Reading Recommendations:

Dreams From My Father, A Story of Race and Inheritance, Barack Obama -

"Almost a decade has passed since this book was first published. As I mentioned in the original introduction, the opportunity to write the book came when I was in law school, the result of my election as the first African-American president of the Harvard Law Review. In the wake of some modest publicity, I received an advance from a publisher and went to work with the belief that the story of my family, and my efforts to understand that story, might speak in some way to the fissures of race that have characterized the American experience, as well as the fluid state of identity, the leaps through time, the collision of cultures - that mark our modern life.

Like most first-time authors, I was filled with hope and despair upon the book's publication, hope that the book might succeed beyond my youthful dreams, despair that I had failed to say anything worth saying. The reality fell somewhere in between. The reviews were mildly favorable. People actually showed up at the readings my publisher arranged. The sales were underwhelming. And, after a few months, I went on with the business of my life, certain that my career as an author would be short-lived, but glad to have survived the process with my dignity more or less intact." - From a part of the preface to the 2000 edition

In this lyrical, unsentimental, and compelling memoir, the son of a black African father and a white American mother searches for a workable meaning to his life as a black American. It begins in New York, where Barack Obama learns that his father, a figure he knows more as a myth than as a man, has been killed in a car accident. This sudden death inspires an emotional odyssey, first to a small town in Kansas, from which he retraces the migration of his mother's family to Hawaii, and then to Kenya, where he meets the African side of his family, confronts the bitter truth of his father's life, and at last reconciles his divided inheritance.

And, Texas, Mary Austin Holley -

This facsimile of the 1836 edition is a basic reference on Texas. Written by Mary Austin Holley, cousin of Stephen F. Austin, Texas provides a fascinating, detailed look at the region during the Revolution. This important book began as a conventional emigrant guide but ended up as an early account of the Texas Revolution; the Alamo, Goliad, the Declaration of Independence, and San Jacinto. The introduction by Marilyn McAdams Sibley and full-color fold out map make Texas an indispensable volume for anyone who likes to read about Texas.

And, Nim Chimpsey, The Chimp Who Would Be Human, Elizabeth Hess -

Could an adorable chimpanzee raised from infancy by a human family bridge the gap between species, and change the way we think about the boundaries between the animal and human worlds? Here is the strange and moving account of an experiment intended to answer just those questions, and the astonishing biography of the chimp who was chosen to see it through.

Drawing on interviews with the people who lived with Nim, diapered him, dressed him, taught him, and loved him. Elizabeth Hess weaves an unforgettable tale of an extraordinary and charismatic creature. His story will move and entertain at the same time that it challenges us to ask what it means to be human, and what we owe to the animals who so enrich our lives.

And, Affordable Remodel, How to Get Custom Results on Any Budget, Fernando Pages Ruis -

If you covet a house that's slightly beyond your means, take heart - there are ways to live the good life affordably.

As you can see here - what a variety of books available at Rylander! See you there!