To borrow print books for Fall 2020:
Ebooks:
Start a Community Food Garden by LaManda Joy, the founder of Chicago's Peterson Garden Project and a board member of the American Community Gardening Association, has worked in the community gardening trenches for years and brings her knowledge to the wider world in Start a Community Food Garden. This hardworking guide covers every step of the process: fundraising, community organizing, site sourcing, garden design and planning, finding and managing volunteers, and managing the garden through all four seasons. A section dedicated to the basics of growing was designed to be used by community garden leaders as an educational tool for teaching new members how to successfully garden.
Home Brew Beer by Perfect for beginner home-brewers as well as more accomplished brewers who want to take their interest to the next level, Home Brew Beer is the bible on how to make great beer at home. Featuring detailed step-by-step instructions, full-page photographs, comprehensive timelines explaining what to do to the beer at each stage of its fermentation, and more than 100 home-brew beer recipes -- from traditional pilsners and lagers to "hybrids" such as fruit beer and cream ale -- Home Brew Beer is ideal for anyone looking for a wealth of delicious and satisfying beer recipes for any style.
Ugly's Electrical References, 2017 Edition by Circuits -- Common electrical distribution systems -- Electrical formulas -- To find -- Motors -- Transformers -- Miscellaneous wiring diagrams -- Conduit and conductors -- General electrical tables -- Partial 2017 National Electrical Code summary -- General reference -- Math reference -- Conduit bending -- Job-site reference -- Electrical safety -- Alternative energy -- First aid.
Financial Literacy Basics: What to Know About Auto Insurance by 
The Writer's Practice: Building Confidence in Your Nonfiction Writing For anyone aiming to improve their skill as a writer, a new approach to establishing robust writing practices inside and outside the classroom
Duct Tape Engineer by From a working cannon to a bridge, this powerful everyday adhesive is perfect for creating incredible things!
The Inspired Houseplant by The ultimate go-to guide for aspiring indoor gardeners, this book offers inspiration and instruction to envision and create your own gorgeous in-home garden spaces. With plentiful images and a distinctly modern and sophisticated feel, this book imparts both easy-to-follow advice and creative garden-design inspiration. Whether you are looking to pick a statement plant for your living room, create a terrarium centerpiece, or arrange an artful display of air plants, this book will provide the tools you need. And like the garden spaces it will inspire, the book will be a piece of art to display. You'll be tempted to thumb through it again and again--for both resource and relaxation. Includes: -Plant Basics: beginner-friendly plant care info -Plant Guide: profiles of popular indoor plants -Plant Projects: fun, easy projects with major wow factor (including trending designs like terrariums, air plants, marimo and other underwater gardens, kokedama, mounted staghorn ferns, and edible herbs) -Plant Style: ways to use plants in interior design for every style from Desert Boho to Midcentury Modern.
