Meeting date: Monday May 22, 7:00 PM
Book: Wild Swans: Three Daughters of China by Jung Chang
Book Description:
Blending the intimacy of memoir and the panoramic sweep of eyewitness history, Wild Swans has become a bestselling classic in thirty languages, with more than ten million copies sold. The story of three generations in twentieth-century China, it is an engrossing record of Mao's impact on China, an unusual window on the female experience in the modern world, and an inspiring tale of courage and love.
Jung Chang describes the life of her grandmother, a warlord's concubine; her mother's struggles as a young idealistic Communist; and her parents' experience as members of the Communist elite and their ordeal during the Cultural Revolution. Chang was a Red Guard briefly at the age of fourteen, then worked as a peasant, a "barefoot doctor," a steelworker, and an electrician. As the story of each generation unfolds, Chang captures in gripping, moving -- and ultimately uplifting -- detail the cycles of violent drama visited on her own family and millions of others caught in the whirlwind of history
About the Author:
JUNG CHANG was born in Yibin, Sichuan Province, China, in 1952. She left China for Britain in 1978 and obtained a Ph.D. in linguistics from York University in 1982, the first person from the People?s Republic of China to receive a doctorate from a British university. She lives in London and has recently completed a biography of Mao.
Monday, May 01, 2006
Monday, April 03, 2006
April Book
Meeting Date: April 24, 2006, 7:00 PM
Book: Big Chief Elizabeth : The Adventures and Fate of the First English Colonists in America by Giles Milton
Book Description:
In April 1586, Queen Elizabeth I acquired a new and exotic title. A tribe of Native Americans had made her their weroanza—a word that meant "big chief". The news was received with great joy, both by the Queen and her favorite, Sir Walter Ralegh. His first American expedition had brought back a captive, Manteo, who caused a sensation in Elizabethan London. In 1587, Manteo was returned to his homeland as Lord and Governor, with more than one hundred English men, women, and children. In 1590, a supply ship arrived at the colony to discover that the settlers had vanished.
For almost twenty years the fate of Ralegh's colonists was to remain a mystery. When a new wave of settlers sailed to America to found Jamestown, their efforts to locate the lost colony were frustrated by the mighty chieftain, Powhatan, father of , who vowed to drive the English out of America. Only when it was too late did the settlers discover the incredible news that Ralegh's colonists had survived in the forests for almost two decades before being slaughtered in cold blood by henchmen. While Sir Walter Ralegh's "savage" had played a pivotal role in establishing the first English settlement in America, he had also unwittingly contributed to one of the earliest chapters in the decimation of the Native American population. The mystery of what happened to these colonists who seemed to vanish without a trace lies at the heart of this well-researched work of narrative history.
About the Author:
Giles Milton is the author of the critically acclaimed Nathaniel's Nutmeg and The Riddle and the Knight. He lives in London.
Links:
http://homepages.rootsweb.com/~jmack/algonqin/oberg1.htm
Roanoke Island North Carolina
http://www.ego.net/us/nc/ob/roanoke.htm
Book: Big Chief Elizabeth : The Adventures and Fate of the First English Colonists in America by Giles Milton
Book Description:
In April 1586, Queen Elizabeth I acquired a new and exotic title. A tribe of Native Americans had made her their weroanza—a word that meant "big chief". The news was received with great joy, both by the Queen and her favorite, Sir Walter Ralegh. His first American expedition had brought back a captive, Manteo, who caused a sensation in Elizabethan London. In 1587, Manteo was returned to his homeland as Lord and Governor, with more than one hundred English men, women, and children. In 1590, a supply ship arrived at the colony to discover that the settlers had vanished.
