Inyo County Free Library - New Acquisitions
December 2023 - March 2024
These are books and media new to the library and cataloged by the Inyo County Free Library.
Additional information about each title can be found in the catalog (click on the title). For older acquisition lists choose from Select another list. To request any of these titles please contact your local library branch.
Hunting the falcon: Henry VIII, Anne Boleyn, and the marriage that shook Europe By Guy, J. A Publishing Date: 2023 Classification: 900 Call Number: 942.05 GUY Based on new research, this history of Henry VIII's courtship, short union, and brutal execution of Anne Boleyn provides dispels previously held myths about Boleyn's role in the marriage. |
By Robb, Peter Publishing Date: 2007 Classification: 900 Call Number: 945.8092 ROB South of mainland Italy lies the island of Sicily, home to an ancient culture that--with its stark landscapes, glorious coastlines, and extraordinary treasure troves of art and archeology--has seduced travelers for centuries. But at the heart of the island's rare beauty is a network of violence and corruption that reaches into every corner of Sicilian life: Cosa Nostra, the Mafia. The author lived in southern Italy for over fourteen years and recounts its sensuous pleasures, its literature, politics, art, and crimes.--Publisher's description. |
Lisbon: war in the shadows of the City of Light, 1939-1945 By Lochery, Neill Publishing Date: 2011 Classification: 900 Call Number: 946.9425 LOC In this riveting narrative, renowned historian Neill Lochery offers a revelatory portrait of World War II's back stage as he tells the story of how Portugal, a relatively poor European country trying frantically to remain neutral amidst extraordinary pressures, survived the war not only physically intact but significantly wealthier. The country's emergence as a prosperous European Union nation would be financed in part, it turns out, by a cache of Nazi gold. |
By Nekbakhtshoev, Navruz Publishing Date: 2023 Classification: 900 Call Number: 947 NEK |
NEW RELEASE Publishing Date: 2024 Classification: 900 Call Number: 947.71 |
Nordic, Central, & Southeastern Europe By Thompson, Wayne C Publishing Date: 2023 Classification: 900 Call Number: 948 THO "The World Today Series: Nordic, Central, and Southeastern Europe is an annually updated presentation of each sovereign country in Nordic, Central and Southeastern Europe, past and present. It is organized by individual chapters for each country and presents a complete and authoritative overview of each region's geography, people, history, political system, constitution, parliament, parties, political leaders, and elections. The combination of factual accuracy and up-to-date detail along with its informed projections make this an outstanding resource for researchers, practitioners in international development, media professionals, government officials, potential investors and students. Now in its 21st edition, the content is thorough yet perfect for a one-semester introductory course or general library reference. Available in both print and e-book formats and priced low to fit student and library budgets." -- Amazon.com. |
The embarrassment of riches: an interpretation of Dutch culture in the Golden Age By Schama, Simon Publishing Date: 1997, 1987 Classification: 900 Call Number: 949.204 SCH Schama explores the mysterious contradictions of the Dutch nation that invented itself from the ground up, attained an unprecedented level of affluence, and lived in constant dread of being corrupted by happiness. Drawing on a vast array of period documents and sumptuously reproduced art, Schama re-creates in precise detail a nation's mental state. He tells of bloody uprisings and beached whales, of the cult of hygiene and the plague of tobacco, of thrifty housewives and profligate tulip-speculators. He tells us how the Dutch celebrated themselves and how they were slandered by their enemies. -- Publisher description. |
Athens: a history : from ancient ideal to modern city By Waterfield, Robin Publishing Date: 2004 Classification: 900 Call Number: 949.512 WAT "Beginning with the classical period, when it reached its pinnacle of power and cultural genius, Athens: A History is peopled with fascinating individuals. Athens' remarkable ascent had been inspired by the ideals embodied in the ancient Olympic games, but the city deliberately turned its back on those ideals, in Athens' stunning rise and rapid fall lies a timeless tragedy of excessive pride brought low. Contrasting its noble ideals and arrogant actions, Waterfield finds in Athens' story a moral for all time - and vital lessons for the current era." "From its heyday in the fifth century B.C., Athens: A History traces the city's transformations under the yoke of foreign empires - Macedonian, Roman, Byzantine, Frankish and Ottoman - and its revival as the capital of the newly independent nation of Greece. Today, it is a burgeoning European city, host of the 2004 Olympics and heir to a momentous historical and cultural legacy. From Pericles and Socrates to Lord Byron and Baron de Coubertin - founder of the modern Olympic games - this is a powerful, evocative history of a city whose glorious past continues to inspire the present."--Jacket. |
