Arcadia Public Library

Military history buffs can find siege weapons of Ancient Egypt, Judea, Assyria, Persia, Greece, and Rome, as well as those of the Gauls and Teutons, the Byzantine Empire, the Muslim World, and Medieval Europe, all described with incredible detail and accompanied by illustrations and photographs. Konstantin Nossov offers new ways to reconstruct various siege weapons that are based on his analyses of the works of ancient and medieval authors, including:...

Revisit the timeless classic in this graphic retelling of Tolstoy's celebrated 1869 novel. In this beautifully rendered graphic adaptation, both fans and newcomers alike will be immersed in the world of War and Peace, one of the most celebrated Russian novels of all time, about the misadventures of Pyotr Kirillovich, Ilya Rostov, and company during the Napoleonic era of Russia. With richly detailed settings recreating the villas and ballrooms of 19th...

A perplexing mystery introduces rookie detective Samson Kolechko in Kyiv as he is tackling his first case, set against real life details of the tumultuous early 20th century. Kyiv, 1919. World War I has ended in Western Europe, but to the East, six factions vie for control of Ukraine. Amidst the instability, young Samson Kolechko places his engineering career on hold. But in the city of Kyiv ­where competing patrols, black-market enterprise,...

"From the 2015 winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature, Svetlana Alexievich, comes the first English translation of her latest work, an oral history of the disintegration of the Soviet Union and the emergence of a new Russia. Bringing together dozens of voices in her distinctive documentary style, Secondhand Time is a monument to the collapse of the USSR, charting the decline of Soviet culture and speculating on what will rise from the ashes of communism....

"In A Swim in a Pond in the Rain, George Saunders guides the reader through seven classic Russian short stories he's been teaching for twenty years as a professor in the prestigious Syracuse University graduate MFA creative writing program. Paired with stories by Chekhov, Turgenev, Tolstoy, and Gogol, these essays are intended for anyone interested in how fiction works and why it's more relevant than ever in these turbulent times. Saunders approaches...

A vibrant novel of a young Cossack's experiences as the Russian Revolution interrupts his half-barbarian life of hunting, fishing, carnality, and drink.