""Birds are my almanac. They tune me into the seasons, and into myself." So begins this lively collection of essays by acclaimed filmmaker and novelist Priyanka Kumar"--

"As the internationally bestselling historian Katie Hickman writes, 'Myth and misunderstanding spring from the American frontier as readily as rye grass from sod, and--like the wiry grass--seem as difficult to weed out and discard.' But the true-life story of women's experiences in the Wild West is more gripping, heart-rending, and stirring than all the movies, novels, folk-legends, and ballads of popular imagination. Hard-drinking, hard-living poker...

Mary Austin (1868-1934)--eccentric, independent, and unstoppable--was 20 when her mother moved the family west. Austin's first look at her new home "changed her horizons and marked the beginning of her understanding, not only about who she was, but where she needed to be." She became the voice of the American West. In 1903, she published her first book, The Land of Little Rain, a wholly original look at the West's desert and its ethnically diverse...

"Wiegand introduces -- or re-introduces -- us to lawmen such as Bat Masterson and Wyatt Earp and outlaws such as the Younger and James Brothers, as well as larger-than-life figures such as Buffalo Bill and George Custer. He details the stories of these real-life legends, the aftermath and legacies they left behind, and the innumerable myths frequently attributed to them. Wiegand expands his contemporary spotlight on America's 100th birthday year to...

The woman at the heart of the New York Times bestseller and Oscar-winning film "Hidden Figures" shares her personal journey from child prodigy in the Allegheny Mountains of West Virginia to NASA human computer and her integral role in the early years of the U.S. space program. In 2015, at the age of ninety-seven, Johnson became a global celebrity for her pioneering work as a mathematician on NASA's first flight into space. In her memoir Johnson provides...

Integrating elements of memoir, adventure, and natural history, the author explores the mysteries of the natural world, using turquoise, both the color and the gem, as a metaphor, journeying to canyons, deserts, seas, and mountains.

On May 30, 1899, history was made when Pearl Hart, disguised as a man, held up a stagecoach in Arizona and robbed the passengers at gunpoint. A manhunt ensued as word of her heist spread, and Pearl Hart went on to become a media sensation and the most notorious female outlaw on the Western frontier. Her early life, family and fate after her later release from prison have long remained a mystery to scholars and historians, until now. On May 30, 1899,...

"A rising-star historian offers a significant new global perspective on the Revolutionary War with the story of the conflict as seen through the eyes of the outsiders of colonial society. Over the last decade, award-winning historian Kathleen DuVal has revitalized the study of early America's marginalized voices. Now, in Independence Lost, she recounts an untold story as rich and significant as that of the Founding Fathers : the history of the Revolutionary...

"From the New York Times bestselling author of Le Divorce, a dazzling meditation on the mysteries of the "wispy but material" family ghosts who shape us. Growing up in the small river town of Moline, Illinois, Diane Johnson always dreamed of floating down the Mississippi and off to see the world. Years later, at home in France, a French friend teases her: 'Indifference to history -- that's why you Americans seem so naive and don't really know where...

"A powerful and revelatory memoir from former CIA director John Brennan, spanning his more than thirty years in government."--Dust jacket flap. Brennan pulls back the curtain on the inner workings of the Central Intelligence Agency, describing the selfless, patriotic, and invisible work of the women and men involved in national security. He also examines the insularity, arrogance, and myopia that have, at times, undermined its reputation in the eyes...