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Brothers: A Memoir of Love, Loss, and Race
by Nico SlateBrothers is Nico Slate’s poignant memoir about Peter Slate, aka XL, a Black rapper and screenwriter whose life was tragically cut short. Nico and Peter shared the same White American mother but had different fathers. Nico’s was White; Peter’s was Black. Growing up in California in the 1980s and 1990s, Nico often forgot about their racial differences until one night in March 1994 when Peter was attacked by a White man in a nightclub in Los Angeles. Nico began writing Brothers with the hope that investigating the attack would bring him closer to Peter. He could not understand that night, however, without grappling with the many ways race had long separated him from his brother. This is a memoir of loss—the loss of a life and the loss at the heart of our racial divide—but it is also a memoir of love. The love between Nico and Peter permeates every page of Brothers. This achingly beautiful memoir presents one family’s resilience on the fault lines of race in contemporary America.
Brothers: On His Brothers and Brothers in History
by George Howe ColtG E O R G E H OW E C O L T ’ S The Big House is, as the New Yorker said, “full of surprises and contains more than seems possible: a family memoir, a brief history of the Cape, an investigation of nostalgia, a study of class, and a meditation on the privileges and burdens of the past.” Colt’s new book, Brothers, is an equally idiosyncratic and masterful blend of memoir and history featuring both the author’s three brothers and iconic brothers in history—the Booths, the Van Goghs, the Kelloggs, the Marx Brothers, and the Thoreaus. Colt believes he would be a different man had he not grown up in a family of four brothers. He movingly recounts the adoration, envy, affection, resentment, and compassion in their shifting relationships from childhood through middle age, also rendering a volatile decade in American life: the 1960s. Some of the Colt men now have children; all have found their own paths; all now consider their brothers to be their closest friends. In alternate chapters, Colt parallels his quest to understand how his own brothers shaped his life with an examination of the rich and complex relationships between iconic brothers in history. He explores how Edwin Booth grew up to become the greatest actor on the nineteenth-century American stage while his younger brother John grew up to assassinate a president. How Will Kellogg worked for his overbearing older brother John Harvey as a subservient yes-man for two decades until he finally broke free and launched the cereal empire that outlasted all his brother’s enterprises. How Vincent van Gogh would never have survived without the financial and emotional support of his younger brother, Theo, in a claustrophobic relationship that both defined and confined them. How Henry David Thoreau’s life was shadowed by the early death of his older brother, John, who haunted and inspired his writing. And how the Marx Brothers collaborated on the screen but competed offstage for women, money, and fame. Illuminating and affecting, this book will be revelatory for any parent of sons, any sibling, anyone curious about how a man’s life can be molded by his brothers. Colt’s magnificent book is a testament to the abiding power of fraternal love.
Brothers: The Hidden History of the Kennedy Years
by David TalbotFor decades, books about John or Robert Kennedy have woven either a shimmering tale of Camelot gallantry or a tawdry story of runaway ambition and reckless personal behavior. But the real story of the Kennedys in the 1960s has long been submerged -- until now. In Brothers: The Hidden History of the Kennedy Years, David Talbot sheds a dramatic new light on the tumultuous inner life of the Kennedy presidency and its stunning aftermath. Talbot, the founder of Salon. com, has written a gripping political history that is sure to be one of the most talked-about books of the year. Brothers begins on the shattering afternoon of November 22, 1963, as a grief-stricken Robert Kennedy urgently demands answers about the assassination of his brother. Bobby's suspicions immediately focus on the nest of CIA spies, gangsters, and Cuban exiles that had long been plotting a violent regime change in Cuba. The Kennedys had struggled to control this swamp of anti-Castro intrigue based in southern Florida, but with little success. Brothers then shifts back in time, revealing the shadowy conflicts that tore apart the Kennedy administration, pitting the young president and his even younger brother against their own national security apparatus. The Kennedy brothers and a small circle of their most trusted advisors -- men like Theodore Sorensen, Robert McNamara, and Kenneth O'Donnell, who were so close the Kennedys regarded them as family -- repeatedly thwarted Washington's warrior caste. These hard-line generals and spymasters were hell-bent on a showdown with the Communist foe -- in Berlin, Laos, Vietnam, and especially Cuba. But the Kennedys continually frustrated their militaristic ambitions, pushing instead for a peaceful resolution to the Cold War. The tensions within the Kennedy administration were heading for an explosive climax, when a burst of gunfire in a sunny Dallas plaza terminated John F. Kennedy's presidency. Based on interviews with more than one hundred fifty people -- including many of the Kennedys' aging "band of brothers," whose testimony here might be their final word on this epic political story -- as well as newly released government documents, Brothers reveals the compelling, untold story of the Kennedy years, including JFK's heroic efforts to keep the country out of a cataclysmic war and Bobby Kennedy's secret quest to solve his beloved brother's murder. Bobby's subterranean search was a dangerous one and led, in part, to his own quest for power in 1968, in a passion-filled campaign that ended with his own murder. As Talbot reveals here, RFK might have been the victim of the same plotters he suspected of killing his brother. This is historical storytelling at its riveting best -- meticulously researched and movingly told. Brothers is a sprawling narrative about the clash of powerful men and the darker side of the Cold War -- a tale of tragic grandeur that is certain to change our understanding of the relentlessly fascinating Kennedy saga.
