Going Into Labor

In early American history, labor unions were a curiosity rather than a prominent feature, confined largely to skilled trades in big cities and on the railroads. Not until the late 1870s and prosperous 1880s, when political philosophy began to shift toward collectivism and the "progressive era," did national trade unions gain a real foothold. Since labor unions have been at the forefront of our news of late, I thought it would be interesting to search for some good fiction titles that deal with the labor movement in the United States.


Island Walkers by John Bemrose
Living among the other mill workers in the Island, a working-class Ottawa neighborhood, the Walker family faces new challenges as the threat of a mill closure looms.

Mary Barton by Elizabeth Gaskell
Mary, daughter of a trade unionist, is attracted to Henry Carson, son of a mill owner, but when Henry is murdered and Jem Wilson, Mary's admirer, becomes the chief suspect, she must reexamine her loyalties.

Thunder on the Mountain by David Poyer
A strike against an abusive oil company in Depression-era Pennsylvania threatens to lead to violence as strike leader W.T. Halvorson confronts company owner Daniel Thunner and professional strikebreaker Pearl Deatherage, and CIO organizer Doris Golden arrives on the scene.

Scapegoat by Mary Lee Settle
In the sequel to Know Nothing, set in June of 1912, the possibility of a miners' strike in a small West Virginia town concerns several groups of people.

The Given Day by Dennis Lehane
Follows the experiences of a family whose lives mirror the political unrest of an America caught between its well-patterned past and an unpredictable future.

Storming Heaven by Denise Giardina
In the Battle of Blair Mountain, West Virginia, in the early 20th century, coal miners fight for unionization under the leadership of Rondal Lloyd and Carrie Bishop, a nurse who helps him before and after her husband's death.

Forthcoming Fiction for April

Here are some titles coming out this April. You can reserve these by going to our Online Catalog, Bibliocommons, or by calling the Reader Services Desk at 847-729-7500 x7600!

Mourning Gloria by Susan Wittig Albert

The Sixth Man by David Baldacci

Once Upon a Time, There Was You: a Novel by Elizabeth Berg

Hiss of Death: a Mrs. Murphy Mystery by Rita Mae Brown

Mobbed: A Regan Reilly Mystery by Carol Higgins Clark

I’ll Walk Alone by Mary Higgins Clark

Goddess of Vengeance by Jackie Collins

The Fifth Witness by Michael Connelly

The Bride’s House by Sandra Dallas

Crunch Time: a Novel of Suspense by Diane Mott Davidson

Miles to Go by Richard Paul Evans

Knockdown: a Home Repair is Homicide Mystery by Sarah Graves

Eve by Iris Johansen

Born of Shadows by Sherrilyn Kenyon

The Judgment by Beverly Lewis

Heads You Lose by Lisa Lutz

A Turn in the Road by Debbie Macomber

Late Edition by Fern Michaels

Southern Comfort by Fern Michaels

Swim Back to Me by Ann Packer

Treason at Lisson Grove by Anne Perry

Quicksilver by Amanda Quick

The Silverboat: a Novel by Luann Rice

Chasing Fire by Nora Roberts

Save Me by Lisa Scottoline

Mommy Lit

Trade in those Manolos for the Peg Peregos! "Mommy Lit" is a fun subgenre of chick-lit fiction of single gal meets boy in the city to single gal gets married and has a baby.

Here are some fun reads from authors you may or may not know about already in the Chick-lit genre:

Shopaholic and Baby by Sophie Kinsella
Part of the popular "Shopaholic" series, Becky's life is perfect, with a job at London's biggest new store, house-hunting with husband Luke, and a baby on the way, until she discovers that her new celebrity obstetrician is Luke's glamorous ex-girlfriend.
Also check out her latest follow-up to the series: Mini-Shopaholic in which her baby, Minnie, is now 2 years old.

Something Blue by Emily Giffin
Her belief in the power of beauty shattered when her fiance dumps her for a plain woman, a pregnant Darcy flees to London and struggles to rebuild her glamorous life before realizing that her past methods no longer work. Follow up to Giffin's Something Borrowed.

The Bright Side of Disaster by Katherine Center
Struggling to deal with an advanced pregnancy and Dean, a fiance who abandons her hours before she goes into labor, Jenny Harris suddenly finds herself coping with the joys and challenges of single motherhood, a handsome and helpful neighbor, and Dean's return, as she confronts a choice between the old life she thought she wanted and the new opportunities of the present.

Gucci Gucci Coo by Sue Margolis
The proprietor of an ultra-chic, hip London baby boutique, Ruby Gold finds her own life thrown into disarray when her fifty-year-old mother announces that she is pregnant and she stumbles onto evidence of a possible shady baby-brokering ring.

Thanks for Nothing Nick Maxwell by Debbie Carbin
A sexy, single twenty-something devoted to looking fabulous and dabbling with and dumping men, Rachel Covington gets more than she had bargained for when she becomes involved with the gorgeous Nick Maxwell, who not only dumps her but leaves her pregnant, as well, forcing her to make some dramatic choices and changes in her life.

Wives of Bath by Wendy Holden
The prospects of new parenthood and birthing class bring together two very different sets of expectant parents--Hugo and his spoiled wife Amanda, who plan to use an expensive private hospital and nurses, and nature lovers Jake and Alice, who have arranged a home-delivery with birthing pool and whale music--in a whimsical social comedy.

After the Rice by Wendy French
Newlywed Megan finds her marriage to Matt compromised by her secret pregnancy, mooching family members, battling mothers-in-law, her college midterms, an infant niece left in her care, and an incontinent terrier.

And the Oscar for Best Foreign Film goes to.....

