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In Search of Silence
by Poorna Bell'Raw, poetic and breathtaking.' Fearne Cotton 'It is rare to find an author who writes with such authenticity, empathy and humour. I couldn't recommend this read enough. It will enrich your life.' Will Young 'Poorna's beautiful, thoughtful writing is a gift of calm, laughter and stoic contemplation in an increasingly anxious world. Simultaneously earthed and sometimes ephemeral, this book is absolutely delightsome, compassionate, tender and a lesson to us all in self-love and nurture. I read it in a matter of days and started over again.' Jack Monroe 'A beautiful book that dismantles the pressure and expectations placed on our lives.' Gizzi Erskine Poorna Bell was sold the fairytale of life. That love wins the day. That marriage is the rescue to an otherwise unhappy existence. That children are the natural progression of any relationship. But really, is it? Are we actually being honest with ourselves about the expectations we have set for ourselves? Are we able to distinguish between what we really need from life, from everything that we have been conditioned to want? Because the current rhetoric doesn’t prepare you for the reality. In 2015 Poorna Bell became a widow after her husband Rob took his own life on a winter’s night, having battled depression and addiction. Her situation was unusual when compared to a lot of people, but she was left figuring out exactly the same things. Will she ever be happy? Will she find love again? Who will rescue her from her sadness? Two years on and Poorna is rebuilding her life. And it is from this place – as she works towards choosing what she does and doesn’t want from society, that she will explore a different conversation around fulfillment and self-worth.Cutting across the landscapes in India, New Zealand and Britain, Poorna Bell explores the things endemic in our society such as sadness and loneliness, to unpick why we seek other people to fix what’s inside of us.In Search of Silence is the recognition of the echo chamber we find ourselves in, in terms of what constitutes a successful, fulfilling life. This is a heartfelt, deeply personal journey which asks us all to define what 'happiness' truly means. 'Rich with achingly beautiful language that transports the reader to the streets of Bangalore, the mountain-topped peaks of Nepal and the long and winding roads of New Zealand, I adored absolutely everything about In Search of Silence. A book that will speak to anyone who has grown tired of London, who has lost, who has loved, who has lamented the loss of a loved one, it is a beautiful, life-affirming read that explores solitude, silence and sadness and is underpinned with hope and happiness for the future.' The Literary Edit
In Search of Sir Thomas Browne: The Life and Afterlife of the Seventeenth Century's Most Inquiring Mind
by Hugh Aldersey-WilliamsThe extraordinary life and ideas of one of the greatest--and most neglected--minds in history. Sir Thomas Browne (1605-1682) was an English writer, physician, and philosopher whose work has inspired everyone from Ralph Waldo Emerson to Jorge Luis Borges, Virginia Woolf to Stephen Jay Gould. In an intellectual adventure like Sarah Bakewell's book about Montaigne, How to Live, Hugh Aldersey-Williams sets off not just to tell the story of Browne's life but to champion his skeptical nature and inquiring mind. Mixing botany, etymology, medicine, and literary history, Aldersey-Williams journeys in his hero's footsteps to introduce us to witches, zealots, natural wonders, and fabulous creatures of Browne's time and ours. We meet Browne the master prose stylist, responsible for introducing hundreds of words into English, including electricity, hallucination, and suicide. Aldersey-Williams reveals how Browne's preoccupations--how to disabuse the credulous of their foolish beliefs, what to make of order in nature, how to unite science and religion--are relevant today. In Search of Sir Thomas Browne is more than just a biography--it is a cabinet of wonders and an argument that Browne, standing at the very gates of modern science, remains an inquiring mind for our own time. As Stephen Greenblatt has written, Browne is "unnervingly one of our most adventurous contemporaries."
