Staff Picks Acquisitions for November 2018

Here’s the list of 26 STAFF PICKS PROJECT acquisitions for November 18.

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

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Use our new searchable and sortable list of ALL Staff Picks items to explore all 857 of them.

	TITLE	FIRST NAME	LAST NAME	#Category	DESCRIPTION (from Amazon.com unless otherwise noted)
1.	*Coral Whisperers: Scientists on the Brink*	Irus	Braverman	#NONFIC	In recent years, a catastrophic global bleaching event devastated many of the world’s precious coral reefs. Working on the front lines of ruin, today’s coral scientists are struggling to save these important coral reef ecosystems from the imminent threats of rapidly warming, acidifying, and polluted oceans. Coral Whisperers captures a critical moment in the history of coral reef science. Gleaning insights from over one hundred interviews with leading scientists and conservation managers, Irus Braverman documents a community caught in an existential crisis and alternating between despair and hope. In this important new book, corals emerge not only as signs and measures of environmental catastrophe, but also as catalysts for action. [from google.play.com]
2.	*The Joy of Junk*	Mary Randolph	Carter	#NONFIC	From the author who taught us that “junk” in not a four-letter word, and drawing on her years of experience as a passionate thrifter and collector, Carter highlights her favorite junking moments, revels in the thrill of the hunt and imparts many personal tips for finding treasures in flea markets, yard sales, estate sales, shops, on the web, or wherever you may find yourself. With her passion for self-expression and her personal approach to decor, Carter speaks to our desire to surround ourselves with belongings that bring beauty and meaning to our lives.
3.	*Free the Tipple: Kickass Cocktails Inspired by Iconic Women*	Jennifer	Croll and Kelly Shami	#NONFIC	Sixty of the world’s coolest and most influential women are the inspiration for this refreshing and fun collection of drink recipes that are sure to bring extra zest to your cocktail shaker. Free the Tipple pays tribute to a brilliant range of diverse women from the 20th century to today who have made waves in entertainment, the arts, politics, fashion, literature, sports, and science, including Frida Kahlo, Rihanna, Serena Williams, Virginia Woolf, Yoko Ono, Zaha Hadid, Marlene Dietrich, Zadie Smith, and more.
4.	*The Silk Roads: An Illustrated New History of the World*	Peter	Frankopan	#NONFIC	Set your sails east with this stunningly original new history of the world. Peter Frankopan explores the connections made by people, trade, disease, war, religion, adventure, science and technology in this extraordinary book about how the east married the west with a remarkable voyage at its heart – the journey along the Silk Roads. From ancient world laws laid down by King Hammurabi and the mighty Persian empire, to terrifying huns, the rise of Europe, two world wars and politics today, The Silk Roads moves through time and history sewing together the threads from different peoples, empires and continents into a phenomenal history of the globe. With stories from each and every corner of society, Frankopan’s magnificent retelling of his literary triumph The Silk Roads, sumptuously illustrated by Neil Packer, is a must-have world history.
5.	*The End of the End of the Earth: Essays*	Jonathan	Franzen	#NONFIC	Franzen’s great loves are literature and birds, and The End of the End of the Earth is a passionate argument for both. Where the new media tend to confirm one’s prejudices, he writes, literature “invites you to ask whether you might be somewhat wrong, maybe even entirely wrong, and to imagine why someone else might hate you.” Whatever his subject, Franzen’s essays are always skeptical of received opinion, steeped in irony, and frank about his own failings. He’s frank about birds, too (they kill “everything imaginable”), but his reporting and reflections on them―on seabirds in New Zealand, warblers in East Africa, penguins in Antarctica―are both a moving celebration of their beauty and resilience and a call to action to save what we love.
6.	*Art Matters – Because Your Imagination Can Change the World*	Neil	Gaiman	#NONFIC	Art Matters bring together four of Gaiman’s most beloved writings on creativity and artistry: · “Credo,” his remarkably concise and relevant manifesto on free expression, first delivered in the wake of the Charlie Hebdo shootings · “Make Good Art,” his famous 2012 commencement address delivered at the Philadelphia University of the Arts · “Making a Chair,” a poem about the joys of creating something, even when words won’t come · “On Libraries,” an impassioned argument for libraries that illuminates their importance to our future and celebrates how they foster readers and daydreamers. Featuring original illustrations by Gaiman’s longtime illustrator, Chris Riddell, Art Matters is a stirring testament to the freedom of ideas that inspires us to make art in the face of adversity, and dares us to choose to be bold.
