Author of the controversial but prescient judicial opinion striking down the ban on gays in the military — two decades before the Supreme Court finally recognized such equal rights — Bill Norris made law and waves on the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. Yet his legal and civic life before and after, though less well known, is equally the measure of the man. This is his autobiography: a reminiscing about a life in the law and politics. “Bill Norris tells his American story — growing up in Turtle Creek, Pennsylvania, then rising to legal, judicial and political heights in post-war California. His zest for life comes off every page as…

This classic book tells the harrowing and inspirational story of Robert Elliott Burns’ imprisonment on a chain gang in Georgia in the 1920s, his subsequent escape from the chain gang (twice, no less!), and the public furor that developed. The book was immediately turned into a famous movie and sparked outrage about prison conditions and involuntary servitude that led to major reforms. It is also simply a very interesting read. Originally issued as a six-part serial in the pages of True Detective Mysteries magazine in 1931, and printed by the Vanguard Press the following year, this is an autobiographical account–written while in hiding somewhere on the East Coast–of the author’s…

Growing up in a Depression-battered family, one tangled by a mortal secret, With Passion tells the improbable story of an unsung hero of the civil rights movement who thought of himself as a miscast lawyer but ended up defending peaceful protesters, representing Mohammad Ali, suing Robert Moses, counseling Lenny Bruce, bringing the case that integrated hundreds of Southern hospitals and named the principal architect of the death penalty abolition movement in the United States. More than a meditation on often-frustrating legal efforts to fight inequality and racism, Meltsner—also a novelist and playwright—vividly recounts the life of a New York City kid, struggling to make sense of coming of age amidst the…

Even a cursory glance at today’s headlines reveals that higher education is in crisis. Tuition outpaces inflation, states slash budgets, graduation rates decline, and technology threatens to reshape everything. Universities continue to crank out new PhDs, but many will become poorly paid members of a secondary, adjunct labor force teaching most of today’s college courses. Scholars lucky enough to be on the tenure track must publish more and more, while students at large universities sit in ever larger lectures, seldom interacting with professors. Yet every year, thousands of applicants from the world over apply to America’s most prestigious colleges and universities, and students and their families continue to spend huge…

Tracy McCain is in for the battle of her life. A diagnosis of breast cancer; a treatment of surgery and chemo. Confronting challenge after challenge — to her health and to her faith — Tracy generously shared her journey with relatives and friends by posting regular entries to a website. Candid, revealing, and introspective, and even humorous at times, the posts became a personal record of this window into her courageous fight. Bridged by new explanatory notes and context, the journal posts became this book about the journey. “I remember the day Tracy called and told me she had cancer. I was so shocked — of all people to get…

Susan Neiman went to learn more about morality and reason, which she did, but she also came to terms with being Jewish in a city that did not always welcome her, as if her presence was a guilty reminder. (Or they did not know she was Jewish and said some amazing stuff.) This memoir–through the Reagan years ex-pat, till the fall of the Wall–is resonant, funny, and sometimes surreal. It’s the debut work, first published by Schocken/Random House, from the author of Moral Clarity, one of “2008’s Notable Books” by the New York Times.  Available as new paperback and ebook formats. At that time a post-doc fellow at the Free…

“… It’s the most entertaining book I’ve read this year.” —Steve Chapman, Columnist and Editorial Writer, The Chicago Tribune There are no pretentious pronouncements about public policy or dry conclusions from social science in these pages … because it is a report from what Frank Zimring calls “my second career, and everybody else’s second career, the hard work of becoming an adult in the modern world.” Why is a piranha swimming in your pool a better illustration of how people get overcommitted than a giant man eating shark? (Consult chapter 3.) What should you say when your eight-year-old asks whether you would save him or his sister if the lifeboat…

Journey through a series of short stories based on real life experiences: soul searching, humorous, and all with the primary goal of promoting Christ. This devotional will take you through all four seasons of the year. You will be encouraged and filled with His hope as you read and grow in your faith. “What an amazing blessing to pull up a chair and join Cindy Childress at her kitchen table. Literally, as our families have enjoyed fellowship, and now figuratively through the pages of this devotional. I couldn’t help but read from story to story, spiritual truth to spiritual truth; presented in such a way as to think she and…