Author: Whiteman, Noah, author.
Published: 2023
Call Number: 615.95
Format: Books
Summary: An evolutionary biologist tells the story of nature's toxins and why we are attracted--and addicted--to them, in this "magisterial, fascinating, and gripping tour de force" (Neil Shubin). A deadly secret lurks within our spice racks, medicine cabinets, backyard gardens, and private stashes. Scratch beneath the surface of a coffee bean, a red pepper flake, a poppy seed, a mold spore, a foxglove leaf, a magic-mushroom cap, a marijuana bud, or an apple seed, and we find a bevy of strange chemicals. We use these to greet our days (caffeine), titillate our tongues (capsaicin), recover from surgery (opioids), cure infections (penicillin), mend our hearts (digoxin), bend our minds (psilocybin), calm our nerves (CBD), and even kill our enemies (cyanide). But why do plants and fungi produce such chemicals? And how did we come to use and abuse some of them? Based on cutting-edge science in the fields of evolution, chemistry, and neuroscience, Most Delicious Poison reveals: The origins of toxins produced by plants, mushrooms, microbes, and even some animals; The mechanisms that animals evolved to overcome them; How a co-evolutionary arms race made its way into the human experience; And much more. This perpetual chemical war not only drove the diversification of life on Earth, but also is intimately tied to our own successes and failures. You will never look at a houseplant, mushroom, fruit, vegetable, or even the past five hundred years of human history the same way again.
Author: Foster, Kim (Food writer), author.
Published: 2023
Call Number: 363.8
Format: Books
Summary: "James Beard Award-winning author Kim Foster reveals a new portrait of hunger and humanity in America. Food is a conduit for connection; we envision smiling families gathered around a table-eating, happy, content. But what happens when poverty, mental illness, homelessness, and addiction claim a seat at the table? In The Meth Lunches, James Beard award-winning writer Kim Foster peers behind the polished visions of perfectly curated dinners and charming families to reveal complex reality when poverty and food intersect. Whether it's heirloom vegetables or a block of neon yellow government cheese, food is both a basic necessity and nuanced litmus test: what and how we eat reflects our communities, our cultures, and our place in the world. The Meth Lunches gives a glimpse into the lives of people living in Foster's Las Vegas community-the grocery store cashier who feels safer surrounded by food after surviving a childhood of hunger; the inmate baking a birthday cake with coffee creamer and Sprite; the unhoused woman growing scallions in the slice of sunlight on her passenger seat. This is what food looks like in the lives of real people. The Meth Lunches reveals stories of dysfunction intertwined with hope, of the insurmountable obstacles and fierce determination all playing out on the plates of ordinary people. It's a bold invitation to pull up a chair and reconsider our responsibilities to the most vulnerable among us. Welcome to the table"--
Author: Rodriguez, Aida, author.
Published: 2023
Call Number: B RODRIGUE
Format: Books
Summary: "A poignant and moving memoir-in-essays from stand-up comedian Aida Rodriguez on the power of overcoming hardship and transforming pain into laughter"--
Author: Lagioia, Nicola, 1973- author. Goldstein, Ann, 1949- translator.
Published: 2023 2020
Call Number: F LAGIOIA
Format: Books
Summary: In March 2016, in a nondescript apartment on the outskirts of Rome, Manuel Foffo and Marco Prato, two "ordinary" young men from good families, brutally murdered twenty-three year old Luca Varani. News of the seemingly inexplicable crime sent shockwaves through Rome and beyond. What motivated such extreme violence? Were the killers evil or in the grip of societal evils? Did they know what they were doing? Or were they possessed? And if the latter, possessed by what? Based on months of interviews, court documentation, and correspondence with the killers themselves, The City of the Living is not only a fast-paced, revelatory thriller in the style of Lisa Taddeo's Animal, it is also a descent into the dark heart of Rome--a city that is unlivable and yet teeming with life, overrun by rats and wild animals, and plagued by corruption, drugs, and violence. Yet, the Eternal City is also a place that, more than any other in the world, seems to inspire a sense of absolute freedom in its inhabitants. Proceeding in concentric circles, Nicola Lagioia leads us through a maze of betrayed expectations, sexual confusion, inability to grow up, economic grievances, crises of identity--progressively tightening the focus of the analysis to locate the breaking point after which anything is possible. As hypnotic as Erik Larson's Devil in the White City, an heir to Truman Capote's In Cold Blood, and destined to cast on spell on fans of the Morbid podcast, The City of the Living is Nicola Lagioia's most gripping, bestselling, and critically acclaimed novel to-date. Razor-sharp, unputdownable, devastating, it is the story not only of a crime but of human nature itself; of the tension between responsibility and guilt, between the drive to oppress and the desire to be free; of who we are and who we can become.
