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On Display! Adult Nonfiction Books |
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$2.00 a Day: Living on Almost Nothing in America
by Kathryn J. Edin
More than a powerful expose of a troubling trend, $2.00 a Day delivers new evidence and new ideas to our central national debate on work, income inequality, and what to do about it.
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American Cheese: An Indulgent Odyssey Through the Artisan Cheese World
by Joe Berkowitz
Joe Berkowitz loves cheese. Or at least he thought he did. After stumbling upon an artisinal tasting at an upscale cheese shop one Valentine's Day, he realized he'd hardly even scratched the surface. These cheeses were like nothing he had ever tasted--a visceral drug-punch that reverberated deliciousness--and they were from America. He felt like he was being let in a great cosmic secret, and instantly he was in love. This discovery inspired Joe to embark on the cheese adventure of a lifetime, spending a year exploring the subculture around cheese, from its trenches to its command centers. He dove headfirst into the world of artisan cheese; of premiere makers and mongers, cave-dwelling affineurs, dairy scientists, and restauranteurs. The journey would take him around the world, from the underground cheese caves in Paris to the mountains of Gruyere, leaving no curd unturned, all the while cultivating an appreciation for cheese and its place in society. Joe's journey from amateur to aficionado eventually comes to mirror the rise of American cheese on the world stage. As he embeds with Team USA at an international mongering competition and makes cheese in the experimental vats at the Dairy Research Center in Wisconsin, one of the makers he meets along the way gears up to make America's biggest splash ever at the World Cheese Awards. Through this odyssey of cheese, an unexpected culture of passionate cheesemakers is revealed, along with the extraordinary impact of one delicious dairy product.
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Ask a North Korean: Defectors Talk about Their Lives Inside the World's Most Secretive Nation
by Daniel Tudor
The weekly column Ask A North Korean, published by NK News, invites readers from around the world to pose questions to North Korean defectors . Adapted from the long-running column, these fascinating interviews provide authentic firsthand testimonies about life in North Korea and what is really happening inside the Hermit Kingdom. North Korean contributors to this book include: Seong who went to South Korea after dropping out during his final year of university. He is now training to be an elementary school teacher. Kang who left North Korea in 2005. He now lives in London, England. Cheol who was from South Hamgyeong in North Korea and is now a second-year university student in Seoul. Park worked and studied in Pyongyang before defecting to the U.S. in 2011. He is now studying at a U.S. college. Ask A North Korean sheds critical light on all aspects of North Korean politics and society and shows that, even in the world's most authoritarian regime, life goes on in ways that are very different from what outsiders may think. Begin to understand North Korea through the eyes of those who know it best--its defectors.
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By the Fire We Carry: The Generations-Long Fight for Justice on Native Land
by Rebecca Nagle
A work of reportage and American history in the vein of Caste and How the Word Is Passed that braids the story of the forced removal of Native Americans onto treaty lands in the nation's earliest days, and a small-town murder in the '90s that led to a Supreme Court ruling reaffirming Native rights to that land over a century later.
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Do Breathe: Calm Your Mind. Find Focus. Get Stuff Done.
by Michael Townsend Willians
When you get the right balance in life you can do amazing things: create, perform, lead a team, build a company, raise a family. But so often the scales tip and we feel overwhelmed. Michael Townsend Williams, an adman turned yoga teacher and mindfulness coach, is an advocate of well doing - leading a full and productive life, but not at the expense of our health and wellbeing. And key to this? Our breath. The crucial link between mind and body, our breath reflects what we're dealing with at any given moment. It tells us when we're out of our depth. With simple breathing exercises and elements from yoga, meditation and mindfulness, Do Breathe will help you to: Reduce stress and increase productivity. Improve focus and work flow. Cultivate good habits (and drop the bad.) Build courage and resilience. Why not breathe yourself better?
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Fire Season: Field Notes from a Wilderness Lookout
by Philip Connors
The author discusses his time spent ten thousand feet above ground as a fire lookout in a remote part of New Mexico, a job where he witnessed some of the most amazing phenomena nature has to offer..
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Hoax: A History of Deception: 5,000 Years of Fakes, Forgeries, and Fallacies
by Ian Tattersall
World history is littered with tall tales and those who have fallen for them. Ian Tattersall ... has teamed up with Peter Nâevraumont to create this anti-history of the world, in which Michelangelo fakes a masterpiece; Arctic explorers seek an entrance into a hollow Earth; a Shakespeare tragedy is 'rediscovered'; a financial scheme inspires Charles Ponzi; a spirit photographer snaps Abraham Lincoln's ghost; people can survive ingesting only air and sunshine; Edgar Allen Pie is the forefather of fake news; and the first human was not only British but played cricket--
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The Murder of King Tut: The Plot to Kill the Child King - A Nonfiction Thriller
by James Patterson
A secret buried for centuries Thrust onto Egypt's most powerful throne at the age of nine, King Tut's reign was fiercely debated from the outset. Behind the palace's veil of prosperity, bitter rivalries and jealousy flourished among the Boy King's most trusted advisors, and after only nine years, King Tut suddenly perished, his name purged from Egyptian history. To this day, his death remains shrouded in controversy. The keys to an unsolved mystery Enchanted by the ruler's tragic story and hoping to unlock the answers to the 3,000 year-old mystery, Howard Carter made it his life's mission to uncover the pharaoh's hidden tomb. He began his search in 1907, but encountered countless setbacks and dead-ends before he finally, uncovered the long-lost crypt. The clues point to murder Now, in The Murder of King Tut, James Patterson and Martin Dugard dig through stacks of evidence--X-rays, Carter's files, forensic clues, and stories told through the ages--to arrive at their own account of King Tut's life and death. The result is an exhilarating true crime tale of intrigue, passion, and betrayal that casts fresh light on the oldest mystery of all.
