Closed for the holidays

The Library will be CLOSING today at 4:50 PM and will reopen on Wednesday, January 3rd (2018!) at 8:00 AM.

Be merry, happy, and safe.

December-January DVD Spotlight: Japanese Cinema

It can be argued that no country's cinematic output is probably more beloved by cinephiles than that of Japan.  From the 1950s, when Japanese films burst onto the international scene with masterworks like Rashomon (1950) and Seven Samurai (1954) (not to mention a certain giant, radioactive, Tokyo-destroying reptile), Japan has consistently produced a great body of cinematic work, and the Reeves Memorial Library DVD collection has many of these great titles to offer.  From earlier masters like Akira Kurosawa (Ikiru (1952), Ran (1985)) and Yasujiro Ozu (Floating Weeds (1959)), to provocative New Wave figures like Shohei Imamura (Vengeance is Mine (1979)) and Hiroshi Teshigahara (Woman in the Dunes (1964)), to modern directors like Takashi Miike (Audition (1999)) and Hirokazu Kore-eda (Nobody Knows (2004)), we're featuring a ton of superb Japanese films in our display collection through the end of January.

Other featured titles include:

Akira (1988)
This influential sci-fi/action film is probably still the high-water mark of Japanese animated cinema.  More than any other film, Akira proves that there are things you can do with hand-drawn animation that can't be achieved with computers or live-action filmmaking.

Good Morning (1959)
This lighthearted gem, directed by the great Yasujiro Ozu, presents an insightful and funny look at modernization in postwar Japan, as two young boys take a vow of silence after their parents refuse to buy them a television set.  It may be the only work in the cinematic canon that includes a running fart gag.

High and Low (1963)
A masterful crime thriller about a wealthy businessman who must decide whether to pay a ransom when his chauffeur's son is kidnapped in mistake for his own.  Director Akira Kurosawa is best known for his historical samurai epics, but this film shows that his films set in contemporary Japan are equally as good.

Maborosi (1995)
The story of a young, recently-widowed mother, who remarries and moves with her son to her new husband's seaside village.  This film marked the feature directorial debut of Hirokazu Kore-eda, who has gone on to become one of Japan's most celebrated filmmakers.

Throne of Blood (1957)
Akira Kurosawa's visually stunning re-telling of Shakespeare's Macbeth, about a samurai lord in feudal Japan who kills his master and usurps his power.

When a Woman Ascends the Stairs (1960)
This film from legendary director Mikio Naruse, about a young widow who must choose whether to go into business for herself or marry in order to support her family, is an incisive examination of the social and economic pressures faced by many women in postwar Japan.

Our collection of Japanese films is an embarrassment of riches, so stop by the library and check one out today!

Thanksgiving Break Hours

THANKSGIVING BREAK

Tuesday, November 21                         8:00 a.m. – 4:50 p.m.

Wednesday, November 22                    8:00 a.m. – 3:50 p.m.

Thursday, November 23 –
Sunday, November 26                          CLOSED

Throwback Thursday: Peace Tree

Twenty-nine years ago today... (caption transcribed below image)

A dove tree, symbolizing peace, was planted outside Reeves Library by Sister Noel on November 9, to mark the first anniversary of the Holocaust Institute and to commemorate the fiftieth anniversary of Kristallnacht, a night of Nazi terror in 1938 that foreshadowed Hitler's Final Solution. Looking on (l to r) are Sister Mary Ann Winters, Major Superior, Sisters of Charity, Seton Hill College President JoAnne Boyle, and Rhonda Morgan, president of the Seton Hill Student Government Association. 

Reading Theme: WWII Fiction

In honor of Veterans’ Day, this month we are featuring World War II fiction. In this season of giving thanks, make sure to thank a veteran.

Image courtesy of Pixabay.com

Guard of Honor by James Cozzens (Pulitzer Prize, 1949)

Balances a vast cast of intricately enmeshed characters as they react over the course of three tense days in September 1943 to a racial incident on a U.S. Army airbase in Florida. (Publisher’s summary)

The Tenth Man by Graham Greene

During World War II a group of men is held prisoner by the Germans, who determine that three of them must die. This is the story of how one of those men trades his wealth for his life—and lives to pay for his act in utterly unexpected ways. (Publisher’s summary)

Catch-22 by Joseph Heller

At the heart of Catch-22 resides the incomparable, malingering bombardier, Yossarian, a hero endlessly inventive in his schemes to save his skin from the horrible chances of war. (Publisher’s summary)

