NEW RELEASE

Indistractable: how to control your attention and choose your life

By Eyal, Nir

Publishing Date: [2019]

Classification: 100

Call Number: 153.733 EYA

You sit down at your desk to work on an important project, but a notification on your phone interrupts your morning. Later, as you're about to get back to work, a colleague taps you on the shoulder to chat. At home, screens get in the way of quality time with your family. Another day goes by, and once again, your most important personal and professional goals are put on hold. What would be possible if you followed through on your best intentions? What could you accomplish if you could stay focused and overcome distractions? What if you had the power to become "indistractable"?

Ageless soul: the lifelong journey toward meaning and joy

By Moore, Thomas

Publishing Date: 2017

Classification: 100

Call Number: 155.6719 MOO

Offers advice on how to embrace healthier perspectives on aging through a rich spiritual life, covering subjects ranging from depression and mentorship to sexuality and the spiritual paths that open later in life.

Congratulations, by the way: some thoughts on kindness

By Saunders, George

Publishing Date: [2014]

Classification: 100

Call Number: 177.7 SAU

Drawing on his well-received convocation address at Syracuse University, one of today's most influential and original writers shows how to lead a kinder, more fulfilling life.

Soul feast: an invitation to the Christian spiritual life

By Thompson, Marjorie J.

Publishing Date: [2014]

Classification: 200

Call Number: 248 THO

First released in 1995, this spiritual classic continues to be a bestseller, as thousands each year accept Marjorie Thompson's invitation to the Christian spiritual life. Offering a framework for understanding the spiritual disciplines and instruction for develop»ing and nurturing those practices, Soul Feast continues to be a favorite for individual reflection and group study. Many new additions, including a new chapter on keeping the Sabbath, make this newly revised edition of Soul Feast a must-have. This newly revised edition will include the following new or updated content: An all-new introduction, reflecting on the book's twenty-year history and why it has remained so popular. An all-new chapter on keeping the Sabbath, one of the most life-giving spiritual disciplines in a hurried 24/7 world. It will explore the importance of Sabbath time, and how readers can create space for it when the pace of life seems to be con»tinually accelerating. A significantly expanded "Rule of Life" chapter at the end of the book, based on numerous reader requests for more guidance on how to go about creating their own personal Rule. Some refreshed sidebar quotations from spiritual writers to complement the best ones from the prior editions. A revised group study guide to reflect the addition of new materials. -- ́Łc From Amazon.com.

Why Buddhism is true: the science and philosophy of meditation and enlightenment

By Wright, Robert

Publishing Date: 2017

Classification: 200

Call Number: 294.342 WRI

At the heart of Buddhism is a simple claim: The reason we suffer -- and the reason we make other people suffer -- is that we don't see the world clearly. At the heart of Buddhist meditative practice is a radical promise: we can learn to see the world, including ourselves, more clearly, and so gain a deep and morally valid happiness. Robert Wright not only shows how taking this promise seriously can change your life -- how it can loosen the grip of anxiety, regret, and hatred -- but also how it can deepen your appreciation of beauty and of other people. Drawing on the latest in neuroscience and psychology, Wright explains why the path toward truth and the path toward happiness are the same path. In the light of modern science, both the Buddhist diagnosis and the Buddhist prescription make a whole new kind of sense. This book is the culmination of a personal journey that began with Wright's book on evolutionary psychology, The Moral Animal, and deepened as he immersed himself in meditative practice and conversed with some of the world's most skilled mediators. It shows how, in a time of technological distraction and social division, we can save ourselves from ourselves, both as individuals and as a species.

The lies that bind: rethinking identity, creed, country, color, class, culture

By Appiah, Anthony

Publishing Date: [2018]

