Spotlight: African-American History

An American Quilt: Unfolding a Story of Family and Slavery is by Rachel May. "When we think of slavery, most of us think of the American South. We think of back-breaking fieldwork on plantations. We don’t think of slavery in the North, nor do we think of the grueling labor of urban and domestic slaves. May’s rich new book explores the far reach of slavery, from New England to the Caribbean, the role it played in the growth of mercantile America, and the bonds between the agrarian south and the industrial north in the antebellum era―all through the discovery of a remarkable quilt. While studying objects in a textile collection, May opened a veritable treasure-trove: a carefully folded, unfinished quilt made of 1830s-era fabrics, its backing containing fragile, aged papers with the dates 1798, 1808, and 1813, the words “shuger,” “rum,” “casks,” and “West Indies,” repeated over and over, along with “friendship,” “kindness,” “government,” and “incident.” The quilt top sent her on a journey to piece together the story of Minerva, Eliza, Jane, and Juba―the enslaved women behind the quilt―and their owner, Susan Crouch. May brilliantly stitches together the often-silenced legacy of slavery by revealing the lives of these urban enslaved women and their world. Beautifully written and richly imagined, An American Quilt is a luminous historical examination and an appreciation of a craft that provides such a tactile connection to the past." (Amazon.com)

Glory in Their Spirit: How Four Black Women Took on the Army During World War II is written by Sandra M. Bolzenius. "Before Rosa Parks and the March on Washington, four African American women risked their careers and freedom to defy the United States Army over segregation. Women Army Corps (WAC) privates Mary Green, Anna Morrison, Johnnie Murphy, and Alice Young enlisted to serve their country, improve their lives, and claim the privileges of citizenship long denied them. Promised a chance at training and skilled positions, they saw white WACs assigned to those better jobs and found themselves relegated to work as orderlies. In 1945, their strike alongside fifty other WACs captured the nation's attention and ignited passionate debates on racism, women in the military, and patriotism. Glory in Their Spirit presents the powerful story of their persistence and the public uproar that ensued. Newspapers chose sides. Civil rights activists coalesced to wield a new power. The military, meanwhile, found itself increasingly unable to justify its policies. In the end, Green, Morrison, Murphy, and Young chose court-martial over a return to menial duties. But their courage pushed the segregated military to the breaking point ”and helped steer one of American's most powerful institutions onto a new road toward progress and justice." (Amazon.com)

"In Lighting the Fires of Freedom Janet Dewart Bell shines a light on women’s all-too-often overlooked achievements in the Civil Rights Movement. Through wide-ranging conversations with nine women, several now in their nineties with decades of untold stories, we hear what ignited and fueled their activism, as Bell vividly captures their inspiring voices. Lighting the Fires of Freedom offers these deeply personal and intimate accounts of extraordinary struggles for justice that resulted in profound social change, stories that remain important and relevant today. During the Civil Rights Movement, African American women were generally not in the headlines; they simply did the work that needed to be done. Yet despite their significant contributions at all levels of the movement, they remain mostly invisible to the larger public. Beyond Rosa Parks, Coretta Scott King, and Dorothy Height, most Americans, black and white alike, would be hard-pressed to name other leaders at the community, local, and national levels. Published to coincide with the fiftieth anniversary of the Civil Rights Act of 1968, Lighting the Fires of Freedom is a vital document for understanding the Civil Rights Movement and an enduring testament to the vitality of women’s leadership during one of the most dramatic periods of American history." (Amazon.com)

