AP World Independent Reads: Biographies and Memoirs
Biographies and Memoirs
Spare by
#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * Discover the global phenomenon that tells an unforgettable story of love, loss, and healing. "Compellingly artful . . . [a] blockbuster memoir."--The New Yorker It was one of the most searing images of the twentieth century: two young boys, two princes, walking behind their mother's coffin as the world watched in sorrow--and horror. As Princess Diana was laid to rest, billions wondered what Prince William and Prince Harry must be thinking and feeling--and how their lives would play out from that point on. For Harry, this is that story at last. Before losing his mother, twelve-year-old Prince Harry was known as the carefree one, the happy-go-lucky Spare to the more serious Heir. Grief changed everything. He struggled at school, struggled with anger, with loneliness--and, because he blamed the press for his mother's death, he struggled to accept life in the spotlight. At twenty-one, he joined the British Army. The discipline gave him structure, and two combat tours made him a hero at home. But he soon felt more lost than ever, suffering from post-traumatic stress and prone to crippling panic attacks. Above all, he couldn't find true love. Then he met Meghan. The world was swept away by the couple's cinematic romance and rejoiced in their fairy-tale wedding. But from the beginning, Harry and Meghan were preyed upon by the press, subjected to waves of abuse, racism, and lies. Watching his wife suffer, their safety and mental health at risk, Harry saw no other way to prevent the tragedy of history repeating itself but to flee his mother country. Over the centuries, leaving the Royal Family was an act few had dared. The last to try, in fact, had been his mother. . . . For the first time, Prince Harry tells his own story, chronicling his journey with raw, unflinching honesty. A landmark publication, Spare is full of insight, revelation, self-examination, and hard-won wisdom about the eternal power of love over grief.
Call Number: B HARRYISBN: 9780593593806Publication Date: 2023-01-10
It's My Whole Life by
Charlotte Salomon was a German-Jewish artist born in Berlin. She is remembered for her autobiographical series of paintings, Life? or Theater?, which consists of 769 individual works painted between 1941 and 1943 while she was in hiding from the Nazis in the south of France, and which has been called a painted parallel to Anne Frank's The Diary of a Young Girl and an early graphic novel. In 1943, she entrusted her collection of paintings to a friend. In October of that year, she was captured and deported to Auschwitz, where she and her unborn child were gassed to death upon arrival. It's My Whole Life covers Charlotte's remarkable life from her childhood and art school days to her time as a refugee in Nazi-occupied France, where she created the largest single work of art created by a Jew during the Holocaust. Compellingly written and accompanied by vivid color photographs of Salomon's artwork, Susan Wider has crafted an illuminating portrait of an enigmatic and evanescent young artist.
Call Number: B SALOMONISBN: 9781324015451Publication Date: 2022-08-02
Alexander II by
Alexander II was Russia's Lincoln,and the greatest reformer tsar since Peter the Great. He was also one of the most contradictory, and fascinating, of history's supreme leaders. He freed the serfs, yet launched vicious wars. He engaged in the sexual exploits of a royal Don Juan, yet fell profoundly in love. He ruled during the "Russian Renaissance" of Dostoevsky, Tolstoy, and Turgenev -- yet his Russia became the birthplace of modern terrorism. His story could be that of one of Russia's greatest novels, yet it is true. It is also crucially important today.It is a tale that runs on parallel tracks. Alexander freed 23 million Russian slaves, reformed the justice system and the army, and very nearly became the father of Russia's first constitution and the man who led that nation into a new era of western-style liberalism. Yet it was during this feverish time that modern nihilism first arose. On the sidelines of Alexander's state dramas, a group of radical, disaffected young people first experimented with dynamite, and first began to use terrorism. Fueled by the writings of a few intellectuals and zealots, they built bombs, dug tunnels, and planned ambushes. They made no less than six unsuccessful attempts on Alexander's life. Finally, the parallel tracks joined, when a small cell of terrorists, living next door to Dostoevsky, built the fatal bomb that ended the life of the last great Tsar. It stopped Russian reform in its tracks.Edvard Radzinsky is justly famous as both a biographer and a dramatist, and he brings both skills to bear in this vivid, page-turning, rich portrait of one of the greatest of all Romanovs. Delving deep into the archives, he raises intriguing questions about the connections between Dostoevsky and the young terrorists, about the hidden romances of the Romanovs, and about the palace conspiracies that may have linked hard-line aristocrats with their nemesis, the young nihilists.Alexander's life proves the timeless lesson that in Russia, it is dangerous to start reforms, but even more dangerous to stop them. It also shows that the traps and dangers encountered in today's war on terrorists were there from the start.
Call Number: B ALEXANDERISBN: 074327332XPublication Date: 2005-10-11
Alexandre Dumas - a Great Life in Brief by
Many of the earliest books, particularly those dating back to the 1900s and before, are now extremely scarce and increasingly expensive. We are republishing these classic works in affordable, high quality, modern editions, using the original text and artwork.
Call Number: B DUMASISBN: 9781406750744Publication Date: 2007-03-01
Alive in the Killing Fields by
Alive in the Killing Fields is the real-life memoir of Nawuth Keat, a man who survived the horrors of war-torn Cambodia. He has now broken a longtime silence in the hope that telling the truth about what happened to his people and his country will spare future generations from similar tragedy.In this captivating memoir, a young Nawuth defies the odds and survives the invasion of his homeland by the Khmer Rouge. Under the brutal reign of the dictator Pol Pot, he loses his parents, young sister, and other members of his family. After his hometown of Salatrave was overrun, Nawuth and his remaining relatives are eventually captured and enslaved by Khmer Rouge fighters. They endure physical abuse, hunger, and inhumane living conditions. But through it all, their sense of family holds them together, giving them the strength to persevere through a time when any assertion of identity is punishable by death.Nawuth's story of survival and escape from the Killing Fields of Cambodia is also a message of hope; an inspiration to children whose worlds have been darkened by hardship and separation from loved ones. This story provides a timeless lesson in the value of human dignity and freedom for readers of all ages.
Call Number: B KEATISBN: 9781426305160Publication Date: 2009-10-13
All but My Life by
"All But My Life" is the unforgettable story of Gerda Weissmann Klein's six-year ordeal as a victim of Nazi cruelty. From her comfortable home in Bielitz (present-day Bielsko) in Poland to her miraculous survival and her liberation by American troops--including the man who was to become her husband--in Volary, Czechoslovakia, in 1945, Gerda takes the reader on a terrifying journey. Gerda's serene and idyllic childhood is shattered when Nazis march into Poland on September 3, 1939. Although the Weissmanns were permitted to live for a while in the basement of their home, they were eventually separated and sent to German labor camps. Over the next few years Gerda experienced the slow, inexorable stripping away of "all but her life." By the end of the war she had lost her parents, brother, home, possessions, and community; even the dear friends she made in the labor camps, with whom she had shared so many hardships, were dead. Despite her horrifying experiences, Klein conveys great strength of spirit and faith in humanity. In the darkness of the camps, Gerda and her young friends manage to create a community of friendship and love. Although stripped of the essence of life, they were able to survive the barbarity of their captors. Gerda's beautifully written story gives an invaluable message to everyone. It introduces them to last century's terrible history of devastation and prejudice, yet offers them hope that the effects of hatred can be overcome.
Call Number: B KLEINISBN: 9780809024605Publication Date: 1995-03-30
An American Family by
This inspiring memoir by the Muslim American Gold Star father and captivating DNC speaker is the story of one family's pursuit of the American dream. NAMED ONE OF THE FIVE BEST MEMOIRS OF THE YEAR BY THE WASHINGTON POST "Moving . . . a story about family and faith, told with a poet's sensibility . . . Khizr Khan's book can teach all of us what real American patriotism looks like." --The New York Times Book Review In fewer than three hundred words, Khizr Khan electrified viewers around the world when he took the stage at the 2016 Democratic National Convention. And when he offered to lend Donald Trump his own much-read and dog-eared pocket Constitution, his gesture perfectly encapsulated the feelings of millions. But who was that man, standing beside his wife, extolling the promises and virtues of the U.S. Constitution? In this urgent and timeless immigrant story, we learn that Khizr Khan has been many things. He was the oldest of ten children born to farmers in Pakistan, and a curious and thoughtful boy who listened rapt as his grandfather recited Rumi beneath the moonlight. He was a university student who read the Declaration of Independence and was awestruck by what might be possible in life. He was a hopeful suitor, awkwardly but earnestly trying to win the heart of a woman far out of his league. He was a brilliant and diligent young family man who worked two jobs to save enough money to put himself through Harvard Law School. He was a loving father who, having instilled in his children the ideals that brought him and his wife to America--the sense of shared dignity and mutual responsibility--tragically lost his son, an Army captain killed while protecting his base camp in Iraq. He was and is a patriot, and a fierce advocate for the rights, dignities, and values enshrined in the American system. An American Family shows us who Khizr Khan and millions of other American immigrants are, and why--especially in these tumultuous times--we must not be afraid to step forward for what we believe in when it matters most. Praise for An American Family "An American Family is a small but lovely immigrant's journey, full of carefully observed details from the order in which Ghazala served tea at a university event, to the schedule of the police patrols in the Boston Public Garden where Khan briefly slept while he was in between apartments, to the description of Humayun's headstone as a 'slab of white marble with soft streaks the color of wood smoke.'"--Alyssa Rosenberg, The Washington Post
Call Number: B KHANISBN: 9780399592492Publication Date: 2017-10-24
And There Was Light by
The book that helped inspire Anthony Doerr'sAll the Light We Cannot See An updated edition of this classic World War II memoir, chosen as one of the 100 Best Spiritual Books of the Twentieth Century, with a new photo insert and restored passages from the original French edition When Jacques Lusseyran was an eight-year-old Parisian schoolboy, he was blinded in an accident. He finished his schooling determined to participate in the world around him. In 1941, when he was seventeen, that world was Nazi-occupied France. Lusseyran formed a resistance group with fifty-two boys and used his heightened senses to recruit the best. Eventually, Lusseyran was arrested and sent to the Buchenwald concentration camp in a transport of two thousand resistance fighters. He was one ofonly thirty from the transport to survive. His gripping story is one of the most powerful and insightful descriptions of living and thriving with blindness, or indeed any challenge, ever published.
