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  King John Henry III and...

  John Paul Davis

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  This sweeping history of thirteenth century England examines how the successive reigns of two very different kings established the English way of life. 
   
   
   
  In 1204, the great Angevin Empire was fragmenting under King John's rule. Unable to withstand France's invasion of Normandy, John also faced difficult relations with the papacy, and rising dissent among his barons. By the time John died in 1216, the failed Magna Carta gave way to civil conflict, and more than half of the country had fallen to the dauphin of France. These troubles were then passed, along with the crown, to John's nine-year-old son, Henry III. 
   
   
   
  Even with a regency government commanding the ship of state, Henry faced a dire threat to his royal authority. But the First Baron's War came to an end as Henry aligned himself with the pope and offered a revised Magna Carta. While this may have ensured short-term survival, living up to the promises of this foundational contract would create a more significant challenge—and lay the groundwork for the Second Baron's War.

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  From Liberty to Magnolia -- New...

  Ph.D. Janice S. Ellis

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  New Edition  
  A Powerful, Compelling, and Inspiring True Story 
  From the perch of poverty, farm life, family, and the confining community in which Janice Ellis grew up, she found her sense of purpose and determination to change things, to make them better. It was there that she gained an initial understanding of the importance of ethics and values, justice and equality, and caring for humanity in fostering a good society. 
  Her life experiences, during some very turbulent periods in an ever-evolving America, have profoundly shaped her work and writings — providing the grist, mission, authority, and authenticity required to become one’s best self. 
  As life has had its way, she has loved and lost, given birth and reared children alone as a divorcee, weathered verbal and physical abuse, had trail-blazing successes as an executive in corporate business and municipal government, and recovered from a colossal failure as a small business owner. 
  All — while navigating American life, as a Black, as a woman, and forever fighting against allowing either of those indelible birthmarks to define or confine her. 
  As circumstances, issues, and forces — social, political, economic — occur all around her, and push against her, she has chosen to push back. She has consciously entered and continues to enter the fray. 
  May you, as you learn of her trials and triumphs, be inspired to live your best self, too. 
  A Discussion Guide is included for use by book clubs, classes, and group forums. 

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  Fingers Crossed: How Music Saved...

  Miki Berenyi

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  Rough Trade Book of the YearResident Book of the YearA Rolling Stone Book of the YearA Mojo Book of the YearA Sunday Times Book of the YearFormed in 1988, Lush were part of the London gig scene during one of the most vibrant and creative periods in UK music. Now, Miki Berenyi tells all.From the bohemian ways of her father's social circle to the privileged glamour of her mother's acting career, Miki's young life was a blur of travel, celebrities and peripatetic schooling. But frequent relocation, parental neglect and the dark presence of her abusive grandmother resulted in crippling shyness, mental-health issues and a vulnerability to exploitation.The route out of this hole was music - a passion shared by schoolmate Emma Anderson. The teenagers began attending gigs together and would ultimately go on to form Lush. Talented and exuberant, the band became hot property, swiftly transitioning from shoegaze icons to Britpop darlings.Re-living the tours, recording sessions and music-industry madness they experienced along the way, this uncompromising memoir documents Lush's thrilling rise and untimely fall. Yet at the heart of the book are Miki's own battles: the conflict between her mouthy public persona and her thin-skinned private identity; the trials of being a woman in an infuriatingly male world; the struggle to find a middle ground between 'safe' indie obscurity and 'sell-out' international success. Miki also explores her complicated relationship with Emma - one that has fluctuated between camaraderie and rivalry over the years - and addresses the devastating tragedy that led to the band's split.Told through frank confession, wry humour and searing emotional honesty, this is the incredible tale of a trailblazing woman and a seminal band.

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  Blackbird - A Mother’s...

