Frank Carlson Library

In 1941, fifteen-year-old Lina is preparing for art school, first dates, and all that summer has to offer. But one night, the Soviet secret police barge violently into her home, deporting her, along with her mother and younger brother, by cattle car to Siberia. Lina's father has been separated from the family and sentenced to death in a prison camp. All seems to be lost, but Lina refuses to give up hope. Will that be enough to keep her alive?

"At a glittering society party in St. Petersburg in 1805, conversations are dominated by the prospect of war. Terror swiftly engulfs the country as Napoleon?s army marches on Russia, and the lives of three young people are changed forever. The stories of quixotic Pierre, cynical Andrey, and impetuous Natasha interweave with a huge cast, from aristocrats and peasants, to soldiers and Napoleon himself. In War and Peace, Tolstoy entwines grand themes--conflict...

The Soviets' new ballistic-missile submarine is attempting to defect to the United States, but the Soviet Atlantic fleet has been ordered to find and destroy her at all costs. Can Red October reach the U.S. safely? Gripping military thriller about the chase after a top-secret Russian missilesubmarine.

"Although historians are increasingly giving Reagan and John Paul II due credit for their roles in ending the Cold War, Kengor reveals the depth and significance of the bond between the president and the pope. New details based on the author's unique access to Reagan insiders and his tireless archival research are provided. The role of the Marian apparition at Fatima on May 13, 1917 is explored as key to understanding both the bond between JP II and...

"What happens if both the president and vice-president-elect die before taking the oath of office? The answer is far from certain--in fact, what follows would be nothing short of total political chaos. Shot down over Siberia, ex-Justice Department agent Cotton Malone is forced into a fight for survival against Aleksandr Zorin, a man whose loyalty to the former Soviet Union has festered for decades into an intense hatred of the United States. Before...

"Journalist Adam Higginbotham's definitive, years-in-the-making account of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant disaster--and a powerful investigation into how propaganda, secrecy, and myth have obscured the true story of one of the twentieth century's greatest disasters. Early in the morning of April 26, 1986, Reactor Number Four of the Chernobyl Atomic Energy Station exploded, triggering history's worst nuclear disaster. In the thirty years since then,...

Elena Gorokhova describes her childhood in the Soviet Union during the 1960s, and also discusses her passion for the English language, the Bolshevik Revolution, and more.

Between 1930 and 1932, Henry Ford sent over one hundred of his Detroit employees and their families to live in Gorky, Russia, to operate a new manufacturing facility. This is the true story of one of those families--Carl and Elisabeth Werner and their young daughter Margaret--and their terrifying life in Russia under brutal dictator Joseph Stalin. Margaret was seventeen when her father was arrested on trumped-up charges of treason. Heartbroken and...

"A thrilling, witty, and slyly original Cold War mystery about a ragtag group of Jewish refuseniks in Moscow. On his wedding day in 1976, Viktor Moroz stumbles upon a murder scene: two gay men, one of them a US official, are axed to death in Moscow. Viktor, a Jewish refusenik, is stuck in Russia due to the government's denial of his application to leave for Israel; he sits "in refusal" alongside his wife and their community of intellectuals, Jewish...