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Captain's Dinner: A Shipwreck, an Act of Cannibalism, and a Murder Trial That Changed Legal History
by Adam Cohen
Four men in a lifeboat. Two weeks without food. One impossible choice that would reshape the boundaries between survival and murder. A perfect enunciation of the classic philosophical conundrum: can you sacrifice one innocent life to save many? (Yann Martel, author of Life of Pi) On May 19, 1884, the yacht Mignonette set sail from England on what should have been an uneventful voyage. When their vessel sank in the Atlantic, Captain Thomas Dudley and his crew found themselves adrift in a tiny lifeboat. As days turned to weeks, they faced an unthinkable choice: starve to death or resort to cannibalism. Their decision to sacrifice the youngest--17-year-old cabin boy Richard Parker--ignited a firestorm of controversy upon their rescue. Instead of being hailed as heroes and survivors, Dudley and his crew found themselves at the center of Regina v. Dudley and Stephens, a landmark murder trial that would establish the legal precedent that necessity cannot justify murder--a principle that continues to shape Anglo-American law today.
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Here We Go: Lessons for Living Fearlessly from Two Traveling Nanas
by Eleanor Hamby
It's Never Too Late for the Next Act When Ellie and Sandy met after becoming empty-nesters and then widows, their late-in-life friendship blew open a new, exciting chapter of life: living fearlessly and adventurously. But they never could've imagined it would also propel them--in their 80s--to accidental fame, going viral on social media as the 'travelling grannies, ' inspiring people young and old across cultures when they went around the world in 80 days.
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Life, Law & Liberty: A Memoir
by Anthony Kennedy
Anthony Kennedy did not take the usual path to a seat on the Supreme Court. .Although Kennedy attended Stanford and the London School of Economics and then Harvard Law School, he made his way as a lawyer with a wide-ranging small-town practice that included criminal and civil trials, advice in forming and managing corporations, estate planning, and tax advice. For him, the law was not just an idea but a reality that touches Americans' lives every day.
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Life on a Little-Known Planet: Dispatches from a Changing World
by Elizabeth Kolbert
An intrepid reporter and a skillful translator of scientific ideas, Kolbert expertly captures the wonders of nature and paints vivid portraits of the researchers and concerned citizens working to preserve them. She takes readers all around the globe, from an island in Denmark that's succeeded in going carbon neutral, to a community in Florida that voted to give rights to waterways, to the Greenland ice sheet, which is melting in a way that has implications for everyone. We meet a biologist who believes we can talk to whales, an entomologist racing to find rare caterpillars before they disappear, and a climatologist who's considered the father of global warming, amongst other scientists at the forefront of environmental protection. The threats to our planet that Kolbert has devoted so much of her career to exposing have only grown more serious. Now is the time to deepen our understanding of the world we are in danger of losing.
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Articulate: A Deaf Memoir of Voice
by Rachel Kolb
Rachel Kolb was born profoundly deaf the same year that the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) was passed, and she grew up as part of the first generation of deaf people with legal rights to accessibility services. Still, from a young age, she contorted herself to expectations set by a world that prioritizes hearing people. So she learned to speak through speech therapy and to piece together missing sounds through lipreading and an eventual cochlear implant, all while finding clarity and meaning in American Sign Language (ASL) and written literature. Now inarticulate, Kolb blends personal narrative with cultural commentary to explore the different layers of deafness, language, and voice. She deconstructs multisensory experiences of language, examining the cultural importance hearing people attach to sound, the inner labyrinths of speech therapy, the murkiness of lipreading, and her lifelong intimacy with written English.
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Three Roads to Gettysburg: Meade, Lee, Lincoln, and the Battle That Changed the War, the Speech That Changed the Nation
by Tim McGrath
An epic, revelatory account of the Battle of Gettysburg, where George Meade, Lincoln's unexpected choice to lead the Union army, defeated Robert E. Lee and changed the course of the Civil War. These men came from different parts of the country and very different upbringings: Robert E. Lee, son of the aristocratic and slaveholding South; George Gordon Meade, raised in the industrious, straitlaced North; and Abraham Lincoln, from the rowdy, untamed West. Lincoln's election to the presidency in 1860 split the country in two and triggered the Civil War. Lee and Meade found themselves on opposite sides, while Lincoln had the Sisyphean task of reuniting the country. With a colorful supporting cast second to none, Three Roads to Gettysburg tells the story of these consequential men, this monumental battle, and the immortal address that has come to define America.
