|
New & Coming-Soon HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY July 2018
|
Click on a title to check availability and to log into your account to place holds online. To place holds by phone, please call us 708-366-5205. When we are open, you can also chat with us by clicking on this link to our website: www.riverforestlibrary.org.
|
|
|
Redlined : A Memoir of Race, Change, and Fractured Community in 1960s Chicago
by Linda Gartz
Set against the backdrop of the Civil Rights Movement, Redlined exposes the racist lending rules that refuse mortgages to anyone in areas with even one black resident. As blacks move deeper into Chicago's West Side during the 1960s, whites flee by the thousands. But Linda Gartz's parents, Fred and Lil choose to stay in their integrating neighborhood, overcoming previous prejudices as they meet and form friendships with their African American neighbors. The community sinks into increasing poverty and crime after two race riots destroy its once vibrant business district, but Fred and Lil continue to nurture their three apartment buildings and tenants for the next twenty years in a devastated landscape--even as their own relationship cracks and withers. After her parents' deaths, Gartz discovers long-hidden letters, diaries, documents, and photos stashed in the attic of her former home. Determined to learn what forces shattered her parents' marriage and undermined her community, she searches through the family archives and immerses herself in books on racial change in American neighborhoods. Told through the lens of Gartz's discoveries of the personal and political, Redlined delivers a riveting story of a community fractured by racial turmoil, an unraveling and conflicted marriage, a daughter's fight for sexual independence, and an up-close, intimate view of the racial and social upheavals of the 1960s
|
|
|
The Moralist : Woodrow Wilson and the World He Made
by Patricia O'Toole
An in-depth portrait of the 28th President argues that controversial decisions by the Wilson administration established unprecedented levels of American overreach in foreign affairs, examining the challenges, leadership, failures and health setbacks that shaped the Paris Peace Conference of 1919 and founded the League of Nations. By the award-winning author of When Trumpets Call
|
|
|
John McCain : American Maverick
by Elaine S. Povich
Chronicles the life of John McCain, discussing his childhood, military service, years as a prisoner of war in Vietnam, marriage, political career, and campaign for president.
|
|
|
Phoebe Apperson Hearst : A Life of Power and Politics
by Alexandra M. Nickliss
In Phoebe Apperson Hearst: A Life in Power and Politics Alexandra M. Nickliss offers the first biography of one of the Gilded Age's most prominent and powerful women. A financial manager, businesswoman, and reformer, Phoebe Apperson Hearst was one of the wealthiest and most influential women of the era and a philanthropist, almost without rival, in the San Francisco Bay Area. Hearst was born into a humble middle-class family in rural Missouri in 1842, yet she died a powerful member of society's urban elite in 1919. Most people know her as the mother of William Randolph Hearst, the famed newspaper mogul, and as the wife of George Hearst, a mining tycoon and U.S. senator. By age forty-eight, however, Hearst had come to control her husband's extravagant wealth after his death. She shepherded the fortune of the family estate until her own death, demonstrating her intelligence and skill as a financial manager. Hearst supported a number of significant urban reforms in the Bay Area, across the country, and around the world, giving much of her wealth to organizations supporting children, health reform, women's rights and well-being, higher education, municipal policy formation, progressive voluntary associations, and urban architecture and design, among other endeavors. She worked to exert her ideas and implement plans regarding the burgeoning Progressive movement and was the first female regent of the University of California, which later became one of the world's leading research institutions. Hearst held other prominent positions as the first president of the Century Club of San Francisco, first treasurer of the General Federation of Woman's Clubs, first vice president of the National Congress of Mothers, president of the Columbian Kindergarten Association, and head of the Woman's Board of the Panama-Pacific International Exposition. Phoebe Apperson Hearst tells the story of Hearst's world and examines the opportunities and challenges that she faced as she navigated local, national, and international corridors of influence, rendering a penetrating portrait of a powerful and often contradictory woman.
|
|
|
Spring
by Karl Ove Knausgaard
You don't know what air is, and yet you breathe. You don't know what sleep is, yet you sleep. You don't know what night is, yet you lie in it. You don't know what a heart is, yet your own heart beats steadily in your chest, day and night, day and night, day and night. So begins Spring, the recommencement of Knausgaard's fantastic and spellbinding literary project of assembling a personal encyclopedia of the world addressed directly to his newly born daughter. But here Knausgaard must also tell his daughter the story of what happened during the time when her mother was pregnant, and explain why he now has to attend appointments with child services. In order to keep his daughter safe, he must tell a terrible story, one which unfolds with acute psychological suspense over the course of a single day. Utterly gripping and brilliantly rendered in Knausgaard's famously sensitive, pensive, and honest style, Spring is the account of a shocking and heartbreaking familial trauma and the emotional epicenter of this singular literary series.
