"Four centuries ago, a Muslim woman ruled an empire. Her legend still lives, but her story was lost — until now."

This July, the Midtown Scholar Bookstore is thrilled to welcome acclaimed historian Ruby Lal to Harrisburg as she presents her new book, Empress: The Astonishing Reign of Nur Jahan. Book signing to follow discussion. This event is free and open to the public. 

About the Book: 

When it came to hunting, she was a master shot. As a dress designer, few could compare. An ingenious architect, she innovated the use of marble in her parents’ mausoleum on the banks of the Yamuna River that inspired her stepson’s Taj Mahal. And she was both celebrated and reviled for her political acumen and diplomatic skill, which rivaled those of her female counterparts in Europe and beyond.

In 1611, thirty-four-year-old Nur Jahan, daughter of a Persian noble and widow of a subversive official, became the twentieth and most cherished wife of the Emperor Jahangir. While other wives were secluded behind walls, Nur ruled the vast Mughal Empire alongside her husband, and governed in his stead as his health failed and his attentions wandered from matters of state. An astute politician and devoted partner, Nur led troops into battle to free Jahangir when he was imprisoned by one of his own officers. She signed and issued imperial orders, and coins of the realm bore her name.

Acclaimed historian Ruby Lal uncovers the rich life and world of Nur Jahan, rescuing this dazzling figure from patriarchal and Orientalist clichés of romance and intrigue, and giving new insight into the lives of women and girls in the Mughal Empire, even where scholars claim there are no sources. Nur’s confident assertion of authority and talent is revelatory. In Empress, she finally receives her due in a deeply researched and evocative biography that awakens us to a fascinating history.

About the Author: 

Ruby Lal is professor of South Asian history at Emory University. Her previous books are Coming of Age in Nineteenth Century India: The Girl-Child and the Art of Playfulness and Domesticity and Power in the Early Mughal World.

Join us on for an Equality Pennsylvania event with HRC Press Secretary Sarah McBride as she discusses how we bend the arc of justice.

The evening will be an excellent opportunity to learn and hear from one of the most visible advocates in the national movement for equality as she discusses her book, Tomorrow Will Be Different: Love, Loss, and the Fight for Trans Equality.

A book signing will follow the conversation, and everyone is invited to stick around to meet and mingle and to learn more about how they can get engaged in their local community.

Light refreshments to be provided.

About Tomorrow Will Be Different:

“A brave, powerful memoir.” —PEOPLE
 
Before she became the first transgender person to speak at a national political convention in 2016 at the age of twenty-six, Sarah McBride struggled with the decision to come out—not just to her family but to the students of American University, where she was serving as student body president. She’d known she was a girl from her earliest memories, but it wasn’t until the Facebook post announcing her truth went viral that she realized just how much impact her story could have on the country.

Four years later, McBride was one of the nation’s most prominent transgender activists, walking the halls of the White House, advocating inclusive legislation, and addressing the country in the midst of a heated presidential election. She had also found her first love and future husband, Andy, a trans man and fellow activist, who complemented her in every way . . . until cancer tragically intervened.

Informative, heartbreaking, and profoundly empowering, Tomorrow Will Be Different is McBride’s story of love and loss and a powerful entry point into the LGBTQ community’s battle for equal rights and what it means to be openly transgender. From issues like bathroom access to health care to gender in America, McBride weaves the important political and cultural milestones into a personal journey that will open hearts and change minds.

As McBride urges: “We must never be a country that says there’s only one way to love, only one way to look, and only one way to live.”

The fight for equality and freedom has only just begun.

About the Author

Sarah McBride is the national press secretary at the Human Rights Campaign, working tirelessly to advocate for LGBTQ equality. She has been featured in the New York Times, the Washington Post, TIME, Cosmopolitan, Elle, Vogue, Rolling Stone, and The New Yorker, and she speaks regularly at national LGBTQ and political events. A native of Delaware, Sarah is on the front lines of the progressive movement.
 

This July, the Midtown Scholar Bookstore is pleased to welcome former State Senator Franklin Kury to Harrisburg as he signs copies of his new book, Gerrymandering: A Guide to Congressional Redistricting, Dark Money, and the U.S. Supreme Court. 

