Book picks similar to
Robertson's Book of Firsts: Who Did What for the First Time by Patrick Robertson
non-fiction
first-reads
reference-library-wishlist
unusual-stuff
All Things Being Equal: Why Math Is the Key to a Better World
John Mighton - 2020
For two decades, John Mighton has developed strategies for fostering intellectual potential in all children through learning math. Math, Mighton says, provides us with mental tools of incredible power. When we learn math we learn to see patterns, to think logically and systematically, to draw analogies, to perceive risk, to understand cause and effect--among many other critical skills. Yet we tolerate and in fact expect a vast performance gap in math among students, and live in a world where many adults aren't equipped with these crucial tools. This learning gap is unnecessary, dangerous and tragic, he cautions, and it has led us to a problem of intellectual poverty which is apparent everywhere--in fake news, political turmoil, floundering economies, even in erroneous medical diagnoses. In All Things Being Equal, Mighton argues that math study is an ideal starting point to break down social inequality and empower individuals to build a smarter, kinder, more equitable world. Bringing together the latest cognitive research and incremental learning strategies, Mighton goes deep into the classroom and beyond to offer a hopeful--and urgent--vision for a numerate society.
Mob Cop: My Life of Crime in the Chicago Police Department
Fred Pascente - 2015
Pascente and Spilotro grew up together on Chicago’s Near West Side, and as young toughs they were rousted and shaken down by Hanhardt. While Spilotro became one of the youngest made men in Chicago Outfit history, Pascente was drafted into the army and then joined the police department. Soon taken under Hanhardt’s wing, Pascente served as Hanhardt’s fixer and bagman on the department for more than a decade. At the same time, Pascente remained close to Spilotro, making frequent trips to Las Vegas to party with his old friend while helping to rob the casinos blind. As a policeman he led a double life, doing genuine police work under Hanhardt’s tutelage while at the same time keeping an eye out for opportunities for bribery and theft. His position on both sides of the law gave him unrivaled knowledge of the workings of Chicago’s deeply rooted culture of corruption. Mob Cop details the decline of traditional organized crime in the United States, and reveals information about the inner workings of the Outfit that has never been publicly released. Fred Pascente’s colorful stories of crooked cops and dangerous criminals make his memoir a matchless tell-all.
Knit 2 Purl 2 Kill 2
Erina Bridget Ring - 2014
When her mother's health begins to fail, Erina Bridget Ring searches for something to do during the hours she spends at her mother's bedside. What she discovers is knitting--and a group of women knitters. But as she learns to knit and at the same time cares for her ailing mother, she finds that things at the knitting group are not what they seem to be.
WWI: Tales from the Trenches
Daniel Wrinn - 2020
Uncover their mesmerizing, realistic stories of combat, courage, and distress in readable and balanced stories told from the front lines.Witness the creation of new technologies of destruction: tanks, planes, and submarines; machine guns and field artillery; poison gas and chemical warfare. It introduced U-boat packs and strategic bombing, unrestricted war on civilians and mistreatment of prisoners.World War I reduced Europe’s mightiest empires to rubble, killed twenty million people, and cracked the foundations of our modern world. In its wake, empires toppled, monarchies fell, and whole populations lost their national identities.If you like gripping, authentic accounts of life and combat during WWI, then you won't want to miss WWI: Tales from the Trenches.
Rocket Men: The Daring Odyssey of Apollo 8 and the Astronauts Who Made Man's First Journey to the Moon
Robert Kurson - 2018
A riveting account of three heroic astronauts who took one of the most dangerous space flights ever, from the
New York Times
bestselling author of
Shadow Divers.
In early 1968, the Apollo program was on shaky footing. President Kennedy's end-of-decade deadline to put a man on the Moon was in jeopardy, and the Soviets were threatening to pull ahead in the space race. By August 1968, with its back against the wall, NASA decided to scrap its usual methodical approach and shoot for the heavens. With just four months to prepare--a fraction of the normal time--the agency would send the first men in history to the Moon. In a year of historic violence and discord--the Tet offensive, the assassinations of MLK and RFK, the Chicago DNC riots--the Apollo 8 mission was the boldest test of what America could do. With a focus on astronauts Frank Borman, Jim Lovell, and Bill Anders, and their wives and children, this is a vivid, gripping, you-are-there narrative that shows anew the epic danger involved, and the singular bravery it took, for man to leave Earth for the first time--and to arrive at a new world.