Broth from the Cauldron: A Wisdom Journey through Everyday Magic
by Cerridwen FallingstarBroth from the Cauldron is a collection of &“teaching stories,&” a literary Wiccan soup for the soul. It is a distillation of the wisdom Cerridwen Fallingstar has gathered from her journey through life, and from her forty years as a Shamanic teacher and Wiccan Priestess. At turns poignant and humorous, it chronicles her trajectory from a Republican cold war upbringing to Pagan Priestess, offering a portrait of a culture growing from denial to awareness. Accessible to any audience interested in personal growth, Broth from the Cauldron is for anyone who&’s ever stood at the crossroads wishing a faery godmother would come along and show them the path.
Brought Forth on This Continent: Abraham Lincoln and American Immigration
by Harold HolzerFrom acclaimed Abraham Lincoln historian Harold Holzer, a groundbreaking account of Lincoln&’s grappling with the politics of immigration against the backdrop of the Civil War.In the three decades before the Civil War, some ten million foreign-born people settled in the United States, forever altering the nation&’s demographics, culture, and—perhaps most significantly—voting patterns. America&’s newest residents fueled the national economy, but they also wrought enormous changes in the political landscape and exposed an ugly, at times violent, vein of nativist bigotry.Abraham Lincoln&’s rise ran parallel to this turmoil; even Lincoln himself did not always rise above it. Tensions over immigration would split and ultimately destroy Lincoln&’s Whig Party years before the Civil War. Yet the war made clear just how important immigrants were, and how interwoven they had become in American society.Harold Holzer, winner of the Lincoln Prize, charts Lincoln&’s political career through the lens of immigration, from his role as a member of an increasingly nativist political party to his evolution into an immigration champion, a progression that would come at the same time as he refined his views on abolition and Black citizenship. As Holzer writes, &“The Civil War could not have been won without Lincoln&’s leadership; but it could not have been fought without the immigrant soldiers who served and, by the tens of thousands, died that the &‘nation might live.&’&” An utterly captivating and illuminating work, Brought Forth on This Continent assesses Lincoln's life and legacy in a wholly original way, unveiling remarkable similarities between the nineteenth century and the twenty-first.
Brown Album: Essays on Exile and Identity
by Porochista Khakpour*A Vintage Original*From the much-acclaimed novelist and essayist, a beautifully rendered, poignant collection of personal essays, chronicling immigrant and Iranian-American life in our contemporary moment.Novelist Porochista Khakpour's family moved to Los Angeles after fleeing the Iranian Revolution, giving up their successes only to be greeted by an alienating culture. Growing up as an immigrant in America means that one has to make one's way through a confusing tangle of conflicting cultures and expectations. And Porochista is pulled between the glitzy culture of Tehrangeles, an enclave of wealthy Iranians and Persians in LA, her own family's modest life and culture, and becoming an assimilated American. Porochista rebels--she bleaches her hair and flees to the East Coast, where she finds her community: other people writing and thinking at the fringes. But, 9/11 happens and with horror, Porochista watches from her apartment window as the towers fall. Extremism and fear of the Middle East rises in the aftermath and then again with the election of Donald Trump. Porochista is forced to finally grapple with what it means to be Middle-Eastern and Iranian, an immigrant, and a refugee in our country today. Brown Album is a stirring collection of essays, at times humorous and at times profound, drawn from more than a decade of Porochista's work and with new material included. Altogether, it reveals the tolls that immigrant life in this country can take on a person and the joys that life can give.
