All students are required to read one book of their choice over the summer and should come to school prepared to share the title, author, and brief synopsis of the book with a classmate. Below are some suggested titles, but students can select any grade-level appropriate title of their choice.
The Nazi Hunters: How a Team of Spies and Survivors Captured the World’s Most Notorious Nazi by Neal Bascomb
As World War II ended many important Nazi commanders faded into the ranks of the German army and disappeared before they could be tried for war crimes. Adolf Eichmann, the head of operations for the Nazis' Final Solution, responsible for the execution of nearly six million European Jews, disappeared shortly after the Allies declared victory. In this nonfiction thriller, Eichmann has finally been located in Argentina and a team of Israeli intelligence agents plan to capture and bring him to Israel to stand trial for his crimes. Will Eichmann escape again or will he finally face justice? Find out in this readable nonfiction work.
Proud (Young Readers Edition): Living My American Dream by Ibtihaj Muhammad
An inspiring memoir of fencer, Olympic medalist, and New Jersey native Ibtihaj Muhammad.
Ibtihaj shares the drive and determination that encouraged her to enter the sport of fencing as a Black Muslim girl in a sport dominated by white faces. Daughter of a teacher and a police officer, Ibtihaj faced discrimination and doubt concerning her chances for victory on the fencing strip and off, but her family’s support was essential to her success.
This memoir shares the difficulties that Ibtihaj overcame to reach her Olympic dream. The grit and determination Ibtihaj shows proves that hard work can bring success if one remains true to themselves, their faith, and their family.
Shoe Dog: A Memoir by the Creator of Nike by Phil Knight
Young, searching, fresh out of business school, Phil Knight borrowed fifty dollars from his father and launched a company with one simple mission: import high-quality, low-cost running shoes from Japan. Selling the shoes from the trunk of his Plymouth Valiant, Knight grossed eight thousand dollars that first year, 1963. Today, Nike’s annual sales top $30 billion. In this age of start-ups, Knight’s Nike is the gold standard, and its swoosh is more than a logo. A symbol of grace and greatness, it’s one of the few icons instantly recognized in every corner of the world.
But Knight, the man behind the swoosh, has always been a mystery. Now, in a memoir that’s surprising, humble, unfiltered, funny, and beautifully crafted, he tells his story at last. It all begins with a classic crossroads moment. Twenty-four years old, backpacking through Asia and Europe and Africa, wrestling with life’s Great Questions, Knight decides the unconventional path is the only one for him. Rather than work for a big corporation, he will create something all his own, something new, dynamic, different. Knight details the many terrifying risks he encountered along the way, the crushing setbacks, the ruthless competitors, the countless doubters and haters and hostile bankers—as well as his many thrilling triumphs and narrow escapes. Above all, he recalls the foundational relationships that formed the heart and soul of Nike, with his former track coach, the irascible and charismatic Bill Bowerman, and with his first employees, a ragtag group of misfits and savants who quickly became a band of swoosh-crazed brothers.
Together, harnessing the electrifying power of a bold vision and a shared belief in the redemptive, transformative power of sports, they created a brand, and a culture, that changed everything. (Amazon.com)
The Heartbeat of Wounded Knee (Young Readers Adaptation): Life in Native America by David Treuer
The Heartbeat of Wounded Kneeis a story of Native American resilience and reinvention, adapted for young adults from the adult nonfiction book of the same name.
Since the late 1800s, it has been believed that Native American civilization has been wiped from the United States. The Heartbeat of Wounded Knee argues that Native American culture is far from defeated—if anything, it is thriving as much today as it was one hundred years ago.
The Heartbeat of Wounded Knee looks at Native American culture as it exists today—and the fight to preserve language and traditions.
Adapted for young readers, this important young adult nonfiction book is perfect educational material for children and adults alike. (Amazon.com)
Better, Not Bitter: Living on Purpose in the Pursuit of Racial Justice by Yusef Salaam
They didn't know who they had.
So begins Yusef Salaam telling his story. No one's life is the sum of the worst things that happened to them, and during Yusef Salaam's seven years of wrongful incarceration as one of the Central Park Five, he grew from child to man, and gained a spiritual perspective on life. Yusef learned that we're all "born on purpose, with a purpose." Despite having confronted the racist heart of America while being "run over by the spiked wheels of injustice," Yusef channeled his energy and pain into something positive, not just for himself but for other marginalized people and communities.
Better Not Bitter is the first time that one of the now Exonerated Five is telling his individual story, in his own words. Yusef writes his narrative: growing up Black in central Harlem in the '80s, being raised by a strong, fierce mother and grandmother, his years of incarceration, his reentry, and exoneration. Yusef connects these stories to lessons and principles he learned that gave him the power to survive through the worst of life's experiences. He inspires readers to accept their own path, to understand their own sense of purpose. With his intimate personal insights, Yusef unpacks the systems built and designed for profit and the oppression of Black and Brown people. He inspires readers to channel their fury into action, and through the spiritual, to turn that anger and trauma into a constructive force that lives alongside accountability and mobilizes change.
This memoir is an inspiring story that grew out of one of the gravest miscarriages of justice, one that not only speaks to a moment in time or the rage-filled present, but reflects a 400-year history of a nation's inability to be held accountable for its sins. Yusef Salaam's message is vital for our times, a motivating resource for enacting change. Better, Not Bitter has the power to soothe, inspire and transform. It is a galvanizing call to action. (Amazon.com)
Urgent Message from a Hot Planet: Navigating the Climate Crisis by Ann Eriksson
The climate crisis is the issue of our time.
Scientists have warned for over 100 years that burning fossil fuels and destroying nature will warm the earth's atmosphere and affect the climate in adverse ways: more severe and intense storms, prolonged heat waves, drought, flooding, wildfires, rising sea levels and ocean acidification.
Urgent Message from a Hot Planet: Navigating the Climate Crisis outlines the science behind global heating and its root causes, provides ways to take action and honors the efforts of the millions of youth and adult allies from around the world working tirelessly to make a difference. Their powerful message: do something now! (Amazon.com)
Crying in H Mart: A Memoir by Michelle Zauner
In this exquisite story of family, food, grief, and endurance, Michelle Zauner proves herself far more than a dazzling singer, songwriter, and guitarist. With humor and heart, she tells of growing up one of the few Asian American kids at her school in Eugene, Oregon; of struggling with her mother's particular, high expectations of her; of a painful adolescence; of treasured months spent in her grandmother's tiny apartment in Seoul, where she and her mother would bond, late at night, over heaping plates of food.
As she grew up, moving to the East Coast for college, finding work in the restaurant industry, and performing gigs with her fledgling band--and meeting the man who would become her husband--her Koreanness began to feel ever more distant, even as she found the life she wanted to live. It was her mother's diagnosis of terminal cancer, when Michelle was twenty-five, that forced a reckoning with her identity and brought her to reclaim the gifts of taste, language, and history her mother had given her.
Vivacious and plainspoken, lyrical and honest, Zauner's voice is as radiantly alive on the page as it is onstage. Rich with intimate anecdotes that will resonate widely, and complete with family photos, Crying in H Mart is a book to cherish, share, and reread. (Amazon.com)
Behind the Beautiful Forevers by Katherine Boo
“But for now, eleven cans, seven empty water bottles and a wad of aluminum foil rested on a long spit of concrete, awaiting the first child with the courage to claim them.” (p.244) This concluding sentence from first time author, Katherine Boo gives the reader a glimpse into the commerce and culture of the entreprenure who live in a settlement cobbled together on the outskirts of Mumbai International Airport. While the contrast between the luxury of the airport property and the poverty of Annawadi couldn’t be more striking, this setting makes the true story of its inhabitants even more fascinating. Drawing on three years of careful study, Boo paints a powerful picture of abject poverty with authority documenting a world in which the residents’ difficult daily choices decide survival, but where hope for a better life is at the core of all decisions. While tragedy abounds, I found the strength, determination, and persistence of the Indians profiled inspiring. In the end, the book offers not just a candid look at a forgotten group, but a better understanding of how the resourcefulness of an individual can still effect change on their surroundings and that even in the darkest times hope remains.
