Books, Nonfiction, Social Sciences

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Malcolm Gladwell
Outliers: The Story of Success
by Little, Brown and Company (Hardcover) (Release Date: 2008-11-18)

Vicki Myron
Dewey: The Small-Town Library Cat Who Touched the World
by Hachette Audio (CD)

DEWEY is the heartwarming story of Dewey Readmore Books, the beloved library cat of Spencer, Iowa, as told by his owner and companion of nineteen years, Vicki Myron, the librarian who found him on a frigid January morning when he was abandoned as a kitten in the book drop slot. It is also the story of a remarkable small town, which burned down at the beginning of the Depression, only to rebuild itself, and which was almost shuttered during the farm crisis of the 1980s, before regrouping and rededicating itself to small town American values. Dewey's local charm and worldwide fame became a symbol of hope for this recovering town. Through Dewey's antics, we come to know and love many of the colorful and inspiring people of Spencer. But perhaps the most inspiring person in Spencer is Vicki Myron herself, a single mother who survived the bankruptcy of her family farm and working in a box factory to put two of her brothers through college to become one of the leaders of the Iowa ...

Barack Obama
Dreams from My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance
by Three Rivers Press (Paperback) (Release Date: 2004-08-10)

In this lyrical, unsentimental, and compelling memoir, the son of a black African father and a white American mother searches for a workable meaning to his life as a black American. It begins in New York, where Barack Obama learns that his father—a figure he knows more as a myth than as a man—has been killed in a car accident. This sudden death inspires an emotional odyssey—first to a small town in Kansas, from which he retraces the migration of his mother’s family to Hawaii, and then to Kenya, where he meets the African side of his family, confronts the bitter truth of his father’s life, and at last reconciles his divided inheritance.

Barack Obama
The Audacity of Hope: Thoughts on Reclaiming the American Dream (Vintage)
by Vintage (Mass Market Paperback) (Release Date: 2008-07-15)

Greg Mortenson, David Oliver Relin
Three Cups of Tea: One Man's Mission to Promote Peace . . . One School at a Time
by Penguin (Non-Classics) (Paperback)

The astonishing, uplifting story of a real-life Indiana Jones and his humanitarian campaign to use education to combat terrorism in the Taliban’s backyard Anyone who despairs of the individual’s power to change lives has to read the story of Greg Mortenson, a homeless mountaineer who, following a 1993 climb of Pakistan’s treacherous K2, was inspired by a chance encounter with impoverished mountain villagers and promised to build them a school. Over the next decade he built fifty-five schools—especially for girls—that offer a balanced education in one of the most isolated and dangerous regions on earth. As it chronicles Mortenson’s quest, which has brought him into conflict with both enraged Islamists and uncomprehending Americans, Three Cups of Tea combines adventure with a celebration of the humanitarian spirit.

Doris Kearns Goodwin
Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln
by Simon & Schuster (Paperback)

Thomas L. Friedman
Hot, Flat, and Crowded: Why We Need a Green Revolution--and How It Can Renew America
by Farrar, Straus and Giroux (Hardcover) (Release Date: 2008-09-08)

Jon Gosselin, Kate Gosselin, Beth Carson
Multiple Blessings: Surviving to Thriving with Twins and Sextuplets
by Zondervan (Hardcover) (Release Date: 2008-10-14)

In Multiple Blessings, Kate Gosselin shares the gripping details of her rollercoaster ride of emotional highs and lows when she discovered she and her husband, Jon, would be expecting sextuplets while still basking in the light of their twin girls' toddlerhood. Strongly encouraged to consider selective reduction for the sake of both mother and babies, she and Jon instead decided to accept the extreme challenge God had handed them. After suffering the long and winding road of infertility, the young couple felt stressed but blessed as they fought valiantly to help their babies survive the fight for their lives. Kate reveals excerpts from her private journal as she describes the daily struggle to carry the babies for thirty weeks. In addition to their uphill medical battle, the family suffered many emotional setbacks such as the loss of Jon's job, forcing the pair to look to God as their sole provider and sustainer of life. After the miraculous birth, the couple coped with ...

Malcolm Gladwell
The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference
by Back Bay Books (Paperback)

Michael Pollan
The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals
by Penguin (Paperback)

A national bestseller that has changed the way readers view the ecology of eating, this revolutionary book by award winner Michael Pollan asks the seemingly simple question: What should we have for dinner? Tracing from source to table each of the food chains that sustain us— whether industrial or organic, alternative or processed—he develops a portrait of the American way of eating. The result is a sweeping, surprising exploration of the hungers that have shaped our evolution, and of the profound implications our food choices have for the health of our species and the future of our planet.

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