A writer, educator, editor, historian, and sociologist, W.E.B. Du Bois was an early proponent of civil rights in the United States. He believed that the color line was the central problem of the 20th century. A controversial figure who was in many ways ahead of his time, Du Bois espoused racial and political beliefs of such variety and apparent contradiction as to bewilder as many Americans as he inspired and converted. Beneath his rhetoric, however, was a bedrock belief in democracy. He sought to dispel the notion of the inferiority of Black people and wrote passionately of the potential of African Americans. He identified the African dilemma as "double-consciousness...an American, a negro; two souls, two thoughts, two unreconciled strivings; two warring ideals in one dark body." The pieces included in this volume were chosen by the author of the Pulitzer Prize-winning biography of Du Bois, David Levering Lewis.

This is a story of the adventures of a pioneering African-American family in Kansas in the 1870's.

Navajo cops Joe Leaphorn and Jim Chee investigate two murders that are somehow connected to the legend of an ancient gold mine.

Doris Kearns Goodwin's memoir of growing up in the '50s as a Brooklyn Dodgers fan.

This romantic mystery by bestselling author Amanda Quick (aka Jayne Ann Krentz) is set in Victorian England. Caroline Fordyce, a writer of sensationalist serialized novels, joins rich, enigmatic Adam Hardesty in a dangerous search for a medium's murderer and a missing diary which contains information that could ruin both their reputations.

Two steamy Nora Roberts romances in one: in WAITING FOR NICK, Frederica Kimbell has been in love with Nick LeBeck for years even though he's always thought of her as a little sister, but now she's all grown up and he's in for a big surprise. In CONSIDERING KATE, Kate Stanislaski Kimball is a rich and famous heiress who falls for her hunky renovator, but he's wary of his privileged employer's advances.

In this memoir, a single mother recalls her two decades of waiting on tables. In doing so, she renders amusing caricatures of her co-workers and regular customers. She also reveals how waitresses create and maintain the harmony of a restaurant and how they get revenge on rude diners.

In this collection of vividly descriptive essays, a naturalist explores the world of invertebrates, and marvels at the mechanics of its most peculiar creatures.

Carlos Eire remembers growing up privileged in 1950s Havana, an interlude that ends with Fidel Castro and the revolution. Eire delivers transcendent prose that details the Cuba he grew up with and the "many deaths" he experienced, including being airlifted out of Cuba in 1962 with his brother.