Author: Hecimovich, Gregg A., author.
Published: 2023
Call Number: 813.3
Format: Books
Summary: "A groundbreaking study of the first Black female novelist and her life as an enslaved woman, from the biographer who solved the mystery of her identity, with a preface by Henry Louis Gates Jr."-- "In 1857, a woman escaped enslavement on a North Carolina plantation and fled to a farm in New York. In hiding, she worked on a manuscript that would make her famous long after her death. The novel, The Bondwoman's Narrative, was first published in 2002 to great acclaim, but the author's identity remained unknown. Over a decade later, Professor Gregg Hecimovich unraveled the mystery of the author's name and, in The Life and Times of Hannah Crafts, he finally tells her story. In this remarkable biography, Hecimovich identifies the novelist as Hannah Bond "Crafts." She was not only the first known Black woman to compose a novel but also an extraordinarily gifted artist who honed her literary skills in direct opposition to a system designed to deny her every measure of humanity. After escaping to New York, the author forged a new identity--as Hannah Crafts--to make sense of a life fractured by slavery..." --Amazon.com
Author: Davenport, Matthew J., author.
Published: 2023
Call Number: 979.461
Format: Books
Summary: "Matthew J. Davenport's The Longest Minute is the spellbinding true story of the 1906 earthquake and fire in San Francisco, and how a great earthquake sparked a devastating and preventable firestorm. At 5:12 a.m. on April 18, 1906, a 7.9 magnitude earthquake struck San Francisco, catching most of the city asleep. For approximately one minute, shockwaves buckled streets, shattered water mains, collapsed buildings, crushed hundreds of residents to death and trapped many alive. Fires ignited and blazed through dry wooden ruins and grew into a firestorm. For the next three days, flames devoured collapsed ruins, killed trapped survivors, and nearly destroyed what was then the largest city in the American West. Meticulously researched and gracefully written, The Longest Minute is both a harrowing chronicle of devastation and the portrait of a city's resilience in the burning aftermath of greed and folly. Drawing on the letters and diaries and unpublished memoirs of survivors and previously unearthed archival records, Matthew Davenport combines history and science to tell the dramatic true story of one of the greatest disasters in American history"--
Author: Armitage, Richard, 1971- author.
Published: 2023
Call Number: F ARMITAGE
Format: Books
Summary: A Nobel Prize-winning scientist who is suffering from the early stages of Alzheimer's is invited to a prestigious conference in Geneva to meet a enigmatic neuroscientist who has developed technology that could change medicine forever and also save her life.
Author: Arceneaux, Danielle, author.
Published: 2023
Call Number: F ARCENEAU
Format: Books
Summary: "It's a hot and sticky Sunday in Lafayette, Louisiana, and Glory has settled into her usual after-church routine, meeting gamblers at the local coffee shop, where she works as a small-time bookie. Sitting at her corner table, Glory hears that her best friend--a nun beloved by the community--has been found dead in her apartment. When police declare the mysterious death a suicide, Glory is convinced that there must be more to the story and, with her reluctant daughter, with troubles of her own, in tow, launches a shadow investigation in a town of oil tycoons, church gossips, and a rumored voodoo priestess." --Amazon.com
Author: Schenck, Tim, author.
Published: 2023
Call Number: 242
Format: Books
Summary: "If you're looking for a daily dose of saccharine-sweet devotions, this isn't the book for you. And if you crave a spiritual taskmaster, devotions that ladle out guilt and reward in equal measure, move on to the next set of devotions. These are devotions for people who don't do devotions. They are stories about everyday life--and how we can seek and find the divine in the midst of it all. The words are meant to be starting points, not megaphone-style declarations of certainty, and you're invited to bring your own experience and imagination to these reflections. The hope is that they will help you see God's hand at work in both the mundane and miraculous day-to-day interactions of our lives"--Back cover.
Author: Yu, E. Lily, author.
