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Shadow of Remembrance
by Bloodwitch Luz Oscuria" My name is julien. I’m 31 and it’s 2014. At least that’s what it’s just explained to me. I just regained consciousness in the hospital, in intensive care. I don't remember anything, not even my own life before that. " No one knows what happened except him, somewhere buried deep in his memory. He will gradually remember the facts. Dispute. Insults. Domestic violence. Then Catherine, who disappeared from the road after the assault she perpetrated on him that nearly killed him. The shadows of her memories will resurface, no matter what.
Shadow of the Sword: A Marine's Journey of War, Heroism, and Redemption
by Jeremiah Workman John R. BruningA Marine and recipient of the Navy Cross tells of his poignant journey to find inner peace and redemption after the trial of combat.
Shadow of the Titanic: The Extraordinary Stories of Those Who Survived
by Andrew WilsonIN the early morning hours of April 15, 1912, the icy waters of the North Atlantic reverberated with the desperate screams of more than 1,500 men, women, and children—passengers of the once majestic liner Titanic. Then, as the ship sank to the ocean floor and the passengers slowly died from hypothermia, an even more awful silence settled over the sea. The sights and sounds of that night would haunt each of the vessel’s 705 survivors for the rest of their days. Although we think we know the story of Titanic—the famously luxurious and supposedly unsinkable ship that struck an iceberg on its maiden voyage from Britain to America—very little has been written about what happened to the survivors after the tragedy. How did they cope in the aftermath of this horrific event? How did they come to remember that night, a disaster that has been likened to the destruction of a small town? Drawing on a wealth of previously unpublished letters, memoirs, and diaries as well as interviews with survivors’ family members, award-winning journalist and author Andrew Wilson reveals how some used their experience to propel themselves on to fame, while others were so racked with guilt they spent the rest of their lives under the Titanic’s shadow. Some reputations were destroyed, and some survivors were so psychologically damaged that they took their own lives in the years that followed. Andrew Wilson brings to life the colorful voices of many of those who lived to tell the tale, from famous survivors like Madeleine Astor (who became a bride, a widow, an heiress, and a mother all within a year), Lady Duff Gordon, and White Star Line chairman J. Bruce Ismay, to lesser known second- and third-class passengers such as the Navratil brothers—who were traveling under assumed names because they were being abducted by their father. Today, one hundred years after that fateful voyage, Shadow of the Titanic adds an important new dimension to our understanding of this enduringly fascinating story.
Shadow on the Mountain: A Yazidi Memoir of Terror, Resistance and Hope
by Katharine Holstein Shaker JeffreyA powerful and inspiring memoir of a young Yazidi who served as a U.S. combat interpreter but was later forced to flee into the mountains of Iraq to avoid the ISIS slaughter of his peopleShaker Jeffrey's life has been an odyssey of courage, cunning, and desperation. His journey began as a fatherless Iraqi farm boy. As a child he hung out with American troops and practiced his English. Soon he was helping gather information about terrorists, becoming one of the youngest combat interpreters to work for the United States government, even attracting the notice of General Petraeus. When he was barely sixteen, ISIS overran his Yazidi community and slaughtered most of its people. He narrowly escaped to the mountains with the remnants of his community. But with incredible daring, he became a valuable go-between, informing the U.S. military of the plight of the trapped Yazidis. Time and again he risked his life, going into enemy territory disguised as an ISIS fighter to mount daring rescue operations. Shaker saved over 1,000 civilians from ISIS, including hundreds of girls forced into sex slavery, although he was unable to save his own fiancée from a terrible fate. Shaker's powerful and inspiring narrative offers a human face to the people and places caught in the crosshairs of a borderless conflict that has come to define our age.
Shadowlands: The Story Of His Life With Joy Davidman
by Brian Sibley'We feasted on love, every mode of it - solemn and merry, romantic and realistic, sometimes as dramatic as a thunderstorm, sometimes as comfortable and unemphatic as putting on your soft slippers.' C. S. LewisThe celebrated scholar and writer C. S. Lewis achieved great success in his life - yet to many he remained an engima. Although he had many friends, few if any ever saw the real, private Lewis and for six decades of his life he remained a confirmed bachelor.Then, at the age of sixty, Lewis met Joy Davidman. Davidman, an unconventional American divorcee, turned his world upside down. It was with her that Lewis truly found love and was drawn out of his shell. This is the story of their brief but incandescent love, its tragic end and a faith that endures beyond even the deepest grief.This updated edition contains a new Introduction by author Brian Sibley and a Preface by the UK's leading Lewis scholar, Alister McGrath.
