Hi Readers!

I'm introducing a new feature to our blog - each week I'll post some new titles for you to refresh your reading list, and links to bookish websites. Enjoy!
The titles below have been published in the last few weeks. Emmet O'Neal owns copies, but they may be checked out. Click on the title to be taken to the library's website where you can check the status of the book and place a hold. In most cases we have multiple copies of the books available in multiple formats!

 The Apple Orchard by Susan Wiggs New York Times bestselling author Susan Wiggs brings listeners to the lush abundance of Sonoma County in a novel of sisters, friendship and how memories are woven like a spell around us. Tess Delaney makes a living restoring stolen treasures to their rightful owners. People like Annelise Winther, who refuses to sell her long-gone mother’s beloved necklace — despite Tess’s advice. To Annelise, the jewel’s value is in its memories. But Tess’s own history is filled with gaps: a father she never met, a mother who spent more time traveling than with her daughter. So Tess is shocked when she discovers the grandfather she never knew is in a coma. And that she has been named in his will to inherit half of Bella Vista, a hundred-acre apple orchard in the magical Sonoma town called Archangel. The rest is willed to Isabel Johansen. A half sister she’s never heard of. Against the rich landscape of Bella Vista, Tess begins to discover a world filled with the simple pleasures of food and family, of the warm earth beneath her bare feet. A world where family comes first and the roots of history run deep. A place where falling in love is not only possible, but inevitable. And in a season filled with new experiences, Tess begins to see the truth in something Annelise once told her: if you don’t believe memories are worth more than money, then perhaps you’ve not made the right kind of memories. From one of America’s most beloved writers, The Apple Orchard is a story of family ties — both old and new — and of the moments that connect our hearts.
 –-Publisher’s Summary

Best Kept Secret by Jeffrey Archer Jeffrey Archer's mesmerizing saga of the Clifton and Barrington families continues...
1945, London. The vote in the House of Lords as to who should inherit the Barrington family fortune has ended in a tie. The Lord Chancellor's deciding vote will cast a long shadow on the lives of Harry Clifton and Giles Barrington. Harry returns to America to promote his latest novel, while his beloved Emma goes in search of the little girl who was found abandoned in her father's office on the night he was killed. When the general election is called, Giles Barrington has to defend his seat in the House of Commons and is horrified to discover who the Conservatives select to stand against him. But it is Sebastian Clifton, Harry and Emma's son, who ultimately influences his uncle's fate.
-Publisher’s Summary

Inferno by Dan Brown
In the heart of Italy, Harvard professor of symbology Robert Langdon is drawn into a harrowing world centered on one of history’s most enduring and mysterious literary masterpieces . . . Dante’s Inferno.

Against this backdrop, Langdon battles a chilling adversary and grapples with an ingenious riddle that pulls him into a landscape of classic art, secret passageways, and futuristic science. Drawing from Dante’s dark epic poem, Langdon races to find answers and decide whom to trust . . . before the world is irrevocably altered.
-Publisher’s Summary

Wedding Night by Sophie Kinsella
Lottie just knows that her boyfriend is going to propose during lunch at one of London’s fanciest restaurants. But when his big question involves a trip abroad, not a trip down the aisle, she’s completely crushed. So when Ben, an old flame, calls her out of the blue and reminds Lottie of their pact to get married if they were both still single at thirty, she jumps at the chance. No formal dates—just a quick march to the altar and a honeymoon on Ikonos, the sun-drenched Greek island where they first met years ago.
 
Their family and friends are horrified. Fliss, Lottie’s older sister, knows that Lottie can be impulsive—but surely this is her worst decision yet. And Ben’s colleague Lorcan fears that this hasty marriage will ruin his friend’s career. To keep Lottie and Ben from making a terrible mistake, Fliss concocts an elaborate scheme to sabotage their wedding night. As she and Lorcan jet off to Ikonos in pursuit, Lottie and Ben are in for a honeymoon to remember, for better . . . or worse.
-Publisher’s Summary
Let’s Explore Diabetes With Owls by David Sedaris  A guy walks into a bar and...
From here the story could take many turns. When this guy is David Sedaris, the possibilities are endless, but the result is always the same: he will both delight you with twists of humor and intelligence and leave you deeply moved. 

Sedaris remembers his father's dinnertime attire (shirtsleeves and underpants), his first colonoscopy (remarkably pleasant), and the time he considered buying the skeleton of a murdered Pygmy. 

With Let's Explore Diabetes with Owls, David Sedaris shows once again why his work has been called "hilarious, elegant, and surprisingly moving" (Washington Post).

NOS4A2 by Joe Hill
NOS4A2 is a spine-tingling novel of supernatural suspense from master of horror Joe Hill, the New York Times bestselling author of Heart-Shaped Box and Horns.Victoria McQueen has a secret gift for finding things: a misplaced bracelet, a missing photograph, answers to unanswerable questions. On her Raleigh Tuff Burner bike, she makes her way to a rickety covered bridge that, within moments, takes her wherever she needs to go, whether it’s across Massachusetts or across the country.Charles Talent Manx has a way with children. He likes to take them for rides in his 1938 Rolls-Royce Wraith with the NOS4A2 vanity plate. With his old car, he can slip right out of the everyday world, and onto the hidden roads that transport them to an astonishing – and terrifying – playground of amusements he calls “Christmasland.”

Then, one day, Vic goes looking for trouble—and finds Manx. That was a lifetime ago. Now Vic, the only kid to ever escape Manx’s unmitigated evil, is all grown up and desperate to forget. But Charlie Manx never stopped thinking about Victoria McQueen. He’s on the road again and he’s picked up a new passenger: Vic’s own son.-Publisher's Summary

Last, but not least, check out these links to reading ideas from all over the internet:
National Geographic’s Best Travel Books for Spring
Publisher’s Weekly – Most Anticipated Books for Spring 2013
USA Today’s List of Books You Should Read In May
Enjoy your reading!-katie m.

Good Morning Readers!

I wanted to give you an update on a film series we have hosted over the last month that is coming to an end. During the month of April we partnered with The Birmingham International Center and The Birmingham Holocaust Education Center to present a free film series.

On Monday, May 6, we will screen the final movie entitled The Passenger (Pasazerka). This 58 minute film released in Poland in 1963 opens with a German matron taking an ocean voyage with her husband. While roaming the deck, she spots a passenger she thinks she recognizes. The passenger had been an inmate at Auschwitz, where Slaska served as a guard. An alternately realistic and illusory study in guilt and retribution, this film was halfway through production in 1961 when its director, Andrzej Munk, was killed in an auto accident. Munk's friends loyally completed the project, bridging a few scenes with still pictures.

