New and Recently Released!
|
|
| The Burning Shore: How Hitler's U-Boats Brought World War II to America by Edward OffleySoon after the U.S. formally entered World War II in December, 1941, German submarines began attacking American ships near the Atlantic Coast. American forces were inadequately trained and equipped to defend against submarines, and the U-boats strangled the American lifeline to Britain. On July 7, 1942, the destruction of the most effective German submarine, U-701, brought their marauding to an end. In The Burning Shore, military historian Edward Offley details the Germans' strategies, the American efforts to stop them, and the final, dramatic confrontation between an Army Air Force plane and U-701, creating a stirring depiction of this brief period for anyone interested in World War II or naval history. |
|
|
The Lawn Road Flats : Spies, Writers and Artists
by David Burke
The Isokon building, Lawn Road Flats, in Belsize Park on Hampstead's lower slopes, is a remarkable building as it was the first modernist building in Britain to use reinforced concrete in domestic architecture. But the building was as remarkable for those who took up residence there as for the application of revolutionary building techniques. There were 32 Flats in all, and they became a haunt of some of the most prominent Soviet agents working against Britain in the 1930s and 40s, However, it wasn't only spies who were attracted to the Lawn Road Flats, the Bauhaus exiles Walter Gropius, Laszlo Moholy-Nagy and Marcel Breuer; the pre-historian V. Gordon Childe; and the poet (and Bletchley Park intelligence officer) Charles Brasch all made their way there. A number of British artists, sculptors and writers were also drawn to the Flats, among them the sculptor and painter Henry Moore; the novelist Nicholas Monsarrat; and the crime writer Agatha Christie, who wrote her only spy novel 'N or M? in the Flats'.
|
|
|
After freedom : the rise of the post-apartheid generation in democratic South Africa
by Katherine S. Newman
Anyone interested in the progress of the 'new' South Africa 20 years into its multiracial democracy need look no further than After Freedom—a powerful, well-researched, and thoroughly readable book. Newman and De Lannoy include hard demographic and economic data but it is their sustained and deeply personal interviews which prove both fascinating and discomforting.
|
|
|
Requisitioned : The British Country House in the Second World War
by John Martin Robinson
Requisitioned analyses twenty houses around Britain, who endured a number of varying wartime roles - whether they be hospitals, storage areas, troops billets, headquarters for senior staff, or seats of foreign governments in exile. Supported with a wealth of wartime imagery, as well as personal collections from those that resided in the houses, this is a welcome tribute to the country houses that were requisitioned by Churchill's government to serve their country.
|
|
|
The Vagenda: A Zero Tolerance Guide to the Media
by Holly Baxter
As students, Rhiannon Lucy Cosslett and Holly Baxter spent a lot of time laughing at magazine pieces entitled things like '50 Sex Tips to Please Your Man' (particularly the ones that encouraged bringing baked goods into the bedroom). They laughed at the ridiculous 'circles of shame' detailing minor weight fluctuations of female celebs, or the shocking presence of armpit hair. But when they stopped laughing, they started to feel a bit uneasy. Was this relentless hum about vajazzles and fat removal just daft - at worst a bit patronising - or was something more disturbing going on? Was it time to say no? They thought so. So they launched The Vagenda blog in 2012, and now they have written this laugh-out-loud book.
|
|
|
Paris at the end of the world : the city of light during the Great War, 1914-1918
by John Baxter
During World War I, the terrifying sounds of the nearby front could be heard from inside the French capital and yet in its darkest hour, the City of Light blazed more brightly than ever. Its taxis shuttled troops to the front; its great railway stations received reinforcements from across the world; its grand museums and cathedrals housed the wounded; and the Eiffel Tower hummed at all hours, relaying messages to and from the trenches. At night, Parisians lived with urgency and without inhibition, the rich hosted parties and artists such as Pablo Picasso achieved new creative heights.The war brought a wave of foreigners to the city, including Ernest Hemingway and Baxter's own grandfather, Archie, whose diaries he uses to reconstruct a soldier's-eye view of the war years.Uncovering a thrilling chapter in Paris's history, John Baxter's revelatory new book shows how this extraordinary period was essential in forging the spirit of the city we love today.
|
|
| Tears of the Desert: A Memoir of Survival in Darfur by Halima Bashir with Damien LewisRaised in a loving, supportive family in southern Sudan before becoming a physician, Halima Bashir lived a stable, middle-class life despite Arab Sudanese discrimination against her as a black African. Her relatively ordinary existence in Darfur ended, however, when civil war broke out and Arab-led Janjaweed forces brought destruction and death to the region. After surviving the general devastation and her own rape and torture, Bashir fled to Britain, where she struggled to convince Westerners that the strife in her homeland was a real emergency. Tears of the Desert is a "vehement cri de coeur" (Publishers Weekly) that chronicles her peaceful childhood and youth and the terror inflicted by the Janjaweed. |
|
| The House at Sugar Beach: In Search of a Lost African Childhood by Helene CooperIn The House at Sugar Beach, diplomatic and political correspondent Helene Cooper evokes the soul of Liberia and details its terrible devastation led by rebel leader Samuel K. Doe. When Doe accomplished a coup against Liberia's elite leadership, "American Liberian" families like Cooper's suffered injury, rape, and death. The Coopers fled to the U.S., leaving behind a foster child, Eunice, and establishing a new life for themselves. Journalist Cooper avoided reporting on Liberia -- until she realized she had to return there to revisit her childhood home and try to find Eunice. "Elegant and eloquent," says Kirkus Reviews. |
|
| The Fear: Robert Mugabe and the Martyrdom of Zimbabwe by Peter GodwinAfter living for many years as an expatriate, white Zimbabwe native Peter Godwin returned after President Robert Mugabe had been voted out of power, only to find that Mugabe had launched a brutal campaign to retain control of the country and repress political opposition. Though much of what Godwin reports in this memoir depicts suffering, economic devastation, and forced land redistribution, he also describes Zimbabweans' courageous efforts to stand up for democracy and protect their homes and families. The Fear is often bleak and grim, but it also testifies to the resilience of human character. "A difficult but essential read," observes Library Journal. |
|
| Dead Aid: Why Aid Is Not Working and How There Is a Better Way for Africa by Dambisa MoyoEconomist Dambisa Moyo, a native of Zambia, has analysed the effects of a half-century of direct monetary aid to African countries and found them not just inadequate, but harmful. He concludes that charitable assistance creates dependency and encourages corruption while failing to require positive improvements. Moyo proposes alternative solutions that combine business development and property law reforms to promote self-sufficiency on both small and large scales. Though some of his specific suggestions may be controversial (such as replicating Chinese commercial investment strategies), his thought-provoking analysis will be of interest to anyone looking for new approaches to chronic problems. |
|
| A Thousand Sisters: My Journey of Hope into the Worst Place on Earth To Be a Woman by Lisa ShannonEmotionally numbed after her father's death from cancer, photographer Lisa Shannon saw a report on Oprah that pulled her out of her depression and propelled her to find a way to help Congolese women. She formed a fund-raising organization called Run for Congo Women that raises money through races across the U.S., and she went to Congo to visit beneficiaries of her programme. Shannon was nearly overwhelmed by the terrible conditions she found and the enthusiastically grateful responses from the women she met. Though A Thousand Sisters depicts alarming situations that may seem insoluble, it also offers hope through Shannon's programme and others like it. |
|
Contact your librarian for more great books!
|
|
|