Call Number: B LUSSEYRANISBN: 9781608682690Publication Date: 2014-03-18
Angela's Ashes by
Angela's Ashes, imbued on every page with Frank McCourt's astounding humor and compassion, is a glorious book that bears all the marks of a classic. "When I look back on my childhood I wonder how I managed to survive at all. It was, of course, a miserable childhood: the happy childhood is hardly worth your while. Worse than the ordinary miserable childhood is the miserable Irish childhood, and worse yet is the miserable Irish Catholic childhood." So begins the luminous memoir of Frank McCourt, born in Depression-era Brooklyn to recent Irish immigrants and raised in the slums of Limerick, Ireland. Frank's mother, Angela, has no money to feed the children since Frank's father, Malachy, rarely works, and when he does he drinks his wages. Yet Malachy -- exasperating, irresponsible and beguiling-- does nurture in Frank an appetite for the one thing he can provide: a story. Frank lives for his father's tales of Cuchulain, who saved Ireland, and of the Angel on the Seventh Step, who brings his mother babies. Perhaps it is story that accounts for Frank's survival. Wearing rags for diapers, begging a pig's head for Christmas dinner and gathering coal from the roadside to light a fire, Frank endures poverty, near-starvation and the casual cruelty of relatives and neighbors--yet lives to tell his tale with eloquence, exuberance and remarkable forgiveness.
Call Number: B MCCOURTISBN: 0684874350Publication Date: 1996-09-05
Beautiful Country by
A NEW YORK TIMES BEST SELLER * The moving story of an undocumented child living in poverty in the richest country in the world--an incandescent debut from an astonishing new talent * A TODAY SHOW #READWITHJENNA PICK In Chinese, the word for America, Mei Guo, translates directly to "beautiful country." Yet when seven-year-old Qian arrives in New York City in 1994 full of curiosity, she is overwhelmed by crushing fear and scarcity. In China, Qian's parents were professors; in America, her family is "illegal" and it will require all the determination and small joys they can muster to survive. In Chinatown, Qian's parents labor in sweatshops. Instead of laughing at her jokes, they fight constantly, taking out the stress of their new life on one another. Shunned by her classmates and teachers for her limited English, Qian takes refuge in the library and masters the language through books, coming to think of The Berenstain Bears as her first American friends. And where there is delight to be found, Qian relishes it: her first bite of gloriously greasy pizza, weekly "shopping days," when Qian finds small treasures in the trash lining Brooklyn's streets, and a magical Christmas visit to Rockefeller Center--confirmation that the New York City she saw in movies does exist after all. But then Qian's headstrong Ma Ma collapses, revealing an illness that she has kept secret for months for fear of the cost and scrutiny of a doctor's visit. As Ba Ba retreats further inward, Qian has little to hold onto beyond his constant refrain: Whatever happens, say that you were born here, that you've always lived here. Inhabiting her childhood perspective with exquisite lyric clarity and unforgettable charm and strength, Qian Julie Wang has penned an essential American story about a family fracturing under the weight of invisibility, and a girl coming of age in the shadows, who never stops seeking the light.
Call Number: B WANGISBN: 9780385547215Publication Date: 2021-09-07
Behind the Mask by
Elizabeth I (1533-1603) impressed herself more vividly on the memory of the world than any other monarch in the history of England. She successfully established and maintained power while refusing to bow to the wishes of those who believed no woman was fit to occupy the English throne. This biography describes the opulent but cruel childhood that shaped the woman Elizabeth became and details her triumphant reign, as well as the unrelenting forces that opposed her. Exploring the answers to some of history's most persistent and intriguing questions, Jane Resh Thomas has created a compelling account of Elizabeth's life that shatters the myths surrounding her and allows readers an unprecedented view of the queen as a human being. Full-color insert, chronology, bibliography, index.
Call Number: B ELIZABETH IISBN: 0395691206Publication Date: 1998-10-19
The Bite of the Mango by
As a child in a small rural village in Sierra Leone, Mariatu Kamara lived peacefully surrounded by family and friends. Rumors of rebel attacks were no more than a distant worry. But when 12-year-old Mariatu set out for a neighboring village, she never arrived. Heavily armed rebel soldiers, many no older than children themselves, attacked and tortured Mariatu. During this brutal act of senseless violence they cut off both her hands. Stumbling through the countryside, Mariatu miraculously survived. The sweet taste of a mango, her first food after the attack, reaffirmed her desire to live, but the challenge of clutching the fruit in her bloodied arms reinforced the grim new reality that stood before her. With no parents or living adult to support her and living in a refugee camp, she turned to begging in the streets of Freetown. As told to her by Mariatu, journalist Susan McClelland has written the heartbreaking true story of the brutal attack, its aftermath and Mariatu's eventual arrival in Toronto where she began to pull together the pieces of her broken life with courage, astonishing resilience and hope.
Call Number: B KAMARAISBN: 9781554511594Publication Date: 2008-09-30
The Black Count by
WINNER OF THE 2013 PULITZER PRIZE FOR BIOGRAPHY General Alex Dumas is a man almost unknown today, yet his story is strikingly familiar--because his son, the novelist Alexandre Dumas, used his larger-than-life feats as inspiration for such classics as The Count of Monte Cristo and The Three Musketeers. But, hidden behind General Dumas's swashbuckling adventures was an even more incredible secret: he was the son of a black slave--who rose higher in the white world than any man of his race would before our own time. Born in Saint-Domingue (now Haiti), Alex Dumas made his way to Paris, where he rose to command armies at the height of the Revolution--until he met an implacable enemy he could not defeat. The Black Count is simultaneously a riveting adventure story, a lushly textured evocation of 18th-century France, and a window into the modern world's first multi-racial society. TIME magazine called The Black Count "one of those quintessentially human stories of strength and courage that sheds light on the historical moment that made it possible." But it is also a heartbreaking story of the enduring bonds of love between a father and son.
Call Number: B DUMASISBN: 9780307382467Publication Date: 2012-09-18
Catherine the Great: Portrait of a Woman by
The Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Peter the Great, Nicholas and Alexandra, and The Romanovs returns with another masterpiece of narrative biography, the extraordinary story of an obscure young German princess who traveled to Russia at fourteen and rose to become one of the most remarkable, powerful, and captivating women in history. Born into a minor noble family, Catherine transformed herself into Empress of Russia by sheer determination. Possessing a brilliant mind and an insatiable curiosity as a young woman, she devoured the works of Enlightenment philosophers and, when she reached the throne, attempted to use their principles to guide her rule of the vast and backward Russian empire. She knew or corresponded with the preeminent historical figures of her time: Voltaire, Diderot, Frederick the Great, Empress Maria Theresa of Austria, Marie Antoinette, and, surprisingly, the American naval hero, John Paul Jones. Reaching the throne fired by Enlightenment philosophy and determined to become the embodiment of the "benevolent despot" idealized by Montesquieu, she found herself always contending with the deeply ingrained realities of Russian life, including serfdom. She persevered, and for thirty-four years the government, foreign policy, cultural development, and welfare of the Russian people were in her hands. She dealt with domestic rebellion, foreign wars, and the tidal wave of political change and violence churned up by the French Revolution that swept across Europe. Her reputation depended entirely on the perspective of the speaker. She was praised by Voltaire as the equal of the greatest of classical philosophers; she was condemned by her enemies, mostly foreign, as "the Messalina of the north." Catherine's family, friends, ministers, generals, lovers, and enemies--all are here, vividly described. These included her ambitious, perpetually scheming mother; her weak, bullying husband, Peter (who left her lying untouched beside him for nine years after their marriage); her unhappy son and heir, Paul; her beloved grandchildren; and her "favorites"--the parade of young men from whom she sought companionship and the recapture of youth as well as sex. Here, too, is the giant figure of Gregory Potemkin, her most significant lover and possible husband, with whom she shared a passionate correspondence of love and separation, followed by seventeen years of unparalleled mutual achievement. The story is superbly told. All the special qualities that Robert K. Massie brought to Nicholas and Alexandra and Peter the Great are present here: historical accuracy, depth of understanding, felicity of style, mastery of detail, ability to shatter myth, and a rare genius for finding and expressing the human drama in extraordinary lives. History offers few stories richer in drama than that of Catherine the Great. In this book, this eternally fascinating woman is returned to life.
