Ocean State Libraries

I have been standing on the side of life, watching it float by. I want to swim in the river. I want to feel the current.

So writes Mamah Borthwick Cheney in her diary as she struggles to justify her clandestine love affair with Frank Lloyd Wright. Four years earlier, in 1903, Mamah and her husband, Edwin, had commissioned the renowned architect to design a new home for them. During the construction of the house, a powerful attraction...

A novel about a life-changing summer along the beaches of Martha's Vineyard. Oak Bluffs is the most exclusive black beach community in the country, a mecca for the crème de la crème of black society. Thirty years ago, Amelia Vaux Tanner and her husband built a house high on the bluffs, a cottage they named Chateau Laveau. "Ama's" three gifted "goddaughters:" Esperanza "Perry" Soto, an Afro-Latina lawyer; Olivia Jones, a Wall Street analyst; and...

Two mice try to figure out how a little acorn turns into a huge oak tree.

Reveals the ecological importance of the oak tree, discussing its month-by-month role in the planet's seasonal cycles, and shares practical advice about how to plant and care for an oak.

"From 1775 to the present, the landscape around a lone oak tree goes through significant changes"--

Since 1795 there have been rumors of buried treasure on Oak Island, in Nova Scotia, Canada. Early excavators uncovered a clay-lined shaft containing layers of soil interspersed with wooden platforms; when they reached a depth of ninety feet, water poured into the shaft and made further digging impossible. Subsequent explorers discovered a flat stone inscribed in code; a flood tunnel draining from a man-made beach; a torn scrap of parchment; stone...

"June, 1925. Having been widowed in the First World War, Elizabeth Fairchild lives a quiet life at the home of her wealthy parents in genteel Oak Park Village, Illinois. Although she does her best to avoid emotional entanglements, determined never to be hurt again, Elizabeth forms a close friendship with gentle Mr Anthony, who owns the local antiques store. But tragedy strikes when Mr Anthony is found stabbed to death in the alley behind his shop....

"Lillian Kaufman hasn't heard from her twin sister since Eleanor left for a mysterious job at an Army base somewhere in Tennessee. Then she learns that Eleanor is missing. Lillian leaves New York to sneak into the mysterious town of Oak Ridge, only to learn that Eleanor has vanished without a trace-and she's not the only one. But how do you find someone in a town so dangerous it doesn't officially exist? Forced to pretend to be Eleanor, Lillian finds...

An acorn grows into a mighty oak, helps sustain other life, and eventually dies and continues to give life to others.

Introduction to the life cycle of a tree.