| The light of days: The untold story of women resistance fighters in Hitler's ghettos by Judy BatalionWhat it's about: the courageous Jewish women resistance fighters operating in Poland during World War II.
Read it for: a propulsive and richly detailed account that's "sure to become part of the WWII canon" (Booklist).
Movie buzz: Academy Award-winning director Steven Spielberg has optioned The Light of Days for a film adaptation. |
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The Baltic story: A thousand-year history of its lands, sea and peoples
by Caroline Boggis-rolfe
The Baltic Story recounts the shared history of the countries around the Baltic, from the events of a thousand years ago to today. It shows the ties of blood and commerce that have bound the different lands which now lie in Denmark, Sweden, Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Western Russia and eastern Germany. The narrative encompasses the foundation of some of Europe's greatest cities, including St Petersburg, Stockholm, Copenhagen and Gdansk.
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Values: Building a better world for all
by Mark Carney
An economist and former banker meditates on his experiences in both the public and private sector, examining the short-comings and challenges of the market in the past decade, which has led to rampant public distrust and the need for radical change.
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Dead famous: An unexpected history of celebrity from Bronze Age to silver screen
by Greg Jenner
Celebrity strikes us as hypermodern. But the famous and infamous have been thrilling, titillating, and outraging us for much longer than we might realise. Whether it was the scandalous Lord Byron, whose poetry sent female fans into an erotic frenzy; or the cheetah-owning, coffin-sleeping, one-legged French actress Sarah Bernhardt, who launched a violent feud with her former best friend; or Edmund Kean, the dazzling Shakespearean actor whose monstrous ego and terrible alcoholism saw him nearly murdered by his own audience - the list of stars whose careers burned bright before the Age of Television is extensive and thrillingly varied. Celebrities could be heroes or villains; warriors or murderers; brilliant talents, or fraudsters with a flair for fibbing; trendsetters, wilful provocateurs, or tragic victims marketed as freaks of nature. Dead Famous is a surprising, funny, and fascinating exploration of both a bygone age and how we came to inhabit our modern, fame obsessed society.
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A brief history of Earth: Four billion years in eight chapters
by Andrew H. Knoll
An acclaimed Harvard geologist presents a narrative chronicle of the Earth’s 4.6-billion-year evolution that places the environmental crises of today’s world in a context that explains the planet’s fragile capacity to support life.
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The musical human: Ahistory of life on Earth
by Michael Spitzer
Today music fills our lives. How we have created, performed and listened to this music throughout history has defined what our species is and how we understand who we are. Yet music is an overlooked part of our origin story. The Musical Human takes us on an exhilarating journey across the ages – from Bach to BTS and back – to explore the vibrant relationship between music and the human species. With insights from a wealth of disciplines, world-leading musicologist Michael Spitzer renders a global history of music on the widest possible canvas, looking at music in our everyday lives; music in world history; and music in evolution, from insects to apes, humans to AI. Through this journey we begin to understand how music is central to the distinctly human experiences of cognition, feeling and even biology, both widening and closing the evolutionary gaps between ourselves and animals in surprising ways. The Musical Human boldly puts the case that music is the most important thing we ever did; it is a fundamental part of what makes us human.
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Restricted data: The history of nuclear secrecy in the United States
by Alex Wellerstein
The American atomic bomb was born in secrecy. From the moment scientists first conceived of its possibility to the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki and beyond, there were efforts to control the spread of nuclear information and the newly discovered scientific facts that made such powerful weapons possible. The totalizing scientific secrecy that the atomic bomb appeared to demand was new, unusual, and very nearly unprecedented. A compelling history of powerful ideas at war, it tells a story that feels distinctly American: rich, sprawling, and built on the conflict between high-minded idealism and ugly, fearful power.
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