English Local

With travel tips and culture in our guidebooks written by a local, it is never too late to visit Merida. Greater Than a Tourist: Merida, Yucatan, Mexico by Regi Galgano updates you on the new gay wedding law and weekend dry laws. It offers insights into cultural quirks that baffle newcomers, like why hacienda chimneys are so high and toilets are so low. It gives you 78 tips on how to live like a local for four days in Mexico’s safest city. Slow down, stay in one place, and get to know the people and culture.

In the summer of 1936, James Agee and Walker Evans set out on assignment for Fortune magazine to explore the daily lives of sharecroppers in the South. Their journey would prove an extraordinary collaboration and a watershed literary event when Let Us Now Praise Famous Men was first published in 1941 to enormous critical acclaim. This unsparing record of place, the people who shaped the land, and the rhythm of their lives is intensely moving and unrelentingly honest, and today, it stands as a poetic tract of its time.

It is the early 19th century, and the land recently purchased by President Thomas Jefferson stretches west for thousands of miles. Who inhabits this vast new garden of Eden? What strange beasts and natural formations can be found? Thus was the birth of Manifest Destiny and the resulting bloody battles with Indigenous tribes encountered by white explorers. Also in this volatile mix are the grizzled fur trappers and mountain men, waging war against the Native American tribes whose lands they traverse.

Ted Kooser describes with exquisite detail and humor the place he calls home in the rolling hills of southeastern Nebraska, an area known as the Bohemian Alps. Nothing is too big or too small for his attention, including memories of his grandmother's cooking. And Kooser reminds us that the closing of local schools, thoughtless county weed control, and irresponsible housing development destroy more than just the view.

Love and rodeos, land and greed. The inhabitants of Blue Deer are gearing up for the annual Fourth of July rodeo, with tourists descending upon the town "in a kind of berserk westward ho." When the bodies of an environmental lawyer and his lover are found bobbing inside a tent in a reservoir, Jules at first assumes jealousy, but follows the evidence through the intricacies of mining law, rodeos, and explosions, leading to a proposed resort in the Crazy Mountains.

Recalling the classic warnings against militarism, from George Washington's farewell address to Dwight Eisenhower's denunciation of the military-industrial complex, Johnson explores the trend of militarism that is bankrupting the United States and creating conditions for a new century of virulent blowback.

Fearful Rock and Other Precarious Locales is the third volume of Night Shade Books' five volume "Selected Stories of Manly Wade Wellman." This volume is made up of eight novella length stories. It includes Wellman's "Judge Pursivant" and "Sergeant Jaeger" stories, as well as a lost classic from Strange Stories (1939).

Are you fascinated by history's darkest mysteries and the intricate tapestry of human nature? Curious about the forces that led to one of the darkest periods in American history? Wondering how superstition and fear could ignite a whirlwind of chaos and injustice? Dive into the gripping world of 17th-century Massachusetts, where accusations of witchcraft ignited a blaze of hysteria and justice teetered on a precipice. In A Brief History of the Salem Witch Trials, we unravel the captivating and haunting events that transpired during this dark chapter in American history.

With the same emotional generosity and effortlessly compelling storytelling that made All Over But the Shoutin’ a beloved bestseller, Rick Bragg continues his personal history of the Deep South. This time he’s writing about his grandfather Charlie Bundrum, a man who died before Bragg was born but left an indelible imprint on the people who loved him. Drawing on their memories, Bragg reconstructs the life of an unlettered roofer who kept food on his family’s table through the worst of the Great Depression

Big banks make huge profits lending to people in your community and small businesses all around you. Learn how you can help these people and entrepreneurs and keep more of these profits in your home town. Barnett offers step-by-step guidance on how to earn returns ranging from nine percent to infinity by doing car leases, secured loans, inventory financing, buying accounts receivables, financing mini and mobile homes, operating leases on machinery and more. High yield investing does not have to mean high-risk investing.

From author Earl Swift comes the surprising history of the U.S. interstate system, a fascinating route through the dreams, discoveries, and protests that shaped these mighty roads.

Building a riveting narrative around four influential members of Congress - Thaddeus Stevens, Pitt Fessenden, Ben Wade, and the pro-slavery Clement Vallandigham - Fergus Bordewich shows us how a newly empowered Republican party shaped one of the most dynamic and consequential periods in American history.

For nearly a decade, Pulitzer Prize-winning critic Justin Davidson has explained the ever-changing city of New York to his readers at New York magazine, introducing new buildings, interviewing architects, tracking the way the transforming urban landscape shapes who New Yorkers are. Now, his extensive, inspiring knowledge will be available to a wide audience.

From farmer, lawyer, and political activist John Klar comes a bold, solutions-based plan for Conservatives that gets beyond the fatuous pipe dreams and social-justice platitudes of the dominant, Liberal “Green” agenda—offering a healthy way forward for everyone.

Brush Up on Your Spanish Language Skills in 10 Days or Less! Would you like to sound more like a local Spanish speaker? Do you want to gain better Spanish language skills? In just 10 smart and concise lessons, you will have a better understanding of conversational Spanish. This course is designed to enhance your Spanish-speaking techniques quickly. This course allows the student to be able to maintain a fluid conversation in just 10 days. This course was created by native speakers who will share with you all the Spanish language tricks you should know.

When Richard Grant and his wife moved with their four-year-old daughter back to Tucson, Arizona, where the couple first met, he expected to easily rekindle his love of the region. Instead, he found a housing market gone haywire, rampant election conspiracies, and right-wing political violence alarmingly close to his home and family. In A Race to the Bottom of Crazy, Grant mixes memoir, research, and reporting in a quest to understand what makes Arizona such a confounding and irresistible place

W.C. Jameson takes his listeners back to a time when the six-gun was king, life was cheap, and many a bandit died before recovering his stolen loot. Jameson, a folklorist, musician, and environmentalist, has been on close to 200 expeditions for lost stashes of gold, silver, or other treasures.

It is where Fidel Castro raised money to overthrow Batista and where two generations of Castro's enemies have raised armies to overthrow him, so far without success. It is where the bitter opera of Cuban exile intersects with the cynicism of U.S. foreign policy. It is a city whose skyrocketing murder rate is fueled by the cocaine trade, racial discontent, and an undeclared war on the island 90 miles to the south.

Since the election of Scott Walker, Wisconsin has been seen as ground zero for debates about the appropriate role of government in the wake of the Great Recession. In a time of rising inequality, Walker not only survived a bitterly contested recall that brought thousands of protesters to Capitol Square, he was subsequently reelected. How could this happen? How is it that the very people who stand to benefit from strong government services not only vote against the candidates who support those services but are vehemently against the very idea of big government?

Travel YouTuber Drew Binsky, who has visited every country in the world, shares everything you need to know to go anywhere you want. In 2021, Drew Binsky completed his 10-year journey to travel to every country in the world—all 197 of them. Now, for the first time, Drew reveals his wildest stories and best moments, even from places the United Nations deems the most “dangerous.” As you’ll discover with him as your guide, the world is more accessible than you think, and no matter where you’re from, people have more in common than they do differences.