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  America's Youngest Ambassador -...

  Lena Nelson

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  In 1982, amid the nuclear paranoia that engulfed the US and the Soviet Union, Samantha Smith, a fifth grader from Manchester, Maine, wrote a letter to the Kremlin asking the Soviet leader if he was going to start a war. When Pravda, the biggest Soviet newspaper, published her letter—and Samantha received an unprecedented invitation to visit the Soviet Union —her family embarked on a historic journey. 
   
   
   
  The story of a young American girl's letter to the Soviet leader and her innocent curiosity about the other side of the Iron Curtain holds an important lesson for every American. America's Youngest Ambassador provides insights into a forgotten era and has an important message for young people who strive to be more involved in facilitating change, both locally and worldwide. 
   
   
   
  Juxtaposing Samantha's narrative with that of her own childhood in the Soviet Union in the 1980s, Lena Nelson explores the consequences of government propaganda on both sides of the ocean and reveals how Samantha Smith's journey in the summer of 1983 helped melt the hearts of the Soviets and thaw the ice of the Cold War. Drawing on interviews conducted in both the US and Russia with key players in the events of those days, Nelson blends storytelling, anecdotes, and analysis of Soviet-American relations to tell the story of this unprecedented moment in history.

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  Geratology - Understanding Old...

  Mike Crawford

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  Geratology is the scientific study of aging, encompassing its biological, psychological, and social dimensions. While often confused with geriatrics, which focuses on medical care for older adults, geratology takes a broader approach, examining aging as a lifelong process that affects individuals and societies in complex ways. Understanding geratology is crucial as global life expectancy rises and aging populations reshape economic, healthcare, and social structures. 
  The origins of geratology trace back to early philosophical and medical inquiries into longevity. Ancient Greek and Roman scholars explored aging as a natural phenomenon, while modern scientific advancements have provided deeper insights into the mechanisms of aging. Over the past century, geratology has evolved into an interdisciplinary field, drawing from biology, psychology, sociology, and public health to analyze how people age and how societies can better support aging populations. 
  At its core, geratology investigates the biological changes that occur with age. These include cellular senescence, genetic factors, and the gradual decline of organ function. Research into longevity has uncovered key processes such as telomere shortening, oxidative stress, and the role of inflammation in age-related diseases. While aging is an inevitable process, scientific advancements continue to explore ways to slow its progression and improve quality of life in later years.

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  Holding Fire - A Reckoning with...

  Bryce Andrews

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  From the award-winning author of Down from the Mountain, a memoir of inheritance, history, and one gun’s role in the violence that shaped the American West—and an impassioned call to forge a new way forward 
  Bryce Andrews was raised to do no harm. The son of a pacifist and conscientious objector, he moved from Seattle to Montana to tend livestock and the land as a cowboy. For a decade, he was happy. Yet, when Andrews inherited his grandfather’s Smith & Wesson revolver, he felt the weight of the violence braided into his chosen life. Other white men who’d come before him had turned firearms like this one against wildlife, wilderness, and the Indigenous peoples who had lived in these landscapes for millennia. This was how the West was “won.” Now, the losses were all around him and a weapon was in his hand. 
  In precise, elegiac prose, Andrews chronicles his journey to forge a new path for himself, and to reshape one handgun into a tool for good work. As waves of gun violence swept the country and wildfires burned across his beloved valley, he began asking questions—of ranchers, his Native neighbors, his family, and a blacksmith who taught him to shape steel—in search of a new way to live with the land and with one another. In laying down his arms, he transformed an inherited weapon, his ranch, and the arc of his life. 
  Holding Fire is a deeply felt memoir of one Western heart’s wild growth, and a personal testament to how things that seem permanent—inheritance, legacies of violence, forged steel—can change. 
  Supplemental enhancement PDF accompanies the audiobook.

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  Boy in the Striped Pyjamas by...

  Bright Summaries

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  Unlock the more straightforward side of The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas with this concise and insightful summary and analysis!This engaging summary presents an analysis of The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas by John Boyne, which tells the story of nine-year-old Bruno, the son of a high-ranking Nazi official. When the family is forced to leave Berlin for his father's new job, Bruno finds himself living next to a mysterious camp surrounded by an imposing fence, and soon befriends Shmuel, an emaciated boy of his own age living on the other side of the fence. While the adults around him deliberately turn a blind eye to the camp on their doorstep, Bruno attempts to understand his new friend, with tragic consequences for them both. The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas is John Boyne's best-known novel. It has sold over five million copies to date, and was adapted for the cinema in 2008.Find out everything you need to know about The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas in a fraction of the time!This in-depth and informative reading guide brings you:• A complete plot summary• Character studies• Key themes and symbols• Questions for further reflectionWhy choose BrightSummaries.com?Available in print and digital format, our publications are designed to accompany you on your reading journey. The clear and concise style makes for easy understanding, providing the perfect opportunity to improve your literary knowledge in no time.See the very best of literature in a whole new light with BrightSummaries.com!

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  Convictions - A Prosecutor's...

  John Kroger

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  Convictions is a spellbinding story from the front lines of the fight against crime. Most Americans know little about the work of assistant United States attorneys, the federal prosecutors who possess sweeping authority to investigate and prosecute the nation's most dangerous criminals. John Kroger pursued high-profile cases against Mafia killers, drug kingpins, and Enron executives. Starting from his time as a green recruit and ending at the peak of his career, he steers us through the complexities of life as a prosecutor, where the battle in the courtroom is only the culmination of long and intricate investigative work. He reveals how to flip a perp, how to conduct a cross, how to work an informant, how to placate a hostile judge. Kroger relates it all with a novelist's eye for detail and a powerful sense of the ethical conflicts he faces. Often dissatisfied with the system, he explains why our law enforcement policies frequently fail in critical areas like drug enforcement and white-collar crime. He proposes new ways in which we can fight crime more effectively, empowering citizens to pressure their lawmakers to adopt more productive policies. This is an unflinching portrait of a crucial but little-understood part of our justice system, and Kroger is an eloquent guide.

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  The City Is Up for Grabs - How...

  Gregory Royal Pratt

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  Chicago is a world-class city, but it is also a city in crisis. 
   
   
    
  Crime is up, schools have repeatedly shut down due to conflict between City Hall and the powerful teachers' union, and COVID-19 only deepened the entrenched poverty, institutional racism, and endless tug of war between the city's haves and have nots. 
   
   
    
  For four years, the person at the center of this storm was Lori Lightfoot. A groundbreaking figure—the first Black, gay woman to be elected mayor of a major city and only the second female mayor of Chicago—she knew the city was at a critical turning point when she took office in 2019. But the once-in-a-lifetime challenges she ended up facing were beyond anything she or anyone else saw coming. 
   
   
    
  Chicago Tribune reporter Gregory Royal Pratt offers the first comprehensive behind-the-scenes look at the tumultuous single term of Mayor Lightfoot and the chaos that roiled the city and City Hall as she fought to live up to her promises to change the city's culture of corruption and villainy, reform its long-troubled police department, and make Chicago the safest big city in America.

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