- Table View
- List View
Beloved Bride: The Letters of Stonewall Jackson to His Wife 1857-1863
by William PotterBeloved Bride: He called her "my beloved esposa" because Anna was his dearest love on this earth. Ironically, while the great military exploits of General Stonewall Jackson are studied in military schools the world over and his iron will and stern self-discipline has become legendary, little is said about his remarkable marriage. Even in the midst of the most arduous military campaigns, Stonewall took the time to send home extensive letters of love and devotion.
A Book of Bees: And How To Keep Them
by Sam Potthoff Sue HubbellA New York Times Notable Book: "A melodious mix of memoir, nature journal, and beekeeping manual" (Kirkus Reviews). Weaving a vivid portrait of her own life and her bees' lives, author Sue Hubbell lovingly describes the ins and outs of beekeeping on her small Missouri farm, where the end of one honey season is the start of the next. With three hundred hives, Hubbell stays busy year-round tending to the bees and harvesting their honey, a process that is as personally demanding as it is rewarding. Exploring the progression of both the author and the hive through the seasons, this is "a book about bees to be sure, but it is also about other things: the important difference between loneliness and solitude; the seasonal rhythms inherent in rural living; the achievement of independence; the accommodating of oneself to nature" (ThePhiladelphia Inquirer). Beautifully written and full of exquisitely rendered details, it is a tribute to Hubbell's wild hilltop in the Ozarks and of the joys of living a complex life in a simple place.
Good as Gone: My Life with Irving Layton
by Anna PottierAfter falling in love with and marrying a man two lifetimes older than her, Irving Layton’s last wife shares the story of her life with the acclaimed poet. While a student at Dalhousie University, Anna Pottier attended a poetry reading featuring Irving Layton. Walking out of the auditorium that night, she knew two things: she wanted more than ever to be a writer, and she wanted to be with Layton. At the age of twenty-three she became Layton’s fifth and final wife; she was forty-eight years his junior. She shared the entirety of his world and was intimately involved in the writing and publication of such books as The Gucci Bag, Fortunate Exile, and Waiting for the Messiah. She accompanied Layton on his last major overseas reading tour, broke bread with Pierre Trudeau and Leonard Cohen, met other luminaries, and watched Layton write his very last poem. But slowly, Layton was changing. In 1992, a doctor put names to these changes: Parkinson’s disease and early-stage Alzheimer’s. Life carried on, but once-easy things grew more difficult, and then the day came in 1995, after nearly fourteen years, when Pottier had nothing left to give. Good as Gone is a startling, at times searing, account of one of the most unusual love stories of the twentieth century.
Dear Ann, Dear Abby: An Unauthorized Biography
by Jan Pottker Bob SpezialeWith chutzpah, hard work, controversy, and a large bit of luck, identical twins Esther Pauline (Eppie) and Pauline Esther (Popo) Friedman rose from smalltown Iowa obscurity to unprecedented national fame and influence. As Ann Landers and Abigail Van Buren, two of the most loved, admired, and important women in the United States, they have articulated and often shaped America’s moral conscience for over thirty years. Despite the roadblocks put up by the twins to preserve their mystique, the authors interviewed several hundred friends and colleagues who knew Ann and Abby at various stages of their lives. These candid and revealing recollections, often contradicting the twins’ “endorsed” publicity, recreate the fascinating lives and careers of the women whose advice appears in more than two thousand newspapers. Dear Ann, Dear Abby uncovers the forces that propelled two fifties-era housewives into identical, highly influential careers, and the truth behind their private and public lives. It also examines the reasons why the twins repeatedly and openly feud with each other while giving human relations advice to millions, and how their enormous influence with the media has allowed them to escape close scrutiny--until now.
Defending A Serial Killer: The Right To Counsel
by Jim PottsThe Fifth and Sixth Amendments to the Constitution of the United States guarantee the right against self-incrimination, the right to remain silent, and the right to counsel.A crime wave swept California in the late 1970s. Several young girls were abducted, raped, and murdered. Michael Dee Mattson was convicted of these crimes and sentenced to death.Law clerk by day, family man by night.In 1982, Jim Potts—a brilliant, idealistic, African American law student—is honored when one of his professors recruits him to assist in writing a death penalty appeal on behalf of a serial killer.Potts discovers a loophole in the case that had somehow been overlooked. One that could not only get Mattson off death row, but once presented to the Supreme Court of California, could release him to rape and murder again. When Potts confides in his pregnant wife, she says if Mattson goes free, their marriage is over. But if Potts quits the case, or withholds information, he violates his duty to client and Constitution and risks his career before it even begins.A moral dilemma with no good way out.To avoid losing his family and releasing pure evil back into the world, Potts must be smarter than his options. He must find a way to keep his family together, fulfill his duties, and keep Mattson behind bars.But can he?
