The true story of how the keepers of the Warsaw Zoo saved hundreds of people from Nazi hands. When Germany invaded Poland, Stuka bombers devastated Warsaw--and the city's zoo along with it. With most of their animals dead, zookeepers Jan and Antonina Żabiński began smuggling Jews into empty cages. Another dozen "guests" hid inside the Żabińskis' villa, emerging after dark for dinner, socializing, and, during rare moments of calm, piano concerts....

This multiple biography is centered on Lincoln's mastery of men and how it shaped the most significant presidency in the nation's history. Historian Goodwin illuminates Lincoln's political genius, as the one-term congressman rises from obscurity to prevail over three gifted rivals to become president. When Lincoln emerged as the victor at the Republican National Convention, his rivals were dismayed. Throughout the turbulent 1850s, each had energetically...

"For readers of Jon Krakauer and The Lost City of Z, a remarkable tale of survival and solitude--the true story of a man who lived alone in a tent in the Maine woods, never talking to another person and surviving by stealing supplies from nearby cabins for twenty-seven years. In 1986, twenty-year-old Christopher Knight left his home in Massachusetts, drove to Maine, and disappeared into the woods. He would not have a conversation with another human...

Here the author, a physician and reporter provides a landmark investigation of patient deaths at a New Orleans hospital ravaged by Hurricane Katrina, and a suspenseful portrayal of the quest for truth and justice. She reconstructs 5 days at Memorial Medical Center and draws the reader into the lives of those who struggled mightily to survive and to maintain life amid chaos. After Katrina struck and the floodwaters rose, the power failed, and the heat...

"From the best-selling author of Why We Get Fat, a groundbreaking, eye-opening expose that makes the convincing case that sugar is the tobacco of the new millennium: backed by powerful lobbies, entrenched in our lives, and making us very sick. Among Americans, diabetes is more prevalent today than ever; obesity is at epidemic proportions; nearly 10% of children are thought to have nonalcoholic fatty liver disease. And sugar is at the root of these,...

Traces the serial murders of the notorious Green River Killer, profiling Gary Ridgway as a happily married man who worked for the same company for thirty years, the case's approximate 40,000 suspects, the killer's disturbing capacity for luring and hiding his victims, and the DNA breakthroughs that established his link to the killings.

Gregg Olsen and Rebecca Morris investigate the 2009 death of an Amish wife and mother found murdered in her own bed"-- "At just 30 years old, with dark-blonde hair and freckles, Barbara Weaver was as pretty as the women depicted on the covers of her favorite "bonnet" stories - romance novels set in Amish America. Barbara had everything she'd ever wanted: five beautiful children, a home, her faith, and a husband named Eli. But while Barbara was happy...

Are leaders born or made? Where does ambition come from? How does adversity affect the growth of leadership? Does the leader make the times or do the times make the leader? Historian Doris Kearns Goodwin draws upon the four presidents she has studied most closely -- Abraham Lincoln, Theodore Roosevelt, Franklin D. Roosevelt, and Lyndon B. Johnson (in civil rights) -- to show how they recognized leadership qualities within themselves and were recognized...

In 2007, Jon Katz met artist Maria Wulf and felt an immediate connection with her. But a formidable obstacle stood in the way: Maria's dog, Frieda. A rottweiler-shepherd mix, Frieda had been abandoned by her previous owners and had lived in the wild for years. To Maria, Frieda was sweet and loyal. But she was also ferociously protective and barely tamed. It was clear: To win over Maria, Jon would have to gain Frieda's affection as well.

History has been kind to the American generals of World War II and less kind to the generals of the wars that followed. Setting out to explain why, Thomas E. Ricks cites a widening gulf between performance and accountability. Then, scores of American generals were relieved of command simply for not being good enough. Today, as one American colonel said bitterly, "A private who loses a rifle suffers far greater consequences than a general who loses...