In The Time of Our Lives: A Conversation About America; Who We Are, Where We’ve Been, and Where We Need to Go Now, to Recapture the American Dream (973.92 BRO), author and broadcast journalist Tom Brokaw discusses America’s past, present, and future. Brokaw addresses themes familiar to readers of his other works, e.g., that the United States is an immigrant nation, that Americans need to learn more science and math to compete, and that Americans also need to embrace thriftier habits and volunteer for public service. He harkens back continually to the values instilled in him growing up in South Dakota in the ‘50s. He includes telling vignettes about people who have coped with deprivation and adversity to achieve great things. Each chapter sounds a nostalgic theme: "Stepping Up and Signing Up" or "Balancing the Book of Life" to assert how best to tap into the themes that made America great. This conversation starter is an upbeat message from a veteran journalist. Time of Our Lives was purchased with monies from the Irene Jacobs Memorial Fund.

Added to our collection of music CD’s is a five disc set entitled Beethoven Collection (CD 784.2 BEE), which includes Symphonies Numbers 1- 9 with the Hungarian Philharmonic Orchestra. This collection of orchestral music is a gift from a Gloria Dei member.

Two remastered DVD’s were also added to the collection in December: A Charlie Brown Christmas and The Lion King.