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Adult Summer Reading 2020
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Non-fiction titles are available in both print and digital editions. To place a hold, click on a cover and go to our online catalog. You can schedule Contact-Free Pickup once the item is ready for you. Please see our instructions for scheduling Contact-Free Pickup. |
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American Sherlock : murder, forensics, and the birth of American CSI
by Kate Winkler Dawson
Describes the life of America’s first forensic scientist, who invented tools that are still being used today—including blood-spatter analysis, ballistics, lie-detector tests and fingerprints—and solved at least 2,000 cases over 40 years. By the author of Death in the Air. Illustrations.
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The Beauty in Breaking : A Memoir
by Michele Harper
A female, African American ER physician describes how her own life and encounters with her patients led her to realize that every human is broken and recognizing that and moving towards a place of healing can bring peace and happiness.
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Big friendship : how we keep each other close
by
Aminatou Sow
The feminist hosts of the Call Your Girlfriend podcast argue that close friendship is the most influential and important relationship a human life can have, sharing strategies for creating fulfilling, long-term relationships with friends. 125,000 first printing.
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Biography of resistance : The Epic Battle Between People and Pathogens
by Muhammad H. Zaman
An award-winning Boston University educator and researcher provides a chilling look at the rise of antibiotic-resistant superbugs, explaining how we got here and what we must do to address this growing global health crisis. 25,000 first printing.
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Bright Precious Thing : A Memoir
by Gail Caldwell
The Pulitzer Prize-winning Boston Globe literary critic and best-selling author of Let’s Take the Long Way Home chronicles the women’s movement from the 1960s through the #MeToo era to evaluate its impact on her feminist pursuits.
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Building a Life Worth Living : A Memoir
by Marsha M. Linehan
Traces the author’s journey from a suicidal teen to the award-winning developer of the life-saving DBT behavioral therapy, describing the hardscrabble existence she endured to get her education and the beneficial impact of Zen spirituality on her life quality.
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Dirt : adventures in Lyon, as a chef in training, father, and sleuth looking for the secret of French cooking
by Bill Buford
The author of the best-selling Heat presents an uproariously self-deprecating account of his adventures in the world of French haute cuisine, describing his five-year culinary odyssey spent studying the methods of leading chefs, schools and restaurants. (cooking).
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Empty : a memoir
by Susan Burton
An award-winning This American Life documentary producer shares the story of her battles with anorexia and a binge-eating disorder, describing the painful compulsions that shaped her education, career and relationships.
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Enemy of all mankind : a true story of piracy, power, and history's first global manhunt
by Steven Johnson
The host of the Emmy-winning How We Got to Now documents the life and unrecognized legacy of 17th-century pirate Henry Every, exploring how Every’s attack on an Indian treasure ship triggered major shifts in the global economy.
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Entangled life : how fungi make our worlds, change our minds & shape our futures
by Merlin Sheldrake
Citing the ubiquitous role of fungi in the environment, a scientific tour of examples ranging from yeast to psychedelics reveals the complex fungi networks that link plants together and make most biological life processes possible. A first book. Illustrations.
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Filthy Beasts : A Memoir
by Kirkland Hamill
A writer for Salon and The Advocate reflects on how his newly-divorced mother moved her family to her native Bermuda, leaving him and his young brothers home to fend for themselves while she chased nightlife and suitors. 100,000 first printing.
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Fire in Paradise : an American tragedy
by Alastair Gee
An account of the 2018 Camp Fire that razed the town of Paradise, California draws on hundreds of interviews with residents, firefighters, police and scientific experts to document its horrific impact, including the establishment of an unfolding refugee crisis.
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The Fixed Stars
by Molly Wizenberg
A best-selling memoirist describes how, as a married woman with a toddler, she found herself drawn to a female attorney during jury duty and began to question her identity and desires and let go of ideals that no longer fit.
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Gone at midnight : the mysterious death of Elisa Lam
by Jake Anderson
Book Annotation
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Here for it : or, how to save your soul in America : essays
by R. Eric Thomas
A humorist and playwright provides a heartfelt and humorous memoir-in-essays about growing up seeing the world differently, finding unexpected hope and every awkward, extraordinary stumble along the way.
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Hidden Valley Road : inside the mind of an American family
by Robert Kolker
Tells the heartrending story of a midcentury American family with 12 children, 6 of them diagnosed with schizophrenia, that became science’s great hope in the quest to understand the disease. Illustrations.
