This is the story  of the author, Michael Hingson, and his guide dog, Roselle, who were in Tower 1 of the the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001.  With the help of his coworker and his guide dog, Michael was able to safely escape from the burning tower and leave the area before tower 2 collapsed.  Since Michael is blind, he describes the events in smells, feelings, and uses his other senses to escape the tower. 

The story is also about Michael's life; growing up blind, and learning to navigate the many obstacles that the blind are faced with.  He had some amazing people and dogs to aid him as he made his way through high school, college and into the business world.  This is a very interesting and inspiring story.

Set in  1960's Missiissippi, this is a powerful historical fiction novel.  Celeste Tyree, an idealistic black college student from the University of Michigan volunteers to spend her summer helping the black Mississippi population register to vote.  She joins the One Man, One Vote movement and takes a train to Jackson, Mississippi, where she is trained and is then assigned to Pineyville, where she will run a half day school for the black childern and in the evenings she prepares the black adults to take the voter registration test.  All this sounds easy, but add into it that the white folks tried to make it impossible for the black folks to register.

Celeste endures searing heat and humidity, living in a house not more than a shack without indoor plumbing, using an outhouse for the 1st time. These things are nothing to the other challenges she faced:  the house being shot into after bedtime,sleeping on the floor for safety, a child drowning in the river, resistence from some of the black community to her programs, being arrested for taking a few folks to register to vote, having her church and classroom burned to the ground.  She even loses a tooth when she drinks out of a fountain and the sheriff takes offense. 

The writing is very descriptive.  You can almost taste the wonderul food of the south.  This is the author's 1st book, although she has written screenpalys and is an accomplished actress (Room 222; TV's version of In the Heat of the Night).  I hope she writes more.

This is the true story of Sarah Emma Edmonds, who disguised herself as a man and fought in the Civil War for 2 years.  Sarah was born in Canada on a farm.  Her father wished for sons to work on the farm, instead he got daughters and one invalid son.  Sarah took on the role of farmer helper.  When she was old enough to leave home, she figured she would never make much of herself as a woman, so she disguised herself and got a job as Frank Thompson, working as a travelling bookseller.  She was a big success and settled in Michigan. 

When the Civil War broke out, she was caught up in the excitement and ended up joining the Michigan regiments.  While serving in the army she took on may roles: nurse, orderly, spy, mail carrier and courier.  Supposedly, she made numerous trips behind Confederate lines to spy for the Union, but this was never proved.  She was severely injured twice.  When her commanding officer resigned, she went AWOL, because she feared she would be discovered. 

In her later life, she married Linus Seelye, a builder, tried to raise a family, but none of their children, except one adopted son, made it to adulthood.  Increasingly crippled by her old war injuries, she sought any army pension.  After many attemps, and many letters from her fellow officers and servicemen, she was able to receive a pension for her time in the Army.

Sarah Emma Edmonds was a brave woman who worked very hard for what she wanted. Wonder how many other women disquised as men actually fought?

  Another book by Jeannette Walls about her family.  This book deals with the author growing up in her dysfunctional family.  Jeannette's parents, Rex and Rosemary are the parents from hell.  Neither one seemed much interested in providing the necessities for their family, Lori, Jeannette, Brian and Maureen.  Rosemary was nothing like her mother, Lillian Casey Smith, who could make a meal from almost nothing.  Rosemary couldn't be bothered with cooking, washing or parenting.  She would rather read or paint.  She would only work if forced to do so.  The father, Rex, was a drunk and and was abusive to the family.  He would peridoically disappear or run off with  the grocery money and could not hold down a job. 

After living off Rosemary's inhertitance and working a few jobs, the family loads the car with their few possessions and heads to Rex's hometown, Welch, WV.  They move in with Rex's parents and his brother.  When that move doesn't work out, their father finds them a shack to live in.  The children are cold, hungry and have few clothes and terrible shoes.  The shack has a coal stove but they have no coal except what the children are able to pick up along the road after it falls from the coal trucks.  School is their savior; there they can get food, a warm place, and instruction, which all three take advantage of.  When Lori graduates, she leaves the town for New York City.  She soon sends for Jeannette, then Brian and finally Maureen.  Later their parents arrive in New York.

The book is packed full of hardships for the children.  I don't know how they survived.  It is unbeleivable that their parents did very little to support them and that they still turned out to be great people.  The three oldest made successes for themselves. 

I enjoyed the book very much except that parts horrified me.  I am glad for the family that they were able to make something of their lives despite their terrible upbringing. 

