I enjoy non-fiction books, but I also find that adult non-fiction can quickly become overly technical or bogged down in minutia beyond my level of interest. I recall once reading a history of American guitar companies that would periodically list production of various models by year. Fortunately, I’ve found the youth library has a number of fun non-fiction titles that I feel other adults may want to know about. Because sometimes you might be only two-hundred pages interested in a subject.
Chocolate: Sweet Science & Dark Secrets of the World’s Favorite Treat by Kay Frydenborg
You’ve eaten it, you probably love it, but do you know where it comes from? Frydenborg explains the history of chocolate consumption and production; and even meets the scientists inventing new varieties.
Phineas Gage: A Gruesome but True Story About Brain Science by John Fleischman
Phineas Gage was a railroad construction foreman who in 1848 walked away from an accident with a thirteen-pound iron rod pushed through his skull. The event understandably changed his life and our understanding of how the human brain affects personality. A fascinating, informative read that never bogs down in medical minutiae.
The Bronte Sisters: The Brief Lives of Charlotte, Emily, and Annie by Catherine Reef
A secluded house, an eccentric father, and imaginary kingdoms complete with their own languages. The Bronte sisters’ brief lives are as fascinating as the books they wrote.
Escape! The Story of the Great Houdini by Sid Fleischman
As a child, future Newberry medalist Fleischman was so fascinated by Harry Houdini he would eventually work professionally as a magician. As a consequence, this excellent biography also touches on the author’s own relationship with this childhood hero as he figures out his secrets.
Shipwreck at the Bottom of the World by Jennifer Armstrong
The story of Ernest Shackelton’s daring, ill-fated 1914 attempt to cross Antarctica; and his even more daring expedition across the ice to rescue his crew. Armstrong brings life to the story with archival photos and anecdotes of the crew members as they survived the cold, hunger and sometimes tedium.
Wheels of Change: How Women Rode the Bicycle to Freedom (With a Few Flat Tires Along the Way) by Sue Macy
The bicycle’s invention in the tail-end of the 19th century was a fad and a phenomenon in the western world. Women took to the new exercise, and for the first time found themselves traveling independently. At fewer than one hundred illustrated pages, this is a fun afternoon read full of detours about subjects such as women inventors and early celebrity cyclists (Annie Oakley!).
Posted by the Information Services Department (Gwen B., Emily W., Lisa E., & Joyce D.)
Here's
the latest list of our new nonfiction book picks! Listed below, along
with their Dewey Decimal classification, are our top picks of the
nonfiction books that looked most interesting, ultra-informative, or
just plain fun. Many of these are so new that we're still working on
getting them out on the shelf, but you can request them now by clicking
on the titles and placing a hold.
181.112 SCH Confucius : and the world he created by Michael Schuman
Confucius is perhaps the most important philosopher in history. Today, his teachings shape the daily lives of more than 1.6 billion people. Throughout East Asia, Confucius's influence can be seen in everything from business practices and family relationships to educational standards and government policies. Even as western ideas from Christianity to Communism have bombarded the region, Confucius's doctrine has endured as the foundation of East Asian culture. It is impossible to understand East Asia, journalist Michael Schuman demonstrates, without first engaging with Confucius and his vast legacy.
Touching on philosophy, history, and current affairs, Confucius tells the vivid, dramatic story of the enigmatic philosopher whose ideas remain at the heart of East Asian civilization.
190 REE On the Future: Prospects for humanity by Martin Rees
Humanity has reached a critical moment. Our world is unsettled and rapidly changing, and we face existential risks over the next century. Various outcomes--good and bad--are possible. Yet our approach to the future is characterized by short-term thinking, polarizing debates, alarmist rhetoric, and pessimism. In this short, exhilarating book, renowned scientist and bestselling author Martin Rees argues that humanity's prospects depend on our taking a very different approach to planning for tomorrow.
284.4 RAY Chasing Contentment: Trusting God in a discontented age by Erik Raymond
The biblical practice of contentment can seem like a lost art--something reserved for spiritual giants but out of reach for the rest of us. In our discontented age--characterized by impatience, overspending, grumbling, and unhappiness--it's hard to imagine what true contentment actually looks (and feels) like. But even the apostle Paul said that he learned to be content in any and every circumstance. Paul's remarkable contentment was something grown and developed over time.