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The Hilarious World of Depression
by John Moe
The host of the podcast The Hilarious World of Depression offers a moving portrait of what it means to be depressed.
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Hollywood Park : a memoir
by Mikel Jollett
The front man of indie band The Airborne Toxic Event reveals his upbringing in the infamous Church of Synanon cult, where he endured poverty, addiction and emotional abuse before slowly working his way toward college and a music career.
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Humankind : A Hopeful History
by Rutger Bregman
The author of the best-selling Utopia for Realists challenges popular conceptions of an innately selfish human race to offer new historical and evolutionary perspectives that argue we are more hardwired for kindness, cooperation and trust. 75,000 first printing.
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I'm your huckleberry : A Memoir
by Val Kilmer
Published ahead of the release of Top Gun: Maverick, a memoir by the iconic stage and screen actor chronicles his Juilliard education, high-profile relationships, spiritual awakening and recent health setback. 150,000 first printing. Movie tie-in. Illustrations.
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Leave only footprints : My Acadia-to-zion Journey Through Every National Park
by Conor Knighton
A CBS Sunday Morning correspondent presents a behind-the-scenery look at his year traveling to each of America’s National Parks, which turned out to be the road trip of a lifetime that changed his views on everything from God and love to politics and technology. Illustrations.
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The Lincoln conspiracy : the secret plot to kill America's 16th president--and why it failed
by Brad Meltzer
The best-selling authors of The First Conspiracy share the lesser-known story of the 1861 assassination attempt on the 16th president by a secret pro-Southern society that organized an elaborate plot targeting a newly elected Lincoln on his inaugural train journey. Illustrations
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Me & Patsy kickin' up dust : my friendship with Patsy Cline
by Loretta Lynn
Country artist Loretta Lynn and her daughter share the previously undisclosed story of Lynn’s deep bond with fellow music legend, Patsy Cline, to discuss such topics as their creative collaborations and Cline’s untimely death. 125,000 first printing.
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Memorial Drive : A Daughter's Memoir
by Natasha Trethewey
The former U.S. poet laureate and Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Native Guard shares a chillingly personal memoir about the brutal murder of her mother at the hands of her former stepfather. 150,000 first printing.
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Miracle country : a memoir
by Kendra Atleework
Describes how the author's thriving childhood in the natural desert landscape of the Eastern Sierra Nevada was upended by her mother's tragic early death and how the region of her youth has been ravaged by climate change. 30,000 first printing.
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More than love : an intimate portrait of my mother, Natalie Wagner
by Natasha Gregson Wagner
The daughter of Natalie Wood poignantly recounts the story of her mother’s tragic 1981 drowning, the suspicions that targeted her stepfather and the ongoing impact of the unsolved mystery on her family. 150,000 first printing. Media tie-in.
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Murder in the garment district : the grip of organized crime and the decline of labor in the United States
by David Scott Witwer
Deeply researched and grounded in street-level events, this gripping true account of racketeering and union corruption in mid-century New York is told through the lens of the murder of a union organizer at the hands of a mob assassin.
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The Museum of Whales You Will Never See : And Other Excursions to Iceland's Most Unusual Museums
by A. Kendra Greene
As the author takes us on a wise and whimsical journey through a cabinet of curiosities, she shows the mysterious human impulse to collect and how these items can map a people’s past and future, their fears and obsessions, in this poetic tribute to the museums of the otherworldly island nation of Iceland. Illustrations.
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My Life As a Villainess : Essays
by Laura Lippman
A New York Times best-selling author, a journalist for many years, collects her recent essays exploring motherhood as an older mom, her life as a reader, her relationships with her parents, friendship and more. 30,000 first printing
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Navigate your stars
by Jesmyn Ward
The two-time National Book Award-winning author of Sing, Unburied, Sing presents a sumptuously illustrated meditation on the power of tenacity in the face of hardship as well as the importance of respect of the self and others. 150,000 first printing. Illustrations.
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Nothing is wrong and here is why : essays
by Alexandra Petri
Adapted from the author’s viral Post columns, a riotous essay collection on the normalized horrors of today’s world outlines logical and reassuring reasons behind the seemingly inexplicable changes in American politics and culture throughout the past four years.
