Find the #1 NYT Bestseller Inner Excellence by Jim Murphy from your local library.
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More books by Jim Murphy
1. Heart Mountain Chronicles
While others have written about the people who were interned in Japanese relocation centers during WWII, this is the story about one of the camps, told by two brothers who lived there. This book records the history of the Heart Mountain Relocation Center beginning on December 7, 1941, with the bombing of Pearl Harbor to April 22, 1953, when the Heart Mountain Post Office closed because nobody lived there anymore. The Center, located between the towns of Cody and Powell in northern Wyoming, was built in just 60 days to imprison 11,000 persons of Japanese ancestry living along the West Coast during WWII. This is the record of who built the internment camp, where the blueprints came from, how its infrastructure turned out the way it did, who managed it, how the prisoners completed its construction with their own labor, what life was like living in such a place, and what happened to the camp after the war was over. It is a fascinating study of a temporary city, its people, and all the accompanying community services that had to be created from scratch in a short time with few resources.
2. Versions of May
Jim Murphy proclaims himself “always more lucky than wise,” but he writes about his lucky life with rueful wisdom, even as his tender love for family and the simple delights of daily life are constantly intruded on by the poet’s keen and pained awareness of the great machinations of the larger world and history’s depredations on happiness, which despite everything remains happiness, and Versions of May acknowledges it as such. This book is a “script that contains all the needed fissures and the cracks in sense” joyfully and with great artistry. Andrew Hudgins, Author of A Clown at Midnight and The Joker: A Memoir
3. Crashed Wagon Canyon
Gold…silver…precious gems…the stuff dreams are made of. This is the story of a hoard of just such valuable metals and stones, whose journey begins in the year 1311, when the Knights Templar were prosecuted. A small band of valiant knights escape with the hoard and the turbulent journey begins. It’s 2525, and enter Mary and James McGoldenck, a young couple from Laramie, Wyoming, who fall in love with metal detecting and rock hounding, and because of those activities, trek all over Wyoming seeking buried treasures. Enter a villain from Louisiana, Jean Pierre LaCroix – drug dealer, money launderer, human trafficker, murder – these are just a few of his methods of making money. Follow Mary and James as they deal with deadly encounters, ambushes, difficult terrains, a mysterious American Indian, Thomas Light Horse, who shows up out of nowhere, and an old rancher named Chester Wilcox, who owns the ranch that holds Crashed Wagon Canyon.
4. Millionaire’s Guide to Better Credit
Learn how to repair your own credit. Which laws matter when dealing with creditors, Collectors, and the Credit Bureau’s directly. This book shows you HOW credit is scored, why some debts can be removed, as well as laws that govern the different pieces. There is also a plan on how to start from scratch and start building your credit. Credit is a game, When you understand the rules of the game you can win.
5. The Boys’ War
An ALA Best Book for Young Adults: Firsthand accounts of the experiences of boys sixteen and younger who fought in the Civil War, with photos included. Winner of the Golden Kite Award for Nonfiction “Making extensive use of the actual words—culled from diaries, journals, memoirs, and letters—of boys who served in the Union and Confederate armies as fighting soldiers as well as drummers, buglers, and telegraphers, Murphy describes the beginnings of the Civil War and goes on to delineate the military role of the underage soldiers and their life in the camps and field bivouacs. Also included is a description of the boys’ return home and the effects upon them of their wartime experiences…An excellent selection of more than 45 sepia-toned contemporary photographs augment the text of this informative, moving work.” —School Library Journal (starred review) “This wrenching look at our nation’s bloodiest conflict through the eyes of its youthful participants serves up history both heartbreaking and enlightening.” —Publishers Weekly “This well-researched and readable account provides fresh insight into the human cost of a pivotal event in United States history.” —The Horn Book (starred review)
6. The Great Fire
The Great Fire of 1871 was one of most colossal disasters in American history. Overnight, the flourshing city of Chicago was transformed into a smoldering wasteland. The damage was so profound that few people believed the city could ever rise again.By weaving personal accounts of actual survivors together with the carefully researched history of Chicago and the disaster, Jim Murphy constructs a riveting narrative that recreates the event with drama and immediacy. And finally, he reveals how, even in a time of deepest dispair, the human spirit triumphed, as the people of Chicago found the courage and strength to build their city once again.
