Inyo County Free Library - New Acquisitions
April 2019 - June 2019
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.
Non-Fiction | Computer science, information & general worksPhilosophy & psychologyReligionSocial sciencesLanguageScienceTechnologyArts & recreationLiteratureHistory & geography |
By Chaucer, Geoffrey Publishing Date: c1989 Classification: 800 Call Number: 821.1 CHA |
War music: an account of Homer's Iliad By Logue, Christopher Publishing Date: 2016 Classification: 800 Call Number: 821.914 LOG ""Your life at every instant up for-- / Gone. / And, candidly, who gives a toss? / Your heart beats strong. Your spirit grips" writes Christopher Logue in his original adaption of Homer's Iliad, the uncanny "translation of translations" that won ecstatic and unparalleled acclaim as "the best translation of Homer since Pope's" (The New York Review of Books). Logue's account of Homer's Iliad is a radical reimagining and reconfiguration of Homer's tale of warfare, human folly, and the power of the gods in language and verse that is emphatically modern and "possessed of a very terrible beauty" (Slate). Illness prevented him from bringing his version of the Iliad to completion, but enough survives in notebooks and letters to assemble a compilation of War Music, Kings, The Husbands, and All Day Permanent Red, along with previously unpublished material, in one final illuminating volume arranged by his friend and fellow poet Christopher Reid. The result comes as near as possible to representing the poet's complete vision and confirms what his admirers have long known: that "Logue's Homer is likely to endure as one of the great long poems of the twentieth century" (The Times Literary Supplement)"-- |
By Homer Publishing Date: [2015] Classification: 800 Call Number: 883.01 HOM "Composed around 730 B.C., Homer's Iliad recounts the events of a few momentous weeks in the protracted ten-year war between the invading Achaeans, or Greeks, and the Trojans in their besieged city of Ilion. From the explosive confrontation between Achilles, the greatest warrior at Troy, and Agamemnon, the inept leader of the Greeks, through to its tragic conclusion, The Iliad explores the abiding, blighting facts of war. Carved close to the original Greek, acclaimed classicist Caroline Alexander's new translation is swift and lean, with the driving cadence of its source--a translation epic in scale and yet devastating in its precision and power." -- |
By Homer Publishing Date: 1992 Classification: 800 Call Number: 883.01 HOM One of the supreme masterpieces of world literature, the Homeric saga of the shipwrecks, wanderings, and homecoming of the master tactician Odysseus encompasses a virtual inventory of the themes and attitudes that have shaped Western culture. The tale of Odysseus’s encounters with such obstacles as Calypso, Circe, Scylla and Charybdis, the Sirens, and the lotus-eaters, and his dramatic return to Ithaca and his patient wife, Penelope, forms a prototype for all subsequent Western epics. Robert Fitzgerald’s much-acclaimed translation, fully possessing as it does the body and spirit of the original, has helped to assure the continuing vitality of Europe’s most influential work of poetry. This edition includes twenty-five new line drawings by Barnaby Fitzgerald. - (Random House, Inc.) |
By Homer Publishing Date: c2018 Classification: 800 Call Number: 883.01 HOM "The first great adventure story in the Western canon, The Odyssey is a poem about violence and the aftermath of war; about wealth, poverty, and power; about marriage and family; about travelers, hospitality, and the yearning for home. In this fresh, authoritative version--the first English translation of The Odyssey by a woman--this stirring tale of shipwrecks, monsters, and magic comes alive in an entirely new way. Written in iambic pentameter verse and a vivid, contemporary idiom, this engrossing translation matches the number of lines in the Greek original, thus striding at Homer's sprightly pace and singing with a voice that echoes Homer's music. Wilson's Odyssey captures the beauty and enchantment of this ancient poem as well as the suspense and drama of its narrative. Its characters are unforgettable, from the cunning goddess Athena, whose interventions guide and protect the hero, to the awkward teenage son, Telemachus, who struggles to achieve adulthood and find his father; from the cautious, clever, and miserable Penelope, who somehow keeps clamoring suitors at bay during her husband's long absence, to the "complicated" hero himself, a man of many disguises, many tricks, and many moods, who emerges in this translation as a more fully rounded human being than ever before. A fascinating introduction provides an informative overview of the Bronze Age milieu that produced the epic, the major themes of the poem, the controversies about its origins, and the unparalleled scope of its impact and influence. Maps drawn especially for this volume, a pronunciation glossary, and extensive notes and summaries of each book make this an Odyssey that will be treasured by a new generation of scholars, students, and general readers alike."--Publisher's description. |
