Special Collections
Word Beta Test Reading List
Description: These titles were used during our Beta testing phase. Please feel free to try any of them now, while we convert the rest of the Bookshare library. #general
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Writing Today
by Donald Pharr and Santi BuscemiWriting Today begins with a chapter helping students learn the skills they will need to thrive throughout college and continues to promote reading and writing as practical tools both in college and in the work world. Full chapters on Group Projects and Oral Presentations teach students how to not only be successful in the classroom, but in the world of work as well. Students are sure to be engaged as they focus on the both the academic and professional contexts of writing.
Wonder
by R. J. PalacioI won't describe what I look like. Whatever you're thinking, it's probably worse.
August Pullman was born with a facial deformity that, up until now, has prevented him from going to a mainstream school.
Starting 5th grade at Beecher Prep, he wants nothing more than to be treated as an ordinary kid--but his new classmates can't get past Auggie's extraordinary face.
WONDER, now a New York Times bestseller, begins from Auggie's point of view, but soon switches to include his classmates, his sister, her boyfriend, and others. These perspectives converge in a portrait of one community's struggle with empathy, compassion, and acceptance.
In a world where bullying among young people is an epidemic, this is a refreshing new narrative full of heart and hope. R.J. Palacio has called her debut novel "a meditation on kindness" --indeed, every reader will come away with a greater appreciation for the simple courage of friendship.
Auggie is a hero to root for, a diamond in the rough who proves that you can't blend in when you were born to stand out.
Wired
by Julie GarwoodA beautiful computer hacker and a bad-boy FBI agent must collaborate—in more ways than one—in the sizzling new novel from #1 New York Times bestselling author Julie Garwood.Allison Trent doesn’t look like a hacker.
In fact, when she’s not in college working on her degree, she models on the side. But behind her gorgeous face is a brilliant mind for computers and her real love is writing—and hacking—code. Her dream is to write a new security program that could revolutionize the tech industry.
Hotshot FBI agent Liam Scott has a problem: a leak deep within his own department. He needs the skills of a top-notch hacker to work on a highly sensitive project: to secretly break into the FBI servers and find out who the traitor is. But he can’t use one of his own. He finds the perfect candidate in Allison.
Only, there’s one problem—she wants nothing to do with his job and turns him down flat. What Liam doesn’t know is that Allison is hiding secrets that she doesn’t want the FBI to uncover. But Liam will do nearly anything to persuade her to join his team, even break a few rules if that’s what it takes. A temptation that could put his job—and both of their futures—on the line...
A New York Times Bestseller
Twister on Tuesday
by Sal Murdocca and Mary Pope OsborneAn adventure to blow you away! That's what Jack and Annie get when the Magic Tree House whisks them back to the 1870s. They land on the prairie near a one-room schoolhouse, where they meet a teenage schoolteacher, some cool kids, and one big, scary bully. But the biggest and scariest thing is yet to come!
To Kill a Mockingbird
by Harper LeeHarper Lee's Pulitzer prize-winning masterwork of honor and injustice in the deep south--and the heroism of one man in the face of blind and violent hatred, available now for the first time as an e-book.
One of the best-loved stories of all time, To Kill a Mockingbird has been translated into more than forty languages, sold more than thirty million copies worldwide, served as the basis for an enormously popular motion picture, and was voted one of the best novels of the twentieth century by librarians across the country.
A gripping, heart-wrenching, and wholly remarkable tale of coming-of-age in a South poisoned by virulent prejudice, it views a world of great beauty and savage inequities through the eyes of a young girl, as her father-a crusading local lawyer-risks everything to defend a black man unjustly accused of a terrible crime.
