Re-read this book for an online MOOC on historical fiction and I didn't like it any better the second time around. The plot device blending present day and historical Salem is interesting, but the modern plot is just a bit too trite. Connie's romance with Sam seems contrived and the supernatural conflict between Connie and her academic advisor at Harvard, Mannin Chilton, detracts from the story.

Fever is a historical fiction novel based on the life of Mary Mallon, "Typhoid Mary," who was discovered to be the first person in Ameria who was completely healthy, but carried Typhoid Fever. Mary, who comes to America from Ireland as a young woman, slowly builds her reputation as a cook. She is sought after by many elite families, but when the families she works for begin to suffer and die of Typhoid Fever, she is singled out as a carrier. No one believes that she has never had the disease, even after other healthy carriers are identified. For a time she is locked away on an island. When she is released she agrees to never cook for others again, but the lure proves too strong. While well written and thoroughly researched, Fever is a grim and depressing book. New York in the early twentieth century was not a welcoming place. Mary, even under the best of circumstances, is protrayed as a prickly, self-centered woman.

Friends since childhood, Sahar and Nasrin have fallen in love. In Iran their love is dangerous and they have known other same-sex couples who have been murdered when their love was discovered. Further complicating matters, Nasrin has been betrothed to a man chosen by her family and soon she and Nasrin will have to end their relationship. Then Sahar comes up with a daring plan to save their relationship. Well written, although the interlude about Sahar's plan is a bit unrealistic. But on the other side of this, there is a chilling and completely believable scence between Sahar and Mrs. Mehdi, Nasrin's mother. And teh ending is both hopeful and heartbreaking.

I spent a long time reading this book but, it was worth it, getting all of the information it had to offer, regarding the 1910 LA Times Building Bombing, and what lead up to that fatal day. This book contains some much information of how people can live together, need each other, yet hurt each other so much, that killing can be a viable solution to the pending problems that haven't been solve by verbal communications. Capitalist and Labor is an unavoidable union, yet working together seems to be the hardest job of all. Deadly Times explains the thoughts of some of these capitalists and Labors leaders, who used their specific methods to solve their labor issues, which usally has colleteral damage for all involve and sometimes those not directly involved. Lew Irwin the author doesn't leave much to the imagination, using every page to cram as much information as possible. This book pulls at your heart, mind, and soul. Loretta G.

It is a truism that nobody knows what war does to a person until and unless you actually serve in combat. Through the words of a skilled writer, though, we can be transported to the muck of the trenches, and come away with an indelible impression of the extent of war's horrors, an appreciation for the intense camaraderie among soldiers, and an understanding of the emotional barriers set up between those who served and those who didn't. This stunning debut novel by P.S. Duffy takes us from Snag Harbor, a small coastal village in Nova Scotia to the Western Front in the days leading up to the Battle of Vimy Ridge. A footnote today, this battle, like so many others during World War I, was notable for the large number of casualties inflicted on Canadian forces in 1917 by deeply entrenched German forces. Angus MacGrath, a fisherman with the soul of an artist, joins the Canadian army with the slim and unlikely hope of finding his brother-in-law who had enlisted two years earlier, much to the great sorrow of his sister, Angus' wife, and the bitter opposition of his pacifist father. Angus, who had expected to be posted behind the lines in the cartography unit in London, uses his drawing skills, but at the front where he soon experiences the awful horrors of war along with the driven loyalty for his fellow soldiers. We alternate between the homefront, where Angus' young teenage son dreams of his father, and the nightmare of battle scenes. This may be Duffy's first novel, but her experience as a science writer shines through as she takes us to hell and back.

I tried this one for a second time, but just couldn't get into it. So...I'm done with it.

Eleanor and Park is an intense teenage love story about two misfits who slowly open up to each other over the course of a school year. Eleanor is the new girl and is, to the teens on the schoolbus, weird. Park is the only one who even tries to befriend her. Over time they come to learn that they share the same dreams for music, books and, yes, each other. Eleanor is dealing with some serious issues at home with her stepdad, Richie. Her mother is no help even when Richie's behavior is clearly out of line. As Eleanor begins to open up to Park, she realizes she is strong enough to take control of her life. With Park's help she makes a decision that will change the course of many lives, but is the one way to save her own. Set in 1986, this story has just enough period detail to make it realistic, but not so much that it becomes a "nostalgia novel" whose story is overpowered by time and place. Poingnant, funny and wholly believable, Eleanor and Park is sure to live on in the reader's memory long after the last page is turned.