In Search of Tiger: A Journey Through Golf with Tiger Woods
by Tom CallahanTom Callahan has written the seminal book on golfing great Tiger Woods. Woods, who has gone out of his way to protect his privacy, has never allowed himself to get close enough to a writer to be properly examined on the page. Callahan, commonly regarded as one of the best all-round sports writers in the country, has followed Tiger around the world of golf for more than seven years, enjoying a certain access to the man and his family. He even went so far as to travel to Vietnam to learn the fate of the South Vietnamese soldier who was Earl Wood's best friend during the war - and his son's namesake. Tiger is twenty years old when the book opens and twenty-seven when it closes. During those years, Callahan covered Woods at all the Majors, including the Masters, the U. S. Open, and the British Open, culminating in Tiger's heart-stopping race to make history by clinching the string of Majors affectionately nicknamed the Tiger Slam. Along the way, Tom Callahan hears from everyone who is anyone in the world of Tiger Woods, including Phil Mickelson, Jack Nicklaus, David Duval, Butch Harmon, Ernie Els, and, of course, Tiger's rather ubiquitous mother and father. As much as we learn about Tiger - how he sees himself in relation to the courses he plays on and the players he has learned from and competed with - we also enjoy a bird's-eye view of golf as it is now with Tiger on the scene, and as it was for centuries before.
In Search of a Kingdom: Francis Drake, Elizabeth I, and the Perilous Birth of the British Empire
by Laurence BergreenIn this grand and thrilling narrative, the acclaimed biographer of Magellan, Columbus, and Marco Polo brings alive the singular life and adventures of Sir Francis Drake, the pirate/explorer/admiral whose mastery of the seas during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I changed the course of history"Fascinating. ... Engaging. ... Drake’s story is both dramatic and timely." –New York Times Book ReviewBefore he was secretly dispatched by Queen Elizabeth to circumnavigate the globe, or was called upon to save England from the Spanish Armada, Francis Drake was perhaps the most wanted–and successful–pirate ever to sail. Nicknamed "El Draque" by the Spaniards who placed a bounty on his head, the notorious red-haired, hot-tempered Drake pillaged galleons laden with New World gold and silver, stealing a vast fortune for his queen–and himself. For Elizabeth, Drake made the impossible real, serving as a crucial and brilliantly adaptable instrument of her ambitions to transform England from a third-rate island kingdom into a global imperial power.In 1580, sailing on Elizabeth's covert orders, Drake became the first captain to circumnavigate the earth successfully. (Ferdinand Magellan had died in his attempt.) Part exploring expedition, part raiding mission, Drake's audacious around-the-world journey in the Golden Hind reached Patagonia, the Pacific Coast of present-day California and Oregon, the Spice Islands, Java, and Africa. Almost a decade later, Elizabeth called upon Drake again. As the devil-may-care vice admiral of the English fleet, Drake dramatically defeated the once-invincible Spanish Armada, spurring the British Empire’s ascent and permanently wounding its greatest rival. The relationship between Drake and Elizabeth is the missing link in our understanding of the rise of the British Empire, and its importance has not been fully described or appreciated. Framed around Drake’s key voyages as a window into this crucial moment in British history, In Search of a Kingdom is a rousing adventure narrative entwining epic historical themes with intimate passions.
In Search of the Canary Tree: The Story of a Scientist, a Cypress, and a Changing World
by Lauren E. OakesThe surprisingly hopeful story of one woman's search for resiliency in a warming worldSeveral years ago, ecologist Lauren E. Oakes set out from California for Alaska's old-growth forests to hunt for a dying tree: the yellow-cedar. With climate change as the culprit, the death of this species meant loss for many Alaskans. Oakes and her research team wanted to chronicle how plants and people could cope with their rapidly changing world. Amidst the standing dead, she discovered the resiliency of forgotten forests, flourishing again in the wake of destruction, and a diverse community of people who persevered to create new relationships with the emerging environment. Eloquent, insightful, and deeply heartening, In Search of the Canary Tree is a case for hope in a warming world.
In Search of the Free Individual: The History of the Russian-Soviet Soul (Distinguished Speakers Series)
by Svetlana Alexievich"I love life in its living form, life that’s found on the street, in human conversations, shouts, and moans." So begins this speech delivered in Russian at Cornell University by Svetlana Alexievich, winner of the 2015 Nobel Prize in Literature. In poetic language, Alexievich traces the origins of her deeply affecting blend of journalism, oral history, and creative writing.Cornell Global Perspectives is an imprint of Cornell University’s Mario Einaudi Center for International Studies. The works examine critical global challenges, often from an interdisciplinary perspective, and are intended for a non-specialist audience. The Distinguished Speaker Series presents edited transcripts of talks delivered at Cornell, both in the original language and in translation.