Red Notice by Bill Browder
This is a story about an accidental activist. Bill Browder started out his adult life as the Wall Street maverick whose instincts led him to Russia just after the breakup of the Soviet Union, where he made his fortune.
Along the way he exposed corruption, and when he did, he barely escaped with his life. His Russian lawyer Sergei Magnitsky wasn’t so lucky: he ended up in jail, where he was tortured to death. That changed Browder forever. He saw the murderous heart of the Putin regime and has spent the last half decade on a campaign to expose it. Because of that, he became Putin’s number one enemy, especially after Browder succeeded in having a law passed in the United States—The Magnitsky Act—that punishes a list of Russians implicated in the lawyer’s murder. Putin famously retaliated with a law that bans Americans from adopting Russian orphans.
A financial caper, a crime thriller, and a political crusade, Red Notice is the story of one man taking on overpowering odds to change the world, and also the story of how, without intending to, he found meaning in his life. (Amazon.com)
The Boys in the Boat by Daniel James Brown
The long, passionate journey of the University of Washington rowing team to the 1936 Berlin Olympics. The nine young Americans (including coxswain Bob Moch) who made up the team in the Husky Clipper that would eventually edge to victory by six-tenths of a second ahead of the Italians in the Olympics emerged from the harsh realities of the Depression, as Brown (The Indifferent Stars Above: The Harrowing Saga of a Donner Party Bride, 2009, etc.) delineates in this thorough study of the early rowing scene. The journey of one young rower, Joe Rantz, forms the emotional center of the narrative. A tall, strapping country boy who had largely been fending for himself in Sequim, Wash., in 1933, he got a shot as a freshman at making the prestigious crew team at UW, which was led by freshman coach Tom Bolles and head coach Al Ulbrickson. Many strands converge in the narrative, culminating in a rich work of research, from the back story involving the creation of UW’s rowing program to the massive planning and implementation of the Berlin Olympics by Hitler’s engineer Werner March, specifically the crew venue at the Langer See. The UW team honed its power and finesse in the lead-up seasons by racing against its nemesis, the University of California at Berkeley, as well as in East Coast regattas. Despite the threat of an American boycott, the Berlin Olympics were carefully orchestrated by propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels and filmed by Leni Riefenstahl to show the world the terrifying images of Aryan “purity” and Nazi supremacy. Yet for these American boys, it was an amazing dream. A touching, fairly uncomplicated portrayal of rowing legends. (Kirkus Reviews)
A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson
Bryson (I'm a Stranger Here Myself, 1999, etc.), a man who knows how to track down an explanation and make it confess, asks the hard questions of science—e.g., how did things get to be the way they are?—and, when possible, provides answers. As he once went about making English intelligible, Bryson now attempts the same with the great moments of science, both the ideas themselves and their genesis, to resounding success. Piqued by his own ignorance on these matters, he’s egged on even more so by the people who’ve figured out—or think they’ve figured out—such things as what is in the center of the Earth. So he goes exploring, in the library and in company with scientists at work today, to get a grip on a range of topics from subatomic particles to cosmology. The aim is to deliver reports on these subjects in terms anyone can understand, and for the most part, it works. The most difficult is the nonintuitive material—time as part of space, say, or proteins inventing themselves spontaneously, without direction—and the quantum leaps unusual minds have made: as J.B.S. Haldane once put it, “The universe is not only queerer than we suppose; it is queerer than we can suppose.” Mostly, though, Bryson renders clear the evolution of continental drift, atomic structure, singularity, the extinction of the dinosaur, and a mighty host of other subjects in self-contained chapters that can be taken at a bite, rather than read wholesale. He delivers the human-interest angle on the scientists, and he keeps the reader laughing and willing to forge ahead, even over their heads: the human body, for instance, harboring enough energy “to explode with the force of thirty very large hydrogen bombs, assuming you knew how to liberate it and really wished to make a point.” Loads of good explaining, with reminders, time and again, of how much remains unknown, neatly putting the death of science into perspective. (Kirkus Reviews)
Laughing at My Nightmare by Shane Burcaw
Shane Burcaw challenges readers not to laugh out loud from page one of his humorous memoir on life with spinal muscular atrophy. Shane shows his readers that while everyone faces challenges, one can use humor to make an important contribution to the world. An honest look at Burcaw’s life from birth to age twenty-one, the memoir recounts his successes and challenges with an irreverent enthusiasm. Based on his blog of the same title, readers will understand how Burcaw has succeeded in creating a life and a non-profit foundation designed to help others. As Shane concludes, “I will throw everything I have into this life for as long as I can physically manage. Maybe it’ll be a huge failure. If, at the end of it all, I can look back and know that I made some people laugh, it will have all been worth it.” (p. 247) A strong and original memoir.
Brain on Fire by Susannah Cahalan
A young journalist’s descent into her own baffling medical mystery. In her debut memoir, New York Post reporter Cahalan recounts her struggle to understand an unremembered month lost to illness. Cobbled together from interviews, medical records, notebooks, journals and video footage, the author conjures the traumatic memories of her harrowing ordeal. What began as numbness in her hands and feet soon grew into something more serious, climaxing in a terrifying seizure witnessed by her boyfriend. “My arms suddenly whipped straight out in front of me, like a mummy,” she writes, “as my eyes rolled back and my body stiffened….Blood and foam began to spurt out of my mouth through clenched teeth.” The mystery thickened as doctors struggled to agree on a diagnosis. While the uncertainty proved maddening for her family members, however, it was also what bonded them together. Cahalan’s estranged parents, in particular, found a common purpose as a result of their daughter’s plight, putting her health before old hardships. After numerous tests revealed nothing, an observed increase of white blood cells in her cerebrospinal fluid eventually clued in medical professionals. Diagnosed with anti-NMDA-receptor encephalitis—a rare autoimmune disease with a cure—Cahalan and her family embarked on the long, hard road to recovery. Through the lonesomeness of her illness, a community emerged, the members of which were dedicated to returning the author to her former life as a beloved daughter, sister, lover and friend. A valiant attempt to recount a mostly forgotten experience, though the many questions that remain may prove frustrating to some readers.
Notorious RBG: The Life and Times of Ruth Bader Ginsburg by Irin Carmon and Shana Knizhnik
Looking for a better understanding of the Supreme Court Justice making headlines for taking a stand on Donald Trump? Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg's life and work are presented in a readable manner that analyzes the importance of her legal cases and judicial decisions on American society. Ginsburg's time as a student, wife, mother, lawyer, and justice are explained in social context allowing readers to better understand the significance of her achievements. Photographs and well-chosen graphics will make this work an enjoyable read for students.
Nothing to Envy by Barbara Demick
A detailed, grim portrait of daily life under the repressive North Korean dictatorship, where schoolchildren are taught to sing anthems in praise of their leader asserting that they “have nothing to envy in this world.`
Los Angeles Times foreign correspondent Demick bases her account on seven years of interviews with North Koreans who escaped to South Korea. She focuses on individuals whose stories began in the 1990s and continue to the present, including Mi-ran, a lower-class girl who became a teacher; Jun-sang, a university student who eventually got a glimpse of outside life through books, radio and television; Mrs. Song, a middle-aged true believer, and her defiant daughter Oak-hee; Dr. Kim, an idealistic female physician; and Kim Hyuck, an orphan boy surviving alone on the streets. Along with their personal stories, Demick includes background information on the Korean War and the dictatorships of Kim Il-sung and his son Kim Jong-il. The author also examines the great famine that killed millions of North Koreans in the 1990s. She paints a stark, vivid picture of reality in an industrial city with no electricity and almost no industry, where workers no longer get paid, men are conscripted into military service for ten years, grass, bark and corn husks are considered food, and death by starvation is all too common. In one unforgettable scene, Dr. Kim, having crossed a river into China, sees that dogs in China eat better than human beings in North Korea. In addition to the physical hardships is the psychological stress of living under a rigid totalitarian government where a chance wrong word overheard and reported by a neighbor can mean imprisonment or death. Demick shows the state of mind of each of her subjects, what their daily life was like, how they coped and eventually how each escaped. She also reveals her subjects struggling, sometimes unsuccessfully, to adapt to life in South Korea.
