Beyond band of brothers : [the war memoirs of Major Dick Winters] by Richard D. Winters(2006)"They were called Easy Company - but their mission was never easy. Immortalized as the Band of Brothers, they suffered 150 percent casualties while liberating Europe - an unparalleled record of bravery under fire. Dick Winters was their commander - "the best combat leader in World War II" to his men. This is his story - told in his own words for the first time." "On D-Day, Dick Winters parachuted into France and assumed leadership of the Band of Brothers when their commander was killed. He led them through the Battle of the Bulge, the attack on Foy - where Easy Company reached its breaking point - and into Germany, by which time each member had been wounded. Outside Munich, they liberated an S.S. death camp from the horrors of the Holocaust and captured Berchtesgaden, Hitler's alpine retreat. Briefly on active duty during the Korean War, Winters then lived on a small Pennsylvania farm and was a highly successful businessman. Made famous by Stephen Ambrose's Band of Brothers, he is a hero in a world hungry for them." "Beyond Band of Brothers is Winters's memoir - based on his wartime diary - but it also includes his comrades' untold stories. Virtually all this material is being released for the first time. Only Winters was present from the activation of Easy Company until the war's end. He explains the cohesion behind the Band of Brothers and the comradeship that is war's only redeeming quality, the debilitating effect of combat, the horror of seeing friends killed and wounded, and the key qualities that have made him a role model of cool-headed leadership under fire and a recipient of the Distinguished Service Cross." "Neither a protest against war nor a glamourization of combat, this is a tribute to the human spirit by a man who earned the love and respect of the men of Easy Company - and the adulation of new generations worldwide."--Book Jacket
Dispatches from the edge : a memoir of war, disasters, and survival by Anderson Cooper(2006)"Few people have witnessed more scenes of chaos and conflict around the world than Anderson Cooper, whose groundbreaking coverage on CNN has changed the way we watch the news. In this memoir, he offers an unstinting, up-close view of the most harrowing crises of our time, and the profound impact they have had on his life." "After growing up on Manhattan's Upper East Side, Cooper felt a magnetic pull toward the unknown, an attraction to the far corners of the earth. If he could keep moving, and keep exploring, he felt he could stay one step ahead of his past, including the fame surrounding his mother, Gloria Vanderbilt, and the tragic early deaths of his father and older brother. As a reporter, the frenetic pace of filing dispatches from war-torn countries, and the danger that came with it, helped him avoid having to look too closely at the pain and loss that was right in front of him." "But recently, during the course of one extraordinary, tumultuous year, it became impossible for him to continue to separate his work from his life, his family's troubled history from the suffering people he met all over the world. From the tsunami in Sri Lanka to the war in Iraq to the starvation in Niger and ultimately to Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans and Mississippi, Cooper gives us a firsthand glimpse of the devastation that takes place, both physically and emotionally, when the normal order of things is violently ruptured on such a massive scale. Cooper had been in his share of life-threatening situations before - ducking fire on the streets of war-torn Sarejevo, traveling on his own to famine-stricken Somalia, witnessing firsthand the genocide in Rwanda - but he had never seen human misery quite like this. Writing with vivid memories of his childhood and early career as a roving correspondent, Cooper reveals for the first time how deeply affected he has been by the wars, disasters, and tragedies he has witnessed, and why he continues to be drawn to some of the most perilous places on earth."--Book Jacket
Francis Crick : discoverer of the genetic code by Matt Ridley(2006)"Francis Crick, who died at the age of eighty-eight in 2004, will be bracketed with Galileo, Darwin, and Einstein as one of the great scientists of all time. Between 1953 and 1966 he made and led a revolution in biology by discovering, quite literally, the secret of life: the digital cipher at the heart of heredity that distinguishes living from non-living things - the genetic code. His own discoveries - though he always worked with one other partner and did much of his thinking in conversation - include not only the double helix but the whole mechanism of protein synthesis, the three-letter nature of the code, and much of the code itself." "Matt Ridley's