Thirteen Stories
by Eudora Welty&“I&’ve read her Thirteen Stories many times, and I&’m always awed by how much comedy, pathos, satire and lyricism she manages to squeeze into her stories.&” —Sue Monk Kidd A strong sense of place—in this case Mississippi—along with often larger-than-life characterizations of ordinary folk with all their glorious eccentricities and foibles, and above all a completely distinctive voice, come together in Eudora Welty&’s fiction to offer us a world that is sometimes sad, sometimes comic, often petty, and always compassionate. Here is a baker&’s dozen of Welty&’s very best, including: &“The Wide Net,&” in which a pregnant wife threatens to drown herself, despite fear of the water, and a communal dragging of the river turns into a celebratory fish-fry; &“Petrified Man,&” revealing the savagery of small-town gossip; &“Powerhouse,&” Welty&’s prose answer to jazz improvisation and the emotional heart of the blues; and &“Why I Live at the P.O.&”, the hilariously one-sided testimony of a postmistress who believes herself wronged by her family. With her highly tuned ear and sharp insight into human behavior, Eudora Welty has crafted stories as vital and unpredictable as they are artful and enduring. &“Miss Welty has written some of the finest short stories of modern times.&” —The New York Times &“Eudora Welty is one of our purest, finest, gentlest voices.&” —Anne Tyler
Thirteen Reasons Why
by Jay AsherClay Jenkins returns home from school to find a mysterious box with his name on it lying on his porch. Inside he discovers 13 cassette tapes recorded by Hannah Baker -- his classmate and crush -- who committed suicide two weeks earlier. On tape, Hannah explains that there are thirteen reasons why she decided to end her life. Clay is one of them. If he listens, he'll find out how he made the list. Through Hannah and Clay's dual narratives, debut author Jay Asher weaves an intricate and heartrending story of confusion and desperation that will deeply affect teen readers.
A New York Times Bestseller
Need Help? Or Know Someone Who Does? Contact the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline. Contact the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-TALK (1-800-273-8255)
Spotlight on Music
by Judy Bond and René Boyer and Margaret Campbelle-Holman and Emily Crocker and Marilyn C. Davidson and Robert De Frece and Virginia Ebinger and Mary Goetze and Betsy M. Henderson and John Jacobson and Michael Jothen and Chris Judah-Lauder and Carol King and Vincent P. Lawrence and Ellen Mccullough-Brabson and Janet Mcmillion and Nancy L. T. Miller and Ivy Rawlins and Susan Snyder and Gilberto D. SotoNIMAC-sourced textbook
Spelling and Vocabulary
by Shane Templeton and Donald R. Bear and Brenda Sabey and Sylvia Linan-ThompsonNIMAC-sourced textbook
The Silent Corner
by Dean KoontzA dazzling new series, a pure adrenaline rush, debuts with Jane Hawk, a remarkable heroine certain to become an icon of suspense “I very much need to be dead.”
These are the chilling words left behind by a man who had everything to live for—but took his own life. In the aftermath, his widow, Jane Hawk, does what all her grief, fear, and fury demand: find the truth, no matter what.
People of talent and accomplishment, people admired and happy and sound of mind, have been committing suicide in surprising numbers. When Jane seeks to learn why, she becomes the most-wanted fugitive in America.
Her powerful enemies are protecting a secret so important—so terrifying—that they will exterminate anyone in their way. But all their power and viciousness may not be enough to stop a woman as clever as they are cold-blooded, as relentless as they are ruthless—and who is driven by a righteous rage they can never comprehend. Because it is born of love.
Jane Hawk’s story continues in The Whispering Room.
A New York Times Bestseller
Rules
by Cynthia LordThis 2007 Newbery Honor Book is a humorous and heartwarming debut about feeling different and finding acceptance. Now in After Words paperback! Twelve-year-old Catherine just wants a normal life. Which is near impossible when you have a brother with autism and a family that revolves around his disability. She's spent years trying to teach David the rules from "a peach is not a funny-looking apple" to "keep your pants on in public"---in order to head off David's embarrassing behaviors. But the summer Catherine meets Jason, a surprising, new sort-of friend, and Kristi, the next-door friend she's always wished for, it's her own shocking behavior that turns everything upside down and forces her to ask: What is normal?
