2024 is at a close, and Iowa City Public Library Staff reflected on some of the literary highlights of the year, voting for new favorites in a variety of genres. In this list, you'll find the staff picks for Nonfiction Books released in 2024. "A Walk in the Park" by Kevin Fedarko was the standout title among staff, earning the greatest number of votes for this genre.
A walk in the park : the true story of a spectacular misadventure in the Grand Canyon
Fedarko, Kevin, author.
917.9132 /Fedarko
Author Kevin Fedarko chronicles his year-long effort to find a 750-mile path along the length of the Grand Canyon, through a vertical wilderness suspended between the caprock along the rims of the abyss and the Colorado River, which flows along its bottom. Consisting of countless cliffs and steep drops, plus immense stretches with almost no access to water, and the fact that not a single trail links its eastern doorway to its western terminus, this jewel of national parks is so challenging that when Fedarko departed fewer people had completed the journey in one single hike than had walked on the moon. The intensity of the effort required him to break his trip into several legs, each of which held staggering dangers and unexpected discoveries. Accompanying Fedarko through this sublime yet perilous terrain is the award-winning photographer Peter McBride, who captures the stunning landscape in breathtaking photos. Together, they encounter long-lost Native American ruins, the remains of Old West prospectors' camps, present day tribal activists, and signs that commercial tourism is impinging on the park's remote wildness. An epic adventure, action-packed survival tale, and a deep spiritual journey, A Walk in the Park gives us an unprecedented glimpse of the crown jewel of America's National Parks.
Doppelganger : a trip into the mirror world
Klein, Naomi, 1970- author.
302.231 /Klein
What if you woke up one morning and found you'd acquired another self--a double who was almost you and yet not you at all? What if that double shared many of your preoccupations but, in a twisted, upside-down way, furthered the very causes you'd devoted your life to fighting against? Not long ago, the celebrated activist and public intellectual Naomi Klein had just such an experience--she was confronted with a doppelganger whose views she found abhorrent but whose name and public persona were sufficiently similar to her own that many people got confused about who was who. Destabilized, she lost her bearings, until she began to understand the experience as one manifestation of a strangeness many of us have come to know but struggle to define: AI-generated text is blurring the line between genuine and spurious communication; New Age wellness entrepreneurs turned anti-vaxxers are scrambling familiar political allegiances of left and right; and liberal democracies are teetering on the edge of absurdist authoritarianism, even as the oceans rise. Under such conditions, reality itself seems to have become unmoored. Is there a cure for our moment of collective vertigo?
The backyard bird chronicles
Tan, Amy, author.
598.07234 /Tan
In 2016, author Amy Tan grew overwhelmed by the state of the world: Hatred and misinformation became a daily presence on social media, and the country felt more divisive than ever. In search of peace, Tan turned toward the natural world just beyond her window and, specifically, the birds flocking to the feeders in her yard. But what began as an attempt to find solace turned into something far greater--an opportunity to savor quiet moments during a volatile time, connect to nature in a meaningful way, and imagine the intricate lives of the birds she admired. Tracking the natural beauty that surrounds us, The Backyard Bird Chronicles maps the passage of time--from before the pandemic to the days of quarantine--through daily entries, thoughtful questions, and beautiful original sketches. With boundless charm and wit, Amy Tan charts her foray into birding and the natural wonders of the world.
Co-intelligence : living and working with AI
Mollick, Ethan, 1975- author.
303.4834 /Mollick
Co-Intelligence challenges us to utilize AI's power without losing our identity, learn from it without being misled, and harness its gifts to create a better human future. Thought-provoking, optimistic, and lucid, Co-Intelligence reveals the promise and power of generative AI.
Divine might : goddesses in Greek myth
Haynes, Natalie, author.
292.13 /Haynes
Few writers today have reshaped our view of the ancient Greek myths more than revered bestselling author Natalie Haynes. Divine Might is a female-centered look at Olympus and the Furies, focusing on the goddesses whose prowess, passions, jealousies, and desires rival those of their male kin.
Eclipse : our sky's most dazzling phenomenon
Oseid, Kelsey, author.
523.99 /Oseid
Discover the ancient myths and fascinating science of the world's most striking celestial phenomena--eclipses--in this educational, beautifully illustrated guide by the acclaimed author of What We See in the Stars.