Classification: 300

Call Number: 302.5 APP

"Who do you think you are? That's a question bound up in another: what do you think you are? Gender. Religion. Race. Nationality. Class. Culture. Such affiliations give contours to our sense of self, and shape our polarized world. Yet the collective identities they spawn are riddled with contradictions, and cratered with falsehoods. Kwame Anthony Appiah's The Lies That Bind is an incandescent exploration of the nature and history of the identities that define us. It challenges our assumptions about how identities work. We all know there are conflicts between identities, but Appiah shows how identities are created by conflict. Religion, he demonstrates, gains power because it isn't primarily about belief. Our everyday notions of race are the detritus of discarded nineteenth-century science. Our cherished concept of the sovereign nation--of self-rule--is incoherent and unstable. Class systems can become entrenched by efforts to reform them. Even the very idea of Western culture is a shimmering mirage. From Anton Wilhelm Amo, the eighteenth-century African child who miraculously became an eminent European philosopher before retiring back to Africa, to Italo Svevo, the literary marvel who changed citizenship without leaving home, to Appiah's own father, Joseph, an anticolonial firebrand who was ready to give his life for a nation that did not yet exist, Appiah interweaves keen-edged argument with vibrant narratives to expose the myths behind our collective identities. These 'mistaken identities,' Appiah explains, can fuel some of our worst atrocities--from chattel slavery to genocide. And yet, he argues that social identities aren't something we can simply do away with. They can usher in moral progress and bring significance to our lives by connecting the small scale of our daily existence with larger movements, causes, and concerns. Elaborating a bold and clarifying new theory of identity, The Lies That Bind is a ringing philosophical statement for the anxious, conflict-ridden twenty-first century. This book will transform the way we think about who--and what--'we' are"--Dust jacket.

Hello world: being human in the age of algorithms

By Fry, Hannah

Publishing Date: [2018]

Classification: 300

Call Number: 303.483 FRY

If you were accused of a crime, who would you rather decide your sentence--a mathematically consistent algorithm incapable of empathy or a compassionate human judge prone to bias and error? What if you want to buy a driverless car and must choose between one programmed to save as many lives as possible and another that prioritizes the lives of its own passengers? And would you agree to share your family's full medical history if you were told that it would help researchers find a cure for cancer? These are just some of the dilemmas that we are beginning to face as we approach the age of the algorithm, when it feels as if the machines reign supreme. Already, these lines of code are telling us what to watch, where to go, whom to date, and even whom to send to jail. But as we rely on algorithms to automate big, important decision--in crime, justice, healthcare, transportation, and money--they raise questions about what we want our world to look like. What matters most: Helping doctors with diagnosis or preserving privacy? Protecting victims of crime or preventing innocent people being falsely accused? Hello World takes us on a tour through the good, the bad, and the downright ugly of the algorithms that surround us on a daily basis. Mathematician Hannah Fry reveals their inner workings, showing us how algorithms are written and implemented, and demonstrates the ways in which human bias can literally be written into the code. By weaving in relatable, real-world stories with accessible explanations of the underlying mathematics that power algorithms, Hello World helps us to determine their power, expose their limitations, and examine whether they really are an improvement on the human systems they replace. -- Dust jacket flaps.

NEW RELEASE

How to be an antiracist

By Kendi, Ibram X.

Publishing Date: [2019]

Classification: 300

Call Number: 305.8009 KEN

Combines ethics, history, law, and science with a personal narrative to describe how to move beyond the awareness of racism and contribute to making society just and equitable.

Oglala Women: Myth, Ritual, and Reality

By Powers, Marla N.

Publishing Date: Nov. 1988

Classification: 300

Call Number: 305.897 POW

Annotation

NEW RELEASE

Sea people: the puzzle of Polynesia

By Thompson, Christina

Publishing Date: [2019]

Classification: 300

Call Number: 305.8994 THO

"For more than a millennium, Polynesians occupied the remotest islands in the Pacific Ocean, an enormous triangle stretching from Hawaii to New Zealand to Easter Island. Sailing in large, double-hulled canoes, without the benefit of maps, writing, or metal tools, these ancient mariners were the first and, until the era of European discovery, the only people ever to have reached this part of the globe. Today, they are widely acknowledged as the world's greatest navigators. But how did the earliest Polynesians reach these far-flung islands? How did they conquer the largest ocean on the planet? Diving deep into the history of the Pacific, Christina Thompson explores this epic migration, following the trail of the many sailors, linguists, archaeologists, and geographers who have puzzled over this story, in a quest to discover who these ancient voyagers were, where they came from, and how they managed to colonize every habitable island in the vast region of remote Oceania. [This book] combines the wonder of pursuit and the drama of a gripping historical puzzle in a vivid tour of one of the most captivating regions in the world."--Jacket.

