More than just a book about baseball, these nine poignant short stories share the genuine love and lure of the game, and the way it touches the lives of the people who play it across America. Drawing genre elements from science fiction, fantasy, paranormal, and period fiction, readers meet a diverse range of characters who all still share one thing in common: baseball. Meet astronauts, farmers, business tycoons, minor-leaguers, an aging peanut vendor, Civil War soldiers, and more, all with...

From 1940 to 1970, Cincinnati overflowed with musical opportunities. Hank Williams recorded his hit "Lovesick Blues." Andy Williams, Rosemary andBetty Clooney, and Doris Day appeared regularly on WLW Radio, which also broadcast Boone County Jamboree. Then came the network television showMidwestern Hayride and stardom for Kenny Price. Meanwhile, King and Fraternity Records released hundreds of hits for James Brown, Hank Ballard and the Midnighters, Cowboy Copas, Lonnie Mack, a...

Settlement in Butler County began when Fort Hamilton was built on the Great Miami River in 1791. For the next century, water shaped the county's fortunes. Settlers built towns, commerce moved on the river, and mills and factories grew up along the Miami and Erie Canal and its hydraulic canals in Hamilton and Middletown. The devastating 1913 flood tested residents' resolve and reshaped parts of the landscape. Despite losses caused by the flood, the county's important landmarks remained. The...

Founded as Fort Hamilton in 1791, the City of Hamilton was settled by pioneers and immigrants and was forged in steel by her talented workers and craftsmen. Factory owners became wealthy and built magnificent homes along Dayton Street. Hamilton prospered and became known as the "Greatest Little Industrial City of Its Kind in the World," home to Mosler Safe Co., Ford Motor Co., Beckett Papers, and many others. Following World War II, some factories closed their doors or moved away, but Hami...

Starting with a few songs and a dream in 1943, King Records�a leading American independent�launched musical careers from a shabby brick factory on Brewster Avenue in Cincinnati�s Evanston neighborhood. Founder Sydney Nathan recorded country singers Cowboy Copas, Hawkshaw Hawkins, Wayne Raney, and others and later added black acts such as James Brown and the Famous Flames, Bull Moose Jackson, Hank Ballard and the Midnighters, Lonnie Johnson, and Freddy King. Meanwhile, King also explored po...

Ever hear of a butt splice? A cover? An iron mother? A biscuit? These were terms used in the heyday of vinyl records, from 1949 to the mid-1980s. This colorful and almost forgotten language was once used by record producers, label owners, disc jockeys, jukebox operators, record distributors, and others in the music industry. Their language is collected in this dictionary. Each entry offers both an explanation of a term's meaning as well as its context and use in the history of the record b...

An American recording icon of the early 1900s, Cal Stewart created the popular Uncle Josh Weathersby character; Joshs town, Punkin Center; and the many colorful characters who inhabited his fictional town from Way Down East. Stewarts recordings were among the bestselling of the period, and through his satire he showed life in a fast-changing world. The actor, singer, songwriter, and author performed across the nation with his Cal Stewart & Co. group, consisting of his wife, the Indiana vio...

#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • In this remarkably candid and courageous memoir, the King of Pop tells the story of his life in his own words—complete with exclusive photographs and drawings.“Moonwalk provides a startling glimpse of the artist at work and the artist in reflection.”—Jacqueline Kennedy OnassisMegastar Michael Jackson’s singularly brilliant career and intensely reserved lifestyle have been a magnificent obsess...

**WINNER OF THE PEN/**JACQUELINE BOGRAD WELD AWARD FOR BIOGRAPHYNEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER“This book is a must for everyone interested in illuminating the idea of unexplainable genius.” —QUESTLOVEEqual parts biography, musicology, and cultural history, Dilla Time chronicles the life and legacy of J Dilla, a musical genius who transformed the sound of popular music for the twenty-first century...

Originally edited by Dorothy Lobrano Guth, and revised and updated by Martha White. With a foreword by John Updike.These letters are, of course, beautifully written but above all personal, precise, and honest. They evoke E.B. White’s life in New York and in Maine at every stage of his life. They are full of memorable characters: White’s family, the New Yorker staff and contributors, literary types and show business people, farmers from Maine and sophisticates from New York-Katherin...

"One Last Word is the work of a master poet." --Kwame Alexander, Newbery Medal-winning author of The CrossoverFrom the New York Times bestselling and Coretta Scott King award-winning author Nikki Grimes comes an emotional, special new collection of poetry inspired by the Harlem Renaissance--paired with full-color, original art from today's most exciting African-American illustrators.Inspired by the writers of the ...

In Seven Dirty Words, journalist and cultural critic James Sullivan tells the story of Alternative America from the 1950s to the present, from the singular vantage point of George Carlin, the Catholic boy for whom nothing was sacred. A critical biography, Seven Dirty Words is an insightful (and, of course, hilarious) examination of Carlin's body of work as it pertained to its cultural times and the man who created it, from his early days as amore-or-less conventional come...