Publisher: Twelve
Check Library Catalog Pub Date: 11/08/2010
ISBN-13: 9780446580571
ISBN-10: 0446580570

Publishers Weekly calls Scorpions "concise," "memorable," and "a first-rate work of narrative history." President FDR's individualistic Supreme Court justices famously wrangled with one another (and FDR himself) to render landmark judgments in American political history, such as the internments of Japanese-Americans during WWII and the end of racial segregation in schools. Author Noah Feldman's analyses of constitutional law, executive power, and civil rights are erudite enough to please political history buffs, while his vivid portraits of these charismatic men and the forces that shaped them will appeal to fans of personality-driven historical narrative like Eric Larson's The Devil in the White City.

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Publisher: Random House
Check Library Catalog Pub Date: 11/16/2010
ISBN-13: 9781400064168
ISBN-10: 1400064163

Readers of Laura Hillenbrand's best-selling Seabiscuit may flock to Unbroken for another gripping history of inspiring individual accomplishment against all odds. They must also be prepared for grimmer fare here, however: Louie Zamperini emerges from the charming prankishness of his youth to compete in the 1936 Berlin Olympics before becoming a disciplined WWII bomber pilot. After his plane is shot down, he incredibly survives 47 days adrift at sea, only to endure two years of brutal captivity in Japan's most hellish camp. His post-war life remains shackled to the (then-unknown) effects of PTSD until he eventually makes peace with himself--and even his former tormentors.

Publisher: Ballantine Books
Check Library Catalog Pub Date: 06/22/2010
ISBN-13: 9780345512147
ISBN-10: 0345512146

A narrative history of the 1939 World's Fair places its activities against a backdrop of World War II and a fatal bombing in New York, citing the contributions of such individuals as Albert Einstein, FDR and Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia. With a colorful cast of supporting characters this is narrative nonfiction at its finest, a gripping true life drama that illuminates a forgotten episode of America's past.

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Publisher: Spiegel & Grau
Check Library Catalog Pub Date: 10/07/2008
ISBN-13: 9780385520171
ISBN-10: 0385520174

Does something like subversive feminism thrive in China's factory boomtowns, where a single factory may employ 70,000 people? Increasingly, they are women as young as 16 who leave unpromising rural homes (and traditions) to reinvent themselves. Leslie Chang (first-generation Chinese-American author and former Wall Street Journal correspondent) closely follows two "factory girls": they job-hop with mercenary resolve, work grueling hours for very little pay, and live a dozen to a flat. Min and Chunming, who sparkle in the grime, are models of youthful vulnerability and tenacity (remember, Alexander the Great led armies by age 18!). Their personal realities reveal universal concerns sure to captivate readers of economic, cultural, Asian, and women's histories, as well as fans of Maxine Hong Kingston's narrative bio-fiction.

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Publisher: HarperCollins
Check Library Catalog Pub Date: 05/01/2006
ISBN-13: 9780060826581
ISBN-10: 0060826584

"Oracle bones" were used for divination in ancient China, and author Peter Hessler predicts the best of times and the worst of times for China's future: Massive worker migration from rural areas to industrial centers is stimulating radical cultural change and pushing China to unprecedented power in the global economy. The prediction? Increasingly complex ongoing tensions between the U.S. and China. Finely-chosen details of China's cultural history reflect Hessler's meticulous formal research. However, his personal observations--gleaned from an amazing 7,000-mile drive along the Great Wall itself--are what readers will really devour.

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Publisher: Simon & Schuster Paperbacks
Check Library Catalog Pub Date: 06/23/2009
ISBN-13: 9781416537069
ISBN-10: 1416537066

Former Washington Post Beijing bureau chief Philip P. Pan pens moving portrayals of 11 Chinese dissidents: individuals from all walks of life who persistently and bravely challenged the Chinese Communist Party's repression of fundamental democratic freedoms. Readers may not have heard of labor activist Xiao Yunliang; others will, perhaps, recognize Zhao Ziyang as the General Secretary who tried (in vain) to prevent the violence of Tiananmen Square and was subsequently jailed for life. Out of Mao's Shadow is both poignant testament and active rebuttal to the axiom that "history is written by the conquerors." A compelling choice for readers interested in civil liberties, as well as those drawn to political and cultural histories.

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Publisher: Harper
Check Library Catalog Pub Date: 05/01/2008
ISBN-13: 9780060884598
ISBN-10: 0060884592

The author who brought readers the bizarre background of Oxford's famous dictionary (in The Professor and the Madman) now sets his sights on Cambridge. Early twentieth-century Cambridge scientist Joseph Needham will immediately surprise and entertain readers that expect a staid, bespectacled professor. In 1937, Needham--married, and already famously quirky among his colleagues--plunges into a controversial affair with a visiting Chinese student and falls in love with China itself. His extraordinary expeditions to every corner of its ancient terrain reveal China as originator of pivotal developments: the printing press, compass, and more. Does China's current acclaim for technological advances fit in? Read this sweeping narrative and see!

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