BREAKING THROUGH: my life in science

by Nobel Prize winner Dr. Katalin Karikó

Katalin Karikó spent decades working in near-total obscurity on an idea she alone was convinced might change the world: that messenger RNA could one day become a form of medicine. Karikó, the daughter of a butcher who grew up behind the Iron Curtain in postwar communist Hungary, arrived in the United States with her life’s savings sewn into her daughter’s teddy bear. Once here, her research was belittled, ignored, and even laughed at by the (mostly male) scientists with whom she worked. Finally, after forty years, her idea finally met its moment in the development of the first-ever mRNA vaccines for the SARS CoV-2 virus. Her legacy doesn’t stop there; Karikó’s research will be the basis a vast array of new medicines, treatments, and vaccines to come. This is a remarkable story of persistence, grit, curiosity, and redemption.

THE KEEPER: A Life of Saving Goals, and Achieving Them

by Tim Howard

In his memoir, the beloved U.S. and Everton goalkeeper finally allows himself to do something that he would never do on the field: he drops his guard. Howard opens up for the first time about how a hyperactive kid from New Jersey with Tourette Syndrome defied the odds to become one of the greatest American keepers in history. He recalls his childhood, being raised by a single mother who instilled in him a love of all sports and his struggle to cope with Tourette Syndrome and OCD. The Keeper is also a chronicle of the personal sacrifices he’s made for his career, including the ultimate dissolution of Howard’s marriage—a casualty of what he calls his “addiction to winning”—and its most painful consequence: his separation from his two children.

THE KEEPER: The Unguarded Story of Tim Howard (Younger Readers’ Edition)

The young readers’ edition of Tim’s memoir is a heartwarming story about a boy with a dream to be great, the sacrifices he made to achieve that dream, and the loved ones who helped him on his journey. A Junior Library Guild Selection

Positive, a memoir by Paige Rawl

Paige was an ordinary girl.Cheerleader, soccer player, honor roll student. One of the good kids at her middle school. Then, on an unremarkable day, Paige disclosed the one thing that made her “different”: her HIV-positive status. Within hours, the bullying began. They called her PAIDS. Left cruel notes on her locker. Talked in whispers about her and mocked her openly. One night, desperate for escape, Paige found herself in front of the medicine cabinet, staring at a bottle of sleeping pills. That could have been the end of her story. Instead, it was only the beginning. In this astonishing memoir, Paige immerses the reader in her experience and tells a story that is both deeply personal and completely universal: a story of one girl overcoming relentless bullying by choosing to be Positive. The TODAY SHOW’s first-ever non-fiction Book Club selection and a Junior Library Guild selection.