Federal prosecutors have unsealed an indictment accusing former Baltimore Mayor Catherine Pugh of using her series of self-published children’s books to commit fraud, evade federal taxes and illegally boost her own political campaigns, according to Bobby Allyn at NPR… Support our news coverage by subscribing to our Kindle Nation Daily Digest. Joining is free right now!

Catherine Pugh, 69, resigned in May after public outcry over a scandal involving hundreds of thousands of dollars’ worth of Healthy Holly books that she sold to a nonprofit health care company. She was on the board of that company when she was a state senator, raising questions about self-dealing — and even about the existence of the books, which feature a young black girl who touts the benefits of nutrition and exercise. After Pugh was paid, thousands of books apparently were never delivered.

The 11-count federal indictment made public Wednesday reveals a fuller picture of what the government says was a scheme in which she collected payments from the books to line her own pocket, donate to her own political campaign and even buy a house. At the same time, authorities say, customers waited around for Healthy Holly books that never arrived.

Pugh now stands accused of federal crimes including multiple counts of wire fraud, conspiracy to defraud the United States and tax evasion.

“Fraud and corruption of the sort we are addressing today undermine the public’s faith in public officials,” Robert Hur, U.S. attorney for the District of Maryland, told reporters Wednesday in Baltimore. “This is a tragedy and the last thing that our city needs.”

Prosecutors also announced that two of Pugh’s associates, former city employees Gary Brown Jr. and Roslyn Wedington, have accepted plea deals.

Brown, 38, admitted to crimes including wire fraud for cashing checks that he said Pugh wrote to him for the children’s books, then using the money to pay down Pugh’s debt and make political donations to her. Prosecutors say Brown then tried to cover the ruse by filing false documents to the Internal Revenue Service.

Pugh and Brown, according to the indictment, secretly moved tens of thousands of dollars from the book sales to her political campaign under other peoples’ names — what prosecutors call “straw donations” — in an alleged attempt to make it appear as if the money was flowing from other sources.

Read full post on NPR

Winners of this year’s National Book Awards each receive $10,000 along with their prize. The winners of the 70th annual National Book Awards are… Support our news coverage by subscribing to our Kindle Nation Daily Digest. Joining is free right now!

Fiction:
Trust Exercise: A Novel

by Susan Choi

Kindle price: $13.99

In an American suburb in the early 1980s, students at a highly competitive performing arts high school struggle and thrive in a rarified bubble, ambitiously pursuing music, movement, Shakespeare, and, particularly, their acting classes. When within this striving “Brotherhood of the Arts,” two freshmen, David and Sarah, fall headlong into love, their passion does not go unnoticed—or untoyed with—by anyone, especially not by their charismatic acting teacher, Mr. Kingsley.

The outside world of family life and economic status, of academic pressure and of their future adult lives, fails to penetrate this school’s walls—until it does, in a shocking spiral of events that catapults the action forward in time and flips the premise upside-down. What the reader believes to have happened to David and Sarah and their friends is not entirely true—though it’s not false, either. It takes until the book’s stunning coda for the final piece of the puzzle to fall into place—revealing truths that will resonate long after the final sentence…

* * *

Nonfiction:

The Yellow House: A Memoir

by Sarah M. Broom

Kindle price: $14.74

In 1961, Sarah M. Broom’s mother Ivory Mae bought a shotgun house in the then-promising neighborhood of New Orleans East and built her world inside of it. It was the height of the Space Race and the neighborhood was home to a major NASA plant—the postwar optimism seemed assured. Widowed, Ivory Mae remarried Sarah’s father Simon Broom; their combined family would eventually number twelve children. But after Simon died, six months after Sarah’s birth, the Yellow House would become Ivory Mae’s thirteenth and most unruly child.

A book of great ambition, Sarah M. Broom’s The Yellow House tells a hundred years of her family and their relationship to home in a neglected area of one of America’s most mythologized cities. This is the story of a mother’s struggle against a house’s entropy, and that of a prodigal daughter who left home only to reckon with the pull that home exerts, even after the Yellow House was wiped off the map after Hurricane Katrina. The Yellow House expands the map of New Orleans to include the stories of its lesser known natives, guided deftly by one of its native daughters, to demonstrate how enduring drives of clan, pride, and familial love resist and defy erasure. Located in the gap between the “Big Easy” of tourist guides and the New Orleans in which Broom was raised, The Yellow House is a brilliant memoir of place, class, race, the seeping rot of inequality, and the internalized shame that often follows. It is a transformative, deeply moving story from an unparalleled new voice of startling clarity, authority, and power.

