Inyo County Free Library - New Acquisitions
March 2022 - April 2022
These are books and media new to the library and cataloged by the Inyo County Free Library.
Additional information about each title can be found in the catalog (click on the title). For older acquisition lists choose from Select another list. To request any of these titles please contact your local library branch.
The best American science and nature writing 2001 Publishing Date: 2001 Classification: 800 Call Number: 808.8 Iterations of immortality / David Berlinski -- To save a watering hole / Mark Cherrington -- New life in a death trap / Edwin Dobb -- Abortion and brain waves / Gregg Easterbrook -- Baby steps / Malcolm Gladwell -- In the forests of Gombe / Jane Goodall -- The doubting disease / Jerome Groopman -- The recycled generation -- Stephen S. Hall -- Endurance predator / Bernd Heinrich -- Harpy eagles / Edward Hoagland -- Why the future doesn't need us / Bill Joy -- A killing at dawn / Ted Kerasote -- Seeing scarlet / Barbara Kingsolver and Steven Hopp -- The best clock in the world / Verlyn Klinkenborg -- The wild world's Scotland Yard / Jon R. Luoma -- Breeding discontent / Cynthia Mills -- Ice station Vostok / Oliver Morton -- Being prey / Val Plumwood -- Troubled waters / Sandra Postel -- The genome warrior / Richard Preston -- Megatransect / David Quammen -- Inside the volcano / Donovan Webster. |
The best American science and nature writing, 2002 Publishing Date: 2002 Classification: 800 Call Number: 808.8 A collection of nature and science based essays by such authors as Malcolm Gladwell, Joy Williams, Barbara Ehrenreich, and Dennis Overbye. |
The best American science and nature writing 2019 Publishing Date: 2019 Classification: 800 Call Number: 810.8 Sy Montgomery, New York Times best-selling author and recipient of numerous awards, edits this year's volume of the finest science and nature writing. "Science is important because this is how we seek to discover the truth about the world. And this is what makes excellent science and nature writing essential," observes New York Times best-selling author Sy Montgomery. "Science and nature writing are how we share the truth about the universe with the people of the world." And collected here are truths about nearly every corner of the universe. From meditations on extinction, to the search for alien life, to the prejudice that infects our medical system, the pieces in this year's Best American Science and Nature Writing seek to bring to the people stories of some of the most pressing issues facing our planet, as well as moments of wonder reflecting the immense beauty our natural world offers. |
By Collins, Billy Publishing Date: 2021 Classification: 800 Call Number: 811.54 COL Whale Day brings together more than fifty poems and showcases the deft mixing of the playful and the serious that has made Billy Collins one of our country’s most celebrated and widely read poets. Here are poems that leap with whimsy and imagination, yet stay grounded in the familiar, common things of everyday experience. Collins takes us for a walk with an impossibly ancient dog, discovers the original way to eat a banana, meets an Irish spider, and even invites us to his own funeral. Sensitive to the wonders of being alive as well as the thrill of mortality, Whale Day builds on and amplifies Collins’s reputation as one of America’s most interesting and durable poets. - (Random House, Inc.) |
The winged seed: a remembrance By Lee, Li-Young Publishing Date: 1995 Classification: 800 Call Number: 811.54 LEE This memoir of Chinese American poet Lee creates a moving portrait of his imposing, emotionally elusive father that testifies to the pride, hope, social pain, and cultural alienation of Asian refugees in America. |
By Ondaatje, Michael Publishing Date: 2000, ©1998 Classification: 800 Call Number: 811.54 OND Handwriting is Michael Ondaatje's return to the place of his family, a remembrance, an honoring, and a lament of astonishing beauty. It is an irresistible work of poetic genius, and reaffirms Ondaatje's stature as one of the finest poets writing today. He takes us through the sweep of history in the island of Sri Lanka, summoning up stories of war and love, of goon squads, kings and robbers, and of two millennia of culture, to create a tapestry of images, scents and gestures—the unburial of stone Buddhas, a family of stilt-walkers crossing a field, the pattern of teeth marks on skin drawn by a monk from memory—that reveal the longing for, and expose our anguish over, lost loves, homes, and lost ways of expression. He joins the poets of old who "wrote their stories on rock and leaf / to celebrate the work of the day,/ the shadow pleasures of the night." At the same time, his artistry as a poet, and the language of these poems, supersede all individual story-moments to give us a larger understanding of the human condition—he himself can be counted among those who "shared it / on a scroll or nudged / the ink onto stone / to hold the vista of a life." - (Random House, Inc.) |
