- Table View
- List View
Leonardo da Vinci #9
by Denis Zilber Ann HoodTravel back in time to Renaissance Italy with the Robbins twins! In book nine of The Treasure Chest, Maisie and Felix continue to learn the magic of Elm Medona and the Pickworth family history. In the latest adventure, the twins travel to fifteenth- century Italy and meet a young Leonardo da Vinci. Every Treasure Chest book features a biography of the featured historical figure along with Ann's Favorite Facts from her research!
Steve Jobs: American Genius
by Amanda ZillerSteve Jobs revolutionized the way we work, listen to music, watch movies, and communicate. By pushing boundaries and always thinking one step ahead, Jobs became an icon, equally as famous for his advanced ideas and design aesthetic as his sleek black turtlenecks. What inspired him? How did he do his job? What made him the man he was? Here is Steve Jobs-the innovator, the rebel, the genius-in an incisive biography of a man who changed the world. Also includes quotes from and about Jobs, chronologies detailing Jobs's achievements, and source notes.
Seasons of Her Life: A Biography of Madeleine Korbel Albright
by Brooke Zimmer Ann BlackmanWhen Madeleine Korbel Albright was sworn in as secretary of state in January 1997, she made headlines around the world. She was the first woman to rise to the top tier of American government and had a reputation for defining foreign policy in blunt one-liners that voters could understand. When her Jewish heritage was disclosed, people were intrigued by her personal story and wondered how it was possible -- if it were possible -- that she truly could have been ignorant of her past. VeteranTimemagazine correspondent Ann Blackman has written the first comprehensive biography of Madeleine Albright. The book reveals a life of enormous texture -- a lonely, peripatetic childhood in war-ravaged Europe; two harrowing escapes from her homeland, once from the Nazis, then from the Communists; her arrival in America; Madeleine's unhappiness as a teenager in Denver, always the outsider, the little refugee; her marriage into an old American newspaper family with great wealth. When, after twenty-three years, the marriage failed, Albright was devastated. But in many ways, divorce liberated her to pursue a lifelong interest in government and international affairs. From Senator Edmund S. Muskie's office to President Carter's White House to a professorship at Georgetown University's School of Foreign Service, Albright gained experience and contacts. As a foreign affairs advisor to Democratic vice-presidential candidate Geraldine Ferraro and, later, presidential candidate Michael Dukakis, Albright positioned herself to return to government as President Clinton's ambassador to the United Nations and eventually to claim her ultimate prize -- the office of secretary of state. With both insight and compassion, Blackman shows how the changing cultural mores of the last four decades affected Albright and other women of her generation: the self-doubt she experienced when, as a young mother in an era when real mothers didn't work, she decided to take a job on Capitol Hill; the problems she faced as a female professor who was not always taken seriously in the white man's world of foreign policy; the psychological transformation from spending most of her professional life as a staffer who wrote talking points for others to becoming a woman of consequence in her own right; the ups and downs of an ambitious, driven woman who still carries her share of insecurities, now concealed by a veneer of power and celebrity. In writing this landmark book, Blackman drew on archival material in the United States, Britain, and the Czech Republic, as well as interviews with almost two hundred friends and colleagues of Albright and her family, including President Clinton, Czech Republic President Václav Havel, and U. N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan, She also spent many hours with Albright herself who, feet up in her Georgetown living room, offered startlingly frank and poignant comments on her life, past and present. The book is enhanced with twenty-five photos, many from the Secretary's personal collection.
Crosby, Stills & Nash: The Biography
by Dave Zimmer Henry DiltzCrosby, Stills & Nash created some of the most indelible songs and beautiful harmonies of the late 1960s and early 1970s: "Suite: Judy Blue Eyes,” "Woodstock,” "Teach Your Children. ” This copiously illustrated account of the trio’s personal and musical history tells the story behind the songs. Longtime CSN chronicler Dave Zimmer, with the full cooperation of the band, traces all of the performers from their musical roots to their first song together in L. A. ’s storied Laurel Canyon; from their addition of Neil Young to Woodstock; and through their stormy years of creative conflicts, reunions, and reconciliations. This new edition has been fully reconfigured and updated to celebrate the trio’s 40th anniversary and to accommodate over 300 photos, as well as Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young’s controversial Living with War tour.
