Biographies & Memoirs - Books

John Barleycorn

Biographies & Memoirs

John Barleycorn, littéralement John Graindorge, c’est pour l’Américain moyen la personnification familière de l’alcool, c’est-à-dire du whisky, le mauvais génie des compagnons de comptoir, le Dionysos du pauvre, l’Ange noir sur l’épaule. Publié quatre ans avant la mort de l’auteur, ce livre est en quelque sorte son autobiographie d’alcoolique dans laquelle l’immense écrivain raconte sa vie – toute sa vie – vue à travers la lentille déformante de la bouteille. Son dernier très grand texte, qui défraya la chronique, est un récit terrible, lucide, et une façon bouleversante de connaître l’auteur baroudeur de Croc-Blanc et de Martin Eden. Né en 1876 à San Francisco, Jack London connaît le succès après des années de pauvreté, de vagabondage et d’aventures. Auteur prolifique, ses nouvelles et ses romans sont souvent des récits de voyage où la nature représente un idéal de pureté face à l’injustice de la société. À sa mort, en 1916, il laisse une cinquantaine d’ouvrages parmi lesquels L'Appel de la forêt (1903) et Croc-Blanc (1906).

Intimités

Biographies & Memoirs

À la fin de 1950 et au début de 1951, Louise de Vilmorin fut invitée par Paul-Louis Weiller à séjourner dans ses propriétés de Saint-Vigor, près de Versailles, et de Sélestat, dans le Bas-Rhin. Avec les deux amis qui l'accompagnent, elle forme le cercle des "Espérons" ("[...] étant pauvres et inquiets, nous ne cessons de dire : "espérons", c'est ainsi que nous avons choisi de nous appeler"). Dîners en ville, bals masqués, moments de désespoir amoureux, trouvailles chez les antiquaires et les modistes, petits complots de famille, gentilles médisances, portraits acérés, jeux de farces et attrapes rythment cette chronique, que Louise lisait régulièrement à ses amis, et où l'on retrouve tout l'humour, la justesse de trait, la tristesse légère, tout l'esprit en un mot, de son écriture poétique et romanesque. C'est incidemment dans l'espace de ces mêmes mois que Louise, se souvenant d'un ami lointain, écrit quelques pages, qu'elle publie en revue, et que ne tardent pas à se disputer ses amis éditeurs : Madame de paraîtra chez Bernard Grasset à l'automne 1951. Un fragment de journal tenu en Hongrie en 1937 et un "Bloc-Notes" écrit pour le journal Arts dans les années cinquante complètent cet ensemble d'écrits autobiographiques totalement inédits.

Indro: il 900

Biographies & Memoirs

Prima entra il nasone, poi i due occhi azzurrissimi e sgranati, poi tutto il resto. Un corpo filiforme di un metro e 88 per poco più di sessanta chili in un dolcevita e un completo grigio che potrebbe reggersi da sé, se non fosse per i due trampoli. Un airone cenerino vestito da lord inglese.Un pomeriggio mi siedo nel corridoio fuori dal suo ufficio, con la porta sempre socchiusa. Lo spio dalla fessura per una mezz'oretta mentre scrive il suo editoriale sull'Olivetti Lettera 32. E assisto al prodigio che si ripete ogni giorno: è come una mantide religiosa in trance, la testa curva sulla tastiera, il naso quasi conficcato nel foglio che avanza sul rullo, i due indici che picchiettano senza sosta come sui tasti di un pianoforte, a un ritmo musicale. Poi, arrivato in fondo, estrae il foglio, rilegge rapidamente in tralice con gli occhiali sulla punta del naso, aggiunge un paio di virgole a pennarello, firma, sorride e consegna. Già sa che il pezzo è lungo il giusto, a misura della sua colonna in prima pagina («Niente "giri" nelle pagine interne: giramento di pezzo, giramento di coglioni»). Due cartelle dattiloscritte e immacolate, senza correzioni né tagli né cancellature. Letizia Moizzi, la nipote che lavora con noi, mi racconta che spesso lo zio Indro gli editoriali li sogna la notte e glieli recita, anzi glieli "canta", durante la passeggiata mattutina prima di scriverli, per accertarsi che abbiano il ritmo e la musica giusti. Il finale è sempre un lampo al magnesio, un fulmen in clausola. In settantadue anni di carriera, mai un articolo tirato via, o banale, o spento, o privo di un guizzo, di una trovata, di un'idea («una sola però: due sono già troppe»): l'esatto opposto del giornalismo medio di oggi.Ne troverete tanti, di quei miracoli, in questo libro. L'ho scritto per chi Montanelli l'ha letto, ma l'ha dimenticato; per chi Montanelli avrebbe potuto leggerlo, ma non l'ha fatto perché stava dall'altra parte della barricata; e, soprattutto, per chi Montanelli non ha potuto leggerlo per ragioni anagrafiche e non sa cosa si è perso.Dall'Introduzione di Marco Travaglio