For almost twenty years the fate of Ralegh's colonists was to remain a mystery. When a new wave of settlers sailed to America to found Jamestown, their efforts to locate the lost colony were frustrated by the mighty chieftain, Powhatan, father of , who vowed to drive the English out of America. Only when it was too late did the settlers discover the incredible news that Ralegh's colonists had survived in the forests for almost two decades before being slaughtered in cold blood by henchmen. While Sir Walter Ralegh's "savage" had played a pivotal role in establishing the first English settlement in America, he had also unwittingly contributed to one of the earliest chapters in the decimation of the Native American population. The mystery of what happened to these colonists who seemed to vanish without a trace lies at the heart of this well-researched work of narrative history.
About the Author:
Giles Milton is the author of the critically acclaimed Nathaniel's Nutmeg and The Riddle and the Knight. He lives in London.
Links:
http://homepages.rootsweb.com/~jmack/algonqin/oberg1.htm
Roanoke Island North Carolina
http://www.ego.net/us/nc/ob/roanoke.htm
Wednesday, March 01, 2006
March Book
Meeting date: Monday March 27, 7:00 PM
Book: Leap of Faith : Memoirs of an Unexpected Life by Queen Noor
Book Description:
Leap of Faith is the dramatic and inspiring story of an American woman's remarkable journey into the heart of a man and his nation.
Born into a distinguished Arab-American family and raised amid privilege, Lisa Halaby joined the first freshman class at Princeton to accept women, graduating in 1974 with a degree in architecture and urban planning. Two years later, while visiting her father in Jordan, she was casually introduced on the airport runway to King Hussein. Widely admired in the Arab world as a voice of moderation, and for his direct lineage to the prophet Muhammad, Hussein would soon become the world's most eligible bachelor after the tragic death of his wife. The next time they met, Hussein would fall headlong in love with the athletic, outspoken daughter of his longtime friend. After a whirlwind, secret courtship Lisa Halaby became Noor Al Hussein, Queen of Jordan.
With eloquence and candor, Queen Noor speaks of the obstacles she faced as a naive young bride in the royal court, of rebelling against the smothering embrace of security guards and palace life, and of her own successful struggle to create a working role as a humanitarian activist In a court that simply expected Noor to keep her husband happy. As she gradually took on the mantle of a queen, Noor's joys and challenges grew. After a heartbreaking miscarriage, she gave birth to four children. Meshing the demands of motherhood with the commitments of her position often proved difficult, but she tried to keep her young children by her side, even while flying the world with her husband in his relentless quest for peace. This mission would reap satisfying rewards, including greater Arab unity and a peace treaty with Israel, and suffer such terrible setbacks as the Gulf War and the assassination of Prime Minister Rabin.
Leap of Faith is a remarkable document. It is the story of a young American woman who became wife and partner to an Arab monarch. It provides a compelling portrait of the late King Hussein and his lifelong effort to bring peace to his wartorn region, and an insider's view of the growing gulf between the United States and the Arab nations. It is also the refreshingly candid story of a mother coming to terms with the demands the king's role as a world statesman placed on her family's private life. But most of all it is a love story—the intimate account of a woman who lost her heart to a king, and to his people. (from Amazon.com)
About the Author:
Born Lisa Najeeb Halaby, August 23, 1951, in Washington, DC; immigrated to Jordan; daughter of Najeeb Elias (a pilot, director of the Federal Aviation Administration, and chairman of Pan-American Airways) and Doris (a homemaker; maiden name, Lundquist) Halaby; married Hussein bin Talal (King Hussein of Jordan), June 15, 1978 (died, February 7, 1999); children: Hamzah and Hashim (sons), Iman and Raiyah (daughters). Education: Princeton University, B.A., 1974. Hobbies and other interests: Skiing, water skiing, sailing, horseback riding, reading, gardening, photography. (from Gale Databse)
Links:
Queen Noor's Offical Webpage
http://www.noor.gov.jo/index.htm
Reading Group Guide
http://www.readinggroupguides.com/guides3/leap_of_faith1.asp#discuss
Seniornet Reading Guide
http://www.seniornet.org/php/readerguide.php?GuideID=40&Version=0&Font=0
Amazon Reviews
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/product-description/0786867175/ref=dp_proddesc_0/002-0431023-0525618?%5Fencoding=UTF8&n=283155
CIA World Fact Book: Jordan
http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/geos/jo.html
Country Studies: Jordan
http://rs6.loc.gov/frd/cs/jotoc.html
Book: Leap of Faith : Memoirs of an Unexpected Life by Queen Noor
Book Description:
Leap of Faith is the dramatic and inspiring story of an American woman's remarkable journey into the heart of a man and his nation.
