Biographies & Memoirs - Books

How to Say Babylon

Biographies & Memoirs

A Read with Jenna Today Show Book Club Pick!With echoes of Educated and Born a Crime, How to Say Babylon is the stunning story of the author’s struggle to break free of her rigid Rastafarian upbringing, ruled by her father’s strict patriarchal views and repressive control of her childhood, to find her own voice as a woman and poet.Throughout her childhood, Safiya Sinclair’s father, a volatile reggae musician and militant adherent to a strict sect of Rastafari, became obsessed with her purity, in particular, with the threat of what Rastas call Babylon, the immoral and corrupting influences of the Western world outside their home. He worried that womanhood would make Safiya and her sisters morally weak and impure, and believed a woman’s highest virtue was her obedience.In an effort to keep Babylon outside the gate, he forbade almost everything. In place of pants, the women in her family were made to wear long skirts and dresses to cover their arms and legs, head wraps to cover their hair, no make-up, no jewelry, no opinions, no friends. Safiya’s mother, while loyal to her father, nonetheless gave Safiya and her siblings the gift of books, including poetry, to which Safiya latched on for dear life. And as Safiya watched her mother struggle voicelessly for years under housework and the rigidity of her father’s beliefs, she increasingly used her education as a sharp tool with which to find her voice and break free. Inevitably, with her rebellion comes clashes with her father, whose rage and paranoia explodes in increasing violence. As Safiya’s voice grows, lyrically and poetically, a collision course is set between them. How to Say Babylon is Sinclair’s reckoning with the culture that initially nourished but ultimately sought to silence her; it is her reckoning with patriarchy and tradition, and the legacy of colonialism in Jamaica. Rich in lyricism and language only a poet could evoke, How to Say Babylon is both a universal story of a woman finding her own power and a unique glimpse into a rarefied world we may know how to name, Rastafari, but one we know little about.

Arven fra min far

Biographies & Memoirs

I disse usentimentale og gribende erindringer fortæller præsident Barack Obama om sin opvækst og sit liv som barn af en sort far og en hvid mor – og om kampen for at finde sin egen identitet. Historien begynder i New York, hvor Barack Obama får at vide, at hans far – som forlod familien, da sønnen var to år – er blevet dræbt i en bilulykke. Dødsfaldet sender Obama ud på en følelsesmæssig rejse, først til en lille flække i Kansas, hvorfra hans mors familie emigrerer til Hawaii, og derefter til Kenya, hvor han møder den afrikanske side af familien. Barack Obama var 33 år, da han skrev Arven fra min far, som giver læseren et enestående indblik i en banebrydende politikers personlige historie. ”En fremragende – og ikke mindst fremragende skrevet – bog. Det er svært at komme i tanke om nulevende politikere med så levende en pen som Obama og politikere med så stor en sans for nuancer og glæde ved at observere, fundere og filosofere, sådan som det kommer til udtryk i hans bog.” Tom Buk-Swienty, Weekendavisen ”Det her er noget af det mest personlige, ærlige og skarpe, jeg længe har læst, skrevet af en nulevende, offentlig person – og samtidig er det alt andet end individuelt og privat (…) den mest overbevisende, intelligente og bevægende bog om identitet, jeg kan huske at have læst.” Tøger Seidenfaden, Politiken Barack Obama (f. 1961) var senator for staten Illinois, før han blev valgt som Det Demokratiske Partis kandidat til præsidentvalget i 2008. I 2012 blev han valgt til sin anden præsidentperiode i USA. Han og hans hustru, Michelle, og deres to døtre, Malia og Sasha, kommer oprindeligt fra Chicago.

Walking Disaster

Biographies & Memoirs

This candid memoir of music, fame, and endurance from Deryck Whibley, lead singer of Sum 41, follows his rise from a punk kid to an international star. From his earliest days growing up in Canada, Deryck Whibley was a punk who loved music and couldn’t wait to achieve something bigger and better than the humble path that lay before him. Whibley was raised by a single mom and their small family constantly moved from place to place, so he was used to being the new kid, starting fights (or finishing them), and connecting with people who shared his sensibility for chaotic fun and loud music. Sum 41 was born of a group of friends who loved to jam, shared a DIY ethos, and were determined to be rock stars one day.Walking Disaster is Whibley’s story, but it is also the untold story of Sum 41. Whibley takes you backstage, into the recording booth, and through the highest highs and lowest lows of the band whose story is inextricably woven with his own.With his insightful, earnest, and genuine voice, Whibley gets real about fame, fortune, and the music industry. Detailing everything from winning at the MTV Video Music Awards and being nominated for a Grammy to revisiting his high-profile relationships and friendships, contending with invasive paparazzi, and suffering from health issues that brought him to the brink, Whibley offers a forthright and unforgettable memoir.

