Central Skagit Library District

"Small-town Appalachia doesn't have a lot going for it, but it's where Brian is from, where his family is, and where he's chosen to return to die. At eighteen, Brian, like so many other promising young gay men, arrived in New York City without much more than a love for the freedom and release from his past that it promised. But within six short years, AIDS would claim his lover, his friends, and his future. With nothing left in New York but memories...

"In this revolutionary book, renowned physician Gabor Maté eloquently dissects how in Western countries that pride themselves on their healthcare systems, chronic illness and general ill health are on the rise. Nearly 70 percent of Americans are on at least one prescription drug; more than half take two. In Canada, every fifth person has high blood pressure. In Europe, hypertension is diagnosed in more than 30 percent of the population. And everywhere,...

A deep, science-backed look at how the coronavirus pandemic will change the way we live forever -- from renowned physician and sociologist Nicholas Christakis. APOLLO'S ARROW offers a riveting account of the impact of the coronavirus pandemic on American society as it unfolded in 2020, and on how the recovery will unfold in the coming years. Drawing on a combination of fascinating case studies and cutting-edge research from a range of scientific disciplines,...

"Explore the idea of social distancing during the COVID-19 crisis. Readers will examine the reasons behind social distancing, ways to adapt to it, and how it may continue to impact people in the future"--

Beginning with the absolutely critical first moments of the outbreak in China, and ending with an epilogue on the vaccine rollout and the unprecedented events between the election of Joseph Biden and his inauguration, Lawrence Wright's The Plague Year surges forward with essential information--and fascinating historical parallels--examining the medical, economic, political, and social ramifications of the COVID-19 pandemic.

From two reporters for the Washington Post comes an account of the Trump administration's handling, and mishandling, of the coronavirus outbreak, a once-in-a-century pandemic that upended life across the globe that resulted in hundreds of thousands of lives lost, a cratered economy, and the remaking of the U.S. as an unwieldy pariah in the global hierarchy. "Since the day Donald Trump was elected, his critics warned that an unexpected crisis would...

"A must-read riveting account of America's plague year from one of the top Trump advisors who first sounded the China pandemic alarm, exposed Dr. Fauci's destructive actions and laid bare the facts about the 2020 presidential election. In Trump Time, A Journal of America's Plague Year, tells the story of a president who worked night and day for the American People, who built the strongest economy in modern history and who would deliver a life-saving...

"A behind-the-scenes look at how workers deemed "essential" helped society during the COVID-19 crisis, from grocery and pharmacy employees, to front-line healthcare workers"--

"Physician and ... author Louise Aronson's Elderhood is a ... look at a vital but often disparaged stage of life. For more than 5,000 years, "old" has been defined as beginning between the ages of 60 and 70. That means most people alive today will spend more years in elderhood than in childhood, and many will be elders for 40 years or more. Yet at the very moment that humans are living longer than ever before, we've made old age into a disease, a...

"Who is considered most at risk for diabetes, and why? In this thorough, engaging book, historian Arleen Tuchman examines and critiques how these questions have been answered by both the public and medical communities for over a century in the United States. Beginning in the late nineteenth century, Tuchman describes how at different times Jews, middle‑class whites, American Indians, African Americans, and Hispanic Americans have been labeled most...