After plunging Europe into a terrible war, Napoleon died on Saint Helena in 1821.

Five years later his contemporary Sir Walter Scott wrote a brilliant debunking biography that stirred up international controversy for its thundering assault on the Napoleon legend.

It so inflamed the French that Napoleon’s most-trusted general challenged Scott to a duel.

Originally designed on a grand scale in nine volumes and over a million words, Scott’s monumental work is published again in one concise volume.

This new edition retains his first-hand insights, elegant construction, page-turning writing and painstaking attention to detail, while selecting the parts that provide a fresh and authoritative take on Napoleon (including the ill-fated march to Moscow) for the modern historian.

Published simultaneously in German, French, Italian and Spanish, the book was an international phenomenon.

Scott’s research took advantage of privileged access to government papers as well as those of the main players, including the Duke of Wellington and important French generals.

His life of Napoleon stands out not least because of his skilful portrayal of genuine people in both the smallest and most significant events.

‘Delightful...Walter Scott recalls to me the incidents on which through life I have mediated, and the influence of which is still in daily operation’ – Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Sir Walter Scott (15 August 1771-21 September 1832) was a lawyer, poet, translator, historian and novelist. His classics works, such as Ivanhoe and Waverley, remain in print today. He was two years younger than Napoleon, whose biography was the only historical work he ever wrote. It was to inspire the approach of later historians Lord Macaulay and Thomas Carlyle.

Albion Press is an imprint of Endeavour Press.

Endeavour Press is the UK’s leading independent publisher of digital books.

”A storehouse for all future writers of modern history” Athenaeum

Originally published in 1896, Thomas Power O’Connor’s intimate portrait of Napoleon covers everything from his military campaigns to his questionable table manners.

Far from a stuffy account of Napoleon’s battles and governance, O’Connor’s conversational style reveals the man behind the Emperor. This biography remains an important addition to the study of Napoleon with its personal and, at times, visceral details of the public and private life of the Emperor.

Examining contemporary French sources such as Hippolyte Taine, and with quotations from those closest to Napoleon such as Claude François Méneval, Étienne-Denis Pasquier and Josephine, O’Connor’s depiction of Napoleon is informative and entertaining in style, and far-reaching in scope.

As O’Connor guides the reader through these sources – either from devotees or detractors of Napoleon – a conflicting portrayal of the man arises that can only be expected from such a divisive and monumental figure. Brilliant but volatile, domineering but juvenile, but always – the violence of his campaigns appears rooted in his chaotic personality.

Nevertheless, O’Connor shows that one link remains unbroken throughout Napoleon’s life: his fierce ambition.

Perhaps this is what drew the leader of the United Irish League and the “Father of the House of Commons” to his subject.

T. P. O’Connor (1848-1929) was a journalist and MP. His mastery of French and German led him to report from the Franco-Prussian War following his sub-editorship of The Daily Telegraph. He was elected into the House of Commons in 1880 and was then continuously re-elected for 49 years and 215 days running as a proponent for Home Rule and Irish nationalism.

(Applause Books). Rita Lakin was a pioneer a female scriptwriter in the early 1960s when Hollywood television was exclusively male. For years, in creative meetings she was literally "the only woman in the room." In this breezy but heartfelt remembrance, Lakin takes readers to a long-forgotten time when women were not considered worthy or welcome at the creative table. Widowed with three young children, she talked herself into a secretarial job at Universal Studios in 1962, despite being unable to type or take dictation. With guts, skill, and humor, she rose from secretary to freelancer, to staff writer, to producer, to executive producer and showrunner, meeting hundreds of famous and infamous show biz legends along the way during her long and unexpected career. She introduced many women into the business and was a feminist before she even knew she was one. The general public did not know her name, but Lakin touched the lives of millions of viewers week after week, year after year. The relevance of her personal journey charming yet occasionally shocking will be an eye-opener to present-day who take for granted the abundance of female creative talent in today's Hollywood.

The International Bestseller

"Consistently entertaining...Honesty is abundantly apparent here--a quality as rare and commendable in elite surgeons as one suspects it is in memoirists." —The Guardian

"Disarmingly frank storytelling...his reflections on death and dying equal those in Atul Gawande's excellent Being Mortal." —The Economist

Henry Marsh has spent a lifetime operating on the surgical frontline. There have been exhilarating highs and devastating lows, but his love for the practice of neurosurgery has never wavered.