Meticulous reporting reveals life in a country that tries hard to keep its citizens walled in and the rest of the world out. (Kirkus Reviews)
Funny in Farsi by Firoozeh Dumas
Light-as-air essays about an immigrant childhood in California.
In 1972, Dumas’s father, an employee of the Iranian National Oil Company, which had landed a two-year consulting contract with an American firm, came to the US and brought along the entire family. Although the adventure in their new country begins with the author and her mother getting lost after elementary-school orientation, the Dumases rapidly embrace their new home: Las Vegas becomes their default vacation destination, and they spend every Christmas watching Bob Hope. The author has the usual problems of a stranger in a strange land—nobody can pronounce her name or has any awareness of her homeland—but Dumas tosses in some new ones as well: the communal showers at sleep-away camp (she doesn’t bathe for a week) and the disappointment when her father fails to qualify as a contestant on Bowling for Dollars. But these trials pale in comparison to the family’s difficulties during the hostage crisis. As vendors begin selling T-shirts that read “Iranians go Home,” Dumas’s father loses his job and his pension and is forced to sell all the family's belongings. After the crisis ends, he does find a new job, at half his previous salary, but nothing mars his love for his adopted country; Dumas recounts his thoughts on US citizens who shirk their civic duties: “They need to be sent for six months to a nondemocratic country. Then they'll vote.” At all times, no matter how heavy the subject matter, Dumas keeps her tone light. Even a disastrous trip to Washington, D.C., to welcome the Shah, complete with death threats from protestors, is played for laughs.
Warm and engaging, despite some creaky prose. (Kirkus Reviews)
The Family Romanov: Murder, Rebellion, and the Fall of Imperial Russia by Candace Fleming
From the “Before you begin..” which clarifies the basic vocabulary of Imperial Russia to “The Romanos Online” and other appendixes, Fleming presents a well-researched treasure on Tsar Nicholas II’s Romanov clan. While the average reader might know little of the Imperial Family’s fate beyond their eventual assassination, with many believing that the family were innocent victims in a time of political upheaval, Fleming builds her narrative to show the many ways that the Tsar and his family were complicit in the poverty and inequality that plagued Russia at the beginning of the twentieth century. Readers will find themselves amazed by the many poor decisions Nicholas II and Empress Alexandra make in the months leading up to their imprisonment and murder. Fleming captures the family’s final moments in gripping detail and continues their story to include eventual discovery of their bodies in the late 1970s. Highly readable non-fiction at its best!
Trespassing on Einstein's Lawn by Amanda Gefter
Part science writing and part memoir, this adventurous fact-finding romp takes readers across the landscape of ideas about the universe. . . . [Gefter] is a crafty storyteller and journalist. . . . [She] makes even the most esoteric concepts—and there are a lot of them in this book—lucid and approachable. . . . What she discovered about the new frontier of quantum cosmology and the importance of the role of the individual observer is astonishing and awesome, and Gefter’s book is a useful presentation of this thrilling ontological shift for a general audience. Beautifully written and hugely entertaining, this book is a heartfelt introduction to the many mind-bending theories in contemporary physics. (Kirkus Reviews)
Outliers: The Story of Success by Malcolm Gladwell
An entertaining account of success. Gladwell takes the reader on a tour of success across the spectrum that includes professional hockey players, computer pioneers, and Jewish lawyers connecting these outliers through a systematic explanation of how timing and opportunities led to their success. An enjoyable read.
The Tipping Point by Malcom Gladwell
The tipping point is that magic moment when an idea, trend, or social behavior crosses a threshold, tips, and spreads like wildfire. Just as a single sick person can start an epidemic of the flu, so too can a small but precisely targeted push cause a fashion trend, the popularity of a new product, or a drop in the crime rate. This widely acclaimed bestseller, in which Malcolm Gladwell explores and brilliantly illuminates the tipping point phenomenon, is already changing the way people throughout the world think about selling products and disseminating ideas. (Barnes and Noble)
The Elegant Universe by Brian Greene
Superstring theory may provide the long-sought unification of physics for which Einstein sought in vain. Here is a look at the current state of the quest. Greene (a professor of physics and mathematics at Columbia and Cornell) begins by pointing out the central problem of modern physics. Quantum mechanics and general relativity both work perfectly, and they cannot both be right. Relativity works for large, massive objects; quantum theory for tiny ones. Normally, the two realms can be kept separate. Yet increasingly, physics deals with phenomena such as black holes, where the conflicts are impossible to avoid. Out of the search for a more complete explanation came string theory. Its foundations were laid down some 30 years ago by Gabriele Venizano, who found that a two-century-old formula by Leonard Euler described subatomic particles more elegantly than existing theory. The relationships would make sense if elementary particles were not pointlike, but elongated and vibrating, like tiny musical strings—in one sense, a modern version of the ancient metaphor of the music of the spheres. It took a while for physicists to embrace string theory; for one thing, it seemed to predict things nobody had ever seen. And despite its formidable explanatory power, its mathematical expressions were often even more formidable—Greene describes some of the equations as nearly impossible to understand, let alone solve. Still, it has the right look about it, and two waves of enthusiasm (one in the mid-1980s, the other ten years later) have convinced many physicists of the theory's probable validity. Greene deftly summarizes these findings, in areas from subatomic-particle theory to cosmology, with occasional forays into deeper waters such as the ten-dimensional structure of the universe, with several dimensions folded undetectably back into themselves. A final chapter forecasts that string theory will become the standard physical model in the next century. Entertaining and well-written—possibly the clearest popular treatment to date of this complex subject.
Motorcycle Diaries: Notes on a Latin American Journey by Ernesto Che Guevara
The young Che Guevara’s lively and highly entertaining travel diary, now a popular movie and a New York Times best seller. This new, expanded edition features exclusive, unpublished photos taken by the 23-year-old Ernesto on his journey across a continent, and a tender preface by Aleida Guevara, offering an insightful perspective on the man and the icon. (Amazon.com)
Seven Years in Tibet by Heinrich Harrer
Tibet is a strange and wonderful land and Heinrich Harrer's record of his seven years spent there make a strange and wonderful story, a blend of personal adventure and interpretation of the mysticism and beauty, Harrer, a German, was interned by the British in a prison camp in India at the outbreak of war. His escape was relatively simple, as he writes it; he chose Tibet as his route of flight, intending to reach Japanese lines and rom there be returned to the German forces. He reached Lhasa, forbidden city of Tibet, and was so intrigued by the way of life that he stayed, putting his many talents to constructive use. Harsh weather- barriers against foreigners- all were overcome, and he became tutor to the Dalai Lama and enjoyed a rare relationship with this highest dignitary. Psychologically, the story is unique, as a rather arrogant member of the ""Master Race"" is won to the simple ways of a peace loving people, is deflected from his desire to fight for Fascism and concludes with a plea for understanding of his adopted, country Tibet. This is more than a first rate adventure story. (Kirkus Reviews)
A Brief History of Time by Stephen Hawking
A landmark volume in science writing by one of the great minds of our time, Stephen Hawking’s book explores such profound questions as: How did the universe begin—and what made its start possible? Does time always flow forward? Is the universe unending—or are there boundaries? Are there other dimensions in space? What will happen when it all ends? Told in language we all can understand, A Brief History of Time plunges into the exotic realms of black holes and quarks, of antimatter and “arrows of time,” of the big bang and a bigger God—where the possibilities are wondrous and unexpected. With exciting images and profound imagination, Stephen Hawking brings us closer to the ultimate secrets at the very heart of creation.
Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand
The author of Seabiscuit (2001) returns with another dynamic, well-researched story of guts overcoming odds. Hillenbrand examines the life of Louis Zamperini, an American airman who, after his bomber crashed in the Pacific during World War II, survived 47 days on a life raft only to be captured by Japanese soldiers and subjected to inhuman treatment for the next two years at a series of POW camps. That his life spiraled out of control when he returned home to the United States is understandable. However, he was able to turn it around after meeting Billy Graham, and he became a Christian speaker and traveled to Japan to forgive his tormentors. The author reconstructs Zamperini’s wild youth, when his hot temper, insubordination, and bold pranks seemed to foretell a future life of crime. His talents as a runner, however, changed all that, getting him to the 1936 Olympics and to the University of Southern California, where he was a star of the track team. When the story turns to World War II, Hillenbrand expands her narrative to include men who served with him in the Air Corps in the Pacific. Through letters and interviews, she brings to life not just the men who were with Zamperini on the life raft and in the Japanese camps, but the families they left behind. The suffering of the men is often difficult to read, for the details of starvation, thirst and shark attacks are followed by the specifics of the brutalities inflicted by the Japanese, particularly the sadistic Mutsuhiro Watanabe, who seemed dedicated to making Zamperini’s life unbearable. Hillenbrand follows Watanabe’s life after the Japanese surrender, providing the perfect foil to Zamperini’s. When Zamperini wrote to his former tormentor to forgive him and attempted to meet him in person, Watanabe rejected him. Throughout are photographs of World War II bombers, POW camps, Zamperini and his fellow GIs and their families and sweethearts, providing a glimpse into a bygone era. Zamperini is still thriving at age 93. Alternately stomach-wrenching, anger-arousing and spirit-lifting—and always gripping.
The Boys Who Challenged Hitler: Knud Pedersen and the Churchill Club by Phillip Hoose
On April 9, 1940, Denmark surrendered to Hitler’s regime with no resistance. Unlike its neighbor Norway who fought mightily to resist Nazi occupation, Denmark’s government, army, and civilian population gave up, or so it seemed to fourteen-year-old Knud Pedersen and his friends. Refusing to surrender to the Nazi occupation, the boys researched and formed a grassroots resistance force. Over the next few years, the Churchill Club worked tirelessly to overthrow the occupation. Arrested and imprisoned for their actions, the boys fueled the underground resistance that would result in the escape of many Danish Jews. A readable non-fiction work, the actions of the teen heroes reveal a little known chapter of World War II.
The Boy who Harnessed the Wind by William Kamkwamba and Bryan Mealer
The author and his collaborator have condensed the original memoir of the same name, a story of an innovative and compassionate boy coming of age during an era of extreme hardship in Malawi. This newest incarnation of Kamkwamba’s tale is as absorbing as its predecessor and still delivers with equanimity facts both disturbing and inspiring. Kamkwamba describes his early life in Masitala, a tiny rural village where, typically, large families of subsistence farmers lived in huts without electricity or running water. Until December 2000, Kamkwamba’s life reads like an African parallel to the idyllic, early-20th-century scenes in Sterling North’s Rascal: soccer with balls made from plastic bags; juicy mangoes and crunchy grasshoppers; storytelling by the light of a kerosene lamp; experiments with old radio parts; loyal friends and faithful pet. A perfect storm of deforestation, governmental changes, flooding and drought creates a sudden famine. The text does not spare readers the effects of starvation and grinding poverty on humans and animals. However, there are also many descriptions of how and why power-generating inventions work, and the passages about creating tools from almost nothing are reminiscent of Laura Ingalls Wilder’s Little House series. Against astounding odds, Kamkwamba’s eventual creation of a windmill to bring lighting to his family’s home is nothing short of amazing. Compelling and informative for a broad readership and a good addition to STEM collections. (map, prologue, photographs, epilogue, acknowledgments)
Girl, Interrupted by Susanna Kaysen
In 1967, after a session with a psychiatrist she'd never seen before, eighteen-year-old Susanna Kaysen was put in a taxi and sent to McLean Hospital. She spent most of the next two years in the ward for teenage girls in a psychiatric hospital as renowned for its famous clientele—Sylvia Plath, Robert Lowell, James Taylor, and Ray Charles—as for its progressive methods of treating those who could afford its sanctuary. Kaysen's memoir encompasses horror and razor-edged perception while providing vivid portraits of her fellow patients and their keepers. It is a brilliant evocation of a "parallel universe" set within the kaleidoscopically shifting landscape of the late sixties. Girl, Interrupted is a clear-sighted, unflinching document that gives lasting and specific dimension to our definitions of sane and insane, mental illness and recovery. (Amazon.com)
The Girl Who Escaped ISIS by Farida Khalaf
'A stunning, heart wrenching narrative by a teenage Yazdi girl who is uprooted from her village in northern Syria, only to be kidnapped and sold as a sex slave by ISIS. Farida fights back and is horribly beaten by ISIS for her resistance and her leadership role as she attempts to save other girls from the terrible fate that awaits them. Once Farida escapes it takes even more courage for her to recite her story to German journalist Andrea Hoffman. Everyone should read this in order to get to the heart of the tragedy of the Arab world and the distortion of Islam being perpetrated by ISIS. Beautifully written in the voice of a teenage girl, this book gives more of an understanding of what is happening than political treatises.'' (Ahmed Rashid, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Taliban) (Amazon.com)
Thomas Jefferson and the Tripoli Pirates: The Forgotten War by Brian Kilmeade and Don Yaeger
This is the little-known story of how a newly independent nation was challenged by four Muslim powers and what happened when America's third president decided to stand up to intimidation.
When Thomas Jefferson became president in 1801, America faced a crisis. The new nation was deeply in debt and needed its economy to grow quickly, but its merchant ships were under attack. Pirates from North Africa's Barbary Coast routinely captured American sailors and held them as slaves, demanding ransom and tribute payments far beyond what the new country could afford.
Over the previous 15 years, as a diplomat and then as secretary of state, Jefferson had tried to work with the Barbary states (Tripoli, Tunis, Algiers, and Morocco). Unfortunately, he found it impossible to negotiate with people who believed their religion justified the plunder and enslavement of non-Muslims. These rogue states would show no mercy - at least not while easy money could be made by extorting America, France, England, and other powers. So President Jefferson decided to move beyond diplomacy. He sent the US Navy's new warships and a detachment of marines to blockade Tripoli - launching the Barbary Wars and beginning America's journey toward future superpower status.
As they did in their previous best seller, George Washington's Secret Six, Kilmeade and Yaeger have transformed a nearly forgotten slice of history into a dramatic story that will keep you listening to find out what happens next. (Amazon.com)
Into Thin Air by Jon Krakauer
And onto thin ice--Krakauer's (Into the Wild, 1995) hypnotic, rattling, firsthand account of a commercial expedition up Mt. Everest that went way wrong.
In the spring of 1996, Krakauer took an assignment from Outside magazine to report on the burgeoning industry of commercially guided, high-altitude climbing. Many experienced alpinists were dismayed that the fabled 8,000-meter summits were simply "being sold to rich parvenues'' with neither climbing grace nor talent, but possessed of colossal egos. From childhood, Krakauer had wanted to climb Everest; he was an expert on rock and ice, although he had never sojourned at Himalayan altitudes. While it has become popular to consider climbing Everest a lark and the South Col approach little more than a yak route, Krakauer found the altitude a malicious force that turned his blood to sludge and his extremities to wood, that ate his brain cells. Much of the time he lived in a hypoxic stupor, despite the standard acclimatization he underwent. As he tells of his own struggles, he plaits his tale with stories of his climbing comrades, describes the often outrageous characters on other expeditions, and details the history of Everest exploration. The writing builds eerily, portentously to the summit day, fingering little glitches that were piling up, "a slow accrual, compounding imperceptibly, steadily toward critical mass,'' when a rogue storm overtook the climbers; typical by Everest standards, it was ferocious in the extreme. Time collapses as, minute-by-minute, Krakauer rivetingly and movingly chronicles what ensued, much of which is near agony to read. Unjustly, Krakauer holds himself culpable for aspects of the disaster, but this book will serve an important purpose if it gives even one person pause before tackling Everest.
A brilliantly told story, and one that won't go begging when the year's literary honors are doled out. (Kirkus Reviews)
Hey Kiddo by Jarrett J. Krosoczka
A childhood beset by generations of family addiction is revealed in this raw graphic-novel memoir from a well-known children’s author and illustrator.
