Sunday, March 31, 2013

Augustine's Invention of the Inner Self






Cary, Phillip. Augustine's Invention of the Inner Self: The Legacy of a Christian Platonist. New York: Oxford University Press, 2003, c2000.

Call no.: FDC 189.2 Au45ca

Publisher's Description: In this book, Phillip Cary argues that Augustine invented the concept of the self as a private inner space-a space into which one can enter and in which one can find God. Although it has often been suggested that Augustine in some way inaugurated the Western tradition of inwardness, this is the first study to pinpoint what was new about Augustine's philosophy of inwardness and situate it within a narrative of his intellectual development and his relationship to the Platonist tradition.

Augustine invents the inner self, Cary argues, in order to solve a particular conceptual problem. Augustine is attracted to the Neoplatonist inward turn, which located God within the soul, yet remains loyal to the orthodox Catholic teaching that the soul is not divine. He combines the two emphases by urging us to turn "in then up"--to enter the inner world of the self before gazing at the divine Light above the human mind.

Cary situates Augustine's idea of the self historically in both the Platonist and the Christian traditions. The concept of private inner self, he shows, is a development within the history of the Platonist concept of intelligibility or intellectual vision, which establishes a kind of kinship between the human intellect and the divine things it sees. Though not the only Platonist in the Christian tradition, Augustine stands out for his devotion to this concept of intelligibility and his willingness to apply it even to God. This leads him to downplay the doctrine that God is incomprehensible, as he is convinced that it is natural for the mind's eye, when cleansed of sin, to see and understand God.

In describing Augustine's invention of the inner self, Cary's fascinating book sheds new light on Augustine's life and thought, and shows how Augustine's position developed into the more orthodox Augustine we know from his later writings.

Saturday, March 30, 2013

Savage Continent






Lowe, Keith. Savage Continent: Europe in the Aftermath of World War II. New York: St. Martin's Press, 2012.

Call no.: 940.554 L951s

Publisher's Description: The Second World War might have officially ended in May 1945, but in reality it rumbled on for another ten years...


The end of the Second World War in Europe is one of the twentieth century’s most iconic moments.  It is fondly remembered as a time when cheering crowds filled the streets, danced, drank and made love until the small hours.  These images of victory and celebration are so strong in our minds that the period of anarchy and civil war that followed has been forgotten.  Across Europe, landscapes had been ravaged, entire cities razed and more than thirty million people had been killed in the war. The institutions that we now take for granted - such as the police, the media, transport, local and national government - were either entirely absent or hopelessly compromised. Crime rates were soaring, economies collapsing, and the European population was hovering on the brink of starvation.  In Savage Continent, Keith Lowe describes a continent still racked by violence, where large sections of the population had yet to accept that the war was over.  Individuals, communities and sometimes whole nations sought vengeance for the wrongs that had been done to them during the war. Germans and collaborators everywhere were rounded up, tormented and summarily executed.  Concentration camps were reopened and filled with new victims who were tortured and starved.  Violent anti-Semitism was reborn, sparking murders and new pogroms across Europe.  Massacres were an integral part of the chaos and in some places – particularly Greece, Yugoslavia and Poland, as well as parts of Italy and France – they led to brutal civil wars. In some of the greatest acts of ethnic cleansing the world has ever seen, tens of millions were expelled from their ancestral homelands, often with the implicit blessing of the Allied authorities.  Savage Continent is the story of post WWII Europe, in all its ugly detail, from the end of the war right up until the establishment of an uneasy stability across Europe towards the end of the 1940s.  Based principally on primary sources from a dozen countries, Savage Continent is a frightening and thrilling chronicle of a world gone mad, the standard history of post WWII Europe for years to come.


Publisher's Book Page: http://us.macmillan.com/savagecontinent/KeithLowe

Friday, March 29, 2013

Fog of War






Kruse, Kevin M. and Tuck, Stephen, eds. Fog of War: The Second World War and the Civil Rights Movement. New York: Oxford University Press, 2012.

Call no.: 940.53 F687k

Publisher's Description: It is well known that World War II gave rise to human rights rhetoric, discredited a racist regime abroad, and provided new opportunities for African Americans to fight, work, and demand equality at home. It would be all too easy to assume that the war was a key stepping stone to the modern civil rights movement. But Fog of War shows that in reality the momentum for civil rights was not so clear cut, with activists facing setbacks as well as successes and their opponents finding ways to establish more rigid defenses for segregation. While the war set the scene for a mass movement, it also narrowed some of the options for black activists. This collection is a timely reconsideration of the intersection between two of the dominant events of twentieth-century American history, the upheaval wrought by the Second World War and the social revolution brought about by the African American struggle for equality.

Publisher's Book Page: http://www.oup.com/us/catalog/general/subject/HistoryAmerican/AfricanAmerican/?view=usa&ci=9780195382402

Black Irish






Talty, Stephan. Black Irish. New York: Ballantine Books, 2013.

Call No.: F TAL

Publisher's Description: In this explosive debut thriller by the New York Times bestselling author of Empire of Blue Water, a brilliant homicide detective returns home, where she confronts a city’s dark demons and her own past while pursuing a brutal serial killer on a vengeful rampage.

Absalom “Abbie” Kearney grew up an outsider in her own hometown. Even being the adopted daughter of a revered cop couldn’t keep Abbie’s troubled past from making her a misfit in the working-class Irish American enclave of South Buffalo. And now, despite a Harvard degree and a police detective’s badge, she still struggles to earn the respect and trust of those she’s sworn to protect. But all that may change, once the killing starts.

When Jimmy Ryan’s mangled corpse is found in a local church basement, this sadistic sacrilege sends a bone-deep chill through the winter-whipped city. It also seems to send a message—one that Abbie believes only the fiercely secretive citizens of the neighborhood known as “the County” understand. But in a town ruled by an old-world code of silence and secrecy, her search for answers is stonewalled at every turn, even by fellow cops. Only when Abbie finds a lead at the Gaelic Club, where war stories, gossip, and confidences flow as freely as the drink, do tongues begin to wag—with desperate warnings and dire threats. And when the killer’s mysterious calling card appears on her own doorstep, the hunt takes a shocking twist into her own family’s past. As the grisly murders and grim revelations multiply, Abbie wages a chilling battle of wits with a maniac who sees into her soul, and she swears to expose the County’s hidden history—one bloody body at a time.

With Black Irish, Stephen Talty stakes a place beside Jo Nesbø, John Sandford, and Tana French on the cutting edge of psychological crime thrillers.

Publisher's Book Page: http://www.randomhouse.com/book/220693/black-irish-by-stephan-talty

Thursday, March 28, 2013

Greek Mythology






Nardo, Don. Greek Mythology. (Mythology and Culture Worldwide.) Detroit: Gale Cengage Learning, 2012.

Call no.: J 292.13 N166g

Publisher's Description: This new volume in Lucent's Mythology and Culture Worldwide series looks at Greek mythology, draws connections between ancient Greek culture and its myths, and explains how the beliefs, values, and experiences of that culture are represented in its treasured stories of gods, demi-gods, monsters, and heroes. This volume includes a map of ancient Greece, a family tree of the major gods, a table of major characters with name pronunciations and brief descriptions, a glossary, sidebars, fact boxes, a bibliography of sources for further study, and a subject index.

