Title search results
Showing 1 - 20 of 2522 items
The genius and the goddess: Arthur Miller and Marilyn Monroe
By Jeffrey Meyers. 2009
Dual biographies of playwright Arthur Miller (1915-2005) and actress Marilyn Monroe (1926-1962). Traces the couple's disparate family backgrounds and 1956…
marriage. Describes Monroe's role as Miller's muse but posits that her psychological problems and feelings of inadequacy led to their divorce after five years. Some descriptions of sex. 2009.The fate of Rome: climate, disease, and the end of an empire (ITK audio)
By Kyle Harper. 2017
The Fate of Rome is the first book to examine the catastrophic role that climate change and infectious diseases played…
in the collapse of Rome's power -- a story of nature's triumph over human ambition. Interweaving a grand historical narrative with cutting-edge climate science and genetic discoveries, Kyle Harper traces how the fate of Rome was decided not just by emperors, soldiers, and barbarians but also by volcanic eruptions, solar cycles, climate instability, and devastating viruses and bacteria. He takes readers from Rome's pinnacle in the second century, when the empire seemed an invincible superpower, to its unraveling by the seventh century, when Rome was politically fragmented and materially depleted. Harper describes how the Romans were resilient in the face of enormous environmental stress, until the besieged empire could no longer withstand the combined challenges of a "little ice age" and recurrent outbreaks of bubonic plague. A poignant reflection on humanity's intimate relationship with the environment, The Fate of Rome provides a sweeping account of how one of history's greatest civilizations encountered, endured, yet ultimately succumbed to the cumulative burden of nature's violence. 2017.The diving-bell and the butterfly: A Memoir Of Life In Death
By Jean-Dominique Bauby. 1997
The Etruscans
By Michael Grant. 1980
Author reviews the latest scholarly thinking about the Bronze Age origins and subsequent development of civilization in Etruria. A major…
section of the book deals with the geographical and cultural history of the major Etruscan city-states and their territories at the height of their power. 1980.The courage to compete: living with cerebral palsy and following my dreams
By Elizabeth Kaye, Abbey Curran. 2015
Abbey Curran lives by the motto "If you can dream it, you can do it." She was born with cerebral…
palsy, but early on she resolved to never let it limit her. Abbey made history when she became the first contestant with a disability to win a major beauty pageant. After earning the title of Miss Iowa, she went on to compete in Miss USA. Growing up on a hog farm in Illinois, Abbey competed in local pageants despite naysayers who told her not to. After realizing her own dream, she went on to help other disabled girls achieve their goals by starting Miss You Can Do It, a national nonprofit pageant for girls and women with challenges and special needs. In this uplifting memoir, Abbey tells a story of overcoming the odds, fulfilling her life's goals, and finding in herself the courage to compete, even as she continues to inspire the same spirit in others. For junior and senior high readers. 2015.The elephants in my backyard: A Memoir
By Rajiv Surendra. 2016
Actor Rajiv Surendra read "Life of Pi", discovered it was being adapted into a major motion picture, and embarked on…
a ten-year journey to land the role of a lifetime. But this is not a journey of goals and victories, this is a story of obsessively pursuing a dream, overcoming failure, and finding meaning in life. 2016.The elk hunt
By Alan Edward Nourse. 1986
At age 52, the author was stricken by a massive heart attack while hunting elk. He reveals his torturous recovery…
and the strains his illness placed on himself and his family. 1986.The holy blood and the holy grail
By Michael Baigent, Richard Leigh, Henry Lincoln. 1982
Three BBC filmmakers offer a controversial and unorthodox view of the life of Christ, based on cryptic documents discovered by…
a French priest in 1891. The authors infer that Jesus married Mary Magdalen and fathered children whose descendents became European royalty, and that the bloodline of Jesus, in the Merovingian dynasty of France, continues to the present. Bestseller 1982.The history of the decline and fall of the Roman Empire: Volume 3
By Edward Gibbon. 2008
A major literary achievement of the 18th century published in six volumes. Volume I was published in 1776; Volumes II…
and III were published in 1781; volumes IV, V, VI in 1788-89. The books cover the period of the Roman Empire after Marcus Aurelius, from just before 180 to 1453 and beyond, concluding in 1590. They take as their material the behaviour and decisions that led to the decay and eventual fall of the Roman Empire in the East and West, offering an explanation for why the Roman Empire fell. Volume 3 contains chapters 27 to 38. 2008.The history of the decline and fall of the Roman Empire: volume the first (1776) and volume the second (1781)
