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More women have served in Iraq and Afghanistan than in any other conflict in our nation's history, and today they compose about 15 percent of the armed services. Soldier Girls follows the experiences of three women in the Indiana National Guard -- one a young college student, one a single mother, and one a grandmother -- who chose to enlist for different reasons, never expecting they would go to war. Though quite far apart in age and in their political...
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The American decade known as "The Roaring Twenties" continues to hold our collective fascination. But how did this surge of innovation and cultural milestones emerge from the ashes of The Great War? Eric Burns examines the crucial year of 1920, the first full year of armistice. From prohibition to immigration, the vote for women, the birth of jazz, the rise of expatriate literature, and the original Ponzi scheme, 1920 was a year like no other.
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It was not inevitable that World War II would end as it did, or that it would even end well. 1944 was a year that could have stymied the Allies and cemented Hitler's waning power. Instead, it saved those democracies -- but with a fateful cost. 1944 witnessed a series of titanic events: FDR at the pinnacle of his wartime leadership as well as his reelection, the planning of Operation Overlord with Churchill and Stalin, the unprecedented D-Day invasion...
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Award-winning journalist Hannah Nordhaus attempts to uncover the truth about her great-great-grandmother, whose ghost is said to haunt an elegant hotel in Santa Fe. Julia Schuster Staab died nearly a century before the hauntings were reported at La Posada, once the grand home of Julia and her Jewish merchant husband. Tracing the strands of Julia's life and unsettled afterlife, Nordhaus delivers a spellbinding exploration of myth, family history, and...
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The prizewinning historian and bestselling author of D-Day, Stalingrad, and The Battle of Arnhem reconstructs the Battle of the Bulge in this riveting new account
On December 16, 1944, Hitler launched his ‘last gamble’ in the snow-covered forests and gorges of the Ardennes in Belgium, believing he could split the Allies by driving all the way to Antwerp and forcing the Canadians and the...
On December 16, 1944, Hitler launched his ‘last gamble’ in the snow-covered forests and gorges of the Ardennes in Belgium, believing he could split the Allies by driving all the way to Antwerp and forcing the Canadians and the...
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"For Ta-Nehisi Coates, history has always been personal. At every stage of his life, he's sought in his explorations of history answers to the mysteries that surrounded him -- most urgently, why he, and other black people he knew, seemed to live in fear. What were they afraid of? In Tremble for My Country, Coates takes readers along on his journey through America's history of race and its contemporary resonances through a series of awakenings -- moments...
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Mary Norris has spent more than three decades in The New Yorker's copy department, maintaining its celebrated high standards. Now she brings her vast experience, good cheer, and finely sharpened pencils to help the rest of us in a boisterous language book as full of life as it is of practical advice. Between You & Me features Norris's laugh-out-loud descriptions of some of the most common and vexing problems in spelling, punctuation, and usage comma...
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Jimmy Carter, thirty-ninth President, Nobel Peace Prize winner, international humanitarian, fisherman, reflects on his full and happy life with pride, humor, and a few second thoughts. At ninety, Carter reflects on his public and private life with a frankness that is disarming. He adds detail and emotion about his youth in rural Georgia that he described in his earlier memoir An Hour Before Daylight. He writes about racism and the isolation of the...
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Before becoming the world's most notorious dictator, Kim Jong-Il ran North Korea's Ministry for Propaganda and its film studios. Conceiving every movie made, he acted as producer and screenwriter. Despite this control, he was underwhelmed by the available talent and took drastic steps, ordering the kidnapping of Choi Eun-Hee (Madam Choi), South Korea's most famous actress, and her ex-husband Shin Sang-Ok, the country's most famous filmmaker. Madam...
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On August 16, 1824, an elderly French gentlemen sailed into New York Harbor and giddy Americans were there to welcome him. Or, rather, to welcome him back. It had been 30 years since the Revolutionary War hero the Marquis de Lafayette had last set foot in the United States, and he was so beloved that 80,000 people showed up to cheer for him. The entire population of New York at the time was 120,000. Lafayette's arrival in 1824 coincided with one of...