Published: 2023
Call Number: F YU
Format: Books
Summary: The strange, the sublime and the monstrous confront one another with astonishing consequences in this collection of twenty-two stories from an award-winning writer. In the village of Yiwei, a fallen wasp nest unfurls into a beautifully accurate map. In a field in Louisiana, birdwatchers forge an indelible connection over a shared glimpse of a Vermilion Flycatcher, and fall. In Nineveh, a judge who prides himself on impartiality finds himself questioned by a mysterious god. On a nameless shore, a small monster searches for refuge and finds unexpected courage. At turns bittersweet and boundary-breaking, poignant and profound, these twenty-two stories sing, as the oldest fables do, of what it means to be alive in this strange, terrible, beautiful world. For readers who loved the intelligence and compassion in Kim Fu's Lesser Known Monsters of the 21st Century and the dreamlike prose of Kelly Link's Magic for Beginners, this collection introduces the short fiction of E. Lily Yu, winner of the Astounding Award for Best New Writer and author of the Washington Book Award-winning novel On Fragile Waves, praised by the New York Times Book Review as "devastating and perfect."
Author: Grisham, John, author.
Published: 2023
Call Number: LP F GRISHAM
Format: Large print
Summary: #1 New York Times bestselling author John Grisham delivers high-flying international suspense in a stunning new legal thriller that marks the return of Mitch McDeere, the brilliant hero of The Firm. What became of Mitch and Abby McDeere after they exposed the crimes of Memphis law firm Bendini, Lambert & Locke and fled the country? The answer is in The Exchange, the riveting sequel to The Firm, the blockbuster thriller that launched the career of America's favorite storyteller. It is now fifteen years later, and Mitch and Abby are living in Manhattan, where Mitch is a partner at the largest law firm in the world. When a mentor in Rome asks him for a favor that will take him far from home, Mitch finds himself at the center of a sinister plot that has worldwide implications--and once again endangers his colleagues, friends, and family. Mitch has become a master at staying one step ahead of his adversaries, but this time there's nowhere to hide.
Author: Duncan, Dayton, author. Burns, Ken, 1953- writer of introduction. Mosher, Emily, researcher. Shumaker, Susan, researcher. Hinders, Maggie, designer.
Published: 2023
Call Number: 599.64
Format: Books
Summary: "The epic story of the buffalo in America, from prehistoric times to today-a moving and beautifully illustrated work of natural history. The American buffalo-our nation's official mammal-is an improbable, shaggy beast that has found itself at the center of many of our most mythic and sometimes heartbreaking tales. The largest land animals in the Western Hemisphere, they are survivors of a mass extinction that erased ancient species that were even larger. For nearly 10,000 years, they evolved alongside Native people who weaved them into every aspect of daily life; relied on them for food, clothing, and shelter; and revered them as equals. Newcomers to the continent found the buffalo fascinating at first, but in time they came to consider them a hindrance to a young nation's expansion. And in the space of only a decade they were slaughtered by the millions for their hides, with their carcasses left to rot on the prairies. Then, teetering on the brink of disappearing from the face of the earth, they would be rescued by a motley collection of Americans, each of them driven by different-and sometimes competing-impulses. This is the rich and complicated story of a young republic's heedless rush to conquer a continent, but also of the dawn of the conservation era-a story of America at its very best and worst"--
Author: Perry, Philippa, 1957- author.
Published: 2023
Call Number: 158.2
Format: Books
Summary: "Life is all about relationships and the quality of those connections, whether that's with family, partners, friends, colleagues or most importantly yourself. If you can get those relationships in balance, then the other tricky stuff that life throws your way becomes easier to manage. In this warm, practical and witty book, international bestselling psychotherapist Philippa Perry shows you how to approach life's biggest problems: How do you find and keep love? What can you do to manage conflict better? How can you get unstuck and cope with change and loss? What does it mean to you to be content? Are other people just annoying, or are you the problem? With a healthy dose of sanity, Philippa Perry's compassionate advice helps readers become happier, and wiser too"--
Author: Ayers, Edward L., 1953- author.
