Sort the items by any of the column titles. You can also search – use any word, author, title – whatever.
#Category holds genre, type and/or media information. You can search with Category tags put in this column. Thus, if you only want to see DVD’s purchased, enter #DVD in the search box and you’ll see a list of all the DVD’s. The tags we’ve put on the items are as follows:
#AUDIO (audio books), #DVD, #FIC (general fiction), #MYST (mystery), #NONFIC (general nonfiction), #SCIFI (sci-fi and fantasy), #YA (young adult). (Both upper or lower cases work.)
Title | First Name | Last Name | #Category | Description | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
9/2017 | How to Make It: 25 Makers Share the Secrets to Building a Creative Business | Erin Austen | Abbott | #NONFIC | This is the ultimate tell-all, show-all guide to making a living by making things. Featuring 25 profiles of illustrators, jewelry designers, ceramicists, painters, clothing designers, and printmakers, How to Make It provides a behind-the-scenes look at the daily rituals and best practices that keep these creative entrepreneurs on track. |
9/2017 | In Calabria | Peter S. | Beagle | #SCIFI | From the acclaimed author of The Last Unicorn comes a new, exquisitely-told fable for the modern age. … Lyrical, gripping, and wise, In Calabria confirms Peter S. Beagle’s continuing legacy as one of fantasy’s most legendary authors. |
9/2017 | The New Voices of Fantasy | Peter S. | Beagle (editor) | #SCIFI | In these nineteen stories, the enfants terribles of fantasy have arrived. The New Voices of Fantasy captures some of the fastest-rising talents of the last five years, including Sofia Samatar, Maria Dahvana Headley, Max Gladstone, Alyssa Wong, Usman T. Malik, Brooke Bolander, E. Lily Yu, Ben Loory, Ursula Vernon, and more. |
9/2017 | Hello Tokyo: 30+ Handmade Projects and Fun Idea for a Cute, Tokyo Inspired Lifestyle | Ebony | Bizys | #NONFIC | Fun and cute in its entirety, Hello Tokyo is a sweet look into Japan’s DIY culture, brimming with clever craft ideas for bringing happiness to the everyday. It will delight any crafter looking to add a touch of whimsy to their DIY adventures. |
9/2017 | Heroes & Villains: A Photographic Odyssey into the Fantastic World of Cosplay | Andrew | Boyle | #NONFIC | …a photographic journey into the heart of contemporary pop culture that is New York’s annual Comic Con. Photographer Andrew Boyle captures more than 200 cosplayers from NYCC in a series of stunning photographs and interviews, celebrating the incredible world of expression, talent, inclusivity, creativity and fandom that is the cosplay community. |
9/2017 | Nomadland: Surviving America in the Twenty-First Century | Jessica | Bruder | #NONFIC | From the beet fields of North Dakota to the National Forest campgrounds of California to Amazon’s CamperForce program in Texas, employers have discovered a new, low-cost labor pool, made up largely of transient older Americans … Bruder hits the road to get to know her subjects more intimately. [She] tells a compelling, eye-opening tale of the dark underbelly of the American economy―one that foreshadows the precarious future that may await many more of us. |
9/2017 | The Oregon Trail: A New American Journey | Rinker | Buck | #NONFIC | A major bestseller that has been hailed as a “quintessential American story” (Christian Science Monitor), Rinker Buck’s The Oregon Trail is an epic account of traveling the 2,000-mile length of the Oregon Trail the old-fashioned way—in a covered wagon with a team of mules—that has captivated readers, critics, and booksellers from coast to coast. |
9/2017 | Marcovaldo: or the Seasons in the City | Italo | Calvino | #FIC | Marcovaldo is an unskilled worker in a drab industrial city in northern Italy. He is an irrepressible dreamer and an inveterate schemer. Much to the puzzlement of his wife, his children, his boss, and his neighbors, he chases his dreams-but the results are never the expected ones. Translated by William Weaver. A Helen and Kurt Wolff Book |
9/2017 | The Exquisite Book of Paper Flower Transformations | Liivia | Cetti | #NONFIC | …a host of grander and more intricate flowers and projects—more blooms, more petals, stronger stems, and bigger, bolder arrangements! …Introducing new, neverbefore-seen techniques for dyeing paper and creating moldable leaves and petals, this gorgeous guide is perfect for crafters of all skill levels interested in making realistic and unique home decor, gifts, accessories, and entertaining essentials. |
9/2017 | Shipwrecks of Curry County (Images of America Series) | H.S | Contino | #NONFIC | Historically, mariners considered the Oregon coast one of the most dangerous in the world. … There have been many shipwrecks in the area like that of the tanker Larry Doheny, which was torpedoed by a Japanese submarine during World War II. |
9/2017 | The Andy Goldsworthy Project | Molly | Donovan | #NONFIC | This volume traces the development of Goldsworthy’s project at the National Gallery from conception to completion and situates the artist’s sculpture and practice within an age-long tradition of structures. It features the only fully illustrated catalogue documenting Goldsworthy’s permanent installations-more than 120 works dating from 1984 to 2008 and spanning three continents. 260 color and 40 b/w photographs |
9/2017 | The Alexandria Quartet (4 Titles: Justine, Balthazar, Mountolive, and Clea) | Lawrence | Durrell | #FIC | Lawrence Durrell was one of the best-selling, most celebrated English novelists of the late twentieth century. The Alexandria Quartet is unquestionably his most admired work, at heart a sensuous and brilliant evocation of wartime Alexandria. In this world of corrupt glamour, L. G. Darley attempts to reconcile himself to the end of his affair with the dark, passionate Justine Hosnani – setting alight a beguiling exploration of sexual and political intrigue that the author himself described as ‘an investigation of modern love’. |
9/2017 | Wanderful: The Modern Bohemian’s Guide To Traveling in Style | Andi | Eaton | #NONFIC | Wanderful is a stylish lookbook and travelogue for the adventurous and nomadic at heart. Follow in Andi’s footsteps as she travels the United States to discover some of its most effortlessly chic destinations—and the fashionable free spirits and wanderers who live there. |
9/2017 | William Wegman: Being Human | William A | Ewing | #NONFIC | William Wegman’s whimsical photographs of his Weimaraner dogs have been celebrated in the art world and enjoyed by pet lovers for nearly four decades. In this entirely new volume, renowned photography curator William A. Ewing presents more than 300 images from the artist’s personal archive, unearthing previously unseen gems alongside the iconic images that have made Wegman—along with dressed-up dogs Man Ray, Fay Ray, and others—beloved worldwide. |
9/2017 | Cool: style, sound and subversion | Greg | Foley and Andrew Luecke | #NONFIC | Cool is a compendium of global youth subcultures and street styles—from Flappers to Swing Kids, to Goths to today’s Normcore—that have shaped the fashion zeitgeist. |
9/2017 | On Vegetables | Jeremy | Fox | #NONFIC | In his first book, Fox presents his food philosophy in the form of 160 approachable recipes for the home cook. On Vegetables elevates vegetarian cooking, using creative methods and ingredient combinations to highlight the textures, flavours, and varieties of seasonal produce and including basic recipes for the larder. |
9/2017 | The Artists’ and Writers’ Cookbook: a Collection of Stories with Recipes | Natalie Eve | Garrett (editor) | #NONFIC | …a collection of personal, food-related stories with recipes from 76 contemporary artists and writers. |
9/2017 | The Twelve Mile Straight | Eleanor | Henderson | #FIC | From New York Times bestselling author Eleanor Henderson, an audacious American epic set in rural Georgia during the years of the Depression and Prohibition. |
9/2017 | 50 Queers Who Changed the World: A Celebration of LGBTQ+ Icons | Dan | Jones | #NONFIC | This book will celebrate the lives, work, and unique perspectives of the icons who changed the world. Featuring beautifully illustrated portraits and profiles, 50 Queers Who Changed the World is a tribute to some of the most inspirational people of all time |
9/2017 | Portrait Revolution: Inspiration From Around the World for Creating Art in Multiple Mediums and Styles | Julia | Kay | #NONFIC | Along with [presenting] works in almost every conceivable medium, Portrait Revolution shines a spotlight on different portrait-making techniques and styles (featuring everything from realism to abstraction). With tips, insights, and recommendations from accomplished portrait artists from around the globe, this all-in-one inspiration resource provides everything you’ll need to kick-start your own portrait-making adventure. |
9/2017 | Unmasked: Memoirs of a Guerrilla Girl on Tour | Donna | Kaz | #NONFIC | This debut memoir from Donna Kaz aka Aphra Behn, is a new addition to investigations into abusive relationships and the tradition of feminist narrative nonfiction. It is a memoir of a woman-turned-survivor-turned-radical-feminist who takes off her mask and, by merging her identities, reveals all. |
9/2017 | An Excess Male | Maggie Shen | King | #SCIFI | From debut author Maggie Shen King, An Excess Male is the chilling dystopian tale of politics, inequality, marriage, love, and rebellion, set in a near-future China, that further explores the themes of the classics The Handmaid’s Tale and When She Woke. |
9/2017 | Collage: Contemporary Artists Hunt and Gather, Cut and Paste, Mash Up and Transform | Danielle | Krysa | #NONFIC | Collage has enjoyed a resurgence in popularity during the twenty-first century, resulting in an explosion of creativity. This showcase of cutting-edge contemporary art from across the globe features galleries of collage by 30 practitioners, from the surreal landscapes of Beth Hoeckel to Fabien Souche’s humorous appropriations of pop culture. Each artist has also created a new piece especially for this book… |
9/2017 | My Golden Days | Le Pacte | #DVD | (DVD) Paul Dédalus prepares to leave Tajikistan and reflects on his life. He has a series of flashbacks including his childhood in Roubaix, France, then a student trip to the USSR and finally he remembers Esther, the love of his life. (French, subtitles) Starring: Quentin Dolmaire, Lou Roy-Lecollinet, Mathieu Amalric Runtime: 2 hours, 3 minutes | |
9/2017 | Things To Come | Les Films du Losange | #DVD | (DVD) After a bombshell revelation that her marriage is over, Nathalie (Isabelle Huppert) sets out with a sense of liberation and rediscovers herself. (French, subtitles) Starring: Isabelle Huppert, André Marcon, Roman Kolinka Runtime: 1 hour, 41 minutes | |
9/2017 | Otherworldly: Avant-garde Fashion and Style | Theo-Mass | Lexileictous, Editor | #NONFIC | Fashion from another planet. Unwearable, subversive, radically post-human, alien. Otherworldly presents avant-garde garments, styling, fashion photography, and young designers who are a whole galaxy away from the mainstream. |
9/2017 | Magnificent Baths: Private Indulgences from Baroque to Minimalist | Massimo | Listri | #NONFIC | Featuring bathrooms as never seen before, Magnificent Baths celebrates the most striking and eccentric bathrooms beautifully presented through the photography of Massimo Listri, whose travels have taken him to the most luxurious and idiosyncratic homes, palazzos, and hotels around the world. |
9/2017 | Epic Drives of the World: Explore the Planet’s Most Thrilling Road Trips | Lonely Planet | #NONFIC | …showcases 50 of the greatest road trips on Earth, from classic routes in America, Australia and Europe, to incredible adventures in Asia and Africa. | |
9/2017 | Warcross | Marie | Lu | #SCIFI #YA | In this sci-fi thriller, #1 New York Times bestselling author Marie Lu conjures an immersive, exhilarating world where choosing who to trust may be the biggest gamble of all. |
9/2017 | Digital Girls: Risk Takers, Rule Breakers, Disruptors: Fashion’s New Tribe | Marko | Macpherson | #NONFIC | Today’s leading online cultural influencers—the female bloggers, designers, entrepreneurs, and activists—who are shaping what’s hot and what’s not in fashion, beauty, and personal style. |
9/2017 | A Dog Lover’s Companion to the Northwest: The Inside Scoop to Where to Take Your Dog | Val | Mallinson | #NONFIC | … has the inside scoop on the best dog runs, parks, beaches, hiking trails, camping areas, pet-friendly businesses, and much more. |
9/2017 | Nature’s Temples: The Complex World of Old-Growth Forests | Joan | Maloof | #NONFIC | … a portrait of a beautiful, intricate, and fragile ecosystem that now exists only in scattered fragments. Black-and-white illustrations by Andrew Joslin help clarify scientific concepts and capture the beauty of ancient trees. |
9/2017 | The Maker: Crafting a Unique Space | Tama | Maynes | #NONFIC | The act of creating the treasures you use to adorn your home takes the space to a deeper level; it goes beyond collecting, beyond decorating. The Maker is a gorgeously illustrated love letter to creating an intimate, well-designed, and handmade home. |
9/2017 | Cure for the Common Universe | Christian | McKay Heidicker | #YA | From a bright new voice in young adult literature comes the story of a young man with a serious case of arrested development—and carpal tunnel syndrome—who is about to discover what real life is all about. |
9/2017 | When the Moon Was Ours | Anna-Marie | Mclemore | #YA | “McLemore’s second novel is such a lush surprising fable, you half expect birds to fly out of the pages… McLemore uses the supernatural to remind us that the body’s need to speak its truth is primal and profound, and that the connection between two people is no more anyone’s business than why the dish ran away with the spoon.” –Jeff Giles, New York Times Book Review |
9/2017 | What Nerve: Alternative Figures in American Art 1960 to the Present | Dan | Nadel | #NONFIC | What Nerve! reveals a hidden history of American figurative painting, sculpture and popular imagery. It documents and/or restages four installations, spaces or happenings, in Chicago, San Francisco, Detroit and Providence, which were crucial to the development of figurative art in the United States. |
9/2017 | Crafting the Resistance: 35 Projects for Craftivists, Protestors, and Women Who Persist | Lara | Neel and Heather Marano | #NONFIC | With pictures, step-by-step instructions, bonus patterns, and tips for crafters of all skill levels from beginner to advanced, Crafting the Resistance is the book for women’s rights activists on a DIY path to self-determination. |
9/2017 | Voices in the Stones: Life Lessons From the Native Way | Kent | Nerburn | #NONFIC | Native Americans are lauded for their profound spirituality and deep understanding of the land. Kent Nerburn here draws on his three decades living and working among Native peoples to offer stories and reflections that reveal what the ways of Native Americans have to teach us all — about giving, sharing, grieving, and celebrating. |
9/2017 | Journal Sparks: Fire Up Your Creativity with Spontaneous Art, Wild Writing and Inventive Thinking | Emily | Neuburger | #NONFIC | Using words, drawing, collage, and observation-based list-making, award-winning author Emily K. Neuburger highlights the many paths into journaling. Her 60 interactive writing prompts and art how-tos help you to expand your imagination and stimulate your creativity. |
9/2017 | Autonomous | Annalee | Newitz | #SCIFI | Autonomous alternates between the activities of Jack [a rakish female pharmaceutical pirate] and her co-conspirators, and Joe and Paladin [her pursuers] , as they all race to stop a bizarre drug epidemic that is tearing apart lives, causing trains to crash, and flooding New York City [in 2144]. (from Goodreads) |
9/2017 | I’m Just a Person | Tig | Notaro | #NONFIC | One of America’s most original comedic voices delivers a darkly funny, wryly observed, and emotionally raw account of her year of death, cancer, and epiphany. |
9/2017 | Foraging Oregon: Finding, Identifying and Preparing Edible Wild Foods in Oregon | Christopher | Nyerges | #NONFIC | From wild carrot to serviceberries, pineapple weed to watercress, lamb’s quarter to sea rocket, Foraging Oregon uncovers the edible wild foods and healthful herbs of the Beaver State. Helpfully organized by plant families, the book is an authoritative guide for nature lovers, outdoorsmen, and gastronomes. |
9/2017 | Dead Feminists: History Heroines in Living Color | Chandler | O’Leary and Jessica Spring | #NONFIC | A national bestseller, this gorgeously illustrated letterpress-inspired book combines feminist history with a vision for a better future. Dead Feminists is a lushly illustrated and inclusive celebration of inspiring women who transformed the world and created social change. |
9/2017 | The Fits | Oscilloscope Laboratories | #DVD | (DVD) While training at the gym 11-year-old tomboy Toni becomes entranced with a dance troupe. As she struggles to fit in she finds herself caught up in danger as the group begins to suffer from fainting spells and other violent seizures. Starring: Royalty Hightower, Alexis Neblett, Da’Sean Minor Runtime: 1 hour, 12 minutes | |
9/2017 | The Shadows We Know by Heart | Jennifer | Park | #YA | In this haunting and luminescent debut novel, a girl’s complicated family life starts to unravel after she finds herself falling for a mysterious boy who lives in the forest behind her house. |
9/2017 | Universe: Exploring the Astronomical World | Phaidon Editors | #NONFIC | Explore the stars and planets and beyond through 300 fascinating images – an international panel of experts take you on a journey through man’s record of the universe – from ancient cave paintings to animation. | |
9/2017 | Elle | SBS Distributions | #DVD | (DVD) Verhoeven’s critically acclaimed thriller about a businesswoman (Isabelle Huppert) attacked in her home by an unknown assailant. (French, subtitles) Starring: Isabelle Huppert, Anne Consigny, Christian Berkel Runtime: 2 hours, 11 minutes | |
9/2017 | A Brief History of Feminism | Antje | Schrupp and Patu | #NONFIC | The history of feminism? The right to vote, Susan B. Anthony, Gloria Steinem, white pantsuits? Oh, but there’s so much more. And we need to know about it, especially now. In pithy text and pithier comics, A Brief History of Feminism engages us, educates us, makes us laugh, and makes us angry. (from MIT Press) |
9/2017 | The Forty Rules of Love: A Novel of Rumi | Elif | Shafak | #FIC | In this lyrical, exuberant follow-up to her novel, The Bastard of Istanbul, acclaimed Turkish author Elif Shafak unfolds two tantalizing parallel narratives—one contemporary and the other set in the thirteenth century, when Rumi encountered his spiritual mentor, the whirling dervish known as Shams of Tabriz—that together incarnate the poet’s timeless message of love. |
9/2017 | Salad for President: A Cookbook Inspired by Artists | Julia | Sherman | #NONFIC | …offers a window into how artists approach preparing their favorite dishes. She visits sculptors, painters, photographers, and musicians in their homes and gardens, interviewing and photographing them as they cook. Utterly unique in its look into the worlds of food, art, and everyday practices, Salad for President is at once a practical resource for healthy, satisfying recipes and an inspiring look at creativity. |
9/2017 | Sourdough | Robin | Sloan | #FIC | In his much-anticipated new novel, Robin Sloan does for the world of food what he did for the world of books in Mr. Penumbra’s 24-Hour Bookstore. |
9/2017 | Mess: The Manual of Accidents and Mistakes | Keri | Smith | #NONFIC | …a book that celebrates mistake- and mess-making like never before… Your whole life, you’ve been taught to avoid making a mess… This book asks you to do the opposite of what you have been taught. Think of it as your own personal rumpus room. A place to let loose, to trash, to spew, to do the things you are not allowed to do in the “real world.” |
9/2017 | Worn Stories: Sartorial Memoirs | Emily | Spivack | #NONFIC | … clothing-inspired narratives from cultural figures and talented storytellers. … offers a revealing look at the clothes that protect us, serve as a uniform, assert our identity, or bring back the past—clothes that are encoded with the stories of our lives. |
9/2017 | Hiking Oregon’s History | William | Sullivan | #NONFIC | Recounted in a fresh style that’s fun for armchair travelers and hikers alike, this guidebook tells the stories behind 56 of Oregon’s most scenic historic sites. |
9/2017 | Citizens Creek | Lalita | Tademy | #FIC | The New York Times bestselling author of the Oprah Book Club Pick Cane River brings us the evocative story of a once-enslaved man who buys his freedom after serving as a translator during the American Indian Wars, and his granddaughter, who sustains his legacy of courage. |
9/2017 | The Best American Poetry 2017 | Natasha | Tretheway, editor | #NONFIC | Edited by Pulitzer Prize-winner and nineteenth US Poet Laureate Natasha Trethewey, The Best American Poetry 2017 brings together the most notable poems of the year in the series that offers “a vivid snapshot of what a distinguished poet finds exciting, fresh, and memorable” (Robert Pinsky). |
9/2017 | The Heartbeats of Wing Jones | Katherine | Webber | #YA | Jandy Nelson meets Friday Night Lights in this sweeping, warm, arrestingly original novel about family, poverty, and hope. |
9/2017 | The Clockwork Dynasty | Daniel | Wilson | #SCIFI | An ingenious new thriller that weaves a path through history, following a race of human-like machines that have been hiding among us for untold centuries, written by the New York Times bestselling author of Robopocalypse. |
9/2017 | American Street | Ibi | Zoboi | #YA | …an evocative and powerful coming-of-age story … author Ibi Zoboi draws on her own experience as a young Haitian immigrant, infusing this lyrical exploration of America with magical realism and vodou culture. |
9/2017 | Germinal | Emile | Zola | #FIC | Zola’s masterpiece of working life, Germinal (1885), exposes the inhuman conditions of miners in northern France in the 1860s. By Zola’s death in 1902 it had come to symbolize the call for freedom from oppression so forcefully that the crowd which gathered at his State funeral chanted “Germinal! Germinal!” |
10/2017 | Wabi-Sabi Welcome: Learning to Embrace the Imperfect and Entertain with Thoughtfulness and Ease | Julie Pointer | Adams | #NONFIC | In this lush entertaining manual, author Julie Pointer Adams invites readers into artful, easygoing homes around the world—in Denmark, California, France, Italy, and Japan—and teaches us how to turn the generous act of getting together into the deeper art of being together. In this book, readers will find: unexpected, thoughtful ideas and recipes from around the world; tips for creating an intimate, welcoming environment; guidelines for choosing enduring, natural decor for the home; and inspiring photographs from homes where wabi-sabi is woven into daily living. |
10/2017 | The Power | Naomi | Alderman | #FIC | From award-winning author Naomi Alderman, The Power is speculative fiction at its most ambitious and provocative, at once taking us on a thrilling journey to an alternate reality, and exposing our own world in bold and surprising ways. |
10/2017 | Would Everybody Please Stop?: Reflections on Life and Other Bad Ideas | Jenny | Allen | #NONFIC | Jenny Allen’s musings range fluidly from the personal to the philosophical. She writes with the familiarity of someone telling a dinner party anecdote, forgoing decorum for candor and comedy. To read Would Everybody Please Stop? is to experience life with imaginative and incisive humor. |
10/2017 | American Honey | Andrea | Arnold, Director | #DVD | (DVD) An adolescent girl from a troubled home, runs away with a traveling sales crew who drive across the American Midwest selling subscriptions door to door. Stars Sasha Lane and Shia LaBeouf. |
10/2017 | Vegan Cheese: Simple, Delicious Plant-Based Recipes | Jules | Aron | #NONFIC | From creamy and mild to sharp and sliceable, 60 dairy-free and delicious cheeses to make at home |
10/2017 | Dheepan | Jacques | Audiard, director | #DVD | (DVD) Palme d’Or Winner. Gripping saga of three refugees who pose as a family to escape their war-torn home only to be caught up in gang violence on the streets of Paris. |
10/2017 | My Foolish Heart: A Pop-up Book of Love | Nick | Bantock | #NONFIC | From the creator of the bestselling Griffin & Sabine series comes a loving gift book that’s (literally) full of heart. This quirky book takes six heart-themed expressions and gives them new meaning through engaging pop-ups. From Brave Hearted (a heart that looks like a tiger) to Light Hearted (a heart with lightbulbs surrounding it), My Foolish Heart features Bantock’s signature art style in a small and giftable package. With its inimitable word play on turns of phrase, this playful book is a delightful surprise for Valentine’s Day or whenever a token of unexpected affection is in order. |
10/2017 | The Invisible Life of Euridice Gusmao | Martha | Batalha | #FIC | The Invisible Life of Euridice Gusmao is a wildly inventive, wickedly funny and keenly observed tale of two sisters who, surrounded by a cast of unforgettable characters, assert their independence and courageously carve a path of their own in 1940s Rio de Janeiro. A deeply human and truly unforgettable novel from one of the most exciting new voices in world literature. |
10/2017 | What It’s Like to Be Dog and Other Adventures in Animal Neuroscience | Gregory | Berns | #NONFIC | What is it like to be a dog? A bat? Or a dolphin? To find out, neuroscientist Gregory Berns and his team began with a radical step: they taught dogs to go into an MRI scanner–completely awake. They discovered what makes dogs individuals with varying capacities for self-control, different value systems, and a complex understanding of human speech… Groundbreaking and deeply humane, it is essential reading for animal lovers of all stripes. |
10/2017 | 200 WOMEN | Geoff | Blackwell & Ruth Hobday | #NONFIC | Interviews with 200 women from a variety of backgrounds provide a snapshot of female life around the globe…Each woman shares her unique reply to the same five questions: What really matters to you?, What brings you happiness?, What do you regard as the lowest depth of misery?, What would you change if you could?, and Which single word do you most identify with? |
10/2017 | In the Company of Women: Inspiration and Advice from over 100 Makers and Entrepreneurs | Grace | Bonney | #NONFIC | Over 100 exceptional and influential women describe how they embraced their creative spirit, overcame adversity, and sparked a global movement of entrepreneurship. Media titans and ceramicists, hoteliers and tattoo artists, comedians and architects—taken together, these profiles paint a beautiful picture of what happens when we pursue our passions and dreams. |
10/2017 | Tuco: The Parrot, the Others, and A Scattershot World | Brian | Brett | #NONFIC | For thirty years, Brian Brett shared his office and his life with Tuco, a remarkable parrot given to asking such questions as “Whaddya know?” and announcing “Party time!” when guests showed up at Brett’s farm. Although Brett bought Tuco on a whim as a pet, he gradually realizes the enormous obligation he has to the bird and learns that the parrot is a lot more complex than he thought. |
10/2017 | Cutting Back: My Apprenticeship in the Gardens of Kyoto | Leslie | Buck | #NONFIC | At thirty-five, Leslie Buck made an impulsive decision to put her personal life on hold to pursue her passion. Leaving behind a full life of friends, love, and professional security, she became the first American woman to learn pruning from one of the most storied landscaping companies in Kyoto. Cutting Back recounts Buck’s bold journey and the revelations she has along the way. |
10/2017 | In Search of a Prophet: A Spiritual Journey with Kahil Gibran | Paul-Gordon | Chandler | #NONFIC | In Search of a Prophet is a fascinating journey through the spiritual life of Kahlil Gibran, author of the bestselling book The Prophet. Capturing our imaginations and enriching our spirits, Paul-Gordon Chandler explores this beloved writer and artist, a mystic who sought to build bridges and tear down walls. |
10/2017 | Going into Town : A Love Letter to New York | Roz | Chast | #NONFIC | From the #1 NYT bestselling author of Can’t We Talk About Something More Pleasant?, Roz Chast’s new graphic memoir–a hilarious illustrated ode/guide/thank-you note to Manhattan as only she could write it. |
10/2017 | Paradox Bound | Peter | Clines | #SCIFI | An aimless young man escapes his dead-end town when he meets a badass, time-traveling adventuress… A rousing adventure novel that marries steampunk aesthetics to the seminal concept of protecting American liberty. (from Kirkus Review) |
10/2017 | The Art of Flora Forager | Bridget Beth | Collins | #NONFIC | Flower fans and nature enthusiasts will fall in love with this charming art book from Instagram sensation Flora Forager featuring the best of her unique floral compositions created with botanical materials. Flora Forager creates images out of flower petals, leaves, stones, twigs, and other natural materials that she finds in her garden and in urban wild areas in her neighborhood. |
10/2017 | On the Verge | Rebecca D. | Costa | #NONFIC | In the spirit of the best in popular science, On the Verge is a landmark examination of big-picture forces affecting society today. Costa’s unique sociobiological perspective, combined with her ability to blend humor, breaking science, and insightful personal stories, distinguishes her as one of the most important female thought leaders of our time. |
10/2017 | The Edge of Seventeen | Kelly Fremon | Craig (Dir. & Writer) | #DVD | (DVD) with Woody Harrelson and Kyra Sedgwick |
10/2017 | Street Spirit: The Power of Protest and Mischief | Steve | Crawshaw | #NONFIC | With over 100 photographs and accompanying commentary on the power of non-violent protest from human rights campaigner Steve Crawshaw, who has been an eye-witness to some of the most dramatic demonstrations of recent years, Street Spirit is a unique visual guide that will inspire, enlighten and entertain. |
10/2017 | The Urban Canvas- Street Art around the World | G. James | Daichendt | #NONFIC | The interaction with happened-upon street art is both physical and emotional, provoking a reaction and hopefully a conversation about the work this worldwide phenomenon. From backs of street signs to corporate boardrooms, its visibility, popularity, and diversity is what makes it so beloved. Highlighting some of the best work from around the world, The Urban Canvas is an extensive look at this art form and the artists that make it great. |
10/2017 | How to be a Wildflower: A Field Guide | Katie | Daisy | #NONFIC | A fresh perspective, an outdoor exploration, a new adventure about to begin—How to Be a Wildflower is the book to celebrate these and other wide-open occasions… For every wild and free spirit—and those who aspire to be—this is a field guide to living life to the fullest. |
10/2017 | Senor Vivo and the Coca Lord | Louis | De Bernieres | #FIC | Dionisio Vivo, a young South American lecturer in philosophy, is puzzled by the hideously mutilated corpses that keep turning up outside his front door. To his friend, Ramon, one of the few honest policemen in town, the message is all too clear: Dionisio’s letters to the press, exposing the drug barons, must stop; and although Dionisio manages to escape the hit-men sent to get him, he soon realizes that others are more vulnerable, and his love for them leads him to take a colossal revenge. |
10/2017 | The War of Don Emmanuel’s Nether Parts | Louis | De Bernieres | #FIC | This rambunctious first novel by the author of the bestselling Corelli’s Mandolin is set in an impoverished, violent, yet ravishingly beautiful country somewhere in South America. When the haughty Dona Constanza decides to divert a river to fill her swimming pool, the consequences are at once tragic, heroic, and outrageously funny. “Walks a precarious edge between slapstick and pathos, never once losing its balance.”–Washington Post Book World. |
10/2017 | The Troublesome Offspring of Cardinal Guzman | Louis | De Bernieres | #FIC | … Louis de Bernières continues his chronicle of Cochadebajo, the Andean village where macho philosophers, defrocked priests, and reformed (though hardly inactive) prostitutes cohabit in cheerful anarchy. But this unruly utopia is imperiled when the demon-harried Cardinal Guzman decides to inaugurate a new Inquisition, with Cochadebajo as its ultimate target. On his side, the Cardinal has an army of fanatics who are all too willing to destroy bodies in order to save souls. The Cochadebajeros have precious little ammunition, unless you count chef Dolores’s incendiary Chicken of a True Man, and a civil defense that deems nothing more crucial than the act of love. Part epic, part farce, The Troublesome Offspring of Cardinal Guzman confirms de Bernières’s reputation as England’s answer to Gabriel García Márquez. |
10/2017 | Soul Shifts | Barbara | DeAngelis | #NONFIC | Soul Shifts is the groundbreaking new book from New York Timesbest-selling author and renowned transformational teacher Barbara De Angelis, Ph.D. Now, in her most powerful offering yet—and the culmination of her life’s work—Dr. De Angelis offers a practical handbook for awakening, and a brilliant revisioning of the journey of personal and spiritual transformation that will inspire and enlighten longtime seekers as well as new arrivals to the path of growth. |
10/2017 | Wildlife Spectacles: Mass Migrations, Mating Rituals and Other Fascinating Animal Behaviors | Vladimir | Dinets | #NONFIC | People are captivated by wild animals—by their strength and their size and by the things they do to stay alive. In Wildlife Spectacles zoologist Vladimir Dinets dives deep into this wonder, allowing curious readers to discover just how spectacular wild animals can be. |
10/2017 | From Here to Eternity: Traveling the World to Find the Good Death | Caitlin | Doughty | #NONFIC | Fascinated by our pervasive fear of dead bodies, mortician Caitlin Doughty set out to discover how other cultures care for the dead. From Here to Eternity is an immersive global journey that introduces compelling, powerful rituals almost entirely unknown in America. |
10/2017 | Taste of Persia: A Cook’s Travels Through Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Iran, and Kurdistan | Naomi | Duguid | #NONFIC | Winner, James Beard Award for Best Book of the Year, International (2017) Winner, IACP Award for Best Cookbook of the Year in Culinary Travel (2017)Named a Best Cookbook of the Year by The Boston Globe, Food & Wine, The Los Angeles Times, The New York Times, The New York Times Book Review, The San Francisco Chronicle, USA Today, and The Wall Street Journal |
10/2017 | O.J.: Made in America | Ezra | Edelman, Director | #DVD | (DVD) O.J.: Made in America is a 2016 American documentary produced and directed by Ezra Edelman for ESPN Films and their 30 for 30 series, which was released as a five-part miniseries and in theatrical format. The documentary explores two of America’s greatest fixations – race and celebrity – through the life of O. J. Simpson… (from Wikipedia) |
10/2017 | Ungrateful Mammals | Dave | Eggers | #NONFIC | …in order to raise money for ScholarMatch, his college-access nonprofit, he returned to visual art, and the results have been exhibited in galleries and museums around the country. Usually involving the pairing of an animal with humorous or biblical text, the results are wry, oddly anthropomorphic tableaus that create a very entertaining and eccentric body of work from one of today’s leading culture makers. |
10/2017 | What We Talk About When We Talk About Anne Frank: Stories | Nathan | Englander | #FIC | A New York Times Notable Book An NPR Best Book of 2012 These eight powerful stories, dazzling in their display of language and imagination, show a celebrated short-story writer and novelist grappling with the great questions of modern life. |
10/2017 | Original Fire | Louise | Erdrich | #NONFIC | A passionate book of poetry from New York Times bestselling author Louise Erdrich. In this important collection, award-winning author Louise Erdrich has selected poems from her two previous books of poetry, Jacklight and Baptism of Desire, and has added nineteen new poems to compose Original Fire. |
10/2017 | Land on Fire: the New Reality of Wildfire in the West | Gary | Ferguson | #NONFIC | Wildfire season is burning longer and hotter, affecting more and more people, especially in the west. Land on Fire explores the fascinating science behind this phenomenon and the ongoing research to find a solution. …Award-winning nature writer Gary Ferguson brings to life the extraordinary efforts of those responsible for fighting wildfires, and deftly explains how nature reacts in the aftermath of flames. Dramatic photographs reveal the terror and beauty of fire, as well as the staggering effect it has on the landscape. |
10/2017 | My Brilliant Friend | Elena | Ferrante | #AUDIO | MP3 – Neapolitan Novels-Volume 1 Beginning in the 1950s in a poor but vibrant neighborhood on the outskirts of Naples, Ferrante’s four-volume story spans almost sixty years, as its protagonists, the fiery and unforgettable Lila, and the bookish narrator, Elena, become women, wives, mothers, and leaders, all the while maintaining a complex and at times conflictual friendship… Through the lives of these two women, Ferrante tells the story of a neighborhood, a city, and a country as it is transformed in ways that, in turn, also transform the relationship between her protagonists. |
10/2017 | The Story of a New Name | Elena | Ferrante | #AUDIO | CD – Neapolitan Novels-Volume 2 |
10/2017 | Those Who Leave and Those Who Stay | Elena | Ferrante | #AUDIO | CD – Neapolitan Novels-Volume 3 |
10/2017 | The Story of the Lost Child | Elena | Ferrante | #AUDIO | CD – Neapolitan Novels-Volume 4 |
10/2017 | Bokashi Composting: Scraps to Soil in Weeks | Adam | Footer | #NONFIC | Bokashi is Japanese for “fermented organic matter.” Bokashi composting is a safe, quick, and convenient way to compost in your kitchen, garage, or apartment, using a specific group of microorganisms to anaerobically ferment all food waste (including meat and dairy). Since the process takes place in a closed system, insects and smell are controlled, making it ideal for urban or business settings. The process is very fast, with compost usually ready to be integrated into your soil or garden in around two weeks. |
10/2017 | The Twilight Pariah | Jeffrey | Ford | #FIC | Three friends go looking for treasure and find horror in Jeffrey Ford’s The Twilight Pariah. |
10/2017 | Flowers of Anti-Martyrdom | Dorian | Geisler | #NONFIC | Dorian Geisler’s beguiling debut collection of poetry solves the problems of audacity―with audacity. A darkly uncanny romp through the lives of others, Geisler’s fast-moving poetry and understated/maximalist aesthetic manage to convey a burgeoning world filled with strangers whose identities are playfully―sometimes diabolically―half-revealed. |
10/2017 | Rams | Grímur | Hákonarson | #DVD | (DVD) …is a 2015 Icelandic drama film written and directed by Grímur Hákonarson. (from rottentomatoes.com: …charming, stunningly shot drama focuses on two Icelandic sheep farmers whose decades-long feud comes to a head when disaster strikes their flocks.) |
10/2017 | Skinful of Shadows | Frances | Hardinge | #YA | A Skinful of Shadows is a dark YA historical fantasy set in the early part of the English Civil War. Makepeace is an illegitimate daughter of the aristocratic Fellmotte family, and as such, she shares their unique hereditary gift: the capacity to be possessed by ghosts. … From Costa Book of the Year winner Frances Hardinge comes a new dark historical fantasy that’s sure to satisfy her leagues of fans who are eager for more. |
10/2017 | Shoot Like a Girl: One Woman’s Dramatic Fight in Afghanistan and on the Home Front | Mary Jennings | Hegar | #NONFIC | In Shoot Like a Girl, MJ takes the reader on a dramatic journey through her military career: an inspiring, humorous, and thrilling true story of a brave, high-spirited, and unforgettable woman who has spent much of her life ready to sacrifice everything for her country, her fellow man, and her sense of justice. |
10/2017 | Strand: An Odyssey of Pacific Ocean Debris | Bonnie | Henderson | #NONFIC | In Strand, travel writer and amateur naturalist Bonnie Henderson traces the stories of wrack washed up on the mile-long stretch of Oregon beach she has walked regularly for more than a decade. Henderson’s writing conveys both a keen attention to the specifics of place and an expansive field of vision. |
10/2017 | The Rules of Magic | Alice | Hoffman | #FIC | From beloved author Alice Hoffman comes the spellbinding prequel to her bestseller, Practical Magic. For the Owens family, love is a curse that began in 1620, when Maria Owens was charged with witchery for loving the wrong man. Hundreds of years later, in New York City at the cusp of the sixties, when the whole world is about to change, Susanna Owens knows that her three children are dangerously unique. … The Owens children cannot escape love even if they try, just as they cannot escape the pains of the human heart. The two beautiful sisters will grow up to be the revered, and sometimes feared, aunts in Practical Magic, while Vincent, their beloved brother, will leave an unexpected legacy. Thrilling and exquisite, real and fantastical, The Rules of Magic is a story about the power of love reminding us that the only remedy for being human is to be true to yourself. |
10/2017 | The Art of Rebellion IV (Masterpieces of Urban Art) | Christian | Hundertmark | #NONFIC | One of the most successful street art series ever published with 100,000 copies in print, Art of Rebellion was the originator, presenting the finest artwork ever created by artists on the street worldwide. Now at long last comes a new volume featuring approximately 100 artists with their personal favorites innovative work in a variety of media that arrests our attention and transforms our cities into open air museums. |
10/2017 | Cameraperson | Kirsten | Johnson | #DVD | (DVD) A boxing match in Brooklyn; life in postwar Bosnia and Herzegovina; the daily routine of a Nigerian midwife; an intimate family moment at home with the director: Kirsten Johnson weaves these scenes and others into her film Cameraperson, a tapestry of footage captured over her twenty-five-year career as a documentary cinematographer. |
10/2017 | Ulysses | James | Joyce | #AUDIO | (AUDIO CD/read by Donal, Donnelly) The young poet Stephen has been recalled from Paris to Dublin to be at his mother’s deathbed. But he refuses her dying wishes: to kneel and pray for her. Now, holed up in his Martello tower outside the city walls, he has to suffer the taunts of Buck Mulligan by day and, by night, the vision of ‘her eyes, shaking out of death to shake and bend my soul.’ Timelessly evocative, Ulysses is far more than the story of Stephen Dedalus’ journey through Dublin. It is a huge, rich portrayal of human life. In this magnificent, highly accessible, part reading part dramatisation – which includes the famous Molly Bloom soliloquy – the power and truth of Joyce’s vision is as potent as ever |
10/2017 | The Chinese Kitchen Garden: Growing Techniques and Family Recipes from a Classic Cuisine | Wendy | Kiang-Spray | #NONFIC | Wendy Kiang-Spray’s family has a strong culinary and gardening tradition. In The Chinese Kitchen Garden, she beautifully blends the story of her family’s cultural heritage with growing information for 38 Chinese vegetables—like lotus root, garlic, chives, and eggplant—and 25 traditional recipes, like congee, dumplings, and bok choy stir-fry. Organized by season, you’ll learn what to grow in spring and what to cook in winter. |
10/2017 | Steal Like An Artist: 10 Things Nobody Told You About Being Creative | Austin | Kleon | #NONFIC | When Mr. Kleon was asked to address college students in upstate New York, he shaped his speech around the ten things he wished someone had told him when he was starting out. The talk went viral, and its author dug deeper into his own ideas to create Steal Like an Artist, the book. The result is inspiring, hip, original, practical, and entertaining. And filled with new truths about creativity: Nothing is original, so embrace influence, collect ideas, and remix and re-imagine to discover your own path. Follow your interests wherever they take you. Stay smart, stay out of debt, and risk being boring—the creative you will need to make room to be wild and daring in your imagination. |
10/2017 | Provenance | Ann | Leckie | #FIC | …an enthralling new novel of power, theft, privilege and birthright. A power-driven young woman has just one chance to secure the status she craves and regain priceless lost artifacts prized by her people. She must free their thief from a prison planet from which no one has ever returned. Ingray and her charge will return to her home world to find their planet in political turmoil, at the heart of an escalating interstellar conflict. Together, they must make a new plan to salvage Ingray’s future, her family, and her world, before they are lost to her for good. |
10/2017 | The Living Forest – A Visual Journey Into the Heart of the Woods | Robert | Llewellyn and Joan Maloof | #NONFIC | The Living Forest is a visual journey that immerses you deep into the woods. The wide-ranging photography by Robert Llewellyn celebrates the small and the large, the living and the dead, and the seen and the unseen. You’ll discover close-up images of owls, hawks, and turtles; aerial photographs that show herons in flight; and time-lapse imagery that reveals the slow change of leaves. In an ideal blend of art and scholarship, the 300 awe-inspiring photographs are supported by lyrical essays from Joan Maloof detailing the science behind the wonder. |
10/2017 | Street Art | Lonely Planet | #NONFIC | An insider’s guide to discovering the world’s best urban art. From amazing wall murals to Banksy’s stencils and Invader’s mosaics, we showcase 140 creative hotspots across 42 cities and tell you how to find them, as well as introduce pioneering artists and interview those who shaped the movement. | |
10/2017 | Backpacking Oregon | Douglas | Lorain | #NONFIC | There are many hiking guidebooks available for Oregon, but there is only one Backpacking Oregon. This guide is the only book available that details the best backpacking trips in the Beaver State. These 27 trips, which last from 3 days to 2 weeks, offer geographic diversity, beautiful scenery, and a short getaway from the routines of daily life. The trips are generally more than a simple weekend outing, but they are all terrific vacations and each gives you enough time to really enjoy the scenery and get to know Oregon. |
10/2017 | The World of Tomorrow | Brendan | Mathews | #FIC | One of Entertainment Weekly‘s 20 Must-Read Books of the Fall [2017] One of the New York Post‘s 15 Books You Won’t Be Able to Put Down This Fall |
10/2017 | Luna | David | McKean, Director | #DVD | DVD Grant and Christine are still struggling with the storm of grief following the death of their baby. They visit an old friend, Dean, with his new girlfriend Freya, in their isolated house by the sea. Dean tries but fails to control his drinking. Freya worries about the age difference between her and Dean. Christine confesses her secrets to Dean, upsetting his comfortably stable world of escapist fantasy and children’s books. Over a long weekend, old loves, losses and resentments are revisited and the life of the dead child is lived out in a series of strange, hallucinatory dreams.(from rottentomators.com) |
10/2017 | The Power of Eight: Harnessing the Miraculous Energies of a Small Group to Heal Others, Your Life and the World | Lynne | McTaggart | #NONFIC | Discover how to tap into your extraordinary human capacity for connection and healing, using astonishing new findings about the miraculous power of group intention and its boomerang effect, in this new book by the author of the international bestsellers The Intention Experiment and The Field. |
10/2017 | Foraging Mushrooms Oregon | Jim | Meuninck | #NONFIC | Detailed descriptions of edible mushrooms; tips on finding, preparing, and using mushrooms; a glossary of botanical terms; color photos. Use Foraging Mushrooms as a field guide or as a delightful armchair read. |
10/2017 | Code Girls: The Untold Story of American Women Code Breakers of WW II | Liza | Mundy | #NONFIC | Recruited by the U.S. Army and Navy from small towns and elite colleges, more than ten thousand women served as codebreakers during World War II. While their brothers and boyfriends took up arms, these women moved to Washington and learned the meticulous work of code-breaking. Their efforts shortened the war, saved countless lives, and gave them access to careers previously denied to them. A strict vow of secrecy nearly erased their efforts from history; now, through dazzling research and interviews with surviving code girls, bestselling author Liza Mundy brings to life this riveting and vital story of American courage, service, and scientific accomplishment. |
10/2017 | The Art of Expressive Collage | Crystal | Neubauer | #NONFIC | What story will your art express? There’s a dialogue waiting to happen on your worktable. The Art of Expressive Collage will teach you to listen to what paper and glue, ink and paint have to tell you. From the fear of messing up to the excitement of letting things flow, you’ll come to see the common thread in the bits and pieces you collect. You’ll discover new ways to think about arranging these bits in your work as you express yourself with lines, smudges and translucent layers. |
10/2017 | Journal Sparks | Emily | Neuburger | #NONFIC | Using words, drawing, collage, and observation-based list-making, award-winning author Emily K. Neuburger highlights the many paths into journaling. Her 60 interactive writing prompts and art how-tos help you to expand your imagination and stimulate your creativity. Every spread invites a new approach to filling a page, from making a visual map of a day-in-my-life to turning random splotches into quirky characters for a playful story. It’s the perfect companion to all those blank books and an ideal launch pad to explore creative self-expression and develop an imaginative voice — for anyone ages 10 to 100! |
10/2017 | Divine Gardens : Mayumi Oda and the San Francisco Zen Center | Mayumi | Oda, Illustrator | #NONFIC | Suitable for study by art students or for display on a coffee table, Divine Gardenscaptures the essence of Mayumi Oda’s art and life as a Zen practitioner. The forty-five full-color works of art and twenty-four essays contained in the collection are a joyful celebration of her work and the community forged through the years at the San Francisco Zen Center. |
10/2017 | WTF? What’s the Future and Why It’s Up to Us | Tim | O’Reilly | #NONFIC | The core of the book’s call to action is an exhortation to businesses to DO MORE with technology rather than just using it to cut costs and enrich their shareholders. Robots are going to take our jobs, they say. O’Reilly replies, “Only if that’s what we ask them to do! Technology is the solution to human problems, and we won’t run out of work till we run out of problems. |
10/2017 | The Durrells in Corfu | PBS | #DVD | (DVD) A British comedy-drama series based on Gerald Durrell’s three autobiographical books about his family’s four years (1935–1939) on the Greek Island of Corfu, (Wikipedia) | |
