National Network for Equitable Library Service

Relying on firsthand accounts, historian Jane Hampton Cook weaves together several different narratives to create a vivid, multidimensional account of the 1814 burning of Washington, including the escalation that led to it and the immediate aftermath.

In 2003, Special Forces soldiers deployed in Afghanistan used the Afghan proverb: "I destroy my enemy by making him my friend," to become welcome guests rather than invaders. This book reveals how cultural respect was more than a match for the Taliban and al-Qaeda.

After meeting on OKCupid, Clara Bensen and Jeff Wilson met in person, and after just a few days of knowing each other, embarked on a three-week travel adventure from Istanbul to London--with zero luggage, zero reservations, and zero plans.

In Walking with Abel, Anna Badkhen embeds herself with a family of Fulani cowboys--nomadic herders--as they embark on their annual migration across the Sahel grasslands, accompanied by the tales that ground their past and safeguard their future.

After her friend fatally stabbed his ex-girlfriend due to what psychiatrists later dubbed an acute psychotic break, Amy Butcher became obsessed with finding an explanation for the crime. This is her deeply personal account of the consequences of failing a friend when he needed one most.

Young Georg Rauch helped his mother hide dozens of Jews from the Nazis, but then came the day he was shipped out to fight on the Eastern front as part of the German infantry--in spite of his own Jewish ancestry. This is the story of his struggle to stay alive and find his way back home.

From the acclaimed author of the international bestseller Einstein's Dreams comes a lyrical memoir of Memphis from the 1930s through the 1960s: the music and the racism, the early days of the movies, and a powerful grandfather whose ghost continues to haunt the family.

The "first" Afghan War was directed by Robert Grenier, the CIA station chief in Islamabad. Forging separate alliances with warlords, Taliban dissidents, and Pakistani intelligence, Grenier defeated the Taliban and put Hamid Karzai in power in eighty-eight days. But his success would not last.

You might know the basics about such historical figures as Columbus, Lewis and Clark, and Sally Ride. But what do you really know about these bold explorers? With juicy tidbits galore, this volume reveals these fascinating adventurers as both world-changers and real people.

Amid an inferno of explosives on a minefield in Korea, a four-legged marine proved to be a heroic force of nature. Sergeant Reckless was her name, and she was the horse renowned for transporting wounded soldiers and supplies across combat zones. This is her story.