Publisher's Book Page: http://www.gale.cengage.com/servlet/ItemDetailServlet?region=9&imprint=000&titleCode=LMCWL&cf=p&type=3&id=263149

Wednesday, March 27, 2013

The Arabs and the Holocaust






Achcar, Gilbert. The Arabs and the Holocaust: The Arab-Israeli War of Narratives. 1st U.S. ed. New York: Picador, 2010.

Call no.: 940.5318 Ac44a

Publisher's Description: There is no more inflammatory topic than the Arabs and the Holocaust—the phrase alone can occasion outrage. Political scientist Gilbert Achcar analyzes the various Arab responses to Nazism, from the earliest intimations of the genocide, through the creation of Israel and the destruction of Palestine and up to our own time, critically assessing the political and historical context for these responses and offering by the same token a unique ideological mapping of the Arab world. While challenging distortions of the historical record, Achcar makes no concessions to anti-Semitism or Holocaust denial. This pathbreaking, essential book provides a new basis for Arab-Israeli and Arab-Western understanding.

Publisher's Book Page: http://us.macmillan.com/thearabsandtheholocaust/GilbertAchcar

Breaking Point






Box, C. J. Breaking Point. New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons, 2013.

Call No.: F BOX

Publisher's Description: Breaking Point takes Joe Pickett into uncharted territory. The question is: What will he do when he gets there?

It was always good to see Butch Roberson, Joe thought—a hardworking, upright local business owner whose daughter was friends with his own. Little did he know that when he talked to Butch that day in the forest, the man was about to disappear. He was heading into the mountains to scout elk, he said, but instead he was running. Two EPA employees had just been murdered, and all signs pointed to him as the killer.

As the manhunt organized itself, Joe heard more of the story—about the tract of land Butch and his wife had bought to build their retirement home on, until the EPA declared it a wetland. About the penalties they charged him when he balked, new ones piling up every day, until the family was torn apart . . . and finally, it seems, the man just cracked.

It was an awful story. But was it the whole story? The more Joe looks into it, the more he begins to wonder—and the more he finds himself in the middle of a war he never expected and never wanted. Powerful forces want Roberson not just caught but dead—and the same goes for anyone who stands in their way.

Every man reaches his breaking point. Joe Pickett may just have reached his.

Publisher's Book Page: http://www.us.penguingroup.com/nf/Book/BookDisplay/0,,9780399160752,00.html?Breaking_Point_C._J._Box#

Tuesday, March 26, 2013

Wes Craven






Wooley, John. Wes Craven: The Man and His Nightmares. New York: John Wiley & Sons, 2011.

Call no.: 791.43092 C855w

Publisher's Description: The life and film genius of A Nightmare on Elm Street and Scream director Wes Craven.


Wes Craven is one of the most successful and iconic horror movie directors in Hollywood. His masterful examination of the nightmarish nexus of dreams and reality helped spark a career that has spanned close to forty years. Then, with their mix of horror, sex, and humor, Craven's Scream movies helped revitalize the slasher film genre.
  • An absorbing portrait of cult film director Wes Craven's life and career in film
  • Draws on the author's new interviews with Craven, including little-known details about the director's life and work
  • Insights into the making of the Nightmare on Elm Street movies and the Scream films—the #1 horror franchise of all time
  • Fascinating stories about the director's work with a range of producers, screenwriters, and actors, including Robert Englund
  • Publication timing ties in with the release of Scream 4

If you've ever had nightmares about Freddy Krueger or psychopaths wearing Halloween scream masks, or if want to know more about the director behind the new Scream 4, this is one book you simply have to read.


Publisher's Book Page: http://www.wiley.com/WileyCDA/WileyTitle/productCd-0470497505.html

Monday, March 25, 2013

Theodore Roosevelt






Gould, Lewis L.  Theodore Roosevelt. New York: Oxford University Press, 2011.

Call no.:  973.911 R677go

Publisher's Description: Sportsman. Naturalist. Warrior. President. There are so many sides to Theodore Roosevelt that it is easy to overlook one of his most enduring contributions to American public life: the use of fame to fuel his political career.

In this concisely written, enlightening book, presidential historian Lewis L. Gould goes beyond the "bully pulpit" stereotypes to reveal how Roosevelt used his celebrity to change American politics. Based on research gleaned from the personal papers of Roosevelt and his contemporaries, Theodore Roosevelt recaptures its subject's bold activism and irrepressible, larger-than-life personality. Beginning with his privileged childhood in New York City, the narrative traces his election to the New York Assembly, where he quickly rose through the ranks of the Republican Party. It is here that he first applied his shrewd ability to keep himself in the spotlight--a skill that served him well as commander of a volunteer regiment (dubbed "Roosevelt's Rough Riders") in the Spanish-American War. Gould shows how Roosevelt rode a wave of popular acclaim at the war's end, assuming the governorship of New York and serving as president from 1901 to 1909. While covering his major accomplishments as chief executive, including his successes as a trust-buster, labor mediator, and conservationist, Gould explains how fame both sustained and limited Roosevelt when he ran for president in 1912 and opposed Woodrow Wilson's policies during World War I.

Theodore Roosevelt delivers the most insightful look yet at a pioneer of political theater--a man whose vigorous idealism as a champion of democracy serves as a counterpoint to the cynicism of today's political landscape. The book will coincide with the 100th anniversary of Roosevelt's third party run for the Progressive or Bull Moose Party.

Publisher's Book Page: http://www.oup.com/us/catalog/general/subject/BiographyLettersMemoirs/?view=usa&ci=9780199797011

Speaking from Among the Bones






Bradley, Alan. Speaking from Among the Bones. New York: Delacorte, 2013.

Call no.: F BRA

Publisher's Description: Eleven-year-old amateur detective and ardent chemist Flavia de Luce is used to digging up clues, whether they’re found among the potions in her laboratory or between the pages of her insufferable sisters’ diaries. What she is not accustomed to is digging up bodies. Upon the five-hundredth anniversary of St. Tancred’s death, the English hamlet of Bishop’s Lacey is busily preparing to open its patron saint’s tomb. Nobody is more excited to peek inside the crypt than Flavia, yet what she finds will halt the proceedings dead in their tracks: the body of Mr. Collicutt, the church organist, his face grotesquely and inexplicably masked. Who held a vendetta against Mr. Collicutt, and why would they hide him in such a sacred resting place? The irrepressible Flavia decides to find out. And what she unearths will prove there’s never such thing as an open-and-shut case.

Publisher's Book Page: http://www.randomhouse.com/book/196415/speaking-from-among-the-bones-by-alan-bradley

Sunday, March 24, 2013

Serious Times






White, James Emery. Serious Times: Making Your Life Matter in an Urgent Day. Downers Grove, Ill.: InterVarsity Press, 2004.

Call no.: FDC 248.4 W584s

Publisher's Description: How can we make our lives matter?


John Adams and Thomas Jefferson lived in serious times. And, because they chose to live serious lives, they turned the course of history.

As the modern era transitions into postmodern turbulence, we, too, find ourselves in serious times. How can we make a difference in the world around us? How can we be an influence for Christ? Most important, how can we make our lives matter?

There is a a great movement of God set loose in the world. In this book, James Emery White explores what it means to be at the front lines of what God is doing. When serious times are met with serious lives, the kingdom of God is advanced.

Come and discover a life of significance.

Saturday, March 23, 2013

The Retreat





Jones, Michael. The Retreat: Hitler's First Defeat. 1st U.S. ed. New York: Thomas Dunne Books/St. Martin's Press, 2010.

