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The Beatles from A to Zed: An Alphabetical Mystery Tour
by Peter AsherA legendary record producer and performer takes readers on an alphabetical journey of insights into the music of the Beatles and individual reminiscences of John, Paul, George, and Ringo.Peter Asher met the Beatles in the spring of 1963, the start of a lifelong association with the band and its members. He had a front-row seat as they elevated pop music into an art form, and he was present at the creation of some of the most iconic music of our times.Asher is also a talented musician in his own right, with a great ear for what was new and fresh. Once, when Paul McCartney wrote a song that John Lennon didn’t think was right for the Beatles, Asher asked if he could record it. “A World Without Love” became a global No. 1 hit for his duo, Peter & Gordon. A few years later Asher was asked by Paul McCartney to help start Apple Records; the first artist Asher discovered and signed up was a young American singer-songwriter named James Taylor. Before long he would be not only managing and producing Taylor but also (having left Apple and moved to Los Angeles) working with Linda Ronstadt, Neil Diamond, Robin Williams, Joni Mitchell, and Cher, among others. The Beatles from A to Zed grows out of his popular radio program “From Me to You” on SiriusXM's The Beatles Channel, where he shares memories and insights about the Fab Four and their music. Here he weaves his reflections into a whimsical alphabetical journey that focuses not only on songs whose titles start with each letter, but also on recurrent themes in the Beatles’ music, the instruments they played, the innovations they pioneered, the artists who influenced them, the key people in their lives, and the cultural events of the time.Few can match Peter Asher for his fresh and personal perspective on the Beatles. And no one is a more congenial and entertaining guide to their music.
Laughing on the Outside: The Life of John Candy
by Martin KnelmanFunny and gentle, John Candy was loved by millions of movie fans for playing true-to-life characters. Whether as the irrepressible bon vivant in Splash, the misunderstood slob in Uncle Buck, or the generous lonely salesman in Planes, Trains, and Automobiles, John Candy struck a perfect balance between self-deprecating humor and irresistible, emotional warmth. But behind the scenes, beneath the booming laughter, award-winning journalist Martin Knelman in Laughing on the Outside paints a compassionate portrait of John Candy--a man blessed by comic genius and goodness of heart who was ultimately and sadly undermined by self-doubt and misguided ambition.
Letters to a Young Novelist
by Mario Vargas LlosaMario Vargas Llosa condenses a lifetime of writing, reading, and thought into an essential manual for aspiring writers. Drawing on the stories and novels of writers from around the globe-Borges, Bierce, Céline, Cortázar, Faulkner, Kafka, Robbe-Grillet-he lays bare the inner workings of fiction, all the while urging young novelists not to lose touch with the elemental urge to create. Conversational, eloquent, and effortlessly erudite, this little book is destined to be read and re-read by young writers, old writers, would-be writers, and all those with a stake in the world of letters.
American Smoke: Journeys to the End of the Light
by Iain SinclairThe visionary writer Iain Sinclair turns his sights to the Beat Generation in America in his most epic journey yet"How best to describe Iain Sinclair?" asks Robert Macfarlane in The Guardian. "A literary mud-larker and tip-picker? A Travelodge tramp (his phrase)? A middle-class dropout with a gift for bullshit (also his phrase)? A toxicologist of the twenty-first-century landscape? A historian of countercultures and occulted pasts? An intemperate WALL-E, compulsively collecting and compacting the city's textual waste? A psycho-geographer (from which term Sinclair has been rowing away ever since he helped launch it into the mainstream)? He's all of these, and more." Now, for the first time, the enigma that is Iain Sinclair lands on American shores for his long-awaited engagement with the memory-filled landscapes of the American Beats and their fellow travelers. A book filled with bad journeys and fated decisions, American Smoke is an epic walk in the footsteps of Malcolm Lowry, Charles Olson, Jack Kerouac, William Burroughs, Gary Snyder, and others, heated by obsession (the Old West, volcanoes, Mexico) and enlivened by false memories, broken reports, and strange adventures. With American Smoke, Sinclair confirms his place as the most innovative of our chroniclers of the contemporary.
