NCW Libraries

This "comprehensive and illuminating" biography of the Queen of Soul (USA Today) was hailed by Rolling Stone as "a remarkably complex portrait of Aretha Franklin's music and her tumultuous life." 
Aretha Franklin began life as the golden daughter of a progressive and promiscuous Baptist preacher. Raised without her mother, she was a gospel prodigy who gave birth to two sons in her teens...

At twenty-two, Cheryl Strayed thought she had lost everything. In the wake of her mother's death, her family scattered and her own marriage was soon destroyed. Four years later, with nothing more to lose, she made the most impulsive decision of her life: to hike the Pacific Crest Trail from the Mojave Desert through California and Oregon to Washington State -- and to do it alone. She had no experience as a long-distance hiker, and the trail was little...

"Simple text and supportive images introduce beginning readers to the characteristics of the season of spring. Intended for students in kindergarten through third grade"--Provided by publisher.

"As we go about our daily lives, caste is the wordless usher in a darkened theater, flashlight cast down in the aisles, guiding us to our assigned seats for a performance. The hierarchy of caste is not about feelings or morality. It is about power--which groups have it and which do not. In this book, Isabel Wilkerson gives us a portrait of an unseen phenomenon in America as she explores, through an immersive, deeply researched narrative and stories...

"Emilia first met Charlotte in their school locker room in the late '90s. They quickly bonded over indie music, feminist literature, a love of purple, and a shared sense of outsiderness. Their joyful, intense friendship evolved through the years--until Charlotte died in 2018 following a long struggle with depression. Now, Emilia assembles her memories into a graphic memoir reflecting on the bond they shared and the ways it shaped them. As they pass...

Bill Browder's journey started on the South Side of Chicago and moved through Stanford Business School to the dog-eat-dog world of hedge fund investing in the 1990s. It continued in Moscow, where Browder made his fortune heading the largest investment fund in Russia after the Soviet Union's collapse. But when he exposed the corrupt oligarchs who were robbing the companies in which he was investing, Vladimir Putin turned on him and, in 2005, had him...

This 48-page reader aimed at helping young readers develop their reading skills focuses on introducing them to the characters, vehicles, and locations from the film, Star Wars: The Last Jedi.

"In Black and Female, Tsitsi Dangarembga examines the legacy of imperialism on her own life and on every aspect of black embodied African life. This paradigm-shifting essay collection weaves the personal and political in an illuminating exploration of race and gender. Dangarembga recounts a painful separation from her parents as a toddler, connecting this experience to the ruptures caused in Africa by human trafficking and enslavement. She argues...

Text and photographs describe common things that are orange, including goldfish, pumpkins, and basketballs.

"In this moving true story, Kao Kalia Yang shares her experiences as a Hmong refugee child navigating life at home and school in America while carrying the weight of her selective mutism"-- Provided by publisher.