- Table View
- List View
A Drinking Life: A Memoir
by Pete HamillRugged prose and a rare attention to telling detail have long distinguished Pete Hamill's unique brand of journalism and his universally well received fiction. Twenty years after his last drink, he examines the years he spent as a full-time member of the drinking culture. The result is A Drinking Life, a stirring and exhilarating memoir float is his most personal writing to date. The eldest son of Irish immigrants, Hamill learned from his Brooklyn upbringing during the Depression and World War II that drinking was an essential part of being a man; he only had to accompany his father up the street to the warm, amber-colored world of Gallagher's bar to see that drinking was what men did. It played a crucial role in mourning the death of relatives or the loss of a job, in celebrations of all kinds, even in religion. In the navy and the world of newspapers, he learned that bonds of friendship, romance, and professional camaraderie were sealed with drink. It was later that he discovered that drink had the power to destroy those very bonds and corrode any writer's most valuable tools: clarity, consciousness, memory. It was almost too late when he left drinking behind forever. Neither sentimental nor self-righteous, this is a seasoned writer's vivid portrait of the first four decades of his life and the slow, steady way that alcohol became an essential part of that life. Along the way, he summons the mood of a time and a place gone forever, with the bittersweet fondness of a lifetime New Yorker. It is his best work yet.
A Drop of Treason: Philip Agee and His Exposure of the CIA
by Jonathan StevensonPhilip Agee’s story is the stuff of a John le Carré novel—perilous and thrilling adventures around the globe. He joined the CIA as a young idealist, becoming an operations officer in hopes of seeing the world and safeguarding his country. He was the consummate intelligence insider, thoroughly entrenched in the shadow world. But in 1975, he became the first such person to publicly betray the CIA—a pariah whose like was not seen again until Edward Snowden. For almost forty years in exile, he was a thorn in the side of his country. The first biography of this contentious, legendary man, Jonathan Stevenson’s A Drop of Treason is a thorough portrait of Agee and his place in the history of American foreign policy and the intelligence community during the Cold War and beyond. Unlike mere whistleblowers, Agee exposed American spies by publicly blowing their covers. And he didn’t stop there—his was a lifelong political struggle that firmly allied him with the social movements of the global left and against the American project itself from the early 1970s on. Stevenson examines Agee’s decision to turn, how he sustained it, and how his actions intersected with world events. Having made profound betrayals and questionable decisions, Agee lived a rollicking, existentially fraught life filled with risk. He traveled the world, enlisted Gabriel García Márquez in his cause, married a ballerina, and fought for what he believed was right. Raised a conservative Jesuit in Tampa, he died a socialist expat in Havana. In A Drop of Treason, Stevenson reveals what made Agee tick—and what made him run.
A Duel of Nations
by David WetzelOn July 19, 1870, Emperor Napoleon III of France declared war against the Prussia of King William I and Prime Minister Otto von Bismarck. A Duel of Nationsdramatically depicts the world in which that war took place. In this, the first book in English to study in totality the diplomatic history of the Franco-Prussian War, David Wetzel draws extensively on private and official records, journalistic accounts, cabinet minutes, and public statements by key players to produce a book that is unmatched in the range and clarity of its analysis, its forceful characterizations, and its vivid language.
A Dutch Homesteader On The Prairies: The Letters of Wilhelm de Gelder 1910-13
by Herman Ganzevoort Willem De GelderThe letters in this volume, found in the original Dutch in the archives of the Netherlands Emigration Service in Holland, form a unique chronicle of one European homesteader in Saskatchewan from 1910 to 1913. They were written by Willem dr Gelder whose experience as a homesteader was typical of that of hundreds of thousands of newcomers to the prairies in the greatest years of western expansion just before the First World War. As a European immigrant he was able to write from a special perspective often ignored in Anglo-Saxon accounts of western development. Minute and perceptive observations of daily life are contained in his letters; together with the recollections of friends and neighbours who spoke well of him, this volume forms the portrait of a singular man who personified the toughness and persistence of the western pioneer. De Gelder was born in the 1880s in Doorn, the son of a well-to-do banker, and received all the benefits of birth in an upper-class home, including a university education. He came to Canada in 1910 and by the 1920s he had become a successful homesteader owning a half-section of land, meeting his bills, and joining in the community life. But in 1922 he rented out his land, went to the Netherlands to see his family, and returning to Canada he disposed of his homestead – and vanished. This book traces the compass of his life in Canada, revealing the doubts and fears which culminated in his disappearance; it highlights the anguish that all immigrants, new and old, suffered when they took the crucial step of beginning a new life.