Born into a distinguished Arab-American family and raised amid privilege, Lisa Halaby joined the first freshman class at Princeton to accept women, graduating in 1974 with a degree in architecture and urban planning. Two years later, while visiting her father in Jordan, she was casually introduced on the airport runway to King Hussein. Widely admired in the Arab world as a voice of moderation, and for his direct lineage to the prophet Muhammad, Hussein would soon become the world's most eligible bachelor after the tragic death of his wife. The next time they met, Hussein would fall headlong in love with the athletic, outspoken daughter of his longtime friend. After a whirlwind, secret courtship Lisa Halaby became Noor Al Hussein, Queen of Jordan.
With eloquence and candor, Queen Noor speaks of the obstacles she faced as a naive young bride in the royal court, of rebelling against the smothering embrace of security guards and palace life, and of her own successful struggle to create a working role as a humanitarian activist In a court that simply expected Noor to keep her husband happy. As she gradually took on the mantle of a queen, Noor's joys and challenges grew. After a heartbreaking miscarriage, she gave birth to four children. Meshing the demands of motherhood with the commitments of her position often proved difficult, but she tried to keep her young children by her side, even while flying the world with her husband in his relentless quest for peace. This mission would reap satisfying rewards, including greater Arab unity and a peace treaty with Israel, and suffer such terrible setbacks as the Gulf War and the assassination of Prime Minister Rabin.
Leap of Faith is a remarkable document. It is the story of a young American woman who became wife and partner to an Arab monarch. It provides a compelling portrait of the late King Hussein and his lifelong effort to bring peace to his wartorn region, and an insider's view of the growing gulf between the United States and the Arab nations. It is also the refreshingly candid story of a mother coming to terms with the demands the king's role as a world statesman placed on her family's private life. But most of all it is a love story—the intimate account of a woman who lost her heart to a king, and to his people. (from Amazon.com)
About the Author:
Born Lisa Najeeb Halaby, August 23, 1951, in Washington, DC; immigrated to Jordan; daughter of Najeeb Elias (a pilot, director of the Federal Aviation Administration, and chairman of Pan-American Airways) and Doris (a homemaker; maiden name, Lundquist) Halaby; married Hussein bin Talal (King Hussein of Jordan), June 15, 1978 (died, February 7, 1999); children: Hamzah and Hashim (sons), Iman and Raiyah (daughters). Education: Princeton University, B.A., 1974. Hobbies and other interests: Skiing, water skiing, sailing, horseback riding, reading, gardening, photography. (from Gale Databse)
Links:
Queen Noor's Offical Webpage
http://www.noor.gov.jo/index.htm
Reading Group Guide
http://www.readinggroupguides.com/guides3/leap_of_faith1.asp#discuss
Seniornet Reading Guide
http://www.seniornet.org/php/readerguide.php?GuideID=40&Version=0&Font=0
Amazon Reviews
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/product-description/0786867175/ref=dp_proddesc_0/002-0431023-0525618?%5Fencoding=UTF8&n=283155
CIA World Fact Book: Jordan
http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/geos/jo.html
Country Studies: Jordan
http://rs6.loc.gov/frd/cs/jotoc.html
Wednesday, February 01, 2006
February Book
Meeting date: February 27, 7:00 PM
Book: Sex with kings : 500 years of adultery, power, rivalry, and revenge by Eleanor Herman.