biography traces Crick's life from middle-class mediocrity in the English Midlands, through a lackluster education and six years designing magnetic mines for the Royal Navy, to his leap into biology at the age of thirty-one. While at Cambridge, he suddenly began to display the unique visual imagination and intense tenacity of thought that would allow him to see the solutions to several great scientific conundrums - and to see them long before most biologists had even conceived of the problems. Having set out to determine what makes living creatures alive and having succeeded, he immigrated at age sixty to California and turned his attention to the second question that had fascinated him since his youth: What makes conscious creatures conscious? Time ran out before he could find the answer."Book Jacket
Hershey : Milton S. Hershey's extraordinary life of wealth, empire, and utopian dreams by Michael D'Antonio(2006)"One of the twentieth century's most eccentric and idealistic titans of industry, Milton S. Hershey brought affordable milk chocolate to America, creating and then satisfying the chocoholic urges of millions. He pioneered techniques of branding, mass production, and marketing and gained widespread fame as the Chocolate King." "But as he developed massive factories, Cuban sugar plantations, and a vacation wonderland called Hersheypark, M. S. never lost sight of a grander goal. Determined that his wealth produce a lasting legacy, he tried to create perfect places where his workers could live, perfect schools for their children, and a perfect charity to salvage the lives of needy children in perpetuity. Along the way, he overcame his personal childhood traumas as well as the death, after a short and intensely romantic marriage, of the one woman he ever loved." "In childhood, Milton was torn by the constant conflicts between his stern mother and starry-eyed father. He watched his father go bust in the oil fields and his sister die of scarlet fever. As a young entrepreneur he failed in Philadelphia, New York, and Chicago before finally succeeding in Lancaster, thanks to a borrowed caramel recipe and a lucky break provided by a British importer. Then, at the history-shaping Columbian Exhibition, Milton found the chocolate-making technology that would allow him to bring a new taste to America. When they heard about his plan to build a chocolate empire complete with its own little city in rural Pennsylvania, his friends said he needed a legal guardian." "Ten years later, Milton controlled the U.S. chocolate market, and his town, Hershey, Pennsylvania, was the ideal American village, with free amenities that rivaled the best in big cities. Trains brought thousands of tourists every day to see the chocolate works, the miracle town, the Hershey zoo, and an enormous amusement park." "Remarkable as Hershey was, his legacy is even more powerful. It includes the $8 billion Hershey Trust (the single largest private fund for children in the world), an idyllic company town in central Pennsylvania, and a corporation that proves that the ideals of community and commerce can lead to profit."--Book Jacket
Inside the kingdom : my life in Saudi Arabia by Carmen Bin Ladin(2004)A sister-in-law of Osama Bin Laden who fled her marriage in 1988, Carmen Bin Ladin describes what it was like to live in the gilded cage of her wealthy Saudi Arabian family. "It was only after September 11 that my 14-year fight for freedom from Saudi Arabia made sense to the people around me," she writes. "Before that, I think no one truly understood what was at stake--not the courts, not the judge, not even my friends. Even in my own country, Switzerland, I was perceived, more or less, as just another woman embroiled in a nasty international divorce. But...my fight went far deeper than that. I was fighting to gain freedom from one of the most powerful societies and families in the world--to salvage my daughters from a merciless culture that denied their most basic rights."Annotation ©2004 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)
Jimmy Stewart : a biography by Marc Eliot(2006)"Jimmy Stewart's all-American good looks, boyish charm, and deceptively easygoing style of acting made him one of Hollywood's greatest and most enduring stars. Despite the indelible image he projected of innocence and quiet self-assurance, Stewart's life was more complex and sophisticated than most of the characters he played. With fresh insight and unprecedented access, biographer Marc Eliot finally tells the previously untold story of one of our greatest screen and real-life heroes." "Born into a family of high military honor and economic success dominated by a powerful father, Stewart developed an interest in theater while attending Princeton University. Upon graduation, he roomed with the then-unknown Henry Fonda, and the