Spring semester is in its last weeks. My desk, my dining room table, basically every flat surface anywhere near me looks like this:
By the end of each day, I look like this:
I’m really looking forward to May. I imagine myself back at this:
Which will make me feel like this:
Librarians are wonderful. They do so much more than check out your books, remind you about late fines, and tell you where the large print books are shelved.
They know books. Give them a subject, they will recommend a title. Tell them the last good book you read, and they will suggest something similar. If it’s your turn to host your book club, they will give you ideas on which books make for great discussions.
So I was pleased to be contacted by librarian and leisure reading expert Becky Spratford. She thinks my new book will interest a lot of readers and she wanted to known more about how I came to write Angels. Becky invited me to submit a piece for her blog, which I was happy to do . I hope you enjoy some background on Angels and consider reading the book yourself or with your book group.
Read different history.
In my last post, I suggested using Valentine’s Day as a way to start a tradition of “aunt book” purchasing and reading. I even included some recommendations of history books written by women about women.
To help everyone build a list, follow and/or contribute to the Twitter hashtag #readwomenwednesday.
Big thanks to Karin Wulf, who came up with the hashtag.
Join the intellectual exchange on Wednesdays, and start reading different history.
About a month ago, Andrew Kahn and Rebecca Onion published an article on Slate about how most popular history books are written about men by men. They used the phrase “uncle books” to describe the biographies of founding fathers and presidents and the studies of battles and war that are purchased every year as Christmas and Father’s Day gifts.
It’s time to start a trend of “aunt books,” and Valentine’s Day is as good a holiday as any to begin. This year, buy the woman (or women) in your life a book about a woman or women, preferably written by a woman.
If she is interested in the early United States, you could consider, for instance:
Or this:
If she’s more interested in popular culture, how about:
and:
Of course, everyone reading this blog knows about a certain book about American women in the Philippines during World War II.
Read history. Read different history. And give that special someone a truly thoughtful book. That would be really sweet.
I was invited by The Wall Street Journal to write about the five best books about Americans under the Japanese occupation during World War II.
You have to be a subscriber to read the full column on line. For those of you who get the physical paper, it’s in Saturday’s issue.
Theresa Kaminski 
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