Readers' Nook

The history of American cinema up to today has included the "Western" as a central genre. While inspired by popular literature, Westerns continue to tell stories about the perils settlers experienced during Western expansion. Mechanics' is home to an extensive collection of Western Americana, including many titles from the Western silver screen and television. 'Giddy-up' to the Western film display on the 2nd floor and take home DVD and Blu-ray from our diverse collection ranging back to the 1930s.

Craig recommends Johnny Guitar starring Joan Crawford and Sterling Hayden. "In this drama film, released in 1954, Joan Crawford as Vienna plays a strong-willed saloon owner. She battles the local townspeople headed by Emma, the local sexually repressed, lynch-happy female rancher. She is out to frame Vienna for a string of robberies. Johnny Logan is a guitar-strumming drifter who was once in love with Vienna, and is offered a job in her saloon. This film is often considered one of the most original westerns of all time... and the women in the film are far tougher than the men."

Taryn recommends:

• Red River -- "Based on the almost brilliant but still pulpy Blazing Guns on the Chisholm Trail"
• Dances with Wolves -- "Fascinating native scenery and much of the dialogue is spoken in Lakota with English subtitles."
• Taryn also recommends the True Grit the novel by Charles Portis, along with both film adaptations starring John Wayne and Josh Brolin.

Veronica recommends High Noon calling it "one of my all-time favorite Westerns".

Lisa recommends True Grit and McCabe and Mrs. Miller

Myles recommends Django Unchained -- "Tarantino’s Spaghetti Western, loosely based on the 1966 Italian film Django, is set in the South and follows freed slave Django, played by Jamie Foxx, as he carries out revenge on plantation owners that have kept his wife captive. Embedded in this violent revisionist Western are the familiar themes of frontier justice, but it’s the frank take on race relations that makes this film stand out."

Steven recommends:

• The Searchers -- "John Ford directed the best known classics of the Western genre. Many consider this his greatest achievement; it features John Wayne and Jeffrey Hunter searching for a girl kidnapped by Comanches. The ending will surprise you."
• High Noon -- "Gary Cooper won the Oscar, some say for looking at a clock with a worried expression on his face. This 50s classic has the quintessential shootout scene in which we see the gunfight as a spectator sport. Contrast this with Costner’s Open Range (below)."
• The Frisco Kid -- "A hidden gem from the 70s. Gene Wilder plays a rabbi sent fresh from the yeshiva school in Poland to a congregation in San Francisco. He has to team up with an outlaw (Harrison Ford before the Star Wars movies) in order to make his way across the country."
• True Grit -- "The Mechanics Institute library has both the original with John Wayne and Kim Darby as well as the 2010 remake with Jeff Bridges and Hailee Steinfeld. Wayne and Bridges both won the Oscar for Best Actor. The remake had additional Oscar-winning performances as well.  A teenage girl seeks justice for her murdered family. Justice proves a bit elusive."
• Once Upon a Time in the West -- "Of all the spaghetti westerns this is my favorite. The casting of Sergio Leone’s classic stands as one of the most subversive contributions to the genre: he cast actors quite diametrically against type with Henry Fonda as the sociopathic villain and Jason Robards as morally ambiguous outlaw.  Mythic themes such as the hero’s journey and redemption make this more than just another Western."
• The Outlaw Josey Wales -- "The 1970s saw a revision of the Western genre to include more historically accurate elements. Screen writer Philip Kaufman integrated these into a script that shows, long before his Indiana Jones movies, that he could craft a perfect story arc. The title character’s outlaw career as a consequence of the Civil War and its aftermath along with a sympathetic portrayal of Native Americans frames the Western in a very different manner than the earlier classics."
• Dead Man -- "Auteur Jim Jarmusch directed Johnny Depp in this strange and dream-like re-imagining of the Western. Picture the classic Shootout at the OK Corral on acid. In black & white with an interesting collection of actors including Iggy Pop, John Hurt, Gabriel Byrne, Crispin Glover and Jared Harris (son of Richard Harris)."
• Unforgiven -- "Eastwood further deconstructs the Western in this 1992 movie that goes to great lengths to ‘de-romanticize’ and ‘de-mythologize’ the Western. In a key scene Gene Hackman blows apart the mythos of the western gunslinger with an uncomfortable truth. Some younger viewers may like to see a performance by Richard Harris before he was Dumbledore."
• Open Range -- "Kevin Costner studied of primary sources and photographs from the period in aid of creating this neo-realistic Western. Unlike the stereotypical depiction of the gunfight in a Western (High Noon, for example), the townspeople flee before the final showdown, not wanting to be anywhere near when the bullets start to fly. Set during one of the many ‘range wars’ that displaced the small-scale ranchers on the frontier in the late 19th century, the film dramatizes a little known chapter of the history of the western United States."

