Here’s the list of 66 STAFF PICKS PROJECT acquisitions for March 2018. 

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

Check the Coos Library 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	FIRST NAME	LAST NAME	DESCRIPTION (from Amazon.com unless otherwise noted)
1.	The Rub of Time: Bellow, Nabokov, Hitchens, Travolta, Trump:  Essays and Reportage, 1994-2017	Martin	Amis	For more than thirty years, Martin Amis has turned his keen intellect and unrivaled prose loose on an astonishing range of topics–politics, sports, celebrity, America, and, of course, literature. Now, at last, these incomparable essays have been gathered together.
2.	Earth from Above	Yann	Arthus-Bertrand	The result of a five-year airborne odyssey across five continents and 60 countries, Earth from Above is the most revealing and spectacular portrait of our world ever created.  …[R]enowned aerial photographer Yann Arthus-Bertrand presents striking color images that put our home planet in a whole new perspective. Produced under the sponsorship of UNESCO, the book is also a documentary record of the state of the world’s fragile environment.
3.	North: How to Live Scandinavian	Bronte	Aurell	Full of inspiration and ideas, how-tos and recipes to help you experience the very best of Scandinavian design, philosophy, cookery and culture, this honest behind-the-scenes look at the culture provides an invaluable insight into the wonderful and visually stunning world of Scandinavia.
4.	The Florida Project	Sean	Baker, Director	DVD – On a stretch of highway just outside the most magical place on earth, six-year-old Moonee and her ragtag band of playmates spend an unforgettable summer at The Magic Castle, a budget motel managed by Bobby (in a career-best performance by Willem Dafoe). Bobby’s stern exterior hides a deep reservoir of kindness and compassion as he watches over the kids’ adventures, protecting them from some of the harsher realities of life.
5.	Things That Make White People Uncomfortable	Michael	Bennett	Written with award-winning sportswriter and author Dave Zirin, Things that Make White People Uncomfortable is a sports book for our turbulent times, a memoir, and a manifesto as hilarious and engaging as it is illuminating.
6.	Prisoners’ Objects: Collection of the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Museum	Paul	Bouvier, et al	The International Red Cross and Red Crescent Museum in Geneva, Switzerland, houses an extraordinary collection of works made by political prisoners. These works, made from whatever was available, were presented to visiting Red Cross/Red Crescent delegates. Spanning more than a century, they bear mute witness to the violent episodes that continue to ravage our planet, from Chile, Vietnam, Algeria, and Yugoslavia to Rwanda and Afghanistan.
7.	Murder on the Orient Express	Kenneth	Branagh, Director	DVD  When a murder occurs on the train he’s travelling on, celebrated detective Hercule Poirot is recruited to solve the case. Based on the novel by Agatha Christie
8.	How Everything Became War and the Military Became Everything: Tales from the Pentagon	Rosa	Brooks	By turns a memoir, a work of journalism, a scholarly exploration of history, anthropology, and law, How Everything Became War and the Military Became Everything is an “illuminating” (The New York Times), “eloquent” (The Boston Globe), “courageous” (US News & World Report), and “essential” (The Dallas Morning News) examination of the role of the military today. Above all, it is a rallying cry, for Brooks issues an urgent warning: When the boundaries around war disappear, we undermine both America’s founding values and the international rules and organizations that keep our world from sliding towards chaos.
9.	Fermentation Revolution: 70 Easy Recipes for Sauerkraut, Kombucha, Kimchi and More	Sebastien	Bureau	Fermentation is one of the hottest kitchen trends of the past two years, and for good reason – fermentation allows us to transform the ordinary to the extraordinary (think: delicious pickles, olives, and ginger beer).
10.	Disappointment River: Finding and Losing the Northwest Passage	Brian	Castner	In 1789, Alexander Mackenzie traveled 1200 miles on the immense river in Canada that now bears his name, in search of the fabled Northwest Passage that had eluded mariners for hundreds of years. In 2016, the acclaimed memoirist Brian Castner retraced Mackenzie’s route by canoe in a grueling journey — and discovered the Passage he could not find.
