“What’s the Story?”
is a KRSH Radio podcast

Hosted by Joy Lanzendorfer and
co-sponsored by the Sonoma County Library

Listen to "What’s the Story"

To Selena, With Love

by Chris Perez

The murdered Mexican singer's husband shares his recollections and memories of their relationship, both personal and professional, and clarifies certain misconceptions about her life and death.

(Print book, Spanish book, eBook)

Edge Case

by YZ Chin

When her husband suddenly disappears, a young woman must uncover where he went, and who she might be without him, in this striking debut of immigration, identity, and marriage.

(Print book, eBook)

Love, Dishonor, Marry, Die, Cherish, Perish

by David Rakoff

Enjoy novels in verse? Here's another one by the late NPR commentator and essayist David Rakoff. This story traverses the experiences of characters linked by acts of generosity and cruelty throughout major historical events of the 20th century.

(Print book, book on CD)

Heartland

by Ana Simo

Taking place in an alternate, pre-apocalyptic United States, this is the uproarious story of a thwarted writer’s elaborate revenge on the woman who stole her lover, blending elements of telenovela, pulp noir, and dystopian satire.

(Print book, eBook)

When We Make It

by Elisabet Velasquez

Sarai uses verse to navigate the strain of family traumas and the systemic pressures of toxic masculinity and housing insecurity in a rapidly gentrifying Brooklyn, questioning the society around her, her Boricua identity, and the life she lives.

(Print book)

Peluda

by Melissa Lozada-Oliva

A collection of poems that explores the relationship between femininity and body hair as well as the intersections of family, class, the immigrant experience, Latina identity, and much more.

(Print book)

Who Was Selena

by Kate Bizantz

Discover why Selena, the Queen of Tejano music, became one of the most celebrated Mexican-American entertainers of the 20th century.

(Print book, eBook, eAudiobook)

Modern HERstory
Stories of Women and Nonbinary People Rewriting History

by Blair Imani

From the women’s movement to Black Lives Matter, these trailblazers come from backgrounds and communities that are traditionally overlooked despite making huge contributions to the social change movements of the last century: not just women, but people of color, queer people, trans people, Muslims, and young people.

(Print book, eAudiobook)

The Real Valkyrie
The Hidden History of Viking Warrior Women

by Nancy Marie Brown

In 2017, DNA tests revealed to the collective shock of many scholars that a Viking warrior in a high-status grave in Birka, Sweden was actually a woman. The Real Valkyrie weaves together archaeology, history, and literature to imagine her life and times, showing that Viking women had more power and agency than historians have imagined.

(Print book)

Daughters of the Winter Queen
Four Remarkable Sisters, the Crown of Bohemia, and the Enduring Legacy of Mary, Queen of Scots

by Nancy Bazelon Goldstone

From the great courts, glittering palaces, and war-ravaged battlefields of the 17th Century comes the story of four spirited sisters and their glamorous mother, Elizabeth Stuart, granddaughter of the martyred Mary, Queen of Scots.

(Print book)

Women of the American Revolution

Where were women during the American Revolution? Helping to run it, of course. This video lecture discusses the important role that women played during this piece of history.

(DVD)

The Autumn Throne

by Elizabeth Chadwick

The stunning conclusion to the Eleanor of Aquitaine historical fiction trilogy. Imprisoned by her husband, separated from her children – if King Henry II thought these things would push his queen into submission, he was wrong. Freed by his death, she became dowager Queen of England. Her indomitable spirit would be tested as she attempted to keep the peace between her warring sons, fend off enemies, and negotiate a magnificent future for a chosen granddaughter.

(Print book, eBook)

The Last Tudor

by Philippa Gregory

Reimagines the lives of Lady Jane Grey and her two sisters, who respectively endure imprisonment, a secret marriage and marginalization under the suspicious eyes of Tudor queens Mary and Elizabeth.

(Print book, large type book, eBook, eAudiobook, book on CD)

My Contrary Mary

by Cynthia Hand, Brodi Ashton, and Jodi Meadows

Mary is the queen of Scotland and the jewel of the French court. Except when she’s a mouse. Yes, reader, Mary is a shapeshifter in a kingdom where Verities rule. It’s a secret that could cost her a head – or a tail. Luckily, Mary has a confidant in her betrothed, Francis. Thrust onto the throne, Mary and Francis face a viper’s nest of conspiracies, traps, and treason. And if Mary’s secret is revealed, heads are bound to roll.

(Print book, eBook, eAudiobook)

African Icons
Ten People Who Shaped History

by Tracey Baptiste

Black history began long ago with the many cultures and people of the African continent. Meet 10 real-life kings, queens, inventors, scholars, and visionaries who lived in Africa thousands of years ago and changed the world.

(Print book, eBook)

Matilde
la primera médica mexicana

por Carlos Pascual

La novela de Carlos Pascual, de fenomenal destreza literaria, rescata la figura e importancia de Matilde Montoya, quien luchó con su incuestionable ejemplo por que se escuchara la voz de miles de mujeres acalladas por razones tan vagas como la tradición o el decoro.

(Print book)

Another Brooklyn

by Jacqueline Woodson

August is 35 the year she returns to Brooklyn to bury her father, and a chance encounter with a friend in her old neighborhood prompts a flood of memories from her youth. Her memories explore what it was like to be an African-American girl (and teen) in the 1970s, what possibilities existed – and what challenges. This tale of friendship, love, and loss cuts back and forth through time.

(Print book, eBook, book on CD, eAudiobook)

Educated

by Tara Westover

Traces the author's experiences as a child born to religious survivalists in the mountains of Idaho, describing her participation in her family's paranoid stockpiling activities and her resolve to educate herself well enough to earn an acceptance into a prestigious university and the unfamiliar world beyond.

(Print book, large type book, eBook, book on CD, eAudiobook, Playaway)

The Girl Who Fell From the Sky

by Heidi Durrow

After a family tragedy orphans her, Rachel, the daughter of a Danish mother and a Black American soldier, moves into her grandmother’s mostly black community in the 1980s, where she must swallow her grief and confront her identity as a biracial woman in a world that wants to see her as either black or white.

(Print book, eBook, eAudiobook)

Welcome to the Goddamn Ice Cube

by Blair Braverman

A revelatory memoir of the author’s efforts to develop the strength and resilience to survive in the demanding landscapes of Norway and Alaska.

(Print book, eBook, eAudiobook)

Serving the Servant

by Danny Goldberg

Looking past the angst and depression, Goldberg explores Cobain’s brilliance in every aspect of rock and roll, his compassion, his ambition, and the legacy he wrought.

(Print book, eBook, eAudiobook)

A Song Below Water

by Bethany Morrow

In a society determined to keep her under lock and key, Tavia must hide her siren powers. Meanwhile, Effie is fighting her own family struggles, pitted against literal demons from her past. Everything changes in the aftermath of a siren murder trial that rocks the nation. Soon, nothing in Portland, Oregon, seems safe.

(Print book, eBook, eAudiobook)

Juliet Takes a Breath

by Gabby Rivera

Juliet Milagros Palante is leaving the Bronx and headed to Portland. She just came out to her family and isn’t sure if her mom will ever speak to her again. But Juliet has a plan, sort of, one that’s going to help her figure out this whole “Puerto Rican lesbian” thing.

(Print book, large type book, Spanish book, eBook)

Ways to Make Sunshine

by Renée Watson

The Hart family of Portland, Oregon, faces many setbacks after Ryan’s father loses his job, but no matter what, Ryan tries to bring sunshine to her loved ones.

(Print book, eBook)

1984

by George Orwell

Portrays life in a future time when a totalitarian government watches over all citizens and directs all activities.

(Print book (English and Spanish), large type book, book on CD, eBook, eAudiobook)

1Q84

by Haruki Murakami

An ode to Orwell’s 1984 told in alternating male and female voices relates the stories of Aomame, an assassin for a secret organization who discovers that she has been transported to an alternate reality, and Tengo, a mathematics lecturer and novice writer.

(Print book, eBook, eAudiobook)

The Last Man in Europe

by Dennis Glover

Simultaneously a captivating drama, a unique literary excavation and an unflinching portrait of a beloved British writer, this novel will change the way you understand the book 1984.

(Print book, eBook)

George Orwell and Totalitarian Dystopia

(Great Courses Streaming
Video via Kanopy)

Orwell’s 1984 has created a vocabulary of ideas we continue to use in political discourse today. Trace the ways Orwell uses language to shape his dystopic vision and the way it both reflects and distorts reality. (31 minutes)

(Streaming video)

Practical Rose Gardening

by Inger Palmstierna

Provides instruction on selecting, growing, and caring for roses, and offers guidance on mixing roses with companion plants in flowerbeds with advice on color choice and rose varieties.