This month our audiobook selection honors Black History Month. Listen to and explore works by African American writers of both fiction and nonfiction. From L.A. detectives (Cinnamon Kiss) to U.S. history (We Were Eight Years In Power) – there’s something for everyone!

How Are You Going to Save Yourself by JM Holmes, read by Damien Christopher CD Fic Holmes

Native Son by Richard Wright, read by Peter Francis James CD Fic Wright

Cadillac Orpheus by Solon Timothy Woodward, read by Dion Graham CD Fic Woodward

The Interruption of Everything by Terry McMillan, read by Desiree Taylor CD Fic McMillan

Cinnamon Kiss by Walter Mosley, read by Michael Boatman CD Fic Mosley

A Lesson Before Dying by Ernest J. Gaines, read by Jay Long CD Fic Gaines

We Were Eight Years In Power by Ta-Nehisi Coates, read by Beresford Bennett CD 305.896 C652

The Defender: How the Legendary Black Newspaper Changed America: From the Age of the Pullman Porters to the Age of Obama by Ethan Michaeli, read by William Hughes CD 071.73 M621

A Song Flung Up to Heaven by Maya Angelou, read by the author CD 92 A584soc

BOOKS

FICTION
Chris Cander The weight of a piano

Historical Fiction
Terry Gamble The eulogist
Steph Post Miraculum
Imogen Hermes Gowar The mermaid & Mrs. Hancock: a history in three volumes
Daniel Mason The winter soldier

Mystery, Suspense, Espionage & Intrigue
JoAnn Chaney As long as we both shall live
Tim Johnston The current
John Lescroart The rule of law
Wil Medearis Restoration heights
Ben H. Winters Golden State

Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror
S.A. Chakraborty The kingdom of copper

Comic Books, Graphic Novels & Comic Strips
Laurent Queyssi Philip K. Dick: a comics biography 92 D54q comics

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NONFICTION
Applied Sciences
Lillian Hoddeson The man who saw tomorrow: the life & inventions of Stanford R. Ovshinsky 621.309 O7h

Arts, Architecture & Crafts
Ian Castello-Cortes Desperately seeking Frida 750.92 K12c
Ángel Rafael Colón Iconography: an irreverent introduction 704.946 C718
Peggy Phelan Contact Warhol: photography without end 769.92 W27c
James R. Cothran Grave landscapes: the nineteenth-century rural cemetery movement 718 C826
Amy S. Landau (editor) Pearls on a string: artists, patrons & poets at the great Islamic courts 700.9 P316

Biography & Genealogy
Ha Jin The banished immortal: a life of Li Bai (Li Po) 92 L69h
Wittgenstein's family letters: corresponding with Ludwig 929.2 W831wa
Robert J. Brown You can't go wrong doing right: how a child of poverty rose to the White House & helped change the world 92 B812y
Jackie Hogan Roots quest: inside America's genealogy boom 929.1 H678

Business & Economics
Gary P. Pisano Creative construction: the DNA of sustained innovation 658.4 P672
Steven G. Rogelberg The surprising science of meetings: how you can lead your team to peak performance 658.456 R63
Howard Schultz From the ground up: a journey to reimagine the promise of America 338.766 S387f

Computer Science
Seppe vanden Broucke Practical web scraping for data science: best practices & examples with Python 005.1 P99b
Dimitrios Kouzis-Loukas Learning Scrapy: learn the art of efficient web scraping & crawling with Python 005.1 P99k

Food & Drink
Hervé This Molecular gastronomy: exploring the science of flavor 641.01 T448m
Nik Sharma Season: big flavors, beautiful food 641.63 S233

