Staff Picks Acquisitions for December 2017

Here’s the list of 45 STAFF PICKS PROJECT acquisitions for December 2017. 

Staff Picks are on display in the library or checked out to a library patron. Come in to browse!

Check the Coastline database to place your hold or ask the library staff to place your reservation for you.  Be sure to keep your patron record up to date so you can be notified by email when your hold is ready for pick-up. Donate to help this project achieve its goal of $10,000 for 12 months of Staff Picks acquisitions. If we go over our goal, donations will be used to extend the project until funds are depleted.

Title Author/Artist Description (from Amazon.com unless otherwise noted)
1. A Dangerous Game: Donald Trump vs. the Environment

 
Anthony Baxter, director DVD – …a film made in 2014 that examines the eco-impact of luxury golf resorts around the world. Includes interviews with Donald Trump on his world wide golf empire in Croatia, Dubai, China and Scotland. [sierraclub.org]
2. The New Bohemians Handbook: Come Home to Good Vibes

 
Justina Blakeney … guides readers in beautifully simple techniques for adding good vibes and style to living spaces. Packed with hundreds of ideas for bringing positive energy to your home
3. The Man Who Knew Infinity

Matthew Brown DVD – This absorbing biopic recounts the life of self-taught Indian mathematician Srinivasa Ramanujan, who made his way to Trinity College at Cambridge in 1913 and rose to prominence under the tutelage of renowned math professor G.H. Hardy.
4. Braving the Wilderness: The Quest for True Belonging and the Courage to Stand Alone

Brene Brown  NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • A timely and important new book that challenges everything we think we know about cultivating true belonging in our communities, organizations, and culture
5. Wall Writers: A Documentary Film – Graffiti in Its Innocence

Trina  Calderon and ‎ Caleb Neelon DVD – …features unprecedented access to the forefathers of graffiti, along with testimonies from the journalists, historians and politicians who bore witness to the largest art awakening of the century.
6. Gardening in the Pacific Northwest

Paul Bonine & Amy Campion Plant profiles highlight the region’s best perennials, shrubs, trees, and vines. Color photographs throughout show wonderful examples of Northwest garden style.
7. How to be Vegan

Elizabeth Castoria  With the interest in vegan living on the rise, it’s time for a book that goes beyond the recipes. How does a newbie adopt a vegan approach when it comes to dating, entertaining, decorating, travel, and beyond?
8. Little & Lion

Brandy Colbert A stunning novel on love, identity, loss, and redemption.
9. Capital

Costa-Gavras DVD – …a fast-paced, darkly comic, suspenseful drama set in the high stakes world of global finance. …CAPITAL is a pointed commentary on how the Darwinian world of contemporary capitalism plays itself out across the global financial stage. [rottentomatoes.com]
10. A Quiet Passion

Terence Davies DVD – Cynthia Nixon delivers a triumphant performance as Emily Dickinson, personifying the biting wit and staunch independence of the great American poet, who would not be recognized until after her death.
11. Electric Arches

Eve L. Ewing  Electric Arches is an imaginative exploration of Black girlhood and womanhood through poetry, visual art, and narrative prose. …Electric Arches invites fresh conversations about race, gender, the city, identity, and the joy and pain of growing up.
12. Best Easy Day Hikes- Olympic National Park

Falcon Guide  …features concise descriptions and easy-to-follow maps for thirty-one short, manageable hikes.
13. Tree Houses Reimagined: Luxurious Retreats for Tranquility and Play

Blue Forest & Ashley Rooney Enter the world of fairy-tale towers, whimsical stairways, crow’s nests, zip lines, and suspended rope bridges.
14. Te Ata (Bearer of the Morning)

Nathan Frankowski, director DVD – Set primarily in the early 20th century and tells the story of Mary Frances Thompson, a young Chickasaw woman born in Indian Territory (now Oklahoma), better known as “Te Ata,” which means “bearer of the morning.”  [movieinsider.com]
15. Art House

