Nonfiction

He-Man was my high school swim team's mascot. Not officially, and not in any way that really concerned me. I don't even know the story; I just know that some of the guys a year or two older than me had a little He-Man figure they took to all of our meets to joke around with. It was entirely ironic, meant to be silly. But He-Man was always there.

Which doesn't really have anything to do with the book, except to say the heart of this book is about the children's toys and TV of the 1980s (He-Man, G.I. Joe, and the Transformers, in particular), which is me. I graduated high school in '89, watched

How can something so beautiful be so heart-breaking?

I ask myself that each time I pick up Power Born of Dreams. Three times now I have read this book, admiring the stark beauty emanating from the pages of this work of art that Mohammad Sabaahneh has created. I learned the art of linocut when I was in school, but Mohammad has elevated the simple act of slicing shapes out of linoleum he cut into the history of his time as a political prisoner and the stories of Palestinians, living their lives under a brutal occupation, fenced in with electronic eyes watching them every day and night. These are

“. . . we’re only as healthy as the environment in which we live.” This statement from the introduction to Grow Now is the underlying theme of this book. Every chapter makes a case for gardening beyond organic, rewilding your land, sequestering carbon, and supporting biodiversity. 

In the chapter on composting Murphy explains multiple techniques which might be right for you and your home. She leads with how compost sequesters carbon, protects soil and soil structure, decreases runoff, and keeps food waste out of landfills. Murphy says, “You may have heard it said that if food waste were a

I believe that keeping backyard chickens could have an extremely positive impact on diverting compostable waste from landfills, directly impacting food insecurity, while building community and boosting personal joy. When I stumbled upon Let’s All Keep Chickens! I checked it out because the title speaks to me. I read it because Dalia Monterroso speaks my language. She says, “If we can learn to raise chickens in a sustainable and inclusive way, we can actually change the world.” I believe this.

I love that she focuses on keeping chickens in the best way for their health, while also recognizing

“Trees are amazing. To think we ever chopped them down. To think we’re still chopping them down!” ~ Kate Bradbury

Climate change deniers, beware. Bradbury is writing from a very strong place of climate advocacy. In the first tiny chapter, she introduces the grim state of affairs, citing the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, which warns that time is running out to act to avoid catastrophe. It’s heavy stuff in just one paragraph.

One page later she’s acknowledging that we alone can’t turn the tide and advocates for joining forces with environmental organizations even as she encourages us

Who could possibly make describing the contents of her ottoman compelling reading? Who besides Abigail Thomas, anyway? 

In Still Life at Eighty Abigail Thomas, my favorite memoirist, reflects on aging . . . memory; death and dying; her past, present, and future. Of writing she says, “what was once a pleasure is now hard work, and the results are discouraging. Does this happen to all of us?”

In not quite chapters, not quite diary entries, Thomas grapples with isolation not only born of decreasing mobility and motivation, but pandemic social distancing. When the last of her original dog pack

Kimmerer has the scientific training--rational, evidence-based, data-driven--of a botanist; the indigenous culture, worldview, and beliefs of a Potawatomi Anishinaabe; and the language, spirit, and skill of a poet. In this book she wonderfully melds those three ways of seeing, of knowing, of understanding and communicating. She beautifully shares an ecological message of the possibility of harmonious co-existence with plants and nature, a perspective deeply supported by science. More than any other book I know, it spoke equally to my head, my heart, and my soul.

If there's a single concept at

I was, I think, 18 years old when I saw the movie Flatliners; just the right age for it to make a vivid impression on me even though it has never been thought of as a particularly good film. The characters are medical students who agree to take turns temporarily dying ("flatlining") before being revived by the others. They hope to experience a moment of the afterlife to gain insight and wisdom. They wanted, in the parlance of this book, to learn from a visit to the land of the dead.

McDonald writes that we don't have to actually die to gain that wisdom, though, as stories of visits to the land

We generally think of evolution as a purely physical process, happening only at the level of genetics and DNA. Yet that is not the way Charles Darwin conceived it nor how evolutionary biologist Wilson understands it. In fact, genes and DNA were not yet discovered during Darwin’s time, and he saw heredity happening through many varied mechanisms—particularly in humans. From his Descent of Man, for instance:

There can be no doubt that a tribe including many members who, from possessing in a high degree the spirit of patriotism, fidelity, obedience, courage, and sympathy, were always ready to

It was only this week I finished watching the first season of Ted Lasso. I'm arriving late to the show, but am loving it as much as expected--from both all the praise it's received and the little I knew about its premise. One of the areas it's exceeded my expectations is Ted's approach to coaching. In case you don't know, Ted is a top American football coach who takes a job as a British football (soccer) coach. He knows nothing about the game or culture he's jumped into, but he's completely confident in his ability to succeed because he knows something even more important: what motivates

A valuable, necessary, and accessible book. Kiely has an easy-going manner and presents ideas that could be abstract, academic theory through relatable anecdotes and stories, more often than not about himself when he was a teenager. It reads quickly and directly addresses young white readers without confrontation or shaming, encouraging listening, empathy, and a sense of responsibility (instead of guilt). Highly recommended.

