-Titulo Original : The Lords Of The Realm The Real History Of Baseball-Fabricante : Ballantine Books-Descripcion Original: The ultimate chronicle of the games behind the game.-The New York Times Book ReviewBaseball has always inspired rhapsodic elegies on the glory of man and golden memories of wonderful times. But what you see on the field is only half the game.In this fascinating, colorful chronicle-based on hundreds of interviews and years of research and digging-John Helyar brings to vivid life the extraordinary people and dramatic events that shaped Americas favorite pastime, from the dead-ball days at the turn of the century through the great strike of 1994. Witness zealous Judge Landis banish eight players, including Shoeless Joe Jackson, after the infamous Black Sox scandal; the flamboyant As owner Charlie Finley wheel and deal his star players, Vida Blue and Rollie Fingers, like a deck of cards; the hysterical bidding war of coveted free agent Catfish Hunter; the chain-smoking romantic, A. Bartlett Giamatti, locking horns with Pete Rose during his gambling days of summer; and much more.Praise for The Lords of the RealmA must-read for baseball fans . . . reads like a suspense novel.-Kirkus ReviewsRefreshingly hard-headed . . . the only book youll need to read on the subject.-NewsdayLots of stories . . . well told, amusing . . . edifying.-The Washington Post About the Author John Helyar is the author of Lords of the Realm: The Real History of Baseball and the co-author (with Bryan Burrough) of Barbarians at the Gate: The Fall of RJR Nabisco. Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved. 1 BEFORE IT WAS ever a business it was a game. It came out of the 1840s, when teams from New York first crossed the Hudson River to Elysian Fields, laid out a diamond, agreed upon the rules, and played a game they called “base,” later lengthened to “baseball.” It grew in the 1850s and 1860s, but it remained a gentleman’s sport. Teams rode to their games in decorated carriages, singing their team songs. In country greens and city parks, thousands of young men played. It became too popular to remain amateur for long, in the young entrepreneurial nation. In 1871, the first league was formed of teams who played for pay. It was called the National Association of Professional Baseball Players, and it was a slapdash thing. Over its five-year life, teams came and went with dizzying rapidity-twenty-five of them in all. So did players. The best ones, called “revolvers,” jumped around between teams for the best offer. But if it wasn’t a stable business, it was well on its way to becoming the national pastime. “Like everything else American it came with a rush,” wrote John Montgomery Ward, a star player of the day. “The game is suited to the national temperament. It requires strength, courage and skill; it is full of dash and excitement and though a most difficult game in which to excel, it is yet extremely simple in its first principles and easily understood by everyone.” The changing landscape of the country had much to do with baseball’s hold on America. As people moved from rural farms into urban tenements during the emerging Industrial Revolution, the game kept a nation in touch with its roots. Baseball was played on vast swatches of green in the middle of dreary, gray cities. Baseball celebrated the rugged individual within a team game. It came to be called the National Pastime, not just because it was played and watched by so many people but because it so resembled the national character. Albert Goodwill Spalding tried to export baseball to other countries. The owner of a team and of a sporting-goods empire, he saw vast worldwide sales of bats and balls. In 1888, he even sponsored a globe-trotting tour of exhibition games that visited Hawaii, Australia, Ceylon, Egypt, Italy, France, England, and Ireland. In one far-flung locale after another, America’s top players were watched with profound indifference. The game took root only in America. Like the pioneering country still be...

-Titulo Original : The Big East Inside The Most Entertaining And Influential Conference In College Basketball History-Fabricante : Ballantine Books-Descripcion Original: The definitive, compulsively readable story of the greatest era of the most iconic league in college basketball history-the Big East“This book captures the inside of a special time in Big East basketball. If you love the game, this book is a must read!”-Jim Calhoun, former University of Connecticut men’s basketball coachThe names need no introduction: Thompson and Patrick, Boeheim and the Pearl, and of course Gavitt. And the moments are part of college basketball lore: the Sweater Game, Villanova Beats Georgetown, and Six Overtimes. But this is the story of the Big East Conference that you haven’t heard before-of how the Northeast, once an afterthought, became the epicenter of college basketball.Before the league’s founding, East Coast basketball had crowned just three national champions in forty years, and none since 1954. But in the Big East’s first ten years, five of its teams played for a national championship. The league didn’t merely inherit good teams; it created them. But how did this unlikely group of schools come to dominate college basketball so quickly and completely?Including interviews with more than sixty of the key figures in the conference’s history, The Big East charts the league’s daring beginnings and its incredible rise. It transports fans inside packed arenas to epic wars fought between transcendent players, and behind locker-room doors where combustible coaches battled even more fiercely for a leg up.Started on a handshake and a prayer, the Big East carved an improbable arc in sports history, an ensemble of Catholic schools banding together to not only improve their own stations but rewrite the geographic boundaries of basketball. As former UConn coach Jim Calhoun eloquently put it, “It was Camelot. Camelot with bad language.” Review “From its inception in 1979, the Big East has produced some of the most exciting college basketball we’ve ever seen. We now know that the action behind the scenes (in locker rooms, living rooms, and most of all the coaching meetings) was even more fascinating than the action on the court. I can’t imagine a better pairing of writer and topic than Dana O’Neil and this conference. The stories contained in this book are richly reported and colorfully told. Dig in and enjoy!”-Seth Davis, reporter, CBS Sports and The Athletic“The heyday of Big East basketball provides a treasure trove of material for an author, and there is no one better for this assignment than Dana O’Neil. She covered it, she lived it, and she revives it with an evocative, feisty flourish. Older fans who want to relive the bare-knuckled glory and the wild stories-and new fans just hearing these tales for the first time-are rewarded by an ideal marriage of subject matter and author.”-Pat Forde, senior writer, Sports Illustrated“The original Big East was gritty and nasty, with a back-alley brawl among rivals every game. It was filled with larger-than-life coaches and superstar players in some of the most epic games ever. Dana O’Neil captures the very essence of that amazing convergence of characters in a league that can never be duplicated. Her book is ‘must read’ and ‘must keep for future generations.’”-Jay Bilas, analyst, ESPN“O’Neil . . . gives the Big East its due in this engrossing history. . . . With this colorful account (one coach called the conference ‘Camelot with bad language’), O’Neil skillfully shows the importance of personalities off the court and on. This is a must-have for March Madness fans.”-Publishers Weekly“This all-inclusive, highly engaging history is as compelling as the Big East Conference itself during those over-the-top years and will delight basketball fans of all ages. . . . The smooth narrative incorporates firsthand accounts from many of the era’s headliners, partnered with O’Neil’s expert research. This is, to date, the most comprehensive and objective history of this era of the Big East: the rivalries, players, coaches, and championships that we...

