The harrowing tale of British explorer Ernest Shackleton's 1914 attempt to reach the South Pole, one of the greatest adventure stories of the modern age.

Flags of Our Fathers, James Bradley and Ron Powers

In this unforgettable chronicle of perhaps the most famous moment in American military history, James Bradley has captured the glory, the triumph, the heartbreak, and the legacy of the six men who raised the flag at Iwo Jima. 

Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance, Angela Duckworth

In this must-read book for anyone striving to succeed, pioneering psychologist Angela Duckworth shows parents, educators, students, and business people both seasoned and new that the secret to outstanding achievement is not talent but a focused persistence called grit. 

español

español & portugues

Humble Pi, Matt Parker

The book-length answer to anyone who ever put their hand up in math class and asked, "When am I ever going to use this in the real world?" Exploring and explaining a litany of glitches, near misses, and mathematical mishaps involving the internet, big data, elections, street signs, lotteries, the Roman Empire, and an Olympic team, Matt Parker uncovers the bizarre ways math trips us up, and what this reveals about its essential place in our world. Getting it wrong has never been more fun.

español

Into the Wild, Jon Krakauer

In April, 1992, a young man from a well-to-do family hitchhiked to Alaska and walked alone into the wilderness north of Mt. McKinley. Four months later, a party of moose hunters found his decomposed body. How McCandless came to die is the unforgettable story of Into the Wild.

español & portugues

Know My Name, Chanel Miller

She was known to the world as Emily Doe when she stunned millions with a letter. Brock Turner had been sentenced to just six months in county jail after he was found sexually assaulting her on Stanford’s campus. Her victim impact statement...on BuzzFeed... instantly went viral; it inspired changes in California law and the recall of the judge in the case. 

español & portugues

Maus, Art Spiegelman

A brutally moving work of art—widely hailed as the greatest graphic novel ever written—Maus recounts the chilling experiences of the author’s father during the Holocaust, with Jews drawn as wide-eyed mice and Nazis as menacing cats.

español & portugues

español & portugues

Night, Elie Wiesel

Born in the town of Sighet, Transylvania, Elie Wiesel was a teenager when he and his family were taken from their home in 1944 to Auschwitz concentration camp, and then to Buchenwald. Night is the terrifying record of Elie Wiesel's memories of the death of his family, the death of his own innocence, and his despair as a deeply observant Jew confronting the absolute evil of man. 

español & portugues

The Poisoner's Handbook,  

Deborah Blum

Deborah Blum, writing with the high style and skill for suspense that is characteristic of the very best mystery fiction, shares the untold story of how poison rocked Jazz Age New York City. 

The Puzzler, A.J. Jacobs

What makes puzzles--jigsaws, mazes, riddles, sudokus--so satisfying? Be it the formation of new cerebral pathways, their close link to insight and humor, or their community-building properties, they're among the fundamental elements that make us human. 

Travels with Charley, 

John Steinbeck

To hear the speech of the real America, to smell the grass and the trees, to see the colors and the light—these were John Steinbeck's goals as he set out, at the age of fifty-eight, to rediscover the country he had been writing about for so many years.

Unbroken,  Lauren Hillenbrand

On a May afternoon in 1943, an Army Air Forces bomber crashed into the Pacific Ocean and disappeared, leaving only a spray of debris and a slick of oil, gasoline, and blood. Then, on the ocean surface, a face appeared. Ahead of the young man lay thousands of miles of open ocean, leaping sharks, a foundering raft, thirst and starvation, enemy aircraft, and, beyond, a trial even greater.

español & portugues

español & portugues

The Yellow House,  Sarah M. Broom

A book of great ambition, Sarah M. Broom's The Yellow House tells a hundred years of her family and their relationship to home in a neglected area of one of America's most mythologized cities (New Orleans, LA). It is a transformative, deeply moving story from an unparalleled new voice of startling clarity, authority, and power.

The 57 Bus,  Dashka Slater

One teenager in a skirt.

One teenager with a lighter.

One moment that changes both of their lives forever.

