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American Revolutionary Era - July 2025

July 2025’s Leisure Reads focuses on resources related to the Declaration of Independence and the American Revolutionary Era. Read online primary documents from the National Archives, browse print books on display in the MSJ Library Lobby, and consider numerous ebooks from our collections. Many thanks are due to MSJ librarian Cynthia Gregory for assembling all of the entries in this list!

Primary Sources

Declaration of Independence
From the National Archives, an online transcription of the original document.
America’s Founding Documents. Charters of Freedom: Declaration of Independence, Constitution, Bill of Rights
From the National Archives, presents transcripts of the original documents: "These three documents, known collectively as the Charters of Freedom, have secured the rights of the American people for more than two and a quarter centuries and are considered instrumental to the founding and philosophy of the United States."

Print Books

Alexander Hamilton by Ron Chernow
“The #1 New York Times bestseller, and the inspiration for the hit Broadway musical Hamilton! ....Few figures in American history have been more hotly debated or more grossly misunderstood than Alexander Hamilton. Chernow’s biography gives Hamilton his due and sets the record straight, deftly illustrating that the political and economic greatness of today’s America is the result of Hamilton’s countless sacrifices to champion ideas that were often wildly disputed during his time.... Chernow here recounts Hamilton’s turbulent life: an illegitimate, largely self-taught orphan from the Caribbean, he came out of nowhere to take America by storm, rising to become George Washington’s aide-de-camp in the Continental Army, coauthoring The Federalist Papers, founding the Bank of New York, leading the Federalist Party, and becoming the first Treasury Secretary of the United States. Historians have long told the story of America’s birth as the triumph of Jefferson’s democratic ideals over the aristocratic intentions of Hamilton. Chernow presents an entirely different man, whose legendary ambitions were motivated not merely by self-interest but by passionate patriotism and a stubborn will to build the foundations of American prosperity and power.” – Publisher’s Summary
Weathering the Storm: Women of the American Revolution by Elizabeth Evans
“This book tells the stories of fourteen women who played a role in the American Revolution. These women ranged in age from twelve to ninety-one, and all had different reasons for fighting for their country. Some were motivated by patriotism, others by anger at the British, and still others by a desire for independence. Despite their differences, all of these women shared one common trait—they were willing to weather the storm. Evans eloquently tells their stories, painting a vivid picture of life during the war years and the challenges these women faced. Weathering the Storm is an excellent resource for students interested in the American Revolution, and it is sure to inspire readers to continue the fight for freedom.” – Publisher’s Summary
Thomas Paine: Apostle of Freedom by Jack Fruchtman
“The leading Thomas Paine expert in the U.S. presents both a biography of the controversial Founding Father and an analysis of his works. Known as 'the Voice of the Revolution,' Paine was a truly original thinker, a man whose magnificent, freedom-loving spirit is richly captured in this major biography.” – Publisher’s Summary
Washington’s Circle: The Creation of the President by D.S. & J.T. Heidler
“In 1789, as George Washington became the first president of the United States, the world was all but certain that the American experiment in liberty and representative government would founder. More than a few Americans feared that the world was right. In Washington’s Circle, we see how Washington and his trusted advisers, close friends, and devoted family defied the doomsayers to lay the foundation for an enduring constitutional republic. This is a fresh look at an aloof man whose service in the Revolutionary War had already earned him the acclaim of fellow citizens.... David S. Heidler and Jeanne T. Heidler reveal Washington’s character through his relationship with his inner circle, showing how this unlikely group created the office of the presidency. Here is a story of cooperation, confrontation, triumph, and disappointment, as the president, Congress, and the courts sorted out the limits of executive power, quarreled over funding the government, coped with domestic strife, and faced a world at war while trying to keep their country at peace....” – Publisher’s Summary
1776 by David G. McCullough
“In this masterful book, David McCullough tells the intensely human story of those who marched with General George Washington in the year of the Declaration of Independence—when the whole American cause was riding on their success, without which all hope for independence would have been dashed and the noble ideals of the Declaration would have amounted to little more than words on paper. Based on extensive research in both American and British archives, 1776 is a powerful drama written with extraordinary narrative vitality. It is the story of Americans in the ranks, men of every shape, size, and color, farmers, schoolteachers, shoemakers, no-accounts, and mere boys turned soldiers. And it is the story of the King’s men, the British commander, William Howe, and his highly disciplined redcoats who looked on their rebel foes with contempt and fought with a valor too little known.” – Publisher’s Summary
John Adams by David G. McCullough
“In this powerful, epic biography, David McCullough unfolds the adventurous life journey of John Adams, the brilliant, fiercely independent, often irascible, always honest Yankee patriot who spared nothing in his zeal for the American Revolution; who rose to become the second president of the United States and saved the country from blundering into an unnecessary war; who was learned beyond all but a few and regarded by some as ‘out of his senses;’ and whose marriage to the wise and valiant Abigail Adams is one of the moving love stories in American history. This is history on a grand scale—a book about politics and war and social issues, but also about human nature, love, religious faith, virtue, ambition, friendship, and betrayal, and the far-reaching consequences of noble ideas. Above all, John Adams is an enthralling, often surprising story of one of the most important and fascinating Americans who ever lived.” – Publisher’s Summary
The Unknown American Revolution by Gary B. Nash
“In this audacious recasting of the American Revolution, distinguished historian Gary Nash offers a profound new way of thinking about the struggle to create this country, introducing readers to a coalition of patriots from all classes and races of American society. From millennialist preachers to enslaved Africans, disgruntled women to aggrieved Indians, the people so vividly portrayed in this book did not all agree or succeed, but during the exhilarating and messy years of this country's birth, they laid down ideas that have become part of our inheritance and ideals toward which we still strive today.” – Publisher’s Summary
Ladies of Liberty: The Women Who Shaped Our Nation by Cokie Roberts
“In this eye-opening companion volume to her acclaimed history Founding Mothers, number-one New York Times bestselling author and renowned political commentator Cokie Roberts brings to life the extraordinary accomplishments of women who laid the groundwork for a better society. Recounted with insight and humor, and drawing on personal correspondence, private journals, and other primary sources, many of them previously unpublished, here are the fascinating and inspiring true stories of first ladies and freethinkers, educators and explorers. Featuring an exceptional group of women—including Abigail Adams, Dolley Madison, Rebecca Gratz, Louise Livingston, Sacagawea, and others— Ladies of Liberty sheds new light on the generation of heroines, reformers, and visionaries who helped shape our nation, finally giving these extraordinary ladies the recognition they so greatly deserve.” – Publisher’s Summary
Black writers of the founding era, 1760-1800 by James G. Basker, Annette Gordon-Reed, Nicole Seary
"The writings gathered here reveal the complexity and dynamism of African American life and culture in the period and show how the principles of the American Revolution were seized upon and enlarged by Black Americans from the very beginning. Here are writers both enslaved and free, loyalist and patriot, women and men, Northern and Southern: soldiers, seamen, and veterans; painters, poets, and preachers; cooks, hairdressers, farmers, and many more. Alongside such better known works as Phillis Wheatley's poems and Benjamin Banneker's mathematical and scientific puzzles are dozens of first-person narratives offering a variety of Black perspectives on the political events of the times. These bold and eloquent contributions to public debate about the meanings of the Revolution and the republican values that gave rise to it dramatize the many ways in which protest and activism have always been integral for Black Americans. Intimate diaries and letters, many never before published, tell more private stories, indelibly altering our understanding of the lived experience of this crucial time in our history." -- Publisher's summary
The Whiskey Rebellion by Thomas P. Slaughter
“When President George Washington ordered an army of 13,000 men to march west in 1794 to crush a tax rebellion among frontier farmers, he established a range of precedents that continues to define federal authority over localities today. The 'Whiskey Rebellion' marked the first large-scale resistance to a law of the U.S. government under the Constitution. This classic confrontation between champions of liberty and defenders of order was long considered the most significant event in the first quarter-century of the new nation. Thomas P. Slaughter recaptures the historical drama and significance of this violent episode in which frontier West and cosmopolitan East battled over the meaning of the American Revolution.” – Publisher’s Summary
A New Age Now Begins: A People’s History of the American Revolution by Page Smith
“In this comprehensive, incisive narrative of the American Revolution, Page Smith shows how the American people were able to achieve the most remarkable movement from subordination to self-government in history, a model that has fascinated revolutionaries and politicians ever since. A New Age Now Begins depicts the Revolution as a people's rebellion and a stirring human drama. Smith covers every aspect of the struggle: the Congress, the states, the British Parliament and British public opinion, the actions and feelings of the colonists, soldiers, Tories, women, blacks, and native Americans. Rich in original interpretation, filled with stories and anecdotes drawn from letters, diaries, and official documents, A New Age Now Begins offers revealing insights into the development of a nation and a people.” – Publisher’s Summary
Hamilton, Adams, Jefferson: The Politics of Enlightenment and the American Founding by Darren Staloff
“American historian Darren Staloff delves into the political and intellectual lives of Alexander Hamilton, John Adams, and Thomas Jefferson to reveal how they embodied the collision of Europe’s grand Enlightenment project with the birth of a young nation. These three very different men each governed their public lives by Enlightenment principles. And the struggle for American independence would forever change their relationships to the politics of Enlightenment.” – Publisher’s Summary

Ebooks

The American Revolution: A Very Short Introduction by Robert J. Allison
“Here is a brisk, accessible, and vivid introduction to arguably the most important event in the history of the United States—the American Revolution.” – Publisher’s Summary
American History: A Very Short Introduction by Paul S. Boyer
“In a miracle of concision, Paul S. Boyer provides a wide-ranging and authoritative history of America, capturing in a compact space the full story of our nation. Ranging from the earliest Native American settlers to the presidency of Barack Obama, this Very Short Introduction offers an illuminating account of politics, diplomacy, and war as well as the full spectrum of social, cultural, and scientific developments that shaped our country.” – Publisher’s Summary
Slavery, Propaganda, and the American Revolution by Patricia Bradley
“Under the leadership of Samuel Adams, patriot propagandists deliberately and conscientiously kept the issue of slavery off the agenda as goals for freedom were set for the American Revolution. By comparing coverage in the publications of the patriot press with those of the moderate colonial press, this book finds that the patriots avoided, misinterpreted, or distorted news reports on blacks and slaves, even in the face of a vigorous antislavery movement.... Since propaganda on behalf of the Revolution reached a high level of sophistication, and since Boston can be considered the foundry of Revolutionary propaganda, the author writes that the omission of abolition from its agenda cannot be considered as accidental but as intentional. By the time the Revolution began, white attitudes toward blacks were firmly fixed, and these persisted long after American independence had been achieved.... Although the leaders of the Revolution did not articulate a national vision on abolition, the colonial anti-slavery movement was able to achieve a degree of success, but only in drives through the individual colonies.” – Publisher’s Summary
Common Sense by Thomas Paine; introd. by Diana Gabaldon
“In 1776, America was a hotbed of enlightenment and revolution. Thomas Paine not only spurred his fellow Americans to action but soon came to symbolize the spirit of the Revolution. His elegantly persuasive pieces spoke to the hearts and minds of those fighting for freedom. He was later outlawed in Britain, jailed in France, and finally labeled an atheist upon his return to America. ‘No writer has exceeded Paine in ease and familiarity of style; in perspicuity of expression, happiness of elucidation, and in simple unassuming language.’ – Thomas Jefferson” – Publisher’s Summary
Federalist Papers by Alexander Hamilton et al.
“Written by Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, and John Jay, The Federalist Papers explain the complexities of a constitutional government—its political structure and principles based on the inherent rights of man. Scholars have long regarded this work as a milestone in political science and a classic of American political theory.” – Publisher’s Summary
Power and Liberty: Constitutionalism in the American Revolution by Gordon S. Wood
“The half century extending from the imperial crisis between Britain and its colonies in the 1760s to the early decades of the new republic of the United States was the greatest and most creative era of constitutionalism in American history, and perhaps in the world. During these decades, Americans explored and debated all aspects of politics and constitutionalism—the nature of power, liberty, representation, rights, the division of authority between different spheres of government, sovereignty, judicial authority, and written constitutions. The results of these issues produced institutions that have lasted for over two centuries. In this new book, eminent historian Gordon S. Wood distills a lifetime of work on constitutional innovations during the Revolutionary era. In concise form, he illuminates critical events in the nation's founding, ranging from the imperial debate that led to the Declaration of Independence to the revolutionary state constitution making in 1776 and the creation of the Federal Constitution in 1787. Among other topics, he discusses slavery and constitutionalism, the emergence of the judiciary as one of the major tripartite institutions of government, the demarcation between public and private, and the formation of states' rights....” – Publisher’s Summary

Oscar Wilde -- June 2025

This month’s “Leisure Reads” celebrates Oscar Wilde (1854-1900), the legendary playwright, novelist, and wit whose life was cut short by prejudice. Below you will find plays such as The Importance of Being Earnest, collections of fairy tales such as A House of Pomegranates, and, of course, The Picture of Dorian Gray—Wilde’s only novel.

Print Books:

The Best Known Works of Oscar Wilde: including the poems, novels, plays, essays and fairy tales by Oscar Wilde
This anthology includes poetry, plays, and fairy tales of Wilde, as well as his only novel, The Picture of Dorian Gray. Selected here are important poems such as The Ballad of Reading Gaol, “Charmides,” and The Sphinx; the plays Lady Windermere’s Fan, Salomé, A Woman of No Importance, and The Importance of Being Earnest; and the tales “The Happy Prince,” “The Nightingale and the Rose,” and “The Selfish Giant.”
The Happy Prince & Other Stories by Oscar Wilde
“The Happy Prince and Other Stories is a collection of short stories by Oscar Wilde, first published in 1888. The book contains five fairy tales, each infused with Wilde’s signature wit, rich imagery, and deep moral lessons. The stories are often melancholic, highlighting themes of sacrifice, love, and the contrast between wealth and poverty.” – Publisher’s Summary
The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde
“Here is Oscar Wilde's most brilliant tour de force, a witty and buoyant comedy of manners that has delighted millions in countless productions since its first performance in London's St. James' Theatre on February 14, 1895. The Importance of Being Earnest is celebrated not only for the lighthearted ingenuity of its plot, but for its inspired dialogue, rich with scintillating epigrams still savored by all who enjoy artful conversation. From the play's effervescent beginnings in Algernon Moncrieff's London flat to its hilarious denouement in the drawing room of Jack Worthing's country manor in Hertfordshire, this comic masterpiece keeps audiences breathlessly anticipating a new bon mot or a fresh twist of plot moment to moment.” – Publisher’s Summary
The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde
“In this celebrated work, his only novel, Wilde forged a devastating portrait of the effects of evil and debauchery on a young aesthete in late-19th-century England. Combining elements of the Gothic horror novel and decadent French fiction, the book centers on a striking premise: As Dorian Gray sinks into a life of crime and gross sensuality, his body retains perfect youth and vigor while his recently painted portrait grows day by day into a hideous record of evil, which he must keep hidden from the world. For over a century, this mesmerizing tale of horror and suspense has enjoyed wide popularity. It ranks as one of Wilde's most important creations and among the classic achievements of its kind.” – Publisher’s Summary
De Profundis by Oscar Wilde
“Bankrupt and with his reputation in ruins, Oscar Wilde wrote the astonishing letter “De Profundis” to his lover, Lord Alfred Douglas, while in prison. Editor Colm Toibin, the acclaimed author of The Blackwater Lightship, The Master, and Brooklyn, describes it as Wilde’s ‘greatest piece of prose writing....’” – Publisher’s Summary

Ebooks from Internet Archive

A House of Pomegranates by Oscar Wilde
“The walls were hung with rich tapestries representing the Triumph of Beauty. A large press, inlaid with agate and lapis-lazuli, filled one corner, and facing the window stood a curiously wrought cabinet with lacquer panels of powdered and mosaiced gold, on which were placed some delicate goblets of Venetian glass, and a cup of dark-veined onyx. Pale poppies were broidered on the silk coverlet of the bed, as though they had fallen from the tired hands of sleep, and tall reeds of fluted ivory bare up the velvet canopy, from which great tufts of ostrich plumes sprang, like white foam, to the pallid silver of the fretted ceiling. A laughing Narcissus in green bronze held a polished mirror above its head. On the table stood a flat bowl of amethyst.” – from “The Young King,” in A House of Pomegranates
An Ideal Husband by Oscar Wilde
“An Ideal Husband revolves around a blackmail scheme that forces a married couple to reexamine their moral standards—providing, along the way, a wry commentary on the rarity of politicians who can claim to be ethically pure. A supporting cast of young lovers, society matrons, an overbearing father, and a formidable femme fatale continually exchange sparkling repartee, keeping the play moving at a lively pace.” – Publisher’s Summary
Intentions by Oscar Wilde
“‘My own experience is that the more we study Art, the less we care for Nature. What Art really reveals to us is Nature’s lack of design, her curious crudities, her extraordinary monotony, her absolutely unfinished condition. Nature has good intentions, of course, but, as Aristotle once said, she cannot carry them out. When I look at a landscape I cannot help seeing all its defects. It is fortunate for us, however, that Nature is so imperfect, as otherwise we should have had no art at all. Art is our spirited protest, our gallant attempt to teach Nature her proper place. As for the infinite variety of Nature, that is a pure myth. It is not to be found in Nature herself. It resides in the imagination, or fancy, or cultivated blindness of the man who looks at her.’” – from “The Decay of Lying,” in Intentions
Lady Windermere’s Fan by Oscar Wilde
“Beautiful, aristocratic, an adored wife and young mother, Lady Windermere is ‘a fascinating puritan’ whose severe moral code leads her to the brink of social suicide. The only one who can save her is the mysterious Mrs. Erlynne whose scandalous relationship with Lord Windermere has prompted her fatal impulse. And Mrs. Erlynne has a secret—a secret Lady Windermere must never know if she is to retain her peace of mind.” – Publisher’s Summary
Lord Arthur Savile’s Crime, The Portrait of Mr. W. H., & Other Stories by Oscar Wilde
“‘Well, he is not a bit like a cheiromantist [palm-reader]. I mean he is not mysterious, or esoteric, or romantic-looking. He is a little, stout man, with a funny, bald head, and great gold-rimmed spectacles; something between a family doctor and a country attorney. I’m really very sorry, but it is not my fault. People are so annoying. All my pianists look exactly like poets, and all my poets look exactly like pianists; and I remember last season asking a most dreadful conspirator to dinner, a man who had blown up ever so many people, and always wore a coat of mail, and carried a dagger up his shirt-sleeve; and do you know that when he came he looked just like a nice old clergyman, and cracked jokes all the evening? Of course, he was very amusing, and all that, but I was awfully disappointed; and when I asked him about the coat of mail, he only laughed, and said it was far too cold to wear in England. Ah, here is Mr. Podgers! Now, Mr. Podgers, I want you to tell the Duchess of Paisley's hand. Duchess, you must take your glove off. No, not the left hand, the other.’ / ‘Dear Gladys, I really don't think it is quite right,’ said the Duchess, feebly unbuttoning a rather soiled kid glove. / ‘Nothing interesting ever is,’ said Lady Windermere...” – from “Lord Arthur Savile’s Crime”
Poems by Oscar Wilde
“This volume of Wilde's powerful poetry follows as closely as possible the chronological order of composition, highlighting autobiographical elements including the young Wilde's conflicting attitudes to Greece and Rome, pagan and Christian, and his fluctuating attraction to Roman Catholicism.... The poems reveal unexpected aspects of a literary chameleon usually identified with sparkling wit and social comedy.” – Publisher’s Summary
Salomé: A Tragedy in One Act by Oscar Wilde
“‘Thou wouldst have none of me, Jokanaan. Thou didst reject me. Thou didst speak evil words against me. Thou didst treat me as a harlot, as a wanton, me, Salomé, daughter of Herodias, Princess of Judæa! Well, Jokanaan, I still live, but thou, thou art dead, and thy head belongs to me. I can do with it what I will.” – from Salomé
In this short play originally written in French with Sarah Bernhardt in mind for the titular role, Oscar Wilde retells and expands the famous biblical story of the untimely end of John the Baptist (in the play called “Jokanaan”). In ornate and poetical—almost Symbolist and certainly Orientalist—dramatic prose, we are told of Salomé making advances towards Jokanaan, only to be brutally rebuffed—and of her revenge: in exchange for a sensual performance of the “Dance of the Seven Veils,” she asks King Herod for Jokanaan’s head on a silver platter. Famously, Wilde’s play could not be performed publicly in England, as biblical subject matter was at that time banned from the stage. In his preface to the English translation of Salomé (made by Lord Alfred Douglas), Robert Ross assures us that prior to its debut private performance in England in 1905, “[t]he obscure drama...had become for five years past part of the literature of Europe. It is performed regularly or intermittently in Holland, Sweden, Italy, France, and Russia, and it has been translated into every European language, including the Czech. It forms part of the repertoire of the German stage, where it is performed more often than any play by any English writer except Shakespeare.” Today, the strange and wonderful illustrations Aubrey Beardsley executed for the play’s publication are probably more famous than the text itself (see particularly “The Peacock Skirt”).
A Woman of No Importance by Oscar Wilde
“A house party is in full swing at Lady Hunstanton’s stately country home. One of the guests is Gerard Arbuthnot, an earnest, upright young man whose prospects are limited, so he is overjoyed when the suave Lord Illingworth offers him employment as his secretary. His mother, however, implores him to refuse this brilliant entrée into sophisticated society. Should she reveal the shameful secret that she has kept hidden for twenty years and possibly destroy her beloved son’s happiness forever? How can she show Gerard that, contrary to appearances, Lord Illingworth is ‘a man of no importance’?” – Publisher’s Summary

