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Ancestors: A Family History
by William MaxwellThe National Book Award-winning author of So Long, See You Tomorrow offers an astonishing evocation of a vanished world, as he retraces, branch by branch, the history of his family, taking readers into the lives of settlers, itinerant preachers, and small businessmen, examining the way they saw their world and how they imagined the world to come.
Just Watch Me: The Life of Pierre Elliott Trudeau, 1968-2000
by John EnglishThis magnificent second volume, written with exclusive access to Trudeau's private papers and letters, completes what the Globe and Mail called "the most illuminating Trudeau portrait yet written" -- sweeping us from sixties' Trudeaumania to his final days when he debated his faith.His life is one of Canada's most engrossing stories. John English reveals how for Trudeau style was as important as substance, and how the controversial public figure intertwined with the charismatic private man and committed father. He traces Trudeau's deep friendships (with women especially, many of them talented artists, like Barbra Streisand) and bitter enmities; his marriage and family tragedy. He illuminates his strengths and weaknesses -- from Trudeaumania to political disenchantment, from his electrifying response to the kidnappings during the October Crisis, to his all-important patriation of the Canadian Constitution, and his evolution to influential elder statesman.From the Hardcover edition.
Hearts and Hands: Creating Community in Violent Times
by Luis RodriguezHearts and Hands deals with many of the difficult issues addressed in Luis Rodríguez's memoir of gang life, Always Running, but with a focus on healing through community building. Empowered by his experiences as a peacemaker with gangs in Los Angeles and Chicago, Rodríguez offers a unique book of change. He makes concrete suggestions, shows how we can create nonviolent opportunities for youth today, and redirects kids into productive and satisfying lives. And he warns that we sacrifice community values for material gain when we incarcerate or marginalize people already on the edge of society. His interest in dissolving gang influence on black and latino kids is personal as well as societal; his son, to whom he dedicates Hearts and Hands, is currently serving a prison sentence for gang-related activity. With anecdotes, interviews, and time-tested guidelines, Hearts and Hands makes a powerful argument for building and supporting community life.
Jasmine and Fire: A Bittersweet Year in Beirut
by Salma AbdelnourAs Beirut exploded with the bombs and violence of a ruthless civil war in the '80s, a nine-year-old Salma Abdelnour and her family fled Lebanon to start a new life in the States. Ever since then-- even as she built a thriving career as a food and travel writer in New York City--Salma has had a hunch that Beirut was still her home. She kept dreaming of moving back--and finally decided to do it.But could she resume her life in Beirut, so many years after her family moved away? Could she, or anyone for that matter, ever really go home again? Jasmine and Fire is Salma's poignant and humorous journey of try-ing to resettle in Beirut and fumbling through the new realities of life in one of the world's most complex, legendary, ever-vibrant, ever- troubled cities. What's more, in a year of roiling changes around the Middle East and the rise of the Arab Spring, Salma found herself in the midst of the turmoil, experiencing it all up close. As she comes to grips with all the changes in her life--a love left behind in New York and new relationships blossoming in Beirut--Salma takes comfort in some of Lebanon's enduring traditions, particularly its extraordinary food culture. Through the sights, sounds, and flavors of a city full of beauty, tragedy, despair, and hope, Salma slowly begins to reconnect with the place she's longed for her entire life.
Einstein
by Philipp FrankMuch has been written about Albert Einstein, technical and biographical, but very little remains as valuable as this unique hybrid of a book written by Einstein’s colleague and contemporary. Both rich in personal insights and grounded in a deep knowledge of twentieth-century science, Phillip Frank's biography anchors the reader with a lucid overview of physics and draws an intimate portrait of the Nobel Prize-winner.
