History's Dumbest Crimes: Historical Tales of Bungling Burglars, Hashed Hijacks, and Foolhardy Fraudsters by Sophie Collins & Sarah Herman, 192 pages

 

Jessie's Journey: Autobiography of a Traveller Girl by Jess Smith, 245 pages

 From the ages of 5 to 15, Jess Smith lived with her parents, sisters and a mongrel dog in an old, blue Bedford bus. They travelled the length and breadth of Scotland, and much of England too, stopping here and there until they were moved on by the local authorities or driven by their own instinctive need to travel. By campfires, under the unchanging stars they brewed up tea, telling stories and singing songs late into the night. Jessie's Journey describes what it was like to be one of the last of the traditional travelling folk. It is not an idyllic tale, but despite the threat of bigoted abuse and scattered schooling, humour and laughter run throughout a childhood teeming with unforgettable characters and incidents.

So Who The Heck Was Oscar Mayer? by Doug Gelbert, 400 pages

 The Real People Behind Those Brand Names: Coco Chanel, Richard Sears, Adolphh Coors, Howard Johnson, John Deere and Milton Bradley

Many of the most famous names in America today aren't names of actors, rock stars, or politicians, but brand names such as McDonald's, Maytag, Brooks Brothers, Chevrolet, and Jack Daniels. We don't summon up faces to associate with those names, all we see is the billboard on the side of the road or the logo on the side of the box. Somebody had to originate these companies and give them the household names they now have. So Who The Heck Was Oscar Mayer? tells more than 200 tales behind those household names.

Riders of the Purple Sage by Zane Grey, 280 pages

 The great American Western novelist presents his all-time classic story. Even the wild purple wasteland falls into jeopardy when a gunman named Lassiter and a rich homesteader named Jane Witherspoon join forces--and fates--to take on an entire violent town.

The Secret of Shadow Ranch by Carolyn Keene, 175 pages

 Nancy drew arrives in Phoenix, Arizona, eagerly looking forward to a fun-filled vacation at Shadow Ranch, but abruptly finds herself involved in a baffling mystery. The ranch is being haunted by a phantom horse and maliciously damaged by an unknown enemy. Local people believe that the ghostly animal is carrying out the curse of Dirk Valentine, the romantic outlaw who was killed many years ago at Shadow Ranch, where he had gone to fulfill a promise to his sweetheart.

Suspecting that a treasure hidden by Valentine may be at the root of the Shadow Ranch mystery, Nancy undertakes a challenging search, aided by her friends Bess Marvin and George Fayne. The first vital clue is found in an antique watch and sparks a series of clever deductions and dangerous developments. While seeking further clues, the girls' investigation in a ghost town ends in a near disaster when Nancy is trapped inside a building that is toppled by a rockslide - a rockslide which is deliberately caused. But the pretty titian-haired detective remains undaunted in her determination to solve the mystery.

Castle Rouge by Carole Nelson Douglas, 485 pages

 Irene Adler is the only woman ever to have outwitted Sherlock Holmes in A Scandal in Bohemia; she is as much at home with a spyglass and revolver than with haute couture and gala balls. Her adventures are the stuff of legend, for she has faced down sinister spies, thwarted plots against nations, and led an unlikely group, including the bachelor of Baker Street and his faithful cohort Watson, through the cellars and catacombs of 1889 Paris to capture Jack the Ripper. But disaster scattered those allies and the Ripper has escaped...

With the help of an unreliable prostitute named Pink, and theatrical manager Bram Stoker, who would later pen Dracula, Irene follows the clues that lead back to Bohemia, and on to new and bloodier atrocities. And when pursuers and prey reunite at a remote castle in Transylvania, the Ripper is cornered and fully unveiled at last...

The Mystery at Lilac Inn by Carolyn Keene, 180 pages

 Nancy and Helen visit a charming old inn, recently purchased by friends. Soon after her arrival at Lilac Inn, Nancy discovers someone is impersonating her! The young detective’s enemy alters her appearance to resemble Nancy and uses stolen identification! When Emily Willoughby's diamonds are stolen, Nancy is determined to find Emily's inheritance. A mysterious ghostly figure roaming Lilac Inn's grounds, a strange message with the phrase “blue pipes,” and other unexplained incidents lead credence to the belief that the inn is actually jinxed! This revised text is a new plot from the 1930 original text. Some of the same or similar character names remain.