294.342 HAG Buddhism Plain and Simple by Steve Hagen
This book offers a
clear, straightforward approach to Buddhism in general and awareness in
particular. It is about being awake and in touch with what is going on
here and now. When the Buddha was asked to sum up his teaching in a
single word, he said, "Awareness." The Buddha taught how to see directly
into the nature of experience. His observations and insights are plain,
practical, and down-to-earth, and they deal exclusively with the
present. In Buddhism Plain and Simple, Steve Hagen presents these
uncluttered, original teachings in everyday, accessible language
unencumbered by religious ritual, tradition, or belief.
303.5 DOD Deviced: Balancing Life and Technology in a Digital World by Doreen Dodgen-Magee
With current statistics suggesting that the average American over the age of 14 engages with screens upwards of 10 hours a day, the topic of our growing dependence upon technology applies to nearly everyone. While the effects differ at each point of development, real changes to the brain, relationships, and personal lives are well documented. Deviced! explores these alterations and offers a realistic look at how we can better use technology and break away from the bad habits we've formed.
325.73 SAL Melting Pot or Civil War? by Reihan Salam
For too long, liberals have suggested that only cruel, racist, or nativist bigots would want to restrict immigration. Anyone motivated by compassion and egalitarianism would choose open, or nearly-open, borders--or so the argument goes. Now, Reihan Salam, the son of Bangladeshi immigrants, turns this argument on its head.
In this deeply researched but also deeply personal book, Salam shows why uncontrolled immigration is bad for everyone, including people like his family. Our current system has intensified the isolation of our native poor, and risks ghettoizing the children of poor immigrants. It ignores the challenges posed by the declining demand for less-skilled labor, even as it exacerbates ethnic inequality and deepens our political divides.
If we continue on our current course, in which immigration policy serves wealthy insiders who profit from cheap labor, and cosmopolitan extremists attack the legitimacy of borders, the rise of a new ethnic underclass is inevitable. Even more so than now, class politics will be ethnic politics, and national unity will be impossible.
364.1060973 OLD
Inspector Oldfield and the Black Hand Society: America's original gangsters and the U.S. Postal detective who brought them to justice by William Oldfield and Victoria Bruce
The incredible true story of the US Post Office Inspector who took down the deadly Black Hand, a turn-of-the-century Italian-American secret society that preyed on immigrants across America’s industrial heartland—featuring fascinating and never-before-seen documents and photos from the Oldfield family’s private collection.
500 NOV The Skeptics Guide to the Universe by Steven Novella
It's intimidating to realize that we live in a world overflowing with misinformation, bias, myths, deception, and flawed knowledge. There really are no ultimate authority figures-no one has the secret and there is no place to look up the definitive answers to our questions (not even Google). But, by thinking skeptically and logically, we can combat sloppy reasoning, bad arguments and superstitious thinking. It's difficult, and takes a lot of vigilance, but it's worth the effort.
In this tie-in to their incredibly popular "The Skeptics Guide to the Universe" podcast, Steven Novella, MD along with "Skeptical Rogues" Bob Novella, Cara Santa Maria, Jay Novella, and Evan Bernstein will explain the tenets of skeptical thinking and debunk some of the biggest scientific myths, fallacies and conspiracy theories (Anti-vaccines, homeopathy, UFO sightings, etc.) They'll help us try to make sense of what seems like an increasingly crazy world using powerful tools like science and philosophy.
636.7376 EGG Training your German Shepherd Dog by Brandy Eggeman and Joan Hustace Walker
Books in Barron's Training Your Dog series offer breed-specific advice on virtually every aspect of canine training, including housetraining, obedience to basic verbal commands and hand signals, and walking on a leash. Also covered are humane methods of breaking a dog's bad habits. The German Shepherd is intelligent and a quick learner, which makes him highly trainable. However, training this fine dog should begin early in life. German Shepherds are best suited to owners who can offer gentle, positive leadership and consistent training methods. Includes full color photos throughout, as well as some instructive step-by-step color photos.
641.591822 BAL The 30-Minute Mediterranean Diet Cookbook by Serena Ball and Deanna Segrave-Daly
Bowls of pasta, abundant seafood, roasted vegetables, bread dipped into olive oil, and even a glass of wine―the Mediterranean diet is easy to follow because it’s also a lifestyle. The 30-Minute Mediterranean Diet Cookbook makes it easier than ever to get your fill of the Mediterranean diet and all of its health benefits with quick, satisfying recipes for health and longevity.
