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The Wright Brothers

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The Wright Brothers by David McCullough
Format: Eaudiobook
Who it’s for: Adults

If you think that you already know everything there is to know about the Wright Brothers and their contributions to the Age of Flight, you should read The Wright Brothers by David McCullough. McCullough does an excellent job of sharing with the world, not only the brothers’ first attempts at flying at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, but also the years of research, correspondence and events leading up to their first sustained flight on December 17, 1903.

David McCullough gives a detailed account of the brothers’ young lives in Dayton, Ohio, their strong family background and values, their education, the accident that kept Wilbur from attending college, and their bicycle shop where they raised the money to allow them pursue their dream of flying. McCullough describes life on the Outer Banks during the late 19th century (it was fairly treacherous at times) and what Wilbur and Orville had to go through just to travel there.

What is intriguing about this book is the amount of research the author presents about the lack of interest that the U.S. Government had in their work until the Wright brothers demonstrated the success of their flying invention in France. McCullough also brings to light the stories of the other people who were trying to create flying machines during that period of our history and thus competing with the brothers for notoriety and patent ownership.  By going through family scrapbooks, notebooks, correspondence, and diaries, McCullough has created in his book a living picture of what the lives of the Wright brothers was really like.

Take some time to read this book, or listen to it in Eaudiobook or audiobook CD form. You will learn much more about the lives of the Wright family, their work, and their days on the sandy dunes of Kitty Hawk, North Carolina in 1903.

Find it in the catalog

The Captain and the Glory: An Entertainment

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The Captain and the Glory: An Entertainment
Format: Book
Who’s it for: Adult

The Glory was a massive and beautiful ship that housed people from all over the world.  Led by a brave, noble captain it welcomed any displaced people found at sea with open arms, knowing that in their diversity they would find the strength needed to continue on course.  The Glory stood for something greater than a ship.  It stood for opportunity and understanding and was a beacon of hope to the rest of the ships of the ocean.  It inspired whole generations to be good people and to respect their fellow human beings.

Then one day, after the brave and noble captain died, it became time to choose another captain.  When the ship’s scholars were busy debating how to choose the next captain a man with a yellow feather in his hair stepped forward and shouted: “Make me captain!”

“Should we pick someone who has extensive nautical knowledge?” asked an older man.

The man with the yellow feather in his hair had no experience running a ship of any kind, no nautical knowledge whatsoever.  Still, he yelled: “Make me captain!”

“Should the next captain be someone that served in the military, someone who risked their life to protect our ship against raids led by the Pirate King?” another scholar suggested.

The man with the yellow feather had never served in the military.  In fact, during the last great pirate raid, he hid in the boiler room thumbing through adult magazines.  Yet he continued to shout: “Make me captain!”

“Maybe our next captain should be chosen by how much they extoll the virtues of our mighty ship?  By how much they know and respect our many laws and ideals?” a small girl recommended.

The man with the yellow feather had seemingly no knowledge whatsoever of what the Glory stood for.  In fact, he had spent much of his life arguing against many of the most revered ideals of the Glory, often directly besmirching the character of almost every captain that had served before. He even spent months loudly arguing that the previous captain hadn’t been born on the ship.  Although there was no sane reason to take the man with the yellow feather in his hair seriously, he still shouted: “Make me captain!”

“Oh! We should pick the next captain based on how well they treat their fellow human beings!” a woman offered.

The only people the man with the yellow feather ever treated with an ounce of respect were mass murderers, liars, and thieves.  It was common knowledge that he and his close group of friends, the “Upskirt Boys”, were known throughout the ship for hanging out under the stairs leading to the women’s room with cameras in hand.  Yet he still yelled: “Make me the captain! MAKE ME THE CAPTAIN! MAKE ME THE CAPTAIN!”

This is the story of how the man with the yellow feather became the next captain of the Glory, and what it did to its people and the ideals that the Glory stood for.

The Captain and the Glory: An Entertainment, by Dave Eggers, is an excellent book about life at sea and any similarities the reader finds with the man with the yellow feather in his hair and the current American president are purely coincidental.

Find it in the catalog.

The Pioneers: the Heroic Story of the Settlers Who Brought the American Ideal West

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The Pioneers: the Heroic Story of the Settlers Who Brought the American Ideal West by David McCullough
Format: Book
Who it’s for:  Adults

This notable book tells the story of the early explorers and pioneers who settled the Ohio River wilderness.  The Ohio River was the main force in opening the west to settlement due to steam boat travel.  It was 1788 when settlers from the New England states bravely set out for unknown adventures and trials.  The five major characters in the story are Manasseh Cutler, his son Ephraim Cutler, Rufus Putnam, Joseph Barker, and Samuel Hildreth.  This hardy group of men (with the exception of Manasseh who planned it) ventured west and overcame much adversity in the wild country that had to be tamed.  The other men, women and children who soon followed had to endure floods, fires, wild animals, and attacks from the native Indians.  In spite of all that happened to them, the people persevered and loved their new home.  It is an adventure story for all who love American history and especially the state of Ohio.

