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New Nonfiction February 2026 |
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Click on the title to check availability, and to log in and place holds online. To place holds by phone, please call us at (708) 366-5205. |
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A World Appears: A Journey Into Consciousness by Michael PollanWhen it comes to the phenomenon that is consciousness, there is one point on which scientists, philosophers, and artists all agree: it feels like something to be us. Yet the fact that we have subjective experience of the world remains one of nature's greatest mysteries. How is it that our mental operations are accompanied by feelings, thoughts, and a sense of self? What would a scientific investigation of our inner life look like, when we have as little distance and perspective on it as fish do of the sea? Michael Pollan traces the unmapped continent that is consciousness, bringing radically different perspectives together to see what each can teach us about this central fact of life.
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The People Can Fly: American Promise, Black Prodigies, and the Greatest Miracle of All Time by Joshua BennettWhat does it mean to be deemed promising in an unjust world? The award-winning poet and MIT Distinguished Chair of the Humanities interrogates this question and offers a more expansive vision of giftedness in this striking, original work. Dr. Bennett explores the complex position of black prodigies in a society that has defined blackness as absence, as lack of intellect or inner life. Through this hybrid work of memoir and cultural history, Dr. Bennett shares how his own academic journey reflected the ebb and flow of being seen as both promising and as a problem. He turns to the childhood archives of Malcolm X, Stevie Wonder, Gwendolyn Brooks, James Baldwin, Nikki Giovanni, and others to further explore this theme.
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American Struggle: Democracy, Dissent, and the Pursuit of a More Perfect Union: An Anthology by Jon MeachamIn a polarized era, history can become a subject of political contention. Many see America as perfect; many others argue that the national experiment is fundamentally flawed. The truth, Jon Meacham shows, likely lies between these extremes. America has had shining hours, and also dark ones. In American Struggle, Meacham illuminates the nation's complicated past. This rich and diverse collection covers a wide spectrum of history, from 1619 to the twenty-first century, with primary-source documents that take us back to critical moments in which Americans fought over the meaning and the direction of the national experiment. Conflict is nothing new in our democracy; rather, tensions are inherent, stubborn, and perennial. American Struggle teaches us anew that to know what has come before is to be armed against despair.
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End of Days: Ruby Ridge, the Apocalypse, and the Unmaking of America by Chris JenningsOn August 21, 1992, shots rang out while federal agents were surveilling a cabin in Boundary Co., Idaho as part of an operation to arrest Randy Weaver for failure to appear in court on a gun charge. When Weaver finally surrendered to the authorities eleven days later, his wife, son, and dog lay dead, as did a US Marshal. Ever since, America has been trying to make sense of what happened on Ruby Ridge. In End of Days, Chris Jennings explains the significance of this historic siege by setting the story of the Weaver family within the long history of apocalyptic Christianity in the United States, illuminating the ways in which that faith has gradually transformed the nation.
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Language as Liberation: Reflections on the American Canon by Toni MorrisonToni Morrison's lectures on the American canon, illuminating the relationship between race, the arts, and life beyond the page. Here, Morrison interrogates major works of American literature as only she can. Language as Liberation is a revelatory book that once again displays Morrison's intellectual and literary greatness.
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The Great Shadow: A History of How Sickness Shapes What We Do, Think, Believe, and Buy by Susan Wise BauerAnti-science, anti-vaccine, anti-reason beliefs seem to be triumphing over common sense today. How did we get here? The Great Shadow brings a huge missing piece to this puzzle--the experience of actually being ill. What did it feel like to be a woman or man struggling with illness in ancient times, in the Middle Ages, in the seventeenth century, or in 1920? And how did that shape our thoughts and convictions? Historian Susan Wise Bauer reveals just how many of our current fads and causes are rooted in the experience of sickness--from the search for a balanced lifestyle to plug-in air fresheners and bare hardwood floors.
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