What to read?

SIGNING THEIR LIVES AWAY

History/biography.

Published by Quirk Books/Random House.

John Hancock loved fancy clothes. Sam Adams really did own a brewery—and drove it to ruin. Ben Franklin was so rich he could retire at age 42.

These and other stories are told in Signing Their Lives Away, a little volume of bios of all 56 men who signed the Declaration of Independence.

Yes, you could probably find and read a deeper, more profound, seriouser book about the Signers out there, but why would you?

Signing Their Rights Away, the follow-up title, features 39 biographies of all the men who signed the Constitution of the United States.

It’s filled with anecdotes, quotes and a behind-the-scenes look at the squabbles and compromises that helped create the world’s oldest functioning Constitution.

Stuff Every American Should Know is ex

actly what it sounds like. It’s a nifty, “gifty” book that will be published in June 2012. It’s the only book that dares to tell you what you need to know that you can actually fit in your back pocket. If you are not an American, you have our permission to skip this title.

PRAISE for LIVES

*“With this work, Kiernan and D'Agnese present readers with astonishing individual portraits of all the signers in an attempt both to dispel some of the mythology surrounding the document as well as to establish a place in the historical discourse for those men not named Jefferson, Hancock, Franklin, or Adams.”— SCHOOL LIBRARY JOURNAL, starred review

As seen in Reader’s Digest, heard on WOR and NPR radio.

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Autographed: Malaprop’s

PRAISE for RIGHTS

“Though Ms. Kiernan and Mr. D'Agnese clearly delight in noting the warts and blemishes of the Constitution's signers, they maintain a refreshing reverence for the Constitution itself. Rather than ask readers to believe that an "assembly of demigods" (Jefferson's words) wrote the Constitution, Ms. Kiernan and Mr. D'Agnese challenge the notion that the group that crafted this document of enduring genius was uniquely brilliant or visionary. If this raises the question of how exactly the miracle was accomplished, it should at least give readers some hope for our own seemingly uninspired political era.”—THE WALL STREET JOURNAL

* “...snappy...descriptive...entertainingly written...” — SCHOOL LIBRARY JOURNAL, starred review

“For readers of American history, this is both educational and entertaining.” — BOOKLIST

BUY SIGNING THEIR RIGHTS AWAY

eBooks: Kindle Nook Sony Kobo Diesel Google

Hardcover: Indiebound Amazon B&N Powell’s

Autographed: Malaprop’s

Want a signed copy?

Most of my titles are available through my local bookstore, Malaprop’s. Give them a call at (828) 254-6734 and you can talk to a real, live person! Tell them how you would like your book(s) inscribed.

To order signed copies of my children’s books from a kidlit specialist, phone Spellbound Children’s Bookshop at (828) 232-2228.

The booksellers will get me in to sign and your autographed book will be shipped out lickety-split.