National Network for Equitable Library Service

"Soul-stretching, breathtaking...A game-changing gift to readers." --Booklist (starred review) From Chloé Cooper Jones--Pulitzer Prize finalist, philosophy professor, Whiting Creative Nonfiction Grant recipient--a groundbreaking memoir about disability, motherhood, and a journey to far-flung places in search of a new way of seeing and being seen."I am in a bar in Brooklyn, listening to two men, my friends, discuss whether my life is worth living." So begins Chloé Cooper Jones's bold, revealing account of moving through the world in a body that looks different than

Blue is a rare color - natural blue, that is. From morpho butterflies in the rain forest to the blue jay flitting past your window, vanishingly few living things are blue - and most that appear so are doing sleight of hand with physics or complex chemistry. Flowers modify the red pigment anthocyanin to achieve their blue hue. Even the blue sky above us is a trick of the light. Yet this hard-to-spot accent color in our surroundings looms large in our affections. Science journalist Kai Kupferschmidt has been fascinated by blue since childhood.

"Picturesque," "immense," "fantastic," and "sublime" are a few of the ways early British travellers described the landscape of the Rocky Mountains and the surrounding terrain. As part of a long tradition of British travellers' tales, these tourists-explorers, sportsmen, writers, scientists, artists, missionaries, and merchants-sought ways to describe the vastness and strangeness of the North American landscape to a British audience.

Journalist Michael Booth has lived among the Scandinavians for more than ten years, and he has grown increasingly frustrated with the rose-tinted view of this part of the world offered up by the Western media. In this timely book he leaves his adopted home of Denmark and embarks on a journey through all five of the Nordic countries to discover who these curious tribes are, the secrets of their success, and, most intriguing of all, what they think of one another. Why are the Danes so happy, despite having the highest taxes? Do the Finns really have the best education system?

Bestselling author Doug Preston climbed aboard a rickety, single-engine plane carrying expensive laser technology that could map the terrain under the dense rainforest canopy. That flight revealed for the first time an unmistakeable image of a sprawling metropolis, tantalizing proof of not just the mythical city but an entire lost civilization.

Casting off another winter, Rachel Cusk and her family set out to Italy for three months in search of meaning, beauty, a cure for everything. With her husband and two children, Cusk uncovers the mystery of a foreign language, the perils and pleasures of unbelonging, and the startling thrill of discovery.

Travel is one thing, but really going somewhere is something else. Here are first-hand tales of exciting places to see in the US, Canada, Mexico, Europe, and the United Kingdom.

Setting off on foot from Winchester, Ken Haigh hikes across southern England, retracing one of the traditional routes that medieval pilgrims followed to the shrine of Saint Thomas Becket at Canterbury Cathedral. Walking in honour of his father, a staunch Anglican who passed away before they could begin their trip together, Haigh wonders: Is there a place in the modern secular world for pilgrimage?

Katie Quinn spent months as an apprentice with some of Europe's most acclaimed experts to study the art and science of fermentation. Part artisanal survey, part travelogue, and part cookbook, this book provides a fascinating look at how each product is made, from harvest through fermentation.

Anthony Bourdain saw more of the world than nearly anyone. This book presents his life of experience collected into an entertaining, practical, fun, and frank travel guide to some of his favorite places, in his own words. Supplementing Bourdain's words are a handful of essays by friends, colleagues, and family that tell even deeper stories about the place.