Service Alert
Website maintenance April 24 10pm ET
On Wednesday April 24 at 10pm ET the CELA website will be unavailable for about 15 minutes for planned maintenance.
On Wednesday April 24 at 10pm ET the CELA website will be unavailable for about 15 minutes for planned maintenance.
Showing 8381 - 8400 of 16352 items
By Alexander Walker. 1995
Few stars are as loved as Audrey Hepburn, today as much as ever. Beautiful, delicate, graceful - but always warm…
and natural - she stole our hearts. She was also brave, working tirelessly for UNICEF in the face of her own failing health. in this moving and heartwarming biography Alexander Walker traces the extraordinary combination of luck and talent that allowed a fragile little girl,who nearly died in Hitler's occupied Europe, to conquer, in just one year, the New York stage and the Hollywood screen. Walker analyses her ascent to power and world fame and reveals the sadness of her life: two failed marriages, a broken engagement, and the crushing disappointment that occupied her triumph in My Fair Lady. Most importantly of all, this biography reveals what no one has known until now: the truly terrifying family secret that tore Audrey's childhood apart and kept her forever silent about her parents.By Russell James. 2008
Maud Allan, the famous exotic dancer was destroyed by the infamous libel trial brought by charismatic British Member of Parliament.…
and pilot, Noel Pemberton-Billing.In this wonderfully written book, Russell James charts her rise and fall from the days when she saved the 1908 London Olympics from failure to the outrageous miscarriage of justice of her trial which knocked the dark days of the First World War off the front pages of the national newspapers.In his gripping narrative, Russell seamlessly moves from the days when Maud was courted by society to the end when her friends, apart from former PMs wife, Margot Asquith, shunned her in case they, too, were labeled as sexual deviants. The trial was based on the existence of the notorious (and fictional?). German black book and its list of 47,000 sexually depraved people who could be used by the Germans to defeat the British in War. Names included Herbert and Margot Asquith and the judge himself. Maud Allan did not stand a chance.A fantastic read brought out in time for the 2008 Beijing Olympics which will be looking ahead to the next London Olympics, in four years time.By Joseph Hickman. 2016
“There’s a whole chapter on my son Beau… He was co-located [twice] near these burn pits.”–Joe Biden, former Vice President…
of the United States of AmericaThe Agent Orange of the 21st Century… Thousands of American soldiers are returning from the battlefields of Iraq and Afghanistan with severe wounds from chemical war. They are not the victims of ruthless enemy warfare, but of their own military commanders. These soldiers, afflicted with rare cancers and respiratory diseases, were sickened from the smoke and ash swirling out of the “burn pits” where military contractors incinerated mountains of trash, including old stockpiles of mustard and sarin gas, medical waste, and other toxic material.This shocking work, now for the first time in paperback, includes: Illustration of the devastation in one soldier’s intimate story A plea for help Connection between the burn pits and Major Biden’s unfortunate suffering and death The burn pits’ effects on native citizens of Iraq: mothers, fathers, and children Denial from the Department of Defense and others Warning signs that were ignored and much moreBased on thousands of government documents, over five hundred in-depth medical case studies, and interviews with more than one thousand veterans and active-duty GIs, The Burn Pits will shock the nation. The book is more than an explosive work of investigative journalism—it is the deeply moving chronicle of the many young men and women who signed up to serve their country in the wake of 9/11, only to return home permanently damaged, the victims of their own armed forces’ criminal negligence.By Mike Farris. 2016
Lies, murder, and a legendary courtroom battle threaten to tear apart the Territory of Hawaii.In September of 1931, Thalia Massie,…
