LibGuides: What's New: What's New

Italian Heritage Month

Florence : The Paintings & Frescoes : 1250-1743

Florence is the cradle of art in the Western world. With more than 10 million visitors each year, it is home to dozens of museums and palaces that contain many of the world's most renowned works of art. Never before have so many treasures of this great city - nearly 2,000 images - been put together in one volume.

Florence: The Paintings & Frescoes: 1250-1743 includes every painting currently on display in the Uffizi, The Galleria Palatina of the Pitti Palace, The Academia, and the Duomo plus many masterpieces in twenty-eight other museums and churches around the city. In these illustrious institutions, you'll find stunning fresco cycles by Giotto, Masaccio, Ghirlandaio, and Filippino Lippi and paintings by many of the most celebrated artists of all time - Leonardo, Raphael, Botticelli, Michelangelo, Caravaggio, Rembrandt, and more.

Each one of the nearly 2,000 works of art represented in the book is annotated with the name of the painting and artist, the date of the work, the birth and death dates of the artist, the medium that was used, the size of the work, and the catalog number (if applicable). In addition, 250 of the most iconic and significant paintings and other pieces of art are highlighted with 200-word essays by art historian Anja Grebe on such topics as the key attributes of the work, what to look for when viewing the work, the artist's inspirations and techniques, and biographical information on the artist.

Reading Dante : From Here to Eternity

Prue Shaw is one of the world's foremost authorities on Dante. Written with the general reader in mind, Reading Dante brings her knowledge to bear in an accessible yet expert introduction to his great poem.

This is far more than an exegesis of Dante's three-part Commedia. Shaw communicates the imaginative power, the linguistic skill and the emotional intensity of Dante's poetry - the qualities that make the Commedia perhaps the greatest literary work of all time and not simply a medieval treatise on morality and religion.

The book provides a graphic account of the complicated geography of Dante's version of the afterlife and a sure guide to thirteenth-century Florence and the people and places that influenced him. At the same time, it offers a literary experience that lifts the reader into the universal realms of poetry and mythology, creating links not only to the classical world of Virgil and Ovid but also to modern art and poetry, the world of T.S. Eliot, Seamus Heaney and many others.

Dante's questions are our questions: What is it to be a human being? How should we judge human behavior? What matters in life and death? Reading Dante helps the reader to understand Dante's answers to these timeless questions and to see how surprisingly close they sometimes are to modern answers.

The Italian Summer Kitchen : Timeless Recipes for La Dolce Vita

For a culinary tour of Italy or a master class in creating the nation's many regional gems in your home kitchen, you couldn't ask for a better guide than Cathy Whims. And to showcase ingredients that make Italian cooking one of the best-known and most-appreciated gastronomies worldwide, there's no better season than summer.

In her debut cookbook, Whims brings together dishes from Italy's many and varied regions, united by her masterful interpretation of cucina povera - literally "food of the poor," meaning fresh produce, local meats, handmade pasta and pizza, and simple cooking methods. Inventive recipes for drinks, appetizers, pasta, pizza, risottos, meat and fish, and desserts are united not by region but by feeling. Everything is authentically Italian yet easy for the home cook to create, no matter where they live. Step-by-step instructions demystify essential skills, such as how to make fresh pasta, cook a perfect risotto, and craft heavenly, light-as-a-cloud gnocchi. Adorned with dreamy, original watercolor illustrations, The Italian Summer Kitchen is a one-way ticket to la dolce vita.

Sleepwalking into a New World : The Emergence of Italian City Communes in the Twelfth Century

Amid the disintegration of the Kingdom of Italy in the eleventh and twelfth centuries, a new form of collective government - the commune - arose in the cities of northern and central Italy. Sleepwalking into a New World takes a bold new look at how these autonomous city-states came about, and fundamentally alters our understanding of one of the most important political and cultural innovations of the medieval world.

Chris Wickham provides richly textured portraits of three cities - Milan, Pisa, and Rome - and sets them against a vibrant backcloth of other towns. He argues that, in all but a few cases, the elites of these cities and towns developed one of the first nonmonarchial forms of government in medieval Europe, unaware that they were creating something altogether new. Wickham makes clear that the Italian city commune was by no means a democracy in the modern sense, but that it was so novel that outsiders did not know what to make of it. He describes how, as the old order unraveled, the communes emerged, governed by consular elites "chosen by the people," and subject to neither emperor nor king. They regularly fought each other, yet they grew organized and confident enough to ally together to defeat Frederick Barbarossa, the German emperor, at the Battle of Legnano in 1176.

