In 1880, Ida Burnett of Logan, New York called her diary "my story." Fifteen-year-old Ida churned butter, milked cows, sewed her own underwear, canned fruit, but also had time for boys and parties. She lived in the country in Upstate New York and in the whole year did not venture any farther than 20 miles.From New York History Review's "Learning from History" series of printed primary source materials.

"Country Girl is Edna O'Brien's exquisite account of her dashing, barrier-busting, up-and-down life."-National Public Radio When Edna O'Brien's first novel, The Country Girls, was published in 1960, it so scandalized the O'Briens' local parish that the book was burned by its priest. O'Brien was undeterred and has since created a body of work that bears comparison with the best writing of the twentieth century. Country Girl brings us face-to-face with a life of high drama and contemplation. Starting with O'Brien's birth in a grand but deteriorating house in Ireland, her story moves through convent school to elopement, divorce, single-motherhood, the wild parties of the '60s in London, and encounters with Hollywood giants, pop stars, and literary titans. There is love and unrequited love, and the glamour of trips to America as a celebrated writer and the guest of Jackie Onassis and Hillary Clinton. Country Girl is a rich and heady accounting of the events, people, emotions, and landscape that have imprinted upon and enhanced one lifetime.

What happened on a normal day to a normal young woman in 1891? Step inside the world of 25-year-old Viola Coolbaugh as she lives her life in Schuyler County, New York. Home In These Hills invites us into Viola's world. She writes of the happenings in Altay, New York - her housework, baking pastries for her father's store, terrible sicknesses, working at the basket factory, and making ice cream with hailstones.

What happened on a normal day to a normal teenager in 1868? Step inside the world of 13-year-old Lucy Potter as she lives her everyday life in Cortland County, New York. A Darned Good Time invites us into Lucy's world. She writes of classes, teachers, friends, boys, a new stepmother, an invalid aunt, and complains about upstate New York weather. Lucy's words transport us through time to experience teenager life in the 19th century. Perspectives may change, but 13-year-old girls' interests in writing about their lives remain a constant over the generations. This diary is from New York History Review's "Learning from History" series of printed primary source materials.

Emma Latier had a heck of good time in 1902. She was a young married woman from Wayne, New York who came to Elmira, New York with her husband Floyd. They took advantage of the high life in the "big city." Elmira was a grand place in 1902 with a population was 35,000 and rising. Upscale shops, opera and theatre, fun activities at Eldridge Park and Rorick's Glen, and fine restaurants kept Emma busy. Elmira was also a main railroad hub with sixty-seven trains each day coming and going in all directions. Harper's New York & Erie Railroad Guide gave Elmira the nickname "Queen City of the Southern Tier." This is Emma's "Queen City Adventure." This diary is from New York History Review's "Learning from History" series of printed primary source materials.

WINNER OF THE COSTA BOOK OF THE YEAR 2018 WINNER OF THE SLIGHTLY FOXED BEST FIRST BIOGRAPHY PRIZE 2018 'A masterpiece of history and memoir' Evening Standard 'Superb. This is a necessary book - painful, harrowing, tragic, but also uplifting' The Times __________________________________________________ Little Lien wasn't taken from her Jewish parents in the Hague - she was given away in the hope that she might be saved. Hidden and raised by a foster family in the provinces during the Nazi occupation, she survived the war only to find that her real parents had not. Much later, she fell out with her foster family, and Bart van Es - the grandson of Lien's foster parents - knew he needed to find out why. His account of tracing Lien and telling her story is a searing exploration of two lives and two families. It is a story about love and misunderstanding and about the ways that our most painful experiences - so crucial in defining us - can also be redefined. ___________________________________________________ 'Luminous, elegant, haunting - I read it straight through' Philippe Sands, author of East West Street 'Deeply moving. Writes with an almost Sebaldian simplicity and understatement' Guardian 'Sensational and gripping . . . shedding light on some of the most urgent issues of our time' Judges of the Costa Book of the Year 2018

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • A stunning “portrait of the enduring grace of friendship” (NPR) about the families we are born into, and those that we make for ourselves. A masterful depiction of love in the twenty-first century. NATIONAL BOOK AWARD FINALIST • MAN BOOKER PRIZE FINALIST • WINNER OF THE KIRKUS PRIZE A Little Life follows four college classmates—broke, adrift, and buoyed only by their friendship and ambition—as they move to New York in search of fame and fortune. While their relationships, which are tinged by addiction, success, and pride, deepen over the decades, the men are held together by their devotion to the brilliant, enigmatic Jude, a man scarred by an unspeakable childhood trauma. A hymn to brotherly bonds and a masterful depiction of love in the twenty-first century, Hanya Yanagihara’s stunning novel is about the families we are born into, and those that we make for ourselves. Look for Hanya Yanagihara’s latest bestselling novel, To Paradise.