I Guarantee It: The Untold Story behind the Founder of Men's Wearhouse
by George ZimmerAmerica knew George Zimmer for one of the most famous slogans in television advertising history: &“I guarantee it.&” Zimmer rode his promise to lead the Men&’s Wearhouse to unimagined success as a retail giant. Now, years removed from his stunning dismissal as leader of the company he founded, I Guarantee It recounts the journey of Zimmer&’s rise, the fall of the Men&’s Wearhouse, and his personal renewal. For forty-one years, George Zimmer forged a relationship with American men who wanted to like the way they looked without getting too fussy about it. He made them a promise that came straight from the shoulder: &“I guarantee it,&” he said, and it was ironclad. By the millions, customers walked into The Men&’s Wearhouse stores in all fifty states and Canada, where they received &“quality, service, and a good price,&” where they bought suits, ties, sports coats, and slacks by the tens of billions of dollars. Then a backstabbing — the handpicked board of directors fired Zimmer from the company he had created and developed into the most successful men&’s specialty store in world history. Eight years later, Zimmer is back to tell his story: a man raised by a prosperous and loving family, a fun-loving son of the sixties, a merchant, an entrepreneur, a pitchman for the ages. Zimmer&’s ouster devastated but did not destroy him. His is a story of hard work and resilience, about a life in business that succeeded beyond belief and followed the Golden Rule. It&’s a story that will teach and inspire. He guarantees it.
I'm Just Sayin'!
by Kim ZimmerAs the notorious Reva Shayne on the daytime television drama Guiding Light, Kim Zimmer portrayed a vixen, a manic-depressive, an Amish woman, a time traveler, a Civil War belle, a talk show host, a cancer survivor, a loving mother, and a devoted wife. In her more than two decades on the show, she earned eleven Daytime Emmy nominations and four wins, not to mention a legion of loving fans. Now, in this heartfelt memoir, Zimmer delves into her experiences as a daytime diva. Packed with on- and off-set photographs and behind-the-scenes information, blatantly honest and wildly indiscreet, I’m Just Sayin’ tells all in an insightful journey through the parallel lives of Reva Shayne and Kim Zimmer—and the true stories behind the longest-running drama in television and radio history. .
Forgotten Tales of New York (Forgotten Tales Ser.)
by Melanie ZimmerLearn the Empire State&’s little known history—from bone-stealing dogs to the world&’s largest puzzle—by the author of Curiosities of the Finger Lakes. Few New Yorkers remember the night when firemen, in tuxedos and top hats, were dragged from a ball to extinguish a Waterloo blaze, or the typographical error that reported Theodore Roosevelt taking a &“bath&” instead of his presidential &“oath.&” Still fewer remember Cephas Bennett, a missionary from Utica and printer of the first Burmese Bible, or H. L. Mencken&’s humorous article on the history of the bathtub, still quoted today as factual although entirely invented. Seasoned storyteller Melanie Zimmer seamlessly weaves together these hard-to-believe, yet entirely true, tales. From the monster of Seneca Lake to the man who inspired the American icon Uncle Sam, discover the lost secrets of the Empire State. Includes photos!
An Extravagant Hunger: The Passionate Years of M. F. K. Fisher
by Anne ZimmermanIn An Extravagant Hunger, time slows and is relished, and the turning points and casual strolls of M.F.K. Fisher's life are unwrapped and savored. From the Berengaria that washed her across the sea to France in 1929, to Le Paquis, the Swiss estate that later provided a backdrop for some of the most idyllic and fleeting moments of her life, the stories of Fisher's love for food and her love for family and men are meticulously researched and exquisitely captured in this book. Exploring Fisher's lonely and formative time in Europe with her first husband; her subsequent divorce and re-marriage to her creative sparkplug, Dillwyn Parrish, and his tragic suicide; and the child she carried from an unnamed father, the story of M.F.K. Fisher's life becomes as vibrant and passionate as her prolific words on wine and cuisine.Letters and journal entries piece together a dramatic life, but An Extravagant Hunger steps further, bridging the gaps between personal notes and her public persona, filling in the silences by offering an engaging and unprecedented depth of intuitive commentary. With a passion of her own, Anne Zimmerman is the careful witness, lingering beside M.F.K. Fisher through her most dramatic and productive years.
