New Nonfiction: Friday, November 7

If you frequently read fiction books, you might want to consider nonfiction 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!

Jane Austen’s Bookshelf: A Rare Book Collector’s Quest to Find the Women Writers Who Shaped A Legend

Long before she was a rare book dealer, Rebecca Romney was a devoted reader of Jane Austen. But Austen wasn’t a lone genius. She wrote at a time of great experimentation for women writers—and clues about those women are sprinkled throughout Austen’s work. The women that populated her bookshelf profoundly influenced her work; Austen looked up to them, passionately discussed their books with her friends, and used an appreciation of their books as a litmus test for whether someone had good taste. So where had these women gone? Why hadn’t Romney—despite her training—ever read them? Jane Austen’s Bookshelf investigates the disappearance of Austen’s heroes to reveal who they were, what they meant to Austen, and how they were forgotten.

Proof of Life: Let Go, Let Love, and Stop Looking for Permission to Live Your Life (large print)

This is Pastiloff’s account of how she reclaimed her voice and desire by radically changing her life. She shows us it is never too late to begin again, or to let go of stories like: I don’t deserve this; I don’t get to be happy; no one will love me; I’m too old. Through this book, you’ll quiet your Inner Asshole, participate in the cathartic process of Shame Loss, ignore the Imaginary Time Gods, use creativity as a portal into healing and connection, and become your own permission slip. Complete with takeaways, creativity prompts, and poetry, Proof of Life is funny, inspiring, and full of love. This book is a reminder that your birthright is not stress or shame and that you don’t have to show proof that you are worthy or deserving. You are your own proof of life.

The Women’s Orchestra of Auschwitz: A Story of Survival

In 1943, German SS officers in charge of Auschwitz-Birkenau ordered that an orchestra be formed among the female prisoners. Almost fifty women and girls from eleven nations were drafted into a band that would play in all weathers marching music to other inmates, forced laborers who left each morning and returned, exhausted and often broken, at the end of the day. While still living amid the harshest of circumstances, with little more than a bowl of soup to eat, they were also made to give weekly concerts for Nazi officers, and individual members were sometimes summoned to give solo performances. For almost all of the musicians chosen to take part, being in the orchestra saved their lives. But at what cost?