New Non-fiction

School is back in session, the temperatures are getting a little cooler and everyone has busy schedules. But if you like books, you will always find a few minutes here or there to pick one up and read for a little while. Below are a few books that you will find on the new nonfiction kiosks on the main level.

And Here, 100 years of Upper Peninsula writing 1917-2017. Upper Peninsula literature has been suppressed or minimized in Michigan anthologies and Michigan literature as a whole. If you love the U.P. you will find stories that are eclectic, surprising, vivid, harsh, warm and wild. If the U.P. runs through your veins, whether you were born here or just visit, this book beautifully conveys the country through the best words and best writers of the past and present. (810.8 AN)

Happiness, a memoir, by Heather Harpham. This is a shirt-grabbing, page-turning love story that follows a one-of-a-kind family through twists of fate that require nearly unimaginable choices. With intelligence and lyricism and compassion, Harpham gives us her story of the rocky road that sometimes leads right where you want it to. At first glance, this book is a honest captivating story about parenting a sick child, but it turns out to be something even more interesting, exploring the complexities of love. (618.3 HA)

The Great Quake, how the biggest earthquake in North America changed our understanding of the planet, by Henry Fountain. On March 27, 1964 at 5:36pm a magnitude 9.2 earthquake struck the state of Alaska. This earthquake demolished the city of Valdez and swept away the island village of Chenega. It devastated the southern half of the state and killed more than 130 people. A day later, George Plafker arrived to investigate. He hunted for clues to explain how and why it took place. His fascinating scientific detective work in the months that followed helped confirm the then controversial theory of plate tectonics. Journalist Henry Fountain brings the quake and its aftermath to life in vivid detail. With reporting from Alaska and in the company of George Plafker, Fountain shows how the earthquake left its mark on the land and its people, and on science.

Everything All At Once, by Bill Nye. From his time as a young physics student to his years working as a professional engineer, Bill developed a worldview that there was no problem that could not be solved with the unique blend of curiosity, patience, and creativity. This is the story of Bill’s life thus far and a guide to honing your own nerd mindset. He moves through the moment when he fell in love with physics, math, and the power of the slide rule. He shares lessons he learned as an engineer at Boeing, a stand-up comedian, the CEO of The Planetary Society, and a beloved figure on television. This book is also a stirring call to arms, urging you to stand up and become an active, rather than passive, member of your democracy. Bill argues that deep down, we’re all nerds in a way, and nerds don’t give up. Bill teaches us that we have the ability, the power, and the responsibility to think critically and take control of the future.

Sci-Fi on Tap

The Peter White Public Library has started a new book club:  Sci-Fi on Tap.  It meets the third Wednesday of every month at 7:00 pm in the Ore Dock’s tap room.  Join us to discuss some classics and check out what’s new in PWPL’s science fiction section.

Convergence by C.J. Cherryh is the 18th novel in her Foreigner series.  After successfully negotiating a treaty with the Kyo, Bren Cameron must now present it to the human government, many of whose members distrust him because of how he has embraced the Atevi language and culture. Meanwhile, on the mainland Cajeiri, heir to Tabini-aiji, at the felicitous age of nine, must learn how to deal with the many Atevi clans, not all of whom like the changes that humans have brought with them.

Imagine a universe where a different anthropomorphized sapient mammal populates each planet.  Such a universe exists in Barsk:  The Elephants’ Graveyard by Lawrence M. Schoen.  The fants, considered the lowest of all species, live on a dreary, rainy world, valued only for the pharmaceuticals it provides, especially koph which allows users to communicate with the dead.  When a number of dying elderly fants disappear but do not appear in the spirit world, it is up to Jorl, historian and speaker to the dead, to discover what has happened to them.

When Maria wakes up in the cloning vat filled with synth-amneo fluid, it takes her a moment to realize that not all is as it should be.  Globs of blood are floating around her vat and the other crew members have been cloned meaning that they must have all died in the same time frame.  Is there a killer among them?  With decades missing from her memory, Maria, the other crew members, and the ship’s computer IAN must solve the mystery of their death, rebirth, and pasts if they are to survive in this sci-fi mystery Six Wakes by Mur Lafferty.