JavaScript Absolute Beginner's Guide by Make the most of the newest versions of JavaScript in modern web and mobile development, even if you've never used it before! This book is the freshest, fastest way to take control of JavaScript, and use it together with CSS3 and HTML5 to create powerful web and mobile experiences. You'll learn how to do what you want, the way you want, one incredibly clear and easy step at a time. Covering the latest best practices, technologies, and applications, this is the most accessible entry-level JavaScript tutorial for readers without a programming background
Plum Rains by "2029: In Japan, a historically mono-cultural nation, childbirth rates are at a critical low and the elderly are living increasingly long lives. This population crisis has precipitated a mass immigration of foreign medical workers from all over Asia--as well as the development of refined artificial intelligence to step in where humans fall short. In Tokyo, Angelica Navarro, a Filipina nurse who has been working in Japan for the last five years, is the caretaker for Sayoko Itou, an intensely private woman about to turn 100 years old. Angelica is a dedicated nurse, working night and day to keep her paperwork in order, obey the strict labor laws for foreign nationals, study for her ongoing proficiency exams, and most of all keep her demanding client happy. But one day Sayoko receives a present from her son: a cutting-edge robot caretaker that will educate itself to anticipate Sayoko's every need. Angelica wonders if she is about to be forced out of her much-needed job by an inanimate object--one with a preternatural ability to uncover the most deeply buried secrets of the humans around it. While Angelica is fighting back against the AI with all of her resources, Sayoko is becoming more and more attached to the machine. The old woman is hiding many secrets of her own--and maybe now she's too old to want to keep them anymore. In a tour de force tapestry of science fiction and historical fiction, Andromeda Romano-Lax presents a story set in Japan and Taiwan that spans a century of empire, conquest, progress, and destruction. Plum Rains elegantly broaches such important contemporary conversations as immigration, the intersection of labor and technology, the ecological fate of our planet and the future of its children"
An Absolutely Remarkable Thing by The Carls just appeared. Coming home from work at three a.m., twenty-three-year-old April May stumbles across a giant sculpture. Delighted by its appearance and craftsmanship -- like a ten-foot-tall Transformer wearing a suit of samurai armor -- April and her friend Andy make a video with it, which Andy uploads to YouTube. The next day April wakes up to a viral video and a new life. News quickly spreads that there are Carls in dozens of cities around the world -- everywhere from Beijing to Buenos Aires -- and April, as their first documentarian, finds herself at the center of an intense international media spotlight. Now April has to deal with the pressure on her relationships, her identity, and her safety that this new position brings, all while being on the front lines of the quest to find out not just what the Carls are, but what they want from us.
New York 2140 by As the sea levels rose, every skyscraper in New York City became an island. In one apartment building in Madison Square there is the market trader, who finds opportunities where others find trouble. There is the detective, whose work will never disappear. There is the internet star, and the building's manager, and two boys who don't live there, but have no other home. And then there are the coders, temporary residents on the roof, whose disappearance triggers a sequence of events that threatens even the long-hidden foundations on which the city rests.
The Mermaid by Once there was a mermaid called Amelia who could never be content in the sea, a mermaid who longed to know all the world and all its wonders, and so she came to live on land. Once there was a man called P.T. Barnum, a man who longed to make his fortune by selling the wondrous and miraculous, and there is nothing more miraculous than a real mermaid. Amelia agrees to play the mermaid for Barnum and walk among men in their world, believing she can leave anytime she likes. But Barnum has never given up a money-making scheme in his life.
The Alehouse at the End of the World by When a fisherman receives a mysterious letter about his beloved's demise, he sets off in his skiff to find her on the Isle of the Dead. The Alehouse at the End of the World is an epic comedy set in the sixteenth century, where bawdy Shakespearean love triangles play out with shapeshifting avian demigods and a fertility goddess, drunken revelry, bio-dynamic gardening, and a narcissistic, bullying crow, who may have colluded with a foreign power. A raucous, aw-aw-aw-awe-inspiring romp, Stevan Allred's second book is a juicy fable for adults, and a hopeful tale for our troubled times
Children of Blood and Bone by Seventeen-year-old Zélie, her older brother Tzain, and rogue princess Amari fight to restore magic to the land and activate a new generation of magi, but they are ruthlessly pursued by the crown prince, who believes the return of magic will mean the end of the monarchy.
The Woodcutter by Deep within the Wood, a young woman lies dead. Not a mark on her body. No trace of her murderer. Only her chipped glass slippers hint at her identity. The Woodcutter, keeper of the peace between the Twelve Kingdoms of Man and the Realm of the Faerie, must find the maiden's killer before others share her fate. Guided by the wind and aided by three charmed axes won from the River God, the Woodcutter begins his hunt, searching for clues in the whispering dominions of the enchanted unknown. But quickly he finds that one murdered maiden is not the only nefarious mystery afoot: one of Odin's hellhounds has escaped, a pixie dust drug trade runs rampant, and more young girls go missing. Looming in the shadows is a malevolent, power-hungry queen, and she will stop at nothing to destroy the Twelve Kingdoms and annihilate the Royal Fae?unless the Woodcutter can outmaneuver her and save the gentle souls of the Wood.