Don Freeman DVD – In his new documentary, photographer Don Freeman explores the homes designed and lived in by notable American artists, revealing the inventiveness derived from the dialogue between each artist’s practice and the construction of their handmade homes.
16. Catapult: Stories

Emily Fridlund This is a gripping collection, unsettling as much in its familiarity as in its near-gothic strangeness.
17. The Cottingley  Secret

Hazel Gaynor “The Cottingley Secret tells the tale of two girls who somehow convince the world that magic exists. An artful weaving of old legends with new realities, this tale invites the reader to wonder: could it be true?” — Kate Alcott, New York Times bestselling author of The Dressmaker
18. The Water Will Come: Rising Seas, Sinking Cities, and the Remaking of the Civilized World

Jeff Goodell …definitive account of the coming water, why and how this will happen, and what it will all mean. As he travels across twelve countries and reports from the front lines, acclaimed journalist Jeff Goodell employs fact, science, and first-person, on-the-ground journalism to show vivid scenes from what already is becoming a water world.
19. From Cradle to Stage: Stories from the Mothers Who Rocked and Raised Rock Stars

Virginia Hanlon Grohl With exclusive family photographs and a foreword by Dave Grohl, From Cradle to Stage will appeal to mothers and rock fans everywhere.
20. The Dry

Jane Harper “A breathless page-turner, driven by the many revelations Ms. Harper dreams up…You’ll love [her] sleight of hand…A secret on every page.” ―The New York Times
21. Modern Art in Detail: 75 Masterpieces

Susie Hodge This book examines seventy-five artworks from the late nineteenth century to the modern day. It treats each of its subjects on its own merits, but it also views each as part of a tradition that links it to the past, which sees artists pass a baton down through the ages.
22. Unf*ck Your Habitat: You’re Better Than Your Mess

Rachel Hoffman Finally, a housekeeping and organizational system developed for those of us who’d describe our current living situation as a “f*cking mess” that we’re desperate to fix.
23. Van Life: Your Home on the Road

Foster Huntington Showcasing hundreds of funky vehicles, awe-inspiring landscapes, and cleverly designed interiors in tiny spaces from around the world, Van Life is perfect for who anyone daydreams about living on the open road.
24. This is the Place: Women Writing about Home

Margot Kahn and Kelly McMasters, editors In this breathtaking, thought-provoking collection, 30 women writers explore the theme in personal essays about neighbors, marriage, kids, sentimental objects, homelessness, domestic violence, solitude, immigration, gentrification, geography, and more.
25. Truth is a Pathless Land

Jiddu Krishnamurti AUDIO CD – Krishnamurti discusses a startling constellation of philosophical issues: love, greed, violence, separation, time, death, conflict, and fear. Includes commentary on the nature of personal and planetary problems and how to resolve inner conflicts.
26. Gravel Cycling

Nick Legan Head out for adventure on the unpaved back roads of America with Nick Legan’s complete guide to gravel grinders and bikepacking!
27. The Girl with the Red Balloon

Katherine Locke When sixteen-year-old Ellie Baum accidentally time-travels via red balloon to 1988 East Berlin, she’s caught up in a conspiracy of history and magic.
28. The Gentle Art of Swedish Death Cleaning: How to Free Yourself and Your Family from a Lifetime of Clutter

Margareta Magnusson …artist Margareta Magnusson, with Scandinavian humor and wisdom, instructs readers to embrace minimalism.
29. Radio Free Vermont

Bill McKibben A book that’s also the beginning of a movement, Bill McKibben’s debut novel Radio Free Vermont follows a band of Vermont patriots who decide that their state might be better off as its own republic.
30. Delight of Being Ordinary

Roland Merullo Roland Merullo’s playful, eloquent, and life-affirming novel finds the world’s two holiest men teaming up for an unsanctioned road trip through the Italian countryside–where they rediscover the everyday joys and challenges of ordinary life.
31. The B-Side: Elsa Dorfman’s Portrait Photography