An Antiwar Delegation in Hanoi: from Troublemaker
by Bill ZimmermanBill Zimmerman put his life at risk for the greater social good when he smuggled medicines to the front lines in North Vietnam and spent time filming in Hanoi under U.S. bombardment. In his extraordinary political memoir, he takes us into the hearts and minds of those making the social revolution of the sixties. Zimmerman—who crossed paths with political organizers and activists like Abbie Hoffman, Daniel Ellsberg, César Chávez, Jane Fonda, and Tom Hayden—captures a groundbreaking zeitgeist that irrevocably changed the world as we knew it.A Vintage Shorts Vietnam Selection. An ebook short.
Troublemaker: A Memoir from the Front Lines of the Sixties
by Bill ZimmermanThe political memoir as rousing adventure story--a sizzling account of a life lived in the thick of every important struggle of the era. April 1973: snow falls thick and fast on the Badlands of South Dakota. It has been more than five weeks since protesting Sioux Indians seized their historic village of Wounded Knee, and the FBI shows no signs of abandoning its siege. When Bill Zimmerman is asked to coordinate an airlift of desperately needed food and medical supplies, he cannot refuse; flying through gunfire and a mechanical malfunction, he carries out a daring dawn raid and successfully parachutes 1,500 pounds of food into the village. The drop breaks the FBI siege, and assures an Indian victory. This was not the first--or last--time Bill Zimmerman put his life at risk for the greater social good. In this extraordinary memoir, Zimmerman takes us into the hearts and minds of those making the social revolution of the sixties. He writes about registering black voters in deepest, most racist Mississippi; marching with Martin Luther King Jr. in Chicago; helping to organize the 1967 march on the Pentagon; fighting the police at the 1968 Democratic convention; mobilizing scientists against the Vietnam War and the military's misuse of their discoveries; smuggling medicines to the front lines in North Vietnam; spending time in Hanoi under U.S. bombardment; and founding an international charity, Medical Aid for Indochina, to deliver humanitarian assistance. Zimmerman--who crossed paths with political organizers and activists like Abbie Hoffman, Daniel Ellsberg, César Chávez, Jane Fonda, and Tom Hayden--captures a groundbreaking zeitgeist that irrevocably changed the world as we knew it.
Mob Mayhem: Volume One (Mob Mayhem #1)
by Daniel ZimmermanIf you liked The Godfather and Goodfellas, you&’ll love these three up-close-and-personal true accounts of gangsters and organized crime.THE RISE AND FALL OF A &“CASINO&” MOBSTER: The Tony Spilotro Story Through a Hitman&’s Eyes by Frank Cullota and Dennis Griffin Bestselling &“mob expert&” Dennis Griffin and former mob enforcer and Spilotro confidant, Frank Cullota, tell the story of the Las Vegas gangster whose quest for power and lack of self-control with women cost the Mob its control of Vegas—and lost Tony his life. &“Sets the record straight about Tony the man and Tony the mobster. It&’s an eye-opener.&”—Frank Calabrese, Junior, author of Operation Family Secrets SHOTS IN THE DARK: The Saga of Rocco Balliro by Daniel Zimmerman In 1963, Rocco Balliro and a pair of associates stormed an apartment in Boston and were immediately caught in a shootout with Boston police officers, waiting in ambush for him. It was a rescue mission that went downhill in a hurry, leaving his beloved girlfriend and her toddler son dead. &“Fascinating . . . a real page-turner for Mob enthusiasts and organized crime history buffs.&”—Dennis N. Griffin, bestselling author of The Rise and Fall Of A &“Casino&” Mobster THE GANGSTER&’S COUSIN: Growing up in the Luciano Family by Salvatore Lucania Young Sal navigates the streets of Harlem, experiencing the inherent corruption of the US justice system and discovering the truth about the secret world of outlaw figures—like his cousin and namesake, Charles &“Lucky&” Luciano. &“A wonderfully different take on the usual Mafia story . . . a sometimes exciting, sometimes poignant, and often humorous adventure.&”—Thrive Global
Shots in the Dark: The Saga Of Rocco Balliro
by Daniel Zimmerman&“The fascinating story of the 1963 deaths of Boston mobster Rocco Balliro&’s girlfriend and her son in a police shootout . . . a real page-turner.&”—Dennis N. Griffin, bestselling author of The Rise and Fall of a&“Casino&” Mobster On a frigid winter night in early 1963, Rocco Anthony Balliro and a pair of associates stormed a darkened apartment on the outskirts of Boston and were immediately embroiled in a deadly shootout with several unseen assailants. Unbeknownst to Rocco at the time, the men who returned his fire were several Boston police officers, waiting in ambush for him. It was, as Rocco later described it, a hastily planned rescue mission that went downhill in a hurry. In the aftermath, his beloved girlfriend and her toddler son lay dead. &“Author Daniel Zimmerman, the woman&’s nephew, was granted exclusive access to Balliro in prison and met with him over the course of 2 years to hear his side of the story. This book, which chronicles the events of that night, Balliro&’s trial, and his attempt to clear his name is a true crime story with a local twist.&”—Patch
