The Sinatra: An American Icon exhibition has many wonderful media stations for visitors—songs, excerpts from television  specials, films trailers and featurettes, and a juke box.  But the one that is garnering the most attention is “The House I Live In,” the RKO short film that won Sinatra his first Oscar. 

In 1945, Frank Sinatra used his popularity as a radio and recordings star to promote tolerance, especially in speaking to youth groups. He sang and recorded the song, “The House I Live In” by Lewis Allan and Earl Robinson, performing it on the Armed Forces Service’s V-J Day Broadcast. In the exhibition, it can also be heard on the juke box and the videotaped live “Concert of the Americas.”  Visible in the exhibition is the sheet music issued concurrently with the film.  The inside front cover of the song reprints the full lyrics of “The House I Live In” including an additional three verses and alternate double bridge. Unlike the remainder of the song, the bridges have very specific references to American history and then-current World War II references, connecting the battle of Concord and Gettysburg to Midway and Bataan.   

The producers Frank Ross and Mervyn LeRoy made the short subject for RKO Radio Pictures, combining footage of Sinatra recording the ballad “If This is But a Dream” with a narrative section of him coming across a group of boys harassing a foreign-looking boy and teaching them about tolerance with the title song. In the phrase recommended for publicizing the featurette:  “The theme of Tolerance, impassioned and thrilling in its fervent plea in Frank Sinatra’s sincere, human way.. an epochal inspiration of the public conscience.”

We know this information because the Billy Rose Theatre Division has a full exploitation sheet (flyer) for the short subject. An exploitation sheet was developed by the studio publicity department to be shipped to theater managers in advance of the booking. It includes 3 pages of squibs, articles to be planted in local newspapers, and suggested publicity campaigns. The back page has samples of one-sheets, lobby cards, stills, and slugs for the film so that all images, text, logos, and fonts used locally followed the rules set by the studio. Headlines for the articles focused on “Frank Sinatra Inspires Youth” and “As Sinatra Sees It.” The exploitation (a word then used without evil connotations) recommended cross-promotion with scouting, veterans and school groups, as well as Sinatra fan clubs. It also included “Commended by F.D.R:” claiming that Sinatra had visited the President who approved “his intention to combat religious and racial intolerance amongst the youngsters of the nation.” There were claims that proceeds from the film would be  (on the cover page) “donated to organizations working on the problems of juvenile delinquency” and (on p. 2) “devoted to agencies engaged in combating intolerance.”

Most one-reel films and short subjects did not merit full exploitation sheets. Sinatra’s popularity and, I suspect, the personal commitment of the producers to the theme, made them publicize the short as if it was a feature film.  

Ten years ago, The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts presented an exhibition on American Performance in the Era of Blacklisting. Then-Executive Director Robert Marx suggested the title “The House I Live In.”  It was a sequel to one on antifascist performance called  It Can’t Happen Here . We were being ironic, but the song title did manage to encompass both the intense patriotism and social criticism of the era. Both were also present in the song and short subject by songwriters Lewis Allan and Earl Robinson (as well as the film’s writer Albert Maltz), who were all duly blacklisted. All are well represented in the Library for Performing Arts’ collections, especially in their work from the 1930s–1950s. As well as published songs and recordings, you can find their work in the archival collections of other writing partners, among them Jay Gorney, Yip Harburg, and Elie Siegmeister and in the papers and publications of the New Theatre League.  They are worth investigating. Allan’s “Strange Fruit,” is one of the best known and best songs of the 20^th century, but his other works also deserve recognition.  

On June 27, a plaque marking the site of New York City's main 18th-century slave market was unveiled in Lower Manhattan by Mayor Bill de Blasio. Reflecting on 300 years of local history, he drew a comparison between black life then and now: "It was true two, three centuries ago, even though it was never acknowledged. It was true then, it is true today. It will be true tomorrow. Black lives matter.” The recognition of black New Yorkers' vital role in the history of the city was long overdue.

This history had started with the arrival of a black man. In June 1613, Jan Rodrigues, a free sailor from Hispaniola (in what is today the Dominican Republic) who worked for a Dutch fur trading company, was left on Manhattan Island to trade with Native Americans. He was the first non-indigenous permanent resident of Manhattan and remained the only one until 1621 when the Dutch West India Company (WIC) built a settlement and began introducing African labor.

In 1626, 11 Africans from Congo, Angola, and the island of Sao Tome were transported to the small town. Eighteen years later, the men, who had petitioned the local Dutch authorities to get their freedom, were liberated. Each one received land. Their collective 300 acres stretched from the Bowery Road to 5th Avenue and 39th Street. Their freedom was conditional, though; they had to deliver one “fat hog” and 22.5 bushels of corn, wheat, peas, or beans to the WIC every year or be re-enslaved. Their wives were freed too, but not their children. 

Whereas during the Dutch period, 70 percent of the Africans came from the Caribbean under British rule—which started in 1664—most arrived directly from Africa. Of the close to 4,000 people whose origins are known, 1,271 came from Madagascar, 998 from Congo, 757 from Senegambia, 504 from the Gold Coast (Ghana), 239 from Sierra Leone, and 217 from non-identified areas of the continent.

With the aggressive increase in the slave trade and the expansion of the city, an official slave market opened in 1711 by the East River on Wall Street between Pearl and Water Streets. By 1730, 42 percent of the population owned slaves, a higher percentage than in any other city in the country except Charleston, South Carolina. The enslaved population—which ranged between 15 and 20 percent of the total—literally built the city and was the engine that made its economy run. 

The slave market on  Wall Street  closed in 1762 but men, women, and children continued to be bought and sold throughout the city.

After the abolition of slavery in 1827, New York’s shameful history of discrimination, racism, rigid segregation, and anti-black violence continued. By the 1850s, the city was dominating the illegal international slave trade to the American South, Brazil, and Cuba. New York benefited much from slavery and the slave trade: southern cotton and sugar sailed to Europe from its harbor. Banks, insurance companies—among them Aetna, JP Morgan Chase, and New York Life—and lawyers made a brisk business with slaveholders and slave ship owners. Traders and builders outfitted slave ships. 

In this northern city, pro-Confederate sentiment ran high, and in July 1863, during the infamous Draft Riots 11 black men were lynched, tortured, mutilated, some hung from lampposts and burned. About 100 people (mostly blacks) were killed in Manhattan and Brooklyn, 100 buildings were destroyed, the property damage was high. The brutal episode changed the demographics of black New York. From 12,472 in 1860, the black population decreased to 9,943 in 1865. 

But through it all, from running away and launching revolts to establishing progressive churches, schools, abolition and mutual aid societies, black New Yorkers, enslaved and free, resisted and fought back.

We need many more markers to tell their heroic story.

*The marker, the brainchild of writer and artist Christopher Cobb, took years and the advocacy of City Council member Jumaane Williams  to become reality. The text was written by the Parks Department and the Landmarks Preservation Commission in collaboration with former Schomburg Center curator and historian Christopher Moore. 

More about slavery in New York
 

Ann Farrow et al. Complicity: How the North Promoted, Prolonged, and Profited from Slavery

Ira Berlin & Leslie Harris, eds. Slavery in New York

Eric Foner. Gateway to Freedom: The Hidden History of the Underground Railroad

Watch a conversation between Eric Foner and Leslie Harris

Graham Hodges. David Ruggles: A Radical Black Abolitionistand the Underground Railroad in New York City

Graham Hodges. Root and Branch: African Americans in New York and New Jersey, 1613-1863

Graham Hodges. “Pretends to be Free.” Fugitive Slave Advertisements from Colonial and Revolutionary New York and New Jersey 

Graham Hodges. Chains and Freedom: The Life and Adventures of Peter Wheeler 

Leslie M. Harris. In the Shadow of Slavery: African Americans in New York City, 1626-1863

Listen to Leslie Harris on urban slavery, particualrly in New York

Alan Singer. New York and Slavery: Time to Teach the Truth

 Judith Wellman. Brooklyn's Promised Land: The Free Black Community of Weeksville, New York

Teens (and us adults who love young-adult mysteries) looking for a new read this summer—do we have some picks for you! Here are some plot-tastic books that you won’t be able to put down.

Far from You by Tess Sharpe
NYPL readers are raving about this un-put-down-able thriller, which follows a bisexual protagonist after an attack. She escapes, but her best friend is killed and she must discover the truth.

No One Else Can Have You by Kathleen Hale
Small-town Wisconsin provides the backdrop for this funny mystery. After Kippy’s best friend Ruth is murdered, Kippy reads her diary and embarks on a quest to find Ruth’s real killer—and exonerate the boy accused of committing it.  

Hold Me Like a Breath by Tiffany Schmidt
The world of illegal organ donation is the unlikely backdrop for this page-turner, in which the gravely ill daughter of a wealthy family races the clock to track down their killers.

Freaks Like Us by Susan Vaught
Written in two different voices—the first-person narrator and the voices in his head—this tightly crafted story addresses the mental illness of Jason “Freak” Milwaukee and what happens after his friend disappears.

The Perfectionists by Sara Shepard
The best-selling author of Pretty Little Liars is at it again with a new two-book series about popularity and teen dynamics. This one follows four friends at an elite school after their nemesis turns up dead, and they have to defend themselves—and find the real killer.

When by Victoria Laurie
When a 16-year-old looks at people, she can see the dates of their deaths over their foreheads—a blessing/curse that leads her into danger when the FBI learns she correctly predicted the death of a client’s teenage son.

