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Golf Dreams: Writings on Golf
by John Updike Paul SzepJohn Updike wrote about the lure of golf for five decades, from the first time he teed off at the age of twenty-five until his final rounds at the age of seventy-six. Golf Dreams collects the most memorable of his golf pieces, high-spirited evidence of his learning, playing, and living for the game. The camaraderie of golf, the perils of its present boom, how to relate to caddies, and how to manage short putts are among the topics he addresses, sometimes in lyrical essays, sometimes in light verse, sometimes in wickedly comic fiction. All thirty pieces have the lilt of a love song, and the crispness of a firm chip stiff to the pin.
A Golfer's Life
by Arnold PalmerThere has never been a golfer to rival Arnold Palmer. He's the most aggressive, most exciting player the game has ever known, a dynamo famous for coming from behind to make bold last-minute charges to victory. To the legions of golf fans known around the world as "Arnie's Army," Palmer is a charismatic hero, the winner of sixty-one tournaments on the PGA Tour and still going strong on the Senior PGA Tour. But behind the legend, there is the private Palmer--a man of wit, compassion, loyalty, and true grit in the face of personal adversity. Golf-crazy as far back as he can remember, Arnie followed his dad, "Deacon" Palmer, the head greenskeeper, around the Latrobe Country Club fairways; as a youth he played at dawn before the club members arrived (the only time he was allowed on the course); by the time he graduated from high school he was headed for the national circuit. His rise to fame was meteoric, and by the 1960s he had emerged as one of the few American athletes the public truly cared about--a vibrant, daring, handsome sports celebrity who attracted wild crowds and enormous television audiences whenever he played and whose charisma propelled the explosion of enthusiam for golf in the sixties.Writing with the humor and candor that are as much his trademark as his unique golf swing, Palmer narrates the deeply moving story of his life both on and off the links. He recounts his friendships (and rivalries) with greats of the game, including Jack Nicklaus, his enduringly happy marriage with Winnie, his legendary charges to triumph and his titanic disasters, and his valiant battle against cancer. Returning to the Senior PGA Tour with unmatched zeal after his recovery, Palmer reminded fans of his unfaltering heroism--and the world of golf is thankful.From small-town boy to golfing legend, Arnold Palmer has lived one of the great sporting lives of the twentieth century. Now, with the help of acclaimed golf writer James Dodson, he has created one of the great sports autobiographies of our time.From the Hardcover edition.
Gompers in Canada: a study in American continentalism before the First World War
by Robert H. BabcockSamuel Gompers, the charismatic chief of the American Federation of Labor at the turn of the century, claimed to represent the interests of all workers in North America, but it was not until American corporations began to export jobs to Canada via branch plants that he became concerned with representing Canadian workers. Within a very short time the Canadian labour movement was rationalized into a segment of the American craft-union empire. In order to secure the loyalty of these new recruits, the AFI reduced the national trade-union centre of Canada, the Trades and Labor Congress, to the level of an American state federation of labour. But Gombers failed to perceive the different political, historical, and cultural climates north of the forty-ninth parallel, and his policies inevitably generated friction. Although some Canadian workers felt sympathy for labour politicians inspired by left-wing doctrines and the social gospel movement, Gompers strove to keep Canadian socialists at bay. And although Canadian workers expressed considerable interest in governmental investigation of industrial disputes, Gompers remained inimical to such moves. Canadian labour groups desired a seat on international labour bodies, but Gompers would not allow them to speak through their own delegate. Canadian unions deemed rivals to AFL affiliates were banished. Dues were siphoned off into union treasuries in the US, and American labour leaders kept firm control over organizing efforts in Canada. Perhaps most importance, the AFL's actions at the TLC convention of 1902--its opposition to dual unionism--helped spawn a separate labour movement in Quebec. Yet by 1914, following nearly two decades of effort by Gompers, many Canadian workers had become his willing subjects. Though others struggled to loosen Gompers' grip on the Canadian labour movement, Canadian trade unions appeared firmly wedded to the AFL's continentalism . The story of Gompers in Canada has never been properly treated: this book is a significant addition to Canadian and American labour history and to the study of American expansion. Based upon exhaustive research in the Gompers papers, the AFL-CIO archives, and in various Canadian manuscript and newspaper sources, it clearly reveals one importance aspect of the growth of American's 'informal' empire at the turn of the century.