Brown Boy: A Memoir
by Omer AzizBrown Boy is an uncompromising interrogation of identity, family, religion, race, and class, told through Omer Aziz&’s incisive and luminous prose.In a tough neighborhood on the outskirts of Toronto, miles away from wealthy white downtown, Omer Aziz struggles to find his place as a first-generation Pakistani Muslim boy. He fears the violence and despair of the world around him, and sees a dangerous path ahead, succumbing to aimlessness, apathy, and rage. In his senior year of high school, Omer quickly begins to realize that education can open up the wider world. But as he falls in love with books, and makes his way to Queen&’s University in Ontario, Sciences Po in Paris, Cambridge University in England, and finally Yale Law School, he continually confronts his own feelings of doubt and insecurity at being an outsider, a brown-skinned boy in an elite white world. He is searching for community and identity, asking questions of himself and those he encounters, and soon finds himself in difficult situations—whether in the suburbs of Paris or at the Temple Mount in Jerusalem. Yet the more books Omer reads and the more he moves through elite worlds, his feelings of shame and powerlessness only grow stronger, and clear answers recede further away. Weaving together his powerful personal narrative with the books and friendships that move him, Aziz wrestles with the contradiction of feeling like an Other and his desire to belong to a Western world that never quite accepts him. He poses the questions he couldn&’t have asked in his youth: Was assimilation ever really an option? Could one transcend the perils of race and class? And could we—the collective West—ever honestly confront the darker secrets that, as Aziz discovers, still linger from the past? In Brown Boy, Omer Aziz has written a book that eloquently describes the complex process of creating an identity that fuses where he&’s from, what people see in him, and who he knows himself to be.
Brown Boy: A Memoir
by Omer AzizAziz's story is a story that is common to many but one that is rarely told. It is the story of growing up the child of immigrants and trying to progress in a society where the realities of racism and xenophobia are all too obvious. It gives voice to the experience of finding oneself caught between worlds and the concomitant feelings of shame, insecurity and powerlessness that this can engender. As he describes it, he found himself &‘a hyphenated man&’ struggling to create an identity that fused East and West.Brown Boy is a hugely important and desperately needed book, which asks the most important questions and answers them in a way that is sometimes uncomfortable but always incredibly stimulating. Like Richard Wright's Black Boy, from which it draws inspiration, Brown Boy will be read for years to come. It is an enormously significant contribution to the contemporary debate around race and identity, and a work of deep literary sensitivity that will stand the test of time.
Brown Eyed Handsome Man: The Life and Hard Times of Chuck Berry
by Bruce PeggBrown Eyed Handsome Man: The Life and Hard Times of Chuck Berry draws on dozens of interviews done by the author himself and voluminous public records to paint a complete picture of this complicated figure. This biography uncovers the real Berry and provides us with a stirring, unvarnished portrait of both the man and the artist. Berry has long been one of pop music's most enigmatic personalities. Growing up in a middle-class, black neighborhood in St. Louis, his first major hit song, "Maybellene," was an adaptation of a white country song, wedded to a black-influenced beat. Thereafter came a string of brilliant songs celebrating teenage life in the '50s, including "School Day," "Johnny B. Goode," and "Sweet Little Sixteen." Berry's career rise was meteoric; but his fall came equally quickly, when his relations with an underage girl led to his conviction. It was not his first (nor his last) run in with the law. He scored his biggest hit in the early '70s with the comical (and some would say decidedly lightweight) song "My Ding-a-Ling." The following decades brought hundreds of nights of tours, with little attention from the recording industry. Bruce Pegg offers the definitive, though not always pretty, portrait of one of the greatest stars of rock and roll, a story that will appeal to all fans of American popular music.
Brown Girl Dreaming
by Jacqueline WoodsonA mesmerising story about a young girl growing up in America, finding a home and discovering her voice - a multi-award winning New York Times bestseller and President Obama's 'O' Book Club pick.Brown Girl Dreaming is the unforgettable story of Jacqueline Woodson's childhood, sharing what it was like to grow up as an African-American in the wake of the Civil Rights movement, and discovering the first sparks of an incredible, lifelong gift for writing. It's packed with wonderful reflections on family and on place, in a way that will appeal to readers from 11 to adult.Emotionally charged and touching, each line tells the tale of one girl's search to find her voice, her identity and her place in the world.This book has been a bestseller in the US for almost a decade, winning every accolade and prize including the prestigious Newbery Honor Award, and is now made available to readers in the UK for the first time.
