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The Tennis Partner: A Doctor's Story of Friendship and Loss
by Abraham VergheseWhen Abraham Verghese, a physician whose marriage is unraveling, relocates to El Paso, Texas, he hopes to make a fresh start as a staff member at the county hospital. There he meets David Smith, a medical student recovering from drug addition, and the two men begin a tennis ritual that allows them to shed their inhibitions and find security in the sport they love and with each other. This friendship between doctor and intern grows increasingly rich and complex, more intimate than two men usually allow. And just when it seems nothing more can go wrong, the dark beast from David's past emerges once again. As David spirals out of control, almost everything Verghese has come to trust and believe in is threatened. Compassionate and moving, The Tennis Partner is a unforgettable, illuminating story of how men live, and how they survive.
Packinghouse Daughter: A Memoir
by Cheri Register<p>The violence that erupted when the company "replaced" its union workers with strikebreakers tested family loyalty and community stability, and attracted national attention when the governor of Minnesota called in the National Guard, declared martial law, and closed the plant. <p>Register skillfully interweaves her own memories, historical research, and first-person interviews of participants on both sides of the strike into a narrative that is thoughtful and impassioned about the value of blue-collar work and the dignity of those who do it. Packinghouse Daughter also testifies to the hold that childhood experience has on personal values and notions of social class, despite the upward mobility that is the great promise of American democracy.</p>
Bad Blood: A Memoir
by Lorna SageNobody's unhappy family was ever quite like that of Lorna Sage, whose ruthlessly funny, excruciating, inspiring memoir Bad Blood won England's Whitbread Biography Award. She grew up in the '40s on the Welsh border, in the crossfire between her grandparents, a bitter, bibulous, bookish vicar resembling Jack Sprat and his short, "fat doll" of an ignorant wife. He preached earthy sermons about how one might prefer for a wife "Martha before dinner, Mary after dinner." His wife's "notion of marriage [was] that a man signed you up to have his wicked way with you and should spend the rest of his life paying through the nose." Grandma blackmailed the vicar with his diary of adultery, in which she scribbled vicious comments invaluable to the family historian. She gobbled sweets; he drank, fumed, and helped make Lorna Sage a noted literary critic. -Amazon.com
Explaining Hitler: The Search for the Origins of His Evil
by Ron RosenbaumDocuments a variety of authors' takes on the reasons behinds Hitler's actions.
Anna and the King of Siam
by Margaret LandonHistorical fiction about the young Welsh governess who changed the course of Siamese (Thai) history. The book that the play and film 'The King and I' were based on.
A Walk Across America
by Peter JenkinsIn this classic account, Jenkins describes how his disillusionment with society in the 1970s drove him out onto the road on a walk across America, and shares the lessons he learned about his country and himself that resonate to this day.
Jack Benny: The Radio and Television Work
by The Editors at the Museum of Television and RadioDetailed descriptions of over 150 radio and TV programs, a section on his historic 'radio feud' with Fred Allen, reprints of scripts, and critical analyses of his work by the curators of the museum.
Son of the Morning Star: Custer and the Little Bighorn
by Evan S. ConnellPart anthropological study of Plains Indian life, part military history, and part character study of the principal actors in the Battle of the Little Bighorn, Evan Connell's work presents the first truly balanced account of Custer's career. [This text is listed as an example that meets Common Core Standards in English language arts in grades 9-10 at http://www.corestandards.org.]
A Little House Sampler
by Laura Ingalls Wilder William Anderson Rose Wilder LaneLaura Ingalls Wilder, author of the classic Little House books that have delighted millions of readers, was first encouraged to write about her early days on the frontier by her daughter, Rose. This collection is comprised of Laura's early autobiographical pieces along with stories and essays by Rose, an award-winning writer who herself wrote about growing up on the family farm. From log cabins and covered wagons to the hardworking farm life that Laura and Rose fondly recall, A Little House Sampler is a vivid and personal testament to nearly one hundred years of American life and history as seen by two remarkable women.
How We Survived Communism & Even Laughed
by Slavenka Drakulic"I clearly remember when it all began. Just before he retired, a journalist colleague returned from the Austria-Hungary border in mid-September 1989, crying with excitement. 'East Germans are crossing the border by the thousand. I didn't think I would ever live to see this!' Neither did I. That is how you are trained...to fear change, so that when change eventually begins to take place, you are suspicious, afraid...because every change...was always for the worse." excerpt from Introduction.
Hoop Dreams: A True Story of Hardship and Triumph
by Ben JoravskyAward-winning journalist Ben Joravsky vividly brings to life all the richness and subtlety of the experiences of Arthur Agee and William Gates, two gifted urban hoopsters determined to make it to the NBA, in this intimate, suspenseful, and heart-wrenching adaptation of the award-winning film documentary.
