The Warmth of Other Suns by Isabel Wilkerson

Title: The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America's Great Migration

Author: Isabel Wilkerson

Genre: Biography, History

This book is about the migration of African-Americans from the Jim Crow South to other areas of the United States. It primarily follows the paths of three people: Ida Mae Gladney - a Mississippi share cropper's wife, George Starling - a Florida picker , and Robert Foster - a doctor from Louisiana. It also documents many of the harsh conditions of the South and several of challenges facing those wishing to resettle in other states.

Isabel Wilkerson is a Pulitzer Prize-winning writer who received the NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Literary Work - Debut Author for this book.

- Sarah R.

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Relish: My Life in the Kitchen by Lucy Knisley

Title: Relish: My Life in the Kitchen
Author: Lucy Knisley
Genre: Biography, Graphic Novel

This adorably cute biography/cookbook/graphic novel explores the author's life growing up around food and it's importance in her life. The illustrations and diagrams were so fun to read! I will be reading more of her books in the future!

- Gina

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Hit So Hard by Patty Schemel

Title: Hit So Hard

Author: Patty Schemel

Genre: Music Autobiography

Hit So Hard is a memoir of the drummer from the Grunge era, 90's band Hole that was fronted by Courtney Love. It's an interesting overview of the Seattle scene during that period, and the book takes the reader on an unapologetic ride through the excitement of the music being made as well as the darkness of drugs and excess. Along the way Schemel sheds light on the tragic deaths of Nirvana's Kurt Cobain (Love's husband) and Hole bassist Kristen Pfaff. Schemel herself struggled mightily with both addiction and her sexuality, and the portrait she paints of her drug dependency is harrowing. Throughout, the reader is left wondering how the author did not succumb to the same fate that befell Cobain and Pfaff. Her addiction led her to homelessness, memory blackouts, multiple attempts at rehabilitation, and Schemel's daily quest to satisfy her addiction. In the end, Hit So Hard is about survival. Schemel's story is a wild ride for readers - whether they are interested in the Grunge scene or not. Hit So Hard is a worthwhile read about a woman realizing her inner strength and using it to overcome her demons.

- Michael

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Please Be with Me: A Song for My Father, Duane Allman by Galadrielle Allman

Title: Please Be with Me: A Song for My Father, Duane Allman

Author: Galadrielle Allman

Genre: Biography

Please Be with Me: A Song for My Father, Duane Allman is more the story about a daughter's journey to know her father rather than a straight biography, and it's a fascinating journey. Galadrielle Allman was only 2 years old when her father, Duane Allman, was tragically killed in a motorcycle accident in October 1971. Duane Allman was 24 years old when he died, but the influence he's had on generations of guitarists is enduring. Along the way, the reader gets to know all about the legendary musician - warts and all. He struggled with drugs, wasn't the best husband or father, and always lived life on the edge. Galadrielle Allman also paints a picture of a man completely devoted to the guitar and fiercely protective and loyal to his friends, family and band mates. In an incredibly short span he worked with Aretha Franklin and Wilson Pickett as a session player, joined Eric Clapton as a member of Derek and the Dominoes - resulting in the classic album, Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs - and was the driving force behind the Allman Brothers Band. Sadly, he would not live to realize the impact that his talents had on the music world. The author visits with and interviews her father's associates (the title of the book is drawn from a song written by Scott Boyer who played with Allman), friends and family to gain a better perspective on who Duane Allman was. At the same time, Galadrielle Allman provides the reader with the story of her mother Donna, and struggles between loyalty and love she has for her and the mythical figure of the father she never knew. Ms. Allman does an excellent job of engaging the reader and shares her own frustrations with sorting out the relationship she never could realize. At times heartbreaking, and others redemptive, Please Be with Me: A Song for My Father, Duane Allman, is worthy of any reader interested in biographies and a daughter's genuine quest to know her late father.

