Inyo County Free Library - New Acquisitions

These are books and media new to the library and cataloged by the Inyo County Free Library.

Additional information about each title can be found in the catalog (click on the title). For older acquisition lists choose from Select another list. To request any of these titles please contact your local library branch.

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Zhuangzi: the essential writings with selections from traditional commentaries

By Zhuangzi

Publishing Date: c2009

Classification: 200

Call Number: 299.5 ZHU

"Ideal for students and scholars alike, this edition of Zhuangzi (Chuang Tzu) includes the complete Inner Chapters, extensive selections from the Outer and Miscellaneous Chapters, and judicious selections from two thousand years of traditional Chinese commentaries, which provide the reader access to the text as well as to its reception and interpretation. A glossary, brief biographies of the commentators, a bibliography, and an index are also included."--Pub.

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Talking to strangers: what we should know about the people we don't know

By Gladwell, Malcolm

Publishing Date: 2019

Classification: 300

Call Number: 302 GLA

The popular podcast host and author explores how people interact with strangers and why these exchanges often go wrong, offering strategic tips for more accurate and productive interactions.

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The meritocracy trap: how America's foundational myth feeds inequality, dismantles the middle class, and devours the elite

By Markovits, Daniel

Publishing Date: 2019

Classification: 300

Call Number: 305.5509 MAR

"It is an axiom of American life that advantage should be earned through ability and effort. Even as the country divides itself at every turn, the meritocratic ideal--that social and economic rewards should follow achievement rather than breeding--reigns supreme. Both Democrats and Republicans insistently repeat meritocratic notions. Meritocracy cuts to the heart of who we are. It sustains the American dream. But what if, both up and down the social ladder, meritocracy is a sham? Today, meritocracy has become exactly what it was conceived to resist: a mechanism for the concentration and dynastic transmission of wealth and privilege across generations. Upward mobility has become a fantasy, and the embattled middle classes are now more likely to sink into the working poor than to rise into the professional elite. At the same time, meritocracy now ensnares even those who manage to claw their way to the top, requiring rich adults to work with crushing intensity, exploiting their expensive educations in order to extract a return. All this is not the result of deviations or retreats from meritocracy but rather stems directly from meritocracy's successes. This is the radical argument that Daniel Markovits prosecutes with rare force. Markovits is well placed to expose the sham of meritocracy. Having spent his life at elite universities, he knows from the inside the corrosive system we are trapped within. Markovits also knows that, if we understand that meritocratic inequality produces near-universal harm, we can cure it. When The Meritocracy Trap reveals the inner workings of the meritocratic machine, it also illuminates the first steps outward, towards a new world that might once again afford dignity and prosperity to the American people"--Book jacket.

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A death in the rainforest: how a language and a way of life came to an end in Papua New Guinea

By Kulick, Don

Publishing Date: 2019

Classification: 300

Call Number: 305.8 KUL

As a young anthropologist, Kulick went to the tiny village of Gapun in New Guinea to document the death of the native language, Tayap. He arrived knowing that you can't study a language without understanding the daily lives of the people who speak it: how they talk to their children, how they argue, how they gossip, how they joke. Over the course of thirty years, he returned again and again to document Tayap before it disappeared entirely. Here he takes us inside the difficult-to-get-to village of two hundred people. In doing so he looks at the impact of white society on the farthest reaches of the globe. -- adapted from jacket

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The bastard brigade: the true story of the renegade scientists and spies who sabotaged the Nazi atomic bomb

By Kean, Sam

Publishing Date: 2019

Classification: 300

Call Number: 355.8 KEA

The leaders of the Manhattan Project were alarmed to learn that Nazi Germany was far outpacing the Allies in nuclear weapons research. Hitler would soon have the capability to reverse the entire D-Day operation and conquer Europe. Kean tells the story of a rough and motley crew of geniuses-- dubbed the Alsos Mission-- sent into Axis territory to spy on, sabotage, and even assassinate members of Nazi Germany's feared Uranium Club. The Mission included Moe Berg, a major league catcher and multilingual international spy; Joe Kennedy Jr, whose need for adventure lead him to volunteer for the dangerous mission; and Irène and Frederic Joliot-Curie, a physics Nobel-Prize winning power couple who became active members of the resistance. -- adapted from jacket

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In praise of walking: the new science of how we walk and why it's good for us

By O'Mara, S. M.

