History & Biography
November 2023 
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BIOGRAPHY
Romney : A Reckoning
by McKay Coppins

Drawing on interviews with Romney himself and his inner circle as well as his personal journals, this rare glimpse into the life of the politician who in recent years has been at the center of our nation's most defining political dramas. 
The woman In Me
by Britney Spears

The noted pop star offers a moving story about freedom, fame, motherhood, survival, faith, and hope.
The Life and Times of Hannah Crafts : the true story of The Bondwoman's Narrative
by Gregg A. Hecimovich

Part detective story, literary chase and cultural history, this extraordinary biography of the first Black female novelist and her life as an enslaved woman uncovers friendship, betrayal and violence during America's slide into Civil War. 
My Name is Barbra
by Barbra Streisand

In her own words, the living legend tells the story of her life and extraordinary career, from growing up in Brooklyn to her first star-making appearances in NY nightclubs to her breakout performance in Funny Girl to the long string of successes in every medium in the years that followed. 
World Within a Song : music that changed my life and life that changed my music
by Jeff Tweedy

The founding member and leader of the Grammy Award-winning American rock band Wilco shares the 50-plus songs that changed his life, in this inspirational book about why we listen to music, why we love songs and how music can connect us to each other and to ourselves. 
How to Say Babylon : a memoir
by Safiya Sinclair

This stunning story of the author's struggle to break free of her strict Rastafarian upbringing ruled by a father whose rigid beliefs, rage and paranoia led to violence shows how found her own power and provides a unique glimpse into a rarefied world we know little about.
HISTORY
Prequel : an American fight against Fascism
by Rachel Maddow

A noted MSNBC anchor traces the fight to preserve American democracy back to World War II, when a handful of committed public servants and brave private citizens thwarted far-right plotters trying to steer our nation toward an alliance with the Nazis.
The Lumumba Plot : the secret history of the CIA and a Cold War assassination
by Stuart A. Reid

Reading like a Cold War spy thriller, this engrossing work of history recounts the U.S.-sanctioned plot in 1960 to assassinate Patrice Lumumba, the leader of the newly independent Congo, to forestall the spread of communism in Africa, which represented the opening chapter of a long horror story. 
Founding Partisans : Hamilton, Madison, Jefferson, Adams and the brawling birth of American politics
by H. W. Brands

A best-selling historian examines the birth of the United States, revealing the vicious political divisions among the founders who fought with one another with competing visions of what the nation should be.
Emperor of Rome : ruling the ancient Roman world
by Mary Beard

The best-selling author of The Fires of Vesuvius presents a comprehensive history of the social and political world of the Roman emperors including Julius Caesar, Nero, Alexander Severus, Caligula and Marcus Aurelius. 
Klan War : Ulysses S. Grant and the battle to save Reconstruction
by Fergus M. Bordewich

In this bold and bracing record of America's past, a celebrated historian transports us to the front lines of President Grant's war on the Ku Klux Klan, reviving an unsung generation of grassroots Black leaders and key figures, while discussing the present-day battles to stamp out resurgent white supremacist ideologies.
Muddy Ground : Native Peoples, Chicago's Portage, and the Transformation of a Continent
by John William Nelson

The author charts the many peoples that traversed and sought power along Chicago's portage paths from the seventeenth to the mid-nineteenth centuries.  Nelson compellingly demonstrates that even deep within the interior, power relations fluctuated based on the control of waterways and local environmental knowledge.
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