Books like The Missing dimension by Christopher M. Andrew

Jared Diamond explains how geography, biology, and human ingenuity shaped the world’s unequal societies in his Pulitzer‑winning study of civilization and social evolution.

A compelling overview of American history through the eyes and experiences of its women, workers, African Americans, Native Americans, immigrants, and the working poor.

Adam Smith’s seminal 1776 treatise that laid the groundwork for modern economic theory, presented here in a reprint of Edwin Cannan’s 1904 edition with a new preface by economist George J. Stigler.

Carl Sagan’s Cosmos traces the history of science and the universe’s evolution, from ancient philosophers to modern discoveries, and explores the quest to understand life beyond Earth.

The author of The Clearing ("the finest American novel in a long, long time"--Annie Proulx) now surpasses himself with a story whose range and cast of characters is even broader, with the fate of a stolen child looming throughout.Sam Simoneaux's troopship docked in France just as World War I came to an end. Still, what he saw of the devastation there sent him back to New Orleans eager for a normal life and a job as a floorwalker in the city's biggest department store, and to start anew with his wife years after losing a son to illness. But when a little girl disappears from the store on his shift, he loses his job and soon joins her parents working on a steamboat plying the Mississippi and providing musical entertainment en route. Sam comes to suspect that on the downriver journey someone had seen this magical child and arranged to steal her away, and this quest leads him not only into this raucous new life on the river and in the towns along its banks but also on a journey deep into the Arkansas wilderness. Here he begins to piece together what had happened to the girl--a discovery that endangers everyone involved and sheds new light on the massacre of his own family decades before.Tim Gautreaux brings to vivid life the exotic world of steamboats and shifting currents and rough crowds, of the music of the twenties, of a nation lurching away from war into an uneasy peace at a time when civilization was only beginning to penetrate a hinterlands in which law was often an unknown force. The Missing is the story of a man fighting to redeem himself, of parents coping with horrific loss with only a whisper of hope to sustain them, of others for whom kidnapping is either only a job or a dream come true. The suspense--and the complicated web of violence that eventually links Sam to complete strangers--is relentless, urgently engaging and, ultimately, profoundly moving, the finest demonstration yet of Gautreaux's understanding of landscape, history, human travail, and hope.From the Hardcover edition.

THE BRIDESMAID... AND THE GROOM Alexandra Williams was certain her co-worker Natalie's wedding was a mistake. It was clear Nat was interested only in her fiance's money; she seemed totally immune to Thorn Powell's good looks, his personality, his-- Well, okay, maybe Alexandra was a tad jealous. Until the bride flew the coop. Now Thorn was furious. He insisted bridesmaid Alexandra help him track down his missing bride. The gorgeous groom had never given her a second glance before, but now all this togetherness was having a most unexpected payoff. Would there be a wedding after all?

The CIA's hidden manual of magic and deception: How the agency taught its agents to use sleight of hand for espionage and covert operations during the Cold War.

First published 1993. "It's a bit late to play the devoted nephew!" Mr. "I'm-in-charge" Sarrizen might be able to pull the wool over his great-aunt's eyes, but not Charlie's! Faces didn't lie, and his was the sort that belonged to a buccaneer or a highwayman-not a loving nephew. Facts don't lie, either. Hadn't Charlie written the wretched man five letters-all of them begging him to come and visit his dangerously ill relative? Admittedly, he'd eventually shown up. But that only proved he was interested in his great-aunt's wealth, not her health. Which made it all the more galling when he found out about Charlie's pretend engagement to his cousin and accused her of trying to take advantage of his great-aunt!

The Structure of Scientific Revolutions by Thomas S. Kuhn.