"We all have a vague sense that social media is bad for our minds, for our children, and for our democracies. But the truth is that its reach and impact run far deeper than we have understood. Building on years of international reporting, Max Fisher tells the gripping and galling inside story of how Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and other social networks preyed on psychological frailties to create the algorithms that drive everyday users to extreme...

"When Amanda Oliver began work as a school librarian, fueled by a lifelong love of books and a desire to help, she felt qualified for the job. What she learned was that librarians are expected to serve as mediators and mental-health-crisis support professionals, customer service reps and administrators of overdose treatment, fierce loyalists to institutionalized mythology and enforced silence, and arms of state surveillance. Based on firsthand experiences...

"Style is not just the clothes on our backs--it is self-expression, representation, and transformation. As a fashion-obsessed Ojibwe teen, Christian Allaire rarely saw anyone that looked like him in the magazines or movies he looked to for inspiration. Now the Fashion and Style Writer for Vogue, he is working to change that--because clothes are never just clothes. Men's heels are a statement of pride in the face of LGTBQ+ discrimination, while ribbon...

Explores the unlikely bond between the famous Austrian composer and his pet starling, providing an unexpected window into human-animal friendships, music, and the nature of creative inspiration. "On May 27th, 1784, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart met a flirtatious little starling in a Viennese shop who sang an improvised version of the theme from his Piano Concerto no. 17 in G major. Sensing a kindred spirit in the plucky young bird, Mozart bought him and...

"Ty Seidule grew up revering Robert E. Lee. From his southern childhood to his service in the U.S. Army, every part of his life reinforced the Lost Cause myth: that Lee was the greatest man who ever lived, and that the Confederates were underdogs who lost the Civil War with honor. Now, as a retired brigadier general and Professor Emeritus of History at West Point, his view has radically changed. From a soldier, a scholar, and a southerner, Ty Seidule...

"We think about the dangers of climate change in the future tense: that as global warming gets worse over the coming decades, millions of people will scatter around the world fleeing famine and rising seas. What we often don't realize is that the consequences of climate change are already visible, right here in the United States. Bittle shows that, from fire-scorched California to the soaked watersheds of inland North Carolina, people are moving....

"Authored by a seasoned diversity educator, Trans Children in Today's Schools provides a pragmatic and thorough approach to creating inclusive, safe, and flexible environments for gender-diverse young people. The primary audience for this text is parents and K-12 educators, as well as the extended support network in a child's life. This book goes well beyond the what and why of gender diversity and answers the questions of how - how do we create inclusive...

From two reporters for the Washington Post comes an account of the Trump administration's handling, and mishandling, of the coronavirus outbreak, a once-in-a-century pandemic that upended life across the globe that resulted in hundreds of thousands of lives lost, a cratered economy, and the remaking of the U.S. as an unwieldy pariah in the global hierarchy. "Since the day Donald Trump was elected, his critics warned that an unexpected crisis would...

"A celebrated foreign-policy expert and key impeachment witness reveals how declining opportunity has set America on the grim path of modern Russia - and draws on her personal journey out of poverty, and her unique perspectives as a historian and policy maker, to show how we can return hope to our forgotten places. "Foreign policy expert and key impeachment witness Fiona Hill reveals how declining opportunity has set America on the grim path of modern...

Aims to help alcoholics change their relationship with drinking, showing the psychological and cultural aspects of alcoholism. "Many people question whether drinking has become too big a part of their lives, and worry that it may even be affecting their health. But, they resist change because they fear losing the pleasure and stress relief associated with alcohol, and assume giving it up will involve deprivation and misery. This Naked Mind offers...