Washoe County Library System

Somewhere in South America, at the home of the country's vice president, a lavish birthday party is being held in honor of Mr. Hosokawa, a powerful Japanese businessman. Roxanne Coss, opera's most revered soprano, has mesmerized the international guests with her singing. It is a perfect evening -- until a band of gun-wielding terrorists breaks in through the air-conditioning vents and takes the entire party hostage. But what begins as a panicked,...

"Soon after the horrific events of September 11, newsroom staffers at The New York Times began to ask about the real people, the names and faces behind the unimaginable statistics. Their efforts, which grew into the daily "Portraits of Grief" feature, gathered force over the ensuing weeks and eventually became a cultural phenomenon on a national scale. Each day, readers in New York and across the country spent a few moments getting to know the doting...

A moving portrait of four lives that came together in a moment, proving that being in the wrong place at the worst time can lead to unexpectedly beautiful things.

"On April 5, 2013, Rebekah Gregory and her five-year-old son waited at the finish line of the Boston Marathon to support a friend who was running. When the blast of a homemade bomb packed with nails and screws went off three feet away, Rebekah's legs took the brunt of the explosion, protecting her son from certain death. Seventeen surguries later, she finally made the decision to have her left leg amputated. The stirring memoir tells the story...

At 8:46 A.M. on September 11, 2001, 14,000 people were inside the twin towers-reading e-mails, making trades, eating croissants at Windows on the World. Over the next 102 minutes, each would become part of a drama for the ages, one witnessed only by the people who lived it-until now. Chance encounters, moments of grace, a shout across an office shaped these minutes, marking the border between fear and solace, staking the boundary between life and...