A Dutiful Boy: A memoir of secrets, lies and family love (Winner of the LAMBDA 2021 Literary Award for Best Gay Memoir/Biography)
by Mohsin ZaidiWINNER of the Polari First Book Prize 2021WINNER of the LAMBDA 2021 Literary Award for Best Gay Memoir/BiographyA Dutiful Boy is Mohsin's personal journey from denial to acceptance: a revelatory memoir about the power of love, belonging, and living every part of your identity.Growing up in a devout Muslim household, it felt impossible for Mohsin to be gay. Unable to be open with his family, and with difficult conditions at school, he felt his opportunities closing around him. Despite the odds, Mohsin's perseverance led him to become the first person from his school to attend Oxford University, where new experiences and encounters helped him to discover who he truly wanted to be. Mohsin was confronted with the biggest decision he would ever make: to live the life that was expected of him or to live as his authentic self.A Guardian, GQ, and New Statesman Book of the Year'Genuinely inspiring... Beautifully written, dignified and ultimately redemptive, this challenging story abounds with light and love' Attitude | 'An Incredibly important read' Jyoti Patel
A Dynamic God: Living an Unconventional Catholic Faith
by Nancy MairsRaised Congregationalist in New England, Mairs is a convert to Catholicism. She is also a feminist, a radical, a political activist -- and all this in a church that tends to scorn her kind of progressive iconoclasm. "A Dynamic God" explores why and how Mairs deals with those contradictions and still identifies as Catholic, and what she finds to love in that tradition. Doctrinally, Mairs parts ways with the mainstream Church with few regrets. The people she worships with celebrate communion in each others homes without a priest, discuss politics, and defy Church opposition. But the Catholic rituals and imaginative structures that Mairs loves shape her life. In the Latino image of the Virgin of Guadalupe, for instance, she finds inspiration for a commitment to social justice. In her unmistakable, vibrant voice, she writes about sin and abundance; understanding vocation in a life circumscribed by multiple sclerosis; and celebrating life.
A FEAST FOR THE SENSES: THE PSYCHOLOGICAL ART OF EATING WELL
by Jared Scofield GleatonIndulge in a culinary odyssey where each dish tells a story, and every bite unlocks memories. In "A Feast for the Senses: The Psychological Art of Eating Well," author Jared Gleaton takes readers on a journey through the culinary experience. From cherished family recipes to Oklahoma's vibrant dining scene, Gleaton intertwines tradition, taste, and texture. As the son of a renowned "pie fiend," his exploration of food is both personal and profound, offering a rich feast for the senses. Through vivid storytelling, he unveils the art of "foodology" - where taste, smell, touch, vision, and sound converge to create unforgettable experiences. Whether reminiscing about family gatherings or embarking on new adventures, this book will nourish both body and soul. Join Gleaton at the table and feast on the rich tapestry of life, one bite at a time. Jared Gleaton is a nationally certified school psychologist and passionate food reviewer. With degrees in Psychology and Educational Leadership, Jared combines his academic expertise with his culinary enthusiasm to explore the intersection of psychology and food Residing in Bartlesville, Oklahoma, he brings regional pride and New England roots to his reviews, uncovering the stories and emotions behind each dish. Jared's work celebrates connection and understanding through food, inviting readers to join him on a sensory journey of gastronomic enlightenment.