The film will begin at 6:30 p.m. in the Library's Meeting Room. As with our other films in the series, we will have an introduction prior to the movie led by Dr. Andre Millard, Professor of History at UAB. After the film, Dr. Millard will lead a brief discussion. In the photo below you can see our previous discussion leader, Dr. Andrew Demshuk, Assistant Professor of History at UAB. Thanks to interesting films and lively discussion, we have had great crowds, averaging between 50-75 people at each program!

For more information on this film, please contact us at the Reference Desk at 205-445-1121. We hope you will join us!

-katie m.

Our next meeting will be on Tuesday, May 1, 2013 at 6:30pm in the Library’s Conference Room and we will be discussing books that have been made into movies.  Additional threads of discussion may include tv shows adapted from books, movies adapted from books, who we’d like to see cast in certain roles, etc.  The sky’s the limit!

Our discussion last evening was about American plays and playwrights.  

The Rainmaker by N. Richard Nash
At the time of a paralyzing drought in the West we discover a girl whose father and two brothers are worried as much about her becoming an old maid as they are about their dying cattle. For the truth is, she is indeed a plain girl. The brothers try every possible scheme to marry her off, but without success. Nor is there any sign of relief from the dry heat. When suddenly from out of nowhere appears a picaresque character with a mellifluous tongue and the most grandiose notions a man could imagine. He claims to be a rainmaker. And he promises to bring rain, for $100. It's a silly idea, but the rainmaker is so refreshing and ingratiating that the family finally consent. Forthwith they begin banging on big brass drums to rattle the sky; while the rainmaker turns his magic on the girl, and persuades her that she has a very real beauty of her own. And she believes it, just as her father believes the fellow can actually bring rain. And rain does come, and so does love. 

Picasso at the Lapin Agile and Other Plays by Steve Martin
Steve Martin is one of America's most treasured actors, having appeared in some of the most popular moves of our time. He is also an accomplished screenwriter who has in the past few years turned his hand to writing plays. The results, collected here, hilariously explore serious questions of love, happiness and the meaning of life; they are rich with equal parts of pain and slapstick humour, torment and wit.

Stories from Jonestown by Leigh Fondakowski
The saga of Jonestown didn’t end on the day in November 1978 when more than nine hundred Americans died in a mass murder-suicide in the Guyanese jungle. While only a handful of people present at the agricultural project survived that day in Jonestown, more than eighty members of Peoples Temple, led by Jim Jones, were elsewhere in Guyana on that day, and thousands more members of the movement still lived in California. 

Emmy-nominated writer Leigh Fondakowski, who is best known for her work on the play and HBO film The Laramie Project, spent three years traveling the United States to interview these survivors, many of whom have never talked publicly about the tragedy. Using more than two hundred hours of interview material, Fondakowski creates intimate portraits of these survivors as they tell their unforgettable stories.

Collectively this is a record of ordinary people, stigmatized as cultists, who after the Jonestown massacre were left to deal with their grief, reassemble their lives, and try to make sense of how a movement born in a gospel of racial and social justice could have gone so horrifically wrong—taking with it the lives of their sons and daughters, husbands and wives, fathers and mothers, and brothers and sisters. As these survivors look back, we learn what led them to join the Peoples Temple movement, what life in the church was like, and how the trauma of Jonestown’s end still affects their lives decades later.

What emerges are portrayals both haunting and hopeful—of unimaginable sadness, guilt, and shame but also resilience and redemption. Weaving her own artistic journey of discovery throughout the book in a compelling historical context, Fondakowski delivers, with both empathy and clarity, one of the most gripping, moving, and humanizing accounts of Jonestown ever written.

Doubt by John Patrick Shanley
In this brilliant and powerful drama, Sister Aloysius, a Bronx school principal, takes matters into her own hands when she suspects the young Father Flynn of improper relations with one of the male students.

GENERAL DISCUSSION: The reader mentioned that “Doubt” is on about 58 pages long and yet a full length play AND feature length film have been adapted from it.  F. Scott Fitzgerald’s short story, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, despite its brevity, was also adapted to a lengthy feature film.

Arsenic and Old Lace by Joseph Kesselring
The play, a clever combination of the farcical and the macabre, centers on two elderly sisters who are famous in their Brooklyn neighborhood for their numerous acts of charity. Unfortunately, however, their charity includes poisoning lonely old men who come to their home looking for lodging. The two women are assisted in their crimes by their mentally challenged nephew who believes he is Teddy Roosevelt and who frequently blasts a bugle and yells "charge" as he bounds up the stairs. Matters get complicated when a second nephew, a theater critic, discovers the murders and a third nephew appears after having just escaped from a mental institution. In his adroit mixture of comedy and mayhem, Kesselring satirizes the charitable impulse as he pokes fun at the conventions of the theater.

My Name is Julia by Kathryn Tucker Windham
Kathryn Tucker Windham, who grew up in Thomasville, Alabama, lived in Selma, Alabama.  She told stories in 28 states as well as in Canada and Germany; wrote 26 books in addition to the publication of telling her stories in numerous audiocassettes and compact discs; Recipient of the Helen Keller Literary Award; Recipient of President’s Award for Service to Alabama Libraries; Recipient of the Storytelling Circle of Excellence Award; Recipient of the Lifetime Achievement Award from the National Storytelling Association. 

Some of her best storytelling ventures have been as an actress…especially in the one-woman she wrote, produced, and acted in, My Name Is Julia, about pioneering social reformer Julia Tutwiler, Kathryn Tucker Windham was also an accomplished photographer, renowned historian, popular public television and radio personality. As a contributor to National Public Radio, Kathryn Tucker Windham won national acclaim for her segments for “All Things Considered.”

Wicked: the Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West by Gregory Maguire
This is the book that started it all! The basis for the smash hit Tony Award-winning Broadway musical, Gregory Maguire's breathtaking New York Times bestseller Wicked views the land of Oz, its inhabitants, its Wizard, and the Emerald City, through a darker and greener (not rosier) lens. Brilliantly inventive, Wicked offers us a radical new evaluation of one of the most feared and hated characters in all of literature: the much maligned Wicked Witch of the West who, as Maguire tells us, wasn’t nearly as Wicked as we imagined.

