Friday Five: Library Finds

Believe me, it’s seriously easy to feel like you’re going overboard on the research part of writing a historical novel. On the other hand, it can sometimes take reading (or at least skimming) through several books to get a true sense of the time you’re writing in or to find a single answer to a question that truly impacts your hero’s path. So this morning, I drove back down to the Dr. Martin Luther King branch of the San Jose library and roamed the shelves again. As I headed over to the self-checkout line with my heavy totebag of books, I thought I’d better check if I had too many books. (Yes, I should have thought of this BEFORE I started looking, thank you very much.)

Me: Is there a limit to how many books I can check out?

Librarian: Yes. 100.

NOT A PROBLEM.

So, today, a few of the (hopefully) treasures I brought home:

1. The Positive Image: Women Photographers in Turn of the Century America, by C. Jane Gover

2. Avenues to Adulthood: The Origins of the High School and Social Mobility in an American Suburb, by Reed Ueda

3. The Souls of the Skyscraper: Female Clerical Workers in Chicago, 1879-1930, by Lisa M. Fine

4. Secondary Schools at the Turn of the Century, by Theodore R. Sizer

5. Lines of Activity: Performance, Historiography, Hull-House Domesticity, by Shannon Jackson

Honestly, part of me is saying, “Whee!” and part of me is saying, “Oh, dear.”

Oh, well. Here’s to knowledge!