|
History and Current Events June 2018
|
|
|
|
| Not That Bad: Dispatches from Rape Culture by Roxane Gay (editor) What it is: a searing collection of new and previously published first-person accounts written by a diverse group of sexual assault survivors.
Featuring: essays written by actors Ally Sheedy and Gabrielle Union and writers Amy Jo Burns, Lyz Lenz, and Claire Schwartz.
Further reading: Kate Harding's meticulously researched Asking For It, which offers suggestions for how society can combat sexual violence and rape culture. |
|
| The Feather Thief: Beauty, Obsession, and the Natural History Heist of the Century by Kirk Wallace JohnsonWhat it's about: In June 2009, American student Edwin Rist stole 299 rare bird skins from Hertfordshire, England's Natural History Museum, removing their feathers to sell to fly-fishing enthusiasts.
Don't miss: This astonishing true crime caper features an unexpected twist worthy of a courtroom drama.
Reviewers say: "Johnson's flair for telling an engrossing story is, like the beautiful birds he describes, exquisite" (Kirkus Reviews). |
|
| Beneath a Ruthless Sun: A True Story of Violence, Race, and Justice Lost and Found by Gilbert KingWhat it's about: In 1957, mentally impaired teenager Jesse Daniels was falsely accused of raping a prominent woman in Okahumpka, Florida. His commitment to a mental hospital without a trial spawned a 20-year investigation into police corruption, privilege, and racism.
About the author: Gilbert King is the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Devil in the Grove, which recounts Thurgood Marshall's 1951 civil rights case about the wrongful accusations of rape leveraged against four black men. |
|
|
The space barons : Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk, and the quest to colonize the cosmos
by Christian Davenport
Traces the historic quest to rekindle the human exploration and colonization of space as navigated by today's leading billionaire entrepreneurs, sharing insights into how professional rivalry and Silicon Valley innovations are dramatically lowering the cost of space travel and exceeding the achievements of NASA.
|
|
|
Hunting the 1918 Flu : One Scientist's Search for a Killer Virus
by Kirsty E. Duncan
In 1918 the Spanish flu epidemic swept the world and killed an estimated 20 to 40 million people in just one year, more than the number that died during the four years of the First World War. To this day medical science has been at a loss to explain the Spanish flu's origin. Most virologists are convinced that sooner or later a similarly deadly flu virus will return with a vengeance; thus anything we can learn from the 1918 flu may save lives in a new epidemic.
|
|
|
The great influenza : the epic story of the deadliest plague in history
by John M. Barry
An in-depth account of the deadly influenza epidemic of 1918, a plague that took the lives of millions of people around the world, examines the causes of the pandemic, its devastating impact on early twentieth-century society, the researchers who risked their lives to confront the disease, and the lasting implications of the crisis and the scientific discoveries that resulted.
|
|
|
No time to lose : a life in pursuit of deadly viruses
by Peter Piot
A microbiologist describes his adventure-filled career, discussing his time spent in Central Africa in the 1970s identifying the Ebola virus and his work there again in the 1980s as part of the area's first international AIDS efforts..
|
|
| Pandemic: Tracking Contagions, From Cholera to Ebola and Beyond by Sonia ShahWhat it is: a grim yet absorbing exploration of global pandemics' origins and the modern pathogens that may trigger future outbreaks.
Author alert: Sonia Shah is the author of The Fever, a global history of malaria.
Reviewers say: "Shah is back and in rare form. And this time it's personal" (Booklist). |
|
Contact your librarian for more great books!
|
|
|
|
|
|