New Releases by R. D. Rosen

“Rosen artfully blends fascinating tales of the rise of the National Football League with the bloody demise of the mob.” —Bill Geist, New York Times–bestselling author In 1935, as eighteen-year-old Sid Luckman made headlines across New York City for his high school football exploits at Erasmus Hall High School in Brooklyn, his father, Meyer Luckman, was making headlines for the gangland murder of his own brother-in-law. Amazingly, when Sid became a star at Columbia and a Hall of Fame NFL quarterback in Chicago, all of it while Meyer Luckman served twenty-years-to-life in Sing Sing Prison, the connection between sports celebrity son and mobster father was studiously ignored by the press and ultimately overlooked for eight decades. Tough Luck traces two simultaneous historical developments through a single immigrant family in Depression-era New York: the rise of the National Football League led by the dynastic Chicago Bears and the demise—triggered by Meyer Luckman’s crime and initial coverup—of the Brooklyn labor rackets and Louis Lepke’s infamous organization Murder, Inc. Filled with colorful characters, it memorably evokes an era of vicious Brooklyn mobsters and undefeated Monsters of the Midway, a time when the media kept their mouths shut and the soft-spoken son of a murderer could become a beloved legend with a hidden past. “Remarkable . . . Artfully organized and deeply researched . . . This [secret] is finally being told, respectfully and stylishly.” —Chicago Tribune “This is a great and beautifully written untold story.” —Gay Talese, New York Times–bestselling author “A fascinating story of the NFL, its growth, and one of its star players. And it is more than just a sports biography.” —Illinois Times

At their early teens two girls were forced to sit in school together and share the same desk. While being complete opposites, they soon shared similar experiences, hopes and dreams, slowly becoming best friends, against all expectations. Until a war breaks and threatens their long lasting relationship, throwing the two young women into opposite sides of a large-scale conflict. Will their friendship last? And could they overcome mistakes that are unforgivable? "Kis-Lev has created the kind of friendship that is not superficial, silly, or a plot sideline, but private, deep, and more real than anything else. It will make your heart sing." -The Monthly YOU Reader "Wonderful... A wry, sharply observed tale of both heroism and coming-of-age-story during one of the darkest times in humanity." -Nadia Joels, The Bookreview Club "Compulsively readable... Kis-Lev establishes himself as a distinctively contemporary literary voice. His dialogue resounds, and his humor gives texture to the prose."-Dr. John Vitals, author and speaker "Biting, brilliant exploration of a female friendship from the eyes of a sensitive man. And though The Two Marias focuses on young women, readers need be neither young nor female in order to enjoy it..."-Alison Kahn, Peace For The Future "Riveting... More than an exploration of friendship, this novel is about what happens when the things we take for granted slip away and we are forced to test our inner strength." -Joan Kelvin, author The Secret Inside "The Two Marias is a slim, sometimes piercing novel... Kis-Lev's hyperaware voice lends the story poignancy and shades of relatability."-Laila Hoja, The Book Reviewer "Set in WWII war-torn Europe, young Helena and Maria struggle to do what is right, in a world where cruelty is the norm. Never boring... this book is a pageturner." -Joel Springfield, speaker and author "The novel's depiction of the dynamics of friendship-how there's often affection and admiration mixed with disappointment and frustration-is uniquely authentic." -Dan Klein, The Last Opinion "Kis-Lev's prose reads like the voice of the charmingly blunt friend you wish you had; his observations are sensitive and insightful." -Gillian T. Harold, Harold Books "Comedy and pathos are braided together with extraordinary skill in a haunting novel... riveting intensity and originality" -Daily Preacher "Clever and suspenseful... Kis-Lev has his finger on the old-school girlfriends' zeitgeist... and this riveting tale will make older readers fondly recall the days when kids got in trouble for passing (print) notes in class." -Maria Vel�zquez, coach and trainer "Kis-Lev captures the complexities, naivet� and angst of teenage girls so well my stomach was in knots. What had happened to Helena Goldstein, the Jewish girl in Nazi Germany? You'll find yourself staying up all night to find out." -Aven K. Lint, author and speaker "I couldn't believe this was based on a true story. I cried and laughed. Kis-Lev does a fine job of building suspense and creating characters, notably Maria and Helena, whom the target audience-both adults and older teens-will care about and empathize with." -Maria von Klaus, Der Tage "Fast-paced and suspenseful... a page-turning story of friendship mixed with a bit of a thriller. Shines a light on the power of true friendship in times of external challenges." -Jo Levi, The Reviewer "A tale of elaborate mystery intertwined with the tenderness of a mother's love, The Two Marias exudes warmth at every turn... Gripping and uplifting, it is a true pageturner." -Mira Hudson, The Life of Mira