In Search of the Good: A Life in Bioethics (Basic Bioethics)
by Daniel CallahanOne of the founding fathers of bioethics describes the development of the field and his thinking on some of the crucial issues of our time. Daniel Callahan helped invent the field of bioethics more than forty years ago when he decided to use his training in philosophy to grapple with ethical problems in biology and medicine. Disenchanted with academic philosophy because of its analytical bent and distance from the concerns of real life, Callahan found the ethical issues raised by the rapid medical advances of the 1960s—which included the birth control pill, heart transplants, and new capacities to keep very sick people alive—to be philosophical questions with immediate real-world relevance. In this memoir, Callahan describes his part in the founding of bioethics and traces his thinking on critical issues including embryonic stem cell research, market-driven health care, and medical rationing. He identifies the major challenges facing bioethics today and ruminates on its future.Callahan writes about founding the Hastings Center—the first bioethics research institution—with the author and psychiatrist Willard Gaylin in 1969, and recounts the challenges of running a think tank while keeping up a prolific flow of influential books and articles. Editor of the famous liberal Catholic magazine Commonweal in the 1960s, Callahan describes his now-secular approach to issues of illness and mortality. He questions the idea of endless medical “progress” and interventionist end-of-life care that seems to blur the boundary between living and dying. It is the role of bioethics, he argues, to be a loyal dissenter in the onward march of medical progress. The most important challenge for bioethics now is to help rethink the very goals of medicine.
In Search of the Missing: Working with Search and Rescue Dogs
by Mick Mccarthy Patricia AhernMick McCarthy has experienced first-hand the dangers, thrills, tragedies, and triumphs of search and rescue operations, which he has carried out on flood-swollen rivers, raging seas, through woodland, bog land, and on treacherous mountains, often in the dead of night. This book narrates the captivating story of his dogs, his life, and his adventures in the field, in search of missing persons.
In Search of the Perfect Loaf
by Samuel Fromartz"If you love great bread, you will love this book! From Paris, to Berlin, to Marienthal, Kansas, we follow Sam on his quest as he shares his love for bread and the 'baking secrets' he learned along the way." -Daniel Leader, founder of Bread Alone Bakery and author of Bread Alone "This fascinating, beautifully written memoir reveals Sam Fromartz as that rare breed of cook: craftsman, historian and scientist all in one." -Alice Waters, chef/owner of Chez Panisse and author of The Art of Simple Food In 2009, journalist Samuel Fromartz was offered the assignment of a lifetime: to travel to France to work in a boulangerie. So began his quest to hone not just his homemade baguette--which later beat out professional bakeries to win the "Best Baguette of D.C."--but his knowledge of bread, from seed to table. For the next four years, Fromartz traveled across the United States and Europe, perfecting his sourdough in California, his whole grain rye in Berlin, and his country wheat in the South of France. Along the way, he met historians, millers, farmers, wheat geneticists, sourdough biochemists, and everyone in between, learning about the history of breadmaking, the science of fermentation, and more. The result is an informative yet personal account of bread and breadbaking, complete with detailed recipes, tips, and beautiful photographs. Entertaining and inspiring, this book will be a touchstone for a new generation of bakers and a must-read for anyone who wants to take a deeper look at this deceptively ordinary, exceptionally delicious staple: handmade bread.
In Search of the Perfect Loaf
by Samuel FromartzNAMED ONE OF THE BEST FOOD BOOKS OF 2014 BY THE ATLANTIC AND NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC"If you love great bread, you will love this book! From Paris, to Berlin, to Marienthal, Kansas, we follow Sam on his quest as he shares his love for bread and the 'baking secrets' he learned along the way."-Daniel Leader, founder of Bread Alone Bakery and author of Bread Alone "This fascinating, beautifully written memoir reveals Sam Fromartz as that rare breed of cook: craftsman, historian and scientist all in one."-Alice Waters, chef/owner of Chez Panisse and author of The Art of Simple FoodIn 2009, journalist Samuel Fromartz was offered the assignment of a lifetime: to travel to France to work in a boulangerie. So began his quest to hone not just his homemade baguette--which later beat out professional bakeries to win the "Best Baguette of D.C."--but his knowledge of bread, from seed to table.For the next four years, Fromartz traveled across the United States and Europe, perfecting his sourdough in California, his whole grain rye in Berlin, and his country wheat in the South of France. Along the way, he met historians, millers, farmers, wheat geneticists, sourdough biochemists, and everyone in between, learning about the history of breadmaking, the science of fermentation, and more. The result is an informative yet personal account of bread and breadbaking, complete with detailed recipes, tips, and beautiful photographs.Entertaining and inspiring, this book will be a touchstone for a new generation of bakers and a must-read for anyone who wants to take a deeper look at this deceptively ordinary, exceptionally delicious staple: handmade bread.