Heyday: the 1850s and the dawn of the global age By Wilson, Ben Publishing Date: [2016] Classification: 900 Call Number: 909.81 WIL "American Midwest to Shanghai, from London to Tokyo, the 1850s was a decade of extraordinary change and upheaval: the world economy expanded fivefold; millions of families emigrated to the ends of the earth to carve out lives in the wilderness; new technologies revolutionized how people communicated; and railways cut across great continents. Steam ships, telegraphs, photographs and pharmaceuticals all proliferated. In Heyday, an epic story of global connections and coincidences, the acclaimed historian Ben Wilson paints a picture of a world on the brink of seismic transformation. He reveals an age of remorseless, breathtaking change that intoxicated contemporaries and convinced them that the future held out the promise of exponential progress. Heyday begins in the rainforests of Malaya. These decades witnessed momentous political revolutions and bloody wars, from the Crimean War to the unifications of Italy and Germany and the American Civil War. Meanwhile, the forces of modernization and the West's insatiable hunger for land, natural resources, and new markets seemed to be blasting down all physical resistance to trade, exploration, and colonization. The supreme self-confidence of the time brought the West into violent conflict with China, Japan, India, and Native Americans. Above all, Wilson argues that this era was driven by the idea that free trade was equivalent to personal and political freedom--a philosophy that has had a long and, some would argue, pernicious afterlife. Following ordinary men and women--including buccaneers in Nicaragua, cocktail drinkers in Minnesota, pirates in Hong Kong, and guerrilla fighters in the Caucasus Mountains--Heyday is an exhilarating tour through the tumultuous period that gave shape to the modern world"-- |
Fracture: life & culture in the West, 1918-1938 By Blom, Philipp Publishing Date: [2015] Classification: 900 Call Number: 909.821 BLO The award-winning author of The Vertigo Years argues that in the aftermath of World War I, Western culture redirected energies into hedonistic, aesthetic and intellectual adventures of self-discovery in ways that triggered world-changing innovations. |
Black lamb and grey falcon: a journey through Yugoslavia By West, Rebecca Publishing Date: 2007 Classification: 900 Call Number: 914.97 WES Written on the brink of World War II, Rebecca West's classic examination of the history, people, and politics of Yugoslavia illuminates a region that is still a focus of international concern. A magnificent blend of travel journal, cultural commentary, and historical insight, Black Lamb and Grey Falcon probes the troubled history of the Balkans and the uneasy relationships among its ethnic groups. The landscape and the people of Yugoslavia are brilliantly observed as West untangles the tensions that rule the country's history as well as its daily life. |
By Cantor, Norman F. Publishing Date: 1994 Classification: 900 Call Number: 940.1 CAN Surveys the history of the Middle Ages, describes the most influential political and social forces, and looks at everyday life. |
The vertigo years: Europe, 1900-1914 By Blom, Philipp Publishing Date: c2008 Classification: 900 Call Number: 940.288 BLO Examines how changes from the Industrial Revolution prior to World War I brought about radical transformation in society, changes in education, and massive migration in population that led to one of the bloodiest events in history. |
NEW RELEASE American sutra: a story of faith and freedom in the Second World War By Williams, Duncan Ryuken Publishing Date: 2019 Classification: 900 Call Number: 940.5317 WIL The mass incarceration of Japanese Americans during World War II is not only a tale of injustice; it is a moving story of faith. In this pathbreaking account, Duncan Ry¿±ken Williams reveals how, even as they were stripped of their homes and imprisoned in camps, Japanese-American Buddhists launched one of the most inspiring defenses of religious freedom in our nation's history, insisting that they could be both Buddhist and American.-- |