History
Keith Lowe The fear & the freedom: how the Second World War changed us 940.55 L913f
Tim Mohr Burning down the Haus: punk rock, revolution & the fall of the Berlin Wall 943.155 M726
Tony Perrottet Cuba libre!: Che, Fidel & the improbable revolution that changed world history 972.91 P461c
David Treuer The heartbeat of Wounded Knee: native America from 1890 to the present 970.004 T726
Nick Barratt The restless kings: Henry II, his sons & the wars for the Plantagenet crown 942.03 B273
Gordon Corera Operation Columba: the Secret Pigeon Service: the untold story of World War II resistance in Europe 940.5486 C79o
Robert E. Hannigan The Great War & American foreign policy, 1914-24 940.373 H196
Robert Holland The warm south: how the Mediterranean shaped the British imagination 909.0982 H73w
Richard Huscroft Making England, 796-1042 942.01 H96m

Law
Kelly J. Beard An imperfect rapture 340.092 B380

Literature & Writing
Honoré de Balzac Treatise on modern stimulants 844 B198t
Lucia Berlin Welcome home: a memoir with selected photographs & letters 813.54 B455
Maya Angelou Celebrations: rituals of peace & prayer 811.54 A584ce
Miguel de Cervantes The bagnios of Algiers ; and, the great Sultana: two plays of captivity 862.3 C419b
The collected essays of Elizabeth Hardwick 814 H26c

Natural Sciences & Mathematics
Mohamed A.F. Noor Live long & evolve: what Star Trek can teach us about evolution, genetics & life on other worlds 576 N818

Performing Arts & Music
W.R. Wilkerson III Hollywood godfather: the life & crimes of Billy Wilkerson 791.4 W652w

Philosophy, Psychology & Religion
Jane Brox Silence: a social history of one of the least understood elements of our lives 204.47 B885s
Bhiḳṣu Tenzin Gyatso Samsāra, Nirvāna & Buddha Nature 294.3 B917s
Edith Hall Aristotle's way: how ancient wisdom can change your life 170.44 H174a
Michael Muhammad Knight Muhammad: forty introductions 297.63 K711m
Steven R. Weisman The chosen wars: how Judaism became an American religion 296 W42c

Politics & Government
Kent Blansett A journey to freedom: Richard Oakes, Alcatraz & the Red Power movement 323.1197 O42b
Richard Gergel Unexampled courage: the blinding of Sgt. Isaac Woodard & the awakening of President Harry S. Truman & Judge J. Waties Waring 323.1196 G314
Steven T. Usdin Bureau of spies: the secret connections between espionage & journalism in Washington 327.12 U19
Jon Ward Camelot's end: Kennedy vs. Carter & the fight that broke the Democratic Party 324.973 W210
Keisha N. Blain Set the world on fire: black nationalist women & the global struggle for freedom 320.54 B573
William Blum America's deadliest export: democracy: the truth about US foreign policy & everything else 327.73 B65a

Social Sciences & Current Events
Christopher Burchfield Choose your weapon: the duel in California, 1847-1861 394.8 B893
Susan Crawford Fiber: the coming tech revolution & why America might miss it 384.3 C856
Nora A. Draper The identity trade: selling privacy & reputation online 323.448 D791
Jack Kelly The edge of anarchy: the railroad barons, the Gilded Age & the greatest labor uprising in America 331.89 K29e
Elizabeth Kolbert Field notes from a catastrophe: man, nature & climate change 363.738 K81f
Dan Lyons Lab rats: how Silicon Valley made work miserable for the rest of us 331.0973 L991
Adam Plantinga Police craft: what cops know about crime, community & violence 363.2 P714p
Jason Rezaian Prisoner: my 544 days in an Iranian prison--solitary confinement, a sham trial, high-stakes diplomacy & the extraordinary efforts it took to get me out 365.45 R467
Joel Simon We want to negotiate: the secret world of kidnapping, hostages & ransom 364.154 S531
P.W. Singer Likewar: the weaponization of social media 302.23 S617L
Lynn R. Sykes Silencing the bomb: one scientist's quest to halt nuclear testing 355.02 S44
Shoshana Zuboff The age of surveillance capitalism: the fight for a human future at the new frontier of power 306.3 Z81a
Peter McNeil Pretty gentlemen: macaroni men & the eighteenth-century fashion world 391 M169p

Sports & Games
Catra Corbett Reborn on the run: my journey from addiction to ultramarathons 796.42 C810
The story of baseball in 100 photographs 796.357 S761
Eric B. Forsyth An inexplicable attraction: my fifty years of ocean sailing 797.124 F775

