| We'll always have Casablanca: The life, Legend, and afterlife of Hollywood's most beloved movie by Noah IsenbergThe World War II-set film Casablanca, featuring Humphrey Bogart, Ingrid Bergman, and Claude Rains, won multiple Oscars and became a perennial favourite. In this extensively researched history, film expert Noah Isenberg covers all the details, from the screenplay's source (an unproduced play titled Everybody Comes to Rick's), to casting and production, to credits, to isolationist objections and the wartime context of its release in 1942. He also adds some little-known facts, including that the cast included several refugees from the Nazi regime. Isenberg's discussion of the movie's enduring appeal will give classic film buffs much to discuss, perhaps with soft piano music in the background. |
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| The upstarts: How Uber, Airbnb, and the killer companies of the new Silicon Valley are changing the world by Brad StoneIn The Upstarts, Bloomberg News senior executive editor Brad Stone chronicles the rise of the sharing economy, built on the success of Airbnb and Uber. After the 2007-08 Wall Street slump, the business climate in Silicon Valley was ready for new strategies. Several young entrepreneurs stepped in and analysed market trends, crunched numbers, discovered niche opportunities, and capitalised on them. Though their roads were often bumpy, their global businesses are worth billions. Whether you're interested in business history or consider yourself an entrepreneur, you'll want to read Stone's detailed, accessible analysis. |
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Return to Moscow
by Tony Kevin
Forty-eight years ago, a young and apprehensive Tony Kevin set off with his family on his first diplomatic posting, to Moscow at the height of the Cold War. In the Russian winter of 2016 he returns alone, a private citizen aged 73. What will he find? How has Russia changed since those grim Soviet days? Tony Kevin had a successful and challenging diplomatic career, and he now applies his attention to Vladimir Putin's Russia, a government and nation routinely demonised and disdained in Western capitals. Why does President Putin arouse such a high level of Western antagonism? Is the West throwing away the lessons of recent history in recklessly drifting into a perilous and unnecessary new Cold War confrontation against Russia? |
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The Transatlantic Marriage Bureau: Husband hunting in the Gilded Age - How American heiresses conquered the aristocracy
by Julie Ferry
On 6 November 1895 Consuelo Vanderbilt married Charles Spencer-Churchill, 9th Duke of Marlborough. Though the preceding months had included spurned loves, unexpected deaths, scandal and illicit affairs, the wedding was the crowning moment for the unofficial marriage brokers, Lady Minnie Paget and Consuelo Yzanga, Dowager Duchess of Manchester, the original buccaneers who had instructed, cajoled and manipulated wealthy young heiresses into making the perfect match. Fame, money, power, prestige, perhaps even love - these were some of the reasons for the marriages that took place between wealthy American heiresses and the English aristocracy in 1895. For a few, the marriages were happy but for many others, the matches brought loneliness, infidelity, bankruptcy and divorce. Focusing on a single year, The Transatlantic Marriage Bureau tells the story of a group of wealthy American heiresses seeking to marry into the English aristocracy.
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The Raqqa diaries: Escape from Islamic State
by Samer
Since ISIS occupied Raqqa in eastern Syria, it has become one of the most isolated and fear-ridden cities on earth. The sale of televisions has been banned, wearing trousers the wrong length is a punishable offence, and using a mobile phone is considered an unforgivable crime. No journalists are allowed in and the penalty for speaking to the western media is death by beheading. Despite this, after several months of nervy and often interrupted conversations, the BBC was able to make contact with a small activist group, Al-Sharqiya 24. Finally, courageously, one of their members agreed to write a personal diary about his experiences. Having seen friends and relatives butchered, his community's life shattered and the local economy ruined by these hate-fuelled extremists, Samer is fighting back in the only way he can: by telling the world what is happening to his beloved city.
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Life in a jar: The Irena Sendler project
by Jack Mayer
During World War II, Irena Sendler, a Polish Catholic social worker, organised a rescue network of fellow social workers to save 2,500 Jewish children from certain death in the Warsaw ghetto. Incredibly, after the war her heroism, like that of many others, was suppressed by communist Poland and remained virtually unknown for 60 years. Unknown, that is, until three high school girls from an economically depressed, rural school district in southeast Kansas stumbled upon a tantalising reference to Sendler's rescues, which they fashioned into a history project, a play they called Life in a Jar. Their innocent drama was first seen in Kansas, then the Midwest, then New York, Los Angeles, Montreal, and finally Poland, where they elevated Irena Sendler to a national hero, championing her legacy of tolerance and respect for all people.
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How the hell did this happen?: The election of 2016
by P. J O'Rourke
The political satirist and best-selling author shares irreverent insights into the stranger-than-fiction 2016 presidential election to profile its colourful candidates, primaries, debates and related issues.
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Monarchs and Their Monarchies
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| Princes at war: The bitter battle inside Britain's royal family in the darkest days of WWII by Deborah CadburyIn 1936, England's King George V died leaving four sons whose fitness to rule was widely debated. There are numerous books and films about the abdication of Edward VIII and the accession of King George VI. Less well known are their brothers, Princes George and Henry. In Princes at War, former BBC television producer Deborah Cadbury profiles each of the princes and details the crisis the monarchy faced over Edward VIII's abdication. She explores the capabilities of the younger sons (the Dukes of Kent and Gloucester), and sensitively details George VI's commanding leadership during the war. This portrait of a conflicted monarchy will please modern history enthusiasts as well as fans of British royalty. |
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| Return of a king: The battle for Afghanistan, 1839-42 by William DalrympleThe British imperial forces restored the exiled Shah Shuja ul-Mulk to the throne of Afghanistan in 1839, but the Afghan people soon rebelled, and the British suffered a humiliating defeat in 1842. In Return of a King, travel writer William Dalrymple draws on previously unused materials, including Persian and Pashtu sources, to chronicle the history of the Shah's family and Britain's efforts to use Afghanistan as a buffer against French and Russian imperialism. He also draws parallels between this British foray into the region and the 20th- and 21st-century wars in Afghanistan. Check out this richly descriptive and insightful analysis to learn about the country's global significance. |
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King Pōtatau: An account of the life of Pōtatau Te Wherowhero, the first Māori king
by Jones, Pei Te Hurinui
This book details the background to the Kingitanga and also tells the story of the first king, Pōtatau Te Wherowhero. It details all the momentous events of Te Wherowhero's life from around 1775 to his death in 1860, including his status as Lord of the Waikato and the famous battles and conflicts with other tribes, his raising up as the first Māori King, and Mana Motuhake, the Māori Kingship, set apart as the symbol of the spiritual and cultural life of the Māori. Pei Te Hurinui's biography of King Pōtatau tells this story in a Māori voice employing waiata, poetry and whakapapa as well as prose text in English and English translations so that the book is accessible to both Māori language speakers and those with no knowledge of Māori.
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| Inside the kingdom: Kings, clerics, modernists, terrorists, and the struggle for Saudi Arabia by Robert LaceyThe Kingdom of Saudi Arabia owns one of the richest oil deposits in the world, but this wealth is only one among many social and political factors the royal family deals with. In this engaging and accessible analysis, author Robert Lacey incorporates his interviews with a variety of Saudi citizens, information about Islamic movements and history, foreign secularising influences, and Saudi-led modernisation efforts. He also looks at Saudi Arabia's shifting global political alliances. Publishers Weekly calls Inside the Kingdom "indispensable," praising the "depth, breadth, and evenhandedness" of Lacey's research. |
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Contact your librarian for more great books!
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