Table-ready in 30 minutes or less, these classic Mediterranean diet meals combine easy-to-find ingredients with quick prep and cook times, so that you can spend less time in the kitchen and more time enjoying your food. From Breakfast Bruschetta to Baked Chicken Caprese to Chilled Dark Chocolate Fruit, The 30-Minute Mediterranean Diet Cookbook makes the Mediterranean diet a staple for everyday schedules.
B TRAVIS The Challenge Culture: Why the best successful organizations run on Pushback by Nigel Travis
The executive chairman and former CEO of Dunkin' Donuts and Baskin Robbins reflects on the unique, results-oriented discipline he's developed over decades of leadership, which provides a blueprint for any organization to achieve prosperity.
We live in an era in which successful organizations can fail in a flash. But they can cope with change and thrive by creating a culture that supports positive pushback: questioning everything without disrespecting anyone.
Posted by the Information Services Department (Gwen B., Emily W., Lisa E., & Joyce D.)
Here's
the latest list of our new nonfiction book picks! Listed below, along
with their Dewey Decimal classification, are our top picks of the
nonfiction books that looked most interesting, ultra-informative, or
just plain fun. Many of these are so new that we're still working on
getting them out on the shelf, but you can request them now by clicking
on the titles and placing a hold.
211.80973 MOO Godless Citizens in a Godly Republic : Atheists in American Public Life by R. Laurence Moore and Isaac Kramnick
God occupies our nation’s consciousness, even defining to many what it means to be American. Nonbelievers have often had second-class legal status and have had to fight for their rights as citizens.
As R. Laurence Moore and Isaac Kramnick demonstrate in their sharp and convincing work, avowed atheists were derided since the founding of the nation. Even Thomas Paine fell into disfavor and his role as a patriot forgotten. Popular Republican Robert Ingersoll could not be elected in the nineteenth century due to his atheism, and the suffragette Elizabeth Cady Stanton was shunned when she questioned biblical precepts about women’s roles.
270.092 PAG Why Religion?: A Personal Story by Elaine Pagels
Why is religion still around in the twenty-first century? Why do so many still believe? And how do various traditions still shape the way people experience everything from sexuality to politics, whether they are religious or not? In Why Religion? Elaine Pagels looks to her own life to help address these questions.
These questions took on a new urgency for Pagels when dealing with unimaginable loss—the death of her young son, followed a year later by the shocking loss of her husband. Here she interweaves a personal story with the work that she loves, illuminating how, for better and worse, religious traditions have shaped how we understand ourselves; how we relate to one another; and, most importantly, how to get through the most difficult challenges we face.
323.092 MCK On the Other Side of Freedom : The Case for Hope by DeRay McKesson
From the internationally recognized civil rights activist/organizer and host of the podcast Pod Save the People, a meditation on resistance, justice, and freedom, and an intimate portrait of a movement from the front lines.
Honest, courageous, and imaginative, On the Other Side of Freedom is a work brimming with hope. Drawing from his own experiences as an activist, organizer, educator, and public official, Mckesson exhorts all Americans to work to dismantle the legacy of racism and to imagine the best of what is possible. Honoring the voices of a new generation of activists, On the Other Side of Freedom is a visionary's call to take responsibility for imagining, and then building, the world we want to live in.
362.734089 ROO In Their Voices: Black Americans on Transracial Adoption by Rhonda M. Roorda
While many proponents of transracial adoption claim that American society is increasingly becoming "color-blind," a growing body of research reveals that for transracial adoptees of all backgrounds, racial identity does matter. Rhonda M. Roorda elaborates significantly on that finding, specifically studying the effects of the adoption of black and biracial children by white parents. She incorporates diverse perspectives on transracial adoption by concerned black Americans of various ages, including those who lived through Jim Crow and the Civil Rights era. All her interviewees have been involved either personally or professionally in the lives of transracial adoptees, and they offer strategies for navigating systemic racial inequalities while affirming the importance of black communities in the lives of transracial adoptive families.
641.5612 ALL All Time Best Dinners for Two
Leave it to America's Test Kitchen to help you get a perfectly scaled dinner for two on the table--no guesswork required.