By Levi, Primo Publishing Date: 2000 Classification: 900 Call Number: 940.5318 LEV Primo Levi's account of life as a concentration camp prisoner falls into two parts. If This Is A Man describes his deportation to Poland and the twenty months he spent working in Auschwitz. The Truce covers his long journey home to Italy at the end of the war through Russia and Central Europe. Levi never raises his voice, complains or attributes blame. By telling his story quietly, objectively and in plain language he renders both the horror and the hope of the situation with absolute clarity. Probing the themes which preoccupy all his writing - work, love, power, the nature of things, what it is to be human - he leave the reader drained, elated, apprehensive. |
By Glanzman, Sam Publishing Date: 2015 Classification: 900 Call Number: 940.545 GLA "Legendary comic book artist Sam Glanzman draws upon his own experiences aboard a WWII destroyer in these gripping tales of Navy life, including a new 10-page story created for this edition. Recounted in graphic novel style, these dramatic adventures realistically depict a teenager's military career, from initiation and advancement through the ranks to tours of the Pacific and kamikaze attacks at the Battle of Okinawa. New introduction by Max Brooks, author of World War Z"-- |
NEW RELEASE By Olson, Lynne Publishing Date: [2019] Classification: 900 Call Number: 940.5486 OLS "The little-known story of Marie-Madeleine Fourcade, the woman who headed the largest spy network in occupied France during World War II ... In 1941 a thirty-one-year-old Frenchwoman, a young mother born to privilege and known for her beauty and glamour, became the leader of a vast intelligence organization--the only woman to serve as a chef de r©♭sistance during the war. Strong-willed, independent, and a lifelong rebel against her country's conservative, patriarchal society, Marie-Madeleine Fourcade was temperamentally made for the job. Her group's name was Alliance, but the Gestapo dubbed it Noah's Ark because its agents used the names of animals as their aliases. The name Marie-Madeleine chose for herself was Hedgehog: a tough little animal, unthreatening in appearance, that, as a colleague of hers put it, 'even a lion would hesitate to bite.' No other French spy network lasted as long or supplied as much crucial intelligence--including providing American and British military commanders with a 55-foot-long map of the beaches and roads on which the Allies would land on D-Day--as Alliance. The Gestapo pursued them relentlessly, capturing, torturing, and executing hundreds of its three thousand agents, including Fourcade's own lover and many of her key spies. Although Fourcade, the mother of two young children, moved her headquarters every few weeks, constantly changing her hair color, clothing, and identity, she was captured twice by the Nazis. Both times she managed to escape--once by slipping naked through the bars of her jail cell--and continued to hold her network together even as it repeatedly threatened to crumble around her. Now, in this dramatic account of the war that split France in two and forced its people to live side by side with their hated German occupiers, Lynne Olson tells the fascinating story of a woman who stood up for her nation, her fellow citizens, and herself."--Dust jacket. |
The secret rooms: a true story of a haunted castle, a plotting duchess, and a family secret By Bailey, Catherine Publishing Date: 2013 Classification: 900 Call Number: 941.082 BAI " For fans of Downton Abbey: the enthralling true story of family secrets and aristocratic intrigue in the days before WWI. After the Ninth Duke of Rutland, one of the wealthiest men in Britain, died alone in a cramped room in the servants' quarters of Belvoir Castle on April 21, 1940, his son and heir ordered the room, which contained the Rutland family archives, sealed. Sixty years later, Catherine Bailey became the first historian given access. What she discovered was a mystery: the Duke had painstakingly erased three periods of his life from all family records-but why? As Bailey uncovers the answers, she also provides an intimate portrait of the very top of British society in the turbulent days leading up to World War I"-- |
NEW RELEASE Under red skies: three generations of life, loss, and hope in China By Kan, Karoline Publishing Date: 2019 Classification: 900 Call Number: 951.06 KAN "An examination of the generational bonds and divisions of the Kan family and the panoramic effects of China's changing societal norms and fast-growing economy, where some succeed and others are destined to fail"-- |