The author, David McCullough, is a Pulitzer Prize winner and National Book Award winner.  His research has been thorough for this book.  His source materials were from the Marietta College Library from which he searched to write his book and is made more interesting with the addition of pictures of newspaper clippings, lithographs, maps and paintings.  Find it in our catalog.

 

The Disappearing Spoon: And Other True Tales of Madness, Love, and the History of the World from the Periodic Table of the Elements

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The Disappearing Spoon: And Other True Tales of Madness, Love, and the History of the World from the Periodic Table of the Elements by Sam Kean
Format: Book
Who it’s for: Adults and Kids (young readers’ edition)

How has beautiful-but-deadly mercury helped us discover the sites where Lewis and Clark camped?

Why is the strong nuclear force like a Tyrannosaurus rex?

What quip by his friend Albert prompted Niels Bohr to reply, “Einstein! Stop telling God what to do”?

The Disappearing Spoon embarks on a journey through the periodic table—but a periodic table far removed from the boring version taught in so many high school chemistry classes. Sam Kean wields a sly sense of humor and a keen eye for human absurdities as he explores forgotten history, quirky science, and the strangeness of the universe.

The author has also published a young readers’ edition aimed at middle school students, to ensure that kids can get in the fun as well.

Oh—and that evanescent spoon? Mold it out of gallium (melting point 85 degrees F), give it to your friends for stirring their hot beverages, and savor their consternation as it disintegrates in their cups.

Better living through chemistry, indeed.

Find both editions in the catalog.

Spying on the South: An Odyssey Across the American Divide

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Spying on the South: An Odyssey Across the American Divide by Tony Horwitz
Format: Book, eBook
Who it’s for: Adults

In the 1850s, Frederick Law Olmsted (future architect of Central Park and many other landscapes and parks) set out on a journey through the American South as a correspondent for the New York Times, writing about his travels under the pseudonym “Yeoman.” Olmsted wrote about the people, places, and cultures he encountered, and later turned his dispatches into three books.

Over 150 years later, Tony Horwitz set out on an Amtrak train to follow Olmsted’s path and document what he found. He traveled through western Maryland, West Virginia, Kentucky, Louisiana, and Texas, meeting locals at bars and restaurants, convenience stores, and shops. Horowitz (who passed away in May, just after the publication of Spying on the South) was an easy conversationalist who made most people he met feel at ease in speaking openly about their political, social, religious, and economic thoughts and beliefs. He boarded a coal barge and rode down the Ohio River, visited former plantations now housing museums or wedding venues, rode a mule through part of Texas with a guide seemingly immune to Horwitz’s charm, and spent time in a Texas border town. 

Horwitz observed an American South much changed from the one Olmsted saw. Once bustling towns are now characterized by deserted storefronts and an area of Texas once populated with free-thinking, anti-slavery Germans is now home to their more commercially minded descendants, but parallels remain. Throughout his journey, Horwitz encountered divisions similar to those recorded by Olmsted in the antebellum South – “extreme polarization, racial strife, demonizing of the other side, embrace of enflamed opinion over dialogue and debate.” Horwitz didn’t disparage or belittle the people he met on his journey, even if he ultimately disagreed with them. Every interaction was characterized by his desire to understand what’s going on in the hearts and minds of the people of a town or city.

Horwitz ultimately felt optimistic about the future. Spying on the South ends with a discussion of his two days spent wandering Central Park, Olmsted’s first urban landscaped park. Olmsted intended his parks to be gathering places that could overcome the barriers thrown up in society. In the park, Horwitz observed people of all races, languages, and socioeconomic statuses enjoying themselves outside of the hustle of New York City. 

Horwitz’s work in general is recommended for those who enjoy travelogues and history. In addition to Spying on the South, he is the author of Confederates in the Attic, Blue Latitudes, A Voyage Long and Strange, and Midnight Rising.

Find Spying on the South in the catalog.

Chesapeake Requiem: A Year with the Watermen of Vanishing Tangier Island

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Chesapeake Requiem: A Year with the Watermen of Vanishing Tangier Island

By Earl Swift

Format: Book

Who it’s for: Adults

I love to learn about the history around Southern Maryland and am fascinated with the islands that are just off our coast.  Many of these islands maintain some of the customs and even language of another time.  Chesapeake Requiem is a very interesting read about Tangier Island off the coast of Virginia and Maryland.

Swift, the author, spent an entire year living on the island with the locals.  He goes in depth on the climate and geographical circumstances that created Tangier Island and continue geographical changes as well as the history of its people from the island’s “discovery.”   This is a fascinating history of the people and how the island was settled.  I loved reading the stories of the families on the island.

The islanders rely on crabbing as their way of life and are often at odds with the laws and climate change scientists on the role the Chesapeake Bay plays in their lives.  The Chesapeake Bay has been encroaching on the island for hundreds of years.  The land has significantly reduced in size and even graves are submerged in many feet of water with gravestones washing on shore.  The island’s inhabitants are aging and many of the young people are leaving for the mainland for jobs and education.  The way of life on the island is threatened by the shrinking population and the shrinking island.  One day soon, the island will be reclaimed by the Chesapeake Bay.

This is a great read and I highly recommend it!  Find it here.