-Titulo Original : Zapp! The Lightning Of Empowerment How To Improve Quality, Productivity, And Employee Satisfaction-Fabricante : Ballantine Books-Descripcion Original: About the Author William C. Byham, PhD, is president and cofounder of Development Dimensions International (DDI), which specializes in aligning clients’ people strategies with their business strategies. He is an internationally renowned speaker and has received numerous awards and citations, including Entrepreneur of the Year (1994) and CEO Communicator of the Year (1996). Byham lives in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.Jeff Cox is the author of 20 books, has hosted two TV series, and was managing editor of Organic Gardening magazine for more than a decade. He lives in Sonoma County, California. Most managers know that revitalization in their companies must occur from the ground up. But how to get that message to employees without applying the kind of pressure that makes them even less productive? The answer is empowerment. In this motivating book, you will find specific strategies designed to help you encourage responsibility, acknowledgment, and creativity so that employees feel they own their jobs. Its all here, in an accessible guide for the successful managers of tomorrow. From the Back Cover Most managers know that revitalization in their companies must occur from the ground up. But how to get that message to employees without applying the kind of pressure that makes them even less productive? The answer is empowerment. In this motivating book, you will find specific strategies designed to help you encourage responsibility, acknowledgment, and creativity so that employees feel they own their jobs. Its all here, in an accessible guide for the successful managers of tomorrow...

-Titulo Original : Woman On The Edge Of Time A Novel-Fabricante : Ballantine Books-Descripcion Original: Hailed as a classic of speculative fiction, Marge Piercy’s landmark novel is a transformative vision of two futures-and what it takes to will one or the other into reality. Harrowing and prescient, Woman on the Edge of Time speaks to a new generation on whom these choices weigh more heavily than ever before. Connie Ramos is a Mexican American woman living on the streets of New York. Once ambitious and proud, she has lost her child, her husband, her dignity-and now they want to take her sanity. After being unjustly committed to a mental institution, Connie is contacted by an envoy from the year 2137, who shows her a time of sexual and racial equality, environmental purity, and unprecedented self-actualization. But Connie also bears witness to another potential outcome: a society of grotesque exploitation in which the barrier between person and commodity has finally been eroded. One will become our world. And Connie herself may strike the decisive blow. Praise for Woman on the Edge of Time “This is one of those rare novels that leave us different people at the end than we were at the beginning. Whether you are reading Marge Piercy’s great work again or for the first time, itwill remind you that we are creating the future with every choice we make.”-Gloria Steinem “An ambitious, unusual novel about the possibilities for moral courage in contemporary society.”-The Philadelphia Inquirer “A stunning, even astonishing novel . . . marvelous and compelling.”-Publishers Weekly “Connie Ramos’s world is cuttingly real.”-Newsweek “Absorbing and exciting.”-The New York Times Book Review Review “This is one of those rare novels that leave us different people at the end than we were at the beginning. Whether you are reading Marge Piercy’s great work again or for the first time, itwill remind you that we are creating the future with every choice we make.”-Gloria Steinem “An ambitious, unusual novel about the possibilities for moral courage in contemporary society.”-The Philadelphia Inquirer “A stunning, even astonishing novel . . . marvelous and compelling.”-Publishers Weekly “Connie Ramos’s world is cuttingly real.”-Newsweek “Absorbing and exciting.”-The New York Times Book Review From the Inside Flap Connie Ramos, a woman in her mid-thirties, has been declared insane. But Connie is overwhelmingly sane, merely tuned to the future, and able to communicate with the year 2137. As her doctors persuade her to agree to an operation, Connie struggles to force herself to listen to the future and its lessons for today....From the Paperback edition. From the Back Cover Connie Ramos, a woman in her mid-thirties, has been declared insane. But Connie is overwhelmingly sane, merely tuned to the future, and able to communicate with the year 2137. As her doctors persuade her to agree to an operation, Connie struggles to force herself to listen to the future and its lessons for today.... From the Paperback edition. About the Author Marge Piercy has written seventeen novels including the New York Times bestseller Gone to Soldiers, the national bestsellers Braided Lives and The Longings of Women, and the classic Woman on the Edge of Time, as well as He, She and It and Sex Wars; nineteen volumes of poetry including The Hunger Moon: New and Selected Poems 1980-2010, The Crooked Inheritance, and Made in Detroit; and the critically acclaimed memoir Sleeping with Cats. Born in center city Detroit, educated at the University of Michigan and Northwestern, and the recipient of four honorary doctorates, Piercy is active in antiwar, feminist, and environmental causes. Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved. CHAPTER ONEConnie got up from her kitchen table and walked slowly to the door. Either I saw him or I didn’t and I’m crazy for real this time, she thought.“It’s me-­Dolly!” Her niece was screaming in the hall. “Let me in! Hurry!”“Momentito.” Connie fumb...

