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Mercedes Sosa, la Negra
by Rodolfo Braceli"Mercedes Sosa no quiso hacer como que escribía sus memorias valiéndose de un escritor fantasma. No quiso mandarse la parte ni simular. Ésta es una biografía escrita en voz alta. Había que contar esa trayectoria, más el trasfondo de una vida personal que nació en la ardua pobreza acechada por el hambre, y que después estuvo enmarcada por el compromiso ideológico, las amenazas de muerte, el exilio. La paradoja de esta vida es que, a más desgarramiento y dolor en lo personal y afectivo, más éxito, más ovaciones en lo artístico, más fama. Me enfrenté con el problema de la abundancia, que a veces no es menos terrible que el de la escasez. Tuve que resolver cómo contar la prodigiosa vida de esta mujer que es (con Carlos Gardel), sin discusión, la cantante popular de mayor prestigio y proyección mundial que produjo la Argentina."
MERCEDES SOSA, LA NEGRA (ACTUAL) EBOOK
by Rodolfo BraceliMercedes Sosa. La Negra es la edición definitiva de la única biografía que se realizó con su palabra viva. A los 67 años de edad, en el año 2003, La Negra decidió contar su vida. Como no quiso simularse escritora, la suya es una biografía en voz alta. Ella cuenta y se cuenta. Es así como, para un personaje complejo y atípico, Rodolfo Braceli eligió un camino inusual. Todo su bagaje de escritor, periodista, dramaturgo y poeta lo despliega en este original libro desde y sobre Mercedes Sosa. Por un lado, el relato de la suprema cantante-cantora es la columna vertebral. Por otro, emergen voces: la de su madre y hermanos, la de su hijo y amigos. Cada tanto aparecen, con sus recuerdos, figuras como León Gieco, Horacio Molina, Víctor Heredia, Liliana Herrero, Carlos Alonso y Charly García. Ellos completan el retrato de la otra Mercedes, la que estaba lejos de las ovaciones y muy cerca de la gente. No es todo: a la voz, por momentos en carne viva de la protagonista, se suma en el montaje el relato de episodios dramáticos y memorables que marcaron su vida y su carrera. Este libro que empezó a gestarse hace casi medio siglo incluye infancia, adolescencia, despertar artístico, amores y desamores, ideología, amenazas de muerte, censura y exilio, glorioso retorno en el 82, consagración mundial, enfermedad con apetencia de suicidio en el 97, testamento. Como escribió Liliana Herrero: "Estamos ante una confesión pasional, pero también ante un documento extraordinario. Ante un libro político y también profundamente íntimo, público y privado, indispensable para contar la historia cultural de este país".
Mercedes Sosa, La Negra (Edición definitiva)
by Rodolfo BraceliLa negra Mercedes Sosa canta su biografía. A los 67, en el 2003, decidiócontar su vida. Como no quiso simularse escritora, la suya es unabiografía en voz alta. «Mercedes Sosa. La Negra» es la edición definitiva de la única biografíaque se realizó con su palabra viva. Es así como, para un personajecomplejo y atípico, Rodolfo Braceli eligió un camino inusual. Todo subagaje de escritor, periodista, dramaturgo y poeta lo despliega en esteoriginal libro desde y sobre Mercedes Sosa. Por un lado, el relato de lasuprema cantante-cantora es la columna vertebral. Por otro, emergenvoces: la de su madre y hermanos, la de su hijo y amigos.Cada tanto aparecen, con sus recuerdos, figuras como León Gieco, HoracioMolina, Víctor Heredia, Liliana Herrero, Carlos Alonso y Charly García.Ellos completan el retrato de la otra Mercedes, la que estaba lejos delas ovaciones y muy cerca de la gente.No es todo: a la voz, por momentos en carne viva de la protagonista, sesuma en el montaje el relato de episodios dramáticos y memorables quemarcaron su vida y su carrera. Este libro que empezó a gestarse hacecasi medio siglo incluye infancia, adolescencia, despertar artístico,amores y desamores, ideología, amenazas de muerte, censura y exilio,glorioso retorno en el 82, consagración mundial, enfermedad conapetencia de suicidio en el 97, testamento. Como escribió LilianaHerrero: «Estamos ante una confesión pasional, pero también ante undocumento extraordinario. Ante un libro político y también profundamenteíntimo, público y privado, indispensable para contar la historiacultural de este país».