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Mona Lisa: A Life Discovered
by Dianne Hales
Everybody knows her smile, but no one knows her story: Meet the flesh-and-blood woman who became one of the most famous artistic subjects of all time--Mona Lisa. A genius immortalized her. A French king paid a fortune for her. An emperor coveted her. Every year more than 9 million visitors trek to view her portrait in the Louvre. Yet while everyone recognizes her smile, hardly anyone knows her story. Mona Lisa: A Life Discovered, a blend of biography, history, and memoir, truly is a book of discovery--about the world's most recognized face, most revered artist, and most praised and parodied painting.
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Secondhand: Travels in the New Global Garage Sale
by Adam Minter
Downsizing. Decluttering. Discarding. Sooner or later, all of us are faced with things we no longer need or want. But when we drop our old clothes and other items off at a local donation center, where do they go? Sometimes across the country--or even halfway across the world--to people and places who find value in what we leave behind. In Secondhand, journalist Adam Minter takes us on an unexpected adventure into the often-hidden, multibillion-dollar industry of reuse: thrift stores in the American Southwest to vintage shops in Tokyo, flea markets in Southeast Asia to used-goods enterprises in Ghana, and more. Along the way, Minter meets the fascinating people who handle--and profit from--our rising tide of discarded stuff, and asks a pressing question: In a world that craves shiny and new, is there room for it all? Secondhand offers hopeful answers and hard truths. A history of the stuff we've used and a contemplation of why we keep buying more, it also reveals the marketing practices, design failures, and racial prejudices that push used items into landfills instead of new homes. Secondhand shows us that it doesn't have to be this way, and what really needs to change to build a sustainable future free of excess stuff.
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Sensational: The Hidden History of America's "Girl Stunt Reporters"
by Kim Todd
A vivid social history that brings to light the girl stunt reporters of the Gilded Age who went undercover to expose corruption and abuse in America, and redefined what it meant to be a woman and a journalist--pioneers whose influence continues to be felt today. In the waning years of the nineteenth century, women journalists across the United States risked reputation and their own safety to expose the hazardous conditions under which many Americans lived and worked. In various disguises, they stole into sewing factories to report on child labor, fainted in the streets to test public hospital treatment, posed as lobbyists to reveal corrupt politicians. Inventive writers whose in-depth narratives made headlines for weeks at a stretch, these girl stunt reporters changed laws, helped launch a labor movement, championed women's rights, and redefined journalism for the modern age. The 1880s and 1890s witnessed a revolution in journalism as publisher titans like Hearst and Pulitzer used weapons of innovation and scandal to battle it out for market share. As they sought new ways to draw readers in, they found their answer in young women flooding into cities to seek their fortunes. When Nellie Bly went undercover into Blackwell's Insane Asylum for Women and emerged with a scathing indictment of what she found there, the resulting sensation created opportunity for a whole new wave of writers. In a time of few jobs and few rights for women, here was a path to lives of excitement and meaning. After only a decade of headlines and fame, though, these trailblazers faced a vicious public backlash. Accused of practicing yellow journalism, their popularity waned until stunt reporter became a badge of shame. But their influence on the field of journalism would arc across a century, from the Progressive Era muckraking of the 1900s to the personal New Journalism of the 1960s and '70s, to the immersion journalism and creative nonfiction of today. Bold and unconventional, these writers changed how people would tell stories forever.
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Shakespeare Basics for Grown-Ups: Everything You Need to Know about the Bard
by E. Foley
An essential guide to Shakespeare, from the international bestselling authors of Homework for Grown-Ups The Bard was so incredibly prolific that even most Shakespeare scholars would welcome the occasional refresher course, and most of the rest of us haven't even got a clue as to what a petard actually is. Fear not, the bestselling authors of Homework for Grown-Ups are here to help. For parents keen to help with their children's homework, casual theatre-goers who want to enhance their enjoyment and understanding, and the general reader who feels they should probably know more, Shakespeare Basics for Grown-Ups includes information on the key works, historical context, contemporaries and influences, famous speeches and quotations, modern day adaptations, and much, much more.
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The Weather Machine: A Journey Inside the Forecast
by Andrew Blum
From the acclaimed author of Tubes, a lively and surprising tour of the infrastructure behind the weather forecast, the people who built it, and what it reveals about our climate and our planet. The weather is the foundation of our daily lives. It's a staple of small talk, the app on our smartphones, and often the first thing we check each morning. Yet behind these quotidian interactions is one of the most expansive machines human beings have ever constructed--a triumph of science, technology and global cooperation. But what is this 'weather machine' and who created it? In The Weather Machine, Andrew Blum takes readers on a fascinating journey through an everyday miracle. In a quest to understand how the forecast works, he visits old weather stations and watches new satellites blast off. He follows the dogged efforts of scientists to create a supercomputer model of the atmosphere and traces the surprising history of the algorithms that power their work. He discovers that we have quietly entered a golden age of meteorology--our tools allow us to predict weather more accurately than ever, and yet we haven't learned to trust them, nor can we guarantee the fragile international alliances that allow our modern weather machine to exist. Written with the sharp wit and infectious curiosity Andrew Blum is known for, The Weather Machine pulls back the curtain on a universal part of our everyday lives, illuminating our relationships with technology, the planet, and the global community.
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