off the shelves
New items are available at the Hancock County Public Library.
The following items are available at the Hancock County Public Library, 900 W. McKenzie Road. For more information on the library’s collection or to reserve a title, visit hcplibrary.org.
NONFICTION
“Leaving Orbit: Notes from the Last Days of American Spaceflight” by Margaret Lazarus Dean
In the 1960s, humans took the first steps away from Earth, and possibilities in space seemed endless. But in the wake of high-profile disasters such as Challenger and the current atmosphere of austerity, that dream has ended. Margaret Lazarus Dean bears witness to NASA’s last three space shuttle launches and the end of an era. Dean takes us to Florida’s Space Coast, through the history of NASA and the measure of what American spaceflight has achieved. Dean meets NASA workers, astronauts, and space fans and earlier witnesses to the space program such as Norman Mailer, Tom Wolfe and Oriana Fallaci. She gathers possible answers to the question: What does it mean that a spacefaring nation won’t be going to space anymore? “Leaving Orbit” is an elegy to the waning days of human spaceflight.
FICTION
“Radiant Angel” by Nelson DeMille
After a showdown with Yemeni terrorists, John Corey has left the Anti-Terrorist Task Force and returned home to New York City to a “quiet” job with the Diplomatic Surveillance Group. But Corey realizes something from his surveillance of Russian diplomats that the U.S. government doesn’t: the all-too-real threat of a newly resurgent Russia. When a Russian Intelligence Service colonel posing as a diplomat mysteriously disappears from a party in Southampton, it’s up to Corey to track him down. What are the Russians up to and why? Is there a possible nuclear threat, a so-called radiant angel? Will Corey be able to put a stop to what’s happening before it’s too late, or will he be outrun and outsmarted, with America facing the prospect of an attack unlike anything ever seen before?
DOWNLOADABLE E-BOOK
“Missoula: Rape and the Justice System in a College Town” by Jon Krakauer
Author Jon Krakauer chronicles the experiences of several women in Missoula — the nights when they were raped; their fear and self-doubt in the aftermath; their treatment by the police, prosecutors and defense attorneys; the public vilification and private anguish; their bravery in pushing forward and what it cost them. Some went to the police. Some declined to go to the police or to press charges but sought redress through the non-criminal judicial process of the university. In two cases the police agreed to press charges, and the district attorney agreed to prosecute. One case led to a conviction, one to an acquittal. The women were attacked in the media, on Grizzly football fan sites and in person. As the cases played out in the judicial court and the court of public opinion, the horror of being raped, in each woman’s case, was magnified by the mechanics of the justice system and the reaction of the community.
