BL310 .R6 2023
This indispensable treasury brings together in a single volume the most famous and fascinating myths and legends of the world – from ancient tales to modern American folklore. Myths and Legends of All Nations includes great stories of the Greeks, Romans, Orientals, Celts, Norse, Teutons, other Europeans, Polynesians, Africans, American Indians, and modern American folklore such as the fables about John Henry, Casey Jones, and Paul Bunyan. Includes an index, keys to pronunciation, and a topical index. This title is available from our Hardin Valley campus library.
BT83.59 .N67 2025
Nicholas Norman-Krause argues, in this authoritative and sophisticated new treatment of conflict, that contestation is a basic - potentially regenerative - aspect of any flourishing democratic politics. In developing a distinctive 'agonistic theology,' and relating the political theory of agonism to social and democratic life, the author demonstrates that the conflicts of democracy may have a beneficial significance and depend at least in part on faith traditions and communities for their successful negotiation. In making his case, he deftly examines a rich range of religious and secular literatures, whether from the thought of Augustine, Aquinas, and Stanley Cavell or from less familiar voices such as early modern jurist and political thinker Johannes Althusius and twentieth-century Catholic social philosopher Yves Simon. Liberationists including Gustavo Gutiérrez and Martin Luther King, Jr. are similarly recruited for a theological account of conflict read not just as concomitant to, but also as constitutive of, democratic living. This title is available from our Hardin Valley campus library.
Masters of the Air: America's Bomber Boys Who Fought the Air War Against Nazi Germany
by
E99.C5 G74 2022
This book tells the remarkable story of a Cherokee community in the mountains of North Carolina who survived the aftermath of the Trail of Tears. The story is explored through the lives of wealthy plantation owners Betty and John Welch and the members of their extended family. John was Cherokee, and Betty was White. Their farm, which included nine enslaved Africans, was on the northeastern edge of the Cherokee Nation at the time of the Cherokee removal of 1838. During removal, the Welches assisted roughly 150 more traditional Cherokees hiding in the steep mountains. After the removal, the Welches provided land for these families to rebuild a community, Welch's Town. From 1839 to 1855 the Welch plantation and Welch's Town functioned as distinct but tightly connected communities. This title is available from our Appalachian Heritage Collection at our Strawberry Plains campus library and in eBook format.
E99.C5 R28 2023
In 1754 South Carolina governor James Glen observed that the Tennessee River "has its rise in the Cherokee Nation and runs a great way through it." While noting the "prodigious" extent of the corridor connecting the Tennessee, Ohio, and Wabash River valleys--and the Cherokees' "undoubted" ownership of this watershed--Glen and other European observers were much less clear about the ambitions and claims of European empires and other Indigenous polities regarding the North American interior. In Cherokee Power, Kristofer Ray brings long-overdue clarity to this question by highlighting the role of the Overhill Cherokees in shaping imperial and Indigenous geopolitics in seventeenth- and eighteenth-century America. As Great Britain and France eyed the Illinois country and the Tennessee, Ohio, and Wabash River valleys for their respective empires, the Overhill Cherokees were coalescing and maintaining a conspicuous presence throughout the territory. Contrary to the traditional narrative of westward expansion, the Europeans were not the drivers behind the ensuing contest over the Tennessee corridor. The Overhills traded, negotiated, and fought with other Indigenous peoples along this corridor, in the process setting parameters for European expansion. Through the eighteenth century, the British and French struggled to overcome a dissonance between their visions of empire and the reality of Overhill mobility and sovereignty--a struggle that came to play a crucial role in the Anglo-American revolutionary debate that dominated the 1760s and 1770s. By emphasizing Indigenous agency in this rapidly changing world, Cherokee Power challenges long-standing ideas about the power and reach of European empires in eighteenth-century North America. This title is available from our Appalachian Heritage Collection at our Strawberry Plains campus library.
E185.912 .H39 2015
Appalachian Black People provides a critical race framework for examining racism and black oppression in Appalachia. The book can be a starting or ending point for viewing experiences of black people within the Appalachian Region. For those wanting to reflect on the distinctiveness of being black within the Region, it is intended to be a stepping stone for further exploration and action. For others who seek to understand obstacles encountered by blacks in a largely white environment, it is an open window into that struggle. Hopefully others will experience the author's perspectives as a challenge to question, reject and/or accept traditional concepts of black Appalachia. This title is available from our Appalachian Heritage Collection at our Strawberry Plains campus library.
