Memoir and Biography Ebook Best Sellers 2025

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Under Siege - Eric Trump Cover Art

Under Siege

Under Siege My Family's Fight to Save Our Nation by Eric Trump

In this eye-opening memoir, Eric Trump relays surprising and gripping moments throughout his life and career as part of America’s most powerful family. From his earliest memories of growing up as part of the Trump family to pivotal roles in the 2016 and 2024 presidential elections, spearheading strategies to combat lawfare, and leading the Trump Organization, Eric has been deeply invested in all aspects of his family’s legacy. As one of his father’s original apprentices, Eric has always strived to build on that foundation. As the Executive Vice President of the Trump Organization since 2015, Eric has navigated the dual worlds of politics and business, growing the company, while battling unprecedented opposition from the media, Democrats, and ongoing legal challenges. From raids on his childhood home, Mar-a-Lago, to near assassination attempts, from Russiagate to cold and corrupt court rooms, the fake news media, censorship, and character smears—this wasn’t just an attack on a president, or even his family. America itself was under siege. In this book, Eric offers an unfiltered look at the highs and lows of life in the Trump world; how he took the reins of a multibillion-dollar empire at thirty-three years old; enlightening stories from real estate to the boardroom of The Celebrity Apprentice , and the chaos of the campaign trail.

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Future Boy - Michael J Fox & Nelle Fortenberry Cover Art

Future Boy

Future Boy Back to the Future and My Journey Through the Space-Time Continuum by Michael J Fox & Nelle Fortenberry

A poignant, heartfelt, and funny memoir about how, in 1985, Michael J. Fox brought to life two iconic roles simultaneously—Alex P. Keaton in Family Ties and Marty McFly in Back to the Future . An amazing true story as only Michael J. Fox can tell it In early 1985, Michael J. Fox was one of the biggest stars on television. His world was about to get even bigger, but only if he could survive the kind of double duty unheard of in Hollywood. Fox’s days were already dedicated to rehearsing and taping the hit sitcom Family Ties , but then the chance of a lifetime came his way. Soon, he committed his nights to a new time-travel adventure film being directed by Robert Zemeckis and produced by Steven Spielberg— Back to the Future . Sitcom during the day, movie at night—day after day, for months. Fox’s nightly commute from a soundstage at Paramount to the back lot at Universal Studios, from one dream job to another, would become his own space-time continuum. It was in this time portal that Alex P. Keaton handed the baton to Marty McFly while Michael J. Fox tried to catch a few minutes of sleep. Alex’s bravado, Marty’s flair, and Fox’s comedic virtuosity all swirled together to create something truly special. In Future Boy , Fox tells the remarkable story of playing two landmark roles at the same time—a slice of entertainment history that’s never been told. Using new interviews with the cast and crew of both projects, the result is a vividly drawn and eye-opening story of creative achievement by a beloved icon.

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Hostage - Eli Sharabi Cover Art

Hostage

Hostage by Eli Sharabi

In a raw and unflinching memoir, Eli Sharabi, a survivor of 491 days in Hamas captivity, recounts the harrowing ordeal of his abduction from Kibbutz Be’eri on October 7th, 2023, the loss of his wife and daughters, and his unyielding resolve to survive. “I refuse to let myself drown in pain. I am surviving. I am a hostage. In the heart of Gaza. A stranger in a strange land. In the home of a Hamas-supporting family. And I'm getting out of here. I have to. I’m getting out of here. I’m coming home.”—Eli Sharabi  On October 7, 2023, Hamas terrorists stormed Kibbutz Be’eri, shattering the peaceful life Eli Sharabi had built with his British wife, Lianne, and their teenage daughters, Noiya and Yahel. Dragged barefoot out his front door while his family watched in horror, Sharabi was plunged deep into the suffocating darkness of Gaza’s tunnels. As war raged above him, he endured a grueling 491 days in captivity, all the while holding onto the hope that he would one day be reunited with his loved ones. Eli Sharabi’s story is one of hunger and heartache, of physical pain, longing, loneliness and a helplessness that threatens to destroy the soul. But it is also a story of strength, of resilience, and of the human spirit’s refusal to surrender. It is about the camaraderie forged in captivity, the quiet power of faith, and one man’s unrelenting decision to choose life, time and time again. In the first memoir by a released Israeli hostage, and the fastest-selling book in Israel’s history, Sharabi offers a searing firsthand account of survival under unimaginable conditions—starvation, isolation, physical beatings, and psychological abuse at the hands of his captors. Compared to Elie Wiesel’s Night and Laura Hillenbrand’s Unbroken, Hostage is a profound witness to history, so it shall be neither forgotten nor erased. 

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107 Days - Kamala Harris Cover Art

107 Days

107 Days by Kamala Harris

For the first time, and with surprising and revealing insights, former Vice President Kamala Harris tells the story of one of the wildest and most consequential presidential campaigns in American history. Your Secret Service code name is Pioneer. You are the first woman in history to be elected vice president of the United States. On July 21, 2024, your running mate, Joe Biden, announces that he will not be seeking reelection. The presidential election will occur on November 5, 2024. You have 107 days. From the chaos of campaign strategy sessions to the intensity of debate prep under relentless scrutiny and the private moments that rarely make headlines, Kamala Harris offers an unfiltered look at the pressures, triumphs, and heartbreaks of a history-defining race. With behind-the-scenes details and a voice that is both intimate and urgent, this is more than a political memoir—it’s a chronicle of resilience, leadership, and the high stakes of democracy in action. Written with candor, a unique perspective, and the pace of a page-turning novel, 107 Days takes you inside the race for the presidency as no one has ever done before.

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Then Again - Diane Keaton & Anna Quindlen Cover Art

Then Again

Then Again by Diane Keaton & Anna Quindlen

NAMED ONE OF THE TEN BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY Janet Maslin, The New York Times • People • Vogue   ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR Financial Times • Chicago Sun-Times • The Independent •  Bookreporter • The Sunday Business Post Mom loved adages, quotes, slogans. There were always little reminders pasted on the kitchen wall. For example, the word THINK. I found THINK thumbtacked on a bulletin board in her darkroom. I saw it Scotch-taped on a pencil box she’d collaged. I even found a pamphlet titled THINK on her bedside table. Mom liked to THINK.   So begins Diane Keaton’s unforgettable memoir about her mother and herself. In it you will meet the woman known to tens of millions as Annie Hall, but you will also meet, and fall in love with, her mother, the loving, complicated, always-thinking Dorothy Hall. To write about herself, Diane realized she had to write about her mother, too, and how their bond came to define both their lives. In a remarkable act of creation, Diane not only reveals herself to us, she also lets us meet in intimate detail her mother. Over the course of her life, Dorothy kept eighty-five journals—literally thousands of pages—in which she wrote about her marriage, her children, and, most probingly, herself. Dorothy also recorded memorable stories about Diane’s grandparents. Diane has sorted through these pages to paint an unflinching portrait of her mother—a woman restless with intellectual and creative energy, struggling to find an outlet for her talents—as well as her entire family, recounting a story that spans four generations and nearly a hundred years.   More than the autobiography of a legendary actress, Then Again is a book about a very American family with very American dreams. Diane will remind you of yourself, and her bonds with her family will remind you of your own relationships with those you love the most.   Look for special features inside. Join the Circle for author chats and more.

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I Wrote This for Attention - Lukas Gage Cover Art

I Wrote This for Attention

I Wrote This for Attention by Lukas Gage

A riveting and heartwarming memoir by the actor of White Lotus and Euphoria that details his upbringing in the west coast — including a broken family, struggles with addiction, sex, borderline personality disorder—and his commitment to being the center of attention at all times, even as he actually becomes a star. Lukas Gage was having one of the shittiest weeks of his life. His beloved grandmother was dying. And Lukas was sitting next to his father, a man who had been mostly absent in his son’s childhood—except when talking to Lukas about t**s because he loved nothing more than t**s, and listening to Howard Stern on the radio. They were across the street from a building in Century City, where months prior, Lukas had to grapple with the dissolution of his marriage. This week had it all: death, divorce, and daddy issues. In that room, Lukas did the smartest thing anyone can do in a crisis: doom scroll to see what random people on the internet were saying about him. People were calling him an attention whore—and they were absolutely right. Lukas Gage was no stranger to going viral. He loved attention. As a toddler, he set his room on fire. As a child, he hugged and flirted with women at Hooters to his father’s delight. As a teen, he stole handles of alcohol and cherry cough syrup. He had sex at a restroom in Chili’s, and fell hopelessly in love with a girl who wore an ankle monitor. He became an actor and filmed that scene in White Lotus (if you know, you know). Lukas was scared of attention and yet he craved it more than anything in the world. I Wrote This for Attention is a riveting, exquisite memoir full of heart that chronicles Lukas’s coming of age in the haunting underbelly of San Diego and clawing his way to stardom. Lukas captures the universal anxieties of transitioning from innocence to adulthood, of feeling too much and nothing at all. Sex and death, fame and familial strife, drug abuse and Raya, I Wrote This for Attention is a remarkable achievement of healing, of vaping through therapy sessions, and of having the courage to forgive the family that hurt you and set yourself free.

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Awake - Jen Hatmaker Cover Art

Awake

Awake A Memoir by Jen Hatmaker

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • “I can’t imagine any woman reading this without feeling seen, inspired, and totally empowered.” —Mel Robbins • “A MASTERPIECE, you guys. This memoir by the great Jen Hatmaker *cannot* be missed. I was riveted as if to a thriller and touched/moved/inspired in ways I can’t quite articulate yet. Just please read. You’ll thank me.” —Elin Hilderbrand, on Instagram From Jen Hatmaker—beloved New York Times bestselling author and host of the For the Love podcast—a brutally honest, funny, and revealing memoir about the traumatic end of her twenty-six-year-long marriage, and the beginning of a different kind of love story. At 2:30 a.m. on July 11, 2020, Jen Hatmaker woke up to her husband of twenty-six years whispering in his phone to another woman from their bed. It was the end of life as she knew it. In the months that followed, she went from being a shiny, funny, popular leader to a divorced wreck on antidepressants and antianxiety meds, parenting five kids alone with no clue about the functioning of her own bank accounts. Having led millions of women for over a decade—urging them to embrace authenticity, find radical agency, and create healthy relationship—she felt like a catastrophic failure. In Awake , Jen shares for the first time what happened when she found herself completely lost at sea—and how she made it to shore. In candid, sur­prisingly funny vignettes spanning forty years of girlhood, marriage, and parenting, Jen lays bare the disorienting upheaval of midlife—the implosion of a marriage, the unraveling of religious and cultural systems, and the grief that accompanies change you didn’t ask for. And, drawing on all resources—from without and within—Jen dares to question the systems beneath the whole house of cards, and to reckon with the myths, half-truths, and lies that brought her to this point. More than one woman’s story, Awake is a critical analysis of the story given to all of us: the story of gender limitations, religious subservience, body shame, self-erasure. With refreshing candor, Jen explores a midlife renaissance—grieving what’s lost, cherishing possibility, and entering the second half of life wide awake.

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Told You So - Mayci Neeley Cover Art

Told You So

Told You So by Mayci Neeley

From TikTok and The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives star Mayci Neeley, a deeply personal story of love, grief, motherhood, and resilience. Mayci Neeley and the women of MomTok burst into the center of pop culture when Hulu’s The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives took the world by storm. But the show barely scratched the surface of Mayci’s personal story. From becoming a mom at twenty, to losing her son’s father in a tragic car accident, to going back to college as a single mother, she’s only ever given us glimpses of the challenging things she’s been through. Now, finally, she’s ready to tell us everything. In this inspiring and darkly funny memoir, Mayci lifts the veil for readers on what growing up Mormon is really like and how it’s strict standards completely blow up for many young people when they get to college. When Mayci arrived at BYU on a tennis scholarship, she was unprepared to manage the temptations she’d been taught were sins. She found herself drinking too much, stuck in an abusive relationship, and on the verge of falling down a dark and dangerous path. Suddenly, she was pregnant at nineteen and mourning a boyfriend she’d been building a future with. Mayci captures the period from college to adulthood with brutal honesty, grace, and humor, offering up a heartfelt portrait of a woman finding her voice and her strength. All of these trials led to her current love story, her journey with IVF, and of course the inside story of MomTok. Fans looking for a juicy play-by-play on the friend group drama will get everything they want—and then some—but more than anything, readers will walk away with a sense of confidence in themselves and an ability to wear their scars proudly.

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Vagabond - Tim Curry Cover Art

Vagabond

Vagabond A Memoir by Tim Curry

This memoir is a celebration of Tim Curry's life’s work, and a testament to his profound impact on the entertainment industry as we know it today. There are few stars in Hollywood today that can boast the kind of resume Tony award-nominated actor Tim Curry has built over the past five decades. From his breakout role as Dr. Frank-N-Furter in The Rocky Horror Picture Show to his iconic depiction as the sadistic clown Pennywise in It to his critically acclaimed role as the original King Arthur in both the Broadway and West End versions of Spamalot, Curry redefined what it meant to be a “character actor,” portraying heroes and villains alike with complexity, nuance, and a genuine understanding of human darkness.  Now, in his memoir, Curry takes readers behind-the-scenes of his rise to fame from his early beginnings as a military brat to his formative years in boarding school and university, to the moment when he hit the stage for the first time. He goes in-depth about what it was like to work on some of the most emblematic works of the 20th century, constantly switching between a camera and a live audience. He also explores the voicework that defined his later career and provided him with a chance to pivot after surviving a catastrophic stroke in 2012 that nearly took his life.  With the upcoming 50th anniversary of The Rocky Horror Picture Show and the 40th anniversary of Clue, there’s never been a better time for Tim to share his story with the world. 

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Wild - Cheryl Strayed Cover Art

Wild

Wild From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail (Oprah's Book Club 2.0) by Cheryl Strayed

#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • A powerful, blazingly honest memoir: the story of an eleven-hundred-mile solo hike that broke down a young woman reeling from catastrophe—and built her back up again. A Kirkus Reviews Best Nonfiction Book of the Century At twenty-two, Cheryl Strayed thought she had lost everything. In the wake of her mother’s death, her family scattered and her own marriage was soon destroyed. Four years later, with nothing more to lose, she made the most impulsive decision of her life. With no experience or training, driven only by blind will, she would hike more than a thousand miles of the Pacific Crest Trail from the Mojave Desert through California and Oregon to Washington State—and she would do it alone. Told with suspense and style, sparkling with warmth and humor, Wild powerfully captures the terrors and pleasures of one young woman forging ahead against all odds on a journey that maddened, strengthened, and ultimately healed her.

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The Secret Life of Dorothy Soames - Justine Cowan Cover Art

The Secret Life of Dorothy Soames

The Secret Life of Dorothy Soames A Memoir by Justine Cowan

"Far from growing up in the wealthy, fox-hunting circles . . .her mother had in fact been raised in a foundling hospital for the children of unwed women." —Editor's Choice, The New York Times Book Review Justine Cowan's remarkable true story begins when she found her often volatile mother in an unlit room writing a name over and over again, one that she had never heard before and would not hear again for many years – Dorothy Soames. Thirty years later, overcome with grief following her mother's death, Justine was drawn back to the past, uncovering a mystery that stretched back to the early years of World War II and beyond, into the dark corridors of the Hospital for the Maintenance and Education of Exposed and Deserted Young Children. It was the environment that shaped a young girl known as Dorothy Soames, who bravely withstood years of physical and emotional abuse —a resilient child whose only hope would be a daring escape as German bombers rained death from the skies. Heartbreaking and unforgettable, The Secret Life of Dorothy Soames is the true story of one woman's quest to understand the secrets that had poisoned her mother's mind, and her startling discovery that her family's fate had been sealed centuries before. "A riveting, heartbreaking, and ultimately healing journey of discovery." — Christina Baker Kline, New York Times –bestselling author "Cowan has the doggedness of a public-interest lawyer and a writer's eye for detail. — New York Times "This frank account of a real-life Dickensian dystopia captivates at every turn." — Publishers Weekly "Extraordinary . . . fascinating, moving." — The Telegraph "Book groups will find as much to discuss here as they have with The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls, and Educated by Tara Westover." — BookList

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Nobody's Girl - Virginia Roberts Giuffre Cover Art

Nobody's Girl

Nobody's Girl A Memoir of Surviving Abuse and Fighting for Justice by Virginia Roberts Giuffre

The unforgettable memoir by the late Virginia Roberts Giuffre, the woman who dared to take on Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell The world knows Virginia Roberts Giuffre as Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell’s most outspoken victim: the woman whose decision to speak out helped send both serial abusers to prison, whose photograph with Prince Andrew catalyzed his fall from grace. But her story has never been told in full, in her own words—until now. In April 2025, Giuffre took her own life. She left behind a memoir written in the years preceding her death and stated unequivocally that she wanted it published. Nobody’s Girl is the riveting and powerful story of an ordinary girl who would grow up to confront extraordinary adversity. Here, Giuffre offers an unsparing and definitive account of her time with Epstein and Maxwell, who trafficked her and others to numerous prominent men. She also details the molestation she suffered as a child, as well as her daring escape from Epstein and Maxwell’s grasp at nineteen. Giuffre remade her life from scratch and summoned the courage to not only hold her abusers to account but also advocate for other victims. The pages of Nobody’s Girl preserve her voice—and her legacy—forever. Nobody’s Girl is an astonishing affirmation of Giuffre’s unshakable will—first, to claw her way out of victimhood, and then to shine light on wrongdoing and fight for a safer, fairer world. Equal parts intimate and fierce, it is a remarkable narrative of fortitude in the face of depravity and despair.

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Untamed: Reese's Book Club - Glennon Doyle Cover Art

Untamed: Reese's Book Club

Untamed: Reese's Book Club by Glennon Doyle

#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • OVER THREE MILLION COPIES SOLD! “Packed with incredible insight about what it means to be a woman today.”—Reese Witherspoon (Reese’s Book Club Pick) In her most revealing and powerful memoir yet, the activist, speaker, bestselling author, and “patron saint of female empowerment” ( People ) explores the joy and peace we discover when we stop striving to meet others’ expectations and start trusting the voice deep within us. “ Untamed will liberate women—emotionally, spiritually, and physically. It is phenomenal.”—Elizabeth Gilbert, author of City of Girls and Eat Pray Love A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR: Oprah Daily, The Washington Post, Cosmopolitan, Marie Claire, Bloomberg, Parade This is how you find yourself. There is a voice of longing inside each woman. We strive so mightily to be good: good partners, daughters, mothers, employees, and friends. We hope all this striving will make us feel alive. Instead, it leaves us feeling weary, stuck, overwhelmed, and underwhelmed. We look at our lives and wonder: Wasn’t it all supposed to be more beautiful than this? We quickly silence that question, telling ourselves to be grateful, hiding our discontent—even from ourselves. For many years, Glennon Doyle denied her own discontent. Then, while speaking at a conference, she looked at a woman across the room and fell instantly in love. Three words flooded her mind: There She Is . At first, Glennon assumed these words came to her from on high. But she soon realized they had come to her from within. This was her own voice—the one she had buried beneath decades of numbing addictions, cultural conditioning, and institutional allegiances. This was the voice of the girl she had been before the world told her who to be. Glennon decided to quit abandoning herself and to instead abandon the world’s expectations of her. She quit being good so she could be free. She quit pleasing and started living. Soulful and uproarious, forceful and tender, Untamed is both an intimate memoir and a galvanizing wake-up call. It is the story of how one woman learned that a responsible mother is not one who slowly dies for her children, but one who shows them how to fully live. It is the story of navigating divorce, forming a new blended family, and discovering that the brokenness or wholeness of a family depends not on its structure but on each member’s ability to bring her full self to the table. And it is the story of how each of us can begin to trust ourselves enough to set boundaries, make peace with our bodies, honor our anger and heartbreak, and unleash our truest, wildest instincts so that we become women who can finally look at ourselves and say: There She Is . Untamed shows us how to be brave. As Glennon insists: The braver we are, the luckier we get.

