Go ahead, shake things up a bit! It’s a brand new year so why not try on some new ideas for size? From the dinner table to the village square, and from human nature to mother nature check out these
Go ahead, shake things up a bit! It’s a brand new year so why not try on some new ideas for size? From the dinner table to the village square, and from human nature to mother nature check out these thoughtful new ideas. Like them or loath them, reading new ideas will certainly perk up your point of view. This week’s Book Buzz offers some recently published titles with new or different ways to approach life. Borrow them for free at your friendly neighborhood library. What a good idea!
Happy reading!
This Book is Overdue! How Librarians and Cybrarians Can Save Us All
By Marilyn Johnson
021.2 Jo
Move over Google, and make way for the indispensable and all-knowing lady (or gent) behind the desk. Savvy, brave, hip and brilliant, these are not your stereotypical “shhh” librarians but pragmatic idealists who fuse the tools of the digital age with their love for the written word and the enduring values of free speech, open access, and scout-badge-quality assistance to anyone in need. Johnson’s book is chocked full of strange, compelling stories of the wildness behind the orderly facade of information control, and the librarians who work to tame it.
Different: Escaping the Competitive Herd: Succeeding in a World Where Conformity Reigns But Exceptions Rule
By Youngme Moon
658.8 Mo
This book turns the very idea of competition on its head, teaches you to innovate rather than chase, and helps you rethink ways to create a meaningful groove of differentiation. A crisp counterintuitive look at what makes brands stand sharply apart.
The Fate of Nature: Rediscovering our Ability to Rescue the Earth
By Charles Wohlforth
304.20979 Wo
Do we have it in us to square with nature before it’s too late? Will human nature force us to wreck our planet or will our nature be the planet’s saving grace? This author presents a platform from which to ponder this vexing question. He develops critical, unexamined issues about our relationship to nature through the vivid characters and magnificent landscapes of coastal Alaska.
Dinner Talk: 365 Engaging Conversations Starters for Help You and Your Family Connect
By Emily Hall
302.346 Ha
Beyond “please pass the salt,” is imaginative, dynamic and fun dinner conversation waiting to happen. This collection of conversation starters provides you with 365 ways to spark conversation and engage your family while you gather around the table.
Living beyond War: A Citizen’s Guide
By Winslow Myers
303.69 My
The dream of a world without war may seem hopelessly unrealistic. But in this eloquent primer, what appears truly unrealistic is the notion that war remains a reasonable solution to conflicts on our planet! You may say that he’s a dreamer … but after reading Myers’s proposed comprehensive roadmap to a world beyond war … he may not be the only one.
Made for Goodness: And Why This Makes All the Difference
170 Tu
By Desmond Tutu
We know all too well the cruelties, hurts, and hatreds that poison life on our planet. But this is not the whole story of humanity. We are made for more, for goodness, claims Tutu, the Nobel Peace Prize winner and man behind a lifetime of good works, and it is up to us to claim the goodness we were made for and live up to our destiny.
Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die
By Chip and Dan Heath
302.13
Urban legends, conspiracy theories, and bogus public-health scares seem to circulate effortlessly while people with important ideas struggle to make their ideas stick. In this book, the authors reveal the anatomy of ideas that stick and explain ways to make ideas stickier. Transform the way you communicate ideas by using the vital principles of winning ideas that stick.
A Return to Healing: Radical Health Care Reform and the Future of Medicine
By Len Saputo, MD
610 Sa
Why is our health care system ranked 37th in the world? Why do doctors focus on symptoms rather than causes? Who benefits and who profits from the current system? Seasoned physician, and visionary, Saputo, suggests wise and workable fixes to a broken system based on a shift in thinking.
How to Build a Village
By Claude Lewenz
307.1216 Le
Suburbs were invented to sell cars, writes Lewenz, spreading out human activities so the mundane chores of daily life require a car. But the ‘burbs proved an immeasurably bad use of resources, bad for people and for the environment. Villages, on the other hand, with populations of 5-10,000, self-contained and built around multiple plazas with cafes, shops, workplaces, and artist guilds and no cars within, are designed for quality of life. A village has its own local economy, affordable housing, environmentally sustainable design, and is a fulfilling wonderful place for all ages where everything is within a ten minute walk.
What’s Mine Is Yours: The Rise of Collaborative Consumption
By Rachel Botsman and Roo Rogers
339.47 Bo
Sharing, bartering, lending, trading, renting, gifting, and swapping. From enormous marketplaces such as eBay and craigslist to Zopa and Zipcar, collaborative consumption is reinventing both what we consume and how we consume it. Companies are redefining how goods and services are exchanged, valued, and created. What will the next wave of marketplaces look like?
This Will Change Everything: Ideas That Will Shape the Future
Edited by John Brockman
501.12 Th
Edge.org presents 125 of today’s leading thinkers offering radical but feasible game-changing scientific ideas or developments with the potential to change the world. Check out this collection of exhilarating, visionary, sometimes frightening, but always fascinating ideas. Also look for Steven Johnson’s Where Good Ideas Come From: The Natural History of Innovation.
• Carolyn Larson, head librarian at Lihu‘e Public Library, brings you the buzz on new, popular and good books available at your neighborhood library. Book annotations are culled from online publishers’ descriptions and published reviews.