The Mercenary: A Story of Brotherhood and Terror in the Afghanistan War
by Jeffrey SternA thrilling and emotional story about the bonds forged in war and good intentions gone wrong. In the early days of the Afghanistan war, Jeff Stern was scouring the streets of Kabul for a big story. He was accompanied by a driver, Aimal, who had ambitions of his own: to get rich off the sudden infusion of foreign attention and cash. In this gripping adventure story, Stern writes of how he and Aimal navigated an environment full of guns and danger and opportunity, and how they forged a deep bond. Then Stern got a call that changed everything. He discovered that Aimal had become an arms dealer, and was ultimately forced to flee the country to protect his family from his increasingly dangerous business partners. Tragic, powerful, and layered, The Mercenary is more than a wartime drama. It is a Rashomon-like story about how politics and violence warp our humanity, and keep the most important truths hidden.
Merchant-Ivory: Interviews (Conversations with Filmmakers Series)
by Laurence RawMerchant-Ivory: Interviews gathers together, for the first time, interviews made over a span of fifty years with director James Ivory (b. 1928), producer Ismail Merchant (1936–2005), and screenwriter Ruth Prawer Jhabvala (1927–2013). Beginning with their earliest work in India, and ending with James Ivory's last film, The City of Your Final Destination (2009), the book traces their career, while offering valuable insights into their creative filmmaking process. The volume serves as a corrective to the prevailing critical orthodoxy attached to Merchant-Ivory's work, which tends to regard them as being solely concerned with historically accurate costumes and settings. As independent filmmakers, they have developed an idiosyncratic approach that resists facile classification. Merchant-Ivory have insisted on maintaining their independence. More importantly, this book shows how Merchant-Ivory have always taken considerable care in casting their films, as well as treating actors with respect. This is a deliberate policy, designed to bring out one of the triumvirate's principal thematic concerns, running throughout their work—the impact of the “clash of cultures” on individuals. Partly this has been inspired by their collective experiences of living and working in different cultures. They do not offer any answers to this issue; rather they believe that their task is simply to raise awareness; to make filmgoers conscious of the importance of cultural sensitivities that assume paramount significance in any exchange, whether verbal or nonverbal.
The Merchant Navy Seaman Pocket Manual 1939–1945 (The Pocket Manual Series)
by Chris McNabA view into the world of the intrepid but often forgotten seamen who helped the Allies win WWII. They may not have worn gold braid or medals, but the Allied Merchant Navies in World War II provided a vital service to their countries&’ war efforts. Hundreds of thousands of British and American sailors—some as young as fourteen—faced considerable risks to maintain an essential flow of armaments, equipment, and food: submarines, mines, armed raiders and destroyers, aircraft, kamikaze pilots, and the weather itself. Life on board a merchant ship could be tense, with hour after hour spent battling high seas, never knowing if a torpedo was about to hit. In the Arctic convoys, sailors had to cope with extreme cold and ice. But there was also comradeship and more open society than was the norm at the time, free of distinctions of class, race, religion, age, or color, and a mixture of nationalities, especially in the British fleet. The Merchant Navy Seaman Pocket Manual provides a fascinating glimpse into the world of these brave sailors, many of whom did not return. Drawing on documents, diagrams, and illustrations from British and American archives, it combines information on training, gunnery, convoys, and antisubmarine techniques with dramatic personal accounts. Covering the Battle of the Atlantic, the Arctic Convoys, and the Pacific, this book pitches the reader into the heart of this vital but often forgotten arena of WWII.