The Girl Who Drank the Moon (Winner of the 2017 Newbery Medal) by An epic fantasy about a young girl raised by a witch, a swamp monster, and a Perfectly Tiny Dragon, who must unlock the powerful magic buried deep inside her"-- Provided by publisher.
Testimony by At the age of fifty, prosecutor Bill ten Boom has walked out on everything he thought was important to him: his law career, his wife, Kindle County, even his country. Still, when he is tapped by the International Criminal Court, an organization charged with prosecuting crimes against humanity, he feels drawn to what will become the most elusive case of his career. Over ten years ago, in the apocalyptic chaos following the Bosnian war, an entire Roma refugee camp vanished. Now for the first time, a witness has stepped forward: Ferko Rincic claims that armed men marched the camp's Gypsy residents to a cave in the middle of the night -- and then with a hand grenade set off an avalanche, burying 400 people alive. Only Ferko survived. Boom's task is to examine Ferko's claims and determine who might have massacred the Roma. His investigation takes him from the International Criminal Court's base in Holland to the cities and villages of Bosnia and secret meetings in Washington, DC, as Boom sorts through a host of suspects ranging from Serb paramilitaries to organized crime gangs to the US government itself, while also maneuvering among the alliances and treacheries of those connected to the case: Layton Merriwell, a disgraced United States major general desperate to salvage his reputation; Sergeant Major Atilla Doby, a vital cog in American military operations near the camp at the time of the Roma's disappearance; Laza Kajevic, the brutal former leader of the Bosnian Serbs; Esma Czarni, Ferko's alluring barrister; and of course, Ferko himself, on whose testimony the entire case rests -- and who may know more than he's telling.
The Warehouse by Paxton never thought he'd be working for Cloud, the giant tech company that's eaten much of the American economy. Much less that he'd be moving into one of the company's sprawling live-work facilities. But compared to what's left outside, Cloud's bland chainstore life of gleaming entertainment halls, open-plan offices, and vast warehouses ... well, it doesn't seem so bad. It's more than anyone else is offering. Zinnia never thought she'd be infiltrating Cloud. But now she's undercover, inside the walls, risking it all to ferret out the company's darkest secrets. And Paxton, with his ordinary little hopes and fears? He just might make the perfect pawn. If she can bear to sacrifice him. As the truth about Cloud unfolds, Zinnia must gamble everything on a desperate scheme--one that risks both their lives, even as it forces Paxton to question everything about the world he's so carefully assembled here. Together, they'll learn just how far the company will go ... to make the world a better place. Set in the confines of a corporate panopticon that's at once brilliantly imagined and terrifyingly real, The Warehouse is a near-future thriller about what happens when Big Brother meets Big Business--and who will pay the ultimate price.
It Devours! by From the authors of the New York Times bestselling novel Welcome to Night Vale and the creators of the #1 international podcast of the same name, comes a mystery exploring the intersections of faith and science, the growing relationship between two young people who want desperately to trust each other, and the terrifying, toothy power of the Smiling God. Nilanjana Sikdar is an outsider to the town of Night Vale. Working for Carlos, the town's top scientist, she relies on fact and logic as her guiding principles. But all of that is put into question when Carlos gives her a special assignment investigating a mysterious rumbling in the desert wasteland outside of town. This investigation leads her to the Joyous Congregation of the Smiling God, and to Darryl, one of its most committed members. Caught between her beliefs in the ultimate power of science and her growing attraction to Darryl, she begins to suspect the Congregation is planning a ritual that could threaten the lives of everyone in town. Nilanjana and Darryl must search for common ground between their very different world views as they are faced with the Congregation's darkest and most terrible secret
Buried Beneath the Baobab Tree by A new pair of shoes, a university degree, a husband -- these are the things that a girl dreams of in a Nigerian village. And with a government scholarship right around the corner, everyone can see that these dreams aren't too far out of reach. But the girl's dreams turn to nightmares when her village is attacked by Boko Haram, a terrorist group, in the middle of the night. Kidnapped, she is taken with other girls and women into the forest where she is forced to follow her captors' radical beliefs and watch as her best friend slowly accepts everything she's been told. Still, the girl defends her existence. As impossible as escape may seem, her life and her future is hers to fight for.
