- Table View
- List View
Sincerely, Andy Rooney
by Andy RooneyAndy Rooney's weekly commentaries on 60 Minutes and his twice-weekly syndicated newspaper columns-addressing everything from deceptive cereal packaging to the existence of God-have made him America's best-known critic of the quotidian. As you might imagine, he gets a lot of letters in response to his often iconoclastic views. As you might not expect, he writes a lot of letters, too. Now Rooney has collected the funniest, wisest, and most interesting of his letters, spanning several decades and addressing issues both momentous and trivial. He responds to complaints from viewers; he corresponds with old friends; and he writes to his children about the things he cares about most. Variously caustic, hilarious, and sage, these unfailingly entertaining letters reveal not only Rooney the iconoclast but Rooney the American Everyman. Sincerely, Andy Rooney is Andy Rooney at his best-and a wonderful gift book that will make readers chuckle and think twice.
Black Mass: Whitey Bulger, the FBI, and a Devil's Deal
by Dick Lehr Gerard O'NeillJohn Connolly and James "Whitey" Bulger grew up together on the tough streets of South Boston. Decades later in the mid-1970s, they met again. By then, Connolly was a major figure in the FBI's Boston office and Whitey had become godfather of the Irish Mob. Connolly had an idea, a scheme that might bring Bugler into the FBI fold and John Connolly into the Bureau's big leagues. But Bulger had other plans. Soon to be a major motion picture starring Johnny Depp as Whitey Bulger, Black Mass is the chilling true story of what happened between them--a dark deal that spiraled out of control, leading to drug dealing, racketeering, and murder.
Dallas 1963
by Bill Minutaglio Steven L. DavisIn the months and weeks before the fateful November 22nd, 1963, Dallas was brewing with political passions, a city crammed with larger-than-life characters dead-set against the Kennedy presidency. These included rabid warriors like defrocked military general Edwin A. Walker; the world's richest oil baron, H. L. Hunt; the leader of the largest Baptist congregation in the world, W.A. Criswell; and the media mogul Ted Dealey, who raucously confronted JFK and whose family name adorns the plaza where the president was murdered. On the same stage was a compelling cast of marauding gangsters, swashbuckling politicos, unsung civil rights heroes, and a stylish millionaire anxious to save his doomed city.Bill Minutaglio and Steven L. Davis ingeniously explore the swirling forces that led many people to warn President Kennedy to avoid Dallas on his fateful trip to Texas. Breathtakingly paced, DALLAS 1963 presents a clear, cinematic, and revelatory look at the shocking tragedy that transformed America. Countless authors have attempted to explain the assassination, but no one has ever bothered to explain Dallas-until now.With spellbinding storytelling, Minutaglio and Davis lead us through intimate glimpses of the Kennedy family and the machinations of the Kennedy White House, to the obsessed men in Dallas who concocted the climate of hatred that led many to blame the city for the president's death. Here at long last is an accurate understanding of what happened in the weeks and months leading to John F. Kennedy's assassination. DALLAS 1963 is not only a fresh look at a momentous national tragedy but a sobering reminder of how radical, polarizing ideologies can poison a city-and a nation.
Won't Back Down: Teams, Dreams, and Family
by Kim Mulkey Peter MayThe only person ever to win a Division 1 national championship as a player (twice), as an assistant coach, and as a head coach.
Our Supreme Task: How Winston Churchill's Iron Curtain Speech Defined the Cold War Alliance
by Philip WhiteThe dramatic history of Winston ChurchillOCOs 1946 trip to Fulton, Missouri, where he delivered his speech warning of the dangers of communism and cemented his legacy
Seven Dirty Words: The Life and Crimes of George Carlin
by James SullivanOn the heels of George CarlinOCOs bestselling memoir, "Last Words," the definitive chronicle of the life and art of the legendary comic, provocateur, and social critic
An Exact Replica of a Figment of My Imagination: A Memoir
by Elizabeth McCracken"This is the happiest story in the world with the saddest ending," writes Elizabeth McCracken in her powerful, inspiring memoir. A prize-winning, successful novelist in her 30s, McCracken was happy to be an itinerant writer and self-proclaimed spinster. But suddenly she fell in love, got married, and two years ago was living in a remote part of France, working on her novel, and waiting for the birth of her first child.This book is about what happened next. In her ninth month of pregnancy, she learned that her baby boy had died. How do you deal with and recover from this kind of loss? Of course you don't--but you go on. And if you have ever experienced loss or love someone who has, the company of this remarkable book will help you go on.With humor and warmth and unfailing generosity, McCracken considers the nature of love and grief. She opens her heart and leaves all of ours the richer for it.
The Royals (Large Print Book Ser.)
by Kitty KelleyBiography of the British royal family; includes new chapter.
