July - Remember Us and Another Brooklyn

Remember Us (2024) and Another Brooklyn (2015) 

two (short novels) by Jacqueline Woodson

July 15, 2026 at 1pm 

 

Resources:

• Author's homepage
• About Another Brooklyn ; about Remember Us
• Images of 1970s Brooklyn 
• Background on the Blackout and fires of 1977 
• A recipe for Shrimp Etouffee, because that sounded yummy
• WNBA history (started in 1996) 
• A brief history of The Vulcan Society

If you like these books, try these next:

• more by Woodson (I recommend her picture book The World Belonged to Us because it is also set in late 1970s Brooklyn)
• Jason Reynolds (one of my favorite authors, try Ghost or The Boy in the Black Suit if you liked Remember Us) and Kwame Alexander [Woodson dedicated Remember Us to these two authors] (both are mostly YA/J)
• A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, by Betty Smith (I haven't read this in ages, but it seems fitting) (adult)
• Kin, by Tayari Jones (adult)
• Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry, by Mildred Taylor, was an influential book for Woodson. (J)
• Gather, by Kenneth Cadow (YA)

 

June - Founding Mothers

Founding Mothers (2005)

by Cokie Roberts

Wednesday, June 17, at 1pm 

Legendary journalist Cokie Roberts' New York Times bestseller, Founding Mothers, is an intimate and illuminating look at the fervently patriotic and passionate women whose tireless pursuits on behalf of their families—and their country—proved just as crucial to the forging of a new nation as the rebellion that established it.

Drawing upon personal correspondence, private journals, and even favored recipes, Roberts reveals the often surprising stories of  fascinating women in the American Revolution, bringing to life the everyday trials and extraordinary triumphs of individuals like Abigail Adams, Mercy Otis Warren, Deborah Read Franklin, Eliza Pinckney, Catherine Littlefield Green, Esther DeBerdt Reed, and Martha Washington—proving that without our exemplary women, the new country might have never survived.

 Resources:

• The Westwood (Mass) Public Library has created a page with author bio, discussion questions and read-a-likes.
• A University of California interview with Cokie Roberts shortly after the book was published. 
• A virtual exhibit on "When Women Lost the Vote" from the Museum of the American Revolution
• Field Trip, anyone? "Founding Mothers: Women in the American Revolution" - a free lecture at the Brick Store Museum in Kennebunk July 18, 2026
• I recommend a field trip to Boston - to Commonwealth Ave Mall (the park up the middle of the road) for The Boston Women's Memorial, which has statues of two Revolutionary era women from the book. 
• You can find out more about all of the women in Roberts' book online. But as a former professional historian, I have a soft spot for historians like Mercy Otis Warren, so I'll add this link for more on her from the Mount Vernon website., which has lots of profiles relevant to this book.

Keep reading:

• HTL's US@250 booklist of titles related to the American Revolution.
• I can personally recommend NH author Alex Myers' fictional story of Patriot soldier Deborah Sampson - Revolutionary (2014). We don't have it, but I can request it through interlibrary loan.
• Some of Cokie Roberts' other books : Capital Dames: The Civil War and the Women of Washington, 1848-1868; Ladies of Liberty: The Women Who Shaped Our Nation; and We Are Our Mothers’ Daughters
• Learn about more founding mothers, noted on panels in our National Parks.