Catalog Search Results
Author
Accelerated Reader
IL: UG - BL: 8.1 - AR Pts: 21
Appears on list
Description
As World War I raged across the globe, hundreds of young women toiled away at the radium-dial factories, where they painted clock faces with a mysterious new substance called radium. Assured by their bosses that the luminous material was safe, the women themselves shone brightly in the dark, covered from head to toe with the glowing dust. With such a coveted job, these "shining girls" were considered the luckiest alive--until they began to fall mysteriously...
Author
Accelerated Reader
IL: UG - BL: 8 - AR Pts: 18
Description
Her name was Henrietta Lacks, but scientists know her as HeLa. She was a poor Southern tobacco farmer, yet her cells--taken without her knowledge--became one of the most important tools in medicine. The first "immortal" human cells grown in culture, they are still alive today, though she has been dead for more than sixty years. HeLa cells were vital for developing the polio vaccine; uncovered secrets of cancer and viruses; helped lead to in vitro...
Author
Pub. Date
[2013]
Description
The columnist presents his reflections on everything from embryo research to entitlement reform, from Halley's Comet to border collies, from Christopher Columbus to Martin Luther King, from drone warfare to American decline. Features a special, highly autobiographical introduction.
Author
Accelerated Reader
IL: UG - BL: 8.4 - AR Pts: 27
Appears on list
Description
"Out of the depths of the Depression comes an irresistible story about beating the odds and finding hope in the most desperate of times - the improbable, intimate account of how nine working-class boys from the American West showed the world at the 1936 Olympics in Berlin what true grit really meant. ... Brown has created an unforgettable portrait of an era, a celebration of a remarkable achievement, and a chronicle of one extraordinary young man's...
Author
Accelerated Reader
IL: UG - BL: 7.6 - AR Pts: 7
Appears on these lists
Description
"For Ta-Nehisi Coates, history has always been personal. At every stage of his life, he's sought in his explorations of history answers to the mysteries that surrounded him -- most urgently, why he, and other black people he knew, seemed to live in fear. What were they afraid of? In Tremble for My Country, Coates takes readers along on his journey through America's history of race and its contemporary resonances through a series of awakenings -- moments...
Author
Pub. Date
2023.
Description
"What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas--until now. James Patterson shows the real Vegas in a dazzling journey through true stories of excess, drama, and hope. In What Really Happens in Vegas, full of surprises for both newcomers and Las Vegas regulars, James Patterson and Vanity Fair contributing editor Mark Seal transport readers from the thrill of adrenaline-fueled vice to the glitter of A-list celebrity and entertainment." --Goodreads.
Author
Description
News correspondent Cokie Roberts examines the nature of women's roles, from mother to mechanic, sister to soldier, through the lens of her personal experience. Each essay introduces us to several of the fascinating women Roberts has encountered during the course of her reporting career; Roberts also relates moving anecdotes about the women in her life, like her mother, former congress-woman Lindy Boggs. These intimate portraits of women become the...
Author
Accelerated Reader
IL: MG+ - BL: 6.4 - AR Pts: 8
Appears on list
Description
Between the world wars, no sport was more popular, or more dangerous, than airplane racing. Thousands of fans flocked to multi-day events, and cities vied with one another to host them. The pilots themselves were hailed as dashing heroes who cheerfully stared death in the face. Well, the men were hailed. Female pilots were more often ridiculed than praised for what the press portrayed as silly efforts to horn in on a manly, and deadly, pursuit. Keith...
Author
Description
The author follows in the footsteps of America's most essential explorers, thinkers, and innovators to offer a new perspective on how the most powerful nation on Earth came together.
Illuminates the men who toiled fearlessly to discover, connect, and bond the citizenry and geography of the U.S.A. from its beginnings and ponders whether the historic work of uniting the States has succeeded, and to what degree.
Author
Description
"Edward Curtis was dashing, charismatic, a passionate mountaineer, a famous photographer--the Annie Liebowitz of his time. And he was thirty-two years old in 1900 when he gave it all up to pursue his great idea: He would try to capture on film the Native American nation before it disappeared. At once an incredible adventure narrative and a penetrating biographical portrait, Egan's book tells the remarkable untold story behind Curtis's iconic photographs,...
Author
Description
"As America's Mercury Seven astronauts were launched on death-defying missions, television cameras focused on the brave smiles of their young wives. Overnight, these women were transformed from military spouses into American royalty. They had tea with Jackie Kennedy, appeared on the cover of Life magazine, and quickly grew into fashion icons. Annie Glenn, with her picture-perfect marriage, was the envy of the other wives; platinum-blonde Rene Carpenter...
Author
Description
This book captures the drama of 27 perilous months at Los Alamos, a secret city cut off from the rest of society, ringed by barbed wire, where Oppenheimer and his young recruits lived as virtual prisoners of the U.S. government--freshly minted secretaries and worldly scientists contending with living conditions straight out of pioneer days, racing to build the first atomic bomb before Germany could. Oppenheimer was as arrogant as he was inexperienced,...
Author
Accelerated Reader
IL: UG - BL: 7.4 - AR Pts: 48
Appears on list
Description
This poignant and powerful narrative tells the dramatic story of Kunta Kinte, snatched from freedom in Africa and brought by ship to America and slavery, and his descendants. Drawing on the oral traditions handed down in his family for generations, the author traces his origins back to the seventeen-year-old Kunta Kinte, who was abducted from his home in Gambia and transported as a slave to colonial America. In this account Haley provides an imaginative...
Author
Description
Secret Service agents, acting as human surveillance cameras, observe everything that goes on behind the scenes in the presidents inner circle. Kessler reveals what they have seen, providing previously untold stories about the presidents, from John F. Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson to George W. Bush and Barack Obama, as well as about their families, Cabinet officers, and White House aides.
Author
Description
Following 9/11, a small band of Special Forces soldiers secretly entered Afghanistan and rode to war on horseback against the Taliban. Outnumbered forty to one, they pursued the enemy across the mountainous terrain and captured the strategic city of Mazari-Sharif. The bone-weary Americans were welcomed as liberators, and overjoyed Afghans thronged the streets. Then the action took an unexpected turn: the Horse Soldiers were ambushed.