Nonfiction
Burn the ice : the American culinary revolution and its end
Kevin (Food writer) Alexander
641.509 /Alexander
Nonfiction
James Beard Award-winning food journalist Kevin Alexander traces an exhilarating golden age in American dining. Over the past decade, Kevin Alexander saw American dining turned on its head. Starting in 2006, the food world underwent a transformation as the established gatekeepers of American culinary creativity in New York City and the Bay Area were forced to contend with Portland, Oregon. Its new, no-holds-barred, casual fine-dining style became a template for other cities, and a culinary revolution swept across America. Traditional ramen shops opened in Oklahoma City. Craft cocktail speakeasies appeared in Boise. Poke bowls sprung up in Omaha. Entire neighborhoods, like Williamsburg in Brooklyn, and cities like Austin, were suddenly unrecognizable to long-term residents, their names becoming shorthand for the so-called hipster movement. At the same time, new media companies such as Eater and Serious Eats launched to chronicle and cater to this developing scene, transforming nascent star chefs into proper celebrities. Emerging culinary television hosts like Anthony Bourdain inspired a generation to use food as the lens for different cultures. It seemed, for a moment, like a glorious belle epoque of eating and drinking in America. And then it was over. To tell this story, Alexander journeys through the travails and triumphs of a number of key chefs, bartenders, and activists, as well as restaurants and neighborhoods whose fortunes were made during this veritable gold rush--including Gabriel Rucker, an originator of the 2006 Portland restaurant scene; Tom Colicchio of Gramercy Tavern and Top Chef fame; as well as hugely influential figures, such as André Prince Jeffries of Prince's Hot Chicken Shack in Nashville; and Carolina barbecue pitmaster Rodney Scott. He writes with rare energy, telling a distinctly American story, at once timeless and cutting-edge, about unbridled creativity and ravenous ambition. To "burn the ice" means to melt down whatever remains in a kitchen's ice machine at the end of the night. Or, at the bar, to melt the ice if someone has broken a glass in the well. It is both an end and a beginning. It is the firsthand story of a revolution in how Americans eat and drink.
The undefeated
Kwame Alexander
jE Alexander
Picture Books, Nonfiction
"The Newbery Award-winning author of The Crossover pens an ode to black American triumph and tribulation, with art from a two-time Caldecott Honoree"--
Stunning tribute to black excellence, with spot-on writing and illustrations! -Anne W
Love poems : (for people with children)
John Kenney
811.6 /Kenney
Nonfiction, Poetry
"...John Kenney is back with a brand new collection of poems, this time taking on the greatest "joy" in life: children. Kenney covers it all, from newborns, toddlers, and sleep deprivation, to the terrible twos, terrible tweens, and terrible teens. A parent's love is unconditional, but sometimes that button can't help but be pushed. Between back to school shopping, summer vacations that never end, the awkwardness of puberty, the inevitable post-college moving back in, and more, a parent's job is never done, whether they like it or not."--Amazon.com
These poems are hilarious. They will surely make parents smile--and know someone else knows their pain (and love). -Melody
Mister Rogers' Neighborhood : a visual history
Melissa Wagner
791.4572 /Mister
Nonfiction
"Go behind the scenes of Mister Rogers' Neighborhood with this unprecedented dive into its storied history. Featuring exclusive photographs; a guide to the characters, puppets, and episodes; original interviews; and rare ephemera, this extraordinary book reveals the inner workings of the show"--
Absolutely love this history of Mister Rodgers' Neighborhood. Nostalgia lovers, check this out! -Melody
Drawdown : the most comprehensive plan ever proposed to reverse global warming
363.73874 /Drawdown
Nonfiction, Science, Nature
Ten years ago, environmentalist, entrepreneur, and writer Hawken reported, in Blessed Unrest, on diverse activist groups working independently "toward ecological sustainability and social justice." The results of their efforts, along with those of numerous scientific inquiries, generated Hawken's latest contribution to the global sustainability movement, Project Drawdown. "Drawdown" is the point at which greenhouse gases will peak and begin to decline, "the most important goal for humanity to undertake." And one toward which, as Hawken and his contributors so assiduously record in this comprehensive and exacting compilation of vivid exposition and data, we are making progress. Hawken's coalition of experts in fields as varied as biology and economics, geology and engineering, along with such writers as Elizabeth Kolbert, Bill McKibben, and Michael Pollan, take full measure of the 100 "most effective solutions" in a meticulous inventory of current global-warming-reversing practices that are "commonly available, economically viable and scientifically valid." Richly illustrated and accessible, if fervently detailed, this enlightening inventory, backed by an open-source database, covers advances in energy, land use, food, transport, and buildings. The diverse discoveries and achievements, all lucidly explained, from modest domestic adaptations to infrastructure advances, forest restoration to wave and tidal energy, do attest, as Hawken observes, to the power of "our collective imagination, creativity, and conviction." A rigorous and profoundly important resource.
Added by Candice
Just cool it! : the climate crisis and what we can do : a post-Paris Agreement game plan
David T. Suzuki
363.73874 /Suzuki
Nature, Science, Nonfiction
For decades, Canadian scientist, activist, and broadcaster Suzuki (The Sacred Balance) has spoken up on behalf of the environment. With journalist coauthor Hanington, he updates the message, taking into account the points established at the UN 2015 Paris Agreement. At that conference, almost all nations made commitments to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and set a date by which they would stop burning coal, oil, and gas. The authors remind governments, businesses, and individuals that honoring these "breakthrough" commitments requires making major changes. They acknowledge that fighting global warming is challenging and expensive, but contend that ignoring it would be catastrophic. They state that agricultural solutions should revolve around sustainably working with nature and storing more carbon in soil, and that technological solutions should include building a smart power grid and storage to manage renewable energy that is replacing fossil fuels. More controversial statements are about economics and politics: that producing carbon pollution indicates market failure, that mainstream economics must value natural capital and ecological services, and that governments must lead the global shift from fossil fuels. As in Suzuki's earlier books, the tone is practical about the means to make change yet passionate about preserving an environment that supports biodiversity and human civilization.
