-Titulo Original : Rasputin Faith, Power, And The Twilight Of The Romanovs-Fabricante : Picador-Descripcion Original: About the Author Douglas Smith is an award-winning historian and translator and the author of Rasputin and Former People, which was a bestseller in the U.K. His books have been translated into a dozen languages. The recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship, he has written for The New York Times and Wall Street Journal and has appeared in documentaries with the BBC, National Geographic, and Netflix. Before becoming a historian, he worked for the U.S. State Department in the Soviet Union and as a Russian affairs analyst for Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty. He lives with his family in Seattle. On the centenary of the death of Rasputin comes a definitive biography that will dramatically change our understanding of this fascinating figureA hundred years after his murder, Rasputin continues to excite the popular imagination as the personification of evil. Numerous biographies, novels, and films recount his mysterious rise to power as Nicholas and Alexandras confidant and the guardian of the sickly heir to the Russian throne. His debauchery and sinister political influence are the stuff of legend, and the downfall of the Romanov dynasty was laid at his feet.But as the prizewinning historian Douglas Smith shows, the true story of Rasputins life and death has remained shrouded in myth. A major new work that combines probing scholarship and powerful storytelling, Rasputin separates fact from fiction to reveal the real life of one of historys most alluring figures. Drawing on a wealth of forgotten documents from archives in seven countries, Smith presents Rasputin in all his complexity--man of God, voice of peace, loyal subject, adulterer, drunkard. Rasputin is not just a definitive biography of an extraordinary and legendary man but a fascinating portrait of the twilight of imperial Russia as it lurched toward catastrophe. Review “[The] definitive biography of this most mysterious and controversial figure . . . Under Smith’s probing eye, archives yield up impressive detail and previously unknown accounts that place Rasputin’s life in a new, more realistic context.” Greg King, The Washington Post[Douglas Smiths] scrupulous, insightful and thorough study will surely be the definitive account of one of the most controversial personalities of Russian (and European) history . . . Mr. Smiths research busts various Rasputin myths through a careful analysis of contemporary sources and a meticulous attention to the archives . . . All of this Mr. Smith presents lucidly, vividly and sympathetically . . . Rasputin is sharply drawn and unmistakable. Edward Lucas, The Wall Street Journal“Douglas Smith has delivered the definitive biography [of Rasputin] that is brilliantly gripping, as hypnotic, wild and erotic in its revelations as the Mad Monk himself, sensitive in its human portrait, astute in its political analysis, superbly researched with rich new material gathered in faraway archives, and populated with the zaniest cast of the deranged Romanovs, depraved bishops, whores, mountebanks, adventuresses, mystics and murderers.” Simon Sebag Montefiore, Evening Standard (UK)“From the opening pages of his colossal biography of Grigory Rasputin, the historian Douglas Smith dismantles many of the myths enshrouding the monk who exerted inordinate influence over Nicholas II and Alexandra, emperor and empress of Russia, during the twilight of the Romanov dynasty a century ago . . . In Mr. Smith’s telling, Rasputin was neither a sinner nor a saint, and very much a product of his time.” Steven Lee Myers, The New York Times“Magisterial . . . This balanced, impeccably researched book is a revelation, as richly detailed and engrossing as any novel.” Boris Dralyuk, Los Angeles Review of Books“Definitive.” Anne Applebaum, Harpers Magazine“Powerful . . . [Douglas Smith] scoured diaries, letters, police files and archives to create the definitive portrait of a man whose deeply held religious beliefs were often ...

-Titulo Original : Etty Hillesum An Interrupted Life The Diaries, 1941-1943 And Letters From Westerbork-Fabricante : Picador-Descripcion Original: Review “Remarkable . . . What made life meaningful to Etty was the rare combination of erotic, spiritual, and intellectual passions that made up her thinking heart. A truly great book.” The Washington Post Book World For the first time, Etty Hillesums diary and letters appear together to give us the fullest possible portrait of this extraordinary woman in the midst of World War II. In the darkest years of Nazi occupation and genocide, Etty Hillesum remained a celebrant of life whose lucid intelligence, sympathy, and almost impossible gallantry were themselves a form of inner resistance. The adult counterpart to Anne Frank, Hillesum testifies to the possibility of awareness and compassion in the face of the most devastating challenge to ones humanity. She died at Auschwitz in 1943 at the age of twenty-nine. From the Back Cover For the first time, Etty Hillesums diary and letters appear together to give us the fullest possible portrait of this extraordinary woman. In the darkest years of Nazi occupation and genocide, Etty Hillesum remained a celebrant of life whose lucid intelligence, sympathy, and almost impossible gallantry were themselves a form of inner resistance. The adult counterpart to Anne Frank, Hillesum testifies to the possibility of awareness and compassion in the face of the most devastating challenge to ones humanity. She died at Auschwitz in 1943 at the age of twenty-nine. About the Author Etty Hillesum died at Auschwitz in 1943. She was 29. Her diary has been published as Etty Hillesum: An Interrupted Life and Letters from Westerbork.Eva Hoffman is the author of Lost in Translation: A Life In A New Language, Shtetl, and The Secret. Her essays and journalism have appeared in The New York Times, The Atlantic, The Yale Review, and other publications...

-Titulo Original : A Woman In Berlin Eight Weeks In The Conquered City A Diary-Fabricante : Picador-Descripcion Original: About the Author The anonymous author of A Woman in Berlin was a young woman at the time of the fall of Berlin. She was a journalist and editor during and after the war.Philip Boehm has translated more than thirty novels and plays by German and Polish writers, including Herta Muller, Franz Kafka, and Hanna Krall. For these translations he has received numerous awards, including NEA and Guggenheim fellowships and most recently the Helen and Kurt Wolff Translator’s Prize. He also works as a theater director and playwright. A New York Times Book Review Editors Choice For eight weeks in 1945, as Berlin fell to the Russian army, a young woman kept a daily record of life in her apartment building and among its residents. With bald honesty and brutal lyricism (Elle), the anonymous author depicts her fellow Berliners in all their humanity, as well as their cravenness, corrupted first by hunger and then by the Russians. Spare and unpredictable, minutely observed and utterly free of self-pity (The Plain Dealer, Cleveland), A Woman in Berlin tells of the complex relationship between civilians and an occupying army and the shameful indignities to which women in a conquered city are always subject--the mass rape suffered by all, regardless of age or infirmity.A Woman in Berlin stands as one of the essential books for understanding war and life (A. S. Byatt, author of Possession). Review “A devastating book. It is matter-of-fact, makes no attempt to score political points, does not attempt to solicit sympathy for its protagonist, and yet is among the most chilling indictments of war I have ever read. Everybody, in particular every woman, ought to read it.” Arundhati Roy, Booker Prize-winning author of The God of Small Things“A tract essential for our often morally fuzzy times . . . It is destined to be a classic.” San Francisco Chronicle“Let Anonymous stand witness as she wished to: as an undistorted voice for all women in war and its aftermath, whatever their names or nation or ethnicity. Anywhere.” Los Angeles Times“An astonishing record of survival . . . the voice of Anonymous emerges as both shrewd and funny . . . a fresh contribution to the literature of war.” Entertainment Weekly (grade: A)“A richly detailed, clear-eyed account of the effects of war and enemy occupation on a civilian population . . . She has written, in short, a work of literature, rich in character and perception.” Joseph Kanon, The New York Times Book Review“Her journal earns a particular place in the archives of recollection. This is because it neither condemns nor forgives: not her countrymen, not her occupiers, and not, remarkably, herself. . . . Stands gritty and obdurate among a swirl of revisionist currents that variously have asserted and disputed the inherent nature of Germans national guilt . . .To put it briefly, Anonymous writes a merciless account of what individuals can be faced with when all material and social props collapse.” The Boston Globe“A riveting account of a military atrocity . . . The author doesnt try to explain or moralize the horror. She simply records it as perhaps no one else has, in all of its devastating essence.” The New York Observer“Unflinchingly honest . . . Its frank documentation of German suffering--the hunger and uncertainty as well as the widespread rape--illuminates a subject whose worldwide taboo is just beginning to subside.” The Village Voice“A brilliant and powerful work.” Newsday“What makes the book an essential document is its frank and unself-conscious record of the physical and moral devastation that accompanied the war. . . . The diarists emotional register remains unfailingly calm. Her dispassionate chronicle of the disasters of war suggests a kind of stoic heroism. . . . Remarkable.” Salon “A stunning account of a German womans battle to survive repeated rape at the hands of the victors among the ruins of Berlin . . . While leaders plot their dr...

