NPR's Best Books of 2015

Fri, 12/11/2015 - 6:17pm by eapearce

NPR recently released its Best Books of 2015 list, an in depth yearly endeavor where critics and NPR staff choose their favorite books of the year and compile them into a genre-spanning list of several hundred titles. I love that, along with the expected books on the list that are getting accolades from numerous publications and organizations, NPR’s list always contains more obscure titles that many readers likely missed over the course of the year.

You can view all of the titles from the list that we have available in our catalog here.

So what’s on this list of nearly 300 books? Here’s a preview:

In Speak, by Louisa Hall, a young Puritan woman travels to America with her unwanted husband, while in other time and place Alan Turing writes letters to his best friend’s mother and a Jewish refugee tries to reconnect with his distant wife. Elsewhere in time and space, a lonely young girl speaks with an intelligent software program and a formerly celebrated Silicon Valley entrepreneur is imprisoned for making illegal lifelike dolls. How does Hall tie all these characters together? As they all try somehow to communicate across gaps, Hall connects their stories, creating an amazing book that is a blend of historical fiction, science fiction and fantasy.

V is for Vegetables offers more than 140 simple recipes for cooking vegetables in unique and unexpected ways at home. Author and chef Michael Anthony has cleverly divided the chapters of the book by vegetable, so if you ever find yourself staring at kohlrabi or tomatillos in the grocery store, curious about how one cooks such things, this is the book for you! And even expert cooks will be refreshed by Anthony’s new ideas for ways to use common vegetables like broccoli, tomatoes, carrots and squash.

The Battle of Versailles tells of a little-known event that took place at the Palace of Versailles: as a fundraiser for the restoration of the palace, the world’s elite gathered in the grand theater there for a “fashion competition” of sorts: five American designers (including Oscar de la Renta and Anne Klein) faced off against five French designers considered to be the best designers in the world—Yves Saint Laurent, Hubert de Givenchy and others. The American clothes were expected to be a laughingstock but instead, the garments and the energy of the models who wore them wowed the crowd. By the end of the evening, American fashion in the world had transformed from a footnote to an enormous influence, not only on style itself but also on the way race, gender, sexuality and economics were treated in fashion in the years to come.

Nerd Nite Ann Arbor presented by AADL at LIVE 102 S First St.

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Gardening and Landscaping with Native Plants

Thursday February 25, 2016: 7:00pm to 8:30pm
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Collect Away!

Thu, 11/19/2015 - 5:31pm by evelyn

Cabinet of Curiosities: Collecting and Understanding the Wonders of the Natural World, by Gordon Grice, is a great new book that tackles collecting natural treasures. I was thrilled to find this book, because I have a large collection of bones, shells, feathers, and more. This book explains scientific classification and breaks down the chapters in the book using the Linnaeus classification system.

Each page of this book is filled with beautiful photographs and drawings that show off the specimens that you might find in the wild. The book gives clear instructions on how to find animals that are already dead, rather than killing live creatures. It also explains the laws for certain protected shells and species. Instructions are provided for cleaning, caring for, and displaying specimens of all kinds.

Cabinet of Curiosities is a great book for curious readers of all ages who want to learn how to find and display the treasures that the earth has to offer.

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New Steve Jenkins: How to Swallow a Pig!

Thu, 10/22/2015 - 1:50pm by eapearce

Steve Jenkins has been using his amazing cut-paper art to illustrate his science and nature books for kids for over a decade now, and I still look forward to each new book that he creates. His most recent one is How to Swallow a Pig: step-by-step advice from the animal kingdom and it's one of his best yet. He uses animals with particularly unique habits: pythons who eat pigs, crows that use cars to crack nuts, and monkeys that use toxic millipedes to fend off lice and offers fun, step-by-step "instructions" for how these animals go about their amazing activities. And of course, the illustrations are as beautiful as ever. This book stands out to me as a particularly great one for classrooms--the detailed, fascinating facts about a diversity of animals would be a fun and complimentary addition to any lesson plan about animals and the natural world.

See more of Steve Jenkins' books on this list!

Nature Anatomy

Wed, 10/21/2015 - 3:58pm by manz

Nature Anatomy: The Curious Parts & Pieces of the Natural World by Julia Rothman is a beautiful book! The book offers great information about the natural world in a fun way accompanied by wonderful illustrations that are the bulk of the book. The beauty of the book is heavier than the content, so there’s no overwhelming you with information – just fun facts and cool images.

The book talks about North American Landscapes including deserts and grasslands. It has sections on weather with storms, clouds and snowflakes. There are chapters on landforms, minerals, and fossils. And the book wouldn’t be complete without covering birds and many other animals, as well as bodies of water, trees, leaves and flowers! Nature Anatomy is a delight for the senses. If you’re into the natural world and whimsical illustrations give it a peek.

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