“Awe: The New Science of Everyday Wonder and How It Can Transform Your Life” By Dacher Keltner
Keltner’s research looks at how emotions experienced are deeply infused into not only how we see everything in our world but even into our bodies as immune and inflammation responses. Awe remains a mysterious experience and yet it orients us in our ideas, insights, connection with art, music, religion and how we engage in the social world. Collective effervescence creates an experience of awe and is a vital force in our lives and the scientific research is fascinating as it relates to our health, history, and culture. Available in print.
“Unraveling: What I Learned About Life While Shearing Sheep, Dyeing Wool, and Making the World’s Ugliest Sweater” By Peggy Orenstein
Like many of us, the COVID-19 pandemic caused life as we knew it to pause and yet the day to day stress of sending teens off to college, caring for aging parents and grief continued. Orenstein, an essential writer on adolescence, found herself within a life-changing moment during lockdowns. She embarked on not only knitting a sweater, but shearing the sheep, and carding and spinning the wool. In doing so, an unexpected journey of learning merged as she confronted major issues of our time. Available in print.
“I Have Some Questions For You” By Rebecca Makkai
An irresistible novel that explores collective memory and the reckoning with past grief and trauma. Bodie Kane spent her high school years unhappily attending a boarding school in New Hampshire where, during her senior year, a classmate is murdered. When Kane, a successful podcaster and film professor, is invited to return to the school as a guest lecturer, the unsettled uncertainties of the past emerge and Kane finds herself drawn back to the case. Available in print.
WHITMAN COUNTY LIBRARY DISTRICT
“The Dawn of Fury” by Ralph Compton
Seeking vengeance on the rebel renegades who murdered his family, Civil War veteran Nathan Stone sets out on an odyssey that will take him throughout the United States and across the paths of the West’s most famous — and infamous — characters, including Jesse James, “Wild” Bill Hickok and John Wesley Hardin.
“Outlaw’s Bride” by Lori Copeland
Falsely convicted of bank robbery, drifter Johnny McAllister is sent to a rehabilitation program in the home of a California judge. When he goes to Judge McMann’s home, his aim is to be a model prisoner, hoping to be released early and return to his life’s mission: to kill the man who wiped out his family 15 years before.
“You Are My Sunshine” by Stanley Gordon West
Set on a Montana ranch in the mid-1800s, “You Are My Sunshine” tells the story of Abraham Rockhammer, his children and his grandchildren. Abraham left Ohio with his pioneer spirit in his head and his heart. His piece of Montana did not come easy, but was pristine until his new neighbor, young Henry Weebow, started to mine for ore on the opposite side of the sacred mountain Abraham called home.
LATAH COUNTY LIBRARY DISTRICT
“Beginner’s Houseplant Garden” by Jade Murray
This guide is perfect for beginners who are looking to make their homes a little greener. Filled with tips and advice for indoor gardening, this practical and user-friendly guide tells readers the 40 most common houseplants and how best to care for them.
“How to Speak Whale: A Voyage into the Future of Animal Communication” by Tom Mustill
After a life-changing experience with a humpback whale, wildlife filmmaker Tom Mustill begins to investigate the intriguing world of human-animal interaction. Drawing from his own experiences and the work of experts, Mustill examines how animal communications are being decoded and what the potential consequences may be.
“The Great Money Reset: Change Your Work, Change Your Wealth, Change Your Life” by Jill Schlesinger
This 10-step financial guide from CBS News business analyst Jill Schlesinger is a road map for how to navigate finances and build your best life. Full of wit and no-nonsense honesty, this book answers many of the complicated questions that people have around life and money.