By Edward Gibbon, David Womersley. 2005
Edward Gibbon's six-volume History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (1776-88) is among the great narratives in…
European literature. Its subject is the fate of one of the world's greatest civilizations over thirteen centuries - its rulers, wars and society, and the events that led to its disastrous collapse. Here, in volumes one and two, Gibbon charts the vast extent and constitution of the Empire from the reign of Augustus to 395 A.D. And in a controversial critique, he examines the early Church, with accounts of the first Christian and last pagan emperors, Constantine and Julian. 2005. If you request this book on CD it will be on 2 or more CDs. You must play the first CD to the end before playing the next CD.The girl: Marilyn Monroe, the Seven year itch, and the birth of an unlikely feminist
By Michelle Morgan. 2018
When Marilyn Monroe stepped over a subway grating as The Girl in The Seven Year Itch and let a gust…
of wind catch the skirt of her pleated white dress, an icon was born. Before that, the actress was mainly known for a nude calendar and one-dimensional, albeit memorable, characters on the screen. Though she again played a "dumb blonde" in this film and was making headlines by revealing her enviable anatomy, the star was now every bit in control of her image, and ready for a personal revolution. The ripple effects her personal rebellion had on Hollywood, and in trailblazing the way for women that followed, will both surprise and inspire listeners to see Marilyn Monroe in an entirely new light. 2018.The education of Laura Bridgman: first deaf and blind person to learn language
By Ernest Freeberg. 2001
Chronicles the life of Laura Bridgman, who, born into a New Hampshire farm family in 1829, became deaf and blind…
at the age of two. Freeberg recounts Laura's transformation into a woman who voraciously absorbed the world around her under the tutelage of Dr. Samuel Gridley Howe of the Perkins Institution for the Blind. 2001.The destruction of Jerusalem: Excerpts
By Flavius Josephus. 1992
The civil war: 50-48 BC
By Julius Caesar. 1989
The devil rides out
By Paul O'Grady. 2010
This is the second book of Paul O'Grady's autobiography. As Paul struggles to get to grips with unexpected fatherhood and…
bereavement, he searches high and low for a job that lasts and somehow finds himself getting married in the process. Work takes him from an abattoir to a children's home, from a hospital to a nightclub, and from penthouse to pavement. Along the way, he develops his Lily Savage drag act, tastes the exotic delights of Manila and invades Poland. Includes strong language and violence. 2010.The Dead Sea scrolls deception: The Explosive Contents Of The Dead Sea Scrolls And How The Church Conspired To Suppress Them
By Michael Baigent, Richard Leigh. 1991
The curse of King Tut's mummy (Stepping stones. True stories)
By Kathleen Weidner Zoehfeld. 2007
When the pharaohs of Egypt died, they were mummified and buried in pyramids and tombs with all their riches. But…
as centuries passed, the tombs were looted and the pharaohs' gold stolen. Then Howard Carter found the greatest Egyptian treasure trove of all - the tomb of King Tut's mummy! But did the amazing treasure come with a deadly curse? Grades 2-4. 2007.The center cannot hold: my journey through madness
By Elyn R Saks. 2007
Professor of psychiatry Elyn R. Saks writes about her struggle with schizophrenia in this unflinching account of her mental illness.…
Saks draws readers into a nightmare world of medications, a misguided health care system, and social stigmas. But she would not be defeated. With a strength and force of will that most can only imagine, Saks reclaimed her life and went on to achieve great success. 2007.The Camino: a journey of the spirit
By Shirley MacLaine. 2000
The Camino has been traveled for centuries by 'saints, sinners, generals, misfits, kings and queens'. MacLaine walked with the same…
intent: to find spiritual meaning and resolution to conflicts in Self. Her account is a personal story with enormous adventure, a smattering of flashbacks to previous lives, and a hefty serving of cosmic revelations. 2000.The boy in the moon: a father's search for his disabled son
By Ian Brown. 2009
Walker Brown was born with a genetic mutation so rare that perhaps 300 people around the world also live with…
it. Walker turned twelve in 2008, but he weighs only 54 pounds, is still in diapers, can't speak and needs to wear special cuffs on his arms so that he can't continually hit himself. Expanded from Brown's Globe and Mail series about Walker, he sets out to discover his son. Some strong language. Canada Reads 2012. 2009.