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Reviews:

Reviewer Steve Kochersperger
Reviewer Steve Kochersperger

May 7 & 11,j 2008
Pennsylvania Speculator and Patriot: The Entrepreneurial John Nicholson 1757-1800 by Robert Arbuckle (Pennsylvania State University Press)

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If you were asked to name famous Pennsylvanians, you might list William Penn, and Ben Franklin. You probably wouldn't think of John Nicholson. The life of the Commonwealth's colonial Comptroller General makes for fascinating reading, though, with implications in today's economic climate. Nicholson was a notorious land speculator, with shady dealings so vast, it took forty years after his death to unravel the mess.



Reviewer Steve Kochersperger is the postmaster at Julian.

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Reviewer Alan Jalowitz
Reviewer Alan Jalowitz

April 23 & 27, 2008
So I Will Till the Ground by Gregory Djanikian (Carnegie Mellon University Press, 2007)

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For National Poetry Month. here's a selection by a Pennsylvania poet, from a Pennsylvania press. Award-winning poet Gregory Djanikian confronts the horror of the Armenian genocide of 1915; his poems also relate his boyhood in Egypt and his eventual emigration to the United States, where he grew up in Williamsport, PA.



Reviewer Alan Jalowitz teaches English at Penn State University Park.

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Bookmark Archives

Pennsylvania Speculator and Patriot: The Entrepreneurial John Nicholson 1757-1800 by Robert Arbuckle (Pennsylvania State University Press)

So I Will Till the Ground by Gregory Djanikian (Carnegie Mellon University Press, 2007)

Going Local: an Adventurer's Guide to Unique Eats, Cool Pubs, and Cozy Cafes, by Ken Hull

Dough: a Memoir by Mort Zachter (HarperCollins 2008)

Deadline by Chris Crutcher (HarperTeen 2007)

A Crossing of Zebras: Animal Packs in Poetry by Marjorie Maddox (Wordsong, 2008)

Books For Women's History Month

More Than Petticoats: Remarkable Pennsylvania Women by Kate Hertzog (Twodot Books, 2007)

A Farewell to Arms, by Ernest Hemingway (Charles Scribners' Sons, 1929)

The Last Street Novel, by Omar Tyree (Simon and Schuster, 2007)

Testimony of an Irish Slave Girl, by Kate McCafferty (Penguin, 2002)

Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier, by Ismael Beah (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2007)

Bellefonte and Early Airmail: 1918-1927 by Kathleen Wunderly (American Philatelic Society)

The Coldest Winter Ever, by Sister Souljah (Pocket Books, 2000)

When the Emperor Was Divine, by Julie Otsuka (Penguin Books, 2004)

We the Living by Ayn Rand

Bang Bang by Lynn Hoffman (Kunati, Inc., 2007)

How to be a Baby by Me The Big Sister and Sally Lloyd-Jones and Sue Heap (Schwartz and Wade Books, 2007) The Wednesday Wars by Gary D. Schmidt (Clarion Books, 2007)

Nanny State: How Food Fascists, Teetotaling Do-Gooders, Priggish Moralists, and other Boneheaded Bureaucrats are Turning America into a Nation of Childen by David Harsanyi (Broadway, 2007)

Blue Highways by William Least Heat-Moon (Mariner Books, 1982)

Elegy for Sam Emerson [Encore] by Hilary Masters (Southern Methodist University Press, 2006)

A History of Indian Villages and Place Names in Pennsylvania by Dr. George P. Donehoo (Wennawoods Publishing, 1997)

Moonlight Hotel [Encore] by Scott Anderson (Doubleday, 2006)

The Lost: A Search for Six of Six Million, by Daniel Mendelsohn (HarperCollins, 2006)

Too Many Pumpkins

Resolute: The Epic Search for the Northwest Passage, by Martin W. Sandler (Sterling, 2006)

The Day the Earth Caved In: An American Mining Tragedy, by Joan Quigley (Random House, 2007)

Some Heaven, by Todd Davis Michigan State University Press, 2007

Boy Books II

Lois on the Loose by Lois Pryce (Thomas Dunne Books, 2007)

Sin in the Second City by Karen Abbott (Random House, 2007)

Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life by Barbara Kingsolver (HarperCollins, 2007)

Enders Game by Orson Scott Card (Tor Books, 1991)

Muses, Madmen & Prophets: Rethinking the History, Science and Meaning of Auditory Hallucinations by Daniel Smith (Penguin Press, 2007)

Atlas of Pennsylvania edited by David, J. Cuff, William J. Young, Edward K. Muller, Wilbur Zelinksy, and Ronald F. Abler (Temple University Press, 1989)

