People of Albany : the first 200 years +

Peter J. Hess. Did you know that Jamestown, Virginia was the earliest English settlement but Jamestown was abandoned in 1699 making Dutch Albany the oldest continuous European settlement in the original thirteen English colonies? Did you know that Santa Claus may have made his first appearance in the New World in Albany and that Santa Claus has nothing whatsoever to do with Christmas? Read about the earliest Van Rensselaers, Schuylers, Ten Broecks, Yates and Lansings. Learn about: Anneke Jans Bogardus who owned 62 acres of Manhattan Island just north of Wall Street-probably the most valuable land in the United States, Kajingahaga and Agotzagena-the earliest Indian tribes encountered at Albany, the entire male population of Albany marching north to fight at Saratoga, all of the events leading up to the Hamilton-Burr duel that happened in Albany, the Albanian who drafted the document that was the basis for the Bill of Rights, the discovery of the Cohoes Mastodon and Cardiff Giant, and much more. (Check Catalog)

Skeletons at the feast : a novel

by Christopher A. Bohjalian. In his 12th novel, Bohjalian (The Double Bind) paints the brutal landscape of Nazi Germany as German refugees struggle westward ahead of the advancing Russian army. Inspired by the unpublished diary of a Prussian woman who fled west in 1945, the novel exhumes the ruin of spirit, flesh and faith that accompanied thousands of such desperate journeys. Prussian aristocrat Rolf Emmerich and his two elder sons are sent into battle, while his wife flees with their other children and a Scottish POW who has been working on their estate. Before long, they meet up with Uri Singer, a Jewish escapee from an Auschwitz-bound train, who becomes the group's protector. In a parallel story line, hundreds of Jewish women shuffle west on a gruesome death march from a concentration camp. Bohjalian presents the difficulties confronting both sets of travelers with carefully researched detail and an unflinching eye, but he blinks when creating the Emmerichs, painting them as untainted by either their privileged status, their indoctrination by the Nazi Party or their adoration of Hitler. Although most of the characters lack complexity, Bohjalian's well-chosen descriptions capture the anguish of a tragic era and the dehumanizing desolation wrought by war. --Publisher's Weekly. (Check catalog)

Your rights in the workplace

by Barbara Kate Repa. The full gamut of workers' rights is covered in an all-new edition of this comprehensive guide that includes the latest federal and state legislation and case law in regard to such issues as dress codes, harassment and discrimination, wages, on-the-job safety, insurance and retirement, job loss, and more. Original. (Check Catalog)

Pornografia

by Witold Gombrowicz. Originally published in 1966 and previously translated into English in 1978, this existential novel is set in occupied Poland during World War II. Narrator Witold and his enigmatic companion, Fryderyk, two intellectuals with ties to the underground resistance, find themselves holed up at a friend's farm. The two men quickly become obsessed with the farmer's teenage daughter and a young farmhand with whom she has been friends since childhood and attempt, for their own voyeuristic amusement, to entice the two into beginning a sexual relationship. Eventually, their games are derailed by, and possibly contribute to, a series of bizarre and disastrous incidents. Each event is overanalyzed by the narrator, allowing Gombrowicz to reveal his underlying concern with the "blind elemental forces" that determine human events: war, love, religion, sin, and desire. VERDICT Philosophical, sensual, and occasionally jarring, Gombrowicz's writing swirls with strange meanings. His singular style may deter casual readers, but those who brave a few chapters will find themselves hypnotized. Borchardt's translation, from the original Polish, returns a clarity and impact to the text that had been lost in the earlier two-step translation from the French. Especially recommended for fans of Sartre, Camus, and similar authors. --Library Journal (Check Catalog)

The war that killed Achilles : the true story of Homer's Iliad

by Caroline Alexander. Alexander, a professional writer who has been published in Granta, The New Yorker, and National Geographic, holds a Ph.D. in classics from Columbia University. Her new book explores her deep fascination with Homer's Iliad. Essentially, she offers an extended discussion of the plot, elaborating and contextualizing it by reference to extant fragments from other epics and other ancient texts and archaeological and historical evidence. She also relates the resonances of The Iliad in the modern world, from Muhammad Ali's refusal to serve in the Vietnam War to the account of an American war widow responding to the death of her husband in Iraq. Verdict Alexander's book is vigorous and deeply learned yet unpedantic. Highly recommended to general readers interested in a full appreciation of the power and the enduring relevance of The Iliad. --Library Journal. (Check Catalog)

