FINDING BOOKS IN THE LIBRARY
You can find books in the library on your own via the HOUSATONIC SEARCH with the default of Delivery Format: Book and Resource Type Books (see graphic). New books arrive every month. Librarians can help also!
BOOKS FOR RESEARCH ON CURRENT EVENT TOPICS
Sticks and Stones by
Bazelon defines what bullying is and, just as important, what it is not; explores when intervention is essential and when kids should be given the freedom to fend for themselves; dispels persistent myths about bullying; and takes her readers into schools that have succeeded in reducing bullying and examines their successful strategies.
Call Number: BF637.B85 B39 2013ISBN: 9780812992809Publication Date: 2013-02-19
Mass Incarceration Nation by
The United States imprisons a higher proportion of its population than any other nation. Mass Incarceration Nation offers a novel, in-the-trenches perspective to explain the factors - historical, political, and institutional - that led to the current system of mass imprisonment. The book examines the causes and impacts of mass incarceration on both the political and criminal justice systems. With accessible language and straightforward statistical analysis, former prosecutor turned law professor Jeffrey Bellin provides a formula for reform to return to the low incarceration rates that characterized the United States prior to the 1970s.
Call Number: KF9223 .B45 2023ISBN: 9781009267540Publication Date: 2022-11-17
Crossings by
Some 40 million miles of roadways encircle the earth, yet we tend to regard them only as infrastructure for human convenience. While roads are so ubiquitous they're practically invisible to us, wild animals experience them as entirely alien forces of death and disruption. In Crossings, environmental journalist Ben Goldfarb travels throughout the United States and around the world to investigate how roads have transformed our planet. A million animals are killed by cars each day in the U.S. alone, but as the new science of road ecology shows, the harms of highways extend far beyond roadkill. Creatures from antelope to salmon are losing their ability to migrate in search of food and mates; invasive plants hitch rides in tire treads; road salt contaminates lakes and rivers; and the very noise of traffic chases songbirds from vast swaths of habitat. Yet road ecologists are also seeking to blunt the destruction through innovative solutions. Goldfarb meets with conservationists building bridges for California's mountain lions and tunnels for English toads, engineers deconstructing the labyrinth of logging roads that web national forests, animal rehabbers caring for Tasmania's car-orphaned wallabies, and community organizers working to undo the havoc highways have wreaked upon American cities. Today, as our planet's road network continues to grow exponentially, the science of road ecology has become increasingly vital. Written with passion and curiosity, Crossings is a sweeping, spirited, and timely investigation into how humans have altered the natural world--and how we can create a better future for all living beings.
Call Number: TD195.R63 G65 2023ISBN: 9781324005896Publication Date: 2023-09-12
Teens and Social Media by
For all its benefits, including its ability to build communities and provide a creative outlet, social media also poses a threat to the health and well-being of today's teens. This volume features a diverse array of perspectives weighing in on the controversies surrounding social media's effect on youth today. Is social media detrimental to the mental health of young people? Who should bear the responsibility for monitoring use? Is cyberbullying a problem or part of the territory? Are privacy threats a serious concern? These questions and more are addressed by experts in the field.
Call Number: HQ799.2.S59 T44 2023Publication Date: 2022-12-30
I'm Saying No! by
Written specifically for women who are still afraid to speak up for themselves, especially women whose personal history of child sexual abuse or sexual assault, as an adult has wounded them so much they have lost their voice.
Call Number: HV6556 .E64 2019ISBN: 9781631525254Publication Date: 2019-04-02
The Rise of Authoritarianism by
Democratic ideals have retreated in Venezuela, the Philippines, Hungary, Russia, and Poland. Many worry that they're on the decline in such bastions of democracy as western Europe and the United States, where fear and distrust of the status quo has opened the door to authoritarian leaders
Call Number: JC480 .R57 2020ISBN: 9781534505643Publication Date: 2019-07-15
Dear America by
Notes Of An Undocumented Citizen is an urgent, provocative and deeply personal account from Jose Antonio Vargas, a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist who happens to be the most well-known undocumented immigrant in the United States.
Call Number: PN4874.V37 V37 2018ISBN: 9780062851352Publication Date: 2018-09-18
Bezonomics by
"..this book examines the underlying principles Bezos uses to achieve his dominance and shows how these are being borrowed and replicated by companies across the United States, in China, and elsewhere."