The Bicycle Thief and the German Wife

Biographies & Memoirs

Can the enigma of Italy ever be understood, especially by a foreigner? How can the complex war experiences of even one Italian family ever be told?On the birth of his eldest child in a medieval hillside town in central Italy in 2007, Irishman Paul Martin, first heard a troubling two lines about his Italian family.His wife’s grandfather, Bruno, had been denied his war pension because it was suspected he had sided with Mussolini’s extremist Salò Republic after the 1943 Armistice. How could more be learnt if Bruno had been killed in 1956 and his wife, Babi, would never discuss the war up to her death in 2015 aged almost 100?Was this suspicion linked to Bruno’s remarkable, though undocumented, journey home on a stolen bicycle after liberation from a German prison in 1945? Or had it something to do with Babi’s origins in Alto Adige, the German-speaking region of northern Italy? And why had Bruno’s father, Oronzo, attempted suicide immediately after the war?In the decade after 2008, as Europe faced into the seething consequences of the global crash, Paul would unravel this complex family – and unexpectedly national – story.In conversations with remaining members of the war generation, this tale would wind through the former Austro-Hungarian empire, to a Jewish internment camp in the Marche, to Italy’s disastrous Albanian campaign, to vile wars in Russia and the Balkans, to a prison in East Prussia and a forced labour factory near Leipzig, to an impoverished and troubled post-war Ancona before arriving at its conclusion in today’s Italy.Faced with the unrelenting question of “what is the truth of history?”, this intriguing story ultimately uncovers some of the buried past and deep humanity of Italy’s extraordinary people. But above all it reveals the character of one Italian family and how – rather than Bruno’s suspected Fascist sympathies – something far more nuanced and painful lay behind Babi’s decades-long, dignified silence.

Le signore di Shanghai

Biographies & Memoirs

Erano le tre sorelle più famose della Cina. Grazie ai loro matrimoni e a innate doti diplomatiche e politiche, le sorelle Soong da Shanghai si ritrovarono al centro del potere e riuscirono a dominare il Paese per tutto il primo Novecento, tra rivoluzioni, guerre e trasformazioni culturali. La maggiore, Ei-ling, sposò l’uomo più ricco della Cina e, in modo non ufficiale, fu consigliera di Chiang Kai-shek, marito della più giovane di loro, May-ling. Di lei Hemingway disse che era come un’imperatrice e, secondo i giornalisti occidentali dell’epoca, era anche la donna più influente del mondo. La sorella di mezzo si chiamava Ching-ling; a soli ventidue anni sposò il quarantanovenne Sun Yat-sen, fondatore e padre della Repubblica cinese. Ma nonostante il potere e i privilegi di cui godettero, le loro esistenze furono turbate dalla costante minaccia di nemici e pericoli.Jung Chang ci racconta la loro storia in una biografia tanto epica quanto intima: gli affari di una nazione in subbuglio, gli incontri segreti nelle sale di Mosca, i colloqui con gli Stati Uniti, gli esili a Berlino, le fughe in Giappone e la guerra si intrecciano ai sentimenti di amore e odio e al glamour delle loro vite.Una storia finora sconosciuta, il racconto delle esistenze incredibili di tre sorelle che grazie all’istruzione e all’intelligenza dominarono la Cina, influenzarono le politiche estere degli Stati più potenti di metà Novecento e lasciarono un segno indelebile nella Storia di una nazione.

