The immortal life of Henrietta Lacks

Author: Skloot, Rebecca, 1972-

Title: The immortal life of Henrietta Lacks

Published: New York: Broadway Paperbacks, 2011

Description: xiv, 381 p., plates :ill. (some col.) ; 25 cm.

Call Number: RC265.6 L24 S55 2011

Note(s): "Originally published in hardcover in slightly different form ... by Crown Publishers ... in 2010"--T.p. verso. "Reading group guide"--P. [379]-381

Subject(s):

• Lacks, Henrietta, 1920-1951--Health
• Cancer--Patients--Virginia--Biography
• African American women--History
• Human experimentation in medicine--United States--History
• HeLa cells
• Cancer--Research
• Cell culture
• Medical ethics

 Review(s):

• Sands, Jon M. "THE IMMORTAL LIFE OF HENRIETTA LACKS." Jurimetrics: The Journal Of Law, Science & Technology 51, no. 2 (Winter 2011): 131-139
• Littlefield, Melissa M., and Anne Pollock. "Review essay: Troubling with ‘the ethics of the thing’ in Culturing Life: How Cells Became Technologies and The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks." Social Studies Of Science (Sage Publications, Ltd.) 41, no. 4 (August 2011): 609-618
• Scannell, Kate. "The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks." Journal Of Legal Medicine 31, no. 4 (October 2010): 493-498

Read: November 18, 2011

Death traps: the survival of an American armored division in World War II

Author: Cooper, Belton Y.

Title: Death traps: the survival of an American armored division in World War II

Published: New York: Ballantine Books, 2003

Description: xxiv, 355 p. :ill., maps ; 23 cm.

Call Number: D793 C66 2003

Note(s): Originally published by Random House, 1998. Foreword by Stephen E. Ambrose

Summary: The survival of an American armored division in World War II is told from the point of view of an American junior officer, a member of the famous 3rd Armored Division assigned to keep the tanks in Nazi-occupied Europe on the front lines

Subject(s):

• Cooper, Belton Y.
• United States. Army--Ordnance and ordnance stores
• United States. Army--Biography
• World War, 1939-1945--Tank warfare
• World War, 1939-1945--Personal narratives, American
• Sherman tank
• Soldiers--United States--Biography

Review(s):

• Pounder, Gary. "Death Traps: The Survival of an American Armored Division in World War II (Book Review)." Aerospace Power Journal 15, no. 2 (Summer2001 2001): 112
• Burnham, Robert. "Adult Books for Young Adults: Nonfiction." School Library Journal 45, no. 4 (April 1999): 162
• "Forecasts: Nonfiction." Publishers Weekly 245, no. 37 (September 14, 1998): 59

Read: November 10, 2011

The poisoner's handbook: murder and the birth of forensic medicine in Jazz Age New York

Author: Blum, Deborah,1954-

Title: The poisoner’s handbook: murder and the birth of forensic medicine in Jazz Age New York

Published: New York: Penguin Press, 2010

Description: 319 p. ;  24 cm.

Call Number: HV6555 U62 N373 2010

Bibliography: p. 286-287

Summary: The untold story of how poison rocked Jazz Age New York City. A pair of forensic scientists began their trailblazing chemical detective work, fighting to end an era when untraceable poisons offered an easy path to the perfect crime. Chief medical examiner Charles Norris and toxicologist Alexander Gettler investigate a family mysteriously stricken bald, factory workers with crumbling bones, a diner serving poisoned pies, and many others. Each case presents a deadly new puzzle and Norris and Gettler create revolutionary experiments to tease out even the wiliest compounds from human tissue. From the vantage of their laboratory it also becomes clear that murderers aren’t the only toxic threat--modern life has created a kind of poison playground, and danger lurks around every corner

Subject(s):

• Poisoning -- New York (State) -- History
• Forensic toxicology -- New York (State) -- History
• Forensic sciences -- New York (State) -- History

Review(s):

• "The Poisoner's Handbook: Murder and the Birth of Forensic Medicine In Jazz Age New York." Publishers Weekly 257, no. 18 (May 3, 2010): 46-47
• Taylor, Gilbert. "The Poisoner's Handbook: Murder and the Birth of Forensic Medicine in Jazz Age New York." Booklist 106, no. 11 (February 2010): 12
• Collins, Paul. "How Manhattan's nicest murderers met their match." New Scientist 205, no. 2746 (February 6, 2010): 47

Read: November 6, 2011

The last mission of the Wham Bam boys: courage, tragedy, and justice in World War II

Author: Freeman, Gregory A.

Title: The last mission of the Wham Bam boys: courage, tragedy, and justice in World War II

Published: New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2011

Call Number: D757.9 R87 F74 2011

Description: x, 236 p. :ill., maps ; 25 cm.

Bibliography: p. 230-233

Subject(s):

• United States. Army Air Forces -- Airmen
• World War, 1939-1945 -- Atrocities -- Germany -- Rüsselsheim
• Lynching -- Germany -- Rüsselsheim
• World War, 1939-1945 -- Aerial operations, American
• World War, 1939-1945 -- Campaigns -- Germany
• Bombing, Aerial -- Moral and ethical aspects
• Civilians in war -- Germany -- Rüsselsheim
• Rüsselsheim (Germany) -- History -- 20th century

Review(s):

• "THE LAST MISSION OF THE WHAM BAM BOYS Courage, Tragedy, and Justice in World War II." Kirkus Reviews 79, no. 3 (February 2011): 182

Read: October 29, 2011

Paying for it: a comic-strip memoir about being a john

Author: Brown, Chester, 1960-

Title: Paying for it: a comic-strip memoir about being a john

Published: Montreal: Drawn & Quarterly, 2011

Description: viii, 280 p. :chiefly ill. ; 20 cm.