El Alquimista, 

Paulo Coehlo

Este libro relata la historia de un joven pastor andaluz que un día dejó su rebaño de ovejas para emprender un viaje en el que aprendió a escuchar a su corazón y descifrar un lenguaje que está más allá de las palabras... Nos habla de la leyenda personal que cada persona tiene... Y cuando quieres algo, todo el Universo conspira para que realices tu deseo, tu sueño.

español (& portugues)

español (& portugues)

Anxious People, 

Frederik Backman

From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of A Man Called Ove and “writer of astonishing depth” (The Washington Times) comes a poignant comedy about a crime that never took place, a would-be bank robber who disappears into thin air, and eight extremely anxious strangers who find they have more in common than they ever imagined.

español & portugues

The Bell Jar

Sylvia Plath

The Bell Jar is  the semi-autobiographical chronicle of the crack-up of Esther Greenwood: a bright, ambitious student at Smith College who begins to experience a mental breakdown while interning for a fashion magazine in New York. The plot parallels Plath's experience interning at Mademoiselle magazine and subsequent mental breakdown and suicide attempt. Goodreads reviewers describe it as "relatable", "relevant" and "powerfully poignant."

español & portugues

español & portugues

Beloved, Toni Morrison

Sethe was born a slave and escaped to Ohio, but eighteen years later she is still not free. She has borne the unthinkable and not gone mad, yet she is still held captive by memories of Sweet Home, the beautiful farm where so many hideous things happened... Morrison’s unforgettable novel is one of the great and enduring works of American literature.

español & portugues

español

Dry, 

Jarrod and Neal Shusterman

When the California drought escalates to catastrophic proportions, one teen is forced to make life and death decisions for her family in this harrowing story of survival.

español

The House on Mango Street, 

Sandra Cisneros

The House on Mango Street is the remarkable story of Esperanza Cordero... Told in a series of vignettes – sometimes heartbreaking, sometimes deeply joyous–it is the story of a young Latina girl growing up in Chicago, inventing for herself who and what she will become.

Leer en español gratis aquí

It Can't Happen Here, 

Sinclair Lewis

It Can't Happen Here is a cautionary tale about the fragility of democracy, an alarming, eerily timeless look at how fascism could take hold in America. Written during the Great Depression when America was largely oblivious to Hitler's aggression, it juxtaposes sharp political satire with the chillingly realistic rise of a President who becomes a dictator to "save the nation." 

Lessons in Chemistry, 

Bonnie Garmus

Chemist Elizabeth Zott is not your average woman. But it’s the early 1960s and her all-male team at Hastings Research Institute takes a very unscientific view of equality. Laugh-out-loud funny, shrewdly observant, and studded with a dazzling cast of supporting characters, Lessons in Chemistry is as original and vibrant as its protagonist.

español

Next Year in Havana, 

Chanel Cleeton

After the death of her beloved grandmother, a Cuban-American woman travels to Havana, where she discovers the roots of her identity--and unearths a family secret hidden since the revolution...

español & portugues

Night Shift, 

Stephen King

This is the horror of ordinary people and everyday objects that become strangely altered; a world where nothing is ever quite what it seems, where the familiar and the friendly lure and deceive. A world where madness and blind panic become the only reality.

español

español & portugues

One Hundred Years of Solitude, 

Gabriel García Márquez 

The brilliant, bestselling, landmark novel that tells the story of the Buendia family, and chronicles the irreconcilable conflict between the desire for solitude and the need for love—in rich, imaginative prose that has come to define an entire genre known as "magical realism.

español

español & portugues

Ready Player One, 

Ernest Cline

In the year 2044, reality is an ugly place. The only time teenage Wade Watts really feels alive is when he's jacked into the virtual utopia known as the OASIS. Wade's devoted his life to studying the puzzles hidden within this world's digital confines... But when Wade stumbles upon the first clue, he finds himself beset by players willing to kill to take this ultimate prize.

español

español & portugues

Two Can Keep a Secret, Karen McManus

Echo Ridge is picture-perfect, but it's hiding secrets. Now Ellery has to move there and before school even begins, someone's declared open season on homecoming. The thing is, secrets are dangerous--and most people aren't good at keeping them. Which is why in Echo Ridge, it's safest to keep your secrets to yourself. 

español

español & portugues