Founding Mothers by Cokie Roberts, July 2011 plus Titles Update

From Harper Collins Publishers:
"Cokie Roberts's number one New York Times bestseller, We Are Our Mothers' Daughters, examined the nature of women's roles throughout history and led USA Today to praise her as a "custodian of time-honored values." Her second bestseller, From This Day Forward, written with her husband, Steve Roberts, described American marriages throughout history, including the romance of John and Abigail Adams. Now Roberts returns with Founding Mothers, an intimate and illuminating look at the fervently patriotic and passionate women whose tireless pursuits on behalf of their families -- and their country -- proved just as crucial to the forging of a new nation as the rebellion that established it.

While much has been written about the men who signed the Declaration of Independence, battled the British, and framed the Constitution, the wives, mothers, sisters, and daughters they left behind have been little noticed by history. Roberts brings us the women who fought the Revolution as valiantly as the men, often defending their very doorsteps. While the men went off to war or to Congress, the women managed their businesses, raised their children, provided them with political advice, and made it possible for the men to do what they did. The behind-the-scenes influence of these women -- and their sometimes very public activities -- was intelligent and pervasive.

Drawing upon personal correspondence, private journals, and even favored recipes, Roberts reveals the often surprising stories of these fascinating women, bringing to life the everyday trials and extraordinary triumphs of individuals like Abigail Adams, Mercy Otis Warren, Deborah Read Franklin, Eliza Pinckney, Catherine Littlefield Green, Esther DeBerdt Reed, and Martha Washington -- proving that without our exemplary women, the new country might never have survived.

Social history at its best, Founding Mothers unveils the drive, determination, creative insight, and passion of the other patriots, the women who raised our nation. Roberts proves beyond a doubt that like every generation of American women that has followed, the founding mothers used the unique gifts of their gender -- courage, pluck, sadness, joy, energy, grace, sensitivity, and humor -- to do what women do best, put one foot in front of the other in remarkable circumstances and carry on."

We will meet to discuss Founding Mothers on Thursday July 28th at 7pm at the Library (Avenue C). The discussion will be lead by Pam.

Titles Update:
Here is the list of books & months that have been selected so far for the end of 2011 into 2012 -
Books:"Room"
"The Particular Sadness of the Lemon Cake"
"Bel Canto"
"Julius Caesar"

Months:Nov./Dec.
Jan.
Feb.
March

To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee, June 2011.

From the 50th Anniversary Edition published by Harper Perennial Modern Classics:


""Shoot All The Bluejays You Want,
If You Can Hit 'Em,
But Remember
It's A Sin To Kill
A Mockingbird."


Harper Lee's Pulitzer Prize-Winning masterwork of honor and injustice in the deep South - and the heriosm of one man in the face of blind and violent hatred.

One of the best-loved stories of all time, To Kill A Mockingbird has been translated into more than forty languages, sold more than thirty million copies worldwide, served as the basis of an enormously popular motion picture, and was voted one of the best novels of the twentieth century by librarians across the country. A gripping, heart-wrenching, and wholly remarkable tale of coming-of-age in a South poisoned by virulent prejuidice, it views a world of great beauty and savage inquities through the eyes of a young girl, as her father - a crusading local lawyer - risks everything to defend a black man unjustly accused of a terrible crime."