To find these selections and many other new titles, see the NMC library catalog.
New Non-Fiction
Make College Your Superpower: It’s Not Where You Go, It’s What You Know by Anna Esaki-Smith
This book provides a new, innovative way for students to navigate the college application landscape. It shows students how selecting a college can be a strategic tool to direct one’s future, rather than a frenzied exercise in applying to what others have deemed the “best” universities for everyone regardless of their career goals
Every Living Thing: The Great and Deadly Race to Know All Life by Jason Roberts
In the 18th century, two men dedicated their lives to identifying and describing all life on Earth. Carl Linnaeus, a Swedish doctor, believed that life belonged in tidy, static categories. Georges-Louis de Buffon, an aristocratic polymath, viewed life as a dynamic swirl of complexities. The rivalry between these two individuals created reverberations that still echo today. Linnaeus gave the world such concepts as mammal, primate and homo sapiens–but he also denied species change and promulgated racist pseudo-science. Buffon coined the term reproduction, formulated early prototypes of evolution and genetics, and argued passionately against prejudice.
Our Moon: How Earth’s Celestial Companion Transformed the Planet, Guided Evolution, and Made Us Who We Are by Rebecca Boyle
Earth’s 4.34-billion-year-old companion is essential to life on earth. Our relationship to the Moon became more concrete when Apollo landed on it in 1969 in a moment of scientific and political triumph. And both engineering and politics promise to shape our relationship with it in the near future. Scientists advocate for a return to the moon to do research; governments and billionaires want to return to turn a profit from its mineral resources. Who gets to decide how we use a celestial body that belongs to everyone and no one? How can we learn to protect this beautiful, spectral thing that we all share?
Everyone Who is Gone is Here: The United States, Central America, and the Making of a Crisis by Jonathan Blitzer
Hundreds of thousands of people arrive every year at the US-Mexico borders. Most come from El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras, although many migrants come from farther away. This vast and unremitting crisis did not spring up overnight; it is the result of decades of misguided policy and sweeping corruption. Blitzer weaves the stories of Central Americans whose lives have been devastated by chronic political conflict and violence with those of American activists, government officials, and the politicians responsible for the country’s tragically tangled immigration policy. Named a Best Book of 2024 (So Far) by New York Times
Solidarity: The Past, Present, and Future of a World-changing Idea by Leah Hunt-Hendrix and Astra Taylor
From renowned organizers and activists Leah Hunt-Hendrix and Astra Taylor, comes the first in-depth examination of Solidarity – not just as a rallying cry, but as a potent political movement with potential to effect lasting change. The authors survey the past, present, and future of the concept across borders of nation, identity, and class to ask: how can we build solidarity in an era of staggering inequality, polarization, violence, and ecological catastrophe? Hunt-Hendrix and Taylor insist that solidarity is both a principle and a practice, one that must be cultivated and institutionalized, so that care for the common good becomes the central aim of politics and social life.
The Secret Life of Data: Navigating Hype and Uncertainty in the Age of Algorithmic Surveillance by Jesse Gilbert
With the secret uses of data in mind, Sinnreich and Gilbert interview dozens of experts to explore a broad range of scenarios and contexts—from the playful to the profound to the problematic. The Secret Life of Data focuses primarily on the long-term consequences of humanity’s recent rush toward digitizing, storing, and analyzing every piece of data about ourselves and the world we live in.
Pewabic Pottery: The American Arts & Crafts Movement Expressed in Clay by Thomas W. Brunk
Founded by Mary Chase Perry and Horace James Caulkins in Detroit at the turn of the twentieth century, Pewabic produced simple objects with unique glazes rooted in ceramic history, yet freshly made their own. This chronological history of Pewabic work—the most extensive study published to date— explores the history of Pewabic Pottery, from discussions of tiles and glazes to Pewabic Pottery’s place at Michigan State University. Authored by the most recognized scholar on Pewabic Pottery, this study relies heavily on archival sources to achieve a comprehensive history of one of Michigan’s most interesting art studios.
New Fiction
The Morningside by Téa Obreht
AWhen Silvia and her mother land in Island City, after being expelled from their ancestral home in a not-too-distant future, they end up living and working at The Morningside, a crumbling luxury tower where Silvia’s aunt, Ena, has been serving as the superintendent. Ena gives glimpses into the folktales of their demolished homeland in the Old World, a place of natural beauty and communal spirit. Silvia becomes obsessed with the mysterious woman who lives in the penthouse, with three Rottweilers who may be more than they appear. Silvia’s mission to unravel the truth about this woman’s life, and her own haunted past, will transform her own life in the most unexpected of ways.
Two Sides to Every Murder by Danielle Valentine
Most people’s births aren’t immortalized in a police report—but Olivia was born during the infamous Camp Lost Lake murders. Seventeen years later, she discovers the man she calls dad is not her biological father. Now she wants answers and the only place she knows to look is Camp Lost Lake. Reagan spent her formative years on the run with an alleged murderer. In the court of public opinion, her mom was found guilty of the deaths at Camp Lost Lake, and both of them have been in hiding ever since. But Reagan believes in her mother’s innocence and is determined to clear her name. Luckily for Olivia and Reagan, the camp is finally reopening. But someone is dead set on keeping the past hidden, even if it means committing murder.
Model Home by Rivers Solomon
The Maxwell siblings return to their childhood home in the Dallas suburbs after the shocking news of their parents’ death. They return to find the house, and the family itself, haunted by strange, inexplicable terrors. Rivers Solomon turns the haunted-house story on its head, unearthing the dark legacies of segregation and racism in the suburban American South. Unbridled, raw, and daring, Model Home is the story of secret histories uncovered, and of a queer family battling for their right to live, grieve, and heal amid the terrors of contemporary American life.
The Witches of El Paso by Luis Jaramillo
It’s 1943 in El Paso, Texas, and 18-year-old Nena has a secret: vivid premonitions causing her to faint. When Sister Benedicta arrives one evening, Nena is taken across borders of space and time for a life-changing experience in colonial Mexico. In the present-day, Nena’s grand-niece Marta is balancing motherhood and a struggling legal aid practice, just as her own supernatural powers are emerging. When the 93-year-old Nena’s care is added to Marta’s already full plate, the two women find fulfillment and escape through “the hum,” a mysterious, inherited magical ability to tap into the subconscious. The Witches of El Paso explores the magic that arises out of the depths of human desire, to tell a story of empowerment and wonder that transcends borders both physical and metaphorical.
The Wedding People by Alison Espach
It’s a beautiful day in Newport, Rhode Island, when Phoebe Stone arrives at the grand Cornwall Inn and is immediately mistaken for one of the wedding people, but she’s actually the only guest at the Cornwall who isn’t here for the big event. Phoebe dreamed of coming here for years with her husband, only now she’s here without him and determined to have one last decadent splurge on herself. Meanwhile, the bride has accounted for every detail and every possible disaster the weekend might yield except for, well, Phoebe and Phoebe’s plans. In turns absurdly funny and devastatingly tender, The Wedding People is a nuanced look at the winding paths we can take to places we never imagined―and the chance encounters it sometimes takes to reroute us.
Summaries and images adapted from publishers.