Biographies & Memoirs - Books

Crossing Mandelbaum Gate

Biographies & Memoirs

PULITZER PRIZE WINNER KAI BIRD’S fascinating memoir of his early years spent in Israel, Jordan, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and Lebanon provides an original and illuminating perspective into the Arab-Israeli conflict. Weeks before the Suez War of 1956, four-year-old Kai Bird, son of a garrulous, charming American Foreign Service officer, moved to Jerusalem with his family. They settled in a small house, where young Kai could hear church bells and the Muslim call to prayer and watch as donkeys and camels competed with cars for space on the narrow streets. Each day on his way to school, Kai was driven through Mandelbaum Gate, where armed soldiers guarded the line separating Israeli-controlled West Jerusalem from Arab-controlled East. He had a front-seat view to both sides of a divided city—and the roots of the widening conflict between Arabs and Israelis. Bird would spend much of his life crossing such lines—as a child in Jerusalem, Saudi Arabia, and Egypt, and later, as a young man in Lebanon. Crossing Mandelbaum Gate is his compelling personal history of growing up an American in the midst of three major wars and three turbulent decades in the Middle East. The Zelig-like Bird brings readers into such conflicts as the Suez War, the Six Day War of 1967, and the Black September hijackings in 1970 that triggered the Jordanian civil war. Bird vividly portrays such emblematic figures as the erudite George Antonius, author of The Arab Awakening; Jordan’s King Hussein; the Palestinian hijacker Leila Khaled; Salem bin Laden, Osama’s older brother and a family friend; Saudi King Faisal; President Nasser of Egypt; and Hillel Kook, the forgotten rescuer of more than 100,000 Jews during World War II. Bird, his parents sympathetic to Palestinian self-determination and his wife the daughter of two Holocaust survivors, has written a masterful and highly accessible book—at once a vivid chronicle of a life spent between cultures as well as a consummate history of a region in turmoil. It is an indispensable addition to the literature on the modern Middle East.

Total Recall

Biographies & Memoirs

In his signature larger-than-life style, Arnold Schwarzenegger’s Total Recall is a revealing self-portrait of his illustrious, controversial, and truly unique life.The greatest immigrant success story of our time. His story is unique, and uniquely entertaining, and he tells it brilliantly in these pages. He was born in a year of famine, in a small Austrian town, the son of an austere police chief. He dreamed of moving to America to become a bodybuilding champion and a movie star. By the age of twenty-one, he was living in Los Angeles and had been crowned Mr. Universe. Within five years, he had learned English and become the greatest bodybuilder in the world. Within ten years, he had earned his college degree and was a millionaire from his business enterprises in real estate, landscaping, and bodybuilding. He was also the winner of a Golden Globe Award for his debut as a dramatic actor in Stay Hungry. Within twenty years, he was the world’s biggest movie star, the husband of Maria Shriver, and an emerging Republican leader who was part of the Kennedy family. Thirty-six years after coming to America, the man once known by fellow bodybuilders as the Austrian Oak was elected governor of California, the seventh largest economy in the world. He led the state through a budget crisis, natural disasters, and political turmoil, working across party lines for a better environment, election reforms, and bipartisan solutions. With Maria Shriver, he raised four fantastic children. In the wake of a scandal he brought upon himself, he tried to keep his family together. Until now, he has never told the full story of his life, in his own voice. Here is Arnold, with total recall.