Japanese American Writers – May 2025

In honor of Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month, this month’s “Leisure Reads” presents works by and about Japanese American writers in a variety of genres, mostly revolving around the Japanese American experience of being detained in internment camps, as well as the generations growing up in the decades following that collective trauma. Below you will find a graphic novel by George Takei about his experiences as a child detained in internment camps for Japanese Americans during World War II; an anthology of literary works produced by Japanese Americans while detained in those camps; and John Okada’s novel about the young men who famously said no twice: first to serving in the U.S. military during World War II, and second to pledging loyalty to the government that had interned their families.

Kira-Kira by Cynthia Kadohata
“That's how Katie Takeshima's sister, Lynn, makes everything seem. The sky is kira-kira because its color is deep but see-through at the same time. The sea is kira-kira for the same reason. And so are people's eyes. When Katie and her family move from a Japanese community in Iowa to the Deep South of Georgia, it's Lynn who explains to her why people stop them on the street to stare. And it's Lynn who, with her special way of viewing the world, teaches Katie to look beyond tomorrow. But when Lynn becomes desperately ill, and the whole family begins to fall apart, it is up to Katie to find a way to remind them all that there is always something glittering—kira-kira—in the future.” – Publisher’s Summary
They Called Us Enemy by George Takei
“George Takei has captured hearts and minds worldwide with his magnetic performances, sharp wit, and outspoken commitment to equal rights. But long before he braved new frontiers in Star Trek, he woke up as a four-year-old boy to find his own birth country at war with his father's—and their entire family forced from their home into an uncertain future. In 1942, at the order of President Franklin D. Roosevelt, every person of Japanese descent on the west coast was rounded up and shipped to one of ten ‘relocation centers,’ hundreds or thousands of miles from home, where they would be held for years under armed guard. They Called Us Enemy is Takei's firsthand account of those years behind barbed wire, the terrors and small joys of childhood in the shadow of legalized racism, his mother's hard choices, his father's tested faith in democracy, and the way those experiences planted the seeds for his astonishing future. What does it mean to be American? Who gets to decide? When the world is against you, what can one person do? To answer these questions, George Takei joins cowriters Justin Eisinger & Steven Scott and artist Harmony Becker for the journey of a lifetime.” – Publisher’s Summary
City Girls by Valerie J. Matsumoto
“Even before internment, Japanese largely lived in separate cultural communities from their West Coast neighbors. The first-generation American children, the Nisei, were American citizens, spoke English, and were integrated in public schools, yet were also socially isolated in many ways from their peers and subject to racism. Their daughters especially found rapport in a flourishing network of ethnocultural youth organizations. Until now, these groups have remained hidden from the historical record, both because they were girls' groups and because evidence of them was considered largely ephemeral. In her second book, Valerie Matsumoto has recreated this hidden world of female friendship and comradery, tracing it from the Jazz Age through internment to the postwar period. Matsumoto argues that these groups were more than just social outlets for Nisei teenage girls. Rather, she shows how they were critical networks during the wartime upheavals of Japanese Americans. Young Nisei women helped their families navigate internment and, more importantly, recreated communities when they returned to their homes in the immediate postwar period. This book will be a considerable contribution to our understanding of Japanese life in America, youth culture, ethnic history, urban history, and Western history. Matsumoto has interviewed and gained the trust of many (now old) women who were part of these girls' clubs." – Publisher’s Summary
No-No Boy by John Okada
“‘No-No Boy has the honor of being among the first of what has become an entire literary canon of Asian American literature,’ writes novelist Ruth Ozeki in her new foreword. First published in 1957, No-No Boy was virtually ignored by a public eager to put World War II and the Japanese internment behind them. It was not until the mid-1970s that a new generation of Japanese American writers and scholars recognized the novel’s importance and popularized it as one of literature’s most powerful testaments to the Asian American experience. No-No Boy tells the story of Ichiro Yamada, a fictional version of the real-life ‘no-no boys.’ Yamada answered ‘no’ twice in a compulsory government questionnaire as to whether he would serve in the armed forces and swear loyalty to the United States. Unwilling to pledge himself to the country that interned him and his family, Ichiro earns two years in prison and the hostility of his family and community when he returns home to Seattle. As Ozeki writes, Ichiro’s ‘obsessive, tormented’ voice subverts Japanese postwar ‘model-minority’ stereotypes, showing a fractured community and one man’s ‘threnody of guilt, rage, and blame as he tries to negotiate his reentry into a shattered world.’” – Publisher’s Summary
Seventeen Syllables and Other Stories by Hisaye Yamamoto; King-Kok Cheung (Introduction by)
“In the foothills of Pasadena, Mas Arai is just another Japanese American gardener, his lawn mower blades clean and sharp, his truck carefully tuned. But while Mas keeps lawns neatly trimmed, his own life has gone to seed. His wife is dead. And his livelihood is falling into the hands of the men he once hired by the day. For Mas, a life of sin is catching up to him. And now Bachi—the spirit of retribution—is knocking on his door. It begins when a stranger comes around, asking questions about a nurseryman who once lived in Hiroshima, a man known as Joji Haneda. By the end of the summer, Joji will be dead and Mas's own life will be in danger. For while Mas was building a life on the edge of the American dream, he has kept powerful secrets: about three friends long ago, about two lives entwined, and about what really happened when the bomb fell on Hiroshima in August 1945.” – Publisher’s Summary
That damned fence : the literature of the Japanese American prison camps by Heather Hathaway
“That Damned Fence paints a haunting and intimate portrait of the World War II incarceration of Japanese Americans. Drawing on fiction, journalism, poetry and art produced by the internees themselves, the book explores how factors such as the camps' physical settings; the class, gender and generational composition of their populations; and the attitudes of camp administrators toward the enterprise shaped the experiences of the detained. In so doing, it reveals the sorry and the humor, the despair and resilience with which Japanese Americans faced the injustice of their wartime incarcerations.” – Publisher’s Summary
When the Emperor Was Divine by Julie Otsuka
“Julia Otsuka’s quietly disturbing novel opens with a woman reading a sign in a post office window. It is Berkeley, California, the spring of 1942. Pearl Harbor has been attacked, the war is on, and though the precise message on the sign is not revealed, its impact on the woman who reads it is immediate and profound. It is, in many ways she cannot yet foresee, a sign of things to come. She readies herself and her two young children for a journey that will take them to the high desert plains of Utah and into a world that will shatter their illusions forever. They travel by train and gradually the reader discovers that all on board are Japanese American, that the shades must be pulled down at night so as not to invite rock-throwing, and that their destination is an internment camp where they will be imprisoned ‘for their own safety’ until the war is over. With stark clarity and an unflinching gaze, Otsuka explores the inner lives of her main characters–the mother, daughter, and son–as they struggle to understand their fate and long for the father who they have not seen since he was whisked away, in slippers and handcuffs, on the evening of Pearl Harbor. Moving between dreams, memories, and sharply emblematic moments.” – Publisher’s Summary

National Poetry Month 2025

April’s Leisure Reads celebrates National Poetry Month with African American poets selected from the late and great poet Nikki Giovanni’s anthology The 100 Best African American Poems. Below you will find print books as well as many ebook versions of some of the most prominent poets of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. This includes, of course, Nikki Giovanni, as well as Gwendolyn Brooks, Sterling Brown, Lucille Clifton, and more!

Print Titles

The 100 Best African American Poems by Nikki Giovanni
“Immerse yourself in the heart and soul of African American literature with The 100 Best African American Poems. This diverse anthology offers a vibrant tapestry of voices that echoes centuries of struggle, triumph, and profound insight. The 100 Best African American Poems is a riveting exploration of African American life, culture, and history, as seen through the lens of poetry. The anthology spans different periods and styles, showcasing the richness and variety of African American poetic expression. From legendary poets like Langston Hughes and Maya Angelou to contemporary voices pushing the boundaries of poetic art, Giovanni's expertly curated selection provides a comprehensive view of the African American poetic tradition. Each poem is a lyrical journey that invites readers to engage with poignant themes, stirring narratives, and powerful emotions.” – Publisher’s Summary
African-American Poetry of the Nineteenth Century by Joan R. Sherman
“In this bestselling companion to her pioneering study, Invisible Poets, Joan Sherman continues to make new generations aware of the 'invisible' legacy of nineteenth-century black American poetry. The 171 poems here, by thirty-five men and women, have been transcribed from first editions and are annotated in detail.” – Publisher’s Summary. Includes poems by Frances Ellen Watkins Harper, Paul Laurence Dunbar, and more!
Chasing Utopia: A Hybrid by Nikki Giovanni
“The poetry of Nikki Giovanni has spurred social justice movements and inspired songs, turned hearts and informed generations about the reality of life—especially Black life—in America. One of the foremost African-American writers and activists of her generation, she has been hailed as a healer and a sage, a powerful voice on issues of race, equality, violence, and discrimination. With Chasing Utopia, Giovanni demands that the prosaic—flowers, food, birdsong, winter—be seen as poetic, and reaffirms once again why she is as energetic, ‘remarkable’ (Gwendolyn Brooks), ‘wonderful’ (Marian Wright Edelman), ‘outspoken, prolific, energetic’ (New York Times), and relevant as ever.” – Publisher’s Summary
The Essential Gwendolyn Brooks by Gwendolyn Brooks
“‘If you wanted a poem,’ wrote Gwendolyn Brooks, ‘you only had to look out of a window. There was material always, walking or running, fighting or screaming or singing.’ From the life of Chicago’s South Side she made a forceful and passionate poetry that fused Modernist aesthetics with African-American cultural tradition, a poetry that registered the life of the streets and the upheavals of the 20th century. Starting with A Street in Bronzeville (1945), her epoch-making debut volume, The Essential Gwendolyn Brooks traces the full arc of her career in all its ambitious scope and unexpected stylistic shifts.” – Publisher’s Summary
It Seems Like a Mighty Long Time by Angela Jackson
“Angela Jackson’s latest collection of poetry borrows its title from a lyric in Barbara Lewis’s 1963 hit single ‘Hello Stranger,’ recorded at Chess Records in Chicago. Like the song, Jackson’s poems are a melodic ode to the African American experience, informed by both individual lives and community history, from the arrival of the first African slave in Virginia in 1619 to post-Obama America. It Seems Like a Mighty Long Time reflects the maturity of Jackson’s poetic vision. The Great Migration, the American South, and Chicago all serve as signposts, but it is the complexity of individual lives—both her own and those who have gone before, walk beside, and come after—that invigorate this collection. Upon surveying so vast a landscape, Jackson finds that sorrow meets delight, and joy lifts up anger and despair. And for all this time, love is the agent, the wise and just rule and guide.” – Publisher’s Summary
To Repel Ghosts: Remixed from the Original Masters by Kevin Young
“In spare, jazzlike verse Kevin Young tells the story of Basquiat's rise from the mock prophet and graffiti artist SAMO to one of the hottest painters of the 1980s (‘blue-chip Basquiat / playing the bull / market’), exploring the artist's bouts with fame and heroin, mourning his untimely death, and celebrating his legacy. Along the way Young riffs on Basquiat's paintings and sayings, on the music he loved, on the artists he ran with (Andy Warhol and Keith Haring, among them), and on the black heroes (Charlie Parker, Muhammad Ali, Billie Holiday) who inspired him.” – Publisher’s Summary
A Wreath for Emmett Till by Marilyn Nelson
“In 1955, people all over the United States knew that Emmett Louis Till was a fourteen-year-old African American boy lynched for supposedly whistling at a white woman in Mississippi. The brutality of his murder, the open-casket funeral, and the acquittal of the men tried for the crime drew wide media attention. Award-winning poet Marilyn Nelson reminds us of the boy whose fate helped spark the civil rights movement. This martyr’s wreath, woven from a little-known but sophisticated form of poetry, challenges us to speak out against modern-day injustices, to ‘speak what we see.’” – Publisher’s Summary

Ebooks:

The Book of Light (ebook) by Lucille Clifton
“Though The Book of Light opens with thirty-nine names for light, we soon learn the most meaningful name is Lucille—daughter, mother, proud Black woman. Known for her ability to convey multitudes in few words, Clifton writes into the shadows—her father’s violations, a Black neighborhood bombed, death, loss—all while illuminating the full spectrum of human emotion: grief and celebration, anger and joy, empowerment and so much grace. A meeting place of myth and the Divine, The Book of Light exists “between starshine and clay” as Clifton’s personas allow us to bear the world’s weight with Atlas and witness conversations between Lucifer and God. While names and dates mark this text as a social commentary responding to her time, it is haunting how easily this collection serves as a political palimpsest of today. We leave these poems inspired—Clifton shows us Superman is not our hero. Our hero is the Black female narrator who decides to live. And what a life she creates! ‘Won’t you celebrate with me?’” – Publisher’s Summary
Collected Poems (ebook) by Robert Earl Hayden
“Robert Hayden was one of the most important American poets of the twentieth century. He left behind an exquisite body of work, collected in this definitive edition, including A Ballad of Remembrance, Words in the Mourning Time, The Night-Blooming Cereus, Angle of Ascent, and American Journal, which was nominated for a National Book Award.... In Hayden’s work the actualities of history and culture became the launching places for flights of imagination and intelligence. His voice―characterized by musical diction and an exquisite feeling for the formality of pattern―is a seminal one in American life and literature.” – Publisher’s Summary
The Collected Poems of Sterling A. Brown (ebook) by Sterling A. Brown
“Sterling A. Brown was renowned for his trenchant poetry and scholarship on African American folklife. A contemporary of Langston Hughes, Claude McKay, and Jean Toomer, Brown became the first poet laureate of the District of Columbia. His celebrated works, including Southern Road, address issues of race through collages of narrative and dialect unique to Brown’s unflinching poetic voice.” – Publisher’s Summary
HeartLove: Wedding and Love Poems (ebook) by Haki R. Madhubuti
“HeartLove is love that matters. In these poems, Madhubuti gives us essential meditations on commitment and caring. He offers honest and sometimes cutting criticism that is expected from a true friend or lover. And he gives us poetry—constant reminders of our wholeness and humanity. ‘Some of the finest human poems in English are in this book’ (Robert Bly).” – Publisher’s Summary
Homegirls and Handgrenades (ebook) by Sonia Sanchez
“Winner of the American Book Award.... ‘A lion in literature’s forest. When she writes she roars, and when she sleeps other creatures walk gingerly’ (Maya Angelou). Originally published in 1984, this collection of prose, prose poems, and lyric verses is as fresh and radical today as it was then. Sonia Sanchez, the premiere poet of the Black Arts Movement, shows the ‘razor blades’ clenched in her teeth in these powerful pieces.” – Publisher’s Summary
Johannesburg & Other Poems (ebook) by Sterling Plumpp
“A poetic and autobiographical fusing of three landscapes: the poet's native Mississippi, Chicago, and South Africa where Sterling Plumpp travelled in 1992. Plumpp paints here stunning and lyrical parallels between Black lives in the US and Black lives in South Africa. Through the prism of the blues Plumpp sees sharecroppers, maids, and the struggle for civil rights on two continents. Like a blues song, Johannesburg is a work where the reader may find a tragic, and often comic, common humanity as composed and sung by a master.” – Publisher’s Summary
Prophets for a New Day (ebook) by Margaret Walker
“A member of the Chicago Black Renaissance, Margaret Walker (1915–1998) was the first woman to receive a national writing prize (1942) and her novel Jubilee (1966) is considered a key landmark work. Issued by a Black publisher, this poetry collection has poems written for or about Malcolm X, Dr. Martin Luther King, the Civil Rights Era and other topics on African-American history.” – Publisher’s Summary
Remembrances of Spring: Collected Early Poems (ebook) by Naomi Cornelia Long Madgett
“Naomi Long Madgett, a 2002 Michigan Women's Hall of Fame Honoree, has been a poet for most of her life and was founder, editor, and publisher of Lotus Press, Inc. She was awarded the 1993 American Book Award and the 1993 Michigan Governor's Artists Award. Remembrances of Spring is intended to commemorate her work and remind us, once again, that she possesses her own, powerful poetic voice. It is also a thought-provoking retrospective examination of the intellect of a woman whose verses touch the deepest parts of our imaginations. This work is a collection of poems previously published in three separate works.” – Publisher’s Summary. Naomi Long Madgett died in 2020.
Timber and Prayer: The Indian Pond Poems (ebook) by Afaa Michael Weaver
“Weaver's life studies and lyrics are imbued with a vivid sense of language, a vivid sense of the world, a vivid sense of their inseparability. And his tonal range—from unabashed passion to the subtlest velleity—is impressive indeed. This is a singular talent.” – Henry Louis Gates, Jr.
Victims of the Latest Dance Craze (ebook) by Cornelius Eady
“A vibrant collection of poems. Victims of the Latest Dance Craze is the 1985 Lamont Poetry Selection, a distinguished award for an author's second book of poems.... Worthy alone of the price of the book is the poem 'Jazz Dancer.’ Its obsessive celebration of the jazzman's ‘war against/the obvious’ results in a praiseful litany as the poet enunciates a lovely catalogue of theories about air, motion, kisses, ‘long glances from across a ballroom’ and ‘certain kinds of thirst.’ The poem's leaping connections harmoniously join an odd geography of emotional and physical material into a most beautiful composition. Throughout this volume each reader will discover special favorites from among the 29 individual poems. Eady locates the dance in a marvelous array of possibilities... Throughout, the language is accessible and direct, clean in spirit and statement, delightfully innocent and honest. He doesn't pretend to know all the answers to the pop of fingers or the beat's bop...” – Publisher’s Summary

Women's History Month 2025

This March “Leisure Reads” celebrates Women’s History Month by focusing on the theme developed by the National Women’s History Alliance (NWHA): “Moving Forward Together! Women Educating and Inspiring Generations.” This year’s theme “celebrates the collective strength and influence of women who have dedicated their lives to education, mentorship, and leadership,” emphasizing how “[f]rom classrooms to boardrooms, and from grassroots movements to global initiatives, women educators and leaders have played a pivotal role in nurturing minds and inspiring transformative action” (NWHA). Below you will find biography, memoir, and other nonfiction works by Michelle Obama, Robin Wall Kimmerer, Helen Keller, and more! Titles are available for requesting and borrowing.

