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Robert Oppenheimer: His Life and Mind
Author/Actors/Director/etc.: Ray Monk
Format: Hardcover
Publisher: Random House (2013, May 14th).
Pages: 848
Robert Oppenheimer was among the most brilliant and divisive of men. As head of the Los Alamos Laboratory, he oversaw the successful effort to beat the Nazis in the race to develop the first atomic bomb—a breakthrough that was to have eternal ramifications for mankind and that made Oppenheimer the “Father of the Atomic Bomb.” But with his actions leading up to that great achievement, he also set himself on a dangerous collision course with Senator Joseph McCarthy and his witch-hunters. In Robert Oppenheimer: A Life Inside the Center, Ray Monk, author of peerless biographies of Ludwig Wittgenstein and Bertrand Russell, goes deeper than any previous biographer in the quest to solve the enigma of Oppenheimer’s motivations and his complex personality. more
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Big, Hot, Cheap, and Right: What America Can Learn from the Strange Genius of Texas
Author/Actors/Director/etc.: Erica Grieder
Format: Hardcover
Publisher: PublicAffairs (2013, Apr 23rd).
Pages: 304
Texas may well be America’s most controversial state. Evangelicals dominate the halls of power, millions of its people live in poverty, and its death row is the busiest in the country. Skeptical outsiders have found much to be offended by in the state’s politics and attitude. And yet, according to journalist (and Texan) Erica Grieder, the United States has a great deal to learn from Texas.In Big, Hot, Cheap, and Right, Grieder traces the political history of a state that was always larger than life. From its rowdy beginnings, Texas has combined a long-standing suspicion of government intrusion with a passion for business. Looking to the present, Greider assesses the unique mix of policies on issues like immigration, debt, taxes, regulation, and energy, which together have sparked a bonafide Texas Miracle of job growth. more
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End of The Good Life: How the Financial Crisis Threatens a Lost Generation--and What We Can Do About It
Author/Actors/Director/etc.: Riva Froymovich
Format: Paperback
Publisher: Harper Perennial; Original edition (2013, Apr 23rd).
Pages: 240
Financial journalist Riva Froymovich has good reason to be anxious about the financial turmoil facing Generation Y. This is her generation.Indeed, Generation Y has suffered the brunt of the financial crisis and great recession. For those in the U.S. born after 1976, the American dream is a is becoming a nightmare. Swamped in student loan debt they’re postponing marriage and buying homes, unable to save money, and delaying having children.The End of the Good Life: How the Financial Crisis Threatens a Lost Generation--and What We Can Do About It examines short-sighted government policies and initiatives that will wreak havoc on our youth. In addition to offering concrete policy suggestions, this book is driven by the touching personal stories of Americans and other young people around the globe affected by the financial crisis. more
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The Great War: A Combat History of the First World War
Author/Actors/Director/etc.: Peter Hart
Format: Hardcover
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA (2013, May 9th).
Pages: 544
World War I altered the landscape of the modern world in every conceivable arena. Millions died; empires collapsed; new ideologies and political movements arose; poison gas, warplanes, tanks, submarines, and other technologies appeared. "Total war" emerged as a grim, mature reality. In The Great War, Peter Hart provides a masterful combat history of this global conflict. Focusing on the decisive engagements, Hart explores the immense challenges faced by the commanders on all sides. He surveys the belligerent nations, analyzing their strengths, weaknesses, and strategic imperatives. Russia, for example, was obsessed with securing an exit from the Black Sea, while France--having lost to Prussia in 1871, before Germany united--constructed a network of defensive alliances, even as it held a grudge over the loss of Alsace-Lorraine. more
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The Philadelphia Chromosome: A Mutant Gene and the Quest to Cure Cancer at the Genetic Level
Author/Actors/Director/etc.: Jessica Wapner
Format: Hardcover
Publisher: The Experiment (2013, May 14th).
Pages: 320
One of Publishers Weekly’s Top Ten Spring 2013 Science BooksPhiladelphia, 1959: A scientist scrutinizing a single human cell under a microscope detects a missing piece of DNA. That scientist, David Hungerford, had no way of knowing that he had stumbled upon the starting point of modern cancer research—the Philadelphia chromosome. This book charts not only that landmark discovery, but also—for the first time, all in one place—the full sequence of scientific and medical discoveries that brought about the first-ever successful treatment of a lethal cancer at the genetic level.The significance of this mutant chromosome would take more than three decades to unravel; in 1990, it was recognized as the sole cause of a deadly blood cancer, chronic myeloid leukemia, or CML. more
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Helga's Diary: A Young Girl's Account of Life in a Concentration Camp
Author/Actors/Director/etc.: Helga Weiss
Format: Hardcover
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company; 1 edition (2013, Jan 21st).