Shadowlines
by Stephen KinnaneA powerful and lyrical work by a writer of vision and imagination, Shadow Lines is the story of Jessie Argyle, born in the remote East Kimberley and taken from her Aboriginal family at the age of five, and Edward Smith, a young Englishman escaping the rigid strictures of London. In a society deeply divided on racial lines, Edward and Jessie met, fell in love and, against strong opposition, eventually married. Despite unrelenting surveillance and harassment, the Smith home was a centre for Aboriginal cultural and social life for over thirty years.
Shadowplay: A Novel
by Joseph O'ConnorA West End theater in London is shaken up by the crimes of Jack the Ripper in this novel by the New York Times–bestselling author of The Star of the Sea.Henry Irving is Victorian London’s most celebrated actor and theater impresario. He has introduced groundbreaking ideas to the theater, bringing to the stage performances that are spectacular, shocking, and always entertaining. When Irving decides to open his own London theater with the goal of making it the greatest playhouse on earth, he hires a young Dublin clerk harboring literary ambitions by the name of Bram Stoker to manage it. As Irving’s theater grows in reputation and financial solvency, he lures to his company of mummers the century’s most beloved actress, the dazzlingly talented leading lady Ellen Terry, who nightly casts a spell not only on her audiences but also on Stoker and Irving both.Bram Stoker’s extraordinary experiences at the Lyceum Theatre, his early morning walks on the streets of a London terrorized by a serial killer, his long, tempestuous relationship with Irving, and the closeness he finds with Ellen Terry, inspire him to write Dracula, the most iconic and best-selling supernatural tale ever published.A magnificent portrait both of lamp-lit London and of lives and loves enacted on the stage, Shadowplay’s rich prose, incomparable storytelling, and vivid characters will linger in readers’ hearts and minds for many years.“A vibrantly imaginative narrative of passion, intrigue and literary ambition set in the garish heyday of a theater. . . . Artfully splicing truth with fantasy, O’Connor has a glorious time turning a ramshackle and haunted London playhouse into a primary source for Stoker’s Gothic imaginings.” —Miranda Seymour, The New York Times Book Review“A gorgeously written historical novel about Stoker’s inner life. . . . I wasn’t prepared to be awed by his prose, which is so good you can taste it. . . . O’Connor dazzles.” —Michael Dirda, The Washington Post“And Mr. O’Connor’s main characters—Stoker, Irving and the beloved actress Ellen Terry—are so forcefully brought to life that when, close to tears, you reach this drama’s final page, you will return to the beginning just to remain in their company.” —Anna Mundow, The Wall Street Journal“This novel blows the dust off its Victorian trappings and brings them to scintillating life.” —Publishers Weekly, PW Picks, Starred ReviewFINALIST 2019 COSTA BOOK OF THE YEARFINALIST 2020 DALKEY LITERARY AWARD2020 WALTER SCOTT PRIZE
Shadows Bright as Glass
by Amy E NuttOn a sunny fall afternoon in 1988, Jon Sarkin was playing golf when, without a whisper of warning, his life changed forever. As he bent down to pick up his golf ball, something strange and massive happened inside his head; part of his brain seemed to unhinge, to split apart and float away. For an utterly inexplicable reason, a tiny blood vessel, thin as a thread, deep inside the folds of his gray matter had suddenly shifted ever so slightly, rubbing up against his acoustic nerve. Any noise now caused him excruciating pain. After months of seeking treatment to no avail, in desperation Sarkin resorted to radical deep-brain surgery, which seemed to go well until during recovery his brain began to bleed and he suffered a major stroke. When he awoke, he was a different man. Before the stroke, he was a calm, disciplined chiropractor, a happily married husband and father of a newborn son. Now he was transformed into a volatile and wildly exuberant obsessive, seized by a manic desire to create art, devoting virtually all his waking hours to furiously drawing, painting, and writing poems and letters to himself, strangely detached from his wife and child, and unable to return to his normal working life. His sense of self had been shattered, his intellect intact but his way of being drastically altered. His art became a relentless quest for the right words and pictures to unlock the secrets of how to live this strange new life. And what was even stranger was that he remembered his former self. In a beautifully crafted narrative, award-winning journalist and Pulitzer Prize finalist Amy Ellis Nutt interweaves Sarkin's remarkable story with a fascinating tour of the history of and latest findings in neuroscience and evolution that illuminate how the brain produces, from its web of billions of neurons and chaos of liquid electrical pulses, the richness of human experience that makes us who we are. Nutt brings vividly to life pivotal moments of discovery in neuroscience, from the shocking "rebirth" of a young girl hanged in 1650 to the first autopsy of an autistic savant's brain, and the extraordinary true stories