a young naval lieutenant's wife, claims to have been raped by five Hawaiian men in Honolulu. Following a hung jury in the rape trial, Thalia's mother, socialite Grace Fortescue, and husband, along with two sailors, kidnap one of the accused in an attempt to coerce a confession. When they are caught after killing him and trying to dump his body in the ocean, Mrs. Fortescue's society friends raise enough money to hire seventy-four-year-old Clarence Darrow out of retirement to defend the vigilante killers. The result is an epic courtroom battle between Darrow and the Territory of Hawaii's top prosecutor, John C. Kelley, in a case that threatens to touch off a race war in Hawaii and results in one of the greatest miscarriages of justice in American history.Written in the style of a novel, but meticulously following the historical record, A Death in the Islands weaves a story of lies, deception, mental illness, racism, revenge, and murder-a series of events in the Territory of Hawaii that nearly tore apart the peaceful islands, reverberating from the tenements of Honolulu to the hallowed halls of Congress, and right into the Oval Office itself, and left a stain on the legacy of one of the greatest legal minds of all time.By Christina Lane. 2020
In 1933, Joan Harrison was a twenty-six-year-old former salesgirl with a dream of escaping both her stodgy London suburb and…
the dreadful prospect of settling down with one of the local boys. A few short years later, she was Alfred Hitchcock's confidante and one of the Oscar-nominated screenwriters of his first American film, Rebecca. Harrison had quickly grown from being the worst secretary Hitchcock ever had to one of his closest collaborators, critically shaping his brand as the "Master of Suspense." Forging her own public persona as the female Hitchcock, Harrison went on to produce numerous Hollywood features before becoming a television pioneer as the producer of Alfred Hitchcock Presents. A respected powerhouse, she acquired a singular reputation for running amazingly smooth productions— and defying anyone who posed an obstacle. She built most of her films and series from the ground up. She waged rough-and-tumble battles against executives and censors, and even helped to break the Hollywood blacklist. She teamed up with many of the most respected, well-known directors, writers, and actors of the twentieth century. And she did it all on her own terms. Author Christina Lane shows how this stylish, stunning woman became Hollywood's most powerful female writer-producer—one whom history has since overlooked.By Jenn Shapland. 2020
“Gorgeous, symphonic, tender, and brilliant, My Autobiography of Carson McCullers is a monumental achievement." -Carmen Maria Machado While working as an intern…
in the archives at the Harry Ransom Center, Jenn Shapland encounters the love letters of Carson and a woman named Annemarie—letters are that are tender, intimate, and unabashed in their feelings. Shapland recognizes herself in the letters’ language—but does not see Carson as history has portrayed her. And so, Shapland is compelled to undertake a recovery of the full narrative and language of Carson's life: She wades through the therapy transcripts; she stays at Carson’s childhood home, where she lounges in her bathtub and eats delivery pizza; she relives Carson’s days at her beloved Yaddo. As Shapland reckons with the expanding and collapsing distance between her and Carson, she sees the way Carson’s story has become a way to articulate something about herself. The results articulate something entirely new not only about this one remarkable, walleyed life, but about the way we tell queer love stories. In genre-defying vignettes, Jenn Shapland interweaves her own story with Carson McCullers’s to create a vital new portrait of one of America’s most beloved writers, and shows us how the writers we love and the stories we tell about ourselves make us who we are.By Robert Kolker. 2014
Soon to be a Netflix documentary One of Slate’s Best Nonfiction Books of the Past 25 YearsA literary account of the…
lives and presumed serial killings of five “Craigslist” prostitutes, whose bodies were found on the same Long Island beach in 2010. Based on the New York Magazine cover story.Shannan wanted acceptance. Maureen wanted a solution. Megan wanted love. Melissa wanted adventure. Amber wanted to be saved.Over the course of three years, each of these young women vanished without a trace: Maureen in 2007, Melissa and Megan in 2009, and Amber and Shannan in 2010. All but one of their bodies was discovered on Gilgo Beach, Long Island, an unsettled, overgrown seven-mile stretch of shoreline on the string of barrier islands along South Oyster Bay.Sharing the same profile—all were in their twenties, all but one was under five feet tall, and all were prostitutes who advertised on Craigslist—the police concluded they were all the victims of one murderer, the Long Island serial killer—the most skillful and accomplished serial killer in New York since the “Son of Sam,” David Berkowitz. But as intrepid young reporter Robert Kolker discovered, the truth about these women went far deeper than common assumptions. The victims weren’t outcasts; they weren’t kidnapped or enslaved. All came from a slice of America ignored by politicians and the media: the poor, often rural and white parts of the country hit hard by economics, where limited opportunities force people to make hard choices—choices that lead them to places like Gilgo Beach.Working closely with the women’s families, Lost Girls tells the stories of their deaths and their lives, offering a searing portrait of crime and circumstance that goes to the heart of modern America itself.By Ginger Gaffney. 2020