-Titulo Original : Gomorrah A Personal Journey Into The Violent International Empire Of Naples Organized Crime System (10th Anniversary Edition With A New Preface)-Fabricante : Picador-Descripcion Original: About the Author Roberto Saviano was born in Naples and studied philosophy at university. Gomorrah: A Personal Journey into the Violent International Empire of Naples Organized Crime System was his first book. In 2011 he was awarded the PEN Pinter International Writer of Courage Award. The basis of the Sundance TV series Gomorrah A New York Times Notable Book of the YearGomorrah is a bold and important work of investigative writing that holds global significance, one heroic young mans impassioned story of a place under the rule of a murderous organization. A groundbreaking, unprecedented bestseller in Italy, Roberto Savianos insider account traces the decline of the city of Naples under the rule of the Camorra, an organized crime network more powerful and violent than the Mafia. The Camorra is an elaborate, international system dealing in drugs, high fashion, construction, and toxic waste, and its influence has entirely transformed life in Campania, the province surrounding Naples. Since seeing his first murder victim, at thirteen, Roberto Saviano has watched the changes in his home city. For Gomorrah, he disappeared into the Camorra and witnessed up close the drug cartels audacious, sophisticated, and far-reaching corruption that has paralyzed his home city and introduced the world to a new breed of organized crime. Review “The most important book to come out of Italy in years....I could not get this brave book out of my head.” The New York Times Book Review“Astonishing...Gripping...[Saviano] exhibits the passion and heroism of a young man.” The Washington Post“Brilliant.” The Wall Street Journal“Read this important book and you will appreciate why Italy is still a country that needs heroes like [Saviano].” The Guardian (UK)“An Engrossing book, animated by a fervor thats uncommon in American investigative reporting...As much a literary lament as a gritty expose.” Mother Jones“Endlessly eye-opening and sobering.” Kirkus Review...

-Titulo Original : In Extremis The Life And Death Of The War Correspondent Marie Colvin-Fabricante : Picador-Descripcion Original: About the Author Lindsey Hilsum is the International Editor for Channel 4 News in England. She has covered many of the major conflicts and international events of the last twenty-five years, including the wars in Syria, Ukraine, Iraq and Kosovo; the Arab Spring; and the genocide in Rwanda. Her writing has appeared in The New York Review of Books, The Guardian,and Granta. Her first book, Sandstorm: Libya in the Time of Revolution was short-listed for the 2012 Guardian First Book Award. A New York Times Book Review Editors Choice. Finalist for the Costa Biography Award and long-listed for the Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence. Named a Best Book of 2018 by Esquire and Foreign Policy. An Amazon Best Book of November, the Guardian Bookshop Book of November, and one of the Evening Standards Books to Read in NovemberNow, thanks to Hilsum’s deeply reported and passionately written book, [Marie Colvin] has the full accounting that she deserves. --Joshua Hammer, The New York TimesThe inspiring and devastating biography of Marie Colvin, the foremost war reporter of her generation, who was killed in Syria in 2012, and whose life story also forms the basis of the feature film A Private War, starring Rosamund Pike as Colvin. When Marie Colvin was killed in an artillery attack in Homs, Syria, in 2012, at age fifty-six, the world lost a fearless and iconoclastic war correspondent who covered the most significant global calamities of her lifetime. In Extremis, written by her fellow reporter Lindsey Hilsum, is a thrilling investigation into Colvin’s epic life and tragic death based on exclusive access to her intimate diaries from age thirteen to her death, interviews with people from every corner of her life, and impeccable research. After growing up in a middle-class Catholic family on Long Island, Colvin studied with the legendary journalist John Hersey at Yale, and eventually started working for The Sunday Times of London, where she gained a reputation for bravery and compassion as she told the stories of victims of the major conflicts of our time. She lost sight in one eye while in Sri Lanka covering the civil war, interviewed Gaddafi and Arafat many times, and repeatedly risked her life covering conflicts in Chechnya, East Timor, Kosovo, and the Middle East. Colvin lived her personal life in extremis, too: bold, driven, and complex, she was married twice, took many lovers, drank and smoked, and rejected society’s expectations for women. Despite PTSD, she refused to give up reporting. Like her hero Martha Gellhorn, Colvin was committed to bearing witness to the horrifying truths of war, and to shining a light on the profound suffering of ordinary people caught in the midst of conflict. Lindsey Hilsum’s In Extremis is a devastating and revelatory biography of one of the greatest war correspondents of her generation. Review An extraordinary account of one reporter’s fearless and ultimately fatal dedication . . . Hilsum draws an empathetic portrait of a woman whose courage often crossed into recklessness, both in combat zones and outside them . . . Thanks to Hilsum’s deeply reported and passionately written book, [Colvin] has the full accounting that she deserves. --Joshua Hammer, The New York Times Book ReviewColvin’s life has been memorably chronicled by Hilsum . . . it is Hilsum’s biography, written by a woman who both knew Colvin and had access to her unpublished reporting notes and private diaries a trove of some three hundred notebooks that seems to most closely capture her spirit. --Jon Lee Anderson, The New Yorker Magnificent and moving . . . [Hilsum] captures the clashing extremes of Colvins life. --Jill Dougherty, The Washington PostHilsum writes with admiration and compassionate understanding of her colleague . . . Journalists will devour Hilsums book, but will others? They should: with Maries story, Hilsum opens doors through which many would not peep. --Ed Vulliamy, T...

-Titulo Original : The Deviants War The Homosexual Vs. The United States Of America-Fabricante : Picador-Descripcion Original: About the Author Eric Cervini is an award-winning historian of LGBTQ culture and politics. He graduated summa cum laude from Harvard College and received his Ph.D. in history from the University of Cambridge, where he was a Gates Scholar. He is the Creator and Executive Producer of The Book of Queer, which airs on Discovery. The Deviant’s War is his first book. FINALIST FOR THE 2021 PULITZER PRIZE IN HISTORY. INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BEST SELLER.New York Times Book Review Editors Choice. Winner of the 2021 Randy Shilts Award for Gay Nonfiction. One of The Washington Posts Top 50 Nonfiction Books of 2020. From a young Harvard- and Cambridge-trained historian, and the Creator and Executive Producer of The Book of Queer (coming June 2022 to Discovery), the secret history of the fight for gay rights that began a generation before Stonewall.In 1957, Frank Kameny, a rising astronomer working for the U.S. Defense Department in Hawaii, received a summons to report immediately to Washington, D.C. The Pentagon had reason to believe he was a homosexual, and after a series of humiliating interviews, Kameny, like countless gay men and women before him, was promptly dismissed from his government job. Unlike many others, though, Kameny fought back.Based on firsthand accounts, recently declassified FBI records, and forty thousand personal documents, Eric Cervinis The Deviants War unfolds over the course of the 1960s, as the Mattachine Society of Washington, the group Kameny founded, became the first organization to protest the systematic persecution of gay federal employees. It traces the forgotten ties that bound gay rights to the Black Freedom Movement, the New Left, lesbian activism, and trans resistance. Above all, it is a story of America (and Washington) at a cultural and sexual crossroads; of shocking, byzantine public battles with Congress; of FBI informants; murder; betrayal; sex; love; and ultimately victory. Review Exhaustively researched and vividly written . . . [A] riveting account of Kameny’s struggle will be eye-opening for anyone keen to have a crash course on L.G.B.T.Q. politics. --George Chauncey, The New York Times Book ReviewWith spare prose and linear sequencing that recalls James Baldwin . . . [an] epiphanic work . . . Cervini’s is a singular accomplishment. --Michael Henry Adams, The GuardianA brilliant new book that ought to change [Kamenys legacy] forever . . . [Cervini] is a smooth writer and a brilliant researcher . . . a wealth of fascinating new details. --Charles Kaiser, The Washington Post[Kamenys] is a fascinating story, and Cervini does it more than ample justice in this insightful, meticulously detailed book. He has clearly done a remarkable job of research, creating an absolutely indispensable, highly readable work of history that belongs in every library. --Booklist (starred review)“Eric Cervini’s work is an important contribution to making our nation’s history whole and truthful. Grounded in extensive research, it tells the history of Frank Kameny’s tenacious and courageous battle with the federal government to secure respect, dignity and equality for gays and lesbians. Kameny was a pioneer who helped carve a path to a new and better world for LGBTQ Americans and for our entire nation. The Deviant’s War is a compelling work which should be on the reading list for everyone who cares about the quest for full civil rights for all Americans.” US Senator Tammy BaldwinEric Cervini has gifted us that rarest of treasures, a guidebook for real activism. Page by page, in painstaking detail, we see our flawed and beautifully idealistic hero Frank Kameny fight for basic human rights. Equal parts inspiring and sobering, The Deviant’s War avoids empty valorizing and focuses instead on what it takes to survive in a world that wants to erase you. Should be required reading for queer people and straight allies. Garrard Conley, author of Boy ErasedWhen Frank...