Call Number: B CATHERINEISBN: 9780679456728Publication Date: 2011-11-08
Charles I by Call Number: B CHARLES IISBN: 0297769782Publication Date: 1976-05-01
Che Guevara by
This concise biography of the world famous revolutionary Che Guevara provides the most up-to-date and comprehensive account available of his remarkable life, tragic death, and enduring political legacy. Che Guevara is one of the most controversial and iconic figures in recent memory and is still a hero to many. Che Guevara: A Biography provides a balanced and engaging introduction to the famous revolutionary leader. Based on original research, the biography reveals how Che's early life prepared him for leadership in the Cuban Revolution. It also explores his revolutionary activities in Africa and Bolivia, as well as the circumstances surrounding his tragic death on October 9, 1967. More than just a record of events, the book cogently examines Che's contributions to the theory and tactics of guerrilla warfare, his ideas about imperialism and socialism, and his enduring political legacy. It includes original information on the 1997 discovery of the hidden remains of his body and on the celebration of his life and ideals by the socialist regime in Cuba. And it looks at the reasons why leftist political leaders, movements, and governments in Latin America and the Caribbean still pay homage to this charismatic man. A map of Che Guevara's revolutionary operations Photographs An up-to-date annotated bibliography of the major print and electronic sources of information on Che Guevara A timeline of key events
Call Number: B GUEVARAISBN: 9780313359163Publication Date: 2010-11-18
Code Name Badass by
"Bringing together rigorous research and a vibrant writing style" (School Library Journal), Code Name Verity meets Inglourious Basterds in this riotous, spirited biography of the most dangerous of all Allied spies, courageous and kickass Virginia Hall. When James Bond was still in diapers, Virginia Hall was behind enemy lines, playing a dangerous game of cat and mouse with Hitler's henchmen. Did she have second thoughts after a terrible accident left her needing a wooden leg? Please. Virginia Hall was the baddest broad in any room she walked into. When the State Department proved to be a sexist boys' club that wouldn't let her in, she gave the finger to society's expectations of women and became a spy for the British. This boss lady helped arm and train the French Resistance and organized sabotage missions. There was just one problem: The Butcher of Lyon, a notorious Gestapo commander, was after her. But, hey--Virginia's classmates didn't call her the Fighting Blade for nothing. So how does a girl who was a pirate in the school play, spent her childhood summers milking goats, and rocked it on the hockey field end up becoming the Gestapo's most wanted spy? Audacious, irreverent, and fiercely feminist, Code Name Badass is for anyone who doesn't take no for an answer.
Call Number: B GOILLOTISBN: 9781534431874Publication Date: 2021-09-07- Cromwell by Call Number: B CROMWELLISBN: 0131942905Publication Date: 1969-01-01
Defying Hitler by
When the German historian Sebastian Haffner died in 1999 aged 91, his son discovered the manuscript for this book hidden in a chest of drawers. It had been written in 1939 in England but abandoned when the war broke out. The reasons which made Haffner put it aside - its rawness, its revelations, its closeness to the events it describes - are precisely what makes it such compelling reading today. This memoir of growing up in Berlin between 1914 and 1933 shows how his generation of German youth were seduced by Hitler and the Nazis. The First World War turned Sebastian Haffner, aged seven in 1914, into a fanatical jingoist. The numbing shock of defeat in 1918 is followed by the confusion of revolution and republic, and then the hyperinflation of 1923. The currency is stabilized but, as the 1920s continue, the Weimar Republic fails to capture the imagination of the Germans - whose capacity for private happiness, Haffner believes, has been fatally sapped by the events of 1914-1924. Under the illusion of normality, the Nazi revolution is steadily gaining ground.
Call Number: B HAFFNERISBN: 0374161577Publication Date: 2002-08-14
The Diary of a Young Girl by
The diary as Anne Frank wrote it. In a modern translation, this definitive edition contains entries about Anne's burgeoning sexuality and confrontations with her mother that were cut from previous editions. Anne Frank's The Diary of a Young Girl is among the most enduring documents of the twentieth century. Since its publication in 1947, it has been a beloved and deeply admired monument to the indestructible nature of the human spirit, read by millions of people and translated into more than fifty-five languages. Doubleday, which published the first English translation of the diary in 1952, now offers a new translation that captures Anne's youthful spirit and restores the original material omitted by Anne's father, Otto--approximately thirty percent of the diary. The elder Frank excised details about Anne's emerging sexuality, and about the often-stormy relations between Anne and her mother. Anne Frank and her family, fleeing the horrors of Nazi occupation forces, hid in the back of an Amsterdam office building for two years. This is Anne's record of that time. She was thirteen when the family went into the "Secret Annex," and in these pages, she grows to be a young woman and proves to be an insightful observer of human nature as well. A timeless story discovered by each new generation, The Diary of a Young Girl stands without peer. For young readers and adults, it continues to bring to life this young woman, who for a time survived the worst horrors the modern world had seen--and who remained triumphantly and heartbreakingly human throughout her ordeal.
Call Number: B FRANKISBN: 0385473788Publication Date: 1995-02-01
The Dragons, the Giant, the Women by
An engrossing memoir of escaping the First Liberian Civil War and building a life in the United States When Wayétu Moore turns five years old, her father and grandmother throw her a big birthday party at their home in Monrovia, Liberia, but all she can think about is how much she misses her mother, who is working and studying in faraway New York. Before she gets the reunion her father promised her, war breaks out in Liberia. The family is forced to flee their home on foot, walking and hiding for three weeks until they arrive in the village of Lai. Finally, a rebel soldier smuggles them across the border to Sierra Leone, reuniting the family and setting them off on yet another journey, this time to the United States. Spanning this harrowing journey in Moore's early childhood, her years adjusting to life in Texas as a black woman and an immigrant, and her eventual return to Liberia,The Dragons, the Giant, the Women is a deeply moving story of the search for home in the midst of upheaval. Moore has a novelist's eye for suspense and emotional depth, and this unforgettable memoir is full of imaginative, lyrical flights and lush prose. In capturing both the hazy magic and the stark realities of what is becoming an increasingly pervasive experience, Moore shines a light on the great political and personal forces that continue to affect many migrants around the world, and calls us all to acknowledge the tenacious power of love and family.
Call Number: B MOOREISBN: 9781644450314Publication Date: 2020-06-02
Biographies and Memoirs
In Search of a Kingdom by
"FASCINATING . . . Dramatic and timely." --New York Times Book Review, Editors' Choice In this grand and thrilling narrative, the author of the 200,000-copy paperback bestseller Over the Edge of the World reveals the singular adventures of Sir Francis Drake, whose mastery of the seas during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I changed the course of history. "Entrancing . . . Very good indeed." --Wall Street Journal Before he was secretly dispatched by Queen Elizabeth to circumnavigate the globe, or was called upon to save England from the Spanish Armada, Francis Drake was perhaps the most wanted--and successful--pirate ever to sail. Nicknamed "El Draque" by the Spaniards who placed a bounty on his head, the notorious red-haired, hot-tempered Drake pillaged galleons laden with New World gold and silver, stealing a vast fortune for his queen--and himself. For Elizabeth, Drake made the impossible real, serving as a crucial and brilliantly adaptable instrument of her ambitions to transform England from a third-rate island kingdom into a global imperial power. In 1580, sailing on Elizabeth's covert orders, Drake became the first captain to circumnavigate the earth successfully. (Ferdinand Magellan had died in his attempt.) Part exploring expedition, part raiding mission, Drake's audacious around-the-world journey in the Golden Hind reached Patagonia, the Pacific Coast of present-day California and Oregon, the Spice Islands, Java, and Africa. Almost a decade later, Elizabeth called upon Drake again. As the devil-may-care vice admiral of the English fleet, Drake dramatically defeated the once-invincible Spanish Armada, spurring the British Empire's ascent and permanently wounding its greatest rival. The relationship between Drake and Elizabeth is the missing link in our understanding of the rise of the British Empire, and its importance has not been fully described or appreciated. Framed around Drake's key voyages as a window into this crucial moment in British history, In Search of a Kingdom is a rousing adventure narrative entwining epic historical themes with intimate passions.
Call Number: B DRAKEISBN: 9780062875365Publication Date: 2022-03-29
Eiffel by
David Harvie tells the story of Gustave Eiffel and of the conception, and controversial construction of the tower that bears his name, perhaps the most famous tall building in the world.
Call Number: B EIFFELISBN: 9780750933087Publication Date: 2005-01-01
Emiliano Zapata by
This thorough narrative examines Emiliano Zapata's life, his role in Mexico's revolutionary movement, and his true motivations and beliefs. Emiliano Zapata is regarded as among the most important figures of the Mexican Revolution. This book provides more than just a biography of a great leader; it enables readers to understand who Zapata was and the interests and ideologies he supported, emphasizing his ideals and distinguishing him from those who have used his name for their own purposes. Emiliano Zapata: A Biography is organized chronologically, detailing Zapata's youth and early adulthood in the years preceding the Mexican Revolution; his role in getting his home state involved in the Revolution; and his ascent to power in Morelos' revolutionary movement. The author elucidates Zapata's continual struggle to bring meaningful change to the lives of Mexico's poorest people, how his commitment to revolutionary reform came to define his existence, and how his ideals led to his own violent death as they had to the deaths of so many of his adversaries. A fascinating read for high school students as well as general readers, this biography tells an unforgettable story of one of Mexico's heroic figures. A timeline of important events in Zapata's life prefaces the narrative Photographs depicting Zapata over the course of his turbulent public career provide glimpses of a legend A complete bibliography provides students with a guide for further research An appendix contains a hard-to-find Mexican ballad about Zapata's funeral with an original English prose translation
Call Number: B ZAPATAISBN: 9780313380808Publication Date: 2011-07-22
Every Falling Star by
Every Falling Star, the first book to portray contemporary North Korea to a young audience, is the intense memoir of a North Korean boy named Sungju who is forced at age twelve to live on the streets and fend for himself. To survive, Sungju creates a gang and lives by thieving, fighting, begging, and stealing rides on cargo trains. Sungju richly re-creates his scabrous story, depicting what it was like for a boy alone to create a new family with his gang, his "brothers"; to be hungry and to fear arrest, imprisonment, and even execution. This riveting memoir allows young readers to learn about other cultures where freedoms they take for granted do not exist.