Added by Candice
Kiss the ground : how the food you eat can reverse climate change, heal your body & ultimately save our world
Joshua Tickell
631.584 /Tickell
Nonfiction, Science, Health
"Discover the hidden power soil has to reverse climate change, and how a regenerative farming diet not only delivers us better health and wellness, but also rebuilds our most precious resource--the very ground that feeds us. Josh Tickell, one of America's most celebrated documentary filmmakers and director of Fuel, has dedicated most of his life to saving the environment. Now, in Kiss the Ground, he explains an incredible truth: by changing our diets to a soil-nourishing, regenerative agriculture diet, we can reverse global warming, harvest healthy, abundant food, and eliminate the poisonous substances that are harming our children, pets, bodies, and ultimately our planet. Through fascinating and accessible interviews with celebrity chefs, ranchers, farmers, and top scientists, this remarkable book, soon to be a full-length documentary film produced by Leonardo DiCaprio will teach you how to become an agent in humanity's single most important and time sensitive mission. Reverse climate change and effectively save the world--all through the choices you make in how and what to eat"--
Added by Candice
Climate of hope : how cities, businesses, and citizens can save the planet
Michael Bloomberg
363.73874 /Bloomberg
Nonfiction, Science, Nature
"The 2016 election left many people who are concerned about the environment fearful that progress on climate change would come screeching to a halt. But not Michael Bloomberg and Carl Pope. Bloomberg, an entrepreneur and former mayor of New York City, and Pope, a lifelong environmental leader, approach climate change from different perspectives, yet they arrive at similar conclusions. Without agreeing on every point, they share a belief that cities, businesses, and citizens can lead--and win--the battle against climate change, no matter which way the political winds in Washington may shift. In Climate of Hope, Bloomberg and Pope offer an optimistic look at the challenge of climate change, the solutions they believe hold the greatest promise, and the practical steps that are necessary to achieve them. Writing from their own experiences, and sharing their own stories from government, business, and advocacy, Bloomberg and Pope provide a road map for tackling the most complicated challenge the world has ever faced."--Jacket.
Added by Candice
Climate justice : hope, resilience, and the fight for a sustainable future
Mary Robinson
363.7 /Robinson
Nonfiction, Science, Nature
"Holding her first grandchild in her arms in 2003, Mary Robinson was struck by the uncertainty of the world he had been born into. Before his fiftieth birthday, he would share the planet with more than nine billion people--people battling for food, water, and shelter in an increasingly volatile climate. The faceless, shadowy menace of climate change had become, in an instant, deeply personal. Mary Robinson's mission would lead her all over the world, from Malawi to Mongolia, and to a heartening revelation: that an irrepressible driving force in the battle for climate justice could be found at the grassroots level, mainly among women, many of them mothers and grandmothers like herself. From Sharon Hanshaw, the Mississippi matriarch whose campaign began in her East Biloxi hair salon and culminated in her speaking at the United Nations, to Constance Okollet, a small farmer who transformed the fortunes of her ailing community in rural Uganda, Robinson met with ordinary people whose resilience and ingenuity had already unlocked extraordinary change. Powerful and deeply humane, Climate Justice is a stirring manifesto on one of the most pressing humanitarian issues of our time, and a lucid, affirmative, and well-argued case for hope."--Dust jacket.
Added by Candice
On fire : the (burning) case for a green new deal
Naomi Klein
363.7 /Klein
Science, Nature, Political, Nonfiction
"For more than twenty years, Naomi Klein has been the foremost chronicler of the economic war waged on both people and planet-and an unapologetic champion of a sweeping environmental agenda with justice at its center. In lucid, elegant dispatches from the frontlines of contemporary natural disaster, she pens surging, indispensable essays for a wide public: prescient advisories and dire warnings of what future awaits us if we refuse to act, as well as hopeful glimpses of a far better future. On Fire: The (Burning) Case for a Green New Deal gathers for the first time more than a decade of her impassioned writing, and pairs it with new material on the staggeringly high stakes of our immediate political and economic choices. These long-form essays show Klein at her most prophetic and philosophical, investigating the climate crisis not only as a profound political challenge but as a spiritual and imaginative one, as well. Delving into topics ranging from the clash between ecological time and our culture of "perpetual now," to the soaring history of humans changing and evolving rapidly in the face of grave threats, to rising white supremacy and fortressed borders as a form of "climate barbarism," this is a rousing call to action for a planet on the brink. With reports spanning from the ghostly Great Barrier Reef, to the annual smoke-choked skies of the Pacific Northwest, to post-hurricane Puerto Rico, to a Vatican attempting an unprecedented "ecological conversion," Klein makes the case that we will rise to the existential challenge of climate change only if we are willing to transform the systems that produced this crisis. An expansive, far-ranging exploration that sees the battle for a greener world as indistinguishable from the fight for our lives, On Fire captures the burning urgency of the climate crisis, as well as the fiery energy of a rising political movement demanding a catalytic Green New Deal"--
Added by Candice
A look at modern american cooking and restaurant/foodie entrepreneurs. Chapters follow the individual cooking journeys of influential chefs and the food scenes in various parts of America. Documents the boom/bust of some of these areas and the excesses that can come with celebrity chef status. -Jason