Call no.: 940.5421731 J721r

Publisher's Description: The gripping history of the ferocious turning point of World War Two, when Hitler’s armies were halted on the Eastern Front.

At the moment of crisis in late 1941 on the Eastern Front, with the forces of Hitler massing on the outskirts of Moscow, the miraculous occurred: Moscow was saved. Yet this feat of endurance was a prelude to a long and arduous retreat in which Soviet troops, inspired by deep beliefs in the sacred Motherland, pushed back German forces steeled by the vision of the Ubermensch—the iron-willed fighter. Supported by tanks and ski battalions, Soviet troops engaged in this desperate struggle in the harshest Russian weather.

Michael Jones draws upon a wealth of new eyewitness testimonies from both sides of the conflict to vividly chronicle this pivotal chapter in the Second World War as he takes us from the German invasion of the Soviet Union on the morning of June 22 through the counteroffensive that carried into the spring of 1942. From the German soldier finding his comrades frozen into blocks of ice to the Russian lieutenant crying with rage at the senseless destruction of his unit, the author shows us the faces of war when the Wehrmacht was repelled and the titanic and cruel struggle of two world powers forged the fate of Europe. 


Publisher's Book Page: http://us.macmillan.com/theretreat/MichaelJones

Friday, March 22, 2013

Falling in Love with Joseph Smith






Barnes, Jane. Falling in Love with Joseph Smith: My Search for the Real Prophet. New York: Jeremy P. Tarcher/Penguin, 2012.

Call no.: 289.3092 Sm61ba

Publisher's Description: When award-winning documentary film writer Jane Barnes was working on the PBS Frontline/American Experience special series The Mormons, she was surprised to find herself passionately drawn to Joseph Smith. The product of an Episcopalian, “WASPy” family, she couldn’t remember ever having met a Mormon before her work on the series—much less having dallied with the idea of converting to a religion shrouded in controversy. But so it was: She was smitten with a man who claimed to have translated the word of God by peering into the dark of his hat.

 
In this brilliantly written book, Barnes describes her experiences working on the PBS series as she moved from secular curiosity to the brink of conversion to Mormonism. It all began when she came across Joseph Smith's early writings. She was delighted to discover how funny and utterly unique he was—and how widely divergent his wild yet profound visions of God were from the Church of Latter-day Saints as we know it today. Her fascination deepened when, much to her surprise, she learned that her eighth cousin Anna Barnes converted to Mormonism in 1833. Through Anna, Barnes follows her family’s close involvement with Smith and the crises caused by his controversial practice of polygamy. Barnes’ unlikely path helps her gain a newfound respect for the innovative American spirit that lies at the heart of Mormonism—and for a religion that is, in many ways, still coming into its own.
 
An intimate portrait of the man behind one of America’s fastest growing religions, Falling in Love with Joseph Smith offers a surprising and provocative window into the Mormon experience.


Publisher's Book Page: http://www.us.penguingroup.com/nf/Book/BookDisplay/0,,9781585429257,00.html?Falling_in_Love_with_Joseph_Smith_Jane_Barnes#

The Avalon Ladies Scrapbooking Society






Gee, Darien. The Avalon Ladies Scrapbooking Society. New York: Ballantine, 2013.

Call no.: F GEE

Publisher's Description: Welcome to Avalon, Illinois, Pop. 4,243

At Madeline’s Tea Salon, the cozy hub of the Avalon community, local residents scrapbook their memories and make new ones. But across town, other Avalonians are struggling to free themselves of the past: Isabel Kidd is fixing up her ramshackle house while sorting through the complications of her late husband’s affair. Ava Catalina is mourning the love of her life and helping her young son grow up without his father. Local plumber Yvonne Tate is smart, beautiful, and new to Avalon, but finds that despite a decade of living life on her own terms, the past has a way of catching up—no matter where she goes. And Frances Latham, mother to a boisterous brood of boys, eagerly anticipates the arrival of a little girl from China—unprepared for the emotional roller coaster of foreign adoption.

Enter Bettie Shelton, the irascible founder of the Avalon Ladies Scrapbooking Society. Under Bettie’s guidance, even the most reluctant of Avalon’s residents come to terms with their past and make bold decisions about their future. But when the group receives unexpected news about their steadfast leader, they must pull together to create something truly memorable.

By turns humorous, wise, and deeply moving, The Avalon Ladies Scrapbooking Society is a luminous reminder that the things we hold most dear will last a lifetime.

Publisher's Book Page: http://www.randomhouse.com/book/208467/the-avalon-ladies-scrapbooking-society-by-darien-gee

Thursday, March 21, 2013

Not a Gentleman's War



Milam, Ron. Not a Gentleman's War: An Inside View of Junior Officers in the Vietnam War. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2009.

Call no.: 959.7043 M589n

Publisher's Description: Wars are not fought by politicians and generals--they are fought by soldiers. Written by a combat veteran of the Vietnam War, Not a Gentleman's War is about such soldiers--a gritty, against-the-grain defense of the much-maligned junior officer.

Conventional wisdom holds that the junior officer in Vietnam was a no-talent, poorly trained, unmotivated soldier typified by Lt. William Calley of My Lai infamy. Drawing on oral histories, after-action reports, diaries, letters, and other archival sources, Ron Milam debunks this view, demonstrating that most of the lieutenants who served in combat performed their duties well and effectively, serving with great skill, dedication, and commitment to the men they led. Milam's narrative provides a vivid, on-the-ground portrait of what the platoon leader faced: training his men, keeping racial tensions at bay, and preventing alcohol and drug abuse, all in a war without fronts. Yet despite these obstacles, junior officers performed admirably, as documented by field reports and evaluations of their superior officers.

More than 5,000 junior officers died in Vietnam; all of them had volunteered to lead men in battle. Based on meticulous and wide-ranging research, this book provides a much-needed serious treatment of these men--the only such study in print--shedding new light on the longest war in American history.

Publisher's Book Page: http://www.uncpress.unc.edu/browse/book_detail?title_id=1649

Wednesday, March 20, 2013

On China






Kissinger, Henry. On China. New York: Penguin, 2011.

Call no.: 327.51 K643o

Publisher's Description: In this sweeping and insightful history, Henry Kissinger turns for the first time at book-length to a country he has known intimately for decades, and whose modern relations with the West he helped shape. Drawing on historical records as well as his conversations with Chinese leaders over the past forty years, Kissinger examines how China has approached diplomacy, strategy, and negotiation throughout its history, and reflects on the consequences for the global balance of power in the 21st century.

Since no other country can claim a more powerful link to its ancient past and classical principles, any attempt to understand China's future world role must begin with an appreciation of its long history. For centuries, China rarely encountered other societies of comparable size and sophistication; it was the "Middle Kingdom," treating the peoples on its periphery as vassal states. At the same time, Chinese statesmen-facing threats of invasion from without, and the contests of competing factions within-developed a canon of strategic thought that prized the virtues of subtlety, patience, and indirection over feats of martial prowess.

In On China, Kissinger examines key episodes in Chinese foreign policy from the classical era to the present day, with a particular emphasis on the decades since the rise of Mao Zedong. He illuminates the inner workings of Chinese diplomacy during such pivotal events as the initial encounters between China and modern European powers, the formation and breakdown of the Sino-Soviet alliance, the Korean War, Richard Nixon's historic trip to Beijing, and three crises in the Taiwan Straits. Drawing on his extensive personal experience with four generation of Chinese leaders, he brings to life towering figures such as Mao, Zhou Enlai, and Deng Xiaoping, revealing how their different visions have shaped China's modern destiny.