Smacked: A Story of White-Collar Ambition, Addiction, and Tragedy
by Eilene ZimmermanA journalist pieces together the mysteries surrounding her ex-husband’s descent into drug addiction while trying to rebuild a life for her family, taking readers on an intimate journey into the world of white-collar drug abuse. <P><P>Eilene Zimmerman noticed that her ex-husband looked thin, seemed distracted, and was frequently absent from activities with their children. She thought he looked sick and needed to see a doctor, and indeed, he told her he had been diagnosed with an autoimmune disorder. Yet in many ways, Peter seemed to have it all: a beautiful house by the beach, expensive cars, and other luxuries that came with an affluent life. Eilene assumed his odd behavior was due to stress and overwork—he was a senior partner at a prominent law firm and had been working more than sixty hours a week for the last twenty years. <P><P>Although they were divorced, Eilene and Peter had been partners and friends for decades, so when she and her children were unable to reach Peter for several days, Eilene went to his house to see if he was OK. <P><P>So begins Smacked, a brilliant and moving memoir of Eilene’s shocking discovery, one that sets her on a journey to find out how a man she knew for nearly thirty years became a drug addict, hiding it so well that neither she nor anyone else in his life suspected what was happening. Eilene discovers that Peter led a secret life, one that started with pills and ended with opioids, cocaine, and methamphetamine. He was also addicted to work; the last call Peter ever made was to dial in to a conference call. <P><P>Eilene is determined to learn all she can about Peter’s hidden life, and also about drug addiction among ambitious, high-achieving professionals like him. Through extensive research and interviews, she presents a picture of drug dependence today in that moneyed, upwardly mobile world. She also embarks on a journey to re-create her life in the wake of loss, both of the person—and the relationship—that profoundly defined the woman she had become.
Unrooted: Botany, Motherhood, and the Fight to Save an Old Science
by Erin Zimmerman"Evolutionary botanist Zimmerman discusses her passion for plants and inveighs against sexism in the sciences in her marvelous debut memoir...Throughout, Zimmerman&’s enthusiasm and expertise make the science accessible even to those without a background in the subject. The results are as edifying as they are galvanizing." - Publishers Weekly STARRED Review"Erin Zimmerman has exposed a rooted gender failure in science. Her book is important not for this alone. Her work is essential for understanding the future resilience of all flora on this planet." -Diana Beresford-Kroeger, author of To Speak for the TreesAn exploration of science, motherhood, and academia, and a stirring account of a woman at a personal and professional crossroads . . .Growing up in rural Ontario, Erin Zimmerman became fascinated with plants—an obsession that led to a life in academia as a professional botanist. But as her career choices narrowed in the face of failing institutions and subtle, but ubiquitous, sexism, Zimmerman began to doubt herself.Unrooted: Botany, Motherhood, and the Fight to Save an Old Science is a scientist&’s memoir, a glimpse into the ordinary life of someone in a fascinating field. This is a memoir about plants, about looking at the world with wonder, and about what it means to be a woman in academia—an environment that pushes out mothers and those with any outside responsibilities. Zimmerman delves into her experiences as a new mom, her decision to leave her position in post-graduate research, and how she found a new way to stay in the field she loves.She also explores botany as a &“dying science&” worth fighting for. While still an undergrad, Zimmerman&’s university started the process of closing the Botany Department, a sign of waning funding for her beloved science. Still, she argues for its continuation, not only because we have at least 100,000 plant species yet to be discovered, but because an understanding of botany is crucial in the fight against climate change and biodiversity loss.Zimmerman is also a botanical illustrator and will provide 8 original illustrations for the book.
