This YA biography of the former First Lady considers her journey from Chicago to the White House in the larger context of African American history.Michelle Obama grew up on Chicago's South Side, and while the world outside her door was chaotic and ever-changing, her family provided a stable environment in which she could grow and flourish. This biography of the former First Lady shows how a girl from a working class background could rise to become one of the most i...

A trivia collection that puts medical history under the microscope—with more than 500 little-known facts about doctors, diseases, and more.Did you know . . .Before the advent of surgery, ancient Egyptian doctors put their patients under by hitting them on the head with a mallet.Working with pigs can raise your risk of appendicitis.The Catholic Church has patron saints for many conditions, including hernias and syphilis.

True tales of trials and errors over the long, strange course of legal history, from the authors of Doctors Killed George Washington.Did you know . . .If a husband in ancient Rome caught his wife drinking wine, he had the legal right to kill her.Gandhi, John Cleese, and Julio Iglesias were all lawyers before moving on to other jobs.The ice cream sundae was invented as part of an effort to get around the law.

What is it about the game of golf that can cause otherwise normal folks to lose all perspective? More than one person has seen their loved one become consumed with the details of the quality of wood used in clubs, or the type of cleats on their shoes. What is it about the game of golf that can cause otherwise normal folks to lose all perspective? More than one person has seen their loved one become consumed with the details of the quality of wood used in clubs, the type of cleats on their ...

It is a cliché that history is written by the victors, but what we accept as history is replete with stories of great men and events that either never happened or didn’t happen the way we were told they did. Such items are taught in schools. They are passed down to us by our families and friends and have become part of our shared cultural knowledge. And they are wrong. Touching on a number of topics— including history, current events, government, sports, geography, and popular culture—...

Many of the world’s most important and life-saving devices and techniques were often discovered purely by accident. Serendipity, timing, and luck played a part in the discovery of unintentional cures and breakthroughs:A plastic shard in an RAF pilot’s eye leads to the use of plastic for contact lenses.The inability to remove a titanium chamber from rabbit’s bone leads to dental implants.Viagra was discovered by a group of chemists, working in the lab to find a new dru...

History is replete with stories of great people and extraordinary events that either never happened or didn’t happen the way we were told they did. Such news or embellishment thereof are part of what we consider common knowledge – information taught in schools and passed down to us. And they are wrong. How about these gems:The winter of 1777-78 was the coldest winter in Valley Forge in years, and many Continental soldiers died from the sub-zero weather: LIEMohandas Gandhi h...

"Tell me about plumbing, fine. Tell me about carpentry, terrace gardening, the timer on VCRs. Go ahead and explain cellophane. Tell me about all of these things, but don't try to tell me about golf, okay? Golf I know."--Dan JenkinsAfter four decades of covering golf-not to mention "playing scratch from the blues and gambling for my own money when I didn't have any", Dan Jenkins most definitely knows golf. He may, in fact, know the game better than anyone on the planet. Now, his lat...

A NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER AND THE PERFECT READ FOR FANS OF UNNATURAL CAUSESWhat happens to your body after you have died?Fertilizer? Crash Test Dummy? Human Dumpling? Ballistics Practise?Life after death is not as simple as it looks. Mary Roach's Stiff lifts the lid off what happens to our bodies once we have died. Bold, original and with a delightful eye for detail, Roach tells us everything we...

FROM THE WORLDS OF BUSINESS, POLITICS, HISTORY, LITERATURE, ENTERTAINMENT, AND MORE . . ."Think how much happier women would be if, instead of endlessly fretting about what the males in their lives are thinking, they could relax, secure in the knowledge that the correct answer is: very little."--DAVE BARRY"I'd tell you what I really thought about the national media, but as my good friend Dana Carvey would say, 'Wouldn't be prudent. Not gonna do it.' "--GEORGE ...

Was there ever a year in golf like 1960?It was the year that the sport and its vivid personalities exploded on the consciousness of the nation, when the past, present, and future of the sport collided. Here was Arnold Palmer, the workingman’s hero, “sweating, chain-smoking, shirt-tail flying”; Ben Hogan, the greatest player of the fifties, a perfectionist battling twin demons of age and nerves; and, making his big-time debut, a crew-cut college kid who seemed to have the makings of...

A witty, irreverent tour of history's worst plagues—from the Antonine Plague, to leprosy, to polio—and a celebration of the heroes who fought themIn 1518, in a small town in Alsace, Frau Troffea began dancing and didn’t stop. She danced until she was carried away six days later, and soon thirty-four more villagers joined her. Then more. In a month more than 400 people had been stricken by the mysterious dancing plague. In late-seventeenth-century England an eccentr...