Helen Plum Library

"Set in the author's homeland, Colombia, this is the heartbreaking story of Leonor, former child soldier of the FARC, a rural guerrilla group. Paula Delgado-Kling followed Leonor for nineteen years, from shortly after she was an active member of the FARC forced into sexual slavery by a commander thirty-four years her senior, through her rehabilitation and struggle with alcohol and drug addiction, to more recent days as the mother of two girls. Leonor's...

"The groundbreaking biography of a forgotten civil rights hero. In the tempestuous mid-19th century, as slavery consumed Congressional debate and America careened toward civil war and split apart--when the very future of the nation hung in the balance--Charles Sumner's voice rang strongest, bravest, and most unwavering. Where others preached compromise and moderation, he denounced slavery's evils to all who would listen and demanded that it be wiped...

"Over the centuries, women, people from underrepresented communities, and immigrants overcame prejudices and social obstacles to make remarkable discoveries in science-but they weren't the ones to receive credit in history books. People with more power, money, and prestige were remembered as the inventor of the telephone, the scientists who decoded the structure of DNA, and the doctor who discovered the cause of yellow fever. This book aims to set...

"Blake Butler and Molly Brodak instantly connected, fell in love, married and built a life together. Both writers with deep roots in contemporary American literature, their union was an iconic joining of forces between two major and beloved talents. Nearly three years into their marriage, grappling with mental illness and a lifetime of trauma, Molly took her own life. In the days and weeks after Molly's death, Blake discovered shocking secrets she...

"This long-lost manuscript from musicologist Mack McCormick features research on blues icon Robert Johnson's mysterious life and death, and became as much of a myth as the musician himself"-- When blues master Robert Johnson's little-known recordings were rereleased to great fanfare in the 1960s, little was known about his life, giving rise to legends that he gained success by selling his soul to the devil. McCormick searched to uncover Johnson's...

"If Ramanujan could crack the number 1 open and find infinity, what secrets would he discover inside other numbers?"--Back cover

"Danger Close! recounts the Vietnam War from the unique boots-on-the-ground perspective of a young officer who served two tours in two different divisions. He tells his story thoughtfully, straightforwardly, and vividly, from the raw emotions of unearthing massacred human beings to the terrors of fighting in the dark, with tracers slicing the air"--

Before John Glenn orbited the Earth or Neil Armstrong walked on the moon, a group of professionals worked as "Human Computers," calculating the flight paths that would enable these historic achievements. Among these were a coterie of bright, talented African-American women. Segregated from their white counterparts by Jim Crow laws, these "colored computers," as they were known, used slide rules, adding machines, and pencil and paper to support America's...

"When Elinor McGrath decided she wanted to be a veterinarian, the world told her no, but she was determined to prove that accepting women wasn't the only change the profession needed"--

"Marked for Life is the incredible memoir of a wrongfully imprisoned man's epic journey to free himself and others like him. Isaac Wright Jr. was wrongly accused of drug charges in New Jersey and sentenced to life in prison in 1991. He was arrested, tried, and convicted under a draconian "kingpin" statute even though he never dealt drugs a day in his life. Even though the prosecutor knew he was innocent, as did the detectives who investigated and...