To find these selections and many other new titles, see the NMC library catalog.
NON-FICTION
Hatched: Dispatches from the Backyard Chicken Movement
by Gina G. Warren
Digging into its history and food politics, Warren provides an account of the backyard chicken movement’s social and cultural motivations, the regulations it faces, and the ways that chicken owners build community. Weaving together interviews with urban agriculture advocates, entrepreneurs such as a $225 per hour “chicken consultant,” animal rights campaigners, and a fabulous cross-section of chicken enthusiasts, Warren chronicles her own misadventures raising chickens.
Being You: A New Science of Consciousness
by Anil Seth
Internationally renowned neuroscience professor, researcher, and author Anil Seth offers a window into our consciousness in Being You: A New Science of Consciousness. Seth’s radical argument is that we do not perceive the world as it objectively is, but rather that we are prediction machines, constantly inventing our world and correcting our mistakes by the microsecond, and that we can now observe the biological mechanisms in the brain that accomplish this process of consciousness.
Aloha Kitchen: Recipes from Hawai’i
by Alana Kysar
In Aloha Kitchen, Kysar takes you into the homes, restaurants, and farms of Hawaiʻi, exploring the cultural and agricultural influences that have made dishes like plate lunch and poke crave-worthy culinary sensations with locals and mainlanders alike. Interweaving regional history, local knowledge, and the aloha spirit. As a Maui native, Kysars roots inform deep insights on Hawaiʻis multiethnic culture and food history. With transporting photography, accessible recipes, and engaging writing, Kysar paints an intimate and enlightening portrait of Hawaiʻi and its cultural heritage.
The Good Life: Lessons from the World’s Longest Scientific Study of Happiness
by Robert Waldinger, MD, and Marc Schulz, PhD.
What makes a life fulfilling and meaningful? The simple but surprising answer is: relationships. The Harvard Study of Adult Development reveals that the strength of our connections with others can predict the health of both our bodies and our brains as we go through life. Relationships in all their forms–friendships, romantic partnerships, families, coworkers, tennis partners, book club members, Bible study groups–all contribute to a happier, healthier life.
The Chaos Machine: The Inside Story of How Social Media Rewired Our Minds and Our World
by Max Fisher
Building on years of international reporting, Max Fisher tells the gripping inside story of how social networks, in their pursuit of unfettered profits, preyed on psychological frailties to create the algorithms that drive everyday users to extreme opinions and, increasingly, extreme actions. The result is a cultural shift toward a world in which people are polarized not by beliefs based on facts, but by misinformation, outrage, and fear. This is the definitive account of the meteoric rise and troubled legacy of the tech titans, as well as a rousing and hopeful call to arrest the havoc wreaked on our minds and our world before it’s too late.
Immune: A Journey into the Mysterious System That Keep You Alive
by Philipp Dettmer
Enlivened by engaging full-color graphics and immersive descriptions, Immune turns one of the most intricate, interconnected, and pervasive subjects in biology – immunology – into a gripping adventure through an alien landscape. Touching on our body’s defenses, the types of adversaries we face (including a chapter on the coronavirus), and the grave consequences of immune malfunction, Immune is a vital crash course in what is arguably, and increasingly, the most important system in the body.
Before We Were Trans: A New History of Gender
by Kit Heyam
Today’s narratives about trans people tend to feature individuals with stable gender identities that fit neatly into categories. Those stories, while important, fail to account for the complex realities of many trans people’s lives. Before We Were Trans illuminates the stories of people across the globe, from antiquity to the present, whose experiences of gender have defied binary categories. Trans historian and activist Kit Heyam offers a new, radically inclusive trans history, chronicling expressions of trans experience that are often overlooked. Before We Were Trans transports us from Renaissance Venice to seventeenth-century Angola, from Edo Japan to early America, and looks to the past to uncover new horizons for possible trans futures.
Declassified:A Low-key Guide to the High-strung World of Classical Music
by Arianna Warsaw-Fan Rauch
Declassified blows through the elitism and exclusion and invites everyone to love and hate this music. It’s a backstage tour of the industry and covers: the 7 main compositional periods (even the soul-crushingly depressing Medieval period), a breakdown of the instruments and their associated personality types (apologies to violists and conductors), what it’s like to be a musician at the highest level (it’s hard), how to steal a Stradivarius (and make no money in the process), and when to clap during a live performance (also: when not to).
4 Essential Studies: Beliefs and Practices to Reclaim Student Agency
by Penny Kittle and Kelly Gallagher
Essay. Poetry. Book Clubs. Digital Composition. These four practices have the power to transform students’ relationship with literacy-and truly prepare them for the more demanding work of college. This book shows how teacher demonstrations, the skillful use of mentor texts, effective feedback (and many other tools) can make choices possible. By reimagining how we teach essay, poetry, book clubs, and digital composition, we can open the door to more engaged, connected, and challenging learning.
FICTION
Hello Beautiful
by Ann Napolitano
William Waters grew up in a house silenced by tragedy, where his parents could hardly bear to look at him, much less love him. So it’s a relief when his skill on the basketball court earns him a scholarship to college, far away from his childhood home. He soon meets Julia Padavano, a spirited and ambitious young woman who surprises William with her appreciation of his quiet steadiness. Happily, the Padavanos fold Julia’s new boyfriend into their loving, chaotic household. But then darkness from William’s past surfaces, jeopardizing not only Julia’s carefully orchestrated plans for their future, but creating a family rift that changes their lives for generations.
Whereabouts
by Jhumpa Lahiri
The woman at the center of Whereabouts wavers between stasis and movement, between the need to belong and the refusal to form lasting ties. The city she calls home, an engaging backdrop to her days, acts as a confidant. We follow her to the pool she frequents and to the train station that sometimes leads her to her mother, mired in a desperate solitude after her father’s untimely death. In addition to colleagues at work, where she never quite feels at ease, she has girl friends, guy friends, and “him,” a shadow who both consoles and unsettles her. But in the arc of a year, as one season gives way to the next, transformation awaits.
The Porpoise
by Mark Haddon
In a feat of storytelling, Mark Haddon calls upon narratives ancient and modern to tell the story of Angelica, a young woman trapped in an abusive relationship with her father. When a young man named Darius discovers their secret, he is forced to escape on a boat bound for the Mediterranean. To his surprise he finds himself traveling backwards over two thousand years to a world of pirates and shipwrecks, of plagues and miracles and angry gods. Moving seamlessly between the past and the present, Haddon conjures the worlds of Angelica and her would-be savior in thrilling fashion. As profound as it is entertaining, The Porpoise is a stirring and endlessly inventive novel from one of our finest storytellers.
Summaries and images adapted from publishers.