The Golden Age of Murder

Biographies & Memoirs

Winner of the 2016 EDGAR, AGATHA, MACAVITY and H.R.F.KEATING crime writing awards, this real-life detective story investigates how Agatha Christie and colleagues in a mysterious literary club transformed crime fiction.Detective stories of the Twenties and Thirties have long been stereotyped as cosily conventional. Nothing could be further from the truth.The Golden Age of Murder tells for the first time the extraordinary story of British detective fiction between the two World Wars. A gripping real-life detective story, it investigates how Dorothy L. Sayers, Anthony Berkeley, Agatha Christie and their colleagues in the mysterious Detection Club transformed crime fiction. Their work cast new light on unsolved murders whilst hiding clues to their authors’ darkest secrets, and their complex and sometimes bizarre private lives.Crime novelist and current Detection Club President Martin Edwards rewrites the history of crime fiction with unique authority, transforming our understanding of detective stories, and the brilliant but tormented men and women who wrote them.Reviews‘Few, if any, books about crime fiction have provided so much information and insight so enthusiastically and, for the reader, so enjoyably’ THE TIMES‘Illuminating and entertaining – provides a new way of looking at old favourites. I admire the way that Martin Edwards weaves the sometimes violent, sometimes unlawful, and always gripping true stories of these writers with the equally wild tales they tell in their books.’ LEN DEIGHTON, author of SS-GB‘Forensically sharp and exhaustively informed… Crime fiction is driven by death. In this superbly compendious and entertaining book, Edwards ensures that dozens of authorial corpses are gloriously reborn.’ MARK LAWSON, GUARDIAN‘Edwards knows his business. He understands how to parcel out the clues and red herrings so as to feed the reader enough information to keep a variety of possibilities open, while making sure to prepare for a satisfying solution.’ SEATTLE POST‘You can learn far more about the social mores of the age in which a mystery is written than you can from more pretentious literature. I mean, if you want to know what it was like to live in England in the 1920s, the so-called Golden Age, you can get a much better steer from mysteries than you can from prize-winning novels.’ P. D. JAMESAbout the authorMartin Edwards has published eighteen crime novels, including series set in Liverpool and the Lake District. He has won the CWA Short Story Dagger and CWA Margery Allingham Prize, and his latest book, The Golden Age of Murder, won the Edgar, Agatha, Macavity and H.R.F.Keating awards. Martin is consultant for the British Library's Classic Crime series, as well as Chair of the CWA and President of the Detection Club. He has edited 30 anthologies, published about 60 short stories, and written seven other non-fiction books.

Howard Phillips Lovecraft - Dreamer on the Nightside

Biographies & Memoirs

Howard Phillips Lovecraft: Dreamer on the Nightside is a biography of author H. P. Lovecraft, creator of the Cthulhu Mythos. It was written by Frank Belknap Long, a longtime friend of Lovecraft, and originally released in 1975.

Kingmaker

Biographies & Memoirs

“A thorough account of Harriman’s rise which also manages to be a brisk, twisty read … riveting and revelatory.” —The New Yorker “a must-read book of Fall 2024” —People Magazine “Rigorous but rollicking.” —The New York Times From the New York Times bestselling and award-winning author of A WOMAN OF NO IMPORTANCE, an electrifying re-examination of one of the 20th century’s greatest unsung power playersWhen Pamela Churchill Harriman died in 1997, the obituaries that followed were predictably scathing – and many were downright sexist. Written off as a mere courtesan and social climber, her true legacy was overshadowed by a glamorous social life and her infamous erotic adventures. Much of what she did behind the scenes – on both sides of the Atlantic - remained invisible and secret. That is, until now: with a wealth of fresh research, interviews and newly discovered sources, Sonia Purnell unveils for the first time the full, spectacular story of how she left an indelible mark on the world today.At age 20 Churchill’s beloved daughter-in-law became a “secret weapon” during World War II, strategically wining, dining, and seducing diplomats and generals to help win over American sentiment (and secrets) to the British cause against Hitler. After the war, she helped to transform Fiat heir Gianni Agnelli into Italy’s ‘uncrowned king’ on the international stage and after moving to the US brought a struggling Democratic party back to life, hand-picking Bill Clinton from obscurity and vaulting him to the presidency.Picked as Ambassador to France, she deployed her legendary subtle powers to charm world leaders and help efforts to bring peace to Bosnia, playing her part in what was arguably the high-water mark of American global supremacy.There are few at any time who have operated as close to the center of power over five decades and two continents, and there is practically no one in 20th Century politics, culture, and fashion whose lives she did not touch, including the Kennedys, Truman Capote, Aly Khan, Kay Graham, Gloria Steinem, Ed Murrow, and Frank Sinatra. Written with the novelistic richness and investigative rigor that only Sonia Purnell could bring to this story full of sex, politics, yachts, palaces and fabulous clothes, KINGMAKER re-asserts Harriman’s rightful place at the heart of history.

