Bethanne Kelly Patrick

From hand tools to holidays to weapons to washing machines, "An Uncommon History of Common Things" features hundreds of colorful illustrations, timelines, sidebars, and more as it explores just about every subject under the sun. Who knew that indoor plumbing has been around for 4,600 years, but punctuation, capital letters, and the handy spaces between written words only date back to the Dark Ages? Or that ancient soldiers baked a kind of pizza on...

With engaging and artfully presented text, including sidebars on media mavens throughout history, social gaffes, and archaic manners, this book is as entertaining as it is informative. Readers delve into cultural similarities and differences through lively passages, colorful photography, and sidebars on unique history.

"Dismantling the stigmas surrounding mental health challenges, this intimate portrait of the author's lifelong struggle with depression is a life-affirming blueprint of how to accept and transcend the limitations of mental illness"--

A biography of the eighteenth president of the United States, focusing on his childhood and young adulthood.