Call Number: PN6733 B76 P39 2011

Bibliography: p. 279-280

Summary: "Brown calmly lays out the facts of how he became not only a willing participant in but also a vocal proponent of one of the world's most hot-button topics--prostitution. Paying For It offers an entirely contemporary exploration of sex work--from the timid john who rides his bike to meet his escorts, wonders how to tip so as not to offend, and reads Dan Savage for advice, to the modern-day transactions complete with online reviews, seemingly willing participants, and clean apartments devoid of cliches street corners, drugs, or primps"--From publisher's web site

Subject(s):

• Brown, Chester, 1960- -- Sexual behavior -- Comic books, strips, etc
• Brown, Chester, 1960- -- Comic books, strips, etc
• Prostitution -- Canada -- Comic books, strips, etc
• Prostitutes' customers -- Canada -- Comic books, strips, etc
• Sexual ethics -- Comic books, strips, etc
• Comic books, strips, etc. -- Canada
• Prostitution -- Canada
• Sexual ethics
• Graphic novels

Review(s):

• ANNIE, SPRINKLE. "A John's Story." New York Times Book Review (July 3, 2011): 15
• Cornog, Martha. "Paying for It: A Comic-Strip Memoir About Being a John." Library Journal 136, no. 12 (July 2011): 63-64
• Flagg, Gordon. "Paying for It: A Comic-strip Memoir about Being a John." Booklist 107, no. 18 (May 15, 2011): 37

Read: October 29, 2011

The death-ray

Author: Clowes, Daniel

Title: The death-ray

Published: Montreal: Drawn & Quarterly, 2011

Description:    40 p. :chiefly col. ill. ;  32 cm.

Call Number: PN6727 C65 D42 2011

Note(s):  Originally published in Eightball #23, 2004

Summary: Andy, a miserable high-schooler in 1970s Chicago, has only one friend, an angry fellow outcast named Louie. He’s desperately in love with a girl he met in California who won’t return his letters and he’s filled with shame at the constant taunts of his classmates. When he achieves super strength from smoking cigarettes he uses it for neither good nor evil but in a brutal playground showdown

Subject(s):

• Teenagers -- Comic books, strips, etc
• Superheroes -- Comic books, strips, etc
• High schools -- Comic books, strips, etc
• Nineteen seventies -- Comic books, strips, etc
• Fantasy comic books, strips, etc
• Comic books, strips, etc
• Graphic novels

Review(s):

• Köhler, Nicholas. "THE DEATH-RAY." Maclean's 124, no. 41 (October 24, 2011): 75
• Flagg, Gordon. "The Death-Ray." Booklist 108, no. 4 (October 15, 2011): 34
• MACDONALD, HEIDI. "Classics New and Old." Publishers Weekly 258, no. 26 (June 27, 2011): 32-36

Read: October 25, 2011

And then came the liberators

Author: Jaern, Albert

Uniform Title: Og så kom befrierne. English

Title: And then came the liberators

Published: Madison: Borderland Books, 2011

Description: 102,17 p. :ill. ;  23 cm.

Call Number: D811.5 J3413 2011

Note(s): Translation of: Og så kom befrierne. First published as: Og så kom befrierne : utdrag av min dagbok gjennom 5 år. Norway: Ekko, 1945. Illustrated by the author’s own woodcuts. Translated from the Norwegian by Solveig Schavland; with an afterword by Kathleen Stokker; edited by Richard Quinney

Subject(s):

• World War, 1939-1945 -- Personal narratives, Norwegian

Review(s): Forthcoming

Read: October 15, 2011

Churchill

Author: Johnson, Paul, 1928-

Title: Churchill

Published: New York: Penguin, 2010

Description: 180 p. ; 20 cm.

Call Number: DA566.9 C5 J64 2010

Note(s): Originally published: New York: Viking, 2009

Subject(s):

• Churchill, Winston, 1874-1965
• Prime ministers -- Great Britain -- Biography
• Great Britain -- Politics and government -- 20th century

Review(s):

• Rector, Henry M. "PAUL JOHNSON'S BRIEF LIFE OF CHURCHILL." Naval War College Review 63, no. 4 (September 2010): 148-150
• Arnn, Larry P. "Young Thruster, Old Sage." Commentary 129, no. 4 (April 2010): 61-62
• Linklater, Andro. "Man of the Hour, Not the Century." American Conservative 8, no. 14 (November 2009): 48-50

Read: September 19, 2011

Extra lives: why video games matter

Author: Bissell, Tom, 1974-

Title: Extra lives: why video games matter

Published:  New York: Vintage Books, 2011

Description: xiv, 242 p. ; 21 cm.

Call Number: GV1469.3 B55 2011

Note(s): Originally published: New York: Pantheon Books, 2010. With new appendix

Subject(s):

• Video games -- History
• Video games -- Social aspects

Review(s):

• Fehrman, Craig. "Extra Lives: Why Video Games Matter." Christian Science Monitor, June 29, 2010., N.PAG
• GARNER, DWIGHT. "In Defense of Video Games: A Player's Manifesto on the Sublime Buzz." New York Times (June 23, 2010): 7
• Philips, Jen. "Extra Lives: Why Video Games Matter." Mother Jones 35, no. 3 (May 2010): 72

Read: September 11, 2011

The little stranger

Author: Waters, Sarah, 1966-

Title: The little stranger

Published: New York: Riverhead Books, 2009

Description: 512 p. ; 21 cm.

