Social Sciences

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Albom , Mitch. Tuesdays with Morrie: an Old Man, a Young Man, and Life's Greatest Lesson. 2002. Broadway Books.
Meet one-of-a-kind college professor Morrie Schwartz, who teaches us all to live fully as he lies dying, and his former student Mitch Albom, who gets a chance to rediscover life through the death of his mentor and friend.

Beah , Ishmael. A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier. 2008. Farrar, Straus and Giroux.
A Long Way Gone is the riveting, firsthand account of Ishmael Beah, a 12-year-old child soldier, hopped up on drugs and wielding an AK-47, who gets swept up in the horrors of civil war in his African homeland.

Bolles , Richard Nelson. What Color Is Your Parachute? 2009: A Practical Manual for Job-Hunters and Career-Changers. 2008. Ten Speed Press.
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.

Casnocha , Ben. My Start-Up Life: What a (Very) Young CEO Learned on His Journey through Silicon Valley. 2007. John Wiley & Sons.
Casnocha, a 19-year-old entrepreneur, tells his own story about the ups and downs of making a business idea work and inspires readers to find their own way to make a difference.

George, Mary W. The Elements of Library Research: What Every Student Needs to Know. 2008. Princeton University Press.
Succinct and practical, this guide provides students with the tactics, tools and confidence they need to successfully conduct college level research.

Gladwell , Malcolm. The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference. 2002. Little Brown/Back Bay.
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.

Juette , Melvin and Ronald J. Berger. Wheelchair Warrior: Gangs, Disability, and Basketball. 2008. Temple University Press.
This inspiring story follows the transformation of a 16-year-old African American from gang member destined for prison or death to wheelchair athlete playing for the U.S. National Wheelchair Basketball Team.

Keen, Lisa. Out Law: What LGBT Youth Should Know About Their Legal Rights. 2007. Beacon Press.
Keen introduces LGBT youth to their legal rights and provides examples of young people empowered to stand up for themselves.

Kohl, Jana. A Rare Breed of Love: The True Story of Baby and the Mission She Inspired to Help Dogs Everywhere. 2008. Simon & Schuster/Fireside.
The shocking cruelty of legal animal abuse is exposed through the story of Baby, a poodle who lost a leg after years of mistreatment at a puppy mill. Rescued by Jana Kohl, they now work together with celebrity friends and politicians to raise awareness about animal rights.

McCormick, Patricia. Sold. 2006. Hyperion.
When 13-year-old Lakshmi is sold into prostitution by her stepfather, she ends up in a brothel in the slums of Calcutta, where her life becomes a nightmare from which she cannot escape. Although a novel, this story reflects a situation that many girls around the world endure today.

Menzel , Peter and Faith D'Aluisio. Hungry Planet: What the World Eats. 2007. Ten Speed Press.
Hungry Planet is a photo-chronicle of families around the world, the food they eat, and how uncontrollable forces like poverty, conflict and globalization affect our most elemental human need – food.

Mortenson , Greg and David Oliver Relin. Three Cups of Tea: One Man's Mission to Promote Peace One School at a Time. 2007. Penguin.
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.

Picoult , Jodi. Nineteen Minutes. 2008. Simon & Schuster/Washington Square Press.
Seventeen-year-old Peter Houghton wakes up one day, loads his backpack with four guns, walks into the school cafeteria, and kills nine students and one teacher in the span of nineteen minutes. Why?

Pipher , Mary. The Middle of Everywhere: Helping Refugees Enter the American Community. 2003. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.
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.

Pope, Loren. Colleges That Change Lives: 40 Schools That Will Change the Way You Think About Colleges. 2006. Penguin.
Prospective college students can rely upon Pope’s indispensable guide to 41 colleges where education rivals that of the Ivy League universities in producing outstanding graduates.

Rogers, Elizabeth and Thomas Kostigen. The Green Book: The Everyday Guide to Saving the Planet One Simple Step at a Time. 2007. Crown Publishing/Three Rivers Press.
Celebrities Ellen DeGeneres, Jennifer Aniston, Tim McGraw, Dale Earnhardt, Jr. and others contribute suggestions of small changes you can make daily to have a positive impact on the health of our planet. Learn how you too can live green!

Sheff , David. Beautiful Boy: A Father's Journey through His Son's Addiction. 2008. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.
A father’s anguished account of his promising son’s meth addiction and its painful impact on the entire family is honest, raw, and full of information about the realities of drug addiction.

Sheff , Nic. Tweak: Growing Up on Methamphetamines. 2009. Simon & Schuster/Atheneum.
Nic Sheff is destined for a rich life and career until he is derailed by drugs. This wrenchingly honest account of life as a meth addict is the companion book to Beautiful Boy.

Smith, Jodi R.R. From Clueless to Class Act: Manners for the Modern Man. 2006. Sterling.
From Clueless to Class Act: Manners for the Modern Woman. 2006. Sterling.
These unstuffy guides to good behavior will help young men and women develop the style and panache to make a good impression in social and professional circles.

Stern, Jessica. Terror in the Name of God: Why Religious Militants Kill. 2004. HarperCollins.
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.

Urrea , Luis Alberto. The Devil's Highway: A True Story. 2005. Little Brown/Back Bay Books.
Thousands of illegal immigrants yearly 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.

Wallis, David, ed. Killed Cartoons: Casualties from the War on Free Expression. 2007. W. W. Norton.
Wallis’ book is full of political cartoons killed before publication. Each cartoon is accompanied by a brief narrative explaining why it was considered too controversial for publication.

Walls, Jeannette. The Glass Castle : A Memoir. 2006. Simon & Schuster/Scribner.
This is Jeannette Walls’ memoir of growing up in chaos and poverty with a family that prized freedom and unconventionality over comfort and safety.

Wheelan , Charles. Naked Economics: Undressing the Dismal Science. 2002. W. W. Norton.
This intriguing and approachable introduction to the field of economics is for all readers who have rejected the topic as tedious, boring and incomprehensible.