(Print book, eBook)

Down and Out in Paris and London

by George Orwell

Orwell’s account of his salad days as a penniless British writer in the early 1930s contains a good deal of autobiography, no self-pity, and much humor.

(Print book, eBook, eAudiobook)

George Orwell
A Life

by Bernard Crick

Originally published in 1980, this was the first biography written with the cooperation of Orwell’s widow. It was immediately lauded for its wealth of detail and shrewd analysis of Orwell’s life, literature, and politics.

(Print book)

Feed

by M.T. Anderson

In this chilling novel, Anderson imagines a society dominated by the feed, a next-generation internet/television hybrid that is directly hardwired into the brain.

(Print book, large type book, eBook, eAudiobook)

A Californian's Guide to the Mammals Among Us

by Charles Hood

Full-color images and evocative descriptions make this identification guide to over 40 varieties of the Golden State's fascinating warm-blooded wildlife fun and intuitive.

(Print book, eBook)

All the Wild that Remains

by David Gessner

Archetypal wild man Edward Abbey and proper, dedicated Wallace Stegner left their footprints all over the western landscape. Now, nature writer David Gessner follows the ghosts of these two remarkable writer-environmentalists, braiding their stories and asking how they speak to the lives of all those who care about the West.

(Print book, eAudiobook)

The Best American Travel Writing 2021

by Padma Lakshmi

From the lively music of West Africa, to the rich culinary traditions of Muslims in Northwest China, to the thrill of a hunt in Alaska, this collection is a treasure trove of diverse places and cultures, providing the comfort, excitement, and joy of feeling elsewhere.

(Print book, eBook)

The Truth and Other Stories

by Stanislaw Lem

Twelve short stories by science fiction master Stanisław Lem. Many of the stories feature artificial intelligences or artificial life forms, long a Lem preoccupation; some feature quite insane theories of cosmology or evolution. All are thought provoking and scathingly funny.

(Print book, eBook)

Something Rotten
A Fresh Look at Roadkill

by Heather Montgomery

When Heather Montgomery sees a rattlesnake flattened on the side of the road, her first instinct is to pick it up and dissect it. She's always wanted to see how a snake's fangs retract when they close their mouths, and it's not exactly safe to poke around in a live reptile's mouth. Her fascination with roadkill sets her off on a journey from her own backyard and the roadways of the American South to scientists and kids in labs and homes across the globe.

(Print book, eBook)

Unicorn Food

by Kat Odell

Kat Odell celebrates healthy, vibrant unicorn food with a kaleidoscope of 75 recipes. This is health food as never seen before, filled with joy, and in all the colors of the rainbow.

(Print book, eBook)

Lunes sin carne

por Raquel Bernácer

Lunes sin Carne es una interesante iniciativa para aquellas personas que quieren empezar a comer más sano, aumentando el consumo de vegetales y reduciendo el de alimentos de origen animal.

(Print book, eBook)

Cocinar cero residuos

por Giovanna Torrico

Con algunas acciones sencillas y un poco de organización, serás más eficaz, cocinarás mejor y reducirás tus residuos alimentarios. Cocinar bien no consiste solo en seguir una receta. También es aprender a utilizar mejor los alimentos, tanto si se trata de una carcasa de pollo como de las sobras del asado o las hojas de remolacha, las cuales tiras sistemáticamente (o pides en la frutería que las corten).

(Print book)

How to be a Good Creature
A Memoir in Thirteen Animals

by Sy Montgomery

With plenty of heart, acclaimed naturalist Montgomery makes the convincing case that all animals—great and small—can teach us compassion.

(Print book, large type book, eBook, eAudiobook, book on CD)

H is for Hawk

by Helen Macdonald

In this elegant synthesis of memoir and literary sleuthing, an English academic finds that training a young goshawk helps her through her grief over the death of her father.

(Print book, large type book, eBook, eAudiobook, book on CD)

Once There Were Wolves

by Charlotte McConaghy

Inti Flynn arrives in Scotland to lead a team of biologists tasked with reintroducing 14 gray wolves into the remote Highlands. As the wolves surprise everyone by thriving, Inti begins to let her guard down. But when a farmer is mauled to death, Inti knows where the town will lay blame. Unable to accept her wolves could be responsible, Inti makes a reckless decision to protect them. But if the wolves didn’t make the kill, then is something more sinister at play?

(Print book, eBook, eAudiobook, Playaway, book on CD)

Pets and Their Famous Humans

by Ana Gallo

In this charmingly illustrated collection of pet-related stories children will find out about some of history's most important scientists, artists, writers, and musicians and their beloved animals.

(Print book)

When Dogs Heal
Powerful Stories of People Living with HIV and the Dogs That Saved Them

by Jesse Freidin

A beautiful, unique collection of full-color portraits and personal accounts of love, connection, and survival, showcasing HIV-positive people who are thriving and celebrating life, thanks to the compassion and unconditional love of their dogs.

(Print book, eBook)

No se permiten elefantes

por Lisa Mantchev

Hoy es día del club de las mascotas. Habrá gatos y perros y peces, pero no se permiten elefantes. El club de las mascotas no entiende que las mascotas pueden ser de todos los tamaños y las formas, al igual que los amigos. Ahora llegó el momento de que un niño y su elefantito les demuestre lo que significa ser un amigo de verdad.

(Print book, eBook, read-along book and media)

La espiral de los caracoles

por Itandehui Cruz

¿Qué puede hacer una niña para proteger la tranquilidad de la pequeña familia que forman solo ella, su papá y sus mascotas, los caracoles de su jardín? Cuando Carolina conoce a Rosa, una amiga de su papá, no le gusta nada. Pero el entusiasmo de su papá la convence de que es necesario alejar a Rosa, y consigue a un papá sustituto que resulta tener muy buenas intenciones, pero al que no le salen muy bien las cosas. En un jardín con caracoles Carolina aprenderá a convivir en familia. La ayuda de un amigo siempre facilitará asimilar los cambios.

(Print book)

The Last Stone

by ark Bowden

As a rookie reporter in Maryland, Bowden followed the 1975 disappearance of two preteen sisters. A massive police effort found nothing. The investigation was shelved, and mystery endured. Then, in 2013, a cold case squad detective found something he and a generation of detectives had missed.

(Print book, eBook)

Lies Like Wildfire

by Jennifer Lynn Alvarez (local author)

In Gap Mountain, California, everyone knows about fire season. And no one is more vigilant than 18-year-old Hannah Warner, the sheriff’s daughter and aspiring FBI agent. When Hannah and her best friends accidentally spark an enormous and deadly wildfire, their instinct is to lie to the police and the fire investigators. But as the blaze roars through their rural town and toward Yosemite National Park, Hannah’s friends begin to crack and she finds herself going to extreme lengths to protect their secret.

(Print book, eBook, eAudiobook)

Les Diaboliques

Suspense classic that influenced the 1960 movie, Psycho, by Alfred Hitchcock. Tells the story of a sadistic headmaster of a Parisian boarding school who is murdered by his wife and mistress, whom he has mistreated. The women dump his body in a swimming pool. When the pool is drained, the body has disappeared. Then come reports of sightings, terrifying his killers.

(DVD)

When the Stars Go Dark

by Paula McLain

Retreating to her childhood foster home in the wake of a tragedy, a veteran missing-persons detective becomes entwined in the search for a local teen whose disappearance eerily resembles an unsolved case from the detective’s past.

(Print book, large type book, eBook, eAudiobook, book on CD, Playaway)

Run Away

by Harlan Coben

After discovering his drug-addicted daughter Paige, who he has not seen in six months, panhandling in Central Park, Simon follows her into a dark and dangerous world he never knew existed that puts his family and his life on the line.

(Print book, large type book, eBook, book on CD, Playaway)

No Place for Monsters

by Kory Merritt

Cowslip Grove seems like the perfect place to raise a family until the children start disappearing. Nobody looks for the children because nobody can remember them. Nobody except Levi and Kat. Now they must figure out what terrible presence is taking the children and fight it to save the missing kids, before the whole town disappears.