The Forgotten Girls: A Memoir of Friendship and Lost Promise in Rural America
by Monica PottsTalented and ambitious, Monica Potts and her best friend, Darci, were both determined to make something of themselves. How did their lives turn out so different?&“The Forgotten Girls is much more than a memoir; it&’s the unflinching story of rural women trying to live in the most rugged, ultra-religious, and left-behind places in America.&”—Beth Macy, author of Dopesick Growing up gifted and working-class poor in the foothills of the Ozarks, Monica and Darci became fast friends. The girls bonded over a shared love of reading and learning, even as they navigated the challenges of their tumultuous family lives and declining town—broken marriages, alcohol abuse, and shuttered stores and factories. They pored over the giant map in their middle-school classroom, tracing their fingers over the world that awaited them, vowing to escape. In the end, Monica left Clinton for college and fulfilled her dreams, but Darci, along with many in their circle of friends, did not.Years later, working as a journalist covering poverty, Potts discovered what she already intuitively knew about the women in Arkansas: Their life expectancy had dropped steeply—the sharpest such fall in a century. This decline has been attributed to &“deaths of despair&”—suicide, alcoholism, and drug overdoses—but Potts knew their causes were too complex to identify in a sociological study. She had grown up with these women, and when she saw Darci again, she found that her childhood friend—addicted to drugs, often homeless, a single mother—was now on track to becoming a statistic.In this gripping narrative, Potts deftly pinpoints the choices that sent her and Darci on such different paths and then widens the lens to explain why those choices are so limited. The Forgotten Girls is a profound, compassionate look at a population in trouble, and a uniquely personal account of the way larger forces, such as inheritance, education, religion, and politics, shape individual lives.
A Half Baked Idea: Winner of the Fortnum & Mason’s Debut Food Book Award
by Olivia PottsWINNER OF THE FORTNUM & MASON'S DEBUT FOOD BOOK AWARD'A tender and beautifully written tour-de-force on love, grief, hope and cake. If this is not the book of the summer, I will eat my wig. An absolute triumph' THE SECRET BARRISTER 'An utterly beautiful, moving, bittersweet book on love and loss. I loved it' DOLLY ALDERTON _____________________________________________________When Olivia Potts was just twenty five, her mother died. Stricken with grief, she did something life changing and rather ridiculous: she gave up a high-flying legal career to study at the notoriously difficult Le Cordon Bleu, despite not being able to cook. No one ever told Olivia you couldn't bake your way to happiness - but could you?_______________________________________________ 'A brilliant, brave and beautiful book: funny and charming; utterly inspiring and life-affirming' Olivia Sudjic'A heart-wrenching yet humorous portrayal of grief, a delicious collection of recipes, an inspirational tale of changing careers, and a feel good love story' Vogue'Funny, sharp and sad. I laughed so much (and I cried)' Ella Risbridger, author of Midnight Chicken'An honest, brave and funny account of what it is to love, to lose love and how to make macarons' Red
One Chance
by Paul Potts Foreword by Simon CowellA memoir by international opera star Paul Potts, winner of the first season of OC BritainOCOs Got TalentOCO"
One Chance: A Memoir
by Paul Potts Foreword by Simon CowellA memoir by international opera star Paul Potts, winner of the first season of OC BritainOCOs Got TalentOCO"
Good Eggs
by Phoebe PottsIn the tradition of the acclaimed graphic memoirs Fun Home and Persepolis comes a funny, insightful, and deeply moving book about learning to appreciate what we have when we can't seem to get what we want. For Phoebe Potts, the path to maternal fulfillment has not been easy. All her friends seem to get pregnant, but she can't conceive for all her trying. As Phoebe and her husband, Jeff, navigate the emotionally and physically fraught world of fertility experts, she takes stock of what matters in the rest of her life and reflects on the winding journey to her true calling as an artist. From her days as an amateur union organizer in Texas to her spiral into paralyzing depression in Mexico; from her soul-shrinking, all-for-the-benefits stint as an administrative assistant at a fancy university in Cambridge to her flirtation with rabbinical school, Phoebe illuminates the bumpy road to vocational and personal contentment. Her wonderful, hilarious, and utterly original drawings capture the truly good eggs-an unforgettably nutty mother; a devoted husband; a team of therapists, hairdressers, and landladies; friends; and a sidekick housecat-that together expand the definition of what really makes a family.