11.	The Beguiled	Sophia	Coppola, Director	DVD – From acclaimed writer/director Sofia Coppola (Lost in Translation) comes an atmospheric thriller that unfolds at a secluded girls’ boarding school in Civil War-era Virginia. When a wounded Union soldier, Corporal McBurney (Colin Farrell), is found near the school, he’s taken in by its headmistress, Miss Martha (Nicole Kidman). As the young women provide refuge and tend to his wounds, the house is taken over with sexual tension and dangerous rivalries when McBurney seduces several of the girls. Taboos are broken and events take an unexpected turn in this gripping and haunting thriller also starring Kirsten Dunst and Elle Fanning.
12.	The World Atlas of Street Fashion	Caroline	Cox	An extensively researched and generously illustrated volume offering a striking and diverse portrait of street style in cities and cultures around the world
13.	We Are As Gods: Back to the Land in the 1970s on the Quest for a New America	Kate	Daloz	Kate Daloz follows the dreams and ideals of a small group of back-to-the-landers to tell the story of a nationwide movement and moment. And she shows how the faltering, hopeful, but impractical impulses of that first generation sowed the seeds for the organic farming movement and the transformation of American agriculture and food tastes.
14.	The Authenticity Experiment	Kate Carroll	De Gutes	The Authenticity Experiment: Lessons from the Best and Worst Year of My Life is the new collection of essays from award-winning writer Kate Carroll de Gutes.
15.	Stop Making Sense	Jonathan	Demme, Director	DVD  Palm Pictures is proud to present the groundbreaking Talking Heads concert film “Stop Making Sense.” This critically acclaimed 15th Anniversary theatrical re-release, has been digitally-remastered, allowing the brilliance of the music and visuals to take full advantage of state-of-the-art technology.
16.	Welcome to the Revolution – Universalizing Resistance	Charles	Derber	Derber offers the first comprehensive guide to this new era [of progressive action] and an original vision and strategy for movement success. He convincingly shows how only a new universalizing wave, a progressive and revolutionary “movement of movements,” can counter the world-universalizing economic and cultural forces of intensifying corporate and far-right power.
17.	Film Noir	Paul	Duncan	The first film-by-film photography book on film noir and neo-noir, this essential collection begins with the early genre influencers of German and French silent film, journeys through such seminal works such as Double Indemnity, The Postman Always Rings Twice, and Vertigo, and arrives at the present day via Chinatown, Pulp Fiction, Heat, and the recent cult favorite Drive. Taschen Press
18.	Selma	Ava	DuVernay	DVD – Selma is the story of a movement. The film chronicles the tumultuous three-month period in 1965, when Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. led a dangerous campaign to secure equal voting rights in the face of violent opposition.
19.	Middle of Nowhere	Ava	DuVernay, Director	DVD Winner of the Best Director Award at the 2012 Sundance Film Festival, Middle of Nowhere chronicles a young woman caught between two worlds and two men in the search for herself. Ruby, a bright medical student, sets aside her dreams when her husband is incarcerated. This new life challenges her to the very core, and her turbulent path propels her in new, often frightening directions of self-discovery. ( with David Oyelowo, Emayatzy Corinealdi and Omari Hardwick)
20.	Freshwater	Akwaeke	Emezi	An extraordinary debut novel, Freshwater explores the surreal experience of having a fractured self. It centers around a young Nigerian woman, Ada, who develops separate selves within her as a result of being born “with one foot on the other side.” Unsettling, heartwrenching, dark, and powerful, Freshwater is a sharp evocation of a rare way of experiencing the world, one that illuminates how we all construct our identities.
21.	Endangered	Tim	Flach	In Endangered, the result of an extraordinary multiyear project to document the lives of threatened species, acclaimed photographer Tim Flach explores one of the most pressing issues of our time. Traveling around the world—to settings ranging from forest to savannah to the polar seas to the great coral reefs—Flach has constructed a powerful visual record of remarkable animals and ecosystems facing harsh challenges. …With eminent zoologist Jonathan Baillie providing insightful commentary on this ambitious project.
22.	Melancholy	Jon	Fosse	Melancholy takes us deep inside a painter’s fragile consciousness, vulnerable to everything but therefore uniquely able to see its beauty and its light.