(Print book, eBook, eAudiobook)

El Juego del Alma

por Javier Castillo

¿Quieres jugar? Nueva York, 2011. Una chica de quince años aparece crucificada en una iglesia en un suburbio a las afueras. Miren Triggs, periodista de investigación del Manhattan Press, recibe de manera inesperada un extraño sobre. En su interior, la polaroid de una chica amordazada y maniatada, con una sola anotación: 'Gina Pebbles, 2002.' Miren Triggs y Jim Schmoer, su antiguo profesor de periodismo, seguirán la pista de la chica de la imagen mientras investigan la crucifixión de Nueva York. Así se adentrarán en una institución religiosa con extraños rituales y se sumergirán en un oscuro secreto que, de descubrirse, puede cambiarlo todo.

(Print book, eBook, eAudiobook)

Gold Fame Citrus

by Claire Watkins

In the wake of a devastating Southern California drought, two idealistic holdouts fall in love and scavenge for their needs before taking charge of a mysterious child and embarking on a perilous journey in search of water.

(Print book, eBook)

Bannerless

by Carrie Vaughan

An investigator must discover the truth behind a mysterious death in a world where small communities struggle to maintain a ravaged civilization decades after environmental and economic collapse.

(Print book, eBook, eAudiobook)

Snowpiercer
Season 1

Seven years after the world has become a frozen wasteland, the remnants of humanity inhabit a perpetually-moving train that circles the globe, where class warfare, social injustice and the politics of survival play out.

(DVD)

A Life on Our Planet
My Witness Statement and a Vision for the Future

by David Attenborough

See the world. Then make it better. Attenborough tells us we have one final chance to create the perfect home for ourselves and restore the wonderful world we inherited. All we need is the will to do so.

(Print book, large type Book, eBook, book on CD)

The Uninhabitable Earth
Life after Warming

by David Wallace-Wells

Without a revolution in how billions of humans conduct their lives, parts of the Earth could become close to uninhabitable as soon as the end of this century. Like An Inconvenient Truth and Silent Spring before it, The Uninhabitable Earth is both a meditation on the devastation we have brought upon ourselves and an impassioned call to action.

(Print book, eBook, eAudiobook)

The Marrow Thieves

by Cherie Dimaline

In a future world ravaged by global warming, people have lost the ability to dream, and the dreamlessness has led to widespread madness. The only people still able to dream are North America's indigenous population, and it is their bone marrow that holds the cure for the rest of the world. But getting the marrow – and dreams – means death for the unwilling donors.

(Print book, eBook, eAudiobook)

Cleo Porter and the Body Electric

by Jake Burt

Like everyone else, 12-year-old Cleo and her parents are sealed in an apartment without windows or doors. Their food is dropped off by drones. They are safe from the disease that nearly wiped humans from the earth. When they receive a package clearly meant for someone else – a package containing a substance critical for a stranger's survival – Cleo knows the clock is ticking.

(Print book, eBook)

Quién teme a la muerte

por Nnedi Okorafor

En el África postapocalíptica, el mundo ha cambiado de muchas maneras. Pero en una región, el genocidio tribal sigue asolando la tierra. Una mujer que ha sobrevivido la aniquilación de su pueblo y su propia violación vaga por el desierto buscando la muerte. En vez de encontrarla, da luz a una niña color de arena. Al crecer, Onyesonwu entiende que está marcada por la violencia de su concepción. Pero además comienza a manifestar señales de poseer una magia única, y durante una visita al reino de los espíritus se entera de algo trepidante: un ser muy poderoso la quiere asesinar.

(Print book)

Galileo's Daughter
A Historical Memoir of
Science, Faith, and Love

by Dava Sobel

Sobel presents a stunning portrait of a person hitherto lost to history. Of Galileo’s three illegitimate children, the eldest best mirrored his own brilliance, industry, and sensibility, and by virtue of these qualities became his confidante.

(Print book, eBook, book on CD)

The Pope’s Daughter
The Extraordinary Life of
Felice della Rovere

by Caroline Murphy Felice

della Rovere was the illegitimate daughter of Pope Julius II. Murphy has used such primary sources as Felice’s diaries, account books, and other Orsini archival materials to bring into the foreground a woman who lived in the midst of the political and cultural intrigues of Renaissance Rome.

(Print book)

The Book of Longings

by Sue Monk Kidd

A 1st Century intellectual fights the limitations imposed on women before an encounter with an 18-year-old Jesus leads to their marriage, his dangerous public ministry and her flight to safety in Alexandria.

(Print book, large type Book, eBook, eAudiobook, book on CD)

Sacred Hearts

by Sarah Dunant

Condemned by 16th Century demands for lucrative dowries in order to marry, young Serafina is ripped from an illicit love affair and confined in an Italian convent. She passionately rebels and reminds the convent’s doctor of her own unhappy early years.

(Print book, large type Book, eAudiobook)

Colette

Willy convinces Colette to ghostwrite a semi-autobiographical novel about a witty and brazen country girl named Claudine, sparking a bestseller and a cultural sensation, inspiring additional Claudine novels. Colette’s fight over creative ownership and gender roles drives her to overcome societal constraints, revolutionizing literature, fashion and sexual expression.

(DVD)

History vs Women
The Defiant Lives That They
Don’t Want You to Know

by Anita Sarkeesian & Ebony Adams

Introduction to a range of dynamic women across many different races, countries, time periods, and classes. The authors know that it is easier to learn about white, Western people-- especially males-- than of people of color, queer and trans folks, and people with disabilities. They hope to reframe the history you thought you knew.

(Print book)

Queen of the Sea

by Dylan Meconis

When her sister seizes the throne, Queen Eleanor of Albion is banished to a tiny island off the coast of her kingdom, where the nuns of the convent spend their days peacefully praying, sewing, and gardening. But the island is also home to Margaret, a mysterious young orphan girl whose life is upturned when the cold, regal stranger arrives.

(Print book)

Las Palomillas de la Noche

por Helena María Viramontes

En llamar la atención a las complejas vidas y experiencias de las niñas y mujeres mexicoamericanas, esta edición bilingüe que contiene la primera traducción al español de la colección debut de Viramontes, The Moths and Other Stories, hará que este trabajo histórico esté disponible para un público más amplio.

(Print book, eBook)

Filthy Animals

by Brandon Taylor

Interconnected stories set among Midwestern artists and creative types center around a young man trysting with two dancers in an open relationship. Like Rooney’s fiction, this book explores the interpersonal relationships, emotional lives, and mental health of complex young characters.

(Print book, large type Book, eBook, eAudiobook)

Exciting Times

by Naoise Dolan

Millennial Irish expat Ava becomes entangled in a love triangle with a male banker and a female lawyer. Like Beautiful World, this novel features the musings of Irish millennials on politics and class alongside their efforts at navigating knotty romantic relationships.

(Print book, eBook, eAudiobook)

Queenie

by Candice Carty-Williams

Queenie, a 25-year-old British-Jamaican woman, struggles to have a sense of purpose after being dumped by her white boyfriend. She finds herself wondering, “What are you doing? Why are you doing it? Who do you want to be?” – all of the questions today’s woman must face in a world trying to answer them for her.

(Print book, large type, eBook, eAudiobook, book on CD)

Time Pieces
A Dublin Memoir

by John Banville

A memoir of the author’s life near Dublin, a city that inspired his imagination and literary life and served as a backdrop for the dissatisfactions of adult years shaped by Dublin’s cultural, political, architectural, and social history.

(Print book, eBook, eAudiobook)

Finding Ireland
A Poet’s Explorations of Irish Literature and Culture

by Richard Tillinghast

As an American poet and critic who visited and lived in Ireland periodically before becoming a resident in 2005, Tillinghast is uniquely suited to write about the culture, history, and literature of his adopted country.

(Print book)

I’ll Give You the Sun

by Jandy Nelson

At first, Jude and her twin brother Noah are inseparable. Years later, they’re barely speaking. Something has happened to change them in different yet equally devastating ways. The early years are Noah’s to tell; the later years are Jude’s. What the twins don’t realize is that they each have only half the story, and if they could just find their way back to one another, they’d have a chance to remake their world.

(Print book - English and Spanish, eBook, Book on CD)

Call Me By Your Name

The story of a sudden and powerful romance that blossoms between an adolescent boy and a summer guest at his parents’ cliffside mansion on the Italian Riviera.

(DVD)

Dorothea Lange
A Life Beyond Limits

by Linda Gordon

A riveting portrait of one of America's most renowned photographers.

(Print book)

An American Exodus
A Record of Human Erosion

by Dorothea Lange & Paul Taylor

First published in 1939, this book documents the rural poverty of the Depression-era exodus that brought more than 300,000 migrants to California in search of farm work, a westward mass migration driven by economic deprivation.