Up from Slavery

Biographies & Memoirs

Born in a Virginia slave hut, Booker T. Washington (1856–1915) rose to become the most influential spokesman for African Americans of his day. In this eloquently written book, he describes events in a remarkable life that began in bondage and culminated in worldwide recognition for his many accomplishments. In simply written yet stirring passages, he tells of his impoverished childhood and youth, the unrelenting struggle for an education, early teaching assignments, his selection in 1881 to head Tuskegee Institute, and more.A firm believer in the value of education as the best route to advancement, Washington disapproved of civil-rights agitation and in so doing earned the opposition of many black intellectuals. Yet, he is today regarded as a major figure in the struggle for equal rights, one who founded a number of organizations to further the cause and who worked tirelessly to educate and unite African Americans.

Caesar

Biographies & Memoirs

This “captivating biography” of the great Roman general “puts Caesar’s war exploits on full display, along with his literary genius” and more (The New York Times) Tracing the extraordinary trajectory of the Julius Caesar’s life, Adrian Goldsworthy not only chronicles his accomplishments as charismatic orator, conquering general, and powerful dictator but also lesser-known chapters during which he was high priest of an exotic cult and captive of pirates, and rebel condemned by his own country. Goldsworthy also reveals much about Caesar’s intimate life, as husband and father, and as seducer not only of Cleopatra but also of the wives of his two main political rivals. This landmark biography examines Caesar in all of these roles and places its subject firmly within the context of Roman society in the first century B.C. Goldsworthy realizes the full complexity of Caesar’s character and shows why his political and military leadership continues to resonate thousands of years later.

I'm a Stranger Here Myself

Biographies & Memoirs

A classic from the New York Times bestselling author of A Walk in the Woods and The Body.After living in Britain for two decades, Bill Bryson recently moved back to the United States with his English wife and four children (he had read somewhere that nearly 3 million Americans believed they had been abducted by aliens—as he later put it, "it was clear my people needed me"). They were greeted by a new and improved America that boasts microwave pancakes, twenty-four-hour dental-floss hotlines, and the staunch conviction that ice is not a luxury item. Delivering the brilliant comic musings that are a Bryson hallmark, I'm a Stranger Here Myself recounts his sometimes disconcerting reunion with the land of his birth. The result is a book filled with hysterical scenes of one man's attempt to reacquaint himself with his own country, but it is also an extended if at times bemused love letter to the homeland he has returned to after twenty years away.

Kirby

Biographies & Memoirs

Filled with stunning artwork, this biography of comics pioneer Jack Kirby by an artist who worked closely with him is “a treasure” (The Cleveland Plain Dealer).“As a teenager, future television and comics writer [Mark] Evanier became an assistant to Jack Kirby, one of the foremost artists in the history of American comics. Kirby played a major role in shaping the superhero genre, not only through his innovative, dynamic artwork but through collaborating with Stan Lee to create classic Marvel characters like the Fantastic Four, the Hulk and the X-Men. Evanier has now written this magnificently illustrated biography of his mentor. Rather than employing the academic prose that one might expect from an art book, Evanier, a talented raconteur, tells Kirby’s life story in an informal, entertaining manner . . . he brings Kirby’s personality vividly alive: a child of the Great Depression, a creative visionary who struggled most of his life to support his family. The book recounts how Kirby was insufficiently appreciated by clueless corporate executives and close-minded comics professionals. But the stunning artwork in this book, taken from private collections, makes the case for Kirby’s genius. A landmark work, this is essential reading for comics fans and those who want to better understand the history of the comics medium—or those who just want to enjoy Kirby’s incredible artwork.” —Publishers WeeklyIncludes an introduction by Neil Gaiman

True Stories of History and Biography

Biographies & Memoirs

In writing this ponderous tome, the author's desire has been to describe the eminent characters and remarkable events of our annals, in such a form and style, that the young might make acquaintance with them of their own accord. For this purpose, while ostensibly relating the adventures of a Chair, he has endeavored to keep a distinct and unbroken thread of authentic history.

