Ocean State Libraries

This book is about the inexplicable and violent death of Hawaiian Airlines pilot Chris Northon in a lonely campground in Wallowa County, Oregon.

"The epic story of the rise of coffee in the Americas, and how it connected and divided the modern world. Sedgewick reveals how the growth of coffee production, trade, and consumption went hand in hand with the rise of the scientific idea of energy as a universal force, which transformed thinking about how the human body works as well as ideas about the relationship of one person's work to another's. In the process, both El Salvador and the United...

"Wanderlust documents the impulses that drive Elizabeth Eaves's insatiable hunger for the rush of the unfamiliar. She is both restless vagabond and astute observer as she crisscrosses five continents, chasing the exotic in both culture and romance."--P. [4] of cover.

This book tackles an increasingly crucial question: What can we do about the seemingly intractable challenges confronting all of humanity today, including climate change, global hunger, water scarcity, environmental stress, and economic instability? The quick answers are: Build topsoil. Fix creeks. Eat meat from pasture-raised animals. Soil scientists maintain that a mere 2 percent increase in the carbon content of the planet's soils could offset...

"We Live in an age of greed. Economic good times and the self-destruction of socialist systems have left capitalism unrivaled in popular minds as a way of life. Yet today's economy is not without its downside or its victims. Basic human services - and even religion - have become commodities. Corporations reorganize for short-term viability. Increasingly, people see themselves not as citizens but as consumers." "In this book, Childs probes this disturbing...

"Karl Deisseroth has spent his life pursuing truths about the human mind, both as a practicing clinical psychiatrist and as a researcher who created the revolutionary field of optogenetics, which allows us to decipher the brain's inner workings using light. In his first book, Projections, he combines his groundbreaking access to the brain's inner circuitry with a deep empathy for his patients to examine what mental illness can reveal about the mind...

"Those who begin the study of philosophy may easily become discouraged. Many classic texts are daunting in their complexity, and much contemporary writing is intended primarily for a professional audience. A few prominent philosophers of our day write in a style understandable by all, but nonspecialists are often left unaware of this work. They may never realize that serious discussion of central problems of philosophy can proceed without arcane terminology,...

"Food insecurity rates, which skyrocketed with the Great Recession, have yet to fall to pre-recession levels. Food pantries are stretched thin, and states are imposing new restrictions on programs like SNAP that are preventing people from getting crucial government assistance. At the same time, we see an increase in obesity that results from lack of access to healthy foods. The poor face a daily choice between paying bills and paying for food." --...