NCW Libraries

"Family secrets emerge as a best-selling author dives into the history of the mob in small-town America. Johnstown, Pennsylvania, a city "in its brawny postwar prime," is where "Little Joe" Regino and Russ Shorto build a local gambling empire on the earnings of factory workers for whom placing a bet--on a horse or pool game, pinball or "tip seal"--is their best shot at the American dream. Decades later, Russell Shorto grew up knowing that his grandfather...

The purchase of the Louisiana Territory opened up a vast American frontier. The Louisiana Purchase explores the people, expeditions, and struggles of America's march westward.

The headlines are clear: religion is on the decline in America as many people leave behind traditional religious practices. Diana Butler Bass, leading commentator on religion, politics, and culture, follows up her acclaimed book Christianity After Religion by arguing that what appears to be a decline actually signals a major transformation in how people understand and experience God. The distant God of conventional religion has given way to a more...

"Gender inequality is something that happens in lots of ways, everyday. But it doesn't have to! This book helps kids to notice when things are unfair, ask why, and do something about it. Equality is worth standing up for, because each one of us matters, and when we are all included and represented equally, we all thrive."--

"The untold story of climate migration-the personal stories of those experiencing displacement, the portraits of communities being torn apart by disaster, and the implications for all of us as we confront a changing future"-- We think about the dangers of climate change in the future tense: that as global warming gets worse over the coming decades, millions of people will scatter around the world fleeing famine and rising seas. What we often don’t...

"Gun sales have not just surged in the past two years-they have skyrocketed, breaking all-time records from March to July 2020. In this book, Jennifer Carlson examines the three dire crises in the United States in 2020-the pandemic, police murders and subsequent uprisings for racial justice, and the 2020 elections-to examine how Americans have turned to a well-worn tool of security in American life: the gun. While the notion that Americans would turn...

En la crisis del Covid, el pastor amado de más de mil millones de católicos ha visto la crueldad y la desigualdad de nuestra sociedad expuestas más vívidamente que nunca. También ha visto en la resiliencia, la generosidad y la creatividad de tantas personas los medios para rescatar nuestra sociedad, nuestra economía y nuestro planeta. Con una prosa directa y poderosa, el Papa Francisco nos urge a no permitir que el dolor sea en vano. The leader...

"In the summer of 2010, photographer Brandon Stanton began an ambitious project--to single-handedly create a photographic census of New York City. The photos he took and the accompanying interviews became the blog Humans of New York. Ever since Brandon began interviewing people on the streets of New York, the dialogue he's had with them has increasingly become as in-depth, intriguing and moving as the photos themselves. Humans of New York: Stories...

Bryson examines closely the events and personalities of the summer of 1927 when America's story was one of brawling adventure, reckless optimism and delirious energy.

"In Uncomfortable Conversations With a Black Man, Acho takes on all the questions, large and small, insensitive and taboo, many white Americans are afraid to ask--yet which all Americans need the answers to, now more than ever. With the same open-hearted generosity that has made his video series a phenomenon, Acho explains the vital core of such fraught concepts as white privilege, cultural appropriation, and 'reverse racism.' In his own words, he...