of people whose personalities and cognitive abilities were dramatically altered by brain trauma, often in shocking ways. Probing recent revelations about the workings of creativity in the brain and the role of art in the evolution of human intelligence, she reveals how Jon Sarkin's obsessive need to create mirrors the earliest function of art in the brain. Introducing major findings about how our sense of self transcends the bounds of our own bodies, she explores how it is that the brain generates an individual "self" and how, if damage to our brains can so alter who we are, we can nonetheless be said to have a soul. For Jon Sarkin, with his personality and sense of self permanently altered, making art became his bridge back to life, a means of reassembling from the shards of his former self a new man who could rejoin his family and fashion a viable life. He is now an acclaimed artist who exhibits at some of the country's most prestigious venues, as well as a devoted husband to his wife, Kim, and father to their three children. At once wrenching and inspiring, this is a story of the remarkable human capacity to overcome the most daunting obstacles and of the extraordinary workings of the human mind.
Shadows Of The Workhouse: The Drama Of Life In Postwar London
by Jennifer WorthA fascinating slice of East End life, from the No.1 bestsellilng author of CALL THE MIDWIFE, soon to be a major BBC TV series.In this follow up to CALL THE MIDWIFE, Jennifer Worth, a midwife working in the docklands area of East London in the 1950s tells more stories about the people she encountered. There's Jane, who cleaned and generally helped out at Nonnatus House - she was taken to the workhouse as a baby and was allegedly the illegitimate daughter of an aristocrat. Peggy and Frank's parents both died within 6 months of each other and the children were left destitute. At the time, there was no other option for them but the workhouse. The Reverend Thornton-Appleby-Thorton, a missionary in Africa, visits the Nonnatus nuns and Sister Julienne acts as matchmaker. And Sister Monica Joan, the eccentric ninety-year-old nun, is accused of shoplifting some small items from the local market. She is let off with a warning, but then Jennifer finds stolen jewels from Hatton Garden in the nun's room. These stories give a fascinating insight into the resilience and spirit that enabled ordinary people to overcome their difficulties.
Shadows Of The Workhouse: The Drama Of Life In Postwar London
by Jennifer WorthA fascinating slice of East End life, from the No.1 bestsellilng author of CALL THE MIDWIFE, soon to be a major BBC TV series.In this follow up to CALL THE MIDWIFE, Jennifer Worth, a midwife working in the docklands area of East London in the 1950s tells more stories about the people she encountered. There's Jane, who cleaned and generally helped out at Nonnatus House - she was taken to the workhouse as a baby and was allegedly the illegitimate daughter of an aristocrat. Peggy and Frank's parents both died within 6 months of each other and the children were left destitute. At the time, there was no other option for them but the workhouse. The Reverend Thornton-Appleby-Thorton, a missionary in Africa, visits the Nonnatus nuns and Sister Julienne acts as matchmaker. And Sister Monica Joan, the eccentric ninety-year-old nun, is accused of shoplifting some small items from the local market. She is let off with a warning, but then Jennifer finds stolen jewels from Hatton Garden in the nun's room. These stories give a fascinating insight into the resilience and spirit that enabled ordinary people to overcome their difficulties.
Shadows On The Koyukuk: An Alaskan Native's Life Along the River
by Sydney Huntington Jim ReardonJim Reardon: "Shortly after 1900, Klondike gold rusher James S. Huntington wandered down the Yukon River, where he met and married Anna, a Koyukon daughter of the land. Their son Sidney has now lived for three-quarters of a century in the Koyukuk country where he was born. His life's story is a fascinating slice of Alaskan history. Sidney grew up in a subarctic wildland of birchbark canoes, dog teams, trappers, gold miners, and Koyukon Indians. He continues to live in essentially the same culture, now modernized with snow machines, bush planes, and satellite TV. He is a product of the land, who thoroughly knows his region, the animals, and the people who live there. The memories he shares in this book bring alive a way of life that is gone forever, for as a teenager and young man he lived primarily off the land; his interest in traditional Koyukon tales provides an intriguing peek into Koyukon Indian prehistory. In addition to leading an incredibly adventurous life, Huntington is a special kind of person. His is a bootstraps-up, inspirational success story of survival. Despite this, Sidney has always found time to help others-a trait that in recent years has brought him statewide respect and an honorary doctorate from the University of Alaska. Long before he received that degree, I regarded Sidney as holding a doctorate in life, for he is self-educated, with knowledge that extends far beyond the horizons of Alaska's Koyukuk country." Note to parents: a few hells and damns pepper the dialogue in this book.