Following the publication of his celebrated New York Times bestseller Do No Harm, Marsh retired from his full-time job in England to work pro bono in Ukraine and Nepal. In Admissions he describes the difficulties of working in these troubled, impoverished countries and the further insights it has given him into the practice of medicine.

Marsh also faces up to the burden of responsibility that can come with trying to reduce human suffering. Unearthing memories of his early days as a medical student, and the experiences that shaped him as a young surgeon, he explores the difficulties of a profession that deals in probabilities rather than certainties, and where the overwhelming urge to prolong life can come at a tragic cost for patients and those who love them.

Reflecting on what forty years of handling the human brain has taught him, Marsh finds a different purpose in life as he approaches the end of his professional career and a fresh understanding of what matters to us all in the end.

“Promise Me, Dad is a brisk, often uplifting read, a consequence of its author’s congenital jollity and irrepressible candor.”
- Vanity Fair

A deeply moving memoir about the year that would forever change both a family and a country.

In November 2014, thirteen members of the Biden family gathered on Nantucket for Thanksgiving, a tradition they had been celebrating for the past forty years; it was the one constant in what had become a hectic, scrutinized, and overscheduled life. The Thanksgiving holiday was a much-needed respite, a time to connect, a time to reflect on what the year had brought, and what the future might hold. But this year felt different from all those that had come before. Joe and Jill Biden's eldest son, Beau, had been diagnosed with a malignant brain tumor fifteen months earlier, and his survival was uncertain. "Promise me, Dad," Beau had told his father. "Give me your word that no matter what happens, you’re going to be all right." Joe Biden gave him his word.

Promise Me, Dad chronicles the year that followed, which would be the most momentous and challenging in Joe Biden’s extraordinary life and career. Vice President Biden traveled more than a hundred thousand miles that year, across the world, dealing with crises in Ukraine, Central America, and Iraq. When a call came from New York, or Capitol Hill, or Kyiv, or Baghdad—“Joe, I need your help”—he responded. For twelve months, while Beau fought for and then lost his life, the vice president balanced the twin imperatives of living up to his responsibilities to his country and his responsibilities to his family. And never far away was the insistent and urgent question of whether he should seek the presidency in 2016.

The year brought real triumph and accomplishment, and wrenching pain. But even in the worst times, Biden was able to lean on the strength of his long, deep bonds with his family, on his faith, and on his deepening friendship with the man in the Oval Office, Barack Obama.

Writing with poignancy and immediacy, Joe Biden allows readers to feel the urgency of each moment, to experience the days when he felt unable to move forward as well as the days when he felt like he could not afford to stop.

This is a book written not just by the vice president, but by a father, grandfather, friend, and husband. Promise Me, Dad is a story of how family and friendships sustain us and how hope, purpose, and action can guide us through the pain of personal loss into the light of a new future.

A portrait of a woman, an era, and a profession: the first thoroughly researched biography of Meryl Streep—the “Iron Lady” of acting, nominated for nineteen Oscars and winner of three—that explores her beginnings as a young woman of the 1970s grappling with love, feminism, and her astonishing talent.

In 1975 Meryl Streep, a promising young graduate of the Yale School of Drama, was finding her place in the New York theater scene. Burning with talent and ambition, she was like dozens of aspiring actors of the time—a twenty-something beauty who rode her bike everywhere, kept a diary, napped before performances, and stayed out late “talking about acting with actors in actors’ bars.” Yet Meryl stood apart from her peers. In her first season in New York, she won attention-getting parts in back-to-back Broadway plays, a Tony Award nomination, and two roles in Shakespeare in the Park productions. Even then, people said, “Her. Again.”

Her Again is an intimate look at the artistic coming-of-age of the greatest actress of her generation, from the homecoming float at her suburban New Jersey high school, through her early days on the stage at Vassar College and the Yale School of Drama during its golden years, to her star-making roles in The Deer Hunter, Manhattan, and Kramer vs. Kramer. New Yorker contributor Michael Schulman brings into focus Meryl’s heady rise to stardom on the New York stage; her passionate, tragically short-lived love affair with fellow actor John Cazale; her marriage to sculptor Don Gummer; and her evolution as a young woman of the 1970s wrestling with changing ideas of feminism, marriage, love, and sacrifice.