With his singular vantage on U.S.-China relations, Kissinger traces the evolution of this fraught but crucial relationship over the past 60 years, following its dramatic course from estrangement to strategic partnership to economic interdependence, and toward an uncertain future. With a final chapter on the emerging superpower's 21st-century world role, On China provides an intimate historical perspective on Chinese foreign affairs from one of the premier statesmen of the 20th century.

Publisher's Book Page: http://www.us.penguingroup.com/nf/Book/BookDisplay/0,,9781594202711,00.html?On_China_Henry_Kissinger#

New York Times Book Review: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/10/books/on-china-by-henry-kissinger-review.html?pagewanted=all

Guilt






Kellerman, Jonathan. Guilt: An Alex Delaware Novel. New York: Ballantine, 2013.

Call no.: F KEL

Publisher's Description: The #1 New York Times bestselling author Jonathan Kellerman’s “psychology skills and dark imagination are a potent literary mix” (Los Angeles Times), and this intensely thrilling blend has never been so powerful as in the acclaimed author’s new novel of murder and madness among the beautiful dreamers, seductive predators, and doomed innocents adrift in the glare of Southern California’s eternal sunshine.

A series of horrifying events occur in quick succession in the same upscale L.A. neighborhood. A backyard renovation unearths an infant’s body, buried sixty years ago. And soon thereafter in a nearby park, another disturbingly bizarre discovery is made not far from the body of a young woman shot in the head. Helping LAPD homicide detective Milo Sturgis to link these eerie incidents is brilliant psychologist Alex Delaware. But even the good doctor’s vast experience with matters both clinical and criminal might not be enough to cut down to the bone of this chilling case—and draw out the disturbing truth.

Backtracking six decades into the past stirs up tales of a beautiful nurse with a mystery lover, a handsome, wealthy doctor who seems too good to be true, and a hospital with a notorious reputation—all of them long gone, along with any records of a newborn, and destined for anonymity. But the specter of fame rears its head when the case unexpectedly twists in the direction of the highest echelons of celebrity privilege. Entering this sheltered world, Alex little imagines the macabre layer just below the surface—a decadent quagmire of unholy rituals and grisly sacrifice.

Before their work is done, Alex and Milo, “the most original whodunit duo since Watson and Holmes” (Forbes), must confront a fanatically deranged mind of such monstrous cunning that even the most depraved madman would shudder.

Publisher's Book Page: http://www.randomhouse.com/book/91084/guilt-by-jonathan-kellerman

Tuesday, March 19, 2013

The Idea of America





Wood, Gordon S.  The Idea of America: Reflections on the Birth of the United States. New York: Penguin, 2011.

Call no.: 973.3 W850i

Publisher's Description: The preeminent historian of the American Revolution explains why it remains the most significant event in our history.

More than almost any other nation in the world, the United States began as an idea. For this reason, Pulitzer Prize-winning historian Gordon S. Wood believes that the American Revolution is the most important event in our history, bar none. Since American identity is so fluid and not based on any universally shared heritage, we have had to continually return to our nation's founding to understand who we are. In The Idea of America, Wood reflects on the birth of American nationhood and explains why the revolution remains so essential.

In a series of elegant and illuminating essays, Wood explores the ideological origins of the revolution-from ancient Rome to the European Enlightenment-and the founders' attempts to forge an American democracy. As Wood reveals, while the founders hoped to create a virtuous republic of yeoman farmers and uninterested leaders, they instead gave birth to a sprawling, licentious, and materialistic popular democracy.

Wood also traces the origins of American exceptionalism to this period, revealing how the revolutionary generation, despite living in a distant, sparsely populated country, believed itself to be the most enlightened people on earth. The revolution gave Americans their messianic sense of purpose-and perhaps our continued propensity to promote democracy around the world-because the founders believed their colonial rebellion had universal significance for oppressed peoples everywhere. Yet what may seem like audacity in retrospect reflected the fact that in the eighteenth century republicanism was a truly radical ideology-as radical as Marxism would be in the nineteenth-and one that indeed inspired revolutionaries the world over.

Today there exists what Wood calls a terrifying gap between us and the founders, such that it requires almost an act of imagination to fully recapture their era. Because we now take our democracy for granted, it is nearly impossible for us to appreciate how deeply the founders feared their grand experiment in liberty could evolve into monarchy or dissolve into licentiousness. Gracefully written and filled with insight, The Idea of America helps us to recapture the fears and hopes of the revolutionary generation and its attempts to translate those ideals into a working democracy.

Publisher's Book Page: http://www.us.penguingroup.com/nf/Book/BookDisplay/0,,9781594202902,00.html?The_Idea_of_America_Gordon_S._Wood#

New York Times Book Review: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/24/books/review/the-idea-of-america-by-gordon-s-wood-book-review.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0

YouTube Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2pO7x25sVag

C-SPAN Video: http://www.c-spanvideo.org/program/300328-1

Monday, March 18, 2013

The Bosnian Conflict





Cruden, Alexander, ed. The Bosnian Conflict. (Perspectives on Modern World History.) Detroit: Greenhaven Press, 2012.

Call no.: J 949.703 B652c

Publisher's Book Page: http://www.gale.cengage.com/servlet/ItemDetailServletCr?region=9&imprint=070&titleCode=GPMWHL&cf=p&type=3&id=262402

House of Earth






Guthrie, Woody. House of Earth. New York: Infinitum Nihil/HarperCollins, 2013.

Call no.: F GUT

Publisher's Description: Finished in 1947 and lost to readers until now, House of Earth is Woody Guthrie's only fully realized novel—a powerful portrait of Dust Bowl America, filled with the homespun lyricism and authenticity that have made his songs a part of our national consciousness. It is the story of an ordinary couple's dreams of a better life and their search for love and meaning in a corrupt world.


Tike and Ella May Hamlin struggle to plant roots in the arid land of the Texas Panhandle. The husband and wife live in a precarious wooden farm shack, but Tike yearns for a sturdy house that will protect them from the treacherous elements. Thanks to a five-cent government pamphlet, Tike has the know-how to build a simple adobe dwelling, a structure made from the land itself—fireproof, windproof, Dust Bowl–proof. A house of earth.

Though they are one with the farm and with each other, the land on which Tike and Ella May live and work is not theirs. Due to larger forces beyond their control—including ranching conglomerates and banks—their adobe house remains painfully out of reach.

A story of rural realism and progressive activism, and in many ways a companion piece to Guthrie's folk anthem "This Land Is Your Land," House of Earth is a searing portrait of hardship and hope set against a ravaged landscape. Combining the moral urgency and narrative drive of John Steinbeck with the erotic frankness of D. H. Lawrence, here is a powerful tale of America from one of our greatest artists.


Publisher's Book Page:  http://www.harpercollins.com/books/House-of-Earth-Woody-Guthrie?isbn=9780062248398&HCHP=TB_House+of+Earth

Sunday, March 17, 2013

Knowing Christ Today






Willard, Dallas. Knowing Christ Today: Why We Can Trust Spiritual Knowledge. New York: HarperOne, 2009.