Démone et autres textes

Biographies & Memoirs

Fictions, poèmes, proses d'occasion et pages d'interviews composent ce volume. Appartenant à toutes les périodes de l'œuvre de Louise de Vilmorin, des années trente aux années soixante, certains de ces textes furent publiés dans Vogue, Marie-Claire mais aussi Minotaure, tandis que d'autres, amoureusement dactylographiés et brochés par Louise, étaient offerts par elle à certains de ses amis, en une sorte de samizdat amoureux. Écrits pour leur seul plaisir, et le sien, ils sont aujourd'hui dispersés dans des collections privées, et l'on aura ici l'occasion de les lire pour la première fois. Des croquis mordants de "J'étais du mariage" ou "J'ai été séduite" au surréalisme sombre de "Ce soir" ou de "Démone", de la désinvolture apparente de certains entretiens à un hilarant "L'argent me ruine", c'est toute la palette, ou l'écho, de la fantaisie de Louise de Vilmorin qu'offre ce recueil appartenant à tous les genres ou les défiant tous. On pourrait leur appliquer ce que Louise disait, à sa manière, à propos de ses romans : "En ce qui concerne mes propres livres, j'ai toujours regretté que mon éditeur se soit entêté à leur donner l'appellation trompeuse de roman plutôt que "pâté maison", "machin" ou "venez-y-voir"."

Generations

Biographies & Memoirs

A moving family biography in which the poet traces her family history back through Jim Crow, the slave trade, and all the way to the women of the Dahomey people in West Africa. Buffalo, New York. A father’s funeral. Memory. In Generations, Lucille Clifton’s formidable poetic gift emerges in prose, giving us a memoir of stark and profound beauty. Her story focuses on the lives of the Sayles family: Caroline, “born among the Dahomey people in 1822,” who walked north from New Orleans to Virginia in 1830 when she was eight years old; Lucy, the first black woman to be hanged in Virginia; and Gene, born with a withered arm, the son of a carpetbagger and the author’s grandmother. Clifton tells us about the life of an African American family through slavery and hard times and beyond, the death of her father and grandmother, but also all the life and love and triumph that came before and remains even now. Generations is a powerful work of determination and affirmation. “I look at my husband,” Clifton writes, “and my children and I feel the Dahomey women gathering in my bones.”

Ainda Bem Que a Minha Mãe Morreu

Biographies & Memoirs

Jennette McCurdy tinha seis anos quando fez a sua primeira audição. A mãe queria torná-la uma estrela e ela não a queria desiludir, por isso sujeitou-se às “restrições calóricas” e a vários makeovers caseiros, entre ralhetes do tipo: “Não vês que as tuas pestanas são invisíveis? Achas que a Dakota Fanning não pinta as dela?” Até aos 16 anos era a mãe que lhe dava banho e tinha de partilhar com ela os diários, o e-mail e todo o dinheiro que recebia. Em Ainda Bem Que a Minha Mãe Morreu, Jennette narra tudo em detalhe – e conta o que aconteceu.

