"In this fast-paced novel, a tender love story unfolds, violence erupts, and a young Korean War hero learns the identity of the father he never knew."

A powerful personal account of outer exploration and inner discovery.

By the early 1900s, the poor farm had become a ubiquitous part of America's social welfare system. Megan Birk's history of this foundational but forgotten institution focuses on the connection between agriculture, provisions for the disadvantaged, and the daily realities of life at poor farms. Conceived as an inexpensive way to provide care for the indigent, poor farms in fact attracted wards that ranged from abused wives and the elderly to orphans, the disabled, and disaster victims. Most people arrived unable rather than unwilling to work, some because of physical problems, others due to a lack of skills or because a changing labor market had left them behind. Birk blends the personal stories of participants with institutional histories to reveal a loose-knit system that provided a measure of care to everyone without an overarching philosophy of reform or rehabilitation. In-depth and innovative, The Fundamental Institution offers an overdue portrait of rural social welfare in the United States.

"In Susan Wilson's The Dog Who Saved Me, a former Boston K-9 unit policeman turned animal control officer in bucolic Harmony Farms is up against rescuing a gun shy and wounded dog gone feral, and proving that his low-life older brother is back in the drug business. Fighting his shattering grief at the death of his K-9 partner killed in the line of duty, and a staggering loss of confidence from physical and psychic wounds of his own, Cooper Harrison is back where he started, where his father Bull was once known as the town drunk. Where his brother was a delinquent and bully. Where he's one of 'those' Harrisons. Where Cooper must learn to forgive and, only then, heal."--

In 1924, Edward Lilo Crain platted Southside Place, a 329-lot subdivision on the soggy prairie just west of bustling downtown Houston. Ahead of his time, Crain combined the roles of real estate investor, developer, and builder, establishing Southside Place with prefabricated catalog homes. The neighborhood's most defining attribute, however, is the 1.5-acre park Crain created as its geographic and civic center. This thoughtful early attempt at city planning made Southside Place the first Houston subdivision to provide a swimming pool, tennis court, clubhouse, and park for the private use of residents.