The Best New True Crime Stories by Mitzi Szereto, 249 pages

 A collection of non-fiction accounts by international writers and experts on small town true crime shows readers that the real monsters aren’t hiding in the woods, they’re inside our towns.

Small towns aren’t always what they seem. We’ve been told nothing bad happens in small towns. You can leave your doors unlocked, and your windows wide open. We picture peaceful hamlets with a strong sense of community, and everyone knows each other. But what if this wholesome idyllic image doesn’t always square with reality? Small towns might look and feel safe, but statistics show this isn’t really true.

Tiny town, big crime. Whether in Truman Capote’s detailed murder of the Clutter family or Ted Bundy’s small-town charm, criminals have always roamed rural America and towns worldwide. Featuring murder stories, criminal case studies, and more, The Best New True Crime Stories: Small Towns contains all-new accounts from writers of true crime, crime journalism, and crime fiction. And these entries are not based on a true story―they are true stories. Edited by acclaimed author and anthologist Mitzi Szereto, the stories in this volume span the globe. Discover how unsolved murders, kidnapping, shooting sprees, violent robbery, and other bad things can and do happen in small towns all over the world.

The Reading List Sara Nisha Adams, 373 pages

 Widower Mukesh lives a quiet life in the London Borough of Ealing after losing his beloved wife. He shops every Wednesday, goes to Temple, and worries about his granddaughter, Priya, who hides in her room reading while he spends his evenings watching nature documentaries.

Aleisha is a bright but anxious teenager working at the local library for the summer when she discovers a crumpled-up piece of paper in the back of To Kill a Mockingbird. It’s a list of novels that she’s never heard of before. Intrigued, and a little bored with her slow job at the checkout desk, she impulsively decides to read every book on the list, one after the other. As each story gives up its magic, the books transport Aleisha from the painful realities she’s facing at home.

When Mukesh arrives at the library, desperate to forge a connection with his bookworm granddaughter, Aleisha passes along the reading list…hoping that it will be a lifeline for him too. Slowly, the shared books create a connection between two lonely souls, as fiction helps them escape their grief and everyday troubles and find joy again.

Miss Buncle's Book by D. E. Stevenson, 349 pages

 Barbara Buncle is in a bind. Times are harsh, and Barbara's bank account has seen better days. Stumped for ideas, Barbara draws inspiration from fellow residents of her quaint English village, writing a revealing novel that features the townsfolk as characters. The smashing bestseller is published under the pseudonym John Smith, which is a good thing because villagers recognize the truth. But what really turns her world around is when events in real life start mimicking events in the book. Funny, charming, and insightful, this novel reveals what happens when people see themselves through someone else's eyes.

"Did You Hear What Eddie Gein Done?" by Harold Schechter & Eric Powell, 221 pages

 One of the greats in the field of true-crime literature, Harold Schechter (Deviant, The Serial Killer Files, Hell's Princess), teams with five-time Eisner Award-winning graphic novelist Eric Powell (The Goon, Big Man Plans, Hillbilly) to bring you the tale of one of the most notoriously deranged murderers in American history, Ed Gein. DID YOU HEAR WHAT EDDIE GEIN DONE? is an in-depth exploration of the Gein family and what led to the creation of the necrophile who haunted the dreams of 1950s America and inspired such films as Psycho, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and The Silence of the Lambs.

Painstakingly researched and illustrated, Schechter and Powell's true-crime graphic novel takes the Gein story out of the realms of exploitation and gives the reader a fact-based dramatization of these tragic, psychotic and heartbreaking events. Because, in this case, the truth needs no embellishment to be horrifying.

Chapel Noir by Carole Nelson Douglas, 494 pages

 Chapel Noir is the fifth book in Carole Nelson Douglas's critically acclaimed Irene Adler series, which reinvents "the woman" that Sir Arthur Conan Doyle introduced in "A Scandal in Bohemia" as the heroine of her own extravagant adventures.