Though he doesn’t realize it until later, Krosoczka’s (The Principal Strikes Back, 2018, etc.) mother suffers from addiction, which brings turmoil into their family’s life. Basic needs go unmet, promises are routinely broken, and the stability and safety most take for granted are never guaranteed. Krosoczka is raised by his grandparents when his mom can no longer care for him. The contradictions prevalent in his childhood will resonate with readers who have experienced addiction and educate those who have not. Yes, there is chaos, but there is also warmth, seen, for example, when Krosoczka’s mom fakes his birthday for an impromptu party at a fast-food chain, or in the way his grandfather never misses an opportunity to tell him he is loved. Krosoczka learns self-reliance as a survival strategy. He also learns to express himself through art. The palette, awash in gray and earth tones, invokes the feeling of hazy memories. Interspersed are tender and at times heartbreaking images of real drawings and letters from the author and several family members. Krosoczka as an author generously and lovingly shows his flawed family members striving to do the best they can even as Krosoczka the character clearly aches for more.
Honest, important, and timely. (Kirkus Reviews)
Beyond Magenta: Transgender Teens Speak Out by Susan Kuklin
In this nonfiction work, six teens explain the process of realizing that they identify as transgender, the act of coming out to their family and friends, and how their transition has changed their life. Each teen speaks with such an honest voice, that the collection is impossible to put down! Jessy, Christina, Mariah, Cameron, Nat, and Luke offer authentic accounts of the path towards adulthood. Readers will be impressed with their bravery and honesty. Winner of the 2015 Stonewall Book Award.
American Sniper by Chris Kyle
Memoir of America’s most prolific sniper, with an emphasis on the grisly, unpredictable nature of contemporary warfare.
With more than 250 confirmed kills in Iraq and several citations for bravery, including two Silver Stars, Kyle may well be the “most lethal” soldier in American military history. Fortunately, this memoir (written with co-authors Scott McEwen and Jim DeFelice) takes a more unassuming and approachable tone in narrating his improbable journey from a modest Texas childhood to becoming a sniper with SEAL Team 3 and serving four deployments in Iraq: “my so-called ‘legend’ [has] a lot to do with luck.” As with other recent books about the SEALs, they are depicted as a breed apart: hyper-competitive, with the most intense training, hazing and bonding rituals (the latter involving much drinking and fighting). Kyle is unapologetic about his own conservative persona, and perhaps not the ideal spokesman for military public relations. The highlights of the narrative are the grim yet often funny accounts of Kyle’s violent battles all over Iraq, most of which are described crisply. The author describes his participation in numerous urban battles, such as the protracted struggles for Ramadi and Fallujah, and asserts that elite operators like himself contributed to Iraq’s evolving stability—“it took violence of action to create a situation where there could be peace.” Kyle provides a few surprising moments, as when he writes eloquently about his fellow veterans, including SEALs killed or wounded in battle. “There’s no reason someone who has fought for their country should be homeless or jobless,” he writes. Kyle’s wife offers her counterpoint narrative in italicized passages, driving home the surreal life of difficulty bestowed on professional warriors’ loved ones.
This aggressively written account of frontline combat, with plenty of action and technical nitty-gritty, should appeal to conservative readers and military buffs. (Kirkus Reviews)
In the Garden of Beasts: Live, terror, and an American Family in Hitler’s Berlin by Erik Larsen
The unraveling of Berlin in the early 1930s as told through the eyes and experiences of the Dodd family. William E. Dodd accepts the post as US Ambassador to Nazi Germany with a host of reservations, but sees promise in the opportunity to reunite he and his wife with their adult children who will join them in Berlin. The family, especially daughter Martha, at first enchanted by the “New Germany”, begins to see and experience the darker side of Hitler’s regime. Ambassador Dodd is among the first to sound the alarm on Hitler’s rise to power, although most of his warnings are ignored by an American government that leans toward isolationism. Using letters, diaries, and other important primary sources Larsen builds a fascinating picture of the lead up to World War II captured through the eyes of an American family. The fact that the reader, well aware of what will happen next, is helpless to warn the participants adds to the intrigue of the book.
March: Books 1-3 by John Lewis
This trilogy covers the life of civil rights hero, John Lewis. From his childhood in the segregated South (volume 1), to his work with the Freedom Riders in the early 1960s (volume 2), and finally to the assassinations of the 1960s (volume 3) this graphic novel hooks readers immediately revealing an important piece of history that many do not know as well as they should. An excellent read!
A House in the Sky: A Memoir by Amanda Lindhout
*Starred Review* Lindhout, with coauthor Corbett, recounts her 15 months in captivity at the hands of Somalian kidnappers in this harrowing memoir. Growing up in Alberta, Canada, Lindhout used her spending money to purchase old issues of National Geographic. As a young woman, she yearned to venture to the exotic places she saw on its pages and soon found she could save up enough money waitressing to fund months’ worth of travel. Starting with Venezuela at age 19, she eventually journeyed to India, Pakistan, and Afghanistan. Deciding to pursue a career as a journalist, she ventured first into Iraq and then convinced Nigel, a former lover turned friend, to join her in Somalia. Four days into their visit, they were taken hostage by Somali bandits, most of whom were young teens. The kidnappers demanded outrageous ransoms from their parents, and began to treat Lindhout, far more than her male counterpart, with increasing brutality. Writing with immediacy and urgency, Lindhout and Corbett recount the horrific ordeal in crisp, frank, evocative prose. But what readers will walk away with is an admiration for Lindhout’s deep reserves of courage under unimaginable circumstances. (Booklist)
The Home That Was Our Country by Alia Malek
A Syrian-American journalist/civil rights lawyer interweaves narratives about her family with the history of modern Syria.
Malek (A Country Called Amreeka: Arab Roots, American Stories, 2009, etc.) moved to Damascus in the wake of the Arab Spring. Brimming with optimism, she intended to finish restoration work on her grandmother Salma’s house while helping Syria transition from “decades of stifling and corrupt dictatorship.” But by 2013, she had returned to the United States, disillusioned. In this book, the author narrates a multigenerational family saga that begins with a charismatic maternal great-grandfather but focuses mostly on Salma’s life. When a newlywed Salma moved into the house that Malek would finish restoring more than 60 years later, Syria was independent from Ottoman rule and French influence. Like Salma’s life, the country was “more potential and possibility than broken promises.” Both Damascus and Salma’s apartment building were home to people from all walks of Middle Eastern life: “Turks, Kurds, Arabs…all of different classes, some Christian and others Muslim.” By 1970, the year Hafez al-Assad staged the coup that would catapult him into power, Salma lost the rights to her apartment, which Malek’s parents would not be able to reclaim for three decades. By the time they did, Syria had become a place in which the government divided the people from each other through tactics intended to breed fear and distrust. After anti-government, pro-democracy protests and uprisings swept through Tunisia, Egypt, and other parts of the Arab world, Malek decided to return to the place where she had been conceived but from which she and her parents seemed destined to be separated. However, as an independent, unmarried American female, she felt unwelcome. Some of her relatives wanted her to leave because they feared for her safety and their own, while others saw her presence as a way to “curry favor with the [al Assad] regime.” Moving and insightful, Malek’s memoir combines sharp-eyed observations of Syrian politics, only occasionally overdone, with elegiac commentary on home, exile, and a bygone era. (Kirkus Reviews)
The Wild Truth by Carine McCandless
The spellbinding story of Chris McCandless, who gave away his savings, hitchhiked to Alaska, walked into the wilderness alone, and starved to death in 1992, fascinated not just New York Times bestselling author Jon Krakauer, but also the rest of the nation. Krakauer's book,Into the Wild, became an international bestseller, translated into thirty-one languages, and Sean Penn's inspirational film by the same name further skyrocketed Chris McCandless to global fame. But the real story of Chris’s life and his journey has not yet been told - until now. The missing pieces are finally revealed in The Wild Truth, written by Carine McCandless, Chris's beloved and trusted sister. Featured in both the book and film, Carine has wrestled for more than twenty years with the legacy of her brother's journey to self-discovery, and now tells her own story while filling in the blanks of his. Carine was Chris's best friend, the person with whom he had the closest bond, and who witnessed firsthand the dysfunctional and violent family dynamic that made Chris willing to embrace the harsh wilderness of Alaska. Growing up in the same troubled household, Carine speaks candidly about the deeper reality of life in the McCandless family. In the many years since the tragedy of Chris's death, Carine has searched for some kind of redemption. In this touching and deeply personal memoir, she reveals how she has learned that real redemption can only come from speaking the truth. (Amazon.com)
The Borden Murders: Lizzie Borden and the Trial of the Century by Sarah Miller
In August of 1892 a grizzly murder resulted in a media spectacle in the quiet town of Fall River, Massachusetts. Miller’s account presents a detailed chronology of the crime, investigation, and trial of Lizzie Borden for the murders of her father and stepmother. While eventually found not guilty, as the infamous children’s rhyme suggests, Lizzie Borden took an axe, gave her mother forty whacks, When she saw what she had done, She gave her father forty-one, Lizzie had been tried and convicted in the court of public opinion. Readers are provided with the details to form their own opinion on the crime in an entertaining narrative that is perfect for a middle or high school audience.
