Donated in the memory of Phyllis Director

After the recent death of Phyllis Director, a retired member of the Oceanside School Community, a group of friends decided to pay tribute to her by placing books in the Oceanside High School Library. 

Phyllis had a career in journalism, raised three children, began her teaching career at Boardman Junior High School (currently Oceanside Middle School), later a teacher of English at Oceanside High School, became Chair of the English Department at Oceanside High School., and was a former Vice President of the Lynbrook Board of Education. After her retirement, she remained active until her death.

The donated collection includes the following titles which are available for loan to students and staff of the OHS community:  

:

Location	Author/Title	Summary
814.54 ALV	Alvarez, Julia. Something to declare / Julia Alvarez. -- New York : Penguin Group, c1998.	SUMMARY: "...The twenty-four personal essays that make up...[this book] are the snapshots rendered in prose, capturing the life and mind of an artist as she mediates on the dual themes of coming to America and becoming a writer. Part One, Customs, is a loving tribute to family and an examination of the specific effects of exile-- fleeing dictatorship in the Dominican Republic, the shock of arriving in New York City, training a Spanish tongue to speak English... Part Two, Declarations, celebrates Alvarez's enduring passion for words and the writing life..."So Much depends," [is] a reflection on the influence of fellow bicultural writers William Carl Williams and Maxine Hong Kingston..."Ten of My Writing Commandments," [is] an inspiring list for any aspiring writer, these essays are filled with humor and insight...".
FIC BLU	Blum, Jenna. Those who save us / Jenna Blum. -- Orlando : Harcourt, c2004.	SUMMARY: "Those Who Save Us is a profound exploration of what we endure to survive and the legacy of shame."
B BRA	Bradlee, Quinn. A different life : growing up learning disabled and other adventures : a memoir / Quinn Bradlee ; with Jeff Himmelman. -- 1st ed. -- New York : PublicAffairs, c2009.	SUMMARY: “…it wasn’t until he was fourteen that Bradlee was correctly diagnosed with Velo-Cardio-Facial Syndrome (VCFS), a widespread, little-understood disorder that is expressed through a wide range of physical ailments and learning disabilities. Ten percent of the population is affected by a learning disability, but few of us understand what being learning disabled (LD) is really like In this. book, Bradlee tells his own inspirational story of growing up as…[a Learning Disabled] kid…” as `` an example for all readers to have a better understanding. (BooksInPrint online)
951.04 CHA	Chang, Iris. The rape of Nanking : the forgotten holocaust of World War II / Iris Chang. -- New York, NY : Penguin Books, c1998.	SUMMARY: “In December 1937, the Japanese army swept into the ancient city of Nanking. Within weeks, more than 300,000 Chinese civilians and soldiers were systematically raped, tortured and murdered…Using extensive interviews with survivors and newly discovered documents, Iris Chang has written the definitive history of this horrifying episode.”
B CHI	Chiger, Krystyna, 1935-. The girl in the green sweater: a life in Holocaust's shadow / Krystyna Chiger with Daniel Paisner. -- New York : St. Martin's Griffin, c2009.	SUMMARY: "Krystyna Chiger survived the Holocaust by hiding with her family in the sewers of Lvov, Poland, for fourteen months. A retired dentist, she lives on Long Island." The book "...is also the story of Loepold Socha, ... A Polish Catholic and former thief...[who] risked his life to help Chiger's underground family survive.....A moving memoir."
FIC DE	de Rosnay, Tatiana, 1961-. Sarah's key / Tatiana de Rosnay. -- 1st ed. -- New York : St. Martin's Press, 2007.	SUMMARY: “ In Sarah’s Key, Tatiana de Rosnay offers up a mesmerizing story in which a tragic past unfolds, the present is torn apart, and the future is irrevocably altered.”
304.28 DIA	Diamond, Jared M. Collapse : how societies choose to fail or succeed / Jared Diamond -- New York : Penguin Books, c2005.	SUMMARY: “In this fascinating book, Diamond seeks to understand the fates of past societies that collapsed for ecological reasons, combining the most important policy debate of this generation with the romance and mystery of lost worlds.” (BooksInPrint online)
B FRE	Fremont, Helen. After long silence : a memoir / Helen Fremont. -- New York, N.Y. : Dell Publishing, c1999.	SUMMARY: "Helen Fremont was raised as a Roman Catholic. It wasn't until she was an adult, practicing law in Boston, that she discovered her parents were Jewish--Holocaust survivors living invented lives...After Long Silence is about the devastating price of hiding the truth...".
