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Saving Seeds

Dan Jason

Much of our food comes from seeds. But where do our seeds come from? And where are they going? For much of human history, farmers saved their own seed stocks to ensure a good harvest from year to year. In the mid-twentieth century, governments became involved in seed saving, creating massive seed libraries cataloguing thousands of varieties. This biodiversity has come under attack in recent decades, as corporations have replaced heirloom varieties with genetic engineering and costly trademarks. In such an agricultural climate, saving seeds becomes both a practical act of preservation and powerful act of protest.

Over half of Canadian households grow fruits, herbs, vegetables or flowers for personal use, according to Statistics Canada. And each of these home gardens has the potential to preserve vital biodiversity, if only we would let plants go to seed, harvest and preserve them. Saving Seeds is a clear and winsome introduction to the essentials of seed saving, from seed selection criteria to harvest and storage tips. It also addresses the role of seed-saving communities: local swaps, seed companies, friends and neighbours and even how the Internet can support this time-honoured practice.

In an era of community gardens, farmers markets and renewed interest in heirloom species, Saving Seeds is a timely call to ensure a more secure future for our seeds and ourselves.

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Composting Basics

Eric Ebeling

How to recycle household waste to make quality compost You don't need a science degree or a shed full of sophisticated equipment to make quality compost. What you need to get started is the know-how provided in this basic how-to book along a little elbow grease and the pile of organic materials you regularly throw away. Nature does the rest. Whether you live in the suburbs, country, or city, whether you have a garden or not, you can recycle household waste in an environmentally friendly way and turn it into black gold: compost. You'll learn what and how to compost, how to make or buy bins, how to build a compost pile and make compost tea, and how to compost with worms. It's simple and easy to do, and the best part is that you'll be saving money and helping to save the earth as well.

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Compost

Ben Raskin

Set your family on the path to a planet-friendly lifestyle with this fun guide to compost--what it is, how to make it, how to maintain it.  Includes games, stickers, and more!

Teach your kids that composting is fun with this funky guide that takes you from the nitty-gritty of compost composition and care to Worms and Ladders, a fresh take on a traditional board game. Find out the rules for setting up your very own Worm Lovers' Society, learn all about the garden-to-plate cycle together, and get your family's feet firmly set on the road to a planet-friendly lifestyle. Includes information on both kitchen and garden composting.

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Plant, Sow, Make and Grow

Esther Coombs

Get little gardeners growing and learning with this beautifully illustrated book, packed with information and crafty stuff to do. Help them to discover that gardening can be simple and uncomplicated with very little equipment and prior knowledge needed. It often is as simple as having some seeds, a patch of soil or a container and having a go. As well as gaining a new hobby, there will be extra motivation to eat up the veggies after growing and picking them and the simple pleasure of spending time together outside. With sections based on the cycle of the seasons, the pages are packed with ideas of what to grow, how to sow seeds and useful harvesting information. Also included are tips about what wildlife you may see, raiding your recycling box to make some useful gardening accessories, and other decorative craft activities.

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Raised Bed Gardening: A Complete Beginner's Guide

Tara Nolan

Are you eager to step into vegetable gardening but don’t know where to start? With this guide to the nearly foolproof raised-bed technique, you’ll be growing your own organic food in no time.

Growing your own food is a satisfying experience as well as an investment that will pay you and the community back in a myriad of ways, including benefits for the earth, greater food security, and better health. But where do you start and what is the best way to approach creating a garden and growing food?

The raised bed gardening technique, used by successful food gardeners for centuries, is simple and can be done pretty much anywhere. Building beds allows you to bring in the right materials, which might not exist in your own environment, and grow your own food year-round, if you so choose—no matter where you live. So whether your outdoor space is big or small, raised beds are the best choice for your first vegetable garden. Some water and a little love and attention is all you need be successful. 

In Raised Bed Gardening: A Complete Beginner’s Guide, you will learn everything you need to know to prepare and execute your garden plan and grow and harvest your produce. The book includes: 
 

  • Plans for building quick-and-simple beds that you can make yourself with a few common tools
  • Details on how to build the right soil mix to fill your beds
  • List of the easiest plants to grow as a beginner
  • Plant information, along with which plants work best with other plants
  • Planting advice, including spacing instructions
  • Advice on mulch, watering, and fertilizing
  • Organic pest control
  • How to harvest and store your produce
  • How to get the most out of your raised bed space


So get started on your path to becoming a gardener. No matter what your level of confidence, this book will give you the information and tools you need to succeed.

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Martha Stewart's Gardening Handbook

Martha Stewart

An instant New York Times Bestseller

"If you want to be happy for a year, get married. If you want to be happy for a decade, get a dog. And if you want to be happy for the rest of your life, make a garden."

--Martha Stewart, Martha Netflix Documentary

The first fully comprehensive gardening guide from the legendary Martha Stewart in more than 30 years, with everything you need to know to curate a beautiful, thriving garden

Master the art of gardening with Martha Stewart's Gardening Handbook: an in-depth guide that will teach you the knowledge and skills to cultivate a flourishing garden. From understanding soil composition to learning about different types of plants and gardening methods, you'll discover the secrets to creating a stunning outdoor oasis.

Martha covers:

  • the nuances of careful planning
  • soil testing
  • drainage
  • watering and rainfall
  • understanding plant hardiness zones
  • the art of choosing the healthiest plants for your specific climate

Plus, all different kinds of plants like:

  • annuals, perennials, and bulbs
  • succulents and cacti
  • vegetable and herb gardens
  • trees and shrubs

From designing your garden to selecting the right varieties for your region, this manual has every detail covered. Whether you're a green thumb or a gardening novice, this gorgeous book, filled with practical tips, stunning images (many from Martha's personal gardens), and detailed explanations, will arm you with the knowledge to help your garden thrive. As Martha likes to say, gardening is a never-ending opportunity for growth.

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The Curious Kitchen Gardener

Linda Ziedrich

Enjoy a whole new tasty cuisine using unexpected ingredients you can find in your own garden, from a Master Food Preserver and Gardener.

The Curious Kitchen Gardener is for cooks and gardeners interested in bringing novelty and variety into their lives and homes. It follows each season of planting and harvesting--featuring nearly 35 often overlooked edibles, with illustrations, and a delicious recipe for each, encouraging us to see our gardens as an integrated whole and a year-round practice. Calling upon decades of Master Gardener and Master Food Preserver experience, Linda Ziedrich includes fascinating cultural context and personal connections to each plant. The result is the story of how and why an adventurous gardener cultivated a unique cuisine for herself and her family--and how you can too.

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Growing Green: a First Book of Gardening

Candlewick Press

Dig in to a fun and stylish collection of sixteen step-by-step edible gardening projects for young children.

From strawberries in galoshes to herbs in recycled tin cans, this easy-to-follow gardening book contains fifteen simple (and delicious!) projects for budding young gardeners. Kids can learn all they need to know to grow their own fruit, herbs, and vegetables in whatever space they have at home, whether it be a windowsill or yard. Bright, engaging illustrations and clear instructions make this a great gift for any young child curious about where their food comes from and eager to grow some delectables themselves.

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How Do Seeds Grow Into Gardens?

Clayton Grider

Have you ever wondered how entire gardens can grow from teeny tiny seeds? A basic explanation of growing popular vegetables, the plant life cycle, and unique gardening methods is explored through simple diagrams, hilarious illustrations, and informative and engaging text in this exciting gardening adventure. Includes fun gardening activities and a glossary!

About the How Do series: These fully-illustrated nonfiction picture books are a great introduction to various STEM topics. Each title includes facts and figures, simple diagrams and hilarious illustrations and is written in a question-and-answer format to encourage readers to ask questions and guess the answers before exploring the science behind the correct response.
 

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Super Fake Love Song

David Yoon

When Sunny meets Cirrus, he can't believe how cool and confident she is. So when Cirrus mistakenly thinks Sunny plays guitar, he accidentally winds up telling her he's the front man of a rock band.

Before he knows it, Sunny is knee-deep in the lie: He gets his best friends to form a fake band with him and starts dressing like a rock star. But no way can he trick this amazing girl into thinking he's cool, right?

Just when Sunny is about to come clean, Cirrus asks to see them play sometime. Gulp.

Now there's only one thing to do: Fake it till you make it.

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One Last Shot: Based on a True Story of Wartime Heroism

Kip Wilson

The daughter of Polish Jewish immigrants, Gerta Pohorylle doesn't quite fit in. While she's away at boarding school, however, she becomes a master at reinventing herself. When she returns from school, she gets more involved with left-wing groups as Germany splits into political extremes and after she's arrested for distributing anti-Nazi propaganda, Gerta and her family decide she must leave Germany.

In Paris, Gerda meets André Friedman, a Hungarian photographer eager for fame and fortune, who fosters Gerda's interest in photography and how it can be as much of a tool for broadcasting her beliefs as protesting and demonstrations. Together the pair invents Robert Capa, a rich American photographer, and soon they're selling "Capa's" work for high prices and to great acclaim. Soon after, Gerda begins selling her own work under the last name Taro and the pair take on more assignments, jetting off to Spain to cover the growing conflict that quickly becomes the Spanish Civil War.

As Gerda pushes closer and closer to the front line, eager to capture the lives and vibrant hopes of those fighting against fascism, she begins to lose track of, and regard for, her own safety.

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Loveboat, Taipei

Abigail Hing Wen

And just like that, Ever Wong's summer takes an unexpected turn. Gone is Chien Tan, the strict educational program in Taiwan that Ever was expecting. In its place, she finds Loveboat: a summer-long free-for-all where hookups abound, adults turn a blind eye, snake-blood sake flows abundantly, and the nightlife runs nonstop.

But not every student is quite what they seem:

Ever is working toward becoming a doctor but nurses a secret passion for dance.

Rick Woo is the Yale-bound child prodigy bane of Ever's existence whose perfection hides a secret.

Boy-crazy, fashion-obsessed Sophie Ha turns out to have more to her than meets the eye.

