Book Summaries

_Fever 1793_ details the yellow fever plague in Philadelphia a decade after the Revolutionary War through the eyes of young 14-year-old Matilda Cook. With great respect for historical accuracy and a keen voice, Laurie Halse Anderson describes the fear and decay that destroyed the nation’s capital and killed thousands of people in three months. Anderson’s keen attention to human emotions and connections lifts this coming-of-age story from the depths of darkness to the light of courage and survival.

Before the White House and _The Apprentice_, Donald Trump was a real estate mogul whose large-scale projects made him one of the most well-known developers in New York City.

In this autobiography, Trump recounts his early life and career—from building low- and middle-income housing with his father in NYC’s outer boroughs to erecting luxury apartments in Manhattan. **Trump outlines the eleven principles that guide his business decisions, and how they played out in the deals that defined his early career**, including projects such as Trump Tower in New York, his first casino ventures in Atlantic City, and his gamble on the United States Football League.

All the alarming statistics about child abuse and neglect—millions of cases reported each year, killing nearly five children each day—don’t begin to illustrate how victims experience abuse. In _A Child Called ‘It’_, author **Dave Pelzer provides a rare and grisly glimpse into his experience of severe physical and psychological abuse at his mother’s hands.**

In one of the worst child abuse cases reported in California’s history at the time, Pelzer was starved, burned on the stove, regularly locked in the bathroom with a noxious mixture of ammonia and Clorox, and forbidden from speaking to or looking at any of his family members. Through it all, **Pelzer maintained an indomitable will to survive that’s a testament to the strength of the human spirit even under the bleakest circumstances.**

_Orange Is the New Black_ is Piper Kerman’s memoir of her year at a federal women’s prison. Convicted on drug charges, the privileged, well-educated, white, upper-middle-class Piper is sent to prison in Danbury, Connecticut. There, she finds herself part of a community of women whose backgrounds and life experiences seem vastly different from her own. During her sentence, however, Piper comes to recognize the biases of her privilege; find community and family with her fellow inmates; and discover the systemic failures, gross power disparities, and overall injustices of the prison system.

_Zero to One_ is entrepreneur and venture capitalist Peter Thiel’s unconventional advice for technology startups. It’s about creating new things and also about creating a better future. Thiel, co-founder of PayPal and the first outside investor in Facebook, argues that technology has stagnated. Most new companies improve incrementally on existing products. They move the world from 1 to n.

But there’s much more to discover. The most valuable and game-changing startups create something new. They move the world from 0 to 1. Creating new things is not only the best path to economic profits—it’s the only path for human progress.

One of the most influential books of the last 50 years, _Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance_ demystifies the foundations of our modern ideas and values—and teaches us how to find fulfillment in any aspect of our lives. It combines a narrative of a father and son on a motorcycle journey across the country, along with philosophical musings on the human relationship with technology, metaphysics, and how to live a life of meaning.

In this summary, you’ll discover an intellectual thrill unlike any other: part family tragedy, part insightful meditation on the ways we think, _Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance _is nourishment for both heart and mind.

A little girl growing up alone in the lush marshes of the North Carolina coast. A young woman who falls in love and experiences the anguish of a broken heart. A promise of marriage. A betrayal that leads to death. In _Where the Crawdads Sing_, Delia Owens reveals these moments along Kya Clark’s journey to survive after her family abandons her as a child. Owens’s prose is as lush as the environment she describes, making you feel you are with Kya every step of the way. As Kya deals with discrimination and torment by the local townspeople, she must also navigate matters of the heart and decide if opening her heart is worth the risk when all she’s known is loss.

Louie Zamperini was one of the brightest prospects for the 1940 Olympics in track and field. But when WWII started, his life would take a much different path. The story of Louie’s struggles as a young loner, a rising star, a Pacific POW, and a man trying to reclaim his life after years of torment is as unbelievable as it is inspiring. Through Louie’s tale, the depths of the human soul and will to survive are examined. As Louie spirals out of control because of trauma and becomes obsessed with a plot to kill the man who tortured him, he learns that a man is not defined by his history, but rather by the manner in which he seeks a future. _Unbroken_ reaches into the heart of terror and shines a light on what it means to triumph.

How do you spark a trend that spreads like wildfire, or turn a product into the latest must-have item? You create a social epidemic. _The Tipping Point_ explains how social epidemics — spreading ideas, messages, behaviors, and products — function like viruses, growing gradually until they reach a critical mass (the tipping point) and explode.

Three factors can be adjusted to tip an idea to a social epidemic: the messenger, the message itself, or the context of the message. Learn how Paul Revere’s midnight ride, _Sesame Street_, Airwalk skate shoes, and crime reduction in New York City began as ideas and tipped to become movements.

_The Things They Carried_ by Tim O’Brien tells the stories of a small company of American soldiers serving in the Vietnam War. Through the narrative, the book blurs the line between autobiography and fiction, leaving the reader unsure as to what is fact and what is myth. In reading these stories, we explore the harrowing physical and psychological toll of warfare and the dehumanizing and brutalizing effects of combat on human beings. We also see the transformative power that narrative and storytelling have to help us make sense of our experiences and give meaning and clarity to even the most shocking, chaotic, and traumatizing events.