Call Number: B LEEISBN: 9781419721328Publication Date: 2016-09-13
Falling Leaves by
The emotionally wrenching yet ultimately uplifting memoir of a Chinese woman struggling to win the love and acceptance of her family. Born in 1937 in a port city a thousand miles north of Shanghai, Adeline Yen Mah was the youngest child of an affluent Chinese family who enjoyed rare privileges during a time of political and cultural upheaval. But wealth and position could not shield Adeline from a childhood of appalling emotional abuse at the hands of a cruel and manipulative stepmother. Determined to survive through her enduring faith in family unity, Adeline struggled for independence as she moved from Hong Kong to England and eventually to the United States to become a physician and writer. A compelling, painful, and ultimately triumphant story of a girl's journey into adulthood, Adeline's story is a testament to the most basic of human needs: acceptance, love, and understanding. With a powerful voice that speaks of the harsh realities of growing up female in a family and society that kept girls in emotional chains, Falling Leaves is a work of heartfelt intimacy and a rare authentic portrait of twentieth-century China. "Riveting. A marvel of memory. Poignant proof of the human will to endure." --Amy Tan
Call Number: B MAHISBN: 9780767903578Publication Date: 1999-04-06
Fierce Convictions by
The enthralling biography of the woman writer who helped end the slave trade, changed Britain's upper classes, and taught a nation how to read. The history-changing reforms of Hannah More affected every level of 18th-Century British society through her keen intellect, literary achievements, collaborative spirit, strong Christian principles, and colorful personality. A woman without connections or status, More took the world of British letters by storm when she arrived in London from Bristol, becoming a best-selling author and acclaimed playwright and quickly befriending the author Samuel Johnson, the politician Horace Walpole, and the actor David Garrick. Yet she was also a leader in the Evangelical movement, using her cultural position and her pen to support the growth of education for the poor, the reform of morals and manners, and the abolition of Britain's slave trade. Fierce Convictions weaves together world and personal history into a stirring story of life that intersected with Wesley and Whitefield's Great Awakening, the rise and influence of Evangelicalism, and convulsive effects of the French Revolution. A woman of exceptional intellectual gifts and literary talent, Hannah More was above all a person whose faith compelled her both to engage her culture and to transform it.
Call Number: B MOREISBN: 9781400206254Publication Date: 2014-11-04- Galileo by Call Number: B GALILEOISBN: 0399113649Publication Date: 1974-10-22
Gandhi by
Jad Adams traces the course of Gandhi's multi-faceted life, and the development of his religious, political, and social thinking over seven tumultuous decades: from his comfortable upbringing in a princely state in Gujarat; his early civil rights campaigns; his leadership through civil disobedience in the 1920s and 1930s that made him a world icon; and finally to his assassination by a Hindu extremist in 1948, only months after the birth of an independent India.An elegant and masterly account of one of the seminal figures of twentieth-century history, Adams presents for the first time the true story behind the man whose life may truly be said to have changed the world.
Call Number: B GANDHIISBN: 9781605981710Publication Date: 2011-07-15
Gandhi's Passion by
Mahatma Gandhi, through his indomitable will and selfless determination transformed himself into a model of courage and integrity for India's people to emulate in their non-violent struggle for political power. More than half a century after his death, Gandhi continues to inspire millionsthroughout the world. Yet modern India seems to have abandoned much of his non-violent vision, joining the nuclear arms race. Inspired by recent events in India, Stanley Wolpert offers this subtle and profound biography of India's 'Great Soul'.Wolpert compellingly chronicles the life of Mahatma Gandhi from his early days as a child of privilege to his humble rise to power and his assassination at the hands of a man of his own faith. This trajectory, like that of Christ, was the result of Gandhi's passion: his conscious courting ofsuffering as the means of reaching divine truth. From his early campaigns to end discrimination in South Africa to his leadership of a people's revolution to end the British imperial domination of India, Gandhi emerges as a man of inner conflicts conquered by his political genius and moral vision.Early influenced by nonviolent teachings in Hinduism, Christianity, and Buddhism, he came to insist on the primacy of love for one's adversary in any conflict as the invincible power for change. He fearlessly courted suffering and imprisonment in pursuit of his moral vision. The sweet reasonablenessof his 'Great Soul', combined with the steel of his unyielding opposition to intolerance and oppression, would inspire India like no leader since the Buddha - creating a legacy that would encourage Martin Luther King, Jr, Nelson Mandela, and other global leaders to demand a better world throughpeaceful civil disobedience.Gandhi's Passion is a remarkable tribute by a historian at the height of his narrative and analytical powers. Wolpert boldly considers Gandhi the man, rather than the living god depicted by his disciples. He thus provides an unprecedented representation of Gandhi's passionate personality and theprofound complexities that compelled his actions and brought freedom to India.
Call Number: B GANDHIISBN: 019515634XPublication Date: 2002-11-28
Gandhi: the Years That Changed the World, 1914-1948 by
Opening in July 1914, as Mohandas Gandhi leaves South Africa to return to India, Gandhi: The Years That Changed the World, 1914-1918 traces the Mahatma's life over the three decades preceding his assassination. Drawing on new archival materials, acclaimed historian Ramachandra Guha follows Gandhi's struggle to deliver India from British rule, to forge harmonious relations between India's Hindus and Muslims, to end the pernicious practice of untouchability, and to nurture India's economic and moral self-reliance. He shows how in each of these campaigns, Gandhi adapted methods of nonviolence that successfully challenged British authority and would influence revolutionary movements throughout the world. A revelatory look at the complexity of Gandhi's thinking and motives, the book is a luminous portrait of not only the man himself, but also those closest to him--family, friends, and political and social leaders.
Call Number: B GANDHIISBN: 9780385532310Publication Date: 2018-10-02- Garibaldi and His Enemies by Call Number: B GARIBALDIISBN: 9780140079715Publication Date: 1989-07-05
Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World by
New York Times Bestseller * The startling true history of how one extraordinary man from a remote cornerof the world created an empire that led the world into the modern age. The Mongol army led by Genghis Khan subjugated more lands and people in twenty-five years than the Romans did in four hundred. In nearly every country the Mongols conquered, they brought an unprecedented rise in cultural communication, expanded trade, and a blossoming of civilization. Vastly more progressive than his European or Asian counterparts, Genghis Khan abolished torture, granted universal religious freedom, and smashed feudal systems of aristocratic privilege. From the story of his rise through the tribal culture to the explosion of civilization that the Mongol Empire unleashed, this brilliant work of revisionist history is nothing less than the epic story of how the modern world was made.
Call Number: B GENGHIS KHANISBN: 9780609809648Publication Date: 2005-03-22
God's Fool by
Since 9/11 Islam has become a buzzword, conjuring fiery images of fundamentalists and fanatics on a mission to bring down Western culture. This sensible book is a welcome reminder that Islam is a much more complex belief system; one that in fact reflects and teaches progressive, humane values. Jafri covers progressive concepts of Islam, sectarian violence in the Islamic world, international terrorism and peace, the concept of social justice, freedom and rationalism in Islam, the status of women and human rights, and more.
Call Number: B FRANCISISBN: 0060634626Publication Date: 1985-08-01
God Grew Tired of Us by
This unforgettable book is the first-person account of a miracle--indeed, a whole series of miracles. A tale of suffering, tragedy, and sorrow redeemed by indomitable resolve and a stubborn refusal to despair, it's set in a Sudan shadowed by unrelenting war and ruthless violence, yet illuminated by faith, generosity, and steadfast commitment to the human spirit's finest instincts. It's also the eloquently plain-spoken self-portrait of a young man who has looked death in the face many times and come away with an inner strength as impressive as it is modest and a wisdom as inspiring as it is matter of fact. One of the uprooted youngsters known as the Lost Boys of Sudan, John Bul Dau was 12 years old when civil war ravaged his village and shattered its age-old society, a life of herding and agriculture marked by dignity, respect, and the simple virtues of Dinka tribal tradition. As tracer bullets split the night and mortar shells exploded around him, John fled into the darkness--the first terrified moments of a journey that would lead him thousands of miles into an exile that was to last many years. John's memoir of his Dinka childhood shows African life and values at their best, while his searing account of hardship, famine, and war also testifies to human resilience and kindness. In an era of cultural clashes, his often humorous stories of adapting to life in the United States offer proof that we can bridge our differences peacefully. John Bul Dau's quiet pride, true humility, deep seriousness, compassionate courage, and remarkable achievements will take every reader's breath away.
Call Number: B DAUISBN: 9781426201141Publication Date: 2007-01-16
Hitler by
From his illegitimate birth in a small Austrian village to his fiery death in a bunker under the Reich chancellery in Berlin, Adolf Hitler left a murky trail, strewn with contradictory tales and overgrown with self-created myths. One truth prevails: the sheer scale of the evils that he unleashed on the world has made him a demonic figure without equal in this century. Ian Kershaw's Hitler brings us closer than ever before to the character of the bizarre misfit in his thirty-year ascent from a Viennese shelter for the indigent to uncontested rule over the German nation that had tried and rejected democracy in the crippling aftermath of World War I. With extraordinary vividness, Kershaw recreates the settings that made Hitler's rise possible: the virulent anti-Semitism of prewar Vienna, the crucible of a war with immense casualties, the toxic nationalism that gripped Bavaria in the 1920s, the undermining of the Weimar Republic by extremists of the Right and the Left, the hysteria that accompanied Hitler's seizure of power in 1933 and then mounted in brutal attacks by his storm troopers on Jews and others condemned as enemies of the Aryan race. In an account drawing on many previously untapped sources, Hitler metamorphoses from an obscure fantasist, a "drummer" sounding an insistent beat of hatred in Munich beer halls, to the instigator of an infamous failed putsch and, ultimately, to the leadership of a ragtag alliance of right-wing parties fused into a movement that enthralled the German people.This volume, the first of two, ends with the promulgation of the infamous Nuremberg laws that pushed German Jews to the outer fringes of society, and with the march of the German army into the Rhineland, Hitler's initial move toward the abyss of war.