A top-ranked horse trainer’s gorgeous, life-affirming memoir that offers profound insight into the fascinating ways both horses and humans seek…
relationships to survive. At the start of this remarkable story of recovery, healing, and redemption, Ginger Gaffney answers a call to help retrain the troubled horses at an alternative prison ranch in New Mexico, a facility run entirely by the prisoners. The horses are scavenging through the dumpsters, kicking and running down the residents when they bring the trash out after meals. One horse is severely injured. The horses and residents arrive at the ranch broken in one way or many: the horses are defensive and terrified, while the residents, some battling drug and alcohol addictions, are emotionally and physically shattered. With deep insight into how animals and humans communicate through posture, body language, and honesty of spirit, Gaffney walks us through her struggle to train the untrainable. Gaffney peels away the layers of her own story—a solitary childhood, painful introversion, and a transformative connection with her first horse, a filly named Belle—and she, too, learns to trust people as much as she trusts horses. As her year-long odyssey builds toward a dramatic conclusion, the group experiences triumphs and failures, brave recoveries and relapses, as well as betrayals and moving stories of trust and belonging. Resonant, smart, and beautifully written, Half Broke tears at the heart of what it takes to find wholeness after years of trauma and addiction and offers profound insight on how working with animals can satisfy our universal need for connection.By Barb Rosenstock. 2020
In this inspiring tribute, award-winning author Barb Rosenstock and New York Times bestselling artist Elizabeth Baddeley tell the true story…
of one of America's greatest founding mothers: Abigail Adams.Everyone knew Abigail was different.Instead of keeping quiet, she blurted out questions. Instead of settling down with a wealthy minister, she married a poor country lawyer named John Adams. Instead of running from the Revolutionary War, she managed a farm and fed hungry soldiers. Instead of leaving the governing to men, she insisted they "Remember the Ladies." Instead of fearing Europe's kings and queens, she boldly crossed the sea to represent her new country. And when John become President of the United States, Abigail became First Lady, and a powerful advisor.Leave it to Abigail--an extraordinary woman who surprised the world.By Diane Keaton. 2020
From the beloved film star and best-selling author of Then Again--a heartfelt memoir about Diane Keaton's relationship with her younger…
brother, and a poignant exploration of the divergent paths siblings' lives can take. When they were children in the suburbs of Los Angeles in the 1950s, Diane Keaton and her younger brother, Randy, were best friends and companions: they shared stories at night in their bunk beds; they swam, laughed, dressed up for Halloween. Their mother captured their American-dream childhoods in her diaries, and on camera. But as they grew up, Randy became troubled, then reclusive. By the time he reached adulthood, he was divorced, an alcoholic, a man who couldn't hold on to full-time work--his life a world away from his sister's, and from the rest of their family. Now Diane is delving into the nuances of their shared, and separate, pasts to confront the difficult question of why and how Randy ended up living his life on "the other side of normal." In beautiful and fearless prose that's intertwined with photographs, journal entries, letters, and poetry--many of them Randy's own writing and art--this insightful memoir contemplates the inner workings of a family, the ties that hold it together, and the special bond between siblings even when they are pulled far apart. Here is a story about love and responsibility: about how, when we choose to reach out to the people we feel closest to--in moments of difficulty and loss--surprising things can happen. A story with universal echoes, Brother & Sister speaks across generations to families whose lives have been touched by the fragility and "otherness" of loved ones--and to brothers and sisters everywhere. A New York Times BestsellerBy Karen R. Jones. 2020