Gone: A Girl, a Violin, a Life Unstrung
by Min KymThe spellbinding memoir of a violin virtuoso who loses the instrument that had defined her both on stage and off -- and who discovers, beyond the violin, the music of her own voice Her first violin was tiny, harsh, factory-made; her first piece was “Twinkle Twinkle, Little Star.” But from the very beginning, Min Kym knew that music was the element in which she could swim and dive and soar. At seven years old, she was a prodigy, the youngest ever student at the famed Purcell School. At eleven, she won her first international prize; at eighteen, violinist great Ruggiero Ricci called her “the most talented violinist I’ve ever taught.” And at twenty-one, she found “the one,” the violin she would play as a soloist: a rare 1696 Stradivarius. Her career took off. She recorded the Brahms concerto and a world tour was planned.Then, in a London café, her violin was stolen. She felt as though she had lost her soulmate, and with it her sense of who she was. Overnight she became unable to play or function, stunned into silence.In this lucid and transfixing memoir, Kym reckons with the space left by her violin’s absence. She sees with new eyes her past as a child prodigy, with its isolation and crushing expectations; her combustible relationships with teachers and with a domineering boyfriend; and her navigation of two very different worlds, her traditional Korean family and her music. And in the stark yet clarifying light of her loss, she rediscovers her voice and herself.
Gone: The Disappearance of Claudia Lawrence and Her Father's Desperate Search for the Truth
by Neil RootThe last time that anyone heard from 35-year-old Claudia Lawrence, a chef at the University of York, was when she sent a text message to a friend on 18 March 2009 at 8.23 p.m. She has never been heard from or seen again, and her disappearance is a mystery that endures to this day.What happened to Claudia that early spring evening – or was it early the following morning on her way to work? There had been nothing abnormal about her behaviour before she vanished, and there were no signs of a struggle at her home. A Crimewatch reconstruction has been broadcast, and the police investigation into the case has cost more than £750,000. Dozens of interviews have thrown up numerous leads, but there are no concrete clues.With extensive access to her family and friends, in Gone, Neil Root assesses the facts and theories and asks: where is Claudia?
Gone at Midnight: The Tragic True Story Behind the Unsolved Internet Sensation
by Jake AndersonA Fortune Magazine &“Most Anticipated Books of 2020&” SelectionA Goodreads Featured Release for February 2020Oxygen&’s List of &“Best True Crime Books of 2020&” Selection &“The Cecil Hotel in Los Angeles is a palpable presence in Gone at Midnight: The Mysterious death of Elisa Lam by Jake Anderson… While allowing for other possible interpretations (and minimizing the daunting logistics), Anderson believes that Lam was murdered, the victim of a &“traumatic sexual attack&” by one or more assailants. Or something. Given the checkered history of the Cecil Hotel (which was recently named to the Los Angeles registry of historic landmarks), I wouldn&’t rule out Jack the Ripper.&”—The New York TimesA Los Angeles hotel with a haunting history. A missing young woman. A disturbing video followed by a shocking discovery. A cold-case mystery that has become an internet phenomenon—and for one determined journalist, a life-changing quest toward uncomfortable truths. Perfect for Murderinos looking for their next fix… Twenty-one-year-old Vancouver student Elisa Lam was last heard from on January 31, 2013, after she checked into downtown L.A.&’s Cecil Hotel—a 600-room building with a nine-decade history of scandal and tragedy. The next day, Elisa vanished. A search of the hotel yielded nothing. More than a week later, complaints by guests of foul-smelling tap water led to a grim discovery: Elisa&’s nude body floating in a rooftop water tank, in an area extremely difficult to access without setting off alarms. The only apparent clue was a disturbing surveillance video of Elisa, uploaded to YouTube in hopes of public assistance. As the eerie elevator video went viral, so did the questions of its tens of millions of viewers. Was Elisa&’s death caused by murder, suicide, or paranormal activity? Was it connected to the Cecil&’s sinister reputation? And in that video, what accounted for Elisa&’s strange behavior? With the help of web sleuths and investigators from around the world, journalist Jake Anderson set out to uncover the facts behind a death that had become a macabre internet meme, as well as a magnet for conspiracy theorists. In poring through Elisa&’s revealing online journals and social-media posts, Anderson realized he shared more in common with the young woman than he imagined. His search for justice and truth became a personal journey, a dangerous descent into one of America's quiet epidemics. Along the way, he exposed a botched investigation and previously unreported disclosures from inside sources who suggest there may have been a corporate conspiracy and a police cover-up. In Gone at Midnight, Anderson chronicles eye-opening discoveries about who Elisa Lam really was and what—or whom—she was running from, and presents shocking new evidence that may re-open one of the most chilling and obsessively followed true crime cases of the century. &“Outstanding…true crime buffs won&’t want to miss this gripping search for the truth.&” —Publishers Weekly STARRED REVIEW
Gone Away: A John Murray Journey
by Dom MoraesIntroduced by Jeet Thayli, author of Booker Prize shortlisted novel Narcopolis.At the age of 20, Dom Moraes - already a celebrated poet who would go on to be regarded as one of India's finest writers - returned to his native India after finishing education in England. After spending time in Delhi, meeting Jawaharlal Nehru and the young Dalai Lama, he embarked on a meandering journey through northern India, Nepal and Sikkim at a time of political tension and the threat of invasion by China.Brilliant, curious and precocious, seldom without a drink in his hand, he chanced his way into some extraordinary situations - including staying in a Nepalese palace with a resident bear and being shot at and chased by Chinese soldiers. Gone Away details these adventures with a poet's eye for detail, and the luminosity and humour for which Moraes was known.