President Reagan: The Role Of A Lifetime
by Lou CannonHailed by The New York Times as the best study of that enigmatic presidency, Lou Cannon's President Reagan remains the definitive account of our most significant presidency in the last fifty years. Only veteran journalist Lou Cannon, who covered Reagan for more than twenty-five years, can take us deep behind the scenes of the oval office. In this thoroughly revised and updated paperback edition, Cannon reveals the true nature of the man behind the performer, the life behind the legend.
This Is a Call: The Life and Times of Dave Grohl
by Paul BranniganThe first biography of Dave Grohl, drummer for the legendary band Nirvana and singer/songwriter for the Foo Fighters
Nirvana: The Biography
by Everett TrueAs the assistant editor of Melody Maker, Everett True was the first journalist to cover the Seattle music scene in early 1989 and interview Nirvana. <P><P> He is responsible for bringing Hole, Pavement, Soundgarden, and a host of other bands to international attention. He introduced Kurt Cobain to Courtney Love, performed on stage with Nirvana on numerous occasions, and famously pushed Kurt onto the stage of the Reading Festival in 1992 in a wheelchair. Nirvana: The Biography is an honest, moving, incisive, and heartfelt re-evaluation of a band that has been misrepresented time and time again since its tragic demise in April 1994 following Kurt Cobain's suicide. True captures what the band was really like. He also discusses the music scene of the time-the fellow bands, the scenes, the seminars, the countless live dates, the friends and allies and drug dealers. Drawn from hundreds of original interviews, Nirvana: The Biography is the final word on Nirvana, Cobain, and Seattle grunge.
The Courage of Strangers: Coming of Age With the Human Rights Movement
by Jeri LaberThe intimate, beautifully told memoir of a woman who helped create Human Rights Watch and bring about the fall of Communism?and in the process became free and independent herself
All I Did Was Ask: Conversations with Writers, Actors, Musicians, and Artists
by Terry Gross"I'm Terry Gross and this is Fresh Air . . ."Now available in paperback--a selection of revealing interviews from the award-winning National Public Radio showOriginating from WHYY-FM in Philadelphia and heard on more than 450 NPR stations, Fresh Air with Terry Gross has become a daily habit with millions of listeners nationwide--a must for anyone hoping to keep up with what's happening in the arts. Over the last twenty years, Terry's guests have included our most significant writers, actors, musicians, comics, and visual artists.For her first collection, Terry has chosen more than three dozen timeless interviews that prove to be as lively on the page as they were on the radio. Her questions--probing yet sensitive--encourage revelations from figures as diverse as John Updike, Isabella Rossellini, Conan OBrien, Samuel L. Jackson, Johnny Cash, and Nicolas Cage. And in her introduction, the generally self-effacing host of Fresh Air does something she wouldnt dream of doing on the air--she reveals a thing or two about herself.
Rescue Men
by Charles C. KenneyThe men in Charles Kenney's family have been drawn to firefighting since his grandfather Charles "Pops" Kenney joined the Boston Fire Department in 1932. In his working class, Irish-Catholic neighborhood, there were other jobs that offered a decent wage, but none had the sense of belonging that comes with being a fireman, or the purity of purpose that comes with saving lives. Pops was on the scene of the notorious Cocoanut Grove fire in 1942; the author's father, "Sonny" served with distinction until an explosion blew him from a third-story window; and two of the author's brothers were "sparks" as children, amateur firefighters, whose career goals were thwarted by a court order integrating the Boston fire department and changing the rules for employment forever. One became a cop, the other a paramedic and rescue man with an elite squad sent to Ground Zero in the aftermath of the collapse of the World Trade Center. Spanning sixty years of firefighting history in America, Rescue Men captures what it's really like to be a fireman.
Roving Mars: Spirit, Opportunity, and the Exploration of the Red Planet
by Steven SquyresSteve Squyres is the face and voice of NASA's Mars Exploration Rover mission. Squyres dreamed up the mission in 1987, saw it through from conception in 1995 to a successful landing in 2004, and serves as the principal scientist of its $400 million payload. He has gained a rare inside look at what it took for rovers Spirit and Opportunity to land on the red planet in January 2004--and knows firsthand their findings.
