|
|
History and Current Events April 2022 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
The insect crisis : the fall of the tiny empires that run the world
by Oliver Milman
"A devastating exploration of how the collapse in insect populations around the world threatens everything from wild birds to the food on our plate. From the ants scurrying under leaf litter to the bees able to fly higher than Mount Kilimanjaro, insects are seemingly everywhere. Three out of four of the planet's known species are insects, but a torrent of recent evidence suggests this kaleidoscopic group of creatures is suffering the greatest existential crisis in its remarkable 400-million-year history.Oliver Milman delves into why insect numbers are plummeting and outlines the dire consequences of losing the tiny empires that hold life aloft on Earth. Along the way, readers encounter a researcher who collects insect guts from the windshields of cars, the bees sent on long-haul truck journeys to prop up our food supply, and a desperate attempt to move trees up mountains to save an iconic butterfly. The mounting losses threaten to unpick the web of life we rely upon. Illuminating and inspiring, The Insect Crisis is a wake-up call for all of us"
|
|
|
|
Unthinkable : trauma, truth, and the trials of American democracy
by Jamin B. Raskin
The Maryland congressman tells the story of the forty-five days at the start of 2021 that permanently changed his life--and his family's--as he confronted the painful loss of his son to suicide, lived through the violent insurrection in the Capitol, and led the impeachment effort to hold President Trump accountable for inciting the political violence
|
|
| Born of Lakes and Plains: Mixed-Descent Peoples and the Making of the American West by Anne F. HydeWhat it's about: how mixed-descent families created from Indigenous-European intermarriages made their mark on the American West from the 17th to the 20th centuries.
Why you might like it: Historian Anne F. Hyde focuses on five families to craft this intimate and well-researched chronicle.
Reviewers say: "an essential reconsideration of Native American history" (Publishers Weekly). |
|
|
|
A plague upon our house : my fight at the Trump White House to stop COVID from destroying America
by Scott W. Atlas
"When Dr. Scott W. Atlas was tapped by Donald Trump to join his COVID Task Force, he was immediately thrust into a maelstrom of scientific disputes, policy debates, raging egos, politically motivated lies, and cynical media manipulation. Numerous myths and distortions surround the Trump Administration's handling of the crisis, and many pressing questions remain unanswered. In this unfiltered insider account, Dr. Scott Atlas brings us directly into the White House, describes the key players in the crisis,and assigns credit and blame where it is deserved. The book includes evaluations of the Task Force members' limited knowledge and grasp of the science of COVID and details heated discussions with Task Force members, including all of the most controversial episodes that dominated headlines for weeks. Dr. Atlas tells the truth about the science and documents the media's relentless campaign to suffocate it, which included canceled interviews, journalists' off-camera hostility in White House briefings, and intentional distortion of facts. He also provides an inside account of the delays and timelines involving vaccines and other treatments, evaluates the impact of the lockdowns on American public health, and indicts the war on truth waged by Big Business andBig Tech"
|
|
| Scoundrel: How a Convicted Murderer Persuaded the Women Who Loved Him... by Sarah WeinmanHow it began: In 1962, New Jersey death row inmate and convicted murderer Edgar Smith struck up a correspondence with conservative intellectual William F. Buckley, who used his connections to help secure Smith a book deal and, in 1971, a release from prison.
What happened next: Smith manipulated his way to fame and acclaim, though his second act was short-lived -- in 1976, he was convicted of kidnapping a woman at knifepoint and sent back to prison.
For fans of: stranger-than-fiction true crime tales. |
|
|
|
The Bomber Mafia : a dream, a temptation, and the longest night of the second World War
by Malcolm Gladwell
"In The Bomber Mafia, Malcolm Gladwell weaves together the stories of a Dutch genius and his homemade computer, a band of brothers in central Alabama, a British psychopath, and pyromaniacal chemists at Harvard to examine one of the greatest moral challenges in modern American history. Most military thinkers in the years leading up to World War II saw the airplane as an afterthought. But a small band of idealistic strategists, the "Bomber Mafia", asked: What if precision bombing could cripple the enemy and make war far less lethal? In contrast, the bombing of Tokyo on the deadliest night of the war was the brainchild of General Curtis LeMay, whose brutal pragmatism and scorched-earth tactics in Japan cost thousands of civilian lives, but may have spared even more by averting a planned US invasion. In The Bomber Mafia, Gladwell asks, "Was it worth it?" Things might have gone differently had LeMay's predecessor, General Haywood Hansell, remained in charge. Hansell believed in precision bombing, but when he and Curtis LeMay squared off for a leadership handover in the jungles of Guam, LeMay emerged victorious, leading to the darkest night of World War II. The Bomber Mafia is a riveting tale of persistence, innovation, and the incalculable wages of war"
|
|
Contact your librarian for more great books!
|
|
|
New Carlisle-Olive Township Public Library
408 S. Bray St.
New Carlisle, Indiana 46552
(574) 654-3046ncpl.lib.in.us |
|
|
|