The Dirt: Confessions of the World's Most Notorious Rock Band
by Neil Strauss Tommy Lee Nikki Sixx Vince Neil Mick Mars<p>The most influential, enduring, and iconic metal band of the 1980's reveals everything a tell-all of epic proportions. <p>This unbelievable autobiography explores the rebellious lives of four of the most influential icons in American rock history. <p>Motley Crue was the voice of a barely pubescent Generation X, the anointed high priests of backward-masking pentagram rock, pioneers of Hollywood glam, and the creators of MTV's first "power ballad." Their sex lives claimed celebrities from Heather Locklear to Pamela Anderson to Donna D'Errico. Their scuffles involved everyone from Axl Rose to 2LiveCrew. Their hobbies have included collecting automatic weapons, cultivating long arrest records, pushing the envelope of conceivable drug abuse, and dreaming up backstage antics that would make Ozzy Osbourne blanch with modesty. <p>Provocatively written and brilliantly designed, this book includes over 100 photos, many never before published, for the most exciting and insightful look ever into the Crue.</p>
Golden Girl, The Story of Jessica Savitch
by Alanna NashShe was a commercial for the American dream. Beautiful, blond, a network news anchorwoman by the age of thirty, Jessica Savitch was a double role model--a brilliant journalistic pioneer and a Grace Kelly for the 1980s. But beneath the surface of perfection lay a shattered life. Here is a harrowing tale that explores the tragedies that haunted Savitchs personal life, including the early death of her father, the suicide of her second husband, wrenching drug dependency, neurosis, and the horrifying journey of self-sabotage and damaging personal relationships that ended in early death. Based on private diary entries, letters, and more than 300 interviews with Savitch's friends, lovers, psychiatrists, and colleagues, Golden Girl sets the record straight on both her public and private lives, and pays tribute to a woman who beat overwhelming odds to triumph in her profession.
Cash: The Autobiography
by Patrick Carr Johnny Cash"The Man in Black", an icon of rugged individualism who's been to hell and back, tells it as never before.
Our Story: Mary-Kate And Ashley Olsen's Official Biography
by Mary-Kate Olsen Ashley Olsen Damon RomineHere's your big chance to find out absolutely everything about the most famous twins on the planet! Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen give you the inside scoop on: What it's really like to be superstars!Their whole family-including big brother Trent and little sis Lizzie. How they got started in show business. Their fave things to do with their friends. What it's like being twins. Their secret crushes!(shhh. . . )So get ready to get real with Mary-Kate and Ashley!
My Story: the Duchess of York, Her Father and Me
by Lesley Player William HallIn 1990 Lesley Player organized the first-ever women's polo tournament. She instantly became a part of an international jet set - and the object of an obsessive love from the Duchess of York's father Major Ferguson. Her story tells of the affair, her times with Sarah and Andrew and her encounters with Steve Wyatt and John Bryan. Her story, which resulted in personal and financial ruin for her, is a story of glamour and opportunism that went disastrously wrong.
At Peace in the Light
by Dannion Brinkley Paul PerryThe author Dannion Brinkley continues the spiritual journey of his life and his near death experience.
To Renew America
by Newt GingrichWith characteristic bluntness, the Speaker of the House describes where he believes the country should go and how such monumental goals can be achieved, relating not only to the formative events of his own political career but also to key elements of his vision of America's future.
My House of Memories (For the Record with Tom Carter)
by Tom Carter Merle HaggardIn this riveting personal story, the award-winning, bestselling recording artist takes you on a tour through his house of memories, offering a fascinating look inside his turbulent and successful life. Merle reveals previously untold stories about his birth and troubled upbringing in a converted railroad boxcar. He recalls the loss of his father when he was nine, and how his childish disobedience transformed into full-blown delinquency that landed him behind the cold walls of San Quentin. Having lived a life shaped by violence, gambling, and drugs, he shares the lessons he learned and how he continues to pay for decades of reckless living. He pays tribute to his mother, and relives the painful memory of her death. And he talks about the music he loves, and how it has ultimately defined the man he is.
My Life In and Out of the Rough
by Glen Waggoner John DalyEver since his astonishing victory in the 1991 PGA Championship, John Daly has enthralled fans with his big drives, bigger personality, and "Grip It and Rip It" approach to golf and to life. Long John is the unchained, unpredictable, unapologetic bad boy of professional golf.
Leaving Microsoft to Change the World: An Entrepeneur's Odyssey to Educate the World's Children
by John E. WoodsA trip to Nepal convinced Wood to divert the energy he was devoting to Microsoft into a cause that needed addressing - educating all children
Ugly Americans: The True Story of the Ivy League Cowboy Who Raided Asia in Search of the American Dream
by Ben MezrichSstory about John Malcolm, a business man who found great success in the Asia trade market. Malcolm left a comfortable middleclass life in the U.S. to take a job in Japan where he learned the ins and outs of the financial world.
Gimp: The Story Behind The Star Of Murderball
by Tim Swanson Mark ZupanCollege soccer star Mark Zupan had been out drinking one night and had passed out in the back of his best friend's pickup truck when his friend got in the driver's seat, decided to take the truck for a spin, and accidentally crashed it. Thrown into a canal and stuck in frigid water for fourteen hours, Mark was finally rescued and learned soon after that he'd broken his neck. He'd most likely be a quadriplegic and spend the rest of his life in a wheelchair, doctors told him. At first Mark's only goal was to walk again. When that proved impossible, he fell into the depths of anger and despair, retreating from the world and the people closest to him. But love, friendship, and a new sport, quad rugby (a.k.a. "murderball"), helped Mark create a new existence that's truly exceptional. Gimp, the no-holds-barred memoir of a Paralympic athlete and the star of the Academy Award–nominated documentary Murderball, is an inspiring, defiant, and revealing celebration of spirit and will that confounds readers' prejudices by offering proof that a guy in a chair can still do amazing things: have sex with his girlfriend, party with his friends . . . even crowd-surf at Pearl Jam shows.
Mr. Lincoln's T-Mails: The Untold Story of How Abraham Lincoln Used the Telegraph to Win the Civil War
by Tom WheelerThe story of how Lincoln adapted to a new medium of communication during a period of social and technological innovation.