Travel & Geography
Fodor's 2019 essential Spain 914.6 F653
Fodor's 2019 Paris 914.436 F653
Fodor's Chicago 917.731 F653
Fodor's essential Hawaii 919.69 F653
Fodor's New Orleans 917.63 F653
Fodor's Northern California 917.94 F653
Fodor's Scotland 914.11 F653
Fodor's Toronto: with Niagara falls & the Niagara wine region 917.1354 F65
Kate Harris Lands of lost borders: a journey on the Silk Road 915.8 H240
The rough guide to Barcelona 914.672 R856
The Rough Guide to Budapest 914.391 R856
The rough guide to Japan 915.2 R856
The rough guide to Peru 918.5 R856
The rough guide to Portugal 914.69 R856
The rough guide to Shanghai 915.113 R856
The rough guide to Sicily 914.58 R856
The rough guide to the Scottish Highlands & Islands 914.115 R856

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CHILDREN'S COLLECTION

BOOKS
Nonfiction
Karen Leggett Abouraya Malala Yousafzai: warrior with words Child 371.82 Y82a
Emily Arnold McCully She did it!: 21 women who changed the way we think Child 920.72 M459

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AUDIOBOOKS
Nonfiction
Alan I. Abramowitz The great alignment: race, party transformation & the rise of Donald Trump CD 324.273 A161

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DVDs
Action & Adventure
Stalag 17

Drama
Leave no trace
Reversal of fortune

Nonfiction
The secret DVD 158.1 S44

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CDs

Popular
Cat Power Wanderer CD Pop Power

BOOKS

FICTION
Lyndsay Faye The Paragon Hotel
Sarah Léon Wanderer
Mesha Maren Sugar run
Ethel Rohan The weight of him
Nawal El Saadawi Zeina
David Toscana The enlightened army
Hans Christian Andersen The Ice Virgin

Historical Fiction
Marie Benedict The only woman in the room
Georgette Heyer The grand Sophy

Mystery, Suspense, Espionage & Intrigue
Ross Macdonald Black money
Ottessa Moshfegh McGlue
James Lee Burke The New Iberia blues
Jayne Ann Krentz Untouchable
Gytha Lodge She lies in wait
Ragnar Jónasson The darkness

Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror
Katherine Arden The winter of the witch
Robert J. Muller The Great Cat of R'a
Robert J. Muller The Two Kites

Short Stories
Alan DeNiro Tyrannia & other renditions
Susie Moloney Things withered

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NONFICTION
Applied Sciences
Simon Singh The code book: the science of secrecy from ancient Egypt to quantum cryptography 652.8 S61c
David Edwards Creating things that matter: the art & science of innovations that last 600 E26c

Biography & Genealogy
Bill Berkson Since when: a memoir in pieces 92 B455
Nick Bunker Young Benjamin Franklin: the birth of ingenuity 92 F831y
Lauren Hilgers Patriot number one: American dreams in Chinatown 920 H549
Jeffrey C. Stewart The new Negro: the life of Alain Locke 92 L8138n
David Dowling Emerson's Protégés: Mentoring & Marketing Transcendentalism's Future 920 D756
James Pope-Hennessy The quest for Queen Mary 92 M3936po

Books, Reading, Publishing, Journalism, Library & Information Science
Linda Greenhouse Just a journalist: on the press, life & the spaces between 070.92 G838

Chess
Tibor Károlyi Play the Dutch! Part 1 794.122 K1963
Tibor Károlyi Play the Dutch! Part 2 794.122 K1963
Sergey Kasparov A cunning chess opening for black: lure your opponent into the Philidor Swamp 794.122 K192c
Josh Waitzkin Josh Waitzkin's attacking chess: aggressive strategies & inside moves from the U.S. Junior Chess Champion 794.12 W136

Computer Science
David Auerbach Bitwise: a life in code 004 A34

Food & Drink
Bee Wilson First bite: how we learn to eat 641.01 W746f

Health & Medicine
Jeremy Brown Influenza: the hundred-year hunt to cure the deadliest disease in history 614.518 B812
Edward Bullmore The inflamed mind: a radical new approach to depression 616.8527 B876

