Akron Public Library

"In 1848, a year of international democratic revolt, a young, enslaved couple, Ellen and William Craft, achieved one of the boldest feats of self-emancipation in American history. Posing as master and slave, while sustained by their love as husband and wife, they made their escape together across more than 1,000 miles, riding out in the open on steamboats, carriages, and trains that took them from bondage in Georgia to the free states of the North....

Forced to take shelter when their Syrian city is plagued with bombings, young Nour and her cousin begin to bravely build a secret underground library. Based on the author's own life experience and inspired by a true story, Nour's Secret Library is about the power of books to heal, transport and create safe spaces during difficult times. Illustrations by Romanian artist Vali Mintzi superimpose the colorful world the children construct over black-and-white...

"The Civil War is over. But Wyoming Territory is still a battleground for the native tribes who live there. Most folks avoid the area like the plague. But not former Texas Ranger Butch Keeling and his saloon fight buddy Tucker Cobb. They figured Wyoming would be the perfect place to launch the Frontier Overland Company -- a rough-and-ready stagecoach operation that dares to go where others fear to tread. Butch and Cobb aren't afraid of much -- but...

An illuminating study of the American struggle to comprehend the meaning and practicalities of death in the face of the unprecedented carnage of the Civil War.

"On a dark, wet evening in Dublin, scientist and mother-of-four Eilish Stack answers her front door to find two officers from Ireland's newly formed secret police on her step. They have arrived to interrogate her husband, a trade unionist. Ireland is falling apart, caught in the grip of a government turning toward tyranny. As the life she knows and the ones she loves disappear before her eyes, Eilish must contend with the dystopian logic of her new,...

"New York Times"-bestselling author of "Manhunt" returns to the Civil War era to tell the epic story of the search for Jefferson Davis and the eventful funeral procession for assassinated president Abraham Lincoln.

Red River Valley, 1869. Hordes of ex-Confederate soldiers have emerged from the piney hills and swamps of the Lousiana backcountry in a final, bloody show of defiance. Captain Douglas Owens of the 4th Calvary is ordered to reclaim the God-forsaken land from its murderous outlaw gangs. By his side is Huff, a former slave, and Basil Dubose, an ex-Rebel gunslinger for hire. With his options dwindling, Owens takes a squad of soldiers under his command...

In 1861 the Civil War reached the mountainous South--where the enemy was you neighbor, the victims were your friends, and the wrong army was whichever one you joined. When Malinda Blalock's husband, Keith, joined the army, she dressed as a boy and went with him. They spent the war close to home in the North Carlina mountains, acting as Union guerilla fighters, raiding the farms of Confederate sympathizers making as much trouble as they could locally....

The American Empire has grown too fast, and the fault lines at home are stressed to the breaking point. The war of words between Right and Left has collapsed into a shooting war, though most people just want to be left alone. The battle rages between the high-technology weapons on one side, and militia foot-soldiers on the other, devastating the cities, and overrunning the countryside. But the vast majority, who only want the killing to stop and the...

Recounts Christmas celebrations during the early Civil War, with an emphasis on how the holiday united opposing soldiers before the Battle of Stones River in 1862. Though Congress didn't decree Christmas a national holiday until 1870, it was spreading nationwide as an American tradition by the time the war broke out. In 1861, the first Civil War Christmas saw festivities in both Union and Confederate camps, but the second, after a bloody year of war,...