Britt's Staff Picks


Showing 1 - 20 of 39  There are a total of 170 valid entries on the list.
Book cover for "The world turned upside down"
Star rating for The world turned upside down
Description:
"The only complete history of the Cultural Revolution by an independent scholar based in mainland China, 'The World Turned Upside Down' makes a crucial contribution to understanding the Cultural Revolution and its lasting influence today"--
Book cover for "Bloodbath nation"
Star rating for Bloodbath nation
Description:
"Each year, approximately forty thousand Americans are killed by gunshot wounds, which is roughly equivalent to the annual rate of traffic deaths on American roads and highways. Of those forty thousand gun fatalities, more than half of them are suicides, which in turn account for half of all suicides per year. Add in the murders caused by guns, the accidental deaths caused by guns, the law enforcement killings caused by guns, and the average comes...
Book cover for "Laziness does not exist"
Star rating for Laziness does not exist
Author:
Average Rating:
5 stars
Description:
A social psychologist uncovers the psychological basis of the "laziness lie", which originated with the Puritans and has ultimately created blurred boundaries between work and life with modern technologies and offers advice for not succumbing to societal pressure to "do more".
Book cover for "The disordered cosmos"
Star rating for The disordered cosmos
Average Rating:
4 stars
Description:
"Dr. Chanda Prescod-Weinstein is one of the leading physicists of her generation, at work on the origins of spacetime at the intersection of particle physics and astrophysics. She is also one of the fewer than one hundred Black women to earn a PhD in physics. In [this book], Prescod-Weinstein shares with readers her love for physics, from the Standard Model of Particle Physics and what lies beyond it, to the physics of melanin in skin, to the latest...
Book cover for "When they call you a terrorist"
Star rating for When they call you a terrorist
Average Rating:
4.3 stars
Book cover for "Plastic"
Star rating for Plastic
Description:
Relates the near-crisis status of the world's usage of plastic and the environmentally harmful disposal of it through the story of eight familiar plastic objects--a comb, a chair, a Frisbee, an IV bag, a disposable lighter, a grocery bag, a soda bottle, and a credit card.
Book cover for "Being mortal"
Star rating for Being mortal
Average Rating:
4.2 stars
Description:
Gawande, a practicing surgeon, addresses his profession's ultimate limitation, arguing that quality of life is the desired goal for patients and families of the terminally ill.
Book cover for "Milk and honey"
Star rating for Milk and honey
Author:
Average Rating:
3.6 stars
Description:
"A collection of poetry and prose about survival, about the experience of violence, abuse, love, loss, and femininity"--Amazon.com.
Book cover for "Educated"
Star rating for Educated
Average Rating:
4.2 stars
Description:
"An unforgettable memoir about a young girl who, kept out of school, leaves her survivalist family and goes on to earn a PhD from Cambridge University"--Amazon.com.
Book cover for "White fragility"
Star rating for White fragility
Average Rating:
2 stars
Description:
Explores counterproductive reactions white people have when discussing racism that serve to protect their positions and maintain racial inequality
Book cover for "Gender queer"
Star rating for Gender queer
Author:
Average Rating:
4.5 stars
Description:
"Gender Queer is here. Maia's intensely cathartic autobiography charts eir journey of self-identity, which includes the mortification and confusion of adolescent crushes, grappling with how to come out to family and society, bonding with friends over erotic gay fanfiction, and facing the trauma and fundamental violation of pap smears. Started as a way to explain to eir family what it means to be nonbinary and asexual, Gender Queer is more than a personal...
Book cover for "Odd girl out"
Star rating for Odd girl out
Description:
There is little sugar but lots of spice in journalist Rachel Simmons's brave and brilliant book that skewers the stereotype of girls as the kinder, gentler gender. Odd Girl Out begins with the premise that girls are socialized to be sweet with a double bind: they must value friendships; but they must not express the anger that might destroy them. Lacking cultural permission to acknowledge conflict, girls develop what Simmons calls "a hidden culture...
Book cover for "Man's search for meaning"
Star rating for Man's search for meaning
Average Rating:
4 stars
Description:
Psychiatrist Viktor Frankl's memoir has riveted generations of readers with its descriptions of life in Nazi death camps and its lessons for spiritual survival. Between 1942 and 1945 Frankl labored in four different camps, including Auschwitz, while his parents, brother, and pregnant wife perished. Based on his own experience and the experiences of others he treated later in his practice, Frankl argues that we cannot avoid suffering but we can choose...
Book cover for "How I Killed Pluto and Why It Had It Coming"
Star rating for How I Killed Pluto and Why It Had It Coming
Author:
Average Rating:
4.7 stars
Description:
The solar system most of us grew up with included nine planets, with Mercury closest to the sun and Pluto at the outer edge. Then, in 2005, astronomer Mike Brown made the discovery of a lifetime: a tenth planet, Eris, slightly bigger than Pluto. But instead of adding one more planet to our solar system, Brown’s find ignited a firestorm of controversy that culminated in the demotion of Pluto from real planet to the newly coined category of “dwarf”...
Book cover for "A crack in creation"
Star rating for A crack in creation
Average Rating:
4.5 stars
Book cover for "A life turned upside down"
Star rating for A life turned upside down
Average Rating:
5 stars
Description:
"Mariko Kikuchi tells the painful story of her father's alcoholism and her own journey through guilt to understanding her father's illness. She rejects the common belief that family members can and should be forgiven for anything they do, no matter how much harm they cause. This powerful, self-contained autobiographical manga began as a web series that went viral, and inspired a critically acclaimed 2019 film in Japan."--Provided by publisher.
Book cover for "The Pluto files"
Star rating for The Pluto files
Average Rating:
2.5 stars
Description:
Traces the history of Pluto and the debate over its planethood, citing its entrenchment in America's cultural and patriotic view of the cosmos to explain its considerable popularity and the reasons why so many people campaigned for the preservation of its status. An exploration of the controversy surrounding Pluto and its planet status from a renowned astrophysicist at the heart of the controversy.
Book cover for "Men explain things to me"
Star rating for Men explain things to me
Average Rating:
4.1 stars
Description:
A landmark essay that went viral, inspired the word "mansplaining," and prompted fierce arguments.
Book cover for "Heart berries"
Star rating for Heart berries
Average Rating:
3.5 stars
Description:
"Heart Berries is a powerful, poetic memoir of a woman's coming of age on the Seabird Island Indian Reservation in the Pacific Northwest. Having survived a profoundly dysfunctional upbringing only to find herself hospitalized and facing a dual diagnosis of post traumatic stress disorder and bipolar II disorder; Terese Marie Mailhot is given a notebook and begins to write her way out of trauma. The triumphant result is Heart Berries, a memorial for...
Book cover for "Midnight rising"
Star rating for Midnight rising
Average Rating:
4.5 stars
Description:
Chronicles the 1859 raid by radical abolitionist John Brown on Harpers Ferry, revealing how his acts, deemed terrorism by the South, prompted a counterattack by Robert E. Lee and galvanized Northern supporters during Lincoln's election campaign.