Read Your Way Reading Challenge: Try Something New!
Future Visions!
April 2026
 
Join the 2026 Reading Challenge – Read Your Way! Your Stories, Your Choice 
January 2 – October 31, 2026. Open to all ages. 
 
Read what you love, what sparks your curiosity, or try something completely new!  Reading isn’t one-size-fits-all. Whether you’re a mystery sleuth, a fantasy dreamer or a nonfiction explorer, discover stories that speak to you. No rules.  No pressure. Just the joy of reading—your way. 
 
Visit your Pierce County Library and read your way into something extraordinary! 
Track what you read on Beanstack, (App Store | Google Play), or on a bookmark available at your local library. 
Futurism: Cartoons from Tomorrow: A Futuristic Comic Collection by Luke Kingma
Futurism: Cartoons from Tomorrow: A Futuristic Comic Collection
by Luke Kingma

Cartoons from Tomorrow is a timely, clever collection of 125 single-panel cartoons that explore our ever-evolving relationship with technology and makes audacious predictions about our future. Enter Futurism, the 16M-strong community and media company that is obsessed with the future and everything that will get us there. Their mission? Preparing the people of today for the world of tomorrow. Based on one of Futurism's most viral recurring features, this collection of cartoons parodies our wild imaginings and presents a unique and distinct vision of what's in store for us -- from the good to the bad to the downright absurd. The cartoons cover topics ranging from virtual reality and artificial intelligence to space colonization, robot ethics, mass surveillance, technology addiction, human longevity, and more. Nothing is impossible or off-limits. After all, this is the future we're talking about.
The Tusks of Extinction by Ray Nayler
The Tusks of Extinction
by Ray Nayler

Winner of the Hugo Award for Best NovellaWhen you bring back a long-extinct species, there's more to success than the DNA.Moscow has resurrected the mammoth. But someone must teach them how to be mammoths, or they are doomed to die out again. Dr. Damira Khismatullina, an expert in elephant behavior, was brutally murdered trying to defend the world's last elephants from the brutal ivory trade. Now, her digitized consciousness has been downloaded into the mind of a mammoth. As the herd's new matriarch, can Damira help fend off poachers long enough for the species to take hold? Or will her own ghosts, and Moscow's real reason for bringing the mammoth back, doom them to a new extinction? A tense SF thriller from a new master of the genre.
Could Should Might Don't: How We Think about the Future by Nick Foster
Could Should Might Don't: How We Think about the Future
by Nick Foster

This is a book about the future. But it's not another one of those books that tries to tell you about what the future will be. It's a book about how we think about the future. It examines the origins, strengths, and weaknesses of each mode of thought through interesting asides, historical references, and tales from Foster himself--
Onyx Storm by Rebecca Yarros
Onyx Storm (Standard Edition)
by Rebecca Yarros

After nearly eighteen months at Basgiath War College, Violet Sorrengail knows there's no more time for lessons. No more time for uncertainty. Because the battle has truly begun, and with enemies closing in from outside their walls and within their ranks, it's impossible to know who to trust. Now Violet must journey beyond the failing Aretian wards to seek allies from unfamiliar lands to stand with Navarre. The trip will test every bit of her wit, luck, and strength, but she will do anything to save what she loves--her dragons, her family, her home, and him. Even if it means keeping a secret so big, it could destroy everything. They need an army. They need power. They need magic. And they need the one thing only Violet can find--the truth. But a storm is coming...and not everyone can survive its wrath--
Future Care: Sensors, Artificial Intelligence, and the Reinvention of Medicine by Jag Singh
Future Care: Sensors, Artificial Intelligence, and the Reinvention of Medicine
by Jag Singh

WITH A FOREWORD BY SIDDHARTHA MUKHERJEE A renowned cardiologist and Harvard professor spells out the future digital shift of medicine -- and how it will impact the lives not only of patients and health care professionals but of all humans
Buffalo Is the New Buffalo by Chelsea Vowel
Buffalo Is the New Buffalo
by Chelsea Vowel

Powerful stories of Métis futurism that envision a world without violence, capitalism, and colonization.
Afrofuturism: A History of Black Futures by Nat'l Mus Afr Am Hist Culture
Afrofuturism: A History of Black Futures
by Nat'l Mus Afr Am Hist Culture