Personal Memoirs of U. S. Grant

Biographies & Memoirs

The first volume of Ulysses S. Grant's memoirs begins with the author's formative years and his military service, continuing until the outbreak of the U.S. Civil War. In Volume I, we learn of Grant's early life and education, his entry into the West Point military academy, and what influenced his views on life and the situation of the United States as a nation. General Grant's gradual rise from his original posting as second lieutenant is charted through the various conflicts and skirmishes he was involved in. Various battles such as Monterrey, and sieges such as Vera Cruz, are recounted in this volume, with Mexico's actions and abilities as an enemy much detailed. Grant is keen to narrate the experience from his perspective as a junior officer, bringing perspective of both the strategic planning and the tactical maneuvers such conflicts entailed together with the morale of the rank and file ahead of each skirmish. We also hear of Grant's resignation in 1854, and how issues over supporting his family financially and emotionally played their part. His return to the Army, as tensions rose following the election of the anti-slavery President Abraham Lincoln, is thereafter related along with the activities of the U.S. Army as war crept closer and was declared by the secessionist states of the Confederacy. The later chapters of Volume I mention Grant's injury and participation in battles such as Shiloh, and his famous advance upon Chattanooga. Ulysses S. Grant demonstrated courage and ability in the face of an enemy more dogged and skilled than he had ever faced before; through levelheaded aptitude, he steadily rose through the command structure. Declining to glorify war, Grant writes meditatively on the loss of life and destruction he beheld in his military roles. To a large extent this autobiography corroborates accounts by Grant's associates that he was a methodical and moral person, able in his work and convinced of the righteous abolition of slavery. Chiefly, accounts of battle as it was in the nineteenth century characterize this memoir. First and foremost, Ulysses S. Grant was a military man with an intense interest in strategical movements and battle tactics. However, he also frequently recalls the personalities and views of his friends, colleagues and enemies in a manner which enlivens the book's tone. Furthermore, we gain an impression of Grant as a family man, with a profound devotion to his wife and children. Together with U.S. Grant's own recollections, which are detailed and comprehensive, we find in this edition appendices in the form of original correspondences sent and received regarding the Union and Confederate forces. At the time he authored his memoirs in the mid-1880s, Grant was determined in spite of illness to add to the burgeoning historical narrative as a reliable source. With this autobiography, it is indisputable that he achieves this goal.

En casa

Biographies & Memoirs

A Bill Bryson se le ocurrió un día la idea de que dedicamos mucho más tiempo a estudiar las batallas y las guerras de la historia que a reflexionar sobre aquello de lo que en realidad está hecha la historia: siglos de gente desarrollando con discreción sus tareas diarias, comiendo, durmiendo y tratando de vivir con más comodidades, y que la mayor parte de los principales descubrimientos de la humanidad se encuentran en la mismísima estructura de las casas que habitamos. Esto fue lo que le inspiró a iniciar un viaje por su propia casa, una vieja rectoría de Nordfolk, y a pasear de habitación en habitación reflexionando sobre el origen de los objetos cotidianos de la vida. En su recorrido llevó a cabo una cantidad prodigiosa de investigación sobre la historia de absolutamente todo, desde la arquitectura a la electricidad, desde la conservación de los alimentos a las epidemias, desde el comercio de las especias a la Torre Eiffel, desde los miriñaques a los retretes, y sobre las mentes brillantes, creativas y a menudo excéntricas que encontramos detrás de todo ello. Bryson aplica la misma curiosidad incontenible y el mismo ingenio irresistible que hicieron de Una breve historia de casi todo uno de los libros más elogiados de la última década, y ofrece uno de los libros más entretenidos y esclarecedores sobre la historia de nuestra forma de vida.

