Biographies & Memoirs - Books

Will

Biographies & Memoirs

Attore, rapper, icona globale. Personalità tra le più dinamiche e amate del mondo dello spettacolo, Will Smith si racconta per la prima volta in un memoir straordinariamente coraggioso, onesto, di grande ispirazione. Un’autobiografia dirompente che svela senza pudore tutta la storia di una delle più incredibili ascese hollywoodiane dei nostri tempi. Alla soglia dei cinquant’anni Will Smith pensava – e come dargli torto? – di avere tutto: non solo il suo successo personale non temeva confronti, ma anche la moglie Jada e i due figli Jaden e Willow splendevano brillantissimi nel firmamento dello spettacolo. Peccato che i diretti interessati non condividessero affatto il suo entusiasmo e si sentissero, anzi, come i funamboli di un circo, soffocati dagli impossibili standard di perfezione di un maniaco del lavoro. L’ammutinamento era dietro l’angolo e Will stava per scoprire di non aver ancora finito di imparare tutto quel che c’era da imparare sull’amore e la felicità.Questo memoir è il risultato di un profondo viaggio di scoperta interiore, la resa dei conti definitiva tra ciò che si può ottenere attraverso l’esercizio della pura forza di volontà, e ciò che, così facendo, si rischia di lasciarsi per sempre alle spalle. Will racconta con grande onestà la lunga strada che conduce al controllo delle proprie emozioni, e lo fa in modo da essere d’aiuto a chiunque ambisca allo stesso risultato. Perché, che tu sia uno dei più potenti e strapagati attori hollywoodiani o una persona comune alle prese con problemi comuni, la verità è una sola ed è la stessa per tutti: non ha senso lottare per realizzare i tuoi sogni, se prima non proteggi la felicità di chi ami. Il solo modo per riuscirci è non smettere mai di imparare. E ascoltare anche le voci che non ti piacciono, quando le incontri lungo il cammino.Questa è la storia di uno scontro epico tra amore, ambizioni, paure e successo. Un libro travolgente che, come il suo autore, è semplicemente unico nel proprio genere.

Thomas Jefferson

Biographies & Memoirs

An illuminating analysis of the man whose name is synonymous with American democracyFew presidents have embodied the American spirit as fully as Thomas Jefferson. He was the originator of so many of the founding principles of American democracy. Politically, he shuffled off the centralized authority of the Federalists, working toward a more diffuse and minimalist leadership. He introduced the bills separating church and state and mandating free public education. He departed from the strict etiquette of his European counterparts, appearing at state dinners in casual attire and dispensing with hierarchical seating arrangements. Jefferson initiated the Lewis and Clark expedition and seized on the crucial moment when Napoleon decided to sell the Louisiana Territory, thus extending the national development. In this compelling examination, distinguished historian Joyce Appleby captures all of the richness of Jefferson's character and accomplishments.

David Crockett

Biographies & Memoirs

Known as "King of the Wild Frontier," David Crockett was a 19th-century American folk legend, frontiersman, soldier, and politician. He represented Tennessee in the U.S. House of Representatives and served in the Texas Revolution. In David Crockett, historian John Abbott traces the dramatic life of this quintessential American hero.

Govt Cheese a memoir

Biographies & Memoirs

People who have read my books, particularly "The War of Art" and its cousins, have a vague idea of the odyssey of a particular solitary guy, wracked by guilt and riven by self-doubt, as he struggles toward his destiny as a writer. But they have only the scantiest conception of the particulars of that journey. These particulars, I'm hoping, may be of use to others as they wrestle with their own version of that same odyssey. So let me try to strip it down.Let me tell the parts I normally leave out.

Oliver Cromwell

Biographies & Memoirs

The year before being elected president Theodore Roosevelt wrote this history of Oliver Cromwell. It includes chapters on the times and the man, his involvement with parliament and both civil wars, the Irish and Scotch Wars, and then his time as the protectorate. It is a rare piece of history when one great leader writes about another. The insights seem more personal and the analysis more candid. This biography offers invaluable insight into the minds of two men who both led nations, but were separated by centuries.