If I have one complaint, it's that Kiely tries so hard to be casual and appealing that he sometimes condescends to his readers and implies low expectations of their

The Genius Under the Table is bleak but also strangely cozy at times.  It’s hopeful, heartbreaking, occasionally laugh-out-loud funny, and may stir up tender feelings for your own strange family.

Eugene (Yevgeny) is a child growing up behind the Iron Curtain.  His family shares a kitchen and bathroom with several families, including a spy who’s always lurking in the corner of the kitchen.  Eugene is bursting with questions - Why is his grandfather’s face cut out of all the family pictures? Why doesn’t anyone want to talk about defecting (which is too close to the word defecating?)  And why is

This is a parenting book.

Yes, the details and particulars are about libraries serving homeless patrons, and for that it is great. I think all librarians and library employees should read it. Even if they have have no homeless patrons. Because the guidance in this book should be applied to all librarian-patron interactions.

And this book's guidance should be applied to all parent-child interactions. So it is a parenting book. And a teacher classroom-management book. It is a management and leadership book. It is a customer service book. I would daresay it is a policing book.

The core

Hello and welcome to #NewTitleTuesday, where we take a quick look at a new release that hits the publishing world this week. Today we're looking at an inspiring true story of a group of women who defied convention, overcame stereotypes, and fought for fairness in the workplace during a time of massive cultural shift. In THE GREAT STEWARDESS REBELLION: HOW WOMEN LAUNCHED A WORKPLACE REVOLUTION AT 30,000 FEET Nell McShane Wulfhart tells a timely and absorbing story of how a profession, belittled and sexualized, became an important labor movement.

Picture the stereotype of the stewardess at the

For today's #NewTitleTuesday pick, we turn our attention to the nonfiction section with Mary Laura Philpott's BOMB SHELTER: LOVE, TIME AND OTHER EXPLOSIVES. Philpott, an essayist who some critics call a spiritual successor to Nora Ephron or Erma Bombeck and who wrote 2019's I MISS YOU WHEN I BLINK, writes a fresh, funny, and insightful collection of new essays that speak to everyday life, motherhood, and the anxiety-ridden moment that many Americans are going through.

I mentioned "anxiety-ridden" - Philpott, a parent with young children, is constantly worried about them, as all mothers are on

What do you do when calamity strikes the world yet again? How do you handle the confusion of trying to unravel the news? As someone who works at a library, perhaps it’s not surprising that I turn to...the library. What book or film can I find that connects me to someone’s story so I can more clearly see and hear the events from those involved. 

In recent years, I've needed the library a lot! To better understand the Black experience in America, some helpful reads for me have been “Stamped: Racism, Antiracism, and You” by Jason Reynolds & Ibram X. Kendi, “A Black Women’s History of the United

Hello and welcome to #NewTitleTuesday, where we take a quick look at a new title that makes its publishing debut this week!

If you take a look at the top ten most downloaded lists of pretty much any podcast app, true crime stories dominate the medium. But if you've been paying attention, true crime has never NOT dominated American media, from podcasts to streaming documentaries to TV shows to Ann Rule books all the way back to the lurid police magazines of the pulp era and the daily broadsheets even before that. There's something about not being able to look away from the darkness that exists

Did you know that 50 years ago, during the Nixon administration, the U.S. almost passed a bill creating a universal basic income? Test cases and studies had been done, all evidence supported the idea as feasible and universally beneficial, and it had widespread public and political support. Experts at the time were also predicting vastly reduced workweeks as machines replaced the need for human labor, so it made sense to provide income since there wouldn't be enough work to go around. Then the narrative changed. As predicted, essential work has since become a smaller and smaller part of the

Welcome to the latest edition of #NewTitleTuesday, where we take a closer look at a new book that's hitting the shelves of bookstores (and libraries) across the nation. Since my bailiwick is fiction, I naturally stick to the fiction side of things in this space - thrillers, historical fiction, fantasy, romance, that sort of thing. But today a book caught my eye about a topic that a lot of our patrons are going to love, as it's a title that covers a lot of bases no matter what genre you like.