By Smith, Danez Publishing Date: [2017] Classification: 800 Call Number: 811.6 SMI Smith's unflinching poetry addresses race, class, sexuality, faith, social justice, mortality, and the challenges of living HIV positive at the intersection of black and queer identity. The collection opens with a heartrending sequence that imagines an afterlife for black men shot by police, a place where suspicion, violence, and grief are forgotten and replaced with the safety, love, and longevity they deserved on earth. "Dear White America," which Smith performed at the 2014 Rustbelt Midwest Region Poetry Slam, has as strong an impact on the page as it did on the spoken word stage. Smith's courage and hope amidst the struggle for unity in America will humble and uplift you. |
By Hughes, Langston Publishing Date: ©1986 Classification: 800 Call Number: 818.5209 HUG Volume one of Hughes' autobiography tells of his early years--in Paris and Harlem. |
NEW RELEASE How to be perfect: the correct answer to every moral question By Schur, Michael Publishing Date: 2022 Classification: 800 Call Number: 818.602 SCH "From the creator of The Good Place and the co-creator of Parks and Recreation, a hilarious, thought-provoking guide to living an ethical life, drawing on 2,500 years of deep thinking from around the world"-- |
House lessons: renovating a life By Bauermeister, Erica Publishing Date: [2020] Classification: 800 Call Number: 818.603 BAU "In this memoir-in-essays, New York Times bestselling author Erica Bauermeister renovates a trash-filled house in the eccentric town of Port Townsend, WA, and in the process takes readers on a journey into the ways our spaces subliminally affect us, ultimately showing us how to make our houses (and lives) better"-- |
Late migrations: a natural history of love and loss By Renkl, Margaret Publishing Date: 2021 Classification: 800 Call Number: 818.608 REN Selected as a TODAY Show #ReadWithJenna book club pick, Late Migrations is an unusual, captivating portrait of a family—and of the cycles of joy and grief that inscribe human lives within the natural world—from beloved New York Times contributing opinion writer Margaret Renkl. Growing up in Alabama, Renkl was a devoted reader, an explorer of riverbeds and red-dirt roads, and a fiercely loved daughter. Here, in brief essays, she traces a tender and honest portrait of her complicated parents—her exuberant, creative mother; her steady, supportive father—and of the bittersweet moments that accompany a child’s transition to caregiver. And here, braided into the overall narrative, Renkl offers observations on the world surrounding her suburban Nashville home. Ringing with rapture and heartache, these essays convey the dignity of bluebirds and rat snakes, monarch butterflies and native bees. As these two threads haunt and harmonize with each other, Renkl suggests that there is astonishment to be found in common things: in what seems ordinary, in what we all share. For in both worlds—the natural one and our own—“the shadow side of love is always loss, and grief is only love’s own twin.” Gorgeously illustrated by the author’s brother, Billy Renkl, Late Migrations is an assured and memorable debut. - (Perseus Publishing) |
The country under my skin: a memoir of love and war By Belli, Gioconda Publishing Date: 2002 Classification: 800 Call Number: 868.6409 BEL Until her early twenties, Gioconda Belli inhabited an upper-class cocoon: sheltered from the poverty in Managua in a world of country clubs and debutante balls; educated abroad; early marriage and motherhood. But in 1970, everything changed. Her growing dissatisfaction with domestic life, and a blossoming awareness of the social inequities in Nicaragua, led her to join the Sandinistas, then a burgeoning but still hidden organization. She would be involved with them over the next twenty years at the highest, and often most dangerous, levels. Her memoir is both a revelatory insider's account of the Revolution and a vivid, intensely felt story about coming of age under extraordinary circumstances. Belli writes with both striking lyricism and candor about her personal and political lives: about her family, her children, the men in her life, about her poetry; about the dichotomies between her birthright and the life she chose for herself; about the failures and triumphs of the Revolution; about her current life, divided between California (with her American husband and their children) and Nicaragua; and about her sustained and sustaining passion for her country and its people. - (Blackwell North Amer) |