A Fabulous Creation: How the LP Saved Our Lives
by David Hepworth_________‘Hepworth’s knowledge and understanding of rock history is prodigious … [a] hugely entertaining study of the LP’s golden age’ The Times_________The era of the LP began in 1967, with ‘Sgt Pepper’; The Beatles didn’t just collect together a bunch of songs, they Made An Album. Henceforth, everybody else wanted to Make An Album. The end came only fifteen years later, coinciding with the release of Michael Jackson’s ‘Thriller’. By then the Walkman had taken music out of the home and into the streets and the record business had begun trying to reverse-engineer the creative process in order to make big money. Nobody would play music or listen to it in quite the same way ever again.It was a short but transformative time. Musicians became ‘artists’ and we, the people, patrons of the arts. The LP itself had been a mark of sophistication, a measure of wealth, an instrument of education, a poster saying things you dare not say yourself, a means of attracting the opposite sex, and, for many, the single most desirable object in their lives.This is the story of that time; it takes us from recording studios where musicians were doing things that had never been done before to the sparsely furnished apartments where their efforts would be received like visitations from a higher power. This is the story of how LPs saved our lives.
A Fabulous Disaster: From the Garage to Madison Square Garden, the Hard Way
by Gary HoltFrom prolific metal guitarist and songwriter for Exodus (and formerly Slayer) Gary Holt comes a deeply personal memoir of his "destruction-laden" life, along with a firsthand account of the genesis of the Thrash Metal scene, from its origins in the Bay Area to its world domination. As the guitarist and primary songwriter of Exodus and one of the originators of heavy metal, Gary Holt watched as his peers—Metallica, Megadeth, Slayer, Anthrax—soared to superstardom. As his fellow artists amassed millions of fans and record sales, Exodus' albums received critical recognition and inspired generations of listeners—but struggled to reach the same heights of success, as the band was plagued by years of bad management, bad luck, and bad decisions. A Fabulous Disaster follows our narrator through the highest of highs and lowest of lows as he and his bandmates juggle major label contracts, MTV-sponsored tours and festivals, growing addictions to alcohol and meth, and the loss of key founding members. Ultimately, after the tragic death of one of his closest friends and former bandmates—Holt decides to save himself. Newly sober and determined to resurrect his career, he commits himself to Exodus, pushing the band to new heights. An "unadulterated odyssey through decades of insanity," punctuated by Holt's unique insight and knack for storytelling, A Fabulous Disaster is a thrill ride from start to finish. His story proves that redemption—even from the pits of rock 'n' roll excess—is always possible.
A Face for Picasso: Coming of Age with Crouzon Syndrome
by Ariel HenleyA Schneider Family Book Award Honor Book for Teens"Raw and unflinching . . . A must-read!" --Marieke Nijkamp, #1 New York Times-bestselling author of This Is Where It Ends"[It] cuts to the heart of our bogus ideas of beauty." –Scott Westerfeld, #1 New York Times-bestselling author of Uglies I am ugly. There's a mathematical equation to prove it.At only eight months old, identical twin sisters Ariel and Zan were diagnosed with Crouzon syndrome -- a rare condition where the bones in the head fuse prematurely. They were the first twins known to survive it.Growing up, Ariel and her sister endured numerous appearance-altering procedures. Surgeons would break the bones in their heads and faces to make room for their growing organs. While the physical aspect of their condition was painful, it was nothing compared to the emotional toll of navigating life with a facial disfigurement.Ariel explores beauty and identity in her young-adult memoir about resilience, sisterhood, and the strength it takes to put your life, and yourself, back together time and time again.
