The Six by Loren Grush

Title: The Six: The Untold Story of America’s First Women Astronauts

Author: Loren Grush

Publisher: Scribner 2023

Genre: Nonfiction - US History

Pages: 432

Rating: 4/5 stars

Reading Challenges: Nonfiction Reader; Clock Reader

Where I Got It: Library

In this account of America’s first women astronauts “Grush skillfully weaves a story that, at its heart, is about desire: not a nation’s desire to conquer space, but the longing of six women to reach heights that were forbidden to them” (The New York Times).

When NASA sent astronauts to the moon in the 1960s and 1970s the agency excluded women from the corps, arguing that only military test pilots—a group then made up exclusively of men—had the right stuff. It was an era in which women were steered away from jobs in science and deemed unqualified for space flight. Eventually, though, NASA recognized its blunder and opened the application process to a wider array of hopefuls, regardless of race or gender. From a candidate pool of 8,000 six elite women were selected in 1978—Sally Ride, Judy Resnik, Anna Fisher, Kathy Sullivan, Shannon Lucid, and Rhea Seddon.

Our book club selection for August was a nonfiction pick! I was really hoping for an engaging story of six fascinating women. We got most of that, but there were a few slow parts. I loved learning about the process of these women becoming astronauts. I was very interested in the process. And I was interested in seeing how NASA adapted and changed over the decades. I was less excited to really get into the nitty gritty of each of these missions. The details started to bog down the book a bit. Overall, I did enjoy this one, but I wonder if the Young Readers version would be better.

Next up on the TBR pile:

Isaac's Storm by Erik Larson

Title: Isaac’s Storm: A Man, A Time, and the Deadliest Hurricane in History

Author: Erik Larson

Publisher: Vintage Books 2000

Genre: Nonfiction - History

Pages: 323

Rating: 4/5 stars

Reading Challenges: Unread Shelf; Nonfiction Reader

September 8, 1900, began innocently in the seaside town of Galveston, Texas. Even Isaac Cline, resident meteorologist for the U.S. Weather Bureau failed to grasp the true meaning of the strange deep-sea swells and peculiar winds that greeted the city that morning. Mere hours later, Galveston found itself submerged in a monster hurricane that completely destroyed the town and killed over six thousand people—and Isaac Cline found himself the victim of a devastating personal tragedy.

Using Cline's own telegrams, letters, and reports, the testimony of scores of survivors, and our latest understanding of the science of hurricanes, Erik Larson builds a chronicle of one man's heroic struggle and fatal miscalculation in the face of a storm of unimaginable magnitude.

In my reading of all of Larson’s books, I somehow his first big book. A reader can tell that this is one of his earlier books. We don’t have quite as robust of a story weaving together plot lines and bringing everything together. As to the story itself, this is a fascinating look at a natural disaster. I loved finding out more about the 1900 Galveston hurricane. Apparently, I have a thing for natural disaster books. I do wish that we had got a bit more insight in Isaac, but I was with all the people of Galveston as they dealt with a horrific tragedy.

Next up on the TBR pile:

Paradise Falls by Keith O'Brien

Title: Paradise Falls: The True Story of an Environmental Catastrophe

Author: Keith O’Brien

Publisher: Pantheon Books 2022

Genre: Nonfiction - History, Science

Pages: 455

Rating: 4/5 stars

Reading Challenges: Winter TBR

Lois Gibbs, Luella Kenny, and other mothers loved their neighborhood on the east side of Niagara Falls. It had an elementary school, a playground, and rows of affordable homes. But in the spring of 1977, pungent odors began to seep into these little houses, and it didn’t take long for worried mothers to identify the curious scent. It was the sickly sweet smell of chemicals.
 
In this propulsive work of narrative storytelling, NYT journalist Keith O’Brien uncovers how Gibbs and Kenny exposed the poisonous secrets buried in their neighborhood. The school and playground had been built atop an old canal—Love Canal, it was called—that Hooker Chemical, the city’s largest employer, had quietly filled with twenty thousand tons of toxic waste in the 1940s and 1950s. This waste was now leaching to the surface, causing a public health crisis the likes of which America had never seen before and sparking new and specific fears. Luella Kenny believed the chemicals were making her son sick.
 