- Mike

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Open Heart by Elie Wiesel

Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel is best known for his reflections on life in Auschwitz in his best-seller Night. Open Heart, though also a reflection, doesn't focus solely on the Holocaust; rather it's Wiesel's thoughts when at eighty-two years old, the writer and scholar was faced with emergency heart surgery and quite possibly his own mortality.

Though this is a brief book at only seventy-some pages, it is one filled with sincerity and honesty. Open Heart (so aptly named), focuses on Wiesel's family, many of whom perished during the Holocaust. The Nobel Peace Prize winning author questions whether or not he did his family justice by keeping their memory alive. He argues that the measure of a man can be determined by the love he has for his wife, children, and grandchildren. And most importantly he writes of the hopes he has for mankind, in a world that is often cruel and unjust.

Though Elie Wiesel has since passed away, the words of the most eloquent Holocaust spokesperson live on in this book and his other works.

Testimony by Robbie Robertson

Robbie Robertson is best known as the guitarist and songwriter for The Band  who penned such memorable classic songs as “The Weight,” “Up on Cripple Creek,” and “The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down” among many others.  The Band was an eclectic group of musicians who backed up Bob Dylan during his transformative years and released the seminal album “Music from Big Pink” in 1968. Robertson covers the Band’s inception and evolving musical journey that culminated in the 1976 Martin Scorsese film documenting The Band’s final live appearance in “The Last Waltz.”

In between, the autobiographical Testimony brings to life a musical journey for Robertson that began at age 16 when he left his home in Canada to join Ronnie Hawkins and the Hawks. Robertson’s heritage is half-Mohawk and his storytelling nature makes for an interesting read. He became close friends with Dylan and mingled with a veritable who’s who of the 60’s and 70’s including every member of the Beatles, Joni Mitchell, David Geffen, Cher, Edie Sedgewick, Jimi Hendrix, Neil Young, Carly Simon, James Taylor and many more.

As a result, the reader is treated with a rich understanding of the evolving music scene and an inside view of a band of musical brothers who are hardened by life on the road; including drugs and other excesses, and eventually burned out by that same highway. Five hundred pages in length, “Testimony” is a large book. However, it engages the reader and Robertson’s ability to weave story after story makes for an easy read.

In a recent interview Robertson explained that the original manuscript was edited down from an original, imposing 800 pages. Those familiar with Robertson’s life know that his talents took him on further artistic journeys beyond the end of the book which covers only up to 1976. As a result, fans can look forward to the second book that will surely include his solo albums, film scores, and acting projects up to the present. Robbie Robertson has lived an interesting life and “Testimony” is a fine addition to rock musical autobiographies.

Hungry Heart: Adventures in Life, Love, and Writing by Jennifer Weiner

Jennifer Weiner, most well-known for her popular chick-lit novels like Good In Bed, In Her Shoes, and Who Do You Love, takes a big jump into the world of non-fiction in this hilarious collection of essays. With no holds barred she takes raw, personal stuff from her own life and offers the reader a glimpse into her world. Starting with her lonely childhood, Weiner writes of the desertion she grappled with when her father left her family and just exactly what if felt like to be the "Lane Bryant outtake in an Abercrombie & Fitch photo shoot." Moving from her childhood to adolescence to life as a twenty-something, Weiner writes about her first job as a journalist to publishing her first novel Good In Bed to having her book adapted for a movie. Along the way, Weiner candidly writes about life as a wife, mother, and writer.

With candor and humility, Weiner's Hungry Heart doesn't stray from topics like feminism, sex, marriage (and divorce), body image, her mother's recent lesbianism, and everything in between. With parts that are literally laugh out loud funny and others that are extremely touching, it's easy to see Weiner's personality shining through this book like it does in her works of fiction.