Groucho and Me
by Groucho MarxWith impeccable timing, outrageous humor, irreverent wit, and a superb sense of the ridiculous, Groucho tells the saga of the Marx Brothers: the poverty of their childhood in New York's Upper East Si
Rocket Man: Robert H. Goddard and the Birth of the Space Age
by David A. ClaryMore famous in his day than Einstein or Edison, the troubled, solitary genius Robert H. Goddard (1882-1945) was the American father of rocketry and space flight, launching the world's first liquid-fuel rockets and the first powered vehicles to break the sound barrier. Supported by Charles Lindbergh and Harry Guggenheim, through fiery, often explosive, experiments at Roswell, New Mexico, he invented the methods that carried men to the moon. Today, no rocket or jet plane can fly without using his inventions. Yet he is the "forgotten man" of the space age. His own government ignored his rocketry until the Germans demonstrated its principles in the V-2 missiles of World War II. The American government usurped his 214 patents, while suppressing his contributions in the name of national security, until it was forced to pay one million dollars for patent infringement. Goddard became famous again, monuments and medals raining upon his memory. But his renewed fame soon faded, and Goddard's pivotal role in launching the Space Age has been largely forgotten.
A Natural Woman: A Memoir
by Carole KingCarole King takes us from her early beginnings in Brooklyn, to her remarkable success as one of the world's most acclaimed songwriting and performing talents of all time. A NATURAL WOMAN chronicles King's extraordinary life, drawing readers into her musical world, including her phenomenally successful #1 album Tapestry, and into her journey as a performer, mother, wife and present-day activist. Deeply personal, King's long-awaited memoir offers readers a front-row seat to the woman behind the legend. The book will include dozens of photos from King's childhood, her own family, and behind-the-scenes images from her performances.
Just Here Trying to Save a Few Lives: Tales of Life and Death From the ER
by Pamela GrimAn account that will profoundly move you and, like Oliver Sacks's An Anthropologist on Mars, forever change the way you look at medicine, Just Here Trying to Save a Few Lives introduces a passionate, eloquent new voice. Author and emergency room physician Pamela Grim not only takes you into her dramatic life-and-death world but, in unforgettable prose, shows us the almost unbearable decisions and the heartbreaking conflicts of a woman who just might someday save your life.Here is life on the front lines of medicine, from modern, well-stocked American ERs to third-world clinics devoid of even the most basic equipment. Here a newborn fights for his life, a would-be suicide arrives with a dozen prescription bottles, a teenager lies bleeding with gunshot wounds to the chest, a hundred needy children wait for treatment in a makeshift hospital in Bosnia, and a thousand more people, desperate and dying, hope for some relief in sub-Sahara Africa. Here sleep-deprived doctors perform heroic procedures only to see patients die ... yet they still manage to pull off miracles. As she opens the doors to this adrenaline-fueled environment, Dr. Grim also bares her soul and describes her own personal journey ... including her struggle with burnout and the crisis of faith that drove her to practice medicine in countries ravaged by infectious diseases, poverty, and war.More relentlessly compelling than any medical thriller, Just Here Trying to Save a few Lives has the power to leave you richer. It will lead you to appreciate the resilience of the human body and human spirit as never before, and will make you forever grateful that there are doctors like Pamela Grim. More relentlessly compelling than any medical thriller, Just Here Trying to Save a few Lives has the power to leave you richer. It will lead you to appreciate the resilience of the human body and human spirit as never before, and will make you forever grateful that there are doctors like Pamela Grim.
Going Gray: What I Learned about Beauty, Sex, Work, Motherhood, Authenticity, and Everything Else That Really Matters
by Anne KreamerAnne Kreamer considered herself a youthful 49 until a photo of herself with her teenage daughter stopped her in her tracks. In one unguarded moment she saw herself for what she really was -- a middle-aged woman with her hair dyed much too harshly. In that one moment Kreamer realized that she wasn't fooling anyone about her age and decided it was time to get real and embrace a more authentic life. She set out for herself a program to let her hair become its true color, and along the way discovered her true self. Going Gray is Kreamer's exploration of that experience, and a frank, warm and funny investigation of aging as a female obsession. Through interviews, field experiments, and her own everywoman's chronicle, Kreamer probes the issues behind two of the biggest fears aging women face: Can I be sexually attractive as a gray-haired, middle-aged woman? and Will I be discriminated against in the work world? Her answers will surprise you. In searching for the balance between attractiveness and authenticity, Kreamer's journey of middle-aging illiminates in a friendly, useful, and entertaining way the politics and personal costs of this generation's definition of "aging gracefully.