History
Kamel Daoud Chroniques: selected columns, 2010-2016 965 D238
David Frye Walls: a history of civilization in blood & brick 909 F948
Ethan J. Kytle Denmark Vesey's garden: slavery & memory in the cradle of the Confederacy 975.7 K999
Sigrid Rausing Everything is wonderful: memories of a collective farm in Estonia 947.98 R193
Greg Sargent An uncivil war: taking back our democracy in an age of Trumpian disinformation & thunderdome politics 320.973 S731
Edith Sparks Capital intentions: female proprietors in San Francisco, 1850-1920 979.461 S263c
The Los Angeles Times editorial board Our dishonest president 973.933 O71
Dermot Turing X, Y & Z: the real story of how Enigma was broken 940.5486 T846

Home & Family Management
Jordan Shapiro The new childhood: raising kids to thrive in a connected world 649.1 S5292

Languages & Linguistics
K. David Harrison The last speakers: the quest to save the world's most endangered languages 417 H318L

Law
Tough cases: judges tell the stories of some of the hardest decisions they've ever made 347.73 T643

Literature & Writing
Paula Blank Shakesplish: how we read Shakespeare's language 822.3 B611
Allen Ginsberg Iron Curtain journals: January-May 1965 811 G49i
Ken Jennings Planet funny: how comedy took over our culture 809.7 J54p
Nina Schuyler How to write stunning sentences: 100 simple exercises from beloved authors to improve your writing style 808.04 S89h
Patricia Smith Incendiary art 811 S655i
The world-ending fire: the essential Wendell Berry 814 B534w
Charles Krauthammer The point of it all: a lifetime of great loves & endeavors 814.6 K917p

Performing Arts & Music
Joy Press Stealing the show: how women are revolutionizing television 791.45 P926

Philosophy, Psychology & Religion
Elaine Pagels Why religion?: a personal story 290 P13w
Steven Sloman The knowledge illusion: why we never think alone 153.42 S54
Shashi Tharoor Why I am a Hindu 294.5 T367w
The diamond sūtra & the sūtra of Hui-Neng 294.38 D541

Politics & Government
Kamala Harris The truths we hold: an American journey 328.73 H240
Eli Saslow Rising out of hatred: the awakening of a former white nationalist 320.54 S789
Richard Davenport-Hines Enemies within: communists, the Cambridge spies & the making of modern Britain 327.12 D247e

Reference
Far East 3000 Chinese character dictionary Ref 495.1 Y905
Xinhua dictionary: Chinese-English edition Ref 495.1 S184

Social Sciences & Current Events
Jabari Asim We can't breathe: on black lives, white lies & the art of survival 305.896 A832w
Howard Bryant The heritage: black athletes, a divided America & the politics of patriotism 306.48 B915h
Brad Evans Violence: humans in dark times 303.6 E924v
Paul French City of devils: the two men who ruled the underworld of old Shanghai 364.106 F873c
Jacky Colliss Harvey Red: a history of the redhead 391.5 H262
Gilbert King Beneath a ruthless sun: a true story of violence, race & justice lost & found 364.153 K521
Anastacia Marx de Salcedo Combat-ready kitchen: how the U.S. military shapes the way you eat 363.8 M369
Marion Nestle Unsavory truth: how food companies skew the science of what we eat 363.8 N468u
Rachel Kleinfeld A savage order: how the world's deadliest countries can forge a path to security 363.32 K673
Alexandra Natapoff Punishment without crime: how our massive misdemeanor system traps the innocent & makes America more unequal 364.6 N191
Clarence Taylor Fight the power: African Americans & the long history of police brutality in New York City 363.2 T212

Sports & Games
Peter C. Bjarkman Fidel Castro & baseball: the untold story 796.357 B555
George Howe Colt The game: Harvard, Yale & America in 1968 796.332 C72g
Jackie MacMullan Basketball: a love story 796.3 M229

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CDs
Classical
Richard Rodney Bennett Orchestral works Vol. 2 CD classical Bennett
The virtuoso violin: Paganini, Saint-Saëns, Ysaÿe CD Classical Virtuoso

Jazz & Blues
Ambrose Akinmusire Origami harvest CD Jazz Akinmusire

Musicals & Soundtracks
Thom Yorke Suspiria: music for the Luca Guadagnino film CD Musicals Yorke

Opera
John Adams Doctor Atomic: opera in two acts CD Opera Adams