Flying Close to the Sun: My Life and Times as a Weatherman
by Cathy WilkersonFlying Close to the Sun is the stunning memoir of a white middle-class girl from Connecticut who became a member of the Weather Underground, one of the most notorious groups of the 1960s. Cathy Wilkerson, who famously escaped the Greenwich Village townhouse explosion, here wrestles with thelegacy of the movement, at times finding contradictions that many others have avoided: the absence of women's voices then, and in the retelling; the incompetence and the egos; the hundreds of bombs detonated in protest which caused little loss of life but which were also ineffective in fomenting revolution. In searching for new paradigms for change, Wilkerson asserts with brave humanity and confessional honesty an assessment of her past--of those heady, iconic times--and somehow finds hope and faith in a world that at times seems to offer neither.
Chasing Hepburn: A Memoir of Shanghai, Hollywood, and a Chinese Family's Fight for Freedom
by Gus LeeChasing Hepburn is the story of the Lee family--a saga spanning four generations, two continents, and a century and a half of Chinese history. In the masterful hands of acclaimed author Gus Lee, his ancestors' stories spring vividly to life in a memoir with all the richness of great fiction. From the time of her birth in 1906 it was expected that Gus Lee's mother, Tzu Da-tsien, would become an elegant bride for a wealthy provincial man. But she was shunted onto a less certain path by age three, when her warmhearted father rescued her from her foot-binding ceremony in response to her terrified screams. This dramatic rejection of tradition was the first of many clashes that would lock the family in a constant struggle between Chinese customs and modern ways. Later, with the Chinese countryside in the grip of civil war, the Tzu family moved to Shanghai, seeking financial stability. There Da-tsien met Lee Zee Zee, the dashing son of the Tzus' landlord, who lived across the street. With their patriarch succumbing to opium addiction, Zee Zee's family was on the brink of ruin, and Da-tsien's mother was working hard to secure her big-footed daughter's marriage to a wealthy older man. But not even the protests of both families could keep the lovers apart, and these two socially displaced clans were reluctantly united.Over the course of their courtship and marriage, Zee Zee and Da-tsien would encounter the most important movements and figures of the times, including underworld gangsters, Communist students and workers, revolutionary armies, Christian missionaries, and legions of invading Japanese soldiers. Zee Zee became an ardent anti-Maoist and an ally of the highest-ranking leaders in the Chinese Nationalist movement. But his flights from tradition took him away from his young family--first into Chiang Kai-shek's air force and later to America in search of his idol, Katharine Hepburn. Faced with this abandonment and with the chaos of the Japanese occupation, Da-tsien would rely on all of her resources, traditional and modern--faith, superstition, tremendous courage, and her strong feet--in an attempt to preserve her family.Gus Lee takes us straight into the heart of twentieth-century Chinese society, offering a clear-eyed yet compassionate view of the forces that repeatedly tore apart and reconfigured the lives of his parents and their contemporaries. He moves deftly from recounting intimate household conversations to discussing major historical events, and the resulting story is by turns comic, harrowing, heroic, and tragic. For most of her life, Da-tsien prayed for a son who would honor his family and respect his Chinese heritage. In this enthralling tribute, Gus Lee lovingly accomplishes both.From the Hardcover edition.
Invitation: Billy Graham and the Lives God Touched
by Basyle Tchividjian Aram TchividjianBilly Graham... A crusade... A stadium poised for a spiritual change... A person in need... Now for the first time, through pictures and stories of ordinary people who heard the invitation and responded, we glimpse the breathtaking panorama of a seventy-year work of God on a scale no one could have imagined. Here is the inspiring spiritual journey of hearts and souls encountering God through the ministry of Billy Graham. From despair to hope, from broken life to renewed spirit, Invitation tells each individual story within the visual context of the Crusade experience. This new book of images and stories brings together never-before published stories of real people who responded to God's invitation and as a result found their lives transformed and utterly turned around. Created by Billy Graham's grandsons, Basyle ("Boz") and Aram Tchividjian, Invitation draws from www.thankyoubilly.com, a website designed to capture for all time the human impact of Graham's crusades. Here, the stories poured in, from young and old, near and far-those who once were lonely, addicted, abandoned, sick, suicidal-all sharing how one invitation changed everything.Designed around photographs, many never before seen, from the private Graham family collections and the archives of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association, Invitation has a place in every home, and is itself an invitation to all of us to experience the spiritual legacy of Billy Graham and the work of God in changing lives.
