Best U.S. Immigrant History
In this epic, beautifully written masterwork, Pulitzer Prize–winning author Isabel Wilkerson chronicles one of the great untold stories of American history: the decades-long migration of black citizens who fled the South for northern and western cities, in search of a better life. A Look Inside The Warmth of Other Suns The author's father as a Tuskegee Airman George Starling as a young manThe author's mother at Meridian Hill The author’s mother at Howard University with friends A migrant man studying a mapA migrant man packing his suitcaseIda Mae Brandon Gladney as a young womanRobert Joseph Pershing Foster as a young physician Starred Review.
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"As the stories of desperation, ambition and flight unfold, the reader can see just how many ways the American Dream was yanked away, hidden or otherwise made inaccessible to one generation after another. Instead, he ended up an overworked denizen of substandard housing, with broken knees and bad kidneys from all the years of picking oranges and tangerines then stacking and unloading luggage on railroad runs along the eastern seaboard. Meanwhile, his New York-born-and-raised children -- not privy to the "village" atmosphere of family and child-rearing of George's native Southland -- were left to fend for themselves in the impersonal, take-a-number concrete jungle of an overpopulated city and, with limited options, spent their energies on getting into, or ducking, trouble."
"Isabel Wilkerson, the Pulitzer Prize winning newspaper writer, has now come back to write a fascinating and sweeping book on what she calls ""the biggest underreported story of the twentieth century." Of course we all know the tale of the "Dust Bowl" and the "Okies", as captured by Steinbeck in words, by Dorothea Lange in photographs, and even in song by Woody Guthrie. The title of this book is taken from Richard Wright's "Black Boy: A Record of Childhood and Youth": "I was taking a part of the South to transplant in alien soil, to see if it could grow differently, if it could drink of new and cool rains, bend in strange winds, respond to the warmth of other suns, and, perhaps, to bloom." Our families became friends, as also "Miz Edna's" husband had served in New Guinea with my father (as a cook, however, remember the WWII Army was still segregated) ."
"I have always wondered about the much harder lives of black migrants who followed a similar path. It cannot have been easy to write a book like this without descending either into sentimentality or righteous anger. My family left for economic reasons, but I don't think it's an accident that the Southern economy of that time was so bad."
"This book was a long read, but in the end, it provided an enlightening perspective on the migration of people from the southern states to the north from the early to late 20th century."
With stunning historical detail, Wilkerson tells this story through the lives of three unique individuals: Ida Mae Gladney, who in 1937 left sharecropping and prejudice in Mississippi for Chicago, where she achieved quiet blue-collar success and, in old age, voted for Barack Obama when he ran for an Illinois Senate seat; sharp and quick-tempered George Starling, who in 1945 fled Florida for Harlem, where he endangered his job fighting for civil rights, saw his family fall, and finally found peace in God; and Robert Foster, who left Louisiana in 1953 to pursue a medical career, the personal physician to Ray Charles as part of a glitteringly successful medical career, which allowed him to purchase a grand home where he often threw exuberant parties. Several reviewers saw the book as an important corrective to previous scholarship on the Migration that too often grouped African Americans into a voiceless mass, that focused exclusively on the negative consequences of their move to Northern urban centers, and that often emphasized economic and sociological explanations at the expense of the personal.
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"As the stories of desperation, ambition and flight unfold, the reader can see just how many ways the American Dream was yanked away, hidden or otherwise made inaccessible to one generation after another. Instead, he ended up an overworked denizen of substandard housing, with broken knees and bad kidneys from all the years of picking oranges and tangerines then stacking and unloading luggage on railroad runs along the eastern seaboard. Meanwhile, his New York-born-and-raised children -- not privy to the "village" atmosphere of family and child-rearing of George's native Southland -- were left to fend for themselves in the impersonal, take-a-number concrete jungle of an overpopulated city and, with limited options, spent their energies on getting into, or ducking, trouble."