Call no.: FDC 239 W661k

Publisher's Description: At a time when popular atheism books are talking about the irrationality of believing in God, Willard makes a rigorous intellectual case for why it makes sense to believe in God and in Jesus, the Son.

Saturday, March 16, 2013

Bismarck: A Life






Steinberg, Jonathan. Bismarck: A Life. New York: Oxford University Press, 2011.

Call no.: 943.083 B542st

Publisher's Description: This riveting, New York Times bestselling biography illuminates the life of Otto von Bismarck, the statesman who unified Germany but who also embodied everything brutal and ruthless about Prussian culture.

Jonathan Steinberg draws heavily on contemporary writings, allowing Bismarck's friends and foes to tell the story. What rises from these pages is a complex giant of a man: a hypochondriac with the constitution of an ox, a brutal tyrant who could easily shed tears, a convert to an extreme form of evangelical Protestantism who secularized schools and introduced civil divorce. Bismarck may have been in sheer ability the most intelligent man to direct a great state in modern times. His brilliance and insight dazzled his contemporaries. But all agreed there was also something demonic, diabolical, overwhelming, beyond human attributes, in Bismarck's personality. He was a kind of malign genius who, behind the various postures, concealed an ice-cold contempt for his fellow human beings and a drive to control and rule them. As one contemporary noted: "the Bismarck regime was a constant orgy of scorn and abuse of mankind, collectively and individually."

In this comprehensive and expansive biography--a brilliant study in power--Jonathan Steinberg brings Bismarck to life, revealing the stark contrast between the "Iron Chancellor's" unmatched political skills and his profoundly flawed human character.

Publisher's Book Page: http://www.oup.com/us/catalog/general/subject/HistoryWorld/?view=usa&ci=9780199782529

Friday, March 15, 2013

Chasing Phantoms






Barkun, Michael. Chasing Phantoms: Reality, Imagination, and Homeland Security Since 9/11. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2011.

Call no.: 363.325 B247c

Publisher's Description:  Although a report by the congressionally mandated Commission on the Prevention of Weapons of Mass Destruction, Proliferation, and Terrorism concluded that biological or nuclear weapons were very likely to be unleashed in the years soon after 2001, what Americans actually have experienced are relatively low-tech threats. Yet even under a new administration, extraordinary domestic and international policies enacted by the U.S. government in the wake of 9/11 remain unchanged. Political scientist and former FBI consultant Michael Barkun argues that a nonrational, emotion-driven obsession with dangers that cannot be seen has played and continues to play an underrecognized role in sustaining the climate of fear that drives the U.S. "war on terror."


Barkun identifies a gap between the realities of terrorism--"violence without a return address"--and the everyday discourse about it among government officials and the general public. Demonstrating that U.S. homeland security policy reflects significant nonrational thinking, Barkun offers new recommendations for effective--and rational--policymaking.


Publisher's Book Page: http://www.uncpress.unc.edu/browse/book_detail?title_id=1878

The Tin Horse






Steinberg, Janice. The Tin Horse. New York: Random House, 2013.

Call no.: F STE

Publisher's Description: It has been more than sixty years since Elaine Greenstein’s twin sister, Barbara, ran away, cutting off contact with her family forever. Elaine has made peace with that loss. But while sifting through old papers as she prepares to move to Rancho Mañana—or the “Ranch of No Tomorrow” as she refers to the retirement community—she  is stunned to find a possible hint to Barbara’s whereabouts all these years later. And it pushes her to confront the fierce love and bitter rivalry of their youth during the 1920s and ’30s, in the Los Angeles Jewish neighborhood of Boyle Heights.

Though raised together in Boyle Heights, where kosher delis and storefront signs in Yiddish lined the streets, Elaine and Barbara staked out very different personal territories. Elaine was thoughtful and studious, encouraged to dream of going to college, while Barbara was a bold rule-breaker whose hopes fastened on nearby Hollywood. In the fall of 1939, when the girls were eighteen, Barbara’s recklessness took an alarming turn. Leaving only a cryptic note, she disappeared.

 In an unforgettable voice layered with humor and insight, Elaine delves into the past. She recalls growing up with her spirited family: her luftmensch of a grandfather, a former tinsmith with tales from the Old Country; her papa, who preaches the American Dream even as it eludes him; her mercurial mother, whose secret grief colors her moods—and of course audacious Barbara and their younger sisters, Audrey and Harriet. As Elaine looks back on the momentous events of history and on the personal dramas of the Greenstein clan, she must finally face the truth of her own childhood, and that of the twin sister she once knew.

In The Tin Horse, Janice Steinberg exquisitely unfolds a rich multigenerational story about the intense, often fraught bonds between sisters, mothers, and daughters and the profound and surprising ways we are shaped by those we love. At its core, it is a book not only about the stories we tell but, more important, those we believe, especially the ones about our very selves.

Publisher's Book Page: http://www.randomhouse.com/book/212016/the-tin-horse-by-janice-steinberg

Thursday, March 14, 2013

Berlin on the Brink






Harrington, Daniel F. Berlin on the Brink: The Blockade, the Airlift, and the Early Cold War. Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 2012.

Call no.: 943.155 H237b

Publisher's Description: The Berlin blockade brought former allies to the brink of war. Britain, France, the United States and the Soviet Union defeated and began their occupation of Germany in 1945, and within a few years, the Soviets and their Western partners were jockeying for control of their former foe. Attempting to thwart the Allied powers’ plans to create a unified West German government, the Soviets blocked rail and road access to the western sectors of Berlin in June 1948. With no other means of delivering food and supplies to the German people under their protection, the Allies organized the Berlin airlift.

In Berlin on the Brink: The Blockade, the Airlift, and the Cold War, Daniel F. Harrington examines the “Berlin question” from its origin in wartime plans for the occupation of Germany through the Paris Council of Foreign Ministers meeting in 1949. Harrington draws on previously untapped archival sources to challenge standard accounts of the postwar division of Germany, the origins of the blockade, the original purpose of the airlift, and the leadership of President Harry S. Truman. While thoroughly examining four-power diplomacy, Harrington demonstrates how the ingenuity and hard work of the people at the bottom—pilots, mechanics, and Berliners—were more vital to the airlift’s success than decisions from the top. Harrington also explores the effects of the crisis on the 1948 presidential election and on debates about the custody and use of atomic weapons. Berlin on the Brink is a fresh, comprehensive analysis that reshapes our understanding of a critical event of cold war history.

Publisher's Book Page: http://www.kentuckypress.com/live/title_detail.php?titleid=3029

Wednesday, March 13, 2013

Bonhoeffer: Pastor, Martyr, Prophet, Spy






Metaxas, Eric. Bonhoeffer: Pastor, Martyr, Prophet, Spy: A Righteous Gentile vs. the Third Reich. Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 2010.

Call no.: 284.1092 B641me

Publisher's Description: WHO BETTER TO FACE THE GREATEST EVIL OF THE 20TH CENTURY THAN A HUMBLE MAN OF FAITH?


As Adolf Hitler and the Nazis seduced a nation, bullied a continent, and attempted to exterminate the Jews of Europe, a small number of dissidents and saboteurs worked to dismantle the Third Reich from the inside. One of these was Dietrich Bonhoeffer—a pastor and author. In this New York Times best-selling biography, Eric Metaxas takes both strands of Bonhoeffer’s life—the theologian and the spy—and draws them together to tell a searing story of incredible moral courage in the face of monstrous evil. Metaxas presents the fullest accounting of Bonhoeffer’s heart-wrenching decision to leave the safe haven of America to return to Hitler’s Germany, and sheds new light on Bonhoeffer’s involvement in the famous Valkyrie plot and in “Operation 7,” the effort to smuggle Jews into neutral Switzerland.


