InfoSoup Booklist -Nonfiction for Teens

Sort By: Title | Author | Year

Guinness world records(2007)

The know-it-all : one man's humble quest to become the smartest person in the world by A.J. Jacobs(2004)33,000 pages 44 million words 10 billion years of history 1 obsessed man Part memoir and part education (or lack thereof), The Know-It-All chronicles NPR contributor A.J. Jacobs's hilarious, enlightening, and seemingly impossible quest to read the Encyclopaedia Britannica from A to Z. To fill the ever-widening gaps in his Ivy League education, A.J. Jacobs sets for himself the daunting task of reading all thirty-two volumes of the Encyclopaedia Britannica. His wife, Julie, tells him it's a waste of time, his friends believe he is losing his mind, and his father, a brilliant attorney who had once attempted the same feat and quit somewhere around Borneo, is encouraging but, shall we say, unconvinced. With self-deprecating wit and a disarming frankness, The Know-It-All recounts the unexpected and comically disruptive effects Operation Encyclopedia has on every part of Jacobs's life -- from his newly minted marriage to his complicated relationship with his father and the rest of his charmingly eccentric New York family to his day job as an editor at Esquire. Jacobs's project tests the outer limits of his stamina and forces him to explore the real meaning of intelligence as he endeavors to join Mensa, win a spot on Jeopardy!, and absorb 33,000 pages of learning. On his journey he stumbles upon some of the strangest, funniest, and most profound facts about every topic under the sun, all while battling fatigue, ridicule, and the paralyzing fear that attends his first real-life responsibility -- the impending birth of his first child. The Know-It-All is an ingenious, mightily entertaining memoir of one man's intellect, neuroses, and obsessions and a soul-searching, ultimately touching struggle between the all-consuming quest for factual knowledge and the undeniable gift of hard-won wisdom. Syndetics

Krakatoa : the day the world exploded, August 27, 1883 by Simon Winchester(2003)In this first US edition, the author of the The Map That Changed the World portrays the 19th-century eruption of a Javanese volcano that still has global repercussions in both historical and scientific contexts. The book includes maps and other illustrations. Published in Great Britain by Viking, 2003. Annotation ©2004 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)Syndetics

The rescue artist : a true story of art, thieves, and the hunt for a missing masterpiece by Edward Dolnick(2005)In the predawn gloom of a February day in 1994, two thieves entered the National Gallery in Oslo and snatched one of the world's most famous paintings, Edvard Munch's The Scream. Baffled and humiliated, the Norwegian police called on the world's greatest art detective, a half-English, half-American undercover cop named Charley Hill. In this rollicking narrative, author Dolnick takes us inside the art underworld. The trail leads high and low, from titled aristocrats to thick-necked thugs. We meet Munch, too, a haunted misfit who spends his evenings drinking in the Black Piglet Café and his nights feverishly trying to capture in paint the visions in his head. The most compelling character of all is Charley Hill, a complicated mix of brilliance, foolhardiness, and charm.--From publisher description.

Schott's original miscellany by Ben Schott(2003)Where else can readers find, packed onto one page the 13 principles of witchcraft, the structure of military hierarchy, all of the clothing-care symbols, a list of the countries where people drive on the left, and a nursery rhyme about sneezing? Syndetics

The tough guide to Fantasyland by Diana Wynne Jones(2006)

Zamba : the true story of the greatest lion that ever lived by Ralph Helfer(2005)

Nonfiction for Teens

Random Facts

Nonfiction for Teens