History and Current Events
November 2020
What else is NEW at the Library?
Each week we're sharing new items that we have at the Library ready to be checked out. Watch last week's here! 
 
Recent Releases
If then : how the Simulmatics Corporation invented the future
by Jill Lepore

The Pulitzer Prize-finalist author of These Truths traces the Cold War origins of today’s data-driven world to the Simulmatics Corporation, describing how its scientists mined data, targeted voters, manipulated consumers, and destabilized politics decades before the era of Silicon Valley. Illustrations. Tour.
The princess and the prophet : the secret history of magic, race, and Moorish Muslims in America
by Jacob S. Dorman

Drawing from new archives, and uncovering fascinating biographical narratives, secret Islamic rituals and hidden identities, the author shows how the circuses, dance halls and midways of the Gilded Age provided the cultural freedom that lead to the creation of the Black Muslim movement in America.
Down along with that devil's bones : a reckoning with monuments, memory, and the legacy of white supremacy
by Connor Towne O'Neill

The NPR White Lies podcast producer draws on his experiences as a white Northerner in Alabama to illuminate the inherent racism shaping ongoing debates about community-supported monuments honoring Confederate general, Nathan Bedford Forrest. 30,000 first printing.
Stakes Is High: Life After the American Dream
by Mychal Denzel Smith

What it is: an incisive collection of essays exploring the limitations and contradictions of the American Dream, from the New York Times bestselling author of Invisible Man, Got the Whole World Watching.

Is it for you? Mychal Denzel Smith's impassioned treatise offers a clear-eyed perspective on how the Trump presidency has exacerbated long-standing inequities in American society.  

The big question: "Is the potential for the American Dream worth enduring the brutality of American life?" 
Deepfakes : the coming infocalypse
by Nina Schick

"In a world of deepfakes, it will soon be impossible to tell what is real and what isn't. As advances in artificial intelligence, video creation, and online trolling continue, deepfakes pose not only a real threat to democracy -- they threaten to take voter manipulation to unprecedented new heights. This crisis of misinformation which we now face has since been dubbed the "Infocalypse." In DEEPFAKES, investigative journalist Nina Schick uses her expertise from working in the field to reveal shocking examples of deepfakery and explain the dangerous political consequences of the Infocalypse, both in terms of national security and what it means for public trust in politics. This all-too-timely book also unveils what this all means for us as individuals, howdeepfakes will be used to intimidate and to silence, for revenge and fraud, and just how truly unprepared governments and tech companies are for what's coming"
Just us : an American conversation
by Claudia Rankine

A collection of essays, poems, and images examine the power of whiteness in everyday interactions and urges readers to begin the conversation and discover what it takes to breach the silence and violence
Historical True Crime
The Third Rainbow Girl : The Long Life of a Double Murder in Appalachia
by Emma Copley Eisenberg

An investigation into the 1980 murder of two women in Pocahontas County, West Virginia, recreates the events of the tragedy, the targeting of vulnerable suspects and the history of mysterious violence that continues to overshadow the region. 60,000 first printing.
Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI
by David Grann

What it's about: In 1920s Oklahoma, a series of murders at the Osage Indian Reservation prompted an investigation by the nascent FBI led by a young J. Edgar Hoover.

Why it matters: Journalist David Grann's extensively researched National Book Award finalist spotlights a little-known slice of Native American history by illuminating the disturbing conspiracies, corruption, and prejudice at the heart of the case. 
The real Lolita : the kidnapping of Sally Horner and the novel that scandalized the world
by Sarah Weinman

A gripping true-crime investigation of the 1948 abduction of Sally Horner details the crime itself and how it inspired Vladimir Nabokov’s classic novel, Lolita. 150,000 first printing
Lady Killers: Deadly Women Throughout History
by Tori Telfer; illustrations by Dame Darcy 

What it is: a lively yet gruesome history of famous women serial killers.

Featuring: profiles of "The Blood Countess," "The Giggling Grandma," "High Priestess of the Bluebeard Clique," and more, written in a humorous and chatty tone that will appeal to fans of My Favorite Murder. 

Art alert: Detailed black and white pen-and-ink illustrations by alternative cartoonist Dame Darcy accompany each chapter.
Invisible : the forgotten story of the black woman lawyer who took down America's most powerful mobster
by Stephen L. Carter

"The best-selling author of ""The Emperor of Ocean Park"" traces the story of his grandmother, an African-American attorney who, in spite of period barriers, devised the strategy that sent mafia chieftain Lucky Luciano to prison in the 1930s."
Contact your librarian for more great books!
Bellwood Public Library
600 Bohland Avenue
Bellwood, Illinois 60104
(708)547-7393

www.bellwoodlibrary.org