7. Truce
Two-time Newbery Honor Book author Jim Murphy writes a stunning nonfiction masterpiece about a Christmas miracle on the Western Front during World War I. On July 29th 1914, the world’s peace was shattered as the artillery of the Austria-Hungary Empire began shelling the troops of the country to its south. What followed was like a row of falling dominoes as one European country after another rushed into war. Soon most of Europe was fighting in this calamitous war that could have been avoided. This was, of course, the First World War. But who could have guessed that on December 25 the troops would openly defy their commanding officers by stopping the fighting and having a spontaneous celebration of Christmas with their “enemies”? In what can only be described as a Christmas Miracle, this beautiful and heartrending narrative will remind everyone how brotherhood and love for one another reaches far beyond war and politics.
8. Breakthrough!
“Murphy’s dramatic nonfiction narrative recounting of one of the first open heart surgeries ever performed is not to be missed.” —School Library Journal (starred review) In 1944, a groundbreaking operation repaired the congenital heart defect known as blue baby syndrome. The operation’s success brought the surgeon Alfred Blalock international fame and paved the way for open-heart surgery. But the technique had been painstakingly developed by Vivien Thomas, Blalock’s African American lab assistant, who stood behind Blalock in the operating room to give him step-by-step instructions. The stories of this medical and social breakthrough and the lives of Thomas, Blalock, and their colleague Dr. Helen Taussig are intertwined in this compelling nonfiction narrative. Winner, Notable Books for a Global Society * Horn Book Fanfare List * A Booklist Best Young Adult Book
9. The God Virus
An ancient virus is turning animals into people and people into monsters. Two romantically inclined mutants lead a pack of transforming pilgrims from Miami across Africa to Rome. Their two-fold purpose: stop the cure for the disease that created them, and get the Pope’s OK for non-humans to marry. A virus from billions of years in the past has emerged from ancient salt beds with devastating results. As the virus turns evolution on its head, people are changed into monsters, animals begin to demand their rights, and civilization is brought to its knees. The few remaining humans seek safety in the quarantine of walled cities such as the Vatican. They desperately seek a cure, but the only one they find may have results too horrible to contemplate Judeus and Miranda, recent converts to the phylum Porifera, set out with a were-wolfish priest, a planeload of mutating pilgrims, and a sabre-tooth shape-shifting cat on their own journey from Miami to the Vatican. One wants to teach the Pope how to pray in this strange new world. The other wants to stop the cure being developed by the remaining humans. And they both want to get the Pope’s final answer on whether non-humans should marry. With their plane shot down over Africa, they learn that strange events are not limited just to the civilized parts of the world. Is the virus God’s punishment on the world? Or is there no god but the virus? Or is the virus going to create a new god? Can three sponge-monsters straighten this mess out?
10. An American Plague
National Book Award Finalist: An account of the disease that ravaged eighteenth-century Philadelphia, written and illustrated for young readers. 1793, Philadelphia: The nation’s capital and the largest city in North America is devastated by an apparently incurable disease, cause unknown… This dramatic narrative describes the illness known as yellow fever and the toll it took on the city’s residents, relating the epidemic to the social and political events of the day and eighteenth-century medical beliefs and practices. Drawing on first-hand accounts, Jim Murphy spotlights the heroic role of Philadelphia’s free blacks in combating the disease, and the Constitutional crisis President Washington faced when he was forced to leave the city—and all his papers—to escape the deadly contagion. The search for the fever’s causes and cure provides a suspenseful counterpoint to this riveting true story of a city under siege. Winner of multiple awards, this thoroughly researched book offers a look at the conditions of cities at the time of our nation’s birth, and draws timely parallels to modern-day epidemics. “A lavishly illustrated book, containing maps, newspaper columns and period illustrations…unflinchingly presents the horrors of the event as well as its heroes.”—The New York Times “Pair this work with Laurie Halse Anderson’s wonderful novel Fever 1793 and you’ll have students hooked on history.”—School Library Journal “History, science, politics, and public health come together in this dramatic account of the disastrous yellow fever epidemic that hit the nation’s capital more than 200 years ago.”—Booklist
11. Guys Read: True Stories
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by: Jon Scieszka, Jim Murphy, Elizabeth Partridge, Nathan Hale, James Sturm, C, ace Fleming, Douglas Florian, Sy Montgomery, Steve Sheinkin, T. Edward Nickens, Thanhhà Lai
Release date: Sep 16, 2014
Number of Pages: 187