In The Hike by Drew Magary, businessman, Ben, away on yet another trip, decides to take a hike near his hotel.  When he witnesses two men in Rottweiler masks killing a young girl, he screams for help, only to have the men start chasing him.  Unable to find his way out of the woods or to get any cell phone reception, he must begin his journey where the one rule is to stay on the path if he is to find his way back home.

Set in the not too distant future, Crosstalk by Connie Willis examines unexpected consequences.  Briddey Flannigan is in love with co-worker Trent Worth.  When he asks her to undergo a medical procedure to enhance their emotional communication, she is delighted, despite warnings from her family and company nerd, C.B. Schwartz.  When she wakes up from surgery, however, it is not Trent’s emotions that she feels, but C.B.’s voice in her head.  How could this happen?  And will the unexpected consequences end there?

Littered with discarded biotech from the Company, ravaged by drought and war, the world described in Bourne by Jeff Vanermeer is a polluted and dangerous place.  One day while scavenging, Rachel finds a piece of biotech which she names Bourne.  Is Bourne a plant? Animal? Person?  Despite warnings from her partner Wick, Rachel decides to raise Bourne as her child, a decision that will have massive consequences not only for her but the world she lives in.

--Carolyn McManis, Programming Coordinator

Transitions

Every year when I see that first glimpse of color in the trees, I wonder if I’m ready.  Fall is a time of transition for many people, whether it is simply starting a new school year or a move or a life change.  Peter White Public Library has many new titles that may guide you through your next transition.

If you’re a parent of a teenage girl you may be witnessing changing moods by the minute.  In Untangled: Guiding Teenage Girls Through the Seven Transitions into Adulthood, author Lisa Damour, director of the internationally renowned Laurel School's Center for Research on Girls, pulls back the curtain on the teenage years and shows why your daughter's erratic and confusing behavior is actually healthy, necessary, and natural. Untangled explains what's going on, prepares parents for what's to come, and lets them know when it's time to worry.

Tell Me Everything You Don't Remember: The Stroke That Changed My Life is a memoir of survival.   Christine Hyung-Oak Lee woke up with a headache on New Year’s Eve 2006. By that afternoon, she saw the world quite literally upside down. By New Year’s Day, she was unable to form a coherent sentence. After hours in the ER, days in the hospital, and multiple questions and tests, she learned that she had had a stroke. For months, Lee outsourced her memories to her notebook. It is from these memories that she shares her experience.

We have many books that give advice on how to reorganize or enrich your life.  One of these is Let it go: downsizing your way to a richer, happier life by Peter Walsh.  Walsh doesn't see downsizing as a difficult chore, rather, it's a freeing, rejuvenating process. In Let It Go, you'll access Walsh's many tips and practical takeaways, such as how to understand the emotional challenges that accompany downsizing; how to create strategies for working with your spouse, adult kids, or siblings without drama; how to calculate the amount of stuff you can bring into your new life; and how to identify the objects that will bring you real happiness, and the rest that you should let go.

Another such book is Designing Your Life: How to Build a Well-lived, Joyful Life by Bill Burnett and Dave Evans.  Burnett and Evans believe that in order to change, people need a process-- a design process-- to help them figure out what they want and how to create it. Rather than dreaming up a lot of fun fantasies that have no relationship to the real world-- or the real you-- they show us how to build a future brick by brick, how to approach our own life design challenges with curiosity and creativity. They give us the tools and show us certain simple "mind-sets," and how to use them to practice life design.

Author Earl E. Hocquard offers hope to the newly single in his book, Dating Doesn't Have to Be Disastrous Anymore: Rediscovering Who You Are and What You're Looking For.   According to Hocquard, we bring good qualities and personal flaws into our relationships. We bring health and a hurtful past. Quickly, we realize how much work a relationship demands. Each of us can invest good things for great results. It helps to understand: The different dynamics that cause unhealthy, hurtful relationships and those qualities that help grow healthy, inspiring ones; The art of building meaningful skills in communication, listening, conflict resolution, and identifying the values you are seeking in another; how to identify a healthy relationship, how to discern unhealthy ones, and how to bring healing and growth to your past dynamics and wounds."