Call Number: PR6073 A828 L58 2009

Subject(s):

• Domestic fiction
• Ghost stories
• Families -- England -- Warwickshire -- Fiction
• Warwickshire (England) -- Fiction

Review(s):

• Crapo, Trish. "All-Day Reading." Women's Review Of Books 27, no. 1 (January 2010): 20-22
• Bourke, Joanna. "Sacred Hearts/Hodd/The Little Stranger." History Today 59, no. 10 (October 2009): 55
• Block, Allison. "The Little Stranger." Booklist 105, no. 22 (August 2009): 85

Read: September 8, 2011

The circuit: stories from the life of a migrant child

Author: Jiménez, Francisco,1943-

Title: The circuit: stories from the life of a migrant child

Published: Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1997

Description: x, 134 p. ; 18 cm.

Call Number: PS3560 I55 C57 1997

Subject(s):

• Mexican Americans -- California -- Social life and customs -- Fiction
• Migrant agricultural laborers -- California -- Fiction

Review(s):

• Betty Christine Eng, et al. "Part V: Guide to New Resources." Multicultural Perspectives 10, no. 3 (July 2008): 175-181
• Goldsmith, Francisca. "The Circuit: Stories from the Life of a Migrant Child." School Library Journal 47, no. 10 (October 2001): 94
• "'Your Story Is the Story of Our Family'." Writing 23, no. 5 (February 2001): 3

Read: September 2, 2011

Nickel and dimed: on (not) getting by in America

Author: Ehrenreich, Barbara

Title: Nickel and dimed: on (not) getting by in America

Published: New York: Metropolitan Books, 2001

Description: 221 p. ; 22 cm.

Call Number: HD4918 E375 2001

Subject(s):

• Minimum wage -- United States
• Unskilled labor -- United States
• Poverty -- United States

Review(s):

• Belle, Deborah. "Securing the Future: Investing in Children from Birth to College/ Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America/ The Invisible Heart: Economics and Family Values/ The Widening Gap: Why America's Working Families are in Jeopardy and What Can be Done .." Analyses Of Social Issues & Public Policy 2, no. 1 (December 2002): 279-283
• Petschauer, Peter. "Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting by in America." NWSA Journal 14, no. 2 (Summer 2002): 34
• Early, Steve. "Prole Like Me." Nation 272, no. 23 (June 11, 2001): 52-53

Read: August 29, 2011

The psychopath test: a journey through the madness industry

Author: Ronson, Jon, 1967-

Title: The psychopath test: a journey through the madness industry

Published: New York: Riverhead Books, 2011

Description: 275 p. :ill. ; 22 cm.

Call Number: HV33 R66 2011

Summary: "In this madcap journey, a bestselling journalist investigates psychopaths and the industry of doctors, scientists, and everyone else who studies them. The Psychopath Test is a fascinating journey through the minds of madness. Jon Ronson's exploration of a potential hoax being played on the world's top neurologists takes him, unexpectedly, into the heart of the madness industry. An influential psychologist who is convinced that many important CEOs and politicians are, in fact, psychopaths teaches Ronson how to spot these high-flying individuals by looking out for little telltale verbal and nonverbal clues. And so Ronson, armed with his new psychopath-spotting abilities, enters the corridors of power. He spends time with a death-squad leader institutionalized for mortgage fraud in Coxsackie, New York; a legendary CEO whose psychopathy has been speculated about in the press; and a patient in an asylum for the criminally insane who insists he's sane and certainly not a psychopath. Ronson not only solves the mystery of the hoax but also discovers, disturbingly, that sometimes the personalities at the helm of the madness industry are, with their drives and obsessions, as mad in their own way as those they study. And that relatively ordinary people are, more and more, defined by their maddest edges"-- Provided by publisher

Subject(s):

• Psychopaths

Review(s):

• PAUL, BLOOM. "I'm O.K., You're a Psychopath." New York Times Book Review (June 19, 2011): 31
• Murphy, Samantha. "The Psychopath Test: A Journey through the Madness Industry." Scientific American Mind 22, no. 3 (July 2011): 69
• "THE PSYCHOPATH TEST A Journey Through the Madness Industry." Kirkus Reviews 79, no. 9 (May 2011): 757-758

Read: August 14, 2011

The phantom father: a memoir

Author: Gifford, Barry,1946-

Title: The phantom father: a memoir

Published: New York: Harcourt Brace, 1997

Description: 257 p. : ill. ;  22 cm.

Call Number: PS3557 I25 Z47 1997

Note (s): "Some of the material was originally published in: A good man to know. Clark City Press, in 1992"--T.p. verso

Subject(s):

• Gifford, Barry, 1946- -- Homes and haunts -- Illinois -- Chicago
• Gifford, Barry, 1946- -- Childhood and youth
• Gifford, Barry, 1946- -- Family
• Winston, Rudy
• Authors, American -- 20th century -- Family relationships
• Gangsters -- Illinois -- Chicago -- Biography
• Fathers -- Illinois -- Chicago -- Biography
• Chicago (Ill.) -- Social life and customs

Review(s):

• Bonomo, Joe. "`Mystery every time': Memoirs and the search for `we'." Georgia Review 52, no. 3 (Fall 1998): 572-581
• ICHIKO, KAKUTANI. "He Remembers Papa, Or Does He Really?." New York Times, June 27, 1997., 29
• Gargan, William. "The Phantom Father: A Memoir." Library Journal 122, no. 8 (May 1997): 103-104

Read: August 11, 2011

The sojourn

Author: Krivak, Andrew

Title: The sojourn

Published: New York: Bellevue Literary Press, 2011

Description: 191 p. ; 19 cm.