F457.W8 R44 2023
A critic once wrote that Rebecca West’s Black Lamb and Grey Falcon was about two things: Yugoslavia and everything else. Something similar might be said about Clear Creek. In this boundary-defying work, Erik Reece spends a year beside the stream in his rural Kentucky homeplace, tracking the movements of the seasons, the animals, and the thoughts passing through his mind. Clear Creek is a series of vignettes that calls us out of our frenzied, digitized world to a slower, more contemplative way of being. Reece’s subjects range from solitude and solidarity to the intricacies of forest communities, and from the genius of songwriter Tom T. Hall to reforestation projects on abandoned strip mines. A work of close observation and carefully grounded insights, Clear Creek articulates a nature-based philosophy for pondering humanity’s current plight. This title is available from our Appalachian Heritage Collection at our Strawberry Plains campus library and in eBook format.
Hungry Roots: How Food Communicates Appalachia's Search for Resilience
by
HD5858.U6 R38 2023
This is the story of what the most vulnerable wage earners--gig workers, restaurant staff, early-career creatives, and minimum-wage laborers--do when the economy suddenly collapses. In Side Hustle Safety Net, Alexandrea J. Ravenelle builds on interviews with nearly two hundred gig-based and precarious workers, conducted during the height of the pandemic, to uncover the unique challenges they faced in unprecedented times. This book tells the stories of the 'officially Unemployed' and the 'forgotten jobless'--a digital-era demographic that turned to side hustles--and reveals how they fared. CARES Act assistance allowed some to change careers, start businesses, and perhaps transform their lives. However, gig workers and those involved in 'polyemployment' found themselves at the mercy of outdated unemployment systems, vulnerable to scams, and attempting dubious survival strategies. Ultimately, Side Hustle Safety Net argues that the rise of the gig economy, partnered with underemployment and economic instability, has increased worker precarity with disastrous consequences. This title is available from our Hardin Valley campus library.
HD9005 .F6582 2023
An eye-opening guide to how America feeds itself and an essential companion book to the new documentary. America's food system is broken, harming family farmers, workers, the environment, and our health. But it doesn't have to be this way. Here, brilliant innovators, scientists, journalists and activists explain how we can create a hopeful new future for food, if we have the courage to seize the moment. In 2008, the award-winning documentary Food, Inc. shook up our perceptions of what we ate. Now, the movie's timely sequel and this new companion book will address the remarkable developments in the world of food--from lab-grown meat to the burgeoning food sovereignty movement--that have unfolded since then. This title is available from our Hardin Valley campus library.
HM671 .S68 2002
This is not a comforting book -- it is a book about disturbing issues that are urgently important today and enduringly critical for the future. It rejects both "merit" and historical redress as principles for guiding public policy. It shows how "peace" movements have led to war and to needless casualties in those wars. It argues that "equality" is neither right nor wrong, but meaningless. The Quest for Cosmic Justice shows how confused conceptions of justice end up promoting injustice, how confused conceptions of equality end up promoting inequality, and how the tyranny of social visions prevents many people from confronting the actual consequences of their own beliefs and policies. Those consequences include the steady and dangerous erosion of the fundamental principles of freedom -- and the quiet repeal of the American revolution. This title is available from our Strawberry Plains campus library.
Liar in a Crowded Theater: Freedom of Speech in a World of Disinformation
by
LB1028.38 .L37 2020
Streamlined ID presents a focused and generalizable approach to instructional design and development--one that addresses the needs of ID novices as well as practitioners in a variety of career environments. Highlighting essentials and "big ideas," this guide advocates a streamlined approach to instructional design: producing instruction that is sustainable, optimized, appropriately redundant, and targeted at continuous improvement. The book's enhanced version of the classic ADDIE model (Analysis, Design, Development, Implementation, and Evaluation) emphasizes the iterative nature of design and the role of evaluation throughout the design/development process. It clearly lays out a systematic approach that emphasizes the use of research-based theories, while acknowledging the need to customize the process to accommodate a variety of pedagogical approaches. This thoroughly revised second edition reflects recent advances and changes in the field, adds three new chapters, updates reference charts, job aids, and tips to support practitioners working in a variety of career environments, and speaks more clearly than ever to ID novices and graduate students. This title is available from our Hardin Valley campus library.
LC4091 .P39 2024
Instability and disengagement are detrimental to the learning process, and homelessness is a barrier to stability and engagement, two qualities necessary for learning to take place. Educating Students Experiencing Homelessness, Instability, and Disengagement offers solutions for engaging and stabilizing all students, especially those negatively impacted by poverty. The book examines a social cognitive framework that includes the importance of the autonomic nervous system (ANS). It also discusses the positive influence of safety and belonging on the prefrontal cortex. Educating Students provides tools for negotiating the abstract realities of school and raising achievement, it reveals strategies for calming students, and it explores how to build a wider community of support. Payne also tells how the instability of resource, time demands, and the demands of the environment negatively impact the ANS and how to address this problem. This title is available from our Hardin Valley campus library.