Ma guerre du pacifique

Biographies & Memoirs

Janvier 1942, Robert Leckie s’engage dans les marines. Quelques mois d’entrainement suffiront à lui faire rejoindre les rangs de la Première Division des Marines qui sera plongée, plus qu’aucune autre, dans l’enfer de la guerre du Pacifique duquel elle tirera sa légende.De l’effroyable solitude des nuits passées sur l’île de Guadalcanal aux pluies torrentielles du Cap Gloucester jusqu’à l’abominable bataille de Peleliu, Robert Leckie dresse un portrait purement humain dans lequel l’esprit sardonique, l’humour et l’autodérision des hommes se dressent comme un rempart face aux ennemis du Pacifique. Un portait original strié par des éclairs de lucidité qui transportent le lecteur dans les moments les plus durs de la Guerre du Pacifique : l’homme-soldat aux prises avec l’ennemi japonais, la mort, la jungle, la boue, la maladie, les officiers et bien d’autres épreuves.Des mémoires au style à la fois poétique, original et poignant, écrites « avec les tripes » dont la plupart des lignes seront adaptées par Steven Spielberg et Tom Hanks dans la série Band of Brothers : The Pacific (2005).Helmet for my pillow (Random House, 1957) est le premier livre de Robert Leckie. Il a reçu le prix du Marine Corps Combat Correspondents Association. Il a eu l’idée d’écrire ses mémoires après être allé voir un film sur la guerre du Pacifique au cinéma, peu représentatif de ce que lui et ses camarades avaient vécu.

Nobles y rebeldes

Biographies & Memoirs

Jessica Mitford era la quinta de seis hermanas de una legendaria familia aristocrática inglesa que durante los años treinta y cuarenta se harían famosas por sus conductas supuestamente escandalosas. Con el tiempo llegaría a convertirse en una de las periodistas norteamericanas más comprometidas y conocidas de su tiempo.Nobles y rebeldes es el inteligente y divertido relato de su infancia y juventud, pero también el retrato de una familia muy poco convencional, que consideraba que a las mujeres no hacía falta enviarlas al colegio -que bastaba con que recibieran clases de equitación, piano y francés- o que los avances médicos eran supersticiones sin fundamento.Jessica encontraba el mundo de su familia tan peculiar como asfixiante y por eso decidió abandonarlo pronto: se escapó a España muy joven con su novio, un sobrino de Churchill, a luchar en la guerra civil; el consiguiente escándalo, que incluyó el envío de un destructor británico para recuperar a los dos prófugos, inspiró algunos de los pasajes más divertidos y mordaces de este libro.Un retrato de familia, un libro de aventuras, un ensayo de antropología social, una historia de amor; Nobles y rebeldes es todo eso, además de una deliciosa autobiografía.