"Isabel Wilkerson, the Pulitzer Prize winning newspaper writer, has now come back to write a fascinating and sweeping book on what she calls ""the biggest underreported story of the twentieth century." Of course we all know the tale of the "Dust Bowl" and the "Okies", as captured by Steinbeck in words, by Dorothea Lange in photographs, and even in song by Woody Guthrie. The title of this book is taken from Richard Wright's "Black Boy: A Record of Childhood and Youth": "I was taking a part of the South to transplant in alien soil, to see if it could grow differently, if it could drink of new and cool rains, bend in strange winds, respond to the warmth of other suns, and, perhaps, to bloom." Our families became friends, as also "Miz Edna's" husband had served in New Guinea with my father (as a cook, however, remember the WWII Army was still segregated) ."
"I have always wondered about the much harder lives of black migrants who followed a similar path. It cannot have been easy to write a book like this without descending either into sentimentality or righteous anger. My family left for economic reasons, but I don't think it's an accident that the Southern economy of that time was so bad."
"This book was a long read, but in the end, it provided an enlightening perspective on the migration of people from the southern states to the north from the early to late 20th century."
In this epic, beautifully written masterwork, Pulitzer Prize–winning author Isabel Wilkerson chronicles one of the great untold stories of American history: the decades-long migration of black citizens who fled the South for northern and western cities, in search of a better life. [Wilkerson’s] closeness with, and profound affection for, her subjects reflect her deep immersion in their stories and allow the reader to share that connection.” —Janet Maslin, The New York Times “ The Warmth of Other Suns is a brilliant and stirring epic, the first book to cover the full half-century of the Great Migration… Wilkerson combines impressive research…with great narrative and literary power. Ms. Wilkerson does for the Great Migration what John Steinbeck did for the Okies in his fiction masterpiece, The Grapes of Wrath ; she humanizes history, giving it emotional and psychological depth.”—John Stauffer, Wall Street Journal. “[A] massive and masterly account of the Great Migration….A narrative epic rigorous enough to impress all but the crankiest of scholars, yet so immensely readable as to land the author a future place on Oprah’s couch.” —David Oshinsky, The New York Times Book Review (Cover Review). “[A] deeply affecting, finely crafted and heroic book. .Wilkerson has taken on one of the most important demographic upheavals of the past century—a phenomenon whose dimensions and significance have eluded many a scholar—and told it through the lives of three people no one has ever heard of….This is narrative nonfiction, lyrical and tragic and fatalist. Told in a voice that echoes the magic cadences of Toni Morrison or the folk wisdom of Zora Neale Hurston’s collected oral histories, Wilkerson’s book pulls not just the expanse of the migration into focus but its overall impact on politics, literature, music, sports — in the nation and the world. A masterpiece that sheds light on a significant development in our nation’s history.” —The San Jose Mercury News “ The Warmth of Other Suns is a beautifully written book that, once begun, is nearly impossible to put aside. It is an unforgettable combination of tragedy and inspiration, and gripping subject matter and characters in a writing style that grabs the reader on Page 1 and never let’s go. Woven into the tapestry of [three individuals] lives, in prose that is sweet to savor, Wilkerson tells the larger story, the general situation of life in the South for blacks. The author deftly intersperses [her characters'] stories with short vignettes about other individuals and consistently provides the bigger picture without interrupting the flow of the narrative…Wilkerson’s focus on the personal aspect lends her book a markedly different, more accessible tone. “[A] magnificent , extensively researched study of the great migration… The drama, poignancy, and romance of a classic immigrant saga pervade this book, hold the reader in its grasp, and resonate long after the reading is done.”. — Publishers Weekly , Starred Review. “Not since Alex Haley’s Roots has there been a history of equal literary quality where the writing surmounts the rhythmic soul of fiction, where the writer’s voice sings a song of redemptive glory as true as Faulkner’s southern cantatas.”— The San Francisco Examiner “Profound, necessary and an absolute delight to read.” —Toni Morrison. “ The Warmth of Other Suns is a sweeping and yet deeply personal tale of America’s hidden 20th century history - the long and difficult trek of Southern blacks to the northern and western cities. “With compelling prose and considered analysis, Isabel Wilkerson has given us a. landmark portrait of one of the most significant yet little-noted shifts in American history: the migration of African-Americans from the Jim Crow South to the cities of the North and West. This book will be long remembered, and savored.” —Jon Meacham. “Isabel Wilkerson’s The Warmth of Other Suns is an American masterpiece, a stupendous literary success that channels the social sciences as iconic biography in order to tell a vast story of a people's reinvention of itself and of a nation—the first complete history of the Great Black Migration from start to finish, north, east, west.” —David Levering Lewis.
