Staff Picks

Category: Non-Fiction

Find your new favorite reads with this collection of top titles curated by our expert librarians.

Jackson

Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind

Shunryū Suzuki

In one of the best and most succinct introductions to Zen practice, the important teacher Shunryu Suzuki discusses posture and breathing in meditation as well as selflessness, emptiness & mindfulness

Joanna

"All About Love is a blueprint for finding myriad types of love, which hold the redemptive power to change our minds and lives."

Carli

Miracle In the Andes

"Nando Parrado regained consciousness to discover that the plane carrying his rugby team, as well as family members and supporters, had crashed deep in the Andes."

Jeannie

Warren Farrell & John Gray

Examines issues challenging today's young men in the areas of education, mental health, sexuality, and leadership, outlining a comprehensive blueprint for parents, teachers, and policymakers to help

Alison

"Distinguishes medical falsehoods from evidence-backed truth on topics including exercise, supplements, diets, alternative medicine, vaccines, and more."

Joanna

The Way of Imagination

Scott Russell Sanders

"Essays on out-of-the box thinking as a modality of response to climate change, status quo, and political disruption."

Matt

Art Before Breakfast

"For aspiring artists who want to draw and paint but just can't seem to find time in the day, Gregory offers 5- to 10-minute exercises for every skill level that fit into any schedule"

Matt

Steven Pressfield

"In this powerful, straight-from-the-hip examination of the internal obstacles to success, bestselling author Steven Pressfield shows readers how to identify, defeat, and unlock the inner barriers"

Crisanne

It's OK To Be Angry About Capitalism

A progressive takedown of the uber-capitalist status quo that has enriched millionaires and billionaires at the expense of the working class, and what transformational change would actually look like.

Dennis

Around the World in 80 Plants

"Jonathan Drori takes another trip across the globe, bringing to life the science of plants by revealing how their worlds are intricately entwined with our own history, culture, and folklore."

Jeannie

Underwater Wild

"From the creators of the Academy Award-nominated documentary My Octopus Teacher, an immersive journey into the underwater world that inspired it-and holds transformative lessons for us all."

Maggie

"The powerful story of an inspiring doctor who made a difference, by helping to create a program to care for Boston’s homeless community."

Laura

Ducks: Two Years in the Oils Sands

This is an untold story of Canada: a country that prides itself on its egalitarian ethos and natural beauty while simultaneously exploiting both the riches of its land and the humanity of its people.

Crisanne

How We Live Is How We Die

Understand the many changes in our lives to find more freedom and less fear. We might try to resist, but endings happen in every moment: the end of a relationship, the end of a day, the end of life.

Jeannie

The Lady and the Octopus: How Jeanne Villepreux-Power Invented Aquariums and Revolutionized Marine Biology

Jeanne Villepreux-Power, to keep sea creatures alive for her studies, had to invent a contraption to hold them―the aquarium

Carli

The Unwritten Book: An Investigation

This book revels in the randomness, connectivity, and magic of everyday existence. And at its heart is the immense weight of love.

Dennis

Robert Macfarlane

An epic exploration of the Earth's underworlds as they exist in myth, literature, memory, and the land itself. At once ancient and urgent, this is a book that will change the way you see the world.

Gloria

The Body Keeps the Score

Bessel Van der Kolk

This book transforms our understanding of traumatic stress and offers proven alternatives to drugs and talk therapy—and a way to reclaim lives.

Joanna

Caliban and the Witch: Women, the Body and Primitive Accumulation

Silvia Federici

This explores women and the costs to women (the violence against women) inherent in shifts to capitalism.

Joanna

A new collection of essays exploring the nature of time and place in a shrinking world

Melissa

Burn the Place is a galvanizing memoir that chronicles Iliana Regan's journey from foraging on the family farm to running her Michelin-starred restaurant.

Sarah

Picasso's War: How Modern Art Came to America

The untold story of the exhibition that made America the center of the art world -- and Picasso the most famous artist alive -- in the shadow of World WarII.

Crisanne

Becoming Kin: An Indigenous Call to Unforgetting the Past and Reimagining Our Future

This is a gentle approach on encouraging and a new perspective and relationship with land and the people who were here first.

Joanna

We're Not Broken: Changing the Autism Conversation

This explores how autistic people wrestle with systems that were not built with them in mind. The author explains that autism is a part of their identity; they don't need to be fixed.

Joanna

The Far Traveler: Voyages of a Viking Woman

Nancy Marie Brown

Five hundred years before Columbus, a Viking woman named Gudrid sailed past the edge of the known world. This reconstructs a life that spanned--and expanded--the bounds of the then-known world.

Crisanne

The Hidden Life of Trees: What They Feel, How They Communicate―Discoveries from A Secret World (The Mysteries of Nature, 1)

Peter Wohlleben

The author shares his deep love of woods and forests, explaining the amazing processes of life, death, and regeneration he has observed in his woodland.

Joanna

Becoming kin: an indigenous call to unforgetting the past and reimagining our future

Braiding together historical, scientific, and cultural analysis, Indigenous ways of knowing, and the vivid threads of communal memory, this crafts a stunning, forceful call to 'unforget' our history.

Gloria

Harvard Business Review

Subjects ranging from Communication skills, Purpose Meaning and Passion, Smart Networking, Being a Great Boss and many more topics.

Chris

Tracing Time: Seasons of Rock Art on the Colorado Plateau

A fresh perspective on viewing rock art. As always, the author shares his personal journey with amusing anecdotes and humility.

Dennis

Born to be Hanged: the Epic Story of the Gentlemen Pirates Who Raided the South Seas, Rescued a Princess, and Stole a Fortune

Discover the "fascinating and outrageously readable" account of the roguish acts of the first pirates to raid the Pacific in a crusade that ended in a sensational trial back in England."