10/2017 | Frida | Benjamin LaCombe & Sebastien | Perez | #NONFIC | A sumptuous feast of a book, Frida allows the reader to enter this revered artist’s world, both literally and metaphorically. Through a series of consecutive die-cut pages, one is drawn in passing through aspects of her life, art and creative process while exploring the themes that inspired her most, such as love, death and maternity. Iconic and visceral, her work has always had the ability to transcend borders and resonate with its honest and graphic depiction of the human condition. |
10/2017 | The Twenty First Century Art Book | Phaidon Press Editors | #NONFIC | The 21st‐Century Art Book is an A‐to‐Z guide of contemporary artists featuring established art‐world figures – Maurizio Cattelan, Cindy Sherman, Jeff Wall – alongside rising stars of the next generations. Global in scope, the book features work from 50 countries across a variety of mediums, from painting, drawing, and sculpture to digital art, video installation, and performance. Each of the 280 artists included has a dedicated page pairing a significant artwork from his or her oeuvre with lively and informative text. | |
10/2017 | The Book of Dust | Philip | Pullman | #SCIFI | Philip Pullman returns to the parallel world of his groundbreaking novel The Golden Compass to expand on the story of Lyra, “one of fantasy’s most indelible characters.” (The New York Times Magazine) (also same title on CD) * – |
10/2017 | Long Way Down | Jason | Reynolds | #YA | A radical retelling of the prodigal son story, Long Way Down takes us from tent revivals to the Ryman Auditorium to the tender relationship between a broken man and the father who never stopped calling him home. |
10/2017 | The Bright Hour: A Memoir of Living and Dying | Nina | Riggs | #NONFIC | An exquisite memoir about how to live—and love—every day with “death in the room,” from poet Nina Riggs, mother of two young sons and the direct descendant of Ralph Waldo Emerson, in the tradition of When Breath Becomes Air. |
10/2017 | The Tiger’s Daughter | K. Arsenault | Rivera | #SCIFI | This is the story of an infamous Qorin warrior, Barsalayaa Shefali, a spoiled divine warrior empress, O Shizuka, and a power that can reach through time and space to save a land from a truly insidious evil. A crack in the wall heralds the end…two goddesses arm themselves… an adventure for the ages. |
10/2017 | Agatha Raisin (Series one) | Geoffrey | Sax, et al., Director | #DVD | (DVD) The Cotswolds-based PR guru turned amateur sleuth returns for a series of comedic murder-mysteries based on the books by M.C. Beaton. Stars: Ashley Jensen, Jamie Glover, Katy Wix (IMDb) |
10/2017 | The Women Who Made New York | Julie | Scelfo | #NONFIC | …reveals the untold stories of the phenomenal women who made New York City the cultural epicenter of the world. Many were revolutionaries and activists, like Zora Neale Hurston and Audre Lorde. Others were icons and iconoclasts, like Fran Lebowitz and Grace Jones. There were also women who led quieter private lives but were just as influential, such as Emily Warren Roebling, who completed the construction of the Brooklyn Bridge when her engineer husband became too ill to work. |
10/2017 | Silence | Martin | Scorsese, Director | #DVD | (DVD) – Silence is a 2016 historical period drama film directed by Martin Scorsese and written by Jay Cocks and Scorsese, based on the 1966 novel of the same name by Shūsaku Endō. … The plot follows two 17th-century Jesuit priests who travel from Portugal to Edo-era Japan to locate their missing mentor and spread Catholic Christianity. (from Wikipedia) |
10/2017 | Outrageous Openness: Letting the Divine Take the Lead | Tosha | Silver | #NONFIC | A collection of spiritual lessons, anecdotes, and thoughts on the Divine’s intervention in our lives, this brilliantly written and wonderfully entertaining book teaches us how to live purposefully and in line with the Force of Love. |
10/2017 | Just Kids | Patti | Smith | #NONFIC | An honest and moving story of youth and friendship, Smith brings the same unique, lyrical quality to Just Kids as she has to the rest of her formidable body of work—from her influential 1975 album Horses to her visual art and poetry. |
10/2017 | Woolgathering | Patti | Smith | #NONFIC | A great book about becoming an artist, Woolgathering tells of a youngster finding herself as she learns the noble vocation of woolgathering, “a worthy calling that seemed a good job for me.” She discovers―often at night, often in nature―the pleasures of rescuing “a fleeting thought.” |
10/2017 | Worn in New York | Emily | Spivack | #NONFIC | Worn in New York offers a contemporary cultural history of the city—its changing identity, temper, and tone, and its irrepressible vitality—by paying tribute to these well-loved clothes and the people who wore them. |
10/2017 | The Northwest Coastal Explorer | Robert | Steelquist | #NONFIC | …a fun, engaging, lushly-illustrated guide to the marine life of Oregon, Washington, and British Columbia. Profiles of the flora and fauna include tips on where and how to find them—like the ochre sea stars commonly discovered on exposed rocks and the olive snails found on sandy beaches—while the included getaway guide highlights the best weekend trips for each area. |
10/2017 | Birding Without Borders: An Obsession, a Quest and the Biggest Year in the World | Noah | Strycker | #NONFIC | Traveling to 41 countries in 2015 with a backpack and binoculars, Noah Strycker became the first person to see more than half the world’s 10,000 species of birds in one year. |
10/2017 | Must-See Birds of the Pacific Northwest | Sarah | Swanson | #NONFIC | Must-See Birds of the Pacific Northwest is a lively, practical guide that helps readers discover 85 of the region’s most extraordinary birds. Each bird profile includes notes on what they eat, where they migrate from, and where to find them in Washington and Oregon. Profiles also include stunning color photographs of each bird. Birds are grouped by what they are known for or where they are most likely to be found—like beach birds, urban birds, colorful birds, and killer birds. This is an accessible guide for casual birders, weekend warriors, and families looking for an outdoor experience. Eight easy-going birding weekends, including stops in Puget Sound, the Central Washington wine country, and the Klamath Basin, offer wonderful getaway ideas and make this a must-have guide for locals and visitors alike. |
10/2017 | Small Wonders: Life Portrait in Miniature | Tatsuya | Tanaka | #NONFIC | In this book you can find more than 100 works created by utilizing everyday objects, tiny figures, and an immense amount of imagination. You will be amazed by the ideas found in the ordinary things around you that bring back the curiosity you used to have in childhood. |
10/2017 | The Artist Project: What Artists See When They Look at Art | The Metropolitan Museum Of Art | #NONFIC | 120 of the world’s most influential contemporary artists discuss the art that inspires them in this lavishly packaged and designed book. | |
10/2017 | Complete Stories | Kurt | Vonnegut | #FIC | Here for the first time is the complete short fiction of one of the twentieth century’s foremost imaginative geniuses. More than half of Vonnegut’s output was short fiction, and never before has the world had occasion to wrestle with it all together. Organized thematically—”War,” “Women,” “Science,” “Romance,” “Work Ethic versus Fame and Fortune,” “Behavior,” “The Band Director” (those stories featuring Lincoln High’s band director and nice guy George Hemholtz), and “Futuristic”—these ninety-eight stories were written from 1941 to 2007… |
10/2017 | Cemetery of Splendor | Apichatpong | Weerasethakul | #DVD | (DVD) …is a 2015 Thai drama film written, produced, and directed by Apichatpong Weerasethakul. The plot revolves around a spreading epidemic of sleeping sickness where spirits appear to the stricken and hallucination becomes indistinguishable from reality. The epidemic is used as a metaphor for personal and Thai societal issues. |
10/2017 | The Inner Life of Animals | Peter | Wohlleben | #NONFIC | Through vivid stories of devoted pigs, two-timing magpies, and scheming roosters, The Inner Life of Animals weaves the latest scientific research into how animals interact with the world with Peter Wohlleben’s personal experiences in forests and fields. |
10/2017 | What the Hell Did I Just Read | David | Wong | #SCIFI | While investigating a fairly straightforward case of a shape-shifting interdimensional child predator, Dave, John and Amy realized there might actually be something weird going on. Together, they navigate a diabolically convoluted maze of illusions, lies, and their own incompetence in an attempt to uncover a terrible truth they — like you — would be better off not knowing. |
10/2017 | The Red Threads of Fortune | Jy | Yang | #SCIFI | Fallen prophet, master of the elements, and daughter of the supreme Protector, Sanao Mokoya has abandoned the life that once bound her. Once her visions shaped the lives of citizens across the land, but no matter what tragedy Mokoya foresaw, she could never reshape the future. Broken by the loss of her young daughter, she now hunts deadly, sky-obscuring naga in the harsh outer reaches of the kingdom with packs of dinosaurs at her side, far from everything she used to love. On the trail of a massive naga that threatens the rebellious mining city of Bataanar, Mokoya meets the mysterious and alluring Rider. But all is not as it seems: the beast they both hunt harbors a secret that could ignite war throughout the Protectorate. As she is drawn into a conspiracy of magic and betrayal, Mokoya must come to terms with her extraordinary and dangerous gifts, or risk losing the little she has left to hold dear. |
10/2017 | Folded Book Art | Clare | Youngs | #NONFIC | 35 beautiful projects to transform your books―create cards, display scenes, decorations, gifts, and more Follow Clare Youngs’ simple step-by-step projects to make a huge variety of creative book art projects. |
11/2017 | This Book is a Planetarium: And Other Extraordinary Pop-Up Contraptions | Kelli | Anderson | #NONFIC | Defying every expectation of what a book can be, this pop-up extravaganza transforms into six fully functional tools: a real working planetarium projecting the constellations, a musical instrument complete with strings for strumming, a geometric drawing generator, an infinite calendar, a message decoder, and even a speaker that amplifies sound. |
11/2017 | Banksy: Art Breaks the Rules | Hettie | Bingham | #NONFIC | Who is Banksy? One of the most famous street artists in the world, he has kept his identity a secret ever since his work was first noticed in the 1990s. He is known for his subversive, often political, stencil art and dark sense of humour. Today, he is known around the globe, not only for his art, but also for his exhibitions, film work and books. |
11/2017 | Remodelista: The Organized Home | Julie | Carlson | #NONFIC | Whether you’re a minimalist or someone who takes pleasure in her collections, we all yearn for an unencumbered life in a home that makes us happy. This compact tome shows us how, with more than 100 simple and stylish tips, each clearly presented and accompanied by full-colour photographs that are sure to inspire. |
11/2017 | Street Art International | Lou | Chamberlin | #NONFIC | This is an important new sourcebook for street artists, revealing not just the latest, exciting art happening around the globe, but also the collaborations and communities supporting the movement. |
11/2017 | Studio: Creative Spaces for Creative People | Sally | Coulthard | #NONFIC | Detailed chapters outline the vital pieces needed to create a functioning and inspirational studio space, while also taking an in-depth look into different styles of studios for craft and creative activities. |
11/2017 | The Tarot Garden | Niki | de Saint Phalle | #NONFIC | The Tarot Garden, situated in Italy, is a sculpture park, planned and created by Niki de Saint Phalle. It is her very personal vision of the personalities of the tarot-game: the world, the fool, the hermit, death, the wheel of fortune. |
11/2017 | The Hygge Life: Embracing the Nordic Art of Coziness Through Recipes, Entertaining, Decorating, Simple Rituals, and Family Traditions | Gunnar Karl | Gislason | #NONFIC | Hygge (loosely translated as “coziness”) is centered around the idea of inviting comforting elements into day-to-day life while creating warmth, community, and intimacy. The Hygge Life teaches you how small gestures (putting wool blankets and warm cider out for guests) or larger undertakings (building bonfires and making campfire bread to celebrate solstice) can warm the psyche and foster hygge, with more than 30 recipes for cozy and comforting food and drinks. |
11/2017 | The Wailing | Na | Hong-Jin, director | #DVD | (DVD) …a 2016 South Korean horror film directed by Na Hong-jin about a policeman who investigates a series of mysterious killings and illnesses. It was a commercial success. (Wikipedia) |
11/2017 | Street Art From Around the World | Garry | Hunter | #NONFIC | This book is an exciting introduction to the world of street art featuring major street art practitioners including Banksy, Eine, Blek le Rat, Os Gemeos and Evol. A colourful combination of eye-catching imagery and well-informed commentary, it is a thought-provoking presentation to this hotly topical subject. |
11/2017 | Silence in the Age of Noise | Erling | Kagge | #NONFIC | In 1993, Norwegian explorer Erling Kagge spent fifty days walking solo across Antarctica, becoming the first person to reach the South Pole alone, accompanied only by a radio whose batteries he had removed before setting out. In this book. an astonishing and transformative meditation, Kagge explores the silence around us, the silence within us, and the silence we must create. |
11/2017 | Loch Ness Series 1 | Brian | Kelly, Director | #DVD | (DVD) …six-part British television drama series, … [which] follows DS Annie Redford (Laura Fraser), a small town police officer with the Scottish Highland Police as she investigates the murder of piano teacher Niall Swift, who is found dead at the bottom of a cliff in the picturesque village of Lochnafoy, Loch Ness. (Wikipedia) |
11/2017 | Street Art: The Best Urban Art From Around the World | KET | #NONFIC | … the street art phenomenon is sweeping the globe and has captured the imaginations of art lovers everywhere. In this fresh and exciting collection, expert KET brings together another 100 awe-inspiring and extraordinary examples of urban art from various locations around the world—including Berlin, Sao Paulo, New York City, and Miami. | |
11/2017 | Fred Forest’s Utopia: Media Art and Activism | Michael F. | Leruth | #NONFIC | In this book, Michael Leruth offers the first book-length consideration of this iconoclastic artist, examining Forest’s work from the 1960s to the present. Leruth shows that Forest chooses alternative platforms (newspapers, mock commercial ventures, video-based interactive social interventions, media hacks and hybrids, and, more recently, the Internet) that are outside the exclusive precincts of the art world. |
11/2017 | Her Body and Other Parties | Carmen Maria | Machado | #FIC | Earthy and otherworldly, antic and sexy, queer and caustic, comic and deadly serious, Her Body and Other Parties swings from horrific violence to the most exquisite sentiment. In their explosive originality, these stories enlarge the possibilities of contemporary fiction. |
11/2017 | Street Art : Famous Artists Talk about Their Vision | Alessandra | Mattanza | #NONFIC | Journalist Alessandra Mattanza interviews 20 of the most renowned figures in the street-art scene, from painters to sculptors to stencilists, who reveal their stories and their inspiration. |
11/2017 | A Life of One’s Own | Marion | Milner | #NONFIC | With a new introduction by Rachel Bowlby this classic remains a great adventure in thinking and living and will be essential reading for all those interested in reflecting on the nature of their own happiness – whether readers from a literary, an artistic, a historical, an educational or a psychoanalytic/psychotherapeutic background. |
11/2017 | Elmet | Fiona | Mozley | #FIC | As rich, wild, dark, and beautiful as its Yorkshire setting, Elmet is a gripping debut about life on the margins and the power—and limits—of family loyalty. |
11/2017 | What Do You Want to Do Before You Die? | Ben | Nemtin | #NONFIC | What Do You Want to Do Before You Die? is an illustrated collection of your wildest dreams. Two hundred of the most moving, imaginative, amusing, and thought-provoking things to do before you die are brought to life through handmade art curated by Dave, Duncan, Jonnie and Ben—the founders of The Buried Life. |
11/2017 | Art & Place: Site-specific Art of the Americas | Phaidon Editors | #NONFIC | Art & Place covers carving, painting, murals, frescos, earthworks, land art, and more. Each of the works has a dedicated entry pairing gorgeous, large‐format images with in‐depth descriptions. Maps pinpoint the sites’ locations while specially commissioned plans reveal some of the more complex layouts. | |
11/2017 | Mrs. Bradley Mysteries | Diana | Rigg | #DVD | (DVD) The Mrs Bradley Mysteries is a British drama series starring Diana Rigg as Adela Bradley, and Neil Dudgeon as her chauffeur George Moody. The series was produced by the BBC … based on the character created by detective writer Gladys Mitchell. … Stylish images of the 1920s are featured, including a classic Rolls Royce limousine and art deco fashions and jewelry worn by the title character. |
11/2017 | A Brief History of Everyone Who Ever Lived: The Human Story Retold Through Our Genes | Adam | Rutherford | #NONFIC | Who are our ancestors? Where did they come from? Geneticists have suddenly become historians, and the hard evidence in our DNA has blown the lid off what we thought we knew. Acclaimed science writer Adam Rutherford explains exactly how genomics is completely rewriting the human story—from 100,000 years ago to the present. |
11/2017 | Listening to Stone | Dan | Snow | #NONFIC | A master craftsman provides us with the timeless wisdom he has gained from heaving and hewing stone….Snow’s medium is stone: He is the nation’s premier drystone wall builder. Schooled in this ancient craft, he painstakingly creates structures as breathtaking as sculpture with nothing but gravity as their glue. |
11/2017 | Inked & Blossom | Sarah | Willemart | #NONFIC | Through this work the author wanted to merge two art forms that fascinate her: the art of flower design and the art of the tattoo. Inked & Blossom is a synthesis of divergent worlds, wherein both arts are allowed to complement and nourish each other, rather than being placed in opposition. |
12/2017 | A Dangerous Game: Donald Trump vs. the Environment | Anthony | Baxter, director | #DVD | 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] |
12/2017 | The New Bohemians Handbook: Come Home to Good Vibes | Justina | Blakeney | #NONFIC | … 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 |
12/2017 | The Man Who Knew Infinity | Matthew | Brown | #DVD | 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. |
12/2017 | Braving the Wilderness: The Quest for True Belonging and the Courage to Stand Alone | Brene | Brown | #NONFIC | 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 |
12/2017 | Wall Writers: A Documentary Film – Graffiti in Its Innocence | Trina | Calderon and Caleb Neelon | #DVD | 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. |
12/2017 | Gardening in the Pacific Northwest | Paul Bonine & Amy | Campion | #NONFIC | Plant profiles highlight the region’s best perennials, shrubs, trees, and vines. Color photographs throughout show wonderful examples of Northwest garden style. |
12/2017 | How to be Vegan | Elizabeth | Castoria | #NONFIC | 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? |
12/2017 | Little & Lion | Brandy | Colbert | #YA | A stunning novel on love, identity, loss, and redemption. |
12/2017 | Capital | Costa-Gavras | #DVD | 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] | |
12/2017 | A Quiet Passion | Terence | Davies | #DVD | 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. |
12/2017 | Electric Arches | Eve L. | Ewing | #NONFIC | Electric Arches is an imaginative exploration of Black girlhood and womanhood through poetry, visual art, and narrative prose. …invites fresh conversations about race, gender, the city, identity, and the joy and pain of growing up. |
12/2017 | Best Easy Day Hikes- Olympic National Park | Falcon Guide | #NONFIC | …features concise descriptions and easy-to-follow maps for thirty-one short, manageable hikes. | |
12/2017 | Tree Houses Reimagined: Luxurious Retreats for Tranquility and Play | Blue | Forest & Ashley Rooney | #NONFIC | Enter the world of fairy-tale towers, whimsical stairways, crow’s nests, zip lines, and suspended rope bridges. |
12/2017 | Te Ata (Bearer of the Morning) | Nathan | Frankowski, director | #DVD | 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] |
12/2017 | Art House | Don | Freeman | #DVD | 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. |
12/2017 | Catapult: Stories | Emily | Fridlund | #FIC | This is a gripping collection, unsettling as much in its familiarity as in its near-gothic strangeness. |
12/2017 | The Cottingley Secret | Hazel | Gaynor | #FIC | “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 |
12/2017 | The Water Will Come: Rising Seas, Sinking Cities, and the Remaking of the Civilized World | Jeff | Goodell | #NONFIC | …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. |
12/2017 | From Cradle to Stage: Stories from the Mothers Who Rocked and Raised Rock Stars | Virginia Hanlon | Grohl | #NONFIC | With exclusive family photographs and a foreword by Dave Grohl, From Cradle to Stage will appeal to mothers and rock fans everywhere. |
12/2017 | The Dry | Jane | Harper | #FIC | “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 |
12/2017 | Modern Art in Detail: 75 Masterpieces | Susie | Hodge | #NONFIC | 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. |
12/2017 | Unf*ck Your Habitat: You’re Better Than Your Mess | Rachel | Hoffman | #NONFIC | 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. |
12/2017 | Van Life: Your Home on the Road | Foster | Huntington | #NONFIC | Showcasing hundreds of funky vehicles, awe-inspiring landscapes, and cleverly designed interiors in tiny spaces from around the world, Van Lifeis perfect for who anyone daydreams about living on the open road. |
12/2017 | This is the Place: Women Writing about Home | Margot | Kahn and Kelly McMasters, editors | #NONFIC | 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. |
12/2017 | Truth is a Pathless Land | Jiddu | Krishnamurti | #AUDIO | 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. |
12/2017 | Gravel Cycling | Nick | Legan | #NONFIC | Head out for adventure on the unpaved back roads of America with Nick Legan’s complete guide to gravel grinders and bikepacking! |
12/2017 | The Girl with the Red Balloon | Katherine | Locke | #YA | 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. |
12/2017 | The Gentle Art of Swedish Death Cleaning: How to Free Yourself and Your Family from a Lifetime of Clutter | Margareta | Magnusson | #NONFIC | …artist Margareta Magnusson, with Scandinavian humor and wisdom, instructs readers to embrace minimalism. |
12/2017 | Radio Free Vermont | Bill | McKibben | #FIC | 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. |
12/2017 | Delight of Being Ordinary | Roland | Merullo | #FIC | 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. |
12/2017 | The B-Side: Elsa Dorfman’s Portrait Photography | Errol | Morris, director | #DVD | 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… |
12/2017 | This Impossible Light | Lily | Myers | #YA | …a novel in verse about body image, eating disorders, self-worth, mothers and daughters, and the psychological scars we inherit from our parents. |
12/2017 | Norwegian Wood: Chopping, Stacking and Drying Wood the Scandinavian Way | Lars | Mytting | #NONFIC | 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. |
12/2017 | New York: Highbrow, Lowbrow, Brilliant, Despicable: 50 years of New York Magazine | New York Magazine Editors | #NONFIC | …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. | |
12/2017 | The Durrell in Corfu: Season Two | PBS | #DVD | 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] | |
12/2017 | March Book Three | John Lewis, Andrew Aydin, Nate | Powell | #NONFIC | 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. |
12/2017 | Rawmazing Desserts | Susan | Powers | #NONFIC | …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. |
12/2017 | The First Monday in May | Andrew | Rossi, director | #DVD | 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] |
12/2017 | Goodtime | Josh and Benny | Safdie | #DVD | 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. |
12/2017 | Rad Women Worldwide | Kate | Schatz | #NONFIC | …a bold, illustrated collection of 40 biographical profiles showcasing extraordinary women from across the globe. |
12/2017 | The Red Turtle | Studio Ghibli, Japanese film studio | #DVD | 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. | |
12/2017 | King Jack | Felix | Thompson, writer & director | #DVD | 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. |
12/2017 | Rules of Civility | Amor | Towles | #AUDIO | AUDIO CD – …[a] novel of a young woman in post-Depression era New York who suddenly finds herself thrust into high society. |
12/2017 | Soul on a String | Zhang | Yang | #DVD | 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] |
12/2017 | The Pervert’s Guide to Ideology | Slavoj | Zizek | #DVD | DVD – …wildly entertaining romp through the crossroads of cinema and philosophy. …stimulating, provocative and often hilarious psychoanalytic-cinematic rant. |
01/2018 | Modern Romance | Aziz | Ansari | #AUDIO | (Audio) A hilarious, thoughtful, and in-depth exploration of the pleasures and perils of modern romance from one of this generation’s most popular and sharpest comedic voices…In Modern Romance, Ansari combines his irreverent humor with cutting-edge social science to give us an unforgettable tour of our new romantic world. |
01/2018 | Master Of None (Season one) | Aziz | Ansari | #DVD | (DVD) Based on the comedic viewpoints of Aziz Ansari, Master of None follows the personal and professional life of Dev, a 30-year-old actor in New York who has trouble deciding what he wants to eat, much less the pathway for the rest of his life. |
01/2018 | Beatriz at Dinner | Miguel | Arteta | #DVD | (DVD) Beatriz (Salma Hayek), an immigrant from a poor town in Mexico, has drawn on her innate kindness to build a career as a spiritual health practitioner in Los Angeles. Doug Strutt (John Lithgow) is a cutthroat, self-satisfied billionaire real estate developer. When these two opposites meet at a dinner party, their worlds collide and neither will ever be the same. |
01/2018 | Frida Kahlo at Home | Suzanna | Barbezat | #NONFIC | Frida Kahlo at Home explores the influence of Mexican culture and tradition, La Casa Azul and other places Frida Kahlo called home, on her life and work. |
01/2018 | The Meaning of Birds | Simon | Barnes | #NONFIC | A gorgeously illustrated and enchanting examination of the lives of birds, illuminating their wondrous world and our connection with them. |
01/2018 | Queen Sugar | Natalie | Baszile | #FIC | A mother-daughter story of reinvention—about an African American woman who unexpectedly inherits a sugarcane farm in Louisiana |
01/2018 | You’ve Been Trumped | Anthony | Baxter, Director | #DVD | (DVD) When controversial tycoon Donald Trump announces plans to build a massive golf course in the beautiful Scottish countryside, local residents fight back. |
01/2018 | Women & Power: A Manifesto | Mary | Beard | #NONFIC | At long last, Mary Beard addresses in one brave book the misogynists and trolls who mercilessly attack and demean women the world over, including, very often, Mary herself. In Women & Power, she traces the origins of this misogyny to its ancient roots, examining the pitfalls of gender and the ways that history has mistreated strong women since time immemorial. |
01/2018 | The Eagle Huntress | Otto | Bell, Director | #DVD | (DVD) 2016 Kazakh-language British-Mongolian-American documentary film … It follows the story of Aisholpan, a 13-year-old Kazakh girl from Mongolia, as she attempts to become the first female eagle hunter to compete in the eagle festival at Ulgii, Mongolia, established in 1999. (Wikipedia) |
01/2018 | Orphans of the Carnival | Carol | Birch | #AUDIO | (Audio) [T]he extraordinary, moving, and unsettling tale of a woman, branded a freak from birth, who becomes an international sensation but longs for genuine human connection… Beneath the flashy lights and thunderous applause lies a bright, compassionate young woman who only wants people to see beyond her hairy visage—and perhaps, the chance for love. |
01/2018 | Lagom: The Swedish Art of Living a Balanced, Happy Life | Niki | Brantmark | #NONFIC | Lagom is moderation, balance, and equality…By using the Swedish lifestyle as an example, Niki Brantmark offers insightful suggestions and bite-sized actions to help you make subtle changes to your life, so you too can make time for the things that matter most and find greater happiness. |
01/2018 | The Worry Trick (How Your Brain Tricks You into Expecting the Worst and What You Can Do About It) | David | Carbonell | #NONFIC | Are you truly in danger or has your brain simply “tricked” you into thinking you are? In The Worry Trick, psychologist and anxiety expert David Carbonell shows how anxiety hijacks the brain and offers effective techniques to help you break the cycle of worry, once and for all. |
01/2018 | Need to Know | Karen | Cleveland | #FIC | In pursuit of a Russian sleeper cell on American soil, CIA analyst Vivian Miller uncovers a dangerous secret that will threaten her job, her family—and her life. …Vivian has vowed to defend her country against all enemies, foreign and domestic. But now she’s facing impossible choices. Torn between loyalty and betrayal, allegiance and treason, love and suspicion, who can she trust? |
01/2018 | Three Worlds (Film Movement) | Catherine | Corsini, Director | #DVD | (DVD) Al, a young man from a modest background, is ten days away from marrying the daughter of his boss, along with succeeding him as the head of the car dealership where Al has been working for most of his life. One night, while coming back drunk from his bachelor party, Al commits a hit-and-run when he hits a man by accident and is urged to leave the scene of the crime by his two childhood friends who are with him in the car. |
01/2018 | Astrophysics for People in a Hurry | Neil | deGrasse Tyson | #AUDIO | (Audio) [W]ill reveal just what you need to be fluent and ready for the next cosmic headlines: from the Big Bang to black holes, from quarks to quantum mechanics, and from the search for planets to the search for life in the universe. |
01/2018 | The Art of the Bar Cart | Vanessa | Dina | #NONFIC | From high-end magazines and design-inspiration websites to stores big and small, bar carts are a must-have piece of furniture. This book provides all the answers to the question—how can I get that look at home? The Art of the Bar Cartfeatures 20 different styled bar setups—from tricked-out vintage carts to a collection of bottles tucked into a cabinet—themed around favorite libations, personal style, or upcoming occasions. |
01/2018 | The Dark Flood Rises | Margaret | Drabble | #AUDIO | (Audio) One of the Washington Post‘s 50 Notable Works of Fiction in 2017 and a New York Times Notable Book of 2017. From the great British novelist Dame Margaret Drabble comes a vital and audacious tale about the many ways in which we confront aging and living in a time of geopolitical rupture. |
01/2018 | McSweeney’s #51 | Dave | Eggers, Editor | #FIC | Issue 51 features eighteen brand-new stories so compelling that you’ll read through the night and far into the next day, until your boss calls and warns you that you’re on thin ice, buddy, and better get to the office right the {expletive} now―but we swear it’s well worth it.(atomicbooks.com) |
01/2018 | Journey: The Amazing Story of OR-7: The Oregon Wolf that Made History | Beckie | Elgin | #NONFIC | Join the adventures of the famous wolf OR-7, also known as Journey, as he trots across the landscape of the Pacific Northwest into territories that have not seen his kind for nearly a century. |
01/2018 | Walk with Me – A Journey Into Mindfulness | Marc J. | Francis and Max Pugh, Directors | #DVD | (DVD) Narrated by Benedict Cumberbatch, Walk With Me takes us deep inside the world-famous monastery of Zen Buddhist master Thich Nhat Hanh and captures the life of a monastic community who have given up all their possessions for one common purpose – to practice the art of mindfulness. |
01/2018 | Small Homes, Grand Living | Gestalten, Publisher | #NONFIC | Diminutive rooms, grand possibilities. Small Homes, Grand Living shows how to make use of a limited space and turn a small apartment into a design marvel. | |
01/2018 | Mean | Myriam | Gurba | #NONFIC | True crime, memoir, and ghost story, Mean is the bold and hilarious tale of Myriam Gurba’s coming of age as a queer, mixed-race Chicana. Blending radical formal fluidity and caustic humor, Gurba takes on sexual violence, small towns, and race, turning what might be tragic into piercing, revealing comedy. |
01/2018 | Colossal | Nacho | Vigalondo, Director | #DVD | (DVD) Gloria (Anne Hathaway) is an out-of-work party girl who, after getting kicked out of her apartment by her boyfriend (Dan Stevens), is forced to leave her life in New York and move back to her hometown where she’s reunited with her childhood friend (Jason Sudeikis). When news reports surface that a giant creature is destroying Seoul, South Korea, Gloria gradually comes to the realization that she is somehow connected to this far-off phenomenon. |
01/2018 | Carol | Todd | Haynes, Director | #DVD | (DVD) Academy Award®-winner Cate Blanchett and Academy Award®-nominee Rooney Mara star as two women in the 1950s from different backgrounds who find themselves in a life-changing love affair. |
01/2018 | One Square Inch of Silence: One Man’s Quest to Preserve Quiet | Gordon | Hempton | #NONFIC | In the visionary tradition of Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring, One Square Inch of Silence alerts us to beauty that we take for granted and sounds an urgent environmental alarm. Natural silence is our nation’s fastest-disappearing resource, warns Emmy-winning acoustic ecologist Gordon Hempton, who has made it his mission to record and preserve it in all its variety—before these soul-soothing terrestrial soundscapes vanish completely in the ever-rising din of man-made noise. |
01/2018 | This Will Be My Undoing | Morgan | Jerkins | #NONFIC | From one of the fiercest critics writing today, Morgan Jerkins’ highly-anticipated collection of linked essays interweaves her incisive commentary on pop culture, feminism, black history, misogyny, and racism with her own experiences to confront the very real challenges of being a black woman today |
01/2018 | The First Bad Man | Miranda | July | #AUDIO | (Audio) Tender, gripping, slyly hilarious, infused with raging sexual obsession and fierce maternal love, Miranda July’s first novel confirms her as a spectacularly original, iconic, and important voice today, and a writer for all time. The First Bad Man is dazzling, disorienting, and unforgettable. |
01/2018 | The Weight of Ink | Rachel | Kadish | #FIC | Set in London of the 1660s and of the early twenty-first century, The Weight of Ink is the interwoven tale of two women of remarkable intellect: Ester Velasquez, an emigrant from Amsterdam who is permitted to scribe for a blind rabbi, just before the plague hits the city; and Helen Watt, an ailing historian with a love of Jewish history. |
01/2018 | Unforgettable | Emily | Kaiser Thelin | #NONFIC | Unforgettable tells the story of culinary legend and author of nine award-winning cookbooks, Paula Wolfert, who was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s in 2013. This biographical cookbook written by Emily Kaiser Thelin and photographed by Eric Wolfinger, shares more than fifty of her most iconic dishes and explores the relationship between food and memory. (forward by Alice Waters) |
01/2018 | Being the Change: Live Well and Spark a Climate Revolution | Peter | Kalmus | #NONFIC | Being the Change explores the connections between our individual daily actions and our collective predicament. It merges science, spirituality, and practical action to develop a satisfying and appropriate response to global warming. |
01/2018 | Unearthed | Amie | Kaufman and Meagan Spooner | #SCIFI | From the New York Times best-selling author duo Amie Kaufman and Meagan Spooner comes a “literally breathtaking” new sci-fi series about a death-defying mission on an alien planet. When Earth intercepts a message from a long-extinct alien race, it seems like the solution humanity has been waiting for. The Undying’s advanced technology has the potential to undo environmental damage and turn lives around, and their message leads to the planet Gaia, a treasure trove waiting to be explored. |
01/2018 | Underneath It All: A History of Women’s Underwear | Amber J. | Keyser | #NONFIC | (Oregon author) Presents the history of women’s underwear while also revealing the intimate role lingerie plays in defining women’s bodies, sexuality, gender identity, and body image. |
01/2018 | The Sky is Yours | Chandler | Klang Smith | #SCIFI | A sprawling, genre-defying epic set in a dystopian metropolis plagued by dragons, this debut about what it’s like to be young in a very old world is pure storytelling pleasure |
01/2018 | The Shadow Land | Elizabeth | Kostova | #AUDIO | (Audio) Elizabeth Kostova’s new novel is a tale of immense scope that delves into the horrors of a century and traverses the culture and landscape of this mysterious country [Bulgaria]. Suspenseful and beautifully written, it explores the power of stories, the pull of the past, and the hope and meaning that can sometimes be found in the aftermath of loss. |
01/2018 | The Humane Gardener: Nurturing a Backyard Habitat for Wildlife | Nancy | Lawson | #NONFIC | The Humane Gardener fills a unique niche in describing simple principles for both attracting wildlife and peacefully resolving conflicts with all the creatures that share our world. |
01/2018 | The Best of Olympic National Park | Alan | Leftridge | #NONFIC | Make the most of your trip to Olympic National Park! From the coast to the rain forest to the snowcapped mountains, this handy guide covers all the best hikes, best picnic spots, best places to see wildlife, best wildflowers, best waterfalls, best activities for kids, and more. Compiled by a former park ranger, with beautiful color photographs, locator maps, and clear, concise directions. |
01/2018 | A Ghost Story | David | Lowery, Director | #DVD | (DVD) 2017 American supernatural drama film… It stars Casey Affleck, Rooney Mara, Will Oldham, Sonia Acevedo, Rob Zabrecky, and Liz Franke. Affleck plays a man who becomes a ghost and remains in the house he shares with his wife (Mara). |
01/2018 | Never Coming Back | Alison | Mcghee | #FIC | Never Coming Back is a brilliant and piercing story of a young woman finding her way in life, determined to know her mother—and by extension herself—before it’s too late. |
01/2018 | The Immigrant Cookbook: Recipes that Make America Great | Leyla | Moushabeck | #NONFIC | In these times of troubling anti-immigrant rhetoric, The Immigrant Cookbook: Recipes That Make America Great offers a culinary celebration of the many ethnic groups that have contributed to America s vibrant food culture. This beautifully photographed cookbook features appetizers, entrees, and desserts some familiar favorites, some likely to be new encounters. |
01/2018 | The Family Cabin | Dale | Mulfinger | #NONFIC | Voted best interior design book of 2017 by Library Journal…Over 300 lush, full-color photographs and 78 illustrations throughout the book capture the aesthetics of place and design that have allowed cabins to become an enduring symbol of rugged American individualism and self-reliance. |
01/2018 | The Milk Lady of Bangalore | Shoba | Narayan | #NONFIC | In this charming true story about two women and the animal they share, readers are treated to an insider’s of view of India. The Milk Lady of Bangalore is also a window into our universal connection to food and its sources, the intricacies of female friendship, and our relationship to all animals. |
01/2018 | So You Want to Talk About Race | Ijeoma | Oluo | #NONFIC | In So You Want to Talk About Race, Editor at Large of The Establishment Ijeoma Oluo offers a contemporary, accessible take on the racial landscape in America, addressing head-on such issues as privilege, police brutality, intersectionality, micro-aggressions, the Black Lives Matter movement, and the “N” word. |
01/2018 | The Five Invitations: Discovering What Death Can Teach Us About Living Fully | Frank | Ostaseski | #NONFIC | Awareness of death can be a valuable companion on the road to living well, forging a rich and meaningful life, and letting go of regret. The Five Invitations is a powerful and inspiring exploration of the essential wisdom dying has to impart to all of us. |
01/2018 | The Square | Ruben | Ostlund, Director | #DVD | (DVD) A prestigious Stockholm museum’s chief art curator finds himself in times of both professional and personal crisis as he attempts to set up a controversial new exhibit. (IMBd.com) |
01/2018 | There Are More Beautiful Things than Beyonce | Morgan | Parker | #NONFIC | One of Oprah Magazine’s “Ten Best Books of 2017.” Unrelentingly feminist, tender, ruthless, and sequined, these poems are an altar to the complexities of black American womanhood in an age of non-indictments and deja vu, and a time of wars over bodies and power. These poems celebrate and mourn. They are a chorus chanting: You’re gonna give us the love we need. |
01/2018 | Bird Brain – Discover the Intelligence of Birds | PBS | #NONFIC | (DVD) Join NOVA to witness the brainpower of birds. Long mocked as empty-headed, our feathered friends hide surprisingly acute intelligence. But how smart are they? Watch as scientists test avian aptitude and challenge our basic notions of intelligence. | |
01/2018 | The Book of Disquiet | Fernando | Pessoa | #NONFIC | Published for the first time some fifty years after his death, this unique collection of short, aphoristic paragraphs comprises the “autobiography” of Bernardo Soares, one of Pessoa’s alternate selves. Part intimate diary, part prose poetry, part descriptive narrative, captivatingly translated by Richard Zenith, The Book of Disquiet is one of the greatest works of the twentieth century. |
01/2018 | Dreamland: The True Tale of America’s Opiate Epidemic | Sam | Quinones | #NONFIC | From a small town in Mexico to the boardrooms of Big Pharma to main streets nationwide, an explosive and shocking account of addiction in the heartland of America…Introducing a memorable cast of characters–pharma pioneers, young Mexican entrepreneurs, narcotics investigators, survivors, and parents–Quinones shows how these tales fit together. Dreamland is a revelatory account of the corrosive threat facing America and its heartland. |
01/2018 | It Occurs to Me That I Am America | Jonathan | Santlofer, Editor | #FIC | In time for the one-year anniversary of the Trump Inauguration and the Women’s March, this provocative, unprecedented anthology features original short stories from thirty bestselling and award-winning authors—including Alice Walker, Richard Russo, Walter Mosley, Joyce Carol Oates, Alice Hoffman, Neil Gaiman, Michael Cunningham, Mary Higgins Clark, and Lee Child—with an introduction by Pulitzer Prize–winning author Viet Thanh Nguyen. |
01/2018 | The Big Sick | Michael | Showalter, Director | #DVD | (DVD) Based on the real-life courtship between Kumail Nanjiani and Emily V. Gordon, The Big Sick tells the story of Pakistan-born aspiring comedian Kumail (Nanjiani), who connects with grad student Emily (Kazan) after one of his standup sets. (rottentomatoes.com) |
01/2018 | Dead Moms Club: A Memoir about Death, Grief, and Surviving the Mother of All Losses | Kate | Spencer | #NONFIC | Kate Spencer lost her mom to cancer when she was 27. In The Dead Moms Club, she walks readers through her experience of stumbling through grief and loss, and helps them to get through it, too. This isn’t a weepy, sentimental story, but rather a frank, up-front look at what it means to go through gruesome grief and come out on the other side. |
01/2018 | Climate Changed | Philippe | Squarzoni | #NONFIC | With the most complicated concepts made clear in a feat of investigative journalism by artist Philippe Squarzoni, Climate Changed weaves together scientific research, extensive interviews with experts, and a call for action. Weighing the potential of some solutions and the false promises of others, this groundbreaking work provides a realistic, balanced view of the magnitude of the crisis that An Inconvenient Truth only touched on. |
01/2018 | The Secret Gardeners: Britain’s Creatives Reveal Their Private Sanctuaries | Victoria | Summerley | #NONFIC | The Secret Gardeners is a captivating photographic portrait of the private gardening passions of 25 of the UKs foremost artists, designers, actors, producers, composers, playwrights, sculptors and fashion designers. Accompanying meaty essays explaining the owners’ inspiration and passion are photographs revealing the beautiful gardens that the public rarely see. |
01/2018 | The End | Fernanda | Torres | #FIC | With uncanny insight into the less virtuous corners of the male psyche, Fernanda Torres brings us five friends who once milked the high life of Rio’s Bossa Nova age and are now left with memories—parties, marriages, divorces, fixations, inhibitions, bad decisions—and the grim realities of getting old. |
01/2018 | The Sagrada Familia | Gijs | Van Hensbergen | #NONFIC | A definitive and illuminating biography of one of the most famous – and most famously unfinished – buildings in the world, the Sagrada Familia of Barcelona. Its scaffolding-cloaked spires reach up to the heavens, dominating the Barcelona skyline and drawing in millions of visitors every year. |
01/2018 | Paladares: Recipes Inspired By the Private Restaurants of Cuba | Anya | Von Bremzen | #NONFIC | Cuba is experiencing a cultural and culinary renaissance—and its paladares, the private restaurants, are leading the way. Paladares is a fascinating culinary and visual journey through the new Cuba. |
01/2018 | The Little Book of Lykke: Secrets of the World’s Happiest People | Meik | Wiking | #NONFIC | Weaving together original research and personal anecdotes, The Little Book of Lykke is a global roadmap for joy that offers a new approach to achieving everyday happiness that not only improve our own lives, but help us build better communities and a better world. |
01/2018 | Queen Sugar (first season) | Oprah | Winfrey, Ava DuVernay (Selma), and Melissa Carter, Producers | #DVD | (DVD) [C]hronicles the lives and loves of the estranged Bordelon siblings in Saint Josephine, Louisiana…Their newly inherited farm forces the siblings to rely on one another as they rebuild both the land and their relationships. |
01/2018 | 27 Hours | Tristina | Wright | #YA #SCIFI | In addition to its captivating humans-versus-monsters premise, the book features an admirably broad treatment of gender and sexuality–LGBT and asexual characters serve as the norm rather than the exception–in this futuristic world. […] An open, imaginative work of YA science fiction. (Kirkus Reviews) |
01/2018 | Red Clocks | Leni | Zumas | #FIC | Red Clocks is at once a riveting drama, whose mysteries unfold with magnetic energy, and a shattering novel of ideas. In the vein of Margaret Atwood and Eileen Myles, Leni Zumas fearlessly explores the contours of female experience, evoking The Handmaid’s Tale for a new millennium. This is a story of resilience, transformation, and hope in tumultuous-even frightening-times. |
2/2018 | The Myrtlewood Cookbook: Pacific Northwest Home Cooking | Andrew | Barton | #NONFIC | Experience beautiful home cooking that takes its cues from the kitchen gardens and forest harvests of the Pacific Northwest. |
2/2018 | Global Discontents | Noam | Chomsky | #AUDIO | AUDIO CD The twelve interviews in Global Discontents examine the latest developments around the globe: the rise of ISIS, the reach of state surveillance, growing anger over economic inequality, conflicts in the Middle East, and the presidency of Donald Trump. In personal reflections on his Philadelphia childhood, Chomsky also describes his own intellectual journey and the development of his uncompromising stance as America’s premier dissident intellectual. |
2/2018 | Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow? | Film Movement, Studio | #DVD | DVD – In this madcap and lighthearted comedic romp, introvert Weichung begins to question his marriage to Feng when she signals she’s ready to have another baby and an unexpected encounter with a friend from his past awakens long-dormant emotions. It all sets him off on a quest for true romance and desire. | |
2/2018 | In Praise of Difficult Women | Karen | Karbo | #NONFIC | From Frida Kahlo and Elizabeth Taylor to Nora Ephron, Carrie Fisher, and Lena Dunham, this witty narrative explores what we can learn from the imperfect and extraordinary legacies of 29 iconic women who forged their own unique paths in the world. |
2/2018 | What Are You Doing with Your Life? | Jiddu | Krishnamurti | #NONFIC | Teens learn for themselves about their relationship to the self, to each other, family, work, society, the world, and the meaning and purpose of life. Through paying attention rather than accepting the authority of their conditioning, they can find out for themselves about love, sex, marriage, the meaning of work, money, ambition and competition and, by changing the violence in themselves, they can change the world. |
2/2018 | The Revolution from Within | J | Krishnamurti | #NONFIC | There must be a revolution in our thinking, declares the author, J. Krishnamurti (1895-1986), who remains one of our greatest philosophers and teachers of modern times. In this series of lectures, given in the U.S. and various cities throughout the world in the 1950s, he again confronts the habitual, projection-making mind, which fails to see what is while it absorbs itself in belief and illusion. |
2/2018 | Highway 1 California: The Dream Road Along the Pacific | Andrea | Lammert | #NONFIC | Skirting the California coastline, the legendary Highway 1 starts at San Diego and ends at the Canadian border. Highway 1 California the book presents the California portion in stunning color, a testament to why it receives the most domestic visitors of all the states, and is consistently one of the top three states visited by international travelers. |
2/2018 | The Free Range Cook: Simple Pleasures | Annabel | Langbein | #NONFIC | In the US edition of this beautiful book, Kiwi celebrity cook Annabel Langbein serves up all the recipes from her TV series now screening on PBS channels across America. Inside you’ll find her speedy mixer mayo, the ultimate pulled pork, super-simple sorbets, her famous gluten-free chocolate cake – and much more. |
2/2018 | Tell Me How It Ends: An Essay in Forty Questions | Valeria | Luiselli | #NONFIC | A damning confrontation between the American dream and the reality of undocumented children seeking a new life in the US. |
