M.J. Fiévre Pages: 170 Published: 2015
The book: This is M.J. Fiévre’s memoir of growing up in Haiti during the rise and fall of President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, which was a violent time for the country.
While chaos reigns outside in the streets, inside Fiévre’s own home there are also tumultuous times, and her family tiptoes on eggshells around her father and his mood swings.
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Teresa Marie Mailhot Pages: 142 Published: 2018
The book: The author grew up on the Seabird Island Indian Reservation in Canada. Her memoir, which she began writing while a patient in a mental institution, is told in a collection of essays in which she seems to unravel her traumatic past to get to a more hopeful future. Read more
Doris Pilkington Nugi Garimara Pages: 135 Published: 1996
The book: This is the true story of Doris Pilkington’s mother Molly, who escaped, with her sisters, from an Australian government institute for Aboriginal children with white fathers. The girls, ages 8, 11, and 14, were forcibly removed from their families so that they might learn to behave more like white people and forget their aboriginal culture. They managed to escape, barefoot with no food or maps. The girls followed a rabbit-proof fence for almost 1000 miles to get home, despite being tracked by police.
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Longitude by Dava Sobel
Pages: 176 First published: 1995
The book: In the 1700s, ships plying the ocean in search of new territories, goods, and trade were quite literally “lost at sea,” as soon as land disappeared from view. Sailors had no effective means of measuring longitude so could not pinpoint where they were, a necessity when trying to determine how to get to their destination. At the time, successful navigating required a mix of astronomy, mathematics, map reading, experience, and a great deal of luck! In 1714, the British parliament offered a reward to anyone who discovered a proven methodology for measuring longitude. Read more
84 Charing Cross Road by Helene Hanff
Pages: 95 First published: 1971
The book: Helen Hanff, a writer in New York, collected very old and rare British books. In 1949, she wrote to a bookshop located at 84 Charing Cross Road in London to see if they could obtain some of the books she wanted. So began a correspondence with the bookshop manager and some of the employees that lasted for twenty years. This book is a collection of that correspondence. Read more
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