Featuring eight pages of black-and-white photos, this captivating story of the making of one of the most revered artistic careers of our time reveals a gifted young woman coming into her extraordinary talents at a time of immense transformation, offering a rare glimpse into the life of the actress long before she became an icon.

The #1 New York Times Bestseller

A hilarious, thoughtful, and in-depth exploration of the pleasures and perils of modern romance from Aziz Ansari, the star of Master of None and one of this generation’s sharpest comedic voices

At some point, every one of us embarks on a journey to find love. We meet people, date, get into and out of relationships, all with the hope of finding someone with whom we share a deep connection. This seems standard now, but it’s wildly different from what people did even just decades ago. Single people today have more romantic options than at any point in human history. With technology, our abilities to connect with and sort through these options are staggering. So why are so many people frustrated?

Some of our problems are unique to our time. “Why did this guy just text me an emoji of a pizza?” “Should I go out with this girl even though she listed Combos as one of her favorite snack foods? Combos?!” “My girlfriend just got a message from some dude named Nathan. Who’s Nathan? Did he just send her a photo of his penis? Should I check just to be sure?” 

But the transformation of our romantic lives can’t be explained by technology alone. In a short period of time, the whole culture of finding love has changed dramatically. A few decades ago, people would find a decent person who lived in their neighborhood. Their families would meet and, after deciding neither party seemed like a murderer, they would get married and soon have a kid, all by the time they were twenty-four. Today, people marry later than ever and spend years of their lives on a quest to find the perfect person, a soul mate.

For years, Aziz Ansari has been aiming his comic insight at modern romance, but for Modern Romance, the book, he decided he needed to take things to another level. He teamed up with NYU sociologist Eric Klinenberg and designed a massive research project, including hundreds of interviews and focus groups conducted everywhere from Tokyo to Buenos Aires to Wichita. They analyzed behavioral data and surveys and created their own online research forum on Reddit, which drew thousands of messages. They enlisted the world’s leading social scientists, including Andrew Cherlin, Eli Finkel, Helen Fisher, Sheena Iyengar, Barry Schwartz, Sherry Turkle, and Robb Willer. The result is unlike any social science or humor book we’ve seen before.

In Modern Romance, Ansari combines his irreverent humor with cutting-edge social science to give us an unforgettable tour of our new romantic world.

#1 New York Times Bestseller

"Amy Schumer's book will make you love her even more. For a comedian of unbridled (and generally hilarious) causticity, Schumer has written a probing, confessional, unguarded, and, yes, majorly humanizing non-memoir, a book that trades less on sarcasm, and more on emotional resonance." —Vogue

"The Girl with the Lower Back Tattoo is an alternatingly meditative, sexually explicit, side-splittingly hilarious, heart-wrenching, disturbing, passionately political, and always staggeringly authentic ride through the highs and lows of the comedic powerhouse's life to date." —Harper's Bazaar

"This is your happy hour with Amy Schumer...It's Bossypants meets Trainwreck meets your long weekend." —TheSkimm

“Amy’s got your back. She’s in your corner. She’s an honesty bomb. And she’s coming for you.”
—Actress Tilda Swinton and Trainwreck co-star

The Emmy Award-winning comedian, actress, writer, and star of Inside Amy Schumer and the acclaimed film Trainwreck has taken the entertainment world by storm with her winning blend of smart, satirical humor. Now, Amy Schumer has written a refreshingly candid and uproariously funny collection of (extremely) personal and observational essays.

In The Girl with the Lower Back Tattoo, Amy mines her past for stories about her teenage years, her family, relationships, and sex and shares the experiences that have shaped who she is—a woman with the courage to bare her soul to stand up for what she believes in, all while making us laugh.

Ranging from the raucous to the romantic, the heartfelt to the harrowing, this highly entertaining and universally appealing collection is the literary equivalent of a night out with your best friend—an unforgettable and fun adventure that you wish could last forever. Whether she’s experiencing lust-at-first-sight while in the airport security line, sharing her own views on love and marriage, admitting to being an introvert, or discovering her cross-fit instructor’s secret bad habit, Amy Schumer proves to be a bighearted, brave, and thoughtful storyteller that will leave you nodding your head in recognition, laughing out loud, and sobbing uncontrollably—but only because it’s over.