(Print book)

Dorothea Lange
The Photographer Who Found the Faces of the Depression

by Carole Boston Weatherford

Before she raised her lens to take her most iconic photo, Dorothea Lange took photos of the downtrodden. In this picture book biography, Weatherford captures the spirit of the influential photographer.

(Print book, eBook)

Women in Art

by Rachel Ignotofsky

Charmingly Illustrated profiles of 50 pioneering female artists, from the 11th Century to today.

(Print book)

The Japanese Lover

by Isabel Allende

A multigenerational epic that follows the impossible romance between a World War II escapee from the Nazis and a Japanese gardener’s son, whose story is discovered decades later by a care worker who would come to terms with her past.

(Print book, large type book, eBook, eAudiobook, book on CD)

The Valley of Amazement

by Amy Tan

Violet Minturn, a half-Chinese/half-American courtesan who deals in seduction and illusion in Shanghai, struggles to find her place in the world, while her mother, Lucia, tries to make sense of the choices she has made and the men who have shaped her.

(Print book, large print book, book on CD)

Dorothea Lange

Profiles American photographer Dorothea Lange, who came to the attention of the world with her photographs documenting the Great Depression, and achieved lasting fame in the postwar years.

(DVD)

Always Another Country
A Memoir of Exile and Home

by Sisonke Msimang

Born in exile to a guerrilla father and a working mother, Sisonke Msimang is constantly on the move. Her parents, talented and highly educated, travel from Zambia to Kenya and Canada and beyond with their young family. Always the outsider, and against a backdrop of racism and xenophobia, Sisonke develops a keenly perceptive view of the world.

(Print book, eBook, eAudiobook)

Beyond the Sand and Sea
One Family’s Quest for a Country to Call Home

by Ty McCormick

When Asad Hussein was growing up in the world’s largest refugee camp, nearly every aspect of life revolved around getting to America, a distant land where anything was possible.

(Print book, eAudiobook)

Adua

by Igiaba Scego

A searing novel about a young immigrant woman’s dream of freedom in Rome and the legacies of her African past.

(Print book, eBook)

When Stars Are Scattered

by Victoria Jamieson and Omar Mohamed

Omar and his younger brother Hassan live in a refugee camp. When an opportunity comes along for Omar to get an education, he must decide between going to school every day or caring for his nonverbal brother in this intimate and touching portrayal of family and daily life in a refugee camp.

(Print book, eBook, eAudiobook, MP3 Playaway)

Call Me American
The Extraordinary True Story of a Young Somali Immigrant

by Abdi Nor Iftin

Adapted for young adults, this gripping story follows one boy’s journey into young adulthood and offers an intimate account of modern immigration. Abdi Nor Iftin grew up amidst a blend of cultures in Somalia. But when the threat of civil war reached Abdi’s doorstep, his family was forced to flee to safety.

(Print book, eBook)

Toivon tuolla puolen
The Other Side of Hope

This wry, melancholic comedy from Aki Kaurismäki, a response to the ongoing global refugee crisis, follows two people searching for a place to call home. Khaled (Sherwan Haji), a displaced Syrian, lands in Helsinki as a stowaway. Meanwhile, middle-aged Finnish salesman Wikström (Sakari Kuosmanen) leaves his wife and his job and buys a conspicuously unprofitable restaurant. The Other Side of Hope is a bittersweet celebration of pockets of human kindness in an unwelcoming world.

(DVD)

El Viaje

por Francesca Sanna

¿Cómo será la experiencia de tener que dejar todo y viajar muchos kilómetros hacia un lugar extraño? Una madre y sus dos hijos emprendieron un viaje como ese, repleto de un gran temor hacia lo desconocido, pero, al mismo tiempo, de una profunda esperanza. Basado en su propia experiencia de interactuar con gente obligada a buscar un nuevo hogar y contado desde la perspectiva de una joven niña, Francesca Sanna ha creado un libro hermoso y sensible sobre una problemática significativa de nuestro tiempo.

(Print book)

How to Prepare
for Climate Change
A Practical Guide to
Surviving the Chaos

by David Pogue

Sensible advice for how the rest of us should start to ready ourselves for the years ahead, including what to grow, what to eat, how to build, how to insure, where to invest, how to prepare your children and pets, and even where to consider relocating when the time comes.

(Print book, eBook, eAudiobook)

How to Avoid a Climate Disaster
The Solutions We Have and the Breakthroughs We Need

by Bill Gates

Bill Gates shares what he’s learned in more than a decade of studying climate change and investing in innovations to address the problems, and sets out a vision for how the world can build the tools it needs to get to zero greenhouse gas emissions.

(Print book (Spanish and English), large type book, eBook, eAudiobook)

Cloud Atlas

by David Mitchell

Appleseed is an alternative history novel that focuses on climate apocalypse while Cloud Atlas is experimental literary fiction that addresses social issues, both past and future.

(Print book (Spanish and English), book on CD, eBook, eAudiobook)

Hummingbird Salamander

by Jeff VanderMeer

Thought-provoking and intricately plotted stories blend speculative fiction with thriller motifs to highlight environmental issues and animal extinctions.

(Print book, eBook, eAudiobook)

Atlantis
The Accidental Invasion

by Gregory Mone

Fourteen-year-old Kaya, of the undersea, high-tech world of Atlantis, and 12-year-old Lewis, of the climate-threatened world above water, embark on a dangerous adventure when he enters her realm.

(Print book, eBook, eAudiobook)

The Ones We’re Meant to Find

by Joan He

In a near future when life is harsh outside of Earth’s last unpolluted place, Cee tries to leave an abandoned island while her sister, STEM prodigy Kasey, seeks escape from the science and home she once trusted.

(Print book, eBook, eAudiobook)

En español para niños. ¿Cuańto calor es 1 grado más?
qué pasa con el cambio climático?

por Kristina Scharmacher-Schreiber

¿Se está volviendo el clima cada vez más cálido? ¿Se puede sentir una diferencia de un grado? Los niños quieren entender lo que significa el cambio climático. Con imágenes descriptivas y textos cortos se explican las conexiones: ¿Por qué hay diferentes zonas climáticas en la tierra? ¿Cómo afecta el efecto invernadero? ¿Cómo se sabe cómo era antes el clima? También muestra cómo nuestras acciones afectan al clima en la vida cotidiana. ¡Y cómo todos podemos proteger la tierra!

(Print book)

The Overstory

by Richard Powers

Interlocking fables about nine remarkable strangers who are summoned in different ways by trees for an ultimate, brutal stand to save the continent's few remaining acres of virgin forest.

(Print book, eBook, eAudiobook, book on CD)

Greenwood

by Michael Christie

A metaphorical tale tracing multiple generations of a once-wealthy family finds its members navigating secrets and crimes linked to the trees that have made and broken their fortunes.

(Print book, eBook, eAudiobook)

One Small Hop

by Madelyn Rosenberg

Ahab Goldstein is a seventh-grader in a not-so-distant future when the environment has turned toxic, and the corrupt Environmental Police Force is in control. When Ahab and his friends find a real live bullfrog, possibly the last one in America, they are faced with a choice: turn it over (NO!), leave it alone, or bike to Canada to find it a mate.

(Print book, eBook)

Jelly

by Clare Rees

After the sea levels rise and the world ends, Martha and other survivors are stuck on a giant killer jellyfish, drifting off shore. If boredom does not kill them, maybe their escape attempts will.

(Print book, eBook)

A Precautionary Tale
How One Small Town Banned Pesticides, Preserved Its Food Heritage, and Inspired a Movement

by Philip Ackerman-Leist

What do you do when your organic crops are tainted with someone else's pesticides? Your children are exposed to toxic drifts? People around the world have felt helpless in the face of such challenges. But in the Northern Italian enclave of Mals, an unlikely group of activists and a forward-thinking mayor came together to ban pesticides by a referendum vote, making it the first place on Earth to accomplish such a feat, and a model for others to follow.

(Print book)

Amity and Prosperity

by Eliza Griswold

The story of the energy boom's impact on a small town at the edge of Appalachia, and one woman's transformation from a struggling single parent to an unlikely activist.

(Print book, eAudiobook)

Cadáver exquisito

por Agustina María Bazterrica

A causa de un virus mortal que afecta a los animales y contagia a los seres humanos, el mundo se ha convertido en un lugar gris, escéptico e inhóspito, y la sociedad se divide entre aquellos que comen y aquellos que son comidos. El Premio Clarín 2017 fue otorgado a esta novela mayor, una sólida y escalofriante pesadilla futurista en la que el canibalismo es legitimado en gran parte del mundo a causa de un virus que afecta a los animales y resulta mortal para los seres humanos.