Balkan ghosts: a journey through history By Kaplan, Robert D Publishing Date: 1996 Classification: 900 Call Number: 949.6 KAP From the assassination that triggered World War I to the ethnic warfare now sweeping Serbia, Bosnia, and Croatia, the Balkans have been the crucible of the twentieth century, the place where terrorism and genocide first became tools of policy. |
East & Southeast Asia 2023-2024 By Hoare, James E Publishing Date: 2023 Classification: 900 Call Number: 950 HOA "The World Today Series: East & Southeast Asia provides historical background on the evolution of Modern East & Southeast Asia to help readers gain a thorough understanding of contemporary developments in this vital region. Broad introductory regional chapters are followed by sections on each country in the region. The combination of factual accuracy and up-to-date detail make this an outstanding resource for researchers, practitioners in international development, media professionals, government officials, potential investors, and students to understand the immediate background of contemporary developments." -- Amazon.ca. |
The last samurai: the life and battles of Saigo Takamori By Ravina, Mark Publishing Date: 2004 Classification: 900 Call Number: 952.03 RAV On September 24, 1877, Saigo Takamori, one of Japan's most loyal and honored samurai, died in the bloodiest conflict Japan had seen in over two hundred years -- a battle led by Saigo and his band of loyal students. Now, more than 125 years after his death, Saigo still remains a legendary yet enigmatic figure in Japan. Why would Japan's greatest warrior, whose sole purpose was to serve his country, set in motion a civil war and lead a group of rebel soldiers to overthrow the government that he had personally helped to restore? The Last Samurai sets forth to demystify Saigo's life, his machinations, and the dramatic historical events that shaped the life and death of Japan's favorite samurai. Exiled for misconduct, Saigo was pardoned in 1864 and called back to the mainland to train a group of Satsuma warriors. Their mission was to seize control of the imperial palace and restore the imperial house to its former glory. Saigo's coup was successful, and in 1867 he led the drive to destroy the shogunate and to create a powerful new state. But with Saigo's victory came a crushing defeat: in his drive to modernize Japan, the Meiji emperor, whom Saigo had helped bring to power, abolished all samurai privileges, including their ancient right to carry swords. Now an acting member of a modernizing Meiji government, Saigo was given command of the newly formed Imperial Guard, Japan's first national army in nearly a millennium. Saigo supported many of the government's Western-style reforms, but he was torn by the sense that he was betraying his most stalwart supporters. Deeply ambivalent about the government he had helped create, Saigo sought to end his career with a final dramatic gesture: he sought to go as imperial envoy to Korea, where he would insist that the Korean king recognize the Meiji emperor. When his plan was denounced as reckless, Saigo resigned from government, returned to his native Satsuma, and opened a military academy for former samurai warriors. His group of disgruntled students resented the rapid modernization of Japan even more than did Saigo. They set forth to slow the hand of change with their swords, making Saigo the reluctant leader of their uprising. Old Japan and New Japan met in battle and old Japan lost. Saigo died in battle from a bullet wound, but legend still has it instead that he died by his own sword, upholding samurai honor to the end. |