Dr. P. J. Miller's story is unique. Growing up in New York City, who would have thought that he’d complete his veterinary degree at the Royal School of Veterinary Studies in Edinburgh, Scotland? In Cute Poodles, Sweet Old Ladies & Hugs, Dr. Miller has assembled a "greatest hits" of veterinary tales—stories that include colorful clients, wisecracking hospital staff, and pets that aren't always friendly.

Cute Poodles, Sweet Old Ladies & Hugs provides a humorous look at what Dr. Miller went through to become a veterinarian and his daily life as a doctor, told only as a typical New Yorker could. Underneath the humor, Dr. Miller gives a glimpse of how strong and emotional the human-animal bond can be, becoming an instant must-read for any aspiring veterinary professional or animal lover that wants to know what it is really like to be a veterinarian.

See his website for further information about the book and for more veterinary tales http://www.yodrmiller.com/

In an American Old West populated by fierce outlaws, badmen and gunslingers, John Wesley Hardin was perhaps the most notorious.

Born to a Methodist preacher in 1853, near Bonham, Texas, Wes Hardin killed his first man, a former slave of his uncle’s, at the tender age of 15. Fearing that he’d receive unfair treatment in a Union occupied state where one third of the police force were former slaves, Hardin went into hiding.

The authorities wasted no time in discovering Wes Hardin, but when they sent three Union soldiers to arrest him, Hardin confronted his pursuers: ‘thus it was by the fall of 1868 I had killed four men and was myself wounded in the arm’.

Knowing he could not return, Hardin travels with outlaws, drives cattle, and gambles his way across the state. In his biography he details the mounting body count, and justifies every shootout, claiming to have ‘never killed a man wantonly or in cold blood’.

Throughout this lively account, Hardin narrates in meticulous detail the various troubles he runs into, including his encounter with the famous “Wild Bill” Hickock. He negotiates the quarrels and the blood feuds of his late teens and early twenties with surprising good fortune, even managing to find time to marry and have children, before capture in his mid twenties. In the ten years between his first killing in 1868 and his final capture, he killed more than a score of men and became the most wanted fugitive of his time.

The imprisonment of Wes Hardin marks the end of the journal, which remains the only authentic autobiography of a wild west gunslinger to date. Written during his time in prison, it is an understandably biased tale, but nonetheless a unique and gripping first-person account of an interesting life and an interesting period in American history.

This version of Hardin’s autobiography also includes several other materials from the original publishers, dealing with Wes Hardin’s release and subsequent shooting in 1895.

John Wesley Hardin (May 26, 1853 – August 19, 1895) was an American Old West outlaw, gunfighter, and controversial folk icon. His memoir was published the year after his death in 1896.

For details of other books published by Albion Press go to the website at www.albionpress.co.uk.

Albion Press is an imprint of Endeavour Press, the UK's leading independent digital publisher. For more information on our titles please sign up to our newsletter at www.endeavourpress.com. Each week you will receive updates on free and discounted ebooks. Follow us on Twitter: @EndeavourPress and on Facebook via http://on.fb.me/1HweQV7. We are always interested in hearing from our readers. Endeavour Press believes that the future is now.

1903.

Tom Horn awaits execution for the murder of fourteen-year-old boy.

He writes this memoir.

Tom Horn was born in Missouri, in 1860. His parents, who were deeply religious, regularly beat him – on one occasion leaving him laid up in the family barn, where he needed a week to recover.

Their attempts to beat him into submission soon ended when aged just fourteen years old, he left home and headed West.

With $11 in his pocket after selling his rifle, and nothing to stay for after his beloved dog had been shot, young farm boy Tom Horn travelled through Kansas and reached Santa Fe in 1874.

Horn went on to become many things.

He was to become a pivotal figure in the cattle business, making a name for himself amid growing hostility between cattle barons and settlers as a government scout and interpreter for Generals Wilcox, Crook and Miles in the Apache wars.

He was assistant to the infamous Al Sieber, Chief of Scouts, and was known as the ‘King of Cowboys’.

He was a Pinkerton, a cowboy, a range detective and a gunman with potentially lethal ability – yet he was well respected and known as a gentleman who was true to his word.

In this account of his life, he recounts the shocking events that led to his imprisonment for the murder a fourteen year old boy.

