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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NEW RELEASE

The age of earthquakes: a guide to the extreme present

By Basar, Shumon

Publishing Date: [2015]

Classification: 300

Call Number: 302.231 BAS

A highly provocative, mindbending, beautifully designed, and visionary look at the landscape of our rapidly evolving digital era. 50 years after Marshall McLuhan's ground breaking book on the influence of technology on culture in The Medium is the Massage, Basar, Coupland and Obrist extend the analysis to today, touring the world that's redefined by the Internet, decoding and explaining what they call the 'extreme present'.

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The net delusion: the dark side of Internet freedom

By Morozov, Evgeny

Publishing Date: c2011

Classification: 300

Call Number: 303.4833 MOR

In this spirited book, journalist and social commentator Evgeny Morozov shows that by falling for the supposedly democratizing nature of the Internet, Western do-gooders may have missed how it also entrenches dictators, threatens dissidents, and makes it harder-not easier-to promote democracy.

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Our final invention: artificial intelligence and the end of the human era

By Barrat, James

Publishing Date: 2013

Classification: 300

Call Number: 303.4834 BAR

"Artificial Intelligence helps choose what books you buy, what movies you see, and even who you date. It puts the "smart" in your smart phone, it has the run of your house, and soon it will drive your car. It makes most of the trades on Wall Street, and controls vital energy, water, and transportation infrastructure. But Artificial Intelligence can also threaten our existence. Though primitive today, 'intelligent' computer systems double in speed and power each year. In as little as a decade, AI could match and then surpass human intelligence. Corporations and government agencies are pouring billions into achieving AI's Holy Grail -- human-level intelligence. Once AI has attained it, scientists argue, it will have survival drives much like our own. We may be forced to compete with a rival more cunning, more powerful, and more alien than we can imagine. Through profiles of tech visionaries, industry watchdogs, and groundbreaking AI systems, James Barrat's Our Final Invention explores the perils of the heedless pursuit of advanced AI. Until now, human intelligence has had no rival. Can we coexist with computers whose intelligence dwarfs our own? And more to the point: will they allow us to?"--

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Violence: six sideways reflections

By Zizek, Slavoj

Publishing Date: 2008

Classification: 300

Call Number: 303.6 ZIZ

"Using history, philosophy, books, movies, Lacanian psychiatry, and jokes, Slavoj Zizek examines the ways we perceive and misperceive violence. Drawing from his unique cultural vision, Zizek brings new light to the Paris riots of 2005; he questions the permissiveness of violence in philanthropy; and, in daring terms, he reflects on the powerful image and determination of contemporary terrorists." "Beginning with a series of contemplative questions, Zizek discusses the inherent violence of globalization, capitalism, fundamentalism, and language in a work that will confirm his standing as one of our most erudite and incendiary modern thinkers."--BOOK JACKET.

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An ecology of happiness

By Lambin, Eric F.

Publishing Date: 2012

Classification: 300

Call Number: 304.2 LAM

Here Lambin (environmental earth systems science, Stanford Univ.; coauthor, The Middle Path: Avoiding Environmental Catastrophe) draws from many scientific fields to argue that people need access to the natural world to be happy. He aims to promote yet another reason to care about ecology. "Such a positive argument would essentially replace the alarmist discourse—of which many people are tired—thereby accelerating the transition toward sustainable development." He argues against "the rhetoric of fear," which, he says, encourages "denial among skeptics, cynicism among nihilists, despair among pessimists, and rejection by optimists." Throughout, Lambin shows both the positive results and negative consequences of contemporary Western lifestyles. In a manner of speaking, the book is an indirect and scientific defense of the Romantic poets who crooned over our wonderful planet, using subjectivity as much as reasoning to encourage us to love Earth. VERDICT This translation from the French is a fairly difficult read—Lambin's intended audience is academic. However, the material is excellent and worth the effort. Highly recommended.—John M. Kistler, Washington, PA

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The fate of nature: rediscovering our ability to rescue the earth

By Wohlforth, Charles P.

Publishing Date: c2010

Classification: 300

Call Number: 304.2097 WOH

Draws on behavioral science to assess environmental protection activities in Alaska, in a partly philosophical analysis that cites the examples of such groups as evolutionary scientists, hippie activists, and oil tycoons.

