Shiftless

Terra is shiftless --- a werewolf uncomfortable in her own animal skin. A decade after learning to squash her wolf and flee the repressive village where she grew up, the packless ache still gnaws at Terra's insides. But despite her yearnings, she struggles against being reeled back into her old life. To Terra's dismay, her father and half a dozen of his henchmen finally ambush her and demand her return. Yet they do offer one way out --- hunt down her nephew Keith, teach him to shift, and bring the youngster back into the fold in her place. Problem upon problem piles up as Terra strives to do her father's bidding. The female shifter has hidden from her wolf for so long that she finds herself unable to change back into canine form, and she also realizes that her nephew is too good-natured to survive for a minute walking in his grandfather's footsteps. Plus, there's an alpha standing in her way who's equal parts enticing and terrifying. Will Terra be able to relearn her werewolf abilities --- and overcome her morals --- before her father steals away her hard-earned independence? And as that tantalizing alpha reels her in closer and closer, the question becomes --- does she really want to stay away? Don't miss the first book in a series that has been described as a "good choice for Patricia Briggs fans." "I apply my "Briggs Test" (is it on par with Briggs) to these novels. I'm happy to report that Shiftless clearly passes that test." --- The Mysterious Amazon Customer "If you are a fan of Patricia Briggs, I think you are going to start collecting Aimee Easterling." --- Chris B. "Romantic urban fantasy at its finest" --- txdoc "This isn't an instant smell and mate type shifter romance.... This is the type of book for someone who enjoys wolf shifters, pack dynamics, a strong female lead, and the ability of that female to move on with her life and mature into who she was meant to be." --- Dan's Wife "Exquisite worldbuilding underpins this tale a a young woman coming to grips with her werewolf nature, her self-chosen exile from her pack, and her new relationship with Wolf, the Alpha of another, much less traditional, wolf pack." --- Carla M. "If you like urban fantasy, you cannot beat Aimee Easterling" --- Inquirer

The New York Times bestseller A New York Times Notable and Critics’ Top Book of 2016 Longlisted for the PEN/John Kenneth Galbraith Award for Nonfiction One of NPR's 10 Best Books Of 2016 Faced Tough Topics Head On NPR's Book Concierge Guide To 2016’s Great Reads San Francisco Chronicle's Best of 2016: 100 recommended books A Washington Post Notable Nonfiction Book of 2016 Globe & Mail 100 Best of 2016 “Formidable and truth-dealing . . . necessary.” —The New York Times “This eye-opening investigation into our country’s entrenched social hierarchy is acutely relevant.” —O Magazine In her groundbreaking bestselling history of the class system in America, Nancy Isenberg upends history as we know it by taking on our comforting myths about equality and uncovering the crucial legacy of the ever-present, always embarrassing—if occasionally entertaining—poor white trash. “When you turn an election into a three-ring circus, there’s always a chance that the dancing bear will win,” says Isenberg of the political climate surrounding Sarah Palin. And we recognize how right she is today. Yet the voters who boosted Trump all the way to the White House have been a permanent part of our American fabric, argues Isenberg. The wretched and landless poor have existed from the time of the earliest British colonial settlement to today's hillbillies. They were alternately known as “waste people,” “offals,” “rubbish,” “lazy lubbers,” and “crackers.” By the 1850s, the downtrodden included so-called “clay eaters” and “sandhillers,” known for prematurely aged children distinguished by their yellowish skin, ragged clothing, and listless minds. Surveying political rhetoric and policy, popular literature and scientific theories over four hundred years, Isenberg upends assumptions about America’s supposedly class-free society––where liberty and hard work were meant to ensure real social mobility. Poor whites were central to the rise of the Republican Party in the early nineteenth century, and the Civil War itself was fought over class issues nearly as much as it was fought over slavery. Reconstruction pitted poor white trash against newly freed slaves, which factored in the rise of eugenics–-a widely popular movement embraced by Theodore Roosevelt that targeted poor whites for sterilization. These poor were at the heart of New Deal reforms and LBJ’s Great Society; they haunt us in reality TV shows like Here Comes Honey Boo Boo and Duck Dynasty. Marginalized as a class, white trash have always been at or near the center of major political debates over the character of the American identity. We acknowledge racial injustice as an ugly stain on our nation’s history. With Isenberg’s landmark book, we will have to face the truth about the enduring, malevolent nature of class as well.

Contains the reports of state departments and officials for the preceding fiscal biennium.