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Showing 6881 - 6900 of 15734 items
By Joan Didion. 2021
From one of our most iconic and influential writers: a timeless collection of mostly early pieces that reveal what would…
become Joan Didion's subjects, including the press, politics, California robber barons, women, and her own self-doubt. These twelve pieces from 1968 to 2000, never before gathered together, offer an illuminating glimpse into the mind and process of a legendary figure. They showcase Joan Didion's incisive reporting, her empathetic gaze, and her role as "an articulate witness to the most stubborn and intractable truths of our time" (The New York Times Book Review). Here, Didion touches on topics ranging from newspapers ("the problem is not so much whether one trusts the news as to whether one finds it"), to the fantasy of San Simeon, to not getting into Stanford. In "Why I Write," Didion ponders the act of writing: "I write entirely to find out what I'm thinking, what I'm looking at, what I see and what it means." From her admiration for Hemingway's sentences to her acknowledgment that Martha Stewart's story is one "that has historically encouraged women in this country, even as it has threatened men," these essays are acutely and brilliantly observed. Each piece is classic Didion: incisive, bemused, and stunningly prescient. A New York Times BestsellerBy Charles Wheelan. 2021
Charlie Wheelan and his family do what others dream of: They take a year off to travel the world. This…
is their story. What would happen if you quit your life for a year? In a pre–COVID-19 world, the Wheelan family decided to find out; leaving behind work, school, and even the family dogs to travel the world on a modest budget. Equal parts "how-to" and "how-not-to"—and with an eye toward a world emerging from a pandemic—We Came, We Saw, We Left is the insightful and often hilarious account of one family’s gap-year experiment. Wheelan paints a picture of adventure and connectivity, juggling themes of local politics, global economics, and family dynamics while exploring answers to questions like: How do you sneak out of a Peruvian town that has been barricaded by the local army? And where can you get treatment for a flesh-eating bacteria your daughter picked up two continents ago? From Colombia to Cambodia, We Came, We Saw, We Left chronicles nine months across six continents with three teenagers. What could go wrong?By Tom Lutz. 2021
Our culture values striving, purpose, achievement, and accumulation. This book asks us to get sidetracked along the way. It praises…
aimlessness as a source of creativity and an alternative to the demand for linear, efficient, instrumentalist thinking and productivity.Aimlessness collects ideas and stories from around the world that value indirection, wandering, getting lost, waiting, meandering, lingering, sitting, laying about, daydreaming, and other ways to be open to possibility, chaos, and multiplicity. Tom Lutz considers aimlessness as a fundamental human proclivity and method, one that has been vilified by modern industrial societies but celebrated by many religious traditions, philosophers, writers, and artists. He roams a circular path that snakes and forks down sideroads, traipsing through modernist art, nomadic life, slacker comedies, drugs, travel, nirvana, and oblivion. The book is structured as a recursive, disjunctive spiral of short sections, a collage of narrative, anecdotal, analytic, and lyrical passages—intended to be read aimlessly, to wind up someplace unexpected.By Alex Tresniowski, Steven J. Carino. 2021
He Was Searching for a Lost Dog. He Found More Than He&’d Ever Hoped For.On Valentine&’s Day 2019, someone stole…
Steven Carino&’s dog, Oliver, from his car. Having lost his mother at thirteen and grown up with an alcoholic father, he could always count on his dogs for comfort and company. But now, with his beloved Oliver missing, Steven felt utterly alone.Then, the miracle. In a series of near-impossible coincidences, people from different walks of life crossed paths with Oliver and with Steven. Hardworking immigrants, wealthy suburbanites, car mechanics, deli workers, old friends, close relatives, street cops, gang members, a TV news reporter, social media followers around the world, and one very gifted hairdresser all played a part in Steven&’s desperate journey to find Oliver. In the middle of it all, Steven realized that no one is ever truly alone--and that the power of community can be life-changing.Oliver is not just a book about a stolen dog. At its core, it&’s a story about kindness, friendship, and the power of faith. As Steven says, &“This is more than just a dog story. This is an everybody story. This is a love story.&”By Bloodwitch Luz Oscuria. 2021
«Es el año 2014. Mi nombre es Julien, tengo 31 años, —o, al menos, eso me acaban de explicar—. Estoy…