Brotherhood of the Bomb: The Tangled Lives and Loyalties of Robert Oppenheimer, Ernest Lawrence, and Edward Teller
by Gregg HerkenGregg Herken's Brotherhood of the Bomb is the fascinating story of the men who founded the nuclear age, fully told for the first timeThe story of the twentieth century is largely the story of the power of science and technology. Within that story is the incredible tale of the human conflict between Robert Oppenheimer, Ernest Lawrence, and Edward Teller-the scientists most responsible for the advent of weapons of mass destruction.How did science-and its practitioners-enlisted in the service of the state during the Second World War, become a slave to its patron during the Cold War? The story of these three men, builders of the bombs, is fundamentally about loyalty-to country, to science, and to each other-and about the wrenching choices that had to be made when these allegiances came into conflict.Gregg Herken gives us the behind-the-scenes account based upon a decade of research, interviews, and newly released Freedom of Information Act and Russian documents. Brotherhood of the Bomb is a vital slice of American history told authoritatively-and grippingly-for the first time.
To Hell and Back: The Classic Memoir of World War II by America's Most Decorated Soldier
by Audie MurphyThe classic bestselling war memoir by the most decorated American soldier in World War II. Originally published in 1949, To Hell and Back was a smash bestseller for fourteen weeks and later became a major motion picture starring Audie Murphy as himself. Many decades later, this classic wartime memoir is just as gripping as it was then. Desperate to see action but rejected by both the marines and paratroopers because he was too short, Murphy eventually found a home with the infantry. He fought through campaigns in Sicily, Italy, France, and Germany. Although still under twenty-one years old on V-E Day, he was credited with having killed, captured, or wounded 240 Germans. He emerged from the war as America's most decorated soldier, having received twenty-one medals, including our highest military decoration, the Congressional Medal of Honor. To Hell and Back is a powerfully real portrayal of American GI's at war.
Admiral Nimitz: The Commander of the Pacific Ocean Theater
by Brayton HarrisThe biography of legendary admiral Chester W. Nimitz, master military strategist and visionary of submarine operations.Chester Nimitz was an admiral's Admiral, considered by many to be the greatest naval leader of the last century. After the attack on Pearl Harbor, Nimitz assembled the forces, selected the leaders, and - as commander of all U.S. and Allied air, land, and sea forces in the Pacific Ocean - led the charge one island at a time, one battle at a time, toward victory. A brilliant strategist, he astounded contemporaries by achieving military victories against fantastic odds, outpacing more flamboyant luminaries like General Douglas MacArthur and Admiral "Bull" Halsey. And he was there to accept, on behalf of the United States, the surrender of the Japanese aboard the battleship USS Missouri in August 1945. In this first biography in over three decades, Brayton Harris uses long-overlooked files and recently declassified documents to bring to life one of America's greatest wartime heroes.
Ayn Rand Nation: The Hidden Struggle for America's Soul
by Gary WeissThirty years after her death in March 1982, Ayn Rand's ideas have never been more important. Unfettered capitalism, unregulated business, bare-bones government providing no social services, glorification of selfishness, disdain for Judeo-Christian morality—these are the tenets of Rand's harsh philosophy.In Ayn Rand Nation, Gary Weiss explores the people and institutions that remain under the spell of the Russian-born novelist. He provides new insights into Rand's inner circle in the last years of her life, with revelations of never-before-publicized predictions by Rand that still resonate today. Weiss charts Rand's infiltration of the Tea Party and Libertarian movements, and provides an inside look at the radical belief system that has exerted a powerful influence on the Republican Party and its presidential candidates. It's a fascinating cast of characters that ranges from Glenn Beck to Oliver Stone, and includes Rand's most influential disciple, Alan Greenspan. Weiss describes in penetrating detail how Greenspan became a stalking horse for Rand—slashing and burning regulations with ideological zeal, and then seeking to conceal her influence on his life and thinking. Lastly, Weiss provides a strategy for a renewed national dialogue, an embrace of the nation's core values that is needed to deal with Rand's pervasive grip on society. From The Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged to Rand's lesser-known and misunderstood nonfiction books, Gary Weiss examines the impact of Rand's thinking across our society.