Call Number: HF5548.325.U5 D86 2020ISBN: 9781982113636Publication Date: 2020-05-12
MORE BOOKS FOR CURRENT EVENT TOPICS
Pathogenesis by
A "gripping" (The Washington Post) account of how the major transformations in history--from the rise of Homo sapiens to the birth of capitalism--have been shaped not by humans but by germs "Superbly written . . . Kennedy seamlessly weaves together scientific and historical research, and his confident authorial voice is sure to please readers of Yuval Noah Harari or Rutger Bregman."--The Times (U.K.) According to the accepted narrative of progress, humans have thrived thanks to their brains and brawn, collectively bending the arc of history. But in this revelatory book, Professor Jonathan Kennedy argues that the myth of human exceptionalism overstates the role that we play in social and political change. Instead, it is the humble microbe that wins wars and topples empires. Drawing on the latest research in fields ranging from genetics and anthropology to archaeology and economics, Pathogenesis takes us through sixty thousand years of history, exploring eight major outbreaks of infectious disease that have made the modern world. Bacteria and viruses were protagonists in the demise of the Neanderthals, the growth of Islam, the transition from feudalism to capitalism, the devastation wrought by European colonialism, and the evolution of the United States from an imperial backwater to a global superpower. Even Christianity rose to prominence in the wake of a series of deadly pandemics that swept through the Roman Empire in the second and third centuries: Caring for the sick turned what was a tiny sect into one of the world's major religions. By placing disease at the center of his wide-ranging history of humankind, Kennedy challenges some of the most fundamental assumptions about our collective past--and urges us to view this moment as another disease-driven inflection point that will change the course of history. Provocative and brimming with insight, Pathogenesis transforms our understanding of the human story.
Call Number: RA649 .K46 2023ISBN: 9780593240472Publication Date: 2023-04-18
Breaking the Promise of Brown by
" "A decision the Court and the Nation will come to regret." Ten years ago, the United States Supreme Court struck down two local school board initiatives meant to reverse extreme racial segregation in public schools. The sharply divided 5-4 decision in Parents Involved in Community Schools v. Seattle School District marked the end of an era of efforts by local authorities to fulfill the promise of racially integrated education envisioned by the Supreme Court in 1954 in Brown v. Board of Education. In a searing landmark dissent, Justice Stephen Breyer warned this was "a decision the Court and the Nation will come to regret." A decade later, the unabated resegregation of America's schools continues to confirm Justice Breyer's fears, as many schools and school districts across the country are more racially segregated today than they were in the late 1960s. Edited and introduced by Justice Breyer's former law clerk--and accompanied by a sobering update on the state of segregated schools in America today--this volume contains the full text of Justice Breyer's most impassioned opinion, a dissent that Justice John Paul Stevens called at the time "eloquent and unanswerable." The cautionary words of Justice Breyer should echo in classrooms across the country and in the hearts and minds of parents and schoolchildren everywhere. "egated schools in America today--this volume contains the full text of Justice Breyer's most impassioned opinion, a dissent that Justice John Paul Stevens called at the time "eloquent and unanswerable." The cautionary words of Justice Breyer should echo in classrooms across the country and in the hearts and minds of parents and schoolchildren everywhere."egated schools in America today--this volume contains the full text of Justice Breyer's most impassioned opinion, a dissent that Justice John Paul Stevens called at the time "eloquent and unanswerable." The cautionary words of Justice Breyer should echo in classrooms across the country and in the hearts and minds of parents and schoolchildren everywhere."egated schools in America today--this volume contains the full text of Justice Breyer's most impassioned opinion, a dissent that Justice John Paul Stevens called at the time "eloquent and unanswerable." The cautionary words of Justice Breyer should echo in classrooms across the country and in the hearts and minds of parents and schoolchildren everywhere."
Call Number: KF4155 .B674 2022Publication Date: 2022-04-19
The Social Media Debate by
- Provides an accessible insight into the latest research and most pressing concerns about social media platforms. - Features concise overview articles written by leading international scholars and established authorities in the field. - Brings together research from different disciplines in order to provide a well rounded examination of various currents issues and debates.
Call Number: HM742 .S628196 2022Publication Date: 2022-02-18
Fat, Stressed, and Sick: MSG, processed food, and America's health crisis by
Presents the scientific evidence that glutamate--aka MSG--in processed food contributes to a suite of preventable inflammatory diseases. Fat, Stressed, and Sick makes the case that processed food compromises health not just because of added sugar, salt, and fat, but also because these foods contain significant amounts of glutamate--aka MSG. MSG makes food deliciously addicting. What was not well-known until described here is that most of the MSG in processed food is created during food manufacturing. As the authors show, food processing of protein alone adds 10 grams or more a day of MSG to the average American diet--a statistic that may surprise you. The book details the research linking dietary glutamate to a suite of inflammatory diseases: obesity, diabetes, autism, addiction, depression, and cancer, to name a few. Understanding the role of MSG in disease became the quest of author and biochemist Katherine Reid when she learned that her young daughter's autism symptoms were associated with inflammation of the brain. Reid made the connection between inflammation and glutamate in the diet--a connection amply supported by other studies. A deep dive into food manufacturing patents and FDA regulations revealed that, in addition to industry practices that create MSG during food processing, MSG is also found in ingredients labeled "hydrolyzed protein," "yeast extract," and even "natural flavors," misleading labels that disguise a food's true MSG content. In what became an experiment in her home kitchen, Reid examined every ingredient on every food label, removing all items with MSG and replacing them with whole foods. The results were swift and undeniable. Reid's discovery that what one ate mattered was the start of a program of food-based solutions to chronic inflammatory illnesses, through which now, a decade later, she has helped thousands of people. The idea that large amounts glutamate in the diet jeopardizes health is supported by decades of research, despite efforts by the glutamate industry to discredit the scientific evidence that MSG poses a risk. Some would have you believe the science is settled. It is not. This book explains the science behind why we crave the MSG in processed food, why it is hidden, how it is making us sick, and what we can do about it.
