Cracking the Bell


Book Description

Friday Night Lights meets Concussion in this powerful and important novel by Geoff Herbach, author of the Stupid Fast series, exploring the dangerous concussion crisis in football through the eyes of a high school team captain. Isaiah loves football. In fact, football saved Isaiah’s life, giving him structure and discipline after his sister’s death tore his family apart. But when Isaiah gets knocked out cold on the field, he learns there’s a lot more to lose than football. While recovering from a concussion, Isaiah wonders what his life would look like without the game. All his friends are on the team, and Isaiah knows they can’t win without him. The scholarship offer from Cornell is only on the table if he keeps playing. And without football, what would keep his family together? What would prevent him from sliding back into the habits that nearly destroyed him? Isaiah must decide how much he’s willing to sacrifice for the sport that gave him everything, even if playing football threatens to take away his future.




The Serpent King


Book Description

Named to ten BEST OF THE YEAR lists and selected as a William C. Morris Award Winner,The Serpent King is the critically acclaimed, much-beloved story of three teens who find themselves--and each other--while on the cusp of graduating from high school with hopes of leaving their small-town behind. Perfect for fans of John Green's Turtles All the Way Down. "Move over, John Green; Zentner is coming for you." —The New York Public Library “Will fill the infinite space that was left in your chest after you finished The Perks of Being a Wallflower.” —BookRiot.com Dill isn't the most popular kid at his rural Tennessee high school. After his father fell from grace in a public scandal that reverberated throughout their small town, Dill became a target. Fortunately, his two fellow misfits and best friends, Travis and Lydia, have his back. But as they begin their senior year, Dill feels the coils of his future tightening around him. His only escapes are music and his secret feelings for Lydia--neither of which he is brave enough to share. Graduation feels more like an ending to Dill than a beginning. But even before then, he must cope with another ending--one that will rock his life to the core. Debut novelist Jeff Zentner provides an unblinking and at times comic view of the hard realities of growing up in the Bible belt, and an intimate look at the struggles to find one’s true self in the wreckage of the past. “A story about friendship, family and forgiveness, it’s as funny and witty as it is utterly heartbreaking.” —PasteMagazine.com “A brutally honest portrayal of teen life . . . [and] a love letter to the South from a man who really understands it.” —Mashable.com “I adored all three of these characters and the way they talked to and loved one another.”—New York Times




Inventing the Truth


Book Description

In this perfect companion for anyone beguiled by memoirs or embarking on writing one, nine distinguished authors -- Russell Baker, Jill Ker Conway, Annie Dillard, Ian Frazier, Henry Louis Gates, Jr., Alfred Kazin, Frank McCourt, Toni Morrison, and Eileen Simpson -- reflect on the writing process.