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Last Rites - Ozzy Osbourne Cover Art

Last Rites

Last Rites by Ozzy Osbourne

"People say to me, if you could do it all again, knowing what you know now, would you change anything? I'm like, f*** no. If I'd been clean and sober, I wouldn't be Ozzy. If I'd done normal, sensible things, I wouldn't be Ozzy." Husband. Father. Grandfather. F*cking Icon. 1948 - 2025 In 2018, at the age of sixty-nine, Ozzy Osbourne was on a triumphant farewell tour, playing to sold-out arenas and rave reviews all around the world. Then: disaster. In a matter of just a few weeks, he went from being hospitalized with a finger infection to having to abandon his tour – and all public life – as he faced near-total paralysis from the neck down. LAST RITES is the shocking, bitterly hilarious, never-before-told story of Ozzy's descent into hell. Along the way, he reflects on his extraordinary life and career, including his marriage to wife Sharon, as well as his reflections on what it took for him to get back onstage for the triumphant Back to the Beginning concert, streamed around the world, where Ozzy reunited with his Black Sabbath bandmates for the final time. Unflinching, brutally honest, but surprisingly life-affirming, Last Rites demonstrates once again why Ozzy has transcended his status as 'The Godfather of Metal' and 'The Prince of Darkness' to become a modern-day folk hero and national treasure.

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Next of Kin - Gabrielle Hamilton Cover Art

Next of Kin

Next of Kin A Memoir by Gabrielle Hamilton

An electrifying memoir about the demise of a singular family—a stunning new book by Gabrielle Hamilton, author of the New York Times bestseller and James Beard Award winner Blood, Bones & Butter “You won’t be able to put down Gabrielle Hamilton’s story of the excitement, resilience, agony, and defiance required to be a member of her family. She doesn’t mess around.”—Ariel Levy, author of The Rules Do Not Apply “We were a family veined through with certain brutalities, rifts, and unresolved conflicts, as well as some remarkable violences and some decades-long silences. But together we had rituals, systems, congruent cohering events that made us who we were as one. I thought of the black and blue marks as if they were the desirable spores of mold found in noble cheeses.” The youngest of five children, Gabrielle Hamilton took pride in her unsentimental, idiosyncratic family. She idolized her parents’ charisma and non-conformity. She worshipped her siblings’ mischievousness and flair. Hers was a family with no fondness for the humdrum. Hamilton grew up to find enormous success, first as a chef and then as the author of award-winning, bestselling books. But her family ties frayed in ways both seismic and mundane until eventually she was estranged from them all. In the wake of one brother’s sudden death and another’s suicide, while raising young children of her own, Hamilton was compelled to examine the sprawling, complicated root system underlying her losses. She began investigating her family’s devout independence and individualism with a nearly forensic rigor, soon discovering a sobering warning in their long-held self-satisfaction. By the time she was called to care for her declining mother—the mother she’d seen only twice in thirty years—Hamilton had realized a certain freedom, one made possible only through a careful psychological autopsy of her family. Hamilton’s gift for pungent dialogue, propulsive storytelling, intense honesty, and raucous humor made her first book a classic of modern memoir. In Next of Kin , she offers a keen and compassionate portrait of the people she grew up with and the prevailing but soon-to-falter ethos of the era that produced them. A personal account of one family’s disintegration, Next of Kin is also a universal story of the emotional clarity that comes from scrutinizing our family mythologies and seeing through to the other side.

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Can't Hurt Me - David Goggins Cover Art

Can't Hurt Me

Can't Hurt Me Master Your Mind and Defy the Odds by David Goggins

New York Times Best Seller Over 5 million copies sold For David Goggins, childhood was a nightmare - poverty, prejudice, and physical abuse colored his days and haunted his nights. But through self-discipline, mental toughness, and hard work, Goggins transformed himself from a depressed, overweight young man with no future into a U.S. Armed Forces icon and one of the world's top endurance athletes. The only man in history to complete elite training as a Navy SEAL, Army Ranger, and Air Force Tactical Air Controller, he went on to set records in numerous endurance events, inspiring Outside magazine to name him The Fittest (Real) Man in America. In Can't Hurt Me, he shares his astonishing life story and reveals that most of us tap into only 40% of our capabilities. Goggins calls this The 40% Rule, and his story illuminates a path that anyone can follow to push past pain, demolish fear, and reach their full potential.

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All the Cool Girls Get Fired - Laura Brown & Kristina O'Neill Cover Art

All the Cool Girls Get Fired

All the Cool Girls Get Fired How to Let Go of Being Let Go and Come Back on Top by Laura Brown & Kristina O'Neill

Turn losing your job into an epic comeback with this unfiltered, comprehensive, GPS guide to rebuilding your career on your terms. So, you got fired, laid off, restructured, canned. Welcome to the club, baby! In today’s seismically changing job market, getting fired doesn’t automatically mean you failed; it’s a rite of passage. With their decades of experience in high-stakes leadership roles, Laura Brown and Kristina O’Neill know firsthand the challenges—and thrilling opportunities—that come with losing a job, no matter where you are in your career. They’ve been through the shock, grief, anger, and confusion, and they’re here to help you navigate the experience. All the Cool Girls Get Fired is both a roadmap and a mindset shift—a pragmatic, empowering and humorous way to make lemonade from lemons. With candor, humor, actionable advice, and exclusive “I’ve been there,” interviews from inspirational women, All the Cool Girls Get Fired challenges outdated corner office perceptions of career success. From coping mechanisms and self-care practices to networking strategies and reinvention techniques, the book is a comprehensive GPS to navigate the path of career recovery and bounce back with more professional mojo than ever.

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Joyride - Susan Orlean Cover Art

Joyride

Joyride A Memoir by Susan Orlean

“ Brilliant… A high-spirited, exhilarating memoir.” — The Wall Street Journal • “In Joyride , the takeaway often has as much to do with the art of living as the art of writing . ” —Elle • “Wise and exuberant…It’s funny, as well. Just masterful.” —David Sedaris • “Superbly good…Ebullient, frank, moving, and inspiring.” — Booklist (starred review) From Susan Orlean, the beloved New Yorker writer and bestselling author of The Orchid Thief and The Library Book who has been hailed as “a national treasure” by The Washington Post , comes a masterful memoir of finding her creative calling and purpose that invites us to approach life with wonder, curiosity, and an irrepressible sense of delight. “The story of my life is the story of my stories,” writes Susan Orlean in this extraordinary, era-defining memoir from one of the greatest practitioners of narrative nonfiction of our time. Joyride is a magic carpet ride through Orlean’s life and career, where every day is an opportunity for discovery and every moment holds the potential for wonder. Throughout her storied career, her curiosity draws her to explore the most ordinary and extraordinary of places, from going deep inside the head of a regular ten-year-old boy for a legendary profile (“The American Man Age Ten”) to reporting on a woman who owns twenty-seven tigers, from capturing the routine magic of Saturday night to climbing Mt. Fuji. Not only does Orlean’s account of a writing life offer a trove of indispensable gleanings for writers, it’s also an essential and practical guide to embracing any creative path. She takes us through her process of dreaming up ideas, managing deadlines, connecting with sources, chasing every possible lead, confronting writer’s block and self-doubt, and crafting the perfect lede—a Susan specialty. While Orlean has always written her way into other people’s lives in order to understand the human experience, Joyride is her most personal book ever—a searching journey through finding her feet as a journalist, recovering from the excruciating collapse of her first marriage, falling head-over-heels in love again, becoming a mother while mourning the decline of her own mother, sojourning to Hollywood for films based on her work including Adaptation and Blue Crush , and confronting mortality. Joyride is also a time machine to a bygone era of journalism, from Orlean’s bright start in the golden age of alt-weeklies to her career-making days working alongside icons such as Robert Gottlieb, Tina Brown, David Remnick, Anna Wintour, Sonny Mehta, and Jonathan Karp—forces who shaped the media industry as we know it today. Infused with Orlean’s signature warmth and wit, Joyride is a must-read for anyone who hungers to start, build, and sustain a creative life. Orlean inspires us to seek out daily inspiration and rediscover the marvels that surround us.

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Unseen - Molly Burke Cover Art

Unseen

Unseen How I Lost My Vision but Found My Voice by Molly Burke

From social media star and change-maker Molly Burke, a vulnerable, honest, and darkly humorous memoir on navigating the challenges of being a blind woman in a sighted world When Molly Burke was four years old, she was diagnosed with retinitis pigmentosa, a rare degenerative eye disease that leads to eventual blindness, forcing her to see the world through new eyes—literally. Growing up disabled didn’t stop her from playing sports, becoming a rock-climbing instructor, or winning a beauty pageant, but other people’s narrow perceptions of her held her back.   Years of relentless bullying, toxic work environments, a rodent-infested apartment, and life’s lowest moments were juxtaposed with red carpets, first-class flights, and personal and professional achievements. Throughout her life, Molly has learned to appreciate the duality, and, most importantly, she’s learned the beauty of being unapologetically yourself and standing up for what you truly believe in.   In Unseen , Molly chronicles her journey as a disabled woman, entrepreneur, and entertainer, illuminating what her experiences have taught her and what she hopes others can learn from her hardship and successes. Part memoir, part rallying cry for a more compassionate and empathetic world, Unseen recounts Molly’s life and experiences fighting against the expectations society set for her and, in doing so, helps readers find their own voice, inner strength, and self-acceptance.

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Let's Just Say It Wasn't Pretty - Diane Keaton Cover Art

Let's Just Say It Wasn't Pretty

Let's Just Say It Wasn't Pretty by Diane Keaton

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER From Academy Award winner and bestselling author Diane Keaton comes a candid, hilarious, and deeply affecting look at beauty, aging, and the importance of staying true to yourself—no matter what anyone else thinks.   Diane Keaton has spent a lifetime coloring outside the lines of the conventional notion of beauty. In Let’s Just Say It Wasn’t Pretty , she shares the wisdom she’s accumulated through the years as a mother, daughter, actress, artist, and international style icon. This is a book only Diane Keaton could write—a smart and funny chronicle of the ups and downs of living and working in a world obsessed with beauty.   In her one-of-a-kind voice, Keaton offers up a message of empowerment for anyone who’s ever dreamed of kicking back against the “should”s and “supposed to”s that undermine our pursuit of beauty in all its forms. From a mortifying encounter with a makeup artist who tells her she needs to get her eyes fixed to an awkward excursion to Victoria’s Secret with her teenage daughter, Keaton shares funny and not-so-funny moments from her life in and out of the public eye.   For Diane Keaton, being beautiful starts with being true to who you are, and in this book she also offers self-knowing commentary on the bold personal choices she’s made through the years: the wide-brimmed hats, outrageous shoes, and all-weather turtlenecks that have made her an inspiration to anyone who cherishes truly individual style—and catnip to paparazzi worldwide. She recounts her experiences with the many men in her life—including Warren Beatty, Jack Nicholson, Al Pacino, and Sam Shepard—shows how our ideals of beauty change as we age, and explains why a life well lived may be the most beautiful thing of all.   Wryly observant and as fiercely original as Diane Keaton herself, Let’s Just Say It Wasn’t Pretty is a head-turner of a book that holds up a mirror to our beauty obsessions—and encourages us to like what we see. Praise for Let's Just Say It Wasn't Pretty “Behind the sterling movie credits and tomboyish wardrobe, we see a soulful and deep woman contemplating the narrative arc of her own life.” — Newsweek   “Delicious writing . . . This book is like a dishy lunch with the movie star you thought you’d never be lucky enough to meet. . . . Diane Keaton is in a class by herself and this book is good for the soul.” —Liz Smith, Chicago Tribune   “She’s talented, iconic, quirky . . . and wonderfully blunt. This is just a small sampling of the reasons we love Diane Keaton, and they all permeate the pages of her new memoir.” —Elle   “As disarming and personable as the actress herself.” —The Huffington Post   “Wise, witty, thoughtful, uplifting, the truth, unvarnished—and very funny.” — Toronto Star

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I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings - Maya Angelou Cover Art

I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings

I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou

Here is a book as joyous and painful, as mysterious and memorable, as childhood itself. I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings captures the longing of lonely children, the brute insult of bigotry, and the wonder of words that can make the world right. Maya Angelou’s debut memoir is a modern American classic beloved worldwide.   Sent by their mother to live with their devout, self-sufficient grandmother in a small Southern town, Maya and her brother, Bailey, endure the ache of abandonment and the prejudice of the local “powhitetrash.” At eight years old and back at her mother’s side in St. Louis, Maya is attacked by a man many times her age—and has to live with the consequences for a lifetime. Years later, in San Francisco, Maya learns that love for herself, the kindness of others, her own strong spirit, and the ideas of great authors (“I met and fell in love with William Shakespeare”) will allow her to be free instead of imprisoned.   Poetic and powerful, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings will touch hearts and change minds for as long as people read. “ I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings liberates the reader into life simply because Maya Angelou confronts her own life with such a moving wonder, such a luminous dignity.”—James Baldwin

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Freezing Order - Bill Browder Cover Art

Freezing Order

Freezing Order A True Story of Money Laundering, Murder, and Surviving Vladimir Putin's Wrath by Bill Browder

Following his explosive New York Times bestseller Red Notice , Bill Browder returns with another “explosive and compulsive” (Stephen Fry) thriller chronicling how he became Vladimir Putin’s number one enemy by exposing Putin’s campaign to steal and launder hundreds of millions of dollars and kill anyone who stands in his way. When Bill Browder’s young Russian lawyer, Sergei Magnitsky, was beaten to death in a Moscow jail, Browder made it his life’s mission to go after his killers and make sure they faced justice. The first step was to uncover who was behind the $230 million tax refund scheme that Magnitsky was killed over. As Browder and his team tracked the money as it flowed out of Russia through the Baltics and Cyprus and on to Western Europe and the Americas, they were shocked to discover that Vladimir Putin himself was a beneficiary of the crime. As law enforcement agencies began freezing the money, Putin retaliated. He and his cronies set up honey traps, hired process servers to chase Browder through cities, murdered more of his Russian allies, and enlisted some of America’s top lawyers and politicians to bring him down. Putin will stop at nothing to protect his money. As Freezing Order reveals, Browder’s campaign to expose Putin’s corruption was a factor behind Russia’s intervention in the 2016 US presidential election. At once a financial caper, an international adventure, and a passionate plea for justice, Freezing Order is “mandatory reading for anyone who wants to understand the tactics of modern autocracy,” (Anne Applebaum, Pulitzer Prize–winning author of Twilight of Democracy ). It is a stirring morality tale about how one man can take on one the world’s most ruthless villains—and win.

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Tuesdays with Morrie - Mitch Albom Cover Art

Tuesdays with Morrie

Tuesdays with Morrie An Old Man, a Young Man, and Life's Greatest Lesson, 25th Anniversary Edition by Mitch Albom

#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • A special 25th anniversary edition of the beloved book that has changed millions of lives with the story of an unforgettable friendship, the timeless wisdom of older generations, and healing lessons on loss and grief—featuring a new afterword by the author   “A wonderful book, a story of the heart told by a writer with soul.”— Los Angeles Times   “The most important thing in life is to learn how to give out love, and to let it come in.”   Maybe it was a grandparent, or a teacher, or a colleague. Someone older, patient and wise, who understood you when you were young and searching, helped you see the world as a more profound place, gave you sound advice to help you make your way through it.   For Mitch Albom, that person was his college professor Morrie Schwartz. Maybe, like Mitch, you lost track of this mentor as you made your way, and the insights faded, and the world seemed colder. Wouldn’t you like to see that person again, ask the bigger questions that still haunt you, receive wisdom for your busy life today the way you once did when you were younger? Mitch Albom had that second chance. He rediscovered Morrie in the last months of the older man’s life. Knowing he was dying, Morrie visited with Mitch in his study every Tuesday, just as they used to back in college. Their rekindled relationship turned into one final “class”: lessons in how to live. “The truth is, Mitch,” he said, “once you learn how to die, you learn how to live.” Tuesdays with Morrie is a magical chronicle of their time together, through which Mitch shares Morrie’s lasting gift with the world.

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Misunderstood - Allen Iverson Cover Art

Misunderstood

Misunderstood A Memoir by Allen Iverson

A compelling and candid memoir from Allen Iverson, the NBA’s most misunderstood Hall of Famer, detailing his tough childhood in Virginia, his entry into the league as the number one overall pick, and his controversial, culture-changing pro basketball career. In Misunderstood , Allen Iverson shares in searing clarity and touching candor his meteoric rise from impoverished child in the Virginia projects to high school champion to Georgetown University protégé of legendary coach John Thompson, and finally to NBA All-Star and Reebok’s Vice President of Basketball. Allen Iverson is a household name—Boomers and Gen Xers watched his decades-long run as a scrappy, tenacious basketball player on the Philadelphia 76ers who redefined the sport’s style (both fashion-wise and playing-wise), while millennials and Gen Zers are perhaps more familiar with his Reebok line’s resurgence in popularity, his callout in Post Malone’s viral hit “White Iverson,” and for being the namesake of Kendall Roy’s son on Succession . Part athletic legend, part fashion icon, part hip-hop muse, Iverson was one of the first celebrities to fuse lifestyle, culture, and sports. But while everyone may know his name, few have seen behind the curtain on Iverson’s tumultuous life. Misunderstood lifts the veil and brings you into the mind of the pugnacious, ultra-talented misfit whose foremost goal, more than fame or fortune, was always to lift his family and friends out of poverty and violence. In his memoir, Iverson explores how he completely shattered the mold dictating what an NBA star could be in the 1990s and 2000s, all while dealing with legal troubles and personal traumas that only contributed to his sense of individualism and star power. This is the unforgettable story of a trailblazer who not only changed the game of basketball but rewrote the rules of what it means to rise, fall, and rise again while staying unapologetically true to himself.

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Wishful Drinking - Carrie Fisher Cover Art

Wishful Drinking

Wishful Drinking by Carrie Fisher

The bestselling author of Postcards from the Edge comes clean (well, sort of) in her first-ever memoir, adapted from her one-woman Broadway hit show. Fisher reveals what it was really like to grow up a product of “Hollywood in-breeding,” come of age on the set of a little movie called Star Wars , and become a cultural icon and bestselling action figure at the age of nineteen. Intimate, hilarious, and sobering, Wishful Drinking is Fisher, looking at her life as she best remembers it (what do you expect after electroshock therapy?). It’s an incredible tale: the child of Hollywood royalty—Debbie Reynolds and Eddie Fisher—homewrecked by Elizabeth Taylor, marrying (then divorcing, then dating) Paul Simon, having her likeness merchandized on everything from Princess Leia shampoo to PEZ dispensers, learning the father of her daughter forgot to tell her he was gay, and ultimately waking up one morning and finding a friend dead beside her in bed. Wishful Drinking , the show, has been a runaway success. Entertainment Weekly declared it “drolly hysterical” and the Los Angeles Times called it a “Beverly Hills yard sale of juicy anecdotes.” This is Carrie Fisher at her best—revealing her worst. She tells her true and outrageous story of her bizarre reality with her inimitable wit, unabashed self-deprecation, and buoyant, infectious humor.

