To find these selections and many other new titles, see the NMC library catalog.
A Black Women’s History of the United States by Daina Ramey Berry and Kali Nicole Gross
A Black Women’s History of the United States is a critical survey of black women’s complicated legacy in America, as it takes into account their exploitation and victimization as well as their undeniable and substantial contributions to the country since its inception. Two award-winning historians, Berry and Gross prioritize many voices: enslaved women, freedwomen, religious leaders, artists, queer women, activists, and women who lived outside the law.
American Hemp Farmer: Adventures & Misadventures in the Cannabis Trade by Doug Fine
Following the success of his first book, Hemp Bound, journalist, author, and “neo-rugged individualist goat herder” Doug Fine gets his hands dirty growing his own hemp crop and creating his own hemp product. Fine shares his adventures and misadventures as a farmer and entrepreneur while laying out a vision for how hemp can help right the wrongs of twentieth-century agriculture, and how you can be a part of it.
Beowulf: A New Translation by Maria Dahvana Headley
Nearly twenty years after Seamus Heaney’s translation of Beowulf―and fifty years after the translation that continues to torment high-school students around the world―there is a radical new feminist translation of the epic poem, which brings to light elements that have never before been translated into English. Headley’s translation recontextualizes the binary narrative of monsters and heroes into a tale in which the two often entwine, justice is rarely served, and dragons live among us.
Cats and Conservationists: The Debate Over Who Owns the Outdoors by Dara M. Wald and Anna L. Peterson
Cats and Conservationists is the first multidisciplinary analysis of the heated debate about free-roaming cats. The debate pits conservationists against cat lovers, who disagree both on the ecological damage caused by the cats and the best way to manage them. It also sheds light on larger questions about how we interpret science, incorporate diverse perspectives, and balance competing values in order to encourage constructive dialogue on contentious social and environmental issues.
Golem girl: A Memoir by Riva Lehrer
In 1958, Riva is one of the first children born with spina bifida to survive. Riva tries her best to be a good girl and a good patient in the quest to be cured. As an adult, she is invited to join a group of artists, writers, and performers whose work rejects the tropes that define disabled people as pathetic, frightening, or worthless. With the
author’s magnificent portraits featured throughout, Golem Girl is an extraordinary story of survival and creativity.
How to Argue With a Racist: What Our Genes Do (and Don’t) Say About Human Difference by Adam Rutherford
How to Argue With a Racist dismantles outdated notions of race by illuminating what modern genetics actually can and can’t tell us about human difference. We now know that the racial categories still dividing us do not align with observable genetic differences. We’ve never had clearer answers about who we are and where we come from, but this knowledge is sorely needed in our casual conversations about race.
The Book of Two Ways: A Novel by Jodi Picoult
Everything changes in a single moment for Dawn Edelstein. She’s on a plane when the flight attendant makes an announcement: Prepare for a crash landing. She braces herself as thoughts flash through her mind. The shocking thing is, the thoughts are not of her husband but of a man she last saw fifteen years ago: Wyatt Armstrong. Dawn, miraculously, survives the crash, but so do all the doubts that have suddenly been raised. She must confront the questions she’s never truly asked: What does a life well lived look like?
The Midnight Library: a Novel by Matt Haig
Somewhere out beyond the edge of the universe there is a library that contains an infinite number of books, each one the story of another reality. One tells the story of your life as it is, along with another book for the other life you could have lived if you had made a different choice at any point in your life. While we all wonder how our lives might have been, what if you had the chance to go to the library and see for yourself? Would any of these other lives truly be better?
We Hope for Better Things by Erin Bartels
At her great-aunt’s 150-year-old farmhouse north of Detroit, Elizabeth uncovers a series of mysterious items, locked doors, and hidden graves. As she searches for answers to the riddles around her, the remarkable stories of two women who lived in this very house emerge as testaments to love, resilience, and courage in the face of war, racism, and misunderstanding. Debut novelist Erin Bartels takes readers on an emotional journey through time–from the volatile streets of 1960s Detroit to the Michigan’s Underground Railroad during the Civil War–to uncover the past, confront the seeds of hatred, and discover where love goes to hide.
Punching the Air by Ibi Zoboi with Yusef Salaam
Amal Shahid has always been an artist and a poet. But even in a diverse art school, he’s seen as disruptive and unmotivated by a biased system. Then one fateful night, an altercation in a gentrifying neighborhood escalates into tragedy. “Boys just being boys” turns out to be true only when those boys are white. Suddenly, at just sixteen years old, Amal’s bright future is upended: he is convicted of a crime he didn’t commit and sent to prison. Despair and rage almost sink him until he turns to the refuge of his words, his art. This never should have been his story. But can he change it?
Summaries adapted from publishers.