Brown Girl Dreaming
by Jacqueline WoodsonA mesmerising story about a young Black girl growing up in America, finding a home and discovering her voice—a multi-award winning New York Times bestseller and President Obama's 'O' Book Club pick. <p><p>Brown Girl Dreaming is the unforgettable story of Jacqueline Woodson's childhood, sharing what it was like to grow up as an African-American in the wake of the Civil Rights movement, and discovering the first sparks of an incredible, lifelong gift for writing. It's packed with wonderful reflections on family and on place, in a way that will appeal to listeners from 11 to adult. <p><p>Emotionally charged and touching, each line tells the tale of one girl's search to find her voice, her identity and her place in the world. <P><p>This book has been a bestseller in the US for almost a decade, winning every accolade and prize including the prestigious Newbery Honor Award, and is now made available to readers in the UK for the first time.(P)2014 Penguin Audio
Brown Girl Dreaming
by Jacqueline WoodsonA New York Times Bestseller and National Book Award WinnerA Kirkus Reviews Best Middle Grade Book of the CenturyJacqueline Woodson, the acclaimed author of Red at the Bone, tells the moving story of her childhood in mesmerizing verse. Raised in South Carolina and New York, Woodson always felt halfway home in each place. In vivid poems, she shares what it was like to grow up as an African American in the 1960s and 1970s, living with the remnants of Jim Crow and her growing awareness of the Civil Rights movement. Touching and powerful, each poem is both accessible and emotionally charged, each line a glimpse into a child&’s soul as she searches for her place in the world. Woodson&’s eloquent poetry also reflects the joy of finding her voice through writing stories, despite the fact that she struggled with reading as a child. Her love of stories inspired her and stayed with her, creating the first sparks of the gifted writer she was to become.A National Book Award WinnerA Newbery Honor BookA Coretta Scott King Award WinnerPraise for Jacqueline Woodson:Ms. Woodson writes with a sure understanding of the thoughts of young people, offering a poetic, eloquent narrative that is not simply a story . . . but a mature exploration of grown-up issues and self-discovery.&”—The New York Times Book Review
Brown Scarf Blues
by Mois Benarroch Steven CapsutoReeling from the deaths of two loved ones, an Israeli writer travels to Spain--his ancestors' homeland--for a conference of Sephardic Jews. In Seville, he finds a scarf that comforts him for thirteen days. Then, just as suddenly, it vanishes in Madrid. For the writer, the scarf becomes a symbol of loss: of goodbyes to things and people. He says farewell to the dead, and to all the people he never became and never will be. But just as he is letting go of his dreams, he meets a group of Spanish Jews who were lost in the Amazon for 150 years, whom he once wrote about in a novel. Did he merely make them up? Can imagination shape reality? Narrated through many voices and viewpoints, Brown Scarf Blues is a novella that spans countries--Morocco, Brazil, the United States and Israel--and languages--Hebrew, French, Spanish, Portuguese and especially Haketia: the Moroccan Judeo-Spanish speech that hangs on like a living-dead remnant of a vanished culture... the words and expressions left behind by a lost world.
Brown of the Globe: Statesman of Confederation 1860-1880
by J.M.S. CarelessGeorge Brown (1818-1880) was the influential editor of the Toronto Globe, the most powerful newspaper in British North America. He was also leader of the Liberal Party, arch-rival of John A. Macdonald, and the statesman who held the key to Confederation at its most critical stage. This second volume traces the sectional conflict that brought political deadlock by 1864 and makes clear Brown’s vital function in finding a way out. It also sets out in meticulous detail his career after leaving party membership in 1867. This comprehensive two-volume biography of George Brown was first published in 1959 (volume 1) and 1963 (volume 2). In 1963, Professor Careless received the Governor General’s Award for the full biography.
Brown: The Last Discovery of America
by Richard RodriguezIn his dazzling new memoir, Richard Rodriguez reflects on the color brown and the meaning of Hispanics to the life of America today. Rodriguez argues that America has been brown since its inception-since the moment the African and the European met within the Indian eye. But more than simply a book about race, Brown is about America in the broadest sense--a look at what our country is, full of surprising observations by a writer who is a marvelous stylist as well as a trenchant observer and thinker. .
