6:45 PM at the Library

The Elephant and The Dragon by Robyn Meredith (Non-Fiction)

This book is the essential guide to understanding how India and China are reshaping our world. With labor now unbound from geographic borders, we're seeing startling shifts in how—and where—nearly everything we buy is made. In a compelling mix of history and on-the-ground reporting, veteran journalist Robyn Meredith untangles the complex web of business and politics, as well as environmental and cultural issues that entwine India, China, and the West. She also outlines how Americans—business leaders, workers, politicians, even parents—can understand the vast changes coming and thrive in this new age.

The year is 1929, and newlyweds George and Serena Pemberton travel from Boston to the North Carolina mountains where they plan to create a timber empire. Although George has already lived in the camp long enough to father an illegitimate child, Serena is new to the mountains--but she soon shows herself to be the equal of any man, overseeing crews, hunting rattle-snakes, even saving her husband's life in the wilderness. Together this lord and lady of the woodlands ruthlessly kill or vanquish all who fall out of favor. Yet when Serena learns that she will never bear a child, she sets out to murder the son George fathered without her. Mother and child begin a struggle for their lives, and when Serena suspects George is protecting his illegitimate family, the Pembertons' intense, passionate marriage starts to unravel as the story moves toward its shocking reckoning.  

American Lion by Jon Meacham (Non Fiction)

Born in 1767 along the border between North and South Carolina, Andrew Jackson experienced the American War of Independence as a brutal civil war. Ill-­treated by British officers and imprisoned near Charleston, Jackson was the only member of his immediate family to survive the conflict. He migrated to Nashville, where he established himself as a lawyer, planter, politician and militia officer. Jackson fell in love with Rachel Donelson Robards, a woman he courted and lived with before she was officially divorced from her first husband. The Jacksons had a happy marriage, but whispers about the origins of their relationship dogged them until Rachel’s death in December 1828.

The Judgement of Paris  by Ross King (Non-Fiction)  An engrossing account of the years from 1863 - when paintings denied entry into the French Academy's yearly Salon were shown at the Salon des Refusés - to 1874, the date of the first Impressionist exhibition. King follows the careers of two formidable, and very different, artists: Jean-Louis-Ernest Meissonier, a conservative painter celebrated for detailed historical subjects, and Édouard Manet, whose painting Le Déjeuner sur l'herbe caused an uproar at the Salon des Refusés. Many other artists of the day, among them Courbet, Degas, Morisot, Monet and Cézanne, are included in King's compelling narrative, and the story is further enhanced by the author's vivid portrayal of artistic life in Paris during a turbulent era that saw the siege of the city by the Prussians and the fall of Napoleon III.

RIBBON CUTTING and OPEN HOUSE for the new Chatham Community Library and CCCC's Sustainable Technologies Center.  Participate in the actual ribbon cutting and take a tour of our county's new library and CCCC's new addition to the Pittsboro campus.