A Bell for Adano by John Hersey

An Italian-American major, part of American occupation forces in Sicily during World War II, tries to reform the town in his charge by being decent to people. His efforts are epitomized by his efforts to replace the 700-year-old bell melted down for bullets by the fascists. (Publisher’s summary)

Cold Harbour by Jack Higgins

As D-day approaches in Europe, the Allied command learns of a German staff conference to be held in Brittany at the Chateau de Voincourt, where the Nazis will discuss their Atlantic Wall defense strategy. Foreknowledge of these plans could mean the difference between success and failure for the Allied invasion, and as luck would have it, the chateau happens to be the home of an undercover French Resistance agent, beautiful Anne-Marie Trevaunce. (Publisher’s summary)

The Thin Red Line by James Jones

They are the men of C-for-Charlie company… infantrymen who are about to land, grim and white-faced, on an atoll in the Pacific called Guadalcanal. This is their story, a shatteringly realistic walk into hell and back.

In the days ahead, some will earn medals, others will do anything they can dream up to get evacuated before they land in a muddy grave. But they will all discover the thin red line that divides the sane from the mad—and the living from the dead—in this unforgettable portrait that captures for all time the total experience of men at war. (Publisher’s summary)

And Then We Heard the Thunder by John Oliver Killens

And Then We Heard the Thunder follows the dreams, lies, and anguish of black World War II GI Solomon Sanders during his tour of duty in Indochina, Australia, and the United States. Harvard-trained in the law and a political moderate, Sanders is married to an upper-middle-class black woman who pushes him to "make something of himself" by becoming an Army officer. Given his credentials, he appears a shoo-in for Officer Candidate School, yet he rejects the opportunity as the vestiges of Jim Crow racism, the strains of war, and his interactions with disgruntled black troops thrust him into black activism. Forced to make common cause with his race rather than with the Army, he and some fellow soldiers write a letter to American newspapers about the poor treatment of blacks in the military. For this outcry, they encounter harassment and further discrimination, resulting in a full-scale battle between black and white troops and a blood-curdling climax to this second novel by acclaimed African American author John Killens. (Publisher’s summary)

The Naked and the Dead by Norman Mailer

Written in gritty, journalistic detail, the story follows an army platoon of foot soldiers who are fighting for the possession of the Japanese-held island of Anopopei. Composed in 1948, The Naked and the Dead is representative of the best in twentieth-century American writing. (Publisher’s summary)

Tales of the South Pacific by James A Michener (Pulitzer Prize, 1948)

This collection of tales is set against the background of the South Pacific, the endless ocean, the coral specks called islands, the coconut palms, the reefs, the jungle and the full moon rising against the jungle. The tales are told by a young naval officer whose duties on an Admiral's staff take him up and down the islands. (Publisher’s summary)

The English Patient by Michael Ondaatje (Booker Prize, 1992)

At the end of World War II, a mysterious, horribly burned man who claims not to remember his name, known only as the "English patient," lies near death in an Italian villa. He is cared for by a quietly desperate young nurse, Hana, herself a victim of the war. With her at the villa are Kip, a young Sikh bomb-disposal expert, and a shadowy thief with bandaged hands named Caravaggio. The key to the burned man's past may lie in his commonplace book, a volume of Herodotus, and its intimations of the sacred whirlwind of a great, mysterious, passionate, and tragically doomed love, which trapped two unsuspecting people, forever. (Publisher’s summary)

Gone to Soldiers by Marge Piercy

In a stunning tour-de-force, Marge Piercy has woven a tapestry of World War II, of six women and four men, who fought and died, worked and worried, and moved through the dizzying days of the war. A compelling chronicle of humans in conflict with inhuman events, Gone to Soldiers is an unforgettable reading experience and a stirring tribute to the remarkable survival of the human spirit. (Publisher’s summary)

Gravity’s Rainbow by Thomas Pynchon (National Book Award, 1973)

Winner of the 1973 National Book Award, Gravity's Rainbow is a postmodern epic, a work as exhaustively significant to the second half of the 20th century as Joyce's Ulysses was to the first. Its sprawling, encyclopedic narrative and penetrating analysis of the impact of technology on society make it an intellectual tour de force. (Publisher’s summary)

The Unlikely Spy by Daniel Silva

A World War II spy novel about a beautiful Nazi secret agent and her pursuer, a former history professor turned spy catcher. The setting is England, the time just before the D-Day landings. (Publisher’s summary)

