Reader's Advisory: 5 Birthdays This Week

August 18 -  Meriwether Lewis (1774-1809) Read Stephen Ambrose’s excellent biography Undaunted Courage: Meriwether Lewis, Thomas Jefferson, and the Opening of the American West, based on the journals of Lewis and Clark and on the author’s personal travels along Lewis and Clark’s route to the Pacific. The Library also has two DVDs: Lewis and Clark: Great Journey West (National Geographic) and Lewis and Clark: the Journey of the Corps of Discovery (PBS).

August 19 – Coco Chanel (1883 – 1971) Read The Secret of Chanel #5: the Intimate History of the World’s Most Famous Perfume (2010) by Tilar Mazzeo. Watch the talented Audrey Tatou in Coco Before Chanel, a portrait of Chanel’s early years from an orphanage where she learns to sew to the opening of her first fashion salon. Tatou is also the face of Chanel #5 advertising.

August 19 – Bill Clinton is 65. Lots of books about him in the Library, but one of the more recent ones is The Survivor: Bill Clinton in the White House (2005) by John F. Harris, veteran Washington Post political reporter. Harris’ retrospective assessment of the Clinton presidency has been described as readable and balanced.

August 19 also marks the 90^th birth anniversary of sci-fi great Gene Roddenberry, creator of the Star Trek series. All kinds of Star Trek materials to borrow.

August 19 – Orville Wright (1871-1948) Several books about the Wright Brothers were published in 2003, the hundredth anniversary of the first flight. You could read aviation writer T. A. Heppenheimer’s First Flight: the Wright Brothers and the Invention of the Airplane or the historical novel Dawn Over Kitty Hawk by Walter J. Boyne. For the children there’s My Brothers’ Flying Machine by Jane Yolen. Today is also National Aviation Day.