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Children of the city: at work and at play

By Nasaw, David

Publishing Date: 1986, c1985

Classification: 300

Call Number: 305.2 NAS

The turn of the century was a time of explosive growth for American cities, a time of nascent hopes and apparently limitless possibilities. InChildren of the City, David Nasaw re-creates this period in our social history from the vantage point of the children who grew up then. Drawing on hundreds of memoirs, autobiographies, oral histories and unpublished--and until now unexamined--primary source materials from cities across the country, he provides us with a warm and eloquent portrait of these children, their families, their daily lives, their fears, and their dreams. Illustrated with 68 photographs from the period, many never before published, Children of the City offers a vibrant protrait of a time when our cities and our grandparents were young. - (Oxford University Press)

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NEW RELEASE

Between the world and me

By Coates, Ta-Nehisi

Publishing Date: [2015]

Classification: 300

Call Number: 305.8009 COA

"For Ta-Nehisi Coates, history has always been personal. At every stage of his life, he's sought in his explorations of history answers to the mysteries that surrounded him -- most urgently, why he, and other black people he knew, seemed to live in fear. What were they afraid of? In Tremble for My Country, Coates takes readers along on his journey through America's history of race and its contemporary resonances through a series of awakenings -- moments when he discovered some new truth about our long, tangled history of race, whether through his myth-busting professors at Howard University, a trip to a Civil War battlefield with a rogue historian, a journey to Chicago's South Side to visit aging survivors of 20th century America's 'long war on black people,' or a visit with the mother of a beloved friend who was shot down by the police. In his trademark style -- a mix of lyrical personal narrative, reimagined history, essayistic argument, and reportage -- Coates provides readers a thrillingly illuminating new framework for understanding race: its history, our contemporary dilemma, and where we go from here"--

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Lost at sea: the Jon Ronson mysteries

By Ronson, Jon

Publishing Date: 2013

Classification: 300

Call Number: 306.1 RON

Ronson investigates the strange things we’re willing to believe in, from robots programmed with our loved ones’ personalities to indigo children to the Insane Clown Posse’s juggalo fans. He looks at ordinary lives that take on extraordinary perspectives. Among them: a pop singer whose greatest passion is the coming alien invasion, assisted-suicide practitioners, and an Alaskan town’s Christmas-induced high school mass-murder plot. He explores all these tales with a sense of higher purpose and universality, yet they are stories not about the fringe of society. They are about all of us. Incisive and hilarious, poignant and maddening, revealing and disturbing?Ronson writes about our modern world, and reveals how deep our collective craziness lies, and the chaos stirring at the edge of our daily lives. - (Penguin Putnam)

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NEW RELEASE

Our only world: ten essays

By Berry, Wendell

Publishing Date: [2015]

Classification: 300

Call Number: 306.2097 BER

"In this new collection of [ten] essays, Berry confronts head-on the necessity of clear thinking and direct action. Never one to ignore the present challenge, he understands that only clearly stated questions support the understanding their answers require. For more than fifty years we've had no better spokesman and no more eloquent advocate for the planet, for our families, and for the future of our children and ourselves"--

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Victory: the triumphant gay revolution

By Hirshman, Linda R.

Publishing Date: c2012

Classification: 300

Call Number: 306.76 HIR

"Drawing on rich archival material and in-depth interviews, a Supreme Court lawyer and political pundit chronicles the gay rights movement, revealing how the fight for gay rights has changed the American landscape for all citizens, blurring rigid gender lines and redefining the definition of family"--Provided by publisher.

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Can't we talk about something more pleasant

By Chast, Roz

Publishing Date: 2014

Classification: 300

Call Number: 306.874 CHA

#1 New York Times Bestseller 2014 NATIONAL BOOK AWARD FINALIST New Yorker cartoonist and prolific author Chast (What I Hate from A to Z, 2011) writes a bravely honest memoir of watching her parents decline, become too frail to stay in the Brooklyn apartment they called home for five decades, suffer dementia and physical depletion, and die in their nineties in a hospice-care facility. Unlike many recent parent-focused cartoon memoirs, such as Alison Bechdel's Are You My Mother? (2012) and Nicole J. George's Calling Dr. Laura (2012), in which the story is as much about the cartoonist's current work and family life as it is about his or her parents, Chast keeps her narrative tightly focused on her mother and father and her own problematic—though not uncommon—guilt-provoking relationships with them. Chast's hallmark quirky sketches are complemented by annotated photos from her own and her parents' childhoods. Occasionally, her hand-printed text will take up more than a full page, but it's neatly wound into accompanying panels or episodes. An unflinching look at the struggles facing adult children of aging parents. Copyright 2014 Booklist Reviews.

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Remaking California: reclaiming the public good

Publishing Date: c2010

Classification: 300

Call Number: 320.9794

This resource book edited by Lustig (government, California State U., Sacramento) contains articles and commentary by many contributing government experts on the current state of constitutional crisis plaguing California and its residents. Contributors shed light on the many problems faced by California such as budget issues, healthcare, unemployment, real estate, and public services. Varying proposals for constitutional reform are presented here along with the editor's commentary on the various concepts discussed. This survey was intended to open a new direction of constitutional debate for the welfare of the Golden State and is highly relevant reading for anyone concerned about California's future. Annotation ©2010 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com) - (Book News)

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Rule and ruin: the downfall of moderation and the destruction of the Republican Party, from Eisenhower to the Tea Party

By Kabaservice, Geoffrey M.

