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Non-fiction

In the Valleys of the Noble Beyond

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In the Valleys of the Noble Beyond: In Search of the Sasquatch by John Zada
Format: Book
Who it’s for: Adults

Investigative journalist John Zada confesses to a lifelong fascination with the legend of Bigfoot.

To satisfy his curiosity, and his appetite for adventure, he visits the remote Great Bear Rainforest region of Canada’s Pacific coast, where indigenous people have been telling stories about the Sasquatch for centuries.

While recording the stories of these First Nations, and other, communities, he also records the plight of the forest itself. Activists are fighting to conserve the vast wilderness, and animals that make their homes there, from oil companies, and hunters.

Zada’s thoughtful descriptions of the forest and its inhabitants will make you want to get lost in the woods, and his search for the Sasquatch leads him to a philosophical and psychological exploration of why we believe, or want to believe, in anything.

If you like books about travel, the environment, folklore, or belief systems, I suggest you give this a try. I found it to be a truly interesting read I continue to think about long after turning the last page.

Find In the Valleys of the Noble Beyond in the catalog

Runaway: The Daring Escape of Ona Judge

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Runaway: The Daring Escape of Ona Judge by Ray Anthony Shepard
Format: Book
Who it’s for: Kids

This book is based on a true story of a young woman who was born into slavery and taken from her mom when she was 16 years old. Ona Judge’s mom was one of Martha Washington’s slaves. When George Washington and his family were leaving Mount Vernon, they took Ona with them. She was initially a playmate for Washington’s grandchildren, then a personal servant to Martha.

When Ona was told that she would be a wedding gift to one of Martha’s granddaughters; a girl whom she had played with when she was ten, and the girl was seven, she decided to flee.

The author of this book uses rhetorical questions as a poetic way to recount the story of Ona’s escape, in order to emancipate herself. He asks the question, “Why you run Ona Judge?”

The vibrant illustrations in this book help bring Ona’s bravery to life.

This book is definitely a page turner!

Find Runaway in the catalog

Aftershocks: A Memoir

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Aftershocks: A Memoir by Nadia Owusu
Format: Book
Who it’s for: Adults

Nadia Owusu has such a way with words you may find yourself needing to set this book down to savor a phrase, or call up a friend to read passages aloud to them, needing the poetry of her prose to be spoken to the world. I know I did.

Aftershocks is about Owusu’s experience growing up between worlds, the child of an Armenian-American mother (who abandoned her as a child), a Ghanaian father who worked for the UN, and a stepmother she could never get along with  – or live without. Owusu blends stories of her childhood spent traveling the globe with her father and the ways those experiences shaped her with clear and enlightening lessons on the history and politics of the countries her life overlapped with. Threaded throughout the book is the ongoing tremors of trauma and how it has shaped her past, present, and future.

Find Aftershocks in the catalog

Crossings: Extraordinary Structures for Extraordinary Animals

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Crossings: Extraordinary Structures for Extraordinary Animals
by Katy S. Duffield and illustrated by Mike Orodan
Format: Book

Animal lovers around the world are building wildlife crossings. Over, under, around and through construction by humans. We humans build ways for us to get through with roads and overpasses, tunnels and more. But what happens when our construction encroaches on animal habitat? All around the world people that love animals are finding ways of building crossings that help animals get safely back around, under, over and through the roads that we humans have built.

Woven rope bridges for Squirrel Gliders in Australia. A tiny tunnel under the pavement in New Zealand for Blue Penguins. Blue tight rope bridges above roads for Titi Monkeys in Costa Rica are just a few of the wildlife crossings that have been constructed, just for the protection, of animals around the world.

You will be intrigued by the beautiful illustrations in this non-fiction book!

Find it in the catalog!

Talking to Strangers

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Talking to Strangers: What We Should Know About the People We Don’t Know by Malcolm Gladwell
Format: eAudiobook, eBook
Who it’s for: Adults

Talking to Strangers takes a close look at how we interact with each other and what assumptions we make everyday that change the way we communicate, judge, and interact. Gladwell, a #1 New York Times bestselling author dives into what at first appear to be separate and unrelated true stories of human interactions but then lead to his discussion of how many of the tools and strategies we use to make sense of people and their actions actually don’t help us make good judgements or decisions. If we don’t know how to talk to strangers, we are inviting conflict and misunderstanding in ways that have a profound effect on our interactions and relationships.

Gladwell narrates the audiobook and it is highly recommended. Not only do you hear Gladwell, but also interviews of many of the people he discusses. Even the court transcripts are brought to life with actors re-enactments. It is fascinating to learn about famous examples such as Bernie Madoff, Amanda Knox, and Sylvia Plath, hearing directly from many of the people involved in these real-life stories.  

Find it on Libby/Overdrive

So You’ve Been Publicly Shamed

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So You’ve Been Publicly Shamed
Format: Book, eBook, Audiobook
Who it’s for: Adults

We’ve all fallen victim to it. That satisfying feeling when someone is wrong on the internet. You instigate or participate in a “pile on,” posting your criticism on your choice of platform. And you totally forget: There’s a person on the other end. A human being, like you, who makes mistakes, like you.

Jon Ronson investigates this phenomenon in his book So You’ve Been Publicly Shamed. He speaks to people whose reputations have been ruined by public shaming. People who innocently tweeted a joke, or had a secret uncovered, or posted a photo meant for just their friends to see, that spiraled completely out of control, turning their lives upside down. Even if they sincerely apologize, even if they genuinely change their minds/ways, they become known for that one mistake, and not for the multi-faceted individual they are.

Of course public shaming is not a new concept, but it’s gotten significantly easier, and potentially more dangerous, in our current era of social media and the 24-hour news cycle. Anyone can be held accountable for satire they published years ago. Anyone can have a quote taken out of context that disrupts their career and endangers their livelihood. Anyone can devote their life to doing good works and be “cancelled” in the blink of an eye. The court of public opinion never seems to close, or overturn their rulings.

We generally extol virtues like “love your neighbor” and even “love your enemy” but when we engage in public shaming we ignore and even betray these ideals. Why are so quick to hold a grudge, and so slow to hold a conversation with people we presume to disagree with? If you take the opportunity to get to know that person, you are likely to find common ground. If you allow that person to learn from their transgressions and move on, instead of constantly reminding them of what they did wrong, they may grow and find redemption.

In this book, Ronson charges us to examine our impulse to “call out” people, and to think about the harm it causes by inhibiting civility and advancing cruelty. Find it in our catalog