Ursprünge der Macht: Die Geschichte der Reichsgründer

Biographies & Memoirs

Die Anthologie 'Ursprünge der Macht: Die Geschichte der Reichsgründer' vereint eine faszinierende Auswahl literarischer Werke, die sich mit dem zeitlosen Thema der Macht und ihrer Ursprünge auseinandersetzen. Die Sammlung umfasst ein breites Spektrum literarischer Stile, von den lebhaften, narrativen Erzählungen Alexandre Dumas' bis hin zu den akribischen historischen Analysen Johann Gustav Droysens. Der Leser wird in eine vielschichtige historische Reise mitgenommen, die sowohl die Struktur und Dynamik vergangener Imperien als auch die erzählerischen Kunstgriffe beleuchtet, die diesen Epochen Tiefe verleihen. Besonders herausragend ist die Einbindung von Suetons Biographien sowie die literarische Intensität von Karl Bleibtreus stilistischer Schärfe, die dem Leser einzigartige Einblicke in die Welt der Machtentstehung geben. Die Vielfalt der Autoren spiegelt die breite historische und kulturelle Perspektive wider, die in dieser Anthologie zusammenkommt. Droysen, als einer der führenden Theoretiker zur Historiographie des 19. Jahrhunderts, bietet eine methodische Herangehensweise, während Sueton eine antike Perspektive auf die römischen Kaiser liefert, die von bleibender Relevanz ist. Dumas’ fesselnde Geschichten bringen den Leser in die Zeit politischer Intrigen des 17. und 18. Jahrhunderts und ergänzen die Sammlung durch seine bekannte Fähigkeit, Geschichte unterhaltsam und zugänglich zu vermitteln. In ihrer Gesamtheit reflektieren die Arbeiten dieser Autoren historische und literarische Bewegungen, die bis in die heutige Zeit von Bedeutung sind, und bieten eine reichhaltige Grundlage, um die Ursprünge der Macht zu erkunden. Dieses Buch ist eine Empfehlung für jeden, der bereit ist, die vielen Facetten der Macht zu ergründen, sei es aus historischer, kultureller oder literaturwissenschaftlicher Sicht. Der Leser erhält die Chance, einzigartige Perspektiven innerhalb eines Bandes zu entdecken und in einen andauernden Dialog mit den Gedanken der Zeit einzutreten. Diese Sammlung ist nicht nur eine Quelle der Wissensvermittlung, sondern auch ein Mittel, um die Komplexität vergangener Epochen zu erfassen und zu verstehen. Vertiefen Sie sich in diese reichhaltige Divergenz literarischer Betrachtungen und lassen Sie sich von den vielseitigen Einsichten inspirieren, die dieses Werk bietet.

Pack My Bag: A Self-Portrait

Biographies & Memoirs

A luminous autobiography by one of England's most original, delightful, writers. In 1938 Henry Green, then thirty-three, dreaded the coming war and decided to "put down what comes to mind before one is killed." Pack My Bag was published in England in 1940. When he wrote it, Green had already published three of his nine novels and his style"a gathering web of insinuations"was fully developed. Pack My Bag is a marvelously quirky, clear-eyed memoir: a mother who shot at mangle wurzels (turnips) bowled across the lawn for her by the servants; the stately home packed with wounded World War I soldiers; the miseries of Eton, oddities of Oxford, and work in the family factory—the making of a brilliantly original novelist. "We have inherited the greatest orchestra, the English language, to conduct," Green once wrote. "The means are there; things are going on in life all the time around us." His use of language and his account of things that went on in his life inform this delightful and idiosyncratic autobiography, which begins: "I was born a mouthbreather with a silver spoon."

Getting Lost

Biographies & Memoirs

WINNER OF THE 2022 NOBEL PRIZE IN LITERATUREThe diary of one of France’s most important, award-winning writers during the year she had a passionate and secret love affair with a Russian diplomatGetting Lost is the diary Annie Ernaux kept during the year and a half she had a secret love affair with a younger, married man, a Russian diplomat. Her novel, Simple Passion, was based on this affair, but here her writing is immediate, unfiltered.In these diaries it is 1989 and Annie is divorced with two grown sons, living outside of Paris and nearing fifty. Her lover escapes the city to see her there and Ernaux seems to survive only in expectation of these encounters, saying “his desire for me is the only thing I can be sure of.” She cannot write, she trudges distractedly through her various other commitments in the world, she awaits his next call; she lives only to feel desire and for the next rendezvous. When he is gone and the desire has faded, she feels that she is a step closer to death. Lauded for her spare prose, Ernaux here removes all artifice, her writing pared down to its most naked and vulnerable. Getting Lost is as strong a book as any that she has written, a haunting, desperate view of strong and successful woman who seduces a man only to lose herself in love and desire.

The Life of Jesus

Biographies & Memoirs

Written by French philosopher and writer Ernest Renan, this was one of the earliest works to approach the study of the life of Jesus Christ in the same way that one would approach the study of any other historical figure.

