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History and Current Events April 2021
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Hoopla Digital
We are excited to announce the availability of thousands of movies, television shows, music albums, and audiobooks, all available for mobile and online access through Hoopla Digital; all you need is a valid library card!
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| We Own This City: A True Story of Crime, Cops, and Corruption by Justin FentonWhat it's about: the Gun Trace Task Force (GTTF), a corrupt Baltimore police department unit created in 2007 that targeted the city's Black population, committed robberies, planted evidence, and much more.
About the author: Baltimore Sun reporter and Pulitzer Prize finalist Justin Fenton covered the city's 2015 protests in the aftermath of Freddie Gray's death in police custody.
Who it's for: Fans of TV's The Wire will be captivated by this fast-paced and sobering true-crime chronicle. |
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| Guilty Admissions: The Bribes, Favors, and Phonies Behind the College Cheating Scandal by Nicole LaPorteWhat it is: a gossipy exposé of Operation Varsity Blues, the 2019 college admissions scandal that resulted in the arrest of actresses Felicity Huffman and Lori Laughlin.
Read it for: a well-researched indictment of the toxic (and systemic) competition among the wealthy and privileged.
Try this next: Unacceptable: Privilege, Deceit & the Making of the College Admissions Scandal by Melissa Korn and Jennifer Levitz. |
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| The Daughters of Kobani: A Story of Rebellion, Courage, and Justice by Gayle Tzemach LemmonWhat it's about: the Kurdish Women's Protection Units (YPJ), an all-female militia established in 2013 to combat the Islamic State in Syria.
Don't miss: a pulse-pounding account of the Siege of Kobani; profiles of four YPJ fighters instrumental in retaking the city.
Reviewers say: "A well-told story of contemporary female warriors and the complex geopolitical realities behind their battles" (Kirkus Reviews). |
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| The Ravine: A Family, a Photograph, a Holocaust Massacre Revealed by Wendy LowerHow it began: In 2009, historian Wendy Lower saw a World War II-era photograph capturing the execution of a Ukrainian Jewish family.
What happened next: Lower spent years researching the photograph's origins and the identities of the victims, perpetrators, and photographer, constructing a compelling narrative of what happened that day.
Further reading: For another heartwrenching investigation of the atrocities committed against Ukrainian Jews during the Holocaust, check out Esther Safran Foer's memoir I Want You to Know We're Still Here. |
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| The Enlightenment: The Pursuit of Happiness, 1680-1790 by Ritchie RobertsonWhat it is: a sweeping chronicle of the Enlightenment, the reason-based intellectual movement popularized in 17th- and 18th-century Europe that shaped contemporary Western values.
What sets it apart: Oxford professor Ritchie Robertson's well-researched revisionist history debunks common misconceptions about the "Age of Reason," including the belief that Enlightenment thinkers were dispassionate and irreligious. |
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What the F : what swearing reveals about our language, our brains, and ourselves
by Benjamin K Bergen
"Smart as hell and funny as fuck, this book explains why we can't stop swearing and what it tells us about our language and brains. Everyone swears. Only the rare individual can avoid ever letting slip an expletive. And yet, we ban the words from television and insist that polite people excise them from their vocabularies. That's a fucking shame. Not only is swearing colorful, fun, and often powerfully apt, as linguist and cognitive scientist Benjamin K. Bergen shows us, the study of it can provide a newwindow onto how our brains process language. How can patients left otherwise speechless after a stroke still shout out "Goddamn!"? Why did Pope Francis say "fuck" in the middle of a speech? When did a cock cease to be a rooster? Why is "crap" vulgar when"poo" is just childish? And what are we shooting when we give someone the bird? What the F? Let me effing tell you"--Provided by publisher
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How language began : the story of humanity's greatest invention
by Daniel Leonard Everett
A pioneering linguist upends widely held beliefs about acquisition and use of language by debunking theories on a wide range of disciplines and through citing examples from his four decades of field work with Amazonian hunter-gatherers.
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Babel: Around the World in Twenty Languages
by Gaston Dorren
What it is: a brisk and upbeat survey of the world's 20 most widely spoken languages that explores how languages evolve and endure.
What's inside: Concise chapters discuss the selected languages in ascending order by number of speakers and feature charts detailing the tongues' notable hallmarks and idiosyncrasies.
Did you know? The modern Turkish language is incomprehensible from the Turkish of a hundred years ago; Japanese has separate dialects for men and women.
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| A World Without "Whom": The Essential Guide to Language in the Buzzfeed Age by Emmy J. Favillatl;dr: This witty and irreverent guide to webspeak was written by Buzzfeed copy chief and style guide creator Emmy J. Favilla.
YMMV: A World Without "Whom" offers a lighthearted ode to rule-breaking in language usage and includes quizzes, style debates, and official Buzzfeed word lists for the United States and United Kingdom.
BTW: "This is the rare style manual that is as entertaining as it is instructive" (Publishers Weekly). |
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Contact your librarian for more great books!
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