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Jon Scieszka’s Guys Read anthology series for tweens turns to nonfiction in its fifth volume, True Stories. The fifth installment in the Guys Read Library of Great Reading features ten stories that are 100% amazing, 100% adventurous, 100% unbelievable—and 100% true. A star-studded group of award-winning nonfiction authors and journalists provides something for every reader, all aligned with the Common Core State Standards. Compiled and edited by real-life literature legend Jon Scieszka, Guys Read: True Stories is a mind-blowing collection of essays, biographies, how-to guides, and more, all proving that the truth is most definitely out there. Supports the Common Core State Standards
12. The 10 Football Matches That Changed the World
The assertion that ‘football isn’t a matter of life or death, it’s much more important than that’ has been verified repeatedly throughout modern history. It has bolstered tyrants and helped depose them; contributed to conflict and created ceasefires. It has been an incubator of racism at home and helped bring down a racist regime abroad; shaped cities, changed cultures and inspired resistance. Its impact is as dynamic as the game itself. In this fascinating exploration, Jim Murphy takes us on a journey around the world and through the years, from Franco’s Spain to Africa’s Alcatraz, Robben Island. Charting the match that sparked a Central American war, the Barcelona team threatened at gunpoint, and the game that helped save Rupert Murdoch’s media empire, among much else, Murphy lends a fresh new perspective to some of the most iconic moments in international football. Blending a love of the game with an appreciation of its place in global events, this is an authoritative and often humorous mix of sport and history, featuring fascinating first-hand insights from those most involved in the ten matches that changed the world … and the one that didn’t.
13. The Uniform House
This powerful book is kaleidoscopic in all ways-patterns of language, history, and landscape tumble down the page to be formed anew on the next. It is reflective and absorbing at once. It brings dignity and insight to a raw, unlettered world in order to find its worth and its grief. It is an effort to remember and redeem, and a further effort to find the truth. Yet finally, I think, this book is joyous; it delivers a rare and hard-sought vision of joy. One cannot read this book and not feel lifted and, thereby, free. Maurice Manning, author of “The Gone and the Going Away,” Professor of English at Transylvania University in Lexington, Kentucky, and past recipient of the Yale Series of Younger Poets Award for Lawrence Booth’s Book of Visions.
14. The Giant and How He Humbugged America
When a 10-foot tall purported “petrified man” is unearthed from a backyard in upstate New York in 1869, the discovery immediately turns into a spectacle of epic proportions. News of the giant spreads like wildfire, and well over a thousand people come to view him in the first five days alone!Everyone has their own idea of his true origin: Is he an ancient member of the local Onandaga Indian tribe? Is he a biblical giant like Goliath? Soon the interests of world-renowned scientists and people from around the globe are piqued as arguments flare over who he is, where he came from, and if he is real–or just a hoax. In a riveting account of how the Cardiff Giant mystery snowballed into one of America’s biggest money-making spectacles–and scams–Jim Murphy masterfully explores the power of 19th-century media and the unexpected ripple effect that a single corrupt mastermind can produce when given a stage.
15. Invincible Microbe
This is the story of a killer that has been striking people down for thousands of years: tuberculosis. After centuries of ineffective treatments, the microorganism that causes TB was identified, and the cure was thought to be within reach–but drug-resistant varieties continue to plague and panic the human race. The “biography” of this deadly germ, an account of the diagnosis, treatment, and “cure” of the disease over time, and the social history of an illness that could strike anywhere but was most prevalent among the poor are woven together in an engrossing, carefully researched narrative. Bibliography, source notes, index.
16. Crisis in Our Classrooms
It has become clear o those paying attention that America is in a downward spiral of moral decay and is spinning out of control. It is time to wake up the uninformed and to expose the causes of this moral decline. The future of America is at stake, and, unfortunately, the minds of America’s youth are the battleground. In Crisis in Our Classrooms: The Lies We Tell Our Children, author, teacher, father, and retired US Navy chief petty officer Jim Murphy presents a no-holds-barred rebuttal of America’s secular education system, especially of the two main culprits—evolution (with no mention of Creation) and sex education. Murphy begins by exploring the untruths being spread and the methods of control used by secular institutions, but he also shows how everyone has played a part in allowing these large and entrenched special interests to take control. Through lessons designed for group or individual study, Crisis in Our Classrooms offers hope and ammunition for the struggle and the change that needs to happen as America moves forward. This change needs to happen now, before it’s too late—parents, students, and all concerned citizens should stand united and show the educational system and historians of America that we are still accountable to a higher purpose and meaning beyond ourselves. We are still responsible for upholding the values and principles that alone can save America and her children.
