New Releases by E. Robins

Create amazing memories to last you an entire lifetime in the gorgeous Poconos. The Poconos is a magical place filled with stories and secrets that could keep you there forever. If you're going for nature, you'll discover serene and peaceful places to explore... If you're hankering for history, you'll be showered with culture and museums.... And if you're going with food on the brain, you'll be sure to find incredible feasts to delight in. This guide is packed with information that will make any trip smooth and unforgettable - no matter how unprepared you are right now.

Oil palms are ubiquitous—grown in nearly every tropical country, they supply the world with more edible fat than any other plant and play a role in scores of packaged products, from lipstick and soap to margarine and cookies. And as Jonathan E. Robins shows, sweeping social transformations carried the plant around the planet. First brought to the global stage in the holds of slave ships, palm oil became a quintessential commodity in the Industrial Revolution. Imperialists hungry for cheap fat subjugated Africa’s oil palm landscapes and the people who worked them. In the twentieth century, the World Bank promulgated oil palm agriculture as a panacea to rural development in Southeast Asia and across the tropics. As plantation companies tore into rainforests, evicting farmers in the name of progress, the oil palm continued its rise to dominance, sparking new controversies over trade, land and labor rights, human health, and the environment. By telling the story of the oil palm across multiple centuries and continents, Robins demonstrates how the fruits of an African palm tree became a key commodity in the story of global capitalism, beginning in the eras of slavery and imperialism, persisting through decolonization, and stretching to the present day.

After a blighted childhood, young Laura finds peace and purpose in the home of a midwife and healer. Later, she enrolls in Salerno's famed medical school—the first in the world to admit women. Laura and her adoptive mother hope that Laura can build a bridge between women's herbal healing and the new science of medicine developing in thirteenth century Italy. The hardest lessons are those of love; Laura falls hard for a fellow student who abandons her for a wealthy wife. Worse, her mother rejects her as "impure." Shattered, Laura devotes herself to her work, becoming a respected medico. But her heart is still bitter, and when she sees a chance for revenge, she grabs it—and takes for her own Bieta, the newborn daughter of a woman whose husband regularly raided the physician's garden for bitter herbs to satisfy his pregnant wife's cravings. Determined to protect her adored daughter from the ravages of the world, Laura isolates the young woman in a tower. Bieta, as determined as her mother, escapes, and finds adventure—and love—on the streets of Salerno. Bieta's betrayal of her mother's love comes at a terrible price as lives are ruined and families are torn apart. Laura's medical knowledge cannot heal her broken heart; only a great act of love can bring everyone forgiveness and peace. At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

The search for a killer takes Miss Sarah Tolerance from the lowest brothels of the seedy Regency London underworld to the Royal Family and a Duke who must hide his perversions or risk the Throne.

Sarah is a "fallen" daughter of the nobility turned investigative agent. She faces danger, intrigue, and romance on the mean streets of Regency London--in the launch of a brilliant new series.

John Tietjen loves New York City like life itself. But while he's out of town at a conference, confused reports come out of the city. Millions of refugees are streaming out, each bearing contradictory tales of fire, earthquake, explosions, collapse. Making his perilous way back, he gathers a few survivors and establishes a shelter. But the full nature of the catastrophe is still unclear. "[Robins] writes with rare conviction."--The New York Times At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.