Nonfiction

The World War II Memorial: A Grateful Nation Remembers (2004). Edited by Douglas Brinkley. Smithsonian Books. Published in conjunction with the dedication of the World War II Memorial in Washington, D.C., veterans—including George H.W. Bush, Sen. Daniel Inouye, former senators Bob Dole and George McGovern, Yogi Berra, and many, many others—contribute their own personal stories while leading historians look at the military campaigns of the war.

Biography      

Where Men Win Glory: The Odyssey of Pat Tillman (2009). By Jon Krakauer. Doubleday.
Biographer Krakauer draws on Tillman’s journals and letters, interviews with his wife and friends, conversations with the soldiers who served alongside him, and extensive research in Afghanistan to render this driven, complex, and uncommonly compelling figure as well as the definitive account of the events and actions that led to his death.


Fiction – Adult

The Things They Carried: A Work of Fiction (1990). By Tim O’Brien. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. Following a platoon of American soldiers in the Vietnam War, this Pulitzer Prize finalist and critically acclaimed collection of short stories has proved itself to be an enduring classic of contemporary literature.


Feature Films

Saving Private Ryan (1998). Directed by Steven Spielberg. Dreamworks. American epic war film set during the invasion of Normandy in World War II. Starring Tom Hanks and Matt Damon.


Fiction – Young Adult

Andersonville (1993). By MacKinlay Kantor. Plume. Acclaimed as the greatest novel ever written about the War Between the States, this searing Pulitzer Prize-winning book captures all the glory and shame of America’s most tragic conflict in the vivid, crowded world of Andersonville, and the people who lived outside its barricades.


Fiction – Kids

O, Say Can You See?: American Symbols and Landmarks (2004). By Sheila Keenan. Scholastic, Ages 4 – 8. A celebration of twenty of America’s important places, interesting objects, and national holidays.


Additional resources:

U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs – Memorial Day resources guide

Federal Government – Memorial Day observance page

The White House – Presidential Proclamation – Memorial Day 2013

Rage Against the Dying is this Arizona author’s first book. The action takes place in Catalina and Tucson, Arizona. It is narrated by a 59 year old woman, a former FBI agent, who is safely married and retired, hoping to have a quiet life. Unfortunately, she is targeted by a killer, and finds herself fighting to save her husband and herself, while dealing with a load of guilt for not having been truthful about her past. This is a very enjoyable first novel, with lots of mystery and intrigue along with a dose of soul searching. The book is available through your local public library.

Rebus is back! After the last mystery featuring John Rebus by Ian Rankin, we were led to believe that Rebus’ retirement from the force signaled the end of the Rebus novels. Not so! This newest novel by Ian Rankin again features the curmudgeonly detective working in the Cold Case office in Edinburgh. A number of young women have gone missing along a specific stretch of highway and only Rebus, with his old fashioned methods and occasional slips of protocol, can solve the crimes.

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For most of her life, Lauren Mahdian has been certain of two things: that her mother is dead, and that her father is a murderer. Before the horrific tragedy, Lauren led a sheltered life on the banks of Long Island Sound, a haven of luxurious homes and seemingly perfect families. But one morning, eight-year-old Lauren and her older brother awoke to discover their mother’s body and their beloved father arrested for the murder.

Years later, Lauren is surrounded by uncertainty. Startling revelations force her to peek under the floorboards of her carefully constructed memories, put aside the version of history that she has clung to so fiercely, and search for the truth of what really happened that fateful night long ago.

Reader’s Guide:
Random House – Includes a Summary, Author Bio, Brief Reviews, and Discussion Questions

Reviews & Articles:
Kirkus Reviews
Publisher’s Weekly

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Did your book club read Close Your Eyes? Tell us what you thought by leaving a comment or join us over at Goodreads!

Do you like Science Fiction with a lot of action and a little romance? Then you’ll enjoy award winning novelist Linnea Sinclair. Her fast paced novels feature strong, independent women that find themselves in serious, often life threatening, situations. In one of my favorites, An Accidental Goddess, the protagonist is thrown more than 300 years into the future and discovers that she’s been turned into a goddess!

Ms. Sinclair has several stand alone novels as well as one series, Dock Five. Gabriel’s Ghost is the first book in the Dock Five series. The Down Home Zombie Blues was optioned for a movie in 2010 but has not yet been released.