two began a friendship that lasted a lifetime. While he harbored a secret unrequited love for Margaret Sullavan, Stewart was paired with many of Hollywood's most famous, most beautiful, and most alluring leading ladies during his extended bachelorhood, among them Ginger Rogers, Olivia de Havilland, Loretta Young, and the notorious Marlene Dietrich." "After becoming a star playing a hero in Frank Capra's Mr. Smith Goes to Washington in 1939 and winning an Academy Award the following year for his performance in George Cukor's The Philadelphia Story, Stewart was drafted into the Armed Forces and became a hero in real life. When he returned to Hollywood, he discovered that not only the town had changed, but so had he. Stewart's combat experiences left him emotionally scarred, and his deepening darkness perfectly positioned him for the '50s, in which he made his greatest films, for Anthony Mann (Winchester '73 and Bend of the River) and, most spectacularly, Alfred Hitchcock, in his triple meditation on marriage, Rear Window, The Man Who Knew Too Much, and Vertigo, which many film critics regard as the best American movie ever made." "While Stewart's career thrived, so did his personal life. A marriage in his forties, the adoption of his wife's two sons from a previous marriage, and the birth of his twin daughters laid the foundation for a happy life, until an unexpected tragedy had a shocking effect on his final years."Book Jacket
Jules Verne : the definitive biography by William Butcher(2006)"Jules Verne (1828-1905) is a phenomenon: the world's most translated, bestselling writer. With Journey to the Center of the Earth, Twenty Thousand Leagues under the Sea, and Around the World in Eighty Days, the Frenchman reshaped global literature. He still dominates the U.S. box office and pervades our life and culture." "But behind all the success was a tormented man: a sexual misfit, a plagiarist, and a sad and lonely recluse. Now at last comes an authoritative biography worthy of this controversial figure. William Butcher combines groundbreaking research on Verne's childhood and bohemian decades with the discovery of an unknown contemporary biography and an early volume by Verne. He brilliantly recounts the novelist's money woes and amorous escapades, Scottish ancestry, right-wing connections, court cases, and near-murder. This erudite but highly readable narrative by the leading English-language specialist reveals the man inside the legend."Book Jacket
Kate : the woman who was Hepburn by William Mann(2006)"Kate re-creates the journey of its extraordinary heroine through the twentieth century and the realities of life in the American spotlight. With the help of many of her never-interviewed family and friends, William Mann has created an intimate close-up that brings to life the private Katharine Hepburn, previously glimpsed only rarely. Moving beyond often-repeated myths that Hollywood and she herself used to create her legend. Kate reveals an ambitious yet vulnerable woman who overcame hurts and fierce obstacles to achieve fame and, ultimately, the artistry she came to desire even more." "Mann uses his backstage understanding of Hollywood to chart Hepburn's sixty-year career. Arriving in Hollywood in 1932, Kate positioned herself as an anti-glamour girl known for wearing a monkey on her shoulder and driving a pickup to premieres. Rumors surrounding her politics and sexuality landed her in the hot seat, and quite quickly she became controversial. From her first film through all the comedies and classics, Mann shows us the evolution of Hepburn as star and American icon, along with the off-screen episodes - love affairs, a seldom-discussed near-blacklisting, and cavorting with "unconventionals" such as her director George Cukor - that fueled the columnists and critics whom she would annoy, infuriate, and delight for decades."--Book Jacket
Leap of faith : memoirs of an unexpected life by Queen Noor(2003)Leap of Faith is the dramatic and inspiring story of an American woman's remarkable journey into the heart of a man and his nation. Born into a distinguished Arab-American family and raised amid privilege, Lisa Halaby joined the first freshman class at Princeton to accept women, graduating in 1974 with a degree in architecture and urban planning. Two years later, while visiting her father in Jordan, she was casually introduced on the airport runway to King Hussein. Widely admired in the Arab world as a voice of moderation, and for his direct lineage to the prophet Muhammad, Hussein would soon become the world's most eligible bachelor after the tragic death of his wife. The next time they met, Hussein would fall headlong in love with the athletic, outspoken daughter of his longtime friend. After a whirlwind, secret courtship Lisa Halaby became Noor Al Hussein, Queen of Jordan.
