Look for the staff picks book mark on the library shelves!
Perspectives on Loss and Trauma by Written by a key founder in the field of loss and trauma, this book takes a broad perspective. It reviews theory and research on a sampling of loss and trauma phenomena that include losses due to the death of close others, divorce and dissolution, losses due to disease processes and injuries, losses due to unemployment and homelessness, war and violence, and the Holocaust and genocide. The book also discusses relevant therapy approaches and emphasizes a story-telling approach to coping with major loss. Focusing on many of the most challenging types of human loss and trauma, the book contains scores of stories of people confronting stress and of the courage displayed by so many in the face of profound loss in their personal lives.
Lawrence in Arabia by A narrative chronicle of World War I's Arab Revolt explores the pivotal roles of a small group of adventurers and low-level officers who orchestrated a secret effort to control the Middle East, demonstrating how they instigated jihad against British forces, built an elaborate intelligence ring and forged ties to gain valuable oil concessions.
American Fire by The arsons started on a cold November midnight and didn't stop for months. Night after night, the people of Accomack County waited to see which building would burn down next, regarding each other at first with compassion, and later suspicion. Vigilante groups sprang up, patrolling the rural Virginia coast with cameras and camouflage. Volunteer firefighters slept at their stations. The arsonist seemed to target abandoned buildings, but local police were stretched too thin to surveil them all. Accomack was desolate--there were hundreds of abandoned buildings. And by the dozen they were burning.
Girardi by "Drawn from more than 60 interviews and hours of face time, this authorized biography offers an unprecedented inside-the-dugout look at the manager who guided the New York Yankees to their 27th world championship. Beginning with his childhood in the baseball mecca of Chicago, this book traces Joe Girardi's rise from a catcher at Northwestern University to his time in the minors, his 15 years in the majors, and his successful career as a manager. As much a character portrait of the man as a chronicle of his achievements, this study reveals the amalgam of influences--the relentless work ethic learned from his father combined with the systematic mind of an engineer, the baseball know-how instilled by the likes of Don Zimmer and Joe Torre, and the heart of his tenacious mother--that combined to propel Girardi to his current stature"--Provided by publisher.
The World Atlas of Beer, Revised and Expanded by "Join renowned experts Tim Webb and Stephen Beaumont on the ultimate beer journey, covering more than 35 countries from Austria to New Zealand. This richly illustrated, comprehensive guide kicks off in Europe, travels through the Americas, and ends in Asia. Along the way, you'll learn about everything from the wheat beers of Bavaria, Belgium's Trappist ales, and Finnish sahti to British bitters, barrel-aged Californian beers, Vietnamese bìa hoi, and more, with full tasting notes for over 500 must-try brews. Webb and Beaumont also offer a fascinating history of beer and an in-depth look at the science and art of beermaking. This newly revised and expanded edition of The World Atlas of Beer features ten additional countries--including Poland, Switzerland, Spain, Ireland, Iceland, and China--as well as up-to-the-moment beer industry information and trends. With this ultimate companion in hand, you can explore the best beers in the whole world,"--Amazon.com.
Classic German Baking by "German baking is legendary and informs baking traditions the world over: Christmas cookies, coffee cakes, delicate tortes, soft seeded rolls, and hearty dumplings all have their origins in Germany (and Austria). In Classic German Baking, blogger and author Luisa Weiss--who was born in Berlin to an Italian mother and American father, and married into a family of bakers with roots in Saxony--has collected and mastered the recipes most essential to every good baker's repertoire. In addition to the pillars of the German baking tradition, like Christmas stollen, lebkuchen, and apple strudel, Weiss includes overlooked gems, like eisenbahner--an almond macaroon paste piped onto jam-topped shortbread--and rosinenbrötchen--the raisin-studded whole wheat buns that please a child's palate and a parent's conscience--to create the resource that bakers across the world have long wanted, "--Baker & Taylor.