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I'll Scream Later - Marlee Matlin Cover Art

I'll Scream Later

I'll Scream Later by Marlee Matlin

Critically acclaimed and award-winning actress Marlee Matlin reveals the illuminating, moving, and often surprising story of how she defied all expectations to become one of the most prolific and beloved actresses of our time in this powerful celebrity memoir. Marlee Matlin entered our lives as the deaf pupil turned custodian audiences fell in love with in Children of a Lesser God , a role for which she became the youngest woman ever to win a Best Actress Oscar. More than twenty years after her stunning big screen debut, the Golden Globe– and Emmy Award–nominated actress is an inspirational force of nature—a mother, an activist, and a role model for millions of deaf and hard-of-hearing people around the world seeking disability representation. In I’ll Scream Later , Marlee takes readers on the frank and touching journey of her life, from the frightening loss of her hearing at eighteen months old to the highs and lows of Hollywood, her battles with addiction and recovery, and the unexpected challenges of being thrust into the spotlight as an emissary for the deaf community. She speaks candidly for the first time about the troubles of her youth, the passionate and tumultuous two-year relationship with Oscar winner William Hurt that dovetailed with a stint in rehab, and her subsequent romances with heartthrobs like Rob Lowe, Richard Dean Anderson, and David E. Kelley. Though she became famous at the age of twenty-one, Marlee struggled all her life to connect with people, fighting against anyone who tried to hold her back. Her own mother often hid behind their communication barrier, and Marlee turned to drugs before she even started high school. However, she found in acting—with the encouragement of her mentor, Henry Winkler—a discipline, a drive, and a talent for understanding the human condition that belied her age and her inability to hear. By the time Hollywood embraced her, she had almost no formal training, a fact that caused many other deaf actors to give her the cold shoulder, even as she was looked upon as a spokesperson for their community. She has played memorable roles on wildly popular television shows such as Seinfeld , The West Wing , and The L Word , danced a show-stopping cha-cha-cha on Dancing with the Stars , and now, with uncompromising honesty and humor, Marlee shares the story of her life—an enduring tale of resilience and recovery that is an unforgettable lesson in following your dreams.

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Unscripted - Cheryl Hines Cover Art

Unscripted

Unscripted A Memoir by Cheryl Hines

The  highly anticipated memoir by the Emmy-nominated actress, director, and comedian Cheryl Hines. Best known for her twenty-four-year portrayal of Cheryl on HBO’s  Curb Your Enthusiasm , Cheryl’s story begins in small-town Florida and unfolds across the glittering stages of Hollywood—and right into the heart of the Kennedy family and a presidential campaign. With her signature wit, Cheryl shares hilarious and heartwarming stories from her career in comedy, acting alongside legends like Robin Williams and Larry David and surviving in Hollywood’s unpredictable landscape. From bartending in LA while hustling for auditions to working with comedy icons at The Groundlings, Cheryl provides a candid look at her rise from modest beginnings to earning a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. But Cheryl’s story goes far beyond the spotlight. In her memoir, she delves into her personal life, revealing the challenges and joys of a blended family with her husband, activist lawyer and 2024 presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. She also opens up about her lifelong passion for advocacy, including her dedication to United Cerebral Palsy, inspired by her nephew Michael. With humor, wisdom, and unflinching honesty, Cheryl navigates the highs and lows of fame, family, and an unexpected foray into politics—complete with twists no one saw coming. Whether reflecting on her role in  Curb , her time on  Suburgatory , or her whirlwind introduction to the Kennedy legacy, Cheryl’s memoir is a testament to resilience, love, and finding humor in even the most chaotic moments. Unscripted  is an inspiring, laugh-out-loud, and deeply moving memoir that showcases Cheryl’s ability to find grace and humor in every chapter of her life.

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The Diary of Anne Frank (The Definitive Edition) - Anne Frank Cover Art

The Diary of Anne Frank (The Definitive Edition)

The Diary of Anne Frank (The Definitive Edition) by Anne Frank

Among the most powerful accounts of the Nazi occupation, "The Diary of Anne Frank" chronicles the life of Anne Frank, a thirteen-year old girl fleeing her home in Amsterdam to go into hiding. Anne reveals the relationships between eight people living under miserable conditions: facing hunger, threat of discovery and the worst horrors the modern world had seen. In these pages, she grows up to be a young woman and a wise observer of human nature. She shares an unparalleled bond with her diary, which holds a detailed account of Anne's close relationship with her father, the lack of daughterly love for her mother, admiration for her sister's intelligence and closeness with her friend Peter. Anne Frank's account offers a compelling self-portrait of a sensitive and spirited young woman who turns thoughtful and learns of the many terrors of the world.

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Scientists Who Changed History - DK Cover Art

Scientists Who Changed History

Scientists Who Changed History by DK

Explore the lives and achievements of more than 85 of the world's most inspirational and influential scientists with this innovative and boldly graphic biography-led book. The second title in DK's new illustrated biography series, Scientists Who Changed History profiles trailblazing individuals from Greek mathematicians, such as Archimedes and Hipparchus, through physicists of the early 20th-century, such as Marie Curie and Albert Einstein, to modern greats such as Stephen Hawking and Tim Berners-Lee. Each featured individual has made a major contribution to one or more scientific fields, from astronomy, biology, and psychology, to computer science and geology. Combining elements of biography, history, and analysis, Scientists Who Changed History explains the groundbreaking contributions made by these revolutionary men and women in a clear and informative way.

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When Breath Becomes Air - Paul Kalanithi Cover Art

When Breath Becomes Air

When Breath Becomes Air Pulitzer Prize Finalist by Paul Kalanithi

#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • PULITZER PRIZE FINALIST • OVER TWO MILLION COPIES SOLD This inspiring, exquisitely observed memoir finds hope and beauty in the face of insurmountable odds as an idealistic young neurosurgeon attempts to answer the question, What makes a life worth living? “Unmissable . . . Finishing this book and then forgetting about it is simply not an option.”—Janet Maslin, The New York Times ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR: The New York Times Book Review, People, NPR , The Washington Post, Slate, Harper’s Bazaar, Time Out New York, Publishers Weekly, BookPage An Oprah Daily Best Nonfiction Book of the Past Two Decades • A Kirkus Reviews Best Nonfiction Book of the Century At the age of thirty-six, on the verge of completing a decade’s worth of training as a neurosurgeon, Paul Kalanithi was diagnosed with stage IV lung cancer. One day he was a doctor treating the dying, and the next he was a patient struggling to live. And just like that, the future he and his wife had imagined evaporated. When Breath Becomes Air chronicles Kalanithi’s transformation from a naïve medical student “possessed,” as he wrote, “by the question of what, given that all organisms die, makes a virtuous and meaningful life” into a neurosurgeon at Stanford working in the brain, the most critical place for human identity, and finally into a patient and new father confronting his own mortality. What makes life worth living in the face of death? What do you do when the future, no longer a ladder toward your goals in life, flattens out into a perpetual present? What does it mean to have a child, to nurture a new life as another fades away? These are some of the questions Kalanithi wrestles with in this profoundly moving, exquisitely observed memoir. Paul Kalanithi died in March 2015, while working on this book, yet his words live on as a guide and a gift to us all. “I began to realize that coming face to face with my own mortality, in a sense, had changed nothing and everything,” he wrote. “Seven words from Samuel Beckett began to repeat in my head: ‘I can’t go on. I’ll go on.’” When Breath Becomes Air is an unforgettable, life-affirming reflection on the challenge of facing death and on the relationship between doctor and patient, from a brilliant writer who became both. Finalist for the PEN Center USA Literary Award in Creative Nonfiction and the Books for a Better Life Award in Inspirational Memoir

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Born a Crime - Trevor Noah Cover Art

Born a Crime

Born a Crime Stories from a South African Childhood by Trevor Noah

#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • More than one million copies sold! A “brilliant” (Lupita Nyong’o, Time ), “poignant” ( Entertainment Weekly ), “soul-nourishing” ( USA Today ) memoir about coming of age during the twilight of apartheid   “Noah’s childhood stories are told with all the hilarity and intellect that characterizes his comedy, while illuminating a dark and brutal period in South Africa’s history that must never be forgotten.”— Esquire   Winner of the Thurber Prize for American Humor and an NAACP Image Award • Named one of the best books of the year by The New York Time, USA Today, San Francisco Chronicle, NPR, Esquire, Newsday, and Booklist Trevor Noah’s unlikely path from apartheid South Africa to the desk of The Daily Show began with a criminal act: his birth. Trevor was born to a white Swiss father and a black Xhosa mother at a time when such a union was punishable by five years in prison. Living proof of his parents’ indiscretion, Trevor was kept mostly indoors for the earliest years of his life, bound by the extreme and often absurd measures his mother took to hide him from a government that could, at any moment, steal him away. Finally liberated by the end of South Africa’s tyrannical white rule, Trevor and his mother set forth on a grand adventure, living openly and freely and embracing the opportunities won by a centuries-long struggle. Born a Crime is the story of a mischievous young boy who grows into a restless young man as he struggles to find himself in a world where he was never supposed to exist. It is also the story of that young man’s relationship with his fearless, rebellious, and fervently religious mother—his teammate, a woman determined to save her son from the cycle of poverty, violence, and abuse that would ultimately threaten her own life. The stories collected here are by turns hilarious, dramatic, and deeply affecting. Whether subsisting on caterpillars for dinner during hard times, being thrown from a moving car during an attempted kidnapping, or just trying to survive the life-and-death pitfalls of dating in high school, Trevor illuminates his curious world with an incisive wit and unflinching honesty. His stories weave together to form a moving and searingly funny portrait of a boy making his way through a damaged world in a dangerous time, armed only with a keen sense of humor and a mother’s unconventional, unconditional love.

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Capote's Women - Laurence Leamer Cover Art

Capote's Women

Capote's Women A True Story of Love, Betrayal, and a Swan Song for an Era by Laurence Leamer

DON’T MISS FX’s FEUD: CAPOTE VS. THE SWANS —THE ORIGINAL SERIES BASED ON THE BESTSELLING BOOK—NOW AVAILABLE TO STREAM ON HULU! New York Times bestselling author Laurence Leamer reveals the complex web of relationships and scandalous true stories behind Truman Capote's never-published final novel, Answered Prayers— the dark secrets, tragic glamour, and Capote's ultimate betrayal of the group of female friends he called his "swans." “There are certain women,” Truman Capote wrote, “who, though perhaps not born rich, are born to be rich.” Barbara “Babe” Paley, Gloria Guinness, Marella Agnelli, Slim Hayward, Pamela Churchill, C. Z. Guest, Lee Radziwill (Jackie Kennedy’s sister)—they were the toast of midcentury New York, each beautiful and distinguished in her own way. Capote befriended them, received their deepest confidences, and ingratiated himself into their lives. Then, in one fell swoop, he betrayed them in the most surprising and startling way possible. Bestselling biographer Laurence Leamer delves into the years following the acclaimed publication of Breakfast at Tiffany’s in 1958 and In Cold Blood in 1966, when Capote struggled with a crippling case of writer’s block. While en­joying all the fruits of his success, he was struck with an idea for what he was sure would be his most celebrated novel…one based on the re­markable, racy lives of his very, very rich friends. For years, Capote attempted to write An­swered Prayers , what he believed would have been his magnum opus. But when he eventually published a few chapters in Esquire , the thinly fictionalized lives (and scandals) of his closest fe­male confidantes were laid bare for all to see, and he was banished from their high-society world forever. Laurence Leamer re-creates the lives of these fascinating swans, their friendships with Capote and one another, and the doomed quest to write what could have been one of the greatest novels of the twentieth century.

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The Girls of Atomic City - Denise Kiernan Cover Art

The Girls of Atomic City

The Girls of Atomic City The Untold Story of the Women Who Helped Win World War II by Denise Kiernan

The New York Times bestseller, now available in paperback—an incredible true story of the top-secret World War II town of Oak Ridge, Tennessee, and the young women brought there unknowingly to help build the atomic bomb. “The best kind of nonfiction: marvelously reported, fluidly written, and a remarkable story...As meticulous and brilliant as it is compulsively readable.” —Karen Abbott, author of Sin in the Second City At the height of World War II, Oak Ridge, Tennessee, was home to 75,000 residents, and consumed more electricity than New York City, yet it was shrouded in such secrecy that it did not appear on any map. Thousands of civilians, many of them young women from small towns across the U.S., were recruited to this secret city, enticed by the promise of solid wages and war-ending work. What were they actually doing there? Very few knew. The purpose of this mysterious government project was kept a secret from the outside world and from the majority of the residents themselves. Some wondered why, despite the constant work and round-the-clock activity in this makeshift town, did no tangible product of any kind ever seem to leave its guarded gates? The women who kept this town running would find out at the end of the war, when Oak Ridge’s secret was revealed and changed the world forever. Drawing from the voices and experiences of the women who lived and worked in Oak Ridge, The Girls of Atomic City rescues a remarkable, forgotten chapter of World War II from obscurity. Denise Kiernan captures the spirit of the times through these women: their pluck, their desire to contribute, and their enduring courage. “A phenomenal story,” and Publishers Weekly called it an “intimate and revealing glimpse into one of the most important scientific developments in history.” “Kiernan has amassed a deep reservoir of intimate details of what life was like for women living in the secret city...Rosie, it turns out, did much more than drive rivets.” —The Washington Post

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Women of War - Suzanne Cope Cover Art

Women of War

Women of War The Italian Assassins, Spies, and Couriers Who Fought the Nazis by Suzanne Cope

The gripping, true, and untold history of the Italian anti-fascist resistance during World War II, told through the stories of four spectacularly courageous women fighters From underground soldiers to intrepid spies, Women of War unearths the hidden history of the brave women who risked their lives to overthrow the Nazi occupation and liberate Italy. Using primary sources and brand new scholarship, historian Suzanne Cope illuminates the roles played by women while Italians struggled under dual foes: Nazi invaders and Italian fascist loyalists. Cope’s research and storytelling introduces four brave and resourceful women who risked everything to overthrow the Nazi occupation and pry their future from the fascist grasp. We meet Carla Capponi in Rome, where she made bombs in an underground bunker then ferried them to their deadly destination wearing lipstick and a trenchcoat; and Bianca Guidetti Serra who rode her bicycle up switchbacks in the Alps, dodging bullets while delivering bags of clandestine newspapers and munitions to the anti-fascist armies hidden in the mountains. In Florence, the young future author of Italy’s new constitution, Teresa Mattei, carried secret messages and hid bombs; while Anita Malavasi led troops across the Apennine Mountains. Women of War brings their experiences as underground resistance fighters, partisan combatants, spies, and saboteurs to life. Essential and original, Women of War offers not only a reexamination of the elision of women from vital WWII history but also a valuable perspective on the ongoing fight for gender equality and social justice. After all, these were the women who launched a feminist movement as they fought for the future of their country, and what that could mean for its women, all while under Nazi and fascist fire.

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The Art Thief - Michael Finkel Cover Art

The Art Thief

The Art Thief A True Story of Love, Crime, and a Dangerous Obsession by Michael Finkel

#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • One of the most remarkable true-crime narratives of the twenty-first century • “ The Art Thief , like its title character, has confidence, élan, and a great sense of timing." — The New Yorker A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR: The Washington Post, The New Yorker, Lit Hub "Enthralling." — The Wall Street Journal Stéphane Bréitwieser is the most prolific art thief of all time. He pulled off more than 200 heists, often in crowded museums in broad daylight. His girlfriend served as his accomplice. His collection was worth an estimated $2 billion. He never sold a piece, displaying his stolen art in his attic bedroom. He felt like a king. Until everything came to a shocking end. In this spellbinding portrait of obsession and flawed genius, Michael Finkel gives us one of the most remarkable true-crime narratives of our times, a riveting story of art, theft, love, and an insatiable hunger to possess beauty at any cost.

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Paper Girl - Beth Macy Cover Art

Paper Girl

Paper Girl A Memoir of Home and Family in a Fractured America by Beth Macy

"There couldn’t be a timelier book . . . searingly poignant, essential . . . Macy follows closely in the footsteps of . . . Barbara Ehrenreich and Tracy Kidder, combining memoir with reportage, a raft of sobering statistics and, most uniquely in our era, a willingness to engage in uncomfortable conversations." — The Washington Post From one of our most acclaimed chroniclers of the forces eroding America’s social fabric, her most personal and powerful work: a reckoning with the changes that have rocked her own beloved small Ohio hometown Urbana, Ohio, was not a utopia when Beth Macy grew up there in the ’70s and ’80s—certainly not for her family. Her dad was known as the town drunk, which hurt, as did their poverty. But Urbana had a healthy economy and thriving schools, and Macy had middle-class schoolmates whose families became her role models. Though she left for college on a Pell Grant and then a faraway career in journalism, she still clung gratefully to the place that had helped raise her. But as Macy’s mother’s health declined in 2020, she couldn’t shake the feeling that her town had dramatically hardened. Macy had grown up as the paper girl, delivering the local newspaper, which was the community’s civic glue. Now she found scant local news and precious little civic glue. Yes, much of the work that once supported the middle class had gone away, but that didn’t begin to cover the forces turning Urbana into a poorer and angrier place. Absenteeism soared in the schools and in the workplace as a mental health crisis gripped the small city. Some of her old friends now embraced conspiracies. In nearby Springfield, Macy watched as her ex-boyfriend—once the most liberal person she knew—became a lead voice of opposition against the Haitian immigrants, parroting false talking points throughout the 2024 presidential campaign. This was not an assignment Beth Macy had ever imagined taking on, but after her mother’s death, she decided to figure out what happened to Urbana in the forty years since she’d left. The result is an astonishing book that, by taking us into the heart of one place, brings into focus our most urgent set of national issues. Paper Girl is a gift of courage, empathy, and insight. Beth Macy has turned to face the darkness in her family and community, people she loves wholeheartedly, even the ones she sometimes struggles to like. And in facing the truth—in person, with respect—she has found sparks of human dignity that she has used to light a signal fire of warning but also of hope.

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Greenlights - Matthew McConaughey Cover Art

Greenlights

Greenlights by Matthew McConaughey

#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • 6 MILLION COPIES SOLD WORLDWIDE! Discover the life-changing memoir that has inspired millions of readers through the Academy Award–winning actor’s unflinching honesty, unconventional wisdom, and lessons learned the hard way about living with greater satisfaction. “The No. 1 celebrity memoir of the past 10 years.”— USA Today “McConaughey’s book invites us to grapple with the lessons of his life as he did—and to see that the point was never to win, but to understand.”—Mark Manson, author of The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck I’ve been in this life for fifty years, been trying to work out its riddle for forty-two, and been keeping diaries of clues to that riddle for the last thirty-five. Notes about successes and failures, joys and sorrows, things that made me marvel, and things that made me laugh out loud. How to be fair. How to have less stress. How to have fun. How to hurt people less. How to get hurt less. How to be a good man. How to have meaning in life. How to be more me.   Recently, I worked up the courage to sit down with those diaries. I found stories I experienced, lessons I learned and forgot, poems, prayers, prescriptions, beliefs about what matters, some great photographs, and a whole bunch of bumper stickers. I found a reliable theme, an approach to living that gave me more satisfaction, at the time, and still: If you know how, and when, to deal with life’s challenges—how to get relative with the inevitable —you can enjoy a state of success I call “catching greenlights.”   So I took a one-way ticket to the desert and wrote this book: an album, a record, a story of my life so far. This is fifty years of my sights and seens, felts and figured-outs, cools and shamefuls. Graces, truths, and beauties of brutality. Getting away withs, getting caughts, and getting wets while trying to dance between the raindrops.   Hopefully, it’s medicine that tastes good, a couple of aspirin instead of the infirmary, a spaceship to Mars without needing your pilot’s license, going to church without having to be born again, and laughing through the tears.   It’s a love letter. To life.   It’s also a guide to catching more greenlights—and to realizing that the yellows and reds eventually turn green too.   Good luck.