This timely and gorgeously illustrated companion book to an exciting Smithsonian exhibition explores the power of Afrofuturism to reclaim the past and reimagine Black futures Afrofuturism: A History of Black Futures explores the evolving and exhilarating concept of Afrofuturism, a lens used to imagine a more empowering future for the Black community through music, art, and speculative fiction. Sumptuous, beautifully designed spreads feature 100 gorgeous illustrations of objects and images that reflect Black identity, agency, creativity, and hope, including: T'Challa's suit from Black Panther, Octavia Butler's typewriter, Uhura's outfit from Star Trek, Sun Ra's space harp, costumes from Broadway's The Wiz, handwritten lyrics by Jimi Hendrix, and Janelle Monae's ArchAndroid dress. Chapters include essays from a diverse group of scholars who reflect on themes such as legacy, alienation, and activism, with profiles on influential people and objects: Foreword & Introduction Provides background on Afrofuturism Chapter 1 - Space is the Place Reflects on space and its defining connection to Afrofuturism and its African cultural legacy Chapter 2 - Speculative Worlds Explores short stories, Black speculative fiction and sci-fi, comics, and Black superheroes as bastions of Afrofuturist expressionChapter 3 - Visualizing Afrofuturism Analyzes the vast visual culture of AfrofuturismChapter 4 - Musical Futures Explores Afrofuturism and musicAfterwordAfrofuturism offers a framework of radical potential to envision Black liberation and alternatives to oppressive structures like white supremacy. Afrofuturism comes at a time of increasing visibility for the concept, both in scholarship and in pop culture, and is a compelling ode to the revolutionary power of Black imagination. CONTRIBUTORS Reynaldo Anderson, Tiany E. Barber, Herb Boyd, Ariana Curtis, Eve L. Ewing, Tuliza Fleming, Nona Hendryx, N. K. Jemisin, John Jennings, Steven Lewis, Mark Anthony Neal, Alondra Nelson, De Nichols, Elaine Nichols, William S. Pretzer, Vernon Reid, Matthew Shindell, Kevin M. Strait, Angela Tate, Michelle Wilkinson, Ytasha L. Womack, Alisha B. Wormsley, and Kevin Young
La Ciudad Que Nos Unió / The City We Became by N. K. Jemisin
La Ciudad Que Nos Unió / The City We Became
by N. K. Jemisin

En la lista de los 100 libros imprescindibles del 2020 de la revista Time. N. K. Jemisin, la tres veces ganadora del Premio Hugo a la mejor novela y superventas del New York Times, nos trae La ciudad que nos unió, una historia revolucionaria de cultura, magia y mitos en la Nueva York actual. En Manhattan, un joven estudiante de posgrado sale del tren y se da cuenta de que no recuerda quién es, de dónde viene ni su nombre. Pero sí que es capaz de sentir el latir del corazón de la ciudad, ver su historia y percibir su poder. En el Bronx, la directora lenape de una galería de arte encuentra unos extraños grafitis que adornan toda la ciudad, tan maravillosos y poderosos que se podría decir que la pintura la llama, literalmente. En Brooklyn, una madre y política descubre que oye las canciones de la ciudad, que resuenan al ritmo de los tacones de sus Louboutin.Y no son los únicos. Toda gran ciudad tiene un alma. Algunas son tan antiguas como los mitos, y otras, tan nuevas y destructivas como los niños. Nueva York tiene seis...ENGLISH DESCRIPTION On the Time magazine 100 must-read books of 2020. A glorious fantasy.--Neil Gaiman Three-time Hugo Award-winning and New York Times bestselling author N.K. Jemisin crafts her most incredible novel yet, a story of culture, identity, magic, and myths in contemporary New York City. In Manhattan, a young grad student gets off the train and realizes he doesn't remember who he is, where he's from, or even his own name. But he can sense the beating heart of the city, see its history, and feel its power. In the Bronx, a Lenape gallery director discovers strange graffiti scattered throughout the city, so beautiful and powerful it's as if the paint is literally calling to her. In Brooklyn, a politician and mother finds she can hear the songs of her city, pulsing to the beat of her Louboutin heels. And they're not the only ones. Every great city has a soul. Some are ancient as myths, and others are as new and destructive as children. New York? She's got six.
Desert Notebooks: A Road Map for the End of Time by Ben Ehrenreich
Desert Notebooks: A Road Map for the End of Time
by Ben Ehrenreich

