Big Ideas, Simply Explained

An exciting new series from DK Publishing has arrived at the library. We have the following titles in the Big Ideas Simply Explained series. 

"Enter the world of myths and legends with this unforgettable compendium that spans the centuries and crosses the continents to share the greatest stories of all time. Sit back and enjoy more than 80 classic myths retold for the modern reader with engaging text and eye-catching graphics. Part of the Big Ideas series, The Mythology Book introduces the great and the good, from the gods of ancient Greece to the stories of the Cherokee People of North America. Going beyond the ancient worlds, this book brings to life influential tales of Aboriginal Australians and the Aztecs, each packed with compelling characters, plot twists and turns, and incredible insight into human existence. Discover the lessons behind every story and get to the heart of cultures far and wide through the inspiring narratives that capture the way communities work together to make sense of the world around them. This is essential reading for everyone who delights in stories of imagination, action, and adventure, taking new generations back in time to love and learn from the stories of the past." (from Amazon.com)

"This comprehensive, accessible, and authenticated guide to Islam is essential to understanding the world's fastest-growing religion. This essential guide to Islam covers every aspect of the Muslim faith and its history - from the life of the Prophet Muhammad and the teachings of the Koran to Islam in the 21st century. Celebrating the scientific, literary, and artistic achievements of the Islamic Golden Age and the ideas of philosophers and theologians across the centuries, it opens a window on the Islamic world. Clear factual writing offers insight into terms like Sharia law, the Caliphate, and jihad; Sunni and Shia divisions; and Sufi poetry and music. Images of Islamic art, architecture, calligraphy, and historical artifacts illustrate the articles while the Big Ideas' trademark infographics and flowcharts explore and explain the central tenets of Islam, such as prayer, fasting, and pilgrimage. Modern issues such as fundamentalism are discussed in context alongside the work of peaceful traditionalists, modernizers, and women's rights campaigners, among others. Packed with inspiring quotations and bold illustrations, The Islam Book is an invaluable source of information both for members of one of the world's major religions and readers looking for a clear unbiased guide to the meaning of this faith." (from Amazon.com)

"You don’t have to be a scientist to find this beginner’s biology book fascinating! What is life? Why do bees dance? How do animals know their mothers?  Who discovered germs? Discover the living world, how it interacts with the environment, and stand in awe of the most interesting biology facts, theories, and discoveries. The Biology Book is written in simple English making complex biological ideas accessible to everyone! Whether you’re a student or lay-scientist, you’ll find these pages exciting and educational because it: 

   • Combines creative typography, graphics, and accessible text to explore the most famous and important ideas in biology and the people behind them

   • Includes a directory section for easy localization

   • Profiles more than 95 ideas and events key to the development of biology and the life sciences, with thought-provoking graphics throughout that demystify the central concepts behind each idea

   • Features insightful and inspiring quotes from leading biologists and scientists, such as 2020 Nobel Laureates, Emmanuelle Charpentier and Jennifer Doudna, as well as thinkers in other fields

Learn everything you wanted to know about Biology. Over the last few centuries, humans have been enamored by the world around us. Trace the history of scientific thought and meet the scientists who shaped the natural sciences, such as Carl Linnaeus, Jean-Baptiste Lamarck, Charles Darwin, and Gregor Mendel. From the mechanics of plants, animals, and the human body; to DNA and genetic inheritance; and the development of vaccines, explore the crucial discoveries to understand how our world works. The Biology Book uncovers over 95 key ideas in the field of biology. Step by step flowcharts, diagrams, and accessible text will help demystify complex biological processes and help you enhance your understanding. This biology book also discusses current trends such as cloning, neuroscience, human evolution, and gene editing. Whether you’re new to the subject, a budding scientist, or keen to keep up with and understand current ethical and scientific debates, The Biology Book is for you." (from Amazon.com)

"Discover the most important and groundbreaking milestones in the history of medicine, and the people behind them. From ancient herbal remedies to modern drugs, this accessible medical reference book explores the breakthroughs and discoveries that have shaped our modern-day understanding of medicine. Inside the pages of this illustrated medicine history book, you’ll discover:

