The adult summer reading program "Color Your World" concludes on Saturday. For all the patrons who have read 12 books and written at least one review, the drawing for the Grand Prize will be held next Wednesday. This has been a very popular activity involving 100 readers; you can read 153 book reviews posted on two library walls. The library will be closed Sunday and Monday for the Labor Day weekend. The 2007 volume of The Lakeside Classics published by R.. R. Donnelley and Sons is "Narratives of Barbary Captivity: Recollections of James Leander Cathcart, Jonathan Cowdery, and William Ray". The preface says, "Although the narratives…were written two hundred years ago, the subject - the relationship of America to the Arab states of the Middle East and North Africa - is just as relevant today." A 49-page introduction helps to make this book contemporary and valuable.Anthony Pagden's "Worlds at War" analyses the 2,500-year struggle between East and West. John Darwin's "After Tamerlane" gives the global history of Empire since 1405. Another history is Judith Herrin's "Byzantium: The Surprising Life of a Medieval Empire". A beautifully colored art book is "Treasures of Islam: Artistic Glories of the Muslim World" by Bernard O'Kane. "Days of Infamy" the fiction by Newt Gingrich and William Forstchen starts minutes after the close of their book "Pearl Harbor" as both sides react to the events triggered by Admiral Yamamoto. Marilyn Culpepper has issued "Never Will We Forget: Oral Histories of World War II". Oliver North's "American Heroes" gives a first-hand account of American volunteers defending us against Islamic terror. Martin Amis has gathered 14 pieces of insightful information in "The Second Plane-September 11: Terror and Boredom". "House of Stone" is Christina Lamb's true story of a family divided in war-torn Zimbabwe. Mark Krikorian's "The New Case Against Immigration" deals with both legal and illegal arrivals."Lopsided" is a memoir by Meredith Norton showing how she dealt with cancer with grace and unflinching self-awareness; anecdotes and her wit enhance this debut book by a masterful social observer. Another memoir is "A Wolf at the Table" by Augusten Burroughs about his father whom he knew only as a shadowy figure until his childhood was over. A political autobiography is "The Making of a Radical " by Scott Nearing, born in 1883, who with his wife moved from NYC in 1932 to a dilapidated farmhouse in Vermont where they practiced organic gardening in the "back to the land" movement. Later, until his death in 1983, he lived on the Maine coast as a lecturer, writer, social critic and humanitarian. "The Complete Book of Boondock RVing: Camping Off the Beaten Path" by Bill and Jan Moeller shows how to enjoy this hobby successfully.Volume One of the Dictionary of Midwestern Literature is titled "The Authors" covering 400 writers and identifying the most important criticism of their works. A. J. Jacobs' "The Know-It-All" is a spoof dictionary that resulted from reading all 32 volumes of the Encyclopaedia Britannica. Quiet wisdom is expressed in "After", poems by Jane Hirschfield. "French by Heart" is Rebecca Ramsey's account of an American family's adventures in La Belle France 1999-2003. "The Storks' Nest or Life and Love in the Russian Countryside" comes from Laura Williams who moved from
Colorado to Moscow in 1993.
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