Love a book so much you want the world to read it? World Book Night needs book-loving volunteers to fan out across America on April 23, 2012, to help share their passion for reading. Sign up here to join the movement by Feb. 1.

So what happens on World Book Night? Volunteers simply take 20 copies of a book to a location in their community and give them to the people they see there. For free. The goal is to give books to new readers, to encourage reading, to share the passion for a great book. Full details can be found here.

Reading changes lives and at the heart of World Book Night lies the simplest of ideas and acts — that of putting a book into another person’s hand and saying “this one’s amazing, you have to read it.” That’s something we at Blair can stand up for.

Are you hungry yet?

 In A Rare Titanic Family (NewSouth Books), author Julie Williams draws on first-person accounts from her great-Uncle Albert and extensive research to tell the fascinating story of the young family who were saved by a combination of luck, pluck, Albert’s outgoing nature, Sylvia’s illness, and Alden’s helplessness. As the centennial anniversary of the sinking of the Titanic approaches this April, Julie joins us today to share a little bit about why she had to tell the Caldwells’ story.  

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The “unsinkable” Titanic sank on her maiden voyage 100 years ago April 15, 2012.  For me, the story of the Titanic was unsinkable.  My great-uncle, Albert Caldwell, survived the disaster at age 26, along with his wife, Sylvia, and his 10-month-old son, Alden.  I grew up hearing the story of the Titanic firsthand from Albert, who lived to be 91.

I thought I knew the Caldwells’ Titanic story as well as my own name, and in many respects I did.  The story Albert told me was accurate.  I heard about Albert’s secret personal tour of the ship that took him down to the ship’s furnaces, where he talked the stokers into letting him pose for a photo with a shovelful of coal while one of the stokers snapped his picture.  I heard about a sailor’s nonchalant comment that the ship had only hit a piece of ice on the fateful night of April 14, 1912, and that Albert should get back in bed, which he did.  I heard of Albert’s determination not to put his wife and baby off on a flimsy lifeboat, and of how his mind was changed by one of the stokers from the photo, who told him, “If you value your life, get off this ship.”  I heard firsthand the harrowing tale of Lifeboat 13’s perilous attempt to set itself free from the Titanic.

And yet, when Albert died, I discovered I had hardly known the story at all.  Among his effects I discovered a photo of the Caldwells on the deck of the Titanic.  I found a booklet by Sylvia, Women of the Titanic Disaster, such a rare pamphlet that as far as I know, only three copies survive.  I found a pair of soft little baby shoes smashed flat beside the book that might have been Alden’s as he wore them off the Titanic.

As I began to do research for my own book on the Caldwells, A Rare Titanic Family, I discovered other surprises in Albert and Sylvia’s Titanic story.  The couple had been missionaries in Siam (now called Thailand) and Alden had been born there.  The family wound up on the Titanic on their way home from that missionary posting.  Rumors in our family held that Sylvia had feigned an illness in order to leave, and as I discovered among the mission’s papers, many in the mission believed the same thing.  Although I uncovered evidence that Sylvia truly was ill, the mission only reluctantly voted to allow the couple to break their contracts to go home.  And yet, the head of the mission wasn’t satisfied.  He wrote to headquarters in New York, urging officials to have Sylvia examined by a doctor when she got home.  If she were given a clean bill of health, the couple would be required to pay back their expensive journey home.

I gasped as I read this, because for years I had known that church officials had an ambulance waiting for Sylvia when the rescue ship docked.  For years I had thought of this as a mission of mercy.  Now I realized it was far more sinister.

The twists and turns of the Caldwells’ story turned out to be remarkable — it was a cat-and-mouse chase around the globe, and it took the Titanic to resolve the struggle between the Caldwells and the mission.

Though the Titanic’s story is often told in terms of April 10-15, 1912, the fuller story in the Caldwells’ case was so much spicier.  The secrets my great-uncle kept from me were rich indeed. 

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Julie Hedgepeth Williams is a journalism professor at Samford University. She received a B.A. in English and history from Principia College in Elsah, Illinois, and a Master’s in journalism and a Ph.D. in mass communications from the University of Alabama. She lives in Birmingham, Alabama.

Robert R. Taylor and Tuskegee: An African American Architect Designs for Booker T. Washington

Here’s a look at what The New York Times had to say about the book. Enjoy!

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Robert R. Taylor, the first professionally educated African-American architect, ran a kind of design-build program. From 1892 to 1932, he drafted plans for expanding the Tuskegee Institute campus and then supervised students who fabricated and installed bricks, millwork, roofing, wiring and plumbing.

The trainees learned “unobtrusivebuildings survive at Tuskegee confidence and self-reliance,” Taylor’s boss, Booker T. Washington, wrote in 1904.

Dozens of Taylor’s buildings survive at Tuskegee, in Alabama, and the architectural historian Ellen Weiss has written the first monograph about him, Robert R. Taylor and Tuskegee: An African American Architect Designs for Booker T. Washington (NewSouth Books).