And under sexy Xavier Yeh's shell is buried a shameful truth he'll never admit.

When these students' lives collide, it's guaranteed to be a summer Ever will never forget.

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You Asked for Perfect

Laura Silverman

Ariel Stone has spent his life cultivating the perfect college résumé first chair violinist, dedicated volunteer, active synagogue congregant, and expected valedictorian. He barely has time to think about a social life, let alone a relationship...until a failed calculus quiz puts his future on the line, forcing Ariel to enlist his classmate, Amir, as a tutor.

As the two spend more time together, Ariel discovers he may not like calculus, but he does like Amir. When he's with Amir, the crushing academic pressure fades away on, and a fuller and brighter world comes into focus. But college deadlines are still looming. And adding a new relationship to his long list of commitments may just push Ariel past his limit.

In a time where academic pressure on stressed teens couldn't be higher, You Asked for Perfect is a story full of empathy, honesty and heart for anyone who has ever questioned the price of perfection.

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An Impossible Thing to Say

Arya Shahi

Omid needs the right words to connect with his newly met grandfather and distant Iranian heritage, words to tell a special girl what she means to him and to show everyone that he truly belongs in Tucson, Arizona, the only home he's ever known. Neither the school play's Shakespearean English nor his parents' Farsi seems up to the task, and it's only when Omid delves into the rhymes and rhythms of rap music that he starts to find his voice. But even as he does so, an act of terrorism transforms familiar accents into new threats.

Then a family member disappears, and it seems everyone but Omid knows why. When words fail altogether and violence takes their place, what will Omid do next?

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The Ghosts of Rose Hill

R. M. Romero

Sent to stay with her aunt in Prague and witness the humble life of an artist, Ilana Lopez—a biracial Jewish girl—finds herself torn between her dream of becoming a violinist and her immigrant parents’ desire for her to pursue a more stable career.
 
When she discovers a forgotten Jewish cemetery behind her aunt’s cottage, she meets the ghost of a kindhearted boy named Benjamin, who died over a century ago. As Ilana restores Benjamin’s grave, he introduces her to the enchanted side of Prague, where ghosts walk the streets and their kisses have warmth.
 
But Benjamin isn't the only one interested in Ilana. Rudolph Wassermann, a man with no shadow, has become fascinated with her and the music she plays. He offers to share his magic, so Ilana can be with Benjamin and pursue her passion for violin. But after Ilana discovers the truth about Wassermann and how Benjamin became bound to the city, she resolves to save the boy she loves, even if it means losing him—forever.

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From Dust, a Flame

Rebecca Podos

Hannah's whole life has been spent in motion. Her mother has kept her and her brother, Gabe, on the road for as long as she can remember, leaving a trail of rental homes and faded relationships behind them. No roots, no family but one another, and no explanations.

All that changes on Hannah's seventeenth birthday when she wakes up transformed, a pair of golden eyes with knife-slit pupils blinking back at her from the mirror--the first of many such impossible mutations. Promising that she knows someone who can help, her mother leaves Hannah and Gabe behind to find a cure. But as the days turn to weeks and their mother doesn't return, they realize it's up to them to find the truth.

What they discover is a family they never knew and a history more tragic and fantastical than Hannah could have dreamed--one that stretches back to her grandmother's childhood in Prague under the Nazi occupation, and beyond, into the realm of Jewish mysticism and legend. As the past comes crashing into the present, Hannah must hurry to unearth their family's secrets in order to break the curse and save the people she loves most, as well as herself.

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From Twinkle, with Love

Sandhya Menon

Aspiring filmmaker and wallflower Twinkle Mehra has stories she wants to tell and universes she wants to explore, if only the world would listen. So when fellow film geek Sahil Roy approaches her to direct a movie for the upcoming Summer Festival, Twinkle is all over it. The chance to publicly showcase her voice as a director? Dream come true. The fact that it gets her closer to her longtime crush, Neil Roy—a.k.a. Sahil’s twin brother? Dream come true x 2.

When mystery man “N” begins emailing her, Twinkle is sure it’s Neil, finally ready to begin their happily-ever-after. The only slightly inconvenient problem is that, in the course of movie-making, she’s fallen madly in love with the irresistibly adorkable Sahil.

Twinkle soon realizes that resistance is futile: The romance she’s got is not the one she’s scripted. But will it be enough?

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Darius the Great Is Not Okay

Adib Khorram

Darius Kellner speaks better Klingon than Farsi, and he knows more about Hobbit social cues than Persian ones. He’s a Fractional Persian—half, his mom’s side—and his first-ever trip to Iran is about to change his life. 
 
Darius has never really fit in at home, and he’s sure things are going to be the same in Iran. His clinical depression doesn’t exactly help matters, and trying to explain his medication to his grandparents only makes things harder. Then Darius meets Sohrab, the boy next door, and everything changes. Soon, they’re spending their days together, playing soccer, eating faludeh, and talking for hours on a secret rooftop overlooking the city’s skyline. Sohrab calls him Darioush—the original Persian version of his name—and Darius has never felt more like himself than he does now that he’s Darioush to Sohrab.

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Talon

Julie Kagawa

Dragon v. dragonslayer


To take her rightful place in the powerful Talon organization, hatchling Ember Hill must prove she can hide her dragon nature and blend in with humans. Her delight at the prospect of a summer of human teen experiences is short-lived, however, once she discovers that she must also train for her destined career in Talon. But a chance meeting with a rogue dragon will soon challenge everything Ember has been taught.

Garret Xavier Sebastian, a young dragonslayer in the top-secret Order of St. George, is tasked with hunting her down. But when faced with Ember's bravery, confidence, and all-too-human desires, Garret begins to question everything the Order has ingrained in him and what he might be willing to give up to learn the truth about dragons.
 

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How to Pack for the End of the World

Michelle Falkoff

If you knew the world was going to end tomorrow, what would you do

This is the question that haunts Amina as she watches new and horrible stories of discord and crisis flash across the news every day.

But when she starts at prestigious Gardner Academy, Amina finds a group of like-minded peers to join forces with--fast friends who dedicate their year to learning survival skills from each other, before it's too late.

Still, as their prepper knowledge multiplies, so do their regular high school problems, from relationship drama to family issues to friend blow-ups. Juggling the two parts of their lives forces Amina to ask another vital question: Is it worth living in the hypothetical future if it's at the expense of your actual present

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A Tempest of Tea

Hafsah Faizal

On the streets of White Roaring, Arthie Casimir is a criminal mastermind and collector of secrets. Her prestigious tearoom transforms into an illegal bloodhouse by night, catering to the vampires feared by society. But when her establishment is threatened, Arthie is forced to strike an unlikely deal with an alluring adversary to save it—she can’t do the job alone.

Calling on some of the city’s most skilled outcasts, Arthie hatches a plan to infiltrate the sinister, glittering vampire society known as the Athereum. But not everyone in her ragtag crew is on her side, and as the truth behind the heist unfolds, Arthie finds herself in the midst of a conspiracy that will threaten the world as she knows it. Dark, action-packed, and swoonworthy, this is Hafsah Faizal better than ever.

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Kindling

Traci Chee

Once, the war was fought with kindlings--elite, magic-wielding warriors whose devastating power comes at the cost of their own young lives.

Now the war is over, and kindlings have been cast adrift--their magic outlawed, their skills outdated, their formidable balar weapons prized only as relics and souvenirs.

Violence still plagues the countryside, and memories haunt those who remain. When a village comes under threat of siege, it offers an opportunity for seven kindlings to fight one last time. But war changed these warriors. And to reclaim who they once were, they will have to battle their pasts, their trauma, and their grim fates to come together again--or none of them will make it out alive.

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The Blood Years

Elana K. Arnold

Frederieke Teitler and her older sister, Astra, live in a house, in a city, in a world divided. Their father ran out on them when Rieke was only six, leaving their mother a wreck and their grandfather as their only stable family. He's done his best to provide for them and shield them from antisemitism, but now, seven years later, being a Jew has become increasingly dangerous, even in their beloved home of Czernowitz, long considered a safe haven for Jewish people. And when Astra falls in love and starts pulling away from her, Rieke wonders if there's anything in her life she can count on--and, if so, if she has the power to hold on to it.

Then--war breaks out in Europe. First the Russians, then the Germans, invade Czernowitz. Almost overnight, Rieke and Astra's world changes, and every day becomes a struggle: to keep their grandfather's business, to keep their home, to keep their lives. Rieke has long known that she exists in a world defined by those who have power and those who do not, and as those powers close in around her, she must decide whether holding on to her life might mean letting go of everything that has ever mattered to her--and if that's a choice she will even have the chance to make.

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A Meerkat Diary

Suzi Eszterhas

Spend two wild and action-packed weeks with the author observing and photographing a mob of meerkats.  Daily accounts describe the early life of the five meerkat pups being raised by the mob's matriarch and two adult males. The pups grow from tiny creatures who wobble as they walk and are wholly dependent on their adult caretakers, to adolescents who practice killing scorpions for their dinner and have nearly perfected the famous tripod stance meerkats use when on lookout for danger.  Jam-packed with amazing and often adorable photos.

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Fly with Me

Jane Yolen

This thoughtful and beautifully curated collection of our flying, feathery friends highlights the role birds play in human life from centuries ago to present day. While it's beautiful, it's also full of valuable real science about these wondrous creatures. From history and behavior to spotting and photographing, there's sure to be something for every bird fan in your flock. Young birders will learn all about migration and the importance of habitat conservation. They'll find stories about bird rescues and fun facts about the fastest, strongest, and tiniest fliers. They'll also discover the best bird nests, sweet songs to sing, ways to listen for and identify the birds around them, and more. Paired with stunning art and photography and beautiful design, this treasury is sure to become a classic for bird enthusiasts of all ages.

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Rosie's Walk

Pat Hutchins

The Fox is after Rosie, but Rosie doesn't know it. Unwittingly, she leads him into one disaster after the other, each funnier than the last. To enjoy Rosie's walk as much as Rosie does, just look inside!