-Titulo Original : Team Rodent How Disney Devours The World-Fabricante : Ballantine Books-Descripcion Original: Review Lets get one thing straight: Carl Hiaasen doesnt like the Walt Disney Company. Whenever the giant entertainment conglomerate stumbles, as it did with its proposed Civil War theme park in Virginia, Hiaasen cheers. When a rhinoceros mysteriously dies at Disneys new theme park, Animal Kingdom, Hiaasen secretly hopes for the worst, because, as he writes, no scandal is so delectable as a Disney scandal. A native of Florida, author of such thrillers as Lucky You and Strip Tease, and a journalist for the Miami Herald, Hiaasen comes by his dislike for Disney honestly. He has witnessed the relentless success of the Disney machine firsthand with the development of Disney World and other properties around Orlando. In Team Rodent: How Disney Devours the World, Hiaasen paints a witty and sarcastic portrait in this nonfiction account of a company who can control the press, manipulate local governments, and because its Disney, get away with it. Team Rodent is a quick, entertaining read that even the most loyal Disney shareholder (except maybe Michael Eisner) will find enlightening and amusing. --Harry C. Edwards Disney is so good at being good that it manifests an evil; so uniformly efficient and courteous, so dependably clean and conscientious, so unfailingly entertaining that its unreal, and therefore is an agent of pure wickedness. . . . Disney isnt in the business of exploiting Nature so much as striving to improve upon it, constantly fine-tuning Gods work.--from TEAM RODENTTEAM RODENTHow Disney Devours AmericaRevulsion is good. Revulsion is healthy. Each of us has limits, unarticulated boundaries of taste and tolerance, and sometimes we forget where they are. Peep Land is here to remind us; a fixed compass point by which we can govern our private behavior. Because being grossed out is essential to the human experience; without a perceived depravity, wed have nothing against which to gauge the advance or decline of culture; our art, our music, our cinema, our books. Without sleaze, the yardstick shrinks at both ends. Team Rodent doesnt believe in sleaze, however, nor in old-fashioned revulsion. Square in the middle is where it wants us all to be, dependable consumers with predictable attitudes. The message, never stated but avuncularly implied, is that Americas values ought to reflect those of the Walt Disney Company, and not the other way around. Review After opening with an overbilious screed against the companys signature blandness, the author settles down and rakes good muck. -- Entertainment Weekly, Troy Patterson From the Publisher Rarely is a book this much of a pleasure to work on, because I stopped on page after page to read and crack up at Hiaasens sharp and pointed wit--and then be shocked by the nasty things I never knew about Disney! I just went to Disney World for the very first time ever last year, so I was curious to see what Carl Hiaasen had to say about it--and I dont think Ill be going back again! E.Gaffney, production From the Inside Flap is so good at being good that it manifests an evil; so uniformly efficient and courteous, so dependably clean and conscientious, so unfailingly entertaining that its unreal, and therefore is an agent of pure wickedness. . . . Disney isnt in the business of exploiting Nature so much as striving to improve upon it, constantly fine-tuning Gods work.--from TEAM RODENTTEAM RODENTHow Disney Devours AmericaRevulsion is good. Revulsion is healthy. Each of us has limits, unarticulated boundaries of taste and tolerance, and sometimes we forget where they are. Peep Land is here to remind us; a fixed compass point by which we can govern our private behavior. Because being grossed out is essential to the human experience; without a perceived depravity, wed have nothing against which to gauge the advance or decline of culture; our art, our music, our cinema, our books. Without sleaze, the...

-Titulo Original : I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings-Fabricante : Ballantine Books-Descripcion Original: Maya Angelou’s debut memoir is a modern American classic beloved worldwide. Her life story is told in the documentary film And Still I Rise, as seen on PBS’s American Masters.Here is a book as joyous and painful, as mysterious and memorable, as childhood itself. I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings captures the longing of lonely children, the brute insult of bigotry, and the wonder of words that can make the world right. Maya Angelou’s debut memoir is a modern American classic beloved worldwide. Sent by their mother to live with their devout, self-sufficient grandmother in a small Southern town, Maya and her brother, Bailey, endure the ache of abandonment and the prejudice of the local “powhitetrash.” At eight years old and back at her mother’s side in St. Louis, Maya is attacked by a man many times her age-and has to live with the consequences for a lifetime. Years later, in San Francisco, Maya learns that love for herself, the kindness of others, her own strong spirit, and the ideas of great authors (“I met and fell in love with William Shakespeare”) will allow her to be free instead of imprisoned. Poetic and powerful, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings will touch hearts and change minds for as long as people read. “I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings liberates the reader into life simply because Maya Angelou confronts her own life with such a moving wonder, such a luminous dignity.”-James Baldwin Review “I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings liberates the reader into life simply because Maya Angelou confronts her own life with such a moving wonder, such a luminous dignity.”-James Baldwin About the Author Maya Angelou was raised in Stamps, Arkansas. In addition to her bestselling autobiographies, including I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings and The Heart of a Woman, she wrote numerous volumes of poetry, among them Phenomenal Woman, And Still I Rise, On the Pulse of Morning, and Mother. Maya Angelou died in 2014. Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved. PrologueWhat you looking at me for?I didnt come to stay . . .I hadnt so much forgot as I couldnt bring myself to remember. Other things were more important.What you looking at me for?I didnt come to stay . . .Whether I could remember the rest of the poem or not was immaterial. The truth of the statement was like a wadded-up handkerchief, sopping wet in my fists, and the sooner they accepted it the quicker I could let my hands open and the air would cool my palms.What you looking at me for . . . ?The childrens section of the Colored Methodist Episcopal Church was wiggling and giggling over my well-known forgetfulness.The dress I wore was lavender taffeta, and each time I breathed it rustled, and now that I was sucking in air to breathe out shame it sounded like crepe paper on the back of hearses.As Id watched Momma put ruffles on the hem and cute little tucks around the waist, I knew that once I put it on Id look like a movie star. (It was silk and that made up for the awful color.) I was going to look like one of the sweet little white girls who were everybodys dream of what was right with the world. Hanging softly over the black Singer sewing machine, it looked like magic, and when people saw me wearing it they were going to run up to me and say, Marguerite [sometimes it was dear Marguerite], forgive us, please, we didnt know who you were, and I would answer generously, No, you couldnt have known. Of course I forgive you.Just thinking about it made me go around with angels dust sprinkled over my face for days. But Easters early morning sun had shown the dress to be a plain ugly cut-down from a white womans once-was-purple throwaway. It was old-lady-long too, but it didnt hide my skinny legs, which had been greased with Blue Seal Vaseline and powdered with the Arkansas red clay. The age-faded color made my skin look dirty like mud, and everyone in church was looking at my skinny legs.Wouldnt the...