A False Spring: A Memoir
by Pat Jordan&“One of the best and truest books about baseball, and about coming to maturity in America.&” —Time In the late 1950s, acclaimed sportswriter Pat Jordan was a young pitching phenom, blowing away opposing batters for his Fairfield, Connecticut, high school baseball team. Fifteen major league clubs offered him a contract, but it was the Milwaukee Braves who won out, signing Jordan to a $45,000 bonus—one of the largest paid to any new player by the organization—and shipping him off to McCook, Nebraska, to play for their Class D ball club. It did not take long, however, for Jordan to realize he was out of his depth in professional baseball&’s backwoods. He battled with inconsistency and a lack of control for three dismal seasons in such far-flung locales as Keokuk, Iowa, and Palatka, Florida, before the Braves released him and he gave up his dreams of big league greatness. Declared &“unforgettable&” by the Los Angeles Times and &“a major triumph&” by the Philadelphia Inquirer, A False Spring is a powerful and deeply affecting memoir about the gift of athletic talent and the heartbreak of unfulfilled promise.
A Family For Christmas: When a tragic accident scars a family, will it take a miracle to heal them?
by Maggie HartleyWhen foster carer Maggie Hartley meets Sean and Sheila, they're facing every parent's worst nightmare. A split-second decision to leave toddler Edward alone for a few short minutes results in a tragic accident, and Edward is left fighting for his life. He survives, but is tragically left severely brain damaged.Wracked with guilt, destroyed by blame and struggling to accept that their perfect toddler has gone, Sean and Sheila go to pieces. Maggie steps in to foster Edward while his parents battle with the unspoken fear that he may have to be adopted permanently if they cannot cope with their son's needs. Will Maggie be able to help this family grieve for the son they've lost and learn to love the little boy he is now? And will Edward have a family to go home to at Christmas?
A Family For Christmas: When a tragic accident scars a family, will it take a miracle to heal them? (A Maggie Hartley Foster Carer Story)
by Maggie HartleyWhen foster carer Maggie Hartley meets Sean and Sheila, they're facing every parent's worst nightmare. A split-second decision to leave toddler Edward alone for a few short minutes results in a tragic accident, and Edward is left fighting for his life. He survives, but is tragically left severely brain damaged.Wracked with guilt, destroyed by blame and struggling to accept that their perfect toddler has gone, Sean and Sheila go to pieces. Maggie steps in to foster Edward while his parents battle with the unspoken fear that he may have to be adopted permanently if they cannot cope with their son's needs. Will Maggie be able to help this family grieve for the son they've lost and learn to love the little boy he is now? And will Edward have a family to go home to at Christmas?
A Family Place: A Man Returns to the Center of His Life
by Charles Gaines Dave DiBenedettoIn the summer of 1990, writer Charles Gaines and his artist wife, Patricia, bought 160 acres of wild land on the northeast coast of Nova Scotia. They believed they were simply buying a remote getaway spot, but within a few months a more complex dream for the property developed. By midwinter, they had begun to see the land as a place where family intimacy might be reclaimed, as a home that might heal their recently battered marriage, and as an opportunity to take on a big, risky, long-term project instead of settling into the caution and gradual losses of middle-class middle age. Enlisting their children and their daughter’s carpenter boyfriend, they decided to build a cabin on the land the following summer, to build it with their own hands, as a family venture.A Family Place gracefully mixes a narrative of that summer’s sometimes harrowing, sometimes hilarious, sometimes heartbreaking events with passages of the family’s history that show its members as real people and dramatize what is at stake for each of them in Nova Scotia. Gaines describes the process of building a cabin while living in tents without electricity or running water, and the pleasures and limitations of a life so simplified that a week’s biggest social event is a bonfire. He draws a deft portrait of the small, generous, hearth-centered Acadian community of farmers and lobster fishermen surrounding their land, and traces the history of that land to its original French-Acadian owner. And he tracks the mood of his family through the long, difficult summer, from initial enthusiasm to near mutiny, and finally to exhilaration and deep satisfaction at having built something that will last, having rebuilt a family in the process.
