Tells the story of how women throughout the ages have responded to situations confronting them in daily life by inventing such items as correction fluid, space helmets, and disposable diapers.

"A woman inherits a beloved bookstore and sets forth on a journey of self-discovery in this poignant debut about family, forgiveness and a love of reading. Miranda Brooks grew up in the stacks of her eccentric uncle Billy's bookstore, solving the inventive scavenger hunts he created just for her. But on Miranda's twelfth birthday, Billy has a mysterious falling-out with her mother and suddenly disappears from Miranda's life. She doesn't hear about...

In April 1992, a young man from a well-to-do family hitchhiked to Alaska and walked alone into the wilderness north of Mt. McKinley. His name was Christopher Johnson McCandless. He had given $25,000 in savings to charity, abandoned his car and most of his possessions, burned all the cash in his wallet, and invented a new life for himself. Four months later, his decomposed body was found by a moose hunter.

The story follows Hetty "Handful" Grimke, a Charleston slave, and Sarah, the daughter of the wealthy Grimke family. The novel begins on Sarah's eleventh birthday, when she is given ownership over Handful, who is to be her handmaid, and follows the next thirty-five years of their lives. Inspired in part by the historical figure of Sarah Grimke (a feminist, suffragist and, importantly, an abolitionist), the author allows herself to go beyond the record...

When solitary marine biologist Doc Ford focused his telescope on the woman in the white boat, he didn't know his life was about to be capsized: that his conniving uncle Tucker Gatrell would discover the Fountain of Youth, that The National Enquirer would write about it, and that the law would beat down his door in search of three missing men.

Stand-up comedian Jim Gaffigan has made his career rhapsodizing over the most treasured dishes of the American diet and decrying the worst offenders. Here he gives his thoughts on all things culinary, including why he believes coconut water was invented to get people to stop drinking coconut water and why pretzel bread is #3 on his most important inventions of humankind.

"Forget the moon landing, the Nobel prizes, and the famous inventions. When the world's most brilliant scientists were growing up, they had regular-kid problems just like you. Albert Einstein daydreamed instead of paying attention in class. Jane Goodall got in trouble for bringing worms and snails in her house. And Neil deGrasse Tyson had to start a dog-walking business to save up money to buy a telescope. Kid Scientists tells these stories and more...

Chilean author Isabel Allende tells her life story, describing the impact of the military coup of 1973, the violent death of her uncle, her move to the U.S., and the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, as well as the influence of memory and nostalgia on her novels.

"A twelve-year-old boy, worried that his parents may divorce, discovers that an island in the middle of the lake where he is spending the summer is the testing grounds of the mysterious Dr. Libris, who may have invented a way to make the characters in books come alive."--