“Powerful . . . [Rosen] makes us see how the Holocaust’s hidden children succeeded against the odds” in this #1 New York Times bestselling biography (Wall Street Journal). Only one in ten Jewish children in Europe survived the Holocaust, many in hiding. In Such Good Girls, R. D. Rosen tells the story of these survivors through the true experiences of three girls. Sophie Turner-Zaretsky, who spent the war years believing she was an anti-Semitic Catholic schoolgirl, eventually became an esteemed radiation oncologist. Flora Hogman, protected by a succession of Christians, emerged from the war a lonely, lost orphan, but became a psychologist who pioneered the study of hidden child survivors. Unlike Anne Frank, Carla Lessing made it through the war concealed with her family in the home of Dutch strangers before becoming a psychotherapist and key player in the creation of an international organization of hidden child survivors. In braiding the stories of three women who defied death by learning to be “such good girls,” Rosen examines a silent and silenced generation—the last living cohort of Holocaust survivors. He provides rich, memorable portraits of a handful of hunted children who, as adults, were determined to deny Hitler any more victories, and he recreates the extraordinary event that lured so many hidden child survivors out of their grown-up “hiding places” and finally brought them together. “Rosen . . . tells the story of these women and the varied community of survivors with sensitivity and genuine affection.” —Library Journal “The three women at the heart of Such Good Girls have lived remarkable lives, and Rosen has limned them with both empathy and grace.” —Daniel Orkent, author of Last Call: The Rise and Fall of Prohibition“/I>/DESC> history;biography;historical;20th century;ww2;holocaust;survivors;Polish;French; Dutch;Jewish;survival;identity;trauma;child;war;refugees;Belgium;Poland; diaspora;emigration;United States;Righteous Among the nations;Nazi Germany;hidden;religious;identities;anti-semitism BIO038000 BIOGRAPHY & AUTOBIOGRAPHY / Survival BIO037000 BIOGRAPHY & AUTOBIOGRAPHY / Jewish HIS043000 HISTORY / Modern / 20th Century / Holocaust BIO006000 BIOGRAPHY & AUTOBIOGRAPHY / Historical 9780062877994 Don’t Call the Wolf Ross, Aleksandra

A hilarious collection of poetry by dogs—the perfect gift for lovers of literature and pups alike. “Dogs seldom make passes At dogs passing gasses.” Are these the words of Dorothy Parker? Ogden Nash? Nope, the author is Sparky from Milton, Pennsylvania. Sparky, Snowy, Tucker, Louie, these canine laureates have written a volume of poetry displaying the brilliance and wit we've always suspected our dogs were hiding from us. They also, it turns out, revere the human geniuses who came before them, as you’ll see with “There Is No Frigate Like A Pavement”—an homage to Emily Dickinson—and “Do Not Go Gentle.” Yes, Dylan Thomas would love it.

A slugger struggles with an empty ballpark and a murdered teammate in this Edgar Award–winning mystery. The Providence Jewels, an American League expansion team, have been taking a beating all season. Worse, relief pitcher Rudy Furth has just suffered a beating of a more lethal kind—and been left to die in the clubhouse whirlpool among whispers of mob corruption and violently lovesick fans. When the police investigation stalls, veteran Providence center fielder Harvey Blissberg, who knew Furth as well as anyone, decides to play detective. While trying to keep his eye on the ball, and his head above water with the spunky, beautiful sports newscaster Mickey Slavin, Blissberg quietly stalks Furth’s killer through major-league locker rooms and the dark streets of Rhode Island’s capital city. Lots of ballplayers keep their batting averages above .300—but how many have chased a murderer at the same time?

For the sake of a peculiar corpse, Harvey ventures into suburbia During a long-overdue phone call with his beloved older brother, Norm, Harvey Blissberg learns of a mysterious homicide in a Chicago suburb. A friend of Norm’s was found shot in the face, but with no sign of struggle and no clues left behind. The local police are dumbfounded, so as a favor to his brother, Blissberg tries to untangle a bitter tale of real estate, bad taste, and sexual abuse. While struggling with his own fears of marriage and mortality, Blissberg soon finds himself up to his neck in overheated housewives, predatory parents, toxic psychotherapists, and the seamier side of a sleepy suburb. He’ll have to retrace the dead man’s steps, all the way to the scene of the crime: a luxury housing development, with a Colt .45 aimed at his own head.