302 GLA	Gladwell, Malcolm, 1963-. Outliers : the story of success / Malcolm Gladwell. -- 1st ed. -- New York : Little, Brown and Co., c2008.	SUMMARY: “In this stunning new book, Malcolm Gladwell takes us on an intellectual journey through the world of "outliers"--the best and the brightest, the most famous and the most successful. He asks the question what makes high-achievers different? His answer is that we pay too much attention to what successful people are like, and too little attention to where they are from: that is, their culture, their family, their generation, and the idiosyncraticexperiences of their upbringing. Along the way he explains the secrets of software billionaires, what it takes to be a great soccer player, why Asians are good at math, and what made the Beatles the greatest rock band.” (Little, Brown & Company)
302 GLA	Gladwell, Malcolm, 1963-. The tipping point : how little things can make a big difference / Malcolm Gladwell ; [with a new afterword by the author]. -- 1st Back Bay pbk. ed. -- Boston : Back Bay Books, 2002.	SUMMARY: “The Tipping Point is that Magic Moment When an Idea, Trend, or Social Behavior Crosses a Threshold, Tips, and Spreads Like Wildfire. Just as a single sick person can start an epidemic of the flu, so too can a small but precisely targeted push ause a fashion trend, the popularity of a new product, or a drop in the crime rate. This widely acclaimed best-seller, in which Malcolm Gladwell explores and brilliantly illuminates the tipping point phenomenon, is already changing the way people throughout the world think about selling products and disseminating ideas. Book jacket.” “This genial book by New Yorker contributor Gladwell considers the elements needed to make a particular idea take hold. The "tipping point" (not a new phrase) occurs when something that began small (e.g., a few funky kids in New York's East Village wearing Hush Puppies) turns into something very large indeed (millions of Hush Puppies are sold). It depends on three rules: the Law of the Few, the Stickiness Factor, and the Power of Context. Episodes subjected to this paradigm here include Paul Revere's ride, the creation of the children's TV program Sesame Street, and the influence of subway shooter Bernie Goetz. The book has something of a pieced-together feel (reflecting, perhaps, the author's experience writing shorter pieces) and is definitely not the stuff of deep sociological thought. It is, however, an entertaining read that promises to be well publicized. Recommended for public libraries.--Ellen Gilbert, Rutgers Univ.Lib., New Brunswick, NJ Copyright 2000 Cahners Business Information. (Library Journal - BooksInPrint online)
FIC HAR	Haruf, Kent. Plainsong / by Kent Haruf. -- New York : Vintage Books : c1999.	SUMMARY: “YA-This saga of seven residents of Holt, CO, details the problemsthey face and how they come together to solve them. . . The characters tell their stories in alternating chapters. All of them are struggling but it is their caring, kindness, and forgiving spirits that help them support one another. There is a keen sense of place here-a place where family and community matter. YAs can learn from this novel about nontraditional families, about small towns where everybody knows everybody else's business, and about the power of love.-Carol Clark, formerly at Fairfax County Public Schools, VA Copyright 2000 Cahners Business Information.” (School Library Journal ( June 01, 2000; BooksInPrint online)
FIC HEG	Hegi, Ursula. Stones from the river / Ursula Hegi. -- New York: Simon & Schuster, c1994.	SUMMARY: “At the beginning of World War I, Trudi Montag, a dwarf, is born to an unstable mother and a gentle father in a small Rheinish town. Through the Weimar Republic and the Third Reich into the era following World War II she first struggles with--and later draws strength and wisdom from--her inability to fit into a conformist and repressive society. As the town's librarian and historian,Trudi keeps track of many secrets, revealing the universality of her experience. While Hegi's (Floating in My Mother's Palm , LJ 5/15/90) treatment of history and politics is engaging, her novel's appeal lies in the humanity of its characters. Particularly strong is her portrayal of, and insight into, the community of women and children as they react to changing conditions in the town. A sensitive and rewarding book.-- Michael T. O'Pecko, Towson State Univ., Md. LibraryJournal ( January 01, 1994 ; BooksInPrint Online)
324.973 HEI	Heilemann, John, 1966-. Game change : Obama and the Clintons, McCain and Palin and the race of a lifetime / John Heilemann and Mark Halperin. -- 1st ed. -- New York : Harper, c2010.	SUMMARY: “.. Game Change answers … questions and more, laying bare the secret history of the 2008 campaign. … Game Change is a reportorial tour de force that reads like a fast-paced novel. Character driven and dialogue rich, replete with extravagantly detailed scenes, this is the occasionally shocking, often hilarious, ultimately definitive account of the campaign of a lifetime.” (BooksInPrint Online)
B HIR	Hirsi Ali, Ayaan, 1969-. Infidel / Ayaan Hirsi Ali ; foreword by Christopher Hitchens. -- 1st Free Press trade pbk. ed. -- New York : Free Press, 2008.	SUMMARY: “In this profoundly affecting memoir from the internationally renowned author of The Caged Virgin, Ayaan Hirsi Ali tells her astonishing life story, from her traditional Muslim childhood in Somalia, Saudi Arabia, and Kenya, to her intellectual awakening and activism in the Netherlands, and her current life under armed guard in the West” (Free Press).