“Franklin Kury’s excellent book is as trenchant as it is timely. In it, he provides a great overview of the redistricting process in states like Pennsylvania. He shows how utterly broken that process is in that state and how gerrymandering in places like Pennsylvania is so clearly at odds with the fundamental values that ought to undergird republican democracies. He also shows why it is high time we did something about it.” - TOM WOLF, Governor of Pennsylvania

About the Book:

After placing fair legislative representation in the context of our governmental system, this book shows the anatomy of Pennsylvania’s 2011 Congressional redistricting that was invalidated by the state Supreme Court in 2018. Pennsylvania (and, later, California, the polar opposites of Pennsylvania n its redistricting process) is used as a measuring rod for other states. This is followed by an historical review of gerrymandering in America and the Supreme Court’s role to date in curbing it. The great challenges involved in reforming the redistricting process in states without a ballot referendum process concludes with a description of “dark money” and the virtual impossibility of tracing it in state elections.

About the Author: 

Franklin Kury served six years in the Pennsylvania House of Representatives and eight in the Pennsylvania Senate. He practiced law with Reed Smith, a major law firm, and then worked as a lobbyist with Malady and Wooten in Harrisburg, before retiring. This is his third book on legislatures and politics.

The Midtown Scholar Bookstore is pleased to welcome Historian and Messiah College Professor John Fea as he presents his new book, Believe Me: The Evangelical Road to Donald Trump. This event is free and open to the public. Book signing to follow discussion. 

About the Book:

A historian’s discerning, critical take on current American politics.

“Believe me” may be the most commonly used phrase in Donald Trump’s lexicon. Whether about building a wall or protecting a Christian heritage, the refrain has been constant. And to the surprise of many, a good 80 percent of white evangelicals have believed Trump—at least enough to help propel him into the White House. 

Historian John Fea is not surprised, however—and in these pages he explains how we have arrived at this unprecedented moment in American politics. An evangelical Christian himself, Fea argues that the embrace of Donald Trump is the logical outcome of a long-standing evangelical approach to public life defined by the politics of fear, the pursuit of worldly power, and a nostalgic longing for an American past. 

As insightful as it is timely, Fea’s Believe Me challenges Christians to replace fear with hope, the pursuit of power with humility, and nostalgia with history.

About the Author: 

John Fea is professor of American history at Messiah College in Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania. His previous books include Was America Founded as a Christian Nation? A Historical Introduction, and he blogs regularly at The Way of Improvement Leads Home.

The Midtown Scholar Bookstore is pleased to welcome Super Bowl MVP and Philadelphia Eagles Quarterback Nick Foles to Harrisburg to sign copies of his new book, Believe It: My Journey of Success, Failure, and Overcoming the Odds. This is a ticketed book signing event. 

To purchase tickets, visit: http://www.midtownscholar.com/tickets

*Ticket purchase includes (one) copy of BELIEVE IT and admission for up to (two) people to the signing line. Cost of a book + ticket is $30 tax-inclusive. Copy of BELIEVE IT will be given to ticket-holders as they enter the venue. No more than (five) copies will be permitted per ticket-holder. 

*Your order-confirmation acts as your ticket to the signing line. The name on the order-confirmation must match our signing line guest-list. 

*Doors open at 2:15pm. Book signing begins promptly at 2:30pm and ends promptly at 4:30pm.

*The signing line will be strictly limited to signing copies of BELIEVE IT only. No souvenirs, photos, memorabilia, jerseys, etc. will be signed, and no personalizations will be permitted. 

*Due to timing constraints, no posed photos are allowed. Action-only photos will be permitted.

*Customers must purchase copies of BELIEVE IT through the Midtown Scholar Bookstore. No outside copies will be allowed into the signing line.

About the Book:

When the Philadelphia Eagles’ starting quarterback went down with a torn ACL in week 14 of the 2017 NFL season, many fans—and commentators—assumed the Eagles’ season was over.

Instead, Nick Foles came off the bench and, against all odds, led the Eagles to their first Super Bowl victory in history.

How did Nick get it done—winning MVP honors, silencing the critics, and shocking the world? How did the man who was on the verge of retiring just two seasons earlier stay optimistic and rally the team to an astounding win? How did he stay ready despite numerous trades and discouraging injuries, able to step up in the moment and perform at the top of his game?

Believe It offers a behind-the-scenes look at Nick’s unlikely path to the Super Bowl, the obstacles that threatened to hold him back, his rediscovery of his love for the game, and the faith that grounded him through it all. Learn from the way Nick handled the trials and tribulations that made him into the man he is today—and discover a path to your own success.