-Titulo Original : The Ride Of Her Life The True Story Of A Woman, Her Horse, And Their Last-chance Journey Across America-Fabricante : Ballantine Books-Descripcion Original: NATIONAL BESTSELLER * The triumphant true story of a woman who rode her horse across America in the 1950s, fulfilling her dying wish to see the Pacific Ocean, from the #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Perfect Horse and The Eighty-Dollar Champion“The gift Elizabeth Letts has is that she makes you feel you are the one taking this trip. This is a book we can enjoy always but especially need now.”-Elizabeth Berg, author of The Story of Arthur Truluv In 1954, sixty-three-year-old Maine farmer Annie Wilkins embarked on an impossible journey. She had no money and no family, she had just lost her farm, and her doctor had given her only two years to live. But Annie wanted to see the Pacific Ocean before she died. She ignored her doctor’s advice to move into the county charity home. Instead, she bought a cast-off brown gelding named Tarzan, donned men’s dungarees, and headed south in mid-November, hoping to beat the snow. Annie had little idea what to expect beyond her rural crossroads; she didn’t even have a map. But she did have her ex-racehorse, her faithful mutt, and her own unfailing belief that Americans would treat a stranger with kindness.Annie, Tarzan, and her dog, Depeche Toi, rode straight into a world transformed by the rapid construction of modern highways. Between 1954 and 1956, the three travelers pushed through blizzards, forded rivers, climbed mountains, and clung to the narrow shoulder as cars whipped by them at terrifying speeds. Annie rode more than four thousand miles, through America’s big cities and small towns. Along the way, she met ordinary people and celebrities-from Andrew Wyeth (who sketched Tarzan) to Art Linkletter and Groucho Marx. She received many offers-a permanent home at a riding stable in New Jersey, a job at a gas station in rural Kentucky, even a marriage proposal from a Wyoming rancher. In a decade when car ownership nearly tripled, when television’s influence was expanding fast, when homeowners began locking their doors, Annie and her four-footed companions inspired an outpouring of neighborliness in a rapidly changing world. Review “Twenty pages of notes and a Bibliography attest to the serious and thorough research by the author who travelled ten thousand miles to research this story. . . . What is so appealing about this nutball adventure is that the reader is taken on a trip across the United States.”-New York Journal of Books “Heartwarming.”-AARP“Elizabeth Letts’s gift is that she makes you feel you are the one taking this trip: selecting your route from a gas station map, enduring awful weather and accidents, hearing the creak of the saddle and the roar of the trucks that pass you by. This is a book we can enjoy always but especially need now.”-Elizabeth Berg, author of The Story of Arthur Truluv“This poignant, inspiring story is not just about a woman choosing to live instead of die, but also about an America that no longer exists.”-Melanie Benjamin, author of The Children’s Blizzard“A love story on so many levels-from the menagerie that was with her every step of the way, to the kindness of strangers who opened their homes to help Annie complete this ride of her life-this book will tear at your heartstrings from beginning to end. I loved it, and so will you!”-Robin Hutton, author of Sgt. Reckless: America’s War Horse“Annie Wilkins was an American original, and The Ride of Her Life gives her the tribute she deserves. Elizabeth Letts has created an indelible account of hope, loyalty, generosity, and sheer grit-and the power of a woman doing something just because she wants to do it.”-Matthew Goodman, author of Eighty Days“There is sly wisdom in Annie Wilkins’s simple journey: Keep faith in yourself and animals, trust in strangers, dismiss all the downers, and always live as if you just received a mortal diagnosis. Letts honors her subjects…with an author’s hand and a historian’s eye.”-Ken Ilgunas, author of Trespassing Across America“Thanks to...