The Cape
by Eve Zimmerman Kenji NakagamiBorn into the burakumin--Japan's class of outcasts--Kenji Nakagami depicts the lives of his people in sensual language and stark detail. The Cape is a breakthrough novella about a burakumin community, their troubled memories, and complex family histories. Includes House on Fire and Red Hair. Kenji Nakagami (1946-92) was a prolific writer admired for his vigorous prose style.
Love, Fiercely: A Gilded Age Romance
by Jean ZimmermanThe true story of the New York society couple portrayed in the John Singer Sargent painting—an architect and an heiress who became passionate reformers. Contemporaries of the Astors and Vanderbilts, they grew up together along the shores of bucolic Staten Island, linked by privilege—her grandparents built the world&’s fastest clipper ship, while his family owned most of Murray Hill. Theirs was a world filled with mansions, balls, summer homes, and extended European vacations. This fascinating biography re-creates the glittering world of Edith Minturn and Isaac Newton Phelps Stokes—and reveals how their love for each other was matched by their dedication to others. Newton became a passionate preserver of New York history and published the finest collection of Manhattan maps and views in a six-volume series. Edith became the face of the age when Daniel Chester French sculpted her for Chicago&’s Columbian Exposition, a colossus intended to match the Statue of Liberty&’s grandeur. But beyond their life of prominence and prestige, Edith and Newton battled together on behalf of New York&’s poor and powerless—and through it all, sustained a strong-rooted marriage. From the splendid cottages of the Berkshires to the salons of 1890s Paris, Love, Fiercely tells the real-life story behind Mr. and Mrs. I .N. Phelps Stokes—one of the Gilded Age&’s most famous works of art. &“With an impressive amount of research behind every page, Zimmerman manages to capture the sweeping drama of the turn of the century as well as the compelling story of a couple who knew how to love, fiercely. Her superb pacing and gripping narrative will appeal to all who enjoy history, biography, and real-life romance.&” —Library Journal
The Women of the House: How a Colonial She-Merchant Built a Mansion, a Fortune, and a Dynasty
by Jean ZimmermanWOMEN'S HISTORY (from back) Brash and ambitious, twenty-two-year-old Margaret Hardenbroeck Philipse arrived in Manhattan and promptly built an empire of trading ships, furs, and real estate- including all of today's Westchester County. She became the wealthiest woman on the Hudson River while raising five children and keeping a spotless linen closet. And she started all this in 1659. Here is the captivating story of a dynasty of powerful, courageous women and the house they built from storehouse to mansion.