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Once Upon a Time in Russia is the true story of two larger-than-life billionaire oligarchs who surfed the waves of privatization to reap riches after the fall of the Soviet regime: "Godfather of the Kremlin" Boris Berezovsky, a former mathematician whose first entrepreneurial venture was running an automobile reselling business, and Roman Abramovich, his dashing young protégé who built a multi-billion-dollar empire of oil and aluminum. Locked in...
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Spanning 2,000 miles and traversing six states from Missouri to the Pacific Ocean, the Oregon Trail is the route that made America. In the fifteen years before the Civil War, when 400,000 pioneers used it to emigrate West, the trail united the coasts, doubled the size of the country, and laid the groundwork for the railroads. The trail years also solidified the American character: our plucky determination in the face of adversity, our impetuous...
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On a winter day in 1903, in the Outer Banks of North Carolina, two unknown brothers from Ohio changed history. But it would take the world some time to believe what had happened: the age of flight had begun, with the first heavier-than-air, powered machine carrying a pilot. Who were these men and how was it that they achieved what they did? Far more than a couple of unschooled Dayton bicycle mechanics who happened to hit on success, they were men...
14) Year of yes
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Black History Month: Focus on Illinois (SCPL)
RPS Women's History Month: Adults
Uplifting - Inspiring True Stories
Warm and Cozy Reads
RPS Women's History Month: Adults
Uplifting - Inspiring True Stories
Warm and Cozy Reads
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With three hit shows on television and three children at home, Shonda Rhimes had lots of good reasons to say NO when an unexpected invitation arrived. Hollywood party? No. Speaking engagement? No. Media appearances? No. And there was the side-benefit of saying No for an introvert like Shonda: nothing new to fear. Then Shonda's sister laid down a challenge: just for one year, try to say YES to the unexpected invitations that come your way. Shonda reluctantly...
15) The bad-ass librarians of Timbuktu: and their race to save the world's most precious manuscripts
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In the 1980s, a young adventurer and collector for a government library, Abdel Kader Haidara, journeyed across the Sahara Desert and along the Niger River, tracking down and salvaging tens of thousands of ancient Islamic and secular manuscripts that had fallen into obscurity. The Bad-Ass Librarians of Timbuktu tells the story of how Haidara, a mild-mannered archivist and historian from the legendary city of Timbuktu, later became one of the world's...
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"From one of the country's most recognizable journalists: How becoming a grandmother transforms a woman's life. After four decades as a reporter, Lesley Stahl says the most vivid and transforming experience of her life was not covering the White House, interviewing heads of state, or any other of her stories at 60 Minutes. It was becoming a grandmother. She was hit with a jolt of joy so intense and unexpected, she wanted to "investigate" it--as though...
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Alexandra Horowitz, author of the bestseller Inside of a Dog, explores what dogs know in even greater depth, following their lead to learn about the dog's spectacular nose and how we mere humans can improve our underused sense of smell. Here Horowitz, a leading researcher in dog cognition, continues to unpack the mystery of a dog's nose-view, in order to more fully understand our companions. She follows the dog's nose--exploring not only its abilities...
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"The untold and inspiring story of Eric Liddell, hero of Chariots of Fire, from his Olympic medal to his missionary work in China to his last, brave years in a Japanese work camp during WWII, "--Amazon.com.
Eric Liddell ran-- and lived-- for the glory of his God. An Olympic gold medalist, he would not run on Sunday because of his strict observance of the Christian sabbath, and did not compete in his signature event, the 100 meters, at the 1924 Paris...
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As a founding member of The Beach Boys, Mike Love has spent an extraordinary fifty-five years, and counting, as the group's lead singer and one of its principal lyricists. The Beach Boys, from their California roots to their international fame, are a unique American story--one of overnight success and age-defying longevity; of musical genius and reckless self-destruction; of spirituality, betrayal, and forgiveness--and Love is the only band member...