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Chickens

Leo Statts

From chicks to roosters, Chickens introduces readers to these animals and their lives on a farm. This book captivates young readers through simple and easy-to-read text combined with vibrant, full-color photographs. Plus, quick stats sections and bolded glossary terms invite readers to zoom in and learn more.

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The Tell: Oprah's Book Club

Amy Griffin

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • OPRAH’S BOOK CLUB PICK • An astonishing memoir that explores how far we will go to protect ourselves, and the healing made possible when we face our secrets and begin to share our stories

“A beautiful account of the journey of courage it takes to face the truth of one’s past.”—Bessel van der Kolk, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Body Keeps the Score

For decades, Amy ran. Through the dirt roads of Amarillo, Texas, where she grew up; to the campus of the University of Virginia, as a student athlete; on the streets of New York, where she built her adult life; through marriage, motherhood, and a thriving career. To outsiders, it all looked, in many ways, perfect. But Amy was running from something—a secret she was keeping not only from her family and friends, but unconsciously from herself. “You’re here, but you’re not here,” her daughter said to her one night. “Where are you, Mom?” So began Amy’s quest to solve a mystery trapped in the deep recesses of her own memory—a journey that would take her into the burgeoning field of psychedelic therapy, to the limits of the judicial system, and ultimately, home to the Texas panhandle, where her story began.

In her search for the truth, to understand and begin to recover from buried childhood trauma, Griffin interrogates the pursuit of perfectionism, control, and maintaining appearances that drives so many women, asking, when, in our path from girlhood to womanhood, did we learn to look outside ourselves for validation? What kind of freedom is possible if we accept the whole story and embrace who we really are? With hope, heart, and relentless honesty, she points a way forward for all of us, revealing the power of radical truth-telling to deepen our connections—with others and ourselves.

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When the Going Was Good

Graydon Carter

An Instant New York Times Bestseller

From the pages of Vanity Fair to the red carpets of Hollywood, editor Graydon Carter’s memoir revives the glamorous heyday of print magazines when they were at the vanguard of American culture

When Graydon Carter was offered the editorship of Vanity Fair in 1992, he knew he faced an uphill battle—how to make the esteemed and long-established magazine his own. Not only was he confronted with a staff that he perceived to be loyal to the previous regime, but he arrived only a few years after launching Spy magazine, which gloried in skewering the celebrated and powerful—the very people Vanity Fair venerated. With curiosity, fearlessness, and a love of recent history and glamour that would come to define his storied career in magazines, Carter succeeded in endearing himself to his editors, contributors, and readers, as well as many of the faces that would come to appear in Vanity Fair’s pages. He went on to run the magazine with overwhelming success for the next two and a half decades.

Filled with colorful memories and intimate details, When the Going Was Good is Graydon Carter’s lively recounting of how he made his mark as one of the most talented editors in the business. Moving to New York from Canada, he worked at Time, Life, The New York Observer, and Spy, before catching the eye of Condé Nast chairman Si Newhouse, who pulled him in to run Vanity Fair. In Newhouse he found an unwavering champion, a loyal proprietor who gave Carter the editorial and financial freedom to thrive. Annie Leibovitz’s photographs would come to define the look of the magazine, as would the “New Establishment” and annual Hollywood issues. Carter further planted a flag in Los Angeles with the legendary Vanity Fair Oscar party.

With his inimitable voice and signature quip, he brings readers to lunches and dinners with the great and good of America, Britain, and Europe. He assembled one of the most formidable stables of writers and photographers under one roof, and here he re-creates in real time the steps he took to ensure Vanity Fair cemented its place as the epicenter of art, culture, business, and politics, even as digital media took hold. Charming, candid, and brimming with stories, When the Going Was Good perfectly captures the last golden age of print magazines from the inside out.

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Everything Is Tuberculosis (Signed Edition)

John Green

Instant #1 New York Times bestseller! • #1 Washington Post bestseller! • #1 Indie Bestseller! • USA Today Bestseller!

John Green, acclaimed author and passionate advocate for global healthcare reform, tells a deeply human story illuminating the fight against the world’s deadliest infectious disease. Signed edition

“The real magic of Green’s writing is the deeply considerate, human touch that goes into every word.” –The Associated Press

″Told with the intelligence, wit, and tragedy that have become hallmarks of the author’s work.... This is the story of us.” –Slate

“Earnest and empathetic.” –The New York Times

Tuberculosis has been entwined with hu­manity for millennia. Once romanticized as a malady of poets, today tuberculosis is seen as a disease of poverty that walks the trails of injustice and inequity we blazed for it.

In 2019, author John Green met Henry Reider, a young tuberculosis patient at Lakka Government Hospital in Sierra Leone. John be­came fast friends with Henry, a boy with spindly legs and a big, goofy smile. In the years since that first visit to Lakka, Green has become a vocal advocate for increased access to treatment and wider awareness of the healthcare inequi­ties that allow this curable, preventable infec­tious disease to also be the deadliest, killing over a million people every year.

In Everything Is Tuberculosis, John tells Henry’s story, woven through with the scientific and social histories of how tuberculosis has shaped our world—and how our choices will shape the future of tuberculosis.

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Lethal Prey

John Sandford

Lucas Davenport and Virgil Flowers join forces to track down a ruthless killer who will do whatever it takes to keep the past buried, in this latest thriller from #1 New York Times bestselling author John Sandford.

Doris Grandfelt, an employee at an accounting firm, was brutally stabbed to death . . . but nobody knew exactly where the crime took place. Her body was found the next night, dumped among a dense thicket of trees along the edge of an urban park, eight miles east of St. Paul, Minnesota. Despite her twin sister Lara Grandfelt’s persistent calls to the Bureau of Criminal Apprehension, the killer was never found.

Twenty years later, Lara has been diagnosed with breast cancer. Confronted with the possibility of her own death, she’s determined to find Doris’s killer once and for all. Finally taking matters into her own hands, she dumps the entire investigative file on every true crime site in the world and offers a $5 million reward for information leading to the killer’s arrest. Dozens of true crime bloggers show up looking for both new evidence and “clicks,” and Lucas Davenport and Virgil Flowers are called in to review anything that might be a new lead.

When one of the bloggers locates the murder weapon, Lucas and Virgil begin to uncover vital details about the killer’s identity. But what they don’t know is the killer lurks in plain sight, and with the true crime bloggers blasting every clue online, the killer can keep one step ahead. As the nation maneuvers the detectives closer to the truth, Lucas and Virgil will find that digging up Doris’s harrowing past might just get them buried instead.

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Nobody's Fool

Harlan Coben

In this stunningly twisty thriller from #1 New York Times bestselling author Harlan Coben, a secret from former Detective Sami Kierce's college days comes back to haunt him. His memory is clear, but all these years later, the facts don't add up...which is something he cannot ignore.

Sami Kierce, a young college grad backpacking in Spain with friends, wakes up one morning, covered in blood. There's a knife in his hand. Beside him, the body of his girlfriend. Anna. Dead. He doesn't know what happened. His screams drown out his thoughts--and then he runs.

Twenty-two years later, Kierce, now a private investigator, is a new father who's working off his debts by doing low level surveillance jobs and teaching wannabe sleuths at a night school in New York City. One evening, he recognizes a familiar face at the back of the classroom. Anna. It's unmistakably her. As soon as Kierce makes eye contact with her, she bolts. For Kierce there is no choice. He knows he must find this woman and solve the impossible mystery that has haunted his every waking moment since that terrible day.

His investigation will bring him face-to-face with his past--and prove, after all this time, he's nobody's fool.

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Plastic Soup

Michiel Roscam Abbing

Plastics have transformed every aspect of our lives. Yet the very properties that make them attractive—they are cheap to make, light, and durable—spell disaster when trash makes its way into the environment. Plastic Soup: An Atlas of Ocean Pollution is a beautifully-illustrated survey of the plastics clogging our seas, their impacts on wildlife and people around the world, and inspirational initiatives designed to tackle the problem. 

In Plastic Soup, Michiel Roscam Abbing of the Plastic Soup Foundation reveals the scope of the issue: plastic trash now lurks on every corner of the planet. With striking photography and graphics, Plastic Soup brings this challenge to brilliant life for readers. Yet it also sends a message of hope; although the scale of the problem is massive, so is the dedication of activists working to check it. Plastic Soup highlights a diverse array of projects to curb plastic waste and raise awareness, from plastic-free grocery stores to innovative laws and art installations. 

According to some estimates, if we continue on our current path, the oceans will contain more plastic than fish by the year 2050. Created to inform and inspire readers, Plastic Soup is a critical tool in the fight to reverse this trend.
 

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Plastic Ocean

Charles Moore

A prominent seafaring environmentalist and researcher shares his shocking discovery of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch in the Pacific Ocean, and inspires a fundamental rethinking of the Plastic Age and a growing global health crisis.

In the summer of 1997, Charles Moore set sail from Honolulu with the sole intention of returning home after competing in a trans-Pacific race. To get to California, he and his crew took a shortcut through the seldom-traversed North Pacific Subtropical Gyre, a vast "oceanic desert" where winds are slack and sailing ships languish. There, Moore realized his catamaran was surrounded by a "plastic soup." He had stumbled upon the largest garbage dump on the planet-a spiral nebula where plastic outweighed zooplankton, the ocean's food base, by a factor of six to one.

In Plastic Ocean, Moore recounts his ominous findings and unveils the secret life and hidden properties of plastics. From milk jugs to polymer molecules small enough to penetrate human skin or be unknowingly inhaled, plastic is now suspected of contributing to a host of ailments including infertility, autism, thyroid dysfunction, and some cancers. A call to action as urgent as Rachel Carson's seminal Silent Spring, Moore's sobering revelations will be embraced by activists, concerned parents, and seafaring enthusiasts concerned about the deadly impact and implications of this man made blight.

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Year of No Garbage

Eve O. Schaub

"Eve’s brave and honest experiment reveals the shocking impact of the throwaway society we’ve become and at the same time showing small ways we can all do better.” —Rebecca Prince-Ruiz, founder of Plastic Free July

Year of No Garbage is Super Size Me meets the environmental movement. 

