BOMBAY ANNA : THE REAL STORY AND REMARKABLE ADVENTURES OF THE KING AND I GOVERNESS
by Susan Morgan

The Rogers and Hammerstein 1950s musical The King and I conjures up unforgettable memories. We envision Deborah Kerr and Yul Brynner dancing together amongst the people of Siam.
The movie was supposed to portray real life events at that time, but in truth it was mostly fictionalized. But, then again, Anna's life was an invention, too.
Anna Leonowens was born as a mixed-race army brat and lived with her family, in extreme poverty, in India. When she went to work for the King of Siam to teach his children and wives English, in the 1860s, she was not British, as she claimed. That was her first invention. She stayed for five years and then reinvented herself as an author, journalist, teacher, and lecturer living in the United States and Canada.
Bombay Anna is a densely, detailed biography which took author Susan Morgan ten years to research and who found facts that had eluded other writers.
The book has quite an extensive bibliography, an index, two appendices and black and white photographs.
A fascinating account of a remarkable woman.

SEE YOU IN A HUNDRED YEARS : FOUR SEASONS IN FORGOTTEN AMERICA
by Logan Ward

Imagine what it would be like to walk away from the twenty-first century and give up telephones, computers, electricity, cars, supermarkets; everything that is familiar and taken for granted.
Logan Ward and his wife, Heather, after becoming worn down from their rat race life in New York, pull up stakes and move to rural Virginia to live as dirt farmers, but in the year 1900.
They learn how to cook on a wood stove, milk their two goats (Heather becomes quite adept at making cheese), harvest their crops, can food to store in their root cellar, how to drive a wagon, and use tools that were available back then.
See You in a Hundred Years is a wonderful book and beautifully written.
Highly recommended.

THE ASSASSIN'S ACCOMPLICE : MARY SURRATT AND THE PLOT TO KILL ABRAHAM LINCOLN
by Kate Clifford Larson

Three days after John Wilkes Booth murdered Abraham Lincoln at Ford's Theatre, Mary Surratt was arrested on April 17, 1865. She was a Confederate sympathizer who ran a boardinghouse in Washington. There the conspirators met, along with her rebel son John, to plan the assassination. In less than three months, Mary became the first woman ever to be executed by the federal government of the United States.
The Assassin's Accomplice reveals Mary's deep involvement in the plot via interviews, testimonies of the court and confessions.
The book is extremely well written and a great read.

THE MONSTER OF FLORENCE
by Douglas Preston

In August of 2000, Douglas Preston, along with his wife and two young children, moved from their farmhouse in Maine to a tiny town in Italy. Douglas, who is a journalist and murder mystery writer, was planning on writing a novel about a lost painting. While doing research, he was introduced to Mario Spezi, who was known as a famous crime reporter in the Tuscany region. Spezi told Preston that between 1974 and 1985 seven couples were brutally murdered while making love in parked cars in the hills of Florence.
The case has never been solved and the murderer has never been found.
Preston and Spezi work together to seek out the truth and to track down the killer.
The Monster of Florence is suspenseful, chilling and shocking.
Great writing by a masterful author.
Highly recommended, but not for the faint-hearted.

PIG CANDY : TAKING MY FATHER SOUTH, TAKING MY FATHER HOME
by Lise Funderburg

Lise Funderburg, a mixed-race woman, was raised in an integrated neighborhood of Philadelphia. While growing up, she could never understand her father; why he was so strict, so demanding, never around. The only thing she knew about his past was that he had grown up in the Jim Crow South and had fled its oppression.
When Funderburg is in her forties, her father is diagnosed with terminal cancer. From this point on, the two of them travel, on several trips, from Philadelphia to Jasper County, Georgia, his hometown.
In Pig Candy the author writes about the rural South, pecan groves, farms, families and pork.
Her relationship with her father has its moments, but they become closer.
A beautifully written story about living life to its fullest.
Highly recommended.

BOOKS : A MEMOIR
by Larry McMurtry

Larry McMurtry is not only a prolific writer of forty books, such as Lonesome Dove, The Last Picture Show, Terms of Endearment, etc., but he has become one of America's most established bookmen.
In Books: A Memoir McMurtry writes about his passion for books, traveling all over the United States as a scout and collector to eventually open up stores for his rare finds in Texas.
He grew up in a ranch house that was bookless. His parents never read him any stories, which is why, he said, he's made up so many.
1942 was the year that changed his life, when his cousin Robert Hilburn, on his way to enlist in the war, gave him a box of nineteen books.
There's interesting trivia, gossip, anecdotes, crazy characters and observations about authors and literature.
The chapters are small comprised of either one or two pages, but they each pack a wallop of information.
A charming work that is both revealing and extremely satisfying.

TO THE HEART OF THE NILE : LADY FLORENCE BAKER AND THE EXPLORATION OF CENTRAL AFRICA
by Pat Shipman

Born in Transylvania, in 1845, Florence Szasz became orphaned during the Hungarian Revolution and was raised in a harem in the Ottoman Empire. When she was fourteen, she was sold, to the highest bidder, in a white slave auction. Samuel Baker, a wealthy Englishman and adventurer, was one of the assembled men, in the room and felt compassion and empathy towards her. He boldly abducted Florence and they escaped, in a carriage, through Central Europe.
In To the Heart of the Nile Pat Shipman deftly reconstructs letters, journals, documents and private papers to tell the amazing story of these two stalwart people. They travelled to Africa and stayed there for four years, where they confronted disease, starvation, hostile natives, betrayal, bloodshed and human cruelty. Four years later, the couple returned to Africa as Samuel was given the position of governor-general and told to eradicate the slave trade on the White Nile.
The book is an engrossing tale of bravery, determination and unshakeable love.
Heartily recommended.