Browsing Nature's Aisles: A Year of Foraging for Wild Food in the Suburbs
by Wendy Brown Eric BrownThis guide to suburban foraging shares the “inspiring journal of one family’s effort to break free from manufactured foods and transition to . . . wild fare” (Thomas J. Elpel, author, Botany in a Day).As part of their commitment to increasing self-reliance and resiliency, Wendy and Eric Brown decided to spend a year incorporating wild edibles into their regular diet. Their goal was to use native flora and fauna to help bridge the gap between what their family could produce and what they needed to survive. The experience fundamentally changed their definition of food.Packed with a wealth of information on collecting, preparing, and preserving easily identifiable wild edibles found in most suburban landscapes, Browsing Nature s Aisles is the story of one suburban family s adventures in wild foraging. This unique and inspiring guide is a must-read for those who wish to enhance their food security by availing themselves of the cornucopia on their doorstep.
Bruce
by Peter Ames CarlinThis sweeping biography of one of America’s greatest musicians is the first in twenty-five years to be written with the cooperation of Bruce Springsteen himself. With unfettered access to the artist, his family, and band members—including Clarence Clemons in his last major interview—acclaimed music writer Peter Ames Carlin presents a startlingly intimate and vivid portrait of a rock icon. For more than four decades, Bruce Springsteen has reflected the heart and soul of America with a career that includes twenty Grammy Awards, more than 120 million albums sold, two Golden Globes, and an Academy Award. He has also become an influential voice in American culture and politics, inspiring President Barack Obama to admit: “I’m the president, but he’s the Boss.” Built from years of research and unparalleled access to its subject and his inner circle, Bruce presents the most revealing account yet of a man laden with family tragedy, a tremendous dedication to his artistry, and an all-consuming passion for fame and influence. With this book, the E Street Band members finally bare their feelings about their abrupt dismissal in 1989, and how Springsteen’s ambivalence nearly capsized their 1999 reunion. Carlin deftly traces Springsteen’s often harrowing personal life: from his lower working- class childhood in Freehold, New Jersey, through his stubborn climb to fame and tangled romantic life, and finally to his quest to conquer the demons that nearly destroyed his father. In Bruce, Carlin encompasses the breadth of Springsteen’s astonishing career and explores the inner workings of a man who managed to redefine generations of music. A must for fans, Bruce is a meticulously researched, compulsively readable biography of one of the most complex and fascinating artists in American music.
Bruce
by Peter Ames Carlin'Wonderful...Carlin's book never shies from the details of this most enduring of American heroes. The divorces, cruelties, years in therapy and his antidepressant fuelled comeback of 2003 are all here' Sunday Times This sweeping biography of one of America's greatest musicians is the first in twenty-five years to be written with the cooperation of Springsteen himself. With unfettered access to the artist, his family and band members, acclaimed music writer Peter Ames Carlin presents an intimate and vivid portrait. 'A readable, expansive portrait of the New Jersey rocker that delves into his family background and personal life more than previous biographies' Sunday Telegraph 'The first serious Bruce Springsteen biography for 25 years. Carlin was granted unprecedented access to family, friends, management, even the Boss himself, enabling him to paint a vivid picture of the man, warts and all' Sunday Express 'A revealing portrait of a rock colossus... Peter Ames Carlin's new book is the first in 25 years to have been written with the co-operation of Springsteen. Previous biographies have tended towards closely argued adulation but Carlin has not been blinded by his access to Springsteen' Daily Telegraph 'One for the regular fan on the street...well written and jaw-dropping in its research...Weighty, fact focused, readable' Metro 'Painstakingly researched and based on - for the first time - interviews with Springsteen's family and friends as well as the Boss himself. To that extent it is the first authorised account for a decade...This is a warts-and-all account that includes Springsteen's flashes of temper when things didn't go his way...' Sunday Times
Bruce Dern: A Memoir (Screen Classics)
by Robert Crane Christopher Fryer Bruce DernThis memoir by the Academy Award nominee “proves that Dern off-screen is every bit as unpredictable, compelling and explosively honest as he is onscreen” (Newsday).One of Hollywood’s biggest personalities, Bruce Dern is not afraid to say what he thinks. He has left an indelible mark on numerous projects, from critically acclaimed films to made-for-TV movies and television series. His notable credits include The Great Gatsby, The 'Burbs, Monster, Django Unchained, and Nebraska, for which he won the Best Actor award at the 2013 Cannes Film Festival. He also earned Oscar nominations for Best Supporting Actor in Coming Home and for Best Actor in Nebraska.In Bruce Dern: A Memoir, Christopher Fryer and Robert Crane help the outspoken star frame the fascinating tale of his life in Hollywood. Dern details the challenges he faced as an artist in a cutthroat business, his struggle against typecasting, and his thoughts on and relationships with other famous figures, including Elia Kazan, Alfred Hitchcock, Jack Nicholson, Paul Newman, Bob Dylan, Matt Damon, Jane Fonda, John Wayne, and Tom Hanks. He also explores the impact of his fame on his family and discusses his unique relationship with his daughter, actress Laura Dern.Edgy and uncensored, this memoir—filled with “amusing, illuminating, and occasionally heartrending anecdotes” (Philadelphia Inquirer)—is a wild ride and an insider’s view of fifty years in the film industry.