An Appetite for Life: The Education of a Young Diarist, 1924-1927
by Charles RitchieCharles Ritchie's first volume of diaries, The Siren Years, created a sensation when it was published in 1974. Besides winning the Governor General's Award for Non-fiction, it was hailed by reviewers on both sides of the Atlantic. An Appetite for Life, his second volume, first published in 1977, deals with his youth in Halifax and his career at Oxford - the years when Charles Ritchie turned from a callow, blundering youth into a callow, blundering young man.As these diaries show, Charles Ritchie had a sharp eye, a keen ear, a highly developed sense of the absurd, and - despite his unhappy knack of landing ?at on his face - a thorough "appetite for life." This is not only a hilariously funny book, but it presents a vivid picture of two worlds - Halifax and Oxford in the mid-twenties - that are now long gone. It also introduces us to an astonishing range of characters, but the most astonishing of all is the young Charles Ritchie himself.From the Trade Paperback edition.
Where Are You Now, Bo Diddley?: The Stars Who Made Us Rock and Where They Are Now
by Edward KiershFrom the jumping rock and blues joints of the 1950s to Woodstock and beyond, Where Are You Now, Bo Diddley? takes a close look at forty-seven musicians whose unique contributions to their thrilling era will never be forgotten.
Karla Faye Tucker Set Free: Life and Faith on Death Row
by Linda StromThis gripping story about the first woman executed in Texas in over one hundred years draws on accounts from family, prisoners, government officials, and friends to show how God used a remarkable woman to reach countless lives with a message of redemption and joy. Linda Strom, Tucker's spiritual advisor and close friend for eleven years, includes photographs as well as excerpts from Tucker's letters and interviews.From the Trade Paperback edition.
Writing Gordon Lightfoot: The Man, the Music, and the World in 1972
by Dave BidiniFrom acclaimed musician and author Dave Bidini comes a brilliantly original look at a folk-rock legend and the momentous week in 1972 that culminated in the Mariposa Folk Festival.July, 1972. As musicians across Canada prepare for the nation's biggest folk festival, held on Toronto Island, a series of events unfold that will transform the country politically, psychologically--and musically. As Bidini explores the remarkable week leading up to Mariposa, he also explores the life and times of one of the most enigmatic figures in Canadian music: Gordon Lightfoot, the reigning king of folk at the height of his career. Through a series of letters, Bidini addresses Lightfoot directly, questioning him, imagining his life, and weaving together a fascinating, highly original look at a musician at the top of his game. By the end of the week, the country is on the verge of massive change and the '72 Mariposa folk fest--complete with surprise appearances by Bob Dylan, Neil Young, Joni Mitchell, and yes, Lightfoot--is on its way to becoming legendary.From the Hardcover edition.