LC4818.38 .B45 2023
Disability Services in Higher Education is the first comprehensive guide for people working in the field of ADA compliance in higher education. The authors examine how disabilities are supported to ensure students receive appropriate accommodations throughout their collegiate experience as well as provide guidance on overall campus accessibility. This volume provides an overview of the responsibilities of a Disabilities Service professional through an examination of relevant literature, laws and regulatory language, case law, and narrative on established practices. It also offers resources that current professionals can modify for use in their day-to-day practice immediately. The authors explore the complexities of accessibility, paying careful attention to the nuances of disability evaluation, accommodation decisions, management of a disability service office, advocating for resources and collaboration within and outside of higher education institutions. This practitioner-friendly book will help newcomers and seasoned professionals explore and evaluate best practices in the field through questions, examples, and functional job aids available for immediate use. This title is available from our Hardin Valley campus library.
ML420.P28 H36 2020
Dolly Parton's success as a performer and pop culture phenomenon has overshadowed her achievements as a songwriter. But she sees herself as a songwriter first, and with good reason. Parton's compositions like "I Will Always Love You" and "Jolene" have become American standards with an impact far beyond country music. Lydia R. Hamessley's expert analysis and Parton's characteristically straightforward input inform this comprehensive look at the process, influences, and themes that have shaped the superstar's songwriting artistry. Hamessley reveals how Parton's loving, hardscrabble childhood in the Smoky Mountains provided the musical language, rhythms, and memories of old-time music that resonate in so many of her songs. Hamessley further provides an understanding of how Parton combines her cultural and musical heritage with an artisan's sense of craft and design to compose eloquent, painfully honest, and gripping songs about women's lives, poverty, heartbreak, inspiration, and love. Filled with insights on hit songs and less familiar gems, Unlikely Angel covers the full arc of Dolly Parton's career and offers an unprecedented look at the creative force behind the image. This title is available from our Appalachian Heritage Collection at our Strawberry Plains campus library and in eBook format.
The banjo has been emblematic of the southern Appalachian Mountains since the late twentieth century. Making Music: The Banjo in a Southern Appalachian County takes a close look at the instrument and banjo players in Haywood County, North Carolina. Author William C. Allsbrook Jr. presents the oral histories of thirty-two banjo players, all but two of whom were born in Haywood County. These talented musicians recount, in their own words, their earliest memories of music, and of the banjo, as well as the appeal of the banjo. They also discuss learning to play the instrument, including what it "feels like" playing the banjo, many describing occasional "flow states." In the book, Allsbrook explores an in-home musical folkway that developed along the colonial frontier. By the mid-1800s, frontier expansion had ceased in Haywood County due to geographic barriers, but the in-home musical tradition, including the banjo, survived in largely isolated areas. The future will be shaped by how this remarkable mountain culture continues to adapt to these challenges. Still, this thriving community of banjo players represents the vibrant legacy of the banjo in Haywood County and the persistence of tradition in the twenty-first century.
ML3270 .W35 2023
A fascinating journey through the history of "Amazing Grace," one of the transatlantic world's most popular hymns and a powerful anthem for humanity. Sung in moments of personal isolation or on state occasions watched by millions, "Amazing Grace" has become an unparalleled anthem for humankind. How did a simple Christian hymn, written in a remote English vicarage in 1772, come to hold such sway over millions in all corners of the modern world? With this short, engaging cultural history, James Walvin offers an explanation. The greatest paradox is that the author of "Amazing Grace," John Newton, was a former Liverpool slave captain. Walvin follows the song across the Atlantic to track how it became part of the cause for abolition and galvanized decades of movements, tragedies, and trends in American history and popular culture. By the end of the twentieth century, "Amazing Grace" was performed in Soweto and Vanuatu, by political dissidents in China, and by Kikuyu women in Kenya. No other song has acquired such global resonance as "Amazing Grace," and its fascinating history is well worth knowing. This title is available from our Hardin Valley campus library.
ML3917.U6 W38 2023
How can the craft of musical instrument making help reconnect people to place and re-enchant work in Appalachia? How does the sonic search for musical tone change relationships with trees and forests? Following three craftspeople in the mountain forests of Appalachia through their processes of making instruments, Finding the Singing Spruce considers the meanings of work, place, and creative expression in drawing music from wood.Jasper Waugh-Quasebarth explores the complexities and contradictions of instrument-making labor, which is deeply rooted in mountain forests and expressive traditions but also engaged with global processes of production and consumption. Using historical narratives and sensory ethnography, among other approaches, he finds that the craft of lutherie speaks to the past, present, and future of the region’s work and nature. This title is available from our Appalachian Heritage Collection at our Strawberry Plains campus library and in eBook format.
