New Non-Fiction Book of the Week

The best new non-fiction book of the week is...

Hotel: An American History

by A.K. Sandoval-Strausz

From Publishers Weekly

In this lucid and creative work, Sandoval-Strausz, an assistant professor of history at the University of New Mexico, situates the rise of hotels within the history of the triumph of capitalism and of an increasingly mobile society. Hotels, he says, facilitated mobility and the integration of frontier lands into larger networks of capital and commerce. Hotels were also part of the gradual process that dissociated people from particular places. If hotels solved some social problems, Sandoval-Strausz shows, they created others: guardians of domesticity, for example, worried about urban dwellers who chose to live full-time in hotels. In exploring the social and political meaning of hotels, the author pursues countless avenues, from menus to morals (Hotels were magnets for prostitution and other forms of illicit sex). There's a bit of labor history thrown in, too, since, in order to make good on the promise to be patrons' home away from home, hotels employed a huge number of workers, from cooks and launderers to janitors, Sandoval-Strausz also traces hotels' exclusion of Jews and blacks—the book ends with the 1964 Supreme Court case that desegregated public accommodations. From start to finish, this is a fascinating study.

New Fiction of the Week

And the award goes to...

The Uncommon Reader: A Novella by Alan Bennett

From Publishers Weekly:

Briskly original and subversively funny, this novella from popular British writer Bennett (Untold Stories; Tony-winning play The History Boys) sends Queen Elizabeth II into a mobile library van in pursuit of her runaway corgis and into the reflective, observant life of an avid reader. Guided by Norman, a former kitchen boy and enthusiast of gay authors, the queen gradually loses interest in her endless succession of official duties and learns the pleasure of such a common activity. With the dawn of her sensibility... mistaken for the onset of senility, plots are hatched by the prime minister and the queen's staff to dispatch Norman and discourage the queen's preoccupation with books. Ultimately, it is her own growing self-awareness that leads her away from reading and toward writing, with astonishing results. Bennett has fun with the proper behavior and protocol at the palace, and the few instances of mild coarseness seem almost scandalous. There are lessons packed in here, but Bennett doesn't wallop readers with them. It's a fun little book.

There are plenty more new fiction and new non-fiction ready to be checked out in the library too. Come on over and pick up a new read!

Exam Week Wrap-Up

Well, it's the the first day back after exam week and the library (and the students) have survived. The library was the hot spot last week for studying, snacking, and the occasional down time for the students inbetween studying for exams.

Overall, the library was a productive, quiet space for students last week with the students self-monitoring the space and creating an academic atmosphere. Please be on the lookout for a student survey on Blackboard regarding how the library was used during this past week so you can give us your feedback.


We in the library would like to thank everyone for their help exam week in keeping the space cleanproductive and intellectual. It's great to see students working hard and cleaning up after themselves in order to keep the library functioning. Now that exams ended, please keep up the excellent work ethic and behavior of which you are definitely capable.


It was a busy week, hope you enjoyed your time off this past weekend!

Library Use During Exams

As mid year exams approach, the Library will definitely be a busy place so we are going to tighten up the ship for exam week (January 20-25th).

• The library will be a silent study space with individual study only during study hall.
• During the day, there may be some students taking exams here so be respectful of them.
• The library will be open its normal hours (7:30am-10:00pm) from Monday, January 21 - Thursday, January 24th and will be open during the day on Friday, January 25th.

Good Luck and Happy Studying!

EbscoHost Journal Alerts

Did you know you can set up an email alert in EbscoHost when a new issue of your favorite journal title becomes available on EbscoHost Academic Search Premier? You can also receive email alerts when new articles are added that meet the search criteria for a particular topic search. Stop by the library and one of the librarians can show you how to set up the email alert.

Perseus Digital Library at Tufts University

Digital library collections enable institutions like universities, museums and historical socieities to provide access to numerous documents and works for of literature in an electronic format with the ability to search the content.

The Perseus Project at Tufts is a digital library collection for the study of the humanities. In the 1980s, the project began as a place to gather text and visual materials on the Archaic and Classical Greek world. Now the Perseus project is developing partnerships with other institutions to expand the holding of the digital collection."...The classical foundation has paved the way for literary and historical collections ranging from the English Renaissance to the American Civil War, and Greek tools became a foundation for the development of resources in Latin, Italian, and Arabic..."Resources include: Greek and Latin Texts, Shakespeare folios, Early Modern English Literature, Text of the History of London including Atlases and works of Charles Dickens.

Taken from: Crane, Gregory R. (ed.) The Perseus Project, http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/, September, 2008.

New Non-Fiction of the Week

The Zookeeper's Wife: A War Story by Diane Ackerman

Synopsis from Barnes & Noble.com:

A true story—as powerful as Schindler's List—in which the keepers of the Warsaw Zoo saved hundreds of people from Nazi hands.

When Germany invaded Poland, Stuka bombers devastated Warsaw—and the city's zoo along with it. With most of their animals dead, zookeepers Jan and Antonina Zabinski began smuggling Jews into empty cages. Another dozen "guests" hid inside the Zabinskis' villa, emerging after dark for dinner, socializing, and, during rare moments of calm, piano concerts. Jan, active in the Polish resistance, kept ammunition buried in the elephant enclosure and stashed explosives in the animal hospital. Meanwhile, Antonina kept her unusual household afloat, caring for both its human and its animal inhabitants—otters, a badger, hyena pups, lynxes.

With her exuberant prose and exquisite sensitivity to the natural world, Diane Ackerman engages us viscerally in the lives of the zoo animals, their keepers, and their hidden visitors. She shows us how Antonina refused to give in to the penetrating fear of discovery, keeping alive an atmosphere of play and innocence even as Europe crumbled around her.

From The New York Times:

D. T. Max
Nature is patient, people and animals fundamentally decent, and the writer, as she always does, outlives the killer—that is the message of The Zookeeper's Wife. This is an absorbing book, diminished sometimes by the choppy way Ackerman balances Antonina's account with the larger story of the Warsaw Holocaust. For me, the more interesting story is Antonina's. She was not, as her husband once called her, "a housewife," but the alpha female in a unique menagerie. I would gladly read another book, perhaps a novel, based again on Antonina's writings. She was special, and as the remaining members of her generation die off, a voice like hers should not be allowed to fade into the silence.