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  Walden

  Henry David Thoreau

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  Walden is a book by American author Henry David Thoreau, first published in 1854. The book is a personal reflection on Thoreau's experience of living in a cabin he built himself on the shore of Walden Pond in Concord, Massachusetts. 
  The book is divided into eighteen chapters, each detailing Thoreau's observations and musings on topics such as nature, solitude, simplicity, self-reliance, and the importance of living deliberately. Thoreau sought to live a simple, intentional life, in which he could cultivate his own thoughts and gain a deeper understanding of himself and the world around him. 
  Throughout the book, Thoreau also reflects on the value of nature, which he saw as a source of spiritual and intellectual inspiration. He describes the changing seasons, the wildlife around Walden Pond, and the rhythms of life in the natural world. 
  In addition to its philosophical themes, Walden is also a work of social and political criticism. Thoreau critiques the materialism and consumerism of his time, arguing that people are too often focused on acquiring wealth and possessions, rather than living a meaningful life. He also discusses issues such as slavery and the role of the individual in society. 
  Overall, Walden is a classic work of American literature that continues to inspire readers with its message of simplicity, self-reliance, and appreciation for the natural world.

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  GI Brides: The Wartime Girls Who...

  Duncan Barrett, Nuala Calvi

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  This “delightful and touching” international bestseller tells the true stories of four British women who married American soldiers after WWII (Daily Mail, UK). 
   
  American soldiers stationed in the UK came away winning more than just a war, they also won the hearts of young women across Britain. At the end of World War II, more than 70,000 GI brides followed the men they’d married—men they barely knew—to begin a new life in the United States. This volume vividly recounts the stories of four such women as they made America their home. 
   
  In GI Brides, readers will meet Sylvia Bradley, a loyal, bright-eyed optimist; Rae Brewer, a resourceful, quick-witted tomboy; Margaret Boyle, an English beauty who faced down every challenge; and Gwendolyn Rowe, a brave woman ahead of her time. Though all made the bold choice to leave family and the world they knew, the journey each experienced was unique—ranging from romantic to heartbreaking.

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  I Was a Boy in Belsen

  Tomi Reichental

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  'In the last couple of years I realised that, as one of the last witnesses, I must speak out.'
  Tomi Reichental, who lost 35 members of his family in the Holocaust, gives his account of being imprisoned as a child at Belsen concentration camp. He was nine-years old in October 1944 when he was rounded up by the Gestapo in a shop in Bratislava, Slovakia. Along with 12 other members of his family he was taken to a detention camp where the elusive Nazi War Criminal Alois Brunner had the power of life and death.
  His story is a story of the past. It is also a story for our times. The Holocaust reminds us of the dangers of racism and intolerance, providing lessons that are relevant today.

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  Autobiography of Benvenuto...

  Benvenuto Cellini

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  Cellini's autobiographical memoirs, which he began writing in Florence in 1558, give a detailed account of his singular career, as well as his loves, hatreds, passions, and delights, written in an energetic, direct, and racy style. They show a great self-regard and self-assertion, sometimes running into extravagances which are impossible to credit. He even writes in a complacent way of how he contemplated his murders before carrying them out. He writes of his time in Paris: 
   
     Parts of his tale recount some extraordinary events and phenomena; such as his stories of conjuring up a legion of devils in the Colosseum, after one of his not innumerous mistresses had been spirited away from him by her mother; of the marvelous halo of light which he found surrounding his head at dawn and twilight after his Roman imprisonment, and his supernatural visions and angelic protection during that adversity; and of his being poisoned on two separate occasions. 
   
  The autobiography is a classic, and commonly regarded as one of the most colourful; it is certainly the most important autobiography from the Renaissance.  
   
  Cellini's autobiography is one of the books Tom Sawyer mentions as inspiration while freeing Jim in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. (Summary adapted from Wikipedia by Karen Merline)

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  Being Miss America - Behind the...

  Kate Shindle

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  “[Shindler] tells the story of her year wearing the crown while offering an incisive history and analysis of an always-controversial beauty contest.” —Kirkus Reviews   In Being Miss America, Kate Shindle interweaves an engrossing, witty memoir of her year as Miss America 1998 with a fascinating history of the pageant. She explores what it means to take on the mantle of America’s “ideal,” especially considering the evolution of the American female identity since the pageant’s inception. Shindle profiles winners and organization leaders and recounts important moments in the pageant’s story, with a special focus on Miss America’s iconoclasts, including Bess Myerson (1945), the only Jewish Miss America; Yolande Betbeze (1951), who crusaded against the pageant’s pinup image; and Kaye Lani Rae Rafko (1987), a working-class woman from Michigan who wanted to merge her famous title with her work as an oncology nurse. Shindle’s own account of her work as an AIDS activist—and finding ways to circumvent the “gown and crown” stereotypes of Miss America in order to talk honestly with high school students about safer sex—illuminates both the challenges and the opportunities that keep young women competing to become Miss America.  “Kate Shindle’s sharply observed, smart, and heartbreaking take on Miss America will be embraced by pageant super fans and should be required reading for everyone who’s thought about what it takes to be America’s ideal.” —Jennifer Weiner, New York Times-bestselling author  “This memoir offers a captivating cultural history of the last 100 years in America through the lens of the Miss America Pageant and its white-knuckled struggle to remain relevant.” —Library Journal

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  Frank Whittle (Icon Science) -...

  Andrew Nahum

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  The story of the jet engine has everything: genius, tragedy, heroism, a world war, the individual vs. the state, and an idea that would change the world.
  Frank Whittle always maintained that he was held back by a lack of government support. At the very moment in 1943 when his invention was unveiled to the world, his company, Power Jets, was forcibly nationalised.
  Yet Whittle's brilliance, charm and charisma helped him recruit major support from the British government and the RAF, who gave him the green light to build a jet engine at a time when to do so made little sense. Here is a story of what pushing technology to its limits can achieve - and the effect that such achievement can have on those involved.

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