Conscious by What is consciousness? How does it arise? And why does it exist? We take our experience of being in the world for granted. But the very existence of consciousness raises profound questions: Why would any collection of matter in the universe be conscious? How are we able to think about this? And why should we? In this wonderfully accessible book, Annaka Harris guides us through the evolving definitions, philosophies, and scientific findings that probe our limited understanding of consciousness. Where does it reside, and what gives rise to it? Could it be an illusion, or a universal property of all matter? As we try to understand consciousness, we must grapple with how to define it and, in the age of artificial intelligence, who or what might possess it. Conscious offers lively and challenging arguments that alter our ideas about consciousness--allowing us to think freely about it for ourselves, if indeed we can
Spirit in Session by Spirituality is an important part of many clients' lives. It can be a resource for stabilization, healing, and growth. It can also be the cause of struggle and even harm. More and more therapists - those who consider themselves spiritual and those who do not - recognize the value of addressing spirituality in therapy and increasing their skill for engaging it ethically and effectively. In this immensely practical book, Russell Siler Jones helps therapists feel more competent and confident about having spiritual conversations with clients. With a refreshing, down-to-earth style, he describes how to recognize the diverse explicit and implicit ways spirituality can appear in psychotherapy, how to assess the impact spirituality is having on clients, how to make interventions to maximize its healthy impact and lessen its unhealthy impact, and how therapists can draw upon their own spirituality in ethical and skillful ways. He includes extended case studies and clinical dialogue so readers can hear how spirituality becomes part of case conceptualization and what spiritual conversation actually sounds like in psychotherapy. Jones has been a therapist for nearly 30 years and has trained therapists in the use of spirituality for over a decade. He writes about a complex topic with an elegant simplicity and provides how-to advice in a way that encourages therapists to find their own way to apply it. Spirit In Session is a pragmatic guide that therapists will turn to again and again as they engage their clients in one of the most meaningful and consequential dimensions of human experience.
The Triumph of Christianity by Christianity didn't have to become the dominant religion in the West. It could easily have remained a sect of Judaism fated to have the historical importance of the Sadducees or the Essenes. So how did a religion whose first believers were twenty or so illiterate day laborers in a remote part of the empire become the official religion of Rome, converting some thirty million people in just four centuries? In The Triumph of Christianity, New York Times bestselling authority on early Christian history Bart D. Ehrman weaves meticulous research into an eye-opening, immensely readable narrative. He shows how a handful of charismatic characters used a brilliant social strategy and an irresistible message to win over hearts and minds one at a time. In so doing, Ehrman upends the way we think about the single most important cultural transformation our world has ever seen--one that revolutionized art, music, literature, philosophy, ethics, economics, and law
Break on Through by Break on Through examines the mental health profession, activism, and the American mind in the 1970s. In exploring 'radicalism' and 'anti-psychiatry', Lucas Richert helps the reader understand changes in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders and struggles within the American Psychiatric Association but he also sheds new light on emergent mental health therapies (transactional analysis, Primal Therapy), Scientology, and the rise of parapsychology. Disputes in the field of psychiatry over homosexuality, drug use, or replicable drug trials, were but one element of wider political, economic, and cultural change. The politics of the era mattered particularly, as did the cultural trends, individual patients, and economic developments. The book offers a fresh view of the difficult struggles within psychiatry in the turbulent 1960-1970s. While there is a great deal of research on the coercive and overreaching power of the psychiatry profession and the medico-corporate establishment, on specific classes of psychiatric drugs, and the debates between bio-medically oriented psychiatrists and psychoanalysts, there is limited work about radical unrest within psychiatry. More broadly, by locating radical psychiatrists in the spectrum of health movements, Break on Through adds to our understanding of American health activism. Using a wide-ranging set of archival sources and a clear style, Break on Through draws on intersecting stories in psychiatry, policy, and drug development and regulation, to offer recommendations for the future. In the face of rising diagnoses for depression and ADHD, the need for common measures and standardized approaches in mental health, and major developments in drug regulation, the book's historical perspectives could not be timelier
