Today, "Friends" is remembered as an icon of ’90s comedy and the Must See TV years. But when the series debuted in 1994, no one anticipated the sensation it would become. From the first wave of "Friends" mania to the backlash and renaissance that followed, the show maintained an uncanny connection to its audience, who saw it both as a reflection of their own lives and an aspirational escape from reality. "I’ll Be There for You" is a deep dive into "Friends" history and lore, exploring all aspects of the show, from its unlikely origins to the societal conditions that amplified its success.

Combine Minnesota Immigration stories with Norwegians and I'm ready to read! Signe and her family get their passage paid by Uncle Einar to come help him on his farm in the tall pine country. When they arrive, they discover that this is going to be a big challenge to do! Uncle Einer is not an easy person to work for. Cutting down trees is HARD work, and putting food on the table is too, in 1910, over a wood stove.

Victorian operating theatres were known as 'gateways of death', since half of those who underwent surgery didn't survive the experience. This was an era when a broken leg could lead to amputation, and surgeons were still known to ransack cemeteries to find cadavers. And in squalid, overcrowded hospitals, doctors remained baffled by the persistent infections that kept mortality rates stubbornly high. At a time when surgery couldn't have been more dangerous, an unlikely figure stepped forward- Joseph Lister, a young Quaker surgeon. By making the audacious claim that germs were the source of all infection - and could be treated with antiseptics - he changed the history of medicine forever.

Smith takes us on a pilgrimage, traveling with 5 Gold Star mothers to visit the graves of their boys in France after WWI. Smith helps us see war from various perspectives, beyond the obvious tragedy of death. We find hope and a continuance of life in honoring those we have lost.

Kevin Wilson has proven himself to be a good writer since his debut novel “The Family Fang” published in 2011. This book of short stories does not disappoint. The characters in his stories are people that you swear you know or have at least observed. His story telling ability is remarkable. You know exactly why his characters do what they do because he does such a great job of setting the stage for either what you would have guessed is coming or something totally unexpected. I highly recommend his books.

In the past decade, Hollywood has endured a cataclysm on a par with the end of silent film and the demise of the studio system. Stars and directors have seen their power dwindle, while writers and producers lift their best techniques from TV, comic books, and the toy biz. The future of Hollywood is being written by powerful corporate brands like Marvel, Amazon, Netflix, and Lego, as well as censors in China. Ben Fritz chronicles this dramatic shakeup with unmatched skill, bringing equal fluency to both the financial and entertainment aspects of Hollywood. He dives deeply into the fruits of the Sony hack to show how the previous model, long a creative and commercial success, lost its way. And he looks ahead through interviews with dozens of key players at Disney, Marvel, Netflix, Amazon, Imax, and others to discover how they have reinvented the business. He shows us, for instance, how Marvel replaced stars with “universes,” and how Disney remade itself in Apple’s image and reaped enormous profits. But despite the destruction of the studios’ traditional playbook, Fritz argues that these seismic shifts signal the dawn of a new heyday for film. The Big Picture shows the first glimmers of this new golden age through the eyes of the creative mavericks who are defining what our movies will look like in the new era.

It's World War II and there is a German Prison Camp near Clear Lake, IA. With most of the able-bodied men off to war, Lorraine's dad needs help on the farm, and hires some of the prisoners to do it. Lorraine loves to dance at the famous "Surf Club ." One of her dad's German prisoners plays a mean saxophone sometimes for the bands. Sparks click and romance blooms, despite the differences in language, culture and of course WWII!

In the late 1800s lived Lizzie Magie, a clever and charismatic woman with a strong sense of justice. Waves of urban migration drew Lizzie’s attention to rising financial inequality. One day she had an idea: create a game that shows the unfairness of the landlord-tenant relationship. But game players seemed to have the most fun pretending to be wealthy landowners. Enter Charles Darrow, a marketer and salesman with a vision for transforming Lizzie’s game into an exciting staple of American family entertainment.

The unnamed narrator in this bold new novel is in search of a reawakening. In her eyes, only sleep, countless hours of it, can enact a desperately needed reset of her life. With the aid of an ethically questionable psychiatrist and an abudance of black out inducing medication, her sleeping quest begins.

My fifth grader has been begging me to read this depiction of a family separated overnight by the construction of the Berlin Wall. Told from the view point of the youngest daughter, 12 year old Gerta, she takes us to a place in history where your own ideas and criticism of your government is a risky life or death venture. Gripping until the end, this is on my must read list for any upper elementary and older to appreciate their own intellectual freedoms and learn about a not too distant event in world history.