In Her Own Words: Women's Memoirs from Australia, New Zealand, Canada, and the United States
by Jill Ker ConwayJill Ker Conway, author of one of the most celebrated memoirs of recent decades, is also the premier anthologist of women's autobiographical writing. In Her Own Words is Conway's distillation of women's experience from the British Commonwealth world she came from, compared with major themes in women's lives in the United States, which is now her home. In this dazzling collection, we meet twelve remarkable women--from Shirley Chisholm, the West Indian-raised girl who became the first black woman to be elected to the U.S. Congress, to Janet Frame, the brilliant New Zealand writer who overcame involuntary treatment in a mental institution to write one of the archetypcal analyses of the postcolonial experience. We learn how the world of politics and the private self intersect in the four offshoots of the old British world, and see how these women have made a difference--by their honesty, by the scale of their struggle for self-knowledge and autonomy, and by the power of their writing. Patricia Adam-Smith Lillian Hellman Rosemary Brown Dorothy Hewett Kim Chernin Robin Hyde Shirley Chisholm Dorothy Livesay Lauris Edmond Sally Morgan Janet Frame Gabrielle Roy
Joan Mitchell: Lady Painter
by Patricia Albers"Gee, Joan, if only you were French and male and dead." --New York art dealer to Joan Mitchell, the 1950s. She was a steel heiress from the Midwest--Chicago and Lake Forest (her grandfather built Chicago's bridges and worked for Andrew Carnegie). She was a daughter of the American Revolution--Anglo-Saxon, Republican, Episcopalian. She was tough, disciplined, courageous, dazzling, and went up against the masculine art world at its most entrenched, made her way in it, and disproved their notion that women couldn't paint.Joan Mitchell is the first full-scale biography of the abstract expressionist painter who came of age in the 1950s, '60s, and '70s; a portrait of an outrageous artist and her struggling artist world, painters making their way in the second part of America's twentieth century. As a young girl she was a champion figure skater, and though she lacked balance and coordination, accomplished one athletic triumph after another, until giving up competitive skating to become a painter. Mitchell saw people and things in color; color and emotion were the same to her. She said, "I use the past to make my pic[tures] and I want all of it and even you and me in candlelight on the train and every 'lover' I've ever had--every friend--nothing closed out. It's all part of me and I want to confront it and sleep with it--the dreams--and paint it."Her work had an unerring sense of formal rectitude, daring, and discipline, as well as delicacy, grace, and awkwardness.Mitchell exuded a young, smoky, tough glamour and was thought of as "sexy as hell." Albers writes about how Mitchell married her girlhood pal, Barnet Rosset, Jr.--scion of a financier who was head of Chicago's Metropolitan Trust and partner of Jimmy Roosevelt. Rosset went on to buy Grove Press in 1951, at Mitchell's urging, and to publish Henry Miller, Samuel Beckett, Jean Genet, Jack Kerouac, Allen Ginsberg, et al., making Grove into the great avant-garde publishing house of its time. Mitchell's life was messy and reckless: in New York and East Hampton carousing with de Kooning, Frank O'Hara, James Schuyler, Jane Freilicher, Franz Kline, Helen Frankenthaler, and others; going to clambakes, cocktail parties, softball games--and living an entirely different existence in Paris and Vétheuil.Mitchell's inner life embraced a world beyond her own craft, especially literature . . . her compositions were informed by imagined landscapes or feelings about places. In Joan Mitchell, Patricia Albers brilliantly reconstructs the painter's large and impassioned life: her growing prominence as an artist; her marriage and affairs; her friendships with poets and painters; her extraordinary work. Joan Mitchell re-creates the times, the people, and her worlds from the 1920s through the 1990s and brings it all spectacularly to life.
A Reason to Believe: Lessons from an Improbable Life
by Deval Patrick"I've simply seen too much goodness in this country--and have come so far in my own journey--not to believe in those ideals, and my faith in the future is sometimes restored under the darkest clouds." --Governor Deval Patrick. In January 2007, Deval Patrick became the first black governor of the state of Massachusetts, one of only two black governors elected in American history. But that was just one triumphant step in a long, improbable journey that began in a poor tenement on the South Side of Chicago. From a chaotic childhood to an elite boarding school in New England, from a sojourn doing relief work in Africa to the boardrooms of Fortune 500 companies, and then to a career in politics, Patrick has led an extraordinary life. In this heartfelt and inspirational book, he pays tribute to the family, friends, and strangers who, through words and deeds, have instilled in him transcendent lessons of faith, perseverance, and friendship. In doing so, he reminds us of the power of community and the imperative of idealism. With humility, humor, and grace, he offers a road map for attaining happiness, empowerment, and success while also making an appeal for readers to cultivate those achievements in others, to feel a greater stake in this world, and to shape a life worth living. Warm, nostalgic, and inspirational, A Reason to Believe is destined to become a timeless tribute to a uniquely American odyssey and a testament to what is possible in our lives and our communities if we are hopeful, generous, and resilient. GOVERNOR DEVAL PATRICK is donating a portion of the proceeds from A REASON TO BELIEVE to A Better Chance, a national organization dedicated to opening the doors to greater educational opportunities for young people of color. To learn more, visit www.abetterchance.org.