Pages: 208
The remarkable diary of a young girl who survived the Holocaust—appearing in English for the first time.In 1939, Helga Weiss was a young Jewish schoolgirl in Prague. Along with some 45,000 Jews living in the city, Helga’s family endured the first wave of the Nazi invasion: her father was denied work; she was forbidden from attending regular school. As Helga witnessed the increasing Nazi brutality, she began documenting her experiences in a diary. In 1941, Helga and her parents were sent to the concentration camp of Terezín. There, Helga continued to write with astonishing insight about her daily life: the squalid living quarters, the cruel rationing of food, and the executions—as well as the moments of joy and hope that persisted in even the worst conditions. more
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From Stone to Flesh: A Short History of the Buddha (Buddhism and Modernity)
Author/Actors/Director/etc.: Donald S. Lopez Jr.
Format: Hardcover
Publisher: University Of Chicago Press (2013, Apr 19th).
Pages: 304
We have come to admire Buddhism for being profound but accessible, as much a lifestyle as a religion. The credit for creating Buddhism goes to the Buddha, a figure widely respected across the Western world for his philosophical insight, his teachings of nonviolence, and his practice of meditation. But who was this Buddha, and how did he become the Buddha we know and love today? Leading historian of Buddhism Donald S. Lopez Jr. tells the story of how various idols carved in stone—variously named Beddou, Codam, Xaca, and Fo—became the man of flesh and blood that we know simply as the Buddha. He reveals that the positive view of the Buddha in Europe and America is rather recent, originating a little more than a hundred and fifty years ago. more
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The Hunt for Hitler's Warship
Author/Actors/Director/etc.: Patrick Bishop
Format: Hardcover
Publisher: Regnery History; Reprint edition (2013, Apr 8th).
Pages: 416
Winston Churchill called it "the Beast." It was said to be unsinkable. More than thirty military operations failed to destroy it. Eliminating the Tirpitz, Hitler's mightiest warship, a 52,000-ton behemoth, became an Allied obsession.In The Hunt for Hitler's Warship, Patrick Bishop tells the epic story of the men who would not rest until the Tirpitz lay at the bottom of the sea. In November of 1944, with the threat to Russian supply lines increasing and Allied forces needing reinforcements in the Pacific, a raid as audacious as any Royal Air Force operation of the war was launched, under the command of one of Britain's greatest but least-known war heroes, Wing Commander Willie Tait.Patrick Bishop draws on decades of experience as a foreign war correspondent to paint a vivid picture of this historic clash of the Royal Air Force's Davids versus Hitler's Goliath of naval engineering. more
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In the Kingdom of the Sick: A Social History of Chronic Illness in America
Author/Actors/Director/etc.: Laurie Edwards
Format: Hardcover
Publisher: Walker & Company; 1 edition (2013, Apr 9th).
Pages: 256
Thirty years ago, Susan Sontag wrote, "Everyone who is born holds dual citizenship in the kingdom of the well and the kingdom of the sick ... Sooner or later each of us is obliged, at least for a spell, to identify ourselves as citizens of that other place." Now more than 133 million Americans live with chronic illness, accounting for nearly three-quarters of all health care dollars, and untold pain and disability. There has been an alarming rise in illnesses that defy diagnosis through clinical tests or have no known cure. Millions of people, especially women, with illnesses such as irritable bowel syndrome, chronic pain, and chronic fatigue syndrome face skepticism from physicians and the public alike. And people with diseases as varied as cardiovascular disease, HIV, certain cancers, and type 2 diabetes have been accused of causing their preventable illnesses through their lifestyle choices. more
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The Dispensable Nation: American Foreign Policy in Retreat
Author/Actors/Director/etc.: Vali Nasr
Format: Hardcover
Publisher: Doubleday (2013, Apr 23rd).
Pages: 336
Former State Department advisor for Afghanistan and Pakistan and bestselling author Vali Nasr delivers a sharp indictment of America's flawed foreign policy and outlines a new relationship with the Muslim world and with new players in the changing Middle East. In this essential new book, Vali Nasr argues that the Obama administration had a chance to improve its relations with the Middle East, but instead chose to pursue its predecessor's questionable strategies there. Nasr takes readers behind the scenes at the State Department and reveals how the new government's fear of political backlash and the specter of terrorism crippled the efforts of diplomatic giants, like Richard Holbrooke and Hillary Clinton, to boost America's foundering credibility with world leaders. more
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