Shadows and Strongholds
by Elizabeth Chadwick"A star back in Britain, Elizabeth Chadwick is finally getting the attention she deserves here."--USA Today Nothing worthwhile is easy. Not becoming a knight. Not when you don't fit in anywhere. Brunin Fitzwarin knows this better than anyone. Lost in his own home, he's now a knight-in-training to the Lord of Ludlow--and still utterly alone. That is, until the youngest daughter of the house befriends him. But England is in turmoil, and Brunin must fight with his lord to support King Stephen for the English crown. As the war rages on and his particularly close to home, Brunin must defeat the shadows of his childhood and take on the mantle of knight, confronting the future head on. A rich tale of coming of age in a world where chivalry is a luxury few can afford. Shadows and Strongholds is a tale of earning your place and finding your way home. "Picking up an Elizabeth Chadwick novel is like having a Bentley draw up at your door: you know you are in for a sumptuous ride."--Daily Telegraph "The best writer of medieval fiction currently around."--Richard Lee, founder and publisher, Historical Novel Society
Shadows of Evil: Long-haul Trucker Wayne Adam Ford And His Grisly Trail Of Rape, Dismemberment, And Murder (St. Martin's True Crime Classics)
by Carlton SmithThe classic true crime account of the 1990s case of a California long-haul truck driver turned serial killer who begged to be stopped.Claiming he’d been sent by God to confess, truck driver Wayne Adam Ford walked into the Humbolt County Sheriff’s Office and admitted to them that he was a serial killer. After police found a gruesome piece of evidence in Ford’s pocket, he told them that he had to be stopped before he killed again, before he murdered his ex-wife, and made his beloved three-year-old son an orphan. Authorities arrested the long-haul trucker and listened in horror to his startling confession . . .Ford was a long-distance trucker who had traveled fourteen western states. Prowling the highways in his big rig tractor-trailer, he picked up young, vulnerable women and then raped, killed, and dismembered them. He scattered some of their bodies in waterways along the road. He kept parts of others for over a year in the freezer of his trailer home. Learn the shocking truth in Shadows of Evil—a chilling account of madness, depravity, and murder . . .
Shadows: Inside Northern Ireland's Special Branch
by Alan BarkerIn the early hours of 30 April 2003, twelve armed and uniformed officers accompanied by four plain-clothes detectives burst into Alan Barker's house. They stayed for hours, turning over rooms, seizing documents, impounding computers, files and anything else that interested them. The family were treated as terrorist suspects, the operation resembling so many others in Northern Ireland during the Troubles. But Alan Barker was and is no terrorist. In fact, he has spent his adult life fighting terrorism on the streets of his native province. Barker belonged to the Special Branch, the RUC's elite unit dedicated to fighting the IRA, the INLA and loyalist terrorists. He gives a gripping insider's account of life on the frontline and demonstrates how the RUC used sophisticated listening devices and informants, including the notorious supergrass Raymond Gilmour, in their fight to gain the upper hand. After nearly 30 years of loyal service, Barker retired angry and disillusioned about what he views as the government's capitulation to the terrorists. This is the book that Downing Street and the Northern Ireland Office don't want you to read. It is a story of courage under fire, guile, Le Carré-esque plots and treachery.