Because small households, newlyweds, empty nesters, college students, and other two-person families shouldn't have to rely on recipes meant to serve four or six, we've re-engineered our favorite dinner recipes from the ground up. We used equipment in unexpected ways, such as ramekins to make individual Chicken Pot Pies, and also found clever techniques for scaling recipes with ease, such as swapping in smaller blade steaks for a large chuck roast to make a streamlined Yankee Pot Roast for just two. An appendix with 15 side dish recipes offers fuss-free options for rounding out your meals, while an introduction full of tips and tricks will help you avoid waste and shop for small-scale recipes more efficiently. (less)
746.443 FLE Feminist Icon Cross-Stitch by Anna Fleiss
Trailblazing women take center stage in Feminist Icon Cross-Stitch, a collection of stylish patterns and capsule biographies that celebrates some of our favorite lady heroes.
With an introduction on the rise of modern feminism, and instructions on the basics of cross-stitch, this book features patterns for embroidering twenty iconic women -- like suffragette Susan B. Anthony, author Virginia Woolf, political icon Hillary Rodham Clinton, and pop superstar Beyoncé -- and ten empowering feminist sayings. This charming book gives today's nasty women everything they need to begin crafting hip, feminist works of art.
786.2092 KIL Chopin’s Piano: In Search of the Instrument that Transformed Music by Paul Kildea
The captivating story of Frédéric Chopin and the fate of both his Mallorquin piano and musical Romanticism from the early nineteenth to the mid-twentieth century.
Chopin’s Piano traces the history of Chopin’s twenty-four Preludes through the instruments on which they were played, the pianists who interpreted them, and the traditions they came to represent. Yet it begins and ends with the Majorcan pianino, which assumed an astonishing cultural potency during the Second World War as it became, for the Nazis, a symbol of the man and music they were determined to appropriate as their own.
794.8 QUI Crash Override: How Gamergate (nearly) destroyed y life, and how we can win the fight against online hate by Zoë Quinn
You've heard the stories about the dark side of the internet-hackers, anonymous hoards attacking an unlucky target, and revenge porn-but they remain just that: stories. Surely these things would never happen to you.
Zoe Quinn used to feel the same way. Zoe is a video game developer whose ex-boyfriend published a crazed blog post cobbled together from private information, half-truths, and outright fictions, along with a rallying cry to the online hordes to go after her. The hordes answered in the form of a so-called movement known as #gamergate--they hacked her accounts, stole nude photos of her, harassed her family, friends and colleagues, and threatened to rape and murder her. But instead of shrinking into silence as the online mobs wanted her to, she has raised her voice and speaks out against this vicious online culture and for making the internet a safer place for everyone.
796.33264 LEI Big Game: The NFL in Dangerous Times by Mark Leibovich
From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of This Town, an equally merciless probing of America's biggest cultural force, pro football, at a moment of peak success and high anxiety.
Like millions of Americans, Mark Leibovich has spent more of his life than he'd care to admit tuned into pro football. Being a lifelong New England Patriots fan meant growing up with a steady diet of lovable loserdom. That is until the Tom Brady/Bill Belichick era made the Pats the most ruthlessly efficient sports dynasty of the 21st century, its organization the most polarizing in the NFL, and its fans the most irritating in all of Pigskin America. Leibovich kept his obsession relatively private, in the meantime making a nice career for himself covering that other playground for rich and overgrown children, American politics. Still, every now and then Leibovich would reach out to Tom Brady to gauge his willingness to subject himself to a profile in the New York Times Magazine. He figured that the chances of Brady agreeing to this were a Hail Mary at best, but Leibovich kept trying, at least to indulge his fan-boy within. To his surprise, Brady returned the call, in the summer of 2014. He agreed to let Mark spend time with him through the coming season, which proved to be a fateful one for all parties. It included another epic Patriots Super Bowl win and, yes, a scandal involving Brady--Deflategate--whose grip on sports media was as profound as its true significance was ridiculous.