Sanctum by Madeleine Roux
The second installment in Roux’s Asylum series features three teens, still tortured by nightmares from their time in the asylum, reuniting for another go-round.

Staff picks are chosen by NYPL staff members and are not intended to be comprehensive lists. We'd love to hear your picks! Leave a comment and tell us what you’d recommend.

移民到美國, 無論是初來步到或已落地生根, 每人背後都有一段故事. 七月四日是美國國慶. 在這歡樂的日子, 讓我們細細回味過去的甘苦, 以敞開心扉面对美好的將來.

网络强国 : 中美网络空间大博弈

方兴东

9787121235184

斯诺登事件引爆了全球各国在网络空间的觉醒意识，未来国与国之间的竞争将越来越多地体现在网络空间的竞争。2014年中央网络安全和信息化领导小组的成立，是我国网络空间战略发展的一个里程碑，标志着我国从网络大国向网络强国家的迈进途中，已经正式完成了制度设计；标志着我国第一次超越了单纯的信息化基础建设，从网络空间安全的全新视角来审视当今世界，也标志着中国互联网发展和中国信息化建设不设防时代的从此终结、网络强国的伟大征程全面开启。Dangdang.com

叶 : 百年动荡中的一个中国家庭

周锡瑞

9787203084860

周锡瑞著的《叶(百年动荡中的一个中国家庭)》详尽地描述了笃庄这一代兄弟姐妹，在“文革”暴风雨过后的复苏与渐入佳境。但他们毕竟已经耗尽了自己可能大有作为的鼎盛春秋，平反复出虽然焕发出工作激情与才智挥洒，毕竟如同已逾季节的花朵，尽管光彩照人但却迅速凋谢。本书的未来瞩望于他们的子女以及正在茁壮成长的第三代。Dangdang.com

我的美国新生活

弗朗西恩。普罗斯

9787532764730 

弗朗西恩·普罗斯编著的《我的美国新生活》讲述了，在26岁的阿尔巴尼亚女孩露拉眼中，“美国梦”不仅是自由女神像下的平等、自由、民主，更是一种坚定的信念，任何人都有可能通过自己的努力迈向更好的新生活。于是露拉持旅行签证来到纽约，她要在此地生活，和在这里生活的其他人一样生活。露拉对古板的美国单身男子斯坦利夸张了自己在阿尔巴尼亚的过去，并因此得到在斯坦利家当保姆照顾他读高中的孩子齐克的机会；她把民族传说当作家庭故事写进自己小说，博得了斯坦利及其律师朋友唐的好感，并积极帮助露拉办理移民。一切看起来都很顺利，可是意外发生了：露拉的三名同乡男子突然造访，拜托她藏枪，出于好意，露拉同意了。可接下来发生的一连串事件却是露拉始料未及的，一场生活讽刺剧就此拉开序幕……dangdang.com

红星照耀太平洋 : 中国崛起与美国海上战略

吉原恒淑

9787509743850

该书作者集关于亚洲的一手材料、运用汉语资料的能力，以及海战经验和海权理论于一身，评估了中国海权的崛起将如何影响美国在亚洲的海洋战略，并认为中国正在为挑战美国在亚洲海域的优势地位做基础性工作。作者回归马汉的海权理论，思考了海洋的战略思想如何影响北京决策，并将中国的地缘战略困境与一个世纪前的德意志帝国所面临的困境相比较，考察了指引中国海军行动的理念、策略以及中国海军的能力，并对中国弹道导弹潜艇舰队的实力进行了评估。Dangdang.com

探访美国政党政治 : 美国两党精英访谈 

赵忆宁

9787300196640

《探访美国政党政治：美国两党精英访谈》将政党作为深入了解美国政治的突破口，旨在获取两党精英评述美国政党与政治的第一手信息，并辨析美国政党政治的优劣所在。在各篇访谈中，主题侧重涵盖两党的社会基础、基本理念、组织架构、运作规则、经费来源等方面，窥视并探寻了美国两党运作的逻辑，展现了美国政党政治生态的现状，以及由此带来的对美国社会及各群体的影响。Dangdang.com

美国民生实录

姚鸿恩

9787301241912 

美国到底是从天上落下来的理想国，还是几百年无数人堆砌成的蚁巢？本书集作者在美国三十多年生活、观察、体验的功力，内容关乎美国普通民生的方方面面，精细到令人吃惊的地步，是超级写实主义的记录。从房地产、交通、饮食、节日、开销、婚姻、性，到法规、官员、思维、移民，无所不包，非几十年之深切体验所不能写。

Dangdang.com

美國中西部驚嘆之旅 : 峽谷、山峰、瀑布、湖泊、巨石等國家級景觀風景

許正雄

9789863360261 

美國，擁有與東岸不同風情的中西部。豐富天然資源的科羅拉多州、地廣人稀的南達科他、全美最長的70號州跨公路、平等之州的懷俄明州、充滿各種奇岩怪石的猶他州。除了當地的基本資訊介紹，還有豐富的天然景觀，峽谷、溫泉、巨石景觀、山峰、湖泊、瀑布、州立公園，以及國家公園等。讓到中西部的旅行者都能體會到有如仙境般的享受。Kingston.com.tw

底特律 : 一座美国城市的衰落

查理。勒达夫

9787508635712

底特律曾经是美国最富裕的城市，现在，底特律是美国最穷的城市。底特律曾经是美国以大规模生产、蓝领工作岗位和汽车为标志的机器时代的先锋，现在，底特律是美国的失业之都、文盲之都、辍学之都。废弃的工厂、遗弃的住宅和被遗忘了的人们，让底特律令人恐惧，令人愤怒。一个像旧金山和曼哈顿规模的城市，能够放到底特律的空闲地块里。底特律的凶杀案数目比警察局的官方数字要高，以致底特律成为美国的凶杀之都，在揭示了这个事实之后，一个身心疲惫的老侦探告诉勒达夫，“在底特律，2+2=3。”
　　勒达夫深入一个地方消防站，了解到了消防队员如何与肆意纵火和官僚腐败做殊死的搏斗；他调查了各路政治家，从中发现究竟谁从底特律的衰退中获利；他敲过工会头目的门，造访过无家可归者的窝棚，与有权势的生意人和生活维艰的业主攀谈，聆听依靠坚忍不拔的毅力把这座城市凝聚在一起的百姓们的哭诉。
　　在美国的好时光和坏时光中，如果底特律都是先锋的话，那么，在美国陷入困境的时代，底特律是唯一一个寻求导航的城市。《底特律》是一部黑色喜剧，反映了21世纪美国生活中的荒谬成分，是一部融合了贪得无厌和百折不饶、愚不可及和无所畏惧的人间活剧。Dangdang.com

华尔街女孩

罗柯娃

9787509624111 

“如果你爱他，就把他送到纽约，因为那里是天堂；如果你恨他，就把他送到纽约，因为那里是地狱。”罗柯娃编著的《华尔街女孩》中生活在美国十年的80后女孩将向你揭开在华尔街美国资本市场上的酸甜苦辣咸。作者将这些年在美国，特别是在华尔街资本市场上的经历，以一个华尔街女孩的所见、所闻、所感，用她已经感到有些生疏的文字记录下来。Dangdang.com

光辉岁月 : 美国民权英雄心灵史

陈国平

9787506049542 

引领这场行动的英雄们登上历史舞台，绝非凭空显现的神迹。为什么一个倔强的女裁缝，能够感召五万同胞拒乘公交巴士？为什么一个年轻的牧师，能够鼓动追随者“把监狱填满”？为什么一个街头怒汉能够感动整个国家？为什么一个律师能够掀起体制革命？为什么一个坐牢超过三十次的学生会被选入联邦国会？其实，他们拥有的巨大行动能量，一直深蕴于美国普通民众之中；其道德勇气，则源自内心力量。直至今天，世人仍难以忘怀英雄们的行迹与心路故事，并继续从中汲取力量——这也是本书的主题。Dangdang.com

美国大专向 : 美国如何迈向下一个十年 

陈晓晨

9787513630559

美国是否已走向衰落？美国新战略是否仅仅“针对中国”？本书对此给予清晰回答.  Dangdang.com

神秘的东方贵族 : 贝聿铭和他的家族

张一苇

9787567204225

张一苇编著的《神秘的东方贵族(贝聿铭和他的家族)》以吴中大家族贝氏的家族谱系和重点人物作了俯瞰式的梳理和由点带面式的介绍。因涉及的贝族人物谱系较为繁杂，从国内到海外都有，所以写作也有一定的难度。《神秘的东方贵族(贝聿铭和他的家族)》作者筚路蓝缕，精心采访、查询和搜集，终于有条理地将贝族人物谱系作了科学而规范的梳理，并对因应历史事件而发生的人物命运的变化作了俯瞰式的点睛评述，读来既有历史感又有一定的趣味性，是目前梳理大家族史的一部好作品。Dangdang.com

为奴十二载

所罗门。诺瑟普

9787301238127

本书是一部个人回忆录。故事发生在19世纪中叶的美国，具有自由人身份的纽约州黑人居民所罗门诺瑟普，即本书的作者，被两位白人设计诱骗至华盛顿，惨遭绑架，落入奴隶贩子之手，随后被运往盛行奴隶制度的路易斯安那州，卖至当地的种植园。他在离家数千里的南方挣扎求生十二年，终于觅得良机，写信回家乡纽约州求援，最终幸运获救，回归故里，与家人团聚。Dangdang.com

The Fourth of July: Fireworks, hot dogs, potato salad, parades,  washing the dog (hey, not everyone has the same rituals).  These are just a few of the things that most people will be partaking of this Saturday. If you're like me (but not so much so that you'll be giving your dog a bath), you'll use the long weekend to catch up on some reading.  And what better thing to read than a novel about the birth of our nation. Here are a few titles that may help put you in the Spirit of '76:

Rise to Rebellion by Jeff Shaara focuses on the 1770 killing of civilians by British troops and the ensuing trial where John Adams defended the soldiers. Other historical figures figuring prominently in the narrative are Benjamin Franklin, General Thomas Gage, Abigail Adams, and George Washington.