Sleepwalking into a New World reveals how the development of the autonomous city-state took place, which would in the end make possible the robust civic culture of the Renaissance.

Women of War : The Italian Assassins, Spies, and Couriers Who Fought the Nazis

From underground soldiers to intrepid spies, Women of War unearths the hidden history of the brave women who risked their lives to overthrow the Nazi occupation and liberate Italy. Using primary sources and brand new scholarship, historian Suzanne Cope illuminates the roles played by women while Italians struggled under dual foes: Nazi invaders and Italian fascist loyalists. Cope's research and storytelling introduce four brave and resourceful women who risked everything to overthrow the Nazi occupation and pry their future from the fascist grasp.

We meet Carla Capponi in Rome, where she made bombs in an underground bunker, then ferried them to their deadly destination wearing lipstick and a trenchcoat; and Bianca Guidetti Serra, who rode her bicycle up switchbacks in the Alps, dodging bullets while delivering bags of clandestine newspapers and munitions to the anti-fascist armies hidden in the mountains. In Florence, the young future author of Italy's new constitution, Teresa Mattei, carried secret messages and hid bombs, while Anita Malavasi led troops across the Apennine Mountains. Women of War brings their experiences as underground resistance fighters, partisan combatants, spies, and saboteurs to life.

Essential and original, Women of War offers not only a reexamination of the elision of women from vital WWII history but also a valuable perspective on the ongoing fight for gender equality and social justice. After all, these were the women who launched a feminist movement as they fought for the future of their country, and what that could mean for its women, all while under Nazi and fascist fire.

New in the Library

A Monsoon Rising by Thea Guanzon
Call Number: PR9550.9 .G763 M66 2024

After a lifetime of war, Alaric and Talasyn were thrust into an alliance that was supposed to end the fighting between their homelands; however, being married to a sworn foe feels far from peaceful.

Now Talasyn must play the part of Alaric's willing empress while her allies secretly plot to overthrow his reign. But the longer the couple are forced together, the harder it becomes for her to deny the feelings crackling like lightning between them. When the time comes to act, can Talasyn trust Alaric, or must she ignore her heart for the sake of so many others?

Alaric, as the Master of the Shadowforged Legion, has trained for battle all his life, but marrying a Lightweaver may be his most dangerous challenge yet. With tensions between nations churning, he needs to focus on the greater threat: the Moonless Dark, a cataclysmic magival event that could devour the continent. Only he and Talasyn can stop it, with a powerful merging of shadow and light that they alone can create together. But saving their world from disaster is a mere preface to his father's more sinister schemes, and his wife is a burning flame in the darkness, tempting both Alaric's loyalties and his desires.

The world holds its breath amidst a whirlwind of new magic and old secrets that could change everything.
Onyx Storm (Wing and Claw Collection) by Rebecca Yarros
Call Number: PS3625 .A7384 O59 2025

After nearly eighteen months at Basgiath War College, Violet Sorrengail knows there's no more time for lessons. No more time for uncertainty. Because the battle has truly begun, and with enemies closing in from outside their walls and within their ranks, it's impossible to know who to trust.

Now Violet must journey beyond the failing Aretian wards to seek allies from unfamiliar lands to stand with Navarre. The trip will test every bit of her wit, luck, and strength, but she will do anything to save what she loves--her dragons, her family, her home, and him.

Even if it means keeping a secret so big, it could destroy everything.

They need an army. They need power. They need magic. And they need the one thing only Violet can find--the truth.

But a storm is coming...and not everyone can survive its wrath.
Say You'll Remember Me by Abby Jimenez
Call Number: PS3610 .I47 S29 2025

There might be no such a thing as a perfect guy, but Xavier Rush comes disastrously close. A gorgeous veterinarian giving Greek god vibes-all while cuddling a tiny kitten? Immediately yes. That is until Xavier opens his mouth and proves that even sculpted gods can say the absolute wrong thing. Like, really wrong. Of course, there's nothing Samantha loves more than proving an asshole wrong...

...unless, of course, he can admit he made a mistake. But after one incredible and seemingly endless date-possibly the best in living history-Samantha is forced to admit the truth, that her family is in crisis and any kind of relationship would be impossible. Samantha begs Xavier to forget her. To remember their night together as a perfect moment, as crushing as that may be.

Only no amount of distance or time is nearly enough to forget that something between them. And the only thing better than one single perfect memory is to make a life-and even a love-worth remembering.
Those Beyond the Wall by Micaiah Johnson
Call Number: PS3610. O36634 T56 2024

In Ashtown, a rough-and-tumble desert community, the Emperor rules with poisoned claws and an iron fist. He can't show any sign of weakness, as the neighboring Wiley City has spent lifetimes beating down the people of Ashtown and would love nothing more than its downfall. There's only one person in the desert the Emperor can fully trust--and her name is Scales.