Dieci cose che ho imparato

Biographies & Memoirs

"Questo libro raccoglie alcune cose che ho imparato in tanti anni di professione, di incontri, di esperienze, di libri letti e scritti, di speranze e delusioni..." Così Piero Angela riassume e spiega la sua ultima fatica, un testo scritto di getto e nato dall'urgenza del momento, e dalle enormi sfide che ci attendono.Un lascito morale, dopo una lunghissima carriera al servizio dell'informazione e della formazione di generazioni di italiani."Com'è possibile" si chiede in queste pagine "che un paese come l'Italia, che ha marcato profondamente per secoli il cammino della civiltà, oggi sia così in difficoltà, e abbia perso le sue luci?" La risposta è in dieci semplici capitoli, dieci aree critiche su cui occorre agire.Per oltre cinquant'anni Piero Angela si è occupato a tempo pieno di scienza, tecnologia, ambiente, informazione, energia, televisione, comportamenti, e ha scritto Dieci cose che ho imparato per condividere con i lettori alcune proposte, frutto della sua lunga esperienza sul campo.Con questo libro, a cui ha lavorato fino all'ultimo, colui che è stato per tutti il volto rassicurante della scienza ha voluto dirci come usarla per migliorare le cose. Per rilanciare l'Italia con una nuova visione.

Kaikki mitä jäljelle jää

Biographies & Memoirs

"Täydellisen vangitseva." - The Guardian Kuolleiden jäänteitä tutkiva oikeusantropologi Sue Black kertoo palkituissa muistelmissaan kuoleman monista kasvoista sekä pitkän uransa kiinnostavimmista tapauksista.Sue Black on tekemisissä kuoleman kanssa päivittäin. Anatomian ja oikeusantropologian professorina hän tutkii ihmisten maallisia jäännöksiä laboratoriossa ja hautausmailla, henkirikosten tapahtumapaikoilla sekä luonnonkatastrofien ja sotien näyttämöillä. Muistelmateoksessaan Kaikki mitä jäljelle jää Black paljastaa lukijalle kuoleman moninaiset kasvot. Lisäksi hän kertoo uransa kiinnostavimmista tapauksista ja valottaa, miten oikeusantropologian kehitys on mahdollistanut aiemmin selvittämättä jääneiden rikosten ratkaisemisen. Sue Black kirjoittaa aiheestaan pelottomasti, myötätuntoisesti ja hauskasti ja saa lukijan näkemään elämän vääjäämättömän päätepisteen uudessa valossa.Brittiläinen professori Sue Black (s. 1961) on maailman johtavia oikeusantropologeja. Hän on osallistunut kotimaassaan lukuisten korkean profiilin rikostapausten selvittämiseen ja toimi Kosovon sotarikostutkinnan johtavana oikeusantropologina.

Leaving Home

Biographies & Memoirs

An unflinching, brilliantly written, darkly funny, lavishly illustrated memoir by the acclaimed author of The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time: A ringing testament about how one artist sees the world, and how his experiences have shaped his visionSimultaneously heart-breaking and hilarious, Leaving Home is a portrait of the artist both as a child and as an adult. His parents were not really cut out for the job of having children. They were cut out, respectively, for the jobs of designing abattoirs and keeping a pathologically clean and tidy house. At least he had the consolations of The Weetabix Solar System Wallchart, walnut whips and the occasional Babycham.Astringently honest and scalpel sharp, this is a book about being different and seeing the world differently. It’s about being a cartoonist and a care assistant. It’s about family. It’s about knickerbocker glories and heart surgery, about papier mâché and mental breakdown and great white sharks. It’s about how art, in all its varied forms, provides a way of understanding and coming to terms with the mess of human life. It’s richly illustrated throughout with images from the author’s childhood, some of them altered in unforgiveable ways. As bracing as it is embracing, Leaving Home is about escaping a place that never felt like home and learning to create somewhere that does.