Becoming by Michelle Obama
“In a life filled with meaning and accomplishment, Michelle Obama has emerged as one of the most iconic and compelling women of our era. As First Lady of the United States of America—the first African American to serve in that role—she helped create the most welcoming and inclusive White House in history, while also establishing herself as a powerful advocate for women and girls in the U.S. and around the world, dramatically changing the ways that families pursue healthier and more active lives, and standing with her husband as he led America through some of its most harrowing moments. Along the way, she showed us a few dance moves, crushed Carpool Karaoke, and raised two down-to-earth daughters under an unforgiving media glare. In her memoir, a work of deep reflection and mesmerizing storytelling, Michelle Obama invites readers into her world, chronicling the experiences that have shaped her—from her childhood on the South Side of Chicago to her years as an executive balancing the demands of motherhood and work, to her time spent at the world’s most famous address. With unerring honesty and lively wit, she describes her triumphs and her disappointments, both public and private, telling her full story as she has lived it—in her own words and on her own terms....” – Publisher’s Summary
Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer
“As a botanist and professor of plant ecology, Robin Wall Kimmerer has spent a career learning how to ask questions of nature using the tools of science. As a Potawatomi woman, she learned from elders, family, and history that the Potawatomi, as well as a majority of other cultures indigenous to this land, consider plants and animals to be our oldest teachers. In Braiding Sweetgrass, Kimmerer brings these two lenses of knowing together to reveal what it means to see humans as ‘the younger brothers of creation.’ As she explores these themes she circles toward a central argument: the awakening of a wider ecological consciousness requires the acknowledgement and celebration of our reciprocal relationship with the world. Once we begin to listen for the languages of other beings, we can begin to understand the innumerable life-giving gifts the world provides us and learn to offer our thanks, our care, and our own gifts in return.” – Publisher’s Summary
I Am Malala by Malala Yousafzai; Christina Lamb (As told to)
“When the Taliban took control of the Swat Valley in Pakistan, one girl spoke out. Malala Yousafzai refused to be silenced and fought for her right to an education. On Tuesday, October 9, 2012, when she was fifteen, she almost paid the ultimate price. She was shot in the head at point-blank range while riding the bus home from school, and few expected her to survive. Instead, Malala's miraculous recovery has taken her on an extraordinary journey from a remote valley in northern Pakistan to the halls of the United Nations in New York. At sixteen, she has become a global symbol of peaceful protest and the youngest nominee ever for the Nobel Peace Prize. This is the remarkable tale of a family uprooted by global terrorism, of the fight for girls' education, of a father who, himself a school owner, championed and encouraged his daughter to write and attend school, and of brave parents who have a fierce love for their daughter in a society that prizes sons. This story will make you believe in the power of one person's voice to inspire change in the world.” – Publisher’s Summary
Maria Montessori by E. M. Standing
“Maria Montessori is important background reading for parents considering Montessori education for their children, as well as for those training to become Montessori teachers. The first woman to win a degree as a Doctor of Medicine in Italy in 1896, Maria Montessori's mission to improve children's education began in the slums of Rome in 1907, and continued throughout her lifetime. Her insights into the minds of children led her to develop prepared environments and other tools and devices that have come to characterize Montessori education today. Her influence in other countries has been profound and many of her teaching methods have been adopted by educators generally. Part biography and part exposition of her ideas, this engaging book reveals through her letters and personal diaries Maria Montessori's humility and delight in the success of her educational experiments and is an ideal introduction to the principals and practices of the greatest educational pioneer of the 20th century.” – Publisher’s Summary
Playing in the Dark by Toni Morrison
An immensely persuasive work of literary criticism that opens a new chapter in the American dialogue on race--and promises to change the way we read American literature--from the acclaimed Nobel Prize winner Morrison shows how much the themes of freedom and individualism, manhood and innocence, depended on the existence of a black population that was manifestly unfree--and that came to serve white authors as embodiments of their own fears and desires. According to the Chicago Tribune, Morrison "reimagines and remaps the possibility of America." Her brilliant discussions of the "Africanist" presence in the fiction of Poe, Melville, Cather, and Hemingway leads to a dramatic reappraisal of the essential characteristics of our literary tradition. Written with the artistic vision that has earned the Nobel Prize-winning author a pre-eminent place in modern letters, Playing in the Dark is an invaluable read for avid Morrison admirers as well as students, critics, and scholars of American literature.
The Proud Tower by Barbara W. Tuchman
“During the fateful quarter century leading up to World War I, the climax of a century of rapid, unprecedented change, a privileged few enjoyed Olympian luxury as the underclass was ‘heaving in its pain, its power, and its hate.’ In The Proud Tower, Barbara W. Tuchman brings the era to vivid life: the decline of the Edwardian aristocracy; the Anarchists of Europe and America; Germany and its self-depicted hero, Richard Strauss; Diaghilev’s Russian ballet and Stravinsky’s music; the Dreyfus Affair; the Peace Conferences in The Hague; and the enthusiasm and tragedy of Socialism, epitomized by the assassination of Jean Jaurès on the night the Great War began and an epoch came to a close.” – Publisher’s Summary
A Room of One's Own by Virginia Woolf; Frances Spalding (Afterword by)
“In this extraordinary essay, Virginia Woolf examines the limitations of womanhood in the early twentieth century. With the startling prose and poetic license of a novelist, she makes a bid for freedom, emphasising that the lack of an independent income, and the titular ‘room of one’s own,’ prevents most women from reaching their full literary potential. As relevant in its insight and indignation today as it was when first delivered in those hallowed lecture theatres, A Room of One’s Own remains both a beautiful work of literature and an incisive analysis of women and their place in the world.” – Publisher’s Summary
The Story of My Life by Helen. Keller; Jim Knipfel (Introduction by); Marlee Matlin (Afterword by)
“Helen Keller's triumph over her blindness and deafness has become one of the most inspiring stories of our time. Here, in a book first published when she was young woman, is Helen Keller's own story—complex, poignant, and filled with love. With unforgettable immediacy, Helen’s own words reveal the heart of an exceptional woman, her struggles and joys, including that memorable moment when she finally understands that Anne’s finger-spelled letters w-a-t-e-r mean the fluid rushing over her hand. Helen Keller was always a compassionate and witty advocate for the handicapped, and her sincere and eloquent memoir is deeply moving for the sighted and the blind, the deaf and the hearing. ‘Her spirit will endure,’ said Senator Lister Hill at her funeral, ‘as long as man can read and stories can be told of the woman who showed the world there are no boundaries to courage and faith.’ Through movies and plays, most notably The Miracle Worker, which portrayed her relationship with her teacher, Anne Sullivan, Keller’s life has become an emblem of hope for people everywhere.” – Publisher’s Summary

Black History Month 2025

February’s “Leisure Reads” celebrates Black History Month, focusing on the theme developed by the Association for the Study of African American Life & History (ASAALH): “African Americans and labor.” This includes “work and working of all kinds – free and unfree, skilled and unskilled, vocational and voluntary” and how work and working “intersects with the collective experience of Black people” (ASAALH). The theme is also broad enough to encompass “community building of social justice activists, voluntary workers serving others, and institution building in churches, community groups, and social clubs and organizations,” in order to demonstrate how “the work Black people do and have done have been instrumental in shaping the lives, cultures, and histories of Black people and the societies in which they live” (ASAALH). Below you will find mostly nonfiction related to this year’s theme, but we have also included some fiction, as well as a selection of TED talk videos curated by the Mission & Belonging Department at MSJ!

Print Books (fiction & non-fiction)

Bayard Rustin: A Legacy of Protest and Politics by Michael G. Long
“While we can all recall images of Martin Luther King, Jr. giving his ‘I Have a Dream’ speech in front of a massive crowd at Lincoln Memorial, few of us remember the man who organized this watershed nonviolent protest in eight short weeks: Bayard Rustin. This was far from Rustin’s first foray into the fight for civil rights. As a world-traveling pacifist, he brought Gandhi’s protest techniques to the forefront of US civil rights demonstrations, helped build the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, led the fight for economic justice, and played a deeply influential role in the life of Dr. King by helping to mold him into an international symbol of nonviolent resistance. Rustin’s legacy touches many areas of contemporary life—from civil resistance to violent uprisings, democracy to socialism, and criminal justice reform to war resistance. Despite these achievements, Rustin was often relegated to the background. He was silenced, threatened, arrested, beaten, imprisoned, and fired from important leadership positions, largely because he was an openly gay man in a fiercely homophobic era. With expansive, searching, and sometimes critical essays from a range of esteemed writers—including Rustin’s own partner, Walter Naegle—this volume draws a full picture of Bayard Rustin: a gay, pacifist, socialist political radical who changed the course of US history and set a precedent for future civil rights activism, from LGBTQ+ Pride to Black Lives Matter.” – Publisher’s Summary
Black Workers Remember: An Oral History of Segregation, Unionism, and the Freedom Struggle by Michael Keith Honey
“The labor of black workers has been crucial to economic development in the United States. Yet because of racism and segregation, their contribution remains largely unknown. Spanning the 1930s to the present, Black Workers Remember tells the hidden history of African American workers in their own words.... Eloquent and personal, these oral histories comprise a unique primary source and provide a new way of understanding the Black labor experience during the industrial era. Together, the stories demonstrate how Black workers resisted racial apartheid in American industry and underscore the active role of Black working people in history....” – Publisher’s Summary
Dinner at Aunt Connie's House by Faith Ringgold
“Dinner at Aunt Connie's House [children's fiction by fabric artist Faith Ringgold] is even more special than usual when Melody meets not only her new adopted cousin but twelve inspiring African-American women, who step out of their portraits and join the family for dinner.” – Publisher’s Summary
The Gift of Black Folk by W.E.B. Du Bois
“Although the Civil War marked an end to slavery in the United States, it would take another fifty years to establish the country’s civil rights movement. Dr. W.E.B. Du Bois was among the first generation of African-American scholars to spearhead this movement towards equality. As cofounder of the NAACP, he sought to initiate equality through social change, and as a talented writer, he created books and essays that provide a revealing glimpse into the black experience of the times. In The Gift of Black Folk—one of Du Bois' most important works—he recounts the remarkable history of African Americans and their many unsung contributions to American society.... He also highlighted the unique contributions of black women, proposing the idea that their freedom could lead to freedom for all women.” – Publisher’s Summary
The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot
“Her name was Henrietta Lacks, but scientists know her as HeLa. She was a poor Southern tobacco farmer who worked the same land as her slave ancestors, yet her cells—taken without her knowledge—became one of the most important tools in medicine: the first ‘immortal’ human cells grown in culture, which are still alive today, though she has been dead for more than sixty years. HeLa cells were vital for developing the polio vaccine; uncovered secrets of cancer, viruses, and the atom bomb’s effects; helped lead to important advances like in vitro fertilization, cloning, and gene mapping; and have been bought and sold by the billions. Yet Henrietta Lacks remains virtually unknown, buried in an unmarked grave. Henrietta’s family did not learn of her “immortality” until more than twenty years after her death, when scientists investigating HeLa began using her husband and children in research without informed consent. And though the cells had launched a multimillion-dollar industry that sells human biological materials, her family never saw any of the profits. As Rebecca Skloot so brilliantly shows, the story of the Lacks family—past and present—is inextricably connected to the dark history of experimentation on African Americans, the birth of bioethics, and the legal battles over whether we control the stuff we are made of.” – Publisher’s Summary
The Living Is Easy by Dorothy West
“The first novel by Dorothy West—author of The Wedding—was one of only a handful to be published by Black women during the 1940s. The Living is Easy tells the story of Cleo Judson, daughter of Southern sharecroppers, determined to integrate into Boston's Black elite. Married to the ‘Black Banana King’ Bart Judson, Cleo maneuvers her three sisters and their children—but not their husbands—into living with her, attempting to recreate her original family in a Bostonian mansion. Written in elegant and piercing prose, The Living Is Easy is a classic of American literature by a groundbreaking African American woman writer whose work deserves widespread and enduring recognition.” – Publisher’s Summary
Shadow and Act by Ralph Ellison
“With the same intellectual incisiveness and supple, stylish prose he brought to his classic novel Invisible Man, Ralph Ellison examines his antecedents and in so doing illuminates the literature, music, and culture of both Black and White America. His range is virtuosic, encompassing Mark Twain and Richard Wright, Mahalia Jackson and Charlie Parker, The Birth of a Nation and the Dante-esque landscape of Harlem—‘the scene and symbol of the Negro’s perpetual alienation in the land of his birth.’ Throughout, he gives us what amounts to an episodic autobiography that traces his formation as a writer as well as the genesis of Invisible Man. On every page, Ellison reveals his idiosyncratic and often contrarian brilliance, his insistence on refuting both black and white stereotypes of what an African American writer should say or be. The result is a book that continues to instruct, delight, and occasionally outrage readers.” – Publisher’s Summary
Slavery by Another Name: The Re-Enslavement of Black Americans from the Civil War to World War II by Douglas A. Blackmon
“A sobering account of a little-known crime against African Americans, and the insidious legacy of racism that reverberates today. From the aftermath of the Civil War through the dawn of World War II, under laws enacted specifically to intimidate Blacks, tens of thousands of African Americans were arbitrarily arrested, hit with outrageous fines, and charged for the costs of their own arrests. With no means to pay these ‘debts,’ prisoners were sold as forced laborers to coal mines, lumber camps, brickyards, railroads, quarries, and farm plantations. Thousands of other African Americans were simply seized and compelled into years of involuntary servitude. Armies of "free" black men labored without compensation, were repeatedly bought and sold, and were forced through beatings and physical torture to do the bidding of white masters for decades after the official abolition of American slavery.” – Publisher’s Summary
The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America's Great Migration by Isabel Wilkerson
“In this beautifully written masterwork, Pulitzer Prize–winning author Isabel Wilkerson presents a definitive and dramatic account of one of the great untold stories of American history: the Great Migration of six million Black citizens who fled the South for the North and West in search of a better life, from World War I to 1970. Wilkerson tells this interwoven story through the lives of three unforgettable protagonists: Ida Mae Gladney, a sharecropper’s wife, who in 1937 fled Mississippi for Chicago; sharp and quick-tempered George Starling, who in 1945 fled Florida for Harlem, and Robert Foster, a surgeon who left Louisiana in 1953 in hopes of making it in California. Wilkerson brilliantly captures their first treacherous cross-country journeys by car and train and their new lives in colonies in the New World....” – Publisher’s Summary
A Woman’s Place by Marita Golden
“The compelling story of three Black women who meet at a New England college in the late sixties and form a friendship that will guide them through the changes, the joys, and the tears of the coming years. Faith, small-boned and delicate, the daughter of a strong-willed mother and a father she no longer remembers, longs for the one experience that will show her to herself. Serena, a passionate and outspoken radical, has an intense political commitment and pride in her African roots, which will lead her to find a life on a continent far away. And Crystal, a poet from girlhood, has a long love affair with words that will be put to the ultimate test when she must explain to her father her love for a man of another race.” – Publisher’s Summary
Where Do We Go from Here: Chaos or Community? (print) by Martin Luther King, Jr.
“In 1967, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., isolated himself from the demands of the civil rights movement, rented a house in Jamaica with no telephone, and labored over his final manuscript. In this prophetic work, which has been unavailable for more than ten years, he lays out his thoughts, plans, and dreams for America's future, including the need for better jobs, higher wages, decent housing, and quality education. With a universal message of hope that continues to resonate, King demanded an end to global suffering, asserting that humankind—for the first time—has the resources and technology to eradicate poverty.” – Publisher’s Summary

Ebooks (nonfiction)