The Caine Mutiny by Herman Wouk

The novel that inspired the now-classic film The Caine Mutiny and the hit Broadway play The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial, Herman Wouk's boldly dramatic, brilliantly entertaining novel of life-and mutiny-on a Navy warship in the Pacific theater was immediately embraced, upon its original publication in 1951, as one of the first serious works of American fiction to grapple with the moral complexities and the human consequences of World War II. (Publisher’s summary)

November DVD Spotlight: War Films

Americans will honor those who have served in the United States Armed Forces on Veterans Day, November 11.  With this in mind, Reeves Memorial Library is featuring war movies from our DVD collection all month long.  While many of these films, like Jarhead (2005) and the Oscar-winning The Hurt Locker (2008), focus on American soldiers both on and off the battlefield, our spotlight collection will also include films from other countries, such as the classic French anti-war film Wooden Crosses (1932), and the claustrophobic German U-Boat epic Das Boot (1981).

Other featured titles include:

Apocalypse Now (1979)
Francis Ford Coppola's Vietnam War opus, about an Army officer sent deep into the jungle to terminate a rogue colonel, remains the ultimate cinematic statement about the madness of war.

Battleground (1949)
One of the best World War II films to come out of classic Hollywood, Battleground follows a group of American soldiers through the Battle of the Bulge.

Grand Illusion (1937)
This somber classic, directed by the great French filmmaker Jean Renoir, explores the conflict between duty and honor in a World War I prisoner-of war-camp.

Saving Private Ryan (1998)
Steven Spielberg's influential, grittily realistic World War II film, about a small group of American soldiers on a rescue mission behind enemy lines, is both a grisly reminder of the horrors of war and a moving testament to the honor and courage of those who have given their lives fighting for freedom.

The Steel Helmet (1951)
Written and directed by Army veteran Samuel Fuller, this underseen Korean War film is perhaps the most startlingly unromantic and realistic American war movie of its era.

Three Kings (1999)
This darkly humorous Gulf War caper, about three American soldiers hunting for a cache of stolen gold, is formally daring, unabashedly political, and highly entertaining.

Stop by the library and check one out today.

Throwback Thursday: Practice babies

We had an inquiry a few weeks ago about a former "practice baby" in the Home Economics program. While high school students today often get to spend a weekend taking care of an "infant simulator" that cries and demands attention, Seton Hill students of the past had the opportunity to care for real children.

Babies from an orphanage would be "lent" to the college for a period of time to be taken care of in the "practice house" (present-day crime scene house) by several college students under the supervision of the faculty.

The babies would then return to the orphanage and would go on to be adopted in the usual way.

While this practice would likely be considered detrimental today due to the large number of caregivers, "scientifically-cared for" babies were apparently in some demand by adoptive families. 

Fall Break Hours

EXTENDED WEEKEND

October 7-8                           CLOSED

October 9-10                         8:00 a.m. –  4:50 p.m.

Throwback Thursday: Art in Canevin

We almost forgot this week's TBT! We don't always put them here on the blog, so make sure you're following us on Facebook or Twitter to get the weekly posts.

Here's a shot labeled "Art 1950's-60's-Canevin Basement Hall."

Remember, now, no smoking in the studios. That's what "the smoker" is for. 

Reading Theme: Horror Fiction

‘Tis the season to be spooky. These horror picks will keep you up at night… whether to keep turning pages or because you’re too afraid to turn out the lights!

Image courtesy of Pixabay.com

100 Jolts: Shockingly Short Stories by Michael Arnzen (yes, Dr. Arnzen!)

One hundred very satisfying small stories by one of the true masters of flash fiction. Sometimes disturbing, sometimes humorous, and sometimes musical, this collection is essential reading for anyone interested in flash-bizarro-horror, not to mention the fact that it's basically a clinic for anyone interested in writing the stuff. A modern classic. (Amazon.com reviewer Scott Cole)

Ghost and Horror Stories by Ambrose Bierce

Drawing on his own experiences as a Civil War veteran and a San Franciscan journalist, Bierce uses the backdrop of the Civil War, the South and California as the setting in many of his tales. His highly intelligent, highly critical and biting personality comes through in the bizarre menagerie of characters populating his narratives, in the descriptions of their actions and in the world they inhabit. (Amazon.com reviewer Amazon Customer)

We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson

Have you ever tiptoed down a hall in a dark house late at night, not sure if you really heard that bump in the night? That is what reading this novel was like, in all of the best ways possible. Shirley Jackson is a renowned master at the macabre, the unnerving, the Gothic genre, and this work puts her talents on full display—in HD. (Goodreads.com reviewer Navidad Thelamour)

Four Past Midnight by Stephen King

You are strapped in an airline seat on a flight beyond hell. You are forced into a hunt for the most horrifying secret a small town ever hid. You are trapped in the demonic depths of a writer's worst nightmare. You are focusing in on a beast bent on shredding your sanity.

