Tom

The end of the world is just the beginning : mapping the collapse of globalization

by Peter Zeihan

338.91 /Zeihan
Political, History, Technology

"As isolationism and realism become the dominant values of a previously interconnected world, the logic that motivated international relations and global trade must be reevaluated. Zeihan uses a mixture of geographical knowledge, political history, and sharp analysis to predict the shape of the next twenty years on the world stage"--

I couldn't put this book down, and the subtitle is the reason why. There is so much information here about how geography, agriculture, transport, finance, and demographics will shape the fate of nations for the worse in the very near future. China, in the author's view, is near collapse at any moment. Famine is inevitable. I guess I'll believe it when I see it. -Tom

Life on delay : making peace with a stutter

by John (Atlantic senior editor) Hendrickson

616.8554 /Hendrickson
Biographies

"An intimate and revealing memoir of a lifelong struggle to speak"--

This book is for anyone who stutters or who wants to know better the mind of a stutterer. -Tom

Essex dogs

by Dan Jones

FICTION Jones Dan
Historical Fiction

"The New York Times bestselling historian makes his historical fiction debut with an explosive novel set during the Hundred Years' War. July 1346. Ten men land on the beaches of Normandy. They call themselves the Essex Dogs: an unruly platoon of archers and men-at-arms led by a battle-scarred captain whose best days are behind him. The fight for the throne of the largest kingdom in Western Europe has begun. Heading ever deeper into enemy territory toward Crécy, this band of brothers knows they are off to fight a battle that will forge nations, and shape the very fabric of human lives. But first they must survive a bloody war in which rules are abandoned and chivalry itself is slaughtered. Rooted in historical accuracy and told through an unforgettable cast, Essex Dogs delivers the stark reality of medieval war on the ground - and shines a light on the fighters and ordinary people caught in the storm"--

In summer 1346, the Essex Dogs fight their way through Normandy with the English army. Is the suffering, both inflicted and endured, worth it for the spoils of war? The most interesting parts of this story ponder this question and others like it through Loveday's and Romford's eyes. -Tom

The least of us : true tales of America and hope in the time of fentanyl and meth

by Sam Quinones

362.293 /Quinones
History, Science

Quinones was among the first to see the dangers of synthetic drugs and a new generation of kingpins whose product could be made in Magic Bullet blenders. In fentanyl, traffickers landed a painkiller a hundred times more powerful than morphine. They laced it into cocaine, meth, and counterfeit pills to cause tens of thousands of deaths-- at the same time as Mexican traffickers made methamphetamine cheaper and more potent. He investigated these new threats, discovering how addiction is exacerbated by consumer-product corporations. Amid a landscape of despair, Quinones found hope in those embracing the forgotten and ignored, illuminating the striking truth that we are only as strong as our most vulnerable. -- adapted from jacket

This book is part history, part science, and part character study. It is heartbreaking and hopeful at the same time. -Tom

Fans : how watching sports makes us happier, healthier, and more understanding

by Larry Olmsted

796 /Olmsted
Sports, Health, Self Help

"Research into sports fandom makes the sometimes counterintuitive case for why being a fan is good for us individually and is a force for positive change in our society"--

This book is for the fan devastated by loss, the skeptic who sees no value in sports fandom, and the fan making the case to that skeptic. -Tom

The dog stars

by Peter Heller

FICTION Heller Peter
Fiction

A thoughtful man and his faithful dog survive in the post-apocalyptic mountain west. The language is beautiful and the characters are worth knowing. I was sad to finish this one. -Tom

1491 : new revelations of the Americas before Columbus

by Charles C Mann

970.011 /Mann
History

Added by Tom

Consider the lobster, and other essays

by David Foster Wallace

814.54 /Wallace

Added by Tom

We live in water : stories

by Jess Walter

FICTION Walter Jess

Added by Tom

The consolations of philosophy

by Alain De Botton

100 /De Botton

Added by Tom

The thousand autumns of Jacob De Zoet

by David (David Stephen) Mitchell

FICTION Mitchell, David

1799, Dejima in Nagasaki Harbor. Jacob de Zoet, a devout and resourceful young clerk, has a chance encounter with Orito Aibagawa, the disfigured daughter of a samurai doctor and midwife to the city's powerful magistrate. The borders between propriety, profit, and pleasure blur until Jacob finds his vision clouded, one rash promise made and then fatefully broken--the consequences of which will extend beyond Jacob's worst imaginings.

Added by Tom

Them : adventures with extremists

by Jon Ronson

322.42 /Ronson

Added by Tom

Where men win glory : the odyssey of Pat Tillman

by Jon Krakauer

BIOGRAPHY Tillman, Pat

Irrepressible individualist and iconoclast Pat Tillman walked away from his $3.6 million NFL contract in May 2002 to enlist in the United States Army. Deeply troubled by 9/11, he felt a strong moral obligation to join the fight against al-Qaeda and the Taliban. Two years later, he died on a desolate hillside in Afghanistan. Though obvious to most on the scene that a ranger in Tillman's own platoon had fired the fatal shots, the Army aggressively maneuvered to keep this information from Tillman's family and the American public for five weeks following his death, while President Bush repeatedly invoked Tillman's name to promote his administration's foreign policy. Biographer Krakauer draws on his journals and letters, interviews with his wife and friends, conversations with the soldiers who served alongside him, and extensive research in Afghanistan to render this driven, complex, and uncommonly compelling figure as well as the definitive account of the events and actions that led to his death.--From publisher description.