O’Brien braids together previously unknown stories of Hooker Chemical’s deeds; the local newspaperman, scientist, and congressional staffer who tried to help; the city and state officials who didn’t; and the heroic women who stood up to corporate and governmental indifference to save their families and their children. They would take their fight all the way to the top, winning support from the EPA, the White House, and even President Jimmy Carter. By the time it was over, they would capture America’s imagination.

Such a hard book to read, and yet I was very interested in it when the book published. One of my book clubs chose this to read and I dove in after the beginning of the year. I knew the basic information about the Love Canal incident. I remember seeing news reports (after the fact obviously) and I knew about the incident was the origin of the EPA’s Superfund program. This volume really goes into depth, detailing the events leading up to the inhabitants of the neighborhood realizing that there was something seriously wrong. We get to know all the major players including a few of the women who led the neighborhood response. I’ve heard the name Lois Gibbs before, but it was nice to understand exactly who she was and how she helped lead the efforts to clean up the area. Many of the sections were difficult to read. Reading about children getting sick and dying is never my idea of fun. And yet, this is such an important story to read. I’m sure that we will have a very interesting discussion next week.

Next up on the TBR pile:

How the Word is Passed by Clint Smith

Title: How the Word is Passed: A Reckoning with the History of Slavery Across America

Author: Clint Smith

Publisher: Little, Brown and Company 2021

Genre: U.S. History / Memoir

Pages: 336

Rating: 5/5 stars

Reading Challenges: Winter TBR List

Beginning in his hometown of New Orleans, Clint Smith leads the reader on an unforgettable tour of monuments and landmarks—those that are honest about the past and those that are not—that offer an intergenerational story of how slavery has been central in shaping our nation’s collective history, and ourselves.

It is the story of the Monticello Plantation in Virginia, the estate where Thomas Jefferson wrote letters espousing the urgent need for liberty while enslaving more than four hundred people. It is the story of the Whitney Plantation, one of the only former plantations devoted to preserving the experience of the enslaved people whose lives and work sustained it. It is the story of Angola, a former plantation–turned–maximum-security prison in Louisiana that is filled with Black men who work across the 18,000-acre land for virtually no pay. And it is the story of Blandford Cemetery, the final resting place of tens of thousands of Confederate soldiers.

A deeply researched and transporting exploration of the legacy of slavery and its imprint on centuries of American history, How the Word Is Passed illustrates how some of our country’s most essential stories are hidden in plain view—whether in places we might drive by on our way to work, holidays such as Juneteenth, or entire neighborhoods like downtown Manhattan, where the brutal history of the trade in enslaved men, women, and children has been deeply imprinted.

Informed by scholarship and brought to life by the story of people living today, Smith’s debut work of nonfiction is a landmark of reflection and insight that offers a new understanding of the hopeful role that memory and history can play in making sense of our country and how it has come to be.

Another contender for my Top Books of 2022. This book partly U.S. History, partly memoir has me rethinking everything I know about the history of slavery in America and how it informs our society today. Overall, I knew a lot of the history presented, but I still found myself learning new-to-me facts and situations. But what I really hooked onto was the connection between those stories, how we tell them, and how it affects us today. Smith does a beautiful job showing the reader the connections between those three things and making the reader confront our own skewed perspectives. I found myself reflecting back to what I have been taught, what I taught, and what was missing. I kept thinking about the quote at the end of the book:

“The history of slavery is the history of the United States. It was not peripheral to our founding; it was central to it. This history is in our soil, it is in our policies, and it must, too, be in our memories.” (pg. 289)

I keep coming back to this idea and then reexamining what it meant to examine this history. I loved how Smith put in in an early chapter of the book:

“But there is enormous value in providing young people with the language, the history, and the framework to identify why their society looks the way it does. Understanding that all of this was done not by accident but by design. That did not strip me of agency, it gave agency back to me. I watched these young people share this history, and I dreamed of what it might mean if we could extend these lessons toe very child. How different might our country look if all of us fully understood what has happened here?” (pg. 179)

We need to put our history out into the open, examine it from all sides, and then take lessons from it. We need to learn to be able to move forward in a purposeful way. For my own personal life, I will be thinking about my own past, and my family’s past, and how we have been complicit in the continuation of slavery in America. Smith has so much to teach each one of us about our role in this country. The book and the lessons I learned are going to keep coming back to me for years to come. Such a powerful read.