Book Description
Throughout the centuries, royal mistresses have been worshiped, feared, envied, and reviled. They set the fashions, encouraged the arts, and, in some cases, ruled nations. Eleanor Herman's Sex with Kings takes us into the throne rooms and bedrooms of Europe's most powerful monarchs. Alive with flamboyant characters, outrageous humor, and stirring poignancy, this glittering tale of passion and politics chronicles five hundred years of scintillating women and the kings who loved them.
Curiously, the main function of a royal mistress was not to provide the king with sex but with companionship. Forced to marry repulsive foreign princesses, kings sought solace with women of their own choice. And what women they were! From Madame de Pompadour, the famous mistress of Louis XV, who kept her position for nineteen years despite her frigidity, to modern-day Camilla Parker-Bowles, who usurped none other than the glamorous Diana, Princess of Wales.
The successful royal mistress made herself irreplaceable. She was ready to converse gaily with him when she was tired, make love until all hours when she was ill, and cater to his every whim. Wearing a mask of beaming delight over any and all discomforts, she was never to be exhausted, complaining, or grief-stricken.
True, financial rewards for services rendered were of royal proportions -- some royal mistresses earned up to $200 million in titles, pensions, jewels, and palaces. Some kings allowed their mistresses to exercise unlimited political power. But for all its grandeur, a royal court was a scorpion's nest of insatiable greed, unquenchable lust, and vicious ambition. Hundreds of beautiful women vied to unseat the royal mistress. Many would suffer the slings and arrows of negative public opinion, some met with tragic ends and were pensioned off to make room for younger women. But the royal mistress often had the last laugh, as she lived well and richly off the fruits of her "sins."
From the dawn of time, power has been a mighty aphrodisiac. With diaries, personal letters, and diplomatic dispatches, Eleanor Herman's trailblazing research reveals the dynamics of sex and power, rivalry and revenge, at the most brilliant courts of Europe. Wickedly witty and endlessly entertaining, Sex with Kings is a chapter of women's history that has remained unwritten -- until now.
About the Author
Eleanor Herman was born in Baltimore, Maryland. She studied journalism and German at Towson State University and languages in Europe. For eight years she was associate publisher for North America for NATO's Nations and Partners for Peace magazine. She is married and lives in McLean, Virginia, where she writes history from a woman's perspective.
Sex with Kings homepage
http://www.sexwithkings.com/
Washington Post Review
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A19416-2004Jun30.html
Royal mistress entry from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_mistress
The Mistresses of Charles IIby Brenda Ralph Lewis
http://www.britannia.com/history/charmist.html
The king's mistress - a royal tradition
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/4465399.stm
The mistress with the mostest
http://www.buzzle.com/editorials/10-13-2002-28131.asp
Madame de Pompadour
http://departments.kings.edu/womens_history/pompadou.html
Book: Sex with kings : 500 years of adultery, power, rivalry, and revenge by Eleanor Herman.
Book Description
Throughout the centuries, royal mistresses have been worshiped, feared, envied, and reviled. They set the fashions, encouraged the arts, and, in some cases, ruled nations. Eleanor Herman's Sex with Kings takes us into the throne rooms and bedrooms of Europe's most powerful monarchs. Alive with flamboyant characters, outrageous humor, and stirring poignancy, this glittering tale of passion and politics chronicles five hundred years of scintillating women and the kings who loved them.
Curiously, the main function of a royal mistress was not to provide the king with sex but with companionship. Forced to marry repulsive foreign princesses, kings sought solace with women of their own choice. And what women they were! From Madame de Pompadour, the famous mistress of Louis XV, who kept her position for nineteen years despite her frigidity, to modern-day Camilla Parker-Bowles, who usurped none other than the glamorous Diana, Princess of Wales.
The successful royal mistress made herself irreplaceable. She was ready to converse gaily with him when she was tired, make love until all hours when she was ill, and cater to his every whim. Wearing a mask of beaming delight over any and all discomforts, she was never to be exhausted, complaining, or grief-stricken.