942.045092 LEW The Survival of the Princes in the Tower by Matthew Lewis
The murder of the Princes in the Tower is the most famous cold case in English or British history. Traditionally considered victims of a ruthless uncle, there are other suspects too often and too easily discounted. There may be no definitive answer, but by delving into the context of their disappearance and the characters of the suspects, Matthew Lewis will examine the motives and opportunities afresh as well as ask a crucial but often overlooked question: what if there was no murder? What if Edward V and his brother Richard, Duke of York, survived their uncle’s reign and even that of their brother-in-law Henry VII? There are glimpses of their possible survival and compelling evidence to give weight to those theories which is considered alongside the possibility of their deaths to provide a rounded and complete assessment of the most fascinating mystery in history.
B GINSBURG Ruth Bader Ginsburg: A Life by Jane Sherron DeHart
The first full life—private, public, legal, philosophical—of the 107th Supreme Court Justice, one of the most profound and profoundly transformative legal minds of our time; a book fifteen years in work, written with the cooperation of Ruth Bader Ginsburg herself and based on many interviews with the justice, her husband, her children, her friends, and her associates.
In this large, comprehensive, revelatory biography, Jane De Hart explores the central experiences that crucially shaped Ginsburg’s passion for justice, her advocacy for gender equality, her meticulous jurisprudence: her desire to make We the People more united and our union more perfect. At the heart of her story and abiding beliefs—her Jewish background. Tikkun olam, the Hebrew injunction to “repair the world,” with its profound meaning for a young girl who grew up during the Holocaust and World War II. We see the influence of her mother, Celia Amster Bader, whose intellect inspired her daughter’s feminism, insisting that Ruth become independent, as she witnessed her mother coping with terminal cervical cancer (Celia died the day before Ruth, at seventeen, graduated from high school).
Posted by the Information Services Department (Gwen B., Lisa E., Joyce D., & Emily W.)
Here's
the latest list of our new nonfiction book picks! Listed below, along
with their Dewey Decimal classification, are our top picks of the
nonfiction books that looked most interesting, ultra-informative, or
just plain fun. You can request them now by clicking
on the titles and placing a hold.
306.766 DUB Has the Gay Movement Failed? by Martin Duberman
The past fifty years have seen significant shifts in attitudes toward LGBTQ people and wider acceptance of them in the United States and the West. Yet the extent of this progress, argues Martin Duberman, has been more broad and conservative than deep and transformative. One of the most renowned historians of the American left and the LGBTQ movement, as well as a pioneering social-justice activist, Duberman reviews the half century since Stonewall with an immediacy and rigor that informs and energizes. He revisits the early gay movement and its progressive vision for society and puts the left on notice as failing time and again to embrace the queer potential for social transformation. Acknowledging the elimination of some of the most discriminatory policies that plagued earlier generations, he takes note of the cost—the sidelining of radical goals on the way to achieving more normative inclusion. Illuminating the fault lines both within and beyond the movements of the past and today, this critical book is also hopeful: Duberman urges us to learn from this history to fight for a truly inclusive and expansive society.
328.73092 BRA For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Politics by Donna Brazile, Yolanda Caraway, Leah Daughtry, and Minyon Moore with Veronica Chambers
The lives of black women in American politics are remarkably absent from the shelves of bookstores and libraries. For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Politics is a sweeping view of American history from the vantage points of four women who have lived and worked behind the scenes in politics for over thirty years—Donna Brazile, Yolanda Caraway, Leah Daughtry, and Minyon Moore—a group of women who call themselves The Colored Girls. Like many people who have spent their careers in public service, they view their lives in four-year waves where presidential campaigns and elections have been common threads. For most of the Colored Girls, their story starts with Jesse Jackson’s first campaign for president. From there, they went on to work on the presidential campaigns of Walter Mondale, Michael Dukakis, Bill Clinton, Al Gore, Barack Obama and Hillary Rodham Clinton.
331.133 BRA The Future of Tech is Female by Douglas M. Branson
Tech giants like Apple and Google are among the fastest growing companies in the world, leading innovations in design and development. The industry continues to see rapid growth, employing millions of people: in the US it is at the epicenter of the American economy. So why is it that only 5% of senior executives in the tech industry are female? Underrepresentation of women on boards of directors, in the C-suite, and as senior managers remains pervasive in this industry. As tech companies are plagued with high-profile claims of harassment and discrimination, and salary discrepancies for comparable work, one asks what prevents women from reaching management roles, and, more importantly, what can be done to fix it?
365.4 SCH The Lost Chapters: Finding recovery and renewal one book at a time by Leslie Schwartz
In 2014, novelist Leslie Schwartz was sentenced to 90 days in Los Angeles County Jail for a DUI and battery of an officer. It was the most harrowing and holy experience of her life.