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Truly - Lionel Richie Cover Art

Truly

Truly by Lionel Richie

“Richie is refreshingly open in the book, which functions as both a fun memoir and a love letter to music and his beloved Tuskegee… There’s an abundance of love and gratitude in this wildly entertaining, utterly charming memoir.” – Kirkus, STARRED review "Satisfying... vulnerable and powerful." — New York Times The long-awaited memoir of the legendary Lionel Richie. As a storyteller second to none, Lionel Richie is ready to tell it all. In this intimate, deeply candid memoir, Lionel revisits hilarious and harrowing events to inspire all who doubt themselves or feel their dreams don’t matter. Lionel chronicles lessons learned during his unlikely story of remarkable success—his dramatic transformation from painfully shy, “tragically” late bloomer to world-class entertainer and composer of love songs that have played as the soundtrack of our lives.  Funny, warm, and riveting, Lionel recalls his childhood in Tuskegee, Alabama, where he grew up on its university campus during the heyday of the Civil Rights movement, raucous adventures as a member of The Commodores, coming-of-age in late 1960s Harlem, culture shock playing gigs on the French Riviera, the big break of being signed to Motown, his meteoric solo career that included an Olympics performance witnessed by two billion around the globe, all the way through to writing and recording “We Are the World” and his current multi-generational fame as a judge on American Idol. Even with its turbulence, loss, and near-calamity, Lionel’s journey takes us on a thrill ride and delivers a memoir for the ages—reminding us of the power of love to elevate our own lives and our world. Lionel Richie’s memoir includes three eight-page photo inserts.

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Margaret Fuller - Megan Marshall Cover Art

Margaret Fuller

Margaret Fuller A New American Life by Megan Marshall

Winner of the Pulitzer Prize, this biography of Fuller "is as seductive as it is impressive . . . In Ms. Marshall, Fuller has . . . her ideal biographer" ( New York Times ). From an early age, Margaret Fuller provoked and dazzled New England's intellectual elite. Her famous Conversations changed women's sense of how they could think and live; her editorship of the Transcendentalist literary journal the Dial shaped American Romanticism. Now, Megan Marshall, whose acclaimed The Peabody Sisters "discovered" three fascinating women, has done it again: no biography of Fuller has made her ideas so alive or her life so moving. Marshall tells the story of how Fuller, tired of Boston, accepted Horace Greeley's offer to be the New-York Tribune's front-page columnist. The move unleashed a crusading concern for the urban poor and the plight of prostitutes, and a late-in-life hunger for passionate experience. In Italy as a foreign correspondent, Fuller took a secret lover, a young officer in the Roman Guard; she wrote dispatches on the brutal 1849 Siege of Rome; and she gave birth to a son. Yet, when all three died in a shipwreck off Fire Island shortly after Fuller's fortieth birthday, the sense and passion of her life's work were eclipsed by tragedy and scandal. Marshall's inspired account brings an American heroine back to indelible life.

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The Many Lives of Mama Love (Oprah's Book Club) - Lara Love Hardin Cover Art

The Many Lives of Mama Love (Oprah's Book Club)

The Many Lives of Mama Love (Oprah's Book Club) A Memoir of Lying, Stealing, Writing, and Healing by Lara Love Hardin

Now including a new bonus chapter! “Once you start reading, be prepared, because you won’t want to stop.” —Oprah Winfrey OPRAH’S BOOK CLUB PICK • New York Times bestselling author Lara Love Hardin recounts her slide from soccer mom to opioid addict to jailhouse shot caller and her unlikely comeback as a highly successful ghostwriter in this harrowing, hilarious, no-holds-barred memoir. No one expects the police to knock on the door of the million-dollar two-story home of the perfect cul-de-sac housewife. But soccer mom Lara Love Hardin has been hiding a shady secret: she is funding her heroin addiction by stealing her neighbors’ credit cards. Lara is convicted of thirty-two felonies and becomes inmate S32179. She finds that jail is a class system with a power structure that is somewhere between an adolescent sleepover party and Lord of the Flies . Furniture is made from tampon boxes, and Snickers bars are currency. But Lara quickly learns the rules and brings love and healing to her fellow inmates as she climbs the social ladder and acquires the nickname “Mama Love,” showing that jailhouse politics aren’t that different from the PTA meetings she used to attend. When she’s released, she reinvents herself as a ghostwriter. Now, she’s legally co-opting other people’s identities and getting to meet Oprah, meditate with the Dalai Lama, and have dinner with Archbishop Desmond Tutu. But the shadow of her past follows her. Shame is a poison worse than heroin—there is no way to detox. Lara must learn how to forgive herself and others, navigate life as a felon on probation, and prove to herself that she is more good than bad, among other essential lessons. The Many Lives of Mama Love is a heartbreaking and tender journey from shame to redemption, despite a system that makes it almost impossible for us to move beyond the worst thing we have ever done.

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Rasputin - Douglas Smith Cover Art

Rasputin

Rasputin Faith, Power, and the Twilight of the Romanovs by Douglas Smith

On the centenary of the death of Rasputin comes a definitive biography that will dramatically change our understanding of this fascinating figure A hundred years after his murder, Rasputin continues to excite the popular imagination as the personification of evil. Numerous biographies, novels, and films recount his mysterious rise to power as Nicholas and Alexandra's confidant and the guardian of the sickly heir to the Russian throne. His debauchery and sinister political influence are the stuff of legend, and the downfall of the Romanov dynasty was laid at his feet. But as the prizewinning historian Douglas Smith shows, the true story of Rasputin's life and death has remained shrouded in myth. A major new work that combines probing scholarship and powerful storytelling, Rasputin separates fact from fiction to reveal the real life of one of history's most alluring figures. Drawing on a wealth of forgotten documents from archives in seven countries, Smith presents Rasputin in all his complexity--man of God, voice of peace, loyal subject, adulterer, drunkard. Rasputin is not just a definitive biography of an extraordinary and legendary man but a fascinating portrait of the twilight of imperial Russia as it lurched toward catastrophe.

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Mark Twain - Ron Chernow Cover Art

Mark Twain

Mark Twain by Ron Chernow

The #1 New York Times Bestseller! One of Barack Obama's Summer Reading List Picks “Comprehensive, enthralling . . . Mark Twain flows like the Mississippi River, its prose propelled by Mark Twain’s own exuberance.” — The Boston Globe “Chernow writes with such ease and clarity . . . For all its length and detail, [ Mark Twain ] is deeply absorbing throughout.” — The Washington Post Pulitzer Prize-winning biographer Ron Chernow illuminates the full, fascinating, and complex life of the writer long celebrated as the father of American literature, Mark Twain Before he was Mark Twain, he was Samuel Langhorne Clemens. Born in 1835, the man who would become America’s first, and most influential, literary celebrity spent his childhood dreaming of piloting steamboats on the Mississippi. But when the Civil War interrupted his career on the river, the young Twain went west to the Nevada Territory and accepted a job at a local newspaper, writing dispatches that attracted attention for their brashness and humor. It wasn’t long before the former steamboat pilot from Missouri was recognized across the country for his literary brilliance, writing under a pen name that he would immortalize. In this richly nuanced portrait of Mark Twain, acclaimed biographer Ron Chernow brings his considerable powers to bear on a man who shamelessly sought fame and fortune, and crafted his persona with meticulous care. After establishing himself as a journalist, satirist, and lecturer, he eventually settled in Hartford with his wife and three daughters, where he went on to write The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and Adventures of Huckleberry Finn . He threw himself into the hurly-burly of American culture, and emerged as the nation’s most notable political pundit. At the same time, his madcap business ventures eventually bankrupted him; to economize, Twain and his family spent nine eventful years in exile in Europe. He suffered the death of his wife and two daughters, and the last stage of his life was marked by heartache, political crusades, and eccentric behavior that sometimes obscured darker forces at play. Drawing on Twain’s bountiful archives, including thousands of letters and hundreds of unpublished manuscripts, Chernow masterfully captures the man whose career reflected the country’s westward expansion, industrialization, and foreign wars, and who was the most important white author of his generation to grapple so fully with the legacy of slavery. Today, more than one hundred years after his death, Twain’s writing continues to be read, debated, and quoted. In this brilliant work of scholarship, a moving tribute to the writer’s talent and humanity, Chernow reveals the magnificent and often maddening life of one of the most original characters in American history.

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The Surgeon's Wife - Kieran Crowley Cover Art

The Surgeon's Wife

The Surgeon's Wife A True Story of Obsession, Rage, and Murder by Kieran Crowley

The New York Times– bestselling true crime account of the NYC doctor who killed his wife in cold blood and nearly got away with murder. In the summer of 1985, in his exclusive Upper East Side Manhattan apartment, Robert Bierenbaum, a prominent surgeon and certified genius, strangled his wife Gail to death. He then drove her body to an airstrip in Caldwell, N.J., and dumped it into the Atlantic Ocean from a single-engine private plane. The next day he reported her missing. Gail's parents had been thrilled to learn she was marrying Robert Bierenbaum. He seemed to be the perfect match for their daughter. He was from a well-to-do family, a medical student who spoke five languages fluently, a skier, and he even flew an airplane. But Gail would come to learn of her husband's dark side. On one occasion when Robert had tried to choke Gail because he caught her smoking, she filed a police report. She also alleged that he tried to kill her cat because he was jealous of it. For years, her sister pleaded with Gail to run for her life. Even her therapist warned his vulnerable patient that she could eventually die at the hands of the man she married. Fifteen years after this unspeakable, unfathomable crime, a jury found Robert Bierenbaum guilty of murder—and stripped the mask off of this privileged professional to reveal a monster.

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Sister Wife - Christine Brown Woolley Cover Art

Sister Wife

Sister Wife A Memoir of Faith, Family, and Finding Freedom by Christine Brown Woolley

#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER From TLC’s Sister Wives star Christine Brown Woolley, a groundbreaking and heartfelt memoir about living in a family like no other and finding the strength to leave Mormonism—and the only life she’s known—behind. Christine Brown Woolley had always dreamed of having a picture-perfect family—beautiful children, an adoring husband, and of course, a sisterhood of wives to share him with. Raised in Utah by practicing polygamists, Christine knew her life was less than normal, but that didn’t stop her from loving the full house of her childhood any less. Becoming Kody Brown’s third wife in 1994, Christine finally found the big, happy family she had hoped for. When TLC’s hit show Sister Wives premiered in 2010, Christine knew it was her chance to shine a light on the brighter side of polygamy—the helping hands, the lively discussions, and their unmatched devotion to each other. But the cameras also revealed a much darker truth. Now, in this candid tell-all, Christine shares for the first time the journey that led her away from polygamy and the bold path she is carving to live apart from all she has ever known. Moving, genuine, and insightful, this is a uniquely powerful tour de force of Christine’s journey toward and beyond her time in the spotlight as a sister wife.

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Women in White Coats - Olivia Campbell Cover Art

Women in White Coats

Women in White Coats How the First Women Doctors Changed the World of Medicine by Olivia Campbell

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER! For fans of Hidden Figures and Radium Girls comes the remarkable story of three Victorian women who broke down barriers in the medical field to become the first women doctors, revolutionizing the way women receive health care. In the early 1800s, women were dying in large numbers from treatable diseases because they avoided receiving medical care. Examinations performed by male doctors were often demeaning and even painful. In addition, women faced stigma from illness—a diagnosis could greatly limit their ability to find husbands, jobs or be received in polite society. Motivated by personal loss and frustration over inadequate medical care, Elizabeth Blackwell, Elizabeth Garrett Anderson and Sophia Jex-Blake fought for a woman’s place in the male-dominated medical field. For the first time ever, Women in White Coats tells the complete history of these three pioneering women who, despite countless obstacles, earned medical degrees and paved the way for other women to do the same. Though very different in personality and circumstance, together these women built women-run hospitals and teaching colleges—creating for the first time medical care for women by women. With gripping storytelling based on extensive research and access to archival documents, Women in White Coats tells the courageous history these women made by becoming doctors, detailing the boundaries they broke of gender and science to reshape how we receive medical care today.

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The Book of Sheen - Charlie Sheen Cover Art

The Book of Sheen

The Book of Sheen A Memoir by Charlie Sheen

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER For the first time, Charlie Sheen, the star of Platoon , Wall Street , Major League , and Two and a Half Men , writes the story of his extraordinary life in an unfiltered memoir. “We can live the stories or hear about them later from others. I choose the former.” Charlie Sheen should not be alive to write this book. But in The Book of Sheen , the movie and TV star, who has defied the odds, finally presents his story, in his own words. Charlie Sheen was born the third of four children to actor Martin Sheen and his wife, Janet. He grew up on film sets—from his father’s all over the world, to his own in Malibu. There he made ambitious Super 8s, with a roster of friends who went on to become household names themselves, including his brother Emilio, Sean and Chris Penn, and the Lowe brothers. Sheen broke into movies in the 1980s, playing a hoodlum in Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, a young soldier in Platoon , and an ethically compromised trader in Wall Street . But somewhere along the way, despite a successful transition to TV leading man in Spin City and Two and a Half Men , Sheen descended into a vortex of extracurricular activities. Now sober, Sheen delivers a clear-eyed narrative of his highs and lows with humor, candor, and a vivid, captivating writing style that is uniquely his. The Book of Sheen reads like a far-fetched, overstuffed novel of Hollywood life—yet it is all true.

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Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas - Hunter S. Thompson Cover Art

Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas

Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas A Savage Journey to the Heart of the American Dream by Hunter S. Thompson

A fiftieth-anniversary edition of the cult classic of gonzo journalism, hailed as “the best book on the dope decade” ( The New York Times Book Review ), featuring Ralph Steadman’s original drawings and an introduction by Caity Weaver The inspiration for the major motion picture directed by Terry Gilliam, starring Johnny Depp and Benicio del Toro “A scorching epochal sensation!”—Tom Wolfe First published in Rolling Stone magazine in 1971, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas is the best chronicle of drug-soaked, addle-brained, rollicking good times ever committed to the printed page. It is also the tale of a long weekend road trip that has gone down in the annals of American pop culture as one of the strangest journeys ever experienced. The writer’s account of an assignment he undertook with his attorney to visit Las Vegas and “check it out,” the book stands as the final word on the highs and lows of the 1960s, one of the defining works of our time and a stylistic and journalistic tour de force.

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Heartbreaker - Mike Campbell & Ari Surdoval Cover Art

Heartbreaker

Heartbreaker A Memoir by Mike Campbell & Ari Surdoval

INSTANT  NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER USA TODAY BESTSELLER "An exhilarating account. . . . an exemplary music memoir."-- Publishers Weekly  (starred review) A fast-paced, tender-hearted rock ’n’ roll memoir for the ages, Mike Campbell’s  Heartbreaker  is part rags-to-riches story and part raucous, seat-of-the-pants adventure, recounting Campbell’s life and times as lead guitarist of Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers.   Mike Campbell was the lead guitarist for Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers from the band’s inception in 1976 to Petty’s tragic death in 2017. His iconic, melodic playing helped form the foundation of the band’s sound, as heard on definitive classics like “American Girl,” “Breakdown,” “Don’t Come Around Here No More,” “Mary Jane’s Last Dance,” “Learning to Fly” and “Into the Great Wide Open.”    Together, Petty and Campbell wrote countless songs, including some of the band’s biggest hits: “Refugee,” “Here Comes My Girl,” “You Got Lucky” and “Runnin’ Down a Dream” among them.     From their early days in Florida to their dizzying rise to superstardom to Petty’s acclaimed, platinum-selling solo albums  Full Moon Fever  and  Wildflowers , Petty never made a record without him. Their work together is timeless, as are the career-defining hits Campbell co-wrote with Don Henley (“The Boys of Summer”) and with Petty for Stevie Nicks (“Stop Draggin’ My Heart Around”).   But few know of the less-than-glamorous background from which Campbell emerged—a hardscrabble childhood on the north side of Jacksonville, often just days ahead of homelessness, raised by a single mother struggling on minimum wage. After months of saving, his mother bought him a $15 pawnshop acoustic guitar for his sixteenth birthday. With a chord book and a transistor radio, Campbell painstakingly taught himself to play.    When a chance encounter with a guidance counselor inspired him to enroll in the University of Florida, Campbell—broke, with nowhere else to go and the Vietnam draft looming—moved into a rundown farmhouse in Gainesville, where he met a 20-year-old Tom Petty. They were soon inseparable. Together they chased their shared dream all the way to Los Angeles, where Campbell would meet his destiny, and the love of his life, Marcie.   It was an at-times grueling dream come true that took Campbell from the very bottom to the absolute top, where Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers would remain for decades, creating an astonishing body of work.   Brilliant, soft-spoken and intensely private, Campbell opens up within these pages for the first time, revealing himself to be an astute observer of triumphs, tragedies and absurdities alike, with a songwriter’s eye for the telling detail and a voice as direct and unpretentious as his music.    An instant classic,  Heartbreaker  is Mike Campbell’s heartfelt portrait of one throwaway kid’s lifesaving love of music and the creative heights he achieved through luck, collaboration, humility and extraordinary talent. 

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Kitchen Confidential - Anthony Bourdain Cover Art

Kitchen Confidential

Kitchen Confidential 25th Anniversary Edition by Anthony Bourdain

Anthony Bourdain, host of Parts Unknown, reveals "twenty-five years of sex, drugs, bad behavior and haute cuisine" in his breakout New York Times bestseller Kitchen Confidential. Bourdain spares no one's appetite when he told all about what happens behind the kitchen door. Bourdain uses the same "take-no-prisoners" attitude in his deliciously funny and shockingly delectable book, sure to delight gourmands and philistines alike. From Bourdain's first oyster in the Gironde, to his lowly position as dishwasher in a honky tonk fish restaurant in Provincetown (where he witnesses for the first time the real delights of being a chef); from the kitchen of the Rainbow Room atop Rockefeller Center, to drug dealers in the east village, from Tokyo to Paris and back to New York again, Bourdain's tales of the kitchen are as passionate as they are unpredictable. Kitchen Confidential will make your mouth water while your belly aches with laughter. You'll beg the chef for more, please.