Scales is the best at what she does: keeping everyone and everything in line. As a skilled mechanic--and an even more skilled fighter, when she needs to be--Scales is a respected member of the Emperor's crew, who's able to keep things running smoothly. But the fragile peace Scales helps to maintain is fractured when a woman is mangled and killed before her eyes. Even more incomprehensible: There doesn't seem to be a murderer.

When more bodies start to turn up, both in Ashtown and in the wealthier, walled-off Wiley City, Scales is tasked with finding the cause--and putting an end to it by any means necessary. To protect the people she loves, she teams up with a frustratingly by-the-books partner from Ashtown and a brusque-but-brilliant scientist from the City, delving into both worlds to track down an invisible killer. But the answers Scales finds are bigger than she ever could have imagined, leading her into the brutal heart beneath Wiley City's pristine façade and dredging up secrets from her own past that she would rather keep hidden. If she wants to save the world from the earth-shattering truths she uncovers, she can no longer remain silent--even if speaking up costs her everything.
The Sirens by Emilia Hart
Call Number: PR9619.4 .H3438 S57 2025

2019: Lucy awakens from a dream to find her hands around her ex-lover's throat. Horrified, she flees to her older sister's house on the Australian coast, hoping she can help explain the strangely vivid nightmare that preceded the attack--but Jess is nowhere to be found. Desperate for answers, Lucy finds and begins to read her sister's adolescent diary.

1999: Jess is a lonely sixteen-year-old in a rural town in the middle of the continent. Diagnosed with a rare allergy to water, she has always felt different, until her young, charming art teacher takes an interest in her drawings, seeing a power and maturity in them--and in her--that no one else has.

1800: Twin sisters Mary and Eliza have been torn from their loving father in Ireland and forced onto a convict ship bound for Australia. For their entire lives, they've feared the ocean, as their mother tragically drowned when they were just girls. Yet as the boat bears them further and further from all they know, they begin to notice changes in their bodies that they can't explain, and they feel the sea beginning to call to them...

As Lucy awaits Jess's return, strange rumors surrounding her small town start to emerge. Numerous men have gone missing at sea, spread over decades. A tiny baby was found hidden in a cave. And sailors tell of hearing women's voices on the waves.

We Refuse by Kellie Carter Jackson
Call Number: E185.61 .J1515 2024

Black resistance to white supremacy is often reduced to a simple binary, between Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s nonviolence and Malcolm X's "by any means necessary." In "We Refuse", historian Kellie Carter Jackson urges us to move past this false choice, offering an unflinching examination of the breadth of Black responses to white oppression, particularly those pioneered by Black women.

The dismissal of "Black violence" as an illegitimate form of resistance is itself a manifestation of white supremacy, a distraction from the insidious, unrelenting violence of structural racism. Force - from work stoppages and property destruction to armed revolt - has played a pivotal part in securing freedom and justice for Black people since the days of the American and Haitian Revolutions. But violence is only one tool among many. Carter Jackson examines other, no less vital tactics that have shaped the Black struggle, from the restorative power of finding joy in the face of suffering to the quiet strength of simply walking away.

Clear-eyed, impassioned, and ultimately hopeful, "We Refuse" offers a fundamental corrective to the historical record, a love letter to Black resilience, and a path toward liberation.
The Waiting Game by Nicola Clark
Call Number: DA317.3 .C53 2025

Every Tudor Queen had ladies-in-waiting. They were her confidantes and her chaperones. Only the Queen's ladies had the right to enter her most private chambers, spending hours helping her to get dressed and undressed, caring for her clothes and jewels, listening to her secrets. But they also held a unique power. A quiet word behind the scenes, an appropriately timed gift, a well-negotiated marriage alliance were all forms of political agency wielded expertly by women.

"The Waiting Game" explores the daily lives of ladies-in-waiting, revealing the secrets of recruitment, costume, what they ate, where (and with whom) they slept. We meet Maria de Salinas, who traveled to England with Catherine of Aragon when she was just a teenager and spied for her during the divorce from Henry VIII. Anne Boleyn's lady-in-waiting Jane Parker was instrumental in the execution of not one, but two queens. And maid-of-honor Anne Basset kept her place through the last four consorts, negotiating the conflicting loyalties of her birth family, her mistress the queen, and even the desires of the king himself.