Next up on the TBR pile:

Four Hundred Souls edited by Ibram X. Kendi and Keisha N. Blain

Title: Four Hundred Souls: A Community History of African America, 1619-2019

Edited By: Ibram X. Kendi and Keisha N. Blain

Publisher: One World 2021

Genre: Nonfiction - U.S. History

Pages: 453

Rating: 5/5 stars

Reading Challenges: Seasonal TBR

The story begins in 1619—a year before the Mayflower—when the White Lion disgorges “some 20-and-odd Negroes” onto the shores of Virginia, inaugurating the African presence in what would become the United States. It takes us to the present, when African Americans, descendants of those on the White Lion and a thousand other routes to this country, continue a journey defined by inhuman oppression, visionary struggles, stunning achievements, and millions of ordinary lives passing through extraordinary history.

Four Hundred Souls is a unique one-volume “community” history of African Americans. The editors, Ibram X. Kendi and Keisha N. Blain, have assembled ninety brilliant writers, each of whom takes on a five-year period of that four-hundred-year span. The writers explore their periods through a variety of techniques: historical essays, short stories, personal vignettes, and fiery polemics. They approach history from various perspectives: through the eyes of towering historical icons or the untold stories of ordinary people; through places, laws, and objects. While themes of resistance and struggle, of hope and reinvention, course through the book, this collection of diverse pieces from ninety different minds, reflecting ninety different perspectives, fundamentally deconstructs the idea that Africans in America are a monolith—instead it unlocks the startling range of experiences and ideas that have always existed within the community of Blackness.

This is a history that illuminates our past and gives us new ways of thinking about our future, written by the most vital and essential voices of our present.

This book has been my slow-but-steady for the past two months or so. There is so much information packed into these essays. To properly focus on the essays, I only read one or two a day until I got the end. Many of the facts presented in the book I knew from my college classes. The authors both conveyed the information and the devastating emotions and after effects of the events presented. This is a hard book to read, but absolutely essential to understand the state of our country today.

Next up on the TBR pile:

1776 by David McCullough

Title: 1776

Author: David McCullough

Publisher: Simon & Schuster 2006

Genre: Nonfiction - U.S. History

Pages: 386

Rating: 5/5 stars

Reading Challenges: UnRead Shelf

America’s beloved and distinguished historian presents, in a book of breathtaking excitement, drama, and narrative force, the stirring story of the year of our nation’s birth, 1776, interweaving, on both sides of the Atlantic, the actions and decisions that led Great Britain to undertake a war against her rebellious colonial subjects and that placed America’s survival in the hands of George Washington.

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.

I have a pretty firm grasp on U.S. History seeing as I was a HS Social Studies teacher with an emphasis in U.S. History. As such, I am always a bit hesitant to dive into U.S. History books. I don’t want to spend 300 pages just reviewing everything I already know. Thankfully McCullough’s Pulitzer Prize winning book gave me so much new information that I enjoyed every page. The book follows General Washington and a whole host of characters as they move through 1776 and the colonies. McCullough gives the basics but adds much more with excerpts from primary sources (letters and diaries) and details about many of the players. I especially loved learning more about Henry Knox and Nathanael Greene. They have become known names from the time period, but I didn’t know much more than their most important accomplishments. I loved how McCullough dove into various people while providing a very factual account of movements throughout the year. Even though I knew Trenton and Princeton were coming right at the end of the year, I was compelled by the writing to find out what was going to happen next. Great history book!

Next up on the TBR pile:

Mississippi River Tragedies by Christine A. Klein and Sandra B. Zellmer

Title: Mississippi River Tragedies: A Century of Unnatural Disaster

Author: Christine A. Klein and Sandra B. Zellmer

Publisher: NYU Press 2014

Genre: Nonfiction

Pages: 276

Rating: 3/5 stars

Reading Challenges: Library

American engineers have done astounding things to bend the Mississippi River to their will: forcing one of its tributaries to flow uphill, transforming over a thousand miles of roiling currents into a placid staircase of water, and wresting the lower half of the river apart from its floodplain. American law has aided and abetted these feats. But despite our best efforts, so-called “natural disasters” continue to strike the Mississippi basin, as raging floodwaters decimate waterfront communities and abandoned towns literally crumble into the Gulf of Mexico. In some places, only the tombstones remain, leaning at odd angles as the underlying soil erodes away. Mississippi River Tragedies reveals that it is seductively deceptive—but horribly misleading—to call such catastrophes “natural.”