Call Number: B HITLERISBN: 0393320359Publication Date: 2000-04-17
House of Sticks by
Ly Tran is just a toddler in 1993 when she and her family immigrate from a small town along the Mekong river in Vietnam to a two-bedroom railroad apartment in Queens. Ly's father, a former lieutenant in the South Vietnamese army, spent nearly a decade as a POW, and their resettlement is made possible through a humanitarian program run by the US government. Soon after they arrive, Ly joins her parents and three older brothers sewing ties and cummerbunds piece-meal on their living room floor to make ends meet. As they navigate this new landscape, Ly finds herself torn between two worlds. She knows she must honor her parents' Buddhist faith and contribute to the family livelihood, working long hours at home and eventually as a manicurist alongside her mother at a nail salon in Brooklyn that her parents take over. But at school, Ly feels the mounting pressure to blend in. A growing inability to see the blackboard presents new challenges, especially when her father forbids her from getting glasses, calling her diagnosis of poor vision a government conspiracy. His frightening temper and paranoia leave a mark on Ly's sense of self. Who is she outside of everything her family expects of her? An "unsentimental yet deeply moving examination of filial bond, displacement, war trauma, and poverty" (NPR), House of Sticks is a timely and powerful portrait of one girl's coming-of-age and struggle to find her voice amid clashing cultural expectations.
Call Number: B TRANISBN: 9781501118814Publication Date: 2021-06-01
Ibn Battuta by
Ibn Battuta, a fourteenth-century Moroccan adventurer and religious scholar, was one of the most ambitious travelers of the Silk Road. Scholars estimate his lifelong journeys covered no fewer than 75,000 miles. Because of his knowledge of Muslim history and laws, he was greatly respected by the Muslim rulers he visited. His geographical records helped fill in the pieces of a mysterious world, a world in which people of different regions knew little or nothing about what lay over the horizon. It was Ibn Battuta, more than any other explorer of his era, who was able to make intra-cultural introductions.
Call Number: B IBN BATUTAISBN: 9781508171508Publication Date: 2016-07-15
Ibn Sina by
Ibn Sina, who is referred to as Avicenna in Latin, was a true polymath. Born in Persia in the tenth century, his passion for knowledge was unbound, and he made lasting contributions to medicine, math, and philosophy. Due to the scope and brilliance of his work he can be compared to the great Leonardo da Vinci. With illustrations, photographs, and maps, the rich and diverse world that produced Ibn Sina is vividly brought alive. Edoardo Albert is a London-based writer of Italian and Sri Lankan extraction. He also wroteImam al-Ghazali: A Concise Life which was the first book in the Concise Life series.
Call Number: B AVICENNAISBN: 9781847740458Publication Date: 2013-07-30
Ivan the Terrible by
Ivan IV, "the Terrible” (1533-1584), is one of the key figures in Russian history, yet he has remained among the most neglected. Notorious for pioneering a policy of unrestrained terror--and for killing his own son--he has been credited with establishing autocracy in Russia. This is the first attempt to write a biography of Ivan from birth to death, to study his policies, his marriages, his atrocities, and his disordered personality, and to link them as a coherent whole. Isabel de Madariaga situates Ivan within the background of Russian political developments in the sixteenth century. And, with revealing comparisons with English, Spanish, and other European courts, she sets him within the international context of his time. The biography includes a new account of the role of astrology and magic at Ivan’s court and provides fresh insights into his foreign policy. Facing up to problems of authenticity (much of Ivan’s archive was destroyed by fire in 1626) and controversies which have paralyzed western scholarship, de Madariaga seeks to present Russia as viewed from the Kremlin rather than from abroad and to comprehend the full tragedy of Ivan’s reign.
Call Number: B IVANISBN: 0300097573Publication Date: 2005-07-10
Biographies and Memoirs
The Girl with Seven Names by
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER An extraordinary insight into life under one of the world's most ruthless and secretive dictatorships - and the story of one woman's terrifying struggle to avoid capture/repatriation and guide her family to freedom. As a child growing up in North Korea, Hyeonseo Lee was one of millions trapped by a secretive and brutal communist regime. Her home on the border with China gave her some exposure to the world beyond the confines of the Hermit Kingdom and, as the famine of the 1990s struck, she began to wonder, question and to realise that she had been brainwashed her entire life. Given the repression, poverty and starvation she witnessed surely her country could not be, as she had been told "the best on the planet"? Aged seventeen, she decided to escape North Korea. She could not have imagined that it would be twelve years before she was reunited with her family. She could not return, since rumours of her escape were spreading, and she and her family could incur the punishments of the government authorities - involving imprisonment, torture, and possible public execution. Hyeonseo instead remained in China and rapidly learned Chinese in an effort to adapt and survive. Twelve years and two lifetimes later, she would return to the North Korean border in a daring mission to spirit her mother and brother to South Korea, on one of the most arduous, costly and dangerous journeys imaginable. This is the unique story not only of Hyeonseo's escape from the darkness into the light, but also of her coming of age, education and the resolve she found to rebuild her life - not once, but twice - first in China, then in South Korea. Strong, brave and eloquent, this memoir is a triumph of her remarkable spirit.
Call Number: B LEEISBN: 9780007554850Publication Date: 2016-05-19
Kaffir Boy by
When first published 20 years ago, Kaffir Boy changed the way the West understood South Africa. As powerful today as when it was first written, Mathabane's remarkable story of life under apartheid is told with brutal honesty and gives the reader a rare glimpse, behind the protests and boycotts, of the daily fear and hunger which was so devastating to the soul. Often compared to Richard Wright's Black Boy, Kaffir Boy is a memoir of growing up in a world where poverty, hopelessness and desperation are constant companions.
Call Number: B MATHABANEISBN: 0684848287Publication Date: 1998-10-07- The Last Stuart by
Why did Charles Edward Stuart become one of the great romantic figures of history, a familiar name even to those who know nothing of his curious career?
Professor Daiches brushes away the dust from the waxwork figure the Bonnie Prince has become, and writes of the real person within the context of his time.
Call Number: B CHARLESISBN: 0399111093Publication Date: 1973-06-01
Left to Tell by
Immaculee Ilibagiza grew up in a country she loved, surrounded by a family she cherished. But in 1994 her idyllic world was ripped apart as Rwanda descended into a bloody genocide. Immaculee's family was brutally murdered during a killing spree that lasted three months and claimed the lives of nearly a million Rwandans. Incredibly, Immaculee survived the slaughter. For 91 days, she and seven other women huddled silently together in the cramped bathroom of a local pastor while hundreds of machete-wielding killers hunted for them. It was during those endless hours of unspeakable terror that Immaculee discovered the power of prayer, eventually shedding her fear of death and forging a profound and lasting relationship with God. She emerged from her bathroom hideout having discovered the meaning of truly unconditional love--a love so strong she was able seek out and forgive her family's killers. The triumphant story of this remarkable young woman's journey through the darkness of genocide will inspire anyone whose life has been touched by fear, suffering, and loss.
Call Number: B ILIBAGIZAISBN: 9781401944322Publication Date: 2014-04-07
Legacy of Love by
Called a messenger of peace, Arun Gandhi -- Mahatma Gandhis grandson -- has dedicated his life to spreading his grandfathers teachings around the globe. This compelling memoir begins in the heart of apartheid South Africa where the author lived under conditions of zealous racism until he was 12 years old. Following are the two pivotal years he spent with his grandfather in India, learning the lessons that would undo his anger and cultivate a profound activism. His account also describes living with his parents in religious and socially activist communities in South Africa and India. This book presents the practical wisdom the author learned from his grandfather revolving around family, men and women, simplicity, religious unity, humility, truth, and nonviolence.
Call Number: B GANDHIISBN: 097252004XPublication Date: 2003-02-28
Leonardo by
Inside the mind of a Renaissance genius -- unravel the mysteryThis fascinating exploration of Leonardo da Vinci's life and work identifies what it was that made him so unique and explains the phenomenon of the world's most celebrated genius who, 500 years on, still grips and inspires us.Martin Kemp offer us exceptional insights into what it was that made this Renaissance man so special, and the 'real' meaning behind such masterpieces as The Mona Lisa and the Last Supper. Tracing Leonardo's career in all its variety, we learn of his unfulfilled dreams, relationships with powerfulpatrons, and the truth about his religious views.Kemp shows that it is the famous notebooks that reveal both the secret of Leonardo's success and genius as they clearly show how his mind worked and display the truly innovative and investigative nature of his creative vision. Over 20,000 pages of drawings and notes detail Leonardo's incrediblediscoveries and inventions from the workings of the human eye to designs for flying machines and robots. Bringing the story of Leonardo up to the present day, Martin Kemp considers what he means to us today, investigates the 'Leonardo industry', and speculates about what he would he be doing if hewere alive today?