This time readers are thrust into one of the darkest periods of criminal fact and fiction when two courtesans are found brutally slaughtered in the lavish boudoir of a Paris house. No woman should ever see such horrors, authorities declare, but a powerful sponsor has insisted that Irene investigate the case, along with her faithful companion, sheltered parson's daughter Penelope Huxleigh.

But does anyone really seek the truth, or do they wish only to bury it with the dead women--for there is a worse horror that will draw Irene and her archrival, Sherlock Holmes, into a duel of wits with a fiendish opponent. These Paris killings mimic a series of gruesome murders that terrorized London only months before, in a dangerous and disreputable part of town known as Whitechapel...

The Secret History of Food: Strange but True Stories About the Origins of Everything We Eat by Matt Siegel, 270 pages

 An entertaining look at the little-known history surrounding the foods we know and loveIs Italian olive oil really  Italian, or are we dipping our bread in lamp oil? Why are we masochistically drawn to foods that can hurt us, like hot peppers? Far from being a classic American dish, is apple pie actually . . . English?

“As a species, we’re hardwired to obsess over food,” Matt Siegel explains as he sets out “to uncover the hidden side of everything we put in our mouths.” Siegel also probes subjects ranging from the myths—and realities—of food as aphrodisiac, to how one of the rarest and most exotic spices in all the world (vanilla) became a synonym for uninspired sexual proclivities, to the role of food in fairy- and morality tales.

A Necessary Murder by M. J. Tjia, 260 pages

 Stoke Newington, 1863: Little Margaret Lovejoy is found brutally murdered in the outhouse at her family's estate.

A few days later, a man is cut down in a similar manner on the doorstep of courtesan and professional detective Heloise Chancey's prestigious address. At the same time, Heloise's maid, Amah Li Leen, must confront events from her past that appear to have erupted into the present day.
Once again Heloise is caught up in a maelstrom of murder and deceit that threatens to reach into the very heart of her existence.

A Schoolteacher in Old Alaska: The Story of Hannah Breece by Jane Jacobs, 302 pages

 When Hannah Breece came to Alaska in 1904, it was a remote lawless wilderness of prospectors, murderous bootleggers, tribal chiefs, and Russian priests.  She spent fourteen years educating Athabascans, Aleuts, Inuits, and Russians with the stubborn generosity of a born teacher and the clarity of an original and independent mind.  Jane Jacobs, Hannah's great-niece, here offers an historical context to Breece's remarkable eyewitness account, filling in the narrative gaps, but always allowing the original words to ring clearly.  It is more than an adventure story:  it is a powerful work of women's history that provides important--and, at times, unsettling--insights into the unexamined assumptions and attitudes that governed white settler's behavior toward native communities at the turn of the century.  

The Far Side Gallery by Gary Larson, 192 pages

 

The Far Side Gallery is an anthology of Gary Larson's The Far Side comic strips, which were printed from 1982–1984.

In Broad Daylight: A Murder in Skidmore, Missouri by Harry N. MacLean, 342 pages

 Ken McElroy robbed, raped, burned, shot, and maimed the citizens of Skidmore, Missouri, without conscience or remorse. Again and again, the law had failed to stop him.

On July 10, 1981, Ken was shot to death on the main street of this small farming community. Forty-five people watched. No indictments were ever issued, no trial held…and the town of Skidmore protected the killers with silence. With this powerful, true-life account, Edgar Award–winning author Harry N. MacLean reveals what drove a community of everyday American citizens to commit murder…In Broad Daylight

Dead Men Do Tell Tales: The Strange and Fascinating Cases of a Forensic Anthropologist by William R. Maples & Michael Browning, 292 pages

 From a skeleton, a skull, a mere fragment of burnt thighbone, Dr. William Maples can deduce the age, gender, and ethnicity of a murder victim, the manner in which the person was dispatched, and, ultimately, the identity of the killer.  In Dead Men Do Tell Tales, Dr. Maples revisits his strangest, most interesting, and most horrific investigations, from the baffling cases of conquistador Francisco Pizarro and Vietnam MIAs to the mysterious deaths of President Zachary Taylor and the family of Czar Nicholas II.

