Destiny of the Republic
A Tale of Madness, Medicine and the Murder of a President
Written by Candice Millard

Format: Hardcover, 352 pages
Publisher: Doubleday
On Sale: September 20, 2011
Price: $28.95
ISBN: 978-0-385-52626-5 (0-385-52626-1)

James A. Garfield may have been the most extraordinary man ever elected president. Born into abject poverty, he rose to become a wunderkind scholar, a Civil War hero, and a renowned and admired reformist congressman. Nominated for president against his will, he engaged in a fierce battle with the corrupt political... Read more >

School
The Story of American Public Education
Edited by Sarah Mondale

Format: Trade Paperback, 256 pages
Publisher: Beacon Press
On Sale: August 16, 2002
Price: $25.00
ISBN: 978-0-8070-4221-2 (0-8070-4221-8)

Esteemed historians of education David Tyack, Carl Kaestle, Diane Ravitch, James Anderson, and Larry Cuban journey through history and across the nation to recapture the idealism of our education pioneers, Thomas Jefferson and Horace Mann. We learn how, in the first quarter of the twentieth century, massive immigration, child labor laws... Read more >

Prayer in America
A Spiritual History of Our Nation
Written by James P. Moore, Jr.

Format: Trade Paperback, 542 pages
Publisher: Image
On Sale: September 18, 2007
Price: $27.00
ISBN: 978-0-385-50404-1 (0-385-50404-7)

A stirring chronicle of the spiritual life of a nation, Prayer in America shows how the faith of Americans—from the founding fathers to corporate tycoons, from composers to social reformers, from generals to slaves—was an essential ingredient in the formation of American culture, character, commerce, and creed.

Prayer in America brings... Read more >

The Other Wes Moore
One Name, Two Fates
Written by Wes Moore

Format: Trade Paperback, 272 pages
Publisher: Spiegel & Grau
On Sale: January 11, 2011
Price: $15.00
ISBN: 978-0-385-52820-7 (0-385-52820-5)

Winner, 2011 BCALA (Black Caucus of ALA) Literary Award, Nonfiction
A 2011 Booklist Top 10 Black History Nonfiction Book

Selected for Common Reading at:
Colleges & Universities
Bay Path College (Springfield, MA)
Berry College (Mount Berry, GA)
Brookhaven College (Farmers Branch, TX)
Bunker Hill Community College (Boston, MA)
Cabrini College (Radnor, PA)
California State University at Bakersfield (Bakersfield, CA)... Read more >

The Other Wes Moore
One Name, Two Fates
Written by Wes Moore

Format: Hardcover, 256 pages
Publisher: Spiegel & Grau
On Sale: April 27, 2010
Price: $25.00
ISBN: 978-0-385-52819-1 (0-385-52819-1)

Selected for Common Reading at:
Colleges & Universities
Bay Path College (Springfield, MA)
Cabrini College (Radnor, PA)
California State University at Bakersfield (Bakersfield, CA)
One City/One Book
Everybody Reads (Multnomah County Library, Portland, OR)
One Book, One Bakersfield (Bakersfield, CA)


Two boys with the same name lived in the same decaying city. One went on to... Read more >

Supergods
What Masked Vigilantes, Miraculous Mutants, and a Sun God from Smallville Can Teach Us About Being Human
Written by Grant Morrison

Format: Trade Paperback, 480 pages
Publisher: Spiegel & Grau
On Sale: June 26, 2012
Price: $16.00
ISBN: 978-0-8129-8138-4 (0-8129-8138-3)

NATIONAL BESTSELLER

What Masked Vigilantes, Miraculous Mutants, and a Sun God from Smallville Can Teach Us About Being Human

Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Iron Man, and the X-Men—the list of names as familiar as our own. They are on our movie and television screens, in our videogames and in our dreams. But what... Read more >

Supergods
What Masked Vigilantes, Miraculous Mutants, and a Sun God from Smallville Can Teach Us About Being Human
Written by Grant Morrison

Format: Hardcover, 464 pages
Publisher: Spiegel & Grau
On Sale: July 19, 2011
Price: $28.00
ISBN: 978-1-4000-6912-5 (1-4000-6912-2)

From one of the most acclaimed and profound writers in the world of comics comes a thrilling and provocative exploration of humankind’s great modern myth: the superhero

The first superhero comic ever published, Action Comics no. 1 in 1938, introduced the world to something both unprecedented and timeless: Superman, a caped god... Read more >

Salt Sugar Fat
How the Food Giants Hooked Us
Written by Michael Moss

Format: Hardcover, 480 pages
Publisher: Random House
On Sale: February 26, 2013
Price: $28.00
ISBN: 978-1-4000-6980-4 (1-4000-6980-7)

From a Pulitzer Prize–winning investigative reporter at The New York Times comes the fascinating story of the rise of the processed food industry and its link to the emerging obesity epidemic. In Salt Sugar Fat, Michael Moss demonstrates how some of the most recognizable and profitable companies and brands of the... Read more >

