Aloha, lady blue by Charley Memminger

Dante's wood: a Mark Angelotti novel by Lynne Raimondo

Good man Friday by Barbara Hambly

The guilty one by Lisa Ballantyne

What darkness brings: a Sebastian St. Cyr mystery by C. S. Harris

President Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation on January 1, 1863. It declared "that all persons held as slaves" within the rebellious states "are, and henceforward shall be free." Every advance of Union troops into the Confederacy expanded former slaves' freedom. Additionally, the Proclamation allowed black men into the military, and by the end of the Civil War almost 200,000 black soldiers and sailors had joined and fought for the Union cause.

Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation: the end of slavery in America by Allen C. Guelzo

Abraham Lincoln and the road to emancipation, 1861-1865 by William K. Klingaman

Steven Spielberg's highly anticipated new film Lincoln opens on November 9. Starring Daniel Day-Lewis as our 16th president, and Sally Field as Mary Todd Lincoln, it is inspired by Doris Kearns Goodwin's 2005 book Team of Rivals: the political genius of Abraham Lincoln. The film focuses on Lincoln's final few months in office, specifically his tireless efforts to get the 13th Amendment to the Constitution (abolishing slavery) passed. Other historical figures portrayed in the movie are the abolitionist congressman from Pennsylvania, Thaddeus Stevens (portrayed by Tommy Lee Jones), and Secretary of State William Henry Seward (David Straithairn). The library's biography and history collections are full of great reads to help you get acquainted with one of our greatest presidents and one of the most tumultuous periods of American history.

1493: uncovering the new world Columbus created by Charles C. Mann

Almost president: the men who lost the race but changed the nation by Scott Farris

Hedy's folly: the life and breakthrough inventions of Hedy Lamarr, the most beautiful woman in the world by Richard Rhodes

The swerve: how the world became modern by Stephen Greenblatt

Why America failed: the roots of imperial decline by Morris Berman