About the Author:

Originally a third-round draft choice (88th overall) by the Eagles in the 2012 NFL Draft, Nick Foles spent the first three seasons of his pro career with Philadelphia prior to stints with St. Louis (2015) and Kansas City (2016). The Eagles’ all-time leader in passer rating (94.2), Foles has completed 776-of-1,285 (60.4%) attempts for 9,215 yards, 56 TDs and an 88.2 passer rating in 42 career games (36 starts). He lives in Philadelphia with his Wife and Daughter.

The Midtown Scholar Bookstore is pleased to welcome prizewinning journalist Eliza Griswold to Harrisburg as she presents her new book, Amity and Prosperity: One Family and the Fracturing of America. Book signing to follow discussion. This event is free and open to the public.

About the Book:

In Amity and Prosperity, the prizewinning poet and journalist Eliza Griswold tells the story of the energy boom’s impact on a small town at the edge of Appalachia and one woman’s transformation from a struggling single parent to an unlikely activist.

Stacey Haney is a local nurse working hard to raise two kids and keep up her small farm when the fracking boom comes to her hometown of Amity, Pennsylvania. Intrigued by reports of lucrative natural gas leases in her neighbors’ mailboxes, she strikes a deal with a Texas-based energy company. Soon trucks begin rumbling past her small farm, a fenced-off drill site rises on an adjacent hilltop, and domestic animals and pets start to die. When mysterious sicknesses begin to afflict her children, she appeals to the company for help. Its representatives insist that nothing is wrong.

Alarmed by her children’s illnesses, Haney joins with neighbors and a committed husband-and-wife legal team to investigate what’s really in the water and air. Against local opposition, Haney and her allies doggedly pursue their case in court and begin to expose the damage that’s being done to the land her family has lived on for centuries. Soon a community that has long been suspicious of outsiders faces wrenching new questions about who is responsible for their fate, and for redressing it: The faceless corporations that are poisoning the land? The environmentalists who fail to see their economic distress? A federal government that is mandated to protect but fails on the job? Drawing on seven years of immersive reporting, Griswold reveals what happens when an imperiled town faces a crisis of values, and a family wagers everything on an improbable quest for justice.

About the Author:

Eliza Griswold, a Guggenheim fellow, is the author of a collection of poems, Wideawake Field (FSG, 2007), and a nonfiction book, The Tenth Parallel: Dispatches from the Fault Line Between Christianity and Islam (FSG, 2010), a New York Times bestseller that was awarded the J. Anthony Lukas Prize. She is the translator of I Am the Beggar of the World: Landays from Contemporary Afghanistan (FSG, 2015).

The Midtown Scholar Bookstore is pleased to welcome author Todd Mealy to Harrisburg as he presents his new book, Glenn Killinger, All-American: Penn State's World War I Era Sports Hero. This event is free and open to the public. Book signing to follow discussion. 

About the Book:

This first biography of W. Glenn Killinger highlights his tenure as a nine-time varsity letterman at Penn State, where he emerged as one of the best football, basketball and baseball players in the U.S. Situating Killinger in his time and place, the author explores the ways in which home-front culture during World War I -- focused on heroism, masculinity and sporting culture -- created the demand for sports and sports icons and drove the ascent college athletics in the first quarter of the 20th century.

About the Author:

Todd Mealy is the author of Glenn Killinger, All American: Penn State's World War I Era Sports Hero; This Is the Rat Speaking: Black Power and the Promise of Racial Consciousness at Franklin and Marshall College in the Age of the Takeover (2017); Legendary Locals of Harrisburg (2014), Aliened American: A Biography of William Howard Day, 1825-1900, Vols. I and II (2010); and Biography of an Antislavery City: Antislavery Activists, Abolitionists, and Underground Railroad Operatives in Harrisburg, Pa (2007). In addition to writing the text for two Dauphin County Historical Markers in Harrisburg, PA, Todd has published in Pennsylvania Heritage and American Heritage. He coauthored From the Pews: The Story of the Bethel AME Church in Harrisburg (2015).

Mealy holds a Ph.D. from Penn State University. He also attained a Master's degree from the same institution, where he was the 2014 recipient of the John S. Patterson Award for academic and creative achievement. In 2018, received the university's Sue Samuelson Award for his doctoral dissertation.