Rickey

Biographies & Memoirs

“Seldom does a sports biography—especially a page-turner—so comprehensively explain the forces that made an icon the way they are.” – Sports IllustratedFrom the author of The Last Hero: A Life of Henry Aaron comes the definitive biography of Hall of Famer Rickey Henderson, baseball’s epic leadoff hitter and base-stealer who also stole America’s heart over nearly five electric decades in the game.Few names in the history of baseball evoke the excellence and dynamism that Rickey Henderson’s does. He holds the record for the most stolen bases in a single game, and he’s scored more runs than any player ever. “If you cut Rickey Henderson in half, you’d have two Hall of Famers,” the baseball historian Bill James once said.But perhaps even more than his prowess on the field, Rickey Henderson’s is a story of Oakland, California, the town that gave rise to so many legendary athletes like him. And it’s a story of a sea change in sports, when athletes gained celebrity status and Black players finally earned equitable salaries. Henderson embraced this shift with his trademark style, playing for nine different teams throughout his decades-long career and sculpting a brash, larger-than-life persona that stole the nation’s heart. Now, in the hands of critically acclaimed sportswriter and culture critic Howard Bryant, one of baseball’s greatest and most original stars finally gets his due.

Notes on Chopin

Biographies & Memoirs

An inspiring discourse on the power of music from one of the twentieth century’s most important figures, André Gide André Gide, one of the great intellectuals of the twentieth century and a devoted pianist, invites readers to reevaluate Frédéric Chopin as a composer “betrayed . . . deeply, intimately, totally violated” by a music community that had fundamentally misinterpreted his work. As a profound admirer of Chopin’s “promenade of discoveries,” Gide intersperses musical notation throughout the text to illuminate his arguments, but most moving is Gide’s own poetic expression for the music he so loved. This edition includes rare pages and fragments from Gide’s journals, which relate to Chopin and music.

Hank Greenberg

Biographies & Memoirs

From the prizewinning Jewish Lives series, the remarkable life story of the first Jewish superstar athlete, by New York Times best-selling author Mark Kurlansky One of the reasons baseball fans so love the sport is that it involves certain physical acts of beauty. And one of the most beautiful sights in the history of baseball was Hank Greenberg's swing. His calmly poised body seemed to have some special set of springs with a trigger release that snapped his arms and swept the bat through the air with the clean speed and strength of a propeller. But what is even more extraordinary than his grace and his power is that in Detroit of 1934, his swing—or its absence—became entwined with American Jewish history. Though Hank Greenberg was one of the first players to challenge Babe Ruth's single-season record of sixty home runs, it was the game Greenberg did not play for which he is best remembered. With his decision to sit out a 1934 game between his Tigers and the New York Yankees because it fell on Yom Kippur, Hank Greenberg became a hero to Jews throughout America. Yet, as Kurlansky writes, he was the quintessential secular Jew, and to celebrate him for his loyalty to religious observance is to ignore who this man was.In Hank Greenberg Mark Kurlansky explores the truth behind the slugger's legend: his Bronx boyhood, his spectacular discipline as an aspiring ballplayer, the complexity of his decision not to play on Yom Kippur, and the cultural context of virulent anti-Semitism in which his career played out.What Kurlansky discovers is a man of immense dignity and restraint with a passion for sport who became a great reader—a man, too, who was an inspiration to the young Jackie Robinson, who said, "Class tells. It sticks out all over Mr. Greenberg." About Jewish Lives: Jewish Lives is a prizewinning series of interpretative biography designed to explore the many facets of Jewish identity. Individual volumes illuminate the imprint of Jewish figures upon literature, religion, philosophy, politics, cultural and economic life, and the arts and sciences. Subjects are paired with authors to elicit lively, deeply informed books that explore the range and depth of the Jewish experience from antiquity to the present. In 2014, the Jewish Book Council named Jewish Lives the winner of its Jewish Book of the Year Award, the first series ever to receive this award. More praise for Jewish Lives: "Excellent" –New York Times "Exemplary" –Wall Street Journal "Distinguished" –New Yorker "Superb" –The Guardian

