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All That Matters: The Inspirational and Uplifting Memoir of Hope From One of GB's Greatest Olympians
by Sir Chris Hoy'A throat-catching love letter to his wife and children . . . this lovely man has reframed a universally sad story into a life-enhancing one. The overall message is one of hope.' - The Times Sir Chris Hoy knows better than most how life can change in the blink of an eye.In elite sport, the margin between victory and defeat is miniscule, and the pressure is immense. Chris has built a glittering sporting career on understanding these moments: how to feel for them, how to cope with them, how to make them count.Last year, he faced another life-changing moment. He found out that the ache in his shoulder was in fact a tumour, and that he had Stage 4 cancer.He will be living with this disease for the rest of his life.In this memoir, Chris shares the next phase of his extraordinary life with exceptional bravery. He looks over the challenges he has faced thus far, and the ways he has taken them on. With his wife Sarra and their young children by his side, he shares how he has used these experiences to find ways to focus on the moments that matter, showing us how to do the same.
All That Moves Us: A Pediatric Neurosurgeon, His Young Patients, and Their Stories of Grace and Resilience
by Jay Wellons&“The surgical interventions in these pages are dizzying, but the fact that Jay Wellons can write as well as he can operate provides a whole other level of amazement.&”—Ann Patchett, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Commonwealth&“A powerful and moving account of the intense joys and sorrows of being a pediatric neurosurgeon.&”—Henry Marsh, New York Times bestselling author of Do No Harm: Stories of Life, Death, and Brain SurgeryTumors, injuries, ruptured vascular malformations—there is almost no such thing as a non-urgent brain surgery when it comes to kids. For a pediatric neurosurgeon working in the medical minefield of the brain—in which a single millimeter in every direction governs something that makes us essentially human—every day presents the challenge, and the opportunity, to give a new lease on life to a child for whom nothing is yet fully determined and all possibilities still exist. In All That Moves Us, Dr. Jay Wellons pulls back the curtain to reveal the profoundly moving triumphs, haunting complications, and harrowing close calls that characterize the life of a pediatric neurosurgeon, bringing the high-stakes drama of the operating room to life with astonishing candor and honest compassion. Reflecting on lessons learned over twenty-five years and thousands of operations completed on some of the most vulnerable and precious among us, Wellons recounts in gripping detail the moments that have shaped him as a doctor, as a parent, and as the only hope for countless patients whose young lives are in his hands.Wellons shares scenes of his early days as the son of a military pilot, the years of grueling surgical training, and true stories of what it&’s like to treat the brave children he meets on the threshold between life and death. From the little boy who arrived at the hospital near death from a gunshot wound to the head, to the eight-year-old whose shredded nerves were repaired using suture as fine as human hair, to the brave mother-to-be undergoing fetal spinal cord surgery, All That Moves Us is an unforgettable portrait of the countless human dramas that take place in a busy modern children&’s hospital—and a meditation on the marvel of life as seen from under the white-hot lights of the operating room.
All that Remains: A Renowned Forensic Scientist on Death, Mortality, and Solving Crimes
by Sue BlackBook of the Year, 2018 Saltire Literary Awards For fans of Caitlin Doughty, Mary Roach, and CSI shows, a renowned forensic scientist on death and mortality. Dame Sue Black is an internationally renowned forensic anthropologist and human anatomist. She has lived her life eye to eye with the Grim Reaper, and she writes vividly about it in this book, which is part primer on the basics of identifying human remains, part frank memoir of a woman whose first paying job as a schoolgirl was to apprentice in a butcher shop, and part no-nonsense but deeply humane introduction to the reality of death in our lives. It is a treat for CSI junkies, murder mystery and thriller readers, and anyone seeking a clear-eyed guide to a subject that touches us all. Cutting through hype, romanticism, and cliché, she recounts her first dissection; her own first acquaintance with a loved one’s death; the mortal remains in her lab and at burial sites as well as scenes of violence, murder, and criminal dismemberment; and about investigating mass fatalities due to war, accident, or natural disaster, such as the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami. She uses key cases to reveal how forensic science has developed and what her work has taught her about human nature. Acclaimed by bestselling crime writers and fellow scientists alike, All That Remains is neither sad nor macabre. While Professor Black tells of tragedy, she also infuses her stories with a wicked sense of humor and much common sense.