In Search of the Tundra Daisy: True Tales and Misadventures of an Alaska Field Geologist
by Craig WhiteDisillusioned with life in the city, and spurred on by childhood dreams of adventure and discovery, a young geologist take a chance and moves his family to Alaska during the 1970s' pipeline boom. Awed and humbled by the Great Land and its unpredictable inhabitants--animal and human--he begins a 20-year search for the elusive tundra daisy--a giant oilfield with the potential to put him and his discovery o the map. Unexpectedly, however, this young explorer's search yields more than black gold when he discovers that life's greatest lessons are often learned under difficult circumstances. A mix of harrowing, humorous, and heartwarming true stories, Craig White's Tundra Daisy embodies the spirit of a real Alaskan, and recaptures a bygone era of discovery in the Last Frontier.
In Search of the Wild Tofurky: How a Business Misfit Pioneered Plant-Based Foods Before They Were Cool
by Steve Richardson Seth TibbottThe founder of Tofurky reveals how an idealistic hippie living in a treehouse created a global brand—and sold millions of products without selling out. In this entertaining memoir, Seth Tibbott reveals how he achieved overnight success—but only after fifteen years of intrepid failure. He tells the triumphant tale of how a self-described hippie with no business training but plenty of enterprising goals grew a $2,500 startup into a global brand and ushered in a plant-based foods renaissance along the way. Tibbott took home a grand total of $31,000 in his first nine years of striving to bring to the people a nearly unknown soy product—tempeh—he knew in his gut was revolutionarily tasty. He eschewed a buttoned-up lifestyle and resided in tipis, trailers, and a treehouse; rented workspace to piano-repairing circus clowns; and even briefly counted the infamous Rajneeshees as clients. Tibbott was never one to chase the money or try to fit in. Instead, he built a business that fit him. Thus Tibbott discovered the &“secret sauce&” ingredients that took his now-international brand from fameless to fame-ish to famous: bootstrapping, building business intuition, and staying true to his belief in eco-friendly practices. In Search of the Wild Tofurky proves that a good idea can change the world and make money, no matter the naysayers or the sometimes-harsh twists and turns of the unconventional path. &“Expert advice and inspiration from a most unconventional source . . . An education in the business of ethics.&” ―Eric C Lindstrom, author of The Skeptical Vegan
In Search of the blues
by Bill MinutaglioThe rich, complex lives of African Americans in Texas were often neglected by the mainstream media, which historically seldom ventured into Houston’s Fourth Ward, San Antonio’s East Side, South Dallas, or the black neighborhoods in smaller cities. When Bill Minutaglio began writing for Texas newspapers in the 1970s, few large publications had more than a token number of African American journalists, and they barely acknowledged the things of lasting importance to the African American community. Though hardly the most likely reporter—as a white, Italian American transplant from New York City—for the black Texas beat, Minutaglio was drawn to the African American heritage, seeking its soul in churches, on front porches, at juke joints, and anywhere else that people would allow him into their lives. His nationally award-winning writing offered many Americans their first deeper understanding of Texas’s singular, complicated African American history. This eclectic collection gathers the best of Minutaglio’s writing about the soul of black Texas. He profiles individuals both unknown and famous, including blues legends Lightnin’ Hopkins, Amos Milburn, Robert Shaw, and Dr. Hepcat. He looks at neglected, even intentionally hidden, communities. And he wades into the musical undercurrent that touches on African Americans’ joys, longings, and frustrations, and the passing of generations. Minutaglio’s stories offer an understanding of the sweeping evolution of music, race, and justice in Texas. Moved forward by the musical heartbeat of the blues and defined by the long shadow of racism, the stories measure how far Texas has come . . . or still has to go.
