National Network for Equitable Library Service

"BEST NONFICTION BOOK OF THE 20TH CENTURY"--TimeVolume 1 of the gripping epic masterpiece, Solzhenitsyn's chilling report of his arrest and interrogation, which exposed to the world the vast bureaucracy of secret police that haunted Soviet society. Features a new foreword by Anne Applebaum."The greatest and most powerful single indictment of a political regime ever leveled in modern times."--George F.

From award-winning, New York Times bestselling author Ibi Zoboi comes her debut book--a tour de force that uses the principles of Kwanzaa to talk about the history of African Americans. The People Remember tells the journey of African descendants in America by connecting their history to the seven principles of Kwanzaa. It begins in Africa, where people were taken from their homes and families. They spoke different languages and had different customs. Yet they were bound and chained together and forced onto ships sailing into an unknown future.

Bat, Ball and Field combines a perfect introduction to the sport of cricket and a wonderful foray into its history. 'Hotten is not just good, he is one of the best' Cricketer Chronicling the evolution of the sport since its earliest years, highlighting transcendent moments as well as tragedies, Jon Hotten lifts the seemingly impregnable veil from the Laws, batting strokes, types of bowling and the sometimes absurd names given to where fielders stand, allowing anyone a pathway into enjoying the sport, and an introductory immersion into its long history.

'It didn't matter that they were now three miles beyond their target site, that communications were dropping out and that they were running low on fuel. All that mattered to Neil as he searched for a safe spot to land was that boulders littered the surface below. "Thirty seconds," called mission control. In truth, the flight controllers were now no more than spectators, just like everybody else. No more needed to be said. It was down to Armstrong.' It was the ultimate journey and the last great adventure, but no one knew if they were coming back.

Clare Balding looks back at the time the Olympic Games came to London in 1948. Three years after the end of the Second World War, Britain was still gripped by austerity. Rationing was still in force, severe bomb damage was still much in evidence and no new sports facilities could be built. Visiting athletes were put up in schools and RAF camps. Yet the Games were a resounding success and actually made a profit. Clare Balding meets athletes who competed in 1948, including cyclist Tommy Godwin, who won two bronze medals, and Dorothy Manley, who won silver in the athletics.

On July 30, 1945, the USS Indianapolis was torpedoed by a Japanese submarine. Close to 900 sailors were cast into the Pacific Ocean. They struggled to stay alive, fighting off sharks, hypothermia, and hallucinations.

On the night of February 18, 1952, during one of the worst winter storms that New England has ever seen, two oil tankers just off the shore of Cape Cod were torn in half by the force of the storm. This middle-grade adaptation tells the story of the shipwreck and a harrowing Coast Guard rescue when four men in a tiny lifeboat overcame insurmountable odds and saved more than thirty stranded sailors.

On May 19, 1942, the Downs family, passengers on the freighter Heredia were unaware that two German torpedoes were heading their way. This story follows the family's struggle against sharks, hypothermia, and drowning.

At the concentration camp, Rosie's head is shaved and, with loss of her beautiful hair, she loses a cherished future. Yet she is determined to get home, through death camps and death marches.

On October 23, 2012, with Superstorm Sandy fast approaching, Captain Robin Walbridge made the fateful decision to sail the HMS Bounty from New London, Connecticut, to St. Petersburg, Florida, believing the wooden ship, a replica of the original, famous Bounty, would fare better at sea than at port. Four days into the voyage, Superstorm Sandy made an almost direct hit on the Bounty, sending the crew tumbling into the ocean filled with crashing thirty-foot waves. What ensued was one of the most complex, dangerous, and massive Coast Guard rescue missions in history.