In The Lost Education of Horace Tate, Vanessa Siddle Walker relates the clandestine travels of the former teacher, principal, and state senator. She relates how his "travels on unpaved roads under the cover of night, meeting with other educators and with Dr. King, Georgia politicians, and even U.S. presidents helped to shape the struggle for integrated education in the South. Sometimes he and Walker spoke by phone, sometimes in his office, sometimes in his home; always Tate shared fascinating stories of the times leading up to and following Brown v. Board of Education. Dramatically, on his deathbed, he asked Walker to return to his office in Atlanta, in a building that was once the headquarters of another kind of southern strategy, one driven by integrity and equality. Just days after Dr. Tate’s passing in 2002, Walker honored his wish. Up a dusty, rickety staircase, locked in a concealed attic, she found the collection: a massive archive documenting the underground actors and covert strategies behind the most significant era of the fight for educational justice. Thus began Walker’s sixteen-year project to uncover the network of educators behind countless battles—in courtrooms, schools, and communities—for the education of black children. Until now, the courageous story of how black Americans in the South won so much and subsequently fell so far has been incomplete. The Lost Education of Horace Tate is a monumental work that offers fresh insight into the southern struggle for human rights, revealing little-known accounts of leaders such as W.E.B. Du Bois and James Weldon Johnson, as well as hidden provocateurs like Horace Tate." (Amazon.com)

Take Off Some of the January Chill with a Hot Read!

Are the winter blahs getting you down?  Try one or all of these four recent best-sellers and give yourself a boost!

Nine Perfect Strangers 

by Liane Moriarty

Could ten days at a health resort really change you forever? 

These nine perfect strangers are about to find out.

Long Road to Mercy

by David Baldacci

Atlee Pine is a FBI special agent assigned to the remote wilds of the western United States. Ever since her twin sister was abducted by a notorious serial killer at age five, Atlee has spent her life hunting down those who hurt others. And she's the best at it. She could be one of the Bureau's top criminal profilers, if she didn't prefer catching criminals in the vast wilderness of the West to climbing the career ladder in the D.C. office.

The Reckoning

by John Grisham

Pete Banning was Clanton's favorite son, a returning war hero, the patriarch of a prominent family, a farmer, father, neighbor, and a faithful member of the Methodist church. Then one cool October morning in 1946, he rose early, drove into town, walked into the Church, and calmly shot and killed the Reverend Dexter Bell. As if the murder wasn't shocking enough, it was even more baffling that Pete's only statement about it--to the sheriff, to his defense attorney, to the judge, to his family and friends, and to the people of Clanton--was 'I have nothing to say.'

Of Blood and Bone

by Nora Roberts

They look like an everyday family living an ordinary life. But beyond the edges of this peaceful farm, unimaginable forces of light and dark have been unleashed. Fallon Swift, approaching her thirteenth birthday, barely knows the world that existed before -- the city where her parents lived, now in ruins and reclaimed by nature since the Doom sickened and killed billions. Traveling anywhere is a danger, as vicious gangs of Raiders and fanatics called Purity Warriors search for their next victim. Those like Fallon, in possession of gifts, are hunted -- and the time is coming when her true nature, her identity as The One, can no longer be hidden.

For the Love of Mississippi

First, let's look at the people of Mississippi through two of it's most important pastimes--football and the Blues.

Mississippi JUCOS: the Toughest Football League in America is by X.M. Frascogna, Jr., X.M. Frascogna, III, and Martin Frank Frascogna. "Mississippi JUCO football is one of the oldest and most colorful leagues in America. Tucked away in Mississippi arguably the most rabid football state of all is a self-contained, highly unique football ecosystem. The Mississippi JUCO football league, or, as the locals refer to it, JUCO ball , or simply the League , consists of fourteen Junior Colleges (now referred to as Community Colleges except for one) all inside the boundaries of Mississippi. On the surface the League has the characteristics of any small college football conference one might find at the NCAA Division II or III levels. However, upon closer examination you discover a fascinating athletic subculture. Depending on one s perspective JUCO ball could be described as a league wrapped in violence and brutality, a vicious athletic underworld. But to most of the players matriculating through the JUCO League, it is football Nirvana. Hidden from the national media JUCO teams in the Magnolia State compete for the League s Championship each year. Every game played during the season matters and many are bitter rivalries. The result is all out war from the beginning of the season to the last regular season game. The two playoff games for the League s Championship are like Armageddon I and II. The League has produced literally thousands of players who have gone on to compete at the NCAA Division I and professional levels. The number of JUCO players who go on to play at four year colleges at the Division II and III levels is staggering. However, even more impressive is the large percentage of the coaching profession who are graduates of the JUCO league. Famous JUCO coaches such as Dobie Holden, Sim Cooley, the Delta Fox Jim Randall, Bull Cyclone Sullivan, Goat Hale, H.C. Hook Stone, Joe Renfroe and A.J. Kilpatrick are spread throughout the annuls of the League. The record books bulge even more when considering the accomplishments of Bobby Ray Franklin, Parker Dykes, Billy Ward, Mike Eaton, Wooky Gray, Gene Murphy, James Sloan, Hugh Shurdon and George Sekul. Love it or despise it, Mississippi JUCO ball is unique." (Amazon.com)

