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Showing 1 - 20 of 10517 items
The informant: the FBI, the Ku Klux Klan, and the murder of Viola Liuzzo
By Gary May. 2005
Examines the role of FBI informant Gary Thomas Rowe Jr., who infiltrated the Alabama Klan and identified suspects in the…
1965 murder of civil rights activist Viola Liuzzo, a white woman from Detroit, while he participated in other race crimes. Criticizes the effectiveness of the FBI's reliance upon informants. 2005
Cultural history of women in American law enforcement focuses on events that helped or hindered their progress toward equality. Uses…
archival documents and interviews to illuminate the expansion of women's roles from the 1840s, when matrons guarded prisoners, to the twenty-first century. Highlights incidents of workplace discrimination. Some violence. 2010
God is not one: the eight rival religions that run the world--and why their differences matter
By Stephen R. Prothero. 2010
Author of Religious Literacy (DB 64243) posits that religion is more than a private matter and affects the world socially,…
economically, politically, and militarily--as a force for both good and evil. Discusses the major religions, their traditions, and the importance of the differences among them. 2010
The triple agent: the al-Qaeda mole who infiltrated the CIA
By Joby Warrick. 2011
Pulitzer Prize-winning Washington Post journalist details the December 30, 2009, gathering in Khost, Afghanistan, of CIA and U.S. military officials…
and Pakistani and Afghani operatives to meet Jordanian pediatrician and spy Humam Khalil al-Balawi. Relates Balawi's subsequent suicide bombing, which killed himself and seven CIA personnel. 2011
The boy who came back from heaven: a remarkable account of miracles, angels, and life beyond this world
By Kevin Malarkey, Alex Malarkey, Kevin Malarkey. 2010
Father recounts the 2004 car accident that injured him and left his six-year-old son Alex in a coma. Alex describes…
waking two months later and discovering that some of his spinal injuries had healed without medical intervention--and believing that he had entered heaven and met Jesus. Bestseller. 2010
Through veterans' eyes: the Iraq and Afghanistan experience
By Larry Minear. 2010
Commentary from post-9/11 veterans collected from the Library of Congress Veterans History Project and supplemented by author interviews. Covers reasons…
for enlisting; dealing with combat, local populations, and contractors; and living with post-traumatic stress disorder and brain injury. Strong language and some violence. 2010
Journalist examines the intersecting experiences of three scholars and one ambitious freshman at Harvard during the winter of 1960-1961. Discusses…
their experiments in psychedelic drug research that set the stage for the social, spiritual, sexual, and psychological revolution of the 1960s. 2010
Busted: a tale of corruption and betrayal in the city of brotherly love
By Wendy Ruderman, Barbara Laker. 2014
Two Philadelphia Daily News reporters chronicle their probe into corruption in the Philadelphia Police Department narcotics squad, for which they…
won the 2010 Pulitzer Prize for investigative reporting. Some strong language. 2014
Angels Here Among Us
By Vernon Oickle, Vernon L. Oickle. 2010
Angels, universal beacons of hope, symbols of humanity and grace. In this book, you will encounter people who have had…
extraordinary experiences, and you will read stories that may seem impossible or too amazing to be true. Vernon Oickle recounts deeply personal stories of real people who have encountered otherworldly beings who have brought comfort and provoked life-altering changes: * A woman in white appears on the deck of fishing boat and warns a fisherman of impending danger * Lost in a blinding snowstorm in a dense forest, a boy is guided home to his family by a mysterious stranger * A young boy saves his family from perishing in a house fire after a strange visitor wakes him up and leads him to safety * During a difficult delivery, an expectant mother sees a woman engulfed in a bright light hovering over the doctor and knows that everything will be all right * An unknown man appears out of nowhere to save a young girl from drowning, and then he suddenly disappears * While sitting in a jail cell, a despondent man has a life-changing conversation with another man in the cell next to him, only to find out the next day that the cell was empty * Many of these true stories defy logic, yet point to the existence of angels among us.