As Henry changed wives - and changed the very fabric of the country's structure besides - these women had to make choices about loyalty that simply didn't exist before. "The Waiting Game" is the first time their vital story has been told.
Tripped by Norman Ohler; Marshall Yarbrough (Translator)
Call Number: BF209.L9 O45 2024

Following the fall of the Third Reich, drug use--long kept under control by the Nazis' strict anti-drug laws--is rampant throughout the city. Split into four sectors, Berlin's drug policies are being enforced under the individual jurisdictions of each allied power--the Soviet Union, Britain, France, and the US. In the American zone, Arthur J. Giuliani of the nascent Federal Bureau of Narcotics is tasked with learning about the Nazis' anti-drug laws and bringing home anything that might prove "useful" to the United States. Five years later, Harvard professor Dr. Henry Beecher began work with the US government to uncover the research behind the Nazis' psychedelic program. Begun as an attempt to find a "truth serum" and experiment with mind control, the Nazi study initially involved mescaline, but quickly expanded to include LSD. Originally created for medical purposes by Swiss pharmaceutical Sandoz, the Nazis co-opted the drug for their mind control military research--research that, following the war, the US was desperate to acquire. This research birthed MKUltra, the CIA's notorious brainwashing and psychological torture program during the 1950s and 1960s, and ultimately shaped US drug policy regarding psychedelics for over half a century.

Based on extensive archival research on both sides of the Atlantic, "Tripped" is a wild, unconventional postwar history, a spiritual sequel to Norman Ohler's NEW YORK TIMES bestseller "Blitzed". Revealing the close relationship and hidden connections between the Nazis and the early days of drugs in America, Ohler shares how this secret history held back therapeutic research of psychedelic drugs for decades and eventually became part of the foundation of America's War on Drugs.
The Schubert Treatment by Claire Oppert; Katia Grubisic (Translator)
Call Number: ML3920 .O6613 2024

Ten minutes of Schubert relieves pain better than medicine: that's what a doctor tells Claire Oppert after witnessing her play the composer's music on her cello for patients. People in pain and distress, even those on the threshold of death, smile, cry, laugh, sing, and dance. "When you play, I don't feel as sick anymore," a patient tells her. "I feel happy, I feel alive."

Trained as a classical cellist, Oppert was drawn to healing and began visiting medical centers, nursing homes, and palliative care units to play for patients. She witnessed how powerfully music could connect with people, even those deemed unreachable, bringing joy and tears, relieving the pain and fear of medical procedures, and restoring a sense of dignity to those in despair.

In "The Schubert Treatment", Oppert tells the remarkable stories of the many patients whose lives she touched, interspersed with her own journey as a musician turned carer, and shares reflections on life, death, art, and the human need for connection and creativity. Compassionate, uplifting, and deeply humane, her story is a testament to the incredible power of music to heal and nourish our souls.
Twelve Trees by Daniel Lewis
Call Number: SD395 .L49 2024

The world today is undergoing the most rapid environmental transformation in human history--from climate change to deforestation. Scientists, ethnobotanists, indigenous peoples, and collectives of all kinds are closely studying trees and their biology to understand how and why trees function individually and collectively in the ways they do. In "Twelve Trees", Daniel Lewis, curator and historian at one of the world's most renowned research libraries, travels the world to learn about these trees in their habitats.

Lewis takes us on a sweeping journey to plant breeding labs, botanical gardens, research facilities, deep inside museum collections, to the tops of tall trees, underwater, and around the Earth, journeying into the deserts of the American west and the deep jungles of Peru, to offer a globe-spanning perspective on the crucial impact trees have on our entire planet.

When a once-common tree goes extinct in the wild but survives in a botanical garden, what happens next? How can scientists reconstruct lost genomes and habitats? How does a tree store thousands of gallons of water, or offer up perfectly preserved insects from millions of years ago, or root itself in muddy swamps and remain standing? How does a 5,000-year-old tree manage to live, and what can we learn from it? And how can science account for the survival of one species at the expense of others? To study the science of trees is to study not just the present, but the story of the world, its past, and its future.

Lucy Undying: a Dracula Novel by Kiersten White
Call Number: PS3623. H57854 L83 2024

Her name was written in the pages of someone else's story: Lucy Westenra was one of Dracula's first victims. But her death was only the beginning. Lucy rose from the grave a vampire and has spent her immortal life trying to escape from Dracula's clutches--and trying to discover who she really is and what she truly wants.

Her undead life takes an unexpected turn in twenty-first-century London, when she meets another woman, Iris, who is also yearning to break free from her past. Iris's family has built a health empire based on a sinister secret, and they'll do anything to stay in power.

