Nonfiction
All ages welcome : recruiting and retaining younger generations for library boards, friends groups, and foundations
Lina Bertinelli
021.82 /Bertinelli
Business, Political, Nonfiction
"With hands-on worksheets, brainstorming activities, checklists, and more, this planner provides practical tools for libraries to grow and strengthen their recruitment, retention, and training of trustees, Friends, and foundation members"--
Into the forest : the secret language of trees
Susan Tyler Hitchcock
582.16 /Hitchcock
Nonfiction, Nature, Science
"For millennia, trees have offered renewal and inspiration. They have provided for humanity on every level, from spiritual sanctuary to the raw material for our homes, books, and food. In this beautiful and revealing book, National Geographic combines legendary photography with cutting-edge science to illuminate exactly how trees influence the life of planet Earth--from our personal lives to the weather cycle. Beautifully illustrated essays tell the stories of the world's most remarkable trees, from Tane Mahura in New Zealand, the ancient Maori "lord of the forest," to Pando, a single aspen spreading over 100 acres: Earth's largest living thing. You'll also discover how an astronaut carried tree seeds to the moon and back; the reason "microdosing" on tree gas is a sure way to boost your immune system; and why playing in the dirt boosts serotonin, happiness hormone"--Amazon.
This is another book I discovered because I got to catalog it. Perks of the job! It's beautiful. Simply lovely pictures of different species of trees with a short history or factoid of each one. My. Jam. -Melody
Women artists A to Z
Melanie LaBarge
jE LaBarge
Nonfiction, Picture Books, Biographies
An empowering alphabet book celebrates famous and less-represented women artists in a variety of genres who have transformed the art world, from Frida Kahlo and Georgia O'Keeffe to Jaune Quick-to-See Smith and Xenobia Bailey. --
I was reshelving this book on the bookmobile and my eyes were instantly drawn to the bright colors of the cover and the stylistic illustrations of the female artists. I read through the whole alphabet and learned about several artists I didn't know about and enjoyed learning about art history in the context of women's role in society during each artist's time. It's also very cool how the illustrator recreated each artist's work on their page but kept the same unique style throughout. So beautiful! -Mari
Fairy houses : how to create whimsical homes for fairy folk
Sally J. Smith
635.967 /Smith
Nature, Nonfiction, Crafts, Gardening
Create the ultimate fairy houses, made with natural materials - just the way real fairies build their homes! Have you ever seen a real fairy house? Not the ceramic ones you purchase, but a real fairy house made from natural elements? Well, now you can build your own miniature magical abode - the perfect addition to your garden. Revealed in Fairy Houses for the first time are the step-by-step instructions for constructing exquisite fairy houses, explained by master fairy house architect Sally Smith. From her home on the edge of the Adirondacks, Smith has been creating one-of-a-kind fairy residencies for years. She uses natural artifacts such as butterfly wings for stained-glass windows, twigs for window frames, and birch bark for walls. Smith reveals her building secrets in Fairy Houses. Readers begin their fairy house project by flipping through an inspiration gallery, deciding what kind of house they wish to create and considering where in nature they'll put it. From there, readers learn about building materials (found and natural), on-site fairy house construction, how to light a fairy house, and how to incorporate stonework into the design. All of Smith's secret tips and techniques are then showcased in a series of step-by-step photos, making fairy house creation easy. The ones featured in Fairy Houses were designed especially for this book and are meant for longer-lasting installations. With this book, fairy houses move beyond "cute" and into beautiful nature-woven works of art. When you're through, you'll find yourself in an enchanted land where a Lord of the Rings-esque mood is magically evoked.
This beautiful book is just the whimsy I need on this rainy day! It's a nice hardcover loaded with colorful photos and helpful instructions. I have ZERO crafty skillz, but that doesn't stop me from looking at this cute mini houses made from bark, sticks, and leaves that you can stumble upon in your backyard. -Melody
Plunder : a memoir of family property and Nazi treasure
Menachem Kaiser
940.5318 /Kaiser
Nonfiction, Literary Nonfiction, History, Religion, Political
When Kaiser takes up his Holocaust-survivor grandfather's former battle to reclaim the family's apartment building in Sosnowiec, Poland, he finds himself on a circuitous path to encounters with the long-time residents of the building, and with a Polish lawyer known as "The Killer." A surprise discovery-- that his grandfather's cousin not only survived the war, but wrote a secret memoir while a slave laborer in a vast, secret Nazi tunnel complex-- leads to Kaiser being adopted as a virtual celebrity by a band of Silesian treasure seekers who revere the memoir as the indispensable guidebook to Nazi plunder. Here Kaiser questions: What does it mean to seize your own legacy? Can reclaimed property repair rifts among the living? -- adapted from jacket
First, this book is beautifully written. Menachem Kaiser's grasp of language to tell a story, illustrate situations, and convey thoughts and emotions is so fluid and engaging. Second, this book is important in many ways, but also very interesting--a real nonfiction win-win. It's a slightly winding story, starting out with particular goals and desired outcomes, but as so often happens when researching and interacting history, the modern world and reality intervene, and make things a lot harder to get hold of and follow. Menachem goes where the story leads him, and the results are so strange, interesting, and profound that you couldn't have imagined some of it. This story is also full of love and learning and respect--for self, for others, for history, and for the stories that survive. -Candice
Sea state : a memoir
Tabitha Lasley
BIOGRAPHY Lasley, Tabitha
Literary Nonfiction, Nonfiction, Memoir, Adventure
