Lost in the Stacks

Brunelleschi's Dome tells the story of one of the greatest achievements in architecture, the dome of the cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore, better known as the Duomo, in Florence, and of Filippo Brunelleschi, the irascible genius who created it. Author Ross King details Brunelleschi's many inventions, including his few failures, and his rivalry with another great artist, Lorenzo Ghiberti.

Last month at the Party For Your Mind, students shared their favorite summer reads. We may be solidly in autumn now, but let's take a look back at what Wolverines read this summer!

The House of the Vestals is a collection of nine short mystery stories featuring Steven Saylor's ancient Roman detective, Gordianus the Finder. The stories are meant to fill a gap between the first two books of the series, and they introduce some of the regular characters. They illustrate many fascinating aspects of Roman society, including the theater, the belief in ghosts, and holidays.

Take a look behind the scenes at the Michigan Theater and stroll down memory lane (and way beyond for most of us) to the 1920s and the early days of this wonderful community treasure and then move up through time to the theater's current role in the Ann Arbor arts scene.

Celebrate Banned Books Week 2016 by exercising your freedom to read. For more than 30 years the American Library Association's Office Intellectual Freedom has been celebrating and protecting our freedom to read with Banned Books Week. With the library's strong support of intellectual freedom we provide collections that cover a diversity of perspectives and viewpoints. You can find most of the frequently challenged/banned books in our collection.

In Habitual Offenders, historian Craig A. Monson tells the true story of the murder of two former prostitutes turned nuns who fled from their convent in 17th century Italy. This is a compelling historical whodunit. Although it is non-fiction, it reads like a novel, with dialogue taken from the actual transcript of the trial of the prime suspects: the nuns' supposed lovers and the right-hand man of a powerful cardinal. Eventually, the web of intrigue stretches as far as Cardinal Mazarin and the court of Louis XIV.

SPQR is a history of ancient Rome, from 753 BCE, the supposed date of its founding, to 212 CE, when the emperor Caracalla granted Roman citizenship to all free inhabitants of the empire. Historian Mary Beard combines the political history of Rome, with famous names such as Julius Caesar and Augustus, with the lives of ordinary people, including women and slaves. She writes in a compelling style that makes the history of ancient Rome come alive.

A Great Reckoning is the latest entry in Louise Penny's popular series, set in the tiny Québec village of Three Pines, featuring Chief Inspector Armand Gamache, who comes out of retirement to lead the Sûreté Academy. When the brutal former head of the Academy is found murdered in his rooms, Gamache becomes a suspect. Meanwhile, Gamache's wife Reine-Marie and her friends find an old map of Three Pines buried in a wall, and Gamache enlists the help of four young cadets to help solve the mystery of why the village has been erased from all official maps of Québec.

Cat Cora is known for being the first female Iron Chef, but this memoir (written with Karen Karbo) offers a heartfelt and compelling account of her whole life and the hardships she faced on her path to Michelin-starred success and culinary fame.

I’ve always taken my brothers’ advice very seriously, and my college years were no exception. When they said visit your professors during office hours, I wrote up my questions and visited most of my professors at least once. When they said to live in a coop, I donned by Birkenstocks and joined an 11-member house, always cleaning the bathrooms when it was my turn. And when they said to study abroad, I moved to Spain for 4 months...