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Into Thin Air - Jon Krakauer Cover Art

Into Thin Air

Into Thin Air by Jon Krakauer

#1 NATIONAL BESTSELLER • The epic account of the storm on the summit of Mt. Everest that claimed five lives and left countless more—including Krakauer's—in guilt-ridden disarray. “A harrowing tale of the perils of high-altitude climbing, a story of bad luck and worse judgment and of heartbreaking heroism.”— People A Los Angeles Times Best Nonfiction Book of the Last 30 Years A bank of clouds was assembling on the not-so-distant horizon, but journalist-mountaineer Jon Krakauer, standing on the summit of Mt. Everest, saw nothing that “suggested that a murderous storm was bearing down.” He was wrong. By writing Into Thin Air , Krakauer may have hoped to exorcise some of his own demons and lay to rest some of the painful questions that still surround the event. He takes great pains to provide a balanced picture of the people and events he witnessed and gives due credit to the tireless and dedicated Sherpas. He also avoids blasting easy targets such as Sandy Pittman, the wealthy socialite who brought an espresso maker along on the expedition. Krakauer's highly personal inquiry into the catastrophe provides a great deal of insight into what went wrong. But for Krakauer himself, further interviews and investigations only lead him to the conclusion that his perceived failures were directly responsible for a fellow climber's death. Clearly, Krakauer remains haunted by the disaster, and although he relates a number of incidents in which he acted selflessly and even heroically, he seems unable to view those instances objectively. In the end, despite his evenhanded and even generous assessment of others' actions, he reserves a full measure of vitriol for himself. This updated trade paperback edition of Into Thin Air includes an extensive new postscript that sheds fascinating light on the acrimonious debate that flared between Krakauer and Everest guide Anatoli Boukreev in the wake of the tragedy. "I have no doubt that Boukreev's intentions were good on summit day," writes Krakauer in the postscript, dated August 1999. "What disturbs me, though, was Boukreev's refusal to acknowledge the possibility that he made even a single poor decision. Never did he indicate that perhaps it wasn't the best choice to climb without gas or go down ahead of his clients." As usual, Krakauer supports his points with dogged research and a good dose of humility. But rather than continue the heated discourse that has raged since Into Thin Air 's denouncement of guide Boukreev, Krakauer's tone is conciliatory; he points most of his criticism at G. Weston De Walt, who coauthored The Climb , Boukreev's version of events. And in a touching conclusion, Krakauer recounts his last conversation with the late Boukreev, in which the two weathered climbers agreed to disagree about certain points. Krakauer had great hopes to patch things up with Boukreev, but the Russian later died in an avalanche on another Himalayan peak, Annapurna I. In 1999, Krakauer received an Academy Award in Literature from the American Academy of Arts and Letters--a prestigious prize intended "to honor writers of exceptional accomplishment." According to the Academy's citation, "Krakauer combines the tenacity and courage of the finest tradition of investigative journalism with the stylish subtlety and profound insight of the born writer. His account of an ascent of Mount Everest has led to a general reevaluation of climbing and of the commercialization of what was once a romantic, solitary sport; while his account of the life and death of Christopher McCandless, who died of starvation after challenging the Alaskan wilderness, delves even more deeply and disturbingly into the fascination of nature and the devastating effects of its lure on a young and curious mind."

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Kingmaker - Sonia Purnell Cover Art

Kingmaker

Kingmaker Pamela Harriman's Astonishing Life of Power, Seduction, and Intrigue by Sonia Purnell

“A thorough account of Harriman’s rise which also manages to be a brisk, twisty read … riveting and revelatory.” — The New Yorker “Rigorous but rollicking.” — The New York Times Named a BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR by The New Yorker , Apple Books, The Economist , Politico , Town & Country , The Guardian, Financial Times , The Spectator , The Telegraph , The Oldie , Irish Examiner , Mail on Sunday , Daily Express , London Standard , and The Times Literary Supplement and a Must-Read Book of Fall 2024 by People Magazine From the New York Times bestselling and award-winning author of A WOMAN OF NO IMPORTANCE, an electrifying re-examination of one of the 20th century’s greatest unsung power players When Pamela Churchill Harriman died in 1997, the obituaries that followed were predictably scathing – and many were downright sexist. Written off as a mere courtesan and social climber, her true legacy was overshadowed by a glamorous social life and her infamous erotic adventures. Much of what she did behind the scenes – on both sides of the Atlantic - remained invisible and secret. That is, until now: with a wealth of fresh research, interviews and newly discovered sources, Sonia Purnell unveils for the first time the full, spectacular story of how she left an indelible mark on the world today. At age 20 Churchill’s beloved daughter-in-law became a “secret weapon” during World War II, strategically wining, dining, and seducing diplomats and generals to help win over American sentiment (and secrets) to the British cause against Hitler. After the war, she helped to transform Fiat heir Gianni Agnelli into Italy’s ‘uncrowned king’ on the international stage and after moving to the US brought a struggling Democratic party back to life, hand-picking Bill Clinton from obscurity and vaulting him to the presidency. Picked as Ambassador to France, she deployed her legendary subtle powers to charm world leaders and help efforts to bring peace to Bosnia, playing her part in what was arguably the high-water mark of American global supremacy. There are few at any time who have operated as close to the center of power over five decades and two continents, and there is practically no one in 20th Century politics, culture, and fashion whose lives she did not touch, including the Kennedys, Truman Capote, Aly Khan, Kay Graham, Gloria Steinem, Ed Murrow, and Frank Sinatra. Written with the novelistic richness and investigative rigor that only Sonia Purnell could bring to this story full of sex, politics, yachts, palaces and fabulous clothes, KINGMAKER re-asserts Harriman’s rightful place at the heart of history.

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The Lonely City - Olivia Laing Cover Art

The Lonely City

The Lonely City Adventures in the Art of Being Alone by Olivia Laing

Finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award in Criticism #1 Book of the Year from Brain Pickings Named a best book of the year by NPR, Newsweek, Slate, Pop Sugar , Marie Claire , Elle, Publishers Weekly , and Lit Hub A dazzling work of biography, memoir, and cultural criticism on the subject of loneliness, told through the lives of iconic artists, by the acclaimed author of The Trip to Echo Spring . When Olivia Laing moved to New York City in her mid-thirties, she found herself inhabiting loneliness on a daily basis. Increasingly fascinated by the most shameful of experiences, she began to explore the lonely city by way of art. Moving from Edward Hopper’s Nighthawks to Andy Warhol’s Time Capsules, from Henry Darger’s hoarding to David Wojnarowicz’s AIDS activism, Laing conducts an electric, dazzling investigation into what it means to be alone, illuminating not only the causes of loneliness but also how it might be resisted and redeemed. Humane, provocative, and moving, The Lonely City is a celebration of a strange and lovely state, adrift from the larger continent of human experience, but intrinsic to the very act of being alive.

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Leaders Who Changed History - DK Cover Art

Leaders Who Changed History

Leaders Who Changed History by DK

Explore the lives of more than 85 of the world's most transformational and influential leaders in politics, business, religion, humanitarianism, and the military with this innovative and boldly graphic book. Comprehensive in its scope and depth, and fully illustrated, Leaders Who Changed History profiles leaders from inspirational to insidious, those who changed the world for the better and those whose corruption left enduring scars. These figures hail from all walks of life - including political, military, religious, and business. Combining accessible text with specially commissioned illustrated portraits in a range of bold styles, photographs, infographics, and timelines, entries explore the lives and legacies of each individual in a fresh, visual way. Covering political masterminds and military geniuses such as Alexander the Great and Genghis Khan, great kings and queens like Elizabeth I and Catherine the Great, icons of religion and rebellion from Mohammad to the Dalai Lama to Mahatma Ghandi, and captains of industry, Leaders Who Changed History explores and explains the world-changing actions of history's heroes and villains.

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The Woman in Me - Britney Spears Cover Art

The Woman in Me

The Woman in Me by Britney Spears

Named a Best Book of the Year by Elle , The Washington Post , Rolling Stone , NPR, Financial Times , Vanity Fair, and more! “In Britney Spears’s memoir, she’s stronger than ever.” — The New York Times Over 2 million copies sold of the “moving” ( Time ), “powerful” ( Los Angeles Times ), “radiant” ( The New York Times ), “poignant” ( Vogue ) #1 New York Times bestseller. The Woman in Me is a brave and astonishingly moving story about freedom, fame, motherhood, survival, faith, and hope. In June 2021, the whole world was listening as Britney Spears spoke in open court. The impact of sharing her voice—her truth—was undeniable, and it changed the course of her life and the lives of countless others. The Woman in Me reveals for the first time her incredible journey—and the strength at the core of one of the greatest performers in pop music history. Written with remarkable candor and humor, Spears’s groundbreaking book illuminates the enduring power of music and love—and the importance of a woman telling her own story, on her own terms, at last.

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Mother Mary Comes to Me - Arundhati Roy Cover Art

Mother Mary Comes to Me

Mother Mary Comes to Me by Arundhati Roy

Finalist for the Kirkus Prize A raw and deeply moving memoir from the legendary author of The God of Small Things and The Ministry of Utmost Happiness that traces the complex relationship with her mother, Mary Roy, a fierce and formidable force who shaped Arundhati’s life both as a woman and a writer. Mother Mary Comes to Me , Arundhati Roy’s first work of memoir, is a soaring account, both intimate and inspirational, of how the author became the person and the writer she is, shaped by circumstance, but above all by her complex relationship to the extraordinary, singular mother she describes as “my shelter and my storm.” “Heart-smashed” by her mother Mary’s death in September 2022 yet puzzled and “more than a little ashamed” by the intensity of her response, Roy began to write, to make sense of her feelings about the mother she ran from at age eighteen, “not because I didn’t love her, but in order to be able to continue to love her.” And so begins this astonishing, sometimes disturbing, and surprisingly funny memoir of the author’s journey from her childhood in Kerala, India, where her single mother founded a school, to the writing of her prizewinning novels and essays, through today. With the scale, sweep, and depth of her novels, The God of Small Things and The Ministry of Utmost Happiness , and the passion, political clarity, and warmth of her essays, Mother Mary Comes to Me is an ode to freedom, a tribute to thorny love and savage grace—a memoir like no other.

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Queen Elizabeth II and the Royal Family - DK Cover Art

Queen Elizabeth II and the Royal Family

Queen Elizabeth II and the Royal Family A Glorious Illustrated History by DK

Queen Elizabeth II and the Royal Family is a magnificent tribute to the life and reign of Queen Elizabeth II and a celebration of the British royal family, from the first English kings through the birth of the queen's second grandchild to Prince William and Kate, the Duchess of Cambridge. Highly illustrated with photographs and timelines throughout, Queen Elizabeth II and the Royal Family tells the story of the House of Windsor, and includes events such as the royal wedding of Prince William and Kate Middleton and profiles on key people such as Princess Diana and Prince Harry. Graphics illuminate details of the queen's personal and private life, vivid photographs highlight important events, special features showcase the royal residences, and timelines untangle the complete history of the kings and queens of England and Scotland, tracing the line of succession to the throne. This gorgeous ebook is the most complete visual history of Britain's most enduring icon, Queen Elizabeth II, and the royal family.

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I'm Glad My Mom Died - Jennette McCurdy Cover Art

I'm Glad My Mom Died

I'm Glad My Mom Died by Jennette McCurdy

* #1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * #1 INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER * MORE THAN 3 MILLION COPIES SOLD! A heartbreaking and hilarious memoir by iCarly and Sam & Cat star Jennette McCurdy about her struggles as a former child actor—including eating disorders, addiction, and a complicated relationship with her overbearing mother—and how she retook control of her life. Jennette McCurdy was six years old when she had her first acting audition. Her mother’s dream was for her only daughter to become a star, and Jennette would do anything to make her mother happy. So she went along with what Mom called “calorie restriction,” eating little and weighing herself five times a day. She endured extensive at-home makeovers while Mom chided, “Your eyelashes are invisible, okay? You think Dakota Fanning doesn’t tint hers?” She was even showered by Mom until age sixteen while sharing her diaries, email, and all her income. In I’m Glad My Mom Died , Jennette recounts all this in unflinching detail—just as she chronicles what happens when the dream finally comes true. Cast in a new Nickelodeon series called iCarly , she is thrust into fame. Though Mom is ecstatic, emailing fan club moderators and getting on a first-name basis with the paparazzi (“Hi Gale!”), Jennette is riddled with anxiety, shame, and self-loathing, which manifest into eating disorders, addiction, and a series of unhealthy relationships. These issues only get worse when, soon after taking the lead in the iCarly spinoff Sam & Cat alongside Ariana Grande, her mother dies of cancer. Finally, after discovering therapy and quitting acting, Jennette embarks on recovery and decides for the first time in her life what she really wants. Told with refreshing candor and dark humor, I’m Glad My Mom Died is an inspiring story of resilience, independence, and the joy of shampooing your own hair.

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Eat Pray Love - Elizabeth Gilbert Cover Art

Eat Pray Love

Eat Pray Love One Woman's Search for Everything Across Italy, India and Indonesia by Elizabeth Gilbert

One of the most iconic, beloved, and bestselling books of our time from the bestselling author of City of Girls and Big Magic , Elizabeth Gilbert. Elizabeth Gilbert’s Eat Pray Love touched the world and changed countless lives, inspiring and empowering millions of readers to search for their own best selves. Now, this beloved and iconic book returns in a beautiful 10th anniversary edition, complete with an updated introduction from the author, to launch a whole new generation of fans.   In her early thirties, Elizabeth Gilbert had everything a modern American woman was supposed to want—husband, country home, successful career—but instead of feeling happy and fulfilled, she was consumed by panic and confusion. This wise and rapturous book is the story of how she left behind all these outward marks of success, and set out to explore three different aspects of her nature, against the backdrop of three different cultures: pleasure in Italy, devotion in India, and on the Indonesian island of Bali, a balance between worldly enjoyment and divine transcendence.

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The Fund - Rob Copeland Cover Art

The Fund

The Fund Ray Dalio, Bridgewater Associates, and the Unraveling of a Wall Street Legend by Rob Copeland

The unauthorized, unvarnished story of famed Wall Street hedge-fund manager Ray Dalio. An instant New York Times bestseller! Ray Dalio does not want you to read this book. When the billionaire founder of Bridgewater Associates, the largest hedge fund on the planet, announced in 2022 that he was stepping down from the company he started out of his apartment nearly 50 years ago, the news made headlines around the world. Dalio cultivated an aura of international admiration and fame thanks to his company’s eye-popping success, coupled with a mystique he encouraged with frequent media appearances, celebrity hobnobbing, and his bestselling book, Principles . In The Fund , award-winning New York Times journalist Rob Copeland punctures this carefully-constructed narrative of the benevolent business titan, exposing his much-promoted “principles” as one of the great feats of hubris in modern memory—in practice, they encouraged a toxic culture of paranoia and backstabbing. The Fund is a page-turning, stranger-than-fiction journey into a rarefied world of wealth and power. It offers an unflinching look at the pain so often caused by the “radical transparency” Dalio has described as a core tenet of his recipe for business success and a meaningful life. Drawing on hundreds of interviews with those inside and around the firm, Copeland takes readers into the room as former FBI director Jim Comey kisses Dalio's ring, recent Pennsylvania Senate candidate David McCormick drinks the Kool-Aid, and a rotating cast of memorable characters grapple with their personal psychological and moral limits—all under the watchful eye of their charismatic leader. This is a cautionary tale for anyone convinced that the ability to make lots of money has anything at all to do with unlocking the principles of human nature.

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Softly, As I Leave You - Priscilla Presley & Mary Jane Ross Cover Art

Softly, As I Leave You

Softly, As I Leave You Life After Elvis by Priscilla Presley & Mary Jane Ross

INSTANT  NEW YORK TIMES  BESTSELLER USA TODAY  BESTSELLER "A heartfelt record of stepping into one’s own." — Publishers Weekly The long-awaited memoir by Priscilla Presley chronicling her difficult, inspiring journey beyond the walls of Graceland and behind the elegant image the world sees. Priscilla Presley’s divorce from Elvis left his fans incredulous. How could she leave the man every woman wanted? From the outside, life in Elvis’s mansion looked glamorous and enviable, and in many respects, it was. But inside the mansion, her husband was constantly surrounded by a male entourage while at the gates, lines of beautiful women waited hopefully for an audience with the King. From the time she was seventeen years-old, that life was all Priscilla had known. During her ten years with Elvis, it became painfully apparent that she had no idea who she was outside Elvis’s world. The only way to find herself was to leave that world and seek a new life of her own, because leaving was the only way to survive, for herself and for her daughter.   Softly, As I Leave You , is the deeply personal story of what Priscilla lost and what she found when she walked away from the man she loved. Despite the legal separation, their love for one another transformed into a touching and tender dynamic that endured until Elvis’s untimely death four years later. Shattered by Elvis’s passing, she had to reinvent herself a second time as the single mother of a talented, often headstrong daughter who never really recovered from her father’s death. Priscilla’s dedication to motherhood was enriched by the birth of her second child, and she gradually found her footing as a businesswoman, actress, designer, and legislative advocate. She transformed Graceland into an international destination and helped guide the development of Elvis Presley Enterprises. But the unexpected, shattering loss of three immediate family members years later brought Priscilla to her knees. She shares her journey with a quiet dignity that will comfort and reassure anyone who has suffered – and survived – seemingly unbearable loss. A passionate, compassionate, and inspiring story of finding your place in the world, Softly, As I Leave You , is a sweet Southern melody that will take the reader with Priscilla on her long road home.

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High Achiever - Tiffany Jenkins Cover Art

High Achiever

High Achiever The Incredible True Story of One Addict's Double Life by Tiffany Jenkins

NATIONAL BESTSELLER • An up-close portrait of the mind of an addict and a life unraveled by narcotics—a memoir of captivating urgency and surprising humor that puts a human face on the opioid crisis. Tiffany’s story continues in the New York Times bestseller A Clean Mess , available now! “Raw, brutal, and shocking. Move over, Orange Is the New Black. ”—Amy Dresner, author of My Fair Junkie When word got out that Tiffany Jenkins was withdrawing from opiates on the floor of a jail cell, people in her town were shocked. Not because of the twenty felonies she’d committed, or the nature of her crimes, or even that she’d been captain of the high school cheerleading squad just a few years earlier, but because her boyfriend was a Deputy Sherriff, and his friends—their friends—were the ones who’d arrested her. A raw and twisty page-turning memoir that reads like fiction, High Achiever spans Tiffany’s life as an active opioid addict, her 120 days in a Florida jail where every officer despised what she’d done to their brother in blue, and her eventual recovery. With heart-racing urgency and unflinching honesty, Jenkins takes you inside the grips of addiction and the desperate decisions it breeds. She is a born storyteller who lived an incredible story, from blackmail by an ex-boyfriend to a soul-shattering deal with a drug dealer, and her telling brims with suspense and unexpected wit. But the true surprise is her path to recovery. Tiffany breaks through the stigma and silence to offer hope and inspiration to anyone battling the disease—whether it’s a loved one or themselves.

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PRINCE OF POACHERS Part 1 Ex-Outlaw Deer Hunter Charles Beaty Tells All In His EPIC True Story Hunting Adventure Thriller! - Charles Beaty Cover Art

PRINCE OF POACHERS Part 1 Ex-Outlaw Deer Hunter Charles Beaty Tells All In His EPIC True Story Hunting Adventure Thriller!

