In The Chili Cone Chronicles, Michael Winslow shares his remarkable story of growing up and coming-of-age in a small midwestern town during the tempestuous, whirlwind time of the 1960s. Funny and poignant by turns, Winslow offers a memorable journey through the mayhem as he relies on the comfort of his family, oddball friends, and small-town charm to make everything right in his own little corner of the world. Against a backdrop of calamitous world and national events, Winslow recalls the cocoon of his youth on a sane island at the twilight of corner grocery stores, passenger trains, drive-in movies, and greasy spoons. While it may be true that you can never truly go home again, Winslows stories awaken the child within, providing glimpses into a fading way of life filled with such delights as eating an ice cream cone filled with hot chili, surfing Suicide Hill in flattened cardboard boxes, and feeling the exhilaration and pulse-quickening excitement that accompanied boxcar running in the dark of night. Thoughtful, warm, and full of hometown vignettes, The Chili Cone Chronicles will compel the willing to recall their own budding youthand the events, places and people that were a part of it.

A set of perfectly puzzling British whodunits featuring Detective Inspector Sloan—from a CWA Diamond Dagger winner and “most ingenious” author (The New Yorker). Over the course of twenty-four crime novels set in the fictional County of Calleshire, England, and featuring the sleuthing team of shrewd Detective Inspector C. D. Sloan and his less-than-shrewd sidekick, Detective Constable William Crosby, award-winning author Catherine Aird maintained the perfect balance between cozy village mystery and police procedural. These three entertaining crime novels offer “the very best in British mystery” (The New Yorker). Last Respects: A local fisherman finds a body in the river—but the coroner’s report reveals the victim didn’t die from drowning. Now Calleshire’s most successful pair of puzzle-solving policemen must plumb the depths of this mystery and haul in a murderer. Harm’s Way: When a crow drops a severed human finger, Sloan begins the search for the body that goes with it—and the list of people who have gone missing from Great Rooden’s farming country is lengthy. With Constable Crosby lending a hand, it’s up to Sloan to point the finger at the culprit. A Dead Liberty: A crime of passion, a poisoned meal, and a jealous woman who would kill before she would be spurned—it might all fit if only the accused would talk. But Lucy Durmast refuses to utter a single word. With Lucy’s lips sealed, Sloan has no choice but to listen to his intuition.

First published in 1961, writing Chronicles of San Quentin was first suggested to Kenneth Lamott during a spell as a teacher at that California prison in the 1950’s. The book not only chronicles the history and highlights of one of America’s most famous penitentiaries, but it also reflects the changes in prisons in the U.S. over the last 100 years. Calmly informing us that there were over 4,000 murders in California between 1849-1855, Lamott quickly justifies the terrible need the state had for prisons other than lax, badly run county and city jails. But San Quentin itself, which started as a floating prison hulk, was little better. Here are its famous prisoners, riots and escapes, its floggings and brutalities, its executions too. With the coming of the “New Era” penology in the 1890’s, the change to more humane and rational treatment of prisoners is shown. The Clinton Duffy era is dealt with at great length—its shortcomings are shown along with its humane virtues—and prison life including the Chessman execution, is portrayed with sympathy and understanding. A highly readable book.

When Franklin Delano Roosevelt founded the Civilian Conservation Corps in 1933, newspapers relating to the organization were launched almost immediately. Happy Days, the semi-official newspaper of the CCC, and other such publications served as soundings boards for opinions among the CCC enrollees, encouraged and instructed the men as they assumed their new roles, and generally supported the aims of Roosevelt's New Deal program. Happy Days also encouraged and instructed editors in the production of camp newspapers--well over 5,000 were published by almost 3,000 of the CCC companies from 1933 to 1942. This book considers all phases of life in the CCC throughout its existence from various perspectives, and analyzes the history of CCC camp journalism. As the author points out, the CCC newspapers were and still are significant because they provide readers with a look at American life--socially, politically, culturally and militarily--during the Great Depression. It also focuses on how Happy Days and other newspapers were created and distributed, who wrote for them, and what they contained.

Culver City has rivaled Hollywood for nearly a century as the "Heart of Screenland"--a center of the movie and television trades. Here, the giant Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer evolved into Sony Pictures, and the Ince and Selznick movie empires became today's Culver Studios. But the same lands along Ballona Creek had been a wilderness traversed by Native Americans and settled by hardy Spanish pioneers named Machado, Talamantes and Higuera. Union soldiers occupied the area's Civil War-era Camp Latham. By 1910, visionary Harry H. Culver saw possibilities for these ranchlands and led Culver City to incorporate in 1917. Join official city historian Julie Lugo Cerra, a descendant of early settlers, as she relates the fascinating stories of how and why Culver City grew and prospered.

This is a captivating account of a Marine Rifle Squad as it prepared for deployment to Vietnam, and establishing the enclave south of Da Nang, Vietnam. Mentored by Korean Veterans, the Marine Riflemen become veterans tested in the rice paddies at Da Nang, Phu Bai, and the highlands of Khe Sanh. They walked from Khe Sanh to Dong Ha, Vietnam, one of the first units to do so since the fall of the French at Dien Bien Phu, 1954. They become Marine Riflemen ready to pick up their rifle and accomplish their mission under any physical conditions.