Central Skagit Library District

This national bestseller and award-winning book is now available in paperback. A gripping narrative that spans five decades, "The Looming Tower" explains in unprecedented detail the rise of al-Qaeda and the intelligence failures that culminated in the attacks on 9/11.

"From the two-time NBCC Finalist, a fiercely imaginative novel about a family's summer road trip across America--a journey that, with breathtaking imagery, spare lyricism, and profound humanity, probes the nature of justice and equality in America today. A mother and father set out with their kids from New York to Arizona. In their used Volvo--and with their ten-year-old son trying out his new Polaroid camera--the family is heading for the Apacheria:...

Four hundred asylum seekers were pitched into the sea when their people-smuggling boat from Indonesia sank on its way to Australia in 2001. Three hundred and fifty three people drowned. Only seven survivors made it to Australia. Amal Basry was one of those survivors, spending 22 hours in the ocean hanging on to a floating corpse, convinced that her son was dead and she was the only person left alive. Acclaimed documentary maker Steve Thomas records...

At a time when the world is rethinking its drug policies large and small, one state rises to the forefront. Once a pioneer in legalizing medical marijuana, the state of Montana may now become the first to repeal its medical marijuana law. Set against the sweeping vistas of the Rockies, the steamy lamplight of marijuana grow houses, and the bustling halls of the State Capitol, CODE OF THE WEST follows the political process of marijuana policy reform...

Americans are afraid of their food. And for good reason. In 2011, the deadliest food-borne illness outbreak in a century delivered killer listeria bacteria on innocuous cantaloupe never before suspected of carrying that pathogen. Nearly 50 million Americans will get food poisoning this year. Spoiled, doctored or infected food will send more than 100,000 people to the hospital. Three thousand will die. We expect, even assume, our government will protect...

"In Homelessness is a Housing Problem, Gregg Colburn and Clayton Page Aldern seek to explain the substantial regional variation in rates of homelessness in cities across the United States. In a departure from many analytical approaches, Colburn and Aldern shift their focus from the individual experiencing homelessness to the metropolitan area. Using accessible statistical analysis, they test a range of conventional beliefs about what drives the prevalence...

This award winning documentary directed by Sam Bozzo is based on the book BLUE GOLD: THE FIGHT TO STOP THE CORPORATE THEFT OF THE WORLD'S WATER by Maude Barlow and Tony Clark. The film examines the problems created by the privatization and commoditization of water.

Trying to visually trace each person's roots, which can span multiple countries and continents, could look like a massive, tangled ball of yarn. Immigration has been a hot-button issue since the dawn of civilization, with each country's government policies allowing them to dictate who can stay, who should go, and who isn't even allowed to enter. Readers will learn about migrants and refugees and some of the reasons for leaving home behind. Through...

"From a writer and climate-change expert who has been at the center of the fight for more than thirty years, a brilliant big-picture reckoning with the reasons for our shocking failure to this point, focusing on the malign power of key business interests, and arguing that those same interests could flip this story very quickly, if a looming economic catastrophe doesn't happen first. Eugene Linden wrote his first big cover story on climate change,...

The math is simple: the fossil fuel industry has five times the amount of coal, gas and oil that even the most conservative governments know is safe to burn. Left to their own devices, they’ll push us past the brink of cataclysmic disaster and life as we know it will be irrevocably altered forever - unless we rise up and fight back. In November 2012, best-selling author and environmental activist Bill McKibben and 350.org -- the organization he...