Random pick from the library. I was a bit disappointed by the overall book, but was fascinated by the subject matter. I love micro histories and learning about a new topic. The subject matter truly is fascinating. And yet. the actual writing was a little too dry and stilted at times. I would have liked to been more sucked into the story.

Next up on the TBR pile:

Booknotes edited by Brian Lamb

Title: Booknotes: Stories from American History

Editor: Brian Lamb

Publisher: Penguin Books 2002

Genre: Nonfiction - U.S. History

Pages: 556

Rating: 4/5 stars

Reading Challenges: UnRead Shelf

American history is shaped by great and small events, and in recent years a generation of writers has brought these events to life. They have shared these stories with the viewers of the long-running C-SPAN author-interview program Booknotes, and here some of the best have been collected for readers to savor. In this volume, more than eighty contemporary writers and historians examine seminal moments from American history, celebrated and uncelebrated alike.

Obviously the subject matter of this collection is right up my alley. And it’s been sitting on my shelf for years now. I finally dove in and picked it as my #slowbutsteady read for August. I actually finished it by the end fo the month picking away at the essays one section at a time. I very much enjoyed the stories told in each essay. I even learned a bit about American history. My only complaint is that these are transcripts of a television show. Sometimes, the writing style left much to be desired.

Next up on the TBR pile:

A Brief History of Nebraska by Ronald Naugle

Title: A Brief History of Nebraska

Author: Ronald Naugle

Publisher: History Nebraska 2018

Genre: Nonfiction - History

Pages: 144

Rating: 4/5 stars

Reading Challenges: Library Love

This book is a short treatment of a long history. Nebraska has been inundated by ancient seas, carved by glaciers, and settled by ancient cultures who learned to survive in a land prone to extremes of climate. As a state, Nebraska was born out of the Civil War, shaped by railroads, and built by immigrants. Settlers were drawn by promises of free land and abundant rain. They endured droughts and economic depressions. They fought for political reforms, fought world wars, and sometimes fought each other. Along the way Nebraskans chose a unique form of government and re-invented their communities under new conditions. A Brief History of Nebraska is a story of continual change, the back story of the place and people we know today.

I picked up this slim volume while looking for travel books for our summer road trip. Naugle packs a ton of information into a short amount of pages. The sections dealing with national history I already knew. I did appreciate learning more about my adopted state.

Next up on the TBR pile:

Eruption by Steve Olson

Title: Eruption: The Untold Story of Mount St. Helens

Author: Steve Olson

Publisher: W.W. Norton and Company 2017

Genre: Nonfiction - U.S. History; Science

Pages: 336

Rating: 4/5 stars

Reading Challenges: UnRead Shelf; Modern Mrs. Darcy - Fascinating Topic; Nonfiction Bingo - Nature

For months in early 1980, scientists, journalists, and nearby residents listened anxiously to rumblings from Mount St. Helens in southwestern Washington State. Still, no one was prepared when a cataclysmic eruption blew the top off of the mountain, laying waste to hundreds of square miles of land and killing fifty-seven people. Steve Olson interweaves vivid personal stories with the history, science, and economic forces that influenced the fates and futures of those around the volcano. Eruption delivers a spellbinding narrative of an event that changed the course of volcanic science, and an epic tale of our fraught relationship with the natural world.

I’m always a sucker for narrative history book and this one was gifted to me by the library. (Thank you summer reading program!) I dove in and realized that I really didn’t know much about the 1980 eruption of Mount St. Helens. Granted it was before I was born, but still, I know a lot of stuff prior to 1982. Reading this book gave me a very clear picture of the run-up to the eruption and the aftermath. I really enjoyed learning about the history of the volcano and the back-and-forth between politicians and scientists about the warning zone. The earth science really got me hooked on the book. I wasn’t as much of. fan of the detailed history of the Weyerhauser family. Sure, the company was important when it came to drawing boundary lines, but I don’t think we needed that detailed of a history. Otherwise, I enjoyed this one.

