New Releases

In this fully-illustrated, coffee-table keepsake volume, award-winning journalist Billy Reed gives a nostalgic salute to one of America’s premier sports and entertainment venues—Louisville, Kentucky's Freedom Hall—with a look back at some of its greatest events and most memorable moments.

Filled with memories, music and memorabilia from the era, and packaged with a commemorative DVD documenting the band's history, this book takes readers back to the early days of Louisville rock 'n' roll to remember one of its biggest acts, The Monarchs. After 50 years of concerts, sock hops, dances and reunions, the music hasn't stopped, and award-winning journalist Billy Reed follows the band—and the greater Louisville area—through it all.

In his inaugural cookbook, the chef and owner of Lexington's acclaimed Jonathan at Gratz Park restaurant invites you into his kitchen and shares his secrets for preparing many of his sumptuous and award-winning dishes, which blend the traditional foods of the Bluegrass Region with modern world cuisine. Includes 147 recipes and over 100 photographs.

Chef Nancy Russman has worked in the kitchens of four-star restaurants and received national culinary and humanitarian awards, but her real passion has always been teaching children about healthy food. Here, she lays out easy recipes for fun snacks that teach young people how to prepare healthy foods for themselves—without using knives or stoves!

This full-color illustrated children's book tells the story of a typical day on the horse farm of Windy Meadows Stables, located in the L'Esprit equestrian community of LaGrange, Kentucky. Told through the eyes of the colorful horse characters who live in its barns, The Tails of Windy Meadows encourages horse lovers to visit the picturesque stables where nearly 100 horses—from riding lesson horses to national racing retirees—call home.

Throughout her colorful career—as Miss America and First Lady of Kentucky, and as a pioneering sportscaster, entrepreneur, actor and author—Phyllis George has had to take risks, overcome challenges, and reinvent herself many times in her life. In Never Say Never, she reveals how an indomitable spirit, positive outlook, courage and adaptability has helped her—and can help you—face and learn lessons from each challenging chapter in life.

A perfect guide to simple, convenient and low-cost nature excursions, all in the Louisville area. Whether you're looking for an hour's walk or a day's hike, this book offers a family-friendly guide to over 30 natural areas and over 50 miles of walking paths and hiking trails, complete with detailed descriptions of venue amenities and natural features. Photographs throughout.

In this handy book, Joe Ward describes 25 of his favorite bike rides around the greater Louisville area, and includes map directions, route sheets, travelogues of things to see and places to stop along the way, as well as important safety warnings route by route. For riders of all skill levels covering a variety of cycling environments, this is your guide to great local cycling.

Seventy-four lawyers reflect on their lifetimes of experience and insight working in the Commonwealth of Kentucky. For law students and students of history, this is an invaluable collection of one-on-one interviews with senior members of the Kentucky Bar, who have left indelible marks on the legal profession in Kentucky.

In time for its 175th anniversary, Franklin College has partnered with Butler Books to publish this full-color commemorative volume celebrating the College's rich history of exceptional liberal arts education. Packed with 144 pages of archival and contemporary photographs and a timeline of Franklin's colorful history, this is an excellent keepsake for anyone with ties to Franklin College.

A true labor of love, bourbon aficionado Chet Zoeller conducted years of research to uncover the complete history of bourbon distilling and distilleries throughout Kentucky. Bourbon in Kentucky is the comprehensive publication of his findings, cataloging almost 1,000 distillers and brands across the Commonwealth—from farmhouse mashers to the major industrial concerns, and from the late 1700s to the present day. With hundreds of rare and historical photographs, this is believed to be the first and only authoritative history of its kind.

The centennial of Louisville, Kentucky's Audubon Country Club in 2008 inspired a dynamic effort to research and commemorate the Club's rich history. This limited-edition book is a comprehensive exploration of the Club's first 100 years, from its founding and the layout of its golf course to the Club's milestones, golf championships, and evolution. Filled with gorgeous and unique historic photographs and anecdotes.

With 250 color and black and white photographs—many of which have never before been published—this 150th anniversary volume celebrates the Louisville, Kentucky fire department and the history of motorized vehicles the city's firefighters have used to protect its citizens, from the most primitive designs in 1905 to the latest technology available.

