New Books: November 2022

"Jennette McCurdy was six years old when she had her first acting audition. Her mother's dream was for her only daughter to become a star, and Jennette would do anything to make her mother happy. So she went along with what Mom called "calorie restriction," eating little and weighing herself five times a day. She endured extensive at-home makeovers while Mom chided, "Your eyelashes are invisible, okay? You think Dakota Fanning doesn't tint hers?" She was even showered by Mom until age sixteen while sharing her diaries, email, and all her income. In I'm Glad My Mom Died, Jennette recounts all this in unflinching detail--just as she chronicles what happens when the dream finally comes true. Cast in a new Nickelodeon series called iCarly, she is thrust into fame. Though Mom is ecstatic, emailing fan club moderators and getting on a first-name basis with the paparazzi ("Hi Gale!"), Jennette is riddled with anxiety, shame, and self-loathing, which manifest into eating disorders, addiction, and a series of unhealthy relationships. These issues only get worse when, soon after taking the lead in the iCarly spinoff Sam & Cat alongside Ariana Grande, her mother dies of cancer. Finally, after discovering therapy and quitting acting, Jennette embarks on recovery and decides for the first time in her life what she really wants." --

"Through more than fifty paintings, sculptures, and works on paper, Black Artists in America explores the various ways in which African American artists responded to the political, social, and economic climate of the United States from the time of the Great Depression through the landmark Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka decision"--

"The Earth teems with sights and textures, sounds and vibrations, smells and tastes, electric and magnetic fields. But every animal is enclosed within its own unique sensory bubble, perceiving but a tiny sliver of an immense world. This book welcomes us into a previously unfathomable dimension--the world as it is truly perceived by other animals. We encounter beetles that are drawn to fires (and fireworks), songbirds that can see the Earth's magnetic fields, and brainless jellyfish that nonetheless have complex eyes. We discover that a crocodile's scaly face is as sensitive as a lover's fingertips, that the eyes of a giant squid evolved to see sparkling whales, and that even fingernail-sized spiders can make out the craters of the moon. We meet people with unusual senses, from women who can make out extra colors to blind individuals who can navigate using reflected echoes like bats. Yong tells the stories of pivotal discoveries in the field, and also looks ahead at the many mysteries which lie unsolved"

This book explains how YouTube's technology and business evolved, how it works, and how it helped Google grow to unimaginable power, a narrative told through the people who created YouTube and the Google engineers and chiefs who took it over. It's the story of an industry run amok, and of how corporate greed resulted in the unraveling of truth, the spread of violence, and the corruption of the Internet, all for the sake of profit. The author, the top Google reporter at Bloomberg Businessweek, might know Google better than any other reporter in Silicon Valley, having broken numerous stories about YouTube's and Google's business and scandals. His deep access within the companies makes this book a thrilling, character-driven story of technological and business ingenuity - and the hubris that undermined it. --

"Based on hundreds of hours of research, interviews, and access to exclusive sources and materials, Sandy Hook is Elizabeth Williamson's landmark investigation of the aftermath of a school shooting and the work by a group of Sandy Hook parents to defend themselves and the truth of their children's fate against the frenzied distortions of online deniers and conspiracy theorists"--
On December 14, 2012, a gunman killed twenty first graders and six educators at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut. Ten years later, Sandy Hook has become a foundational story of how false conspiracy narratives and misinformation have gained traction in society. Some people insist it never occurred, or was staged by the federal government as a pretext for seizing Americans' firearms. They harass the victim's relatives and accuse them of faking their loved ones' murders. Williamson tells of how the Sandy Hook families refused to accept this harassment and misinformation, and are defending themselves and their children's memories against online deniers and conspiracy theorists--

"The unwritten rules of success that every student must follow to thrive in college, The Secret Syllabus equips students with the tools they need to succeed, illuminating the secret rules and important lessons not included in the official curriculum. Left to figure out on their own how the academic world works, students frequently stumble, underperform, and miss opportunities. Without a Plan A, too many miss out on the full, rich experience available to them in college.Jay Phelan and Terry Burnham share the essential lessons they have learned over the course of their careers from struggling, unfocused students as well as award-winning college instructors and researchers. The Secret Syllabus draws on Phelan and Burnham's experiences with thousands of undergraduate and graduate students. Weaving engaging storytelling with practical, actionable advice, they illustrate both productive and counterproductive approaches to achieving academic excellence, and highlight the importance of setting and attaining goals, nurturing strong professional relationships, developing resiliency, and more.Don't resort to Plan B when your college career is at stake! This fresh, funny, and boldly innovative book reveals the secrets to crafting a rich and rewarding college experience and a promising future"--

"Heralded by Geoff Nunberg as "required reading" for anyone interested in the conversation swirling around gender-neutral and nonbinary pronouns, What's Your Pronoun? is an essential work that addresses one of the most pressing cultural questions of our day. Providing much-needed historical context and analysis to the debate around what we call ourselves, pioneering linguist Dennis Baron brings new insight to a centuries-old topic and illuminates how--and why--these pronouns are sparking confusion and prompting new policies in schools, workplaces, and even statehouses. Enlightening and affirming, What's Your Pronoun? introduces a new way of thinking about the intersections of language, identity, and gender." --page [4] of cover

"One of the most stunning achievements of moral philosophy is something we take for granted: moral universalism, or the idea that every human has equal moral worth. In What We Owe the Future, Oxford philosopher William MacAskill demands that we go a step further, arguing that people not only have equal moral worth no matter where or how they live, but also no matter when they live. This idea has implications beyond the obvious (climate change) - including literally making sure that there are people in the future: It's not unusual to hear someone way, "Oh, I could never bring a child into this world." MacAskill argues that the sentiment itself may well be immoral: we have a responsibility not just to consider whether the world of the future will be suitable for supporting humans, but to act to make sure there are humans in it. And while it may seem that the destructive capacity of modern industrial technology means that we ought to eschew it as much as possible, MacAskill argues for optimism in our ability to (eventually) get technology right, for the future's benefit, and ours. Where Hans Rosling's Factfulness and Rutger Bregman's Utopia for Realists gave us reasons for hope and action in the present, What We Owe the Future is a compelling and accessible argument for why solving our problems demands that we worry about the future. And ultimately it provides an answer to the most important question we humans face: can we not just endure, but thrive?"--