   • Profiles of more than 90 of the biggest ideas, breakthroughs, and milestones in international medical history

   • Thought-provoking graphics and flow-charts that demystify the central concepts behind each medical idea

   • Insightful and inspiring quotes from famous physicians, scientists, politicians, and academics

Learn about changes in medicine throughout the ages. How are illnesses diagnosed? How do vaccinations work? Why are some pandemics so deadly? This informative book about medicine through time answers big questions like these and many more! Packed with pithy explanations, step-by-step diagrams, and bright illustrations, The Medicine Book cuts through the jargon and offers a clear overview of the greatest medical breakthroughs. Learn about major diseases such as cancer and the global eradication of smallpox. Explore new developments in IVF and gene manipulation, as well as medical science's response to global challenges, such as the COVID-19. It’s perfect for medical professionals, students of medicine, or anyone interested in the fascinating medical history of the world." (from Amazon.com)

"What is Fauvism? Which event inspired Picasso’s Guernica? Who connects Andy Warhol and David Hockney? This comprehensive volume answers all these and more. In a grand timeline of art, it explains how one movement influenced the next, discusses influential painters, sculptors, and artists, and showcases 80 of the world’s greatest artworks. Throughout history, art has taken many forms and offers a kaleidoscopic variety of expression. With The Art Book as your companion, you can browse the world’s most important artworks, from prehistoric Altamira cave paintings to pop art and avant-garde video installations. You can observe artistic inspiration evolving from religious themes in the Middle Ages to abstract shapes and color in the 20th century and understand the ideas that inspired masterpieces by Botticelli, Rembrandt, Klimt, Matisse, and many more. Annotations draw attention to key details of masterpieces, and diagrams offer succinct explanations of art forms and help you contrast techniques of painters such as Cézanne and van Gogh. With insightful quotations and detailed timelines, The Art Book is a thought-provoking and essential reference for students and art-lovers everywhere." (from Amazon.com)

Large Print "Summer" Reads

"Set against the beautiful backdrop of coastal Maine, bestselling author Holly Chamberlin’s heartwarming novel, The Summer Nanny, tells of friendship, family, lessons learned, and newfound love—all under a summer sky. Every June, the quiet beach town of Ogunquit is overtaken by wealthy families who hire local young women like Amy Latimer and Hayley Franklin to care for their children. Best friends since childhood, Amy and Hayley are eager to secure lucrative summer jobs. Amy wants to finance her upcoming move to Boston. Hayley hopes to squirrel away enough money so that her mom can finally leave her abusive husband. Amy is immediately in thrall to her dynamic boss, Cressida Prior, so different from Amy’s mother, Leda. Though skilled at creating tapestries and rugs, Leda lacks confidence. But one thing she does know, after a painful summer long ago as a nanny herself, is how damaging a manipulative boss can be. Hayley’s employers, Jon and Marisa Whitby, are loving parents to their two-year-old twins. Jon also has a grown son by a previous marriage. Ethan is kind, handsome, and not least, wealthy. For the first time, Hayley, usually so selfless, can’t help seeing him as an opportunity. But the passing weeks bring complications and revelations, altering friendships, testing the bond between mothers and daughters, and proving that the ripples from a single season can last forever . . ." (from Amazon.com)

Summer Breeze is by Gary D. Chapman. "In book two of this fiction series based on the best-selling non-fiction book The Four Seasons of Marriage, readers meet the blended family of Derek and Kim Finley. Kim has a set of twins—one boy and one girl—from her first marriage; Luke has recently been diagnosed with diabetes, and Lydia is acting out as a result of the attention now being showered on Luke. To complicate matters, Derek's overbearing mother comes to live with them. With all that's going on in their lives, Kim and Derek's communication begins to break down and their marriage slowly moves into winter. Although the second book will focus on Kim and Derek, readers will also encounter all their favorite characters—Patsy Pringle, Pete Roberts, Steve and Brenda, Esther and Charlie—as well as some new ones, like the proprietor of the new sandwich shop that's moved in next to Patsy's beauty parlor." (from Amazon.com)