Not Even My Name: A True Story
by Thea HaloA riveting account of exile from Turkish genocide, brought to light for the first time ever in Sano Halo's personal story Not Even My Name exposes the genocide carried out during and after WW I in Turkey, which brought to a tragic end the 3000-year history of the Pontic Greeks (named for the Pontic Mountain range below the Black Sea). During this time, almost 2 million Pontic Greeks and Armenians were slaughtered and millions of others were exiled. Not Even My Name is the unforgettable story of Sano Halo's survival, as told to her daughter, Thea, and of their trip to Turkey in search of Sano's home 70 years after her exile. Sano Halo was a 10-year-old girl when she was torn from her ancient, pastoral way of life in the mountains and sent on a death march that annihilated her family. Stripped of everything she had ever held dear, even her name, Sano was sold by her surrogate family into marriage when still a child to a man three times her age. Not Even My Name follows Sano's marriage, the raising of her ten children in New York City, and her transformation as an innocent girl who was forced to move from a bucolic life to the 20th century in one bold stride. Written in haunting and eloquent prose, Not Even My Name weaves a seamless texture of individual and group memory, evoking all the suspense and drama of the best told tales.
The Russian Album
by Michael IgnatieffWinner of the Royal Society of Literature AwardIn The Russian Album, Michael Ignatieff chronicles five generations of his Russian family, beginning in 1815. Drawing on family diaries, on the contemplation of intriguing photographs in an old family album, and on stories passed down from father to son, he comes to terms with the meaning of his family's memories and histories. Focusing on his grandparents, Count Paul Ignatieff and Princess Natasha Mestchersky, he recreates their lives before, during, and after the Russian Revolution.
Behind Sad Eyes: The Life of George Harrison
by Marc ShapiroShrouded in a sea of mystery, the elusive George Harrison has long been the most private and enigmatic member of the Beatles. From his hard knock childhood in Liverpool to his ascendance into rock infamy, George Harrison's life has been a torpid ride filled with legendary success and heart crushing defeat. New York Times bestselling author Marc Shapiro sheds new light on this paradoxical rocker, whose reputation for unusual religious practices and drug abuse often rivaled his musical notoriety. A man whose desire was to be free rather than be famous, Harrison's battle against conformity lead him to music making, a soulful and creative expression that would be his ticket to success and the bane of his existence. Behind Sad Eyes is the compelling account of a man who gave the Beatles their lyrical playing style and brought solace to a generation during turbulent times.
Biko: The True Story of the Young South African Martyr and His Struggle to Raise Black Consciousness
by Donald WoodsSubjected to 22 hours of interrogation, torture and beating by South African police on September 6, 1977, Steve Biko died six days later. Donald Woods, Biko's close friend and a leading white South African newspaper editor, exposed the murder helping to ignite the black revolution.
Isaac B. Singer: A Life
by Florence NoivilleIsaac Bashevis Singer (1904-1991) is widely recognized as the most popular Yiddish writer of the twentieth century. His translated body of work, for which he received the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1978, is beloved around the world. But although Singer was a very public and outgoing figure, much about his personal life remains unknown. In Isaac Bashevis Singer, Florence Noiville offers a glimpse into the world of this much-beloved but persistently elusive figure.An astonishingly prolific writer, Singer was able to recreate the lost world of Jewish Eastern Europe and also to describe the immigrant experience in America. Drawing heavily upon folklore, Singer's work is noted for its mystical strain. But he was also heavily concerned with the problems of his own day, and through his novels and stories runs a strong undercurrent of social consciousness. Unafraid to celebrate peasant life, Singer was often accused of being vulgar, yet he was also recognized for a deeply moral sensibility. And much like his work, Singer's personal life was marked by contradiction: the son of a Rabbi, he struggled with warring currents of devotion and doubt. Solicitous of affection, he was also known for his philandering. Devoted to the notion of family, he abandoned his own son before the Second World War.Drawing on letters, personal recollections, and interviews with Singer's friends, family, and publishing contemporaries, Florence Noiville speaks to these paradoxes. More appreciation than comprehensive biography, her narrative is rich in detail about the people, places, and ideas that shaped Singer's world. A remarkably vivid portrait of the man and his work emerges—a compassionate, vivid, and insightful vision of one of the twentieth century's greatest storytellers.
