John Pruden

In 1858, New York City was growing so fast that new roads and tall buildings threatened to swallow up the remaining open space. The people needed a green place to be-a park with ponds to row on and paths for wandering through trees and over bridges. When a citywide contest solicited plans for creating a park out of barren swampland, Calvert Vaux and Frederick Law Olmsted put their heads together to create the winning design, and the hard work of making...

A member of Navy SEAL Team 3 describes his life as a father and husband, and as the serviceman with the most confirmed sniper kills in the history of the United States military while serving in Iraq and Afghanistan.

In 1831, the then twenty-seven year old Alexis de Tocqueville, was sent with Gustave de Beaumont to America by the French Government to study and make a report on the American prison system. Over a period of nine months the two traveled all over America making notes not only on the prison systems but on all aspects of American society and government. From these notes, Tocqueville wrote "Democracy in America", an exhaustive analysis of the successes...

The Magic of Oz continues the adventures collected in The Wizard of Oz: The First Five Novels and The Emerald City of Oz: Novels Six Through Ten of the Oz Series, gathering into a single volume the last four Land of Oz novels written by L. Frank Baum and the sole short-fiction collection in the series. The Lost Princess of Oz. When the theft of several magic talismans coincides with the disappearance of the Princess Ozma, Dorothy and the Wizard follow...

The Shaggy Man goes searching for his brother Tik-Tok as warlike royals stir up trouble in this imaginative adventure in the Oz series. When Queen Ann of Oogaboo raises an army to take over Oz, Gilda the Good magically rearranges their path to send them into a fog. Meanwhile, the Shaggy Man has gone in search of his brother Tik-Tok, who's been tossed into a well by the wicked Nome King. On his journey, the Shaggy Man encounters Betsy Bobbin of Oklahoma,...

SOON TO BE A MAJOR MOTION PICTURE STARRING JAKE GYLLENHAAL, JOHN C. REILLY AND JOAQUIN PHOENIX A BOOKER PRIZE FINALIST AND A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR: Publishers Weekly • Amazon • Hudson Booksellers • Washington Post Hermann Kermit Warm is going to die. The enigmatic and powerful man known only as the Commodore has ordered it, and his henchmen, Eli and Charlie Sisters, will make sure of it. Though Eli doesn't share his brother's appetite for...

In the fifth installment of master storyteller William Dietrich's bestselling adventure series, the swashbuckling, battle-scarred hero Ethan Gage must race from the slopes of the Alps to the sultry tropics of the Caribbean to pursue a mysterious Spanish treasure as the fate of England-and of the world's first successful slave revolt-hang desperately in the balance. The Emerald Storm is the action-packed historical masterpiece that Ethan Gage fans...

Chief Justice Rehnquist's engaging writing illuminates both the high and low points in the Court's history, from Chief Justice Marshall's dominance of the Court during the early nineteenth century through the landmark decisions of the Warren Court. Citing cases such as the Dred Scott decision and Roosevelt's Court-packing plan, Rehnquist makes clear that the Court does not operate in a vacuum, that the justices are unavoidably influenced by their...

With the end of the Civil War, the nation recommenced its expansion onto traditional Indian tribal lands, setting off a wide-ranging conflict that would last more than three decades. In an exploration of the wars and negotiations that destroyed tribal ways of life even as they made possible the emergence of the modern United States, Peter Cozzens gives us both sides in comprehensive and singularly intimate detail. He illuminates the encroachment experienced...

The author of City of Refuge returns with a startling and powerful novel of race, violence, and identity set on the eve of the Civil War. The year is 1855. Blackface minstrelsy is the most popular form of entertainment in a nation about to be torn apart by the battle over slavery. Henry Sims, a fugitive slave and a brilliant musician, has escaped to Philadelphia, where he earns money living by his wits and performing on the street. He is befriended...