Franklin D. Roosevelt (Photo-Illustrated Biographies)
by Steve PottsA biography discussing the personal life, education, and political career of the thirty-second President of the United States, Franklin D. Roosevelt.
The Doctor Will Not See You Now
by Jane PoulsonA spiritual autobiography by Dr. Poulson takes the reader by the arm through the story of her career as a sighted medical scientist who became blind in the first year of her professional career. No reader will fail to be astonished and inspired by her accomplishments and optimism.
Killing Love
by Rebecca PoulsonThis powerful, unforgettable and uplifting story is one part wrenching family memoir, and one part inspirational journey towards healing and forgiveness - but most of all, it's an unputdownable journey through one family's tragedy and how they refused to let it define them. On the day of Rebecca Poulson's 33rd birthday, her father, niece and nephew were murdered. The murderer had been part of her family; her brother-in-law, Neung, the father of the children. Killing Love is Rebecca's journey through homicide; grief, the police investigations, the media interest, the court cases, the moments of great despair - and the healing. It is a story of individual tragedy and a family's strength, but it is also a story of a community's attitude to family violence. As a reluctant warrior for those who cannot speak for themselves, Rebecca talked to the NSW State Premier and politicians, on multiple TV shows and to print journalists in the hope that the mistakes made by the police force, DOCS, the legal system and solicitors will never be made again. Rebecca's contact with policy makers has been nothing short of history-making, and her story has directly influenced domestic violence laws in the state. Neung left a note for Rebecca's family; he hoped that he would destroy them. This is the story of how he didn't.
Killing Love
by Rebecca PoulsonThis powerful, unforgettable and uplifting story is one part wrenching family memoir, and one part inspirational journey towards healing and forgiveness - but most of all, it's an unputdownable journey through one family's tragedy and how they refused to let it define them. On the day of Rebecca Poulson's 33rd birthday, her father, niece and nephew were murdered. The murderer had been part of her family; her brother-in-law, Neung, the father of the children. Killing Love is Rebecca's journey through homicide; grief, the police investigations, the media interest, the court cases, the moments of great despair - and the healing. It is a story of individual tragedy and a family's strength, but it is also a story of a community's attitude to family violence. As a reluctant warrior for those who cannot speak for themselves, Rebecca talked to the NSW State Premier and politicians, on multiple TV shows and to print journalists in the hope that the mistakes made by the police force, DOCS, the legal system and solicitors will never be made again. Rebecca's contact with policy makers has been nothing short of history-making, and her story has directly influenced domestic violence laws in the state. Neung left a note for Rebecca's family; he hoped that he would destroy them. This is the story of how he didn't.
Killing Love
by Rebecca PoulsonThis powerful, unforgettable and uplifting story is one part wrenching family memoir, and one part inspirational journey towards healing and forgiveness - but most of all, it's an unputdownable journey through one family's tragedy and how they refused to let it define them. On the day of Rebecca Poulson's 33rd birthday, her father, niece and nephew were murdered. The murderer had been part of her family; her brother-in-law, Neung, the father of the children. Killing Love is Rebecca's journey through homicide; grief, the police investigations, the media interest, the court cases, the moments of great despair - and the healing. It is a story of individual tragedy and a family's strength, but it is also a story of a community's attitude to family violence. As a reluctant warrior for those who cannot speak for themselves, Rebecca talked to the NSW State Premier and politicians, on multiple TV shows and to print journalists in the hope that the mistakes made by the police force, DOCS, the legal system and solicitors will never be made again. Rebecca's contact with policy makers has been nothing short of history-making, and her story has directly influenced domestic violence laws in the state. Neung left a note for Rebecca's family; he hoped that he would destroy them. This is the story of how he didn't.
No Limits: My Autobiography
by Ian PoulterAn autobiography from golf's freshest, most individual voiceIan Poulter is one of golf's most charismatic figures, with an appeal extending way beyond his sport. Here he tells his inspirational story, from his early rejection as a Spurs youth player, right through to his match-winning contributions to successive European Ryder Cup Triumphs. Poulter went from an Assistant Professional staffing the club shop to a global superstar, turning pro when he still had a handicap of 4 but the drive and self-belief to make it to the top. His infectious optimism, will power and flair have ensured he remains one of the biggest names on the tour. As well as insights into the crucial moments in his career, and the life of a professional golfer, he talks about his passions outside the game, including his own riotous brand of clothing. Just as Poulter's appearance on the scene came as a refreshing antidote to a sport that was staid and stuffy, so his own book is as forthright and passionate as Poults himself.