Call Number: QP562.G5 R45 2023Publication Date: 2023-09-18
Young and Restless: the girls who sparked America's revolutions by
NPR's Books We Love 2023 Glamour's "The 15 Best Nonfiction Books of 2023, So Far" Vogue's "Best Books of 2023 (So Far)" Town & Country's "The 41 Must-Read Books of Summer 2023" A "heartening inspiration"(The New York Times), the untold story of the people who have helped spark America's most transformative social movements throughout history: teenage girls Nine months before Rosa Parks kicked off the bus boycotts, Claudette Colvin was arrested for refusing to give up her seat on a segregated bus in Montgomery, Alabama. She was fifteen. In 1912, women's rights activists organized a massive march in support of women's suffrage. Leading them up Fifth Avenue in Manhattan was not one of the mothers of the movement, but a teenage Chinese immigrant named Mabel Ping-Hua Lee. Half a century before the better-known movements for workers' rights began, over 1,500 girls--some as young as ten--walked out of factories in Lowell, Massachusetts, demanding safer working conditions and higher wages in one of the nation's first-ever labor strikes. Young women have been disenfranchised and discounted, but the true retelling of major social movements in America reveals their might: they have ignited almost every single one. Young and Restless recounts one of the most foundational and underappreciated forces in moments of American revolution: teenage girls. From the American Revolution itself to the Civil Rights Movement to nuclear disarmament protests and the women's liberation movement, through Black Lives Matter and school strikes for climate, Mattie Kahn uncovers how girls have leveraged their unique strengths, from fandom to intimate friendships, to organize and lay serious political groundwork for movements that often sidelined them. Their stories illuminate how much we owe to girls throughout the generations, what skills young women use to mobilize and find their voices, and, crucially, what we can all stand to learn from them.
Call Number: HQ799.2.P6 K346 2023Publication Date: 2023-06-13
The Climate Crisis by
Why, despite all we know about the causes and harms of global heating, has so little effective action been taken to cut greenhouse gas emissions, and what we can do to change that? This book explains the mechanisms and impacts of the climate crisis, traces the history and reasons behind the lack of serious effort to combat it, describes some people's ongoing scepticism and how to shift it, and motivates an urgent program of action. It argues that the pathway to stopping dangerous global heating will require a much larger mobilization of advocacy and activism to impel decision makers to abandon fossil fuels, and transition to renewable energy and electrification embedded in a political and social framework guided by justice principles. It is an excellent resource for students and researchers on the climate crisis, the need for a renewable energy transition, and the current blocks to progress.
Call Number: QC903 .A768 2023ISBN: 9781108833806Publication Date: 2022-12-31
History Comics: the Stonewall Riots: making a stand for LGBTQ rights by
Turn back the clock with History Comics! In this graphic novel, experience the Stonewall Riots firsthand and meet iconic activists like Marsha P. Johnson and Sylvia Rivera. Three teenagers--Natalia, Jax, and Rashad--are magically transported from their modern lives to the legendary Stonewall Inn in the summer of 1969. Escorted by Natalia's eccentric abuela (and her pet cockatiel, Rocky), the friends experience the police raid firsthand and are thrown into the infamous riots that made the struggle for LGBTQ rights front-page news.
Call Number: Graphic Novels BongiovanniPublication Date: 2022-05-24
A Brief History of Equality by
The world's leading economist of inequality presents a short but sweeping and surprisingly optimistic history of human progress toward equality despite crises, disasters, and backsliding. A perfect introduction to the ideas developed in his monumental earlier books. It's easy to be pessimistic about inequality. We know it has increased dramatically in many parts of the world over the past two generations. No one has done more to reveal the problem than Thomas Piketty. Now, in this surprising and powerful new work, Piketty reminds us that the grand sweep of history gives us reasons to be optimistic. Over the centuries, he shows, we have been moving toward greater equality. Piketty guides us with elegance and concision through the great movements that have made the modern world for better and worse: the growth of capitalism, revolutions, imperialism, slavery, wars, and the building of the welfare state. It's a history of violence and social struggle, punctuated by regression and disaster. But through it all, Piketty shows, human societies have moved fitfully toward a more just distribution of income and assets, a reduction of racial and gender inequalities, and greater access to healthcare, education, and the rights of citizenship. Our rough march forward is political and ideological, an endless fight against injustice. To keep moving, Piketty argues, we need to learn and commit to what works, to institutional, legal, social, fiscal, and educational systems that can make equality a lasting reality. At the same time, we need to resist historical amnesia and the temptations of cultural separatism and intellectual compartmentalization. At stake is the quality of life for billions of people. We know we can do better, Piketty concludes. The past shows us how. The future is up to us.
Call Number: HM821 .P547 2022Publication Date: 2022-04-19
