History and Current Events
September 2025
Recent Releases
Tonight in Jungleland: The Making of Born to Run
by Peter Ames Carlin

Published to commemorate the 50th anniversary of Bruce Springsteen's iconic 1975 album Born to Run, journalist and biographer Peter Ames Carlin's evocative and richly detailed account offers a behind-the-scenes look into the making of the album, featuring interviews with Springsteen and key colleagues. Try this next: Deliver Me from Nowhere: The Making of Bruce Springsteen's Nebraska by Warren Zanes.
A Flower Traveled in My Blood: The Incredible True Story of the Grandmothers Who Fought to Find a Stolen Generation of Children
by Haley Cohen Gilliland

Yale Journalism Initiative director Haley Cohen Gilliland’s compelling debut spotlights the Argentinian grandmothers who founded the Abuelas de Plaza de Mayo in 1977 and stood up to their government’s military dictatorship to help locate their kidnapped grandchildren. Further reading: The Disappeared by Rebecca J. Sanford, a historical fiction novel about the Abuelas de Plaza de Mayo.
King of Kings: The Iranian Revolution: A Story of Hubris, Delusion and Catastrophic Miscalculation
by Scott Anderson

In his thought-provoking and unputdownable latest, journalist and New York Times bestselling author Scott Anderson (The Quiet Americans) chronicles the 1979 Iranian Revolution, which saw the rise of Ayatollah Khomeini and ushered in an era of religious nationalism that continues to this day. Further reading: The Fall of Heaven: The Pahlavis and the Final Days of Imperial Iran by Andrew Scott Cooper.
Monopoly X: How Top-Secret World War II Operations Used the Game of Monopoly to Help Allied POWs Escape, Conceal Spies, and Send Secret Codes
by Philip E. Orbanes

Board game designer and author Philip E. Orbanes’ (Tortured Cardboard) cinematic World War II history details the lesser-known story of how Allied military intelligence concealed tools, money, and fake identification cards in Monopoly game pieces to help servicemen escape from German prisoner-of-war camps. Try this next: Rings of Fire: How an Unlikely Team of Scientists, Ex-Cons, Women, and Native Americans Helped Win World War II by Larry J. Hughes.
The Sleep Room: A Sadistic Psychiatrist and the Women Who Survived Him
by Jon Stock

Journalist and spy novelist Jon Stock's disturbing true crime book utilizes medical records and firsthand accounts to detail the sinister exploits of revered British psychiatrist William Sargent (1907-1988), who preyed on his women patients by inducing comas without their consent at London’s Royal Waterloo Hospital. Try this next: The Case of the Murderous Dr. Cream: The Hunt for a Victorian Era Serial Killer by Dean Jobb.
The Boys in the Light: An Extraordinary World War II Story of Survival, Faith, and Brotherhood
by Nina Willner

Nina Willner's (Forty Autumns) moving tale of survival and resilience chronicles her German Jewish father’s daring escape from Auschwitz in 1944, when he and Mike, his best friend and fellow escapee, encountered American soldiers who adopted them into their company. For fans of: The Escape Artist: The Man Who Broke Out of Auschwitz to Warn the World by Jonathan Freedland.
Contact your librarian for more great books!