You don't know bad until you know JB. And you won't begin to understand JB until you consider the genre. He was and they are anomalies and anachronisms: warped types out of dark times. JB and guys like him are ghoulish in their perversion. They're flagrant in their violence, cabalistic in their psychopathic nature, and, dangerous in their psychological indifference. OK, it's fiction, but there's a lot of truth to it. So, it's the truth; it's just not the whole truth. So, is this a tale or a study? Is it opinion or research? And, will any of those questions matter when considering the elements and essence of the issues? -Maybe . . . We may know something about what contributes to virulent antisocial behavior but we don't know enough about it to forestall it. Maybe we will. Maybe not. But what do we do about it in the meantime? That's the burning question. Because they're perverse, we might justly call them miscreants or brutes or degenerates. Those terms are almost euphemistic, though, when applied to the diabolic guys referred to here. They're not just barbaric; they're deadly. -So they're not just real bad. The designation for these guys is one we reserve for the worst kind of criminal there is ... a somebody not simply bad/but sinister. These are guys who commit uncommonly vile acts, some too gross to describe. And sadistic is too good a word to characterize the worst of their crimes, iniquitous too mild, obscene too vague. That's your bête noire: vulgar, vicious, villainous and virulent in the end, to the end-- an end noxious/toxic/lethal. You can't feel sorry for this guy or his genre. But they like it when you do. Your mercy on top of their madness makes their day. They glory in the novelty and incomprehensibility of it. Because they see the beautiful irony in it-- After your review of this abstract: Maybe you'll think I've been too harsh. Maybe you'll think I've been too blunt. Maybe you'll think I've been too vindictive. Maybe you'll think I've got issues. Maybe this, maybe that. And, maybe you'll just be thinking about reading this harrying treatise. If so . . . Get ready for the ride. It'll be bumpy. So hang on

"También de este lado hay sueños. On this side, too, there are dreams. Lydia Quixano Perez lives in the Mexican city of Acapulco. She runs a bookstore. She has a son, Luca, the love of her life, and a wonderful husband who is a journalist. And while there are cracks beginning to show in Acapulco because of the drug cartels, her life is, by and large, fairly comfortable. Even though she knows they'll never sell, Lydia stocks some of her all-time favorite books in her store. And then one day a man enters the shop to browse and comes up to the register with four books he would like to buy--two of them her favorites. Javier is erudite. He is charming. And, unbeknownst to Lydia, he is the jefe of the newest drug cartel that has gruesomely taken over the city. When Lydia's husband's tell-all profile of Javier is published, none of their lives will ever be the same. Forced to flee, Lydia and eight-year-old Luca soon find themselves miles and worlds away from their comfortable middle-class existence. Instantly transformed into migrants, Lydia and Luca ride la bestia--trains that make their way north toward the United States, which is the only place Javier's reach doesn't extend. As they join the countless people trying to reach el norte, Lydia soon sees that everyone is running from something. But what exactly are they running to? American Dirt will leave readers utterly changed when they finish reading it. A page-turner filled with poignancy, drama, and humanity on every page, it is a literary achievement."--

Consolidated Case(s): C013437

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • A stunning “portrait of the enduring grace of friendship” (NPR) about the families we are born into, and those that we make for ourselves. A masterful depiction of love in the twenty-first century. NATIONAL BOOK AWARD FINALIST • MAN BOOKER PRIZE FINALIST • WINNER OF THE KIRKUS PRIZE A Little Life follows four college classmates—broke, adrift, and buoyed only by their friendship and ambition—as they move to New York in search of fame and fortune. While their relationships, which are tinged by addiction, success, and pride, deepen over the decades, the men are held together by their devotion to the brilliant, enigmatic Jude, a man scarred by an unspeakable childhood trauma. A hymn to brotherly bonds and a masterful depiction of love in the twenty-first century, Hanya Yanagihara’s stunning novel is about the families we are born into, and those that we make for ourselves. Look for Hanya Yanagihara’s latest bestselling novel, To Paradise.

INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER “One of the most important books I’ve ever read—an indispensable guide to thinking clearly about the world.” – Bill Gates “Hans Rosling tells the story of ‘the secret silent miracle of human progress’ as only he can. But Factfulness does much more than that. It also explains why progress is so often secret and silent and teaches readers how to see it clearly.” —Melinda Gates "Factfulness by Hans Rosling, an outstanding international public health expert, is a hopeful book about the potential for human progress when we work off facts rather than our inherent biases." - Former U.S. President Barack Obama Factfulness: The stress-reducing habit of only carrying opinions for which you have strong supporting facts. When asked simple questions about global trends—what percentage of the world’s population live in poverty; why the world’s population is increasing; how many girls finish school—we systematically get the answers wrong. So wrong that a chimpanzee choosing answers at random will consistently outguess teachers, journalists, Nobel laureates, and investment bankers. In Factfulness, Professor of International Health and global TED phenomenon Hans Rosling, together with his two long-time collaborators, Anna and Ola, offers a radical new explanation of why this happens. They reveal the ten instincts that distort our perspective—from our tendency to divide the world into two camps (usually some version of us and them) to the way we consume media (where fear rules) to how we perceive progress (believing that most things are getting worse). Our problem is that we don’t know what we don’t know, and even our guesses are informed by unconscious and predictable biases. It turns out that the world, for all its imperfections, is in a much better state than we might think. That doesn’t mean there aren’t real concerns. But when we worry about everything all the time instead of embracing a worldview based on facts, we can lose our ability to focus on the things that threaten us most. Inspiring and revelatory, filled with lively anecdotes and moving stories, Factfulness is an urgent and essential book that will change the way you see the world and empower you to respond to the crises and opportunities of the future. --- “This book is my last battle in my life-long mission to fight devastating ignorance...Previously I armed myself with huge data sets, eye-opening software, an energetic learning style and a Swedish bayonet for sword-swallowing. It wasn’t enough. But I hope this book will be.” Hans Rosling, February 2017.