Following a 414-day relapse into alcohol and drug addiction after more than a decade clean and sober, Schwartz was sentenced and served her time with only six months' sobriety. The damage she inflicted that year upon her friends, her husband, her teenage daughter, and herself was nearly impossible to fathom. Incarceration might have ruined her altogether, if not for the stories that sustained her while she was behind bars--both the artful tales in the books she read while there, and, more immediately, the stories of her fellow inmates. With classics like Edith Wharton's Ethan Frome to contemporary accounts like Laura Hillenbrand's Unbroken, Schwartz's reading list is woven together with visceral recollections of both her daily humiliations and small triumphs within the county jail system. Through the stories of others--whether rendered on the page or whispered in a jail cell--she learned powerful lessons about how to banish shame, use guilt for good, level her grief, and find the lost joy and magic of her astonishing life.
500 HAW Brief Answers to the Big Questions by Stephen Hawking
Hawking not only unraveled some of the universe’s greatest mysteries but also believed science plays a critical role in fixing problems here on Earth. Now, as we face immense challenges on our planet—including climate change, the threat of nuclear war, and the development of artificial intelligence—he turns his attention to the most urgent issues facing us.
Will humanity survive? Should we colonize space? Does God exist? These are just a few of the questions Hawking addresses in this wide-ranging, passionately argued final book from one of the greatest minds in history.
791.4572 REI Springfield Confidential : jokes, secrets, and outright lies from a lifetime
writing for The Simpsons by Mike Reiss with Mathew Klickstein
In celebration of The Simpsons thirtieth anniversary, the show’s longest-serving writer and producer offers a humorous look at the writing and making of the legendary Fox series that has become one of the most revered artistic achievements in television history.
B CARTER Invisible: the forgotten story of the black woman lawyer who took down America’s most powerful mobster by Stephen L. Carter
The bestselling author delves into his past and discovers the inspiring story of his grandmother’s extraordinary life
She was black and a woman and a prosecutor, a graduate of Smith College and the granddaughter of slaves, as dazzlingly unlikely a combination as one could imagine in New York of the 1930s―and without the strategy she devised, Lucky Luciano, the most powerful Mafia boss in history, would never have been convicted. When special prosecutor Thomas E. Dewey selected twenty lawyers to help him clean up the city’s underworld, she was the only member of his team who was not a white male.
B FERRIS Circles in the Sky: the Life and Times of George Ferris by Richard Weingardt
In the summer of 1893, at the Columbian Exposition in Chicago, an engineering marvel was unveiled and immediately captured the world's attention. It was a towering, web-like giant wheel, standing upright and rotating high above the city. Several stories taller than any existing American building, the Ferris Wheel carried adventure-seeking passengers to the dizzying height of 264 feet and provided panoramic views never before possible. George W. G. Ferris Jr. and his wheel helped usher America--eager to identify itself with ingenuity, entrepreneurialism, and innovation--into the 20th century. Yet the very wheel that came to define George Ferris in the end consumed him, leaving him ruined.
B WRIGHT Frank Lloyd Wright: a Life by Ada Louise Huxtable
From the way we build to the way we live, Frank Lloyd Wright's influence on American architecture is visible all around us. Now, Ada Louise Huxtable, the Pulitzer Prize- winning architecture writer for "The Wall Street Journal"?and chief architecture critic for "The New York Times" for nearly twenty years?offers an outstanding look at the architect and the man. She explores the sources of his tumultuous and troubled life and his long career as master builder as well as his search for lasting, true love. Along the way, Huxtable introduces readers to Wright's masterpieces: Taliesin, rebuilt after tragedy and murder; the Imperial Hotel, one of the few structures left standing after Japan's catastrophic 1923 earthquake; and tranquil Fallingwater, to which millions have traveled to experience its quiet grace.
Posted by the Information Services Department (Gwen B., Lisa E., Joyce D., & Emily W.)
Here's
the latest list of our new nonfiction book picks! Listed below, along
with their Dewey Decimal classification, are our top picks of the
nonfiction books that looked most interesting, ultra-informative, or
just plain fun. You can request them now by clicking
on the titles and placing a hold.