Heights of madness: one woman's journey in pursuit of a secret war By MacDonald, Myra Publishing Date: 2007 Classification: 900 Call Number: 954.9105 MAC |
Angels in the sky: how a band of volunteer airmen saved the new state of Israel By Gandt, Robert L. Publishing Date: [2017] Classification: 900 Call Number: 956.04 GAN "The gripping story of how an all-volunteer air force helped defeat five Arab nations and protect the fledgling Jewish state. In 1948, only three years after the Holocaust, the newly founded nation of Israel came under siege from a coalition of Arab states. The invaders vowed to annihilate the tiny country and its 600,000 settlers. A second Holocaust was in the making. Outnumbered sixty to one, the Israelis had no allies, no regular army, no air force, no superpower to intercede on their behalf. The United States, Great Britain, and most of Europe enforced a strict embargo on the shipment of arms to the embattled country. In the first few days, the Arab armies overran Israel. The Egyptian air force owned the sky, making continuous air attacks on Israeli cities and army positions. Israel's extinction seemed certain. And then came help. From the United States, Canada, Britain, France, South Africa arrived a band of volunteer airmen. Most were World War II veterans--young, idealistic, swaggering, noble, eccentric, courageous beyond measure. Many were Jews, a third were not. Most of them knowingly violated their nations' embargoes on the shipment of arms and aircraft to Israel. They smuggled in Messerschmitt fighters from Czechoslovakia, painting over swastikas with Israeli stars. Defying their own countries' strict laws, the airmen risked everything--their lives, careers, citizenship--to fight for Israel. They were a small group, fewer than 150. In the crucible of war they became brothers in a righteous cause. They flew, fought, died, and, against all odds, helped save a new nation. The saga of the volunteer airmen in Israel's war of independence stands as one of the most stirring--and untold--war stories of the past century"-- |
The return of a king: the battle for Afghanistan, 1839-42 By Dalrymple, William Publishing Date: 2013 Classification: 900 Call Number: 958.103 DAL Examines the mid-19th-century Afghan war as a tragic result of neocolonial ambition, cultural collision and hubris, drawing on previously untapped primary sources to explore such topics as the reestablishment of a puppet-leader Shah, the conflict's brutal human toll and the similarities between the war and present-day challenges. |
NEW RELEASE The heartbeat of Wounded Knee: native America from 1890 to the present By Treuer, David Publishing Date: 2019 Classification: 900 Call Number: 970.004 TRE The received idea of Native American history -- as promulgated by books like Dee Brown's 1970 mega-bestselling Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee -- has been that American Indian history essentially ended with the 1890 massacre at Wounded Knee. Not only did one hundred fifty Sioux die at the hands of the U. S. Cavalry, but Native civilization did as well. Growing up Ojibwe on a reservation in Minnesota, training as an anthropologist, and researching Native life past and present for his nonfiction and novels, David Treuer has uncovered a different narrative. Because they did not disappear -- and not despite but rather because of their intense struggles to preserve their language, their traditions, their families, and their very existence -- the story of American Indians since the end of the nineteenth century to the present is one of unprecedented resourcefulness and reinvention. Treuer melds history with reportage and memoir. Tracing the tribes' distinctive cultures from first contact, he explores how the depredations of each era spawned new modes of survival. The devastating seizures of land gave rise to increasingly sophisticated legal and political maneuvering that put the lie to the myth that Indians don't know or care about property. The forced assimilation of their children at government-run boarding schools incubated a unifying Native identity. Conscription in the U.S. military and the pull of urban life brought Indians into the mainstream and modern times, even as it steered the emerging shape of self-rule and spawned a new generation of resistance. The Heartbeat of Wounded Knee is the intimate story of a resilient people in a transformative era. |