Jungleland: a mysterious lost city, a WWII spy, and a true story of deadly adventure
By Christopher S. Stewart. 2013
Journalist recounts his 2008 search for the lost city of Ciudad Blanca in Central America. Discusses studying the 1940 expedition…
journals of American spy Theodore Morde, who claimed to have found the city. Compares Morde's journey with his own. Young adult appeal. 2013
Proof of heaven: a neurosurgeon's journey into the afterlife
By Eben Alexander. 2012
Account of fifty-four-year-old Harvard-educated neurosurgeon Alexander and his 2008 recovery from a coma induced by bacterial meningitis. Describes his near-death…
experience--including a feeling of unconditional love and acceptance--that convinced him of the existence of heaven and a personal God. Bestseller. 2012
Fringe-ology: how I tried to explain away the unexplainable--and couldn't
By Steve Volk. 2011
The savage city: race, murder, and a generation on the edge
By T. J. English. 2011
Explores tensions between the African American community and the NYPD during the 1960s. Examines the murders of two white upper-East-Side…
women and the coerced confession of nineteen-year-old drifter George Whitmore Jr., corruption on the police force, and the roles played by leading activists. Violence and strong language. 2011
Medusa's gaze and vampire's bite: the science of monsters
By Matt Kaplan. 2012
Science journalist examines ancient and modern myths of monsters, from the Nemean Lion of ancient Greece to King Kong and…
the Terminator. Uses archaeology and other disciplines to theorize on the sources of these tales and the reasons they fascinate us. Young adult appeal. Some violence. 2012
Bomb: the race to build and steal the world's most dangerous weapon
By Steve Sheinkin. 2012
Award-winning author recounts the history of the atom bomb and the race among the United States, Nazi Germany, and the…
Soviet Union to build--or steal--the deadly weapon during World War II. For junior and senior high and older readers. 2012
Heavens on earth: the scientific search for the afterlife, immortality, and utopia
By Michael Shermer. 2018
Founder of The Skeptics Society explores the intersection of science and religion through the lens of an examination of humans'…
fascination with the afterlife. Topics covered include mortal experiences and immortal quests, the scientific search for immortality, yesterdays and tomorrows, and mortality and meaning. 2018
This is your mind on plants
By Michael Pollan. 2021
The instant New York Times bestseller &“Expert storytelling . . . [Pollan] masterfully elevates a series of big questions about…
drugs, plants and humans that are likely to leave readers thinking in new ways.&”— New York Times Book Review From #1 New York Times bestselling author Michael Pollan, a radical challenge to how we think about drugs, and an exploration into the powerful human attraction to psychoactive plants—and the equally powerful taboos. Of all the things humans rely on plants for—sustenance, beauty, medicine, fragrance, flavor, fiber—surely the most curious is our use of them to change consciousness: to stimulate or calm, fiddle with or completely alter, the qualities of our mental experience. Take coffee and tea: People around the world rely on caffeine to sharpen their minds. But we do not usually think of caffeine as a drug, or our daily use as an addiction, because it is legal and socially acceptable. So, then, what is a &“drug&”? And why, for example, is making tea from the leaves of a tea plant acceptable, but making tea from a seed head of an opium poppy a federal crime? In This Is Your Mind on Plants , Michael Pollan dives deep into three plant drugs—opium, caffeine, and mescaline—and throws the fundamental strangeness, and arbitrariness, of our thinking about them into sharp relief. Exploring and participating in the cultures that have grown up around these drugs while consuming (or, in the case of caffeine, trying not to consume) them, Pollan reckons with the powerful human attraction to psychoactive plants. Why do we go to such great lengths to seek these shifts in consciousness, and then why do we fence that universal desire with laws and customs and fraught feelings? In this unique blend of history, science, and memoir, as well as participatory journalism, Pollan examines and experiences these plants from several very different angles and contexts, and shines a fresh light on a subject that is all too often treated reductively—as a drug, whether licit or illicit. But that is one of the least interesting things you can say about these plants, Pollan shows, for when we take them into our bodies and let them change our minds, we are engaging with nature in one of the most profound ways we can. Based in part on an essay published almost twenty-five years ago, this groundbreaking and singular consideration of psychoactive plants, and our attraction to them through time, holds up a mirror to our fundamental human needs and aspirations, the operations of our minds, and our entanglement with the natural world
In the name of the children: an FBI agent's relentless pursuit of the nation's worst predators
By Marilee Strong, Jeffrey L. Rinek. 2018
Former FBI agent recounts his career working on cases of kidnapped and murdered children. Discusses investigative techniques, the ways the…
FBI interacts with other agencies, and sensational crimes such as the 1999 Yosemite National Park murders. Relates the psychological effects on him, including suicide attempts, and his family. Violence. 2018
The Black Lives Matter movement
By Peggy J. Parks. 2018
Explores the Black Lives Matter movement that was launched in 2013 to address civil rights issues against African American citizens.…
Covers the divide between black citizens and the police, the formation of the movement, its detractors, and law enforcement accountability. For junior and senior high and older readers. 2018
The rise of Islamic state: ISIS and the new Sunni revolution
By Patrick Cockburn. 2015
A description of the rise of conditions leading to terrorist group ISIS's explosive success, including the Iraqi and Syrian civil…
wars. Additionally, the author examines the principles of the group, also known as the Islamic State, which combine religious fanaticism and military prowess. Some violence. 2015