2/2018 | The Less is More Garden: Big Ideas for Designing Your Small Yard | Susan | Morrison | #NONFIC | Designer Susan Morrison offers savvy tips to match your landscape to your lifestyle, draws on years of experience to recommend smart plants with seasonal interest, and suggests hardscape materials to personalize your space. Inspiring photographs highlight a variety of inspiring small-space designs from around the country. |
2/2018 | Mother! | Paramount, Studio | #DVD | DVD – …a 2017 American psychological horror film written and directed by Darren Aronofsky, and starring Jennifer Lawrence, Javier Bardem, Ed Harris, and Michelle Pfeiffer. The plot follows a young woman whose tranquil life with her husband at their country home is disrupted by the arrival of a mysterious couple. | |
2/2018 | My Friend Fear | Meera Lee | Patel | #NONFIC | A mix of personal reflections, inspirational quotes, questions for reflection, and breathtaking watercolor visuals, My Friend Fear asserts that having big fear is an opportunity to make big changes, to discover the remarkable potential inside ourselves. |
2/2018 | The Illustrated Birds of Prey: The Ultimate Reference Guide for Bird Lovers, Woodcarvers, and Artists | Denny | Rogers | #NONFIC | For the first time in a single volume, renowned illustrator, sculptor, woodcarver, and wildlife enthusiast Denny Rogers presents his detailed and celebrated drawings of distinguished birds of prey: the red-tailed hawk, the American kestrel, and the peregrine falcon. |
2/2018 | Feel Free: Essays | Zadie | Smith | #NONFIC | …Feel Free offers a survey of important recent events in culture and politics, as well as Smith’s own life. Equally at home in the world of good books and bad politics, Brooklyn-born rappers and the work of Swiss novelists, she is by turns wry, heartfelt, indignant, and incisive–and never any less than perfect company. This is literary journalism at its zenith. |
2/2018 | Travel As a Political Act | Rick | Steves | #NONFIC | In his new book, acclaimed travel writer Rick Steves explains how to travel more thoughtfully to any destination. He shares a series of field reports from Europe, Central America, Asia, and the Middle East to show how his travels have shaped his politics and broadened his perspective. |
2/2018 | I, Daniel Blake | Sundance Selects, Studio | #DVD | DVD – Cannes and BAFTA winner. A widowed carpenter and a single mother forge a touching friendship as they battle a callous welfare system in this powerful, urgent story. | |
2/2018 | Parks and Recreation (Season One) | Universal Pictures, Studio | #DVD | DVD – …the hilarious saga of government employees and local citizens turning a neighborhood hole in the ground into a new public park. | |
2/2018 | Multiverse: Art, Dance, Design, Technology | Ana | Yudina | #NONFIC | Featuring visionary creators from various fields, from art and contemporary dance to architecture and robotics, this lavishly illustrated book reports from the forefront of the cross-disciplinary synthesis that creates new forms of art. (includes the DVD Gravitation: Variation in Time and Space |
2/2018 | The Courage of Hopelessness | Slavoj | Zizek | #NONFIC | The maverick philosopher returns to explore today’s ideological, political and economic battles, and asks whether radical change is possible In these troubled times, even the most pessimistic diagnosis of our future ends with an uplifting hint that things might not be as bad as all that, that there is light at the end of the tunnel. |
3/2018 | The Rub of Time: Bellow, Nabokov, Hitchens, Travolta, Trump: Essays and Reportage, 1994-2017 | Martin | Amis | #NONFIC | 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. |
3/2018 | Earth from Above | Yann | Arthus-Bertrand | #NONFIC | 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. |
3/2018 | North: How to Live Scandinavian | Bronte | Aurell | #NONFIC | 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. |
3/2018 | The Florida Project | Sean | Baker, Director | #DVD | 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. |
3/2018 | Things That Make White People Uncomfortable | Michael | Bennett | #NONFIC | 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. |
3/2018 | Prisoners’ Objects: Collection of the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Museum | Paul | Bouvier, et al | #NONFIC | 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. |
3/2018 | Murder on the Orient Express | Kenneth | Branagh, Director | #DVD | 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 |
3/2018 | How Everything Became War and the Military Became Everything: Tales from the Pentagon | Rosa | Brooks | #NONFIC | 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. |
3/2018 | Fermentation Revolution: 70 Easy Recipes for Sauerkraut, Kombucha, Kimchi and More | Sebastien | Bureau | #NONFIC | 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). |
3/2018 | Disappointment River: Finding and Losing the Northwest Passage | Brian | Castner | #NONFIC | 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. |
3/2018 | The Beguiled | Sophia | Coppola, Director | #DVD | 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. |
3/2018 | The World Atlas of Street Fashion | Caroline | Cox | #NONFIC | An extensively researched and generously illustrated volume offering a striking and diverse portrait of street style in cities and cultures around the world |
3/2018 | We Are As Gods: Back to the Land in the 1970s on the Quest for a New America | Kate | Daloz | #NONFIC | 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. |
3/2018 | The Authenticity Experiment | Kate Carroll | De Gutes | #NONFIC | 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. |
3/2018 | Stop Making Sense | Jonathan | Demme, Director | #DVD #NONFIC | 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. |
3/2018 | Welcome to the Revolution – Universalizing Resistance | Charles | Derber | #NONFIC | 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. |
3/2018 | Film Noir | Paul | Duncan | #NONFIC | 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 |
3/2018 | Selma | Ava | DuVernay | #DVD | 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. |
3/2018 | Middle of Nowhere | Ava | DuVernay, Director | #DVD | 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) |
3/2018 | Freshwater | Akwaeke | Emezi | #FIC | 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. |
3/2018 | Endangered | Tim | Flach | #NONFIC | 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. |
3/2018 | Melancholy | Jon | Fosse | #FIC | Melancholy takes us deep inside a painter’s fragile consciousness, vulnerable to everything but therefore uniquely able to see its beauty and its light. |
3/2018 | The Disaster Artist | James | Franco, Director | #DVD | 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. |
3/2018 | Saving Tarboo Creek: One Family’s Quest to Heal the Land | Scott | Freeman | #NONFIC | 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. |
3/2018 | The Food Forest Handbook: Design and Mange a Home-Scale Perennial Polyculture Garden | Darrell | Frey | #NONFIC | 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. |
3/2018 | Baking with Kafka | Tom | Gauld | #NONFIC | 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. |
3/2018 | I, Tonya | Craig | Gillespie, Director | #DVD | 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. |
3/2018 | Roman J Israel, ESQ | Dan | Gilroy | #DVD | 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. |
3/2018 | Call Me By Your Name | Luca | Guadagnino, Director | #DVD | 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. |
3/2018 | Art of Burning Man | NK | Guy | #NONFIC | 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. |
3/2018 | Good Veg: Ebullient Vegetables, Global Flavors―A Modern Vegetarian Cookbook | Alice | Hart | #NONFIC | 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. |
3/2018 | Finding Altamira | Hugh | Hudson, Director | #DVD | DVD – Life and events of the man who realized one of the most important discoveries of the 19th century: Altamira’s caves. (IMDb.com) |
3/2018 | The Edgy Veg: 138 Carnivore-Approved Vegan Recipes | Candace | Hutchings | #NONFIC | 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! |
3/2018 | The Myth of Human Supremacy | Derrick | Jensen | #NONFIC | 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. |
3/2018 | Nomadic Homes – Architecture on the Move | Philip | Jodidio | #NONFIC | 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. |
3/2018 | Woke: A Field Guide For Utopia Preppers | Caitlin | Johnstone | #NONFIC | An illustrated poetical guide to reclaiming the earth from the forces of death and destruction. |
3/2018 | Hippie Food: How Back-to-the-Landers, Longhairs and Revolutionaries Changed the Way We Eat | Jonathan | Kauffman | #NONFIC | 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. |
3/2018 | Cræft: An Inquiry Into the Origins and True Meaning of Traditional Crafts | Alexander | Langlands | #NONFIC | 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. |
3/2018 | The Happiness Hack | Ellen Petry | Leanse | #NONFIC | 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! |
3/2018 | Bygone Badass Broads: 52 Forgotten Women Who Changed the World | Mackenzi | Lee | #NONFIC | 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. |
3/2018 | Chi-Raq | Spike | Lee, Director | #DVD | 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. |
3/2018 | Prick: Cacti and Succulents: Choosing, Styling, Caring | Gynelle | Leon | #NONFIC | 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. |
3/2018 | Heart Berries: A Memoir | Terese Marie | Mailhot | #NONFIC | 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. |
3/2018 | Smith & Daughters: A Cookbook (That Happens To Be Vegan) | Shannon | Martinez & Mo Wyse | #NONFIC | 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. |
3/2018 | Iris | Albert | Maysles, Director | #DVD | 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. |
3/2018 | Behold the Dreamers | Imbolo | Mbue | #FIC | 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 |
3/2018 | The Handmaid’s Tale Season One | MGM, Studio | #DVD | 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. | |
3/2018 | The Displaced: Refugee Writers on Refugee Lives | Viet Thanh | Nguyen (Editor) | #NONFIC | 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. |
3/2018 | On Yoga – the Architecture of Peace | Michael | O’Neill | #NONFIC | …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. |
3/2018 | In Pursuit of Silence: Listening for Meaning in a World of Noise | George | Prochnik | #NONFIC | 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. |
3/2018 | The Evolution of Beauty: How Darwin’s Forgotten Theory of Mate Choice Shapes the Animal World – and Us | Richard O. | Prum | #NONFIC | 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. |
3/2018 | Butterflies of the Pacific Northwest (A Timber Press Field Guide) | Robert Michael | Pyle | #NONFIC | 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. |
3/2018 | Hundertwasser | Harry | Rand | #NONFIC | 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. |
3/2018 | The Boy in the Black Suit | Jason | Reynolds | #YA | 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) |
3/2018 | My Chickens and I | Isabella | Rossellini | #NONFIC | 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. |
3/2018 | In Pursuit of Silence | Patrick | Shen, Director | #DVD | 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. |
3/2018 | Blue Dreams: The Science and the Story of the Drugs that Changed Our Minds | Lauren | Slater | #NONFIC | 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. |
3/2018 | The Encyclopedia of Misinformation: A Compendium of Imitations, Spoofs, Delusions, Simulations, Counterfeits, Impostors, Illusions, Confabulations, … Conspiracies & Miscellaneous Fakery | Rex | Sorgate | #NONFIC | …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. |
3/2018 | Back to Sanity: Healing the Madness of Our Minds | Steve | Taylor | #NONFIC | 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. |
3/2018 | Crafting with Cat Hair | Kaori | Tsutaya | #NONFIC | …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. |
3/2018 | Faces Places | Agnes | Varda & JR, Directors | #DVD | 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 |
3/2018 | Maudie | Aisling | Walsh, Director | #DVD | 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. |
3/2018 | Talking on the Water: Conversations about Nature and Creativity | Jonathan | White | #NONFIC | 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. |
3/2018 | The First Mess Cookbook: Vibrant Plant-Based Recipes to Eat Well Through the Seasons | Laura | Wright | #NONFIC | 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. |
3/2018 | The Left Behind: Decline and Rage in Rural America | Robert | Wuthnow | #NONFIC | 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. |
3/2018 | Tokyo Street Style | Tohru | Yuasa | #NONFIC | 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. |
4/2018 | Children of Blood and Bone | Tomi | Adeyemi | #SCIFI | Adeyemi keeps it fresh with an all-black cast of characters, a meaningful emphasis on fighting for justice, a complex heroine saving her own people, and a brand of magic made more powerful by the strength of heritage and ancestry. Perfect for fans of the expansive fantasy worlds of Leigh Bardugo, Daniel Jose´ Older, and Sabaa Tahir.” From Booklist. |
4/2018 | Phantom Thread | Paul Thomas | Anderson, Director | #DVD | DVD Set in the glamour of the 1950’s post-war London, renowned dressmaker Reynolds Woodcock (Daniel Day-Lewis) and his sister Cyril (Lesley Manville) are at the center of the British fashion, dressing royalty, movie stars, heiresses, socialites, debutants and dames with the distinct style of The House of Woodcock. Women come and go through Woodcock’s life until he comes across a young, strong-willed woman, Alma (Vicky Krieps), who soon becomes a fixture in his life as his muse and lover. Once controlled and planned, he finds his carefully tailored life disrupted by the scariest curse of all…love. And so begins a Gothic Romance of twists, turns and power struggles of “pure, delicious pleasure”* that is “devilishly funny and luxuriantly sensuous.”** * Peter Bradshaw, THE GUARDIAN ** Dana Stevens, SLATE |
4/2018 | Iris Apfel: Accidental Icon | Iris | Apfel | #NONFIC | A unique and lavishly illustrated collection of musings, anecdotes, and observations on all matters of life and style, infused with the singular candor, wit, and exuberance of the globally revered ninety-six-year-old fashion icon whose work has been celebrated at the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Costume Institute and by countless fans worldwide. |
4/2018 | Visionary Women: How Rachel Carson, Jane Jacobs, Jane Goodall, and Alice Waters Changed Our World | Andrea | Barnet | #NONFIC | This is the story of four visionaries who profoundly shaped the world we live in today. Together, these women—linked not by friendship or field, but by their choice to break with convention—showed what one person speaking truth to power can do. |
4/2018 | The Seed Garden: The Art and Practice of Seed Saving | Lee | Buttala, et. al., editors | #NONFIC | Whether interested in simply saving seeds for home use or working to conserve rare varieties of beloved squashes and tomatoes, this book provides a deeper understanding of the art, the science, and the joy of saving seeds. |
4/2018 | Japan Style | Gian Carlo | Calza | #NONFIC | Japan Style, written by one of the world’s most respected scholars of Japanese art and culture, defines what ‘Japan style’ is. It explores specific achievements in Japanese art and architecture, but also offers an in-depth analysis of the whole of Japanese culture, its vision of the world and of humankind. Publisher: Phaidon |
4/2018 | Wild Art | David | Carrir and Joachim Pissarro | #NONFIC | Wild Art is an incredibly brash and current collection of over 300 extraordinary artworks that are too offbeat, outrageous, kitschy, quirky, or funky for the formal art world. Publisher: Phaidon |
4/2018 | Sharp: The Women Who Made an Art of Having an Opinion | Michelle | Dean | #NONFIC | The ten brilliant women who are the focus of Sharp came from different backgrounds and had vastly divergent political and artistic opinions. But they all made a significant contribution to the cultural and intellectual history of America and ultimately changed the course of the twentieth century, in spite of the men who often undervalued or dismissed their work. |
4/2018 | NW | Saul | Dibb, Director | #DVD | DVD Based on Zadie Smith’s 2012 novel, two friends from a northwest London housing estate are reunited when one of them faces a messy personal crisis. |
4/2018 | Syncopation | William | Dieterie, Director | #DVD | DVD Covering a quarter-century of American “syncopated” music (Ragtime, Jazz, Swing, Blues, Boogie Woogie) from prior to WWI through prohibition, the stock-market crash, the depression and the outbreak of WWII. A romance between singer Kit Latimer, from New Orleans, and Johnny Schumacher, in which they share and argue over musical ideas ensues. Jackie Cooper/Adolphe Menjou (classic film) |
4/2018 | The Insult | Ziad | Doueiri, Director | #DVD | DVD Academy award nominee/best foreign language dir. In today’s Beirut, an insult blown out of proportion finds Toni, a Lebanese Christian, and Yasser, a Palestinian refugee, in court. From secret wounds to traumatic revelations, the media circus surrounding the case puts Lebanon through a social explosion, forcing Toni and Yasser to reconsider their lives and prejudices. (Arabic with subtitles) |
4/2018 | Everyone Loves Tacos | Felipe | Fuentes Cruz and Ben Fordham | #NONFIC | From simple supermarket kits to high-end restaurant revamps, a whole spectrum of taco offerings now exists for your pleasure. These small but mighty Mexican staples are finally getting the credit they deserve on the worldwide culinary stage. With this book, you can bring the buzzing atmosphere and high-quality eating experience of street food tacos into the comfort of your own kitchen…. A chapter on Salsas, Relishes and Sides, such as the classic Pico De Gallo, lets you mix and match. |
4/2018 | Where the Salmon Run: The Life and Legacy of Bill Frank Jr | Trova | Heffernan | #NONFIC | [T]ells the life story of Billy Frank Jr., from his father’s influential tales, through the difficult and contentious days of the Fish Wars, to today. Based on extensive interviews with Billy, his family, close advisors, as well as political allies and former foes, and the holdings of Washington State’s cultural institutions, we learn about the man behind the legend, and the people who helped him along the way. (from Washington Univ. Press) |
4/2018 | How to Understand Your Gender: A Practical Guide for Exploring Who You Are | Alex | Iantaffi and Meg-John Barker | #NONFIC | This down-to-earth guide is for anybody who wants to know more about gender, from its biology, history and sociology, to how it plays a role in our relationships and interactions with family, friends, partners and strangers. It looks at practical ways people can express their own gender, and will help you to understand people whose gender might be different from your own. |
4/2018 | Waking Up White, and Finding Myself in the Story of Race | Debby | Irving | #NONFIC | For twenty-five years, Debby Irving sensed inexplicable racial tensions in her personal and professional relationships. … Then, in 2009, one “aha!” moment launched an adventure of discovery and insight that drastically shifted her worldview and upended her life plan. In Waking Up White, Irving tells her often cringe-worthy story with such openness that readers will turn every page rooting for her-and ultimately for all of us. |
4/2018 | Cabins | Philip | Jodidio | #NONFIC | The cabins selected for this publication emphasize the variety of the genre, both in terms of usage and geography. From an artist studio on the Suffolk coast in England to eco-home huts in the Western Ghats region of India, this survey is as exciting in its international reach as it is in its array of briefs, clients, and situations. Taschen Press |
4/2018 | When They Call You a Terrorist: A Black Lives Matter Memoir | Patrisse | Khan-Cullors & Asha Bandele | #NONFIC | A poetic and powerful memoir about what it means to be a Black woman in America―and the co-founding of a movement that demands justice for all in the land of the free. |
4/2018 | Licking Flames: Tales of a Half-Assed Hussy | Diana | Kirk | #NONFIC | Diana Kirk is an author who exudes personality. She shares her raw unfiltered story with bite, yet layers of compassion and vulnerability of life in the Pacific Northwest and around the world. Licking Flames is like taking a swig of good unpasteurized apple cider vinegar. ~ Portland Book Review |
4/2018 | The Trauma Cleaner: One Woman’s Extraordinary Life in the Business of Death, Decay, and Disaster | Sarah | Krasnostein | #NONFIC | Through countless encounters with the fetid, the neglected, and the downright tragic, Parkhurst has found meaning and peace, and [author] Krasnostein a singular subject whom she approaches with well-deserved awe. (From Booklist) |
4/2018 | Human Errors: A Panorama of Our Glitches from Pointless Bones to Broken Genes | Nathan | Lents | #NONFIC | As professor of biology Nathan H. Lents explains in Human Errors, our evolutionary history is nothing if not a litany of mistakes, each more entertaining and enlightening than the last. The human body is one big pile of compromises. But that is also a testament to our greatness: as Lents shows, humans have so many design flaws precisely because we are very, very good at getting around them. |
4/2018 | In the Fade | Magnolia Studio | #DVD | DVD (Diane Kruger) After the death of her family in a terrorist attack, Katja’s life falls apart… Katja struggles as she endures the trial against the two suspects: a young couple from the neo-Nazi scene. The trial pushes Katja to the edge and there’s simply no alternative for her: she wants justice. (German film with subtitles) | |
4/2018 | Hey Ladies! The Story of 8 Best Friends, 1 Year, and Way, Way Too Many Emails | Michelle | Mankowitz and Caroline Moss | #FIC | Based on the column of the same name that appeared in The Toast, Hey Ladies! is a laugh-out-loud read that follows a fictitious group of eight 20-and-30-something female friends for one year of holidays, summer house rentals, dates, brunches, breakups, and, of course, the planning of a disastrous wedding. This instantly relatable story is told entirely through emails, texts, DMs, and every other form of communication known to man. |
4/2018 | The Kindness of Strangers: Penniless Across America | Mike | McIntyre | #NONFIC | Stuck in a job he no longer found fulfilling, journalist Mike McIntyre felt his life was quickly passing him by. So one day he hit the road to trek from one end of the country to the other with little more than the clothes on his back and without a single penny in his pocket. Through his travels, he found varying degrees of kindness in strangers from all walks of life–and discovered more about people and values and life on the road in America than he’d ever thought possible. |
4/2018 | Dark Horse | Louise | Osmond | #DVD | DVD Set in Wales, DARK HORSE is the inspirational true story of a group of friends who decide to take on the elite ‘sport of kings’ and breed themselves a racehorse. Raised on a slagheap allotment, their foal grows into an unlikely champion, beating the finest thoroughbreds in the land, before suffering a near fatal accident. Nursed back to health by the love of his owners, he makes a remarkable recovery, returning to the track for a heart-stopping comeback. |
4/2018 | You Had Better Make Some Noise: Words to Change the World | Phaidon editors | #NONFIC | A timeless collection of quotations by visionaries who have been catalysts for change – through the ages and across the globe You Had Better Make Some Noisebrings together the words of social activists, revolutionaries, artists, writers, musicians, philosophers, politicians, and more – galvanizing us all to do the same. Familiar figures – Thomas Paine to Bertrand Russell, Augustine to Gloria Steinem, Harvey Milk to Ai Weiwei, James Baldwin to Margaret Mead – are joined by a chorus of voices that have made their own indelible marks on the legacy of protest and progress. | |
4/2018 | Hate Is What We Need | Ward | Schumaker | #NONFIC | In this clothbound, hardcover volume, acclaimed artist Ward Schumaker transforms the egregious utterances of the 45th president of the United States of America into provocative text-based paintings. Translating the politics of our moment into visceral works of art, Schumaker offers an alternative to the desensitizing barrage of the news media. |
4/2018 | The Land between Two Rivers: Writing in an Age of Refugees | Tom | Sleigh | #NONFIC | Essays on the urgency of our global refugee crisis and our capacity as artists and citizens to confront it. Tom Sleigh describes himself donning a flak jacket and helmet, working as a journalist inside militarized war zones and refugee camps, as “a sort of Rambo Jr.” With self-deprecation and empathetic humor, these essays recount his experiences during several tours in Africa and in the Middle Eastern region once called Mesopotamia, “the land between two rivers.” |
4/2018 | He/She/They-Us: Essential Information, Vocabulary and Concepts to Help You Become a Better Ally to the Transgender and Gender Diverse People in Your Life | Jessica | Soukuk | #NONFIC | This book is glue to hold people together through the process of self exploration. It covers basic vocabulary, concepts, challenges and some ways to be a supportive ally. It was written for the layperson not well versed in the terms and language of gender and transition. It attempts to begin to provide some answers for the questions everyone has. |
4/2018 | Last Week Tonight Presents a Day in the Life of Marlon Bundo | Jill | Twiss and Marlon Bundo | #FIC | With its message of tolerance and advocacy, this charming children’s book explores issues of same sex marriage and democracy. Sweet, funny, and beautifully illustrated, this book is dedicated to every bunny who has ever felt different. |
5/2018 | Gender Revolution: A Journey with Katie Couric | 20th Century Fox, Studio | #DVD | DVD Newscasting legend Katie Couric takes us on a journey to discover the modern-day dynamics of gender. | |
5/2018 | Swiss Army Man | A24, studio | #DVD | DVD Swiss Army Man creates a world like no other—a place of pure fantastical imagination, brimming with magical realism yet featuring two characters whose dreams and fears are entirely relatable. [Paul] Dano and [Daniel] Radcliffe both fully commit to their directors’ audacious vision, and their work is exceptional, finding the perfect balance of humour and heart that drives the whole film. A celebration of all the wonders cinema has to offer, Swiss Army Man is a cultural phenomenon in the making -- a surreal and wholly original examination of human vulnerability and connection that must be experienced. | |
5/2018 | Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries - Series 2 | Acorn Media, Studio | #DVD | Miss Phryne Fisher (Essie Davis, Girl with a Pearl Earring) is back with more intriguing mysteries and exquisite fashion. A private detective in 1920s Melbourne, Phryne has a knack for being in the right place at the right time—and she’s usually armed with the right weapon. Aided by her maid, Dorothy “Dot” Williams (Ashleigh Cummings, Tomorrow, When the War Began), Phryne ventures from the city’s mansions to its brothels, gaining admirers and enemies along the way. Often assisting their investigations are Detective Inspector Jack Robinson (Nathan Page, The Secret Life of Us) and Constable Hugh Collins (Hugo Johnstone-Burt, Cloudstreet). Jack finds Phryne’s eager interest in his cases exasperating, but he comes to rely on her crime-solving instincts—and is increasingly captivated by her other charms. John Noble (Fringe, Sleepy Hollow) guest stars in this series of the hit Australian drama. | |
5/2018 | Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries - Series 1 | Acorn Media, Studio | #DVD | In 1920s Melbourne, the Honorable Phryne Fisher is a thoroughly modern woman operating in a mostly male world. The glamorous "lady detective" goes about her work with a pistol close at hand--and, more often than not, a male admirer even closer. | |
5/2018 | The Man Who Climbs Trees | James | Aldred | #NONFIC | As a wildlife cameraman for the BBC and National Geographic, James Aldred spends his working life high up in trees, poised to capture key moments in the lives of wild animals and birds. … In this vivid account of memorable trees he has climbed (“Goliath,” “Apollo,” “Roaring Meg”), Aldred blends incredible stories of his adventures in the branches with a fascination for the majesty of trees to show us the joy of rising—literally—above the daily grind, up into the canopy of the forest. |
5/2018 | D C-T! | Joana | Avillez and Molly Young | #NONFIC | Just as there are few cities as storied and replete with life as New York City, there are few illustrators or writers who have charmed as many generations as William Steig. To Molly Young and Joana Avillez, a connection between the two seemed obvious, and so D C-T! ("The City!") was born. Using a playful phonetic language first invented by Steig in his now classic 1968 book CDB!--but which in today's world of text message and internet shorthand feels uncannily contemporary--Young and Avillez tell a different story on each page of this collection of illustrations stuffed to brim with humor and cleverness. |
5/2018 | American Islamophobia: Understanding the Roots and Rise of Fear | Khaled A. | Beydoun | #NONFIC | Using his unique lens as a critical race theorist and law professor, Khaled A. Beydoun captures the many ways in which law, policy, and official state rhetoric have fueled the frightening resurgence of Islamophobia in the United States. Beydoun charts its long and terrible history, from the plight of enslaved African Muslims in the antebellum South and the laws prohibiting Muslim immigrants from becoming citizens to the ways the war on terror assigns blame for any terrorist act to Islam and the myriad trials Muslim Americans face in the Trump era. |
5/2018 | Harvest: Unexpected Projects Using 27 Extraordinary Garden Plants | Stefani | Bittner & Alethea Harampolis | #NONFIC | A beautifully photographed, gift-worthy guide to growing, harvesting, and utilizing 47 unexpected garden plants to make organic pantry staples, fragrances, floral arrangements, beverages, cocktails, beauty products, bridal gifts, and more. |
5/2018 | By the Shore: Explore the Pacific Northwest Coast Like a Local | Nancy | Blakey | #NONFIC | The book covers the coastal areas of Oregon (from Astoria to Florence); Washington (including Puget Sound and the Olympic Peninsula); and British Columbia, Canada (including Vancouver Island). Gorgeously illustrated with line drawings and color photographs, this book is a visual treat for the armchair adventurer, as well as a practical guide to take with you on your next outing. |
5/2018 | Black Girls Rock!: Owning Our Magic, Rocking Our Truth | Beverly | Bond, editor | #NONFIC | Pairing inspirational essays and affirmations with lush, newly commissioned and classic photography, Black Girls Rock!: Owning Our Magic and Rocking Our Truth is not only a one-of-a-kind celebration of the diversity, fortitude, and spirituality of black women but also a foundational text that will energize and empower every reader. |
5/2018 | Pacific Northwest Camping Destinations: RV and Car Camping Destinations in Oregon, Washington and British Columbia | Mike and Terri | Church | #NONFIC | …The largest part of the book describes over 130 great camping destinations throughout Oregon, Washington, and British Columbia. There are descriptions of the local attractions and visitor activities. A selection of good camping areas convenient to the destination area are described in detail. Whenever possible the book offers a choice of commercial or government campgrounds. A map for each destination shows the location of campgrounds and attractions. |
5/2018 | The Roots of My Obsession: Thirty Great Gardeners Reveal Why They Garden | Thomas | Cooper, Editor | #NONFIC | The Roots of My Obsessionfeatures thirty essays from the most vital voices in gardening, exploring the myriad motives and impulses that cause a person to become a gardener. For some, it’s the quest to achieve a personal vision of ultimate beauty; for others, it’s a mission to heal the earth, or to grow a perfect peach. The essays are as distinct as their authors, and yet each one is direct, engaging, and from the heart. |
5/2018 | Cringeworthy: A Theory of Awkwardness | Melissa | Dahl | #NONFIC | New York magazine's "Science of Us" editor explains the compelling psychology of awkwardness, and asks: what if the moments that make us feel most awkward are actually valuable? |
5/2018 | Saving Banksy | Colin M. | Day, Director | #DVD | DVD "Saving Banksy" is the story of one misguided art collector's attempts to save a Banksy painting from destruction and the auction block. Featuring some of the world's top street artists, this film poses the question "What would you do if you owned a million dollar painting that the artist doesn't want sold?" [documentary] |
5/2018 | Tomorrow | Damian | Dibben | #SCIFI | A winter’s night, Venice, 1815. A 217-year-old dog is searching for his lost master. So begins the journey of Tomorrow, a dog who must travel through the courts and battlefields of Europe—and through the centuries—in search of the man who granted him immortality. His adventures take him to the London Frost Fair, the strange court of King Charles I, the wars of the Spanish succession, Versailles, the golden age of Amsterdam and to nineteenth-century Venice. |
5/2018 | Robert Rauschenberg | Leah | Dickerman et. al., editor | #NONFIC | The early 1950s, when Robert Rauschenberg launched his career, was the heyday of the heroic gestural painting of Abstract Expressionism. Rauschenberg challenged this tradition, inventing new intermedia forms of art making that shaped the decades to come. Published in conjunction with the inaugural 21st-century retrospective of this defining figure, this book offers fresh perspectives on Rauschenberg’s widely celebrated Combines (1954–64) and silkscreen paintings (1962–64). It also illuminates lesser-known periods within Rauschenberg’s career, including his work of the early 1950s and that from the late 1960s onward, now compelling and prescient to contemporary eyes. …Sixteen short essays by eminent scholars and emerging new writers focus on specific moments within Rauschenberg’s career, examining his creative production across an extraordinary range of media. Museum of Modern Art (MOMA) |
5/2018 | Tears We Cannot Stop: A Sermon to White America | Michael Eric | Dyson | #NONFIC | As the country grapples with racist division at a level not seen since the 1960s, one man's voice soars above the rest with conviction and compassion. In his 2016 New York Times op-ed piece "Death in Black and White," Michael Eric Dyson moved a nation. Now he continues to speak out in Tears We Cannot Stop―a provocative and deeply personal call for change. Dyson argues that if we are to make real racial progress we must face difficult truths, including being honest about how black grievance has been ignored, dismissed, or discounted. |
5/2018 | Locking Up Our Own: Crime and Punishment in Black America | James | Forman | #NONFIC | Winner of the 2018 Pulitzer Prize for General Non-Fiction. One of The New York Times Book Review's 10 Best Books of 2017.Locking Up Our Own enriches our understanding of why our society became so punitive and offers important lessons to anyone concerned about the future of race and the criminal justice system in this country. |
5/2018 | How To Let Go of The World and Love All The Things Climate Can't Change | Josh | Fox, Director | #DVD | …acknowledges that it may be too late to stop some of the worst consequences of climate change and asks, what is it that climate change can't destroy? What is so deep within us that no calamity can take it away? |
5/2018 | Frieze: A to Z of Contemporary Art | Frieze Magazine | #NONFIC | Frieze A to Z of Contemporary Artcharts the dynamic, changing landscape of the contemporary art and culture of the past quarter century. Drawing on frieze magazine’s exceptional back catalogue of articles, this book brings together a curated collection of over fifty engaging highlights. It features artist interviews; essays on subjects as varied as museums, photography, pre-historic art and television; and think pieces on broader cultural topics, such as fame, gentrification, nostalgia, and style.(Phaidon, publisher) | |
5/2018 | The Ensemble | Aja | Gabel | #FIC | Following … four unforgettable characters, Aja Gabel's debut novel gives a riveting look into the high-stakes, cutthroat world of musicians, and of lives made in concert. The story of Brit and Henry and Daniel and Jana, The Ensemble is a heart-skipping portrait of ambition, friendship, and the tenderness of youth. |
5/2018 | The Spirit of the Bauhaus | Olivier | Gabet, Editor | #NONFOC | This essential and accessible guide to the Bauhaus, published in time for the 100th anniversary of the school in 2019, celebrates a school that continues to be recognized as the most durable and influential source of modern ideas about art, design, and craft. 276 illustrations. Published by Thames & Hudson. |
5/2018 | Meet Cindy Sherman: Artist, Photographer, Chameleon | Jan | Greenberg and Sandra Jordan | #YA #NONFIC | Looking at the life of legendary photographer Cindy Sherman, Jan Greenberg and Sandra Jordan have created an unconventional biography, that much like Cindy Sherman's famous photographs, has something a little more meaningful under the surface. Infusing the narrative with Sherman's photographs, as well as children's first impressions of the photographs, this is a biography that goes beyond birth, middle age, and later life. It's a look at how we look at art. |
5/2018 | Less | Andrew Sean | Greer | #FIC | A scintillating satire of the American abroad, a rumination on time and the human heart, a bittersweet romance of chances lost, by an author The New York Times has hailed as "inspired, lyrical," "elegiac," "ingenious," as well as "too sappy by half," Less shows a writer at the peak of his talents raising the curtain on our shared human comedy.[Pulitzer Prize winner] |
5/2018 | The Art of Living | Thich Nhat | Hanh | #NONFIC | Containing the essence of the Buddha’s teachings and Thich Nhat Hanh’s poignant, timeless, and clarifying prose, The Art of Living provides a spiritual dimension to our lives. This is not an effort to escape life or to dwell in a place of bliss outside of this world. Instead, this path will allow us to discover where we come from and where we are going. |
5/2018 | When Einstein Walked with Godel: Excursions to the Edge of Thought | Jim | Holt | #NONFIC | In this scintillating collection, Holt explores the human mind, the cosmos, and the thinkers who’ve tried to encompass the latter with the former. With his trademark clarity and humor, Holt probes the mysteries of quantum mechanics, the quest for the foundations of mathematics, and the nature of logic and truth. |
5/2018 | Rescue, Restore, Redecorate: Amy Howard's Guide to Refinishing Furniture and Accessories | Amy | Howard | #NONFIC | Whether you dream of restoring an heirloom to its former beauty, or just want to modernize a flea market treasure, Amy Howard has the design and refinishing secrets you need. Here are all the furniture finishing recipes, techniques, and tips that have made Howard’s beloved classes sold-out success stories, and made Howard herself the go-to guru of refinishing and “use what you have” redecorating. |
5/2018 | Barracoon: The Story of the Last "Black Cargo" | Zora Neale | Hurston | #NONFIC | In 1927, Zora Neale Hurston went to Plateau, Alabama, just outside Mobile, to interview eighty-six-year-old Cudjo Lewis. Of the millions of men, women, and children transported from Africa to America as slaves, Cudjo was then the only person alive to tell the story of this integral part of the nation’s history. Hurston was there to record Cudjo’s firsthand account of the raid that led to his capture and bondage fifty years after the Atlantic slave trade was outlawed in the United States…. Based on those interviews, featuring Cudjo’s unique vernacular, and written from Hurston’s perspective with the compassion and singular style that have made her one of the preeminent American authors of the twentieth-century, Barracoon masterfully illustrates the tragedy of slavery and of one life forever defined by it. Offering insight into the pernicious legacy that continues to haunt us all, black and white, this poignant and powerful work is an invaluable contribution to our shared history and culture. |
5/2018 | Everything Is Here To Help You: A Loving Guide to Your Soul's Evolution | Matt | Kahn | #NONFIC | In this book, spiritual teacher and intuitive Matt Kahn redefines the spiritual path for the modern-day seeker, and offers original, innovative ways to resolve fear, unravel judgments, and learn how to view life from a clear, expanded perspective. |
5/2018 | The View from Flyover Country: Dispatches from the Forgotten America | Sarah | Kendzior | #NONFIC | A clear-eyed account of the realities of life in America’s overlooked heartland, The View from Flyover Country is a piercing critique of the labor exploitation, race relations, gentrification, media bias, and other aspects of the post-employment economy that gave rise to a president who rules like an autocrat. … necessary reading for anyone who believes that the only way for America to fix its problems is to first discuss them with honesty and compassion. |
5/2018 | Inequality For All | Jacob | Kornbluth, Director | #DVD | DVD A passionate argument on behalf of the middle class, Inequality for All features Robert Reich–professor, best-selling author, and Clinton cabinet member–as he demonstrates how the widening income gap has a devastating impact on the American economy. The film is an intimate portrait of a man whose lifelong goal remains protecting those who are unable to protect themselves. Through his singular perspective, Reich explains how the massive consolidation of wealth by a precious few threatens the viability of the American workforce and the foundation of democracy itself. In this Inconvenient Truth for the economy, Reich uses humor and a wide array of facts to explain how the issue of economic inequality affects each and every one of us. |
5/2018 | After Kathy Acker | Chris | Kraus | #NONFIC | In this first, fully authorized, biography, Chris Kraus approaches Acker both as a writer and as a member of the artistic communities from which she emerged. At once forensic and intimate, After Kathy Acker traces the extreme discipline and literary strategies Acker used to develop her work, and the contradictions she longed to embody. |
5/2018 | Daring Democracy: Igniting Power, Meaning, And Connection For The America We Want | Frances Moore | Lappe & Adam Eichen | #NONFIC | An optimistic book for Americans who are asking, in the wake of Trump’s victory, What do we do now? The answer: We need to organize and fight to protect and expand our democracy. |
5/2018 | The Garden in Every Sense and Season | Tovah | Martin | #NONFIC | In 100 evocative essays, Martin shares sage garden advice, offers intimate reflections on her own garden, and urges us to inhale, savor, and become more attuned to our gardens. |
5/2018 | A False Report: A True Story of Rape In America | T. Christian | Miller and Ken Armstrong | #NONFIC | Based on investigative files and extensive interviews with the principals, A False Report is a serpentine tale of doubt, lies, and a hunt for justice, unveiling the disturbing truth of how sexual assault is investigated today—and the long history of skepticism toward rape victims. |
5/2018 | See What Can Be Done: Essays, Criticism, and Commentary | Lorrie | Moore | #NONFIC | A welcome surprise: more than fifty prose pieces, gathered together for the first time, by one of America's most revered and admired novelists and short-story writers, whose articles, essays, and cultural commentary--appearing in The New York Review of Books, The New York Times Book Review, The New Yorker, The Atlantic, The Guardian, Harper's Magazine, and elsewhere--have been parsing the political, artistic, and media idiom for the last three decades. |
5/2018 | Banksy Does New York | Chris | Moukarbel, Director | #DVD | DVD When infamous street artist Banksy revealed his NYC residency, he set off a daily scavenger hunt among fans, would-be art collectors, and, of course, the police. Everyone wanted a piece of his ephemeral works before they were destroyed or removed. Chris Moukarbel tracks the course of Banksy's secretly created works across NYC and explores the unprecedented speed of the public's reaction. |
5/2018 | Warlight | Michael | Ondaatje | #FIC | From the internationally acclaimed, best-selling author ofThe English Patient: a mesmerizing new novel that tells a dramatic story set in the decade after World War II through the lives of a small group of unexpected characters and two teenagers whose lives are indelibly shaped by their unwitting involvement. |
5/2018 | The Young Karl Marx | Raoul | Peck, Director | #DVD | DVD 26 year-old Karl Marx embarks with his wife, Jenny, on the road to exile. In 1844 Paris, he meets Friedrich Engels, an industrialist's son, who investigated the sordid birth of the British working-class. Engels, the dandy, provides the last piece of the puzzle to the young Karl Marx's new vision of the world. Together, between censorship and the police's repression, riots and political upheavals, they will lead the labor movement during its development into a modern era. |
5/2018 | 12 Rules for Life: An Antidote to Chaos | Jordan B. | Peterson | #NONFIC | Humorous, surprising and informative, Dr. Peterson tells us why skateboarding boys and girls must be left alone, what terrible fate awaits those who criticize too easily, and why you should always pet a cat when you meet one on the street. … 12 Rules for Life shatters the modern commonplaces of science, faith and human nature, while transforming and ennobling the mind and spirit of its readers. |
5/2018 | Grandma Says: Wake Up World! | Agnes Baker | Pilgrim | #AUDIO #NONFIC | (Taowhywee) Agnes Baker Pilgrim, known to most as ''Grandma Aggie'', is in her nineties and is the oldest living member of the Takelma Tribe, one of the Confederated Tribes of Siletz. A descendant of both spiritual and political tribal leaders, Grandma Aggie travels tirelessly around the world to keep traditions alive, to help those in need, and to be a voice for the voiceless, helping everyone to remember to preserve our Earth for animals and each other in a spiritual environment. …This is an amazing recording of one of the oldest and most important voices of the First Nation and of the world. Her stories and advice will mesmerize and captivate you, as well as provide a blueprint for how all the inhabitants of the earth can live together in harmony, spirituality, and peace. |
5/2018 | Watermelons' Nooses and Straight Razors: Stories from the Jim Crow Museum | David | Pilgrim | #NONFIC | …examines the origins and significance of several longstanding anti-black stories and the caricatures and stereotypes that undergird them. It features images from the Jim Crow Museum, the nation's largest publicly accessible collection of racist objects. These pictures document the social injustice that Martin Luther King Jr. referred to as a pus-filled boil “which must be exposed to the light of human conscience and the air of national opinion before it can be cured.” Each chapter concludes with a story from the author's journey, challenging the integrity of racial narratives. |
5/2018 | Dancing on the Edge | Stephen | Poliakoff | #DVD | DVD In the early 1930s London, the black jazz group known as the Louis Lester Band is on the rise. Countless aristocrats, including the royal family, ask the band to perform, but just as the band's success balloons, tragedy strikes, setting off a chain of events that may end it all. From acclaimed writer and director Stephen Poliakoff, this mystery features an all-star cast led by Chiwetel Ejiofor, Matthew Goode, and many more! |
5/2018 | Collusion: How Central Bankers Rigged the World | Nomi | Prins | #NONFIC | In this searing exposé, former Wall Street insider Nomi Prins shows how the 2007-2008 financial crisis turbo-boosted the influence of central bankers and triggered a massive shift in the world order. |
5/2018 | Make Trouble: Standing Up, Speaking Out, and Finding the Courage to Lead | Cecile | Richards | #NONFIC | From Cecile Richards—president of Planned Parenthood Federation of America and the Planned Parenthood Action Fund for more than a decade, daughter of the late Governor Ann Richards, featured speaker at the Women’s March on Washington, and a “heroine of the resistance” (Vogue)—comes a story about learning to lead and make change, based on a lifetime of fighting for women’s rights and social justice. |
5/2018 | River Cafe London | Ruth | Rogers et al. | #NONFIC | At the River Cafe in London, Ruth Rogers and her co-founder, Rose Gray, helped to shape the way we eat, trained a new generation of chefs, and, with their best-selling cookbooks, transformed the way we prepare Italian food at home. … This beautiful cookbook encapsulates the essence of the restaurant and its food—and is a must-have for all food lovers to cook from time and again. |
5/2018 | Saladish: A Crunchier, Grainier, Herbier, Heartier, Tastier Way with Vegetables | Ilene | Rosen | #NONFIC | …100 fresh and creative recipes, organized seasonally, from the intoxicatingly aromatic (Toasty Broccoli with Curry Leaves and Coconut) to the colorfully hearty (Red Potatoes with Chorizo and Roasted Grapes). |
5/2018 | Just the Funny Parts: ...And a Few Hard Truths About Sneaking Into the Hollywood Boys' Club | Nell | Scovell | #NONFIC | Just the Funny Parts is a fast-paced account of a nerdy girl from New England who fought her way to the top of the highly-competitive, male-dominated entertainment field. The book delivers invaluable insights into the creative process and tricks for navigating a difficult workplace. It's part memoir, part how-to, and part survival story. Or, as Scovell puts it, “It’s like Unbroken, but funnier and with slightly less torture.” |
5/2018 | Soil Not Oil: Environmental Justice in an Age of Climate Change | Vandana | Shiva | #NONFIC | In Soil Not Oil, Vandana Shiva explains that a world beyond dependence on fossil fuels and globalization is both possible and necessary. Condemning industrial agriculture as a recipe for ecological and economic disaster, Shiva champions the small, independent farm: their greater productivity, their greater potential for social justice as they put more resources into the hands of the poor, and the biodiversity that is inherent to the traditional farming practiced in small-scale agriculture. What we need most in a time of changing climates and millions who are hungry, she argues, is sustainable, biologically diverse farms that are more resistant to disease, drought, and flood. “The solution to climate change,” she observes, “and the solution to poverty are the same.” Soil Not Oil proposes a solution based on self-organization, sustainability, and community rather than corporate power and profits. |