Publishing Date: 2019

Classification: 600

Call Number: 613.717 OMA

Walking upright on two feet is a uniquely human skill. It defines us as a species. It enabled us to walk out of Africa and to spread as far as Alaska and Australia. It freed our hands and freed our minds. We put one foot in front of the other without thinking - yet how many of us know how we do that, or appreciate the advantages it gives us? In this hymn to walking, neuroscientist Shane O'Mara invites us to marvel at the benefits it confers on our bodies and minds. In Praise of Walking celebrates this miraculous ability. Incredibly, it is a skill that has its evolutionary origins millions of years ago, under the sea. And the latest research is only now revealing how the brain and nervous system performs the mechanical magic of balancing, navigating a crowded city, or running our inner GPS system. Walking is good for our muscles and posture; it helps to protect and repair organs, and can slow or turn back the ageing of our brains. With our minds in motion we think more creatively, our mood improves and stress levels fall. Walking together to achieve a shared purpose is also a social glue that has contributed to our survival as a species. As our lives become increasingly sedentary, we risk all this. We must start walking again, whether it's up a mountain, down to the park, or simply to school and work. We, and our societies, will be better for it.

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A place of my own: the architecture of daydreams

By Pollan, Michael

Publishing Date: 2008

Classification: 600

Call Number: 690.837 POL

The author describes the process--design, footings, framing, roofing, windows, and trim--by which he created a space for writing.

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Vogue knitting: the ultimate knitting book

Publishing Date: [2018]

Classification: 700

Call Number: 746.432

An updated knitting reference offers an expanded library of stitches; sections on new favorite techniques; dozens of projects for hats, mittens, gloves, socks, and shawls; and revised chapters on finishing and garment care.

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Sky runner: finding strength, happiness, and balance in your running

By Forsberg, Emelie

Publishing Date: 2018

Classification: 700

Call Number: 796.425 FOR

"The ultimate outdoor woman, Emelie Forsberg captures the magic of a life spent amongst the mountaintops. She shares her passion for skyrunning and her accumulated expertise on how to thrive in this demanding sport. In Sky Runner, Emelie shares her experiences: using intervals, uphill and downhill training, and more to maintain peak physical condition; incorporating both yoga and strength exercises into her daily training routines; growing her own food and creating her own recipes to nourish body and soul; physically and mentally recovering from injury; finding balance in her life as a professional, extreme-sport athlete; sustaining both motivation and passion in her sport and her life"--Page [4] of cover.

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Training for the uphill athlete: a manual for mountain runners and ski mountaineers

By Jornet, Kilian

Publishing Date: [2019]

Classification: 700

Call Number: 796.428 JOR

"Training for the Uphill Athleete translates theory into methodolgoy to allow you to write your own training plans and coach yourslef to your endurance goals. This is the only book that presents training principles for athletes who regularly partipate in distance running, ski mountaineering, skimo, and other sports that require optimum fitness and customized strength....This book collectes the scientically backed and athelete-tested wisdom and experience of the best uphill athletes and educates outdoor athletes to develop plans to perform their best." --from back cover.

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Shout: a poetry memoir

By Anderson, Laurie Halse

Publishing Date: [2019]

Classification: 800

Call Number: 811.54 AND

"Bestselling author Laurie Halse Anderson is known for the unflinching way she writes about, and advocates for, survivors of sexual assault. Now, inspired by her fans and enraged by how little in our culture has changed since her groundbreaking novel Speak was first published twenty years ago, she has written a poetry memoir that is as vulnerable as it is rallying, as timely as it is timeless. In free verse, Anderson shares reflections, rants, and calls to action woven between deeply personal stories from her life that she's never written about before. Searing and soul-searching, this important memoir is a denouncement of our society's failures and a love letter to all the people with the courage to say #MeToo and #TimesUp, whether aloud, online, or only in their own hearts. Shout speaks truth to power in a loud, clear voice-- and once you hear it, it is impossible to ignore."--Publisher's description.

