Inyo County Free Library - New Acquisitions
January 2018 - April 2018
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.
Non-Fiction | Computer science, information & general worksPhilosophy & psychologyReligionSocial sciencesLanguageScienceTechnologyArts & recreationLiteratureHistory & geography |
The only girl in the world: a memoir By Julien, Maude Publishing Date: 2017 Classification: 300 Call Number: 362.7609 JUL The Only Girl in the World describes the author's harrowing upbringing by fanatic parents, who raised her in isolation through traumatic disciplinary exercises designed to "eliminate weakness" and recounts how she eventually escaped with the help of an outsider. |
Doom Towns: The People and Landscapes of Atomic Testing : A Graphic History By Kirk, Andrew G. Publishing Date: [2017] Classification: 300 Call Number: 363.1799 KIR The history of atomic testing is usually told as a story about big technology, big science, and complex global politics. Doom Towns: The People and Landscapes of Atomic Testing explains critical technological developments and the policies that drove weapons innovation within the context of the specific environments and communities where testing actually took place. The book emphasizes the people who participated, protested, or were affected by atomic testing and explains the decision-making process that resulted in these people and places becoming the only locations and groups to actually experience nuclear warfare during the Cold War. The graphic history presents various viewpoints directly linked to primary sources that reveal the complexity and uncertainty of this history to readers, while also providing evidence and access to archives to help them explore this controversial topic further and to reach their own informed conclusions about this history. |
Heavy ground: William Mulholland and the St. Francis Dam disaster By Hundley, Norris Publishing Date: [2015] Classification: 300 Call Number: 363.34 HUN |
By Wilkman, Jon Publishing Date: 2016 Classification: 300 Call Number: 363.34 WIL |
Fire in the heart: a memoir of friendship, loss, and wildfire By Emerick, Mary Publishing Date: 2017 Classification: 300 Call Number: 363.377 EME Fire in the heart is a powerful memoir by once a weak, bullied schoolgirl who reinvented herself as a professional wildlands fire fighter. Determined to forge herself into a stronger, braver person, Mary climbs to unmitigated heights for a woman in the field, eventually becoming a team commander of a Florida wildfire division. Filled with literal struggles for survival, tough choices and Mary's burning passion for what she does, Fire in the Heart, is an unflinching account of one woman's relationship with fire. But when she loses the man she loves to the famous Storm King Mountain forest fire in Colorado that killed fourteen hotshots, Mary faces the hardest choice of her life; to stay in the game or turn back and try to find the woman she used to be. It is both a thrilling memoir about life-threatening work and a meditation on identity, strength, bravery, bonds, and survivor's guilt. |
NEW RELEASE The environmental policy paradox By Smith, Zachary A Publishing Date: 2018 Classification: 300 Call Number: 363.7009 SMI Ecosystem interdependence -- Changing cultural and social beliefs : from conservation to environmentalism -- The regulatory environment -- The political and institutional setting -- Air pollution -- Water -- Energy -- Toxic and hazardous materials and waste management -- Land management issues -- International environmental issues -- International environmental management -- Appendix A : How we study public policy : theoretical approaches -- Appendix B : How a bill becomes law. |
The wicked boy: the mystery of a Victorian child murderer By Summerscale, Kate Publishing Date: 2016 Classification: 300 Call Number: 364.152 SUM In East London in the summer of 1895, Robert Coombes (age thirteen) and his brother Nattie (age twelve) were arrested for matricide and sent for trial at the Old Bailey. Robert confessed to having stabbed his mother, but his lawyers argued that he was insane. The judge sentenced him to detention in Broadmoor, the most infamous criminal lunatic asylum in the land. Shockingly, Broadmoor turned out to be the beginning of a new life for Robert. At a time of great tumult and uncertainty, Robert Coombes's case crystallized contemporary anxieties about the education of the working classes, the dangers of pulp fiction, and evolving theories of criminality, childhood, and insanity. With riveting detail and rich atmosphere, Summerscale re-creates this terrible crime and its aftermath, uncovering an extraordinary story of man's capacity to overcome the past. -- |
How to bake [pi]: an edible exploration of the mathematics of mathematics By Cheng, Eugenia Publishing Date: [2015] Classification: 500 Call Number: 510.1 CHE "In How to Bake Pi, math professor Eugenia Cheng provides an accessible introduction to the logic and beauty of mathematics, powered, unexpectedly, by insights from the kitchen: we learn, for example, how the beĢchamel in a lasagna can be a lot like the number 5, and why making a good custard proves that math is easy but life is hard."-- |
The glass universe: how the ladies of the Harvard Observatory took the measure of the stars By Sobel, Dava Publishing Date: [2016] Classification: 500 Call Number: 522 SOB The little-known true story of the unexpected and remarkable contributions to astronomy made by a group of women working in the Harvard College Observatory from the late 1800s through the mid-1900s. -- |
By Feynman, Richard P. Publishing Date: 1994 Classification: 500 Call Number: 530 FEY Analyzes selected physical laws, demonstrating the interaction of physics and mathematics and revealing the incredible order of nature. |
Reality is not what it seems: the journey to quantum gravity By Rovelli, Carlo Publishing Date: 2017 Classification: 500 Call Number: 530.143 ROV Traces how the human image of the world has changed throughout history, demonstrating the evolution of the idea of reality while touching on subjects ranging from the Higgs boson to quantum gravity. |
