Showing titles in Biographies

Run Rachel Run is a true story, not just based on a true story. Rachel Blum was 12 when the Nazis invaded her town. Over the next three years, she witnessed war, risked her life to smuggle food for her family, escaped liquidation, hid with a kind Polish couple whose son worked for the SS, was questioned if she was a Jew by an SS General, and engineered an incredibly dangerous scheme to overturn a moving trainload of 1,000 Nazi soldiers.

Iqbal Masih, ceduto dalla sua famiglia di contadini ridotti in miseria, in cambio del prestito di 26 dollari, costretto a lavorare in una tessitura di tappeti dall'alba al tramonto, incatenato al telaio, in condizioni disumane, come milioni di altri bambini nei paesi più poveri del mondo, troverà la forza di ribellarsi, di far arrestare il suo padrone, di denunciare la "mafia dei tappeti", contribuendo alla liberazione di centinaia di altri piccoli schiavi.

At the age of 17, Don Stinson accidentally landed a job in the White House during Watergate, the largest political scandal in American history. A truly insignificant member of the Nixon White House staff, he frequently loitered outside of the Oval Office to watch it unfold. What he saw throughout the White House ran the gamut from the deeply profound to the wildly hilarious.

In his first ever book, The IF in Life: How to Get Off Life’s Sidelines and Become Your Best Self, NFL running back and Dancing with the Stars champion Rashad Jennings shares his inspiring story and experiences, imparts practical advice, and encourages listeners to follow their dreams.

Meet Barbara Reichmann, once known as Gucia Gomolinska: smart, determined, independent, and steadfast in the face of injustice. A Jew growing up in predominantly Catholic Poland during the 1920s and ’30s, Gucia studies hard, makes friends, falls in love, and dreams of a bright future. Her world is turned upside down when Nazis invade Poland and establish the first Jewish ghetto of World War II in her town of Piotrko´w Trybunalski.

In 2014, Chessy Prout was a freshman at St. Paul's School, a prestigious boarding school in New Hampshire, when a senior boy sexually assaulted her as part of a ritualized game of conquest. Chessy bravely reported her assault to the police and testified against her attacker in court. Then, in the face of unexpected backlash from her once-trusted school community, she shed her anonymity to help other survivors find their voice.

Perhaps more than even Washington, Jefferson, or Adams, Ben Franklin is the Founding Father who best exemplifies the authentic American spirit and values. Eminent historian Thomas Fleming paints a lively portrait of this self-made man blessed with a wealth of talents: a best-selling author, the most important newspaper publisher in America, and a world-renowned scientist and inventor before he took on the task of becoming the true "Father" of American independence.

Inspired by his nearly-deaf mother and a father who developed a "visible alphabet" of all the possible sounds a human being can make, Alexander Graham Bell spent the greater part of his life trying to improve the way people communicated with one another. It was this desire that led him to create his most famous invention, the telephone, and turned him into one of the most well-known names of all time.

Tex Avery, considered the father of screwball animation, was one of the most influential animators of the 1930s, 1940s, and 1950s. Creator of such classic characters as Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, and Droopy, he directed many cartoons for Warner Bros., MGM, and Walter Lantz Productions and was nominated for six Academy Awards.

At 24, Sally Hobart was a schoolteacher who was living a happy life in Southern California. Waking up one morning, she discovered that a gray cloud had descended upon everything around her. A trip to the ophthamologist’s office revealed that she was suffering from a retinal hemorrhage. Several treatments later, Sally began to understand that soon she would be completely blind. With courage and conviction, Sally has struggled to overcome her visual impairment, and her story is one of great inspiration.

Some say he was the greatest warrior in history, building an empire that extended from Europe to Africa and on to India and Central Asia. In a stirring narrative, famed historian John Gunther tells the story of Alexander the Great who, at only age 21, became King of Macedonia and set off on a 12-year journey to conquer the known world and extend the boundaries of Greek civilization.

Isabel Allende is an informative introduction to the distinguished author. Isabel Allende, one of the world's most widely read Latin American writers, is a Chilean novelest who, like Gabriel Garcia Marquez, was strongly influenced by her grandparents. Her vivid fiction, such as The House of the Spirits, blends realism with magical elements and spotlights political and often feminist concerns.

On July 16, 1963, Jane Goodall stepped onto the shores of the Tanganyika in Gombe National Park in Tanzania, Africa, for the very first time. The 23-year-old researcher was about to begin the adventure of a lifetime, studying the wild chimpanzees in their forest home. The discoveries she made there about chimpanzee behavior changed the way people thought about chimpanzees, as well as human beings

Born into a family of privilege and wealth, he was sent to military school at the age of 13. After an unremarkable academic career, he joined the family business in real estate and built his fortune. His personal brand: sex, money, and power. From no-holds-barred reality TV star to unlikely candidate, Donald J. Trump rose to the highest political office: president of the US. Learn fascinating details about his personal history.

I never was a badass. Or a slut, a junkie, or a stoner, like they told me I was. I was just a kid looking for something good, something that felt like love. I was a wannabe in a Levi's jean jacket. Anybody could see that. Except my mother. And the staff at Straight. I was 13 when I ran away from my abusive home. After a month in a shelter for kids - the best month of my childhood - my mother heard about Princess Di and First Lady Nancy Reagan's visit to this place that was working miracles with troubled teens. Straight Inc., it was called.

High school sucks for a lot of people. High school extra sucks when you believe, deep in your soul, that every kid in the school is out to get you. I wasn't popular before I got locked up in Straight Inc., the notorious "tough love" program for troubled teens. So it's not like I was walking around thinking everyone liked me. But when you're psychologically beaten for 16 months, you start to absorb the lessons. The lessons in Straight were: You are evil. Your peers are evil. Everything is evil except Straight, Inc. Before long, you're a true believer.

With witty humor and a strong sense of self, musician, model, and technology executive Shavone Charles recounts her journey through Google, Twitter, and more–and outlines her mission to make space for herself and other young women of color both online and IRL.

At only eight months old, identical twin sisters Ariel and Zan Henley were diagnosed with Crouzon syndrome — a rare condition where the bones in the head fuse prematurely. They were the first twins known to survive it. Growing up, Ariel and her sister endured numerous medical procedures to keep them alive. Doctors expanded the twins’ skulls and broke bones to make room for their growing organs. After each surgery, the sisters felt like strangers to each other, unable to recognize themselves in the mirror.

Starting with Marie Curie's early life, which she spent in a Poland unwillingly meshing into the Russian Empire, the book begins with the five-year-old Manya Sklodovski (Marie Curies native name) in her family home in Poland. The book vividly describes her surroundings and the incidents of her life. Further chapters mention the 14-year-old learning that a friend's brother is to be executed as a rebel, and later her year's holiday after finishing school at 16, time spent in the country and the mountains.

Daniel Boone opened up the American west; more than 200,000 settlers poured into Kentucky on the Wilderness Road he helped establish. John Mason Brown's classic biography brilliantly depicts Boone's life and times, delving into all the complexities of this fascinating man as well as the landmark historical events he lived through - including the Revolutionary War and Louisiana Purchase.