Layering climate science, mythologies, nature writing, and personal experiences, this New York Times Notable Book presents a stunning reckoning with our current moment and with the literal and figurative end of time. Desert Notebooks examines how the unprecedented pace of destruction to our environment and an increasingly unstable geopolitical landscape have led us to the brink of a calamity greater than any humankind has confronted before. As inhabitants of the Anthropocene, what might some of our own histories tell us about how to confront apocalypse? And how might the geologies and ecologies of desert spaces inform how we see and act toward time--the pasts we have erased and paved over, this anxious present, the future we have no choice but to build? Ehrenreich draws on the stark grandeur of the desert to ask how we might reckon with the uncertainty that surrounds us and fight off the crises that have already begun. In the canyons and oases of the Mojave and in Las Vegas's neon apocalypse, Ehrenreich finds beauty, and even hope, surging up in the most unlikely places, from the most barren rocks, and the apparent emptiness of the sky. Desert Notebooks is a vital and necessary chronicle of our past and our present--unflinching, urgent--yet timeless and profound.
Automatic Noodle by Annalee Newitz
Automatic Noodle
by Annalee Newitz

You don't have to eat food to know the way to a city's heart is through its stomach. So when a group of deactivated robots come back online in an abandoned ghost kitchen, they decide to make their own way doing what they know: making food--the tastiest hand-pulled noodles around--for the humans of San Francisco, who are recovering from a devastating war. But when their robot-run business starts causing a stir, a targeted wave of one-star reviews threatens to boil over into a crisis. To keep their doors open, they'll have to call on their customers, their community, and each other--and find a way to survive and thrive in a world that wasn't built for them--
More Everything Forever: AI Overlords, Space Empires, and Silicon Valley's Crusade to Control the Fate of Humanity by Adam Becker
More Everything Forever: AI Overlords, Space Empires, and Silicon Valley's Crusade to Control the Fate of Humanity
by Adam Becker

Tech billionaires have decided that they should determine our futures for us. According to Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, Sam Altman, and more, the only good future for humanity is one powered by technology: trillions of humans living in space, functionally immortal, served by superintelligent AIs. In [this book], science writer Adam Becker investigates [what he sees as] wildly implausible and often profoundly immoral visions of tomorrow--and shows why, in reality, there is no good evidence that they will, or should, come to pass. Nevertheless, these obsessions fuel fears that overwhelm reason--for example, that a rogue AI will exterminate humanity--at the expense of essential work on solving crucial problems like climate change. What's more, these futuristic visions cloak a hunger for power under dreams of space colonies and digital immortality. The giants of Silicon Valley claim that their ideas are based on science, but [Becker believes that] the reality is darker: they come from a jumbled mix of shallow futurism and racist pseudoscience--
I'm Waiting for You: And Other Stories by Kim Bo-Young
I'm Waiting for You: And Other Stories
by Kim Bo-Young

Originally published in the Republic of Korea as three separate books: Dangsineul gidarigo isseo in 2015 by Miracle Books, Jeo iseungui seonjija in 2017 by Arzak, and Dangsinege gago isseo in 2020 by Paran Media.
A Bright Future: How Some Countries Have Solved Climate Change and the Rest Can Follow by Joshua S. Goldstein
A Bright Future: How Some Countries Have Solved Climate Change and the Rest Can Follow
by Joshua S. Goldstein

The first book to offer a proven, fast, inexpensive, and practical way to cut greenhouse gas emissions and prevent catastrophic climate change. As climate change quickly approaches a series of turning points that guarantee disastrous outcomes, a solution is hiding in plain sight. Several countries have already replaced fossil fuels with low-carbon energy sources, and done so rapidly, in one to two decades. By following their methods, we could decarbonize the global economy by midcentury, replacing fossil fuels even while world energy use continues to rise. But so far we have lacked the courage to really try. In this clear-sighted and compelling book, Joshua Goldstein and Staffan Qvist explain how clean energy quickly replaced fossil fuels in such places as Sweden, France, South Korea, and Ontario. Their people enjoyed prosperity and growing energy use in harmony with the natural environment. They didn't do this through personal sacrifice, nor through 100 percent renewables, but by using them in combination with an energy source the Swedes call käkraft, hundreds of times safer and cleaner than coal. Clearly written and beautifully illustrated, yet footnoted with extensive technical references, Goldstein and Qvist's book will provide a new touchstone in discussions of climate change. It could spark a shift in world energy policy that, in the words of Steven Pinker's foreword, literally saves the world.
Noor by Nnedi Okorafor
Noor
by Nnedi Okorafor

