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History and Current Events August 2020
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Our Time Is Now by Stacey Abrams What it is: a well-researched history of voter suppression and disenfranchisement in the United States.
Is it for you? Policy wonks and progressives looking for a hopeful rejoinder to current political discourse will be inspired by politician and voting rights activist Stacey Abrams' proposals to end suppression tactics.
Author alert: 2018 Georgia gubernatorial candidate Abrams made history in 2019 by becoming the first African American woman to deliver the response to the State of the Union address. | | Exercise of Power: American Failures, Successes, and a New Path Forward... by Robert M. Gates What it is: an incisive exploration of the uses and misuses of American power, written by former Secretary of Defense Robert M. Gates.
Topics include: the 2003 invasion of Iraq; China's rise as a global superpower; North Korea's nuclear capabilities; Russia's destabilizing influence.
Reviewers say: "a judicious yet bracingly contrarian take on military and foreign policy from the ultimate insider" (Publishers Weekly). | | The Brothers York: A Royal Tragedy by Thomas Penn What it's about: As the Wars of the Roses raged on in 15th-century Europe, three men at the center of the conflict -- House of York brothers Edward, George, and Richard -- saw their fragile unity upended by shifting alliances, greed, and paranoia.
Read it for: a dramatic and vivid narrative that reads like fiction, full of court intrigue, conspiracy plots, battles, and betrayals.
For fans of: Game of Thrones and Shakespeare's Richard III. | |
Un-American : a soldier's reckoning of our longest war
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Erik Edstrom
A West Point graduate who served in Afghanistan challenges the War on Terror, calling it not just a tragedy, but a crime, and exposes how war actually exacerbates the problems it’s meant to solve. Illustrations.
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House of Glass : the story and secrets of a twentieth-century Jewish family
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Hadley Freeman
Investigating her own family’s secret history after a shocking discovery, a writer for The Guardian newspaper in the UK reveals a broad range of experiences of Eastern European Jews during the Holocaust as she uncovers a story that spans a century, two World Wars and three generations. 50,000 first printing.
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The long fix : solving America's health care crisis with strategies that work for everyone
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Vivian S. Lee
"Health care is killing our economy and, in many cases, killing us. Beyond the outrageous expense, the quality of care varies wildly, and millions of Americans can't get care when they need it. This is bad for patients, bad for doctors, and bad for business. In The Long Fix, physician and health care CEO Vivian S. Lee, MD, cuts to the heart of the health care crisis. The problem with the way medicine is practiced, she explains, is not so much who's paying, it's what we are paying for. Insurers, employers, the government, and individuals pay for every procedure, prescription, and lab test, whether or not it makes us better-and that is both backward and dangerous. Dr. Lee proposes turning the way we receive care completely inside out. When doctors, hospitals, and pharmaceutical companies are paid to keep people healthy, care improves and costs decrease. Lee shares inspiring examples of how this has been done, from physicians' practices that prioritize preventative care, to hospitals that adapt lessons frommanufacturing plants to make them safer, to health care organizations that share online how much care costs and how well each physician is caring for patients. Using clear and compelling language, Dr. Lee paints a picture that is both realistic and optimistic. It may not be a quick fix, but her concrete action plan for reform-for employers and other payers, patients, clinicians, and policy makers-can reinvent health care, and create a less costly, more efficient, and healthier system for all"
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Death in Mud Lick: A Coal Country Fight Against the Drug Companies That Delivered...
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Eric Eyre
What it's about: how the opioid epidemic ravaged Kermit, West Virginia, a town with a population of less than 400 that distributed 12 million opioid pills over a period of three years.
Author alert: Charleston Gazette-Mail reporter Eric Eyre expands upon his Pulitzer Prize-winning coverage for this sobering investigation.
What sets it apart: Though it shares the intimate tone of Beth Macy's Dopesick, Death in Mud Lick also focuses on the specific pharmaceutical distributors complicit in Kermit's decline.
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The NRA : the unauthorized history
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Frank Smyth
A former arms-trafficking investigator for Human Rights Watch offers a complete account of America’s most powerful, most secretive and most controversial nonprofit, and argues that it has strayed far from its origins.
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Spies in the Family: An American Spymaster, His Russian Crown Jewel, and the... by Eva Dillon Who it's about: Russian double agent Dimitri Polyavok and his handler, American CIA operative Paul Dillon (the author's father), two men on opposite sides of the Cold War who nonetheless struck up a lifelong friendship.
Why you might like it: Eva Dillon's intimate and well-researched account alternates between both men's experiences and explores the surprising commonalities in their home lives and career trajectories. | | The Moscow Rules: The Secret CIA Tactics That Helped America Win the Cold War by Antonio & Jonna Mendez with Matt Baglio What it is: a fast-paced account of husband-and-wife duo Antonio and Jonna Mendez's time spent working as CIA agents in 1970s Moscow.
Don't miss: the gadgets (including a rappelling tool nicknamed "the Spiderman") and techniques (disguises, sleight of hand, and misdirection taught by magicians) the pair utilized in their spycraft.
Movie buzz: Ben Affleck portrayed Antonio Mendez in the Oscar-winning Argo. | | Burning Down the Haus: Punk Rock, Revolution, and the Fall of the Berlin Wall by Tim Mohr What it's about: the underground East German punk movement whose political activism contributed to the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989.
Featuring: 15-year-old "Major," the self-proclaimed first punk in East Germany, known for her safety pin-adorned jackets.
Awards buzz: This engaging and richly detailed history was longlisted for the 2019 Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Nonfiction. | | The Mysterious Affair at Olivetti: IBM, the CIA, and the Cold War Conspiracy to Shut Down... by Meryle Secrest What it's about: how the development of the Olivetti Programma 101, the world's first desktop computer, was stalled by American intelligence fearful of the technology's use by China and the Soviet Union.
What happened: Prior to the P101's release, two Olivetti employees who worked on the project, including company heir Adriano Olivetti, died under suspicious circumstances. Coincidence -- or cover-up?
Who it's for: Readers who don't mind a bit of speculation in their history will enjoy this intensifying tale full of bizarre twists and turns. | | Blood and Sand: Suez, Hungary, and Eisenhower's Campaign for Peace by Alex Von Tunzelmann What it's about: how two 1956 crises -- the joint invasion of Egypt by Israeli, British and French forces, and a Soviet victory in the Hungarian Revolution -- almost plunged the world into nuclear war.
Read it for: a suspenseful, hour-by-hour account of the conflicts, which happened within weeks of each other.
Reviewers say: "an outstanding reexamination of these sad, history-altering events" (Booklist). | |
Contact your librarian for more great books!
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Patchogue-Medford Library 54-60 East Main Street Patchogue, New York 11772 (631) 654-4700www.pmlib.org/ |
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