Readers' Advisory

Farewell Maya Angelou

Author / Poet

1928 - 2014

 

Maya Angelou, author, poet, playwright, stage and screen performer, and director, was best known for her autobiography, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings (1970), which recalls a young African American woman's discovery of her self-confidence.  In addition to her books of autobiography, Angelou wrote several volumes of poetry that further explore the South, racial confrontation, and the triumph of black people against overwhelming odds.

Click here for book by and about Maya Angelou.

 

Freeport Authors

On May 21, 2014, Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Incorporated, North American Region, donated a copy of their new book Providing Global Leadership and Service and Timeless Service Since 1966 to the Freeport Memorial Library.  Pictured: seated (l to r)  Nkenge Gilliam, Historian - Theta Iota Omega; Doris White, Historian Emerita - Theta Iota Omega; Standing (l to r) Regina G. Feeney, Librarian, Freeport Memorial Librarian; Gladys S. Andrews - Theta Iota Omega - President; Deborah Santiago - Theta Iota Omega - 2nd Vice President; Cynthia J. Krieg, Librarian, Freeport Memorial Library.  This book will be added to the Library's Local Author Collection.

Readers' Advisory

The Fault In Our Stars
by John Green (2012)

Sixteen-year-old Hazel, a stage IV thyroid cancer patient, has accepted her terminal diagnosis until a chance meeting with a boy at cancer support group forces her to reexamine her perspective on love, loss, and life.

Readers' Advisory

Farewell Gabriel García Marquez

Author / Nobel Prize Winner

1927-2014

 

 

One of the most influential novelists of the twentieth century, Gabriel García Márquez was a key figure in the Latin American literary renaissance of the 1960s and 1970s. His novel One Hundred Years of Solitude was read throughout the world, selling millions of copies and introducing enthusiastic readers across the globe to the genre of "magical realism."  A prolific journalist as well as a novelist and short story writer, García Márquez has reported from several world capitals and remained active through the 1990s as publisher of the Colombian news magazine Cambio. He continued working into the early 2000s, although some reports speculated that the aging author had given up writing (Newsmakers, February 1, 2005).

Click here for books by and about Gabriel Garcia Marquez.

Readers' Advisory

Machine Made: Tammany Hall and the Creation of Modern American Politics
by Terry Golway (2014)

Rooted in Jeffersonian democracy and transformed by the massive Irish immigration of the mid-nineteenth century, Tammany Hall, New York City's Democratic organization, became synonymous with machine politics. Golway joins the revisionists in emphasizing Tammany's constructive contributions and its consequent impact on modern politics. An expert in Irish-American history, Golway unsurprisingly sees the origins of this form of political organization in Irish anti-institutional activism. In overcoming and battling nativism in America, reaching out, albeit not selflessly, to new immigrant groups and, after the Triangle Shirtwaist tragedy of 1911, supporting progressive social programs both at the local level and legislatively, Tammany thrived well into the 1900s. After the strong leadership by "Silent Charlie" Murphy came the ascendancy of governor and presidential candidate Al Smith. The organization became, through Senator Robert F. Wagner, a major factor in the New Deal and, later, American liberalism. Not ignoring instances of corruption large and small, from Boss Tweed to Jimmy Walker (Tammany coined the concept of "honest graft"), Golway makes his case for Tammany's impact eloquently. In doing so, he has provided an essential addition to the historical literature of New York and urban America. (Booklist).

Readers' Advisory

By Its Cover
Donna Leon (2014)

Investigating the thefts of rare book pages from a prestigious Venetian library, Commissario Guido Brunetti is stymied by numerous possible suspects and the murder of a seemingly harmless theologian.

Readers' Advisory

Race Underground: Boston, New York and the Incredible Rivalry That Built America's First Subway
by Doug Most (2014)

In the late nineteenth century, as cities like Boston and New York grew more congested, the streets became clogged with plodding, horse-drawn carts. When the great blizzard of 1888 crippled the entire northeast, a solution had to be found. Two brothers from one of the nation's great families—Henry Melville Whitney of Boston and William Collins Whitney of New York—pursued the dream of his city digging America's first subway, and the great race was on. The competition between Boston and New York played out in an era not unlike our own, one of economic upheaval, life-changing innovations, class warfare, bitter political tensions, and the question of America’s place in the world.