Helen Plum Library

"In The Comfort of Crows, Margaret Renkl presents a literary devotional: fifty-two chapters that follow the creatures and plants in her backyard over the course of a year. As we move through the seasons -- from a crow spied on New Year's Day, its resourcefulness and sense of community setting a theme for the year, to the lingering bluebirds of December, revisiting the nest box they used in spring -- what develops is a portrait of joy and grief: joy...

"Anne Glenconner has been at the center of the royal circle from childhood, when she met and befriended the future Queen Elizabeth II and her sister, the Princess Margaret. Though the firstborn child of the 5th Earl of Leicester, who controlled one of the largest estates in England, as a daughter she was deemed "the greatest disappointment" and unable to inherit. Since then she has needed all her resilience to survive the vipers of court life with...

"A memoir by the author of And I shall have some peace there about how [her] surrender to gardening saved her life"--Provided by the publisher

"The New York Times bestselling author of Blackberry Winter imagines the inspiration for Goodnight Moon Goodnight Moon is an adored childhood classic, but its real origins are lost to history. In Goodnight June, Sarah Jio offers a suspenseful and heartfelt take on how the "great green room" might have come to be. June Andersen is professionally successful, but her personal life is marred by unhappiness. Unexpectedly, she is called to settle her great-aunt...

She made John Lennon blush and Marlon Brando tongue-tied. She iced out Princess Diana and humiliated Elizabeth Taylor. Andy Warhol photographed her. Jack Nicholson offered her cocaine. Gore Vidal revered her. Francis Bacon heckled her. Peter Sellers was madly in love with her. For Pablo Picasso, she was the object of sexual fantasy. Princess Margaret aroused passion and indignation in equal measures. To her friends, she was witty and regal. To her...

When Margaret Tobin Brown arrived in New York City shortly after her perilous night in Titanic's Lifeboat Six, a legend was born. Through magazines, books, a Broadway musical, and a Hollywood movie, she became "The Unsinkable Molly Brown," but in the process, her life story was, distorted beyond recognition. Even her name was changed, she was never, known as "Molly", during her lifetime. Kristen Iversen's Molly Brown: Unraveling the Myth is the first...

The Post: A cover-up pushes Katharine Graham, the first female newspaper publisher of the Washington Post, and the hard-driving editor Ben Bradlee to join the battle between journalist and government Bridges of Madison County: World-traveling National Geographic photographer Robert Kincaid and Iowa housewife Francesca Johnson aren't looking to turn their lives upside down. Each is at a point in life where expectations are behind them. Yet four days...

"Margaret Atwood's best-loved novel has taken the world by storm again. Riding high on bestseller lists for months and the basis for Hulu's Emmy and Golden Globe Award-winning smash hit series, The Handmaid's Tale is everywhere--and it's primed for a stunning new graphic novel adaptation. The story is iconic: In the Republic of Gilead, a Handmaid named Offred lives in the home of the Commander, to the purpose that she become pregnant with his child....

Provides in-depth analysis of the life, works, career, and critical importance of Margaret Drabble.