-Titulo Original : Hells Angels A Strange And Terrible Saga-Fabricante : Ballantine Books-Descripcion Original: Gonzo journalist and literary roustabout Hunter S. Thompson flies with the angels-Hell’s Angels, that is-in this short work of nonfiction. “California, Labor Day weekend . . . early, with ocean fog still in the streets, outlaw motorcyclists wearing chains, shades and greasy Levis roll out from damp garages, all-night diners and cast-off one-night pads in Frisco, Hollywood, Berdoo and East Oakland, heading for the Monterey peninsula, north of Big Sur. . . The Menace is loose again.” Thus begins Hunter S. Thompson’s vivid account of his experiences with California’s most notorious motorcycle gang, the Hell’s Angels. In the mid-1960s, Thompson spent almost two years living with the controversial Angels, cycling up and down the coast, reveling in the anarchic spirit of their clan, and, as befits their name, raising hell. His book successfully captures a singular moment in American history, when the biker lifestyle was first defined, and when such countercultural movements were electrifying and horrifying America. Thompson, the creator of Gonzo journalism, writes with his usual bravado, energy, and brutal honesty, and with a nuanced and incisive eye; as The New Yorker pointed out, “For all its uninhibited and sardonic humor, Thompson’s book is a thoughtful piece of work.” As illuminating now as when originally published in 1967, Hell’s Angels is a gripping portrait, and the best account we have of the truth behind an American legend. Review Thompson has presented us with a close view of a world most of us would never encounter. His language is brilliant, his eye remarkable.--The New York Times Book ReviewSuperb and terrifying. --Studs Terkel, Chicago Tribune About the Author The Modern Library has played a significant role in American cultural life for the better part of a century. The series was founded in 1917 by the publishers Boni and Liveright and eight years later acquired by Bennett Cerf and Donald Klopfer. It provided the foundation for their next publishing venture, Random House. The Modern Library has been a staple of the American book trade, providing readers with affordable hardbound editions of important works of literature and thought. For the Modern Librarys seventy-fifth anniversary, Random House redesigned the series, restoring as its emblem the running torchbearer created by Lucian Bernhard in 1925 and refurbishing jackets, bindings, and type, as well as inaugurating a new program of select-ing titles. The Modern Library continues to provide the worlds best books, at the best prices. Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved. Roll em, boysCalifornia, Labor Day weekend . . . early, with ocean fog still in the streets, outlaw motorcyclists wearing chains, shades and greasy Levis roll out from damp garages, all-night diners and cast-off one-night pads in Frisco, Hollywood, Berdoo and East Oakland, heading for the Monterey peninsula, north of Big Sur . . . The Menace is loose again, the Hells Angels, the hundred-carat headline, running fast and loud on the early morning freeway, low in the saddle, nobody smiles, jamming crazy through traffic and ninety miles an hour down the center stripe, missing by inches . . . like Genghis Khan on an iron horse, a monster steed with a fiery anus, flat out through the eye of a beer can and up your daughters leg with no quarter asked and none given; show the squares some class, give em a whiff of those kicks theyll never know . . . Ah, these righteous dudes, they love to screw it on . . . Little Jesus, the Gimp, Chocolate George, Buzzard, Zorro, Hambone, Clean Cut, Tiny, Terry the Tramp, Frenchy, Mouldy Marvin, Mother Miles, Dirty Ed, Chuck the Duck, Fat Freddy, Filthy Phil, Charger Charley the Child Molester, Crazy Cross, Puff, Magoo, Animal and at least a hundred more . . . tense for the action, long hair in the wind, beards and bandanas flapping, earrings, armpits, chain whips, swastikas and stri...

-Titulo Original : The Real James Herriot A Memoir Of My Father-Fabricante : Ballantine Books-Descripcion Original: Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved. 23 February 1995 was a beautiful day in my part of North Yorkshire. From the top of Sutton Bank on the western edge of the North York Moors National Park, it was possible to see right across the Vale of York to the Yorkshire Dales over thirty miles away. The sun shone brightly out of a cloudless winter sky and I could clearly see the familiar bulk of Pen Hill, standing majestically over the entrance to Wensleydale -- the fresh whiteness of its snow-dusted slopes in vivid contrast to the dark green dale below. It was a cold, crisp, perfect winters day, one that normally would have had me longing to walk for mile after mile in the clean air. It was a day when I should have felt glad to be alive.The timeless magic of the Dales has always thrilled me but, on that brilliant February day, my mood was one of emptiness, as I knew that I would never again gaze across at those distant hills without a feeling of nostalgia and regret. On that day a great friend had did. His name was James Alfred Wight, a father in whose company I had spent countless happy hours. A man I shall never forget.I was not alone in my sorrow. On that same day, others all over the world were also mourning the loss of a friend. His name was James Herriot, the country practitioner whose skill as a writer had elevated him to the statue of the worlds most famous and best-loved veterinary surgeon. This incredibly successful storyteller, who sold more than 60 million books which had been translated into over twenty languages, wrote with such warmth, humour and sincerity that he was regarded as a friend by all who read him.James Alfred Wight, the real James Herriot, was every inch the gentleman his many fans imagined him to be. He was a completely modest man who remained bemused by his success until the end of his life, yet this self-confessed run of the mill vet is likely to be remembered for decades to come. My own memories of him, however, are not of a famous author but of a father who always put the interests of his family ahead of his own.I think it is true to say that in everyones life, no matter how happy they may be, there is always a dark cloud somewhere on the horizon.My own particular cloud had been my fathers health which had given the family cause for concern for concern for a number of years; it had assumed threatening proportions in December 1991 when I learned that he had cancer, and the final blow fell when he died just over three years later.On 20 October 1995, some eight months after my fathers death, I found myself seated in the front row of York Minster, surely one of the most beautiful cathedrals in the world. The occasion was the Memorial Service for James Herriot, to which over 2,300 people had come to pay their last respects to a man who had given pleasure to millions. Christopher Timothy, who played the part of James Herriot in the television series All Creatures Great and Small, was reading a passage from one of my fathers best-selling books and laughter was echoing around the ancient Minster. Although it might have been unusual to hear the sound of such merriment in those magnificent but austere surroundings, I felt that James Herriots Memorial Service was turning out to be exactly as he would have wished. On that day, we had smiles, not tears.Alf, as my father always known to his friends, had always had an intense dislike of funerals, wishing with all his heart that these events could be less solemn. Of course, people must be respectful in these situations, he once said, but I feel very sorry for the family and friends on these sad occasions. I well remember the occasion of one funeral that he had really enjoyed. It happened many years ago when I was still at school, and was the funeral of a Mr. Bartholomew, a former associate of one of my fathers great friends, Denton Pette (immortalised in the hard-drinking veterinary surgeon, had stipulated shortly before his deat...

