New books at the NMC library

To find these selections and many other new titles, see the NMC library catalog.

NON-FICTION

Stealing My Religion: Not Just Any Cultural Appropriation
by Liz Bucar
Liz Bucar navigates the thorny terrain of religious appropriation, from yoga classes to non-Muslims who signal allyship by donning hijabs. Exploring the ethics of alleged appropriations, Bucar argues that borrowing isn’t itself a problem, as long as we are invested in our enthusiasms – committed to understanding their roots and diverse meanings.

Sweetwater Sailors: The Rest of the Story
by Bob Ojala
This book tells the stories of the non-typical sailors on the Great Lakes, such as those in marine construction and passenger excursion captains. And not to be overlooked are stories from some of the crew’s most essential members – the cooks. Cooks are key to the survival of sailors onboard ships as they keep the ships’ crews fed and happy. Readers will gain a greater understanding of sailors and the work they do aboard our nation’s boats and ships and the sacrifices they, their spouses and families make in doing so.

The Transcendentalists and Their World
by Robert A. Gross
From acclaimed historian Robert A. Gross comes his long-awaited, journey through Concord in the age of Emerson, Thoreau, Hawthorne and the Alcotts. The Transcendentalists and Their World shows us familiar literary figures alongside their neighbors—white and Black, devout and blasphemous, and situated at every level of the social order—and reveals how life in Concord entered powerfully into their works.
[One of The Wall Street Journal’s 10 Best Books of 2021]

Trigger Points: Inside the Mission To Stop Mass Shootings in America
by Mark Follman
From an award-winning Mother Jones editor comes the inside story of the decades-long search for identifiable profiles and warning signs of mass shooters, by way of the specialized teams of psychologists, cops, and ordinary citizens working to predict and prevent violence in America. A fearless, in-depth, and ultimately redemptive account of an epidemic that desperately needs solving.

Un-settling Middle Eastern Refugees: Regimes of Exclusion and Inclusion in the Middle East, Europe, and North America
edited by Marcia C. Inhorn and Lucia Volk
Since the Iraq war, the Middle East has been in continuous upheaval, resulting in the displacement of millions of people. Arriving from Afghanistan, Iraq, Palestine, and Syria to other parts of the world, the refugees show resilience amidst profound adversity. Through careful ethnography, this book illustrates how refugees navigate regimes of exclusion, including cumbersome bureaucracies, financial insecurities, medical challenges, vilifying stereotypes, and threats of violence.

Unsilencing Gaza: Reflections on Resistance
by Sara Roy
Gaza, the center of Palestinian nationalism and resistance to the occupation, is the linchpin of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and the key to its resolution. Sara Roy looks at US foreign policy towards the Palestinians and analyzes the trajectory of Israeli policy toward Gaza. This book, a follow up from the renowned Failing Peace, comes from one of the world’s most acclaimed writers on the region.

FICTION

Edith Holler
by Edward Carey
The witty and entrancing story of a young woman trapped in a ramshackle English playhouse—and the mysterious figure who threatens the theater’s very survival. Teeming with unforgettable characters and illuminated by the author’s trademark fantastical illustrations, Edith Holler is a surprisingly modern fable of one young woman’s struggle to protect her father, the theatre, and her play—the one thing that’s truly hers—from a newcomer’s sinister designs.
[NPR ‘Best Book of the Year’]

The List
by Yomi Adegoke
Ola Olajide, a celebrated journalist at a progressive magazine, is set to marry the love of her life in one month’s time. Young, beautiful, and successful—she and her fiancé Michael seem to have it all. That is, until one morning when they both wake up to the same message: “Oh my god, have you seen ‘The List’?” It began as a crowdsourced collection of names and somehow morphed into an anonymous account posting allegations on social media. Ola would usually be the first to support such a list—she’d retweet it, call for the men to be fired, and write article after article. Except this time, Michael’s name is on it.

Loot
by Tania James
A spellbinding historical novel set in the eighteenth century: a hero’s quest, a love story, the story of a young artist coming of age, and an exuberant heist adventure that traces the bloody legacy of colonialism across two continents and fifty years.
[A ‘Best Book of the Year’: The Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, NPR, Kirkus Reviews]

The Next New Syrian Girl
by Ream Shukairy
Khadija Shami is a Syrian American high school senior raised on boxing and football. Saddled with a monstrous ego and a fierce mother to test it, she dreams of escaping her sheltered life to travel the world with her best friend. Leene Tahir is a Syrian refugee, doing her best to adjust to the wildly unfamiliar society of a suburban American high school while battling panic attacks and family pressures. To Khadija, Leene embodies the tame, dutiful Syrian ideal she’s long rebelled against. And to Leene, Khadija is the strong-willed, closed-off American who makes her doubt her place in the world.

Saints of the Household
by Ari Tison
When brothers Max and Jay help a classmate in trouble, they struggle with the consequences of their violent actions and worry they may be more like their abusive father than they thought. The brothers must turn to their Bribri roots to find their way forward. Told in alternating points of view using vignettes and poems, debut author Ari Tison crafts an emotional, slow-burning drama about brotherhood, abuse, recovery, and doing the right thing.
[Winner of the Pura Belpré Award and Walter Dean Myers Award for Young Adult Literature]

Parasol Against the Axe
by Helen Oyeyemi
For reasons of her own, Hero Tojosoa accepts an invitation to Prague on a bachelorette weekend hosted by her estranged friend Sofie. Little does she know she’s arrived in a city with a penchant for playing tricks on the unsuspecting. A book Hero has brought with her seems to be warping her mind: the text changes depending on when it’s being read and who’s doing the reading, revealing startling new stories of fictional Praguers past and present. An adventurous, kaleidoscopic novel, Parasol Against the Axe considers the lines between illusion and delusion, fact and interpretation.