NEW RELEASE

50 things they don't want you to know

By Hudson, Jerome

Publishing Date: [2019]

Classification: 300

Call Number: 306.0973 HUD

"Jerome Hudson pulls back the curtain to show you the facts, statistics, and analysis that the Liberal elite have worked so hard to hide"--

NEW RELEASE

The death of politics: how to heal our frayed republic after Trump

By Wehner, Peter

Publishing Date: 2019

Classification: 300

Call Number: 306.2097 WEH

"The New York Times opinion writer, media commentator, outspoken Republican and Christian critic of the Trump presidency offers a spirited defense of politics and its virtuous and critical role in maintaining our democracy and what we must do to save it before it is too late. "Any nation that elects Donald Trump to be its president has a remarkably low view of politics." Frustrated and feeling betrayed, Americans have come to loathe politics with disastrous results, argues Peter Wehner. In this timely manifesto, the veteran of three Republican administrations and man of faith offers a reasoned and persuasive argument for restoring "politics" as a worthy calling to a cynical and disillusioned generation of Americans. Wehner has long been one of the leading conservative critics of Donald Trump and his effect on the Republican Party. In this impassioned book, he makes clear that unless we overcome the despair that has caused citizens to abandon hope in the primary means for improving our world--the political process--we will not only fall victim to despots but hasten the decline of what has truly made America great. Drawing on history and experience, he reminds us of the hard lessons we have learned about how we rule ourselves--why we have checks and balances, why no one is above the law, why we defend the rights of even those we disagree with. Wehner believes we can turn the country around, but only if we abandon our hatred and learn to appreciate and honor the unique and noble American tradition of doing "politics." If we want the great American experiment to continue and to once again prosper, we must once more take up the responsibility each and every one of us as citizens share"--

NEW RELEASE

The age of surveillance capitalism: the fight for a human future at the new frontier of power

By Zuboff, Shoshana

Publishing Date: 2019

Classification: 300

Call Number: 306.3 ZUB

"Shoshana Zuboff, named "the true prophet of the information age" by the Financial Times, has always been ahead of her time. Her seminal book In the Age of the Smart Machine foresaw the consequences of a then-unfolding era of computer technology. Now, three decades later she asks why the once-celebrated miracle of digital is turning into a nightmare. Zuboff tackles the social, political, business, personal, and technological meaning of "surveillance capitalism" as an unprecedented new market form. It is not simply about tracking us and selling ads, it is the business model for an ominous new marketplace that aims at nothing less than predicting and modifying our everyday behavior--where we go, what we do, what we say, how we feel, who we're with. The consequences of surveillance capitalism for us as individuals and as a society vividly come to life in The Age of Surveillance Capitalism's pathbreaking analysis of power. The threat has shifted from a totalitarian "big brother" state to a universal global architecture of automatic sensors and smart capabilities: A "big other" that imposes a fundamentally new form of power and unprecedented concentrations of knowledge in private companies--free from democratic oversight and control"--

NEW RELEASE

The conservative sensibility

By Will, George F.

Publishing Date: 2019

Classification: 300

Call Number: 320.5209 WIL

"A reflection on American conservatism, examining how the Founders' belief in natural rights created a great American political tradition--one that now finds itself under threat, both from progressives and elements inside the Republican Party"--

NEW RELEASE

Democracy evolving

Publishing Date: 2019

Classification: 300

Call Number: 320.973

1. Democracy defined : -- What is American democracy? 20 common forms of government--study starters / David A. Tomar -- What exactly is neoliberalism? / Kean Birch -- Democracy's midlife crisis : an interview with David Runciman / David Runciman, Danielle Charette, Jacob Hamburger -- History and democracy / Sean Wilentz -- Is the United States of America a republic or a democracy? / Eugene Volokh -- Are we witnessing the death of liberal democracy / Ian McKay -- 2. Democracy in context : -- Democratic identity and economy : the rise of authoritarian capitalism / Kevin Rudd -- Big fail : the internet hasn't helped democracy / Robert Diab -- American democracy is ailing : thinking like an economist can help / Gary Saul Morson, Morton Schapiro -- Economic freedom is essential to democracy / William Dunkelberg -- E pluribus unum? The fight over identity politics / Stacey Y. Abrams, John Sides, Michael Tesler, Lynn Vavreck, Jennifer A. Richeson, Francis Fukuyama -- 3. Democracy or dictatorship? -- Democratic authoritarianism : American democracy is in crisis, and not just because of Trump / Simon Tisdall -- American democracy has gone through dark times before / Robert Dallek -- Lessons in the decline of democracy from the ruined Roman republic / Jason Daley -- A major democracy watchdog just published a scathing report on Trump / Zack Beauchamp -- Why is American democracy in danger? / Eric Schoon, Corey Pech -- 4. How fragile is democracy? -- The global view : the growing signs of the fragility and resilience of liberal democracy / Heidi Koolmeister -- Yes, we need to do better : world leaders talk democracy / The New York Times -- Despite global concerns about democracy, more than half of countries are democratic / Drew DeSilver -- Democracy is more fragile than many of us realized, but don't believe that it is doomed / Andrew Rawnsley -- Poland's nationalism threatens Europe's values and cohesion / Steven Erlanger, Marc Santora -- 5. What do we think of democracy? -- Attitudes and approaches : the public, the political system and American democracy / Pew Research Center -- 20 of America's top political scientists gathered to discuss our democracy : they're scared / Sean Illing -- What the world can learn about equality from the Nordic model / Geoffrey M. Hodgson -- The Nordic Democratic-Socialist myth / Nima Sanandaji -- Are millennials giving up on democracy? / Neil Howe -- On the sidelines of democracy : exploring why so many Americans don't vote / Asma Khalid, Don Gonyea, Leila Fadel.