PRINCE OF POACHERS Part 1 Ex-Outlaw Deer Hunter Charles Beaty Tells All In His EPIC True Story Hunting Adventure Thriller! by Charles Beaty

Hear the story of how Texas Parks and Wildlife state game wardens worked with ranch security in an endless effort to capture Charlie Beaty and bring him to justice. Read Charlie's first-hand accounts of his record-setting 11, 16 and 27-day solo outlaw hunts across Texas, including the world-famous King and Kenedy Ranches, and how he single-handedly poached 116 trophy-class whitetail deer. Charles Robert Beaty was born August 13, 1956, in the city of Tyler, Texas. Learning about hunting for the first time around the age of twelve, Charlie became fascinated with the idea of killing big whitetail deer. As an adult, his fascination turned into an obsession. Charlie worked as a taxidermist while secretly living the life of an outlaw-hunter, poaching hundreds of deer and other animals under the noses of Texas Parks and Wildlife game wardens. After 22 years of poaching, Charlie finally reformed, turning himself into the state game wardens and retiring his outlaw ways. Charlie chose to write Prince of Poachers to share his story along with why he no longer poaches and to warn others away from outlaw-hunting. Read Charlie's first-hand account of illegally hunting across Texas, including the world-famous King and Kenedy Ranches, poaching an incredible 116 trophy-class whitetail deer over the course of 22 years. Join in as Charlie recalls taking friends of all backgrounds, including police officers, on many outlaw hunts. And find out why, after taking forty-one bucks over the course of seven seasons, Charlie surrendered to Texas Parks and Wildlife game wardens... only to return on a rampage, killing an additional seventy-five whitetail bucks. This book will keep you on the edge of your seat as you read Charlie's accounts of close calls with wardens and ranch security, rattling up his top dirty-dozen bucks, his record-setting 11, 16, and 27 day outlaw-hunts, surviving off the land, and always making it out alive even when his friends feared him to be dead. 2% of all proceeds from book sales are donated to Operation Game Thief.

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Killing the Legends - Bill O'Reilly & Martin Dugard Cover Art

Killing the Legends

Killing the Legends The Lethal Danger of Celebrity by Bill O'Reilly & Martin Dugard

In the next book in the multimillion-selling Killing Series, Bill O'Reilly and Martin Dugard tell the larger-than-life stories of Elvis Presley, John Lennon, and Muhammad Ali. The King is dead. The Walrus is shot. The Greatest is no more. Elvis Presley, John Lennon, and Muhammad Ali. These three icons changed not only the worlds of music, film, and sports, but the world itself. Their faces were known everywhere, in every nation, across every culture. And their stories became larger than life—until their lives spun out of control at the hands of those they most trusted. In Killing the Legends , Bill O’Reilly and Martin Dugard explore the lives, legacies, and tragic deaths of three of the most famous people of the 20th century. Each experienced immense success, then failures that forced them to change; each faced the challenge of growing old in fields that privilege youth; and finally, each became isolated, cocooned by wealth but vulnerable to the demands of those in their innermost circles. Dramatic, insightful, and immensely entertaining, Killing the Legends is the twelfth book in O’Reilly and Dugard’s Killing series: the most popular series of narrative history books in the world, with more than 18 million copies in print.

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The California Kid - Owen Hanson & Alex Cody Foster Cover Art

The California Kid

The California Kid From USC Golden Boy to International Drug Kingpin by Owen Hanson & Alex Cody Foster

You’ve read the shocking one-sided tale of international drug kingpin Owen Hanson in Rolling Stone, VICE, and the LA Times—but now he’s ready to tell his side of the story. #1 in Football Biographies A surfer kid from California, Owen Hanson was still in his 20s when he found himself the leader of a multimillion-dollar criminal empire. What began as an attempt to fit in with the rich kids at the University of Southern California soon grew into gambling and loan sharking, which then opened the door to drug trafficking and money laundering. Hanson wasn’t just involved in this stuff—he excelled at it. Living the fast-paced lifestyle of the rich and famous, Hanson felt he was finally making his father proud, never mind the questionable ethics and obvious danger of it all. But with the cartel, a serious drug-abuse problem, and the pursuit of the FBI all threatening to overtake him, it wouldn't be long before his glamorous lifestyle caught up with him. The California Kid follows Owen from his roots as a USC star athlete from a broken home, where his idolization of the rich and famous began, to his descent down a dangerous path where he would stop at nothing to earn the love and acceptance of his absent mother and the respect of his father. The story that follows is almost too wild to believe—but Owen bears the 21-year sentence to prove it.

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Into the Wild - Jon Krakauer Cover Art

Into the Wild

Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer

NATIONAL BESTSELLER • In April 1992 a young man from a well-to-do family hitchhiked to Alaska and walked alone into the wilderness north of Mt. McKinley. Four months later, his decomposed body was found by a moose hunter. This is the unforgettable story of h ow Christopher Johnson McCandless came to die. "It may be nonfiction, but Into the Wild is a mystery of the highest order." —Entertainment Weekly McCandess had given $25,000 in savings to charity, abandoned his car and most of his possessions, burned all the cash in his wallet, and invented a new life for himself. Not long after, he was dead. Into the Wild is the mesmerizing, heartbreaking tale of an enigmatic young man who goes missing in the wild and whose story captured the world’s attention.  Immediately after graduating from college in 1991, McCandless had roamed through the West and Southwest on a vision quest like those made by his heroes Jack London and John Muir. In the Mojave Desert he abandoned his car, stripped it of its license plates, and burned all of his cash. He would give himself a new name, Alexander Supertramp, and, unencumbered by money and belongings, he would be free to wallow in the raw, unfiltered experiences that nature presented. Craving a blank spot on the map, McCandless simply threw the maps away. Leaving behind his desperate parents and sister, he vanished into the wild. Jon Krakauer constructs a clarifying prism through which he reassembles the disquieting facts of McCandless's short life. Admitting an interest that borders on obsession, he searches for the clues to the drives and desires that propelled McCandless.  When McCandless's innocent mistakes turn out to be irreversible and fatal, he becomes the stuff of tabloid headlines and is dismissed for his naiveté, pretensions, and hubris. He is said to have had a death wish but wanting to die is a very different thing from being compelled to look over the edge. Krakauer brings McCandless's uncompromising pilgrimage out of the shadows, and the peril, adversity, and renunciation sought by this enigmatic young man are illuminated with a rare understanding—and not an ounce of sentimentality. Into the Wild is a tour de force. The power and luminosity of Jon Krakauer's stoytelling blaze through every page.

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Alone at Dawn - Dan Schilling & Lori Longfritz Cover Art

Alone at Dawn

Alone at Dawn Medal of Honor Recipient John Chapman and the Untold Story of the World's Deadliest Special Operations Force by Dan Schilling & Lori Longfritz

The New York Times bestselling true account of John Chapman, Medal of Honor recipient and Special Ops Combat Controller, and his heroic one-man stand during the Afghan War, as he sacrificed his life to save the lives of twenty-three comrades-in-arms. In the predawn hours of March 4, 2002, just below the 10,469-foot peak of a mountain in eastern Afghanistan, a fierce battle raged. Outnumbered by Al Qaeda fighters, Air Force Combat Controller John Chapman and a handful of Navy SEALs struggled to take the summit in a desperate bid to find a lost teammate. Chapman, leading the charge, was gravely wounded in the initial assault. Believing he was dead, his SEAL leader ordered a retreat. Chapman regained consciousness alone, with the enemy closing in on three sides. John Chapman's subsequent display of incredible valor -- first saving the lives of his SEAL teammates and then, knowing he was mortally wounded, single-handedly engaging two dozen hardened fighters to save the lives of an incoming rescue squad -- posthumously earned him the Medal of Honor. Chapman is the first airman in nearly fifty years to be given the distinction reserved for America's greatest heroes. Alone at Dawn is also a behind-the-scenes look at the Air Force Combat Controllers: the world's deadliest and most versatile special operations force, whose members must not only exceed the qualifications of Navy SEAL and Army Delta Force teams but also act with sharp decisiveness and deft precision -- even in the face of life-threatening danger. Drawing from firsthand accounts, classified documents, dramatic video footage, and extensive interviews with leaders and survivors of the operation, Alone at Dawn is the story of an extraordinary man's brave last stand and the brotherhood that forged him.

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Furious Cool - David Henry & Joe Henry Cover Art

Furious Cool

Furious Cool Richard Pryor and the World That Made Him by David Henry & Joe Henry

"A testament to [Pryor's] stature not only as an African-American entertainment idol but also as an American icon . . . [An] exuberant tribute." — The New York Times Book Review Richard Pryor was arguably the single most influential performer of the second half of the twentieth century, and certainly the most successful black actor/comedian ever. Controversial and somewhat enigmatic during his life, Pryor's performances opened up a whole new world of possibilities, merging fantasy with angry reality in a way that wasn't just new—it was theretofore unthinkable. Now, this groundbreaking and revelatory work brings him to life again both as a man and as an artist, providing an in-depth appreciation of his talent and his lasting influence, as well as an insightful examination of the world he lived in and the myriad influences that shaped both his persona and his art. "Addictively readable . . . Someday, when fewer people know Richard Pryor's name, Furious Cool will be the best defense against the worst sort of forgetting—the kind that involves who we are now, who we loved once, and why." — Esquire "A sleek, highly literate biography that places the comic in the pop-cultural context of his times." — Bloomberg News "Richard Pryor was the most free black man of the twentieth century. He also was a comic genius. This book gives the definitive reasons why he was so free and so sublime." —Dr. Cornel West "David Henry and Joe Henry have brought Richard Pryor back to pulsating life, affirming both his humanity and his immortality as a comic—and tragic—genius . . . Furious Cool is a fabulous history, alive with fascinating characters." — The Huffington Post

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To Rescue the American Spirit - Bret Baier Cover Art

To Rescue the American Spirit

To Rescue the American Spirit Teddy Roosevelt and the Birth of a Superpower by Bret Baier

“This captivating portrayal of Teddy is Bret Baier’s gift to us. From Roosevelt’s resilience over tragedy to his heroism in war, from his midnight rambles as police commissioner to his dramatic fights for reform as governor and president, Baier summons the irrepressible spirit of the man. What an engaging storyteller! What a joy to read!” —Doris Kearns Goodwin From #1 New York Times bestselling author and Fox News Channel’s Chief Political Anchor, a fresh and fascinating exploration of the extraordinary life of Teddy Roosevelt, revealing how his bold leadership thrust America onto the world stage and changed the course of world history. "As Bret Baier shows in this wonderfully readable biography, Theodore Roosevelt has many lessons for today." —Walter Isaacson There has never been a president like Theodore Roosevelt. An iconoclast shaped by fervent ideals, his early life seems ripped from the pages of an adventure novel: abandoning his place in the New York aristocracy, he was drawn to the thrill of the West, becoming an honorary cowboy who won the respect of the rough men of the plains, adopting their code of authenticity and courage. As a New York State legislator, he fought corruption and patronage. As New York City police commissioner, he walked the beat at night to hold his men accountable; and as New York governor, he butted heads with the old guard to bring fresh air to a state mired in political corruption. He was also a passionate naturalist, conservationist, and hunter who collected hundreds of specimens of birds and animals throughout his life. He was a soldier and commander who led a regiment of “Rough Riders” to victory in the Spanish-American War, a show of leadership and bravery that put him on the national map. As president, he brought energy, laughter, and bold ideas to the White House, pursuing a vigorous agenda that established America as a leader on the world stage —from advancing the Panama Canal, brokering peace with Russia, and taking on business elites. Bret Baier’s exquisite book reveals the storied life of a leader whose passion, daring, and prowess left an indelible mark on the fabric of our country and reimagined the possibilities of the presidency.  

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True Nature - Lance Richardson Cover Art

True Nature

True Nature The Pilgrimage of Peter Matthiessen by Lance Richardson

The first biography of Peter Matthiessen, the novelist, naturalist, and Zen roshi, whose trailblazing work championed Native American rights and helped usher in the modern environmental movement, by award-winning writer Lance Richardson. “A stunning, formidable achievement by a brilliant biographer. Lance Richardson takes his readers on a wild ride with Peter Matthiessen.” —Kai Bird, Pulitzer Prize-winning co-author of American Prometheus “A fair-minded, grippingly paced, and tremendously readable narrative.” — Pico Iyer, Air Mail Peter Matthiessen (1927-2014), a towering figure of twentieth-century American letters, achieved so much during his lifetime, in so many different areas, that people have struggled to pin him down. While ambivalent about his WASP privilege—as a teenager he demanded that his name be removed from the New York Social Register —he attended Yale and cut his teeth in postwar Paris, co-founding The Paris Review as he worked undercover for the CIA. But then, after a rebellious stint as a Long Island fisherman, he escaped into a series of wild expeditions: floating through the Amazon to recover a prehistorical fossil; embedding with a tribe in Netherlands New Guinea; swimming with sharks off the coast of Australia. His novels, inspired by his travels, were unclassifiable meditations about Caymanian turtle hunters and frontier outlaws in the Florida Everglades. Meanwhile, his nonfiction became legendary: nature books like Wildlife in America —“key parts of the canon of emergent environmental writing,” says Bill McKibben—as well as advocacy journalism supporting Cesar Chavez, Leonard Peltier, and Native American land claims. Underlying all Matthiessen’s disparate pursuits was the same existential search—to find a cure for “deep restlessness.” This search was most profoundly articulated in The Snow Leopard , his famous account of a 250-mile wildlife survey across the Himalayas. In True Nature , Lance Richardson reconstructs the full scope of a spiritual quest that ultimately led Matthiessen, even as he inflicted great pain on his family, to the highest ranks of Zen. Drawing on rich primary sources and hundreds of interviews, Richardson depicts Matthiessen’s life with page-turning immediacy, while also illuminating how the writer’s uncanny gifts enabled him to sense connections between ecological decline, racism, and labor exploitation—to express, eloquently and presciently, that “in a damaged human habitat, all problems merge.”

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The Penguin Lessons - Tom Michell Cover Art

The Penguin Lessons

The Penguin Lessons What I Learned from a Remarkable Bird by Tom Michell

NOW A MAJOR MOTION PICTURE • The extraordinary and inspiring true story about the surprising bond between a young teacher and the small penguin he rescued “ The Penguin Lessons teaches an important truth: that a single act of compassion can be repaid a thousand-fold.”—Sy Montgomery, author of the National Book Award finalist The Soul of an Octopus In 1975, twenty-three-year-old Englishman Tom Michell follows his wanderlust to Argentina, where he becomes assistant master at a prestigious boarding school. But Michell’s adventures really begin when, on a weekend in Uruguay, he rescues a penguin covered in oil from an ocean spill, cleans the bird up, and attempts to return him to the sea. The penguin refuses to leave his rescuer’s side. “That was the moment at which he became my penguin, and whatever the future held, we’d face it together,” says Michell in this charming memoir. Michell names the penguin Juan Salvador (“John Saved”), but Juan Salvador, as it turns out, is the one who saves Michell. After Michell smuggles the bird back to Argentina and into his campus apartment, word spreads about the young Englishman’s unusual roommate. Juan Salvador is suddenly the center of attention—as mascot of the rugby team, confidant to the dorm housekeeper, co-host of Michell’s parties, and an unprecedented swimming coach to a shy boy. Even through the collapse of the Perónist government and amid the country’s economic and political strife, Juan Salvador brings joy to everyone around him—especially Michell, who considers the affectionate animal a compadre and kindred spirit. Witty and heartwarming, The Penguin Lessons is a classic in the making, a story that is both absurd and wonderful, exactly like Juan Salvador.

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Die, My Love - Kathryn Casey Cover Art

Die, My Love

Die, My Love A True Story of Revenge, Murder, and Two Texas Sisters by Kathryn Casey

The day before Halloween 2004 was the last day on Earth for respected, well-liked college professor Fred Jablin. That morning, a neighbor discovered his body lying in a pool of blood in the driveway of Jablin's Virginia home. Police immediately turned their attentions to the victim's ex-wife, Piper, a petite, pretty Texas lawyer who had lost a bitter custody battle and would do anything to get her kids back. But Piper was in Houston, one thousand miles away, at the time of the slaying and couldn't possibly have been the killer . . . could she? So began an investigation into one of the most bizarre cases Virginia and Texas law enforcement agencies had ever encountered: a twisted conspiracy of lies, rage, paranoia, manipulation, and savage murder that would ensnare an entire family—including two lethally close look-alike sisters—and reveal the shocking depravities possible when a dangerously disordered mind slips into madness.

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It Girl - Marisa Meltzer Cover Art

It Girl

It Girl The Life and Legacy of Jane Birkin by Marisa Meltzer

A Most Anticipated Book of 2025: Town & Country • Harper’s Bazaar • W Magazine • Bustle • LitHub • Women’s Wear Daily The first comprehensive biography of Jane Birkin—actress, singer, and legendary style icon—and her profound cultural impact, from the “acerbic, culturally astute, and genuine” ( The New York Times ) author of the instant New York Times bestseller Glossy . Jane Birkin was synonymous with chic. Her effortless style and artistic legacy have been immortalized through her music and film career. And, of course, she was the inspiration behind one of the world’s most coveted bags, the Hermès Birkin. But who was the real woman behind the it girl? Now, New York Times bestselling author Marisa Meltzer sheds new light on Birkin’s enigmatic life and explores her profound influence on generations in a rigorously reported biography unlike any other. It Girl paints a vivid portrait of Birkin and her profound legacy, from her early years in 1960s London to her rise as a beloved celebrity in France, detailing personal challenges, her relationships with creative powerhouses, and the duality of her public and private selves. Based on interviews and deep archival research, Meltzer reveals the nuances of Birkin’s character: her famously tempestuous romantic relationships, life with her three famous daughters, and the creative energy that drove her. It Girl tells the story of her indelible impact on femininity and style, and how what we think of as French girl style grew from her. Far from being just a muse, Birkin is at last given her well-deserved due.

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Leonardo da Vinci - Walter Isaacson Cover Art

Leonardo da Vinci

Leonardo da Vinci by Walter Isaacson

Now a docuseries from Ken Burns on PBS! The #1 New York Times bestseller from Walter Isaacson brings Leonardo da Vinci to life in this exciting new biography that is “a study in creativity: how to define it, how to achieve it…Most important, it is a powerful story of an exhilarating mind and life” ( The New Yorker ). Based on thousands of pages from Leonardo da Vinci’s astonishing notebooks and new discoveries about his life and work, Walter Isaacson “deftly reveals an intimate Leonardo” ( San Francisco Chronicle ) in a narrative that connects his art to his science. He shows how Leonardo’s genius was based on skills we can improve in ourselves, such as passionate curiosity, careful observation, and an imagination so playful that it flirted with fantasy. He produced the two most famous paintings in history, The Last Supper and the Mona Lisa . With a passion that sometimes became obsessive, he pursued innovative studies of anatomy, fossils, birds, the heart, flying machines, botany, geology, and weaponry. He explored the math of optics, showed how light rays strike the cornea, and produced illusions of changing perspectives in The Last Supper . His ability to stand at the crossroads of the humanities and the sciences, made iconic by his drawing of Vitruvian Man , made him history’s most creative genius. In the “luminous” ( Daily Beast ) Leonardo da Vinci , Isaacson describes how Leonardo’s delight at combining diverse passions remains the ultimate recipe for creativity. So, too, does his ease at being a bit of a misfit: illegitimate, gay, vegetarian, left-handed, easily distracted, and at times heretical. His life should remind us of the importance to be imaginative and, like talented rebels in any era, to think different. Here, da Vinci “comes to life in all his remarkable brilliance and oddity in Walter Isaacson’s ambitious new biography…a vigorous, insightful portrait” ( The Washington Post ).

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I Am Giorgia - Giorgia Meloni, Donald Trump & Sylvia Notini Cover Art

I Am Giorgia

I Am Giorgia My Roots, My Principles by Giorgia Meloni, Donald Trump & Sylvia Notini

A memoir chronicling the early personal and political life of the current Prime Minster of Italy. "I have heard too many people talk about me and my ideas not to realize how different my life and I actually are from the way we are portrayed. So, I decided to open up, to show who I am, what I believe in, and how I got here." In her memoir, Giorgia Meloni speaks about herself in depth for the first time. She talks about her roots, her childhood, and her relationship with her mother Anna, her sister Arianna, her grandparents Maria and Gianni, and the pain of her father’s absence. She shares her visceral passion for politics, which took her from her neighborhood of Garbatella to the Government as a Minister, and then to the leadership of Fratelli d’Italia and the European Conservatives. She also expresses the joy of being the mother of little Ginevra and her love story with Andrea. Additionally, she discusses her dreams and the future she envisions for Italy and Europe. With her characteristic frankness and clarity, she also tackles complex topics such as motherhood, identity, and faith. This passionate and engaging account reveals the past, present, and future of a political leader who has caught the attention of many, both in Italy and beyond.