Adventure Divas: Searching the Globe for Women Who Are Changing the World
by Holly MorrisAfter years of working behind a desk, Holly Morris had finally had enough. So she quit her job and set out to prove that adventure is not just a vacation style but a philosophy of living and to find like-minded, risk-taking women around the globe. With modest backing, a small television crew, her spirited producer-mother, Jeannie, and a whole lot of chutzpah, Morris tracked down artists, activists, and politicos-women of action who are changing the rules and sometimes the world around them. In these pages, Morris brings to life the remarkable people and places she's encountered on the road while filming her PBS series Adventure Divas and other programs. We meet Assata Shakur, a former Black Panther and social activist and now a fugitive living in exile in Cuba; Kiran Bedi, New Delhi's chief of police, who revolutionized India's infamously brutal Tijar Jail with her humanitarian ethic; New Zealand pop star Hinewehi Mohi, a Maori who reinvigorates her native culture for a new generation; and Mokarrameh Ghanbari, a septuagenarian painter and rice farmer who lives in the tiny village of Darikandeh on the Caspian plains of Iran, where her creative talents run counter to the government's strict stance on art. Along the way, Morris herself becomes a certified Adventure Diva, as she hunts for wild boar with Penan tribesmen in the jungles of Borneo, climbs the Matterhorn short-roped to a salty fourth-generation Swiss guide, and memorably becomes the first woman ever to enter the traditional camel race of the Saharan oasis town of Timia. Intelligent, phenomenally funny, and chock-full of rich and telling details of place, Adventure Divas is a pro-woman chronicle for the twenty-first century. In a pilgrimage fueled by curiosity, ideology, and full-on estrogen power, Holly Morris has paved the way for all of us to discover our own diva within and set out on our own adventures.
Both of Us: My Life with Farrah
by Jodee Blanco Ryan O'Neal Kent CarrollRyan O'Neal and Farrah Fawcett. He was the handsome Academy Award-nominated star of Paper Moon and the classic romance Love Story. She was the beautiful, all-American Charlie's Angel, whose poster adorned the bedroom walls of teenage boys everywhere. One of the most storied love affairs in Hollywood history, their romance has captivated fans and media alike for more than three decades. In a tragic turn, the world lost Farrah after a tragic battle with cancer in 2009, but in his intimate memoir Both of Us, Ryan brings their relationship to vivid life. Fans of each other from afar, Ryan and Farrah met through her husband, Lee Majors, and fell passionately in love. Soon, however, reality threatened their happiness and they struggled with some serious matters, including the disintegration of Farrah's marriage; Ryan's troubled relationship with his daughter, Tatum, and son, Griffin; mismatched career trajectories; and raising their young son, Redmond--all leading Ryan and Farrah to an inevitable split in 1997. Ryan fought to create a life on his own but never stopped longing for Farrah. Eventually he realized that he had lost his true soul mate. Older and wiser, he and Farrah found their way back to each other and were excited to start a new life together. But their bliss was cut short when Farrah was diagnosed with cancer and passed away just three years later. Ryan's deep love for Farrah and his devotion to preserving her memory are evident in Both of Us. Drawing on decades' worth of personal records and keepsakes, he has included never-before-seen photographs, letters exchanged between him and Farrah, and his own diaries, making this a poignant and compelling memento for her fans. Written with candor and emotional honesty, it is a true Hollywood love story.