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"As the stories of desperation, ambition and flight unfold, the reader can see just how many ways the American Dream was yanked away, hidden or otherwise made inaccessible to one generation after another. Instead, he ended up an overworked denizen of substandard housing, with broken knees and bad kidneys from all the years of picking oranges and tangerines then stacking and unloading luggage on railroad runs along the eastern seaboard. Meanwhile, his New York-born-and-raised children -- not privy to the "village" atmosphere of family and child-rearing of George's native Southland -- were left to fend for themselves in the impersonal, take-a-number concrete jungle of an overpopulated city and, with limited options, spent their energies on getting into, or ducking, trouble."
"Isabel Wilkerson, the Pulitzer Prize winning newspaper writer, has now come back to write a fascinating and sweeping book on what she calls ""the biggest underreported story of the twentieth century." Of course we all know the tale of the "Dust Bowl" and the "Okies", as captured by Steinbeck in words, by Dorothea Lange in photographs, and even in song by Woody Guthrie. The title of this book is taken from Richard Wright's "Black Boy: A Record of Childhood and Youth": "I was taking a part of the South to transplant in alien soil, to see if it could grow differently, if it could drink of new and cool rains, bend in strange winds, respond to the warmth of other suns, and, perhaps, to bloom." Our families became friends, as also "Miz Edna's" husband had served in New Guinea with my father (as a cook, however, remember the WWII Army was still segregated) ."
"I have always wondered about the much harder lives of black migrants who followed a similar path. It cannot have been easy to write a book like this without descending either into sentimentality or righteous anger. My family left for economic reasons, but I don't think it's an accident that the Southern economy of that time was so bad."
"This book was a long read, but in the end, it provided an enlightening perspective on the migration of people from the southern states to the north from the early to late 20th century."
Best African American History
With stunning historical detail, Wilkerson tells this story through the lives of three unique individuals: Ida Mae Gladney, who in 1937 left sharecropping and prejudice in Mississippi for Chicago, where she achieved quiet blue-collar success and, in old age, voted for Barack Obama when he ran for an Illinois Senate seat; sharp and quick-tempered George Starling, who in 1945 fled Florida for Harlem, where he endangered his job fighting for civil rights, saw his family fall, and finally found peace in God; and Robert Foster, who left Louisiana in 1953 to pursue a medical career, the personal physician to Ray Charles as part of a glitteringly successful medical career, which allowed him to purchase a grand home where he often threw exuberant parties. A Look Inside The Warmth of Other Suns The author's father as a Tuskegee Airman George Starling as a young manThe author's mother at Meridian Hill The author’s mother at Howard University with friends A migrant man studying a mapA migrant man packing his suitcaseIda Mae Brandon Gladney as a young womanRobert Joseph Pershing Foster as a young physician Starred Review.
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"Isabel Wilkerson, the Pulitzer Prize winning newspaper writer, has now come back to write a fascinating and sweeping book on what she calls ""the biggest underreported story of the twentieth century." Of course we all know the tale of the "Dust Bowl" and the "Okies", as captured by Steinbeck in words, by Dorothea Lange in photographs, and even in song by Woody Guthrie. The title of this book is taken from Richard Wright's "Black Boy: A Record of Childhood and Youth": "I was taking a part of the South to transplant in alien soil, to see if it could grow differently, if it could drink of new and cool rains, bend in strange winds, respond to the warmth of other suns, and, perhaps, to bloom." Our families became friends, as also "Miz Edna's" husband had served in New Guinea with my father (as a cook, however, remember the WWII Army was still segregated) ."
"This book is a hard hitting engrossing tale which details the Great Migration of African Americans out of the Jim Crow South to the cities of the North and West and points in between. The story is told via the vivid (often gut-wrenching)personal experiences of African Americans who made the arduous and dangerous trek from a land they much loved but could no longer tolerate."
