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Thank You For Your Service is a nonfiction book by Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist David Finkel. Published in 2013, it follows the story of an infantry battalion upon their return home from the war in Iraq.Finkel’s previous book, The Good Soldiers, took him to Baghdad, Iraq in 2007-2008 as he was embedded with the 2-16 Infantry Battalion. In Thank You For Your Service, Finkel follows some of these same soldiers home, as they try to move... Read Thank You For Your Service Summary

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The Big Short: Inside the Doomsday Machine, published in 2010, examines the causes of the 2008 financial crisis, one of the greatest debacles in American economic history. Like many of financial journalist and author Michael Lewis’s other works, including Liar’s Poker and Moneyball, The Big Short is a bestseller. It becomes a sourcebook during Congressional hearings into the disaster.The crash results from years of financial malfeasance and incompetence among the top salesmen and executives at... Read The Big Short Summary

The Big Truck That Went By: How the World Came to Save Haiti and Left Behind a Disaster is a nonfiction book published in 2013 by the American journalist Jonathan M. Katz. Katz, a reporter for the Associated Press (AP), gives a detailed, firsthand account of the 2010 earthquake that devastated the Caribbean island nation of Haiti. The book is a journalist's chronicle of the causes and consequences of a natural disaster, how it can... Read The Big Truck That Went By Summary

The Blind Side, written by Michael Lewis, was published in 2006 by W. W. Norton & Company. The nonfiction book combines a discussion of the evolution of strategy in the National Football League (NFL) with elements of memoir through the story of Michael Oher who, after the book’s timeline, went on to have a long career as an NFL left tackle. Folded into these intersecting elements is the story of of Tom Lemming, who became... Read The Blind Side Summary

Luis Alberto Urrea’s book, The Devil’s Highway, tells the story of a disastrous border crossing between Mexico and The United States. The Devil’s Highway refers to a particularly brutal stretch of desert. In the past, it was not used as often as other routes, but as the story shows, the development and proliferation of the Border Patrol has made it necessary to use this dangerous route. The story is divided into four sections: “Cutting the... Read The Devil's Highway Summary

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The Executioner’s Song (1979) is a work of literary true crime by American author Norman Mailer. The book portrays the last nine months of the life of Gary Gilmore, who kills two men after being released from prison. Using interviews, court records, and witness accounts, Mailer pieces together the story of Gilmour’s trial and execution, exploring The Death Penalty as Public Spectacle, The Influence of Love and Hate in Human Lives, and Individual Will Versus... Read The Executioner's Song Summary

In October of 1936, American journalist and novelist John Steinbeck wrote a series of essay-style articles for The San Francisco News on the migration of hundreds of thousands of white farmworkers from the Midwest and the South to work in California’s booming agricultural sector. Known together as The Harvest Gypsies, these seven articles are compiled in the nonfiction book The Harvest Gypsies: On the Road to the Grapes of Wrath, which was first published in... Read The Harvest Gypsies Summary

The Influencing Machine: Brooke Gladstone on the Media is a nonfiction graphic novel written by journalist Brooke Gladstone and illustrated by Josh Neufeld. Throughout, Gladstone’s objective is to resist the idea that the media are a machine that manipulates consumers' minds without consent. Instead, she argues that the media are a “degrading, tedious, and transcendent funhouse mirror of America” (xxi). The media “do not control” (xiv) consumers, the media “pander” (xiv) to them. Consumers fear... Read The Influencing Machine Summary

The Landry News is a young adult novel by Andrew Clements, published in 1998. It centers on a school newspaper and the lives it touches, the lessons it teaches, and the power it gives people to stand up for their beliefs. The book received the William Allen White Children's Book Award in 2002 and has been translated into five languages. American author Andrew Clements (1949-2019) penned many books for young readers, including his most famous work, Frindle... Read The Landry News Summary

The Massacre at El Mozote, by Mark Danner, which in its first iteration appeared as a series of articles for The New Yorker, is an in-depth investigation into the events of December 1981 in the small town of El Mozote in northern El Salvador, during the country’s long civil war. Danner proceeds to not only bring these events to light, but also to place them in the global context of the Cold War of the... Read The Massacre at El Mozote Summary

The Orchid Thief is a nonfiction book by Susan Orlean, originally published in 1998. It is a narrative nonfiction account of the crimes and trial of John Laroche, accused of stealing endangered orchid species from the Fakahatchee Strand State Preserve in Florida. The basic story of Laroche and his crimes originally ran as an article in The New Yorker, entitled “Orchid Fever” and published in 1995. The book expands the story and also details Orlean’s... Read The Orchid Thief Summary

The Pelican Brief is a 1992 novel by the American writer John Grisham. The legal thriller tells the story of Darby Shaw, a young law student who uncovers a vast conspiracy. The book was adapted into a film in 1993 starring Julia Roberts and Denzel Washington.Other works by this author include The Client, Theodore Boone: Kid Lawyer, Skipping Christmas, and Playing For Pizza.Plot SummaryAn assassin named Khamel kills two Supreme Court Justices. Though the Justices... Read The Pelican Brief Summary

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The Right Stuff is a lively account of the early American space program and its roots in the subculture of military test pilots that developed after World War II. Wolfe’s eclectic, wide-ranging narrative combines numerous elements: technological advancements in mid-20th-century flight; the generation of daring pilots who pushed innovations to their limits; and reflections on the moral, cultural, and political significance of the first astronauts at the height of the Cold War. Taken together, these... Read The Right Stuff Summary

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The Road to Wigan Pier is a 1937 nonfiction book by George Orwell. The book describes Orwell’s firsthand experiences of life in Great Britain’s working-class communities in the early 20th century and advocates for the adoption of socialism. SummaryThe Road to Wigan Pier begins in a small lodging house in Northern England. The impoverished, rundown house rents crowded rooms to people who work in the nearby mines. The landlord, Mr. Brooker, was once a miner... Read The Road to Wigan Pier Summary

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