BeanBall by Gene Fehler

         BeanBall is a series of poems that capture the extraordinarily rare journey of Luke "Wizard" Wallace. When He goes to bat at the last inning of his baseball game against rival team from Compton. The Oak Grove fans had never seen what the witnessed happen to Luke. After Kyle Dawkins makes the pitch, it goes out of control and lands Luke in the hospital. Now as Luke is desperately trying to fight for his chance at ever playing baseball again, you begin to follow teachers, family, and friends of Luke. You watch from all points as Luke Wallace survives a fatal accident and overcomes many surgeries.  You grip the story from 25 angles and each of them with emotion and feeling behind each one.

Master of Deceit: J. Edgar Hoover & America in the Age of Lies By Marc Aronson

Master of Deceit focuses on the life of J. Edgar Hoover. Though he is not the founder of the FBI, he is the one that is able to build up the FBI and create it--to his standards. The majority of the book involves J. Edgar Hoover, though not exactly his biography, in America between The late 1890's and early 1970's, adding Historical events, in which J. Edgar Hoover are linked to all of the events. J. Edgar Hoover is the director of the FBI and ultimately named as the ":master of deceit." Not everything is ever what is seemed to be. The FBI is first started off as disorganized and not very strong in force, until J. Edgar Hoover becomes director of the FBI. In this, some riveting and shocking secrets of the FBI are revealed. Even though often seen as the protectors of America, they are holding secrets of their own, all in the way that J. Edgar Hoover had wanted to do so. J. Edgar Hoover, uses deceit and lies, to rise up to power, that makes everybody fear him, and it is all kept hidden in secret, only to be revealed in this book.

Bomb: the Race to Build and Steal the World's Most Dangerous Weapon by Steve Sheinkin

 

"Bomb" begins with Otto Hahn discovering nuclear fission in a Uranium atom in Germany. He only split one atom, which released enough energy to make a grain of rice jump, but if there was 50 lbs of Uranium it could -- and would be -- lethal, capable of causing mass destruction. The news spreads quickly, and Germany begins researching how to combine enough of it to make an atomic bomb -- the most dangerous weapon available. The United States learns of this when Albert Einstein sends President Roosevelt a letter, and then FDR assembles a team. This team's job is to beat Germany in building the world's first atomic bomb. Robert Oppenheimer heads this project. They do research at a lab called Los Alamos, located in New Mexico. Oppenheimer hand-picked most of his team at first, but when they were desperate for all the help they could get, he wasn't unable to hand-pick them...and that is where the problems start with the Soviet Union.
Throughout this process, there are Soviet spies whose goals are to relay information back to Soviet Russia so that they would be able to build an atomic bomb as well. It explains some of their meetings, their passwords (to ensure they were meeting with the right person), et cetera. The US and Soviet Union weren't really allies...They both just shared a common enemy.
In the end though, obviously, the United States wins this race. It turns out that Germany was about 2 years behind the United States. Besides this, the Soviet Union recieved all of the research they needed to build their own atomic bomb, thanks to some of the scientists working on the Manhattan Project (another name for the US' atomic bomb research).
But did they really win? This was the catalyst to an arm's race with Russia -- AKA, the Cold War. It's dangerous.
This is "a story of how humans created a weapon capable of wiping our species off the planet. It's a story with no end in sight..."

"And, like it or not, you're in it."

i will plant you a lilac tree By Laura Hillman

Book Trailer   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QOiludXh8Ms&feature=player_detailpage

I will Plant You a Lilac Tree is the story of Hannelore Wolf, a normal teenager living in the 1940's. The only thing different about her is the yellow star on her coat. This book goes through the tragedy of her life, from each concentration camp to the next. It tells of Hannelore's unimaginable bravery, and of the friends and foes along the way. Her motivation and hope comes from the few people left in her life that she loves. Her biggest struggle throughout her experience is not her own,  but the worry of the safety of her first love, her two brothers, her mother, Fella and Eva.She experiences love for the first time in a concentration camp called Budzyn when Bernard Hillman saves her life. He was a lifesaver for Hannelore in many ways through their journey through camp supplying extra food or shoes that could easily cost him his life. Hannelore makes a few close friends on her journey, firstly Fella, and later on a girl named Eva.This book Most importantly shows the terror of the life of this poor girl who was discriminated against and tortured in ways too terrible for words. It shows that through everything Hannelore managed to stay focused on who she loved and she was a survivor no matter the terrible things she faced.