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Officer Clemmons : a memoir
by François Clemmons
An intimate debut memoir by the Grammy Award-winning artist who famously played "Officer Clemmons" on Mister Rogers' Neighborhood traces his Oberlin College music studies, his embrace of his sexual orientation and his life-changing chance encounter with Fred Rogers. Illustrations
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The Other Madisons : the lost history of a president's Black family
by Bettye Kearse
A Pushcart Prize-nominated writer and descendant of an enslaved cook describes the rich oral traditions that documented her shared ancestry with President James Madison and the human realities of rape and incest throughout the slave era. 30,000 first printing. Illustrations.
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The planter of modern life : Louis Bromfield and the seeds of a food revolution
by Stephen Heyman
Traces the rise of cooperative farmer and Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist Louis Bromfield, detailing how his celebrated Parisian garden, celebrity influences and Ohio farm helped inspire America’s organic and sustainable food movement.
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Recollections of my nonexistence : A Memoir
by Rebecca Solnit
Describing her formation as a writer and as a feminist in 1980s San Francisco, the author explores the influences around her that gave her a voice that has resonated with and empowered many others.
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Rust : a memoir of steel and grit
by Eliese Colette Goldbach
Taking readers deep inside the mill and her Middle American upbringing, a steelworker at ArcelorMittal Steel in Cleveland, Ohio, shares how she found humanity and hope in the most unlikely and hellish of places.
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The second chance club : hardship and hope after prison
by Jason Matthew Hardy
A former New Orleans parole officer shares the intertwining stories of seven parolees to reveal shortcomings in a criminal justice system that does not provide former inmates with the tools they need to survive. A first book. 75,000 first printing.
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Sigh, gone : a misfit's memoir of great books, punk rock, and the fight to fit in
by Phuc Tran
Explores one man’s bewildering experiences of abuse, racism and tragedy and reveals redemption and connection in books and punk rock.
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The sirens of Mars : Searching for Life on Another World
by Sarah Stewart Johnson
A Georgetown University planetary scientist presents a deeply personal account of the search for life on Mars, tracing her own journey as a scientist while exploring the work of historical scientists and artists whose achievements were inspired by the planet. Maps.
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The splendid and the vile : A Saga of Churchill, Family, and Defiance During the Blitz
by Erik Larson
The best-selling author of Dead Wake draws on personal diaries, archival documents and declassified intelligence in a portrait of Winston Churchill that explores his day-to-day experiences during the Blitz and his role in uniting England. Maps.
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Stray : a memoir
by Stephanie Danler
From the best-selling author of Sweetbitter comes a memoir of growing up in a family shattered by lies and addiction, and of one woman’s attempts to find a life beyond the limits of her past. Maps. Tour.
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Uncanny valley : a memoir
by Anna Wiener
The author chronicles her experience at a big-data startup in the heart of the Silicon Valley bubble: a world of surreal extravagance, dubious success and fresh-faced entrepreneurs hell-bent on domination, glory and, of course, progress.
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The unidentified : mythical monsters, alien encounters, and our obsession with the unexplained
by Colin Dickey
The co-editor of The Morbid Anatomy Anthology and author of Ghostland examines the world’s most persistent unexplained phenomena, from Atlantis and alien encounters to Flat Earth and the Loch Ness monster, to explore their origins and historical endurance.
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Untamed
by
Glennon Doyle
An activist, speaker and philanthropist offers a memoir wrapped in a wake-up call that reveals how women can reclaim their true, untamed selves by breaking free of the restrictive expectations and cultural conditioning that leaves them feeling dissatisfied and lost. Illustrations.
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Why we can't sleep : women's new midlife crisis
by Ada Calhoun
The award-winning author of Wedding Toasts I’ll Never Give presents a generation-defining exploration of the impossible standards being imposed on middle-aged Generation X women and what the author recommends to avoid burnout.
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Wow, No Thank You. : Essays
by Samantha Irby
A new collection of humorous and edgy essays from the author of Meaty and We Are Never Meeting in Real Life that highlight the ups and downs of aging, marriage and living with step-children in small-town Michigan. Original.
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Yellow Bird : oil, murder, and a woman's search for justice in Indian country
by Sierra Crane Murdoch
Tells the true crime story of a murder on an Indian reservation, and the unforgettable Arikara woman who becomes obsessed with solving it. Map.
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You never forget your first : a biography of George Washington
by Alexis Coe
A whimsically irreverent portrait of America’s first President includes coverage of Washington’s entitled upbringing by a single mother, his dog “Sweetlips,” his numerous military defeats and the partisan nightmares that spun from his back-stabbing cabinet.
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