Gone Away: A John Murray Journey
by Dom MoraesIntroduced by Jeet Thayli, author of Booker Prize shortlisted novel Narcopolis.At the age of 20, Dom Moraes - already a celebrated poet who would go on to be regarded as one of India's finest writers - returned to his native India after finishing education in England. After spending time in Delhi, meeting Jawaharlal Nehru and the young Dalai Lama, he embarked on a meandering journey through northern India, Nepal and Sikkim at a time of political tension and the threat of invasion by China.Brilliant, curious and precocious, seldom without a drink in his hand, he chanced his way into some extraordinary situations - including staying in a Nepalese palace with a resident bear and being shot at and chased by Chinese soldiers. Gone Away details these adventures with a poet's eye for detail, and the luminosity and humour for which Moraes was known.
Gone Boy
by Gregory GibsonOn December 14, 1992, Gregory Gibson's eighteen-year-old son Galen was murdered, shot in the doorway of his college library by a fellow student gone berserk. The killer was jailed for life, but for Gibson the tragedy was still unfolding. The morning of the shooting, he learned, college officials had intercepted but not stopped a box of ammunition addressed to the murderer. They were also anonymously warned of the intended killing but failed to call the police. After years of frustrated attempts to find peace, Gibson woke one morning to a terrible vision of his own rage and helplessness. He knew he had to do something before he destroyed himself, and he resolved to discover and document the forces that led to Galen's death. Gone Boy follows Gibson as he visits the gun seller, as well as detectives, lawyers, psychiatrists, politicians, and college bureaucrats-- a cast of characters as vivid as those in a Raymond Chandler mystery. Hailed by the New York Times and others for its evocative style and courage in confronting guns, violence, and manhood in America today, this wrenching memoir speaks in the voice of a man struggling to turn grief and rage into acceptance and understanding.From the Trade Paperback edition.
Gone but Still Here
by Jennifer DanceAs her recent memories fade, Mary lives increasingly in the past — returning to the secrets of her turbulent interracial love story. Coming to terms with advancing dementia, Mary has no choice other than to move into her daughter’s home. Her daughter, Kayla, caught between her cognitively impaired mother and her belligerent teenage son, soon finds caregiving is more challenging than she imagined. Sage, the family’s golden retriever, offers comfort and unconditional love, but she has her own problems, especially when it comes to dealing with Mary’s cat.Throughout it all, Mary struggles to complete her final book — a memoir, the untold story of the love of her life, who died more than forty years earlier. Her confused and tangled tales span Trinidad, England, and Canada, revealing the secrets of a tragic interracial love story in the 1960s and ’70s. But with her writing skills slipping away, it’s a race against time.Heartwarming, funny, and hopeful, Gone but Still Here is an honest, open look at the struggles of one family as they journey into the unknown.