A fascinating new account of the life and legend of the Wild West’s most notorious woman: Calamity Jane Martha Jane…
Canary, popularly known as Calamity Jane, was the pistol-packing, rootin’ tootin’ “lady wildcat” of the American West. Brave and resourceful, she held her own with the men of America’s most colorful era and became a celebrity both in her own right and through her association with the likes of Wild Bill Hickok and Buffalo Bill Cody. In this engaging account, Karen Jones takes a fresh look at the story of this iconic frontierswoman. She pieces together what is known of Canary’s life and shows how a rough and itinerant lifestyle paved the way for the scattergun, alcohol-fueled heroics that dominated Canary’s career. Spanning Canary’s rise from humble origins to her role as “heroine of the plains” and the embellishment of her image over subsequent decades, Jones shows her to be feisty, eccentric, transgressive—and very much complicit in the making of the myth that was Calamity Jane.After its Peruvian discovery in 2002, Phragmipedium kovachii became the rarest and most sought-after orchid in the world. Prices soared…
to $10,000 on the black market. Then one showed up at Marie Selby Botanical Gardens, where every year more than 100,000 people visit. They come for the lush landscape on Sarasota Bay and for Selby's vast orchid collection, one of the most magnificent in the world. The collision between Selby's scientists and the smugglers of Phrag. Kovachii, a rare ladyslipper orchid hailed as the most significant and beautiful new species discovered in a century, led to search warrants, a grand jury investigation, and criminal charges. It made headlines around the country, cost the gardens hundreds of thousands of dollars in donations, and led to tremendous internal turmoil. Investigative journalist Craig Pittman unravels this tangled web to shine a spotlight on flaws in the international treaties governing trade in endangered wildlife--which may protect individual plants and animals in shipping but do little to halt the destruction of whole colonies in the wild. The Scent of Scandal unspools like a riveting mystery novel, stranger than anything in Susan Orlean's The Orchid Thief or the film Adaptation. Pittman shows how some people can become so obsessed--with beauty, with profit, with fame--that they will ignore everything, even the law.For the first time, this ground-breaking book tells the forgotten story of the true genesis of the June 25, 1876…
disaster along the Little Bighorn, "Custer's Last Stand." The failure of the southern column to continue to advance north after the battle of the Rosebud set the stage for the annihilation of George Armstrong Custer and his five companies of the 7th Cavalry at the Little Bighorn. For nearly 150 years, almost everything possible already has been written about the fascinating story of "Custer's Last Stand" except the analysis and new views that have been emphasized in this most revealing book: the true causes and culprits of the bloody fiasco at the Little Bighorn on June 25, 1876 that shocked the American nation like no other post-Civil War event. Phillip Thomas Tucker, Ph.D., the author of nearly 30 books and including award winners, has contributed many fresh and new views about "Custer's Last Stand," revealing what has long been most often left out of the historical record. Where possible, Tucker has relied on primary source material, including period newspapers, to enlighten readers about the most forgotten and overlooked causes of Lieutenant George Armstrong Custer's and his command's annihilation in the bloody showdown along the Little Bighorn. These new explanations and fresh interpretations about how and why the battle of the Little Bighorn,perhaps the most controversial battle in American history, ultimately played out so disastrously like a Greek tragedy. Therefore, the author has exposed those individuals, America's leading military and civilian officials, who were most responsible for the greatest military disaster in the post-Civil War period. Dr. Tucker has presented the unvarnished truths about what really happened and exactly why by revealing the Machiavellian currents and dark threads of a needless war that had been artificially manufactured against the Sioux by America's top leaders, including the president, to gain their territory, especially the Black Hills. Tucker has presented the most forgotten story (literally the story inside the story) of the 1876 Sioux Campaign and "Custer's Last Stand." In this way, he has provided us with a new understanding of exactly why Custer died on a lonely hilltop beside his most faithful followers, revealing the most overlooked truths that have been long ignored. Even more, this ground-breaking book has