Copycats and Contrarians by A multidisciplinary exploration of our human inclination to herd and why our instinct to copy others can be dangerous in today's interlinked world Rioting teenagers, tumbling stock markets, and the spread of religious terrorism appear to have little in common, but all are driven by the same basic instincts: the tendency to herd, follow, and imitate others. In today's interconnected world, group choices all too often seem maladaptive. With unprecedented speed, information flashes across the globe and drives rapid shifts in group opinion. Adverse results can include speculative economic bubbles, irrational denigration of scientists and other experts, seismic political reversals, and more. Drawing on insights from across the social, behavioral, and natural sciences, Michelle Baddeley explores contexts in which behavior is driven by the herd. She analyzes the rational vs. nonrational and cognitive vs. emotional forces involved, and she investigates why herding only sometimes works out well. With new perspectives on followers, leaders, and the pros and cons of herd behavior, Baddeley shines vivid light on human behavior in the context of our ever-more-connected world.
My Friend Dahmer by We all have that one friend from school -- the strange kid, the class freak, the guy whose antics amused, entertained, and maybe even alarmed us. The one who sticks in our heads even with the passing of the years. That classmate is invariably left behind when we graduate, vanishing into memory, filed away with our old yearbooks and other teenage mementoes. But every now and then we wonder, whatever happened to that friend? For one man who grew up in a small town in Ohio, that questions was by every media outlet in the world on July 22, 1991, when Jeffrey Dahmer was arrested for the murder of seventeen young men and teenage boys. My Friend Dahmer is a graphic novel from political cartoonist Derf Backderf in which he tries to make sense of the future serial killer with whom he shared classrooms, hallways, and car rides.
The Instinct for Cooperation by An astonishing graphic novel that brings Chomsky's political analysis to bear on real people's stories on the frontlines of America's struggle for economic justice and human dignity. The Instinct for Cooperation innovatively balances those real-life stories of struggle with conversations the author has had with Chomsky on how best to understand them. Although the themes are wide-ranging, this book is ultimately about the importance and need for spaces of resistance in countering state and other institutional forms of violence. For example, when discussing the removal of books by police and sanitation workers from Zuccotti Park in November of 2011, Chomsky paused to say "Arizona knows all about that," referring to the 2010 ban of Mexican American Studies in Tucson schools under Arizona House Bill 2281, which deemed classes that taught "ethnic solidarity" to be illegal. Rather than footnote the reference, Wilson tells that story. Like Joe Sacco's animated political journalism, this book offers a unique perspective on current issues, while providing a major contribution to the understanding of Chomsky's political theories.
The Witcher: House of Glass by "Travelling near the edge of the Black Forest, in the land of the Angren, witcher Geralt meets a widowed man whose dead and murderous wife resides in an eerie mansion known as the House of Glass. With its endless rooms and horror around every corner, Geralt will have to use all his witcher prowess to solve the manor's mystery and survive."
Sherlock Holmes: the Complete Novels and Stories Volume I by Since his first appearance in "Beeton's Christmas Annual in 1887, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes has been one of the most beloved fictional characters ever created. Now, in two paperback volumes, Bantam presents all fifty-six short stories and four novels featuring Conan Doyle's classic hero--a truly complete collection of Sherlock.