The Book of Mormon: The Testament of the Broadway Musical by Trey Parker, Robert Lopez and Matt Stone
The biggest Broadway hit in decades—the brilliant brainchild of South Park creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone, and Avenue Q co-creator Robert Lopez—The Book of Mormon is delighting theatergoers nightly with its outrageous irreverent humor and surprising heart. Cleverly designed in the same fun spirit as the show, this official, full-color illustrated coffee table book takes readers behind the scenes with stories from the cast, creators, and crew. Included are the complete book and lyrics to the smash hit Broadway musical, extensively annotated, plus an original introduction by theater critic and author author Steven Suskin about the creation of the show that Rolling Stone declares "is on its march into legend."

The Book of Mormon Script Book: The Complete Book and Lyrics of the Broadway Musical by Trey Parker, Robert Lopez and Matt Stone
The only official companion book to the Tony Award winner for Best Musical from the creators ofSouth Park and the co-creator of Avenue Q. Features the complete script and song lyrics, with 4-color spot illustrations throughout, an original introduction by the creators, and a foreword by Mark Harris.

The Book of Mormon, which follows a pair of mismatched Mormon boys sent on a mission to a place that's about as far from Salt Lake City as you can get, features book, music, and lyrics by Trey Parker, Robert Lopez and Matt Stone.
Parker and Stone are the four-time Emmy Award–winning creators of Comedy Central's landmark animated series South Park. Tony Award–winner Lopez is co-creator of the long-running hit musical comedy Avenue Q. The Book of Mormon is choreographed by three-time Tony Award–nominee Casey Nicholaw (Monty Python's Spamalot, The Drowsy Chaperone) and is directed by Nicholaw and Parker.

The book includes • an original foreword by journalist Mark Harris (author of Pictures at a Revolution) • an original introduction by the authors on the genesis of the show • a production history • the complete book and lyrics, with four-color spot illustrations throughout.

Angels in America: A Gay Fantasia on National Themes (Part 1: Millennium Approaches, Part 2: Perestroika) by Tony Kushner
Set in New York City in the mid-1980s, Act One introduces us to the central characters. Louis Ironson is a Jewish homosexual living with his lover, Prior Walter. When Prior contracts Aids, Louis, unable to cope with the strain, moves out. Meanwhile, closeted Mormon and Republican clerk Joe Pitt, is offered a major promotion by his mentor: Roy Cohn. As the play progresses, Prior finds himself being visited by ghosts and angels. Joe, realizing he might be gay, finds himself struggling to reconcile his religion with his sexuality; Louis deals with his remorse and guilt at abandoning Prior; Joe's mother Hannah moves to New York to look after Joe's wife, Harper; and Roy finds himself in hospital, his only companions being his nurse Belize, an ex-drag queen and good friend of Prior, and the ghost of Communist Ethel Rosenberg.

Elephant’s Graveyard by George Brant
Winner of the 2008 Keene Prize for Literature 
Winner of the 2008 David Mark Cohen National Playwriting Award Elephant's Graveyard is the true tale of the tragic collision of a struggling circus and a tiny town in Tennessee, which resulted in the only known lynching of an elephant. Set in September of 1916, the play combines historical fact and legend, exploring the deep-seated American craving for spectacle, violence and revenge. 

Long Day’s Journey Into Night by Eugene O’Neill
Long Day's Journey into Nightis a drama in four acts written by American playwright Eugene O'Neill in 1941–42 but only published in 1956. The play is widely considered to be his masterwork. O'Neill posthumously received the 1957 Pulitzer Prize for Drama for the work.  The action covers a fateful, heart-rending day from around 8:30 am to midnight, in August 1912 at the seaside Connecticut home of the Tyrones - the semi-autobiographical representations of O'Neill himself, his older brother, and their parents at their home, Monte Cristo Cottage.

One theme of the play is addiction and the resulting dysfunction of the family. All three males are alcoholics and Mary is addicted to morphine. In the play the characters conceal, blame, resent, regret, accuse and deny in an escalating cycle of conflict with occasional desperate and sincere attempts at affection, encouragement and consolation.

GENERAL DISCUSSION: Long Day’s Journey Into Night is a brilliant, but inky dark work about a dysfunctional family.  Margaret Atwood’s short story, Stone Mattress, is just as dark, but also equally powerful. 

That's what we talked about.  What are YOU reading?

This Sunday, April 14, marks the beginning of a new film series at Emmet O’Neal Library. During the months of April and May, the Library will co host a Holocaust in Poland film series along with the Birmingham International Center and the Birmingham Holocaust Education Center. 
Our first film, directed by Agnieszka Holland in 2012, is based on true events. It tells the story of Leopold Socha, a Catholic sewer worker in the Polish city of Lvov, who uses his knowledge of the city’s sewer system to shelter a group of Jews in the Lvov Ghetto. What starts out as a straightforward and cynical business arrangement turns into something very unexpected, the unlikely alliance between Socha and the Jews. The film is also an extraordinary story of survivals as these men, women and children all try to outwit certain death during the 14 months of ever increasing and intense danger.



The films we will show are Rated R and are intended for adult audiences. Each week a professor of film studies from UAB will introduce the films and lead a discussion. This Sunday’s discussion will be lead by Dr. Andrew Demshuk, Assistant Professor of History.
Future films to be screened are:
Tuesday, April 23 - 6:30 p.m. - Discussion led by Dr. Andrew Demshuk
The Last Chapter Available from the National Center for Jewish Film
Directed by Benjamin Rothman and Lawrence Rothman, this film presents a sweeping history of Jewish life in Poland, depicting the richness of Jewish culture both religious and secular: the shtetl and the city dwellers; the contributions of Jews to Polish life; and the extreme economic and political vicissitudes to which Polish Jewry  was subject over a thousand year period.
 “The Last Chapter evokes the fragrance of a way of life that took a millennium to evolve and six years to destroy." -Newsweek

Tuesday, April 30 - 6:30 p.m. -  Discussion led by Dr. Andrew Demshuk
Long Is The RoadAvailable from the National Center for Jewish Film
This 1948 film is the first to represent the Holocaust from a Jewish perspective. Made by and about Jewish displaced persons, the film was shot on location at Landsberg, the largest DP camp in U.S.-occupied Germany. The film follows a Polish Jew and his family from the thriving Jewish community of prewar Warsaw through the horrors of Auschwitz to the frustrations and instability of refugee life in the DP camps, and culminates in the emergence of a hope for rebirth and renewal in Israel. 
Spirit of Freedom Award, 1996 Jerusalem Film Festival.

