Chick Lit Authors

Ahern, Cecelia
Alan, Theresa
Andersen, Susan (pbr, LT)
Baratz-Logsted, Lauren
Bartlett, Gerry
Bartolomeo, Christina
Bird, Sarah
Block, Valerie
Brandt, Beverly
Browne, Hester
Buchan, Elizabaeth
Bushnell, Candace
Cabot, Meg
Caldwell, Laura
Carroll, Leslie Sara
Christensen,Kate
Ciresi, Rita
Colgan, Jenny
Cook, Claire
Crane, Caprice
Crusie, Jennifer
Curnyn, Lynda
Edwards, Johanna
Evans, Harriet
Fielding, Helen
Frankel, Valerie
Gaskell, Whitney
Gehrman, Jody
Gibson, Fiona
Gibson, Rachel
Giffin, Emily
Grazer, Gigi L.
Green, Jane
Hale, Shannon
Halliday, Gemma
Hanauer, Cathi
Haribison, Beth
Heller, Jane
Hitchcock, Jane S.
Holden, Wendy, 1965
Jewell, Lisa
Kelly, Cathy
Kargman,Jill
Kendrick, Beth
Keyes, Maria
King, Mia
Kinsella, Sophie
Kwitney, Alisa
Lipman, Elinor
Lissner, Caren
Litman, Viqui
Mansell, Jane
Margolis, Sue
Martin, Deidre
Matthews,Carole
Maxted, Anna
McLaughlin, Emma
Messina, Lynn
Michaels, Kasey
Mlynowksi, Sarah
Naylor, Clare
Orloff, Erica
Palmer, Liza
Papa, Ariella
Phillips, Carol
Powell, Julie
Schine, Cathleen
Senate, Melissa
Sigaloff, Jane
Snow, Carol
Templeton, Karen
Valdes-Rodriguez, Alisa
Walker, Laura Jensen
Weiner, Jennifer
Weisberger, Lauren
Wells, Rebecca
Wells, Robin
Wickham, Madeleine
Zigman, Laura

Mystery Chick Lit Authors

Anderson, Sheryl J.
Avocato, Lori
Ballard, Mignon Franklin
Barrett, Lorna
Barron, Stephanie
Bartholomew, Nancy
Bebris, Carrie
Blevins, Meredith
Bond, Stephanie
Bush, Nancy
Cabot, Meg
Caine, Leslie
Caldwell, Laura
Carl, Joanna
Childs, Laura
Clemens, Judy
Clement, Blaize
Cohen, Nancy J.
Colt, Jennifer
Colley, Barbara
Conant-Park, Jessica
Corwin, C.R.
Crawford, Isis
Daheim, Mary
Davidson, Mary Janice
Davis, Kyra
Donnelly, Deborah
Dunn, Carola
Eichler, Selma

Evanovich, Janet
Fairbanks, Nancy
Farmer, Jerrilyn
Ferris, Monica
Fiffer, Sharon
Fluke, Joanne
Frazer, Margaret
Grace, C.L.
Graves, Sarah
Green, Chloë
Greenwood, Kerry
Halliday, Gemma
Haines, Carolyn
Harris, Lynn
Holt, Hazel
Jaffariain, Sue
Johnson, Dolores
Jones, Merry Blo
Laurie, Victoria
Kandel, Susan
Kalian, Cady
Kelner, Toni P.
Kenner, Julie
King, Laurie
Konrath, J.A. (Joe)
Kozak, Harley
Lakin, Rita
Malliet, G. M.
Martin, Nancy

Martin, Rosemary
McBride, Susan
McCafferty, Barbara
McCall Smith, Alexander
McKevett, G. A.
Meier, Leslie
Michaels, Kasey
Mitchell, Michele
Murray, Lynne
Myers, Tamar
Ocean, T. Lynn
Olson, Karen E.
O’Shaughnessy, Perri
Pickard, Nancy
Ripley, Ann
Roberts, Gillian
Spencer-Fleming, Julia
Strohmeyer, Sarah
Sturman, Jennifer
Sweeney, Leann
Townley, Gemma
Viets, Elaine

Christian Romance Fiction Authors

Aarsen, Carolyne
Baer, Judy
Bateman, TraceyVictoria
Clopton, Debra
Coulter, Brenda
Daley, Margaret
Davids, Patricia
Hannon, Irene
Hart, Jillian
James, Arlene
Kastner, Debra
Marr, Patt
Martin, Gail G.
Nunn, Mae
Perry, Marta
Reed, Terri
Richer, Lois
Sattler, Gail
Scofield, Ruth
Tronstad, Janet
Worth, Lenora