The year of the flood : a novel

by Margaret Atwood. Never one to rest on her laurels, famed Canadian author Atwood redeems the word sequel with this brilliant return to the nightmarish future first envisioned in Oryx and Crake. Contrary to expectations, the waterless flood, a biological disaster predicted by a fringe religious group, actually arrives. In its wake, the survivors must rely on their wits to get by, all the while reflecting on what went wrong. Atwood wins major style points here for her framing device, the liturgical year of the God's Gardeners sect. Readers who enjoy suspense will also appreciate the story's shifting viewpoint and nonlinear time line, which result in the gradual revelation of key events and character relationships. Atwood's heroines seem uniformly grim and hollow, but one can hardly expect cheerfulness in the face of the apocalypse, and the hardships of their lives both pre- and postflood are moving and disturbing. VERDICT Another win for Atwood, this dystopian fantasy belongs in the hands of every highbrow sf aficionado and anyone else who claims to possess a social conscience. --Library Journal (Check Catalog)

The shadows of youth : the remarkable journey of the civil rights generation

by Andrew B. Lewis. With deep admiration and rigorous scholarship, historian Lewis (Gonna Sit at the Welcome Table) revisits the "ragtag band" of young men and women who formed the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee. Impatient with what they considered the overly cautious and accommodating pace of the NAACP and Martin Luther King Jr., the black college students and their white allies, inspired by Gandhi's principles of nonviolence and moral integrity, risked their lives to challenge a deeply entrenched system. Fanning out over the Jim Crow South, SNCC organized sit-ins, voter registration drives, Freedom Schools and protest marches. Despite early successes, the movement disintegrated in the late 1960s, succeeded by the militant "Black Power" movement. The highly readable history follows the later careers of the principal leaders. Some, like Stokely Carmichael and H. "Rap" Brown, became bitter and disillusioned. Others, including Marion Barry, Julian Bond and John Lewis, tempered their idealism and moved from protest to politics, assuming positions of leadership within the very institutions they had challenged. According to the author, "No organization contributed more to the civil rights movement than SNCC," and with his eloquent book, he offers a deserved tribute. --Publisher's Weekly. (Check Catalog)

Tears of Pearl

by Tasha Alexander. Lady Emily and Colin Hargreaves are on their honeymoon tour, headed to Constantinople via the Orient Express. On the train, they assist Sir Richard St. Clare after he falls ill at dinner. In appreciation of their help, Sir Richard invites the couple to attend an opera at the sultan's palace. As guests are leaving, the body of a harem girl is found. She's identified as Sir Richard's missing daughter, who was kidnapped by bandits over 20 years ago. Emily is determined to exhibit her sleuthing abilities and discover the truth, but is it worth the personal price she'll pay? Because this is the fourth book in Alexander's Victorian series (after A Fatal Waltz), characters have been well established, but their relationships and inner conflicts continue to develop in interesting ways. Curious facts about the Ottoman Empire, comparisons of women's independence there and in England, and vivid descriptions of locations and objects add that little something extra. Verdict The strong female lead and historically accurate details will please readers of Anne Perry, Laurie R. King, and Deanna Raybourn seeking a new fan-favorite author. (Check catalog)

Parallel play : growing up with undiagnosed Asperger's

by Tim Page. At the age of 45, Pulitzer Prize-winning music critic and writer Page learned that he had Asperger's syndrome. The diagnosis explained his lifelong struggle to fit in with others, the parallel play that he engaged in as a child, existing alongside others but never with them. Page watched with envy as his younger sister and brother came into the world, merged into the family, and found a place for themselves in both while he continued to founder. In school, he was absolutely no good at subjects that didn't interest him. Music was a saving grace, regimented yet soaringly creative. Old movies were also an obsession, inspiring him to try his hand at writing and directing silent films cast by his siblings and neighborhood children. His difficulty in making friends heightened the pain of adolescence, but he was pulled into the human race by Emily Post's etiquette lessons, which helped him decipher the mysteries of social conventions. Repulsed by the human touch, Page admits that lovemaking was very mechanical, well into adulthood. In adolescence, he dropped out of school, considered suicide, and dabbled in drugs, including LSD, which produced nightmarish hallucinations on what was already a delicate and disordered psyche. Page eventually found an esteemed career that he thinks might have been enhanced not debilitated by his condition. This highly introspective memoir includes photographs and drawings that evoke a life of struggle and triumph. --Booklist. (Check Catalog)