-Titulo Original : Empty Mansions The Mysterious Life Of Huguette Clark And The Spending Of A Great American Fortune-Fabricante : Ballantine Books-Descripcion Original: #1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLERNAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY Janet Maslin, The New York Times * St. Louis Post-DispatchWhen Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Bill Dedman noticed in 2009 a grand home for sale, unoccupied for nearly sixty years, he stumbled through a surprising portal into American history. Empty Mansions is a rich mystery of wealth and loss, connecting the Gilded Age opulence of the nineteenth century with a twenty-first-century battle over a $300 million inheritance. At its heart is a reclusive heiress named Huguette Clark, a woman so secretive that, at the time of her death at age 104, no new photograph of her had been seen in decades. Though she owned palatial homes in California, New York, and Connecticut, why had she lived for twenty years in a simple hospital room, despite being in excellent health? Why were her valuables being sold off? Was she in control of her fortune, or controlled by those managing her money? Dedman has collaborated with Huguette Clark’s cousin, Paul Clark Newell, Jr., one of the few relatives to have frequent conversations with her. Dedman and Newell tell a fairy tale in reverse: the bright, talented daughter, born into a family of extreme wealth and privilege, who secrets herself away from the outside world. Huguette was the daughter of self-made copper industrialist W. A. Clark, nearly as rich as Rockefeller in his day, a controversial senator, railroad builder, and founder of Las Vegas. She grew up in the largest house in New York City, a remarkable dwelling with 121 rooms for a family of four. She owned paintings by Degas and Renoir, a world-renowned Stradivarius violin, a vast collection of antique dolls. But wanting more than treasures, she devoted her wealth to buying gifts for friends and strangers alike, to quietly pursuing her own work as an artist, and to guarding the privacy she valued above all else. The Clark family story spans nearly all of American history in three generations, from a log cabin in Pennsylvania to mining camps in the Montana gold rush, from backdoor politics in Washington to a distress call from an elegant Fifth Avenue apartment. The same Huguette who was touched by the terror attacks of 9/11 held a ticket nine decades earlier for a first-class stateroom on the second voyage of the Titanic. Empty Mansions reveals a complex portrait of the mysterious Huguette and her intimate circle. We meet her extravagant father, her publicity-shy mother, her star-crossed sister, her French boyfriend, her nurse who received more than $30 million in gifts, and the relatives fighting to inherit Huguette’s copper fortune. Richly illustrated with more than seventy photographs, Empty Mansions is an enthralling story of an eccentric of the highest order, a last jewel of the Gilded Age who lived life on her own terms. Review “An amazing story of profligate wealth . . . an outsized tale of rags-to-riches prosperity.”-The New York Times “A fascinating investigation into the haunting true-life tale of reclusive heiress Huguette Clark.”-People“An exhaustively researched, well-written account . . . a blood-boiling expose [that] will make you angry and will make you sad.”-The Seattle Times “An evocative and rollicking read, part social history, part hothouse mystery, part grand guignol.”-The Daily Beast “A childlike, self-exiled eccentric, [Huguette Clark] is the sort of of subject susceptible to a biography of broad strokes, which makes Empty Mansions, the first full-length account of her life, impressive for its delicacy and depth.”-Town & Country “One of those incredible stories that you didn’t even know existed. It filled a void.”-Jon Stewart, The Daily Show“So well written . . . such a gripping, gripping story.”-Bill Goldstein, NBC 4 New York “A compelling account of what happened to the Clark family and its fortune . . . a tremendous feat.”-St. Louis Post-Dispatch “A fascinating story.”-Today “Meticulous and absorbi...

