biography

"It was a time of unregulated madness. And nowhere was it madder than in Chicago at the dawn of the Roaring Twenties. Speakeasies thrived, gang war shootings announced Al Capone's rise to underworld domination, Chicago's corrupt political leaders fraternized with gangsters, and yellow journalism only contributed to the excesses. The frenzy of stock market gambling was rampant. Enter a slick, smooth-talking, charismatic lawyer named Leo Koretz, who enticed hundreds of people (who should have known better) to invest as much as $30 million--upwards of $400 million today--in phantom timberland and nonexistent oil wells in Panama, close to the new Canal Zone. When Leo's scheme finally collapsed in 1923, he vanished, and the Chicago state's attorney, a man whose lust for power equaled Leo's own lust for money, began an international manhunt that lasted almost a year. When finally apprehended, Leo was living a life of luxury in Nova Scotia under the assumed identity of a book dealer and literary critic. His mysterious death in a Chicago prison topped anything in his almost-too-bizarre-to-believe life. Empire of Deception is not only an incredibly rich and detailed account of a man and an era; it's a fascinating look at the methods of swindlers throughout history. Leo Koretz was the Bernie Madoff of his day, and Dean Jobb shows us that the dream of easy wealth is a timeless commodity"--Provided by publisher.

"Bonhoeffer gives witness to one man's extraordinary faith and to the tortured fate of the nation he sought to deliver from the curse of Nazism. It brings the reader face to face with a man determined to do the will of God radically, courageously, and joyfully-even to the point of death." provided by publisher.

Draws on interviews and focus groups with child soldiers to examine how they were initiated into the civil war in Sierra Leone and the challenges they faced after the war.

Highlights the journey of Taylor Wilson, the youngest person to ever build a working nuclear fusion reactor. Provides insight into how parents and teachers can support high-achieving children, and discusses how our education system fails these gifted students.

A memoir of Edward E. Cummings's four-month imprisonment in a French detention center as an alleged spy where he endures terrible conditions and meets up with the most deprived of all the immigrants.

The author describes his life growing up in urban Baltimore with a former Black Panther for a father. He relates the challenges his father faced while trying to raise each of the family's seven children amidst the dangers of the streets.

Memoir of Eunsun Kim chronicling her escape from the totalitarian rule of North Korea, having nearly died of starvation like her grandparents. Her mother, sister, and she begin planning their escape after her grandparents' deaths, beginning a journey that would take them nine years to complete.

Recounts the true story of Captain Salvador Alvarenga's fourteen month survival saga after his boat was lost at sea in a terrible storm. From the constant shark attacks and the death of his companion four months into his ordeal to his rescue by natives on a remote island in the Pacific, details one man's battle to survive under unthinkable circumstances.