Monday, May 6 - 6:30 p.m. - Discussion led by Dr. Andre Millard, Professor of History, UAB
The Passenger (Pasazerka)Available from Second Run DVD
Aleksandra Slaska portrays a German matron taking an ocean voyage with her husband. While roaming the deck, she spots a passenger she thinks she recognizes. The passenger had been an inmate at Auschwitz, where Slaska served as a guard. An alternately realistic and illusory study in guilt and retribution, this film was halfway through production in 1961 when its director, Andrzej Munk, was killed in an auto accident. Munk's friends loyally completed the project, bridging a few scenes with still pictures. Released in Poland, 1963; the U.S. in 1970.

A funny thing has happened behind the Reference Desk - there is an entire shelf of those soft black Nook cases lined up just waiting to jump off the shelf and into the hands of an eager reader.

Since we rolled out our first lendable Nooks last November, you'd be hard pressed to walk in and find one on the shelf. Our lendable Nooks have been popular with all kinds of readers including seasoned ebook readers, readers wanting to try an e-reader device for the first time, and readers that don't want to carry around heavy hardcovers (how else can you read Winter of the World without straining your forearms?).

We heard your pleas for more Nooks and have answered the call. Our new batch of Nooks include the addition of second Suspense, Mystery, and Nonfiction Nooks and a third Literary/Book Group as well as new genre Nooks including Historical Fiction, Romance, and a particular favorite genre of our adult librarians, Horror/Gothic. Click here to view all of the lendable Adult Nooks.

Nooks are pre-loaded with 10-15 titles and are available for a three week checkout. Patrons must be 15 years of age to check out a Nook and must present a valid Jefferson County Library card and valid photo ID at the time of checkout. You can place a hold on a Nook by calling the Reference Desk at 445-1121 or you can find our Nooks online here on the Lendable Nooks page at www.eolib.org.

Our next meeting will be on Tuesday, April 30th at 6:30pm and the topic of discussion will be American plays and playwrights.
Twice each year the Genre Reading Group (GRG) holds a good, old fashioned literary salon.  There is no assigned topic.  Each member is encouraged to bring any boo(s) of their choice to share with the group.  This year those salons fall in March, with another to follow in the fall.  These meetings frequently end up being some of my favorite of the year because of the variety of titles GRG members bring to the table.
The SecretRace: Inside the Hidden World of the Tour de France, Doping, Cover-Ups, andWinning at All Costs by Tyler Hamilton and Daniel Coyle
The Secret Race is a definitive look at the world of professional cycling—and the doping issue surrounding this sport and its most iconic rider, Lance Armstrong—by former Olympic gold medalist Tyler Hamilton and New York Times bestselling author Daniel Coyle.Over the course of two years, Coyle conducted more than two hundred hours of interviews with Hamilton and spoke candidly with numerous teammates, rivals, and friends. The result is an explosive book that takes us, for the first time, deep inside a shadowy, fascinating, and surreal world of unscrupulous doctors, anything-goes team directors, and athletes so relentlessly driven to succeed that they would do anything—and take any risk, physical, mental, or moral—to gain the edge they need to win. Tyler Hamilton was once one of the world’s best-liked and top-ranked cyclists—a fierce competitor renowned among his peers for his uncanny endurance and epic tolerance for pain. In the 2003 Tour de France, he finished fourth despite breaking his collarbone in the early stages—and grinding eleven of his teeth down to the nerves along the way. He started his career with the U.S. Postal Service team in the 1990s and quickly rose to become Lance Armstrong’s most trusted lieutenant, and a member of his inner circle. For the first three of Armstrong’s record seven Tour de France victories, Hamilton was by Armstrong’s side, clearing his way. But just weeks after Hamilton reached his own personal pinnacle—winning the gold medal at the 2004 Olympics—his career came to a sudden, ignominious end: He was found guilty of doping and exiled from the sport. From the exhilaration of his early, naïve days in the peloton, Hamilton chronicles his ascent to the uppermost reaches of this unforgiving sport. In the mid-1990s, the advent of a powerful new blood-boosting drug called EPO reshaped the world of cycling, and a relentless, win-at-any-cost ethos took root. Its psychological toll would drive many of the sport’s top performers to substance abuse, depression, even suicide. For the first time ever, Hamilton recounts his own battle with clinical depression, speaks frankly about the agonizing choices that go along with the decision to compete at a world-class level, and tells the story of his complicated relationship with Lance Armstrong. A journey into the heart of a never-before-seen world, The Secret Race is a riveting, courageous act of witness from a man who is as determined to reveal the hard truth about his sport as he once was to win the Tour de France.Canada by Richard Ford

The only writer ever to win both the Pulitzer Prize and Pen/Faulkner Award for a single novel (Independence Day) Richard Ford follows the completion of his acclaimed Bascombe trilogy with Canada. After a five-year hiatus, an undisputed American master delivers a haunting and elemental novel about the cataclysm that undoes one teenage boy’s family, and the stark and unforgiving landscape in which he attempts to find grace.A powerful and unforgettable tale of the violence lurking at the heart of the world, Richard Ford’s Canadawill resonate long and loud for readers of stark and sweeping novels of American life, from the novels of Cheever and Carver to the works of Philip Roth, Charles Frazier, Richard Russo, and Jonathan Franzen.Two Graves by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child

For twelve years, he believed she died in an accident. Then, he was told she'd been murdered. Now, FBI Special Agent Aloysius Pendergast discovers that his beloved wife Helen is alive. But their reunion is cut short when Helen is brazenly abducted before his eyes. And Pendergast is forced to embark on a furious cross-country chase to rescue her.But all this turns out to be mere prologue to a far larger plot: one that unleashes a chillingly-almost supernaturally-adept serial killer on New York City. And Helen has one more surprise in store for Pendergast: a piece of their shared past that makes him the one man most suited to hunting down the killer.His pursuit of the murderer will take Pendergast deep into the trackless forests of South America, to a hidden place where the evil that has blighted both his and Helen's lives lies in wait . . . a place where he will learn all too well the truth of the ancient proverb: before you embark on a journey of revenge, dig two graves.Code Name Verity by Elizabeth Wein