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Bird School: A Beginner in the Wood
by Adam Nicolson
An intimate exploration by a master naturalist of the lives of birds and their interactions with man. Neighboring cock robins duel almost to the death. Tawny owl widows are seen looking for tawny owl widowers to set up shop with. Blackbirds are found singing phrases from late Beethoven quartets in a garden in southern England. Bird School describes and follows Adam Nicolson's progress over two or three years in trying to learn about, and eventually to create an environment friendly to, the birds of the farm where he lives in Sussex. In simple language that evinces his careful observational prowess, Nicolson aims to cross the boundary between the scientific and the prescientific understanding of birds, looking into why and how they sing, how they fly and breed, how they survive and migrate, how they have suffered at our hands, how we have loved them and damaged them, and how we might create, or re-create, a refuge for them. Here is a set of lessons for someone who knows little but cares a lot about the living world that is in such dire crisis. Here is life in the "rough grounds," on the edge of culture and nature.
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Frostlines: A Journey Through Entangled Lives and Landscapes in a Warming Arctic
by Neil Shea
As warming reshapes our planet, the Arctic--a region that once seemed unchangeable, beyond the reach of modern problems--is quickly coming undone. While the old cold world can still be glimpsed in the movements of caribou, the hidden lives of wolves, and the hunting skill of an elder, look closer and you'll find a new Arctic appearing in its place. ... Neil Shea blends natural history, anthropology, and travel writing to explore how the beauty, chaos, and power of change in the far north are reflected in the lives of people and animals. He sojourns with a wolf pack on Canada's Ellesmere Island and travels with Indigenous hunters in Alaska, Nunavut, and the Northwest Territories. He tracks dwindling caribou herds across the top of North America, searches for vanished Vikings in Greenland, and visits the front line of the new Cold War rising between Russia and Europe. What Shea finds is not one Arctic but many--all still linked by shattering cold, seasons of darkness, and a pure, inimitable light.
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100 Rules for Living to 100: An Optimist's Guide to a Happy Life
by Dick Van Dyke
Dick Van Dyke danced his way into our hearts with iconic roles in Mary Poppins, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, and The Dick Van Dyke Show. Now, as he's about to turn 100 years old, Dick is still dancing and approaching life with the twinkle in his eye that we've come to know and love. In 100 Rules for Living to 100, he reveals his secrets for maintaining your joie de vivre and making the most out of the life you've been given. Through stories of his pivotal childhood, moments on film sets, his expansive family, and finding love late in life, Dick reflects on both the joyful times and the challenges that shaped him. His indefatigable spirit and positive attitude will surely inspire readers to count the blessings in their own lives, persevere through the hard times, and appreciate the beauty and complexity of being human.
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A Hollywood Ending: The Dreams and Drama of the Lebron Lakers
by Yaron Weitzman
NBA reporter Weitzman (Tanking to the Top) takes readers behind the scenes of the Los Angeles Lakers in this in-depth account of a crucial moment in the team's history: its signing of LeBron James. In 2018, the team was reeling from the death of owner Jerry Buss and a string of disappointing seasons. Controlling owner Jeanie Buss, Jerry's daughter, was determined to return the squad to its former glory and hoped that adding James, the four-time NBA MVP, would make that possible. She was right: the decision yielded a championship in the Covid-impacted 2019-2020 season. But obstacles--including injuries and questionable player decisions--would prevent them from sustaining that success. While the "LeBron Lakers" may not have reached their full potential, Weitzman argues that, in the end, both Buss and James were successful; she brought the franchise "back from the abyss" after years of mediocrity, while James won his fourth title and became the league's all-time scoring leader.
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