Why couldn’t textbooks be like this? What a great book. Dense with facts, but as exciting and intriguing as the Da Vinci Code. A powerful country, awash with money, worldwide interests, one military conflict after another, spending more than it takes in. The United States? No: Spain. 1493 describes a world of globalization, trade in products, slaves and disease. Mann blasts myths; the Natives could have destroyed the Settlers at any time, but why didn’t they? The Virginia Company lost so much money, settling America cost a fortune, only one in seven survived. The original startup, why did its founders keep pouring money into such a tremendously money losing venture? Insight into farming, politics, venture capital, leadership, dynasties and the creation, dismantling and rebirth of societies. Two thumbs up: edutainment was never like this.

In the Carpathian wilds a secret battle rages. Powerful vampires hunt their feral brethren in an endless effort to safeguard the lives of humans and their own human mates. The war has spanned the ages, and now sweeps into the Amazon rainforest where an unsuspecting young woman will tip the balance between success and disaster for the powerful immortals.

Given the number of negative conceptions of Ancient Black women in western society, Ivan Van Sertima, Author of My People, My Africa, gives us a framework for a more positive view.

 

Starting with the African Eve, he takes us on a journey through time that uncovers the powerful impact of female Ethiopia rulers, Female Horuses and Nubian Queens in Egpyt, all the way to the Black Madonnas of Europe.

 

Available in Social Science and History Department- 305.4889 B561wa

Remember the Shinning? Ever wonder what became of that little boy with the special talent? He and his mother have moved to Tampa, Florida, but he still has the shinning.

Now an adult, Danny will need to use his power to save a young girl from death at the hands of an immortal killer tribe known only as the True Knot, and he'll need his old friend Dick the gardener for back-up.

When you think of the history of Philadelphia, you usually think of things such as the Constitution, the Liberty Bell, and people like Benjamin Franklin. Yet, many people don't know about the more dark, sinister history of "The city of Brotherly Love". Phil Leonetti's compelling book, Mafia Prince, is a true crime story about one of the ferocious eras in Mafia History led by the control of Philly mob boss Nicodemo "Little Nicky" Scarfo written by his nephew and under boss Philip Leonetti. Leonetti was the youngest mafia family underboss ever at the age of 31. With his uncle at the helm of the Philly mob family, they are dragged into the bloodiest mob war played out on the streets of Philadelphia. Nicky Scarfo not only killed his enemies, he also killed his friends that he feared that they were competing for his power. These psychopath-type traits made him turn on family and childhood friends. Their violent tenacity would become the downfall of their Philly crime family. After being connected to nine murders, Leonetti decided to turn state evidence against his own crime family. His direct testimony led to mobsters all over the country, including Mafia big wigs such as John Gotti (boss of the Gambino family), Vincent Gigante (Boss of the Genovese family) and of course, his own uncle Nicky Scarfo.

The Warmth of Other Suns is a skillfully written masterpiece by Pulitzer Prize-winning author, Isabel Wilkerson, detailing what she calls, "the most unreported story of the twentieth century"; the early 20th century migration of African Americans out of the South. In 1910, 90% of African Americans lived in the South. The Great Migration witnessed millions of African Americans relocate from the South to the urban cities of the North and West in search of jobs, an escape of racial prejudice, and generally, a better life. But afterward, a question which remained was, "did they find what they were looking for?" Wilkerson's book has more than ten years of research to back it up, and it is a voluminous work with more than 600 pages. It is also personally researched, the author having interviewed over 1,200 people. Wilkerson selected three dozen of those people to interview in great depth, and chooses three of those particular stories to discuss within the book. With a great deal of detail, Wilkerson tells the story through the lives of three individuals from different parts of the South. She discusses Ida Mae Gladney, who left prejudice and sharecropping behind in Mississippi in 1937 for Chicago. She tells the story of George Starling, who was ran out of Florida in 1945, because of his uncontrollable quick temper and left for Harlem, New York. She also discusses Robert Foster, who left Louisiana in 1953 to pursue his medical career and to later become the successful personal doctor for music icon Ray Charles. This is one of the most compelling books I've read this year and it’s still very popular within the Free Library of Philadelphia. This is ideal book for book clubs of all ages and it did a remarkable job of answering some of my own questions about the migration concerning my own family, who left South Carolina to migrate to Philadelphia. It also explains that not all of the people left the South looking for better opportunity, many were forced out based on racism and the brutal Jim Crow laws. Many even left land and property unattended in the middle of the night just to save their life or the life of a love one. Overall, this book is a classic in the making!

