The library has purchased many new books so far this year. You can view a handful here along with partial descriptions or go here to see the full listing. These books are on display in the library’s lobby.

 Title: Advice from the lights: poems

Author: Stephen Burt

Stephen is sometimes Stephanie and sometimes wonders how his past and her past are their own collective memory Advice from the Lights is a brilliant and candid exploration of gender and identity and a series of looks at a formative past. It’s part nostalgia, part confusion, and part an ongoing wondering: How do any of us achieve …

 

Title: Against the grain: a deep history of the earliest states

Author: James C. Scott

An account of all the new and surprising evidence now available for the beginnings of the earliest civilizations that contradict the standard narrative Why did humans abandon hunting and gathering for sedentary communities dependent on livestock and cereal grains, and governed by precursors of today’s states? Most people believe that …

 Title: Astronavigation: a method for determining exact position by the stars

Author: K. A. Zischka

This book acts as a manual for the ancient methods of navigating by the stars, which continue to provide the sailor or pilot with a timeless means of determining location. Despite the prevalence of GPS, a comprehensive set of formulae that can be evaluated on any inexpensive scientific calculator in the event of a catastrophic software or s …

 

Title: The Americana revolution: from country and blues roots to the Avett Brothers, Mumford & Sons, and beyond

Author: Michael Scott Cain

Americana is a music that defies definition. It isn’t rock, although it does encompass rock. It isn’t folk, but folk is there. It isn’t Celtic, but it is woven with Celtic threads. It is a blend of forms, music that draws on a wide range of influences. Gathering these many genres together, Americana continually reinvents itself and actively te …

Title: The body keeps the score: brain, mind, and body in the healing of trauma

Author: Bessel A. Van der Kolk

“Essential reading for anyone interested in understanding and treating traumatic stress and the scope of its impact on society.” –Alexander McFarlane, Director of the Centre for Traumatic Stress Studies A pioneering researcher transforms our understanding of trauma and offers a bold new paradigm for healing in this New York Times Sci …

Title: Brewed in Michigan : the new golden age of brewing in the great beer state

Author: William Rapai

Brewed in Michigan: The New Golden Age of Brewing in the Great Beer State is William Rapai’s “Ode on a Grecian Urn”–a discussion of art and art’s audience. The art in this case is beer. Craft beer. Michigan craft beer, to be exact. Like the Great Lakes and the automobile, beer has become a part of Michigan’s identity. In 2016, Michigan  …

Title:  Blind spot

Author: Teju Cole

In this innovative synthesis of words and images, the award-winning author of Open City and photography critic for The New York Times Magazine combines two of his great passions. One of Time ‘s Top 10 Non-Fiction Books of the Year * One of Smithsonian.com ‘s Ten Best Photography Books of the Year When it comes to Teju Cole, …

Title: Building community: new apartment architecture

Author: Michael Webb

There’s an urgent need to build more and better apartments: to relieve an acute shortage of affordable housing in major cities; to use scarce land more economically; to save energy wasted on long-distance commutes; and to revitalize urban centers. These challenges have led to the creation of some of the most inventive contemporary buildings of …

Title: Chicxulub : the impact and tsunami: the story of the largest known asteroid to hit the Earth

Author: David H. Shonting  

This book tells the story of the catastrophic impact of the giant 10 Km asteroid Chicxulub into the ancient Gulf of Mexico 65.5 million years ago. The book begins with a discussion of the nature of asteroids and the likelihood of future Earth-impacts. The story then turns to the discovery of a global sediment layer attributed to the fallout …

 

Title: Dark at the crossing

Author: Elliot Ackerman

NATIONAL BOOK AWARD FINALIST ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR: The Washington Post * NPR * The Christian Science Monitor * Military Times * Vogue * Bloomberg Haris Abadi, a wayward Arab American with a conflicted past, has finally found his purpose: he will cross into Syria and join the fight against Bashar al-Assad’s oppres …