This column was submitted by Evangeline Cessna, Warren County-Vicksburg Public Library Local History Librarian. This week’s column features new nonfiction titles from the library’s ebook collection on the RBdigital app. Remember, you may access this and other digital resources by going to the catalog page at https://wcvpl.biblionix.com and scrolling down the left side of the page.

Carrie Underwood has penned a fitness and nutrition book called Find Your Path. According to the Country Music superstar, “I want to be healthy and fit 52 weeks of the year, but that doesn’t mean I have to be perfect every day.” Her philosophy is a year-round common-sense approach to health and fitness that involves doing your best most of the time. By that, she does not mean being naughty for three days and good for four. What she refers to is doing your absolute best most of the time every week, 52 weeks of the year so that when you do cheat (on occasion) you will not derail your progress. Fitness is a lifelong journey and Carrie reminds us that she was not born with the toned arms and strong legs that fans know her for. Based on her own active lifestyle, diet, and workouts, this book is packed with meal plans, recipes, weekly workout programs, and guidelines for keeping a weekly food and exercise journal. Carrie says it is all about healthy choices and simple meals that you can put together from the ingredients from your local grocery, and making the time, every day, to move, to love your body, and to be the best version of yourself.

The Way I Heard It by Mike Rowe is based upon the executive producer and host’s favorite episodes of his short-form podcast of the same name. He also includes personal memories, ruminations, and insights from his years of experience. Mike presents thirty-five mysteries “for the curious mind with a short attention span.” Everyone has a true-ish tale about someone you know, filled with facts that you don’t. There are movie stars, presidents, bloody do-gooders, and villains waiting to shake your hand and hoping you will remember them. Delivered with Mike’s signature blend of charm, wit, and ingenuity, all these stories are part of a larger mosaic full of surprising revelations, sharp observations, and intimate behind-the-scenes moments from his own remarkable life and career.

On Desperate Ground: The Marines at The Reservoir, The Korean War’s Greatest Battle by Hampton Sides tells the war story of the Marines who fought to break free of the frozen hell near the Chosin Reservoir on October 15, 1950. General Douglas MacArthur convinced President Harry Truman that the Communist forces of Kim Il-sung would be utterly defeated by Thanksgiving. MacArthur was convinced that the Chinese would not interfere, but as he was convincing Truman, Communist China was secretly moving 300,000 soldiers across the Manchurian border. The 20,000 men of the First Marine Division moved deep into the snowy mountains of North Korea near the frozen shores of the Chosin Reservoir. Faced with probable annihilation, and temperatures plunging to 20 degrees below zero, the surrounded and hugely outnumbered Marines fought through the enemy forces with ferocity, ingenuity, and unimaginable courage as they marched their way to the sea. Using archival research, unpublished letters, declassified documents, and interviews with scores of Marines and Koreans who survived the siege, Sides delivers a powerful portrayal of what ordinary men are capable of in the most extreme circumstances.

Touched by the Sun: My Friendship with Jackie is a new portrait of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis by her longtime friend Carly Simon. Carly was a free and artistic spirit still reeling from her recent divorce, searching for meaning, new love, and an anchor. Jackie was one of the most celebrated, meticulous, and unknowable icons in American history. After a chance encounter at a summer party on Martha’s Vineyard blossomed into an unlikely but enduring friendship, their lives merged in unexplainable and complex ways as they forged a deeper connection than anyone could have foreseen. Carly gives the reader an intimate and poignant look at an unlikely friendship—from sneaking a smoke during intermission at the opera to frolicking in the ocean off the Vineyard.

Mobituaries: Great Lives Worth Reliving from CBS Sunday Morning correspondent and humorist Mo Rocca is an entertaining and rigorously researched book that celebrates the dead people who have long fascinated him. Rocca has long loved reading obituaries about the remarkable lives of global leaders, Hollywood heavyweights, and innovators who changed the world. But he realized that not every notable life has gotten the send-off it deserves. For instance, before Herbert Hoover was president, he was the “Great Humanitarian,” the man who saved tens of millions from starvation, but after less than a year in the White House, the stock market crashed, and all the good he had done seemed to be forgotten. Then there’s Marlene Dietrich who is remembered as a screen goddess, but few know that she risked her life to help defeat the Nazis of her native Germany during World War II. You will also read about dead sports teams, dead countries, the late station wagon, and dragons. Yes, dragons. Rocca is an expert researcher and funny storyteller.