Reimagining historic house museums: new approaches and proven solutions Publishing Date: [2019] Classification: 900 Call Number: 907.4 Drawing from innovative organizations across the United States, Reimagining Historic House Museums is an indispensable source of field-tested tools and techniques drawn from such wide-ranging sources as non-profit management, business strategy, and software development. It also profiles historic sites that are using new models to engage with their communities to become more relevant, are adopting creative forms of interpretation and programming, and earning income to become more financially sustainable. The book is a combination of a museum conference, a hands-on workshop, and toolbox. It contains five main parts: Fundamentals and Essentials, Audiences, Different Approaches to Familiar Topics, Methods, Imagining New Kinds of House Museums. This authoritative guide from the American Association for State and Local History (AASLH) will help house museum boards, directors, and staff seeking a path forward in rapidly changing times. Graduate programs in public history, museum studies, curatorial studies, and historic preservation will discover models and approaches that will provoke lively discussions about the issues facing the field.-- |
The hard way around: the passages of Joshua Slocum By Wolff, Geoffrey Publishing Date: 2010 Classification: 900 Call Number: 910.4 WOL A portrait of the legendary sea commander traces his rapid rise from an uneducated childhood in mid-nineteenth-century Nova Scotia to the leader of ships that experienced high-danger adventures, including the first documented solo journey around the world. |
On Celtic tides: one man's journey around Ireland by sea kayak By Duff, Chris Publishing Date: 2000, ©1999 Classification: 900 Call Number: 914.1504 DUF A sea kayak battles the freezing Irish waters as the morning sun rises out of the countryside. On the western horizon is the pinnacle of Skellig Michael-700 feet of vertical rock rising out of exploding seas. Somewhere on the isolated island are sixth-century monastic ruins where the light of civilization was kept burning during the Dark Ages by early Christian Irish monks. Puffins surface a few yards from the boat, as hundreds of gannets wheel overhead on six foot wing spans. The ocean rises violently and tosses paddler and boat as if they were discarded flotsam. This is just one day of Chris Duff's incredible three month journey. - (McMillan Palgrave) |
The little book of tourists in Iceland: tips, tricks, and what the Icelanders really think of you By Alda Sigmundsdodttir Publishing Date: 2017 Classification: 900 Call Number: 914.912 ALD This book provides a unique insight into the social and environmental impact that tourism is having on Iceland, and with wit and intelligence offers invaluable tips for touring safely, responsibly, and in harmony with the locals. A fascinating resource for anyone interested in contemporary Iceland, and an essential companion for all visitors to the country. Among the topics addressed in this book: ́Ø Why now? - Reasons for the tourism boom in Iceland ́Ø The impact of tourism on Iceland́s housing market, health care system, law enforcement, search and rescue operations, and more ́Ø Klondike fever in the Icelandic tourism industry ́Ø Touring Iceland and staying safe: the main dangers of travel in Iceland ́Ø Out driving: essential things to keep in mind on Iceland́s roads ́Ø What they think of us: complaints that tourists of different nationalities have about Iceland and Icelanders ́Ø What we think of them: tourist behaviours that really, seriously irk the Icelanders ́Ø Crazy stories of tourists in Iceland ́Ø The environmental footprint: depletion of natural resources, pollution, and the physical impact of tourism ́Ø Taxing tourists, or not - all about the endless debate ́Ø How the locals really feel about the tourist invasion ́Ø The truth about those Iceland myths: jailed bankers, refusal to bail out banks, believing in elves, incest app, promiscuity, disgusting food ́<?char 140 ?> ́<?char 140 ?> and much, much more. |
Names for the sea: strangers in Iceland By Moss, Sarah Publishing Date: 2013 Classification: 900 Call Number: 914.912 MOS Novelist Sarah Moss had a childhood dream of moving to Iceland, sustained by a wild summer there when she was nineteen. In 2009, she saw an advertisement for a job at the University of Iceland and applied on a whim, despite having two young children and a comfortable life in an English cathedral city. The resulting adventure was shaped by Iceland's economic collapse, which halved the value of her salary, by the eruption of Eyjafjallajokull and by a collection of new friends, including a poet who saw the only bombs fall on Iceland in 1943, a woman who speaks to elves and a chef who guided Sarah's family around the intricacies of Icelandic cuisine. Sarah was drawn to the strangeness of Icelandic landscape, and explored hillsides of boiling mud, volcanic craters and fissures, and the unsurfaced roads that link remote farms and fishing villages in the far north. She walked the coast path every night after her children were in bed, watching the northern lights and the comings and goings of migratory birds. As the weeks and months went by, the children settled in local schools and Sarah got to know her students and colleagues, she and her family learned new ways to live. |