Star Trek Movie Memories

Biographies & Memoirs

The legendary Captain Kirk takes readers behind the scenes of the long-running movie franchise from the first feature film to Star Trek: Generations. In this jam-packed memoir, William Shatner picks up where he left off with Star Trek Memories, recounting in equally intriguing detail what went into the making of the first six Star Trek movies, while including on-the-scene reporting from the set of Star Trek: Generations. Shatner discloses all of the creative turmoil, backstage politics, and production challenges that permeated every one of the movies. And with unflinching candor, he reveals the accumulated personal grudges that haven’t mellowed with the passage of time. Drawing on in-depth interviews as well as Shatner’s private reminiscences, the book recounts how Kirk’s love interest in Star Trek IV began as a role for Eddie Murphy; the creative and production nightmares of Star Trek V; and the rewarding experience of the “classic” crew passing the torch to Patrick Stewart and the cast of The Next Generation. Star Trek Movie Memories contains more than one hundred photographs and illustrations.

Gandolfini

Biographies & Memoirs

A deeply reported, perceptive, and celebratory biography of beloved actor James Gandolfini from a prominent critic and film historian Based on extensive research and original reporting, including interviews with friends and collaborators, Gandolfini is a detailed and nuanced appraisal of an enduring artist. More than a decade after his sudden passing, James Gandolfini still exerts a powerful pull on television and film enthusiasts around the world. His charismatic portrayal of complex, flawed, but always human men illuminated the contradictions in all of us, as well as our potential for grace, and the power of love and family. In Gandolfini, critic and historian Jason Bailey traces the twinned stories of the man and the unforgettable roles he played. Gandolfini’s roots were working class, raised in northern New Jersey as the son of Italian immigrants, and acting was something he loved for a long time before he could see it as a career. It wasn’t until he was well into his bohemian twenties that he dedicated himself to a life on the stage and screen. Bailey traces his rise, from bit parts to character roles he enlivened with menace and vulnerability, to Tony Soprano, the breakout role that would make him a legend, and onto a post-Sopranos career in which he continued to challenge himself and his audience.

Finding Ultra

Biographies & Memoirs

La sera prima di compiere quarant'anni, Rich Roll vide riflessa nello specchio la terribile profezia di quello che sarebbe stato il suo futuro. Venticinque chili sovrappeso, non riusciva a salire le scale senza fermarsi a riprendere fiato. Comprese dove lo stava trascinando il suo stile di vita, e decise di svegliarsi. Iniziò ad allenarsi con costanza e passò a un'alimentazione vegana, e nel giro di pochi mesi trasformò il suo corpo: da sedentario avvocato amante dei cheeseburger divenne una perfetta macchina da ultraendurance.Finding Ultra è l'incredibile viaggio che lo ha portato sulla linea di partenza dell'Ultraman, una gara di 515 km che mette alla prova gli atleti più in forma del mondo - 10 km a nuoto, 420 km in bici e 85 km di corsa. Superato questo traguardo Rich ne ha conquistato un altro, ancora più estremo: l'EPIC5 - cinque ironman in cinque giorni, ognuno su un'isola diversa delle Hawaii.Finding Ultra non è soltanto la storia delle sue incredibili prestazioni sportive e un manuale per riuscire a trasformare radicalmente il nostro corpo: è anche una testimonianza di come si può essere capaci di cambiare la propria mente e di superare difficoltà apparentemente insormontabili - l'infanzia difficile, l'adolescenza tormentata, il demone dell'alcolismo. Con questo libro, Rich Roll ci sfida a riflettere sul nostro vero potenziale, e ci invita a intraprendere il viaggio alla scoperta della migliore versione di noi stessi. In questa nuova edizione di Finding Ultra, ampliata e corretta, Rich condivide e approfondisce le pratiche, i segreti e le tecniche per ottimizzare performance, longevità e benessere, e presenta la sua esclusiva dieta Plantpower e le sue ricette preferite.

El tío Tungsteno

Biographies & Memoirs

Oliver Sacks evoca en este libro de memorias su niñez en Inglaterra. Cuando tenía seis años estalla la Segunda Guerra Mundial y es enviado, junto con su hermano Michael, a un internado en el campo. Cuatro años después, a su regreso a Londres, Michael enloquece, y Oliver encuentra su salvación personal en el mundo de la ciencia. Quien lo inicia es su tío Dave, «el tío Tungsteno», dueño de una fábrica de bombillas eléctricas. Y así, totalmente absorto en la física y la química, el adolescente va construyéndose un peculiar paraíso intelectual, donde sus héroes son Lavoisier, Marie Curie, Mendeleev y su tabla de los elementos...