Christian Fiction Authors

Compiled by Joanne Turner, Assistant Reference Librarian

Aiken, Ginny
Alexander, Hannah
Austin, Lynn N.
Baart, Nicole
Bateman, Tracey
Bedford, Deborah
Bell, James Scott
Bergren, Lisa Tawn
Blackstock, Terri
Blackston, Ray
Blackwell, Lawana
Bly, Stephen A.
Brimsetter. Wanda E.
Bunn, T. Davis
Cannon, Julie
Chaikin, L. L.
Clark, Mindy Starns
Collins, Brandilyn
Copeland, Lori
Cote, Lyn
Crawford, Dianna
Dekker, Ted
Depree, Traci
Dickson, Athol
Downs, Tim (mystery)


Gansky, Alton (mystery))
Girzone, Joseph F.
Gray, Shelley Shepard
Gregory, David
Groot, Tracy
Gulley, Philip
Gunn, Robin Jones
Gutteridge, Rene
Hancock, Karen (science fiction)
Halter, Marek
Hatcher, Robin Lee
Hart, Beth Webb
Hart, Neesa
Heitzmann, Kristen
Henderson, Dee
Herman, Kathy
Hickman, Patricia
Higgs, Liz Curtis
Hinck, Sharon
Hoff, B. J.
Hunt, Angela E.
Jackson, Derek
Jackson, Neta
Jarrett, Norma L.
Jenkins, Jerry B.
John, Sally
Karon, Jan
Kelly, Leisha
Kingsbury, Karen
Kinkade, Thomas
Kirkpatrick, Jane
Klassen, Julie
Kraus, Jim
Lacy, Al
Lacy, Joanna
LaHaye, Tim
Leon, Bonnie
Lewis, Beverly
Ludd, Gerald
McCourtney, Lorena (mystery)
Morgan, Kathleen
Morris, Lynn
Morris, Gilbert
Morrisey, Tom
Moser, Nancy
Musser, Elizabeth
Myers, Bill
Oke, Janette
Palmer, Catherine
Parker, Gary E.



Parshall, Craig
Pella, Judith
Peretti, Frank E.
Peterson, Tracie
Raney, Deborah
Rice, Anne (2)
Angels Time
Christ the Lord
Rivers, Francine
Rushford, Patricia H.
Phillips, Michael
Samson, Lisa
Singer, Randy D.
Smith, Debra White
Snelling, Laurine
Thoene, Bodie
Thrasher, Travis
Turner, Jamie L.
Walker, Laura J.
Whitson, Stephaine
Wick, Lori
Woodsmall, Cindy
Wright, Jason
York, Lynn

Authors of Contemporary Black Fiction

Compiled by Joanne Turner, Assistant Reference Librarian

Belll, Cassandra
Berry, Bertice
Black, Daniel
Bland, Eleanor
Billingsley, Reshonda
Bowen, Michele
Brown, Parry
Briscoe, Connie
Buckhanon, Kalisha
Bunkley, Anita
Butler, Tajuana
Cleage, Pearl
Cooper, J. California
Corbett, Nina
Day, Desiree
Dickey, Eric Jerome
Diggs, Anita
Dow, Candice
Files, Lolita
Ford, Aisha
Forster, Gwynne
George, Nelson
Gregory, Tamara
Griggs, Vanessa
Guillaume, Geri
Harris, E. Lynn
Holliday, Geneva
Jackson, Brenda
Jarrett, Norma L.
Joe, Yolanda
Johnson, Freddie
Johnson, R. M.
Johnson, Stephanie
Jones, Solomon
Keaton, Barbara
Lee, Darrien
Little, Benilde
Major, Marcus
Marshall, Bev
Mason,Felicia
Mason, J. D.
McGlothin, Victor
McMillan, Rosalyn
McMillan, Terry
McCollors, Tia
McCoy-Miller, Judith
Monroe, Mary
Morrison, Mary B.
Morrison, Toni
Nicholas, Denise
Mosley, Walter
Murray, Albert
Murray, Victoria
Parks, Electa
Parks, Suzan-Lori
Phillips, Debra
Phillips, Delores
Rawles, Nancy
Reid, Maryann
Rhodes, Jewell
Robinson, C. Kelly
Roby, Kimberla
Southgate, Martha
Thomas, Brenda
Thomas, Jacquelin
Turner, Nikki
Tyree, Omar
Warren, Tiffany
Weber, Carl
Wesley, Valerie
White, Kimberley
Wideman, John E.
Williams, Shelia J.
Williams, Tia
Wilson, Christopher P.
Zane