“I feel I know him,” she said in a recent telephone interview. She pored through hundreds of pages of his correspondence, drawings and photos, mostly at Tuskegee and the Library of Congress.

Robert R. Taylor in 1906. Photo courtesy of the Library of Congress.

Taylor was descended from slaves and plantation owners in North Carolina. White friends who studied at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology apparently suggested that he apply there. He became the architecture school’s first black graduate.

At Tuskegee, girls from the cooking classes fed construction crews for Taylor’s projects, ranging from grain silos to a chapel with a 105-foot steeple. The works appeared in magazines alongside designs by firms like McKim, Mead & White. Construction financing often came from white New Yorkers, including the railroad heiress Arabella Huntington and the politician Seth Low.

Leslie Odom Jr, Michael B. Jordan, Nate Parker, Kevin Phillips, David Oyelowo and Elijah Kelley in Red Tails. Photo courtesy of Lucasfilm Ltd.

Red Tails, the movie about the Tuskegee Airmen that was written by George Lucas and directed by Anthony Hemingway (Treme), will be out in theatres January 20, 2012. It stars Terrence Howard, Cuba Gooding Jr., and a slew of young up-and-comers including David Oyelowo (The Help) and Michael B. Jordan (Parenthood).

George Lucas, the executive producer of “Red Tails,” said in a statement: “I’ve wanted to do this film for a great many years. So it is especially gratifying to see it all come together.” He added: “The Tuskegee Airmen were such superb pilots that it was essential for us to create visual effects that would live up to their heroism and put audiences in the cockpit with them. They were only in their early 20s when they performed these amazing feats. They became the best of the best — the top guns.”

If you want to learn more America’s first black fighter pilots, check out The Tuskegee Airmen: An Illustrated History: 1939-1949 by Joseph Caver, Jerome Ennels, and Daniel Haulman (NewSouth Books). This book uses captioned photographs to trace the airmen through the stages of training, deployment, and combat actions in North Africa, Italy, and Germany. Included for the first time are depictions of the critical support roles of doctors, nurses, mechanics, navigators, weathermen, parachute riggers, and other personnel, all of whom contributed to the airmen’s success, and many of whom went on to help complete the establishment of the 477th Composite Group.

View the movie trailer here, or catch an interview with George Lucas on the Daily Show (air date: January 9, 2012).

Thanks to the folks at ParcBench and inspired by Murder on Music Row: A Music Industry Thriller, by Stuart Dill, this mix includes classic country tunes that are perfect for a murder-mystery-readin’ kind of day. And while there isn’t a Ripley Graham single in the mix, this playlist might just make you want to dance on your desk and slap your grandmaw.

“Pretty Polly” by the Patty Loveless & Ralph Stanley

“Folsom Prison Blues” by Johnny Cash

“L.A. County” by Lyle Lovett

“Pardon Me, I’ve Got Someone To Kill” by Johnny Paycheck

“The Cold Hard Facts of Life” by Porter Wagoner

“I Just Can’t Let You Say Goodbye” by Willie Nelson

“Ruby, Don’t Take Your Love To Town” by Kenny Rogers

“The Thunder Rolls” by Tanya Tucker

“Delia’s Gone” by Johnny Cash

“Psycho” by Jack Kittel

Image credit: LetterMpress

For the music or mystery lover

In Murder on Music Row, by Stuart Dill, Judd Nix, a 23-year-old unpaid intern at Elite Management, welcomes the chance to become the paid assistant of Simon Stills, one of country’s biggest managers, but he soon finds himself a witness to an assassination attempt. When a gunman takes aim at megastar Ripley Graham, Stills’s most important client and the last hope for the troubled recording industry, on stage at the Grand Ole Opry, the shooter misses and seriously wounds Stills instead. Nix and his co-worker, Megan Olsen, decide to investigate on their own, but with music executives plotting a major merger, they can’t be sure whom to trust.

“Remember your first John Grisham? Country music veteran Dill (he served as a personal manager for Minnie Pearl, Dwight Yoakam, and other greats) doesn’t miss a beat in this debut high-adrenaline thriller full of twists and turns.”
Library Journal, starred review

“Murder on Music Row: A Music Industry Thriller has more twists and turns than a spring tornado in Tennessee. This book will have you diving under the covers — with a flashlight, of course. A terrific read.”
Marshall Chapman, critically acclaimed musician and author

Read a book club guide, watch interviews with the author, and more >>

For the memory lane walker

Tales from a Free-Range Childhood, a memoir by storyteller Donald Davis, will have you hootin’ and hollerin’ at his youthful misadventures in rural North Carolina in the 1950s. Among this collection of 18 stories, Davis explains why 28 second-graders petitioned the school board to reestablish paddling as their preferred form of punishment, instead of the new policy of “suspension.” He also spins family tales about how his mother was finally convinced to give his brother Joe’s naturally curly, “wasted-on-a-boy” hair its first cut; and how he and his cousin Andy got fired from their job of “watching the baby.” Through his tender, often humorous stories about his life experiences, Davis captures the hearts and minds of readers while simultaneously evoking their own childhood memories.