The Merchant Of Prato's Wife: Margherita Datini And Her World, 1360-1423
by Ann Morton CrabbAlthough the fourteenth-century Italian merchant Francesco Datini has received attention from business historians, there has previously been no full study of his wife, Margherita Datini. Drawing on a sizable trove of Margherita's correspondence held in the Archivio di Stato di Prato, including hundreds of letters she exchanged with Francesco, Ann Crabb investigates the social and economic importance of women's roles as wives and mothers, early modern European views on honor, and the practice of letter writing in Margherita's world. Margherita's often colorful comments demonstrate her attitudes toward her rather unhappy marriage and her inability to have children, along with other aspects of her life. Her letters reveal the pride she felt in carrying out her many responsibilities as a wife and, later, a widow: in scribal letter writing, in business, in household management, and in farming. Crabb emphasizes that the role of a wife was a recognized social position, beyond her individual relations with her husband, and provided opportunities beyond what restrictive laws or restrictive views of female honor would suggest. Further, Crabb considers Margherita's successful efforts, on her own initiative and in her late thirties, to learn to read and write at a literate level. This book will be of interest to both scholars and general readers of women's history. In addition, historians of early modern Italy and, more generally, of early modern Europe will find this book valuable.
The Merchant Prince of Black Chicago: Anthony Overton and the Building of a Financial Empire
by Robert E. Weems Jr.Born to enslaved parents, Anthony Overton became one of the leading African American entrepreneurs of the twentieth century. Overton's Chicago-based empire ranged from personal care products and media properties to insurance and finance. Yet, despite success and acclaim as the first business figure to win the NAACP's Spingarn Medal, Overton remains an enigma. Robert E. Weems Jr. restores Overton to his rightful place in American business history. Dispelling stubborn myths, he traces Overton's rise from mentorship by Booker T. Washington, through early failures, to a fateful move to Chicago in 1911. There, Overton started a popular magazine aimed at African American women that helped him dramatically grow his cosmetics firm. Overton went on to become the first African American to head a major business conglomerate, only to lose significant parts of his businesses—and his public persona as ”the merchant prince of his race”—in the Depression, before rebounding once again in the early 1940s. Revealing and panoramic, The Merchant Prince of Black Chicago weaves the fascinating life story of an African American trailblazer through the eventful history of his times.
Merchants, Landlords, Magistrates: The Depont Family in Eighteenth-Century France
by Robert ForsterOriginally published in 1980. A social historian of modern France, Robert Forster discovered a series of father-to-son letters that presented an unusual opportunity to trace in human terms the impact of institutions and cultural norms on eighteenth-century French society. From these letters and other family papers, Forster reconstructed a family biography of the Deponts of La Rochelle over four generations. Their story affords new insights into the workings of institutions—economic, religious, legal, administrative—the mentality of provincial notables, the world of Parisian high finance and salon society, and the response of a socially mobile family to the challenges of the century, climaxing in the French Revolution of 1789. Forster demonstrates how real people in an upwardly mobile family coped with their changing society, moved from overseas trade to local and then national office, managed their wealth, treated their children, and then parried the psychological shocks accompanying their ascent to status and power. It is the story not of a "class" response to abstract trends or forces identified by the historian in retrospect but of flesh-and-blood human beings grappling with day-to-day decisions and revealing a full range of human ambiguity and inconsistency. This study offers perspective on the emergence by 1800 of a new elite in France—a social amalgam of landlords, administrators, and professional men, inculcated with a national awareness and a cautious political liberalism. These were the notables who would govern France in the next century. Forster's approach, uncommon among social historians, combines narrative and analytical modes of historiography. Based on archival materials in La Rochelle and Paris, the book blends economic, social, cultural, and political history.
