Read for a Lifetime

Bomb : the race to build - and steal - the world's most dangerous weapon / Steve Sheinkin

Devil in the white city / Erik Larson

While Chicago has invited the world to the World's Fair of 1893, a serial killer is inviting young women to his lair.

 

The hitchhiker's guide to the galaxy / Douglas Adams

The first in an hilarious science fiction series.  Arthur Dent journeys through space after Earth is destroyed.

 The immortal life of Henrietta Lacks / Rebecca Skloot

Mrs. Lacks died of cancer; HeLa cells live on and have contributed to major discoveries in science, including gene mapping.

The List / Siobhan Vivian

The list appears every year during Homecoming, a list of the prettiest and ugliest girls from each class. For some, the list is liberating; for others, it's a disaster.

 The perks of being a wallflower / Stephen Chbosky

The roller-coaster world of high school -- family drama, friends, dating, growing up.

 A raisin in the sun / Lorraine Hansberry

 The struggles of a poor African American family living on the south side of Chicago.

 A tree grows in Brooklyn / Betty Smith

The story of a poor Irish-American family, 1910-1920, and their hard-scrabble existence in Brooklyn, NY. Francie, the daughter of a hard-working mother and a kind-hearted but alcoholic father, finds refuge in books and learning.

 Unbroken / Laura Hillenbrand

The story of an unlikely hero. Louie Zamperini was a juvenile delinquent turned track superstar. During WWII, his bomber crashed during a search mission for a lost plane. He and two men survived 47 days at sea on a small raft, only to be captured and interred in a Japanese Prisoner of War Camp known for torture. Liberated in 1945, Zamperini struggled to forget, to rebuild his life, determined to be “unbroken.”