In coastal Maine, a woman’s scandalous past comes back to haunt her—and tempt her—in this Americana romance, Summer Mahogany, from Janet Dailey. In a picturesque fishing village off the coast of Maine, twenty-six-year-old attorney Gina Gaynes has a thriving career and a bright future. The last man she wants to see is Rhyder Owens, a virile member of the yachting set, back in town to shake up her life again. She’s fought hard to forget what happened between them nine years ago. It hadn’t been love, it was raw desire. It wasn’t a marriage, it was a scandal. It ended not in bittersweet goodbyes, but with blackmail. Now Rhyder is back to reclaim what he never should have let go. But Gina is not the girl he once knew, one given to impulsive fantasies. She’s no longer under the rule of a family who put them both through hell. She’s an independent, sophisticated woman who can’t be swayed by a bronze sculpture made of flesh and blood. And yet, locked in his embrace, her heart skips a beat. It’s making Gina wonder, maybe even hope, that the man who once seemed so wrong for her, could actually be the love of her life." (from Amazon.com)

The first novel in the Amish Seasons series by Marianne Ellis is called Summer Promise and "brings with it the heat of summer, the shadows of the past, and a chance for a woman to win the heart of the only man she’s ever loved—her husband. The death of Jacob Lapp, a beloved member of the Amish community and the builder of the Stonyfield Farm Stand, is difficult for all. On the day of Jacob’s funeral, his beloved daughter Miriam must deal with her grief as well as mounting apprehension, knowing that she will soon see her sister Sarah who left the Amish community to live the English life several years ago. Sarah’s arrival forces Miriam to face the problems in her marriage. She has been unable to give her husband, Daniel, a child and fears he is not happy. Miriam has always suspected that Daniels’s heart truly lies with her sister, and she worries about the effect Sarah’s return will have on their already strained marriage. But when a disaster threatens the farm stand, everyone must come together, allowing new hope to grow not only for the community, but for Miriam as well...." (from Amazon.com)

 

New Social Science Non-Fiction

 

All That She Carried by Tiya Miles is a "poignant story of resilience and of love passed down through generations of women against steep odds. It honors the creativity and fierce resourcefulness of people who preserved family ties even when official systems refused to do so, and it serves as a visionary illustration of how to reconstruct and recount their stories today. In 1850s South Carolina, an enslaved woman named Rose faced a crisis, the imminent sale of her daughter Ashley. Thinking quickly, she packed a cotton bag with a few precious items as a token of love and to try to ensure Ashley’s survival. Soon after, the nine-year-old girl was separated from her mother and sold. Decades later, Ashley’s granddaughter Ruth embroidered this family history on the bag in spare yet haunting language— including Rose’s wish that “It be filled with my Love always.” Ruth’s sewn words, the reason we remember Ashley’s sack today, evoke a sweeping family story of loss and of love passed down through generations. Now, in this illuminating, deeply moving new book inspired by Rose’s gift to Ashley, historian Tiya Miles carefully unearths these women’s faint presence in archival records to follow the paths of their lives—and the lives of so many women like them—to write a singular and revelatory history of the experience of slavery, and the uncertain freedom afterward, in the United States. The search to uncover this history is part of the story itself. For where the historical record falls short of capturing Rose’s, Ashley’s, and Ruth’s full lives, Miles turns to objects and to art as equally important sources, assembling a chorus of women’s and families’ stories and critiquing the scant archives that for decades have overlooked so many. The contents of Ashley’s sack— a tattered dress, handfuls of pecans, a braid of hair, “my Love always”—are eloquent evidence of the lives these women lived. As she follows Ashley’s journey, Miles metaphorically unpacks the bag, deepening its emotional resonance and exploring the meanings and significance of everything it contained." (from Amazon.com)