Call Number: B LEONARDOISBN: 9780192805461Publication Date: 2004-11-01
Leonardo Da Vinci by
Based on thousands of pages from Leonardo da Vinci's astonishing notebooks and new discoveries about his life and work, Walter Isaacson "deftly reveals an intimate Leonardo" (San Francisco Chronicle) in a narrative that connects his art to his science. He shows how Leonardo's genius was based on skills we can improve in ourselves, such as passionate curiosity, careful observation, and an imagination so playful that it flirted with fantasy. He produced the two most famous paintings in history, The Last Supper and the Mona Lisa. With a passion that sometimes became obsessive, he pursued innovative studies of anatomy, fossils, birds, the heart, flying machines, botany, geology, and weaponry. He explored the math of optics, showed how light rays strike the cornea, and produced illusions of changing perspectives in The Last Supper. His ability to stand at the crossroads of the humanities and the sciences, made iconic by his drawing of Vitruvian Man, made him history's most creative genius. In the "luminous" (Daily Beast) Leonardo da Vinci, Isaacson describes how Leonardo's delight at combining diverse passions remains the ultimate recipe for creativity. So, too, does his ease at being a bit of a misfit: illegitimate, gay, vegetarian, left-handed, easily distracted, and at times heretical. His life should remind us of the importance to be imaginative and, like talented rebels in any era, to think different. Here, da Vinci "comes to life in all his remarkable brilliance and oddity in Walter Isaacson's ambitious new biography...a vigorous, insightful portrait" (The Washington Post).
Call Number: B LEONARDOISBN: 9781501139154Publication Date: 2017-10-17
The Life and Death of Adolf Hitler by
Many people believe Hitler was the personification of evil. In this Sibert Medal-winning biography, James Cross Giblin penetrates this façade and presents a picture of a complex person--at once a brilliant, influential politician and a deeply disturbed man. In a straightforward and nonsensational manner, the author explores the forces that shaped the man as well as the social conditions that furthered his rapid rise to power. Against a background of crucial historical events, Giblin traces the arc of Hitler's life from 1889 to 1945: his childhood, his years as a frustrated artist in Vienna, his extraordinary rise as dictator of Germany, his final days in an embattled bunker under Berlin. Powerful archival images provide a haunting visual accompaniment to this clear and compelling account of a life that left an ineradicable mark on our world. Author's note, bibliography, index.
Call Number: B HITLERISBN: 9780395903711Publication Date: 2002-04-22
The Life of Charlemagne by
Einhard's 'The Life of Charlemagne: Vita Karoli Magni' is one of the most famous pieces of literature on the early Middle Ages. It is both an epic and personal account of the legendary warrior king who was known as the Father of Europe, providing fascinating insight into his political success, battlefield strategy, foreign and domestic policies, friends, enemies and personal habits. For scholars of military science it is an essential bridge text linking the masterworks of ancient strategy like 'The Art of War' and 'Commentarii de Bello Gallico' with the future writings of Machiavelli, Clausewitz, et al.
Call Number: B CHARLEMAGNEISBN: 9781365159404Publication Date: 2016-06-02
A Light in the Darkness by
From National Book Award Finalist Albert Marrin comes the moving story of Janusz Korczak, the heroic Polish Jewish doctor who devoted his life to children, perishing with them in the Holocaust. Janusz Korczak was more than a good doctor. He was a hero. The Dr. Spock of his day, he established orphanages run on his principle of honoring children and shared his ideas with the public in books and on the radio. He famously said that "children are not the people of tomorrow, but people today." Korczak was a man ahead of his time, whose work ultimately became the basis for the U.N. Declaration of the Rights of the Child. Korczak was also a Polish Jew on the eve of World War II. He turned down multiple opportunities for escape, standing by the children in his orphanage as they became confined to the Warsaw Ghetto. Dressing them in their Sabbath finest, he led their march to the trains and ultimately perished with his children in Treblinka. But this book is much more than a biography. In it, renowned nonfiction master Albert Marrin examines not just Janusz Korczak's life but his ideology of children- that children are valuable in and of themselves, as individuals. He contrasts this with Adolf Hitler's life and his ideology of children- that children are nothing more than tools of the state. And throughout, Marrin draws readers into the Warsaw Ghetto. What it was like. How it was run. How Jews within and Poles without responded. Who worked to save lives and who tried to enrich themselves on other people's suffering. And how one man came to represent the conscience and the soul of humanity. Filled with black-and-white photographs, this is an unforgettable portrait of a man whose compassion in even the darkest hours reminds us what is possible.
Call Number: B KORCZAKISBN: 9781524701208Publication Date: 2019-09-10
Long Walk to Freedom by
Nelson Mandela was one of the great moral and political leaders of his time: an international hero whose lifelong dedication to the fight against racial oppression in South Africa won him the Nobel Peace Prize and the presidency of his country. After his triumphant release in 1990 from more than a quarter-century of imprisonment, Mandela was at the center of the most compelling and inspiring political drama in the world. As president of the African National Congress and head of South Africa's antiapartheid movement, he was instrumental in moving the nation toward multiracial government and majority rule. He is still revered everywhere as a vital force in the fight for human rights and racial equality. Long Walk to Freedom is his moving and exhilarating autobiography, destined to take its place among the finest memoirs of history's greatest figures. Here for the first time, Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela told the extraordinary story of his life -- an epic of struggle, setback, renewed hope, and ultimate triumph. The book that inspired the major motion picture Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom.
Call Number: B MANDELAISBN: 9780316323543Publication Date: 2013-10-08
Lost Names by
In this classic tale, Richard Kim paints seven vivid scenes from a boyhood and early adolescence in Korea at the height of the Japanese occupation, 1932 to 1945. Taking its title from the grim fact that the occupiers forced the Koreans to renounce their own names and adopt Japanese names instead, the book follows one Korean family through the Japanese occupation to the surrender of the Japanese empire. Lost Names is at once a loving memory of family and a vivid portrayal of life in a time of anguish.
Call Number: B KIMISBN: 9780520214248Publication Date: 1998-06-10- The Man Who Changed the World by Call Number: B GORBACHEVISBN: 9780060165475Publication Date: 1990-12-01
Marie Antoinette by
Still a controversial figure, as well as a celebrated one, Marie Antoinette's dramatic life-story continues to arouse mixed emotions. To many people, she is still la reine méchante, whose extravagance and frivolity helped to bring down the French monarchy; her indifference to popular suffering epitomised by the (apocryphal) words: let them eat cake. She was accused of personal profligacies and sexual excesses. Others are equally passionate in her defence: to them, she is a victim of misogyny. Marie Antoinette remains one of the genuinely romantic and ill-treated characters in history. A compassionate queen and devoted mother, she did little to deserve her tragic destiny. She was born in 1755, one of 16 children of the Austrian Empress Maria Theresa. At the age of 15 she was to be the bride of the French Dauphin, heir to his grandfather Louis XV. The Dauphin came to the throne as Louis XVI in 1774 and for more than ten years the French court at Versailles glittered under the presidency of its young, beautiful and artistic queen, in what would be seen afterwards as the last throw of the Ancien Regime. In this stunning biography Antonia Fraser examines her influence over the king, the accusations and sexual slurs made against her, her patronage of the arts which enhanced French cultural life, her imprisonment, the death threats made against her, rumours of lesbian affairs, and her trial (during which her 7-year-old son was forced to testify to sexual abuse by his mother) and eventual execution by guillotine in 1793.
Call Number: B MARIEISBN: 038548948XPublication Date: 2001-09-18- Mary Tudor by
Few English monarchs have a worse reputation than Mary Tudor. She has been seen both as a religious fanatic who tried against the will of her people to reverse the course of the Reformation and as the pawn of her husband, Philip II of Spain - her infatuation with whom led her to betray England's vital interests. How this pious, and by contemporary accounts, gentle woman aroused an antipathy that survives until the present is a central question in David Loades's sensitive biography, now in paperback. Based on research into the documents of the time (many newly uncovered) the compelling story of Mary's life is revealed here in unprecedented detail and depth, packed with incident and intrigue, and enmeshed in the politics of secular and religious struggle in England and Europe.