|
|
|
Mayor Harold Washington : Champion of Race and Reform in Chicago
by Roger Biles
Raised in a political family on Chicago's South Side, Harold Washington made history as the city's first African American mayor. His 1983 electoral triumph, fueled by overwhelming black support, represented victory over the Chicago Machine and business as usual. Yet the racially charged campaign heralded an era of bitter political divisiveness that obstructed his efforts to change city government. Roger Biles's sweeping biography provides a definitive account of Washington and his journey from the state legislature to the mayoralty. Once in City Hall, Washington confronted the back room deals, aldermanic thuggery, open corruption, and palm greasing that fueled the city's autocratic political regime. His alternative: a vision of fairness, transparency, neighborhood empowerment, and balanced economic growth at one with his emergence as a dynamic champion for African American uplift and a crusader for progressive causes. Biles charts the countless infamies of the Council Wars era and Washington's own growth through his winning of a second term--a promise of lasting reform left unfulfilled when the mayor died in 1987. Original and authoritative, Mayor Harold Washington redefines a pivotal era in Chicago's modern history.
|
|
|
American Values : Lessons I Learned from My Family
by Jr. Kennedy, Robert F.
In this powerful book that combines the best aspects of memoir and political history, the third child of Attorney General Robert Kennedy and nephew of JFK takes us on an intimate journey through his life, including watershed moments in the history of our nation.
|
|
|
So close to being the sh*t, y'all don't even know
by Retta
Parks and Recreation star Retta takes us on her not-so-meteoric rise from roaches to riches (well, rich enough that she can buy $15,000 designer handbags yet scared enough to know she's always a heartbeat away from ramen with American cheese). Throwing her hard-working Liberian parents for a loop, Retta abandons her plan to attend med school after graduating Duke University to move to Hollywood to star in her own sitcom--like her comedy heroes Lucille Ball and Roseanne. After winning Comedy Central's stand-up competition, she should be ready for prime time--but a fear of success derails her biggest dream. Whether reminiscing about her days as a contract chemist at GlaxoSmithKline, telling 'dirty' jokes to Mormons, feeling like the odd man out on Parks, fending off racist trolls on Twitter, flirting with Michael Fassbender, or expertly stalking the cast of Hamilton, or glamming it up on the set, Retta's voice is unique and refreshing.
|
|
|
Flash : the making of Weegee the Famous
by Christopher Bonanos
Arthur Fellig's ability to arrive at a crime scene just as the cops did was so uncanny that he renamed himself "Weegee," claiming that he functioned as a human Ouija board. Weegee documented better than any other photographer the crime, grit, and complex humanity of midcentury New York City. In Flash, we get a portrait not only of the man (both flawed and deeply talented, with generous appetites for publicity, women, and hot pastrami) but also of the fascinating time and place that he occupied. From self-taught immigrant kid to newshound to art-world darling to latter-day caricature--moving from the dangerous streets of New York City to the celebrity culture of Los Angeles and then to Europe for a quixotic late phase of experimental photography and filmmaking--Weegee lived a life just as worthy of documentation as the scenes he captured. With Flash, we have an unprecedented and ultimately moving view of the man now regarded as an innovator and a pioneer, an artist as well as a newsman, whose photographs are among most powerful images of urban existence ever made.
|
|
|
Ghostbuster's daughter : life with my dad, Harold Ramis
by Violet Ramis Stiel
"From the daughter of Ghostbusters star Harold Ramis comes a hilarious and heartwarming account of his life, work, and legacy. Most of us know Harold Ramis as the filmmaker and actor who brought warmth and humor to the big screen in classics like Caddyshack, Ghostbusters, National Lampoon's Vacation, Groundhog Day, and National Lampoon's Animal House. To Violet Ramis, he was best known as an amazing father, confidant, and friend. In Ghostbuster's Daughter, Violet reflects on the life and legacy of her father, providing readers with an extraordinarily candid and insightful look into the man who helped shape modern American comedy. Funny, endearing, and vulnerable, Ghostbuster's Daughter takes readers into the personal life of an American comedy icon, from his humble roots in Chicago and his ascension into Hollywood superstardom to his personal philosophies on life, love, and filmmaking. While the book serves as a comprehensive biography of her father's filmmaking career, Ghostbuster's Daughter is also an homage to their special father/daughter relationship. Violet weaves anecdotes about her father's unique and devoted parenting style among stories of her own unconventional upbringing, ultimately allowing readers to see a more vivid portrait of the man behind the camera. An incredibly personal biography as well as a charming family story for the ages, Ghostbuster's Daughter is an intimate look at one of America's preeminent comedy filmmakers"
|
|
|
Goodbye, Sweet Girl : A Story of Domestic Violence and Survival
by Kelly Sundberg
In this brave and beautiful memoir...a woman chronicles how her marriage devolved from a love story into a shocking tale of abuse--examining the tenderness and violence entwined in the relationship, why she endured years of physical and emotional pain, and how she eventually broke free.