Drums Along the Mohawk by Walter D. Edmonds is almost forgotten  today, but when it was published in 1936, it was a best seller for two years (second only to that juggernaut Gone With The Wind) and was made into a film by John Ford in 1939 that starred Henry Fonda and Claudette Colbert. The book focuses on newlyweds Gilbert and Lana Martin who settle in the Mohawk Valley in 1776 only to get swept up in the drama of the Revolutionary War as they and their neighbors must choose which side to be on.

Whiskey Rebels by David Liss is a"private eye" novel set in the 1780s. The protagonist, Ethan Saunders, is a former spy for George Washington who is hired by Alexander Hamilton to find his ex-fiancee's missing husband. The plot becomes even more complicated when Saunders encounters Joan Maycott who, along with her husband, run a whiskey still in rural Pennsylvania.

Howard Fast's April Morning centers on the Battle of Lexington and its role in fifteen-year-old Adam Cooper's initiation into manhood. The novel was not written as a young adult novel but it has come to be placed on high school reading lists.  A film version was made in 1987 starring Chad Lowe and Tommy Lee Jones.

We had a beautiful Friday evening in the open air as we hosted Open Book Night at NYPL’s Outdoor Reading Room on the terrace of the Stephen A. Schwarzman Building. While lounging around in the canary yellow deck chairs, we set up a microphone to battle the Fifth Avenue bus noise and had a lovely chat under the trees. The hospitality of the Schwarzman staff and the terrace visitors was as welcoming as the fine weather. Cheers to the wonderful participants who took the time to tell us about the following books that they enjoyed. There was a nice balance between fiction and nonfiction ranging from mystery to memoirs.

Melissa read a paragraph from A Walk in the Woods by BIll Bryson, a memoir she recommended for its humor. Bryson writes about the experience of walking the Appalachian Trail with a friend. “My first inkling of just how daunting an undertaking it was to be came when I went to our local outfitters, the Dartmouth Co-Op, to purchase equipment. My son had just gotten an after-school job there, so I was under strict instructions of good behavior. Specifically, I was not to say anything stupid, try on anything that would require me to expose my stomach, say “Are you shitting me?” when informed of the price of a product, be conspicuously inattentive when a sales assistant was explaining the correct maintenance or aftercare of a product, and above all don anything inappropriate, like a woman’s ski hat, in an attempt to amuse.”

Another recommended memoir was the graphic novel Fun Home by Alison Bechdel. This graphic novel talks about the author’s heartbreaking and humorous relationship with her father. The Broadway Musical based on the book just won the Tony Award for Best Musical.

Moved by A Language Older Than Words by Derrick Jensen, a reader memorized and recited the first paragraphs of the book. “There is a language older by far and deeper than words. It is the language of bodies, of body on body, wind on snow, rain on trees, wave on stone. It is the language of dream, gesture, symbol, memory. We have forgotten this language. We do not even remember that it exists.”

We also learned about the The Life-changing Magic of Tidying Up by Marie Kondo, inspiring the reader to think about discarding the buildup of electronic files she’s been saving, clearing about the digital space in her life as well as the physical space.

Tom McCarthy’s latest novel Satin Island was recommended as a literary novel that asks you to think about what you are reading while making connections in unexpected places. The anthropologist narrator is trying to write a great report on what it is to live in our times. He dreams about Satin Island, a pun on Staten Island, as place where the sludge of contemporary life comes together.

The Bone Collector by Jeffery Deaver intrigued Linda after seeing the movie based on the book a couple of years ago. She described the title as Sherlock Holmes meets CSI.

The Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman was recommended to Joanne by another library reader with a description that made it sound so wonderful she began reading it immediately. The narrator of this novel must find a way to escape from an evil force unleashed during his childhood relying on three sisters who live on a farm at the end of the lane and have very long memories.

If you didn’t make it on Friday, please share your favorite authors and titles with us in the comments below. And, if you share your books on social media, remember to tag your posts with the #ireadeverywhere hashtag this summer.

Our next Open Book Night on July 10th will once again meet at NYPL’s Outdoor Reading Room on the terrace in front of the Schwarzman Building to share and discuss books we love!  

If you'd like to share book recommendations with other readers, join us at any or all of our upcoming Open Book Nights at the Mid-Manhattan Library, or in the Outdoor Reading Room this summer. The complete 2015 schedule is listed below. We meet on the second Friday of the month at 6 p.m. in the Corner Room on the First Floor, except for our special outdoor Open Books nights on June 26 and July 10, which will meet on the steps of the Schwarzman Building. We'd love to see you there!

• February 13, 2015 - Love                                 See the Patron Picks List from Open Book Night, February 2015

• April 10, 2015 - New Beginnings                     See the Patron Picks List from Open Book Night, April 2015

• May 8, 2015 - Nature                                        See the Patron Picks List from Open Book Night, May 2015

• June 12, 2015 - Sports                        See the Patron Picks List from Open Book Night, June  2015

• June 26, 2015 - Open theme                           Meet in the Outdoor Reading Room

• July  10, 2015 - Open theme                            Meet in the Outdoor Reading Room                

• August 14, 2015 - Travel       

• September 11, 2015 - New York

• October 9, 2015 - The Occult

• November 13, 2015  - Thanksgiving

• December 11, 2015 - Food and Cooking

Leaders need to examine themselves in order to determine their strengths and weaknesses. It is important to correct their problematic leadership areas. Also, leaders cannot feel as though "they've arrived." Stagnation could precipitate their downfall. Tough decisions define leaders, and they need to be able to make effective, clear-cut choices during moments of crisis or upheaval. Leaders can and will receive much criticism; some is directed at the position and some is personal. It is essential to learn from constructive criticism and overlook unhelpful or inaccurate remarks by others. Do what you love and what you are good at; focus on your strengths. Leaders also cultivate the strengths of others; look at how the staff are doing in order to evaluate the leader's performance. 

Leaders should be realistic and have good listening skills. Correct your mistakes and engage in professional development in order to enhance your skill set. People quit companies because of the people they work with. Mentees can learn from your successes as well as your failures. Have productive meetings before the main meeting to ensure understanding and idea generation. Connect with people as well as climb the career ladder in order to learn to lead staff. 

Live your life and conduct your career deliberately; do not let it happen accidentally. Do not overuse your influence and give it to people who will misuse it. You must sacrifice for the company in order to succeed. You will meet many people during your career, but most relationships do not last forever. Strive to retain talented staff, but do not despair if some leave. Many people must want your success before it is attainable. Ask questions to get answers and grow. Have a terrific life and career! Happy reading. 

I love John C. Maxwell's books; he is a former pastor, so he highly values human capital.

Leadership Gold by John Maxwell, 2008

• The John Maxwell Company
• Books about leadership

Subscribe on iTunes.

At this point, it's safe to call Werner Herzog a cinema legend. Born in Munich, the director, screenwriter, and producer has directed sixty-seven films. He has won four awards at the Cannes Film Festival and been nominated for one Academy Award. This week on the New York Public Library Podcast, we're proud to present Werner Herzog discussing ancient Greece, his grandfather, and Wrestlemania.

His early film Signs of Life holds one key to Herzog's past. The filmmaker connects it with his grandfather, an archaeologist:

"Most of it was done on the island of Kos, which had a great significance for me because my grandfather, with whom I had a very deep connection, worked there as an archaeologist in the early twentieth century for eight years. I always felt much closer related to my grandfather than my own father... I've always felt very close, in a way, to my grandfather and his impeccable sense of location. He had an incredible sense of finding places for centuries on the island of Kos. There were searches for the Asclepieia and he found it. Almost all the other monuments of ancient Greece like, let's say, Mycenae or Knossos on the island of Crete, you knew were it was because the columns were sticking out of the ground."

Years later, the ancients still fascinate Herzog, though he was not particularly interested in studying the classics as a student. Instead, he preferred the education of an autodidact:

"I didn't like school. I was very much self-taught. I never trusted school. I never trusted instructors. I never trusted teachers, but something remained there, and only after school when I was long done with it, I started to like it, and I started to read. Of course, my reading in ancient Greek or in Latin is limited. My knowledge of ancient Greek drama is very, very limited. My knowledge of Greek philosophy: quite limited. Of course we had to read Plato in its original in school, but somehow it never touched my soul. It was other things. It was other things that moved me and that keep my mind engaged until this very day."

While some might be apt to dismiss studying these ancient civilizations, Herzog sees reverberations of ancient Greek culture in contemporary popular entertainment. He noted an unexpected correlation:

"I think like Herb Golder, who is here with us, who has worked with me, who believes that in Wrestlemania there are crude forms of mythology and drama going on, and they're not in the fights. The fights are interrupted by commercials, but when the owner of this whole enterprise shows up in the ring and his wife — allegedly, his wife in black sunglasses and in a wheelchair — is wheeled in and she has become blinded because of grief, because he, her husband, has four blond babes with breast installations like this on his arm and scolds her and says, 'You're stupid. You don't have any boobs like this.' And the son steps up and confronts his father but not in defense of the mother. The son steps up because he wants more of the money, of the pie of the money. And I'm convinced and Herb Golder is convinced that ancient Greek drama had some crude proto-forms a little bit like that."

