rican, Luis "DJ Disco Wiz" Cedeño is 100 percent Boogie Down Bronx. Born in the 60s, Wiz struggled in a turbulent and violent relationship with his alcoholic father while trying to protect his mother who was suffering from breast cancer. Raised in the 70s, Wiz learned the code of the streets while hustling with his crew, the East Side Boys.

Henry Tsien hat einen Wunsch ausgesprochen und wurde zum Magier. Doch jeder Traum hat seinen Preis, und dieser bringt eine verborgene übernatürliche Welt mit sich. Als sich die Nachricht von seinem mächtigen Ring der Wünsche verbreitet, werden Henrys Leben und das seiner Verbündeten in immer größere Gefahr gebracht. Selbst die stärksten Allianzen brechen, wenn zwielichtige Organisationen in Aktion treten. Doch letzten Endes muss er sich entscheiden, was er mit dem Ring tun wird, nachdem sein letzter Wunsch aufgebraucht ist.

Als Henry Tsien sich Magie von einem Dschinn wünschte, wurde er in eine übernatürliche Weltgeworfen, in der an jeder Ecke Gefahr lauert. Eine ungleiche Verbündete zeigt sich in Alexa Dumough, der Novizin der Tempelritter, die Henry in den verborgenen Regeln dieser Weltunterweist. Nun ist Alexa gezwungen, zwischen ihrer Loyalität zum Orden und der Freundschaft mit Henry zuwählen. Ihre Prüfung zum Knappen führt sie beide in eine Feuertaufe, bei der Leben und Magieauf die Probe gestellt werden. Zur Wahl genötigt, muss sich die Novizin entscheiden—was ihre wahren Wünsche sind.

Kann Wu Ying die flüchtige Chance auf Unsterblichkeit ergreifen? Long Wu Ying hatte sich nie vorstellen können, einer Sekte beizutreten oder ein richtiger Kultivator zu werden. Er verbrachte seine Tage mit Lernen, dem Reisanbau auf den Feldern seiner Eltern und mit seinen Freunden. Das Schicksal jedoch hat andere Pläne für Wu Ying und als die Armee in seinem Dorf eintrifft, werden er und viele andere Dorfbewohner rekrutiert.

A handsome young tribal warrior and sage, Yikaas has traveled across the sea to hear stories of the Whale Hunter and the Sea Hunter peoples. Around the fire, Qumalix, a beguiling and beautiful storyteller, barely old enough to be a wife, catches the eye of Yikaas, and so begins their flirtation through storytelling, which brings to vivid life tales of the Near River and Cousin River tribes.

Three Brothers from Virginia tells the tale of Matt and his two enslaved brothers, Paul and Luke, who thrive upon their insulated Virginia farm until the Civil War forces them to stare into the face of a reality they so long eluded. As Paul flees to New York, Matt joins the Confederate army, and Luke remains a slave, the brothers are thrown into sweeping battles, riots, and a cloud of enmity, their values and lives tested by a festering intolerance that threatens the only truth they ever knew.

Shattered by a magical apocalypse, the world of Aetheria struggles to rise from the ashes of war and destruction. Esperanza, at odds with her faith, wakes in this mystical world under attack by a powerful necromancer. Joined by Torrents and the Kid, two people who are more than they appear, they hunt the wielder of black magics and her undead horde. Finding one another was just the first step to finding themselves. Searching ancient, arcane ruins and scouring the land for help, they search for a way to fight the overpowering evil.

The Civil War brought to a climax the country's bitter division. But the beginnings of slavery's denouement can be traced to a courageous band of ordinary Americans, black and white, slave and free, who joined forces to create what would come to be known as the Underground Railroad, a movement that occupies as romantic a place in the nation's imagination as the Lewis and Clark expedition.