The American Library Association (ALA) was organized on 6 October, 1876 as the “oldest, largest and most influential library association in the world”

The Cotillion Brigade: A Novel of the Civil War and the Most Famous Female Militia in American History the story of the Nancy Hart Rifles & Union Col. La Grange

Ms. Boskoff’s life was fascinating, full of taking chances in both personal and professional areas, as well as living a good, ethical life educating people.

Charlotte Zolotow (26 June, 1915 – 19 November, 2013) was a prolific writer of children books, editor and poet. Mrs. Zolotow was a prolific children book author who did not shy away from examining difficult subjects.

Hamlin Garland (14 September, 1860 – 4 March, 1940) was an award winning American novelist, poet, essayist, and short story writer.

This book is a bit different than the others I read, instead of the pictures and text telling the same storyline together, this time the text and pictures follow two different stories, in two different timelines, until they eventually meet.

Thomas Paine’s work influenced many radicals during, and after, his lifetime. These radicals called for such extreme change such as ending slavery, women’s equality, fair wages and so on.

May is short story month, so in honor of the short story let me introduce debut author Laura Newman. PARALLEL TO PARADISE is a collection of fourteen short stories, all stand-alone, and can be read in any order at any time. The writing is descriptive and vivid. Each character is well-crafted. It seems as if I was looking at a snapshot of each person, at times I wondered, were these actual people? I almost thought I was reading fourteen short memoirs. But, that is what we look for when introduced to new characters, as my friend and fellow writer D.L. Whitehead says, “Your characters need to walk, talk, eat, breathe and bleed.” He is a horror writer, so hence the bleed part. Ms. Newman’s characters definitely walk, talk, and breathe off the written page, and sometimes they do indeed bleed. (The Little Beast, Twentieth Century). The common thread running through each storyline is how the protagonists deal with the problems and complications of their lives, which are sometimes messy and not-so-nice. But, cope they must. We are introduced to people with addictions (Needle and Thread), some in abusive relationships, alternative lifestyles (Red Eye), and in another, a young mother copes…

ABOUT THE BOOK Adam Craig, a forty year-old stock trader in Chicago, finds his marriage teetering on the rocks and his life at a standstill. Desperate and on the edge of personal collapse, Adam takes the advice of a therapist and travels to his childhood family compound on Black Bear Lake with hopes of making peace with his past. Stepping onto the northern Wisconsin property, he relives the painful memories of the summer of 1983, his last summer at the lake. In August 1983, a self-conscious fifteen year-old Adam carries a world of worry on his shoulders as he arrives at Black Bear Lake for a month long family reunion. Between anger and fear of mother’s declining health as she quietly battles a quickly spreading cancer and his cherished cousin’s depression over her parents’ bitter divorce, Adam is swept up in smothering familial love among the multiple generations and heartbreaking misunderstanding and betrayal. The arrival of a sensual but troublesome babysitter throws the delicate balance of his family into a tailspin. Blinded by his attraction to the newcomer, Adam fails to see his cousin’s desperate cries for help and the charged electrical current running through his family’s hierarchy. Crushed in…

Psychiatric nursing, to some extent, is a calling. It’s not easy to delve into someone’s psyche and pull out the demons that are haunting him or her. The specificity of the intricacies of the mind and how it works is astonishing and a mystery at the same time. I was fortunate to be enrolled in psychology classes that correlated with elements in the diagnoses of my psychiatric patients; allowing me to utilize these newly-acquired skills on the unit. During this time I worked with people with diagnoses of gender dysphoria (confusion), dissociative disorders, formerly known as multiple personality disorder, and the disease of addictions. Moreover, I was also fortunate to work with specialists in these fields. The massive amount of knowledge I acquired because of these circumstances was magical. After retiring from nursing, I felt I needed to find a way to share my knowledge regarding the brain’s involvement in this disease. Beyond the world of the psychiatric unit and of mental health professionals, there is an impenetrable stigma revolving around these issues. I wondered how I could continue to inform the misinformed about the physiological causes of these “brain” diseases of mental health. Most people I spoke with clung…