Washoe County Library System

"A fascinating, vivid global history of witch trials across Europe, Africa, and the Americas, told through thirteen distinct trials that illuminate the pattern of demonization and conspiratorial thinking that has profoundly shaped human history. Witchcraft is a dramatic journey through thirteen witch trials across history, some famous—like the Salem witch trials—and some lesser-known: on Vardø island, Norway, in the 1620s, where an indigenous...

"Few things shocked the world more in the terrible month of June 1940 than seeing Marshal Philippe Paetain-a highly decorated hero of the first world war-shaking hands with Hitler. Pausing to look at the cameras, he announced that France would henceforthcollaborate with Germany. "This is my policy," he intoned. "My ministers are responsible to me. It is I alone who will be judged by History." Five years later, in July 1945, Paetain was put on trial...

"In November 1878, America’s greatest painter sued England’s greatest critic for a bad review. The painter won—but ruined himself in the process. The painter: James Abbot MacNeill Whistler, whose combination of incredible talent, unflagging energy, and relentless self-promotion had by that time brought him to the very edge of artistic preeminence. The critic: John Ruskin, Slade Professor of Art at Oxford University, whose four-decades’ worth...

"Before the sensational cases of Amanda Knox and Casey Anthony—before even Lizzie Borden—there was Polly Bodine, the first American woman put on trial for capital murder in our nation’s debut media circus. On Christmas night, December 25, 1843, in a serene village on Staten Island, shocked neighbors discovered the burnt remains of twenty-four-year-old mother Emeline Houseman and her infant daughter, Ann Eliza. In a perverse nativity, someone...

"The biography of one of the most famous abortionists of the nineteenth century-and a story that has unmistakable parallels to the current war on reproductive rights"--

Part true crime, part courtroom drama, this moving story of an unexpected friendship between two very different men recounts the case of Alvin Ridley, an autistic Zenith TV repair man accused of murdering the wife no one knew he had, and the lawyer who believe in--and proved--his innocence. ''Like a nonfiction John Grisham thriller with echoes of Rainman, Just Mercy, and a captivating smalltown Southern setting, this is the fascinating true story...

"One January day in 1923, a young boy came across the dead body of a twenty-year-old woman on a San Diego beach. When the police arrived on the scene, they found the woman's calling card, which read simply, "I am Fritzie Mann." Yet Fritzie's identity, asrevealed in this compelling history, was anything but simple, and her death-eventually ruled a homicide-captured public attention for months. In Fritzie, historian Amy Absher reveals how broader cultural...

""An indispensable must-read. This is THE book to read to understand what's going on in the cases against Trump." ��� Joy Reid, MSNBC News anchor and host of The ReidOut A former prosecutor provides an essential guide to ensuring that Donald Trump, and other oligarchs of his ilk, no longer beat the rap, and face serious jail time for their crimes . . . For a half century Donald Trump has evaded justice. Now he finally faces trials for his...

"On December 16, 1842, the US brig-of-war Somers dropped anchor in Brooklyn Harbor at the end of a cruise intended to teach a group of adolescents the rudiments of naval life. But this seemingly harmless exercise ended in catastrophe. Commander AlexanderSlidell Mackenzie came ashore saying he had narrowly prevented a mutiny that would have left him and his officers dead. Some of the thwarted mutineers were being held under guard, but three had been...