-Titulo Original : Prairie Fires The American Dreams Of Laura Ingalls Wilder-Fabricante : Picador-Descripcion Original: About the Author Caroline Fraser is the editor of the Library of America edition of Laura Ingalls Wilder’s Little House books, and the author of Rewilding the World and God’s Perfect Child. Her writing has appeared in The New York Review of Books, The New Yorker, The Atlantic, the Los Angeles Times, and the London Review of Books, among other publications. She lives in New Mexico. WINNER OF THE PULITZER PRIZEWINNER OF THE NATIONAL BOOK CRITICS CIRCLE AWARDWINNER OF THE CHICAGO TRIBUNE HEARTLAND PRIZE FOR NON-FICTIONONE OF THE NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEWS 10 BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAROne of The New York Times Book Reviews 10 Best Books of the YearThe first comprehensive historical biography of Laura Ingalls Wilder, the beloved author of the Little House on the Prairie booksMillions of readers of Little House on the Prairie believe they know Laura Ingalls the pioneer girl who survived blizzards and near-starvation on the Great Plains, and the woman who wrote the famous autobiographical books. But the true saga of her life has never been fully told. Now, drawing on unpublished manuscripts, letters, diaries, and land and financial records, Caroline Fraser the editor of the Library of America edition of the Little House series masterfully fills in the gaps in Wilder’s biography. Revealing the grown-up story behind the most influential childhood epic of pioneer life, she also chronicles Wilders tumultuous relationship with her journalist daughter, Rose Wilder Lane, setting the record straight regarding charges of ghostwriting that have swirled around the books.The Little House books, for all the hardships they describe, are paeans to the pioneer spirit, portraying it as triumphant against all odds. But Wilder’s real life was harder and grittier than that, a story of relentless struggle, rootlessness, and poverty. It was only in her sixties, after losing nearly everything in the Great Depression, that she turned to children’s books, recasting her hardscrabble childhood as a celebratory vision of homesteading and achieving fame and fortune in the process, in one of the most astonishing rags-to-riches episodes in American letters.Spanning nearly a century of epochal change, from the Indian Wars to the Dust Bowl, Wilder’s dramatic life provides a unique perspective on American history and our national mythology of self-reliance. With fresh insights and new discoveries, Prairie Fires reveals the complex woman whose classic stories grip us to this day. Review “An absorbing new biography [that] deserves recognition as an essential text.... For anyone who has drifted into thinking of Wilder’s ‘Little House’ books as relics of a distant and irrelevant past, reading Prairie Fires will provide a lasting cure.... Meanwhile, ‘Little House’ devotees will appreciate the extraordinary care and energy Fraser devotes to uncovering the details of a life that has been expertly veiled by myth.” The New York Times Book Review(front page)“The definitive biography... Magisterial and eloquent... A rich, provocative portrait.” Minneapolis Star Tribune“Impressive... Prairie Fires could not have been published at a more propitious time in our national life.” The New Republic“Unforgettable... A magisterial biography, which surely must be called definitive. Richly documented (it contains 85 pages of notes), it is a compelling, beautifully written story.... One of the more interesting aspects of this wonderfully insightful book is its delineation of the fraught relationship between Wilder and her deeply disturbed, often suicidal daughter.” Booklist(starred review)“A fantastic book. We’ve long understood the Little House series to be a great American story, but Caroline Fraser brings it unprecedented new context, as she masterfully chronicles the life of Laura Ingalls Wilder and her family alongside the complicated history of our nation. Prairie Fires represents a significant milestone in our understanding of Wilder’s li...

-Titulo Original : Defying Hitler A Memoir-Fabricante : Picador-Descripcion Original: About the Author Sebastian Haffner was born in Berlin in 1907, and died in 1999. In 1938, he was forced to flee to Britain, where he worked as a journalist. In 1954, he returned to Germany and became a distinguished historian and commentator.Oliver Pretzel, Sebastian Haffner’s son, is the translator of this work. Written in 1939 and unpublished until 2000, Sebastian Haffners memoir of the rise of Nazism in Germany offers a unique portrait of the lives of ordinary German citizens between the wars. Covering 1907 to 1933, his eyewitness account provides a portrait of a country in constant flux: from the rise of the First Corps, the right-wing voluntary military force set up in 1918 to suppress Communism and precursor to the Nazi storm troopers, to the Hitler Youth movement; from the apocalyptic year of 1923 when inflation crippled the country to Hitlers rise to power. This fascinating personal history elucidates how the average German grappled with a rapidly changing society, while chronicling day-to-day changes in attitudes, beliefs, politics, and prejudices. Review “An astonishing memoir...vividly convey[s] the texture of life under an emerging totalitarian regime... [a] masterpiece.” The New York Times Book Review“A masterpiece...has more to say about the enduring enigma of Hitlers Reich than almost anything else in the voluminous modern literature on the subject.” Commentary“Haffner is like the guide of Dantes Inferno, tracing the slow descent into Nazism in intimate detail...Compelling... Fresh, immediate, and wonderfully personal...An absorbing book.” Milwaukee Journal Sentinel“The prophetic insights of a fairly young man...help us understand the plight, as Haffner refers to it, of the non-Nazi German.” The Denver Pos...

-Titulo Original : Ravenmaster-Fabricante : Picador-Descripcion Original: About the Author Christopher Skaife is Yeoman Warder (Beefeater) and Ravenmaster at the Tower of London. He has served in the British Army for twenty-four years, during which time he became a machine-gun specialist as well as an expert in survival and interrogation resistance. He has been featured on the History Channel, PBS, the BBC, Buzzfeed, Slate, and more. He lives at the Tower with his wife and, of course, the ravens. The first behind-the-scenes account of life with the legendary ravens at the world’s eeriest monumentThe ravens at the Tower of London are of mighty importance: rumor has it that if a raven from the Tower should ever leave, the city will fall. The title of Ravenmaster, therefore, is a serious title indeed, and after decades of serving the Queen, Yeoman Warder Christopher Skaife took on the added responsibility of caring for the infamous ravens. In The Ravenmaster, he lets us in on his life as he feeds his birds raw meat and biscuits soaked in blood, buys their food at Smithfield Market, and ensures that these unusual, misunderstood, and utterly brilliant corvids are healthy, happy, and ready to captivate the four million tourists who flock to the Tower every year. A rewarding, intimate, and inspiring partnership has developed between the ravens and their charismatic and charming human, the Ravenmaster, who shares the folklore, history, and superstitions surrounding the ravens and the Tower. Shining a light on the behavior of the birds, their pecking order and social structure, and the tricks they play on us, Skaife shows who the Tower’s true guardians really are and the result is a compelling and irreverent narrative that will surprise and enchant. Review Packed with insight and anecdote, [The Ravenmaster] brings the Tower ravens to vivid life, each bird with a personality of its own. Ive been fortunate enough to tour the Tower and meet the ravens a few times in years past; after reading this book, I cannot wait to go back. George R.R. MartinSkaife . . . is an unending fount of raven lore not just myths and stories, but habits, personalities and discoveries hes made over his years on the job. Petra Mayer, NPRA beguiling, fascinating, and highly amusing account of the strangely magical birds . . . Theres joy in The Ravenmaster, as well as tragedy, obsession, and a rare tenderness toward Skaife’s avian charges . . . Skaife is doing us, I think, a small political service by introducing us to the quirks and histories of every bird in his care; he is letting us love them in a way that makes them more than mere symbols . . . Marvelous. Helen MacDonald, The AtlanticA wonderfully personal account of life with the ravens . . . A natural storyteller, Skaife writes with affection and insight about these powerful, unpredictable and highly intelligent birds. PD Smith, The GuardianSkaife is a jaunty, top-shelf storyteller. Not only has he got a flair for the basic tower story, and the history and mystery of the ravens, but he can swing off piste, like a jazz improvisation, to fill in the story with scads of local color. Peter Lewis, The Boston Globe“This is an utterly fascinating book about one of those subjects you never thought you’d be interested in until, well, you were . . . Skaife is a very good storyteller . . . A splendid and constantly surprising book.” David Pitt, Booklist [starred review]The London book of the year . . . A funny and informative account of life with the royal ravens at the Tower of London . . . [Skaife] is a born storyteller. Ian Thomson, Evening StandardBalancing fascinating tidbits (a raven’s need for order and routine) with macabre details (blood-soaked dog biscuits and ghostly sightings), [Skaife] titillates as he educates, rehabilitating the gloomy reputation of the raven. Skaife’s conversational style and disarming candor make this a rollicking tale fit for nearly any armchair adventurer. Publishers WeeklyFor those...