Radium Girls by Kate Moore
A readable work of nonfiction that tells the story of the radium dial painters, a group of women working in the 1920s applying radium paint to the faces of clocks, watches, and gauges to provide a brilliant glow. Diligent in their work, the women were taught to “lip point” inserting the brush into their mouth to taper the bristles between strokes. When these young women began to suffer from bone degeneration at a suspicious rate, the women filed suit against the corporation. Far from a clear cut case, these trials and medical evaluations would follow the surviving women for decades. In addition to the legal facts, Moore provides clear depictions of the dial painters by gathering descriptions and documents from the families that help to bring the women’s suffering to life.
The Last Victim by Jason Moss
A bizarre first-person account of a young man’s nearly disastrous obsession with serial killers. As a freshman at the University of Nevada in Las Vegas, Moss, who dreamed of a career in law enforcement, conceived the idea of writing to serial killers on death row, hoping to gain their trust and discover what made them tick. His most extensive contact was with John Wayne Gacy, who had raped and murdered 33 teenage boys. He also corresponded with Charles Manson, Jeffrey Dahmer, Richard Ramirez (a.k.a. the Night Stalker), and other killers whom he admired for their nerve. To gain Gacy’s attention—death-row inmates of Gacy’s notoriety are besieged by would-be correspondents—Moss posed as a sexually confused and highly impressionable boy, matching himself to the profile of Gacy’s victims. When this ploy worked, Moss felt that he had psyched out the killer and assumed that he would be able to manipulate and control him. Soon, however, Moss found himself identifying with, even sympathizing with Gacy, who began telephoning him regularly. When Gacy invited him for an expense-paid visit, Moss discovered that the guards behaved more like servants and left him alone and unobserved in the same room with the convicted murderer. Though aging and handcuffed, Gacy was able to break Moss down and turn him into the confused and compliant young man he had been pretending to be, demonstrating for him not only how a predator operates but how a potential victim feels. Fortunately, Moss, who could easily have become Gacy’s last victim, escaped with only his ego bruised. A prologue and afterword by psychologist Kottler comment on both Moss’s behavior and society’s propensity for glorifying violence and turning serial killers into celebrities. An engrossing and gut-wrenching read. (Kirkus Reviews)
Reading Lolita in Tehran by Azar Nafisi
So you want a revolution? If your foe is an ayatollah, try reading Jane Austen. So exiled writer and scholar Nafisi (English/Johns Hopkins Univ.) instructs in this sparkling memoir of life in post-revolutionary Iran. A modest dissident during the shah’s regime, a member of a Marxist study group like so many other Iranian students abroad (“I never fully integrated into the movement. . . . I never gave up the habit of reading and loving ‘counterrevolutionary’ writers”), Nafisi taught literature at the University of Tehran after the revolution. After running afoul of the mullahs for having dared teach such “immoral” novels as The Great Gatsby and such “anti-Islamic” writers as Austen, she organized a literary study group that met in her home. Fittingly, the first work her group, made up of seven young women, turned to was The Thousand and One Nights, narrated by that great revolutionary Scheherazade. “When my students came into that room,” Nafisi writes, “they took off more than their scarves and robes. . . . Our world in that living room became our sanctuary, our self-contained universe, mocking the reality of the black-scarved, timid faces in the city that sprawled below.” Tracing her students’ discussions and journeys of self-discovery while revisiting scenes from her “decadent” youth, Nafisi puts a fine spin on works that Western students so often complain about having to read—The Golden Bowl, Mansfield Park, Ulysses, Mrs. Dalloway. And, without once sinking into sentimentality or making overly large claims for the relative might of the pen over the sword, Nafisi celebrates the power of literature to nourish free thought in climes inhospitable to it; as she remarks, Vladimir Nabokov’s novel Lolita may not have been a direct “critique of the Islamic Republic, but it went against the grain of all totalitarian perspectives,” while enjoying the pages of Pride and Prejudice with friends served as a powerful reminder that “our society was far more advanced than its new rulers.” A spirited tribute both to the classics of world literature and to resistance against oppression. (Kirkus Reviews)
Born a Crime by Trevor Noah
The host of The Daily Show reflects on his tumultuous South African childhood.
In a gritty memoir, Noah relates his harsh experiences growing up during the final years of apartheid and the chaotic and racially charged conflicts that would continue to undermine the newly won freedom that was established in its aftermath. His story unfolds through a series of loosely assembled essays that touch on his home life and school environment and later expand outward to various cities and neighborhoods and his encounters with petty crime and confrontations with domestic violence. Throughout, the author documents the evolving yet continually challenging race relations among blacks, whites, and “coloreds.” Noah was born the son of a white Swiss-German father and a devoutly Christian black Xhosa mother who purposely chose to have a child through a mixed relationship, with full understanding of the legal ramifications established under the Immorality Act of 1927, which banned illicit carnal relations between a native woman and a European male. Noah’s mother proved to be the dominant, remarkable force throughout his life, constantly striving to instill deep values of education, religion, and freedom as she struggled with her own desire for independence. “Perhaps even more amazing is the fact that my mother started her little project, me, at a time when she could not have known that apartheid would end,” writes the author. “There was no reason to think it would end; it had seen generations come and go. I was nearly six when Mandela was released, ten before democracy finally came, yet she was preparing me to live a life of freedom long before we knew freedom would exist.” On the whole, though studded with insight and provocative social criticism, Noah’s material doesn’t feel fully digested. As an accomplished adult humorist looking back to his childhood self, the attempt to inject a humorous tone into these grim proceedings frequently hits an awkward note.
A somewhat disjointed narrative with flashes of brilliant storytelling and acute observations on South African culture. (Kirkus Reviews)
Undeniable: Evolution and the Science of Creation by Bill Nye
A sweeping tour of the mechanics of evolution from the Science Guy.
“Science is the way we know nature and our place within it,” writes Nye, who is open-minded and curious but also someone who likes the best explanations devised by the human project: “In science, a hypothesis should not only explain the evidence we have found,” he writes, “it should also make predictions about things not yet discovered....Science is inherently work in progress.” What kind of evidence do we have about evolution; what kind of dynamic thinking, informed by all we have experienced, can we bring to its understanding? What method of inquiry allows us to advance our understanding? Nye neatly deconstructs the arguments against evolution, from basic mistakes of biology and physics to more cosmological concerns—that the naysayers “avoid the exploration of evolution because it reminds us all that humankind may not be that special in nature’s scheme. What happens to other species also happens to us”—and he takes very seriously the problems posed by introducing creationism to school curriculums around the country. While he has no trouble sinking his teeth into the creationists and anti-evolution activists, Nye really takes flight when he is trying to puzzle out how we get here from there or considering the strangeness of sexual selection (“Consider the peacock, the epitome of costly signaling”). In addition to Darwin, the author examines the contributions of a host of scientists from a variety of disciplines, including biology, geology and genetics. With the smoothness and encouragement that mark his writing, Nye suggests that “[t]he only way to get the answers is to keep looking at living things and learning more about the process by which we all came to be.”
Proof positive that evolutionary theory can be popular and inviting. (Kirkus Reviews)
The Light We Carry: Overcoming in Uncertain Times by Michelle Obama
There may be no tidy solutions or pithy answers to life’s big challenges, but Michelle Obama believes that we can all locate and lean on a set of tools to help us better navigate change and remain steady within flux. In The Light We Carry, she opens a frank and honest dialogue with readers, considering the questions many of us wrestle with: How do we build enduring and honest relationships? How can we discover strength and community inside our differences? What tools do we use to address feelings of self-doubt or helplessness? What do we do when it all starts to feel like too much?