Visit the author’s website: http://www.linneasinclair.com

When Elizabeth Endicott arrives in Aleppo, Syria, she has a diploma from Mount Holyoke, a crash course in nursing, and only the most basic grasp of the Armenian language. It’s 1915, and Elizabeth has volunteered to help deliver food and medical aid to refugees of the Armenian Genocide during the First World War. There she meets Armen, a young Armenian engineer who has already lost his wife and infant daughter. After leaving Aleppo and traveling into Egypt to join the British Army, he begins to write Elizabeth letters, realizing that he has fallen in love with the wealthy young American.

Years later, their American granddaughter, Laura, embarks on a journey back through her family’s history, uncovering a story of love, loss—and a wrenching secret that has been buried for generations.

Reader’s Guide:
Random House

Reviews & Articles:
The Washington Post – “Chris Bohjalian’s ‘The Sandcastle Girls’ Relives the Armenian Genocide” by Eugenia Zukerman
The Armenian Weekly – “The Kernel That Led to the Novel, The Sandcastle Girls” by Chris Bohjalian
Lonely Planet – map of Armenia

Author’s Website: http://www.chrisbohjalian.com

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Did your book club read The Sandcastle Girls? Tell us what you thought by leaving a comment or join us over at Goodreads!

At twenty-two, Cheryl Strayed thought she had lost everything. In the wake of her mother’s death, her family scattered, and her own marriage was soon destroyed. Four years later, with nothing more to lose, she made the most impulsive decision of her life. With no experience or training, driven only by blind will, she would hike more than a thousand miles of the Pacific Crest Trail from the Mojave Desert through California and Oregon to Washington State—and she would do it alone. Told with suspense and style, sparkling with warmth and humor, Wild powerfully captures the terrors and pleasures of one young woman forging ahead against all odds on a journey that maddened, strengthened, and ultimately healed her.

Reading Guide:
Random House – Includes a Summary, Author Bio, Brief Reviews, and Discussion Questions

Reviews:
NPR – “A Walk on the Wild Side” by Michael Schaub
New York Times – “The High Road Wild, a Hiking Memoir” by Dani Shapiro

Author’s Website: http://www.cherylstrayed.com

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Welcome back to Blossom Street, or welcome for the first time. Many of the characters are new, but a few old friends and locations are revisited. When Libby Morgan is let go from her job as a top lawyer instead of receiving the partnership she had anticipated, she starts to learn what is really important in her life, or does she? The story takes some unexpected turns, but everything is ‘knit’ together well in the end.

Fans of Debbie Macomber will also want to watch for the Cedar Cove TV series beginning in July, and her novel Rose Harbor in Bloom coming in August. Want to read the Cedar Cove series before the television series starts? Click here for a list of her Cedar Cove books at your local public library.

Fantastic Fiction has a complete list of all of Debbie Macomber’s books, in series order.

The majestic beauty of the Italian Alps at the turn of the twentieth century is the setting of the first meeting of Enza, a practical beauty, and Ciro, a strapping mountain boy. When Ciro catches the local priest in a scandal, he is banished and sent to hide in America. Soon Enza’s family faces disaster and she, too, is forced to go to America.

Unbeknownst to one another, they both build fledgling lives in America. Ciro masters shoemaking and Enza takes a factory job until fate intervenes and reunites them. But it is too late: Ciro has volunteered to serve in World War I as Enza begins her impressive career as a seamstress at the Metropolitan Opera House. Over time, these star-crossed lovers meet and separate, until the power of their love changes both of their lives forever.

Inspired by Adriana Trigiani’s own family history and the love of tradition, The Shoemaker’s Wife defines an era with operatic scope that will live on in the imaginations of readers for years to come.

Reading Guide:
Harper Collins – Includes a Summary, Author Bio, and Discussion Questions

Reviews:
Publisher’s Weekly
Kirkus Review

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When high school teacher Caelum Quirk and his wife, Maureen, a school nurse, move to Littleton, Colorado, they both get jobs at Columbine High School. In April 1999, while Caelum is away, Maureen finds herself in the library at Columbine, cowering in a cabinet and expecting to be killed. Miraculously, she survives, but at a cost: she is unable to recover from the trauma. When Caelum and Maureen flee to an illusion of safety on the Quirk family’s Connecticut farm, they discover that the effects of chaos are not easily put right, and further tragedy ensues.

Reading Guide:
Harper Collins – Includes a Summary, Author Bio, and Discussion Questions

Reviews:
Booklist- Review by Joanne Wilkinson
Kirkus Review – Review

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