No Dogs Allowed by Bill Wallace (Holiday House, 2004)

The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals by Michael Pollan (Penguin Press, 2006)

The No A**hole Rule: Building a Civilized Workplace and Surviving One That Isn't by Robert I. Sutton (Business Plus, 2007)

Project Everlasting by Mathew Boggs and Jason Miller (Simon & Schuster, 2007)

The Inheritance of Loss: A Novel by Kiran Desai (Atlantic Monthly Press, 2006)

What to Eat by Marion Nestle (North Point Press, 2007)

Mistakes that Worked by Charlotte Jones (Doubleday Books for Young Readers, 1994) Steve Caney's Invention Book by Steven Caney (Workman Publishing Company, 1985)

Sold, by Patricia McCormick (Hyperion, 2006)

Custard's Last Stand by Tamar Myers (Signet, 2004)

Elegy for Sam Emerson by Hilary Masters (Southern Methodist University Press, 2006)

A Perfect Mess: The Hidden Benefits of Disorder, by Eric Abrahamson and David Freedman (Little Brown and Company, 2007)

The Gift of Valor Random House

Two Books for Memorial Day

Giovanna's 86 Circles, by Paola Corso (University of Wisconsin Press, 2005)

Thriller: Stories to Keep You Up All Night by James Patterson (Mira, 2006)

Born on a Blue Day, by Daniel Tammet (Free Press, 2007)

Wislawa Szymborska, Poems New and Collected, 1957-1997 (Harcourt, 1998)

If Not for the Cat by Jack Prelutsky, (Greenwillow, 2004); The Dream Keeper, edited by Brian Pinkney (Knopf, 1994) (Original written by Langston Hughes); Honey, I Love, by Eloise

Hurricane Blues: Poems About Katrina and Rita, edited by Phllip C. Kolin and Susan Swartwout

Hometown for an Hour, by Jennifer Rose (Ohio University Press, 2006)

The Colonel and Little Missie by Larry McMurtry (Simon and Schuster, 2005)

The Intuitionist: A Novel, by Colson Whitehead - (Anchor Books, 1999)

Assassin's Gallery, by David L. Robbins (Bantam, 2006)

The Guy Not Taken: Stories by Jennifer Weiner (Atria, 2006)

The Road, by Cormac McCarthy

Color Him Father: Stories of Love and Rediscovery of Black Men by Haki R. Madhubuti, Stephana I Colbert, and Valerie Harrison (Kinship Press, 2006)

The Zahir: A Novel of Obsession by Paul Coelho (HarperCollins, 2005)

Three PictureBook Biographies for Black History Month

Groundhog Day by Don Yoder (Stackpole Books 2003)

State of Denial: Bush at War, Part III, by Bob Woodward (Simon and Schuster, 2006)

What Do You Do With a Tail Like This, by Steve Jenkins and Robin Page (Houghton Mifflin, 2003); Clip Clop, by Nicola Smee (Boxer Books, 2006); Good Boy Fergus, by David Shannon

The Long Tail: Why the Future of Business is Selling Less of More, by Chris Anderson (Hyperion, 2006)

A History of Indian Villages and Place Names in Pennsylvania by Dr. George P. Donehoo (Wennawoods Publishing, 1997)

Jimmy Stewart, A Biography, by Marc Eliot (Harmony 2006)

Run-up to the Punch Bowl, by John Nolan (X-Libris, 2006)

His Dark Materials: The Golden Compass by Philip Pullman (Knopf Books for Young Readers, 1996)

Moonlight Hotel by Scott Anderson (Doubleday, 2006)

Along the Allegheny River: The Northern Watershed AND The Southern Watershed, by Charles E. Williams (Arcadia Publishing, 2006)

Just a Whisper Away by Lauren Nichols (Harlequin/Silhouette Intimate Moments, 2006)

Here, Bullet, by Brian Turner (Alice James Press, 2005)

Naked in Baghdad: The Iraq War as Seen by NPR’s Correspondent Anne Garrels [Encore] Pubished by Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2003.