God Never Gives Up on You: What Jacob's Story Teaches Us About Grace, Mercy, and God's Relentless Love
by Max LucadoEver wonder if you&’ve stumbled one too many times for God to use someone like you? Could you benefit from an encounter with God&’s unending, unbending, unswerving love and devotion? If your answer is yes, it&’s time for you to see how God&’s grace transformed Jacob&’s life. And if you feel undeserving of God&’s grace, this book will serve as a refresher course on God&’s perfect plan to use imperfect people to do great things.God Never Gives Up on You is for the strugglers among us and the fumbler within us. For those of us who are part saint, part scoundrel; we mean well, but we don&’t always do well. We have breakthroughs and breakdowns, often in the same hour. We need no reminder of our failures. But where can we find examples of God&’s steadfast grace?No one is more suited to help assure you of God&’s grace than Jacob. He was less a prodigy and more a prodigal. Strong on savvy. Weak on conscience. Jacob took advantage of his famished brother and pulled the wool over the eyes of his dying father, yet God never turned his back on Jacob. And he won&’t turn his back on you. If you are ready to start counting on God&’s grace and believe he never gives up on you, this book is for you.
Undetectable
by Casey CharlesUndetectable is a story of love, loss, and viral loads, a memoir of long-term survival with HIV. From New York graduate student in 1989, who contracts the virus from the love of his life to Montana writer in 2018 visiting the slums of Nairobi, the author finds his own drama intertwined with the astonishing stories of his HIV+ peers, narratives that intersect the path of his travails and act as foils to the foibles of a gay man who comes out, falls in love, and faces a death sentence at the beginning of his career. In his fight for drugs, friends, and support, Charles learns the power of linking self to other as he confronts stigma, heartbreak, and fear with a visceral resilience. By discovering the power of community, Undetectable explores a generation of long-term HIV survivors who have lived to tell the story of an AIDS pandemic now in its fifth decade without cure or vaccine.
Vision: My Story Of Strength (I, Witness #0)
by Precious PerezA young activist opens a window into her journey to become a professional musician and leader for the disabled community. Ever since Precious Perez was a child, she has loved to sing. Born and raised outside Boston, her family joked that she’d eventually study at Berklee College of Music. But when a high school music teacher advocated for Precious’s talent, her dream became a reality. Precious was born two-and-a-half months premature and weighed just one pound. Her eyes did not develop fully, and she is blind. Growing up, most people focused on what Precious could not do because of her disability. With her teacher’s support, Precious realized all the things she could do with her disability—starting with attending Berklee. With a voice that is both accessible and engaging, Vision brings forward an empowering first-person account of a woman finding strength and purpose in her disability. The I, Witness series delivers compelling narrative nonfiction by young people, for young people.
Escape to Freedom: An Airman's Tale of Capture, Escape and Evasion (Wwii Ser.)
by Tony JohnsonA firsthand account of a World War II crewman in the 427 (Lion) Squadron of the Royal Canadian Air Force who was captured by the Nazis and became a POW.On his third operational mission, Tony Johnson was shot down in his Wellington bomber. Captured shortly after, he was interrogated in Dulag Luft before being sent to Stalag Luft 1 on the Baltic where he stayed from April to September 1944. As the noose tightened on Germany, Tony and his fellow kriegies were kept on the move. He describes the increasingly harsh conditions they all endured, including the infamous Long March of the winter of 1945. He twice escaped, the second time successfully, reaching the Allied Second Army.