-Titulo Original : The Best And The Brightest-Fabricante : Ballantine Books-Descripcion Original: David Halberstam’s masterpiece, the defining history of the making of the Vietnam tragedy, with a new Foreword by Senator John McCain.A rich, entertaining, and profound reading experience.”-The New York Times Using portraits of America’ s flawed policy makers and accounts of the forces that drove them, The Best and the Brightest reckons magnificently with the most important abiding question of our country’s recent history: Why did America become mired in Vietnam, and why did we lose? As the definitive single-volume answer to that question, this enthralling book has never been superseded. It is an American classic.Praise for The Best and the Brightest“The most comprehensive saga of how America became involved in Vietnam. . . . It is also the Iliad of the American empire and the Odyssey of this nation’s search for its idealistic soul. The Best and the Brightest is almost like watching an Alfred Hitchcock thriller.”-The Boston Globe“Deeply moving . . . We cannot help but feel the compelling power of this narrative. . . . Dramatic and tragic, a chain of events overwhelming in their force, a distant war embodying illusions and myths, terror and violence, confusions and courage, blindness, pride, and arrogance.”-Los Angeles Times“A fascinating tale of folly and self-deception . . . [An] absorbing, detailed, and devastatingly caustic tale of Washington in the days of the Caesars.”-The Washington Post Book World“Seductively readable . . . It is a staggeringly ambitious undertaking that is fully matched by Halberstam’s performance. . . . This is in all ways an admirable and necessary book.”-Newsweek“A story every American should read.”-St. Louis Post-Dispatch Review A rich, entertaining, and profound reading experience.”-The New York Times“The most comprehensive saga of how America became involved in Vietnam. . . . It is also the Iliad of the American empire and the Odyssey of this nation’s search for its idealistic soul. The Best and the Brightest is almost like watching an Alfred Hitchcock thriller.”-The Boston Globe“Deeply moving . . . We cannot help but feel the compelling power of this narrative. . . . Dramatic and tragic, a chain of events overwhelming in their force, a distant war embodying illusions and myths, terror and violence, confusions and courage, blindness, pride, and arrogance.”-Los Angeles Times“A fascinating tale of folly and self-deception . . . [An] absorbing, detailed, and devastatingly caustic tale of Washington in the days of the Caesars.”-The Washington Post Book World“Seductively readable . . . It is a staggeringly ambitious undertaking that is fully matched by Halberstam’s performance. . . . This is in all ways an admirable and necessary book.”-Newsweek “A story every American should read.”-St. Louis Post-Dispatch From the Publisher The Vietnam War has seemed more shadowy and cinematic to me than anything else for most of my life. I was born during the Watergate Hearings. My generation was touched by the war in Vietnam, but only in the sense that our parents were part of it--whether they marched for peace or served in the military or fell somewhere in between. But unlike the Baby Boomers, we are not defined by the war--it, literally and figuratively, did not make us. So, as a consequence, when I think of the Vietnam War it is the images that the generations before me created that come to mind--Apocalypse Now, Full Metal Jacket, Platoon...When I read The Best and the Brightest, that all changed. For the first time, I understood. No matter what your position may have been or may be, this book fully and expertly explores the American foreign policy decisions and actions that led to this war and its execution and paints a clear picture of its catalytic role in the shaping of todays America.-Kelly Lamb, Marketing Coordinator About the Author David Halberstam is the author of a number of books, including The Powers That Be, The Reckoning, Summer of 49, Pla...

-Titulo Original : Troublemaker Surviving Hollywood And Scientology-Fabricante : Ballantine Books-Descripcion Original: #1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * An eye-opening, no-holds-barred memoir about life in the Church of Scientology, now with a new afterword by the author-the outspoken actress and star of the A&E docuseries Leah Remini: Scientology and the Aftermath Leah Remini has never been the type to hold her tongue. That willingness to speak her mind, stand her ground, and rattle the occasional cage has enabled this tough-talking girl from Brooklyn to forge an enduring and successful career in Hollywood. But being a troublemaker has come at a cost. That was never more evident than in 2013, when Remini loudly and publicly broke with the Church of Scientology. Now, in this frank, funny, poignant memoir, the former King of Queens star opens up about that experience for the first time, revealing the in-depth details of her painful split with the church and its controversial practices. Indoctrinated into the church as a child while living with her mother and sister in New York, Remini eventually moved to Los Angeles, where her dreams of becoming an actress and advancing Scientology’s causes grew increasingly intertwined. As an adult, she found the success she’d worked so hard for, and with it a prominent place in the hierarchy of celebrity Scientologists alongside people such as Tom Cruise, Scientology’s most high-profile adherent. Remini spent time directly with Cruise and was included among the guests at his 2006 wedding to Katie Holmes. But when she began to raise questions about some of the church’s actions, she found herself a target. In the end, she was declared by the church to be a threat to their organization and therefore a “Suppressive Person,” and as a result, all of her fellow parishioners-including members of her own family-were told to disconnect from her. Forever. Bold, brash, and bravely confessional, Troublemaker chronicles Leah Remini’s remarkable journey toward emotional and spiritual freedom, both for herself and for her family. This is a memoir designed to reveal the hard-won truths of a life lived honestly-from an author unafraid of the consequences.Praise for Troublemaker “An aggressively honest memoir . . . Troublemaker is the most raw and revealing Scientology memoir to date.”-Entertainment Weekly “Leah’s story is a juicy, inside-Hollywood read, but it’s more than that. It’s a moving story about the value of questioning authority and how one woman survived a profound crisis of faith.”-People Review “An aggressively honest memoir . . . Troublemaker is the most raw and revealing Scientology memoir to date.”-Entertainment Weekly “Leah’s story is a juicy, inside-Hollywood read, but it’s more than that. It’s a moving story about the value of questioning authority and how one woman survived a profound crisis of faith.”-People “Remini [offers] up some juicy tidbits from her decades in the church.”-Newsweek About the Author Leah Remini is an actor, producer, and writer. A fixture on television since the age of eighteen, Remini is best known for her beloved role of Carrie on the nine-season hit The King of Queens. Remini went on to produce and star in one of the earliest and most successful comedic web series, In the Motherhood, and appeared in the movie Old School alongside Will Ferrell and Vince Vaughn. In 2010, Remini helped launch and co-hosted the first season of the CBS daytime hit show The Talk, and in 2013 she was seen on the dance floor in Dancing with the Stars. She currently co-stars in the TV Land comedy The Exes and TLC’s reality show Leah Remini: It’s All Relative, which she also created and executive produces. Remini finds great joy in her philanthropic work with numerous and diverse military, women’s, and children’s charities. She lives in Los Angeles with her husband and daughter. Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved. AS FAR BACK AS I can remember, I was always performing and trying to make people laugh. I grew up on I Love Lucy, Welcom...

