National Network for Equitable Library Service

Based on exclusive and unrestricted access to more than 5,000 pages of personal writings and family photos, this definitive biography of German physician and SS-Hauptsturmfuhrer Josef Mengele (1911-1979) probes the personality and motivations of Auschwitz's "Angel of Death." From May 1943 through January 1945, Mengele selected who would be gassed immediately, who would be worked to death, and who would serve as involuntary guinea pigs for his spurious and ghastly human experiments (twins were Mengele's particular obsession).

The world was stunned when eighty-year old Cornelius Gurlitt became an international media superstar in November 2013 on the discovery of over 1,400 artworks in his 1,076 square-foot Munich apartment, valued at around $1.35 billion. Gurlitt became known as a man who never was-he didn't have a bank account, never paid tax, never received social security. He simply did not exist. He had been hard-wired into a life of shadows and secrecy by his own father long before he had inherited his art collection built on the spoliation of museums and Jews during Hitler's Third Reich.

From the end of the Middle Ages to the First World War, Europe was dominated by one family: the Habsburgs. Their unprecedented rule is the focus of Simon Winder's vivid third book, Danubia.

A sweeping history of the hidden world below the Holy City-a saga of biblical treasures, intrepid explorers, and political upheaval "These untold stories of archeological digs near and under Jerusalem's sacred sites convey all the colorful and violent and contentious history of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict ... A compulsive read." -Kai Bird, Pulitzer Prize-winning historian and author of The Outlier. In 1863, a French senator arrived in Jerusalem hoping to unearth relics dating to biblical times.

A masterful, timely, fully authorized biography of the great and hugely influential biologist and naturalist E. O. Wilson, one of the most ground-breaking and controversial scientists of our time-from the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Making of the Atomic Bomb "An impressive account of one of the 20th century's most prominent biologists, for whom the natural world is 'a sanctuary and a realm of boundless adventure; the fewer the people in it, the better.'" - The New York Times Book Review.

The incredible untold story of WWII's greatest secret fighting force, as told by our great modern master of wartime intrigue Britain's Special Air Service-or SAS-was the brainchild of David Stirling, a young, gadabout aristocrat whose aimlessness in early life belied a remarkable strategic mind.

“Americans tend to forget that we have always been at war with one another—even in the beginning - . Brands tells the story of the American Revolution as it really unfolded—as a civil war between colonial patriots and those loyal to the British Crown and Parliament. Division, Brands reminds us, is as American as unity.” —Jon Meacham, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of His Truth Is Marching On From best-selling historian and Pulitzer Prize finalist H. W.

The riveting, untold history of a group of heroic women reporters who revolutionized the narrative of World War II -from Martha Gellhorn, who out-scooped her husband, Ernest Hemingway, to Lee Miller, a Vogue cover model turned war correspondent. "Thrilling from the first page to the last." -Mary Gabriel, author of Ninth Street Women. "Just as women are so often written out of war, so it seems are the female correspondents.

By the world-renowned seismologist, a riveting history of natural disasters, their impact on our culture, and new ways of thinking about the ones to come Earthquakes, floods, tsunamis, hurricanes, volcanoes-they stem from the same forces that give our planet life. Earthquakes give us natural springs; volcanoes produce fertile soil. It is only when these forces exceed our ability to withstand them that they become disasters. Together they have shaped our cities and their architecture; elevated leaders and toppled governments; influenced the way we think, feel, fight, unite, and pray.

National Book Award Finalist. Kirkus Prize Finalist. A renowned historian traces the life of a single object handed down through three generations of Black women to craft an extraordinary testament to people who are left out of the archives. Named one of the ten best book of year by Publishers Weekly. "Deeply layered and insightful . . . [a] bold reflection on American history, African American resilience, and the human capacity for love and perseverance in the face of soul-crushing madness."- The Washington Post.