17. Weird & Wacky Inventions
A hair-cutting machine, a used gum receptacle, jumping shoes, and more of the strangest inventions ever! A hat that can tip itself. A suitcase that turns into a bathtub. A pair of protective eyeglasses for chickens. These are just three of the hundreds of unusual inventions that people have dreamed up over the last two centuries. Some, such as the mustache guard, made perfect sense when they first appeared. Others were considered just plain silly. Jim Murphy has compiled a collection of the weirdest and wackiest inventions and presented them in a quiz style that is challenging and fun. Simple, clear explanations are provided on how the inventions worked or failed to work. Complete with over 100 colored illustrations of these crazy creations, this is the perfect gift for any child interested in science and inventions. Ages: 9–12.
18. Baffling & Bizarre Inventions
A talking watch. An overcoat for two. A pair of pants for poodles. In his companion to Weird & Wacky Inventions, Jim Murphy shows kids some additional baffling and utterly silly inventions in the form of a guessing game that is both challenging and fun. What is a finger-supporting device used for? Can you really buy that talking watch? What on earth is a beard grinder? Whether it’s a device for shaping the upper lip or a life preserver for horses, this parade of unusual inventions is a real treat for trivia lovers and any curious kid with an interest in science and inventions. Ages: 9–12.
19. The Next Buddha
Can a single act of love save the world from destruction? A peasant born in pre-war Vietnam has memories of a life he will live in the future. These memories offer clues as to why he must now face the horrors of slavery and war in his current life. Is karma a punishment, or is it simply a choice we make? An Dong, a peasant in French Indochina, has dreams of a life he has lived before, but the dreams are of a place and a time that no one could possibly have seen–a place in the future history of a different country. In contrast to his current life of degradation and slavery, his future life is one of freedom and happiness, at least at first. He becomes convinced that his dreams are telling him that he must take action in his current life in order to keep safe that world of the future, but what it is he is supposed to do is not clear. If such things as reincarnation and karma are real, what is their nature? What are the laws that govern them? Are they punishments for lives poorly lived, or are they choices we make?
20. The Crossing
It is 1776, and George Washington’s army of rebellious colonists is emboldened by its stunning victories over the British at Lexington and Concord, and at having driven the world’s most formidable army from Boston. But now they face the threat of a brutal British retaliation. George Washington, who has little military experience, is unanimously chosen as commander in chief-in the hope that he can whip his ragtag, unruly troops into a real fighting army. As the British begin their invasion of New York City and out-battle the Americans in one encounter after another, George Washington isn’t the only one who is overcome with doubts. In a breathtaking account of this pivotal moment in the Revolution, Jim Murphy masteruflly shows Washington’s transformation from gentleman farmer to a brilliant general as he delivers the country from the blackest of times-into the brightest of futures.
21. Inner Excellence: Achieve Extraordinary Business Success through Mental Toughness
TRAIN YOUR BRAIN FOR EXTRAORDINARY SUCCESS Now more than ever, you need a competitive edge to succeed-no matter what your field or profession. This step-by-step training manual from one of North America’s top performance coaches taps into the winning mindsets of Olympic stars, professional sports teams, and Navy Seals among others to help you achieve higher levels of performance than you ever thought possible. Jim Murphy’s complete program of proven mental techniques is based on life principles that easily apply to your company, your career, and everything you do. Inner Excellence shows you how to: CONNECT WITH YOUR PASSION-and run with it FOCUS YOUR ENERGY-and reach your goals BUILD ON YOUR STRENGTHS-and live your dreams GET IN THE ZONE-and achieve the extraordinary Filled with mental performance-enhancing exercises, creative goal-driven game plans, and 50 inspiring interviews, Inner Excellence raises the bar for success in business and in life. “Jim is an expert in his field. Inner Excellence transcends athletics and will have a profound effect on everyone who applies these methods in their life.” -John Kehoe, author of Mind Power into the 21st Century
22. The Real Benedict Arnold
Every account of the American Revolution mentions Benedict Arnold and brands him–correctly–as a traitor. There’s no question that Arnold, an American army officer, switched his loyalty to the British side. Over the years, however, historians, partisans, and gossips have added to Arnold’s unsavory reputation by distorting, embroidering, or simply ignoring factual details. In this informed and thoughtful account, Jim Murphy goes in search of the real man behind the “traitor” label, rumors, and folktales that became part of the Benedict Arnold legend. Drawing on Arnold’s few surviving writings and on the letters, memoirs, and political documents of his contemporaries, Murphy builds a fascinating portrait of a brilliant man, consistently undervalued by his peers, who made a choice that continues to reverberate through American history. Dramatic accounts of crucial battles and political maneuvers round out this lively biography of a patriot who could have been a hero.