African American Workers and the Appalachian Coal Industry by Joe William Trotter
“This collection brings together nearly three decades of research on the African American experience, class, and race relations in the Appalachian coal industry. It shows how, with deep roots in the antebellum era of chattel slavery, West Virginia's Black working class gradually picked up steam during the emancipation years following the Civil War and dramatically expanded during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. From there, African American Workers and the Appalachian Coal Industry highlights the decline of the region's Black industrial proletariat under the impact of rapid technological, social, and political changes following World War II. It underscores how all miners suffered unemployment and outmigration from the region as global transformations took their toll on the coal industry, but emphasizes the disproportionately painful impact of declining bituminous coal production on African American workers, their families, and their communities....” – Publisher’s Summary
A. Philip Randolph: The Religious Journey of an African American Labor Leader by Cynthia Taylor
"A. Philip Randolph, founder of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters, was one of the most effective Black trade unionists in America. Once known as ‘the most dangerous Black man in America,’ he was a radical journalist, a labor leader, and a pioneer of civil rights strategies. His protegé Bayard Rustin noted that, ‘With the exception of W.E.B. Du Bois, he was probably the greatest civil rights leader of the twentieth century until Martin Luther King.’ Scholarship has traditionally portrayed Randolph as an atheist and anti-religious, his connections to African American religion either ignored or misrepresented. Taylor places Randolph within the context of American religious history and uncovers his complex relationship to African American religion. She demonstrates that Randolph's religiosity covered a wide spectrum of liberal Protestant beliefs, from a religious humanism on the left, to orthodox theological positions on the right, never straying far from his African Methodist roots.” – Publisher’s Summary
The Black Worker: A Documentary History from Colonial Times to the Present by Philip S. Foner and Ronald L. Lewis
This eight-volume series published in 1989 is a comprehensive scholarly study of the history of Black workers in the United States. Through detailed analysis and interpretation of centuries of documentary sources, editors Philip S. Foner and Ronald L. Lewis tell the story of Black labor in detail, from the Old South to the period following the AFL-CIO merger in 1955 (up to the year 1980). All eight volumes are available in ebook form from the Internet Archive’s open access collection and JSTOR’s Open Access collection. They are also cataloged within the MSJ Library’s collection. Volumes include: Vol. 1: The Black Worker to 1869 | Vol. 2: The Black Worker during the Era of the National Labor Union | Vol. 3: The Black Worker during the Era of the Knights of Labor | Vol. 4: The Black Worker during the Era of the American Federation of Labor & the Railroad Brotherhoods |Vol. 5: The Black Worker from 1900 to 1919 | Vol. 6: The Era of Post-War Prosperity and the Great Depression, 1920-1936 | Vol. 7: The Black Worker from the Founding of the CIO to the AFL-CIO Merger, 1936-1955 | Vol. 8: The Black Worker since the AFL-CIO Merger, 1955-1980
Mary Ann Shadd Cary: Essential Writings of a Nineteenth Century Black Radical Feminist by Nneka D. Dennie
“This volume compiles writings by and about Mary Ann Shadd Cary, a nineteenth-century Black radical feminist, an abolitionist, suffragist, and one of the first Black woman newspaper editors in North America.... Racial uplift, women's rights, and emigration first emerged as central themes in Shadd Cary's intellectual thought during the 1850s as she grappled with slavery's effects on African Americans. She was frequently mired in controversy during this era, both for her ideas and for outspokenness as a woman. Shadd Cary's support for emigration dissipated in the 1860s. During and after Reconstruction, she advocated for citizenship and economic self-determination for Black people in general and Black women in particular. By the 1880s, Shadd Cary's writings and activism prioritized Black women's needs. Shadd Cary shaped Black radical theory and praxis throughout her lifetime. She is one of many nineteenth-century Black women theorists whose intellectual contributions are often overlooked....” – Publisher’s Summary
Working People: A History of African American Workers since Emancipation by Steven A. Reich
“...From the abolition of slavery through the Civil Rights Movement and Great Recession, African Americans have faced a unique set of obstacles and prejudices on their way to becoming a productive and indispensable portion of the American workforce. Repeatedly denied access to the opportunities all Americans are to be afforded under the Constitution, African Americans have combined decades of collective action and community mobilization with the trailblazing heroism of a select few to pave their own way to prosperity. This latest installment of the African American History Series challenges the notion that racial prejudices are buried in our nation’s history, and instead provides a narrative connecting the struggles of many generations of African American workers to those felt at the present day. Reich provides an unblinking account of what being an African American worker has meant since the 1860s, alluding to ways in which we can and must learn from our past, for the betterment of all workers, however marginalized they may be.” – Publisher’s Summary

TED Talk Videos

Payton M. Wilkins on "Unions for Climate Action!" (TED talk video)
“In the long term, shutting down a coal mine means cleaner air and a healthier environment—but in the short term, it can devastate a community or family that relied on the mine's paychecks to make ends meet. Environmental justice advocate Payton M. Wilkins thinks we can protect both workers and the planet with an age-old solution: unions. He digs into the economic fallout of ditching fossil fuels and shows why unions are well-positioned to push the transition to clean energy and green jobs.” – TED Countdown Summit, July 2023
Margaret Levi - "How Labor Unions Shape Society" (TED talk video)
“The weekend. Social Security. Health insurance. What do these things have in common? They all exist thanks to the advocacy of labor unions. Political economist Margaret Levi explains how these organizations forge equality and protect worker rights, calling for a 21st-century revival of the labor movement in order to build a more equitable future.” – TEDxSeattle, November 2021
"How Labor Unions Create Worker Power" (TED talk video)
“We don't know about you, but we are fans of weekends. And social security. And health insurance. And the end of child labor! And all of these workplace protections exist because of the advocacy of labor unions. In this episode, political scientist Margaret Levi shares the long history of organizing labor and explains how unions create equality and protect worker rights. She also discusses her optimism about today's young workforce and why she believes that an equitable future requires a revival of the labor movement. This is an episode of How to Be a Better Human, a podcast from the TED Audio Collective. You can listen to more How to Be a Better Human wherever you're listening to this.” – How to Be a Better Human, A TED Original Podcast, October 2022

MLK Day 2025

This month’s “Leisure Reads” is in honor of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., whose life and legacy will be celebrated around the country on January 20. Below you will find books by Dr. King himself, as well as books, feature films, and documentaries about him, his circle, and the Civil Rights Movement at large. In addition, the Mission & Belonging department has collaborated with the MSJ Library to suggest supplementary short form video content in support of this MLK Day 2025 Leisure Reads.

Selected Books by the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.:

I Have a Dream (print) by Martin Luther King, Jr.
“On August 28, 1963, the Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr., delivered his most memorable and inspiring speech to a country divided by riots over racial injustice. With the words "I have a dream," King invoked his vision of a racially harmonious America, where "little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls as sisters and brothers." This edition features the complete text and a foreword by King's daughter, the Reverend Bernice A. King. I Have a Dream presents a moving portrait of a visionary at the peak of his influence.” – Publisher’s Summary
I’ve Been to the Mountaintop (print) by Martin Luther King, Jr.
“‘We want to be free.’ So begins the remarkable last speech given by our century's greatest civil rights leader and orator, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Dr. King spoke those words to a cheering crowd on April 3, 1968, in Memphis, Tennessee. The next day, as he stood on a motel balcony, the thirty-nine-year-old minister was shot and killed. Eloquently revealing the courage, conviction, and faith that roused the conscience of a nation and the world, I've Been to the Mountaintop offers a determined vision of justice, a timeless message of faith, and, in retrospect, a poignantly prophetic portrait of a brave man at peace with himself.” – Publisher’s Summary
Letter from the Birmingham Jail (print) by Martin Luther King, Jr.
“Martin Luther King, Jr. rarely had time to answer his critics. But on April 16, 1963, he was confined to the Birmingham jail, serving a sentence for participating in civil rights demonstrations. ‘Alone for days in the dull monotony of a narrow jail cell,’ King pondered a letter that fellow clergymen had published urging him to drop his campaign of nonviolent resistance and to leave the battle for racial equality to the courts. In response, King drafted his most extensive and forceful written statement against social injustice—a remarkable essay that focused the world's attention on Birmingham and spurred the famous March on Washington. Bristling with the energy and resonance of his great speeches, Letter from the Birmingham Jail is both a compelling defense of nonviolent demonstration and a rallying cry for an end to social discrimination that is just as powerful today as it was more than twenty years ago.” – Publisher’s Summary
Strength to Love (print) by Martin Luther King, Jr.
“In these short meditative and sermonic pieces, some of them composed in jails and all of them crafted during the tumultuous years of the civil rights struggle, Dr. King articulated and espoused in a deeply personal compelling way his commitment to justice and to the intellectual, moral, and spiritual conversion that makes his work as much a blueprint today for Christian discipleship as it was then.” – Publisher’s Summary
The Trumpet of Conscience (print) by Martin Luther King, Jr.
“In November and December 1967, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., delivered five lectures for the renowned Massey Lecture Series of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. Immediately released under the title Conscience for Change after King’s assassination, it was republished as The Trumpet of Conscience. Each oration speaks prophetically to today’s perils, addressing issues of equality, conscience and war, the mobilization of young people, and nonviolence. The book concludes with “A Christmas Sermon on Peace,” a powerful lecture about nonviolence as a path to world peace that was broadcast live from Ebenezer Baptist Church on Christmas Eve in 1967.” – Publisher’s Summary
Where Do We Go from Here: Chaos or Community? (print) by Martin Luther King, Jr.
“In 1967, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., isolated himself from the demands of the civil rights movement, rented a house in Jamaica with no telephone, and labored over his final manuscript. In this prophetic work, which has been unavailable for more than ten years, he lays out his thoughts, plans, and dreams for America's future, including the need for better jobs, higher wages, decent housing, and quality education. With a universal message of hope that continues to resonate, King demanded an end to global suffering, asserting that humankind—for the first time—has the resources and technology to eradicate poverty.” – Publisher’s Summary
A Testament of Hope: The Essential Writings and Speeches of Martin Luther King, Jr. (print) by (editor) James Melvin Washington
“‘We've got some difficult days ahead. But it really doesn't matter to me now because I've been to the mountaintop. . . . And I've seen the promised land. I may not get there with you. But I want you to know tonight that we as a people will get to the promised land.’ These prophetic words, uttered the day before his assassination, challenged those he left behind to see that his ‘promised land’ of racial equality became a reality; a reality to which King devoted the last twelve years of his life. These words and others are commemorated here in the only major one-volume collection of this seminal twentieth-century American prophet's writings, speeches, interviews, and autobiographical reflections. A Testament of Hope contains Martin Luther King, Jr.'s essential thoughts on nonviolence, social policy, integration, black nationalism, the ethics of love and hope, and more.” – Publisher’s Summary

Books about the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., His Circle, & the Civil Rights Movement:

Parting the Waters: America in the King Years, 1954-63, volume 1 (print) by Taylor Branch
“In Parting the Waters, the first volume of his essential America in the King Years series, Pulitzer Prize winner Taylor Branch gives a ‘compelling…masterfully told’ (The Wall Street Journal) account of Martin Luther King’s early years and rise to greatness....Moving from the fiery political baptism of Martin Luther King, Jr., to the corridors of Camelot where the Kennedy brothers weighed demands for justice against the deceptions of J. Edgar Hoover, here is a vivid tapestry of America, torn and finally transformed by a revolutionary struggle unequaled since the Civil War. Taylor Branch provides an unsurpassed portrait of King's rise to greatness and illuminates the stunning courage and private conflict, the deals, maneuvers, betrayals, and rivalries that determined history behind closed doors, at boycotts and sit-ins, on bloody freedom rides, and through siege and murder....” – Publisher’s Summary
Pillar of Fire: America in the King Years, 1963-65, volume 2 (print)
“Pillar of Fire covers the far-flung upheavals of the years 1963 to 1965—Dallas, St. Augustine, Mississippi Freedom Summer, LBJ's Great Society and the Civil Rights Act of 1964, Vietnam, Selma. And it provides a frank, revealing portrait of Martin Luther King, Jr.—haunted by blackmail, factionalism, and hatred while he tried to hold the nonviolent movement together as a dramatic force in history. Allies, rivals, and opponents addressed racial issues that went deeper than fair treatment at bus stops or lunch counters. Participants on all sides stretched themselves and their country to the breaking point over the meaning of simple words: dignity, equal votes, equal souls.” – Publisher’s Summary
At Canaan’s Edge: America in the King Years, volume 3, 1965-68 (print)
“This book concludes a 3-volume history of American race, violence, and democracy. As the book begins, King and his movement are one decade into an epic struggle for the promises of democracy. The quest to cross Selma's Edmund Pettus Bridge on March 7, 1965 engages the conscience of the world, strains the civil rights coalition, and embroils King with the U.S. government. After Selma, freedom workers are murdered, but sharecroppers learn to read, dare to vote, and build their own political party, while Stokely Carmichael leaves the movement in frustration to proclaim his famous Black Power doctrine. King takes nonviolence into Northern urban ghettoes, exposing hatreds and fears no less virulent than those in the South. We watch King bring all his eloquence into dissent from the Vietnam War, and make an embattled decision to concentrate on poverty; we reach Memphis, the garbage workers' strike, and King's assassination.” – Publisher’s Summary
#1960now: Photographs of Civil Rights Activists & Black Lives Matter Protests (print) by Sheila Pree Bright
“The fight for equality continues, from 1960 to now. Combining portraits of past and present social justice activists with documentary images from recent protests throughout the United States, #1960Now sheds light on the parallels between the 1960s Civil Rights Movement and the Black Lives Matter movement of today. Shelia Pree Bright's striking black-and-white photographs capture the courage and conviction of '60s elder statesmen and a new generation of activists, offering a powerful reminder that the fight for justice is far from over. #1960Now represents an important new contribution to American protest photography.” – Publisher’s Summary
Freedom's Daughters: The Unsung Heroines of the Civil Rights Movement from 1830 to 1970 (print) by Lynne Olson
“In this groundbreaking and absorbing book, credit finally goes where credit is due—to the bold women who were crucial to the success of the civil rights movement. From the Montgomery bus boycott to the lunch counter sit-ins to the Freedom Rides, Lynne Olson skillfully tells the long-overlooked story of the extraordinary women who were among the most fearless, resourceful, and tenacious leaders of the civil rights movement. Freedom's Daughters includes portraits of more than sixty women—many until now forgotten and some never before written about—from key figures like Ida B. Wells, Eleanor Roosevelt, Ella Baker, and Septima Clark to some of the smaller players who represent the hundreds of women who each came forth to do her own small part and who together ultimately formed the mass movements that made the difference. Freedom's Daughters puts a human face on the civil rights struggle—and shows that that face was often female.” – Publisher’s Summary
Freedom Summer: The Savage Season of 1964 that Made Mississippi Burn and Made America a Democracy (print) by Bruce Watson
“In his critically acclaimed history Freedom Summer, award-winning author Bruce Watson presents powerful testimony about a crucial episode in the American civil rights movement. During the sweltering summer of 1964, more than seven hundred American college students descended upon segregated, reactionary Mississippi to register black voters and educate black children. On the night of their arrival, the worst fears of a race-torn nation were realized when three young men disappeared, thought to have been murdered by the Ku Klux Klan. Taking readers into the heart of these remarkable months, Freedom Summer shines new light on a critical moment of nascent change in America.” – Publisher’s Summary
My Life, My Love, My Legacy (print) by Coretta Scott King
“The life story of Coretta Scott King—wife of Martin Luther King Jr., founder of the King Center for Nonviolent Social Change, and singular twentieth-century American civil rights activist—as told fully for the first time, toward the end of her life, to one of her closest friends. Born in 1927 to daringly enterprising black parents in the Deep South, Coretta Scott had always felt called to a special purpose. One of the first black scholarship students recruited to Antioch College, a committed pacifist, and a civil rights activist, she was an avowed feminist—a graduate student determined to pursue her own career—when she met Martin Luther King Jr., a Baptist minister insistent that his wife stay home with the children. But in love and devoted to shared Christian beliefs and racial justice goals, she married King, and events promptly thrust her into a maelstrom of history throughout which she was a strategic partner, a standard bearer, a marcher, a negotiator, and a crucial fundraiser in support of world-changing achievements. As a widow and single mother of four, while butting heads with the all-male African American leadership of the times, she championed gay rights and AIDS awareness, founded the King Center for Nonviolent Social Change, lobbied for fifteen years to help pass a bill establishing the US national holiday in honor of her slain husband, and was a powerful international presence, serving as a UN ambassador and playing a key role in Nelson Mandela's election....” – Publisher’s Summary
John Lewis: A Life (print) by David Greenberg
“Born into poverty in rural Alabama, Lewis would become second only to Martin Luther King, Jr. in his contributions to the Civil Rights Movement. He was a Freedom Rider who helped to integrate bus stations in the South, a leader of the Nashville sit-in movement, the youngest speaker at the 1963 March on Washington, and the chairman of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), which he made into one of the major civil rights organizations. He may be best remembered as the victim of a vicious beating by Alabama state troopers at the foot of the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama, where he nearly died. Greenberg's biography traces Lewis's life through the post-Civil Rights years, when he headed the Voter Education Project, which enrolled millions of African American voters across the South. The book reveals the little-known story of his political ascent first locally in Atlanta, and then as a member of Congress. Tapped to be a part of the Democratic leadership in Congress, he earned respect on both sides of the aisle for the sacrifices he had made on behalf of nonviolent integration in the South and came to be known as the ‘conscience of the Congress....’” – Publisher’s Summary
Walking with the Wind: A Memoir of the Movement (print) by John Lewis
“The son of an Alabama sharecropper, and now a sixth-term United States Congressman, John Lewis has led an extraordinary life, one that found him at the epicenter of the civil rights movement in the late '50s and '60s. As Chairman of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), Lewis was present at all the major battlefields of the movement. Arrested more than forty times and severely beaten on several occasions, he was one of the youngest yet most courageous leaders. Walking with the Wind offers rare insight into the movement and the personalities of all the civil rights leaders—what was happening behind the scenes, the infighting, struggles, and triumphs. Lewis takes us from the Nashville lunch counter sit-ins to the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama, where he led more than five hundred marchers on what became known as ‘Bloody Sunday.’” – Publisher’s Summary
Walk with Me: A Biography of Fannie Lou Hamer (ebook) by Kate Clifford Larson
“She was born the 20th child in a family that had lived in the Mississippi Delta for generations, first as enslaved people and then as sharecroppers. She left school at 12 to pick cotton, as those before her had done, in a world in which white supremacy was an unassailable citadel. She was subjected without her consent to an operation that deprived her of children. And she was denied the most basic of all rights in America—the right to cast a ballot—in a state in which Blacks constituted nearly half the population. And so Fannie Lou Hamer lifted up her voice. Starting in the early 1960s and until her death in 1977, she was an irresistible force, not merely joining the swelling wave of change brought by civil rights but keeping it in motion. Working with the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), which recruited her to help with voter-registration drives, Hamer became a community organizer, women's rights activist, and co-founder of the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party. She summoned and used what she had against the citadel—her anger, her courage, her faith in the Bible, and her conviction that hearts could be won over and injustice overcome....” – Publisher’s Summary

Documentaries & Feature Films:

Eyes on the Prize: America’s Civil Rights Years (3 vol. DVD, documentary)
“The definitive story of the Civil Rights era from the point of view of the ordinary men and women whose extraordinary actions launched a movement that changed the fabric of American life, and embodied a struggle whose reverberations are felt today.” – Publisher’s Summary
Freedom Summer (DVD, documentary)
"In the hot and deadly summer of 1964, the nation could not turn away from Mississippi. Over 10 memorable weeks known as Freedom Summer, more than 700 student volunteers joined with organizers and local African Americans in a historic effort to shatter the foundations of white supremacy in one of the nation's most segregated states ... even in the face of intimidation, physical violence, and death.” – Publisher’s Summary
Mississippi Burning (DVD, feature film)
“Set in 1964 Mississippi, a seasoned FBI agent and his fresh out of school partner use wildly divergent tactics when investigating the disappearance of three civil rights activists by the Ku Klux Klan.” – Publisher’s Summary
Selma (DVD, feature film)
“Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s historical struggle to secure voting rights for all people. A dangerous and terrifying campaign that culminated with an epic march from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama in 1964.” – Publisher’s Summary

Olympics Past & Present

Dreaming of warm weather and gold medals? December 2024’s “Leisure Reads” celebrates the past and present Olympic Games—the most recent taking place in Paris this past summer of 2024. Below you’ll find mostly nonfiction works—in print and ebook form—on the history of the modern Games in various countries, as well as overviews of this esteemed event’s place in Antiquity. One novel is featured: The Peerless Four by Victoria Patterson, which tells the story of the first time women were allowed to compete in Olympic track and field events in the year 1928. The Special Olympics World Winter Games will be held in March 2025 and the Winter Olympics will be held in February 2026!