Mercies in Disguise: A Story of Hope, a Family's Genetic Destiny, and the Science That Rescued Them
by Gina Kolata"[Kolata] is a gifted storyteller. Her account of the Baxleys... is both engrossing and distressing... Kolata's book raises crucial questions about knowledge that can be both vital and fatal, both pallative and dangerous." —Andrew Solomon, The New York Review of BooksNew York Times science reporter Gina Kolata follows a family through genetic illness and one courageous daughter who decides her fate shall no longer be decided by a genetic flaw.The phone rings. The doctor from California is on the line. “Are you ready Amanda?” The two people Amanda Baxley loves the most had begged her not to be tested—at least, not now. But she had to find out.If your family carried a mutated gene that foretold a brutal illness and you were offered the chance to find out if you’d inherited it, would you do it? Would you walk toward the problem, bravely accepting whatever answer came your way? Or would you avoid the potential bad news as long as possible? In Mercies in Disguise, acclaimed New York Times science reporter and bestselling author Gina Kolata tells the story of the Baxleys, an almost archetypal family in a small town in South Carolina. A proud and determined clan, many of them doctors, they are struck one by one with an inscrutable illness. They finally discover the cause of the disease after a remarkable sequence of events that many saw as providential. Meanwhile, science, progressing for a half a century along a parallel track, had handed the Baxleys a resolution—not a cure, but a blood test that would reveal who had the gene for the disease and who did not. And science would offer another dilemma—fertility specialists had created a way to spare the children through an expensive process. A work of narrative nonfiction, Mercies in Disguise is the story of a family that took matters into its own hands when the medical world abandoned them. It’s a story of a family that had to deal with unspeakable tragedy and yet did not allow it to tear them apart. And it is the story of a young woman—Amanda Baxley—who faced the future head on, determined to find a way to disrupt her family’s destiny.
Mercosur: Nacimiento, vida y decadencia
by Luis Alberto Lacalle- El Mercosur ha sido, desde sus inicios, objeto de múltiples debates y confrontaciones. ¿Se trata de una herramienta útil? ¿Aporta al desarrollo de los países que lo integran, o limita sus posibilidades de vincularse con el resto del mundo? ¿Debe tener una orientación económica o política? ¿Cómo se resuelven las asimetrías entre los países grandes y los pequeños? El Dr. Luis Alberto Lacalle Herrera, protagonista del proceso gestacional del Mercosur y sus primeros años de desarrollo, aporta su mirada lúcida e incisiva a este debate de profunda vigencia e importancia. Con una prosa que discurre con agilidad, y que no rehúye al compromiso con las propias convicciones y a la mención de los momentos difíciles del proceso, estas páginas se convierten en un aporte para comprender los procesos internos que marcaron la historia de este proyecto de integración regional. Este libro es un aporte fundamental para comprender los vaivenes que han atravesado los países en torno al Mercosur, y su reflexión se orienta hacia el desarrollo de la región, de cara al futuro.
Mercs True Stories of Mercenaries in Action
by Bill FawcettRanging from ancient times to the Vietnam War to the drug wars of modern-day Central and South America, this collection of true-life accounts chronicles the experiences and exploits of professional soldiers of fortune.
Mercury: An Intimate Biography of Freddie Mercury
by Lesley-Ann JonesA REVEALING, INTIMATE LOOK AT THE MAN WHO WOULD BE QUEEN As lead vocalist for the iconic rock band Queen, Freddie Mercury's unmatched skills as a songwriter and his flamboyant showmanship made him a superstar and Queen a household name. But despite his worldwide fame, few people ever really glimpsed the man behind the glittering façade. Now, more than twenty years after his death, those closest to Mercury are finally opening up about this pivotal figure in rock 'n' roll. Based on more than a hundred interviews with key figures in his life, Mercury offers the definitive account of one man's legendary life in the spotlight and behind the scenes. Rock journalist Lesley-Ann Jones gained unprecedented access to Mercury's tribe, and she details Queen's slow but steady rise to fame and Mercury's descent into dangerous, pleasure-seeking excesses-- this was, after all, a man who once declared, "Darling, I'm doing everything with everyone." In her journey to understand Mercury, Jones traveled to London, Zanzibar, and India--talking with everyone from Mercury's closest friends to the sound engineer at Band Aid (who was responsible for making Queen even louder than the other bands) to second cousins halfway around the world. In the process, an intimate and complicated portrait emerges. Meticulously researched, sympathetic yet not sensational, Mercury offers an unvarnished look at the extreme highs and lows of life in the fast lane. At the heart of this story is a man . . . and the music he loved.