Gone Feral
by Novella CarpenterElizabeth Gilbert, author of The Signature of All Things and Eat, Pray, Love"I'm so glad Novella Carpenter has written this book... The resulting journey is both brave and honest."San Francisco Chronicle"[R]iveting... Carpenter reminds us that sometimes the self is the thorniest wilderness of all."Novella Carpenter picks up the phone one day to receive some disturbing news: her father has officially gone missing. Carpenter's father, George--a back-to-the-land homesteader and troubled Korean War veteran--has spent decades battling his inner demons while largely absenting himself from his children's lives. Though George is ultimately found, Carpenter is forced to confront the truth: her time with her dad--now seventy-three years old--is limited, and the moment to restore their relationship is now. Gone Feral is the story of Carpenter's search for her parents' broken past in the harsh wilds of Idaho.The story starts in San Miguel de Allende in 1969, where Carpenter's free-spirited parents meet and fall in love. Their whirlwind romance continues through Europe and ends on 180 acres near Idaho's Clearwater River. Carpenter and her sister are born into a free, roaming childhood, but soon the harsh reality of living on the land--loneliness, backbreaking labor--tears the family apart. Carpenter's mother packs the girls and heads for the straight life in Washington State while George remains on the ranch, tied to the land and his vision of freedom.In Gone Feral, Carpenter--now a grown woman leading an untraditional life, not unlike her parents', raising livestock and growing vegetables in the city--finds herself contemplating a family of her own. Before that can happen, she knows she has to return to Idaho to discover why her father chose this life of solitude. She quickly finds that George is not living the principled, romantic life she imagined, and the truth is more com-plicated--and dangerous--than anything she suspected. As she comes to know the real George, Carpenter looks to her own life and comes to recognize her father's legacy in their shared love of animals, of nature, and of the written word; their dangerous stubbornness and isolating independence. Finally, Gone Feral sees the birth of Carpenter's own daughter, an experience that teaches that a parent's love is itself a wild thing: unknowable, fierce, and ever changing. In reckoning with her past, Carpenter clears the road to her future.Raw, funny, unsentimental, alive with unforgettable characters and pitch-perfect dialogue, Gone Feral marks Carpenter's transformative passage from daughter to mother, a wry and rough tale of life lived on the margins and redemption between generations.Booklist"Spurred on by a desire to raise a family of her own and decipher the genetic code for either survival or destruction that she might be passing on, Carpenter performs a wild pas de deux with the cantankerous George, approaching him as one would a wild animal with no trust in humanity. Carpenter chronicles her daring quest for understanding and familial continuity in this sincere and remarkably uninhibited memoir."
Gone Native: An NCO's Story
by Alan CornettOn his first combat assignment, Cornett accompanied the Vietnamese Rangers on a search-and-destroy mission near Khe Sang. There he gained entree into a culture that he would ultimately respect greatly and admire deeply. Cornett's most challenging military duty began when he joined the Phoenix Program. As part of AK squad, he dressed in enemy uniform and roamed the deadly Central Highlands, capturing high-ranking VC officers in hot firefights and ambushes. It was there, deep in enemy territory, where the smallest mistake meant sudden death, that the Vietnamese fighting men earned his utmost respect. While offering rare glimpses of an aspect of the war most of the military and media never saw, Cornett tells the full, gut-wrenching story of his Vietnam. He also gives an unsparing view of himself - telling a no-holds-barred story of an American soldier who made sacrifices far beyond the call of duty . . . a soldier who, in defiance of the U. S. government, refused to turn his back on the Vietnamese.
Gone Pro: North Carolina
by Tim W. JacksonGone Pro: North Carolina provides a comprehensive look at the University of North Carolina athletes who made it to the top of their professions. The book includes all the big names from recent generations: sports superstars such as Vince Carter, Mia Hamm, Michael Jordan, B. J. Surhoff, and Lawrence Taylor. It also looks at some who were never as well known, such as Charlie "Choo Choo" Justice, and some who were widely recognized a generation ago, but whose stars have faded over the years. Exploring athletes' places in Carolina history, Gone Pro also examines their professional careers and how they fared at the highest levels of their sports. This rich history will make North Carolina residents and UNC alumni beam with pride at the amazing number of professionals who hail from the state's flagship school.
Gone Pro: Alabama
by Steve MillburgHave you ever struggled to recall what happened to your favorite college athlete? Now you don't have to wonder. Gone Pro: Alabama is a collection of biographies of Crimson Tide athletes who went on to professional careers or Olympics success. Refresh your memory about their glory days at Alabama and find out what happened to them afterward, personally as well as professionally.Readers will recognize some of their favorite athletes while learning about others who were heroes in their own generations. Gone Pro: Alabama touches on multiple sports throughout the history of Tennessee. Relive heart-warming stories of triumph and, occasionally, heartbreaking tales of tragedy.With Alabama's most recent football championship, the question must be asked: how does Nick Saban compare to Bear Bryant. Author Steve Millburg answers that question and more in this updated edition.This one-of-a-kind volume allows fans to discover the best of the best in each sport. Older fans can introduce their grandchildren to the heroes of yesterday, and youngsters can give older fans a nostalgic treat. Any fan of the Alabama Crimson Tide will want this book.