In this book Eve O. Schaub, humorist and stunt memoirist extraordinaire, tackles her most difficult challenge to date: garbage. Convincing her husband and two daughters to go along with her, Schaub attempts the seemingly impossible: living in the modern world without creating any trash at all. For an entire year. And- as it turns out- during a pandemic. 

In the process, Schaub learns some startling things: that modern recycling is broken, and single stream recycling is a lie. That flushable wipes aren’t flushable and compostables aren’t compostable. That plastic drives climate change, fosters racism, and is poisoning the environment and our bodies at alarming rates, as microplastics are being found everywhere, from the top of Mount Everest to the placenta of unborn babies.  
If you’ve ever thought twice about that plastic straw in your drink, you’re gonna want to read this book.

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A Poison Like No Other

Matt Simon

“Informed, utterly blindsiding account.” - Booklist, starred review

It’s falling from the sky and in the air we breathe. It’s in our food, our clothes, and our homes. It’s microplastic and it’s everywhere—including our own bodies. Scientists are just beginning to discover how these tiny particles threaten health, but the studies are alarming.

In A Poison Like No Other, Matt Simon reveals a whole new dimension to the plastic crisis, one even more disturbing than plastic bottles washing up on shores and grocery bags dumped in landfills. Dealing with discarded plastic is bad enough, but when it starts to break down, the real trouble begins. The very thing that makes plastic so useful and ubiquitous – its toughness – means it never really goes away. It just gets smaller and smaller: eventually small enough to enter your lungs or be absorbed by crops or penetrate a fish’s muscle tissue before it becomes dinner.

Unlike other pollutants that are single elements or simple chemical compounds, microplastics represent a cocktail of toxicity: plastics contain at least 10,000 different chemicals. Those chemicals are linked to diseases from diabetes to hormone disruption to cancers.

A Poison Like No Other is the first book to fully explore this new dimension of the plastic crisis, following the intrepid scientists who travel to the ends of the earth and the bottom of the ocean to understand the consequences of our dependence on plastic. As Simon learns from these researchers, there is no easy fix. But we will never curb our plastic addiction until we begin to recognize the invisible particles all around us. 
 

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How to Give Up Plastic

Will McCallum

An accessible guide to the changes we can all make—small and large—to rid our lives of disposable plastic and clean up the world’s oceans

How to Give Up Plastic is a straightforward guide to eliminating plastic from your life. Going room by room through your home and workplace, Greenpeace activist Will McCallum teaches you how to spot disposable plastic items and find plastic-free, sustainable alternatives to each one. From carrying a reusable straw, to catching microfibers when you wash your clothes, to throwing plastic-free parties, you’ll learn new and intuitive ways to reduce plastic waste. And by arming you with a wealth of facts about global plastic consumption and anecdotes from activists fighting plastic around the world, you’ll also learn how to advocate to businesses and leaders in your community and across the country to commit to eliminating disposable plastics for good.

It takes 450 years for a plastic bottle to fully biodegrade, and there are around 12.7 million tons of plastic entering the ocean each year. At our current pace, in the year 2050 there could be more plastic in the oceans than fish, by weight. These are alarming figures, but plastic pollution is an environmental crisis with a solution we can all contribute to.

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Plastic

Susan Freinkel

Plastic built the modern world. Where would we be without bike helmets, baggies, toothbrushes, and pacemakers? But a century into our love affair with plastic, we're starting to realize it's not such a healthy relationship. Plastics draw on dwindling fossil fuels, leach harmful chemicals, litter landscapes, and destroy marine life. As journalist Susan Freinkel points out in this engaging and eye-opening book, we're nearing a crisis point. We've produced as much plastic in the past decade as we did in the entire twentieth century. We're drowning in the stuff, and we need to start making some hard choices. 

Freinkel gives us the tools we need with a blend of lively anecdotes and analysis. She combs through scientific studies and economic data, reporting from China and across the United States to assess the real impact of plastic on our lives. She tells her story through eight familiar plastic objects: comb, chair, Frisbee, IV bag, disposable lighter, grocery bag, soda bottle, and credit card. Her conclusion: we cannot stay on our plastic-paved path. And we don't have to. Plastic points the way toward a new creative partnership with the material we love to hate but can't seem to live without.

 

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Can I Recycle This?

Jennie Romer

“If you’ve ever been perplexed by the byzantine rules of recycling, you’re not alone…you’ll want to read Can I Recycle This?... An extensive look at what you can and cannot chuck into your blue bin.” —The Washington Post

The first illustrated guidebook that answers the age-old question: Can I Recycle This?

Since the dawn of the recycling system, men and women the world over have stood by their bins, holding an everyday object, wondering, "can I recycle this?" This simple question reaches into our concern for the environment, the care we take to keep our homes and our communities clean, and how we interact with our local government. Recycling rules seem to differ in every municipality, with exceptions and caveats at every turn, leaving the average American scratching her head at the simple act of throwing something away. Taking readers on a quick but informative tour of how recycling actually works (setting aside the propaganda we were all taught as kids), Can I Recycle This gives straightforward answers to whether dozens of common household objects can or cannot be recycled, as well as the information you need to make that decision for anything else you encounter. 

Jennie Romer has been working for years to help cities and states across America better deal with the waste we produce, helping draft meaningful legislation to help communities better process their waste and produce less of it in the first place. She has distilled her years of experience into this non-judgmental, easy-to-use guide that will change the way you think about what you throw away and how you do it.

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What Milly Did

Elise Moser

The extraordinary story of the woman who made plastics recycling possible.

Milly Zantow wanted to solve the problem of her town's full landfill and ended up creating a global recycling standard -- the system of numbers you see inside the little triangle on plastics. This is the inspiring story of how she mobilized her community, creating sweeping change to help the environment.

On a trip to Japan in 1978, Milly noticed that people were putting little bundles out on the street each morning. They were recycling -- something that hadn't taken hold in North America. When she returned to Sauk City, Wisconsin, she discovered that her town's landfill was nearing capacity, and that plastic made up a large part of the garbage. No one was recycling plastics.

Milly decided to figure out how. She discovered that there are more than seven kinds of plastic, and they can't be combined for recycling, so she learned how to use various tests to identify them. Then she found a company willing to use recycled plastic, but the plastic would have to be ground up first.

Milly and her friend bought a huge industrial grinder and established E-Z Recycling. They worked with local school children and their community, and they helped other communities start their own recycling programs. But Milly knew that the large-scale recycling of plastics would never work unless people could easily identify the seven types. She came up with the idea of placing an identifying number in the little recycling triangle, which has become the international standard.

Milly's story is a glimpse into the early days of the recycling movement and shows how, thanks to her determination, hard work and community-building, huge changes took place, spreading rapidly across North America.

Correlates to the Common Core State Standards in English Language Arts:

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RI.3.3

Describe the relationship between a series of historical events, scientific ideas or concepts, or steps in technical procedures in a text, using language that pertains to time, sequence, and cause/effect.

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RI.4.7

Interpret information presented visually, orally, or quantitatively (e.g., in charts, graphs, diagrams, time lines, animations, or interactive elements on Web pages) and explain how the information contributes to an understanding of the text in which it appears.

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Can I Recycle This?

Jennie Romer

You probably know that you're supposed to recycle—but you may not know how or why. This adaptation of the successful adult book, written by a lawyer and sustainability expert, will answer all your recycling questions.

Can I Recycle This? skips over preaching and platitudes common to books on environmentalism and instead gets right to the real information that kids need.

It takes readers through every step of the recycling process, from the moment that they throw an item in the bin to its journey through the recycling machinery and on its way to its new life. It gives kids the answers and resources they need to be far better informed than their parents, many of whom were raised on the un-nuanced and often inaccurate "recycling solves everything" mantra. It shows how sorting concepts that kids already know and practice can be applied to waste. And it empowers even early elementary school children to make smarter choices about consumption and disposal, using ideas and examples that they can understand.

Adapted from the adult nonfiction book of the same title, Can I Recycle This? is a both fun and educational book to teach the littlest readers the hows and whys of recycling, and to introduce them to the responsibility that we all have to protect the environment.

A Junior Library Guild selection!

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We Are Extremely Very Good Recyclers

Lauren Child

After Charlie convinces Lola to recycle her old toys instead of throwing them away, Lola discovers a recycling competition. If she can recycle one hundred plastic, metal, and paper items, she can get her very own real live tree to plant. But she only has two weeks, so Lola decides to ask her classmates to help. They turn out to be extremely very good recyclers indeed.

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Earth-Friendly Crafts

Kathy Ross

With a focus on recycling, this book features an assortment of picture frames, message holders, pins, and puppets. The twenty-one simple crafts reuse cardboard boxes, stray gloves, and socks.  Recycling tips are scattered throughout. The step-by-step illustrated directions are clear, and the supplies can be readily found.

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How to Explain Robotics to a Grown-Up

Ruth Spiro

Do you want to know a secret? Sometimes grown-ups need YOU to explain things to THEM. Like robotics!  In this tongue-in-cheek guide, an in-the-know narrator instructs kid readers in the fine art of explaining robotics to a grown-up. Both children and their adults learn:

  • what makes a robot a robot,
  • who designs and builds robots,
  • and how robots work on their own to get a job done.

Fun and fact-filled, the How to Explain Science series will empower kid experts to explore complex scientific concepts with any grown-up who will listen.

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The Tears of Things

Richard Rohr

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • In his first major work since The Universal Christ, one of our most prominent spiritual voices offers a wholehearted and hope-filled model for the world today, grounded in the timeless wisdom of the Hebrew prophets.

“Richard Rohr is one of the great Christian spiritual masters of our time. Of any time.”—James Martin, SJ, author of Come Forth

How do we live compassionately in a time of violence and despair? What can we do with our private disappointments and the anger we feel in such an unjust world? In his most personal book yet, Richard Rohr turns to the writings of the Jewish prophets, revealing how some of the lesser-read books of the Bible offer us a crucial path forward today.