-Titulo Original : Be Free Or Die The Amazing Story Of Robert Smalls Escape From Slavery To Union Hero-Fabricante : Picador-Descripcion Original: About the Author CATE LINEBERRY is a journalist and the author of The Secret Rescue, a #1 Wall Street Journal e-book bestseller and a finalist for the Edgar and Anthony Awards.Lineberry was previously a staff writer and editor for National Geographic Magazine and the web editor for Smithsonian Magazine. Her work has also appeared in the New York Times. Lineberry lives in Raleigh, NC. A stunning tale of a little-known figure in history. Robert Smalls astounding heroism during the Civil War helped convince Lincoln and the country that African Americans were extraordinarily capable of fighting for their freedom. Lineberry has produced a triumph in this heroic story that illuminates our countrys ongoing struggles with race. Henry Louis Gates, Jr, Professor in American History Harvard University and Executive Producer of Finding Your Roots“Be Free or Die makes you want to stand up and cheer. Cate Lineberry has done us all a great service by telling this incredibly moving, thrilling, and important story about an American hero who deserves to be remembered, and admired.” Candice Millard, author of Hero of the EmpireFacing death rather than enslavement a story of one mans triumphant choice and ultimate rise to national heroIt was a mild May morning in Charleston, South Carolina, in 1862, the second year of the Civil War, when a twenty-three-year-old slave named Robert Smalls did the unthinkable and boldly seized a Confederate steamer. With his wife and two young children hidden on board, Smalls and a small crew ran a gauntlet of heavily armed fortifications in Charleston Harbor and delivered the valuable vessel and the massive guns it carried to nearby Union forces. To be unsuccessful was a death sentence for all. Smalls’ courageous and ingenious act freed him and his family from slavery and immediately made him a Union hero while simultaneously challenging much of the country’s view of what African Americans were willing to do to gain their freedom. After his escape, Smalls served in numerous naval campaigns off Charleston as a civilian boat pilot and eventually became the first black captain of an Army ship. In a particularly poignant moment Smalls even bought the home that he and his mother had once served in as house slaves.Be Free or Die is a compelling narrative that illuminates Robert Smalls’ amazing journey from slave to Union hero and ultimately United States Congressman. This captivating tale of a valuable figure in American history gives fascinating insight into the countrys first efforts to help newly freed slaves while also illustrating the many struggles and achievements of African Americans during the Civil War. Review An excellent read...provides fascinating insight into a little-known heroic incident of the Civil War and into race relationships in the Reconstruction South. Bowling Green Daily News“An immersive, well-crafted history.” The Atlanta-Journal ConstitutionA valuable narrative history that will benefit readers interested in African-American, Civil War, or naval history. Library JournalLineberry ably provides context for Smalls saga: slaverys horrors, the story of blacks in the Union fighting force...in this compelling story. BooklistSuccinct and powerful prose...Lineberry elevates Smalls to Americas pantheon of black leaders, showing him to have been as courageous and inspirational as Harriet Tubman...and Booker T. Washington. Publishers WeeklyUnquestionably a remarkable story...A worthwhile Civil War biography cogently presented and ready for the big screen. Kirkus Reviews (Starred Review)A stunning tale of a little-known figure in history. Robert Smalls astounding heroism during the Civil War helped convince Lincoln and the country that African Americans were extraordinarily capable of fighting for their freedom. Lineberry has produced a triumph in this heroic story that illuminates our countrys ongoing struggles with race. Henry...

-Titulo Original : The Pianist: The Extraordinary True Story Of One Mans Survival In Warsaw, 1939-1945-Fabricante : Picador-Descripcion Original: About the Author Wladyslaw Szpilman was born in 1911. He studied the piano at the Warsaw Conservatory and at the Academy of Arts in Berlin. From 1945 to 1963, he was Director of Music at Polish Radio, and he also pursued a career as a concert pianist and composer for many years. He died in Warsaw in 2000. The film version of his memoir, The Pianist, was the winner of the Palme dOr at the 2002 Cannes Film Festival. The memoir that inspired Roman Polanskis Oscar-winning film, which won the Cannes Film Festivals most prestigious prize the Palme dOr. Named one of the Best Books of 1999 by the Los Angeles TimesOn September 23, 1939, Wladyslaw Szpilman played Chopins Nocturne in C-sharp minor live on the radio as shells exploded outside so loudly that he couldnt hear his piano. It was the last live music broadcast from Warsaw: That day, a German bomb hit the station, and Polish Radio went off the air.Though he lost his entire family, Szpilman survived in hiding. In the end, his life was saved by a German officer who heard him play the same Chopin Nocturne on a piano found among the rubble. Written immediately after the war and suppressed for decades, The Pianist is a stunning testament to human endurance and the redemptive power of fellow feeling. Review “Stunning . . . Filled with unforgettable incidents, images, and people.” The Wall Street Journal“Remarkable . . . a document of lasting historical and human value.” The Los Angeles Times“Historically indispensible.” Washington Post Book World“The Pianist is a great book.” The Boston Globe“Even by the standards set be Holocaust memoirs, this book is a stunner.” Seattle Weekly“A stunning tribute to what one human being can endure, The Pianist is even more--a testimony to the redemptive power of fellow feeling.” The Plain Dealer“Distinguished by [Szpilmans] dazzling clarity . . . Remarkably lucid.” Publishers Weekly (starred review)“A striking Holocaust memoir that conveys with exceptional immediacy and cool reportage the authors desperate fight for survival.” Kirkus Reviews“The Pianist is a book so fresh and vivid, so heartbreaking, and so simply and beautifully written, that it manages to tell us the story of horrendous events as if for the first time . . . an altogether unforgettable book. ” The Daily Telegraph“Wladyslaw Szpilmans memoir of life in Nazi-occupied Warsaw and the Jewish ghetto has a singular vividness. All is conveyed with an understated intimacy and dailiness that render them painfully close.” The Observer“It is all told with a simple clarity that lodges the story in ones stomach through a mixture of disgust, terror, despair, rage, and guilt that grips the reader almost gently. ” The Spectator“Illuminates vividly the horror that overcame the Polish people. Szpilmans account has an immediacy, vivid and anguished.” The Sunday Telegrap...

-Titulo Original : Prince Of Darkness-Fabricante : Picador-Descripcion Original: In the middle decades of the nineteenth century, Jeremiah G. Hamilton was a well-known figure on Wall Street. And Hamilton was African American. Although his origins were lowly, possibly slave, he was reportedly the richest black man in the United States, possessing a fortune of two million, or in excess of two hundred and fifty million in today’s currency. In Prince of Darkness: The Untold Story of Jeremiah G. Hamilton, Wall Streets First Black Millionaire, a groundbreaking account, eminent historian Shane White reveals the larger-than-life story of a man who defied every convention of his time. Review **Winner of the 2016 New York City Book Award****Winner of the 2015 Society for Historians of the Early American Republic Best Book Prize**This is historical detective work of the highest magnitude... Indeed, the feeling the book left the prize committee with after its 300-plus pages was: how could the story of an American character this fascinating nothave been written before? 2015 SHEAR Best Book Prize citation“If this Hamilton were around today, he might have his own reality TV show or be a candidate for president...An interesting look at old New York, race relations and high finance.” New York Post“White details his incredible life, marriage to a white woman, and contentious presence on Wall Street, in the process revealing the ways that historians reconstruct the past. An engaging look at an extraordinary man.” Booklist“Hamiltons story is gripping; so, too, is his puzzling near disappearance from the historical record. White does an excellent job drawing out the facts of Hamiltons life and supplementing them with details from the history of Wall Street and of other African American New Yorkers of the era.” Library Journal“Pieces together the remarkable career of an antebellum Wall Street broker who was married to a white woman, ambitious, ruthless, successful, and black: in short, a racists nightmare come to life. ... Superb scholarship and a sprightly style recover an unaccountably overlooked life.” Kirkus Reviews“Villain? Hustler? Financial Genius? Black Horatio Alger? The White Mans worst nightmare? With panoramic vision and panache, Shane White unravels the mystery that is Jeremiah G. Hamilton.” Robin D. G. Kelley, author of THELONIOUS MONK: The Life and Times of an American Original (2009)“Shane White employs the superb skills of an accomplished historian to narrate the compelling story of a New York Hamilton who commanded front page news attention in his day and faded into obscurity in the years that followed. Jeremiah Hamilton was not only Americas first black millionaire, he was a ruthless businessman and trader who sparked fear, contempt, jealousy and a range of other emotions from contemporaries and adversaries. A fine read, I highly recommend this important new book.” Earl Lewis, President, The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and co-author with Heidi Ardizzone, LOVE ON TRIAL“Shane Whites impeccably researched book offers a compelling history of Jeremiah Hamilton, Americas first black Wall Street millionaire. Prince of Darkness tells the complex story of race and wealth in antebellum New York, with a mysterious and sometimes purposefully ambiguous character at its center. From the islands of the Caribbean to Gotham, Hamilton welded together grit and intellectual agility that propelled him into unimaginable wealth. Unlike his African American contemporaries, Jeremiah Hamilton was less concerned with respectability politics or racial uplift. The Prince of Darkness was a man who wanted to be rich, and nothing would stand in his way.” Erica Armstrong Dunbar, author of A FRAGILE FREEDOM: African American Women and Emancipation in the Antebellum City“At a time when Gotham was virtually inventing segregation, long before the South did, a black man bulled his way into Wall Street, the citys whitest citadel, and ruthlessly made a fortune there. He challenged social co...