Call Number: PS3561 R569 S65 2011

Summary: Uprooted from a nineteenth century mining town in Colorado by a shocking family tragedy, young Jozef Vinich returns with his father to an impoverished shepherd's life in rural Austria-Hungary. When war comes, Jozef is sent as a sharpshooter to the southern front, where he must survive the killing trenches, a perilous trek across the frozen Italian Alps, and capture by a victorious enemy

Subject(s):

• World War, 1914-1918 -- Fiction
• Soldiers -- Austria -- Fiction
• Historical fiction

Review(s):

• Chadwell, Faye A. "The Sojourn." Library Journal 136, no. 8 (May 2011): 76
• "The Sojourn." Publishers Weekly 258, no. 6 (February 7, 2011): 33-34

Read: August 9, 2011

Field gray: a Bernie Gunther novel

Author: Kerr, Philip

Title: Field gray: a Bernie Gunther novel

Published: New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons, 2011

Description: 435 p. ; 24 cm.

Call Number: PR6061 E784 F54 2011

Note(s): "A Marian Wood book."

Summary: It's 1954 and Bernie finds himself flown back to Berlin to work for the French or hang for murder. Bernie's job is simple: to meet and greet POWs returning from Germany and snag one Edgard de Boudel, a French war criminal and member of the French SS. But Bernie's past as a German POW in Russia is about to catch up with him -- in a way he could never have foreseen

Subject(s):

• Gunther, Bernhard (Fictitious character) -- Fiction
• Private investigators -- Fiction
• Mystery fiction
• Spy stories
• Historical fiction

Review(s):

• BETHUNE, BRIAN. "Midnight in the garden of evil." Maclean's 124, no. 18 (May 16, 2011): 143
• Keymer, David. "Field Gray: A Bernie Gunther Novel." Library Journal 136, no. 5 (March 15, 2011): 108-109
• "Field Gray." Publishers Weekly 258, no. 8 (February 21, 2011): 110

Read: July 22, 2011

Lying awake



Author: Salzman, Mark

Title: Lying awake

Published: New York: Vintage Books, 2001

Description: 181 p. :ill. ; 21 cm.

Call Number: PS3569 A4627 L95 2001

Note(s): California Gold: The Sacramento Valley Chapter of REFORMA Book Club (Selection)

Summary: In a Carmelite monastery outside present-day Los Angeles, Sister John of the Cross experiences visions of such dazzling power and insight that she is considered a spiritual master. But they are accompanied by powerful headaches, and when a doctor reveals they may be dangerous, she faces a devastating choice since she fears a "cure" may end her spiritual gifts

Subject(s):

• Carmelite Nuns Fiction
• Epileptics--Fiction
• Visions--Fiction
• Los Angeles (Calif.)--Fiction

Review(s):

• Burkhart, Marian. "EPILEPSY OR ECSTASY?." Commonweal 128, no. 7 (April 6, 2001): 25
• Vivian, Tim. "Lying Awake (Book Review)." Anglican Theological Review 83, no. 2 (Spring 2001): 340
• Weschler, Lawrence. "THE NOVELIST AND THE NUN." New Yorker 76, no. 29 (October 2, 2000): 74

Read: July 4, 2011

Sex on the Moon: the amazing story behind the most audacious heist in history

Author: Mezrich, Ben, 1969-

Title: Sex on the Moon: the amazing story behind the most audacious heist in history

Published: New York: Doubleday, 2011

Description 308 p. ; 25 cm.

Call Number: HV6248 R585M49 2011

Summary: In 2002, NASA fellow Thad Roberts hatched the most daring heist ever conceived: steal NASA's precious moon rocks. With the help of his girlfriend and another female cohort, both NASA interns, Roberts successfully stole the rocks. However, selling the invaluable stones proved to be Roberts' downfall

Subject(s):

• Roberts, Thad, 1977-
• Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center -- History -- 21st century
• United States. National Aeronautics and Space Administration -- Officials and employees -- Biography
• Theft -- United States -- Case studies
• Theft -- Texas -- Houston -- History -- 21st century
• Lunar petrology -- History -- 21st century
• Thieves -- Texas -- Houston -- Biography
• Scientists -- United States -- Biography
• Interns -- United States -- Biography

Review(s):

• Bob, Minzesheimer. "Ben Mezrich." USA Today, n.d.
• Pitt, David. "Sex on the Moon: The Amazing Story behind the Most Audacious Heist in History." Booklist 107, no. 19/20 (June 15, 2011): 10
• "Stealing the Moon." Publishers Weekly 258, no. 16 (April 18, 2011): 1

Read: July 1, 2011

Tamar: a novel of espionage, passion, and betrayal

Author: Peet, Mal

Title: Tamar: a novel of espionage, passion, and betrayal

Published: Cambridge: Candlewick Press, 2007

Description: 424 p. ; 23 cm.