Print Books:

Devil at my Heels: A Heroic Olympian's Astonishing Story of Survival as a Japanese POW in World War II by Louis Zamperini
“A youthful troublemaker, a world-class NCAA miler, a 1936 Olympian, a WWII bombardier: Louis Zamperini had a fuller life than most. But on May 27, 1943, it all changed in an instant when his B-24 crashed into the Pacific Ocean, leaving Louis and two other survivors drifting on a raft for forty-seven days and two thousand miles, waiting in vain to be rescued. And the worst was yet to come when they finally reached land, only to be captured by the Japanese. Louis spent the next two years as a prisoner of war—tortured and humiliated, routinely beaten, subjected to medical experiments, starved and forced into slave labor—while the Army Air Corps declared him dead and sent official condolences to his family.” – Publisher’s Summary
Florence Griffith Joyner: Track and Field Star by April Koral
“A [children’s] biography of the noted sprinter who won three gold medals at the 1988 Olympics.” – Publisher’s Summary
Greek Athletic Sports and Festivals by E. Norman Gardiner
“First published in 1910, this book explores the subject of athletics festivals in ancient Greece, looking in detail at its history as well as the exercises commonly seen at such occasions. Greek Athletic Sports and Festivals is highly recommend for those with an interest in athletics and is not to be missed by collectors of related literature. Contents include...‘Athletics in Homer’...‘The Age of Athletic Ideal, 500–440 B.C.”...‘Athletics Under the Romans’...etc.” – Publisher’s Summary
Hour of the Olympics (Magic Treehouse #16) by Mary Pope Osborne
“Their magic tree house takes Jack and Annie back to retrieve a lost story in ancient Greece, where they witness the original Olympic Games and are surprised to find what girls of the time were not allowed to do.” – Publisher’s Summary
The Modern Olympic Games by John Lucas
“A history of the modern Olympic movement focusing on the influence of nations serves as a foundation for the argument that the games should be sheltered from international politics.” – Publisher’s Summary
The Olympic Games by M. I. Finley; H. W. Pleket
“A definitive survey of the Olympic Games, from 776 B.C. to A.D. 261, this scholarly, yet immensely readable account of Olympic athletes in ancient times takes a highly realistic view of these fabled contests. Transporting readers back to the eighth century B.C., Professor M. I. Finley and Dr. H. W. Pleket draw upon their extensive knowledge of the ancient world to explain in absorbing detail the various sporting events and their historical, social, and religious context. They also detail the similarities and differences between ancient and modern games. Through their examination of ancient documents, the authors conclude that today's audiences would be astonished by the brutality exhibited in many of the Olympic events. The ferocity of boxing and wrestling matches, for example, is unparalleled in modern games. No event today could match the spectacle or excitement of the four-horse chariot races in which thirty to forty teams competed. Of special interest were the demands made by the victors, who expected, insisted upon, and procured material rewards for their victories, regardless of class or personal fortune.” – Publisher’s Summary
The Olympic Image: The First 100 Years by Wei Yew
“The Olympic Image presents the graphic design of the Olympic Games from 1896 to 1996. It emphasizes how the cultures have interpreted and celebrated the Olympic Games through their art and design.” – Publisher’s Summary
The Peerless Four by Victoria Patterson
“Running so hard you think you'll choke on your next breath. Lungs burning like they're drenched in battery acid. Peripheral vision blurred by the same adrenaline that drowns out the cheers coming from the full stadium. And of course, the reporters. The men scribbling furiously on their notepads so they can publish every stumble, sprain, and sniffle. This was the world of the female athletes in the 1928 Amsterdam Olympics, the first games in which women were allowed to compete in track and field on a trial basis. Nicknamed “The Peerless Four," the Canadian track team included some of the strongest, most diversely talented women on the scene. Narrated by the team's chaperone—a former runner herself—the women embark on their journey with the same golden goals as every other Olympian, male or female. But as the Olympic tension begins to rise with unexpected injuries and disqualifications, each woman discovers new fears and priorities, all while the weight of women's future in the Olympics rests on their performance.” – Publisher’s Summary
The World's Greatest Olympians by Michael Hurley
“The World's Greatest Olympians looks at great Olympians through the history of the modern Olympics and reasons why these athletes were/are so great. It also includes Fact Files fact boxes of top athletes and charts and tables to help illustrate their amazing talents and achievements.” – Publisher’s Summary

Ebooks:

A Cultural History of the 1984 Olympics: The Making of Olympic Sarajevo by Zlatko Jovanovic
“This book examines the 1984 Sarajevo Winter Olympic Games. It tells the story of the extensive infrastructural transformation of the city and its changing global image in relation to hosting of the Games. Reviewing different cultural representations of Sarajevo in the period from the 1960s to the 1980s, the book explores how the promotion of the city as a future global tourist center resulted in an increased awareness among its populace of the city’s cultural particularities. The analysis reveals how the process of modernization relating to hosting of the Olympics provided an opportunity to re-imagine the city as a particularly environmentally progressive city. Placed within the field of studies of late socialism, the book offers important insights into Yugoslav society during the period...” – Publisher’s Summary
Contesting the Olympics in American Cities: Chicago 2016, Boston 2024, Los Angeles 2028 by G. Andranovich & M.J. Burbank
“This book examines the changing nature of opposition to bidding for and hosting the Olympic Games in contemporary American cities. It explores and critiques the process by which cities bid for the Olympics in the current context of the International Olympic Committees changing bid requirements and from the social justice perspectives of Olympics opponents. Using detailed case studies of the Olympic bids in Chicago, Boston, and Los Angeles, it shows how opposition to bidding for and hosting the Olympics has changed dramatically in American cities.” – Publisher’s Summary
Female Olympian and Paralympian Events by Linda K. Fuller
“Female Olympian and Paralympian Events is a groundbreaking book that examines women's sports in the Olympic and Paralympic Games, which have long been underappreciated and under-analyzed. The book begins with a brief background on women's participation in the Olympic Games and their role relative to the International Olympic Committee, then introduces the underlying Gendered Critical Discourse Analysis theory used throughout the book's analysis before delving into a literature review of female Olympians and Paralympians' events. It includes a listing of noteworthy ‘firsts’ in the field, followed by individual discussions of twenty-eight Summer and seven Winter events, analyzed according to their historical, rhetorical, and popular cultural representations. Women's unique role(s) in the various events are discussed, particular athletes and Paralympic events are highlighted, and original tables are also included.” – Publisher’s Summary
International Security and the Olympic Games, 1972-2020 by Austin Duckworth
“Drawing on new archival documents and interviews, this book demonstrates the evolving role of international politics in Olympic security planning. Olympic security concerns changed forever following the terrorist attack on Israeli athletes at the 1972 Munich Olympic Games. The International Olympic Committee’s (IOC) choice to ignore security after the attack in Munich left individual Olympic Games Organizing Committees to organize, fund, and provide security for the major international event. Future Olympic hosts planned security amidst increasing numbers of international terrorist attacks, and with the Cold War in full swing. For some Olympic hosts, Olympic security now represented their nation’s largest ever military operations. By the time the IOC made security more of a priority in the early 1980s, the trends in Olympic security were set for the future.” – Publisher’s Summary
Mexico City's Olympic Games: Citizenship and Nation Building, 1963-1968 by Axel Elías
“This book looks at the 1968 Summer Olympic Games as a complex nation-building project. Sports mega-events have been mostly studied as homogenous government-led strategies, but more work is needed around the diverse reception and performances. The preparation period for the Olympics in Mexico and especially the year 1968 highlight the multiplicity of voices behind these exercises. Beyond the government and associated networks, the citizenry also used this mega-event to present an idea of Mexico to the world and thus reshape citizenship and nationhood. This study takes a bottom-up approach to look at the citizenry’s experiences of the 1968 Olympic Games, both the shared nationalistic values and the areas of conflict.” – Publisher’s Summary
The Popular Front and the Barcelona 1936 Popular Olympics: Playing as if the World was Watching by James Stout
“This book deals with the events leading up to the 1936 Popular Olympics which would have united the Popular Front in opposition to the Berlin Olympics. It also discusses the days after the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War which began on the same day the games were due to start. Using a variety of primary and secondary sources, the book traces the biographies of several Popular Olympians who would go on to volunteer in the Spanish Civil War. The book also examines the planned events and locations for the Popular Olympics as well as the international funding that the games secured. The book argues that the events were a departure from Workers' Sport as well as the IOC's Olympic games and represented an important cultural manifestation of the Popular Front.” – Publisher’s Summary

NNAH 2024

November’s “Leisure Reads” celebrates National Native American Month with novels, anthologies of poetry, short fiction, and song, and nonfiction writings on culture, spirituality, and religion. Featured authors below include Joseph Bruchac, Sherman Alexie, and Louise Erdrich.

Dawn Land by Joseph Bruchac
“About ten thousand years ago in the northeast, the Abenaki– People of the Dawn Land – created a thriving community in social and ecological balance with nature and with each other. One of the finest sons of the People is Young Hunter, who dedicates himself to becoming a pure hunter. But a shadow is crossing over this place, threatening his beloved homeland, and Young Hunter is called to its defense. The deep-seeing one of his village, Bear Talker, tells him that the change will be brought by beings of great power, with cold hearts and a terrible hunger, and Young Hunter has been chosen to fight them. ‘This young one will do things for the people,’ Bear Talker thought. ‘If he survives...if he survives.’” – Publisher’s Summary
Earth Power Coming: Short Fiction in Native American Literature by Simon J. Ortiz
“There have always been the songs, the prayers, the stories of Native American writers. There is a wide variety of styles, themes and topics presented in the fiction of this collection of thirty authors [including Linda Hogan, Louise Erdrich, and Leslie Marmon Silko]. Their stories are evidence of the commitment made by Native American writers to express themselves in this genre of literature.” – Publisher’s Summary
Face by Sherman Alexie
“In this first full collection in nine years, Alexie's poems and prose show his celebrated passion and wit while also exploring new directions. Novelist, storyteller and performer, he won the National Book Award for his YA novel, The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian. His work has been praised throughout the world, but the bedrock remains what The New York Times Book Review said of his very first book: ‘Mr. Alexie's is one of the major lyric voices of our time.’” – Publisher’s Summary
The Heartsong of Charging Elk by James Welch
“Inspired by actual historical fact, James Welch's The Heartsong of Charging Elk tells the story of an Oglala Sioux who travels the extraordinary geographical and cultural distance from tribal life in the Black Hills of South Dakota to existence on the streets of Marseille. As a young boy, Charging Elk witnessed his people's massacre of Custer's Seventh Cavalry at Little Big Horn, followed by years of futile fighting and wandering until the Sioux were finally lured to the Pine Ridge reservation.... Ironically, it is Charging Elk's horsemanship and independent air that cause Buffalo Bill to recruit him for his Wild West Show, which travels across "the big water" to create a sensation in the capitals of Europe.” – Publisher’s Summary
Lakota Woman by Mary Crow Dog and Richard Erdoes
“A unique autobiography unparalleled in American Indian literature, and a deeply moving account of a woman's triumphant struggle to survive in a hostile world. This is the powerful autobiography of Mary Brave Bird, who grew up in the misery of a South Dakota reservation. Rebelling against the violence and hopelessness of reservation life, she joined the tribal pride movement in an effort to bring about much-needed changes.” – Publisher’s Summary
LaRose by Louise Erdrich
“North Dakota, late summer, 1999. Landreaux Iron stalks a deer along the edge of the property bordering his own. He shoots with easy confidence, but when the buck springs away, Landreaux realizes he's hit something else, a blur he saw as he squeezed the trigger. When he staggers closer, he realizes he has killed his neighbor's five-year-old son, Dusty Ravich.... Horrified at what he's done, the recovered alcoholic turns to an Ojibwe tribe tradition, ‘the sweat lodge,’ for guidance, and finds a way forward. Following an ancient means of retribution, he and Emmaline will give LaRose to the grieving Peter and Nola. "Our son will be your son now," they tell them.... As the years pass, LaRose becomes the linchpin linking the Irons and the Raviches, and eventually their mutual pain begins to heal.” – Publisher’s Summary
Morning Girl by Michael Dorris
“Morning Girl, a twelve-year-old Taino, and her younger brother, Star Boy, vividly recreate life on a Bahamian island in 1492—a life that is rich, complex, and soon to be threatened. In Morning Girl's last narrative, she witnesses the arrival of the first Europeans to her world.” – Publisher’s Summary
Native American Literature: An Anthology by Lawana Trout
“This treasury of literature by Native American authors allows students to listen to the voices from America's first and oldest literature. [It] comprises 100-plus poems, short stories, essays, and memoirs spanning 200 years, ranging from the oral tradition to contemporary writing, and representing a diversity of North American tribes. Organization is thematic, including such topics as images and identities, the remembered earth, growing up, and affairs of the heart.”
Native American Songs and Poems: An Anthology by Brian Swann
“In this carefully chosen collection, encompassing traditional songs and contemporary Native American poetry, readers will find a treasury of lyrics verse composed by Seminole, Hopi, Navajo, Pima, Havasupai, Arapaho, Paiute, Nootka, and others. Selections range from the beautiful, traditional Seminole "Song for Bringing a Child into the World" to the cynical, knowing "How to Write the Great American Indian Novel." Permeated by the Indian's deep awareness and appreciation of nature's beauty and rhythms, these poems deal with themes of tradition and continuity, the Indians' place in contemporary society, love, loss, memory, alienation, and many other topics. Taken together, these poems offer an intimate, revealing record of the Native American response to the world, from time-honored chants and songs to the musings of urban Indian poets coming to grips with twentieth-century America.” – Publisher’s Summary
Reinventing the Enemy’s Language: Contemporary Native Women’s Writing of North America by Joy Harjo & Gloria Bird
“This long-awaited anthology celebrates the experience of Native American women’s important contribution to our literature. ...[T]his is the most comprehensive anthology of its kind to collect the poetry, fiction, prayer, and memoir from Native American women.... Over eighty writers are represented from nearly fifty nations, including such nationally known writers as Louise Erdrich, Linda Hogan, Leslie Silko, Lee Maracle, Janet Campbell Hale, and Luci Tapahonso; others include Wilma Mankiller, Winona LaDuke, and Bea Medicine who are known primarily for their contributions to tribal communities; and some who are published for the first time in this volume.” – Publisher’s Summary
The Sacred Pipe by Black Elk
“Black Elk of the Sioux has been recognized as one of the truly remarkable men of his time in the matter of religious belief and practice.... Black Elk was the only qualified priest of the older Oglala Sioux still living when The Sacred Pipe was written. This is his book: he gave it orally to Joseph Epes Brown during the latter's eight month's residence on the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota, where Black Elk lived. Beginning with the story of White Buffalo Cow Woman's first visit to the Sioux to give them the sacred pipe, Black Elk describes and discusses the details and meanings of the seven rites, which were disclosed, one by one, to the Sioux through visions. He takes the reader through the sun dance, the purification rite, the ‘keeping of the soul,’ and other rites, showing how the Sioux have come to terms with God and nature and their fellow men through a rare spirit of sacrifice and determination.” – Publisher’s Summary
Spirit & Reason: The Vine Deloria, Jr., Reader by Vine Deloria
“Spirit & Reason is a collection of the works of one of the most important thinkers of the twentieth century—Vine Deloria, Jr. Author of such classics as Red Earth, White Lies, and God is Red, Deloria takes readers on a momentous journey through Indian country and beyond by exploring some of the most important issues of the past three decades. The essays gathered here are wide-ranging and essential and include representative pieces from some of Deloria's most influential books, some of his lesser-known articles, and ten new pieces written especially for Spirit & Reason.” – Publisher’s Summary
Summer in the Spring: Anishinaabe Lyric Poems and Stories by Gerald Vizenor
“The Anishinaabe, otherwise named the Ojibwe or Chippewa, are famous for their lyric songs and stories, particularly because of their compassionate trickster, naanabozbo, and the healing rituals still practiced today in the society of the Midewiwin. The poems and tales, interpreted and re-expressed here by the distinguished Anishinaabe author Gerald Vizenor, were first transcribed more than a century ago by pioneering ethnographer Frances Densmore and Theodore Hudson Beaulieu, a newspaper editor on the White Earth Reservation in northern Minnesota. This superb anthology, illustrated with tribal pictomyths and helpfully annotated, includes translations and a glossary of the Anishinaabe words in which the poems and stories originally were spoken.” – Publisher’s Summary
The Way to Rainy Mountain by N. Scott Momaday
“The stories in The Way to Rainy Mountain are told in three voices. The first voice is the voice of my father, the ancestral voice, and the voice of the Kiowa oral tradition. The second is the voice of historical commentary. And the third is that of personal reminiscence, my own voice. There is a turning and returning of myth, history, and memoir throughout, a narrative wheel that is as sacred as language itself.” – Preface

International Games Month 2024

MSJ Library is not playing around! Enjoy this list of game-related books celebrating International Games Month this November! Many books highlight how games and play can be used in the classroom or the boardroom! There are also mysteries by Agatha Christie and Ellen Raskin (can you solve the puzzle before the story reveals the answer?).

Even more books can be found in our physical book display for International Games Month (come check it out in the Library Lobby!) and in the list of ebooks at the end of this post (all accessible online), which emphasize the educational, recreational, and social value of games. So read and play on!

