Blog Posts by Subject: Nonfiction

Should we worry about a Medicare Meltdown? Is a newly identified autoimmune disease responsible for instances of demonic possession recorded in the past? What is the Secret History of Coffee, Coca & Cola? How can we best care for aging parents (and ourselves)? How has "tinkering" made America great? What is it like to grow up as the child of concentration camp survivors? What is an extreme desert? What dangers lurk behind the scenes at large food companies? How do food trucks contribute to life in NYC? How many different faces has Manhattan's SoHo worn? What's the true story behind the prices we pay and what are those prices telling us? What do you 

How interesting could a book about a long walk possibly be? In the case of Cheryl Strayed's book Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail, the answer is very. Some may have foolishly initially shied away from this book because it's an Oprah's Book Club selection and a memoir, a combination that proved problematic for James Frey's A Million Little Pieces. Oprah's Book Club 2.0 is not alone in liking it, as Time magazine named it one of the ten best nonfiction books of 2012.

Horse reproduction! I never thought that I would learn so much about this subject by reading a book about wild horse scientists, but I guess that it makes sense. After all, managing the numbers of wild horses on islands, especially publicly protected land in which predators are few and far between, is a challenge.

How important were navies to the outcome of the Civil War? What's the key to preparing delicious meatless meals? What in the world is mycophilia? Who conceived and engineered Grand Central Terminal? What was Jewish New York at the turn of the 20th century? What is it like to be a refugee in the United States? How did Joseph P. Kennedy get from East Boston to Washington's inner circle? How did one man's incurable amnesia provide invaluable insight to neuroscientists?

I recently caught the end of an NPR program that hosted the author Aleksandar Hemon. Upon hearing the gentle sound of his voice on the radio speaking about his newest and first work of non-fiction, The Book of My Lives, I immediately placed it on reserve. When the book arrived and I saw the cover art, there was a picture of what Hemon describes as a blue alien, and though still prepared to read the book, I also kept hoping that it was not going to be a book of essays that included science fiction.

Classic New York City architecture, the cleverness of crows, the real Toscanini, being good, color and commerce, anarchists, a call to secularism, the Asian underground railroad, gourmet food carts, escaping the Nazis, environmental crisis, structural tile vaulting and sexual discrimination in the workplace. What do these disparate topics have in common?

It's that time of year again. No, not Christmas or Valentine's or a forgotten anniversary. It's time to fill out the brackets for your office pool.

March Madness begins March 19th! Whether you're busy poring over stats and brackets or cursing the networks for playing reruns rather than fight the NCAA ratings bonanza, we've got some books for you.

This book reads like a brief biography of prominent people, and it includes their essays about the people who influenced their lives. It focuses on the importance of mentoring in young people's lives. Matilda Cuomo wrote about the fact that it was personally fulfilling for her to see the girls she mentored in Albany succeed in life. Many of the people mentioned their parents as mentors, and some mentioned teachers.

At 19 months of age, Keller loses her sight and hearing. A girl spends five years in darkness and silence, yet she runs with strength and is healthy and vigorous. Frenetically, she reaches into everything, is fascinated by people, and is in constant gestural communication with her mother and family members. She remembers the layout of the house, so she is able to freely run through it. She loves being with her dogs and her pony, but she cannot grasp sophisticated meaning from her limited world until her teacher, 21 year old Anne Sullivan, arrives in 1887 to greet the 7-year-old Keller.

Extraction:  ... 3. a. The action or process of obtaining (the constituent elements, juices, etc.) from any substance by heat, pressure, etc. (Oxford English Dictionary - available online with a NYPL library card.)

"It's time to start dealing with your financial life." Suze Orman, in her characteristically blunt, fun-loving manner, lays down the law.

I was first introduced to Suze Orman on The Oprah Winfrey Show and acquainted with her "smack downs." She loved to tell audience members exactly what they needed to do in order to fix their financial problems and improve their lives. I was not in love with her at first, but she has definitely grown on me, and now I highly value her advice.

Crude. Oil that is. Black gold. Texas tea. Politics. Lobbying. Old boys. Influence.

July dawn. A passerby finds a scavenger lying in the mud by the Mumbai airport road. Crying for help — leg mashed and bloody — probably hit by a car. "Thousands of people passed this way every morning." ... "At 2:30 p.m., a Shiv Sena man made a call to a friend in the Sahar Police Station about a corpse that was disturbing small children."

Charles Salzberg, faculty member, and one of the founders of the New York Writer's Workshop, gave a one-evening seminar at the Mid-Manhattan Library on December 11th. Sign-ups for the evening's seminar closed at the 15 people who registered online at the New York Public Library's website, but Mr. Salzberg graciously allowed in 9 more people. To introduce the program, I brought two copies of The Devil Wears Prada by Lauren Weisberg, and asked the participants whether they had heard of this title, which remained on the New York Times' Bestseller List for many weeks a few years ago.

Last year around this time, author Michael Scott Moore read from his book Sweetness and Blood at the Columbus branch. I wanted to share it with everyone who couldn't attend. Sweetness and Blood focuses on the history of surfing and was also an NYPL Reader's Den pick. I was reminded of it when recent weather advisories discouraged (rightfully so) surfers from taking advantage of favorable storm wave conditions. 

Previous Sweetness and Blood Reader's Den posts: Week 1 | 2 | 3 | 4

For the week of September 9, 2012 we have hardcover fiction, hardcover non-fiction, and paperback advice & misc. books.

For the week of September 2, 2012 we have hardcover fiction, hardcover non-fiction, and hardcover advice & misc. books.

For the week of August 26, 2012 we have hardcover fiction, hardcover non-fiction, and children's picture books.

One can scarcely think of any park in NYC — or any city, really — without envisioning the ubiquitous pigeon there as well. Despite signs requesting you not feed the birds in adjacent Bryant Park, the library has more than its share of feathered patrons.