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History and Current Events April 2018
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| The Cadaver King and the Country Dentist: A True Story of Injustice in the American South by Radley Balko and Tucker Carrington What it is: a deeply searing exposé detailing how a Mississippi medical examiner and a forensic dentist successfully gamed the criminal justice system to falsely imprison two innocent men.
Why you should read it: The Cadaver King and the Country Dentist is timely in its examination of how professional misconduct, junk science, structural racism, and broken institutions deny justice to American citizens. |
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| Jefferson's Daughters: Three Sisters, White and Black, in a Young America by Catherine KerrisonWhat it is: a finely detailed portrait of Thomas Jefferson's daughters and the tumultuous times in which they lived.
Reviewers say: "Incisive and elegant, Kerrison's book is at once a fabulous family story and a stellar work of historical scholarship" (Publishers Weekly).
You might also like: Virginia Scharff's The Women Jefferson Loved, which explores how Jefferson was shaped by the women in his life. |
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| The Wizard and the Prophet: Two Remarkable Scientists and Their Dueling Visions to... by Charles C. MannWhat it's about: In this dual biography, award-winning author Charles C. Mann explores how scientists Norman Borlaug and William Vogt's contributions to -- and opposing views of -- modern environmentalism reflect the challenges of maintaining a viable future.
Why you should read it: Mann's stimulating account reveals the achievements of these overlooked contemporaries, masterfully examining both viewpoints without taking sides. |
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No Turning Back: Life, Loss, and Hope in Wartime Syria
by Rania Abouzeid
What it's about: An award-winning journalist chronicles the tragedy of the Syrian War through the dramatic stories of four young people, including a creator of online video protests, a father who hides his radical beliefs, an unlikely poet commander in a Free Syrian Army militia and a child who opened her family's door to a military raid that forced her father to flee.
Further reading: We Crossed a Bridge and it Trembled: Voices from Syria by Wendy Pearlman.
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The Pug Who Bit Napoleon : Animal Tales of the 18th and 19th Centuries
by Mimi Matthews
Featuring: Fortune, the Pug who bit Napoleon on his wedding night, and Looty, the Pekingese sleeve dog who was presented to Queen Victoria after the 1860 sacking of the Summer Palace in Peking. The four-legged friends of Lord Byron, Emily Brontë, and Prince Albert also make an appearance, as do the treasured pets of Alexander Pope, Samuel Johnson, and Charles Dickens.
More information: Less famous, but no less fascinating, are the animals that were the subject of historical lawsuits, scandals, and public curiosity. There's Tuppy, the purloined pet donkey; Biddy, the regimental chicken; and Barnaby and Burgho, the bloodhounds hired to hunt Jack the Ripper. Wild animals also get a mention in tales that encompass everything from field mice and foxes to alligators and sharks lurking in the Thames.
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Focus on: The Holocaust and Resistance |
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| Why? Explaining the Holocaust by Peter HayesWhat it's about: Historian Peter Hayes expertly synthesizes the circumstances that led to the Holocaust, utilizing numerous historical sources to dispel common misconceptions surrounding the atrocity.
What's inside: topical, rather than chronological, chapters, framed by complex and frequently asked questions about the Holocaust.
What sets it apart: Why? is the result of over three decades of research and presents a refreshing take on an exhaustively analyzed subject. |
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| The Cost of Courage by Charles KaiserWhat it is: a nerve-wracking, remarkably rendered portrait of the Boulloche family, Parisian Catholics who bravely fought in the French Resistance during World War II.
About the author: Charles Kaiser, a former New York Times and Wall Street Journal reporter, is the first author with whom the Boulloche family has collaborated to share their astounding story.
Further reading: Stephen Grady's memoir Gardens of Stone, which recounts his boyhood in the French Resistance.
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Born Survivors: Three Young Mothers and Their Extraordinary Story of Courage...
by Wendy Holden
What it's about: In 1944, three women in the early stages of pregnancy were separated from their husbands and incarcerated in the Auschwitz death camp. All three managed to conceal their pregnancies from the Nazis, and their children were born just before the Allied liberation of the concentration camps.
Why you should read it: In this remarkable account, author Wendy Holden draws from interviews, letters, and other documents to chronicle the women's lives before 1939, their arduous struggles in the slave-labor camp, and their ultimate triumph, thanks in part to secretly kind prison guards and other strangers.
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| Black Earth: The Holocaust as History and Warning by Timothy SnyderWhat it's about: In this provocative analysis of the lessons to be learned from the Holocaust, historian Timothy Snyder argues that the weakening of national states opens up the possibility of history repeating itself -- and for genocides like the Holocaust to happen again.
Who it's for: Readers familiar with Holocaust history and discourse.
Further reading: Snyder's critically acclaimed Bloodlands, to which Black Earth serves as a companion volume. |
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The Choice : Embrace the Possible
by Edith Eva Eger
What it is: A dual memoir and practical guide to healing by an eminent psychologist and Holocaust survivor counsels patients on how to escape the prisons of their own minds, describing her harrowing experiences in Auschwitz and how it gave her particular insights into the challenges of PTSD.
About the Author: An eminent psychologist and one of the few remaining Holocaust survivors old enough to remember life in the camps, Dr. Edith Eger has worked with veterans, military personnel, and victims of physical and mental trauma. She lives in La Jolla. The Choice is her first book.
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Contact your librarian for more great books!
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