All That She Carried: The Journey of Ashley's Sack, a Black Family Keepsake
by Tiya MilesA renowned historian traces the life of a single object handed down through three generations of Black women to craft an extraordinary testament to people who are left out of the archives.&“A history told with brilliance and tenderness and fearlessness.&”—Jill Lepore, author of These Truths: A History of the United StatesIn 1850s South Carolina, an enslaved woman named Rose faced a crisis, the imminent sale of her daughter Ashley. Thinking quickly, she packed a cotton bag with a few precious items as a token of love and to try to ensure Ashley&’s survival. Soon after, the nine-year-old girl was separated from her mother and sold.Decades later, Ashley&’s granddaughter Ruth embroidered this family history on the bag in spare yet haunting language— including Rose&’s wish that &“It be filled with my Love always.&” Ruth&’s sewn words, the reason we remember Ashley&’s sack today, evoke a sweeping family story of loss and of love passed down through generations. Now, in this illuminating, deeply moving new book inspired by Rose&’s gift to Ashley, historian Tiya Miles carefully unearths these women&’s faint presence in archival records to follow the paths of their lives—and the lives of so many women like them—to write a singular and revelatory history of the experience of slavery, and the uncertain freedom afterward, in the United States.The search to uncover this history is part of the story itself. For where the historical record falls short of capturing Rose&’s, Ashley&’s, and Ruth&’s full lives, Miles turns to objects and to art as equally important sources, assembling a chorus of women&’s and families&’ stories and critiquing the scant archives that for decades have overlooked so many. The contents of Ashley&’s sack— a tattered dress, handfuls of pecans, a braid of hair, &“my Love always&”—are eloquent evidence of the lives these women lived. As she follows Ashley&’s journey, Miles metaphorically unpacks the bag, deepening its emotional resonance and exploring the meanings and significance of everything it contained.All That She Carried is a poignant story of resilience and of love passed down through generations of women against steep odds. It honors the creativity and fierce resourcefulness of people who preserved family ties even when official systems refused to do so, and it serves as a visionary illustration of how to reconstruct and recount their stories today.
All That We Are: Uncovering the Hidden Truths Behind Our Behaviour at Work
by Gabriella BraunWho do you bring with you to work?Try as we might, we cannot leave part of ourselves under the pillow with our pyjamas when we go to work. We bring all that we are.In this collection of stories, Gabriella Braun shares insights from over twenty years of taking psychoanalysis out of the therapy room and into the staff room. She shows us why a board loses the plot, nearly causes their company to collapse, and how they come through. We see the connection between a headteacher's professional and personal loss. We understand seemingly unfathomable behaviour - why a man lets his organisation push him around, a lawyer becomes paranoid, a team repeatedly creates scapegoats, and founders of a literary agency feud.At a time when we are re-thinking the workplace, ALL THAT WE ARE shows that by taking human nature seriously, we can build more humane organisations where people and their work can thrive.
All That We Are: Uncovering the Hidden Truths Behind Our Behaviour at Work (Language Acts and Worldmaking #7)
by Gabriella BraunWho do you bring with you to work?Try as we might, we cannot leave part of ourselves under the pillow with our pyjamas when we go to work. We bring all that we are.In this collection of stories, Gabriella Braun shares insights from over twenty years of taking psychoanalysis out of the therapy room and into the staff room. She shows us why a board loses the plot, nearly causes their company to collapse, and how they come through. We see the connection between a headteacher's professional and personal loss. We understand seemingly unfathomable behaviour - why a man lets his organisation push him around, a lawyer becomes paranoid, a team repeatedly creates scapegoats, and founders of a literary agency feud.At a time when we are re-thinking the workplace, ALL THAT WE ARE shows that by taking human nature seriously, we can build more humane organisations where people and their work can thrive.
