Civil War, North-South Conflict, widowhood, deafness, sign language, spies, literacy

1885-1914. Mary Fields, a fifty-three-year old second-generation slave, emancipated and residing in Toledo, receives news of her friend's impending death. Remedies packed in her satchel, Mary rushes to board the Northern Pacific. She arrives in the Montana wilderness to find Mother Mary Amadeus lying on frozen earth in a broken-down cabin. Certain that the cloister of frostbit Ursuline nuns and their students, Indian girls rescued from nearby reservations, will not survive without assistance, Mary decides to stay.She builds a hennery, makes repairs to living quarters, cares for stock, and treks into the mountains to provide food. Brushes with death do not deter her. Mary drives a horse and wagon through perilous terrain and blizzards to improve the lives of missionaries, homesteaders and Indians and, in the process, her own.After weathering wolf attacks, wagon crashes and treacherous conspiracies by scoundrels, local politicians and the state's first Catholic bishop, Mary Fields creates another daring plan. An avid patriot, she is determined to register for the vote. The price is high. Will she manifest her personal vision of independence?MCCONNELL'S RESEARCH enabled USPS to verify Mary Fields as the first African American woman star route mail carrier in the U.S. A chronicle of Fields' life in Montana from 1885 until her death in 1914, the narrative examines women rights, bootleg politics, Montana's turn-of-the-century transition from territory to state and its scandalous 1914 woman suffrage election.SHORT-LISTED 2015 LARAMIE AWARDMcConnell fashioned a historical narrative marrying prose and poetry, fact with creative writing. With the discerning eye of a photographer, the deft hand of a historian, and the literary heart of a poet, the life of Mary Fields, legendary black woman of Montana, rises off the page into living history. If the reader has any interest in Mary Fields, aka Stagecoach Mary, Deliverance is the one book you must read.--Cowboy Mike Searles, Author, Professor of History, Augusta University, GA.A great story and history of Mary Fields, an important back westerner. A must read for youths and adults. --Bruce A. Glasrud, Author, Professor, California State University.

It’s not a job you want to take on without a sense of humor. Oops--it’s not a job at all. It’s an all-encompassing life, being a country woman on the ranch or farm, and with wit and equanimity like Gwen Petersen’s, it can be survived. In fact, with Petersen’s help, it can be drop-dead hilarious. A much-loved cowgirl scribe in rare form, Petersen eases us through the rigors of country living, from raising chickens to shoveling manure to cooking Rocky Mountain oysters. You’d think midwifing a calf was no laughing matter--until Gwen steps in with her expert advice. She has wise counsel for sharing the yard with a gaggle of ill-tempered geese; step-by-step instructions for harvesting pig manure; and sound advice for staying cool through haying season and coping with the chaos of Christmas on the ranch or farm. For good measure, the book includes poems and recipes that will transport you to a country state of mind--whether you hail from the city’s busiest streets or the ranch’s quietest gravel roads. Equal parts handy how-to advice, rural humor, philosophy, and fond farm nostalgia, How to Shovel Manure and Other Life Lessons for the Country Woman is all good.

Now with a new afterword, the Pulitzer Prize-winning dramatic account of the civil rights era’s climactic battle in Birmingham as the movement, led by Martin Luther King, Jr., brought down the institutions of segregation. "The Year of Birmingham," 1963, was a cataclysmic turning point in America’s long civil rights struggle. Child demonstrators faced down police dogs and fire hoses in huge nonviolent marches against segregation. Ku Klux Klansmen retaliated by bombing the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church, killing four young black girls. Diane McWhorter, daughter of a prominent Birmingham family, weaves together police and FBI records, archival documents, interviews with black activists and Klansmen, and personal memories into an extraordinary narrative of the personalities and events that brought about America’s second emancipation. In a new afterword—reporting last encounters with hero Reverend Fred Shuttlesworth and describing the current drastic anti-immigration laws in Alabama—the author demonstrates that Alabama remains a civil rights crucible.

The language of crime has a long and venerable history - in fact, the first collection of words specifically used by criminals, Hye-Way to the Spittel House, dates from as early as 1531. Jonathon Green is our national expert on slang, and in Crooked Talk he looks at five hundred years of crooks and conmen - from the hedge-creepers and counterfeit cranks of the sixteenth century to the blaggers and burners of the twenty-first - as well as the swag, the hideouts, the getaway vehicles and the 'tools of the trade'. Not to mention a substantial detour into the world of prisons that faced those unlucky enough to be caught by the boys in blue. If you have ever wondered when the police were first referred to as pigs, why prison guards became known as redraws, or what precisely the subtle art of dipology involves, then this book has all the answers.

Dixie World begins at the conclusion of the Civil War, and follows The Adventures of an Immortal Being named David Greene, who has lived for more than 60,000 years, accumulating a mass wealth of knowledge. He wakes up in a cave after hibernating in a deep sleep for the past few decades to begin his quest. Journey along as David lives, loves, battles pirates, Japanese warships, giant squids and other enemies while creating other immortals who will join him on a quest to establish "the Dixie Way," a lifestyle of discipline, honor, respect, peace and truth. His hibernation survival is explained, as well as the discovery of his wife and a saber-toothed cat in the cave. These immortals share a thirst for knowledge and are incredibly fit. Can their plan to create a peaceful world populated by a "Greene Team" become reality, or will modern politics destroy what has been 600 centuries in the making?

A born storyteller, Troy Cassar-Daley has at last turned his talent to sharing his own inspiring life. ‘Troy’s achievements are many, and perhaps the finest may be his ability to make us listen to his heart.’ Joy McKean For the first time, Troy talks about his early life - how his parent’s divorce changed things for him, about missing his Dad and growing up in Grafton surrounded by the warmth and love of his mother, Irene, his Nan and Pop and his extended Indigenous family. A larrikin at heart, Troy includes all the highs and lows on his path to stardom: the thrill of performing on stage at the Tamworth Music Festival with Jimmy Little when he was just 15; the excitement of heading off on tour with Brian Young and then discovering just how lonely life on the road could be; his first record deal; playing with the greats – Johnny Cash, Willie Nelson, Merle Haggard and Slim Dusty; his first album Beyond the Dancing, which blended his indigenous heritage with his rural background; meeting the woman who would steal his heart; recording in Nashville; and, finally, releasing True Believer, the album that really launched his career. The multiple Golden Guitar, APRA, ARIA and Deadlys winner also lets us in on some of the life lessons he learned the hard way, lessons that kept this prodigiously talented Aussie on the straight and narrow (most of the time). Things I Carry Around, is the warm, genuine, and inspiring story of a young indigenous Australian who had a dream and turned that dream into reality. ‘Troy’s a true gentleman, warm and genuine, always a pleasure to be around. He sings straight from his heart and straight from the heart of his country.’ Paul Kelly