23.	The Disaster Artist	James	Franco, Director	DVD – When Greg Sestero, an aspiring film actor, meets the weird and mysterious Tommy Wiseau in an acting class, they form a unique friendship and travel to Hollywood to make their dreams come true.
24.	Saving Tarboo Creek: One Family’s Quest to Heal the Land	Scott	Freeman	Scott Freeman artfully blends his family’s story with powerful universal lessons about how we can all live more constructive, fulfilling, and natural lives by engaging with the land rather than exploiting it. Equal parts heartfelt and empowering, this book explores how we can all make a difference one choice at a time.
25.	The Food Forest Handbook: Design and Mange a Home-Scale Perennial Polyculture Garden	Darrell	Frey	This timely book makes the concept of food forests accessible to everyone. Focusing on the potential of perennial polyculture to enhance local food systems, The Food Forest Handbook shows the reader how to mix and match plants in unique combinations to establish bountiful landscapes and create genuine self-reliance in years to come.
26.	Baking with Kafka	Tom	Gauld	A best-of collection of literary humour cartoons from the critically-acclaimed Guardian cartoonist … Gauld’s cartoons are timely and droll―his trademark British humour, impeccable timing, and distinctive visual style sets him apart from the rest.
27.	I, Tonya	Craig	Gillespie, Director	DVD – Based on the unbelievable but true events, I, Tonya is a dark comedic tale of American figure skater, Tonya Harding, and one of the most sensational scandals in sports history.
28.	Roman J Israel, ESQ	Dan	Gilroy	DVD – Roman J. Israel, Esq. is a dramatic thriller set in the overburdened Los Angeles criminal court system. Denzel Washington stars as a driven, idealistic defense attorney whose life is suddenly disrupted. When he is recruited to join a firm led by ambitious lawyer George Pierce (Colin Farrell) – and begins a friendship with a young champion for equal rights (Carmen Ejogo) – a turbulent series of events ensues, which will put the activism that has defined Roman’s career to the test.
29.	Call Me By Your Name	Luca	Guadagnino, Director	DVD – It’s the summer of 1983 in Italy, and Elio (Chalamet), a precocious 17-year-old, spends his days in his family’s villa transcribing and playing classical music, reading and flirting with his friend Marzia. One day, Oliver (Hammer), a charming American scholar arrives as the annual summer intern tasked with helping Elio’s father, an eminent professor. Elio and Oliver discover the heady beauty of awakening desire over the course of a summer that will alter their lives forever.
30.	Art of Burning Man	NK	Guy	100 miles from the gambling town of Reno, in the wilderness of northern Nevada, lies a vast, hostile plain known as the Black Rock Desert. … Here, writer and photographer NK Guy presents 16 years of Burning Man art. His dazzling images record these participatory, collective, intrinsically ephemeral installations and happenings in the desert, which exist for no clearer purpose than because someone wanted to express something. The result is testimony to a realm far beyond the ego, commerce, and power play of mainstream cultural output: It is one of the most pure, uninhibited, expressive centers of our time.
31.	Good Veg: Ebullient Vegetables, Global Flavors―A Modern Vegetarian Cookbook	Alice	Hart	For years, chef and cookbook author Alice Hart has been crafting—and sharing—“recipes for giving pleasure.” Now, Good Veg showcases ebullient vegetables, fruits, and grains—in inventive, reliable dishes to sustain you (and family and friends) all day, through every season.
32.	Finding Altamira	Hugh	Hudson, Director	DVD – Life and events of the man who realized one of the most important discoveries of the 19th century: Altamira’s caves. (IMDb.com)
33.	The Edgy Veg: 138 Carnivore-Approved Vegan Recipes	Candace	Hutchings	With 138 recipes that take vegan cooking to the next level, tips and tricks for eating like an Edgy Veg, and more dad jokes than you can count, say hello to a vegan cookbook you — and your tastebuds — can feel good about. It’s time to put down that spiralizer and get ready to have your cake, burger and fries, and eat them too!
34.	The Myth of Human Supremacy	Derrick	Jensen	Page by page, Jensen, who has been called the philosopher-poet of the environmental movement, demonstrates his deep appreciation of the natural world in all its intimacy, and sounds an urgent call for its liberation from human domination.