All That You Leave Behind: A Memoir
by Erin Lee Carr“A documentary filmmaker and daughter of the late, great New York Times columnist David Carr celebrates and wrestles with her father’s legacy in a raw, redemptive memoir.”—O: The Oprah Magazine (The Best Nonfiction Books Coming Out in 2019)“A breathtaking read . . . a testimony equal parts love and candor. David would have had it no other way.”—Ta-Nehisi Coates, bestselling author of Between the World and Me Dad: What will set you apart is not talent but will and a certain kind of humility. A willingness to let the world show you things that you play back as you grow as an artist. Talent is cheap. Me: OK I will ponder these things. I am a Carr. Dad: That should matter quite a bit, actually not the name but the guts of what that name means. A celebrated journalist, bestselling author (The Night of the Gun), and recovering addict, David Carr was in the prime of his career when he suffered a fatal collapse in the newsroom of The New York Times in 2015. Shattered by his death, his daughter Erin Lee Carr, at age twenty-seven an up-and-coming documentary filmmaker, began combing through the entirety of their shared correspondence—1,936 items in total—in search of comfort and support. What started as an exercise in grief quickly grew into an active investigation: Did her father’s writings contain the answers to the question of how to move forward in life and work without her biggest champion by her side? How could she fill the space left behind by a man who had come to embody journalistic integrity, rigor, and hard reporting, whose mentorship meant everything not just to her but to the many who served alongside him? All That You Leave Behind is a poignant coming-of-age story that offers a raw and honest glimpse into the multilayered relationship between a daughter and a father. Through this lens, Erin comes to understand her own workplace missteps, existential crises, and relationship fails. While daughter and father bond over their mutual addictions and challenges with sobriety, it is their powerful sense of work and family that comes to ultimately define them. This unique combination of Erin Lee Carr’s earnest prose and her father’s meaningful words offers a compelling read that shows us what it means to be vulnerable and lost, supported and found. It is a window into love, with all of its fierceness and frustrations.“Thank you, Erin, for this beautiful book. Now I am going to steal all of your father’s remarkable advice and tell my kids I thought of it.”—Judd Apatow
All the Beauty in the World: The Metropolitan Museum of Art and Me
by Patrick BringleyA best book of the year from New York Public Library, NPR, the Financial Times, Book Riot, and the Sunday Times (London). A fascinating, revelatory portrait of the Metropolitan Museum of Art and its treasures by a former New Yorker staffer who spent a decade as a museum guard.Millions of people climb the grand marble staircase to visit the Metropolitan Museum of Art every year. But only a select few have unrestricted access to every nook and cranny. They&’re the guards who roam unobtrusively in dark blue suits, keeping a watchful eye on the two million square foot treasure house. Caught up in his glamorous fledgling career at The New Yorker, Patrick Bringley never thought he&’d be one of them. Then his older brother was diagnosed with fatal cancer and he found himself needing to escape the mundane clamor of daily life. So he quit The New Yorker and sought solace in the most beautiful place he knew. To his surprise and the reader&’s delight, this temporary refuge becomes Bringley&’s home away from home for a decade. We follow him as he guards delicate treasures from Egypt to Rome, strolls the labyrinths beneath the galleries, wears out nine pairs of company shoes, and marvels at the beautiful works in his care. Bringley enters the museum as a ghost, silent and almost invisible, but soon finds his voice and his tribe: the artworks and their creators and the lively subculture of museum guards—a gorgeous mosaic of artists, musicians, blue-collar stalwarts, immigrants, cutups, and dreamers. As his bonds with his colleagues and the art grow, he comes to understand how fortunate he is to be walled off in this little world, and how much it resembles the best aspects of the larger world to which he gradually, gratefully returns. In the tradition of classic workplace memoirs like Lab Girl and Working Stiff, All The Beauty in the World is a surprising, inspiring portrait of a great museum, its hidden treasures, and the people who make it tick, by one of its most intimate observers.
