Civil War topic of local reading groups

    PRESQUE ISLE, Maine — The Civil War has had a tremendous impact on American society and that topic will be the focus of a community reading program funded by national and state grants.    The National Endowment for the Humanities, the Maine Humanities Council, and the Maine Historical Society is supporting a series of four community reading events which will be hosted by the Presque Isle Historical Society, SAD 1, Northern Maine Community College and the city of Presque Isle.
The book discussions are free and open to the public and will offer a variety of perspectives on the war and its aftermath. Books for the reading series are available at the Mark & Emily Turner Memorial Library and the Edmunds Library at NMCC.
The series began Jan. 9 with “The Mostly True Adventures of Homer P. Figg” by Rodman Philbrick.
The second book, “Soldier’s Heart: Being the Story of the Enlistment and Due Service of the Boy Charley Goddard in the First Minnesota Volunteers” by Gary Paulsen, will be discussed Wednesday, Feb. 12 at 6 p.m. in the Presque Isle Middle School library. Facilitators for this book are Bill Guerrette, eighth-grade English language arts/social studies teacher at PIMS, and Jan Grieco, instructor, Arts & Sciences Department, NMCC.
The book “This Republic of Suffering: Death and the American Civil War” by Drew Gilpin Faust, will be featured Wednesday, March 5 at 5:30 p.m. at TAMC, room to be announced. The facilitator for this discussion is Dr. Lynne Nelson-Manion, instructor, Arts & Sciences Department, NMCC.
The fourth and final book in the discussion series is “A Vast Army of Women: Maine’s Uncounted Forces in the American Civil War” by Lynda L. Sudlow. Grieco will lead this discussion Wednesday, April 9 at noon in the Edmunds Library at NMCC.
The four area partners worked together on the grant called “Local & Legendary: Maine in the Civil War.” More events funded by the grant are being planned for later this year.
For additional information, contact Gail Roy at 768-2734 or Dianna Leighton, youth librarian at the Turner library at 764-2571.