A TASTE FOR POISON by Neil Bradbury is going to be of interest for classic mystery aficionados

For those in the (literary) know, Tuesdays are the traditional day where publishers release new titles into the world. Here at the library, we get patrons who always want to know what the new, hot, word-of-mouth books are. They scan the New Releases shelf, they stalk the "new titles" portion of our website, and want to be ahead of the curve and, above all, NOT be number 582 on the waiting list. We completely understand, and would like to take a moment and introduce you to New Title Tuesday, a day where we spotlight a brand new book that is published that week. Even though it might not be

Appropriate for beginning sewists looking to try quilting, Urban Quilting is a straightforward guide to creating modern quilts for the home.  The first section of the book covers basic techniques like fabric selection, ironing, rotary cutting, seam allowances, quilt construction, and binding.  The second section describes how to make the individual quilts. Each quilt can be made in three sizes and quilts are rated by difficulty from beginner to advanced beginner.  The patterns are modern, featuring bright solids and bold geometric shapes. Recommended.

An excellent collection of ten workshops and tutorials from popular modern quilters (including Denyse Schmidt, Cheryl Arkison, Heather Jones, and Angela Walters) on a variety of topics. Several workshops explore color, modern quilting methods for using solids and prints, working with circles, and large scale designs. Other workshops focus on specific techniques like paper piecing and improvisation patchwork. The last workshop is a study of modern quilts that shows quilts from many of the influential modern quilters.

All of the workshops are well written and thoroughly illustrated.  Each

Although admitting this may qualify me as a one-hundred percent board-certified nerd (dweeb, Poindexter, etc.), I’ve loved reference books for as long as I can remember. And they’ve come a long way since three clever Scots dreamed up the first Encyclopædia Brittanica in Edinburgh in 1768. Over the years they’ve become much more accessible, engaging, and, dare I say, delightful, in large part thanks to a company called Dorling Kindersley Limited, better known as DK Publishing. 

I first became aware of DK Publishing through their expansive Eyewitness series. As a grade school student in the

A fascinating and quietly powerful book.

I can't remember for sure, but I believe this was recommended to me by a high school teacher even though the four children at its center are first graders; its wisdom is that widely applicable. I even kept mentally applying its situations to my workplace manager-employee relationships. It's something I recommend for all educators, parents, and managers--to anyone with power over others.

Troublemakers struck me with particular relevance and immediacy because my two children are currently in kindergarten and first grade and have been known to cause a

When you start tuning in to winter, you realise that we live through a thousand winters in our lives--some big, some small.

Sometimes you find yourself reading a book so full of interesting, exciting ideas that the author has found a way to express so clearly and exquisitely that they are both familiar and revelatory, that the book continuously sparks moments of resonant discovery so that you find yourself stopping to have your own related ideas, pondering your own life in light of the new perspectives just gained from the reading, marking passages to revisit, taking notes to develop later

Poet Gay decided he would adopt a practice for a year of paying attention to what delighted him and writing a daily "essayette" recording his related thoughts. This is his compilation of those journal entries. He writes in the prologue how the habit helped him develop a kind of "delight radar," as he became more aware of the delightful aspects of life at all times and happier for it, and his joy is apparent on every page.

Gay writes with an intentionally free-flowing, rambling style (see the excerpt below). It captures the personality and spontaneity of his process, and readers come to know

Cross-stitching: the final frontier. These are the exploits of the librarian Charles. His three-week mission: to explore strange new books. To seek out new crafts and new materials. To boldly make where no man has made before!

I am a maker. I love exploring new ways to express my creativity through the things I create. I am often at my happiest when I am trying a new craft or project, anticipating the learning and challenges ahead of me.

I am also a Star Trek fan. My dad introduced me to the series through Star Trek: Voyager, and I enjoy the show’s focus on using science and logic to solve

About halfway through reading this biographical graphic novel, it struck me just how little I knew about the history of the Republic of Korea. I'm not a fan of not knowing things. This led me on a dive into at least a surface reading on South Korea’s political and cultural history, fascinating and sometimes turbulent. Imagine living in a country where the leader of the nation wages a war on intellectual thought, educational inquiry, and popular culture; where citizens are beaten and gassed by the police for protesting peacefully; where corrupt politicians are only arrested and imprisoned after

This is unlike any other book I've read on racism, and it's a good, refreshing thing.

Menakem is a therapist, and his perspective starts with the body. He sees the trauma induced by racism as a physical thing and posits that we need to address as such. Specifically, in the vagus nerve, "which oversees a vast array of crucial bodily functions, including control of mood, immune response, digestion, and heart rate. It establishes one of the connections between the brain and the gastrointestinal tract and sends information about the state of the inner organs to the brain via afferent fibers."* The