The Ponder Heart
by Eudora Welty&“A wonderful tragicomedy&” of a Mississippi family, a vast inheritance, and an impulsive heir, by the Pulitzer Prize–winning author of Delta Wedding (The New York Times). Daniel Ponder is the amiable heir to the wealthiest family in Clay County, Mississippi. To friends and strangers, he&’s also the most generous, having given away heirlooms, a watch, and so far, at least one family business. His niece, Edna Earle, has a solution to save the Ponder fortune from Daniel&’s mortifying philanthropy: As much as she loves Daniel, she&’s decided to have him institutionalized. Foolproof as the plan may seem, it comes with a kink—one that sets in motion a runaway scheme of mistaken identity, a hapless local widow, a reckless wedding, a dim-witted teenage bride, and a twist of dumb luck that lands this once-respectable Southern family in court to brave an embarrassing trial for murder. It&’s become the talk of Clay County. And the loose-tongued Edna Earle will tell you all about it. &“The most revered figure in contemporary American letters,&” said the New York Times of Eudora Welty, which also hailed The Ponder Heart—a winner of the William Dean Howells Medal which was adapted into both a Broadway play and a PBS Masterpiece series—as &“Miss Welty at her comic, compassionate best.&”
Plant Genetics
by Ken Cameron and Nancy WhiteFind out about the importance in DNA in the study of plants and investigate the work of Gregor Mendel.
The Outsiders
by Se HintonA heroic story of friendship and belonging
No one ever said life was easy. But Ponyboy is pretty sure that he's got things figured out. He knows that he can count on his brothers, Darry and Sodapop.
And he knows that he can count on his friends--true friends who would do anything for him, like Johnny and Two-Bit.
And when it comes to the Socs--a vicious gang of rich kids who enjoy beating up on "greasers" like him and his friends--he knows that he can count on them for trouble.
But one night someone takes things too far, and Ponyboy's world is turned upside down...
Written over forty-five years ago, The Outsiders is a dramatic and enduring work of fiction. S. E. Hinton's classic story of a boy who finds himself on the outskirts of regular society remains as powerful today as it was the day it was first published.
Mr. Palomar
by Italo CalvinoA novel of a delightful eccentric on a search for truth, by the renowned author of Invisible Cities. In The New York Times Book Review, the poet Seamus Heaney praised Mr. Palomar as a series of &“beautiful, nimble, solitary feats of imagination.&” Throughout these twenty-seven intricately structured chapters, the musings of the crusty Mr. Palomar consistently render the world sublime and ridiculous. Like the telescope for which he is named, Mr. Palomar is a natural observer. &“It is only after you have come to know the surface of things,&” he believes, &“that you can venture to seek what is underneath.&” Whether contemplating a fine cheese, a hungry gecko, or a topless sunbather, he tends to let his meditations stray from the present moment to the great beyond. And though he may fail as an objective spectator, he is the best of company. &“Each brief chapter reads like an exploded haiku,&” wrote Time Out. A play on a world fragmented by our individual perceptions, this inventive and irresistible novel encapsulates the life&’s work of an artist of the highest order, &“the greatest Italian writer of the twentieth century&” (The Guardian).
Most Evil II
by Steve HodelMost Evil II is Steve Hodel's follow-up investigation (2009-2015) into his father's potential murders and introduces new evidence and additional linkage obtained by him over the past six years.
Included in that evidence, is the solving of the Zodiac's forty-five year cryptic cipher, which gives us the answer to the question asked in Most Evil, "Were Black Dahlia Avenger and Zodiac the same serial killer?"
The solution of that cipher provides us with the name of San Francisco's most infamous serial killer. However, it is not presented as just another "theory" from some armchair detective, or even from the author himself, a highly respected, veteran LAPD homicide detective. Rather, the solution comes from the killer's own mouth, written in his own hand--it is Zodiac's personally signed confession!