Added by Tom

Into thin air : a personal account of the Mount Everest disaster

by Jon Krakauer

796.522 /Krakauer

Added by Tom

Life of Pi : a novel

by Yann Martel

FICTION Martel, Yann

Added by Tom

You just don't understand : women and men in conversation

by Deborah Tannen

302.3 /Tannen

"Spending nearly four years on the New York Times bestseller list, including eight months at number one, You Just Don't Understand is a true cultural and intellectual phenomenon. This is the book that brought gender differences in ways of speaking to the forefront of public awareness. With a rare combination of scientific insight and delightful, humorous writing, Tannen shows why women and men can walk away from the same conversation with completely different impressions of what was said. Studded with lively and entertaining examples of real conversations, this book gives you the tools to understand what went wrong -- and to find a common language in which to strengthen relationships at work and at home. A classic in the field of interpersonal relations, this book will change forever the way you approach conversations."--Back cover.

Added by Tom

Harris and me : a summer remembered

by Gary Paulsen

jFICTION Paulsen, Gary

Sent to live with relatives on their farm because of his unhappy home life, an eleven-year-old city boy meets his distant cousin Harris and is given an introduction to a whole new world.

Added by Tom

I wear the black hat : grappling with villians (real and imagined)

by Chuck Klosterman

306.0973 /Klosterman

The cultural critic questions how modern people understand the concept of villainy, describing how his youthful idealism gave way to an adult sympathy with notorious cultural figures to offer insight into the appeal of anti-heroes.

Added by Tom

But what if we're wrong? : thinking about the present as if it were the past

by Chuck Klosterman

303.49 /Klosterman

"But What If We're Wrong? visualizes the contemporary world as it will appear to those who'll perceive it as the distant past"--

Added by Tom

Words on the move : why English won't - and can't - sit still (like, literally)

by John H. McWhorter

417.7 /McWhorter

"A bestselling linguist takes us on a lively tour of how the English language is evolving before our eyes and why we should embrace this transformation and not fight it. Language is always changing -- but we tend not to like it. We understand that new words must be created for new things, but the way English is spoken today rubs many of us the wrong way. Whether its the use of literally to mean "figuratively" rather than "by the letter" or the way young people use LOL and like or business jargon like Whats the ask? it often seems as if the language is deteriorating before our eyes. But the truth is different and a lot less scary, as John McWhorter shows in this delightful and eye-opening exploration of how English has always been in motion and continues to evolve today. Drawing examples from everyday life and employing a generous helping of humor, he shows that these shifts are a natural process common to all languages, and that we should embrace and appreciate these changes, not condemn them. Words on the Move opens our eyes to the surprising backstories to the words and expressions we use every day. Did you know that silly once meant "blessed?" Or that ought was the original past tense of owe? Or that the suffix -ly in adverbs is actually a remnant of the word like? And have you ever wondered why some people from New Orleans sound as if they come from Brooklyn? McWhorter encourages us to marvel at the dynamism and resilience of the English language, and his book offers a lively journey through which we discover that words are ever on the move and our lives are all the richer for it"--

Added by Tom

Blood and thunder : an epic of the American West

by Hampton Sides

978.02 /Sides
History

Added by Tom

Hellhound on his trail : the stalking of Martin Luther King, Jr. and the international hunt for his assassin

by Hampton Sides

364.1524 /Sides
History

"April, 1967: a prison escape. James Earl Ray, nondescript thief and con man, drifts through the South, into Mexico, and then Los Angeles, where he is galvanized by George Wallace's racist presidential campaign. February, 1968: a Memphis garbage strike. Martin Luther King joins the sanitation workers' cause, but their march turns violent. King vows to return to Memphis in April. Historian Sides follows Ray and King as they crisscross the country, one stalking the other, until the drifter catches up with his prey. Against the backdrop of the resulting nationwide riots and the pathos of King's funeral, Sides gives us a cross-cut narrative of the assassin's flight and the 65-day search that led investigators to Canada, Portugal, and England-- a massive manhunt ironically led by Hoover's FBI. Drawing on previously unpublished material, this nonfiction thriller illuminates how history is so often a matter of the petty bringing down the great"--From publisher description.

Added by Tom

Lonesome Dove : a novel

by Larry McMurtry

FICTION McMurtry, Larry
Historical Fiction

Added by Tom

The big short : inside the doomsday machine

by Michael (Michael M.) Lewis

330.973 /Lewis
Business

The author examines the causes of the U.S. stock market crash of 2008 and its relation to overpriced real estate, bad mortgages, shareholder demand for excessive profits, and the growth of toxic derivatives.

Added by Tom