May Picks - Nonfiction

The Lambs: My Father, a Farm, and the Gift of a Flock of Sheep By Carole George Cover Image
$26.99
Email or call for price.
ISBN: 9781250113528
Published: Thomas Dunne Books - April 24th, 2018

"An enchanting book--please read." --Dr. Jane Goodall, DBE; Founder of the Jane Goodall Institute & UN Messenger of Peace

In this touching memoir about the relationship between father, daughter, and animals, Carole explores life after adopting thirteen pet Karakul lambs. Throughout her years with the lambs and her aging father, she comes to realize the distinct personality of each creative, and to understand more fully the almost spiritual bond between man and animals.

This is a beautiful book in every way that will touch the hearts of readers everywhere.

"In her new book, The Lambs, Carole George shares the fulfillment she has experienced over years tending a flock of sheep. I hope that this book will inspire readers to become more compassionate toward the living beings deprived of the many privileges we humans enjoy." --His Holiness The Dalai Lama

"The Lambs is beautifully written, and right on target as an example of the natural--pastoral--world where we may achieve the fullness of human experience. Our descendants may gravitate toward the equivalent of Carole's] Virginia farm." --Edward O. Wilson, University Research Professor Emeritus, Harvard University


North: Finding My Way While Running the Appalachian Trail By Jenny Jurek (With), Scott Jurek Cover Image
$28.00
Email or call for price.
ISBN: 9780316433792
Published: Little, Brown Spark - April 10th, 2018

From the author of the bestseller Eat and Run, a thrilling new memoir about his grueling, exhilarating, and immensely inspiring 46-day run to break the speed record for the Appalachian Trail.

Scott Jurek is one of the world's best known and most beloved ultrarunners. Renowned for his remarkable endurance and speed, accomplished on a vegan diet, he's finished first in nearly all of ultrarunning's elite events over the course of his career. But after two decades of racing, training, speaking, and touring, Jurek felt an urgent need to discover something new about himself. He embarked on a wholly unique challenge, one that would force him to grow as a person and as an athlete: breaking the speed record for the Appalachian Trail. North is the story of the 2,189-mile journey that nearly shattered him.

When he set out in the spring of 2015, Jurek anticipated punishing terrain, forbidding weather, and inevitable injuries. He would have to run nearly 50 miles a day, every day, for almost seven weeks. He knew he would be pushing himself to the limit, that comfort and rest would be in short supply -- but he couldn't have imagined the physical and emotional toll the trip would exact, nor the rewards it would offer.

With his wife, Jenny, friends, and the kindness of strangers supporting him, Jurek ran, hiked, and stumbled his way north, one white blaze at a time. A stunning narrative of perseverance and personal transformation, North is a portrait of a man stripped bare on the most demanding and transcendent effort of his life. It will inspire runners and non-runners alike to keep striving for their personal best.


The American Spirit: Who We Are and What We Stand For By David McCullough Cover Image
$17.00
ISBN: 9781501174193
Availability: Not in stock. At Our Partner Warehouse: Usually Ships in 4-7 Days
Published: Simon & Schuster - April 10th, 2018

A timely collection of speeches by David McCullough, the most honored historian in the United States--winner of two Pulitzer Prizes, two National Book Awards, and the Presidential Medal of Freedom, among many others--that reminds us of fundamental American principles.

Over the course of his distinguished career, David McCullough has spoken before Congress, the White House, colleges and universities, historical societies, and other esteemed institutions. Now, at a time of self-reflection in America following a bitter election campaign that has left the country divided, McCullough has collected some of his most important speeches in a brief volume designed to identify important principles and characteristics that are particularly American. The American Spirit reminds us of core American values to which we all subscribe, regardless of which region we live in, which political party we identify with, or our ethnic background. This is a book about America for all Americans that reminds us who we are and helps to guide us as we find our way forward.


Assume the Worst: The Graduation Speech You'll Never Hear By Carl Hiaasen, Roz Chast (Illustrator) Cover Image
By Carl Hiaasen, Roz Chast (Illustrator)
$15.95
Email or call for price.
ISBN: 9780525655015
Published: Knopf - April 10th, 2018

This is Oh, the Places You’ll Never Go—the ultimate hilarious, cynical, but absolutely realistic view of a college graduate’s future. And what he or she can or can’t do about it.

“This commencement address will never be given, because graduation speakers are supposed to offer encouragement and inspiration. That’s not what you need. You need a warning.”


So begins Carl Hiaasen’s attempt to prepare young men and women for their future. And who better to warn them about their precarious paths forward than Carl Hiaasen? The answer, after reading Assume the Worst, is: Nobody.
And who better to illustrate—and with those illustrations, expand upon and cement Hiaasen’s cynical point of view—than Roz Chast, best-selling author/illustrator and National Book Award winner? The answer again is easy: Nobody.


Following the format of Anna Quindlen’s commencement address (Being Perfect) and George Saunders’s commencement address (Congratulations, by the way), the collaboration of Hiaasen and Chast might look typical from the outside, but inside it is anything but.


This book is bound to be a classic, sold year after year come graduation time. Although it’s also a good gift for anyone starting a job, getting married, or recently released from prison. Because it is not just funny. It is, in its own Hiaasen way, extremely wise and even hopeful. Well, it might not be full of hope, but there are certainly enough slivers of the stuff in there to more than keep us all going.