Gone Pro: Florida
by Gayle Prince Rajtar Steve RajtarGone Pro: Florida is a rousing collection of the stories of the Gator athletes whose heroics and incredible championship seasons keep them forever in our hearts and minds. Readers recognize many favorite players, as well as meeting some new ones. Relive these heartwarming stories of triumph brought to life by longtime Florida residents and die-hard Gator fans Steve Rajtar and Gayle Prince Rajtar. Gone Pro: Florida is a great gift book - fans of every generation can share their favorite moments and players with family and friends. This new book helps readers remember all the good times and the great moments in Gator sports history.
Gone the Hard Road: A Memoir
by Lee Martin"Count your blessings," his mother told him, "Think of everything good in your life."Pulitzer Prize finalist Lee Martin has done it again. Building from his acclaimed first memoir, From Our House, which recounts the farming accident that cost his father both his hands, Gone the Hard Road is the story of Beulah Martin's endurance and sacrifice as a mother, and the gift of imagination she offered her son. Martin unfolds the world she created for him within their unsettled family life, from the first time she read to him in a doctor's office waiting room, to enrolling him in a children's book club, to the books she bought him in high school. Gone the Hard Road portrays Beulah's selflessness as the family moved around the Midwest, sometimes in the face of her husband's opposition, to show her son a different way of being. Rather than concentrate on the life his father threatened to destroy, as Martin's previous memoirs do, Gone the Hard Road offers the counternarrative of a loving mother and the creative life she made possible, in spite of the eventual cost to herself. A poignant, honest, and moving read, Gone the Hard Road will stay with anyone who has ever struggled to find their place in the world.
Gone 'Til November: A Journal of Rikers Island
by Lil Wayne&“Transfixing…[Wayne&’s] prison diary is, above all, a testament to the irrepressibility of his charisma—his is a force that can never go dormant, even when it&’s not plainly on display.&” –The New YorkerFrom rap superstar Lil Wayne comes Gone &’Til November, a deeply personal and revealing account of his time spent incarcerated on Rikers Island for eight months in 2010.In 2010, recording artist Lil Wayne was at the height of his career. A fixture in the rap game for more than a decade, Lil Wayne (aka Weezy) had established himself as both a prolific musician and a savvy businessman, smashing long-held industry records, winning multiple Grammy Awards, and signing up-and-coming talent like Drake and Nicki Minaj to his Young Money label. All of this momentum came to a halt when he was convicted of possession of a firearm and sentenced to a yearlong stay at Rikers Island. Suddenly, the artist at the top of his game was now an inmate at the mercy of the American penal system. At long last, Gone &’Til November reveals the true story of what really happened while Wayne was behind bars, exploring everything from his daily rituals to his interactions with other inmates to how he was able to keep himself motivated and grateful. Taken directly from Wayne&’s own journal, this intimate, personal account of his incarceration is an utterly humane look at the man behind the artist.
Gone to an Aunt's: Remembering Canada's Homes for Unwed Mothers
by Anne PetrieThirty or forty years ago, everybody knew what that phrase meant: a girl or a young, unmarried woman had gotten herself pregnant. She was “in trouble. ” She had brought indescribable shame on herself and her family. In those days it was unthinkable that she would have her child and keep it. Instead she had to hide. Most likely she would be sent away to a home for unwed mothers, where she would stay in secrecy until her baby was born and given up for adoption. “Gone to an aunt’s” was the usual cover story, a fiction that everyone understood but no on talked about –until now. InGone to an Aunt’s,journalist and long-time television host Anne Petrie takes us back into these homes for unwed mothers. Most cities in Canada had at least one home, several as many as five or six, most of them run by religious organizations. Here, in institutional settings, the girls were kept out of sight until their time was up and they could return to the world as if nothing had happened. Seven women –including the author – recount their experiences inGone to an Aunt’s,talking openly, some for the first time, about how they got pregnant; the reaction of their parents, friends, boyfriends, and lovers; why they wound up in a home; and how they managed to cope with its rules and regulations –no last names, no talking about the past –and the promise of salvation that could come only through work and prayer. Gone to an Aunt’sis a profoundly moving and compassionate –even alarming – account. It comes as a reminder that we not get too wistful for the supposedly innocent times before the sexual revolution. That innocence, Petrie shows vividly, was a charade made believable only because the thousands of girls who had broken the rules were hidden away.