The Bar Mitzvah and the Beast: One Family's Cross-Country Ride of Passage by Bike
Matt Biers-Ariel - 2012
But then his hard-to-impress teenage son, Yonah, refused to have a Bar Mitzvah as he approached age thirteen. No dancing with grandma or chanting traditional prayers? Something had to be done to celebrate this rite of passage. So Matt, his wife Djina, Yonah, and little brother Solomon decided to saddle up for a physical ride of passage -- one that would take them 3,804 miles by bicycle from the waters of the Pacific Ocean, across the Rockies, through Midwest small towns, and all the way to Washington D.C. Armed with ibuprofen, several gallons of Gatorade, and one unpredictable tandem bike (the "Beast"), the Biers-Ariel family pedaled across the middle of America, chatting with locals along the way, roasting marshmallows at campgrounds, and quarrelling over the state of climate change, religious identity, and several flat tires. They also collected thousands of signatures on a self-made global-warming petition calling for the United States to undergo its own rite of passage -- one of energy conservation.The Bar Mitzvah and The Beast is a funny, thoughtful memoir of one ordinary American family's extraordinary journey by bicycle, and an enlightening, warm exploration of the bond between a spiritual, nature-loving father and his ambivalent, computer game-loving son.
Study Guide for Book Clubs: A Gentleman in Moscow
Kathryn Cope - 2017
A comprehensive guide to Amor Towles' acclaimed new novel 'A Gentleman in Moscow', this discussion aid includes a wealth of information and resources: useful literary and historical context; an author biography; a plot synopsis; analyses of themes & imagery; character analysis; twenty thought-provoking discussion questions; recommended further reading and even a quick quiz. For those in book clubs, this useful companion guide takes the hard work out of preparing for meetings and guarantees productive discussion. For solo readers, it encourages a deeper examination of a multi-layered text.
Insurgent: The Ultimate Interactive Quiz Book (Divergent Series Quiz Books 2)
Sarah Davids - 2014
This truly unique interactive quiz book game is the perfect addition to your reading enjoyment of this dystopian classic.
"I don't have a clue how you turned my book reading device into a game, but I loved it. You're a genius in my book".
Kathryn Cooper (KatherineCooperWrites.com) You may think you know all about the factions (Abnegation, Dauntless, Erudite, Amity & Candor) including symbols, values & mottos? You may think you know the characteristics & what happens with of all of the characters? BUT, how much do you really know? For example, On what floor of Candor HQ is the Interrogation room? 1) 3rd 2) 6th 3) 12th 4) 18th How many conditions are set out by Amity when agreeing to become a faction safe house? 1) 1 2) 2 3) 3 4) 4 There are 10 sections to this quiz. Each section automatic counts your score as you go. If you guess wrong, then you have the option of cheating by going back (you'll be supplied with a clue) or you can continue ahead. I know you'll like the quiz so much that I'm even offering another one absolutely free which you can access just by looking in the 'Look Inside' feature of Amazon. This amazing quiz book is really a must if you are a true fan of this spectacular post-apocalyptic novel - Insurgent.
