October New Books

It is October in Virginia and somewhere it is snowing.  Not here and not now, but if you're scrolling through social media and you see a photo of snow in our vicinity you might want to investigate further using Photo Forensics or Fake Photos. Does someone you know post unflattering photos of you?  Read How to Have Impossible Conversations if you feel up to the challenge or let it go and remain amused by The Ambivalent Internet: mischief, oddity, and antagonism online There are different philosophies about life -- perhaps you would like to read a general introduction such as Philosophers: Their Lives and Works or you might like to brush up on Nihilism.

If the term Nihilism sounds more like an infection than a philosophy, you can consider yourself lucky that you weren't alive a few centuries ago. Lotions, Potions, Pills, and Magic: health care in early America gives a look at medical care before the invention of health insurance. Medicine has come a long way according to Ten Drugs: how plants, powders, and pills have shaped the history of medicine.  

Traveling during a pandemic is more of an armchair experience than a physical one. Explore England's Forgotten Past, Iran: a modern history, A Concise History of Mexico, or North Korea: what everyone needs to know.  One thing that everyone needs to know is if North Korea has as many mosquitos as Virginia, because that might alter some travel plans. Lucky travelers might find the answer in The Mosquito: a human history of our deadliest predator.  Deadliest?! Some other predators might challenge that definition and you can read about them in Reptiles: a very short introduction.

Our next guest needs no introduction: it's your brain and it would like to have a few words with you about Your Brain on Food: how chemicals control your thoughts and feelings. Your brain has a very extensive history. One book explains The Deep History of Ourselves: the four-billion-year story of how we got conscious brains.  If you don't have time to stick around for a story that long and just want to know when we crawled out of the ocean toward the nearest fast food joint, try The Penguin Book of Mermaids. Does that even make any sense? This blog is entering the digital territory known as CTRL + Z: the right to be forgotten although we all know that the internet never forgets.

Instead of ending on an ominous note, Jessup Library would like to remind you that we have new books in the Popular, Nook, and Graphic sections of the library.  Some recent titles include: The Umbrella Academy (we have volumes 1-3), Like a Love Story, Watch Us Rise, Camino Winds, The Age of Witches, and  Lovecraft Country.