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

Title:  Cuba, a Cultural History
Author:  Alan West-Duran

Cuba is a rare and fascinating place. In a world where revolutionary socialism seems an almost quaint reminder of the Cold War, the island remains one of the few nations on the planet guided by a Communist party, still committed to fighting imperialism, opposed to the injustices of globalization and wedded to the dream of one day building a classless society, albeit in a distant future. But Cuba is more than a struggling socialistcountry: it is a nation with a complex and turbulent history and a rich and varied culture.

Title:  Hadrian’s Wall
Author:  Adrian Goldsworthy

Stretching eighty miles from coast to coast across northern England, Hadrian’s Wall is the largest Roman artifact known today. It is commonly viewed as a defiant barrier, the end of the empire, a place where civilization stopped and barbarism began. In fact, the massive structure remains shrouded in mystery. Was the wall intended to keep out the Picts, who inhabited the North? Or was it merely a symbol of Roman power and wealth? What was life like for soldiers stationed along its expanse? How was the extraordinary structure built–with what technology, skills, and materials?

In Hadrian’s Wall, Adrian Goldsworthy embarks on a historical and archaeological investigation, sifting fact from legend while simultaneously situating the wall in the wider scene of Roman Britain. The result is a concise and enthralling history of a great architectural marvel of the ancient world.

Title:  Langston’s Salvation:  American Religion and the Bard of Harlem
Author:  Wallace D. Best

Langston’s Salvation offers a fascinating exploration into the religious thought of Langston Hughes. Known for his poetry, plays, and social activism, the importance of religion in Hughes’ work has historically been ignored or dismissed. This book puts this aspect of Hughes work front and center, placing it into the wider context of twentieth-century American and African American religious cultures. Best brings to life the religious orientation of Hughes work, illuminating how this powerful figure helped to expand the definition of African American religion during this time.

Title:  For the Wild, Ritual and Commitment in Radical Eco-Activism
Author:  Sarah M. Pike

For the Wild explores the ways in which the commitments of radical environmental and animal-rights activists develop through powerful experiences with the more-than-human world during childhood and young adulthood. The book addresses the question of how and why activists come to value nonhuman animals and the natural world as worthy of protection. Emotions and memories of wonder, love, compassion, anger, and grief shape activists’ protest practices and help us understand their deep-rooted dedication to the planet and its creatures. Drawing on analyses of activist art, music, and writings, as well as interviews and participant-observation in activist communities, Sarah M. Pike delves into the sacred duties of these often misunderstood and marginalized groups with openness and sensitivity.

Title:  A Few Red Drops, the Chicago Race Riot of 1919
Author:  Claire Hartfield

On a hot day in July 1919, five black youths went swimming in Lake Michigan, unintentionally floating close to the “white” beach. An angry white man began throwing stones at the boys, striking and killing one. Racial conflict on the beach erupted into days of urban violence that shook the city of Chicago to its foundations. This mesmerizing narrative draws on contemporary accounts as it traces the roots of the explosion that had been building for decades in race relations, politics, business, and clashes of culture. Archival photos and prints, source notes, bibliography, index.

Title:  The Girl Who Drew Butterflies
Author:  Joyce Sidman

One of the first naturalists to observe live insects directly, Maria Sibylla Merian was also one of the first to document the metamorphosis of the butterfly. In this visual nonfiction biography, richly illustrated throughout with full-color original paintings by Merian herself, the Newbery Honor–winning author Joyce Sidman paints her own picture of one of the first female entomologists and a woman who flouted convention in the pursuit of knowledge and her passion for insects.

Title:  Small Teaching Online, Applying Learning Science in Online Classes
Author:  Flower Darby; James M. Lange

The concept of small teaching is simple: small and strategic changes have enormous power to improve student learning. Instructors face unique and specific challenges when teaching an online course. This book offers small teaching strategies that will positively impact the online classroom. 

This book outlines practical and feasible applications of theoretical principles to help your online students learn. It includes current best practices around educational technologies, strategies to build community and collaboration, and minor changes you can make in your online teaching practice, small but impactful adjustments that result in significant learning gains.

Title:  We the Corporations, How American Businesses Won Their Civil Rights
Author:  Adam Winkler

In a revelatory work praised as “excellent and timely” (New York Times Book Review, front page), Adam Winkler, author of Gunfight, once again makes sense of our fraught constitutional history in this incisive portrait of how American businesses seized political power, won “equal rights,” and transformed the Constitution to serve big business.

Uncovering the deep roots of Citizens United, he repositions that controversial 2010 Supreme Court decision as the capstone of a centuries-old battle for corporate personhood. “Tackling a topic that ought to be at the heart of political debate” (Economist), Winkler surveys more than four hundred years of diverse cases―and the contributions of such legendary legal figures as Daniel Webster, Roger Taney, Lewis Powell, and even Thurgood Marshall―to reveal that “the history of corporate rights is replete with ironies” (Wall Street Journal). We the Corporations is an uncompromising work of history to be read for years to come.

50 black and white illustrations

Title:  The Green Bundle, Pairing the Market with the Planet
Author:  Magali A. Delmas

The market for green products has expanded rapidly over the last decade, but most consumers need something more than eco-benefits to motivate their purchases. Magali A. Delmas and David Colgan argue that many green products now offer the total package—a “green bundle” that checks the environmental box, but also offers improved performance, health benefits, savings, and status. To help consumers cut through the noise and make their best decisions, we need new strategies. The Green Bundle offers some of the best and most effective communication techniques for pushing consumers in the right direction. Framing product benefits to motivate behavior is the key. Combining insights from sustainable business and behavioral economics, Delmas and Colgan show managers how to lead buyers from information to action. If you are looking to win over the convenient consumer or understand how companies can create the next tipping point in green consumption, this is the research-based, practical guide for you.

Title:  ASVAB Study Guide 2019-2020, Secrets, Your Key to Exam Success
Author:  Mometrix Test Preparation

Mometrix Test Preparation is not affiliated with or endorsed by any official testing organization. All organizational and test names are trademarks of their respective owners.

The Mometrix guide is filled with the critical information you will need in order to do well on your ASVAB exam: the concepts, procedures, principles, and vocabulary that the United States Military Entrance Processing Command expects you to have mastered before sitting for your exam.