Zorro: A Novel, by Isabel Allende

The Doll People by Ann Martin and Laura Goodwin (Hyperion, 2000)

The Giniralla Conspiracy, by Nihal de Silva (Vijitha Yapa Publications, 2005)

Dirt and All Its Dense Labor, by Gabriel Welsch

A Walk in the Woods, by Bill Bryson (Broadway, 1999)

Weeknights at the Cathedral, by Marjorie Maddox

Roadside Giants Brian and Sarah Butko (Stackpole Books, 2005)

Backpacking Pennsylvania [Encore], by Jeff Mitchell, published by Stackpole Books (2005)

Racing the Sun by Paul Pitts (An Avon Camelot Book, 1988)

Manhunt: The 12-Day Chase for Lincoln’s Killer by James L. Swanson (published by HarperCollins, 2005)

Rum Punch and Revolution, by Peter Thompson (University of Pennsylvania Press, 1998)

Electric Michaelangelo by Sarah Hall (Faber and Faber, 2004)

White on Black and Black on White by Tana Hoban
More More More Said the Baby by Vera B. Williams
Urban Babies Wear Black by Michelle Sinclair Colman

We Are a Strong, Articulate Voice: A History of Women at Penn State University Park, PA by Carol Sonenklar. (Penn State University Press, 2006)

Zoe Sophia in New York: The Mystery of the Pink Phoenix Papers (Chronicle Books, 2006)

The Hello, Goodbye Window, by Norton Juster, illustrated by Chris Raschka (Michael Di Capua Books, 2005)

The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien, published by Broadway, 1979

Prayers for the Assassin by Robert Ferigno (Scribner, 2006)

Noodlehead Stories: World Tales Kids Can Read and Tell, by Martha Hamilton and Mitch Weis (August House, 2000)

A Suitable Boy, by Vikram Seth (Harper Perennial, 1994)

A Maze Me: Poems for Girls, by Naomi Shihab Nye (Greenwillow Books, 2005)

Roadside Giants by Brian and Sarah Butko (Stackpole Books, 2005)

A Season of Fire: Four Months on the Firelines in the American West, by Douglas Gantenbein ( Penguin, 2003)

Flush [Encore], by Carl Hiaasen, published by Knopf, 2005

The Time Traveler’s Wife, by Audrey Niffenegger, published by Harvest Books (2004)

Backpacking Pennsylvania, by Jeff Mitchell, published by Stackpole Books (2005)

Myself and the Other Fellow: A Life of Robert Louis Stevenson, by Claire Harmon, published by HarperCollins (2005)

Rebel Angels, by Libba Bray, published by Delacorte Books for Young Readers (2005)

A Wreath for Emmet Till, by Marilyn Nelson, published by Houghton Mifflin (2005)

Show Way by Jacqueline Woodson, published by Putnam Juvenile (2005)

Criss Cross, by Lynne Rae Perkins, published by Greenwillow (2005)

Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking, by Malcolm Gladwell, published by Little Brown, 2005.

The Ambler Warning by Robert Ludlum, published by St. Martin’s Press, 2006

Naked in Baghdad: The Iraq War as Seen by NPR’s Correspondent Anne Garrels Pubished by Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2003.

The Historian, by Elizabeth Kostova, published by Little, Brown, 2005

Weird Pennsylvania , Your Travel Guide to America's Best Kept Secrets [Encore]

Agony of an American Wilderness: Loggers, Environmentalists, and the Struggle for Control of a Forgotten Forest, by Samuel MacDonald, published by Rowman and Littlefield, 2005.

Flush by Carl Hiaasen, published by Knopf, 2005

The Penderwicks: a Summer Tale of Four Sisters, Two Rabbits and a Very Interesting Boy by Jeanne Birdsall, published by Alfred A. Knopf, 2005 and The Seven Wonders of Sassafras Springs

Infidelities: Tales of War and Lust by Josip Novakovich (HarperCollins, 2005)

The Areas of My Expertise: A Complete World Almanac by John Hodgman, published by Dutton (2005)

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire by J.K. Rowling

Looking Back At Veterans' Day

What’s the Matter With Kansas: How Conservatives Won the Heart of America

Common Wealth: Contemporary Poets on Pennsylvania

Who Stole Halloween?

I Am A Pencil

Coal Run

Norman Rockwell: A Life, by Laura Claridge, published by Random House, 2001

Mountains Beyond Mountains: The Quest of Dr. Paul Farmer, a Man Who Would Cure the World

Riding the Bus With My Sister

Weird Pennsylvania , Your Travel Guide to America's Best Kept Secrets

The Politics of Truth: Inside the Lies that Led to War

Ahab's Wife

Pioneer Church

One Shot

Knuffle Bunny: A Cautionary Tale

Jerry Engels

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince

Assasination Vacation

102 Minutes: The Untold Story of the Fight to Survive Inside the Twin Towers

Skywriting: A Life Out of the Blue

American Road

Jefferson County Pennsylvania, an Illustrated History

High Water Mark: Prose Poems


all past bookmarks...