Published: 2023
Call Number: 973.5
Format: Books
Summary: A revealing history of the formative period when voices of dissent and innovation defied power and created visions of America still resonant today. With so many of our histories falling into dour critique or blatant celebration, here is a welcome departure: a book that offers hope as well as honesty about the American past. The early decades of the nineteenth century saw the expansion of slavery, Native dispossession, and wars with Canada and Mexico. Mass immigration and powerful religious movements sent tremors through American society. But even as the powerful defended the status quo, others defied it: voices from the margins moved the center; eccentric visions altered the accepted wisdom, and acts of empathy questioned self-interest. Edward L. Ayers's rich history examines the visions that moved Frederick Douglass, Margaret Fuller, the Native American activist William Apess, and others to challenge entrenched practices and beliefs. So, Lydia Maria Child condemned the racism of her fellow northerners at great personal cost. Melville and Thoreau, Joseph Smith and Samuel Morse all charted new paths for America in the realms of art, nature, belief, and technology. It was Henry David Thoreau who, speaking of John Brown, challenged a hostile crowd "Is it not possible that an individual may be right and a government wrong?" Through decades of award-winning scholarship on the Civil War, Edward L. Ayers has himself ventured beyond the interpretative status quo to recover the range of possibilities embedded in the past as it was lived. Here he turns that distinctive historical sensibility to a period when bold visionaries and critics built vigorous traditions of dissent and innovation into the foundation of the nation. Those traditions remain alive for us today.
Author: Lewis, Amber, author. Degges, Shade, photographer.
Published: 2023
Call Number: 747
Format: Books
Summary: "Author of Made for Living Amber Lewis reveals her approach to renovating a home and building one from scratch, with gorgeous images and plenty of detail shots so you can be sure to get stunning results. The details of a room make a difference. The bullnose edge of a marble countertop. The wood grain and color of the flooring. The particular pleat of the drape. Amber Lewis, the esteemed designer known for her signature Cali-inspired style, obsesses over the tiniest of features, which she knows are deceptively big decisions that have a great effect on a room. In Call It Home she shares her secrets to applying stone, fabric, paint, flooring, and more that ensure a beautifully designed home, shortcutting the often overwhelming process for you. This book walks you through eight new homes designed by Amber--including her own home--and the thought processes that went into the major choices she made. Whether you're decorating one room, renovating your entire house, or planning new construction, she shares how to approach a project from start to finish and guides you from mood boards to floor plans to finished results. With more than 200 gorgeous images of livings rooms, kitchens, dining rooms, entryways, bedrooms and baths, you'll have photographs of Amber's details on hand when you're ready to create your home"--
Author: Renkl, Margaret, author. Renkl, Billy, artist.
Published: 2023
Call Number: 508
Format: Books
Summary: "In The Comfort of Crows, Margaret Renkl presents a literary devotional: fifty-two chapters that follow the creatures and plants in her backyard over the course of a year. As we move through the seasons -- from a crow spied on New Year's Day, its resourcefulness and sense of community setting a theme for the year, to the lingering bluebirds of December, revisiting the nest box they used in spring -- what develops is a portrait of joy and grief: joy in the ongoing pleasures of the natural world, and grief over winters that end too soon and songbirds that grow fewer and fewer. Along the way, we also glimpse the changing rhythms of a human life. Grown children, unexpectedly home during the pandemic, prepare to depart once more. Birdsong and night-blooming flowers evoke generations past. The city and the country where Renkl raised her family transform a little more with each passing day. And the natural world, now in visible flux, requires every ounce of hope and commitment from the author--and from us. For, as Renkl writes, 'radiant things are bursting forth in the darkest places, in the smallest nooks and deepest cracks of the hidden world.' With fifty-two original color artworks by the author's brother, Billy Renkl, The Comfort of Crows is a lovely and deeply moving book from a cherished observer of the natural world." --
Author: Finkelstein, Ethan, author. Finkelstein, Elizabeth (Architectural historian), author. Poletto, Christina, author.
Published: 2023
Call Number: 643.7
Format: Books
Summary: "From the founders of the addictive Instagram handle and HGTV show Cheap Old Houses comes a lookbook of beautiful, affordable homes and a resource for anyone who's ever dreamed of buying and restoring a historic house. More than once, I've lost my heart to an old house. And many times over, I've seen others do the same exact thing. I'm not surprised anymore when someone professes love for a home that has been overlooked or shirked, and watch them chase these feelings of adoration straight into homeownership. Save this house! Welcome to the magical world of Cheap Old Houses, where the new American dream comes with zero mortgage and an alternative lifestyle fit for a storybook. Elizabeth and Ethan Finklestein have scoured the country to capture real homes bought for under $150,000--some for as little as $25,000 to $50,000--and the stories of how they were acquired and lovingly restored. Within these beautifully photographed pages, you'll discover monster Victorian mansions, Italianate-style farmhouses, Federal manors, off-the-beaten-path cabins, and even old schools and churches turned into residences. Peppering the home love stories is valuable insight from Elizabeth, who shares her perspective as a historical preservationist on her favorite details to look out for, from pocket doors to plaster walls to mansard roofs"--
Author: Hewitt, Seán, editor, translator. Hall, Luke Edward, editor, illustrator.