True, financial rewards for services rendered were of royal proportions -- some royal mistresses earned up to $200 million in titles, pensions, jewels, and palaces. Some kings allowed their mistresses to exercise unlimited political power. But for all its grandeur, a royal court was a scorpion's nest of insatiable greed, unquenchable lust, and vicious ambition. Hundreds of beautiful women vied to unseat the royal mistress. Many would suffer the slings and arrows of negative public opinion, some met with tragic ends and were pensioned off to make room for younger women. But the royal mistress often had the last laugh, as she lived well and richly off the fruits of her "sins."
From the dawn of time, power has been a mighty aphrodisiac. With diaries, personal letters, and diplomatic dispatches, Eleanor Herman's trailblazing research reveals the dynamics of sex and power, rivalry and revenge, at the most brilliant courts of Europe. Wickedly witty and endlessly entertaining, Sex with Kings is a chapter of women's history that has remained unwritten -- until now.
About the Author
Eleanor Herman was born in Baltimore, Maryland. She studied journalism and German at Towson State University and languages in Europe. For eight years she was associate publisher for North America for NATO's Nations and Partners for Peace magazine. She is married and lives in McLean, Virginia, where she writes history from a woman's perspective.
Sex with Kings homepage
http://www.sexwithkings.com/
Washington Post Review
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A19416-2004Jun30.html
Royal mistress entry from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_mistress
The Mistresses of Charles IIby Brenda Ralph Lewis
http://www.britannia.com/history/charmist.html
The king's mistress - a royal tradition
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/4465399.stm
The mistress with the mostest
http://www.buzzle.com/editorials/10-13-2002-28131.asp
Madame de Pompadour
http://departments.kings.edu/womens_history/pompadou.html
Sunday, January 01, 2006
January 2006 Book
Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil
Meeting Date: January 23, 2006 7:00 PM
Book Description
Shots rang out in Savannah's grandest mansion in the misty,early morning hours of May 2, 1981. Was it murder or self-defense? For nearly a decade, the shooting and its aftermath reverberated throughout this hauntingly beautiful city of moss-hung oaks and shaded squares. John Berendt's sharply observed, suspenseful, and witty narrative reads like a thoroughly engrossing novel, and yet it is a work of nonfiction. Berendt skillfully interweaves a hugely entertaining first-person account of life in this isolated remnant of the Old South with the unpredictable twists and turns of a landmark murder case.It is a spellbinding story peopled by a gallery of remarkable characters: the well-bred society ladies of the Married Woman's Card Club; the turbulent young redneck gigolo; the hapless recluse who owns a bottle of poison so powerful it could kill every man, woman, and child in Savannah; the aging and profane Southern belle who is the "soul of pampered self-absorption"; the uproariously funny black drag queen; the acerbic and arrogant antiques dealer; the sweet-talking, piano-playing con artist; young blacks dancing the minuet at the black debutante ball; and Minerva, the voodoo priestess who works her magic in the graveyard at midnight. These and other Savannahians act as a Greek chorus, with Berendt revealing the alliances, hostilities, and intrigues that thrive in a town where everyone knows everyone else. (from: Amazon.com)
About the Author
John Berendt writes a monthly column for Esquire. He has been the editor of New York magazine and lives in New York. (from: Amazon.com)
Links:
Last Word Book Club: Summary, bio, reviews and more!