Harper Lee made readers’ dreams come true when the publication of her second book was announced. Go Set a Watchman will be published on July 14—55 years after To Kill a Mockingbird.

So, we’re thinking about other authors we wish would suddenly come out (some posthumously) with another novel many years after their first—and only— full-length works of fiction.

Here’s a list of classic novels we wish had sequels, whatever they may have been.

Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison
Narrated by an unnamed black man, Ellison’s 1952 novel was a triumph; he later published two collections of essays, but no more fiction. In his acceptance speech for the National Book Award in 1953, Ellison said, “I was to dream of a prose which was flexible, and swift as American change is swift, confronting the inequalities and brutalities of our society forthrightly, but yet thrusting forth its images of hope, human fraternity, and individual self-realization.” A little more of that, magically discovered decades after his death, would be welcome.

The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath
A collection of Plath’s poetry did emerge 20 years after her death, and it won a Pulitzer Prize. Would it be too much to ask for an undiscovered novel?

A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole
Ignatius J. Reilly didn’t see the light of day until more than a decade after Toole’s suicide at age 31, when the author’s mother helped shepherd it to publication. Like Plath, Toole won a posthumous Pulitzer. (It’s not as good as a sequel, but adaptations of the book are in the works. Rumor has it that the movie project is cursed; Nick Offerman is now set to portray him in a stage adaptation in Boston this fall.)

The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger
The reclusive author published numerous short stories and novellas, but Catcher  was his only full-length novel. And we may get our wish with this one: In 2013, authors of a Salinger biography claimed there would be a “stream” of new material over the next five years, including the unpublished novels languishing in a gigantic safe.

Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell
The most famous novel of the Civil War never had a sequel. The book ends with, “Tomorrow is another day”—who knows what could have happened? (This book was one of our NYPL librarians’ literary Waterloos!)

The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde
Published in the waning years of the 19^th century, this novel got the infamous playwright and cad into major trouble for portraying decadence and sensuality. Although Wilde was prolific, writing copious essays and plays and stories, this was his only full-length novel.

Doctor Zhivago by Boris Pasternak
Pasternak’s first and only novel had controversial themes that got him into trouble in the former USSR, which refused to publish the book and would not allow him to accept the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1958. He wrote poetry and translated plays and other work extensively but no more fiction.

Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë
Brontë died at age 30, just a year after her anti-Victorian masterpiece was published. Her sisters continued their literary careers, but the world never saw more of Emily. What more could have happened on those windswept moors if she’d lived?

Staff picks are chosen by NYPL staff members and are not intended to be comprehensive lists. We'd love to hear your picks! Leave a comment and tell us what you’d recommend.

There are only constant three things in life that have the ability to never get old, and cause everyone to gush indescribable joy: baseball, foreign cinema, and anything inside the genus of comic books/graphic novels/manga. Here, we'll help you reach nirvana by giving you a nudge in the right direction.

Me? I'm a total sucker for anything labeled "coming-of-age". Maybe it's a character flaw. Maybe it's something with my genetic coding. Maybe it's nothing at all. But yeah, you give me some sort of book, film, manga, whatever, dealing with a youth's journey into early adulthood, it'll be very interesting material to me, which is why I had no trouble delving into Taiwanese director Giddens Ko's You Are the Apple of My Eye.

The film is based off of Ko's semi-autobiographical novel titled The Girl We Chased Together in Those Years (which sadly for us non-Taiwanese folk has not been translated into English as far as I can tell). However, one has to admit, if you can create an entertaining film off of a novel sort of based on your own life, you must have had a very fascinating life. Congratulations! So yes, Ko was not only the movie's director, but he also penned the source material as well. The story tells the tale of high school student Ko Ching-teng, who is a bit of a truant at his school. After one too many incidents, the principal punishes him by placing his seat by the top student in his grade, class genius as well as class heartthrob Shen Chia-yi, so she can keep a stern watch on him. Though their relationship with one another is contentious at first, they in time become friends, and soon after fall for one another. However, as with any good coming of age tale, the circumstances surrounding everyday life and growing up get in the twosome's way, and they have to decide whether they'll trek life's path together, or apart. 

The film was a huge deal overseas. In its first weekend, it grossed 20 million New Taiwanese dollars. When all was said and done, it brought in a whopping 420 million New Taiwanese dollars. It also cleaned up well at the box office in both China and Singapore. Additionally, You Are the Apple of My Eye got a lot of award recognition in Asia. In particular, it won the inaugural award for Best Film of Taiwan and China at Hong Kong's version of the Oscars, known as the Hong Kong Film Awards, at the ceremony's 31st edition in 2011. The film boasts strong acting from its leads, and touching moments that should move you and take you back in time to when you felt that "coming of age" groove. I personally enjoyed Ko's work here a lot. His latest project was released in 2014, titled Cafe. Waiting. Love. Ko both wrote and produced that film. It's another romantic comedy, also with a bit of an emphasis on coming of age. Make a point to check it out when it's released on DVD here in the States.

In 2013, I created "Celebrate America", a reading  list intended to introduce young children to American history.  As we get set to celebrate Independence Day again, I decided to follow up with a list intended for older kids and young adults. I hope some of these titles will encourage readers to look beyond the fireworks and delve deeper into the story of how our country came to be.

First on the list would have to be Esther Forbes 1944 Newbery winner, Johnny Tremain. After a devastating hand injury ends Johnny's dream of becoming a silversmith, he takes a job as dispatch rider for The Committee on Public Safety and becomes involved with Boston revolutionaries like John Hancock and Samuel Adams. Johnny goes from being devastated about his future to playing an important role in the birth of a new nation.

In My Brother Sam Is Dead, by James and Lincoln Collier, a family is torn apart when one member of the Meeker family fights for Loyalists, and another fights fights for the Rebels. Young Tim Meeker is torn between wanting to be just like his brother, fighting with the colonists, and wanting to please his father, who is loyal to the crown. This book demonstrates not only the brutality of war, but also the toll the Civil War had on individual families. Other Collier brothers books that deal with this historical period are Jump Ship to Freedom and War Comes to Willy Freeman.

The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing is a National Book Award winner that defies exact classification. Young Octavian and his mother live in a large house with a group of male guardians known as the Novanglian College of Lucidity  that conduct experiments he neither understands nor questions. "It is ever the lot of children to accept their citcumstances as universal. and their perculiarities as general." But, eventually it is revealed that he and his mother are being held captive as part of an experiment to determine the mental acuity of Africans. As revolutionary unrest swells in the Boston streets outside as well as the compound, Octavian  learns the true horrors of slavery. Octavian's fate is left uncertain at the end of book one. His story continues in The Kingdom on The Waves.

In Chains, by  Laurie Halse Anderson a young girl, Isabel and her sister Ruth are sold as slaves to a wealthy New York City couple. Isabel meets Curzon, a slave with ties to the Patriots and convinces Ruth to spy on her owners, who are on the side of the Loyalists. Isabel is reluctant at first, but a horrific event convinces her she must pursue freedom at any cost. The story contines in Forge.

 1775 : A Good Year For Revolution is an ambitious work of nonfiction that argues that the year prior to the one we now celebrate is actually the one that is the watershed year in our history. Author Kevin Phillips focuses on the great battles of 1775 as well as on the increasingly aggressive and bellicose ultimatums that Congress presented to King George.  Another unconventional but important topic is Women Heroes of the American Revolution : 20 Stories of Espionage, Sabotage, Defiance and Rescue, which is a collection of biographical profiles of women who may not be well known, but who served as spies, nurses, writers, and more in service to our country.

Happy reading, and happy Fourth!

Was the Declaration of Independence really necessary? Or was it widely understood by the end of 1775 that the American colonies were already engaged in a war for independence? The key to answering these questions about July 4, 1776 begins with the events of July 5, 1775, when the Second Continental Congress approved the Olive Branch Petition.

Drafted by John Dickinson of Pennsylvania and signed by delegates from twelve North American colonies—Georgia did not decide to send delegates until later in 1775—the Olive Branch Petition was a final attempt at reconciliation. In flowery language, the petition attempted to convey the “tender regard" the colonists felt "for the kingdom.” The petitioners assured the King that they remained “faithful subjects…of our Mother country.” Congress wanted the King to intervene on their behalf and repeal a number of “statutes and regulations adopted for the administration of the colonies” by Parliament, which they claimed had stoked colonial rebelliousness.

With the benefit of hindsight, the Petition seems incredibly far-fetched. Some serious people at the time, though, wanted to find a plan for reconciliation. Adam Smith argued that to stave off rebellion, North America should gain representation in Parliament with the understanding that “[t]he seat of Empire would then naturally” move there after some time. Despite ten years of agitation, the window for reconciliation had not necessarily closed.