Mari Bariethi-01 Mari Bariethi
by Suresh Dalalશરીરમાં જે સ્થાન આંખનું છે એ સ્થાન ઘરમાં બારીનું છે. કહેવું હોય તો એમ કહેવાય કે બારી એ ઘરની આંખ છે. આપણે તો સલામતીથી જીવવામાં માનનારા માનવીઓ; એટલે તો ઘરની ચાર દીવાલો ચણી લીધી. પણ ચાર દીવાલમાં ગૂંગળાઈ રહેવું કેમ પોસાય? આપણે એથી બારીઓ મૂકી. પ્રતીક્ષાના પર્યાય જેવા ઝરૂખાઓ સજાવ્યા, ગૌરવ આપે એવા ગવાક્ષો રખાવ્યા. ઘરની અને બહારની દુનિયા વચ્ચેના સેતુનું કામ બારી જ કરે છે. Essays by Suresh Dalal on various subjects, originally published in a popular series: Mari Bariethi in Janmabhoomi Pravasi
The Lightning Thief
by Rick RiordanPercy Jackson about to be kicked out of boarding school... again. And that's the least of his troubles. Lately, mythological monsters and the gods of Mount Olympus seem to be walking straight out of the pages of Percy's Greek mythology textbook and into his life. And worse, he's angered a few of them. Zeus's master lightning bolt has been stolen, and Percy is the prime suspect. Now Percy and his friends have just ten days to find and return Zeus's stolen property and bring peace to a warring Mount Olympus. But to succeed on his quest, Percy will have to do more than catch the true thief: he must come to terms with the father who abandoned him; solve the riddle of the Oracle, which warns him of betrayal by a friend; and unravel a treachery more powerful than the gods themselves.
Winner of Pacific Northwest Library Association’s Young Reader’s Choice Intermediate Award
Lighthousekeeping
by Jeanette WintersonAn orphaned girl is held spellbound by the tales of a lighthouse keeper on the Scottish coast, in a novel by the Costa Award-winning author of The Passion. After her mother is literally swept away by the savage winds off the Atlantic coast of Salts, Scotland, never to be seen again, the orphaned Silver is feeling particularly unmoored. Taken in by the mysterious keeper of a lighthouse on Cape Wrath, Silver finds an anchor in Mr. Pew—blind, as old and legendary as a unicorn, and a yarn spinner of persuasive power. The tale he has to tell Silver is that of a nineteenth-century clergyman named Babel Dark, whose life was divided between a loving light and a mask of deceit. Peopled with such luminaries as Charles Darwin and Robert Louis Stevenson, Mr. Pew&’s story within a story within a story soon unfolds like a map. It&’s one that Silver must follow if she&’s to be led through her own darkness, and to find her own meaning in life, in this novel by a winner of the Costa, Lambda, and E.M. Forster Awards, the author of Oranges are Not the Only Fruit; Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal? and other acclaimed works. &“In her sea-soaked and hypnotic eighth novel, Winterson turns the tale of an orphaned young girl and a blind old man into a fable about love and the power of storytelling…Atmospheric and elusive, Winterson's high-modernist excursion is an inspired meditation on myth and language.&”—The New Yorker
Kavya Pradeep Class 11
by Suryanarayan RanshubheThis is collection of hindi poems from 1910 to 2010 for students of class eleven of Maharastra education board.
Just Mercy
by Bryan StevensonA powerful true story about the potential for mercy to redeem us, and a clarion call to fix our broken system of justice—from one of the most brilliant and influential lawyers of our time
Bryan Stevenson was a young lawyer when he founded the Equal Justice Initiative, a legal practice dedicated to defending those most desperate and in need: the poor, the wrongly condemned, and women and children trapped in the farthest reaches of our criminal justice system. One of his first cases was that of Walter McMillian, a young man who was sentenced to die for a notorious murder he insisted he didn’t commit. The case drew Bryan into a tangle of conspiracy, political machination, and legal brinksmanship—and transformed his understanding of mercy and justice forever.
Just Mercy is at once an unforgettable account of an idealistic, gifted young lawyer’s coming of age, a moving window into the lives of those he has defended, and an inspiring argument for compassion in the pursuit of true justice.
A New York Times Bestseller
July, July
by Tim O'BrienA &“perceptive, affectionate, and often very funny&” novel about old college friends at a thirty-year reunion, by the author of The Things They Carried (Boston Herald). From a National Book Award winner who&’s been called &“the best American writer of his generation&” (San Francisco Examiner), July, July tells the story of ten old friends who attended Darton Hall College together back in 1969, and now reunite for a summer weekend of dancing, drinking, flirting, reminiscing—and regretting. The three decades since graduation have brought marriage and divorce, children and careers, hopes deferred and replaced. This witty, heart-rending novel about men and women who came into adulthood at a moment when American ideals and innocence began to fade, a New York Times Notable Book, is &“deeply satisfying&” (O, the Oprah Magazine) and &“almost impossible to put down&” (Austin American-Statesman). &“A symphony of American life.&” —All Things Considered, NPR