5/2018 | Seed Sovereignty, Food Security: Women in the Vanguard of the Fight Against Gmos and Corporate Agriculture | Vandana | Shiva, Editor | #NONFIC | In this unique anthology, women from around the world write about the movement to change the current, industrial paradigm of how we grow our food. As seed keepers and food producers, as scientists, activists, and scholars, they are dedicated to renewing a food system that is better aligned with ecological processes as well as human health and global social justice. (from North Atlantic Books) |
5/2018 | Starting an Etsy Business for Dummies | Kate | Shoup | #NONFIC | The easy way to build an online craft business from scratch… Starting an Etsy Business For Dummies offers expert advice for artists and entrepreneurs looking to build an online craft business from scratch. You'll get invaluable information on how to set up an Etsy shop, write compelling item descriptions, photograph your work, engage the Etsy community, understand fees, and find your muse when it takes a holiday. |
5/2018 | Wade in the Water | Tracy K. | Smith | #NONFIC | The extraordinary new poetry collection by Tracy K. Smith, the Poet Laureate of the United States. |
5/2018 | Before the Flood - National Geographic | Fisher | Stevens, Director | #DVD | DVD Featuring Leonardo DiCaprio and directed by Fisher Stevens, Before the Flood presents a riveting account of the dramatic changes occurring around the world due to climate change. |
5/2018 | Cy Twombly | Jonas | Storsve, Editor | #NONFIC | The American artist Cy Twombly (1928-2011) was one of the seminal artists of the second half of the twentieth century, with a complex oeuvre extending over six decades. His work brilliantly fused the legacy of American Abstract Expressionism with the intellectual rigor of classical European and Mediterranean culture, reflecting his extensive reading in history, classical literature, and mythology. This catalogue, edited by curator Jonas Storsve, accompanies a sweeping retrospective at the Centre Pompidou in Paris, one of the largest exhibitions on his work to date. |
5/2018 | The Art of Star Wars: The Last Jedi | Phil | Szostak | #NONFIC | Featuring concept art, costume sketches, and storyboards, this book takes fans on a deep dive into the development of the fantastic worlds, characters, and creatures—both old and new—of The Last Jedi. |
5/2018 | Design by Nature: Creating Layered, Lived In Spaces | Erica | Tanov | #NONFIC | Inspired by nature's colors, textures, and patterns, design icon Erica Tanov uses her passion for textiles to create beautiful, timeless interiors that connect us to the natural world. Now, in her first book, Design by Nature, Tanov teaches you how to train your eye to the beauty of the natural world, and then bring the outdoors in—incorporating patterns and motifs from nature, as well as actual organic elements, into simple ideas for everyday decorating and design. |
5/2018 | The Emissary | Yoko | Tawada | #FIC | A delightful, irrepressibly funny book, The Emissary is filled with light. Yoko Tawada, deftly turning inside-out “the curse,” defies gravity and creates a playful joyous novel out of a dystopian one, with a legerdemain uniquely her own. |
5/2018 | The Cooking Gene: A Journey Through African American Culinary History in the Old South | Michael W. | Twitty | #NONFIC | A renowned culinary historian offers a fresh perspective on our most divisive cultural issue, race, in this illuminating memoir of Southern cuisine and food culture that traces his ancestry—both black and white—through food, from Africa to America and slavery to freedom. |
5/2018 | The Body Keeps the Score: Brain, Mind, And Body in the Healing of Trauma | Bessel | Van Der Kolk | #NONFIC | Dr. Bessel van der Kolk, one of the world’s foremost experts on trauma, has spent over three decades working with survivors. In The Body Keeps the Score, he uses recent scientific advances to show how trauma literally reshapes both body and brain, compromising sufferers’ capacities for pleasure, engagement, self-control, and trust. He explores innovative treatments—from neurofeedback and meditation to sports, drama, and yoga—that offer new paths to recovery by activating the brain’s natural neuroplasticity. |
5/2018 | Cuba - The Cookbook | Madelaine | Vazquez Galvez and Imogene Tondre | #NONFIC | Cuban food is known worldwide for its blend of bright colours and intense flavors, and Cuba: The Cookbook is the first book to celebrate and document comprehensively its cuisine and contemporary food culture. |
5/2018 | How Bernie Won: Inside the Revolution That's Taking Back Our Country - And Where We Go From Here | Jeff | Weaver | #NONFIC | When Jeff Weaver hopped in a car with Bernie Sanders in the summer of 1986, he had no idea the Vermont backroads would lead them all the way to the 2016 presidential campaign. In How Bernie Won, Weaver shows how Bernie sparked a movement that would sweep America and inspire millions. He vowed not to run a negative campaign. He would focus on policies, not personalities. He would not be beholden to big money. He would actually make America work for ordinary people. |
5/2018 | Hitler's American Model: The United States and the Making of Nazi Race Law | James Q. | Whitman | #NONFIC | Nazism triumphed in Germany during the high era of Jim Crow laws in the United States. Did the American regime of racial oppression in any way inspire the Nazis? The unsettling answer is yes. In Hitler's American Model, James Whitman presents a detailed investigation of the American impact on the notorious Nuremberg Laws, the centerpiece anti-Jewish legislation of the Nazi regime. Contrary to those who have insisted that there was no meaningful connection between American and German racial repression, Whitman demonstrates that the Nazis took a real, sustained, significant, and revealing interest in American race policies. |
5/2018 | American Histories - Stories | John Edgar | Wideman | #NONFIC | In this singular collection, John Edgar Wideman, the acclaimed author of Writing to Save a Life, blends the personal, historical, and political to invent complex, charged stories about love, death, struggle, and what we owe each other. With characters ranging from everyday Americans to Jean-Michel Basquiat to Nat Turner, American Histories is a journey through time, experience, and the soul of our country. |
5/2018 | Interior Portraits: At Home With Cultural Pioneers and Creative Mavericks | Leslie | Williamson | #NONFIC | Powerfully personal and deeply authentic, this beautiful book will appeal not only to lovers of bohemian architecture but also to anyone who feels the pull of the West Coast lifestyle. Showcasing thirteen unique homes from the rugged coast of Big Sur to the sunlight-filled modernist structures of Los Angeles and San Diego, this book is a journey through the very best that California design has to offer. |
5/2018 | Tin Man | Sarah | Winman | #FIC | With beautiful prose and characters that are so real they jump off the page, Tin Man is a love letter to human kindness and friendship, and to loss and living. |
5/2018 | Backlash: What Happens When We Talk Honestly About Racism in America | George | Yancy | #NONFIC | “Backlash is a decisive intervention on a hugely important topic by a very courageous thinker. Highly recommended.” (Simon Critchley, Hans Jonas Professor, The New School for Social Research) |
6/2018 | Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries - Series 3 | Acorn Media, Studio | #DVD | Essie Davis (The Babadook, The Slap) returns as Miss Phryne Fisher, a “lady detective” from Melbourne with a fabulous sense of fun and a flair for solving crimes. In a country reemerging from the shadow of World War I, Phryne takes life in her stride—and murder, too. Detective Inspector Jack Robinson (Nathan Page, The Secret Life of Us) works alongside her, although she often outraces him to the crime scene. Despite Jack’s efforts to keep matters on a professional level, their playful partnership is growing more and more personal. In Series 3, Phryne and Jack’s developing relationship is matched by the on-again, off-again romance of Phryne’s assistant, “Dot” Williams (Ashleigh Cummings, Tomorrow, When the War Began), and Jack’s constable, Hugh Collins (Hugo Johnstone-Burt, San Andreas). But with the unexpected arrival of her father in Australia, Phryne recalls troubling incidents from her past—and contends with ominous affairs in the present. | |
6/2018 | Tip of the Iceberg: My 3,000 Mile Journey Around Wild Alaska, The Last Great American Frontier | Mark | Adams | #NONFIC | In 1899, railroad magnate Edward H. Harriman organized a most unusual summer voyage to the wilds of Alaska. . . . Armed with Dramamine and an industrial-strength mosquito net, Mark Adams sets out to retrace the 1899 expedition. . . . Along the way, he encounters dozens of unusual characters (and a couple of very hungry bears) and investigates how lessons learned in 1899 might relate to Alaska's current struggles in adapting to climate change. |
6/2018 | The Chicken Who Saved Us : The Remarkable Story of Andrew and Frightful | Kristin Jarvis | Adams | #NONFIC | This honest memoir of fierce and faithful parenting takes readers on a heartfelt journey through chronic illness and Asperger's syndrome to discover the healing bond between a boy and his chicken. Navigating the complex landscape of modern medicine and genetics, through a rare diagnosis of Trisomy 8 Mosaicism and an experimental bone marrow transplant, readers venture to places where chickens talk, superheroes come alive, and a boy on the brink of death finds the courage to survive. |
6/2018 | That Kind of Mother | Rumaan | Alam | #FIC | “Riveting..an outstanding depiction of motherhood and cross-racial adoption...The tensions of privilege and identity are brilliantly set against the backdrop of wealthy American cities, and Alam’s pacing is phenomenal...An astonishing book.” [from Washington Post] |
6/2018 | The Complete Holistic Dog Book: Home Health for Our Canine Companions | Jan | Allegretti | #NONFIC | You'll find easy-to-follow recommendations for natural, preventive care, including early socialization, environmental safety, and nutrition, as well as practical techniques for treating hundreds of common canine illnesses and injuries using gentle, natural medicines that are easy to administer and painless--or delicious!--for your dog. |
6/2018 | Do Not Resist | Craig | Atkinson | #DVD | (DVD) … offers a stunning look at the current state of policing in America. |
6/2018 | American Coup | Joe | Ayella, Director | #DVD | The untold story of the 1953 CIA-backed coup in Iran that toppled the democratically elected Prime Minister Mohammad Mossadegh. This covert operation would be the first overthrow of a foreign government by the agency, and serve as a template for all future CIA coups. American Coup explores the repercussions from this seminal event and the effects on today's US-Iranian relationship. [This is the uncut version which Suz, a library staff person, personally purchased this for project from the director.] |
6/2018 | Murder on the Left Bank | Cara | Black | #MYST #FIC | "One of [Black's] strongest mysteries . . . But the real joy of Murder on the Left Bank is in its familiar cast and its thoughtful, witty, occasionally melancholy evocation of Paris, the city where we keep so many of our most beautiful ideas about what life might mean." —Charles Finch, USA Today |
6/2018 | White Houses | Amy | Bloom | #FIC | “Bloom deftly explores what might have been in this novel about the real romance between Eleanor Roosevelt and journalist Lorena Hickok. . . . It’s a sensuous, captivating account of a forbidden affair between two women, one of them viewed by all the world as a saint.”[ from People] |
6/2018 | Beyond the Map: Unruly Enclaves, Ghostly Places, Emerging Lands and Our Search for New Utopias | Alastair | Bonnett | #NONFIC | Beyond the Map journeys out into a world of mysterious, daunting and magical spaces. It is a world of hidden cultures and ghostly memories, of uncountable new islands and curious stabs at paradise. From the phantom tunnels of the Tokyo subway to a stunning movie-set re-creation of 1950s-era Moscow; from the caliphate of the Islamic State to virtual cybertopias—this book serves as an imaginative guide to the farthest fringes of geography. |
6/2018 | I'm Still Here: Black Dignity in a World Made for Whiteness | Austin Channing | Brown | #NONFIC | Austin Channing Brown's first encounter with a racialized America came at age 7, when she discovered her parents named her Austin to deceive future employers into thinking she was a white man. Growing up in majority-white schools, organizations, and churches, Austin writes, "I had to learn what it means to love blackness," a journey that led to a lifetime spent navigating America's racial divide as a writer, speaker and expert who helps organizations practice genuine inclusion. |
6/2018 | Buddhist Economics: An Enlightened Approach to the Dismal Science | Clair | Brown | #NONFIC | Buddhist economics leads us to think mindfully as we go about our daily activities, and offers a way to appreciate how our actions affect the well-being of those around us. By replacing the endless cycle of desire with more positive collective activities, we can make our lives more meaningful as well as happier. Inspired by the popular course Professor Brown teaches at U.C. Berkeley, Buddhist Economics represents an enlightened approach to our modern world infused with ancient wisdom, with benefits both personal and global, for generations to come. |
6/2018 | Glorious Shade: Dazzling Plants, Design Ideas and Proven Techniques for Your Shady Garden | Jenny Rose | Carey | #NONFIC | This information-rich, hardworking guide is packed with everything you need to successfully garden in the shadiest corners of a yard. You'll learn how to determine what type of shade you have and how to choose the right plants for the space. The book also shares the techniques, design and maintenance tips that are key to growing a successful shade garden. |
6/2018 | My Old Dog: Rescued Pets with Remarkable Second Acts | Laura T. | Coffey | #NONFIC | With gorgeous, joyful photographs and sweet, funny, true tales of “old dogs learning new tricks,” Coffey and Fusaro show that adopting a senior can be even more rewarding than choosing a younger dog. |
6/2018 | Some Trick: Thirteen Stories | Helen | Dewitt | #FIC | At last a new book: a baker’s dozen of stories all with Helen DeWitt’s razor-sharp genius. . . . In various ways, each tale carries DeWitt’s signature poker-face lament regarding the near-impossibility of the life of the mind when one is made to pay to have the time for it, in a world so sadly “taken up with all sorts of paraphernalia superfluous, not to say impedimental, to ratiocination.” |
6/2018 | Broke And Patriotic: Why Poor Americans Love Their Country | Francesco | Duina | #NONFIC | This book offers a stirring portrait of the people left behind by their country and left out of the national conversation. By giving them a voice, Duina sheds new light on a sector of American society that we are only beginning to recognize as a powerful force in shaping the country's future. |
6/2018 | The Wisdom of Wolves | Jim & Jamie | Dutcher | #NONFIC | For six years Jim and Jamie Dutcher lived intimately with a pack of wolves, gaining their trust as no one has before. In this book the Dutchers reflect on the virtues they observed in wolf society and behavior. Each chapter exemplifies a principle, such as kindness, teamwork, playfulness, respect, curiosity, and compassion. |
6/2018 | What Truth Sounds Like: RFK, James Baldwin, and Our Unfinished Conversation About Race in America | Michael Eric | Dyson | #NONFIC | What Truth Sounds Like exists at the tense intersection of the conflict between politics and prophecy – of whether we embrace political resolution or moral redemption to fix our fractured racial landscape. The future of race and democracy hang in the balance. A New York Times bestseller. |
6/2018 | A Nation Unmade by War: A Tomdispatch Book | Tom | Engelhardt | #NONFIC | As veteran author Tom Engelhardt argues, despite having a more massive, technologically advanced, and better-funded military than any other power on the planet, in the last decade and a half of constant war across the Greater Middle East and parts of Africa, the United States has won nothing. Its unending wars, in fact, have only contributed to a world growing more chaotic by the second. |
6/2018 | I Really Didn't Think This Through: Tales from My So-Called Adult Life | Beth | Evans | #NONFIC | Through all of her experiences, Beth manages to extract valuable lessons, and the book is replete with friendly advice about caring for yourself, getting help no matter what your problems are, and embracing what makes you happy. Beth is a compelling storyteller, her drawings picking up where her words leave off, creating an approachable and immersive experience for the reader. Beth’s work feels like a hug from your best friend. And like a best friend, she’s here to say “You got this!” |
6/2018 | Flora: The Graphic Book of the Garden | Sam | Falconer | #NONFIC | From the best flowers to plant to encourage the industrious honeybee, to the right soils for your plants, from the easiest-to-grow varieties of courgette, to planning out your garden, RHS expert Guy Barter has curated a selection of graphics to instruct and inspire the green-fingered enthusiast. |
6/2018 | Makers and Takers: How Wall Street Destroyed Main Street | Rana | Foroohar | #NONFIC | Makers and Takers explores the confluence of forces that has led American businesses to favor balance-sheet engineering over the actual kind, greed over growth, and short-term profits over putting people to work. From the cozy relationship between Wall Street and Washington, to a tax code designed to benefit wealthy individuals and corporations, to forty years of bad policy decisions, [the author] shows why so many Americans have lost trust in the system, and why it matters urgently to us all. |
6/2018 | Homecamp: Stories and Inspiration for the Modern Adventurer | Doron & Stephanie | Francis | #NONFIC | Homecamp is a beautiful collection of stories and images from everyday adventurers - people who have found ways to experience and embrace the outdoors, on their terms. Some have gone on epic adventures: sold their belongings and lived in a van, trekked through the Himalayas or biked across continents. Others simply found new ways of seeing the world around them: cleaned up a beach, learned how to forage or spent a night alone in the woods. All found that their experiences in nature transformed their lives and freed them, even if only briefly, from the monotony of their 9-5 grind. |
6/2018 | The Animal Gazer | Edgardo | Franzosini | #FIC | A hypnotic novel inspired by the strange and fascinating life of sculptor Rembrandt Bugatti, brother of the fabled automaker. . . . Rembrandt Bugatti’s work, now being rediscovered, is displayed in major art museums around the world and routinely fetches large sums at auction. Edgardo Franzosini recreates the young artist's life with intense lyricism, passion, and sensitivity. |
6/2018 | Not That Bad: Dispatches From Rape Culture | Roxane | Gay, editor | #NONFIC | Covering a wide range of topics and experiences, from an exploration of the rape epidemic embedded in the refugee crisis to first-person accounts of child molestation, this collection is often deeply personal and is always unflinchingly honest. |
6/2018 | Hit the Road ; Vans, Nomads and Roadside Adventures | Gestalten & Sascha Friesicke, editors | #NONFIC | Hit the Road features the individuality of overland vehicles, their passionate owners, and the inspiring journeys that celebrate a life on the move. . . . Experts share their experiences, their tips and tricks, and their favorite campfire-friendly recipes for life on four wheels. Are you ready to hit the road? | |
6/2018 | Milton Glaser Posters: 427 Examples from 1965 to 2017 | Milton | Glaser | #NONFIC | Milton Glaser’s posters—more than 450 since 1965—combine conceptual rigor and originality with a mastery of visual language and a high level of artistic expression. Some, like his 1967 Bob Dylan poster for Columbia Records, are icons; others, like his series celebrating “I Love New York,” evoke his best-known work. Milton Glaser Posters includes them all, with Glaser’s own commentary describing his thought process and inspiration. The book is a delight for the art lover, an education in visual expression, and an entertaining journey through the cultural life of half a century, all rolled into a single compact, intense volume. |
6/2018 | Potted: Make Your Own Stylish Garden Containers | Annette | Goliti Gutierrez and Mary Gray | #NONFIC | Outdoor style often comes at a high price, but it doesn’t have to. This lushly designed guide empowers you to create your own show-stopping containers made from everyday materials such as concrete, plastic, metal, terracotta, rope, driftwood, and fabric. The 23 step-by-step projects are affordable, made from accessible materials, and most importantly, gorgeous. |
6/2018 | Oregon & Washington : 50 Hikes with Kids | Wendy | Gorton | #NONFIC | These hikes are perfect for little legs—they are all under four miles and have an elevation gain of 900 feet of less. Some are even accessible by stroller. Every entry includes the essential details: easy-to-read, trustworthy directions; a detailed map; hike length and elevation gain; bathroom access; and where to grab a bite to eat nearby. Full-color photographs highlight the fun things to see along the trail. |
6/2018 | Sally Mann: A Thousand Crossings | Sarah | Greenough & Sarah Kennel | #NONFIC | For more than 40 years, Sally Mann (b. 1951) has made experimental, elegiac, and hauntingly beautiful photographs that explore the overarching themes of existence: memory, desire, death, the bonds of family, and nature’s magisterial indifference to human endeavor. . . . Organized into five sections—Family, The Land, Last Measure, Abide with Me, and What Remains—and including many works not previously exhibited or published, Sally Mann: A Thousand Crossings is a sweeping overview of Mann’s artistic achievements. |
6/2018 | In the Distance with You | Carla | Guelfenbein | #FIC | “[A] moving page-turner. Suspense, emotions, and magic course throughout this beautifully narrated book. Highly recommended for fans of Latin American literature and general literary mysteries.” —Library Journal (starred review) |
6/2018 | Waking Lions | Ayelet | Gundar-Goshen | #FIC | After one night's deadly mistake, a man will go to any lengths to save his family and his reputation. . . . WAKING LIONS is a gripping, suspenseful, and morally devastating drama of guilt and survival, shame and desire from a remarkable young author on the rise. |
6/2018 | The Art of the Wasted Day | Patricia | Hampl | #NONFIC | The Art of the Wasted Day is a picaresque travelogue of leisure written from a lifelong enchantment with solitude. Patricia Hampl visits the homes of historic exemplars of ease who made repose a goal, even an art form. |
6/2018 | Lies That Bind Us | Andrew | Hart | #FIC | “This one crackles with tension and imagination from the first page. Andrew Hart knows how to manipulate the reader in some disturbing and powerful ways. This is nail biting taken to its extreme.” —Steve Berry, New York Times bestselling author of The Bishop’s Pawn |
6/2018 | Reporter: A Memoir | Seymour M | Hersh | #NONFIC | From the Pulitzer Prize-winning, best-selling author and preeminent investigative journalist of our time—a heartfelt, hugely revealing memoir of a decades-long career breaking some of the most impactful stories of the last half-century, from Washington to Vietnam to the Middle East. |
6/2018 | Vacationland: True Stories from Painful Beaches | John | Hodgnab | #NONFIC | Though wildly, Hodgmaniacally funny as usual, it is also a poignant and sincere account of one human facing his forties, those years when men in particular must stop pretending to be the children of bright potential they were and settle into the failing bodies of the wiser, weird dads that they are. |
6/2018 | Meaty: Essays | Samantha | Irby | #NONFIC | Samantha Irby explodes onto the printed page with her debut collection of brand-new essays about trying to laugh her way through failed relationships, being black, taco feasts, bouts with Crohn's disease, and more. Every essay is crafted with the same scathing wit and poignant candor thousands of loyal readers have come to expect from visiting her notoriously hilarious blog, bitchesgottaeat.com. |
6/2018 | I Find Your Lack of Faith Disturbing: Star Wars and the Triumph of Geek Culture | A.D. | Jameson | #NONFIC | A lifelong geek, Jameson shines a new light on beloved classics, explaining the enormous love (and hate) they are capable of inspiring in fan and non-fan alike, while exploding misconceptions as to how and why they were made. . . . tells the story of how the geeks have inherited the earth. |
6/2018 | Vegan: The Cookbook | Jean-Christian | Jury | #NONFIC | With nearly 500 vegetable-driven recipes, Vegan: The Cookbook, inspired by cuisines around the work, brings vegan home cooking to new levels of deliciousness. |
6/2018 | Sick: A Memoir | Porochista | Khakpour | #NONFIC | For as long as author Porochista Khakpour can remember, she has been sick. For most of that time, she didn't know why. Several drug addictions, some major hospitalizations, and over $100,000 later, she finally had a diagnosis: late-stage Lyme disease. |
6/2018 | Literary Witches: A Celebration of Magical Women Writers | Taisia | Kitaiskaia | #NONFIC | Literary Witches draws a connection between witches and visionary writers: both are figures of formidable creativity, empowerment, and general badassery. Through poetic portraits, Taisia Kitaiskaia and Katy Horan [illustrator] honor the witchy qualities of well-known and obscure authors alike, including Virginia Woolf, Mira Bai, Toni Morrison, Emily Dickinson, Octavia E. Butler, Sandra Cisneros, and many more. |
6/2018 | The Battle for Paradise: Puerto Rico Takes on the Disaster Capitalists | Naomi | Klein | #NONFIC | In the rubble of Hurricane Maria, Puerto Ricans and ultrarich “Puertopians” are locked in a pitched struggle over how to remake the island. In this vital and startling investigation, bestselling author and activist Naomi Klein uncovers how the forces of shock politics and disaster capitalism seek to undermine the nation's radical, resilient vision for a “just recovery.” |
6/2018 | The Opposite of Hate: A Field Guide to Repairing Our Humanity | Sally | Kohn | #NONFIC | As a progressive commentator on Fox News and now CNN, Sally Kohn has made a career out of bridging intractable political differences and learning how to talk respectfully with people whose views she disagrees with passionately. . . . As Kohn confronts her own shameful moments, whether it was back when she bullied a classmate or today when she harbors deep partisan resentment, she discovers, "The opposite of hate is the beautiful and powerful reality of how we are all fundamentally linked and equal as human beings. The opposite of hate is connection." Sally Kohn’s engaging, fascinating, and often funny book will open your eyes and your heart. |
6/2018 | The Great Animal Orchestra: Finding the Origins of Music in the World's Wild Places | Bernie | Krause | #NONFIC | Musician and naturalist Bernie Krause is one of the world's leading experts in natural sound, and he's spent his life discovering and recording nature's rich chorus. . . . The Great Animal Orchestra is the story of one man's pursuit of natural music in its purest form, and an impassioned case for the conservation of one of our most overlooked natural resources-the music of the wild. |
6/2018 | Can Democracy Survive Global Capitalism | Robert | Kuttner | #NONFIC | Beginning in the 1970s, as deregulated capitalism regained the upper hand, elites began to dominate politics once again; policy reversals followed. The inequality and instability that ensued would eventually, in 2016, cause disillusioned voters to support far-right faux populism. Is today’s poisonous alliance of reckless finance and ultranationalism inevitable? Or can we find the political will to make capitalism serve democracy, and not the other way around? Charting a plan for bold action based on political precedent, Can Democracy Survive Global Capitalism? is essential reading for anyone eager to reverse the decline of democracy in the West. |
6/2018 | Living Tao: Timeless Principles for Everyday Enlightenment | Ilichi | Lee | #NONFIC | New York Times bestselling author Ilchi Lee, an enlightened Tao master from South Korea, has laid out a path to living Tao everyday. Along this path, he guides you to an understanding of the meaning of birth, death, and everything in between, building a foundation for living a complete and whole life. |
6/2018 | Annie Leibovitz Portraits 2005-2016 | Annie | Leibovitz | #NONFIC | In this new collection, Leibovitz has captured the most influential and compelling figures of the last decade in the style that has made her one of the most beloved talents of our time. Each of the photographs documents contemporary culture with an artist's eye, wit, and an uncanny ability to personalize even the most recognizable and distinguished figures. |
6/2018 | Trip: Psychedelics, Alienation and Change | Tao | Lin | #NONFIC | Trip takes readers on a trip through psychedelic culture, from D.A.R.E. to Aldous Huxley, from NYU's Bobst Library to a plant-drawing class in Santa Rosa, California. Drawing on first-person exploratory journalism as well as in-depth research, Tao details the experience of taking psilocybin, DMT, and cannabis, studies their chemical composure and legality, and ends his story with a pilgrimage out West, where he communes with McKenna's ex-wife and fellow "ethnobotanist," Kathleen Harrison. |
6/2018 | You're More Powerful Than You Think: A Citizen's Guide to Making Change Happen | Eric | Liu | #NONFIC | Using examples from the left and the right, past and present, [the author] reveals the core laws of power. He shows that all of us can generate power-and then, step by step, he shows us how. The strategies of reform and revolution he lays out will help every reader make sense of our world today. If you want to be more than a spectator in this new era, you need to read this book. |
6/2018 | Life in the Garden | Penelope | Lively | #NONFIC | Penelope Lively takes up her key themes of time and memory, and her lifelong passions for art, literature, and gardening in this philosophical and poetic memoir. |
6/2018 | The Pacific Northwest's Best Trips: 32 Amazing Road Trips | Lonely Planet | #NONFIC | Featuring 33 amazing road trips, from 2-day escapes to 2-week adventures, you can cruise along the stunning Pacific Coast or explore the eerie volcanic landscape of Mt St Helen, all with your trusted travel companion. Jump in the car, turn up the tunes, and hit the road! | |
6/2018 | A Burst of Light and Other Essays | Audre | Lorde | #NONFIC | "Lorde's words — on race, cancer, intersectionality, parenthood, injustice — burn with relevance 25 years after her death." [From O, The Oprah Magazine] |
6/2018 | The Book of Greens: A Cook's Compendium | Jenn | Louis | #NONFIC | Chef Jenn Louis has compiled more than 175 recipes for simple, show-stopping fare, from snacks to soups to mains (and even breakfast and dessert) that will inspire you to reach for new greens at the farmers’ market, or use your old standbys in totally fresh ways. |
6/2018 | Room to Dream | David | Lynch and Kristine Mckenna | #NONFIC | An unprecedented look into the personal and creative life of the visionary auteur David Lynch, through his own words and those of his closest colleagues, friends, and family. . . . In this unique hybrid of biography and memoir, David Lynch opens up for the first time about a life lived in pursuit of his singular vision, and the many heartaches and struggles he’s faced to bring his unorthodox projects to fruition. |
6/2018 | Perfect Imperfect: the Beauty of Accident, Age & Patina | Karen | McCartney | #NONFIC | This beautiful, inspirational book, with thought-provoking text by Karen McCartney and stunning visuals by Sharyn Cairns and Glen Proebstel, is a celebration of accident, curation, collection, hesitation, collaboration, reuse, reimagining and true originality. It explores an established aesthetic in a new way, as illustrated by the homes and studios of international and Australian creatives. It embraces current design objects alongside well-worn ones, and features interior settings that mix comfort, design and an off-beat beauty. |
6/2018 | This Radical Land: A Natural History of American Dissent | Daegan | Miller | #NONFIC | Daegan Miller is our guide on a beautifully written, revelatory trip across the continent during which we encounter radical thinkers, settlers, and artists who grounded their ideas of freedom, justice, and progress in the very landscapes around them, even as the runaway engine of capitalism sought to steamroll everything in its path. Here we meet Thoreau, the expert surveyor, drawing anticapitalist property maps. We visit a black antislavery community in the Adirondack wilderness of upstate New York. |
6/2018 | Dawson City Frozen Time | Bill | Morrison, Director | #DVD | Part fever dream, part historical record, Dawson City: Frozen Time tells the bizarre true story of some 533 silent lm reels, buried for almost 50 years in a sub-arctic swimming pool, deep in the Yukon permafrost. Filmmaker Bill Morrison (Decasia) deftly combines excerpts from this lm nd, including rarely seen Hollywood features, with historical footage, photographs, and interviews, to explore the complicated history of Dawson City, founded across the river from a First Nations hunting camp, the Canadian Gold Rush town at the end of a lm distribution line. Propelled by Alex Somers transcendent score, Dawson City: Frozen Time is a dazzling cinematic experience, a deep dive into the connections and contradictions of the 20th century archive. |
6/2018 | Nasty Women: Feminism, Resistance, and Revolution in Trump's America | Samhita | Mukhopadhyay, Editor | #NONFIC | When 53 percent of white women voted for Donald Trump and 94 percent of black women voted for Hillary Clinton, how can women unite in Trump’s America? Nasty Women includes inspiring essays from a diverse group of talented women writers who seek to provide a broad look at how we got here and what we need to do to move forward. |
6/2018 | Convenience Store Woman | Sayaka | Murata | #FIC | Sayaka Murata brilliantly captures the atmosphere of the familiar convenience store that is so much part of life in Japan. With some laugh-out-loud moments prompted by the disconnect between Keiko’s thoughts and those of the people around her, she provides a sharp look at Japanese society and the pressure to conform, as well as penetrating insights into the female mind. Convenience Store Woman is a fresh, charming portrait of an unforgettable heroine that recalls Banana Yoshimoto, Han Kang, and Amélie. |
6/2018 | Tapestry Garden: The Art of Weaving Plants and Place | Marietta and Ernie | O'Byrne | #NONFIC | Marietta and Ernie O’Byrne’s garden—situated on one and a half acres in Eugene, Oregon—is filled with an incredible array of plants from around the world. By consciously leveraging the garden’s many microclimates, they have created a stunning patchwork of exuberant plants that is widely considered one of America’s most outstanding private gardens. In A Tapestry Garden, the O’Byrnes share their deep knowledge of plants and essential garden advice. |
6/2018 | Couchsurfing in Iran: Revealing a Hidden World | Stephen | Orth | #NONFIC | In Couchsurfing in Iran, award-winning author Stephan Orth spends sixty-two days on the road in this mysterious Islamic republic to provide a revealing, behind-the-scenes look at life in one of the world’s most closed societies. Through the unsurpassed hospitality of twenty-two hosts, he skips the guidebooks and tourist attractions and travels from Persian carpet to bed to cot, covering more than 8,400 kilometers to recount “this world’s hidden doings.” |
6/2018 | An African American and Latinx History of the United States | Paul | Ortiz | #NONFIC | Incisive and timely, An African American and Latinx History of the United States is a bottom-up history told from the viewpoint of African American and Latinx activists and revealing the radically different ways people of the diaspora addressed issues still plaguing the United States today. |
6/2018 | Orwell on Truth | George | Orwell | #NONFIC | In Orwell on Truth, excerpts from across Orwell’s career show how his writing and worldview developed over the decades, profoundly shaped by his experiences in the Spanish Civil War, and further by World War II and the rise of totalitarian states. In a world that seems increasingly like one of Orwell’s dystopias, a willingness to speak truth to power is more important than ever. |
6/2018 | Hummelo: A Journey Through a Plantsman's Life | Piet | Oudolf | #NONFIC | Hummelo—near the village of the same name in Gelderland in the eastern Netherlands—is visited by thousands of gardeners seeking inspiration each year. It is Piet Oudolf’s home, his personal garden laboratory, a former nursery run by his wife Anja, and the place where he first tested new designs and created the new varieties of perennials that are now widely available. |
6/2018 | Gardens of the High Line: Elevating the Nature of Modern Landscapes | Piet | Oudolf and Rick Darke | #NONFIC | . . . offers an in-depth view into the planting designs, plant palette, and maintenance of this landmark achievement. It reveals a four-season garden that is filled with native and exotic plants, drought-tolerant perennials, and grasses that thrive and spread. It also offers inspiration and advice to home gardeners and garden designers looking to recreate its iconic, naturalistic style. |
6/2018 | Toast & Jam: Modern Recipes for Rustic Baked Goods and Sweet & Savory Spreads | Sarah | Owens | #NONFIC | Bread and butter, toast and jam, scones and clotted cream—baked goods have a long tradition of being paired with spreads to make their flavors and textures sing. As a baker with a passion for plants, Sarah Owens, author of the James Beard award–winning Sourdough, takes these simple pairings in fresh new directions. |
6/2018 | The Indian Vegetarian Cookbook | Pushpesh | Pant | #NONFIC | Vegetables are an integral part of Indian cuisine - and this collection of 150 healthy and approachable vegetarian recipes showcases an array of delicious breakfasts and drinks, salads, vegetables and legumes, grains, and desserts. |
6/2018 | The Finnish Way: Finding Courage, Wellness, and Happiness Through the Power Of Sisu | Katja | Pantzar | #NONFIC | If you've ever wondered if there's a better, simpler way to find happiness and good heath, look no further. The Finns have a word for that, and this empowering book shows us how to achieve it. |
6/2018 | Hanging Kokedama: Creating Potless Plants for the Home | Coraleigh | Parker | #NONFIC | Learn all about the Japanese art of creating pot-less plants, known as kokedama, from botanical extraordinaire Coraleigh Parker, and have a go at creating your own pot-less, hanging plants. |
6/2018 | Bitch Doctrine : Essays for Dissenting Adults | Laurie | Penny | #NONFIC | Penny is lyrical and passionate in her desire to confront injustice, and she's writing at the raw edge of a revolution-hungry zeitgeist, a time when it has never been more vital to actively question and fiercely dispute all forms of complacency, including social norms. This darkly comic, often biting yet empathic, revelatory collection will inform, challenge, and engage, and give readers hope and tools for change. |
6/2018 | When Katie Met Cassidy | Camille | Perri | #FIC | When Katie Met Cassidy is a romantic comedy about gender and sexuality, and the importance of figuring out who we are in order to go after what we truly want. It's also a portrait of a high-drama subculture where barrooms may as well be bedrooms, and loyal friends fill in the spaces absent families leave behind. Katie's glimpse into this wild yet fiercely tightknit community begins to alter not only how she sees the larger world, but also where exactly she fits in. |
6/2018 | Pretty Tough Plants: 135 Resilient, Water-Smart Choices for A Beautiful Garden by the Experts At Plant Select | Plant Select | #NONFIC | Pretty Tough Plants highlights 135 of Plant Select’s top plant picks. Each profile features a color photograph and specific details about the plant’s size, best features, and bloom season, along with cultural needs, landscape features, and design ideas. | |
6/2018 | Spying On Whales: The Past, Present , And Future of Earth's Most Awesome Creatures | Nick | Pyenson | #NONFIC | Nick Pyenson's research has given us the answers to some of our biggest questions about whales. He takes us deep inside the Smithsonian's unparalleled fossil collections, to frigid Antarctic waters, and to the arid desert in Chile, where scientists race against time to document the largest fossil whale site ever found. Full of rich storytelling and scientific discovery, Spying on Whales spans the ancient past to an uncertain future--all to better understand the most enigmatic creatures on Earth. |
6/2018 | Sacred Knowledge: Psychedelics and Religious Experiences | William A. | Richards | #NONFIC | Sacred Knowledge is the first well-documented, sophisticated account of the effect of psychedelics on biological processes, human consciousness, and revelatory religious experiences. Based on nearly three decades of legal research with volunteers, William A. Richards argues that, if used responsibly and legally, psychedelics have the potential to assuage suffering and constructively affect the quality of human life. |
6/2018 | Alone Time: Four Seasons, Four Cities, and the Pleasures of Solitude | Stephanie | Rosenbloom | #NONFIC | Alone Time is divided into four parts, each set in a different city, in a different season, in a single year. The destinations--Paris, Istanbul, Florence, New York--are all pedestrian-friendly, allowing travelers to slow down and appreciate casual pleasures instead of hurtling through museums and posting photos to Instagram. Each section spotlights a different theme associated with the joys and benefits of time alone and how it can enable people to enrich their lives--facilitating creativity, learning, self-reliance, as well as the ability to experiment and change. |
6/2018 | Vinegar Revival: Artisanal Recipes for Brightening Dishes and Drinks with Homemade Vinegar | Harry | Rosenblum | #NONFIC | The next frontier in fermenting and home brewing is vinegar: the essential ingredient for enhancing your home cooking. Just about everyone has at least one bottle of vinegar in the pantry, but not many realize how much better the homemade kind tastes—the flavor is incomparable. . . . Vinegar Revival shows you how to use homemade or store-bought vinegar--made from apple cider, beer, wine, fruit scraps, herbs, and more--to great effect with more than 50 recipes. |
6/2018 | Garden Renovation | Bobbie | Schwartz | #NONFIC | Bobbie Schwartz draws on her years of experience as a garden designer to teach gardeners how to evaluate their yards, determine what to keep and what to remove, choose the right plants and design plans for successful remodels, and know when to hire help. A gallery of before-and-after photos provides ideas and inspiration for turning a tired garden into an enlivening retreat. |
6/2018 | Trying Not To Try: Ancient China, Modern Science and the Power of Spontaneity | Edward | Slingerland | #NONFIC | Through stories of mythical creatures and drunken cart riders, jazz musicians and Japanese motorcycle gangs, Slingerland effortlessly blends Eastern thought and cutting-edge science to show us how we can live more fulfilling lives. Trying Not To Try is mind-expanding and deeply pleasurable, the perfect antidote to our striving modern culture. |
6/2018 | Devotion | Patti | Smith | #NONFIC | A work of creative brilliance may seem like magic—its source a mystery, its impact unexpectedly stirring. How does an artist accomplish such an achievement, connecting deeply with an audience never met? In this groundbreaking book, one of our culture’s beloved artists offers a detailed account of her own creative process, inspirations, and unexpected connections. |
6/2018 | Pacific Northwest Camping | Tom | Stienstra | #NONFIC | Top-selling outdoors writer Tom Stienstra covers the adventures of camping in the Pacific Northwest, including notable campsites along the Olympic Peninsula and Washington Coast, as well as the Southern Cascades, Mount Rainier, and the Columbia River Gorge. Stienstra provides easy-to-follow maps with driving directions to each campground, along with camping options from secluded alpine hike-ins to convenient roadside stop-overs. |
6/2018 | Curing Exceptionalism: What's Wrong With How We Think About the United State and What Can We Do About It | David | Swanson | #NONFIC | U.S. exceptionalism, the idea that the United States of America is superior to other nations, is no more fact-based and no less harmful than racism, sexism, and other forms of bigotry. The purpose of this book is to persuade you of that statement. This book examines how the United States actually compares with other countries, how people think about the comparison, what damage that thinking does, and what changes we might want to consider making. |
6/2018 | Dancing Bears: True Stories of People Nostalgic for Life Under Tyranny | Witold | Szablowski | #NONFIC | “Should be required reading for anyone hoping to understand the growing appeal of authoritarian leaders in Eastern Europe today . . . Combining black humor with lyrical prose, Szabłowski brilliantly captures the tragic disorientation of men and women whose lives were bifurcated by the sudden collapse of Communism and ruthless onslaught of neoliberal capitalism. . . . A poignant allegory about the human costs of regime change.” [from —Kristen Ghodsee, author of Red Hangover: Legacies of Twentieth-Century Communism] |
6/2018 | Last Stories | William | Trevor | #FIC | With a career that spanned more than half a century, William Trevor is regarded as one of the best writers of short stories in the English language. Now, in Last Stories, the master storyteller delivers ten exquisitely rendered tales—nine of which have never been published in book form--that illuminate the human condition and will surely linger in the reader's mind long after closing the book. Subtle yet powerful, Trevor gives us insights into the lives of ordinary people. |
6/2018 | Reading Art: Art for Book Lovers | David | Trigg | #NONFIC | A celebration of artworks featuring books and readers from throughout history, for the delight of art lovers and bibliophiles. published by Phaidon |
6/2018 | Victoria & Abdul | Universal Pictures Home Entertainment | #DVD | The extraordinary true story of an unexpected friendship in the later years of Queen Victoria's (Academy Award winner Judi Dench) remarkable rule. When Abdul Karim (Ali Fazal), a young clerk, travels from India to participate in the Queen's Golden Jubilee, he is surprised to find favor with the Queen herself. As the Queen questions the constrictions of her long-held position, the two forge an unlikely and devoted alliance with a loyalty to one another that her household and inner circle all attempt to destroy. As the friendship deepens, the Queen begins to see a changing world through new eyes and joyfully reclaims her humanity. | |
6/2018 | The Girl Who Smiled Beads: A Story of War and What Comes After | Clemantine | Wamariya and Elizabeth Weil | #NONFIC | In The Girl Who Smiled Beads, Clemantine provokes us to look beyond the label of “victim” and recognize the power of the imagination to transcend even the most profound injuries and aftershocks. Devastating yet beautiful, and bracingly original, it is a powerful testament to her commitment to constructing a life on her own terms. |
6/2018 | The Maverick Soul: Portraits of the Lives & Homes of Eccentric, Eclectic & Free-Spirited Bohemians | Miv | Watts | #NONFIC | In The Maverick Soul, Miv Watts opens the doors to twenty-five authentic bohemian homes, occupied by some of the world's most inspirational free spirits. From artists and musicians, to writers, actors, stylists, farmers and more, this is a collection of people who have the courage to live life on their own terms, and are comfortable in their own skin. |
6/2018 | The Nature Fix: Why Nature Makes Us Happier, Healthier and More Creative | Florence | Williams | #NONFIC | The Nature Fix demonstrates that our connection to nature is much more important to our cognition than we think and that even small amounts of exposure to the living world can improve our creativity and enhance our mood. In prose that is incisive, witty, and urgent, Williams shows how time in nature is not a luxury but is in fact essential to our humanity. As our modern lives shift dramatically indoors, these ideas―and the answers they yield―are more urgent than ever. |
6/2018 | The Instinct For Cooperation: A Graphic Novel Conversation With Noam Chomsky & Jeffrey Wilson | Jeffrey | Wilson | #NONFIC | An astonishing graphic novel that brings Chomsky's political analysis to bear on real people's stories on the frontlines of America's struggle for economic justice and human dignity. The Instinct for Cooperation innovatively balances those real-life stories of struggle with conversations the author has had with Chomsky on how best to understand them. |
6/2018 | Occupy the Economy: Challenging Capitalism | Richard | Wolff | #NONFIC | The Occupy movement, by articulating deep indignation with the whole system, mobilizes huge numbers who seek basic change. Occupying the Economy not only clarifies and analyzes the crisis in U.S. capitalism today, it also points toward solutions that can shape a far better future for all. |
6/2018 | Eat the Planet: Saving the World One Bite at a Time | Nill | Zacharias & Gene Stone | #NONFIC | . . . [D]id you know that the primary driver of climate change isn’t plastics, or cars, or airplanes? Did you know that it’s actually our industrialized food system? In this fascinating new book, authors Nil Zacharias and Gene Stone share new research, intriguing infographics, and compelling arguments that support what scientists across the world are beginning to affirm and uphold: By making even minimal dietary changes, anyone can have a positive, lasting impact on our planet. |
7/2018 | Give Me a Hand | Megan | Abbott | #FIC | "Abbott, who always immerses readers in hothouse subcultures in her novels - cheerleading, gymnastics - here explores the relationship between competitive scientists at a cutthroat university laboratory."―New York Times Book Review, Editors' Choice |
7/2018 | The Accusation: Forbidden Stories From Inside North Korea | Bandi (pseudonym) | #FIC | The Accusation is a deeply moving and eye-opening work of fiction that paints a powerful portrait of life under the North Korean regime. Set during the period of Kim Il-sung and Kim Jong-il's leadership, the seven stories that make up The Accusation give voice to people living under this most bizarre and horrifying of dictatorships. . . . Written with deep emotion and writing talent, The Accusation is a vivid depiction of life in a closed-off one-party state, and also a hopeful testament to the humanity and rich internal life that persists even in such inhumane conditions. | |