A Family Sketch and Other Private Writings
by Mark Twain Benjamin GriffinThis book publishes, for the first time in full, the two most revealing of Mark Twain's private writings. Here he turns his mind to the daily life he shared with his wife Livy, their three daughters, a great many servants, and an imposing array of pets. These first-hand accounts display this gifted and loving family in the period of its flourishing. Mark Twain began to write "A Family Sketch" in response to the early death of his eldest daughter, Susy, but the manuscript grew under his hands to become an exuberant account of the entire household. His record of the childrens' sayings--"Small Foolishnesses"--is next, followed by the related manuscript "At the Farm." Also included are selections from Livy's 1885 diary and an authoritative edition of Susy's biography of her father, written when she was a teenager. Newly edited from the original manuscripts, this anthology is a unique record of a fascinating family.
A Famous Dog's Life
by Sue Chipperton¡Yo quiero! The heartwarming true story of the camera-ready Chihuahua who became a pint-sized superstar. Her name was Gidget. To the world, she was the Taco Bell dog. This is the extraordinary story of an irresistible pup's life, and that of her devoted trainer, Sue Chipperton. It is not only the story of an adorable television star, but also that of Sue's successful training techniques, and her fascinating stories of working with both human and animal stars, like Mooni, Gidget's Chihuahua roommate and the eventual star of Legally Blonde. Sue shares her delightful tales, investing humor, warmth, and rare insight into one of the freshest and most fun Hollywood success stories ever told. .
A Famous Dog's Life: The Story of Gidget, America's Most Beloved Chihuahua
by Sue Chipperton Rennie Dyball¡Yo quiero! The heartwarming true story of the camera-ready Chihuahua who became a pint-sized superstar. Her name was Gidget. To the world, she was the Taco Bell dog. This is the extraordinary story of an irresistible pup's life, and that of her devoted trainer, Sue Chipperton. It is not only the story of an adorable television star, but also that of Sue's successful training techniques, and her fascinating stories of working with both human and animal stars, like Mooni, Gidget's Chihuahua roommate and the eventual star of Legally Blonde. Sue shares her delightful tales, investing humor, warmth, and rare insight into one of the freshest and most fun Hollywood success stories ever told.
A Fan's Life: The Agony of Victory and the Thrill of Defeat
by Paul CamposA lifelong sports fanatic plumbs the depths of the fan mindset, tracking the mania from the gridiron to the national political stage and beyond. The Pass. The Curse. The Double Doink. A sports fan’s life is not just defined by intense moments on a field, it’s scarred by them. For a real fan, winning isn’t everything—losing is. The true fans, it’s said, are those who have suffered the most, enduring lives defined by irrational obsession, fervid hopes, and equally gut-wrenching misery. And as Paul Campos shows, those deep feelings are windows not just onto an individual fan’s psychology but onto some of our shared concepts of community, identity, and belonging—not all of which are admirable. In A Fan’s Life, he seeks not to exalt a particular team but to explore fandom’s thorniest depths, excavating the deeper meanings of the fan’s inherently unhappy life. A Fan’s Life dives deep into the experience of being an ardent fan in a world defined more and more by the rhetoric of “winners” and “losers.” In a series of tightly argued chapters that suture together memoir and social critique, Campos chronicles his lifelong passion for University of Michigan football while meditating on fandom in the wake of the unprecedented year of 2020—when, for a time, a global pandemic took away professional and collegiate sports entirely. Fandom isn’t just leisure, he shows; it’s part of who we are, and part of even our politics, which in the age of Donald Trump have become increasingly tribal and bloody. Campos points toward where we might be heading, as our various partisan affiliations—fandoms with a grimly national significance—become all the more intense and bitterly self-defining. As he shows, we’re all fans of something, and making sense of fandom itself might offer a way to wrap our heads around our increasingly divided reality, on and off the field.