Errol Morris, director DVD – Portrait photographer Elsa Dorfman found her medium in 1980: the larger-than-life Polaroid Land 20×24 camera. For the next thirty-five years she captured the “surfaces” of those who visited her Cambridge, Mass studio…
32. This Impossible Light

Lily Myers …a novel in verse about body image, eating disorders, self-worth, mothers and daughters, and the psychological scars we inherit from our parents.
33. Norwegian Wood: Chopping, Stacking and Drying Wood the Scandinavian Way

Lars Mytting  An intriguing window into the exoticism of Scandinavian culture, the book also features enough inherently interesting facts and anecdotes and inspired prose to make it universally appealing.
34. New York: Highbrow, Lowbrow, Brilliant, Despicable: 50 years of New York Magazine

New York Magazine Editors  …an enormous, sweeping, idiosyncratic picture of a half-century at the center of the world. Through stories and images of power and money, movies and food, crises and family life, it constitutes an unparalleled history of that city’s transformation, and of a New York City institution as well.
35. The Durrell in Corfu: Season Two

PBS DVD –  This charming and hugely popular series returns to follow the further adventures of the eccentric Durrell family as they embrace life on the gorgeous Greek island of Corfu. [pbs.org]
36. March Book Three

John Lewis, Andrew Aydin, Nate Powell Welcome to the stunning conclusion of the award-winning and best-selling MARCH trilogy. Congressman John Lewis, an American icon and one of the key figures of the civil rights movement, …bring[s] the lessons of history to vivid life for a new generation, urgently relevant for today’s world.
37. Rawmazing Desserts

Susan Powers  …you can indulge your sweet tooth because all of her desserts are whipped up using all-natural ingredients that can improve your health and satisfy cravings.
38. The First Monday in May

Andrew Rossi, director DVD – With unprecedented access, filmmaker Andrew Rossi captures the collusion of high fashion and celebrity at the Met Gala, one of the biggest global fashion events chaired every year by Vogue editor in chief Anna Wintour. …[T]he movie dives into the debate about whether fashion should be viewed as art. [rottentomatoes.com]
39. Goodtime

Josh and Benny Safdie DVD – …hypnotic, adrenaline-fueled crime thriller. In a career-defining role, Robert Pattinson stars as Connie Nikas, who embarks on a twisted one-night odyssey through the city’s underworld in a desperate and dangerous attempt to get his brother Nick (Benny Safdie) out of jail.
40. Rad Women Worldwide

Kate Schatz …a bold, illustrated collection of 40 biographical profiles showcasing extraordinary women from across the globe.
41. The Red Turtle

Studio Ghibli, Japanese film studio DVD – [T]his masterfully animated fantasy film tells the story of a man shipwrecked at sea who becomes stranded on a beautiful but desolate island. He learns to live in isolation, seemingly tormented in his efforts to escape the island by a giant red turtle. Miraculously, he soon comes upon a young woman also lost at sea and they create a family together.
42. King Jack

Felix Thompson, writer & director DVD – Shouldered with the responsibility of watching his younger cousin for the weekend, a scrappy fifteen-year-old finds himself stumbling towards maturity while struggling against the neighborhood bully.
43. Rules of Civility 

Amor Towles AUDIO CD – …[a] novel of a young woman in post-Depression era New York who suddenly finds herself thrust into high society.
44. Soul on a String

Zhang Yang DVD – Have you ever seen a Tibetan movie? Now is your chance to dive into a magical tale that can be described as a Buddhist Western.Soul on A String won the Best Cinematography award at the 2016 Shanghai International Film Festival. …The movie is in Tibetan and has English language subtitles. The visuals are stunning and add to the overall impact of the story. [mamalikesthis.com]
45. The Pervert’s Guide to Ideology

Slavoj Zizek DVD – …wildly entertaining romp through the crossroads of cinema and philosophy. …stimulating, provocative and often hilarious psychoanalytic-cinematic rant.