Intervista con la storia

Biographies & Memoirs

“Non riesco a escludere che la nostra esistenza sia decisa da pochi, dai bei sogni o dai capricci di pochi, dall’iniziativa o dall’arbitrio di pochi... Certo è un’ipotesi atroce. Ancor più sconsolato ti chiedi come siano quei pochi: più intelligenti di noi, più forti di noi, più illuminati di noi, più intraprendenti di noi? Oppure individui come noi, né meglio né peggio di noi, creature qual-siasi che non meritano la nostra collera, la nostra ammirazione, la nostra invidia?” Così scrive la Fallaci nella premessa a Intervista con la storia, testo appassionato e coraggioso che raccoglie le interviste di Oriana alle figure che hanno segnato il corso del secondo Novecento, da Henry Kissinger a Willy Brandt, da Golda Meir a Indira Gandhi, da Arafat a Hussein di Giordania, da Nenni ad Amendola, fino a Giulio Andreotti. Pubblicato nel 1974, il libro trasmette tutta la caparbietà della Fallaci, la sua voglia di capire il mondo e gli uomini, il suo stile inconfondibile, la forza della sua scrittura. E ancora oggi risuona come una condanna spietata del potere, un invito alla disubbidienza, un inno appassionato alla libertà.

Czech Mates: Holocaust Legacy

Biographies & Memoirs

"It is not enough to stare up the steps; we must step up the stairs."(Vaclav Havel. Czechoslovak President 1989-1992)Grandpa Weiss was born into tragedy. When he was just eleven days old, his father died in World War One. He then lost every relative he had in the Holocaust with the exception of two second cousins. Grandpa Weiss married Grandma Weiss (Sarlota, or Sari, Sharkany) right after the war. They met while hiding together for four months at the end of the war. Life at that point was all about rebuilding and rebirth. Having a child was a blessing, but again there was sadness when the new family was forced out of Slovakia due to the communist takeover in 1949. For a quiet man who liked routine, leaving the old country was difficult. He found success on all fronts in Israel and then in the United States, but he was forced out of his physical and emotional home, never to return. There was an undercurrent of sadness to Grandpa Weiss's life. When he retired in 1981, I think he took a deep breath and finally had a chance to play back the events of his challenging life. As his job as a dental technician ended, I think more unhappiness set in. He had time to think about the people he had lost and how much his life had been affected by things completely out of his control. As a young boy, however, Grandpa Weiss had two goals: to see the ocean and to live to see the year 2000. He did both and a whole lot more even though there was an undercurrent of sadness. Grandma Weiss was totally satisfied with who she was, what she accomplished and what she believed in. I was in awe of the way she did things, especially how she accomplished her tasks with creativity and absolute pinpoint perfection. Her journey began right after the turn of the century half a world away. As the youngest of eight children, she helped her mother keep order at home. Outside of the house she was a diligent student who enjoyed the small pleasures of her quiet life in a midsize Slovak town. Her world was destroyed during the Holocaust. Restoring order would be her life's work for the next fifty-seven years. She began again in three different settings with dignity, class and her self-assured nature. There was something special about Grandma Weiss. My sister and I would joke around and call our other three grandparents by their first names from time to time. But not Grandma Weiss. We respected them all, but she carried herself with a sense of class and formality that we recognized from an early age. Every day of my life I am helped and guided by the lessons she taught and the traits she unrelentingly exhibited.From the time she broke her hip in in March of 2001, Grandma had one health issue after another. During these months, I spent a lot of time with her. I had the opportunity and foresight to ask her everything I wanted to know. It was an amazing learning experience to spend this time with the smartest person I have ever met. I was getting to hear all about her ninety-six years, every theory, thought and opinion from the person who truly had more of life's answers than anyone. This book tells the whole-life story of my grandparents, Tibor and Sarlota Weiss

Brendan Behan

Biographies & Memoirs

Hailed as the new O'Casey by Irish critics in 1958, Behan is now often portrayed as the archetypal Irishman and spectacular drunk. Behind the myth lies the more compelling story of a writer who was never able to fully harness his larger-than-life personality and talent.