You are in the hands of Stephen King at his mind-blowing best with an extraordinary quartet of full-length novellas guaranteed to set your heart-stopwatch at- FOUR PAST MIDNIGHT.

(Publisher’s summary)

The Phantom of the Opera by Gaston Leroux

Does this classic need a synopsis? A young and beautiful primadonna is visited by a masked "Angel of music" who teaches her to sing and jealously demands her devotion. (Publisher’s summary)

The Case of Charles Dexter Ward by H.P. Lovecraft

Incantations of black magic unearthed unspeakable horrors in Providence, Rhode Island. Evil spirits are being resurrected from beyond the grave, a supernatural force so twisted that it kills without offering the mercy of death! (Publisher’s summary)

Queen of the Damned by Anne Rice

Lestat's kiss has awakened Queen Akasha from her 6000 year sleep. She immediately begins a wholesale slaughter of most of the world's vampires, sparing only a small remnant (including Lestat) who she expects will join her in a crazed crusade against male mortals. (Publisher’s Weekly)

Dracula by Bram Stoker

Presents the classic macabre tale of a vampire, Count Dracula of Transylvania, and the small group of people who vowed to rid the world of him. (Publisher’s summary)

Fog Heart by Thomas Tessier

Oona Muir has visionary trances that involve self-laceration, bleeding and fits. Expressing her visions in the disjointed, imagistic language of traditional prophecy, she convinces a few believers but lets more skeptical acquaintances scoff--until she hints at their own dark secrets. (Publisher’s Weekly)

Great Tales of Terror and the Supernatural, edited by Phyllis Cerf Wagner and Herbert A. Wise

This is the bedrock of horror anthologies; the quintessential collection of spine-chilling tales; the keystone in any serious horror buff's collection. (Amazon.com reviewer R.D. Ashby)

The Castle of Otranto: A Gothic Story by Horace Walpole

On the day of his wedding Conrad, heir to the house of Otranto, is killed in mysterious circumstances. Fearing the end of his dynasty, his father, Manfred, determines to marry Conrad's betrothed Isabella, until a series of supernatural events stands in his way. A giant helmet falls from the moon, a portrait sighs, a statue bleeds and spirits warn of impending tragedy, as the curse on Manfred's house inexorably works itself out. (Publisher’s summary)

October DVD Spotlight: Horror Films

October is here, and that means it's horror movie season!  If you're looking for something scary to watch, Reeves Memorial Library is here to deliver the chills.  We've got movies about all manner things that go bump in the night, from vampires and ghosts to mutant animals and murderous aliens.

Featured titles include:

Audition (1999)

This cringe-inducing Japanese film, surely one of the most disturbing movies ever made, is both an extremely unsettling piece of revenge horror and a surprisingly affecting examination of loneliness.

The Brood (1979)

An experimental form of psychotherapy has gruesome and unintended side effects in this early work from Canadian auteur David Cronenberg.

The Exorcist (1973)

This horror classic, about a possessed teenage girl, is considered by many to be scariest movie ever made.

Hostel (2005)

A backpacking trip through Europe turns into a grisly nightmare in this cleverly-structured film from provocative horror director Eli Roth.

Nosferatu (1922)

This silent, expressionistic adaptation of the Dracula story features some of the most haunting imagery in all of cinema.

Shaun of the Dead (2004)

With equal parts horror and humor, this wildly entertaining film tells the story of a slacker who tries to win back his ex-girlfriend amid the chaos a zombie apocalypse.

Check one out today ... if you dare.

Thanks for celebrating Banned Books Week!

Thanks for following along for Banned Books Week on our social media channels. We hope you learned some interesting facts about our freedoms and our right to information, and that you have a refreshed commitment to protecting them.

To wrap up Banned Books Week 2017, here's an infographic from the ALA with fast stats about book challenges and removals in the United States.