A Case for Solomon: Bobby Dunbar and the Kidnapping That Haunted a Nation
Tal McThenia - 2012
A CASE FOR SOLOMON: BOBBY DUNBAR AND THE KIDNAPPING THAT HAUNTED A NATION
chronicles one of the most celebrated—and most misunderstood—kidnapping cases in American history. In 1912, four-year-old Bobby Dunbar, the son of an upper-middle-class Louisiana family, went missing in the swamps. After an eight-month search that electrified the country and destroyed Bobby’s parents, the boy was found, filthy and hardly recognizable, in the pinewoods of southern Mississippi. A wandering piano tuner who had been shuttling the child throughout the region by wagon for months was arrested and charged with kidnapping—a crime that was punishable by death at the time. But when a destitute single mother came forward from North Carolina to claim the boy as her son, not Bobby Dunbar, the case became a high-pitched battle over custody—and identity—that divided the South. Amid an ever-thickening tangle of suspicion and doubt, two mothers and a father struggled to assert their rightful parenthood over the child, both to the public and to themselves. For two years, lawyers dissected and newspapers sensationalized every aspect of the story. Psychiatrists, physicians, criminologists, and private detectives debated the piano tuner’s guilt and the boy’s identity. And all the while the boy himself remained peculiarly guarded on the question of who he was. It took nearly a century, a curiosity that had been passed down through generations, and the science of DNA to discover the truth. A Case for Solomon is a gripping historical mystery, distilled from a trove of personal and archival research. The story of Bobby Dunbar, fought over by competing New Orleans tabloids, the courts, and the citizenry of two states, offers a case study in yellow journalism, emergent forensic science, and criminal justice in the turn-of-the-century American South. It is a drama of raw poverty and power and an exposé of how that era defined and defended motherhood, childhood, and community. First told in a stunning episode of National Public Radio’s This American Life, A Case for Solomon chronicles the epic struggle to determine one child’s identity, along the way probing unsettling questions about the formation of memory, family, and self.
Clara Brown: The Rags to Riches Story of a Freed Slave
Julie McDonald - 2016
After being freed at the age of 57, she begins a tireless search for her only remaining family member, her daughter Eliza Jane. What Clara accomplishes in her 28 years of freedom will simply astound you! I first wrote about Clara Brown in my book Unbreakable Dolls, Too. This single story eBook is the expanded version, with much more information and 9 photos.
Bone Deep: Untangling the Betsy Faria Murder Case
Charles Bosworth Jr. - 2022
Schwartz, the defense attorney who fought for justice on behalf of Russel Faria, and New York Times bestselling author Charles Bosworth Jr.On December 27th, 2011, Russell Faria returned to his Troy, Missouri, home after his weekly game night with friends to an unthinkable, grisly scene: His wife, Betsy, lay dead, a knife still lodged in her neck. She’d been stabbed fifty-five times. First responders concluded that Betsy was dead for hours when Russ discovered her. No blood was found implicating Russ, and surveillance video, receipts, and friends’ testimony all supported his alibi. Yet incredibly, police and the prosecuting attorney ignored the evidence. In their minds, Russ was guilty. But prominent defense attorney Joel J. Schwartz quickly recognized the real killer. The motive was clear. Days before her murder, the terminally ill Betsy replaced her husband with her friend, Pamela Hupp, as her life insurance beneficiary. Still, despite the prosecution’s flimsy case and Hupp’s transparent lies, Russ was convicted—leaving Hupp free to kill again. Bone Deep takes readers through the perfect storm of miscalculations and missteps that led to an innocent man’s conviction—and recounts Schwartz’s successful battle to have that conviction overturned. Written with Russ Faria’s cooperation, and filled with chilling new revelations and previously undisclosed evidence, this is the story of what can happen when police, prosecutor, judge, and jury all fail in their duty to protect the innocent—and let a killer get away with murder.
Coach: The Life of Paul "Bear" Bryant
Keith Dunnavant - 1996
The impact he had on the state of Alabama and the entire college football world cannot be overstated. For twenty-five years as the head coach of the Crimson Tide, and thirteen years before that at Maryland, Kentucky, and Texas A&M, Bear Bryant’s outsized personality and deep charisma made him the dominant figure in the world of college football, turning boys with ordinary talent but extraordinary heart into winners—both on the gridiron and off. At Alabama, Bear Bryant would go on to become the winningest coach of all time, achieving the best record in the country in both the 60s and 70s. He is the only coach to win national championships with both segregated teams and integrated ones. His secret lay not in any strategic brilliance he brought to the game, but in his gift for molding individual talents into a cohesive unit that could achieve far more than the sum of its parts would suggest. That ability made him a great coach, but to many, Bryant represented more than just a coach: He was everything a southern gentleman was supposed to be—tough, principled, charismatic, modest in victory yet quick to assume blame in defeat, and as mindful of where he’d come from as where he was going. Coach is not only about the man and his tremendous ability to succeed, it’s also a tribute to the South and the legacy Coach Bryant left behind. In a divisive era, Bryant gave Alabamians something to be proud of. And, he was simply the greatest football coach of all times.