With eloquence and candor, Queen Noor speaks of the obstacles she faced as a naive young bride in the royal court, of rebelling against the smothering embrace of security guards and palace life, and of her own successful struggle to create a working role as a humanitarian activist in a court that simply expected Noor to keep her husband happy. As she gradually took on the mantle of a queen, Noor's joys and challenges grew. After a heartbreaking miscarriage, she gave birth to four children. Meshing the demands of motherhood with the commitments of her position often proved difficult, but she tried to keep her young children by her side, even while flying the world with her husband in his relentless quest for peace. This mission would reap satisfying rewards, including greater Arab unity and a peace treaty with Israel, and suffer such terrible setbacks as the Gulf War and the assassination of Prime Minister Rabin.
Leap of Faith is a remarkable document. It is the story of a young American woman who became wife and partner to an Arab monarch. It provides a compelling portrait of the late King Hussein and his lifelong effort to bring peace to his wartorn region, and an insider's view of the growing gulf between the United States and the Arab nations. It is also the refreshingly candid story of a mother coming to terms with the demands the king's role as a world statesman placed on her family's private life. But most of all it is a love story -- the intimate account of a woman who lost her heart to a king, and to his people.
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The life and times of the thunderbolt kid : a memoir by Bill Bryson(2006)"Bill Bryson was born in the middle of the American century - 1951 - in the middle of the United States - Des Moines, Iowa - in the middle of the largest generation in American history - the baby boomers. Like millions of his generational peers, Bill Bryson grew up with a rich fantasy life as a superhero. In his case, he ran around his house and neighborhood with an old football jersey with a thunderbolt on it and a towel about his neck that served as his cape, leaping tall buildings in a single bound and vanquishing awful evildoers (and morons) - in his head - as "The Thunderbolt Kid."" "Using this persona as a springboard, Bill Bryson re-creates the life of his family and his native city in the 1950s in all its transcendent normality - at once completely familiar to us all and as far away and unreachable as another galaxy. He brings us into the life of his loving but eccentric family."Book Jacket
Love in the driest season : a family memoir by Neely Tucker(2004)"Foreign correspondent Neely Tucker and his wife, Vita, arrived in Zimbabwe in 1997. After witnessing firsthand the devastating consequences of AIDS on the population, especially the children, the couple started volunteering at an orphanage that was desperately underfunded and short-staffed. One afternoon, a critically ill infant was brought to the orphanage from a village outside the city. She'd been left to die in a field on the day she was born, abandoned in the tall brown grass that covers the highlands of Zimbabwe in the dry season. After a near-death hospital stay, and under strict doctor's orders, the ailing child was entrusted to the care of Tucker and Vita. Within weeks Chipo, the girl-child whose name means gift, would come to mean everything to them." "Still an active correspondent, Tucker crisscrossed the continent, filing stories about the uprisings in the Congo, the civil war in Sierra Leone, and the postgenocidal conflict in Rwanda. He witnessed heartbreaking scenes of devastation and violence, steeling him further to take a personal role in helping anywhere he could. At home in Harare, Vita was nursing Chipo back to health. Soon she and Tucker decided to alter their lives forever - they would adopt Chipo. That decision challenged an unspoken social norm - that foreigners should never adopt Zimbabwean children." "Raised in rural Mississippi in the sixties and seventies, Tucker was familiar was the mores associated with and dictated by race. His wife, a savvy black woman whose father escaped the Jim Crow South for a new life in the industrial north, would not be deterred in her resolve to welcome Chipo into their loving family." "As if their situation wasn't tenous enough, Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe was stirring up national fervor against foreigners, especially journalists, abroad and at home. At its peak, his antagonizing branded all foreign journalists personae non gratae. For Tucker, the only full-time American correspondent in Zimbabwe, the declaration was a direct threat to his life and his wife's safety, and an ultimatum to their decision to adopt the child who had already become their only daughter." "Against a background of war, terrorism, disease, and unbearable uncertainty about the future, Chipo's story emerges as an inspiring testament to the miracles that love - and dogged determination - can sometimes achieve. Gripping, heartbreaking, and triumphant, this family memoir will resonate throughout the ages."--Book Jacket
Marley & me : life and love with the world's worst dog by John Grogan(2005)The heartwarming and unforgettable story of a family in the making and the wondrously neurotic dog who taught them what really matters in life
John and Jenny were just beginning their life together. They were young and in love, with a perfect little house and not a care in the world. Then they brought home Marley, a wiggly yellow furball of a puppy. Life would never be the same.