The Metamorphosis by An allegorical story about a man who awakens one morning to find himself changed into a large insect. Together with selected letters, diary extracts, and critical essays.
The Outsiders by The struggle of three brothers to stay together after their parents' death and their quest for identity among the conflicting values of their adolescent society.
Invisible Man by In the course of his wanderings from a Southern Negro college to New York's Harlem, an American black man becomes involved in a series of adventures.
Everyday People by Anthology of short stories by established and emerging writers of color
Boy in the Twilight by Presents thirteen tales about the sorrows, joys, and constants of modern China, including the story of an awkward youth who uses the perks of his government to court two women and a couple who toils in factories only to learn that their son has been wasting their money.
Nebula Awards Showcase 2018 by "The latest volume of the prestigious anthology series, published annually across six decades! The Nebula Awards Showcase volumes have been published annually since 1966, reprinting the winning and nominated stories of the Nebula Awards, voted on by the members of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America (SFWA). The editor, selected by SFWA's anthology Committee (chaired by Mike Resnick), is Jane Yolen, an author of children's books, fantasy, and science fiction. This year's Nebula Award winners are Charlie Jane Anders, Seanan McGuire, William Ledbetter, Amal El-Mohtar, and Eric Heisserer, with David D. Levine winning the Andre Norton Award for Young Adult Science Fiction and Fantasy.
Readymade Bodhisattva by Coming from a country renowned for its hi-tech industry and ultraspeed broadband yet mired in the unfinished Cold War, South Korean science fiction offers us fresh perspectives on global technoindustrial modernity and its human consequences. The book also features a critical introduction, an essay on SF fandom in South Korea, and contextualizing information and annotations for each story.
Strange Appetites by 
Reference and Instruction Librarian Joyce Miller read and liked these books at the SUNY Adirondack Library. Here's her list on LibraryThing:
For fun, I recently bought myself a nice road bike. I enjoy the challenge of climbing hills in the Adirondacks and Saratoga County, and always the beauty of boating on Lake George.
My favorite authors, both with upstate New York roots like myself, are Russell Banks and Richard Russo.
Recent books I've enjoyed are:
The Henna Artist by Alka Joshi, soon to be a Miramax television series.
The Splendid and the Vile: a saga of Churchill, family and defiance during the blitz by Erik Larson. My first read of a personal account of Winston Churchill during the war. Larson did extensive research and details the Churchill's leadership from his country retreat and 10 Downing Street. I listened on Audible, it is 600 pages in print, a vivid account of the time and leadership.
American Dirt by Jeanine Cummins. A fictional account of mother and son crossing the border after their family is killed by drug cartel gang members. For a highly recommended non-fiction account see The Line Becomes a River: dispatches from the border a personal account of a Fulbright scholar studying international relations who chooses to become a border patrol agent. His account of the psychological toll on the border patrol agents as well as the heartbreak of families separated by the border was beyond enlightening--not what you hear on the news.
Caste: the origin of our discontents by Isabelle Wilkerson was a difficult read, but well researched and written--it's worth the effort. It may change your mind on some matters
A Promised Land by President Obama, I set it aside, it is very detailed regarding his rise in politics and his inner conflicts --more than I need to know and it only brings us to 2011! There is a second volume to follow. I thoroughly enjoyed Michele Obama's memoir Becoming which I listened to on Audible in her own voice.
I just finished Wintering: the power of rest and retreat in difficult times by Katherine May. A very timely book as we approach the depths of winter during COVID times. It may help you enjoy the simple pleasures of this down time--perhaps you will even be convinced to enjoy the therapeutic effects of winter swimming, Polar Bear Plunge?
Next, my book club is reading Hamnet, a novel about Shakespeare's family life, marriage, and loss of a child.