B HOR	Hornbacher, Marya, 1974-. Madness : a bipolar life / Marya Hornbacher. -- Boston : Houghton Mifflin, c2009.	SUMMARY: “When Marya Hornbacher published her first book, Wasted, she did not yet know the reason for her all-but-shattered young life. At age 24, Hornbacher was diagnosed with Type 1 rapid-cycle bipolar, the most severe form of bipolar disease there is. Here, in her trademark wry,self-revealing voice, Hornbacher tells her new story. She takes us inside her own desperate attemptsto control violently careening mood swings by self-starvation, substance abuse, numbing sex, and self-mutilation. How Hornbacher fights her way up from a madness that all but destroys her, and what it is like to live in a difficult and sometimes beautiful life and marriage, is at the heart of this brave memoir. Millions of people in America struggle with a variety of disorders that may mask their true diagnosis of bipolar; also, Hornbacher's portrait of her own bipolar as early as age four will change the current debate on whether bipolar exists in children.--From publisher description.” (BooksInPrint)
FIC JIN	Jin, Ha, 1956-. War trash : a novel / Ha Jin. -- 1st Vintage International ed. -- New York : Vintage International, 2005.	SUMMARY: This book “…casts a searchlight into a forgotten corner of modem history, the experience of Chinese soldiers held in U.S. POW camps during the Korean War…”
FIC LAW	Lawson, Mary, 1946-. The other side of the bridge / Mary Lawson. -- New York : Dial Press, c2006.	SUMMARY: "Lawson clearly knows and loves her terrain--the countryside, its people and their way of life--and she tells this story without sentimentalizing anything about it...She writes vividly of the joys and hardships of rural life, the harsh but sublime beauties of the natural world, as well as the thread connecting one generation to the next.--Los Angeles Times.
FIC LEE	Lee, Chang-rae. A gesture life / Chang-rae Lee. -- New York : Riverhead Books, 1999.	SUMMARY: “The riveting story of a Japanese immigrant who leads a proper, decorous life in a New York suburb. As his life slowly unravels, he is transported back to his days as a medic in the Japanese army in World War II, and his obsessive love of a youngcomfort woman.” (BooksInPrint online)
812 ROM	Linney, Romulus, 1930-. A lesson before dying / by Romulus Linney. -- New York : Dramatists Play Service, c2001.	SUMMARY: “Based on Ernest J. Gaines' National Book Critics Circle Award-winning novel, A Lesson Before Dying is set in a small Louisiana Cajun community in the late 1940s. Jefferson, a young illiterate black man, is falsely convicted of murder and is sentenced to death. Grant Wiggins, the plantation schoolteacher, agrees to talk with the condemned man.” (BooksInPrint online)
B DIC	Longsworth, Polly. The World of Emily Dickinson / Polly Longsworth. -- New York : Norton, c1990.	SUMMARY: The book contains "...over 275 portrats, engravings, maps and other illustrations..." "The pictures and captions build on ... [the introductory] essay, exploring Dickinson's immediate surroundings, the Dickinson family's active and influential public life, as well as close friends and relatives, the growing town of Amherst, and the intellectual life of the time.".
FIC MYR	Myracle, Lauren, 1969-. Bliss / Lauren Myracle. -- New York : Amulet Books, c2008.	SUMMARY: Having grown up in a California commune, Bliss sees her aloof grandmother's Atlanta world as a foreign country, but she is determined to be nice as a freshman at an elite high school, which makes her the perfect target for Sandy, a girl obsessed with the occult.
FIC NEM	Némirovsky, Irène, 1903-1942. Suite française / Irène Némirovsky ; translated by Sandra Smith. -- New York : Vintage : c2006.	SUMMARY: “Beginning in Paris on the eve of the Nazi occupation in 1940, Suite Francaise, tells the remarkable story of men and women thrown together in circumstances beyond their control…” “An extraordinary work, an astonishing blend of fiction and fact, history and storytelling.” (- Houston Chronicles) “When Irene Nemirovsky began working on Suite Francaise, she was already a highly successful writer living in Paris. But she was also a Jew, and in 1942 she was arrested and deported to Auschwitz, where she died. For sixty-four years, this novel remained hidden and unknown.”
B OBA .	Obama, Barack. Dreams from my father : a story of race and inheritance / Barack Obama. -- 1st pbk. ed. -- New York : Three Rivers Press, c2004.