Words DO have power, as book challengers recognize. Book defenders know it, too, and they use their words to defend access to information and perspectives. Use your words wisely!

Top 10 Challenged Books of 2016

For Banned Books Week, take a look at the top 10 challenged books of 2016 and why they were considered problematic.

It's Banned Books Week!

September 24-30th is Banned Books Week 2017. Watch our blog and social media accounts for tidbits about intellectual freedom, book challenges, materials banning, and censorship, or visit the American Library Association's Banned Books Week page.

Banned Books Week - Words Have Power! #BannedBooksWeek

In Memoriam

The Reeves staff wish to thank the anonymous person(s) who left flowers and cards in memory of our departed beta, Gill.

He will forever swim in our hearts. 

Labor Day Weekend Hours

The Library will be closed on Sunday, September 3rd and Monday, September 4th. Have a safe and happy holiday weekend!

Fall Hours

The Library hours (library office, children's room, and O'Hara and The Reading Room downstairs) will have the following regular hours this semester:

Monday – Friday                                           8:00 a.m.  -  11:50 p.m.

Saturday                                                       9:00 a.m.  -    4:50 p.m.

Sunday                                                         1:00 p.m.  -  11:50 p.m.

We will be closing earlier this week as we finalize our student aides' schedules. 

August 21 - August 25                                   8:00 a.m.  -    7:50 p.m.    


Our complete hours and exceptions are posted on the library's website:
http://setonhill.libguides.com/c.php?g=484020&p=4057083

August-September DVD Spotlight: Cult Films

To kick off the new academic year, we're embracing the weird and wonderful with a spotlight on the cult movies in our DVD collection.  These are films that, while they may not have been popular at the time of their original release, have gained a passionate and devoted fanbase in the years since.  Some of them, like the anime masterpiece Akira (1988) and the beloved fairy tale The Princess Bride (1987), are genuinely good films, while others, like Ed Wood's Bride of the Monster (1956) and the Village People-starring Can't Stop the Music (1980) ... well, not so much.  But it's the bad cult films that usually have the most ardent admirers, and they offer a reminder that it's often our flaws that make us so special.

Whether you like good cinema, or cinema that's so-bad-it's-good, we've got something for you.

Featured titles include:

After Hours (1985)
A lesser-known, darkly comedic gem from the great Martin Scorsese, about a New York yuppie's long, surreal night in SoHo.

F for Fake (1975)
Orson Welles's playful, free-form documentary takes as its subjects art forgery, hoaxes, and the very idea of trickery itself.

Hard-Boiled (1992)
Two Hong Kong cops team up to take on a gang of smugglers in this influential, shoot-em-up classic from action master John Woo.

Night of the Lepus (1972)
Giant, man-eating rabbits terrorize a southwestern town.  Enough said.

Plan 9 from Outer Space (1958)
Widely considered to be the worst film ever made, Ed Wood's unintentionally hilarious B-movie tells the story of grave-robbing aliens who turn corpses into zombies.

Road House (1989)
Patrick Swayze stars as Dalton, a legendary bouncer whose attempts to clean up a notoriously violent Missouri bar bring him into conflict with a local crime boss.

Save the Green Planet (2003)
In this bonkers Korean comedy/sci-fi film, a disturbed man kidnaps and tortures his ex-boss after becoming convinced that he is an alien who has infiltrated human society.

Stop by the library and check one out today!

August Reading Theme: Summer!

Our August reading theme is… Summer! Yes, classes may be starting, but we have weeks of long, hot summer days between now and September 22nd. These summery books are just the thing to help you savor the golden afternoons before assignments begin in earnest.

Image courtesy of Pixabay.com

Firefly Summer by Maeve Binchy

In a sleepy Irish town in the 1960s, the Ryan family thrives on hard work and simple pleasure until American millionaire Patrick O'Neill converts an estate into a luxury hotel, bringing about unforeseen changes. (Publisher’s summary)

The Mysteries of Pittsburgh by Michael Chabon

The enthralling debut from bestselling novelist Michael Chabon is a penetrating narrative of complex friendships, father-son conflicts, and the awakening of a young man’s sexual identity. Chabon masterfully renders the funny, tender, and captivating first-person narrative of Art Bechstein, whose confusion and heartache echo the tones of literary forebears like The Catcher in the Rye’s Holden Caulfield and The Great Gatsby’s Nick Carraway. (Goodreads.com summary)