I'll just be five more minutes : (and other tales from my ADHD brain)
Farris, Emily, author.
616.8589 /Farris
Despite being a published writer with a family, a gaggle of internet fans, and (most shockingly) a mortgage, Emily Farris could never get her sh*t together. To her, being bad at staying organized was just one of her many character flaws--that is, until she was diagnosed with ADHD at the age of 35. Like many women and girls with undiagnosed ADHD, Emily spent her life internalizing criticisms about her lack of follow-through and carrying around a lot of shame as she tried to fit into a world designed for neurotypical brains. "I'll Just Be Five More Minutes" is a collection of honest, humorous, and sometimes heartbreaking personal essays about Emily's experiences as a woman with ADHD.
Stress resets : how to soothe your body and mind in minutes
Taitz, Jennifer L.
155.9042 /Taitz
Written by Dr. Jennifer L. Taitz, a clinical psychologist who specializes in teaching mindfulness-based behavioral skills to manage intense emotions and situations, Stress Resets provides 75 scientifically proven ways to improve how you respond to stress, both in the moment and the long run. There are accessible yet powerful exercises like dipping your face in ice water to quiet your body and mind; adopting a half smile to change your mood from the outside in; singing your irrational negative thoughts to reduce their believability; building a hope kit so you can remind yourself of what's possible in tough moments; and making a pie chart of your life to gain perspective. By incorporating these into your days, you can stop the cycle of obsessing, panicking, and avoiding and instead effectively approach what matters to you most.
The anxious generation : how the great rewiring of childhood is causing an epidemic of mental illness
Haidt, Jonathan, author.
305.23 /Haidt
From New York Times bestselling coauthor of The Coddling of the American Mind, an essential investigation into the collapse of youth mental health--and a plan for a healthier, freer childhood. After more than a decade of stability or improvement, the mental health of adolescents plunged in the early 2010s. Rates of depression, anxiety, self-harm, and suicide rose sharply, more than doubling on most measures. Why? In The Anxious Generation, social psychologist Jonathan Haidt lays out the facts about the epidemic of teen mental illness that hit many countries at the same time. He then investigates the nature of childhood, including why children need play and independent exploration to mature into competent, thriving adults. Haidt shows how the "play-based childhood" began to decline in the 1980s, and how it was finally wiped out by the arrival of the "phone-based childhood" in the early 2010s. He presents more than a dozen mechanisms by which this "great rewiring of childhood" has interfered with children's social and neurological development, covering everything from sleep deprivation to attention fragmentation, addiction, loneliness, social contagion, social comparison, and perfectionism.
The body alone : a lyrical articulation of chronic pain
Lohman, Nina, author.
616.0472 /Lohman
The Body Alone is a lyrical nonfiction inquiry into the experience, meaning, and articulation of pain. It is a hybrid account incorporating research, scholarship, and memoir to examine pain through the lenses of medicine, theology, and philosophy. Research reveals the uncomfortable truth that medicine continues to be a gendered institution where 70% of chronic pain patients are women but 80% of pain studies are conducted on men or male mice. This is one of the many disparities that leave women systemically underdiagnosed, misdiagnosed, and even gaslighted on account of inequitable access to research funding, clinical trials, and effective medications. Pain is more than personal; it is a political issue prime for reformation. In both form and content, The Body Alone represents boundary-pressing work that subverts the traditional narrative by putting pressure on the medical, cultural, and political systems that impact women's access to fair and equal healthcare.
The demon of unrest : a saga of hubris, heartbreak, and heroism at the dawn of the Civil War
Larson, Erik, 1954- author.
973.711 /Larson
On November 6, 1860, Abraham Lincoln became the fluky victor in a tight race for president. The country was bitterly at odds; Southern extremists were moving ever closer to destroying the Union, with one state after another seceding and Lincoln powerless to stop them. Slavery fueled the conflict, but somehow the passions of North and South came to focus on a lonely federal fortress in Charleston Harbor: Fort Sumter. ...[An] account of the chaotic months between Lincoln's election and the Confederacy's shelling of Sumter--a period marked by tragic errors and miscommunications, enflamed egos and craven ambitions, personal tragedies and betrayals. Lincoln himself wrote that the trials of these five months were 'so great that, could I have anticipated them, I would not have believed it possible to survive them.' Drawing on diaries, secret communiques, slave ledgers, and plantation records, Larson gives us a political horror story...