N6537.F464 A2 1989
Born in Alabama in 1915, Baptist preacher turned underground artist Howard Finster claims to have had his first vision at the age of three. Inspired by the word of God, visitations from the dead, and religious visions, Finster has described himself as a stranger from another world and a divine messenger. His mission: to save the world with his art. With such titles as "American Devils Are Very Friendly" and "Judge No Man by Yourself," Finster's obsessive paintings, constructions, and sculptures have been exhibited all over the world, from Los Angeles to SoHo to the Venice Biennale. The text, transcribed from hundreds of hours of taped interviews, is at once disturbing and fascinating. This title is available from our Appalachian Heritage Collection at our Strawberry Plains campus library.
N8217.F5 B35 2022
This catalog documents a 2022 exhibition of original editorial illustrations commissioned by the University of Tennessee Libraries to complement the Chimney Tops 2 Wildfires Oral History Project. The four illustrators showcased here have strong ties to East Tennessee. Paige Braddock, author of the Eisner-nominated comic strip Jane's World and Chief Creative Officer at Charles M. Schulz Creative Associates, is an '85 UT alumna; Charlie Daniel, beloved Knoxville News Sentinel editorial illustrator, has been a Knoxville resident since 1958; Marshall Ramsey, syndicated editorial illustrator and Pulitzer nominee, is a '91 UT alumnus; and professional illustrator Danny Wilson has been a visible part of Knoxville's graphic landscape since graduating from UT in 1984. The artists were given access to the project's digital archive of oral interviews--to date, 139 have been recorded--and were asked to respond creatively to what they heard and read. The result is Rising from the Ashes, a candid and deeply felt collection of illustrations encapsulating accounts of the merciless firestorm that enveloped Sevier County in November 2016. The flexible medium of the editorial illustration shows itself capable of extended narrative, disquieting detail, and poignant synthesis, as well as moments of beauty, hope, horror, and even humor as it ushers viewers into the recollections of wrestling and sorrow that animate the project's still expanding archive. Bales writes, "Ultimately, the multiple fires destroyed or damaged 2,500 homes and buildings, killed 14 trapped people, injured another 200 or more, and burned over 17,000 acres of mostly woodlands that were a powder keg of dried leaves, all in a matter of three hours." Years later, the ramifications of this event are still being felt in the community and region. Rising from the Ashes is a tribute to a people who suffered, lost, banded together, and rebuilt; and no less important, it is an expression of solidarity, recognizing how much remains to be done. This title is available from our Appalachian Heritage Collection at our Strawberry Plains campus library.
NC997 .I54 2023
As visually compelling as it is packed with information, this handbook to the fundamentals of graphic design covers the history and theory of graphic design from the past 150 years. Organized around broader subjects of history, theory, practice, typography and media, it dives into numerous specific topics-- from Bauhaus to digital design; Gestalt theory to kitsch; social protest movements to social media. It explores the building blocks of design as well as leading-edge tools and techniques. Each topic is presented in eye-catching spreads that feature numerous illustrative examples, insightful quotations, and suggestions for further reading. Whether they're just starting out or looking to invigorate an established practice, graphic professionals and students of all stripes will find a bounty of information and inspiration in this essential guide. This title is available from our Hardin Valley campus library.
NC1766.J3 C54 2023
Japanese animation is at the nexus of an international multimedia industry worth over $23.6 billion a year, linked to everything from manga to computer games, Pokémon and plushies. In this comprehensive guide, Jonathan Clements chronicles the production and reception history of the entire medium, from a handful of hobbyists in the 1910s to the Oscar-winning Spirited Away and beyond. Exploring the cultural and technological developments of the past century, Clements addresses how anime's history has been written by Japanese scholars, and covers previously neglected topics such as wartime instructional animation and work-for-hire for American clients. Founded on the testimonies of industry professionals, and drawing on a myriad of Japanese-language documents, memoirs and books, Anime: A History illuminates the anime business from the inside - investigating its innovators, its unsung heroes and its controversies. This new edition has been updated and revised throughout, with full colour illustrations and three new chapters on anime's fortunes among Chinese audiences and subcontractors, 21st century trends in 'otaku economics', and the huge transformations brought about by the rise of global streaming technology. This title is available from our Hardin Valley campus library.
ND195 .M67 2023
A new concise history of modern painting, offering an indispensable reference to the complexities and characteristics of this medium. While acknowledging the legacy of Herbert Read's classic 1959 study A Concise History of Modern Painting in the World of Art series, academic and artist Simon Morley places the foundation of modern art much earlier than Read, at the emergence of Romanticism and the dawn of the industrial age. Structured loosely chronologically by period, the focus is as much on individual artists as well as movements, with works discussed within a broader context - stylistic, historical, geographical, and gender and ethnic frames - themes that recur throughout the chapters. Generously illustrated, the global and diverse range of artists featured include William Blake, Édouard Manet, Hilma af Klint, Kazimir Malevich, Willem de Kooning, Amrita Sher-Gil, Faith Ringgold and Kehinde Wiley. This title is available from our Hardin Valley campus library.