No Limits: My Autobiography
by Ian PoulterIan Poulter is one of golf's most charismatic figures, with an appeal extending way beyond his sport. Here he tells his inspirational story, from his early rejection as an Spurs youth player, right through to his match-winning contributions to successive European Ryder Cup Triumphs. Poulter went from an Assistant Professional staffing the club shop to a global superstar, turning pro when he still had a handicap of 4 but the drive and self-belief to make it to the top. His infectious optimism, will power and flair have ensured he remains one of the biggest names on the tour. As well as insights into the crucial moments in his career, and the life of a professional golfer, he talks about his passions outside the game, including his own riotous brand of clothing. Just as Poulter's appearance on the scene came as a refreshing antidote to a sport that was staid and stuffy, so his own book is as forthright and passionate as Poults himself.
Becoming Bulletproof: Protect Yourself, Read People, Influence Situations, and Live Fearlessly
by Evy PoumpourasFormer Secret Service agent and star of Bravo&’s Spy Games Evy Poumpouras shares lessons learned from protecting presidents, as well insights and skills from the oldest and most elite security force in the world to help you prepare for stressful situations, instantly read people, influence how you are perceived, and live a more fearless life.Becoming Bulletproof means transforming yourself into a stronger, more confident, and more powerful person. Evy Poumpouras—former Secret Service agent to three presidents and one of only five women to receive the Medal of Valor—demonstrates how we can overcome our everyday fears, have difficult conversations, know who to trust and who might not have our best interests at heart, influence situations, and prepare for the unexpected. When you have become bulletproof, you are your best, most courageous, and most powerful version of you. Poumpouras shows us that ultimately true strength is found in the mind, not the body. Courage involves facing our fears, but it is also about resilience, grit, and having a built-in BS detector and knowing how to use it. In Becoming Bulletproof, Poumpouras demonstrates how to heighten our natural instincts to employ all these qualities and move from fear to fearlessness.
Rocke Robertson: Surgeon and Shepherd of Change
by Richard W. PoundRocke Robertson (1912 - 1998) was a McGill-trained surgeon who served at the front lines in the Sicilian and Italian campaigns in World War II. His post-war experience took him to the top of the medical profession and appointments as chief of the Department of Surgery at McGill and surgeon-in-chief at the Montreal General Hospital. In 1962 Robertson was named principal of McGill University, a position he held for eight years during one of the most unsettling periods in the university's history. Apart from the usual demanding job of running the university, Robertson was forced to deal with political upheaval, student unrest and revolt, and defending the rights of the English-speaking minority in Quebec. While all around him university leaders cracked under the pressures, Robertson persisted until workable governance solutions were put in place at McGill. Rocke Robertson: Surgeon and Shepherd of Change is a compelling portrait of a remarkable man who handled the greatest challenge of his career - running a primarily English-speaking university in Quebec during the Quiet Revolution - with courage, wisdom, and success.
Unlucky to the End
by Richard W. PoundIn Unlucky to the End Richard Pound provides a detailed and thought-provoking examination of the circumstances of the robbery, the subsequent flight of the suspects and murder of the policeman, as well as the hostage scene that led to the death of one of the robbers. He uses transcripts from the Calgary trial to explore Gamble's conviction and details the efforts that, after fourteen years in the desolate Kingston Prison for Women, finally led to her parole.