The urban circus: travels with Mexico's malabaristas By Rainsford, Catriona Publishing Date: 2013 Classification: 900 Call Number: 917.2048 RAI The story opens in North Mexico, with a chance meeting with a group of Mexican street performers. Entranced by their stories and lifestyle, Catriona Rainsford decides to go with them on what becomes a two-year, hand-to-mouth journey across Mexico, learning to live off nothing more than performance skills and the kindness of strangers. |
By Kelsey, Michael R. Publishing Date: 2017 Classification: 900 Call Number: 917.9133 KEL Introducing the enlarged & updated 6th Edition of the book, Hiking and Exploring the Paria River. This edition includes 64 more pages of new hiking areas, fotographic tours, and local history. The new page count is 448. Focusing on the Paria River drainage, this guidebook covers the entrenched canyons from Bryce Canyon south to the Vermillion Cliffs and Lee s Ferry. Among the 56 maps, you ll find new information on the Between the Creeks Slots, Hackberry Canyon, Buckskin Gulch, a new route into the middle of the Lower Paria River Gorge, Coyote Buttes, The Wave, the Sand Hills, and White Pockets. In preparation for this new edition, the author interviewed a number of local old timers to expand on the guidebook s already rich regional history. Also added to this 6th Edition, is an enlarged section on John D. Lee along with new information about the Mountain Meadows Massacre and why Lee was sent to the Colorado River to establish a ferry. The reason was, Brigham Young and the Church leadership wanted to create a Mormon Wagon Road into Arizona to establish a mission to the Indians, colonize new lands before the gentiles got it, plus create a corridor to Mexico in case the Mormons were run out again. Adding the Mormon Wagon Road to Arizona is stretching the boundaries of the Paria River, but it seems necessary so that readers can better understand local Southern Utah politics and history. A new segment with 18 pages covers the route, the waterholes and the first 4 settlements created by the Mormons in the late 1870 s along the Little Colorado River. - (Brigham Distributing) |
By Freeman, Philip Publishing Date: 2011 Classification: 900 Call Number: 938 FRE In the first authoritative biography of Alexander the Great written for a general audience in a generation, classicist and historian Philip Freeman tells the remarkable life of the great conqueror. The celebrated Macedonian king has been one of the most enduring figures in history. He was a general of such skill and renown that for two thousand years other great leaders studied his strategy and tactics, from Hannibal to Napoleon, with countless more in between. He flashed across the sky of history like a comet, glowing brightly and burning out quickly: crowned at age nineteen, dead by thirty-two. He established the greatest empire of the ancient world; Greek coins and statues are found as far east as Afghanistan. Our interest in him has never faded. Alexander was born into the royal family of Macedonia, the kingdom that would soon rule over Greece. Tutored as a boy by Aristotle, Alexander had an inquisitive mind that would serve him well when he faced formidable obstacles during his military campaigns. Shortly after taking command of the army, he launched an invasion of the Persian empire, and continued his conquests as far south as the deserts of Egypt and as far east as the mountains of present-day Pakistan and the plains of India. Alexander spent nearly all his adult life away from his homeland, and he and his men helped spread the Greek language throughout western Asia, where it would become the lingua franca of the ancient world. Within a short time after Alexander's death in Baghdad, his empire began to fracture. Best known among his successors are the Ptolemies of Egypt, whose empire lasted until Cleopatra. In his lively and authoritative biography of Alexander, classical scholar and historian Philip Freeman describes Alexander's astonishing achievements and provides insight into the mercurial character of the great conqueror. Alexander could be petty and magnanimous, cruel and merciful, impulsive and farsighted. Above all, he was ferociously, intensely competitive and could not tolerate losing--which he rarely did. As Freeman explains, without Alexander, the influence of Greece on the ancient world would surely not have been as great as it was, even if his motivation was not to spread Greek culture for beneficial purposes but instead to unify his empire. Only a handful of people have influenced history as Alexander did, which is why he continues to fascinate us. - Publisher. |