P211 .S684 2023
A sweeping history of how writing has preserved cultural practices, traditions, and knowledge throughout human history. In How Writing Made Us Human, 3000 BCE to Now, Walter Stephens condenses the massive history of the written word into an accessible, engaging narrative. The history of writing is not merely a record of technical innovations--from hieroglyphics to computers--but something far richer: a chronicle of emotional engagement with written culture whose long arc intimates why the humanities are crucial to society. For five millennia, myths and legends provided fascinating explanations for the origins and uses of writing. These stories overflowed with enthusiasm about fabled personalities (both human and divine) and their adventures with capturing speech and preserving memory. Stories recounted how and why an ancient Sumerian king, a contemporary of Gilgamesh, invented the cuneiform writing system--or alternatively, how the earliest Mesopotamians learned everything from a hybrid man-fish. For centuries, Jews and Christians debated whether Moses or God first wrote the Ten Commandments. Throughout history, some myths of writing were literary fictions. Plato's tale of Atlantis supposedly emerged from a vast Egyptian archive of world history. Dante's vision of God as one infinite book inspired Borges's fantasy of the cosmos as a limitless library, while the nineteenth century bequeathed Mary Shelley's apocalyptic tale of a world left with innumerable books but only one surviving reader. Stephens presents a comprehensive history of the written word and demonstrates how writing has preserved and shaped human life since the Bronze Age. These stories, their creators, and their preservation have inspired wonder and an endless appetite for historical revelation. This title is available from our Hardin Valley campus library.
PA4037 .J59 2004
Acclaimed as one of the pioneering texts to introduce narratology (the theory that deals with the general principles underlying narrative texts) to classical scholarship, Irene de Jong's work explains the key concepts such as "narrator", "focalization" and "prolepsis", highlighting their relevance by using them for the analysis and interpretation of Homer's "Iliad." What is the role of the narrator and how do the parts of the story told by the narrator relate to the many speeches for which Homer is famous? This work was first published in 1987 and it is reissued here with a new introduction by the author, offering an overview of the trends in Homeric narratological scholarship over the last decade. This title is available from our Blount County campus library.
PE1404 .B7785 2023
Writing on the Social Network builds upon traditions in longitudinal writing research to present a view of the impact of social media technologies on literacy practices. Buck considers user experiences and digital literacy practices on these platforms and calls for a larger acknowledgement of social networks as locations of sophisticated and literate activity. This title is available from our Hardin Valley campus library.
PN1992.77.S73 S78 1991
The Star Trek: The Next Generation ® Technical Manual, written by Rick Sternbach and Michael Okuda, the technical advisors to Star Trek: The Next Generation, provides a comprehensive schematization of a Galaxy-class starship. From the bridge to the shuttlebays, from the transporter room to crews' quarters, this book provides a never-before-seen glimpse at the inner, intricate workings of the most incredible starship ever conceived. Full of diagrams, technical schematics, and ship's plans, the Star Trek: The Next Generation Technical Manual also takes a detailed look at the principles behind Star Trek ® 's awesome technology -- from phasers to warp drive to the incredible holodeck. This title is available from our Hardin Valley campus library.
PN1995.9.H6 S537 2024
Horror movies can reveal much more than we realize about psychological disorders--and clinical psychology has a lot to teach us about horror. Our fears--mortality, failure, loneliness--can be just as motivating as our wishes or desires. Horror movie characters uniquely reveal all of these to a wide audience. If explored in an honest and serious manner, our fears have the potential to teach us a great deal about ourselves, our culture, and certainly other people. From psychologist, researcher, and horror film enthusiast Brian A. Sharpless comes Monsters on the Couch, an exploration into the real-life psychological disorders behind famous horror movies. Accounts of clinical syndromes every bit as dramatic as those on the silver screen are juxtaposed with fascinating forays into the science and folklore behind our favorite movie monsters. Horror fans may be obsessed with vampires, werewolves, zombies, and the human replacements from Invasion of the Body Snatchers, but even many medical professions may not know about the corresponding conditions of Renfield's syndrome, clinical lycanthropy, Cotard's syndrome, and the misidentification delusions. Some of these disorders are surprisingly common in the general population. For instance, a number of people experience isolated sleep paralysis, a disorder implicated in ghost and alien abduction beliefs. As these tales unfold, readers not only learn state-of-the-art psychological science but also gain a better understanding of history, folklore, and how Hollywood often--but not always--gets it wrong when tackling these complex topics. This title is available from our Haridn Valley campus library.
