What to Read this Month: September 2016

What to ReadThis Month

Welcome back to a new semester!  While you’re exploring all that Duke has to offer, why not explore our New and Noteworthy or Current Literature collections?  One of the great things about the books in these collections is the variety of subject areas and genres represented—everything from graphic novels, political histories, and books about diseases (and many things in between).


Hamilton: The Revolution: Being the complete libretto of the Broadway musical, with a true account of its creation, and concise remarks on hip-hop, the power of stories, and the new America by Lin-Manuel Miranda and Jeremy McCarter.  I’m not going to lie to you, you may have to request this title, but it should still be easier than getting tickets to the musical!  This book traces the development of this blockbuster musical, provides the full text of the libretto, photos, interviews, and more.

 


indexPaper Girls Volume One, writer Brian K. Vaughan (author of Saga and other works) and artist Cliff Chiang.  In the early hours after Halloween of 1988, four 12-year-old newspaper delivery girls uncover the most important story of all time. Suburban drama and otherworldly mysteries collide in this smash-hit series about nostalgia, first jobs, and the last days of childhood.  You may enjoy this if you have been enjoying the Netflix show Stranger Things.

 


medicaldetectiveIn Adventures of a Female Medical Detective: In Pursuit of Smallpox and AIDS, Mary Guinan, PhD, MD, writes stories of her life in medicine, describing her individual experiences in controlling outbreaks, researching new diseases, and caring for patients with untreatable infections. She offers readers a feisty, engaging, and uniquely female perspective from a time when very few women worked in the field.  If you want to learn more, you mind find this review and this interview helpful.

 


vote The Fight to Vote by Michael Waldman, president of The Brennan Center, a legal think tank at NYU.  This book trace the entire story from the Founders’ debates to today’s restrictions: gerrymandering; voter ID laws; the flood of money unleashed by conservative nonprofit organizations; making voting difficult for the elderly, the poor, and the young, by restricting open polling places.  You can read this Washington Post article for more details.

 


millervalleyMiller’s Valley by Anna Quindlen.  For generations the Millers have lived in Miller’s Valley. Mimi Miller tells about her life with intimacy and honesty. As Mimi eavesdrops on her parents and quietly observes the people around her, she discovers more and more about the toxicity of family secrets, the dangers of gossip, the flaws of marriage, the inequalities of friendship and the risks of passion, loyalty, and love. Home, as Mimi begins to realize, can be “a place where it’s just as easy to feel lost as it is to feel content.”  You can find reviews here, here, and here.  If you enjoy this book, check out one of Anna Quindlen’s many other books here.