All the Best, George Bush: My Life in Letters and Other Writings
by George H.W. BushFormer President George H.W. Bush, revealed through his letters and writings from 1941 to 2010, is "worth its weight in gold...a valuable update of the life of an honorable American leader" (The Washington Post)."Who knew that beneath George Bush's buttoned-up propriety pulsed the warm heart of a prolific and occasionally poetic writer with a wacky sense of humor?" (People) Though reticent in public, George Bush openly shared his private thoughts in correspondence throughout his life. This collection of letters, diary entries, and memos is the closest we'll ever get to his autobiography.Organized chronologically, readers will gain insights into Bush's career highlights--the oil business, his two terms in Congress, his ambassadorship to the UN, his service as an envoy to China, his tenure with the Central Intelligence Agency, and of course, the vice presidency, the presidency, and the post-presidency. They will also observe a devoted husband, father, and American. Ranging from a love letter to Barbara and a letter to his mother about missing his daughter, Robin, after her death from leukemia to a letter to his children written just before the beginning of Desert Storm, this collection is remarkable for Bush's candor, humor, and poignancy. "An unusual glimpse of the private thoughts of a public figure" (Newsweek), this revised edition includes new letters and photographs that highlight the Bush family's enduring legacy, including letters that cover George W. Bush's presidency, 9/11, Bush senior's work with President Clinton to help the victims of natural disasters, and the meaning of friendship and family. All the Best, George Bush "will shed more light on the man's personal character and public persona than any memoir or biography could" (Publishers Weekly).
All the Broken Soldiers: Private Kennedy's War
by Dr Jan McLeod Dr Andrew McLeodThis is the story of a soldier without a gun. It is personal, yet universal. It is the story of what is left behind when the battles have been fought and the war has moved on.To the Australian Army, Private Lawrence Nicholas Kennedy was NX21854, a soldier who served for 1907 days with the 2/4th Australian Army Field Ambulance in Australia, the Middle East, the Kokoda Track and New Guinea during World War II. With older brother, Bill by his side, the Kennedy boys experienced the adventure and the joy, the loss and the despair of war – like too many others before and since. To those who knew Nick Kennedy after the war, he was a dedicated and professional psychiatric nurse. To the author, he was her gentle Uncle Nick, remembered as a kind, funny and generous man who seemed older than his years. The small diary he kept during World War II helped her understand why that was so. Kennedy&’s words and photographs tell the harrowing and compelling story of one young man who went to war – not to kill the enemy, but to save his fellow soldiers – only to return home forever changed by the challenges, hardships and tragedy he experienced. All the Broken Soldiers provides a rare insight into an aspect of war fought by soldiers equipped with little more than a basic medical kit and a Red Cross armband … those who cared for the broken soldiers that war leaves behind.
All the Clean Ones Are Married: And Other Everyday Calamities
by Lori CidyloIn 1991, Lori Cidylo shocked her Ukrainian Polish-born parents when she told them she was leaving her reporter's job on an upstate New York newspaper to live and work in the rapidly dissolving Soviet Union.For six years she lived on a shoe-string budget in Moscow, in tiny, run-down apartments, struggling with broken toilets and indifferent landlords and coping with the daily calamities of life in Russia. Fluent in Russian, she rode on public transportation, did her own shopping and cooking, and shared the typical Muscovite's life––unlike most Westerners who were still sequestered in the heavily guarded compounds reserved for diplomats and journalists. As the country experienced its most dramatic transformation since the Bolshevik Revolution, she realized she had stepped into a fantastical and absurd adventure.Cidylo's wry, insightful account of what it is like for an American woman living in Russia is a dramatic tale full of insouciant laughter, in which the immediate sense of vivid experience shines on every page. With the sharp eye of an acute observer, she captures the momentous events no less than the everyday trivia: how do Russians address one another now that the familiar "comrade" is passé; or how do you find your way home in a city where the streets keep getting new names? As Russia even now continues to struggle with the Cold War's aftermath, Cidylo gives a delightful, surprising, warmly human view of post-Soviet life.
All the Colors Came Out: A Father, a Daughter, and a Lifetime of Lessons
by Kate Fagan"A love story for the ages" from # 1 New York Times bestselling author Kate Fagan comes an unforgettable story about basketball and the enduring bonds between a father and daughter that "will heal relationships and hearts." (Glennon Doyle)Kate Fagan and her father forged their relationship on the basketball court, bonded by sweaty high fives and a dedication to the New York Knicks. But as Kate got older, her love of the sport and her closeness with her father grew complicated. The formerly inseparable pair drifted apart. The lessons that her father instilled in her about the game, and all her memories of sharing the court with him over the years, were a distant memory.When Chris Fagan was diagnosed with ALS, Kate decided that something had to change. Leaving a high-profile job at ESPN to be closer to her mother and father and take part in his care, Kate Fagan spent the last year of her father&’s life determined to return to him the kind of joy they once shared on the court. All the Colors Came Out is Kate Fagan&’s completely original reflection on the very specific bond that one father and daughter shared, forged in the love of a sport which over time came to mean so much more.Studded with unforgettable scenes of humor, pain and hope, Kate Fagan has written a book that plumbs the mysteries of the unique gifts fathers gives daughters, ones that resonate across time and circumstance.