Blindspot by "Accessible and authoritative . . . While we may not have much power to eradicate our own prejudices, we can counteract them. The first step is to turn a hidden bias into a visible one. . . . What if we're not the magnanimous people we think we are?"--The Washington Post
Unruly Places by "The real-life answers to Italo Calvino's Invisible Cities, Unruly Places explores the most extraordinary, off-grid, offbeat places on the planet. Alastair Bonnett's tour of the planet's most unlikely micro-nations, moving villages, secret cities, and no man's lands shows us the modern world from surprising new vantage points, bound to inspire urban explorers, off-the-beaten-trail wanderers, and armchair travelers. He connects what we see on maps to what's happening in the world by looking at the places that are hardest to pin down: inaccessible zones, improvised settlements, multiple cities sharing the same space. Consider Sealand, an abandoned gun platform off the English coast that a British citizen claimed as his own sovereign nation, issuing passports and making his wife a princess. Or Baarle, a patchwork city of Dutch and Flemish enclaves where crossing the street can involve traversing national borders. Or Sandy Island, which appeared on maps well into 2012 despite the fact it never existed. Illustrated with original maps and drawings, Unruly Places gives readers a new way of understanding the places we occupy. "--
Drawing Autism by Using artwork created by individuals diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), Drawing Autism celebrates their artistry and self-expression while also serving as an accessible point of entry into understanding how ASD manifests in individuals. Behavior analyst and educator Mullin has assembled a staggering array of work from established artists like Gregory Blackstock and Jessica Park, to the unknown but no less talented. Through their art, the contributors exhibit unique perspectives on how they see the world and their places in it. Their creations, coupled with artist interviews, comprise a fascinating and compelling book that serves to educate and inspire anyone who knows someone diagnosed with ASD.
The Hate U Give by After witnessing her friend's death at the hands of a police officer, Starr Carter's life is complicated when the police and a local drug lord try to intimidate her in an effort to learn what happened the night Kahlil died.
NurtureShock by Award-winning science journalists Po Bronson and Ashley Merryman demonstrate that many of modern society's strategies for nurturing children are in fact backfiring--because key twists in the science of child development have been overlooked. The authors discuss the inverse power of praise, why insufficient sleep adversely affects kids' capacity to learn, why white parents don't talk about race, why kids lie, why evaluation methods for "giftedness" and accompanying programs don't work, and why siblings really fight.
Stitches by The author recounts in graphic novel format his troubled childhood with a radiologist father who subjected him to repeated x-rays and a withholding and tormented mother, an environment he fled at the age of sixteen in the hopes of becoming an artist.
There There by Here is a story of several people, each of whom has private reasons for travelling to the Big Oakland Powwow. Jacquie Red Feather is newly sober and trying to make it back to the family she left behind in shame. Dene Oxendene is pulling his life together after his uncle's death and has come to work at the powwow to honour his uncle's memory. Opal Viola Victoria Bear Shield has come to watch her nephew Orvil Red Feather, who has taught himself traditional Indian dance through YouTube videos and has come to the powwow to dance in public for the very first time. There will be glorious communion, and a spectacle of sacred tradition and pageantry. And there will be sacrifice, and heroism, and unspeakable loss.
My Lovely Wife by Our love story is simple. I met a gorgeous woman. We fell in love. We had kids. We moved to the suburbs. We told each other our biggest dreams, and our darkest secrets. And then we got bored. We look like a normal couple. We're your neighbors, the parents of your kid's friend, the acquaintances you keep meaning to get dinner with. We all have our secrets to keeping a marriage alive. Ours just happens to be getting away with murder. 
The Norton Anthology of World Religions by This anthology, edited by world-renowned scholars under the direction of Pulitzer Prize winner Jack Miles, offers a portable library of more than 1,000 primary texts from the world's major religions: Hinduism, Buddhism, and Daoism (Volume 1); Judaism, Christianity, and Islam (Volume 2). The anthology brings together foundational works--the Bhagavad Gita, the Daodejing, the Bible, the Quʹran--with the writings of scholars, seekers, believers, and skeptics whose voices over centuries have kept these religions vital.
How to Hide an Empire by "We are familiar with maps that outline all fifty states. And we are also familiar with the idea that the United States is an "empire," exercising power around the world. But what about the actual territories--the islands, atolls, and archipelagos--this country has governed and inhabited? In How to Hide an Empire, Daniel Immerwahr tells the fascinating story of the United States outside the United States. In crackling, fast-paced prose, he reveals forgotten episodes that cast American history in a new light. We travel to the Guano Islands, where prospectors collected one of the nineteenth century's most valuable commodities, and the Philippines, site of the most destructive event on U.S. soil. In Puerto Rico, Immerwahr shows how U.S. doctors conducted grisly experiments they would never have conducted on the mainland and charts the emergence of independence fighters who would shoot up the U.S. Congress. In the years after World War II, Immerwahr notes, the United States moved away from colonialism. Instead, it put innovations in electronics, transportation, and culture to use, devising a new sort of influence that did not require the control of colonies. Rich with absorbing vignettes, full of surprises, and driven by an original conception of what empire and globalization mean today, How to Hide an Empire is a major and compulsively readable work of history."--Provided by publisher.
