A book about an object that changed the world

Between the Lines 2025 Reading Challenge Book Prompt #10

Updated December 13, 2024
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100 things we've lost to the internet
Paul, Pamela
Paper Book
The acclaimed editor of The New York Times Book Review takes readers on a nostalgic tour of the pre-Internet age, offering powerful insights into both the profound and the seemingly trivial things we've lost. NAMED ONE OF THE TEN BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY CHICAGO TRIBUNE<...
Countdown 1945 : the extraordinary story of the atomic bomb and the 116 days that changed the world
Wallace, Chris
Paper Book
The #1 national bestselling "riveting" (The New York Times), "propulsive" (Time) behind-the-scenes account "that reads like a tense thriller" (The Washington Post) of the 116 days leading up to the American attack on Hiroshima, by Chris Wallace, veteran journalist and...
Cryptonomicon
Stephenson, Neal.
Paper Book
With this extraordinary first volume in an epoch-making masterpiece, Neal Stephenson hacks into the secret histories of nations and the private obsessions of men, decrypting with dazzling virtuosity the forces that shaped this century. In 1942, Lawrence Pritchard Waterhouse--mathematical...
Frostbite : how refrigeration changed our food, our planet, and ourselves
Twilley, Nicola
Paper Book
How often do we open the fridge or peer into the freezer with the expectation that we'll find something fresh and ready to eat? It's an everyday act - but just a century ago, eating food that had been refrigerated was cause for both fear and excitement. The introduction of artificial refrigeration...
The gunslinger
King, Stephen
Paper Book
"An impressive work of mythic magnitude that may turn out to be Stephen King's greatest literary achievement" (The Atlanta Journal-Constitution), The Gunslinger is the first volume in the epic Dark Tower Series. A #1 national bestseller, The Gunslinger...
Half life : a novel
Cantor, Jillian
Paper Book
The USA Today bestselling author of In Another Time reimagines the pioneering, passionate life of Marie Curie using a parallel structure to create two alternative timelines, one that mirrors her real life, one that explores the consequences for Marie and for science if she'd made a different...
The hobbit, or, There and back again
Tolkien, J. R. R.
Paper Book
This deluxe hardcover edition of J.R.R. Tolkien's classic prelude to his Lord of the Rings trilogy contains a short introduction by Christopher Tolkien, a reset text incorporating the most up-to-date corrections, and all of Tolkien's own drawings and full-color illustrations, including the rare...
Kill chain : the rise of the high-tech assassins
Cockburn, Andrew
Paper Book
An essential and page-turning narrative on the history of drone warfare by the acclaimed author of Rumsfeld, exploring how this practice emerged, who made it happen, and the real consequences of targeted killing Assassination by drone is a subject of deep and enduring fascination....
The last days of night : a novel
Moore, Graham
Paper Book
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * "A world of invention and skulduggery, populated by the likes of Edison, Westinghouse, and Tesla."--Erik Larson   "A model of superior historical fiction . . . an exciting, sometimes astonishing story."--The Washington Post<...
The librarian spy : a novel of World War II
Martin, Madeline
Paper Book
A NATIONAL BESTSELLER--for fans of All the Light We Cannot See and The Tattooist of Auschwitz! "Readers will be on the edge of their seats....  A brilliant tale of resistance, courage and ultimately hope."  -Kelly Rimmer, New York Times bestselling author of The...
The lion, the witch, and the wardrobe
Lewis, C. S.
Paper Book
Don't miss one of America's top 100 most-loved novels, selected by PBS's The Great American Read. A full-color paperback edition of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, book two in the classic fantasy series The Chronicles of Narnia. This edition is complete with full-color cover and...
Moonbound : Apollo 11 and the dream of spaceflight
Fetter-Vorm, Jonathan
Paper Book
On July 20, 1969, something extraordinary happened, something civilizations had dreamed of for centuries: humans walked on the moon. Jonathan Fetter-Vorm's Moonbound is the story behind those first steps. It begins with the tense, suspense-filled descent of the spidery Lunar Module, which...
Radio girls
Stratford, Sarah Jane
Paper Book
The Great War is over, and change is in the air, in this novel that brings to life the exciting days of early British radio...and one woman who finds her voice while working alongside the brilliant women and men of the BBC.   London, 1926. American-raised Maisie...
Switchboard soldiers : a novel
Chiaverini, Jennifer
Paper Book
From New York Times bestselling author Jennifer Chiaverini, a bold, revelatory novel about one of the great untold stories of World War I--the women of the U.S. Army Signal Corps, who broke down gender barriers in the military and battled a pandemic as they helped lead the...
The Time Machine
Wells, H. G.
Paper Book
Wells's genre-defining novel of time travel When a Victorian scientist propels himself into the year a.d. 802,701, he is initially delighted to find that suffering has been replaced by beauty, contentment, and peace. Entranced at first by the Eloi, an elfin species descended from man, he...
The world in a grain : the story of sand and how it transformed civilization
Beiser, Vince
Paper Book
Except for water and air, sand is the natural resource that we consume more than any other - more than oil, more than natural gas. Every concrete building and paved road on Earth, every computer screen and silicon chip, exists because of sand. From Egypt's pyramids to the Hubble telescope, from the...

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