"This should be must read in schools as well as all people. It's my second reading."
"The incredible research, the personalized historical accounts of the migration, and the engaging writing style offer unparalleled insight and perspective into this very silent aspect of American history."
"I just finished this book."
Best African American History
Relive the extraordinary Presidency of Barack Obama through White House photographer Pete Souza's behind-the-scenes images and stories in this #1 New York Times bestseller--with a foreword from the President himself. During Barack Obama's two terms, Pete Souza was with the President during more crucial moments than anyone else--and he photographed them all. "The book, which distills the 1.9 million photographs that Souza took of Obama's eight years in the White House down to about 300 images, it as once warm and nostalgic, worshipful and respectful, sad and wistful-in a sense, not so different from the framed JFK portraits that everyday Americans hung in living rooms, right through the Nixon administration. In conveying both the weight of the office and President Obama's full engagement with its demands, Souza fuels our admiration--and stokes our regret.
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"I'd like to say up front here that this is one of those reviews where I am struggling so hard to put thoughts into words, because of how many thoughts I have, and how difficult it is for me to express them. He was funny and personable, and every time I heard him speak I felt suddenly prouder and more patriotic. Because all the rest of that time I wasted being blind and hateful. I'm not really the kind that normally runs off to scrounge around for books they can't afford, but this is the second photography book of the Obamas I've done so for, and it captured my heart as much the second time, as it did the first. UPDATE: Thanks to so many of the kind, heartwarming offers, I have received a copy of this book."
"Well, I guess it is the idea of the unconditional love that I have personally felt by dogs.....and the fact that it least in my mind that is what our former President and First Lady gave us for 8 years. I pray that someday Obama haters or hopefully their children will view the pictures in this “must have” Obama memorabilia and appreciate not only the historical significance of this man to US and world history but also feel his unconditional love of America ; its history, culture and people in every page."
"Obama wasn't perfect, but seeing his two-term administration, not riddled by scandal or buffoonery, captured in this historic volume brought tears to my eyes."
"As I thumb through the pages, I realize how much of my vision of President Obama was formed by the photographs of special moments captured by Souza."
"In capturing the defining moments of the Obama presidency, Mr. Souza has given the common citizen a personal, vulnerable look into the remarkable 8-year tenure of the 44th president."
Best Barbados Country History
He fell into the life of a sugar plantation owner by mere chance, but by the time he harvested his first crop, a revolution was fully under way: the farming of sugar cane, and the swiftly increasing demands for sugar worldwide, would not only lift George Ashby from abject poverty and shape the lives of his descendants, but it would also bind together ambitious white entrepreneurs and enslaved black workers in a strangling embrace. Interspersing the tectonic shifts of colonial history with her family’s experience, Stuart explores the interconnected themes of settlement, sugar and slavery with extraordinary subtlety and sensitivity. In this family history, rich in detail, Stuart tells the story of immigration, the harsh realities of Caribbean slavery and sugar production, and the ambitions of black West Indians that have driven their own immigrant journeys to the U.S. and Europe.
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"There is only brief reference to the Church of England's indifference toward indoctrinating the slaves because of the fear that the teachings might encourage revolt. This is a fascinating concept, and along with more detailed discussion about religious practices and songs that grew out of the slave culture, religion should have been a far greater part of the book. This stylistic device does a disservice to her research and undercuts the nonfiction she is attempting to create."
"Ms. Stuart gives life to this book by combining historical facts on slavery and indentured servants, on the Caribbean social structure and sugar industry, along with her views on her ancestors’ early lives."
"I have given this book five stars."
"It follows one family tree, and really gives one a good picture of the forces and economics of development in the islands, obviously locked into the slavery issue and the economics of a labor driven economy."
"Though well researched this is one of the most boring and speculative books I have ever read."
"Her suggestion that a story of the racism that developed in Caribbean sugar plantations is the story of the Western World is spot on."
"This book provides an early history of Barbados as well as personal insight into both slaves and masters."
"Recommend this well written family study that goes past Barbados, genealogy and the history of sugar."