It was a crime for which he was hanged in 1904, and many think he was wrongly accused.

Life of Tom Horn is a compelling western and a story of guilt, innocence and justice amongst the Apache Wars.

Tom Horn (1860-1903) was a US Army Scout, Pinkerton, cowboy, detective and assassin. He wrote his memoirs whilst in jail for a murder. His innocence is still debated.

“It was treason against the home government, yet perfect allegiance to the law of right.”

At a meeting of the Continental Congress in July 1776, at Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the Declaration of Independence was signed.

From across the Thirteen Colonies, fifty-six men — including two future presidents — put their names to a document formally explaining why they had voted to declare independence from Great Britain.

It was an act that would have an irreversible effect on America, and history.

Although this event has given rise to many stories and legends with the passage of time, there is little doubting the reverence with which the signers of the Declaration are held.

In his 1848 work, B. J. Lossing presents a collection of brief sketches of “the chief events in the lives of the men who stood sponsors at the baptism in blood of our Infant Republic.”

Those men include: Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin, John Adams as well as many more in this fascinating history of The Lives of the Signers of the Declaration of Independence.

Benson John Lossing (1813-1891) was a prolific and popular American historian, authoring more than forty books in his lifetime. He was best known for his works on the American Revolution and American Civil War.

Albion Press is an imprint of Endeavour Press, the UK's leading independent digital publisher. For more information on our titles please sign up to our newsletter at www.endeavourpress.com. Each week you will receive updates on free and discounted ebooks. Follow us on Twitter: @EndeavourPress and on Facebook via http://on.fb.me/1HweQV7. We are always interested in hearing from our readers. Endeavour Press believes that the future is now.

‘One of the best firsthand accounts of war as seen by a private soldier.’ — St. Louis Post-Dispatch

Joseph Plumb Martin’s captivating memoir brings to life his experiences as a soldier during the American Revolution.

Martin invites us on an intense literary journey to each of his eight campaigns during the revolution, providing a vividly detailed narrative of his adventures, dangers, sufferings and anecdotes as a soldier.

His first hand, personal account is both fascinating and harrowing.

Through remarkable detail, Martin recreates the constant and excruciating hunger that leads the soldiers to eat old shoes, tree bark and beehives, and their sleep-deprivation from tossing and turning on cold, hard ground in the midst of extreme weather conditions.

We follow Martin as he buries the bodies of fellow soldiers, enjoys the safety and freedom of brief visits home, suffers gruesome injuries and illnesses, trudges through storms without shoes or sufficient clothing, and takes British soldiers prisoner.

From wandering around the decrepit ruins and murdered inhabitants of a town mercilessly seized by the British to attempting to physically gouge the smallpox from his fellow soldiers’ bodies, Martin’s journey is a haunting and memorable one.

His honest account preserves and recreates his memories as a soldier, offering a uniquely personal, vivid and detailed commentary on a crucial moment in American history.

Joseph Plumb Martin (November 21, 1760 – May 2, 1850) was a soldier in the Continental Army during the American Revolutionary War, holding the rank of private for most of the war. His published narrative of his experiences has become a valuable resource for historians in understanding the conditions of a common soldier of that era, as well as the battles in which Martin participated.

Albion Press is an imprint of Endeavour Press, the UK's leading independent digital publisher. For more information on our titles please sign up to our newsletter at www.endeavourpress.com. Each week you will receive updates on free and discounted ebooks. Follow us on Twitter: @EndeavourPress and on Facebook via http://on.fb.me/1HweQV7. We are always interested in hearing from our readers. Endeavour Press believes that the future is now.

“With Nelson they were inspired, not by any care or pretence on his part, but by his genuine nature. Whatever was his was the best. The effect of this was that any officer or man coming under his command presently felt that his chief considered him one of the finest fellows that ever lived.”

Admiral Lord Nelson has become an enduring symbol of British heroism and naval power.

Trafalgar. Copenhagen. The Nile. His victories resonate as clearly now as they did upon his death in 1805.

But in an age of naval heroes, what makes Nelson so captivating?

In this biography John Knox Laughton attempts to peel away the layers of fiction and look at the real Nelson.

Combining Nelson’s naval achievements with his personal life, Laughton creates an astounding image of the man, the sailor and the legend.

