Collection Capers: March 2007
Collection Capers is a monthly newsletter of NEW interesting or unusual non-fiction added to the Sutherland Shire Libraries collection.The lying ape : an honest guide to a world of deception by Brian King
We tell an average of six lies a day, psychologists believe. So the next time you speak to someone, the chances are that you will be lied to, or that you will lie. The author looks at some of the great liars of history, and reveals how scientists can observe the brain as it suppresses the awkward truth, in favour of a convenient lie. Of course lies are not to be confused with non-core promises, that’s just election rhetoric. And nobody tells the truth then.
The rough guide to American independent film by Jessica Winter
Intended for those interested in American Independent, low-budget and maverick filmmaking, this book looks at the history of American 'indie' cinema, from its earliest incarnations in the 60s and 70s to the rise of Spike Lee and the Coen brothers. Profiles films such as Sideways, Mean streets, Go fish and everyone’s favourite, Eraserhead. No billion dollar Hollywood dross here.
Misogyny : the world’s oldest prejudice by Jack Holland
Sets out to answer a question: how do you explain the oppression and brutalization of half the world's population by the other half, throughout history? This book looks at both historical and contemporary attitudes to women.
Saving the daylight : why we put the clocks forward by David Prerau
Every spring, the clocks go forward, and every autumn they go back. This book explores the contentious story of this deceptively simple attempt to regulate the sunlight hours. It brings together the historical, political, and technical aspects of the story behind the movement for DST. It doesn’t explain why a teenager stays in bed until after midday.
Torture taxi : on the trail of the CIA’s rendition flights by A.C Thompson
Extraordinary rendition, is the USA’s practice of kidnapping suspects, flying them to an undisclosed location in a third-world country, and letting them be tortured to force a confession. This allows the US to deny allegations of direct torture by themselves. Cute isn’t it. This information can then be used in military trials which have about the same degree of justice as a hearing in Stalin’s Russia.
The shock of the old : technology in global history since 1900 by David Edgerton
Offers a global account of the place of technology in twentieth century history. This book aims to challenge the idea that we live in an era of ever increasing change, where only the newest is best. But as we know some earlier technologies still work just as well as ever. The idea of increasing change and the consumption that goes with it may bring the world to the edge of disaster. And there’s something obscene about a $100,000 car.
Done like a dinner : great restaurant crimes by Jennifer Cooke
At first I thought this was a book about detestable meals, food so bad you thought it a crime to have it on a plate. But no, it documents true crimes, but with a food twist. Jaime Oliver meets P.D. James. Perhaps it not surprising that some brutal crimes take place inside eating establishments. After all, that’s where the shock jocks make their deals. Wild Bill Hickok got shot in a hotel while having his back to the door. After reading this you might want to check your next seat in a restaurant. Eat in tonight?
There is no me without you : one woman's odyssey to rescue Africa's children by Melissa Fay Greene
The story of Haregewoin Teferra who after her beloved 23-year old daughter was consumed by an unnamed sickness sank into a deep, reclusive depression. But, when the priests brought her two children, AIDS orphans, she took them in, and found a new reason to live as she watched them grow strong, happy, and healthy. Since then her she has raised and educated dozens of children and given hope where previously there was despair.
The scarlet thread : Australia’s Jack the Ripper : a true crime story by Maurice Gurvich
A woman is brutally murdered in Melbourne in 1892. This true story will take readers back to a time when the now prosperous city was in a time of economic depression, when horrific crimes abounded. It recreates a time when life was more hand-to-mouth and scruples were less and survival was more instinctual and many people lived on the edge of the criminal world. Looking at Melbourne over the last few years of gangland war you may wonder what has changed.
To the ends of the Earth : 100 maps that changed the world
The idea of mapping the world is not all that old. Even 500 years ago most people had no concept of the shape of the world (except that it was flat and there were dragons just beyond the next village). The dawn of exploration, breakthroughs in astronomy and the quest for knowledge led to the explosion of maps. As early as 600 B.C. there were maps of the Mediterranean (showing where the best olive oil could be bought). This wonderfully produced book tells us of the influence of maps on history and civilization.
Overboard : the stories cruise lines don’t want told by Gwyn Topham
Love boat, shining and new, come aboard, we’re expecting you. Expecting you to get drunk or raped, fall overboard, get put of the boat in some foreign port and generally act like a goat, that is. What you pay for ain’t what you get. Hopefully for $28,000 as the lowest fare a trip on the Queen Mary 2 will be the trip of a lifetime, not the last trip of your lifetime. Captain Jack Sparrow has got nothing on the thieves and brigands running some cruises.
Icons of twentieth-century landscape design by Katie Campbell
Looks at 25 distinctive an influential examples of modern landscape. New materials plus the influence of modernism in art and music made the freeing up of architecture and design possible. The examples of Frank Lloyd Wright, Le Corbusier and the Bauhaus were instrumental in the new directions of the mid and late 20th century.
The tycoons: how Andrew Carnegie, John D. Rockefeller, Jay Gould, and J.P. Morgan invented the American supereconomy by Charles R. Morris
They were the giants of the Gilded Age, a moment of riotous growth that established America as the richest, most inventive, and most productive country on the planet. The ruthless, competitive Camegie, the imperial Rockefeller, and the provocateur Gould were obsessed with progress, experiment, and speed. They were balanced by Morgan, the gentleman businessman, who fought, instead, for a global trust in American business. Through their antagonism and their verve, they built an industrial behemoth - and a country of middle-class consumers. The tycoons tells the incredible story of how these four determined men wrenched the economy into the modem age, inventing a nation of full economic participation that could not have been imagined only a few decades earlier.
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