With hundreds of color photographs, this beautiful 150th Anniversary book celebrates the history of the American Printing House for the Blind—which is based in Louisville, Kentucky—and examines the mechanical innovations and evolutions, right up to today's digital solutions, that have enabled them to provide specialized materials, books, products, and services to the visually impaired.

Rather than living luxuriously, Louisville industrialist and philanthropist H. Charles Grawemeyer wanted to use his wealth to, in his words, "help make the world a better place." In 1984 he endowed the Grawemeyer Awards, a series of awards established to pay homage to creativity and genius in areas of human endeavor too much ignored by other awards: in Music, Political Science, Education, Religion and Psychology. The Power of Ideas is the second volume in commemoration of these awards and their recipients—picking up where the first volume left off, in 1997, to showcase the last 10 years of profound innovations.

More than just a Cinderella story, the basketball team from Davidson College captivated the country during the 2008 NCAA tournament. The team's unlikely rise brought them, and a watchful nation, to a singular moment. Taking the Shot is the story of that moment—and all the hope, trust and togetherness that led up to it—told by Davidson alum and St. Petersburg Times staff writer Michael Kruse.

In the years after World War I, Centre College's "Praying Colonels" were the most famous and publicized college football team ever to play the game. Competing all over the country and beating all the major powers of the day, they achieved enormous acclaim as "The Wonder Team," a group of talented and colorful young men who put Centre, and the little town of Danville, Kentucky, on the map. Includes over 250 color photographs.

Surveying the top scholars in the fields of history, political science and law, Gary L. Gregg and Mark David Hall have composed the first-ever ranking of the most important and most forgotten contributors to the American Revolution and the creation of the constitutional order that has made America what it is today. Inside you'll find engaging short biographies of the top ten members of the founding generation who are often overlooked but deserve to be remembered.

Jim Bolen's official memoir recounts a life lived so on-the-edge dangerously that you'll insist—as everyone else has—that he shouldn't have made it through. No Guts, No Glory is the hard-knuckle first-hand account of a man whose fierce dedication to justice and fearless sense of adventure have taken him around the world standing up to and fighting down a laundry list of dishonorable and violent men, from belligerent off-duty police officers to South African terrorists.

Beginning with bands of hunters and gatherers foraging for food, join revered archaeologist Donald Janzen on a 10,000-year journey to explore prehistoric Native American life in the Falls of the Ohio River region. With a variety of illustrations and artifacts, Unearthing the Past provides compelling revelations about what lies beneath the streets and subdivisions of our 21st century hometown.

For the first time ever, Julius Friedman, one of America's most prolific and versatile artists, photographers and graphic designers of the modern era, presents the output of a lifetime in this beautiful, full-color coffee-table book. Herein Friedman explores his life, his processes, and his complete works to date, giving readers a glimpse into the mind and instincts of the artist, and moreover exploring the processes that power art in all media around the world.

Before his death in 1999, Frederick Hart was hailed as America's greatest living sculptor. This magnificent book is published as Hart's catalogue raisonné—a detailed showcase of his relatively short lifetime of extraordinary production—timed to coincide with the largest Hart retrospective and exhibit ever mounted. This book was awarded a Silver Medal for Excellence in the national Fine Arts category of the 2008 Independent Publisher Book Awards.

His name evokes images of timelessly handsome, classically beautiful homes that remain highly sought-after many decades after their construction. In this magnificent volume, the authors present a comprehensive appreciation of Hammon's work through gorgeous photography and full description. This book was awarded a Bronze Medal for Excellence in the national Architecture category of the 2008 Independent Publisher Book Awards.

After discovering the mysterious powers of a musty old Scottish sporran, sixth-grader Jacob Boyd is plunged into a dangerous adventure deep in the catacombs beneath Edinburgh Castle, where unseen perils—and the fate of the world—await him in the dark. For young adult readers, this is the start of an exciting new series.

Keats descendant Lawrence M. Crutcher has researched and written about every known member of the extended family of the poet John Keats, stretching from Keats' great-grandparents down through the ninth generation issue of his siblings and cousins. The family includes numerous writers, business and professional people, as well as a few reprobates.