Call Number: PZ7 P3564 T36 2007

Summary: In England in 1995, fifteen-year-old Tamar, grief-stricken by the puzzling death of her beloved grandfather, slowly begins to uncover the secrets of his life in the Dutch resistance during the last year of the Nazi occupation of the Netherlands, and the climactic events that forever cast a shadow on his life and that of his family

Subject(s):

• Grandfathers -- Fiction
• Guilt -- Fiction
• Netherlands -- History -- German occupation, 1940-1945 -- Fiction
• World War, 1939-1945 -- Underground movements -- Netherlands -- Fiction
• England -- Fiction

Review(s):

• Sutton, Roger. "Tamar." Horn Book Magazine 83, no. 2 (March 2007): 200-201
• "Tamar." Kirkus Reviews 75, no. 5 (March 2007): 9-10
• Zvirin, Stephanie. "Tamar." Booklist 103, no. 11 (February 2007): 47

Read: June 22, 2011

The odyssey: a graphic novel

Author: Hinds, Gareth,1971-

Title The odyssey: a graphic novel

Published: Somerville: Candlewick Press, 2010

Description: 248 p. :chiefly col. ill. ; 28 cm.

Call Number: PZ7.7 H56 O39 2010

Summary: Retells, in graphic novel format, Homer’s epic tale of Odysseus, the ancient Greek hero who encounters witches and other obstacles on his journey home after fighting in the Trojan War

Subject(s):

• Homer. Odyssey -- Adaptations
• Odysseus (Greek mythology) -- Comic books, strips, etc
• Heroes -- Comic books, strips, etc
• Odysseus (Greek mythology) -- Fiction
• Mythology, Greek -- Fiction
• Adventure and adventurers -- Fiction
• Heroes -- Fiction
• Graphic novels

Review(s):

• Gorman, Michele. "GETTING GRAPHIC : TALL TALES, MYTHS, AND LEGENDS." Library Media Connection 29, no. 2 (October 2010): 40

Read: June 9, 2011

The forge of God

Author: Bear, Greg, 1951-

Title: The forge of God

Published: New York: Tor, 2001

Description: 473 p. ; 22 cm.

Call Number: PS3552 E163 F67 2001

Subject(s):

• Science fiction, American

Review(s):

• J.C. "The Force of God (Book)." Library Journal 112, no. 15 (September 15, 1987): 97

Read: June 5, 2011

The glass castle: a memoir

Author: Walls, Jeannette

Title: The glass castle: a memoir

Published: New York: Scribner, 2005

Description: 288 p. ; 21 cm.

Call Number: HV 5132 W215 2005

Summary: In the tradition of Mary Karr's "The Liars' Club" and Rick Bragg's "All Over But the Shouting," Jeannette Walls has written a stunning and life-affirming memoir about surviving a willfully impoverished, eccentric and severely misguided family. The child of an alcoholic father and an eccentric artist mother discusses her family's nomadic upbringing, during which she and her siblings fended for themselves while their parents outmaneuvered bill collectors and the authorities

Subject(s):

• Walls, Jeannette
• Children of alcoholics -- United States -- Biography
• Children of alcoholics -- West Virginia -- Welch -- Biography
• Dysfunctional families -- United States -- Case studies
• Dysfunctional families -- West Virginia -- Welch -- Case studies
• Poor -- West Virginia -- Welch -- Biography
• Homeless persons -- Family relationships -- New York (State) -- New York

Review(s):

• Hockett, Jessica A. "Book Review." Gifted Child Quarterly 52, no. 3 (Summer 2008): 269-270
• Walls, Jeannette. "Truth and Consequences." Publishers Weekly 252, no. 37 (September 19, 2005): 74
• Zvirin, Stephanie. "The Glass Castle (Book)." Booklist 101, no. 11 (February 2005): 923

Read: May 27, 2011

Nowhere but here

Author: Lee, Jocelyn,1962-

Title: Nowhere but here

Published: Göttingen: Steidl, 2010

Description: 133 p. :chiefly col. ill. ; 29 cm.

Call Number: TR647 L44 2010

Note(s): "This book published on the occasion of the exhibition: Jocelyn Lee: nowhere but here, May 6-June 12, 2010, Pace/MacGill Gallery, New York"--Colophon. Foreward by Sharon Olds; afterword by Lydia Neuman

Subject(s):

• Photography, Artistic

Review(s): Forthcoming

Read: May 22, 2011

Known to evil

Author: Mosley, Walter

Title: Known to evil

Published New York: Riverhead Books, 2010

Description: 325 p. ; 24 cm.

Call Number: PS3563 O88456 K58 2010

Summary: Alfonse Rinaldo, the mysterious power-behind- the-throne at City Hall, the fixer who seems to control every little thing that happens in New York City, has a problem that even he can’t fix--and he’s come to Leonid McGill for help. It seems a young woman has disappeared, leaving murder in her wake, and it means everything to Rinaldo to track her down

Subject(s):

• Private investigators -- New York (State) -- New York -- Fiction
• Political corruption -- New York (State) -- New York -- Fiction
• New York (N.Y.) -- Fiction
• Domestic fiction
• Suspense fiction

Review(s):

• Graff, Keir. "Known to Evil." Booklist 106, no. 12 (February 15, 2010): 4
• "Known to Evil." Publishers Weekly 257, no. 4 (January 25, 2010): 100
• "KNOWN TO EVIL." Kirkus Reviews 78, no. 2 (January 15, 2010): 65

Read: April 27, 2011

Monsters of the Gevaudan: the making of a beast

 Author: Smith, Jay M.,1961-

Title: Monsters of the Gevaudan: the making of a beast

Published: Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2011

Description: 378 p. :ill. ; 25 cm.