Oct. 11th, 1943—A British spy plane crashes in Nazi-occupied France. Its pilot and passenger are best friends. One of the girls has a chance at survival. The other has lost the game before it's barely begun.When “Verity” is arrested by the Gestapo, she's sure she doesn’t stand a chance. As a secret agent captured in enemy territory, she’s living a spy’s worst nightmare. Her Nazi interrogators give her a simple choice: reveal her mission or face a grisly execution.As she intricately weaves her confession, Verity uncovers her past, how she became friends with the pilot Maddie, and why she left Maddie in the wrecked fuselage of their plane. On each new scrap of paper, Verity battles for her life, confronting her views on courage, failure and her desperate hope to make it home. But will trading her secrets be enough to save her from the enemy? A Michael L. Printz AwardHonor book that was called “a fiendishly-plotted mind game of a novel” in The New York Times, Code Name Verity is a visceral read of danger, resolve, and survival that shows just how far true friends will go to save each other.The Boy in the Suitcase by Lene Kaaberbol and Agnete Friis

Nina Borg, a Red Cross nurse, wife, and mother of two, is a compulsive do-gooder who can't say no when someone asks for help—even when she knows better. When her estranged friend Karin leaves her a key to a public locker in the Copenhagen train station, Nina gets suckered into her most dangerous project yet. Inside the locker is a suitcase, and inside the suitcase is a three-year-old boy: naked and drugged, but alive. Is the boy a victim of child trafficking? Can he be turned over to authorities, or will they only return him to whoever sold him? When Karin is discovered brutally murdered, Nina realizes that her life and the boy's are in jeopardy, too. In an increasingly desperate trek across Denmark, Nina tries to figure out who the boy is, where he belongs, and who exactly is trying to hunt him down.Lulu Walks the Dogs by Judith Viorst, illustrated by Lane SmithFeisty Lulu sets out to earn some cash in this illustrated chapter book from children’s book legends Judith Viorst and Lane Smith.The stubbornly hilarious Lulu has decided it’s time to buckle down and earn some cash. How else can she save up enough money to buy the very special thing that she is ALWAYS and FOREVER going to want? After some failed attempts at lucrative gigs (baking cookies, spying, reading to old people), dog walking seems like a sensible choice. But Brutus, Pookie, and Cordelia are not interested in making the job easy, and the infuriatingly helpful neighborhood goody-goody, Fleischman, has Lulu at the end of her rope. And with three wild dogs at the other end, Lulu’s patience is severely tested. Will she ever make a friend—or the money she needs?In this standalone sequel to Lulu and the Brontosaurus, industry legends Judith Viorst and Lane Smith once again prove that even the loudest, rudest, and most obstinate of girls can win us over.Three Times Lucky by Sheila TurnageA hilarious Southern debut with the kind of characters you meet once in a lifetimeRising sixth grader Miss Moses LoBeau lives in the small town of Tupelo Landing, NC, where everyone's business is fair game and no secret is sacred. She washed ashore in a hurricane eleven years ago, and she's been making waves ever since. Although Mo hopes someday to find her "upstream mother," she's found a home with the Colonel--a café owner with a forgotten past of his own--and Miss Lana, the fabulous café hostess. She will protect those she loves with every bit of her strong will and tough attitude. So when a lawman comes to town asking about a murder, Mo and her best friend, Dale Earnhardt Johnson III, set out to uncover the truth in hopes of saving the only family Mo has ever known.Full of wisdom, humor, and grit, this timeless yarn will melt the heart of even the sternest Yankee.Floors by Patrick CarmanCharlie had his chocolate factory. Stanley Yelnats had his holes. Leo has the wacky, amazing Whippet Hotel.The Whippet Hotel is a strange place full of strange and mysterious people. Each floor has its own quirks and secrets. Leo should know most of them - he is the maintenance man's son, after all. But a whole lot more mystery gets thrown his way when a series of cryptic boxes are left for him . . . boxes that lead him to hidden floors, strange puzzles, and unexpected alliances. Leo had better be quick on his feet, because the fate of the building he loves is at stake . . . and so is Leo's own future!GENERAL DISCUSSION:  This group of YA and children’s titles got us on the subject of reading, as adults, literature intended for children.  I have put a variety of YA/children’s lit on the list of topics to be voted on in the fall since we’ve all expressed interest and curiosity about going back and reading some childhood favorites as well as what is popular now with younger readers.  I came across a great article on Facebook from Horn Book about the pleasures, but also the down side, of reading up(reading ahead of your “age group”). SweetTooth: The Bittersweet History of Candy by Kate HopkinsA cultural history of candy—how it evolved from medicine and a luxury to today's Kit Kat bars and M&M'sTold through the Kate Hopkins' travels in Europe and the U.S., Sweet Tooth is a first-hand account of her obsession with candy and a detailed look at its history and development. The sugary treats we enjoy today have a prominent past entertaining kings, curing the ill, and later developing into a billion-dollar industry. The dark side of this history is that the confectionery industry has helped create an environment of unhealthy overindulgence, has quelled any small business competition that was deemed to be a risk to any large company's bottom line, and was largely responsible for the slave trade that evolved during the era of colonization.Candy's history is vast and complex and plays a distinct part in the growth of the Western world. Thanks to the ubiquity of these treats which allows us to take them for granted, that history has been hidden or forgotten. Until now. Filled with Hopkins' trademark humor and accompanied by her Candy Grab Bag tasting notes, Sweet Tooth is a must-read for everybody who considers themselves a candy freak.Fading Ads of Birmingham by Charles BuchananThe fading advertisements on the walls of Birmingham paint an illuminating picture of the men and women who built an industrial boomtown in the first half of the twentieth century. Experience the disappearing art and see what these commercial creations looked like with fresh paint. Discover the stories behind the wares they hawked, the buildings they adorned and the streets they overlooked. Which soft drink helped you "get wise"? Where could you store a piano in the 1920s, and what gum should you chew for indigestion? Advertising expert, artist and writer Charles Buchanan unravels the mysteries behind Birmingham's ghost signs to reveal glimpses of the past now hidden in plain sight.Vintage Birmingham Signs by Tim HollisMost people do not stop to realize how many of their fond memories involve advertising signs. Although these neon spectaculars, billboards, and even signs painted directly onto brick walls were created expressly to persuade customers to buy products or patronize businesses, many such signs remained in place for so long that they became beloved landmarks in their own right. For Images of America: Vintage Birmingham Signs, Tim Hollis has scoured the archives of Birmingham's former sign companies, as well as other private collections, to compile some of the best remembered or most obscure signs that dotted the urban and suburban landscape. Here readers will again see the Buffalo Rock bottle pouring its ginger ale into a glass, the Golden Flake clown smiling down at passersby, the Barber's milk clock at the Five Points South intersection, and many more. Through these vintage photographs, readers can once again visit such once-thriving destinations as Eastwood Mall, Burger in a Hurry, and the Kiddieland amusement park.Fifty Shades of Chicken: AParody in a Cookbook by F.L. FowlerDripping Thighs, Sticky Chicken Fingers, Vanilla Chicken, Chicken with a Lardon, Bacon-Bound Wings, Spatchcock Chicken, Learning-to-Truss-You Chicken, Holy Hell Wings, Mustard-Spanked Chicken, and more, more, more! Fifty chicken recipes, each more seductive than the last, in a book that makes every dinner a turn-on.   “I want you to see this. Then you’ll know everything. It’s a cookbook,” he says and opens to some recipes, with color photos. “I want to prepare you, very much.” This isn’t just about getting me hot till my juices run clear, and then a little rest. There’s pulling, jerking, stuffing, trussing. Fifty preparations. He promises we’ll start out slow, with wine and a good oiling . . . Holy crap. “I will control everything that happens here,” he says. “You can leave anytime, but as long as you stay, you’re my ingredient.” I’ll be transformed from a raw, organic bird into something—what? Something delicious. So begins the adventures of Miss Chicken, a young free-range, from raw innocence to golden brown ecstasy, in this spoof-in-a-cookbook that simmers in the afterglow of E.L. James’ssensational Fifty Shades of Grey trilogy. Like Anastasia Steele, Miss Chicken finds herself at the mercy of a dominating man, in this case, a wealthy, sexy, and very hungry chef.  And before long, from unbearably slow drizzling to trussing, Miss Chicken discovers the sheer thrill of becoming the main course. A parody in three acts—“The Novice Bird” (easy recipes for roasters), “Falling to Pieces” (parts perfect for weeknight meals), and “Advanced Techniques” (the climax of cooking)—Fifty Shades of Chicken is a cookbook of fifty irresistible, repertoire-boosting chicken dishes that will leave you hungry for more.With memorable tips and revealing photographs, Fifty Shades of Chicken will have you dominating dinner.Why Can’t I Be You by Allie LarkinAt one time or another, everyone has wished they could be someone else. Exploring this universal longing, Allie Larkin follows up the success of her debut novel, Stay, with a moving portrait of friendship and identity. When Jenny Shaw hears someone shout “Jessie!” across a hotel lobby, she impulsively answers. All her life, Jenny has toed the line, but something propels her to seize the opportunity to become Jessie Morgan, a woman to whom she bears an uncanny resemblance. Lonely in her own life, Jenny is embraced by Jessie’s warm circle of friends—and finds unexpected romance. But when she delves into Jessie’s past, Jenny discovers a secret that spurs her to take another leap into the unknown.The Sparrow by Mary Doria RussellThe Sparrow, an astonishing literary debut, takes you on a journey to a distant planet and to the center of the human soul.  It is the story of charismatic Jesuit priest and linguist, Emilio Sandoz, who leads a 21stcentury scientific mission to a newly discovered extraterrestrial culture.  Sandoz and his companions are prepared to endure isolation, hardship and death, but nothing can prepare them for the civilization they encounter, or for the tragic misunderstanding that brings the mission to a catastrophic end.  Once considered a living saint, Sandoz returns alone to Earth physically and spiritually maimed, the missions’ sole survivor—only to be accused of heinous crimes and blamed for the mission’s failure.  In clean, effortless prose and with captivating flashes of wit, Russell creates memorable characters who navigate a world of exciting ideas and disturbing moral issues without ever losing their humanity or humor.  Both heartbreaking and triumphant, and rich in literary pleasures great and small, The Sparrow is a powerful and haunting book.  It is a magical novel as literate as The Nameof the Rose, as farsighted as The Handmaid’s Tale and as readable as The ThornBirds. Where’d You Go, Bernadetteby Maria SempleBernadette Fox is notorious. To her Microsoft-guru husband, she's a fearlessly opinionated partner; to fellow private-school mothers in Seattle, she's a disgrace; to design mavens, she's a revolutionary architect, and to 15-year-old Bee, she is a best friend and, simply, Mom.Then Bernadette disappears. It began when Bee aced her report card and claimed her promised reward: a family trip to Antarctica. But Bernadette's intensifying allergy to Seattle--and people in general--has made her so agoraphobic that a virtual assistant in India now runs her most basic errands. A trip to the end of the earth is problematic.To find her mother, Bee compiles email messages, official documents, secret correspondence--creating a compulsively readable and touching novel about misplaced genius and a mother and daughter's role in an absurd world.Ready Player One by Ernest ClineAt once wildly original and stuffed with irresistible nostalgia, Ready Player One is a spectacularly genre-busting, ambitious, and charming debut—part quest novel, part love story, and part virtual space opera set in a universe where spell-slinging mages battle giant Japanese robots, entire planets are inspired by Blade Runner, and flying DeLoreans achieve light speed.It’s the year 2044, and the real world is an ugly place. Like most of humanity, Wade Watts escapes his grim surroundings by spending his waking hours jacked into the OASIS, a sprawling virtual utopia that lets you be anything you want to be, a place where you can live and play and fall in love on any of ten thousand planets. And like most of humanity, Wade dreams of being the one to discover the ultimate lottery ticket that lies concealed within this virtual world. For somewhere inside this giant networked playground, OASIS creator James Halliday has hidden a series of fiendish puzzles that will yield massive fortune—and remarkable power—to whoever can unlock them.   For years, millions have struggled fruitlessly to attain this prize, knowing only that Halliday’s riddles are based in the pop culture he loved—that of the late twentieth century. And for years, millions have found in this quest another means of escape, retreating into happy, obsessive study of Halliday’s icons. Like many of his contemporaries, Wade is as comfortable debating the finer points of John Hughes’s oeuvre, playing Pac-Man, or reciting Devo lyrics as he is scrounging power to run his OASIS rig.And then Wade stumbles upon the first puzzle.Suddenly the whole world is watching, and thousands of competitors join the hunt—among them certain powerful players who are willing to commit very real murder to beat Wade to this prize. Now the only way for Wade to survive and preserve everything he knows is to win. But to do so, he may have to leave behind his oh-so-perfect virtual existence and face up to life—and love—in the real world he’s always been so desperate to escape.  A world at stake. A quest for the ultimate prize. Are you ready?
That's what we've read.  What are YOU reading?

Our next meeting will be on Tuesday, March 26th at 6:30pm and the topic is our first Salon Discussion of the year!  With our Salon Discussion there is no assigned genre and participants are welcome to read and discuss ANY book of their choice.

On to our discussion last evening!