Beyond Glory: Joe Louis vs. Max Schmeling, and a World on the Brink
by David MargolickNothing in the annals of sports has aroused more passion than the heavyweight fights in New York in 1936 and 1938 between Joe Louis and Max Schmeling--bouts that symbolized and galvanized the hopes, hatreds, and fears of a world moving toward total war. David Margolick takes us into the careers of both men. We see Louis in his boyhood and amateur days in Detroit and Chicago, and the blossoming of his boxing genius. e see him, already a near-mythical figure, taking New York by storm in the 1930s, fighting before record crowds, the savior of a sport that had fallen into decline and a long sought after symbol of redemption for black America after the scandalous reign of Jack Johnson two decades earlier. And we witness how with talent, a gentle personality, and shrewd management, Louis managed to trump the brutal racism directed at him and came to dominate what had been primarily a white man's sport, becoming a hero of unprecedented power and influence in black America. Schmeling, we learn, was a kind of chameleon, a cultural icon in Weimar Germany who seamlessly, disconcertingly, maintained his privileged status after the Nazi takeover. He pulled off a remarkable feat, relying on a Jewish manager and a Jewish promoter in New York while being extolled at home as a model of "racial superiority." Margolick meticulously examines all the complex ties that developed between Schmeling and the Nazis, shattering the myth that they frowned upon him before he upset Louis in 1936--he was a ten-to-one underdog--and ostracized him after losing to Louis two years later. We see the extraordinary buildup to the 1938 rematch--the worsening international tensions seemingly raising the stakes--in which Louis would need only 124 seconds to defeat Schmeling, while radio allowed the whole world to listen. Margolick vividly captures the outpouring of emotion that the two fighters aroused in the white South, in the black and Jewish communities in the United States, in Germany, everywhere, and he makes clear the cultural and social divisions the two men came to represent as the threat posed by the Nazis became increasingly clear, and as America began to feel the effects of a nascent civil rights movement. Schmeling's postwar success in business and Louis's sad decline add a poignant coda. A book at once about sports and about a pivotal moment in twentieth-century history, Beyond Glory pulses with energy from first to last.
All Elevations Unknown: An Adventure in the Heart of Borneo
by Sam Lightner Jr.Rock climber Lightner juxtaposes a reconstruction of military events on the Indonesian island during World War II, with his own experiences there in 1998 and 1999, and his party's ascent of Batu Lawi. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)
Buried Alive: The Biography of Janis Joplin
by Myra FriedmanElectrifying, highly acclaimed, and intensely personal, this new and updated version of Myra Friedman's classic biography of Janis Joplin teems with dramatic insights into Joplin's genius and into the chaotic times that catapulted her to fame as the legendary queen of rock. It is a stunning panorama of the turbulent decade when Joplin's was the rallying voice of a generation that lost itself in her music and found itself in her words.From her small hometown of Port Arthur, Texas, to San Francisco's Haight-Ashbury, from the intimate coffeehouses to the supercharged concert halls, from the glitter of worldwide fame to her tragic end in a Hollywood hotel, here is all the fire and anguish of an immortal, immensely talented, and troubled performer who devoured everything the rock scene had to offer in a fatal attempt to make peace with herself and her era. Yet, in an eloquent introduction recently written by the author, Joplin emerges from her "ugly duckling" childhood as a woman truly ahead of her time, an outrageous rebel, a defiant outcast and artist of incomparable authenticity who, almost in spite of herself, became to so many a symbol of triumph over adversity.This edition also contains an afterword detailing the whereabouts of a large and colorful cast of characters who were part of Joplin's life, as well as "We Remember Janis," a new chapter of poignant and affectionate anecdotes told by friends.From the Trade Paperback edition.