All the Colors We Will See: Reflections on Barriers, Brokenness, and Finding Our Way
by Patrice GopoPatrice Gopo grew up in Anchorage, Alaska, the child of Jamaican immigrants who had little experience being black in America. From her white Sunday school classes as a child, to her early days of marriage in South Africa, to a new home in the American South with a husband from another land, Patrice’s life is a testament to the challenges and beauty of the world we each live in, a world in which cultures overlap every day.In All the Colors We Will See, Patrice seamlessly moves across borders of space and time to create vivid portraits of how the reality of being different affects her quest to belong. In this poetic and often courageous collection of essays, Patrice examines the complexities of identity in our turbulent yet hopeful time of intersecting heritages. As she digs beneath the layers of immigration questions and race relations, Patrice also turns her voice to themes such as marriage and divorce, the societal beauty standards we hold, and the intricacies of living out our faith.With an eloquence born of pain and longing, Patrice’s reflections guide us as we consider our own journeys toward belonging, challenging us to wonder if the very differences dividing us might bring us together after all.
All the Days of My Life (From the Summit Looking Back #1)
by Lloyd MattsonThis book takes a brisk walk through my eighty-five years. I reconstructed scenes and dialogue from memory, so I can't guarantee total accuracy, but close. I changed a few names and masked a few locations. I learned this during those years: Life holds more than meets the eye. We connive and scheme and grumble when we don't get our druthers, but all the while, God is at work, often in hidden ways. Surely God's goodness and love followed me all the days of my life.
All the Fishes Come Home to Roost: An American Misfit in India
by Rachel Manija BrownWhen she was seven, Rachel Manija Brown's parents, post-60s hippies, uprooted her from her native California and moved to an ashram in a cobra-ridden, drought-stricken spot in India. Cavorting through these pages are some wonderfully eccentric characters: the ashram head, Meher Baba, best known as the guru to Pete Townshend of The Who; the librarian, who grunts and howls nightly outside Rachel's window; a holy madman, who shuffles about collecting invisible objects; a middle-aged male virgin, who begs Rachel to critique his epic spiritual poems; and a delusional Russian who arrives at the ashram proclaiming he is Meher Baba reincarnated. Astutely observed and laugh-out-loud funny, All the Fishes Come Home to Roost is an astonishing debut memoir and the arrival of a major new literary talent. The hardcover edition was named a Book Sense Pick and was selected as a Book of the Week by BN.com's Book Club.
All the Flowers in Shanghai: A Novel
by Duncan Jepson“Duncan Jepson magically inhabits the life of a young Chinese woman in 1930s Shanghai….I thoroughly enjoyed this book.”—Janice Y. K. Lee, New York Times bestselling author of The Piano Teacher“Breathtaking….A great work that will move its readers.”—Hong Ying, international bestselling author of Daughter of the RiverReaders previously enchanted by Memoirs of a Geisha, Empress, and the novels of Lisa See will be captivated by Duncan Jepson’s marvelous debut, All the Flowers in Shanghai. Evocative, sweeping, yet intimate historical fiction, Jepson’s novel transports us to a China on the brink of revolution, and witnesses this colorful, tumultuous world through the eyes of a woman forced into a life not of her choosing and driven to seek a bitter revenge. This epic journey into the heart of Asia is sure to mesmerize fans of Shanghai Girls and Snow Flower and the Secret Fan.