demonstrated how Custer became the convenient scapegoat for the monumental disaster, while the true culprits in contrast successfully maintained their reputations and paths to career advancement. With considerable insight and a long-demonstrated penchant for myth-busting,Tucker has demolished the myth which stubbornly persists to this day that Custer was the foolish glory hunter, who deserved sole blame for the fiasco along the Little Bighorn. This book has overturned some of the oldest misconceptions and falsehoods to present a fresh look of George Armstrong Custer and one of the most controversial campaigns and battles in American history. For the first time and despite all of the voluminous amount of literature about Custer and the famous last stand, this book brings the reader of today much closer to a more accurate and truer understanding of how and why Custer and his five companies of the 7th Cavalry were wiped out to the last man on a hot summer afternoon in the Montana Territory.By John Barnett, Sister Annabel Laity. 2019
The captivating autobiography of the first Western nun ordained in Thich Nhat Hanh's Vietnamese Zen lineage.In 1988, Sister Annabel Laity…
became the first Western person to be ordained as a monastic disciple in Thich Nhat Hanh's Vietnamese Zen lineage. She was given the Dharma name Chan Duc, which means True Virtue. Thirty years later, Sister Annabel is a much-loved senior Dharma teacher in the Plum Village community. She teaches and leads retreats worldwide, and is widely recognized as an accomplished and insightful Buddhist scholar. In this autobiography, Sister True Virtue shares the trials and joys of her lifelong search for spiritual community. First inspired by the kind Catholic nuns who ran her primary school, she encounters Buddhism while studying ancient languages at university in England. A few years later, when teaching classics in Greece, she meets a Tibetan Buddhist nun, an encounter that changes the course of her life and eventually leads her to her teacher, Thich Nhat Hanh, and to her spiritual home in Plum Village, Thich Nhat Hanh's practice center in France. True Virtue is a timeless testament to the importance of spiritual exploration, and offers a unique perspective on Thich Nhat Hanh's monastic community.By Kelly S. Thompson. 2019
This inspiring, compelling debut memoir chronicles the experiences of a female captain serving in the Canadian Armed Forces, and her…
journey to make space for herself in a traditionally masculine world.At eighteen years old, Kelly Thompson enlisted in the Canadian Armed Forces. Despite growing up in a military family -- she would, in fact, be a fourth-generation soldier -- she couldn't shake the feeling that she didn't belong. From the moment she arrives for basic training at a Quebec military base, a young woman more interested in writing than weaponry, she quickly realizes that her conception of what being a soldier means, forged from a desire to serve her country after the 9/11 attacks, isn't entirely accurate. A career as a female officer will involve navigating a masculinized culture and coming to grips with her burgeoning feminism. In this compulsively readable memoir, Thompson writes with wit and honesty about her own development as a woman and a soldier, unsparingly highlighting truths about her time in the military. In sharply crafted prose, she chronicles the frequent sexism and misogyny she encounters both in training and later in the workplace, and explores her own feelings of pride and loyalty to the Forces, and a family legacy of PTSD, all while searching for an artistic identity in a career that demands conformity. When she sustains a career-altering injury, Thompson fearlessly re-examines her identity as a soldier. Girls Need Not Apply is a refreshingly honest story of conviction, determination, and empowerment, and a bit of a love story, too.By Raymond Rebmann. 2019
With its proximity to Philadelphia, New York and Baltimore, Cape May County was a perfect location for lawbreakers during Prohibition.…
Rumrunners operating along the Atlantic Seaboard and Delaware Bay teamed up with backwoods bootleggers to make Cape May County a bustling center of the era's illegal liquor business. It seemed as if every house around Otten's Harbor in Wildwood was a speakeasy. Bill McCoy would sail from the Caribbean to Jersey with undiluted rum, gaining praise as the "real McCoy." When authorities eventually shut down Cape May's Rum Row, the production of Jersey Lightning just moved to the Pine Barrens. Local historian Raymond Rebmann reveals how Cape May County turned from a sleepy beach community to a smuggler's paradise in the 1920s.By Eric Brach. 2018
