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Christine's Favorite Nonfiction
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Click on any title or cover to find the item in the SWAN Online Catalog.
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The Source of Self-Regard : selected essays, speeches, and meditations
by
Toni Morrison
Nonfiction essays - An anthology of the Nobel Prize-winning writer's essays, speeches and commentary on society, culture and art includes her powerful prayer for the dead of 9/11, her searching meditation on Martin Luther King, Jr. and her poignant eulogy for James Baldwin.
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Sister Outsider : essays and speeches
by
Audre Lorde
Essays - Presenting the essential writings of black lesbian poet and feminist writer Audre Lorde, Sister Outsider celebrates an influential voice in twentieth-century literature.
In this charged collection of fifteen essays and speeches, Lorde takes on sexism, racism, ageism, homophobia, and class, and propounds social difference as a vehicle for action and change. Her prose is incisive, unflinching, and lyrical, reflecting struggle but ultimately offering messages of hope. This commemorative edition includes a new foreword by Lorde-scholar and poet Cheryl Clarke, who celebrates the ways in which Lorde's philosophies resonate more than twenty years after they were first published.
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How to Do Nothing : resisting the attention economy
by
Jenny Odell
A galvanizing critique of the forces vying for our attention--and our personal information--that redefines what we think of as productivity, reconnects us with the environment, and reveals all that we've been too distracted to see about ourselves and our world: Nothing is harder to do these days than nothing. But in a world where our value is determined by our 24/7 data productivity. doing nothing may be our most important form of resistance. So argues artist and critic Jenny Odell in this field guide to doing nothing (at least as capitalism defines it). Odell sees our attention as the most precious--and overdrawn--resource we have. Once we can start paying a new kind of attention, she writes, we can undertake bolder forms of political action, reimagine humankind's role in the environment, and arrive at more meaningful understandings of happiness and progress. Far from the simple anti-technology screed, or the back-to-nature meditation we read so often, How to do Nothing is an action plan for thinkingoutside of capitalist narratives of efficiency and techno-determinism. Provocative, timely, and utterly persuasive, this book is a four-course meal in the age of Soylent.
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All About Love : new visions
by
bell hooks
Nonfiction - Presenting radical new ways to think about love, the acclaimed cultural critic, feminist, and author examines the role of love in our personal and professional lives and how it can be used to end struggles between individuals, communities, and societies.
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The Library Book
by Susan Orlean
Nonfiction - The acclaimed best-selling author of Rin Tin Tin and The Orchid Thief reopens the unsolved mystery of the most catastrophic library fire in American history, and delivers a dazzling love letter to a beloved institution—our libraries.
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Dæmon Voices : on stories and storytelling
by Philip Pullman
Nonfiction - The internationally best-selling author of the His Dark Materials trilogy shares insights into the art of writing while exploring how education, religion and science, as well as his favorite classics, helped shaped his literary life.
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Tibetan Peach Pie : a true account of an imaginative life
by Tom Robbins
Inviting readers into his private world, an internationally best-selling author and American icon shares stories from his unconventional life, from his Appalachian childhood to his adventures around the world, that is as unlikely, magical and bizarre as those of his quixotic characters.
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What Happened
by Hillary Rodham Clinton
A new book of essays by the former secretary of state includes entries describing her experiences in the 2016 presidential campaign and incorporates hundreds of inspirational quotes that have shaped her life and work.
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Bicycle Diaries
by David Byrne
A musician and visual artist describes his preference for traveling by folding bicycle throughout New York City, a choice that has enabled his discovery of the mode's ensuing sense of freedom as well as his observations on the city's inner workings and rhythms.
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