July 2018 list by L. Berube
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Atlas of a Lost World: Travels in Ice Age America
by Craig Childs
This is an unsparing, vivid, revelatory travelogue through prehistory that traces the arrival of the First People in North America twenty thousand years ago and the artifacts that enable us to imagine their lives and fates. Scientists squabble over the locations and dates for human arrival in the New World. The first explorers were few, encampments fleeting. At some point in time, between twenty and forty thousand years ago, sea levels were low enough that a vast land bridge was exposed between Asia and North America. But the land bridge was not the only way across. This book upends our notions of where these people came from and who they were.
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How to Change Your Mind: What the New Science of Psychedelics Teaches Us About Consciousness, Dying, Addiction, Depression, and Transcendence
by Michael Pollan
When Michael Pollan set out to research how LSD and psilocybin (the active ingredient in magic mushrooms) are being used to provide relief to people suffering from difficult-to-treat conditions such as depression, addiction and anxiety, he did not intend to write what is undoubtedly his most personal book. But upon discovering how these remarkable substances are improving the lives not only of the mentally ill but also of healthy people coming to grips with the challenges of everyday life, he decided to explore the landscape of the mind in the first person as well as the third. Thus began a singular adventure into the experience of various altered states of consciousness, along with a dive deep into both the latest brain science and the thriving underground community of psychedelic therapists.
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Kings of the Yukon: One Summer Paddling Across the Far North
by Adam Weymouth
The Yukon river is 2,000 miles long, the longest stretch of free-flowing river in the United States. In this riveting examination of one of the last wild places on earth, Adam Weymouth canoes along the river's length, from Canada's Yukon Territory, through Alaska, to the Bering Sea. The result is a book that shows how even the most remote wilderness is affected by the same forces reshaping the rest of the planet.
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Light of the Stars: Alien Worlds and the Fate of the Earth
by Adam Frank
Light of the Stars tells the story of humanity's coming of age as we awaken to the possibilities of life on other worlds and their sudden relevance to our fate on Earth. Astrophysicist Adam Frank traces the question of alien life and intelligence from the ancient Greeks to the leading thinkers of our own time, and shows how we as a civilization can only hope to survive climate change if we recognize what science has recently discovered: that we are just one of ten billion trillion planets in the Universe, and it's highly likely that many of those planets hosted technologically advanced alien civilizations.
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The Order of Time
by Carlo Rovelli
Why do we remember the past and not the future? What does it mean for time to "flow"? Do we exist in time or does time exist in us? In lyric, accessible prose, Carlo Rovelli invites us to consider questions about the nature of time that continue to puzzle physicists and philosophers alike.
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Rising: Dispatches from the New American Shore
by Elizabeth Rush
Harvey. Maria. Irma. Sandy. Katrina. We live in a time of unprecedented hurricanes and catastrophic weather events, a time when it is increasingly clear that climate change is neither imagined nor distant—and that rising seas are transforming the coastline of the United States in irrevocable ways.
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The Secret Life of Cows
by Rosamund Young
The author distills a lifetime of organic farming wisdom, describing the surprising personalities of her cows and other animals.
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Still Waters: The Secret World of Lakes
by Curt Stager
An exploration of the world's most remarkable lakes examines the significance of humanity's impact on iconic inland waters, sharing their stories and how they represent history, culture, and the importance of conservation.
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The Weather Detective: Rediscovering Nature's Secret Signs
by Peter Wohlleben
At what temperature do bees stay home? Why do southerly winds in winter often bring storms? How can you plant a garden that tells the time, or know how many tumbles a hailstone has made through a cloud? These are among the many questions that international-bestselling author Peter Wohlleben poses in his book.
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