“He seemed so normal” is an all-too common sentiment from the neighbors of violent criminals when their heinous acts are…
finally exposed. There are often no obvious indicators that separate the pleasant neighbor from the sadistic murderer. Even serial killers like Jeffrey Dahmer, Ted Bundy, and John Wayne Gacy managed to circulate unnoticed among their communities. They are neighbors and students, professionals and friends living out criminal double lives. In Double Lives, true crime author Eric Brach presents both a nonfiction exposé and a nationwide search that details the exploits of some of the worst criminals in recent American history, all of whom succeeded in going undetected for years while perpetrating one crime after another—all in their own hometowns. Monsters of every race, age, gender, and socioeconomic class are profiled in this roller-coaster of crime. Along the way, the author discusses the criminals he grew up with in his own seemingly innocent community, and provides a personal look at the current scourge of opioid addiction, making Double Lives a sensational yet sobering read.By Maureen Callahan. 2019
A Los Angeles Times "Seven Highly Anticipated Books for Summer Reading"A USA Today "20 of the Season's Hottest New Books"A…
New York Post "25 Best Beach Reads of 2019 You Need to Pre-Order Now" "Maureen Callahan's deft reporting and stylish writing have created one of the all-time-great serial-killer books: sensitive, chilling, and completely impossible to put down." --Ada Calhoun, author of St. Marks Is Dead Ted Bundy. John Wayne Gacy. Jeffrey Dahmer. The names of notorious serial killers are usually well-known; they echo in the news and in public consciousness. But most people have never heard of Israel Keyes, one of the most ambitious and terrifying serial killers in modern history. The FBI considered his behavior unprecedented. Described by a prosecutor as "a force of pure evil," Keyes was a predator who struck all over the United States. He buried "kill kits"--cash, weapons, and body-disposal tools--in remote locations across the country. Over the course of fourteen years, Keyes would fly to a city, rent a car, and drive thousands of miles in order to use his kits. He would break into a stranger's house, abduct his victims in broad daylight, and kill and dispose of them in mere hours. And then he would return home to Alaska, resuming life as a quiet, reliable construction worker devoted to his only daughter.When journalist Maureen Callahan first heard about Israel Keyes in 2012, she was captivated by how a killer of this magnitude could go undetected by law enforcement for over a decade. And so began a project that consumed her for the next several years--uncovering the true story behind how the FBI ultimately caught Israel Keyes, and trying to understand what it means for a killer like Keyes to exist. A killer who left a path of monstrous, randomly committed crimes in his wake--many of which remain unsolved to this day.American Predator is the ambitious culmination of years of interviews with key figures in law enforcement and in Keyes's life, and research uncovered from classified FBI files. Callahan takes us on a journey into the chilling, nightmarish mind of a relentless killer, and to the limitations of traditional law enforcement.La mafia del poder sigue viva... y lucrando. Este es un libro sobre delitos cometidos por ciudadanos respetados, pero no…
respetables. Delitos que evidencian la existencia de pactos políticos y de impunidad a gran escala. Este es un libro sobre los crímenes de cuello blanco. Hoy, de hecho, la política y la alta empresa mexicana no se entienden sin este "capitalismo de amigotes", basado en favores, lazos de sangre, desigualdades y protección gubernamental. Y el daño financiero de esos crímenes es mucho más grande que el de toda la delincuencia "clásica". En esta obra, con nombres y apellidos, se muestra quiénes integran esas redes de privilegio, en qué negocios están metidos y qué historias arrastran. ¿Lo más impresionante? Que esa "mafia del poder" sigue operando, y algunos de sus integrantes tratan de incorporarse a las actuales esferas gubernamentales.By J. Jesús Lemus. 2019
Hace años se temía que las guerras venideras fueran por el agua: el futuro nos alcanzó. El crimen organizado se…
convirtió en instrumento disuasivo de la movilización social. Hoy, en México, hay 916 batallas por el agua. Gobierno, empresas y delincuentes se han movilizado contra las poblaciones y los activistas en busca de su bien más preciado. Ya hay miles y miles de víctimas, y el cambio climático las multiplicará. En esta investigación periodística vienen los nombres y apellidos de los responsables, las redes de corrupción y los modus operandi. pero el desastre aún puede frenarse.