When everything goes wrong on a trip to the local market, AO, a woman with a ton of major and necessary body augmentations, must race against time across the deserts of Northern Nigeria with a Fulani herdsman named DNA in a world where everything is streamed.
Future on Fire: Capitalism and the Politics of Climate Change by David Camfield
Future on Fire: Capitalism and the Politics of Climate Change
by David Camfield

Climate change is already affecting millions of people. Governments talk about taking action to limit global heating to 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels, but the greenhouse gas emissions allowed by their policies have the Earth on track to heating far more than that by the end of the century--a level of heating that will have truly disastrous consequences. Visionary plans for how to slash emissions and make society better at the same time abound, including various Green New Deals. But how can we make the changes that are so urgently needed? Future on Fire argues that a just transition from fossil fuels and other drivers of climate change will not be delivered by businesspeople or politicians that support the status quo. Nor will electing green left leaders be enough to overcome the opposition of capitalists and state bureaucrats. Only the power of disruptive mass social movements has the potential to force governments to make the changes we need, so supporters of climate justice should commit to building them. Confronting the question what if heating above 2 degrees becomes unavoidable? and refusing to despair, David Camfield argues that even a ravaged planet is worth fighting for--and that ultimately the only solution to the ecological crisis created by capitalism is a transition to ecosocialism.
Bewilderment by Richard Powers
Bewilderment
by Richard Powers

AN OPRAH'S BOOK CLUB SELECTION An Instant New York Times Bestseller A New York Times Notable Book of 2021 Shortlisted for the 2021 Booker Prize and Longlisted for the 2021 National Book Award for Fiction A Best Book/Best Novel of 2021 at NPR, Newsweek, The Boston Globe, Audible, Goodreads, Christian Science Monitor, Library Journal, Garden & Gun Magazine, and many more A heartrending new novel from the Pulitzer Prize-winning and #1 New York Times best-selling author of The Overstory.
The Ministry of Time by Kaliane Bradley
The Ministry of Time
by Kaliane Bradley

ONE OF BARACK OBAMA'S FAVORITE BOOKS OF SUMMER 2024 - A NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER - HUGO AWARD FINALIST FOR BEST NOVEL - WINNER OF THE GOODREADS CHOICE AWARD FOR SCIENCE FICTION - A GOOD MORNING AMERICA BOOK CLUB PICK - A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR: NPR, VANITY FAIR, ESQUIRE, VOX, GOOD HOUSEKEEPING, THE INDEPENDENT, PARADE, KIRKUS REVIEWS, AND MORE... This summer's hottest debut. --Cosmopolitan - Witty, sexy escapist fiction [that] packs a substantial punch...Fresh and thrilling. --Los Angeles Times - Electric...I loved every second. --Emily Henry Utterly winning...Imagine if The Time Traveler's Wife had an affair with A Gentleman in Moscow...Readers, I envy you: There's a smart, witty novel in your future. --Ron Charles, The Washington Post A time travel romance, a spy thriller, a workplace comedy, and an ingenious exploration of the nature of power and the potential for love to change it all: Welcome to The Ministry of Time, the exhilarating debut novel by Kaliane Bradley. In the near future, a civil servant is offered the salary of her dreams and is, shortly afterward, told what project she'll be working on. A recently established government ministry is gathering expats from across history to establish whether time travel is feasible--for the body, but also for the fabric of space-time. She is tasked with working as a bridge living with, assisting, and monitoring the expat known as 1847 or Commander Graham Gore. As far as history is concerned, Commander Gore died on Sir John Franklin's doomed 1845 expedition to the Arctic, so he's a little disoriented to be living with an unmarried woman who regularly shows her calves, surrounded by outlandish concepts such as washing machines, Spotify, and the collapse of the British Empire. But with an appetite for discovery, a seven-a-day cigarette habit, and the support of a charming and chaotic cast of fellow expats, he soon adjusts. Over the next year, what the bridge initially thought would be, at best, a horrifically uncomfortable roommate dynamic, evolves into something much deeper. By the time the true shape of the Ministry's project comes to light, the bridge has fallen haphazardly, fervently in love, with consequences she never could have imagined. Forced to confront the choices that brought them together, the bridge must finally reckon with how--and whether she believes--what she does next can change the future. An exquisitely original and feverishly fun fusion of genres and ideas, The Ministry of Time asks: What does it mean to defy history, when history is living in your house? Kaliane Bradley's answer is a blazing, unforgettable testament to what we owe each other in a changing world.
Under a White Sky: The Nature of the Future by Elizabeth Kolbert
Under a White Sky: The Nature of the Future
by Elizabeth Kolbert

