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History and Current Events September 2021 |
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| The Girls Who Stepped Out of Line: Untold Stories of the Women Who Changed the... by Major General Mari K. EderWhat's inside: Profiles of 15 barrier-breaking women whose contributions to the Allied war effort have been largely forgotten by history, accompanied by photos and firsthand accounts of their exploits.
Featuring: Alice Marble, a Grand Slam-winning tennis champion turned spy; Marion Armstrong Frieswyck, a cartographer whose maps aided U.S. military operations. |
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| Golden Boy: A Murder Among the Manhattan Elite by John GlattHow it began: In 2015, New York City socialite Thomas Gilbert, Jr., who had battled mental health issues for years, murdered his father.
What happened next: Bestselling author John Glatt (The Family Next Door) investigated how Gilbert's struggles went largely unchecked -- and the lengths his family went to keep his disturbing behaviors a secret. |
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| Sleeper Agent: The Atomic Spy in America Who Got Away by Ann HagedornStarring: American-born Russian sleeper agent George Koval, the only Soviet spy with security clearance for the Manhattan Project.
Read it for: A fast-paced, little-known slice of espionage history, supplemented with primary sources including FBI reports. |
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| The Poison Squad: One Chemist's Single-Minded Crusade for Food Safety at the Turn... by Deborah BlumWho it's about: USDA chemist Dr. Harvey Washington Wiley, whose tireless efforts to improve food safety regulations led to the passage of the Pure Food and Drug Act of 1906.
Who it's for: Fans of Upton Sinclair's The Jungle and readers who aren't faint of heart will appreciate Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Deborah Blum's stomach-churning chronicle that reveals the disturbing food preservation practices of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. |
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| Careless People: Murder, Mayhem, and the Invention of The Great Gatsby by Sarah ChurchwellWhat it is: An evocative social history that explores how "the crime of the decade," an unsolved 1922 double homicide, may have inspired F. Scott Fitzgerald to write The Great Gatsby.
Why you might like it: Thrilling, rich in detail, and sprinkled with a hint of gossip, Careless People blends aspects of biography, history, and true crime to vividly recreate the glamorous milieu of the Roaring Twenties. |
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| Sex with Presidents: The Ins and Outs of Love and Lust in the White House by Eleanor HermanWhat it is: A gossipy history of presidential sex scandals, from Thomas Jefferson to Donald Trump.
Is it for you? Laced with racy humor and sordid anecdotes pulled from letters, memoirs, and court records, this latest from historian Eleanor Herman also examines the power dynamics of White House trysts and the relationship between political ambition and sexual misconduct. |
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| The Bettencourt Affair: The World's Richest Woman and the Scandal That Rocked Paris by Tom SanctonHow it began: In early 2000s Paris, aging L'Oréal heiress Liliane Bettencourt's longtime entanglement with artist François-Marie Banier raised the suspicions of her daughter Françoise.
What happened next: When Françoise accused Banier of elder abuse, the allegations kicked off a dramatic saga whose ripple effects would reach all the way to the office of President Nicolas Sarkozy.
Book buzz: Tom Sancton's well-researched expansion of his 2010 Vanity Fair article about the scandal was an NPR Best Book of 2017. |
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Contact your librarian for more great books!
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