The prophets’ writings reflect the full spectrum of human maturity. In almost every case, their initial rage and their accusatory words evolve into a profound pathos and lamentation about our shared human condition and the world’s suffering. Through astute critiques of culture and institutions, and their journey from anger to sadness, and ultimately compassion, the prophets exemplify what Rohr calls “sacred criticism”—a distinct approach to confronting evil and injustice that acknowledges the wholeness of history, the interconnectedness of every living being, and the reality of a divine and universal love. In this, they set the stage for Jesus, who follows this identical pattern.

Drawing on a century of biblical scholarship and written in the warm, pastoral voice that has endeared Rohr to millions, The Tears of Things breathes new life into ancient wisdom. It paves a path of enlightenment for anyone seeking a compassionate way of living in a hurting world.

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Upcycle

Rebecca Proctor

In this inspirational and practical book, 24 international product designers show you how to recreate their upcycled designs. Inspired by the trend for recycling and craft, readers can follow the designers' step-by-step instructions and create their very own piece of high-end upcycled design for the home. Projects include a clever waterproof mat woven from marine rope, a geometric lampshade made of strips of Tetrapak carton, a hanging rail using leftover copper plumbing pipe, decorative floral arrangements made from old plastic bottles, a cane chair upcycled as a cross-stitch canvas, and many more.

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Recycling and Upcycling

Steven Otfinoski

Learn how recycling has grown in popularity over time and find out what kinds of careers are involved in this rapidly growing industry.

Calling All Innovators series introduces students to careers in science and technology. The complex text allows readers (Grades 5-8) to determine the main idea and explain how it is supported by key details. From leftover food to packaging materials to outdated or broken technology, humans produce an enormous amount of waste. Readers will find out how some of today's top innovators are working to find new recycling methods and cut down on the amount of trash the ends up in landfills.

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How to Give Up Plastic

Will McCallum

An accessible guide to the changes we can all make—small and large—to rid our lives of disposable plastic and clean up the world’s oceans

How to Give Up Plastic is a straightforward guide to eliminating plastic from your life. Going room by room through your home and workplace, Greenpeace activist Will McCallum teaches you how to spot disposable plastic items and find plastic-free, sustainable alternatives to each one. From carrying a reusable straw, to catching microfibers when you wash your clothes, to throwing plastic-free parties, you’ll learn new and intuitive ways to reduce plastic waste. And by arming you with a wealth of facts about global plastic consumption and anecdotes from activists fighting plastic around the world, you’ll also learn how to advocate to businesses and leaders in your community and across the country to commit to eliminating disposable plastics for good.

It takes 450 years for a plastic bottle to fully biodegrade, and there are around 12.7 million tons of plastic entering the ocean each year. At our current pace, in the year 2050 there could be more plastic in the oceans than fish, by weight. These are alarming figures, but plastic pollution is an environmental crisis with a solution we can all contribute to.

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101 Tips for a Zero-Waste Kitchen

Kathryn Kellogg

Kathryn Kellogg is taking her accessible tips for a zero-waste lifestyle and focusing on the heart of the house. Our kitchens can produce a shocking amount of waste and, even though food scraps may seem harmless, they can't properly decompose in a landfill. What's more: wasting food can strain your wallet. The average American family of four will lose $1,500 annually on food waste. It's time to turn things around!

101 Tips for a Zero Waste Kitchen is your guide to reducing waste in your kitchen. Kathryn will teach you how to buy in bulk, avoid unnecessary packaging, upcycle jars, and more. Plus, she'll give you recipes that make use of your scraps: preserve your lemon peels for extra flavor, create simple syrup from strawberry tops, and revive shriveled mushrooms. With a little work and Kathryn in your corner, you'll have the tools you need to reach the ultimate goal: no produce left behind!

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Zero Waste

Allan Drummond

In this fifth installment in Allan Drummond’s picture book series about green living, a town in Japan takes a stand against its throwaway past and shows that it really does take a village to make sustainable change.

Kamikatsu, Japan is known worldwide for its sanitation innovations. This small community of 1700 people is leading the way in recycling and up-cycling, and as of 2022, had nearly achieved its goal of zero waste. Told in Allan's hallmark narrative style, Zero Waste is the story of a group of citizens who dared to break out of their comfort zone and make radical change for the good of their town and the planet. Through the eyes of two children visiting their grandmother, this inspiring addition to the author’s acclaimed Green Power series about everyday communities inventing exciting new approaches to green living shows that working together for a common cause has an impact that is lasting, meaningful—and fun!

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Make, Sew and Mend

Bernadette Banner

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER

OVER 50,000 COPIES SOLD

Learn the historically proven stitches every seamster needs with beloved historical fashion YouTuber Bernadette Banner.

Whether you are just getting started with sustainable fashion and need to alter your new secondhand finds, or you want an introduction to sewing techniques for making your own clothes, Bernadette Banner’s signature voice will guide you through all the traditional stitches and techniques you need to extend the life of your favorite pieces and take fashion into
your own hands!

From tips and tricks on choosing your materials and preparing your fabric for sewing to more complex techniques like mending small holes, adding pockets to garments, making your own buttons and beyond―this book has everything you need. Complete with step-by-step photos and insight into what alterations each sewing technique is best suited for, Bernadette walks you through every step of your sewing journey. 
For added inspiration, this book also includes profiles on exciting voices in the historic sewing community and their perspectives on how taking fashion into their own hands has changed their lives for the better.

Make, Sew and Mend is the perfect foundation for beginner sewers to start making their fashion their own.

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Good News, Planet Earth

Sam Bentley

Sustainability enthusiast and climate activist Sam Bentley shares details on the hopeful developments combatting the effects of climate change, while giving readers actionable steps to help play their part.

If you feel like climate change and the state of our planet just keeps getting worse and there’s nothing we can do to stop it then you’ve picked up the right book–because tons of efforts are already underway to save our planet, and we’d love for you to join the fight.

Good News, Planet Earth is your go-to guide to learn about all the amazing sustainable developments that are being put in place worldwide to combat warming temperatures, pollution, deforestation, the use of wasteful products, and threats to our diverse wildlife. 

Sustainability enthusiast Sam Bentley takes you on a journey around the world to teach you about everything from the net-free zone established in the Great Barrier Reef, a road that charges electric vehicles while they drive in Detroit, and the opening of carbon capturing plants in Europe that suck CO2 out of the air and store it safely underground.

Good News, Planet Earth includes:

  • 25 categories covering topics like recycling, energy use, and food consumption
  • 100 actionable steps you can take to fight climate change and live more sustainably
     

Whether you’re seeking an uplifting and hopeful climate action book for yourself, or the perfect gift for the environmentally conscious person in your life, Good News, Planet Earth is the small but mighty book that might just help save the world.

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Not the End of the World

Hannah Ritchie

This "eye-opening and essential" book (Bill Gates) will transform how you see our biggest environmental problems--and explains how we can solve them.

It's become common to tell kids that they're going to die from climate change. We are constantly bombarded by doomsday headlines that tell us the soil won't be able to support crops, fish will vanish from our oceans, and that we should reconsider having children.

But in this bold, radically hopeful book, data scientist Hannah Ritchie argues that if we zoom out, a very different picture emerges. In fact, the data shows we've made so much progress on these problems that we could be on track to achieve true sustainability for the first time in human history. Did you know that:

  • Carbon emissions per capita are actually down
  • Deforestation peaked back in the 1980s
  • The air we breathe now is vastly improved from centuries ago
  • And more people died from natural disasters a hundred years ago?

Packed with the latest research, practical guidance, and enlightening graphics, this book will make you rethink almost everything you've been told about the environment. Not the End of the World will give you the tools to understand our current crisis and make lifestyle changes that actually have an impact. Hannah cuts through the noise by outlining what works, what doesn't, and what we urgently need to focus on so we can leave a sustainable planet for future generations. 

These problems are big. But they are solvable. We are not doomed. We can build a better future for everyone. Let's turn that opportunity into reality.

 

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The Fabulous Fannie Farmer

Emma Bland Smith

Fannie Farmer, America’s most famous cooking teacher, discovers that precise measurements are a recipe for cooking success in this STEAM picture book that includes two of her classic recipes.

When Fannie Farmer learned to cook in the late 1800s, recipes could be pretty silly. They might call for “a goodly amount of salt” or “a lump of butter” or “a suspicion of nutmeg.” Girls were supposed to use their “feminine instincts” in the kitchen (or maybe just guess). Despite this problem, Fannie loved cooking, so when polio prevented her from going to college, she became a teacher at the Boston Cooking School. Unlike her mother or earlier cookbook writers, Fannie didn’t believe in feminine instincts. To her, cooking was a science. She’d noticed that precise measurements and specific instructions ensured that cakes rose instead of flopped and doughnuts fried instead of burned. Students liked Fannie’s approach so much that she wrote a cookbook. Despite skepticism from publishers, Fannie’s book was a recipe for success.

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Love Is in the Bear

Judith Henderson

Spring is here, and Bear is finally emerging from his hollow to greet his forest friends. Suddenly, he hears beautiful singing coming from above. It's Bird, practicing for the forest Opera! When Bird tells Bear that she's auditioning for a duet, Bear decides to try out as well, and asks if he can practice with her. Bird agrees, and as the pair rehearses their song, an unlikely friendship begins.

After the audition, Bird is cast in the opera--but Bear is not. Devastated, Bear returns to his hollow to hide. Bird comes to comfort him and insists that the pair are still a duet, with or without a stage to sing on. Reassured of their close bond, Bear celebrates Bird's success at the Opera, getting the best seat in the house and quietly singing along with his friend.

This tender celebration of loyalty, friendship, and song is brought to life with Judith Henderson's lyrical text and the soft, magical illustrations of Nahid Kazemi. Together, Bird and Bear face the music and find that the strongest connections can weather the most difficult disappointments with empathy, resilience, and mutual support.

