Books with author James Barter

A MILESTONE IN GAY FICTIONPhillip Froelich is in trouble. The year is 1946, and he’s traveling to Seattle where he will face a court martial for acting insubordinate to a lazy officer in the closing days of World War II. On the way to Seattle he meets Tim Danelaw, and soon the court martial is among the least of Phillip’s concerns....So begins Quatrefoil, a novel originally published in 1950. It marked a milestone in gay writing, with two of the first non-stereotyped gay characters to appear in American fiction. For readers of the Fifties, it was a rare chance to counteract the negative imagery that surrounded them.Today, Quatrefoil ranks as a classic work of gay writing, a novel that is still as gripping and enjoyable as ever. It is of extra interest to the modern reader for the vivid picture it draws of what life was like for gay men in our recent but little-known past.

This book is set in the year 1512, at the time of Michelangelo, da Vinci, and the Medici family, as a travel guide for first time visitors to Florence, Italy. The guide provides travelers to Renaissance Florence with information about everyday life in city, where to stay, how to find the great art and architectural treasures, as well as information about the city's history, festivities, sports, and great shopping sites.

Famed for its lean that has defied gravity since its inception over 800 years ago, this book chronicles what modern engineers consider to be the most flawed building still standing today. Closed in 1990 due to fears of imminent collapse, a panel of world famous engineers have finally understood why it has been leaning and have solved the engineering problem of arresting any further lean and have stabilized this beautiful bell tower for future generations.

Life for medieval villagers who lived far from larger towns and cities was a daily test of personal character and dependence upon their fellow villagers. Village life was one of hard work primarily for farmers in the local fields but also for small merchants who like the farmer, scratched out a living while obligated to the laws and customs of the village lord who occupied the apex of medieval village social structure. This book honors the millions of mostly poor and struggling peasants as they lived, married, laughed, danced, gave birth, and died in their small dank cottages at a time when struggle and hard work were the two constants of their lives.