Kreig's April Staff Pick

Oktoberfest
Marlo Scheder-Bieschin

OVERSIZE GT 4403 .O41 2007

Oktoberfest is more than just a festival celebrated by the German’s with beer and food every October. It is also a celebration of the harvest coming to a close and of German culture all together. In the book Oktoberfest photographer Marlo Scheder-Bieschin shows just how much of a cultural fest the celebration truly is. A wonderful book with audio files that include original Bavarian music Oktoberfest is a great choice for anyone who just wants to see more of German culture.

Kreig's February Staff Pick

Blink

by: Malcolm Galdwell

BF 448 .G53 2005 C.2

Have you ever looked at someone and just instantly knew how they felt or whether or not they were a good person? Have you ever seen a picture and could instantly say you didn’t like it but yet did not have the ability to explain why you didn’t like it? This is exactly the premise behind Blink. The power of thinking without thinking. Blink goes in depth to explain how our subconscious automatically processes information and then tells us the answers without truly telling us. For those who want to learn more about their snap judgments Blink is one of the best options.

January Staff Picks: Kreig's Pick

Complete Stories and Poems of Edgar Allan Poe

Edgar Allan Poe

PS 2600 .F66 1966

"Once Upon a Midnight Dreary, As I pondered Weak and Weary, Over many a Quaint and Curious Volume of Forgotten Lore." These sentences begin one of the Iconic and most well known pieces of gothic nineteenth century poetry. The writer, Edgar Allan Poe, through his use of diction and alliteration makes the words of not just his dark poetry jump off the page but as well the sentences and paragraphs within his short stories. From the quick successive movement in a Cask of Amontillado to the long drawn out suspence in The Fall of the House of Usher, Poe is sure to have written one story or poem which can grab any reader and throw them head first into a world of pure imagination. Any reader of any age can eaisly understand Poe's distress and his depressive mood while reading either The Raven or Lenore.

Kreig's December Staff Pick

The German Atomic Bomb
By: David Irving

QC 773 A1 I69

There are few people who know of the secrets of Nazi Germany. Even fewer still are the number of people that believe the stories of these secrets. One of the most heavily guarded secrets within all of Nazi Germany is that they were well on their way to having a completed and highly successful Atomic bomb. David Irving describes in depth, using captured Nazi records, just how they went about building the weapon and who was a member of the development team. The German Atomic Bomb shows just how dangerously close Germany came to winning World War Two as they had a delivery system just not the weapon itself perfectly developed. A wonderful book for history buffs and World War Two enthusiasts alike.

November Staff Picks

Kreig’s Pick
The Slave Next Door
By: Kevin Bales

HQ 314 .B35 2009
The Slave Next Door brings a very compelling argument against Human Trafficking, or Modern Slavery in America. Not only does it offer many examples of the actual act of slavery but it also provides ways to spot a trafficking victim. Kevin Bales provides insight into one of the biggest problems plaguing American and international society, the ignoring of slavery in communities. He also shows examples of people who have helped slaves escape their masters and convict them of both federal and state crimes. Anyone who believes that slavery is truly abolished and no longer exists within the United States should read The Slave Next Door for a very very big eye opener.

October Staff Picks

Kreig's Pick
Twentieth Century Interpretations of 1984

Samuel Hynes

PR 6029 .R8 N5346 1971
A collection of Critical Essays By: Isaac Deutcher, Irving Howe, Aldous Huxley, Wyndham Lewis, Stephen Spender, Lionel Trilling and Edited by Samuel Hynes
It was a bright, cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen. This one sentence begins one of the most historic and well known pieces of Dystopic literature ever written. The book 1984 by George Orwell delves deeply into future where the world has fallen into three super-powers constantly at war with one another but yet constantly at peace. The idea of Doublethink or as Pritchet calls it “Reality-Controll” is brought into view. The reader follows Winston Smith as he experiences every side of the party’s enemies and even becomes one himself. In Twentieth Century Interpretations of 1984 the reader is given a set of essays that were written about the book itself and delve into how it can be taken by individuals. Anyone who wants to understand the book better or even needs to have more evidence to argue about 1984 should read this collection.

September Staff Picks

Kreig's Pick
The Bell Tower: The Case of Jack the Ripper Finally Solved...In San Francisco

Written by Robert Graysmith

HV 6533 .C2 G73 1999
The year is 1888. It is dangerous to walk the lonely and dark streets of the white chapel district of London. This is the scene set for the serial killer known only as "Jack the Ripper." During the year of eighteen eighty Jack the Ripper killed five prostitutes. Then the killings suddenly stopped. No one knows why. Did Jack die or was he arrested on a different count and the murders were not tied to him. Over the hundred years since the killings many theories have suggested. Robert Graysmith delves into a theory of Jack the Ripper that places the blame of two murders in a San Francisco church on the new pastor a man named Pastor Jack Gibson. Graysmith delves deeply into the case and explains the two murders in depth creating a very good claim for his theory. The book contains many twists in itself that leave the reader wondering whether or not Pastor Jack Gibson is in fact Jack the Ripper.