On Friday 20 and Saturday 21 March 2015, we will have books, magazines, CDs, DVDs and more on sale at Pioneer Recreation and Sport Centre.
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New and Recently Released!
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| The train to Crystal City by Jan Jarboe RussellA little-known episode in World War II history appears in The Train to Crystal City, which details how the U.S. incarcerated thousands of civilians in a Texas facility. Italian, Japanese, and German immigrants were sent there with their spouses and children, many of whom were U.S. citizens. Author Jan Russell portrays life in the camp, the struggles of those who were sent abroad in prisoner exchanges, and post-war expulsion of foreign nationals. This detailed work, partly based on personal interviews, provides a "necessary reminder of the dangers produced by wartime hysteria" (Booklist). |
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Everyman's castle: the story of our cottages, country houses, terraces, flats, semis and bungalows
by Philippa Lewis
An Englishman's home has always been his castle. Everyman's Castle restores people to the panorama of domestic architecture. Philippa Lewis turns an affectionate eye to the characteristic British types of house - cottages, farmhouses, semi-detached, suburban, flats, terraces, bungalows, country houses - and charts their rise and fall. How were they perceived when they were built, and what happened to them subsequently? What sorts of messages did the design of a house send about the inhabitant, from stairs up to the front door (implying servants living below) in a Victorian terrace to bay windows (implying private ownership) in the twentieth century? The book is thoroughly and beguilingly illustrated with amusing and out-of-the-way material from a wide variety of sources.
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If mayors ruled the world: dysfunctional nations, rising cities
by Benjamin R. Barber
In the face of the most perilous challenges of our time - climate change, terrorism, poverty, and trafficking of drugs, guns, and people - the nations of the world seem paralyzed. The problems are too big for governments to deal with. Benjamin Barber contends that cities, and the mayors who run them, can do and are doing a better job than nations. He cites the unique qualities cities worldwide share: pragmatism, civic trust, participation, indifference to borders and sovereignty, and a democratic penchant for networking, creativity, innovation, and cooperation. He demonstrates how city mayors, singly and jointly, are responding to transnational problems more effectively than nation-states mired in ideological infighting and sovereign rivalries.
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In Manchuria: a village called Wasteland and the transformation of rural China
by Michael J. Meyer
An author who lived for three years in China's legendary northeast territory, looks at the tremendous change most of rural China is undergoing via the story of a privately held rice company that has built new roads, introduced organic farming and constructed high-rise apartments into which farmers can move in exchange for their land rights.
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Past futures: science fiction, space travel, and postwar art of the Americas
by Sarah J. Montross
From the 1940s to the 1970s, visionary artists from across the Americas reimagined themes from science fiction and space travel. They mapped extraterrestrial terrain, created dystopian scenarios amid fears of nuclear annihilation, and ingeniously deployed scientific and technological subjects and motifs. This book offers a sumptuously illustrated exploration of how artists from the United States and Latin America visualized the future. Inspired variously by the "golden age" of science fiction, the Cold War, the space race, and counterculture, these artists expressed both optimism and pessimism about humanity's prospects.
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Focus on: Women in History
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Perfect wives in ideal homes: the story of women in the 1950s
by Victoria Nicholson
This book reconstructs the real 1950s, through the eyes of the women who lived it. In Perfect Wives in Ideal Homes, Virginia Nicholson tells the story of women in the 1950s: a time before the Pill, when divorce spelled scandal and two-piece swimsuits caused mass alarm. Turn the page back to the mid-twentieth century, and discover a world peopled by women with radiant smiles, clean pinafores and gleaming coiffures; a promised land of batch-baking, maraschino cherries and brightly hued plastic. A world where the darker side of the decade encompasses rampant prostitution, a notorious murder, and the threat of nuclear disaster.
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| A train in winter: an extraordinary story of women, friendship, and resistance... by Caroline MooreheadA Train in Winter describes the experiences of 230 French women held under brutal conditions by the Gestapo just outside Paris during World War II. Some were active in the French Resistance, but many others had been arrested for apparently insignificant gestures - or for no reason at all. Drawn primarily from personal, in-depth interviews with survivors, this book sensitively portrays women who forged unbreakable bonds of loyalty, trust, and friendship in a crucible of hate. For another powerful look at European women's experiences during this war, try the anonymously authored A Woman in Berlin or Agnes Humbert's Résistance. |
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Other women: the history of the mistress
by Fiona McDonald
Other Women tells the stories of those women who belonged to a separate part of society: in some ways invisible and socially unacceptable, but in others in positions of influence and power, comfort and even luxury. They range from the common-law marriage of Edith Swan-Neck to King Harold II, who was also legally wedded to Edith of Mercia, to the liaison between Edward VII and Alice Keppel, great-grandmother of the Duchess of Cornwall. It includes the passionate loves of great artists: Rodin, Picasso, Charles Dickens, Victor Hugo and Graham Greene, as well as many more men of arts and letters. And it is not confined to the lovers of famous men: the book also charts the history of 'ordinary' mistresses, those who did not live in luxury or wield influence. There are stories of power and politics, freedom of speech and the rise from slum to palace. But above all they are stories of love.
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| The secret history of the Mongol Queens by Jack WeatherfordIn Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World, award-winning anthropologist Jack Weatherford examined the life and legacy of the much-maligned 13th-century empire-builder. In The Secret History of the Mongol Queens, he continues his study with the polygamous and prolific leader's daughters, at least four of whom became queens and provided stability among the lands that made up the Mongol empire. Unfortunately, warring among family members resulted in a takeover by male relatives, and the record of the women's achievements was literally cut out of the Mongols' history book. Pick up this compelling account to find out what the censors omitted. |
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Contact your librarian for more great books!
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