In Search: An Autobiography
by Meyer LevinThe acclaimed autobiography of the Chicago journalist and author hailed as “the most significant American Jewish writer” of the mid-twentieth century (Los Angeles Times).Raised in the notorious Bloody Nineteenth Ward in Chicago, Meyer Levin landed a job at the Chicago Daily News at eighteen. He pursued reporting as a means to support his fiction writing, yet it was as a war correspondent that Levin found his voice. One of the first Americans to enter the concentration camps during World War II and record the horrors there, Levin also helped smuggle Jews from Poland to Palestine, capturing the events in his now classic film The Illegals.In this vivid chronicle, Levin traverses America, France, Spain, Eastern Europe and Palestine, incisively documenting some of the most important events of the twentieth century. Yet In Search is equally the story of Levin’s quest to define his Jewishness to himself and to the world. Both personal and universal, it affords a glimpse into a singular life and career and is, as Levin puts it, “more than a book about the Jews; it seeks to touch the human spirit.”
In Senghor's Shadow: Art, Politics, and the Avant-Garde in Senegal, 1960-1995
by Elizabeth HarneyIn Senghor's Shadow is a unique study of modern art in postindependence Senegal. Elizabeth Harney examines the art that flourished during the administration of Lopold Sdar Senghor, Senegal's first president, and in the decades since he stepped down in 1980. As a major philosopher and poet of Negritude, Senghor envisioned an active and revolutionary role for modern artists, and he created a well-funded system for nurturing their work. In questioning the canon of art produced under his aegis--known as the Ecole de Dakar--Harney reconsiders Senghor's Negritude philosophy, his desire to express Senegal's postcolonial national identity through art, and the system of art schools and exhibits he developed. She expands scholarship on global modernisms by highlighting the distinctive cultural history that shaped Senegalese modernism and the complex and often contradictory choices made by its early artists. Heavily illustrated with nearly one hundred images, including some in color, In Senghor's Shadow surveys the work of a range of Senegalese artists, including painters, muralists, sculptors, and performance-based groups--from those who worked at the height of Senghor's patronage system to those who graduated from art school in the early 1990s. Harney reveals how, in the 1970s, avant-gardists contested Negritude beliefs by breaking out of established artistic forms. During the 1980s and 1990s, artists such as Moustapha Dim, Germaine Anta Gaye, and Kan-Si engaged with avant-garde methods and local artistic forms to challenge both Senghor's legacy and the broader art world's understandings of cultural syncretism. Ultimately, Harney's work illuminates the production and reception of modern Senegalese art within the global arena.
In Service of Emergent India: A Call to Honor
by Jaswant SinghIn Service of Emergent India is an evocative insider's account of a crucial period in India's history. It provides an in-depth look at events that changed the way the world perceived India, and a unique view of Indian statecraft. As Minister of External Affairs, Defense, and Finance in the BJP-led governments of 1996 and 1998-2004, Jaswant Singh was the main foreign policy spokesman for the government of Atal Bihari Vajpayee during the 1998 nuclear tests by India and Pakistan, the hijacking to Kandahar, Afghanistan, of Indian Airlines flight IC 814, and the Kargil conflict between India and Pakistan, as well as other key events. In an account that is part memoir, part analysis of India's past and future prospects, Singh reflects on his childhood in rural Rajasthan at the end of the colonial period, his schooling and military training, and memories of Indian Independence and the Partition of India and Pakistan. He analyzes the first four decades of Indian nationhood under Congress Party rule, ongoing tensions between India and Pakistan, Sino-Indian relations, and post-9/11 U.S.-Indian relations.
In Service: The Story of a Welsh Guardsman
by Tim ReesIn Service is the tale of one person's journey into manhood, ultimately finding himself in the theatre of war. It is a journey littered with colourful anecdotes and diverse experience: from military training in the Guards Depot to Trooping the Colour; from academic failure to intelligence work in Northern Ireland; from helping Rudolf Hess out of an ambulance to being tasked with taking the Queen's portrait. Tim Rees colours every experience with profound and often idiosyncratic observations that offer the reader a taste of the sometimes humorous, often arduous and, on too many occasions, brutal reality of service. But, as Tim says, 'The positive effect is the bond of common experience I share with men with whom I served in the army' - a type of bond that, in his opinion, is in danger of being lost in the modern age.