THE SULTAN’S SHADOW: ONE FAMILY’S ROLE AT THE CROSSROADS OF EAST AND WEST

By Christiane Bird

Publisher Random House 2010
Price $ 28.00
Pages 329

ISBN 978-0-345-46940-3

Reviewed by R.T. Bush

Most people read non fiction with the hope of being better informed on a subject, or to learn something new. This book that I borrowed from the League City Library amply fulfilled those hopes.

The principle characters are Seyyed Said bin Sultan Al Busaid of Oman, his daughter Salme, and his son Seyyid Barghash. The men were strict Muslims and remained so, but Salme who eloped with a German trader and went live in Germany became a Christian. She was a tragic character who was treated badly in Hamburg by her husband’s relatives. After he died in an accident a kindly German Baroness befriended her; but she was swindled of her inheritance and had to earn a living for her self and her three children by teaching Arabic.

The Muslim religion for Omanis was Ibadhism. Ms Bird explains that this sect was tolerant of other religions, unlike sects such as the Wahabism of Saudi Arabia and the Sunni sect, who both tried to over throw the Ibadists. Ibadhism is still the religion of Oman today reinforcing the county’s isolation from the rest of Arabia and the rest of the Muslim world.

Omanis at one time ruled over Bandar Abbas in today’s Iran, Gwador in today’s Baluchistan, a province of Pakistan, and as far west in the Arabian Gulf as Bahrain. Their seafarers and traders on sailing vessels regularly sailed to and from East Africa, Pemba and Zanzibar, islands off the East African coast during the N. East and S. West monsoons. They established thriving settlements in those places. The Al Busaidi Sultans became wealthy through trading in African slaves, ivory and from the clove plantations on Zanzibar and Pemba. In Oman, where Muscat became their capital and main port, dates were their main crop. A large part of Oman is arid dessert, but Zanzibar and Pemba are fertile with lush vegetation. The Sultans built palaces and lived much of their lives there.

Princess Salme was born in Zanzibar in 1844 the daughter of Sultan Sayyed Sultan Al Busaid and a Circassian slave. She became homesick for the

island during her exile in Germany, but was denied permission to return by her brother who became Sultan after the death of their father. This was partly due to her conversion to Christianity.

Ms. Bird devotes a whole chapter to the Arab slave trade, and goes into details about the abolitionists including David Livingstone, and Henry Morton Stanley. The African expeditions of explorers Richard Burton, John Speke, and Stanley who were all helped in Zanzibar by the Omanis are also covered in detail.

We learn of the cruelties suffered by the African slaves, sold by their chieftains in the interior and driven mercilessly to the coast. Many died before arriving in the slave markets of Zanzibar. Portuguese traders took some to Brazil but most went north to Arabia or Egypt, or worked on the labour intensive clove plantations in Zanzibar.

Of the abolitionists we learn that Livingstone was born in a tenement in Blantyre near Glasgow. He was a medical missionary and an ardent Christian. Stanley was born a Welshman named John Rowlands in 1841. At the age of 16 he went to the US changed is name to Henry Morton Stanley, and after fighting for the Confederate Army ended up in New York.

Although I had walked back and forth across Herald Square five days a week on my commute to work from the Pennsylvania Rail Road Station to the Rockefeller Center, and knew it was named after James Gordon Bennett’s once famous New York Herald newspaper, I did not know that Stanley had worked there.
In fact it was Bennett’s son who sent Stanley to Africa to find Livingstone.

Stanley was not a missionary; he was a brave explorer and found the source of the Nile on Lake Victoria. He tracked the river Lualaba into the Congo and went down that mighty river to the sea passing round the torrential falls named after him. Later he became King Leopold 11of Belgium’s envoy in the Congo. Ms Bird tells us that he was one of the least racist of the African explorers.