23. Blizzard!
Presents a history, based on personal accounts and newspaper articles, of the massive snow storm that hit the Northeast in 1888, focusing on the events in New York City.
24. Fergus and the Night-Demon
On his way to town to have some fun, a lazy but clever young man faces a terrible demon, who declares that his time has come.
25. Desperate Journey
In the mid-1800s, with both her father and her uncle in jail on an assault charge, Maggie, her brother, and her ailing mother rush their barge along the Erie Canal to deliver their heavy cargo or lose everything.
27. Dugout Wisdom
In this entertaining and informative work, former ChicagoCub and noted author, speaker, and coach Jim Murphyshares invaluable insight and wisdom from interviews with39 of the top managers in baseball. Legendary coachesSparky Anderson, Gene Mauch, Jim Leyland and many othersoffer their insight on how to build individual champions,coach the details, practice under pressure, and much,much more.
28. The Memphis Sun
This collection represents an engagement with American history, technology, and cultures. Murphy’s poetry ranges from fairly straightforward narrations of events to experimental pieces using a variety of American-speaking subjects and several angles of vision on cultural creations–Elvis Presley, Holly Golightly, and Elmore James, to name just a few. Formal choices include the interlocking movements of the sestina and the rondau, the ebb and flow of loose blank verse, and the syncopated variety of free verse.
29. Pick & Shovel Poet
A biography of an Italian peasant who immigrated to America in the early twentieth century and endured poverty and the difficult life of an unskilled laborer, determined to become a published poet.
30. Gone A-Whaling
Surveys the history of the whaling industry from its earliest days to the present, focusing on the young boys who managed to sign on for whaling voyages.
31. Into the Deep Forest with Henry David Thoreau
Describes one of Thoreau’s trips to the Maine wilderness, based on his own writings.
32. The Call of the Wolves
A young arctic wolf has a harrowing adventure trying to find his way back to the pack after being separated from them during a caribou hunt. Also includes a chapter with general information about wolves.
33. Managing Conflict at Work
Helps readers understand the roots of conflict in their organizations, assess their current conflict-resolution skills, and devise new strategies to actively and assertively overcome the tensions and other disagreements that threaten productivity and cooperation.
34. Across America on an Emigrant Train
An account of Robert Louis Stevenson’s twelve day journey from New York to California in 1879, interwoven with a history of the building of the transcontinental railroad and the settling of the West.
35. The Long Road to Gettysburg
A description of the Battle of Gettysburg as seen through the eyes of nineteen-year-old Confederate lieutenant John Dooley and seventeen-year-old Union soldier Thomas Galway.
36. Custom Car
Describes how an ordinary family car may be transformed, on a limited budget, into a unique custom car.
37. A Little Book of Animal Riddles
38. The Indy 500
Takes the reader through an Indy 500, including the crash of one of the cars. Discusses the car, track, pit crew, etc.
39. Death Run
An incident in a park leads to an accidental death, but a police detective wonders if it was an accident — or murder.
40. Dinosaur for a day
Follows a typical day in the life of a family of Hypsilophodons, a smaller, lesser-known dinosaur whose great speed aided its survival.
41. A Theory of God
What is Life? Where did it come from? Where is it going? What are the characteristics of advanced lifeforms? What will life be like as it continues to evolve? What does this have to do with God? Centuries ago, people conceptualized the existence of gods based on conjecture and observable phenomena. These early theories of the driving forces behind nature became codified in such a way that it became impossible for them to change with the times. Now new facts apparently assault these old theories. Is it possible, however, that new scientific facts can reveal the true nature of these unseen forces? Can we learn something of God by examining life–by seeing where it has been, where it is going, where we fit, and how we can help?
Last updated on Sunday, January 26, 2025
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