Scurlock Studio and Black Washington, The
Picturing the Promise
Edited by National Museum African American History

Format: Hardcover, 224 pages
Publisher: Smithsonian Books
On Sale: January 7, 2009
Price: $35.00
ISBN: 978-1-58834-262-1 (1-58834-262-X)

Nearly a century/s worth of Scurlock photographs combine to form a searing portrait of black Washington in all its guises–its challenges and its victories, its dignity and its determination. Beginning in the early twentieth century and continuing into the 1990s, Addison Scurlock, followed by his sons, Robert and George, used their... Read more >

Enrique's Journey

Written by Sonia Nazario

Format: Trade Paperback, 336 pages
Publisher: Random House Trade Paperbacks
On Sale: January 2, 2007
Price: $16.00
ISBN: 978-0-8129-7178-1 (0-8129-7178-7)

Common Reading Programs that have selected Enrique’s Journey:

Colleges and Universities:
Valparaiso University, Valparaiso, IN
Indiana University, Kokomo, IN
College of Mount St. Joseph, Cincinnati, OH
University of Missouri, Kansas City
Pennsylvania State University, Harrisburg
Notre Dame de Namur University, Belmont, CA
Rockhurst University, Kansas City, MO
Sonoma State University, Rohnert Park, CA
Southwestern College, Chula Vista, CA
Henderson State University, Arkadelphia... Read more >

Enrique's Journey

Written by Sonia Nazario

Format: Hardcover, 320 pages
Publisher: Random House
On Sale: February 21, 2006
Price: $28.00
ISBN: 978-1-4000-6205-8 (1-4000-6205-5)

In this astonishing true story, award-winning journalist Sonia Nazario recounts the unforgettable odyssey of a Honduran boy who braves unimaginable hardship and peril to reach his mother in the United States.

When Enrique is five years old, his mother, Lourdes, too poor to feed her children, leaves Honduras to work in... Read more >

Barack Obama For Beginners, Updated Edition
An Essential Guide
Written by Bob Neer
Illustrated by Joe Lee

Format: Trade Paperback, 128 pages
Publisher: For Beginners
On Sale: June 9, 2009
Price: $12.95
ISBN: 978-1-934389-44-7 (1-934389-44-7)

Barack Obama For Beginners: An Essential Guide is the most concise and reliable short biography available on the 44th President of the United States – from his childhood in Hawaii and Indonesia, education at Columbia and Harvard, work as a community organizer, writer, teacher, lawyer, and politician in Illinois, to his... Read more >

Market Sentiments
Middle-Class Market Culture in Nineteenth-Century America
Written by Elizabeth White Nelson

Format: Trade Paperback, 304 pages
Publisher: Smithsonian Books
On Sale: July 6, 2010
Price: $19.95
ISBN: 978-1-58834-290-4 (1-58834-290-5)

In this brilliant study, Elizabeth White Nelson challenges a central tenet of 19th-century American history: namely, that men and women lived in separate spheres. Women, supposedly, lived lives focused around hearth and home; men focused on trade and commerce. Market Sentiments turns this theory on its head, arguing that the market... Read more >

Up Against the Wall Motherf**er
A Memoir of the '60s, with Notes for Next Time
Written by Osha Neumann

Format: Trade Paperback, 224 pages
Publisher: Seven Stories Press
On Sale: November 4, 2008
Price: $16.95
ISBN: 978-1-58322-849-4 (1-58322-849-7)

They called themselves the Motherfuckers; others called them a “street gang with an analysis.” Osha Neumann’s thoughtful, funny, and honest account of his part in ‘60s counterculture is also an unflinching look at what all that rebellion of the past means today. The fast moving story follows the establishment of the... Read more >

A Disability History of the United States

Written by Kim E. Nielsen

Format: Hardcover, 272 pages
Publisher: Beacon Press
On Sale: October 2, 2012
Price: $26.95
ISBN: 978-0-8070-2202-3 (0-8070-2202-0)

Disability is not just the story of someone we love or the story of whom we may become; rather it is undoubtedly the story of our nation. Covering the entirety of US history from pre-1492 to the present, A Disability History of the United States is the first book to place... Read more >

Mixed
My Life in Black and White
Written by Angela Nissel

Format: Trade Paperback, 240 pages
Publisher: Villard
On Sale: January 30, 2006
Price: $12.95
ISBN: 978-0-345-48114-6 (0-345-48114-3)

“Love has no color,” insist Angela Nissel’s parents, but does it have a clue? In this candid, funny, and poignant memoir, Angela recounts growing up biracial in Philadelphia–moving back and forth between black inner-city schools and white prep schools–where her racial ambiguity and doomed attempts to blend in dog her teen... Read more >

The Grace of Silence
A Family Memoir
Written by Michele Norris

Format: Trade Paperback, 240 pages
Publisher: Vintage
On Sale: September 6, 2011
Price: $15.95
ISBN: 978-0-307-47527-5 (0-307-47527-1)

A profoundly moving and deeply personal memoir by the co-host of National Public Radio’s flagship program All Things Considered.