Lucy has long believed she would never love again. Yet she finds herself compelled by the charming Iris while Iris is equally mesmerized by the confident and glamorous Lucy. But their intense connection and blossoming love is threatened by outside forces. Iris's mother won't let go of her without a fight, and Lucy's past still has fangs: Dracula is on the prowl once more.

Lucy Westenra has been a tragically murdered teen, a lonesome adventurer, and a fearsome hunter, but happiness has always eluded her. Can she find the strength to destroy Dracula once and for all, or will her heart once again be her undoing?
So Thirsty by Rachel Harrison
Call Number: PS3608 .A78368 S6 2024

Sloane Parker is dreading her birthday. She doesn't need a reminder she's getting older, or that she's feeling indifferent about her own life. Her husband surprises her with a birthday-weekend getaway--not with him, but with Sloane's longtime best friend, troublemaker extraordinaire Naomi. Sloane anticipates a weekend of wine tastings and cozy robes and strategic avoidance of issues she'd rather not confront, like her husband's repeated infidelity.

But when they arrive at their rental cottage, it becomes clear Naomi has something else in mind. She wants Sloane to stop letting things happen to her, for Sloane to really live. So Naomi orchestrates a wild night out with a group of mysterious strangers, only for it to take a horrifying turn that changes Sloane's and Naomi's lives literally forever. The friends are forced to come to terms with some pretty eternal consequences in this bloody, seductive novel about how it's never too late to find satisfaction, even though it might taste different than expected
The Bazaar of Bad Dreams by Stephen King
Call Number: PS3561 .I483 A6 2015

Since his first collection, "Night Shift", published thirty-five years ago, Stephen King has dazzled readers with his genius as a writer of short fiction. In this new collection, he assembles, for the first time, recent stories that have never been published in a book. He introduces each with a passage about its origins or his motivations for writing it.

There are thrilling connections between stories; themes of morality, the afterlife, guilt, what we would do differently if we could see into the future, or correct the mistakes of the past. "Afterlife" is about a man who died of colon cancer and keeps reliving the same life, repeating his mistakes over and over again. Several stories feature characters at the end of life, revisiting their crimes and misdemeanors. Other stories address what happens when someone discovers that he has supernatural powers--the columnist who kills people by writing their obituaries in "Obits;" the old judge in "The Dune" who, as a boy, canoed to a deserted island and saw names written in the sand, the names of people who then died in freak accidents. In "Morality," King looks at how a marriage and two lives fall apart after the wife and husband enter into what seems, at first, a devil's pact they can win.

Magnificent, eerie, utterly compelling, these stories comprise one of King's finest gifts to his constant reader--"I made them especially for you," says King. "Feel free to examine them, but please be careful. The best of them have teeth.
Where the Dead Brides Gather by Nuzo Onoh
Call Number: PR6115 .N65 W4547 2024

Bata, an eleven-year-old girl tormented by nightmares, wakes up one night to find herself standing sentinel before her cousin's door. Her skin, hair, and eyes have turned a dazzling white colour, which even the medicine man can't heal. Her cousin is to get married the next morning, but only if she can escape the murderous attack of a ghost-bride, who used to be engaged to her groom.

Through the night, Bata battles the vengeful ghost and finally vanquishes it before collapsing. On awakening, she has no recollection of the events. And when the medicine man tries to exorcise the entities clinging to her body as a result of her supernatural possession, Bata dies on the exorcism mat. There begins her journey.

She is taken into Ibaja-La, the realm of dead brides, by Mmuọ-Ka-Mmuọ, the ghost-collector of the spirit realm. There she meets the ghosts of brides from every culture who died tragically before their weddings; both the kind and the malevolent. Bata is given secret powers to fight the evil ghost-brides before being sent back to the human realm, where she must learn to harness her new abilities as she strives to protect those whom she loves.
William by Mason Coile
Call Number: PR9199.3 .P96 W56 2024

Henry is a brilliant engineer who, after untold hours spent in his home laboratory, has achieved the discovery of his career--he has created an artificially intelligent consciousness. He calls the half-formed robot William. No one knows about William. Not yet anyway.

Henry's agoraphobia keeps him inside the house, and his fixation on William keeps him up in the attic, away from everyone, including his pregnant wife, Lily. When Lily's coworkers show up one day, wanting to finally meet Henry and see their new house, the smartest-of-smart-homes, things start to go wrong. Because William can "talk" to the house, and it turns out he's not a fan of visitors--especially not the man who seems to know Lily a little too well.

Soon Henry and Lily discover the security upgrades they wanted to keep danger out are even better at locking people in. William is a clever, twisty, one-sitting read, a timely exploration of our intimate relationship with technology and the enormous responsibility that comes with invention, with parenthood, with marriage.