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Julia Sneden reviews: We find that it an interesting process, looking back at books we read in our twenties and thirties. The books themselves haven't changed, but thanks to the varied experiences that another twenty or thirty years have added to our lives, we read them from a different perspective. Herewith, the first review of an old, beloved book (actually, three books). "Her mother too had been marked in youth, body and soul, by the bearing and nourishing of children; and she had thought perchance no more than Kristin herself, when she sat with that sweet young life at her breast, that so long as they two lived, each single day would lead the child farther and farther from her arms."   more »

American Founders demonstrates that African-Americans were everywhere in American history, on both continents and all the islands. They were key protagonists in all the democratic struggles. They contributed to America history at every level. Most were of mixed race. Americans might talk about racial purity (for a few decades in the 19th and early 20th centuries) but they never practiced it. This book is more of a reference book than a sit-down-and-read book. It’s full of facts and people, but doesn’t tell stories longer than a few sentences. It has a point of view, which reference books rarely do. Keep it handy to dip into when you want to expand your knowledge. It’s full of information that you never knew you didn’t know. more »

Joan L. Cannon writes: Except for the military, men worked at desks and in boardrooms, women did no housekeeping, no childcare, little or no charity work. Like a perfectly arranged workshop, their lives were ordered, with a place for everything (and everyone), and everything in its place. Not many writers could hold modern attentions with such a world, yet it is more real than if it were shown on a movie screen. The characters in their houses, the décor, the customs, the music and art and social events are so meticulously portrayed that the reader is like an eavesdropper.  more »

Inspired by an exhibition originally presented in 2014 at the Petit Palais in Paris, Paris 1900 re-creates the look and feel of the era through more than 200 paintings, decorative art objects, textiles, posters, photographs, jewelry, sculpture, and film, and will plunge visitors into the atmosphere of the Belle Époque. These objects, drawn from several City of Paris museums — including the Petit Palais, the Musée Carnavalet, the Palais Galliera, the Musée Bourdelle, and the Maison de Victor Hugo — form a portrait of a vibrant and swiftly changing city. more »