The Sunday Salon... "Thanksgiving" History Books with Buzz

What is the Sunday Salon? Imagine some university library's vast reading room. It's filled with people--students and faculty and strangers who've wandered in. They're seated at great oaken desks, books piled all around them, and they're all feverishly reading and jotting notes in their leather-bound journals as they go. Later they'll mill around the open dictionaries and compare their thoughts on the afternoon's literary intake...

Thanksgiving is the day we traditionally give thanks for the bounty before us, and share the love of our family and friends. Food and laughter may fill our homes as we carefully watch the turkey cook, make that infamous green bean casserole and mash the potatoes, but do we think about that first thanksgiving? About the brave men & women who sailed over here from England and the Indians that they met when they arrived? The Pilgrims were a big part of The New World, but there were also other well known settlements. Today's Sunday Salon highlights some great books that delve into some of that rich history of the first settlers of The New World... And fact can be as entertaining as fiction!

Mayflower: A Story of Courage, Community, and War By Nathaniel Philbrick... From the perilous ocean crossing to the shared bounty of the first Thanksgiving, the Pilgrim settlement of New England has become enshrined as our most sacred national myth. Yet, as bestselling author Nathaniel Philbrick reveals in his spellbinding new book, the true story of the Pilgrims is much more than the well-known tale of piety and sacrifice; it is a fifty-five-year epic that is at once tragic, heroic, exhilarating, and profound. This book has been on my TBR list for a long time, it's gotten great reviews all of which tell us that it's NOT one of those dry history books! It's available in paperback now! And... This Book is Kindle Ready!

The River Where America Began: A Journey Along the James by Bob Deans... The River Where America Began takes readers on a journey along the James River from the earliest days of civilization nearly 15,000 years ago through the troubled English settlement at Jamestown and finishing with Lincoln's tour of the defeated capital of Richmond in 1865. Deans traces the historical course of a river whose contributions to American life are both immeasurable and unique. This innovative history invites us all to look into these restless waters in a way that connects us to our past and reminds us of who we are as Americans. Bob Dean explores the rich history of the James River. 13 years before the Pilgrims landed in Massachusetts, 104 men and boys came over from England and made a settlement on the banks of Virginia's James River. They were sponsored by The Virginia Company of London whose stockholders thought they could profit somehow from the resources of The New World. The Jamestown Settlement encountered the same hardships as the Pilgrims in Massachusetts, and of course Indians! And it is in this settlement in Virginia where the early settlers meet the Powhatans and Pocahontas! This book isn't just about the Jamestown Settlement, but I think it's interesting to learn about the river before and after Jamestown. Hey, Where's the Kindle Version?!

The True Story of Pocahontas: The Other Side of History by Dr. Linwood "Little Bear" Custalow and Angela L. Daniel "Silver Star" ... This book incorporates the sacred oral history of the Mattaponi that has been passed down to Lin “Little Bear” since his childhood, by his father, the late Mattaponi Chief Webster “Little Eagle” Custalow; his uncle, the late Mattaponi Chief O. T. Custalow; and grandfather, the late Mattaponi Chief George F. Custalow; and those that came before. The Mattaponi Indian Tribe, along with the Pamunkey Tribe, was one of the original core tribes of the Powhatan Chiefdom, which the English colonists encountered in the 17th century while establishing Jamestown. For nearly 400 years people have heard the Euro-American rendition and interpretation of events that transpired between the English colonists and the Powhatan Indians. The True Story of Pocahontas is the first public publication of the Powhatan perspective that has been maintained and passed down from generation to generation within the Mattaponi Tribe, and the first written history of Pocahontas by her own people. This Book is Kindle Ready!

Hope these books peaked your interest! Any history buffs out there?! Share what other books we might enjoy about our early settlers! In the meantime, I'll be on the James River... in a bookish way!

Happy reading... Suzanne