K2 is the second tallest mountain on earth at 28,250 ft. While not quite as tall as the more famous Mt. Everest, K2 is a more dangerous climb. In 1938, mountaineer and medical student, Charlie Houston, led an expedition up the mountain looking for a route to the summit. They came close. In 1939 another attempt was made by a team led by Fritz Wiessner. This expedition turned tragic before reaching the summit. Then in 1953, fifteen years after his first expedition, Houston led another team, determined to reach the summit, all without the help of oxygen tanks that are used in these expeditions today. This book reads like an adventure novel, but it’s all true. Describing in detail the efforts of the climbing team and native Sherpas and porters to carry several tons of equipment and supplies up the mountain, establishing various camps along the route, will have your heart pounding. As the men push their bodies to the limit at high altitudes, you will find yourself gasping for breath. Short on supplies, breathlessness, injuries, falls, frostbite, 80 mph winds and blizzards will have you shouting at them – TURN BACK!!!
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First in a series, this book probably doesn’t need much introduction since it has been made into a movie that aired on Netflix. But just in case… Lara Jean, the middle of three sisters, has had some crushes - five, to be exact. She wrote love letters to all five, pouring out her heart, but never mailed them. When the letters mysteriously get mailed, suddenly Lara Jean’s life gets complicated, especially with neighbor Josh, her sister Margot’s boyfriend, and Peter, the popular jock. This is a fun, romantic comedy that will leave you wanting to read the remaining two novels in the series. High school senior, Emoni, is struggling to balance classes, raising her 2-year-old daughter, and working at Burger Joint. Emoni’s mother died during childbirth and her father returned to his native Puerto Rico, leaving Emoni and her daughter, Emma, in the care of his mother, ‘Buela, in Philadelphia. When a new elective for seniors is offered at school, Emoni signs on to take the Culinary Arts class taught by Chef Aydan. Cooking is Emoni’s passion. She takes recipes and adds spices and ingredients to make them her own, much to the displeasure of Chef Aydan, who insists his students first learn to follow recipes and take orders from a Chef without deviations. Despite a class trip to Spain over spring break and new class member Malachi, who has taken an interest in her, Emoni doesn’t think she can continue to work under Chef Aydan. Emoni has had to grow up fast. Will she make the right decisions for herself, as well as Emma’s future? February 18, 1943 – Gestapo Headquarters. Sophie Scholl and her brother Hans are being interrogated in separate rooms. Sophie is worried. Are her lies matching her brother’s lies? Does Herr Mohr believe her? Does he really think she has no idea who distributed the leaflets denouncing Hitler and the regime? Can she pull this off? So begins a series of flashbacks telling the real story of Sophie, her brother, her friends and the White Rose group. At first, the young people in Germany believed Hitler would bring great changes to their country, giving them great opportunities. But as the years pass and the young people realize German youth are fighting and dying for a lost cause, Sophie and her friends believe they cannot sit idly by. Something must be done. This novel in verse tells the story of the real White Rose group and its very real members, young people who hoped to stop the atrocities being carried out by Hitler. |
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