Author: Gold, Russell, author. Published: 2019 Call Number: B SKELLY Format: Books Summary: Chronicles the efforts of renewable energy pioneer Michael Skelly to build America's second-largest wind power company, revealing how his career has reflected groundbreaking changes in national energy. "In the ever more urgent quest for sources of renewable energy, meet the man boldly harnessing the natural forces that could power America's future. The United States is in the midst of an energy transition. We want to embrace renewable energy sources like wind and solar, and rely less on dirty fossil fuels. We don't want to keep pumping so many heat-trapping gases into the atmosphere. Any transition from a North American power grid that uses mostly fossil fuels to one that is predominantly clean requires a massive building spree--billions of dollars' worth. Enter Michael Skelly, an infrastructure builder who began working on wind energy in 2000, when many considered the industry a joke. Eight years later, Skelly helped create the second largest wind power company in the United States--which was sold for $2 billion. Wind energy was no longer funny; it was well on its way to generating a substantial percentage of the electricity in the United States. Acclaimed journalist and author of The Boom ..., Russell Gold tells the story of this pioneer whose innovations, struggles, and persistence represent the groundbreaking changes underway in American energy. In Superpower, we meet Skelly's financial backers, a family that pivoted from oil exploration to renewable energy; the farmers ready to embrace the new 'cash crop'; the landowners prepared to go to court to avoid looking at overhead wires; and utility executives who concoct fiendish ways to block renewable energy. Gold also shows how Skelly's innovative company, Clean Line Energy, conceived the idea for a new power grid that would allow sunlight where abundant to light up homes thousands of miles away in cloudy states, and take wind from the Great Plains to keep air conditioners running in Atlanta. Thrilling, provocative, and important, Superpower is a fascinating look at America's future."--Dust jacket.
Author: Simsion, Graeme C., author. Published: 2019 Call Number: F SIMSION Format: Books Summary: Don Tillman and Rosie Jarman are back in Australia after a decade in New York, and they're about to face their most important challenge. Their son, Hudson, is struggling at school: he's socially awkward and not fitting in. Don's spent a lifetime trying to fit in, so who better to teach Hudson the skills he needs? The Hudson Project will require the help of friends old and new, force Don to decide how much to guide Hudson and how much to let him be himself, and raise some significant questions about his own identity. Meanwhile, there are multiple distractions to deal with: the Genetics Lecture Outrage, Rosie's troubles at work, estrangement from his best friend Gene ... And opening a cocktail bar.
Author: Cantor, Melanie, author. Published: 2019 Call Number: F CANTOR Format: Books Summary: "Jennifer Cole has just been told that she has a terminal blood disorder and has just three months to live--ninety days to say goodbye to friends and family, and to put her affairs in order. Ninety days to come to terms with a diagnosis that is unfair, unexpected, and completely unpronounceable. Focusing on the positives (she won't have to go on in a world without Bowie or Maya Angelou; she won't get Alzheimer's or Parkinson's like her parents, or have teeth that flop out at the mere mention of the word apple), Jennifer realizes she only has one real regret: the relationships she's lost. Rather than running off to complete a frantic bucket list, Jennifer chooses to stay put and write a letter to the three most significant people in her life, to say the things she wished she'd said before but never dared: her overbearing, selfish sister, her jelly-spined, cheating ex-husband, and her charming, unreliable ex-boyfriend--and finally tell them the truth. At first, Jennifer feels cleansed by her catharsis. Liberated, even. Her ex-boyfriend rushes to her side and she even starts to build bridges with her sister Isabelle (that is, once Isabelle's confirmed that Jennifer's condition isn't genetic). But once you start telling the truth, it's hard to stop. And as Jennifer soon discovers, the truth isn't always as straightforward as it seems, and death has a way of surprising you..."--
Author: Atkins, Ace, author. Published: 2019 Call Number: LP F ATKINS Format: Large print Summary: "Twenty years ago, Brandon Taylor was thought to be just another teen boy who ended his life too soon. That's what almost everyone in Tibbehah County, Mississippi, said after his body and hunting rifle were found in the Big Woods. Now two New York-based reporters show up asking Sheriff Quinn Colson questions about the Taylor case. What happened to the evidence? Where are the missing files? Who really killed Brandon? Quinn wants to help. After all, his wife Maggie was a close friend of Brandon Taylor. But Quinn was just a kid himself in 1997, and these days he's got more on his plate than twenty-year-old suspicious death. He's trying to shut down the criminal syndicate that's had a stranglehold on Tibbehah for years, trafficking drugs, stolen goods, and young women through the MidSouth. Truck stop madam Fannie Hathcock runs most of that action, and has her eyes on taking over the whole show. And then there's Senator Jimmy Vardaman, who's cut out the old political establishment, riding the Syndicate's money and power -- plus a hefty helping of racism and ignorance -- straight to the governor's office. If he manages to get elected, the Syndicate will be untouchable. Tibbehah will be lawless. Quinn's been fighting evil and corruption since he was a kid, at home or as a U.S. Army Ranger in Afghanistan and Iraq. This time, evil may win out."--Page [4] of cover.