(Print book, eBook)

El Mal de la Taiga

por Cristina Rivera Garza

Una ex detective vuelve, después de mucho tiempo y bastantes fracasos, a aceptar un caso: encontrar y traer de vuelta a una mujer que abandonó a su marido para huir con otro hombre hacia el interior de la taiga. Este marido traicionado está convencido, por un breve telegrama que recibió, que en realidad su segunda ex esposa quiere que él la encuentre. La ahora escritora de novelas negras contrata a un traductor para que se internen en ese bosque donde cosas extrañas suceden, donde la realidad se distorsiona y donde la traducción misma comienza a traicionar el sentido del lenguaje y de los sentidos.

(Print book, eBook)

Fierce Little Thing

by Miranda Beverly-Whittemore

Five estranged friends receive threatening letters demanding their return to a former cult or the terrible thing they did as teenagers will be revealed.

(Print book, eBook, eAudiobook)

The Children of Red Peak

by Craig DiLouie

David Young, Deacon Price, and Beth Harris grew up in an overbearing religious community on the isolated mountain Red Peak, and they were a few of the only survivors of its horrific last days. Years later, the trauma of what they experienced never feels far behind. When a fellow survivor commits suicide, they reunite to confront their past and share their stories.

(Print book, eAudiobook)

Knowing What to Say
Finding the Words to Fit Any Situation

by Patti Kelley Criswell

Cultish: The Language of Fanaticism shows how people can use language for manipulation. Instead, this guide shows kids how to communicate positively in a variety of common situations such as when a friend talks about you behind your back and making an appropriate apology.

(Print book)

The Project

by Courtney Summers

Lo Denham wants to expose the Unity Project as a cult and reconnect with her indoctrinated sister, but as she immerses herself in the group with no signs of Bea, Lo begins to question everything she thought was true.

(Print book, eBook, eAudiobook)

The Sound of Gravel

by Ruth Wariner

The 39th of her father’s 42 children, Ruth Wariner grew up in polygamist family on a farm in rural Mexico. In The Sound of Gravel, she offers an unforgettable portrait of the violence that threatened her community, her family’s fierce sense of loyalty, and her own unshakeable belief in the possibility of a better life.

(Print book, eBook, book on CD)

The Other Lamb

For her entire life, the cult she was born into has been all that teenage Selah has known. When her insular world is rocked by a series of nightmarish visions and disturbing revelations, Selah begins to question everything about her existence.

(DVD)

Losing Reality
On Cults, Cultism, and the Mindset of Political and Religious Zealotry

by Robert Jay Lifton

A definitive account of the psychology of zealotry, from a National Book Award winner and a leading authority on the nature of cults, political absolutism, and mind control.

(Print book, eBook)

The Burn Zone

by Linnell Renee

After seven years of faithfully following her spiritual teacher, Renee Linnell finally realized she was in a cult and had been severely brainwashed. But how did that happen to someone like her? She had started five different companies and had an MBA from NYU. Part inspirational story, part cautionary tale, this is a memoir for spiritual seekers and an exploration of how we give up our power.

(Print book, eBook)

A Knock at Midnight
A Story of Hope, Justice,
and Freedom

by Brittany K. Barnett

An urgent call to free those buried alive by America's legal system, and an inspiring true story about unwavering belief in humanity. Barnett was a law student when she came across the case of Sharanda Jones, who was serving a life sentence without parole-for a first-time drug offense. Moved by Sharanda's plight, Brittany set to work to gain her freedom.

(Print book, eBook, eAudiobook)

A Fire Story

by Brian Fies

A firsthand account of the 2017 Tubbs Fire in Northern California by a local author. An honest, unflinching depiction of the author’s personal experiences, including losing his house and every possession he and his wife had that didn't fit into the back of their car. Originally posted online, he expanded the original web comic to include environmental insight and the fire stories of his neighbors and others in his community.

(Print book, eBook)

The Mars Room

by Rachel Kushner

A woman begins serving two life sentences in 2003 at Stanville Women's Correctional Facility deep in California's Central Valley, reflecting on the San Francisco of her youth and her relationship with her young son while navigating the harsh realities of a bare-essentials life of casual violence at the hands of the guards and her fellow inmates.

(Print book, eBook, eAudiobook,
book on CD)

Something New Under the Sun

by Alexandra Kleeman

In a climate-ravaged near-future California, a novelist discovers that a company behind a mysterious new brand of synthetic water is responsible for the recent droughts and wildfires and teams up with a starlet to investigate.

(Print book)

I Survived the California
Wildfires, 2018

by Lauren Tarshis

Traces the story of a boy who moves across the country to rural northern California, where his efforts to adjust are challenged by a fast-moving firestorm that places family homes and lives at risk.

(Print book, eBook, eAudiobook,
Playaway, book on CD)

Finding Freedom
Writings from Death Row

by Jarvis Jay Masters

Incarcerated in San Quentin at the age of 19 for armed robbery, Jarvis Masters was accused four years later of participating in a conspiracy that resulted in the death of a prison guard. Finding Freedom is a collection of prison stories, sometimes shocking, sometimes sad, often funny, always immediate.

(Print book, eBook)

Golden Gulag
Prisons, Surplus, Crisis and Opposition in Globalizing California

by Ruth Wilson Gilmore

Focuses on California’s dominant role in the explosion of incarceration in America, covering the period from 1980 to the present, with an eye to how capitalism fuels the system.

(eAudiobook)

The Need

by Helen Phillips

A woman grapples with the complex dualities of motherhood—joy and dread, tenderness and anxiety—after confronting a masked intruder in her home.

(Print book, eBook, eAudiobook, book on CD)

The Family Fang

by Kevin Wilson

When their parents who have dedicated themselves to making great art by sacrificing normality plan one last performance, siblings Annie and Buster, returning home after their individual worlds collapse, are faced with a difficult decision.

(Print book, eBook)

Dear Ijeawele
Or a Feminist Manifesto in Fifteen Suggestions

by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

Receiving a letter from a friend asking her how to raise her baby girl to be a feminist, Adichie responded with 15 suggestions for how to empower a daughter to become a strong, independent woman.

(Print book, eBook)

Mom Genes
Inside the New Science of Our Ancient Maternal Instinct

by Abigail Tucker

A fascinating and provocative exploration of the biology of motherhood. Part scientific odyssey, part memoir, Mom Genes weaves the latest research with Tucker’s personal experiences to create a delightful, surprising, and poignant portrait of motherhood.

(Print book, eBook, eAudiobook)

The Rust Maidens

by Gwendolyn Kiste

It’s the summer of 1980 in Cleveland, and Phoebe Shaw and her best friend Jacqueline have just graduated high school, only to confront an ugly, uncertain future. The girls they’ve grown up with are changing, their bones exposed like corroded metal beneath their flesh. Nobody can explain what’s happening or why—except perhaps the Rust Maidens themselves. Whispering in secret, they know more than they’re telling, and Phoebe realizes her former friends are quietly preparing for something that will tear their neighborhood apart.

(Print book, large print book, eBook, eAudiobook, book on CD)

Animorphs
The Invasion

by Chris Grine

Sometimes weird things happen to people. Ask Jake. He could tell you about the night he and his friends saw a strange light in the sky that seemed to be heading right for them. That was the night five normal kids learned that humanity is under a silent attack, and were given the power to fight back. Now Jake, Rachel, Cassie, Tobias, and Marco can transform into some of the most dangerous creatures on Earth. And they must use that power to outsmart an evil greater than anything the world has ever seen.

(Print book)

The Metamorphosis

by Franz Kafka

When Gregor Samsa awakens one morning, he discovers that he has changed into a giant insect.

(Print book, eBook, eAudiobook)

The Age of Miracles

by Karen Walker Thompson

The coming-of-age story of young Julia, whose world is thrown into upheaval when it is discovered that the Earth’s rotation has suddenly begun to slow, posing a catastrophic threat to all life. Both Leave the World Behind and The Age of Miracles show how catastrophic changes disrupt families and communities in compelling novels set in worlds full of uncertainty.

(Print book, large print book, eBook, eAudiobook, book on CD)

A Beginning at the End

by Mike Chen

Four survivors try to rebuild their personal lives six years after a global pandemic brings about a literal apocalypse.

(Print book, eBook, eAudiobook)

The Unthinkable

by Amanda Ripley

Ripley, a Time reporter who has covered Hurricane Katrina and other catastrophes and whose article “How To Get Out Alive” inspired this book, offers a discussion of disaster and survival, drawing on both survivors’ personal accounts and scientific studies that reveal how the human brain functions under duress.

