NCW Libraries

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. Her father distrusted the medical establishment, so Tara never saw a doctor or nurse....

"Pulitzer Prize-winner and biographer of Alexander Hamilton, George Washington, and John D. Rockefeller, Ron Chernow returns with a sweeping and dramatic portrait of one of our most compelling generals and presidents, Ulysses S. Grant. Ulysses S. Grant's life has typically been misunderstood. All too often he is caricatured as a chronic loser and inept businessman, fond of drinking to excess; or as the triumphant but brutal Union general of the Civil...

"Tales of intrigue include unusual unsolved crimes, legends of lost treasure, spine-tingling ghost stories, well-documented sea creature sightings, and more. Based on historic accounts from the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, author Lynn Bragg recounts myths and legends from Washington's past, verifying some tales and exposing others for what may have really occurred"--Provided by publisher.

A poignant, evocative, and wonderfully gossipy account of the two sisters who represented style and class above all else—Jackie Kennedy Onassis and Lee Radziwill—from the authors of Furious Love.

When sixty-four-year-old Jackie Kennedy Onassis died in her Fifth Avenue apartment, her younger sister Lee wept inconsolably. Then Jackie’s thirty-eight-page will was read. Lee discovered that substantial cash bequests were

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Covering the period from the 1930s to the 1980s, O'Reilly and Dugard start by tracing the prohibition-busting bank robbers of the Depression Era. Following the rise of organized crime, they highlight the creation of the Mafia Commission, the power struggles within the "Five Families," and the growth of the FBI under J. Edgar Hoover. In addition to the mob battles to control Cuba, Las Vegas and Hollywood, O'Reilly and Dugard follow the personal war...

The hidden history of one of the world's greatest inventors--a man who disrupted the status quo and then disappeared into thin air on the eve of World War I--this book answers the hundred-year-old mystery of what really became of Rudolf Diesel.

"The 100 revolutionary women featured in this illustrated book were bad in the best sense of the word: they challenged the status quo and changed the rules for those who followed. From ancient times through present day, from pirates to artists, scientists to spies, these courageous women achieved unprecedented feats and left a permanent mark on human history."--back cover "Bad Girls Throughout History features some of the fiercest women of all time...

"Algren: A Life is a new biography of Chicago writer Nelson Algren, author of The Man with the Golden Arm, A Walk on the Wild Side, Never Come Morning, multiple short stories, and travel essays"--

An insider account of the high-risk world of elite wilderness firefighters who parachute into deep-wilderness fire zones reveals the unique skills that smokejumpers must employ to fight dangerous fires and stay alive.