http://mppl.org/books-movies-more/lists-and-suggestions/?category=nonfiction+books&list=New+Nonfiction+Books+for+February
List: New Nonfiction Books for February
Before Elvis : the prehistory of rock 'n' roll
Unlike other histories of rock, Before Elvis offers a far broader and deeper analysis of the influences on rock music. Dispelling common misconceptions, it examines rock’s origins in hokum songs and big-band boogies as well as Delta blues, detailing the embrace by white artists of African-American styles long before rock ’n’ roll appeared. This unique study ranges far and wide, highlighting not only the contributions of obscure but key precursors like Hardrock Gunter and Sam Theard but also the influence of celebrity performers like Gene Autry and Ella Fitzgerald.
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The bonus family handbook : the definitive guide to co-parenting and creating stronger families
"The Bonus Family Handbook introduces readers to a completely new approach to co-parenting and blending families. It teaches even the most contentious parents and bonus parents how to work together in the name of their children, reinforcing collaborative co-parenting to help form a supportive, loving family"-- Provided by publisher.
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Bright shining : how grace changes everything
"Grace is both mysterious and hard to define. It can be found when we create ways to find meaning and dignity in connection with each other, building on our shared humanity, being kinder, bigger, better with each other. If, in its crudest interpretation, karma is getting what you deserve, then grace is the opposite: forgiving the unforgivable, favouring the undeserving, loving the unlovable. But we live in an era when grace is an increasingly rare currency. The silos in which we consume information dot the media landscape like skyscrapers, and our growing distrust of the media, politicians and public figures has choked our ability to cut each other slack, to allow each other to stumble, to forgive one another. So what does grace look like in our world, and how do we recognise it, nurture it in ourselves and express it, even in the darkest of times? From award-winning journalist Julia Baird, author of the acclaimed national bestseller Phosphorescence, comes Bright Shining, a luminously beautiful, deeply insightful and most timely exploration of grace"--Publisher's description.
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Crush your money goals : 25 smart money habits to save, invest, and fast-track your financial freedom
Join expert money coach Bernadette Joy as she guides you through her C.R.U.S.H. approach to financial wellness, a program she's been using for years to help her followers get in financial shape.
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Cult following : the extreme sects that capture our imaginations--and take over our lives
"A pop history of notable cults, the attraction of these dangerous groups, and the motivations of those who join them"-- Provided by publisher.
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The cure for women : Dr. Mary Putnam Jacobi and the challenge to Victorian medicine that changed women's lives forever
"How Victorian male doctors used false science to argue that women were unfit for anything but motherhood--and the brilliant doctor who defied them. After Elizabeth Blackwell became the first woman to graduate from medical school, more women demanded a chance to study medicine. Barred entrance to universities like Harvard, women built their own first-rate medical schools and hospitals. Their success spurred a chilling backlash from elite, white male physicians who were obsessed with eugenics and the propagation of the white race. Distorting Darwin's evolution theory, these haughty physicians proclaimed in bestselling books that women should never be allowed to attend college or enter a profession because their menstrual cycles made them perpetually sick. Motherhood was their constitution and duty. Into the midst of this turmoil marched tiny, dynamic Mary Putnam Jacobi, daughter of New York publisher George Palmer Putnam and the first woman to be accepted into the world-renowned Sorbonne medical school in Paris. As one of the best-educated doctors in the world, she returned to New York for the fight of her life. Aided by other prominent women physicians and suffragists, Jacobi conducted the first-ever data-backed, scientific research on women's reproductive biology. The results of her studies shook the foundations of medical science and higher education. Full of larger than life characters and cinematically written, The Cure for Women documents the birth of a sexist science still haunting us today as the fight for control of women's bodies and lives continues"-- Provided by publisher.
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Do you still talk to grandma? : when the problematic people in our lives are the ones we love
"Renowned motivational speaker, teacher, and storyteller Brit Barron offers a path to holding on to our deepest convictions without losing relationships with the people we love. Brit Barron gets it. Those people who hurt us with their bigotry and ignorance ... they're often the people we love: They're our friends, our parents, our grandparents, and even our religious leaders. And what we want is for them to grow, not to be canceled by an online mob. So what can it look like to strive for justice without causing new harm or giving up on the people we love?