Publisher's Book Page: http://www.thomasnelson.com/bonhoeffer-1.html

Spring Break Library Hours


Sat. - Sunday (March 16 - 17) Closed
Monday - Wednesday              8:00 - 4:30
Thursday - Sunday                   Closed
Monday (March 25)                Resume Regular Hours

Touch & Go






Gardner, Lisa. Touch & Go. New York: Dutton, 2013.

Call no.: F GAR

Publisher's Description: This is my family:  Vanished without a trace…


Justin and Libby Denbe have the kind of life that looks good in the pages of a glossy magazine. A beautiful fifteen-year old daughter, Ashlyn. A gorgeous brownstone on a tree-lined street in Boston’s elite Back Bay neighborhood. A great marriage, admired by friends and family.  A perfect life.
This is what I know:  Pain has a flavor…

When investigator Tessa Leoni arrives at the crime scene in the Denbes’ home, she finds scuff marks on the floor and Taser confetti in the foyer.  The family appears to have been abducted, with only a pile of their most personal possessions remaining behind.  No witnesses, no ransom demands, no motive.  Just an entire family, vanished without a trace.

This is what I fear:  The worst is yet to come…

Tessa knows better than anyone that even the most perfect façades can hide the darkest secrets.  Now she must race against the clock to uncover the Denbes’ innermost dealings, a complex tangle of friendships and betrayal, big business and small sacrifices.  Who would want to kidnap such a perfect little family?  And how far would such a person be willing to go?

This is the truth:  Love, safety, family…it is all touch and go.


Publisher's Book Page: http://www.us.penguingroup.com/nf/Book/BookDisplay/0,,9780525953074,00.html?Touch_&_Go_Lisa_Gardner

Tuesday, March 12, 2013

Stages of Senior Care



Hogan, Paul and Hogan, Lori. Stages of Senior Care: Your Step-By-Step Guide to Making the Best Decisions. New York: McGraw Hill, 2010.

Call no.: 362.61 H678s

Publisher's Description: Using their experience running a successful international company providing in-home, non-medical services for seniors, husband-and-wife founders of Home Instead Senior Care offer a helpful guide for families choosing among home care-giving and other assisted-living options for aging or ailing parents. The Hogans believe in helping seniors stay in their homes as long as possible, and knowledge is their most powerful tool in securing that goal; this well-researched volume is packed with information, advice and resources aimed at managing and ameliorating the sadness, confusion, guilt and anxiety of making quality-of-life decisions for a loved one.

Emphasizing the need for planning, the Hogans offer a list of signs that indicate it’s time to consider additional care, as well as a thorough exploration of the options, including pros and cons, questions to ask and other factors when choosing among home care, senior centers, assisted living and nursing homes. The Hogans also consider options for children who live far away from their parents, and advice on what to do when siblings find themselves in disagreement. Recognizing that there is no one-size-fits-all solution, this salient volume compassionately addresses a full range of hard-to-discuss subjects, including funeral services and bereavement.
Publisher's Book Page: http://www.mhprofessional.com/product.php?isbn=0071621091

Book Web Site: http://www.stagesofseniorcare.com/

YouTube Videos: http://www.youtube.com/user/StagesofSeniorCare

Monday, March 11, 2013

Likeable Social Media






Kerpen, Dave. Likeable Social Media: How to Delight Your Customers, Create an Irresistible Brand, and Be Generally Amazing on Facebook (and Other Social Networks). [Updated ed.] New York: McGraw Hill, 2011.

Call no.: 658.872 K459l

Publisher's Description:  The secret to successful word-of-mouth marketing on the social web is easy: BE LIKEABLE.

A friend’s recommendation is more powerful than any advertisement. In the world of Facebook, Twitter, and beyond, that recommendation can travel farther—and faster—than ever before.

LIkeable Social Media helps you harness the power of word-of-mouth marketing to transform your business. Listen to your customers and prospects. Deliver value, excitement, and surprise. And most important, learn how to truly engage your customers and help them spread the word.


Publisher's Book Page: http://catalogs.mhhe.com/mhhe/viewProductDetails.do?isbn=0071762345

The Kashmir Shawl






Thomas, Rosie. The Kashmir Shawl. New York: Overlook Press, 2013.

Call no: F THO

Publisher's Description: For more than three decades, Rosie Thomas has enthralled readers around the world. Now, in The Kashmir Shawl, her most ambitious book yet, Thomas sweeps through time and place, and her readers will discover in this novel a captivating, romantic epic--an irresistible story of enduring love and memory.

It is the eve of 1941 and World War II is engulfing the globe. Newlywed Nerys Watkins leaves rural Britain to accompany her husband on a missionary posting to India, but when he leaves her in the exotic lakeside of Srinagar to take on a complicated mission elsewhere, she discovers a new world. Here, in the heart of Kashmir, the British dance, flirt, and gossip against the backdrop of war and Nerys soon becomes caught up in a dangerous liaison. By the time she is reunited with her husband, she is a very different woman. .

Years later, Nery’s granddaughter Mair Ellis clears out her dead father’s house and finds an exquisite shawl--a kaleidoscope of silvery blues and greens. Wrapped in the folds of this delicate object is a lock of a child’s curly hair. With nothing else to go on, Mair decides to trace her roots back to Kashmir, embarking on a quest that will change her own life forever. .

In this marvelous novel by a writer whose novels Marie-Claire called “beautifully written” and “a treat,” the inimitable Rosie Thomas is at her very best. A sweeping, multigenerational tale of marriage and isolation, The Kashmir Shawl is a tribute to the power of finding love in the most magical, unexpected places.

Publisher's Book Page: http://www.overlookpress.com/kashmir-shawl.html

Sunday, March 10, 2013

Bible Societies and the Baptists

First published in 1883, Bible Societies and the Baptists : Compiled from Published Documents by Charles Carroll Bitting has recently been reprinted.  It can be found in our Baptist Collection at BAPT 220.06 C548b

Saturday, March 09, 2013

The Battle of Midway






Symonds, Craig L. The Battle of Midway. New York: Oxford University Press, 2011.

Call no.: 940.5426699 Sy67b

Publisher's Description: There are few moments in American history in which the course of events tipped so suddenly and so dramatically as at the Battle of Midway. At dawn of June 4, 1942, a rampaging Japanese navy ruled the Pacific. By sunset, their vaunted carrier force (the Kido Butai) had been sunk and their grip on the Pacific had been loosened forever.

In this absolutely riveting account of a key moment in the history of World War II, one of America's leading naval historians, Craig L. Symonds paints an unforgettable portrait of ingenuity, courage, and sacrifice. Symonds begins with the arrival of Admiral Chester A. Nimitz at Pearl Harbor after the devastating Japanese attack, and describes the key events leading to the climactic battle, including both Coral Sea--the first battle in history against opposing carrier forces--and Jimmy Doolittle's daring raid of Tokyo. He focuses throughout on the people involved, offering telling portraits of Admirals Nimitz, Halsey, Spruance and numerous other Americans, as well as the leading Japanese figures, including the poker-loving Admiral Yamamoto. Indeed, Symonds sheds much light on the aspects of Japanese culture--such as their single-minded devotion to combat, which led to poorly armored planes and inadequate fire-safety measures on their ships--that contributed to their defeat. The author's account of the battle itself is masterful, weaving together the many disparate threads of attack--attacks which failed in the early going--that ultimately created a five-minute window in which three of the four Japanese carriers were mortally wounded, changing the course of the Pacific war in an eye-blink.

