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

This ancient Chinese military text dissects thirteen aspects of warfare from a strategical and intellectual point of view. Deploring the use of excess force causing economic and civilian losses while discussing strategies that are still relevant to modern warfare, the text continues to resonate with readers around the world and has been considered fundamental in military doctrine for over two thousand years. The Art of War was first translated...

"My Inventions" is a candid and illuminating autobiography of Nikola Tesla, one of the most important technological innovators of the modern industrial age. Famous for the radio, robotics, and wireless energy, Tesla quickly gained international notoriety for his pioneering inventions as much for his eccentric life. Perhaps no one in his day more thoroughly embodied the archetype of the "mad scientist". This firsthand account reveals the fascinating...

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...

Reminiscent of the works of Mary Karr and Terese Marie Mailhot, a memoir of family and survival, coming-of-age on and off the reservation, and of the frictions between mainstream American culture and Native inheritance; assimilation and reverence for tradition. Deborah Jackson Taffa was raised to believe that some sacrifices were necessary to achieve a better life. Her grandparents—citizens of the Quechan Nation and Laguna Pueblo tribe—were sent...

When I Was Your Age is a hilarious, heartwarming and surprising ode to growing up, getting older and wiser, and luck, life, and learning from the school of hard knocks, from SNL's longest-serving actor, Kenan Thompson Kenan Thompson is Saturday Night Live’s longest-ever-serving cast member and a star of such pioneering sketches as “Black Jeopardy” and is hugely beloved thanks to a tidal wave of nostalgic fans who grew up on early 2000s classics...

In this stunning and triumphant memoir, the author of the New York Times bestseller Nowhere for Very Long continues her story: a tale of a woman reckoning with the decision to live alone and unburdened in the desert Southwest, in a trailer without running water or electricity, with nothing to her name and no one for company except the four dogs in her pack. In her debut memoir, Nowhere for Very Long, Brianna Madia reflected on her solitary life...

Features new material on the Golden State Killer's case and an updated afterword by Patton Oswalt. #1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR: Washington Post Maureen Corrigan, NPR Paste Seattle Times Entertainment Weekly Esquire Slate Buzzfeed Jezebel Philadelphia Inquirer Publishers Weekly Kirkus Reviews Library Journal Bustle Mother Jones Real Simple Crime Reads Book Riot Bookish Amazon Barnes and Noble Hudson Booksellers...

-- Educated by Tara Westover and The Distance Between Us by Reyna Grande, My Side of the River explores separation, generational trauma, and the toll of the American dream. It’s also, at its core, a love story between a brother and a sister who, no matter the cost, is determined to make the pursuit of her brother’s dreams easier than it was for her.