Author: Dillow, Gordon, author. Published: 2019 Call Number: 523.44 Format: Books Summary: "An historical survey about asteroid hits sustained by Earth and the defenses being prepared against future asteroid-caused catastrophe"-- "Combining history, popular science, and in-depth reporting, here is a fascinating account of asteroids and other space objects that hit Earth long ago and those streaming toward us even now--as well as a look at the preparations humanity is making against asteroid-caused catastrophe. Journalist Gordon L. Dillow examines what a small but dedicated group of astronomers have long known--that someday Earth will be hit by an asteroid or comet of potentially catastrophic size. It has happened many times before, and it will happen again. Earth shares the Solar System with millions upon millions of asteroids large and small, and inevitably our world will collide with theirs. It's not a question of if, but rather, when. To save ourselves and future generations, we must improve our ability to identify dangerous space objects hurtling our way, and, just as critically, figure out how to deflect or destroy them--if we can. Rich in detail and vast in scope, [this book] is a scientific adventure story that takes us from scenes of ancient asteroid impacts, like the one that wiped out the dinosaurs, to mountaintop observatories where professional asteroid hunters seek their prey, to international conferences where experts play out "asteroid war games," to sightings of asteroids that sometimes explode in our atmosphere with the force of large nuclear bombs. Despite the grave dangers asteroids pose, Dillow finds in them awe-inspiring beauty, writing with infectious enthusiasm about their dramatic origins, their intricate journeys, and their odd shapes. More than just a call to action, Fire in the Sky is a testament to the wonders of the universe."--Dust jacket.
Author: Wolf, Thomas, 1945- author. Published: 2019 Call Number: B WOLF Format: Books Summary: A moving and uplifting history set to music that reveals the rich life of one of the first internationally renowned female violinists. Spanning generations, from the shores of the Black Sea to the glittering concert halls of New York, The Nightingale's Sonata is a richly woven tapestry centered around violin virtuoso Lea Luboshutz. Like many poor Jews, music offered an escape from the prejudices that dominated society in the last years of the Russian Empire. But Lea's dramatic rise as an artist was further accentuated by her scandalous relationship with the revolutionary Onissim Goldovsky. As the world around them descends in to chaos, between revolution and war, we follow Lea and her family from Russia to Europe and eventually, America. We cross paths with Pablo Casals, Isadora Duncan, Emile Zola and even Leo Tolstoy. The little girl from Odessa will eventually end up as one of the founding faculty of the prestigious Curtis Institute of Music, but along the way she will lose her true love, her father, and watch a son die young. The Iron Curtain would rise, but through it all, she plays on. Woven throughout this luminous odyssey is the story is César Franck's "Sonata for Violin and Piano," a work championed by Lea, one of the first-ever internationally recognized female violinists. It became a touchstone for her, for her multi-generational family of musicians, and for scores of her students who played this masterwork throughout the world.
Author: Akhtar, Aysha, author. Safina, Carl, 1955- writer of foreword. Published: 2019 Call Number: 590 Format: Books Summary: "A leader in the fields of animal ethics and neurology examines the rich human-animal connection and how interspecies empathy enriches our well-being." -- From book jacket flap.
Author: Waldman, Steven, author. Published: 2019 Call Number: 323.44 Format: Books Summary: "Sacred Liberty offers a dramatic, sweeping survey of how America built a unique model of religious freedom, perhaps the nation's "greatest invention." Steven Waldman, the bestselling author of Founding Faith, shows how early ideas about religious liberty were tested and refined amidst the brutal persecution of Catholics, Baptists, Mormons, Quakers, African slaves, Native Americans, Muslims, Jews and Jehovah's Witnesses. American leaders drove religious freedom forward--figures like James Madison, George Washington, the World War II presidents (Roosevelt, Truman, and Eisenhower) and even George W. Bush. But the biggest heroes were the regular Americans--people like Mary Dyer, Marie Barnett and W.D. Mohammed--who risked their lives or reputations by demanding to practice their faiths freely."--Page [2] of cover.