Call Number: DC611 G4 S64 2011

Bibliography: https://monstersofthegevaudan.web.unc.edu/bibliography/

Content(s):

• Introduction: The beast and its world
• Sounding the alarm
• Monsters real and imagined
• Digesting defeat
• A star is born
• The perils of publicity
• Heroes and skeptics
• Exaggerated expectations and extraordinary endings
• Narrative echoes past and present
• Conclusion: The beast in history
• Note on place names

Subject(s):

• Gevaudan (France) -- Social life and customs -- 18th century
• Popular culture -- France -- Gevaudan -- History -- 18th century
• Beast of Gevaudan -- History
• Wolf attacks -- France -- Gevaudan -- History -- 18th century
• Wolves -- France -- Gevaudan -- Folklore
• Monsters -- France -- Gevaudan -- Folklore
• Narration (Rhetoric) -- Social aspects -- France -- History
• Discourse analysis, Narrative

Review(s):

• Zaretsky, Robert. "Monsters of the Gévaudan: The Making of a Beast." Journal Of Interdisciplinary History 42, no. 3 (Winter 2012): 459-461
• SMITH, JUSTIN E. H. "Our Animals, Ourselves." Chronicle Of Higher Education 58, no. 15 (December 2, 2011): B6-B10
• Darnton, Robert. "The Wolf Man's Revenge." New York Review Of Books 58, no. 10 (June 9, 2011): 39-41

Read: April 24, 2011

The kindly ones: a novel

Author: Littell, Jonathan, 1967-

Title: The kindly ones: a novel

Published: New York: Harper Perennial, 2010

Description: 983 p. ; 21 cm.

Call Number: PQ3939 L58 B513 2010

Note(s): Translated by Charlotte Mandell. Originally published as: Les beinveilantes. Paris: Éditons Gallimard, 2006. Winner of Prix Goncourt, 2006, Grand Prix du roman, 2006

Summary: Fictional memoir of Dr. Max Aue, a former Nazi officer who survived the war and has reinvented himself, many years later, as a middle-class entrepreneur and family man in northern France. Max is an intellectual steeped in philosophy, literature, and classical music. He is also a cold-blooded assassin and the consummate bureaucrat. Through the eyes of this cultivated yet monstrous man, we experience the horrors of the Second World War and the Nazi genocide of the Jews in graphic, disturbingly precise detail from the dark and disturbing point of view of the executioner rather than the victim. During the period from June 1941 through April 1945, Max is posted to Poland, the Ukraine, and the Caucasus; he is present at the Battle of Stalingrad, at Auschwitz and Cracow; he visits occupied Paris and lives through the chaos of the final days of the Nazi regime in Berlin. Although Max is a totally imagined character, his world is peopled by real historical figures, such as Eichmann, Himmler, Goring, Speer, Heydrich, Hoss, and Hitler himself

Subject(s):

• Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiter-Partei. Schutzstaffel -- Fiction
• Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiter-Partei. Einsatzgruppen des Sicherheitsdienstes und der Sicherheitspolizei -- Fiction
• Nazis -- Fiction
• World War, 1939-1945 -- Atrocities -- Fiction
• Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945) -- Fiction
• Bisexual men -- Germany -- Fiction
• Historical fiction

Review(s):

• LACAPRA, DOMINICK. "HISTORICAL AND LITERARY APPROACHES TO THE 'FINAL SOLUTION': SAUL FRIEDLÄNDER AND JONATHAN LITTELL." History & Theory 50, no. 1 (February 2011): 71-97
• Razinsky, Liran. "Not the Witness We Wished For: Testimony in Jonathan Littell's "Kindly Ones.." In Modern Language Quarterly, 175-196. 2010
• Theweleit, Klaus. "On the German Reaction to Jonathan Littell's Les bienveillantes." New German Critique no. 106 (Winter 2009): 21-34
• Franklin, Ruth. "NIGHT AND COG." New Republic 240, no. 5 (April 2009): 38-43
• MOYN, SAMUEL. "A Nazi Zelig." Nation 288, no. 11 (March 23, 2009): 31-34

Read: April 13, 2011

Another bullshit night in Suck City: a memoir

Author: Flynn, Nick, 1960-

Title: Another bullshit night in Suck City: a memoir

Published: New York: W.W. Norton & Co., 2005

Description: 357 p. :ill. ; 21 cm.

Call Number: PS3556 L894 Z464 2005

Subject(s):

• Flynn, Nick, 1960-Flynn, Nick, 1960---Family
• Poets, American--20th century--Biography
• Poets, American--20th century--Family relationships
• Homeless persons--Massachusetts--Boston
• Fathers and sons--Massachusetts--Boston
• Boston (Mass.)--Biography

Review(s):

• Foster, Patricia. "Sideswiped." Antioch Review 64, no. 4 (Fall 2006): 810-816
• "Fathers and Sons." Booklist 102, no. 19/20 (June 2006): 26
• Gornick, Vivian. "It's All in the Art." Poetry 186, no. 2 (May 2005): 161-164

Read: March 27, 2011

The war that killed Achilles: the true story of Homer’s Iliad and the Trojan War

Author: Alexander, Caroline,1956-

Title: The war that killed Achilles: the true story of Homer’s Iliad and the Trojan War

Published: New York: Viking, 2009

Description: xix, 296 p. :map ; 24 cm.