There's Nothing in This Book That I Meant to Say
by Paula PoundstonePaula Poundstone takes a humorous look at history and other things
There's Nothing in This Book That I Meant to Say
by Paula PoundstonePart memoir, part monologue, with a dash of startling honesty, There’s Nothing in This Book That I Meant to Say features biographies of legendary historical figures from which Paula Poundstone can’t help digressing to tell her own story. Mining gold from the lives of Abraham Lincoln, Helen Keller, Joan of Arc, and Beethoven, among others, the eccentric and utterly inimitable mind of Paula Poundstone dissects, observes, and comments on the successes and failures of her own life with surprising candor and spot-on comedic timing in this unique laugh-out-loud book.If you like Paula Poundstone’s ironic and blindingly intelligent humor, you’ll love this wryly observant, funny, and touching book.Paula Poundstone on . . .The sources of her self-esteem: “A couple of years ago I was reunited with a guy I knew in the fifth grade. He said, “All the other fifth-grade guys liked the pretty girls, but I liked you.” It’s hard to know if a guy is sincere when he lays it on that thick.The battle between fatigue and informed citizenship: I play a videotape of The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer every night, but sometimes I only get as far as the theme song (da da-da-da da-ah) before I fall asleep. Sometimes as soon as Margaret Warner says whether or not Jim Lehrer is on vacation I drift right off. Somehow just knowing he’s well comforts me.The occult: I need to know exactly what day I’m gonna die so that I don’t bother putting away leftovers the night before.TV’s misplaced priorities: Someday in the midst of the State of the Union address they’ll break in with, “We interrupt this program to bring you a little clip from Bewitched.”Travel: In London I went to the queen’s house. I went as a tourist—she didn’t invite me so she could pick my brain: “What do you think of my face on the pound? Too serious?”Air-conditioning in Florida: If it were as cold outside in the winter as they make it inside in the summer, they’d put the heat on. It makes no sense.The scandal: The judge said I was the best probationer he ever had. Talk about proud.With a foreword by Mary Tyler Moore
The Totally Unscientific Study of the Search for Human Happiness
by Paula Poundstone“A remarkable journey. I laughed. I cried. I got another cat.” —Lily Tomlin “Paula Poundstone is the funniest human being I have ever known.” —Peter Sagal, host of Wait Wait . . . Don’t Tell Me! and author of The Book of Vice “Is there a secret to happiness?” asks comedian Paula Poundstone. "I don’t know how or why anyone would keep it a secret. It seems rather cruel, really . . . Where could it be? Is it deceptively simple? Does it melt at a certain temperature? Can you buy it? Must you suffer for it before or after?” In her wildly and wisely observed book, the comedy legend takes on that most inalienable of rights—the pursuit of happiness. Offering herself up as a human guinea pig in a series of thoroughly unscientific experiments, Poundstone tries out a different get-happy hypothesis in each chapter of her data-driven search. She gets in shape with taekwondo. She drives fast behind the wheel of a Lamborghini. She communes with nature while camping with her daughter, and commits to getting her house organized (twice!). Swing dancing? Meditation? Volunteering? Does any of it bring her happiness? You may be laughing too hard to care. The Totally Unscientific Study of the Search for Human Happiness is both a story of jumping into new experiences with both feet and a surprisingly poignant tale of a single working mother of three children (not to mention dozens of cats, a dog, a bearded dragon lizard, a lop-eared bunny, and one ant left from her ant farm) who is just trying to keep smiling while living a busy life. The queen of the skepticism-fueled rant, Paula Poundstone stands alone in her talent for bursting bubbles and slaying sacred cows. Like George Carlin, Steve Martin, and David Sedaris, she is a master of her craft, and her comedic brilliance is served up in abundance in this book. As author and humorist Roy Blount Jr. notes, “Paula Poundstone deserves to be happy. Nobody deserves to be this funny.”
Carl Sagan: A Life in the Cosmos
by William PoundstoneIn this compelling life of Carl Sagan, award-winning science writer William Poundstone details the transformation of a bookish young astronomer obsessed with life on other worlds into science's first authentic media superstar. The instantly recognizable Sagan, a fixture on television and a bestselling author, offered the layperson entry into the mysteries of the cosmos and of science in general. To much of the scientific community, however, he was a pariah, a brazen publicity seeker who cared more about his image and his fortune than the advancement of science. Poundstone reveals the seldom-discussed aspects of Sagan's life, the legitimate and important work of his early scientific career, the almost obsessive capacity to take on endless projects, and the multiple marriages and fractured personal life, in what The New Yorker called an "evenhanded guide" to a great man's career.
Agathe's Summer
by Didier PourqueryOne morning in August of 2007, Didier Pourquery’s daughter, Agathe, only a few days away from her twenty-third birthday, stopped breathing. Seven years after her death, her father tells her story, based on his notes taken during the last three weeks of her life. He shares not only his sadness and loss, but also the joy that characterized his relationship with his daughter. At her birth, Agathe’s doctors said the average life expectancy for a child born with cystic fibrosis was twenty-five years. Once he learned his daughter only had a few weeks left to live, Didier Pouquery began writing daily about her last weeks. The notes he took then became the source of this book: a homage that is full of hope and light, even as it boldly highlights deep human frailty and the pain of losing a child. Pourquery alternates between an account of Agathe’s physical condition and a letter addressed to her after her death. We get to know her—and her father—through this lyrical and poignant portrait and ode. Who was this joyful and straight-talking girl? How did she grow up in the shadow of this looming disease? How was she able to help those around her, even as she faced a certain and early death? Although Agathe’s Summer is one father’s testimony to the short life of a child grown into a young woman, it is also the story of the love, hope, fear, and joy that speaks to all parents.