Nonfiction
Little, crazy children : a true crime tragedy
Renner, James, 1978- author.
364.1523 /Renner
Nonfiction, True Crime
"In September of 1990, in the Cleveland suburb of Shaker Heights, sixteen-year-old Lisa Pruett was on her way to a midnight tryst with her boyfriend when she was viciously stabbed to death only thirty feet from the boy's home. The murder cast a palpable gloom over the upscale community and sparked accusations, theories, and rumors among Lisa's friends and peers. Together they wove a damning narrative that circled back to a likely suspect: "weird" high school outcast Kevin Young. Without a shred of evidence the teen was arrested, charged, and tried for the crime. His eventual acquittal didn't diminish the anger and outrage among those who believed that Kevin got away with murder. With a fresh perspective and painstaking research culled from police files, court records, transcripts, uncollected evidence, and new interviews, James Renner reconstructs the events leading up to and following that heartbreaking night. What emerges is a portrait of a community seething with dark undercurrents--its single-minded authorities, protective status-conscious parents, and the deeply peer-pressured teen within Lisa's circle. Who had the capacity for such unchecked violence? What monsters still lurk in the dark? After more than thirty years, questions like these continue to fester among the community of Shaker Heights, Ohio, still deeply scarred by wounds that remain hidden, unspoken, and unhealed"--Dust jacket flap.
Hell put to shame : the 1921 Murder Farm massacre and the horror of America's second slavery
Swift, Earl, 1958- author.
973.9 /Swift
History, True Crime, Nonfiction
On a Sunday morning in the spring of 1921, a small boy made a grim discovery as he played on a riverbank in the cotton country of rural Georgia: the bodies of two drowned men, bound together with wire and chain and weighted with a hundred-pound sack of rocks. Within days a third body turned up in another nearby river, and in the weeks that followed, eight others. And with them a deeper horror: all eleven had been kept in virtual slavery before their deaths. In fact, as America was shocked to learn, the dead were among thousands of Black men enslaved throughout the South in conditions nearly as dire as those before the Civil War. Hell Put to Shame tells the forgotten story of that mass killing and of the revelations about peonage, or debt slavery, that it placed before a public self-satisfied that involuntary servitude had ended at Appomattox more than fifty years before. By turns police procedural, courtroom drama, and political exposé, Hell Put to Shame also reintroduces readers to three Americans who spearheaded the prosecution of John S. Williams, the wealthy plantation owner behind the murders, at a time when white people rarely faced punishment for violence against their Black neighbors. The remarkable polymath James Weldon Johnson, newly appointed the first Black leader of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, marshaled the organization into a full-on war against peonage. Johnson's lieutenant, Walter F. White, a light-skinned, fair-haired, blue-eyed Black man, conducted undercover work at the scene of lynchings and other Jim Crow atrocities, helping to throw a light on such violence and to hasten its end. And Georgia governor Hugh M. Dorsey won the statehouse as a hero of white supremacists--then redeemed himself in spectacular fashion with the "Murder Farm" affair. The result is a story that remains fresh and relevant a century later, as the nation continues to wrestle with seemingly intractable challenges in matters of race and justice. And the 1921 case at its heart argues that the forces that so roil society today have been with us for generations.
A book that combines history, true crime, racial injustice, and taut courtroom drama. NYT says that "...Swift shines a powerful light on the practice of debt slavery, and notes that it persists to this day as human traffickers continue to coerce immigrants..." making it timely as well. -Candice
Math, 100 ideas in 100 words : a whistle-stop tour of key concepts
Sam Hartburn
510 /Hartburn
Nonfiction, Science
One of the first titles in a cutting-edge new series created in partnership with The Science Museum, this book introduces 100 key areas of math such as geometry, algebra, probability and pure math, and explains each topic in just 100 words. Perfect for getting your head around big ideas clearly and quickly, or refreshing your memory of the fundamentals of math, this book covers the most up-to-date terms and theories and inspires a heightened level of understanding and enjoyment to the core areas of math.