McCartney by Christopher Sandford(2006)Between 1963 and 1970, Paul McCartney sold 160 million albums throughout the world; co-authored with John Lennon twenty-five US and UK number one singles; recorded the first rock album (Revolver), and took the whole thing to a pinnacle (Sergeant Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band). As a member of the most important rock band ever, Paul McCartney convinced millions of fans to pick up electric guitars and others to denounce him as a degenerate - or worse. He helped usher in the Love Generation, took a personal stance on the "drug problem," and left the world dumbfounded when the Fab Four called it quits in the early seventies. However, to this day McCartney remains one of the most beloved and respected of musicians, not to mention the biggest box office draw in the world." "McCartney - drawing on dozens of original sources from court documents and files to interviews with members of Paul's family and colleagues - is a tale of self-destruction and epic excess as well as creative genius and brilliant music. The Beatles' bloody infighting, the sex, the drugs, and McCartney's extraordinary marriages are revealed here in full. Yet while the revelations will genuinely astound, this book remains a celebratory feast for millions of fans, capturing the glorious rush of the best songs and revealing the untold stories behind them. McCartney is the definitive biography, charting not only the pop legend, but the man and his era."Book Jacket
My father, my president : a personal account of the life of George H.W. Bush by Doro Bush Koch(2006)"When George H. W. Bush asked Doro to write this memoir, she contacted hundreds of his friends and associates; conducted scores of interviews with dignitaries including Bill Clinton, Mikhail Gorbachev, and General Colin Powell; tapped the memories of family members, including her mother, her four brothers, and of course, her father himself; and collected information from the former president's never-before-released files." "Now for the first time, a complete portrait of George H. W. Bush emerges. Doro reveals her father as a young man courting his future wife, Barbara, and how the death of their first daughter brought them closer. Doro tells how they raised five children through much of her father's long and storied career in public service, and offers details about this tenures as head of the Republication National Committee during Watergate, ambassador to the U.N., America's liaison to China, and vice president for eight years under Ronald Reagan." "Doro also provides an insider's look at how the 41st president dealt with crises and challenges, all while keeping his humor and personality intact, and how he still does so while aiding victims of the 2004 tsunami and Hurricane Katrina. She shows how he felt when two of his sons entered politics - and when his eldest made it to the top - and sheds new light on his friendship with former rival Bill Clinton."Book Jacket
Night by Elie Wiesel(2006)A New Translation From The French By Marion Wiesel "Night" is Elie Wiesel's masterpiece, a candid, horrific, and deeply poignant autobiographical account of his survival as a teenager in the Nazi death camps. This new translation by Marion Wiesel, Elie's wife and frequent translator, presents this seminal memoir in the language and spirit truest to the author's original intent. And in a substantive new preface, Elie reflects on the enduring importance of Night and his lifelong, passionate dedication to ensuring that the world never forgets man's capacity for inhumanity to man. "Night" offers much more than a litany of the daily terrors, everyday perversions, and rampant sadism at Auschwitz and Buchenwald; it also eloquently addresses many of the philosophical as well as personal questions implicit in any serious consideration of what the Holocaust was, what it meant, and what its legacy is and will be.
Syndetic Solutions, Inc.
