This
is a novel about a young man who must decide between pursuing a career in
baseball or marrying a woman he loves, the daughter of a midwestern farming
family.
The author knows what it’s really like to live on a farm
in Iowa, and it shows. His characters fully inhabit that world. Although the
story is about one man’s ambition, love, and uncertainties, it’s capacious enough that we all can see ourselves in it.
The story encompasses heartbreak
and hope and is written subtly and with insight. It’s the kind of book that
keeps you thinking long after you finish it.
The Beckoning World is set in the first quarter of the twentieth century and follows Earl Dunham. His weeks are comprised of six days mining coal, followed by Sundays playing baseball. Then one day a major-league scout happens on a game, signs Earl, and he begins a life he had no idea he could even dream.
But dreams sometimes suffer from a lovely abundance, and in Earl's case her name is Emily Marchand. They fall quickly and deeply in love, but with that love comes heartbreaking complications.
The Beckoning World gathers a cast of characters that include Babe Ruth and…
As
a Bostonian, I live near Trinity Church, one of Henry Hobson Richardson’s
masterpieces, and the Emerald Necklace, a prize piece of Frederick Law
Olmsted’s legacy.
I thought I had an innate feel for the men’s work. Still, I learned
so much from reading this book – about their individual lives, their
collaboration, and how they, individually and in concert, used their work to
express a vision of America.
After the Civil War, when the country was
redefining itself, these two were significant contributors to the built and
natural environment.
This is a highly readable dual biography. The book balances the
men’s life stories, an assessment of their work, and the historical context. I
found it fascinating.
A dual portrait of America’s first great architect, Henry Hobson Richardson, and her finest landscape designer, Frederick Law Olmsted―and their immense impact on America
As the nation recovered from a cataclysmic war, two titans of design profoundly influenced how Americans came to interact with the built and natural world around them through their pioneering work in architecture and landscape design.
Frederick Law Olmsted is widely revered as America’s first and finest parkmaker and environmentalist, the force behind Manhattan’s Central Park, Brooklyn’s Prospect Park, Biltmore’s parkland in Asheville, dozens of parks across the country, and the preservation of Yosemite and Niagara…
At
first, I was hesitant to read this book because the set-up sounded preposterous
– a Black boy disguised as a girl called Onion travels with abolitionist John
Brown from Kansas to Harper’s Ferry. Yet, however improbable the protagonist
may be, author James McBride explores real history through Onion’s eyes.
The
story starts in Kansas when abolitionists and pro-slavery factions are battling
over the territory’s future. (Kansas is not yet a state.) It ends in Harper’s
Ferry with Brown’s raid on the armory, an event that helped spark the Civil
War.
Some of the action does feel exaggerated or even nonfactual in parts, but
the story also reflects much of what happened. I recently visited both Kansas
and Harper’s Ferry, and the book brought the places alive for me.
Now a Showtime limited series starring Ethan Hawke and Daveed Diggs
Winner of the National Book Award for Fiction
From the bestselling author of The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store, Deacon King Kong (an Oprah Book Club pick) and The Color of Water comes the story of a young boy born a slave who joins John Brown’s antislavery crusade—and who must pass as a girl to survive.
Henry Shackleford is a young slave living in the Kansas Territory in 1856--a battleground between anti- and pro-slavery forces--when legendary abolitionist John Brown arrives. When an argument between Brown and Henry's master turns…
They Called Us Girlstells the stories of
seven women who broke professional barriers in the mid-twentieth century.
When
they came of age, the conventional expectation was for women to stay home, but
these women had other ideas. They forged successful careers in male-dominated
professions such as medicine, law, and science, among others.
As a girl and
later as a lawyer, I was intrigued by women like them and wanted to find out
what fueled their ambition. The book is a collection of individual profiles
based on my interviews with the women and lots of research into history and
culture. Together, their stories paint a picture of an era.
