{"id":15257,"date":"2020-09-02T10:11:13","date_gmt":"2020-09-02T15:11:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/libblogs.luc.edu\/noteworthy\/?p=15257"},"modified":"2026-01-12T15:35:47","modified_gmt":"2026-01-12T21:35:47","slug":"the-front-shelf-september-2020","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/libblogs.luc.edu\/noteworthy\/2020\/09\/02\/the-front-shelf-september-2020\/","title":{"rendered":"The Front Shelf: September 2020"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Wednesday, September 2nd<\/sup>, 2020<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Each month, we will post a selection of recently-acquired books, from new releases to old classics, which have been added to our catalog and are available for use by the Loyola community. This series is inspired by The Seminary Co-op\u2019s \u201cThe Front Table\u201d publication: https:\/\/www.semcoop.com\/<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

This month\u2019s edition features ebooks only. Links are included in the descriptions.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Stamped<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Ibram X. Kendi. Stamped From the Beginning\u202f: The Definitive History of Racist Ideas in America<\/em>. New York: Bold Type Books, 2016. https:\/\/search.ebscohost.com\/login.aspx?direct=true&db=nlebk&AN=1195944&site=ehost-live<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The National Book Award winning history of how racist ideas were\ncreated, spread, and deeply rooted in American society. Some Americans insist\nthat we’re living in a post-racial society. But racist thought is not just\nalive and well in America — it is more sophisticated and more insidious than\never. And as award-winning historian Ibram X. Kendi argues, racist ideas have a\nlong and lingering history, one in which nearly every great American thinker is\ncomplicit. In this deeply researched and fast-moving narrative, Kendi\nchronicles the entire story of anti-black racist ideas and their staggering\npower over the course of American history. He uses the life stories of five\nmajor American intellectuals to drive this history: Puritan minister Cotton\nMather, Thomas Jefferson, abolitionist William Lloyd Garrison, W.E.B. Du Bois,\nand legendary activist Angela Davis. As Kendi shows, racist ideas did not arise\nfrom ignorance or hatred. They were created to justify and rationalize deeply\nentrenched discriminatory policies and the nation’s racial inequities. In\nshedding light on this history, Stamped from the Beginning offers us the tools\nwe need to expose racist thinking. In the process, he gives us reason to hope.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Becoming:<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Michelle Obama. Becoming<\/em>, The Crown Publishing Group, 2018. ProQuest Ebook Central, https:\/\/ebookcentral.proquest.com\/lib\/luc\/detail.action?docID=6071094<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In a life filled with meaning and accomplishment, Michelle Obama\nhas emerged as one of the most iconic and compelling women of our era. As First\nLady of the United States of America–the first African American to serve in\nthat role–she helped create the most welcoming and inclusive White House in\nhistory, while also establishing herself as a powerful advocate for women and\ngirls in the U.S. and around the world, dramatically changing the ways that\nfamilies pursue healthier and more active lives, and standing with her husband\nas he led America through some of its most harrowing moments. Along the way,\nshe showed us a few dance moves, crushed Carpool Karaoke, and raised two\ndown-to-earth daughters under an unforgiving media glare. In her memoir, a work\nof deep reflection and mesmerizing storytelling, Michelle Obama invites readers\ninto her world, chronicling the experiences that have shaped her–from her\nchildhood on the South Side of Chicago to her years as an executive balancing\nthe demands of motherhood and work, to her time spent at the world’s most\nfamous address. With unerring honesty and lively wit, she describes her\ntriumphs and her disappointments, both public and private, telling her full\nstory as she has lived it–in her own words and on her own terms. Warm, wise,\nand revelatory, Becoming is the deeply personal reckoning of a woman of soul\nand substance who has steadily defied expectations–and whose story inspires us\nto do the same.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Afterlife:<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Julie Alvarez. Afterlife<\/em>, Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill, 2020. ProQuest Ebook Central, https:\/\/ebookcentral.proquest.com\/lib\/luc\/detail.action?docID=6031518<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