Print Books

The Big Book of Team Motivating Games by Mary Scannell & Edward E. Scannell
“This collection of high-energy, play-anywhere games, from bestselling authors and trainers Ed and Mary Scannell, provides you with all the fun, inspiring material you need to build team spirit, communication, and trust among coworkers-day in and day out.” – Publisher’s Summary
Evil under the Sun by Agatha Christie
“Ever since Arlena's arrival the air had been thick with sexual tension. Each of the guests had a motive to kill her, including Arlena's new husband. But Hercule Poirot suspects that this apparent crime of passion conceals something much more evil.” – Publisher’s Summary
Jumanji by Chris Van Allsburg
“Left on their own for an afternoon, two bored and restless children find more excitement than they bargained for in a mysterious and mystical jungle adventure board game.” – Publisher’s Summary
Minecraft in the Classroom by Colin Gallagher
“Offers essential advice and captivating projects for using Minecraft to enhance students' learning experience. Learn how educators are using Minecraft as a powerful instructional tool to engage students and teach subjects as varied as math and humanities.” – Publisher’s Summary
P.E. Games & Activities Kit, for Grades 6-12 by Ken Lumsden
This book provides over 250 games for use in physical education in grades 6-12, with the aim of instilling a new level of variety and challenge in your program. In part I, activities are grouped together by sport or type of physical activity, covering everything from aquatics to wrestling and more. Part II covers organization for tournaments, while part III discusses methods of student assessment for P.E. teachers.
The Westing Game by Ellen Raskin
“The mysterious death of an eccentric millionaire brings together an unlikely assortment of heirs who must uncover the circumstances of his death before they can claim their inheritance.” – Publisher’s Summary

Ebooks

The GAME of Innovation: Gamify Challenges, Level Up Your Team, Play to Win by David Cutler
“As a leader, how do you discover and implement breakthrough opportunities? Gamify challenges. Level up your team. And play to WIN. Unveiling a comprehensive approach to extraordinary problem-solving, The GAME of Innovation offers all you need to meet challenges head on and seize the competitive edge.... The book...shares a flexible methodology for designing powerhouse problem-solving GAMEs (Guidelines, Arena, Materials, Experience), aligning teams with 5 problem-solving "lenses," building consensus behind change, and leading/managing the process....”– Publisher’s Summary
Play to Learn: Everything You Need to Know about Designing Effective Learning Games by Sharon Boller & Karl Kapp
“When trainers use games, learners win big.... This book bridges the gap between instructional design and game design; it's written to grow your game literacy and strengthen crucial game design skills. Experts Sharon Boller and Karl Kapp share real examples of in-person and online games, and offer an online game for you to try as you read. They walk you through evaluating entertainment and learning games, so you can apply the best to your own designs.... Think big, design well, and use Play to Learn as your guide.” – Publisher’s Summary
Pretend Play Workshop for Kids: A Year of DIY Craft Projects and Open-Ended Screen-Free Learning for Kids Ages 3-7 by Caitlin Kruse
“Pretend Play Workshop for Kids offers a year of screen-free dramatic play scenarios for adults to set up and kids to engage with, featuring open-ended making and learning.” – Publisher’s Summary
Recycle & Play: Awesome DIY Zero-Waste Projects to Make for Kids by Agnes Hsu
"Recycle and Play transforms what many might consider trash—cardboard, bubble wrap, egg cartons, or plastic wrap—into invitations for zero-waste playful learning. The fun, process-oriented projects invite children to be creative, explore senses, develop skills, and discover how things work, all while reinforcing the importance of reducing waste as part of a sustainable lifestyle." – Publisher’s Summary
Make Your Own Twine Games! by Anna Anthropy
“A playful, kid-friendly introduction to game development using Twine, a free online scripting tool for creative storytelling.... Make Your Own Twine Games! shows you how to make interactive fiction games using Twine, a beginner-friendly online tool for creating non-linear stories. Readers use basic web scripting to design choose-your-own-adventure games using author's games as examples. Anthropy walks readers through the game development process from start to finish, covering everything from mapping out a game's structure and story to debugging the end product. Readers will understand what makes designing video games challenging and fun, and will feel ready to bring their own game ideas to life.” – Publisher’s Summary

Halloween 2024

Check out these thrillers and horror stories to celebrate Halloween, including works by Toni Morrison, Octavia E. Butler, and Sheridan Le Fanu.

Beloved by Toni Morrison
“[Beloved] is the story...of Sethe, an escaped slave who has risked death in order to wrench herself from a living death; who has lost a husband and buried a child; who has borne the unthinkable and not gone mad: a woman of ‘iron eyes and backbone to match.’ Sethe lives in a small house on the edge of town with her daughter, Denver, her mother-in-law, Baby Suggs, and a disturbing, mesmerizing intruder who calls herself Beloved.... [T]o Sethe, the past makes itself heard and felt incessantly...in the arrival of Paul D..., one of her fellow slaves on the farm where she had once been kept...in the vivid and painfully cathartic stories she and Paul D tell each other of their years in captivity, of their glimpses of freedom...and, most powerfully, in the apparition of Beloved, whose eyes are expressionless at their deepest point, whose doomed childhood belongs to the hideous logic of slavery and who, as daughter, sister and seductress, has now come from the 'place over there' to claim retribution for what she lost and for what was taken from her. Sethe's struggle to keep Beloved from gaining full possession of her present--and to throw off the long, dark legacy of her past--is at the center of this profoundly affecting and startling novel.” – Publisher’s Summary
Best Ghost Stories of J. S. LeFanu by J. S. LeFanu; Everett F. Bleiler (Editor)
“Joseph Sheridan LeFanu (1814–1873) is regarded by many critics as the greatest master of the English ghost story. A product of the decaying Anglo-Irish culture of the early and middle nineteenth century, he sums up in his work better than any of his contemporaries the fears and dreads that may haunt the sensitive individual....More imaginative and more perceptive than his contemporaries who worked in the same form, he achieved depths and dimensions of terror that still remain otherwise unexplored. And although he was Victorian in his dates, he was in many respects un-Victorian in his writing: his ideas looked both backward to the great supernatural tradition of Romantic fiction and forward to the modern age....The present collection contains such favorites as ‘Carmilla,’ ‘The Familiar,’ ‘Green Tea,’ and ‘Schalken the Painter,’ as well as much otherwise unobtainable work.” – Publisher’s Summary
Black Water by Joyce Carol Oates
“In the midst of a long summer on Grayling Island, Maine, twenty-six-year-old Kelly Kelleher longs for something interesting to happen to her—something that will make her finally feel some of what she imagines other people must feel when they watch the fireworks explode off the beach. So when Kelly meets The Senator at an exclusive party and he asks her to go back to a hotel room on the main island with him, she says yes. Even though the senator is old enough to be her father, even though he has perhaps been drinking too heavily to get behind the wheel, the danger of saying yes is an inevitable and even exciting part of the adventure Kelly is finally going to have. However, as The Senator’s car whips around the island’s roads and eventually crashes through a guardrail, it becomes clear to Kelly and the reader that this man embodies a wholly different and more sinister type of danger, one much larger and harder to contain than the horrible events that unfold as Kelly is left in the sinking car.” – Publisher’s Summary
Fledgling by Octavia E. Butler
“Fledgling, Octavia Butler’s last novel, is the story of an apparently young, amnesiac girl whose alarmingly un-human needs and abilities lead her to a startling conclusion: she is in fact a genetically modified, 53-year-old vampire. Forced to discover what she can about her stolen former life, she must at the same time learn who wanted—and still wants—to destroy her and those she cares for, and how she can save herself. Fledgling is a captivating novel that tests the limits of ‘otherness’ and questions what it means to be truly human.” – Publisher’s Summary
The Ghost Bride by Yangsze Choo
"Though ruled by British overlords, the Chinese of colonial Malaya still cling to ancient customs. And in the sleepy port town of Malacca, ghosts and superstitions abound. Li Lan, the daughter of a genteel but bankrupt family, has few prospects. But fate intervenes when she receives an unusual proposal from the wealthy and powerful Lim family. They want her to become a ghost bride for the family's only son, who recently died under mysterious circumstances. Rarely practiced, a traditional ghost marriage is used to placate a restless spirit. Such a union would guarantee Li Lan a home for the rest of her days, but at a terrible price. After an ominous visit to the opulent Lim mansion, Li Lan finds herself haunted not only by her ghostly would-be suitor, but also by her desire for the Lim's handsome new heir, Tian Bai. Night after night, she is drawn into the shadowy parallel world of the Chinese afterlife, with its ghost cities, paper funeral offerings, vengeful spirits and monstrous bureaucracy...” – Publisher’s Summary
Frankenstein in Baghdad by Ahmed Saadawi
“From the rubble-strewn streets of U.S.-occupied Baghdad, Hadi—a scavenger and an oddball fixture at a local café—collects human body parts and stitches them together to create a corpse. His goal, he claims, is for the government to recognize the parts as people and to give them proper burial. But when the corpse goes missing, a wave of eerie murders sweeps the city, and reports stream in of a horrendous-looking criminal who, though shot, cannot be killed. Hadi soon realizes he’s created a monster, one that needs human flesh to survive—first from the guilty, and then from anyone in its path. A prizewinning novel by ‘Baghdad’s new literary star’ (The New York Times), Frankenstein in Baghdad captures with white-knuckle horror and black humor the surreal reality of contemporary Iraq.” – Publisher’s Summary
The Monstrumologist by Rick Yancey
“These are the secrets I have kept. This is the trust I never betrayed. But he is dead now and has been for nearly ninety years, the one who gave me his trust, the one for whom I kept these secrets. The one who saved me . . . and the one who cursed me. So starts the diary of Will Henry, orphan and assistant to a doctor with a most unusual specialty: monster hunting. In the short time he has lived with the doctor, Will has grown accustomed to his late night callers and dangerous business. But when one visitor comes with the body of a young girl and the monster that was feeding on her, Will's world is about to change forever. The doctor has discovered a baby Anthropophagi—a headless monster that feeds through the mouthfuls of teeth in its chest—and it signals a growing number of Anthropophagi. Now, Will and the doctor must face the horror threatening to overtake and consume our world before it is too late. The Monstrumologist is the first stunning gothic adventure in a series that combines the spirit of HP Lovecraft with the storytelling ability of Rick Riordan.” – Publisher’s Summary
The Telltale Lilac Bush and Other West Virginia Ghost Tales by Ruth Ann Musick
“West Virginia boasts an unusually rich heritage of ghost tales. Originally West Virginians told these hundred stories not for idle amusement but to report supernatural experiences that defied ordinary human explanation. From jealous rivals and ghostly children to murdered kinsmen and omens of death, these tales reflect the inner lives―the hopes, beliefs, and fears―of a people. Like all folklore, these tales reveal much of the history of the region: its isolation and violence, the passions and bloodshed of the Civil War era, the hardships of miners and railroad laborers, and the lingering vitality of Old World traditions.” – Publisher’s Summary

National Hispanic Heritage Month 2024

September's “Leisure Reads” features works by authors of Hispanic descent in celebration of National Hispanic Heritage Month (September 15-October 15). Featured authors below include Sandra Cisneros, Rudolfo A. Anaya, and Laura Esquivel.

Caramelo by Sandra Cisneros
“Struggling to find a voice above the boom of her brothers and to understand her place on this side of the border and that, Lala is a shrewd observer of family life. But when she starts telling the Awful Grandmother's life story, seeking clues to how she got to be so awful, grandmother accuses Lala of exaggerating. Soon, a multigenerational family narrative turns into a whirlwind exploration of storytelling, lies, and life. Like the cherished rebozo, or shawl, that has been passed down through generations of Reyes women, Caramelo is alive with the vibrations of history, family, and love. From the winner of the 2019 PEN/Nabokov Award for Achievement in International Literature.” – Publisher’s Summary
Las Madres by Esmeralda Santiago
“They refer to themselves as ‘las Madres,’ a close-knit group of women who, with their daughters, have created a family based on friendship and blood ties. Their story begins in Puerto Rico in 1975 when fifteen-year-old Luz, the tallest girl in her dance academy and the only Black one in a sea of petite, light-skinned, delicate swans, is seriously injured in a car accident. Tragically, her brilliant, multilingual scientist parents are both killed in the crash. Now orphaned, Luz navigates the pressures of adolescence and copes with the aftershock of a brain injury, when two new friends enter her life, Ada and Shirley. Luz’s days are consumed with aches and pains, and her memory of the accident is wiped clean, but she suffers spells that send her mind to times and places she can’t share with others. In 2017, in the Bronx, Luz’s adult daughter, Marysol, wishes she better understood her. But how can she when her mother barely remembers her own life? To help, Ada and Shirley’s daughter, Graciela, suggests a vacation in Puerto Rico for the extended group, as an opportunity for Luz to unearth long-buried memories and for Marysol to learn more about her mother’s early life. But despite all their careful planning, two hurricanes, back-to-back, disrupt their homecoming, and a secret is revealed that blows their lives wide open.” – Publisher’s Summary
Bless Me, Ultima by Rudolfo A. Anaya
“Exquisite prose and wondrous storytelling have helped make Rudolfo Anaya the father of Chicano literature in English. Indeed, Anaya's tales fairly shimmer with the haunting beauty and richness of his culture. The winner of the Pen Center West Award for Fiction for his unforgettable novel Alburquerque, Anaya is perhaps best loved for his classic bestseller, Bless Me, Ultima. Antonio Marez is six years old when Ultima comes to stay with his family in New Mexico. She is a curandera, one who cures with herbs and magic. Under her wise wing, Tony will probe the family ties that bind and rend him, and he will discover himself in the magical secrets of the pagan past—a mythic legacy as palpable as the Catholicism of Latin America. And at each life turn there is Ultima, who delivered Tony into the world...and will nurture the birth of his soul.” – Publisher’s Summary
Desperate Characters by Paula Fox
“Otto and Sophie Bentwood live in a changing neighborhood in Brooklyn. Their stainless-steel kitchen is newly installed, and their Mercedes is parked curbside. After Sophie is bitten on the hand while trying to feed a stray, perhaps rabies-infected cat, a series of small and ominous disasters begin to plague the Bentwoods' lives, revealing the fault lines and fractures in a marriage―and a society―wrenching itself apart. First published in 1970 to wide acclaim, Desperate Characters stands as one of the most dazzling and rigorous examples of the storyteller's craft in postwar American literature―a novel that, according to Irving Howe, ranks with ‘Billy Budd, The Great Gatsby, Miss Lonelyhearts, and Seize the Day." – Publisher’s Summary
Esperanza Rising by Pam Muñoz Ryan
“Esperanza thought she'd always live a privileged life on her family's ranch in Mexico. She'd always have fancy dresses, a beautiful home filled with servants, and Mama, Papa, and Abuelita to care for her. But a sudden tragedy forces Esperanza and Mama to flee to California and settle in a Mexican farm labor camp. Esperanza isn't ready for the hard work, financial struggles brought on by the Great Depression, or lack of acceptance she now faces. When Mama gets sick and a strike for better working conditions threatens to uproot their new life, Esperanza must find a way to rise above her difficult circumstances--because Mama's life, and her own, depend on it.” – Publisher’s Summary
The Madonnas of Echo Park by Brando Skyhorse
“The Madonnas of Echo Park is both a grand mural of a Los Angeles neighborhood and an intimate glimpse into the lives of the men and women who struggle to lose their ethnic identity in the pursuit of the American dream. Each chapter summons a different voice—poetic, fierce, comic. We meet Hector, a day laborer who trolls the streets for work and witnesses a murder that pits his morality against his illegal status; his ex-wife Felicia, who narrowly survives a shooting and lands a cleaning job in a Hollywood Hills house as desolate as its owner; and young Aurora, who journeys through her now gentrified childhood neighborhood to discover her own history and her place in the land that all Mexican-Americans dream of, ‘the land that belongs to us again.’” – Publisher’s Summary
Gods of Jade and Shadow by Silvia Moreno-Garcia
“The Jazz Age is in full swing, but Casiopea Tun is too busy cleaning the floors of her wealthy grandfather’s house to listen to any fast tunes. Nevertheless, she dreams of a life far from her dusty small town in southern Mexico. A life she can call her own. Yet this new life seems as distant as the stars, until the day she finds a curious wooden box in her grandfather’s room. She opens it—and accidentally frees the spirit of the Mayan god of death, who requests her help in recovering his throne from his treacherous brother. Failure will mean Casiopea’s demise, but success could make her dreams come true. In the company of the strangely alluring god and armed with her wits, Casiopea begins an adventure that will take her on a cross-country odyssey from the jungles of Yucatán to the bright lights of Mexico City—and deep into the darkness of the Mayan underworld.” – Publisher’s Summary
Running by Natalia Sylvester
“In this authentic, humorous, and gorgeously written debut novel about privacy, waking up, and speaking up, Senator Anthony Ruiz is running for president. Throughout his successful political career he has always had his daughter’s vote, but a presidential campaign brings a whole new level of scrutiny to sheltered fifteen-year-old Mariana and the rest of her Cuban American family, from a 60 Minutes–style tour of their house to tabloids doctoring photos and inventing scandals. As tensions rise within the Ruiz family, Mari begins to learn about the details of her father’s political positions, and she realizes that her father is not the man she thought he was. But how do you find your voice when everyone’s watching? When it means disagreeing with your father—publicly? What do you do when your dad stops being your hero? Will Mari get a chance to confront her father? If she does, will she have the courage to seize it?” – Publisher’s Summary
The Poet X by Elizabeth Acevedo
“Xiomara Batista feels unheard and unable to hide in her Harlem neighborhood. Ever since her body grew into curves, she has learned to let her fists and her fierceness do the talking. But Xiomara has plenty she wants to say, and she pours all her frustration and passion onto the pages of a leather notebook, reciting the words to herself like prayers—especially after she catches feelings for a boy in her bio class named Aman, who her family can never know about. With Mami’s determination to force her daughter to obey the laws of the church, Xiomara understands that her thoughts are best kept to herself. So when she is invited to join her school’s slam poetry club, she doesn’t know how she could ever attend without her mami finding out. But she still can’t stop thinking about performing her poems. Because in the face of a world that may not want to hear her, Xiomara refuses to be silent.” – Publisher’s Summary
Like Water for Chocolate by Laura Esquivel
“Earthy, magical, and utterly charming, this tale of family life in turn-of-the-century Mexico became a best-selling phenomenon with its winning blend of poignant romance and bittersweet wit. The classic love story takes place on the De la Garza ranch, as the tyrannical owner, Mama Elena, chops onions at the kitchen table in her final days of pregnancy. While still in her mother's womb, her daughter to be weeps so violently she causes an early labor, and little Tita slips out amid the spices and fixings for noodle soup. This early encounter with food soon becomes a way of life, and Tita grows up to be a master chef. She shares special points of her favorite preparations with listeners throughout the story.” – Publisher’s Summary
Ceremony by Leslie Marmon Silko
“Thirty years since its original publication, Ceremony remains one of the most profound and moving works of Native American literature, a novel that is itself a ceremony of healing. Tayo, a World War II veteran of mixed ancestry, returns to the Laguna Pueblo Reservation. He is deeply scarred by his experience as a prisoner of the Japanese and further wounded by the rejection he encounters from his people. Only by immersing himself in the Indian past can he begin to regain the peace that was taken from him. Masterfully written, filled with the somber majesty of Pueblo myth, Ceremony is a work of enduring power.” – Publisher’s Summary

Back to School Reads 2024

August's “Leisure Reads” is all about back to school! See below for classic school fiction, as well as nonfiction works on college success.