Next up on the TBR pile:

Code Girls by Liza Mundy

Title: Code Girls: The Untold Story of the American Women Code Breakers of World War II

Author: Liza Mundy

Publisher: Hachette Books 2017

Genre: Nonfiction - U.S. History

Pages: 416

Rating: 5/5 stars

Reading Challenges: Library Love; Popsugar - Puzzle; Nonfiction Bingo - Science and Technology

Recruited by the U.S. Army and Navy from small towns and elite colleges, more than ten thousand women served as codebreakers during World War II. While their brothers and boyfriends took up arms, these women moved to Washington and learned the meticulous work of code-breaking. Their efforts shortened the war, saved countless lives, and gave them access to careers previously denied to them. A strict vow of secrecy nearly erased their efforts from history; now, through dazzling research and interviews with surviving code girls, bestselling author Liza Mundy brings to life this riveting and vital story of American courage, service, and scientific accomplishment.

Wow! How did I not know about these amazing women and their contributions to the war effort? Oh right, the military kept most of this information classified for years. Thank goodness many of these women have now been encouraged to tell their stories. The book is information heavy, but great at telling the story of code-breaking both before WWII and during. We make connections to many specific women following their stories through specific units and projects. I thoroughly enjoyed the narrative even when it covered topics or events that I have a fair bit of knowledge of. It was still nice to put everything together into one story. I even took pages of notes about the story. So good!

Next up on the TBR pile:

Pox Americana by Elizabeth A. Fenn

Title: Pox Americana: The Great Smallpox Epidemic of 1775-82

Author: Elizabeth A. Fenn

Publisher: Hill and Wang 2002

Genre: U.S. History

Pages: 384

Rating: 5/5 stars

Reading Challenges: Perpetual - Nonfiction Adventure; Library Love

A horrifying epidemic of smallpox was sweeping across the Americas when the American Revolution began, and yet we know almost nothing about it. Elizabeth A. Fenn is the first historian to reveal how deeply variola affected the outcome of the war in every colony and the lives of everyone in North America.

By 1776, when military action and political ferment increased the movement of people and microbes, the epidemic worsened. Fenn's remarkable research shows us how smallpox devastated the American troops at Québec and kept them at bay during the British occupation of Boston. Soon the disease affected the war in Virginia, where it ravaged slaves who had escaped to join the British forces. During the terrible winter at Valley Forge, General Washington had to decide if and when to attempt the risky inoculation of his troops. In 1779, while Creeks and Cherokees were dying in Georgia, smallpox broke out in Mexico City, whence it followed travelers going north, striking Santa Fe and outlying pueblos in January 1781. Simultaneously it moved up the Pacific coast and east across the plains as far as Hudson's Bay.

I'm a sucker for a good epidemic book. I really think epidemiology may be my missed calling. This one intrigued me as it combines epidemiology and U.S. history. This book is incredibly detailed and full of names, dates, and facts. It is not for the faint of heart. The book has very graphic depictions of smallpox but also a lot of moving parts. I learned so much about an big event in U.S. history that is glossed over in favor of the battles of the Revolutionary War. I have now added a whole new story to my memory stores. 

Next up on the TBR pile:

College Girls by Lynn Peril

Title: College Girls

Author: Lynn Peril

Publisher: W.W. Norton & Company 2006

Genre: Nonfiction - U.S. History

Pages: 416

Rating: 4/5 stars

Reading Challenges: Perpetual - Nonfiction Adventure; Popsugar - Microhistory

A geek who wears glasses? Or a sex kitten in a teddy? This is the dual vision of the college girl, the unique American archetype born when the age-old conflict over educating women was finally laid to rest. College was a place where women found self-esteem, and yet images in popular culture reflected a lingering distrust of the educated woman. Thus such lofty cultural expressions as Sex Kittens Go to College (1960) and a raft of naughty pictorials in men’s magazines.

As in Pink Think, Lynn Peril combines women’s history and popular culture—peppered with delightful examples of femoribilia from the turn of the twentieth century through the 1970s—in an intelligent and witty study of the college girl, the first woman to take that socially controversial step toward educational equity.

Another one of those books sitting on my shelves for much too long. Overall, I was invested in the history of women in college but I will admit that I knew a decent amount of the information presented. Peril does a great job at laying out different areas of the college experience throughout history. I was especially interested in the chapter about sex education. The book was packed full of information an primary sources. 