Call Number: PA4037 A5955 2009

Bibliography: p. 229-277

Content(s):

• Landscape of the Trojan War
• The things they carried
• Chain of command
• Terms of engagement
• Enemy lines
• Land of my fathers
• In God we trust
• Man down
• No hostages
• The death of Hektor
• Everlasting glory

Summary: Many have forgotten that the subject of the "Illiad" was war--not merely the poetical romance of the war at Troy, but war, in all its enduring devastation. This groundbreaking reading of Homer’s epic poem restores the poet’s vision of the tragedy of war, addressing many of the central questions that define the war experience of every age

Subject(s):

• Homer. Iliad
• War in literature
• Trojan War -- Literature and the war
• Achilles (Greek mythology)

Review(s):

• Cooksey, T. L. "The War That Killed Achilles: The True Story of Homer's Iliad and the Trojan War." Library Journal 134, no. 18 (November 2009): 66
• STEVE, COATES. "Where Men Won Glory." New York Times Book Review (October 18, 2009): 16
• Taylor, Gilbert. "The War That Killed Achilles: The True Story of Homer's Iliad and the Trojan War." Booklist 106, no. 3 (October 2009): 16

Read: March 25, 2011

Vietnamerica: a family's journey

Author: Tran, G. B.(Gia-Bao), 1976-

Title: Vietnamerica: a family’s journey

Published: New York: Villard Books, 2010

Description: [279] p. :chiefly col. ill. ;  24 cm.

Call Number: E184 V53 T73 2010

Summary: A memoir in graphic novel format about the author’s experiences as the son of Vietnamese immigrants who fled to America during the fall of Saigon describes how he learned his tragic ancestral history and the impact of the Vietnam War on his family while visiting their homeland years later

Subject(s):

• Tran, G. B. (Gia-Bao), 1976- -- Comic books, strips, etc
• Tran, G. B. (Gia-Bao), 1976- -- Family -- Comic books, strips, etc
• Vietnamese Americans -- Biography -- Comic books, strips, etc
• Refugees -- Vietnam -- Biography -- Comic books, strips, etc
• Vietnam War, 1961-1975 -- Refugees -- Biography -- Comic books, strips, etc

Review(s):

• Cornog, Martha. "Vietnamerica: A Family's Journey." Library Journal 136, no. 1 (January 2011): 71-72
• "Vietnamerica: A Family's Journey." Publishers Weekly 257, no. 47 (November 29, 2010): 36

Read: March 19, 2011

The man who loved books too much: the true story of a thief, a detective, and a world of literary obsession

Author: Bartlett, Allison Hoover

Title: The man who loved books too much: the true story of a thief, a detective, and a world of literary obsession

Published: New York: Riverhead Books, 2009

Description: 274 p. ; 22 cm.

Call Number: Z992.8 B37 2009

Bibliography: p. 264-274

Summary: Unrepentant book thief John Charles Gilkey has stolen a fortune in rare books from around the country. Yet unlike most thieves who steal for profit, Gilkey steals for love-the love of books. Perhaps equally obsessive is Ken Sanders, the self-appointed "bibliodick" who's driven to catch him. Following this eccentric cat-and-mouse chase with a mixture of suspense, insight and humor, Allison Hoover Bartlett plunges the reader deep into a rich world of fanatical book lust and considers what it is that makes some people stop at nothing to posses the titles they love

Subject(s):

• Gilkey, John, 1968-
• Sanders, Ken, 1951-
• Book collectors -- United States -- Biography
• Thieves -- United States -- Biography
• Book collecting
• Bibliomania
• Book thefts

Review(s):

• Cox, Richard J. "The Man Who Loved Books Too Much: The True Story of a Thief, a Detective, and a World of Literary Obsession." Library & Archival Security 23, no. 1 (January 2010): 49-51
• Katona, Cynthia Lee. "The Man Who Loved Books Too Much: The True Story of a Thief, a Detective, and a World of Literary Obsession." Magill Book Reviews (November 2009)
• CHRISTOPHER R., BEHA. "The Book Thief." New York Times Book Review (October 4, 2009): 20

Read: March 15, 2011

Sydney, cipher and search: solving the last great naval mystery of the Second World War

Author: Hore, Peter

Title: Sydney, cipher and search: solving the last great naval mystery of the Second World War

Published: Annapolis: Naval Institute Press, 2009

Description: 314 p. :ill. (some col.) ;  22 cm.

Call Number: D775.5 S8 H67 2009

 

Bibliography: p. 299-303

Summary: In November 1941 the Australian light cruiser HMAS Sydney, with a crew of 645, disappeared off the coast western Australia. Shipwrecked German sailors told an incredible tale of how their ship, had sunk the pride of the Australian navy. Almost at once conspiracy theories sprang up to explain the tragic loss of the ship and so many lives. Based on the author's decryption and interpretation of German Coded accounts, interviews with survivors from the raider, Kormoran, and other research, this book tells - insofar as it can ever be known - what really happened in the desperate fight to the death between the two ships, whose wrecks were finally located in March 2008

Subject(s):

• Sydney (Cruiser)
• World War, 1939-1945 -- Naval operations, Australian

Review(s):

• Higham, Robin. "Sydney, Cipher and Search: Solving the Last Great Naval Mystery of the Second World War." Journal of Military History 74, no. 1 (January 2010): 287

Read: March 12, 2011

Beat to quarters

Author: Forester, C. S. (Cecil Scott), 1899-1966

Title: Beat to quarters

Published: Boston: Back Bay Books, 1999

Description: viii, 273 p. ; 21 cm.