Black Leopard, Red Wolf by "In the first novel in Marlon James's Dark Star trilogy, myth, fantasy, and history come together to explore what happens when a mercenary is hired to find a missing child"-- 
Middlesex by "I was born twice: first, as a baby girl, on a remarkably smogless Detroit day of January 1960; and then again, as a teenage boy, in an emergency room near Petoskey, Michigan, in August of l974. . . My birth certificate lists my name as Calliope Helen Stephanides. My most recent driver's license...records my first name simply as Cal."
To Kill a Mockingbird by "Shoot all the bluejays you want, if you can hit 'em, but remember it's a sin to kill a mockingbird."
Water for Elephants by A novel of star-crossed lovers, set in the circus world circa 1932. When Jacob Jankowski, recently orphaned and suddenly adrift, jumps onto a passing train, he enters a world of freaks, grifters, and misfits, a second-rate circus struggling to survive during the Great Depression, making one-night stands in town after endless town. A veterinary student who almost earned his degree, Jacob is put in charge of caring for the circus menagerie. It is there that he meets Marlena, the beautiful young star of the equestrian act, who is married to August, the charismatic but twisted animal trainer. He also meets Rosie, an elephant who seems untrainable until he discovers a way to reach her.--From publisher description.
Aleppo Cookbook by It is hardly surprising that Aleppo, one of the world's oldest continuously inhabited cities, is also home to one of the world's most distinguished and vibrant cuisines. Surrounded by fertile lands and located at the end of the Silk Road, which passed through Central Asia and Mesopotamia, Aleppo was a food capital long before Paris, Rome, or New York. Its diverse communities of Arabs, Kurds, Armenians, Circassians, and others contributed to its culinary traditions and produced a vast selection of different types of dishes - and no less than 20 kinds of kibbeh recipes. Here, one of the Arab world's most renowned chefs unlocks the secrets to this distinctive cuisine in this comprehensive cookbook filled with practical guidance on Middle Eastern cooking techniques as well as step-by step explanations of over 200 irresistible recipes, such as Chili and Garlic Kebab, Syrian Fishcakes, Lamb Stuffed Eggplants, Semolina and Butter pudding, and the queen of the mezze table, Red Pepper and Walnut Spread. Divided into 15 chapters (Basic Recipes; Appetizers and Mezze; Soups; Salads and Accompaniments; Grains; Fish; Poultry; Meat; Kibbeh; Stuffed Dishes; Vegetables; Stews; Bread; Desserts and Sweets; Pickles and Preserves; and Beverages), traditional cooking and preservation methods go hand-in-hand with modern combinations of flavors and today's desire for healthful and natural meals. Wonderful full-color photography of the food, people, and markets of Aleppo make this a stunning cookbook, a great gift for food lovers, and a fitting tribute to a beautiful city and the suffering its people have endured.
Kiss Number 8 by "Mads is pretty happy with her life. She goes to church with her family, and minor league baseball games with her dad. She goofs off with her best friend Cat, and has thus far managed to avoid getting kissed by Adam, the boy next door. It's everything she hoped high school would be... until all of a sudden, it's not. Her dad is hiding something big--so big it could tear her family apart. And that's just the beginning of her problems: Mads is starting to figure out that she doesn't want to kiss Adam... because the only person she wants to kiss is Cat. Just like that, Mad's tidy little life has gotten epically messy--and epically heartbreaking. And when your heart is broken, it takes more than an awkward, uncomfortable, tooth-clashing, friendship-ending kiss to put things right again. It takes a whole bunch of them."--Page [2] of cover.
Homebody by "In Homebody: A Guide to Creating Spaces You Never Want to Leave, Joanna Gaines walks you through how to create a home that reflects the personalities and stories of the people who live there. Using examples from her own farmhouse as well as a range of other homes, this comprehensive guide will help you assess your priorities and instincts, as well as your likes and dislikes, with practical steps for navigating and embracing your authentic design style. Room by room, Homebody gives you an in-depth look at how these styles are implemented as well as how to blend the looks you're drawn to in order to create spaces that feel distinctly yours. A removable design template at the back of the book offers a step-by-step guide to planning and sketching out your own design plans. The insight shared in Homebody will instill in you the confidence to thoughtfully create spaces you never want to leave" -- Provided by Publisher.