This week, we feature a winning novel about a beloved teacher, and two edifying biographies—one for children, one for adults—of our first president.
Fiction The Story of Texas—Fictionalized
‘Texas’
By James A. Michener
Legendary for his geographically based fiction, Michener takes the reader far back into Texas’s history, into the mid-1500s, well before it ever became the 28th state. Follow the lives of characters who have come to symbolize Texas, from the oilman to the ranger.
The Dial Press Reprint, 2015, 1,474 pages An Endearing Look at a Great Teacher
‘Goodbye, Mr. Chips’
By James Hilton
Made into two films and twice featured on television, this 1934 novella has cast a long shadow. The beloved Mr. Chipping, teacher of classics at the fictional Brookfield School in eastern England, has attracted generations of enthusiastic readers. “Chips” marries a lovely woman who softens his classroom manner but dies during childbirth. He then develops a rapport with his students and remains a school legend even after his retirement, when he still invites “his boys” to tea in his quarters….