Preview Shelf: Library News and Notable New Books by CDPL Volunteer, Janice Clauser

Experience shared in biographical books can astound and influence us to appreciate what we have. That’s the powerful effect of “Just Send Me Word” by Orlando Figes which takes us to 1946, when after five years as a POW under the Nazis and then as a deportee in the Arctic Gulag, a man named Lev Mishchenko received a letter from the sweetheart he had hardly dared hope was still alive! After that, they exchanged 1,500 letters, and the recently discovered correspondence is the only known real-time record of life in Stalin’s Gulag.

“Selena, With Love” is Chris Perez’ memorial to his wife, the singer, who was tragically murdered at the age of 23 an “everlasting love story that immortalizes the heart and soul of an extraordinary, unforgettable, and irreplaceable icon.” “Reunited” comes from Pamela Slaton, an investigative genealogist who has unlocked some of life’s greatest family mysteries. She herself had a traumatic reunion with her birth mother, and has studied identical twins separated at birth. “An Invisible Thread” is a true story by Laura Schroff and Alex Tresniowski about the unlikely friendship between Laura and Maurice Maczyk, from vastly different worlds, they lived just two blocks apart in high-flying, 1980s Manhattan. “The Golden Hat” by Kate Winslet relates her friendship with a teenager with nonverbal autism and his mother, as she provides the English-language narration for their film “A Mother’s Courage” (aka “The Sunshine Boy”).

“Total Memory Makeover” by Marilu Henner says “Uncover Your Past, Take Charge of Your Future”. She quotes Samuel Johnson’s “The true art of memory is the art of attention.” “The Good, The Bad, and the Godawful: 21st-Century Movie Reviews” by Kurt Loder is definitely fun to peruse.

“Zoobiquity: What Animals Can Teach Us about Health and the Science of Healing” by Barbara Natterson-Horowitz relates her search for connections between the human and animal worlds that encourages us to see our essential connection to all living beings. “Blood Feud” is Lisa Alther’s document of the Hatfields and the McCoys, “the epic story of murder & vengeance”.

“The Aleppo Codex” tells a true story of obsession, faith, and the pursuit of an Ancient Bible, written by Matti Friedman. “Where Mortals Dwell” is Craig Bartholomew’s Christian view of “place” for today. “The Unlikely Secret Agent” by Ronald Kasrils tells how his wife Eleanor was highly principled, but also endowed with clandestine skills she needed against the apartheid system in South Africa. Rajiv Chandrasekaran’s “Little America” is about the war within the war for Afghanistan. “Unhooked: How to Quit Anything” by Frederick Woolverton is designed to help gain freedom and a happier life. “Land of Promise” is Michael Lind’s economic history of the United States. “The Fortunes of Permanence: Culture and Anarchy in an Age of Amnesia” by Roger Kimball traces interconnections between our traditional standard bearers and ambassadors of anarchy. Stacy Takacs’ “Terrorism TV” studies popular entertainment in post 9/11 America. How we arrived at historically low levels of trust in our institutions is discussed in Christopher Hayes’ “Twilight of the Elites”. Jim Manzi’s “Uncontrolled” tells about economic experiments, some of which have worked, and many that have been national disappointments.