All the Frequent Troubles of Our Days: The True Story of the American Woman at the Heart of the German Resistance to Hitler
by Rebecca DonnerBorn and raised in Milwaukee, Mildred Harnack was twenty-six when she enrolled in a PhD program in Germany and witnessed the meteoric rise of the Nazi party. In 1932, she began holding secret meetings in her apartment—a small band of political activists that by 1940 had grown into the largest underground resistance group in Berlin. She recruited working-class Germans into the resistance, helped Jews escape, plotted acts of sabotage, and collaborated in writing leaflets that denounced Hitler and called for revolution. Her coconspirators circulated through Berlin under the cover of night, slipping the leaflets into mailboxes, public restrooms, phone booths. When the first shots of the Second World War were fired, she became a spy, couriering top-secret intelligence to the Allies. On the eve of her escape to Sweden, she was ambushed by the Gestapo. At a Nazi military court, a panel of five judges sentenced her to six years at a prison camp, but Hitler overruled the decision and ordered her execution. On February 16, 1943, she was strapped to a guillotine and beheaded. <P><P>Historians identify Mildred Harnack as the only American in the leadership of the German resistance, yet her remarkable story has remained almost unknown until now.Harnack’s great-great-niece Rebecca Donner draws on her extensive archival research in Germany, Russia, England, and the U.S. as well as newly uncovered documents in her family archive to produce this astonishing work of narrative nonfiction. Fusing elements of biography, real-life political thriller, and scholarly detective story, Donner brilliantly interweaves letters, diary entries, notes smuggled out of a Berlin prison, survivors&’ testimony, and a trove of declassified intelligence documents into a powerful, epic story, reconstructing the moral courage of an enigmatic woman nearly erased by history. <P><P><b>A New York Times Bestseller</b>
All the Gallant Men: An American Sailor's Firsthand Account of Pearl Harbor
by Donald Stratton Ken GireThe New York Times bestselling memoir of survival and heroism at Pearl Harbor“An unforgettable story of unfathomable courage.” —Reader’s DigestIn this, the first memoir by a USS Arizona sailor, Donald Stratton delivers an inspiring and unforgettable eyewitness account of the Pearl Harbor attack and his remarkable return to the fight. At 8:10 a.m. on December 7, 1941, Seaman First Class Donald Stratton was consumed by an inferno. A million pounds of explosives had detonated beneath his battle station aboard the USS Arizona, barely fifteen minutes into Japan’s surprise attack on American forces at Pearl Harbor. Near death and burned across two thirds of his body, Don, a nineteen-year-old Nebraskan who had been steeled by the Great Depression and Dust Bowl, summoned the will to haul himself hand over hand across a rope tethered to a neighboring vessel. Forty-five feet below, the harbor’s flaming, oil-slick water boiled with enemy bullets; all around him the world tore itself apart. In this extraordinary, never-before-told eyewitness account of the Pearl Harbor attack—the only memoir ever written by a survivor of the USS Arizona—ninety-four-year-old veteran Donald Stratton finally shares his unforgettable personal tale of bravery and survival on December 7, 1941, his harrowing recovery, and his inspiring determination to return to the fight. Don and four other sailors made it safely across the same line that morning, a small miracle on a day that claimed the lives of 1,177 of their Arizona shipmates—approximately half the American fatalaties at Pearl Harbor. Sent to military hospitals for a year, Don refused doctors’ advice to amputate his limbs and battled to relearn how to walk. The U.S. Navy gave him a medical discharge, believing he would never again be fit for service, but Don had unfinished business. In June 1944, he sailed back into the teeth of the Pacific War on a destroyer, destined for combat in the crucial battles of Leyte Gulf, Luzon, and Okinawa, thus earning the distinction of having been present for the opening shots and the final major battle of America’s Second World War.As the seventy-fifth anniversary of the Pearl Harbor attack approaches, Don, a great-grandfather of five and one of six living survivors of the Arizona, offers an unprecedentedly intimate reflection on the tragedy that drew America into the greatest armed conflict in history. All the Gallant Men is a book for the ages, one of the most remarkable—and remarkably inspiring—memoirs of any kind to appear in recent years.*Library Journal
All the Ghosts Dance Free: A Memoir
by Terry BaldwinA sweeping exploration of beginnings and endings, loss and letting go, All the Ghosts Dance Free takes readers on a journey through author Terry Cameron Baldwin&’s life: from her childhood in a privileged but unstable enclave on the coast of Southern California, through her adolescence in Palm Springs and coming of age in San Francisco at the height of the sixties psychedelic revolution, and ultimately to her life as an ex-pat in Mexico. Struggling to deal with the death of her parents, as well as questions about her own mortality, Baldwin embarks upon a pilgrimage to a small town in Morocco—where, she finds, all of the ghosts dance free.