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The dreamcatcher in the wry
"Tiffany Midge's hilarious and biting collection of essays, written during the COVID-19 pandemic, brims with satiric insight from a Native American perspective. The Dreamcatcher in the Wry entertains while it informs, gleaning wisdom from the incongruities of everyday life and turning over the colonizer's society and culture for some good old Native American roasting"-- Provided by publisher.
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Falling in love at the movies : rom-coms from the screwball era to today
"Prepare to swoon, ugly cry, laugh, and fall in love with this officially licensed exploration of the impact and legacy of one of film's most beloved genres from Turner Classic Movies: the rom-com. Spanning decades of romantic comedies-from movies of the 1930s such as It Happened One Night and the rom-com craze of the '80s and '90s including When Harry Met Sally... all the way to contemporary hits like Crazy Rich Asians, and everything in between-Falling in Love at the Movies will make you fall in love (all over again) with romantic comedies"-- Provided by publisher.
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The food and feasts of the Apostle Paul : inside the early church--with menus and recipes
"The New Testament is filled with stories of the Apostle Paul and the many feasts he attended--from extravagant wedding banquets to simple meals. This book takes the reader inside the food culture of the first century, not only exploring its significance but also offering recipes for the reader to recreate their own tastes of these historic feasts"-- Provided by publisher.
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Good nature : why seeing, smelling, hearing, and touching plants is good for our health
"Reveals how, if we bring nature more into our lives, it can help improve our health and well-being in so many unexpected ways. Oxford professor Kathy Willis has spent her career researching fossilised plants and plant matter - but when she stumbled across a study that showed that patients recovering from surgery improved faster just by being able to see trees from their hospital bed, it radically changed the way she viewed the natural world.
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The illusionist : the true story of the man who fooled Hitler
"Cairo, 1942: If you had asked a British officer who Colonel Clarke was, they would have been able to point him out: always ready with a drink and a story, he was a well-known figure in the local bars. If you then asked what he did, you would have less success. Those who knew didn't tell, and almost no one really knew at all. Clarke thought of himself as developing a new kind of weapon. Its components? Rumour, stagecraft, a sense of fun. Its target? The mind of Erwin Rommel, Hitler's greatest general. Throughout history, military commanders have sought to mislead their opponents. Dudley Clarke set out to do it on a scale no one had imagined before. Even afterwards, almost no one understood the magnitude of his achievement. Drawing on recently released documents and hugely expanding on the louche portrait of Clarke as seen in SAS: Rogue Warriors, journalist and historian Robert Hutton reveals the amazing story of Clarke's A Force, the invention of the SAS and the Commandos, and the masterful hoodwinking of the Desert Fox at the battle of El Alamein. The Illusionist tells for the first time the dazzling tale of how, at a pivotal moment in the war, British eccentricity and imagination combined to thwart the Nazis and save innumerable lives -- on both sides"--Publisher's description.
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I'm sorry for my loss : an urgent examination of reproductive care in America
"Rebecca Little and Colleen Long are journalists and childhood friends who both experienced pregnancy losses past 20 weeks. In the days, weeks, and months that followed, they searched desperately for information to help them process what they had been through. But they found nothing. So, Rebecca and Colleen began to research. Diving deep into the history, culture, and science around pregnancy loss, they discovered that the helplessness and loneliness they felt was not a coincidence. Over the past several decades, American culture has been placing more and more emphasis on the rights and life of the fetus-at the cost and well-being of the mother. Politics, history, racism, misogyny, capitalism, and medicine have been working separately and together to choke off grief related to pregnancy loss. In their first book, I'm Sorry for My Loss, Rebecca and Colleen weave together deep research into laws, pop culture, medicine, and history with powerful personal narratives to offer readers a comprehensive sociological look at how pregnancy loss came to be so stigmatized and what a system of more compassionate care could and should look like"-- Provided by publisher.