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Vacation

Ame Dyckman

In the second book in the Bat, Cat & Rat  series from New York Times bestsellers Ame Dyckman and Mark Teague, the roommates try to compromise on vacation plans in three-and-a-half sweet and silly stories.

     Bat, Cat, and Rat decide they need a vacation, but planning a trip is no picnic. Conflicts, compromise, and some well-meaning pranks ensue as prep work brings out the trio’s mischievous side.

     In “Working,” Bat, Cat, and Rat discover their Vacation Jar is empty, and set off working odd jobs to save up funds. But Rat believes that all work and no play is no fun at all—and he knows just the way to fix that.

     In “Choosing,” the trio can’t decide where to go on their vacation. Bat wants an adventure, Cat wants some R&R, and Rat just wants everyone to stop bickering about it.

     In “Vacationing,” Rat takes the vacation planning into his own hands. Will he be able to come up with a compromise that makes everyone happy?

     Bat, Cat, and Rat’s dynamic friendship and amusing antics are sure to have readers laughing.

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The First State of Being

Erin Entrada Kelly

It's August 1999. For twelve-year-old Michael Rosario, life at Fox Run Apartments in Red Knot, Delaware, is as ordinary as ever--except for the looming Y2K crisis and his overwhelming crush on his sixteen-year-old babysitter, Gibby. But when a disoriented teenage boy named Ridge appears out of nowhere, Michael discovers there is more to life than stockpiling supplies and pining over Gibby.

It turns out that Ridge is carefree, confident, and bold, things Michael wishes he could be. Unlike Michael, however, Ridge isn't where he belongs. When Ridge reveals that he's the world's first time traveler, Michael and Gibby are stunned but curious. As Ridge immerses himself in 1999--fascinated by microwaves, basketballs, and malls--Michael discovers that his new friend has a book that outlines the events of the next twenty years, and his curiosity morphs into something else: focused determination. Michael wants--no, needs--to get his hands on that book. How else can he prepare for the future? But how far is he willing to go to get it?

A story of time travel, friendship, found family, and first loves, this thematically rich novel is distinguished by its voice, character development, setting, and exploration of the issues that resonate with middle grade readers.

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Chooch Helped

Andrea L. Rogers

A Cherokee girl introduces her younger brother to their family's traditions -- begrudgingly! -- in this picture book written by Walter Award-winner Andrea L. Rogers and featuring gorgeous collage illustrations from debut artist Rebecca Lee Kunz.

Sissy's younger brother, Chooch, isn't a baby anymore. They just celebrated his second birthday, after all. But no matter what Chooch does -- even if he's messing something up! Which is basically all the time! -- their parents say he's just "helping." Sissy feels that Chooch can get away with anything!

When Elisi paints a mural, Chooch helps. When Edutsi makes grape dumplings, Chooch helps. When Oginalii gigs for crawdads, Chooch helps. When Sissy tries to make a clay pot, Chooch helps . . .
 

"Hesdi!" Sissy yells. Quit it! And Chooch bursts into tears. What follows is a tender family moment that will resonate with anyone who has welcomed a new little one to the fold. Chooch Helped is a universal story of an older sibling learning to make space for a new child, told with grace by Andrea L. Rogers and stunning art from Rebecca Lee Kunz showing one Cherokee family practicing their cultural traditions.

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Making Space, Clutter Free

Tracy McCubbin

"Decluttering expert Tracy McCubbin offers revolutionary help to anyone who has repeatedly tries to break free from their clutter's mysterious hold. Her powerful answer lies in the seven Emotional Clutter Blocks, unconscious obstacles that stand between thousands of her clients and financial freedom, healthy relationships, and positive outlooks. Once a Clutter Block is revealed--and healed--true transformation of home and life is possible. Her empowering techniques and strategies help you: Recognize and overcome your Clutter Block(s) to liberate your home -- Lighten and purge without the rigidity of other methods -- Use your home to attain life goals like health, wealth, and love."

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The Gentle Art of Swedish Death Cleaning

Margareta Magnusson

Offers guidance for going through a process of clearing out unnecessary accumulated belongings known in Sweden as "death cleaning," sharing ways of making the process uplifting rather than overwhelming, and touting the benefits of letting go of clutter.

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The Year of Less

Cait Flanders

"In her late twenties, Cait Flanders found herself stuck in the consumerism cycle that grips so many of us: earn more, buy more, want more, rinse, repeat. Even after she worked her way out of nearly $30,000 of consumer debt, her old habits took hold again. When she realized that nothing she was doing or buying was making her happy--only keeping her from meeting her goals--she decided to set herself a challenge:she would not shop for an entire year. The Year of Lessdocuments Cait's life from July 2014 to June 2015, during which time she bought only consumables: groceries, toiletries, gas for her car. Along the way, she challenged herself to consume less of many other things besides shopping. She decluttered her apartment and got rid of 70 percent of her belongings; learned how to fix things rather than throw them away; researched the zero waste movement; and completed a television ban. At every stage, she learned that the less she consumed, the more fulfilled she felt. What started as a simple challenge quickly became a lifeline, however, as Cait found herself in a number of situations that turned her life upside down. In the face of hardship, she realized why she had always turned to shopping, alcohol and food--and what it had cost her, for so many years. By not being able to reach for any of her usual vices, Cait changed habits she'd spent years perfecting and discovered what truly mattered to her"

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Spark Joy

Marie Kondo

"Tidying expert Marie Kondo's follow-up to her best-selling book, The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up, is an illustrated master manual on her renowned KonMari Method with item-specific guidance and step-by-step folding illustrations"

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Outer Order, Inner Calm

Gretchen Rubin

"Gretchen Rubin has found that getting control of our stuff makes us feel more in control of our lives. By getting rid of things we don't use, don't need, or don't love, we free our minds (and our shelves) for what we truly value. With a sense of fun, and a clear idea of what's realistic for most people, Gretchen Rubin suggests dozens of manageable steps for creating a more serene, orderly environment—one that helps us to create the lives we want."

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Declutter your photo life

Adam Pratt

"Turn your photo chaos into precious memories to be enjoyed and shared! Now more than ever, we hold our photo collections dear. They are often some of our most prized possessions. Wouldn't it be great to finally have all your photos organized, safe, accessible, findable, and shareable? With Declutter Your Photo Life by your side, you have just what you need to achieve photo bliss. Photographers and family historians understand the immense power that photographs have to convey meaning, emotion, and memory. We cherish both old film photos that were handed down by previous generations and our latest digital photos captured on the newest smartphone. But when those priceless memories are unorganized and scattered every which way on a smartphone, on a laptop, on memory cards and flash drives, on two or three photo sharing websites, in photo albums, and in shoeboxes in the attic the joy of photography becomes an overwhelming burden. What a mess! Whether you're a professional photographer, a casual shooter, or the designated family historian, Declutter Your Photo Life will help you organize and enjoy your photos once again. In this book, professional photo organizer, photographer, and author Adam Pratt teaches you his straightforward step-by-step workflow that, along with powerful image-organizing software such as Adobe Lightroom Classic, will have you taking complete control and creating a calming order out of your photo chaos. And once you've mastered Adam's system Gather, Preserve, Organize, Share, Maintain you'll be able to enjoy and share your photos today and for generations to come."

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The joy of less

Francine Jay

Francine Jay pioneered the simple living movement with her self-published bestseller,The Joy of Less. In this fully redesigned and repackaged edition—featuring never-before- seen content—Jay brings her philosophy to more readers who are eager to declutter. Rather than the "crash diet" approach found in other tidying up books, Jay shares simple steps to cultivate a minimalist mindset and form new habits, paving the way to lasting success. Her easy-to-follow STREAMLINE method works in any space—from a single drawer to a closet, room, or entire house. What's more, it can be called upon during clutter-inducing life events such as moving, getting married, having kids, or downsizing. With an airy two-color interior design and lovely hardcover package,The Joy of Less is a refreshing and relatable approach to decluttering that belongs in every home.

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Keep what you love : a visual decluttering guide

Irene Smit

This is a charming and yet quite practical impulse book on how to sort through the too-much-stuff of life. The premise is so simple: the artist Lotte Dirks has illustrated hundreds of common items - oven mitts, incomplete board games, a pair of skis, novelty ice cube trays, a dying plant, a feather duster, flip-flops, a waffle maker, old Christmas cards, a manual typewriter, chipped dishes, defunct phone chargers, a rocking horse, and so on. Beneath each drawing are two little checkboxes: Yes and No. Look at the item. Note your response (be honest - the only right answer is the one that's right for you). Check one of the boxes. And act accordingly! Additionally, boxes and asides offer dozens of creative tips for how to organise, how to tackle big jobs like a full closet, and ideas to what do with things we can't part, with like children's artwork or old books - all through Flow's sensibility of finding pleasure in the imperfect and the overlooked.

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Beautifully Organized

Nikki Boyd

Bring peace and joy into your workspace as you learn how to declutter your office and create a stress-free work environment. Clutter and mess can distract you, stress you out, and get in the way of efficiently getting work done. That's why Beautifully Organized at Work was created to give you practical tips and tools for how to mindfully transform your workspace and get organized so you can feel better about your work and be better set up for success. YouTube star and professional organizer Nikki Boyd, author of the bestselling book Beautifully Organized , brings her expert skills to this book. Beautifully Organized at Work includes: Everything you need to know about decluttering your desk and organizing files—both in your physical and digital space Valuable advice on how to plan your work days so you can have a well-balanced and productive week How to select the desk, chair, and lighting that are ideal for your needs Information tailored for cubicle, co-working spaces, working from home, and more Tips on how to get your coworkers involved in creating a beautifully organized breakroom, conference room, and lobby.

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Martha Stewart's Organizing

Martha Stewart

"How to organize everything, from America's most trusted lifestyle authority, with color photographs throughout and hundreds of ideas, projects, and tips"-- Provided by publisher.