Mercury Rising: John Glenn, John Kennedy, And The New Battleground Of The Cold War
by Jeff ShesolOne of the Washington Post's 20 Books to Read This Summer A riveting history of the epic orbital flight that put America back into the space race. If the United States couldn’t catch up to the Soviets in space, how could it compete with them on Earth? That was the question facing John F. Kennedy at the height of the Cold War—a perilous time when the Soviet Union built the wall in Berlin, tested nuclear bombs more destructive than any in history, and beat the United States to every major milestone in space. The race to the heavens seemed a race for survival—and America was losing. On February 20, 1962, when John Glenn blasted into orbit aboard Friendship 7, his mission was not only to circle the planet; it was to calm the fears of the free world and renew America’s sense of self-belief. Mercury Rising re-creates the tension and excitement of a flight that shifted the momentum of the space race and put the United States on the path to the moon. Drawing on new archival sources, personal interviews, and previously unpublished notes by Glenn himself, Mercury Rising reveals how the astronaut’s heroics lifted the nation’s hopes in what Kennedy called the "hour of maximum danger."
Mercy: The Incredible Story of Henry Bergh, Founder of the ASPCA and Friend to Animals
by Nancy Furstinger Vincent DesjardinsOnly 150 years ago, most animals in America were subject to horrific treatment. They needed a champion to protect them from abject cruelty, and that person was Henry Bergh. After witnessing the beating of a horse in the streets of New York and attending a bullfight in Spain, Bergh found his calling. He became an enforcer of animal rights and founded the ASPCA, as well as created many animal cruelty laws. He even expanded his advocacy to children. When Bergh died in 1888, the idea that children and animals should be protected from cruelty was widely accepted: "Mercy to animals means mercy to mankind."
Mercy, Mercy Me: The Art, Loves and Demons of Marvin Gaye
by Michael Eric DysonThe best-selling Motown artist of all time, Marvin Gaye defined the hopes and shattered dreams of an entire generation. Twenty years after his tragic death-he was shot by his father-his relevance persists because of the indelible mark his outsized talent left on American culture. A transcendent performer whose career spanned the history of rhythm and blues, from doo-wop to the sultriest of soul music, Gaye's artistic scope and emotional range set the soundtrack for America's tumultuous coming of age in the 1970s. Michael Eric Dyson's searching narrative illuminates Marvin Gaye's stellar ascendance-from a black church in Washington, D. C. , to the artistic peak of What's Going On?-and charts his sobering personal decline. Dyson draws from interviews with those closest to Gaye to paint an intimate portrait of the tensions and themes that shaped contemporary urban America: racism, drug abuse, economic adversity, and the long legacy of hardship. Gaye's stormy relationships with women, including duet partner Tammi Terrell and wives Anna Gordy and Janis Hunter, are examined in light of the sexual revolution of the 1960s and 1970s. Dyson also considers family violence in the larger context of the African-American life and how that heartbreaking legacy resulted in Gaye's murder. Mercy, Mercy, Me is an unforgettable portrait of a beloved black genius whose art is reflected in the dynamism of contemporary urban America.
The Mercy of the Sky
by Holly BaileyAn acclaimed national reporter returns to her hometown to give an inside account of the deadly tornado that hit Moore, Oklahoma, in May 2013--a dramatic, suspenseful story of human courage in the face of natural disaster. Oklahomans have long been known for their fatalism and grit, but even old-timers are troubled by the twisters that are devastating the state with increasing frequency. On May 20, 2013, the worst tornado on record landed a direct hit on the small town of Moore, destroying two schools while the children cowered inside. Oklahoma native Holly Bailey grew up dreaming of becoming a storm chaser. Instead, she became Newsweek's youngest ever White House correspondent, traveling to war zones with Presidents Bush and Obama. When Moore was hit, Bailey went back both as a journalist and a hometown girl, speaking to the teachers who put their lives at risk to save their students, the weathermen more revered than rock stars and more tormented than they let on, and many shell-shocked residents. In The Mercy of the Sky Bailey does for the Oklahoma flatlands what Sebastian Junger did for Gloucester, Massachusetts, in The Perfect Storm, telling a dramatic, page-turning story about a town that must survive the elements--or die.From the Hardcover edition.