The Year of Fear by Joe Urschel

In the 1930s, American gangsters needed to find a new source of income. The end of Prohibition put a stop to bootlegging and, due to the Great Depression, many banks were not worth robbing. Kidnapping became the most lucrative crime and many wealthy men or their family members were snatched and held for ransom. Law enforcement was practically helpless in the face of this crime. Local police could not pursue criminals across state lines and often cooperated with the criminals. In Washington, D.C., J. Edgar Hoover was trying to turn the Bureau of Investigation into an incorruptible national police force that could take control of criminal investigations before local authorities could mishandle the evidence, or worse, abet the criminals.

When George "Machine Gun" Kelly and his wife, Kathryn, kidnapped wealthy Oklahoma oilman, Charles Urschel, Hoover and his agents were ready to enforce the newly enacted Federal Kidnapping Act, rescue Mr. Urschel and catch the perpetrators. Once the ransom was paid and Urschel was released, the agents began to track down the criminals. Using clues provided by the alert and observant victim, the agents began at the farm in Texas where Urschel had been held and crisscrossed many states to the east, finally nabbing the Kellins in Memphis, Tennessee. Their capture was the first major case solved by Hoover's newly named Federal Bureau of Investigation and the first case prosecuted under the federal kidnapping law.

"Machine Gun" Kelly and his wife Kathryn were colorful characters--charming, good-looking, and fond of elegant clothing and expensive cars. J. Edgar Hoover was a beleaguered and maligned civil servant, disliked by many powerful people. Due to Hoover's doggedness, their fortunes were reversed. In The Year of Fear, author Joe Urschl combines their compelling stories with American history, creating a fascinating true crime book.

LaFayette In the Somewhat United States by Sarah Vowell

Forty years after the Bicentennial of our country, most citizens take the American Revolution for granted. We know the names of the most famous patriots who fought the war and wrote the Declaration of Independence. But we generally give little thought to these historical figures and their words and deeds. Now historian, humorist, and outside-the-box thinker, Sarah Vowell, brings us a short unique history which provides details of our Revolution and Revolutionaries.

The Marquis de LaFayette, a wealthy French idealist, joined the Revolution at the age of nineteen. He provided his own transportation, his own uniform, his own weapons and insisted he be allowed to serve "at my own expense...(and) to serve first as a volunteer." From LaFayette, the altruistic center of her book, Vowell expands her scope to tell the stories of many other patriots and scoundrels involved in the Revolution. Then, as now, people did not appreciate his management of the war. American and foreign military officers vied to displace him. Congress would not allocate the funds needed to feed and clothe his army. And the war often went poorly. But LaFayette remained loyal to Washington as did other generals, including Nathanael Green and the self-educated artillery general, Henry Knox. We are all aware that the Continentals prevailed, but after reading this book, we will know how this was achieved and how close they came to failing.

After America won its independence, LaFayette returned to France and became embroiled in the French Revolution. He survived and, in 1824, at the invitation of President James Monroe, returned to the United States for a celebratory year-long tour of the the then twenty-four states. Everywhere he went, enormous crowds turned out to see and honor the last surviving general of the Revolution. Two thirds of the population of New York City was the port to welcome him. Throughout her book, Vowell points out that then, as now, our country was only "Somewhat" united. Factions, regions, and political parties divided a people who could only agree that they loved LaFayette. 1824 was even the year of one of the most contentious presidential elections in American history, resulting in the choice of John Quincy Adams as an unpopular compromise. Now, nearly two hundred years later, We the People are still citizens of a somewhat United States as our televisions bring another hotly contested presidential campaign into our homes.

LaFayette In the Somewhat United States by Sarah Vowell is an unusual American history book as it is both amusing and informative.