As we know, the Petition was a tough sell. For all intents and purposes, the colonists and England were already at war. The Battles of Lexington and Concord had taken place nearly three months earlier, and Bunker Hill even more recently. So the colonists tried their best to explain away the violence. They claimed that British officials’ dogged determination to enforce policies opposed by the colonists led to “open hostilities” and  “compelled us to arm in our own defence.” What choice, the colonists asked, did they have but to defend themselves? On the very the next day, July 6th, 1775, Congress issued a “Declaration of the Necessity for Taking up Arms” which attempted to justify their military response to British policies.  Given this “Declaration,” was the Olive Branch Petition totally disingenuous?

When the petition finally did arrive, the King refused to see it. The King made his position clear before he even received the Olive Branch.  In light of “various disorderly acts committed in disturbance of the publick peace, to the obstruction of lawful commerce, and to the oppression of our loyal subjects,” the King declared that the colonists were in “open and avowed rebellion” and “levying war against us.”  He then went on to outline some measures aimed at suppressing the rebellion in the colonies and support for it in England.  

In October, the King took an even harder line in a speech to Parliament—the library holds a contemporary copy or draft of this document as well. Congress raised an Army, was in the process of raising a Navy, and assumed a number of other governing powers that seemed to suggest the colonists had forsaken their connection to the mother country. Worse yet, they unleashed a “torrent of violence” on the King’s loyal subjects in the colonies. Ultimately, the King concluded that the “rebellious war … is become more general, and is manifestly carried on for the purpose of establishing an independent empire.”

The King did not need to see a Declaration of Independence. He was convinced the colonists were already engaged in a war for independence. And for their part, the colonists had already issued a “Declaration” that attempted to justify their military actions as legitimate. This all begs the question: by the end of 1775, what was left to declare?

Why did Congress feel the need to declare independence from an Empire that already acted as though the colonies were engaged in an independence movement? Did doing so amount to anything more than telling the British something they already knew? And if that was the case, why did it take so long to do after it became clear that the Olive Branch Petition failed?

One answer comes from comparing the opening statements of the two documents.  Whereas in the Olive Branch Petition, Congress identified themselves as representatives of twelve colonies; in the Declaration, Congress claims to speak for the “United States of America.”  The intervening months amounted to a critical period of self-definition. 

Americans tend to focus almost exclusively on the soaring rhetoric of the Declaration’s second paragraph. Ironically, our intense focus on Declaration’s humanitarian principles—that all men are created equal—divorces the document from the particular historical moment in which it was written. The Declaration’s self-assured tone belied the fact that self-conscious American unity was newfangled, tenuous, and imperiled. Grappling with the meaning of the Olive Branch, and entertaining the possibility that the events of 1775 and 1776 could have unfolded differently, allows us to better understand both how the Declaration came to be and what it was supposed to do.

In honor of the upcoming 250th anniversary of the Stamp Act, the New York Public Library has put on display a set of documents from its collections that cover the entire span from 1765 to 1776. Documents include the manuscript version of the Olive Branch Petition, a contemporary printing of the “Declaration of the Necessity for Taking up Arms,” and the first New York printing of the Declaration of Independence. Sparking the Revolution: No Taxation Without Representation will be open for public viewing in the McGraw Rotunda, on the 3rd floor of the Stephen A Schwarzman Building, through July 13th. Of course the exhibit also coincides with the Fourth of July. "Sparking the Revolution" contextualizes America's various Declarations within a long chain of events and focuses our attention on the whole American Revolution.

About the Early Manuscripts Project

With support from the The Polonsky Foundation, The New York Public Library is currently digitizing upwards of 50,000 pages of historic early American manuscript material. The Early American Manuscripts Project will allow students, researchers, and the general public to revisit major political events of the era from new perspectives and to explore currents of everyday social, cultural, and economic life in the colonial, revolutionary, and early national periods. The project will present on-line for the first time high quality facsimiles of key documents from America’s Founding, including the papers of George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Alexander Hamilton and James Madison. Drawing on the full breadth of the Library’s manuscript collections, it will also make widely available less well-known manuscript sources, including business papers of Atlantic merchants, diaries of people ranging from elite New York women to Christian Indian preachers, and organizational records of voluntary associations and philanthropic organizations. Over the next two years, this trove of manuscript sources, previously available only at the Library, will be made freely available through nypl.org.

Ready for Fourth of July barbeques? Of course you’ll be having some pickled oysters, egg nog, and lobster, right?  

If you think these are some interesting cuisine choices for Independence Day festivities, 19th century New Yorkers would disagree.

Each year, among the swarms of people and blazing fireworks that filled New York City streets, the notorious Fourth of July booths arose. A tradition associated with clashing symbols of patriotism and immorality, one element remained unquestionable about these booths: They dished out an interesting menu.

Patriotism and Pyrotechnic Mania

The United States’ independence “ought to be solemnized with pomp and parade, with shews, games, sports, guns, bells, bonfires, and illuminations from one end of the continent to the other.” –John Adams, in a letter to his wife Abigail, 1776 (McNamara).

Former Independence Day celebrations consumed New York City in every capacity. The city's festivities sparked excitement among adventurous instigators and thrill-seeking spectators, while causing “the bitter annoyance of all persons of quiet habits and sensitive nerves” (Hone).

Thousands of military and civilians marched in parades, elaborate banquets were thrown, patriotic plays were performed, and religious services featured orations of the Declaration of Independence and Washington’s Farewell Address.

Surrounding these formal events, however, was the chaos and destruction of bonfires, fire-crackers, guns, pistols, rockets, Roman candles, fire-balloons, and “every other possible contrivance for making a blaze and a noise” (Harper’s Weekly, July 8, 1871).

Considered a 'boys' holiday,' fireworks filled street corners, alleyways, and every space possible. Hordes of celebrators were left to trudge through gunpowder and smoking debris, and dodge the effects of homemade torpedoes and cannons. 

"Rockets are fired in the streets, some running horizontally up the pavement, and sticking into the back of a passenger" (The Irish Penny Journal,  August 22, 1840).

Though illuminated shores and continual blasts "would have led one to fancy that the city was undergoing a vigorous siege," reckless participants were not in the least deterred by potential danger. Fun and peril were synonymous among these die-hard celebrators, and “it seemed as the whole population of New York had been seized with a pyrotechnic mania." Despite these dicey conditions, however, “the streets in the lower part of the city filled [each year] with red-faced, weary-limbed, overheated men, women, and children" (Hone).  

Booths of Contention

In the midst of this confusion stood the ever-controversial Independence Day booths. Stretching three miles on both sides of Broadway and surrounding City Hall Park, the notorious booths emerged annually as a time-honored patriotic tradition.

From the late 18th century through the mid-1840s, these food and drink stands were constructed every Fourth of July eve, ready to indulge the herds of celebratory crowds the following day. Among the "light and luscious" fare served up by the booths were oysters, boiled hams, lobster, clams, pineapples, puddings, pies and other treats - with a roasted pig as the centerpiece of each one (National Advocate, July 8, 1824).

"For a small amount of money a big piece of roast pig could be had, and clams were gratuitous—thrown in, so to speak" (Harper's Weekly, July 7, 1894).

Where "everything drinkable [was] to be had but water," mobs also enjoyed an abundance of mead, beer, cider, eggnog, and “other beverages, more exhilarating, perhaps, but less innocent" (Hone; Still). Though signifying absolute patriotism to some, such indulgences were quite unpopular with temperance advocates and conservatives.

An Anti-Booth Movement

Branded as an immoral, unnecessary, and a "highly improper" social evil, the Fourth of July booths were accused of corrupting the nation's holiday with "disgusting scenes of vulgarity, profanity, rioting, and drunkenness" (Commercial Advertiser, June 11, 1827).

"Our wives and children, who might else ramble through [the booths], in the enjoyment of innocent mirth and healthful pastime, are shut out by whiskey kegs and cider barrels, rum sellers and rum drinkers, until the grass plats which adorn the Park are strewed with drunken men and women, and its paths thronged with reeling sots. And all of this on the Fourth of July—our national jubilee!" (Commercial Advertiser, June 27, 1840).

Aside from a moral standpoint, the compactly-arranged booths were not entirely practical. The "four or five hundred tents and booths set up in and around the Park and Battery" presented a serious space issue. As the cause for chaos and inaccessibility of public grounds, many argued that these booths had to go (Evening Post, June 11, 1840). 

Though booth-abolishing petitions were signed by thousands, supporters maintained the booths' value as “an easy way to satisfy the immense number of persons, citizens and others, who celebrate the great and only national festival" (Hone). Others clung to the booths as a memory of the "patriotism of our childhood," and were reluctant to see the custom disappear (The Subterranean, June 20, 1846).

Despite the pro-booth advocacy, the infamous stands were banned after years of protest, forever fading as a New York Fourth of July tradition.

"The Fourth of July passed away when the booths around City Hall Park were taken away" (Jenkins).

While many early New York Fourth of July traditions have now vanished, fireworks remain as a dominating celebratory force; they are thankfully, however, not usually set off by children.

Further Reading

Explore the following resources for more information on early Fourth of July celebrations:

• Fourth of July celebrations -- New York (State) -- New York
• Fourth of July celebrations
• Holidays -- New York (State) -- New York -- History
• Fourth of July orations

Search historical newspapers through America's Historical Newspapers, Proquest Historical Newspapers, and HarpWeek. Also find articles through American Periodicals and JSTOR.

移民到美國, 無論是初來步到或已落地生根, 每人背後都有一段故事. 七月四日是美國國慶. 在這歡樂的日子, 讓我們細細回味過去的甘苦, 以敞開心扉面对美好的將來.