Shaggy Muses: The Dogs Who Inspired Virginia Woolf, Emily Dickinson, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Edith Wharton, and Emily Bronte
by Maureen Adams&“You&’ll call this sentimental–perhaps–but then a dog somehow represents the private side of life, the play side,&” Virginia Woolf confessed to a friend. And it is this private, playful side, the richness and power of the bond between five great women writers and their dogs, that Maureen Adams celebrates in this deeply engaging book. In Shaggy Muses, we visit Elizabeth Barrett Browning and Flush, the golden Cocker Spaniel who danced the poet away from death, back to life and human love. We roam the wild Yorkshire moors with Emily Brontë, whose fierce Mastiff mix, Keeper, provided a safe and loving outlet for the writer&’s equally fierce spirit. We enter the creative sanctum of Emily Dickinson, which she shared only with Carlo, the gentle, giant Newfoundland who soothed her emotional terrors. We mingle with Edith Wharton, whose ever-faithful Pekes warmed her lonely heart during her restless travels among Europe and America&’ s social and intellectual elite. We are privileged guests in the fragile universe of Virginia Woolf, who depended for emotional support and sanity not only on her human loved ones but also on her dogs, especially Pinka–a gift from her lover, Vita Sackville-West–a black Cocker Spaniel who became a strong, bright thread in the fabric of Virginia and Leonard Woolf&’s life together.Based on diaries, letters, and other contemporary accounts–and featuring many illustrations of the writers and their dogs– these five miniature biographies allow us unparalleled intimacy with women of genius in their hours of domestic ease and inner vulnerability. Shaggy Muses also enchants us with a pack of new friends: Flush, Keeper, Carlo, Foxy, Linky, Grizzle, Pinka, and all the other devoted canines who loved and served these great writers.
Shah Husain
by Harjinder Singh DhillonOn the works of Shah Husain, 1539-1599, Panjabi Sufi poet; includes selections translated into English.
Shake It Up, Baby!: The Rise of Beatlemania and the Mayhem of 1963
by Ken McNabA vivid, captivating account of the Beatles&’s musical transformation throughout the pivotal year of 1963, as the world became caught up in the maelstrom of Beatlemania and its far-reaching cultural impact. The Beatles broke up more than half a century ago, yet millions around the globe are still drawn to the legacy of four lads from Liverpool. From the carefree innocence of "A Hard Day's Night" to the experimental psychedelia of "Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds,&” their message of love, peace, and hope still resonates. In Shake It Up, Baby! we go back to the start—to 1963, when they went from playing in small clubs in the remote Scottish Highlands to four number one singles, two number one albums, three national tours, and being besieged by thousands of fans at gigs all over Britain. Ken McNab tells the story through gripping, exclusive eye-witness accounts from those who were there: the Beatlemaniacs, the journalists, broadcasters, and television producers who were scrambling to make sense of it all—and the other bands who could only watch in awe as the Beatles went from bottom of the bill to headline act to the biggest band on the planet, forever transforming musical history.
Shake and Bake: The Life and Times of NBA Great Archie Clark
by Bob Kuska Archie ClarkShake and Bake is the story of Archie Clark, one of the top playmaking guards in the 1970s pre-merger NBA. While not one of the game&’s most recognized superstars, Clark was a seminal player in NBA history who staggered defenders with the game&’s greatest crossover dribble (&“shake and bake&”) and is credited by his peers as the originator of today&’s popular step-back move. Signed as the Lakers third-round draft pick in 1966, Clark worked his way into the starting lineup in his rookie year. But Clark was more than a guaranteed double-double whenever he stepped on the floor. He was a deep-thinking trailblazer for players&’ rights. Clark often challenged coaches and owners on principle, much to the detriment of his career and NBA legacy, signing on as a named litigant in the seminal Robertson v. NBA antitrust case that smashed the player reserve system and jump-started the modern NBA. So lace up your high-top Chuck Taylors, squeeze into a pair of short shorts, and shake and bake back in time to the days of Wilt, Russell, Oscar, Jerry, Elgin, Hondo—and Archie.
Shake, Rattle & Turn That Noise Down!: How Elvis Shook Up Music, Me & Mom
by Mark Alan StamatyFOR HIS EIGHTH birthday, Mark Alan Stamaty’s parents gave him his very own radio. Little did his mother realize that that innocent-looking plastic box would one day be the gateway for a new kind of sound that would “rock” her nearly out of her mind. . . .Mark first heard the howling thunder of Elvis Presley singing “Hound Dog” on the radio one lazy day and his life was forever changed. Soon he was styling his hair like the King and practicing his dance moves with a tennis racket as his pretend guitar in front o f the mirror. But his mother lived in constant fear that her son’s new love of rock ’n’ roll would turn him into a juvenile delinquent. Could Mark’s performance at his Cub Scout talent show change her mind?