A Most-Anticipated Book of the Year: O, The Oprah Magazine \u2022 The New York Times \u2022 The Washington Post \u2022 BuzzFeed \u2022 Antonia Vega, the immigrant writer at the center of Afterlife, has had the rug pulled out from under her. She has just retired from the college where she taught English when her beloved husband, Sam, suddenly dies. And then more jolts: her bighearted but unstable sister disappears, and Antonia returns home one evening to find a pregnant, undocumented teenager on her doorstep. Antonia has always sought direction in the literature she loves–lines from her favorite authors play in her head like a soundtrack–but now she finds that the world demands more of her than words. Afterlife is a compact, nimble, and sharply droll novel. Set in this political moment of tribalism and distrust, it asks: What do we owe those in crisis in our families, including–maybe especially–members of our human family? How do we live in a broken world without losing faith in one another or ourselves? And how do we stay true to those glorious souls we have lost?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Book<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Isabel Wilkerson. Caste (Oprah\u2019s Book Club)\u202f: The Origins of Our Discontents<\/em>. New York: Random House, 2020. https:\/\/search.ebscohost.com\/login.aspx?direct=true&db=nlebk&AN=2367392&site=ehost-live<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER \u2022 OPRAH’S BOOK CLUB PICK \u2022 The\nPulitzer Prize\u2013winning, bestselling author of The Warmth of Other\nSuns examines the unspoken caste system that has shaped America and shows\nhow our lives today are still defined by a hierarchy of human divisions. Beyond\nrace, class, or other factors, there is a powerful caste system that influences\npeople’s lives and behavior and the nation’s fate. Linking the caste systems of\nAmerica, India, and Nazi Germany, Wilkerson explores eight pillars that\nunderlie caste systems across civilizations, including divine will, bloodlines,\nstigma, and more. Using riveting stories about people\u2014including Martin Luther\nKing, Jr., baseball’s Satchel Paige, a single father and his toddler son,\nWilkerson herself, and many others\u2014she shows the ways that the insidious\nundertow of caste is experienced every day. She documents how the Nazis studied\nthe racial systems in America to plan their out-cast of the Jews; she discusses\nwhy the cruel logic of caste requires that there be a bottom rung for those in\nthe middle to measure themselves against; she writes about the surprising\nhealth costs of caste, in depression and life expectancy, and the effects of\nthis hierarchy on our culture and politics. Finally, she points forward to ways\nAmerica can move beyond the artificial and destructive separations of human\ndivisions, toward hope in our common humanity. Beautifully written, original,\nand revealing, Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents is an\neye-opening story of people and history, and a reexamination of what lies under\nthe surface of ordinary lives and of American life today.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Mexican<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Silvia Moreno-Garcia. Mexican Gothic<\/em>, Del Rey, 2020. EBSCOhost, search.ebscohost.com\/login.aspx?direct=true&db=nlebk&AN=2259475&site=ehost-live<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER \u2022 An isolated mansion. A chillingly charismatic aristocrat. And a brave socialite drawn to expose their treacherous secrets…. After receiving a frantic letter from her newly-wed cousin begging for someone to save her from a mysterious doom, Noem\u00ed Taboada heads to High Place, a distant house in the Mexican countryside. She’s not sure what she will find\u2014her cousin’s husband, a handsome Englishman, is a stranger, and Noem\u00ed knows little about the region. Noem\u00ed is also an unlikely rescuer: She’s a glamorous debutante, and her chic gowns and perfect red lipstick are more suited for cocktail parties than amateur sleuthing. But she’s also tough and smart, with an indomitable will, and she is not afraid: Not of her cousin’s new husband, who is both menacing and alluring; not of his father, the ancient patriarch who seems to be fascinated by Noem\u00ed; and not even of the house itself, which begins to invade Noemi’s dreams with visions of blood and doom. Her only ally in this inhospitable abode is the family’s youngest son. Shy and gentle, he seems to want to help Noem\u00ed, but might also be hiding dark knowledge of his family’s past. For there are many secrets behind the walls of High Place. The family’s once colossal wealth and faded mining empire kept them from prying eyes, but as Noem\u00ed digs deeper she unearths stories of violence and madness. And Noem\u00ed, mesmerized by the terrifying yet seductive world of High Place, may soon find it impossible to ever leave this enigmatic house behind<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"The<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Jacob Dorman. The Princess and the Prophet: The Secret History of Magic, Race, and Moorish Muslims in America<\/em>, Beacon Press, 2020. ProQuest Ebook Central, https:\/\/ebookcentral.proquest.com\/lib\/luc\/detail.action?docID=6070576<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The just-discovered story of how two enigmatic circus performers\nand the cultural ferment of the Gilded Age sparked the Black Muslim movement in\nAmerica Delving into new archives and uncovering fascinating biographical\nnarratives, secret rituals, and hidden identities, historian Jacob