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History and Current Events July 2017
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| He Calls Me by Lightning: The Life of Caliph Washington and the Forgotten Saga... by S. Jonathan BassIn 1957 Alabama, a traffic stop ended with an African American veteran's being accused of killing a white policeman. Caliph Washington was convicted in several trials, but each conviction was overturned. Later, Governor George Wallace stayed his execution numerous times. Vividly depicting Washington's life, the questionable convictions, and the Jim Crow atmosphere surrounding the case, He Calls Me by Lighting offers an eye-opening critique of the racial disparities in American criminal justice. |
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Canadaland Guide to Canada
by Jesse Brown
Do you think of Canada as that “nice” country with free health care, majestic woodlands, and polite people? Think again. The CANADALAND Guide to Canada (Published in America) is an outrageous exposé of Canada’s secrets, scandals, and occasional awkward lapses in proper etiquette. Inside, you’ll find illustrations, maps, quizzes, and charts that answer the most pressing questions about Canadian history, politics, and culture, such as:
-Canadian cuisine and sexuality: Do they exist? -What does “sorry” actually mean? -Justin Bieber, Rob Ford, Malcolm Gladwell: Why? -What is Québec? -Should I f*** the prime minister?
This absurd guide digs up everything from buried rage to buried oil, uncovering Canada’s bizarre history and shocking present. One thing is certain: you’ll never look at a Canadian the same way again.
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Mistress of the Vatican : The True Story of Olimpia Maidalchini: the Secret Female Pope
by Eleanor Herman
Eleanor Herman, the talented author of the New York Times bestselling Sex with Kings and Sex with the Queen goes behind the sacred doors of the Catholic Church in Mistress of the Vatican, a scintillating biography of a powerful yet little-known woman whose remarkable story is ripe with secrets, sex, passion, and ambition. For almost four centuries this astonishing story of a woman’s absolute power over the Vatican has been successfully buried—until now.
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| Scars of Independence: America's Violent Birth by Holger HoockAccording to historian Holger Hoock, the American Revolution wasn't only a conflict over principles, but also a violent civil war whose legacy historians have only recently recognized. In Scars of Independence, he carefully assesses how this violence affected everyone: Patriot and Loyalist civilians, military personnel on all sides, Native Americans, and free and enslaved blacks. Hoock's balanced and accessible historical analysis includes explicit descriptions of atrocities, which may be disturbing to some readers. Library Journal calls the book "as fascinating as it is enlightening." |
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| Apollo 8: The Thrilling Story of the First Mission to the Moon by Jeffrey KlugerIn Apollo 8, acclaimed science writer Jeffrey Kluger provides a you-were-there reading experience as he recounts the preparations that culminated in the first manned flight to the moon. Drawing on his interviews with crew members Frank Borman, Jim Lovell, and Bill Anders, as well as the NASA Oral History Project and other records, Kluger enriches the personal and technical details of the mission with facets of the Cold War-era politics that spurred the race to the moon. Space flight aficionados won't want to miss Kluger's "laudable storytelling" (Publishers Weekly). |
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A Mind at Play : How Claude Shannon Invented the Information Age
by Jimmy Soni
Claude Shannon was a groundbreaking polymath, a brilliant tinkerer, and a digital pioneer. He constructed a fleet of customized unicycles and a flamethrowing trumpet, outfoxed Vegas casinos, and built juggling robots. He also wrote the seminal text of the digital revolution, which has been called “the Magna Carta of the Information Age.” His discoveries would lead contemporaries to compare him to Albert Einstein and Isaac Newton. His work anticipated by decades the world we’d be living in today—and gave mathematicians and engineers the tools to bring that world to pass. In this elegantly written, exhaustively researched biography, Jimmy Soni and Rob Goodman reveal Claude Shannon’s full story for the first time. It’s the story of a small-town Michigan boy whose career stretched from the era of room-sized computers powered by gears and string to the age of Apple. It’s the story of the origins of our digital world in the tunnels of MIT and the “idea factory” of Bell Labs, in the “scientists’ war” with Nazi Germany, and in the work of Shannon’s collaborators and rivals, thinkers like Alan Turing, John von Neumann, Vannevar Bush, and Norbert Wiener.
