"The came from a settled land--to a place of beauty, blood and war... Jim and Joe Downs came from Virgina--one led by the call of God, the other by a thirst for adventure. In the Ohio River Valley, the handsome young preacher and his rogue and charming brother entered a storm of Indian wars, white men's treachery, and into the wilderness of a legendary fighter whose enemies knew him as the 'Deathwind...'" -- Page [4] cover. Known to the Ohio Valley...

"As an undergraduate, Melina Green had a rare opportunity to have one of her first plays judged by famous theater critic Jasper Tolle, only to be publicly humiliated by a harsh and biased critique. Ten years later, her confidence as a playwright has never recovered, although she has just completed a work that she thinks is her best yet. It is based on the life of her ancestor Emilia Bassano, the first published female poet in England--and rumored...

"The story follows Hetty 'Handful' Grimke, a Charleston slave, and Sarah, the daughter of the wealthy Grimke family. The novel begins on Sarah's eleventh birthday, when she is given ownership over Handful, who is to be her handmaid. 'The Invention of Wings' follows the next thirty-five years of their lives. Inspired in part by the historical figure of Sarah Grimke (a feminist, suffragist and, importantly, an abolitionist), Kidd allows herself to go...

The story recounts the adventures of Judah Ben-Hur, a Jewish prince and merchant in Jerusalem at the beginning of the 1st century. Betrayed by his best friend and enslaved by the Romans, Judah Ben-Hur seeks revenge but instead finds redemption through his encounters with Jesus Christ. Generations have thrilled to the sacred destiny of the mighty charioteer Ben-Hur, whose enduring tale began as a bestselling 1880 novel that later inspired equally popular...

Mid-nineteenth-century little person Mercy Levinia Warren Bump comes of age in the antebellum south before being invited to join the P. T. Barnum circus, through which she meets her future husband, General Tom Thumb, and pursues limitless international opportunities.

Lovely and headstrong Betty Zane has made a place for herself in the newly-settled territory of the Ohio Valley. When the delicate balance of her life on the frontier is interrupted by the arrival of Alfred Clarke-a dashing young frontiersman for whom honour comes before his own romantic interests-and by a sudden, violent attack on their settlement, Betty must fight to protect everyone she loves.

From Anchee Min, a master of the historical novel, Empress Orchid sweeps readers into the heart of the Forbidden City to tell the fascinating story of a young concubine who becomes China's last empress. Min introduces the beautiful Tzu Hsi, known as Orchid, and weaves an epic of a country girl who seized power through seduction, murder, and endless intrigue. When China is threatened by enemies, she alone seems capable of holding the country together....

A follow-up to "The Winter Palace" continues the Romanov monarch's reflections on her world-changing rule in the shadow of the French Revolution, during which she orchestrates a political maneuver to secure her successor.

In this powerful crescendo to Eugenia Price's acclaimed Florida Trilogy, young and headstrong Margaret Seton vows to win the heart of grieving widower Lewis Fleming. Margaret's Story tells of the heartwarming relationship between the bold Margaret and her beloved Lewis, and how it plays out against dangerous and tumultuous events while spanning almost half a century. Experiencing Seminole uprisings, Florida's burgeoning statehood, the Civil War,...

A tale inspired by the life of Herman Melville finds the aging author's wife witnessing his descent into alcoholism and obscurity in the decades after the failure of "Moby Dick," a work of creative genius shaped by memories of youthful seafaring adventures.