FICTION:

Lucky Jim by Kingsley Amis
“This is the story of Jim Dixon, a hapless lecturer in medieval history at a provincial university who knows better than most that ‘there was no end to the ways in which nice things are nicer than nasty ones.’ Kingsley Amis’s scabrous debut leads the reader through a gallery of emphatically English bores, cranks, frauds, and neurotics with whom Dixon must contend in one way or another in order to hold on to his cushy academic perch and win the girl of his fancy….More than just a merciless satire of cloistered college life and stuffy postwar manners, Lucky Jim is an attack on the forces of boredom, whatever form they may take, and a work of art that at once distills and extends an entire tradition of English comic writing, from Fielding and Dickens through Wodehouse and Waugh.”—Publisher’s Summary
The Art of Fielding by Chad Harbach
“At Westish College, a small school on the shore of Lake Michigan, baseball star Henry Skrimshander seems destined for big league stardom. But when a routine throw goes disastrously off course, the fates of five people are upended. Henry's fight against self-doubt threatens to ruin his future. College president Guert Affenlight, a longtime bachelor, has fallen unexpectedly and helplessly in love. Owen Dunne, Henry's gay roommate and teammate, becomes caught up in a dangerous affair. Mike Schwartz, the Harpooners' team captain and Henry's best friend, realizes he has guided Henry's career at the expense of his own. And Pella Affenlight, Guert's daughter, returns to Westish after escaping an ill-fated marriage, determined to start a new life. As the season counts down to its climactic final game, these five are forced to confront their deepest hopes, anxieties, and secrets. In the process they forge new bonds, and help one another find their true paths. Written with boundless intelligence and filled with the tenderness of youth, The Art of Fielding is an expansive, warmhearted novel about ambition and its limits, about family and friendship and love, and about commitment—to oneself and to others.” – Publisher’s Summary
Sleepwalking by Meg Wolitzer
“Published when she was only twenty-three and written while she was a student at Brown, Sleepwalking marks the beginning of Meg Wolitzer’s acclaimed career. Filled with her usual wisdom, compassion and insight, Sleepwalking tells the story of the three notorious “death girls,” so called on the Swarthmore campus because they dress in black and are each absorbed in the work and suicide of a different poet: Sylvia Plath, Anne Sexton, and Wolitzer’s creation Lucy Asher, a gifted writer who drowned herself at twenty-four. At night the death girls gather in a candlelit room to read their heroines’ work aloud. But an affair with Julian, an upperclassman, pushes sensitive, struggling Claire Danziger—she of the Lucy Asher obsession—to consider to what degree her “death girl” identity is really who she is. As she grapples with her feelings for Julian, her own understanding of herself and her past begins to shift uncomfortably and even disturbingly. Finally, Claire takes drastic measures to confront the facts about herself that she has been avoiding for years.” – Publisher’s Summary
The Magicians by Lev Grossman
“As a senior in high school Quentin Coldwater became preoccupied with a series of fantasy novels he read as a child, set in a magical land called Fillory. After graduating from college and being admitted into a highly exclusive, secret society of magic in upstate New York, he makes a stunning discovery: Fillory is real. But the land of Quentin's fantasies turns out to be much darker and more dangerous than he could have imagined for his childhood dream becomes a nightmare with a shocking truth at its heart.”—Publisher’s Summary
Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro
“Hailsham seems like a pleasant English boarding school, far from the influences of the city. Its students are well tended and supported, trained in art and literature, and become just the sort of people the world wants them to be. But, curiously, they are taught nothing of the outside world and are allowed little contact with it. Within the grounds of Hailsham, Kathy grows from schoolgirl to young woman, but it's only when she and her friends Ruth and Tommy leave the safe grounds of the school (as they always knew they would) that they realize the full truth of what Hailsham is.”—Publisher’s Summary
Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi
"In powerful black-and-white comic strip images, Satrapi tells the story of her life in Tehran from ages six to fourteen, years that saw the overthrow of the Shah's regime, the triumph of the Islamic Revolution, and the devastating effects of war with Iraq. The intelligent and outspoken only child of committed Marxists and the great-granddaughter of one of Iran's last emperors, Marjane bears witness to a childhood uniquely entwined with the history of her country. Persepolis paints an unforgettable portrait of daily life in Iran: of the bewildering contradictions between home life and public life and of the enormous toll repressive regimes exact on the individual spirit. Marjane's child's-eye-view of dethroned emperors, state-sanctioned whippings, and heroes of the revolution allows us to learn as she does the history of this fascinating country and of her own extraordinary family. Intensely personal, profoundly political, and wholly original, Persepolis is at once a story of growing up and a stunning reminder of the human cost of war and political repression." --Publisher's Summary
On Beauty by Zadie Smith
“Howard Belsey, a Rembrandt scholar who doesn't like Rembrandt, is an Englishman abroad and a long-suffering professor at Wellington, a liberal New England arts college. He has been married for thirty years to Kiki, an American woman who no longer resembles the sexy activist she once was. Their three children passionately pursue their own paths: Levi quests after authentic blackness, Zora believes that intellectuals can redeem everybody, and Jerome struggles to be a believer in a family of strict atheists. Faced with the oppressive enthusiasms of his children, Howard feels that the first two acts of his life are over and he has no clear plans for the finale. Or the encore. Then Jerome, Howard's older son, falls for Victoria, the stunning daughter of the right-wing icon Monty Kipps, and the two families find themselves thrown together in a beautiful corner of America, enacting a cultural and personal war against the background of real wars that they barely register.”—Publisher’s Summary

NON-FICTION:

The Secrets of College Success: Over 800 Tips, Techniques, and Strategies Revealed by Lynn F. Jacobs & Jeremy S. Hyman
“Are you among the 22 million students now enrolled in college? Or a high school student thinking of joining them shortly? Or perhaps a parent of a college-bound junior or senior? Then this book is just for you. Written by college professors and successfully used by tens of thousands of students, The Secrets of College Success combines easy-to-use tips, techniques, and strategies with insider information that few professors are willing to reveal. The over 800 tips in this book will show you how to: pick courses and choose a major; manage your time and develop college-level study skills; get good grades and manage the ‘core’ requirements; get motivated and avoid stress; interact effectively with the professor or TA; and prepare for a productive and lucrative career.”– Publisher’s Summary
U Thrive: How to Succeed in College (and Life) by Daniel Lerner & Alan Schlecter
“Every year, almost 4,000,000 students begin their freshman year at colleges and universities nationwide. Most of them will sleep less and stress out a whole lot more. By the end of the year, 30% of those freshmen will have dropped out. For many, the unforeseen demands of college life are so overwhelming that ‘the best four years of your life’ can start to feel like the worst. Enter Daniel Lerner and Dr. Alan Schlechter, ready to teach students how to not only survive college, but flourish in it. Filled with fascinating science, real-life stories, and tips for building positive lifelong habits, U Thrive addresses the opportunities and challenges every undergrad will face—from finding a passion to dealing with nightmarish roommates and surviving finals week. Engaging and hilarious, U Thrive will help students grow into the happy, successful alums they all deserve to be.”– Publisher’s Summary
Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance by Angela Duckworth
“In this must-read book for anyone striving to succeed, pioneering psychologist Angela Duckworth shows parents, educators, athletes, students, and business people—both seasoned and new—that the secret to outstanding achievement is not talent but a focused persistence called 'grit.' Why do some people succeed and others fail? Sharing new insights from her landmark research on grit, MacArthur 'genius' Angela Duckworth explains why talent is hardly a guarantor of success. Rather, other factors can be even more crucial such as identifying our passions and following through on our commitments. Drawing on her own powerful story as the daughter of a scientist who frequently bemoaned her lack of smarts, Duckworth describes her winding path through teaching, business consulting, and neuroscience, which led to the hypothesis that what really drives success is not 'genius' but a special blend of passion and long-term perseverance." – Publisher’s Summary

Appalachian Fiction & Non-Fiction 2024

The July "Leisure Reads" features a diverse range of fiction & nonfiction print and ebooks on Appalachia, researched and formatted for the website by MSJ Librarian Cynthia Gregory! Featured authors include bell hooks, Lee Smith, Harriette Arnow, Annette Saunooke Clapsaddle, J.D.Vance, & James Still. Titles are requestable from the MSJ Library and OhioLINK.

American Hollow (print) by Rory Kennedy, et al
An oral and visual history of the Bowling clan of Kentucky. It is a rare experience: a sympathetic and strength-giving portrait of love and kinship in the face of hard times. Photos from Bowling family albums, historical Life and National Geographic images from the 1960s, and pictures of the Bowlings of today lend depth and texture to the story of this North American family.
Any Other Place (print) by Michael Croley
Call Number: Request from OhioLINK

"There is not a wasted word in these thirteen taut and thrilling stories of grief, exile, and devotion." --Silas House, author of Southernmost A Korean woman in rural Kentucky clings to the love found in her new marriage as the mountain above her washes away. A dutiful daughter struggles to help her father navigate their shared grief--and the sudden release of dangerous, exotic animals. A new father driven by his pride confronts Japanese soldiers in a harrowing raid on his home. In his debut collection, Michael Croley takes us from the Appalachian regions of rural Kentucky and Ohio to a village in South Korea in thirteen engaging stories in which characters find themselves, wherever they are, in states of displacement. In these settings, Croley guides his characters to some semblance of home, where they circle each other's pain, struggle to find belonging, and make sense of the mistakes and bad breaks that have brought them there. Croley uses his absorbing prose to uncover his characters' hidden disquiet and to bring us a remarkable and unique collection that expands the scope of modern American literature.
Appalachia (print) by Mike E. Maloney
Appalachia: Social Context, Past and Present, Fifth Edition, provides a new perspective on Appalachia. The essays reflect thoughtful definitions and analyses by scholars, activists, service providers, and community leaders who have joined the growing public dialogue about the region. It also contains sophisticated theoretical analyses of the region and of similar places worldwide that have emerged from that public discourse. These essays show not an isolated region and insular people, but rather Appalachia as a part of the global order. This widely used reader is now available in a fifth edition featuring new entries in the areas of migration, politics, health, poverty, welfare reform, and participatory research. The new edition continues a tradition of presenting "a new look at an old region" and is designed to serve as a textbook for Appalachian studies courses.
Appalachian Elegy: Poetry and Place (print) by bell hooks
Call Number: Request from OhioLINK

Author, activist, feminist, teacher, and artist bell hooks is celebrated as one of the nation's leading intellectuals. Born in Hopkinsville, Kentucky, hooks drew her unique pseudonym from the name of her grandmother, an intelligent and strong-willed African American woman who inspired her to stand up against a dominating and repressive society. Her poetry, novels, memoirs, and children's books reflect her Appalachian upbringing and feature her struggles with racially integrated schools and unwelcome authority figures. In Appalachian Elegy, bell hooks continues her work as an imagist of life's harsh realities in a collection of poems inspired by her childhood in the isolated hills and hidden hollows of Kentucky. At once meditative, confessional, and political, this poignant volume draws the reader deep into the experience of living in Appalachia. Touching on such topics as the marginalization of its people and the environmental degradation it has suffered over the years, hooks's poetry quietly elegizes the slow loss of an identity while also celebrating that which is constant, firmly rooted in a place that is no longer whole.
Appalachian Reckoning: a region responds to Hillbilly Elegy (print) by Anthony Harkins and Meredith McCarroll (Editors)
Call Number: Request from OhioLINK

With hundreds of thousands of copies sold, a Ron Howard movie, and the rise of its author as a media personality, J. D. Vance's Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis has defined Appalachia for much of the nation. What about Hillbilly Elegy accounts for this explosion of interest during this period of political turmoil? Why have its ideas raised so much controversy? And how can debates about the book catalyze new, more inclusive political agendas for the region's future? Appalachian Reckoning is a retort, at turns rigorous, critical, angry, and hopeful, to the long shadow Hillbilly Elegy has cast over the region and its imagining. But it also moves beyond Hillbilly Elegy to allow Appalachians from varied backgrounds to tell their own diverse and complex stories through an imaginative blend of scholarship, prose, poetry, and photography. The essays and creative work collected in Appalachian Reckoning provide a deeply personal portrait of a place that is at once culturally rich and economically distressed, unique and typically American. Complicating simplistic visions that associate the region almost exclusively with death and decay, Appalachian Reckoning makes clear Appalachia's intellectual vitality, spiritual richness, and progressive possibilities.
Hillbilly Elegy: a memoir of a family and culture in crisis (print) by J. D. Vance
From a former marine and Yale Law School graduate, an account of growing up in a poor Rust Belt town that offers a look at the struggles of America's white working-class. Vance’s memoir tells the story of a social, regional, and class decline. It begins with the Vance family story in postwar America when Vance's grandparents were "dirt poor and in love," and moved north from Kentucky's Appalachia region to Ohio in the hopes of escaping the dreadful poverty around them. A memoir with its share of humor and vividly colorful figures, Hillbilly Elegy, is the story of how upward mobility feels, and it is a meditation on the loss of the American dream.
What You Are Getting Wrong about Appalachia (print) by Elizabeth Catte
In 2016, headlines declared Appalachia ground zero for America's "forgotten tribe" of white working class voters. Journalists flocked to the region to extract sympathetic profiles of families devastated by poverty, abandoned by establishment politics, and eager to consume cheap campaign promises. What You Are Getting Wrong About Appalachia is a frank assessment of America's recent fascination with the people and problems of the region. The book analyzes trends in contemporary writing on Appalachia, presents a brief history of Appalachia with an eye toward unpacking Appalachian stereotypes, and provides examples of writing, art, and policy created by Appalachians as opposed to for Appalachians. The book offers a must-needed insider's perspective on the region.
The Appalachians: America's first and last frontier (print) by Mari-Lynn Evans, et al
In a time when the world has become a global village and America a global nation, there is one place where things are largely as they used to be. Protected by mountains, largely ignored by modern industry and developers, Appalachia is America’s first and last frontier. Encom-passing more than 195,000 square miles in thirteen states, it possesses the least understood and most underappreciated culture in the United States. A beautifully produced companion volume to the PBS documentary narrated by Naomi Judd, The Appalachians fills the void in information about the region, offering a rich portrait of its history and its legacy in music, literature, and film. The text includes essays by some of Appalachia’s most respected scholars and journalists; excerpts from never-before-published diaries and journals; firsthand recollections from native Appalachians including Loretta Lynn, Ricky Skaggs, and Ralph Stanley; indigenous song lyrics and poetry; and oral histories from common folk whose roots run strong and deep. The book also includes more than one hundred illustrations, both archival and newly created. Here is a wondrous book celebrating a unique and invaluable cultural heritage.
Black Mountain Breakdown (print) by Lee Smith
Crystal Spangler lives in rural Appalachia. She's the apple of her mother's eye -- not yet beautiful, but she will be. She's the most popular girl at Black Rock High. She makes cheerleader, gets good grades, and is elected beauty queen. Crystal discovers God, goes to college, and falls in love. When she comes home, she's disheveled and confused. Crystal becomes a wealthy politician's wife. But there's something calling her, drawing her back to where it all began, in the shadow of Black Mountain.
The Dollmaker (print) by Harriette Arnow
The Dollmaker was originally published in 1954 to immediate success and critical acclaim. In unadorned and powerful prose, Harriette Arnow tells the unforgettable and heartbreaking story of the Nevels family and their quest to preserve their deep-rooted values amidst the turmoil of war and industrialization. When Gertie Nevels, a strong and self-reliant matriarch, follows her husband to Detroit from their countryside home in Kentucky, she learns she will have to fight desperately to keep her family together. A sprawling book full of vividly drawn characters and masterful scenes, The Dollmaker is a passionate tribute to a woman's love for her children and the land.
Even As We Breathe (print) by Annette Saunooke Clapsaddle
Call Number: Request from OhioLINK

Nineteen-year-old Cowney Sequoyah yearns to escape his hometown of Cherokee, North Carolina, in the heart of the Smoky Mountains. When a summer job at Asheville's luxurious Grove Park Inn and Resort brings him one step closer to escaping the hills that both cradle and suffocate him, he sees it as an opportunity. The experience introduces him to the beautiful and enigmatic Essie Stamper--a young Cherokee woman who is also working at the inn and dreaming of a better life. With World War II raging in Europe, the resort is the temporary home of Axis diplomats and their families, who are being held as prisoners of war. A secret room becomes a place where Cowney and Essie can escape the white world of the inn and imagine their futures free of the shadows of their families' pasts. Outside of this refuge, however, racism and prejudice are never far behind, and when the daughter of one of the residents goes missing, Cowney finds himself accused of abduction and murder. Even As We Breathe invokes the elements of bone, blood, and flesh as Cowney navigates difficult social, cultural, and ethnic divides. Betrayed by the friends he trusted, he begins to unearth deeper mysteries as he works to prove his innocence and clear his name. This richly written debut novel explores the immutable nature of the human spirit and the idea that physical existence, with all its strife and injustice, will not be humanity's lasting legacy.
River of Earth (print) by James Still
First published in 1940, James Still's masterful novel has become a classic. It is the story, seen through the eyes of a boy, of three years in the life of his family and their kin. He sees his parents pulled between the meager farm with its sense of independence and the mining camp with its uncertain promise of material prosperity. In his world privation, violence, and death are part of everyday life, accepted and endured. Yet it is a world of dignity, love, and humor, of natural beauty which Still evokes in sharp, poetic images. No writer has caught more effectively the vividness of mountain speech or shown more honestly the trials and joys of mountain life.
The Foxfire 40th Anniversary Book (print) by Foxfire Fund, Inc.
An anthology of Appalachian crafts, culture, and wisdom of simple living. In 1966, an English teacher and students in Northeast Georgia founded a quarterly magazine, not only as a vehicle to learn the required English curriculum, but also to teach others about the customs, crafts, traditions, and lifestyle of their Appalachian culture. Named Foxfire after a local phosphorescent lichen, the magazine became one of the most beloved publications in American culture. For four decades, Foxfire has brought the philosophy of simple living to readers, teaching creative self-sufficiency, home crafts, and the art of natural remedies, and preserving the stories of Appalachia. This anniversary edition brings us generations of voices and lessons about the three essential Appalachian values of faith, family, and the land. We listen to elders share their own memories of how things used to be, and to the new generations eager to preserve traditional values in a more complicated world. There are descriptions of old church services, of popular Appalachian games and pastimes, and of family recipes. Rich with memories and useful lessons, this is a fitting tribute to this inspiring and practical publication that has become a classic American institution.
From Mountain to Metropolis: Appalachian migrants in American cities (print) by Kathryn M. Borman; Phillip Obermiller
This volume focuses on Appalachians as a case study of internal migration in developed countries. Since World War II, Appalachian miners have left the coal towns of their mountain region for the car towns of Michigan, Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois. Migrations have ebbed and flowed with economic expansion and recession. Some descendants who are several generations removed from the migration experience do not identify with their mountainous background, but many urban Appalachians have maintained their cultural ties to the region and its values. This collection of essays is the fourth in a series of studies of Appalachian society in relation to mainstream America. While earlier works have concentrated on the migration process, jobs, housing, and ethnic group formation in urban settings, this volume addresses the important issues of health, environment, and education in the urban Appalachian context. As such, it is the only resource available for educators and health and human service professionals involved with this social sector.
The Harlan Renaissance (ebook) by William H. Turner
Weatherford Award Winner, Nonfiction A personal remembrance from the preeminent chronicler of Black life in Appalachia. The Harlan Renaissance is an intimate remembrance of kinship and community in eastern Kentucky's coal towns written by one of the luminaries of Appalachian studies, William Turner. Turner reconstructs Black life in the company towns in and around Harlan County during coal's final postwar boom years, which built toward an enduring bust as the children of Black miners, like the author, left the region in search of better opportunities. The Harlan Renaissance invites readers into what might be an unfamiliar Appalachia: one studded by large and vibrant Black communities, where families took the pulse of the nation through magazines like Jet and Ebony and through the news that traveled within Black churches, schools, and restaurants. Difficult choices for the future were made as parents considered the unpredictable nature of Appalachia's economic realities alongside the unpredictable nature of a national movement toward civil rights. Unfolding through layers of sociological insight and oral history, The Harlan Renaissance centers the sympathetic perspectives and critical eye of a master narrator of Black life.
High Mountains Rising: Appalachia in time and place (print) by Richard A. Straw and H. Tyler Blethen
This collection is the first comprehensive, cohesive volume to unite Appalachian history with its culture. Richard A. Straw and H. Tyler Blethen's High Mountains Rising provides a clear, systematic, and engaging overview of the Appalachian timeline, its people, and the most significant aspects of life in the region. The first half of the fourteen essays deal with historical issues including Native Americans, pioneer settlement, slavery, the Civil War and Reconstruction, industrialization, the Great Depression, migration, and finally, modernization. The remaining essays take a more cultural focus, addressing stereotypes, music, folklife, language, literature, and religion. Bringing together many of the most prestigious scholars in Appalachian studies, this volume has been designed for general and classroom use, and includes suggestions for further reading.
Listen Here: Women Writing in Appalachia (print) by Sandra L. Ballard and Patricia L. Hudson (Editors)
Listen Here: Women Writing in Appalachia is a landmark anthology that brings together the work of 105 Appalachian women writers, including Dorothy Allison, Harriette Simpson Arnow, Annie Dillard, Nikki Giovanni, Denise Giardina, Barbara Kingsolver, Jayne Anne Phillips, Janice Holt Giles, George Ella Lyon, Sharyn McCrumb, and Lee Smith. Editors Sandra L. Ballard and Patricia L. Hudson offer a diverse sampling of time periods and genres, established authors and emerging voices. From regional favorites to national bestsellers, this unprecedented gathering of Appalachian voices displays the remarkable talent of the region's women writers who've made their mark at home and across the globe.
Making Our Future: visionary folklore and everyday culture in Appalachia (ebook) by Emily Hilliard
Drawing from her work as state folklorist, Emily Hilliard explores contemporary folklife in West Virginia and challenges the common perception of both folklore and Appalachian culture as static, antiquated forms, offering instead the concept of "visionary folklore" as a future-focused, materialist, and collaborative approach to cultural work. With chapters on the expressive culture of the West Virginia teachers' strike, the cultural significance of the West Virginia hot dog, the tradition of independent pro wrestling in Appalachia, the practice of nonprofessional women songwriters, the collective counternarrative of a multiracial coal camp community, the invisible landscape of writer Breece D'J Pancake's hometown, the foodways of an Appalachian Swiss community, the postapocalyptic vision presented in the video game Fallout 76, and more, the book centers the collective nature of folklife and examines the role of the public folklorist in collaborative engagements with communities and culture. Hilliard argues that folklore is a unifying concept that puts diverse cultural forms in conversation, as well as a framework that helps us reckon with the past, understand the present, and collectively shape the future.
The Prettiest Star (print) by Carter Sickels
Call Number: Request from OhioLINK