Live from the Mississippi Delta by Panny Flautt Mayfield, "showcases a rare collection of photographs and stories about musicians from Robert Plant, B. B. King, and ZZ Top to local guitarists playing gigs on the weekend. Panny Flautt Mayfield, a lifelong Delta resident from Tutwiler and an award-winning journalist, documents multiple decades of blues and gospel music in her native land. Her first book collects over two hundred black-and-white and color photographs from a long career of photographing live music. Featuring text by Robert Plant in honor of Mayfield, the book opens with him addressing senior citizens gathered in Tutwiler to honor their town as the birthplace of blues. From there, the book proceeds throughout the Delta from juke joints and festivals to blues markers and museums. Mayfield presents images and tales of local icons such as Early Wright, Wade Walton, and the Jelly Roll Kings, as well as international celebrities. She shares intimate photos, including Garth Brooks and Bobby Rush charming elementary school kids in West Tallahatchie, along with insider stories and photos of B. B. King's Homecoming, the Governor's Awards, the Delta Blues Museum, the Sunflower and King Biscuit festivals, and a fascinating side trip to Norway's Notodden Blues Festival, which has a rich sister-city relationship with Clarksdale and the Sunflower Festival. Years ago volunteer tour guide Shirley Fair announced to visitors that there is a church or a juke joint on every corner in Clarksdale. Those demographics are still mostly accurate. Igniting a high-octane finale are photographs taken at iconic juke joints such as Smitty's Red Top, the Bobo Grocery, the Rivermount Lounge, Po' Monkey's, Hopson, Shelby's Dew Drop Inn, the Rose, Ground Zero, Sarah's Kitchen, Margaret's Blue Diamond, and Red's." (Amazon.com)

For a look at Mississippi's natural resources, why not try one of these?

Guide to Birding Coastal Mississippi by Judith A. Toups, Jerry Bird, and Stacy Jon Peterson highlights the wonderful birds that populate Mississippi's Gulf Coast area. "Each year a wide variety of birds and numerous birders flock to Mississippi's Gulf Coast, making it one of the most exciting bird watching locations in the US. In this definitive guidebook, three seasoned Mississippi birders lead the reader through the area's swamps, forests, and beaches, dispensing plenty of insider advice along the way. Maps and bar graphs illustrating monthly probability of occurrence ensure that, no matter what time of year, visitors will find a trip to the region to be a rewarding birding experience. Includes listings for all coastal species and the months in which they appear as well as detailed maps for Lamar, Forrest, Perry, Greene, Pearl River, Stone, George, Hancock, Harrison, and Jackson Counties." (Alibris.com)

In Mushrooms of Mississippi and Other Fungi and Protists, George H. Dukes, Jr. takes us around the state and introduces the reader to one of the most overlooked and misunderstood organisms on the planet: Fungi. "A compendium of over 200 species of naturally occuring macroscopic mushrooms and related fungi, Mushrooms of Mississippi presents textual and photographic records on facing pages for quick and easy reference. Edible, poisonous, and hallucinogenic forms are described; the role of fungi in the environment, including saprobic and parasitic relationships, beneficial and harmful effects and habitats is documented." (Amazon.com) Dukes also includes some very cute photos of his "mushroom hunting" dogs.

New Year - New Reading Challenges!

It's a new year and we've have a new set of reading challenges to go with it.  Every month, we will be
putting up a new challenge for our patrons.  No pressure - no obligation - just new ideas for books that might be of interest.

Are you reading a book that meets the January challenge?  Let us know!