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Long Live : the definitive guide to the folklore and fandom of Taylor Swift
"Whether you've been with Taylor from the start or are a new fan, this guide is for you. Use it to catch up on all the lore and inside jokes from the beginning, or to discover forgotten details from the past. From MySpace comments to T-Party invites to Secret Sessions and beyond, Long Live explores the evolution of Taylor as well as the ride that fans have been on with her through two decades of personal milestones--hers and ours, both good and bad."--Amazon.com.
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Money for couples : no more stress, no more fights, just a 10-step plan to create your rich life together
"From personal finance juggernaut Ramit Sethi, here is the definitive book about a defining challenge for millions of people: navigating the tricky waters of money in a serious relationship... This book will help readers go from financial frustration to joy and possibility as they finally discover a way to connect over money.
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My Pisces heart : a Black immigrant's search for home across four continents
Jennifer Neal was born in the United States to a family that moved continuously for their own survival and well-being--from the Great Migration to the twenty-first century. As an adult, she has continued to travel the world as a Black queer woman, across two decades and four countries--from Japan to the US and then Australia to Germany, where she has settled for now. Throughout her moves, Neal threads her personal story of immigration with local Black histories and racial politics to provide context for her own experiences.
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Pan y dulce : the Latin American baking book
"Bryan Ford, the ... author of New World Sourdough and judge on Netflix's Blue Ribbon Baking Championship, is changing how the world bakes with recipes that are 'full of deep expertise' yet 'unusually warm [and] friendly' (New York Times). In Pan y Dulce he helps home bakers embrace the ... world of Latin American baking and break free of Eurocentric approaches to the craft"-- Provided by publisher.
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The secret history of the rape kit : a true crime story
"In 1972, Martha "Marty" Goddard volunteered at a crisis hotline, counseling girls who had been molested. By the end of the decade, she had launched a campaign pushing hospitals and police departments to collect evidence of sexual assault and treat survivors with dignity. She designed a new kind of forensics tool--the rape kit--and new practices of evidence collection that spread across the country. Yet even as Marty fought for women's rights, she allowed a man to take credit for her work and then vanished into abscurity.
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Sisters in science : how four women physicists escaped Nazi Germany and made scientific history
"In the 1930s, Germany was a hotbed of scientific thought. But after the Nazis took power, Jewish and female citizens were forced out of their academic positions. Hedwig Kohn, Lise Meitner, Hertha Sponer, and Hildegard Stücklen were eminent in their fields, but they had no choice but to flee due to their Jewish ancestry or anti-Nazi sentiments.
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Star-spangled Jesus : leaving Christian nationalism and finding a true faith
"April just considered herself a good Christian: faithful, Republican, and determined to make America a Christian nation once again. But as her view of the world widened, Ajoy began to see cracks in her steadfast beliefs and recognized the ways her conservative politics and religion were intertwined in her mind ... Part memoir, part guidebook, part call to action, Star-Spangled Jesus explores how the fight to make America a "Christian nation" has damaged us all and shows how one woman left Christian Nationalism and why America should too"-- Provided by publisher.
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The thinking heart : essays on Israel and Palestine
"Just after October 7th 2023, David Grossman, a longtime voice of moral clarity in the Middle East, retreated inward to ask himself anew these urgent questions about his beloved nation: How could this massacre have happened? How could the Netanyahu government, tangled in its web of scandals, have failed to protect its citizens?
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A town without time : Gay Talese's New York
"From legendary journalist Gay Talese, a collection of his greatest reporting on New York City"-- Provided by publisher.
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The Victorians and the Holy Land : adventurers, tourists, and archaeologists in the lands of the Bible
"A study of historical, cultural, and technological developments during the Victorian Age that heightened people's interest in the Holy Land"-- Provided by publisher.
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Zahav home : cooking for friends & family
"Award-winning chefs and bestselling authors of the James Beard Award-winning Zahav, Michael Solomonov and Steven Cook invite you to cook the way they do at home, with 125 new recipes for simple and achievable meals"-- Provided by publisher.
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