The message
Coates, Ta-Nehisi, author.
070.92 /Coates
Coates originally set off to write a book about writing, in the tradition of Orwell's classic Politics and the English Language, but found himself grappling with deeper questions about how our stories-our reporting and imaginative narratives and mythmaking-expose and distort our realities.
The story of a heart : two families united by loss, love, and lifesaving medicine
Clarke, Rachel, 1972- author.
617.412 /Clarke
One summer day, nine-year-old Keira Ball was in a terrible car accident and suffered catastrophic brain injuries. As the rest of her body began to shut down, her heart continued to beat. In an act of extraordinary generosity, Keira's parents and siblings immediately agreed that she would have wanted to be an organ donor. Meanwhile nine-year-old Max Johnson had been in a hospital for nearly a year, valiantly fighting the virus that was causing his young heart to fail. When Max's parents received the call they had been hoping for, they knew it came at a terrible cost to another family-in what Clarke calls "the brutal arithmetic of transplant surgery." The act of Keira's heart resuming its rhythm inside Max's body was a medical miracle. But this was only part of the story. While waiting on the transplant list, Max had become the hopeful face of a campaign to change the UK's laws around organ donation. Following his successful surgery, Keira's mother saw the little boy beaming on the front page of the newspaper and knew it was the same boy whose parents had recently sent her an anonymous letter overflowing with gratitude for her daughter's heart. The two mothers began to exchange messages and eventually decided to meet.
There is no Ethan : how three women caught America's biggest catfish
Akbari, Anna, author.
306.730285 /Akbari
There is no Ethan" catalogues Akbari's experiences as both victim and investigator of a catfishing scheme to emotionally con women. She joins with two other women to track down the perpetrator and explores what it means to live in a world where technology mediates relationships and truth, reality, and identity have become slippery terms.
There's always this year : on basketball and ascension
Abdurraqib, Hanif, 1983- author.
796.323 /Abdurraqib
While Hanif Abdurraqib is an acclaimed author, a gifted poet, and one of our culture's most insightful music critics, he is most of all, at heart, an Ohioan. Growing up in Columbus in the '90s, Abdurraqib witnessed a golden era of basketball, one in which legends like LeBron were forged, and countless others weren't. His lifelong love of the game leads Abdurraqib into a lyrical, historical, and emotionally rich exploration of what it means to make it, who we think deserves success, the tensions between excellence and expectation, and the very notion of role-models, all of which he expertly weaves together with memoir: "Here is where I would like to tell you about the form on my father's jumpshot," Abdurraqib writes. "The truth, though, is that I saw my father shoot a basketball only one time.
Trash : a poor white journey
Monroe, Cedar, author.
305.569 /Monroe
Every day across the U.S., 66 million poor white people pay the price for failing whiteness. In this sweeping debut, activist and chaplain Cedar Monroe introduces us to the poor and unhoused of a small town in Washington, who grapple with desperation, a collapsing economy, and their own racism. Trash asks us to see anew the peril in which poor white people live. Can those deemed "trash" join the resistance to the system that is killing us all?
When women ran Fifth Avenue : glamour and power at the dawn of American fashion
Satow, Julie, author.
746.92 /Satow
A glittering, glamorous portrait of the golden age of American department stores and of three visionary women who led them, from the award-winning author of The Plaza.
Woman, life, freedom
Satrapi, Marjane, 1969- creator, author, artist.
305.420955 /Satrapi
On September 13, 2022, a young Iranian student, Mahsa Amini, was arrested by the morality police in Tehran. Her only crime was that she wasn't properly wearing the headscarf required for women by the Islamic Republic. At the police station, she was beaten so badly she had to be taken to the hospital, where she fell into a deep coma. She died three days later. A wave of protests soon spread through the whole country, and crowds adopted the slogan "Woman, Life, Freedom"--words that have been chanted around the world during solidarity rallies. In order to tell the story of this major revolution happening in her homeland, Marjane Satrapi has gathered together an array of journalists, activists, academics, artists, and writers from around the world to create this powerful collection of full-color, graphic-novel-style essays and perspectives that bear witness. Woman, Life, Freedom demonstrates that this is not an unexpected movement, but a major uprising in a long history of women who have wanted to affirm their rights.
"A Walk in the Park" was the standout title among staff, earning the greatest number of votes for this genre.
- Becky