Gone to New York: Adventures in the City
by Ian FrazierA collection of essays of Ian Frazier which begins with a couple of Talk pieces and ends with his memory of Hudson, Ohio.
Gone to the Crazies
by Alison WeaverAs a child, Alison Weaver's life shone with surface-level perfection-full of nannies, private schools, and ballet lessons. She had all the luxuries of a wealthy Manhattan upbringing, and all the makings of a perfect Upper East Side miss. But her childhood memories were laced with darker undertones: Her father was emotionally absent, unable to engage in problems that couldn't be solved with clean lines and simple plans, and her mother was a beautiful, aloof alcoholic. Neither parent approved of their daughter's outbursts and emotions-and in the midst of her parents' own flaws, Weaver was constantly reminded that she was a mess that needed fixing. By the time she was a teenager, Weaver had found escape in alcohol, marijuana, and late-night abandon. But when her exasperated parents had her shipped away-in handcuffs-to the cultish Cascade School, everything changed. Within the surreal isolation of the school's mountain campus, she left her old self behind, warping into a brainwashed model of Cascade's mottos and ideals. Graduation two years later left her unprepared for the harshness of the real world-and she soon fell back into a mind-numbing wash of drugs. Stum-bling into freefall in New York's East Village in the 1990s, Weaver's life began a downward spiral marked by needles and late-night parties, mingled with fears of HIV and death. Ultimately, faced with the reality of her rapidly escalating self-destruction, Weaver was forced to face her inner darkness head on. Gone to the Crazies proves the age-old adage: You can't come clean until you've hit rock bottom. By turns wry, heartbreaking, and emotionally intense, Alison Weaver's mesmerizing debut fascinates with its vivid depiction of the bonds between family and friends, and the thoughtful exploration of what it means to fight for identity and equilibrium.
Gone to the Woods: Surviving a Lost Childhood
by Gary PaulsenA middle grade memoir from a living literary legend, giving readers a new perspective on the origins of Gary Paulsen's famed survival stories.His name is synonymous with high-stakes wilderness survival stories. Now, beloved author Gary Paulsen portrays a series of life-altering moments from his turbulent childhood as his own original survival story. If not for his summer escape from a shockingly neglectful Chicago upbringing to a North Woods homestead at age five, there never would have been a Hatchet. Without the encouragement of the librarian who handed him his first book at age thirteen, he may never have become a reader. And without his desperate teenage enlistment in the Army, he would not have discovered his true calling as a storyteller.A moving and enthralling story of grit and growing up, Gone to the Woods is perfect for newcomers to the voice and lifelong fans alike, from the acclaimed author at his rawest and realest.
Gone with the Mind
by Mark LeynerThe blazingly inventive, fictional autobiography of Mark Leyner, one of America's "rare, true original voices." (Gary Shteyngart)Dizzyingly brilliant and raucously funny, GONE WITH THE MIND is the story of Mark Leyner's life, told as only Mark Leyner can. In this utterly unconventional, autobiographical novel, Mark Leyner gives a reading in the food court of a mall. Besides Mark's mother, who's driven him to the mall and introduces him before he begins, and a few employees of fast food chain Panda Express who ask a handful of questions, the reading is completely without audience. The action of GONE WITH THE MIND takes place exclusively at the food court, but the territory covered on these pages has no bounds.Existential, self-aware, and very much concerned with the relationship between a complicated mother and an even more complicated son, Leyner's story--with its bold, experimental structure--is a moving work of genius.