The other movies nominated for the Foreign Film Award:  Biutiful from Mexico; Dogtooth from Greece; In a Better World from Denmark; Incendies from Canada and Outside the Law from Algeria. This year's Oscar went to In a Better World.

The DVD will soon be coming to a Library near you. But, did you know that you have 38 Oscar winners to choose from? Here are a few titles: The Bicycle Thief  (Italy

) directed by Vittorio de Sica; Black Orpheus (Brazil) directed by Marcel Camus; War and Peace (USSR) directed by Sergei Bondarchuk; Fanny & Alexander  (Sweden) directed by Ingmar Bergman and  The Secret in Their Eyes (Argentina) directed by Juan Jose Campanella

And aside from the award winners, there are many others to choose from in the foreign language category. The Library offers films in French, Chinese, German, Hebrew, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Polish, Russian, Spanish, Swedish, and more. Come in and stop by the Audiovisual Desk for more information.

83rd Academy Awards

We're barreling through awards season and the 83rd Academy Awards presentation is now upon us. The library's Audio-Visual Room is a great place to visit to catch up on some of the films you haven't seen yet. Come check out the Best Picture nominee titles that are already available on DVD. Try Winter's Bone, Toy Story 3, The Social Network, Inception, or The Kids Are All Right. A few of the films that are nominated for best picture are still playing in theaters with DVD releases coming soon: 127 Hours will be out the first week of March. Black Swan will hit library shelves at the end of March and The King's Speech will follow around mid-April. True Grit and The Fighter have DVD release dates that are still on the horizon. But don't let that stop you from seeing some of the films and performances nominated in other categories as well. Drop by the Audio-Visual desk soon and let us know about some of your favorite cinematic moments of 2010.

President's Week Reads

Somehow President's Week turned into a terrific sales event for stores as well as the perfect long getaway weekend with kids. Spring break often comes too late so the long break in February offers a perfect time to escape the winter doldrums. Here are some reads about American presidents, their lives, wives and history, plus a novel about being first lady that make for good reading on cold February days.

Inventing George Washington: America's founder, in mythand memory by Edward G. Lengel (on order, place your hold today)
An entertaining and erudite history that offers a fresh look at America's first founding father, the creation of his legend, and what it means
for our nation and ourselves.

The promise by Jonathan Alter
One of the country's most respected journalists and historians, uses his unique access to the White House to produce the first inside look at Obama's difficult debut.

My Father at 100 by Ron Reagan (on order, place your hold today)
Ronald Reagan's son presents an assessment of his father's life.

A Being So Gentle: The frontier love story of Rachel and Andrew Jackson
by Patricia Brady (on order, place your hold today)
Chronicles the forty-year love affair between Rachel and Andrew Jackson during a tumultuous period in American history.

American Wife: a novel by Curtis Sittenfeld

An epic and intimate fictional story of an ordinary woman thrust into extraordinary circumstances when she becomes firstlady.

Spotlight on International Fiction: Egypt

In light of recent history-changing events in Egypt in the past couple of weeks, I thought it would be appropriate to focus this month's "Spotlight" on the North African country. There are many great award winning Egyptian authors translated into English as well as some great fiction that takes place in Egypt.

Here are some works of modern Egypt you may want to check out:

Friendly Fire: stories by Alaa Al Aswany

Alaa Al Aswany has won resounding critical acclaim for his deft and moving portrayals of the lives of contemporary Egyptians who constantly examine their relationship with Egypt's history, religion, class, and gender distinctions. In Friendly Fire he once again demonstrates an extraordinary empathy for lost and searching souls as he focuses on the exquisite emotions of everyday life.

Cairo Modern by Naguib Mahfouz
Egyptian Nobel laureate Mahfouz follows the fortunes of a Cairo university graduate eager to make his way in a venal imperialist society. In 1930s Cairo, Mahgub agrees to marry the mistress of a high government official in return for a job, discovering that his wife-to-be is Ihsan--his best friend's beautiful former girlfriend, a poor student whose life has been ruined by her seductiveness--and the newlyweds become partners in a precarious plot to make their way in Cairo's high society and outwit their ill fortune.

Mahfouz is the only Arab writer yet to receive the Nobel Prize in literature.

Chicago: a Modern Arabic Novel by Alaa Al Aswany
Post-September 11 Chicago becomes the site of a cultural collision of Egyptian and American lives, including a Ph.D. candidate whose traditional upbringing is challenged by her American experiences, and an Egyptian émigrés whose western values are countered by questions about his daughter's honor. Egyptian politics and President Mubarak's repressive society affects the lives of all expatriates, as evidenced by one of the students who is actually an Egyptian security agent. Beautifully rendered, Chicago is a powerfully engrossing novel of culture and individuality from one of the most original voices in contemporary world literature.

The View from the Garden City by Carolyn Baugh

A young American student living in the Garden City district of Cairo has come to study Arabic and learns far more from the Egyptian women, young and old, she meets within the swirl and tumult of Garden City. Living, loving, and flourishing amid the fierce inflexibility of tradition, these women reveal a fascinating world of arranged marriages, secret romances, and the often turbulent bonds between four generations of Arab mothers and daughters. A deeply moving story of mothers and daughters, in the tradition of "The Joy Luck Club."

Nadia's Song by Soheir Khashoggi

Alexandria, Egypt. Born a humble servant girl on a cotton plantation owned by a wealthy British family, Karima Ismail never imagined how far her dreams would take her-nor the heartache and passion she would experience. Although her doomed love for her employer's handsome son ends in tragedy, their brief romance leaves her with a beautiful daughter, Nadia, who is the joy of her life.