Author: Saini, Angela, 1980- author. Published: 2019 Call Number: 305.8007 Format: Books Summary: "A powerful look at the non-scientific history of "race science," and the assumptions, prejudices, and incentives that have allowed it to reemerge in contemporary science Superior tells the disturbing story of the persistent thread of belief in biological racial differences in the world of science. After the horrors of the Nazi regime in WWII, the mainstream scientific world turned its back on eugenics and the study of racial difference. But a worldwide network of unrepentant eugenicists quietly founded journals and funded research, providing the kind of shoddy studies that were ultimately cited in Richard Hernstein's and Charles Murray's 1994 title, The Bell Curve, which purported to show differences in intelligence among races. If the vast majority of scientists and scholars disavowed these ideas, and considered race a social construct, it was still an idea that managed to somehow make its way into the research into the human genome that began in earnest in the mid-1990s and continues today. Dissecting the statements and work of contemporary scientists studying human biodiversity, most of whom claim to be just following the data, Saini shows us how, again and again, science is retrofitted to accommodate race. Even as our understanding of highly complex traits like intelligence, and the complicated effect of environmental influences on human beings, from the molecular level on up, grows, the hope of finding simple genetic differences between "races"--to explain differing rates of disease, to explain poverty or test scores or to justify cultural assumptions--stubbornly persists. At a time when racialized nationalisms are a resurgent threat throughout the world, Superior is a powerful reminder that biologically, we are all far more alike than different"-- "In Superior award-winning science writer Angela Saini explores the concept of race, past and present. She examines the dark roots of race research and how race has again crept gently back into science and medicine. And she investigates the people who use this research for their own political purposes, including white supremacists. They believe that populations are born different, in character and intellectually, and that this defines the success or failure of nations. It is a worldwide network of eugenicists with their own journals journals and sources of funding, providing the kind of shoddy studies that were ultimately cited in Richard Hernstein's and Charles Murray's 1994 title, The Bell Curve, which purported to show differences in intelligence among races. Taking us from Darwin through the civil rights movement to modern-day ancestry testing, Saini examines how deeply our present is influenced by our past, and the role that politics has so often had to play in our understanding of race. Superior is a powerful, rigorous, much needed examination of the insidious history and damaging consequences of race science and the unfortunate reasons behind its apparent recent resurgence across the globe"--
Author: Hazen, Robert M., 1948- author. Published: 2019 Call Number: 577.144 Format: Books Summary: "Carbon is everywhere: in the paper of this book and the blood of our bodies. It's with us from beginning to end, present in our baby clothes and coffin alike. We live on a carbon planet, and we are carbon life. No other element is so central to our well-being; yet, when missing or misaligned, carbon atoms can also bring about disease and even death. At once ubiquitous and mysterious, carbon holds the answers to some of humanity's biggest questions. Where did Earth come from? What will ultimately become of it--and of us? With poetic storytelling, earth scientist Robert M. Hazen explores the universe to discover the past, present, and future of life's most essential element." --Amazon.com.
Author: Coleman, Eliot, 1938- author. Published: 2018 Call Number: 635 COLEMAN Format: Books Summary: "Inspired by the European intensive growers, [this book] offers a very approachable and productive form of farming that has proven to work well for the earth and its stewards for centuries. Gardeners working on 2.5 acres or less will find this book especially useful, as it offers proof that small-scale market growers and serious home gardeners can live good lives close to the land and make a profit at the same time."--
Author: Morton, Kati, author. Published: 2018 Call Number: 362.2 MORTON Format: Books Summary: "Get answers to your most common questions about mental health and mental illness--including anxiety, depression, bipolar and eating disorders, and more. [This book] walks readers through the most common questions about mental health and the process of getting help--from finding the best therapist to navigating harmful and toxic relationships and everything in between. In the same down-to-earth, friendly tone that makes her videos so popular, licensed marriage and family therapist and YouTube sensation Kati Morton clarifies and destigmatizes the struggles so many of us go through and encourages readers to reach out for help."--Back cover.