Eisenhower and Churchill: The Partnership that Saved the World
by James C. HumesAlthough born and raised more than an ocean apart, Dwight Eisenhower and Winston Churchill—the two titans of the greatest generation—led remarkably parallel lives whose paths would intersect during history's most harrowing days. Through their youth, education, and military training, both men experienced similar triumphs and failures that shaped their lives, though they met only for the first time upon the eve of war in 1941. Eisenhower and Churchilltells the magnificent story of these two great leaders and their exemplary partnership in war and peace. Through enlivened pages and fascinating anecdotes, author James C. Humes illuminates the human side of each man, who had more in common with each other than a world war. You'll discover the extraordinary stories of how both were born to domineering mothers and failed fathers, both did not qualify for the military academy on the first try, both were traumatized by experiences in World War I, both were talented writers, and both lost a child in the very same year (1921). Remarkably, each man did not warm to the other at first; but as they worked together, their respect for one another grew to become a powerful friendship that lived long after the echoes of war had receded into the past. As allies, they shared a hatred for tyranny and led the world through the greatest war of the twentieth century. As friends, they shared a sense of trust and cooperation that should be raised as a standard. Containing new research and memorable insights,Eisenhower and Churchillbrings to life the two lions of the twentieth centruy. "Who would not welcome an intimate book about Churchill and Eisenhower, and who is better situated to write it than Professor Humes, who knew them both, and studiously—and ardently—records their careers and their friendship?" —William F. Buckley Jr. "James C. Humes'sEisenhower and Churchillis a wonderful dual biography laced with lively anecdotes, engaging prose, and shrewd analysis. A truly welcome addition to our growing literature on the Second World War. " —Douglas Brinkley,professor of history and director of the Eisenhower Center, University of New Orleans From the Hardcover edition.
Translated Woman: Crossing the Border with Esperanza's Story
by Ruth BeharTranslated Woman tells the story of an unforgettable encounter between Ruth Behar, a Cuban-American feminist anthropologist, and Esperanza Hernández, a Mexican street peddler. The tale of Esperanza's extraordinary life yields unexpected and profound reflections on the mutual desires that bind together anthropologists and their "subjects. "
Herculine Barbin
by Michel Foucault Herculine BarbinWith an eye for the sensual bloom of young schoolgirls, and the torrid style of the romantic novels of her day, Herculine Barbin tells the story of her life as a hermaphrodite. Herculine was designated female at birth. A pious girl in a Catholic orphanage, a bewildered adolescent enchanted by the ripening bodies of her classmates, a passionate lover of another schoolmistress, she is suddenly reclassified as a man. Alone and desolate, he commits suicide at the age of thirty in a miserable attic in Paris. Here, in an erotic diary, is one lost voice from our sexual past. Provocative, articulate, eerily prescient as she imagines her corpse under the probing instruments of scientists, Herculine brings a disturbing perspective to our own notions of sexuality. Michel Foucault, who discovered these memoirs in the archives of the French Department of Public Hygiene, presents them with the graphic medical descriptions of Herculine's body before and after her death. In a striking contrast, a painfully confused young person and the doctors who examine her try to sort out the nature of masculine and feminine at the dawn of the age of modern sexuality. "Herculine Barbin can be savored like a libertine novel. The ingenousness of Herculine, the passionate yet equivocal tenderness which thrusts her into the arms, even into the beds, of her companions, gives these pages a charm strangely erotic...Michel Foucault has a genius for bringing to light texts and reviving destinies outside the ordinary."Le Monde, July 1978
Brilliant Madness: Living with Manic Depressive Illness
by Patty Duke Gloria HochmanIn her revealing bestseller Call Me Anna, Patty Duke shared her long-kept secret: the talented, Oscar-winning actress who won our hearts on The Patty Duke Show was suffering from a serious-but-treatable-mental illness called manic depression. For nearly twenty years, until she was correctly diagnosed at age thirty-five, she careened between periods of extreme euphoria and debilitating depression, prone to delusions and panic attacks, temper tantrums, spending sprees, and suicide attempts. Now in A Brilliant Madness Patty Duke joins with medical reporter Gloria Hochman to shed light on this powerful, paradoxical, and destructive illness. From what it's like to live with manic-depressive disorder to the latest findings on its most effective treatments, this compassionate and eloquent book provides profound insight into the challenge of mental illness. And though Patty's story, which ends in a newfound happiness with her cherished family, it offers hope for all those who suffer from mood disorders and for the family, friends, and physicians who love and care for them.From the Paperback edition.