Michelle Obama offers readers a series of fresh stories and insightful reflections on change, challenge, and power, including her belief that when we light up for others, we can illuminate the richness and potential of the world around us, discovering deeper truths and new pathways for progress. Drawing from her experiences as a mother, daughter, spouse, friend, and First Lady, she shares the habits and principles she has developed to successfully adapt to change and overcome various obstacles—the earned wisdom that helps her continue to “become.” She details her most valuable practices, like “starting kind,” “going high,” and assembling a “kitchen table” of trusted friends and mentors. With trademark humor, candor, and compassion, she also explores issues connected to race, gender, and visibility, encouraging readers to work through fear, find strength in community, and live with boldness. (Amazon.com)
Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers by Mary Roach
One of the strangest books I have read, but SO interesting! Entertainment Weekly says it best. "One of the funniest and most unusual books of the year....Gross, educational, and unexpectedly sidesplitting.” Mary Roach covers every aspect of what happens after death from the forensic cadaver farm to organ donation, each chapter covers a different facet of a cadaver’s rich “life” after death with humor and creativity. While this is not for the faint of heart, if you can stomach the graphic details you are in for an interesting and enjoyable read!
Brick by Brick: How Lego Rewrote the Rules of Innovation and Conquered the Global Toy Industry by David C. Robertson
My perspective on Lego is biased as my home is filled with constructions of the colorful plastic bricks, but Brick by Brick offers a fascinating look at how the corporation developed from purveyors of simple wooden toys to a worldwide industry giant. Robertson intended to write a book on innovative international companies, but redirected his mission to focus on Lego after his first visit to the corporate headquarters in Denmark. The history that Robertson details makes the Lego corporation’s current position at the top of the toy industry even more remarkable given some of the obstacles and difficulties that the group has managed to overcome. In the end, smart decision making and a clear mission throughout the company have allowed the Lego brand to remain one of the most popular toys available to children today and Robertson offers a thoughtful account of how it happened.
Seven Brief Lessons of Physics by Carlo Rovelli
Italian theoretical physicist Rovelli (General Relativity: The Most Beautiful of Theories, 2015, etc.) shares his thoughts on the broader scientific and philosophical implications of the great revolution that has taken place over the past century.
These seven lessons, which first appeared as articles in the Sunday supplement of the Italian newspaper Sole 24 Ore, are addressed to readers with little knowledge of physics. In less than 100 pages, the author, who teaches physics in both France and the United States, cogently covers the great accomplishments of the past and the open questions still baffling physicists today. In the first lesson, he focuses on Einstein's theory of general relativity. He describes Einstein's recognition that gravity "is not diffused through space [but] is that space itself" as "a stroke of pure genius." In the second lesson, Rovelli deals with the puzzling features of quantum physics that challenge our picture of reality. In the remaining sections, the author introduces the constant fluctuations of atoms, the granular nature of space, and more. "It is hardly surprising that there are more things in heaven and earth, dear reader, than have been dreamed of in our philosophy—or in our physics,” he writes. Rovelli also discusses the issues raised in loop quantum gravity, a theory that he co-developed. These issues lead to his extraordinary claim that the passage of time is not fundamental but rather derived from the granular nature of space. The author suggests that there have been two separate pathways throughout human history: mythology and the accumulation of knowledge through observation. He believes that scientists today share the same curiosity about nature exhibited by early man.
An intriguing meditation on the nature of the universe and our attempts to understand it that should appeal to both scientists and general readers. (Kirkus Reviews)
Most Dangerous: Daniel Ellsberg and the Secret History of the Vietnam War by Steve Sheinkin
“I’m not going to be the first American President to lose a war” stated President Lyndon B. Johnson. “I will not be the first president of the United States to lose a war” insisted President Richard Nixon (319). Sheinkin concludes that each man accomplished this as the withdraw from Vietnam was handled by President Gerald Ford, but at what cost to the American people? Sheinkin’s latest work examines the American government’s complicated involvement in Vietnam along with the lies and deception of the administration. Daniel Ellsberg’s decision to release the top secret Pentagon Papers brought these deceptions to light and may have ended the Vietnam conflict. As usual, Sheinkin presents a readable account that will inspire readers to want to learn more about the complicated politics of the Cold War.
The Notorious Benedict Arnold: A True Story of Adventure, Heroism, and Treachery by Steve Sheinkin
Benedict Arnold is a name still disparaged by Americans, but few know the true story of this much maligned revolutionary general. As the subtitle suggests, Sheinkin’s book is at heart an adventure tale. The reader follows Benedict Arnold through the early years of the Revolution, gaining a thorough understanding of Arnold’s fantastic military planning and great bravery on the battlefield. Arnold’s downfall throughout the book is his pride, which leads him to be caught in a treacherous deal with the British forces. Highly readable, this non-fiction work reads like an adventure novel. Readers will be left with a new understanding of the complicated nature of Revolutionary era politics.
Hidden Figures by Margot Lee Shetterly
An inside look at the World War II–era black female mathematicians who assisted greatly in the United States’ aeronautics industry.
Shetterly’s father, a 40-year veteran of what became Langley Research Center, used to tell her the stories of the black female “computers” who were hired in 1943 to work in the computing pool. The first female computing pool, begun in the mid-1930s, had caused an uproar; the men in the lab couldn’t believe a female mind could process the rigorous math and work the expensive calculating machine. In 1941, Franklin Roosevelt signed Executive Order 8802, desegregating the defense industry and paving the way for Dorothy Vaughan, Mary Jackson, Katherine Johnson, and others to begin work in 1943. The author never fully explains what machine they were using, but it was likely more advanced than the comptometer. What is perfectly clear is that the women who were hired were crack mathematicians, either already holding master’s degrees or destined to gain one. It was hard enough to be a woman in the industry at that time, but the black women who worked at Langley also had to be strong, sharp, and sufficiently self-possessed to be able to question their superiors—and that is just what they did. They sought information, offered suggestions, caught errors, and authored research reports. The stories are amazing not because the women were extremely smart, but because they fought for and won recognition and devotedly supported each other’s work. Their work outside the office—as Scout leaders, public speakers, and leaders of seminars to promote science and engineering—was even more impressive. They were there from the beginning, perfecting World War II planes and proving to be invaluable to the nascent space program.
Much of the work will be confusing to the mathematically disinclined, but their story is inspiring and enlightening. (Kirkus Reviews)
The Radioactive Boy Scout by Ken Silverstein
The story of David Hahn, a misguided boy with an obsessive interest in nuclear science, is told in alternating chapters with the related history of nuclear research. An engaging and true tale, the reader follows David as he builds a backyard lab and attempts to develop a nuclear breeder reactor. Opening with government scientists breaking down the hazardous lab, the reader is left wondering how the seventeen year old choices went unnoticed by his parents, teachers, and friends. A very readable account of an interesting young man. Readers will be left wondering about what David Hahn has been up to lately, unfortunately a quick google search will lead to the shocking truth of how David's choices have impacted his life.
The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot
A dense, absorbing investigation into the medical community's exploitation of a dying woman and her family's struggle to salvage truth and dignity decades later.
In a well-paced, vibrant narrative, Popular Science contributor and Culture Dish blogger Skloot (Creative Writing/Univ. of Memphis) demonstrates that for every human cell put under a microscope, a complex life story is inexorably attached, to which doctors, researchers and laboratories have often been woefully insensitive and unaccountable. In 1951, Henrietta Lacks, an African-American mother of five, was diagnosed with what proved to be a fatal form of cervical cancer. At Johns Hopkins, the doctors harvested cells from her cervix without her permission and distributed them to labs around the globe, where they were multiplied and used for a diverse array of treatments. Known as HeLa cells, they became one of the world's most ubiquitous sources for medical research of everything from hormones, steroids and vitamins to gene mapping, in vitro fertilization, even the polio vaccine—all without the knowledge, must less consent, of the Lacks family. Skloot spent a decade interviewing every relative of Lacks she could find, excavating difficult memories and long-simmering outrage that had lay dormant since their loved one's sorrowful demise. Equal parts intimate biography and brutal clinical reportage, Skloot's graceful narrative adeptly navigates the wrenching Lack family recollections and the sobering, overarching realities of poverty and pre–civil-rights racism. The author's style is matched by a methodical scientific rigor and manifest expertise in the field.