(Print book)

A Paradise Built in Hell

by Rebecca Solnit

Explores the phenomenon through which people become resourceful and altruistic after a disaster and communities reflect a shared sense of purpose, analyzing events ranging from the 1906 San Francisco earthquake to 9/11.

(Print book)

What She Found in the Woods

by Josephine Angelini

While summering in her grandparents’ small Oregon town, where a serial murderer lurks, 18-year-old Magdalena faces recovery from a scandal at her Manhattan private school, schizophrenia, and falling in love with “Wildboy.” Told partly through journal entries.

(Print book, eBook)

The Longest Night of Charlie Noon

by Christopher Edge

As time plays tricks and night falls without warning, Johnny, Dizzy, and Charlie, who are lost in the woods, must elude the danger that lurks in shadows and work together to find a way out. Includes notes about the science behind the story.

(Print book, eBook)

Cosas Que Nunca Cambian

by Richard Zela

Hoy es el Día de los Muertos, una de las fiestas favoritas de Norita. Pero esta vez no: alguien mordió a su abuelo y la convirtió en una muerta viviente con apetitos muy curiosos. En medio de una ciudad en medio de un apocalipsis zombie, Norita y su abuelo aprovechan las circunstancias para emprender un viaje al cementerio con la ayuda de un carrito de tamales, esperando ver por última vez a sus seres queridos, quienes han vuelto de nuevo. ... ¿a la vida? Por el autor y ilustrador mexicano Richard Zela.

(Print book)

American War

by Omar El Akkad, narrated by Dion Graham

This is a gripping future dystopian tale of an American civil war, and the story of a young girl’s survival. Check out the audiobook version of this novel, read by The Wire actor and AudioFile Golden Voice narrator Dion Graham.

(Book on CD, eAudiobook)

My Sister the Serial Killer

by Oyinkan Braithwaite

Realizing that her beautiful, beloved younger sister has murdered yet another boyfriend, an embittered Nigerian woman works to direct suspicion away from the family, until a handsome doctor she fancies asks for her sister’s number.

(Print book, eBook, eAudiobook)

Night of the Mannequins

by Stephen Graham Jones

A contemporary horror story where a teen prank goes very wrong and all hell breaks loose: is there a supernatural cause, a psychopath on the loose, or both?

(Print book, eBook, eAudiobook)

Solstice

by Lorence Alison

Offered an all-expenses-paid trip to the exclusive Solstice Festival, Adri throws caution, her prestigious summer internship, and her parents’ goodwill to the wind. When the horde of affluent, entitled teen party-goers arrive at the island paradise, there’s barely any food, nowhere to stay, not nearly enough porta-potties – and the first dead body washes up on the beach.

(Print book, eBook)

Camp Murderface

by Josh Berk and Saundra Mitchell

The year: 1983. Camp Sweetwater is finally reopening, three decades after it mysteriously shut down. Campers Corryn Quinn and Tez Jones have each had more than enough of their regular lives – they’re so ready to take their summer at Sweetwater by storm. But before they can so much as toast one marshmallow, strange happenings start happening. Can they survive the summer?

(Print book)

The Murders that Made Us
How Vigilantes, Hoodlums, Mob Bosses, Serial Killers, and Cult Leaders Built the San Francisco Bay Area

by Bob Calhoun

The 170-year history of the San Francisco Bay Area told through its crimes and how they intertwine with the city’s art, music, and politics. From the city’s earliest days, where vigilantes hung perps from buildings and newspaper publishers shot it out on Market Street, to the kidnapping of Patty Hearst and the Zodiac Killer, crime has made the people of San Francisco who they are.

(Print book, eBook, eAudiobook)

I’ll Be Gone in the Dark
One Woman’s Obsessive Search for the Golden State killer

by Michelle McNamara

For more than 10 years, a mysterious and violent predator committed 50 sexual assaults in Northern California before moving south, where he perpetrated 10 sadistic murders. Then he disappeared, eluding capture by multiple police forces and some of the best detectives in the area. Three decades later, Michelle McNamara was determined to find the violent psychopath she called “the Golden State Killer.”

(Print book, large type book, eBook, eAudiobook, book on CD)

Stay Sexy & Don’t Get Murdered
The Definitive How-To Guide

by Karen Kilgariff and Georgia Hardstark

From the voices behind the number one hit podcast My Favorite Murder! Sharing never-before-heard stories ranging from their struggles with depression, eating disorders, and addiction, the authors recount their biggest mistakes and deepest fears, reflecting on the formative life events that shaped them into two of the most followed voices in the nation.

(Print book, eBook, eAudiobook, book on CD)

We Have Always Lived in the Castle

by Shirley Jackson

Deeply unsettling, this novel about a perverse, isolated, and possibly murderous family follows their dramatic struggle with the arrival of an unexpected visitor who interrupts their unusual way of life.

(Print book, eBook, eAudiobook)

The Letters of Shirley Jackson

As well as being a bestselling author, Shirley Jackson spent much of her adult life as a mother of four in Vermont, and the landscape here is often the everyday. But in recounting these events, she turns them into remarkable stories: entertaining, revealing, and wise. At the same time, many of these letters provide fresh insight into the genesis and progress of Jackson’s writing over nearly three decades.

(Print book, eBook, eAudiobook)

Shirley

Renowned horror writer Shirley Jackson is on the precipice of writing her masterpiece when the arrival of newlyweds upends her meticulous routine and heightens tensions in her already tempestuous relationship with her philandering husband.

(DVD)

We Have Always Lived in the Castle

This 2018 film is an adaptation of Shirley Jackson’s novel.

(DVD)

Shirley

by Susan Merrell

Moving into the home of famed writer Shirley Jackson and her college professor husband during the summer of 1964, a graduate student and his pregnant wife forge an uneasy friendship with their hosts that is complicated by Jackson's mercurial nature and her turbulent marriage.

(Print book, eAudiobook)

9 Magic Wishes

by Shirley Jackson, illustrated by Miles Hyman

A little girl is granted nine wishes by a mysterious magician, and her choices capture a childlike imagination. When she has gone through eight of her wishes, she is hard pressed to make a ninth wish, so instead she leaves it for some other lucky person to find. First published in 1963 with different pictures, this edition is illustrated in full-color by Jackson's grandson.

(Print book, eBook)

Shirley Jackson's The Lottery
The Authorized Graphic Adaptation

adapted by Miles Hyman

In a graphic-novel adaptation of the classic spine-tingler, the grandson of the story's original author depicts the eerie town and their shocking ritual in detailed four-color panels that breathe new life into the iconic tale.

(Print book)

Los Abismos

por Pilar Quintana

Con el telón de fondo del estrecho universo femenino formado por mujeres acomodadas a su vida, que no pueden romper con una educación de otro tiempo, Pilar Quintana ha construido una novela intimista, con una voz narradora deslumbrante en su ingenuidad que, desde la memoria del hogar, conduce al lector por las obsesiones que pueblan la niñez de la que la protagonista se está despidiendo. Disponible en libro impreso y libro electrónico.

(Print book, eBook)

No Passport Required

Follow chef Marcus Samuelsson as he immerses himself in diverse immigrant communities and cuisines in cities across the U.S.

(DVD)

The plant messiah
adventures in search of the
world's rarest species

by Carlos Magdalena

A scientist offers an impassioned memoir of saving extraordinary plants on the brink of extinction, describing his search for exotic plants in remote locations and his laboratory efforts to encourage vulnerable plants to thrive.

(Print book, eBook, eAudiobook)

Cocinología
la ciencia de cocinar

por Stuart Farrimond

Profundiza en la extraña ciencia de la cocina, en este libro. Encuentra los conceptos fundamentales de la cocina revelados junto con prácticos consejos y técnicas paso a paso, que harán de tu cocina un auténtico laboratorio.

(Print book, eBook, eAudiobook)

Pie school
lessons in fruit, flour and butter

by Kate Lebo

Kate Lebo shares her recipes for 50 perfect pies. Included are apple (of course), five ways with rhubarb, lemon chiffon, several blueberry pie variations, galettes, and more.

(Print book)

There's No Ham in Hamburgers
Facts and Folklore About
Our Favorite Foods

by Kim Zachman

Why is there no ham in hamburgers? How did we make ice cream before we could make ice? From the origins of pizza to the invention of chicken fingers, this book has all the ingredients for an entertaining read about the origins of some of America’s most popular foods.

