Ilumina Public Library: El Paso County's All-Digital Library

Henry D. Thoreau (1817–62) was an American author, naturalist, poet, and philosopher. He wrote many essays and books, including Civil Disobedience, Walking, and The Maine Woods, among others. John Updike (1932–2009) was a Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist, short story writer, and poet. One of the most influential and compelling books in American literature, Walden is a vivid account of the years that Henry D. Thoreau spent alone in a secluded...

Knut Hamsun believed that modern literature should express the complexity of the human mind and nowhere is that philosophy more evident than in this stunning modern masterpiece, "Hunger." First published in 1890 in Norwegian and based on Hamsun's own experiences with poverty prior to his success as an author, "Hunger" tells the story of an unnamed vagrant who stumbles around the streets of Norway's capital city of Kristiania (now Oslo) looking for...

Anyone can think up an idea. The thing that counts is developing it into a practical product. The lessons of Henry Ford, one of America's greatest business innovators, are as fresh and vital today as they were in 1922, when this extraordinary book was first published. Ford explains: how his experiences as an employee influenced his philosophies as an employer. It's easy to see that much of Ford's wisdom has been, forgotten today and that individual...

Stock-car racing star, country singer, and sports broadcaster Kyle Petty shares his familial legacy, intertwined with NASCAR’s founding and history, in Swerve or Die―written with Pulitzer Prize-winner Ellis Henican, the New York Times bestselling coauthor of In the Blink of an Eye. Kyle Petty won his very first stock-car race, the Daytona ARCA 200, in 1979 when he was eighteen. Hailed as a third-generation professional NASCAR racer, he became...

She was born Dolores Conchita Figueroa del Rivero--until the entertainment world renamed her. But Dolores--the irreverent side of the sensual, dark and ferocious Chita--was always present center stage, and was influential in creating some of Broadway most iconic and acclaimed roles, including Anita in West Side Story' the part that made her a star--Rosie in Bye Bye, Birdie, Velma in Chicago, and Aurora in Kiss of the Spider Woman. Written in gratitude...

A deeply moving and painfully honest memoir from the trailblazing, World Cup—winning, Olympic gold medalist, and US Women's soccer goalie Briana Scurry. Briana Scurry was a pioneer on the US Women's National Team. She won gold in Atlanta in 1996, the first-time women's soccer was ever played in the Olympics. She was a key part of the fabled "99ers," making an epic save in the decisive penalty-kick shootout in the final. Scurry captured her second...

In this uplifting memoir, a professor and activist shares what birds can teach us about life, social change, and protecting the environment. Trish O'Kane never expected to be a birder. She was a world-traveled journalist with no science background who surprised herself in her forties by falling in love with birds. Cut to seventeen years later, and O'Kane is a highly qualified ornithologist who teaches at the University of Vermont and is the creator...

Un autorretrato de insólita emotividad al tiempo que exquisita recreación de la sensibilidad de las mujeres de nuestra época. -- The New York Times -- Cuando la gran autora chilena se encontraba en España con ocasión de la presentación de El plan infinito, su hija entró en estado de coma. Junto al lecho de Paula, mientras seguía con angustia la evolución de su enfermedad, Isabel Allende comenzó a redactar en un cuaderno una historia de su...

The company he founded in 1970, the Huntsman Corporation, is now one of the largest petrochemical manufacturers in the world, employing more than 12,000 people and generating over $10 billion in revenue each year. Success in business, though, has always been a means to an end-never an end in itself. In Barefoot to Billionaire, Huntsman revisits the key moments in his life that shaped his view of faith, family, service, and the responsibility that...

An unflinching and deeply reported look at the realities of binge-eating disorder from a rising culture commentator and writer for Vogue. Millions of us use restrictive diets, intermittent fasting, IV therapies, and Ozempic abuse to shrink until we are sample-size acceptable. But for the 30 million Americans who live with eating eating disorders, it isn't just about less. More, Please is a chronicle of a lifelong fixation with food-its power to soothe,...