Jozef Pilsudski: Founding Father of Modern Poland
by Joshua D. ZimmermanThe story of the enigmatic Jozef Pilsudski, the founding father of modern Poland: a brilliant military leader and high-minded statesman who betrayed his own democratic vision by seizing power in a military coup. In the story of modern Poland, no one stands taller than Jozef Pilsudski. From the age of sixteen he devoted his life to reestablishing the Polish state that had ceased to exist in 1795. Ahead of World War I, he created a clandestine military corps to fight Russia, which held most Polish territory. After the war, his dream of an independent Poland realized, he took the helm of its newly democratic political order. When he died in 1935, he was buried alongside Polish kings. Yet Pilsudski was a complicated figure. Passionately devoted to the idea of democracy, he ceded power on constitutional terms, only to retake it a few years later in a coup when he believed his opponents aimed to dismantle the democratic system. Joshua Zimmerman’s authoritative biography examines a national hero in the thick of a changing Europe, and the legacy that still divides supporters and detractors. The Poland that Pilsudski envisioned was modern, democratic, and pluralistic. Domestically, he championed equality for Jews. Internationally, he positioned Poland as a bulwark against Bolshevism. But in 1926 he seized power violently, then ruled as a strongman for nearly a decade, imprisoning opponents and eroding legislative power. In Zimmerman’s telling, Pilsudski’s faith in the young democracy was shattered after its first elected president was assassinated. Unnerved by Poles brutally turning on one another, the father of the nation came to doubt his fellow citizens’ democratic commitments and thereby betrayed his own. It is a legacy that dogs today’s Poland, caught on the tortured edge between self-government and authoritarianism.
Alice Cooper, Golf Monster
by Keith Zimmerman Alice Cooper Kent ZimmermanAlice Cooper is hotter than ever, still playing up to 100 gigs a year with his his audiences growing younger. But 300 days a year, he is out on the golf course. That's because Alice credits golf as helping him overcome a self-destructive spiral into alcoholism. It's also because Alice turned out to be almost as good a golfer as he is a rocker. This book blends a rocker's uproarious tales of excess with a no holds-barred account of how Cooper substituted alcohol addiction with the lesser evil of hitting a little white ball. Alice Coopers rock 'n' roll's original misanthrope, the ultimate shock-rock, heavy-metal bad boy. With golf, as in music, he was way ahead of the cultural curve, his passion for the game predating golf's popularity surge among younger folks, hip professional athletes, and indeed Alice's music contemporaries, including Bob Dylan, Neil Young, Iggy Pop and Roger Waters. The nearest Alice Cooper has come to writing his autobiography. He is still a major rock touring artist. This title includes the story of his musical career and of his rehabilitation. It is a fascinating self-help programme by an unlikely role model.
Shining Star
by Keith Zimmerman Kent Zimmerman Philip BaileyA revealing and heartfelt memoir from the lead singer of the legendary Earth, Wind & Fire With more than ninety million records sold and eight Grammy awards throughout its forty-year history, Earth, Wind & Fire has staked its claim as one of the most successful, influential, and beloved acts in music history. Now, for the first time, its dynamic lead singer Philip Bailey chronicles the group's meteoric rise to stardom and his own professional and spiritual journey. Never before had a musical act crossed multiple styles and genres with a quixotic blend of astrology, Universalism, and Egyptology as Earth, Wind & Fire (EWF) did when it exploded into the public's conscience during the 1970s. The group's shows became sensory experiences with their dramatic staging, shimmering costumes, elaborate choreography, baffling magic tricks and a thumping backbeat. At the center of it the group was its charismatic founder Maurice White and Bailey, with his soaring multi-octave range and distinctive falsetto. After being signed by recording titan Clive Davis, EWF went on to produce a remarkable series of platinum and gold albums and headline stadiums around the world. As Philip and Maurice were profoundly influenced by genius producer Charles Stepney, as well as famed arranger David Foster, EWF elevated Sly Stone's multiethnic "I Wanna Take You Higher" message to an even higher level. Bailey hit the wall due to fame, fortune, and the excesses of global succes. The constant touring and performing took its toll on him publicly and privately. While White and Bailey's relentless work ethic shot the band into the stratosphere, it also exhausted and emotionally gutted the group. In 1983, White abruptly dismantled the band, leaving Bailey and the rest of the members to fend for themselves. As a solo act, Bailey recorded "Easy Lover," a worldwide smash duet with Phil Collins, launching the next stage of his career until EWF reunited later that decade. Shining Star is the true story of what happens when real life exceeds your dreams, when the power and pain of building a legacy brings both joy and faith-testing challenges.