A Fan's Life: The Agony of Victory and the Thrill of Defeat
by Paul CamposA lifelong sports fanatic plumbs the depths of the fan mindset, tracking the mania from the gridiron to the national political stage and beyond. The Pass. The Curse. The Double Doink. A sports fan’s life is not just defined by intense moments on a field, it’s scarred by them. For a real fan, winning isn’t everything—losing is. The true fans, it’s said, are those who have suffered the most, enduring lives defined by irrational obsession, fervid hopes, and equally gut-wrenching misery. And as Paul Campos shows, those deep feelings are windows not just onto an individual fan’s psychology but onto some of our shared concepts of community, identity, and belonging—not all of which are admirable. In A Fan’s Life, he seeks not to exalt a particular team but to explore fandom’s thorniest depths, excavating the deeper meanings of the fan’s inherently unhappy life. A Fan’s Life dives deep into the experience of being an ardent fan in a world defined more and more by the rhetoric of “winners” and “losers.” In a series of tightly argued chapters that suture together memoir and social critique, Campos chronicles his lifelong passion for University of Michigan football while meditating on fandom in the wake of the unprecedented year of 2020—when, for a time, a global pandemic took away professional and collegiate sports entirely. Fandom isn’t just leisure, he shows; it’s part of who we are, and part of even our politics, which in the age of Donald Trump have become increasingly tribal and bloody. Campos points toward where we might be heading, as our various partisan affiliations—fandoms with a grimly national significance—become all the more intense and bitterly self-defining. As he shows, we’re all fans of something, and making sense of fandom itself might offer a way to wrap our heads around our increasingly divided reality, on and off the field.
A Far Corner: Life and Art with the Open Circle Tribe
by Scott EzellIn 2002, after living ten years in Asia, American poet and musician Scott Ezell used his advance from a local record company to move to Dulan, on Taiwan’s remote Pacific coast. He fell in with the Open Circle Tribe, a loose confederation of aboriginal woodcarvers, painters, and musicians who lived on the beach and cultivated a living connection with their indigenous heritage. Most members of the Open Circle Tribe belong to the Amis tribe, which is descended from Austronesian peoples that migrated from China thousands of years ago. As a “nonstate” people navigating the fraught politics of contemporary Taiwan, the Amis of the Open Circle Tribe exhibit, for Ezell, the best characteristics of life at the margins, striving to create art and to live autonomous, unorthodox lives. In Dulan, Ezell joined song circles and was invited on an extended hunting expedition; he weathered typhoons, had love affairs, and lost close friends. In A Far Corner Ezell draws on these experiences to explore issues on a more global scale, including the multiethnic nature of modern society, the geopolitical relationship between the United States, Taiwan, and China, and the impact of environmental degradation on indigenous populations. The result is a beautifully crafted and personal evocation of a sophisticated culture that is almost entirely unknown to Western readers.
A Farewell to Arms, Legs & Jockstraps: A Sportswriter's Memoir
by Diane K. Shah“Diane Shah was a boots-on-the-ground female sports reporter in the Cro-Magnon 1970s and brings it all back in this hilarious, well-crafted book.” —Dan Shaughnessy, Boston Globe sports columnist and New York Times bestselling authorStrike fast, strike hard—whether it’s scoring a homerun or front-page news, Diane K. Shah, former sports columnist, knows how to grab the best story.In her memoir A Farewell to Arms, Legs, and Jockstraps, follow Diane’s escapades, from interviews with a tipsy Mickey Mantle, to sneaking into off-limits Republican galas, dining with Frank Sinatra, flying a plane with Dennis Quaid, and countless other adventures where she wields her tape recorder and a tireless drive for more.From skirting KGB agents while covering the Cold War Olympics to hunting down the three mechanical sharks starring in Jaws, Diane’s experiences are filled with real heart and a tongue-in-cheek attitude. An insightful look into the difficulties of navigating a male-dominated profession, A Farewell to Arms, Legs, and Jockstraps offers rich retellings and behind-the-scenes details of stories of a trailblazing career and the prejudices facing female sportswriters during the sixties and seventies.“Impossibly elegant, and the most fun ever. The only thing better than reading Diane K. Shah’s memoir was, I suppose, living it.” —Sally Jenkins, columnist and feature writer, Washington Post“Diane’s memoir is just like her columns—smart, funny, enlightening—just like her. Until reading it, I never really knew all the challenges she dealt with. She broke ground but never acted like it. I was lucky to work with the first female sports columnist in the country.” —Ken Gurnick, LA Dodgers correspondent for MLB.com