35.	Nomadic Homes – Architecture on the Move	Philip	Jodidio	This illustrated volume, written and edited by Philip Jodidio contains some of the most remarkable examples of homes on the move. Starting with totally revamped Airstream mobile homes, and going on to spectacular yachts like Philippe Starck’s Motor Yacht A, this book doesn’t stop moving, surveying the best in campers and tents, and even going on to private jets in the A319 or Boeing 737 category, veritable flying palaces for the privileged few. At the other end of the spectrum, we find refugee housing for those forced into a life on the move, including shelters designed by the Pritzker Prize–winning architect Shigeru Ban.
36.	Woke: A Field Guide For Utopia Preppers	Caitlin	Johnstone	An illustrated poetical guide to reclaiming the earth from the forces of death and destruction.
37.	Hippie Food: How Back-to-the-Landers, Longhairs and Revolutionaries Changed the Way We Eat	Jonathan	Kauffman	From the mystical rock and roll cult known as the Source Family and its legendary vegetarian restaurant in Hollywood to the Diggers’ brown bread in the Summer of Love to the rise of the co-op and the origins of the organic food craze, Kauffman reveals how today’s quotidian whole-foods staples — including sprouts, tofu, yogurt, brown rice, and whole-grain bread — were introduced and eventually became part of our diets.
38.	Cræft: An Inquiry Into the Origins and True Meaning of Traditional Crafts	Alexander	Langlands	When it first appeared in Old English, the word craeft signified an indefinable sense of knowledge, wisdom, and resourcefulness. Rediscovering craft will connect us with our human past, our sense of place, and our remarkable capacity to survive in the harshest of landscapes. Craeft helps us more fully appreciate human ingenuity and the passing on of traditions from generation to generation.
39.	The Happiness Hack	Ellen Petry	Leanse	By the end of The Happiness Hack, you’ll be back in control of your mind and living the life you wish to live. Only you can define your happiness ― take control today!
40.	Bygone Badass Broads: 52 Forgotten Women Who Changed the World	Mackenzi	Lee	Starting in the fifth century BC and continuing to the present, the book takes a closer look at bold and inspiring women who dared to step outside the traditional gender roles of their time.
41.	Chi-Raq	Spike	Lee, Director	DVD – Chi-Raq is a modern day adaptation of the ancient Greek play “Lysistrata” by Aristophanes. After the murder of a child by a stray bullet, a group of women led by Lysistrata organize against the on-going violence in Chicago’s Southside creating a movement that challenges the nature of race, sex and violence in America and around the world.
42.	Prick: Cacti and Succulents: Choosing, Styling, Caring	Gynelle	Leon	Gynelle Leon founded London’s first ever shop dedicated to cacti and succulent, called Prick. Here, with inspirational and achievable styling tips and advice, she shares her secrets to using these plants to transform your home. With profiles on the huge range of cactus varieties and information on caring for and styling your houseplants, this is the perfect guide to bringing the outdoors in.
43.	Heart Berries: A Memoir	Terese Marie	Mailhot	Heart Berries is a powerful, poetic memoir of a woman’s coming of age on the Seabird Island Indian Reservation in the Pacific Northwest. Having survived a profoundly dysfunctional upbringing only to find herself hospitalized and facing a dual diagnosis of post traumatic stress disorder and bipolar II disorder; Terese Marie Mailhot is given a notebook and begins to write her way out of trauma.
44.	Smith & Daughters: A Cookbook (That Happens To Be Vegan)	Shannon	Martinez & Mo Wyse	Forget your preconceptions of vegan food. In Smith & Daughters: A Cookbook (That Happens to be Vegan) Shannon and Mo are here to challenge them all. Their aim is for people to experience delicious plant-based food the way it should be: big, bold, flavorful, noteworthy and celebration-worthy.
45.	Iris	Albert	Maysles, Director	DVD From legendary documentarian Albert Maysles (Grey Gardens, Gimme Shelter), Iris pairs the late 88-year-old filmmaker with Iris Apfel, the quick-witted, flamboyantly dressed 93-year-old style maven who has had an outsized presence on the New York fashion scene for decades. More than a fashion film, the documentary is a story about creativity and how a soaring free spirit continues to inspire.