Publishing Date: c2012

Classification: 300

Call Number: 324.2734 KAB

Explores the origins of the Republican Party's shift from a party of moderation to one of extremism, beginning in the early 1960s with President Dwight Eisenhower's farewell address.

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NEW RELEASE

The ingenious Mr. Pyke: inventor, fugitive, spy

By Hemming, Henry

Publishing Date: [2015]

Classification: 300

Call Number: 327.1241 HEM

"This is the extraordinary story of Geoffrey Pyke, an inventor, war reporter, escaped prisoner, campaigner, father, educator--and all-around misunderstood genius. In his day, he was described as one of the world's great minds, to rank alongside Einstein, yet he remains virtually unknown today. Pyke was an unlikely hero of both world wars and, among many other things, is seen today as the father of the U.S. Special Forces. He changed the landscape of British pre-school education, earned a fortune on the stock market, wrote a bestseller and in 1942 convinced Winston Churchill to build an aircraft carrier out of reinforced ice. He escaped from a German WWI prison camp, devised an ingenious plan to help the Republicans in the Spanish Civil War, and launched a private attempt to avert the outbreak of the Second World War by sending into Nazi Germany a group of pollsters disguised as golfers. Despite his brilliance, Pyke ultimately could not find peace, committing suicide in 1948. Yet the full scope of his story remained secret even after his death: in 2009, MI5 released a mass of material suggesting that Pyke was in fact a senior official in the Soviet Comintern. In 1951 papers relating to Pyke were found in the flat of "Cambridge Spy" Guy Burgess after his defection to Moscow. MI5 had "watchers" follow Pyke through the bombed-out streets of London, his letters were opened and listening devices picked up clues to his real identity. Convinced he was a Soviet agent codenamed Professor P, MI5 helped to bring his career to an end. It is only now, more than sixty years after his death, that Geoffrey Pyke's astonishing story can be told in full. The Ingenious Mr. Pyke is a many-faceted account of this enigmatic man's genius, and reveals him as one of the great innovators of the last century" --

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A spy among friends: Kim Philby and the great betrayal

By Macintyre, Ben

Publishing Date: [2014]

Classification: 300

Call Number: 327.1247 MAC

The best-selling author of Operation Mincemeat presents a definitive portrait of the notorious 20th-century spy that discusses his rise in MI6, high-profile intelligence friendships and 20-year espionage operation that culminated in his 1963 defection to Moscow.

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God and gold: Britain, America, and the making of the modern world

By Mead, Walter Russell

Publishing Date: 2008

Classification: 300

Call Number: 327.73 MEA

"An illuminating account of the birth, the rise, and the continuing rise, of a global political and economic system that rested first on the power of Britain and rests today on that of the United States--and now faces a new set of formidable challenges"--Provided by publisher.

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Playing our game: why China's economic rise doesn't threaten the West

By Steinfeld, Edward S.

Publishing Date: 2010

Classification: 300

Call Number: 330.951 STE

Looks at the reasons why the author believes China's economic emergence is good for the United States and the rest of the Western world.

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NEW RELEASE

Red notice: a true story of high finance, murder, and one man's fight for justice

By Browder, Bill

Publishing Date: 2015

Classification: 300

Call Number: 332.6092 BRO

Bill Browder's journey started on the South Side of Chicago and moved through Stanford Business School to the dog-eat-dog world of hedge fund investing in the 1990s. It continued in Moscow, where Browder made his fortune heading the largest investment fund in Russia after the Soviet Union's collapse. But when he exposed the corrupt oligarchs who were robbing the companies in which he was investing, Vladimir Putin turned on him and, in 2005, had him expelled from Russia. In 2007, a group of law enforcement officers raided Browder's offices in Moscow and stole $230 million of taxes that his fund's companies had paid to the Russian government. Browder's attorney Sergei Magnitsky investigated the incident and uncovered a sprawling criminal enterprise. A month after Sergei testified against the officials involved, he was arrested and thrown into pre-trial detention, where he was tortured for a year. On November 16, 2009, he was led to an isolation chamber, handcuffed to a bedrail, and beaten to death by eight guards in full riot gear. Browder glimpsed the heart of darkness, and it transformed his life: he embarked on an unrelenting quest for justice in Sergei's name, exposing the towering cover-up that leads right up to Putin.

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The conservative assault on the constitution

By Chemerinsky, Erwin

Publishing Date: 2010

Classification: 300

Call Number: 342.73 CHE

"The first step in reclaiming the protections of the Constitution, says Chemerinsky, is to recognize that right-wing justices are imposing their personal prejudices, not making neutral decisions about the scope of the Constitution, as they claim, or following the 'original meaning' of the Constitution."--Book jacket.

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