Call Number: B MARY IISBN: 0631154531Publication Date: 1989-12-01
- Mata Hari by
Through privileged access to the sealed, sixty-eight-year-old dossier containing the records of the secret trial of Mata Hari, the seductress-spy executed in France as a German spy, the author presents an intriguing account of the German and French intelligence services during World War I
Call Number: B MATAISBN: 0396087175Publication Date: 1986-01-01
Minor Feelings by
Part memoir and part cultural criticism, this collection is vulnerable, humorous, and provocative--and its relentless and riveting pursuit of vital questions around family and friendship, art and politics, identity and individuality, will change the way you think about our world. Binding these essays together is Hong's theory of "minor feelings." As the daughter of Korean immigrants, Cathy Park Hong grew up steeped in shame, suspicion, and melancholy. She would later understand that these "minor feelings" occur when American optimism contradicts your own reality--when you believe the lies you're told about your own racial identity. Minor feelings are not small, they're dissonant--and in their tension Hong finds the key to the questions that haunt her. With sly humor and a poet's searching mind, Hong uses her own story as a portal into a deeper examination of racial consciousness in America today. This intimate and devastating book traces her relationship to the English language, to shame and depression, to poetry and female friendship. A radically honest work of art, Minor Feelings forms a portrait of one Asian American psyche--and of a writer's search to both uncover and speak the truth. Praise for Minor Feelings "Hong begins her new book of essays with a bang. . . .The essays wander a variegated terrain of memoir, criticism and polemic, oscillating between smooth proclamations of certainty and twitches of self-doubt. . . . Minor Feelings is studded with moments [of] candor and dark humor shot through with glittering self-awareness."--The New York Times "Hong uses her own experiences as a jumping off point to examine race and emotion in the United States."--Newsweek "Powerful . . . [Hong] brings together memoiristic personal essay and reflection, historical accounts and modern reporting, and other works of art and writing, in order to amplify a multitude of voices and capture Asian America as a collection of contradictions. She does so with sharp wit and radical transparency."--Salon
Call Number: B HONGISBN: 9781984820365Publication Date: 2020-02-25
Miriam's Song by
The powerful memoir of a young black woman coming of age in South Africa amid the violence of apartheid, beautifully written by her brother, the bestselling author of "Kaffir Boy." Mark Mathabane first came to prominence with the publication of "Kaffir Boy," which became a New York Times bestseller. His story of growing up in South Africa was one of the most riveting accounts of life under apartheid. Mathabane's newest book, "Miriam's Song," is the story of Mark's sister, who was left behind in South Africa. It is the gripping tale of a woman -- representative of an entire generation -- who came of age amid the violence and rebellion of the 1980s and finally saw the destruction of apartheid and the birth of a new and democratic South Africa. Mathabane writes in Miriam's voice, based on stories she told him, but he has re-created her unforgettable experience as only someone who also lived through it could. The immediacy of the hardships that brother and sister endured -- from daily school beatings to near-overwhelming poverty -- is balanced by the beauty of their childhood observations and the true affection that they have for
Call Number: B MATHABANEISBN: 0684833034Publication Date: 2000-06-07
Biographies and Memoirs
Muhammad by
"I recommend this book to all those who are honestly struggling against bigotry and ignorance. This is a useful tool in the hands of truth seekers and peace makers." --Dr. Sayyid M. Syeed, National Director, Office for Interfaith & Community Alliances, Islamic Society of North America In the pages of Muhammad: The Story of a Prophet and Reformer, young readers will encounter a man very different from the figure often presented in Western popular culture. Drawing from biographies, the Quran, and hadith, Sarah Conover, co-author of Ayat Jamilah: Beautiful Signs: A Treasury of Islamic Wisdom for Children and Parents, relates the story of a radical prophet who challenged the rich and powerful, guided his community of followers through a dangerous time of persecution and exile, formed alliances with people of different beliefs, and preached "love for humanity what you love for yourself." Before he became one of the most venerated, and most misunderstood, religious leaders in history, Muhammad was an orphaned child and a shepherd. Written for readers 12 and up, and with a foreword by Eboo Patel, Muhammad: The Story of a Prophet and Reformer will educate and inspire youth and adults of all faiths.
Call Number: B MUHAMMADISBN: 9781558967045Publication Date: 2014-03-01
A Good Provider Is One Who Leaves by
One of The Washington Post's 10 Best Books of the Year "A remarkable book...indispensable."--The Boston Globe "A sweeping, deeply reported tale of international migration...DeParle's understanding of migration is refreshingly clear-eyed and nuanced."--The New York Times "This is epic reporting, nonfiction on a whole other level...One of the best books on immigration written in a generation."--Matthew Desmond, author of Evicted The definitive chronicle of our new age of global migration, told through the multi-generational saga of a Filipino family, by a veteran New York Times reporter and two-time Pulitzer Prize finalist. When Jason DeParle moved into the Manila slums with Tita Comodas and her family three decades ago, he never imagined his reporting on them would span three generations and turn into the defining chronicle of a new age--the age of global migration. In a monumental book that gives new meaning to "immersion journalism," DeParle paints an intimate portrait of an unforgettable family as they endure years of sacrifice and separation, willing themselves out of shantytown poverty into a new global middle class. At the heart of the story is Tita's daughter, Rosalie. Beating the odds, she struggles through nursing school and works her way across the Middle East until a Texas hospital fulfills her dreams with a job offer in the States. Migration is changing the world--reordering politics, economics, and cultures across the globe. With nearly 45 million immigrants in the United States, few issues are as polarizing. But if the politics of immigration is broken, immigration itself--tens of millions of people gathered from every corner of the globe--remains an underappreciated American success. Expertly combining the personal and panoramic, DeParle presents a family saga and a global phenomenon. Restarting her life in Galveston, Rosalie brings her reluctant husband and three young children with whom she has rarely lived. They must learn to become a family, even as they learn a new country. Ordinary and extraordinary at once, their journey is a twenty-first-century classic, rendered in gripping detail.
Call Number: B COMODASISBN: 9780670785926Publication Date: 2019-08-20
Monarch by
In February 6, 1952, Elizabeth Alexandra Mary Windsor became Elizabeth II, Queen of England. "Monarch" is bestselling author Robert Lacey's unique biography of Elizabeth Windsor as well as his acute analysis of history's most durable symbol of political authority: the British monarchy. "Monarch" is a revelatory examination of Elizabeth II as a human being and of an institution shaped over the years by the wishes and dreams -- and sometimes the anger and unhappiness -- of the British people. As such, it is both a celebration and an analysis of the world's best-known monarchy. Here are Elizabeth's ancestors and models: her great-grandmother Victoria (adored as a young queen, derided for her middle-aged seclusion from her subjects, and revered as the longest-reigning monarch in British history); the playboy Prince of Wales, later Edward VII; Elizabeth's grandfather George V; her adored uncle David, who abdicated as Edward VIII; her father, George VI; and her extraordinarily well loved mother, the Queen Mum. "Monarch" brings Elizabeth to life as never before: "Lillibet" as a baby, being instructed in the proper way to wave to a crowd
Call Number: B ELIZABETH IIISBN: 0743235592Publication Date: 2002-05-07
Nelson Mandela by
Everyone should know the life story of Nelson Mandela, one of the greatest leaders of all time, the first black president of South Africa, the most famous African, and a major world statesman. His inspiring life receives a fresh retelling in this new biography written especially for students and general readers. This volume is an enjoyable, authoritative, and balanced way to not only understand a great man, but also to understand a critical time in world history and race relations. Mandela's quest for racial justice for black South Africans as a leader of the African National Congress led to twenty-seven years of imprisonment. South African Apartheid consumed the attention of the world, coming to a head in the 1980s. With intense international pressure on the Apartheid government, Mandela was finally freed in 1990. Through the landmark presidency of South Africa and post Nobel Peace Prize years up until today, he has continued as a peacemaker and agent for change. Chapter 1 covers his birth into a strong Xhosa family and clan, with cultural, historical, and geographical context, and the next chapter follows his elite education path, taking into consideration the forces and people who helped shape the future leader. Chapter 3 discusses his law practice, African National Congress work, and his first wife. Chapters 4-6 continue with his growing political involvement and family. Chapter 7 and 8 deal with the long imprisonment and then freedom. The final chapters discuss his presidency and Nobel Peace Prize and life today. A timeline, photo essay, and selected bibliography complement the narrative.
Call Number: B MANDELAISBN: 9780313340352Publication Date: 2008-02-28
The Osama Bin Laden I Know by
No one knows more about Osama bin Laden than Peter Bergen. In 1997, well before the West suddenly became aware of the world's most sought-after terrorist, Bergen met with him and has followed his activities ever since. Today, years after President Bush swore to get him dead or alive and despite haunting the popular imagination since September 11, 2001, bin Laden remains shrouded in mystery and obscured by a barrage of facts, details and myths. With numerous never-before-published interviews, The Osama Bin Laden I Know provides unprecedented insight into bin Laden's life and character drawing on the experiences of his most intimate acquaintances. This timely and important work gives readers their first true, enduring look at the man who has declared the West his greatest enemy.
Call Number: 978-0-7432-7892-8ISBN: 9780743278928Publication Date: 2006-08-08
Out of the Flames by
Out of the Flames is an extraordinary story - providing testament to the power of ideas, the enduring legacy of books, and the triumph of individual courage. Out of the Flames tracks the history of The Chrisitianismi Restituto, examining Michael Servetus's life and times and the politics of the first information during the sixteenth century. The Chrisitianismi Restituto, a heretical work of biblical scholarship, written in 1553, aimed to refute the orthodox Christianity that Michael Servetus' old colleague, John Calvin, supported. After the book spread through the ranks of Protestant hierarchy, Servetus was tried and agonizingly burned at the stake, the last known copy of the Restitutio chained to his leg. Servetus's execution marked a turning point in the quest for freedom of expression, due largely to the development of the printing press and the proliferation of books in Renaissance Europe. Three copies of the Restitutio managed to survive the burning, despite every effort on the part of his enemies to destroy them. As a result, the book became almost a surrogate for its author, going into hiding and relying on covert distribution until it could be read freely, centuries later. Lawrence and Nancy Goldstone follow the clandestine journey of the three copies through the subsequent centuries and explore its author's legacy and influence over the thinkers that shared his spirit and genius, such as Leibniz, Voltaire, Rousseau, Jefferson, Clarence Dorrow, and William Osler.
Call Number: B SERVETUSISBN: 9780767908375Publication Date: 2003-09-02
Over the Edge of the World by
"A first-rate historical page turner." --New York Times Book Review The acclaimed and bestselling account of Ferdinand Magellan's historic 60,000-mile ocean voyage. Ferdinand Magellan's daring circumnavigation of the globe in the sixteenth century was a three-year odyssey filled with sex, violence, and amazing adventure. Now in Over the Edge of the World, prize-winning biographer and journalist Laurence Bergreen entwines a variety of candid, firsthand accounts, bringing to life this groundbreaking and majestic tale of discovery that changed both the way explorers would henceforth navigate the oceans and history itself. Now updated to include a new introduction commemorating the 500th anniversary of Magellan's voyage.
Call Number: B MAGELLANISBN: 0066211735Publication Date: 2003-10-14
The Pianist by
Named one of the Best Books of 1999 by the Los Angeles Times, The Pianist is now a major motion picture directed by Roman Polanski and starring Adrien Brody (Son of Sam). The Pianist won the Cannes Film Festival’s most prestigious prize—the Palme d’Or. On September 23, 1939, Wladyslaw Szpilman played Chopin’s Nocturne in C-sharp minor live on the radio as shells exploded outside—so loudly that he couldn’t hear his piano. It was the last live music broadcast from Warsaw: That day, a German bomb hit the station, and Polish Radio went off the air. Though he lost his entire family, Szpilman survived in hiding. In the end, his life was saved by a German officer who heard him play the same Chopin Nocturne on a piano found among the rubble. Written immediately after the war and suppressed for decades, The Pianist is a stunning testament to human endurance and the redemptive power of fellow feeling.