美利坚刀锋 : 首度揭开无人机与世界尽头的战争

马克·马泽蒂

9787510449529

20 世纪末以来，美国接连打了三场战争：阿富汗、伊拉克以及无人机秘密战争，而第三场至今仍未被官方承认。大举出兵阿富汗与伊拉克令美国深陷财政、民众反战危机，一个最现实的挑战摆在了白宫面前：如何以最小代价维系美国全球霸主地位？答案是无人机——遥控者可在千里之外精准截杀目标，可谓低成本、零伤亡！dangdang.com

末日巨塔 : 基地组织与 "9。11" 之路

劳伦斯。赖特

9787532766376

美国本土遭遇史上最严重的恐怖袭击。四架波音客机被劫，先后撞击世贸中心双塔和国防部五角大楼，从而导致3000多人丧生和数千亿美圆的经济损失。同一天，知名杂志《纽约客》启动了一项庞大的计划。该项目旨在完整揭示基地组织与9·11事件的来龙去脉，并计划在埃及、沙特、阿富汗、巴基斯坦、德国、西班牙等地，对数百个消息源进行采访、分析和甄别。于是，《纽约客》记者劳伦斯·赖特受命出发，踏上了漫长的报道之路。2006年，赖特回家了。随他一起回来的，是一份历时5年、长达500多页的深度报道。约瑟夫·普利策曾说：“倘若国家是大海上的一条航船，新闻记者就是船头的了望者。他要在一望无际的海面上观察一切，审视不测风云和浅滩暗礁，及时发出警报。”那么这一次，这个关于恐惧、阴谋和野心的故事，离令人不安的真相之间，又有多远……dangdang.com

美国教父

 特雷 · 特里巴

9787807690986

他是一个穷苦出身的意大利移民家庭的孩子，在做报童的时候就以不断的打斗而成为孩子王。他被黑道老大看中，成为职业拳击手，逐渐成为拳坛名人，而赛场之外的他，更是凶悍、狡猾的打手，甚至杀手。他不断被赏识，被重用，一步一步打通自己的路，用血与罪恶，逐渐登上黑暗世界最高的王座。他诈骗，他抢劫，他开赌馆、妓院，他爱钱如命，嗜赌如狂。他也参与慈善，他掌控着好莱坞，无数明星大腕都为唯他马首是瞻。他视法律为无物，玩弄各个部门于股掌之间。他是米奇科恩，美国历史上最传奇的黑帮教父——黑暗世界唯一的王者。 Dangdang.com

FBI十大惊天大案

翟玉峰

9787212072384

本书重点从联邦调查局调查暴力犯罪的职能出发，列举出了联邦调查局历史上较为重要、影响深远、在FBI历年侦破大案中最具代表性的十桩惊天大案，包括“格林河杀人案”“辛普森杀妻案”“索命杰克”“不要和陌生人说话”“连环杀手的报警电话”“令人发指的‘女士杀手’”“‘十二宫’连环杀人案”“拉斯维加斯的黑寡妇”“‘小丑’杀人案”以及“穷途末路的‘罗密欧’与‘朱丽叶’”,以此揭开FBI的神秘面纱。Dangdang.com

如何和美國人聊生活話题?

懷中

9780966487619 

怎麼和美國人聊天？「跨國婚姻」、「同居」、「預產期」、「七年之癢」等等生活用語的英文怎麼說？
聊天需要先了解美國人的生活！聊天需要懂得美國人的心理！與美國人交友、應酬、工作，不可不會的生活話題表達法。融入美國生活、認識美國文化、學習道地美語的最佳工具書。 Kingston.com.tw

還我自由 : 一位唐人街外賣郎的獄中告白

鄭海光

9789868927056

本書寫的是您我路過紐約華埠或法拉盛街頭，看到的形形色色中的一個中國移民背後的力爭上游、甘苦備嚐的經歷。有過取巧僥倖，但講求公道義氣；有過被迫屈從強梁，但絕無欺凌無辜。遭遇了許多人沒有的試煉，但守住了勝過許多人的道德界限！ Kingston.com.tw

漂在纽约 : 美国华人新移民生存状况实录

立玉

9787531666714 

作者深入接触并调查走访了在美华人的诸多领域，在写这23个华人新移民人物故事的同时，也写了这23个行业的情况，为初来乍到的美国华人提供必要的行业信息，也使国人了解美国华人新移民的工作内容和环境，更真切、透彻地了解美国华人新移民的生存状态，乃至了解华人在美国社会的地位、对美国社会的贡献，同时也让美国主流社会清楚地知道华人是美国社会繁荣的必要因素！dangdang.com

吃饭

章小东

9787208113497

吃饭，乃是天大的事。胖妈说，有个地方，叫“伊登”，那里人人不愁饭吃。东东把“伊登”在心里记挂了许多年，终于背起累赘的行囊，从东到西辛苦地寻找吃饭。她曾以为在美国找到了“伊登”，在那里，吃饭把一家三口紧紧维系。东东的一手好菜抹平了生活的艰辛，也让她见证了吃饭的严酷和残忍。时光流逝，吃饭从这个家庭的最低需求变成了最高享受，东东却发觉“伊登”依然遥远，在追寻“伊登”的几十年里，她找到了吃饭，却丢失了味道——那是家的味道、故乡的味道、小时候的味道。Dangdang.com

接骨师之女

谭恩美

9787532739165

母亲茹灵患上了老年痴呆症，为了防止遗忘她将自己的身世和家族秘密记录在案：女儿露丝是位代人“捉刀”的作家，在与男友同居十年后正陷入感情和事业的低谷。母亲的讲述使我们见证了北京郊区一个制墨世家的兴衰，北京人骨的发掘，一位接骨大夫的女儿，即茹灵生身母亲的惨烈遭遇，以及茹灵姐妹如何于国仇家难之中幸存下来，又如何先后抛下过去的种种伤痛，最终来到美国的坎坷经历。女儿在读了母亲的记录之后，才理解了母亲的过去，得以明白母亲性格中种种的别扭与为难，于是谅解了母亲早年对自己的伤害、反省了自己年少青涩时犯下的种种错误，也因此更加深层地挖掘到自己性格之中的问题，与母亲，与男友的关系也最终教得到和解、为亲人创作，讲述她们的故事。Dangdang.com 

美国和中国最初的相遇 : 航海时代奇异的中美关系史

Dolin, Eric Jay

9787509750667

全书从第一艘抵达中国广州的美国船说起，从关注独立之初的美国热衷对晚清帝国茶、丝绸、瓷器以及鸦片贸易开始，描绘了诸多中美关系历史趣闻：在蒸汽船兴起之前的航海时代，美国商人乘船在南太平洋寻找檀木、海豹皮等，在美国西北部的太平洋沿岸寻找皮草、海参等中国人喜爱的商品，与中国贸易；在鸦片战争中，美国适时退出鸦片贸易，遵循清朝约束，并在中英关系恶化时期，充当中间商人，并与英国积极竞争；在第二次鸦片战争前，美国不满中国的贸易“壁垒”，伙同英法，武力攻打中国；美国商人染指华工“苦力”输入拉丁美洲的苦难，同时，华工在美国大陆铁路贯通过程中做出了巨大的贡献；等等。书中涉及的历史人物众多，皆形象鲜明，如中国的乾隆、道光等皇帝，林则徐、关天培等官员，义律、琦善等来华的英国大员，浩官等中国商人，美国的华盛顿总统，著名的驻华公使以及莫里斯等一大批来华贸易的美国巨商，此外还有南太平洋岛国国王、广州的地方官吏、流落美国的中国人等或著名或无名的人物。Dangdang.com

北美華埠 : 昔日的風雲與當今的風華

譚婉英 

9789866182105

·         旅美華人譚婉英基於對中國城的愛戀，將親身造訪美、加中國城的經歷，以中英對照的方式寫下北美華埠的歷史、冷暖經歷，並用一張張親手捕捉的照片，帶領讀者探訪中國城的美麗風華。Samni.com.tw

宣德金牌啟示錄 : 明代開拓美洲

李兆良

9789570842838 

宣德金牌在北美洲東部出土，引發作者李兆良注意到東部印第安人的文化。然後意外發現當地的切諾基人有許多與明代相似的現象。他們的北斗旗是明朝代表皇帝的旗子。白、紅兩色代表和、戰，文武官制度，與中國相同。而美洲特有的農作物，鳳梨、玉米、番薯、南瓜、花生、辣椒、菸草等出現在中國文獻文物，比哥倫布出航起碼早了半個世紀，較歐洲國家種植要早，不可能是從葡萄牙、西班牙帶來。它們首先在中國西南種植，再通過茶馬道傳到各地，是明代中國人把它們帶回來的。甚或美洲還有一些明代或更古的中國文化特色：二十八宿的天文觀測台、四方神靈用四色代表、饕餮、結繩記事、圭、貝幣、朋（貝珠帶）、旃旌、節杖、佛教的卍（萬字）符和手中眼、洗骨二次葬、和平族的笈禮等等。Dangdang.com

 A Hasidic rebel…a new understanding of travel…the rise, fall, and rise of Washington Heights…New York City as seen on the streets and underground…a real life Gatsby…mid-century Caribbean glamour…Lower East Side squatters…the music and mythology of Billie Holiday… the KIND thing…New Yorker cartoonists…gentrification in the 21st century…a new paradigm for sustainable cooking…love and loss from Iran to America…

If any of these topics have piqued your interest, come in out of the summer heat and join us at an Author @ the Library program at the Mid-Manhattan Library in July! Listen to scholars and other experts discuss their recent nonfiction books on a wide variety of subjects and ask them questions. Author talks take place at 6:30 p.m. on the 6th floor of the library unless otherwise noted. No reservations are required. Seating is first come, first served. You can also request the authors' books using the links to the catalog included below.