|
|
|
My Girls
by Todd Fisher
In December 2016, the world was shaken by the sudden deaths of Carrie Fisher and her mother Debbie Reynolds, occurring less than 24 hours apart. Debbie's only remaining child, Todd Fisher, somehow retained his grace and composure under the glare of the media spotlight as he struggled with his own overwhelming grief. In My girls, Todd shares his heart and his memories of Debbie and Carrie with deeply personal stories from his earliest years to those last unfathomable days.
|
|
|
Rough Beauty : Forty Seasons of Mountain Living
by Karen Auvinen
A memoir by an award-winning poet describes her retreats to a primitive mountain cabin to write in solitude and find answers to life's big questions, describing how a fire forced her to reconcile her conflicting needs for isolation and community.
|
|
|
Somebody I Used to Know : A Memoir
by Wendy Mitchell
A memoir by a former British National Heath Service employee and single parent describes her battles with early onset Alzheimer's, the management techniques she has developed to maintain her independence, and her efforts to make sense of her shifting world.
|
|
|
Chicago on the make : power and inequality in a modern city
by Andrew J Diamond
Provides a big-picture narrative of the history of Chicago, tracing the evolution of the city’s politics, culture and economy as it developed from its rail yards, slaughterhouses, factories, tenement houses and ethnic neighborhoods into a modern, global, urban center.
|
|
|
God save Texas : A Journey into the Soul of the Lone Star State
by Lawrence Wright
The Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Looming Tower explores the history, culture and politics of Texas while challenging popular stereotypes, offering insight into how the state boasts some of the highest rates of diversity, technology exports and growth as well as the lowest tax models and government regulations
|
|
|
Gaslighting America : Why We Love It When Trump Lies to Us
by Amanda Carpenter
In Gaslighting America, Carpenter breaks down Trump's formula, showing why it's practically foolproof, playing his victims, the media, the Democrats, and the Republican fence-sitters perfectly. She traces how this tactic started with Nixon, gained traction with Bill Clinton, and exploded under Trump.
|
|
|
Letters to My Palestinian Neighbor
by Yossi Klein Halevi
Letters to My Palestinian Neighbor is one Israeli's powerful attempt to reach beyond the wall that separates Israelis and Palestinians and into the hearts of "the enemy." In a series of letters, Yossi Klein Halevi explains what motivated him to leave his native New York in his twenties and move to Israel to participate in the drama of the renewal of a Jewish homeland, which he is committed to see succeed as a morally responsible, democratic state in the Middle East.
|
|
|
Imperial twilight : the Opium War and the End of China's Last Golden Age
by Stephen R Platt
Booklist (04/01/2018): *Starred Review* Clear writing and an excellent sense of story and scene-setting mark Platt's (Autumn in the Heavenly Kingdom, 2012) compelling reexamination of the causes of the First Opium War (1839-42). While the dominant narrative portrays the conflict as inevitable, Platt's careful telling of the events leading up the war shows that it was actually more of a surprise and that both sides sought to avoid the conflict. In addition to examining the direct interactions Chinese officials had with British traders and smugglers, Platt looks beyond the events in Canton and considers both empires and the influence earlier domestic politics and struggles, including the White Lotus Rebellion and the Napoleonic Wars, had on the actions of both sides. Platt brings to life the people who drive the story, including the missionaries desperate to learn more about China and its language, the drug smugglers who made so much money they still have name recognition, the officials desperate to handle a growing crisis of widespread opium addiction, and even a pirate queen and Jane Austen's older brother. Platt's vivid and compelling major reassessment will shift our understanding of the First Opium War.
|
|
|
The Unknowns
by Patrick O'Donnell
The Tomb of the Unknown Soldier is sacred ground at Arlington National Cemetery. Originally constructed in 1921 to hold one of the thousands of unidentified American soldiers lost in World War I, it now also contains unknowns from World War II and the Korean and Vietnam Wars, and receives millions of visitors each year who pay silent tribute. Celebrated military historian and bestselling author Patrick O'Donnell illuminates the saga behind the creation of the Tomb itself and recreates the moving ceremony during which it was consecrated and the eight Body Bearers, and the sergeant who had chosen the one body to be interred, solemnly united. Brilliantly researched, vividly told, The Unknowns is a timeless tale of heeding the calls of duty and brotherhood, and humanizes the most consequential event of the twentieth century, which still casts a shadow a century later.
|
|
|
|
|
|