Long Walk to Freedom: The Autobiography of Nelson Mandela
by Nelson MandelaNelson Mandela is one of the great moral and political leaders of our time: an international hero whose lifelong dedication to the fight against racial oppression in South Africa won him the Nobel Peace Prize and the presidency of his country. Since his triumphant release in 1990 from more than a quarter-century of imprisonment, Mandela has been at the center of the most compelling and inspiring political drama in the world. As president of the African National Congress and head of South Africa's antiapartheid movement, he was instrumental in moving the nation toward multiracial government and majority rule. He is revered everywhere as a vital force in the fight for human rights and racial equality.Long Walk to Freedom is his moving and exhilarating autobiography, a book destined to take its place among the finest memoirs of history's greatest figures. Here for the first time, Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela tells the extraordinary story of his life -- an epic of struggle, setback, renewed hope, and ultimate triumph, which has, until now, been virtually unknown to most of the world. The foster son of a Thembu chief, Mandela was raised in the traditional, tribal culture of his ancestors, but at an early age learned the modern, inescapable reality of what came to be called apartheid, one of the most powerful and effective systems of oppression ever conceived. In classically elegant and engrossing prose, he tells of his early years as an impoverished student and law clerk in Johannesburg, of his slow political awakening, and of his pivotal role in the rebirth of a stagnant ANC and the formation of its Youth League in the 1950s. He describes the struggle to reconcile his political activity with his devotion to his family, the anguished breakup of his first marriage, and the painful separations from his children. He brings vividly to life the escalating political warfare in the fifties between the ANC and the government, culminating in his dramatic escapades as an underground leader and the notorious Rivonia Trial of 1964, at which he was sentenced to life imprisonment. He recounts the surprisingly eventful twenty-seven years in prison and the complex, delicate negotiations that led both to his freedom and to the beginning of the end of apartheid. Finally he provides the ultimate inside account of the unforgettable events since his release that produced at last a free, multiracial democracy in South Africa. To millions of people around the world, Nelson Mandela stands, as no other living figure does, for the triumph of dignity and hope over despair and hatred, of self-discipline and love over persecution and evil. Long Walk to Freedom embodies that spirit in a book for all time.
Life After Murder: Five Men in Search of Redemption
by Nancy MullaneOnce a murderer, always a murderer? Or can a murderer be redeemed? Who do they really become after they have served decades in prison? What does it take for a killer to be accepted back into society? What is the chance that he will kill again? Award-winning journalist Nancy Mullane found herself facing these questions when she accepted an assignment to report on the exploding costs of incarceration. But the men she met behind the walls astonished her with their remorse, introspection, determination, and unshakable hope for freedom and forgiveness. Life After Murder is an intimately reported, utterly compelling story of five convicted murderers sentenced to life with the possibility of parole, who discover after decades in prison that their second chance, if it comes at all, is also the challenge of a lifetime. It follows their struggle for redemption, their legal battles to make good on the state’s promise of parole, and the lives they found after so many years inside.
The Garth Factor: The Career Behind Country's Big Boom
by Patsi Bale CoxGarth Brooks is certified by the RIAA as the #1 selling solo artist in US history. Since his debut in 1990, he has sold over 128 million albums. But success rarely comes without controversy, and Garth has had more than a share. Is he a media and market manipulator, a country music poseur, and a megalomaniac, or is he simply a brilliant businessman and marketing strategist?Industry insider Patsi Bale Cox, who generated all label material on Brooks throughout his career, examines the meteoric rise of the country star. Examining his career within the context of country music history, she takes readers behind closed doors at the labels, and delves into the inner sanctum of the Nashville music community. THE GARTH FACTOR will paint a portrait of how Brooks's friendship with Trisha Yearwood developed into love and marriage, explore the truth behind his "alter-ego" Chris Gaines, and update readers on what he has been up to since retirement.
On the Field with…Albert Pujols: On the Field with...
by Stephanie Peters Matthew F ChristopherAnyone who has ever had the privilege of watching Albert Pujols of the St. Louis Cardinals knows the sound of a hit. It's the sound his bat makes when it connects with the ball. It's a sound that's been heard countless times since his 2001 rookie season. That year, he took the league by storm by posting some of the most fantastic offensive stats of any rookie ever-and he's been doing the same ever since, shattering records and helping his team win games, including the 2006 World Series, with clutch hits and amazing home runs. This biography offers an up-close look at this superstar's life and the most memorable moments of his outstanding career to date.
What Happened: Inside the Bush White House and Washington's Culture of Deception
by Scott McclellanIn the bestselling book that provoked a media sensation, former White House press secretary Scott McClellan takes readers behind the scenes of the presidency of George W. Bush. Scott McClellan was one of a few Bush loyalists from Texas who became part of his inner circle of trusted advisers, and remained so during one of the most challenging and contentious periods of recent history. Drawn to Bush by his commitment to compassionate conservatism and strong bipartisan leadership, McClellan served the president for more than seven years, and witnessed day-to-day exactly how the presidency veered off course. In this refreshingly clear-eyed book, written with no agenda other than to record his experiences and insights for the benefit of history, McClellan provides unique perspective on what happened and why it happened the way it did, including the Iraq War, Hurricane Katrina, Washington's bitter partisanship and two hotly-contested presidential campaigns. He gives readers a candid look into what George W Bush is and what he believes and into the personalities, strengths, and liabilities of his top aides. Finally, McClellan looks to the future, exploring the lessons this presidency offers the American people as they prepare to elect a new leader.