The Old West...what a fascinating time in American history!  Social, technological, economic, and political changes, both good and bad, were coming faster and faster while the entire country was on the cusp of emerging into the 20th century.

Before I get to the list of books we discussed, here are a couple of websites with interesting tidbits.

According to its Facebook page, Decaying Hollywood Mansions is "a fan site dedicated to the decaying, decrepit, crepuscular ruins of Gothic Hollywood & the wild & woolly history of cinema."  DHM also has a blog, which is where I stumbled across this great post about film cowboys and their wonder horses.

In May of last year, the British site Daily Mail Online published some stunning sepia pictures of the American West.  The photos, the first taken of the Old West, are an amazing glimpse into the lives of the early towns, settlements, and landscapes to be found there.

The books we discussed:

Far From Home: Families of the Westward Journey by Lillian Schlissel, Byrd Gibbens, and Elizabeth Hampsten
Takes a look at the human cost of the cross continental trek. Using letters and diaries, the author pieces together the sagas of 3 families of the mid-19th to the early 20th centuries who ventured West.

The Poker Bride: The First Chinese in the Wild West by Christopher Corbett
When gold rush fever gripped the globe in 1849, thousands of Chinese immigrants came through San Francisco on their way to seek their fortunes. They were called sojourners, for they never intended to stay. In The Poker Bride, Christopher Corbett uses a little-known legend from Idaho lore as a lens into this Chinese experience. Before 1849, the Chinese in the United States were little more than curiosities. But as word spread of the discovery of gold at Sutter's Mill in California, they soon became a regular sight in the American West. In San Francisco, a labyrinthine Chinatown soon sprang up, a clamorous city within a city full of exotic foods and strange smells, where Chinese women were smuggled into the country, and where the laws were made by "hatchet men." At this time, Polly, a young Chinese concubine, was brought by her owner by steamboat and pack train to a remote mining camp in the highlands of Idaho. There he lost her in a poker game, having wagered his last ounce of gold dust. Polly found her way with her new owner to an isolated ranch on the banks of the Salmon River in central Idaho. As the gold rush receded, it took with it the Chinese miners--or their bones, which were disinterred and shipped back to their homeland in accordance with Chinese custom. But it left behind Polly, who would make headlines when she emerged from the Idaho hills nearly half a century later to visit a modern city and tell her story. Peppered with characters such as Mark Twain and the legendary newswoman Cissy Patterson, The Poker Bride vividly reconstructs a lost period of history when the first Chinese sojourners flooded into the country, and left only glimmering traces of their presence scattered across the American West.

The Snakehead: An Epic Tale of the Chinatown Underworld and the American Dream by Patrick Radden Keefe

In this thrilling panorama of real-life events, Patrick Radden Keefe investigates a secret world run by a surprising criminal: a charismatic middle-aged grandmother, who from a tiny noodle shop in New York’s Chinatown managed a multi-million dollar business smuggling people.

Keefe reveals the inner workings of Sister Ping’s complex empire and recounts the decade-long FBI investigation that eventually brought her down. He follows an often incompetent and sometimes corrupt INS as it pursues desperate immigrants risking everything to come to America, and along the way, he paints a stunning portrait of a generation of illegal immigrants and the intricate underground economy that sustains and exploits them. Grand in scope yet propulsive in narrative force, The Snakehead is both a kaleidoscopic crime story and a brilliant exploration of the ironies of immigration in America.

Wanton West: Madams, Money, Murder, and the Wild Women of Montana's Frontier by Lael Morgan

From the time of the gold rush to the election of the first woman to the U.S. Congress, Wanton West brings to life the women of the West's wildest region: Montana, famous for its lawlessness, boomtowns, and America’s largest red-light districts. Prostitutes and entrepreneurs--like Chicago Joe, Madame Mustache, and Highkicker—flocked to Montana to make their own money, gamble, drink, and raise hell just like men. Moralists wrote them off as “soiled doves,” yet a surprising number prospered, flaunting their freedom and banking ten times more than their “respectable” sisters. A lively read providing new insights into women’s struggle for equality, Wanton West is a refreshingly objective exploration of a freewheeling society and a re-creation of an unforgettable era in history.


The Story of Mary Maclane, By Herself by Mary Maclane
Few books in U.S. History have provoked more outrage and debate than THE STORY OF MARY MACLANE did when it was first published in Chicago in 1902. With unprecedented frankness, the 19-year-old author revealed her utter scorn for conformity and puritanism. "Periodically I fall completely, madly in love with the Devil. He is so fascinating, so strong -- so strong, exactly the sort of man my wooden heart awaits. I would like to throw myself at his head. I would make him a dear little wife....

Wisconsin Death Trip by Michael Lesy

First published in 1973, this remarkable book about life in a small turn-of-the-century Wisconsin town has become a cult classic. Lesy has collected and arranged photographs taken between 1890 and 1910 by a Black River Falls photographer, Charles Van Schaik.  A documentary-type film was also made from this book.  Here is a great Youtube video explaining more about it.

The Writer's Guide to Everyday Life in the Wild West by Candy Moulton
Writers will save hours of valuable research time and bring a richness and historical accuracy to their work as they reference the slice-of-life facts depicted for each of these major time periods. Each book contains descriptions of the period's food and clothes; customs and slang; occupations; common religious and political practices; and other historical details.

The Children's Blizzard by David Laskin
Thousands of impoverished Northern European immigrants were promised that the prairie offered "land, freedom, and hope." The disastrous blizzard of 1888 revealed that their free homestead was not a paradise but a hard, unforgiving place governed by natural forces they neither understood nor controlled, and America’s heartland would never be the same.

True Tales and Amazing Legends of the Old West from the editors of True West Magazine

Much has been written about the west—most of it clouded by exaggeration and fabrication. Since 1953, True West magazine has been devoted to celebrating the West’s true colors, giving the men and women who settled there accurate voices, exploring every triumph and tragedy of their time—and exposing every vice and virtue.

True Tales and Amazing Legends of the Old West commemorates these unforgettable cowboys, Indians, and city slickers through a mix of classic histories and brand-new narratives, all illustrated with photographs—many reproduced here for the first time—of the people and places that gave rise to America’s Western mythology.

With twenty-six stories that blend fact with folklore, this collection abounds with accounts of the famous and the infamous, including Sacagawea, Wild Bill Hickok, Pancho Villa, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, Davy Crockett, and Wyatt Earp. Also here are lesser-known figures whose stories were pivotal to shaping the culture of the era, such as European conquistador Francisco Coronado, rancher “Black Billy” Hill, and fearless lawman Orlando “Rube” Robbins. Other tales recount the wide open plains, lawlessness, drama, mayhem, and promise embodied in the Old West.

