Henrico County

Henrico County
Author: Louis H. Manarin
Publisher: Arcadia Publishing
Total Pages: 130
Release: 2006
Genre: History
ISBN: 9780738542645

First explored by colonists in 1607, the territory that was to become Henrico County was the site of the second English settlement in the colony of Virginia. Settled in 1611, Henrico was named for Henry Frederick, Prince of Wales. Henrico was the site of the first college and the first iron works in the New World and is one of the original shires, or counties, in Virginia. Extending along the James River from its junction with the Appomattox River to the Blue Ridge Mountains, Henrico was eventually subdivided into nine-and-a-half counties and three independent cities. During 1861 to 1865, 18 major battles and numerous heavy engagements were fought on Henrico soil. From the end of the Civil War until World War II, agriculture was the backbone of the county's economy. After the war, the county experienced a surge in population that resulted in the growth of service industries. Today it is a vibrant urban county.

African Americans of Henrico County

African Americans of Henrico County
Author: Brenda Dabney Nichols
Publisher: Arcadia Publishing
Total Pages: 132
Release: 2010-01-01
Genre: History
ISBN: 9780738566504

Henrico County, chartered in 1634, is one of the oldest counties in the state. Communities in Henrico created by African Americans are among the oldest continuing communities in America, as all of these communities were settled by 1863. The beauty of the settlements lay in the tenacity, determination, and resolve of pioneers who emerged from enslavement to create their own ideas of freedom. Rights to home and property ownership, businesses, churches, agencies, and schools defined the very essence of community. Despite efforts to halt their progress, African Americans independently sustained these communities. In Images of America: African Americans of Henrico County, nine communities are highlighted to demonstrate the indefatigable and indomitable spirit that continues to exist in these sacred places.

The Organ Thieves

The Organ Thieves
Author: Chip Jones
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
Total Pages: 400
Release: 2020-08-18
Genre: History
ISBN: 1982107545

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks meets Get Out in this “startling…powerful” (Kirkus Reviews) investigation of racial inequality at the core of the heart transplant race. In 1968, Bruce Tucker, a black man, went into Virginia’s top research hospital with a head injury, only to have his heart taken out of his body and put into the chest of a white businessman. Now, in The Organ Thieves, Pulitzer Prize–nominated journalist Chip Jones exposes the horrifying inequality surrounding Tucker’s death and how he was used as a human guinea pig without his family’s permission or knowledge. The circumstances surrounding his death reflect the long legacy of mistreating African Americans that began more than a century before with cadaver harvesting and worse. It culminated in efforts to win the heart transplant race in the late 1960s. Featuring years of research and fresh reporting, along with a foreword from social justice activist Ben Jealous, “this powerful book weaves together a medical mystery, a legal drama, and a sweeping history, its characters confronting unprecedented issues of life and death under the shadows of centuries of racial injustice” (Edward L. Ayers, author of The Promise of the New South).

Isaac's Beacon

Isaac's Beacon
Author: David L. Robbins
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
Total Pages: 511
Release: 2021-08-10
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 1642938300

In the tradition of epic novels like Exodus and Cast a Giant Shadow, Isaac’s Beacon is a sweeping historical tale based on the real events of Israel’s founding—bringing alive the power and complexities of the birth of the Jewish state out of the ashes of the Holocaust. Bestselling author David L. Robbins, called “the Homer of World War II,” turns his mastery of the historical novel to another defining moment of the twentieth century: the birth of the state of Israel. Isaac’s Beacon is a small, vulnerable kibbutz on the edge of the Negev. Here, the lives of three memorable characters—an Irgun fighter, a young woman farmer, and an American journalist—collide to shape an epic narrative of love, loss, violence, and courage. Deeply researched and closely based on actual events, Isaac’s Beacon is the first in a series of Robbins’s novels which will explore the tumultuous, complex history and lasting impact of Israel’s creation.

Sourdough

Sourdough
Author: Robin Sloan
Publisher: MCD
Total Pages: 273
Release: 2017-09-05
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 0374716439

From Robin Sloan, the New York Times bestselling author of Mr. Penumbra’s 24-Hour Bookstore, comes Sourdough, "a perfect parable for our times" (San Francisco Magazine): a delicious and funny novel about an overworked and under-socialized software engineer discovering a calling and a community as a baker. Named One of the Best Books of the Year by NPR, the San Francisco Chronicle, and Southern Living Lois Clary is a software engineer at General Dexterity, a San Francisco robotics company with world-changing ambitions. She codes all day and collapses at night, her human contact limited to the two brothers who run the neighborhood hole-in-the-wall from which she orders dinner every evening. Then, disaster! Visa issues. The brothers quickly close up shop. But they have one last delivery for Lois: their culture, the sourdough starter used to bake their bread. She must keep it alive, they tell her—feed it daily, play it music, and learn to bake with it. Lois is no baker, but she could use a roommate, even if it is a needy colony of microorganisms. Soon, not only is she eating her own homemade bread, she’s providing loaves to the General Dexterity cafeteria every day. Then the company chef urges her to take her product to the farmer’s market—and a whole new world opens up.

The Night Diary

The Night Diary
Author: Veera Hiranandani
Publisher: Penguin
Total Pages: 305
Release: 2018-03-06
Genre: Juvenile Fiction
ISBN: 0735228531

A 2019 NEWBERY HONOR BOOK "A gripping, nuanced story of the human cost of conflict appropriate for both children and adults." -Kirkus, starred review In the vein of Inside Out and Back Again and The War That Saved My Life comes a poignant, personal, and hopeful tale of India's partition, and of one girl's journey to find a new home in a divided country It's 1947, and India, newly independent of British rule, has been separated into two countries: Pakistan and India. The divide has created much tension between Hindus and Muslims, and hundreds of thousands are killed crossing borders. Half-Muslim, half-Hindu twelve-year-old Nisha doesn't know where she belongs, or what her country is anymore. When Papa decides it's too dangerous to stay in what is now Pakistan, Nisha and her family become refugees and embark first by train but later on foot to reach her new home. The journey is long, difficult, and dangerous, and after losing her mother as a baby, Nisha can't imagine losing her homeland, too. But even if her country has been ripped apart, Nisha still believes in the possibility of putting herself back together. Told through Nisha's letters to her mother, The Night Diary is a heartfelt story of one girl's search for home, for her own identity...and for a hopeful future.

The Knockout

The Knockout
Author: Sajni Patel
Publisher: North Star Editions, Inc.
Total Pages: 360
Release: 2021-01-26
Genre: Young Adult Fiction
ISBN: 1635830605

Kareena Thakkar’s world is turned upside down when she learns she’s landed an invitation to the US Open, which could lead to a spot on the first-ever Muay Thai Olympics team. To make it to the US Open, she has to come clean about being a Muay Thai fighter—a sport that her traditional Indian community deems too violent for girls—and own her destiny.

Macon, Georgia

Macon, Georgia
Author: Jeanne Herring
Publisher: Arcadia Publishing
Total Pages: 132
Release: 2000
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 9780738506005

In this engaging new visual history showcasing Macon's African Americans, vintage photographs illuminate the contributions and achievements of black citizens who have lived and worked in the heart of Georgia for more than one hundred and fifty years. Local landmarks, such as the Douglass Theater and the Harriet Tubman Museum, and unique African-American communities, such as Summerfield and Pleasant Hill, are testament to the indelible mark left on Macon by its enterprising black residents.