Biographies & Memoirs
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Eclipse: The Horse That Changed Racing History Forever
Author/Actors/Director/etc.: Nicholas Clee
Format: Hardcover
Publisher: Overlook Hardcover (2012, Mar 29th).
Pages: 352
A chestnut with a white blaze is scorching across the turf towards the finishing post. His four rivals are so far behind him that, in racing terms, they are "nowhere." Watching Eclipse is the man who wants to buy him. An adventurer and rogue who has made his money through gambling, Dennis O'Kelly is also companion to the madam of a notorious London brothel. While O'Kelly is destined to remain an outcast to the racing establishment, his horse will go on to become the undisputed, undefeated champion of his sport. Eclipse's male-line descendants include Secretariat, Barbaro, and all but three of the Kentucky Derby winners of the past fifty years. more
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Devil in the Grove: Thurgood Marshall, the Groveland Boys, and the Dawn of a New America
Author/Actors/Director/etc.: Gilbert King
Format: Hardcover
Publisher: Harper (2012, Mar 6th).
Pages: 400
* Winner of the 2013 Pulitzer Prize for General Nonfiction* Nominated for a 2013 Edgar Award * Book of the Year (Non-fiction, 2012) The Boston Globe, Christian Science Monitor In 1949, Florida's orange industry was booming, and citrus barons got rich on the backs of cheap Jim Crow labor. To maintain order and profits, they turned to Willis V. McCall, a violent sheriff who ruled Lake County with murderous resolve. When a white seventeen-year-old Groveland girl cried rape, McCall was fast on the trail of four young blacks who dared to envision a future for themselves beyond the citrus groves. By day's end, the Ku Klux Klan had rolled into town, burning the homes of blacks to the ground and chasing hundreds into the swamps, hell-bent on lynching the young men who came to be known as "the Groveland Boys. more
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The Wright Brothers (Campfire Graphic Novels)
Author/Actors/Director/etc.: Lewis Helfand
Format: Paperback
Publisher: Campfire (2011, Jun 28th).
Pages: 72
"An accurate and well-rounded account of an important historical event. A focus on the Wright Brothers as children also makes the characters more relatable for the target audience. Recommended to YAs as well as myriad adult readers of YA lit." -- Library Journal"Helfand keeps the brothers from seeming like mythical figures by showing their failures, but he also shows that those failures were a source of motivation, not merely frustration, which is what makes the Wright brothers’ story so inspiring. And their story doesn’t end with their triumphant flight. Helfand follows through with the rest of their lives, so readers learn what happened next and how the brothers were not able to rest on their laurels, but had to keep fighting to keep their work from being forgotten or overshadowed. more
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Escape from Camp 14: One Man's Remarkable Odyssey from North Korea to Freedom in the West
Author/Actors/Director/etc.: Blaine Harden
Format: Hardcover
Publisher: Viking Adult (2012, Mar 29th).
Pages: 224
A New York Times bestseller, the shocking story of one of the few people born in a North Korean political prison to have escaped and survived. North Korea is isolated and hungry, bankrupt and belligerent. It is also armed with nuclear weapons. Between 150,000 and 200,000 people are being held in its political prison camps, which have existed twice as long as Stalin's Soviet gulags and twelve times as long as the Nazi concentration camps. Very few born and raised in these camps have escaped. But Shin Donghyuk did.In Escape from Camp 14, acclaimed journalist Blaine Harden tells the story of Shin Dong-hyuk and through the lens of Shin's life unlocks the secrets of the world's most repressive totalitarian state. Shin knew nothing of civilized existence-he saw his mother as a competitor for food, guards raised him to be a snitch, and he witnessed the execution of his own family. more
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Gilded Lives, Fatal Voyage: The Titanic's First-Class Passengers and Their World
Author/Actors/Director/etc.: Hugh Brewster
Format: Hardcover
Publisher: Crown (2012, Mar 27th).
Pages: 352
Gilded Lives, Fatal Voyage takes us behind the paneled doors of the Titanic’s elegant private suites to present compelling, memorable portraits of her most notable passengers. The intimate atmosphere onboard history’s most famous ship is recreated as never before. The Titanic has often been called “an exquisite microcosm of the Edwardian era,” but until now, her story has not been presented as such. In Gilded Lives, Fatal Voyage, historian Hugh Brewster seamlessly interweaves personal narratives of the lost liner’s most fascinating people with a haunting account of the fateful maiden crossing. Employing scrupulous research and featuring 100 rarely-seen photographs, he accurately depicts the ship’s brief life and tragic denouement, presenting the very latest thinking on everything from when and how the lifeboats were loaded to the last tune played by the orchestra. more
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