Need a new book to read? The library’s Cataloging Associate, Micah, shares some of the interesting additions to the library over the summer. Click each link to locate the book in our library collection.
I Was a Spy!
Now retired, Union history professor Dr. Terry Lindley donated many books to the library during his time as a faculty member. One of his most recent contributions is this book about the Belgian nurse-turned-spy Marthe McKenna. I Was a Spy! is McKenna’s own telling of her experiences in the German-occupied Belgium town of Roulers during the first World War. With no reason to love the Germans after her home was destroyed and her father arrested, McKenna was recruited into espionage by British Intelligence. Continuing to work as a nurse treating occupying soldiers and as a waitress at her parents’ café, she used her cover to sabotage Germany’s war effort and pass information to the Allies. Read more about Marthe McKenna’s story by picking up the book!
Climate, Catastrophe, and Faith
As the environment of the planet undergoes change, so too does religion. In Climate, Catastrophe, and Faith, Philip Jenkins recalls how natural disasters and climatological events have had profound and lasting impact on religious traditions throughout human history. In fact, these occurrences have most often been understood through religious language and response. Jenkins reveals that the climate crisis we grapple with today is not a new question for people of faith; the uncertainty lies in how we will answer that question this time. Learn more about the book here.
Symphony for the City of the Dead
Along with a host of other new musical materials for the library comes this intriguing book by M. T. Anderson. The subject of the book, Dmitri Shostakovich, was a Russian composer who is venerated by the art music community, but relatively unknown outside it. He lived and wrote in the city of Leningrad during one of the most tumultuous periods in Russia’s history, assaulted from within and without by revolutions, war, and regimes. Beleaguered and bent by the hardships of war and the censorship threatened by the Soviet Party, Shostakovich nevertheless produced some of the most profound, poignant, and proud music of the twentieth century. Check out Anderson’s novel-like biography of this phenomenal composer.
A Complicated Choice
The topic of abortion has been a contentious one for decades of American history, and the debates have only become more heated in the wake of the Supreme Court’s Roe v. Wade ruling and subsequent reversal. In the swirling vilification, opaque medical terminology, and extreme policy decisions, it is easy to forget the people at the center of the debate: the women who elect to have abortions. Rev. Katey Zeh invites readers to consider abortion not as a black-and-white issue, but as a choice as complex as the people who make it. Though she begins from a pro-choice foundation, her lovingkindness to share the abortion stories of women and talk about faith in relation to those decisions can be helpful for readers on either side of the debate. By attending to people first, and not policy, we can all learn to be more compassionate and realize that the discussion of abortion is far more nuanced than our initial assumptions. A timely read for those searching for writing beyond typical political polarization.
We Know It When We See It
Ever wonder how you can immediately recognize someone across a crowded room, or how you instantly recall experiences of a trip years ago just by seeing a picture? Well, Richard Masland breaks down the neuroscience behind vision and cognition in We Know It When We See It. After he explains the mechanics of the eye and the scientists who studied its relationship to the brain, he also extrapolates the implications for digital vision and information processing in the development of artificial intelligence. Approachable yet thorough, this book is for anyone interested in how we know and think about what we see.
Feel free to check out one or all of these books from Union’s library today! Most of our new books are found on the New Books shelf on the second floor. You can also find new books in our Recreational Reading Collection and Family Room. Find an up-to-date list of our new books using the New Books on the library’s homepage.
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