"A stunning and brutally honest memoir that shines a light on what happens when female desire conflicts with a culture of masculinity in crisis In her midthirties and newly free from a terrible relationship, Tabitha Lasley quit her job at a London magazine, packed her bags, and poured her savings into a six-month lease on an apartment in Aberdeen, Scotland. She decided to make good on a long-deferred idea for a book about oil rigs and the men who work on them. Why oil rigs? She wanted to see what men were like with no women around. In Aberdeen, Tabitha became deeply entrenched in the world of roughnecks, a teeming subculture rich with brawls, hard labor, competition, and the deepest friendships imaginable. The longer she stayed, the more she found her presence had a destabilizing effect on the men--and her. Sea State is on the one hand a portrait of an overlooked industry: "offshore" is a way of life for generations of primarily working-class men and also a potent metaphor for those parts of life we keep at bay--class, masculinity, the transactions of desire, and the awful slipperiness of a ladder that could, if we tried hard enough, lead us to security. Sea State is on the other hand the story of a journalist whose professional distance from her subject becomes perilously thin. In Aberdeen, Tabitha gets high and dances with abandon, reliving her youth, when the music was good and the boys were bad. Twenty years on, there is Caden: a married rig worker who spends three weeks on and three weeks off. Alone and in an increasingly precarious state, Tabitha dives into their growing attraction. The relationship, reckless and explosive, will lay them both bare"--
This book is in my selection area, and I found my interest piqued each time I came across a review for it. It's one of those "under the radar" reads--worthy of "best of" rankings but not explosively viral like Educated or Atomic Habits. The author's narrative writing style allows a reader to (sea) breeze through the book. Read it if you're in the mood for a true story about living a life in search of something more. -Melody
Trauma stewardship : an everyday guide to caring for self while caring for others
Laura van Dernoot Lipsky
610 /Lipsky
Nonfiction, Health
Offers a look at the many ways the stress of dealing with trauma manifests itself: feelings of helplessness and hopelessness, diminished creativity, chronic exhaustion, cynicism, and more. This title presents a variety of simple practices that enable us to look carefully at our reactions and motivations and discover sources of energy and renewal.
We know mental health crises are a huge side effect of the COVID-19 pandemic. This book is for anyone experiencing secondary trauma while providing services or support to people living with their own trauma. I learned about this book from a webinar about library service, one that acknowledged public service work can have a negative impact on on the worker's mental health. Trauma Stewardship is an excellent guide for anyone working in public service, mental health, or even the school system. It's the serious side of "self-care" (you don't have to be in a bubble bath to get something out of it). Stuffing feelings down after experiencing a traumatic experience with the public you serve will leave you burnt out. This book provides the tools to create space to care for your own mental health. -Melody
Only in America! : the weird and wonderful 50 states
Heather Alexander
j973 Alexander
Nonfiction, Kids
"A state-by-state compendium of weird laws, quirks, one-offs, and unusual records only to be found in the wonderfully wacky US of A. Only in America! explores the strangest claims to fame and the most unusual place names every state has to offer. Visit the city of Dinosaur, drop by the Pizza Museum, find out where it is illegal to feed a pig without a permit, and check out the world's only "carhenge" (that's right, Stonehenge reconstructed using cars)."--
This books is chock full of interesting facts for each state as well as hundreds of beautiful illustrations with bold colors. The highlight for each state for me are the lists fantastic foods, its super interesting to read about dishes unique to each state and makes me want to try them all! I also enjoy the state slang and list of books that take place in each state. -Mari
Time to eat : delicious meals for busy lives
Nadiya Hussain
641.5 /Hussain
Nonfiction, Cookbooks
Feeding a family and juggling a full workload can be challenging. Hussain shares recipes that are both quick and easy-- and that the whole family will love. She also shares tips and tricks for creating second meals to keep in the freezer; includes ideas for repurposing leftovers; and shows how high-quality convenience foods can cut your prep time significantly. -- adapted from inside front cover
Nadiya is famous for her win on Great British Bake Off and subsequent Netflix cooking shows. I picked this new cookbook up after seeing an excerpt for her super simple "cheat" for chocolate puff pastry on Bon Appetit. This is full of basic recipe concepts that can be scaled up, amended in different directions, frozen as meal prep, or partially adapted to become prep for another recipe in the book. There is an efficiency I like about this concept though it is a bit heavy with meat options. -Jason
Smalltime : a story of my family and the mob
Russell Shorto
364.1092 /Shorto
Nonfiction, Literary Nonfiction, True Crime, Biographies
"Family secrets emerge as a best-selling author dives into the history of the mob in small-town America. Johnstown, Pennsylvania, a city "in its brawny postwar prime," is where "Little Joe" Regino and Russ Shorto build a local gambling empire on the earnings of factory workers for whom placing a bet--on a horse or pool game, pinball or "tip seal"--is their best shot at the American dream. Decades later, Russell Shorto grew up knowing that his grandfather was a small-town mobster, but never thought to write about him, in keeping with an unspoken family vow of silence. Then a distant cousin prodded him: You gotta write about it. Smalltime, the story of Shorto's search for his namesake, delves into the world of the small-town mob, an intricate web that spanned midcentury America, stitching together cities from Yonkers to Fresno. A riveting immigrant story, Smalltime is also deeply personal, as the author's ailing father, Tony, becomes his partner in piecing together their patriarch's troubled past. Moving, wryly funny, and richly detailed, Smalltime is an irresistible memoir by a masterful writer of historical narrative"--
Shorto takes a deep dive into his own family history, uncovering its origins in Sicily, why Pennsylvania attracted his own great-grandfather to sail across the Atlantic, and why the mob? He unearths family secret after family secret and paints a picture of an American experience. -Anne M
Boomers have experience but Millenials and Gen Z have vested interest and they should be allowed/encouraged to create the future they'll have to live in. This book is good advise for seeking out younger board members but I think it can also serve as a call to younger adults that they're valued and desired. -Mykle