Symonds is the first historian to argue that the victory at Midway was not simply a matter of luck, pointing out that Nimitz had equal forces, superior intelligence, and the element of surprise. Nimitz had a strong hand, Symonds concludes, and he rightly expected to win.

Publisher's Book Page: http://www.oup.com/us/catalog/general/subject/HistoryAmerican/?view=usa&ci=9780195397932

Friday, March 08, 2013

Sudan, South Sudan, and Darfur






Natsios, Andrew S. Sudan, South Sudan, and Darfur: What Everyone Needs to Know. New York: Oxford University Press, 2012.

Call no.: 962.404 N214s

Publisher's Description: For thirty years Sudan has been a country in crisis, wracked by near-constant warfare between the north and the south. But on July 9, 2011, South Sudan became an independent nation. As Sudan once again finds itself the focus of international attention, former special envoy to Sudan and director of USAID Andrew Natsios provides a timely introduction to the country at this pivotal moment in its history. Focusing on the events of the last 25 years, Natsios sheds light on the origins of the conflict between northern and southern Sudan and the complicated politics of this volatile nation. He gives readers a first-hand view of Sudan's past as well as an honest appraisal of its future. In the wake of South Sudan's independence, Natsios explores the tensions that remain on both sides. Issues of citizenship, security, oil management, and wealth-sharing all remain unresolved. Human rights issues, particularly surrounding the ongoing violence in Darfur, likewise still clamor for solutions. Informative and accessible, this book introduces readers to the most central issues facing Sudan as it stands on the brink of historic change.

Publisher's Book Page: http://www.oup.com/us/catalog/general/subject/Law/PublicInternationalLaw/InternationalHumanRights/?view=usa&ci=9780199764198

Cover of Snow






Milchman, Jenny. Cover of Snow. New York: Ballantine Books, 2013.

Call no.: F MIL

Publisher's Description: Waking up one wintry morning in her old farmhouse nestled in the Adirondack Mountains of New York, Nora Hamilton instantly knows that something is wrong. When her fog of sleep clears, she finds her world is suddenly, irretrievably shattered: Her husband, Brendan, has committed suicide.

The first few hours following Nora’s devastating discovery pass for her in a blur of numbness and disbelief. Then, a disturbing awareness slowly settles in: Brendan left no note and gave no indication that he was contemplating taking his own life. Why would a rock-solid police officer with unwavering affection for his wife, job, and quaint hometown suddenly choose to end it all? Having spent a lifetime avoiding hard truths, Nora must now start facing them.

Unraveling her late husband’s final days, Nora searches for an explanation—but finds a bewildering resistance from Brendan’s best friend and partner, his fellow police officers, and his brittle mother. It quickly becomes clear to Nora that she is asking questions no one wants to answer. For beneath the soft cover of snow lies a powerful conspiracy that will stop at nothing to keep its presence unknown . . . and its darkest secrets hidden.

Publisher's Book Page: http://www.randomhouse.com/book/217498/cover-of-snow-by-jenny-milchman

Thursday, March 07, 2013

Interest Groups in American Campaigns






Rozell, Mark J.; Wilcox, Clyde; and Franz, Michael M. Interest Groups in American Campaigns: The New Face of Electioneering. 3rd ed. New York: Oxford University Press, 2012.

Call no.: 324.40973 R817i

Publisher's Description: In today's era of greatly divisive partisanship in Washington, interest groups have become increasingly powerful forces in U.S. politics. In races for the presidency, Congress, and state legislatures, these groups often help to elect--or reelect--candidates who support their causes and views. Now in its third edition, Interest Groups in American Campaigns: The New Face of Electioneering focuses on the key role that interest groups play in U.S. elections. Authors Mark J. Rozell, Clyde Wilcox, and Michael M. Franz present an extensive analysis based on interviews with interest group leaders, campaign finance filings, and election surveys. Opening with an introduction to the nature of our federal election system, they then examine how interest groups ally themselves with political parties and influence candidate nominations and party platforms. The authors also describe how interest groups interact with political candidates--by contributing money, goods, and services to campaigns--and with their own members and the broader electorate--through social networking, Tweeting, Internet advertising, television ads, direct mail, and phone calls. Throughout the book, diverse and compelling examples clearly illustrate how interest groups operate in the real world.

Revised and updated, the third edition of Interest Groups in American Campaigns delves into the 2010 election campaign; recent reforms and campaign finance laws that have substantially changed the roles played by interest groups; and how these recent changes will affect the 2012 races for federal offices.

Publisher's Book Page:  http://www.oup.com/us/catalog/general/subject/Politics/AmericanPolitics/ElectionsPublicOpinionVotingBeha/?view=usa&ci=9780199829798

Wednesday, March 06, 2013

Drug Nation





Plant, Martin, et al. Drug Nation: Patterns, Problems, Panics, and Policies. London: Oxford University Press, 2011.

Call No.: 362.290941 D842p

Publisher's Description: Humans have been using psychoactive (mind-altering) drugs since ancient times. Barely a day goes by without a drug related issue reaching the headlines, and drugs, in some way or other, affect all of our lives, whether by our own use, the use of those we know, or even from just being a victim of drug related crime.

This book provides an accessible and lucid introduction to some of the main health and social issues related to illicit drugs and their use. It reviews a range of popular drugs - including amphetamines, cannabis, cocaine, Ecstasy (MDMA), heroin and LSD whilst considering the law related to such substances. Written in an accessible and approachable style, the book dispels some of the many myths about drug use that exist, offering an authoritative and balanced perspective on issues of personal, local, national and international importance.

Drug Nation will be essential reading for anyone who wants to be informed about the drug situation, offering a sensible and non-sensational account of drugs and drug taking.

Publisher's Book Page: http://www.oup.com/us/catalog/general/subject/Medicine/PublicHealth/?view=usa&ci=9780199544790

Alex Cross, Run






Patterson, James. Alex Cross, Run. New York: Little, Brown, 2013.

Call no.: F PAT

Publisher's Description: DON'T LOOK, ALEX CROSS

Top plastic surgeon Elijah Creem is renowned for his skills in the operating room, and for his wild, no-expense-spared "industry parties," bringing in underage exotic dancers and models for nights of drugs, champagne, and uninhibited sex. That is, until Detective Alex Cross busts one of Creem's lavish soirees and ruins his fun. Now Creem is willing to do anything to avoid going to jail.

DON'T THINK, ALEX CROSS

But Alex doesn't have time to dwell on that case. A beautiful woman has been found murdered in her car, a lock of her hair viciously ripped off. Then a second woman is found hanging from a sixth-floor window with a brutal scar slashed across her stomach. When a third mutilated body is discovered, rumors of three serial killers on the loose send Washington D.C. into an all-out frenzy.

JUST RUN

Alex is under so much pressure to solve these three grim cases that he hasn't noticed that someone else investigating him-someone so obsessed and so twisted that they'll do anything-ANYTHING- to get the vengeance they require. Alex Cross, Run is James Patterson's most unrelenting story yet-a white-hot, sensational thrill ride with the most extreme and gripping characters Patterson has ever brought to life.

