Much of this guide for young women is still valuable today. Despite mentions of tight lacing and other out of date matters, it contains many timeless principles. (Bria Snow)

This work describes conditions and forces the black population of the South faced after freedom was brought by the Civil War. As Sinclair puts it at the outset of his book, ". . . the chief efforts of Southern leadership have been to curtail the freedom of the colored people, to minimize their liberty and reduce them as nearly as possible to the condition of chattel slaves." - Summary by Jim Locke

William Booth was the founding General of the Salvation Army in late nineteenth century England. Finding his salvation as a teenager, he went on to become one of the most controversial and, ultimately, well-loved and respected social reformers of his day. Published in 1890 amidst the turmoil of the death of his beloved wife, Catherine, “In Darkest England” was hailed as a revolutionary approach to coping with the social ills facing Great Britain at the time. Although 130 years old, this revolutionary book of Victorian England still has much to say of note today. - Summary by Tom Hirsch

A bit of pseudo-science that will baffle, confuse, and amaze! Until the Space Age, there was little every-day, self-evident proof that the earth was a globe, and plenty of people believed in a flat Earth. Here are 100 short arguments for a flat Earth. Some of them can be proven wrong fairly easily; others confound; and others are stated so confusingly that they MUST be true! - Summary by TriciaG “‘One Hundred Proofs that the Earth is Not a Globe,’ by William Carpenter, is published by the...

Sailing adventure with storms, icebergs, shipwrecks, treasure, and the reawakening of a pirate frozen in suspended animation for nearly fifty years

Hawai'i: land of wonder and beauty and a culture rich in history and mythology. Dr. Westervelt settled in Hawai'i as a young man and collected stories and myths from his adopted home. Here we have a collection dedicated to the largest city, Honolulu. - Summary by Lynne Thompson