Ocean State Libraries

"In 1953, the Langdon family at a crossroads. Their stalwart patriarch, Walter, who with his wife, Rosanna, sustained their farm for three decades, has suddenly died, leaving their five children, now adults, looking to the future. Only one will remain in Iowa to work the land, while the others scatter to Washington, D.C., California, and everywhere in between. As the country moves out of post-World War II optimism through the darker landscape of the...

"From the Pulitzer Prize-winner: the much-anticipated final volume of her magnificent, best-selling American trilogy, which brings the beloved Langdon family into our present times and beyond. A lot can happen in 100 years, as Jane Smiley has shown to dazzling effect in her astonishing, critically acclaimed Last Hundred Years Trilogy. When Golden Age, its last installment, opens in 1987, the next generation of the Langdon family is facing economic,...

In The Greatest Generation, his landmark bestseller, Tom Brokaw eloquently evoked for America what it meant to come of age during the Great Depression and the Second World War. Now, in BOOM!, one of America’s premier journalists gives us an epic portrait of another defining era in America as he brings to life the tumultuous Sixties, a fault line in American history. Brokaw takes us on a memorable journey through a remarkable time, exploring...

The Greatest Generation gets credit for winning World War II and braving the Depression. But the Baby Boomers? All they get credit for is knowing how to order a tall skim double latte. What really is the true legacy of the Boomers? Summoning the amazing sea changes they've made in American culture, this controversial book recasts the much-maligned Boomers as a Greater Generation with a lasting legacy of tolerance and equality for all. Farewell,...

As this brilliant tale unfolds, a fight-to-the-death to preserve a wealthy English family's prestige begins. Untold secrets suddenly threaten the stability of one mother's existence and change life as she and her son know it. Will the court decide in favor of the unusual young woman raised in South Carolina-or will she be found to be a fraud and thus unworthy of the life she claims is rightfully hers? A mystery as dramatic and thrilling as the best...

Beginning with New York City's first ever New Year's ball drop, 1908 got off to a spectacular start. As the year went on, America witnessed President Teddy Roosevelt's Great White Fleet sailing around the globe, Henry Ford's unveiling of the Model T, and the Wright Brothers' year-end, history making longest recorded flight. Sandwiched between these events, great social changes were also occurring, as race relations deteriorated in the South and the...

Documents the kaleidoscopic year during which transformative talents from Hollywood, Sunset Boulevard, and Beverly Hills heavily influenced pop culture, politics, and social movements. Los Angeles in 1974 exerted more influence over popular culture than any other city in America. Working in film, recording, and television studios, a cluster of transformative talents produced an explosion in popular culture which reflected the demographic, social,...