Staff Recommendations
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All the Truth is Out: The Week Politics Went Tabloid
by Bai, Matt.
February 9, 2015
Call Number: 320.973 B1515
Colorado Senator Gary Hart was considered to be the frontrunner for the 1988 Democratic Presidential nomination in 1987. Bai, the national political columnist for Yahoo News, recounts how an alleged adulterous affair forced the potential Democratic nominee to drop out of the race. Hart, reeling from the intense media circus he and his family were subjected to, withdrew into seclusion. He reemerged in November to run a quixotic, scaled down campaign which failed to generate many votes. Bai places the blame for Gary Hart’s failed campaign squarely on the shoulders of the media.... Read Full Review
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A year in the life of Downton Abbey
by Fellowes, Jessica,
Reviewed by: Sheryn Morris, Librarian, Literature & FictionDecember 2, 2014
Call Number: 809.2954 D751Fe-2
Downton Abbey enthusiasts will be more than a bit chuffed over the latest book on their favorite PBS television series. They probably will cheer with joy! Not that avid fans need any enticement, but the book is a stunning prelude to next year’s season. In addition there will be another season after that, which will start production next year. This book is set in post-World War I England. Jessica Fellowes interweaves the story of the upstairs and downstairs characters and daily life at the fictional estate... Read Full Review
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On Heaven and Earth: Pope Francis on Faith, Family, and the Church in the Twenty-First Century
by Francis, Pope, 1936-
May 12, 2014
Call Number: 261 F818
In 2010, Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio (now Pope Francis) had a series of religious dialogues with a fellow Argentinian, Abraham Skorka, a Conservative Rabbi and biophysicist. The two religious leaders discussed the principle that the role of faith plays in dealing with contemporary issues such as economic inequality, euthanasia, treatment of the elderly, political corruption, abortion and materialism. More controversially, they shared their opposition to gay marriage, their respect for some communists, their agreement that the Catholic Church had a mixed record during the... Read Full Review
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Year zero : a history of 1945
by Buruma, Ian,
March 11, 2014
Call Number: 909.9 B974
1945 was the year that radically changed the world, according to Dutch historian Ian Buruma. Atomic bombs were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, beginning the Atomic Age. General Douglas MacArthur took charge of the Supreme Command of Allied Powers. At the end of the Second World War, Europe was divided up by forces from the United States and the Soviet Union, precipitating the Cold War. The United Nations was formed to prevent another worldwide catastrophe. The Nuremberg Trials were held to bring Nazi mass murderers to justice for genocide--the first time men had been put on trial... Read Full Review
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A star for Mrs. Blake
by Smith, April, 1949-
Reviewed by: Janice Batzdorff, LibrarianFebruary 16, 2014
When U.S. soldiers died during the First World War, their relatives were given the choice to have the remains shipped home or buried in an American cemetery in Europe. A lobbying movement on behalf of those who selected overseas interment resulted in Congress financing close to 7000 pilgrimages for mothers and wives to visit the graves.
Inspired by the diary of a young West Point graduate who escorted groups of mothers to France, local writer April Smith has created a well-researched and engaging fictional account of five women who left their homes during the height of the Depression... Read Full Review
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The mayor of MacDougal Street : a memoir
by Van Ronk, Dave.
December 31, 2013
Call Number: 789.14 V275
The inspiration for the new Coen brothers film, Inside Llewyn Davis, Dave Van Ronk (1936-2002), was the unofficial leader of the Greenwich Village folk music scene in the late fifties and early sixties. Unlike most of the New York-based performers, Van Ronk was a New York native who grew up in Queens and Brooklyn. He developed a love for jazz and blues at a young age, and frequented the Washington Square Park folk singing sessions. Though he had seen very little of the country until he was in his twenties, Van Ronk became deeply enamored of music from the American heartland.
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David and Goliath: Underdogs, Misfits, and the Art of Battling Giants
by Gladwell, Malcolm, 1963-
November 4, 2013
Call Number: 174 G543-1
Gladwell, a columnist for The New Yorker, has produced another bestseller about success, focusing on the advantages of the disadvantaged. It is counterintuitive to think that David can triumph over Goliath. The biblical story, in the first book of Samuel, is a classic case of asymmetrical warfare. David would have no chance of defeating a giant in hand-to-hand combat. The slingshot is his only option to vanquish Goliath.
Gladwell profiles representative figures who demonstrate how hardships can be turned into strengths. David Boies, one of America's... Read Full Review
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Strokes of genius : Federer, Nadal, and the greatest match ever played
by Wertheim, L. Jon.
September 14, 2013
Call Number: 796.1 W499
Tennis players rarely catch the attention of the American public anymore, even as modern racquet technology and training techniques have made the sport more exciting. The sport has been dominated by Europeans for the last decade, and its old country club following has largely gravitated to golf. Despite the Williams sisters' mastery of the women's game, it takes a truly epic match between the top players for tennis to be water cooler fodder. Sports Illustrated writer L. Jon Wertheim recounts such a match in this excellent book. For the first time since the Borg-... Read Full Review
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Instant : the story of Polaroid
by Bonanos, Christopher, 1969-
August 12, 2013
Call Number: 338.78 P762Bo
Instant photography is so much a part of our lives that it is difficult to imagaine a time when it was a novelty. In the late 1940s the Polaroid Land Camera was commercially available and it printed a photograph in one minute. Edwin Land, the founder of Polaroid, was the Steve Jobs of his day, according to author Christopher Bonanos. He dropped out of Harvard and developed polarized filters for automobiles, sunglasses and 3-D spectacles. His Cambridge-based technology firm invented the first instant camera by the end of World War II. Instant color film was invented by... Read Full Review
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White Bicycles: Making Music in the 1960s
by Boyd, Joe
June 3, 2013
Call Number: 788.99092 B789
Joe Boyd is an iconic American music producer and executive who has been involved in the recording industry for five decades. His interest in music production began when he watched the pre-Dick Clark Bandstand on television in Princeton, New Jersey. On his first production gig, Boyd brought the blues artist Lonnie Johnson to Princeton. He subsequently enrolled in Harvard, where he became part of the bohemian folk scene in Cambridge.
In Cambridge, Boyd became acquainted with folksingers Joan Baez, Bob Dylan and Maria D'Amato. He developed a relationship with George Wein,... Read Full Review
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Gods like us : on movie stardom and modern fame
by Burr, Ty.
April 22, 2013
Call Number: 301.55 B968
Burr expounds on the nature of stardom from the early silent era to the present day in this provocative and well-researched tome. Iconic movie stars, including Mary Pickford, Charlie Chaplin, Clark Gable, Bette Davis, Marlon Brando, Harrison Ford, Meryl Streep and Tom Cruise are profiled. Burr questions the meaning of stardom in the Internet age, when stardom is often accidentally obtained, the major film studios have limited power, and stars have more currency as "brands" than actors. While Gods Like Us is not a comprehensive overview of Hollywood history, Burr... Read Full Review
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The house in France : a memoir
by Wells, Gully.
Reviewed by: Sheryn Morris, Librarian, Literature & FictionAugust 27, 2012
Call Number: 071.092 W453We
In this sparkling, joyful family memoir, Gully Wells has created an homage to her mother, the irrepressible Dee Wells, not exactly a rock of stability, but who did create a vacation house that would become a solid lodestone in the lives of her children, grandchildren, husband, lovers, and friends. She bought a ramshackle farmhouse that was clinging to a hillside in southern France and made it into a vacation home that became a summer retreat, and respite for some, from a busy life in England.
Dee Wells was a femme fatale who at times unwittingly attracted men wherever she went.... Read Full Review