Two most surprising women… Lady Outlaw by Stacy Henrie No one would ever imagine that a fresh-faced young woman could be robbing stage bandits of their ill-gotten fortunes. But Jennie Jones is desperate to save her family’s ranch from foreclosure. And the risks seem worth it. Until her upright new ranch hand, former bounty hunter Caleb Johnson, offers a glimpse of how much is really at stake… The Unlikely Wife by Debra Ullrick Rancher Michael Bowen’s bride, married by proxy, is not what he expected. With her trousers, cowboy hat and rifle, Selina Farleigh Bowen looks like a female outlaw, not the genteel lady he corresponded with. Selina loved Michael’s letters, even if she couldn’t read them herself. A friend read them to her and wrote her replies—but that “friend” left things out. Yet time might show Michael the true value of his unlikely wife. USA TODAY Bestselling Author

The arrival of Michael Bowen's bride, married sight unseen by proxy, sends the rancher reeling. With her trousers, cowboy hat and rifle, she looks like a female outlaw—not the genteel lady he corresponded with for months. He's been hoodwinked into marriage with the wrong woman! Selina Farleigh Bowen loved Michael's letters, even if she couldn't read them herself. A friend read them to her, and wrote her replies—but apparently that "friend" left things out, like Michael's dream of a wife who was nothing like her. Selina won't change who she is, not even for the man she loves. Yet time might show Michael the true value of his unlikely wife.

Law and and justice are important themes in film, not only in courtroom dramas, but also in the western, the film noir, even the documentary. In the Godfather trilogy Francis Ford Coppola shows that the Mafia possesses its own strict codes, even though they are in conflict with those of the criminal justice system. In Woody Allen's Crimes and Misdemeanors the protagonist also "gets away with murder," but with a different dramatic intent by the director and a different effect on the audience. Shedding light on myriad facets of the law/film relationship, fourteen contributors to Legal Reelism analyze films ranging from The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, It's a Wonderful Life, and Drums Along the Mohawk to Do the Right Thing, Basic Instinct, The Thin Blue Line, and Thelma and Louise. The first volume to contain work by both humanists and legal specialists, Legal Reelism is a landmark text for those concerned with depictions of justice in the media and the impact of those depictions on society at large.

Renowned songwriter, singer, and wife of Waylon Jennings writes an intimate, enormously entertaining memoir of American music, of life with Waylon and the Outlaws, and of faith lost and found. The daughter of a Pentecostal evangelist and a race-car driver, Jessi Colter played piano and sang in church before leaving Arizona to tour with rock-n-roll pioneer Duane Eddy, whom she married. Colter became a successful recording artist, appearing on American Bandstand and befriending stars such as the Everly Brothers and Chet Atkins, while her songs were recorded by Nancy Sinatra, Dottie West, and others. Her marriage to Eddy didn’t last, however, and in 1969 she married the electrifying Waylon Jennings. Together, they made their home in Nashville which, in the 1970s, was ground zero for roots music, drawing Bob Dylan, Johnny Cash, Willie Nelson, Kris Kristofferson, Shel Silverstein, and others to the Nashville Sound. And Jessi was at the center of it all, the only woman on the landmark Wanted: The Outlaws album, therecord that launched the Outlaw Country genre and was the first country album to go platinum. She also tasted personal commercial success with the #1-single “I’m Not Lisa.” But offstage, life was a challenge, as Waylon pursued his addictions and battled his demons. Having drifted from the church as a young woman, Jessi returned to her faith and found in it a source of strength in the turmoil of living with Waylon. In the 1980s, Waylon helped launch the super group The Highwaymen with Willie Nelson, Johnny Cash, and Kris Kristofferson, and the hits kept rolling, as did Waylon’s reckless living. Amid it all, Jessi faithfully prayed for her husband until finally, at Thanksgiving 2001, Waylon found Jesus, just months before he died. An Outlaw and a Lady is a powerful story of American music, of love in the midst of heartache, and of faith that sustains.

This collection of short, action-filled stories of the Old West’s most egregiously badly behaved female outlaws is a great addition to Western author Robert Barr Smith’s books on the American frontier. Pulling together stories of ladies caught in the acts of mayhem, distraction, murder, and highway robbery, it includes famous names like Belle Starr and lesser known characters, and contains archival illustrations and photographs. Some famous females earned their criminal status through less-than-ladylike pursuits, making a living by capitalizing on the other sex's weaknesses of drinking, gambling, and enjoying the company of women. More than a few, like Cecilia and Edna "The Rabbit" Murray, weren't above robbing a bank or two to stay afloat for a while. Others, however, were much more sinister in their aims, earning a living by making sure others kept dying. Visitors to the homes of Kate Bender and Belle Gunness--dozens, no less--went missing over the years, only to be dug up months or years later, when suspicions were finally aroused.

This book explores in depth the origins, development, and prospects of outlawry and of the relationship of outlaws to the social conditions of changing times. Throughout American history you will find larger-than-life brigands in every period and every region. Often, because we hunger for simple justice, we romanticize them to the point of being unable to separate fact from fiction. Frank Richard Prassel brings this home in a thorough and fascinating examination of the concept of outlawry from Robin Hood, Dick Turpin, and Blackbeard through Jean Lafitte, Pancho Villa, and Billy the Kid to more modern personalities such as John Dillinger, Claude Dallas, and D. B. Cooper. A separate chapter on molls, plus equal treatment in the histories of gangs, traces women's involvement in outlaw activities. Prassel covers the folklore as well as the facts, even including an appendix of ballads by and about outlaws. He makes clear how this motley group of bandits, pirates, highwaymen, desperadoes, rebels, hoodlums, renegades, gangsters, and fugitives—who stand tall in myth—wither in the light of truth, but flourish in the movies. As he tells the stories, there is little to confirm that Jesse and Frank James, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, the Daltons, Pretty Boy Floyd, Ma Barker, Clyde Barrow and Bonnie Parker, Belle Starr, the Apache Kid, or any of the so-called good badmen, did anything that did not enrich or otherwise benefit themselves. But there is plenty of evidence, in the form of slain victims and ruined lives, to show how many ways they caused harm. The Great American Outlaw is as much an excellent survey on the phenomenon as it is a brilliant exposition of the larger than-life figures who created it. Above all, it is a tribute to that aspect of humanity that Americans admire most and that Prassel describes as a willingness "to fight, however hopelessly, against exhibitions of privilege."

Authored by the leading voices in critical legal studies, feminist legal theory, critical race theory and queer legal theory, After Identity explores the importance of sexual, national and other identities in people's lived experiences while simultaneously challenging the limits of legal strategies focused on traditional identity groups. These new ways of thinking about cultural identity have implications for strategies for legal reform, as well as for progressive thinking generally about theory, culture and politics.