7/2018 | Prescription Thugs | Chris | Bell | #DVD #NONFIC | Prescription Thugs is filmmaker Chris Bell's (Bigger Stronger Faster*) hard-hitting and thought-provoking expose of Big Pharma, its marketing practices and their impact on the staggering level of addiction to prescription drugs in North America. Executive Produced by Vince Vaughn and Peter Billingsley, this documentary is compelling viewing. |
7/2018 | Jermal | Ravi | Bharwani, et. al., Director | #DVD | . . . might be the best Indonesian film of the year --Kim Dong-ho, Pusan Festival Director, 2008 (Screen International, 26 September 2008) |
7/2018 | Murder on Oregon's Coast Highway, 1961 | Joe R. | Blakely | #FIC | Highway 101 historian Joe Blakely’s new book is a 1960s thriller that races down the scenic Oregon Coast. ~ William L. Sullivan, author of Hiking Oregon’s History ~~~~ Charley Norman, a reporter for Portland’s Oregonian newspaper, is determined to expose the major prostitution operation that’s operating in the city. Now the crooks and pimps are calling with death threats. . . . So begins the frightening story of Charley’s quest as he leads a chase down the length of Oregon’s Coast Highway in order to bring the crime boss to justice. |
7/2018 | EXTRA! WEEGEE : A Collection of 359 Vintage Photographs from 1929-1946 | Daniel | Blau, editor | #NONFIC | No photographer came close to capturing the sensations, scandals, and catastrophes of 1930s and ’40s New York like Weegee (1899–1968). His striking images—captured through his uncanny ability to be on the spot and ready to shoot when things happened—have become part of the visual vocabulary through which we understand the period. This book, however, offers something new: drawing on an NEA archive that was only discovered in 2012, it presents countless never-before-seen Weegee photos. |
7/2018 | The Thorn Necklace: Healing Through Writing and the Creative Process | Francesca Lia | Block | #NONFIC | In this long-anticipated guide to the craft of writing, Block offers an intimate glimpse of an artist at work and a detailed guide to help readers channel their own experiences and creative energy. Sharing visceral insights and powerful exercises, she gently guides us down the write-to-heal path, revealing at each turn the intrinsic value of channeling our experiences onto the page. |
7/2018 | Dead Girls: Essays On Surviving an American Obsession | Alice | Bolin | #NONFIC | In this poignant collection, Alice Bolin examines iconic American works from the essays of Joan Didion and James Baldwin to Twin Peaks, Britney Spears, and Serial, illuminating the widespread obsession with women who are abused, killed, and disenfranchised, and whose bodies (dead and alive) are used as props to bolster men’s stories. Smart and accessible, thoughtful and heartfelt, Bolin investigates the implications of our cultural fixations, and her own role as a consumer and creator. |
7/2018 | Flash: The Making of Weegee the Famous | Chritopher | Bonanos | #NONFIC | Arthur Fellig’s ability to arrive at a crime scene just as the cops did was so uncanny that he renamed himself “Weegee,” claiming that he functioned as a human Ouija board. Weegee documented better than any other photographer the crime, grit, and complex humanity of midcentury New York City. In Flash, we get a portrait not only of the man (both flawed and deeply talented, with generous appetites for publicity, women, and hot pastrami) but also of the fascinating time and place that he occupied. |
7/2018 | Evolution: A Visual Record | Robert | Clark | #NONFIC | Evidence of evolution is everywhere. Through 200 revelatory images, award-winning photographer Robert Clark makes one of the most important foundations of science clear and exciting to everyone. Evolution: A Visual Record transports readers from the near-mystical (human ancestors) to the historic (the famous 'finches' Darwin collected on the Galapagos Islands that spurred his theory); the recently understood (the link between dinosaurs and modern birds) to the simply astonishing. [published by Phaidon Press] |
7/2018 | I Called Him Morgan | Kasper | Collin | #DVD | On a snowy night in February 1972, celebrated jazz musician Lee Morgan was shot dead by his wife Helen during a gig at a New York City club. The murder sent shockwaves through the jazz community, and the memory of the event still haunts all who knew the Morgans. This feature documentary by Swedish filmmaker Kasper Collin is a love letter to two unique personalities and the music that brought them together. A film about love, jazz and America. |
7/2018 | The Collected Stories of Machado de Assis | Machado | de Assis | #FIC | Widely acclaimed as the progenitor of twentieth-century Latin American fiction, Machado de Assis (1839–1908)―the son of a mulatto father and a washerwoman, and the grandson of freed slaves―was hailed in his lifetime as Brazil’s greatest writer. His prodigious output of novels, plays, and stories rivaled contemporaries like Chekhov, Flaubert, and Maupassant, but, shockingly, he was barely translated into English until 1963 and still lacks proper recognition today. [Translated by Margaret Jull Costa and Robin Patterson] |
7/2018 | Disoriental | Negar | Djavadi | #FIC | Kimiâ Sadr fled Iran at the age of ten in the company of her mother and sisters to join her father in France. Now twenty-five and facing the future she has built for herself as well as the prospect of a new generation, Kimiâ is inundated by her own memories and the stories of her ancestors . . . In this high-spirited, kaleidoscopic story, key moments of Iranian history, politics, and culture punctuate stories of family drama and triumph. Yet it is Kimiâ herself––punk-rock aficionado, storyteller extraordinaire, a Scheherazade of our time, and above all a modern woman divided between family traditions and her own “disorientalization”––who forms the heart of this bestselling and beloved novel. |
7/2018 | Love Style Life | Garance | Dore | #NONFIC | Garance Doré, the voice and vision behind her eponymous blog, has captivated millions of readers worldwide with her fresh and appealing approach to style through storytelling. This gorgeously illustrated book takes readers on a unique narrative journey that . . . is a backstage pass behind fashion’s frontlines, peppered with French-girl-next-door wit and advice on everything from mixing J.Crew with Chanel, to falling in love, to pursuing a life and career that is the perfect reflection of you. |
7/2018 | Natural Color: Vibrant Plant Dye Projects for Your Home and Wardrobe | Sasha | Duerr | #NONFIC | Organized by season, Natural Color is a beautifully photographed guide to the full range of plant dyes available, drawn from commonly found fruits, flowers, trees, and herbs, with accompanying projects. Using sustainable methods and artisanal techniques, designer, artist, and professor Sasha Duerr details achievable ways to apply these limitless color possibilties to your home and wardrobe. . . . With recipes to dye everything from dresses and sweaters to rugs and napkins, Natural Color will inspire fashion enthusiasts, home decorators, textile lovers, and everyone else who wants to bring more color into their life. |
7/2018 | Happiness: Ten Years of n+1 | Editors of n+1 | #NONFIC | Happiness, released on the occasion of n+1's tenth anniversary, collects the best of the magazine as selected by its editors. These essays are fiercely contentious, disconcertingly astute, and screamingly funny. They explore our modern pursuits of happiness and take a searching moral inventory of the strange times we live in. . . . This n+1 anthology is the definitive work of the definitive twenty-first century intellectual magazine. | |
7/2018 | The History of the Decline and Fall of America: A Semi-Fictional Satire | Scott | Erickson | #FIC | In this semi-fictional satire, award-winning humorist Scott Erickson assumes the identity of a British historian looking back from the year 2076 to explain how and why America fell. The book is for people who suspect that America is collapsing and are looking for validation. The message to the reader is: You’re not crazy, it’s the world. By examining America’s past and projecting it into the future, the book shows how America’s core assumptions have determined its history and will determine its destiny. It shows that America is destroying itself while remaining absolutely clueless as to the reasons why. |
7/2018 | Animal Music - Sound and Song in the Natural World | Tobias | Fischer & Lara Cory | #NONFIC | Ever since the accidental discovery of whale song in 1967, the idea of complex animal sentience has been gaining strength within the scientific community. A growing number of researchers and academics are exploring the idea that animals enjoy music on a similar level to human beings. Animal Music is the first anthology to present an overview of the current state of this vital debate. Its authors have spoken to the leading scientists, researchers and musicians in the field to uncover hidden meanings and new perspectives. |
7/2018 | Quick and Easy Thai Recipes | Jean-Pierre | Gabriel | #NONFIC | The 100 recipes in Quick and Easy Thai Recipes, all of which have been selected and adapted from Phaidon's national cuisine cookbook, Thailand: The Cookbook, form the ultimate collection of authentic and approachable recipes for home cooks of all levels. |
7/2018 | Toy Stories: Photos of Children from Around the World and Their Favorite Things | Gabriele | Galimberti | #NONFIC | For over a year, the photographer and journalist Gabriele Galimberti visited more than 50 countries and created colorful images of boys and girls in their homes and neighborhoods with their most prized possessions: their toys. From Texas to India, Malawi to China, Iceland, Morocco, and Fiji, Galimberti recorded the spontaneous and natural joy that unites kids despite their diverse backgrounds. Whether the child owns a veritable fleet of miniature cars or a single stuffed monkey, the pride that Galimberti captures is moving, funny, and thought provoking. |
7/2018 | Crashing the Party: from the Bernie Sanders Campaign to a Progressive Movement | Heather | Gautney | #NONFIC | Longtime author and activist Heather Gautney was a Policy Fellow in Sanders’s Washington, DC, office and a volunteer researcher and organizer on his presidential campaign. In reviewing what enabled Sanders to reach out to an unprecedented number with a socialist message—and what stalled his progress—she draws lessons on the prospects and perils of building a progressive movement in the United States. |
7/2018 | Military Style Invades Fashion | Timothy | Godbold | #NONFIC | This book celebrates the enduring appeal of military-inspired clothing and acts as a reference guide and source of inspiration for designers and fashion followers alike. |
7/2018 | Amity and Prosperity: One Family and the Fracturing of America | Eliza | Griswold | #NONFIC | "Her sensitive and judicious new book, . . . is neither an outraged sermon delivered from a populist soapbox nor a pinched, professorial lecture. Griswold, a journalist and a poet, paid close attention to a community in southwestern Pennsylvania over the course of seven years to convey its confounding experience with hydraulic fracturing . . . What Griswold depicts is a community, like the earth, cracked open. . . . Parts of Amity and Prosperity read as intimately as a novel, though its insidious, slow-motion ordeal is all too real." ―Jennifer Szalai, The New York Times |
7/2018 | The Sun Does Shine: How I Found Life and Freedom on Death Row | Anthony Ray | Hinton, et. al. | #NONFIC | With a foreword by Stevenson, The Sun Does Shine is an extraordinary testament to the power of hope sustained through the darkest times. Destined to be a classic memoir of wrongful imprisonment and freedom won, Hinton’s memoir tells his dramatic thirty–year journey and shows how you can take away a man’s freedom, but you can’t take away his imagination, humor, or joy. |
7/2018 | Brothers of the Gun: A Memoir of the Syrian War | Marwan | Hisham and Molly Crabapple | #NONFIC | Illustrated with more than eighty ink drawings by Molly Crabapple that bring to life the beauty and chaos, Brothers of the Gun offers a ground-level reflection on the Syrian revolution—and how it bled into international catastrophe and global war. This is a story of pragmatism and idealism, impossible violence and repression, and, even in the midst of war, profound acts of courage, creativity, and hope. |
7/2018 | #Never Again: A New Generation Draws the Line | David | Hogg and Lauren Hogg | #NONFIC | On February 14, 2018, seventeen-year-old David Hogg and his fourteen-year-old sister, Lauren, went to school at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, like any normal Wednesday. That day, of course, the world changed. By the next morning, with seventeen classmates and faculty dead, they had joined the leadership of a movement to save their own lives, and the lives of all other young people in America. It's a leadership position they did not seek, and did not want--but events gave them no choice. |
7/2018 | Seeing Trees: Discover the Extraordinary Secrets of Everyday Trees | Nancy Ross | Hugo | #NONFIC | Focusing on widely grown trees, this captivating book describes the rewards of careful and regular tree viewing, outlines strategies for improving your observations, and describes some of the most visually interesting tree structures, including leaves, flowers, buds, leaf scars, twigs, and bark. In-depth profiles of ten familiar species—including such beloved trees as white oak, southern magnolia, white pine, and tulip poplar—show you how to recognize and understand many of their most compelling (but usually overlooked) physical features. |
7/2018 | Artist Rebel Dandy: Men of Fashion | Kate | Irvin and Laurie Anne Brewer, Editors | #NONFIC | A series of fascinating essays traces the often contradictory definitions and images of the dandy, the history of young men and their clothes in the long 19th century, the exquisite fabrics and tailoring that play an important role in dandy style, and the relationship of black dandyism and hip-hop. In addition, this book features fifteen musings on notable dandies written by individuals who share a kinship with their subject. |
7/2018 | Sylvia | Christine | Jeffs | #DVD | Academy Award-Winner Gwyneth Paltrow stars in this powerfully passionate true story of legendary American author and poet, Sylvia Plath. While on a Fulbright Scholarship to England, Sylvia meets Ted Hughes (Daniel Craig), a British poet on the verge of international fame. Following a torrid four month courtship, they marry and embark on an intense relationship. When Ted's subsequent literary success and the attentions of admiring women strains the marriage, Sylvia funnels her fury and passion into her own work which begins to flow forth in unstoppable bursts. This true story of love and tragic passion is "One of the most beautiful films of the year." (New York Observer) |
7/2018 | Happy Ever Esther: Two Men, a Wonder Pig, and Their Life-Changing Mission to Give Animals a Home | Steve | Jenkins, Derek Walter and Caprice Crane | #NONFIC | . . .before they knew it their sanctuary grew to as many as 42 animals, including: pigs, sheep, goats, rabbits, chickens, cows, roosters, a peacock, a duck, a horse, a donkey, and a barn cat named Willma Ferrell. Written with joy and humor, and filled with delicious Esther-approved recipes dispersed throughout the book, this charming memoir captures an emotional journey of one little family advocating for animals everywhere. |
7/2018 | The Good Son | You-Jeong | Jeong | #FIC | “At long last, South Korea’s preeminent author of psychological thrillers has arrived Stateside. The Good Son . . . [is] a perfect introduction: an ingeniously twisted mother-son saga that keeps your heart pumping—and then breaks it.” —Entertainment Weekly, “Must List” |
7/2018 | The Death of Truth: Notes on Falsehood in the Age of Trump | Michiko | Kakutani | #NONFIC | How did truth become an endangered species in contemporary America? This decline began decades ago, and in The Death of Truth, former New York Times critic Michiko Kakutani takes a penetrating look at the cultural forces that contributed to this gathering storm. In social media and literature, television, academia, and politics, Kakutani identifies the trends—originating on both the right and the left—that have combined to elevate subjectivity over factuality, science, and common values. And she returns us to the words of the great critics of authoritarianism, writers like George Orwell and Hannah Arendt, whose work is newly and eerily relevant. |
7/2018 | The Lamb Will Slaughter the Lion | Margaret | Killjoy | #FIC | The Lamb Will Slaughter the Lion by Margaret Killjoy pits utopian anarchists against rogue demon deer in this dropkick-in-the-mouth punk fantasy that Alan Moore calls "scary and energetic." Searching for clues about her best friend’s mysterious suicide, Danielle ventures to the squatter, utopian town of Freedom, Iowa, and witnesses a protector spirit ― in the form of a blood-red, three-antlered deer ― begin to turn on its summoners. She and her new friends have to act fast if they’re going to save the town ― or get out alive. |
7/2018 | STRIP: The Making of a Feminist | Catlyn | Ladd | #NONFIC | Strip brings nuance to a subject that is often overlooked, ignored, or otherwise silenced. To all readers of human culture interested in the anthropology of what it means to be a sex object in modern America, this book is about much more than stripping. It argues that gentlemen’s clubs are a microcosm that distills the female experience of patriarchal culture. On the body of woman is written male desire. In the eyes of woman, gazing at the male, culture can truly be seen. |
7/2018 | Dinner with Jackson Pollock: Recipes, Art & Nature | Robyn | Lea | #NONFIC | Jackson Pollock the artist needs no introduction—but perhaps lesser known is Jackson Pollock the gardener, baker, and dinner-party host. From starters and entrees to side dishes, breads, and desserts, Dinner with Jackson Pollock features more than fifty recipes collected from handwritten pages scrawled by Jackson; his wife, artist Lee Krasner; his mother, Stella; or traded among their many friends in the town of Springs on Long Island, interspersed with Jackson’s masterworks, still lifes of the Pollock-Krasner home, and beautiful photographs of each delectable recipe, plus delightful tales from Jackson and Lee’s family and local friends, for a truly unique and insightful portrait of a great American artist. |
7/2018 | The Cost of Living | Deborah | Levy | #NONFIC | The Cost of Living explores the subtle erasure of women's names, spaces, and stories in the modern everyday. In this “living autobiography” infused with warmth and humor, Deborah Levy critiques the roles that society assigns to us, and reflects on the politics of breaking with the usual gendered rituals. What does it cost a woman to unsettle old boundaries and collapse the social hierarchies that make her a minor character in a world not arranged to her advantage? |
7/2018 | Bounty from the Box: The CSA Farm Cookbook | Mi Ae | Lipe | #NONFIC | A Delightfully Indispensable Guide to Selecting, Cooking and Enjoying Your Favorite Vegetables, Fruits and Herbs. . . your guide to enjoying over 90 different crops grown by community-supported agriculture (CSA) farms across North America. With this book, you'll never wonder what to do with your CSA box again. This is a comprehensive resource, whether you get your produce from a CSA box, farmers market, or grocery store. Arranged by season, Bounty from the Box contains over 350 delicious recipes--many vegetarian, vegan, and gluten-free. Each crop features extensive information on nutrition, selection, storage, cleaning, cooking techniques, and serving ideas. |
7/2018 | History of Violence | Edouard | Louis | #FIC | A bestseller in France, History of Violence is a short nonfiction novel in the tradition of Truman Capote’s In Cold Blood, but with the victim as its subject. Moving seamlessly and hypnotically between past and present, between Louis’s voice and the voice of an imagined narrator, History of Violence has the exactness of a police report and the searching, unflinching curiosity of memoir at its best. It records not only the casual racism and homophobia of French society but also their subtle effects on lovers, brothers and sisters, husbands and wives. It represents a great step forward for a young writer whose acuity, skill, and depth are unmatched by any novelist of his generation, in French or English. |
7/2018 | Give People Money: How a Universal Basic Income Would End Poverty, Revolutionize Work and Remake the World | Annie | Lowrey | #NONFIC | In this sparkling and provocative book, economics writer Annie Lowrey examines the UBI movement from many angles. She travels to Kenya to see how a UBI is lifting the poorest people on earth out of destitution, India to see how inefficient government programs are failing the poor, South Korea to interrogate UBI’s intellectual pedigree, and Silicon Valley to meet the tech titans financing UBI pilots in expectation of a world with advanced artificial intelligence and little need for human labor. Lowrey explores the potential of such a sweeping policy and the challenges the movement faces, among them contradictory aims, uncomfortable costs, and, most powerfully, the entrenched belief that no one should get something for nothing. In the end, she shows how this arcane policy has the potential to solve some of our most intractable economic problems, while offering a new vision of citizenship and a firmer foundation for our society in this age of turbulence and marvels. |
7/2018 | The Great Believers | Rebecca | Makkai | #FIC | "Rebecca Makkai’s The Great Believers is a page turner... among the first novels to chronicle the AIDS epidemic from its initial outbreak to the present—among the first to convey the terrors and tragedies of the epidemic’s early years as well as its course and repercussions...An absorbing and emotionally riveting story about what it’s like to live during times of crisis."—The New York Times Book Review |
7/2018 | The Communist Manifesto: A Graphic Novel | Karl | Marx and Friedrich Engels | #NONFIC | The Guardian’s editorial cartoonist Martin Rowson employs his trademark draftsmanship and wit to this lively graphic novel adaptation. Published to coincide with the 200th anniversary of Marx’s birth, The Communist Manifesto is both a timely reminder of the politics of hope and a thought-provoking guide to the most influential work of political theory ever published. |
7/2018 | Norths: Two Suitcases and a Stroller Around the Circumpolar World | Alison | McCreesh | #NONFIC | For six long winter months, Alison McCreesh, her partner Pat and their two year old son Riel, traveled north of the 60th parallel. Through a combination of prolonged stays at artist residencies and short side-trips, they experienced six circumpolar countries: Greenland, Iceland, Norway, Sweden, Finland and Russia. This book contains Alison’s original postcards, which she created daily, exploring not only the “Idea of North”, but also illustrating, both through sketches and words, how her family dealt with the uniquely northern issues that they encountered in their circumpolar adventure. |
7/2018 | Pop Trash: The Amazing Art of Jason Mecier | Jason | Mecier | #NONFIC | Artist Jason Mecier creates insanely detailed portraits of celebrities using trash, candy, and other items, crafting sculptural celebrations as beautiful as they are outrageous. Here is Amy Sedaris assembled from her own trash, David Bowie made out of cosmetics and feathers, Snoop Dogg sculpted out of weed, Justin Timberlake and Miley Cyrus crafted out of candy, Kevin Bacon bespoke in bacon, and many, many more. Fun process shots offer behind-the-scenes insights into the meticulous work required to create these candy-colored—and literally trashy—spotlights . . . |
7/2018 | Shinrin Yoku: The Japanese Art of Forest Bathing | Yoshifumi | Miyazaki | #NONFIC | Yoshifumi Miyazaki explains the science behind forest bathing and explores the many health benefits, including reduced stress, lower blood pressure, improved mood, and increased focus and energy. This useful guide also teaches the reader how to bring the benefits of the forest into the home through the use of essential oils, cypress baths, flower therapy, and more. |
7/2018 | Awakening Through the Nine Bodies: Explorations in Consciousness for Mindfulness Meditation and Yoga Practitioners | Phillip | Moffitt | #NONFIC | Based on meditation practices Phillip Moffitt learned twenty years ago from Himalayan yoga master Sri Swami Balyogi Premvarni, this beautifully illustrated book is a guide to exploring the nature of mind and gaining a better understanding of experiences that arise during meditation. The Nine Bodies teachings map out a journey that starts with consciousness that arises in the physical body and is directly observable, and then travels through ever more subtle levels of consciousness to that which is not manifest and is only potential, and therefore has to be inferred. |
7/2018 | Fabulous: The Rise of the Beautiful Eccentric | madison | moore | #NONFIC | Moving from catwalks and nightclubs to the street, moore dialogues with a range of fabulous and creative powerhouses, including DJ Vjuan Allure, voguing superstar Lasseindra Ninja, fashion designer Patricia Field, performance artist Alok Vaid‑Menon, and a wide range of other aesthetic rebels from the worlds of art, fashion, and nightlife. In a riveting synthesis of autobiography, cultural analysis, and ethnography, moore positions fabulousness as a form of cultural criticism that allows those who perform it to thrive in a world where they are not supposed to exist. |
7/2018 | Confessions of a Recovering Racist | George | O'Hare with Emma Young | #NONFIC | Racism became a very hot topic of discussion in America in 2017 with an outgoing Black president and an incumbent president who is known for his racist remarks, legislature, and appointees. Confessions of a Recovering Racist addresses the fallacy of racism in a unique, honest, and sometimes humorous way. It causes white people to take a second look at their prejudices, and informs Black people that a white man can be a hero in the Black community. |
7/2018 | Graffiti Grrlz: Performing Feminism in the Hip Hop Diaspora | Jessica Nydia | Pabon-Colon | #NONFIC | A rich and engaging look at women artists in a male-dominated subculture, Graffiti Grrlz reconsiders the intersections of feminism, hip hop, and youth performance and establishes graffiti art as a game that anyone can play. |
7/2018 | Golden Exits | Alex Ross | Perry, Director | #DVD | Nick (Adam Horovitz) has settled into a safe existence in a small pocket of Brooklyn, where he currently toils on an archival project for his father-in-law. Soon, 20-something Naomi (Emily Browning) arrives from Australia to assist Nick for the semester. She has no acquaintances in the city beyond a loose family connection to Buddy (Jason Schwartzman), a music producer who lives in the same neighborhood. For the few months she spends around Nick, Buddy, and their families, Naomi's presence upsets the precarious balance holding these two households. Also starring Mary-Louise Parker, Lily Rabe, Chloe Sevigny, and Analeigh Tipton. |
7/2018 | Playthings | Alex | Pheby | #FIC | A hallucinatory, fragmentary, and tragic fictional telling of one of the most famous psychotherapy cases in history, Alex Pheby’s Playthings offers a visceral and darkly comic portrait of paranoid schizophrenia. Based on the true story of nineteenth-century German judge Daniel Paul Schreber, Playthings artfully shows the disorienting human tragedy of Schreber’s psychosis, in vertiginous prose that blurs the lines between madness and sanity. [from the book cover] |
7/2018 | A Little Book of Feminist Saints | Julia | Pierpont | #NONFIC | In this luminous volume, New York Times bestselling writer Julia Pierpont and artist Manjit Thapp match short, vibrant, and surprising biographies with stunning full-color portraits of secular female “saints”: champions of strength and progress. These women broke ground, broke ceilings, and broke molds |
7/2018 | Artivism | Daniela & Arcadi | Poch | #NONFIC | . . . becoming a common way of denouncing conflicts, of being a megaphone of the unfairness, demanding more public space or pushing political agendas; in short, to highlight what does not work well. Artivists use art as a weapon of public and social exigency charged with particular doses of shrewdness, inventiveness, imagination, sense of humour and, above all, social impact, either throughout impressive pieces or the most subtle and invisible actions. |
7/2018 | Squeezed: Why Our Families Can't Afford America | Alissa | Quart | #NONFIC | Alissa Quart, executive editor of the Economic Hardship Reporting Project, examines the lives of many middle-class Americans who can now barely afford to raise children. Through gripping firsthand storytelling, Quart shows how our country has failed its families. Her subjects—from professors to lawyers to caregivers to nurses—have been wrung out by a system that doesn’t support them, and enriches only a tiny elite. |
7/2018 | House of Nutter: The Rebel Tailor of Savile Row | Lance | Richardson | #NONFIC | House of Nutter tells the stunning true story of two gay men who influenced some of the most iconic styles and pop images of the twentieth century. Drawing on interviews with more than seventy people—and taking advantage of unparalleled access to never-before-seen pictures, letters, sketches, and diaries—journalist Lance Richardson presents a dual portrait of brothers improvising their way through five decades of extraordinary events, their personal struggles playing out against vivid backdrops of the Blitz, an obscenity trial, the birth of disco, and the devastation of the AIDS crisis. |
7/2018 | On the Beach at Night Alone | Hong | Sangsoo, Director | #DVD | Art by imitates life in this quietly devastating masterpiece from Hong Sangsoo. Kim Minhee (The Handmaiden, Claire's Camera) in the role that won her the Silver Bear for best actress in Berlin plays Younghee, an actress reeling in the aftermath of an affair with a married film director. Younghee visits Hamburg then returns to Korea, but as she meets with friends and has her fair share to drink, increasingly startling confessions emerge. |
7/2018 | Bad Call: A Summer Job on a New York Ambulance | Mike | Scardino | #NONFIC | Bad Call is Mike Scardino's visceral, fast-moving, and mordantly funny account of the summers he spent working as an "ambulance attendant" on the mean streets of late-1960s New York. . . . Action-packed, poignant, and rich with details that bring Mike's world to technicolor life, Bad Call is a gritty portrait of a bygone era as well as a bracing reminder that, though "life itself is a fatal condition," it's worth pausing to notice the moments of beauty, hope, and everyday heroism along the way. |
7/2018 | Score: A Film Music Documentary | Matt | Schrader | #DVD | . . . brings Hollywood's elite composers together to give viewers a privileged look inside the musical challenges and creative secrecy of the world's most international music genre: the film score. A film composer is a musical scientist of sorts, and the influence they have to complement a film and garner powerful reactions from global audiences can be a daunting task to take on. The documentary contains interviews with dozens of film composers who discuss their craft and the magic of film music while exploring the making of the most iconic and beloved scores in history. . . |
7/2018 | The Lost Chapters: Reclaiming My Life, One Book at a Time | Lesie | Schwartz | #NONFIC | Leslie Schwartz's powerful, skillfully woven memoir of redemption and reading, as told through the list of books she read as she served a 90 day jail sentence 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. |
7/2018 | Lucky Boy | Shanthi | Sekaran | #FIC | In this astonishing novel, Shanthi Sekaran gives voice to the devotion and anguish of motherhood through two women bound together by their love for one boy. Soli, a young undocumented Mexican woman in Berkeley, CA, finds that motherhood offers her an identity in a world where she's otherwise invisible. When she is placed in immigrant detention, her son comes under the care of Kavya, an Indian-American wife overwhelmed by her own impossible desire to have a child. . . . Lucky Boy offers a moving and revelatory look at the evolving landscape of the American dream and the ever-changing borders of love. |
7/2018 | Hope Never Dies: An Obama Biden Mystery | Andrew | Shaffer | #FIC | Vice President Joe Biden and President Barack Obama team up in this high-stakes thriller that combines a mystery worthy of Watson and Holmes with the laugh-out-loud bromantic chemistry of Lethal Weapon’s Murtaugh and Riggs. . . . Part noir thriller and part bromance, Hope Never Dies is essentially the first published work of Obama/Biden fiction—and a cathartic read for anyone distressed by the current state of affairs. |
7/2018 | An Unkindness of Ghosts | Rivers | Solomon | #FIC #SCIFI | "Harrowing and beautiful, this is SF at its best: showing the possible future but warning of the danger of bringing old prejudices and cruelties to that new world. While a story about enslaved people in space could be a one-note polemic, the fully rounded characters bring nuance and genuine pathos to this amazing debut." --Library Journal, Starred Review |
7/2018 | Baby Teeth | Zoje | Stage | #FIC | A battle of wills between mother and daughter reveals the frailty and falsehood of familial bonds in award-winning playwright and filmmaker Zoje Stage’s tense novel of psychological suspense, Baby Teeth. |
7/2018 | Little Panic: Dispatches from an Anxious Life | Amanda | Stern | #NONFIC | "In this canny, insightful, novelistic memoir, Amanda Stern traces the indelible path her underlying anxiety has traced in a rich but often frustrated life. It's a book about her emergence into and acceptance of mature identity, but it is also about the danger of love, the maze of social pressure, and the tension between childhood expectations and adult realities. Narrating with real poignance how every experience she's had has been filtered through her psychic vulnerability, she achieves a symphony of complex fragilities and redeeming strengths."―Andrew Solomon, National Book Award-winning author of Far From the Tree |
7/2018 | Oregon Camping: Complete Guide to Tent and RV Camping - Moon Guides | Tom | Stienstra | #NONFIC | Moon Oregon Camping covers Portland and the Willamette Valley, the Southern Cascades, the Columbia River Gorge and Mount Hood, Northeastern and Southeastern Oregon, and the Oregon Coast Whether you're a veteran or a first-time camper, Moon's comprehensive coverage and trusted advice will have you gearing up for your next adventure. |
7/2018 | Freak Show | Trudie | Styler | #DVD | Billy Bloom (Alex Lawther, The Imitation Game, The End of the F***ing World) is one-of-a-kind: a fabulous, glitter-bedecked, gender-bending teenager whose razor-sharp wit is matched only his by his outrageous, anything-goes fashion sense. When his glamorous mother (Bette Midler, Ruthless People) is forced to send him to live with his straight-laced father (Larry Pine, The Royal Tenenbaums), Billy finds himself a diva-out-of-water at his new ultra-conservative high school. Undaunted by the bullies who don’t understand him, the fearless Billy sets out to make a big statement in his own inimitable way: challenging the school’s reigning mean girl (Abigail Breslin, Little Miss Sunshine) for the title of homecoming queen. This proudly offbeat comedy is an irresistible ode to outsiders and nonconformists of all stripes. |
7/2018 | John Muir: In the New World - An Inspiring Documentary about the Life of America's First Nature Preservationist | Catherine | Tatge, Director | #DVD | The life and the career of John Muir come to life through this inspiring and beautiful documentary set against the magnificent landscapes of the American West. The Scottish-born naturalist was one of the first nature preservationists in American history, inspiring others through his writing and his advocacy to keep the wilderness wild. During his lifetime, the impact of his powerful voice could be seen in the preservation of the Yosemite and the sequoia groves of California, and the glacial landscapes of Alaska. His vision survived long after his death through the work of the Sierra Club, an organization he founded. |
7/2018 | The Trans Generation: How Trans Kids (and Their Parents) are Creating a Gender Revolution | Ann | Travers | #NONFIC | . . . Travers offers ways to support all trans kids through policy recommendations and activist interventions. Ultimately, the book is meant to open up options for kids’ own gender self-determination, to question the need for the sex binary, and to highlight ways that cultural and material resources can be redistributed more equitably. The Trans Generation offers an essential and important new understanding of childhood. |
7/2018 | A Handful of Happiness: How a Prickly Creature Softened a Prickly Heart | Massimo | Vacchetta & Antonella Tomaselli | #NONFIC | Massimo Vacchetta, an Italian veterinarian, provides expert care for large animals—cows, horses, sheep. One day, a friend asks him to help care for something much smaller: an orphaned baby hedgehog. . . . Through this life-affirming story of a man and his hedgehog, we learn that there’s no such thing as too small an act, if it’s done out of great compassion and love. |
7/2018 | The Con Artist : Live at Comic Con July 19-22 | Fred | Van Lente | #FIC | Comic book illustrator Michael Yoo is having a terrible week. He's just arrived in San Diego for Comic-Con -- the annual nerd Mardi Gras that triples the beachside city's population with 150,000 fans. Michael hopes to spend the next five days working his booth in Artist's Alley, where he'll sign autographs and sell sketches for $40 a pop. Instead he's implicated in the death of his editor, the widely feared and reviled Danny Lieber. There are plenty of suspects on hand -- from rival illustrators to burlesque cos-players. But the most valuable clues might be hidden in Michael's own sketchbook. He's spent a good portion of the convention illustrating people he's met and places he's visited, and he's inadvertently captured some very important information. The devil is in the details, and readers who pay careful attention to this book's black-and-white sketches will be on the right trail to unmask the murderer. |
7/2018 | Frida Kahlo: Making Herself Up | Claire | Wilcox and Circe Henestrosa, Editors | #NONFIC | On Kahlo’s death, her husband, Diego Rivera (1886–1957), ordered that her most private possessions be locked away until 15 years after his death. The bathroom in which her belongings were stored in fact remained unopened until 2004. Through this incredible archive, Frida Kahlo: Making Her Self Up gives readers a unique window into Kahlo’s life. It will focus on the personal, combining her prosthetics, jewelry, and clothes with self-portraits, diary entries, and letters to build an intimate portrait of the artist through her possessions, setting this in the context of her political and social beliefs. |
7/2018 | The War on Normal People: The Truth about America's Disappearing Jobs and Why Universal Basic Income Is Our Future | Andrew | Yang | #NONFIC | In The War on Normal People, Andrew Yang paints a dire portrait of the American economy. Rapidly advancing technologies like artificial intelligence, robotics and automation software are making millions of Americans' livelihoods irrelevant. The consequences of these trends are already being felt across our communities in the form of political unrest, drug use, and other social ills. The future looks dire-but is it unavoidable? . . . Yang imagines a different future -- one in which having a job is distinct from the capacity to prosper and seek fulfillment. At this vision's core is Universal Basic Income, the concept of providing all citizens with a guaranteed income-and one that is rapidly gaining popularity among forward-thinking politicians and economists. Yang proposes that UBI is an essential step toward a new, more durable kind of economy, one he calls "human capitalism." |
7/2018 | A Way of Living: The Art of De Kooning | Judith | Zilczer | #NONFIC | . . . an unprecedented look at de Kooning’s body of work based on years of tireless research. Rich in documentary photographs, sketches, and preparatory drawings, this beautifully illustrated book showcases more than 200 paintings, drawings, and sculptures in an outstanding large‐format package. (published by Phaidon) |
7/2018 | Planetarium | Rebecca | Zlotowski, Director | #DVD | It’s the eve of World War II and sisters Laura and Kate Barlow (Natalie Portman, Black Swan; Lily-Rose Depp, Yoga Hosers) are touring Europe with their supernatural act, channeling lost spirits and departed loved ones. One such session brings them face-to-face with André Korben (Emmanuel Salinger, La Sentinelle), a renowned French business tycoon and cinema producer. He offers the sisters a contract: His team will perform ambitious experiments on the metaphysical duo and capture the outcome on camera, thus creating the first truly authentic ghost-film. . . . as the experiments grow more disturbing, Laura discovers a sinister plot that soon spirals into a game of hidden agendas that tests human limits and social values. |
8/2018 | And Then We Danced: A Voyage into the Groove | Henry | Alford | #NONFIC | Tackling a wide range of forms (including ballet, hip-hop, jazz, ballroom, tap, contact improvisation, Zumba, swing), this grand tour takes us through the works and careers of luminaries ranging from Bob Fosse to George Balanchine, Twyla Tharp to Arthur Murray. Rich in insight and humor, Alford mines both personal experience and fascinating cultural history to offer a witty and ultimately moving portrait of how dance can express all things human. |
8/2018 | Gross Anatomy: Dispatches from the Front (and Back) | Mara | Altman | #NONFIC | Mara Altman's volatile and apprehensive relationship with her body has led her to wonder about a lot of stuff over the years. Like, who decided that women shouldn't have body hair? And how sweaty is too sweaty? Also, why is breast cleavage sexy but camel toe revolting? Isn't it all just cleavage? These questions and others like them have led to the comforting and sometimes smelly revelations that constitute Gross Anatomy, an essay collection about what it's like to operate the bags of meat we call our bodies. |
8/2018 | Isle of Dogs | Wes | Anderson, Director | #DVD | Visionary director Wes Anderson’s Isle of Dogs tells the story of Atari Kobayashi, 12-year-old ward to corrupt Mayor Kobayashi. When all the canine pets of Megasaki City are exiled to vast Trash Island, Atari sets off in search of his bodyguard dog, Spots. With the assistance of his newfound mongrel friends, he begins an epic journey that will decide the fate and future of the entire Prefecture. |
8/2018 | Monet's Palate Cookbook: The Artist & His Kitchen Garden at Giverny | Aileen | Bordman & Derek Fell | #NONFIC | For the first time in history, Monet’s Palate Cookbook: The Artist & His Kitchen Garden at Giverny brings Claude Monet's beloved kitchen garden back to life. Written by filmmaker Aileen Bordman and garden writer Derek Fell, the book includes sixty recipes linked to Monet's two-acre kitchen garden near his home at Giverny, France. Included is detailed information about the vegetables he grew, plus photographs and descriptions of the house interiors and gardens capturing Monet's extraordinary lifestyle. Meryl Streep has written the Foreword and the recipes beautifully photographed by Steven Rothfeld. |
8/2018 | Modus Season One | Mao | Brostrøm & Peter Thorsboe, Directors | #DVD | This smart and brooding Swedish detective thriller follows psychologist and ex-FBI profiler Inger Johanne Vik as she finds herself and her autistic daughter drawn into an investigation surrounding a series of disturbing and brutal deaths in Stockholm. The case leads her to team up with local detective Ingvar Nymann and together they set about uncovering the clues to these shocking crimes. …Based on the best-selling novels of Anne Holt, Modus is a thrilling, atmospheric crime series that raises questions about faith, intolerance, and the very nature of love itself. |
8/2018 | The Chapo Guide to Revolution: A Manifesto Against Logic, Facts and Reason | Chapo Trap House | #NONFIC | Chapo Trap House is a collective of writers, artists, and satirists that began as a political comedy podcast in March 2016. In a manifesto that renders all previous attempts at political satire obsolete, The Chapo Guide to Revolution shows you that you don’t have to side with either the pear-shaped vampires of the right or the craven, lanyard-wearing wonks of contemporary liberalism. These self-described “assholes from the internet” offer a fully ironic ideology for all who feel politically hopeless and prefer broadsides and tirades to reasoned debate. | |
8/2018 | The Mind Is Flat: The Remarkable Shallowness of the Improvising Brain | Nick | Chater | #NONFIC | In this profoundly original book, behavioral scientist Nick Chater contends . . . [that] rather than being the plaything of unconscious currents, the brain generates behaviors in the moment based entirely on our past experiences. Engaging the reader with eye-opening experiments and visual examples, the author first demolishes our intuitive sense of how our mind works, then argues for a positive interpretation of the brain as a ceaseless and creative improviser. |
8/2018 | 100 Books That Changed the World | Scott | Christianson & Colin Salter | #NONFIC | Prize-winning author Scott Christianson brings together an exceptional collection of groundbreaking works that have changed the tide of history. Included are scriptures that founded religions, manifestos that sparked revolutions, scientific treatises that challenged ingrained beliefs, and novels that kick-started new literary movements. |
8/2018 | Your Guide to Forest Bathing: Experience The Healing Power of Nature | M. Amos | Clifford | #NONFIC | Simply being present in the natural world - with all our senses fully alive - can have a remarkably healing effect. It can also awaken in us our latent but profound connection with all living things. This is "forest bathing", a practice inspired by the Japanese tradition of shinrin-yoku. It is a gentle, meditative approach to being with nature and an antidote to our nature-starved lives that can heal our relationship with the more-than-human world. |
8/2018 | Gardenalia: Creating the Stylish Garden | Sally | Coulthard | #NONFIC | Gardenalia explores how to make the garden or outdoor space an extension of your style. Filled with inspirational ideas, the book features superb color photographs that demonstrate the different moods and spatial effects that can be achieved with a carefully selected combination of plant material and decorative objects such as furniture, architectural items, and other objects, both vintage and contemporary. While shrubbery and hedging are the bones of an outdoor space, garden ornaments are the key to style, whether formal or informal. |
8/2018 | Bad Girls | Alex | de Campi and Victor Santos | #FIC | In this heart-pounding, starkly colored, and visually stunning graphic novel, three women have twelve hours to get out of Cuba with six-million dollars on the night of New Year’s Eve 1958. |
8/2018 | French Exit | Patrick | DeWitt | #FIC | . . . a brilliant and darkly comic novel about a wealthy widow and her adult son who flee New York for Paris in the wake of scandal and financial disintegration. . . . Brimming with pathos, French Exit is a one-of-a-kind 'tragedy of manners,' a send-up of high society, as well as a moving mother/son caper which only Patrick deWitt could conceive and execute. |
8/2018 | The Art of Losing Control: A Philosopher's Search For Ecstatic Experience | Jules | Evans | #NONFIC | Beginning around the Enlightenment, western intellectual culture has written off ecstasy as ignorance or delusion. But philosopher Jules Evans argues that this diminishes our reality and denies us the healing, connection and meaning that ecstasy can bring. He sets out to discover how people find ecstasy in a post-religious culture, how it can be good for us, and also harmful. Along the way, he explores the growing science of ecstasy, to help the reader - and himself - learn the art of losing control. |
8/2018 | A Terrible Country | Keith | Gessen | #FIC | A wise, sensitive novel about Russia, exile, family, love, history and fate, A Terrible County asks what you owe the place you were born, and what it owes you. Writing with grace and humor, Keith Gessen gives us a brilliant and mature novel that is sure to mark him as one of the most talented novelists of his generation. |
8/2018 | Near Death Experiences And Others | Robert | Gottlieb | #NONFIC | This new collection from the legendary editor Robert Gottlieb features twenty or so pieces he’s written mostly for The New York Review of Books, ranging from reconsiderations of American writers such as Dorothy Parker, Thornton Wilder, Thomas Wolfe (“genius”), and James Jones, to Leonard Bernstein, Lorenz Hart, Lady Diana Cooper (“the most beautiful girl in the world”), the actor-assassin John Wilkes Booth, the scandalous movie star Mary Astor, and not-yet president Donald Trump. |
8/2018 | Effortless Living: Wu-Wei and the Spontaneous State of Natural Harmony | Jason | Gregory | #NONFIC | Revealing wisdom utilized by renowned sages, artists, and athletes who have adapted “being in the zone” as a way of life, the author shows that wu-wei can yield a renewed sense of trust in many aspects of your daily life, making each day more effortless. As an avid wu-wei practitioner, he provides keen insight on how you, too, can experience the beauty of achieving an enlightened, effortless mind while reveling in the process of life’s unfolding. |
8/2018 | The Story of a Marriage | Geir | Gulliksen | #FIC | "We think we know the ones we love." So Pearlie Cook begins her indirect, and devastating exploration of the mystery at the heart of every relationship--how we can ever truly know another person. It is 1953 and Pearlie, a dutiful young housewife, finds herself living in the Sunset District in San Francisco, caring not only for her husband's fragile health, but also for her son, who is afflicted with polio. Then, one Saturday morning, a stranger appears on her doorstep, and everything changes. Lyrical, and surprising, The Story of a Marriage is, in the words of Khaled Housseini, "a book about love, and it is a marvel to watch Greer probe the mysteries of love to such devastating effect." |
8/2018 | Love After Love | Russell | Harbaugh, Director | #DVD | What happens when you lose the foundation of your family? In the wake of a husband and father’s death, the family members he leaves behind find themselves adrift—and in danger of drifting apart—as they each try to find meaning in a world without the man who held them together. Mother Suzanne (Andie MacDowell) tentatively seeks companionship—but her attempts at dating only drive a wedge between her and older son Nicholas (Chris O’Dowd), whose own relationship with his girlfriend is disintegrating. Meanwhile, younger son Chris (James Adomian) deals with grief in his own complicated—and increasingly worrying—way. What plays out between the trio is a beautifully observed, powerfully emotional journey that speaks to the strength of family ties. |