Outside the box : a memoir by Lynn Sherr(2006)"As a reporter for more than forty years, most of them on national television, Lynn Sherr has brought clarity and insight to many of the most compelling news events of our day. Now this widely respected journalist lets us in on what she's seen "inside the box" as she steps outside for a reality check." "She tells how television journalism has changed over the years, for better and for worse, and explores the critical state of TV news today. From her childhood in Philadelphia in the 1950s - where her father was a pioneering basketball star and where she made her initial TV appearance on American Bandstand - to her first forays into print journalism in New York, Lynn Sherr got hooked on the power of telling a story, and telling it first."--Book Jacket
Pope Benedict XVI : his life and mission by Stephen Mansfield(2005)"The election of Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger to the papacy shocks some and delights others. He is both an ardent intellectual and a driven traditionalist charged with leading a divided Catholic Church into a new era." "In Pope Benedict XVI, Stephen Mansfield tells the story of a youth who grew up in Nazi Germany and went from being a liberal theologian associated with Vatican II to a theological conservative who became Pope John Paul's closest ally. As a cardinal, the new pope pursued a firmly traditional path in the last quarter century: He excommunicated radical priests, cracked down on Marxist liberation theology in Latin America, and shaped some of John Paul's more socially conservative positions. He also drew a line of distinction between Catholicism and other faiths, promulgating respect for, but not equality among, the historic religions. The new pope is - according to some - the ultimate insider, whose election ensures that the revolution of John Paul will be rendered permanent in the early part of our century." "Mansfield provides a portrait that suggests the very theme of the new papacy: Benedict XVI will be the great caretaker. He will sustain the return to tradition marked by John Paul, and he will - so early signs suggest - seek to reevangelize Europe. For all the talk of Catholicism gravitating to Africa and Latin America, the choice of Benedict XVI unmistakably indicates the intent to preserve and rebuild Catholicism on the continent." "Because of Ratzinger's wealth of public statements, his positions on most pressing social issues - e.g., stem cell research, contraception, the role of women - are clear. What is less clear, writes Mansfield, is how or whether he will reach out to Islam. We have, however, some early indications even there, which are explored in Pope Benedict XVI: As a cardinal, Ratzinger publicly opposed the inclusion of Turkey into the European Union, suggesting that its seventy-million predominantly Muslim population would alter the character of Europe, and encouraging Turkey to align with other Muslim nations. This is not a man who is going to meet the world on terms shaped by so-called multiculturalism. Whatever olive branches he extends, Mansfield contends, are going to have conditions attached." "Pope Benedict XVI examines the new pope specifically from the perspective of a non-Catholic - a committed Christian without fealty to Rome. Mansfield's academic depth, his poetic but widely accessible writing style, and his ability to take complex religious ideas and make them understandable to the non-religious, lend his treatment of Pope Benedict XVI significance for readers of all philosophies and faiths."--Book Jacket
Running with scissors : a memoir by Augusten Burroughs(2002)A #1 "New York Times" bestseller--the true story of a boy whose mother gave him away to be raised by her unorthodox psychiatrist--Burroughs's memoir is now a feature film from TriStar Pictures, scheduled for release in September and starring Annette Bening, Gwyneth Paltrow, and Joseph Fiennes.Syndetic Solutions, Inc.
Teacher Man: A Memoir by Frank McCourt(2005)Available at last in paperback is Frank McCourt's critically acclaimed, Pulitzer Prize-winning bestseller about how his 30-year teaching career in the public schools of New York City shaped his second act as a writer.
Syndetic Solutions, Inc.
The apprentice : my life in the kitchen by Jacques Pepin(2003)In This Captivating Memoir, the man whom Julia Child has called "the best chef in America" tells the story of his rise from a frightened apprentice in an exacting Old World kitchen to an Emmy Award-winning superstar who taught millions of Americans how to cook and shaped the nation's tastes in the bargain. We see young Jacques as a homesick six-year-old boy in warravaged France, working on a farm in exchange for food, dodging bombs, and bearing witness as German soldiers capture his father, a fighter in the Resistance. Soon Jacques is caught up in the hurly-burly action of his mother's cafe, where he proves to be a natural. He endures a literal trial by fire and works his way up the ladder in the feudal system of France's most famous restaurant, finally becoming Charles de Gaulle's personal chef, watching the world being refashioned from the other side of the kitchen door.