(Print book)

A Woman’s Place
The Inventors, Rumrunners, Lawbreakers, Scientists
& Single Moms Who Changed
the World with Food

by Deepi Ahluwalia

Discover the hidden figures of food, the women who changed the way we eat. From Julia Child, to the inventor of the dishwasher, to the suffragette who published cookbooks to finance their fight for justice, these trailblazers used the power of food to break barriers and change the world. Includes 10 recipes.

(Print book)

The Recipe Box

by Viola Shipman

When her efforts to pursue a professional culinary life away from her family’s northern Michigan orchard end in disappointment, Sam spends a summer working for the family pie shop. She begins to learn about and understand the women in her life, her family’s history and her passion for food as she prepares beloved ancestral recipes.

(Print book, eAudiobook)

The School of Essential Ingredients

by Erica Bauermeister

Eight students gather in Lillian’s Restaurant every Monday night for cooking class. It soon becomes clear, however, that each one seeks a recipe for something beyond the kitchen as Chef Lillian, a woman whose connection with food is both soulful and exacting, helps them to create dishes whose flavor and techniques expand beyond the restaurant and into the secret corners of her students’ lives.

(Print book, eBook)

On Juneteenth

by Annette Gordon-Reed

The essential, sweeping story of Juneteenth’s integral importance to American history.

(Print book, eBook, eAudiobook)

Four Hundred Souls

edited by Ibram X. Kendi
and Keisha N. Blain

A “choral history” of African Americans covering 400 years of history in the voices of 80 writers, edited by the bestselling, National Book Award-winning historian Ibram X. Kendi and Keisha N. Blain.

(Print book, large type book, eBook, eAudiobook)

I Am Not Your Negro

Master documentary filmmaker Raoul Peck envisions the book James Baldwin never finished. The result is a radical journey into black history that connects the past of the Civil Rights movement to the present of #BlackLivesMatter.

(DVD, streaming on Hoopla and Kanopy)

Hale County this morning,
this evening

Composed of intimate and unencumbered moments of people in a community, this film allows the viewer an emotive impression of the historic South - trumpeting the beauty of life and consequences of the social construction of race, while simultaneously a testament to dreaming.

(DVD)

A Sitting in St. James

by Rita Williams-Garcia

1860, Louisiana. After serving as mistress of Le Petit Cottage for more than six decades, Madame Sylvie Guilbert has decided, in spite of her family’s objections, to sit for a portrait. While Madame plots her last hurrah, stories that span generations, of routine horrors, secrets buried, and the tangled bonds of descendants and enslaved, come to light to reveal a true portrait of the Guilberts.

(Print book, eBook, eAudiobook)

Buried Lives
The Enslaved People of George Washington’s Mount Vernon

by Carla Killough McClafferty

When he was 11 years old, George Washington inherited 10 human beings. The life of the first president has been well chronicled, but the lives of the people of color he owned – the people who sustained his plantation and were buried in unmarked graves there – have not.

(Print book)

El precio del racismo
la hostilidad racial y la fractura del “sueño americano,”

por Eduardo Porter

En El precio del racismo Porter, periodista veterano del New York Times, muestra cómo la animadversión racial ha paralizado gran parte de las instituciones clave de una sociedad sana, incluyendo los sindicatos, la educación pública y la red de seguridad social, y cómo las profundas consecuencias se hacen cada día más graves. Disponible en libro impreso y libro electrónico

(Print book, eBook)

Dorothea Lange
A Life Beyond Limits

by Linda Gordon

A riveting portrait of one of America's most renowned photographers.

(Print book)

An American Exodus
A Record of Human Erosion

by Dorothea Lange & Paul Taylor

First published in 1939, this book documents the rural poverty of the Depression-era exodus that brought more than 300,000 migrants to California in search of farm work, a westward mass migration driven by economic deprivation.

(Print book)

Dorothea Lange
The Photographer Who Found the Faces of the Depression

by Carole Boston Weatherford

Before she raised her lens to take her most iconic photo, Dorothea Lange took photos of the downtrodden. In this picture book biography, Weatherford captures the spirit of the influential photographer.

(Print book, eBook)

Women in Art

by Rachel Ignotofsky

Charmingly Illustrated profiles of 50 pioneering female artists, from the 11th Century to today.

(Print book)

The Japanese Lover

by Isabel Allende

A multigenerational epic that follows the impossible romance between a World War II escapee from the Nazis and a Japanese gardener’s son, whose story is discovered decades later by a care worker who would come to terms with her past.

(Print book, large type book, eBook, eAudiobook, book on CD)

The Valley of Amazement

by Amy Tan

Violet Minturn, a half-Chinese/half-American courtesan who deals in seduction and illusion in Shanghai, struggles to find her place in the world, while her mother, Lucia, tries to make sense of the choices she has made and the men who have shaped her.

(Print book, large print book, book on CD)

Dorothea Lange

Profiles American photographer Dorothea Lange, who came to the attention of the world with her photographs documenting the Great Depression, and achieved lasting fame in the postwar years.

(DVD)

The Paris Wife

by Paula McLain

Meeting through mutual friends in Chicago, Hadley is intrigued by brash “beautiful boy” Ernest Hemingway, and after a brief courtship and small wedding, they take off for Paris. Hadley makes a convincing transformation from an overprotected child to a brave young woman who puts up with impoverished living conditions and shattering loneliness to prop up her husband’s career.

(Print book, eBook, eAudiobook, book on CD)

Z
A Novel of Zelda Fitzgerald

by Therese Fowler

A tale inspired by the marriage of F. Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald follows their union in defiance of her father’s opposition and her scandalous transformation into a Jazz Age celebrity in the literary party scenes of New York, Paris, and the French Riviera.

(Print book, eAudiobook, book on CD)

Hourglass
Time, Memory, Marriage

by Dani Shapiro

A piercing, life-affirming memoir about marriage and memory, about the frailty and elasticity of our most essential bonds, and about the accretion, over time, of both sorrow and love. Hourglass is an inquiry into how marriage is transformed by time.

(Print book, eBook, eAudiobook)

Red Comet
The Short Life and Blazing Art of Sylvia Plath

by Heather L. Clark

An engrossing new biography of Sylvia Plath focuses on her remarkable literary and intellectual growth and achievement, restoring the vivid creative woman behind the longtime Plath myths perpetuated by a pathology-based approach to her life and art.

(Print book, eBook, eAudiobook)

Devils, Lusts and Strange Desires
The Life of Patricia Highsmith

by Richard Bradford

In this new biography, Bradford considers Highsmith’s bestsellers in the context of her troubled personal life; her alcoholism, licentious sex life, racism, anti-Semitism, misogyny and abundant self-loathing. Made famous by the great success of her psychological thrillers, The Talented Mr Ripley and Strangers on a Train, Highsmith is lauded as one of the most influential and celebrated modern writers.

(Print book, eBook, eAudiobook)

Headstrong Hallie!
The Story of Hallie Morse Daggett, the First Female “Fire Guard”

by Aimée Bissonette
illustrated by David Hohn

This picture book biography tells the story of Hallie Morse Daggett, the first woman fire guard hired by the US Forest Service, whose hard work and dedication led the way for other women to join the Forest Service.

(Print book, eBook)

What Every Girl Should Know
Margaret Sanger’s Journey: A Novel

by Jennifer Ann Mann

In this fictionalized biography, a teenage Maggie Higgins struggles to balance her responsibilities to her family, society’s expectations for women, and her desire to pursue her education and plan for the future.

(Print book)

A Most Remarkable Creature
The Hidden Life and Epic Journey of the World’s Smartest Birds of Prey

by Jonathan Meiburg

An enthralling account of a modern voyage of discovery as we meet a rare and mysterious bird of prey – the caracara – that puzzled Darwin, fascinates modern day falconers, and carries secrets of our planet’s deep past in its family history.

(Print book, eBook, eAudiobook)

The Shark Club

by Ann Kidd Taylor

Nearly two decades after surviving a shark attack in the Gulf of Mexico, a world-traveling marine biologist and respected “shark whisperer” harbors private insecurities that compel her to return to her Florida coast home to explore old and new relationships.

(Print book, eBook)

Eels
by Rachel Poliquin

I know what you’re thinking. You’re thinking eels are just long, slippery fishy-things that are boringly ordinary. Well, you’re right! And you’re wrong! Eels only seem ordinary because they are so unknowably extraordinary, they have bamboozled scientists for thousands of years.