Memoirs from the Hippie Trail

Biographies & Memoirs

Journal for a 21 trip through Europe and west Asia

Life and Letters of Robert Browning

Biographies & Memoirs

This is biographical book. For my general material I have been largely indebted to Miss Browning. Her memory was the only existing record of her brother's boyhood and youth. It has been to me an unfailing as well as always accessible authority for that subsequent period of his life which I could only know in disconnected facts or his own fragmentary reminiscences. It is less true, indeed, to say that she has greatly helped me in writing this short biography than that without her help it could never have been undertaken.

Problem Solved

Biographies & Memoirs

Problem Solved is a true crime memoir following the life of Andrew Chambers, who at the end of his career was known as 'the blind private eye'. The book is based on true stories that reveal the clandestine, funny, and often confronting world of private investigations. Andrew worked in Australia and across the globe tackling varied and demanding jobs and shares stories about staking out unfaithful spouses, going undercover to investigate workplace harassment, investigating embezzlement, insurance fraud, cracking a South East Asian child prostitution ring and performing corporate espionage. In a fateful twist, Andrew also confronts the lifelong mystery as to why his parents gave him up for adoption to discover the true nature of his beginnings. Problem Solved tells the story of Andrew’s struggle with blindness, and continued pursuit of his career where, surrounded by a strong team led by his son, Andrew repositioned himself as the blind private eye.

Sinatra and the Jack Pack

Biographies & Memoirs

A New York Times BestsellerFrank Sinatra desperately wanted to be part of John F. Kennedy, Jr.’s gang. He had his own famed “Rat Pack,” made up of hard drinking, womanizing individuals like himself—guys like Dean Martin, Sammy Davis, Jr., and Peter Lawford—but the guy “Ol’ Blue Eyes” really wanted to hang with was Lawford’s brother-in-law, the real chairman of the board, John F. Kennedy.In Sinatra and the Jack Pack, Michael Sheridan delves deep into the acclaimed singer’s relationship with the former president. He shares how Sinatra emerged from a working class Italian family and carved out a unique place for himself in American culture, and how Kennedy, also of immigrant stock, came from a privileged background of which the young Frank could only have dreamed.By the time the men met in the 1950s, both were thriving—and both liked the good life. They bonded over their mutual ability to attract beautiful women, male admirers, and adoring acolytes. They also shared a scandalous secret: each had dubious relationships with the mafia. It had promoted Frank’s career and helped Kennedy buy votes. FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover had, over two decades, compiled detailed and damning dossiers on their activities.From all accounts the friendship thrived. Then, suddenly, in March 1962, Frank was abruptly ejected from JFK’s gang. This unique volume tells why. It will release shortly after a television documentary inspired by the book airs, is filled with a beloved cast of characters, and is the compelling, untold story of a tumultuous relationship between two American icons.Skyhorse Publishing, as well as our Arcade imprint, are proud to publish a broad range of books for readers interested in history--books about World War II, the Third Reich, Hitler and his henchmen, the JFK assassination, conspiracies, the American Civil War, the American Revolution, gladiators, Vikings, ancient Rome, medieval times, the old West, and much more. While not every title we publish becomes a New York Times bestseller or a national bestseller, we are committed to books on subjects that are sometimes overlooked and to authors whose work might not otherwise find a home.

O Diário de Anne Frank

Biographies & Memoirs

No seu aniversário de treze anos, Anne Frank ganhou um caderno de seu pai e decidiu que iria usá-lo como diário, e começou a escrever quase que imediatamente.O que começou como um relato adolescente comum veio a se tornar um dos mais importantes documentos históricos do mundo e sua autora uma das vozes mais importantes do século XX.Com relatos sobre as incertezas comuns da adolescência, a vida no esconderijo onde a família de Anne viveu durante dois anos, e os horrores da guerra, o Diário de Anne Frank é uma obra literária sensível e um relato histórico essencial.

