National Network for Equitable Library Service

Three true crime classics of love, murder, and the mob by a Pulitzer Prize finalist who writes with "honest and gritty realism" (Phoenix Gazette). Award-winning author Joan Barthel uncovers the dark secrets behind some of the strangest cases in the history of American crime in these three captivating works of "first-class journalism" (The New York Times).

New York Times Bestseller: From the journalists who covered the story, the shocking crimes of Gary Ridgway, America's most prolific serial murderer. In the 1980s and 1990s, forty-nine women in the Seattle area were brutally murdered, their bodies dumped along the Green River and Pacific Highway South in Washington State. Despite an exhaustive investigation-even serial killer Ted Bundy was consulted to assist with psychological profiling-the sadistic killer continued to elude authorities for nearly twenty years.

The New York Times-bestselling author of Killer: The Autobiography of a Mafia Hit Man reveals the true story of his most harrowing contract murder. "Joey the Hit Man" was a Bronx-born hired assassin who achieved widespread notoriety after writing a bestselling memoir and appearing on the David Susskind show. In this "down-to-earth realistic account," Joey tells the riveting story behind the strangest of his thirty-eight kills (Los Angeles Free Press).

New York Times Bestseller: This groundbreaking tell-all by a mob hit man is "chilling and compelling-a must-read" (Former FBI agent Joe Pistone, aka Donnie Brasco). The Bronx-born son of a Jewish bootlegger, "Joey the Hit Man" was introduced to crime when he was just eleven years old. For the next thirty years he was a numbers king, scalper, loan shark, enforcer, and drug smuggler. He hijacked trucks, fenced stolen goods, and trafficked in pornography.

A fascinating look'first published in 1894'at two philanthropists known as the "Prisoner's Friends" and the early history of prison reform. Prisons in England were once dark, inhumane places lacking any regulations. The facilities were poorly managed and unsanitary, and prisoners were treated like animals. One man and one woman, the "Prisoner's Friends," sought to change that.

Incisive essays on Patty Hearst and Reagan, the Central Park jogger and the Santa Ana winds, from the New York Times-bestselling author of South and West. In these eleven essays covering the national scene from Washington, DC; California; and New York, the acclaimed author of Slouching Towards Bethlehem and The White Album "capture[s] the mood of America" and confirms her reputation as one of our sharpest and most trustworthy cultural observers (The New York Times).

An extraordinary report on the aftermath of the 1960s in America by the New York Times-bestselling author of South and West and Slouching Towards Bethlehem. In this landmark essay collection, Joan Didion brilliantly interweaves her own "bad dreams" with those of a nation confronting the dark underside of 1960s counterculture.

New York Times Bestseller: A "remarkable and evenhanded study of Ronald Reagan" from the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Lincoln at Gettysburg (The New York Times). Updated with a new preface by the author, this captivating biography of America's fortieth president recounts Ronald Reagan's life-from his poverty-stricken Illinois childhood to his acting career to his California governorship to his role as commander in chief-and examines the powerful myths surrounding him, many of which he created himself.

With a new preface: A "stunning" analysis of the troubled Republican president by the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Lincoln at Gettysburg (The New York Times Book Review). In this acclaimed biography that earned him a spot on Nixon's infamous "enemies list," Garry Wills takes a thoughtful, in-depth, and often "very amusing" look at the thirty-seventh US president, and draws some surprising conclusions about a man whose name has become synonymous with scandal and the abuse of power (Kirkus Reviews).

With a new preface: An "irreverent [and] entertaining" portrait of JFK, the Camelot mystique, and the politics of charisma (The Christian Science Monitor). Described by the New York Times as "a sort of intellectual outlaw," Garry Wills takes on the romantic myths surrounding the Kennedy clan in this thought-provoking examination of electoral politics and the power of image in America.