* * *

Poetry:

Sight Lines

by Arthur Sze

Kindle price: $9.99

From the current phenomenon of drawing calligraphy with water in public parks in China to Thomas Jefferson laying out dinosaur bones on the White House floor, from the last sighting of the axolotl to a man who stops building plutonium triggers, Sight Lines moves through space and time and brings the disparate and divergent into stunning and meaningful focus. In this new work, Arthur Sze employs a wide range of voices—from lichen on a ceiling to a man behind on his rent—and his mythic imagination continually evokes how humans are endangering the planet; yet, balancing rigor with passion, he seizes the significant and luminous and transforms these moments into riveting and enduring poetry.

* * *

Translated literature:

Baron Wenckheim’s Homecoming

by László Krasznahorkai

Kindle price: $14.87

Set in contemporary times, Baron Wenckheim’s Homecoming tells the story of a Prince Myshkin–like figure, Baron Béla Wenckheim, who returns at the end of his life to his provincial Hungarian hometown. Having escaped from his many casino debts in Buenos Aires, where he was living in exile, he longs to be reunited with his high-school sweetheart Marika. Confusions abound, and what follows is an endless storm of gossip, con men, and local politicians, vividly evoking the small town’s alternately drab and absurd existence. All along, the Professor—a world-famous natural scientist who studies mosses and inhabits a bizarre Zen-like shack in a desolate area outside of town—offers long rants and disquisitions on his attempts to immunize himself from thought. Spectacular actions are staged as death and the abyss loom over the unsuspecting townfolk.

* * *

Young people’s literature:

1919 The Year That Changed America

by Martin W. Sandler

Kindle price: $15.01

1919 was a world-shaking year. America was recovering from World War I and black soldiers returned to racism so violent that that summer would become known as the Red Summer. The suffrage movement had a long-fought win when women gained the right to vote. Laborers took to the streets to protest working conditions; nationalistic fervor led to a communism scare; and temperance gained such traction that prohibition went into effect. Each of these movements reached a tipping point that year.

Now, one hundred years later, these same social issues are more relevant than ever. Sandler traces the momentum and setbacks of these movements through this last century, showing that progress isn’t always a straight line and offering a unique lens through which we can understand history and the change many still seek.

With a new book, a new publisher, and a new agent, Chuck Palahniuk is feeling unusually good for a man who’s just survived one of the toughest stretches of his career, according to Mike Harvkey from Publishers Weekly… Support our news coverage by subscribing to our Kindle Nation Daily Digest. Joining is free right now!

When Chuck Palahniuk is asked whether he lives his life according to a code, like his most recognizable creation, Tyler Durden, he pauses before offering two. The first—“He who serves best profits most”—he read on a bathroom wall. The second—“Don’t take your foot off the gas until you hear glass breaking”—is a punk rock slogan. No one should be surprised that the author of Fight Club embraces a personal philosophy that is at war with itself.

War, at least in the publishing business, is a topic Palahniuk knows something about. While it might be cliché to call him a survivor, he’s weathered his share of storms in his 23-year career. Now—with two new books on the horizon, a new literary agent, and a new publishing house—he’s closing one of the most tumultuous chapters of his literary life and putting brushes with bankruptcy, professional malfeasance, and bad luck behind him.

Palahniuk is best known for the second book he wrote, which was the first he published: Fight Club. Released in 1996, the novel earned him an advance of $7,000. Far from an instant bestseller, it didn’t gain any real traction until David Fincher’s film adaptation found a following on home video and in turn directed a cult of fervent fans Palahniuk’s way.

Since Fight Club, Palahniuk, whose soft center is shelled by a hard anarchist crust, has released a book a year, with few exceptions. His fourth novel, Choke, was also adapted to film. His third, Invisible Monsters, is in series development now—one of six TV projects that he’s currently working on, including an anthology series for Apple TV titled Best Intentions (Palahniuk describes the show as “like Black Mirror but darker”).

Those aren’t the only balls Palahniuk has in the air, either: he’s currently reviewing art for the Fight Club 3 comic series; anticipating edits to his next novel; writing an introduction for a reissue of Rosemary’s Baby; teaching a weekly workshop in his hometown of Portland, Ore.; supervising an anthology of his students’ work; and preparing a talk for venture capitalists.

Read full post on Publisher’s Weekly

Sarah Rosenthal from CrimeReads reports: In the introduction of debut author Axton Betz-Hamilton’s memoir The Less People Know About Us: A Mystery of Betrayal, Family Secrets and Stolen Identity, a college-age Betz-Hamilton receives a credit report in the mail that reveals a shocking secret: despite never having had a credit card, her credit score is 380… Support our news coverage by subscribing to our Kindle Nation Daily Digest. Joining is free right now!

