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History and Current Events January 2019
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| An Unexplained Death: The True Story of a Body at the Belvedere by Mikita BrottmanWhat it's about: In 2006, newlywed Rey O. Rivera was found dead in a locked office in Baltimore's historic Belvedere building. The police ruled his death a suicide, but his loved ones cried foul play.
What happened next: Psychoanalyst and Belvedere resident Mikita Brottman began an obsessive decade-long investigation into the incident...and unearthed a possible conspiracy.
Why you might like it: This page-turning true crime account is both creepy and compelling. |
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| The War Before the War: Fugitive Slaves and the Struggle for America's Soul... by Andrew DelbancoWhat it's about: This sweeping and accessible chronicle reveals how the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 ultimately drove the United States to war, forcing a divided America to confront the myth of benevolent slavery and its own hypocrisy as a newly "free" country.
Want a taste? "Even free black people in the North -- including those who had never been enslaved -- found their lives infused with terror of being seized and deported." |
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| American Overdose: The Opioid Tragedy in Three Acts by Chris McGrealWhat it is: a compassionate, deftly researched examination of the medical establishment and pharmaceutical industry's culpability in America's staggering opioid crisis.
About the author: Guardian reporter Chris McGreal pulls no punches in his urgent and incisive debut.
Did you know? In 1908, physician Hamilton Wright, the United States' first opium commissioner, described Americans as "the greatest drug fiends in the world." |
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| Beyond the Call: Three Women on the Front Lines in Afghanistan by Eileen RiversWhat it is: a riveting chronicle of the U.S. military's Female Engagement Teams (FET), deployed in Afghanistan to build relationships with Afghani women whose cultural traditions prohibited them from interacting with male soldiers.
What sets it apart: USA Today editor Eileen Rivers imbues this gripping narrative with welcome perspectives on the otherwise male-dominated field of combat, including insights on her own military service. |
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| The Victorian City: Everyday Life in Dickens' London by Judith FlandersWhat it's about: Offering striking imagery and a strong sense of place, this colorful social history vividly recreates the London that Charles Dickens occupied: squalid, overpopulated, pungent, and loud.
Read it for: Judith Flanders' insights on how the rapidly transforming London informed Dickens' work (including how the meaning of the word "Dickensian" changed over time).
Reviewers say: "This is a superb portrait of an exciting, thriving, and dangerous city" (Booklist). |
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| How to Be a Victorian: A Dawn-to-Dusk Guide to Victorian Life by Ruth GoodmanWhat it's about: historian and BBC presenter Ruth Goodman's charming and lighthearted efforts to recreate Victorian daily routines.
Living history: Goodman brushed her teeth with soot, laundered clothes by hand, performed 19th-century calisthenics, ate pigs feet and suet pudding, and mastered wearing a corset.
Don't miss: Goodman making condoms out of sheep's guts. |
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| The Wicked Boy: An Infamous Murder in Victorian London by Kate SummerscaleWhat it is: a surprising "whydunit" that doggedly investigates the case of Nattie and Robert Coombes, who were charged with the 1895 murder of their mother when they were only 12 and 13 years old.
Book buzz: The Wicked Boy won the 2017 Edgar Allan Poe Award for Best Fact Crime Book.
Reviewers say: "a tragedy that reads like a Dickens novel, including the remarkable payoff at the end" (Publishers Weekly). |
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Mrs. Robinson's Disgrace: The Private Diary of a Victorian Lady
by Kate Summerscale
What it is: In Mrs. Robinson's Disgrace, popular historian Kate Summerscale delves into Victorian society's dirty little secrets. Legal divorce was made available to England's common citizens for the first time in 1858. The same year, Henry Robinson sued for divorce after finding a secret diary in which his wife, Isabella, had allegedly penned erotic musings about her doctor. feather thief
And then: Isabella dared to counter-sue, presenting the court with (among other evidence of marital neglect) Henry's two illegitimate children as evidence of his adultery.
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The Feather Thief: Beauty, Obsession, and the Natural History Heist of the Century
by Kirk Wallace Johnson
What 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).
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Contact your librarian for more great books!
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Forsyth County Public Library 585 Dahlonega Street Cumming, Georgia 30040 770-781-9840www.forsythpl.org/ |
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