The Last Lecture

Randy Pausch is dying of cancer. He is going to leave three young children, a wife, and many friends behind. The book is a copy of the final lecture he gave to a class at Carnegie Melon about how to lead your life and go about achieving your dreams. Throughout the book, Randy tells the story of his lfe and what he has learned in leading a life in order to be proud of it. He goes through many examples of events that turned him into the person he was the day he passed and those in his life who made him a better person. Wife: Jai, Children: Dylan, Logan, and Chloe

The Bronte Sisters: The Brief Lives of Charlotte, Emily and Anne by Catherine Reef

Sisters Charlotte, Emily and Anne Bronte were gifted writers that rebelled against the standards of 19th century society. During that time women were considered property of men and were expected to live quiet, obedient, unspoken lives. When they were still young children, the Brontes' clergyman father moved the family to a rural village called Haworth in northern England. It is here where the three sisters lose their mother and later their two other sisters Maria and Elizabeth and where they will bond as close as ever with each other and their brother Patrick Branwell (referred to in the book as Branwell). In their Haworth home the girls and their brother find enjoyment in writing of fantasy worlds and take solace in reading. As they grow older, they journey to find their place in the society that appears to uphold the idea that "literature cannot be the business of a woman's life." Despite this, Charlotte, Emily and Anne all create wonderful works of literature derived from their experiences of trying to find happiness in a world that ignores the talents of women. After discovering that teaching held no joy for any of them and knowing that their lack of wealth stole the opportunity to attract good husbands, they send off their works of fiction in hopes of being published. Before long their novels Jane Eyre, Wuthering Heights and Agnes Grey has stirred up controversy among the members of the Victorian era. Each book was continually praised by some and scoffed at by others due to the drastically different traits in the main female characters as opposed to the stereotypical Victorian woman that did as she was told. The books spoke of topics typically ignored by the time's society and struck many as barbarically outspoken. Word of the unusual novels spread and the books soon were labeled classics. But, Emily and Anne had not as much time as Charlotte to witness their fame as they both died at early ages. Emily thirty and Anne twenty nine. Charlotte is left with only her father and their old family friend Tabby and falls into depression before writing two more novels: Shirley and Villette. She is proposed to by her father's curate Arthur Nicholls and eventually persuades him to allow the marriage. They are married for such a little time before Charlotte succumbs to tuberculosis at age thirty eight, but her life is not forgotten as her father asks one of her friends to write a biography of his oldest daughter in her honor, however the three sisters' literary works are what strongly reminds people today of their lives.

Diamonds in the Shadow by Caroline B. Cooney

Jared Finch, and his younger sister Mopsy, are about to have their world turn upside-down. Their parents, Drew and Kara Finch, have a powerful voice in their community and church. Drew and Kara Finch earn money rather well and live in town in Connecticut. Drew and Kara Finch have agreed to take on a refugee family of four from Darfur in Africa. Jared Finch, a teenager in High School, is now forced to share his room with Mattu Amabo; the Amabo's teenage son. Unlike his Mopsy, who is rather excited about rooming with Alake, the Amabo's teenage daughter, Jared is not thrilled much about sharing a room with Mattu. However, the experience will all be something to adjust with for both the Finches and the Amabos. Yet, there is something different, something unusual with the Amabo family; for one thing, they all stray away from Alake, the only one that tries to talk to Alake being Mopsy. The refugee family has to learn how to be Americans and has to stay with the Finches for 3 months; yet as they get settled in more comfortably to their new life and home, a fifth refugee is looking for this family of four. The longer that this family of four stays with the Finches, the more the Finches are in danger, and the more Jared Finch is becoming suspicious of them, and for good reason. Soon, Jared Finch, will unravel secrets of the Amabo family that could change everything and it is up to him of what to with the secrets that the Amabo family are holding onto.