“From the photo on the cover…to the strings of hilarious and touching stories, Donald Davis takes us on a journey. This is not just his story, however, as a master storyteller, he not only tells you about himself, but also strikes familiar notes that reach into each listener’s memory bank.”
New York Journal of Books

“…a well-told true story is comfort food for the soul, and Davis’s book is nourishing.”
Foreword Reviews

Read an excerpt, visit the author’s website, and more >>

For the soul food aficionado

Well, Shut My Mouth! The Sweet Potatoes Restaurant Cookbook is recipes – recipes from the restaurant, recipes from the families of Chef Stephanie Tyson and co-owner Vivian Joiner, recipes that are Southern, plain and simple. The cookbook is also the history of the two women who started a locally and nationally acclaimed restaurant (Our State, Southern Living, New York Times). As Tyson says in her introduction, “Every part of me is a part of Sweet Potatoes.” In Well, Shut My Mouth! she shares a culinary experience that has been a favorite of Winston-Salem natives and visitors for years. Now, patrons have the tools to re-create the Sweet Potatoes dining experience in their own homes.

“Everything about this book is correct except the title. Anyone with a taste bud in their mouth should follow these recipes and open their mouth.”
Maya Angelou

Watch cooking demos with the author, and more >>  

For the adventurer

The 21 tours in Touring the Western North Carolina Backroads, by Carolyn Sakowski, cover the entire mountain region of western North Carolina and provide numerous opportunities for seeing unspoiled landscapes and pastoral scenes. But scenery is not the only focus. Once you’re on the backroads, you might speculate about the history behind the old white clapboard farmhouse that dominates the valley ahead, or you might wonder about the rest of the story behind the two sentences on the historical marker at the side of the road. Touring the Western North Carolina Backroads fills in those details. Drawing from local histories and early travel writings, each tour is designed to be a journey through the history of the area. Tales of eccentric characters, folklore that has been passed down through the ages, and stories about early settlers combine to present a perspective that makes the scenery come alive.

“Touring the Western North Carolina Backroads by Carolyn Sakowski is the book to consult for Thanksgiving. No, it doesn’t have recipes but it has more important help. It will help you entertain your out-of-town guests.”
— Danny Bernstein, Hiker to Hiker

“Sakowski doesn’t choose routes simply for the scenery; almost any mountain road presents visual delights. She finds stories about people and places, then connects them, guiding readers along a narrative path as well.”
— Doug Clark, Greensboro News & Record

Find tours at the author’s website, learn “best-of” sites chosen by the author, and more >>

For animal lovers of all ages

In Animal Adventures in North Carolina, Jennifer Bean Bower shares 70 animal attractions that she has personally discovered throughout her travels of the entire state. Each entry provides contact information, driving directions, possible fees, hours of operation, and useful travel tips, accompanied by photographs and detailed descriptions of the attraction’s offerings. An extensive appendix lists additional opportunities for viewing and interacting with animals in North Carolina, including wildlife refuges, farm tours, nature preserves, and working farm vacations.

 Discover the 10 best N.C. animal adventures you didn’t know >>

Thursday, Dec. 8, 2011, 4 p.m.-5 p.m.
Forsyth County Public Library
660 West 5th Street  
Winston-Salem, NC
More details

But if you can’t make it, here’s the digital version of our book club catalog:

But BookMarks is more than just a festival–the group sponsors events all year long. This Thursday, Dec. 8, head to their first ever book club social at the Downtown Winston-Salem public library where you can meet local authors Rachel Keener and Jo Maeder. This book club social will offer new ideas for your book club, suggest books that make for great book club discussions, and talk about how your book club can benefit from being involved with BookMarks–for example, did you know that your book club has the opportunity to meet with BookMarks authors privately before their book signing events? Sounds good, doesn’t it? Blair President Carolyn Sakowksi will also be attending, so you don’t want to miss this meeting!

Thursday, Dec. 8, 2011, 4 p.m.-5 p.m.
Forsyth County Public Library
660 West 5th Street  
Winston-Salem, NC
More details

If you’re unable to attend, look for future events like a conversation with David McCullough or a discussion with Kim Edwards. And while you’re at it, become a member of BookMarks to support the organization and the festival. BookMarks’ membership drive runs from today, Dec. 5, through Friday, Dec. 9. The goal is to get 100 new members, who will help keep the festival free to people of all ages and backgrounds, bring focus on reading and literacy as priorities, and enhance our community’s quality of life. To become a member, you simply make a tax-deductible contribution to BookMarks.  As a member, you will receive many perks throughout the year–including being the first to know and register for author events. Check out the BookMarks website for more information.

See you at the book club social this Thursday!