By Lloyd Parry, Richard Publishing Date: 2017 Classification: 900 Call Number: 952.0512 LLO On 11 March 2011, a massive earthquake sent a 120-foot-high tsunami smashing into the coast of north-east Japan. By the time the sea retreated, more than 18,500 people had been crushed, burned to death, or drowned. It was Japan's greatest single loss of life since the atomic bombing of Nagasaki. It set off a national crisis, and the meltdown of a nuclear power plant. And even after the immediate emergency had abated, the trauma of the disaster continued to express itself in bizarre and mysterious ways. Richard Lloyd Parry, an award-winning foreign correspondent, lived through the earthquake in Tokyo, and spent six years reporting from the disaster zone. There he encountered stories of ghosts and hauntings. He met a priest who performed exorcisms on people possessed by the spirits of the dead. And he found himself drawn back again and again to a village which had suffered the greatest loss of all, a community tormented by unbearable mysteries of its own. What really happened to the local children as they waited in the school playground in the moments before the tsunami? Why did their teachers not evacuate them to safety? And why was the unbearable truth being so stubbornly covered up?Ghosts of the Tsunami is a classic of literary non-fiction, a heart-breaking and intimate account of an epic tragedy, told through the personal accounts of those who lived through it. It tells the story of how a nation faced a catastrophe, and the bleak struggle to find consolation in the ruins. |
The anarchy: the relentless rise of the East India Company By Dalrymple, William Publishing Date: 2019 Classification: 900 Call Number: 954.031 DAL "In August 1756 the East India Company defeated the young Mughal emperor and forced him to establish in his richest provinces a new administration run by English merchants who collected taxes through means of a ruthless private army--what we would now call an act of involuntary privatization. The East India Company's founding charter authorized it to 'wage war' and it had always used violence to gain its ends. But the creation of this new government marked the moment that the East India Company ceased to be a conventional international trading corporation dealing in silks and spices and became something much more unusual: an aggressive colonial power in the guise of a multinational business. In less than four decades it had trained up a security force of around 200,000 men--twice the size of the British army--and had subdued an entire subcontinent, conquering first Bengal and finally, in 1803, the Mughal capital of Delhi itself. The Company's reach stretched until almost all of India south of the Himalayas was effectively ruled from a boardroom in London. The Anarchy tells the remarkable story of how one of the world's most magnificent empires disintegrated and came to be replaced by a dangerously unregulated private company, based thousands of miles overseas in one small office, five windows wide, and answerable only to its distant shareholders. In his most ambitious and riveting book to date, William Dalrymple tells the story of the East India Company as it has never been told before, unfolding a timely cautionary tale of the first global corporate power."-- |
The Middle East and South Asia 2023-2024 By Pappe, Ilan Publishing Date: 2023 Classification: 900 Call Number: 956 PAP |
Sylvia, queen of the headhunters: an outrageous Englishwoman and her lost kingdom By Eade, Philip Publishing Date: 2008 Classification: 900 Call Number: 959.5403 EAD Sylvia Brooke (1885-1971), better known as the Ranee of Sarawak, was the wife, consort, andby customslave of Sir Vyner Brooke, the last White Rajah of the jungle kingdom of Sarawak on the island of Borneo. The nation had its own flag, revenue, postage stamps, and money, and for three generations the White Rajahs had held the power of life and death over their subjects. But by the 1930s there was a sharp decline in their power and prestige, and at the center of it all stood Ranee Sylvia. Author of eleven books, an extravagantly-dressed socialite and incorrigible self-dramatist, the Ranee was described by the press as that most charming of despots” and by her own brother as a female Iago.” With a supporting cast including her father, a celebrated courtier in love with his own son, and her whimsical and sexually incontinent husband, this is the fascinating account of the extraordinary and often malevolent life of Ranne Sylvia. - (Independent Publishing Group) |
By Fanon, Frantz Publishing Date: 2021 Classification: 900 Call Number: 960 FAN "First published in 1961, and reissued in this sixtieth anniversary edition with a powerful new introduction by Cornel West, Frantz Fanon's The Wretched of the Earth is a masterful and timeless interrogation of race, colonialism, psychological trauma, and revolutionary struggle, and a continuing influence on movements from Black Lives Matter to decolonization. A landmark text for revolutionaries and activists, The Wretched of the Earth is an eternal touchstone for civil rights, anti-colonialism, psychiatric studies, and Black consciousness movements around the world. Alongside Cornel West's introduction, the book features critical essays by Jean-Paul Sartre and Homi K. Bhabha. This sixtieth anniversary edition of Fanon's most famous text stands proudly alongside such pillars of anti-colonialism and anti-racism as Edward Said's Orientalism and The Autobiography of Malcolm X"-- |