-Titulo Original : Black Man In A White Coat A Doctors Reflections On Race And Medicine-Fabricante : Picador-Descripcion Original: About the Author Damon Tweedy is a graduate of Duke Medical School and Yale Law School. He is an assistant professor of psychiatry at Duke University Medical Center and staff physician at the Durham VA Medical Center. He has published articles about race and medicine in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) and the Annals of Internal Medicine. His columns and op-eds have appeared in the New York Times, the Chicago Tribune, the Raleigh News & Observer, and the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. He lives outside Raleigh-Durham, North Carolina. A NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * ONE OF TIME MAGAZINES TOP TEN NONFICTION BOOKS OF THE YEARA LIBRARY JOURNAL BEST BOOK SELECTION * A BOOKLIST EDITORS CHOICE BOOK SELECTIONOne doctors passionate and profound memoir of his experience grappling with race, bias, and the unique health problems of black AmericansWhen Damon Tweedy begins medical school, he envisions a bright future where his segregated, working-class background will become largely irrelevant. Instead, he finds that he has joined a new world where race is front and center. The recipient of a scholarship designed to increase black student enrollment, Tweedy soon meets a professor who bluntly questions whether he belongs in medical school, a moment that crystallizes the challenges he will face throughout his career. Making matters worse, in lecture after lecture the common refrain for numerous diseases resounds, “More common in blacks than in whites.”Black Man in a White Coat examines the complex ways in which both black doctors and patients must navigate the difficult and often contradictory terrain of race and medicine. As Tweedy transforms from student to practicing physician, he discovers how often race influences his encounters with patients. Through their stories, he illustrates the complex social, cultural, and economic factors at the root of many health problems in the black community. These issues take on greater meaning when Tweedy is himself diagnosed with a chronic disease far more common among black people. In this powerful, moving, and deeply empathic book, Tweedy explores the challenges confronting black doctors, and the disproportionate health burdens faced by black patients, ultimately seeking a way forward to better treatment and more compassionate care. Review “In this fascinating, heartbreaking memoir, Tweedy documents his experiences as an African American doctor in a medical system that can be just as sick as its patients.” O, The Oprah Magazine“Tweedy reveals all you need to know about the Byzantine health care system, wide-ranging disparities that persist and, more important, how we can take control of our well-being...Black Man in a White Coat is certain to garner incredible attention during the literary awards season. Its a book that deserves a very long shelf life.” Essence“In ways wholly individual but similarly intricate, Margo Jefferson, Dr. Damon Tweedy and Ta-Nehisi Coates examine the impact of race on our expectations and experiences. And in doing so, they challenge us to as well.” Time“Riveting.” Entertainment Weekly, The Must List“On one level the book is a straightforward memoir; on another it’s a thoughtful, painfully honest, multi-angled, constant self-interrogation about himself and about the health implications of being black.” Sarah Lyall, The New York Times“[A] heartfelt account... Black Man in a White Coat is a commentary on challenges and lessons [Dr. Tweedy has] encountered as a physician of color, offering first-hand truths about the medical issues and racial divides in health care plaguing our community.” Ebony“Fascinating… What sets this book in motion is Tweedy’s dogged quest to understand how his personal experience relates to the staggering issue of health care inequality. In the process, he shines a light on disparities than can be hard to fathom…. An engaging, introspective memoir that will force readers to contemp...

-Titulo Original : Churchills Ministry Of Ungentlemanly Warfare The Mavericks Who Plotted Hitlers Defeat-Fabricante : Picador-Descripcion Original: In the spring of 1939, a top-secret organization was founded in London: its purpose was to plot the destruction of Hitler’s war machine, through spectacular acts of sabotage. Review Milton is a meticulous researcher and masterful storyteller. Churchill’s Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare, with its ghastly details and dollops of droll British humor, will reward readers who appreciate military history and good writing. USA Today (3.5 star out of 4)A magnificent story, brilliantly told. Read it! Anthony Horowitz, #1 New York Times bestselling author of the Alex Rider Adventure series“A rousing account-and celebration-of World War II’s most insidious and devious heroes.” The Wall Street Journal“An exciting, suspenseful tale of international intrigue.” Kirkus“An entertaining read that will keep readers turning the page.” Library Journa...

-Titulo Original : The Faithful Executioner Life And Death, Honor And Shame In The Turbulent Sixteenth Century-Fabricante : Picador-Descripcion Original: About the Author Joel F. Harrington is a professor of history at Vanderbilt University. He is the author of The Unwanted Child, Reordering Marriage and Society in Reformation Germany, and A Cloud of Witnesses. THE EXTRAORDINARY STORY OF A RENAISSANCE-ERA EXECUTIONER AND HIS WORLD, BASED ON A RARE AND OVERLOOKED JOURNAL.In a dusty German bookshop, the noted historian Joel F. Harrington stumbled upon a remarkable document: the journal of a sixteenth-century executioner. The journal gave an account of the 394 people Meister Frantz Schmidt executed, and the hundreds more he tortured, flogged, or disfigured for more than forty-five years in the city of Nuremberg. But the portrait of Schmidt that gradually emerged was not that of a monster. Could a man who practiced such cruelty also be insightful, compassionate even progressive?In The Faithful Executioner, Harrington teases out the hidden meanings and drama of Schmidts journal. Deemed an official outcast, Meister Frantz sought to prove himself worthy of honor and free his children from the stigma of his profession. Harrington uncovers details of Schmidts life and work: the shocking, but often familiar, crimes of the day; the medical practice that he felt was his true calling; and his lifelong struggle to reconcile his craft with his religious faith.In this groundbreaking and intimate portrait, Harrington shows us that our thinking about justice and punishment, and our sense of our own humanity, are not so remote from the world of The Faithful Executioner. Review “Fascinating . . . Engrossing . . . Harrington brings out the sheer strangeness of the past . . . In The Faithful Executioner, Mr. Harrington has not only rescued the life of an individual from disgust and condescension but also, by focusing on a career in killing, brought a whole world back to life.” The Wall Street Journal“Remarkable . . . [A] fascinating exploration . . . this is a surprisingly modern, even topical story that poses difficult questions about capital punishment and what Harrington calls ‘the human drive toward retribution.” The Washington Post“Fascinating . . . One of the pleasures of reading history is to be transported somewhere, even if we arent sure we want to go.” The Chronicle of Higher Education“Equal parts enlightening and enjoyable.” The Daily Beast“[A] vividly drawn portrait . . . Harrington succeeds in deftly taking us beyond Schmidts biography to address broader questions. Finely researched and crafted.” History Today“A fascinating read.” Publishers Weekly“Surprisingly poignant . . . A whole teeming world of Reformation Germany comes alive.” Kirkus Reviews“This is a precious story that Harrington has drawn from the journal and archival records, a braiding of Schmidts words with a re-creation of Schmidts world, a story that is at once inclusive and atmospheric, deeply intimate and rare . . . It is a wonder-making world, made manifest by an artful historians hand.” Barnes & Noble Review“Who can imagine how an executioner feels about his trade? Joel F. Harrington has written a considered and fascinating book that helps us hear the voice of one such man, a professional torturer (and healer) who, astonishingly, kept a diary. Exploring both sixteenth-century Nuremberg and the world about the city, he re-creates the social context for the flamboyant displays of cruelty that later centuries find so hard to comprehend. Both the executioner and his victims are rescued from our condescension and restored to their own moral universe which is not as far from ours as we like to suppose.” Hilary Mantel, Man Booker Prize-winning author Wolf Hall and Bring Up the Bodies“A book as entertaining and revealing as it is improbable and outrageous. Joel F. Harrington has told a marvelous yarn, giving us not just the compelling biography of Meister Frantz but his world.” Rick Atkinson, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Day of Battle: The War in Sicily a...