Best History eBooks of United States Immigration
With stunning historical detail, Wilkerson tells this story through the lives of three unique individuals: Ida Mae Gladney, who in 1937 left sharecropping and prejudice in Mississippi for Chicago, where she achieved quiet blue-collar success and, in old age, voted for Barack Obama when he ran for an Illinois Senate seat; sharp and quick-tempered George Starling, who in 1945 fled Florida for Harlem, where he endangered his job fighting for civil rights, saw his family fall, and finally found peace in God; and Robert Foster, who left Louisiana in 1953 to pursue a medical career, the personal physician to Ray Charles as part of a glitteringly successful medical career, which allowed him to purchase a grand home where he often threw exuberant parties. A Look Inside The Warmth of Other Suns The author's father as a Tuskegee Airman George Starling as a young manThe author's mother at Meridian Hill The author’s mother at Howard University with friends A migrant man studying a mapA migrant man packing his suitcaseIda Mae Brandon Gladney as a young womanRobert Joseph Pershing Foster as a young physician Starred Review.
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"Isabel Wilkerson, the Pulitzer Prize winning newspaper writer, has now come back to write a fascinating and sweeping book on what she calls ""the biggest underreported story of the twentieth century." Of course we all know the tale of the "Dust Bowl" and the "Okies", as captured by Steinbeck in words, by Dorothea Lange in photographs, and even in song by Woody Guthrie. The title of this book is taken from Richard Wright's "Black Boy: A Record of Childhood and Youth": "I was taking a part of the South to transplant in alien soil, to see if it could grow differently, if it could drink of new and cool rains, bend in strange winds, respond to the warmth of other suns, and, perhaps, to bloom." Our families became friends, as also "Miz Edna's" husband had served in New Guinea with my father (as a cook, however, remember the WWII Army was still segregated) ."
"This book is a hard hitting engrossing tale which details the Great Migration of African Americans out of the Jim Crow South to the cities of the North and West and points in between. The story is told via the vivid (often gut-wrenching)personal experiences of African Americans who made the arduous and dangerous trek from a land they much loved but could no longer tolerate."
"This should be must read in schools as well as all people. It's my second reading."
"The incredible research, the personalized historical accounts of the migration, and the engaging writing style offer unparalleled insight and perspective into this very silent aspect of American history."
"I just finished this book."
Best Special Groups
From a former marine and Yale Law School graduate, a powerful account of growing up in a poor Rust Belt town that offers a broader, probing look at the struggles of America’s white working class. They raised a middle-class family, and eventually their grandchild (the author) would graduate from Yale Law School, a conventional marker of their success in achieving generational upward mobility. Vance’s grandparents, aunt, uncle, sister, and, most of all, his mother, struggled profoundly with the demands of their new middle-class life, and were never able to fully escape the legacy of abuse, alcoholism, poverty, and trauma so characteristic of their part of America. ''[A] compassionate, discerning sociological analysis...Combining thoughtful inquiry with firsthand experience, Mr. Vance has inadvertently provided a civilized reference guide for an uncivilized election, and he's done so in a vocabulary intelligible to both Democrats and Republicans. ( Jennifer Senior, New York Times ). ''[ Hillbilly Elegy ] is a beautiful memoir but it is equally a work of cultural criticism about white working-class America....[Vance] offers a compelling explanation for why it's so hard for someone who grew up the way he did to make it...a riveting book.''. ''[An] understated, engaging debut...An unusually timely and deeply affecting view of a social class whose health and economic problems are making headlines in this election year.''. ''Vance compellingly describes the terrible toll that alcoholism, drug abuse, and an unrelenting code of honor took on his family, neither excusing the behavior nor condemning it...The portrait that emerges is a complex one...Unerringly forthright, remarkably insightful, and refreshingly focused, Hillbilly Elegy is the cry of a community in crisis.''. ''A beautifully and powerfully written memoir about the author's journey from a troubled, addiction-torn Appalachian family to Yale Law School, Hillbilly Elegy is shocking, heartbreaking, gut-wrenching, and hysterically funny. It's also a profoundly important book, one that opens a window on a part of America usually hidden from view and offers genuine hope in the form of hard-hitting honesty. From a former marine and Yale Law School graduate, a probing look at the struggles of America’s white working class through the author’s own story of growing up in a poor Rust Belt town. The disintegration of this group, a process that has been slowly occurring now for over forty years, has been reported with growing frequency and alarm, but has never before been written about as searingly from the inside. J.D.’s grandparents were “dirt poor and in love” and moved north from Kentucky’s Appalachia region to Ohio in the hopes of escaping the dreadful poverty around them. They raised a middle-class family, and eventually one of their grandchildren would graduate from Yale Law School, a conventional marker of success in achieving generational upward mobility. But as the family saga of Hillbilly Elegy plays out, we learn that J.D.’s grandparents, aunt, uncle, sister, and, most of all, his mother struggled profoundly with the demands of their new middle-class life, never fully escaping the legacy of abuse, alcoholism, poverty, and trauma so characteristic of their part of America. A deeply moving memoir, with its share of humor and vividly colorful figures, Hillbilly Elegy is the story of how upward mobility really feels.