Meticulously researched, Nelson shows the Admiral’s humanity and that the figures in his life were human also, including the infamous Lady Hamilton.

You will see that Nelson’s accomplishments seem even grander, more spectacular, when you realise they were done by a real person who gave first his eye, then his arm and finally his life for his country.

First published in 1895 by the most prolific Nineteenth Century Naval historian, Nelson is a timeless biography of a British symbol whose fame is immortal.

Praise for John Knox Laughton

‘Laughton created modern naval history.’ – Andrew Lambert

Sir John Knox Laughton (1830–1915) was a British naval historian who wrote more than 900 naval biographies. He began his career as civilian naval instructor before becoming a professor of Modern History at King’s College London. Upon his Death John Know Laughton was buried at sea in the Thames Estuary.

As lover, wife and widow of Sir Walter Ralegh, Bess was the hidden force behind his spectacular public achievements, the stable point in his turbulent private life, and the shrewd creator of his reputation after his death.

Having resisted being married off in her teens, she began a passionate and illicit sexual relationship with Ralegh in her twenties.

Her intelligence and business acumen were exceptional, despite having no rights as a woman (twice she built a fortune from nothing), and her remarkable emotional strength sustained her through personal tragedy and political disasters that broke many others, including her own husband.

A woman in a man’s world, Bess’s ambitious pursuit of power and wealth, and justice for herself and her children, make compelling reading.

‘Anna Beer has lovingly restored Bess Ralegh to her rightful place among Elizabethan heroines. Brave, energetic, and resourceful to the point of audacity — Bess was a successful gambler against the odds. She rescued the reputation of her own husband, Sir Walter Ralegh, and now, four centuries later, Anna Beer has returned the favour.’ – Amanda Foreman, author of Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire

‘[Anna Beer’s] eye for detail is outstanding.’ – Sunday Times

Anna, who lives in Oxford, spends most of her time researching and writing books about interesting people who lived in interesting times, but she also teaches Literature and Creative Writing -and takes time out to travel whenever she can.

Endeavour Press is the UK’s leading independent publisher of digital books.

A WRITER TURNS DETECTIVE TO LEARN WHAT HER MOTHER'S LIFE HAD BEEN LIKE BEFORE ALZHEIMER'S STOLE HER MEMORIES. A TRUE STORY OF FORGIVENESS AND HEALING.

As fiercely independent Ruth struggles to stay self-reliant at the age of 86, each day brings her closer to an event that will alter her life forever. While her author daughter shifts through Ruth’s possessions prior to her move into a skilled nursing facility, she discovers a previously unseen photo from 1949 and realizes how little she knows of her mother’s life.

As Alzheimer’s continues to warp Ruth’s once sharp mind, she can no longer shed any light on the past. Yearning to know who her mother was as a person in her own right, the author painstakingly reconstructs Ruth’s life from photos, letters, public records and firsthand memories.

What emerges is a portrait of a bright, beautiful woman who is propelled through decades of broken promises and heartache, bouncing from one ill-fated relationship to the next, but always staying strong, always surviving. Through a timeline going back sixty years, the author gleans a much better understanding of the woman she had known only as Mom.

"SOUL-BARING AND HEART-WARMING." K. ANSBRO

First Place Winner 2016 CIPA EVVY AWARD in autobiography/memoir
Second Place Winner 2016 CIPA EVVY AWARD in religion/spirituality
"As the body gets weaker, the spirit gets stronger," Linda Kinnamon repeatedly tells her patients. Being a hospice nurse she spends her days caring for and visiting the terminally ill. But in the pre-dawn hours, as her patients near death, they occasionally pay her a visit instead.
Whether it’s perfume drifting through a room or a touch on the shoulder, the strength of spirit displayed at the end of life is as unique as the individual. Alchemy of the Afterlife is a memoir of life AFTER death based on Linda’s childhood as an orphan combined with her adult experiences as a hospice nurse. These encounters reveal both a glimmer of heaven and a flash of hell.
This is a child's story about surviving abuse and neglect, only to be comforted by a visit from her mother, a visit that took place four years after her mother’s death. It’s a nurse's story about patients of all beliefs, and their evolution from life to afterlife minus the harps and halos. Most of all, it’s an uplifting and universal story of the golden transformation we will all experience at death, a transformation with the heart of pure love.

