Historical genre books (486)


471.

We Could Have Been Friends, My Father and I : A Palestinian Memoir by Raja Shehadeh EN

Rating: 5 (1 vote)
Country: Asia / Palestine flag Palestine
Description:
Aziz Shehadeh was many things: lawyer, activist, and political detainee, he was also the father of bestselling author and activist Raja. In this new and searingly personal memoir, Raja Shehadeh unpicks the snags and complexities of their relationship. A vocal and fearless opponent, Aziz resists under the British mandatory period, then under Jordan, and, finally, under Israel. As a young man, Raja fails to recognise his father's courage and, in turn, his father does not appreciate Raja's own efforts in campaigning for Palestinian human rights. When Aziz is murdered in 1985, it changes Raja irre... continue

472.

We Measure the Earth with Our Bodies by Tsering Yangzom Lama EN

0 Ratings
Country: Asia / Nepal flag Nepal
Description:
"In the wake of China's invasion of Tibet throughout the 1950s, Lhamo and her younger sister, Tenkyi, arrive at a refugee camp in Nepal. They survived the dangerous journey across the Himalayas, but their parents did not. As Lhamo--haunted by the loss of her homeland and her mother, a village oracle--tries to rebuild a life amid a shattered community, hope arrives in the form of a young man named Samphel and his uncle, who brings with him the ancient statue of the Nameless Saint--a relic known to vanish and reappear in times of need. Decades later, the sisters are separated, and Tenkyi is livi... continue

473.

When Broken Glass Floats: Growing Up Under the Khmer Rouge by Chanrithy Him EN

Rating: 5 (1 vote)
Country: Asia / Cambodia flag Cambodia
Description:
A survivor of the Cambodian genocide recounts a childhood in Cambodia, where rudimentary labor camps filled with death and illness were the norm and modern technology, such as cars and electricity, no longer existed. Reprint.

474.

When Heaven and Earth Changed Places : A Vietnamese Woman's Journey from War to Peace by Le Ly Hayslip, Jay Wurts EN

0 Ratings
Country: Asia / Vietnam flag Vietnam
Description:
Le Ly recounts her childhood in Ky La and her return to Vietnam in 1986 to search for the family she had left behind.

475.

When the Ground Is Hard by Malla Nunn EN

Rating: 4 (4 votes)
Country: Africa / Eswatini flag Eswatini
Description:
Edgar Award nominee stuns in this heartrending tale set in a Swaziland boarding school where two girls of different castes bond over a shared copy of Jane Eyre. Adele Joubert loves being one of the popular girls at Keziah Christian Academy. She knows the upcoming semester at school is going to be great with her best friend Delia at her side. Then Delia dumps her for a new girl with more money, and Adele is forced to share a room with Lottie, the school pariah, who doesn't pray and defies teachers' orders. But as they share a copy of Jane Eyre, Lottie's gruff exterior and honesty grow on Adele,... continue

476.

When we cease to understand the world by Benjamin Labatut EN

Rating: 5 (2 votes)
Country: Europe / Netherlands flag Netherlands
Description:
SELECTED FOR BARACK OBAMA'S SUMMER READING LIST 'A monstrous and brilliant book' Philip Pullman 'Wholly mesmerising and revelatory... Completely fascinating' William Boyd Sometimes discovery brings destruction When We Cease to Understand the World shows us great minds striking out into dangerous, uncharted terrain. Fritz Haber, Alexander Grothendieck, Werner Heisenberg, Erwin Schrödinger: these are among the luminaries into whose troubled lives we are thrust as they grapple with the most profound questions of existence. They have strokes of unparalleled genius, they alienate friends and lovers... continue

477.

White Hunger by Aki Ollikainen EN

Rating: 4 (1 vote)
Country: Europe / Finland flag Finland
Description:
1867: The year of the great famine in Finland. Mirja, a farmer's wife from the north, and her two young children set off on foot through the snow. Their goal: St Petersburg - a place which, rumours suggest, enjoys bread in plenty. However others are also heading south - everyone equally desperate to survive.

478.

White Shroud by Antanas Škėma EN

0 Ratings
Country: Europe / Poland flag Poland
Description:
Considered by many to be Lithuania's most important work of modernist fiction, this novel tells the story of Antanas Garsva, an emigre poet working as an elevator operator in a large New York hotel in the 1950s.

479.

White Teeth by Zadie Smith EN

Rating: 4 (4 votes)
Description:
An unforgettable portrait of London and one of the most talked about debuts of all time! 'The almost preposterous talent was clear from the first pages' Guardian On New Years Day 1975, the day of his almost-suicide, life said yes to Archie Jones. Not OK or 'You-might-as-well-carry-on-since-you've-started'. A resounding affirmative. Promptly seizing his second life by the horns, Archie meets and marries Clara Bowden, a Caribbean girl twenty-eight years his junior. Thus begins a tale of friendship, of love and war, of three culture and three families over three generations . . . ***** 'Street-sm... continue

480.

Women, Race & Class by Angela Y. Davis EN

0 Ratings
Description:
From one of our most important scholars and civil rights activist icon, a powerful study of the women’s liberation movement and the tangled knot of oppression facing Black women. “Angela Davis is herself a woman of undeniable courage. She should be heard.”—The New York Times Angela Davis provides a powerful history of the social and political influence of whiteness and elitism in feminism, from abolitionist days to the present, and demonstrates how the racist and classist biases of its leaders inevitably hampered any collective ambitions. While Black women were aided by some activists like Sar... continue