Las hermanas Soong

Biographies & Memoirs

UNA GRAN HISTORIA DE AMOR, GUERRA, EXILIO, INTRIGA, PODER Y TRAICIÓN.Por la autora de Cisnes salvajes y Cixí, la emperatriz.La biografía, al mismo tiempo íntima y épica, de tres mujeres fascinantes que contribuyeron a moldear la China del siglo XX.Suele decirse que «una amaba el dinero, otra amaba el poder y la otra amaba a su país», pero este dicho popular no hace justicia a las extraordinarias vidas de las hermanas Soong. Durante casi todo el siglo XX, mientras China lidiaba con guerras, revoluciones y enormes transformaciones, las tres desempeñaron papeles cruciales y dejaron huellas indelebles en la historia de su país.Ching-ling, llamada la Hermana Roja, se casó con Sun Yat-sen, padre fundador de la República china, más tarde vicepresidente de Mao. May-ling, la Hermana Menor, fue la señora de Chiang Kai-shek, primera dama de la China precomunista y una importante figura política por derecho propio. Por su parte, Ei-ling, la Hermana Mayor, fue la principal consejera no oficial de Chiang, esposa de su primer ministro y una de las mujeres más ricas de China. La relación entre ellas fue emocionalmente intensa y a veces conflictiva. Las tres disfrutaron de impresionantes privilegios y gloria, pero también se enfrentaron a ataques y peligros. Mostraron gran coraje y experimentaron amores apasionados, pero también desesperación y angustia.De Cantón a Hawai y Nueva York, de los círculos de la élite comunista en Pekín a los pasillos del poder en el democrático Taiwán, pasando por Japón, Berlín y Moscú, gracias a Jung Chang acompañamos a este poderoso trío de hermanas en un viaje emocionante.La crítica ha dicho: «Cautivador. Chang narra con virtuosismo esta jugosa historia, que satisfará a los lectores interesados en política, asuntos internacionales e intrigas familiares.»Publishers Weekly«Una imponente biografía que devuelve a estas mujeres "con carácter de tigre" una humanidad extraordinariamente compleja. Una historia apasionante y conmovedora.»The Telegraph«Una extraordinaria historia de guerra, comunismo y espionaje relatada desde una empatía repleta de matices. Un libro lleno de vida.»The Guardian«Chang pinta la intensa y compleja historia de China con trazos audaces. Un viaje emocionante.»Literary Review«Una obra monumental, a la altura de las grandes epopeyas tradicionales chinas. Entre las tres heroínas abarcaron tres siglos, dos continentes y una revolución, con consecuencias que reverberan hoy más que nunca.»The Spectator«Excepcional. Como en sus libros anteriores, la mirada sensible y el don narrativo de Chang, así como su atención a los detalles humanos, hacen de este trabajo un nuevo triunfo.»The Evening Standard«Chang ha demostrado su olfato a la hora de encontrar buenas historias que le permiten abrirse camino a través de la compleja historia de China. Vale la pena leerlo, entre otras cosas porque muestra cómo las mujeres poderosas han ayudado a dar forma a la China moderna, un mensaje particularmente oportuno en un momento en que el liderazgo político del país carece casi por completo de mujeres.»The Sunday Times«Las hermanas son sabias e ingenuas, desinteresadas y egoístas, valientes y temerosas, leales y traicioneras... Cada lector decidirá si fueron las princesas o las hermanastras malvadas del cuento. Una biografía lúcida, sabia y comprensiva. Detrás de todo gran hombre hay una hermana Soong.»The Times

Travels with a Typewriter

Biographies & Memoirs

In mid-career, Michael Frayn took up his old trade of journalism, and wrote a series of occasional articles for the Observer about some of the places in the world that interested him. He wanted to describe 'not the extraordinary but the ordinary, the typical, the everyday', and his accounts became the starting point for some of the novels and plays he wrote later. From a kibbutz in Israel to summer rains in Japan, bicycles in Cambridge to Notting Hill at the end of the 1950s, they are glimpses of a world that sometimes seems tantalisingly familiar, sometimes vanished forever. Michael Frayn is the celebrated author of fifteen plays including Noises Off, Copenhagen and Afterlife. His bestselling novels include Headlong, which was shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize, Spies, which won the Whitbread Best Novel Award and Skios, which was longlisted for the Man Booker Prize. "All writers of fiction should be required by law to go out and do a bit of reporting from time to time, just to remind them how different the real world in front of their eyes is from the invented world behind them." Michael Frayn 'Whether he's on a kibbutz or a bicycle, Frayn makes acute observations and the writing is enchanting.' Conde Nast Traveller