-Titulo Original : Heart A History-Fabricante : Picador-Descripcion Original: About the Author Sandeep Jauhar, MD, PhD, is the director of the Heart Failure Program at Long Island Jewish Medical Center. He is the bestselling author of Doctored and Intern and a New York Times Contributing Opinion Writer. He lives with his wife and their son and daughter on Long Island. The bestselling author of Intern and Doctored tells the story of the thing that makes us tickFor centuries, the human heart seemed beyond our understanding: an inscrutable shuddering mass that was somehow the driver of emotion and the seat of the soul. As the cardiologist and bestselling author Sandeep Jauhar shows in Heart: A History, it was only recently that we demolished age-old taboos and devised the transformative procedures that have changed the way we live.Deftly alternating between key historical episodes and his own work, Jauhar tells the colorful and little-known story of the doctors who risked their careers and the patients who risked their lives to know and heal our most vital organ. He introduces us to Daniel Hale Williams, the African American doctor who performed the world’s first open heart surgery in Gilded Age Chicago. We meet C. Walton Lillehei, who connected a patient’s circulatory system to a healthy donor’s, paving the way for the heart-lung machine. And we encounter Wilson Greatbatch, who saved millions by inventing the pacemaker by accident. Jauhar deftly braids these tales of discovery, hubris, and sorrow with moving accounts of his family’s history of heart ailments and the patients he’s treated over many years. He also confronts the limits of medical technology, arguing that future progress will depend more on how we choose to live than on the devices we invent. Affecting, engaging, and beautifully written, Heart: A History takes the full measure of the only organ that can move itself. Review A PBS NEWSHOUR-NEW YORK TIMES BOOK CLUB PICK A Mail on Sunday Book of the YearA Science Friday Best Science Book of 2018A Los Angeles Public Library Best Nonfiction Book of 2018Shortlisted for the 2019 Wellcome Book Prize [Sandeep Jauhars] gripping new book, Heart a History, had me nearly as enthralled with this pulsating body part as [Jauhar] seems to be. The tone a physician excited about his specialty takes a sharp turn from his first two memoirs . . . Jauhar hooks the reader of Heart from the first few pages. Randi Hutter Epstein, The New York Times Book ReviewAt once intimate and detached. And over the ensuing pages, [Jauhar] is our trusty guide through a compelling story about what makes each and every one of us tick. Both primer and ode, Heart is a fascinating education for those of us who harbor this most hallowed organ but know little about it. Katie Hafner, The Washington PostThe cardiologist Sandeep Jauhar has become a Dante of modern medicine, with his earlier memoirs, “Intern” (2008) and “Doctored” (2014), casting the progress from training to career as a path studded with suffering, indignity and ethical hazard. His latest book, “Heart: A History,” is something of a “Paradiso,” pointing to the field’s brightest and noblest stars while recognizing just how much darkness is still left in the firmament . . . Poignant and chattily erudite. Laura Kolbe, The Wall Street JournalBeautifully written, informative, and thought-provoking . . . Jauhar is a gifted storyteller who paints portraits deftly and with few words. He is a master of the verbal miniature . . . [his] engaging prose makes us as happy to spend time with him, his patients, and his family as we are to read about William Harvey or heart transplant pioneer Christiaan Barnard. Suzanne Koven, The Los Angeles Review of BooksSandeep Jauhar, a New York cardiologist and the author of two medical memoirs, has written a book of unusual depth and richness about a subject that concerns us all . . . Heart: A History is elegantly conceived and still more elegantly executed, with a narrative that flits effortl...

-Titulo Original : Love, Life, And Elephants An African Love Story-Fabricante : Picador-Descripcion Original: About the Author Dame Daphne Sheldrick is a Kenyan author, conservationist, and expert in animal husbandry, particularly the raising and reintegrating of orphaned elephants into the wild. From 1955 to 1976, Sheldrick was co-warden of Kenya’s Tsavo National Park. Astonishing...You may be tempted after the last page to sell all your possessions and join [Sheldricks] cause. The Boston GlobeThe first person to successfully raise newborn elephants, Dame Daphne Sheldrick has saved countless African animals from certain death. In this indelible and deeply heartfelt memoir, Daphne tells of her remarkable career as a conservationist and introduces us to a whole host of orphans including Bushy, a liquid-eyed antelope, and the majestic elephant Eleanor. Yet she also shares the incredible human story of her relationship with David Sheldrick, the famous Tsavo National Park warden whose death inspired the David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust and the orphans nursery, where Daphne works to this day. From her tireless campaign to preserve Kenyas wildlife to the astonishing creatures she befriended along the way, Love, Life, and Elephants is alive with compassion and humor, providing rare insight into the life of one of the worlds most fascinating women. Review “Sheldrick has bottle-fed baby elephants, donned cricket gear to ward off charging baby rhinos, and shared bathtubs with dikdiks...What shines through is her authentic love for the land and its creatures....[She] herself is a rare bird.” More“A remarkable portrait of the Sheldricks love and lifes work.” People“A sometimes harrowing memoir of Sheldricks years as a conservationist devoted to saving orphan elephants and fighting against poaching...Riveting.” Whole Living“If Dame Daphne hadnt already been honored by the Queen of England, I would personally lobby on her behalf. This extraordinary woman has saved hundreds of orphaned baby elephants....She can write, too.” Smithsonian“An enchanting memoir...Sheldrick and her pioneering game warden husband David have often been ahead of science in their understanding of African wildlife. Five stars.” The Daily Telegraph (London)“Engaging...Dame Daphne Sheldrick has led a truly extraordinary life.” Womens Wear Daily“Love, Life and Elephants has an animal population big and personable enough to fill a zoo.” Janet Maslin, The New York Times summer reading list“[Sheldrick] gives a lyrical yet droll voice to her rollicking life in Kenya, where she has spent more than 50 years rehabilitating orphaned wildlife...[A] rich memoir.” Publishers Weekly“In this highly personal autobiography, [Sheldrick] recounts a lifetime of fostering orphan mammals, reptiles, and birds while raising a family and helping her valiant husband develop Kenyas national parks in an era of political turmoil and rampant poaching. Filled with eyewitness accounts of African conservation, astute wildlife observations, and a touching love story, Sheldricks book will delight nature-loving readers.” Rick Roche, Booklist“Heartfelt...fascinating.” Kirkus Reviews“[Love, Life, and Elephants] is both an incredible memoir of a life and two romances. The first of these blossoms when the young author moves to Tsavo with her first husband and falls head over heels for the park and its famous warden, David Sheldrick. The second love story follows Daphne and David as they devote their lives to rescuing baby elephants from poachers and finding homes for orphan elephants, all the while campaigning against the ever-present threat of the ivory trade.” GQ (UK...

-Titulo Original : The Vapors A Southern Family, The New York Mob, And The Rise And Fall Of Hot Springs, Americas Forgotten Capital Of Vice-Fabricante : Picador-Descripcion Original: About the Author David Hill is a writer from Hot Springs, Arkansas. His work has appeared regularly in Grantland and The Ringer, and has been featured in The New Yorker, The New York Times, GQ, and New York magazine, as well as on This American Life. He lives in Nyack, New York, with his wife and three children, where he serves as the vice president of the National Writers Union. The Vapors is his first book. A 2020 New York Times notable book | One of the Chicago Tribunes best nonfiction books of 2020Complex, turbulent, as haunting as a pedal steel solo Jonathan Miles, The New York Times Book Review (Editors Choice)One of 21 books we cant wait to read in 2020 Thrillist | A New York Times Book Review summer reading pick | A GQ best book of 2020 | Named one of the 10 best July books by The Washington Post and The Christian Science Monitor | A Kirkus Reviews hottest summer read | A Publishers Weekly summer reads staff pickThe incredible true story of Americas original and forgotten capital of viceBack in the days before Vegas was big, when the Mob was at its peak and neon lights were but a glimmer on the horizon, a little Southern town styled itself as a premier destination for the American leisure class. Hot Springs, Arkansas was home to healing waters, Art Deco splendor, and America’s original national park as well as horse racing, nearly a dozen illegal casinos, countless backrooms and brothels, and some of the country’s most bald-faced criminals.Gangsters, gamblers, and gamines: all once flocked to America’s forgotten capital of vice, a place where small-town hustlers and bigtime high-rollers could make their fortunes, and hide from the law. The Vapors is the extraordinary story of three individuals spanning the golden decades of Hot Springs, from the 1930s through the 1960s and the lavish casino whose spectacular rise and fall would bring them together before blowing them apart.Hazel Hill was still a young girl when legendary mobster Owney Madden rolled into town in his convertible, fresh off a crime spree in New York. He quickly established himself as the gentleman Godfather of Hot Springs, cutting barroom deals and buying stakes in the clubs at which Hazel made her living and drank away her sorrows. Owney’s protege was Dane Harris, the son of a Cherokee bootlegger who rose through the town’s ranks to become Boss Gambler. It was his idea to build The Vapors, a pleasure palace more spectacular than any the town had ever seen, and an establishment to rival anything on the Vegas Strip or Broadway in sophistication and supercharged glamour.In this riveting work of forgotten history, native Arkansan David Hill plots the trajectory of everything from organized crime to America’s fraught racial past, examining how a town synonymous with white gangsters supported a burgeoning black middle class. He reveals how the louche underbelly of the South was also home to veterans hospitals and baseball’s spring training grounds, giving rise to everyone from Babe Ruth to President Bill Clinton. Infused with the sights and sounds of America’s entertainment heyday jazz orchestras and auctioneers, slot machines and suited comedians The Vapors is an arresting glimpse into a bygone era of American vice. Review . . Hazel’s story, as The Vapors progresses, provides the emotional ballast, the counterweight to all the good-timey glitz, the darkness behind the neon signs. It gives the book its heft, and its warmth . . . Complex, turbulent, as haunting as a pedal steel solo . . . [it] is the wellspring of David Hill’s achievement. Jonathan Miles, The New York Times Book Review“[A] fascinating portrait of Hot Springs in its heyday . . . Hill tells a lively tale, reminding us that it’s a lot more fun reading about vice than virtue.” Dave Shiflett, The Wall Street Journal [The Vapors] is an intensely researched, gripping account of Hot Springs seedy, rollicking past and its near-miss to beat ou...