We were "river rats" - that's what they called us. We lived in the bottoms, close to the railroad tracks and the Missouri River.

Nearly every year the river flooded and turned our dirt streets into creeks full of fish, snakes, and trash from towns upriver. Some years the Missouri took the whole bottom, rushing into our house so we had to get out fast with whatever we could carry. When the water went back down, we scraped mud off walls, scrubbed with strong bleach, and moved back in.

Mama did that year after year. She learned to deal with floods. But the snake pushed her over the edge. She didn't want to live in a house where snakes could come and go as they pleased. Daddy said we couldn't afford to live anywhere else. We owned the old house on River Street and some years the water didn't get in it at all.

It wasn't an argument, or even a discussion. Daddy made the decision.
Mama lived with it - and a whole lot more.

Snakes in the Kitchen is an early childhood memoir of growing up poor in the early 1950's, in Mokane Missouri. It's a story of one woman's efforts, against all odds, to pull her children out of the mud and into a house with indoor plumbing.

Mama never gave any thought to Women's Rights, but she knew she didn't have any. She didn't know anything about women's liberation, but she knew a man had always been in control of her life. Her father forced to quit school to take a job when she was thirteen. He refused to let her see the man she loved and pushed her into marrying a man she hardly knew.

She didn't know anything about equal pay for women, she just wanted a job so she could feed her children and keep a roof over their heads.

She was trapped in a loveless marriage with a husband was who harsh and openly unfaithful.
Divorce was a disgrace to her family and friends, but she faced the disapproval and held her head high as she built a new life for herself and her children.

Snakes in the Kitchen includes many award winning biographical stories published here for the first time. The title chapter, Snakes in the Kitchen, won the top Midwest Writer's Workshop non-fiction award in 2013. The second chapter, The Day Grandma called the Doctor, took the same award in 2015. The author was recorded telling Mama and the New TV and the video was used as part of a Smithsonian sponsored exhibit. Other chapters won the Storyteller Magazine Award and the Lt. Fred Guidry Search for Excellence Award.

"The Wonder Years" meets "The Notebook" in this true-life coming-of-age love story.

If you remember your first love, your first date and your first kiss, then Feels Like the First Time will take you back to those moments. Shawn met Dawn when she moved in next door in 1976. Soon, they were best friends, then became each other's first loves. Shawn was outgoing but bookish, Dawn, beautiful and reserved. Their storybook romance came to an end when Dawn's parents forbid them to see each other.

They obeyed - for 27 years, until a chance meeting swept them up in a storm of emotions and memories. Can the sweet bond of first love not only survive into middle age, but flourish?

Feels Like the First Time lets you share in the magic of young love in small town America in the 1970s. No matter how much the world changes, some things – timeless music, high school dances, making out in the backseat of a Chevy Vega, and of course true love – will always remain the same.

"Both Sides Now," the best selling sequel to "Feels Like the First Time" is also available for the special price of just $2.99 this week. "Both Sides Now" tells of the same events, but from Dawn's perspective.

Once Upon a Lyme... A Tale of Two Journeys tells the story of a mysterious illness that stumped a parade of doctors, and the new-found discipline of writing that became the unexpected by-product of years of misdiagnoses. After seeing over two dozen physicians, writing five novels and self-publishing one, Once Upon a Lyme was a personal story that the author felt had to be shared. The book chronicles Hamilton’s search for an answer to a far-flung roster of symptoms and the creative outlet she turned to in case she became bedridden.

It took nine years from the onset of the symptoms to learn the name of her nemesis. Because the diagnosis was so long in coming, by that time she had late-stage Lyme, which is next to impossible to cure. Her only hope at that point was going the "alternative" route, which required leaving normal and taking a huge leap of faith, resorting to methods that are part new-age, part medieval. She would soon learn getting the correct diagnosis was only half the battle.

Throughout her struggles, three things saved her from complete despair: an overabundance of willpower, an appreciation of the absurd, and writing. Her experiences during that time make for a candid, comic and sometimes harrowing look at what she endured at the hands of medical professionals. What she got for her trouble was a craft that has allowed her to channel her overactive imagination into writing books, which is now her sole occupation—besides fighting Lyme.

Though there are moments of despair, Once Upon a Lyme is ultimately about triumph of the spirit over disease, the courage to keep fighting, and the sense of humor necessary to prevail against adversity.