	Thursday, July 2: All Who Go Do Not Return: A Memoir with Shulem Deen, the former blogger known as "Hasidic Rebel," and the founding editor of Unpious.  This illustrated talk is a moving and revealing exploration of Hasidic life, and one man's struggles with faith, family, and community.
	Monday, July 6: Reclaiming Travel with Joshua Ellison , Executive Editor of Restless Books and the founding editor of Habitus, a journal of international Jewish literature.  This illustrated lecture is a meditation on the meaning of travel from ancient times to the twenty-first century. The authors seek to understand why we travel and what has come to be missing from our contemporary understanding of travel.
	Tuesday, July 7: Crossing Broadway: Washington Heights and the Promise of New York City  with Robert W. Snyder, Associate Professor of Journalism and American Studies at Rutgers University–Newark. This illustrated lecture chronicles the rise, fall, and rise of Washington Heights, a neighborhood populated with immigrants from around the world. It tells how disparate groups overcame their mutual suspicions to rehabilitate housing, build new schools, restore parks, and work with the police to bring safety to streets racked by crime and fear.
	Wednesday, July 8: NY Through the Lens with Vivienne Gucwa, a fine art travel photographer and writer based in New York City. This illustrated lecture showcases the author’s images of New York street photography and serves as a beautiful travel guide to the city.
	Thursday, July 9: Beneath the Streets: The Hidden Relics of New York City's Subway System with Matt Litwack, American photographer and graffiti artist. Only a handful of transit workers, daring explorers, and graffiti writers have experienced the full scope of the New York subway system. Beneath the Streets opens up this subterranean maze to all with photographs captured from throughout the tunnels and byways of the subway.
	Monday, July 13: The Liar's Ball: The Extraordinary Saga of How One Building Broke the World's Toughest Tycoons with Vicky Ward, a New York-based investigative journalist, columnist, and television commentator. This illustrated lecture goes inside the world of the real Great Gatsby of New York real estate, Harry Macklowe, one of the most notorious wheelers and dealers of the real estate world, and tells  the story of the gamblers and thieves who populate his world.
	Tuesday, July 14: Escape: The Heyday of Caribbean Glamour  with Hermes Mallea, an architect and a partner in M(Group), a design firm based in New York. This illustrated lecture is a nostalgic celebration of the glamour of warm-weather destinations in the Caribbean and Florida, from the great estates of ambitious patrons to the most exclusive resorts of the mid-twentieth century.
	Wednesday, July 15: Kill City: Lower East Side Squatters 1992-2000 with Ash Thayer, a photographer and multimedia visual artist. This illustrated lecture features extensive photography of the legendary squatting community in the Lower East Side of Manhattan.
	Thursday, July 16: Billie Holiday: The Musician and the Myth, with John Szwed, Professor of Music and Director of the Center for Jazz Studies at Columbia University and critically acclaimed jazz writer. This illustrated lecture explores Billie Holiday's music, her performance style, and the self she created and put into print, on record and on stage. It considers how her life inflected her art, her influences, her uncanny voice and rhythmic genius, a number of her signature songs, and her legacy.
	Monday, July 20:  Do the KIND Thing: Think Boundlessly, Work Purposefully, Live Passionately, with Daniel Lubetzky, founder of KIND Healthy Snacks and the KIND Movement, in conversation with Alexander Kaufman, an associate business editor at Huffington Post. This  conversation about KIND’s journey from start-up to today, and the many mistakes made along the way will visit Daniel Lubetzky’s journey creating not-only-for-profit businesses that balance commercial success with social purpose, and will offer an unfiltered look at the experiences that sparked his interest in social entrepreneurship.
	Tuesday, July 21: Hand Drawn Jokes for Smart Attractive Peoplewith Matthew Diffee, an award-winning New Yorker cartoonist, in an illustrated conversation with two other iconic New Yorker cartoonists, Marisa Acocella, and George Booth. This illustrated lecture and conversation showcases the first solo collection of a star cartoonist at The New Yorker, Matthew Diffee, heralded as "the de facto leader of a young generation of cartoonists" by the Wall Street Journal, and editor of the acclaimed volumes of The Rejection Collection.
	Wednesday, July 22: The Edge Becomes the Center: An Oral History of Gentrification in the Twenty-first Century with DW Gibson, author of Not Working: People Talk About Losing a Job and Finding Their Way in Today’s Changing Economy. This illustrated lecture offers a groundbreaking oral history that features the stories of New Yorkers effecting and affected by gentrification.
	Monday, July 27: The Kitchen Ecosystem: Integrating Recipes to Create Delicious Meals with Eugenia Bone, nationally known food writer and author of five books, including Mycophilia. This illustrated lecture presents a new paradigm for cooking sustainably (minimal waste, kitchen efficiency, low carbon footprint) and includes recipes to support the author's approach in making the most of locally-sourced, fresh ingredients by utilizing small batch preservation techniques.
	Wednesday, July 29: The Rose Hotel: A Memoir of Secrets, Loss, and Love From Iran to America with Dr. Rahimeh Andalibian, an Iran-born author and a systemic psychologist, specializing in trauma and practicing New York City. In this illustrated lecture the author tells her family's story: their struggle to survive the 1979 revolution, their move to California, and their attempts to acculturate in the face of teenage rebellion, murder, addiction, and new traditions.
	If you'd like to read any of the books presented at our past author talks, you can find book lists from our January 2013 - July 2015 Author @ the Library programs in the BiblioCommons catalog.

The Author @ the Library posts include mainly nonfiction authors discussing their recent works at the Mid-Manhattan Library. Don't miss the many other interesting classes, films, readings and talks on our program calendar. We begin the month with a 50th anniversary screening and discussion of the Jerry Lewis film "The Family Jewels." In addition to the Author @ the Library talks, we also have an illustrated lecture on Jewish folklore on July 23 and lectures on meditation and naturopthic medicine this month. You can also enjoy short story readings at Story Time for Grown-ups, and share your favorite books with other readers at Open Book Night. Did I mention that all of our programs and classes are free? We hope to see you soon at the library!

The Sinatra: An American Icon exhibition has many wonderful media stations for visitors—songs, excerpts from television  specials, films trailers and featurettes, and a juke box.  But the one that is garnering the most attention is “The House I Live In,” the RKO short film that won Sinatra his first Oscar. 

In 1945, Frank Sinatra used his popularity as a radio and recordings star to promote tolerance, especially in speaking to youth groups. He sang and recorded the song, “The House I Live In” by Lewis Allan and Earl Robinson, performing it on the Armed Forces Service’s V-J Day Broadcast. In the exhibition, it can also be heard on the juke box and the videotaped live “Concert of the Americas.”  Visible in the exhibition is the sheet music issued concurrently with the film.  The inside front cover of the song reprints the full lyrics of “The House I Live In” including an additional three verses and alternate double bridge. Unlike the remainder of the song, the bridges have very specific references to American history and then-current World War II references, connecting the battle of Concord and Gettysburg to Midway and Bataan.   

The producers Frank Ross and Mervyn LeRoy made the short subject for RKO Radio Pictures, combining footage of Sinatra recording the ballad “If This is But a Dream” with a narrative section of him coming across a group of boys harassing a foreign-looking boy and teaching them about tolerance with the title song. In the phrase recommended for publicizing the featurette:  “The theme of Tolerance, impassioned and thrilling in its fervent plea in Frank Sinatra’s sincere, human way.. an epochal inspiration of the public conscience.”

We know this information because the Billy Rose Theatre Division has a full exploitation sheet (flyer) for the short subject. An exploitation sheet was developed by the studio publicity department to be shipped to theater managers in advance of the booking. It includes 3 pages of squibs, articles to be planted in local newspapers, and suggested publicity campaigns. The back page has samples of one-sheets, lobby cards, stills, and slugs for the film so that all images, text, logos, and fonts used locally followed the rules set by the studio. Headlines for the articles focused on “Frank Sinatra Inspires Youth” and “As Sinatra Sees It.” The exploitation (a word then used without evil connotations) recommended cross-promotion with scouting, veterans and school groups, as well as Sinatra fan clubs. It also included “Commended by F.D.R:” claiming that Sinatra had visited the President who approved “his intention to combat religious and racial intolerance amongst the youngsters of the nation.” There were claims that proceeds from the film would be  (on the cover page) “donated to organizations working on the problems of juvenile delinquency” and (on p. 2) “devoted to agencies engaged in combating intolerance.”

Most one-reel films and short subjects did not merit full exploitation sheets. Sinatra’s popularity and, I suspect, the personal commitment of the producers to the theme, made them publicize the short as if it was a feature film.  

Ten years ago, The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts presented an exhibition on American Performance in the Era of Blacklisting. Then-Executive Director Robert Marx suggested the title “The House I Live In.”  It was a sequel to one on antifascist performance called  It Can’t Happen Here . We were being ironic, but the song title did manage to encompass both the intense patriotism and social criticism of the era. Both were also present in the song and short subject by songwriters Lewis Allan and Earl Robinson (as well as the film’s writer Albert Maltz), who were all duly blacklisted. All are well represented in the Library for Performing Arts’ collections, especially in their work from the 1930s–1950s. As well as published songs and recordings, you can find their work in the archival collections of other writing partners, among them Jay Gorney, Yip Harburg, and Elie Siegmeister and in the papers and publications of the New Theatre League.  They are worth investigating. Allan’s “Strange Fruit,” is one of the best known and best songs of the 20^th century, but his other works also deserve recognition.  