The first line of credit under Betz-Hamilton’s name had been opened when she was eleven. Her confusion morphs into horror as she realizes her report also contains several bank and collection agency notices. Betz-Hamilton’s revelation that her identity has been stolen comes after a childhood of paranoia: her parents’ identities had also been stolen years before. The police never found the culprit.

Identity theft and fraud lay at the heart of Betz-Hamilton’s memoir. It’s a true crime story that bleeds into every moment of her childhood and adulthood, one with a slow burn to a shocking conclusion. There’s also a larger question she poses: how can someone form an identity in adulthood when someone has stolen theirs before they even knew what a credit score was? And as a reader, I found it impossible to avoid asking myself: why aren’t more people sharing their own identity theft stories in the era of scammers and true crime?

Identity theft and fraud have become far more common over the past few decades, but the abstract nature of stealing someone’s identity is tricky to portray in writing. Frauds and scams, at times, lend themselves more readily to true crime, since by their very definition they involve drama and tension—a thief steals or forges something to get what they want.

One would think that identity theft as a narrative would swiftly gain popularity in the true crime boom over the past five years. Especially since true crime’s popularity as a genre has also intersected with the 2016 election and Trump’s inauguration, when the subject of the successful, renegade con man “sticking it to the system” while defrauding American voters seemed to explode all over the media. If a fraudulent businessman could win the presidency, what other scams have we as Americans fallen for?

Read full post on CrimeReads

Click here to buy your copy of The Less People Know About Us: A Mystery of Betrayal, Family Secrets, and Stolen Identity

The “most wonderful time of the year” can quickly turn into the most stressful time of the year for many. Here are four books to bring you peace… Support our news coverage by subscribing to our Kindle Nation Daily Digest. Joining is free right now!

100 Tips For A Stress-Free Holiday: Planning Thanksgiving and Christmas Entertainment, Decoration, Gift Wrapping, and Baking Cookies like a Pro

by Kylie Taylor

Kindle price: $2.99

Get this book for a Happy and Stress-Free Thanksgiving and Christmas Holidays!

Do you want to host the best Thanksgiving and Christmas Dinner that will be the talk of your friends and family for years? Or are you already stressed out trying to figure out how to make that happen? Then, worry no more! This book will provide you with helpful tips on how to have a stress-free Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays.

* * *

Whiskey in a Teacup: What Growing Up in the South Taught Me About Life, Love, and Baking Biscuits

Reese Witherspoon

Kindle price: $16.99

Academy Award–winning actress, producer, and entrepreneur Reese Witherspoon invites you into her world, where she infuses the southern style, parties, and traditions she loves with contemporary flair and charm.

Reese Witherspoon’s grandmother Dorothea always said that a combination of beauty and strength made southern women “whiskey in a teacup.” We may be delicate and ornamental on the outside, she said, but inside we’re strong and fiery.

Reese’s southern heritage informs her whole life, and she loves sharing the joys of southern living with practically everyone she meets. She takes the South wherever she goes with bluegrass, big holiday parties, and plenty of Dorothea’s fried chicken. It’s reflected in how she entertains, decorates her home, and makes holidays special for her kids—not to mention how she talks, dances, and does her hair (in these pages, you will learn Reese’s fail-proof, only slightly insane hot-roller technique). Reese loves sharing Dorothea’s most delicious recipes as well as her favorite southern traditions, from midnight barn parties to backyard bridal showers, magical Christmas mornings to rollicking honky-tonks.

* * *

Taking Back Your Holidays: A Whimsical Guide to a Lighter, Brighter Christmas

by Yvonne Lacey

Kindle price: $9.99

Maybe you love Christmas, or maybe you want to love Christmas, but you feel like the time between the beginning of Fall and the start of the New Year flies by so fast that you can’t stop to enjoy a moment of it.

Did you get a chance to sing Christmas songs together?
To cook your grandmother’s secret recipes in your own kitchen?
To make a snow angel?
To sing “Happy Holidays” to your neighbors?

This year is your chance to take back your holidays. Not-your-typical Martha Stewart holiday planning, this book gives you insights to your favorite holiday traditions, practical tips for creating pockets of peace for your family, and ideas for sharing a stress-free Christmas with your loved ones. Bring the true Presence of Christmas into your home this year.

* * *

Christmas Peace for Busy Moms: 25 Quick Devotions to Calm Holiday Stress

by Sarah Geringer

Kindle price: $3.99

The pressure to deliver a perfect Christmas can be enormous. Instead of bringing joy and peace, often Christmas brings stress to moms like no other season.

Christmas Peace for Busy Moms will show you ways to find peace in busy December and share it with others. With spiritual guidance and practical help, you will walk through this season with the Prince of Peace.