This is a very good historical fiction book about the Battle of Petersburg during the Civil War.  Colonel Henry Pleasants is a mining enigineer serving with men from Pennsylvania who are coal miners in civilian life.  The lines of the Battle are not moving, so the men and and the colonel decide that they can help the Union Soldiers get to Petersburg by tunnelling under and blowing up Cemetery Hill.  This is a great idea and improves the men's morale, but the task will be accomplished without all the supplies they need.  General Burnside refuses to give them all the tools and explosives, so they improvise.  A huge explosion opens up the enemy lines.

The sad part of the story is that even after the lines are open, ineffectual leadership leads to the Union Army not taking advantage of the opening.  If the Union had taken the lead and used the huge hole, the War may have been over in 1864.  Instead, by not taking advantage, the war went on for another year. 

An excellent book about Henry, a young Chinese American living in Seattle and his relationship with a Japanese American girl named Keiko.  Set in World War II, it tells the story of their love for each other and how much each one will do to make the other safe.  It is a very complicated life for any of the oriental families living in Seattle.  Henry wears a button saying "I am Chinese" so he is not taken away.  He meets Keiko when they work in the school cafeteria together, and they form a relationship.

Keiko's family is rounded up and sent to an internment camp and Henry gets a job with Mrs. Beatty, supplying meals to the Japanese in the camp so he can see Keiko.  When she and her family are sent to an Idaho internment camp, Henry, with his adult friend Sheldon, go to visit her.  Eventually, they lose contact with each other, Henry's life goes on and he eventually grows up to marry Ethel, the girl who worked in the post office and retrieved his letters from Keiko as he picked them up. 

After Ethel's death. Fifty-seven year old Henry starts looking for Keiko.  He searches the basement of the Panama Hotel for clues.  The hotel is where the Japanese refugees stored the belongings when they were taken away.  With his son's help. Henry is able to find Keiko, who now lives in New York City. 

This is a well written book.  It is a look at the treatment of the Japanese during WWII and also a sweet story of young love. It is sort of a Romeo and Juliet story.

An Excellent book about growing up in the American Southwest.  Lily Casey Smith faced many hardships as a child and adult, but she rose to the occasion every time.  She grew up on a farm where her father trained carriage horses and she was able to complete the 8th grade and start teaching in one room schools when she was just 15.  Later on, she went to Chicago and found work and a "crum bum " husband", who was a bigamist.  After her marriage was annulled, she went back to the souhtwest to teach and married a rancher, Jim Smith, who was her match in tenacity when it came to providing for their family. 

She was a remarkable woman who could put on her resume: rancher, bootlegger,  horse breaker and trainer, teacher, bus driver, maid, pilot, entrepeneur, mother, wife, and gardener.  Her life is an amazing survival story.  She was not one to keep her mouth shut when she saw injustices and she was not afraid to take a risk if it made her family's life better.  I can see why the author held her in high esteem.

On Tuesday, June 8 at 7:00 P.M., Nancy Jensen will be reading selections from her works Window (2009) and The Sisters (to be released in the Spring of 2011).

Nancy Jensen is a graduate of the MFA in Writing Program at Vermont College. Her short stories and essays have appeared in numerous literary journals, including Northwest Review, Other Voices, Under the Sun, ACM: Another Chicago Magazine, and The Louisville Review. Since 1994, she has taught writing and literature at University of the Cumberlands, where she has developed and implemented a highly successful mentoring model for courses in the undergraduate creative writing program.

Nancy Jensen lives in south central Kentucky with her ten rescued cats and one dog. She and her black Lab-mix, Gordy, work as a pet-therapy team with Pawsibilities Unleashed of Kentucky, visiting hospitals, nursing homes, assisted-living facilities, and daycare centers.

Dianne Aprile, author of Making a Heart for God: A Week Inside a Catholic Monastery, has said of Window:

In much the way Alice Munro's The View from Castle Rock mixed memoir with fiction in short takes, Nancy Jensen's brave and beautiful book blends the self-examining voice of the personal essay with the scalpel-like precision of the modern short story. In this collection, she writes with courage and honesty about the complexities of contemporary life: the inevitable betrayals and unanticipated redemptions, but also the painful, persistent process of coming to terms with our own shortcomings. Reading this collection illuminates the common tradition of storytelling that informs fiction and nonfiction alike; yet, it also underscores the very different expectations readers bring to the two genres. With artistry and humor, Nancy Jensen offers readers her unique spin on what I would call the Truth—as it is, and as she has imagined it.

Be sure to join Nancy Jensen on Tuesday, June 8th, at 7:00 P.M. in the Strassweg Auditorium for this very special event.