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Failure Is Not an Option - Gene Kranz Cover Art

Failure Is Not an Option

Failure Is Not an Option Mission Control from Mercury to Apollo 13 and Beyond by Gene Kranz

This New York Times bestselling memoir of a veteran NASA flight director tells riveting stories from the early days of the Mercury program through Apollo 11 (the moon landing) and Apollo 13, for both of which Kranz was flight director. Gene Kranz was present at the creation of America’s manned space program and was a key player in it for three decades. As a flight director in NASA’s Mission Control, Kranz witnessed firsthand the making of history. He participated in the space program from the early days of the Mercury program to the last Apollo mission, and beyond. He endured the disastrous first years when rockets blew up and the United States seemed to fall further behind the Soviet Union in the space race. He helped to launch Alan Shepard and John Glenn, then assumed the flight director’s role in the Gemini program, which he guided to fruition. With his teammates, he accepted the challenge to carry out President John F. Kennedy’s commitment to land a man on the Moon before the end of the 1960s. Kranz recounts these thrilling historic events and offers new information about the famous flights. What appeared as nearly flawless missions to the Moon were, in fact, a series of hair-raising near misses. When the space technology failed, as it sometimes did, the controllers’ only recourse was to rely on their skills and those of their teammates. He reveals behind-the-scenes details to demonstrate the leadership, discipline, trust, and teamwork that made the space program a success. A fascinating firsthand account by a veteran mission controller of one of America’s greatest achievements, Failure Is Not an Option reflects on what has happened to the space program and offers his own bold suggestions about what we ought to be doing in space now.

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Sociopath - Patric Gagne Cover Art

Sociopath

Sociopath A Memoir by Patric Gagne

An engrossing, “completely fascinating” ( Cosmopolitan ) memoir revealing the author’s struggle to come to terms with her own sociopathy and shed light on the often maligned and misunderstood mental disorder. Patric Gagne realized she made others uncomfortable before she started kindergarten. Something about her caused people to react in a way she didn’t understand. She suspected it was because she didn’t feel things the way other people did. Emotions like fear, guilt, and empathy eluded her. For the most part, she felt nothing. And she didn’t like the way that “nothing” felt. In college, Patric finally confirmed what she’d long suspected. She was a sociopath. But even though it was the very first personality disorder identified—well over 200 years ago—sociopathy had been neglected by mental health professionals for decades. She was told there was no treatment, no hope for a normal life. But when Patric reconnects with an old flame, she gets a glimpse of a future beyond her diagnosis. If she’s capable of love, it must mean that she isn’t a like the madmen and evil villains in pop culture. With the help of her sweetheart (and some curious characters she meets along the way) she embarks on a mission to prove that the millions of Americans who share her diagnosis aren’t all monsters either. This is the inspiring story of Patric’s journey to unlock the true nature of sociopathy and build a life of love and hope against all odds.

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Jackie's Girl - Kathy McKeon Cover Art

Jackie's Girl

Jackie's Girl My Life with the Kennedy Family by Kathy McKeon

New York Times Bestseller An endearing coming-of-age memoir by a young woman who spent thirteen years as Jackie Kennedy’s personal assistant and occasional nanny—and the lessons about life and love she learned from the glamorous first lady. In 1964, Kathy McKeon was just nineteen and newly arrived from Ireland when she was hired as the personal assistant to former first lady Jackie Kennedy. The next thirteen years of her life were spent in Jackie’s service, during which Kathy not only played a crucial role in raising young Caroline and John Jr., but also had a front-row seat to some of the twentieth century’s most significant events. Because Kathy was always at Jackie’s side, Rose Kennedy deemed her “Jackie’s girl.” And although Kathy called Jackie “Madam,” she considered her employer more like a big sister who, in many ways, mentored her on how to be a lady. Kathy was there during Jackie and Aristotle Onassis’s courtship and marriage and Robert Kennedy’s assassination, dutifully supporting Jackie and the children during these tumultuous times in history. A rare and engrossing look at the private life of one of the most famous women of the twentieth century, Jackie’s Girl is also a moving personal story of a young woman finding her identity and footing in a new country, along with the help of the most elegant woman in America.

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Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing - Matthew Perry Cover Art

Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing

Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing A Memoir by Matthew Perry

INSTANT #1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER #1 INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER The BELOVED STAR OF FRIENDS takes us behind the scenes of the hit sitcom and his struggles with addiction in this “CANDID, DARKLY FUNNY...POIGNANT” memoir ( The New York Times ) A MOST ANTICIPATED BOOK by Time , Associated Press, Goodreads, USA Today , and more! “Hi, my name is Matthew, although you may know me by another name. My friends call me Matty.” So begins the riveting story of acclaimed actor Matthew Perry, taking us along on his journey from childhood ambition to fame to addiction and recovery in the aftermath of a life-threatening health scare. Before the frequent hospital visits and stints in rehab, there was five-year-old Matthew, who traveled from Montreal to Los Angeles, shuffling between his separated parents; fourteen-year-old Matthew, who was a nationally ranked tennis star in Canada; twenty-four-year-old Matthew, who nabbed a coveted role as a lead cast member on the talked-about pilot then called Friends Like Us . . . and so much more. In an extraordinary story that only he could tell—and in the heartfelt, hilarious, and warmly familiar way only he could tell it—Matthew Perry lays bare the fractured family that raised him (and also left him to his own devices), the desire for recognition that drove him to fame, and the void inside him that could not be filled even by his greatest dreams coming true. But he also details the peace he’s found in sobriety and how he feels about the ubiquity of Friends , sharing stories about his castmates and other stars he met along the way. Frank, self-aware, and with his trademark humor, Perry vividly depicts his lifelong battle with addiction and what fueled it despite seemingly having it all. Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing is an unforgettable memoir that is both intimate and eye-opening—as well as a hand extended to anyone struggling with sobriety. Unflinchingly honest, moving, and uproariously funny, this is the book fans have been waiting for.

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Benjamin Franklin - Walter Isaacson Cover Art

Benjamin Franklin

Benjamin Franklin An American Life by Walter Isaacson

In this authoritative and engrossing full-scale biography, Walter Isaacson, bestselling author of Einstein and Steve Jobs , shows how the most fascinating of America's founders helped define our national character. Benjamin Franklin is the founding father who winks at us, the one who seems made of flesh rather than marble. In a sweeping narrative that follows Franklin’s life from Boston to Philadelphia to London and Paris and back, Walter Isaacson chronicles the adventures of the runaway apprentice who became, over the course of his eighty-four-year life, America’s best writer, inventor, media baron, scientist, diplomat, and business strategist, as well as one of its most practical and ingenious political leaders. He explores the wit behind Poor Richard’s Almanac and the wisdom behind the Declaration of Independence, the new nation’s alliance with France, the treaty that ended the Revolution, and the compromises that created a near-perfect Constitution. In this colorful and intimate narrative, Isaacson provides the full sweep of Franklin’s amazing life, showing how he helped to forge the American national identity and why he has a particular resonance in the twenty-first century.

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A Promised Land - Barack Obama Cover Art

A Promised Land

A Promised Land by Barack Obama

A riveting, deeply personal account of history in the making—from the president who inspired us to believe in the power of democracy #1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • NAACP IMAGE AWARD NOMINEE • NAMED ONE OF THE TEN BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY THE NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW AND PEOPLE NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY The Washington Post • Jennifer Szalai, The New York Times • NPR • The Guardian • Slate • Vox • The Economist • Marie Claire   In the stirring first volume of his presidential memoirs, Barack Obama tells the story of his improbable odyssey from young man searching for his identity to leader of the free world, describing in strikingly personal detail both his political education and the landmark moments of the first term of his historic presidency—a time of dramatic transformation and turmoil. Obama takes readers on a compelling journey from his earliest political aspirations to the pivotal Iowa caucus victory that demonstrated the power of grassroots activism to the watershed night of November 4, 2008, when he was elected 44th president of the United States, becoming the first African American to hold the nation’s highest office. Reflecting on the presidency, he offers a unique and thoughtful exploration of both the awesome reach and the limits of presidential power, as well as singular insights into the dynamics of U.S. partisan politics and international diplomacy. Obama brings readers inside the Oval Office and the White House Situation Room, and to Moscow, Cairo, Beijing, and points beyond. We are privy to his thoughts as he assembles his cabinet, wrestles with a global financial crisis, takes the measure of Vladimir Putin, overcomes seemingly insurmountable odds to secure passage of the Affordable Care Act, clashes with generals about U.S. strategy in Afghanistan, tackles Wall Street reform, responds to the devastating Deepwater Horizon blowout, and authorizes Operation Neptune’s Spear, which leads to the death of Osama bin Laden. A Promised Land is extraordinarily intimate and introspective—the story of one man’s bet with history, the faith of a community organizer tested on the world stage. Obama is candid about the balancing act of running for office as a Black American, bearing the expectations of a generation buoyed by messages of “hope and change,” and meeting the moral challenges of high-stakes decision-making. He is frank about the forces that opposed him at home and abroad, open about how living in the White House affected his wife and daughters, and unafraid to reveal self-doubt and disappointment. Yet he never wavers from his belief that inside the great, ongoing American experiment, progress is always possible. This beautifully written and powerful book captures Barack Obama’s conviction that democracy is not a gift from on high but something founded on empathy and common understanding and built together, day by day.

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Shadow Cell - Andrew Bustamante & Jihi Bustamante Cover Art

Shadow Cell

Shadow Cell An Insider Account of America's New Spy War by Andrew Bustamante & Jihi Bustamante

INSTANT  NEW YORK TIMES  BESTSELLER | A thrilling firsthand account by husband-and-wife CIA operatives who, against all odds, triumphed in a deadly cat-and-mouse game against a mole within the agency—an unprecedented insider account of 21st-century spycraft in the tradition of Argo and Black Ops .   Andrew and Jihi Bustamante were a “tandem couple”: married spies who’d dedicated their lives to the CIA. They met as trainees at Langley, and got married while hunting terrorists across the globe. Then, suddenly, they were assigned to a mission so sensitive and explosive that the CIA still has never acknowledged it. The CIA’s source network in a country code-named "Falcon"—one of America’s most formidable rivals—had been compromised by a mole, and the agency needed a new way to collect intelligence there. Young newlyweds, the Bustamantes were considered safe choices for this daunting task precisely because they had no experience in Falcon. They were also loyal, forgettable, and completely disposable—operatives who could help to strengthen the CIA’s position in Falcon while simultaneously serving as bait for the mole.   But although their superiors at the CIA didn’t realize it, the Bustamantes also brought another advantage to the table: a granular understanding of how terrorist cells operate, and how the agency could exploit those same tactics to keep America safe. Assembling a rag-tag team of fellow operatives and recruiting new sources from Falcon, the Bustamantes pioneered a new way of spying by building a cell of their own—right at the heart of the CIA. The propulsive, untold tale of one of history’s greatest intelligence crises and the unlikely band of agents who were sent in to clean up the mess,  Shadow Cell  allows us to peer behind the curtain to see how today’s spy wars are being fought—and won.

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The Autobiography of Malcolm X - Malcolm X, Alex Haley & M. S. Handler Cover Art

The Autobiography of Malcolm X

The Autobiography of Malcolm X by Malcolm X, Alex Haley & M. S. Handler

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • ONE OF TIME ’S TEN MOST IMPORTANT NONFICTION BOOKS OF THE TWENTIETH CENTURY The “extraordinary” ( The New York Times ) autobiography of the legendary civil rights leader once called the most dangerous man in America—essential reading for anyone who wants to understand this nation’s history In the searing pages of this classic autobiography, originally published in 1965, Malcolm X, the Muslim leader, firebrand, and anti-integrationist, tells the extraordinary story of his life and the growth of the Black Muslim movement to veteran writer and journalist Alex Haley. In a unique collaboration, Haley worked with Malcolm X for nearly two years, interviewing, listening to, and understanding the most controversial leader of his time. Raised in Lansing, Michigan, Malcolm Little journeyed on a road to fame as astonishing as it was unpredictable. Drifting from childhood poverty to petty crime, Malcolm found himself in jail. It was there that he came into contact with the teachings of the little-known Black Muslim leader Elijah Muhammad. The newly renamed Malcolm X devoted himself body and soul to the world of Islam, becoming the Nation’s foremost spokesman. When his conscience forced him to break with Elijah Muhammad, Malcolm founded the Organization of Afro-American Unity to spread an inspiring message of pride, power, and self-determination across the country. The Autobiography of Malcolm X stands as the definitive statement of a movement and a man whose work was never completed but whose message is timeless. Malcolm’s fascinating perspective on the lies and limitations of the American Dream, and the inherent racism in a society that denies its nonwhite citizens the opportunity to dream, gives extraordinary insight into the most urgent issues of our own time.

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One Night, One Asylum, and One Terrifying Truth - Ward D a Myste̴ry Thrille̴r Cover Art

One Night, One Asylum, and One Terrifying Truth

One Night, One Asylum, and One Terrifying Truth by Ward D a Myste̴ry Thrille̴r

Medical student Amy Brenner is spending the night on a locked psychiatric ward. Amy has been dreading her evening working on Ward D, the hospital’s inpatient mental health unit. There are very specific reasons why she never wanted to do this required overnight rotation. Reasons nobody can ever find out. And as the hours tick by, Amy grows increasingly convinced something terrible is happening within these tightly secured walls. When patients and staff start to vanish without a trace, it becomes clear that everyone on the unit is in grave danger. Amy’s worst nightmare was spending the night on Ward D. And now she might never escape. #Ward D: Freida McFadden #Ward D #Freida McFadden #The Boyfrie̴nɗ

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Born to Run - Bruce Springsteen Cover Art

Born to Run

Born to Run by Bruce Springsteen

The revealing, wildly entertaining, and bestselling memoir from the legendary Bruce Springsteen, one of the greatest songwriters and performers of any era. Born to Run is the greatest rock ‘n’ roll story ever told. Essential reading for 2025’s 50th anniversary of Springsteen’s seminal album “Born to Run” and coinciding with the highly anticipated film “Deliver Me From Nowhere,” starring Jeremy Allen White and Jeremy Strong, about the writing and recording of Springsteen’s classic “Nebraska” record. Following his 2009 Super Bowl halftime performance, Bruce Springsteen privately devoted himself to writing the story of his life. The result is “an utterly unique, endlessly exhilarating, last-chance-power-drive of a memoir” ( Rolling Stone ) that offers the same honesty, humor, and originality found in his songs. He describes growing up Catholic in Freehold, New Jersey, amid the poetry, danger, and darkness that fueled his imagination, leading up to the moment he refers to as “The Big Bang”: seeing Elvis Presley’s debut on The Ed Sullivan Show . He vividly recounts his relentless drive to become a musician, his early days as a bar band king in Asbury Park, and the rise of the E Street Band. With disarming candor, he also tells for the first time the story of the personal struggles that inspired his best work. Rarely has a performer told his own story with such force and sweep. Like many of his songs (“Thunder Road,” “Badlands,” “Darkness on the Edge of Town,” “The River” “Born in the USA,” “The Rising,” and “The Ghost of Tom Joad,” to name just a few), Bruce Springsteen’s autobiography is written with the lyricism of a singular songwriter and the wisdom of a man who has thought deeply about his experiences. “Both an entertaining account of Springsteen’s marathon race to the top and a reminder that the one thing you can’t run away from is yourself” ( Entertainment Weekly ), Born to Run is much more than a legendary rock star’s memoir. This book is a “a virtuoso performance, the 508-page equivalent to one of Springsteen and the E Street Band’s famous four-hour concerts: Nothing is left onstage, and diehard fans and first-timers alike depart for home sated and yet somehow already aching for more” (NPR).

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Not All Diamonds and Rosé - Dave Quinn Cover Art

Not All Diamonds and Rosé

Not All Diamonds and Rosé The Inside Story of The Real Housewives from the People Who Lived It by Dave Quinn

THE INSTANT #1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER! “I like to think of Not All Diamonds and Rosé as the ultimate reunion. I know readers will be surprised, entertained, and even shocked at what’s in store." — Andy Cohen Dave Quinn's Not All Diamonds and Rosé is the definitive oral history of the hit television franchise, from its unlikely start in the gated communities of Orange County to the pop culture behemoth it has become—spanning nine cities, hundreds of cast members, and millions of fans. What is it really like to be a housewife? We all want to know, but only the women we love to watch and the people who make the show have the whole story. Well, listen in close, because they’re about to tell all. Nearly all the wives, producers, and network executives, as well as Andy Cohen himself, are on the record, unfiltered and unvarnished about what it really takes to have a tagline. This is your VIP pass to the lives behind the glam squads, testimonials, and tabloid feuds. Life’s not all diamonds and rosé, but the truth is so much better, isn’t it? “This exhaustive oral history features dishy interviews with 185 cast and crew members behind the Bravo phenomenon. Fans will delight to read about how it all got started.” — New York Post Includes Color Photographs

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Educated - Tara Westover Cover Art

Educated

Educated A Memoir by Tara Westover

#1 NEW YORK TIMES, WALL STREET JOURNAL, AND BOSTON GLOBE BESTSELLER • One of the most acclaimed books of our time: an unforgettable memoir about a young woman who, kept out of school, leaves her survivalist family and goes on to earn a PhD from Cambridge University “Extraordinary . . . an act of courage and self-invention.”— The New York Times NAMED ONE OF THE TEN BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY THE NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW • ONE OF PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA’S FAVORITE BOOKS OF THE YEAR • BILL GATES’S HOLIDAY READING LIST • A KIRKUS REVIEWS BEST NONFICTION BOOK OF THE CENTURY • FINALIST: National Book Critics Circle’s Award In Autobiography and John Leonard Prize For Best First Book • PEN/Jean Stein Book Award • Los Angeles Times Book Prize Born to survivalists in the mountains of Idaho, Tara Westover was seventeen the first time she set foot in a classroom. Her family was so isolated from mainstream society that there was no one to ensure the children received an education, and no one to intervene when one of Tara’s older brothers became violent. When another brother got himself into college, Tara decided to try a new kind of life. Her quest for knowledge transformed her, taking her over oceans and across continents, to Harvard and to Cambridge University. Only then would she wonder if she’d traveled too far, if there was still a way home. “Beautiful and propulsive . . . Despite the singularity of [Westover’s] childhood, the questions her book poses are universal: How much of ourselves should we give to those we love? And how much must we betray them to grow up?”— Vogue ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR: The Washington Post, O: The Oprah Magazine, Time, NPR, Good Morning America, San Francisco Chronicle, The Guardian, The Economist, Financial Times , Newsday, New York Post, theSkimm, Refinery29, Bloomberg, Self, Real Simple, Town & Country, Bustle, Paste, Publishers Weekly , Library Journal, LibraryReads, Book Riot, Pamela Paul, KQED, New York Public Library

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They All Came to Barneys - Gene Pressman Cover Art

They All Came to Barneys

They All Came to Barneys A Personal History of the World's Greatest Store by Gene Pressman

