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YOU NEVER FORGET YOUR FIRST:

A BIOGRAPHY OF GEORGE WASHINGTON

Penguin Random House, 2020

New York Times Bestseller

Amazon History Book of the Month

Most Anticipated/Best Book of 2020:

Newsweek, Real Simple, Fortune, Entertainment Weekly, Good Morning America, TODAY, BuzzFeed, Paste Magazine,

Town & Country, BookPage, InsideHook, Bustle, Man Repeller,

Read It Forward, Girlboss, Medium, Dandelion Chandelier

As seen and heard on: The TODAY Show, MSNBC 11th Hour with Brian Williams, BBC World News/PBS, MSNBC with Alicia Menendez, C-SPAN Book TV with Jamelle Bouie, WUSA Good Day Washington, ABC7 Afternoon News ​NPR's Marketplace, KERA-FM, WVXU-FM Cincinnati Edition, KTEP-FM Perspectives, WRKF-FM Talk Louisiana, WGVU-FM Morning Show, WGBH Innovation Hub, WNYC'S All of it, KQED Forum, KCRW Press Play with Madeleine Brand, WCCS-FM Indiana in the Morning, KSCJ-AM/FM Having Read That, WATD-FM Morning Show, WJON-AM Morning NewsWatch, WHEB-FM Morning Buzz, KOMO-AM NewsRadio Seattle, KTRS-AM John Carney Show, KFRU-AM Columbia Morning with Davide Lile  Recode Decode with Kara Swisher, The Washington Post's Presidential, Call Your Girlfriend, Slate's The Gist, Deep Background with Noah Feldman, Slate's The Waves, Princeton's Politics & Prose, The Maris Review, The Whiskey Rebellion, Conversations at the Washington Library, Plodding Through The Presidents The New York Times, New York Times Book Review, Washington Post (Outlook, two Metropolis features, Books Newsletter), CNN, Newsday, Boston Globe, Town & Country, Smithsonian, Chicago Review of Books, Glamour, Yahoo! Lifestyle, NowThisMedia, Business Insider, Newsweek, Fortune, Bustle, LitHub, Medium, News Parliament, BookPage, Society for US Intellectual History, New York Post, NYU Local, Observer Dispatch, The Rockdale Citizen, Post Bulletin, Chattanooga Times, The North Platte Telegraph, Columbia Daily Herald, News & Record, Atlanta Journal Constitution, Avenue Magazine, ABC 13 News, Publisher's Weekly, Kirkus, Shelf Awareness, The Times of London, The Independent, BookPage (starred), Library Journal (starred)

PRAISE FOR
YOU NEVER FORGET YOUR FIRST

“In her form-shattering and myth-crushing book….Coe examines myths with mirth, and writes history with humor… [You Never Forget Your First] is an accessible look at a president who always finishes in the first ranks of our leaders.

—The Boston Globe

“You’ve never quite read a biography like this. Chock full of remarkable facts about George Washington—and surprisingly easy to read—this one feels more like reading your favorite fiction.”

—Newsweek

“An important achievement. [Coe] has cleverly disguised a historiographical intervention in the form of a sometimes cheeky presidential biography.”

—The New York Times Book Review

“In the insightful and entertaining You Never Forget Your First, historian Alexis Coe moves past the well-worn tropes we’ve come to associate with George Washington... with style and humor... Coe makes colonial history not just fascinating but relevant.”

—BookPage (starred)

“I admittedly wouldn’t call this a typical summer beach read, but I’ll say this: The book to read this summer when you need a break from all that new social interaction is about George Washington.”

—Mother Jones

“Alexis Coe jolts readers with a fresh retelling of the first president. It’s Washington without the pomp—the United States’ first president like you’ve never seen him before.”

—Reader’s Digest

 

ALICE+FREDA FOREVER:

A MURDER IN MEMPHIS

Pulp/Zest, 2014

New Yorker "Book to Watch Out For"

An Amazon "Book of the Month" for history

Paris Review "Staff Pick"

Listed on Flavorwire, Bustle, School Library Journal, MSN, and many others

Gold IPPY winner, a Cybils and Lambda Literary finalist, and one of ALA's Books of the Year

Praise for Alice+Freda Forever: "[Alexis Coe] retells it here with the color and liveliness of a novel." --Andrea DenHoed, the New Yorker "An astonishing look at love as a tsunami, the wild violence of passion, and a young woman undone by her own heart."--Caroline Levitt, the San Francisco Chronicle "Coe’s narrative covers the perceptions of sexuality, women’s role in society, racial hierarchy, media manipulation, and even mental health, but she never strays too far from the heart of the story: the tragic romance between two women forty years before the word lesbian would be in circulation." --Justin Alvarez, The Paris Revew  "Both girls deserve something more dignified than scandal and something more human than scholarship, and Alexis Coe provides it.Alice + Freda Forever is a fine book, one devoted to its characters and eager to understand exactly how their story made headlines but then faded from history."--Casey N. Cep, Pacific Standard "Coe is a calculated flamethrower. She writes urgently, with a lulling, captivating intimacy that makes readers forget the story took place more than one hundred years ago."--Anna Pulley, After Ellen "Coe empathizes — you can read how deeply she’s lived the story — and hits the right beats. As a drama, this works: it’s almost pitch-perfect. You’ll be talking about Alice and Freda after reading this book."--Los Angeles Review of Books   "...a book that must be devoured....With simmering prose, careful reserach, and eloquent analysis, Coe weaves an absolutely abrosbing tale of crime and passion, violence and discrimination, gender and feminity, lust and the all-comsuming power of love."--Moran Ribera, Bustle  "Thumbed through the gorgeous hardcover and was instantly absorbed."--Rachel Smalter Hall, BookRiot "Coe establishes a thrilling, almost lurid tone....gripping treatment of love gone dreadfully wrong." --School Library Journal (starred review) “I dare you to pick this one up and try, just try to put it down.” --Peter Orner, author of Last Car Over the Sagamore Bridgeand Esther Stories “…Alexis Coe’s skillful research and documentation never distract from her heartbreaking narrative.”--Elizabeth Wein, New York Times bestselling author of Code Name Verity "A historically resonant reminder of how far societal tolerance has come and that it still remains a work in progress."--Kirkus "Coe writes with a historian's eye for detail and the kind of compassion that was denied to the people whose lives she reconstructed more than one hundred years later."--Anna Pulley, The East Bay Express  “(A) lively, provocative history….a well-written effort that makes the most of its source material on two levels, both as true crime and as social commentary” —Publishers Weekly “This thoroughly researched exposé….could also serve as a gritty rebuttal to idealized period romances extolling the virtues of demure and genteel femininity.” --Kathleen McBroom, Booklist "...to open the book is a bit like stepping into an exhibit."--Los Angeles Review of Books “With prose that simmers with intellect and longing, conscience and sly eloquence, Alexis Coe has finally granted Alice and Freda the one thing they so desperately lacked in life: the grace of a story beautifully told.” —Avi Steinberg, author of Running the Books  “This is a captivating account, and readers will quickly become absorbed in the suspense surrounding Freda’s murder.” --April Sanders, School Library Journal “Though the history recounted in Alexis Coe’s Alice + Freda Forever is captivating in its own right, Coe also provides a larger context for it, elevating this to the level of a societal indictment.” –Tobais Carroll, Vol. 1 Brooklyn

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