In 1902, one of J. P. Morgan’s companies, Northern Securities, was sued by Theodore Roosevelt’s administration for antitrust violations. As the case ramped up, the coal miners went on strike, abandoning the anthracite pits that fueled Morgan’s trains and heated the homes of Roosevelt’s citizens. With millions of dollars on the line, winter bearing down, and revolution in the air, it was a crisis that neither man alone could solve. The outcome of the strike and the case would change the course of history. LEARN MORE | REGISTER

Blame the Dead, the first book in a planned World War II series, is set in a U.S. Army field hospital in Sicily in 1943. Military Police lieutenant Eddie Harkins, a former Philadelphia cop, is called to investigate the murder of Dr. Myers Stephenson. Harkins and nurse Kathleen Donnelly, a childhood friend who may be something more, struggle to find the killer as the battle lines push forward. Publisher’s Weekly calls Blame the Dead an “exceptional WWII mystery … Ruggero makes the carrying out of a homicide inquiry in wartime both exciting and plausible.” LEARN MORE | REGISTER

Becoming Dr. Seuss was one of the works featured at the 2019 History Book Festival. Kirkus Reviews described it as “a rich, anecdotal biography of one of the bestselling authors in publishing history. Used to being perceived as a funny guy, Geisel evolved into a serious thinker about how to develop books that would encourage children to read while also enjoying the learning process. Whether readers are familiar with Dr. Seuss books or not, they will find this biography absorbing and fascinating.” Jones is the author of three other books on iconic creative figures: Jim Henson: The Biography, George Lucas: A Life, and Washington Irving: An American Original.

Cep, whose book appeared on former President Barack Obama’s list of his 2019 favorite reads, traces how Harper Lee helped her friend Truman Capote research his best-selling In Cold Blood. Seventeen years later, Lee returned to her native Alabama intending to write her own true-crime classic. She spent a year there, interviewing people at the trial of a vigilante relative who shot a rural preacher who had evaded justice after allegedly murdering five family members for insurance money. Exploring the mystery of artistic creativity, this book is a moving portrait of one of history’s most beloved writers and her struggle with fame and success.

Shell will discuss how people have worked with elephants for eons to log the mountainous rainforests of Burma and India, where some of the world’s last stands of wild teak grow. This book takes readers on a historical journey, exploring the lives of these extraordinarily intelligent creatures, and the mahout, the term for the men who ride them. Their close relationships begin when the animals are young and last for many decades. The author presents new perspectives on animal intelligence, describing, for example, large-scale rescues by elephants during wars and after floods, and an elephant who sneaks away from the Ho Chi Minh Trail to mate with another in a passing herd.

SLIME is a vital tool for understanding how algae help the human race exist. Kassinger tells a multitude of lively, surprising science and history stories with around-the-world, behind-the-scenes and into-the-kitchen perspectives. Featured algae innovators committed to a sustainable future include seaweed farmers in South Korea, scientists using it to clean waterways and entrepreneurs fighting to bring algae fuel and plastics to market.

In this gripping new work of suspense from the author of The Double Game, a young woman discovers a nefarious truth at the heart of the CIA’s operations in postwar Berlin and goes on the run for her life; years later she’s gruesomely murdered along with her husband, and her daughter begins to chase down these startling secrets from her past.

On October 1, 2015, the SS El Faro, a massive American cargo ship disappeared in Hurricane Joaquin, a category 4 storm. The ship, its hundreds of shipping containers, and its entire crew plummeted to the bottom of the ocean, three miles down. It was the greatest seagoing US merchant marine shipping disaster since World War II. The massive ship had a seasoned crew, state-of-the-art navigation equipment, and advance warning of the storm. It seemed incomprehensible that such a ship could sink so suddenly. How, in this day and age, could something like this happen?

Deeply researched and well argued, Practical Equality offers a sense of optimism and a guide to pursuing equality for activists, lawyers, public officials, and concerned citizens.

The true story of America’s 156th Post Office Inspector and his quest to bring to justice a Sicilian-American organized crime ring who preyed on Italian immigrant families.

A brilliant, soulful, and timely portrait of a two-hundred-year-old crabbing community in the middle of the Chesapeake Bay as it faces extinction.

Kerri Maher shines a light on the life of Kathleen “Kick” Kennedy, the independent, rebellious member of one of America’s greatest political dynasties.

To understand yeast is to understand life. In this book Nicholas P. Money offers a celebration of our favorite microorganism.

Massey takes readers to India in the 1920s when Bombay’s first female lawyer is investigating a suspicious will on behalf of three Muslim widows.

A colorful cultural and social history framed by the story of America's first professional censor, whose campaign to rid America of lasciviousness and obscenity led to greater acceptance of materials he deemed objectionable.