Tell Me How the Wind Sounds by Leslie Davis Guccione

Fifteen-year-old Amanda Alden's summer vacation in New England turns out to be a summer of learning and love when she meets deaf, 17-year-old Jake. In spite of his brusqueness, Amanda learns to communicate with Jake through sign language, and soon realizes that her feelings for him are more than friendship. (Goodreads.com book summary)

The Shrimp and the Anemone by L. P. Hartley

An evocative account of a childhood summer spent beside the sea in Norfolk by brother and sister, Eustace and Hilda. (Publisher’s summary)

Last Summer by Evan Hunter

'Last Summer' is a remarkably simple novel with a powerful punch. Three teenagers, two guys and a girl, meet and become friends on a summer island community. These kids are at the cusp of adulthood, and social morals are in flux (..the story is set in the late 1960s). Lots of mischief ensues, mostly harmless stuff. But then they meet a nerdy girl who joins their threesome. At first it seems she will blend in but then it all goes so badly. No spoilers here but let's just say the social interactions of the threesome combined with the studipity of youth and exploding hormones yield a disturbing outcome. (Review by Amazon user lazza)

The Country of the Pointed Firs by Sarah Orne Jewett

Set in a small, coastal town in Maine, this enduring sequence of intimate stories has assumed its rightful place in the pantheon of American classics. A series of small, beautifully rendered sketches as a sustained narrative, perfectly evoking the inexorable decline of coastal New England after the Civil War. (Goodreads.com book summary)

Prodigal Summer: A Novel by Barbara Kingsolver

Wildlife biologist Deanna is caught off guard by an intrusive young hunter, while bookish city wife Lusa finds herself facing a difficult identity choice, and elderly neighbors find attraction at the height of a long-standing feud. (Publisher’s summary)

A Separate Peace: A Novel by John Knowles

The Devon school in the summer of '42 is a lot like the fantasy kingdom of Camelot, and Phineas is its King Arthur, giving off a warm exuberance that attracts loyal followers and beguiles normally suspicious adults. No one loves him more than Gene, but this is Gene's "sarcastic" summer. (Publisher’s summary)

The Summer Before the Dark by Doris Lessing

A middle-aged woman's search for freedom, this is classic Lessing, here given a stunning new image. Her four children have flown, her husband is otherwise occupied, and after twenty years of being a good wife and mother, Kate Brown is free for a summer of adventure. She plunges into an affair with a younger man, travelling abroad with him, and on her return to England, meets an extraordinary young woman whose charm and freedom of spirit encourages Kate in her own liberation. Kate's new life has brought her a strange unhappiness, but as the summer months unfold, a darker, disquieting journey begins, devastating in its consequences. (Goodreads.com book summary)

The Summer of the Danes by Ellis Peters

In the summer of 1144, a strange calm has settled over England. The armies of King Stephen and Empress Maud, the two royal cousins contending for the throne, have temporarily exhausted each other. On the whole, Brother Cadfael considers peace a blessing and agrees to accompany a friend to Wales. When Cadfael is captured by an army of Danish mercenaries, he finds himself in the midst of a brotherly quarrel that could plunge an entire kingdom into deadly chaos. (Publisher’s summary)

The Yellow Room by Mary Roberts Rinehart

When a charred corpse is discovered in the linen closet of her family's Maine retreat, a woman must do some fast sleuthing of her own--before a dangerous killer burns, her, too! (Goodreads.com book summary)

Farewell, Summer by Helen Hooven Santmyer

This slim novel tells, in the leisurely, old-fashioned style that has endeared Santmyer to many readers, about an ill-fated love affair that occurred in the town of Sunbury, Ohio, one summer, long ago. Damaris, a high-spirited beauty, returns home from a convent school and announces she wants to become a nun, an unthinkable idea to her Dutch Presbyterian family. Her cousin Steve, a dreamy young man who yearns to be a poet, comes to Sunbury after his father's death to seek his fortune. The inevitable happens. The two young people, with some encouragement from Damaris's grandfather, begin a flirtation… The author shines in her loving recollections of turn-of-the-century Ohio and her exploration of the ties that bind and break families. (Publishers Weekly)

To the Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf

The serene and maternal Mrs. Ramsay, the tragic yet absurd Mr. Ramsay, and their children and assorted guests are on holiday on the Isle of Skye. From the seemingly trivial postponement of a visit to a nearby lighthouse, Woolf constructs a remarkable, moving examination of the complex tensions and allegiances of family life and the conflict between men and women. (Goodreads.com book summary)