ACT Prep Black Book


Book Description

Click the "look inside" feature above to browse the Black Book and get a feel for how it approaches the ACT! The fully up-to-date ACT Prep Black Book, Second Edition gives you unique, effective ACT strategies from Mike Barrett, an ACT tutor with clients all over the globe who pay him hundreds of dollars an hour for phone tutoring. In addition to extensive and effective training on every aspect of the ACT, the ACT Prep Black Book gives you detailed, systematic, easy-to-follow walkthroughs for every question in all 3 official practice tests from the current Official ACT Prep Guide.The Black Book is a must-have in your ACT preparation, whether you need to make a perfect 36 to be competitive at an Ivy, score a 10 in each section to claim a sports scholarship, or anything in between. The Black Book works best when used with the authentic ACT questions in the "Red Book," which is the Official ACT Prep Guide, 2018, by ACT, Inc. The Black Book shows you how to beat the ACT, while the Red Book gives you real ACT questions to practice with. (The ACT Prep Black Book has no affiliation with ACT, Inc.)The Black Book and the Red Book are all you need to get your best possible ACT score.The Black Book is the ideal ACT book for 3 major reasons: It covers every aspect of the test with advice that actually works, making it unique in the ACT prep field. It doesn't just review material from your high school classes! Instead, you'll learn to exploit design flaws in the ACT, using its own "ACT tricks" against it. The Black Book contains 600+ detailed, systematic, easy-to-follow walkthroughs for real ACT questions from the Red Book, so you know that what you're learning actually works. You'll see every question from all 3 of the Red Book's official ACT Practice Tests attacked in a way that clearly demonstrates the ideal thought process on the ACT. (You'll need your own copies of those real ACT practice tests, which you can find in the Official ACT Prep Guide, 2018, by ACT, Inc.) The Black Book is a clear, concise roadmap to the ACT. (See the selected highlights below). It explains exactly how every ACT question works, and how to beat it in the least time possible. Selected Highlights from the ACT Prep Black Book: The important differences between the ACT and a normal high school test, and how they influence every aspect of the proper approach to ACT preparation... Why every ACT question can only have one valid answer, no matter how much it might seem otherwise sometimes... How to look at ACT questions the same way ACT, Inc. does when it writes them... Why it's so important to work with real test questions from ACT, Inc....and why you shouldn't pay much attention to the official written explanations for those questions... What you're actually supposed to do when the ACT asks you about an author's attitude... The important implications of viewing time as an investment on test day... Why focusing on the wrong answers can be just as important as finding the right one...and how to do it effectively... The simple formula that allows you to crank out a top-scoring essay (that is, if you even need to take the ACT Writing test in the first place)... The special grammatical rules tested on the ACT English section-which may differ from what's commonly accepted in a high school or college classroom... The unwritten rules for every kind of ACT question... The many ways to approach an ACT Math question, and which ones are likely to work best for you... Why every real ACT Math question can potentially be answered in under 30 seconds... And much, much more than we can fit in this space...




Something Borrowed


Book Description

Giffin's smash-hit debut novel--basis for the 2011 film--is for every woman who has ever had a complicated love-hate friendship.




The Complete Book of U.S. Presidents


Book Description

Chronicles the rich history of the American presidency, including informative and entertaining biographies of each of the men who have held the office and full coverage of the 1996 election.




The Disappearing Spoon


Book Description

From New York Times bestselling author Sam Kean comes incredible stories of science, history, finance, mythology, the arts, medicine, and more, as told by the Periodic Table. Why did Gandhi hate iodine (I, 53)? How did radium (Ra, 88) nearly ruin Marie Curie's reputation? And why is gallium (Ga, 31) the go-to element for laboratory pranksters? The Periodic Table is a crowning scientific achievement, but it's also a treasure trove of adventure, betrayal, and obsession. These fascinating tales follow every element on the table as they play out their parts in human history, and in the lives of the (frequently) mad scientists who discovered them. The Disappearing Spoon masterfully fuses science with the classic lore of invention, investigation, and discovery -- from the Big Bang through the end of time. Though solid at room temperature, gallium is a moldable metal that melts at 84 degrees Fahrenheit. A classic science prank is to mold gallium spoons, serve them with tea, and watch guests recoil as their utensils disappear.







American Rust


Book Description

NOW A MAJOR TV SERIES STARRING JEFF DANIELS AND MAURA TIERNEY An American voice reminiscent of Steinbeck – a debut novel on friendship, loyalty, and love, centering on a murder in a dying Pennsylvania steel town, from the bestselling author of THE SON. Isaac is the smartest kid in town, left behind to care for his sick father after his mother dies by suicide and his sister Lee moves away. Now Isaac wants out too. Not even his best friend, Billy Poe, can stand in his way: broad-shouldered Billy, always ready for a fight, still living in his mother's trailer. Then, on the very day of Isaac's leaving, something happens that changes the friends' fates and tests the loyalties of their friendship and those of their lovers, families, and the town itself. Evoking John Steinbeck's novels of restless lives during the Great Depression, American Rust is an extraordinarily moving novel about the bleak realities that battle our desire for transcendence, and the power of love and friendship to redeem us. 'A startlingly mature and impressive debut' KATE ATKINSON 'Darkly disturbing and darkly compelling' PATRICIA CORNWELL 'Written with considerable dramatic intensity and pace' COLM TÓIBÍN 'A masterpiece. The best book to come out of America since The Road' CHRIS CLEAVE




My Omaha Obsession


Book Description

My Omaha Obsession takes the reader on an idiosyncratic tour through some of Omaha’s neighborhoods, buildings, architecture, and people—celebrating the city’s unusual and overlooked history