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Great Expectations

What We're Reading Now

  1. Animals Make Us Human: creating the best life for animals
    Grandin, Temple
    Grandin's insights show us how to give our animals the best life on their terms, not ours.

  2. The Age of Wonder: how the Romantic generation discovered the beauty and terror of science
    Holmes, Richard
    This book is a blend of the literary and the scientific, bringing a new perspective to the wonder of eighteenth century Britain.

  3. The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind: creating currents of electricity and hope
    Kamkwamba, William
    Though Kamkwamba's life in Malawi was full of adversities he was determined to harness the wind; and using scrap metal, tractor parts, and discarded bicycles, he does.

  4. The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks
    Skloot, Rebecca
    The experimentation on African Americans and a lack of bioethics led to the taking of Henrietta Lacks cells. Taken without her consent, these cells researchers refer to as HeLa cells have been bought and sold by the billions and continue to be used in research.

  5. The Last Stand: Custer, Sitting Bull, and the Battle of the Little Bighorn
    Philbrick, Nathaniel
    Philbrick applies his narrative skills in this retelling of the battle of 1876, alternating from the perspective of Sitting Bull to that of Custer.

  6. Vanished Smile: the mysterious theft of Mona Lisa
    Scotti, R. A.
    Scotti writes of an unsolved crime, the theft of Leonardo da Vinci's Mona Lisa in 1911.  Though the painting was missing for two years, the crime has to this day been as enigmatic as the painting.

  7. Teresa of Avila: the book of my life
    Teresa, of Avila, Saint
    This is a translation of an autobiobraphy written by Saint Teresa prior to 1587.  Though known for her writings on Christian mysticism and Christian meditation, she was a practical woman, fallable and full of life.  This translation by Starr retains the conversational tone of her writing.

  8. A Place Within: rediscovering India
    Vassanji, M. G.
    This work by acclaimed literary author M. J. Vassanji, is part memoir, part history as Vassanji traces his roots in India.

  9. Bread Matters: why and how to make your own
    Whitley, Andrew
    This is a thorough expose on bread.  Organic baker, Andrew Whitley expounds on why bread matters; why commercial bread making has altered what we knew as bread; and how to take matters into your own hands and bake your own bread.