When he comes to America, Jacques immediately falls in with a small group of as-yet-unknown food lovers, including Craig Claiborne, James Beard, and Julia Child, whose adventures redefine American food. Through it all, Jacques proves himself to be a master of the American art of reinvention: earning a graduate degree from Columbia University, turning down a job as John F. Kennedy's chef to work at Howard Johnson's, and, after a near-fatal car accident, switching careers once again to become a charismatic leader in the revolution that changed the way Americans approached food. Also included in this book are Jacques's all-time favorite recipes created during the course of a career spanning nearly half a century, from his mother's utterly simple cheese souffle to his wife's pork ribs and red beans. The Apprentice is the poignant and sometimes funny tale of a boy's coming of age. Beyond that, it is the story of America's culinary awakening and the transformation of food from an afterthought to a national preoccupation.
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The glass castle : a memoir by Jeannette Walls(2005)"Jeannette Walls grew up with parents whose ideals and stubborn nonconformity were both their curse and their salvation. Rex and Rose Mary Walls had four children. In the beginning, they lived like nomads, moving among Southwest desert towns, camping in the mountains. Rex was a charismatic, brilliant man who, when sober, captured his children's imagination, teaching them physics, geology, and above all, how to embrace life fearlessly. Rose Mary, who painted and wrote and couldn't stand the responsibility of providing for her family, called herself an "excitement addict." Cooking a meal that would be consumed in fifteen minutes had no appeal when she could make a painting that might last forever." "Later, when the money ran out, or the romance of the wandering life faded, the Walls retreated to the dismal West Virginia mining town - and the family - Rex Walls had done everything he could to escape. He drank. He stole the grocery money and disappeared for days. As the dysfunction of the family escalated, Jeannette and her brother and sisters had to fend for themselves, supporting one another as they weathered their parents' betrayals and, finally, found the resources and will to leave home." "What is so astonishing about Jeannette Walls is not just that she had the guts and tenacity and intelligence to get out, but that she describes her parents with such deep affection and generosity. Hers is a story of triumph against all odds, but also a tender, moving tale of unconditional love in a family that despite its profound flaws gave her the fiery determination to carve out a successful life on her own terms."Book Jacket
The good good pig : the extraordinary life of Christopher Hogwood by Sy Montgomery(2006)"A naturalist who spent months at a time living on her own among wild creatures in remote jungles, Sy Montgomery had always felt more comfortable with animals than with people. So she gladly opened her heart to a sick piglet who had been crowded away from nourishing meals by his stronger siblings. Yet Sy had no inkling that this piglet, later named Christopher Hogwood, would not only survive but flourish, and she soon found herself engaged with her small-town community in ways she had never dreamed possible. Unexpectedly, Christopher provided this peripatetic traveler with something she had sought all her life: an anchor (eventually weighing 750 pounds) to family and home." "The Good Good Pig celebrates Christopher Hogwood in all his glory, from his inauspicious infancy to hog heaven in rural New Hampshire, where his boundless zest for life and his large, loving heart made him absolute monarch over a (mostly) peaceable kingdom. At first, his domain included only Sy's cosseted hens and her beautiful border collie, Tess. Then the neighbors began fetching Christopher home from his unauthorized jaunts, the little girls next door started giving him warm, soapy baths, and the villagers brought him delicious leftovers. His intelligence and fame increased along with his girth, and he was eventually featured in USA Today and on several National Public Radio environmental programs. One local election day, some voters even wrote in Christopher's name on their ballots." "But as this enchanting book describes, Christopher Hogwood's influence extended far beyond celebrity - for he was, as a friend said, a great big Buddha master. Sy reveals what she and others learned from this generous soul who just so happened to be a pig - lessons about self-acceptance, the meaning of family, the value of community, and the pleasures of the sweet green Earth. The Good Good Pig provides proof that with love, almost anything is possible."Book Jacket
The sound of no hands clapping : [a memoir] by Toby Young(2006)The anticipated sequel to the bestselling "How to Lose Friends and Alienate People" finds the author now a dutiful husband and devoted dad who's as relentlessly self-sabotaging as ever with a demonstrated knack for attracting misfortune, publicity and devoted readers.Syndetic Solutions, Inc.