Plutonium: a history of the world's most dangerous element By Bernstein, Jeremy Publishing Date: c2007 Classification: 500 Call Number: 546.434 BER |
By Voiland, Adam Publishing Date: [2017] Classification: 500 Call Number: 550 VOI An alphabet book of photographs of Earth taken from outer space that look like each letter. -- |
The sound book: the science of the sonic wonders of the world By Cox, Trevor J. Publishing Date: 2014 Classification: 500 Call Number: 550.1534 COX "With forays into archaeology, neuroscience, biology, and design, Cox explains how sound is made and altered by the environment, how our body reacts to peculiar noises, and how these mysterious wonders illuminate sound's surprising dynamics in everyday settings, from your bedroom to the opera house"--Amazon.com. |
The great quake: how the biggest earthquake in North America changed our understanding of the planet By Fountain, Henry Publishing Date: [2017] Classification: 500 Call Number: 551.22 FOU "In the tradition of Erik Larson's Isaac's Storm, a riveting narrative about the biggest earthquake in recorded history in North America--the 1964 Alaskan earthquake that demolished the city of Valdez and obliterated the coastal village of Chenega--and the scientist sent to look for geological clues to explain the dynamics of earthquakes, who helped to confirm the then controversial theory of plate tectonics. On March 27, 1964, at 5:36 p.m., the biggest earthquake ever recorded in North America--and the second biggest ever in the world, measuring 9.2 on the Richter scale--struck Alaska, devastating coastal towns and villages and killing more than 130 people in what was then a relatively sparsely populated region. In a riveting tale about the almost unimaginable brute force of nature, New York Times science journalist Henry Fountain, in his first trade book, re-creates the lives of the villagers and townspeople living in Chenega, Anchorage, and Valdez; describes the sheer beauty of the geology of the region, with its towering peaks and 20-mile-long glaciers; and reveals the impact of the quake on the towns, the buildings, and the lives of the inhabitants. George Plafker, a geologist for the U.S. Geological Survey with years of experience scouring the Alaskan wilderness, is asked to investigate the Prince William Sound region in the aftermath of the quake, to better understand its origins. His work confirmed the then controversial theory of plate tectonics that explained how and why such deadly quakes occur, and how we can plan for the next one"-- |
The cabaret of plants: forty thousand years of plant life and the human imagination By Mabey, Richard Publishing Date: 2016 Classification: 500 Call Number: 580 MAB "The Cabaret of Plants is a masterful, globe-trotting exploration of the relationship between humans and the kingdom of plants by the renowned naturalist Richard Mabey"-- |
Being a beast: adventures across the species divide By Foster, Charles Publishing Date: 2016 Classification: 500 Call Number: 591.5 FOS To test the limits of our ability to inhabit lives that are not our own, Charles Foster set out to know the ultimate other: the nonhumans. To do that, he chose five animals and lived alongside them, sleeping as they slept, eating what they ate, learning to sense the landscape through the senses they used. In this lyrical, intimate, and completely radical look at the lives of animals, Charles Foster mingles neuroscience and psychology, nature writing and memoir, and ultimately presents an inquiry into the human experience in our world, carried out by exploring the full range of the life around us. |
Touching the wild: living with the mule deer of Deadman Gulch By Hutto, Joe Publishing Date: [2014] Classification: 500 Call Number: 599.653 HUT The companion book to a PBS nature documentary describes the story of a man who lived with a herd of mule deer in the mountains of Wyoming for nearly seven years, developing connections with them and learning their group dynamics.-- |
The tiger: a true story of vengeance and survival By Vaillant, John Publishing Date: c2010 Classification: 500 Call Number: 599.756 VAI It's December 1997, and a man-eating Siberian tiger is on the prowl outside a remote village in Russia's Far East. The tiger isn't just killing people, it's annihilating them, and a team of men and their dogs must hunt it on foot through the forest in the brutal cold. As the trackers sift through the gruesome remains of the victims, they discover that these attacks aren't random. An absolutely gripping tale of man and nature that leads inexorably to a final showdown in a clearing deep in the taiga. |
A brief history of everyone who ever lived: the human story retold through our genes By Rutherford, Adam Publishing Date: 2017 Classification: 600 Call Number: 611.0181 RUT In our unique genomes, every one of us carries the story of our species--births, deaths, disease, war, famine, migration, and a lot of sex. But those stories have always been locked away--until now. Who are our ancestors? Where did they come from? Geneticists have suddenly become historians, and the hard evidence in our DNA has blown the lid off what we thought we knew. Acclaimed science writer Adam Rutherford explains exactly how genomics is completely rewriting the human story--from 100,000 years ago to the present. A Brief History of Everyone Who Ever Lived will upend your thinking on Neanderthals, evolution, royalty, race, and even redheads. (For example, we now know that at least four human species once roamed the earth.) Plus, here is the remarkable, controversial story of how our genes made their way to the Americas--one that's still being written, as ever more of us have our DNA sequenced. Rutherford closes with "A Short Introduction to the Future of Humankind," filled with provocative questions that we're on the cusp of answering: Are we still in the grasp of natural selection? Are we evolving for better or worse? And . . . where do we go from here? |