A Farewell to Gabo and Mercedes: A Son's Memoir
by Rodrigo Garcia“This is a beautiful farewell to two extraordinary people. It enthralled and moved me, and it will move and enthrall anyone who has ever entered the glorious literary world of Gabriel García Márquez.”—Salman Rushdie“In A Farewell to Gabo and Mercedes Rodrigo Garcia finds the words that cannot be said, the moments that signal all that is possible to know about the passage from life to death, from what love brings and the loss it leaves. With details as rich as any giant biography, you will find yourself grieving as you read, grateful for the profound art that remains a part of our cultural heritage.”—Walter Mosley, New York Times bestselling author of Down the River Unto the Sea“An intensely personal reflection on [Garcia's] father's legacy and his family bonds, tender in its treatment and stirring in its brevity.”—Booklist (starred review)The son of one of the greatest writers of our time—Nobel Prize winner and internationally bestselling icon Gabriel García Márquez—remembers his beloved father and mother in this tender memoir about love and loss.In March 2014, Gabriel García Márquez, one of the most acclaimed writers of the twentieth century, came down with a cold. The woman who had been beside him for more than fifty years, his wife Mercedes Barcha, was not hopeful; her husband, affectionately known as “Gabo,” was then nearly 87 and battling dementia. I don't think we'll get out of this one, she told their son Rodrigo. Hearing his mother’s words, Rodrigo wondered, “Is this how the end begins?” To make sense of events as they unfolded, he began to write the story of García Márquez’s final days. The result is this intimate and honest account that not only contemplates his father’s mortality but reveals his remarkable humanity.Both an illuminating memoir and a heartbreaking work of reportage, A Farewell to Gabo and Mercedes transforms this towering genius from literary creator to protagonist, and paints a rich and revelatory portrait of a family coping with loss. At its center is a man at his most vulnerable, whose wry humor shines even as his lucidity wanes. Gabo savors affection and attention from those in his orbit, but wrestles with what he will lose—and what is already lost. Throughout his final journey is the charismatic Mercedes, his constant companion and the creative muse who was one of the foremost influences on Gabo’s life and his art.Bittersweet and insightful, surprising and powerful, A Farewell to Gabo and Mercedes celebrates the formidable legacy of Rodrigo’s parents, offering an unprecedented look at the private family life of a literary giant. It is at once a gift to Gabriel García Márquez’s readers worldwide, and a grand tribute from a writer who knew him well. “You read this short memoir with a feeling of deep gratitude. Yes, it is a moving homage by a son to his extraordinary parents, but also much more: it is a revelation of the hidden corners of a fascinating life. A Farewell to Gabo and Mercedes is generous, unsentimental and wise.” —Juan Gabriel Vásquez, author of The Sound of Things Falling“A warm homage filled with both fond and painful memories.” —Kirkus "Garcia’s limpid prose gazes calmly at death, registering pain but not being overcome by it . . . the result is a moving eulogy that will captivate fans of the literary lion." — Publishers Weekly
A Farm Dies Once a Year: A Memoir
by Arlo CrawfordA Book of the Month for GQ, The New Yorker, and Flavorwire"Beautifully told…In this one season of life, Crawford's writing about the work, people, nature and his family legacy reveals much about a simple life, and reminds us all to appreciate life's riches."—Seattle Post Intelligencer"A must-read…"—Washington Independent Review of BooksAn intimate, gorgeously observed memoir about family and farming that forms a powerful lesson in the hard-earned risks that make life worth livingThe summer he was thirty-one, Arlo Crawford returned home for the summer harvest at New Morning Farm—seventy-five acres tucked in a hollow in south-central Pennsylvania where his parents had been growing organic vegetables for almost forty years.Like many summers before, Arlo returned to the family farm's familiar rhythms—rise, eat, bend, pick, sort, sweat, sleep. But this time he was also there to change his direction, like his father years ago. In the 1970s, well before the explosion of the farm-to-table and slow food movement, Arlo's father, Jim, left behind law school and Vietnam, and decided to give farming a try. Arlo's return also prompts a reexamination of a past tragedy: the murder of a neighboring farmer twenty years before. A chronicle of one full season on a farm, with all its small triumphs and inevitable setbacks, A Farm Dies Once a Year is a meditation on work—the true nature of it, and on taking pride in it—and a son's reckoning with a father's legacy. Above all, it is a striking portrait of how one man builds, sows, and harvests his way into a new understanding of the risks necessary to a life well-lived.