I Ain't Got Time to Bleed: Reworking the Body Politic from the Bottom Up
by Jesse VenturaWhen he left the Navy SEALs to become a professional wrestler for WWF, fans knew him as "Jesse The Body." When he picked up the microphone as a TV commentator and hard-hitting radio talk-show host, he became "Jesse The Mouth." And now that this big, body-slamming, straight-talking, charismatic hero is in the Minnesota governor's office, you had better call him "Jesse The Mind." In a brand-new edition of I Ain't Got Time to Bleed: Reworking the Body Politic from the Bottom Up, the blockbuster hit that spent 13 weeks on the New York Times bestseller list, Jesse Ventura has added an exclusive new chapter in which he speaks candidly for the first time about his controversial first year in office and about Campaign 2000. He also reveals the secrets of his stunning electoral success and maps his innovative strategies for pioneering a new era in American government. JESSE THE BODY: "I broke new ground in wrestling in a lot of different ways. That's why I can't work in the business today. I've been banned because I'm known as a rebel." JESSE THE MOUTH: "I quickly became even more popular behind the microphone than I was on the mat, but I was no less outrageous." "I'm loved by some, I'm hated by others, but what the hell - they all know who I am." JESSE THE MIND: "I found out the hard way that whenever you take a stand on an issue, not matter how insignificant, people will line up around the block to kick your ass over it." "I can see a Minnesota that's even better than the one we have now? And I want to show the rest of the nation and the rest of the world what's possible when good people take a stand." "To all Americans who have lost faith in the American Dream, I'm living proof that it's still alive and well." In an inimitable voice, Ventura takes on bloated government, career politicians, and apathetic voters. He tells the wildly colorful story of his six years as part of the Navy's most formidable elite ("A SEAL will defy death at least twice a week"), his nights in the pro-wrestling ring, and his experiences on radio and in films like Predator and Batman and Robin. Born James George Janos in Minneapolis, this towering figure of a man has never forgotten his roots ("I stand for the common man because I am the common man") as he journeys through one extraordinary career after another. Ventura holds nothing back ("If I had told you this story twenty years ago, I could have gotten myself into a world of hurt"), as he tells the story of his life as only he can. Ventura's popularity is astounding. He has been featured on every major national television news and talk show, and the hardcover edition of I Ain't Got Time to Bleed sold a remarkable 185,000 copies and appeared on bestseller lists across the nation, including Publishers Weekly, Wall Street Journal, Entertainment Weekly, Chicago Tribune, Los Angeles Times, Washington Post, Amazon.com, and Ingram. Ventura will also be a major pundit during 2000's upcoming presidential campaign. I Ain''t Got Time to Bleed is Rocky meets Mr. Smith Goes to Washington - a book that will challenge readers' ideas of traditional government as it introduces them to one of politics' most ferocious new heroes. "Ventura tells the remarkable story of how he became who he is... He's not afraid to point a finger at everyone from the political parties to the media to nonvoters... His book is entertaining and provocative, just like its author." --San Antonio Express-News. "The fascinating tale of his circuitous rise from goof-off kid, to Navy SEAL, to L.A. biker, to professional wrestler, to movie actor, to governor of Minnesota... He's a lot of fun to watch." --The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. "Ventura lays out his views on pressing political concerns of the day, including taxes, education, gun control, welfare and other hot-button issues. He also details his storied progression from the Navy's most elite squad to the Minnesota governor's mansion." --The Washington Post.