Showing titles in Biographies

In Flamboyants, George M. Johnson celebrates writers, performers, and activists from 1920s Black America whose sexualities have been obscured throughout history. Through 14 essays, Johnson reveals how American culture has been shaped by icons who are both Black and Queer–and whose stories deserve to be celebrated in their entirety.

Who's Better? The Legend or the Rising Star? kid will love these stories of excellence.

Discovered in the attic in which she spent the last years of her life, Anne Frank’s remarkable diary has since become a world classic - a powerful reminder of the horrors of war and an eloquent testament to the human spirit. In 1942, with Nazis occupying Holland, a 13-year-old Jewish girl and her family fled their home in Amsterdam and went into hiding. For the next two years, until their whereabouts were betrayed to the Gestapo, they and another family lived cloistered in the “Secret Annex” of an old office building.

Moses and Troy Horne here. Your mental-toughness guides! We know exactly how you feel. If you are reading this, you probably have a young athlete who struggles with in-game stress and maybe even sports performance anxiety. That is why this version was mostly written by Moses. As of the time of the writing of this book, Moses Horne is a 15-year-old elite athlete who can talk directly about the triumphs and struggles of working toward being mentally tough. This is the only book that I know of with input from an actual young athlete.

Nic Sheff was drunk for the first time at age 11. In the years that followed, he would regularly smoke pot, do cocaine and ecstasy, and develop addictions to crystal meth and heroin. Even so, he felt like he would always be able to quit and put his life together whenever he needed to. It took a violent relapse one summer in California to convince him otherwise.

It is 1944. A teenager named Rudolf (Rudi) Vrba has made up his mind. After barely surviving nearly two years in the Auschwitz concentration camp in Poland, he knows he must escape. Even if death is more likely. Rudi has learned the terrible secret hidden behind the heavily guarded fences of concentration camps across Nazi-occupied Europe: the methodical mass killing of Jewish prisoners. As trains full of people arrive daily, Rudi knows that the murders won’t stop until he reveals the truth to the world―and that each day that passes means more lives are lost.

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.

You are standing at a crossroads, facing a choice that could change the course of your life. Will you settle for the well-trodden path, or will you dare to venture into uncharted territory? If you are ready to embark on a journey that will challenge your assumptions, ignite your imagination, and awaken your inner trailblazer, then "Elon: A Modern Renaissance Man" is the map you need. Elon Musk is a veritable force of nature that has redefined what it means to dream big. From electric cars that outperform their gas-guzzling counterparts to rockets that land themselves, Musk has turned ...

He was described as one of the only person smarter than Einstein, by no less than Eugene Wigner, a Nobel-Prize winning physicist, who knew both of them well. He was a polymath who spoke multiple languages and possessed an extraordinary intellect. He could perform complex mathematical calculations in his head, recite entire books verbatim after a single reading, and engage in advanced scientific discussions even as a child. He made groundbreaking contributions to mathematics, physics, economics, and computer science, notably developing the Monte Carlo method for nuclear reactor simulations ...

Explore the captivating story of Julius Caesar, the military genius and political mastermind whose actions reshaped the Roman Republic and laid the foundations for the Roman Empire. Julius Caesar was a figure of immense ambition and strategic brilliance, and a complex personality who blended political acumen with unmatched military prowess. This book lets you look into Caesar's life in more detail, exploring his motivations, explaining his rise to power, and considering his enduring legacy. From his early days in Rome to his dramatic assassination, Caesar's journey is a testament to the ...

This is the story of Cleopatra, the last Pharaoh of Egypt, whose intelligence, political acumen, and legendary allure left an indelible mark on history. Cleopatra was a figure of immense charm and strategic brilliance, blending political savvy with a profound understanding of her role as a leader. This book takes you deep into Cleopatra's life, exploring her motivations, her political maneuvers, and her enduring legacy. From her rise to power in Egypt to her tragic end, Cleopatra's journey is a testament to the complexities of leadership, power, and legacy. What You Will Learn Cleopatra's ...