Call Number: B SZPILMANISBN: 0312244150Publication Date: 1999-09-04
Polar Explorer by
Polar Explorer is an inspiring and empowering story by sixteen-year-old Jade Hameister, chronicling her feat of being the youngest person to complete the Polar Hat Trick... From her first trip to Everest Base Camp as a young woman, Jade Hameister knew what she wanted to achieve - the impossible. Jade began her quest to complete the Polar Hat Trick in April 2016 when she was fourteen. She became the youngest person to ski to the North Pole from anywhere outside the last degree - the point where most people begin - and was named Australian Geographic Society's Young Adventurer of the Year. But that was just the beginning. In June of 2017, she became the youngest woman to complete the crossing of Greenland, the second largest ice cap on the planet. On January 11, 2018, she arrived atthe South Pole after an epic 37 day journey through Antarctica, becoming the youngest person to ski to both Poles and the youngest person to complete the Polar Hat Trick. This book will motivate and encourage young people to follow their dreams, no matter how impossible they may seem.
Call Number: B HAMEISTEISBN: 9781250317681Publication Date: 2019-04-02
Robert, Earl of Essex by
Robert, Earl of Essex, captured Elizabeth I's heart--and almost cost her the throne. Their relationship courted disaster, eventually leading the flamboyant earl to the block. Though fabled in romantic legends, he's even far more interesting in real life. Written by the bestselling author of The Year 1000, Sir Walter Ralegh, and Majesty, this study brilliantly interlaces the personal with the political.
Call Number: B DEVREAUXISBN: 9781842122853Publication Date: 2002-03-28
Rough Magic by
A memoir of beating the odds to become a horse champion is an inspiring saga of perseverance--and a classic underdog tale." --Entertainment Weekly At the age of nineteen, Lara Prior-Palmer discovered a website devoted to "the world's longest, toughest horse race" an annual competition of endurance and skill that involves dozens of riders racing a series of twenty-five wild ponies across 1,000 kilometers of Mongolian grassland. On a whim, she decided to enter the race. As she boarded a plane to East Asia, she was utterly unprepared for what awaited her. Riders often spend years preparing to compete in the Mongol Derby, a course that re-creates the horse messenger system developed by Genghis Khan. Many fail to finish. Prior-Palmer had no formal training. She was driven by her own restlessness, stubbornness, and a lifelong love of horses. She raced for ten days through extreme heat and terrifying storms, catching a few hours of sleep where she could at the homes of nomadic families. Battling bouts of illness and dehydration, exhaustion and bruising falls, she decided she had nothing to lose. Each dawn she rode out again on a fresh horse, scrambling up mountains, swimming through rivers, crossing woodlands and wetlands, arid dunes and open steppe, as American television crews chased her in their jeeps. Told with terrific suspense and style, in a voice full of poetry and soul, Rough Magic captures the extraordinary story of one young woman who forged ahead, against all odds, to become the first female winner of this breathtaking race. "Taking off on a horse into the Mongolian Steppe sounds like the bracing inverse to an overpopulated, busy urban life, but having the skills and grit to pull it off is another thing entirely. . . . Lara Prior-Palmer attempted the Mongol Derby not really knowing what she was getting into; she ended it knowing much more about herself, and a race champion besides." ―Estelle Tang, Elle
Call Number: B PRIORPALISBN: 9781948226196Publication Date: 2019-05-07- The sea-dragon journals of Francis Drake's voyage around the world by Call Number: B DRAKEPublication Date: 1969
Soaring Earth by
A School Library Journal Best Nonfiction Book of 2019! In this powerful companion to her award-winning memoir Enchanted Air, Young People's Poet Laureate Margarita Engle recounts her teenage years during the turbulent 1960s. Margarita Engle's childhood straddled two worlds: the lush, welcoming island of Cuba and the lonely, dream-soaked reality of Los Angeles. But the revolution has transformed Cuba into a mystery of impossibility, no longer reachable in real life. Margarita longs to travel the world, yet before she can become independent, she'll have to start high school. Then the shock waves of war reach America, rippling Margarita's plans in their wake. Cast into uncertainty, she must grapple with the philosophies of peace, civil rights, freedom of expression, and environmental protection. Despite overwhelming circumstances, she finds solace and empowerment through her education. Amid the challenges of adolescence and a world steeped in conflict, Margarita finds hope beyond the struggle, and love in the most unexpected of places.
Call Number: B ENGLEISBN: 9781534429536Publication Date: 2019-02-26
The Spy and the Traitor by
If anyone could be considered a Russian counterpart to the infamous British double-agent Kim Philby, it was Oleg Gordievsky. The son of two KGB agents and the product of the best Soviet institutions, the savvy, sophisticated Gordievsky grew to see his nation's communism as both criminal and philistine. He took his first posting for Russian intelligence in 1968 and eventually became the Soviet Union's top man in London, but from 1973 on he was secretly working for MI6. For nearly a decade, as the Cold War reached its twilight, Gordievsky helped the West turn the tables on the KGB, exposing Russian spies and helping to foil countless intelligence plots, as the Soviet leadership grew increasingly paranoid at the United States's nuclear first-strike capabilities and brought the world closer to the brink of war. Desperate to keep the circle of trust close, MI6 never revealed Gordievsky's name to its counterparts in the CIA, which in turn grew obsessed with figuring out the identity of Britain's obviously top-level source. Their obsession ultimately doomed Gordievsky: the CIA officer assigned to identify him was none other than Aldrich Ames, the man who would become infamous for secretly spying for the Soviets. Unfolding the delicious three-way gamesmanship between America, Britain, and the Soviet Union, and culminating in the gripping cinematic beat-by-beat of Gordievsky's nail-biting escape from Moscow in 1985, Ben Macintyre's latest may be his best yet. Like the greatest novels of John le Carré, it brings readers deep into a world of treachery and betrayal, where the lines bleed between the personal and the professional, and one man's hatred of communism had the power to change the future of nations.
Call Number: B GORDIEVSKYISBN: 9781101904213Publication Date: 2019-08-06
Tastes Like War by
Part food memoir, part sociological investigation, Tastes Like War is a hybrid text about a daughter's search through intimate and global history for the roots of her mother's schizophrenia. In her mother's final years, Grace learned to cook dishes from her parent's childhood in order to invite the past into the present, and to hold space for her mother's multiple voices at the table.
Call Number: B CHOISBN: 9781952177941Publication Date: 2021-05-18- Thomas Becket by Call Number: 0-8047-0766-9ISBN: 0804707669Publication Date: 1971-03-01
The Translator by
The Translator is a suspenseful, harrowing, and deeply moving memoir of how one person has made a difference in the world, an on-the-ground account of one of the biggest stories of our time: the brutal genocide under way in Darfur. In 2003, Daoud Hari, a Zaghawa tribesman, was among the hundreds of thousands of villagers attacked and driven from their homes by Sudanese-government-backed militia groups. Though Hari’s village was burned to the ground, his family decimated and dispersed, he himself escaped, eventually finding safety across the border. With his high school knowledge of languages, Hari offered his services as a translator and guide. In doing so, however, he had to return to the heart of darkness–and he has risked his life again and again to help ensure that the story of his people is told while there is still time to save them.
Call Number: B HARIISBN: 9780812979176Publication Date: 2009-01-13
When a Crocodile Eats the Sun by
After his father's heart attack in 1984, Peter Godwin began a series of pilgrimages back to Zimbabwe, the land of his birth, from Manhattan, where he now lives. On these frequent visits to check on his elderly parents, he bore witness to Zimbabwe's dramatic spiral downwards into the jaws of violent chaos, presided over by an increasingly enraged dictator. And yet long after their comfortable lifestyle had been shattered and millions were fleeing, his parents refuse to leave, steadfast in their allegiance to the failed state that has been their adopted home for 50 years. Then Godwin discovered a shocking family secret that helped explain their loyalty. Africa was his father's sanctuary from another identity, another world. When a Crocodile Eats the Sun is a stirring memoir of the disintegration of a family set against the collapse of a country. But it is also a vivid portrait of the profound strength of the human spirit and the enduring power of love.
Call Number: B GODWINISBN: 9780316018715Publication Date: 2008-04-10
Wild Swans by
This is a powerful, moving, at times shocking account of three generations of Chinese women, as compelling as Amy Tan. --Mary Morris. An evocative, often astonishing view of life in a changing China. -- The New York Times
Call Number: B CHANGISBN: 0385425473Publication Date: 1992-10-03- The Woman Warrior by
"'No name woman' originally appeared, in slightly different form, in the January 1975 issue of Viva"--T.p. verso.
Call Number: B KINGSTONISBN: 0394723929Publication Date: 1977-08-12
Zheng He by
Zheng He was the commander of a vast Chinese fleet known as the treasure fleet. In the early fifteenth century, he led the fleet on seven journeys throughout the South China Sea and Indian Ocean, serving as ambassador to the barbarian nations in need of a civilizing influence. Under Zheng He's command, the Chinese treasure fleet achieved one of the most impressive maritime displays the world had ever seen. This engaging volume covers the fleet's travels, which covered more than 40,000 miles and included sea routes along the Silk Road, to cities and kingdoms from southern Asia to east Africa.
Call Number: B ZHENGISBN: 9781508171492Publication Date: 2016-07-15