Author: Carlisle, Kate, 1951- author. Published: 2018 Call Number: LP F CARLISLE Format: Large print Summary: "In the latest in this New York Times bestselling series, matrimony and murder collide as San Francisco book-restoration expert Brooklyn Wainwright walks down the aisle... Brooklyn has it all covered. She's triple-checked her wedding to-do list, and everything is on track for the upcoming ceremony with the love of her life, security expert Derek Stone. Not everyone has been as lucky in love as Brooklyn. Her old college roommates Heather and Sara lost touch twelve years ago when Sara stole Heather's boyfriend. Brooklyn was caught in the middle and hasn't seen her former besties since their falling-out. When they both show up at her surprise bridal shower, Brooklyn is sure drama will ensue. But she's touched when the women seem willing to sort out their differences and gift her rare copies of The Three Musketeers and The Red Fairy Book. Brooklyn's prewedding calm is shattered when one of her formerly feuding friends is found murdered and Brooklyn determines that one of the rare books is a forgery. She can't help but wonder if the victim played a part in this fraud, or if she was targeted because she discovered the scam. With a killer and con artist on the loose, Brooklyn and Derek--with the unsolicited help of their meddling mothers--must catch the culprit before their big day turns into a big mess"--
Author: King, Stephen, 1947- author. Published: 2016 1986 Call Number: F KING Format: Books Summary: They were seven teenagers when they first stumbled upon the horror. Now they were grown-up men and women who had gone out into the big world to gain success and happiness. But none of them could withstand the force that drew them back to Derry, Maine to face the nightmare without an end, and the evil without a name.
Author: Fleming, Ian, 1908-1964. Published: 2012 Call Number: F FLEMING Format: Books Summary: British secret agent James Bond takes on "Le Chiffre", a lethal Soviet operative with a weakness for gambling. Bond's mission is to bankrupt Le Chiffre at the baccarat table so Moscow will kill him to avoid further embarassment.
Author: Greaney, Mark, author. Rawlings, Hunter Ripley, 1971- author. Published: 2019 Call Number: F GREANEY Format: Books Summary: From the New York Times bestselling author of the Gray Man series comes a startlingly realistic novel of World War III. A desperate Kremlin takes advantage of a military crisis in Asia to simultaneously strike into Western Europe and invade east Africa in a bid to occupy three Rare Earth mineral mines that will give Russia unprecedented control for generations over the world's hi-tech sector. Pitted against the Russians are a Marine lieutenant colonel pulled out of a cushy job at the Pentagon and thrown into the fray in Africa, a French Special Forces captain and his intelligence operative father, a young Polish female partisan fighter, an A-10 Warthog pilot, and the commander of an American tank platoon who, along with his German counterpart, fight from behind enemy lines in Germany all the way into Russia. From a daring MiG attack on American satellites, through land and air battles in all theaters, naval battles in the Arabian sea, and small unit fighting down to the hand-to-hand level in the jungle, Russia's forces battle to either take the mines or detonate a nuclear device to prevent the West from exploiting them.
Author: Sesay, Isha, 1976- author. Published: 2019 Call Number: 363.325 Format: Books Summary: The host of "CNN Newsroom Live" presents a definitive account of Boko Haram's 2014 abduction of two hundred seventy-six Chibok schoolgirls, sharing first-person insights based on the author's escape with twenty-one survivors. In the early morning of April 14, 2014, the militant Islamic group Boko Haram violently burst into the small town of Chibok, Nigeria, and abducted 276 girls from their school dorm rooms. From poor families, these girls were determined to make better lives for themselves, but pursuing an education made them targets, resulting in one of the most high-profile abductions in modern history. While the Chibok kidnapping made international headlines, and prompted the #BringBackOurGirls movement, many unanswered questions surrounding that fateful night remain about the girls' experiences in captivity, and where many of them are today.
Author: Clark, Clare, author. Published: 2019 Call Number: F CLARK Format: Books Summary: "Based on a true story, this gorgeous new novel follows the fortunes of three Berliners caught up in an art scandal--involving newly discovered van Goghs--that rocks Germany amidst the Nazis' rise to power. Hedonistic and politically turbulent, Berlin in the 1920s is a city of seedy night clubs and sumptuous art galleries. It is home to millionaires and mobs storming bakeries for rationed bread. These disparate Berlins collide when Emmeline, a young art student; Julius, an art expert; and a mysterious dealer named Rachmann all find themselves caught up in the astonishing discovery of thirty-two previously unknown paintings by Vincent van Gogh. In the Full Light of the Sun explores the trio's complex relationships and motivations, their hopes, their vanities, and their self-delusions--for the paintings are fakes and they are in their own ways complicit. Theirs is a cautionary tale about of the aspirations of the new Germany and a generation determined to put the humiliations of the past behind them. With her signature impeccable and evocative historical detail, Clare Clark has written a gripping novel about beauty and justice, and the truth that may be found when our most treasured beliefs are revealed as illusions"--
