Reading my father: a memoir

What is it about a book that catches our attention and forces us to select it and once caught up in its magic, makes it almost impossible for us to put it down /turn it off?
For me, when reading the book Reading my Father:a Memoir by Alexandra Styron, the following ingredients were what drew me to it and kept me enslaved till the last page:
1. the authors great writing style. The apple did not fall very far from the tree with this author. (Her father and the subject of the book is William Styron.)
2. the memories of her childhood growing up around flamboyant parents who lived very full, eciting and tempestuous lives.
3. a book about one of my favorite authors, William Stryon, and one of our greatest American novelists/essayists and author of Sophie's Choice, The Confessions of Nat Turner, Lie Down in Darkness, and many more.
4. a trip though time and her father's life as she researched a major collection of his letters, unfinished manuscripts, and many more items that may have never before been read and had never been published.
           After I fnished this book it made me want to read other memoirs or biographies of authors. Hope that it has the same effect on you.

Choosing a different path

Just imagine one day you are working at a famous corporation for a famous CEO in busy Manhattan being exhausted by the fast paced life style, and then you're not. You have made the choice to give up a very lucrative job as editorial director of Martha Stewart Onmigraphics so that you can choose " a path towards things they don't necessarily pay you or pat you on the back for."
 In And I Shall Have Some Peace Here: Trading in the Fast Lane for My Own Dirt Road" , Margaret Roach shares the transformation that she underwent as she shed her corporate persona  to recreate her life living in her weekend country house upstate New York. She would immerse herself in her passion for gardening along with  learning how to accept the slower pace of life. Roach became a keen observor of the wildlife on her property and through the lessons these creatures offered, she learned to embrace change and welcomed the shedding of her old identity.
Out of her love of nature and gardening came the creation of her website, http://margaretroach.com/, that can connect one to links for the following:   In the Garden- her horticultural source for organic gardening inspiration,  Finding Peace - a place to find her thoughts about her transformation and hints for the rest of us ,  her  "corporate" link, and more.
  Check out her book and see what  you can discover even if you haven't quit your job.

Census records from 1940 released today!

Hello genealogy junkies everywhere! You might be interested in knowing details about 1940 census, but you might have to wait. Here's a link describing the crushing load that the census computers are having on the internet now... I just tried it with Ancestry Library edition which we furnish via WCCLS Genealogy links to in-house users. It still hasn't loaded yet and I clicked it more than 20 minutes ago.. By the way HeritageQuest's description does not show 1940 census yet but they may just be redoing it now.

http://openchannel.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/04/02/10972767-archives-bends-under-rush-for-1940-census-records-share-your-family-stories