Teens (and us adults who love young-adult mysteries) looking for a new read this summer—do we have some picks for you! Here are some plot-tastic books that you won’t be able to put down.

Far from You by Tess Sharpe
NYPL readers are raving about this un-put-down-able thriller, which follows a bisexual protagonist after an attack. She escapes, but her best friend is killed and she must discover the truth.

No One Else Can Have You by Kathleen Hale
Small-town Wisconsin provides the backdrop for this funny mystery. After Kippy’s best friend Ruth is murdered, Kippy reads her diary and embarks on a quest to find Ruth’s real killer—and exonerate the boy accused of committing it.  

Hold Me Like a Breath by Tiffany Schmidt
The world of illegal organ donation is the unlikely backdrop for this page-turner, in which the gravely ill daughter of a wealthy family races the clock to track down their killers.

Freaks Like Us by Susan Vaught
Written in two different voices—the first-person narrator and the voices in his head—this tightly crafted story addresses the mental illness of Jason “Freak” Milwaukee and what happens after his friend disappears.

The Perfectionists by Sara Shepard
The best-selling author of Pretty Little Liars is at it again with a new two-book series about popularity and teen dynamics. This one follows four friends at an elite school after their nemesis turns up dead, and they have to defend themselves—and find the real killer.

When by Victoria Laurie
When a 16-year-old looks at people, she can see the dates of their deaths over their foreheads—a blessing/curse that leads her into danger when the FBI learns she correctly predicted the death of a client’s teenage son.

Sanctum by Madeleine Roux
The second installment in Roux’s Asylum series features three teens, still tortured by nightmares from their time in the asylum, reuniting for another go-round.

Staff picks are chosen by NYPL staff members and are not intended to be comprehensive lists. We'd love to hear your picks! Leave a comment and tell us what you’d recommend.

The Fourth of July: Fireworks, hot dogs, potato salad, parades,  washing the dog (hey, not everyone has the same rituals).  These are just a few of the things that most people will be partaking of this Saturday. If you're like me (but not so much so that you'll be giving your dog a bath), you'll use the long weekend to catch up on some reading.  And what better thing to read than a novel about the birth of our nation. Here are a few titles that may help put you in the Spirit of '76:

Rise to Rebellion by Jeff Shaara focuses on the 1770 killing of civilians by British troops and the ensuing trial where John Adams defended the soldiers. Other historical figures figuring prominently in the narrative are Benjamin Franklin, General Thomas Gage, Abigail Adams, and George Washington.

Drums Along the Mohawk by Walter D. Edmonds is almost forgotten  today, but when it was published in 1936, it was a best seller for two years (second only to that juggernaut Gone With The Wind) and was made into a film by John Ford in 1939 that starred Henry Fonda and Claudette Colbert. The book focuses on newlyweds Gilbert and Lana Martin who settle in the Mohawk Valley in 1776 only to get swept up in the drama of the Revolutionary War as they and their neighbors must choose which side to be on.

Whiskey Rebels by David Liss is a"private eye" novel set in the 1780s. The protagonist, Ethan Saunders, is a former spy for George Washington who is hired by Alexander Hamilton to find his ex-fiancee's missing husband. The plot becomes even more complicated when Saunders encounters Joan Maycott who, along with her husband, run a whiskey still in rural Pennsylvania.

Howard Fast's April Morning centers on the Battle of Lexington and its role in fifteen-year-old Adam Cooper's initiation into manhood. The novel was not written as a young adult novel but it has come to be placed on high school reading lists.  A film version was made in 1987 starring Chad Lowe and Tommy Lee Jones.

We had a beautiful Friday evening in the open air as we hosted Open Book Night at NYPL’s Outdoor Reading Room on the terrace of the Stephen A. Schwarzman Building. While lounging around in the canary yellow deck chairs, we set up a microphone to battle the Fifth Avenue bus noise and had a lovely chat under the trees. The hospitality of the Schwarzman staff and the terrace visitors was as welcoming as the fine weather. Cheers to the wonderful participants who took the time to tell us about the following books that they enjoyed. There was a nice balance between fiction and nonfiction ranging from mystery to memoirs.

Melissa read a paragraph from A Walk in the Woods by BIll Bryson, a memoir she recommended for its humor. Bryson writes about the experience of walking the Appalachian Trail with a friend. “My first inkling of just how daunting an undertaking it was to be came when I went to our local outfitters, the Dartmouth Co-Op, to purchase equipment. My son had just gotten an after-school job there, so I was under strict instructions of good behavior. Specifically, I was not to say anything stupid, try on anything that would require me to expose my stomach, say “Are you shitting me?” when informed of the price of a product, be conspicuously inattentive when a sales assistant was explaining the correct maintenance or aftercare of a product, and above all don anything inappropriate, like a woman’s ski hat, in an attempt to amuse.”

Another recommended memoir was Fun Home by Alison Bechdel. This graphic memoir talks about the author’s heartbreaking and humorous relationship with her father. The Broadway Musical based on the book just won the Tony Award for Best Musical.

Moved by A Language Older Than Words by Derrick Jensen, a reader memorized and recited the first paragraphs of the book. “There is a language older by far and deeper than words. It is the language of bodies, of body on body, wind on snow, rain on trees, wave on stone. It is the language of dream, gesture, symbol, memory. We have forgotten this language. We do not even remember that it exists.”

We also learned about the The Life-changing Magic of Tidying Up by Marie Kondo, inspiring the reader to think about discarding the buildup of electronic files she’s been saving, clearing up the digital space in her life as well as the physical space.

Tom McCarthy’s latest novel Satin Island was recommended as a literary novel that asks you to think about what you are reading while making connections in unexpected places. The anthropologist narrator is trying to write a great report on what it is to live in our times. He dreams about Satin Island, a pun on Staten Island, as place where the sludge of contemporary life comes together.

The Bone Collector by Jeffery Deaver intrigued Linda after seeing the movie based on the book a couple of years ago. She described the title as Sherlock Holmes meets CSI.

The Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman was recommended to Joanne by another library reader with a description that made it sound so wonderful she began reading it immediately. The narrator of this novel must find a way to escape from an evil force unleashed during his childhood relying on three sisters who live on a farm at the end of the lane and have very long memories.

If you didn’t make it on Friday, please share your favorite authors and titles with us in the comments below. And, if you share your books on social media, remember to tag your posts with the #ireadeverywhere hashtag this summer.

Our next Open Book Night on July 10th will once again meet at NYPL’s Outdoor Reading Room on the terrace in front of the Schwarzman Building to share and discuss books we love!  

If you'd like to share book recommendations with other readers, join us at any or all of our upcoming Open Book Nights at the Mid-Manhattan Library, or in the Outdoor Reading Room this summer. The complete 2015 schedule is listed below. We meet on the second Friday of the month at 6 p.m. in the Corner Room on the First Floor, except for our special outdoor Open Books nights on June 26 and July 10, which will meet on the steps of the Schwarzman Building. We'd love to see you there!

• February 13, 2015 - Love                                         See the Patron Picks List from Open Book Night, February 2015

• April 10, 2015 - New Beginnings                         See the Patron Picks List from Open Book Night, April 2015

• May 8, 2015 - Nature                                                  See the Patron Picks List from Open Book Night, May 2015

• June 12, 2015 - Sports                                                See the Patron Picks List from Open Book Night, June  2015

• June 26, 2015 - Open theme                           Meet in the Outdoor Reading Room

• July  10, 2015 - Open theme                            Meet in the Outdoor Reading Room                

• August 14, 2015 - Travel       

• September 11, 2015 - New York

• October 9, 2015 - The Occult

• November 13, 2015  - Thanksgiving

• December 11, 2015 - Food and Cooking

Leaders need to examine themselves in order to determine their strengths and weaknesses. It is important to correct their problematic leadership areas. Also, leaders cannot feel as though "they've arrived." Stagnation could precipitate their downfall. Tough decisions define leaders, and they need to be able to make effective, clear-cut choices during moments of crisis or upheaval. Leaders can and will receive much criticism; some is directed at the position and some is personal. It is essential to learn from constructive criticism and overlook unhelpful or inaccurate remarks by others. Do what you love and what you are good at; focus on your strengths. Leaders also cultivate the strengths of others; look at how the staff are doing in order to evaluate the leader's performance. 

Leaders should be realistic and have good listening skills. Correct your mistakes and engage in professional development in order to enhance your skill set. People quit companies because of the people they work with. Mentees can learn from your successes as well as your failures. Have productive meetings before the main meeting to ensure understanding and idea generation. Connect with people as well as climb the career ladder in order to learn to lead staff. 

Live your life and conduct your career deliberately; do not let it happen accidentally. Do not overuse your influence and give it to people who will misuse it. You must sacrifice for the company in order to succeed. You will meet many people during your career, but most relationships do not last forever. Strive to retain talented staff, but do not despair if some leave. Many people must want your success before it is attainable. Ask questions to get answers and grow. Have a terrific life and career! Happy reading. 

I love John C. Maxwell's books; he is a former pastor, so he highly values human capital.

Leadership Gold by John Maxwell, 2008

• The John Maxwell Company
• Books about leadership