Published: 2023
Call Number: F HEWITT
Format: Books
Summary: A landmark illustrated anthology of queer Greek and Roman love stories that reclaim and celebrate homosexual love and sensuality, from artist Luke Edward Hall and award-winning poet Seán Hewitt. For centuries, evidence of queer love in the ancient world has either been ignored or suppressed. Even today, only a few narratives are widely known: the wild romance of Achilles and Patroclus; the yearning love of Sappho's lyrics; and the three genders introduced in Plato's Symposium. Yet there is a rich literary tradition of queer Greek and Roman love that extends far beyond the prudish translations of these familiar handful of stories. In 300,000 Kisses, award-winning poet Seán Hewitt and renowned designer Luke Edward Hall collect these stories -- including some of the most beautiful and moving in the classical canon -- and bring them to vivid life. Alongside celebrated works by Homer, Sappho, Ovid and Catullus, they include a wide range of rarely anthologized sources: raunchy poems, thoughtful dialogues, philosophical treatises, and even a graffiti text salvaged from the ruins of Pompeii. Through Hewitt's contemporary translations and Hall's vibrant illustrations, we encounter relationships that are by turns heartfelt and nourishing, unrequited and lustful, toxic and crude, tender and fulfilling. A groundbreaking anthology that seeks to change the way we see the ancient world, 300,000 Kisses is a fascinating journey through love in all its forms.
Author: Lyon, Gabrielle (Osteopath), author.
Published: 2023
Call Number: 612.68
Format: Books
Summary: "Learn how to reboot your metabolism, build strength, and extend your life with this accessible new guidebook that demonstrates the importance of muscle for health and longevity from the founder of the Institute for Muscle-Centric Medicine®. After years of watching patients cycle through her practice, Dr. Gabrielle Lyon noticed a pattern. While her patients struggled with a wide range of conditions, they all suffered from the same core problem: they had too little muscle rather than too much fat. When we think about muscle, we tend to think about strength or aesthetics, but in reality, muscle accounts for so much more than that. As the body's largest endocrine organ, muscle actually determines everything about the trajectory of health and aging. Many of the conditions Dr. Lyon's patients were experiencing were actually symptoms of underdeveloped or unhealthy muscle. Now, Dr. Lyon offers an easy-to-follow food, fitness, and self-care program anchored in evidence and pioneering research that teaches you how to optimize muscle-no matter your age or health background. Discover how to overcome everything from obesity to autoimmune disorders and avoid diseases like Alzheimer's, hypertension, and diabetes by following Dr. Lyon's powerful new approach to becoming forever strong"--
Author: Krishnamurthy, Sowmya, author.
Published: 2023
Call Number: 306.484 KRISHNAM
Format: Books
Summary: "A cinematic narrative of glamour, grit, luxury, and luck, Fashion Killa draws on exclusive interviews with the leaders of the fashion world to tell the story of the hip-hop artists, designers, stylists, and unsung heroes who fought the power and reinvented style around the world over the last fifty years. Set in the sartorial scenes of New York, Paris, and Milan, journalist Sowmya Krishnamurthy's reporting on the intersecting histories of hip-hop and contemporary fashion focuses on the risk takers and rebels-the artists, designers, stylists, models, and tastemakers--who challenged a systemic power structure and historically reinvented the world of haute couture. Fashion Killa is a classic tale of a modern renaissance; of an exclusionary industry gate-crashed by innovators; of impresarios-Sean "Diddy" Combs, Dapper Dan, Virgil Abloh-hoisting hip-hop from the streets to the stratosphere; of supernovas-Lil' Kim, Cardi B, and Megan Thee Stallion-allying with kingmakers-Anna Wintour, Donatella Versace, and Ralph Lauren; of traditionalist fashion houses-Louis Vuitton, Fendi, and Saint Laurent-transformed into temples of rap gods like Kanye West, Nicki Minaj, and Travis Scott. Krishnamurthy explores the connections between the DIY hip-hop scene and the exclusive upper-echelons of high fashion. She tracks the influence of music and streetwear on the most exclusive (and exclusionary) luxury brands. At the intersection of cultural commentary and oral history, Fashion Killa commemorates the contributions of hip-hop to music, fashion, and our culture at large"--
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