The ... author of The Sixth Extinction returns to humanity's transformative impact on the environment, now asking: after doing so much damage, can we change nature, this time to save it? That man should have dominion 'over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth' is a prophecy that has hardened into fact. So pervasive are human impacts on the planet that it's said we live in a new geological epoch: the Anthropocene--
Hummingbird Salamander by Jeff VanderMeer
Hummingbird Salamander
by Jeff VanderMeer

From Jeff VanderMeer, the author of Annihilation, comes a brilliant speculative thriller of dark conspiracy, endangered species, and the end of all things.
What We Owe the Future by William Macaskill
What We Owe the Future
by William Macaskill

An Instant New York Times Bestseller This book will change your sense of how grand the sweep of human history could be, where you fit into it, and how much you could do to change it for the better. It's as simple, and as ambitious, as that. --Ezra Klein An Oxford philosopher makes the case for longtermism -- that positively influencing the long-term future is a key moral priority of our time. The fate of the world is in our hands. Humanity's written history spans only five thousand years. Our yet-unwritten future could last for millions more -- or it could end tomorrow. Astonishing numbers of people could lead lives of great happiness or unimaginable suffering, or never live at all, depending on what we choose to do today. In What We Owe The Future, philosopher William MacAskill argues for longtermism, that idea that positively influencing the distant future is a key moral priority of our time. From this perspective, it's not enough to reverse climate change or avert the next pandemic. We must ensure that civilization would rebound if it collapsed; counter the end of moral progress; and prepare for a planet where the smartest beings are digital, not human. If we make wise choices today, our grandchildren's grandchildren will thrive, knowing we did everything we could to give them a world full of justice, hope and beauty.
Annie Bot by Sierra Greer
Annie Bot
by Sierra Greer

Annie Bot was created to be the perfect girlfriend for her human owner Doug. Designed to satisfy his emotional and physical needs, she has dinner ready for him every night, wears the pert outfits he orders for her, and adjusts her libido to suit his moods. True, she's not the greatest at keeping Doug's place spotless, but she's trying to please him. She's trying hard.She's learning, too. Doug says he loves that Annie's AI makes her seem more like a real woman, so Annie explores human traits such as curiosity, secrecy, and longing. But becoming more human also means becoming less perfect, and as Annie's relationship with Doug grows more intricate and difficult, she starts to wonder: Does Doug really desire what he says he wants? And in such an impossible paradox, what does Annie owe herself?--
Breakneck: China's Quest to Engineer the Future by Dan Wang
Breakneck: China's Quest to Engineer the Future
by Dan Wang

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER Shortlisted for the Financial Times and Schroders Business Book of the Year Award One of The New Yorker's Best Books of the Year - One of NPR's Books We Love of 2025 - A Financial Times Best Book of the Year - An August 2025 Next Big Idea Club Must-Read Book - One of Bookbub's Best Nonfiction of 2025 - A China Books Review Best Book of 2025 - An Inc. Best Business Book of 2025 A riveting, firsthand investigation of China's seismic progress, its human costs, and what it means for America.
Those Beyond the Wall by Micaiah Johnson
Those Beyond the Wall
by Micaiah Johnson

Faced with a coming apocalypse, a woman must reckon with her past to solve a series of sudden and inexplicable deaths.--Provided by publisher.
Abundance by Ezra Klein
Abundance
by Ezra Klein

Abundance is a once-in-a-generation, paradigm-shifting call to rethink big, entrenched problems that seem mired in systemic scarcity: from climate change to housing, education to healthcare.--
The Light Pirate by Lily Dalton
The Light Pirate
by Lily Dalton