7.	*Morbid Curiosities: Collections of the Uncommon and the Bizarre*	Paul	Gambino	#NONFIC	Morbid Curiosities is an insight into the strange world of collectors of the macabre. Centred on 15 collections, with extensive interviews with each collector and specially shot imagery detailing their objects, this is a fascinating showcase of bizarre and intriguing objects. Included are collections of skulls, mummified body parts, occultic objects, and various carnival, side-show and criminal ephemera.
8.	*Why Women Have Better Sex Under Socialism: And Other Arguments for Economic Independence*	Kristen R.	Ghodsee	#NONFIC	Ghodsee, an acclaimed ethnographer and professor of Russian and East European Studies, spent years researching what happened to women in countries that transitioned from state socialism to capitalism. She argues here that unregulated capitalism disproportionately harms women, and that we should learn from the past. By rejecting the bad and salvaging the good, we can adapt some socialist ideas to the 21st century and improve our lives. She tackles all aspects of a woman’s life – work, parenting, sex and relationships, citizenship, and leadership. In a chapter called “Women: Like Men, But Cheaper,” she talks about women in the workplace, discussing everything from the wage gap to harassment and discrimination. In “What To Expect When You’re Expecting Exploitation,” she addresses motherhood and how “having it all” is impossible under capitalism.
9.	*The Nature Instinct: Relearning Our Lost Intuition for the Inner Workings of the Natural World*	Tristan	Gooley	#NONFIC	The Nature Instinct shows us how Gooley and other expert observers—from hunters in the English countryside to the Pygmy people in the Congo—have recovered and rekindled this lost “sixth sense;” a subconscious,deeper understanding of our surroundings. By training ourselves through slow, careful observation, we too can unlock this kind of intuition—for finding the forest’s edge when deep in the woods, or knowing when a wild animal might pose danger—without even having to stop to think about it.
10.	*Hearts Beat Loud*		Gunpower & Sky, Studio	#DVD	A father and daughter form an unlikely songwriting duo in the summer before she leaves for college. (with Nick Offerman, Ted Danson, Sasha Lane, Kiersey Clemons)
11.	*No Gods, No Masters: A History of Anarchism in Three Parts*		Icarus Films, Studio	#DVD	A film by Tancrede Ramonet. Anarchy is often used as a synonym for chaos and destruction with anarchists seen as black-clad nihilists fomenting violence at peaceful protests. But No Gods No Masters reveals the far more complex history of a viable social system and the men and women who devoted themselves to making it a reality.
12.	*Marx Reloaded*		Icarus Films, Studio	#DVD	A film directed by Jason Barker. Marx Reloaded is a cultural documentary that examines the relevance of German socialist and philosopher Karl Marx’s ideas for understanding the global economic and financial crisis. The recent crisis triggered the deepest global recession in 70 years and prompted the US government to spend more than 1 trillion dollars in order to rescue its banking system from collapse. Today the full implications of the crisis in Europe and around the world still remain unclear. Nevertheless, should we accept the crisis as an unfortunate side-effect of the free market? Or is there another explanation as to why it happened and its likely effects on our society, our economy and our whole way of life?
13.	*Mali Blues*		Icarus Films, Studio	#DVD	A film by Lutz Gregor. The West African country of Mali is a birthplace of the blues, a musical tradition later carried by the transatlantic slave trade to America’s cotton fields. Yet today, the music and musicians of Mali are in grave danger. As fundamentalist Islam and sharia law become more widespread, dance and secular music are prohibited, musical instruments are destroyed, and musicians are forced to flee their homeland. The vibrant documentary MALI BLUES follows four artists: Fatoumata “Fatou” Diawara is a rising star on the global pop scene (memorably featured in Abderrahmane Sissako’s acclaimed drama Timbuktu). Bassekou Kouyaté is a celebrated ngoni player and traditional griot. Master Soumy is a young street rapper influenced by hip-hop. Ahmed Ag Kaedi is the bandleader and a guitar virtuoso. Each combines rich musical traditions with contemporary influences, using their music to stand up to extremism and inspire tolerance and peace.
