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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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 Irè€ne 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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