This week’s column features titles found in the New Adult Nonfiction collection.

Crucial Conversations by Joseph Grenny is a classic business communications book that has been updated for today’s workplace. The author uses an accessible and witty style to teach readers how to be persuasive rather than abrasive, how to get back to a productive dialogue when others blow up or shut down, and it offers skills for mastering those high-stakes conversations regardless of the topic or person. You will also learn how to respond when someone else initiates a Crucial Conversation with you, identify and tackle the lag time between identifying a problem and discussing it, and communicate more effectively even across digital platforms. There are three choices of reactions when the stakes are high, when there is a variety of opinions, and emotions run strong. You can either avoid a crucial conversation and suffer the consequences; handle the conversation badly and suffer those consequences; or apply the lessons in this book and improve your relationships and results of your conversations.

Scott Galloway offers a solution to the unprecedented challenges that today’s workers experience in his book The Algebra of Wealth. Inflation, labor and housing shortages, climate anxiety, and insecurity about retirement has changed our relationship with how work evolves. Galloway spells out the new rules of financial success and he explains what you need to know to better your chances for economic security. You’ll learn how to find and follow your talent, not your passion, when making career decisions, how to take advantage of big economic waves, what small steps to take to get big returns later, and how to use stoicism to minimize your spending and develop better financial habits. This book provides a powerful framework for making the most of what opportunities come your way.

In Sober Love, psychologist Dr. Joseph Nowinski has written an engaging guide that offers strategies to help couples who drink together get sober together. If you and your partner have had enough and made the decision to begin your journey of sobriety together, then this book offers practical advice and proven strategies to help end your relationship with alcohol and redefine your romantic relationship with each other. Alcohol addiction can be an insidious problem for many couples. This book describes how and why couples develop problems with alcohol and lays out a step-by-step approach to aid readers in assessing their level of drinking and developing an actionable plan for getting and staying sober.

Cara Giaimo has penned a nature book unlike any others in Atlas Obscura: Wild Life. You will find images and facts for some of the most extraordinary wild species from all seven continents. You will learn how dung beetles navigate by the stars and how trees communicate through their roots. You’ll meet the strongest animals in the world: the puny peacock mantis shrimp. Learn about a 44,000-year-old shrub and explore a garbage dump overseen by endangered storks. You will also read first person interviews from a honey hunter and his bird helpers, a scientist working to find ocean-dwelling insects, and an offshore radio DJ who is at the heart of a local fishing community. This book features more than 500 extraordinary plants, animals, and natural phenomena—all with illustrations and color photos—from around the world.

DK Publishing has done it again with their Encyclopedia of Garden Plants for Every Location. This book discusses everything you need to transform you empty plot of land into a stunning garden oasis. Featuring more than 2,000 recommendations from gardening experts as well as valuable advice on expanding your gardening ideas. You’ll learn the best plants for over 30 types of sites from dry ground by a hedge or fence to cracks in walls or pavers. Learn how to assess site and soil and which plants, plant partners, and planting schemes will work with your situation. There are simple recipes for creating beautiful beds, borders and garden designs. There is also a “Special Effects” section which helps you find plants with fragrant, colorful or architectural properties along with solutions to common gardening problems and pests—like slugs, rabbits, and deer. Whether you have a small urban plot or sprawling acreage, this guide will help you every step of the way toward your garden masterpiece.