Staff Picks - Nonfiction

Created on April 21, 2021, 4:59 pm

Last Updated June 9, 2023, 11:53 am

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If you have an devices with a reusable battery - a phone, tablet, ebike, eREADER - you owe it to the people who mined the minerals inside it to read this book. - Charlotte M
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This selection of short stories provides fantastical doses of the intelligent, inventive, and often mystifying writing of one of Latin Americas greatest authors. "The Library of Babel" stands out as a philosophical and metaphysical puzzle weaving themes of time and reality. - Miguel R
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How to experience life more fully by using all of her senses is the quest author Gretchen Rubin sets for herself. Tag along as she attends a perfume class and eats dinner blindfolded. Lots of little ideas that you can use to increase your own sensory awareness. - Martha T
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This is an incredible story of a daughter's love to her family. Lieu discusses various family dynamics and defining what "success" means as a child of refugees in search of the 'American Dream' while living in grief, trauma, and body image. - Katherine C
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A fascinating read about a little known part of history. Chester Nez share his experience growing up Navajo and creating an unbreakable code during WWII. The contributions of Nez and other code talkers were kept secret for over 20 years. - Karen G
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Ahn teaches a class on thinking at Yale University. It has quickly become one of the most popular classes. In Thinking 101, learn some of the many "thinking' bias we fall into and strategies for reasoning better. Learn how to live better by becoming aware of your own biases. - Karen G
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Deafblind poet John Lee Clark presents a unique and expressive point of view in this collection. Clark's work includes poems for the deaf translated from ASL, and poems for the deafblind community which include Protactile communication to convey the poem’s meaning. - Sarah D
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No Reading Allowed: The Worst Read-Aloud Book Ever is a fun picture book which teaches that the joy of homophones can result in two sentences sounding the same, but meaning very different things. Amusing illustrations accompany each sentence to bring the differences to life. - Sarah D.
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Victory, Stand! is the graphic memoir of Tommie Smith, the Olympic gold medal winning track star of the 1968 Mexico City Games who used his platform to protest against racism. Beautiful, powerful art tells the story of Smith’s courage in the fight for racial equality. - Sarah D.
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For Thien, childhood memories of fleeing Vietnam and the stresses of living in a refugee camp in Thailand are intermingled with the joys of food, friendships, and family. When his family resettles in America, Thien's subsequent struggles are balanced by moments of hope. - Emily L
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Award-winning actress Viola Davis describes her journey from poverty and abuse to stardom. In an honest and straightforward way, Davis shares her love for acting and how she persevered against industry biases to develop the self-love needed to catapult her to the top. - Phaedra B
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An accessible approach to breathing delivers advice on the most basic of human needs by linking together medical science, archaeology, faith practices, and history. Uniquely, it gives tips for anyone AND fun "don't try this at home" story-telling. - Kathryn O
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A fascinating take on a morally fraught question: how do we approach the art of people who do horrible things? Author Claire Dederer wrestles with whether audiences can (or should) separate their love of a given work from their horror at the deeds of its creator. - Laura B
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Rating things on a five star scale is a popular way to convey experience. John Green uses this scale to rate the geological age we currently inhabit. Beautifully written essays cover a range of topics from the song "Auld Lang Syne" to the QWERTY Keyboard to Diet Dr. Pepper. - Lisa N
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This is a sobering and exciting collection from native Hawaiians, writing about their land; a subtle reminder that the place where you took that amazing family vacation may also be the site of a corporate-backed coup, military testing, and devastating environmental racism. - Charlotte M
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We know the U.S. has territories like Puerto Rico and Guam, but how often do Americans think about sharing a nation with people beyond the continental states? Immerwahr shows us how deeply empire-building drives U.S. history, in obvious and less obvious ways. - Charlotte M
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A fascinating collection of essays about examining memory and injury through the lens of time. A great read for anyone who wants to learn more about Sarah Polley's career as an author, director and actor, or has struggled through excavating the foundations of their own life. - Alex Z
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Tasha Jun shares her story about being half Korean and half white and never fitting in places especially in the church. With a lyrical writing style, this book is perfect for fans of Crying in H-Mart who seek more stories from Asian American voices and struggles about faith. - Deborah K
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Published posthumously, Salt in My Soul chronicles the innermost thoughts of Mallory Smith - a brilliant mind, athlete, daughter, sister, and friend - as she fights to live a fulfilling life in spite of her cystic fibrosis and the complications it brings. - Emily L
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In this graphic memoir, Kate Beaton tells the poignant and, at times, harrowing tale of the two years she spent working in the Oil Sands of Alberta, Canada. It is an artful looks at humanity, nature, and what drives people to leave home in search of their fortune. - Maggie P
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