As we all get into the swing of the new year, our Acquisitions Assistant has been hard at work ordering new titles to fascinate and inspire members in 2013.  In the latest installment of her regular blog, Rhiannon tells us about the fascinating titles crossing her desk.

I hope this won’t be an indication of things to come in world affairs this year, but we have ordered quite a lot of titles recently with a warfare or military theme. These titles vary hugely, spanning from the Fifteenth Century to now; they also cover a large variety of subjects, from torture and nuclear weapons, to photography and bird watching. They may not be especially cheering, but they are fascinating:

“Burke + Norfolk: photographs from the war in Afghanistan” Norfolk, Simon & Burke, John (Dewi Lewis Publishing: 2012)

“Sabres on the steppes: danger, diplomacy and adventure in the great game” Ure, John (Constable: 2012)

“The Finish: killing Osama Bin Laden” Bowden, Mark (Grove Press: 2012)

“Cruel Britannia: a secret history of torture” Cobain, Ian (Portobello: 2012)

“Nuclear Iran” Patrikarakos, David (I.B. Tauris: 2012)

“Power tends to corrupt: Lord Acton’s study of liberty” Lazarski, Christopher (NIU Press: 2012)

“Alexander I: the Tsar who defeated Napoleon” Rey, Marie-Pierre (NIU Press: 2012)

“War/Photography: images of armed conflict and its aftermath” Tucker, Anne Wilkes (Museum of Fine Arts Houston/Yale University Press: 2012)

“Magnum Revolution: 65 years of fighting for freedom” Watson, Paul (Prestel: 2012) – This is a photographic record of revolutions, from the Algerian uprising of 1954 to the “Arab Spring” of 2011

“Reading and war in fifteenth-century England” Nall, Catherine (D.S. Brewer: 2012)

“Birds in a cage: the remarkable story of how four prisoners of war survived captivity” Niemann, Derek (Short Books: 2012) – this is about bird-watching in a POW camp during WW2

“Iron man Rudolf Berthold: Germany’s indomitable fighter ace of World War I” Kilduff, Peter (Grub Street: 2012)

A number of other titles have caught my eye recently, mostly because I liked their titles. These ones are especially noteworthy:

“When pigs could fly and bears could dance” Neirick, Miriam (University of Wisconsin Press: 2012) – this is a history of the Soviet circus

“The Legend of Spring-heeled Jack: Victorian urban folklore and popular fiction” Bell, Karl (Boydell Press: 2012)

“From Gabriel to Lucifer: a cultural history of angels” Rees, Valery (I.B. Tauris, 2012)

“Angels and demons in art” Giorgi, Rosa (J. Paul Getty Museum, 2005)

And my favourite title, which has landed on my desk this very moment.

“Walking sideways: the remarkable world of crabs” Weis, Judith S. (Cornell University Press, 2012)

I have a large stack of publisher catalogues to order from in 2013, so there will be plenty of new titles arriving in the library throughout the year. I look forward to keeping you informed!