14.	*Heavy: An American Memoir*	Kiese	Laymon	#NONFIC	In Heavy, Laymon writes eloquently and honestly about growing up a hard-headed black son to a complicated and brilliant black mother in Jackson, Mississippi. From his early experiences of sexual violence, to his suspension from college, to his trek to New York as a young college professor, Laymon charts his complex relationship with his mother, grandmother, anorexia, obesity, sex, writing, and ultimately gambling. By attempting to name secrets and lies he and his mother spent a lifetime avoiding, Laymon asks himself, his mother, his nation, and us to confront the terrifying possibility that few in this nation actually know how to responsibly love, and even fewer want to live under the weight of actually becoming free. A personal narrative that illuminates national failures, Heavy is defiant yet vulnerable, an insightful, often comical exploration of weight, identity, art, friendship, and family that begins with a confusing childhood—and continues through twenty-five years of haunting implosions and long reverberations.
15.	*These Truths: A History of the United States*	Jill	Lepore	#NONFIC	In the most ambitious one-volume American history in decades, award-winning historian and New Yorker writer Jill Lepore offers a magisterial account of the origins and rise of a divided nation, an urgently needed reckoning with the beauty and tragedy of American history. Written in elegiac prose, Lepore’s groundbreaking investigation places truth itself―a devotion to facts, proof, and evidence―at the center of the nation’s history. The American experiment rests on three ideas―”these truths,” Jefferson called them―political equality, natural rights, and the sovereignty of the people. And it rests, too, on a fearless dedication to inquiry, Lepore argues, because self-government depends on it. But has the nation, and democracy itself, delivered on that promise?
16.	*Amongst the Liberal Elite: The Road Trip Exploring Societal Inequities Solidified by Trump*	Elly	Lonon & Joan Reilly	FIC	Based on the successful McSweeney’s column, Amongst the Liberal Elite takes readers on a cross-country road trip with Alex and Michael, romantic partners whose voices will resonate with fans of shows such as Portlandia, Parks and Recreation, Full Frontal with Samantha Bee, and Last Week Tonight with John Oliver. The couple decides to use their tax refund to reconnect with their fellow Americans via a cross-country road trip and, more specifically, better understand how Trump won the election. . . . Amongst the Liberal Elite is the political satire we’ve all been waiting for–one that offers comic relief from ourselves.
17.	*The Patch*	John	McPhee	#NONFIC	The Patch is the seventh collection of essays by the nonfiction master, all published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux. It is divided into two parts. Part 1, “The Sporting Scene,” consists of pieces on fishing, football, golf, and lacrosse―from fly casting for chain pickerel in fall in New Hampshire to walking the linksland of St. Andrews at an Open Championship. Part 2, called “An Album Quilt,” is a montage of fragments of varying length from pieces done across the years . . .
18.	*How to Be a Good Creature: A Memoir in Thirteen Animals*	Sy	Montgomery	#NONFIC	This restorative memoir reflects on the personalities and quirks of thirteen animals—Sy’s friends—and the truths revealed by their grace. It also explores vast themes: the otherness and sameness of people and animals; the various ways we learn to love and become empathetic; how we find our passion; how we create our families; coping with loss and despair; gratitude; forgiveness; and most of all, how to be a good creature in the world.
19.	*ZAMA – film by Kucrecia Martel*		New Wave Films, Studio	#DVD	” Lucrecia Martel’s first film in 10 years premiered in Venice 2017 to huge acclaim. Zama, an officer of the Spanish Crown born in South America, waits for a letter from the King granting him a transfer from the town in which he is, to a better place. His situation is delicate. He must ensure that nothing overshadows his transfer. He is forced to accept submissively every task entrusted to him by successive Governors who come and go as he stays behind. The years go by and the letter from the King never arrives. When Zama notices everything is lost, he joins a party of soldiers that go after a dangerous bandit. It is adapted from Antonio di Benedetto’s 1956 classic of Argentinean literature, recently translated into English”
20.	*Maborosi*		New Yorker Video, Studio	#DVD	A film by Hirokazu Kore-eda. One of the finest all-time Japanese films. Yumiko, struggling with the sudden loss of her husband, becomes remarried and moves with her young son to a remote village in the wild, untamed Sea of Japan. With time she comes to understand life, love, and a sense of peace.