The Mercy of the Sky: The Story of a Tornado
by Holly Bailey"A gripping, heartbreaking and heartwarming account of the monster tornado that ravaged Moore, Oklahoma in 2013. It will leave you emotionally drained but glad you journeyed into the heart of this extraordinary storm with Bailey as your guide." --Daniel James Brown, #1 NY Times bestselling author of The Boys in the Boat Winner of the Oklahoma Book Award// Winner of the American Meteorological Society's Louis J. Battan Award An acclaimed reporter returns to her hometown after the worst twister on record and emerges with a suspenseful story of human courage in the face of natural disaster. On May 20, 2013, the worst tornado on record landed a direct hit on the town of Moore, on the outskirts of Oklahoma City, levelling neighborhoods, sending farm animals flying, and destroying a school while the children cowered inside. Holly Bailey went back both as a journalist and a hometown girl, speaking to the teachers who put their lives at risk as they struggled to comfort their students; to the mayor and first responders who waded through the debris while the storm still raged; to the scientists and meteorologists who have dedicated their lives to understanding tornadoes but still can't determine when one will land with any degree of certainty and are haunted by every death they might have prevented; to the storm chasers who pursue level 5 twisters with a combination of gadgetry, courage and adrenaline; and to the shell shocked residents of Moore, who rose to the occasion that day with countless acts of selfless courage. An intense and inspiring account of what happened on that fateful day, The Mercy of the Sky Bailey does for the Oklahoma flatlands what Sebastian Junger did for Gloucester, Massachusetts, in The Perfect Storm, telling the dramatic story of a town that must survive the elements--or die. "The book is excellent - well researched, well told, with a strong narrative that reads like a disaster novel... It's difficult to imagine that anyone other than an Okie could tell the story so confidently and so well." - The Oklahoman "This gripping book tells the story of one resilient Oklahoma town and the immense killer tornado that ripped through it. Holly Bailey brings together riveting science, human drama, courage, tragedy, and redemption to create a quintessential American story. Powerful and moving." - Douglas Presenton, #1 New York Times bestselling co-author of The Monster of Florence "Bailey is a brilliant storyteller. She brings you to the center of the storm - and it's terrifying. She makes you feel a community's loss - and it's devastating. And she brings you inside people's lives as they heal - and it's inspiring." - David Greene, host of NPR's Morning EditionFrom the Hardcover edition.
Mercy Otis Warren: A Woman of the Revolution
by Eric OatmanFifth grade reading series. A book about Mercy Otis Warren.
The Mercy Papers: A Memoir of Three Weeks
by Robin RommWhen Robin Romm's The Mother Garden was published, The New York Times Book Review called her "a close-up magician," saying, "hers is the oldest kind [of magic] we know: the ordinary incantation of words and stories to help us navigate the darkness and finally to hold the end at bay." In her searing memoir The Mercy Papers, Romm uses this magic to expand the weeks before her mother's death into a story about a daughter in the moments before and after loss. With a striking mix of humor and honesty, Romm ushers us into a world where an obstinate hospice nurse tries to heal through pamphlets and a yelping grandfather squirrels away money in a shoe-shine kit. Untrained dogs scamper about as strangers and friends rally around death, offering sympathy as they clamor for attention. The pillbox turns quickly into a metaphor for order; questions about medication turn to musings about God. The mundane and spiritual melt together as Romm reveals the sharp truths that lurk around every corner and captures, with great passion, the awe, fear, and fury of a daughter losing her mother. The Mercy Papers was started in the midst of heartbreak, and not originally intended for an audience. The result is a raw, unsentimental book that reverberates with humanity. Robin Romm has created a tribute to family and an indelible portrait that will speak to anyone who has ever loved and lost.