Edward IV and the Wars of the Roses
by David SantiusteThis fascinating account of an unsung English monarch and military leader is &“a pleasing and well-informed appraisal of the first Yorkist king&” (Dr. Michael Jones, author of Bosworth 1485: Psychology of a Battle). Indisputably the most effective general of the Wars of the Roses in fifteenth-century England, King Edward IV died in his bed, undefeated in battle. Yet he has never been accorded the martial reputation of other English warrior kings such as Henry V. It has been suggested that perhaps he lacked the personal discipline expected of a truly great army commander. But, as the author shows in this perceptive and highly readable new study, Edward was a formidable military leader whose strengths and subtleties have never been fully recognized—perhaps because he fought most of his battles against his own people in a civil war. This reassessment of Edward&’s military skill—and of the Wars of the Roses in which he played such a vital part—provides fascinating insight into Edward the man as well as the politician and battlefield commander. Based on contemporary sources and the latest scholarly research, Edward IV and the Wars of the Roses stands as &“a valuable and thought-provoking addition to the canon, which ought to become required reading for anyone interested in the reign of the first Yorkist monarch&” (The Ricardian).
Marshal Joffre: The Triumphs, Failures and Controversies of France's Commander-in-Chief in the Great War
by André BourachotA century ago General Joffre, as Chief of the French General Staff, led the armies that blocked the German invasion at the First Battle of the Marne. He saved Paris from occupation and France from probable defeat. His calm demeanour when faced with a disaster, his ruthless dismissal of incompetent subordinates, and his skilled redeployment of his forces contributed to a historic victory. At the time many saw him as the saviour of the nation, but what should we make of him now? For Joffre contributed to the failures of the French army and its strategy before the war and during the first battles of 1914. Also his conduct of the war after the Marne futile offensives that cost thousands of lives and gained no ground, followed by near defeat at Verdun - undermined his position and led to his dismissal.Although he remained immensely popular in France, his reputation has been under a cloud ever since, and he has been overshadowed by the French generals - Ptain and especially Foch - who commanded the French army at the time of the final victory over Germany.Andr Bourachot, in this lucid and highly readable study of Joffre's career, focuses on his performance during the opening phase of the Great War. He offers a fresh and carefully considered view of the man and the soldier.
Salute of Guns
by Donald BoydA British World War I veteran details artillery’s role in the Great War, life on the Western Front, and soldier morale in this classic memoir.Salute of Guns covers a story that is almost forgotten: Artillery was the decisive weapon of the Great War. The developments in artillery tactics, equipment and shells played a major role in the final Allied victory. British artillery was in the forefront of all those changes. This book gives the reader a dramatic insight into the story of artillery in the First World War.Donald Boyd joined his local Territorial Force artillery unit in September 1914. Commissioned in 1915, he learnt his trade in France from unsympathetic pre-war Indian Army regulars who did not understand how war was changing. From 1916 to 1918 he took part in the Western Front’s major battles, including the Somme, Third Ypres, Cambrai and the 1918 offensives. The stress of an artillery subaltern’s existence, observing in the front line, keeping the guns in action at a battery position or leading ammunition columns up tracks exposed to shellfire brought him to nervous collapse twice. The author is frank about his problems and convincingly conveys the relationships within his sub-unit which helped or hindered his struggle to stay in the front line.A new foreword by Michael Orr sets Boyd’s memoir in context and documents its reliability from the archives.Praise for Salute of Guns“If I had to name the best record of Western Front fighting I should, on the whole, choose Donald Boyd’s Salute of Guns as the one that has dealt most faithfully with the most difficult to recall of all its aspects—contemporary morale.” —Robert Graves“An excellent account of service by a man dealing with the fear and mental fatigue of a long war who yet describes his military activities with great clarity. It is particularly valuable as such memoirs from the Royal Regiment are few. Pen & Sword are to be congratulated.” —British Commission for Military History
Wellington's Men Remembered Volume 2: A Register of Memorials to Soldiers Who Fought in the Peninsular War and at Waterloo: M to Z
by Janet Bromley David BromleyWellington's Men Remembered is a reference work which has been compiled on behalf of the Association of Friends of the Waterloo Committee and contains over 3,000 memorials to soldiers who fought in the Peninsular War and at Waterloo between 1808 and 1815, together with 150 battlefield and regimental memorials in 24 countries worldwide.