For those facing the end of life for themselves or a loved one, Caring for the Dying: The Doula Approach to a Meaningful Death describes a whole new way to approach death and dying. It explores how the dying and their families can bring deep meaning and great comfort to the care given at the end of a life. Created by Henry Fersko-Weiss, the end-of-life doula model is adapted from the work of birth doulas and helps the dying to find meaning in their life, express that meaning in powerful and beautiful legacies, and plan for the final days. The approach calls for around-the-clock vigil care, so the dying person and their family have the emotional and spiritual support they need along with guidance on signs and symptoms of dying. It also covers the work of reprocessing a death with the family afterward and the early work of grieving. Emphasis is placed on the space around the dying person and encourages the use of touch, guided imagery, and ritual during the dying process. The guidance provided can help a dying person, their family, and caregivers to transform the dying experience from one of fear and despair into one that is uplifting and even life affirming.

Sometimes the conscious choice not to change can lead to a new relationship with old circumstances.  How we come to feel at home in our towns and cities is what Melody Warnick sets out to discover in This Is Where You Belong: The Art and Science of Loving the Place You Live. She dives into the body of research around place attachment--the deep sense of connection that binds some of us to our cities and increases our physical and emotional well-being--then travels to towns across America to see it in action. Inspired by a growing movement of placemaking, she examines what its practitioners are doing to create likeable locales. She also speaks with frequent movers and loyal stayers around the country to learn what draws highly mobile Americans to a new city, and what makes us stay. The best ideas she imports to her adopted hometown of Blacksburg for a series of Love Where You Live experiments designed to make her feel more locally connected.  Examples are dining with her neighbors, shopping small business Saturday and marching in the town Christmas parade.

--Ellen Moore, Web Developer

New Selections

The Peter White Public Library offers these recently added new titles.

Lake Fish: Modern Cooking with Freshwater Fish by Keane Amdahl.
A cookbook for those who want to make the most of their catches from the lakes and streams. The recipes in this volume focus on species found in the upper Great Lakes, in our local rivers, streams, big lakes, and smaller lakes. Many of the non-fish ingredients are foods that are commonly foraged, grown in gardens, or purchased from local farmers.
New non-fiction 641.392 AM

Prohibition in the Upper Peninsula: Booze & Bootleggers on the Border by Russell M. Magnaghi. Another local history volume from NMU history professor Dr. Magnaghi. This time he chronicles the raucous history of prohibition in the Upper Peninsula. Many in the UP were finding ways around the outright ban of alcohol that existed in Michigan from from 1917 to 1933, be it home-production, bootlegging, a “prescription” for alcohol, or by amassing large personal stashes just as the ban was going into effect. Enforcement largely fell on the newly formed Michigan Constabulary (State Police). The book touches on a variety of topics, including the dance-hall culture, and attitudes around the region towards other vices at the time. Illustrated with numerous images from the period.
New non-fiction 364.1332 MA

Seven Stones to Stand or Fall: A Collection of Outlander Fiction by Diana Gabaldon.
If you can’t get enough of the exploits of the characters in the Outlander series, this book contains seven novellas which serve to fill in storylines and timelines not covered in the full Outlander novels. Five of these novellas are pre-existing material, and two are newly written. Book 9 in the Outlander series “Go Tell the Bees That I Am Gone”, is not due out until at least 2018.
New fiction under Gabaldon

A Dog’s Way Home by W. Bruce Cameron.
From the author of the bestselling novel “A Dog’s Purpose”, which was turned into a feature film, and was one of the movies shown at the library last month. This is the third book in the Dog’s Purpose series, all of which are owned by the library. In this book, Lucas Ray discovers a puppy in an abandoned building, and they form a quick bond. The main problem is that the apartment he shares with his disabled mother does not allow dogs. Man and dog must find a routine that does not get them in trouble, which is difficult to achieve.
New fiction under Cameron

--Bruce MacDonald, Technical Services Librarian