Thomson takes us from D.W. Griffith, Charlie Chaplin, and the first movies of mass appeal to Louis B. Mayer, who understood what movies meant to America–and reaped the profits. From Capra to Kidman and Hitchcock to Nicholson, Thomson examines the passion, vanity, calculation and gossip of Hollywood and the films it has given us. This one-volume history is a brilliant and illuminating overview of “the wonder in the dark”–and the staggering impact Hollywood and its films has had on American culture.

    What's more is news of the picket is spreading and more and more women are coming from other parts of the district and some from as far away asMaryland and Virginia. President Wilson felt so sorry for them in the cold that he invited them in for coffee but they refused. They said they would only come in to talk about a federal amendment for the women's right to vote. No coffee! This made me think of Sojourner Truth's words about men who help lift women into carriages and over mud puddles--that of course is the easy part, just like giving them coffee. Giving them the vote is the hard part.

    But as his father boldly marches off to battle in August, 1914, Jim must be content to record his thoughts and dreams in his journal. Gradually, Jim's simple life begins to unravel. His father is killed in action, his mother suffers a breakdown, and when he does at last join up, it is as much to find a refuge as it is to seek glory. What Jim discovers in the trenches of France is enough to dispel any romantic view of war. And while his longing for adventure is replaced by a basic need to survive, the final tragic outcome is one he never dreamed of.

    When her father is no longer able to work, Angela must leave school and work in a shirtwaist factory. Against the backdrop of the birth of the labor union movement in the early 1900s, Angela plays a part in the drama and turmoil that erupt as the workers begin to strike, protesting the terrible conditions in the sweatshops. And she records the horrors of the Triangle Factory fire and the triumphs and sorrows of the labor movement.

    After inheriting her uncle's homesteading claim in Montana, 16-year-old orphan Hattie Brooks travels from Iowa in 1917 to make a home for herself and encounters some unexpected problems related to the war being fought in Europe.

    With a little snooping around, Howie finds out something even more alarming. Principal Lomister may not be a spy, but he is plotting to get rid of Howie's favorite teacher. Howie's dad is fighting Nazis overseas, and his mom is working hard to support the war effort, so Miss Gossim is the only person Howie can depend on. With the help of his friends, and a plan worthy of radio show superhero Captain Midnight, Howie intends to save Miss Gossim!

    Lights can't whisper. But I swear I heard a voice calling to me. It sounded like static to begin with, but then it came into focus, a single word repeated over and over. Softly, slyly, seductively, insistently. "Come..." The Disciples are being manipulated by beings older than time. Only Kernel Fleck knows that something is wrong. But he is in the grip of a creature who cares nothing for the fate of humanity. Voices are calling to him from the darkness and he's powerless to resist. Kernel has already been to hell and back. Now he's about to go further."Hell's Heroes""

    Four years later, to distract her from her fear as cannonballs batter the besieged city, Rosemary writes about what she has been through.While she has been growing up, enjoying the social pleasures of a Southern young lady, the tensions between North and South have developed into civil war. Because she is English, Rosemary brings an outsider's perspective to the issues that sparked the conflict, but nonetheless she is torn between her sense of outrage at the very idea of slavery and her feelings for the Southerners she has come to love. For Rosemary, her brother Derek, and their American friends -- old and young, white and black -- the disastrous siege of Vicksburg comes as a crucial test of courage and the will to survive.Once again, Patricia Clapp has created a heroine of wit, charm, and indomitable spirit in a vividly evoked historical setting.

    Devils and witches are an accepted fact of life and religion. When some girls in the village begin having fits and tremors, their torments are attributed to the action of witches. Elizabeth Putnam and her parents are different from many of the other village folk, and they doubt the superstitions that terrify the town. As Elizabeth struggles to find her way among the alarming events, she also finds herself at odds with George, her best friend and companion since babyhood. Things come to a head when Elizabeth herself is accused of witchcraft, and George must make a difficult choice between what his community believes and what he knows to be true. Readers start the story in Elizabeth's voice and finish thestory in George's voice, where they learn how he finds a resolution to his heartwrenching predicament and the conclusion of his own side of the story.

    It has been translated into every major language on Earth and dozens of minor ones; it has spawned entire genres of animation, and had more books written about it than all but a handful of American Presidents. Even its minor characters have become iconic, and the titular family is recognizable in almost every corner of the planet. It is a definitive and truly global cultural phenomenon, perhaps the biggest of the television age. As of this writing, if you flip on FOX at 8pm on Sundays, you will see a program that bills itself as "The Simpsons". It is not "The Simpsons". That show, the landmark piece of American culture that debuted on 17 December 1989, went off the air more than a decade ago. The replacement is a hopelessly mediocre imitation that bears only a superficial resemblance to the original. It is the unwanted sequel, the stale spinoff, the creative dry hole that is kept pumping in the endless search for more money. It is Zombie Simpsons.

    CREDIT CRUNCH THROWS LIBERTY PARFITT’S WORLD UPSIDE DOWNTaken away from the boarding school she loves, Liberty and her angry dad are forced to stay in a friend’s flat in a rough part of London where she finds herself in a school that’s locally known as ‘The Grave.' Without her best friend’s violin to play, Liberty feels as if her life couldn’t get any worse; then there’s the nasty Tyler boy and her dad’s depression and the gang by the canal… If only she had a mum, then things might be better – and what actually did happen to her mum? Well, there are the trunks in Dad’s bedroom and the violin on the bed and, once her curiosity is sparked, Liberty discovers a whole lot more about her past than she ever could have imagined.

    In this brilliant first-person account of a young journalist's experience during World War II, Sevareid records both the events of the war and the development of journalistic strategies for covering international affairs. He also recalls vividly his own youth in North Dakota, his decision to study journalism, and his early involvement in radio reporting during the beginnings of World War II.

    A scarce Fitzgerald title.

    Down in the Quarters people pray for freedom - they sing 'bout freedom, but to keep Mas' Henley from knowin' their true feelings, they call freedom "heaven." Everybody's mind is on freedom.But it is a word that aine never showed me no picture. While fannin' this afternoon, my eyes fell on "freedom" in a book William was readin'. No wonder I don't see nothin'. I been spellin' it F-R-E-D-U-M.I put the right letters in my head to make sure I remembered their place. F-R-E-E-D-O-M. I just now wrote it. Still no picture...

    Their mother is seriously injured and their Dad is away fighting, so the children are sent to their grandfather in Ireland. Sophie is scared - they have never met grandfather but his letters cause such trouble in the house, and their Dad never speaks of him.How will they live in a strange country, with a man who probably hates them - and will the family ever be together again?