Other books that might interest you

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  The Lost Southern Chefs - A...

  Robert F. Moss

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  In recent years, food writers and historians have begun to retell the story of southern food. Heirloom ingredients and traditional recipes have been rediscovered, the foundational role that African Americans played in the evolution of southern cuisine is coming to be recognized, and writers are finally clearing away the cobwebs of romantic myth that have long distorted the picture. The story of southern dining, however, remains incomplete. 
   
   
   
  The Lost Southern Chefs begins to fill that niche by charting the evolution of commercial dining in the nineteenth-century South. Robert F. Moss punctures long-accepted notions that dining outside the home was universally poor, arguing that what we would today call "fine dining" flourished throughout the region as its towns and cities grew. 
   
   
   
  Most important, Moss tells the forgotten stories of the people who drove this culinary revolution. These men and women fully embodied the title "chef," directing large staffs, staging elaborate events for hundreds of guests, and establishing supply chains for the very best ingredients from across the expanding nation. These chefs and entrepreneurs became embroiled in the pitched political battles of Reconstruction and Jim Crow, and then their names were all but erased from history.

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  Where There’s Muck There’s Bras:...

  Kate Fox

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  From rebels to writers, athletes to astronauts, join Kate Fox takes on an entertaining and eye-opening journey through the lives of these extraordinary women whose lives and achievements have too long been hidden.  
  From Cartimandua, the forgotten Iron Age Queen of the North, to Woodbine-smoking football player Lily Parr, Kate with her trademark wit and sense of fun, shows how these astonishing trailblazers laid the ground for modern stars from Victoria Wood to Little Mix. Nicola Adams, Betty Boothroyd and Helen Sharman all have these unsung northern champions to thank for paving their way. 
  Funny, enlightening and a call to arms, it’s perfect for a nation ready to rediscover its hidden heroes. 
  Kate Fox's exploration of these women's lives is a top-notch autobiography, shedding light on the political and social landscape of Britain. Their stories, intertwined with the history of Europe, are a testament to their resilience and their impact on the world. 
  For fans of Neil Oliver (The Story of the World in 100 Moments), David Sedaris (Happy-Go-Lucky), Eleanor Parker (Winters in the World), Katy Wix (The Methuen Book of Comic Monologues for Women), and Maggie O'Farrell (I Am, I Am, I Am). 
  HarperCollins 2022

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  The Seventh Letter

  Plato

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  "The Seventh Letter" by Plato delves into the philosophical musings of the revered ancient Greek philosopher. Composed as an epistle, the text offers insights into Plato's thoughts on governance, education, and the nature of reality. Through the letter, readers encounter Plato's reflections on the ideal state and the philosopher-king concept. This philosophical work serves as a profound exploration of wisdom, governance, and the pursuit of truth, showcasing Plato's enduring impact on Western philosophy. Read in English, unabridged.

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  From Mammies to Militants -...

  Trudier Harris

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  From Charles Chesnutt's The Marrow of Tradition to Toni Morrison's The Bluest Eye, Black writers, some of whom worked as maids themselves, have manipulated the stereotype in a strategic way as a figure to comment on Black-white relations or to dramatize the conflicts of the Black protagonists. In fact, the characters themselves, like real-life maids, often use the stereotype to their advantage or to trick their oppressors. 
   
   
   
  Harris combines folkloristic, sociological, historical, and psychological analyses with literary ones, drawing on her own interviews with Black women who worked as domestics. She explores the differences between Northern and Southern maids and between "mammy" and "militant." Often privileging political statements over realistic characterization in the design of their texts, the authors in Harris's study urged Black Americans to take action to change their powerless conditions, politely if possible, violently if necessary. 
   
   
   
  In her new afterword, "From Militants to Movie Stars," Harris looks at domestic workers in African American literature after the original publication of her book in 1982. Exploring five subsequent literary treatments of Black domestic workers, Harris tracks how the landscape of representation of domestic workers has broken with tradition and continues to transform into something entirely new.

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  Son of Birmingham - A Memoir

  Randall Woodfin, Edward T. Bowser

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  Today's Birmingham—led by Mayor Randall Woodfin—is a phoenix rising from the ashes of systemic racism and white flight. This first Southern city to pluck the feathers off Jim Crow, where peaceful protesters endured attacks by police dogs, where high-pressure water hoses tore at the flesh of men and women marching for their rights, and where children locked arms and sang "We Shall Overcome," is a living, breathing redemption story. 
   
   
   
  In Son of Birmingham, Woodfin draws upon the street wisdom of his generation's Southern rap music; the power of family, friends, and faith; and his education at the historically Black Morehouse College to preach the progress every corner of our nation clamors for right now. He walks listeners through the streets of his Birmingham, bringing to light the daily joys and struggles of everyday people and revealing what spurred him to turn his education and Capitol Hill experience to the city of his youth. 
   
   
   
  A moving memoir of a young leader's perseverance in a city still battling racism and gun violence, which Woodfin experienced first-hand, Son of Birmingham is also a call-to-action across America—an appeal to Woodfin's unique brand of servant leadership and responsive government for equitable, inclusive, and prosperous cities where everyone has the opportunity to reach their full potential.

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  Alexandra Petri's US History -...

  Alexandra Petri

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  A witty, absurdist satire of the last 500 years, Alexandra Petri's US History is the fake textbook you never knew you needed! 
   
   
   
  Alexandra Petri's US History contains a lost (invented!) history of America. (A history for people disappointed that the only president whose weird sex letters we have is Warren G. Harding.) Petri's "historical fan fiction" draws on real events and completely absurd fabrications to create a laugh-out-loud, irreverent takedown of our nation's complicated past. 
   
   
   
  On Petri's deranged timeline, John and Abigail Adams try sexting, the March sisters from Little Women are sixty feet tall, and Susan Sontag goes to summer camp. Nearly eighty short, hilarious pieces span centuries of American history and culture. Nikola Tesla's friends stage an intervention when he falls in love with a pigeon. The characters from Sesame Street invade Normandy. And Mark Twain—who famously said reports of his death had been greatly exaggerated—offers a detailed account of his undeath, in which he becomes a zombie. 
   
    
   
  This side-splitting work of historical humor shows why Alexandra Petri has been hailed as a "genius," a "national treasure," and "one of the funniest writers alive."

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