Call Number: PR6011 O56 B4 1999

Summary: June 1808, somewhere west of Nicaragua-a site suitable for spectacular sea battles. The Admiralty has ordered Captain Horatio Hornblower, now in command of the thirty-six-gun HMS Lydia, to form an alliance against the Spanish colonial government with an insane Spanish landowner; to find a water route across the Central American isthmus; and "to take, sink, burn or destroy" the fifty-gun Spanish ship of the line Natividad or face court-martial. A daunting enough set of orders-even if the happily married captain were not woefully distracted by the passenger he is obliged to take on in Panama: Lady Barbara Wellesley

Subject(s):

• Hornblower, Horatio (Fictitious character) -- Fiction
• Great Britain -- History, Naval -- 19th century -- Fiction
• Napoleonic Wars, 1800-1815 -- Fiction
• Sea stories
• War stories

Review(s):

• Grainger, John D. "Who Was Hornblower?." History Today 49, no. 10 (October 1999): 32
• Forester, C. S. "HORNBLOWER AND I." Saturday Evening Post 229, no. 45 (May 11, 1957): 27-141

Read: March 12, 2011

Endgame: Bobby Fischer's remarkable rise and fall-- from America's brightest prodigy to the edge of madness

 

Author: Brady, Frank, 1934-

Title: Endgame: Bobby Fischer's remarkable rise and fall from America's brightest prodigy to the edge of madness

Published: New York: Crown, 2011

Description: xi, 402 p., [8] p. of plates :ill., ports. ; 25 cm.

Call Number: GV1439 F5 B68 2011

Bibliography: p. 379-384

Content(s):

• Loneliness to passion
• Childhood obsession
• Out of the heasd of Zeus
• The American wunderkind
• The Cold War gladiator
• The new Fischer
• Einstein's theory
• Legends clash
• The candidate
• The champion
• The wilderness years
• Fischer-Spassky redux
• Crossing borders
• Arrest and rescue
• Living and dying in Iceland

Summary: From an author who wrote one of the bestselling Bobby Fischer books ever and who was himself a friend of Fischer's comes an impressively researched biography that for the first time captures the complete, remarkable arc of the life of the chess master

Subject(s):

• Fischer, Bobby, 1943-2008
• Chess players -- United States -- Biography
• Chess -- Collections of games

 Review(s):

• Lewis, Leslie. "Endgame: Bobby Fischer's Remarkable Rise and Fall--from America's Brightest Prodigy to the Edge of Madness." Library Journal 136, no. 3 (February 15, 2011): 117
• DYLAN LOEB, McCLAIN. "Solving Bobby Fischer." New York Times Book Review (February 13, 2011): 24
• Pitt, David. "Endgame: Bobby Fischer's Remarkable Rise and Fall-from America's Brightest Prodigy to the Edge of Madness." Booklist 107, no. 9/10 (January 2011): 34

Read: March 6, 2011

Troll: a love story

 

Author: Sinisalo, Johanna, 1958-

Title: Troll: a love story

Published: New York: Grove Press, 2003

Description: 278 p. ; 22 cm.

Call Number: PH355 S5445 S46 2003

Note(s): Translated from the Finnish by Herbert Lomas; previously published: Not before sundown. London: Peter Owen, 2003

Subject(s):

• Trolls -- Finland -- Fiction
• Gay men -- Finland -- Fiction
• Aphrodisiacs -- Finland -- Fiction
• Fantasy fiction

Review(s):

• Sallis, James. "Life/Troll: A Love Story/Camouflage." Fantasy & Science Fiction 109, no. 6 (December 2005): 38-43
• "TROLL: A Love Story (Book)." Publishers Weekly 251, no. 15 (April 12, 2004): 37
• "TROLL: A Love Story (Book)." Kirkus Reviews 72, no. 7 (April 2004): 295-296

Read: March 5, 2011

Negotiating with the dead: a writer on writing

 

Author: Atwood, Margaret, 1939-

Title: Negotiating with the dead: a writer on writing

Published: New York: Anchor Books, 2003

Description: xxvii, 219 p. ; 21 cm.

Call Number: PR9199.3 A8 N44 2003

Bibliography: p. 197-207

Subject(s):

• Atwood, Margaret Eleanor, 1939-
• Fiction -- Authorship
• Authorship

Review(s):

• Ingersoll, Earl G. "Negotiating with the Dead: A Writer on Writing (Book)." Studies in the Novel 36, no. 1 (Spring 2004): 126-128
• St. Andrews, B. A. "Negotiating with the Dead: A Writer on Writing (Book)." World Literature Today 77, no. 3/4 (October 2003): 99-100
• Irvine, Larna. "Negotiating with the Dead: A Writer on Writing (Book)." American Review of Canadian Studies 33, no. 3 (September 2003): 433-435

Read: March 2, 2011

Atlas of remote islands: fifty islands I have never set foot on and never will

Author: Schalansky, Judith,1980-

Uniform Title: Atlas der abgelegenen Inseln. English

Title: Atlas of remote islands: fifty islands I have never set foot on and never will

Published: New York: Penguin Books, 2010

Description: 143 p. :maps, ill. ; 27 cm.

Call Number: G500 S3313 2010

Note(s): Originally published in German as: Atlas der abgelegenen Inseln--T.p. verso. Translated from the German by Christine Lo

Summary: For each island, this book provides information on its distance from the mainland, whether its inhabited, its features, and the stories that have shaped its lore

Subject(s):

• Islands -- Description and travel
• Islands -- Maps
• Islands -- Maps

Review(s):

• Creech, Anna L. "Atlas of Remote Islands: Fifty Islands I Have Never Set Foot on and Never Will." Library Journal 135, no. 20 (December 2010): 130
• Flanagan, Margaret. "Atlas of Remote Islands: Fifty Islands I Have Never Set Foot on and Never Will." Booklist 107, no. 7 (December 2010): 12
• Belli, Brita. "ATLAS FREAK." E - The Environmental Magazine 21, no. 6 (November 2010): 51

Read: February 23, 2011