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| Title | Author | Publisher | Summary |
|---|---|---|---|
| Amity and Prosperity | Eliza Griswold | First Picador | Alarmed by her children’s sudden illnesses, Stacey Haney, a local nurse working hard to raise two kids and keep up her small farm when the fracking boom comes to her hometown of Amity, Pennsylvania, joins with neighbors and a committed husband-and-wife legal team to investigate what’s really in the water and air. Against local opposition, Haney and her allies doggedly pursue their case in court and begin to expose the damage that’s being done to the land her family has lived on for centuries. Soon a community that has long been suspicious of outsiders faces wrenching new questions about who is responsible for their fate, and for redressing it: The faceless corporations that are poisoning the land? The environmentalists who fail to see their economic distress? A federal government that is mandated to protect but fails on the job? Drawing on seven years of immersive reporting, Griswold reveals what happens when an imperiled town faces a crisis of values, and a family wagers everything on an improbable quest for justice. Winner of the 2019 Pulitzer Prize for General Nonfiction |
| An American Sickness | Elisabeth Rosenthal | Penguin Press | Dr. Elisabeth Rosenthal, in clear and practical terms, spells out exactly how to decode medical doublespeak, avoid the pitfalls of the pharmaceuticals racket, and get the care you and your family deserve. She takes the reader inside the doctor-patient relationship and to hospital C-suites, explaining step-by-step the workings of a system badly lacking transparency. This is about what we can do, as individual patients, both to navigate the maze that is American healthcare and also to demand far-reaching reform. |
| Animal, Vegetable, Miracle | Barbara Kingsolver | Harper Perennial | When Barbara Kingsolver and her family moved from suburban Arizona to rural Appalachia, they took on a new challenge: to spend a year on a locally-produced diet, paying close attention to the provenance of all they consume. Concerned about the environmental, social, and physical costs of American food culture, they hoped to recover what Barbara considers our nation's lost appreciation for farms and the natural processes of food production. Since 2007, their scheme has evolved enormously. In this new edition, the entire Kingsolver family, Barbara's husband, Steven, and two adult daughters, Camille and Lily, describe their lives since the first telling of the family's story of living off the land. With Americans' ever-growing concern over an agricultural establishment that negatively affects our health and environment, the Kingsolver family's experiences and observations remain just as relevant today as they were ten years ago. Animal, Vegetable, Miracle is a modern classic that will endure for years to come. |
| Battling Over Birth | Black Women Birthing Justice | Praeclarus Press | Battling Over Birth, a new human rights report from Black Women Birthing Justice, shares stories from over 100 women who recently gave birth in California. The report reveals the culture of fear and coercion that has transformed birth into a battleground, a deep lack of trust of our hospitals, and a broken maternal health-care system that fails too many black women. The report shakes up our understanding of where state violence happens, and who it happens to; putting the human rights spotlight onto a system that is often unaccountable to black communities. Battling Over Birth also provides solutions. The report shares positive experiences by black women, and identifies best practices based on their experiences. It makes a series of recommendations, including community accountability boards to hold hospitals accountable; increased access to midwifery and doula-care; recruitment and training of more health-care professionals of color; culturally-competent, empowering prenatal and postpartum care; greater access to home birth and birth centers; and a sharp reduction in the use of C-sections. |
| Beautiful Affliction | Lene Fogelberg | She Writes Press | The author's inspiring account of growing up and living on the verge of death and of the beauty, harshness, loneliness, and, ultimately, unbending love that can be found there. |
| Being Empowered for a Healthy Heart | Phoebe Chi MD MPH | Verdure Publishing Company | Living with a chronic illness can feel like a constant battle. Conditions such as high blood pressure, heart disease, diabetes, COPD, and depression not only require vigilant management, but they can negatively affect your day-to-day functioning and deprive you of the quality of life you deserve. This book is designed to equip you with the tools you need to overcome the symptoms of pain, fatigue, shortness of breath, anxiety, and stress while effectively managing and reversing the diseases that cause them. By encouraging you to create personal healthy living goals and then providing valuable tools to help you achieve them, this guide will give you the confidence you need to take control of your health. |
| Being Heumann | Judith Heumann | Beacon Press | One of the most influential disability rights activists in U.S. history tells her personal story of fighting for the right to receive an education, have a job, and just be human. Paralyzed from polio at eighteen months, Judy’s struggle for equality began early in life. From fighting to attend grade school after being described as a “fire hazard” to later successfully pressuring the Carter administration to implement protections for disabled peoples’ rights, sparking a national movement and leading to the creation of the Americans with Disabilities Act. A Publishers Weekly Best Book of the Year for Nonfiction |
| Between Two Kingdoms | Suleika Jaouad | Random House | A few weeks shy of her twenty-third birthday, Jaouad received a diagnosis of leukemia, with a 35 percent chance of survival. She would spend much of the next four years in a hospital bed, fighting for her life and chronicling the saga in a column for The New York Times. After countless rounds of chemo, a clinical trial, and a bone marrow transplant, she learned that a cure is not where the work of healing ends; it's where it begins. New York Times Bestseller | One of the Best Books of the Year: The New York Times Book Review, The Washington Post, Bloomberg, The Rumpus, She Reads, Library Journal, Booklist |
| Bibliotherapy in the Bronx | Emely Rumble, LCSW | Row House Publishing | In Bibliotherapy in The Bronx, Emely Rumble offers readers a glimpse into her journey as a psychotherapist in the Bronx, where she has spent over 14 years using books to help clients navigate complex emotions, heal from trauma, and find their voices. Drawing from her personal and professional experiences, Rumble intertwines storytelling with therapeutic insights to reveal how reading can be a potent tool for self-discovery, emotional transformation, and social change. |
| Blackout | Sarah Hepola | Grand Central Publishing | A memoir of unblinking honesty and poignant, laugh-out-loud humor, Blackout is the story of a woman stumbling into a new kind of adventure – the sober life she never wanted. Shining a light into her blackouts, she discovers the person she buried, as well as the confidence, intimacy, and creativity she once believed came only from a bottle. Her tale will resonate with anyone who has been forced to reinvent or struggled in the face of necessary change. It’s about giving up the thing you cherish most – but getting yourself back in return. |