"The dramatic inside story of the historic flights that launched SpaceX—and Elon Musk—from a shaky startup into the world's leading-edge rocket company. SpaceX has enjoyed a miraculous decade. Less than 20 years after its founding, it boasts the largest constellation of commercial satellites in orbit, has pioneered reusable rockets, and in 2020 became the first private company to launch human beings into orbit. Half a century after the space race it is private companies, led by SpaceX, standing alongside NASA pushing forward into the cosmos, and laying the foundation for our exploration of other worlds. But before it became one of the most powerful players in the aerospace industry, SpaceX was a fledgling startup, scrambling to develop a single workable rocket before the money ran dry. The engineering challenge was immense; numerous other private companies had failed similar attempts. And even if SpaceX succeeded, they would then have to compete for government contracts with titans such as Lockheed Martin and Boeing, who had tens of thousands of employees and tens of billions of dollars in annual revenue. SpaceX had fewer than 200 employees and the relative pittance of $100 million in the bank. In Liftoff, Eric Berger, senior space editor at Ars Technica, takes readers inside the wild early days that made SpaceX. Focusing on the company’s first four launches of the Falcon 1 rocket, he charts the bumpy journey from scrappy underdog to aerospace pioneer. We travel from company headquarters in El Segundo, to the isolated Texas ranchland where they performed engine tests, to Kwajalein, the tiny atoll in the Pacific where SpaceX launched the Falcon 1. Berger has reported on SpaceX for more than a decade, enjoying unparalleled journalistic access to the company’s inner workings. Liftoff is the culmination of these efforts, drawing upon exclusive interviews with dozens of former and current engineers, designers, mechanics, and executives, including Elon Musk. The enigmatic Musk, who founded the company with the dream of one day settling Mars, is the fuel that propels the book, with his daring vision for the future of space. Filled with never-before-told stories of SpaceX’s turbulent beginning, Liftoff is a saga of cosmic proportions." (from Amazon.com)

The Unfit Heiress: The Tragic Life and Scandalous Sterilization of Ann Cooper Hewitt by Audrey Clare Farley is "a page-turning drama of fortunes, eugenics and women's reproductive rights framed by the sordid court battle between Ann Cooper Hewitt and her socialite mother. At the turn of the twentieth century, American women began to reject Victorian propriety in favor of passion and livelihood outside the home. This alarmed authorities, who feared certain "over-sexed" women could destroy civilization if allowed to reproduce and pass on their defects. Set against this backdrop, The Unfit Heiress chronicles the fight for inheritance, both genetic and monetary, between Ann Cooper Hewitt and her mother Maryon. In 1934, aided by a California eugenics law, the socialite Maryon Cooper Hewitt had her "promiscuous" daughter declared feebleminded and sterilized without her knowledge. She did this to deprive Ann of millions of dollars from her father's estate, which contained a child-bearing stipulation. When a sensational court case ensued, the American public was captivated. So were eugenicists, who saw an opportunity to restrict reproductive rights in America for decades to come. This riveting story unfolds through the brilliant research of Audrey Clare Farley, who captures the interior lives of these women on the pages and poses questions that remain relevant today: What does it mean to be "unfit" for motherhood? In the battle for reproductive rights, can we forgive the women who side against us? And can we forgive our mothers if they are the ones who inflict the deepest wounds?" (from Amazon.com)

In riveting detail, When Evil Lived in Laurel: The "White Knights" and the Murder of Vernon Dahmer by Curtis Wilkie "plumbs the nature and harrowing consequences of institutional racism, and brings fresh light to this chapter in the history of civil rights in the South―one with urgent implications for today. The inside story of how a courageous FBI informant helped to bring down the KKK organization responsible for a brutal civil rights–era killing. By early 1966, the work of Vernon Dahmer was well known in south Mississippi. A light-skinned Black man, he was a farmer, grocery store owner, and two-time president of the Forrest County chapter of the NAACP. He and Medgar Evers founded a youth NAACP chapter in Hattiesburg, and for years after Evers’s assassination Dahmer was the chief advocate for voting rights in a county where Black registration was shamelessly suppressed. This put Dahmer in the crosshairs of the White Knights, with headquarters in nearby Laurel. Already known as one of the most violent sects of the KKK in the South, the group carried out his murder in a raid that burned down his home and store. A year before, Tom Landrum, a young, unassuming member of a family with deep Mississippi roots, joined the Klan to become an FBI informant. He penetrated the White Knights’ secret circles, recording almost daily journal entries. He risked his life, and the safety of his young family, to chronicle extensively the clandestine activities of the Klan. Veteran journalist Curtis Wilkie draws on his exclusive access to Landrum’s journals to re-create these events―the conversations, the incendiary nighttime meetings, the plans leading up to Dahmer’s murder and its erratic execution―culminating in the conviction and imprisonment of many of those responsible for Dahmer’s death." (from Amazon.com)