en el hospital, en el área de cuidados intensivos. He despertado después de un largo tiempo sumergido en un mortal coma. No recuerdo nada, ni tengo memoria alguna de mi propia vida antes de esto.» Nadie sino él sabe lo que sucedió, sin embargo, dicho recuerdo está en algún lugar, enterrado en lo más profundo de su memoria. Recordará poco a poco cada hecho: reyertas, afrentas, insultos, violencia doméstica. Con la culpable de su desgracia desaparecida luego de una agresión casi mortífera, y de quien sólamente se acuerda que se hace llamar Catherine; la sombra del recuerdo resurgirá, cueste lo que cueste.Esta es la historia de Noel, quien perdió a Maris, su amada esposa de 42 años, por suicidio, después de…
años de luchar con la depresión. El final abrupto de una vida por suicidio puede ser el evento más catastrófico para los que quedan atrás. Los sobrevivientes experimentan dolor intenso y culpa masiva. El duelo destierra a los supervivientes a un lugar tan alejado del ajetreo normal de la vida cotidiana que se sienten cerca de la locura. De alguna manera, tienen que regresar. Noel aceptó que no había manera de evitar su angustia y se encontró con el sufrimiento de frente. Su dolor le permitió descubrir la riqueza dentro de él y crecer en sabiduría, que espera que sea de beneficio para los demás. La muerte de Maris no la excluyó de la vida de Noel. Sigue siendo una presencia muy real. Esta es una historia de amor con una diferencia. ©2018 Noel Braun (P)2020 Noel BraunBy Noel Braun. 2021
Een spirituele ontdekkingsreis langs de Camino de Santiago Sinds Maris, zijn geliefde vrouw waarmee hij 42 jaar was getrouwd, zelfmoord…
pleegde, worstelde Noel Braun om zichzelf terug te vinden. Hij was al zijn levensovertuigingen kwijt, evenals zijn identiteitsgevoel. In een poging opnieuw houvast te vinden, wilde hij een spirituele tocht maken om zichzelf weer te herontdekken. Hij besloot om de populairste routes van de Camino te wandelen, de oude pelgrimsroutes die door Frankrijk en Spanje naar Santiago de Compostela leiden, in het noordwesten van Spanje. Deze tocht staat beschreven in zijn eerdere boek The Day was Made for Walking. Maar de reis was nog lang niet ten einde. Noel voelde de drang om zijn zoektocht verder voort te zetten. Op 80-jarige leeftijd keerde hij terug naar Frankrijk om een wat minder populaire Camino-route te lopen, die hem ook door Frankrijk naar Spanje voerde. Twee jaar later voelde hij opnieuw de dringende behoefte om door te gaan met wandelen, nu vanuit Portugal naar Spanje. Ondanks zijn vergevorderde leeftijd en zijn vele twijfels, heeft hij genoeg vertrouwen en geloof in zichzelf om de zware inspanningen aan te kunnen en Santiago de Compostela te kunnen bereiken. Fascinerende verhalen over de mensen die hij ontmoet zijn vervlochten met zijn spirituele en emotionele tocht. Ik denk dat ik maar blijf wandelen is het vervolg op het eerste boek. Het fysieke komt met het spirituele samen, evenals geschiedenis met het hedendaagse. Het duikt in de geschiedenis en is tegelijkertijd een persoonlijk verslag en een reisgids.By César Cervera, Manuel P. Villatoro. 1782
Un recorrido didáctico y rico por los grandes hechos y personajes que marcaron la historia de España. Los mitos han…
perseguido a España desde que Escipión Emiliano sitió Numancia. Durante los siguientes siglos se han esgrimido una retahíla de falacias sobre este país que, a golpe de repetirse, han forjado la llamada Leyenda Negra. Este libro se enfrenta a todas ellas. Desde la idea de que la brutalidad campó a sus anchas a partir del siglo XVI, hasta la que muestra a los conquistadores como bárbaros sedientos de sangre. Con la veracidad y el rigor de los datos por estandarte, y bajo la premisa de buscar siempre una divulgación amena, los periodistas César Cervera y Manuel Villatoro abordan en estas páginas las gestas más reconocidas de las tropas españolas a lo largo de dos mil años, las peripecias más llamativas de los monarcas que han dirigido este país o, entre otras muchas cosas, los hitos más destacados de su pasado. Un paseo rico y fascinante para acercarnos un poco más al relato más apasionante de todos: el de nuestra historia. Algunos lectores ilustres han dicho...«Un ramillete de artículos que responden a la máxima horaciana de enseñar deleitando (prodesse et delectare). ¿Qué más se puede desear?»Juan Eslava Galán «César Cervera y Manu Villatoro convierten la historia de España en noticia de portada que no te puedes perder. ¡Imprescindible!»Isabel San Sebastián «Estos jóvenes periodistas han conseguido contar la historia de España como si fuera el mejor de los reportajes: riguroso, ágil, veraz, informativo y ameno.»Antonio Pérez HenaresBy Jacquie Vai. 2010
Sex...Love...Spirituality...Race...Self-Awakening... December 21st, 2012 marked a pivotal moment in humanity’s evolution: the end of the Mayan calendar. Some feared that…
time, believing it to be the end of the world. But according to many mystics, the end of the Mayan calendar marked the entrance into the Golden Age, a time where humans would begin to awaken and experience a deeper level of self-awareness and experience a more expanded way of connecting with others. Old systems and old ways of understanding self and relating to others would start to break down, making room for new ways to connect. Single and Dating: Beyond the Mayan Calendar is about one lady’s journey into womanhood as humanity enters the Golden Age. Stepping into womanhood is an adventure enough, but add to that the awakening of the new era, and it can make for many interesting stories. This book is a confessional. It is one woman’s experiences as she tries to understand herself on many dimensions: as a sexual being, as a spiritual being, as a black woman, and as a young divorced mother.By John Devane. 2008
