Other books that might interest you

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  Saying NO to a Farm-Free Future...

  Chris Smaje

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  A defense of agroecological, small-scale farming and a robust critique of an industrialized future.  
  As a breakdown of the climate, state power and globalized markets pushes us toward an epochal transition, Chris Smaje offers us a hopeful vision of a relocalized, self-sufficient world.—David Bollier  
  One of the few voices to challenge The Guardian's George Monbiot on the future of food and farming (and the restoration of nature) is academic, farmer and author of A Small Farm Future Chris Smaje. In Saying NO to a Farm-Free Future, Smaje presents his defense of small-scale farming and a robust critique of Monbiot’s vision for an urban and industrialized future.  
  Responding to Monbiot’s portrayal of an urban, high-energy, industrially manufactured food future as the answer to our current crises, and its unchallenged acceptance within the environmental discourse, Smaje was compelled to challenge Monbiot’s evidence and conclusions. At the same time, Smaje presents his powerful counterargument – a low-carbon agrarian localism that puts power in the hands of local communities, not high-tech corporates.  
  In the ongoing fight for our food future, this book will help you to understand the difference between a congenial, ecological living and a dystopian, factory-centered existence. A must-read!

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  Screen Damage - The Dangers of...

  Michel Desmurget

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  All forms of recreational digital consumption—whether on smartphones, tablets, game consoles, or TVs—have skyrocketed in the younger generations. From the age of two, children in the West clock up more than 2.5 hours of screen time a day; by the time they reach thirteen, it's more than seven hours a day. Added up over the first eighteen years of life, this is the equivalent of almost thirty school years, or fifteen years of full-time employment. 
   
   
   
  Most media experts do not seem overly concerned about this situation: children are adaptable, they say, they are "digital natives," their brains have changed and screens make them smarter. But other specialists—including some pediatricians, psychiatrists, teachers, and speech therapists—dispute these claims, and many parents worry about the long-term consequences of their children's intensive exposure to screens. 
   
   
   
  Michel Desmurget, a leading neuroscientist, has carefully weighed up the scientific evidence concerning the impact of the digital activities of our children and adolescents, and his assessment does not make for happy listening: he shows that these activities have significant detrimental consequences in terms of the health, behavior, and intellectual abilities of young people, and strongly affect their academic outcomes.

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  I Wish for Change - Unleashing...

  Kyle Schwartz

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  From the author of I Wish My Teacher Knew, how grownups can empower children to stand up for what they believe inThird-grade teacher Kyle Schwartz often tells her students: "You are not  here so you can make money in a decade. You are here so you can make a  difference now."Young people are up for the task. In the face of  school shootings, cyber bullying, and other challenges students face at  school, there are students who are changing the world right now.In I Wish for Change,  teacher and author Kyle Schwartz equips both teachers and parents to  help children stand up for what they believe is right and make  value-driven decisions. She shows how children's adaptability,  vulnerability, and empathy make them excellent agents for change, as  well as how to teach children about the mechanics and structures of  power so they can effectively change them.Filled with inspiring  stories from Kyle's students and educators around the nation, as well as  practical, replicable strategies for the classroom, I Wish for Change is the guide for every teacher, educator, and parent to show kids that their voice matters.

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  Stolen Smuggled Sold - On the...

  Nancy Moses

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   “A riveting look at the backstory of what’s in the display cases at your local museum. The author profiles seven historic objects with checkered pasts.” —Library Journal   There are many books about museum heists, Holocaust artwork, insider theft, trafficking in antiquities, and stolen Native American objects. Now, there’s finally a book for the general public that covers the entire terrain.   Stolen, Smuggled, Sold features seven vivid and true stories in which the reader joins the author as she uncovers a cultural treasure and follows its often-convoluted trail. Along the way author and reader encounter a cast of fascinating characters from the underbelly of the cultural world: unscrupulous grave robbers, sinister middlemen, ruthless art dealers, venal Nazis, canny lawyers, valiant academics, unstoppable investigative reporters, unwitting curators, and dedicated government officials. Stories include Gustav Klimt’s Portrait of Adele Bloch Bauer 1, the typset manuscript for Pearl Buck’s The Good Earth, a ceremonial Ghost Dance shirt from the massacre at Wounded Knee, the theft of 4,800 historical audio discs by a top official at the National Archives, a missing original copy of The Bill of Rights, the mummy of Ramses I, and an ancient treasure from Iraq.   While each story is fascinating in and of itself, together they address one of the hottest issues in the museum world: how to deal with the millions of items that have breaks in the chain of ownership, suspicious ownership records, or no provenance at all. The issue of ownership touches on professional practices, international protocols, and national laws. It’s a financial issue since the illicit trade in antiquities and cultural items generates as much as $4 billion to $8 billion a year.  

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  Son of Birmingham - A Memoir

  Randall Woodfin, Edward T. Bowser

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  Today's Birmingham—led by Mayor Randall Woodfin—is a phoenix rising from the ashes of systemic racism and white flight. This first Southern city to pluck the feathers off Jim Crow, where peaceful protesters endured attacks by police dogs, where high-pressure water hoses tore at the flesh of men and women marching for their rights, and where children locked arms and sang "We Shall Overcome," is a living, breathing redemption story. 
   
   
   
  In Son of Birmingham, Woodfin draws upon the street wisdom of his generation's Southern rap music; the power of family, friends, and faith; and his education at the historically Black Morehouse College to preach the progress every corner of our nation clamors for right now. He walks listeners through the streets of his Birmingham, bringing to light the daily joys and struggles of everyday people and revealing what spurred him to turn his education and Capitol Hill experience to the city of his youth. 
   
   
   
  A moving memoir of a young leader's perseverance in a city still battling racism and gun violence, which Woodfin experienced first-hand, Son of Birmingham is also a call-to-action across America—an appeal to Woodfin's unique brand of servant leadership and responsive government for equitable, inclusive, and prosperous cities where everyone has the opportunity to reach their full potential.

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  Jorge Luis Borges - A Very Short...

  Ilan Stavans

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  Jorge Luis Borges (1899—1986) is one of the most influential literary figures of the twentieth century. His short stories, poems, essays, and translations explore Argentine mythology, mysticism, philosophical ideas, and myriad other topics. This Very Short Introduction gives an engaging overview of Borges's life and the major themes of his oeuvre. 
   
  Ilan Stavans places Borges in the context of tango and gaucho literature and follows his transformation into an explorer of time and metaphysical dimensions across cultures. As an inveterate reader of Cervantes, Shakespeare, Flaubert, Coleridge, and The Arabian Nights, Borges has become closely associated with the book as an object of knowledge and of the imagination. Stavans demonstrates how Borges's evolution as a writer allowed him to revolutionize contemporary literature and thought in fundamental ways through such works as Ficciones, Other Inquisitions, and Labyrinths, and shows how his career redefined Latin American as well as global literature.

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