Clark Books

Folks, as long as I'm hanging around, may I use the book thread, just this once, to plug a couple of books I'm related to? (At least, I don't remember plugging them before.) Specifically, they are the words of my late mother-in-law, as told to or compiled by Mrs Webworker's older brother. I'm going to cut'n'paste from Amazon about them.

http://bit.ly/OTHFmjc (from-Ace Amazon search)
On the Home Front: My Mother's Story of Everyday American Life from Prohibition Through WW II by Mary Jo Clark as told to Jack Clark

"Jack Clark's wondrous celebration of his working-class mother and her natural gifts as a storyteller has touched me deeply.
"Hooray for Mary Jo Ryan Clark and her boy Jack." --Studs Terkel

"The book itself is a marvel of writerly restraint... Some are private moments--being 4 years old, getting shiny new shoes and remembering looking down at them as she toed circles in the sawdust on a butcher shop floor.
"Other brushes against history--news of Pearl Harbor, or the Dorchester, a World War II troop ship sunk off the coast of Greenland. It was famous for the four chaplains who gave up their life vests to other sailors, but Bill, who was dating Mary Jo's younger sister, wasn't one of the lucky survivors...
"The books strength is that it doesn't stoop to Greatest Generation mythologizing. The Clarks are real people, and Mary Jo doesn't try to make them heroes."
--Chicago Sun-Times

And we just a couple of days ago got our copy of this one.

http://bit.ly/MJC-desk (Ace-linked Amazon search)
Private Path: The Desk Calendars of Mary Jo Ryan 1937--1943 by Jack Clark, Mary Jo Ryan and Mary Jo Clark
When Mary Jo Clark died at age 90, she left behind a library that nobody knew existed. In the back of a desk drawer, and in a sealed carton, her children found seven desk calendars, chronicling the years 1937 to 1943. On thousands of three by four inch pages, Mary Jo tells the story of her young adulthood. But it's also the story of her generation, which has been dubbed 'The Greatest Generation.' Raised in the Great Depression, they came of age just in time for World War II. It's a story of faith and family, of hard work and of a hunger for education and advancement; a story of wartime separations and tragedy, and a love story too.

Thought some here might be interested. I hope those Ace-Amazon links work. If not, return to Go, do not collect $200, and roll again.