Breaking Badger by Shelly Laurenston, 362 pages

 It’s instinct that drives Finn Malone to rescue a bunch of hard battling honey badgers. The Siberian tiger shifter just can’t bear to see his fellow shifters harmed. But no way can Finn have a houseful of honey badgers when he also has two brothers with no patience. Things just go from bad to worse when the badgers rudely ejected from his home turn out to be the only ones who can help him solve a family tragedy. He’s just not sure he can even get back into the badgers’ good graces. Since badgers lack graces of any kind . . .

Mads knows her teammates aren’t about to forgive the cats that were so rude to them, but moody Finn isn’t so bad. And he’s cute! The badger part of her understands Finn’s burning need to avenge his father’s death—after all, vengeance is her favorite pastime. So Mads sets about helping Finn settle his family’s score, which has its perks, since she gets to avoid her own family drama. Besides, fighting side by side with Finn is her kind of fun—especially when she can get in a hot and heavy snuggle with her very own growling, eye-rolling, and utterly irresistible kitty-cat . . .

Haunted Heritage by Michael Norman & Beth Scott, 583 pages

 Heralded across the country in newspapers ranging from The New York Times Book Review and The Baltimore Sun to The Minneapolis Star Tribune and The Denver Post, and in magazines as diverse as Chicago and Library Journal, the Haunted America series has attracted widespread acclaim as a virtual spectral travelogue through the byways and highways of North America. Haunted Heritage: A Definitive Collection of American Ghost Stories, the latest volume in the series. Continues its recounting of supernatural explorations, collecting a comprehensive compendium of ghostly tales, not penned by fictioneers such as Poe and King, but passed on by word of mouth and preserved by memory as actual windows on our nation’s haunted past.

The authors have compiled an astounding collection of American ghost stories. Based on interviews with eyewitnesses, unearthed ancient archives, overheard tales, and actual paranormal visitations and explorations. From the "Haunts of Ivy," a survey of university ghosts, to an overview of spectral lights, from revolutionary spirits in New England to beyond the grave occurrences in the Badlands, Haunted Heritage is the ghost story collection for all of North America.

Vikram and the Vampire: Or, Tales of Hindu Devilry by Sir Richard Burton, 243 pages

 Soldier, explorer, and adventurer, British author CAPTAIN SIR RICHARD FRANCIS BURTON (1821-1890) is perhaps best remembered for his notoriously unexpurgated translations of The Arabian Nights and the Kama Sutra, which scandalized-and titillated-Victorian readers. Lesser known, however, is his intriguing collection of classic Hindu tales of adventure, magic, and romance, first published in 1870.

Enlivened by Burton's own imagination-he was the first to translate them from Sanskrit-these stories purport to demonstrate "the exceeding folly of many wise fools," "the use and misuse of magic pills," "that a man's wife belongs not to his body but to his head," "the marvellous delicacy of three queens," and more.

This obscure, delightful work is a fascinating look at both Indian mythology and Victorian cultural anthropology.

Diana and the Underworld Odyssey by Aisha Saeed, 306 pages

After Diana thwarts a stunning attempt to defeat the Amazons and Themyscira for good, she has finally been granted permission to start training as a warrior! Except, the goddess Artemis brings news that children all over are disappearing without a trace. Diana is the only one who can be trusted to save them--even if she must confront Hades, Persephone, and all of the undead souls and mythical creatures of the Underworld. That is, until she discovers that a far more sinister villain is out to capture her--and will do whatever it takes to find her. With her warrior training barely underway, will young Wonder Woman be able to rely on her strength from within to save the missing children and defeat Hades? Or will she instead be dragged to the Underworld--forever?

Seven Kinds of People You Find in Bookshops by Shaun Bythell, 120 pages

 Amelia and family have arrived in Egypt for the 1911 archeological season -- after the marriage of young Ramses' best friend David to Amelia's niece Lia. But trouble finds them immediately when David is accused of selling ancient artifacts.

While Amelia and company try to clear his name and expose the real culprit, the body of an American is found at the bottom of their excavation shaft. As accusations of drug dealing and moral misconduct fly, a child of mysterious antecedents sparks a crisis that threatens to tear the family apart. Amelia brings her brilliant powers of deduction to bear, but someone is shooting bullets at her -- and coming awfully close!