The story of Brian's return to small-town Ohio is told in a chorus of voices: Brian's mother Sharon; his fourteen-year-old sister, Jess, as she grapples with her brother's mysterious return; and the video diaries Brian makes to document his final summer. Written in prose that seeks "to answer without flinching away from ugliness and without demonizing the ignorant" (Salon), The Prettiest Star offers an urgent portrait of a family in the center of a national crisis, in order to tell a unique story about the politics and fragility of the body, and to explore the bounds of family and redemption.
Yesterday's People: life in contemporary Appalachia (print) by Jack E. Weller
The distinctive way of life of the Southern Appalachian people has often been criticized, romanticized or derided, but rarely has it been understood. Yesterday's People, the fruit of many years' labor in the mountains, reveals the fears, anxieties, and hopes that underlie the mountaineers' way of thinking and acting, and thereby shape their relationships in family and community. First published in 1965, this book has been an indispensable guide for all who seek to study, work or live within the Appalachian culture.
A Handbook to Appalachia: an introduction to the region (print) by Grace Toney Edwards, et al
Scholars who teach, write, or speak on the history and culture of the Appalachian region are frequently asked by students, administrators, or colleagues to recommend a relatively short, comprehensive book about Appalachia. Until now, there has been no interdisciplinary introductory text in Appalachian studies.A Handbook to Appalachia comprises a collection of concise, accessible overviews of the region written by top academics in a variety of fields, all directed at a general audience. Accompanied by dozens of inviting photographs, the essays offer information to those becoming acquainted with Appalachia for the first time as well as to more experienced observers of the region. The essays are arranged to show how various features of Appalachia are related. Each essay is followed by a list of suggested readings for further study.
Thread That Runs So True (print) by Jesse Stuart
First published in 1949, Jesse Stuart's now classic personal account of his twenty years of teaching in the mountain region of Kentucky has enchanted and inspired generations of students and teachers. With eloquence and wit, Stuart traces his twenty-year career in education, which began, when he was only seventeen years old, with teaching grades one through eight in a one-room schoolhouse. Before long Stuart was on a path that made him principal and finally superintendent of city and county schools. The road was not smooth, however, and Stuart faced many challenges, from students who were considerably older--and bigger--than he to well-meaning but distrustful parents, uncooperative administrators and, most daunting, his own fear of failure. Through it all, Stuart never lost his abiding faith in the power of education. A graceful ode to what he considered the greatest profession there is, Jesse Stuart's The Thread That Runs So True is timeless proof that "good teaching is forever and the teacher is immortal."
Uneven Ground: Appalachia since 1945 (print) by Ronald D. Eller
Appalachia has played a complex and often contradictory role in the unfolding of American history. Created by urban journalists in the years following the Civil War, the idea of Appalachia provided a counterpoint to emerging definitions of progress. Early-twentieth-century critics of modernity saw the region as a remnant of frontier life, a reflection of simpler times that should be preserved and protected. However, supporters of development and of the growth of material production, consumption, and technology decried what they perceived as the isolation and backwardness of the place and sought to "uplift" the mountain people through education and industrialization. Ronald D Eller has worked with local leaders, state policymakers, and national planners to translate the lessons of private industrial-development history into public policy affecting the region. In Uneven Ground: Appalachia since 1945, Eller examines the politics of development in Appalachia since World War II with an eye toward exploring the idea of progress as it has evolved in modern America. Appalachia's struggle to overcome poverty, to live in harmony with the land, and to respect the diversity of cultures and the value of community is also an American story. In the end, Eller concludes, "Appalachia was not different from the rest of America; it was in fact a mirror of what the nation was becoming."
Doubly Erased: LGBTQ literature in Appalachia (print) by Allison E. Carey
Call Number: Request from OhioLINK

The first book of its kind, Doubly Erased is a comprehensive study of the rich tradition of LGBTQ themes and characters in Appalachian novels, memoirs, poetry, drama, and film. Appalachia has long been seen as homogenous and tradition-bound. Allison E. Carey helps to remedy this misunderstanding, arguing that it has led to LGBTQ Appalachian authors being doubly erased--routinely overlooked both within United States literature because they are Appalachian and within the Appalachian literary tradition because they are queer. In exploring motifs of visibility, silence, storytelling, home, food, and more, Carey brings the full significance and range of LGBTQ Appalachian literature into relief. Dorothy Allison's Bastard Out of Carolina and Alison Bechdel's Fun Home are considered alongside works by Maggie Anderson, doris davenport, Jeff Mann, Lisa Alther, Julia Watts, Fenton Johnson, and Silas House, as well as filmmaker Beth Stephens. While primarily focused on 1976 to 2020, Doubly Erased also looks back to the region's literary "elders," thoughtfully mapping the place of sexuality in the lives and works of George Scarbrough, Byron Herbert Reece, and James Still.
Another Appalachia: coming up queer and Indian in a mountain place (ebook) by Neema Avashia
When Neema Avashia tells people where she's from, their response is nearly always a disbelieving "There are Indian people in West Virginia?" A queer Asian American teacher and writer, Avashia fits few Appalachian stereotypes. But the lessons she learned in childhood about race and class, gender and sexuality continue to inform the way she moves through the world today: how she loves, how she teaches, how she advocates, how she struggles. Another Appalachia examines both the roots and the resonance of Avashia's identity as a queer desi Appalachian woman, while encouraging readers to envision more complex versions of both Appalachia and the nation as a whole. With lyric and narrative explorations of foodways, religion, sports, standards of beauty, social media, gun culture, and more, Another Appalachia mixes nostalgia and humor, sadness and sweetness, personal reflection and universal questions.
Belonging: a culture of place (print) by bell hooks
What does it mean to call a place home? Who is allowed to become a member of a community? When can we say that we truly belong? These are some of the questions of place and belonging that renowned cultural critic bell hooks examines in her new book, Belonging: A Culture of Place. Traversing past and present, Belonging charts a cyclical journey in which hooks moves from place to place, from country to city and back again, only to end where she began--her old Kentucky home. hooks has written provocatively about race, gender, and class; and in this book she turns her attention to focus on issues of land and land ownership. Reflecting on the fact that 90% of all black people lived in the agrarian South before mass migration to northern cities in the early 1900s, she writes about black farmers, about black folks who have been committed both in the past and in the present to local food production, to being organic, and to finding solace in nature. Naturally, it would be impossible to contemplate these issues without thinking about the politics of race and class. Reflecting on the racism that continues to find expression in the world of real estate, she writes about segregation in housing and economic racialized zoning. In these critical essays, hooks finds surprising connections that link of the environment and sustainability to the politics of race and class that reach far beyond Kentucky. With characteristic insight and honesty, Belonging offers a remarkable vision of a world where all people--wherever they may call home--can live fully and well, where everyone can belong.

Mental Health Awareness Month 2024

May is Mental Health Awareness Month. This special edition of “Leisure Reads” features nature writing, including a special focus on the connection of nature to mental health and wellness. Below you will find ebooks, print books, and books that can be requested from other university libraries via OhioLINK. Many thanks to MSJ Librarian Cynthia Gregory for this list of books, as well as for her assistance formatting the post!

Ebooks:

Forest as a Health Resource by Joachim Rathmann
“Joachim Rathmann presents the interdisciplinary links between forests and human health. Forests provide numerous ecosystem services for the survival, well-being, and maintenance and enhancement of human health. Forests provide multisensory recreational spaces and can therefore be considered a resource that positively impacts both physical, mental, and social aspects of health. The author presents natural science, social science, and humanities research in an understandable, clear, and concise manner for a diverse readership.” – Publisher’s Summary
Forest Therapy: The Potential of the Forest for Your Health by Angela Schuh & Gisela Immich
Forest Therapy: The Potential of the Forest for Your Health / Angela Schuh & Gisela Immich
“In fast-paced everyday life, it is becoming increasingly important to find an antipole. The forest seems to be the perfect place for this—it offers balancing stimuli, health-promoting effects and its climate is proven to be effective on human health. This non-fiction book explains the background and facts about the effect of forest visits on a scientifically sound basis and sensitizes readers to the great health benefits of forest bathing (Shinrin-Yoku) and forest therapy. As an oasis of tranquility, the forest invites you to slow down, regenerate and draw new energy. Written for interested lay people—psychotherapists, doctors and other health professionals can read along.” – Publisher’s Summary
A Voice in the Wilderness: Conversations with Terry Tempest Williams by Michael Austin
“With her distinctive, impassioned voice and familiar felicity of language, Terry Tempest Williams talks about wilderness and wildlife, place and eroticism, art and literature, democracy and politics, family and heritage, Mormonism and religion, writing and creativity, and other subjects that engage her agile mind—in a set of interviews gathered and introduced by Michael Austin to represent the span of her career as a naturalist, author, and activist.” – Publisher’s Summary

Print Books:

The Annie Dillard Reader by Annie Dillard
“’One of the most distinctive voices in American letters today’ (Boston Globe) collects her favorite writing selections in The Annie Dillard Reader. This collection of stories, novel excerpts, essays, poetry and more demonstrates the depth and resonance of the writing of Pulitzer Prize-winning author Annie Dillard. Includes chapters from the novel Pilgrim at Tinker Creek, and An American Childhood, the revised Holy the Firm in its entirety, the revised short story ‘The Living,’ essays from Teaching a Stone to Talk and more. ‘She has a strange and wonderful mind, and the ability to speak it with enduring grace’ (The New Yorker).” – Publisher’s Summary
The Best American Science and Nature Writing 2000 by D. Quammen & B. Bilger
“With the inaugural volume of The Best American Science & Nature Writing, Houghton Mifflin showcases the finest writing of the [year 2000] on subjects of ever-increasing interest to readers. Guest editor David Quammen and series editor Burkhard Bilger have assembled a remarkable group of essays that originally appeared in periodicals from National Geographic, Science, and The New Yorker to Puerto del Sol and DoubleTake. Among the acclaimed writers represented are Natalie Angier on "Men, Women, Sex, and Darwin," Peter Matthiessen exploring "The Island at the End of the Earth," Richard Preston considering "The Demon in the Freezer," and Oliver Sacks remembering the "Brilliant Light" of his boyhood. Also including work by such literary lights as Anne Fadiman, Edward Hoagland, and Cullen Murphy, this volume presents selections bound together by their timelessness.” – Publisher’s Summary
House of Light by Mary Oliver
“This collection of poems by Mary Oliver once again invites the reader to step across the threshold of ordinary life into a world of natural and spiritual luminosity. ‘Tell me, what is it you plan to do / with your one wild and precious life?’ (from ‘The Summer Day’—one of the poems in this volume). Winner of a 1991 Christopher Award and winner of the 1991 Boston Globe Lawrence L. Winship Book Award.” – Publisher’s Summary
Seeking Awareness in American Nature Writing: Henry Thoreau, Annie Dillard, Edward Abbey, Wendell Berry, Barry Lopez by S. Slovic
A scholarly analysis of American nature writing, including the poetical works of Thoreau, Dillard, and others. It specifically addresses the psychology of nature writing, the juxtaposition of the inner and outer world, and particularities about aestheticism and awareness. ‘We cannot write well or truly but what we write with gusto. The body, the senses, must conspire with the mind. Expression is the act of the whole man, that our speech may be vascular. The intellect is powerless to express thought without the aid of the heart and liver and of every member’ (Thoreau).
The Norton Book of Nature Writing by R. Finch & J. Elder
“A collection of 125 selections by 94 writers (each introduced with a short biographical essay). Classic and contemporary pieces from England and America are included as are works both from clearly identified nature writers and those with more general reputations (among them: Updike, Le Guin, Woolf).” – Publisher’s Summary
Writing Natural History: Dialogues with Authors by E. Lueders
“Writing Natural History is the edited record of four public dialogues held at the University of Utah in 1988 between eminent writers in the fields of natural history. In these interchanges the writers discussed their traditions, perspectives, values, purposes, techniques, and personal insights. Their conversations, like their work, link the sciences with the humanities in surprising ways, enhancing our understanding and appreciation of both. This volume maintains the vitality of the spoken dialogues and conveys a lively sense of each speaker’s concern with the processes of the natural world and our human position in it.... Authors dialogues feature Barry Lopez and Edward O. Wilson, Robert Finch and Terry Tempest Williams, Gary Paul Nabhan and Ann Zwinger, Paul Brooks and Edward Lueders.” – Publisher’s Summary
National Geographic Book of Nature Poetry by J.P. Lewis
“When words in verse are paired with the awesomeness of nature, something magical happens! Beloved former U.S. Poet Laureate J. Patrick Lewis curates an exuberant poetic celebration of the natural world in this stellar collection of nature poems. From trickling streams to deafening thunderstorms to soaring mountains, discover majestic photography perfectly paired with contemporary (such as Billy Collins), classics (such as Robert Frost), and never-before-published works.” – Publisher’s Summary

Books from OhioLINK's Catalog:

Last Child in the Woods: Saving Our Children from Nature-Deficit Disorder by Richard Louv
“Never before in history have children been so plugged in—and so out of touch with the natural world. In this groundbreaking new work, child advocacy expert Richard Louv directly links the lack of nature in the lives of today's wired generation—he calls it nature deficit—to some of the most disturbing childhood trends, such as rises in obesity, Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD), and depression.... Nature-deficit disorder is not a medical condition; it is a description of the human costs of alienation from nature. This alienation damages children and shapes adults, families, and communities. There are solutions, though, and they're right in our own backyards. Last Child in the Woods is the first book to bring together cutting-edge research showing that direct exposure to nature is essential for healthy childhood development—physical, emotional, and spiritual.... Parents have the power to ensure that their daughter or son will not be the ‘last child in the woods,’ and this book is the first step toward that nature-child reunion.” – Publisher’s Summary
Return to Nature: The New Science of How Natural Landscapes Restore Us by Emma Loewe
“For centuries, we have known that getting outside is good for us. Yet we have become increasingly disconnected from the earth that nourishes us, with most of us spending 87% of our days indoors. In response, writer and environmentalist Emma Loewe demonstrates the power of nature’s healing properties in a guidebook organized by eight landscapes. In each chapter, you'll find research-backed ways to explore that landscape right now and protect it in the future, so that it can be healthy and nurturing for generations to come.... Alongside beautiful four-color illustrations that inspire us all to get outside in big and small ways, this stunning book—more urgent than ever—will appeal to anyone looking to connect with the world around them, whether in their neighborhood park or on a backpacking getaway.” – Publisher’s Summary
Losing Eden: Our fundamental Need for the Natural World and its Ability to Heal Body and Soul by Lucy Jones
“Why human beings have a powerful and fundamental need—mental, spiritual, and physical—for the natural world; the profound impact it has on our consciousness and ability to heal our soul and bring solace to the heart, and the new cutting-edge scientific evidence proving nature as nurturer. In Losing Eden, Lucy Jones interweaves her deeply personal story of recovery from addiction and depression, with that of discovering the natural world and how it aided and enlivened her progress, giving her a renewed sense of belonging and purpose. Jones writes of the intersection of science, wellness, and the environment, and reveals that in the last decade, scientists have begun to formulate theories of why people feel better after a walk in the woods and an experience with the natural world....” – Publisher’s Summary
Forest Bathing: How Trees Can Help You Find Health and Happiness by Dr. Qing Li
“The definitive guide to the therapeutic Japanese practice of shinrin-yoku, or the art and science of how trees can promote health and happiness. Notice how a tree sways in the wind. Run your hands over its bark. Take in its citrusy scent. As a society we suffer from nature deficit disorder, but studies have shown that spending mindful, intentional time around trees—what the Japanese call shinrin-yoku, or forest bathing—can promote health and happiness. In this beautiful book—featuring more than 100 color photographs from forests around the world, including the forest therapy trails that criss-cross Japan—Dr. Qing Li, the world's foremost expert in forest medicine, shows how forest bathing can reduce your stress levels and blood pressure, strengthen your immune and cardiovascular systems, boost your energy, mood, creativity, and concentration, and even help you lose weight and live longer. Once you've discovered the healing power of trees, you can lose yourself in the beauty of your surroundings, leave everyday stress behind, and reach a place of greater calm and wellness.” – Publisher’s Summary

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