"Tara Westover was seventeen the first time she set foot in a classroom. Born to survivalists in the mountains of Idaho, she prepared for the end of the world by stockpiling home-canned peaches and sleeping with her "head-for-the-hills bag." In the summer she stewed herbs for her mother, a midwife and healer, and in the winter she salvaged in her father's junkyard. The family was so isolated from mainstream society that there was no one to ensure...

NATIONAL BOOK CRITICS CIRCLE AWARD WINNER • NATIONAL BESTSELLER • Geobiologist Hope Jahren has spent her life studying trees, flowers, seeds, and soil. Lab Girl is her revelatory treatise on plant life—but it is also a celebration of the lifelong curiosity, humility, and passion that drive every scientist.
"Does for botany what Oliver Sacks’s essays did for neurology, what Stephen Jay Gould’s...

An illuminating study of the intertwined lives of the founders of the American republic--John Adams, Aaron Burr, Benjamin Franklin, Alexander Hamilton, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, and George Washington. During the 1790s, which Ellis calls the most decisive decade in our nation's history, the greatest statesmen of their generation--and perhaps any--came together to define the new republic and direct its course for the coming centuries. Ellis focuses...

The American Revolution was not inevitable, nor was it a unanimous cause. It pitted neighbors against one another, as loyalists and colonial rebels faced off for their lives and futures. Through the remarkable lives of the first Americans, this book reveals the contentious arguments that turned friends into foes and the land into a war zone. From the riots over a child's murder that led to the Boston Massacre, to the Continental Army's first victory...

"Straight from the mean streets, Walk the Blue Line is a first-person account of the days and nights of America's brave cops"--Dust jacket flap. America's cops are our eyes. Our ears. Our protectors. Those who wear a badge do their best to help people. These men and women serve their communities. They service their country-- even at the risk of their own lives. Here patrol officers, K9 handlers, sheriffs and detectives reveal what it's really like...

In this extraordinary work of non-fiction, we hear the unforgettable stories of everyday heroes who look after our families, our friends and ourselves in the most challenging circumstances imaginable Around the clock, ER nurses dedicate their lives to helping us when we need it most. This book puts names and faces to these men and women who are there for us whenever we need them, who fight for our lives and never give up. Through numerous interviews...

'How we interact with animals has preoccupied philosophers, poets, and naturalists for ages,' writes Susan Orlean. Since the age of six, when Orlean wrote and illustrated a book called Herbert the Near-Sighted Pigeon, she's been drawn to stories about how we live with animals, and how they abide by us. Now, in On Animals, she examines animal-human relationships through the compelling tales she has written over the course of her celebrated career....

"From beloved, award-winning poet Aimee Nezhukumatathil comes a debut work of nonfiction-a collection of essays about the natural world, and the way its inhabitants can teach, support, and inspire us"--

"How did Davy Crockett save President Jackson's life--only to end up dying at the Alamo? Was the Lone Ranger based on a real lawman--and was he an African American? What amazing detective work led to the capture of Black Bart, the 'gentleman bandit' and one of the West's most famous stagecoach robbers? Did Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid really die in a hail of bullets in South America? Generations of Americans have grown up on TV shows, movies,...

"Lisa Edwards wandered into a pet shop on Halloween, well aware that the last thing she needed was a dog. But when she laid eyes on Boo, the runt of an abandoned litter, something compelled her to make him her own. The dunce of obedience class with poor eyesight and a wobbly gait, Boo was the least likely of heroes. Yet with his unflappable spirit and boundless love, Boo has changed countless lives through his work as a therapy dog. He has helped...