Where we go from here: two years in the resistance

By Sanders, Bernard

Publishing Date: 2018

Classification: 300

Call Number: 324.2732 SAN

The Democratic presidential candidate, popular senator, and respected economist traces the first year of the Trump administration and what Sanders and his followers are doing to reinforce the progressive movement.

Fever swamp: a journey through the strange Neverland of the 2016 presidential race

By Patterson, Richard North

Publishing Date: 2017

Classification: 300

Call Number: 324.973 PAT

During the 2016 presidential election cycle, novelist Richard North Patterson wrote one column per week for The Huffington Post about the presidential race. Those essays are collected here for the first time in a highly personal 'journal' chronically Paterson's observations in real time.

NEW RELEASE

Appeasement: Chamberlain, Hitler, Churchill, and the road to war

By Bouverie, Tim

Publishing Date: [2019]

Classification: 300

Call Number: 327.4104 BOU

"A new history of the British appeasement of the Third Reich on the eve of World War II"--

The jungle grows back: America and our imperiled world

By Kagan, Robert

Publishing Date: [2018]

Classification: 300

Call Number: 327.73 KAG

"A brilliant and visionary argument for America's role as an enforcer of peace and order throughout the world--and what is likely to happen if we withdraw and focus our attention inward. Recent years have brought deeply disturbing developments around the globe. American sentiment seems to be leaning increasingly toward withdrawal in the face of such disarray. In this powerful, urgent essay, Robert Kagan elucidates the reasons why American withdrawal would be the worst possible response, based as it is on a fundamental and dangerous misreading of the world. Like a jungle that keeps growing back after being cut down, the world has always been full of dangerous actors who, left unchecked, possess the desire and ability to make things worse. Kagan makes clear how the "realist" impulse to recognize our limitations and focus on our failures misunderstands the essential role America has played for decades in keeping the world's worst instability in check. A true realism, he argues, is based on the understanding that the historical norm has always been toward chaos--that the jungle will grow back, if we let it"--

Blaming China: it might feel good but it won't fix America's economy

By Shobert, Benjamin

Publishing Date: [2018]

Classification: 300

Call Number: 330.973 SHO

American society is angrier, more fragmented, and more polarized than at any time since the Civil War. We harbor deep insecurities about our economic future, our place in the world, our response to terrorism, and our deeply dysfunctional government. Over the next several years, Benjamin Shobert says, these four insecurities will be perverted and projected onto China in an attempt to shift blame for errors entirely of our own making. These misdirections will be satisfying in the short term but will eventually destabilize the global world that businesses, consumers, and governments have taken for granted for the last forty years and will usher in an age of geopolitical uncertainty characterized by regional conflict and increasing economic dislocation. Shobert, a senior associate at the National Bureau of Asian Research, explores how America’s attitudes toward China have changed and how our economic anxieties and political dysfunction have laid the foundation for turning our collective frustrations away from acknowledging the consequences of our own poor decisions. Shobert argues that unless we address these problems, a disastrous chapter in American life is right around the corner, one in which Americans will decide that conflict with China is the only sensible option. After framing how the American public thinks about China, Shobert offers two alternative paths forward. He proposes steps that businesses, governments, and individuals can take to potentially stop and reverse America’s path to a dystopian future.- (Univ of Nebraska)