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History and Current Events August 2019
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| Last Witnesses: An Oral History of the Children of World War II by Svetlana AlexievichWhat it is: Translated into English for the first time since its original 1985 publication, Last Witnesses collects wrenching firsthand accounts from 101 Russians who survived the horrors of World War II as children.
Is it for you? Rife with disturbing testimonies, Last Witnesses is "an excellent book but not for the faint of heart" (Kirkus Reviews).
Author alert: Belarusian journalist Svetlana Alexievich is the Nobel Prize-winning author of Voices from Chernobyl. |
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| Reckoning: The Epic Battle Against Sexual Abuse and Harassment by Linda HirshmanWhat it is: a 50-year chronicle of the ongoing fight to end sexual harassment, culminating in the rise of the #MeToo movement in 2017 and the confirmation of Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court in 2018.
Why you might like it: Lawyer Linda Hirshman pulls no punches in this illuminating and incisive history, discussing the unheralded women of color who have been crucial to the fight and the men in power who have been detrimental to it. |
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| Chaos: Charles Manson, the CIA, and the Secret History of the Sixties by Tom O'Neill with Dan PiepenbringWhat it is: a provocative rejoinder to Vincent Bugliosi's 1974 true crime classic Helter Skelter.
Read it for: Tom O'Neill and Dan Piepenbring's deep dive into alternative theories behind the Tate-LaBianca murders, including the possibility that Charles Manson was a subject in the CIA's LSD experiments.
What's inside: interviews with over 500 witnesses; redacted and never-before-seen police reports, FBI documents, and CIA files. |
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| Beneath the Tamarind Tree: A Story of Courage, Family, and the Lost Schoolgirls of Boko Haram by Isha SesayWhat it's about: Two years after Boko Haram's 2014 kidnapping of 276 Nigerian schoolgirls, CNN International correspondent Isha Sesay accompanied 21 recently freed survivors back home, developing a rapport with four of the girls and their families.
What sets it apart: Peabody Award winner Sesay draws from her own childhood in Sierra Leone to provide an empathetic and richly contextualized portrait of contemporary West African gender politics. |
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| When Women Ruled the World: Six Queens of Egypt by Kara CooneyWhat it is: a sweeping yet accessible survey of six queens who ruled in times of crisis throughout ancient Egypt's 3,000 year history.
Starring: "big three" queens Cleopatra, Nefertiti, and Hatshepsut, as well as the little-known Merneith, Neferusobek, and Tawosret.
Reviewers say: This evocative history "will enchant those wishing to imagine what ancient Egyptian court life was like" (Publishers Weekly). |
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Apollo to the moon : a history in 50 objects
by Teasel E Muir-Harmony
What it is: highlights the participants and objects that came together to revolutionize and advance the world's capabilities for space travel, from the lunar rover to space food.
Read it for: From the lunar rover and an emergency oxygen mask to space food and moon rocks, the book illustrates an array of objects and provides back stories.
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| Rome: A History in Seven Sackings by Matthew KnealeWhat it's about: how 2,000 years of the Eternal City's history have been shaped by invading forces, from the chariot-riding Gauls in 387 B.C.E. to the Nazi occupation during WWII.
Want a taste? "The city has changed so greatly that there have been many Romes, each of which would be largely unrecognizable to Romans of other times."
Read it for: lively pacing and a suspenseful tone. |
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Three days in January : Dwight Eisenhower's final mission
by Bret Baier
What's it about: explores the Presidency of Dwight D. Eisenhower through the lens of his last three days in office in January 1961, revealing Ike to be a model of strong yet principled leadership that is desperately missing in America today.
About the author: Baier is Fox News Channel's chief political anchor and the host of Special Report with Bret Baier.
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Five days in November
by Clint Hill
What it is: Secret Service Agent Hill recounts his memories of those five days leading up to, and after, President Kennedy's assassination in November 1963.
What sets it apart: Told movingly by a man who still wishes he could undo it all, Five Days in November is a rare and deeply personal look at the assassination of President Kennedy.
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Contact your librarian for more great books!
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