PS3554.E5345 S83 2003
Han Solo and Leia Organa take center stage, and stunning revelations from the past play a critical role in shaping the future, as the New York Times bestselling author of Star Wars: The New Jedi Order: Star by Star now turns to a crucial chapter in the classic Star Wars saga. The deaths of Darth Vader and Emperor Palpatine, and victory at the Battle of Endor by no means spelled the end of the Empire. In the aftermath, the New Republic has faced a constant struggle to survive and grow. And now a new threat looms: a masterpiece of Alderaanian art—lost in transit after the planet’s destruction—has resurfaced on the black market. Offered at auction, it will command a handsome price . . . but its greatest value lies in the vital secret it conceals—the key to a code used to communicate with New Republic agents deep undercover within the Empire. Discovery of the key by Imperial forces would spell certain disaster. The only option is recovery—and Han, Leia, Chewbacca, and C-3PO have been dispatched to Tatooine to infiltrate the auction. But trouble is waiting when they arrive: an Imperial Star Destroyer is orbiting Tatooine on the lookout for Rebels; a mysterious stranger at the auction seems to recognize Leia; and an Imperial officer’s aggressive bidding for the Alderaanian painting could foil the Solos’ mission. When a dispute erupts into violence, and the painting vanishes in the chaos, Han and Leia are thrust into a desperate race to reclaim it—before Imperial troops or a band of unsavory treasure-peddlers get there first. Dangerous as the chase is, for Leia it leads into especially dark territory. Already haunted by the specter of her infamous father, and fearful that his evil may infect future generations, she has suffered a disturbing Force-vision of Luke turning to the dark side. As she battles beside Han against marauding TIE fighters, encroaching stormtroopers, and Tatooine’s savage Tusken Raiders, Leia’s struggle with the warring emotions inside her culminates in the discovery of an extraordinary link to the past. And as long-buried secrets and truths at last emerge, she faces a moment of reckoning that will forever alter her destiny . . . and that of the New Republic. This title is available at our Hardin Valley campus library.
PS3602.A63518 B664 2021
As Marat's siege engine bores through the Tower, erupting inside ringdoms and leaving chaos in its wake, Senlin can do nothing but observe the mayhem from inside the belly of the beast. Caught in a charade, Senlin desperately tries to sabotage the rampaging Hod King. Marat's objective is increasingly clear: the leader of the zealots is bound for the Sphinx's lair and the unimaginable power it contains. In the city under glass at the Tower's summit, Adam is welcomed into the home of the sparking men. There he meets Ida Allod. A woman who mysteriously seems to know his entire life's story. Adam soon discovers that the whole city knows his name, and as he unravels the reasons why, he'll find that Ida has a grim purpose for him in mind. Aboard the State of Art, Edith and her crew are adjusting to the reality that Voleta has awoken from death changed. She seems to share more in common with the Red Hand now than her former self. While Edith wars for the soul of the young woman, a crisis looms. They will have to face Marat on unequal footing, even as they struggle to reunite with Senlin. And when the Bridge of Babel is finally opened, and the Brick Layer's true ambition revealed, neither they nor the Tower will ever be the same again. This title is available from our Strawberry Plains campus library.
PS3602.I5495 S36 2023
It's just a pageant. What do you have to lose?
It's 1986. Ghana's prestigious Aburi Girls Boarding School. Queen Bee Paulina and her crew excitedly await the arrival of the Miss Ghana pageant recruiter. It's clear that Paulina is in top position to take the title until her place is threatened by Ericka - a beautiful and talented new transfer student. As the friendship group's status quo is upended, who will be chosen for Miss Ghana and at what cost? Bursting with hilarity and joy, this award-winning comedy explores the universal similarities (and glaring differences) facing teenage girls around the world. This edition is published to coincide with the UK premiere at the Lyric Hammersmith Theatre in June 2023. This title is available from our Hardin Valley campus library.
PS3602.R665 S533 2021
Sixteen-year-old Chase Addams just had the worst birthday of his entire life. He was terrorized at school by a death god, spent the evening in a haunted house, and even faced off with an urban legend in the flesh. If this wasn't enough to ruin the average person's day, it ended with his best friend and girlfriend, Asra Saitou, being dragged off into the abyss by a mysterious arm wreathed in flames. Chase soon discovers this kidnapping is part of a hidden war between the lands of the living and the lands of the dead. What's even worse for the self-described uncoordinated, sarcastic, smartass is everyone thinks he's something called a guardian --one of the heroic spirits who are summoned to not only fight in the war, but keep the conflict from spilling out into the different realms of existence. Now, Chase must come to terms with what it means to be a hero, avoid the terrors prowling in the lands of the dead, maneuver the politics of an interplanar war, and of course try to find Asra. All of this before a lurking darkness consumes both worlds. However, in this cosmic conflict nothing is quite what it seems. This title is available from our Hardin Valley campus library.
