New Nonfiction: Friday, July 18

If you frequently read fiction books, you might want to consider a nonfiction text for a change of pace. The library is constantly receiving new nonfiction and biography books, including the items below. Why not stop by and check out a book, CD, movie, or other material that you find interesting? We will continue to offer “Grab and Go” services for those who prefer to place their books on hold online and then pick them up on the shelves by the circulation desk.

Here are a few of the new nonfiction books that have arrived at the library recently. We invite you to check them out!

Dinner with King Tut: How Rogue Archeologists are Re-creating the Sights, Sounds, Smells, and Tastes of Lost Civilizations

Whether it’s the mighty pyramids of Egypt or the majestic temples of Mexico, we have a good idea of what the past looked like. But what about our other senses: The tang of Roman fish sauce and the springy crust of Egyptian sourdough? The boom of medieval cannons and the clash of Viking swords? A new generation of researchers is resurrecting those hidden details, pioneering an exciting new discipline called experimental archaeology. These are scientists gone rogue: They make human mummies. They investigate the unsolved murders of ancient bog bodies. All in the name of experiencing history as it was, with all its dangers, disappointments, and unexpected delights.

Clint: The Man and the Movies

C-L-I-N-T. That single short, sharp syllable has stood as an emblem of American manhood and morality and sheer bloody-minded will, on-screen and off-screen, for more than sixty years. To read the story of Clint Eastwood is to understand nearly a century of American culture. No Hollywood figure has so completely and complexly stood inside the changing climates of post-World War II America. At age ninety-five, he has lived a tumultuous century and embodied much of his time and many of its contradictions. But his roles and his films are two-dimensional in comparison to his whole life. As Shawn Levy reveals in this masterful biography, the reality is richer, knottier, and more absorbing.

A Marriage at Sea: A True Story of Love, Obsession, and Shipwreck

Maurice and Maralyn make an odd couple. He’s a loner, awkward and obsessive; she’s charismatic and ambitious. But they share a horror of wasting their lives. And they dream of running away from it all. Maurice began to study nautical navigation. Maralyn made detailed lists of provisions. And in June 1972, they set sail. For nearly a year all went well, until deep in the Pacific, a breaching whale knocked a hole in their boat and it sank beneath the waves. What ensues is a jaw-dropping fight to survive on the wild ocean, with little hope of rescue. Alone together for months in a tiny rubber raft, starving and exhausted, Maurice and Maralyn have to find not only ways to stay alive but ways to get along, as their inner demons emerge and their marriage is put to the greatest of tests.