In Shock: My Journey from Death to Recovery and the Redemptive Power of Hope
by Rana AwdishA riveting first-hand account of a physician who's suddenly a dying patient and her revelation of the horribly misguided standard of care in the medical worldDr. Rana Awdish never imagined that an emergency trip to the hospital would result in hemorrhaging nearly all of her blood volume and losing her unborn first child. But after her first visit, Dr. Awdish spent months fighting for her life, enduring consecutive major surgeries and experiencing multiple overlapping organ failures. At each step of the recovery process, Awdish was faced with something even more unexpected: repeated cavalier behavior from her fellow physicians—indifference following human loss, disregard for anguish and suffering, and an exacting emotional distance. Hauntingly perceptive and beautifully written, In Shock allows the reader to transform alongside Awidsh and watch what she discovers in our carefully-cultivated, yet often misguided, standard of care. Awdish comes to understand the fatal flaws in her profession and in her own past actions as a physician while achieving, through unflinching presence, a crystalline vision of a new and better possibility for us all. As Dr. Awdish finds herself up against the same self-protective partitions she was trained to construct as a medical student and physician, she artfully illuminates the dysfunction of disconnection. Shatteringly personal, and yet wholly universal, she offers a brave road map for anyone navigating illness while presenting physicians with a new paradigm and rationale for embracing the emotional bond between doctor and patient.
In Sickness and in Mental Health: Living with and Loving Someone with Mental Illness
by Diane Mintz"In Sickness and in Mental Health" is a personal journey through the madness of living with mental illness and the uncommon discovery to the road back to health. Author Diane Mintz shares her terrifying experience with bipolar disorder and how a symptom of the disorder itself, coupled with various addictions, impeded her recovery for a decade. <p> <p> Diane discloses her soul with transparency, searching for answers which ultimately leads her to the balanced and abundant life she has enjoyed for over twenty years. Early in her recovery she meets her future husband and draws on her experience, strength, and hope to help him recover from an even more complicated illness called schizoaffective disorder. Throughout their marriage, Diane gains insight into what very few people understand. <p> A story of deep, abiding love, this book reveals powerful lessons about the road to recovery, how to have healthy, meaningful relationships, and especially what it takes to have an extraordinary marriage. Together for nearly twenty years, this couple has defied the odds. They enjoy each other, their two children and their thriving business. <p> "In Sickness and in Mental Health" provides genuine hope to those who are affected by mental illness that a healthy, happy life is possible. <p> Visit Diane's website: dianemintzauthor.com
In Sickness: A Memoir
by Barrett RollinsA medical emergency forces a brilliant Harvard oncologist to reveal that she has been hiding her advanced breast cancer for a decade. Her husband—also an oncologist—must set aside his anger and feelings of betrayal so that he can care for her during her final year of life.When Jane, a world-famous Harvard oncologist, suddenly collapses at work, the medical team resuscitating her makes a shocking discovery: she has advanced breast cancer that she&’s been hiding for years. The results are catastrophic. In Sickness shows how even the most rational people can be nearly destroyed by their irrational fears. Tragic, moving, and wryly funny at times, this is an unflinching portrayal of a complicated marriage and its secrets.
In Sight: My Life in Science and Health Innovation
by Julia LevyIn Sight is a memoir about how a love of science and discovery drove Julia Levy, a celebrated scholar and biotech CEO, to work her way through gender bias in order to achieve academic and professional recognition. Her story traces the unconventional invention of a breakthrough drug treatment from its development from laboratory research to its application as a medical treatment for vision loss. Told from a female perspective, In Sight is a unique and personal story covering Levy’s early years as a refugee, her university training in the UK and her appointment as professor at the University of British Columbia. Years spent as an academic led the author to unexpected exposure to the biotechnology industry and a chance meeting with colleagues that led to the formation of a lucrative biotechnology company, known today as QLT Inc. The bulk of the book covers the years spent building the company, and Levy’s surprising transition from chief scientific officer to CEO. In Sight is an honest description of the trials of drug development, the tensions inherent in the commercialization of health innovations, and the truly remarkable hurdles faced by women in the scientific community.
