Exploring Top Books of Shelfari

In the 1880s, as the European powers were carving up Africa, King Leopold II of Belgium seized for himself the vast and mostly unexplored territory surrounding the Congo River. Carrying out a genocidal plundering of the Congo, he looted its rubber, brutalized its people, and ultimately slashed its population by ten million--all the while shrewdly cultivating his reputation as a great humanitarian. Heroic efforts... (more)

Warriors Don't Cry: Searing Memoir of Battle to Integrate Little Rock

Warriors Don't Cry: Searing Memoir of Battle to Integrate Little Rock

by Melba Beals

An innocent teenager. An unexpected hero. In 1957, Melba Pattillo turned sixteen. That was also the year she became a warrior on the front lines of a civil rights firestorm. Following the landmark 1954 Supreme Court ruling, Brown v. Board of Education, Melba was one of nine teenagers chosen to integrate Little Rock's Central High School. Throughout her harrowing ordeal, Melba was taunted by her schoolmates... (more)

Eden's Outcasts

The Story of Louisa May Alcott and Her Father

by John Matteson

The beloved author of Little Women was torn between pleasing her idealistic father and planting her feet in the material world. Louisa May Alcott's name is known universally. Yet, during her youth, the famous Alcott was her father, Bronson—an eminent teacher, lecturer, and admired friend of Emerson and Thoreau. Willful and exuberant, Louisa flew in the face of all her father's intricate... (more)

The Year of Living Biblically: One Man's Humble Quest to Follow the Bible as Literally as Possible

The Year of Living Biblically: One Man's Humble Quest to Follow the Bible as Literally as Possible

by A. J. Jacobs

From the bestselling author of The Know-It-All comes a fascinating and timely exploration of religion and the Bible. Raised in a secular family but increasingly interested in the relevance of faith in our modern world, A.J. Jacobs decides to dive in headfirst and attempt to obey the Bible as literally as possible for one full year. He vows to follow the Ten Commandments. To be fruitful and multiply. To love his... (more)

Algebra of Infinite Justice (Revised and Updated)

Algebra of Infinite Justice (Revised and Updated)

by Arundhati Roy

A few weeks after India detonated a thermonuclear device in 1998, Arundhati Roy wrote the essay "The End of Imagination", in which she said: "My world has died. And I write to mourn its passing." The essay, as have all its successors, attracted worldwide attention, debate and acclaim. In the years since, the essays she has published in magazines and newspapers worldwide have reinforced an impression of a writer in... (more)

A Problem from Hell

America and the Age of Genocide

by Samantha Power

Winner of the 2003 Pulitzer Prize For General Nonfiction National Book Critics Circle Award Winner In her award-winning interrogation of the last century of American history, Samantha Power -- a former Balkan war correspondent and founding executive director of Harvard's Carr Center for Human Rights Policy -- asks the haunting question: Why do American leaders who vow "never again" repeatedly fail to stop... (more)

Urban Tails 2008 Calendar: Inside the Hidden World of Alley Cats

Urban Tails 2008 Calendar: Inside the Hidden World of Alley Cats

by Knox

In cities and towns across the world, feral cats roam unnoticed, with generation after generation making their way through gritty lives filled with disease and hardship. When photographer Knox began noticing the growing colony of cats in the alley behind his Atlanta music studio, he entered a complex world of feline families struggling for survival. In many ways brutal, this world, he discovered, was also filled... (more)

Fruitful: A Real Mother

by Anne Roiphe

A finely crafted and unique pro-feminist/pro-family position that calls for productive dialogue on quality childcare, Fruitful offers a personal and profound healing message for every woman torn between her own ambitions and her family's needs.

Rachel and Her Children : Homeless Families in America

Rachel and Her Children : Homeless Families in America

by Jonathan Kozol

The story that jolted the conscience of the nation when it first appeared in The New Yorker Jonathan Kozol is one of America’s most forceful and eloquent observers of the intersection of race, poverty, and education. His books, from the National Book Award–winning Death at an Early Age to his most recent, the critically acclaimed Shame of the Nation , are touchstones of the national conscience. First... (more)

The Story of My Life: The Restored Edition

The Story of My Life: The Restored Edition

by Annie Sullivan, John Albert Macy

THE 100th YEAR ANNIVERSARY EDITION The Story of My Life , a remarkable account of overcoming the debilitating challenges of being both deaf and blind, has become an international classic, making Helen Keller one of the most well-known, inspirational figures in history. Originally published in 1903, Keller’s fascinating memoir narrates the events of her life up to her third year at Radcliffe College. Helen... (more)

Life Makeovers: 52 Practical & Inspiring Ways to Improve Your Life One Week at a Time

