I did not go looking for Fallen Mountains. Several months ago, I needed a Hoopla title for my mystery book club and wanted something different than the lighter fare we’d been reading lately — all good books, certainly, but variety is the spice of a reading life, and I was determined to find something new.…
Saving Ruby King is a powerful story about family, the pull of history, the power of friendship, and church culture in the Black community on Chicago’s South Side. Ruby King and her mother, Alice, have been beaten by their alcoholic father and husband for years. When Alice is found murdered in her home, her homegoing…
Stephen Graham Jones’s The Only Good Indians opens on the anxiety-inducing scene of Ricky Boss Ribs running for his life. He’s being tracked and hunted… But is it by the horde of angry men from outside the bar or does it have something to do with the mysterious herd of elk waiting in the field…
More than four hundred years after his death, William Shakespeare is still as relevant today as is Lin-Manuel Miranda. Yet, we still don’t know much about his personal and family life except that at age 18 he married 26 year old Anne (AKA Agnes) Hathaway and that their first daughter Susannah was born six months…
Arriving at Ellis Island, Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Most immigrants to America came through New York City, either at Castle Garden or Ellis Island. But New York isn't the only port on our coast, nor were Castle Garden and Ellis Island the only places for immigrants to land. Port cities line up…
Sometimes I hear people remark that they wish they were living in a simpler, kinder time, like the 1950s. Connie Schultz’s debut novel, The Daughters of Erietown, reminds readers that those days weren’t always so happy and innocent. This family saga centers on the McGinty family and how their lives evolve while living in Erietown,…
As the national conversation begins to address longstanding issues of systemic racism, it has become clear that for some, inequality and injustice are a daily reality, while others are only beginning to learn about these issues. This troubled period, however, is also a time of possibility – it provides a spark for real and lasting…
Today Ellis Island is a beautifully kept 27-acre island in the Upper Bay of the Hudson River, home to a museum that tells the story of immigration to America. But Ellis Island started out as a 3-acre mound of land peeking above the water level, home to sea gulls, oysters and not much else. Ellis…
Image: Mapping Inequality Note: This episode is part three in a three-part series originally released by Drops of Ink – the student news publication of Libertyville High School. Drops of Ink explores different perspectives on race in Libertyville. Originally published September 14, 2016. Produced and hosted by Conor Kennedy. https://traffic.libsyn.com/secure/cooklib/A_History_of_Racism_in_Libertyville_and_the_North_Shore_part_3.mp3…
Image: Mapping Inequality Note: This episode is part two in a three-part series originally released by Drops of Ink – the student news publication of Libertyville High School. Drops of Ink explores the history of the movement for housing equality. Originally published July 22, 2016. Produced and hosted by Conor Kennedy. https://traffic.libsyn.com/secure/cooklib/A_History_of_Racism_in_Libertyville_and_the_North_Shore_part_2.mp3…
