The Blue Cotton Pants

Purpose and path had eluded her for many years. A chance encounter with an unknown man at the café opened her eyes to a deeper view of life. Many times before, she had been in the right place at the right time, but because she was not open to watching and listening, she may have missed the clear signs of the mentor. This mentor, or teacher, appeared in her earthly realm when she was open and ready to use the offered guidance to search within herself for the answers to her life path. He appeared in her life at crucial times, listening and taking the time to say just a word or sentence. He gave her the tools to help her discover her path and purpose. Now, as she understood the lessons of the mentor, the connection between them grew stronger, and her life journey became apparent. An intriguing book for anyone searching for their path, finding their own mentor, and wondering how to get there.

A treasury of ethnic dress, this book ranges from the Amish of Pennsylvania to the Zulu of South Africa. Alphabetical entries cover more than 150 countries and regions, each represented by six or more illustrations. Six hundred drawings include images of men, women, and children. Captions describe the costumes and their associated traditions.

Katie Morton's son Liam was born with profound brain damage. When he died six-and-a-half weeks later, she searched for answers in books on grief and coping, but none seemed to address her situation. Without completely understanding why, Morton embarked on a wider search for solace. "The Blue Poppy and the Mustard Seed" takes readers along as she travels to foreign lands to illuminate her inner journey through emotional highs and lows. She interweaves what she witnesses -- simple rituals like children's baths and picnics, and rites of passage like birth and death -- with her own progress. In the process she discovers that the pain she has experienced is both unavoidable and necessary, a pivotal part of the process of healing that can lead to "a victorious kind of joy, of acceptance." In discovering herself, Morton shows readers suffering from similar tragedies how to endure world-shattering pain and come out whole.

King Cotton in Modern America places the once kingly crop in historical perspective, showing how “cotton culture” was actually part of the larger culture of the United States despite many regarding its cultivation and sources as hopelessly backward. Leaders in the industry, acting through the National Cotton Council, organized the various and often conflicting segments to make the commodity a viable part of the greater American economy. The industry faced new challenges, particularly the rise of foreign competition in production and the increase of man-made fibers in the consumer market. Modernization and efficiency became key elements for cotton planters. The expansion of cotton- growing areas into the Far West after 1945 enabled American growers to compete in the world market. Internal dissension developed between the traditional cotton growing regions in the South and the new areas in the West, particularly over the USDA cotton allotment program. Mechanization had profound social and economic impacts. Through music and literature, and with special emphasis placed on the meaning of cotton to African Americans in the lore of Memphis’s Beale Street, blues music, and African American migration off the land, author D. Clayton Brown carries cotton’s story to the present.

The Encyclopedia of the Weird and Wonderful features explanations of some of the most intriguing and entertaining facts from prehistory, ancient Egypt, the Industrial Revolution, and beyond. Discover a plethora of intriguing and entertaining facts from archaeology and history—brought to life with the author’s signature wit and levity. In The Encyclopedia of the Weird and Wonderful, TikTok educator and Youtuber Milo Rossi presents an assortment of funny and detailed anecdotes of some of the more quotidian mysteries of life, such as: Have you ever wondered what it was like to be a mother in the Mesolithic period as the climate shifted, the seas rose, and wild game migrated? Or what types of dogs paced the wide and narrow forest patches of North America as their masters constructed some of the largest earthen works in the world? Or what meals were eaten under the trees of the old- growth forests of ancient Europe, how China accidentally invented standardized testing by refining their government, or what fashion trends shook the mining camps during the California gold rush? Coupled with engaging illustrations, The Encyclopedia of the Weird and Wonderful takes the saying “you learn something new every day” to a new extreme!

From the ashes of the Chicago Fire of 1871 came the birth of the city's fashion scene as entrepreneurs built new storefronts virtually overnight. Aided by the Windy City's incredible network of railroads, these fledgling enterprises in turn created millionaires who wanted to wear the latest clothes from Europe. Marshall Fields and Potter Palmer were among the local elites who regularly boarded ships to France and returned with exquisite suits, coats, hats, gowns, fabrics, and other accessories, which designers sought to re-create with cheaper fabrics and labor. Chicago's reputation as a trendsetting metropolis was only sealed by the city's film industry. Charlie Chaplin and his cast of stylish starlets had women north and south of Madison Street copying every hairdo and dress. Even after moviemaking moved to Los Angeles, actors and actresses traveling to New York City regularly dropped in when they switched trains downtown. By World War II, Chicago, the "City of Big Shoulders," became the place to start a career as a fashion designer.