Christmas: A Biography
Judith Flanders - 2017
Christmas has always been a magical time. Or has it? Thirty years after the first recorded Christmas, one archbishop was already complaining that his flock was spending the day, not in worship, but in dancing and feasting to excess. By 1616, the playwright Ben Jonson was nostalgically remembering the Christmases of the old days, certain that they had been better then.Other elements of Christmas are much newer – who would have thought gift-wrap was a novelty of the twentieth century? That the first holiday parade was neither at Macy’s, nor even in the USA?Some things, however, never change. The first known gag holiday gift book, The Boghouse Miscellany, was advertised in the 1760s ‘for gay Gallants, and good companions’, while in 1805, the leaders of the Lewis and Clark expedition exchanged–what else?–presents of underwear and socks.Christmas is all things to all people: a religious festival, a family celebration, a period of eating and drinking. In Christmas, bestselling author and acclaimed social historian Judith Flanders casts a sharp eye on its myths, legends and history, deftly moving from the origins of the holiday in the Roman empire, through the first appearance of Christmas trees in Central Europe, to what might be the origins of Santa Claus – in Switzerland – to draw a picture of the season as it has never been seen before.
MH 370: By Accident or Design
Peter Lee - 2014
On the way, he analyses some of the alternative explanations that have been offered, including the conspiracy theories, and looks at the latest information from the Far East.Some recently published works on this subject were rushed into print before the few indisputable facts were known, and many have been based on little more than the author's personal opinion, almost irrespective of these facts, or have been founded on apparently factual information that has since been discredited. This book starts off with no preconceptions at all. The author looks only at the facts of the matter, and has worked out a possible and believable explanation that covers everything we know about this flight from take-off to its ultimate fate. He also explains exactly how the aircraft systems - things like SSR, ACARS and ADS-B - work, and provides an overview of the satellite communications system that was able to provide basic tracking data for the aircraft long after voice communications ceased.He explains the crucial significance of the position where the aircraft vanished from Malaysia's radar screens, and why that precise location was chosen by the perpetrator of this disappearance. And he shows why the route that the aircraft subsequently followed was not accidental, but entirely deliberate, and chosen for one very specific reason.He concludes his analysis by explaining approximately where the aircraft is now, and why no confirmed wreckage from the aircraft has been found anywhere.As a military controller, Peter Lee has previously been involved in aircraft accident and investigation procedures as apart of his job. He was solely responsible for deducing the precise reason, and specific sequence of events, that led to the loss of a Royal Navy Sea Harrier in the North Irish Sea some years ago, an event that at first sight appeared completely inexplicable, and was the principal expert witness at the subsequent Board of Inquiry. In the case of flight MH 370, he has turned that same critical eye on this disappearance, and his suggested explanation for what happened is both logical and believable.If you read no other book about this mystery, read this one.
The Coming Apostasy
Mark Hitchcock - 2017
They will follow their own desires and will look for teachers who will tell them whatever their itching ears want to hear. They will reject the truth and chase after myths." --2 Timothy 4:3-4Jesus Christ is coming back. It is certainly a Christian's greatest hope during these difficult times. The Bible warns us that the last days will be tumultuous--wars and rumors of wars will spread (Matthew 24:6). In our age, the world seems to be spinning out of control, creating fear, confusion, and uncertainty. In addition to violence, pestilence, and epidemics, the Bible predicts a great "falling away" from God in the end times. Bible teachers call that "the great apostasy." Are we seeing evidence today in the church of this massive rejection of sound and wholesome teaching? Mark Hitchcock, former lawyer and popular Bible teacher, examines the evidence from the teachers of our time. Are today's teachers allowing people to follow their own desires by telling them what they want to hear, as the Bible clearly predicts? Are major portions of the church ready to abandon sound and wholesome teaching?Mark explores the writings of church leaders in America and is stunned by what he discovers. The great apostasy is coming, but is it closer than we imagine? What does that mean for the future? Let Mark Hitchcock be your steady guide to the difficult days ahead.