To find these selections and many other new titles, see the NMC library catalog.
NEW NON-FICTION
Restoring the Kinship Worldview: Indigenous Voices Introduce 28 Precepts for Rebalancing Life on Planet Earth by Wahinkpe Topa (Four Arrows) and Darcia Narvaez, PhD.
Editors Wahinkpe Topa (Four Arrows) and Darcia Narvaez present 28 powerful excerpted passages from Indigenous leaders, including Mourning Dove, Robin Wall Kimmerer, Winona LaDuke, and Xiuhtezcatl Martinez. Inviting readers into a world-sense that expands beyond perceiving and conceiving to experiencing and being, Restoring the Kinship Worldview is a salve for our times, a nourishment for our collective, and a holistic orientation that will lead us away from extinction toward an integrated, sustainable future.
Mi Cocina: Recipes and Rapture from My Kitchen in México by Rick Martínez
In his first cookbook, New York Times contributor, Food52 columnist, and former Bon Appétit food editor Rick Martinez introduces home cooks to the diverse culinary treasures of Mexico. In Mi Cocina, Rick travels to each of the seven regions in Mexico to explore 100 unique dishes, the recipe for each accompanied by stunning on-site photography. Rick includes essays on topics like the migration and culinary influence of people from the Middle East and China to Mexico, and finding a feeling of belonging in his new home in Mazatlán.
Dead in the Water: A True Story of Hijacking, Murder, and a Global Maritime Conspiracy by Matthew Campbell and Kit Chellel
In July 2011, the oil tanker was drifting through the treacherous Gulf of Aden when pirates attacked and set her ablaze. But when David Mockett, a surveyor working for Lloyd’s of London, inspected the damaged vessel, he was left with more questions than answers. How had the pirates gotten aboard so easily? And if they wanted to steal the ship and bargain for its return, then why did they destroy it? Soon after his inspection, David Mockett was murdered. The culmination of more than four years of reporting, Dead in the Water uncovers a web of conspiracy amidst the lawless, old-world industry at the backbone of the new global economy.
The Contagion Next Time by Sandro Galea
COVID-19 devastated the world and, in particular, the United States. It infected millions, killed hundreds of thousands, and effectively made the earth stand still. Racism, marginalization, socioeconomic inequality–our failure to address these forces left us vulnerable to COVID-19 and the ensuing global health crisis it became. We’re still not ready for the next pandemic. But we can be–we must be. The Contagion Next Time challenges all of us to tackle the deep-rooted obstacles preventing us from becoming a truly vibrant and equitable nation, reminding us of what we’ve seemed to have forgotten: that our health is a public good worth protecting.
Indentured Students: How Government-guaranteed Loans Left Generations Drowning in College Debt by Elizabeth Tandy Shermer
It didn’t always take thirty years to pay off the cost of a bachelor’s degree. The author untangles the history that brought us here and discovers that the story of skyrocketing college debt is not merely one of good intentions gone wrong. Today 45 million Americans owe more than $1.5 trillion in college debt, with the burdens falling disproportionately on borrowers of color, particularly women. Reformers, meanwhile, have been frustrated by colleges and lenders too rich and powerful to contain. Indentured Students makes clear that these are not unforeseen consequences. The federal student loan system is working as designed.
CRISPR People: The Science and Ethics of Editing Humans by Henry T. Greely
The world was shocked to learn that two babies had been born in China in November 2018 with DNA edited while they were embryos — as dramatic a development in genetics as the 1996 cloning of Dolly the sheep. Greely explains what scientist He Jiankui did, how he did it, and how the public and other scientists learned about and reacted to this unprecedented genetic intervention. The two babies, non-identical twin girls, were the first ‘CRISPR’d’ people ever born (CRISPR stands for Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats, a powerful gene-editing method).
NEW FICTION
The Words in My Hands by Asphyxia
Part coming of age, part call to action, this fast-paced #ownvoices novel about a Deaf teenager is a unique and inspiring exploration of what it means to belong. Smart, artistic, and independent, sixteen year old Piper is tired of trying to conform. Her mom wants her to be “normal,” to pass as hearing, to get a good job. But in a time of food scarcity, environmental collapse, and political corruption, Piper has other things on her mind–like survival. But when she meets Marley, a new world opens up–one where Deafness is something to celebrate, and where resilience means taking action, building a community, and believing in something better. The story is told through a visual extravaganza of text, paint, collage, and drawings. Set in an ominously prescient near future, The Words in My Hands is very much a novel for our turbulent times. [Young Adult]
Even Though I Knew the End by C.L. Polk
A magical detective dives into the affairs of Chicago’s divine monsters to secure a future with the love of her life. This sapphic period piece will dazzle anyone looking for mystery, intrigue, romance, magic, or all of the above. An exiled augur who sold her soul to save her brother’s life is offered one last job before serving an eternity in hell. When she turns it down, her client sweetens the pot by offering up the one payment she can’t resist – the chance to have a future where she grows old with the woman she loves. She is given three days to track down the White City Vampire, Chicago’s most notorious serial killer. If she fails, only hell and heartbreak await.
Dinosaurs: A Novel by Lydia Millet
A stunning new novel from the author of A Children’s Bible, a National Book Award finalist and one of the New York Times ‘10 Best Books of 2020,’ Millet makes fiction that vividly evokes the ties between people and other animals and the crisis of extinction. Her exquisite new novel is the story of a man named Gil who walks from New York to Arizona to recover from a failed love. After he arrives, new neighbors move into the glass-walled house next door and his life begins to mesh with theirs. In this warmly textured, dryly funny, and philosophical account, Millet explores the uncanny territory where the self ends and community begins.
Noopiming: The Cure for White Ladies by Leanne Betasamosake Simpson
In fierce prose and poetic fragments, Noopiming braids together humor, piercing detail, and a deep, abiding commitment to Anishinaabe life to tell stories of resistance, love, and joy. Mashkawaji (they/them) lies frozen in the ice, remembering the sharpness of unmuted feeling from long ago, finding freedom and solace in isolated suspension. In ‘Noopiming’ (Anishinaabemowin for ‘in the bush’), the characters emerge from deep within Abinhinaabeg thought to commune beyond an unnatural urban-settler world to a world alive with people, animals, ancestors, and spirits–and the daily work of healing.
The Haunting of Hajji Hotak: and Other Stories by Jamil Jan Kochai
Jamil Jan Kochai breathes life into his contemporary Afghan characters, moving between modern-day Afghanistan and the Afghan diaspora in America. In these arresting stories verging on both comedy and tragedy, often starring young characters whose bravado is matched by their tenderness. The Haunting of Hajji Hotak and Other Stories is a moving exploration of characters grappling with the ghosts of war and displacement-and one that speaks to the immediate political landscape we reckon with today.
Summaries and images adapted from publishers.