Having a grade-schooler allows me to remember all the fun I had in school (yes, I was a schoolie). Particularly in math, where games like "Around the World" allowed me to relish in competitive arithmetic. Weird, I know! For me, high school was the last time I studied any math, having chosen a creative/literary path instead, and so I'm enjoying reading these blurbs about all the theories and philosophies I used to know. Favorite quote so far? "...It is beyond doubt that many things became easier once people became comfortable with the concept of nothing..." -Melody
The mindful body : thinking our way to chronic health
Ellen J. Langer
158.13 /Langer
Nonfiction, Health
"A groundbreaking account of the power of our thoughts to improve our health-by the "mother of mindfulness" and first female tenured professor of psychology at Harvard When it comes to our health, too many of us think that a medical diagnosis describes a static or worsening condition. We then live our lives as though our ailments-our stiff knees or frayed nerves or failing eyesight-can only change in one direction: for the worse. Ellen J. Langer's life's work proves the fault in that logic. She has spent more than forty years testing the limiting effects of our negative assumptions as well as the healing power of being mindful-present in the moment and not distracted by memories or projections into the future. In The Mindful Body she unpacks her findings and boldly demonstrates how our thoughts and perspectives have the potential to shape our well-being for the better. Taking us into Langer's trailblazing Harvard lab, The Mindful Body recounts many of her colorful experiments to illustrate the influence of expectation and belief on how our bodies function, how we heal, and even how we age. In one study, Langer rigged eye charts so that participants would get some of the smaller letters correct right away, giving them the expectation that they could improve their overall eye test scores. And they did. In another, she showed that wounds heal faster when subjects are placed in rooms with accelerated clocks; when you think that time is passing faster, your body heals faster! On the other hand, her work reveals that discouraging health news can lead to a worsening physical state: she showed that learning you are pre-diabetic-even when only a fraction separates your blood sugar from a "normal" categorization-may actually play a part in the development of the disease. A paradigm-shifting book by one of the great psychologists of the twenty-first century, The Mindful Body returns the control over our bodies back to us and reveals that a true understanding of health begins with our mindset" --
I checked this book out after being drawn in by its title. A "mindful" body sounds much better to have than a mindless one! There's a lot of new science out there about how conditions of the body affect the brain, like the mind-gut connection, and this book is a great companion to those studies. I appreciated learning about the placebo affect and enjoyed listening to stories about how people experienced less pain when they were able to ignore it more. I love exploring ideas that promote the mind-over-matter concept. If you've ever wondered, "but how sick am I *really*?" this book is for you! -Melody
Why We Read: On Bookworms, Libraries, and Just One More Page Before Lights Out
Shannon Reed
OverDrive eBook
Nonfiction, Memoir, Humor
*NATIONAL BESTSELLER**A Good Housekeeping Reads pick*A hilarious and incisive exploration of the joys of reading from a "beloved and wonderful writer" (George Saunders), teacher, bibliophile, and Thurber Prize SemifinalistWe read to escape, to learn, to find love, to feel seen. We read to encounter new worlds, to discover new recipes, to find connection across difference, or simply to pass a rainy afternoon. No matter the reason, books have the power to keep us safe, to challenge us, and perhaps most importantly, to make us more fully human.Shannon Reed, a longtime teacher, lifelong reader, and New Yorker contributor, gets it. With one simple goal in mind, she makes the case that we should read for pleasure above all else. In this whip-smart, laugh-out-loud-funny collection, Reed shares surprising stories from her life as a reader and the poignant ways in which books have impacted her students. From the varied novels she cherishes (Gone Girl, Their Eyes Were Watching God) to the ones she didn't (Tess of the d'Urbervilles), Reed takes us on a rollicking tour through the comforting world of literature, celebrating the books we love, the readers who love them, and the ways in which literature can transform us for the better.
Perfect for those that love reading about other people reading in order to inspire you to read more. -Annie
Cicada symphony
Fliess, Sue, author.
j595.752 Fliess
Picture Books, Nature, Nonfiction
"There are about three thousand different kinds of cicadas but only the males make the sound we know. Some cicadas appear every year but other kinds only show up every seventeen years, but no one knows why. And there can be trillions of them! Interesting facts and a rhythmic, rhyming verse combine with colorful illustrations to portray one of the most fascinating insects in the world"--
Watch for this one in the BookWalk at Willowcreek park during cicada symphony season! -Casey
Habitats : a journey in nature
Pang, Hannah, author.
j577 Pang
Nonfiction, Picture Books, Nature
"Nature is like a magical journey that transforms with every step...Interactive split pages create an immersive experience that allows readers to take a visual journey through each unique home as they meet the incredible animals that live there"--
This is a beautiful nonfiction, seek and find, picture book! -Casey
Listen to the birds
Kroodsma, Donald E., author.
j598.097 Kroodsma
Nonfiction, Picture Books
"Discover North America's birds and their varied and beautiful songs with this informative, brightly illustrated picture book and its easy-to-use app. Hold a phone with the paired app up to the art and watch--and listen--as the birds spring to life and sing. From the woods of the East to the deserts and plains of the West, and common species such as cardinals and robins to lesser-known birds such as the Western Wood-Pewee and the Black-Headed Grosbeak, ornithologist Donald Kroodsma showcases his unparalleled knowledge of each bird's songs and calls, behavior, and habitat. ."--
This book has an accompanying app to hear all the bird songs featured making for a great and beautiful resource for young birders. -Casey
Arborama : the marvelous world of trees
Voisard, Lisa, 1992- author, illustrator.
j582.16 Voisard
Nonfiction, Picture Books, Nature
"Learn how to identify the most important North American trees. Along the way, you'll explore how trees reproduce and grow into the largest plants on earth, how they make our life possible, and what we can do to save them. Be astounded by the marvelous world of trees all around you!"--
This book would be a wonderful gift! -Casey
If you want to ride a horse
Novesky, Amy, author.
jE Novesky
Nonfiction, Picture Books
"A whimsical guide through the steps of riding a horse, whether the horse is real or lives in the imagination"--
I LOVE this book! It's a bit too long for a read-aloud at storytime, but would make a wonderful lap-sit or solo reading adventure for horse riding minded littles. Be sure to check out the secret cover! -Casey
James Renner created the excellent, deep-dive podcast called Missing Maura Murray, about about a still-unsolved case from his hometown. He also wrote a book (True Crime Addict, also in our collection) about how that case and his obsession affected him, so he's definitely making his mark in the true crime world. This book gets great reviews from journals, with Publisher's Weekly saying "True crime aficionados of all stripes will devour this." -Candice