Book type: non-fiction (1081)


871.

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot EN

Rating: 5 (1 vote)
Description:
#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • “The story of modern medicine and bioethics—and, indeed, race relations—is refracted beautifully, and movingly.”—Entertainment Weekly NOW A MAJOR MOTION PICTURE FROM HBO® STARRING OPRAH WINFREY AND ROSE BYRNE • ONE OF THE “MOST INFLUENTIAL” (CNN), “DEFINING” (LITHUB), AND “BEST” (THE PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER) BOOKS OF THE DECADE • ONE OF ESSENCE’S 50 MOST IMPACTFUL BLACK BOOKS OF THE PAST 50 YEARS • WINNER OF THE CHICAGO TRIBUNE HEARTLAND PRIZE FOR NONFICTION NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY The New York Times Book Review • Entertainment Weekly • O: The Op... continue

872.

The Innocents Abroad by Mark Twain EN

0 Ratings
Description:
Based on a series of letters Mark Twain wrote from Europe to newspapers in San Francisco and New York as a roving correspondent, The Innocents Abroad (1869) is a burlesque of the sentimental travel books popular in the mid-nineteenth century. Twain's fresh and humorous perspective on hallowed European landmarks lacked reverence for the past-the ancient statues of saints on the Cathedral of Notre Dame are "battered and broken-nosed old fellows" and tour guides "interrupt every dream, every pleasant train of thought, with their tiresome cackling." Equally irreverent about American manners (inclu... continue

873.

The Jaguar Smile : A Nicaraguan Journey by Salman Rushdie EN

0 Ratings
Country: Asia / India flag India
Description:
In this brilliantly focused and haunting portrait of the people, the politics, the land, and the poetry of Nicaragua, Salman Rushdie brings to the forefront the palpable human facts of a country in the midst of a revolution. Rushdie went to Nicaragua in 1986, harboring no preconceptions of what he might find. What he discovered was overwhelming: a culture of heroes who had turned into inanimate objects and of politicians and warriors who were poets; a land of difficult, often beautiful contradictions. His perceptions always heightened by his special sensitivity to “the views from underneath,” ... continue

874.

The Jive Talker : An Artist's Genesis by Samson Kambalu EN

Rating: 3 (1 vote)
Country: Africa / Malawi flag Malawi
Description:
What do you do when it looks like the odds were stacked against you before you were even born, when you're having trouble feeding a family that just keeps growing, when you've got a little too much of an affection for Carlsberg Brown and when the life president of your country, Malawi, keeps shuffling around the public health system that employs you, forcing you and your family into perpetual nomadism? You catch up on your reading, adding I'm OK, You're OK and Nietzsche to the bathroom library. Holding on to your dignity, you keep dressing up in threadbare three-piece suits you ordered from Lo... continue

875.

The Journey by Abdul Musa Adam EN

0 Ratings
Country: Africa / Sudan flag Sudan
Description:
Abdul is just 7 years old when his parents are killed before his eyes. As a brutal war sweeps Sudan, Abdul and his 3-year-old brother are forced to flee. Their gruelling journey across the Sahara to a refugee camp in Chad is fraught with danger, and every day is a struggle against hunger and disease. Until one day Abdul is offered a chance to escape. A chance that could save him, but will force him to make the most heartbreaking decision of his life. Abdul's death-defying flight leaves deep scars. But his affinity with animals provides a lifeline, when he is offered the chance... continue

876.

The King's Speech : How One Man Saved the British Monarchy by Mark Logue, Peter Conradi EN

0 Ratings
Description:
One man saved the British Royal Family in the first decades of the 20th century - he wasn't a prime minister or an archbishop of Canterbury. He was an almost unknown, and self-taught, speech therapist named Lionel Logue, whom one newspaper in the 1930s famously dubbed 'The Quack who saved a King'. Logue wasn't a British aristocrat or even an Englishman - he was a commoner and an Australian to boot. Nevertheless it was the outgoing, amiable Logue who single-handedly turned the famously nervous, tongue-tied Duke of York into one of Britain's greatest kings after his brother, Edward VIII, abdicat... continue

877.

The Land of Hope and Fear : Israel's Battle for Its Inner Soul by Isabel Kershner EN

Rating: 3 (1 vote)
Description:
A rich, wide-ranging portrait of the divisions among Israelis today, at a critical juncture in their country’s history, by a veteran New York Times correspondent who has spent decades working in Israel “A wondrous tale told through the agonizing and uplifting stories of Israel’s many tribes — Jewish and Arab, religious and secular, new immigrants and veterans, soldiers and settlers.”—Martin Indyk, author of Master of the Game, and former U.S. ambassador to Israel Despite Israel's determined staying power in a hostile environment, its military might, and the innovation it fosters in businesses ... continue

878.

The Last Girl : My Story of Captivity, and My Fight Against the Islamic State by Nadia Murad, Jenna Krajeski EN

Rating: 5 (1 vote)
Country: Asia / Iraq flag Iraq
Description:
WINNER OF THE NOBEL PEACE PRIZE • In this “courageous” (The Washington Post) memoir of survival, a former captive of the Islamic State tells her harrowing and ultimately inspiring story. Nadia Murad was born and raised in Kocho, a small village of farmers and shepherds in northern Iraq. A member of the Yazidi community, she and her brothers and sisters lived a quiet life. Nadia had dreams of becoming a history teacher or opening her own beauty salon. On August 15th, 2014, when Nadia was just twenty-one years old, this life ended. Islamic State militants massacred the people of her village, exe... continue

879.

The Last Jew of Treblinka by Chil Rajchman EN

Rating: 4 (1 vote)
Country: Europe / Poland flag Poland
Description:
Quickly becoming a cornerstone of Holocaust historiography--a devastatingly stark memoir from one of the lone survivors of Treblinka.

880.

The Last Nomad: Coming of Age in the Somali Desert by Shugri Said Salh EN

Rating: 5 (1 vote)
Country: Africa / Somalia flag Somalia
Description:
A remarkable and inspiring true story that "stuns with raw beauty" about one woman's resilience, her courageous journey to America, and her family's lost way of life. Born in Somalia, a spare daughter in a large family, Shugri Said Salh was sent at age six to live with her nomadic grandmother in the desert. The last of her family to learn this once-common way of life, Salh found herself chasing warthogs, climbing termite hills, herding goats, and moving constantly in search of water and grazing lands with her nomadic family. For Salh, though the desert was a harsh place threatened by drought, ... continue