21.	*The King*		Oscilloscope Laboratories, Studio	#DVD	Forty years after the death of Elvis Presley, two-time Sundance Grand Jury winner Eugene Jarecki’s new film takes the King’s 1963 Rolls-Royce on a musical road trip across America. From Memphis to New York, Las Vegas, and beyond, the journey traces the rise and fall of Elvis as a metaphor for the country he left behind. In this groundbreaking film, Jarecki paints a visionary portrait of the state of the American Dream and a penetrating look at how the hell we got here. A diverse cast of Americans, both famous and non, join the journey, including Alec Baldwin, Rosanne Cash, Chuck D, Emmylou Harris, Ethan Hawke, Van Jones, Mike Myers, and Dan Rather, among many others. [from www.theking.film]
22.	*Dark Money*		PBS POV	#DVD	Dark Money, a political thriller, examines one of the greatest present threats to American democracy: the influence of untraceable corporate money on our elections and elected officials. The film takes viewers to Montana—a frontline in the fight to preserve fair elections nationwide—to follow an intrepid local journalist working to expose the real-life impacts of the US Supreme Court’s Citizens United decision. Through this gripping story, Dark Money uncovers the shocking and vital truth of how American elections are bought and sold. This Sundance award-winning documentary is directed/produced by Kimberly Reed (PRODIGAL SONS) and produced by Katy Chevigny (E-TEAM).[from https://www.darkmoneyfilm.com/]
23.	*The Photo Ark: One Man’s Quest to Document the World’s Animals*	Joel	Sartore and Douglas Chadwick	#NONFIC	Sartore is circling the globe, visiting zoos and wildlife rescue centers to create studio portraits of 12,000 species, with an emphasis on those facing extinction. Wiht a goal of photographing every animal in captivity in the world, he has photographed more than 6,000 already and now, thanks to a multi-year partnership with National Geographic, he may reach his goal. This book showcases his animal portraits: from tiny to mammoth, from the Florida grasshopper sparrow to the greater one-horned rhinoceros. Paired with the eloquent prose of veteran wildlife writer Douglas Chadwick, and an inspiring foreword from Harrison Ford, this book presents a thought-provoking argument for saving all the species of our planet.
24.	*Hollywood vs. the Author*	Stephen Jay	Schwartz, Editor	#NONFIC	Hollywood Versus the Author is a collection of non-fiction anecdotes by authors who’ve had the pleasure of experiencing the development room firsthand―some who have successfully managed to straddle the two worlds, seeing their works morph into the kinds of feature films and TV shows that make them proud, and others who stepped blindsided into that room after selling their first or second novels. All the stories in this collection illustrate the great divide between the world of literature and the big or small screen. They underscore the insanity of every crazy thing you’ve ever heard about Hollywood. For insiders and outsiders alike, Hollywood Versus the Author delivers the goods. With contributions by Michael Connelly, Lawrence Block, Max Allan Collins, Alan Jacobson, Andrew Kaplan, Tess Gerritsen, James Brown, Peter James, Rob Roberge, Lee Goldberg, Naomi Hirahara, T. Jefferson Parker, Diana Gould, Joshua Corin, and Alexandra Sokoloff
25.	*Plastic Paradise: The Great Pacific Garbage Patch*		Virgil Films & Entertainment, Studio	#DVD	An epic global adventure following a filmmaker and a world record free-diver as they travel the earth discovering the shocking impact plastic is having on our oceans and the marine animals that live there.
26.	*The Collected Stories of Diane Williams*	Diane	Williams	#AUDIO	From Ben Marcus’ introduction to The Collected Stories of Diane Williams: “Diane Williams has spent her long, prolific career concocting fictions of perfect strangeness, most of them no more than a page long. She’s a hero of the form: the sudden fiction, the flash fiction, whatever it’s being called these days. The stories are short. They defy logic. They thumb their nose at conventional sense, or even unconventional sense. But if sense is in short supply in these texts, that leaves more room for splendor and sorrow. These stories upend expectations and prize enigma and the uncanny above all else…”