La petite fille en haut de l’escalier

Biographies & Memoirs

C’est un destin bien singulier que celui de ma mère, quand on y pense. Certains enfants ont été élevés dans des tentes, des roulottes, des chambres d’hôtel, des orphelinats, des bungalows de banlieue ou des châteaux, d’autres ont sans doute grandi dans des endroits plus insolites et même improbables, mais je parierais que rares sont ceux qui auront passé leur jeunesse dans des presbytères. À l’automne 1920, Martine a quatre ans et s’apprête à passer sa première nuit chez son oncle, curé. Sa mère vient de mourir. Son père l’a abandonnée. Ses frères et sœurs ont été dispersés aux quatre vents. La petite aurait besoin d’être consolée, mais son oncle refuse de la gâter. Du haut de l’escalier qui mène à sa chambre, Martine se dit qu’elle devra s’habituer, que ce sera toujours comme ça. Ce soir-là, elle se construit un blindage que personne ne réussira jamais à percer. Dans ce récit doux-amer où jaillit néanmoins l’humour qu’on lui connaît, François Gravel raconte la vie de sa mère, cette femme complexe qui laissera à son tour ses enfants « en haut de l’escalier ».

The Dog Who Came to Stay

Biographies & Memoirs

The national bestselling memoir of a friendship between a New England outdoorsman and the scrawny foxhound who came to his door one snowy day. In the midst of a blizzard, late one Christmas night in the 1950s, author Hal Borland heard a howl at the back door of his home on a hundred-acre farm in the Housatonic Valley of northwest Connecticut. Resistant at first, he called around trying to find an owner whose dog had gone missing—with no luck. Finally, with the encouragement of his wife and haunted by memories of his childhood collie, Borland brought some scraps of leftover steak outside. This was his introduction to Pat, a miserable, half-starved, but deeply trusting black-and-white foxhound mutt. Pat would soon become a member of the family, accompanying Borland on hunts and terrorizing the local woodchuck population—and teaching him that sometimes our most immediate connection to the natural world is through the animals we live with. A longtime journalist and a winner of the John Burroughs Medal for distinguished nature writing, Borland tells the tale of the time he shared with Pat in this touching true story that “will appeal to many sportsmen and to all people who have ever been closely attached to a dog” (The New York Times Book Review).

Genet

Biographies & Memoirs

In this revelatory biography of Jean Genet, we have the first full-scale life of one of the great -- and controversial -- figures of twentieth-century literature. Edmund White shows us the writer in all his permutations: poet, dandy, homosexual, thief; a 'thug of genius', as Simone de Beauvoir called him.Moving from Genet's illegitimate birth in 1910 to his foster childhood in a farming village in central France, Edmund White explores the early milieu that transformed an inherently theatrical child into a petty criminal and prodigiously original writer, whose most startling creation may have been his invention of himself. Accused of stealing and running away, Genet was sent to reform school at Mettray, where his imagination flourished under the spell of an all-male communal life and his first homosexual experiences. In the 1930s, he deserted from the army and travelled in Europe as a vagabond, prostitute and thief, always on the lam from the police and the military. In 1942, he emerged from one of several prison stays with the first of his remarkable novels, Our Lady of the Flowers. It was admired by Cocteau, who undertook to get it published and interceded with the French authorities to keep its author out of prison. White shows us how Cocteau thrust the 'marvelous, mysterious, intolerable' Genet into the heart of literary Paris, where he enjoyed a curious celebrity as great writer and petty thief, was painted by Giacometti (from whom he stole) and was canonized by Sartre in his monumental study, Saint Genet.By 1948, Genet had produced five highly original novels. In the mid-1950s, after several years of debilitating depression, he turned to the writing of plays, of which The Balcony, The Blacks and The Screens were immediately hailed as masterpieces. Despite his ambivalence about political movements, he supported the Paris student uprising in 1968 and turned up -- as a journalist -- at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago. In 1970, he became a spokesman for the Black Panthers, but in his last decade he immersed himself -- politically and aesthetically -- in the Arab world, championing the struggle for a Palestinian homeland and writing his last, posthumously published book, Prisoner of Love.Edmund White explores the perverse extremes of Genet's life and separates the facts from the mythology that Genet himself fashioned. Drawing on interviews with Genet's friends, lovers, publishers and acquaintances, and using new material from correspondence, journals, police records, psychiatric reports and other original sources, White reveals a life animated by contradictory impulses: authenticity and dissembling, fidelity and flirtation, domination and submission, honor and betrayal. Throughout, he brilliantly interprets and appraises Genet's astonishing oeuvre, reading the fiction with the focussed attention of a novelist and opening up the dense invention of the plays. His masterful and intuitive biography fully illuminates a hitherto enigmatic literary genius.

