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History and Current Events May 2023 |
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| Humanly Possible: Seven Hundred Years of Humanist Freethinking, Inquiry, and Hope by Sarah BakewellWhat it is: a sweeping and thought-provoking history that chronicles the evolution of humanism and spotlights its notable thinkers.
Author alert: National Book Critics Circle Award winner Sarah Bakewell is the author of How to Live and At the Existential Café.
Reviewers say: "Even those who already consider themselves humanists will be enlightened" (Publishers Weekly). |
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| The Long Reckoning: A Story of War, Peace, and Redemption in Vietnam by George BlackWhat it's about: how a dedicated group of American, Canadian, and Vietnamese scientists, activists, and veterans fought to make the United States government acknowledge its responsibility for the ongoing devastation wrought by the Vietnam War.
Why you might like it: Published to coincide with the 50th anniversary of the Paris Peace Accords, this moving account explores themes of trauma, reconciliation, and healing. |
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| Poverty, by America by Matthew DesmondWhat it is: Pulitzer Prize-winning Evicted author and sociologist Matthew Desmond's incisive look at why America has more poverty than any other country in the developed world.
Topics include: affluent Americans' complicity in perpetuating poverty; the racial wealth gap; solutions for how to ameliorate poverty.
Try this next: Bootstrapped: Liberating Ourselves from the American Dream by Alissa Quart. |
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| A Fever in the Heartland: The Ku Klux Klan's Plot to Take Over America, and the Woman... by Timothy EganWhat it's about: In 1920s Indiana, Ku Klux Klan leader and presidential hopeful D.C. Stephenson exerted a terrifying control over the state and local governments -- until he kidnapped, raped, and murdered his one-time employee, a young woman named Madge Oberholtzer.
What happened next: Oberholtzer's courageous deathbed testimony led to Stephenson's murder conviction and effectively ended Klan influence in Indiana politics. |
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| Walk the Walk: How Three Police Chiefs Defied the Odds and Changed Cop Culture by Neil GrossWhat it's about: how three police departments in Stockton, CA, Longmont, CO, and LaGrange, GA implemented institutional reforms by replacing aggressive policies with ones that prioritize community building, racial justice, and de-escalation.
Author alert: Colby College sociologist Neil Gross is a former Berkeley, CA police officer.
Read it for: a hopeful look at how to address ongoing issues of police brutality. |
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| Emotional Labor: The Invisible Work Shaping Our Lives and How to Claim Our Power by Rose HackmanWhat it's about: how gendered expectations of managing emotions for the benefit of others burden and exploit women, particularly women of color.
Why you might like it: This inspiring call to action challenges readers to acknowledge and celebrate the undervalued work women perform in their personal and professional lives.
Further reading: Fair Play: A Game-Changing Solution for When You Have Too Much to Do (and More Life to Live) by Eve Rodsky. |
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| Ghosts of the Orphanage: A Story of Mysterious Deaths, a Conspiracy of Silence, and a Search... by Christine KenneallyWhat it is: a sobering exposé spotlighting how children in orphanages throughout North America, Europe, and Australia in the 19th and 20th centuries were subjected to horrific abuse and murder.
What's inside: firsthand accounts, court transcripts, and other documents that illuminate long-buried secrets.
Reviewers say: "A powerful work of sociological investigation and literary journalism" (Kirkus Reviews). |
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The Dirty Tricks Department: Stanley Lovell, the OSS, and the Masterminds of World War II...
by John Lisle
Who it's about: The OSS Research and Development Branch, a secret group of scientists who invented deadly items, forged documents and performed truth drug experiments during World War II.
Reviewers say: "Espionage buffs will be enthralled" (Publishers Weekly) by this "page-turning account of the scientists, inventors, and eccentrics of the OSS in a critical period of conflict" (Kirkus Reviews).
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| Seventy Times Seven: A True Story of Murder and Mercy by Alex MarWhat it's about: In 1985 Gary, IN, four Black teenage girls stabbed 78-year-old white woman Ruth Pelke to death in her home. Fifteen-year-old Paula Cooper was the only one sentenced to death for the crime, becoming the youngest woman ever sentenced to death row.
What happened next: The case attracted global attention, with appeals made by Pelke's grandson and Pope John Paul II to not execute Cooper.
Read it for: a powerful story of advocacy, justice, and reconciliation. |
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Contact your librarian for more great books!
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