To find these selections and many other new titles, see the NMC library catalog.
NON-FICTION
Rough Sleepers
by Tracy Kidder
When he graduated from Harvard Medical School, Jim O’Connell was asked by the medical school Dean to spend one year setting up a program to care for the homeless population in Boston. It became his life calling, to help people known as “rough sleepers.” For the past three decades, Dr. O’Connell has run the Boston Healthcare for the Homeless Program, which he helped to create. The program includes clinics and a van on which Dr O’Connell and his staff ride through the Boston streets at night, offering medical care and friendship to a marginalized community.
One Quarter of the Nation: Immigration and the Transformation of America
by Nancy Foner
The impact of immigrants over the past half century has become so much a part of everyday life in the US that we sometimes fail to see it. This deeply researched book by one of America’s leading immigration scholars tells the story of how immigrants are fundamentally changing this country. An astonishing number of immigrants and their children — nearly eighty-six million people — now live in the United States. They have touched virtually every facet of American culture, from the music we dance to and the food we eat to the films we watch and books we read.
Creating the Urban Dream : Tackling the Affordable Housing Crisis with Compassion
by Clay Grubb
For generations, homeownership has been an avenue to a better life. But discriminatory policies left many people out, and today’s trend of rising home prices continues to put housing beyond the reach of significant sectors of the workforce. This is particularly true in America’s urban centers, where a shortage of affordable housing is stifling social and economic mobility. Grubb shares the strategic focus of his decades-long career: how to provide good homes for the many people who need them and create dynamic neighborhoods where they can better their lives.
Inclusion on Purpose: An Intersectional Approach to Creating a Culture of Belonging at Work
by Ruchika Tulshyan; foreword by Ijeoma Oluo
If we believe in the morality and the profitability of including people of diverse and underestimated backgrounds in the workplace, why don’t we do it? Because, explains Ruchika Tulshyan in this eye-opening book, we don’t realize that inclusion takes awareness, intention, and regular practice. Inclusion doesn’t just happen; we have to work at it. Tulshyan presents inclusion best practices, showing how leaders and organizations can meaningfully promote inclusion and diversity.
The Sky Watched: Poems of Ojibwe Lives
by Linda LeGarde Grover
Summoning spiritual and natural lore, award-winning poet and scholar Linda LeGarde Grover follows the story of a family, a tribe, and a people through historical ruptures and through intimate troubles and joys — from the sundering of Ojibwe people from their land and culture to singular horrors like the massacre at Wounded Knee to personal trauma suffered at Indian boarding schools. In English and Ojibwe, voices of history come together to create a collective memoir in poetry as expansive and particular as the starry sky.
FICTION
Crook Manifesto
by Colson Whitehead
Whitehead returns with a colorful sequel to Harlem Shuffle. It’s 1971. Trash piles up on the streets, crime is at an all-time high, the city is careening towards bankruptcy, and a shooting war has broken out between the NYPD and the Black Liberation Army. Amidst this, furniture store owner and ex-fence Ray Carney tries to keep his head down and his business thriving. It’s strictly the straight-and-narrow for him until he needs Jackson 5 tickets for his daughter and he decides to hit up his old police contact Munson, fixer extraordinaire. But Munson has his own favors to ask of Carney and staying out of the game gets a lot more complicated and deadly.
Warrior Girl Unearthed
by Angeline Boulley
Black and Anishinaabe high schooler Perry Firekeeper-Birch tackles issues surrounding U.S. repatriation laws as well as Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women in this page-turning companion taking place 10 years after Firekeeper’s Daughter by Anishinaabe author Boulley. Perry discovers that a local university has been taking advantage of legal loopholes to hold on to deceased Anishinaabe remains. Determined to return them to their rightful homes, Perry uncovers a deadly mystery involving missing Indigenous women along the way.
The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store
by James McBride
A novel about small-town secrets and the people who keep them. The residents of Chicken Hill, the dilapidated neighborhood where immigrant Jews and African Americans lived side-by-side, was where Moshe and Chona Ludlow lived and where Chona ran the Heaven & Earth Grocery Store. As these characters’ stories overlap, it becomes clear what the people who live on the margins must do to survive. McBride shows us that even in dark times, it is love and community–heaven and earth–that sustain us. James McBride has written a novel as compassionate as Deacon King Kong and as inventive as The Good Lord Bird.
Fourth Wing
by Rebecca Yarros
Yarros (The Things We Leave Unfinished) blends the tale of a reluctant dragon rider’s coming-of-age with a dark academia aesthetic in her astounding debut fantasy. Fearsome General Sorrengail demands that her children follow in her footsteps as dragon riders – even her youngest, Violet, who has trained her whole life to be a scribe like her late father. Violet is unprepared for the tasks all cadets must complete to become dragon riders. As danger draws nearer, clever Violet grows stronger, discovering that riding dragons may be her destiny after all. Yarros’s worldbuilding is intricate without being overbearing.
Happiness Falls
by Angie Kim
Kim’s bittersweet second novel intertwines an intimate family drama, a missing-persons mystery, and a philosophical rumination on happiness. Mia Parkson and her twin brother, John, are spending the Covid-19 lockdown at their parents’ house in suburban Virginia. One morning, their autistic brother, Eugene, races home from a hike with their father, his clothing spattered with blood. Their father is nowhere to be found, and Eugene–who is nonverbal–isn’t able to say what happened. However, the Parksons have underestimated Eugene’s intelligence and ability to communicate– revealing people’s interpretation of information and ability to relate to one another.
LIBRARY OF THINGS
Steel tongue drum
Hopwell steel tongue drum is perfectly tuned to produce a clear and delightful sound experience. Designed so that a total beginner – even people who don’t have any musical ability or sense of rhythm – can quickly produce beautiful sounds.
200x Smartphone microscope
No app needed; instant sharing.
Specs: 200x magnification; 4 lens elements in 4 groups + CPL (polarizing filter).
Spikeball™
Spikeball is a team sport consisting of two teams of two players. The ball is put into play with a serve—a hit by the server from behind the service boundary into the net – to an opposing player. The object of the game is to hit the ball into the net so that the opposing team cannot return it. A team is allowed up to three touches to return the ball. The rally continues until the ball is not returned properly.
Summaries and images adapted from publishers.