Alexander Hamilton by Ron Chernow

Alexander Hamilton’s name has been appearing in the news for the first time in centuries with the talk of the hit Broadway musical based on his life. And this is the book that sparked it all. Aside from Broadway fans, this book may spark the curiosity of readers interested in American history. The award-winning book, Alexander Hamilton by Ron Chernow, is a detailed biography of Hamilton and tells us much more than the one fact we all know about him: he was killed in a duel with Aaron Burr. Hamilton was a brilliant thinker and gifted organizer. An illegitimate child, orphaned before he reached his teens, Hamilton used his intelligence and abilities to make his way from St. Kitts island in the Caribbean to King’s College in New York. While there he embraced the cause of the American Revolution and became an invaluable aide to General George Washington. After the war, he was a primary writer of the Federalist Papers, defending the newly written Constitution. He was the first Secretary of the Treasury and established policies that secured the new nation’s economic security. A forward thinking man, he staunchly believed in abolition and philanthropy. He feuded with other patriots (John Adams and Thomas Jefferson, among others) on the direction the country should take.      

He had, of course, his weaknesses, one of which proved to be fatal. Although devoted to his wife and large family, he had an affair with a married woman and paid blackmail to her husband. This information was eventually leaked to the public in a campaign of slander and dirty tricks aimed at destroying Hamilton’s reputation. It ultimately led to Hamilton’s famous and fatal duel with Aaron Burr.         

Alexander Hamilton is admittedly a daunting read at over 700 pages. But Hamilton did so much in his short life, this is the book he deserves. 

The Southern Journey of Alan Lomax by Tom Piazza

Alan Lomax was a renowned music documentarian as well as a singer, songwriter, and civil rights activist who is best known for his work (along with his father John) with the Library of Congress in preserving seminal American folk music. Between 1932 and 1942 Alan and his father worked as archivists for the Library of Congress’ Archive of American Folk song series. This was groundbreaking work that lead the Lomax’s to record important African American and Afro-Caribbean music as well as folk song traditions of the Ozarks and Appalachia, lumbermen, sailors, fishermen, bargemen, and Native Americans. They traveled out into the field to document the music - most of which was handed down from generation to generation and generic to its locality.

Alan Lomax also made the first recordings of bluesmen Muddy Waters, “Mississippi” Fred McDowell, Jelly Roll Morton and David “Honeyboy” Edwards – among others. He was also responsible for facilitating the careers of many well-known folk artists including, Leadbelly, Pete Seeger, Woody Gutherie, Burl Ives, Josh White, Sonny Terry and Brownie McGhee, Big Bill Broonzy, Wade Ward, Almeda Riddle and many more. In 1936 he and his father John produced the Slave Narrative project, now residing at the Library of Congress. Lomax had an insatiable hunger for discovering distinctly American original folksingers and tracing their influences. Much of the music he documented was found in the southern regions of the United States and often in rural, poor areas.

The Southern Journey of Alan Lomax is a compilation of photographs, words and music (a CD is included with 12 songs of some of the musicians Lomax recorded), spanning Lomax’s life’s work. The photographs and stories behind the people in them are wonderful and bring to life a better understanding of the music Lomax documented. The photographs cover the periods Lomax cultivated 1934-1978, but particularly emphasize his 1959- 1960 southern journey to the rural sections of Mississippi, Virginia, Kentucky, Georgia and Arkansas. These photos vividly tell a tale of the persons behind the music and span juke joints, back porches, farms, churches, and even penitentiaries.

The Southern Journey of Alan Lomax is a wonderful testament to a man doggedly devoted to recording the origins and legacies of American folk music. Lomax’s valuable work forever preserves the origins of not only the musical roots of the land, but perhaps more importantly portrays the history and culture of the country.

The Paper Garden: An Artist (Begins Her Life's Work) at 72 by Molly Peacock

Mary Delaney was a minor member of the British aristocracy in the 18^th century. After the death of a much older husband ended an unhappy marriage, she created for herself a new life, full of friends, music, art, science and remarriage. During her second widowhood, at the age 72, Mrs. Delaney began to construct flower mosaics from cut paper and continued to do so for the next 10 years, creating 985 beautiful and botanically correct pictures, now kept in the British Museum. Paper Garden contains color reproductions of some of her work.