The Collected Autobiographies of Maya Angelou

Biographies & Memoirs

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • Maya Angelou’s classic memoirs have had an enduring impact on American literature and culture. Her life story is told in the documentary film And Still I Rise, as seen on PBS’s American Masters.This Modern Library edition contains I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, Gather Together in My Name, Singin’ and Swingin’ and Gettin’ Merry Like Christmas, The Heart of a Woman, All God’s Children Need Traveling Shoes, and A Song Flung Up to Heaven. When I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings was published to widespread acclaim in 1969, Maya Angelou garnered the attention of an international audience with the triumphs and tragedies of her childhood in the American South. This soul-baring memoir launched a six-book epic spanning the sweep of the author’s incredible life. Now, for the first time, all six celebrated and bestselling autobiographies are available in this handsome one-volume edition. Dedicated fans and newcomers alike can follow the continually absorbing chronicle of Angelou’s life: her formative childhood in Stamps, Arkansas; the birth of her son, Guy, at the end of World War II; her adventures traveling abroad with the famed cast of Porgy and Bess; her experience living in a black expatriate “colony” in Ghana; her intense involvement with the civil rights movement, including her association with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and Malcolm X; and, finally, the beginning of her writing career. The Collected Autobiographies of Maya Angelou traces the best and worst of the American experience in an achingly personal way. Angelou has chronicled her remarkable journey and inspired people of every generation and nationality to embrace life with commitment and passion.

Revolt in the Desert

Biographies & Memoirs

Revolt in the Desert is the extraordinary story of the war in Arabia between 1916 and 1918, written by one of the war's most extraordinary characters, Lawrence of Arabia. It tells of his adventures and life amongst the Arab tribesmen, the daring raids on the Turks, the demolition of railway lines, the attacking of desert outposts, and of the opening of 'the road to Damascus' and eventual overthrow of the Turks in the inhospitable landscape of the Middle East. Few had made headway with the Bedouin and Arabs before Lawrence, but his strength of character and his personality suited this war perfectly and he was soon considered to be hugely important in the fight in the Middle East both by his superiors and by the Arabs who rallied around him. This is his story, from his viewpoint. T.E. Lawrence truly was a great writer on the Great War.

Napoleon Bonaparte: Collected Works

Biographies & Memoirs

In 'Napoleon Bonaparte: Collected Works,' readers are invited to explore the intricate tapestry of Napoleon's legacy through a diverse range of literary styles and historical insights. The collection captures the complexity of Napoleon's persona and the transformative era he influenced, offering an assortment of biographies, memoirs, and analytical essays that together illuminate the many facets of his life and governance. The anthology's breadth is significant, featuring narratives that span from the detailed accounts of his military campaigns to reflections on his profound impact on European politics. Each piece contributes a unique perspective, creating a comprehensive portrait of a leader whose actions altered the course of history. The collection gathers the voices of noted historians and contemporaries who have engaged deeply with the Napoleonic era. Louis Antoine Fauvelet de Bourrienne, a childhood friend and later secretary to Napoleon, provides a firsthand account of the emperor's daily affairs. Charles Downer Hazen's historical analyses and Ida M. Tarbell's investigative reporting offer contextual depth and highlight the cultural and political upheavals of Napoleon's time. Such contributions are essential in understanding the collective memory and interpretation of Napoleon's enduring influence, reflecting both admiration and critical perspectives. This anthology is an essential resource for historians, students, and anyone with a keen interest in early 19th-century European history. By bringing together diverse accounts from those who observed or studied Napoleon's life, the collection provides a comprehensive insight into his complex character and legacy. It offers readers an unparalleled chance to engage with a multiplicity of narratives that challenge and enrich their understanding of one of history's most enigmatic figures. Embarking on this literary journey allows an appreciation of the rich dialogue fostered among these varied voices, offering profound educational value and contributing to ongoing debates about Napoleon's role in history.

