What’s new in the AHL in August
Here are the Library team’s top recommendations
Serendipity by Oscar Farinetti
Did you know that your morning coffee could be thanks to a herd of energetic goats? Or that a forgotten ingredient is behind the invention of the beloved brownie? Who got the fright of their life discovering corn could pop? And which popular soft drink first started out as a medicinal syrup? And did you know Corn Flakes were born in a sanatorium by mistake?
Oscar Farinetti, founder of high-end global food chain Eataly, presents this collection of insightful and entertaining interviews with leading artisan food producers, chefs, inventors and CEOs around the world. Reflecting on the accidental discoveries that gave birth to some of the world’s most well-known gastronomic delights – including Nutella, the humble sandwich, french fries, the ice-cream cone, rum and balsamic vinegar – these serendipitous tales ponder humankind’s never-ending quest to discover something new, and remind us that our mistakes, our flaws, our failures, can often be the most necessary ingredient in finding success.
Library Call Number: 394.12 FAR
The original bambi by Felix Salten
A new, beautifully illustrated translation of Felix Salten’s most celebrated work Bambi: A Life in the Forest –with an introduction by Jack Zipes.
Most of us think we know the story of Bambi but do we?
The Original Bambi is an all-new, illustrated translation of a literary classic that presents the story as it was meant to be told. For decades, readers’ images of Bambi have been shaped by the 1942 Walt Disney film, an idealised look at a fawn who represents nature’s innocence which itself was based on an English translation now nearly one hundred years old. This masterful new translation gives contemporary readers a new perspective on this moving allegorical tale and provides important details about its creator, the Austrian Jewish writer Felix Salten.
Originally published in 1923, Salten’s story is more sombre than the adaptations that followed it. Life in the forest is dangerous and precarious, and Bambi learns important lessons about survival as he grows to become a strong, heroic stag. Jack Zipes’s introduction traces the history of the book’s reception and explores the tensions that Salten experienced in his own life as a hunter who also loved animals, and as an Austrian Jew who sought acceptance in Viennese society even as he faced persecution.
With captivating drawings by award-winning artist Alenka Sottler and a select bibliography, The Original Bambi captures the profound intent of a celebrated story.
Library Call Number F SALT
Horse by Geraldine Brooks
A discarded painting in a roadside clean-up, forgotten bones in a research archive, and Lexington, the greatest racehorse in US history.
From these strands of fact, Geraldine Brooks weaves a sweeping story of spirit, obsession and injustice across American history.
Kentucky, 1850. An enslaved groom named Jarret and a bay foal forge a bond of understanding that will carry the horse to record-setting victories across the South, even as the nation reels towards war. An itinerant young artist who makes his name from paintings of the horse takes up arms for the Union and reconnects with the stallion and his groom on a perilous night far from the glamour of any racetrack.
New York City, 1954. Martha Jackson, a gallery owner celebrated for taking risks on edgy contemporary painters, becomes obsessed with a nineteenth-century equestrian oil painting of mysterious provenance.
Washington, DC, 2019. Jess, a Smithsonian scientist from Australia, and Theo, a Nigerian-American art historian, find themselves unexpectedly connected through their shared interest in the horse – one studying the stallion’s bones for clues to his power and endurance, the other uncovering the lost history of the unsung Black horsemen who were critical to his racing success.
Library Call number HIST F BROO
Counterfeit by Kirstin Chen
Sometimes you need an easy read where you don’t have to think too much about what’s going on. One that you can pick up, put down and not have to remember complex plots.
This is that book.
Meet Ava: rule-abiding lawyer who has ticked all of life’s boxes. She’s married to a successful surgeon and has just taken an indefinite career break to raise her adorable toddler. A picture-perfect life.
Meet Winnie: Ava’s old college roommate. Once awkward, quiet and apparently academically challenged, she left Stanford in a shroud of scandal. But now, she is charismatic, wealthy and has returned to town dripping in designer accessories. An actual perfect life.
When the two women bump into one another at a local coffee shop, it seems like fate has intervened: Winnie’s new-found success is courtesy of a shady business and she needs a favour; Ava is realising she is not built for the stay-at-home life. But what starts as one favour turns into two, then three, and soon Ava is in far deeper than she ever imagined.
Now Ava has to make the ultimate decision: cut and run, or risk it all?
Library Call number F CHEN
Do as I say – by Sarah Steel
If you think you could never be caught up in a cult, then maybe this book will change your mind.
At the heart of being human is the desire to belong. It can make us unspeakably vulnerable to the manipulations of others. Cult leaders prey on this desire, but so do many unscrupulous operators hiding in plain sight.
Sarah Steel, the creator of the popular ‘Let’s Talk About Sects’ podcast, has researched the cults you’ve heard of – and dozens you haven’t. What strikes her most are not the differences between bizarre cult behaviour and ‘normal’ behaviour but the depressing similarities. Her work reveals that we are all susceptible to the power of cult dynamics.
In Do As I Say, Sarah Steel tells the human tale behind the sensationalism. Sharing deeply personal stories, gathered over years of interviews with survivors, and some shocking tales about the world’s most famous cults, she sheds light on the high cost of unchecked coercive behaviours to individuals and communities at large.
Library Call number 209 STE
