Non-Fiction | Brookfield Public Schools

Imperfect: An Improbable Life by Jim Abbott and Tim Brown

Born without a right hand, Jim Abbott is a boy who dreamed of being a great athlete. Raised in Flint, Michigan, by parents who saw in his condition not a disability but an extraordinary opportunity, Jim became a two-sport standout in high school, then an ace pitcher for the University of Michigan.

One Shot at Forever by Chris Ballard

In 1971, a small-town high school baseball team from rural Illinois playing with hand-me-down uniforms and peace signs on their hats defied convention and the odds. Led by an English teacher with no coaching experience, the Macon Ironmen emerged from a field of 370 teams to become the smallest school in Illinois history to make the state final, a distinction that still stands. There, sporting long hair, and warming up to Jesus Christ Superstar, the Ironmen would play a dramatic game against a Chicago powerhouse that would change their lives forever.

No Impact Man by Colin Beavan

What would it be like to try to live a no-impact lifestyle? Is it possible? Could it catch on? Is living this way more satisfying or less satisfying? Harder or easier? Is it worthwhile or senseless? Are we all doomed or can our culture reduce the barriers to sustainable living so it becomes as easy as falling off a log? These are the questions at the heart of this whole mad endeavor, via which Colin Beavan hopes to explain to the rest of us how we can realistically live a more “eco-effective” and by turns more content life in an age of inconvenient truths.

Rocket Boys: A Memoir by Homer H. Hickam

NASA engineer Homer Hickam recounts his childhood in a West Virginia mining town in the 1950s. Wanting to escape the mines, despite his father’s disapproval, Hickam and a group of friends are inspired by Sputnik to create the Big Creek Missile Agency and build rockets. Funny and poignant, Rocket Boys mixes themes of coming of age with thermodynamics, family bonds, and the race into space.

Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption by Laura Hillenbrand

In May 1943, Louis Zamperini’s B-24 crashes in the Pacific. After a record-breaking 47 days adrift on a shark-encircled life raft, he and pilot Allen Phillips are “rescued” by the Japanese. In POW camps, Zamperini falls into the hands of a pathologically brutal sadist whose pleasure comes from tormenting prisoners. This is a true story of heroism, cruelty, joy, and redemption.

The Omnivore's Dilemma by Michael Pollan

The Omnivore's Dilemma, by Michael Pollan, is a book about American eating habits, and the food dilemma American's have today. Pollan tries to help readers decide the answer to the age-old question: "What's for dinner?" by examining the different food paths available to modern man and by analyzing those paths to determine the best for health, stability, and sustainability.

Packing for Mars by Mary Roach

Space is a world devoid of the things we need to survive: air, gravity, hot showers, fresh produce, and privacy. To understand how humans deal with these conditions, space agencies set up all manner of quizzical and bizarre space simulations. As Mary Roach discovers, it’s possible to preview space without ever leaving Earth. From the space shuttle training toilet to a crash test of NASA’s new space capsule (with a cadaver filling in for an astronaut), Roach takes us on a surreally entertaining trip into the science of life in space and space on Earth.

Gulp: Adventures on the Alimentary Canal by Mary Roach

“America’s funniest science writer” (Washington Post) takes us down the hatch on an unforgettable tour of our insides. The alimentary canal is classic Mary Roach terrain: the questions inspired by our insides are as taboo, in their way, as the cadavers in Stiff and every bit as surreal as the universe of zero gravity explored in Packing for Mars. Why is crunchy food so appealing? Why is it so hard to find names for flavors and smells? Why doesn't the stomach digest itself? How much can you eat before your stomach bursts? Can constipation kill you? Did it kill Elvis? We meet scientists who tackle the questions no one else thinks — or has the courage — to ask. And we go on location to a pet food taste test lab, a bacteria transplant, and into a live stomach to observe the fate of a meal.

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot

Her name was Henrietta Lacks, but scientists know her as HeLa. She was a poor black tobacco farmer whose cells — taken without her knowledge in 1951 — became one of the most important tools in medicine, vital for developing the polio vaccine, cloning, gene mapping, in vitro fertilization, and more. Henrietta’s cells have been bought and sold by the billions, yet she remains virtually unknown, and her family can’t afford health insurance.

Manhunt: The 12 Day Chase for Lincoln’s Killer by James L. Swanson

The most infamous murder in American history occurred on Good Friday in 1865. As the Civil War is ending, John Wilkes Booth, a die-hard Confederate, shoots President Lincoln and runs. This fast-paced narrative tells the story of Booth’s escape and of the extraordinary efforts to find him.

No Impact Man by Colin Beavan

The Last Lecture by Randy Pausch

When Randy Pausch, a computer science professor at Carnegie Mellon, was asked to give such a lecture, he didn't have to imagine it as his last, since he had recently been diagnosed with terminal cancer. But the lecture he gave -- "Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams" -- wasn't about dying. It was about the importance of overcoming obstacles, of enabling the dreams of others, of seizing every moment (because "time is all you have...and you may find one day that you have less than you think"). It was a summation of everything Randy had come to believe. It was about living.

In this book, Randy Pausch has combined the humor, inspiration and intelligence that made his lecture such a phenomenon and given it an indelible form. It is a book that will be shared for generations to come

The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls

Successful journalist, Jeannette Walls, relates the horrific childhood she experienced being raised by alcoholic, manipulative, and selfish parents. Her parents are extremely dysfunctional and yet very vibrant people who force their children to learn how to take care of themselves by feeding, clothing, and protecting each other.