8/2018 | Not My Idea: A Book About Whiteness | Anastasia | Higginbotham | #NONFIC | [Children's picture book - Age Range: 8 - 12 years] Not My Idea: A Book About Whiteness is a picture book that invites white children and parents to become curious about racism, accept that it's real, and cultivate justice. |
8/2018 | On Looking: A Walker's Guide to the Art of Observation | Alexandra | Horowitz | #NONFIC | Page by page, Horowitz shows how much more there is to see—if only we would really look. Trained as a cognitive scientist, she discovers a feast of fascinating detail, all explained with her generous humor and self-deprecating tone. So turn off the phone and other electronic devices and be in the real world—where strangers communicate by geometry as they walk toward one another, where sounds reveal shadows, where posture can display humility, and the underside of a leaf unveils a Lilliputian universe—where, indeed, there are worlds within worlds within worlds. |
8/2018 | How Not to Get Shot: And Other Advice from White People | D.L. | Hughley and Doug Moe | #NONFIC | Now, at last, activist, comedian, and New York Times bestselling author D. L. Hughley offers How Not to Get Shot, an illustrated how-to guide for black people, full of insight from white people, translated by one of the funniest black dudes on the planet. In these pages you will learn how to act, dress, speak, walk, and drive in the safest manner possible. You also will finally understand the white mind. It is a book that can save lives. Or at least laugh through the pain. |
8/2018 | Call Me American: A Memoir | Abdi | Iftin | #NONFIC | In an amazing stroke of luck, Abdi won entrance to the U.S. in the annual visa lottery, though his route to America--filled with twists and turns and a harrowing sequence of events that nearly stranded him in Nairobi--did not come easily. Parts of his story were first heard on the BBC World Service and This American Life. Now a proud resident of Maine, on the path to citizenship, Abdi Nor Iftin's dramatic, deeply stirring memoir is truly a story for our time: a vivid reminder of why western democracies still beckon to those looking to make a better life. |
8/2018 | Small Innovative Houses | Philip | Jodidio | #NONFIC | Forget the McMansions; budgets aren’t what they used to be, houses are smaller, and lifestyles are changing rapidly. Clients today want to create a home that is easy to maintain, environmentally responsible, and inexpensive to operate. Own less, live more. Ranging from glass cabins to copper-clad tree houses, Small Innovative Houses features an international collection of more than fifty residences in North and South America, Europe, Asia, and Australia. |
8/2018 | The Disordered Mind: What Unusual Brains Tell Us About Ourselves | Eric R. | Kandel | #NONFIC | In his seminal new book, The Disordered Mind, Kandel draws on a lifetime of pathbreaking research and the work of many other leading neuroscientists to take us on an unusual tour of the brain. He confronts one of the most difficult questions we face: How does our mind, our individual sense of self, emerge from the physical matter of the brain? . . . By studying disruptions to typical brain functioning and exploring their potential treatments, we will deepen our understanding of thought, feeling, behavior, memory, and creativity. Only then can we grapple with the big question of how billions of neurons generate consciousness itself. |
8/2018 | The Perfection Detox: Tame Your Inner Critic, Live Bravely and Unleash Your Joy | Petra | Kolber | #NONFIC | Award-winning fitness professional and consultant shares a practical, accessible program to help women replace destructive perfectionistic mindsets with concrete strategies and life-changing tips. |
8/2018 | Dark Star Rising: Magick and Power in the Age of Trump | Gary | Lachman | #NONFIC | In Dark Star Rising: Magick and Power in the Age of Trump, historian and cultural critic Gary Lachman takes a close look at the various magical and esoteric ideas that are impacting political events across the globe. From New Thought and Chaos Magick to the far-right esotericism of Julius Evola and the Traditionalists, Lachman follows a trail of mystic clues that involve, among others, Norman Vincent Peale, domineering gurus and demagogues, Ayn Rand, Pepe the Frog, Rene Schwaller de Lubicz, synarchy, the Alt-Right, meme magic, and Vladimir Putin and his postmodern Rasputin. Come take a drop down the rabbit hole of occult politics in the twenty-first century and find out the post-truths and alternative facts surrounding the 45th President of the United States with one of the leading writers on esotericism and its influence on modern culture. |
8/2018 | Dinner With Georgia O'Keeffe: Recipes, Art and Landscape | Robyn | Lea | #NONFIC | Featuring fifty recipes collected from Georgia’s favorite cookbooks with her handwritten notes or prepared for her by cooks and caretakers, Dinner with Georgia O’Keeffe is a perfect balance between the fresh local and traditional ingredients O’Keeffe sought and the New Mexican landscape and culture that constantly influenced both her art and her sense of self. |
8/2018 | Disobedience | Sebastian | Lelio, Writer & Director | #DVD | Academy-Award winner Rachel Weisz (Denial) and Rachel McAdams (Spotlight) star in this spellbinding drama about a woman as she returns to the community that shunned her decades earlier for an attraction to a childhood friend. Once back, their passions reignite as they explore the boundaries of faith and sexuality in this film that critics call "romantic and gripping" (Parade ). |
8/2018 | Guerrilla Kindness and Other Acts of Creative Resistance: Making a Better World Through Craftivism | Sayraphim | Lothian | #NONFIC | In Guerilla Kindness artist, scholar, activist, and YouTube art teacher Sayraphim Lothian gives you an introduction to the art of craftivism, and provides a brief history of creative resistance. This master craftivist shows you how to make and use various crafts for political and protest purposes |
8/2018 | Insurgent Supremacists: The U.S. Far Right's Challenge to State and Empire | Matthew N. | Lyons | #NONFIC | Matthew N. Lyons takes readers on a tour of neonazis and Christian theocrats, by way of the patriot movement, the LaRouchites, and the alt-right. Supplementing this, thematic sections explore specific dimensions of far-right politics, regarding gender, decentralism, and anti-imperialism. His final chapter offers a preliminary analysis of the Trump presidential administration relationship with far-right politics and the organized far right’s shifting responses to it. |
8/2018 | No One Tells You This | Glynnis | Macnicol | #NONFIC | Over the course of her fortieth year, which this memoir chronicles, Glynnis embarks on a revealing journey of self-discovery that continually contradicts everything she’d been led to expect. . . In doing so, she discovers that holding the power to determine her own fate requires a resilience and courage that no one talks about, and is more rewarding than anyone imagines. Intimate and timely, No One Tells You This is a fearless reckoning with modern womanhood and an exhilarating adventure that will resonate with anyone determined to live by their own rules. |
8/2018 | Underbug: An Obsessive Tale of Termites and Technology | Lisa | Margonelli | #NONFIC | Are we more like termites than we ever imagined? In Underbug, the award-winning journalist Lisa Margonelli introduces us to the enigmatic creatures that collectively outweigh human beings ten to one and consume $40 billion worth of valuable stuff annually—and yet, in Margonelli’s telling, seem weirdly familiar. Over the course of a decade-long obsession with the little bugs, Margonelli pokes around termite mounds and high-tech research facilities, closely watching biologists, roboticists, and geneticists. Her globe-trotting journey veers into uncharted territory, from evolutionary theory to Edwardian science literature to the military industrial complex. What begins as a natural history of the termite becomes a personal exploration of the unnatural future we’re building, with darker observations on power, technology, historical trauma, and the limits of human cognition. |
8/2018 | See What Can Be Done: Essays, Criticism and Commentary | Lorrie | Moore | #AUDIO | A welcome surprise: more than fifty prose pieces, gathered together for the first time, by one of America's most revered and admired novelists and short-story writers, whose articles, essays, and cultural commentary--appearing in The New York Review of Books, The New York Times Book Review, The New Yorker, The Atlantic, The Guardian, Harper's Magazine, and elsewhere--have been parsing the political, artistic, and media idiom for the last three decades. |
8/2018 | Bark | Lorrie | Moore | #AUDIO | A literary event - a new collection of stories by one of America's most beloved and admired short story writers, her first collection in fifteen years. In these eight masterful stories, Lorrie Moore, in a perfect blend of craft and bewitched spirit, explores the passage of time and summons up its inevitable sorrows and hilarious pitfalls to reveal her own exquisite, singular wisdom. |
8/2018 | Godless Citizens in a Godly Republic Atheists in American Public Life | R. Laurence | Moore & Isaac Kramnick | #NONFIC | 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. . . . Moore and Kramnick lay out this fascinating history and the legal cases that have questioned religious supremacy. . . . In Godless Citizens in a Godly Republic, the authors also explore the dramatic rise of an "atheist awakening" and the role of organizations intent on holding the country to the secular principles it was founded upon. |
8/2018 | To the Ramparts: How Bush and Obama Paved the Way For the Trump Presidency and Why It Isn't Too Late to Reverse Course | Ralph | Nader | #NONFIC | America’s number one citizen Ralph Nader’s latest book shows us how unchecked corporate power has led to the wrecking ball that is the Trump presidency. Nader brings together the outrages of the Trump administration with the key flaws and failures of the previous administrations—both Republican and Democratic—that have led our nation to its current precipice. It’s all in the details and Ralph Nader knows them all. Trump didn’t come out of nowhere. Bush and Obama led the way. Writing as a Washington, DC, activist and people’s advocate for over fifty years―someone who has saved more lives and caused more impactful legislation to be enacted than almost any sitting president or legislator—Nader shows how Trump’s crimes and misdemeanors followed the path of no resistance of the Obama, Bush and Clinton regimes, which ushered in the extreme rise of corporate power and the abandonment of the poor and middle classes. |
8/2018 | Writers and Their Cats | Alison | Nastasi | #NONFIC | Mark Twain, Alice Walker, Haruki Murakami, Ursula K. Le Guin—this volume celebrates 45 famous authors who have shared their homes and hearts with furry feline friends. The photographs and stories in Writers and Their Cats capture the special bond between wordsmith and mouser. From the six-toed kitties who still inhabit the Ernest Hemingway Home and Museum in Florida to the mewling muses of mystery writer Lilian Jackson Braun, cats are clearly, in the words of Gloria Steinem, "a writer's most logical and agreeable companion." |
8/2018 | Unclean Jobs For Women and Girls: Stories | Alissa | Nutting | #FIC | "A dark catalog of behavior for her characters and the result is a kind of human bestiary, if humans were programmed to go down in flames, to run themselves aground, to seek ruin on every occasion. . . . (They) illuminate how people hide behind their pursuits, concealing what matters most to them while striving, and usually failing, to be loved."—Ben Marcus |
8/2018 | Old in Art School: A Memoir of Starting Over | Nell | Painter | #NONFIC | Following her retirement from Princeton University, celebrated historian Dr. Nell Irvin Painter surprised everyone in her life by returning to school―in her sixties―to earn a BFA and MFA in painting. Bringing to bear incisive insights from two careers, Painter weaves a frank, funny, and often surprising tale of her move from academia to art. |
8/2018 | America's Great River Journeys: 50 Canoe, Kayak, and Raft Adventures | Tim | Palmer | #NONFIC | From the Penobscot to the Potomac, the New to the Suwannee, the Colorado to the Snake, America’s Great River Journeys entices people to experience America from its free-flowing waterways. Vivid descriptions of our nation’s fifty finest river trips are complete with stunning photos of each leg of each journey, an engaging narrative, and practical tips about the length of trips, seasonal preferences, difficulty of white water, joys of camping along the shores, availability of professional outfitters, and other details. |
8/2018 | Your Black Friend and Other Strangers | Ben | Passmore | #FIC | Graphic novel - Ben Passmore's necessary contribution to the dialogue around race in the United States, Your Black Friend is a letter from your black friend to you about race, racism, friendship and alienation. On the heels of viral online success with 500,000+ views, the revised print edition of the Your Black Friend comic is in gorgeous full color on fancy matte paper stock. |
8/2018 | The Tangled Tree: A Radical History of life | David | Quammen | #NONFIC | Now, in The Tangled Tree, he explains how molecular studies of evolution have brought startling recognitions about the tangled tree of life—including where we humans fit upon it. Thanks to new technologies such as CRISPR, we now have the ability to alter even our genetic composition—through sideways insertions, as nature has long been doing. The Tangled Tree is a brilliant guide to our transformed understanding of evolution, of life’s history, and of our own human nature. |
8/2018 | The Fourth Age: Smart Robots, Conscious Computers, and the Future of Humanity | Byron | Reese | #NONFIC | We are now on the doorstep of a fourth change brought about by two technologies: AI and robotics. The Fourth Age provides extraordinary background information on how we got to this point, and how—rather than what—we should think about the topics we’ll soon all be facing: machine consciousness, automation, employment, creative computers, radical life extension, artificial life, AI ethics, the future of warfare, superintelligence, and the implications of extreme prosperity. |
8/2018 | Boots Riley: Tell Homeland Security - We Are the Bomb | Boots | Riley | #NONFIC | Provocative and prolific, Boots Riley has written lyrics as the frontman of underground favorites The Coup and Street Sweeper Social Club, as well as solo artist, for more than two decades. An activist, educator, and emcee, Riley’s singular lyrical stylings combine hip-hop poetics, radical politics, and wry humor with Bay Area swag. Boots Riley: Collected Lyrics and Writings brings together his songs, commentary, and backstories with compelling photos and documents. |
8/2018 | November | Rainer | Sarnet, Director | #DVD | In this tale of love and survival in 19th century Estonia, peasant girl Liina longs for village boy Hans, but Hans is inexplicably infatuated by the visiting German baroness that possesses all that he longs for. For Liina, winning Hans's requited love proves incredibly complicated in this dark, harsh landscape where spirits, werewolves, plagues, and the devil himself converge, where thievery is rampant, and where souls are highly regarded, but come quite cheap. With alluring black and white cinematography, Rainer Sarnet vividly captures these motley lives as they toil to exist-is existence worth anything if it lacks a soul? |
8/2018 | First Reformed | Paul | Schrader, Director | #DVD | The pastor of a small church in New York with dwindling attendance gets a call from a pregnant parishioner begging for help with her extremely radical husband. After getting involved, the pastor loses control of every aspect of his life. Stars Ethan Hawke and Amanda Seyfried. |
8/2018 | Civilization: from the Ancient to the Modern - Art and Culture Define Who We Are | Liev | Schreiber, Narrator | #DVD | Survey the history of art, from antiquity to the present, on a global scale. This nine-part series reveals the role art and creative imagination have played in forging humanity, and introduces viewers to works of beauty, ingenuity, and illumination across cultures. Principal contributors Simon Schama, Mary Beard, and David Olusoga travel across the globe, visiting such cultural landmarks as the great mosques of Istanbul, the ancient cities of Mesoamerica, the Buddhist caves of Ajanta in India, the Aztecs' Templo Mayor in modern Mexico City, the funeral site of China's first emperor and many more. (from pbs.org) |
8/2018 | We're Doomed. Now What? : Essays on War and Climate Change | Roy | Scranton | #NONFIC | We’re Doomed. Now What? addresses the crisis that is our time through a series of brilliant, moving, and original essays on climate change, war, literature, and loss, from one of the most provocative and iconoclastic minds of his generation. Whether writing about sailing through the melting Arctic, preparing for Houston’s next big storm, watching Star Wars, or going back to the streets of Baghdad he once patrolled as a soldier, Roy Scranton handles his subjects with the same electric, philosophical, demotic touch that he brought to his groundbreaking New York Times essay, “Learning How to Die in the Anthropocene.” |
8/2018 | Seaweed Chronicles: A World at the Water's Edge | Susan Hand | Shetterly | #NONFIC | In Seaweed Chronicles, Shetterly takes readers deep into the world of this essential organism by providing an immersive, often poetic look at life on the rugged shores of her beloved Gulf of Maine, where the growth and harvesting of seaweed is becoming a major industry. While examining the life cycle of seaweed and its place in the environment, she tells the stories of the men and women who farm and harvest it. |
8/2018 | The Road Trip Book: 1001 Drives of a Lifetime | Darryl | Sleath edited by | #NONFIC | Entries are organized into three categories: Scenic, Adventure, and Culture. One can marvel at the views from Cape Town’s scenic Chapman’s Peak Drive or central California’s Pacific Coast Highway, but the thrill seeker might opt for the hair-raising ride through Montenegro’s coastal mountains to reach the medieval walled town of Sveti Stefan on the Adriatic. The culture category features routes inspired by film, literature, and history: re-create Thelma and Louise’s heart-pounding joyride (minus the final leap), savor Japan’s “Romance Road” through unspoiled small towns, or follow Jack Kerouac’s path from On the Road. |
8/2018 | Armand V | Dag | Solstad | #FIC | Armand is a diplomat rising through the ranks of the Norwegian foreign office, but he’s caught between his public duty to support foreign wars in the Middle East and his private disdain for Western intervention. He hides behind knowing, ironic statements, which no one grasps and which change nothing. Armand’s son joins the Norwegian SAS to fight in the Middle East, despite being specifically warned against such a move by his father, and this leads to catastrophic, heartbreaking consequences. Told exclusively in footnotes to an unwritten book, this is Solstad’s radically unconventional novel about how we experience the passing of time: how it fragments, drifts, quickens, and how single moments can define a life. |
8/2018 | T. Singer | Dag | Solstad | #FIC | T Singer begins with thirty-four-year-old Singer graduating from library school and traveling by train from Oslo to the small town of Notodden, located in the mountainous Telemark region of Norway. There he plans to begin a deliberately anonymous life as a librarian. But Singer unexpectedly falls in love with the ceramicist Merete Saethre, who has a young daughter from a previous relationship. After a few years together, the couple is on the verge of separating, when a car accident prompts a dramatic change in Singer’s life. The narrator of the novel specifically states that this is not a happy story, yet, as in all of Dag Solstad’s works, the prose is marked by an unforgettable combination of humor and darkness. Overall, T Singer marks a departure more explicitly existential than any of Solstad’s previous works. |
8/2018 | Tehran Taboo | Ali | Soozandeh, Director | #DVD | In the gorgeously animated drama Tehran Taboo, the lives of several strong-willed women and a young musician intersect. Their stories reveal the hypocrisies of modern Iranian society, where sex, drugs, and corruption coexist with strict religious law. In the bustling metropolis of Tehran, avoiding prohibitions has become an everyday sport and breaking taboos can be a means of personal emancipation. Nevertheless, women invariably end up on the bottom rung of the social order. A young woman needs an operation to "restore" her virginity. A judge in the Islamic Revolutionary Court exhorts favors from a prostitute in exchange for a favorable ruling. The wife of an imprisoned drug addict is denied the divorce she needs in order to live independently. Making use of rotoscope animation, expat Iranian filmmaker Ali Soozandeh creates a portrait of contemporary Tehran that would be impossible by any other means. |
8/2018 | The Coaching Habit: Say Less, Ask More & Change the Way You Lead Forever | Michael Bungay | Stanier | #NONFIC | A fresh innovative take on the traditional how-to manual, the book combines insider information with research based in neuroscience and behavioral economics, together with interactive training tools to turn practical advice into practiced habits. Witty and conversational, The Coaching Habit takes your work--and your workplace--from good to great. |
8/2018 | I Can Get Paid for That?: 99 Creative Careers to Live a Life Less Ordinary | Jo | Stewart | #NONFIC | This book is both an inspirational and a practical guidebook, and it profiles 99 interesting, unusual, and relatively unexplored creative career options—from smoke jumpers to fortune-cookie writers, truffle hunters to food stylists, and golf-ball divers to perfumers. While some of the featured careers may not be for everyone (taxidermy, anyone?) others may be the perfect fit for someone’s skill set, interests, talents, and curiosities. This book is an uplifting, positive guide for those that like to think outside the box. Think of it as the alternative career guide your guidance counselor was too afraid to talk about. |
8/2018 | Any Man | Amber | Tamblyn | #FIC | Told in alternating viewpoints, Any Man is a remarkable, challenging, and dark examination of our gendered biases when it comes to sexual violence. As bold as it is timely, Any Man is a poignant and strikingly original work about our pervasive rape culture that seeks to assert how powerful and transformative language can be in speaking about sexual assault. |
8/2018 | Court | Chaitanya | Tamhane, Director | #DVD | Winner of top prizes at the Venice and Mumbai film festivals, Chaitanya Tamhane’s Court is a quietly devastating, absurdist portrait of injustice, caste prejudice, and venal politics in contemporary India. An elderly folk singer and grassroots organizer, dubbed the people s poet, is arrested on a trumped-up charge of inciting a sewage worker to commit suicide. His trial is a ridiculous and harrowing display of institutional incompetence, with endless procedural delays, coached witnesses for the prosecution, and obsessive privileging of arcane colonial law over reason and mercy. What truly distinguishes Court, however, is Tamhane’s brilliant ensemble cast of professional and nonprofessional actors; his affecting mixture of comedy and tragedy; and his naturalist approach to his characters and to Indian society as a whole, rich with complexity and contradiction. New Directors/New Films |
8/2018 | Against Memoir: Complaints, Confessions & Criticisms | Michelle | Tea | #NONFIC | Delivered with her signature honesty and dark humor, this is Tea’s first-ever collection of journalistic writing. As she blurs the line between telling other people’s stories and her own, she turns an investigative eye to the genre that’s nurtured her entire career―memoir―and considers the price that art demands be paid from life. |
8/2018 | Infinite Resignation | Eugene | Thacker | #NONFIC | Comprised of aphorisms, fragments, and observations both philosophical and personal, Thacker’s new book traces the contours of pessimism, caught as it often is between a philosophical position and a bad attitude. Reflecting on the universe’s “looming abyss of indifference,” Thacker explores the pessimism of a range of philosophers, from the well-known (Nietzsche, Schopenhauer, Camus), to the lesser-known (E.M. Cioran, Lev Shestov, Miguel de Unamuno). |
8/2018 | Flights | Olga | Tokarczuk | #FIC | Through these brilliantly imagined characters and stories, interwoven with haunting, playful, and revelatory meditations, Flights explores what it means to be a traveler, a wanderer, a body in motion not only through space but through time. Where are you from? Where are you coming in from? Where are you going? we call to the traveler. Enchanting, unsettling, and wholly original, Flights is a master storyteller's answer. |
8/2018 | BEUYS | Andres | Veiel, Director | #DVD | Known for his contributions to the Fluxus movement and his work across diverse media — from happening and performance to sculpture, installation, and graphic art — Beuys’ expanded concept of the role of the artist places him in the middle of socially relevant discourses on media, community, and capitalism. Using previously untapped visual and audio sources, director Andres Veiel has created a one-of-a- kind chronicle: Beuys is not a portrait in the traditional sense, but an intimate and in-depth look at a human being, his art and ideas, and the way they have impacted the world. |
8/2018 | Victory Gardens for Bees: A DIY Guide to Saving the Bees | Lori | Weidenhammer | #NONFIC | Now that bees are facing unprecedented levels of die-off caused by a toxic mixture of environmental stresses, a community-based effort is needed to make gardens, fields and landscapes healthy sanctuaries for bees. . . . Planning a bee-friendly space can provide a beautiful and bountiful selection of edible crops, native plants and fragrant ornamentals, as well as herbs that have medicinal properties for both pollinators and people. With the help of ten inspiring garden plans and planting guides, Weidenhammer shows how bee-friendly plants can be used in creative combinations for plots and pots of all sizes, and are easily grown by novices and seasoned gardeners alike. |
8/2018 | RBG | Betsy | West, Julie Cohen, et al., Directors | #DVD | At the age of 85, U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg has developed a lengthy legal legacy while becoming an unexpected pop culture icon. But the unique personal journey of her rise to the nation's highest court has been largely unknown, even to some of her biggest fans – until now. RBG explores Ginsburg's life and career. |
8/2018 | The Myth of Equality: Uncovering the Roots of Injustice and Privilege | Ken | Wytsma | #NONFIC | In this timely, insightful book Wytsma unpacks what we need to know to be grounded in conversations about today's race-related issues. And he helps us come to a deeper understanding of both the origins of these issues and the reconciling role we are called to play as witnesses of the gospel. Inequality and privilege are real. The Myth of Equality opens our eyes to realities we may have never realized were present in our society and world. And we will be changed for the better as a result. |
8/2018 | The Banishment | Andrey | Zvyagintsev, Director | #DVD | On the heels of his award-winning 2003 feature debut The Return, filmmaker Andrei Zvyagintsev struggles to avoid the sophomore slump with this art-house crime drama concerning two brothers struggling to keep their lives together in the face of certain disaster. Soon after extracting a bullet from his brother's arm, Alex (Konstantin Lavroneko) relocates his family from the city to his father's old house in the countryside. As the family settles into their rustic existence, Alex's wife Vera (Maria Bonnevie) reveals that she is pregnant by another man. Enraged by his wife's announcement, Alex consults with his brother and demands that Vera terminate the pregnancy. When the forced abortion goes horribly awry and Alex's brother suffers a severe heart attack, a confrontation with the man Alex believes to have seduced his wife send events quickly spiraling out of control. SCREENED/AWARDED AT: Cannes Film Festival, European Film Awards, Moscow International Film Festival, ...The Banishment ( Izgnanie ) |
9/2018 | One Person, No Vote: How Voter Suppression Is Destroying Our Democracy | Carol | Anderson | #NONFIC | With One Person, No Vote, she chronicles . . . the rollbacks to African American participation in the vote since the 2013 Supreme Court decision that eviscerated the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Known as the Shelby ruling, this decision effectively allowed districts with a demonstrated history of racial discrimination to change voting requirements without approval from the Department of Justice. Focusing on the aftermath of Shelby, Anderson follows the astonishing story of government-dictated racial discrimination unfolding before our very eyes as more and more states adopt voter suppression laws. In gripping, enlightening detail she explains how voter suppression works, from photo ID requirements to gerrymandering to poll closures. And with vivid characters, she explores the resistance: the organizing, activism, and court battles to restore the basic right to vote to all Americans as the nation gears up for the 2018 midterm elections. |
9/2018 | Disruptors: 50 People Who Changed the World | Alan | Axelrod | #NONFIC | Bestselling author Alan Axelrod presents engaging profiles, accompanied by original line drawings, of 50 visionaries who rewrote the rules. Their innovations range from the printing press (Gutenberg) to the fight for women’s equality (Friedan), from the smartphone (Jobs) to the invention of hip-hop (Herc). |
9/2018 | The White Boy Shuffle | Paul | Beatty | #AUDIO #FIC | Paul Beatty's hilarious and scathing debut novel, The White Boy Shuffle, is about Gunnar Kaufman, an awkward, black surfer bum who is moved by his mother from Santa Monica to urban West Los Angeles. There, he begins to undergo a startling transformation from neighborhood outcast to basketball superstar, and eventually to reluctant messiah of a "divided, downtrodden people". |
9/2018 | Rage Becomes Her: The Power of Women's Anger | Soraya | Chemaly | #NONFIC | Following in the footsteps of classic feminist manifestos like The Feminine Mystique and Our Bodies, Ourselves, Rage Becomes Her is an eye-opening book for the twenty-first century woman: an engaging, accessible credo offering us the tools to re-understand our anger and harness its power to create lasting positive change. |
9/2018 | The Joy of Forest Bathing: Reconnect with Wild Places & Rejuvenate Your Life | Melanie | Choukas-Bradley | #NONFIC | A simple antidote to our nature-starved lives, The Joy of Forest Bathing is an enticing and comprehensive introduction to forest bathing—or Shinrin-yoku, in Japan—the meditative practice of connecting with nature and disconnecting from the distractions of daily life. |
9/2018 | Banthology: Stories From Banned Nations | Sarah | Cleave, Editor | #NONFIC | In January 2017, President Trump signed an executive order banning people from seven Muslim-majority countries – Iran, Iraq, Libya, Syria, Somalia, Sudan and Yemen – from entering the United States, effectively slamming the door on refugees seeking safety and tearing families apart. . . Banthology brings together specially commissioned stories from the original seven ‘banned nations’. Covering a range of approaches – from satire, to allegory, to literary realism – it explores the emotional and personal impact of all restrictions on movement, and offers a platform to voices the White House would rather remained silent. |
9/2018 | I Dream in Another Language | Ernesto | Contreras, Director | #DVD | An indigenous language is in peril as its last two speakers, Evaristo and Isauro, had a quarrel in the past and haven’t spoken to each other in over 50 years. Martín, a young linguist, will undertake the challenge to bring the old friends back together and convince them to once again talk to each other, all so he can obtain a recorded registration of the language and study it. However, hidden in the past, in the heart of the jungle, lies a secret concealed by the language that makes it difficult to believe that the heart of Zikril will beat once again. |
9/2018 | Fashion Climbing: A Memoir with Photographs | Bill | Cunningham | #NONFIC | Fashion Climbing is the story of a young man striving to be the person he was born to be: a true original. But although he was one of the city's most recognized and treasured figures, Bill was also one of its most guarded. Written with his infectious joy and one-of-a-kind voice, this memoir was polished, neatly typewritten, and safely stored away in his lifetime. He held off on sharing it--and himself--until his passing. Between these covers, is an education in style, an effervescent tale of a bohemian world as it once was, and a final gift to the readers of one of New York's great characters. |
9/2018 | Woman World | Aminder | Dhaliwal | #FIC | When a birth defect wipes out the planet’s entire population of men, Woman World rises out of society’s ashes. Dhaliwal’s infectiously funny instagram comic follows the rebuilding process, tracking a group of women who have rallied together under the flag of “Beyonce’s Thighs.” Only Grandma remembers the distant past, a civilization of segway-riding mall cops, Blockbuster movie rental shops, and “That’s What She Said” jokes. For the most part, Woman World’s residents are focused on their struggles with unrequited love and anxiety, not to mention that whole “survival of humanity” thing. Woman World is an uproarious and insightful graphic novel from a very talented and funny new voice. |
9/2018 | The Chickenshit Club: Why the Justice Department Fails to Prosecute Executives | Jesse | Eisinger | #NONFIC | “Brave and elegant…a fearless reporter…Eisinger’s important and profound book takes no prisoners” (The Washington Post). Exposing one of the most important scandals of our time, The Chickenshit Club provides a clear, detailed explanation as to how our Justice Department has come to avoid, bungle, and mismanage the fight to bring these alleged criminals to justice. “This book is a wakeup call…a chilling read, and a needed one” (NPR.org). |
9/2018 | Fight Like a Girl | Clementine | Ford | #NONFIC | [This] incendiary debut Fight Like A Girl is an essential manifesto for feminists new, old and soon-to-be, and exposes just how unequal the world continues to be for women. Crucially, it is a call to arms for all women to rediscover the fury that has been suppressed by a society that still considers feminism a threat. Fight Like A Girl will make you laugh, cry and scream. But above all it will make you demand and fight for a world in which women have real equality and not merely the illusion of it. |
9/2018 | Women Photographers: From Julia Margaret Cameron to Cindy Sherman | Boris | Friedewald | #NONFIC | This thorough and accessible introduction to the greatest women photographers from the 19th century to today features the most important works of 55 artists, along with in-depth biographical and critical assessments. . . Each artist is profiled in spreads featuring splendid reproductions of key works and an in-depth overview of her career and contributions to the art of photography. |
9/2018 | Extraordinary Minds: Yo-Yo Ma | Howard | Gardner, Director | #DVD | Dr. Howard Gardner sits down with Yo-Yo Ma during this candid dialogue during which Gardner explores with Yo-Yo Ma the roots of what has made him the extraordinary person he is today. Yo-Yo Ma, a 15-time Grammy® winner, the recipient of the 2010 Medal of Freedom, and a world-famous cellist, is considered to be one of the best classical performers of all time. Ma started his musical career at the age of five, and began to perform with orchestras around the world by the age of 20. He plays many different styles of music, and no genre is too remote for his awe-inspiring capabilities. To date, Yo-Yo Ma has recorded over 50 albums and movie soundtracks, and has appeared in numerous television shows and videos, including his own. He is also a committed educator and humanitarian who dedicates time to organizations throughout the world. |
9/2018 | Tiny Homes: A Comprehensive Guide to Building and Living in Your Tiny Home | Jim | Gears | #NONFIC | Whether you just want to learn more about Tiny Homes or already understand them and want extra help picking out the perfect tiny house for yourself, this book is for you. So don’t delay it any longer. Take this opportunity by buying this tiny home guide with floor plans now. You will be shocked by how much you can learn about tiny homes and living off grid. |
9/2018 | The Songs of Trees: Stories from Nature's Great Connectors | David George | Haskell | #NONFIC | Haskell repeatedly visits a dozen trees, exploring connections with people, microbes, fungi, and other plants and animals. He takes us to trees in cities (from Manhattan to Jerusalem), forests (Amazonian, North American, and boreal) and areas on the front lines of environmental change (eroding coastlines, burned mountainsides, and war zones.) In each place he shows how human history, ecology, and well-being are intimately intertwined with the lives of trees. |
9/2018 | American Sonnets for My Past and Future Assassin | Terrance | Hayes | #NONFIC | In seventy poems bearing the same title, Terrance Hayes explores the meanings of American, of assassin, and of love in the sonnet form. Written during the first two hundred days of the Trump presidency, these poems are haunted by the country's past and future eras and errors, its dreams and nightmares. Inventive, compassionate, hilarious, melancholy, and bewildered--the wonders of this new collection are irreducible and stunning. |
9/2018 | America: The Farewell Tour | Chris | Hedges | #NONFIC | America, says Pulitzer Prize–winning reporter Chris Hedges, is convulsed by an array of pathologies that . . . are the physical manifestations of a society that is being ravaged by corporate pillage and a failed democracy. As our society unravels, we also face global upheaval caused by catastrophic climate change. . . . In his “forceful and direct” (Publishers Weekly) America: The Farewell Tour, Hedges argues that neither political party, now captured by corporate power, addresses the systemic problem. Until our corporate coup d’état is reversed these diseases will grow and ravage the country. “With a trademark blend of…sharply observed detail, Hedges writes a requiem for the American dream” (Kirkus Reviews) and seeks to jolt us out of our complacency while there is still time. |
9/2018 | The New Super Power for Women: Trust Your Intuition, Predict Dangerous Situations, Defend Yourself From the Unthinkable | Steve | Kardian with A. Clara Pistek | #NONFIC | This guide is your essential resource to understanding how to stay safe in today’s world, whether you’re experiencing unwelcome attention, feel threatened in a large crowd, or are facing online harassment. Kardian shares proven safety tips, shows how to be proactive in identifying potential trouble, and illustrates defense techniques specially created to enhance the physical strengths of a woman. Real-life stories and examples are included to demonstrate what criminals look for in a victim. You will learn how to avoid being targeted and what to do in a confrontation. |
9/2018 | My Struggle Book Six | Karl Ove | Knausgaard | #FIC | The full scope and achievement of Knausgaard's monumental work is evident in this final installment of his My Struggle series. Grappling directly with the consequences of Knausgaard's transgressive blurring of public and private Book Six is a troubling and engrossing look into the mind of one of the most exciting artists of our time. Knausgaard includes a long essay on Hitler and Mein Kampf, particularly relevant (if not prescient) in our current global climate of ascending dictatorships. |
9/2018 | A Big important Art Book: Now with Women: Profiles of Unstoppable Female Artists | Danielle | Krysa | #NONFIC | This beautiful book energizes and empowers women, both artists and amateurs alike, by providing them with projects and galvanizing stories to ignite their creative fires. Each chapter leads with an assignment that taps into the inner artist, pushing the reader to make exciting new work and blaze her own artistic trail. |
9/2018 | Things Are What You Make of Them: Life Advice for Creatives | Adam J. | Kurtz | #NONFIC | Insights and inspiration for anyone who makes art (or anything else) from someone who's been there (and kind of still is). Handwritten and heartfelt, this pocket-sized book by designer Adam J. Kurtz offers wisdom and empathy from one working artist to others, with perforated pages to share or display. |
9/2018 | Crudo | Olivia | Laing | #FIC | Kathy is a writer. Kathy is getting married. It’s the summer of 2017 and the whole world is falling apart. Fast-paced and frantic, Crudo unfolds in real time from the full-throttle perspective of a commitment-phobic artist who may or may not be Kathy Acker. . . . In Crudo, her first work of fiction, Olivia Laing radically rewires the novel with a fierce, compassionate account of learning to love when the end of the world seems near. |
9/2018 | American Animals | Bart | Layton, Director & Writer | #DVD | Four young men mistake their lives for a movie and attempt one of the most audacious heists in U.S. history. |
9/2018 | Uncivil Agreement: How Politics Became Our Identity | Lilliana | Mason | #NONFIC | With Uncivil Agreement, Lilliana Mason looks at the growing social gulf across racial, religious, and cultural lines, which have recently come to divide neatly between the two major political parties. She argues that group identifications have changed the way we think and feel about ourselves and our opponents. Even when Democrats and Republicans can agree on policy outcomes, they tend to view one other with distrust and to work for party victory over all else. Although the polarizing effects of social divisions have simplified our electoral choices and increased political engagement, they have not been a force that is, on balance, helpful for American democracy. Bringing together theory from political science and social psychology, Uncivil Agreement clearly describes this increasingly “social” type of polarization in American politics and will add much to our understanding of contemporary politics. |
9/2018 | Spinfluence: The Hardcore Propaganda Manual | Nick | McFarlane | #NONFIC | Spinfluence will appeal to crooked politicians, media manipulators and corporate big-wigs alike, in fact anyone interested in how to exploit people for profit or power. Covering fun techniques and tactics such as emotional hijacking, brainwashing and hysteria harnessing - Spinfluence is a glorious and insightful read about how to bend the truth and subvert the will of the herd. Spinfluence is an irreverent take on how propaganda is used by ‘The 1%’ to control the remaining 99%. . . More and more people are angered by the disproportionate power the 1% wield and want to know how and why this elite minority are able to accumulate so much wealth, and are to hold sway the over the government and population alike – at such great social cost. |
9/2018 | Bibliophile: An Illustrated Miscellany | Jane | Mount | #NONFIC | Book lovers rejoice! In this love letter to all things bookish, Jane Mount brings literary people, places, and things to life through her signature and vibrant illustrations. . . . A source of endless inspiration, literary facts and recommendations: Bibliophile is pure bookish joy and sure to enchant book clubbers, English majors, poetry devotees, aspiring writers, and any and all who identify as book lovers. |
9/2018 | Mudgirls Manifesto: Handbuilt Homes Handcrafted Lives | Mudgirls Natural Building Collective | #NONFIC | Part story of rebel women, grassroots self-governance, and community-building, part incendiary political and economic tract, and part practical guide to building natural homes for real people. Mudgirls Manifesto is about respecting the earth, each other, and crafting meaningful lives. | |
9/2018 | Graduation | Christian | Mungiu; Titieni, Adrian; Dragus, Maria-Victoria, Directors | #DVD | A young girl is set to leave her Romanian homeland for a prestigious English university when she is physically assaulted just before her final exam. Her father now tries to get to the bottom of who the culprit is and how he convince bureaucratic powers to reconsider this life changing exam for this daughter. Another brilliant drama that plays with thriller-like tension from the acclaimed director of 4 Months, 3 Weeks & 2 Days. |
9/2018 | Citizen Illegal | Jose | Olivarez | #NONFIC | In this stunning debut, poet José Olivarez explores the stories, contradictions, joys, and sorrows that embody life in the spaces between Mexico and America. He paints vivid portraits of good kids, bad kids, families clinging to hope, life after the steel mills, gentrifying barrios, and everything in between. Drawing on the rich traditions of Latinx and Chicago writers like Sandra Cisneros and Gwendolyn Brooks, Olivarez creates a home out of life in the in-between. Combining wry humor with potent emotional force, Olivarez takes on complex issues of race, ethnicity, gender, class, and immigration using an everyday language that invites the reader in. Olivarez has a unique voice that makes him a poet to watch. |
9/2018 | Mountain | Jennifer | Peedom, Director | #DVD | Only three centuries ago, setting out to climb a mountain would have been considered close to lunacy. Mountains were places of peril, not beauty, an upper world to be shunned, not sought out. Why do mountains now hold us spellbound, drawing us into their dominion, often at the cost of our lives? From Tibet to Australia, Alaska to Norway armed with drones, Go-Pros and helicopters, director Jennifer Peedom has fashioned an astonishing symphony of mountaineers, ice climbers, free soloists, heliskiers, snowboarders, wingsuiters and parachuting mountain bikers. Willem Dafoe provides a narration sampled from British mountaineer Robert Macfarlane’s acclaimed memoir Mountains of the Mind, and a classical score from the Australian Chamber Orchestra accompanies this majestic cinematic experience. |
9/2018 | Putumayo Presents: African Cafe | Putumayo, Label | #AUDIO | Music CD: A soothing selection of acoustic songs from Africa that is guaranteed to lift your spirits | |
9/2018 | Ska around the world | Putumayo, Label | #AUDIO | Music CD: From Kingston to St. Petersburg, ska, the forerunner to reggae, continues to inspire musicians and fans in all corners of the planet. Join the party! Featured Artists include Akatz, Chris Murray, The New York Ska-Jazz Ensemble, Orquestra Brasileira de Música Jamaicana, The Pepper Pots, Sarazino, The Skatalites, The St. Petersburg Ska-Jazz Review, Tula and Zazí. | |
9/2018 | Indian Groove | Putumayo, Label | #AUDIO | Music CD: [E]xplore the panorama of contemporary Indian music featuring Indian pop and film stars, second generation South Asians living in London and Montreal, European and Caribbean fusionists and yoga instructor/musicians from California. We hope you enjoy this spicy musical masala. (Putumayo.com) | |
9/2018 | Cuba! Cuba! | Putumayo, Label | #AUDIO | Music CD: A captivating collection of Cuban classic and contemporary songs that will have you dancing the night away. Featured artist include: Armando Garzon, Asere, Jose Conde, Familia Valera Miranda, Soneros de Verdad, Sonlokos, PALO! and many others! | |
9/2018 | New Orleans Party | Putumayo, Label | #AUDIO | Music CD: Celebrating Putumayo’s 25th Anniversary with the music of New Orleans. Let the good times roll! Featured Artists: Fernest Arceneaux • Dave Bartholomew Chuck Carbo • Al Carson • Dr. John • Dr. Michael White with Gregg Stafford Carol Fran and Clarence Hollimon • Grandpa Elliott • Chris Kenner Kermit Ruffins • Preservation Hall Hot 4 with Duke Dejan | |
9/2018 | African Rumba | Putumayo, Label | #AUDIO | Music CD: Africa meets Cuba on this non stop celebration of Afro-Latin dance music. Featuring Banda Maravilha, Pape Fall, Thierno Koite and Cheikh Tidiane Tall, Afia Mala and Orquesta Aragon, Orchestre OK Jazz, Michel Pinheiro, Ricardo Lemvo and Makina Loca, Nico Rochereau Roger, Alune Wade and Harold Lopez Nussa. | |
9/2018 | The Garden Awakening: Designs to Nurture Our Land & Ourselves | Mary | Reynolds | #NONFIC | The Garden Awakening is a step-by-step manual to creating a garden in harmony with the life force in the earth, addressing not only what the people in charge of the land want but also asking what the land wants to become. Mary Reynolds demonstrates how to create a groundbreaking garden that is not simply a solitary space but an expanding, living, interconnected ecosystem. Drawing on old Irish ways and methods of working with the land, this beautiful book is both art and inspiration for any garden lover seeking to create a positive, natural space. |
9/2018 | Manifesto | Julian | Rosefeldt, Director, Producer, Writer | #DVD | From acclaimed visual artist Julian Rosefeldt, Manifesto features two-time Academy Award winner Cate Blanchett in 13 distinct, must-see vignettes that incorporate timeless manifestos from 20th century art movements. From anchorwoman to homeless man, from Pop Art to Dogma 95, a chameleonic Blanchett gives a tour-de-force performance as she transforms herself like never before. Rosefeldt weaves together history’s most impassioned artistic statements in this stunning and contemporary call to action. |
9/2018 | The Labyrinth of the Spirits | Carlos | Ruiz Zafon | #FIC | The internationally acclaimed, New York Times bestselling author returns to the magnificent universe he constructed in his bestselling novels The Shadow of the Wind, The Angel’s Game, and The Prisoner of Heaven in this riveting series finale—a heart-pounding thriller and nail-biting work of suspense which introduces a sexy, seductive new heroine whose investigation shines a light on the dark history of Franco’s Spain. In this unforgettable final volume of Ruiz Zafón’s cycle of novels set in the universe of the Cemetery of Forgotten Books, beautiful and enigmatic Alicia Gris, with the help of the Sempere family, uncovers one of the most shocking conspiracies in all Spanish history. |
9/2018 | Rising: Dispatches from the New American Shore | Elizabeth | Rush | #NONFIC | Harvey. Maria. Irma. Sandy. Katrina. We live in a time of unprecedented hurricanes and catastrophic weather events, a time when it is increasingly clear that climate change is neither imagined nor distant―and that rising seas are transforming the coastline of the United States in irrevocable ways. In this highly original work of lyrical reportage, Elizabeth Rush guides readers through some of the places where this change has been most dramatic, from the Gulf Coast to Miami, and from New York City to the Bay Area. |
9/2018 | Amerika Square | Yannis | Sakaridis | #DVD | Nakos, a disgruntled resident of the Athens neighborhood of Amerika Square, decides to take action against the influx of migrants coming from the middle east. His scheme undermines the efforts of Billy, his friend and neighbor, who takes great pains to help refugees Tarek and Tereza escape the turmoil of their home countries and make better lives for themselves elsewhere in western Europe. (a foreign language film) |