Mere Anarchy
by Woody Allen'I am greatly relieved that the universe is finally explainable. I was beginning to think it was me. ' Thus begins 'Strung Out', Woody Allen's hilarious application of the laws of the universe to daily life. MERE ANARCHY, Woody Allen's first new collection in 25 years, features eighteen witty, wild and intelligent comic pieces – nine of which have never been in print before. Surreal, absurd, rich in verbal play, bitingly satirical and just plain daft, this collection includes tales of a body double - mistaken for the film's star - kidnapped by outlaws; a pretentious writer forced to work on the novelisation of a Three Stooges film; a nanny secretly writing an expose of her Manhattan employers; crooks selling bespoke prayers on ebay; and how to react when you're asked to finance a Broadway play about the invention and manufacture of the adjustable showerhead. Laced with his unique brand of humour and reminiscent of some of his finest films, MERE ANARCHY is an essential collection of tales by the inimitable Woody Allen.
Meredith: Our Daughter's Murder and the Heartbreaking Quest for the Truth
by John KercherMeredith Kercher was tragically murdered in November 2007, in Perugia, Italy. Since then, her murder and the subsequent trial have been a source of constant intrigue and media speculation all around the world, with the spotlight famously focusing on the accused, Amanda Knox and Raffaele Sollecito. Now, Meredith's father John speaks out for the first time and tells the world about the beautiful daughter he and his family so tragically lost.This book is a celebration of Meredith's life. It is also a father's story of losing a beloved daughter, and the first account of the torment the family have suffered and their ongoing quest for justice.
Meredith: Our daughter's murder and the heartbreaking quest for the truth
by John KercherMeredith Kercher was tragically murdered in November 2007, in Perugia, Italy. Since then, her murder and the subsequent trial have been a source of constant intrigue and media speculation all around the world, with the spotlight famously focusing on the accused, Amanda Knox and Raffaele Sollecito. Now, Meredith's father John speaks out for the first time and tells the world about the beautiful daughter he and his family so tragically lost.This book is a celebration of Meredith's life. It is also a father's story of losing a beloved daughter, and the first account of the torment the family have suffered and their ongoing quest for justice.
Mergers and Acquisitions: Or, Everything I Know About Love I Learned on the Wedding Pages
by Cate DotyA compulsively readable behind-the-scenes memoir that takes readers inside the weddings section of The New York Times--the good, bad, and just plain weird--through the eyes of a young reporter just as she's falling in love herself.Growing up in the south, where tradition reigns supreme, Cate Doty thought about weddings . . . a lot. She catered for them, she attended many, she imagined her own. So, when she moved to New York City in pursuit of love--and to write for The New York Times--she finds her natural home in the wedding section, a first step to her own happily-ever-after, surely. Soon Cate is thrown into the cutthroat world of the metropolitan society pages, experiencing the lengths couples go to have their announcements accepted and the lengths the writers go in fact-checking their stories; the surprising, status-signaling details that matter most to brides and grooms; and the politics of the paper at a time of vast cultural and industry changes.Reporting weekly on couples whose relationships seem enviable--or eye-roll worthy--and dealing with WASPy grandparents and last-minute snafus, Cate is surrounded by love, or what we're told to believe is love. But when she starts to take the leap herself, she begins to ask her own questions about what it means to truly commit...Warm, witty, and keenly observed, Mergers and Acquisitions is an enthralling dive into one of society's most esteemed institutions, its creators and subjects, and a young woman's coming-of-age.
Merivel: A Novel
by Rose TremainMerivel is an unforgettable hero—soulful, funny, outrageous and achingly sad. His unmistakable, self-mocking voice speaks directly to us down the centuries.From the Orange Prize–winning author Rose Tremain comes a brilliant and picaresque novel of seventeenth-century England. In the wake of the gaudy years of the Restoration, Robert Merivel, physician and courtier to Charles II, faces the agitations and anxieties of middle age. Questions crowd his mind: has he been a good father? Is he a fair master? Is he the King’s friend or the King’s slave? In search of answers, Merivel sets off for the French court of Versailles, where—inevitably—misadventures ensue.