So much has been written and spoken in recent months about immigration and "illegals," much of which can seem like just so much noise. Mirta Ojito, a former New York Times reporter, now on the faculty of the Graduate School of Journalism at Columbia University, has written a timely and important book. She connects the senseless beating and murder in 2008 of an "illegal" by a group of high school teens out to do a "beaning" to the larger and equally sad history of hate crimes in this country. Using her reporting skills, she describes in detail the events leading up to the attack and murder in Patchogue, Long Island of Marcelo Lucero, an undocumented immigrant from Gualaceo, Ecuador, and tells us the story of how he and so many others have travelled from his hometown to Long Island. Herself an immigrant from Cuba, unbiased she is not. Nonetheless, her detailed descriptions of the attackers and the attacked, their family members, government officials, and local civic leaders serve to explore the question of how could this happen here and contribute to a nuanced and in-depth look at how hate crimes happen. As a librarian, I especially appreciated how Ojito highlights the important work that staff at the Patchogue Medford Public Library played in identifying and addressing the fears and needs of these new residents. A powerful story that deserves to be told.

Billed as "an epic novel of the Norman Conquests," Hawk Quest had relatively little to do with the Norman Conquest as I pictured it. However, this was not a fault. I loved this book! The research was top notch and the plot and characters kept me hooked from the beginning. Vallon, a Frankish knight in exile for killing his wife and her lover, embarks on a quest to redeem his honor. Along the way he gathers a troup of interesting individuals who both aid and hinder his mission to capture rare white falcons in Greenland and take them to Anatolia as ransom for a captive knight. Despite its hefty 658 pages, Hawk Quest flies by, no pun intended, as Vallon and his crew make their way through dangerous territory.

What might have happened if Wallis Simpson had died just before the start of World War II and if Edward VIII had remained King of England instead of abdicating the throne? There have been rumors and more for years about their sympathies for the Nazi cause, so how might history have played out without the influence of Wallis? This intriguing premise is the backdrop for D. J. Taylor's new novel, and I could not put this book down. The story reveals itself through a group of characters, loosely connected through several degrees of separation. We first meet Cynthia Kirkpatrick, a young woman at loose ends who spent some of her formative years in colonial Ceylon. Not yet married, she is not particularly interested in anyone or anything. Back in England in 1939 just as war begins in Europe, she has begun working for a new literary magazine. She begins an affair with Tyler Kent, an American Embassy worker with suspect loyalties, whom she has met through friends of her parents. Those friends and Kent are in turn connected to Captain Ramsey, who is leading an effort to influence the King to side with the faction seeking a peace agreement with the Nazis. Beverley Nichols, a writer who has attended some of these faction meetings and who knows Ramsey, is asked by the King to help him prepare his annual Christmas Day broadcast. Taking numerous twists and turns, nothing is as it initially seems in this imaginative "what if" novel.

One look at the sweet, wise organe Tabby face and I just had to crack the cover of this book. This isn’t Marley and Me for cats. For starters, Bob could have adopted any human who happened to travel that hallway to the flat in London. James could have ignored the quiet call for attention, being on a non-date with an old girlfriend. What follows is the sometimes funny, sometimes sad, but overall wonderful story of how an animal companion can help us find and nurture our better selves.

Cody Hoyt is down on his luck and drinking hard to dull the pain. Then sisters on a road trip in Montana disappear. What at first looks like an isolated incident, he discovers is really a string of brutal murders. Can he and his ex- partner make the right moves, pull together the right pieces, and finds the missing girls before they become victims of the Highway?

Written in first person, Phillippa Gregory introduces readers to the turbulent Elizabeth, enemy heiress from the house of York, a young woman who must set aside her dreams of a love match to rule at Henry VII’s side. Mother of the Tudor dynasty, Elizabeth births the princes Arthur, Henry and Edmond, steps upon history’s stage, and is thrust into the arena of world power.

A sweeping family saga set in Thessaloniki, Greece, The Thread tell the intertwined story of a wealthy cloth merchant, a young girl brought to the city after the Turks invade her home, a Jewish and Muslim family. With only the prologue and epilogue set in the present day, the book begins in 1917 and continues through 1978. Given the span of time covered and the momentous events taking place during these years, it would be impossible to write a book with historical depth or deeply imagined characters. Given this limitation The Thread paints a broad picture of life in Thessaloniki through the eyes of a few major characters. Even the revalation at the end of the connection between the young girl, Katerina, and her husband's Uncle Leonidas is resolved in a cursory fashion.