Publisher's Book Page:  http://www.hachettebookgroup.com/titles/james-patterson/alex-cross-run/9780316097512/

Tuesday, March 05, 2013

No Sympathy for the Devil






Stowe, David W. No Sympathy for the Devil: Christian Pop Music and the Transformation of American Evangelicalism. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2011.

Call No.: 781.71 St78n

Publisher's Description: In this cultural history of evangelical Christianity and popular music, David Stowe demonstrates how mainstream rock of the 1960s and 1970s has influenced conservative evangelical Christianity through the development of Christian pop music. The chart-topping, spiritually inflected music created a space in popular culture for talk of Jesus, God, and Christianity, thus lessening for baby boomers and their children the stigma associated with religion while helping to fill churches and create new modes of worship. Stowe shows how evangelicals' increasing acceptance of Christian pop music ultimately has reinforced a variety of conservative cultural, economic, theological, and political messages.

Publisher's Book Page: http://www.uncpress.unc.edu/browse/book_detail?title_id=1907

Monday, March 04, 2013

The Cuban Missile Crisis






Immell, Myra, ed. The Cuban Missile Crisis. (Perspectives on Modern World History). Detroit: Greenhaven Press, 2011.

Call no.: J 972.91064 C891i

Table of Contents (PDF): http://www.gale.cengage.com/pdf/samples/TOC_9780737750058.pdf

Publisher's Book Page: http://www.gale.cengage.com/servlet/ItemDetailServletCr?region=9&imprint=070&titleCode=GPMWHL&cf=p&type=3&id=253249

A Week in Winter






Binchy, Maeve. A Week in Winter. New York: Knopf, 2013.

Call no.: F BIN

Publisher's Description: Stoneybridge is a small town on the west coast of Ireland where all the families know one another. When Chicky Starr decides to take an old, decaying mansion set high on the cliffs overlooking the windswept Atlantic Ocean and turn it into a restful place for a holiday by the sea, everyone thinks she is crazy. Helped by Rigger (a bad boy turned good who is handy around the house) and Orla, her niece (a whiz at business), Chicky is finally ready to welcome the first guests to Stone House’s big warm kitchen, log fires, and understated elegant bedrooms. John, the American movie star, thinks he has arrived incognito; Winnie and Lillian are forced into taking a holiday together; Nicola and Henry, husband and wife, have been shaken by seeing too much death practicing medicine; Anders hates his father’s business, but has a real talent for music; Miss Nell Howe, a retired schoolteacher, criticizes everything and leaves a day early, much to everyone’s relief; the Walls are disappointed to have won this second-prize holiday in a contest where first prize was Paris; and Freda, the librarian, is afraid of her own psychic visions.
           
Sharing a week with this unlikely cast of characters is pure joy, full of Maeve’s trademark warmth and humor. Once again, she embraces us with her grand storytelling.

Publisher's Book Page: http://www.randomhouse.com/book/198581/a-week-in-winter-by-maeve-binchy

Sunday, March 03, 2013

Talbott Baptist Church

Doing some research in Jefferson County? Check out the Minutes and Records and Sunday School Records of Talbott Baptist Church in our special collections.

Minutes and records. [1935-2011] (7 volumes) - BAPT 286.1768924 T124m

Sunday school records [1924-1930] (1 volume) - BAPT 286.1768924 T124s

Saturday, March 02, 2013

Claudette Colvin: Twice Toward Justice






Hoose, Phillip. Claudette Colvin: Twice Toward Justice. New York: Square Fish, 2011.

Call no.: J 323.092 C726h

Publisher's Description: On March 2, 1955, an impassioned teenager, fed up with the daily injustices of Jim Crow segregation, refused to give her seat to a white woman on a segregated bus in Montgomery, Alabama. Instead of being celebrated as Rosa Parks would be just nine months later, fifteen-year-old Claudette Colvin found herself shunned by her classmates and dismissed by community leaders. Undaunted, a year later she dared to challenge segregation again as a key plaintiff in Browder v. Gayle, the landmark case that struck down the segregation laws of Montgomery and swept away the legal underpinnings of the Jim Crow South.


Based on extensive interviews with Claudette Colvin and many others, Phillip Hoose presents the first in-depth account of an important yet largely unknown civil rights figure, skillfully weaving her dramatic story into the fabric of the historic Montgomery bus boycott and court case that would change the course of American history.


Publisher's Book Page: http://us.macmillan.com/claudettecolvin/PhillipHoose

Friday, March 01, 2013

Leadership by Example






Chopra, Sanjiv. Leadership by Example: The Ten Key Principles of All Great Leaders. New York: St. Martin's Press, 2012.

Call no.: 303.34 C455l

Publisher's Description: All of us have the potential to become leaders. Very few of us are leaders all the time, but we all encounter moments in our lives when we can and should lead others. Few people set out knowingly to become leaders; rather, they see a need and they find a way of taking on the challenge, and often others choose to follow their example.

Based on the highly praised lecture that he has given to tens of thousands of people around the world, Dr. Sanjiv Chopra’s Leadership by Example gives you memorable stories that illustrate the ten core principles of effective leadership. Drawing on his experience as a dean at Harvard Medical School as well as on the lives and teachings of great leaders throughout history, this inspiring book will help guide you to becoming a leader in your own  life.

Publisher's Book Page: http://us.macmillan.com/leadershipbyexample/SanjivChopra

The MetroWest Daily News: http://www.metrowestdailynews.com/news/x1347548604/Art-of-Leadership-Weston-doctor-s-study-prompts-leadership-debate

Until the End of Time






Steel, Danielle. Until the End of Time. New York: Delacorte Press, 2013.

Call No.: F STE

Publisher's Description: Bill, a dedicated young lawyer working at his family’s prestigious New York firm, leaves everything he trained for to follow his dream and become a minister in rural Wyoming. Jenny, his wife, is a stylist whose heart and soul are invested in fashion. She leaves the milieu and life she loves to join him. The certainty they share is that their destinies are linked forever.

Fast forward thirty-eight years. Robert is a hardworking independent book publisher in Manhattan who has given up all personal life to build his struggling business. He is looking for one big hit novel to publish. Lillibet is a young Amish woman, living as though in the seventeenth century, caring for her widowed father and three young brothers on their family farm. In secret at night, by candlelight, she has written the novel that burns within her, and gets it into Robert’s hands, wrapped in her hand-stitched apron. He falls in love first with the book, and then with the woman he has never met, living in the sequestered world of the Amish—a world without telephones, computers, electricity, modern conveniences, or cars. Although Lillibet faces banishment from her family and community, she embraces the opportunity to publish her novel, and is irresistibly drawn to the man who has heard her voice. Destiny is at work here. Fate draws her from her horse-and-buggy life toward his, and the publication of her novel.

In the hands of master storyteller Danielle Steel, these two remarkable relationships come together in unexpected and surprising ways, as lovers are lost, and find each other again. If it is true that real love lasts forever and lovers cannot lose each other, then Until the End of Time will not only comfort and fascinate us, as destiny does her dance, but it will give us hope as well. Love and fate are powerful, irresistible forces, as Steel proves to us here, in a book about courage, change, risk, and hope . . . and love that never dies.

Publisher's Book Page: http://www.randomhouse.com/book/213523/until-the-end-of-time-by-danielle-steel