Gonna Do Great Things: The Life of Sammy Davis, Jr.
by Gary FishgallA major reappraisal of the life of legendary entertainer Sammy Davis, Jr., Gonna Do Great Things is at once an intimate portrait and an exuberant celebration of a wholly American icon. Through his multifaceted talent and personality, Sammy became one of the most magnetic and contentious figures in modern entertainment history. His outstanding talents as a dancer, singer, actor, impressionist, and comedian, combined with his close association with megastars and his interracial marriage, made him a celebrity in the truest sense.Born in Harlem in 1925, Sammy debuted onstage with Will Mastin's vaudeville troupe when he was only three years old. He was an instant hit, and his talent propelled him into one of the most luminous entertainment careers of his generation. No one could please a crowd like Sammy, whose overwhelming energy and infectious humor exhilarated audiences for sixty years. However, Sammy's life was not without hardship, and his high-spirited attitude often masked a fragile ego. From an impoverished, broken home, he lacked even a single day of formal education, and the rigors of his blossoming show business career denied him the traditional pleasures of childhood. Racism constantly affected his life, particularly when he joined the army in 1943. Because he refused to acknowledge any race-related restrictions, his very existence became a political statement. An active member of the Civil Rights movement and America's first African-American superstar, Sammy paved the way for other black entertainers. As a charter member of the Rat Pack, Sammy spent the 1950s and 1960s basking in an image of "cool" and endearing himself to the public. But by the 1970s he was relying on cocaine and alcohol, flirting with Satanism, indulging in scandalous sexual behavior, and becoming the punchline of jokes on Saturday Night Live. Though his fans still adored him, his performances suffered. A four-pack-a-day smoker, Sammy succumbed to cancer when he was sixty-four, shortly after celebrating six decades in the spotlight.Renowned biographer of Hollywood giants Jimmy Stewart, Burt Lancaster, and Gregory Peck, Gary Fishgall brings an actor's and director's understanding of the entertainment industry to Sammy's complicated existence. Meticulously researched and filled with insights gathered from interviews with those who knew Sammy best, Gonna Do Great Things reveals the fascinating and controversial life of this beloved entertainer.
Gonville: A Memoir
by Peter BirkenheadIn powerful and spirited prose, Peter Birkenhead recounts a childhood spent trying to make sense of his father, a terrifying, charismatic presence who brutalized his family physically and emotionally at the same time that he enchanted them with his passion and whimsy. An avid gun collector yet an anti-war activist, a popular economics professor and a wife-swapping nudist, a leftist and a lifelong fan of the British Empire who would occasionally don an authentic pith helmet and imitate Michael Caine's performance as the heroic Lieutenant Gonville Bromhead in the bloody war film Zulu, he was a man who could knock his young son down the stairs one day and the next cry about putting the family's aged dog to sleep. Such is the contradictory figure at the center of this astonishingly candid and shocking memoir. As a young adult, Birkenhead reacted to his volatile childhood by forgetting its worst moments. He adopted all the trappings of normalcy, threw himself into a career as an actor, landing parts in Broadway plays like Brighton Beach Memoirs and Broadway Bound,both by Neil Simon, and found himself often playing characters who were angry at their fathers. Yet he discovered that he was sleepwalking through life, on occasion falling into rages that reminded him of his father. Then at thirty-one, eleven years after his parents' divorce, Birkenhead told his mother about his recurring dream of flying down the stairs of their house as a young boy. She revealed that it wasn't a dream, but a memory from his early childhood of being carried rapidly down the stairs by his mom after his father had pointed a gun at them. The revelation about the dream sparked the painful yet necessary process of examining his childhood and of ultimately moving beyond it, forcing Birkenhead to finally confront his father in a way that released him and his family from this complicated legacy. Combining the terror and wit of Running with Scissors, the poignancy and sense of place of The Tender Bar,with the sparkling prose of Oh the Glory of It All, Gonville is light on its feet even as it deals in the darkest of family tales. A harrowing and often humorous story of a son coming to terms with his alternately charming, cruel, generous, and violent father.
Gonzalo Higuaín (Superstars of Soccer)
by Elizabeth Levy SadDesde sus inicios en un club amateur de Buenos Aires hasta su brillante carrera en el Real Madrid y la Selección de Argentina, Gonzalo "Pipita" Higuaín se ha ganado un lugar preponderante e indiscutido en el mundo del fútbol. Con una carrera ascendente, iluminada por metas muy claras, se ha consagrado como uno de los 20 máximos goleadores del club español. También fue una revelación estelar en la Selección Argentina, y hoy es reconocido como unode los grandes deportistas latinoamericanos. Una monumental fuerza de voluntad ha caracterizado a Gonzalo Higuaín desde niño. Positivo y disciplinado, ha superado todas las dificultades de su camino profesional para llegar a la cima; y todavía no están escritas las últimas páginas de su futuro: para muchos, lo mejor de "Pipita" aún está por venir.