Shakedown: Exposing the Real Jesse Jackson
by Kenneth R. TimmermanFew political figures in America today arouse as much passion as the Reverend Jesse Jackson. A hero to some in the black community, Jackson is credited with helping to break down barriers to political and economic access. But to other black leaders, Jackson has become a symbol for all that has gone wrong with their community. "Jesse virtually invented black racism," the Reverend Johnny Hunter, a black pastor from Virginia Beach, tells me. The Reverend Jesse Lee Peterson, a black conservative, calls Jackson a "gatekeeper of black progress" and a "race hustler"1 who has cashed in on white guilt to fund an opulent lifestyle and a personal power base. "He is really just a David Duke in black skin," Peterson says.
Shaken: Fighting to Stand Strong No Matter What Comes Your Way
by Tim TebowYour identity is defined--not by changing circumstances-- but an unchanging God!Whether you’re celebrating an incredible victory or facing life’s biggest disappointment, your response will reveal who you really are.In this powerful book designed specifically for young Christians, Heisman Trophy winner Tim Tebow provides an intimate look into how he’s been able to face professional triumphs and defeats and still emerge with his faith and identity intact. In Shaken: The Young Reader’s Edition, Tebow shares his insight for shaping an identity based not on your highs and lows, but on God. He examines the courageous lives of Biblical figures and the many inspirational people he’s met to show you how to: Overcome your fears and accept God’s perfect, unconditional loveTransform your insecurities into opportunities for growthEmbrace your unique, God-given talents to make a difference in your world With honesty that speaks directly to the heart, Tebow will inspire you to build a God-centered identity and begin today to live out your divine purpose!
Shakers of Union Village, The
by Cheryl BauerFounded in 1805, Union Village began as a religious and communal experiment. Eventually it became one of America's largest and most productive Shaker communities, its members achieving many firsts in education, equality, music, horticulture, and animal husbandry. Their unique faith influenced every aspect of their lives, from making furniture to raising children. They welcomed the leading figures of the period, including Native American chiefs, politicians, and abolitionists, while they continued to open other Shaker settlements in Ohio, Kentucky, Indiana, and Georgia. These vintage images--including many never published before--trace the Shakers' progress as they worked toward creating an earthly paradise. Although Union Village dissolved in 1912, some Shakers remained there for almost another decade. Today Union Village's heritage is still shared with the public at OtterbeinLebanon Retirement Community and in neighboring Lebanon.
Shakespeare
by Anthony BurgessLike Burgess's early novel, Nothing Like the Sun: A Story of Shakespeare's Love-Life, this equally delightful factual treatment of what we know of the Bard combines Burgess's stimulating erudition and his well-informed imagination. The result is at once a speculative biography, a theatrical history, and a re-creation of the Elizabethan age. Whether a vivid retracing of the evolution Elizabethan theater, a bravura reconstruction of the first performance of Hamlet, an infiltration of the intricacies of the court of the Virgin Queen, or an elegy on the era's end with the distrastrous Essex Rebellion, Burgess -- author of the classic A Clockwork Orange -- sets the stage for England's most glorious time and turns the spotlight on the figure of William Shakespeare. <p><p>"Animated by affection and an understanding of the creative imagination that only a creative writer can bring to bear."—Atlantic Monthly<p> "A smooth-flowing narrative, often enlivened by Anthony Burgess's Joycean appetite for linguistic fantasy."—Economist<p> "Bright, racy...knowledgeable and humorous, alternately sensible and quirky."—Terry Eagleton, Commonweal <p>"Burgess's wonderfully well-stocked mind and essentially wayward spirits are just right for summoning up an apparition of the Bard...."—Daily Telegraph
Shakespeare
by Bill BrysonWilliam Shakespeare, the most celebrated poet in the English language, left behind nearly a million words of text, but his biography has long been a thicket of wild supposition arranged around scant facts. With a steady hand and his trademark wit, Bill Bryson sorts through this colorful muddle to reveal the man himself. Bryson documents the efforts of earlier scholars, from today's most respected academics to eccentrics like Delia Bacon, an American who developed a firm but unsubstantiated conviction that her namesake, Francis Bacon, was the true author of Shakespeare's plays. Emulating the style of his famous travelogues, Bryson records episodes in his research, including a visit to a bunkerlike room in Washington, D.C., where the world's largest collection of First Folios is housed. Bryson celebrates Shakespeare as a writer of unimaginable talent and enormous inventiveness, a coiner of phrases ("vanish into thin air," "foregone conclusion," "one fell swoop") that even today have common currency. His Shakespeare is like no one else's-the beneficiary of Bryson's genial nature, his engaging skepticism, and a gift for storytelling unrivaled in our time.