Huey: Spirit of the Panther
by Kent Zimmerman David Hilliard Keith Foreword by Fredrika NewtonHuey P. Newton remains one of the most misunderstood political figures of the twentieth century. As cofounder and leader of the Black Panther Party for more than twenty years, Newton (1942-1989) was at the forefront of the radical political activism of the 1960s and '70s. Raised in poverty in Oakland, California, and named for corrupt Louisiana governor Huey P. Long, Newton embodied both the passions and the contradictions of the civil rights movement he sought to advance. In this first authorized biography, Newton's former chief of staff David Hilliard and best-selling authors Keith and Kent Zimmerman team up to tell the WHOLE story of the man behind the organization that FBI director J. Edgar Hoover infamously dubbed "the greatest threat to the internal security of the country. "
Operation Family Secrets: How a Mobster's Son and the FBI Brought Down Chicago's Murderous Crime Family
by Kent Zimmerman Keith Zimmerman Paul Pompian Frank Calabrese Jr.Operation Family Secrets is the chilling true story of how the son of the most violent mobster in Chicago made the unprecedented decision to work with the FBI and the U.S. Attorney's Office to incriminate his own father and to help bring down the last great American crime syndicate--the one-hundred-year-old Chicago Outfit. The Calabrese family of Chicago is a close-knit, middle-class, multi-generational Italian-Irish-American clan. They operate family businesses. They work day and night striving for the American Dream. All three sons forge a bond with their controlling father, Frank Sr., and their soft-spoken favorite uncle, Nick. As a boy, the oldest son, Frank Jr., realizes that his father and uncle are also "made" members of another close-knit family: the outfit. In Operation Family Secrets Frank Calabrese Jr., tells the turbulent tale of a family dominated by a violent patriarch who breaks a longstanding unwritten outfit code and "brings the street into his home" by enlisting two of his sons into the outfit's 26th Street/Chinatown crew. Frank Jr. reveals for the first time the outfit's "made" ceremony and describes being put to work alongside his father and uncle in loan sharking, gambling, labor racketeering, and extortion, and plotting the slaying of a fellow gangster, while they commit the bombing murder of a trucking executive, the gangland execution of two mobsters whose burial in an Indiana cornfield was reenacted in Martin Scorsese's blockbuster film Casino, and numerous other hits. The Calabrese Crew's colossal earnings and extreme ruthlessness make them both a dreaded criminal gang and the object of an intense FBI inquiry. Eventually Frank Jr., his father, and Uncle Nick are convicted on racketeering violations, and "Junior" and "Senior" are sent to the same federal penitentiary in Michigan. Upon arrival, Frank Jr. makes a life-changing decision: to go straight rather than agree to his father's plans to resume crew activities after serving his sentence. But he needs to keep his father behind bars in order to regain control of his life and save his family. Frank Jr. makes a secret deal with prosecutors, and for six months--unmonitored and unprotected--he wears a wire as his father recounts decades of hideous crimes. Frank Jr.'s cooperation with the FBI for virtually no monetary gain or special privileges helps create the government's "operation Family Secrets" campaign against the Chicago outfit. The case reopens eighteen unsolved murders and also implicates twelve La Cosa Nostra soldiers and two outfit bosses. it becomes one of the largest organized crime cases in U.S. history. Operation Family Secrets intimately portrays how organized crime rots a family from the inside out while detailing Frank Jr.'s deadly prison-yard mission, the FBI's landmark investigation, and the U.S. attorney's office's daring prosecution of America's most dangerous criminal organization.
Bringing Aztlan to Mexican Chicago: My Life, My Work, My Art
by Marc Zimmerman Jose Gamaliel GonzalezBringing Aztlán to Mexican Chicago is the autobiography of Jóse Gamaliel González, an impassioned artist willing to risk all for the empowerment of his marginalized and oppressed community. Through recollections emerging in a series of interviews conducted over a period of six years by his friend Marc Zimmerman, González looks back on his life and his role in developing Mexican, Chicano, and Latino art as a fundamental dimension of the city he came to call home. Born near Monterey, Mexico, and raised in a steel mill town in northwest Indiana, González studied art at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and the University of Notre Dame. Settling in Chicago, he founded two major art groups: El Movimiento Artístico Chicano (MARCH) in the 1970s and Mi Raza Arts Consortium (MIRA) in the 1980s. With numerous illustrations, this book portrays González's all-but-forgotten community advocacy, his commitments and conflicts, and his long struggle to bring quality arts programming to the city. By turns dramatic and humorous, his narrative also covers his bouts of illness, his relationships with other artists and arts promoters, and his place within city and barrio politics.
