Reading Recommendations:

Killing Lincoln, The shocking Assassination That Changed America Forever, Bill O'Reilly & Martin DugardThe anchor of The O'Reilly Factor recounts one of the most dramatic stories in American history, how one gunshot changed the country forever. In the Spring of 1865, the bloody saga of America's Civil War finally comes to an end after a series of increasingly harrowing battles. President Abraham Lincoln's generous terms for Robert E. Lee's surrender are devised to fulfill Lincoln's dream of healing a divided nation, with the former Confederates allowed to reintegrate into American society. But one man and his band of murderous accomplices, perhaps reaching into the highest ranks of the U.S. Government, are not appeased.In the midst of the patriotic celebrations in Washington, D.C., John Wilkes Booth, charismatic ladies' man and impenitent racist, murders Abraham Lincoln at Ford's Theater. A furious manhunt ensues, and Booth immediately becomes the country's most wanted fugitive. LaFayette C. Baker, a smart but shifty New York detective and former Union spy, unravels the string of clues leading to Booth, while Federal forces track his accomplices. The thrilling chase ends in a fiery shoot-out and a series of court-ordered executions, including that of the first woman ever executed by the U.S. Government, Mary Surratt. Featuring some of history's most remarkable figures, vivid detail, and page turning action, Killing Lincoln is history that reads like a thriller.Two other books I'd like to mention: The first The Red Garden, Alice HoffmanThe Red Garden introduces us to the luminous and haunting world of Blackwell, Massachusetts, capturing the unexpected turns in its history and lives.In exquisite prose, Hoffman offers a transforming glimpse of small town America, presenting us with three hundred years of passion, dark secrets, loyalty, and redemption in a web of tales where characters' lives are intertwined by fate and by their own actions.From the town's founder, a brave young woman from England who has no fears of blizzards or bears, to the young man who runs away to New York City with only his dog for company, the characters in The Red Garden are extra ordinary and vivid; a young wounded Civil War soldier who is saved by a passionate neighbor, a woman who meets a fiercely human historical character, a poet who falls in love with a blind man, a mysterical traveler who comes to town in the year when summer never arrives.At the center of everyone's life is a mysterious garden where only red plants can grow, and where the truth can be found only by those who dare to look.Beautifully crafted, shimmering with magic, The Red Garden is as unforgettable as it is moving!And, the second book is The Dove Keepers, a novel, also by Alice Hoffman.In 70 C.E. nine hundred Jews held out for months against armies of Romans on Masada, a mountain in the Judean desert. According to the ancient historian Josephus, two women and five children survived. Based on this tragic and iconic event, Hoffman's novel is a spellbinding tale of four extraordinarily bold, resourceful, and sensuous women, each of whom has come to Masada by a different path. Yael's mother died in childbirth, and her father, an expert assassin, never forgave her for that death. Revka, a village baker's wife watched the horrifically brutal murder of her daughter by Roman soldiers; she brings to Masada her young grandsons, rendered mute by what they have witnessed. Aziza is a warrior's daughter, raised as a boy, a fearless rider and an expert marksman who finds passion with a fellow soldier. Shirah, born in Alexandria is wise in the ways of ancient magic and medicine, a woman of uncanny insight and power.The lives of these four complex and fiercely independent women intersect in the desperate days of the siege. All are dove- keepers, and all are keeping secrets about who they are, where they come from, who fathered them and whom they love.The acclaimed author Alice Hoffman is written up in the October 2011 Ladies' Home Journal, see the library display.Don't forget the Rylander Friend Meeting, Monday, November 21, 2011. Janice Hamrick will be the guest speaker.See you there!