Book signings: June 2009 Archives

By BETH VRABEL
For the Daily Record/Sunday News

If the Civil War conjures images of debonair soldiers in dashing uniforms and with unbreakable principles, "Seen the Glory" (Simon & Schuster, $25) might just dash those dreams.

The soldiers in former York countian John Hough Jr.'s meticulously researched historical novel leave all romantic notions of the war behind. They march for days on end without bathing. They eat a scarce, rotting diet of salted pork and wormy hardtack. They face as much danger from disease and bacteria as they do on the battlefield. Most have, at best, an eighth-grade education and a muddied idea of the war's motivation.

A new book by Patrick Radden Keefe, "The Snakehead: An Epic Tale of the Chinatown Underworld and the American Dream," highlights York in the campaign to secure human rights for hundreds of Chinese dissidents seeking political asylum.
Keefe is the first to write a book on the politics, international intrigue and human drama of the refugees of the Golden Venture.
Keefe will speak and sign books from 2 to 4 p.m. Aug. 2 at the York Historical Society Museum, 250 E. Market St., York. Several of the Golden Venture immigrants, political insiders, and members of The People of the Golden Vision will also speak.