Van Wylen Library

George Armstrong Custer died 132 years ago on this date during the Battle of the Little Bighorn, called the Battle of the Greasy Grass by the Lakota and Northern Cheyenne. Two years ago, when gasoline was less than $2.00 per gallon, I stood on the battle site and marveled at how little was actually there. A river, some low hills, and heat. A lot of heat. I imagined being on those hills in a woolen uniform, far from home, and wished I could remember more of what I had read about the battle. If you want to do some armchair traveling to the west this summer, you might want to start with Custer. We can even save you gas money to the library. Many of our sources on this subject are electronic books you can read from home.

On June 19, 1865 Union soldiers landed at Galveston,Texas with the news that the war had ended and the slaves were now free. This date became Freedom Day, Emancipation Day, or just Juneteenth: a day now recognized by 26 states, including Michigan, as a holiday. Almost one hundred years later people who would come to be called “freedom riders” risked their lives to protest segregation in public transportation in the south by riding buses. We recently acquired Raymond Arsenault’s book “Freedom Riders: 1961 and the Struggle for Racial Justice“, considered to be the first full length history of this movement. Even newer is “Breach of Peace: Portraits of the 1961 Mississippi Freedom Riders” in which Eric Etheridge remembers the riders. He uses their mug shots, current portaits and their own words to tell the stories of these brave citizens. The book has been called “breathtaking” by reviewers. What are you doing this summer?

There are many lists in the literary world: bestsellers, prize winners, someone’s favorite. A fairly new prize is The Sami Rohr Prize, established in 2006 by Mr. Rohr’s familty to honor this businessman and philanthropist’s love of Jewish literature. We happen to have the winner: The Man in the White Sharkskin Suit: My Family’s Exodus from Old Cairo to the New World; and two runners up: Houses of Study: A Jewish Woman Among Books, and The Price of Whiteness: Jews, Race and American Identity. Add one of these to your beach reading list and expand your mind this summer.

The invasion of Normandy began on June 6, 1944, the date most people think of when they hear the term D-Day. What was life like here in Holland during that war?? Thanks to a gift from Elton Bruins, we have a circulating copy of a new book edited by two members of the Hope College HASP group, Eileen Nordstrom and George D. Zuidema, MD, called Hope at the Crossroads: the War Years which can give us some idea. It is a delightful collection of remembrances written by Hope alumni and alumnae (I was particularly amused by the writer who explains charades to the electronic generation). The photographs and illustrations are also wonderful. If you love Hope, history, or storytelling this is the book for you.

For many the Memorial Day holiday we celebrated Monday signals the beginning of summer. When I think summer I think new ways of cooking and new foods to cook. You have access to a lot of cookbooks through the library, some of them electronic, and you can find them in a very long list using the very silly subject heading Cookery. But if you want new ideas on how to handle summer’s bounty, check out Vegan Planet, a huge book of vegan dishes. And if you want to take the party outside, try James Beard’s classic Complete Book of Outdoor Cookery. Feed more than your mind at the library.