(Print book, eBook)

Into the Deep
Science, Technology, and the Quest to Protect the Ocean

by Christy Peterson

What lies in the deep? And who is at the forefront of these exciting discoveries? The scientists and research included in this book shed light on the most pressing issues currently facing oceanographers and point us in the right direction to solving these challenges.

(Print book, eBook)

The Hungry Tide
by Amitav Ghosh

Off the eastern coast of India lies an extraordinary cluster of islands known as the Sundarbans. In this exotic land, marine biologist Piya, fisherman Fokir and translator Kanai meet. As they travel deep into the remote archipelago, they experience a territory at risk not only from natural disaster, but also from human foolishness and volatile politics.

(Print book, book on CD, eBook, eAudiobook)

World of Wonders
In Praise of Fireflies, Whale Sharks, and other Astonishments

by Aimee Nezhukumatathil

A collection of essays, with lush illustrations, about the natural world and the way its inhabitants can teach, support, and inspire us.

(Print book, eBook)

The Girl in the Torch
by Robert Sharenow

After her father is killed in a pogrom, 12-year-old Sarah and her mother immigrate to America, but when her mother dies before they get through Ellis Island, and the authorities want to send her back to the old country, Sarah hides in the torch of the Statue of Liberty.

(Print book, eBook)

Conoce a Dulce María Loynaz
por Sergio Andricaín

Como Wharton, Dulce María Loynaz provenio de una familia de clase alta y persiguió sus metas intelectuales a pesar de las barreras que enfrentaban las mujeres en ese epoca. Se convirtió en una de las poetas más amabas de Cuba y leída por todo el mundo.

(Print book)

Everyone Dies Famous in a Small Town
by Bonnie-Sue Hitchcock

Each story in Hitchcock’s collection connects the lives of young people from small towns in Alaska and across the American West.

(Print book, eAudiobook)

Look Both Ways
A Tale Told in Ten Blocks

by Jason Reynolds

A collection of 10 short stories that all take place in the same day about kids walking home from school.

(Print book, eBook, eAudiobook, Playaway)

Braving the Wilderness
by Brene Brown

Brown redefines what it means to truly belong in an age of increased polarization.

(Print book, book on CD, eBook, eAudiobook)

Tell me more
Stories About the 12 Hardest things I’m Learning to Say

by Kelly Corrigan

A funny, wise and insightful exploration of seven sentences adult life requires. Each chapter draws from the author’s sometimes ridiculous, sometimes profound struggles with parenting and marriage, career and friendship, illness, aging and mortality.

(Print book, eBook, eAudiobook)

La Piel Insomne
por Mauricio Montiel Figueiras

Estos cuentos despliegan la prosa que caracteriza la apuesta del escritor: una sinuosa realidad plagada de laberintos, presencias amenazantes o sensuales que amenazan con cambiar el mundo, tramas que nos llevan a descubrir la oscuridad que habita en cada cosa y ser que habita el universo. Cuentos cortos en español, de México.

(Print book, eBook)

Palomillas de la noche y otros relatos
por Helena María Viramontes

Los prejuicios y el estatus social y económico de los chicanos a menudo forman el telón de fondo de estas historias inquietantes, pero el tema central son los valores sociales y culturales que dan forma a la vida de las mujeres y contra los cuales luchan con diversos grados de éxito.

(Print book, eBook)

The land of big numbers
by Te-Ping Chen

Brought to life through this highly recommended audiobook, a story collection from an extraordinary new talent that vividly gives voice to the men and women of modern China and its diaspora.

(Book on CD, eAudiobook)

Late Migrations
A Natural History of Love and Loss

by Margaret Renkl

Growing up in Alabama, Renkl was a devoted reader, an explorer of riverbeds and red-dirt roads, and a fiercely loved daughter. Here, in brief essays, she traces a tender and honest portrait of her complicated parents and the bittersweet moments that accompany a child’s transition to caregiver.

(Print book, eBook)

Nature Noir
A Park Ranger’s Patrol in the Sierra

by Jordan Fisher Smith

An intensely original story – part Edward Abbey, part James Ellroy – of the author’s 14 years as a park ranger on 48 miles of Sierra Nevada river canyons.

(Print book, eBook)

Mountain Dog
by Margarita Engle

When his mother is sent to jail in Los Angeles, 11-year-old Tony goes to live with his forest ranger great-uncle in the Sierra Nevada Mountains, where Tony experiences unconditional love for the first time through his friendship with a rescue dog.

(Print book, eAudiobook)

The Distance Between Us
(Young Readers Edition)

by Reyna Grande

Award-winning author Reyna Grande shares her personal experience of crossing borders and cultures in this middle grade adaptation of her memoir, The Distance Between.

(Print book)

Deep Creek
finding hope in the high country

by Pam Houston

“How do we become who we are in the world? We ask the world to teach us,” Pam Houston writes. On her 120-acre homestead high in the Colorado Rockies, this beloved writer learns what it means to care for a piece of land and the creatures on it.

(Print book, large print Book, eBook)

Mamá
por Jorge Fernández Díaz

En los límites de la crónica periodística, el relato confesional y la biografía íntima, Mamá narra las aventuras, pequeñas alegrías y sinsabores de una mujer común de clase media que bien podría ser la madre o la abuela de cualquier lector, y que plantea el gran dilema actual y de todos los tiempos: irse o quedarse.

(Print book, eBook, eAudiobook)

¿De dónde eres?
por Yamile Saied Méndez

Cuando se le pregunta a una chica de dónde es, de dónde es realmente, ninguna de sus respuestas parece ser la correcta. Sin estar segura de cómo responder, se dirige a su abuelo amoroso en busca de ayuda. Él no le da la respuesta que ella espera. Le da una aún mejor.

(Print book, Book + audio readalong)

La casa de los ángeles rotos
por Luis Alberto Urrea

Esta es la historia de Angelote y Angelín, de lo que implica ser mexicano en Estados Unidos, haber vivido dos vidas y cruzado una frontera, y sobre cómo la muerte hace emerger las partes de tu vida que habías olvidado, haya sido o no por elección propia.

(Print book)

Self Portrait with Boy
by Rachel Lion

A compulsively readable and electrifying debut about an ambitious young female artist who accidentally photographs a boy falling to his death—an image that could jumpstart her career, but would also devastate her most intimate friendship.

(Print book, eAudiobook)

Leave the World Behind
by Rumaan Alam

Amanda and Clay head to a remote corner of Long Island for a vacation with their teenager children in the luxurious home they've rented for the week. The houseowners arrive in the middle of the night saying a blackout has swept the city. With no TV, internet or cell phone service, is the vacation home a safe place for their families? And are they safe from one other?

(Print book, large print Book, Book on CD, eBook, eAudiobook)

Open Water
by Caleb Nelson

A stunning first novel about two young Black artists in London falling in and out of love.

(Print book, eBook)

Private Lessons
by Cynthia Salaysay

Seventeen-year-old Claire Alalay likes herself best when she plays her father's old piano. Claire auditions for Paul Avon, a prominent piano teacher, who agrees to take Claire as a pupil. Soon Claire loses herself in Paul's world and his way of digging into a composition's emotional core. She practices constantly, foregoing a social life, but no matter how hard she works, it seems impossible to gain Paul's approval, let alone his affection.

(Print book, eBook)

Big Eyes

mass production of prints of big-eyed kids, and used his marketing savvy to sell them cheaply. Unfortunately, he claimed to be the artist. That role was played by Margaret, his shy wife.

(DVD)

Frida

The life of artist Frida Kahlo, from her humble upbringing and crippling injury to her worldwide fame and tempestuous marriage to Diego Rivera.

(DVD)

Someone Else's Shoes

by Ellen Wittlinger

Twelve-year-old Izzy is upset by her father's new marriage and a new baby on the way. She is expected to look out for her ten-year-old cousin, Oliver, who has moved in with her family; and now Ben, the rebellious sixteen-year-old son of Izzy's mother's boyfriend, is also living with them. But when Oliver's father disappears, the three children put aside their differences and set out on a road trip to find him.

(Print book)

The Pixels of Paul Cezanne
And Reflections on other Artists
by Wim Wenders

Observations and reflections on the fellow artists who have influenced, shaped, and inspired the author. How are they doing it? He finds the answer by writing about them, trying to understand their individual perspective, and, in the process revealing his own art of perception.

(Print book)

Fierce Poise
Helen Frankenthaler
and 1950s New York
by Alexander Nemerov

A dazzling biography of one of the twentieth century's most respected painters, Helen Frankenthaler, as she came of age as both an artist and a woman in the vibrant art world of 1950s New York.

(Print book)