Inyo County Free Library - New Acquisitions
January 2025 - May 2025
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.
NEW RELEASE Califailure: reversing the ruin of America's worst-run state By Hilton, Steve Publishing Date: [2025] Classification: 300 Call Number: 351.794 HIL "An examination of the failures of governance in California"-- |
Addiction by design: machine gambling in Las Vegas By Schüll, Natasha Dow Publishing Date: 2014 Classification: 300 Call Number: 362.25 SCH Recent decades have seen a dramatic shift away from social forms of gambling played around roulette wheels and card tables to solitary gambling at electronic terminals. Slot machines, revamped by ever more compelling digital and video technology, have unseated traditional casino games as the gambling industry's revenue mainstay. 'Addiction by design' takes readers into the intriguing world of machine gambling, an increasingly popular and absorbing form of play that blurs the line between human and machine, compulsion and control, risk and reward. Drawing on fifteen years of field research in Las Vegas, anthropologist Natasha Dow Schull shows how the mechanical rhythm of electronic gambling pulls players into a trancelike state they call the 'machine zone', in which daily worries, social demands, and even bodily awareness fade away. Once in the zone, gambling addicts play not to win but simply to keep playing, for as long as possible--even at the cost of physical and economic exhaustion. In continuous machine play, gamblers seek to lose themselves while the gambling industry seeks profit. Schull describes the strategic calculations behind game algorithms and machine ergonomics, casino architecture and 'ambience management', player tracking and cash access systems--all designed to meet the market's desire for maximum 'time on device'. Her account moves from casino floors into gamblers' everyday lives, from gambling industry conventions and Gamblers Anonymous meetings to regulatory debates over whether addiction to gambling machines stems from the consumer, the product, or the interplay between the two. 'Addiction by design' is a compelling inquiry into the intensifying traffic between people and machines of chance, offering clues to some of the broader anxieties and predicaments of contemporary life. At stake in Schull's account of the intensifying traffic between people and machines of chance is a blurring of the line between design and experience, profit and loss, control and compulsion. |
Relinquished: the politics of adoption and the privilege of American motherhood By Sisson, Gretchen Publishing Date: 2024 Classification: 300 Call Number: 362.734 SIS "A powerful decade-long study of adoption in the age of Roe, revealing the grief of the American mothers for whom the choice to parent was never real. Adoption has always been viewed as a beloved institution for building families, as well as a mutually agreeable common ground in the abortion debate, but little attention has been paid to the lives of mothers who relinquish infants for private adoption. Relinquished reveals adoption to be a path of constrained choice for those for whom abortion is inaccessible, or for whom parenthood is untenable. The stories of relinquishing mothers are stories about our country's refusal to care for families at the most basic level, and to instead embrace an individual, private solution to a large-scale, social problem. With the recent decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization revoking abortion protections and the upcoming decision in Brackeen v. Haaland likely to revoke the Indian Child Welfare Act, we are in a political moment in which adoption is, increasingly, being revealed as an institution devoted to separating families and policing parenthood under the guise of feel-good family-building. Rooted in a long-term study, Relinquished is an analysis of hundreds of in-depth interviews with American mothers who placed their children for domestic adoption. The voices of these women are powerful and heartrending; they deserve to be heard as a response to this moment"-- |
Out of the wilderness: escaping my father's prison and my journey to forgiveness By Doerksen, Elishaba Publishing Date: [2022] Classification: 300 Call Number: 362.8292 DOE "Elishaba Doerksen was the oldest of fifteen children born to ex-hippies Robert and Kurina Hale, also known as Papa Pilgrim and Country Rose. Elishaba grew up in a dilapidated 340-square-foot log cabin in the Sangre de Cristo mountains of New Mexico, isolated from civilization by a fundamentalist father intent on keeping his large family cloistered from a godless world. When she was nineteen, Papa Pilgrim began taking liberties with Elishaba in unimaginable ways and beating her, and her siblings, when he judged them to be "rebellious." The horrific sexual and physical abuse continued after the family moved to a remote valley in the Alaska wilderness. After ten years of terrifying mistreatment, Elishaba gathered her courage to make a run for it on a snowmobile. What happens next is the basis for a powerful, dramatic story about perseverance, faith, and redemption, as well as forgiveness."--Back cover. |
