Social Sciences

TUESDAYS WITH MORRIE: AN OLD MAN, A YOUNG MAN, AND LIFE'S GREATEST LESSON
by Mitch Albom
Maybe it was a grandparent or a teacher. Someone older who understood you when you were young and searching, who helped you see the world as a more profound place, and gave you advice to help you make your way through it. For Mitch Albom, that person was Morrie Schwartz, his college professor from nearly 20 years ago. The two lost touch. When he rediscovered Morrie in the last months of the older man's life, Mitch visited Morrie every Tuesday, just like in the old days. This is the magical chronicle of their time together, through which Mitch shares Morrie's lasting gift to the world.

A LONG WAY GONE: MEMOIRS OF A BOY SOLDIER
by Ishmael Beah
This is how wars are fought now by children, hopped up on drugs, and wielding AK-47s. In the more than fifty violent conflicts going on worldwide, it is estimated that there are some 300,000 child soldiers. Ishmael Beah used to be one of them. How does one become a killer? How does one stop?

WHAT COLOR IS YOUR PARACHUTE?: A PRACTICAL MANUAL FOR JOB-HUNTERS AND CAREER-CHANGERS
by Richard N. Bolles
With a proven track record of more than thirty years in publication, this top-selling career guide has been updated and revised to help first-time job seekers discover and get the right work for them.

MY START-UP LIFE: WHAT A (VERY) YOUNG CEO LEARNED ON HIS JOURNEY THROUGH SILICON VALLEY
by Ben Casnocha
Ben Casnocha discovered he was an entrepreneur at age 12 and hasn't slowed down since. This book is the story of his start-up, but also a conversation with his mentors, clients and fellow entrepreneurs about how to make a business idea work and how to have the time of your life trying.

THE TIPPING POINT: HOW LITTLE THINGS CAN MAKE A BIG DIFFERENCE
by Malcolm Gladwell
Through entertaining anecdotes Gladwell explains the phenomena of fads, or how little actions can ripple outward until a “tipping point” is reached which results in a dramatic change.

OUT LAW: WHAT LGBT YOUTH SHOULD KNOW ABOUT THEIR LEGAL RIGHTS
by Lisa Keen
After expertly guiding readers through a brief, easily digestible history of gay legislation, Keen empowers young gay people to not only know what their rights are but to stand up for them — whether facing threats or harassment from police, a teacher or a kid at school.

A RARE BREED OF LOVE: THE TRUE STORY OF BABY AND THE MISSION SHE INSPIRED TO HELP DOGS EVERYWHERE
by Jana Kohl
Shares the story of a three-legged poodle whose rescue from a puppy mill sparked the author's cross-country rallies to raise awareness and call for reforms to animal protection laws, in a volume complemented by photos of celebrities and their animal companions.

SOLD
by Patricia McCormick
Sold into prostitution, Lakshmi lives a nightmare and gradually forms friendships with the other girls that enable her to survive in this terrifying new world. Then the day comes when she must make a decision to risk everything for a chance to reclaim her life.

HUNGRY PLANET: WHAT THE WORLD EATS
by Peter Menzel and Faith D'Aluisio
A photographic collection exploring what the world eats, featuring portraits of thirty families from twenty-four countries surrounded by a week's worth of food.

THREE CUPS OF TEA: ONE MAN'S MISSION TO PROMOTE PEACE – ONE SCHOOL AT A TIME
by Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin
Lost and near death following an unsuccessful attempt to climb K2, Mortenson is sheltered and nursed in a remote mountain village. Out of gratitude, he vows to return to build schools throughout Pakistan and Afghanistan.

NINETEEN MINUTES
by Jodi Picoult
In Sterling, New Hampshire, seventeen-year-old high school student Peter Houghton has endured years of verbal and physical abuse at the hands of classmates. His best friend, Josie Cormier, succumbed to peer pressure and now hangs out with the popular crowd that often instigates the harassment. One final incident of bullying sends Peter over the edge and leads him to commit an act of violence that forever changes the lives of Sterling's residents.

THE MIDDLE OF EVERYWHERE: THE WORLD'S REFUGEES COME TO OUR TOWN
by Mary Pipher
They come from Laos, Bosnia, Northern Iraq, Sudan, Afghanistan and the former Soviet Union. War-scarred refugees, searching for freedom, move into cities across the American heartland to face one more challenge – adjusting to life in a strange new land.

COLLEGES THAT CHANGE LIVES: 40 SCHOOLS THAT WILL CHANGE THE WAY YOU THINK ABOUT COLLEGES
by Loren Pope
Prospective college students can rely upon Pope’s indispensable guide to colleges where education rivals that of the Ivy League universities in producing outstanding graduates.

THE GREEN BOOK: THE EVERYDAY GUIDE TO SAVING THE PLANET ONE SIMPLE STEP AT A TIME
by Elizabeth Rogers and Thomas M. Kostigen
For anyone who cares about the health of our planet, this invaluable guide offers hundreds of simple, actionable steps readers can take to help save the Earth.

BEAUTIFUL BOY: A FATHER'S JOURNEY THROUGH HIS SON'S ADDICTION
by David Sheff
Sheff's story tells of his teenage son's addiction to meth, in this real-time chronicle of the shocking descent into substance abuse and the family's gradual emergence into hope.

TWEAK: (GROWING UP ON METHAMPHETAMINES)
by Nic Sheff
The author details his immersion in a world of hardcore drugs, revealing the mental and physical depths of addiction, and the violent relapse one summer in California that forever changed his life, leading him down the road to recovery.

TERROR IN THE NAME OF GOD: WHY RELIGIOUS MILITANTS KILL
by Jessica Stern
Seeking to understand how religious ardor leads to violence, Stern recounts her dramatic encounters with Christians and Muslims who use terrorism in the name of God.

THE DEVIL'S HIGHWAY: A TRUE STORY
by Luis Alberto Urrea
Every year thousands of illegal immigrants scramble across the U.S.-Mexican border and into an area of the Arizona desert known as the Devil’s Highway. Many do not make it out alive. This is the human story of illegal immigration told with facts, anger and poetry.

KILLED CARTOONS: CASUALTIES FROM THE WAR ON FREE EXPRESSION
edited by David Wallis
This collection of 100 cartoons – banned for being too controversial – is both surprising and shocking, and elicits outrage that a fearful editor kept them from being seen.

THE GLASS CASTLE: A MEMOIR
by Jeannette Walls
Rex and Rose Mary and their four children lived like nomads, moving among Southwest desert towns, camping in the mountains. Rex was a charismatic, brilliant man who, when sober, captured his children's imagination, teaching them how to embrace life fearlessly. Rose Mary painted and wrote and couldn't stand the responsibility of providing for her family. When the money ran out, the Walls family retreated to the dismal West Virginia mining town Rex had tried to escape.

NAKED ECONOMICS: UNDRESSING THE DISMAL SCIENCE
by Charles Wheelan
This resource explains the issues that go hand-in-hand with economics. Wheelan's breezy tour through the subject offers commonsensical examples and brilliantly acerbic commentary, bringing the topic of economics to life.