During the greatest, most exciting years in the world’s greatest, most exciting city, Barneys New York was the world’s greatest, most exciting store, a place where fashion made culture and made history. In They All Came to Barneys , Gene Pressman tells his story for the first time, capturing the unprecedented rise and unimaginable fall of his family’s multimillion-dollar fashion retail empire as only he could: From the inside From its humble beginnings as a discount shop on 17th Street—born in 1923, before Mickey Mouse, social security, and the chocolate-chip cookie—Barneys grew to become an international phenomenon, setting the tone for fashion not only in New York, but across the country and worldwide. (Barneys’ black shopping bags became so iconic that the most devoted customers laminated theirs and carried them forever.) Told with razor-sharp wit and inimitable style, They All Came to Barneys takes us on an insider’s journey to see how, as rakish, would-be rocker Gene Pressman and the global fashion industry grew up and came into their own, side by side. Through back-room handshake deals with designers, days at the haberdasheries Savile Row and nights out at New York discos and Paris boîtes, three generations of Pressmans—grandfather Barney, son Fred, and grandson Gene, each wildly different but united in their love of the finest stuff, and of each other—built Barney’s little shop into an empire and a byword for cool around the world. They All Came to Barneys is a front-row seat to the rise of some of the biggest names in fashion—Armani, Alaïa, Wintour, Meisel—and the store that came to dress an entire generation of celebrities, models, artists, and magnates. Set against the biggest movements in fashion and in culture, from the birth of ready-to-wear in the ’60s to the devastation of AIDS in the ’80s and the explosion of globalization in the ’90s, Gene Pressman had a backstage pass to history—until hubris, ambition, and risky business threatened to tear it all apart…

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Raising Hare - Chloe Dalton Cover Art

Raising Hare

Raising Hare A Memoir by Chloe Dalton

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • FINALIST FOR THE 2025 WOMEN'S PRIZE • A moving and fascinating meditation on freedom, trust, loss, and our relationship with the natural world, explored through the story of one woman’s unlikely friendship with a wild hare. A BEST BOOK: The New York Times, The Economist, ELLE “Moving. . . . Impart[s] valuable lessons about slowing down and the beauty in the unexpected.” —USA Today “A philosophical masterpiece ruminating on our place as human beings in nature.”—Matt Haig, author of The Midnight Library “ A perfect testimony to the transformative power of love. In learning to love an orphaned hare, Chloe Dalton learned to love the whole wild world. The great gift of this remarkable book is the way it teaches us to do the same.”—Margaret Renkl, author of The Comfort of Crows Imagine you could hold a baby hare and bottle-feed it. Imagine that it lived under your roof and bounded around your bedroom at night, drumming on the duvet cover when it wanted your attention. Imagine that, more than two years later, it still ran in from the fields when you called it and slept in your house for hours on end. For political advisor and speechwriter Chloe Dalton, who spent lockdown deep in the English countryside, far away from her usual busy London life, this became her unexpected reality. In February 2021, Dalton stumbles upon a newborn hare—a leveret—that had been chased by a dog. Fearing for its life, she brings it home, only to discover how difficult it is to rear a wild hare, most of whom perish in captivity from either shock or starvation. Through trial and error, she learns to feed and care for the leveret with every intention of returning it to the wilderness. Instead, it becomes her constant companion, wandering the fields and woods at night and returning to Dalton’s house by day. Though Dalton feared that the hare would be preyed upon by foxes, weasels, feral cats, raptors, or even people, she never tried to restrict it to the house. Each time the hare leaves, Chloe knows she may never see it again. Yet she also understands that to confine it would be its own kind of death. Raising Hare chronicles their journey together while also taking a deep dive into the lives and nature of hares, and the way they have been viewed historically in art, literature, and folklore. We witness firsthand the joy at this extraordinary relationship between human and animal, which serves as a reminder that the best things, and most beautiful experiences, arise when we least expect them.

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Bad to Blue - Mike Moy Cover Art

Bad to Blue

Bad to Blue The True Story of a Chinatown Gangster Turned NYPD Detective by Mike Moy

In this intimate and harrowing memoir, a former Chinese gang member tells the story of how he went from 'úbad to blue'ù by leaving the gang behind and becoming a New York City police detective. Nestled in the warm embrace of his immigrant grandmother, Mike Moy was raised hearing bloodcurdling tales of the brutal life she escaped in China. But growing up on the mean streets of Manhattan'ôs Chinatown, Mike also faced shocking violence coupled with destructive racism. In a tight-knit community besieged with fear and alienation, teenage Mike took refuge in one of Chinatown'ôs notorious gangs, tattooing his membership in Fuk Ching on his body. The gangs'ô fearsome reputations are warranted. Frequenting gambling dens and pool halls, Mike and a boisterous band of gangmates run amok: selling and shooting guns, stealing, and running protection schemes. But the fast pace and constant danger take a terrible toll, with friends being killed or sent to prison'îthe inevitable end for most gang members. But vexing questions are raised for young Mike after he learns the extraordinary story of a cop who forgave the young shooter who made him a paraplegic. NYPD Officer Steven MacDonald'ôs morality and compassion arouse a longing deep within Mike to be one of the 'úgood guys.'ù In a world-changing turnaround expected by no one, Mike joins the NYPD. By donning that blue uniform, he gets the adrenaline-driven lifestyle he craves while staying on the right side of the law. But coming clean is not so easy. Patrolling the streets he once terrorized, he fears the exposure of his secret past. Anyone identifying him as a former gang member could lead to investigations, expulsion from the NYPD, media scandal, and legal charges for past crimes. And what would his former gangmates think if they found out he'ôd joined 'úthe enemy'ù? Packed with violence, heartbreak, and love, Mike tells the triumphant story of one man'ôs transformation'îeven as bullets fly just above his head.

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Just a Busy Season - Taylor Wolfe Cover Art

Just a Busy Season

Just a Busy Season Essays on Motherhood, an Unexpected Comedy by Taylor Wolfe

Comedian and author of Birdie & Harlow @thedailytay shares an honest and hilarious essay collection on parenting young children, navigating social anxiety, and being a millennial woman. "It's just a busy season," we say to ourselves after a chaotic morning (that we've had every day for the past three years). It turns out that season is actually just life, and here Taylor Wolfe explores the funny and dark side of all a busy life can entail. We've all found ourselves at a highway rest stop allowing our child to pee directly into our hands because she's scared of the toilet, right? Right? In her trademark voice—hilarious, poignant, and real—she dishes about everything from motherhood to the roots of anxiety (childhood and tornados, obviously), to the highs and lows of getting through whatever season we find ourselves in. Just a Busy Season dispenses a necessary dose of hope and relatability as Taylor candidly reflects on how we cope, or don’t, with the stress and unrealistic expectations of being a mom, daughter, woman, and person in the world without losing ourselves—or our sense of humor.

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My Name Is Barbra - Barbra Streisand Cover Art

My Name Is Barbra

My Name Is Barbra by Barbra Streisand

The long-awaited memoir by the superstar of stage, screen, recordings, and television PLEASE NOTE The E-book edition features additional photographs that are exclusive to the E-book. Barbra Streisand is by any account a living legend, a woman who in a career spanning six decades has excelled in every area of entertainment. She is among the handful of EGOT winners (Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, and Tony) and has one of the greatest and most recognizable voices in the history of popular music. She has been nominated for a Grammy 46 times, and with Yentl she became the first woman to write, produce, direct, and star in a major motion picture. In My Name Is Barbra , she tells her own story about her life and extraordinary career, from growing up in Brooklyn to her first star-making appearances in New York nightclubs to her breakout performance in Funny Girl (musical and film) to the long string of successes in every medium in the years that followed. The book is, like Barbra herself, frank, funny, opinionated, and charming. She recounts her early struggles to become an actress, eventually turning to singing to earn a living; the recording of some of her acclaimed albums; the years of effort involved in making Yentl ; her direction of The Prince of Tides ; her friendships with figures ranging from Marlon Brando to Madeleine Albright; her political advocacy; and the fulfillment she’s found in her marriage to James Brolin.   No entertainer’s memoir has been more anticipated than Barbra Streisand’s, and this engrossing and delightful book will be eagerly welcomed by her millions of fans.

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Never Stop - Dan Hurley Cover Art

Never Stop

Never Stop Life, Leadership, and What It Takes to Be Great by Dan Hurley

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER Dan Hurley is one of the most famous head coaches in America today—in any sport. He returned the UConn Huskies men’s basketball team to their rightful place among the nation’s elite , winning back-to-back NCAA Championships, and he did it with uncommon passion. His on-court eruptions, his face-offs with refs and even fans, are legendary. But behind all the winning and swagger is a story of intense, harrowing struggle. Son of a revered high school coach, younger brother of a college basketball icon, Hurley spent years fearing that he’d just never measure up. He suffered through several bouts of anxiety and deep depressions. As a young player he was ridiculed, as a young coach he came up short. Many people would have given up. But through relentless will, and Jersey City grit, he reached the summit, becoming such a shining success that the Los Angeles Lakers came calling. For anyone needing a boost or a blast of inspiration, for anyone leading a team or wanting to up their game, for anyone chasing greatness, Hurley’s story, told in his unique no-BS voice, is a must-read.

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Faith Through the Storm - Major James Capers, & Buz Sawyers Cover Art

Faith Through the Storm

Faith Through the Storm Memoirs of Major James Capers, Jr. by Major James Capers, & Buz Sawyers

This is a book about war. A war against America's enemies, against racism, against the loss of fellow warriors in battle, and against the personal loss of family back home. This is the story of Major James Capers, Jr. (USMC Ret.) Jim was born to a family of sharecroppers in South Carolina who escaped to Baltimore, Maryland in the dead of night to escape the days of Jim Crow laws for a better life. Joining the Marines fresh out of high school, Jim had no idea that he was paving the road for future Marines, black and white alike. The first African-American Marine to receive a battlefield commission as a member of 3rd Force Recon, a new special forces unit designed specifically for the war in Vietnam; the first African-American Marine officer used on a Marine recruitment poster; co-leader of the first special forces team to attempt the rescue of American and allied POW's held in a North Vietnamese prison; a leader in Team Broadminded, whose missions were so secret, their military records from Vietnam were not declassified until 2006; nominated for the Medal of Honor; inducted into the Commando Hall of Honor for special forces; awarded the Bronze and the Silver Stars. This book is about a man who is a true American hero, though he denies the notion. Above all, Jim is a husband, a father, a patriot, a warrior who has dealt with the tragedies of his military and personal life, always depending on his faith in God to guide him through the storm.

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I'll Have What She's Having - Chelsea Handler Cover Art

I'll Have What She's Having

I'll Have What She's Having by Chelsea Handler

#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • In hilarious and tender essays, Chelsea Handler shares her unforgettable story of becoming the woman she always wanted to be. “A raw and raucous exploration of Handler’s ongoing search for self . . . [She’s] disarming us with humor to get at our softest selves and meeting us with her own.”— Oprah Daily There’s a woman I want to become, Chelsea Handler thought as a child. She’ll be strong and confident. She’ll light up a room and spread that light to make others feel better. She’ll make a living being herself. She’ll be a survivor. At ten years old, Chelsea opened a lemonade stand and realized she’d make more money if the drinks were spiked. So she added vodka to her recipe and used her earnings to upgrade herself to first-class on a family vacation—leaving her parents and siblings in coach. She moved to Los Angeles and got fired from her temp job when she admitted she didn’t know how to transfer calls. She’s played pickleball with the scions of an American dynasty. She’s sexted a governor. She shared psychedelics with strangers in Spain. When she accidentally ended up at dinner with Woody Allen, she was not going to leave the table without asking him a very personal pointed question. She went on national television and talked about having threesomes. She's never been one to hold back. But this life of adventure and absurdity is only part of her story. Chelsea knows what it is to truly show up for her family—canine and human, biological and chosen. She’s discovered how to spend time with herself, how to meditate, how to be open to love, and how to end a relationship with dignity. She is a sister to the many women who rely on her. Surprisingly vulnerable and always outrageous, Chelsea Handler captures the antic-filled, exhilarating, and joyful life she’s built—a life that makes the rest of us think, I’ll have what she’s having .

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In a Sunburned Country - Bill Bryson Cover Art

In a Sunburned Country

In a Sunburned Country by Bill Bryson

Every time Bill Bryson walks out the door, memorable travel literature threatens to break out. This time in Australia. His previous excursion along the Appalachian Trail resulted in the sublime national bestseller A Walk in the Woods . In A Sunburned Country is his report on what he found in an entirely different place: Australia, the country that doubles as a continent, and a place with the friendliest inhabitants, the hottest, driest weather, and the most peculiar and lethal wildlife to be found on the planet. The result is a deliciously funny, fact-filled, and adventurous performance by a writer who combines humor, wonder, and unflagging curiousity. Despite the fact that Australia harbors more things that can kill you in extremely nasty ways than anywhere else, including sharks, crocodiles, snakes, even riptides and deserts, Bill Bryson adores the place, and he takes his readers on a rollicking ride far beyond that beaten tourist path. Wherever he goes he finds Australians who are cheerful, extroverted, and unfailingly obliging, and these beaming products of land with clean, safe cities, cold beer, and constant sunshine fill the pages of this wonderful book. Australia is an immense and fortunate land, and it has found in Bill Bryson its perfect guide.

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Surprised by Joy - CS Lewis Cover Art

Surprised by Joy

Surprised by Joy by CS Lewis

Surprised by Joy (1955) This autobiographical work traces Lewis’s early life and gradual conversion to Christianity. Beginning with his childhood in Belfast, he recalls an upbringing marked by imagination, literature, and the experience of fleeting, piercing moments of longing he calls “Joy.” Educated in boarding schools and later at Oxford, Lewis moves from nominal Christianity to atheism, influenced by classical mythology, philosophy, and friendships. Yet those very influences—especially his passion for myth and beauty—keep reawakening the sense of transcendent desire. He describes how his friendships with writers such as J. R. R. Tolkien and Hugo Dyson challenged his assumptions and led him to reconsider Christ. In 1931 he finally surrenders to faith, calling himself “the most dejected and reluctant convert in all England.” The book is less about romantic happiness than about the surprising discovery of God as the source of the longing behind all human joy.

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Steve Jobs - Walter Isaacson Cover Art

Steve Jobs

Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson

Walter Isaacson’s “enthralling” ( The New Yorker ) worldwide bestselling biography of Apple cofounder Steve Jobs. Based on more than forty interviews with Steve Jobs conducted over two years—as well as interviews with more than 100 family members, friends, adversaries, competitors, and colleagues—Walter Isaacson has written a riveting story of the roller-coaster life and searingly intense personality of a creative entrepreneur whose passion for perfection and ferocious drive revolutionized six industries: personal computers, animated movies, music, phones, tablet computing, and digital publishing. At a time when America is seeking ways to sustain its innovative edge, Jobs stands as the ultimate icon of inventiveness and applied imagination. He knew that the best way to create value in 21st century was to connect creativity with technology. He built a company where leaps of the imagination were combined with remarkable feats of engineering. Although Jobs cooperated with the author, he asked for no control over what was written. He put nothing off-limits. He encouraged the people he knew to speak honestly. And Jobs speaks candidly, sometimes brutally so, about the people he worked with and competed against. His friends, foes, and colleagues provide an unvarnished view of the passions, perfectionism, obsessions, artistry, devilry, and compulsion for control that shaped his approach to business and the innovative products that resulted. Driven by demons, Jobs could drive those around him to fury and despair. But his personality and products were interrelated, just as Apple’s hardware and software tended to be, as if part of an integrated system. His tale is instructive and cautionary, filled with lessons about innovation, character, leadership, and values. Steve Jobs is the inspiration for the movie of the same name starring Michael Fassbender, Kate Winslet, Seth Rogen, and Jeff Daniels, directed by Danny Boyle with a screenplay by Aaron Sorkin.

98

Night - Elie Wiesel & Marion Wiesel Cover Art

Night

Night by Elie Wiesel & Marion Wiesel

A new translation from the French by Marion Wiesel. Night is Elie Wiesel's masterpiece, a candid, horrific, and deeply poignant autobiographical account of his survival as a teenager in the Nazi death camps. This new translation by Marion Wiesel, Elie's wife and frequent translator, presents this seminal memoir in the language and spirit truest to the author's original intent. And in a substantive new preface, Elie reflects on the enduring importance of Night and his lifelong, passionate dedication to ensuring that the world never forgets man's capacity for inhumanity to man. Night offers much more than a litany of the daily terrors, everyday perversions, and rampant sadism at Auschwitz and Buchenwald; it also eloquently addresses many of the philosophical as well as personal questions implicit in any serious consideration of what the Holocaust was, what it meant, and what its legacy is and will be.

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Assassination Vacation - Sarah Vowell Cover Art

Assassination Vacation

Assassination Vacation by Sarah Vowell

New York Times bestselling author of The Wordy Shipmates and contributor to NPR’s This American Life Sarah Vowell embarks on a road trip to sites of political violence, from Washington DC to Alaska, to better understand our nation’s ever-evolving political system and history. Sarah Vowell exposes the glorious conundrums of American history and culture with wit, probity, and an irreverent sense of humor. With Assassination Vacation , she takes us on a road trip like no other—a journey to the pit stops of American political murder and through the myriad ways they have been used for fun and profit, for political and cultural advantage. From Buffalo to Alaska, Washington to the Dry Tortugas, Vowell visits locations immortalized and influenced by the spilling of politically important blood, reporting as she goes with her trademark blend of wisecracking humor, remarkable honesty, and thought-provoking criticism. We learn about the jinx that was Robert Todd Lincoln (present at the assassinations of Presidents Lincoln, Garfield, and McKinley) and witness the politicking that went into the making of the Lincoln Memorial. The resulting narrative is much more than an entertaining and informative travelogue—it is the disturbing and fascinating story of how American death has been manipulated by popular culture, including literature, architecture, sculpture, and—the author’s favorite—historical tourism. Though the themes of loss and violence are explored and we make detours to see how the Republican Party became the Republican Party, there are all kinds of lighter diversions along the way into the lives of the three presidents and their assassins, including mummies, show tunes, mean-spirited totem poles, and a nineteenth-century biblical sex cult.

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A Long Way Gone - Ishmael Beah Cover Art

A Long Way Gone

A Long Way Gone Memoirs of a Boy Soldier by Ishmael Beah

In A Long Way Gone Ishmael Beah tells a riveting story in his own words: how, at the age of twelve, he fled attacking rebels and wandered a land rendered unrecognizable by violence. By thirteen, he'd been picked up by the government army, and Beah, at heart a gentle boy, found that he was capable of truly terrible acts. My new friends have begun to suspect I haven't told them the full story of my life. "Why did you leave Sierra Leone?" "Because there is a war." "You mean, you saw people running around with guns and shooting each other?" "Yes, all the time." "Cool." I smile a little. "You should tell us about it sometime." "Yes, sometime." This is how wars are fought now: by children, hopped-up on drugs and wielding AK-47s. Children have become soldiers of choice. In the more than fifty conflicts going on worldwide, it is estimated that there are some 300,000 child soldiers. Ishmael Beah used to be one of them. What is war like through the eyes of a child soldier? How does one become a killer? How does one stop? Child soldiers have been profiled by journalists, and novelists have struggled to imagine their lives. But until now, there has not been a first-person account from someone who came through this hell and survived. This is a rare and mesmerizing account, told with real literary force and heartbreaking honesty.

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Monica Worrell