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Her name was Henrietta Lacks, but scientists know her as HeLa. She was a poor Southern tobacco farmer, yet her cells--taken without her knowledge--became one of the most important tools in medicine. The first "immortal" human cells grown in culture, they are still alive today, though she has been dead for more than sixty years. HeLa cells were vital for developing the polio vaccine; uncovered secrets of cancer and viruses; helped lead to in vitro...
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This book is a riveting historical narrative of the heart-stopping events surrounding the assassination of Abraham Lincoln, and the first work of history from mega-bestselling author Bill O'Reilly. The anchor of The O'Reilly Factor recounts one of the most dramatic stories in American history -- how one gunshot changed the country forever. In the spring of 1865, the bloody saga of America's Civil War finally comes to an end after a series of increasingly...
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A dynamic history of the muckracking press and the first decade of the Progressive era as told through the intense friendship of Theodore Roosevelt and William Howard Taft--a close relationship that strengthens both men before it ruptures in 1912 when they engage in a brutal fight for the presidential nomination that cripples the progressive wing of the Republican Party, causing Democrat Woodrow Wilson to be elected, and changing the country's history....
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Since publication of his bestselling book In the President's Secret Service, investigative reporter Ronald Kessler has continued to penetrate the wall of secrecy that surrounds the U.S. Secret Service, breaking the story that Secret Service agents who were to protect President Obama hired prostitutes in Cartagena, Colombia and revealing that the Secret Service allowed a third uninvited guest to crash a White House state dinner. Now, Kessler presents...
5) Hard choices
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Hillary Rodham Clinton's inside account of the crises, choices, and challenges she faced during her four years as America's 67th Secretary of State, and how those experiences drive her view of the future.
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"When America entered World War II in 1941, [it] faced an enemy that had banned and burned over 100 million books and caused fearful citizens to hide or destroy many more. Outraged librarians launched a campaign to send free books to American troops and gathered 20 million hardcover donations. In 1943, the War Department and the publishing industry stepped in with an extraordinary program: 120 million small, lightweight paperbacks, for troops to carry...
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Diane Ackerman is justly celebrated for her unique insight into the natural world and our place in it. In this landmark book, she confronts the unprecedented reality that one prodigiously intelligent and meddlesome creature, Homo sapiens, is shaping the future of planet Earth. With her gift for making scientific discovery intelligible to the layperson, Ackerman takes us on an exhilarating journey through our new reality, introducing many of the people...
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Most people want to avoid thinking about death, but Caitlin Doughty a twenty-something with a degree in medieval history and a flair for the macabre took a job at a crematory, turning morbid curiosity into her life's work. Thrown into a profession of gallows humor and vivid characters (both living and very dead), Caitlin learned to navigate the secretive culture of those who care for the deceased. Smoke Gets in Your Eyes tells an unusual coming-of-age...
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In the spring of 2011, Jon Katz received a phone call from an animal control officer who had found a neglected donkey on a farm in upstate New York. She hoped that Jon and his wife, Maria, would be willing to adopt him. The wrenching sight of Simon touched something very deep inside of Jon, and they took him in. Weak and malnourished, Simon needed constant care. As Simon's health improved, Jon would feed him by hand, take him on walks, even confide...
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Pulitzer Prize-winning historian Eric Foner relates the dramatic story of fugitive slaves and the antislavery activists who defied the law to help them reach freedom.
The dramatic story of fugitive slaves and the antislavery activists who defied the law to help them reach freedom.
More than any other scholar, Eric Foner has influenced our understanding of America's history. Now, making brilliant use of extraordinary evidence, the Pulitzer Prize–winning...
12) The lions of Iwo Jima: the story of Combat Team 28 and the bloodiest battle in Marine Corps history
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The full story of Combat Team 28, one of the greatest units fielded in the history of the U.S. Marines. The unit, 4500 men strong, landed on the black sands of Iwo Jima on February 19, 1945 and raised the flag atop Mount Suribachi after four days of ferocious combat, yet their battle had just begun.
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Few of us are completely immune to the suggestion of the uncanny and the fear of the dark. Taking us through hauntings that have obsessed the world, Roger Clarke unfolds a story of class conflict, charlatans, and true believers. Written as grippingly as the best ghost fiction, it is a chronicle of the most haunted places of the last five hundred years -- and of our longing to believe.
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After writing Proof of Heaven, Dr. Eben Alexander heard from the thousands affected by his story. He studied what the world's religious traditions and philosophers have said about the soul's survival of death. Part metaphysical detective story, part manual for living, The Map of Heaven explores our spiritual history and the birth of modern science, showing how we forgot, and are at last remembering, who we really are and what our true destiny is.
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In the winter of 1939 in the cold snow of no-man's-land, two loners met and began an extraordinary journey. One was an orphaned puppy, abandoned as his owners fled Nazi forces. The other was Czech airman Robert Bozdech, who found the tiny German shepherd he named "Ant" after being shot down on a daring mission over enemy lines. Robert hid Ant inside his jacket as he escaped. The pair would save each other's lives countless times as they flew together,...
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Once luxury was available only to the rarefied and aristocratic world of old money and royalty. It offered a history of tradition, superior quality, and a pampered buying experience. Today, however, luxury is simply a product packaged and sold by multibillion-dollar global corporations focused on growth, visibility, brand awareness, advertising, and, above all, profits. Award-winning journalist Dana Thomas digs deep into the dark side of the luxury...
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At the age of 36, on the verge of a completing a decade's worth of training as a neurosurgeon, Paul Kalanithi's health began to falter. He started losing weight and was wracked by waves of excruciating back pain. A CT scan confirmed what Paul, deep down, had suspected: he had stage four lung cancer, widely disseminated. One day, he was a doctor making a living treating the dying, and the next, he was a patient struggling to live. Just like that, the...
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On May 6, 2013, Amanda Berry made headlines around the world when she fled a Cleveland home and called 911, saying: "Help me, I'm Amanda Berry... I've been kidnapped, and I've been missing for ten years." A horrifying story rapidly unfolded. Ariel Castro, a local school bus driver, had separately lured Berry, Gina DeJesus, and Michelle Knight to his home, where he kept them chained. In the decade that followed, the three were raped, psychologically...
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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...