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The long-legged house: essays

By Berry, Wendell

Publishing Date: 2012

Classification: 800

Call Number: 814 BER

Annotation

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Everybody's autobiography

By Stein, Gertrude

Publishing Date: 1993

Classification: 800

Call Number: 818.5209 STE

"[This book] is Gertrude Stein's 1937 sequel to The Auobiography of Alice B. Toklas, but it is a profoundly different different book from its predecessor. Where that book is breezy and almost glib, this book is serious, and funny in a more biting manner. [It] is a book of the thirties, rather than the twenties: more sober, more concerned with social issues like nationhood and justice, and more realistic. Most dramatically, of course, Stein drops the voice of Alice B [Babette] Toklas and writes as herself. ..."--Publisher's note (page vii).

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We survived: at last I speak

By Malmed, Leon

Publishing Date: c2013

Classification: 900

Call Number: 940.5318 MAL

"This is Leon Malmed's true story of his and his sister Rachel's escape from the Holocaust in Occupied France. When their father and mother were arrested in 1942, their French neighbors agreed to watch their children until they returned. Leon's parents were taken first to Drancy, then to Auschwitz-Birkenau, and they never returned. Meanwhile their downstairs neighbors, Henri and Suzanne Ribouleau, gave the children a home and family and sheltered them through subsequent roundups, threats, air raids, and the war's privations. The courage, sympathy, and dedication of the Ribouleaus stand in strong contrast to the collaborations and moral weakness of many of the French authorities. "Papa Henri and Maman Suzanne" were honored as "Righteous Among the Nations" by Yad Vashem in 1977. It is a narrative of love and courage, set against a backdrop of tragedy, fear, injustice, prejudice, and the greatest moral outrage of the modern era. It is a story of goodness triumphing once more over evil"-- publisher's description.

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Ronald Reagan

By Weisberg, Jacob

Publishing Date: 2016

Classification: 900

Call Number: 973.927 WEI

"In the second half of the twentieth century, no American president defined his political era as did Ronald Reagan. He ushered in an age that extolled smaller government, tax cuts, and strong defense, and to this day politicians of both political parties operate within the parameters of the world he made. His eight years in office from 1981 to 1989 were a time of economic crisis and recovery, a new American assertiveness abroad, and an engagement with the Soviet Union that began in conflict but moved in surprising new directions. Jacob Weisberg provides a bracing portrait of America's fortieth president and the ideas that animated his political career, offering a fresh psychological interpretation and showing that there was more to Reagan than the usual stereotypes. Reagan, he observes, was a staunch conservative but was also unafraid to compromise and cut deals where necessary. And Reagan espoused a firm belief, just as firm as his belief in small government and strong defense, that nuclear weapons were immoral and ought to be eliminated. Weisberg argues that these facets of Reagan were too often ignored in his time but reveal why his presidency turned out to be so consequential. In the years since Reagan left office, he has been cast in marble by the Republican Party and dismissed by the Democrats. Weisberg shows why we need to move past these responses if we wish truly to appreciate his accomplishments and his legacy."--Jacket.

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A warning

Publishing Date: 2019

Classification: 900

Call Number: 973.933

"An unprecedented behind-the-scenes portrait of the Trump presidency from the anonymous senior official whose first words of warning about the president rocked the nation's capital"--Dust jacket.

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Putting California on the map: von Schmidt's lines

By Carle, David

Publishing Date: [2018]

Classification: 900

Call Number: 979.4 CAR

When A.W. von Schmidt lived in California, from 1849 through 1906, the young state developed a reputation as a society of innovators and energetic problem-solvers. Von Schmidt’s life story is at the core of the “anything is possible” legend that became associated with California and its citizens. He was a surveyor and civil engineer, an involved citizen of San Francisco, a father and husband, and a pioneer whose personal triumphs and tragedies enlarged the California Dream. A.W.'s energetic efforts to give shape to California, to devise long-distance water delivery systems and astonishingly creative engineering solutions for challenges faced by the young state, have been nearly forgotten. This biography is the first comprehensive telling of his life and of his leadership in the shaping of 19th century California. Includes 45 photos and sketches, and 13 maps. - (Booksurge)

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