All the Great Prizes
by John TaliaferroIf Henry James or Edith Wharton had written a novel describing the accomplished and glamorous life and times of John Hay, it would have been thought implausible--a novelist's fancy. Nevertheless, John Taliaferro's brilliant biography captures the extraordinary life of Hay, one of the most amazing figures in American history, and restores him to his rightful place. John Hay was both witness and author of many of the most significant chapters in American history-- from the birth of the Republican Party, the Civil War, and the Spanish-American War, to the prelude to the First World War. Much of what we know about Abraham Lincoln and Theodore Roosevelt comes to us through the observations Hay made while private secretary to one and secretary of state to the other. With All the Great Prizes, the first authoritative biography of Hay in eighty years, Taliaferro has turned the lens around, rendering a rich and fascinating portrait of this brilliant American and his many worlds. Hay's friends are a who's who of the era: Mark Twain, Horace Greeley, Henry Adams, Henry James, and virtually every president, sovereign, author, artist, power broker, and robber baron of the Gilded Age. As an ambassador and statesman, he guided many of the country's major diplomatic initiatives at the turn of the twentieth century: the Open Door with China, the creation of the Panama Canal, the establishment of America as a world leader. Hay's peers esteemed him as "a perfectly cut stone" and "the greatest prime minister this republic has ever known." But for all his poise and polish, he had his secrets. His marriage to one of the wealthiest women in the country did not prevent him from pursuing the Madame X of Washington society, whose other secret suitor was Hay's best friend, Henry Adams. With this superb work, Taliaferro brings us an epic tale.
All the Happiness You Deserve
by Michael Piafsky"[A] wonderful read . . . delivered with a holism evocative of a John Irving novel.Beautifully written and deeply rewarding." -Booklist"Brilliant . . . Michael Piafsky is a word wizard . . . with prose so dramatic and suspenseful that the book becomes impossible to put down." -ForeWord Reviews"Beautifully rendered. . . .Piafsky writes with precision, finding meaning, and even beauty, in both the mundane and dramatic elements of an ordinary life." -Shelf UnboundThis dazzling debut novel follows its midwestern narrator from childhood to old age as he examines the touchpoints and transitions that define a life. Scotty's languorous journey takes him through the pivotal experiences common to so many American men: a middle-class childhood, college, marriage, fatherhood, cross-country moves, business success and failure, and aging. Piafsky frames his story with Tarot images that speak to the disconnectedness of society and the perplexing isolation of the human condition.Michael Piafsky is the director of creative writing at Spring Hill College in Alabama and a former editor of the Missouri Review. All the Happiness You Deserve is his first novel.
All the Horrors of War: A Jewish Girl, a British Doctor, and the Liberation of Bergen-Belsen
by Bernice LernerThe remarkable stories of Rachel Genuth, a poor Jewish teenager from the Hungarian provinces, and Hugh Llewelyn Glyn Hughes, a high-ranking military doctor in the British Second Army, who converge in Bergen-Belsen, where the girl fights for her life and the doctor struggles to save thousands on the brink of death.On April 15, 1945, Brigadier H. L. Glyn Hughes entered Bergen-Belsen for the first time. Waiting for him were 10,000 unburied, putrefying corpses and 60,000 living prisoners, starving and sick. One month earlier, 15-year-old Rachel Genuth arrived at Bergen-Belsen; deported with her family from Sighet, Transylvania, in May of 1944, Rachel had by then already endured Auschwitz, the Christianstadt labor camp, and a forced march through the Sudetenland. In All the Horrors of War, Bernice Lerner follows both Hughes and Genuth as they move across Europe toward Bergen-Belsen in the final, brutal year of World War II. The book begins at the end: with Hughes's searing testimony at the September 1945 trial of Josef Kramer, commandant of Bergen-Belsen, along with forty-four SS (Schutzstaffel) members and guards. "I have been a doctor for thirty years and seen all the horrors of war," Hughes said, "but I have never seen anything to touch it." The narrative then jumps back to the spring of 1944, following both Hughes and Rachel as they navigate their respective forms of wartime hell until confronting the worst: Christianstadt's prisoners, including Rachel, are deposited in Bergen-Belsen, and the British Second Army, having finally breached the fortress of Germany, assumes control of the ghastly camp after a negotiated surrender. Though they never met, it was Hughes's commitment to helping as many prisoners as possible that saved Rachel's life. Drawing on a wealth of sources, including Hughes's papers, war diaries, oral histories, and interviews, this gripping volume combines scholarly research with narrative storytelling in describing the suffering of Nazi victims, the overwhelming presence of death at Bergen-Belsen, and characters who exemplify the human capacity for fortitude. Lerner, Rachel's daughter, has special insight into the torment her mother suffered. The first book to pair the story of a Holocaust victim with that of a liberator, All the Horrors of War compels readers to consider the full, complex humanity of both.