While exploring the hidden conversation on race unfolding throughout America in the wake of President Obama’s election, Michele Norris discovered that there were painful secrets within her own family that had been... Read more >

Out of Order
Stories from the History of the Supreme Court
Written by Sandra Day O'Connor

Format: Hardcover, 256 pages
Publisher: Random House
On Sale: March 5, 2013
Price: $26.00
ISBN: 978-0-8129-9392-9 (0-8129-9392-6)

“I called this book Out of Order because it reflects my goal, which is to share a different side of the Supreme Court. Most people know the Court only as it exists between bangs of the gavel, when the Court comes to order to hear arguments or give opinions. But the... Read more >

Senator Mansfield
The Extraordinary Life of a Great American Statesman and Diplomat
Written by Don Oberdorfer

Format: Hardcover, 400 pages
Publisher: Smithsonian Books
On Sale: October 17, 2003
Price: $35.00
ISBN: 978-1-58834-166-2 (1-58834-166-6)

A biography of one of the most powerful and dignified men ever to come to DC–Senator Mike Mansfield.

Mike Mansfield’s career as the longest serving majority leader is finally given its due in this extraordinary biography. In many respects, Mansfield’s dignity and decorum represent the high-water mark of the US Senate: he... Read more >

The Smithsonian Book of Books

Written by Michael Olmert

Format: Hardcover, 320 pages
Publisher: Smithsonian Books
On Sale: September 17, 2003
Price: $49.95
ISBN: 978-0-89599-030-3 (0-89599-030-X)

Through more than 300 glorious illustrations from library collections around the globe, you’ll discover a wealth of book lore in these pages and gain a new appreciation for the role of books in human society, from our earliest attempts at writing and recording information to the newest electronic books; from sumptuous... Read more >

The Deep Dark
Disaster and Redemption in America's Richest Silver Mine
Written by Gregg Olsen

Format: Trade Paperback, 416 pages
Publisher: Broadway
On Sale: March 28, 2006
Price: $16.00
ISBN: 978-0-307-23877-1 (0-307-23877-6)

For nearly a century, Kellogg, Idaho, was home to America’s richest silver mine, Sunshine Mine. Mining there, as everywhere, was not an easy life, but regardless of the risk, there was something about being underground, the lure of hitting a deep vein of silver. The promise of good money and the... Read more >

Those Angry Days
Roosevelt, Lindbergh, and America's Fight Over World War II, 1939-1941
Written by Lynne Olson

Format: Hardcover, 576 pages
Publisher: Random House
On Sale: March 26, 2013
Price: $30.00
ISBN: 978-1-4000-6974-3 (1-4000-6974-2)

From the acclaimed author of Citizens of London comes the definitive account of the debate over American intervention in World War II—a bitter, sometimes violent clash of personalities and ideas that divided the nation and ultimately determined the fate of the free world.

At the center of this controversy stood the... Read more >

And the Dead Shall Rise
The Murder of Mary Phagan and the Lynching of Leo Frank
Written by Steve Oney

Format: Trade Paperback, 784 pages
Publisher: Vintage
On Sale: October 12, 2004
Price: $24.00
ISBN: 978-0-679-76423-6 (0-679-76423-2)

On April 27, 1913, the bludgeoned body of thirteen-year-old Mary Phagan was discovered in the basement of Atlanta’s National Pencil Factory. The girl’s murder would be the catalyst for an epic saga that to this day holds a singular place in America’s collective imagination—a saga that would climax in 1915 with... Read more >

The Vanishing Voter
Public Involvement in an Age of Uncertainty
Written by Thomas E. Patterson

Format: Trade Paperback, 288 pages
Publisher: Vintage
On Sale: September 9, 2003
Price: $14.95
ISBN: 978-0-375-71379-8 (0-375-71379-4)

The disputed presidential election of 2000 highlighted a range of flaws in the American voting system, from ballot procedures to alleged voter intimidation to questions about the fairness of the Electoral College. But as Harvard University political scientist Thomas E. Patterson shows, one problem dwarfs all of these, a predicament that... Read more >

Soulfully Gay
How Harvard, Sex, Drugs, and Integral Philosophy Drove Me Crazy and Brought Me Back to God
Written by Joe Perez

Format: Trade Paperback, 352 pages
Publisher: Integral Books
On Sale: May 8, 2007
Price: $16.95
ISBN: 978-1-59030-418-1 (1-59030-418-7)

SOULFULLY GAY is a personal memoir of an intellectually rigorous gay man wrestling with fundamental issues of meaning and self-acceptance. Joe Perez finds himself on a quest to understand what it means to be gay at the intersection of conflicts between homosexuality and Christianity, faith and skepticism, mysticism and madness. His... Read more >