A Journey Through History

The doctors Blackwell: how two pioneering sisters brought medicine to women and women to medicine DB 104506

Nimura, Janice P. Reading time 11 hours, 27 minutes.

Subjects: Biography; Health and Medicine

Description: Biography of Doctor Elizabeth Blackwell, the first licensed female physician in the United States, and her sister, Doctor Emily Blackwell. Discusses their early years, their founding of the New York Infirmary for Indigent Women and Children, and the challenges they faced in their chosen profession. Unrated. Commercial audiobook. 2021.

In December we move from the grim tenements of Belfast to the glittering mansions of the 1900’s New York rich and powerful although living alongside the despised minorities.

THE PERSONAL LIBRARIAN IS WRITTEN BY Marie Benedict and Victoria Christopher Murray who are both attorneys as well as successful writers.

NLS ANNOTATION:

The personal librarian DB103929

Benedict, Marie; Murray, Victoria Christopher Reading time: 12 hours, 25 minutes.

Robin Miles

Historical Fiction

In 1906, Belle da Costa Greene was hired by J. P. Morgan to curate a collection of rare manuscripts, books, and artwork for his newly built Pierpont Morgan Library. Belle becomes a fixture in New York City society, but she is African American passing as white. Unrated. Commercial audiobook. 2021.

We will review a fourteen hour true crime story, its history and long-term consequences. Was it war or just plain murder? It occurs in the slums of Belfast Northern Ireland during the Troubles (1968-1998). It delves into the lives of the participants at all levels providing insight of the causes and consequences.

The book title is SAY NOTHING: A TRUE STORY OF MURDER AND MEMORY IN NORTHERN IRELAND by Patrick Raddin Keefe 14 hours and 40 minutes. db9439.

WARNING: For those using BOOKSHARE, there is also a book with the same name “Say NOTHING” dealing with the same facts

I almost read the wrong book.

In October we return to more familiar ground with a biography by a Pulitzer Prize-winning author.Edison DB 96904

Subjects: Science and Technology ; Biography

Description: A Pulitzer Prize-winning author provides an account of the life and work of the near-deaf Thomas Alva Edison, best known for his invention of the first practical incandescent lamp and advances in sound recording technology. Draws on original documents from Edison’s lab, family papers, and more. Unrated. Commercial audiobook. 2019.

We will review The Men Who Lost America: British Leadership and the Fate of the Empire, DB78621.

Join us for some historic analysis of the causes of England’s longest war.

BOOKSHARE SYNOPSIS

The loss of America was a stunning and unexpected defeat for the powerful British Empire. Common wisdom has held that incompetent military commanders and political leaders in Britain must have been to blame, but were they? This intriguing book makes a different argument. Weaving together the personal stories of ten prominent men who directed the British dimension of the war, historian Andrew O’Shaughnessy dispels the incompetence myth and uncovers the real reasons that rebellious colonials were able to achieve their surprising victory. In interlinked biographical chapters, the author follows the course of the war from the perspectives of King George III, Prime Minister Lord North, military leaders including General Burgoyne, the Earl of Sandwich, and others who, for the most part, led ably and even brilliantly. Victories were frequent, and in fact the British conquered every American city at some stage of the Revolutionary War. Yet roiling political complexities at home, combined with the fervency of the fighting Americans, proved fatal to the British war effort. The book concludes with a penetrating assessment of the years after Yorktown, when the British achieved victories against the French and Spanish, thereby keeping intact what remained of the British Empire.

Copyright: 2013

SYNOPSIS

In Julia Kelly’s The Light over London, we enter two timelines: one during World War II and the other in the present. A diary and photograph send antiques dealer Cara Hargraves on a journey to discover the identity of the smiling woman in uniform. Louise Keene leaves her Cornish village and puts her mathematical abilities to work by becoming a gunner girl. Romance is in the cards for at least one of these heroines. Join us on Tuesday, August 3 for Kelly_ Julia the light over London DB93702

On June 1, 2021 we will read a book by MSNBC commentator Joe Scarborough

DB102486 8 hours 5 minutes Read by author.

BOOKSHARE SYNOPSIS

History called on Harry Truman to unite the Western world against Soviet communism, but first he had to rally Republicans and Democrats behind America’s most dramatic foreign policy shift since George Washington delivered his farewell address. How did one of the least prepared presidents to walk into the Oval Office become one of its most successful? The year was 1947. The Soviet Union had moved from being America’s uneasy ally in the Second World War to its most feared enemy. With Joseph Stalin’s ambitions pushing westward, Turkey was pressured from the east while communist revolutionaries overran Greece. The British Empire was battered from its war with Hitler and suddenly teetering on the brink of financial ruin. Only America could afford to defend freedom in the West, and the effort was spearheaded by a president who hadn’t even been elected to that office. But Truman would wage a domestic political battle that carried with it the highest of stakes.

ON May 4, 2021 we will discuss Dreams from my father, db43877.

BOOKSHARE SYNOPSIS:

Dreams from my father: A Story of Race and Inheritance

by Barack Obama

Before Barack Obama became a politician he was, among other things, a writer. Dreams from My Father is a refreshing, revealing portrait of a young man asking the big questions about identity and belonging. The son of a black African father and a white American mother, Obama describes his search for meaning in his life as a black American and recounts an emotional odyssey. First to a small town in Kansas, from which he retraces the migration of his mother’s family to Hawaii; then to his childhood home in Indonesia; finally, to Kenya, where he confronts the bitter truth of his father’s life and at last reconciles his divided inheritance.

Copyright: 2008

ANNOUNCEMENT: David Faucheux will Co Host and present his quarterly non-fiction history selection on April 6, 2021.

Last Tuesday, Sherry Wells selection for March was read and liked by most participants. Two members objected to war subject matter. Some members complained about wordiness or detail in a book written by this professional editor.

NLS ANNATATION for April’s book

The night watchman

Erdrich, Louise. Reading time: 13 hours, 34 minutes.

Historical Fiction

Don Queen

In recognition of Presidents Day, we return to flamboyant Teddy Roosevelt whose famous charge up Kettle Hill set America’s course towards imperialism and role as colonial master and nation builder. How did we do?

Who was the worst screw-up in the invasion of Cuba according to the author?

The crowded hour: Theodore Roosevelt, the Rough Riders, and the dawn of the American century DB96418

Account of the famous American regiment led by Theodore CA Roosevelt whose daring exploits marked the beginning of American imperialism in the twentieth century. Explores the daily lives and struggles of the future president and his Rough Riders using diaries, letters, and memoirs. Unrated. Commercial audiobook. 2019.