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The Home Edit

Claire Shearer

A masterclass and look book in one, The Home Edit is filled with bright photographs and detailed tips, from placing plastic dishware in a drawer where little hands can reach to categorizing pantry items by color (there's nothing like a little ROYGBIV to soothe the soul). Above all, it's like having your best friends at your side to help you turn the chaos into calm.

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Cut the Clutter

Cynthia Ewer

My journey to an organized home -- A well-run home -- Skills for a well-run home. Decluttering your home ; Organizing your home ; Cleaning your home ; Planning your home -- Cycles of an organized home. Food: plan, save, organize, store ; Clothing: plan, shop, launder, store ; Surfaces & systems: select, save, maintain, clean ; Room to live: cut clutter, organize, clean ; Paper and finances: sort, save, organize, store.

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1001 Ideas for Kitchen Organization

Joseph R. Provey

Your comprehensive guide to a beautiful and organized kitchen! When you consider every item a kitchen stores, from utensils and glassware to cooking pots and slow cookers, the numbers easily climb into the hundreds. It can be a difficult task finding a rightful place for everything while also maintaining an attractive, comfortable, and functional kitchen.

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The God of the Woods

Liz Moore

ONE OF THE NEW YORK TIMES’S NOTABLE BOOKS OF 2024

A NEW YORK TIMES BEST THRILLER OF 2024

A NEW YORK TIMES BEST CRIME NOVEL OF 2024

PEOPLE MAGAZINE'S #1 BOOK OF THE YEAR

A NEW YORK PUBLIC LIBRARY TOP 10 PICK OF 2024

ONE OF NPR’S “BOOKS WE LOVE” 2024

ONE OF TIME MAGAZINE’S “100 MUST-READ BOOKS OF 2024”

NAMED A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR BY:
REAL SIMPLE ● OPRAH DAILY ● NEWSWEEK ● VULTURE

“Extraordinary . . . Reminds me of Donna Tartt’s 1992 debut, The Secret History . . . I was so thoroughly submerged in a rich fictional world, that for hours I barely came up for air.” —Maureen Corrigan, Fresh Air, NPR

“This expertly paced thriller ...has the kineticism of a well-crafted miniseries.” 
The New Yorker

When a teenager vanishes from her Adirondack summer camp, two worlds collide

Early morning, August 1975: a camp counselor discovers an empty bunk. Its occupant, Barbara Van Laar, has gone missing. Barbara isn’t just any thirteen-year-old: she’s the daughter of the family that owns the summer camp and employs most of the region’s residents. And this isn’t the first time a Van Laar child has disappeared. Barbara’s older brother similarly vanished fourteen years ago, never to be found.

As a panicked search begins, a thrilling drama unfolds. Chasing down the layered secrets of the Van Laar family and the blue-collar community working in its shadow, Moore’s multi-threaded story invites readers into a rich and gripping dynasty of secrets and second chances. It is Liz Moore’s most ambitious and wide-reaching novel yet.

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James

Percival Everett

#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * NATIONAL BOOK AWARD WINNER * ONE OF THE NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW'S 10 BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR * SHORTLISTED FOR THE BOOKER PRIZE * KIRKUS PRIZE WINNER * A brilliant, action-packed reimagining of Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, both harrowing and darkly humorous, told from the enslaved Jim's point of view

In development as a feature film to be produced by Steven Spielberg * A Best Book of the Year: The New York Times Book Review, LA Times, The New Yorker, The Atlantic, The Economist, TIME, and more.

"Genius"--The Atlantic * "A masterpiece that will help redefine one of the classics of American literature, while also being a major achievement on its own."--Chicago Tribune * "A provocative, enlightening literary work of art."--The Boston Globe * "Everett's most thrilling novel, but also his most soulful."--The New York Times

When the enslaved Jim overhears that he is about to be sold to a man in New Orleans, separated from his wife and daughter forever, he decides to hide on nearby Jackson Island until he can formulate a plan. Meanwhile, Huck Finn has faked his own death to escape his violent father, recently returned to town. As all readers of American literature know, thus begins the dangerous and transcendent journey by raft down the Mississippi River toward the elusive and too-often-unreliable promise of the Free States and beyond.

While many narrative set pieces of Adventures of Huckleberry Finn remain in place (floods and storms, stumbling across both unexpected death and unexpected treasure in the myriad stopping points along the river's banks, encountering the scam artists posing as the Duke and Dauphin...), Jim's agency, intelligence and compassion are shown in a radically new light.

Brimming with the electrifying humor and lacerating observations that have made Everett a "literary icon" (Oprah Daily), and one of the most decorated writers of our lifetime, James is destined to be a cornerstone of twenty-first century American literature.

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The Gift of Nothing (Special Edition)

Patrick McDonnell

 In this appealing picture book, Mooch the cat--star of the nationally-syndicated comic strip Mutts--searches for a present for his friend, Earl the dog. Earl already has everything he needs: a bowl, a bed, a chewy toy...What else could Mooch get him? Then it dawns on him: NOTHING! This timeless tale has a heart-warming message about the most valuable gift of all--friendship--that appeals to readers of all ages. 

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Most Magnificent Thing, The

Ashley Spires

A little girl and her canine assistant set out to make the most magnificent thing. But after much hard work, the end result is not what the girl had in mind. Frustrated, she quits. Her assistant suggests a long walk, and as they walk, it slowly becomes clear what the girl needs to do to succeed. A charming story that will give kids the most magnificent thing: perspective!

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Help the Environment with Crafts

Ruthie Van Oosbree

Would you like make a positive impact on the environment? Get crafting! Turn old T-shirts into a cool recycled rug. Sprout seedlings to share with friends and neighbors. Reuse old bottles and jars to make a hanging garden. These fun crafts will help your home, school, and community go green.

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The Anxious Generation

Jonathan Haidt

THE INSTANT #1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER 

From New York Times bestselling coauthor of The Coddling of the American Mind, an essential investigation into the collapse of youth mental health—and a plan for a healthier, freer childhood.

“Erudite, engaging, combative, crusading.” —New York Times Book Review

“Words that chill the parental heart…  thanks to Mr. Haidt, we can glimpse the true horror of what happened not only in the U.S. but also elsewhere in the English-speaking world… lucid, memorable… galvanizing.” —Wall Street Journal

"[An] important new book...The shift in kids’ energy and attention from the physical world to the virtual one, Haidt shows, has been catastrophic, especially for girls." —Michelle Goldberg, The New York Times

After more than a decade of stability or improvement, the mental health of adolescents plunged in the early 2010s. Rates of depression, anxiety, self-harm, and suicide rose sharply, more than doubling on many measures. Why?

In The Anxious Generation, social psychologist Jonathan Haidt lays out the facts about the epidemic of teen mental illness that hit many countries at the same time. He then investigates the nature of childhood, including why children need play and independent exploration to mature into competent, thriving adults. Haidt shows how the “play-based childhood” began to decline in the 1980s, and how it was finally wiped out by the arrival of the “phone-based childhood” in the early 2010s. He presents more than a dozen mechanisms by which this “great rewiring of childhood” has interfered with children’s social and neurological development, covering everything from sleep deprivation to attention fragmentation, addiction, loneliness, social contagion, social comparison, and perfectionism. He explains why social media damages girls more than boys and why boys have been withdrawing from the real world into the virtual world, with disastrous consequences for themselves, their families, and their societies.

Most important, Haidt issues a clear call to action. He diagnoses the “collective action problems” that trap us, and then proposes four simple rules that might set us free. He describes steps that parents, teachers, schools, tech companies, and governments can take to end the epidemic of mental illness and restore a more humane childhood.

Haidt has spent his career speaking truth backed by data in the most difficult landscapes—communities polarized by politics and religion, campuses battling culture wars, and now the public health emergency faced by Gen Z. We cannot afford to ignore his findings about protecting our children—and ourselves—from the psychological damage of a phone-based life.

 

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The Women

Kristin Hannah

A #1 bestseller on The New York Times, USA Today, Washington Post, and Los Angeles Times!

From the celebrated author of The Nightingale and The Four Winds comes Kristin Hannah's The Women—at once an intimate portrait of coming of age in a dangerous time and an epic tale of a nation divided.

Women can be heroes. When twenty-year-old nursing student Frances “Frankie” McGrath hears these words, it is a revelation. Raised in the sun-drenched, idyllic world of Southern California and sheltered by her conservative parents, she has always prided herself on doing the right thing. But in 1965, the world is changing, and she suddenly dares to imagine a different future for herself. When her brother ships out to serve in Vietnam, she joins the Army Nurse Corps and follows his path.

As green and inexperienced as the men sent to Vietnam to fight, Frankie is over-whelmed by the chaos and destruction of war. Each day is a gamble of life and death, hope and betrayal; friendships run deep and can be shattered in an instant. In war, she meets—and becomes one of—the lucky, the brave, the broken, and the lost.

But war is just the beginning for Frankie and her veteran friends. The real battle lies in coming home to a changed and divided America, to angry protesters, and to a country that wants to forget Vietnam.

The Women is the story of one woman gone to war, but it shines a light on all women who put themselves in harm’s way and whose sacrifice and commitment to their country has too often been forgotten. A novel about deep friendships and bold patriotism, The Women is a richly drawn story with a memorable heroine whose idealism and courage under fire will come to define an era.

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How to Be Your Dog's Best Friend

Elena Bulay

A beautifully illustrated guide to caring for your dog.

Meet Lena and her rescue dog Jo!

This is the true story of how Lena and Jo became best friends, told through Lena's own beautiful illustrations. It's also a guidebook, packed with useful tips about caring for a dog of your own. Learn how to choose a dog, how to train them, feed them and groom them, and pick up lots of fascinating facts about why dogs behave the way they do.

Whatever the size and shape of your canine companion, this is essential reading for anyone who wants to be a dog's best friend.

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The Only Way to Make Bread

Cristina Quintero

A delicious exploration of all kinds of breads, from sourdough to bannock to bao, that will tickle your taste buds and warm your heart.

What's the only way to make bread?