Embark on an extraordinary journey of discovery with "Captain Cook: The Legendary Seafarer, Navigator, and Explorer”, a captivating and informative account of the life and voyages of one of history's most remarkable figures. This book brings to life the story of Captain James Cook, whose unparalleled navigational skills, scientific curiosity, and intrepid spirit led him to chart the uncharted waters of the Pacific Ocean and explore the farthest reaches of the globe. Even though Captain Cook died in tragic circumstances at the age of 50, he is remembered today for some astonishing ...

Shyima Hall was born in Egypt on September 29, 1989, the seventh child of desperately poor parents. When she was eight, her parents sold her into slavery. Shyima then moved two hours away to Egypt's capitol city of Cairo to live with a wealthy family and serve them eighteen hours a day, seven days a week. When she was ten, her captors moved to Orange County, California, and smuggled Shyima with them. Two years later, an anonymous call from a neighbor brought about the end of Shyima's servitude - but her journey to true freedom was far from over.

In this very personal work - adapted from the original number one best seller, which the New York Times calls "as compelling as To Kill a Mockingbird, and in some ways more so" - acclaimed lawyer and social justice advocate Bryan Stevenson offers a glimpse into the lives of the wrongfully imprisoned and his efforts to fight for their freedom.

In May 1996 the media scrambled to document the gripping story of 16-year-old Mark Pfetzer's expedition to Mount Everest. Not only was he the youngest climber ever to attempt the summit, he also witnessed the tragedy documented in Jon Krakauer's Into Thin Air, in which eight climbers perished in a sudden storm. Within Reach is Mark's extraordinary account of this experience and of his triumphs over several other challenging peaks. At once triumphant and tragic, this story will be an inspiration to climbers, athletes, and armchair enthusiasts alike.

When the Navy sends their elite, they send the SEALs. When the SEALs send their elite, they send SEAL Team Six—a secret unit made up of the finest soldiers in the country, if not the world. I Am a SEAL Team Six Warrior is the dramatic tale of how Howard Wasdin overcame a tough childhood to live his dream and enter the exciting and dangerous world of US Navy SEALs and Special Forces snipers. This is Howard Wasdin's story of overcoming abuse and beating the odds to become an elite American warrior.

What makes a country fall to a dictator? How are authoritarian leaders - strongmen - capable of killing millions acquire their power? How are they able to defeat the ideal of democracy? And what can we do to make sure it doesn't happen again? By profiling five of the most notoriously ruthless dictators in history - Adolf Hitler, Benito Mussolini, Joseph Stalin, Mao Zedong, and Saddam Hussein - Kenneth C. Davis seeks to answer these questions, examining the forces in these strongmen's personal lives and historical periods that shaped the leaders they'd become.

The Navy SEAL teams' elite K9 warriors do it all - from detecting explosives to eliminating the bad guys. These powerful dogs are also some of the smartest and most highly skilled working animals on the planet. Mike Ritland's job is to train them. This is the tale of how Ritland discovered his passion and grew up to train these elite dogs. After becoming a SEAL, he was on combat deployment in Iraq when he saw a military working dog in action, and he instantly knew he'd found his true calling.

Edie is a talented dancer and a skilled gymnast with hopes of making the Olympic team. Between her rigorous training and her struggle to find her place in a family where she’s the daughter “with brains but no looks,” Edie’s too busy to dwell on the state of the world. But life in Hungary in 1943 is dangerous for a Jewish girl.

Every Falling Star, the first book to portray contemporary North Korea to a young audience, is the intense memoir of a North Korean boy named Sungju who is forced at age 12 to live on the streets and fend for himself. To survive, Sungju creates a gang and lives by thieving, fighting, begging, and stealing rides on cargo trains. Sungju richly recreates his scabrous story, depicting what it was like for a boy alone to create a new family with his gang, his "brothers".