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"Drugs, crime, jail time, abusive interactions without any knowledge of other forms of interaction, children growing up in a wild mix of stoned mother care, foster care, and care by temporary "boyfriends," and in general, an image of life on the edge of survival where even the heroes are distinctly flawed for lack of knowledge and experience of any other way of living. Second, the author's growing realization, fully present by the end of the work, that while individuals do not have total control over the shapes of their lives, their choices do in fact matter—that even if one can't direct one's life like a film, one does always have the at least the input into life that comes from being free to make choices, every day, and in every situation. I hate to fall into self-analysis and virtue-signaling behavior in a public review, but in this case I feel compelled to say that the author really did leave with me a renewed motivation to make more of my life every day, to respect and consider the choices that confront me much more carefully, and to seize moments of opportunity with aplomb when they present themselves."
"I never heard of the author until I saw him on Morning Joe a few days ago but I looked him up and read several articles he wrote for various publications so I bought his book. He suggests that tribalism, mistrust of outsiders and "elites," violence and irresponsibility among family members, parents without ethics and a sense of responsibility, terrible work ethics, and an us-against-them mentality is dooming the people who live that way to becoming poorer, more addicted, and more marginalized."
"I grew up without running water in Boone County, WV, and wound up with a degree from Harvard Law School."
"I escaped inner city Baltimore (see The Wire) due to luck, the ability to do well in school and a few good teachers.Instead of trying to describe my early life to my family and friends, I will give them this book."
Best African-American Studies
Now an HBO® Film starring Oprah Winfrey and Rose Byrne #1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER. Her name was Henrietta Lacks, but scientists know her as HeLa. Amazon Best Books of the Month, February 2010 : From a single, abbreviated life grew a seemingly immortal line of cells that made some of the most crucial innovations in modern science possible. Henrietta Lacks was a mother of five in Baltimore, a poor African American migrant from the tobacco farms of Virginia, who died from a cruelly aggressive cancer at the age of 30 in 1951. A sample of her cancerous tissue, taken without her knowledge or consent, as was the custom then, turned out to provide one of the holy grails of mid-century biology: human cells that could survive--even thrive--in the lab. Meanwhile, Henrietta's family continued to live in poverty and frequently poor health, and their discovery decades later of her unknowing contribution--and her cells' strange survival--left them full of pride, anger, and suspicion. Jad Abumrad is host and creator of the public radio hit Radiolab , now in its seventh season and reaching over a million people monthly. Just the simple facts are hard to believe: that in 1951, a poor black woman named Henrietta Lacks dies of cervical cancer, but pieces of the tumor that killed her--taken without her knowledge or consent--live on, first in one lab, then in hundreds, then thousands, then in giant factories churning out polio vaccines, then aboard rocket ships launched into space. The cells from this one tumor would spawn a multi-billion dollar industry and become a foundation of modern science--leading to breakthroughs in gene mapping, cloning and fertility and helping to discover how viruses work and how cancer develops (among a million other things). But what's truly remarkable about Rebecca Skloot 's book is that we also get the rest of the story, the part that could have easily remained hidden had she not spent ten years unearthing it: Who was Henrietta Lacks? (1999)Main Street in downtown Clover, Virginia, where Henrietta was raised, circa 1930s.Margaret Gey and Minnie, a lab technician, in the Gey lab at Hopkins, circa 1951.Deborah with her children, LaTonya and Alfred, and her second husband, James Pullum, in the mid-1980s.In 2001, Deborah developed a severe case of hives after learning upsetting new information about her mother and sister.Deborah and her cousin Gary Lacks standing in front of drying tobacco, 2001.The Lacks family in 2009.