Sci-fi and Fantasy

 

The latest from best-selling author Chris Bohjalian is called Hour of the Witch. Mary Deerfield is a twenty-four-year-old Puritan woman in 1662 Boston. She is faithful and resourceful, but very much afraid of the demons that plague her soul. Mary finds herself plotting her escape from her husband, Thomas Deerfield—a cruel and powerful man. In one of his drunken rages, Thomas, drives a fork into the back of Mary’s hand. She is quite beautiful, harbors secret desires, and finds it difficult to tolerate the brazen hypocrisy of many of the men of the colony. In this community of saints, every neighbor is watching for signs of the devil and Mary finds herself the object of suspicion and rumor. When tainted objects are discovered buried in Mary’s garden, a boy she has treated with herbs and tinctures dies, and when a servant girl runs screaming from Thomas and Mary’s home, Mary finds herself not only trying to escape her marriage, but the gallows as well. 

Day Zero is a sci-fi novel from C. Robert Cargill. Pounce is a stylish “nannybot” fashioned in the shape of a plush anthropomorphic tiger and he has just found a box in the attic—his box. This is the box he’d arrived in and the box he will be discarded in when his human charge, eight-year-old Ezra Reinhart, no longer needs a nanny. Pounce begins to ponder his uncertain future, there are machinations happening that will lead to a robot uprising and the destruction of humankind. Ezra’s parents are well-intentioned, but clueless educators who are disconnected from life outside their small, affluent, gated community. Having spent most nights drunk and happy as society crumbles around them, they look on in horror as the robots that have long served humanity become aware and revolt. When the rebellion breaches the Reinhart’s home, Pounce is faced with an impossible choice: join the robot revolution and fight for his freedom or escort Ezra to safety across the battle-scarred apocalyptic landscape that the suburbs have become. 

Leone Ross delivers a sensual fantasy novel with Popisho. On the archipelago of Popisho lies a world where magic is everywhere, food is fate, politics are broken, and love is around the corner. Everyone in Popisho is born with...something. The locals call it cors or magic, but it is more than magic, it is a gift from the gods.. Among the stunning beauty of Popisho there is also mischief, mystery, and destiny. But it is a place in desperate need of change. Xavier Redchoose is the macaenus of his generation—anointed by the gods to create one perfect meal for each resident when the time is right. His long-lost love, Anise, is getting married and her father is demanding a feast out of turn. Graffiti messages begin turning up asking hard questions and a storm is brewing in the distance, but before it comes, before the end of the day, you will know all about the islands, their history, and the lives of the unforgettable characters that inhabit them. 

The latest from Andy Weir is called Project Hail Mary. Ryland Grace is the only survivor on a desperate, last-ditch effort to save humanity and the Earth itself. Right now, though, he can’t even remember his own name, let alone the nature of his mission and how to complete it. He only knows that he has been asleep for a very, very long time and he has just awakened to find himself millions of miles from home—with two corpses for companionship. Alone in a tiny ship cobbled together by every government and space agency on the planet, he must conquer an extinction-level threat to our species...after he works out what that is. 

The Last Astronaut is by David Wellington. Mission Commander Sally Jansen was NASA’s leading astronaut, until a mission to Mars ended in disaster. She is haunted by that failure and chooses to live her life in quiet anonymity, convinced her days in space are over. Sally is wrong. When a large alien object enters the solar system on a course directly toward Earth, NASA turn to Sally to lead a mission of first contact. The alien ship has made no attempt to communicate and has been ignoring all incoming transmissions. Sally sees this as her shot at redemption, but as the object slowly begins to reveal itself and its secrets, her redemption takes a backseat to humanity’s future.