John grew up in poverty in Limerick, Ireland, in the 1960s. Fatherless, and with a family in chaos, John fell…
prey to the predatory clutches of a neighbour, setting off a cycle of sexual abuse that eventually led to being sold as a teenage prostitute. Against all odds, John put himself through college and became a lawyer. But there was no escaping his past. One day, a man arrived in desperate need of representation and failed to recognise John as the boy he'd once abused. Now John had a choice to make... Nobody Heard Me Cry is both a devastating expose of a stolen childhood and an unforgettable story of survival. Most of all, it is a heartfelt plea to hear the cries of other children in need.By Chad Sanders. 2021
A powerful exploration of Black achievement in a white world based on honest, provocative, and moving interviews with Black leaders,…
scientists, artists, activists, and champions. &“I remember the day I realized I couldn&’t play a white guy as well as a white guy. It felt like a death sentence for my career.&” When Chad Sanders landed his first job in lily white Silicon Valley, he quickly concluded that to be successful at work meant playing a certain social game. Each meeting was drenched in white slang and the privileged talk of international travel or folk concerts in San Francisco, which led Chad to believe he needed to emulate whiteness to be successful. So Chad changed. He changed his wardrobe, his behavior, his speech—everything that connected him with his Black identity. And while he finally felt included, he felt awful. So he decided to give up the charade. He reverted back to the methods he learned at the dinner table, or at the Black Baptist church where he&’d been raised, or at the concrete basketball courts, barbershops, and summertime cookouts. And it paid off. Chad began to land more exciting projects. He earned the respect of his colleagues. Accounting for this turnaround, Chad believes, was something he calls Black Magic, namely resilience, creativity, and confidence forged in his experience navigating America as a Black man. Black Magic has emboldened his every step since, leading him to wonder: Was he alone in this discovery? Were there others who felt the same? In moving essays, Chad dives into his formative experiences to see if they might offer the possibility of discovering or honing this skill. He tests his theory by interviewing Black leaders across industries to get their take on Black Magic. The result is a revelatory and very necessary book. Black Magic explores Black experiences in predominantly white environments and demonstrates the risks of self-betrayal and the value of being yourself.By Banine. 2019
A scintillatingly witty memoir telling the story of a young woman's determined struggle for freedomThis is the unforgettable memoir of…
an 'odd, rich, exotic' childhood, of growing up in Azerbaijan in the turbulent early twentieth century, caught between East and West, tradition and modernity.Banine remembers her luxurious home, with endless feasts of sweets and fruit; her beloved, flaxen-haired German governess; her imperious, swearing, strict Muslim grandmother; her bickering, poker-playing, chain-smoking relatives. She recalls how the Bolsheviks came, and they lost everything. How, amid revolution and bloodshed, she fell passionately in love, only to be forced into marriage with a man she loathed- until the chance of escape arrived.By Laura Tremaine. 2021
Part memoir and part guidebook, Share Your Stuff. I'll Go First. is the invitation you've been waiting for to show…
up with your whole self and discover the intimate, meaningful relationships you long for. In spite of the hyper-connected culture we live in today, women still feel shamed for oversharing and being publicly vulnerable. And no matter how many friends we seem to have, many of us are still desperately lonely.Laura Tremaine says it's time for something better. Openness and vulnerability are the foundation for human growth and healthy relationships, and it all starts when we share our stuff, the nitty-gritty daily details about ourselves with others. Laura has led the way in her personal life with her popular blog and podcast, and now with lighthearted self-awareness, a sensitivity to the important things in life, and compelling storytelling, Laura gives you the tools to build and deepen the conversations happening in your life.Laura's stories about her childhood in Oklahoma, her complicated shifts in faith and friendships, and her marriage to a Hollywood movie director will prompt you to identify the beautiful narrative and pivotal milestones of your own life. Each chapter offers intriguing and reflective questions that will reveal unique details and stories you've never thought to tell and will guide you into cultivating the authentic connection with others that only comes from sharing yourself.By Louis Chude-Sokei. 2021
The astonishing journey of a bright, utterly displaced boy, from the short-lived African nation of Biafra, to Jamaica, to the…