Cruelty and gender inequality were endemic world wide in the 17th and 18th centuries, and especially so in the Arab and African countries mentioned in this book, where tribal divisions were often extreme. Male sexual prowess or excesses were considered a matter of pride and having many wives and concubines was common among the rulers and the wealthy of the world, including the Omanis. King Henry VIII and Tiger Woods are saintly when compared with powerful and rich in this book.

Sexism was as prevalent then among Muslims as it is today in most religions, so the only Omani woman Ms Bird finds as a heroine, besides Princess


Salme, was a shadowy character, Bibi Mouza. To learn more about her you must read the book.

Pemba and Zanzibar became independent of Oman and now with the former Tanganyika form part of Tanzania. The coastal part of Tanzania and Kenya its neighbour to the north was also settled by Arabs who converted the local Africans known as Swahili to Mohammedanism. These coastal strips were a part of the Busaidi Sultan’s domains.

Today Mombassa in Kenya, and Dar es Salaam in Tanzania are major ports and cities.

A coup or rebellion in 1963 ended the British Protectorate that had been established over Zanzibar in 1890, and the island lost its independence to the mainland.

In Oman in another coup Sultan Qaboos al Busaidi, the 14th of this dynasty, replaced his tyrannical father in 1970 and brought Oman into the modern world with some help from the British army, the Iranians, the Jordanians, and the Shell Oil Co..

This book is a must read for understanding the seething unrest in Arabia and East Africa.

990 words R.T. Bush November, 7 2010

Thanksgiving Stories for Children

PICTURE BOOKS

CALL # TITLE AUTHOR

E ACC Friendship’s First Thanksgiving (Accorsi)

E AND Over the River: A Turkey’s Tale (Anderson)

E AND Thank You, Sarah (Anderson)

E AND Turkey Pox (Anderson)

E ATW Thanksgiving Door (Atwell)

E AUC Beauty and the Beaks (Auch)

E BAL Sometimes It’s Turkey, Sometimes It’s Feathers (Balian)

E BAT Gus, the Pilgrim Turkey (Bateman)

E BER Berenstain Bears & the Prize Pumpkin (Berenstain)

E BIL Turkey Bowl (Bildner)

E BOE Firefighters’ Thanksgiving (Boelts)

E BRA Best Thanksgiving Day (Braybrooks)

E BRI Clifford’s Thanksgiving Visit (Bridwell)

E BRO Arthur’s Thanksgiving (Brown)

E BRU Squanto’s Thanksgiving (Bruchac)

E BUN Turkey for Thanksgiving (Bunting)

E CAP Happy Thanksgiving, Biscuit! (Capucilli)

E CAR Visit to Grandma’s (Carlson)

E COW Gracias, the Thanksgiving Turkey (Cowley)

E COX One Is a Feast for a Mouse (Cox)

E DEV Cranberry Thanksgiving (Devlin)

E FRI Thanksgiving Rules (Friedman)

E GAN Rotten Ralph’s Thanksgiving Wish (Gantos)

E GIB Thanksgiving Is... (Gibbons)

E HAR Three Young Pilgrims (Harness)

E HER Memory Cupboard: A Thanksgiving Story (Herman)

E JAC I Know an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Pie (Jackson)

E JUL Duck for Turkey Day (Jules)

E KRO Thanksgiving Bowl (Kroll)

E LAK Fat Chance Thanksgiving (Lakin)

E LIS Blue’s Thanksgiving Feast (Lissy)

E MAY Run, Turkey, Run! (Mayr)

E MCC Outlaw Thanksgiving (McCully)

E PIL ‘Twas the Night before Thanksgiving (Pilkey)

E RAE Rivka’s First Thanksgiving (Rael)

E ROB Thanksgiving Mice! (Roberts)

E SCH Thanksgiving (Schuh)

E SHA One Terrific Thanksgiving (Sharmat)

E SIL Turkey Trouble (Silvano)

E SPI Perfect Thanksgiving (Spinelli)

E SPI Thanksgiving at the Tappletons (Spinelli)

E STA Thanksgiving on Plymouth Plantation (Stanley)

E STE Fried Feathers for Thanksgiving (Stevenson)

E STO Thanksgiving Treat (Stock)

E SUL Ankle Soup (Sullivan)

E TAL Disney’s Winnie the Pooh’s Thanksgiving (Talkington)

E TAN Tasty Thanksgiving Feast (Tanner)

E TRY Albert's Thanksgiving (Tryon)

E WAT Thanksgiving at Our House (Watson)

E WIL Dora’s Thanksgiving (Wilson)