9/2018 | Muslims of the World: Portraits and Stories | Sajjad | Shah and Iman Mahoui | #NONFIC | We are living in a time of unrest for many members of the Islamic faith around the globe. Enter Muslims of the World, a book based on the popular Instagram account @MuslimsoftheWorld1. Like the account, the book’s mission is to tell the diverse stories of Muslims living in the US and around the world. . . . Whether it is telling a story about a young Syrian refugee who dreams of being a pilot or about a young girl’s decision to not remove her hijab, which in turn saved her family’s life, Muslims of the World aims to unite people of all cultures and faiths by sharing the hopes, trials, and tribulations of Muslims from every walk of life. |
9/2018 | The Ravenmaster: My Life with the Ravens at the Tower of London | Christopher | Skaife | #NONFIC | [A]fter decades of serving the Queen, Yeoman Warder Christopher Skaife took on the added responsibility of caring for the infamous ravens. In The Ravenmaster, he lets us in on his life as he feeds his birds raw meat and biscuits soaked in blood, buys their food at Smithfield Market, and ensures that these unusual, misunderstood, and utterly brilliant corvids are healthy, happy, and ready to captivate the four million tourists who flock to the Tower every year. |
9/2018 | Heartland: A Memoir of Working Hard and Being Broke in the Richest Country in Earth | Sarah | Smarsh | #NONFIC | During Sarah Smarsh’s turbulent childhood in Kansas in the 1980s and 1990s, the forces of cyclical poverty and the country’s changing economic policies solidified her family’s place among the working poor. By telling the story of her life and the lives of the people she loves, Smarsh challenges us to look more closely at the class divide in our country and examine the myths about people thought to be less because they earn less. . . . Combining memoir with powerful analysis and cultural commentary, Heartland is an uncompromising look at class, identity, and the particular perils of having less in a country known for its excess. |
9/2018 | American Journal: Fifty Poems for Our Time | Tracy K. | Smith | #NONFIC | Poetry Anthology: “These fifty poems bear witness to what it means to come from and belong to this remarkably vast and varied nation. In these lines, I am reminded that no matter who we are, we have something urgent and life-changing to offer one another. American Journal is an invitation to listen and to feel.” ―Tracy K. Smith [Poet Laureate of the United States and Pulitzer Prize winner] |
9/2018 | Blackk Klansman: a Memoir | Ron | Stallworth | #NONFIC | When detective Ron Stallworth, the first black detective in the history of the Colorado Springs Police Department, comes across a classified ad in the local paper asking for all those interested in joining the Ku Klux Klan to contact a P.O. box, Detective Stallworth does his job and responds . . . launching what is surely one of the most audacious, and incredible undercover investigations in history. Ron recruits his partner Chuck to play the "white" Ron Stallworth, while Stallworth himself conducts all subsequent phone conversations. During the months-long investigation, Stallworth sabotages cross burnings, exposes white supremacists in the military, and even befriends David Duke himself. Black Klansman is an amazing true story that reads like a crime thriller, and a searing portrait of a divided America and the extraordinary heroes who dare to fight back. |
9/2018 | Steal This Country: A Handbook For Resistance, Persistence, and Fixing Almost Everything | Alexandra | Styron | #YA #NONFIC | Inspired by Abbie Hoffman's radical classic, Steal This Book, author Alexandra Styron's stirring call for resistance and citizen activism will be clearly heard by young people who don't accept "it is what it is," who want to make sure everybody gets an equal piece of the American pie, and who know that the future of the planet is now. This is a perfect book for older middle-schoolers and teens who care about the planet, the people with whom they share it, and the future for us all. |
9/2018 | Sweet Country | Warwick | Thornton, Director | #DVD | Sam, a middle-aged Aboriginal man, works for a preacher in the outback of Australia’s Northern Territory. When Harry, a bitter war veteran, moves into a neighbouring outpost, the preacher sends Sam and his family to help Harry renovate his cattle yards. But Sam’s relationship with the cruel and ill-tempered Harry quickly deteriorates, culminating in a violent shootout in which Sam kills Harry in self-defence. As a result, Sam becomes a wanted criminal for the murder of a white man, and is forced to flee with his wife across the deadly outback, through glorious but harsh desert country. A hunting party led by the local lawman Sergeant Fletcher is formed to track Sam down. But as the true details of the killing start to surface, the community begins to question whether justice is really being served. Starring Sam Neill, Bryan Brown/Hamilton Morris |
9/2018 | Advice for Future Corpses: A Practical Perspective on Death and Dying | Sallie | Tisdale | #NONFIC | Informed by her many years working as a nurse, with more than a decade in palliative care, Tisdale provides a frank, direct, and compassionate meditation on the inevitable. …Beautifully written and compulsively readable, Advice for Future Corpses offers the resources and reassurance that we all need for planning the ends of our lives, and is essential reading for future corpses everywhere. |
9/2018 | Good and Mad: The Revolutionary Power if Women's Anger | Rebecca | Traister | #NONFIC | With eloquence and fervor, Rebecca tracks the history of female anger as political fuel—from suffragettes marching on the White House to office workers vacating their buildings after Clarence Thomas was confirmed to the Supreme Court. Here Traister explores women’s anger at both men and other women; anger between ideological allies and foes; the varied ways anger is perceived based on its owner; as well as the history of caricaturing and delegitimizing female anger; and the way women’s collective fury has become transformative political fuel—as is most certainly occurring today. She deconstructs society’s (and the media’s) condemnation of female emotion (notably, rage) and the impact of their resulting repercussions. Highlighting a double standard perpetuated against women by all sexes, and its disastrous, stultifying effect, Traister’s latest is timely and crucial. It offers a glimpse into the galvanizing force of women’s collective anger, which, when harnessed, can change history. |
9/2018 | How Does It Feel to Be Unwanted?: Stories of Resistance and Resilience from Mexicans Living in the United States | Eileen | Truax | #NONFIC | In an era of increasing anti-immigrant sentiment and bigotry, each of these 13 stories illuminates the issues affecting the Mexican community and shows the breadth of a frequently stereotyped population. Dreamers and their allies, those who care about immigration justice, and anyone interested in the experience of Mexicans in the US will respond to these stories of Mexican immigrants (some documented, some not) illuminating their complex lives. Regardless of status, many are subjected to rights violations, inequality, and violence--all of which existed well before the Trump administration--and have profound feelings of being unwanted in the country they call home. |
9/2018 | Accessory to War: The Unspoken Alliance Between Astrophysics and the Military | Neil DeGrasse | Tyson | #NONFIC | Spanning early celestial navigation to satellite-enabled warfare, Accessory to War is a richly researched and provocative examination of the intersection of science, technology, industry, and power that will introduce Tyson’s millions of fans to yet another dimension of how the universe has shaped our lives and our world. |
9/2018 | Dear America, Notes of an Undocumented Citizen | Jose Antonio | Vargas | #NONFIC | “This is not a book about the politics of immigration. This book––at its core––is not about immigration at all. This book is about homelessness, not in a traditional sense, but in the unsettled, unmoored psychological state that undocumented immigrants like myself find ourselves in. This book is about lying and being forced to lie to get by; about passing as an American and as a contributing citizen; about families, keeping them together, and having to make new ones when you can’t. This book is about constantly hiding from the government and, in the process, hiding from ourselves. This book is about what it means to not have a home. After 25 years of living illegally in a country that does not consider me one of its own, this book is the closest thing I have to freedom.” |
9/2018 | Pet-tecture: designs for pets | Tom | Wainright, Phaidon Press | #NONFIC | The perfect book for design-conscious pet owners and animal lovers alike, Pet-tecture presents an irresistible assortment of hundreds of houses and objects by the world's leading designers, created with our furred and feathered friends in mind - from cats and dogs to birds, rabbits, horses, fish, mice, guinea pigs - even kangaroos and turtles! |
9/2018 | Three Identical Strangers | Tim | Wardle, Director | #DVD | Three Identical Strangers tells the astonishing true story of three men who make the chance discovery, at the age of 19, that they are identical triplets, separated at birth and adopted to different parents. The trio's joyous reunion in 1980 catapults them to fame but it also sets in motion a chain of events that unearths an extraordinary and disturbing secret that goes far beyond their own lives – a secret that goes to very heart of all human behavior. |
9/2018 | The Real Lolita: The Kidnapping of Sally Horner and the Novel That Scandalized the World | Sarah | Weinman | #NONFIC | “The Real Lolita stands out for its captivating mix of tenacious investigative reporting, well-chosen photographs, astute literary analysis, and passionate posthumous recognition of a defenseless child who — until now — never received the literary acknowledgment she deserved.” (NPR.org) |
9/2018 | Escaping the Rabbit Hole: How to Debunk Conspiracy Theories Using Facts, Logic and Respect | Mick | West | #NONFIC | In Escaping the Rabbit Hole, author Mick West shares over a decade’s worth of knowledge and experience investigating and debunking false conspiracy theories through his forum, MetaBunk.org, and sets forth a practical guide to helping friends and loved ones recognize these theories for what they really are. . . . West puts his debunking techniques and best practices to the test with four of the most popular false conspiracy theories today (Chemtrails, 9/11 Controlled Demolition, False Flags, and Flat Earth) — providing road maps to help you to understand your friend and help them escape the rabbit hole. These are accompanied by real-life case studies of individuals who, with help, were able to break free from conspiracism. |
9/2018 | Grace Jones A To Z: The Life of an Icon | Steve | Wide | #NONFIC | Singer, songwriter, supermodel, record producer, actress, and iconoclast, Grace Jones is truly one of a kind, equal parts intriguing, intimidating, and indefatigable. . . . This book looks at her life, her art, creative collaborations, films, friendships, and fun—all in a brilliantly illustrated A-to-Z format. |
9/2018 | Filmworker: Stanley Kubrick's Unsung Assistant | Tony | Zierra | #DVD | It’s a rare person who would give up fame and fortune to toil in obscurity for someone else s creative vision. Yet, that s exactly what Leon Vitali did after his acclaimed performance as Lord Bullingdon in Stanley Kubrick s Barry Lyndon. The young actor surrendered his thriving career to become Kubrick s loyal right-hand man. For more than two decades, Leon played a crucial role behind-the-scenes helping Kubrick make and maintain his legendary body of work. The complex, interdependent relationship between Leon and Kubrick was founded on devotion, sacrifice and the grueling, joyful reality of the creative process. |
10/2018 | Friday Black: Stories | Nana Kwame | Adjei-Brenyah | #FIC | From the start of this extraordinary debut, Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah’s writing will grab you, haunt you, enrage and invigorate you. By placing ordinary characters in extraordinary situations, Adjei-Brenyah reveals the violence, injustice, and painful absurdities that black men and women contend with every day in this country. These stories tackle urgent instances of racism and cultural unrest, and explore the many ways we fight for humanity in an unforgiving world. |
10/2018 | #Fashion Victim | Amina | Akhtar | #FIC | Fashion editor Anya St. Clair is on the verge of greatness. Her wardrobe is to die for. Her social media is killer. And her career path is littered with the bodies of anyone who got in her way. . . . Friendly competition may turn fatal, but as they say in fashion: One day you’re in, and the next day you’re dead. |
10/2018 | If They Come for Us: Poems | Fatimah | Asghar | #NONFIC | . . . an imaginative, soulful debut poetry collection that captures the experiences of being a young Pakistani Muslim woman in contemporary America. |
10/2018 | American Tantrum: The Donald J. Trump Presidential Archives | Anthony | Atamanuik with Neil Casey | #NONFIC | In American Tantrum, the star of Comedy Central’s acclaimed The President Show opens the vault and releases Donald J. Trump’s presidential archives. The result is a devastatingly hilarious audiobook that gets closer to truth than any nonfiction account, voiced by the author, Anthony Atamanuik, with guests Neil Casey, Kathy Griffin, Tom Arnold, John Gemberling, and Lennon Parham. |
10/2018 | The Wildcrafting Brewer: Creating Unique Drinks and Boozy Concoctions from Nature's Ingredients | Pascal | Baudar | #NONFIC | The Wildcrafting Brewer will attract herbalists, foragers, natural-foodies, and chefs alike with the author’s playful and relaxed philosophy. Readers will find themselves surprised by how easy making your own natural drinks can be, and will be inspired, again, by the abundance of nature all around them. |
10/2018 | American Prison: A Reporter's Undercover Journey into the Business of Punishment | Shane | Bauer | #NONFIC | The private prison system is deliberately unaccountable to public scrutiny. Private prisons are not incentivized to tend to the health of their inmates, or to feed them well, or to attract and retain a highly-trained prison staff. Though Bauer befriends some of his colleagues and sympathizes with their plight, the chronic dysfunction of their lives only adds to the prison's sense of chaos. To his horror, Bauer finds himself becoming crueler and more aggressive the longer he works in the prison, and he is far from alone. A blistering indictment of the private prison system, and the powerful forces that drive it, American Prison is a necessary human document about the true face of justice in America. |
10/2018 | Slumberland | Paul | Beatty | #AUDIO | The hip break-out novel from 2016 Man Booker Prize winning author, Paul Beatty, about a disaffected Los Angeles DJ who travels to post-Wall Berlin in search of his transatlantic doppelganger. Hailed by the New York Times and the Los Angeles Times as one of the best writers of his generation, Paul Beatty turns his creative eye to man's search for meaning and identity in an increasingly chaotic world. |
10/2018 | Tuff: A Novel | Paul | Beatty | #AUDIO | “[A]n extravagant, satirical cri de coeur from the inner city.... Tuff is a funny book, and Mr. Beatty’s blunt, impious, streetwise eloquence has a...transfixing power.”–The New York Times |
10/2018 | Botanical Inks: Plant-To-Print Dyes, Techniques and Projects | Babs | Behan | #NONFIC | Learn how to transform foraged wild plants, plants, garden produce, and recycled food into dyes and inks with Botanical Inks. The book shows you how to extract environmentally sustainable color from the landscape and use it to create natural dyes for textiles, clothing, paper, and other materials. Botanical Inks covers dyeing and surface application techniques, including bundle dyeing, Shibori tie-dyeing, hapazome, indigo sugar vat dyeing, wood-block printing, screen printing, and more. |
10/2018 | The Sky Is Falling: How Vampires, Zombies, Androids, and Superheroes Made America Great for Extremism | Peter | Biskind | #NONFIC | In The Sky Is Falling bestselling cultural journalist Peter Biskind dives headlong into two decades of popular culture—from superhero franchises such as the Dark Knight, X-Men, and the Avengers and series like The Walking Dead and Game of Thrones to thrillers like Homeland and 24—and emerges to argue that these shows are saturated with the values that are currently animating our extreme politics. |
10/2018 | I'd Rather Be Reading: The Delights and Dilemmas of the Reading Life | Anne | Bogel | #NONFIC | In this collection of charming and relatable reflections on the reading life, beloved blogger and author Anne Bogel leads readers to remember the book that first hooked them, the place where they first fell in love with reading, and all of the moments afterward that helped make them the reader they are today. Known as a reading tastemaker through her popular podcast What Should I Read Next?, Bogel invites book lovers into a community of like-minded people to discover new ways to approach literature, learn fascinating new things about books and publishing, and reflect on the role reading plays in their lives. |
10/2018 | Harry Potter: A History Of Magic - The Official Companion to the British Library Exhibition at the New York Historical Society Museum & Library | British Library | #NONFIC | As we celebrate the 20th anniversary of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone in the US, readers everywhere are invited to explore the extraordinary subjects of the Hogwarts curriculum – Potions & Alchemy, Divination, Care of Magical Creatures, and more – and examine incredible historical artifacts, items from J.K. Rowling’s personal archive, and stunning original artwork from Harry Potter series artists Mary GrandPré, Jim Kay, and Brian Selznick. Published in conjunction with the special exhibition Harry Potter: A History of Magic (coming to the New-York Historical Society after a record-breaking sold-out run at the British Library), this complete catalogue of the over 150 artifacts on display gives readers an up-close look at magical treasures from all over the world. | |
10/2018 | Be Right Back | Maurizio | Cattelan | #DVD | An art-world provocateur and elusive artist Maurizio Cattelan made his career on playful and subversive works that up-ended the art establishment, until a retrospective at the Guggenheim in 2011 finally solidified his place in the contemporary art canon. Axelrod's equally playful profile leaves no stone unturned in trying to figure out: who is Maurizio Cattelan? |
10/2018 | All You Can Ever Know: A Memoir | Nicole | Chung | #NONFIC | Nicole Chung was born severely premature, placed for adoption by her Korean parents, and raised by a white family in a sheltered Oregon town. . . . With warmth, candor, and startling insight, Nicole Chung tells of her search for the people who gave her up, which coincided with the birth of her own child. All You Can Ever Know is a profound, moving chronicle of surprising connections and the repercussions of unearthing painful family secrets―vital reading for anyone who has ever struggled to figure out where they belong. |
10/2018 | Mind to Matter: The Astonishing Science of How Your Brain Creates Material Reality | Dawson | Church | #NONFIC | Every creation begins as a thought, from a symphony to a marriage to an ice cream cone to a rocket launch. When we have an intention, a complex chain of events begins in our brains. . . . Neuroscientists have measured a specific brain wave formula that is linked to manifestation. This "flow state" can be learned and applied by anyone. |
10/2018 | The Assistant | Distrib Films, Studio | #DVD | With his wife in labor, father-to-be Thomas (Malik Zidi) speeds to the hospital, and in the process, accidentally kills a young man on the road. That death sets into motion events that will change everyone s lives forever, including the young man s mother, Marie-France (Nathalie Baye), who cannot recover from the trauma. Nine years later, Marie-France takes a job as Thomas s assistant, without him knowing about her connection to his past. Her maternal rage has tragic consequences as she insinuates herself into Thomas s life, work and family. A thriller in the vein of classic Hitchcock. A film by Christophe Ali & Nicolas Bonilauri | |
10/2018 | In Her Name | Distrib Films, Studio | #DVD | A gripping and emotional legal drama based on a true story that moved France for three decades. In 1982, André Bamberski (Daniel Auteuil) learns about the death of his 14 year-old daughter, Kalinka, while she was on vacation with her mother and stepfather (Sebastian Koch) in Germany. Convinced that Kalinka’s death was not an accident, Bamberski begins to investigate. A botched autopsy report raises his suspicions and leads him to accuse Kalinka s stepfather of the murder. Based on a true story, In Her Name follows the three decade battle faced by a father to bring his daughter s murderer to justice. In Her Name is a story of perseverance and obsessive determination. | |
10/2018 | Around the World in 80 Trees | Jonathan | Drori | #NONFIC | In Around the World in 80 Trees, expert Jonathan Drori uses plant science to illuminate how trees play a role in every part of human life, from the romantic to the regrettable. Stops on the trip include the lime trees of Berlin's Unter den Linden boulevard, which intoxicate amorous Germans and hungry bees alike, the swankiest streets in nineteenth-century London, which were paved with Australian eucalyptus wood, and the redwood forests of California, where the secret to the trees' soaring heights can be found in the properties of the tiniest drops of water. |
10/2018 | What a Time to Be Alone: The Slumflowers Guide to Why You Are Already Enough | Chidera | Eggerue | #NONFIC | Peppered with insightful Igbo proverbs from Chidera's Nigerian mother and full of her own original artwork, What A Time To Be Alone will help you navigate the modern world. We can all decide our own fates and Chidera shows us how, using a three-part approach filled with sass, wisdom, and charm. 1. Learn how to celebrate YOU - decide your self-worth, take time to heal and empower yourself in this messy world. 2. Don't worry about THEM - avoid other people's demons and realize that everyone is protecting themselves from something - no matter how aggressive their method. 3. Feel the togetherness in US - sustain and grow healthy relationships and avoid toxicity in your friendships. |
10/2018 | Innumerable Insects: Natural Histories - The Story Of The Most Diverse And Myriad Animals On Earth | Michael S. | Engel | #NONFIC | To date, we have discovered and described or named around 1.1 million insect species, and thousands of new species are added to the ranks every year. It is estimated that there are around five million insect species on Earth, making them the most diverse lineage of all life by far. This magnificent volume from the American Museum of Natural History tells their incredible story. Noted entomologist Michael S. Engel explores insects’ evolution and diversity; metamorphosis; pests, parasites, and plagues; society and language; camouflage; and pollination—as well as tales of discovery by intrepid entomologists. |
10/2018 | Are You There God? It's Me, Margarita: More Cocktails with a Literary Twist | Tim | Federle | #NONFIC | Tim Federle's Tequila Mockingbird has become one of the world's bestselling cocktail books and resonated with bartenders and book clubs everywhere. Now in this much anticipated follow-up, Are You There God? It's Me, Margarita, Federle has shaken up 49 all-new, all-delicious drink recipes paired with his trademark puns and clever commentary on more of history's most beloved books, as well as bar bites, drinking games, and whimsical illustrations throughout. |
10/2018 | Ice Mother | FilmRise, Studio | #DVD | A widow, Hana lives alone in a big villa with only traditional weekly visits from her two belligerent sons and their families to look forward to. One day, while on a stroll, she rescues Brona, an affable ice swimmer, from drowning. This chance encounter invigorates Hana and introduces her to a new hobby and a welcome unexpected romance. Official selection, 2017 Tribeca Film Festival. (a film by Bohdan Slama) | |
10/2018 | Rendezvous with Oblivion: Reports from a Sinking Society | Thomas | Frank | #NONFIC | Rendezvous with Oblivion is a collection of interlocking essays examining how inequality has manifested itself in our cities, in our jobs, in the way we travel―and of course in our politics, where in 2016, millions of anxious ordinary people rallied to the presidential campaign of a billionaire who meant them no good. These accounts of folly and exploitation are here brought together in a single volume unified by Frank’s distinctive voice, sardonic wit, and anti-orthodox perspective. They capture a society where every status signifier is hollow, where the allure of mobility is just another con game, and where rebellion too often yields nothing. |
10/2018 | Henry Taylor | Charles | Gaines et. al., Contributors | #NONFIC | This definitive survey of over 200 of the painter's portraits and street scenes forms a personal and political portrait of society today. For three decades the iconic artist has worked his way through New York, Los Angeles, Europe, and Africa, documenting what he sees. In his circle are artists, musicians, writers, performers, as well as friends from his ten years as a psychiatric technician. (Published by Rizzoli and Blume & Poe) |
10/2018 | Wanderlust: Hiking on Legendary Trails | Gestalten, Editor | #NONFIC | Explore the world one step at a time. Wanderlust presents legendary walking routes with inviting maps, practical tips, and inspiring landscape photographs. The exciting Canyon Trail in Zion-National Park, the spectacular El Caminito del Rey in Spain, the pilgrim trail on the holy Kumano Kodo in Japan or a mythical hiking path in the land of the giants in Norway - Wanderlust explores legendary hiking trails in enchanting corners of the world and over a variety of terrain: thin ice and desert sands; coastal tracks and forest pathways. | |
10/2018 | The Boatbuilder | Daniel | Gumbiner | #FIC | At 28 years old, Eli "Berg" Koenigsberg has never encountered a challenge he couldn't push through, until a head injury leaves him with lingering headaches and a weakness for opiates. Berg moves to a remote Northern California town, . . . meets Alejandro, a reclusive, master boatbuilder, and begins to see a path forward. Alejandro offers Berg honest labor, but more than this, he offers him a new approach to his suffering, a template for survival amid intense pain. Nurtured by his friendship with Alejandro and aided, too, by the comradeship of many in Talinas, Berg begins to return to himself. Written in gleaming prose, this is a story about resilience, community, and what it takes to win back your soul. |
10/2018 | The Next Republic: The Rise of a New Radical Majority | D.D. | Guttenplan | #NONFIC | Who are the new progressive leaders emerging to lead the post-Trump return to democracy in America? National political correspondent and award-winning author D.D. Guttenplan's The Next Republic is an extraordinarily intense and wide-ranging account of the recent fall and incipient rise of democracy in America. The Next Republic profiles nine successful activists who are changing the course of American history right now . . . |
10/2018 | Buzz: The Nature and Necessity of Bees | Thor | Hanson | #NONFIC | Bees are like oxygen: ubiquitous, essential, and, for the most part, unseen. While we might overlook them, they lie at the heart of relationships that bind the human and natural worlds. In Buzz, the beloved Thor Hanson takes us on a journey that begins 125 million years ago, when a wasp first dared to feed pollen to its young. From honeybees and bumbles to lesser-known diggers, miners, leafcutters, and masons, bees have long been central to our harvests, our mythologies, and our very existence. They've given us sweetness and light, the beauty of flowers, and as much as a third of the foodstuffs we eat. And, alarmingly, they are at risk of disappearing. As informative and enchanting as the waggle dance of a honeybee, Buzz shows us why all bees are wonders to celebrate and protect. Read this book and you'll never overlook them again. |
10/2018 | Brief Answers to the Big Questions | Stephen | Hawking | #NONFIC | 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. |
10/2018 | I Too Sing America: The Harlem Renaissance at 100 | Wil | Haygood | #NONFIC | . . . the culmination of decades of reflection, research, and scholarship by Wil Haygood, acclaimed biographer and preeminent historian on Harlem and its cultural roots. In thematic chapters, the author captures the range and breadth of the Harlem Reniassance, a sweeping movement which saw an astonishing array of black writers and artists and musicians gather over a period of a few intense years, expanding far beyond its roots in Harlem to unleashing a myriad of talents upon the nation. The book is published in conjunction with a major exhibition at the Columbus Museum of Art. |
10/2018 | Black is the Color | Icarus Films, Studio | #DVD | Black Is The Color highlights key moments in the history of African-American visual art, from Edmonia Lewis's 1867 sculpture Forever Free, to the work of contemporary artists such as Whitfield Lovell, Kerry James Marshall, Ellen Gallagher, and Jean-Michel Basquiat. Documentary film by Jacques Goldstein. | |
10/2018 | Boris without Beatrice | Icarus Films, Studio | #DVD | Boris Without Beatrice is a morality tale with fairy-tale inflections that focuses on Boris, an affluent, successful business man who comports himself with an extreme degree of pride and arrogance. When his wife, a Minister of the Canadian Government, is rendered nearly catatonic by a mysterious depression, it triggers a series of events that bring Boris to the point of professional, personal, and even existential crisis. A film by Denis Cote | |
10/2018 | The Sweet Escape | Icarus Films, Studio | #DVD | Middle-aged graphic artist Michel (Bruno Podalydès) is seized by a sudden crazy impulse and orders a canoe and paddles...everything he needs for an adventure. His wife Rachelle (Sandrine Kiberlain) encourages him to set out alone on his escapades. So what if he s never rowed a boat in his life? Adventure is adventure! His big trip on the water turns out to be full of surprises and unexpected encounters. Sparkling with good humor and lighthearted charm, THE Sweet Escape is a delightful take on midlife crisis and pastoral adventure. | |
10/2018 | Always Look on the Bright Side of Life: A Sortabiography | Eric | Idle | #NONFIC | We know him best for his unforgettable roles on Monty Python—from the Flying Circus to The Meaning of Life. Now, Eric Idle reflects on the meaning of his own life in this entertaining memoir that takes us on a remarkable journey from his childhood in an austere boarding school through his successful career in comedy, television, theater, and film. Coming of age as a writer and comedian during the Sixties and Seventies, Eric stumbled into the crossroads of the cultural revolution and found himself rubbing shoulders with the likes of George Harrison, David Bowie, and Robin Williams, all of whom became dear lifelong friends. |
10/2018 | The Herball's Guide To Botanical Drinks: Using The Alchemy Of Plants To Create Potions To Clense, Restore Relax & Revive | Michael | Isted | #NONFIC | The perfect book for plant lovers, foragers, fermenters, brewers and those fascinated by the healing power of herbs, this is a collection of natural, non-alcoholic stimulants and tranquillisers to improve awareness, aid sleep, and everything in between. Trained herbalist, nutritionist, aromatherapist and drinks specialist Michael Isted has treated the worlds of fashion, art and wellbeing to his fabulous natural drinks, and now brings his delectable potions to a wider audience. |
10/2018 | Hiking With Nietzsche: On Becoming Who You Are | John | Kaag | #NONFIC | Hiking with Nietzsche: Becoming Who You Are is a tale of two philosophical journeys―one made by John Kaag as an introspective young man of nineteen, the other seventeen years later, in radically different circumstances: he is now a husband and father, and his wife and small child are in tow. Kaag sets off for the Swiss peaks above Sils Maria where Nietzsche wrote his landmark work Thus Spoke Zarathustra. Both of Kaag’s journeys are made in search of the wisdom at the core of Nietzsche’s philosophy, yet they deliver him to radically different interpretations and, more crucially, revelations about the human condition. |
10/2018 | My Squirrel Days | Ellie | Kemper | #NONFIC | There comes a time in every sitcom actress’s life when she is faced with the prospect of writing a book. When Ellie Kemper’s number was up, she was ready. Contagiously cheerful, predictably wholesome, and mostly inspiring except for one essay about her husband’s feet, My Squirrel Days is a funny, free-wheeling tour of Ellie’s life—from growing up in suburban St. Louis with a vivid imagination and a crush on David Letterman to moving to Los Angeles and accidentally falling on Doris Kearns Goodwin. |
10/2018 | DRIES | KimStim, Studio | #DVD | For the first time, fashion designer Dries Van Noten allows a filmmaker to accompany him in his creative process and home life. For an entire year, Reiner Holzemer documented the precise steps that Dries takes to conceive of four collections, the rich fabrics, embroidery and prints exclusive to his designs, and the emblematic fashion shows that bring his collections to the world and have become cult must sees at Paris Fashion Week. | |
10/2018 | Happy Hour | KimStim, Studio | #DVD | A powerful affirmation of the immersive potential of cinema, Happy Hour is a slow-burning epic chronicling the emotional journey of four thirtysomething women in the misty seaside city of Kobe. As they navigate the unsteady currents of work, domestic, and romantic lives, an unexpected rift opens that propels each to a new, richer understanding of life and love. A film by Ryusuke Hamaguchi | |
10/2018 | CERN | KimStim, Studio | #DVD | Multi-award winning director Nikolaus Geyrhalter delivers stunning images from inside the immense Large Hadron Collider, the world’s largest laboratory for particle physics, operated by world-renowned research organization CERN (European Organization for Nuclear Research). A documentary film by Nikolaus Geyrhatter. | |
10/2018 | Unsheltered | Barbara | Kingsolver | #FIC | The New York Times bestselling author of Flight Behavior, The Lacuna, and The Poisonwood Bible and recipient of numerous literary awards—including the National Humanities Medal, the Dayton Literary Peace Prize, and the Orange Prize—returns with a timely novel that interweaves past and present to explore the human capacity for resiliency and compassion in times of great upheaval. . . . Unsheltered is the compulsively readable story of two families, in two centuries, who live at the corner of Sixth and Plum in Vineland, New Jersey, navigating what seems to be the end of the world as they know it. With history as their tantalizing canvas, these characters paint a startlingly relevant portrait of life in precarious times when the foundations of the past have failed to prepare us for the future. |
10/2018 | Palaces for the People: How Social Infrastructure Can Help Fight Inequality, Polarization, and the Decline Of Civil Life | Eric | Klinenberg | #NONFIC | In Palaces for the People, Eric Klinenberg . . . believes that the future of democratic societies rests not simply on shared values but on shared spaces: the libraries, childcare centers, bookstores, churches, synagogues, and parks where crucial, sometimes life-saving connections, are formed. These are places where people gather and linger, making friends across group lines and strengthening the entire community. Klinenberg calls this the “social infrastructure”: When it is strong, neighborhoods flourish; when it is neglected, as it has been in recent years, families and individuals must fend for themselves. . . . Richly reported, elegantly written, and ultimately uplifting, Palaces for the People urges us to acknowledge the crucial role these spaces play in civic life. Our social infrastructure could be the key to bridging our seemingly unbridgeable divides—and safeguarding democracy. |
10/2018 | Terrain: Ideas and Inspiration for Decorating the Home and Garden | Greg | Lehmkuhl, editor and the gardeners of Terrain | #NONFIC | Founded in a historic nursery in southeast Pennsylvania, Terrain is a nationally renowned garden, home, and lifestyle brand with an entirely fresh approach to living with nature. It’s an approach that bridges the gap between home and garden, the indoors and the outdoors. An approach that embraces decorating with plants and inviting the garden into every living space. Terrain, the book, not only captures the brand’s unique and lushly appealing sensibility in over 450 beautiful photographs but also shows, in project after project, tip after tip, how to live with nature at home. |
10/2018 | The Fifth Risk | Michael | Lewis | #NONFIC | Michael Lewis’s brilliant narrative takes us into the engine rooms of a government under attack by its own leaders. In Agriculture the funding of vital programs like food stamps and school lunches is being slashed. The Commerce Department may not have enough staff to conduct the 2020 Census properly. Over at Energy, where international nuclear risk is managed, it’s not clear there will be enough inspectors to track and locate black market uranium before terrorists do. Willful ignorance plays a role in these looming disasters. If your ambition is to maximize short-term gains without regard to the long-term cost, you are better off not knowing those costs. If you want to preserve your personal immunity to the hard problems, it’s better never to really understand those problems. There is upside to ignorance, and downside to knowledge. Knowledge makes life messier. It makes it a bit more difficult for a person who wishes to shrink the world to a worldview. If there are dangerous fools in this book, there are also heroes, unsung, of course. They are the linchpins of the system―those public servants whose knowledge, dedication, and proactivity keep the machinery running. Michael Lewis finds them, and he asks them what keeps them up at night. |
10/2018 | The Revolutionary Genius of Plants | Stefano | Mancuso | #NONFIC | Do plants have intelligence? Do they have memory? Are they better problem solvers than people? The Revolutionary Genius of Plants—a fascinating, paradigm-shifting work that upends everything you thought you knew about plants—makes a compelling scientific case that these and other astonishing ideas are all true. |
10/2018 | Glimmer of Hope: How Tragedy Sparked a Movement | March for Our Lives Founders | #NONFIC | Glimmer of Hope is the official, definitive book from The March for Our Lives founders. In keeping up with their ongoing fight to end gun-violence in all communities, the student leaders of March for Our Lives have decided not to be paid as authors of the book. 100% of net proceeds from this book will be paid to March For Our Lives Action Fund. | |
10/2018 | Troll Nation: How The Right Became Trump-Worshipping Monsters Set on Ratf*cking Liberals, America and Truth Itself | Amanda | Marcotte | #NONFIC | In Troll Nation, journalist Amanda Marcotte outlines how Trump was the inevitable result of American conservatism’s degradation into an ideology of blind resentment. For years now, the purpose of right wing media, particularly Fox News, has not been to argue for traditional conservative ideals, such as small government or even family values, so much as to stoke bitterness and paranoia in its audience. Traditionalist white people have lost control over the culture, and they know it, and the only option they feel they have left is to rage at a broad swath of supposed enemies ― journalists, activists, feminists, city dwellers, college professors ― that they blame for stealing “their” country from them. Conservative pundits, politicians, and activists have abandoned any hope of winning the argument through reasoned discourse, and instead have adopted a series of bad faith claims, conspiracy theories, and culture war hysterics. Decades of these antics created a conservative voting base that was ready to elect a mindless bully like Donald Trump. |
10/2018 | God of Money | Karl | Marx; illustrated by Maguma | #NONFIC | Interpreted for the twenty-first century, God of Money is based on extracts from Karl Marx’s famous chapter on money, published in Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts, 1844. Marx was a young man at the time, critical and defiant of an emergent world of rampant greed and consumption. Spanish illustrator Maguma recreates this celebrated rant against the mind-numbing power of money in the context of contemporary developments ― where the spread of avarice on a global scale has led to the near death of the commons. Drawing on the biblical tale of the Fall, Maguma creates a surreal world continually fuelled by an insatiable desire for more. |
10/2018 | Untold: The Stories Behind the Photographs | Steve | McCurry | #NONFIC | Steve McCurry's iconic images have made him one of the world's most popular photographers working today. Now, for the first time, he shares the stories behind stunning images taken from around the world throughout his extensive career. Published by Phaidon |
10/2018 | Women Who Rock: Bessie to Beyonce Girl groups to Riot Grrl | Evelyn | McDonnell, editor | #NONFIC | From Bessie Smith and The Supremes to Joan Baez, Madonna, Beyonce, Amy Winehouse, Dolly Parton, Sleater-Kinney, Taylor Swift, and scores more, women have played an essential and undeniable role in the evolution of popular music including blues, rock and roll, country, folk, glam rock, punk, and hip hop. Today, in a world traditionally dominated by male artists, women have a stronger influence on popular music than ever before. Yet, not since the late nineteen-nineties has there been a major work that acknowledges and pays tribute to the female artists who have contributed to, defined, and continue to make inroads in music. In Women Who Rock, writer and professor of journalism Evelyn McDonnell leads a team of women rock writers and pundits in an all-out celebration of 104 of the greatest female musicians. Organized chronologically, the book profiles each artist and places her in the context of both her genre and the musical world at large. Sidebars throughout recall key moments that shaped both the trajectory of music and how those moments influenced or were influenced by women artists. |
10/2018 | On the Other Side of Freedom: The Case for Hope | Deray | Mckesson | #NONFIC | 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. |
10/2018 | The Fifth Risk | Lewis | Michael | #NONFIC | “Fascinating ― and at times harrowing…. Lewis tells an important and timely story, one that all of us who pay for, care about, and want government to work should hear.” - NPR |
10/2018 | Bong Appetit: Mastering the Art of Cooking with Weed | Munchies’ Editors | #NONFIC | Based on the popular Munchies and Viceland television series Bong Appétit, this cannabis cookbook features 65 "high"-end recipes for sweet and savory dishes as well as cocktails. | |
10/2018 | Don't Sleep: The Urgent Messages of Oliver Munday: Graphic Design In a Time of Resistance | Oliver | Munday | #NONFIC | Part personal history, part design philosophy, and part advocacy, this volume showcases the arresting work of Oliver Munday. Employing humor and menace in equal measure, Munday wields graphic design as a tool of empowerment, activism, and resistance. Drawing from the history and utility of twentieth- century agitprop, from Russian Constructivism to the Black Panthers, Munday updates a timeless medium for the social media age with his stark and often unsettling imagery. |
10/2018 | Miyazaki World: A Life in Art | Susan | Napier | #NONFIC | A thirtieth‑century toxic jungle, a bathhouse for tired gods, a red‑haired fish girl, and a furry woodland spirit—what do these have in common? They all spring from the mind of Hayao Miyazaki, one of the greatest living animators, known worldwide for films such as My Neighbor Totoro, Princess Mononoke, Spirited Away, Howl’s Moving Castle, and The Wind Rises. Japanese culture and animation scholar Susan Napier explores the life and art of this extraordinary Japanese filmmaker to provide a definitive account of his oeuvre. Napier insightfully illuminates the multiple themes crisscrossing his work, from empowered women to environmental nightmares to utopian dreams, creating an unforgettable portrait of a man whose art challenged Hollywood dominance and ushered in a new chapter of global popular culture. |
10/2018 | Jimmy Nelson Homage to Humanity | Jimmy | Nelson | #NONFIC | Photographer Jimmy Nelson has traveled the world with his camera, visiting some of its most remote and ancient cultures: the resulting images will uplift us individually, unite us spiritually and help motivate us to save our humanity. (published by Rizzoli) |
10/2018 | Painting Abstraction: New Elements in Abstract Painting | Bob | Nickas | #NONFIC | In recent years, abstract painting has developed a rich complexity that, now more than ever, rewards intensive viewing; this authoritative book guides the reader through the key issues in the field. Painting Abstraction profiles 80 of today’s most vital contemporary abstract painters, such as Mark Grotjahn and Amy Sillman, featuring large full-color reproductions of their work and incisive texts by author and curator Bob Nickas. The product of years of research and countless studio visits, Painting Abstraction is a major statement on the last five years of this exciting new wave of creativity in painting. (published by Phaidon) |
10/2018 | How To Invent Everything: A Survival Guide for the Stranded Time Traveler | Ryan | North | #NONFIC | With this book as your guide, you'll survive--and thrive--in any period in Earth's history. Bestselling author and time-travel enthusiast Ryan North shows you how to invent all the modern conveniences we take for granted--from first principles. This illustrated manual contains all the science, engineering, art, philosophy, facts, and figures required for even the most clueless time traveler to build a civilization from the ground up. Deeply researched, irreverent, and significantly more fun than being eaten by a saber-toothed tiger, How to Invent Everything will make you smarter, more competent, and completely prepared to become the most important and influential person ever. You're about to make history. . . better. |
10/2018 | Norma | Sofi | Oksanen | #FIC | When Anita Naakka jumps in front of an oncoming train, her daughter, Norma, is left alone with the secret they have spent their lives hiding: Norma has supernatural hair, sensitive to the slightest changes in her mood--and the moods of those around her--moving of its own accord, corkscrewing when danger is near. And so it is her hair that alerts her, while she talks with a strange man at her mother's funeral, that her mother may not have taken her own life. Setting out to reconstruct Anita's final months--sifting through puzzling cell phone records, bank statements, video files--Norma begins to realize that her mother knew more about her hair's powers than she let on: a sinister truth beyond Norma's imagining. As Sofi Oksanen leads us ever more deeply into Norma's world, weaving together past and present, she gives us a dark family drama that is a searing portrait of both the exploitation of women's bodies and the extremes to which people will go for the sake of beauty. |
10/2018 | The Library Book | Susan | Orlean | #NONFIC | Brimming with her signature wit, insight, compassion, and talent for deep research, The Library Book is Susan Orlean’s thrilling journey through the stacks that reveals how these beloved institutions provide much more than just books—and why they remain an essential part of the heart, mind, and soul of our country. It is also a master journalist’s reminder that, perhaps especially in the digital era, they are more necessary than ever. |
10/2018 | Annihilation | Paramount, Studio | #DVD | Annihilation backs up its sci-fi visual wonders and visceral genre thrills with an impressively ambitious -- and surprisingly strange -- exploration of challenging themes that should leave audiences pondering long after the end credits roll. Film with Natalie Portman. | |
10/2018 | Consuming Stories: Kara Walker and the Imagining of American Race | Rebecca | Peabody | #NONFIC | In Consuming Stories, Rebecca Peabody uses the work of contemporary American artist Kara Walker to investigate a range of popular storytelling traditions with roots in the nineteenth century and ramifications in the present. Focusing on a few key pieces that range from a wall-size installation to a reworked photocopy in an artist’s book and from a theater curtain to a monumental sculpture, Peabody explores a significant yet neglected aspect of Walker’s production: her commitment to examining narrative depictions of race, gender, power, and desire. . . . Ultimately, Consuming Stories shifts the critical conversation away from the visual legacy of historical racism toward the present-day role of the entertainment industry—and its consumers—in processes of racialization. |
10/2018 | The Big Book of Female Detectives | Otto | Penzler, editor | #FIC | For the first time ever, Otto Penzler gathers the most iconic women of the detective canon over the past 150 years, captivating and surprising readers in equal measure. The 74 handpicked stories in this collection introduce us to the most determined of gumshoe gals, from debutant detectives like Anna Katharine Green's Violet Strange to spinster sleuths like Mary Roberts Rinehart's Hilda Adams, from groundbreaking female cops like Baroness Orczy's Lady Molly to contemporary crime-fighting P.I.s like Sue Grafton's Kinsey Millhone, and include indelible tales from Agatha Christie, Carolyn Wells, Edgar Wallace, L. T. Meade and Robert Eustace, Sara Paretsky, Nevada Barr, Linda Barnes, Laura Lippman, and many more. |
10/2018 | Every Day a Word Surprises Me & Others Quotes by Writers | Phaidon Editors | #NONFIC | Featuring the most inspirational and insightful collection of quotes by writers through the ages and across the globe, Every Day a Word Surprises Me is the ideal keepsake for readers, writers, and everyone who appreciates the exquisite power of words. This carefully curated book, packed with original research, is a go-to resource for thoughts on a variety of subjects, including originality, punctuation, reading, daily routines, rejection, money troubles, the creative process, love, truth, and more. | |
10/2018 | Destination Art : 500 Artworks Worth the Trip | Phaidon Editors | #NONFIC | Enjoy a world tour from the comfort of your reading chair or plan a detailed and engaging art itinerary for your next trip with Destination Art, the essential guide to 500 must-see examples of permanently installed art from the last 100 years. With the book's geographical organization and logistical details - including GPS coordinates, addresses, websites, and symbols indicating the degree of possible access, travel planning is made easy. | |