The Young Man

Biographies & Memoirs

WINNER OF THE 2022 NOBEL PRIZE IN LITERATUREAnnie Ernaux's most recent book, dazzling and breathtaking, published in France in 2022, is about her affair with a man 30 years her junior.“A sublime book.” —Elle“Once again the work of the writer Annie Ernaux appears as both a rigorous study of life and an experiment. These fragments of living, however evanescent, are precious, irreplaceable, like a skin that never fades.” —Caroline Montpetit in Le DevoirThe Young Man is Annie Ernaux’s account of her passionate love affair with A., a man some 30 years younger, when she was in her fifties. The relationship pulls her back to memories of her own youth and at the same time leaves her feeling ageless, outside of time— together with a sense that she is living her life backwards.Amidst talk of having a child together, she feels time running its course, and menopause approaching. The Young Man recalls Ernaux as the “scandalous girl” she once was, but is composed with the mastery and the self-assurance she has achieved across decades of writing. It was first published in France in 2022.

One Man Against the World

Biographies & Memoirs

The National Book Award–winning author of Legacy of Ashes delivers “a devastating account of Nixon’s presidency . . . powerful [and] extraordinary” (Publishers Weekly, starred review).Drawing on newly declassified documents, One Man Against the World paints a devastating portrait of a tortured yet brilliant man who led the country largely according to a deep-seated insecurity and distrust of not only his cabinet and congress, but the American population at large. In riveting prose, Tim Weiner illuminates how the Vietnam War and the Watergate controversy that brought about Nixon’s demise were inextricably linked.From the hail of garbage and curses that awaited Nixon upon his arrival at the White House, to the unprecedented action Nixon took against American citizens, to the infamous break-in and the tapes that bear remarkable record of the most intimate and damning conversations between the president and his confidantes, Weiner narrates the history of Nixon’s anguished presidency in fascinating and fresh detail.A crucial new look at the greatest political suicide in history, One Man Against the World leaves us not only with new insight into this tumultuous period, but also into the motivations and demons of an American president who saw enemies everywhere, and, thinking the world was against him, undermined the foundations of the country he had hoped to lead.

Like a Waking Dream

Biographies & Memoirs

Among the generation of elder Tibetan lamas who brought Tibetan Buddhism west in the latter half of the twentieth century, perhaps none has had a greater impact on the academic study of Buddhism than Geshe Lhundub Sopa. He has striven to preserve Tibetan religious culture through tireless work as a professor and religious figure, establishing a functioning Buddhist monastery in the West, organizing the Dalai Lama's visits to the U.S., and offering countless teachings across the country. But prior to his thirty-year career in the first ever academic Buddhist studies program in the United States - a position in which he oversaw the training of many among the seminal generation of American Buddhist studies scholars - Geshe Sopa was the son of peasant farmers, a novice monk in a rural monastery, a virtuoso scholar-monk at one of the prestigious central monasteries in Lhasa, and a survivor of the Tibetan uprising and perilous flight into exile in 1959.In Like a Waking Dream, Geshe Sopa frankly and observantly reflects on how his life in Tibet - a monastic life of yogic simplicity - shaped and prepared him for the unexpected. His is a tale of an exemplary life dedicated to learning, spiritual cultivation, and the service of others from one of the greatest living masters of Tibetan Buddhism.

It's a Long Story

Biographies & Memoirs

Willie Nelson shares his life story in this "heartfelt" bestselling memoir of true love, wild times, best friends, and barrooms (Washington Post)."Unvarnished. Funny. Leaving no stone unturned." . . . So say the publishers about this book I've written. What I say is that this is the story of my life, told as clear as a Texas sky and in the same rhythm that I lived it. It's a story of restlessness and the purity of the moment and living right. Of my childhood in Abbott, Texas, to the Pacific Northwest, from Nashville to Hawaii and all the way back again. Of selling vacuum cleaners and encyclopedias while hosting radio shows and writing song after song, hoping to strike gold. It's a story of true love, wild times, best friends, and barrooms, with a musical sound track ripping right through it. My life gets lived on the road, at home, and on the road again, tried and true, and I've written it all down from my heart to yours. Signed, Willie Nelson.

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