NCW Libraries

"What's it like to be the first to enter an Egyptian burial chamber that's been sealed for thousands of years? What horrifying secret was found among the prehistoric ruins of the American Southwest? Who really was the infamous the Monster of Florence? Douglas Preston's journalistic explorations have taken him from the haunted country of Italy to the jungles of Honduras. He was granted exclusive journalistic access to the largest tomb in Egypt's Valley...

"Raised in a wealthy family in Sepphoris with ties to the ruler of Galilee, Ana is rebellious and ambitious, a relentless seeker with a brilliant, curious mind and a daring spirit. She yearns for a pursuit worthy of her life, but finds no outlet for her considerable talents. Defying the expectations placed on women, she engages in furtive scholarly pursuits and writes secret narratives about neglected and silenced women. When she meets the eighteen-year-old...

I'm good at two things: finding treasure and killing demons. Lying low is a close third--but not because I want to be good at hiding. I have to be. I'm a FireSoul, one of the unlucky few to inherit a piece of the dragon's soul. Being born with the dragon's covetousness should be a sweet gig - I have the power to find and steal any type of treasure, including the powers of other supernaturals. But it doesn't come without a price - stealing powers...

"A boy goes on a long car ride to visit his grandmother and discovers time moves faster or slower depending on how bored he is"--

Recounts the "History of Alexander's Conquests" of Ptolemy Lagides, a Macedonian officer who accompanied Alexander the Great during his conquests and who was later to lead the city of Alexandria in its triumph after Alexander's death.

"Adam Nicolson crafts a geography of the ancient world and a brilliant exploration of our connections to the past"-- Before the Greeks, the idea of the world was dominated by god-kings and their priests. Twenty-five hundred years ago, in a succession of small eastern Mediterranean harbor cities, a few heroic men and women decided to cast off mental subservience and apply their own thinking minds to the conundrums of life. These great innovators shaped...

Their magic tree house takes Annie and Jack to Pompeii just as Vesuvius is about to erupt, and they must find a Roman scroll before everything is covered with burning ash.

An illustrated tour of nineteen of the world's most curious and mysterious locations, including Area 51, the Vatican's secret archives, and Bouvet Island.

"Throughout the ages, the most successful civilizations were the ones who realized that everyone poops and they'd better figure out how to get rid of it! From the very first flushing toilet (invented way earlier than you would think) to the efficient Roman aqueducts (possibly inspired by the goddess of sewers!) to castles in the Middle Ages whose moats used more than just water to repel enemies, Poop happened! traces human civilization through this...

"In a warlike land of wind and sunlight, "ringed by a restless sea," live Rhaskos and Melisto, spiritual twins with little in common beyond the violent and mysterious forces that dictate their lives. A Thracian slave in a Greek household, Rhaskos is as common as clay, a stable boy worth less than a donkey, much less a horse. Wrenched from his mother at a tender age, he nurtures in secret, aided by Socrates, his passions for art and philosophy. Melisto...