Lady Under Fire on the Western Front: The Great War Letters of Lady Dorothie Feilding MM
by Andrew Hallam Nicola HallamWhen Britain went to war in 1914 many people rallied to the cause, determined to join the colors or be useful in some other way. Lady Dorothie Mary Evelyn Feilding was one of the latter. ‘Lady D spent almost three years on the Western Front in Belgium driving ambulances for the Munro Motor Ambulance Corps, an all-volunteer unit. During her time in Flanders her bravery was such that she received the Belgian Order of Leopold, the French Croix de Guerre and was the first woman to be awarded the British Military Medal. She wrote home to Newnham Paddox, near Rugby, almost daily. Her letters reflect the mundane, tragedy and horror of war and also the tensions of being a woman at the front contending with shells, gossip, funding, lice, vehicle maintenance and inconvenient marriage proposals. Though Dorothie was the daughter of an Earl and from a privileged upbringing she had an easy attitude that transcended social boundaries and that endeared her to all that she came in to contact with whether royalty or the ordinary fighting man.
On the Roads of War: A Soviet Cavalryman on the Eastern Front
by Ivan YakushinA World War II survivor describes his combat experiences as a member of the Red Army&’s 5th Guards Cavalry Division in the fight against the Nazi Germany. Ivan Yakushin survived the Siege of Leningrad, fought at the Battle of Kursk and pursued the retreating German army through Russia, Belorussia, Poland and into Germany itself. This is the story of his war. He tells the tale in his own words, with remarkable clarity of recall, and gives an authentic insight into what combat on the Eastern Front was like for the ordinary soldier. He also provides a detailed, firsthand record of cavalry operations during a highly mechanized war, and this gives his book its special value. The war for Yakushin began in Leningrad where he endured the terrifying first winter of the German siege. He describes the perils and privations that beset the city during a period in which over half a million civilians lost their lives. Yet it is his vivid recollections of his experiences as an artillery man, then a cavalry officer on the Eastern Front that are at the heart of this rare memoir. In the Kursk salient Yakushin was severely wounded in the legs, during the Nevel offensive and Operation Bagration he took part in daring cavalry raids behind the German lines and, as the Soviet army penetrated into East Prussia and Germany itself, he was confronted by increasingly desperate German units struggling to defend their homeland. His descriptions of the merciless fighting during these last months of the war, in particular against the fanatical German Volkssturm, make fascinating reading.
Caligula: An Unexpected General
by Lee FratantuonoA new appraisal of the brief, turbulent reign of Gaius Caligula and his achievements as a military strategist. Gaius Caligula reigned for four short years, from 37 to 41 CE, before his infamous tenure came to a violent end. While much has been written about his notorious excesses and court life, relatively little of his military and foreign policy has been seriously studied. This military history of Rome during Caligula&’s reign sheds light on that subject. After he grew up in a military camp, Caligula&’s years as emperor came in the wake of the great consolidation of Tiberius&’ gains in Germany and Pannonia, and in large part made possible the invasions of Gaul and Britain that were undertaken by his uncle and successor, Claudius. His expeditions in Gaul were part of a program of imitation of his storied predecessor, and crowning completion of what had been left undone in the relatively conservative military policy years of Augustus and Tiberius. Caligula: An Unexpected General offers a new appraisal of Caligula as a surprisingly competent military strategist, arguing that his achievements helped to secure Roman military power in Europe for a generation.
Railway of Hell: War, Captivity and Forced Labour at the Arms of the Japanese
by Reginald BurtonA first-hand account from a British POW, &“not so much about the building of the Burma-Siam railway as it is about the existence of the men who built it&” (BiblioBuffet.com). A young captain in the Royal Norfolk Regiment, Reggie Burton was wounded in the closing stages of the disastrous defense of Malaya and Singapore. He vividly, yet calmly and with great dignity, describes the horror of captivity at the hands of the Japanese. After initial confusion, the true nature of their captors emerged as, increasingly debilitated, the POWs were forced into backbreaking work. This was only a taste of what was to come. Following a horrific journey in overcrowded cattle trucks, Burton and his dwindling band of colleagues were put to work building the notorious Burma Railway. Somehow, he survived to tell this moving and shocking story.&“Burton&’s willingness to examine the reason for his treatment make this a particularly valuable piece of work, as well as being a harrowing account of his time in captivity and the appalling cruelty that he and his comrades suffered.&” —History of War