10/2018 | Feed Me: 50 Home Cooked Meals for Your Dog | Liviana | Prola | #NONFIC | With 50 easy-to-follow recipes for nutritious and quick-to-prepare meals adjustable for dogs of different weights, sizes, breeds, and activity levels, this book takes the mystery out of what you should feed your dog with simple recipes that follow healthy guidelines. published by Phaidon |
10/2018 | The Herbal Apothecary: 100 Medicinal Herbs and How to Use Them | JJ | Pursell | #NONFIC | The Herbal Apothecary profiles 100 of the most important medicinal plants with striking photographs and step-by-step instructions for making herbal teas, tinctures, compresses, and salves to treat everything from muscle strain to the common cold or anxiety. This holistic guide also includes advice for the home gardener on growing and foraging for medicinal plants. Incorporating traditional wisdom and scientific information, The Herbal Apothecary provides an accessible and comprehensive introduction to plant-based medicine. With the guidance of naturopath JJ Pursell, herb enthusiasts can learn how to safely create their own remedies using plants they know and love. |
10/2018 | Blues Party | Putumayo, Label | #AUDIO | This musical celebration by legends of the blues will have you boogieing up the Mississippi from New Orleans to Chicago. This collection features some of our favorite upbeat blues cuts that turn pain into pleasure and sadness into celebration. They provide life lessons as well; sometimes the best way to deal with the devil is to laugh in its face, proving that nothing he throws in your path is going to keep you from letting the good times roll. [Putumayo.com] | |
10/2018 | Feathers And Faces | Adele | Renault | #NONFIC | Adele Renault is an artist with a deft touch for that which most might find commonplace. From pigeons to people, she focuses her artistry on realistic depictions of ordinary city residents. . . . To witness Adele turn the entire side of a building into a work of art is truly something to behold. Her ability to attack, to create with such exacting ferocity is in and of itself a piece of performance art |
10/2018 | Sorry to Bother You | Boots | Riley | #DVD | In an alternate present-day version of Oakland, black telemarketer Cassius Green (Lakeith Stanfield) discovers a magical key to professional success, which propels him into a macabre universe of "powercalling" that leads to material glory. But the upswing in Cassius' career raises serious red flags with his girlfriend Detroit (Tessa Thompson), a performance artist and minimum-wage striver who's secretly part of a Banksy-style activist collective. As his friends and co-workers organize in protest of corporate oppression, Cassius falls under the spell of his company's cocaine-snorting CEO Steve Lift (Armie Hammer), who offers him a salary beyond his wildest dreams. [from rottentomatoes.com] |
10/2018 | The Taiga Syndrome | Christina | Rivera Garza | #FIC | A fairy tale run amok, The Taiga Syndrome follows an unnamed female Ex-Detective as she searches for a couple who has fled to the far reaches of the earth. A betrayed husband is convinced by a brief telegram that his second ex-wife wants him to track her down--that she wants to be found. He hires the Ex-Detective, who sets out with a translator into a snowy, hostile forest where strange things happen and translation betrays both sense and one's senses. Tales of Hansel and Gretel and Little Red Riding Hood haunt the Ex-Detective's quest, though the lessons of her journey are more experiential than moral: that just as love can fly away, sometimes unloving flies away as well. That sometimes leaving everything behind is the only thing left to do. |
10/2018 | Everything's Trash But It's Okay | Phoebe | Robinson | #NONFIC | Written in her trademark unfiltered and witty style, Robinson's latest collection is a call to arms. Outfitted with on-point pop culture references, these essays tackle a wide range of topics: giving feminism a tough-love talk on intersectionality, telling society's beauty standards to kick rocks, and calling foul on our culture's obsession with work. Robinson also gets personal, exploring money problems she's hidden from her parents, how dating is mainly a warmed-over bowl of hot mess, and definitely most important, meeting Bono not once, but twice. She's struggled with being a woman with a political mind and a woman with an ever-changing jeans size. She knows about trash because she sees it every day--and because she's seen roughly one hundred thousand hours of reality TV and zero hours of Schindler's List. With the intimate voice of a new best friend, Everything's Trash, But It's Okay is a candid perspective for a generation that has had the rug pulled out from under it too many times to count. |
10/2018 | An Uncivil War: Taking Back Our Democracy in an Age of Trumpian Disinformation and Thunderdome Politics | Greg | Sargent | #NONFIC | In An Uncivil War, the Washington Post’s Greg Sargent sounds an urgent alarm about the deeper roots of our democratic backsliding—and how we can begin to turn things around between now and 2020. American democracy is facing a crisis as fraught as we’ve seen in decades. Donald Trump’s presidency has raised the specter of authoritarian rule. Extreme polarization and the scorched-earth war between the parties drags on with no end in sight. The recent Kavanaugh confirmation hearings are only the latest example of this, and of the GOP’s continued ability to steamroll the Democrats and their supporters. . . . But our plight is far from hopeless, and Sargent offers a series of doable prescriptions for saving our democracy, including a shift of focus toward state legislatures, creative voter registration policies, innovative approaches to fairer districting, and a new sense of purpose. The result is a book that could not be more essential as we head toward the elections that most matter. |
10/2018 | Likewar: The Weaponization of Social Media | P.W. | Singer & Emerson T. Brooking - | #NONFIC | Through the weaponization of social media, the internet is changing war and politics, just as war and politics are changing the internet. Terrorists livestream their attacks, “Twitter wars” produce real‑world casualties, and viral misinformation alters not just the result of battles, but the very fate of nations. The result is that war, tech, and politics have blurred into a new kind of battlespace that plays out on our smartphones. P. W. Singer and Emerson Brooking tackle the mind‑bending questions that arise when war goes online and the online world goes to war. . . . [L]ooking to the crucial years ahead, LikeWar outlines a radical new paradigm for understanding and defending against the unprecedented threats of our networked world. |
10/2018 | Call Them by Their True Names: American Crises (And Essays) | Rebecca | Solnit | #NONFIC | In this powerful and wide-ranging collection, Solnit turns her attention to battles over meaning, place, language, and belonging at the heart of the defining crises of our time. She explores the way emotions shape political life, electoral politics, police shootings and gentrification, the life of an extraordinary man on death row, the pipeline protest at Standing Rock, and the existential threat posed by climate change. The work of changing the world sometimes requires changing the story, the names, and inventing or popularizing new names and terms and phrases. Calling things by their true names can also cut through the lies that excuse, disguise, avoid, or encourage inaction, indifference, obliviousness in the face of injustice and violence. |
10/2018 | How Fascism Works: The Politics of Us and Them | Jason | Stanley | #NONFIC | Fascist politics are running rampant in America today—and spreading around the world. A Yale philosopher identifies the ten pillars of fascist politics, and charts their horrifying rise and deep history. . . . Alarmed by the pervasive rise of fascist tactics both at home and around the globe, Stanley focuses here on the structures that unite them, laying out and analyzing the ten pillars of fascist politics—the language and beliefs that separate people into an “us” and a “them.” He knits together reflections on history, philosophy, sociology, and critical race theory with stories from contemporary Hungary, Poland, India, Myanmar, and the United States, among other nations. He makes clear the immense danger of underestimating the cumulative power of these tactics, which include exploiting a mythic version of a nation’s past; propaganda that twists the language of democratic ideals against themselves; anti-intellectualism directed against universities and experts; law and order politics predicated on the assumption that members of minority groups are criminals; and fierce attacks on labor groups and welfare. These mechanisms all build on one another, creating and reinforcing divisions and shaping a society vulnerable to the appeals of authoritarian leadership. |
10/2018 | Lust for Light | Hannah | Stouffer, Editor | #NONFIC | Whether it glows lustrously from neon, emanates purely from LEDs or radiates with intensity from lasers, this elemental medium, light, fascinates artists and viewers alike. . . . Featured artists include Yayoi Kusama, Ivan Navarro, Jennifer Steinkamp, Laddie John Dill, Joanie Lemercier, Massimo Uberti, Barry Underwood, Miguel Chevalier, James Clar, Liz West and more. Published by Gingko Press |
10/2018 | Mad, Bad, Dangerous to Know: The Fathers of Wilde, Yeats and Joyce | Colm | Toibin | #NONFIC | …an illuminating, intimate study of Irish culture, history, and literature told through the lives and work of three men—William Wilde, John Butler Yeats, and John Stanislaus Joyce—and the complicated, influential relationships they had with their complicated sons. . . . Elegant, profound, and riveting, Mad, Bad, Dangerous to Know illuminates not only the complex relationships between three of the greatest writers in the English language and their fathers, but also illustrates the surprising ways these men surface in their work. Through these stories of fathers and sons, Tóibín recounts the resistance to English cultural domination, the birth of modern Irish cultural identity, and the extraordinary contributions of these complex and masterful authors. |
10/2018 | Read & Riot: A Pussy Riot Guide to Activism | Nadya | Tolokonnikova | #NONFIC | Read & Riot is structured around Nadya’s ten rules for revolution (Be a pirate! Make your government shit its pants! Take back the joy!) and illustrated throughout with stunning examples from her extraordinary life and the philosophies of other revolutionary rebels throughout history. Rooted in action and going beyond the typical “call your senator” guidelines, Read & Riot gives us a refreshing model for civil disobedience, and encourages our right to question every status quo and make political action exciting—even joyful. |
10/2018 | Terrarium: New and Selected Stories | Valerie | Trueblood | #FIC | This collection will cement Valerie Trueblood’s standing as one of the finest American short story writers at work today: gathered together for the first time are stories spanning her acclaimed career, presented along with her newest work . . . It's hard to describe any of Trueblood's stories as "typical." She does not write about people from a single class, or caste, or geographical area. She has not written a single story emblematic of her work. She does not write stories fantastical or eccentric. Ordinary life, her stories may be saying, is fantastical enough. She is more like Babel than Chekhov. In all her writing, it's clear that Trueblood believes that the short story can carry both the lightest and heaviest of loads. Terrarium highlights the achievement of simply living, the stories within often unresolved but in a state of continuation, expansion. Trueblood's stories aren’t merely "about" their subjects, they’re inside them. |
10/2018 | Versailles Season One | Universal Pictures Home Entertainment, Studio | #DVD | Louis XIV flaunts his absolute power by building the most extraordinary castle in the world, in his bid to keep the nobles under control and out of Paris. [rottentomatoes.com] | |
10/2018 | On Chesil Beach | Universal Pictures Home Entertainment, Studio | #DVD | In 1962 England, two young people from drastically different backgrounds - well-to-do Florence (Academy Award nominee Saoirse Ronan) and working-class Edward (Billy Howle) - meet and begin an idyllic courtship. Though their love is true, the societal pressures and sexual mores of the time cause strain between the young couple, leading to an awkward and fateful wedding night. Adapted by Ian McEwan from his bestselling novel. | |
10/2018 | Leave No Trace | Universal Pictures Home Entertainment, Studio | #DVD | Will (Ben Foster) and his teenage daughter, Tom (Thomasin Harcourt McKenzie), have lived off the grid for years in the forests of Portland, Oregon. When their idyllic life is shattered, both are put into social services. After clashing with their new surroundings, Will and Tom set off on a harrowing journey back to their wild homeland. | |
10/2018 | Garden Revolution: How Our Landscapes Can Be a Source of Environmental Change | Larry | Weaner &Thomas Christopher | #NONFIC | This lushly-photographed reference is an important moment in horticulture that will be embraced by anyone looking for a better, smarter way to garden. Larry Weaner is an icon in the world of ecological landscape design, and now his revolutionary approach is available to all gardeners. Garden Revolution shows how an ecological approach to planting can lead to beautiful gardens that buck much of conventional gardening’s counter-productive, time-consuming practices. Instead of picking the wrong plant and then constantly tilling, weeding, irrigating, and fertilizing, Weaner advocates for choosing plants that are adapted to the soil and climate of a specific site and letting them naturally evolve over time. Allowing the plants to find their own niches, to spread their seed around until they find the microclimate and spot that suits them best, creates a landscape that is vibrant, dynamic, and gorgeous year after year. |
10/2018 | Tides: The Science and Spirit of the Ocean | Jonathan | White | #NONFIC | In Tides: The Science and Spirit of the Ocean, writer, sailor, and surfer Jonathan White takes readers across the globe to discover the science and spirit of ocean tides. In the Arctic, White shimmies under the ice with an Inuit elder to hunt for mussels in the dark cavities left behind at low tide; in China, he races the Silver Dragon, a twenty-five-foot tidal bore that crashes eighty miles up the Qiantang River; in France, he interviews the monks that live in the tide-wrapped monastery of Mont Saint-Michel; in Chile and Scotland, he investigates the growth of tidal power generation; and in Panama and Venice, he delves into how the threat of sea level rise is changing human culture—the very old and very new. Tides combines lyrical prose, colorful adventure travel, and provocative scientific inquiry into the elemental, mysterious paradox that keeps our planet’s waters in constant motion. Photographs, scientific figures, line drawings, and sixteen color photos dramatically illustrate this engaging, expert tour of the tides. |
11/2018 | 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] |
11/2018 | 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. |
11/2018 | 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. |
11/2018 | 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. |
11/2018 | 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. |
11/2018 | 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. |
11/2018 | 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. |
11/2018 | 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. |
11/2018 | 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. |
11/2018 | 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) | |
11/2018 | 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. | |
11/2018 | 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? | |
11/2018 | 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. | |
11/2018 | 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. |
11/2018 | 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? |
11/2018 | 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. |
11/2018 | 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 . . . |
11/2018 | 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. |
11/2018 | 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" | |
11/2018 | 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. | |
11/2018 | 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 http://www.theking.film] | |
11/2018 | 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/%5D | |
11/2018 | 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. |
11/2018 | 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 |
11/2018 | 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. | |
11/2018 | 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…” |
12/2018 | The Thing Around Your Neck | Chimamanda Ngozi | Adichie | #FIC | In these twelve riveting stories, the award-winning Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie explores the ties that bind men and women, parents and children, Africa and the United States. Searing and profound, suffused with beauty, sorrow, and longing, these stories map, with Adichie's signature emotional wisdom, the collision of two cultures and the deeply human struggle to reconcile them. |
12/2018 | Half of a Yellow Sun | Chimamanda Ngozi | Adichie | #FIC | With effortless grace, celebrated author Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie illuminates a seminal moment in modern African history: Biafra's impassioned struggle to establish an independent republic in southeastern Nigeria during the late 1960s. We experience this tumultuous decade alongside five unforgettable characters: Ugwu, a thirteen-year-old houseboy who works for Odenigbo, a university professor full of revolutionary zeal; Olanna, the professor’s beautiful young mistress who has abandoned her life in Lagos for a dusty town and her lover’s charm; and Richard, a shy young Englishman infatuated with Olanna’s willful twin sister Kainene. Half of a Yellow Sun is a tremendously evocative novel of the promise, hope, and disappointment of the Biafran war. |
12/2018 | Purple Hibiscus | Chimamanda Ngozi | Adichie | #FIC | Fifteen-year-old Kambili and her older brother Jaja lead a privileged life in Enugu, Nigeria. They live in a beautiful house, with a caring family, and attend an exclusive missionary school. They're completely shielded from the troubles of the world. Yet, as Kambili reveals in her tender-voiced account, things are less perfect than they appear. Although her Papa is generous and well respected, he is fanatically religious and tyrannical at home—a home that is silent and suffocating. As the country begins to fall apart under a military coup, Kambili and Jaja are sent to their aunt, a university professor outside the city, where they discover a life beyond the confines of their father’s authority. Books cram the shelves, curry and nutmeg permeate the air, and their cousins’ laughter rings throughout the house. When they return home, tensions within the family escalate, and Kambili must find the strength to keep her loved ones together. Purple Hibiscus is an exquisite novel about the emotional turmoil of adolescence, the powerful bonds of family, and the bright promise of freedom. |
12/2018 | The Handmaid's Tale | Margaret | Atwood | #AUDIO | Margaret Atwood's popular dystopian novel The Handmaid's Tale explores a broad range of issues relating to power, gender and religious politics. Multiple Golden Globe award-winner Claire Danes (Romeo and Juliet, The Hours) gives a stirring performance of this classic in speculative fiction, one of the most powerful and widely read novels of our time. |
12/2018 | Jordan Wolfson: Manic/Love Truth/Love | Jack | Bankowsky, et. al. | #NONFIC | Jordan Wolfson is known for his thought-provoking works in a wide range of media, including video, sculpture, installation, photography, and performance. Produced in partnership with the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam, this book focuses on two major new works, Colored Sculpture and Female Figure. Operating somewhere between sculpture and interactive installation, these pieces rely on Wolfson’s contradictory relationship with technology to create an unsettling tension between the figure and the spectacle. Like Real Violence, Wolfson’s virtual-reality piece shown at the Whitney Biennial, and indeed much of his work in other media, the perspective becomes more complex once the works engage with viewers through movement and sound. |
12/2018 | A Manual for Cleaning Women | Lucia | Berlin | #FIC | A Manual for Cleaning Women compiles the best work of the legendary short-story writer Lucia Berlin. With the grit of Raymond Carver, the humor of Grace Paley, and a blend of wit and melancholy all her own, Berlin crafts miracles from the everyday, uncovering moments of grace in the Laundromats and halfway houses of the American Southwest, in the homes of the Bay Area upper class, among switchboard operators and struggling mothers, hitchhikers and bad Christians. |
12/2018 | Evening in Paradise | Lucia | Berlin | #FIC | In 2015, Farrar, Straus and Giroux published A Manual for Cleaning Women, a posthumous story collection by a relatively unknown writer, to wild, widespread acclaim. It was a New York Times bestseller; the paper’s Book Review named it one of the Ten Best Books of 2015; and NPR, Time, Entertainment Weekly, The Guardian, The Washington Post, the Chicago Tribune, and other outlets gave the book rave reviews. The book’s author, Lucia Berlin, earned comparisons to Raymond Carver, Grace Paley, Alice Munro, and Anton Chekhov. Evening in Paradise is a careful selection from Berlin’s remaining stories―twenty-two gems that showcase the gritty glamour that made readers fall in love with her. From Texas to Chile, Mexico to New York City, Berlin finds beauty in the darkest places and darkness in the seemingly pristine. Evening in Paradise is an essential piece of Berlin’s oeuvre, a jewel-box follow-up for new and old |
12/2018 | Creating Sanctuary | Jessi | Bloom | #NONFIC | In Creating Sanctuary, Jessi Bloom taps into multiple sources of traditional plant wisdom to help find a deeper connection to the outdoor space you already have—no matter the size. Equal parts inspirational and practical, this engaging guide includes tips on designing a healing space, plant profiles for 50 sacred plants, recipes that harness the medicinal properties of plants, and simple instructions for daily rituals and practices for self-care. |
12/2018 | Ed Ruscha and the Great American West - | Karin | Breuer, Editor | #NONFIC | Ruscha’s interest in what the real West has become—and Hollywood’s version of it—plays out across his oeuvre. The cinematic sources of his subject matter can be seen in his silhouette pictures, which often appear to be grainy stills from old Hollywood movies. They feature images of the contemporary West, such as parking lots and swimming pools, but also of its historical past: covered wagons, buffalo, teepees, and howling coyotes. Featuring essays by Karin Breuer and D.J. Waldie, plus a fascinating interview with the artist conducted by Kerry Brougher, this stunning catalogue, produced in close collaboration with the Ruscha studio, offers the first full exploration of the painter’s lifelong fascination with the romantic concept and modern reality of the evolving American West. |
12/2018 | Women of Visionary Art | David Jay | Brown and Rebecca Ann Hill | #NONFIC | In this full-color illustrated book, David Jay Brown and Rebecca Ann Hill examine the work and inspirations of eighteen of today’s leading female visionary artists, including Josephine Wall, Allyson Grey, Amanda Sage, Martina Hoffmann, Penny Slinger, and Carolyn Mary Kleefeld. They explore the creative process and the role that dreaming, psychedelic experiences, sexuality, and divine guidance play in the work of these women, alongside full-color examples of their art. They discuss the future of visionary art and reveal how these artists have all been informed and inspired by deep inner experiences and seek to express non-ordinary visions of reality, often reminiscent of those encountered in shamanic trance, lucid dreams, psychedelic states, spiritually transcendent experiences, and other altered states. |
12/2018 | Milkman | Anna | Burns | #AUDIO | In an unnamed city, middle sister stands out for the wrong reasons. She reads while walking, for one. And she has been taking French night classes downtown. So when a local paramilitary known as the milkman begins pursuing her, she suddenly becomes “interesting,” the last thing she ever wanted to be. Despite middle sister’s attempts to avoid him―and to keep her mother from finding out about her maybe-boyfriend―rumors spread and the threat of violence lingers. Milkman is a story of the way inaction can have enormous repercussions, in a time when the wrong flag, wrong religion, or even a sunset can be subversive. Told with ferocious energy and sly, wicked humor, Milkman establishes Anna Burns as one of the most consequential voices of our day. |
12/2018 | Deep Diversity: Overcoming Us vs. Them | Shakil | Choudhury | #NONFIC | Deep Diversity integrates Choudhury’s twenty years of experience with interviews with researchers in social neuroscience, implicit bias, psychology, and mindfulness. Using a compassionate but challenging approach, Choudhury helps readers identify their own bias and offers practical ways to break the "prejudice habits" we have all learned, in order to tackle systemic discrimination. |
12/2018 | Attention: Dispatches from a Land of Distraction | Joshua | Cohen | #NONFIC | One of Granta’s Best of Young American Novelists, Joshua Cohen arrives with his first collection of nonfiction, the culmination of two decades of writing and thought about life in the digital age. In essays, memoir, criticism, diary entries, and letters—many appearing here for the first time—Cohen covers the full depth and breadth of modern life: politics, literature, art, music, travel, the media, and psychology, and subjects as diverse as Google, Donald Trump, Bernie Sanders, fictional animals, Gustav Mahler, Aretha Franklin, John Zorn, landscape photography, fake Caravaggios, Wikipedia, Gertrude Stein, Edward Snowden, Jonathan Franzen, Olympic women’s fencing, Atlantic City casinos, the closing of the Ringling Bros. circus, and Azerbaijan. |
12/2018 | Unladylike: A Field Guide to Smashing the Patriarchy and Claiming Your Space | Cristen | Conger and Caroline Ervin | #NONFIC | Get ready to get unladylike with this field guide to the what's, why's, and how's of intersectional feminism and practical hell-raising. Through essential, inclusive, and illustrated explorations of what patriarchy looks like in the real world, authors and podcast hosts Cristen Conger and Caroline Ervin blend wild histories, astounding stats, social justice principles, and self-help advice to connect where the personal meets political in our bodies, brains, booty calls, bank accounts, and other confounding facets of modern woman-ing and nonbinary-ing. By laying out the uneven terrain of double-standards, head games, and handouts patriarchy has manspread across society for ages, Unladylike is here to unpack our gender baggage and map out the space that's ours to claim. |
12/2018 | Outliers and American Vanguard Art | Lynne | Cooke | #NONFIC | For a new exhibition launching at the National Gallery of Art, curator Lynne Cooke explores shifting conceptualizations of the American outlier across the twentieth century, drawing on the inherent sociality of the exhibition in her installation of these works. This companion catalog, Outliers and American Vanguard Art, offers a fantastic opportunity to consider works by schooled and self-taught creators in relation to each other and defined by historical circumstance. |
12/2018 | Nothing Good Can Come from This | Kristi | Coulter | #NONFIC | Kristi Coulter inspired and incensed the internet when she wrote about what happened when she stopped drinking. Nothing Good Can Come from This is her debut--a frank, funny, and feminist essay collection by a keen-eyed observer no longer numbed into complacency. |
12/2018 | Now You're Talking: Human Conversation from the Neanderthals to Artificial Intelligence | Trevor | Cox | #NONFIC | Now You're Talking is the fascinating story of our ability to converse. It takes us back to the core of our humanity, asking important questions about what makes us human and how this uniqueness might be threatened. On this illuminating tour we meet vocal coaches and record producers, neuroscientists and computer programmers, whose experience and research provide us with a deeper understanding of something that most of us take for granted―our ability to talk and listen. |
12/2018 | It's Only Blood: Shattering the Taboo of Menstration | Anna | Dahlqvist | #NONFIC | Every day 800,000,000 people menstruate. Yet menstruation is still seen by many as a mark of shame. We are told not to discuss it in public, that tampons and sanitary pads should be hidden away, the blood rendered invisible. In many parts of the world, poverty, culture, and religion collide, causing the taboo around menstruation to have grave consequences. Younger people who menstruate are deterred from going to school, adults from work, infections are left untreated. The shame is universal and the silence a global rule. In It’s Only Blood Anna Dahlqvist tells the shocking but always moving stories of why and how people from the United States to Uganda, Sweden to Bangladesh, are fighting back against the shame. |
12/2018 | Housegirl | Michael | Donkor | #FIC | A moving and unexpectedly funny exploration of friendship and family, shame and forgiveness, Michael Donkor's debut novel follows three adolescent girls grappling with a shared experience: the joys and sorrows of growing up. "An arresting and textured novel...[Donkor] has a gift for succinct, piercing description: through Belinda's eyes, the exotic (Ghana) becomes familiar, and the familiar (London) becomes exotic." --The Observer (The New Faces of Fiction) |
12/2018 | One October | Dreamscape Media, Studio | #DVD | On October 1st, 2017, over 22,000 people gathered in Las Vegas for the annual Route 91 Harvest music festival, which featured some of country music's biggest stars. As closing act Jason Aldean performed his set, a gunman opened fire on the throng of concertgoers from the 32nd floor of the Mandalay Bay casino and unleashed over 1,100 rounds of ammunition in just 10 minutes. Fifty-eight people were murdered, and over five hundred others were shot, making it the worst mass-shooting in U.S. history. Using interviews, eyewitness testimony, and haunting cell-phone footage, acclaimed director Charlie Minn recreates the scene from that harrowing night and pieces together the variables surrounding the incident. Focusing on the survivors and their stories, Minn creates a narrative of the shooting and its aftermath that provides some solace and reveals a community that chose to be #VegasStrong in the face of terror. directed by Rachel Shuman | |
12/2018 | Sabrina | Nick | Drnaso | #FIC | THE FIRST EVER GRAPHIC NOVEL NOMINATED FOR THE MAN BOOKER PRIZE! A NEW YORK TIMES NOTABLE BOOK! ON 20 BEST OF 2018 LISTS INCLUDING THE WASHINGTON POST, NPR, NEWSWEEK, AND THE GUARDIAN! . . . Sabrina depicts a modern world devoid of personal interaction and responsibility, where relationships are stripped of intimacy through glowing computer screens. Presenting an indictment of our modern state, Drnaso contemplates the dangers of a fake-news climate. Timely and articulate, Sabrina leaves you gutted, searching for meaning in the aftermath of disaster. (graphic novel) |
12/2018 | The Watchdogs Didn't Bark: The CIA, NSA, and the Crimes of the War on Terror | John | Duffy & Ray Nowosielski | #NONFIC | At the heart of this book is a mystery: Why did key 9/11 plotters Khalid Al Mihdhar and Nawaf Al Hazmi, operating inside the United States, fall onto the radars of so many US agencies without any of those agencies succeeding in stopping the attacks? The answers go beyond mere “conspiracy theory” and “deep state” actors, but instead find a complicated set of potential culprits and an easily manipulated system. Taking readers on a character-driven account of the causes of 9/11 and how the lessons of the attacks were cynically inverted to empower surveillance of citizens, kidnapping, illegal imprisonment, torture, government-sanctioned murder, and a war on whistleblowers and journalists, an alarm is raised which is more pertinent today than ever before. |
12/2018 | American Like Me: Reflections on Life Between Cultures | America | Ferrera | #NONFIC | . . . [I]n American Like Me, America invites thirty-one of her friends, peers, and heroes to share their stories about life between cultures. We know them as actors, comedians, athletes, politicians, artists, and writers. However, they are also immigrants, children or grandchildren of immigrants, indigenous people, or people who otherwise grew up with deep and personal connections to more than one culture. Each of them struggled to establish a sense of self, find belonging, and feel seen. And they call themselves American enthusiastically, reluctantly, or not at all. |
12/2018 | Passing for Human: A Graphic Memoir | Liana | Finck | #NONFIC | A visually arresting graphic memoir about a young artist struggling against what’s expected of her as a woman, and learning to accept her true self, from an acclaimed New Yorker cartoonist. NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY The Guardian • New York • Refinery29 • Kirkus Reviews . . . Melancholy and funny, personal and surreal, Passing for Human is a profound exploration of identity by one of the most talented young comic artists working today. Part magical odyssey, part feminist creation myth, this memoir is, most of all, an extraordinary, moving meditation on what it means to be an artist and a woman grappling with the desire to pass for human. |
12/2018 | Homebody: A Guide to Creating Spaces You Never Want to Leave | Joanna | Gaines | #NONFIC | Joanna Gaines walks you through how to create a home that reflects the personalities and stories of the people who live there. Using examples from her own farmhouse as well as a range of other homes, this comprehensive guide will help you assess your priorities and instincts, as well as your likes and dislikes, with practical steps for navigating and embracing your authentic design style. Room by room, Homebody gives you an in-depth look at how these styles are implemented as well as how to blend the looks you're drawn to in order to create spaces that feel distinctly yours. A removable design template at the back of the book offers a step-by-step guide to planning and sketching out your own design plans. The insight shared in Homebody will instill in you the confidence to thoughtfully create spaces you never want to leave. |
12/2018 | Westwood: Punk. Icon. Activist - | Greenwich Ent, Studio | #DVD | Since igniting the punk movement with ex-partner and Sex Pistols’ manager Malcolm McLaren, Dame Vivienne Westwood has been redefining British fashion for over 40 years and is responsible for creating many of the most distinctive looks of our time. The film blends archival footage and insightful interviews with Vivienne’s fascinating network of collaborators, guiding us on her journey from a childhood in postwar Derbyshire to the runways of Paris and Milan. This is an intimate and poignant homage to one of the true cultural icons of our time as she fights to maintain her brand’s integrity, her principles and her legacy in a business driven by consumerism, profit and global expansion. | |
12/2018 | Fed Up: Emotional Labor, Women, and the Way Forward | Gemma | Hartley | #NONFIC | In her ultra-viral article “Women Aren’t Nags—We’re Just Fed Up,” shared by millions of readers, Gemma Hartley gave much-needed voice to the frustration and anger experienced by countless women. Now, in Fed Up, Hartley expands outward from the everyday frustrations of performing thankless emotional labor to illuminate how the expectation to do this work in all arenas—private and public—fuels gender inequality, limits our opportunities, steals our time, and adversely affects the quality of our lives. |
12/2018 | Maeve in America: Essays by a Girl from Somewhere Else | Maeve | Higgins | #NONFIC | Maeve Higgins was a bestselling memoirist and comedian in her native Ireland when, at the grand old age of thirty-one, she left the only home she’d ever known in search of something more. Like many women in their early thirties, she both was and was not the adult she wanted to be. At once smart, curious, and humane, Maeve in America is the story of how Maeve found herself, literally and figuratively, in New York City. . . . Together, the essays in Maeve in America create a startlingly funny and revealing portrait of a woman who aims for the stars but hits the ceiling, and the inimitable city that has helped shape who she is, even as she finds the words to make sense of it all. |
12/2018 | Censored 2019: The Top Censored Stories and Media Analysis of 2017-2018 | Mickey | Huff et al., Ediitors | #NONFIC | The annual yearbook from Project Censored features the year's most underreported news stories, striving to unmask censorship, self-censorship, and propaganda in corporate-controlled media outlets. Featuring the top 25 most underreported stories, as voted by scholars, journalists, and activists across the country and around the world, as well as chapters exploring timely issues from the previous year with more in-depth analysis. |
12/2018 | Modern Herstory: Stories of Women and Nonbinary People Rewriting History | Blair | Imani | #NONFIC | An inspiring and radical celebration of 70 women, girls, and gender nonbinary people who have changed--and are still changing--the world, from the Civil Rights Movement and Stonewall riots through Black Lives Matter and beyond. |
12/2018 | Paul Klee: Irony at Work | Angela | Lampe, Editor | #NONFIC | Exploring the satires and caricatures of Klee’s youth, his experimentations in Cubism and “mechanical theater,” and the constructivist approach of the Bauhaus school, this book follows the trajectory of Klee’s oeuvre as a reflection of prevailing styles. It closes with the artist’s final years, in which he was labeled a “degenerate artist” by the Nazi regime and struggled with illness. Viewed through the many facets of irony as a complex theme, and against the backdrop of Europe’s seismic political and artistic movements, Klee’s body of work takes on a renewed significance as one of the most critical of its generation. |
12/2018 | Passing | Nella | Larsen | #FIC | Restless Classics presents an undersung gem of the Harlem Renaissance Nella Larsen's Passing, a captivating and prescient exploration of identity, sexuality, belonging, self-invention, and race set amidst the pealing boisterousness of the Jazz Age. When childhood friends Clare Kendry and Irene Redfield come across each other at a white-only restaurant, Irene learns her estranged friend has severed all ties to their African American community and is now married to a bigoted white man unaware of her heritage. Swinging between allure and repulsion, their revived relationship becomes a stage upon which questions of identity, sexuality, belonging, and self-invention play out. Abrim with stifled desires, Nella Larsen's searing portrait of these women's inner cadences straddles the edges of things--communities, identities, races, and speech--and ultimately lands somewhere absolute and subversive: a place that defies categorization. |
12/2018 | Bigfoots in Paradise | Doug | Lawson | #FIC | Beauty and terror collide in Doug Lawson’s Bigfoots in Paradise, a wild new collection of stories set largely in and around Santa Cruz, California and the surrounding mountains. It’s a land tucked between Silicon Valley and the Pacific Ocean, one that’s populated by aging hippies and venture capitalist sharks, pot farmers and surfers, child prodigies and roaming herds of wild boar. Earthquakes rumble, meth labs explode, helicopters search overhead for drug farms while wildfires ravage the hillsides. Blimps crash, mushrooms dream, dogfights erupt, trustafarians pontificate while pneumatic ostriches walk the streets and sons and fathers and lovers try desperately to find some way to connect with the past, with themselves, before it’s too late. |
12/2018 | Matters of Vital Interest: A Forty-Year Friendship with Leonard Cohen | Eric | Lerner | #NONFIC | Funny, revealing, self-aware, and deeply moving, Matters of Vital Interest is an insightful memoir about Lerner's relationship with his friend, whose idiosyncratic style and dignified life was deeply informed by his spiritual practices. Lerner invites readers to step into the room with them and listen in on a lifetime's ongoing dialogue, considerations of matters of vital interest, spiritual, mundane, and profane. In telling their story, Lerner depicts Leonard Cohen as a captivating persona, the likes of which we may never see again. |
12/2018 | It Can't Happen Here | Sinclair | Lewis | #FIC | A cautionary tale about the fragility of democracy, [It Can’t Happen Here] is an alarming, eerily timeless look at how fascism could take hold in America. Written during the Great Depression, when the country was largely oblivious to Hitler’s aggression, it juxtaposes sharp political satire with the chillingly realistic rise of a president who becomes a dictator to save the nation from welfare cheats, sex, crime, and a liberal press. Called “a message to thinking Americans” by the Springfield Republican when it was published in 1935, It Can’t Happen Here is a shockingly prescient novel that remains as fresh and contemporary as today’s news. |
12/2018 | How to Be Alone - If You Want to and Even If You Don't | Lane | Moore | #NONFIC | How to Be Alone is a must-read for anyone whose childhood still feels unresolved, who spends more time pretending to have friends online than feeling close to anyone in real life, who tries to have genuine, deep conversations in a roomful of people who would rather you not. Above all, it’s a book for anyone who desperately wants to feel less alone and a little more connected through reading her words. |
12/2018 | The Green Witch: Your Complete Guide to the Natural Magic of Herbs, Flowers, Essential Oils and More | Arin | Murphy-Hiscock | #NONFIC | In The Green Witch, you will learn the way of the green witch, from how to use herbs, plants, and flowers to make potions and oils for everyday healing as well as how crystals, gems, stones, and even twigs can help you find balance within. You’ll discover how to find harmony in Earth’s great elements and connect your soul to every living creature. This guide also contains directions for herbal blends and potions, ritual suggestions, recipes for sacred foods, and information on how to listen to and commune with nature. Embrace the world of the green witch and discover what the power of nature has in store for you. |
12/2018 | Jane (Jane Goodall) | National Geographic, Studio | #DVD | An intimate and exclusive documentary about Jane Goodall, featuring restored footage from the National Geographic Archives that has not been seen in 50 years. | |
12/2018 | The Art of Cruelty: A Reckoning | Maggie | Nelson | #NONFIC | Writing in the tradition of Susan Sontag and Elaine Scarry, Maggie Nelson has emerged as one of our foremost cultural critics with this landmark work about representations of cruelty and violence in art. From Sylvia Plath’s poetry to Francis Bacon’s paintings, from the Saw franchise to Yoko Ono’s performance art, Nelson’s nuanced exploration across the artistic landscape ultimately offers a model of how one might balance strong ethical convictions with an equally strong appreciation for work that tests the limits of taste, taboo, and permissibility. |
12/2018 | The Art of Gathering: How We Meet and Why It Matters | Priya | Parker | #NONFIC | Drawing on her expertise as a facilitator of high-powered gatherings around the world, Parker takes us inside events of all kinds to show what works, what doesn't, and why. She investigates a wide array of gatherings--conferences, meetings, a courtroom, a flash-mob party, an Arab-Israeli summer camp--and explains how simple, specific changes can invigorate any group experience. The result is a book that's both journey and guide, full of exciting ideas with real-world applications. The Art of Gathering will forever alter the way you look at your next meeting, industry conference, dinner party, and backyard barbecue--and how you host and attend them. |
12/2018 | Phoenix Empress | K. Arsenault | Rivera | #SCIFI | Once they were the heirs to a prophecy that predicted two women would save an empire. Now Shefali is dying―and her wife is unaware of the coming tragedy. Shizuka is too busy trying to reunite a fractured empire and right the wrongs of her ancestors. As the Imperial Army gathers against a demonic invasion, Shizuka must do all she can with an empire on the brink of civil war. |
12/2018 | Fox 8: A Story - - | George | Saunders | #FIC | Fox 8 has always been known as the daydreamer in his pack, the one his fellow foxes regard with a knowing snort and a roll of the eyes. That is, until he develops a unique skill: He teaches himself to speak “Yuman” by hiding in the bushes outside a house and listening to children’s bedtime stories. The power of language fuels his abundant curiosity about people—even after “danjer” arrives in the form of a new shopping mall that cuts off his food supply, sending Fox 8 on a harrowing quest to help save his pack. Told with his distinctive blend of humor and pathos, Fox 8 showcases the extraordinary imaginative talents of George Saunders, whom The New York Times called “the writer for our time.” |
12/2018 | Codex 1962: A Trilogy | Sjon | #FIC | Over the course of four dazzling novels translated into dozens of languages, Sjón has earned a global reputation as one of the world’s most interesting writers. But what the world has never been able to read is his great trilogy of novels, known collectively as CoDex 1962―now finally complete. . . . In CoDex 1962, Sjón has woven ancient and modern material and folklore and cosmic myths into a singular masterpiece―encompassing genre fiction, theology, expressionist film, comic strips, fortean studies, genetics, and, of course, the rich tradition of Icelandic storytelling. | |
12/2018 | Whose Boat Is This Boat?: Comments That Don't Help in the Aftermath of a Hurricane – By Donald J. Trump (By Accident) | Staff, The Late Show | #NONFIC | On September 19, 2018, Donald Trump paid a visit to New Bern, North Carolina, one of the towns ravaged by Hurricane Florence. It was there he showed deep concern for a boat that washed ashore. “At least you got a nice boat out of the deal,” said President Trump to hurricane victims. “Have a good time!” he told them. The only way his comments would be appropriate is in the context of a children’s book—and now you can experience them that way, thanks to the staff of The Late Show with Stephen Colbert. | |
12/2018 | The Labyrinth | Saul | Steinberg | #NONFIC | Saul Steinberg’s The Labyrinth, first published in 1960 and long out of print, is more than a simple catalog or collection of drawings— these carefully arranged pages record a brilliant, constantly evolving imagination confronting modern life. Here is Steinberg, as he put it at the time, discovering and inventing a great variety of events: “Illusion, talks, music, women, cats, dogs, birds, the cube, the crocodile, the museum, Moscow and Samarkand (winter, 1956), other Eastern countries, America, motels, baseball, horse racing, bullfights, art, frozen music, words, geometry, heroes, harpies, etc.” This edition, featuring a new introduction by Nicholson Baker, an afterword by Harold Rosenberg, and new notes on the artwork, will allow readers to discover this unique and wondrous book all over again. [from New York Review of Books] |
12/2018 | Literary Landscapes: Charting the Worlds of Classic Literature | John | Sutherland, Editor | #NONFIC | Some stories couldn't happen just anywhere. As is the case with all great literature, the setting, scenery, and landscape are as central to the tale as any character, and just as easily recognized. Literary Landscapes brings together more than 50 literary worlds and examines how their description is intrinsic to the stories that unfold within their borders. Follow Leopold Bloom's footsteps around Dublin. Hear the music of the Mississippi River steamboats that set the score for Huckleberry Finn. Experience the rugged bleakness of New Foundland in Annie Proulx's The Shipping News or the soft Neapolitan breezes in My Brilliant Friend. |
12/2018 | Children of God | Lars Petter | Sveen | #FIC | Lars Petter Sveen’s Children of God recounts the lives of people on the margins of the New Testament; thieves, Roman soldiers, prostitutes, lepers, healers, and the occasional disciple all get a chance to speak. With language free of judgment or moralizing, Sveen covers familiar ground in unusual ways. . . . Children of God was a bestseller in Norway, where it won the Per Olov Enquist Literary Prize and gathered ecstatic reviews. Sveen’s subtle elevation of the conflict between light and dark focuses on the varied struggles these often-ignored individuals face. Yet despite the dark tone, Sveen’s stories retain a buoyancy, thanks to Guy Puzey’s supple and fleet-footed translation. |
12/2018 | The Dinosaur Artist: Obsession, Betrayal, and the Quest for Earth's Ultimate Trophy | Paige | Williams | #NONFIC | The Dinosaur Artist is a stunning work of narrative journalism about humans' relationship with natural history and a seemingly intractable conflict between science and commerce. A story that stretches from Florida's Land O' Lakes to the Gobi Desert, The Dinosaur Artist illuminates the history of fossil collecting--a murky, sometimes risky business, populated by eccentrics and obsessives, where the lines between poacher and hunter, collector and smuggler, enthusiast and opportunist, can easily blur. In her first book, Paige Williams has given readers an irresistible story that spans continents, cultures, and millennia as she examines the question of who, ultimately, owns the past. |
12/2018 | Capitalism: A Six-Part Series | Ilan | Ziv | #DVD | Capitalism is much more complex than the vision Adam Smith laid out in The Wealth of Nations. Indeed, it predates Smith by centuries and took root in the practices of colonialism and the slave trade. |
12/2018 | Not All Dead White Mean - - | Donna | Zuckerberg | #NONFIC | Donna Zuckerberg dives deep into the virtual communities of the far right, where men lament their loss of power and privilege, and strategize about how to reclaim them. She finds, mixed in with weightlifting tips and misogynistic vitriol, the words of the Stoics deployed to support an ideal vision of masculine life. On other sites, pickup artists quote Ovid's Ars Amatoria to justify ignoring women's boundaries. By appropriating the Classics, these men lend a veneer of intellectual authority and ancient wisdom to their project of patriarchal white supremacy. In defense or retaliation, feminists have also taken up the Classics online, to counter the sanctioning of violence against women. Not All Dead White Men reveals that some of the most controversial and consequential debates about the legacy of the ancients are raging not in universities but online. |