By Wiafe-Amoako, Francis Publishing Date: [2023] Classification: 900 Call Number: 960 WIA Each country is examined through the following sections: Basic Facts; Land and People; The Past: Political and Economic History; The Present: Contemporary Issues; and The Future. In addition to country chapters, the book features extended essays on Africa's Historical Background and the Colonial Period. The combination of factual accuracy and up-to-date detail along with its informed projections make this an outstanding resource for researchers, practitioners in international development, media professionals, government officials, potential investors and students. The content is thorough yet perfect for a one-semester introductory course or general library reference. Available in both print and e-book formats and priced low to fit student and library budgets. |
Travels into the interior of Africa By Park, Mungo Publishing Date: 2003 Classification: 900 Call Number: 966.022 PAR A combination of two journeys, Scotsman Mungo Park's story of his first trip in 1795 as a 24-year old, and again in 1805, provided Europeans with their first reliable description of the interior of the continent. The first trip was full of an endearing vulnerability and the heroic generosity of a fit young man, while the second was one of Conradian tragedy, murder, and mayhem. Despite starvation, imprisonment, and frequent illness, he managed to keep a record. Though he failed in the object of his mission - to chart the course of the Niger River - he did succeed in exploring West Africa and opening in trade routes. His first-hand experiences of tribal justice, gold mining, and the slave trade are recorded, as well as his own understated heroism, a story of courage, open-hearted friendship, and betrayal. His vivid record of his travels brought a new image of Africa to the European public, though the continent claimed him for itself in death. Travels is still considered the most readable of all the classics of African exploration"--Publisher's description. |
Spies in the Congo: America's atomic mission in World War II By Williams, A. Susan Publishing Date: [2016] Classification: 900 Call Number: 967.51 WIL "In the 1940s, the brightest minds of the United States and Nazi Germany raced to West Africa with a single mission: to secure the essential ingredient of the atomic bomb--and to make sure nobody saw them doing it. Albert Einstein told President Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1939 that the world's only supply of uniquely high-quality uranium ore--the key ingredient for the atomic bomb--could be found in the Katanga province of the Belgian Congo at the Shinkolobwe Mine. Once the US Manhattan Project was committed to developing atomic weapons for the war against Germany and Japan, the rush to procure this uranium became a top priority--one deemed 'vital to the welfare of the United States.' But covertly exporting it from Africa posed a major risk: the ore had to travel via a spy-infested Angolan port or 1,500 miles by rail through the Congo, and then be shipped by boats or Pan Am Clippers to safety in the United States. It could be poached or smuggled at any point on the orders of Nazi Germany. To combat that threat, the US Office of Strategic Services sent in a team of intrepid spies, led by Wilbur Owings 'Dock' Hogue, to be America's eyes and ears and to protect its most precious and destructive cargo. Packed with newly discovered details from American and British archives, this is the gripping, true story of the unsung heroism of a handful of good men--and one woman--in colonial Africa who risked their lives in the fight against fascism and helped deny Hitler his atomic bomb"--Publisher description. |
By Babie, Paul Publishing Date: 2023 Classification: 900 Call Number: 971 BAB "The World Today Series: Canada is an annually updated presentation of Canada. It provides the reader an in-depth look at the country's culture, geography, people, economy, politics and future. The combination of factual accuracy and up-to-date detail along with its informed projections make this an outstanding resource for researchers, practitioners in international development, media professionals, government officials, potential investors and students."-- |