Whether you’re a history buff, an Old West devotee, or simply someone who is fascinated by the characters of America’s early years, these timeless tales and photographs epitomize the legendary spirit of what it meant to settle the West.

The Travels of Lewis & Clark by Lara Bergen; illustrated by Patrick O'Brien
Describes the expedition led by Meriwether Lewis and William Clark to explore the unknown western regions of America at the beginning of the nineteenth century.

Crazy Horse: 1842-1877 by Anne M. Todd
Featuring original Native American artwork and authentic language, Anne Todd's biography on Crazy Horse presents the short life of the brave Sioux Chief. Told from the perspective of the Native Americans, Crazy Horse's childhood, rise to prominence, and untimely demise are chronicled in a vivid fashion.

Bill Pickett: Rodeo Ridin' Cowboy by Andrea Davis Pinkney; illustrated by Brian Pinkney
The true sweat-and-dirt tale of the feisty cowboy-child who became the most famous black rodeo performer who ever lived. Includes a note about the history of the black West and a bibliography.

That's what we've been reading.  What are YOU reading?
Holley

You won't want to miss your chance to meet Gabrielle Hamilton, chef and author of "Blood, Bones & Butter," on Saturday, February 23rd! 

She'll give a talk beginning at 9am, with a book signing to follow at 10am. Books will be available for purchase at the signing.  Light refreshments will be served.

The Friends of the Emmet O'Neal Library Book Sale begins with the Preview Party on Thurs, Feb 21st from 6-8pm (open to Friends of EOL members only, $25 memberships will be available at the door).

The Book Sale is open to the public:
Fri, Feb 22nd 10am-5pm
Sat, Feb 23rd 10am-5pm
Sun, Feb 24th 1pm-4pm

Our next meeting will be Tuesday, February 26th at 6:30pm to discuss nonfiction books about the Old West.

Mr. Michener once described himself as a citizen of the world and after last night's Genre Reading Group meeting to discuss his work, I fully believe that.  Michener made the most of his 90 years of life, the details of which you can read on his page on the website for Washington D.C.'s Academy of Achievement.  Highlights include acting as secretary of the Pennsylvania Constitutional Convention, acting as a member of the Advisory Council to NASA, receiving honorary doctorates in five different fields, and receiving the Medal of Freedom, the United States' highest civilian award.  His honors and accolades by no means end there, so visit Michener's Academy of Achievement page to see it all.  What a life!

The Bridges at Toko-Ri
Young and innocent, they came to a place they had barely heard of, prepared for war. They were American fighter pilots, trained but frightened, facing an an enemy they couldn't understand, and waging a war they had to win.

Recessional

In his stunning new novel, bestselling novelist James A. Michener draws on his unparalleled gift for storytelling, his deep understanding of American society, and his own life experiences to illuminate the challenges of aging and the folly of youth in a Florida retirement home known as the Palms.
As the new, young director of the Palms, Andy Zorn suffers no shortage of loving support and wise advice from his "elders," a group of five passionate, outspoken residents who refuse to accept the passive roles that both society and family have handed them. Yet past scandal has driven Zorn to despondency, until he meets an extraordinary young woman in the rehab wing, who has been forced to rebuild her life in the face of crippling injuries. Now Zorn finds himself falling in love--and with the help and gentle jabs from his more mature friends, he discovers a wonderful new purpose in life.

Mexico
Here is the story of an American journalist who travels to Mexico to report on the upcoming duel between two great matadors, but who is ultimately swept up in the dramatic story of his Mexican ancestors. From the brutality and brilliance of the ancients, to the iron fist of the invading Spaniards, to the modern-day Mexicans battling through dust and bloodshed to build a nation upon the ashes of revolution, James Michener weaves it all into an epic human story that ranks with the best of his beloved, bestselling novels.

The Eagle and the Raven
James Michener's narrative based on one of the most exciting periods of American history, when a firebrand renegade from Tennessee, Sam Houston, emigrated to the Mexican state of Texas and helped lead the revolution of 1836. It paints portraits of Houston and his adversary, Santa Anna.

Caravans
In this romantic adventure of wild Afghanistan, master storyteller James Michener mixes the allure of the past with the dangers of today. After an impetuous American girl, Ellen Jasper, marries a young Afghan engineer, her parents hear no word from her. Although she wants freedom to do as she wishes, not even she is sure what that means. In the meantime, she is as good as lost in that wild land, perhaps forever.

Creatures of the Kingdom

In these sixteen wonderful stories, bestselling author James A. Michener lights up nature's most awesome and beguiling handiwork--from the sublime shaping and reshaping of earth's land and seas to the ridiculous armadillo whose assault on a bit of Texas real estate paid off handsomely. Chosen from Michener's most popular books--including one story never before published in paperback--these mini-masterpieces take us deep into the secret lives of animals and the hidden world of nature. In them we hear the music of the spheres and feel the heartbeat of creation.

GENERAL DISCUSSION:

The Drifters
In his triumphant best seller, James Michener unfolds a powerful and poignant drama of six young runaways adrift in a world they have created out of dreams, drugs, and dedication to pleasure. With the sure touch of a master, Michener pulls us into the dark center of their private world, whether it's in Spain, Marrakech, or Mozambique, and exposes the naked nerve ends with shocking candor and infinite compassion.

Chesapeake
Once again James A. Michener brings history to life with this 400-year saga of America's great bay and its Eastern Shore. Following Edmund Steed and his remarkable family, who parallel the settling and forming of the nation, CHESAPEAKE sweeps readers from the unspoiled world of the Native Americans to the voyages of Captain John Smith, the Revolutionary War, and right up to modern times.

The Wheel of Life: A Memoir of Living and Dying by Elisabeth Kubler-Ross
Elisabeth Kübler-Ross, M.D., is the woman who has transformed the way the world thinks about death and dying. Beginning with the groundbreaking publication of the classic psychological study On Death and Dying and continuing through her many books and her years working with terminally ill children, AIDS patients, and the elderly, Kübler-Ross has brought comfort and understanding to millions coping with their own deaths or the deaths of loved ones. Now, at age seventy-one facing her own death, this world-renowned healer tells the story of her extraordinary life. Having taught the world how to die well, she now offers a lesson on how to live well. Her story is an adventure of the heart -- powerful, controversial, inspirational -- a fitting legacy of a powerful life.