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Home fires : the story of the Women's Institute in the Second World War
by Julie Summers
Away from the frontlines of World War II, in towns and villages across Great Britain, ordinary women were playing a vital role in their country’s war effort. As members of the Women’s Institute, an organization with a presence in a third of Britain’s villages, they ran canteens and knitted garments for troops, collected tons of rosehips and other herbs to replace medicines that couldn’t be imported, and advised the government on issues ranging from evacuee housing to children’s health to postwar reconstruction. But they are best known for making jam: from produce they grew on every available scrap of land, they produced twelve million pounds of jam and preserves to feed a hungry nation. Home Fires, Julie Summers’s fascinating social history of the Women’s Institute during the war (when its members included the future Queen Elizabeth II along with her mother and grandmother), provides the remarkable and inspiring true story behind the upcoming PBS Masterpiece series that will be sure to delight fans of Call the Midwifeand Foyle’s War.
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| The Art of the Con: The Most Notorious Fakes, Frauds, and Forgeries in the Art World by Anthony M. AmoreConfidence scams, forgeries, and theft plague the world of art, costing museums and legitimate private owners millions of dollars. In The Art of the Con, security expert Anthony Amore (head of security at Boston's Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum) explores instances of art fraud and theft, details specific methods, and examines the mindset of certain victims. Fans of both art history and true crime accounts will be enthralled and may want to follow up with Robert Wittman's Priceless or Ulrich Boser's The Gardner Heist. |
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The Man in the Rockefeller Suit : The Astonishing Rise and Spectacular Fall of a Serial Impostor
by Mark Seal
The story of Clark Rockefeller is a stranger-than-fiction twist on the classic American success story of the self-made man, because Clark Rockefeller was totally made up. The career con man who convincingly passed himself off as Rockefeller was born in a small village in Germany. At seventeen, obsessed with getting to America, he flew into the country on dubious student visa documents. Over the next thirty years, boldly assuming a series of false identities, he moved up the social ladder through exclusive enclaves on both coasts, culminating in a twelve-year marriage to a rising star businesswoman with a Harvard MBA. The imposter charmed his way into exclusive clubs and financial institutions, working on Wall Street, showing off an extraordinary art collection, until his marriage ended and he was arrested for kidnapping his daughter, which exposed his past of astounding deceptions as well as a connection to the bizarre disappearance of a California couple in the mid-1980s.
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| Anatomy of Injustice: A Murder Case Gone Wrong by Raymond BonnerIn Anatomy of Injustice, Pultizer Prize-winning journalist Raymond Bonner chronicles the murder conviction and appeals of an African American handyman in Greenwood, SC. After Edward Lee Elmore was convicted of killing an elderly widow, death penalty appeals specialists tried to show that the investigation was negligent and Elmore's trial representation was ineffective (among other things). However, 22 years passed before his execution was finally blocked. Bonner's powerful narration will engross those interested in the death penalty as well as true crime buffs. |
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| Future Crimes: Everything Is Connected, Everyone Is Vulnerable and What We Can... by Marc GoodmanIn this accessible discussion, cybersecurity expert Marc Goodman details the current vulnerability of convenient devices (such as baby monitors, GPS, and online calendars) and describes the near-future potential for cybercriminals or governments to paralyze our lives. Though Future Crimes includes reassuring information on minimizing Internet risks, this is a sobering report for anyone who uses Internet-connected devices. |
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| Long Mile Home: Boston Under Attack, the City's Courageous Recovery, and the Epic... by Scott Helman and Jenna RussellNear the finish line of the 2013 Boston Marathon, two improvised bombs exploded, killing three people and injuring hundreds. In this gripping account, Pulitzer Prize-winning Boston Globe reporters Scott Hellman and Jenna Russell depict the responses of those most closely involved -- marathon officials, first responders, hospital workers, the injured, and the families of those killed. They portray the hunt for the bombers and its conclusion, and they also bring to life the resilient Boston community in the subsequent weeks and months. |
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| Little Demon in the City of Light: A True Story of Murder in Belle Époque Paris by Steven LevingstonDuring the late 19th century, people wondered whether hypnotic subjects could be induced to do something contrary to their moral beliefs. In Little Demon in the City of Light, author Steven Levingston relates the case of Gabrielle Bompard, who seduced and killed a wealthy Parisian, claiming at her trial that she was innocent because she had been hypnotized. This compelling account will mesmerize 19th-century Paris enthusiasts, historical true crime aficionados, and anyone interested in early forensic science. |
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