History and Current Events
January 2021
Recent Releases
The last days of John Lennon
by James Patterson

Published to commemorate the 40th anniversary of Lennon’s assassination and based on insider interviews, a chronicle of the iconic music artist’s final days includes coverage of his last album and the life of Mark David Chapman. 300,000 first printing.
The Killer's Shadow: The FBI's Hunt for a White Supremacist Serial Killer
by John Douglas and Mark Olshaker

What it's about: serial killer Joseph Paul Franklin's three-year crime spree, which began with a shooting at a St. Louis synagogue in 1977.

Read it for: FBI profiler John Douglas' breakneck pursuit of Franklin; the pair's confrontation once the latter was imprisoned. 

Reviewers say: "This is a must read for those looking for insight into the minds of those instigating racial violence today" (Publishers Weekly). 
Fevers, Feuds, and Diamonds: Ebola and the Ravages of History
by Paul Farmer

What it is: medical anthropologist and Partners in Health cofounder Paul Farmer's chronicle of the 2014 Ebola outbreak in West Africa.

What's inside: a disturbing (and often gruesome) firsthand account of a public health crisis spurred by government neglect, bureaucracy, resource exploitation, and colonialism.

Featuring: heartrending testimonies from Ebola survivors and first responders; an epilogue detailing Farmer's work combatting COVID-19.  
Bag Man: The Wild Crimes, Audacious Cover-Up, and Spectacular Downfall of a Brazen...
by Rachel Maddow and Michael Yarvitz

Starring: disgraced vice president Spiro Agnew, who resigned in 1973 after he was caught committing tax fraud and running a bribery and extortion ring in his office. 

Why you might like it: This well-researched examination of a lesser-known political scandal, which happened concurrently (but unrelatedly) with Watergate, offers striking parallels to current events.

Media buzz: Bag Man is an engaging expansion of the authors' podcast of the same name, which was nominated for a Peabody Award in 2018. 
The Nine Lives of Pakistan: Dispatches from a Precarious State
by Declan Walsh

What it is: an incisive debut exploring the tumult of modern Pakistan, written by Guardian and New York Times journalist Declan Walsh, who spent nearly a decade living and reporting in the country.

What sets it apart: Walsh's profiles of nine individuals (the titular "nine lives") whose experiences offer illuminating perspectives on Pakistan's ongoing ails.

Reviewers say: "This masterfully reported account deserves a wide readership" (Publishers Weekly). 
Graphic Histories
March. Book one
by John Lewis

A first-hand account of the author's lifelong struggle for civil and human rights spans his youth in rural Alabama, his life-changing meeting with Martin Luther King, Jr., and the birth of the Nashville Student Movement
Tetris: The Games People Play
by Box Brown

What it is: the complicated origin story of Tetris, "the game that escaped the USSR" in 1984 after its Russian creator smuggled it out of Moscow. 

Why you might like it: Bestselling author and illustrator Box Brown (Andre the Giant: Life and Legend) presents the tale in a whimsical and engaging narrative.

Art alert: Straightforward illustrations feature hard edges and minimal coloring meant to evoke the visuals of the game's earliest iterations.
The complete Persepolis
by Marjane Satrapi

Collects a groundbreaking two-part graphic memoir, in which the great-granddaughter of Iran's last emperor and the daughter of ardent Marxists describes growing up in Tehran, a country plagued by political upheaval and vast contradictions between public and private life. Original. 50,000 first printing.
A really short history of nearly everything
by Bill Bryson

Tackling everything from the Big Bang to the rise of civilization, a best-selling author's inimitable storytelling skill makes the why, how, and who of scientific discovery entertaining and accessible for young readers.
Trinity : a graphic history of the first atomic bomb
by Jonathan Fetter-Vorm

An evocative account of the race to construct and decision to drop the first atomic bomb traces its early research, it rapid acceleration and the heated debates it inspired, sharing vivid explanations of the process of a nuclear chain reaction and profiles of forefront Manhattan Project contributors.
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