By Olejniczak, Stephen P Publishing Date: 2006 Classification: 300 Call Number: 384 OLE |
Worn: a people's history of clothing By Thanhauser, Sofi Publishing Date: 2023 Classification: 300 Call Number: 391.009 THA "In this ambitious, panoramic social history, Sofi Thanhauser brilliantly tells five stories--Linen, Cotton, Silk, Synthetics, Wool--about the clothes we wear and where they come from, illuminating our world in unexpected ways. She takes us from the opulent court of Louis Quatorze to the labor camps in modern-day Chinese-occupied Xinjiang. We see how textiles were once dyed from lichen, shells, bark, saffron, and beetles, displaying distinctive regional weaves and knits, and how the modern Western garment industry has refashioned our attire into the homogeneous and disposable uniforms popularized by fast fashion brands. Thanhauser makes clear how the clothing industry has become one of the planet's worst polluters, relying on chronically underpaid and exploited laborers. But she also shows us how micro-communities and companies of textile and clothing makers in every corner of the world are rediscovering ancestral and ethical methods for making what we wear. Drawn from years of intensive research and reporting from around the world, and brimming with fascinating anecdotal material, Worn reveals to us that our clothing comes not just from the countries listed on the tags or ready-made from our factories--it comes, as well, from deep in our histories"-- |
By Campos-Duffy, Rachel Publishing Date: [2021] Classification: 300 Call Number: 394.2663 ALL From the wind-swept, snowy ranges of Wyoming to Florida beaches glowing with Christmas lights, All American Christmas traces holiday traditions across the United States. In this beautiful personal keepsake, Rachel Campos-Duffy and Sean Duffy present a dazzling collection of emotional stories, treasured family photographs, and homegrown Christmas recipes from some of Fox News' most beloved personalities. |
Goldilocks and the three bears By Marshall, James Publishing Date: [1988] Classification: 300 Call Number: 398.2 MAR Three bears return home from a walk to find a little girl asleep in baby bear's bed. |
Sentence diagramming reference manual: how to diagram anything By O'Brien, Elizabeth Publishing Date: 2013, 2012 Classification: 400 Call Number: 428.2 OBR |
A history of classical physics: from antiquity to the quantum By Bernal, J. D Publishing Date: 1997 Classification: 500 Call Number: 530 BER |
Quantum questions: mystical writings of the world's great physicists Publishing Date: 2001 Classification: 500 Call Number: 530.2 Examines the writings of eight physicists from a mystical worldview. |
By Marx, Ellen Publishing Date: 1983 Classification: 500 Call Number: 535.6 MAR "The perception of color resists objective definition. While the density of a photographic filter or the wave lengths in a television image can be measured exactly, the psychological and physiological expression of optical color is, ultimately, a matter of subjective judgment. The human brain is able to discern extraordinarily fine gradations in brightness, hue, and saturation - some 10 million nuances. It is therefore not surprising that every aspect of color theory is open to interpretation. The investigations that Ellen Marx outlines in Optical Color are the result of a painstaking and systematic series of experiments. The reader is invited to enter into a dialog with the demonstrations contained in this book, and to observe first-hand the relationship of optical color to the phenomenon of simultaneity. Although rigorously logical and based on a thorough scientific understanding, the studies that Marx presents do not slight the importance of intuition. The reader can discover both accurate and precise interactions of primary colors while at the same time delving deep into his or her hidden, personal world." -- |
Dinosaurs the grand tour: everything worth knowing about dinosaurs from Aardonyx to Zuniceratops By Pim, Keiron Publishing Date: [2019] Classification: 500 Call Number: 567.9 PIM "Now completely revised and updated: a compendium of more than 300 dinosaurs, their key anatomy, geology, and history at a glance"-- |
Forbidden archeology: the hidden history of the human race By Cremo, Michael A Publishing Date: 1998 Classification: 500 Call Number: 573.3 CRE Over the past two centuries, researchers have found bones and artifacts showing that people like ourselves existed on earth millions of years ago. But the scientific establishment has suppressed, ignored, or forgotten these remarkable facts. Why? Because they contradict dominant views of human origins and antiquity. Forbidden Archeology is a call for a change in today's arbitrarily rigid mindset. Cremo and Thompson challenge us to rethink our understanding of human origins, identity, and destiny. |