PS3603.A774 F385 2023
Ever since her aunt died four months ago, seventeen-year-old Vivian (Viv) Spry is aching to figure out where she belongs. Her father has become emotionally distant and even her best friend has found a new sense of identity in her theater group. Unfortunately, nobody in her rural West Virginia town has time for an assertive, angry girl, especially a girl dubbed "Ice Queen" for refusing to sleep with her popular boyfriend. On top of everything, she discovers a strange ability to sense energy that really freaks her out. The only place Viv feels like it's safe to be her true self is the tree stand where her aunt taught her to hunt. It's the one place she still feels connected to the person who knew her best. So when fracking destroys the stand and almost kills her, Viv vows to find a way to take the gas company down. When Dex Mathews comes to town—a new kid whose mom lands a job laying pipeline—his and Viv's worlds collide and a friendship (and maybe more?) slowly blossoms. But Viv's plan to sabotage the pipeline company could result in Dex's mom losing her job, putting them on the streets. Now Viv and Dex have to decide what's worth fighting for—their families, their principles, or each other. This title is available from our Appalachian Collection at our Strawberry Plains campus library.
PS3606.R422575 S29 2023
From the award-winning author of Over the Plain Houses, comes a major novel about two young women contending with unplanned pregnancies in different eras. Edie Carrigan didn't plan to "get herself" pregnant, much less end up in a home for unwed mothers. In 1950s North Carolina, illegitimate pregnancy is kept secret, wayward women require psychiatric cures, and adoption is always the best solution. Not even Edie's closest friend, Luce Waddell, understands what Edie truly wants: to keep and raise the baby. Twenty-five years later, Luce is a successful lawyer, and her daughter Meera now faces the same decision Edie once did. Like Luce, Meera is fiercely independent and plans to handle her unexpected pregnancy herself. Along the way, Meera finds startling secrets about her mother's past, including the long-ago friendship with Edie. As the three women's lives intertwine and collide, the story circles age-old questions about female awakening, reproductive choice, motherhood, adoption, sex, and missed connections. For fans of Brit Bennett's The Mothers and Jennifer Weiner's Mrs. Everything, The Say So is a timely novel that asks: how do we contend with the rippling effects of the choices we've made? With equal parts precision and tenderness, Franks has crafted a sweeping epic about the coming of age of the women's movement that reverberates through the present day. This title is available from our Appalachian Collection at our Strawberry Plains campus library.
PS3607.R48836 R48 2021
From the acclaimed author of Spoonbenders comes the gripping tale about a family's mysterious religion and the daughter who turned her back on their god. In 1933, nine-year-old Stella is left by her father in the care of her grandmother, Motty, in the backwoods of Tennessee. The remote hills of the Smoky Mountains are home to dangerous secrets, and upon her arrival, Stella wanders into a dark cavern where she encounters the presence of the family's personal god, an entity known only as Ghostdaddy. Fifteen years later, after a tragic incident causes her to flee, Stella--now a professional moonshiner and bootleg runner--returns for Motty's funeral and, finds a mysterious ten-year-old girl named Sunny living on the property. Though she appears innocent enough, Sunny is more powerful than Stella can ever know and a direct link to Stella's buried past. Haunting and wholly engrossing, Revelator is the story of a prodigal coming home to put an end to her family's destructive faith, which summons mesmerizing voices and gives shape to the dark. It's a southern gothic tale for the ages. This title is available from our Appalachian Collection at our Strawberry Plains campus library.
PS3612.A58536 S63 2021
You are a rare bird, easy to see but invisible just the same.' That thought is close at hand in Sparrow Envy: Field Guide to Birds and Lesser Beasts, as renowned naturalist and writer J. Drew Lanham explores his obsession with birds and all things wild in a mixture of poetry and prose. He questions vital assumptions taken for granted by so many birdwatchers: can birding be an escape if the birder is not in a safe place? Who is watching him as he watches birds? With a refreshing balance of reverence and candor, Lanham paints a unique portrait of the natural world: listening to cicadas, tracking sandpipers, towhees, wrens, and cataloging fellow birdwatchers at a conference where he is one of two black birders. The resulting insights are as honest as they are illuminating. This title is available from our Appalachian Collection at our Strawberry Plains campus library.
