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History and Current Events December 2025 |
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| The Great Contradiction: The Tragic Side of the American Founding by Joseph J. EllisPulitzer Prize-winning historian Joseph J. Ellis follows up The Cause: The American Revolution and Its Discontents, 1773-1783 with an incisive exploration of how America's Founding Fathers were complicit in slavery and Indigenous dispossession despite their calls for universal freedom. Further reading: Liberty Is Sweet: The Hidden History of the American Revolution by Woody Holton. |
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The American Revolution and the Fate of the World
by Richard Bell
Historian Richard Bell reveals the full breadth and depth of America's founding event: the American Revolution was not only the colonies' triumphant liberation from the rule of an overbearing England, it was also a cataclysm that pulled in participants from around the globe and threw the entire world order into chaos. Repositioning the Revolution at the center of an international web, Bell's narrative ranges as far afield as India, Africa, Central America, and Australia. As his lens widens, the 'War of Independence' manifests itself as a sprawling struggle that upended the lives of millions of people on every continent and fundamentally transformed the way the world works, disrupting trade, restructuring penal systems, stirring famine, and creating the first global refugee crisis--
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| Motherland: A Feminist History of Modern Russia, from Revolution to Autocracy by Julia IoffeIn this "pensive account of a revolution betrayed" (Kirkus Reviews), Moscow-born journalist Julia Ioffe's National Book Award finalist (as of publication time) explores a century of feminist history in Russia, revealing how women's freedoms after the Russian Revolution have devolved under the regime of Vladimir Putin. Try this next: Red Valkyries: Feminist Lessons from Five Revolutionary Women by Kristen Ghodsee. |
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| We Survived the Night by Julian Brave NoiseCatBlending elements of memoir and reportage with oral storytelling traditions, Tsq̓éscen̓ First Nation filmmaker and activist Julian Brave NoiseCat spotlights contemporary Indigenous life in North America, highlighting the triumphs and travails of misrepresented communities. Try this next: Sugarcane, NoiseCat's documentary for which he became the first Indigenous American filmmaker nominated for an Academy Award; Rez Rules: My Indictment of Canada's and America's Systemic Racism Against Indigenous Peoples by Chief Clarence Louie. |
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The Women's Orchestra of Auschwitz: A Story of Survival
by Anne Sebba
THE INSTANT USA TODAY BESTSELLER Moving and powerful, this is a vivid portrait of the women who came together to form an orchestra in order to survive the horrors of Auschwitz. New York Times bestselling author of Les Parisiennes and That Woman: A Life of Wallis Simpson now examines how a disparate band of young girls struggled to overcome differences and little musical knowledge to please the often-sadistic Nazi overseers. In 1943, German SS officers in charge of Auschwitz-Birkenau ordered that an orchestra be formed among the female prisoners. Almost fifty women and girls from eleven nations were drafted into a band that would play in all weathers marching music to other inmates, forced laborers who left each morning and returned, exhausted and often broken, at the end of the day. While still living amid the harshest of circumstances, with little more than a bowl of soup to eat, they were also made to give weekly concerts for Nazi officers, and individual members were sometimes summoned to give solo performances. For almost all of the musicians chosen to take part, being in the orchestra saved their lives. But at what cost? What role could music play in a death camp? What was the effect on those women who owed their survival to their participation in a Nazi propaganda project? And how did it feel to be forced to provide solace to the perpetrators of a genocide that claimed the lives of their family and friends? In The Women's Orchestra of Auschwitz, award-winning historian Anne Sebba traces these tangled questions of deep moral complexity with sensitivity and care. From Alma Rosé, the orchestra's main conductor, niece of Gustav Mahler and a formidable pre-war celebrity violinist, to Anita Lasker-Wallfisch, its teenage cellist and last surviving member, Sebba draws on meticulous archival research and exclusive first-hand accounts to tell the full and astonishing story of the orchestra, its members, and the response of other prisoners for the first time.
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Hostage
by Eli Sharabi
On October 7, 2023, Hamas terrorists stormed Kibbutz Be'eri, shattering the peaceful life Eli Sharabi had built with his British wife, Lianne, and their teenage daughters, Noiya and Yahel. Dragged barefoot out his front door while his family watched in horror, Sharabi was plunged deep into the suffocating darkness of Gaza's tunnels. As war raged above him, he endured a grueling 491 days in captivity, all the while holding onto the hope that he would one day be reunited with his loved ones. Eli Sharabi's story is one of hunger and heartache, of physical pain, longing, loneliness and a helplessness that threatens to destroy the soul. But it is also a story of strength, of resilience, and of the human spirit's refusal to surrender. It is about the camaraderie forged in captivity, the quiet power of faith, and one man's unrelenting decision to choose life, time and time again. In the first memoir by a released Israeli hostage, and the fastest-selling book in Israel's history, Sharabi offers a searing firsthand account of survival under unimaginable conditions--starvation, isolation, physical beatings, and psychological abuse at the hands of his captors.--
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| Lost at Sea: Poverty and Paradise Collide at the Edge of America by Joe KlocJournalist Joe Kloc's compelling debut details how the anchor-outs, an impoverished Sausalito, California community living in abandoned boats, have navigated eviction, homelessness, and dehumanization in their efforts to maintain their way of life. For fans of: Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City by Matthew Desmond. |
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Disney Adults: Exploring (and Falling in Love With) a Magical Subculture
by Aj Wolfe
Disney Adults are grown-ups who derive singular, almost obsessive, joy from all things Disney. They devote countless hours and millions of dollars to Disney offerings, whether or not they have children. They're avid fans of the films, devotees of the Disney theme parks, collectors of the vast world of Disney merchandise, cosplayers who dress in clothing inspired by Disney characters. ... [This book] dives deep into a misunderstood subculture, exploring the lives and experiences of a fascinating community to better understand its devotees' unwavering passion for all things Disney, why it offends, and why it matters--
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Contact your librarian for more great books!
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New Carlisle-Olive Township Public Library
408 S. Bray St.
New Carlisle, Indiana 46552
(574) 654-3046ncpl.lib.in.us |
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