46.	Behold the Dreamers	Imbolo	Mbue	A compulsively readable debut novel about marriage, immigration, class, race, and the trapdoors in the American Dream—the unforgettable story of a young Cameroonian couple making a new life in New York just as the Great Recession upends the economy.  A New York Times Bestseller
47.	The Handmaid’s Tale Season One		MGM, Studio	DVD – Based on Margaret Atwood’s award-winning, best-selling novel, The Handmaid’s Tale is the story of life in the dystopia of Gilead, a totalitarian society in what was formerly the United States. Facing environmental disasters and a plunging birthrate, Gilead is ruled by a twisted fundamentalism in its militarized “return to traditional values.” As one of the few remaining fertile women, Offred (Elisabeth Moss) is a Handmaid in the Commander’s household, belonging to the caste of women forced into sexual servitude as a last desperate attempt to repopulate the world. In this terrifying society, Offred must navigate between Commanders, their cruel Wives, domestic Marthas, and her fellow Handmaids – where anyone could be a spy for Gilead – with one goal: to survive and find the daughter who was taken from her. Also featuring Yvonne Strahovski and Samira Wiley.
48.	The Displaced: Refugee Writers on Refugee Lives	Viet Thanh	Nguyen (Editor)	These essays reveal moments of uncertainty, resilience in the face of trauma, and a reimagining of identity, forming a compelling look at what it means to be forced to leave home and find a place of refuge.
49.	On Yoga – the Architecture of Peace	Michael	O’Neill	…a powerful photographic tribute to the age-old discipline turned global phenomenon, with over 250 million practitioners united in physical, spiritual, and mindful practice worldwide.
50.	In Pursuit of Silence: Listening for Meaning in a World of Noise	George	Prochnik	Traveling across the country and meeting and listening to a host of incredible characters, including doctors, neuroscientists, acoustical engineers, monks, activists, educators, marketers, and aggrieved citizens, George Prochnik examines why we began to be so loud as a society, and what it is that gets lost when we can no longer find quiet.
51.	The Evolution of Beauty: How Darwin’s Forgotten Theory of Mate Choice Shapes the Animal World – and Us	Richard O.	Prum	The Evolution of Beauty presents a unique scientific vision for how nature’s splendor contributes to a more complete understanding of evolution and of ourselves.
52.	Butterflies of the Pacific Northwest (A Timber Press Field Guide)	Robert Michael	Pyle	Easy to use and beautifully illustrated with more than 600 color photographs and nearly 200 maps, Butterflies of the Pacific Northwest is a must-have for nature lovers in Washington, Oregon, western Idaho, northern California, and British Columbia.
53.	Hundertwasser	Harry	Rand	Friedrich Stowasser, born in Vienna in 1928, called himself Friedensreich Hundertwasser Regentag Dunkelbunt. True to the colorful variety of his names, he has pursued many activities as a painter, architect, and ecologist, and as “one who awakens identities.” This presentation of Hundertwasser’s work in all of its different facets is guided by the artist’s own view of himself and his purpose.
54.	The Boy in the Black Suit	Jason	Reynolds	Just when seventeen-year-old Matt thinks he can’t handle one more piece of terrible news, he meets a girl who’s dealt with a lot more—and who just might be able to clue him in on how to rise up when life keeps knocking him down—in this “vivid, satisfying, and ultimately upbeat tale of grief, redemption, and grace” (from Kirkus Reviews)
55.	My Chickens and I	Isabella	Rossellini	In this delightful illustrated book, actress and filmmaker Isabella Rossellini shares her newfound passion for raising chickens. When a cardboard carton dotted with airholes arrived at her door, Rossellini expected to welcome 38 yellow chicks to her Long Island farm. Much to her surprise, her newly hatched brood included a diverse mix of heritage breeds—a discovery that prompted further research into the traits, behavior, and history of each one.
56.	In Pursuit of Silence	Patrick	Shen, Director	DVD – In Pursuit of Silence is a meditative exploration of silence and the impact of noise on our lives. The film takes us on an immersive cinematic journey around the globe from a traditional tea ceremony in Kyoto, to the streets of Mumbai, the loudest city on the planet and inspires us to both experience silence and celebrate the wonders of our world.