-Titulo Original : Nathaniels Nutmeg Or, The True And Incredible Adventures Of The Spice Trader Who Changed The Course Of History-Fabricante : Picador-Descripcion Original: About the Author Giles Milton is the internationally bestselling author of a dozen works of narrative history, including Soldier, Sailor, Frogman, Spy, Airman, Gangster, Kill or Die: How the Allies Won on D-Day. His previous work, Churchill’s Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare, is currently being developed into a major TV series. Milton’s works published in twenty-five languages include Nathaniel’s Nutmeg, serialized by the BBC. He lives in London and Burgundy. A true tale of high adventure in the South Seas.The tiny island of Run is an insignificant speck in the Indonesian archipelago. Just two miles long and half a mile wide, it is remote, tranquil, and, these days, largely ignored.Yet 370 years ago, Runs harvest of nutmeg (a pound of which yielded a 3,200 percent profit by the time it arrived in England) turned it into the most lucrative of the Spice Islands, precipitating a battle between the all-powerful Dutch East India Company and the British Crown. The outcome of the fighting was one of the most spectacular deals in history: Britain ceded Run to Holland but in return was given Manhattan. This led not only to the birth of New York but also to the beginning of the British Empire.Such a deal was due to the persistence of one man. Nathaniel Courthope and his small band of adventurers were sent to Run in October 1616, and for four years held off the massive Dutch navy. Nathaniels Nutmeg centers on the remarkable showdown between Courthope and the Dutch Governor General Jan Coen, and the brutal fate of the mariners racing to Run-and the other corners of the globe-to reap the huge profits of the spice trade. Written with the flair of a historical sea novel but based on rigorous research, Giles Miltons Nathaniels Nutmeg is a brilliant adventure story by a writer who has been hailed as the new Bruce Chatwin (Mail on Sunday). Review “A rousing historical romp.” The New York Times Book Review“[Nathaniels Nutmeg] deftly and arrestingly captures the sorry history of the European lust for nutmeg and its devastating impact on the Spice Islands....Milton is a storyteller of the first rank.” Kirkus Reviews“Miltons book tells an absorbing story of perilous voyages, greed and political machinations in the Age of Exploration.” Publishers Weekl...

-Titulo Original : At Home In The World A Memoir-Fabricante : Picador-Descripcion Original: About the Author Joyce Maynard was born and raised in New Hampshire. She is the author of several books, including To Die For, Where Love Goes, Domestic Affairs, Baby Talk, and her memoir Looking Back, which she wrote at the age of eighteen. Joyce Maynard has written for many national publications, including The New York Times Magazine, Parenting and Good Housekeeping. She lives in Mill Valley, California, with her three children. New York Times bestselling author of Labor DayWith a New PrefaceWhen it was first published in 1998, At Home in the World set off a furor in the literary world and beyond. Joyce Maynards memoir broke a silence concerning her relationship at age eighteen with J.D. Salinger, the famously reclusive author of The Catcher in the Rye, then age fifty-three, who had read a story she wrote for The New York Times in her freshman year of college and sent her a letter that changed her life. Reviewers called her book shameless and powerful and its author was simultaneously reviled and cheered.With what some have viewed as shocking honesty, Maynard explores her coming of age in an alcoholic family, her mothers dream to mold her into a writer, her self-imposed exile from the world of her peers when she left Yale to live with Salinger, and her struggle to reclaim her sense of self in the crushing aftermath of his dismissal of her not long after her nineteenth birthday. A quarter of a century later having become a writer, survived the end of her marriage and the deaths of her parents, and with an eighteen-year-old daughter of her own Maynard pays a visit to the man who broke her heart. The story she tells of the girl she was and the woman she became is at once devastating, inspiring, and triumphant. Review “Unsparing self-scrutiny...maturity and emotional candor.” Michiko Kakutani, The New York Times“Absorbing, funny, and emotionally blistering.” Jules Siegel, San Francisco Chronicle“A wry, painful, engaging book.” Frank McCourt, author of Angelas Ashes“Maynards testimony is priceless.” Mary Cantwell, Vogue“Riveting and disturbing.” The New York Times Book Review“Even Salinger loyalists may feel compelled to reexamine their idol.” Glamour“Dazzling.” San Francisco Chronicl...

-Titulo Original : The Long Gray Line The American Journey Of West Points Class Of 1966-Fabricante : Picador-Descripcion Original: About the Author Rick Atkinson is the bestselling author of the Liberation Trilogy An Army at Dawn (winner of the Pulitzer Prize for History), The Day of Battle, and The Guns at Last Light as well as The Long Gray Line and other books. His many additional awards include a Pulitzer Prize in journalism, a George Polk Award, and the Pritzker Military Library Literature Award. A former staff writer and senior editor at The Washington Post, he lives in Washington, D.C. The New York Times bestseller about West Points Class of 1966, by Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and author Rick Atkinson. A story of epic proportions [and] an awesome feat of biographical reconstruction. The Boston GlobeA classic of its kind, The Long Gray Line is the twenty-five-year saga of the West Point class of 1966. With a novelists eye for detail, Rick Atkinson (author of the Liberation Trilogy) illuminates this powerful story through the lives of three classmates and the women they loved from the boisterous cadet years, to the fires of Vietnam, to the hard peace and internal struggles that followed the war. The rich cast of characters also includes Douglas MacArthur, William C. Westmoreland, and a score of other memorable figures. The class of 1966 straddled a fault line in American history, and Atkinsons masterly book speaks for a generation of American men and women about innocence, patriotism, and the price we pay for our dreams Review “Enormously rich in detail and written with a novelists brilliance… A very moving book.” James Salter, The Washington Post Book World“A story of epic proportions [and] awesome feat of biographical reconstruction… A difficult book to put down.” Cullen Murphy, The Boston Globe“The Long Gray Line is a profoundly moving saga in which the U.S. Military Academy at West Point stands center stage. In mufti or olive drab, at peace or war, amidst joy or grief, in life or death, the academy shapes all. The author has captured its ethos. If you want to see a slice of the nations manhood in a drama of troubled times and find its heart, feel its emotions, sense its dilemmas, then read this book. It is a stunning story.” Colin L. Powell“More of a biography of a generation than of a class at West Point… Stark, shocking, jolting.” John Eisenhower, Chicago Tribune (front page review)“Journalism elevated to narrative history, a book like Neil Sheehans Pulitzer Prize-winning A Bright Shining Lie. But better.” USA Today“A work as masterfully executed as it was conceived.” Philadelphia Inquire...