Dorman\nexplains why thousands of Americans were enthralled by the Islamic Orient, and\nwhy some came to see Islam as a global antiracist movement uniquely suited to\npeople of African descent in an era of European imperialism, Jim Crow\nsegregation, and officially sanctioned racism. The Princess and the Prophet\ntells the story of the Black Broadway performer who, among the world of Arabian\nacrobats and equestrians, Muslim fakirs, and Wild West shows, discovered in\nIslam a greater measure of freedom and dignity, and a rebuttal to the racism\nand parochialism of white America. Overturning the received wisdom that the\nprophet was born on the East Coast, Dorman has discovered that Noble Drew Ali\nwas born Walter Brister in Kentucky. With the help of his wife, a former lion\ntamer and “Hindoo” magician herself, Brister renamed himself Prophet\nNoble Drew Ali and founded the predecessor of the Nation of Islam, the Moorish\nScience Temple of America, in the 1920s. With an array of profitable\nbusinesses, the “Moors” built a nationwide following of thousands of\ndues-paying members, swung Chicago elections, and embedded themselves in\nChicago’s dominant Republican political machine at the height of Prohibition\nracketeering, only to see their sect descend into infighting in 1929 that\nlikely claimed the prophet’s life. This fascinating untold story reveals that\ncultures grow as much from imagination as inheritance, and that breaking down\nthe artificial silos around various racial and religious cultures helps to\nunderstand not only America’s hidden past but also its polycultural present.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"The<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

John Barry. The Great Influenza : The Story of the Deadliest Pandemic in History<\/em>, Penguin Publishing Group, 2005. ProQuest Ebook Central, https:\/\/ebookcentral.proquest.com\/lib\/luc\/detail.action?docID=6055173<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The strongest weapon against pandemic is the truth. Read why in\nthe definitive account of the 1918 Flu Epidemic. Magisterial in its breadth of\nperspective and depth of research, The Great Influenza provides us with a\nprecise and sobering model as we confront the epidemics looming on our own\nhorizon. As Barry concludes, “The final lesson of 1918, a simple one yet\none most difficult to execute, is that…those in authority must retain the\npublic’s trust. The way to do that is to distort nothing, to put the best face\non nothing, to try to manipulate no one. Lincoln said that first, and best. A\nleader must make whatever horror exists concrete. Only then will people be able\nto break it apart.” At the height of World War I, history’s most lethal\ninfluenza virus erupted in an army camp in Kansas, moved east with American\ntroops, then exploded, killing as many as 100 million people worldwide. It\nkilled more people in twenty-four months than AIDS killed in twenty-four years,\nmore in a year than the Black Death killed in a century. But this was not the\nMiddle Ages, and 1918 marked the first collision of science and epidemic\ndisease.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Wednesday, September 2nd, 2020 Each month, we will post a selection of recently-acquired books, from new releases to old classics, which have been added to our catalog and are available for use by the Loyola community. This series is inspired by The Seminary Co-op\u2019s \u201cThe Front Table\u201d publication: https:\/\/www.semcoop.com\/. This month\u2019s edition features ebooks only. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":349,"featured_media":15274,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_s2mail":"yes"},"categories":[1,95],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/libblogs.luc.edu\/noteworthy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15257"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/libblogs.luc.edu\/noteworthy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/libblogs.luc.edu\/noteworthy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/libblogs.luc.edu\/noteworthy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/349"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/libblogs.luc.edu\/noteworthy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15257"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/libblogs.luc.edu\/noteworthy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15257\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15275,"href":"https:\/\/libblogs.luc.edu\/noteworthy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15257\/revisions\/15275"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/libblogs.luc.edu\/noteworthy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15274"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/libblogs.luc.edu\/noteworthy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15257"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/libblogs.luc.edu\/noteworthy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15257"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/libblogs.luc.edu\/noteworthy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15257"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}