Meeting Date: January 23, 2006 7:00 PM
Book Description
Shots rang out in Savannah's grandest mansion in the misty,early morning hours of May 2, 1981. Was it murder or self-defense? For nearly a decade, the shooting and its aftermath reverberated throughout this hauntingly beautiful city of moss-hung oaks and shaded squares. John Berendt's sharply observed, suspenseful, and witty narrative reads like a thoroughly engrossing novel, and yet it is a work of nonfiction. Berendt skillfully interweaves a hugely entertaining first-person account of life in this isolated remnant of the Old South with the unpredictable twists and turns of a landmark murder case.It is a spellbinding story peopled by a gallery of remarkable characters: the well-bred society ladies of the Married Woman's Card Club; the turbulent young redneck gigolo; the hapless recluse who owns a bottle of poison so powerful it could kill every man, woman, and child in Savannah; the aging and profane Southern belle who is the "soul of pampered self-absorption"; the uproariously funny black drag queen; the acerbic and arrogant antiques dealer; the sweet-talking, piano-playing con artist; young blacks dancing the minuet at the black debutante ball; and Minerva, the voodoo priestess who works her magic in the graveyard at midnight. These and other Savannahians act as a Greek chorus, with Berendt revealing the alliances, hostilities, and intrigues that thrive in a town where everyone knows everyone else. (from: Amazon.com)
About the Author
John Berendt writes a monthly column for Esquire. He has been the editor of New York magazine and lives in New York. (from: Amazon.com)
Links:
Last Word Book Club: Summary, bio, reviews and more!
Thursday, December 01, 2005
Thursday, November 10, 2005
November Book
The Language of Baklava : A Memoir by Diana Abu-Jaber
Meeting date: November 28, 2005 7:00 PM
Book Description:
From the acclaimed author of Crescent, called “radiant, wise, and passionate” by the Chicago Tribune, here is a vibrant, humorous memoir of growing up with a gregarious Jordanian father who loved to cook. Diana Abu-Jaber weaves the story of her life in upstate New York and in Jordan around vividly remembered meals: everything from Lake Ontario shish kabob cookouts with her Arab-American cousins to goat stew feasts under a Bedouin tent in the desert. These sensuously evoked meals in turn illuminate the two cultures of Diana’s childhood–American and Jordanian–and the richness and difficulty of straddling both. They also bring her wonderfully eccentric family to life, most memorably her imperious American grandmother and her impractical, hotheaded, displaced immigrant father, who, like many an immigrant before him, cooked to remember the place he came from and to pass that connection on to his children.
As she does in her fiction, Diana draws us in with her exquisite insight and compassion, and with her amazing talent for describing food and the myriad pleasures and adventures associated with cooking and eating. Each chapter contains mouthwatering recipes for many of the dishes described, from her Middle Eastern grandmother’s Mad Genius Knaffea to her American grandmother’s Easy Roast Beef, to her aunt Aya’s Poetic Baklava. The Language of Baklava gives us the chance not only to grow up alongside Diana, but also to share meals with her every step of the way–unforgettable feasts that teach her, and us, as much about iden-tity, love, and family as they do about food.
From: Amazon.com
About the Author
Diana Abu-Jaber is the author of Crescent, which was awarded the 2004 PEN Center USA Award for Literary Fiction and the Before Columbus Foundation’s American Book Award and was named one of the twenty best novels of 2003 by The Christian Science Monitor, and Arabian Jazz, which won the 1994 Oregon Book Award and was nominated for the PEN/Faulkner Award. She teaches at Portland State University and divides her time between Portland and Miami.
From: Amazon.com
Websites:
History of Baklava
http://www.kitchenproject.com/history/Baklava.htm
Meeting date: November 28, 2005 7:00 PM
Book Description:
From the acclaimed author of Crescent, called “radiant, wise, and passionate” by the Chicago Tribune, here is a vibrant, humorous memoir of growing up with a gregarious Jordanian father who loved to cook. Diana Abu-Jaber weaves the story of her life in upstate New York and in Jordan around vividly remembered meals: everything from Lake Ontario shish kabob cookouts with her Arab-American cousins to goat stew feasts under a Bedouin tent in the desert. These sensuously evoked meals in turn illuminate the two cultures of Diana’s childhood–American and Jordanian–and the richness and difficulty of straddling both. They also bring her wonderfully eccentric family to life, most memorably her imperious American grandmother and her impractical, hotheaded, displaced immigrant father, who, like many an immigrant before him, cooked to remember the place he came from and to pass that connection on to his children.