Skloot's meticulous, riveting account strikes a humanistic balance between sociological history, venerable portraiture and Petri dish politics. (Kirkus Reviews)
The 57 Bus by Dashka Slater
The only connection between Sasha and Richard is the eight minutes that they share the 57 bus home from school. As eighteen-year old Sasha, who identifies as neither male nor female, slept on the way home sixteen-year-old Richard, a black student, boarded the bus with friends. The teens’ paths collide when Richard decides to light the hem of Sasha’s skirt on fire, a rash decision that will stay with both teens far beyond the bus ride. This book follows both over the next few years as Richard’s decision changes the world for each. Readable nonfiction at its best!
My Beloved World by Sonia Sotomayor
Listening to this memoir as an audiobook is enjoyable! While the introduction is read by Sotomayor, the rest of the text is narrated by actress Rita Moreno. Both voices succeed in bring Sotomayor’s inspiring story to life. Growing up in the Bronx, Sotomayor leads the reader on a journey through her beloved world stopping along the way to explain how hard work, careful study, and learning to ask for help aided her success. Readers follow Sotomayor from her childhood in a traditional Puerto-Rican family, through Catholic school, to Princeton and Yale, and into her early career in the New York District Attorney’s Office. The memoir shares Sotomayor’s aspiration to become a judge and readers follow her path until she reaches her goal. Stopping well before her appointment to the Supreme Court, this memoir shows students how to succeed when the odds seem against you. Uplifting and down to earth in all the best ways!
Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi
This graphic autobiography tells the story of the author’s childhood in Iran from the 1979 overthrow of the Shah through her escape to Europe in 1985. A turbulent time politically and socially Satrapi presents her observations of the Iranian regime from a child’s perspective. The result is a visual coming-of-age story that tackles the difficult issues of war and politics.
Chasing Lincoln's Killer by James L. Swanson
The 2009 bicentennial of Lincoln’s birth has spawned a large crop of books about his life and presidency. Swanson offers an exhaustive look at his death and the 12-day search for his killer, including a discussion of Booth’s motivations and descriptions of the parts played by others involved in the plot. Redacted from the author’s 2006 bestseller Manhunt, this version features reproductions of photographs, articles and other archival material, as well as quotations liberally sprinkled throughout. Readers will find the list of the people involved a terrific help in keeping track of the large cast of characters. The sequence of events leading up to and following the assassination is meticulously detailed, sometimes graphically enough that some readers may be disconcerted, though others may be ghoulishly fascinated. Whether young readers will share the enthusiasm of their elders for the blow-by-blow description of this convoluted tale remains to be seen. If they do, this comprehensive examination should answer all of their questions. Sadly, except for one brief note attesting to the authenticity of the dialogue, there are no sourcing statements. (Kirkus Reviews)
Hardcore Zen by Brad Warner
There's a Zen story about a teacher who holds up his finger, then reminds his student to look beyond the finger itself, to what the finger is pointing at-the moon. That's what this book does: it transcends itself-and with outrageous style. Warner, an early-'80s hardcore punk musician, discovered Zen in college, moved to Japan to make B-grade monster movies, and eventually became a bona fide Zen master by formally receiving "dharma transmission." Yet true to his punk spirit, he relentlessly demands that all teaching, all beliefs, all authority-including his own-must be questioned. ("Why should you listen to me? Who the hell am I?... No one. No one at all.") By turns wickedly funny, profane, challenging and iconoclastic-but always with genuine kindness-Warner devotes chapters to some common Zen notions such as the oneness of reality ("Why Gene Simmons Is Not a Zen Master"), reincarnation ("In My Next Life I Want to Come Back as a Pair of Lucy Liu's Panties") and the vital importance of the present moment ("Eating a Tangerine is Real Enlightenment"). Yet this is no litany of Zen orthodoxy designed for study. By liberally sharing anecdotes from his own life as a down-and-out punk rocker and maker of monster movies, Warner constantly focuses on the importance of a direct experience of reality in all its rawness over adherence to any set of beliefs-even Zen ones. Entertaining, bold and refreshingly direct, this book is likely to change the way one experiences other books about Zen-and maybe even the way one experiences reality. (Publishers Weekly)
Educated by Tara Westover
Tara Westover, who received her PhD from Cambridge in 2014, writes brilliantly about her struggle to overcome her non-traditional upbringing. Raised by Mormon survivalists in rural Idaho, Westover had never attended school prior to entering Brigham Young University. When she asks in confusion about the Holocaust in her first history course, Westover begins to recognize the huge gaps in her knowledge and worries that her upbringing isolates her from educated society. When her new understandings also begin to isolate her from her family, Westover worries she may no longer fit in either world. A brilliant and original voice that writes with inside knowledge about a group many assume that they understand.
Night by Elie Wiesel
Elie Wiesel spent his early years in a small Transylvanian town as one of four children. He was the only one of the family to survive what Francois Maurois, in his introduction, calls the "human holocaust" of the persecution of the Jews, which began with the restrictions, the singularization of the yellow star, the enclosure within the ghetto, and went on to the mass deportations to the ovens of Auschwitz and Buchenwald. There are unforgettable and horrifying scenes here in this spare and sombre memoir of this experience of the hanging of a child, of his first farewell with his father who leaves him an inheritance of a knife and a spoon, and of his last goodbye at Buchenwald his father's corpse is already cold let alone the long months of survival under unconscionable conditions. The author's youthfulness helps to assure the inevitable comparison with the Anne Frank diary although over and above the sphere of suffering shared, and in this case extended to the death march itself, there is no spiritual or emotional legacy here to offset any reader reluctance. (Kirkus Reviews)
Paper Love: Searching for the girl my Grandfather left behind by Sarah Wildman
This elegant and moving memoir tells the story of the author’s search through Eastern Europe for Valerie Scheftel, the lover her grandfather left behind when he fled Nazi persecution, in 1938. Scheftel seems to have vanished into the Nazi machine, but Wildman obsessively tracks down any record she can find in the hope of piecing together the story. In doing so, Wildman, who belongs to the third generation of Holocaust writers, and the final generation to have contact with survivors, turns a family story into a universal, historical one, and answers questions about how we can find new ways to talk about the Holocaust and its memory. (The New Yorker)
I am Malala by Malala Yousafzai
When the Taliban took control of the Swat Valley in Pakistan, one girl spoke out. Malala Yousafzai refused to be silenced and fought for her right to an education. On Tuesday, October 9, 2012, when she was fifteen, she almost paid the ultimate price. She was shot in the head at point-blank range while riding the bus home from school, and few expected her to survive.Instead, Malala's miraculous recovery has taken her on an extraordinary journey from a remote valley in northern Pakistan to the halls of the United Nations in New York. At sixteen, she became a global symbol of peaceful protest and the youngest nominee ever for the Nobel Peace Prize. (Amazon.com)
How the Word is Passed by Clint Smith
Beginning in his hometown of New Orleans, Clint Smith leads you on an unforgettable tour of monuments and landmarks—those that are honest about the past and those that are not—that offer an intergenerational story of how slavery has been central in shaping our nation's collective history, and ourselves.
A deeply researched and transporting exploration of the legacy of slavery and its imprint on centuries of American history, How the Word Is Passed illustrates how some of our country's most essential stories are hidden in plain view—whether in places we might drive by on our way to work, holidays such as Juneteenth, or entire neighborhoods like downtown Manhattan, where the brutal history of the trade in enslaved men, women, and children has been deeply imprinted.
Informed by scholarship and brought to life by the story of people living today, Smith's debut work of nonfiction is a landmark of reflection and insight that offers a new understanding of the hopeful role that memory and history can play in making sense of our country and how it has come to be.
(Amazon.com)