American Legends: The Life of Rosa Parks

Biographies & Memoirs

*Includes pictures of Rosa and important people, places, and events in her life. *Includes some of her most inspirational quotes. *Discusses Rosa's participation in some of the Civil Rights Movement's most famous events. “People always say that I didn't give up my seat because I was tired, but that isn't true. I was not tired physically, or no more tired than I usually was at the end of a working day. I was not old, although some people have an image of me as being old then. I was forty-two. No, the only tired I was, was tired of giving in.” – Rosa Parks A lot of ink has been spilled covering the lives of history’s most influential figures, but how much of the forest is lost for the trees? In Charles River Editors’ American Legends series, readers can get caught up to speed on the lives of America’s most important men and women in the time it takes to finish a commute, while learning interesting facts long forgotten or never known. Rosa Parks is one of the most famous women in American history, and an instantly recognizable name among Americans of all age, thanks to the events of December 1, 1955. That afternoon, on her way home from work, Parks refused to give up her bus seat to a white person in defiance of Montgomery’s segregated bus policies. Within days of her arrest, Montgomery’s civil rights activists had organized a wide-scale boycott of Montgomery’s buses by blacks. To lead the boycott, organizers formed the Montgomery Improvement Association, electing a young, 26 year old pastor president of the new group. His name was Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. In many histories, the narrative of Rosa Parks’ life ends there. While she was celebrated and hailed as a civil rights activist for the next 50 years until her death in 2005, few details of her life aside from her determined act and arrest are remembered. The context of the time and place are also largely overlooked, most notably the fact that she was not the first black woman who was arrested for refusing to give up her seat in 1955. All of that is largely unfair, considering the fact that Rosa Parks suffered further abuse and stigma living in the South during the Civil Rights Movement. And instead of cashing in on her fame, she gave much of the money she made to civil rights groups and organizations. American Legends: The Life of Rosa Parks profiles the life and legacy of one of America’s most famous women and one of its greatest Civil Rights icons. Along with pictures of important people, places, and events, you will learn about Rosa Parks and her story like never before.

Chinese Lives: The People Who Made a Civilization

Biographies & Memoirs

3000 years of Chinese history presented through the lives of ninety-six illustrious participants from all periods and all parts of the countryChina is the most populous country on earth, with the longest history of any modern nation. Here, the full range of Chinese cultural and scientific achievements, as well as its military conquests, wars, rebellions, and political and philosophical movements, are told through the eyes of real people who created or were involved in them. The subjects include emperors and empresses, concubines, officials and political figures, rebels, exiles, philosophers, writers and poets, artists, musicians, scientists, military leaders, and committed pacifists. From Fu Hao, an early warrior lady of the thirteenth century BC, to the late twentieth-century leader Deng Xiaoping, their careers, achievements, misdeeds, disasters, punishments, ideas and love stories make this an unforgettable read. Illustrated with portraits, paintings, written documents, bronzes, sculptures, and location maps, and written in an authoritative yet accessible style, Chinese Lives provides the perfect introduction to China’s history and her peoples.

Uno psicologo nei lager

Biographies & Memoirs

Un libro che ha influenzato la vita di un numero enorme di persone. Tradotto in 24 lingue, ha venduto più di dieci milioni di copie. Ognuno di noi può trovare in questo libro un riflesso di sé: non necessariamente di ciò che è stato, ma di ciò che può diventare nonostante gli "urti" della vita, opponendosi al proprio destino e dominandolo dall'interno. Leggere Frankl è un'esperienza di rivelazione: ci induce a scoprire i lati migliori di noi.