Bruce Dickinson: Maiden Voyage: The Biography
by Joe Shooman<p>Bruce Dickinson is the mighty voice behind legendary heavy metal behemoths Iron Maiden, and many more things besides. Prior to joining Maiden in 1981 for their seminal, multi-million selling Number of the Beast--one of the most influential records in the history of Heavy Metal--Dickinson enjoyed stardom with fellow New Wave Of British Heavy Metal artists Samson, while his post-Maiden solo career also brought much critical success. <p>Not content to merely continue shaping the face of metal music, Dickinson is a true renaissance man: a world-class member of the British Fencing team; a fiction author; a military historian; a TV presenter; and also a first officer for commercial airline Astreus. <p>Yet in 2015, the voice, and the life, of Iron Maiden's singer were placed in jeopardy as he was diagnosed with a golf-ball sized cancerous tumor on his tongue. But after making a full recovery, Iron Maiden have released an acclaimed 16th album, The Book of Souls, and announced a world tour, and Bruce stands astride the pantheon of metal greats once more. <p>This first biography of Bruce Dickinson tells his story through exclusive interviews with those who know him best.
Bruce Lee
by Sa. Na. KannanThis book is a biography of Bruce Lee, a Chinese American and Hong Kong actor, martial arts instructor, philosopher, film director, film producer, screenwriter, and founder of the Jeet Kune Do martial arts movement who was also the most influential martial artist of modern times, and a cultural icon.
Bruce Lee Celebrated Life of the Golden Dragon
by Bruce LeeA behind-the-scenes look at the life of the most extraordinary martial artist of all time—Bruce Lee. Bruce Lee: The Celebrated Life of the Golden Dragon is a photographic catalog of all facets of this fascinating man, from the start of his career to his untimely and tragic death in 1973. This book reveals a quiet family man behind the charismatic public persona. It shows the real Bruce Lee—the man who was so much more than an international film and martial arts celebrity. This brilliant photo essay—compiled and edited by Bruce Lee expert John Little with the assistance of Lee's widow, Linda Lee Cadwell—reveals never-before-published family photos, including rare photos of Bruce's childhood in Hong Kong. Tender moments with his children are caught on camera and action shots from his martial arts films are shown. With a preface by his daughter Shannon Lee and a foreword by wife Linda, the text is drawn directly from Bruce Lee's own diaries and journals. Based on the award-winning Warner Bros. documentary,Bruce Lee: In His Own Words, sections include: Chronology of the Life of Bruce Lee Early Years—why he began studying gung fu (kung fu) and took up wing chun, his first starring role, and his return to the US Hollywood—why he got the part inThe Green Hornet, teaching Steve McQueen, James Coburn and Stirling Silliphant, filmingEnter the Dragon,The Way of the Dragon,Fist of Fury and more, training and acting with Chuck Norris, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Dean Martin and Sharon Tate, and the creation of Jeet Kune Do (JKD) Family—meeting Linda, having children, daily life This Bruce Lee Book is part of Tuttle Publishing's Bruce Lee Library which also features: Bruce Lee's Striking Thoughts Bruce Lee's The Tao of Gung Fu Bruce Lee Artist of Life Bruce Lee: Letters of the Dragon Bruce Lee: The Art of Expressing the Human Body Bruce Lee Jeet Kune Do
Bruce Lee: A Life
by Matthew PollyMore than forty years after Bruce Lee’s sudden death at age 32, journalist and author Matthew Polly has written the definitive account of Lee’s life. It’s also one of the only accounts; incredibly, there has never been an authoritative biography of Lee. Following a decade of research that included conducting more than one hundred interviews with Lee’s family, friends, business associates and even the mistress in whose bed Lee died, Polly has constructed a complex, humane portrait of the icon. There are his early years as a child star in Hong Kong cinema; his actor father’s struggles with opium addiction and how that turned Bruce into a troublemaking teenager who was kicked out of high school and eventually sent to America to shape up; his beginnings as a martial arts teacher, eventually becoming personal instructor to movie stars like Steve McQueen; his struggles as an Asian-American actor in Hollywood and frustration seeing role after role he auditioned for go to a white actors in eye makeup; his eventual triumph as a leading man; his challenges juggling a sky-rocketing career with his duties as a father and husband; and his shocking end that to this day is still shrouded in mystery. Polly breaks down the myth of Bruce Lee and argues that, contrary to popular belief, he was an ambitious actor who was obsessed with martial arts—not a great kung-fu master who just so happened to make a couple of movies. The book offers an honest look at an impressive yet flawed man whose personal story was even more entertaining and inspiring than any fictional role he played on-screen.