DIVNow a private investigator, Blissberg scours locker rooms and back alleys for two missing basketball stars/divDIV/divDIVAfter retiring from baseball, Harvey Blissberg hung out a shingle in Cambridge, Massachusetts, as a private detective with a taste for the less savory side of sports. When key players from the Boston Celtics and the Washington Bullets go AWOL, Blissberg quickly becomes the two teams’ number-one draft choice to find them./divDIV /divDIVWhat can a born-again black forward and a white point guard whose nickname is “Toot ’n’ Shoot” have in common? When both of the missing players turn up dead, Harvey searches desperately for the link between them. The hunt leads him back to the city he thought he’d left behind—Providence, Rhode Island—and an unholy deal struck years ago between two of the city’s most powerful figures. If he doesn’t work quickly, Blissberg may be stuck holding the ball when the final buzzer sounds./divDIV/divDIV /div

DIVA late-night TV executive falls to his death, and Blissberg must crack the case before the killer has the last laugh/divDIV/divDIVWhen Harvey Blissberg is hired by Roy Ganz, the pretentious, pint-size producer of a legendary but fading late-night network comedy show, he has no idea that he’s about to walk right into a television tragedy. The private eye thinks he’s doing a short, easy job by dragging a missing guest host out of a Times Square bar. The show goes well but just as the cast and crew start to celebrate, Ganz exits a twenty-fourth floor window, plunging faster than his show’s ratings./divDIV /divDIVHastily hired by the network to conduct a discreet investigation, Blissberg slowly makes his way through the show’s ragtag roster of writers and actors, many of who would have relished a chance to defenestrate their manipulative boss. The joke’s on Blissberg, however, when he’s forced to make an unexpected detour back to the early days of television./divDIV/divDIV /divDIV/div

DIVBlissberg returns to baseball to protect a player who’s on the verge of making history/divDIV/divDIVFifteen years after retiring from baseball, Harvey Blissberg is suffering a bad case of what his girlfriend, Mickey Slavin, calls “sad man-ism” when the owner of his former team, the Providence Jewels, tracks him down. The team’s star, Moss Cooley, is on the verge of shattering Joe DiMaggio’s “unbreakable” fifty-six-game hitting streak. But Cooley has been receiving racist threats, such as a decapitated lawn jockey with a note reading, “escape retribution.” Would Blissberg mind playing bodyguard for a while?/divDIV /divDIVWhen Cooley’s streak ends shy of DiMaggio’s record, the threats and hate mail continue, suggesting that there’s more at stake than preserving a white man’s supreme achievement. Blissberg follows the trail of clues back into the past, and finds that Moss is not the first Cooley man to be persecuted. A determined psychopath is out for Cooley’s neck, and if he has to murder a few ex-ballplayers on the way—so be it./divDIV/divDIV/div

From a #1 New York Times–bestselling author, “a heartwarming tale of bonding between people and animals” (Booklist). A sprawling suburban house in Santa Fe is not the kind of home where a buffalo normally roams, but Veryl Goodnight and Roger Brooks are not your ordinary animal lovers. Over a hundred years after Veryl’s ancestors, Charles and Mary Ann Goodnight, hand-raised two baby buffalo to help save the species from extinction, the sculptor and her husband adopt an orphaned buffalo calf of their own. Against a backdrop of the American West, A Buffalo in the House tells the story of a household situation beyond any sitcom writer’s wildest dreams. Charlie has no idea he’s a buffalo and Roger has no idea just how strong the bond between man and buffalo can be. In the historical shadow of the near-extermination of a majestic and misunderstood animal, Roger sets out to save just one buffalo—in a true story featuring “one of the most memorable characters in recent nature writing” (Publishers Weekly). “More than a touching man-beast buddy tale . . . lovingly chronicles the history of an embattled species and its importance in the American West.” —Entertainment Weekly “Moving proof of the restorative powers of man’s relationship with nature.” —People

An amusing look at the behavior of infants containing baby photographs with humorous captions.

Presents photographs of dogs in various settings and costumes, along with quotations describing the intentions and attitudes of the canine subjects.