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"This was a great book that I'm so glad I read."
"In “The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks,” Rebecca Skloot introduces us to the “real live woman,” the children who survived her, and the interplay of race, poverty, science and one of the most important medical discoveries of the last 100 years. Skloot narrates the science lucidly, tracks the racial politics of medicine thoughtfully and tells the Lacks family’s often painful history with grace. When science appears, it does so effortlessly, with explanations of cell anatomy or techniques like “fluorescence in situ hybridization” seamlessly worked into descriptions of the coloured wards of Johns Hopkins hospital to Lacks’s hometown of Clover, Virginia. And yet for all its grand scope, skilful writing and touching compassion, there is one simple element that makes As a final thought, I was struck by the parallels between Henrietta’s cells and her story."
"Before reading this book I knew nothing about Henrietta Lacks nor the immortal cells."
"The author did a great job of allowing the reader to decide if Henrietta's family should have profited from her cells."
"After reading about Henrietta Lacks, I began thinking about all the blood tests I've had done, and some minor surgeries I've had and I constantly wondered, what did those doctors and/or hospitals do with my tissues and/or blood? I realize there are laws in place now that weren't there when Henrietta lived, but to read how Dr. Gey took samples of Henrietta's cancerous tumor and used it to advance science and medicine as we know of it today, is mind-boggling. All of us living today should be thankful for Henrietta because she has done something that no one else seems to ever have been able to do, which is live immortally. Lacks' cells, while her family continues to live in poverty. I learned so much about cells and DNA, not to mention that just about every pill I've ever taken, most likely was the result of Henrietta's cells, which still grow today."
Best U.S. Civil War History
A riveting historical narrative of the heart-stopping events surrounding the assassination of Abraham Lincoln, and the first work of history from mega-bestselling author Bill O'Reilly. President Abraham Lincoln's generous terms for Robert E. Lee's surrender are devised to fulfill Lincoln's dream of healing a divided nation, with the former Confederates allowed to reintegrate into American society. “As a history major, I wish my required reading had been as well written as this truly vivid and emotionally engaging account of Lincoln's assassination. Bill O'Reilly recounts the dramatic events of the spring of 1865 with such exhilarating immediacy that you will feel like you are walking the streets of Washington, DC, on the night that John Wilkes Booth shot Abraham Lincoln.
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"Interesting book."
"I came away disappointed in this book because I felt that, given the volume of research material available, the authors could have provided much more of a backstory to the issues that motivate men like Booth to be driven to achieve such an ignominious act."
"An excellent book, well writing, factual, including facts I had not read before."
"A very compelling documentation, told like a story, of the events leading up to the assassination of President Lincoln."
"The storytelling is gripping...a real page turner."
"O'Reilly's fall from grace, notwithstanding, he gives information about Booth's fiance, which I had not read in another book."
"I had no idea of the circumstances surrounding Lincoln's assassination or how closely it was to the end of the war."
"Great book (even though I am no fan of Bill O'Reilly's politics) and it shipped quickly."
Best U.S. State & Local History
The #1 New York Times –bestselling story about American Olympic triumph in Nazi Germany and now the inspiration for the PBS documentary “The Boys of ‘36” For readers of Unbroken , out of the depths of the Depression comes an irresistible story about beating the odds and finding hope in the most desperate of times—the improbable, intimate account of how nine working-class boys from the American West showed the world at the 1936 Olympics in Berlin what true grit really meant. In doing so, he offers a vivid picture of the socioeconomic landscape of 1930s America (brutal), the relentlessly demanding effort required of an Olympic-level rower, the exquisite brainpower and materials that go into making a first-rate boat, and the wiles of a coach who somehow found a way to, first, beat archrival University of California, then conquer a national field of qualifiers, and finally, defeat the best rowing teams in the world.
