The Book of Negroes by Lawrence Hill

 So here's a bit of history I didn't know.  During the Revolutionary War, the British promised freedom to any slave who would help them defeat the colonists.  Unfortunately the British lost but before there was any kind of USA and before the Red Coats headed back to England, they tried to make good on their promise.  They collected the names of any Negro who could show that they had helped and put those identified on ships to Nova Scotia with promises of free land. This record became the real "Book of Negroes."  Pages of this book can be found in museums in Canada, England and our National Archives Public Records Office.  The promise of free land was not so real.  

This is the story of Aminata Diallo who could` have been one of the names in that book.  But her story starts much earlier.  As an 11 year old girl, in 1745, she is taken from her village and marched to the West Coast of Africa where she joined hundreds of others on a ship bound for the Americas. Her mother had trained her to deliver babies and her father had taught her to read some of the Koran but neither parent survived to make the horrible journey across the Atlantic.  For various reasons, Aminata has some freedom to move about the ship and, as she does, those who are chained together call out their names to her.  As she moves back and forth, she calls them back proving that she will remember.  It is a belief in many of the West African cultures that you die twice.  Once when your body dies and again when your name is no longer spoken. This struggle to remember is one of my favorite parts of the book.

Hill wisely starts the book with Aminata's adult story so you know she not only survives but has obtained a position of some importance.  Knowing this made the heart braking story of her life possible to read.  This is one of the best personal slave stories I have ever read.  I hope that the strong and brilliant ways she manages to make her way to freedom were just as possible as the horrible side of slavery was true.  And that we will remember.

The Book of Lost Friends by Lisa Wingate

 When slavery ended many people went in search of family members that were sold off long ago.  Ads were placed in the Southwestern Christian Advocate giving names, dates and places related to those who were lost.  These real ads from this real paper were read aloud in black churches at the time hoping to reconnect these families.  It is these ads that form the basis of this story.  

In 1885, Hannie, a freed slave, gets into a whole mess of trouble with two young women connected to her former master's household.  Hannie is in search of anyone who is possession of three blue beads similar to the ones she wears around her neck. She also hopes to help Lavinia and Juneau Jane find the truth of their inheritance.  In 1985, Benny Silva finds herself teaching in rural Louisiana searching for anything that will excite and engage her mostly poor students. So much history to discover as the stories work their way toward each other.  So much culture to explore.  Not sure how real the ending is but it is definitely sigh worthy.

The Lost Book of the Grail by Charlie Lovett

Arthurian legend; British history; questions of faith; contemporary mystery; even a love story - what's not to like?  In 2016, Professor Arthur Prescott is happiest in the library of Barchester Cathedral among medieval texts and his own Penguin copies of P.G. Wodehouse.  But our story really starts in A.D. 560 in the ruins of St. Ewolda Monastery.  Barchester and Ewolda are figments of Lovett's imagination but the story hangs on many real people and events in British and literary history.  Pure escapist fun for anyone who believes in the magic of books and libraries ... and maybe the grail.

The Personal Librarian by Marie Benedict and Victoria Christopher Murray

 In 1905 J. Pierpont Morgan was one of the wealthiest men in the world.  He was also passionate about collecting art and rare books.  He had already completed the grand structure necessary to hold the collection. He just needed the right person to be his personal librarian.  Meanwhile his nephew Junius Morgan, an honorary staff member of the Princeton University library,  had taken notice of a young librarian, Belle de Costa Greene and arranged for her interview at the Morgan Library. The rest is history.  With the brilliant Belle at the helm, the Morgan Library went on become the repository of an amazing art and rare book collection.  But Belle's success came at great personal cost for she must keep secret the truth of who she really is.  Belle's story and the history surrounding her life are both disturbing and fascinating.  I especially respect Benedict's choice to include Murray in the writing to make it all the more authentic. One of my favorites this year.

The Bookman's Tale by Charlie Lovett

In 1592, a group of literary types including Christopher Marlowe and bookseller Bartholomew Harbottle gather at an alehouse discussing, among other things, the unlikely success of an upstart named Will Shakespeare.  In 1983, Peter Byerly finds himself working in the special collections room of Ridgefield University Library.  At his first touch of a first edition quarto printing of Hamlet, he is hooked.  He will find passion for two things there; the lovely Amanda and the world of old books.In 1995, Peter, now a successful book collector is living in the Welsh village of Hay-on-Wye in a cottage he had hoped to share with Amanda.  He is invited into the library of a local land owner to assess some items in that collection and what he finds sends him on a journey across the centuries.

In alternating chapters, murder is committed, forgeries are discovered,  and family feuds are revealed - all in the name of rare books.  This well researched work of fiction will leave the avid bibliophile either questioning or convinced of the existence of a great writer named Shakespeare.  Even if the thought of discovering the "Holy Grail" of antiquarian book collecting isn't on your bucket list, the fast paced mystery will be entertaining enough.

How to Avoid a Climate Disaster by Bill Gates

 Subtitle: the solutions we have and the breakthroughs we need.  At some point way too late in the game, this very bright man realized a climate connection to all his efforts on world health and education and began doing the reading and research.  Kudos to the simple clear presentation of all that.  His solution to the problem - more R&D to find a way to remove the carbon we must continue to release if society is to continue to progress.  He does acknowledge that his lifestyle creates a large carbon footprint which he then hopes to balance with large offset donations to these projects.  Offsets always feels like the logic of indulgences in the early church - not really a solution.  I wish it were more hopeful.  

Carnegie's Maid by Marie Benedict

Two young women named Clara Kelley left Ireland in 1862 for America. They never met but both were headed to Pittsburgh. One planned to stay with relatives until she could find a job and send money home to her desperately poor family.  The other already had a job offer as a ladies maid to the mother of Andrew Carnegie. One Clara died aboard the ship and the other assumed the job at the Carnegie household in her place.  Clara had no experience with this kind of wealth but her father had made sure she was well read which gave her enough imagined experience to step into this role.  It was her cleverness, independence and great curiosity that made her so attractive to the young Andrew.  As their friendship grew they learned much from each other which sent both down paths they has not anticipated.  Clara was not a real person but Benedict imagines the kind of interactions that would have caused one of the most ruthless giants of the gilded age, the real Andrew Carnegie, to give away his fortune mostly to promote education.  Maybe, maybe not. Either way it is a new lens for that time.