Check It Out

“Making the decision to have a child – it’s momentous. It is to decide forever to have your heart go walking around outside your body.”
Elizabeth Stone

Mother’s Day has been an official holiday in America since 1914, when Woodrow Wilson signed a bill designating the second Sunday of May as our day to honor mothers. However, setting aside a day to celebrate and honor mothers goes back to ancient times – the Romans held annual spring festivals dedicated to Cybele, the Great Mother of Gods.

Today we celebrate with food (the second Sunday of May is the most popular day in America for dining out), a call home (it’s also the day when phone lines are the busiest) or beautiful flowers (carnations are the most popular).

Some books by and about mothers-beautiful, funny and thought provoking:

Mother: A Cradle to Hold Me by Maya Angelou

Mother Dance: How Children Change Your Life by Harriet Goldhor Lerner

Mothers: A Celebration by Alexandra Stoddard

Motherhood: The Second Oldest Profession by Erma Bombeck

Mothers Who Think: Tales of Real-Life Parenthood ed. by Camille Peri

The Wauwatosa Public Library Foundation invites you to join us in honoring the leaders of our community at the Spring Leadership Luncheon, Monday, May 21st at 12 noon at the Zoofari Conference Center.

The keynote speaker will be Steve Rushin, author of Steve Rushin's Air and Space column in Sports Illustrated. In addition to his writing for Sports Illustrated, Steve Rushin has written Road Swing: One Fan's Journey into the Soul of American Sports and The Caddie Was a Reindeer: And Other Tales of Extreme Recreation.

Presentation of the Arthur B. Kohasky Leadership Award will go to Tim Winn, longtime volunteer in the Tosa Kickers Soccer Club. Now, as Director of Coaching and Referee Coordinator, Tim Winn has, over the last 28 years, dedicated his time, energy and skill to help build a very successful program that now includes over 1500 players. Leadership awards will also be presented to local students: Rachel Brown, Claire Davis, Kimberly Lehninger, Elise Libbey, Carolyn Meinerz and Andrew Pierson.

Registration begins at 11:30 a.m. at the Zoofari Center and the Luncheon program is from 12 noon to 1:15 p.m. Steve Rushin will be available for book signing after the program. Tickets are $35.00 and may be purchased in advance at the Library Information Desk.

Books

Bidermeier: The Invention of Simplicity by Hans Ottomeyer
A beautiful book published in conjunction with the exhibition at the Milwaukee Art Museum

Crazy ’08: How a Cast of Cranks, Rogues, Boneheads, and Magnates Created the Greatest Year in Baseball History by Cait Murphy

Debating Race with Michael Eric Dyson by Michael Eric Dyson

Good Husband of Zebra Drive by Alexander McCall Smith
Latest book in the No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency series

How to Live in Small Spaces by Terence Conran

Laugh Lines: Short Comic Plays ed. By Eric Lane
An anthology featuring 36 amusing short plays by major American playwrights including Steve Martin, Elaine May and Shel Silverstein

Luncheon of the Boating Party by Susan Vreeland
The author, once again, using art history as a basis for her historical novel-this time the subject is Auguste Renoir’s painting

Planet Earth: As You’ve Never Seen It Before by Alastair Fothergill
Companion to the acclaimed Discovery Channel/BBC series includes over 400 photographs of wondrous natural landscapes around the world

Taj Mahal by Diana Preston
History of one the world’s most beautiful and famous architectural landmarks

Yiddish Policemen’s Union: A Novel by Michael Chabon
An alternate history of Jewish life since World War II

Books on CD

Grace (eventually): Thoughts on Faith by Anne Lamott

My Life in France by Julia Child and Alex Prud’Homme
Julia Child’s grandnephew completed this memoir of the famous chef’s life in France as a newlywed and the beginning of her love of French food and culture

Nineteen Minutes by Jodi Picoult

Step on a Crack by James Patterson

Whitethorn Woods by Maeve Binchy

CDs

Aria-Opera without Words-Jean-Yves Thibaudet
Operatic selections arranged and played by pianist, Jean-Yves Thibaudet

Endless Highway: The Music of the Band

Heroes Symphony: The Light-Philip Glass

Some Loud Thunder-Clap Your Hands Say Yeah

WOW Gospel 2007: 30 of the Year’s Top Gospel Artists and Songs

DVDs

Curse of the Golden Flower

Extras: The Complete First Season

Last King of Scotland

Person to Person. Edward R. Murrow, the Best of Person to Person
Murrow interviews American icons, Hollywood legends and legendary entertainers

This Film Is Not Yet Rated

Several states have a historic Laura Ingalls Wilder house, museum or at least a park. Since Wilder was a true pioneer moving frequently in search of land and opportunity, at least four states may claim to be the home state of Laura Ingalls Wilder.