Going Home

Biographies & Memoirs

It is the bitter-sweet story of the author's childhood experiences during the German and Russian occupations of Hungary, and of her four trying years as a young student in a hostile Germany.It tells of her family's cruel exile from their homeland, of their three-week hellish journey in a cramped, filth-ridden boxcar, their challenges in an unwelcoming country, and their unyielding belief in the American dream.

Palveluksessanne

Biographies & Memoirs

New York Times -bestseller – tuttu myös Netflix-sarjana Maid. Stephanie Landin raastava ja omakohtainen tarina vuosista, joina hän siivosi Yhdysvaltain yläluokan koteja ja seurasi hiljaa sivusta asiakkaidensa voittoja, tragedioita ja syvimpiä salaisuuksia. Stephanie Landin unelmat yliopisto-opinnoista ja kirjailijaksi tulemisesta murenivat, kun kesäinen suhde teki hänestä yksinhuoltajan. Toimeentulo oli yhtä kituuttamista, mutta Stephanie oli päättänyt luoda perheelleen paremman elämän. Hän siivosi päivisin, opiskeli verkossa iltaisin ja suoritti college-tutkinnon. Samalla hän kirjoitti omasta todellisuudestaan: elämästään ruokakupongeilla, hallituksen tukiohjelmista, joiden kautta hädin tuskin järjestyi asuinpaikka, ja välinpitämättömistä virkamiehistä, jotka saivat hänet häpeämään vähäisiäkin avustuksia. Ennen kaikkea hän kirjoitti siitä, miten vaikeaa köyhän on tavoitella amerikkalaista unelmaa. Palveluksessanne on Stephanien tarina, muttei ainoastaan hänen. Se on innoittava osoitus ihmismielen rohkeudesta, päättäväisyydestä ja äärimmäisestä vahvuudesta. Stephanie Landin tekstejä on julkaistu muun muassa The New York Timesissa, The Washington Postissa, The Atlanticissa ja The Guardianissa. Hänen tuotantonsa käsittelee etenkin yhteiskunnallista ja taloudellista oikeudenmukaisuutta.

Anime nere

Biographies & Memoirs

Roma, 23 marzo 1944. A via Rasella esplode una bomba che uccide trentatré soldati tedeschi. Da Berlino un ordine atroce: per ogni membro delle SS, Hitler vuole la testa di dieci italiani. Celeste Di Porto, giovane ebrea amante di un fascista, aiuta a scovare nel Ghetto i suoi stessi vicini di casa, che con disprezzo la chiamano «Pantera Nera». Nella città liberata una ricca donna tedesca, Elena Hoehn, viene accusata di spionaggio, colpevole di aver dato rifugio a un carabiniere ricercato per aver arrestato Mussolini dopo la sua destituzione. Nello stesso carcere, alle Mantellate, le due inizieranno un percorso che le porterà a cercare, con sorti alterne, una nuova avventura nel solco di Chiara Lubich e dell’emergente ideale focolarino. Ma sono davvero due donne che affrontano un viaggio spirituale o si tratta di due carnefici dalle mani insanguinate? Corrisponde a verità la leggenda che vuole Celeste rancorosa e incapace di discernere tra il bene e il male, salvata da un’anima pia e compassionevole come Elena? Il desiderio ostinato di entrambe di riscattarsi e calcare il «palcoscenico del mondo» e la brama di riscrivere il proprio trascorso gettano ombre sulle conversioni religiose. Tra delazioni, tradimenti e tentativi di redenzione, attraverso le vicende di figure ai margini della Storia, Anna Foa e Lucetta Scaraffia si addentrano in territori inesplorati del nostro passato e restituiscono, nell’ambiguo rapporto di amicizia fra Celeste ed Elena e nella loro ricerca tormentata di una nuova vita, lo specchio di una società che, sebbene anelante a un rinnovamento spirituale, tendeva a dimenticare le colpe e a rimuovere i delitti.

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