The women of Windsor : their power, privilege, and passions by Catherine Whitney(2006)"Who are the women of Windsor? We know them as Elizabeth, the Queen; Elizabeth, the Queen Mother; Princess Margaret; Anne, the Princess Royal. Their images have been with us on film and in print for more than a century, like priceless artifacts that call to mind a grander era. Seen at a distance, they appear unknowable. But each is an individual, a real woman, with an extraordinary story to tell. Now, Catherine Whitney reveals what happens behind the palace doors, giving us an intimate glimpse into the private lives of these public figures." "Elizabeth, the Queen: Born to duty, adored by her parents, Elizabeth swore as a teenager to serve her country above all else...and she has lived up to her promise, even when her crown has been a burden. This once-lively young woman has sacrificed self-interest and personal joy for her subjects for over sixty years. In public, the queen never puts a step wrong. In private, she herself knows she has made many mistakes. She has sacrificed motherhood for majesty, and seen her four children each make errors with devastating consequences. Yet, no matter what happens, the queen perseveres." "Elizabeth, the Queen Mother: Hitler was afraid of her, the English people adored her. Her kind, sparkling blue eyes and cheerful manner belied a backbone of steel, and few dared to cross her. She raised her eldest daughter to serve and her youngest daughter to sparkle. But while her love of the people, and of her family, has never been in question, the Queen Mother was made of much sterner stuff than anyone has ever known - until now." "Princess Margaret: Beautiful, talented, vivacious, and complex...Margaret was the Diana of her day. But the promise of her youth was destroyed when she was betrayed by her sister, now the queen, who needlessly forced her to give up the man she loved. Troubled and adrift, with only a slight role to fill, Margaret became the object of public ridicule, yet she was something her sister was not: a wonderful mother." "Princess Anne: Her father's favorite, arguably the most intelligent of the queen's four children. Yet Anne is forever forced to take second place to her older brother, Charles. Hardworking, hard-headed, and hot-tempered, Anne has been dismissed as an acerbic frump more at home with horses than people, especially in comparison with her ill-fated sister-in-law, Diana. Yet there is a passionate side to this complex woman, one hidden from view." "These four women have shaped the world, each in her own way. Now at last their stories can be told."Book Jacket
Truth & beauty : a friendship by Ann Patchett(2004)"What happens when the person who is your family is someone you aren't bound to by blood? What happens when the person you promise to love and to honor for the rest of your life is not your lover, but your best friend? In Truth & Beauty, her first work of nonfiction, Ann Patchett shines a light on the world of women's friendships and shows us what it means to stand together." "Ann Patchett and Lucy Grealy met in college in 1981, and, after enrolling in the Iowa Writers' Workshop, began a friendship that would be as defining to both of their lives as their work was. In her memoir, Autobiography of a Face, Lucy Grealy wrote about losing part of her jaw to childhood cancer, the years of chemotherapy and radiation, and then the endless reconstructive surgeries. In Truth & Beauty, the story isn't Lucy's life or Ann's life, but the parts of their lives they shared. This is a portrait of unwavering commitment that spans twenty years, from the long, cold winters of the Midwest, to surgical wards, to book parties in New York. Through love, fame, drugs, and despair, this book shows us what it means to be part of two lives that are intertwined." "This is a book about loving a person we cannot save. It is about loyalty, and about being lifted up by the sheer effervescence of someone who knew how to live life to the fullest."Book Jacket
The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion(2005)"Joan Didion explores an intensely personal yet universal experience: a portrait of a marriage - and a life, in good times and bad - that will speak to anyone who has ever loved a husband or wife or child." "Several days before Christmas 2003, John Gregory Dunne and Joan Didion saw their only daughter, Quintana, fall ill with what seemed at first flu, then pneumonia, then complete septic shock. She was put into an induced coma and placed on life support. Days later - the night before New Year's Eve - the Dunnes were just sitting down to dinner after visiting the hospital when John Gregory Dunne suffered a massive and fatal coronary. In a second, this close, symbiotic partnership of forty years was over. Four weeks later, their daughter pulled through. Two months after that, arriving at LAX, she collapsed and underwent six hours of brain surgery at UCLA Medical Center to relieve a massive hematoma." "This book is Didion's attempt to make sense of the "weeks and then months that cut loose any fixed idea I ever had about death, about illness ... about marriage and children and memory ... about the shallowness of sanity, about life itself.""
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