A historical novel vibrant with intimate detail and intense emotion, Thy Children's Children traces five generations of a real New England family through the turbulent decades that saw a handful of American colonies transformed into a young nation on the cusp of the modern industrial era.The seeds of a grassroots dynasty that flourishes to this day were planted when John and Hope Lyman began life on a small Connecticut farm in 1741. Here the first five generations of Lyman men and women built and maintained a family homestead, facing challenges large and small, with courage and conviction.Even as the Lymans sank roots deep into New England soil, they were active in charting the course of the nation's history from colonial times to after the Civil War. They fought for American independence, crusaded against slavery, advanced industry - and more. In this debut novel, Diana Ross McCain skillfully combines meticulous research and vibrant imagination to illuminate the everyday heroism of a remarkable family.

A mind-expanding dive into a lost chapter of 1968, featuring the famous and forgotten: Van Morrison, folkie-turned-cult-leader Mel Lyman, Timothy Leary, James Brown, and many more Van Morrison's Astral Weeks is an iconic rock album shrouded in legend, a masterpiece that has touched generations of listeners and influenced everyone from Bruce Springsteen to Martin Scorsese. In his first book, acclaimed musician and journalist Ryan H. Walsh unearths the album's fascinating backstory--along with the untold secrets of the time and place that birthed it: Boston 1968. On the 50th anniversary of that tumultuous year, Walsh's book follows a criss-crossing cast of musicians and visionaries, artists and hippie entrepreneurs, from a young Tufts English professor who walks into a job as a host for TV's wildest show (one episode required two sets, each tuned to a different channel) to the mystically inclined owner of radio station WBCN, who believed he was the reincarnation of a scientist from Atlantis. Most penetratingly powerful of all is Mel Lyman, the folk-music star who decided he was God, then controlled the lives of his many followers via acid, astrology, and an underground newspaper called Avatar. A mesmerizing group of boldface names pops to life in Astral Weeks: James Brown quells tensions the night after Martin Luther King, Jr. is assassinated; the real-life crimes of the Boston Strangler come to the movie screen via Tony Curtis; Howard Zinn testifies for Avatar in the courtroom. From life-changing concerts and chilling crimes, to acid experiments and film shoots, Astral Weeks is the secret, wild history of a unique time and place. One of LitHub's 15 Books You Should Read This March