Bruce Lee: A Life
by Matthew PollyThe &“definitive&” (The New York Times) biography of film legend Bruce Lee, who made martial arts a global phenomenon, bridged the divide between eastern and western cultures, and smashed long-held stereotypes of Asians and Asian-Americans. Forty-five years after Bruce Lee&’s sudden death at age thirty-two, journalist and bestselling author Matthew Polly has written the definitive account of Lee&’s life. It&’s also one of the only accounts; incredibly, there has never been an authoritative biography of Lee. Following a decade of research that included conducting more than one hundred interviews with Lee&’s family, friends, business associates, and even the actress in whose bed Lee died, Polly has constructed a complex, humane portrait of the icon. Polly explores Lee&’s early years as a child star in Hong Kong cinema; his actor father&’s struggles with opium addiction and how that turned Bruce into a troublemaking teenager who was kicked out of high school and eventually sent to America to shape up; his beginnings as a martial arts teacher, eventually becoming personal instructor to movie stars like James Coburn and Steve McQueen; his struggles as an Asian-American actor in Hollywood and frustration seeing role after role he auditioned for go to a white actors in eye makeup; his eventual triumph as a leading man; his challenges juggling a sky-rocketing career with his duties as a father and husband; and his shocking end that to this day is still shrouded in mystery. Polly breaks down the myths surrounding Bruce Lee and argues that, contrary to popular belief, he was an ambitious actor who was obsessed with the martial arts—not a kung-fu guru who just so happened to make a couple of movies. This is an honest, revealing look at an impressive yet imperfect man whose personal story was even more entertaining and inspiring than any fictional role he played onscreen.
Bruce Lee: An Anthology of Bruce Lee's Correspondence with Family, Friends, and Fans 1958-1973
by John Little Bruce LeeLetters of the Dragon: Correspondence, 1958-1973 is a fascinating glimpse of the private Bruce Lee behind the public image-a man with the patience and concern to dedicate as much effort to crafting a thoughtful personal answer to the letter of a young fan as to those from his old friends and associates; an extremely active man never too busy to make time for an old family friend in need of simple companionship; a man who never wrote without careful thought, and never thought from the heard alone, but always from the head and heart together.The letters in this inspiring book track Bruce Lee's career and development from his decision, made while he was still in secondary school, to move to the US to further his education, through the many setbacks, redirected efforts, and triumphs of life that shaped his martial art and humanity, all the way to the last letter he ever composed, just hours before his sudden death.After absorbing the letters in this volume, the reader will inevitably find that the private Bruce Lee was every bit as great as the public Bruce Lee, and deeper and broader by far. Letters of the Dragon: Correspondence, 1958-1973 is conclusive evidence that a life lived well is never too short a life.This Bruce Lee Book is part of Tuttle Publishing's Bruce Lee Library which also features:Bruce Lee's Striking ThoughtsBruce Lee's The Tao of Gung FuBruce Lee Artist of LifeBruce Lee: The Celebrated Life of the Golden DragonBruce Lee: The Art of Expressing the Human BodyBruce Lee Jeet Kune Do