harshest streets of Los Angeles—a searing memoir that adds fascinating depth to the coming-to-America story The first time Chude-Sokei realizes that he is &“first son of the first son&” of a renowned leader of the bygone African nation is in Uncle Daddy and Big Auntie&’s strict religious household in Jamaica, where he lives with other abandoned children. A visiting African has just fallen to his knees to shake him by the shoulders: &“Is this the boy? Is this him?&” Chude-Sokei&’s immersion in the politics of race and belonging across the landscape of the African diaspora takes a turn when his traumatized mother, who has her own extraordinary history as the onetime &“Jackie O of Biafra,&” finally sends for him to come live with her. In Inglewood, Los Angeles, on the eve of gangsta rap and the LA riots, it&’s as if he&’s fallen to Earth. In this world, anything alien—definitely Chude-Sokei&’s secret obsession with science fiction and David Bowie—is a danger, and his yearning to become a Black American gets deeply, sometimes absurdly, complicated. Ultimately, it is a boisterous pan-African family of honorary aunts, uncles, and cousins that becomes his secret society, teaching him the redemptive skill of navigating not just Blackness, but Blacknesses, in his America.By Harriet Jacobs. 2011
The unflinching nineteenth-century autobiography that broke the silence on the psychosexual exploitation of Black women—with an introduction by Tiya Miles,…
recipient of a MacArthur &“genius&” grant&“[A] crowning achievement . . . [Jacobs] remodeled the forms of the black slave narrative and the white female sentimental novel to create a new literary form—a narrative at once black and female.&” —Henry Louis Gates, Jr., The New York Times In clear and unshrinking prose, Harriet Jacobs—writing under the pseudonym Linda Brent—relates the story of her girlhood and adolescence as a slave in North Carolina and her eventual escape: a bildungsroman set in the complex terrain of a chauvinist, white supremacist society. Resolutely addressing women readers, rather than men, Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl seeks to make white women understand how the threat of sexual violence shapes the lives of enslaved Black women and children. Equal parts brave and searing, Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl is a triumph of American literature.The Modern Library Torchbearers series features women who wrote on their own terms, with boldness, creativity, and a spirit of resistance.AMERICAN INDIAN STORIES • THE AWAKENING • THE CUSTOM OF THE COUNTRY • THE HEADS OF CERBERUS • LADY AUDLEY&’S SECRET • LOVE, ANGER, MADNESS • PASSING • THE RETURN OF THE SOLDIER • THERE IS CONFUSION • THE TRANSFORMATION OF PHILIP JETTAN • VILLETTEBy Richard Wollheim. 2004
A brilliant, meandering exploration of family and childhood memory by one of the most original British philosophers of the twentieth…
century.Germs is about first things, the seeds from which a life grows, as well as about the illnesses it incurs, the damage it sustains. Written at the end of the life of Richard Wollheim, a major British philosopher of the second half of the twentieth century, this memoir is not the usual story of growing up, but very much about childhood, that early world we all share in which we do not not know either the world or ourselves for sure, and in which things--houses, clothes, meals, parents, the past--loom large around us, seeming both inevitable and uncontrollable. Richard Wollheim's remarkable, moving, and entirely original book recovers this formative moment that makes us who we are before we really are who we are and that haunts us all our lives in lucid and lyrical prose.By Eric Metaxas. 2021
What Happens When One of America&’s Most Admired Biographers Writes His Own Biography? For Eric Metaxas, the answer is Fish…
Out of Water: A Search for the Meaning of Life—a poetic and sometimes hilarious memoir of his early years, in which the Queens-born son of Greek and German immigrants struggles to make sense of a world in which he never quite seems to fit. Renowned for his biographies of William Wilberforce, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, and Martin Luther, Metaxas is the author of five New York Times bestsellers, the witty host of the acclaimed Socrates in the City conversation series, and a nationally syndicated radio personality. But here he reveals a personal story few have heard, taking us from his mostly happy childhood—and riotous triumphs at Yale—to the nightmare of drifting toward a dark abyss of meaninglessness from which he barely escapes. Along the way he introduces us to an unforgettable troupe of picaresque characters who join this quintessentially first-generation American boy in what is both bildungsroman and odyssey—and which underscores just how funny, serious, happy, sad, and ultimately meaningful life can be.By Stephen Matthews. 2020
An poignant and timeless true story of one child&’s journey to a German prison camp during World War II.The Day…