You might use white flour in your bread, or whole wheat flour or corn flour.
You might use water or milk, maybe an egg or two.
You'll use a handful of this, a dash of that, a bit of this and a splash of that.
Some dough will rise, some dough will bubble. Sometimes it will be sticky, sometimes it will be shaggy.

What's the only way to make bread?

Your way!

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A Whole World of Art

Sarah Phillips

Even before they could write, people were telling stories with pictures. And though art is universal, the story we know about it is not. A Whole World of Art opens your eyes to a global view of art by taking you on a whirlwind tour around the world and through time. With two companions—a boy and a girl—travel through 27 destinations from the history of art, circling the globe.
 

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Clementine Fox and the Great Island Adventure: A Graphic Novel (Clementine Fox #1)

Leigh Luna

Meet Clementine Fox, Professional Amateur Adventurer!

 

Clementine is supposed to be on her way to school... but why not go out for a day of adventure and exploration instead? She recruits her friends Nubbins Squirrel and Penelope Rabbit and heads to the beach, where Jesse Otter is preparing to take his giant Turtle, Annabella, to a mysterious local island. Clementine's great-aunt Marnie lives there -- far away from math tests and tutors -- so Clementine and her friends hitch a ride to the island as stowaways. What could go wrong?

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Before, Now

Daniel Salmieri

Ava’s world is full of opposites: colorful sneakers on a gray sidewalk, thick books made up of thin sheets of paper, and dreams of huge spaces in her small head. Together, these opposites depict a full and impactful life, as Ava moves from girl to student to scientist, from daughter to mother to grandmother. While years pass and some things change, there is even more that is constant in this visually rich, soothing portrait of family connection through the generations. You’ll want to cozy up and read this touching, beautiful book together with the children in your life.

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At the Drop of a Cat

Elise Fontenaille


 At six years old, the child-narrator of this picture book loves nothing more than spending time with his grandpa, Luis--especially in his marvelous garden, where green beans reach as high as the sky. Luis's garden is where the little boy practices reading and writing. But just as importantly, it's also where he learns wonderful things from Luis, like the names of all the birds in the trees and new expressions that are so much fun to say. Luis's playful vocabulary is as vibrant and full of life as his garden, and phrases that are particular to his way of talking, like "at the drop of a cat" (which means right away), are soon adapted into the little boy's lexicon, too.

A talented cook, artist, and gardener, Luis has much wisdom to impart and many experiences to share with his grandson--even though, as a war refugee, he never went to school himself and never learned to read and write. A
loving testament to the intergenerational transmission of knowledge and the breathtaking beauty of the natural world, illustrated with evocative, multilayered art by Violeta Lópiz.

 

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Long Island and the Sea : A Maritime History

Bill Bleyer

For more than five centuries, the waterways surrounding Long Island have profoundly shaped its history.

Familiar subjects of lighthouses, shipwrecks and whaling are found alongside oft-forgotten oddities such as Pan-American flying boats landing in Manhasset Bay in the early days of transatlantic flight. From the British blockade and skirmishes during the American Revolution to the sinking of merchant vessels by Germany in World War II, the sea brought wars to these shores. By the later part of the 20th century, Gold Coast millionaires commuted in high-speed yachts to Manhattan offices as the island's wealth grew. Historian Bill Bleyer reveals Long Island's nautical bonds from the Native Americans to current efforts to preserve the region's maritime heritage.

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Historic Crimes of Long Island : Misdeeds from the 1600s to the 1950s

Kerriann Flanagan Brosky

Award-winning author and historian Kerriann Flanagan Brosky uncovers some of the most ghastly and fascinating historical crimes committed on Long Island.

Beyond the idyllic countryside and suburban communities of Long Island lies a murky history of murder and mayhem. A Victorian romance went awry in Huntington when wealthy farmer Charles Kelsey was tarred, feathered and murdered in 1872. Thirty-five years before the famous witch trials of Salem, East Hampton had its own Puritan hysteria among charges of witchcraft. The 1937 kidnapping of wealthy heiress Alice Parsons shook the quiet town of Stony Brook and remains a mystery to this day.

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Long Island Railroad Stations

David D. Morrison

Chartered in 1834 to provide a route between New York City and Boston, the Long Island Rail Road ran from the Brooklyn waterfront through the center of Long Island to Greenport. The railroad served the agricultural market on Long Island until branches and competing lines eventually developed on the north and south shores of the island and several hundred passenger stations were built. After Penn Station was opened in 1910, the number of passengers commuting between Manhattan and Long Island began to multiply. Today, one hundred twenty-five stations serve the Long Island Rail Road. Long Island Rail Road Stations contains vintage postcards of the old Penn Station, which was demolished in the mid-1960s; the Grand Stairway at the Forest Hills Station, where Theodore Roosevelt delivered his famous unification speech on July 4, 1917; and the Amagansett station building, where Nazi spies boarded a train bound for New York City on June 13, 1942. Many of the historic stations featured in this book have been preserved by local preservation groups, while others have been replaced with modern buildings to accommodate the passengers who commute on the nation's largest commuter railroad.
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George Washington’s Long Island Spy Ring : A History and Tour Guide

Bill Bleyer

In 1778, two years after the British forced the Continental Army out of New York City, George Washington and his subordinates organized a secret spy network to gather intelligence in Manhattan and Long Island. Known today as the "Culper Spy Ring,'? Patriots like Abraham Woodhull and Robert Townsend risked their lives to report on British military operations in the region. Vital reports clandestinely traveled from New York City across the East River to Setauket and were rowed on whaleboats across the Long Island Sound to the Connecticut shore. Using ciphers, codes and invisible ink, the spy ring exposed British plans to attack French forces at Newport and a plot to counterfeit American currency. Author Bill Bleyer corrects the record, examines the impact of George Washington's Long Island spy ring and identifies Revolutionary War sites that remain today.

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Long Island's vanished heiress : the unsolved Alice Parsons kidnapping

Steven C. Drielak

Alice McDonell Parsons was the heir to a vast fortune among Long Island's wealthy elite when she was kidnapped from Long Meadow Farm in Stony Brook in 1937. The crime shocked the nation and was front-page news for several months. J. Edgar Hoover personally assigned his best FBI agents to the case, and within a short time, Parsons's husband and their live-in housekeeper, Anna Kupryanova, had become prime suspects. Botched ransom attempts, clashes between authorities and romantic intrigue kept the investigation mired in drama. The crime remained unsolved and has captivated Long Island audiences ever since. Former Suffolk County detective Steven C. Drielak reveals previously classified FBI documents and pieces together the mystery of the Alice Parsons kidnapping.
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Long Island Beaches

Kristen J. Nyitray

For centuries, Long Island's beaches have provided sustenance, relaxation, and inspiration. The coastline is renowned for its sandy Atlantic Ocean surf beaches, calm bayfront beaches, and rugged north shore Long Island Sound beaches. First inhabited by Native Americans, the area was called Sewanhacky ("Isle of Shells") in reverence to the offerings received where the water met the land. Drawing from the archives of local libraries, historical societies, museums, and private collections, Long Island Beaches presents a curated selection of vintage postcards illustrating the diversity of Nassau and Suffolk Counties' beautiful shores. Rare photographs and maps accompany the postcards to provide historical context. Through extensive research, author Kristen J. Nyitray documents a facet of Long Island's social and cultural history and the lure of its picturesque beaches.

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Long Island and World War I

Richard F. Welch

Nassau and Suffolk Counties answered the call to service during the First World War. As young men entered the armed forces, existing facilities such as Camp Mills and Hazelhurst Field were expanded, while Camp Upton, a massive training center, was created almost overnight. Long Islanders demonstrated enthusiastic support for the war through patriotic rallies, subscriptions to Liberty and Victory Loan drives and establishing recreation centers for troops called "soldiers' clubs." While Long Island factories turned out torpedoes, freighters and clothing, the Island's vibrant agricultural sector contributed significantly to the nation's food supplies. Author and historian Richard Welch explores the impact of the Great War on Long Island.
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Hidden History of Long Island

Richard Panchyk

Long Island's history is filled with fascinating firsts, magnificent mansions and captivating characters.

From Glenn Curtiss, the first pilot to fly a plane on the island, to Earle Ovington, who carried the country's first airmail, the area has been known as the cradle of aviation. Millionaire William K. Vanderbilt's Long Island Motor Parkway, remnants of which still remain, was the nation's first highway. The desolate ruins of an exiled Albanian king's estate lie in the midst of the woods of the Muttontown Preserve. Captain William Kidd, pirate chaser turned pirate, is rumored to have buried treasure on the island. Richard Panchyk reveals the rapidly vanishing traces of Long Island's intriguing history.

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Abandoned Long Island

Richard Panchyk

As progress marches on, it inevitably leaves behind some spectacular ruins--places that are no longer needed or wanted, yet still stand, clinging to a tenuous existence. This book chronicles a wide-ranging selection of Long Island's numerous abandoned places, including vacant military and industrial buildings, the remnants of once-grand estates, defunct rails and roads, and unused runways. Abandoned places are both historic moments frozen in time, and constantly deteriorating and devolving sites. All of them await one fate or another--whether it is a never-ending descent into decrepitude, complete demolition, or perhaps even a miraculous restoration. From the haunting buildings of Mitchel Field to the ruins of Gold Coast estates, the poignant images in this book are rich with context and history.
 

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Boat building and boat yards of Long Island : a tribute to tradition

Nancy Solomon

From the North Shore to the South Shore and out to the East End, Long Island is home to a nationally recognized and historic boat building industry. The Steiger Craft boats of Bellport are a local household name, trusted for their ability to navigate the shallow bay waters of the South Shore. Freeport legend Al Grover sold boats around the world for generations, built Verity skiffs for gas-conscious consumers in the 1980s and holds the Guinness World Record for the first outboard motorboat crossing of the Atlantic. The Hanff and Clarke boat yards in Greenport are more than just world-class boat builders--at more than 150 years old, they are historic landmarks. Author and folklorist Nancy Solomon shares the history and stories behind Long Island's traditional boat yards and boat builders.
 

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