As she does in her fiction, Diana draws us in with her exquisite insight and compassion, and with her amazing talent for describing food and the myriad pleasures and adventures associated with cooking and eating. Each chapter contains mouthwatering recipes for many of the dishes described, from her Middle Eastern grandmother’s Mad Genius Knaffea to her American grandmother’s Easy Roast Beef, to her aunt Aya’s Poetic Baklava. The Language of Baklava gives us the chance not only to grow up alongside Diana, but also to share meals with her every step of the way–unforgettable feasts that teach her, and us, as much about iden-tity, love, and family as they do about food.
From: Amazon.com
About the Author
Diana Abu-Jaber is the author of Crescent, which was awarded the 2004 PEN Center USA Award for Literary Fiction and the Before Columbus Foundation’s American Book Award and was named one of the twenty best novels of 2003 by The Christian Science Monitor, and Arabian Jazz, which won the 1994 Oregon Book Award and was nominated for the PEN/Faulkner Award. She teaches at Portland State University and divides her time between Portland and Miami.
From: Amazon.com
Websites:
History of Baklava
http://www.kitchenproject.com/history/Baklava.htm
Monday, October 03, 2005
October Book
In a Sunburned Country by Bill Bryson
Bill Bryson was born in Des Moines, Iowa, in 1951. A backpacking expedition in 1973 brought him to England where he met his wife and decided to settle. He wrote for the English newspapers The Times and The Independent for many years, writing travel articles to supplement his income. He lived with his family in North Yorkshire before moving back to the States in 1995, to Hanover, New Hampshire, with his wife and four children. In 2003 he and his family moved back to England, where they currently reside.
From: Official Bill Bryson Website: http://www.randomhouse.com/features/billbryson/
Bill Bryson was born in Des Moines, Iowa, in 1951. A backpacking expedition in 1973 brought him to England where he met his wife and decided to settle. He wrote for the English newspapers The Times and The Independent for many years, writing travel articles to supplement his income. He lived with his family in North Yorkshire before moving back to the States in 1995, to Hanover, New Hampshire, with his wife and four children. In 2003 he and his family moved back to England, where they currently reside.
From: Official Bill Bryson Website: http://www.randomhouse.com/features/billbryson/
Reviews:
Random House http://www.randomhouse.com/features/billbryson/bookshelf5.html
Yale Review http://www.yale.edu/yrb/summer01/review11.htm
Amazon reviews: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/product-description/0767903862/ref=dp_proddesc_0/104-1191621-3053544?%5Fencoding=UTF8&n=283155Book Browse.com http://www.bookbrowse.com/reviews/index.cfm?book_number=553
aaabookserch: http://www.aaabooksearch.com/Reviews/0767903862
Bill Bryson Books at DC Public Library
- A short history of nearly everything (2003) 500 B9166
- Bryson's dictionary of troublesome words (2002) 423.1 B916
- Bill Bryson's African diary (2002) 916.762 B916
- In a sunburned country (2000) 919.4046 B916
- I'm a stranger here myself: notes on returning to America after twenty years away (1999)973.92 B916
- A walk in the woods: rediscovering America on the Appalachian Trail (1998) 917.4044 B916
- Notes from a small island (1996) 914.1048 B916
- Made in America: an informal history of the English language in the United States (1994)420.973 B916
- Neither here nor there: travels in Europe (1992) 914.0455 B916N
- The mother tongue: English and how it got that way (1990) 420.9 B916
- The lost continent: travels in small-town America (1989) 917.3049 B916
Travel:
- Tourism Australia http://www.australia.com/home_us.aust?L=en&C=US
- Australia Travel Search http://www.australiatravelsearch.com.au/
- Walk about Australian Travel Guide http://www.walkabout.com.au/
- Lonely Planet –Australia http://www.lonelyplanet.com/worldguide/destinations/pacific/australia
History:
- Australian History on the Internet http://www.nla.gov.au/oz/histsite.html
- Brief Timeline http://www.clickforaustralia.com/History.htm
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