Publisher: William Morrow
Check Library Catalog Pub Date: 02/05/2013
ISBN-13: 9780062025814
ISBN-10: 0062025813

When Mary Shelley published Frankenstein in 1818, the idea that the dead could be revived had been under investigation for at least half a century, as far back as Luigi Galvani's electrical experiments on dead frogs. Poet Percy Shelley was fascinated with the idea of immortality, and his wife Mary also became intrigued. The Shelleys belonged to an artistic and intellectual set that often went somewhat beyond the fringes of social acceptability -- even to the point of scandal. The Lady and her Monsters paints a fascinating portrait of Mary Shelley and her writing in this volatile social and scientific context, bringing to life the background of Shelley's immortal novel.

Publisher: Scribner
Check Library Catalog Pub Date: 01/08/2013
ISBN-13: 9781439190586
ISBN-10: 1439190585

Author Susanna Sonnenberg had a very difficult relationship with her mother, and since childhood she has turned to female friends for support, advice, solace, example, and affection. In She Matters, Sonnenberg reviews her life in terms of many of these friendships, exploring her discoveries about relationship learned from her friends. In some cases, she learned through failure, while other companions served as positive role models. In precise and evocative prose, she illuminates the meaning of relationship. Publishers Weekly calls this memoir a "must-read to share among friends."

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Publisher: Alfred A. Knopf
Check Library Catalog Pub Date: 01/15/2013
ISBN-13: 9780307594884
ISBN-10: 0307594882

When President Barak Obama appointed her to the Supreme Court in 2009, Sonia Sotomayor became the first Latina to achieve this high judicial office. My Beloved World offers a moving portrait of her gritty South Bronx neighborhood and her extended Puerto Rican family, as well as details of the many challenges she has faced during her formative years and early career. Prevailing over poverty, the early death of her father, and even the management of her Type I diabetes, Sotomayor excelled in school, attending Princeton and Yale Law School yet never forgetting the background of her youth. After reading this open and eloquent memoir, you'll find additional legal details in Antonia Felix's Sonia Sotomayor.

Publisher: Portfolio/Penguin
Check Library Catalog Pub Date: 01/07/2013
ISBN-13: 9781591844754
ISBN-10: 1591844754

A retired four-star general most recently assigned to command all NATO and U.S. forces in Afghanistan candidly traces his career while assessing the leaders who influenced his beliefs, citing his role in shaping the military of the early 21st century while explaining the importance of leadership over weapons, money and strategy on the battlefield.

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Publisher: Crown Archetype
Check Library Catalog Pub Date: 09/18/2012
ISBN-13: 9780307952363
ISBN-10: 0307952363

An in-depth portrait of the Academy Award-winning Hollywood star known for such iconic films as Basic Instinct and Fatal Attraction traces his successful career while offering insight into his competitive relationship with father Kirk Douglas, his marriage to Catherine Zeta-Jones and his current health and personal challenges.

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For Women's History Month, here are a few biographies of women who have excelled in the sciences.

Publisher: Mariner Books
Check Library Catalog Pub Date: 04/01/2009
ISBN-13: 9780547238234
ISBN-10: 0547238231

Best known for her 1950s and 60s writing on the environment, especially in The Sea Around Us and Silent Spring, Rachel Carson was an early and often lonely voice advocating better care of the Earth. Though Carson's writing is well known, her personal life has received less attention. Biographer Linda Lear offers this detailed portrait of Carson's childhood and youth, her university studies, and her recognition of the effects of pollution on coastal areas. Carson employed her remarkably effective writing skills to draw attention to environmental issues long before most people -- even other scientists -- were aware of the overall significance of local problems. Lear demonstrates Carson's vision and presents an absorbing view of this pioneer's life; Kirkus Reviews calls this book "definitive."

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Publisher: Perennial
Check Library Catalog Pub Date: 10/01/2003
ISBN-13: 9780060985080
ISBN-10: 0060985089

Though many people are familiar with the work on DNA of James Watson and Francis Crick, biophysicist Rosalind Franklin's scientific contributions have remained in the shadows -- partly because Watson was reluctant to recognize the importance of her work. In this thoroughly researched biography, Brenda Maddox explores both Franklin's personality and her achievements as a scientist, revealing that -- in contrast to the view projected by her male colleagues -- she was self-assured (though reserved), brilliant, and also warm and generous towards her family and friends. Franklin's work, though cut short by ovarian cancer at age 37, is well deserving of the recognition this biography offers.

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Publisher: Doubleday
Check Library Catalog Pub Date: 11/29/2011
ISBN-13: 9780385534383
ISBN-10: 0385534388

Among the most intriguing bits of Hollywood lore is the real-life story of Hedwig Kiesler, the Vienna-born Jewish actress who fled Nazi Germany for America, where she reinvented herself as Hedy Lamarr. However, her movie star persona wasn't her only invention: to support the U.S. war effort, this savvy siren of the silver screen teamed up with avant-garde composer George Antheil to develop a technology known as frequency-hopping spread spectrum -- an invention that would ultimately pave the way for bar code readers, cell phones, Wi-Fi, and GPS. Although the pair's work was largely ignored by their contemporaries, this book by the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Making of the Atomic Bomb restores their achievements to their rightful place in history.

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Publisher: Riverhead Books
Check Library Catalog Pub Date: 04/26/2012
ISBN-13: 9781594488436
ISBN-10: 1594488436

Laguna Honda Hospital in San Francisco provides medical care for senior citizens and disabled adults -- a "safety net population," as the hospital's website characterizes them. In God's Hotel, Victoria Sweet, MD, relates how she found a part-time position there that left room for her to earn a doctorate in medical history. At this unusual facility for the poor, Sweet found more than just a job practicing medicine: she found a unique approach to health care that complemented her own study of Hildegard of Bingen, who was a medieval nun, a poet, and a physician. Sweet's memoir offers an absorbing view of the scientific work of two women living over seven centuries apart.

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Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Co.
Check Library Catalog Pub Date: 11/15/2006
ISBN-13: 9780395854051
ISBN-10: 0395854059

An in-depth biography of Jane Goodall describes how the seminal scientist and naturalist revolutionized the study of primates through her years of study of the chimpanzees of Gombe, helped establish radical new standards and a new intellectual style in the study of animal behavior, and how her work inevitably led to her career as an activist.

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