LibraryAware October 2025

Recent Releases

The Magic of Code: How Digital Language Created and Connects Our World...
by Samuel Arbesman

Scientist Samuel Arbesman waxes rhapsodic about the power and possibilities of code, the digital building block of intelligence, communication, and innovation. Arbesman looks back on what has been accomplished in the past several decades to inform his hopeful predictions for the future, concluding that code is a modern-day metaphor for magic and wizardry. Try this next: Coders: The Making of a New Tribe and the Remaking of the World by Clive Thompson.

Submersed: Wonder, Obsession, and Murder in the World of Amateur Submarines
by Matthew Gavin Frank

Folded into author Matthew Gavin Frank’s thought-provoking survey of humankind’s urge to explore the ocean depths from deep-water submersibles lies a much darker obsession -- the “strong undercurrent of violence and misogyny” (Kirkus Reviews) running through the amateur sub community that arguably led to the 2017 murder of journalist Kim Wall. Readers who want more adventures beneath the waves can try The Underworld: Journeys to the Depths of the Ocean by Susan Casey.

Intraterrestrials: Discovering the Strangest Life on Earth
by Karen G. Lloyd

Microbial biogeochemist Karen G. Lloyd introduces us to a mind-bending branch of science in her debut. It turns out that most life on Earth is composed of microbes living beneath the Earth’s crust or the ocean floors, derives energy from chemicals rather than light, and might have the ability to survive for eons. Science readers will be enthralled by these ideas that “defy assumptions about the laws of nature” (Publishers Weekly).

How To Save the Amazon: A Journalist's Fatal Quest for Answers
by Dom Phillips with contributors

In 2022, before finishing this book, British journalist Dom Phillips was murdered in Brazil’s Javari Valley by people acting on behalf of the illegal fishing industry. His work movingly brings to light the difficulty of reconciling concerns of ecology, economics, social class, and environmental justice. More stories about the dangerous cost of environmental protection can be found in Masters of the Lost Land by Heriberto Araujo and Tree Thieves by Lyndsie Bourgon.

Strata: Stories from Deep Time
by Laura Poppick

Geologist Laura Poppick debuts with a detailed yet energetic trip down the geologic timeline, offering an intriguing window onto her work and showing readers just how much information about Earth’s natural history and ecosystems has been revealed through examining its sedimentary layers. For further sweeping geological insights, try: A Brief History of Earth: Four Billion Years in Eight Chapters by Andrew H. Knoll.

Apocalypse : how catastrophe transformed our world and can forge new futures
by Lizzie Wade

A new view on the great human tradition of apocalypse, from the rise of Homo sapiens in our deep past to the climate instability of our present, and a look at how the new tools of archaeology reveal these upheavals as moments that created the world we live in and continue to offer surprising opportunities for radical change. Maps.

The everyday naturalist : how to identify animals, plants, and fungi wherever you go
by Lupa

"A step-by-step guide to identifying animals, plants, and fungi by learning how to spot and record key traits and characteristics, for nature lovers, amateur naturalists, and citizen scientists"

Out of this world and into the next : a physicist's guide to space exploration
by Adriana Marais

"This is a theoretical physicist's grand tour of how life emerged on Earth and, perhaps most importantly, how human civilization will begin expanding beyond our home planet. According to Dr. Adriana Marais, living on more than one planet is an inevitability of becoming a more advanced society, but the process of getting there will provide us with the essential tools for better stewardship of our own.

Shade : the promise of a forgotten natural resource
by Sam Bloch

Studies the overlooked importance of shade in urban environments, tracing its historical role in city design, examining how its absence contributes to health and social disparities, and highlighting efforts by planners and innovators to reintroduce shade as a vital tool for climate resilience. Illustrations.

Urban Ecology

A Natural History of Empty Lots: Field Notes from Urban Edgelands, Back Alleys, and...
by Christopher Brown

Novelist Christopher Brown, after purchasing an urban land parcel in hopes of building a house, took notice of the abundance of foxes, snakes, owls, herons, and other forms of wildlife that were encroaching into his Austin, Texas neighborhood. His observations are a hopeful reminder of nature’s resilience in the face of human development in this “appealing mix of nature writing, memoir, and self-reflection” (Kirkus Reviews).

Stranded : finding nature in uncertain times
by Maddalena Bearzi

Quarantined in Los Angeles by the COVID-19 pandemic, a conservationist and marine biologist finds wonder in the wilderness of her own backyard as she marveled at her garden's flora and fauna, encouraging us to take heart, find courage and discover inspiration in the thrumming systems of life surrounding us.

Secret life of the city : how nature thrives in the urban wild
by Hanna Hagen Bjørgaas

"More than half of the world's human population lives in densely populated areas--and plants and animals have followed us into cities. Secret Life of the City invites us to pay more attention to the sounds, sights, and smells of urban nature right outside our door. A treasure trove of fascinating flora and fauna, this wonderful book offers a plea to save our city plants, animals, and fungi before we lose them, too"

Contact your librarian for more great books!