All the Kaiser's Men: The Life and Death of the German Soldier on the Western Front
by Ian PassinghamConvinced that both God and the Kaiser were on their side, the officers and men of the German Army went to war in 1914, confident that they were destined for a swift and crushing victory in the West. The vaunted Schlieffen Plan on which the anticipated German victory was based expected triumph in the West to be followed by an equally decisive success on the Eastern Front. It was not to be. From the winter of 1914 until the early months of 1918, the struggle on the Western Front was characterised by trench warfare. But our perception of the conflict takes little or no account of the realities of life 'across the wire' in the German trenches. This book redresses that imbalance and reminds us how similar these young German men were to our own Tommies. Drawing from diaries and letters, Ian Passingham charts the hopes and despair of the German soldiers, filling an important gap in the history of the Western Front.
All the King's Horses: The Equestrian Life of Elvis Presley
by Kimberly Gatto Victoria RacimoWhen Elvis Presley decided he wanted to buy a horse in 1966, he didn't want just any horse. "He wanted a Golden Palomino," Priscilla Presley remembers. "He would get up at 3:00 in the morning, go to certain farms and ranches and say, 'Do you have a Golden Palomino for sale?' People would say, 'That was Elvis Presley!" Elvis's legendary love of horses drove him to find the Golden Palomino who would become his beloved companion Rising Sun, and to fill Graceland's stables and Circle G Ranch with horses for family and friends to ride. In the first-ever book dedicated to Elvis's equestrian side, horse lovers Kimberly Gatto and Victoria Racimo share rare stories, interviews, and photographs that shed light on the beautiful, quiet life the King lived when he was with his horses.
All the Knowledge in the World: The Extraordinary History of the Encyclopaedia
by Simon GarfieldThe encyclopaedia once shaped our understanding of the world. Created by thousands of scholars and the most obsessive of editors, adults cleared their shelves in the belief that wisdom was now effortlessly accessible in their living rooms. Contributions from Albert Einstein, Sigmund Freud, Orville Wright, Alfred Hitchcock, Marie Curie and Indira Gandhi helped millions of children with their homework. But now these huge books gather dust and sell for almost nothing on eBay, and we derive our information from the internet, apparently for free. What have we lost in this transition? And how did we tell the progress of our lives in the past? All the Knowledge in the World is a history and celebration of those who created the most ground-breaking and remarkable publishing phenomenon of any age. It tracks the story from Ancient Greece to Wikipedia, from modest single-volumes to the 11,000-volume Chinese manuscript that was too big to print. It looks at how Encyclopaedia Britannica came to dominate the industry and how an army of ingenious door-to-door salesmen sold their wares to guilt-ridden parents. It explains how encyclopaedias have reflected our changing attitudes towards sexuality, race and technology, and exposes how these ultimate bastions of trust were often riddled with errors and prejudice. With his characteristic ability to tackle the broadest of subjects in an illuminating and highly entertaining way, Simon Garfield uncovers a fascinating and important part of our past, and wonders whether the promise of complete knowledge - that most human of ambitions - will forever be beyond our grasp.