Next up on the TBR pile:

The Last Castle by Denise Kiernan

Title: The Last Castle

Author: Denise Kiernan

Publisher: Touchstone 2017

Genre: U.S. History

Pages: 388

Rating: 4/5 stars

Reading Challenges: Perpetual - Nonfiction Adventure; Popsugar - 2017 Prompt (Recommended by a Librarian); Modern Mrs. Darcy - Biography

A New York Times bestseller with an "engaging narrative and array of detail” (The Wall Street Journal), the “intimate and sweeping” (Raleigh News & Observer) untold, true story behind the Biltmore Estate—the largest, grandest private residence in North America, which has seen more than 120 years of history pass by its front door.

This was our book club selection for June and I was super excited to read it. I love social history and the subject matter was something I knew little about. I must say that after reading this book, I know a lot more about the Vanderbilts, various other contemporary figures, random concurrent historical events, and Biltmore itself. The story lends itself to a fascinating look at the rise and (somewhat) fall of one of America's great families. What I found even more interesting was the surrounding non-Vanderbilt characters. The residents and employees of Biltmore contributed in many ways to the construction and building of the great house. I Overall a very interesting book. At times the writing became a bit too detailed and slowed down my reading, but I made it through to the end and learned a lot in the process. 

Next up on the TBR pile:

March Volume 3

Title: March Volume 3

Author: John Lewis, Andrew Aydin, Nate Powell

Publisher: Top Shelf 2016

Genre: Graphic Novel

Pages: 256

Rating: 5/5 stars

Reading Challenges: Graphic Novel

By Fall 1963, the Civil Rights Movement is an undeniable keystone of the national conversation, and as chair of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, John Lewis is right in the thick of it. With the stakes continuing to rise, white supremacists intensify their opposition through government obstruction and civilian terrorist attacks, a supportive president is assassinated, and African-Americans across the South are still blatantly prohibited from voting. To carry out their nonviolent revolution, Lewis and an army of young activists launch a series of innovative projects, including the Freedom Vote, Mississippi Freedom Summer, and a pitched battle for the soul of the Democratic Party waged live on national television. But strategic disputes are deepening within the movement, even as 25-year-old John Lewis heads to Alabama to risk everything in a historic showdown that will shock the world.

Beautiful conclusion to John Lewis's experiences during the Civil Rights Movement. I learned more details about the movement and many of the specific events that Lewis was involved in. The storytelling is incredibly. There were a few times when I definitely teared up. Should be required reading.

Next up on the TBR pile:

March Volume 2

Title: March Volume 2

Author: John Lewis, Andrew Aydin, Nate Powell

Publisher: Top Shelf 2015

Genre: Graphic Novel

Pages: 192

Rating: 5/5 stars

Reading Challenges: Graphic Novel

After the success of the Nashville sit-in campaign, John Lewis is more committed than ever to changing the world through nonviolence - but as he and his fellow Freedom Riders board a bus into the vicious heart of the deep south, they will be tested like never before.

Faced with beatings, police brutality, imprisonment, arson, and even murder, the young activists of the movement struggle with internal conflicts as well. But their courage will attract the notice of powerful allies, from Martin Luther King, Jr. to Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy... and once Lewis is elected chairman of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, this 23-year-old will be thrust into the national spotlight, becoming one of the "Big Six" leaders of the civil rights movement and a central figure in the landmark 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom.

Finally felt like I was ready for volume two of John Lewis's story. The subject matter is very intense but oh so important to learn. I was very involved in the history and loved learning more about Lewis's personal experience during the Civil Rights Movements. Such great stories. Such great drawings. 

Next up on the TBR pile:

March Volume 1

Title: March Volume 1

Author: John Lewis, Andrew Aydin, Nate Powell

Publisher: Top Shelf 2013

Genre: Graphic Novel

Pages: 128

Rating: 5/5 stars

Reading Challenges: Graphic Novel

Before he became a respected Congressman, John Lewis was clubbed, gassed, arrested over 40 times, and nearly killed by angry mobs and state police, all while nonviolently protesting racial discrimination. He marched side-by-side with Martin Luther King as the youngest leader of the Civil Rights Movement that would change a nation forever.

Now, experience John Lewis' incredible story first-hand, brought to life in a stunning graphic novel trilogy. With co-writer Andrew Aydin and Eisner Award-winning artist Nate Powell, John Lewis' MARCH tells the story of how a poor sharecropper's son helped transform America, from a segregated schoolhouse to the 1963 March on Washington and beyond.