Set in the near future, this hopeful story of survival and resilience follows Wanda--a luminous child born out of a devastating hurricane--as she navigates a rapidly changing world: A symphony of beauty and heartbreak (Associated Press). Florida is slipping away. As devastating weather patterns and rising sea levels wreak gradual havoc on the state's infrastructure, a powerful hurricane approaches a small town on the southeastern coast. Kirby Lowe, an electrical line worker, his pregnant wife, Frida, and their two sons, Flip and Lucas, prepare for the worst. When the boys go missing just before the hurricane hits, Kirby heads out into the high winds in search of his children. Left alone, Frida goes into premature labor and gives birth to an unusual child, Wanda, whom she names after the catastrophic storm that ushers her into a society closer to collapse than ever before. As Florida continues to unravel, Wanda grows. Moving from childhood to adulthood, adapting not only to the changing landscape, but also to the people who stayed behind in a place abandoned by civilization, Wanda loses family, gains community, and ultimately, seeks adventure, love, and purpose in a place remade by nature. Told in four parts--power, water, light, and time--The Light Pirate mirrors the rhythms of the elements and the sometimes quick, sometimes slow dissolution of the world as we know it. It is a meditation on the changes we would rather not see, the future we would rather not greet, and a call back to the beauty and violence of an untamable wilderness.
The Future Is Faster Than You Think: How Converging Technologies Are Transforming Business, Industries, and Our Lives by Peter H. Diamandis
The Future Is Faster Than You Think: How Converging Technologies Are Transforming Business, Industries, and Our Lives
by Peter H. Diamandis

From the New York Times bestselling authors of Abundance and Bold comes a ... playbook for technological convergence in our modern era--
The Book of Doors by Gareth Brown
The Book of Doors
by Gareth Brown

... a riveting tale of adventure, magic, and the long process of grieving. Cassie Andrews, a mild-mannered bookseller in New York City, inherits the mysterious eponymous volume from a deceased customer. Discovering its magical ability to transport her to any place she envisions, Cassie, accompanied by her spirited roommate, Izzy, embarks on an adventure. However, as they realize the perilous potential of the book, they find themselves entangled with an enigmatic man known as the Librarian, who protects a collection of similarly magical books, and pursued by malevolent forces seeking the power of the Book of Doors and all the other volumes like it.--Provided by publisher.
Nuclear War: A Scenario by Annie Jacobsen
Nuclear War: A Scenario
by Annie Jacobsen

Every generation, a journalist has looked deep into the heart of the nuclear military establishment: the technologies, the safeguards, the plans, and the risks. These projects are vital to how we understand the world we really live in: where one nuclear missile begets one in return; where the choreography of the world's end requires massive decisions made on seconds-notice, with information that is only as good as the intelligence we have. [This book] explores this ticking clock scenario, based on dozens of new interviews with military and civilian experts who have built the weapons, created the response plans, and been responsible for those decisions should they need to have been made--
The Future by Naomi Alderman
The Future
by Naomi Alderman

The bestselling, award-winning author of The Power delivers a page-turning (Los Angeles Times), propulsive (The Boston Globe), thrilling (BookPage, starred review) tour de force where a handful of friends plot a daring heist to save the world from the tech giants whose greed threatens life as we know it. Martha Einkorn never expected to find herself working for a powerful social media mogul hell-bent on controlling everything. Now, she's surrounded by mega-rich companies designing private weather, predictive analytics, and covert weaponry while spouting technological prophecy. Across the world, in a mall in Singapore, Lai Zhen, an internet-famous survivalist, flees from an assassin. Suddenly, a remarkable piece of software appears on her phone telling her exactly how to escape. Who made it? What do they know about the future that Zhen doesn't? When Martha and Zhen's worlds collide, an explosive chain of events is set in motion. While a few billionaires assured of their own safety lead the world to destruction, Martha's relentless drive and Zhen's insatiable curiosity could lead to something beautiful--or it could herald the cataclysmic end of civilization. By turns playful, incisive, horribly relevant, and surprisingly hopeful (Lauren Beukes, New York Times bestselling author of The Shining Girls), The Future unfolds at breakneck speed, highlighting how power corrupts the few who have it and what it means to stand up to them. The future is coming. The Future is here.
Fossil Future: Why Global Human Flourishing Requires More Oil, Coal, and Natural Gas--Not Less by Alex Epstein
Fossil Future: Why Global Human Flourishing Requires More Oil, Coal, and Natural Gas--Not Less
by Alex Epstein

The New York Times bestselling author of The Moral Case for Fossil Fuels draws on the latest data and new insights to challenge everything you thought you knew about the future of energy For over a decade, philosopher and energy expert Alex Epstein has predicted that any negative impacts of fossil fuel use on our climate will be outweighed by the unique benefits of fossil fuels to human flourishing--including their unrivaled ability to provide low-cost, reliable energy to billions of people around the world, especially the world's poorest people. And contrary to what we hear from media experts about today's renewable revolution and climate emergency, reality has proven Epstein right: Fact: Fossil fuels are still the dominant source of energy around the world, and growing fast--while much-hyped renewables are causing skyrocketing electricity prices and increased blackouts.Fact: Fossil-fueled development has brought global poverty to an all-time low.Fact: While fossil fuels have contributed to the 1 degree of warming in the last 170 years, climate-related deaths are at all-time lows thanks to fossil-fueled development. What does the future hold? In Fossil Future, Epstein, applying his distinctive human flourishing framework to the latest evidence, comes to the shocking conclusion that the benefits of fossil fuels will continue to far outweigh their side effects--including climate impacts--for generations to come. The path to global human flourishing, Epstein argues, is a combination of using more fossil fuels, getting better at climate mastery, and establishing energy freedom policies that allow nuclear and other truly promising alternatives to reach their full long-term potential. Today's pervasive claims of imminent climate catastrophe and imminent renewable energy dominance, Epstein shows, are based on what he calls the anti-impact framework--a set of faulty methods, false assumptions, and anti-human values that have caused the media's designated experts to make wildly wrong predictions about fossil fuels, climate, and renewables for the last fifty years. Deeply researched and wide-ranging, this book will cause you to rethink everything you thought you knew about the future of our energy use, our environment, and our climate.
Doing Time by Jodi Taylor
Doing Time
by Jodi Taylor

At some time in the future, the secret of time-travel became available to all. Chaos ensued as people sought to take advantage. Because there will always be nutters who want to change history ... And so the Time Police were formed. Internationally sanctioned thugs whose task it was to keep the timeline straight by any and all means possible. And they succeeded. The Time Wars are over. The Time Police won. But who will win the peace? Doing Time follows three hapless new Time Police recruits - Jane, Luke and Matthew - as they try to navigate their first year on the beat. It's all going to be fine ...--Publisher description.
Not the End of the World: How We Can Be the First Generation to Build a Sustainable Planet by Hannah Ritchie
Not the End of the World: How We Can Be the First Generation to Build a Sustainable Planet
by Hannah Ritchie

In this bold, radically hopeful book, a data scientist, drawing on the latest research, practical guidance and eye-opening graphics, gives us the tools for understanding our current environmental crisis and making life lifestyle changes that actually have an impact.
The Man Who Saw Seconds by Alexander Boldizar
The Man Who Saw Seconds
by Alexander Boldizar

Preble Jefferson can see five seconds into the future. Otherwise, he lives an ordinary life. But when a confrontation with a cop on a New York City subway goes tragically wrong, those seconds give Preble the chance to dodge a bullet--causing another man to die in his place. Government agencies become aware of Preble's gift, a manhunt ensues, and their ambitions shift from law enforcement to military R&D. Preble will do whatever it takes to protect his family, but as events spiral out of control, he must weigh the cost of his gift against the loss of his humanity--
The Age of AI: And Our Human Future by Henry a. Kissinger
The Age of AI: And Our Human Future
by Henry a. Kissinger

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is transforming human society fundamentally and profoundly. Three of our most accomplished and deep thinkers come together to explore how AI could affect our relationship with knowledge, impact our worldviews, and change society and politics as profoundly as the ideas of the Enlightenment.--Publisher marketing.
The Memory Librarian: And Other Stories of Dirty Computer by Janelle Monáe
The Memory Librarian: And Other Stories of Dirty Computer
by Janelle Monáe

Dirty Computer introduced a world in which thoughts--as a means of self-conception--could be controlled or erased by a select few. And whether human, A.I., or other, your life and sentience was dictated by those who'd convinced themselves they had the right to decide your fate. That was until Jane 57821 decided to remember and break free. Expanding from that mythos, these stories fully explore what it's like to live in such a totalitarian existence--and what it takes to get out of it--
For additional reading ideas, talk with your library staff
Pierce County Library System
3005 112th St. E, Tacoma, Washington 98446
253-548-3300

mypcls.org