The Jazz Masters: Setting the Record Straight (American Made Music Series)
by Peter C. ZimmermanThe Jazz Masters: Setting the Record Straight is a celebration of jazz and the men and women who created and transformed it. In the twenty-one conversations contained in this engaging and highly accessible book, we hear from the musicians themselves, in their own words, direct and unfiltered. Peter Zimmerman’s interviewing technique is straightforward. He turns on a recording device, poses questions, and allows his subjects to improvise, similar to the way the musicians do at concerts and in recording sessions. Topics range from their early days, their struggles and victories, to the impact the music has had on their own lives. The interviews have been carefully edited for sense and clarity, without changing any of the musicians’ actual words.Peter Zimmerman tirelessly sought virtuosi whose lives span the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. The reader is rewarded with an intimate look into the past century’s extraordinary period of creative productivity. The oldest two interview subjects were born in 1920 and all are professional musicians who worked in jazz for at least five decades, with a few enjoying careers as long as seventy-five years. These voices reflect some seventeen hundred years of accumulated experience yielding a chronicle of incredible depth and scope.The focus on musicians who are now emeritus figures is deliberate. Some of them are now in their nineties; six have passed since 2012, when Zimmerman began researching The Jazz Masters. Five of them have already received the NEA’s prestigious Jazz Masters award: Sonny Rollins, Clark Terry, Yusef Lateef, Jimmy Owens, and most recently, Dick Hyman. More undoubtedly will one day, and the balance are likewise of compelling interest. Artists such as David Amram, Charles Davis, Clifford Jordan, Valery Ponomarev, and Sandy Stewart, to name a few, open their hearts and memories and reveal who they are as people.This book is a labor of love celebrating the vibrant style of music that Dizzy Gillespie once described as “our native art form.” Zimmerman’s deeply knowledgeable, unabashed passion for jazz brings out the best in the musicians. Filled with personal recollections and detailed accounts of their careers and everyday lives, this highly readable, lively work succeeds in capturing their stories for present and future generations. An important addition to the literature of music, The Jazz Masters goes a long way toward “setting the record straight.”
The Girls: From Golden to Gilmore
by Stan Zimmerman&“...the very definition of a page-turner. READ THIS BOOK!&” – Colin Mochrie, &“Whose Line is It Anyway?,&” &“Hyprov&”The Girls: From Golden to Gilmore is the story of Stan Zimmerman, a gawky Jewish boy who dreamed of becoming a wildly successful actor, rich enough to build his own mansion in the Hollywood Hills. While the actor part didn't quite pan out, Stan found success as a writer, producer, director, and playwright, working on such shows as The Golden Girls, Roseanne, and Gilmore Girls. Growing up in a small suburb of Detroit, Michigan, Stan was surrounded by three strong, intelligent women-his mother, his grandmother, and his sister-all of whom supported his imagination and creativity. Instead of playing outside, he spent time in his basement directing and acting in plays with the neighborhood kids. At seven-and-a-half years old, he was the youngest student accepted into a prestige summer theater school program. After high school, he was awarded a work/study scholarship to NY/Circle in the Square, where he met his first serious boyfriend and became Andy Warhol's unwitting photo subject one night at Studio 54. He also met Jim Berg, a journalism student at NYU's University Without Walls, forming a writing partnership that has continues to this day. partnership to this day. Their latest project is naturally an all-star, female ensemble Christmas comedy movie for Lifetime! Throughout his life, most of Stan's friendships have been with females. He credits those friendships and the women in his family with his ability to connect with creative women who have played a part in his career success. Accompanied by journal entries, The Girls details Stan's relationships with some of entertainment's most notable women, including Roseanne Barr, Lily Tomlin, Sandra Bernhard, Lauren Graham and Alexis Bledel, and, of course, all four Golden Girls. The Girls: From Golden to Gilmore is a candid, funny, and sometimes poignant testimony about how a young boy turned his dream into reality.