Pines and Plains Libraries

Who changed the sex of God? This groundbreaking book proposes that the rise of alphabetic literacy reconfigured the human brain and brought about profound changes in history, religion, and gender relations. Making remarkable connections across brain function, myth, and anthropology, Dr. Shlain shows why pre-literate cultures were principally informed by holistic, right-brain modes that venerated the Goddess, images, and feminine values. Writing drove...

Discusses what is known about the intelligence of our nearest relatives, the great apes, including chimpanzees, bonobos, orangutans, and gorillas. Looks at historical research that shows they can use simple tools and even be trained to communicate in sign language. Also investigates newer research that looks at planned use of weapons, math ability, creative problem solving, reasoning, cooperation, imitation, social emotions, and other aspects of intelligence....

A smooth-tongued attorney must deal with an extremely eclectic staff and student body when he is forced to attend Greendale Community College after his education is deemed invalid by the bar.

Freeman takes an entertaining look at the nature of correspondence through the ages, considers the consequences of email overload, and enters a plea for communication that is more selective and nuanced and, above all, more sociable

This film, like many from director Werner Herzog, is a poem of oddness and beauty. Investigating the lives of the "professional dreamers" who conduct research at the bottom of the world in Antarctica, he finds a happily cynical lot, who regard climate change and the potential extinction of Homo sapiens in rather a different light than most people. They study penguins, seals, volcanoes, miniscule underwater creatures, and the shifting ice patterns....

"Taking joy in suffering is more human than we'd like to admit. The cruelty of the Trump administration's policies and the ritual rhetorical flaying of his targets are intimately connected. Shared cruelty and the delight it brings are critical moments of connection for white supremacists, a fact that is not new. Adam Serwer has been chronicling our political landscape for the last decade. He is one of the most resonant voices of our time, relentless...

This book seeks to answer the question:"What would it look like if the best responses to peak oil and climate change came not from committees and Acts of Parliament, but from you and me, and the people around us?"For the first Transition Handbook, published in 2008, this was pretty much a speculative question, but with this new book we are able to draw from what has, in effect, been a four-year worldwide experiment, and attempt to try to put the Transition...

Until Alzheimer's disease wreaked its gradual destruction, Ronald Reagan was an inveterate writer. He wrote not only letters, short fiction, poetry, and sports stories, but speeches, newspaper articles, and radio commentary on public policy issues, both foreign and domestic. Most of Reagan's original writings are pre-presidential. From 1975 to 1979 he gave more than 1,000 daily radio broadcasts, two-thirds of which he wrote himself. They cover every...