More new books!

I'm back from San Diego, slightly jet-lagged and thunderstruck, but otherwise okay! Since it's such a short week and there's a lot to do, I won't be posting a vlog until next week. Instead, we just got a cart groaning with new books, so I'll do another new-book post for this week.

It'll also serve a dual purpose: many of these books are going straight onto my reading list for future vlogs, and posting this will help me remember them -- my memory short-circuits with each wave of new items.

China and English
This is a collection of essays about the role that English is increasingly taking on in China because of a number of factors, including close financial ties with the U.S. and English's rise as a global language, and its impact on Chinese national and cultural identity.

Globish: How the English language became the world's language
The term lingua franca refers to a language used to communicate between people who don't share a mother tongue. Originally used to refer to French -- once the language of trade, politics, and culture -- the term now applies to English, which has started to work as a common global language. This book traces how English came to be and the various factors behind its spread.

One word: Contemporary writers on the words they love and loathe
Is there a word that irritates you every time you see or hear it? Or a word you love? If so, you're not alone in your exacting tastes; a number of authors come together in this collection of essays on words they either wish were used more or were abolished from the language entirely.

Voice of America: Stories
A collection of short stories, this book covers different events taking place in either Nigeria or the U.S. among Nigerian immigrants. I'm pretty excited about this one -- I've heard many fantastic reviews.

Terror and wonder: Architecture in a tumultuous age
The attack on the World Trade Center in 2001 serves as a demarcation in the history of modern architecture, both as an instigator of security measures that reshape the buildings of Washington, DC, and as an instance of destruction just before a decade-long period of creation, in which the world saw an unparalleled building boom.

Makeshift metropolis: Ideas about cities
In the tradition of Jane Jacobs' Death and Life of Great American Cities (mentioned in a brief review here), this book considers the history of urban development, the current state of planning and design trends, and the possible future of the American city.

The 100 best African-American poems (*but I cheated)
A collection of (slightly more than) 100 poems written by African Americans that are generally recognized as the best at characterizing the African-American experience in the U.S., in many different ways.

German: Biography of a language
Did you know that English is actually Germanic in origin? Or that the German state didn't fully unify into a single country until 1871? The history of the German language is closely intertwined with that of our own -- as the history of German culture is with ours.

Triumvirate: McKim, Mead, & White: Art, architecture, scandal, and class in America's Gilded Age
A bit of a lengthy title, but then the subject is rather involved. One of America's leading architectural firms in 1920s New York was led by a group of three men who led wildly different lives but together updated the American aesthetic with buildings like the second Madison Square Garden and the original Pennsylvania Station. The differences between the three men makes it clear that they're worth a book of their own: a pragmatist, a tragic figure, and a murdered sybarite.

Okay, wish list filed with the appropriate authorities. Next week, we'll take a look at what's going on in the Library and, as promised, there'll be a vlog. See you then!