-Titulo Original : Hiking With Nietzsche On Becoming Who You Are-Fabricante : Picador-Descripcion Original: About the Author John Kaag is a professor of philosophy at the University of Massachusetts, Lowell. He is the author of American Philosophy: A Love Story, which was an NPR Best Book of 2016 and a New York Times Editors’ Choice. His writing has appeared in The New York Times, Harper’s Magazine, The Christian Science Monitor, and many other publications. He lives outside Boston with his wife and children. A stimulating book about combating despair and complacency with searching reflection. --Heller McAlpin, NPR Named a Best Book of 2018 by NPR. One of Lit Hubs 15 Books You Should Read in September and one of Outsides Best Books of FallA revelatory Alpine journey in the spirit of the great Romantic thinker Friedrich NietzscheHiking with Nietzsche: Becoming Who You Are is a tale of two philosophical journeys one made by John Kaag as an introspective young man of nineteen, the other seventeen years later, in radically different circumstances: he is now a husband and father, and his wife and small child are in tow. Kaag sets off for the Swiss peaks above Sils Maria where Nietzsche wrote his landmark work Thus Spoke Zarathustra. Both of Kaag’s journeys are made in search of the wisdom at the core of Nietzsche’s philosophy, yet they deliver him to radically different interpretations and, more crucially, revelations about the human condition.Just as Kaag’s acclaimed debut, American Philosophy: A Love Story, seamlessly wove together his philosophical discoveries with his search for meaning, Hiking with Nietzsche is a fascinating exploration not only of Nietzsche’s ideals but of how his experience of living relates to us as individuals in the twenty-first century. Bold, intimate, and rich with insight, Hiking with Nietzsche is about defeating complacency, balancing sanity and madness, and coming to grips with the unobtainable. As Kaag hikes, alone or with his family, but always with Nietzsche, he recognizes that even slipping can be instructive. It is in the process of climbing, and through the inevitable missteps, that one has the chance, in Nietzsche’s words, to “become who you are. Review Kaag is a lively storyteller who brings Nietzsches life into continual contact with his own . . . [He] challenges his readers to be what they might become. --Steven B. Smith, The New York Times Book ReviewNot just an approachable introduction to Nietzsche’s thought. Kaag’s book is also . . . a confirmation that philosophy thrives when it provides an antidote to the wholesome doldrums of sanity . . . Kaag may have outgrown his youthful dramatics, but he continues to let philosophy upend him. --Becca Rothfeld, The Atlantic[An] engagingly unacademic meditation . . . The question, ultimately, is whether Nietzsche’s philosophy, so attuned to lurking monstrous urges, can be of use in daily life. Kaag’s answer is both elliptical and profound, manifesting a deep understanding of his subject matter. --The New YorkerAs in American Philosophy, Kaag deftly intertwines sympathetic biography, accessible philosophical analysis, and self-critical autobiography . . . Kaag extracts plenty of relevant ideas from Nietzsche and his followers in this stimulating book about combating despair and complacency with searching reflection. --Heller McAlpin, npr Mr. Kaag deftly weaves his philosophical concerns with the small and large crises of daily life . . . his honesty is bracing. --Geoff Wisner, The Wall Street JournalIn [Hiking with Nietzsche] and in his previous book American Philosophy: A Love Story . . . Kaag has perhaps created a genre . . . [He combines] almost seamlessly a relatively rigorous though highly readable tour of Nietzsche’s life and authorship with personal writing in the mode of contemporary creative non-fiction . . . Hiking with Nietzsche may provide a new template for autobiographical philosophy and philosophical autobiography. --Cirspin Sartwell, TLSKaag has a pleasingly wry, co...

-Titulo Original : The Fall Of Heaven The Pahlavis And The Final Days Of Imperial Iran-Fabricante : Picador-Descripcion Original: About the Author Andrew Scott Cooper is the author of The Oil Kings: How the U.S., Iran and Saudi Arabia Changed the Balance of Power in the Middle East, and an adjunct assistant professor at Columbia University. He is a regular commentator on US-Iran relations and the oil markets, and his research has appeared in many news outlets including The New York Times and The Guardian. He holds a PhD in the history of US-Iran relations and lives in New York City. An immersive, gripping account of the rise and fall of Irans glamorous Pahlavi dynasty, written with the cooperation of the late Shahs widow, Empress Farah, Iranian revolutionaries and US officials from the Carter administration.In this remarkably human portrait of one of the twentieth centurys most complicated personalities, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, Andrew Scott Cooper traces the Shahs life from childhood through his ascension to the throne in 1941. He draws the turbulence of the post-war era during which the Shah survived assassination attempts and coup plots to build a modern, pro-Western state and launch Iran onto the world stage as one of the worlds top five powers. Readers get the story of the Shahs political career alongside the story of his courtship and marriage to Farah Diba, who became a power in her own right, the beloved family they created, and an exclusive look at life inside the palace during the Iranian Revolution. Coopers investigative account ultimately delivers the fall of the Pahlavi dynasty through the eyes of those who were there: leading Iranian revolutionaries; President Jimmy Carter and White House officials; US Ambassador William Sullivan and his staff in the American embassy in Tehran; American families caught up in the drama; even Empress Farah herself, and the rest of the Iranian Imperial family. Intimate and sweeping at once, The Fall of Heaven recreates in stunning detail the dramatic and final days of one of the worlds most legendary ruling families, the unseating of which helped set the stage for the current state of the Middle East. Review “Riveting . . . Based on various documentary sources as well as impressive access to royalists, revolutionaries, Queen Farah Pahlavi, and various U.S. officials, this thorough work is immensely detailed yet readable and continuously engaging.” Publishers Weekly [Cooper] delves intimately into the life of the leader who believed firmly in the separation of church and state and who seemed stern and humorless to the public yet was a devoted father of five children and had no patience for the imams dragging their feet on reforms. . . A thorough new appraisal of an enigmatic ruler who died believing his people still loved him. Kirkus (starred review) “Cooper provides an expert and more nuanced view of the Shah, his regime, and its collapse….This is a fine revisionist study of major world events that continue to influence the fate of the Middle East.” Booklist“Here is all the power and glamour but also the dark side and ultimately the tragedy of the last Shah of Iran. A moving and thoroughly researched account.” Robert Lacey, author of The Kingdom and Inside the Kingdom“The Fall of Heaven is a vivid and penetrating portrait of the last chapters of imperial Iran and the ruler whose attempt to thrust his country into modernity ended with upheaval and exile. This book provides valuable insight into the background of a revolution that is still shaking international politics today.” Paul R. Pillar, twenty-eight-year veteran of the CIA and senior fellow at Georgetown University and the Brookings Institutio...

-Titulo Original : A Rumor Of War The Classic Vietnam Memoir (40th Anniversary Edition)-Fabricante : Picador-Descripcion Original: About the Author Philip Caputo is an award-winning journalist the co-winner of a Pulitzer Prize and the author of many works of fiction and nonfiction, including A Rumor of War, one of the most highly praised books of the twentieth century. His book, The Longest Road, was a New York Times bestseller. His novels include Acts of Faith, The Voyage, Horn of Africa, Crossers, and Some Rise by Sin. He and his wife, Leslie Ware, divide their time between Norwalk, Connecticut, and Patagonia, Arizona. The 40th anniversary edition of the classic Vietnam memoir featured in the PBS documentary series The Vietnam War by Ken Burns and Lynn Novick with a new foreword by Kevin Powers In March of 1965, Lieutenant Philip J. Caputo landed at Danang with the first ground combat unit deployed to Vietnam. Sixteen months later, having served on the line in one of modern history’s ugliest wars, he returned home physically whole but emotionally wasted, his youthful idealism forever gone.A Rumor of War is far more than one soldier’s story. Upon its publication in 1977, it shattered America’s indifference to the fate of the men sent to fight in the jungles of Vietnam. In the years since then, it has become not only a basic text on the Vietnam War but also a renowned classic in the literature of wars throughout history and, as the author writes, of the things men do in war and the things war does to them.Heartbreaking, terrifying, and enraging. It belongs to the literature of men at war. Los Angeles Times Book Review Review Caputo’s troubled, searching meditations on the love and hate of war . . . are among the most eloquent I have read in modern literature. William Styron, The New York Review of Books[A Rumor of War] is unparalleled in its honesty, unapologetic in its candor, and singular in its insights into the minds and hearts of men in combat. . . . As powerful to read today as the day it was published. Kevin Powers, author of Yellow Birds, from the ForewordA singular and marvelous work. Christopher Lehmann-Haupt, The New York TimesTo call it the best book about Vietnam is to trivialize it. Heartbreaking, terrifying, and enraging, it belongs to the literature of men at arms. John Gregory Dunne, Los Angeles Times Book ReviewA Rumor of War is the troubled conscience of America speaking passionately, truthfully, and finally. Theodore Solotaroff, The New York Times Book ReviewCaputo’s searing account of life for an American at the end of a barrel of a gun is a classic. The Guardian (London)I hope many people in a position to affect future diplomatic and military moves will keep Caputo’s book by their bedside. It is tough and honest; it is so honest it makes the attraction of combat understandable. This is not a simple book. It may even be profound. Margaret Manning, The Boston GlobeOnly a warrior could have written A Rumor of War; warrior, honest man, powerful writer. His book is a grim triumph, and will live. Stephen Becker, Chicago Daily NewsIn this powerful book, Caputo does what most of us have yet to do: face the enemy within and overcome the wounds. Peter J. Ognibene, The Washington Post Book WorldA book that must be read and reread if for no other reason than as an eloquent statement against war. It is a superb book. Terry Anderson, The Denver PostThis is news that goes beyond what the journalists brought us, news from the heart of darkness. It was long overdue. NewsweekA superb macabre evocation of those aimless searches and the destruction not only of property but of men’s bodies and minds as well. . . . At times, it is hard to remember that this is not a novel. William Shawcross, New StatesmanThis is a story of courage, comradeship, horror, and corruption, and at the same time a moving and bitter testimony. . . . Vivid, real, searchingly honest, it’s war writing of a high order. Publishers WeeklyA Rumor of War is not only precious for its moral depth and...