By Lanza, Robert Publishing Date: 2010 Classification: 500 Call Number: 576.31 LAN The startling discovery that the world was not flat challenged and changed the way people perceived themselves and their relationships with the world. This work features the revolutionary view that life creates the universe instead of the other way around. |
Man eaters: true tales of animals stalking, mauling, killing, and eating human prey Publishing Date: 2000 Classification: 500 Call Number: 591.53 |
Vanishing treasures: a bestiary of extraordinary endangered creatures By Rundell, Katherine Publishing Date: [2024] Classification: 500 Call Number: 591.68 RUN The world is more astonishing, more miraculous, and more wonderful than our wildest imaginings. In this brilliant and passionately persuasive book, Katherine Rundell takes us on a globe-spanning tour of the world's most awe-inspiring animals currently facing extinction. Consider the seahorse: couples mate for life and meet each morning for a dance, pirouetting and changing colours before going their separate ways, to dance again the next day. The American wood frog survives winter by allowing itself to freeze solid, its heartbeat slowing until it stops altogether. Come spring, the heart kick-starts itself spontaneously back to life. As for the lemur, it lives in matriarchal troops led by an alpha female (it's not unusual for female ring-tailed lemurs to slap males across the face when they become aggressive). Whenever they are cold or frightened, they group together in what's known as a lemur ball, paws and tails intertwined, to form a furry mass as big as a bicycle wheel. But each of these extraordinary animals is endangered or holds a sub-species that is endangered. This urgent, inspiring book of essays dedicated to 23 unusual and underappreciated creatures is a clarion call insisting that we look at the world around us with new eyes to see the magic of the animals we live among, their unknown histories and capabilities, and above all how lucky we are to tread the same ground as such vanishing treasures. Beautifully illustrated, and full of inimitable wit and intellect, Vanishing Treasures is a chance to be awestruck and lovestruck, to reckon with the beauty of the world, its fragility, and its strangeness. |
Grizzly years: in search of the American wilderness By Peacock, Doug Publishing Date: 1996 Classification: 500 Call Number: 599.74 PEA "For nearly twenty years, alone and unarmed, author Doug Peacock traversed the rugged mountains of Montana and Wyoming tracking the magnificent grizzly. His thrilling narrative takes us into the bear?s habitat, where we observe directly this majestic animal?s behavior, from hunting strategies, mating patterns, and denning habits to social hierarchy and methods of communication. As Peacock tracks the bears, his story turns into a thrilling narrative about the breaking down of suspicion between man and beast in the wild."--Back cover. |
Forever strong: a new, science-based strategy for aging well By Lyon, Gabrielle Publishing Date: 2023 Classification: 600 Call Number: 612.68 LYO "Learn how to reboot your metabolism, build strength, and extend your life with this accessible new guidebook that demonstrates the importance of muscle for health and longevity from the founder of the Institute for Muscle-Centric Medicine. After years of watching patients cycle through her practice, Dr. Gabrielle Lyon noticed a pattern. While her patients struggled with a wide range of conditions, they all suffered from the same core problem: they had too little muscle rather than too much fat. When we think about muscle, we tend to think about strength or aesthetics, but in reality, muscle accounts for so much more than that. As the body's largest endocrine organ, muscle actually determines everything about the trajectory of health and aging. Many of the conditions Dr. Lyon's patients were experiencing were actually symptoms of underdeveloped or unhealthy muscle. Now, Dr. Lyon offers an easy-to-follow food, fitness, and self-care program anchored in evidence and pioneering research that teaches you how to optimize muscle-no matter your age or health background. Discover how to overcome everything from obesity to autoimmune disorders and avoid diseases like Alzheimer's, hypertension, and diabetes by following Dr. Lyon's powerful new approach to becoming forever strong"-- |
Wednesday is indigo blue: discovering the brain of synesthesia By Cytowic, Richard E Publishing Date: 2009 Classification: 600 Call Number: 612.8233 CYT "In Wednesday Is Indigo Blue, pioneering researcher Richard Cytowic and distinguished neuroscientist David Eagleman explain the neuroscience and genetics behind synesthesia's multisensory experiences"--Page 4 of cover. |