57.	Blue Dreams: The Science and the Story of the Drugs that Changed Our Minds	Lauren	Slater	Blue Dreams offers the explosive story of the discovery and development of psychiatric medications, as well as the science and the people behind their invention, told by a riveting writer and psychologist who shares her own experience with the highs and lows of psychiatric drugs.
58.	The Encyclopedia of Misinformation: A Compendium of Imitations, Spoofs, Delusions, Simulations, Counterfeits, Impostors, Illusions, Confabulations, … Conspiracies & Miscellaneous Fakery	Rex	Sorgate	…a compendium of deception and delusion throughout history. In a frolicking series of vignettes, author Rex Sorgatz saunters through propaganda and subterfuge in eclectic contexts, including science and religion, comedy and law, sports and video games.
59.	Back to Sanity: Healing the Madness of Our Minds	Steve	Taylor	This book explains the characteristics of ego-madness, where it stems from and how it leads to the madness of materialism, status-seeking, warfare, inequality and other symptoms of our insanity. But equally importantly, Back to Sanity shows how we can heal this mental disorder, and how to allow the fleeting moments of harmony that we all experience from time to time to become our permanent state of being.
60.	Crafting with Cat Hair	Kaori	Tsutaya	…shows readers how to transform stray clumps of fur into soft and adorable handicrafts. From kitty tote bags and finger puppets to fluffy cat toys, picture frames, and more, these projects are cat-friendly, eco-friendly, and require no special equipment or training.
61.	Faces Places	Agnes	Varda & JR, Directors	DVD – 89-year old Agnés Varda, one of the leading figures of the French New Wave, and acclaimed 33 year old French photographer and muralist, JR, teamed up to co-direct this enchanting documentary/road movie. Kindred spirits, Varda and JR share a lifelong passion for images and how they are created, displayed, and shared. Together they travel around villages of France In JR’s photo truck meeting locals, learning their stories, and producing epic-size portraits of them.  Documentary
62.	Maudie	Aisling	Walsh, Director	DVD  Maud (Sally Hawkins), a bright-eyed, intelligent woman, hunched and with hands disabled by arthritis, yearns to be independent from her overly protective family. She answers an advertisement for a housekeeper by a 40-year-old bachelor, Everett (Ethan Hawke), who owes nothing to anyone. She is a terrible housekeeper and spends most of her time painting. But over time, she wins his heart. When they realize people will actually buy her cards and paintings, he supports and encourages her. Maud’s determination for her art, along with her partnership with Everett, blossoms into a career as a famous folk artist.
63.	Talking on the Water: Conversations about Nature and Creativity	Jonathan	White	During the 1980s and 90s, the Resource Institute, headed by Jonathan White, held a series of “floating seminars” aboard a sixty-five-foot schooner featuring leading thinkers and writers from an array of disciplines. Over ten years, White conducted interviews, gathered in this collection, with the writers, scientists, and environmentalists who gathered on board to explore our relationship to the wild.
64.	The First Mess Cookbook: Vibrant Plant-Based Recipes to Eat Well Through the Seasons	Laura	Wright	Home cooks head to The First Mess for Laura Wright’s simple-to-prepare seasonal vegan recipes but stay for her beautiful photographs and enchanting storytelling.
65.	The Left Behind: Decline and Rage in Rural America	Robert	Wuthnow	Robert Wuthnow brings us into America’s small towns, farms, and rural communities to paint a rich portrait of the moral order–the interactions, loyalties, obligations, and identities―underpinning this critical segment of the nation. Wuthnow demonstrates that to truly understand rural Americans’ anger, their culture must be explored more fully.
66.	Tokyo Street Style	Tohru	Yuasa	Tokyo is home to a creative and daring street-style scene, rich with subcultures and shaped by constant motion. In Tokyo Street Style, fashion writer Yoko Yagi explores influential trends, covering an eclectic range of styles from kawaii cute to genderless looks, while designers, editors, models, stylists, and other important personalities in the Tokyo fashion scene share their individual approaches to style in interviews.