PS3618.E5766 G73 2021
For the past four years, Margaret Renkl’s columns have offered readers of The New York Times a weekly dose of natural beauty, human decency, and persistent hope from her home in Nashville. Now more than sixty of those pieces have been brought together in this sparkling new collection.“People have often asked me how it feels to be the ‘voice of the South,’” writes Renkl in her introduction. “But I’m not the voice of the South, and no one else is, either.” There are many Souths—red and blue, rural and urban, mountain and coast, Black and white and brown—and no one writer could possibly represent all of them. In Graceland, At Last, Renkl writes instead from her own experience about the complexities of her homeland, demonstrating along the way how much more there is to this tangled region than many people understand.In a patchwork quilt of personal and reported essays, Renkl also highlights some other voices of the South, people who are fighting for a better future for the region. A group of teenagers who organized a youth march for Black Lives Matter. An urban shepherd whose sheep remove invasive vegetation. Church parishioners sheltering the homeless. Throughout, readers will find the generosity of spirit and deep attention to the world, human and nonhuman, that keep readers returning to her columns each Monday morning. This title is available from our Appalachian Collection at our Strawberry Plains campus library.
PS3620.H328 L336 2021
"Larry Thacker's new collection of 22 short stories, Labor Days, Labor Nights, with recurring characters has its share of quirky and amusing figures. The language is colloquial and relaxed for easy reading. The characters are working-class people dealing with the sometimes zany business of their lives. It is a story collection hard to put down. Some stories remind of a latter-day Eudora Welty, others have a hint of James Thurber. A fine collection to add to anyone's fiction library." -- Ron Houchin, author of Talking to Shadows.
A collection of short stories that are a work of love and laughter set in an Appalachian small town today. This title is available from our Appalachian Collection at our Strawberry Plains campus library.
Q335 .K68 2024
AI isn't magic. How AI Works demystifies the explosion of artificial intelligence by explaining-without a single mathematical equation-what happened, when it happened, why it happened, how it happened, and what AI is actually doing "under the hood." Artificial intelligence is everywhere-from self-driving cars, to image generation from text, to the unexpected power of language systems like ChatGPT-yet few people seem to know how it all really works. How AI Works unravels the mysteries of artificial intelligence, without the complex math and unnecessary jargon. You'll learn- The relationship between artificial intelligence, machine learning, and deep learning The history behind AI and why the artificial intelligence revolution is happening now How decades of work in symbolic AI failed and opened the door for the emergence of neural networks What neural networks are, how they are trained, and why all the wonder of modern AI boils down to a simple, repeated unit that knows how to multiply input numbers to produce an output number. The implications of large language models, like ChatGPT and Bard, on our society-nothing will be the same again AI isn't magic. If you've ever wondered how it works, what it can do, or why there's so much hype, How AI Works will teach you everything you want to know. This title is available from our Hardin Valley campus library.
QH81 .R46 2023
In The Comfort of Crows, Margaret Renkl presents a literary devotional: fifty-two chapters that follow the creatures and plants in her backyard over the course of a year. As we move through the seasons -- from a crow spied on New Year's Day, its resourcefulness and sense of community setting a theme for the year, to the lingering bluebirds of December, revisiting the nest box they used in spring -- what develops is a portrait of joy and grief: joy in the ongoing pleasures of the natural world, and grief over winters that end too soon and songbirds that grow fewer and fewer. Along the way, we also glimpse the changing rhythms of a human life. Grown children, unexpectedly home during the pandemic, prepare to depart once more. Birdsong and night-blooming flowers evoke generations past. The city and the country where Renkl raised her family transform a little more with each passing day. And the natural world, now in visible flux, requires every ounce of hope and commitment from the author--and from us. For, as Renkl writes, 'radiant things are bursting forth in the darkest places, in the smallest nooks and deepest cracks of the hidden world.' With fifty-two original color artworks by the author's brother, Billy Renkl, The Comfort of Crows is a lovely and deeply moving book from a cherished observer of the natural world. This title is available from our Appalachian Collection at our Strawberry Plains campus library.
QH541 .R65 2023
Reveals how ecosystems are sculpted and sustained by animals eating, pooping, and dying--and how these fundamental functions could help save us from climate catastrophe." -- Dust jacket.
"If forests are the lungs of the planet, then animals migrating across oceans, streams, and mountains--eating, pooping, and dying along the way--are its heart and arteries, pumping nitrogen and phosphorus from deep-sea gorges up to mountain peaks, from the Arctic to the Caribbean. Without this conveyor belt of crucial, life-sustaining nutrients, the world would look very different. The dynamics that shape our physical world--atmospheric chemistry, geothermal forces, plate tectonics, and erosion through wind and rain--have been explored for decades. But the effects on local ecosystems of less glamorous forces--rotting carcasses and deposited feces--as well as their impact on the global climate cycle, have been largely overlooked. The simple truth is that pooping and peeing are daily rituals for almost all animals, the ellipses of ecology that flow through life. We eat, we poop, and we die. This title is available from our Hardin Valley campus library.
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