List: New Nonfiction Books for August
The heat will kill you first : life and death on a scorched planet
"The Heat Will Kill You First is about the extreme ways in which our planet is already changing. It is about why spring is coming a few weeks earlier and fall is coming a few weeks later and the impact that will have on everything from our food supply to disease outbreaks. It is about what will happen to our lives and our communities when typical summer days in Chicago or Boston go from 90° F to 110°F.
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Muscle : the gripping story of strength and movement
"Muscle tissue powers every heartbeat, blink, jog, jump, and goose bump. It is the force behind the most critical bodily functions, including digestion and childbirth, as well as extreme feats of athleticism. While most of our organs remain invisible to us, we can mold our muscles with exercise and observe the results.
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Arguing for a better world : how philosophy can help us fight for social justice
"A book that shows us how to work through thorny moral questions by examining their parts in broad daylight, equipping us to not only identify our own positions but to defend them as well. It demonstrates the relevance of philosophy to our everyday lives, and offers some clear-eyed tools to those who want to learn how to better fight for justice and liberation for all"--
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What an owl knows : the new science of the world's most enigmatic birds
"From the New York Times bestselling author of The Genius of Birds and The Bird Way, a brilliant scientific exploration of owls, the most elusive group of birds, and an investigation into why these remarkable and yet mysterious animals exert such a hold on human imagination.
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Conspirituality : how new age conspiracy theories became a health threat
"Conspirituality takes a deep dive into the troubling phenomenon of influencers who have curdled New Age spirituality and wellness with the politics of paranoia--peddling vaccine misinformation, tales of child trafficking, and wild conspiracy theories. In the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, a disturbing social media trend emerged
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How to survive history : how to outrun a Tyrannosaurus, escape Pompeii, get off the Titanic, and survive the rest of history's deadliest catastrophes
"History is the most dangerous place on earth. From dinosaurs the size of locomotives to meteors big enough to sterilize the planet, from famines to pandemics, from tornadoes to the Chicxulub asteroid, the odds of human survival are slim but not zero-at least, not if you know where to go and what to do.
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Revolutionary spring : Europe aflame and the fight for a new world, 1848-1849
"As history, the uprisings of 1848 have long been overshadowed by the French Revolution of 1789 and the Russian revolutions of the early twentieth century. And yet in 1848 nearly all of Europe was aflame with conflict. Parallel political tumults spread like brush fire across the entire continent, leading to significant changes that continue to shape our world today. These battles for the future were fought with one eye kept squarely on the past: The men and women of 1848 saw the urgent challenges of their world as shaped profoundly by the past, and saw themselves as inheritors of a revolutionary tradition"--
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Kiss me in the Coral Lounge : intimate confessions from a happy marriage
"Welcome to the Coral Lounge, a room in Helen Ellis's New York City apartment painted such an exuberant shade of Sherman Williams that a peeping Tom once left a sticky note with the doorman asking for the color.
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Girls and their monsters : the Genain quadruplets and the making of madness in America
"In 1954, researchers at the newly formed National Institute of Mental Health set out to study the genetics of schizophrenia. When they got word that four 24-year-old identical quadruplets in Lansing, Michigan, had all been diagnosed with the mental illness, they could hardly believe their ears.
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The three ages of water : prehistoric past, imperiled present, and a hope for the future
"In The Three Ages of Water, expert on water resources and climate change Peter Gleick guides us through the long, fraught history of our most valuable resource. Spread over a ten-thousand-year human history, it begins with the fundamental evolutionary role water had in shaping early civilizations and empires, crests to the scientific and social revolutions that created modern society, and spills into the global water crisis of depleted groundwater reserves and ubiquitous pollution.
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Coffee first, then the world : one woman's record-breaking pedal around the planet
"In 2018, amateur cyclist Jenny Graham left family and friends behind in Scotland to become the fastest woman to cycle around the world.
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100 places to see after you die : a travel guide to the afterlife
"100 Places to See After You Die is written in the style of iconic bestselling travel guides. But instead of recommending must-see destinations in Mexico, Thailand, or Rome, this book outlines journeys through the afterlife, as dreamed up over the past 5,000 years of human history by our greatest prophets, poets, mystics, artists, and TV showrunners.
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Young and restless : the girls who sparked America's revolutions
"The untold history of the people who helped spark America's most important social movements from the Revolutionary War to today: teenage girls. Nine months before Rosa Parks, 15-year-old Claudette Colvin was arrested for refusing to give up her seat on a segregated bus in Montgomery, Alabama.
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Lessons from an American stoic : how Emerson can change your life
"A lifelong Emerson lover, teacher, and spiritual seeker reveals how American philosopher Ralph Waldo Emerson's twelve essential teachings hold the answer to living an authentic and fulfilling life, one that is in harmony with our souls"--
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Recoding America : why government is failing in the digital age and how we can do better
"A bold call to reexamine how our government operates-and sometimes fails to-from President Obama's former deputy chief technology officer and the founder of Code for America. Just when we most need our government to work-to decarbonize our infrastructure and economy, to help the vulnerable through a pandemic, to defend ourselves against global threats-it is faltering.
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Many things under a rock : the mysteries of octopuses
"A behavioral ecologist's riveting account of his decades-long obsession with octopuses: his discoveries, adventures, and new scientific understanding of their behaviors. Of all the creatures of the deep blue, none is as captivating as the octopus. In Many Things Under a Rock, marine biologist David Scheel investigates four major mysteries about these elusive beings. How can we study an animal with perfect camouflage and secretive habitats?
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War made invisible : how America hides the human toll of its military machine
"An exposé of how the American military, with the help of the media, conceals its perpetual war"--
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Hands of time : a watchmaker's history
Timepieces have accompanied human society from the depths of the oceans to the summit of Everest; the ice of the Arctic to the surface of the moon. Struthers provides a history of watchmaking, describing our earliest attempts at timekeeping and the ways in which it has shaped our attitudes to work, leisure, trade, politic, exploration, and mortality. --
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Moby dyke : an obsessive quest to track down the last remaining lesbian bars in America
"Lesbian bars have always been treasured safe spaces for their customers, providing not only a good time but a shelter from societal alienation and outright persecution. In 1987, there were 206 of them in America. Today, only a couple dozen remain. How and why did this happen? What has been lost--or possibly gained--by such a decline? What transpires when marginalized communities become more accepted and mainstream?
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Your future self : how to make tomorrow better today
Discusses why people are disconnected from their future selves, frequently opting for immediate gratification and making decisions that fail to consider future health and well-being, and offers practical advice for balancing living for today with planning for tomorrow.
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