The setting for the first “Little House” book, Little House in the Big Woods, is located near Lake Pepin in Wisconsin. A log cabin replica now marks the birthplace and early childhood home of Wilder. Another log cabin replica marks the site of Wilder’s second home, which is located on open prairie near Independence, Missouri, the setting for Little House on the Prairie. Soon after Pa (Charles Wilder) built the one-room log cabin, a treaty signed between the Osage Indians and the United States government in 1868 forced all the settlers, including the Wilder family, to leave the Osage Indian Reserve.

The Laura Ingalls Wilder Historic Highway runs along Highway 14 through southern Minnesota into South Dakota. The sod dugout and “wonderful house” described in On the Banks of Plum Creek are long gone, however, historical markers, a museum and a tourist information center emphasize Laura Ingalls Wilder’s connections to Walnut Grove, Minnesota.

De Smet, South Dakota, the setting for five of the “Little House” books, By the Shores of Silver Lake, The Long Winter, Little Town on the Prairie, These Happy Golden Years, and The First Four Years, is where Wilder spent her teen-age years, met and married her husband, Almanzo Wilder, and experienced the joy of the birth of her daughter, Rose. It was also a place of great tragedy for the Wilder family. Laura and Almanzo almost died from diphtheria, their son died 12 days after he was born and their house burned down. The Surveyors’ House, Sigurd Anderson School, Loftus Store, Ingalls Home and Wilder Homestead are among the many historical sites mentioned in the books that may be seen today. Regrettably, the Silver Lake was drained in 1923.

In 1894, Laura and Almanzo Wilder gave up their dream of establishing a permanent home on the prairie and moved to Mansfield, Missouri, where they bought Rocky Ridge Farm. They hoped that the milder climate of the Ozarks would improve Almanzo Wilder’s health, which had continued to decline after his bout with diphtheria. This would be the Wilder family’s last move and Laura Ingalls Wilder would live here until her death in 1957 at age 90. Here she wrote her “Little House” books, starting with Little House in the Big Woods, published 75 years ago in 1932. Even though her books end in De Smet, there are many Wilder sites located in or near Mansfield such as the Laura Ingalls Wilder—Rose Wilder Lane Historic Home and Museum, the Rock House and the Mansfield Cemetery.

Historic sites connected to Laura Ingalls Wilder are scattered from New York to California. The original farmhouse, where Almanzo Wilder was born, in Malone, New York, is the setting for Farmer Boy. There are historic Laura Ingalls Wilder sites in Burr Oak, Iowa and Spring Valley, Minnesota; places Wilder had lived, but did not mention in her books. The original manuscript to Little Town on the Prairie is displayed in the Laura Ingalls Wilder Room of the Pomona Public Library in Pomona, California.

Visiting Laura Ingalls Wilder historic sites is a perfect family summer road trip, that will give children a feel for the daily joys and hardships of pioneer life. Check out these books to plan an educational and entertaining trip back to pioneer days:

Laura Ingalls Wilder Country by William Anderson

Laura’s Album: A Remembrance Scrapbook of Laura Ingalls Wilder
by William Anderson

The Little House Guidebook by William Anderson

Little House in the Ozarks: the Rediscovered Writings by Laura Ingalls Wilder

Pioneer Girl: the Story of Laura Ingalls Wilder by William Anderson

Searching for Laura Ingalls by Kathryn Lasky

The World of Little House by Carolyn Strom Collins

Laura Fitzgerald is the pen name of a former Wauwatosa resident who recently published her first novel, Veil of Roses. “Laura” graduated from Christ King, Divine Savior – Holy Angels and UW-Madison. She currently lives in Tucson.

Through Tami, the novel’s main character, the reader will see America in a new light. Tami revels in everyday freedoms that Americans take for granted. She needs to find a husband before her visa expires or go back to Iran. The would-be husbands provide some comic relief.

Her older sister, who lives in Tucson, has different memories of earlier years and some family secrets that help Tami understand her parents.

A quick read, worth the time.

Join us as Laura Fitzgerald reads from and signs copies of her book, Wednesday, June 27th at 7:00 p.m. in the Library's Firefly Room.