FIC OTS	Otsuka, Julie, 1962-. When the emperor was divine : a novel / by Julie Otsuka. -- New York : Anchor Books : c2002.	SUMMARY: “Otsuka researched historical sources and her own grandparents' experiences as background for this spare yet poignant first novel about the ordeal of a Japanese family sent to an internment camp during World War II. Its perspective shifts among different family members as the story unfolds. We see the mother numbly pack up the family's middle-class belongings to leave behind in their Berkeley home. The dehumanizing train trip to the camp, and the bleak internment in the alkaline Nevada desert, as related by the young son and daughter, become mythic events. Their father, picked up for questioning immediately afterPearl Harbor and imprisoned throughout the war, returns a broken and bitter man. The family'shumiliation continues beyond the war's end: afterreturning to their vandalized home, they are shunned for months by former friends and neighbors. The novel's themes of freedom and banishment ae especially important as we see civil liberties threatened during the current war on terrorism. Otsuka's clear, elegant prose makes these themes accessible to a range of reading levels from young adult on. Highly recommended for all libraries.-Reba Leiding, James Madison Univ. Libs., Harrisonburg, VA Copyright 2002 Cahners `Business Information.”( Library Journal September 01, 2002 ; BooksInPrint online)
B EAR	Rich, Doris L. Amelia Earhart : a biography / Doris L. Rich. -- [Washington, D.C.] : Smithsonian Institution, c1989.
FIC RUS	Russell, Mary Doria, 1950-. A thread of grace : a novel / Mary Doria Russell. -- New York : Ballantine Books, c2005.	SUMMARY: “Set in Italy during the dramatic finale of World War II . . . It is September 8, 1943, and fourteen-year-old Claudette Blum is learning Italian with a suitcase in her hand. She and her father are among the thousands of Jewish refugees scrambling over the Alps toward Italy, where they hope to be safe at last, now that the Italians have broken with Germany and made a separate peace with the Allies. The Blums will soon discover that Italy is anything but peaceful, as it becomes overnight an open battleground among the Nazis, the Allies, resistance fighters, Jews in hiding, and ordinary Italian civilians trying to survive. Mary Doria Russell sets her first historical novel against this dramatic background, tracing the lives of a handful of fascinating characters. Through them, she tells the little-known but true story of the network of Italian citizens who saved the lives of forty-three thousand Jews during the war's final phase. The result of five years of meticulous research, "A Thread of Grace" is an ambitious, engrossing novel of ideas, history, and marvelous characters that will please Russell's many fans and earn her even more. "From the Hardcover edition.” (BooksInPrint online)
FIC STR	Strout, Elizabeth. Olive Kitteridge / Elizabeth Strout. -- New York : Random House, c2008.	SUMMARY: “At the edge of the continent, in the small town of Crosby, Maine, lives Olive Kitteridge, a retired schoolteacher who deplores the changes in her town and in the world at large but doesn't always recognize the changes in those around her. ["In her third novel, New York Times best-selling author Strout (Abide with Me) tracks Olive Kitteridge's adult life through. . ." ". . . 13 linked stories that delineate the life and times of fussy but sympathetic Olive Kitteredge, Strout beautifully captures the sticky little issues of small-town life-and the entire universe of human longing, disappointment, and love. (LJ 2/1/08) Copyright 2008 Reed Business Information." ( Library Journal December 01, 2008; BooksInPrint online)
B TAM	Tammet, Daniel, 1979-. Born on a blue day : inside the extraordinary mind of an autistic TAM savant : a memoir / Daniel Tammet. -- 1st Free Press pbk. ed. -- New York : Free Press, c2007.	SUMMARY: “Born on a Blue Day is a journey into one of the most fascinating minds alive today-guided by the owner himself. Daniel Tammet is virtually unique among people who have severe autistic disorders in that he is capable of living a fully independent life and able to explain what is happening inside his head.” (BooksInPrint online)
FIC TSU	Tsukiyama, Gail. The Samurai's garden / Gail Tsukiyama. -- 1st ed. -- New York : St. Martin's Griffin Press, c1994.	SUMMARY: “Set in Japan just before WWII, Tsukiyama’s novel tells of a young Chinese man’s encounters with four locals while he recuperates from tuberculosis.” (PW) “A cultural and individual metamorphosis seen through the journal of a 20-year-old Chinese student as China stirs to the threat of Japanese invasion in 1937. (Best Books for Young Adult Readers)” (BooksInPrint online)
FIC UMR .	Umrigar, Thrity N. The space between us / Thrity Umrigar. -- New York : Harper Perennial, c2007.	SUMMARY: “This is a story …told against the …back-ground of everyday life in Bombay…The life of the privileged is harshly measured against the life of the powerless, but empathy and compassion are evoked by both strong women, each of whom is forced to make a separate choice…” ( Washington Post Book World)