155.7 MIL The Human Instinct by Kenneth R. Miller
A radical, optimistic exploration of how humans evolved to develop reason, consciousness, and free will.
234.23 CAR Faith: A Journey for All by Jimmy Carter
In this powerful reflection, President Jimmy Carter contemplates how faith has sustained him in happiness and disappointment. He considers how we may find it in our own lives.
261.5 REI 12 Ways Your Phone is Changing You by Tony Reinke
Within a few years of its unveiling, the smartphone had become part of us, fully integrated into the daily patterns of our lives. Never offline, always within reach, we now wield in our hands a magic wand of technological power we have only begun to grasp. But it raises new enigmas, too. Never more connected, we seem to be growing more distant. Never more efficient, we have never been more distracted.
282.092 KAI Inside the Jesuits: How Pope Francis is Changing the Church and the World by Robert Kaiser
Pope Francis, the first Jesuit pope, has captured our attention by stepping away from the papal throne, unafraid to give impromptu interviews, decentralize church governance, or explore new horizons for the greater good of the people of God. His actions and words suggest that he is here not to dominate but to serve, less inclined to preach than to listen, and to bring us back to Jesus "that we may have life and have it more abundantly." Award-winning journalist Robert Blair Kaiser argues that the pope's Jesuit DNA is central to understanding how Pope Francis is shaping the church and the world.
305.88097 HIL We Have Overcome by Jason Hill
A black immigrant’s eloquent appreciation of the American Dream, and why his adopted nation remains the most noble experiment in enabling the pursuit of happiness.
306.20943 JAR Broken Lives: How Ordinary Germans Experienced the 20th Century by Konrad Jarausch
The gripping stories of ordinary Germans who lived through World War II, the Holocaust, and Cold War partition--but also recovery, reunification, and rehabilitation
379.263 DEV A Girl Stands at the Door by Rachel Devlin
A new history of school desegregation in America, revealing how girls and women led the fight for interracial education
637.109 KUR Milk! A 10,000 Year Food Fracas by Mark Kurlansky
Mark Kurlansky's first global food history since the bestselling Cod and Salt; the fascinating cultural, economic, and culinary story of milk and all things dairy--with recipes throughout.
781.640973 MCW Battle Hymns: The Power and Popularity of Muisc in the Civil War by Christian McWhirter
Music was everywhere during the Civil War. Tunes could be heard ringing out from parlor pianos, thundering at political rallies, and setting the rhythms of military and domestic life. With literacy still limited, music was an important vehicle for communicating ideas about the war, and it had a lasting impact in the decades that followed.
782.421660922 PRI Visualizing the Beatles by John Pring
Filled with stunning full-color infographics, a unique, album-by-album visual history of the evolution of the Beatles that examines how their style, their sound, their instruments, their songs, their tours, and the world they inhabited transformed over the course of a decade.
791.4372 GRA Giant: Elizabeth Taylor, Rock Hudson, James Dean, Edna Ferber, and the Making of a Legendary American Film by Don Graham
A larger-than-life narrative of the making of the classic film, marking the rise of America as a superpower, the ascent of Hollywood celebrity, and the flowering of Texas culture as mythology.
929.20973 ROW Jell-O Girls: A Family History by Allie Rowbottom
A memoir that braids the evolution of one of America's most iconic branding campaigns with the stirring tales of the women who lived behind its façade - told by the inheritor of their stories.
940.53 DRO The Stone Crusher by Jeremy Dronfield
In 1939, Gustav Kleinmann, a Jewish upholsterer in Vienna, was arrested by the Nazis. Along with his sixteen-year-old son Fritz, he was sent to Buchenwald in Germany, where a new concentration camp was being built. It was the beginning of a six-year odyssey almost without parallel. They helped build Buchenwald, young Fritz learning construction skills which would help preserve him from extermination in the coming years. But it was his bond with his father that would ultimately keep them both alive.
Phineas Gage was a railroad construction foreman who in 1848 walked away from an accident with a thirteen-pound iron rod pushed through his skull. The event understandably changed his life and our understanding of how the human brain affects personality. A fascinating, informative read that never bogs down in medical minutiae. 
As a child, future Newberry medalist Fleischman was so fascinated by Harry Houdini he would eventually work professionally as a magician. As a consequence, this excellent biography also touches on the author’s own relationship with this childhood hero as he figures out his secrets. 
