National Network for Equitable Library Service

Family mysteries often remain tangled for decades, just waiting for someone to pick up the thread and begin to unravel the web. Filled with questions, the author puzzles over her family history. What was life like for her father growing up in the Galician shtetl of Borchov at the turn of the last century? Why did her Grandpa leave for New York so suddenly? And why did her Grandma never leave, even after her two sons did?

In an age where our kids are helicopter parented and bubble wrapped, this mother of four isn't looking forward to her four talented, artistic children leaving the family home. Bubble after protective bubble bursts as her troupe queues up and flies off to distant places. Candace Allan attempts to iparent from afar through sometimes turbulent, sometimes funny, and always curious new times. Text Me, Love Mom: Two Girls, Two Boys, One Empty Nest is a heartfelt ode to learning how to let go when all you want is to hang on tight.

Since childhood, author Fiona Gold Kroll has been drawn to a photograph of her great-uncle, Benjamin Albaum, a Jewish man who disappeared from Paris at the beginning of World War II. A Stone for Benjamin is the compelling story of Fiona’s quest to discover his fate. Chasing Holocaust shadows across Europe and beyond, Fiona begins her powerful journey searching for clues with nothing more than a misspelled name, old photographs and family stories.

Real Dirt is a groundbreaking book for any reader interested in learning more about where food comes from. Harry Stoddart shares years of experience and knowledge in his quirky dissection of agriculture and what we eat. Among his many achievements, he has developed a farming system he believes is the starting point for genuinely sustainable agriculture. A sixth-generation farmer, Harry bought his parent’s swine confinement animal feeding operation two decades ago.

There was a time when it was common to have a company pension to live on after you stopped working. These days, company pensions are rare and a large percentage of the workforce needs to rely on their own savings to fund their retirement years. How do you figure out how much you need to retire, and how many years that money will last? Do you dream of retiring early and wonder how you could make that happen? Retired at 48 documents one couple’s quest to answer these questions and their path to achieving early retirement.

Mary Seacole: The Making of the Myth is the first book to challenge the popular misconceptions that surround Mary Seacole’s iconic status as a “pioneer nurse” and battlefield heroine, intended, by some, to replace Florence Nightingale in those roles. McDonald masterfully disentangles reality from the myths, both those that exaggerate Seacole’s work and ignore or denigrate Nightingale’s.

Jeff Croonen was a force, both on and off the field. As a player for six years with the Canadian Football League, he was determined and unyielding. As a pharmaceutical sales representative, he was a sales award winner many times over and a personality no client could resist. As an inspirational speaker and coach, he was full of wisdom gained from the worst kinds of experience: betrayal, injury, and abuse. But Jeff always came back stronger than ever, and he was at his happiest when he was sharing with others the lessons he’d learned from a life of bouncing back.

At first you will think this book is a travel memoir about Australia, and so it may surprise you when it reveals itself as a tale of self-discovery and personal awakening. These twists are revealed when the subject turns to dropping out of law school, flirting with anorexia and getting dumped by a string of wildly inappropriate men. Hold steady when that time comes, dear Reader, because that's where the truth happens. And without truth, there can be no story.

There are numerous “how to” books aimed at providing assistance to young people beginning their careers or established professionals looking to make transitions. This is not one of them. Rather than outlining how to work for a specific company, Lessons Learned: Stories for a Working Life is intended to draw out what is truly significant — the priorities and values of the reader.

Just three months after his wife’s death to breast cancer, Jon packs up his infant son, Myles, and they set off on a six-week “Healing Tour” through Canada and the United States. Their journey, set to the soundtrack of the music Jon loves, sees them negotiating rolling mid-western hills, exploring a cave, losing confidence in the prairies, and finding it again in the desert states. As Jon starts to learn to balance his sorrow with the joy of new fatherhood, a sobering episode in the Rockies compels him to question what his life might have looked like had his wife survived.