My Several Worlds

Biographies & Memoirs

A memoir from the first American woman to win the Nobel Prize for Literature. “Not only [Buck’s] most important book, but—on many counts—her best book” (Kirkus Reviews). Often regarded as one of Pearl S. Buck’s most significant works, My Several Worlds is the memoir of a major novelist and one of the key American chroniclers of China. Buck, who was born to missionary parents in 1892, spent much of the first portion of her life in China, experiencing the Boxer Rebellion first hand and becoming involved with the society with an intimacy available to few outside observers. The book is not only an important reflection on that nation’s modern history, but also an account of her re-engagement with America and the intense activity that characterized her life there, from her prolific novel-writing to her loves and friendships to her work for abandoned children and other humanitarian causes. As alive with incident as it is illuminating in its philosophy, My Several Worlds is essential reading for travelers and readers alike. This ebook features an illustrated biography of Pearl S. Buck including rare images from the author’s estate.

The Story of My Experiments with Truth

Biographies & Memoirs

The Story of My Experiments with Truth is the autobiography of Mahatma Gandhi, covering his life from early childhood through to 1921. Starting with his birth and parentage, Gandhi has given reminiscences of childhood, child marriage, relation with his wife and parents, experiences at the school, his study tour to London, efforts to be like the English gentleman, experiments in dietetics, his going to South Africa, his experiences of colour prejudice, his quest for dharma, social work in Africa, return to India, his slow and steady work for political awakening and social activities.

De Gaulle

Biographies & Memoirs

"Toute ma vie, je me suis fait une certaine idée de la France. Le sentiment me l'inspire aussi bien que la raison. [...] La France n'est réellement elle-même qu'au premier rang. [...] Notre pays, tel qu'il est, parmi les autres, tels qu'ils sont, doit, sous peine de danger mortel, viser haut et se tenir droit. Bref, à mon sens, la France ne peut être la France sans la grandeur." Entré dans la légende le 18 juin 1940 en appelant les Français à dire non à la fatalité, Charles de Gaulle (1890-1970) est un des géants de notre Histoire. Fondateur de la Ve République, il a laissé au pays des institutions toujours en place et marqué notre politique étrangère d'actes fondamentaux. Voici l'épopée vraie de cet homme exceptionnel, le type même de ces grands personnages à présent disparus, totalement dévoués à la grandeur de la Nation et fervents défenseurs de la raison d'État.

MARC MÁRQUEZ: LA HISTORIA DE UN SUEÑO

Biographies & Memoirs

LA VERDADERA HISTORIA DE SUPERACIÓN DEL PILOTO QUE HA BATIDO TODOS LOS RÉCORDS DE MOTOGP. Marc Márquez ha revolucionado el deporte de motociclismo, consiguiendo 4 títulos mundiales con solo 21 años y conquistando multitud de récords con una personalidad alegre y espontánea que le han valido la admiración de aficionados de todo el mundo. Ahora, por vez primera en forma de cómic, descubrimos la trayectoria del carismático piloto de Cervera, desde que sus padres le regalan su primera moto de gasolina con 4 años, hasta lograr su primer título mundial de MotoGP. Una inspiradora historia real contada por sus propios protagonistas, llena de sacrificio, pasión y superación, que entusiasmará a los seguidores del piloto y a los aficionados del motociclismo. La dibujante Belén Ortega (Pájaro Indiano) firma un trabajo espectacular que recrea con veracidad el ambiente del Mundial de Motociclismo.

MARC MÁRQUEZ: LA HISTÒRIA D'UN SOMNI

Biographies & Memoirs

LA VERITABLE HISTÒRIA DE SUPERACIÓ DEL PILOT QUE HA BATUT TOTS ELS RÈCORDS DE MOTOGP Marc Márquez ha revolucionat l´esport del motociclisme, aconseguint 4 títols mundials amb només 21 anys i conquerint multitud de rècords amb una personalitat alegre i espontània que li han valgut l´admiració d´aficionats de tot el món. Ara, per primera vegada en forma de còmic, descobrim la trajectòria del carismàtic pilot de Cervera, des de que els seus pares li regalen la seva primera moto de gasolina amb 4 anys, fins a assolir el seu primer títol mundial de MotoGP. Una inspiradora història real contada pels seus propis protagonistes, plena de sacrifici, passió i superació, que entusiasmarà als seguidors del pilot i als aficionats del motociclisme. La dibuixant Belén Ortega (Pájaro Indiano) signa un treball espectacular que recrea amb veracitat l´ambient del Mundial de Motociclisme.

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