The Revolution Was Televised

Biographies & Memoirs

A phenomenal account, newly updated, of how twelve innovative television dramas transformed the medium and the culture at large, featuring Sepinwall’s take on the finales of Mad Men and Breaking Bad.In The Revolution Was Televised, celebrated TV critic Alan Sepinwall chronicles the remarkable transformation of the small screen over the past fifteen years. Focusing on twelve innovative television dramas that changed the medium and the culture at large forever, including The Sopranos, Oz, The Wire, Deadwood, The Shield, Lost, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, 24, Battlestar Galactica, Friday Night Lights, Mad Men, and Breaking Bad, Sepinwall weaves his trademark incisive criticism with highly entertaining reporting about the real-life characters and conflicts behind the scenes.Drawing on interviews with writers David Chase, David Simon, David Milch, Joel Surnow and Howard Gordon, Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse, and Vince Gilligan, among others, along with the network executives responsible for green-lighting these groundbreaking shows, The Revolution Was Televised is the story of a new golden age in TV, one that’s as rich with drama and thrills as the very shows themselves.

O anticonformista

Biographies & Memoirs

Uma biografia é um exercício complicado, sobretudo quando o analisado ainda está vivo. Uma autobiografia o é ainda mais, já que o leitor desconfia que haja, forçosamente, uma auto-justificação. O Anticonformista, de Luc Ferry, não se enquadra em um caso nem em outro. Esta é provavelmente a primeira autobiografia em que o assunto principal é o pensamento. As entrevistas com Alexandra Laignel-Lavastine são uma formidável epopeia intelectual que ajuda o leitor a compreender melhor o que está em jogo nos debates dos dias atuais. Luc Ferry ousa não seguir as trilhas batidas dos ideais contemporâneos, tomando as vias mais penosas da coragem, da verdade e da justiça. Sem pertencer a clã algum, ele se posiciona na confluência de todas as correntes, à vontade para falar do que fez e de suas teorias, pois sempre se expôs nos confrontos do pensamento e da ação. Para além do engajamento religioso, sua visão de uma ética transcendente para nossa sociedade traz um sopro de esperança ao planeta. A obra de Ferry há muito faz com que as pessoas se questionem sobre uma salvação possível da filosofia. Agora, em seu livro definitivo, ele mostra a necessidade de um espírito libertário e antitotalitário para que isso ocorra.

The Handbook of Epictetus

Biographies & Memoirs

Handbook of Epictetus also known as Enchiridion written by legendary Greek Stoic philosopher Epictetus is a manual of Stoic ethical advice. Compiled by Arrian, who was a student of Epictetus this great classic will surely attract a whole new generation of readers. For many, the Handbook of Epictetus is required reading for various courses and curriculums.

The Confessions of J. J. Rousseau — Volume 05

Biographies & Memoirs

The book story was more to me than a sister, a mother, a friend, or even than a mistress, and for this very reason she was not a mistress; in a word. The Confessions is an autobiographical book by Jean-Jacques Rousseau. In modern times. I loved her too much to desire her. More of the amours of the twentysomething Jean-Jacques: here initiated into a strangely compromised manhood by his maman and perennial comforter. Was I happy? No: I felt I know-not-what invincible sadness which empoisoned my happiness, it seemed that I had committed an incest, and two or three times, pressing her eagerly in my arms, I deluged her bosom with my tears. On her part, as she had never sought pleasure, she had not the stings of remorse.

The Legacy of Severeign Joy

Biographies & Memoirs

We admire these men for their greatness, but the truth is Augustine grappled with sexual passions. Martin Luther struggled to control his tongue. John Calvin fought the battle of faith with worldly weapons.Yet each man will always be remembered for the messages he declared-messages that still resound today. John Piper explores each of these men's lives, integrating Augustine's delight in God with Luther's emphasis on the Word and Calvin's exposition of Scripture. Through their strengths and struggles we can learn how to live better today. When we consider their lives, we behold the glory and majesty of God and find power to overcome our weaknesses. If ever you are complacent about sin, if ever you lose the joy of Jesus Christ, if ever you are dulled by the world's influence, let the lives of these men help you recapture the wonder of God. Book 1 in The Swans Are Not Silent series.

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