Life Makeovers: 52 Practical & Inspiring Ways to Improve Your Life One Week at a Time

by Cheryl Richardson

Now in paperback, the New York Times bestseller--featuring a powerful program that shows you how to reclaim your life one week at a time. Cheryl Richardson, the bestselling author of Take Time for Your Life , known to millions for her "Lifestyle Makeover" series on "The Oprah Winfrey Show," recognizes firsthand how tough it can be to juggle the daily demands of living in a fast-paced world, and how easily you... (more)

Baby Love

by Rebecca Walker

From the bestselling author whom Time magazine hails as one of the leaders of her generation, an insightful, moving, and entertaining memoir of pregnancy and the decision to conceive a child after years of uncertainty. Like many women her age, Rebecca Walker was brought up to be skeptical of motherhood. A young woman's future was limitless, their mothers' generation told them. A child could rob one of... (more)

Drawing with Children

by Mona Brookes

A revised and expanded tenth anniversary edition of a best-selling guide designed for parents and teachers of children of all ages presents easy-to-follow lessons for building artistic skill and for using drawing in other scholastic subjects. Simultaneous.

I'll Fly Away: Further Testimonies from the Women of York Prison

I'll Fly Away: Further Testimonies from the Women of York Prison

by Wally Lamb, I'll Fly Away Contributors

In 2003 Wally Lamb--the author of two of the most beloved novels of our time, She's Come Undone and I Know This Much Is True --published Couldn't Keep It to Myself , a collection of essays by the students in his writing workshop at the maximum-security York Correctional Institution, Connecticut's only prison for women. Writing, Lamb discovered, was a way for these women to confront painful memories, face their... (more)

Letters to a Young Teacher

by Jonathan Kozol

In these affectionate letters to Francesca, a first grade teacher at an inner-city school in Boston, Jonathan Kozol vividly describes his repeated visits to her classroom while, under Francesca’s likably irreverent questioning, he also reveals his own most personal stories of the years that he has spent in public schools. Letters to a Young Teacher reignites a numberof the controversial issues Jonathan has... (more)

Mother Reader: Essential Writings on Motherhood

Mother Reader: Essential Writings on Motherhood

In memoirs, testimonials, diaries, essays, and fiction, 36 women contributors describe the changes brought to their lives by pregnancy, childbirth, and mothering. Because most of the contributors are writers - including Annie Ernaux, Adrienne Rich, and Alice Walker - the intersection of motherhood and creative life is an ongoing theme. Many of the writers articulate maternal anger and ambivalence, such as Jane... (more)

Before You Forget: The Widsom of Writing Diaries for Your Children

Before You Forget: The Widsom of Writing Diaries for Your Children

by Kelly DuMar

The first book for parents to apply the wisdom of personal journaling to parenting. Teaches parents everything they need to know to begin writing diaries to their children, saving their stories as they grow.

Black, White, and Jewish: How Memory Works

Black, White, and Jewish: How Memory Works

by Rebecca Walker

Hailed as "compelling" by The Washington Post and "stunningly honest" by The San Francisco Chronicle , this memoir has hit bestseller lists and earned critical praise from coast to coast. Rebecca Walker was born in 1969 to author Alice Walker and lawyer Mel Leventhal, who met and married in the heyday of the Civil Rights movement. But after their divorce, Rebecca was a lonely only child ferrying between two... (more)

The New Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain

The New Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain

by Betty Edwards

illustrated with 12-page color photo insert and line art throughout A revised and expanded edition of the classic drawing-instruction book that has sold more than 2,500,000 copies. When Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain was first published in 1979, it hit the New York Times bestseller list within two weeks and stayed there for more than a year. In 1989, when Dr. Betty Edwards revised the book, it went... (more)

The Beatles and Philosophy (Popular Culture and Philosophy)

The Beatles and Philosophy (Popular Culture and Philosophy)

The most popular musical group of all time, the Beatles also brought serious thought to the bubble gum-scented world of pop and rock music, with adventurous, profound, and sometimes mysterious lyrics that veered from the deliberate absurdity of “I Am the Walrus” to the rosy Rousseau-like fantasy of “When I’m 64” to the darkly existential/nihilist visions of “Eleanor Rigby” and “A Day in the Life.” In this lively... (more)

Shelfari Book Activity

Tags: non-fiction should reads

A Story of Greed, Terror, and Heroism in Colonial Africa

by Adam Hochschild

by Melba Beals

The Story of Louisa May Alcott and Her Father

by John Matteson

by A. J. Jacobs

by Arundhati Roy

America and the Age of Genocide

by Samantha Power

by Knox

by Anne Roiphe

by Jonathan Kozol

by Annie Sullivan, John Albert Macy

by Cheryl Richardson

by Rebecca Walker

by Mona Brookes

by Wally Lamb, I'll Fly Away Contributors

by Jonathan Kozol

by Kelly DuMar

by Rebecca Walker

by Betty Edwards