Fascism: A Warning By Madeleine Albright Cover Image
$27.99
ISBN: 9780062802187
Availability: Not in stock. At Our Partner Warehouse: Usually Ships in 4-7 Days
Published: Harper - April 10th, 2018

A personal and urgent examination of Fascism in the twentieth century and how its legacy shapes today’s world, written by one of America’s most admired public servants, the first woman to serve as U.S. secretary of state

A fascist, observes Madeleine Albright, “is someone who claims to speak for a whole nation or group, is utterly unconcerned with the rights of others, and is willing to use violence and whatever other means are necessary to achieve the goals he or she might have.”

The twentieth century was defined by the clash between democracy and fascism, a struggle that created uncertainty about the survival of human freedom and left millions dead. Given the horrors of that experience, one might expect the world to reject the spiritual successors to Hitler and Mussolini should they arise in our era. In Fascism: A Warning, Madeleine Albright draws on her experiences as a child in war-torn Europe and her distinguished career as a diplomat to question that assumption.

Fascism, as she shows, not only endured through the twentieth century but now presents a more virulent threat to peace and justice than at any time since the end of World War II. The momentum toward democracy that swept the world when the Berlin Wall fell has gone into reverse. The United States, which historically championed the free world, is led by a president who exacerbates division and heaps scorn on democratic institutions. In many countries, economic, technological, and cultural factors are weakening the political center and empowering the extremes of right and left. Contemporary leaders such as Vladimir Putin and Kim Jong-un are employing many of the tactics used by Fascists in the 1920s and ’30s.

Fascism: A Warning is a book for our times that is relevant to all times. Written by someone who has not only studied history but helped to shape it, this call to arms teaches us the lessons we must understand and the questions we must answer if we are to save ourselves from repeating the tragic errors of the past.


Life in the Sloth Lane: Slow Down and Smell the Hibiscus By Lucy Cooke Cover Image
$12.95
ISBN: 9780761193227
Availability: Not in stock. At Our Partner Warehouse: Usually Ships in 4-7 Days
Published: Workman Publishing Company - April 17th, 2018

Is there a reason sloths are always smiling? Yes! They’ve mastered the art of living slow in a world whose pace is making everyone crazy. Along with being the “it” animal—“sloths are the new kittens” (Washington Post)—the sloth clearly has much to teach us about how to live.


Combining the irresistible cuteness of sloths with words of wisdom about slowing down, Life in the Sloth Lane is a mindfulness book like no other. On spread after spread we see heart-tugging, full-color images of sloths—grown-ups and babies, both two-toed and three-toed, draped in trees, lying on hammocks, eating, hugging, nuzzling, playing—paired with inspiration on the joy of living slow, including quotes from Thoreau and Emily Dickinson, Paulo Coehlo and Elizabeth Gilbert.


Written by Lucy Cooke, author of the sellout Sloths calendar and the “Steven Spielberg of sloth filmmaking” (The Atlantic), Life in the Sloth Lane is the perfect gift for anyone who wants to step out of the fast lane. Or—hint, hint—needs to.


Natural Causes: An Epidemic of Wellness, the Certainty of Dying, and Killing Ourselves to Live Longer By Barbara Ehrenreich Cover Image
$27.00
Email or call for price.
ISBN: 9781455535910
Published: Twelve - April 10th, 2018

Bestselling author of Nickel and Dimed, Barbara Ehrenreich explores how we are killing ourselves to live longer, not better.

 
A razor-sharp polemic which offers an entirely new understanding of our bodies, ourselves, and our place in the universe, Natural Causes describes how we over-prepare and worry way too much about what is inevitable. One by one, Ehrenreich topples the shibboleths that guide our attempts to live a long, healthy life -- from the importance of preventive medical screenings to the concepts of wellness and mindfulness, from dietary fads to fitness culture.

But Natural Causes goes deeper -- into the fundamental unreliability of our bodies and even our "mind-bodies," to use the fashionable term. Starting with the mysterious and seldom-acknowledged tendency of our own immune cells to promote deadly cancers, Ehrenreich looks into the cellular basis of aging, and shows how little control we actually have over it. We tend to believe we have agency over our bodies, our minds, and even over the manner of our deaths. But the latest science shows that the microscopic subunits of our bodies make their own "decisions," and not always in our favor.

We may buy expensive anti-aging products or cosmetic surgery, get preventive screenings and eat more kale, or throw ourselves into meditation and spirituality. But all these things offer only the illusion of control. How to live well, even joyously, while accepting our mortality -- that is the vitally important philosophical challenge of this book.

Drawing on varied sources, from personal experience and sociological trends to pop culture and current scientific literature, Natural Causes examines the ways in which we obsess over death, our bodies, and our health. Both funny and caustic, Ehrenreich then tackles the seemingly unsolvable problem of how we might better prepare ourselves for the end -- while still reveling in the lives that remain to us.


Why Travel Matters: A Guide to the Life-Changing Effects of Travel By Craig Storti Cover Image
$24.95
Email or call for price.
ISBN: 9781473670280
Published: Nicholas Brealey - April 17th, 2018

Why Travel Matters explores the profound life lessons that await anyone who wishes to learn what travel has to teach. With engaging prose, delightful wit and a distinctive style, Craig Storti infuses his own experiences traveling the world for 30+ years with quotations, insights, reflections and commentary from famous travelers, great travel writers, historians and literary masters. Storti's vast knowledge of the literature makes him an expert curator of astute gems from the likes of: St. Augustine, Mark Twain, Somerset Maugham, D. H. Lawrence, Bruce Chatwin, Aldous Huxley and more.