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"But by taking every sliver of hope, and mixing in superb craftsmanship (from George Pocock), excellent coaching (Al Ulbrickson), and these nine perfectly attuned young men learning together........the result was perfection. It is nice to learn something you never knew, but is common knowledge to an entire set of other people. Concepts from Daniel Brown to consider that are mixed into the story to teach all of us: 1) One of the fundamental challenges in rowing is that when any one member of a crew goes into a slump the entire crew goes with him. The speed of a racing shell is determined primarily by two factors: the power produced by the combined strokes of the oars, and the stroke rate, the number of strokes the crew takes each minute. There are other great ideas to ponder in this epic almost 400 page, could-not-put-down story."
"held local discussions, and had an opportunity to meet the author locally.If you like learning about history through a good story, this is the book for you."
"But I had never read this book because I didn't think I would be interested in an athletic story, especially one about rowing (a sport I never follow)."
"Every college student should read this and stop complaining, this guy worked very hard to obtain his education, something that most young people take for granted these days."
"Even knowing the outcome did not diminish the excitement of the quest, and weaving the story of Hitler's rise to power during the 1936 Olympics captured the irony of his policies."
"The men in my life had been trying for years to get me to read this book."
"Boys racing boats?"
Best U.S. Colonial Period History
This is history on a grand scale—a book about politics and war and social issues, but also about human nature, love, religious faith, virtue, ambition, friendship, and betrayal, and the far-reaching consequences of noble ideas. Gordon S. Wood The New York Review of Books By far the best biography of Adams ever written...McCullough's special gift as an artist is his ability to re-create past human beings in all their fullness and all their humanity.
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"That you carry the book with you everywhere you go in the hopes you will have a spare minute to crack it open and absorb a few pages? This book is so relevant today because it helps us understand the thought and consideration Adams and other men went through when considering the construction of our government and their understanding of human nature that provided them the insight to create laws that to this day afford us the freedoms we enjoy."
"This is a wonderful reminder of what John Adams did during his life to help make America the country it is today."
"An amazing journey through this fascinating historical figure's accomplishments and personal life, "John Adams" offers a colorful portrait of the roots of American culture and the ideals permeating a newly independent country."
"Read rest of reviews for dissecting reviews."
"We all are enjoying the story and the boys are making plans to continue listening to the last 16 discs. Pause and talk about the book and how the ramifications linger today."
"Excellent story of the early leaders of this country and the hardships they had to endure to establish the United States as a sovereign nation."
"Besides a great insight into John Adams, it gives the reader a real feel for the Spirit of the time and what brought about the Declaration of independence as well as the Constitution."
"An excellent, entertaining book."
Best U.S. Revolution & Founding History
The Revolutionary War as never told before. The iconic anchor of The O'Reilly Factor led the program to the status of the highest rated cable news broadcast in the nation for sixteen consecutive years. He holds a history degree from Marist College, a masters degree in Broadcast Journalism from Boston University, and another masters degree from Harvard's John F. Kennedy School of Government.
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"While an easy read and not that long, the detail of how George Washington along with his army barely escaped numerous times was enthralling."
"I am a history buff and often have to dig through wordy and complex descriptions of times and events written by well meaning historians."
"Killing England does do a nice (though superficial) job of explaining why it wasn't as simple for them as just letting the colonies go, even as the costs and losses started piling up. All in all, like all the Killing books for me, it's an effective, well written "Starter Kit" to get people into an historical topic that many just don't know about and might decide to explore further. For those already knowledgeable, it's easy popcorn reading with a "human story" slant that makes for a good page-turning re-introduction to a topic one might have stopped exploring long ago and might enjoy getting back into."
"Maybe because of all the crazy stuff with the statues, changing names of our schools, wanted to see if it is true the left wants to change the constitution."
"Not being a buff on the Revolutionary War I wasn't sure if like the book."
"Excellent review of the Revolutionary War."
"The Killing series gets better with each new book."
"I would recommend this book to every American citizen."