A Farther Shore: Ireland's Long Road to Peace
by Gerry AdamsHe’s been imprisoned, shot at, denounced, shunned, and banned, yet Sinn Féin president Gerry Adams remains resolute in his belief that peace is the only viable option for the Irish people. Adams led the oldest revolutionary movement in Ireland on an extraordinary journey from armed insurrection to active participation in government. Now he tells the story of the tumultuous series of events that led to the historic Good Friday Agreement as only he can: with a tireless crusader’s conviction and an insider’s penetrating insight. In vivid detail, Adams describes the harrowing attack on his life, and he offers new details about the peace process. We learn of previously undisclosed talks between republicans and the British government, and of conflicts and surprising alliances between key players. Adams reveals details of his discussions with the IRA leadership and tells how republicans differed, “dissidents” emerged, and the first IRA cessation of violence broke down. He recounts meetings in the Clinton White House, tells what roles Irish-Americans and South Africans played in the process, and describes the secret involvement of those within the Catholic Church. Then—triumphantly—this inspiring story climaxes with the Good Friday Agreement: what was agreed and what was promised. Gerry Adams brings a sense of immediacy to this story of hope in what was long considered an intractable conflict. He conveys the acute tensions of the peace process and the ever-present sense of teetering on the brink of both joyous accomplishment and continued despair. With a sharp eye and sensitive ear for the more humorous foibles of political allies and enemies alike, Adams offers illuminating portraits of the leading characters through cease-fires and standoffs, discussions and confrontations. Among the featured players are John Major, Tony Blair, Bill and Hillary Clinton, Jean Kennedy Smith, and Nelson Mandela. As the preeminent republican strategist of his generation, Gerry Adams provides the first comprehensive account of the principles and tactics underpinning modern Irish republicanism. And in a world where peace processes are needed more urgently than ever, A Farther Shore provides a template for conflict resolution.
A Fast Ride Out of Here: Confessions of Rock's Most Dangerous Man
by Paul Rees Pete Way'They call me a madman but compared to Pete Way, I'm out of my league.' - Ozzy OsbourneThere are rock memoirs and then there is this one. A Fast Ride Out of Here tells a story that is so shocking, so outrageous, so packed with excess and leading to such uproar and tragic consequences as to be almost beyond compare. Put simply, in terms of jaw-dropping incident, self-destruction and all-round craziness, Pete Way's rock'n'roll life makes even Keith Richards's appear routine and Ozzy Osbourne seem positively mild-mannered in comparison. Not for nothing did Nikki Sixx, bassist with LA shock-rockers Motley Crue and who 'died' for eight minutes following a heroin overdose in 1988, consider that he was a disciple of and apprenticed to Way.During a forty-year career as founding member and bassist of the venerated British hard rock band UFO, and which has also included a stint in his hell-raising buddy Ozzy's band, Pete Way has both scaled giddy heights and plunged to unfathomable lows. A heroin addict for more than ten years, he blew millions on drugs and booze and left behind him a trail of chaos and carnage. The human cost of this runs to six marriages, four divorces, a pair of estranged daughters and two dead ex-wives. Latterly, Way has fought cancer, but has survived it all and is now ready to tell his extraordinary tale. By turns hilarious, heart-rending, mordant, scabrous, self-lacerating, brutally honest and entirely compulsive, A Fast Ride Out of Here will be a monument to rock'n'roll debauchery on an epic, unparalleled scale and also to one man's sheer indestructability.