  Betsy Thibaut Stephenson

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  Is grief on a dial or a switch? Both. 
  Over six short weeks in 2022, Betsy Thibaut Stephenson lost her son to suicide, mother-in-law to dementia, and family dog to cancer. Rather than succumb to grief’s darkness, Betsy chose to face her losses head-on, accepting grief as an uninvited yet permanent companion in her revised life. 
  Blackbird is a memoir composed in real time, a concise and brutally honest look at the emotional, physical, and spiritual impact of deep despair. By unflinchingly pulling back the curtain on fear and shame, Betsy’s story inspires important conversations about mental health, grief resilience, and creating a path toward healing.

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  Her Name Is Alice: My Daughter...

  Caroline Litman

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  'Thoughtful, beautiful, incredibly necessary. People need to read this book, especially if they feel a resistance to. I wish everyone would.' Sofie Hagen 
  ‘Uncompromising, anguished, combative: culture wars have victims, and this is an agonising story told with honesty and passion.’ Richard Beard 
  'An intimate, beautifully told memoir' Elinor Cleghorn 
  When my third child was born, I was told I had a boy. The baby was given a boy’s name and raised in that gender. But when she died, twenty years later, she died as my daughter, and will forever be remembered that way. 
  Alice Litman died by suicide in May 2022, aged just twenty years old, having already waited almost three years for her first appointment at a gender identity clinic. 
  In stunningly beautiful prose, Caroline Litman captures the realities of an often-messy journey navigating both her daughter’s transition and the days, weeks and months after Alice’s death. 
  Searing, urgent and utterly unique, Her Name is Alice is the raw, human story of a mother’s love and grief for her child – and of a young trans woman who is impossible to forget and who must be remembered. 
  This upcoming autobiography, Her Name is Alice, is a powerful narrative that explores the intersection of family, death, and identity. It is a top pick among the latest non-fiction memoirs, offering a unique perspective on social issues and the LGBTQ+ community. 
  HarperCollins 2025

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  The Road to Riverdance

  Bill Whelan

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  Riverdance exploded across the stage at Dublin's Point Theatre one spring evening in 1994 during a seven-minute interval of the Eurovision Song Contest hosted by Ireland. It was a watershed moment in the cultural history of a country embracing the future, a confident leap into world music grounded in the footfall of the choreographed kick-line. It was a moment forty-five years in the making for its composer.
  In this tenderly unfurled memoir Bill Whelan rehearses a lifetime of unconscious preparation as step by step he revisits his past, from with his Barrington Street home in 1950s Limerick, to the forcing ground of University College Dublin and the Law Library during the 1960s, to his attic studio in Ranelagh. Along the way the reader is introduced to people and places in the immersive world of fellow musicians, artists and producers, friends and collaborators, embracing the spectrum of Irish music as it broke boundaries, entering the global slipstream of the 1980s and 1990s. As art and commerce fused, dramas and contending personalities come to view behind the arras of stage, screen and recording desk.
  Whelan pays tribute to a parade of those who formed his world. He describes the warmth and sustenance of his Limerick childhood, his parents and Denise Quinn, won through assiduous courtship; the McCourts and Jesuit fathers of his early days, the breakthrough with a tempestuous Richard Harris who summoned him to London; Danny Doyle, Shay Healy, Dickie Rock, Planxty, The Dubliners and Stockton's Wing, Noel Pearson, Seán Ó Riada; working with Jimmy Webb, Leon Uris, The Corrs, Paul McGuinness, Moya Doherty, John McColgan, Jean Butler and Michael Flatley.
  Written with wry, inimitable Irish humour and insight, Bill Whelan's self deprecation allows us to to see the players in all their glory, vulnerability and idiosyncracy. This fascinating work reveals the nuts, bolts, sheer effort and serendipities that formed the road to Riverdance in his reinvention of the Irish tradition for a modern age. As the show went on to perform to millions worldwide, Whelan was honoured with a 1997 Grammy Award when Riverdance was named the 'Best Musical Show Album.' Richly detailed and illustrated, The Road to Riverdance forms an enduring repository of memory for all concerned with the performing arts.

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