In Solitary Witness: The Life and Death of Franz Jägerstätter
by Gordon C. ZahnFor more than 20 years unknown and ignored by his church and fellow countrymen--today a national hero and acclaimed as an authentic martyr/saint. This is the book that 'discovered' Franz Jägerstätter and his inspiring story of unyielding resistance to Nazi orders and his commitment to the dictates of conscience even at the cost of life itself."
In Spite of Myself: A Memoir
by Christopher PlummerCanada's most celebrated and acclaimed actor lets loose in a magnificent memoir that will delight and enchant readers across the country. A rollicking, rich self-portrait written by one of today's greatest living actors. The story of a "young wastrel, incurably romantic, spoiled rotten" - his privileged Montreal background, rich in Victorian gentility, included steam yachts, rare orchid farms, music lessons in Paris and Berlin - "who tore himself away from the ski slopes to break into the big, bad world of theater not from the streets up but from an Edwardian living room down. " Plummer writes of his early acting days - on radio and stage with William Shatner and other fellow Canadians; of the early days of the Stratford Festival in southern Ontario; of his Broadway debut at twenty-four in The Starcross Story, starring Eva Le Gallienne ("It opened and closed in one night, but what a night!"); of joining Peter Hall's Royal Shakespeare Company (its other members included Judi Dench, Vanessa Redgrave and Peter O'Toole); of his first picture, Stage Struck, directed by Sidney Lumet; and of The Sound of Music, which he affectionately dubbed "S&M. " He writes about his legendary colleagues: Dame Judith Anderson ("the Tasmanian devil from Down Under"); Sir Tyrone Guthrie; Sir Laurence Olivier; Elia Kazan ("this chameleon of chameleons might change into you, wear your skin, steal your soul"); and "that reprobate" Jason Robards, among many others. A revelation of the wild and exuberant ride that is the actor's - at least this actor's - life. From the Hardcover edition.
In Stalin's Secret Service
by Sam Tanenhaus W. G. KrivitskyWalter G. Krivitsky was the first top Soviet intelligence official to defect and reveal his secrets in 1939. In England in 1940, he came very close to unmasking the Soviet network inside Britain's intelligence services known as the "Cambridge 5" led by Kim Philby. Krivitsky thought that he would be safe in America, but he was unable to shed the dangerous secrets that he took with him. Stalin had to act quickly to protect his vast espionage network and there would be no escape from the Soviet assassination squad. In Stalin's Secret Service is like a spy thriller with an unwritten ending, because the author couldn't imagine his own death.
In Stitches: A Memoir
by Dr. Anthony YounScrubs meets David Sedaris in this hilarious fish-out-of- water memoir about a young Korean-American nerd turned renowned plastic surgeon. Tony Youn grew up one of two Asian-American kids in a small town where diversity was uncommon. Too tall and too thin, he wore thick Coke-bottle glasses, braces, Hannibal Lecter headgear, and had a protruding jaw that one day began to grow, expanding to an unthinkable, monstrous size. After high school graduation, while other seniors partied at the beach or explored Europe, Youn lay strapped in an oral surgeon’s chair where he underwent a life-changing jaw reconstruction. Ironically, it was this brutal makeover that led him to his life’s calling, and he continued on to endure the four horrific, hilarious, sex-starved, and tension-filled years that eventually earned him an M.D. Offering a window into a side of medicine that most people never see, Youn shares his bumpy journey from a shy, skinny, awkward nerd into a renowned and successful plastic surgeon. Now, Youn is the media’s go-to plastic surgeon. He appears regularly on The Rachael Ray Show, and his blog, Celebrity Cosmetic Surgery, is widely read and very popular. But it was a long road to success, and In Stitches recounts Dr. Youn’s misfit adolescence and his four tumultuous years in medical school with striking wit, heart, and humility. For anyone who has ever experienced the awkward teenage years or is ready for some escapist fun, In Stitches is one man’s heartfelt, candid, and laugh-out-loud funny, journey of finding his true calling in life—and learning to be comfortable in his own skin.