the Nazis Came is an utterly unique memoir, depicting the world of prison camps through the eyes of a child. Our narrator's parents did their best to protect his emotional well-being, downplaying the extent of dangers and presenting every new day as an adventure. But there is only so much you can do to hide such a dark truth and, by the time he was six years old, Stephen Matthews had actually seen and experienced things of unspeakable horror: he had witnessed a bombardment by the Luftwaffe and had been deported from occupied Guernsey, along with his family, to a prison camp in the heart of Adolf Hitler's Third Reich; he had seen men die in front of him; he had walked alongside Jews coming straight off the cattle-trucks from Bergen-Belsen; he had nearly drowned, been menaced by an Alsatian guard dog, and had his hand broken by a German guard for attempting to feed Russian prisoners. Against all odds, Stephen and his family endured over three years of imprisonment, held together by their will to survive, their love for each other, and the humor they had all been gifted with. But when the war ended and they were set free, the home they eventually returned to had been irremediably scarred and stricken by Nazi occupation and so, once again, they had to fight to pick up the pieces. Supported by and enriched with his mother&’s diary notes, which had been secreted away in an old leather-bound family Bible throughout the years in the camp, The Day the Nazis Came is a phenomenal piece of history as well as a heart-wrenching account of the horrors of the war and deportation. It is, above all, a heart-warming tribute to the preciousness of hope, of life, and of the indomitable spirit of man to survive. And while honoring the memory of the three courageous Germans who risked everything to protect as many as the prisoners in their charge as they could, it also shows how human kindness may flower and prevail in the unlikeliest of places.By Russell Shorto. 2020
One of Newsweek's Most Highly Anticipated New Books of 2021 Family secrets emerge as a best-selling author dives into the…
history of the mob in small-town America. Best-selling author Russell Shorto, praised for his incisive works of narrative history, never thought to write about his own past. He grew up knowing his grandfather and namesake was a small-town mob boss but maintained an unspoken family vow of silence. Then an elderly relative prodded: You’re a writer—what are you gonna do about the story? Smalltime is a mob story straight out of central casting—but with a difference, for the small-town mob, which stretched from Schenectady to Fresno, is a mostly unknown world. The location is the brawny postwar factory town of Johnstown, Pennsylvania. The setting is City Cigar, a storefront next to City Hall, behind which Russ and his brother-in-law, “Little Joe,” operate a gambling empire and effectively run the town. Smalltime is a riveting American immigrant story that travels back to Risorgimento Sicily, to the ancient, dusty, hill-town home of Antonino Sciotto, the author’s great-grandfather, who leaves his wife and children in grinding poverty for a new life—and wife—in a Pennsylvania mining town. It’s a tale of Italian Americans living in squalor and prejudice, and of the rise of Russ, who, like thousands of other young men, created a copy of the American establishment that excluded him. Smalltime draws an intimate portrait of a mobster and his wife, sudden riches, and the toll a lawless life takes on one family. But Smalltime is something more. The author enlists his ailing father—Tony, the mobster’s son—as his partner in the search for their troubled patriarch. As secrets are revealed and Tony’s health deteriorates, the book become an urgent and intimate exploration of three generations of the American immigrant experience. Moving, wryly funny, and richly detailed, Smalltime is an irresistible memoir by a masterful writer of historical narrative.By Cameran Eubanks Wimberly. 2021
The fan favorite alumna of the Bravo hit series Southern Charm offers a witty and candid collection of essays on…
dating, pregnancy, and parenthood.Growing up in South Carolina with a family that goes back ten generations, Cameran Eubanks knew from a young age that Southern women are expected to want the white picket fence life. But Cameran has never been your typical Southern belle, and she was always determined to flout expectations. She set out to paint the town red, enjoy her single life, focus on her successful real estate career, maybe join the cast of a hugely popular reality show…and then she met her future husband, Jason. After falling in love and getting married, Cameran faced the same dilemma so many women encounter: whether or not to have kids. Ultimately, her own journey to motherhood was anything but simple. Now, she takes you deeper into her life—from her first foray into reality TV on The Real World to dating in her twenties to the honest truth about her pregnancy and motherhood—to get to know the person behind the camera. Known as the voice of reason on Southern Charm, she&’ll share the same honest advice she gives to her castmates and guide y&’all through dating, pregnancy, and motherhood. Charming, hilarious, and a hell of a lot fun, One Day You&’ll Thank Me is for anyone who has ever wondered if they should or can.