I've been wanting to pick up this one up for awhile now and lucky me, the library just had it sitting there last week. This volume is such. powerful depiction of John Lewis's early life through the lunch counter sit-ins. We get to meet some of the big names of the Civil Rights Movement. I really enjoyed the stark black and white panels that accompanied the text. Such a great slim volume. 

Next up on the TBR pile:

The Radium Girls by Kate Moore

Title: The Radium Girls: The Dark Story of American's Shining Women

Author: Kate Moore

Publisher: Sourcebooks 2017

Genre: History

Pages: 496

Rating: 5/5 stars

Reading Challenges: Perpetual - Nonfiction Adventure; Mount TBR

Written with a sparkling voice and breakneck pace, The Radium Girls fully illuminates the inspiring young women exposed to the "wonder" substance of radium, and their awe-inspiring strength in the face of almost impossible circumstances. Their courage and tenacity led to life-changing regulations, research into nuclear bombing, and ultimately saved hundreds of thousands of lives...

Our book club selection for April. I've been super excited to read this history and it did not disappoint. I was horrified reading the trials all of these "radium girls" had to suffer through during their (in most cases) very short lives. I knew their stories weren't going to necessarily end well, but holy cow, it was even worse than I imagined. The devious dealings of the various radium companies and lawyers depressed me. However, the strength shown by the women involved was amazing. A very fascinating history of a little know story. I can't wait to discuss at book club.

Next up on the TBR pile:

Lost Worlds of the San Francisco Bay Area by Sylvia Linsteadt

Title: Lost Worlds of the San Francisco Bay Area

Author: Sylvia Linsteadt

Publisher: Heyday 2017

Genre: Nonfiction - History

Pages: 224

Rating: 4/5 stars

Reading Challenges: I Love Libraries

In this coffee table book of luminous essays accompanied by an array of images, award-winning writer Sylvia Linsteadt brings to life the many microcosms that once flourished in the San Francisco Bay Area: from the farthest reach of the Russian Empire at Fort Ross, to acres upon acres of apricot blossoms in what is now known as Silicon Valley, to the Coney Island of the West on the Alameda shoreline, to San Francisco's bohemian Barbary Coast. For every lost world, Linsteadt reconstructs the setting in lyrical prose supported by extensive research into each epoch. Vintage photographs, maps, and paintings combined with neo-Victorian design accentuate the words, immersing us fully in the nuances of each reality, whether mining quicksilver at New Almaden or shopping underneath the rotunda of the palatial Emporium. A book both dazzlingly beautiful and sensitive to the complexities of portraying bygone eras, Lost Worlds of the San Francisco Bay Areacelebrates the ephemeral and, in reminding us of the many moments of humanity threaded through the past, makes our understanding of the present moment that much more rooted.

Another interesting collection of local history essays. I loved that this one covered different material than the Lost San Francisco book. This volume included 25 essays from around the Bay Area. I especially loved the essay about Neptune Beach that used to exist on Alameda. Fascinating subject material! And of course, there were a ton of great photographs included. 

Next up on the TBR pile:

Lost San Francisco by Dennis Evanosky and Eric J. Kos

Title: Lost San Francisco

Author: Dennis Evanosky and Eric J. Kos

Publisher: Pavilion 2011

Genre: Nonfiction - History

Pages: 144

Rating: 5/5 stars

Reading Challenges: I Love Libraries

Aspects of lost San Francisco that are examined here include the Victorian Alcatraz, Cliff House Hotel before it burned down, the early Embarcadero, the devastation of the 1906 earthquake, horse-drawn streetcars, the grandeur of the Sutro Baths both outside and in, the 1915 Panama-Pacific Exposition buildings, the changes made to combat a possible Japanese invasion during World War II, and some of the key hippie stores on Haight-Ashbury before the area became more upscale.

I randomly saw this book for sale at a local museum's gift shop. Thankfully our library had it. I am always up for learning about local history and right now the local means San Francisco and the Bay Area. I loved reading about all those lost buildings and places from San Francisco's past. Lots of informational tidbits here and there. The essays were great, but the pictures were amazing. I love poring over old photographs and this volume did not disappoint. Great pictoral history of the Bay Area.

Next up on the TBR pile: