National Network for Equitable Library Service

Centered on her quest to climb and ski the "Seven Summits," Higher Love is a hero's journey, rich with personal insights, life-threatening consequences, and a thrilling crescendo. Spanning seven continents in just two years, this is Kit's personal account of the secret journey that would change her heart and her life forever. From braving Antarctica's bone-chilling temperatures to trudging through an African rain forest, from corn snow on the continental slopes of Australia to blue ice on Everest, Kit leads you up each mountain and gives you a heart-racing ride back down.

"Funny, touching, observant, philosophical, sad, world-weary, artful and wonderful are the stories that pepper this book.

Lucky Luciano's posthumous memoirs may well have cost him his life. The partner of Meyer Lanksy and Bugsy Siegel, the man who created and controlled the "Commission" and the set down the rules, wanted to have his side of the story on record. It turns out that most of Luciano's criminal activity coincides with the history of the Mafia in America in the first half of the twentieth century and beyond. In preparation for a film of his life story, the famous New York gangster living in a golden exile in Naples recounted the main incidents of his life to producer Martin A.

Marco Polo Didn't Go There is a collection of rollicking travel tales from a young writer USA Today has called "Jack Kerouac for the Internet Age." For the past ten years, Rolf Potts has taken his keen postmodern travel sensibility into the far fringes of five continents for such prestigious publications as National Geographic Traveler, Salon.com, and The New York Times Magazine.

I feel that I have been sleeping all my life and I have woken up and opened my eyes to the world. A beautiful world! But impossible to live in. These are the words of fifteen-year-old Hadiya, blogging from the city of Mosul, Iraq, to let the world know what life is really like as the military occupation of her country unfolds. In many ways, her life is familiar. She worries about exams and enjoys watching Friends during the rare hours that the electricity in her neighborhood is running.

Between 1989 and 1990, Aileen Wuornos, a hitchhiking prostitute, shot, killed, and robbed seven men in remote Florida locations. Arrested in 1991, Wuornos insisted she had acted in self-defense, but the jury had little sympathy. Condemned to death on six separate counts, she was executed by lethal injection in 2002. An abused runaway who turned to prostitution to survive, Wuornos has become iconic of vengeful women who lash out at the nearest target. She has also become a touchstone for women's, prostitutes', and prisoners' rights advocates.

INSIDE THE WORLD OF FLESH-EATING KILLERS Delving deep into the twisted actions of Hannibal Lecter-type murderers, Cannibal Serial Killers profiles the depraved individuals who prolong their horrific crimes beyond the thrill of the chase to a perverse ritualized finale.

COMBINES HORRIFIC ACCOUNTS OF THE MOST VICIOUS MURDERS EVER COMMITTED WITH THE SHOCKING WORDS OF THE KILLERS THEMSELVES "The bloodstains... that happened when I stored one of the guys upsidedown... it usually ran out of his nose or mouth or something..." -John Wayne Gacy "She kinda wanted it, ya know. Sex, an' stuff like that. Then I get started, an' she starts cryin' and wants her mom, so I suffocated her." -Arthur John Shawcross, The Genesee River Killer "Killing a woman's like killing a chicken.

THE INTERNET'S DARK SIDE Take a cyber journey where the flicker of LCD screens illuminates unimaginable evil. It starts as a harmless online-date, but can quickly turn to kidnap, torture and death. More than just tales of sinister criminals, this collection of true horror stores destroys commonly held myths, like "it's safe to meet someone after knowing them online for many months." Predators actually gain additional satisfaction from stalking their victims over long periods of time!

SHOCKING TRUE STORIES OF THE WORLD'S MOST BARBARIC CRIMINALS Revealing portraits of the most notorious killers of our time: -Jeffrey Dahmer -The Zodiac Killer -Dr. Harold Shipman -Son of Sam -The Columbine Killers -Charles Manson -The Night Stalker -The Yorkshire Ripper -Ted Bundy -Charles Starkweather -The Boston Strangler Serial Killers & Mass Murderers takes you into the minds of the criminals who committed the world's most notorious and horrifying crimes. Each of the sadistic murderers profiled here was once known simply as someone's neighbor, co-worker or child.