Science and Medicine Non-Fiction

"Pulse of Perseverance--by Joseph Semian, Jr. MD; Pierre Johnson MD; and Maxime Madhere MD--is the honest, deeply personal tale of three young black men's refusal to succumb to failure and how, together, they overcame daunting odds to take their place among the just five percent of U.S. doctors who are black. Through writing as passionate as it is relatable, the authors provide an unflinching look at the barriers black Americans face as they try to move out of the place society has designated for them. This book is a searing indictment of our still separate and unequal education system, one that ensures the road to becoming a doctor, or a lawyer or professor, will be much harder for black children than it will be for white. Yet, at its core, Pulse of Perseverance is an inspirational story of what can be accomplished with dedication, the support of people with similar goals, and the investment from institutions dedicated to black success. This book is the North Star for every black child who sees something greater for himself than the world would have him believe."(Publisher's description)

The story of poison is the story of power--at least according to Eleanor Herman in The Royal Art of Poison: Filthy Palaces, Fatal Cosmetics, Deadly Medicine, and Murder Most Foul. "For centuries, royal families have feared the gut-roiling, vomit-inducing agony of a little something added to their food or wine by an enemy. To avoid poison, they depended on tasters, unicorn horns and antidotes tested on condemned prisoners. Servants licked the royal family's spoons, tried on their underpants and tested their chamber pots. Ironically, royals terrified of poison were unknowingly poisoning themselves daily with their cosmetics, medications and filthy living conditions. Women wore makeup made with lead. Men rubbed feces on their bald spots. Physicians prescribed mercury enemas, arsenic skin cream, drinks of lead filings and potions of human fat and skull, fresh from the executioner. Gazing at gorgeous portraits of centuries past, we don't see what lies beneath the royal robes and the stench of unwashed bodies; the lice feasting on private parts; and worms nesting in the intestines. The Royal Art of Poison is a hugely entertaining work of popular history that traces the use of poison as a political - and cosmetic - tool in the royal courts of Western Europe from the Middle Ages to the Kremlin today." (Alibris.com)

"A smart and compelling examination of the science of immunity, the public policy implications of vaccine denial, and the real-world outcomes of failing to vaccinate. If you have a child in school, you may have heard stories of long-dormant diseases suddenly reappearing―cases of measles, mumps, rubella, and whooping cough cropping up everywhere from elementary schools to Ivy League universities because a select group of parents refuse to vaccinate their children. Between Hope and Fear by Michael Kinch tells the remarkable story of vaccine-preventable infectious diseases and their social and political implications. While detailing the history of vaccine invention, Kinch reveals the ominous reality that our victories against vaccine-preventable diseases are not permanent―and could easily be undone.This book relates the remarkable intersection of science, technology and disease that has helped eradicate many of the deadliest plagues known to man." (Amazon.com)

"Science doesn’t speak for itself. Neck-deep in work that can be messy and confounding and naïve in the ways of public communication, scientists are often unable to package their insights into the neat narratives that the public requires. Enter celebrities, advocates, lobbyists, and the funders behind them, who take advantage of scientists’ reluctance to provide easy answers, flooding the media with misleading or incorrect claims about health risks. Amid this onslaught of spurious information, Americans are more confused than ever about what’s good for them and what isn’t. In Bad Advice (Or Why Celebrities, Politicians, and Activists Aren't Your Best Source of Health Information), Paul A. Offit shares hard-earned wisdom on the dos and don’ts of battling misinformation. For the past twenty years, Offit has been on the front lines in the fight for sound science and public heath. Stepping into the media spotlight as few scientists have done―such as being one of the first to speak out against conspiracy theories linking vaccines to autism―he found himself in the crosshairs of powerful groups intent on promoting pseudoscience. Bad Advice discusses science and its adversaries: not just the manias stoked by slick charlatans and their miracle cures but also corrosive, dangerous ideologies such as Holocaust and climate-change denial. Written with wit and passion, Offit’s often humorous guide to taking on quack experts and self-appointed activists is a must-read for any American disturbed by the uptick in politicized attacks on science." (Publisher's description)