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12 items

• The Library Book

  Orlean, Susan,

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  Somehow a sentimental love letter to libraries and a true crime story all at the same time. Orlean's investigation into the 1986 fire at the Los Angeles Public Library leads her to probe the history of the LAPL and her own relationship to libraries…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• The Feather Thief

  Beauty, Obsession, and the Natural History Heist of the Century

  Johnson, Kirk W.,

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  An investigation into a major heist at the British Museum involving the Victorian art of tying flies (like for fly fishing...), made all the more interesting when the author finds himself involved in the case.

• The Light Eaters

  How the Unseen World of Plant Intelligence Offers a New Understanding of Life on Earth

  Schlanger, Zoë,

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  I love when an author's enthusiasm for a subject is so contagious that I find myself fully immersed in something I never had interest in before. Schlanger's work as a climate journalist was (understandably) bleak, so she dug into researching plant…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Little Bosses Everywhere

  How the Pyramid Scheme Shaped America

  Read, Bridget, 1990-

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  As a millenial, I have been on the receiving end of more than one request to sign up for an acquaintance's business opportunity. This text looks at multi-level marketing and pyramid schemes as a particularly American phenomenon - one that runs…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Cue the Sun!

  the Invention of Reality TV

  Nussbaum, Emily, 1966-

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  I'm no longer ashamed of being a reality TV fan - from elite competitions to social circles filled with manufactured drama, I'll watch them all. Nussbaum's history of the form has both breadth and depth, and digs into the shows we've all heard about…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Girl on Girl

  How Pop Culture Turned a Generation of Women Against Themselves

  Gilbert, Sophie (Sophie G.),

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  Gilbert takes a wide-sweeping look at various aspects of pop culture from the mid-1990s to the 2010s to examine the ways women were treated, portrayed, exploited, and deployed. She makes some very insightful connections - her chapter on reality TV,…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• There's Always This Year

  on Basketball and Ascension

  Abdurraqib, Hanif, 1983-

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  Hanif Abdurraqib is an all-time great, and I've loved everything of his I've read. This one is special because I love a memoir, and I love when writers get me engaged in a topic I otherwise care little about (basketball, in this case).

• Monsters

  a Fan's Dilema

  Dederer, Claire, 1967-

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  This book is a meditation on what we do with the art of people who turn out to be monsters. In each chapter, the author grapples with a particular artist and their work, which illuminates a different aspect of the debate over the artist's…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Dead Wake

  the Last Crossing of the Lusitania

  Larson, Erik, 1954-

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  It may have been my love of the film Titanic as a teenager that led me to pick up this book on the sinking of the Lusitania, but Larson's meticulous research and propulsive narrative cemented it as a favorite history read of mine. It's perfect for…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• The Dinosaur Artist

  Obsession, Betrayal, and the Quest for Earth's Ultimate Trophy

  Williams, Paige,

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  This book looks at the international community of fossil hunters - both professional scientists and professional sellers - and how the seedy underbelly of this trade can suck people in.

• Hidden Valley Road

  Inside the Mind of An American Family

  Kolker, Robert,

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  I'd call this a psychological biography of a family. The Galvins had ten boys, six of whom were diagnosed as schizophrenic. This book looks at their family narrative and examines the connections between nature and nurture specifically as they relate…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Empire of Pain

  the Secret History of the Sackler Dynasty

  Keefe, Patrick Radden, 1976-

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  The Sackler family basically invented modern pharmaceutical advertising, and was responsible for the marketing and proliferation of Oxycontin, leading to the contemporary opioid epidemic we see today. Patrick Radden Keefe combines extraordinary…Read moreRead more of this annotation