Each day of this book features a brief devotional and several Bible study questions for reflection, intended to take no more than 15 minutes of your busy day.

In the meticulous biography Becoming C.S. Lewis, the first of a planned trilogy, Harry Lee Poe chronicles C.S. Lewis’s first 20 years. Here are some wonderful tidbits about the beloved author… Support our news coverage by subscribing to our Kindle Nation Daily Digest. Joining is free right now!

Lewis was not English. He was Irish. Because of his long association with Oxford University, and later with Cambridge, many people assume he was English. When he first went to school in England as a boy, he had a strong Irish accent. Both the students and the headmaster made fun of young Lewis, and he hated the English in turn. It would be many years before he overcame his prejudice against the English.

Lewis gave away the royalties from his books. Though he had only a modest salary as a tutor at Magdalen College, Lewis set up a charitable trust to give away whatever money he received from his books. Having given away his royalties when he first began this practice, he was startled to learn that the government still expected him to pay taxes on the money he had earned!

Lewis was instrumental in Tolkien’s writing of The Lord of the Rings. Soon after they became friends in the 1920s, J. R. R. Tolkien began showing Lewis snatches of a massive myth he was creating about Middle Earth. When he finally began writing his “new Hobbit” that became The Lord of the Rings, he suffered from bouts of writer’s block that could last for several years at a time. Lewis provided the encouragement and the prodding that Tolkien needed to get through these dry spells.

Lewis earned two degrees at Oxford. Lewis had planned to have a career as a philosopher, teaching at Oxford University. When he could not get a job upon graduation, he remained at Oxford an additional year and did a second degree in English literature. He could complete the degree in only one year because he had read the books in the English syllabus for his pleasure reading when he was a teenager. In the end, he taught English literature instead of philosophy.

Read full post on Publishers Weekly

Whether you’re interested in the history of impeachment or the definition of “high crimes and misdemeanors,” we have you covered… Support our news coverage by subscribing to our Kindle Nation Daily Digest. Joining is free right now!

Impeachment process: How to remove a president from office…

The Case for Impeachment

by Allan J. Lichtman

4.4 stars – 185 reviews

Kindle price: $9.99

What are the ranges and limitations of presidential authority? What are the standards of truthfulness that a president must uphold? What will it take to impeach Donald J. Trump? Professor Allan J. Lichtman, who has correctly forecasted thirty years of presidential outcomes, answers these questions, and more, in The Case for Impeachment—a deeply convincing argument for impeaching the 45th president of the United States.

In the fall of 2016, Allan J. Lichtman made headlines when he predicted that Donald J. Trump would defeat the heavily favored Democrat, Hillary Clinton, to win the presidential election. Now, in clear, nonpartisan terms, Lichtman lays out the reasons Congress could remove Trump from the Oval Office: his ties to Russia before and after the election, the complicated financial conflicts of interest at home and abroad, and his abuse of executive authority…

* * *

To End a Presidency: The Power of Impeachment

by Laurence Tribe and Joshua Matz

4.5 stars – 61 reviews

Kindle price: $11.99

As Congress begins an impeachment inquiry against President Trump, read the definitive book on presidential impeachment and how it should be used today.

Impeachment is our ultimate constitutional check against an out-of-control executive. But it is also a perilous and traumatic undertaking for the nation. In this authoritative examination, Laurence Tribe and Joshua Matz rise above the daily clamor to illuminate impeachment’s proper role in our age of broken politics.

* * *

Impeachment: A Citizen’s Guide

by Cass R. Sunstein

4.7 stars – 62 reviews

Kindle price: $11.99

An essential guide to the impeachment process that rises above politics and goes beyond punditry, from one of America’s foremost legal experts.

As Benjamin Franklin famously put it, Americans have a republic, if we can keep it. Preserving the Constitution and the democratic system it supports is the public’s responsibility. One route the Constitution provides for discharging that duty–a route rarely traveled–is impeachment.

* * *

Impeachment: An American History

by Jon Meacham, Timothy Naftali, Peter Baker and Jeffrey A. Engel

4.5 stars – 30 reviews

Kindle price: $13.99

Four experts on the American presidency examine the three times impeachment has been invoked—against Andrew Johnson, Richard Nixon, and Bill Clinton—and explain what it means today.

Impeachment is a double-edged sword. Though it was designed to check tyrants, Thomas Jefferson also called impeachment “the most formidable weapon for the purpose of a dominant faction that was ever contrived.” On the one hand, it nullifies the will of voters, the basic foundation of all representative democracies. On the other, its absence from the Constitution would leave the country vulnerable to despotic leadership. It is rarely used, and with good reason.

* * *