-Titulo Original : This Must Be The Place Dispatches & Food From The Home Front-Fabricante : Ballantine Books-Descripcion Original: NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * Rachael Ray presents 125 recipes straight from her home kitchen in upstate New York, with personal stories on loss, gratitude, and the special memories that make a house a home.NAMED ONE OF THE BEST COOKBOOKS OF THE YEAR BY FOOD NETWORK “I wanted to write this book because for the first time in my fifty-two years, everyone on the planet was going through the same thing at the same time. We were all feeling the same fear, heartsickness, worry, and sadness, but due to the nature of the virus, it was hard to connect. I connect through cooking, and I noticed that’s what many others were doing as well. We took to the kitchen to share something of ourselves-and cooking became the discipline, diversion, and devotion that got us through.” You may think you know Rachael Ray after decades of TV appearances and dozens of books, but 2020 changed us all and it changed her, too-her life and her direction. During the early months of the pandemic in upstate New York, far away from her New York City television studio, Rachael Ray and her husband, John, went to work in their home kitchen hosting the only cooking show on broadcast TV. At her kitchen counter, with the help of her iPhone cameraman (John), Rachael produced more than 125 meals-everything from humble dishes composed of simple pantry items (One-Pot Chickpea Pasta or Stupid Good, Silly Easy Sausage Tray Bake) to more complex recipes that satisfy a craving or celebrate a moment (Porcini and Greens Risotto or Moroccan Chicken Tagine).This Must Be the Place captures the words, recipes, and images that will forever shape this time for Rachael and her family, offering readers inspiration to rethink and rebuild what home means to them now. About the Author Rachael Ray is a multi-Emmy Award-winning syndicated television star, an iconic Food Network personality, a bestselling cookbook author, founder and editorial director of her own lifestyle magazine, Rachael Ray In Season, and founder of the Yum-o! organization and The Rachael Ray Foundation. She splits her time between New York City and the Adirondacks with her husband, John, her family, and her beloved pit bull, Bella Boo Blue. Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved. MarchComing HomeThe food I created for those first few shows focused on what to make from pantry items. Americans at that moment felt like we were all on a short, unknown adventure, and we were concerned about stocking up on staples that would last however long quarantine would.I’m a homemaker by nature and by nurture. When I was growing up, my mom always had a way, often with limited funds, to turn rooms into magical living, breathing spaces. She still has a unique eye for design, and I love her style.When I was a girl, my family lived in a Yankee Barn on Cape Cod-a beam, peg, and groove house with sliding wooden barn doors. I remember as a child drifting off on many nights, nestled under a cozy throw on the sofa, not wanting to go to bed. I preferred falling asleep there in the living room, near the glow of a fire, looking at all the magical shapes and forms that surrounded me. Mom has always loved to layer a room with both shape and texture: statues and sea glass, an old lobster trap, weathered leather and nubby fabrics, wood and metal accents. The natural materials made the room feel real, like it had a personality and a force of life of its own.My room in the barn was a hayloft with a small balcony and a ladder that dropped down into the living room. I put a lot of effort into keeping it cozy and nice, just the way my mom did with the rest of the house. I arranged my stuffed animals and dolls in animated poses at a tea set and around the shelves and room-Raggedy Ann and Andy swinging from their ragdoll knees on the ladder. In the morning, I’d leave the art paper on my easel either clean, calling me to paint or draw after school, or with a completed work, art to decorate the space ...

-Titulo Original : Unfinished A Memoir-Fabricante : Ballantine Books-Descripcion Original: NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * In this thoughtful and revealing memoir, readers will accompany one of the world’s most recognizable women on her journey of self-discovery.“I have always felt that life is a solitary journey, that we are each on a train, riding through our hours, our days, our years. We get on alone, we leave alone, and the decisions we make as we travel on the train are our responsibility alone.”A remarkable life story rooted in two different worlds, Unfinished offers insights into Priyanka Chopra Jonas’s childhood in India; her formative teenage years in the United States; and her return to India, where against all odds as a newcomer to the pageant world, she won the national and international beauty competitions that launched her global acting career. Whether reflecting on her nomadic early years or the challenges she has faced as she has doggedly pursued her calling, Priyanka shares her challenges and triumphs with warmth and honesty. The result is a book that is philosophical, sassy, inspiring, bold, and rebellious. Just like the author herself. From her dual-continent twenty-year-long career as an actor and producer to her work as a UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador, from losing her beloved father to cancer to marrying Nick Jonas, Priyanka Chopra Jonas’s story will inspire a generation around the world to gather their courage, embrace their ambition, and commit to the hard work of following their dreams. Review “Priyanka Chopra Jonas’s memoir, Unfinished, is a moving story of her rise to fame. . . . [A] deeply open and honest account of her experience navigating life in the public eye, as well as the extreme hard work and dedication she put into her career . . . Her writing is open, engaging, and full of energy. She writes, it seems, to connect. . . . Even those who are not already fans of Chopra Jonas will find reason to enjoy her story, one that chronicles a deep love of family and culture and a passion for standing up for what you believe in.”-Associated Press “[Chopra Jonas] reflects on how she catapulted herself into America’s entertainment industry with her charisma and resilience . . . [Unfinished] exemplifies how she persisted in the face of her detractors.”-USA Today “Actor and producer Chopra Jonas’s memoir captures the excitement of an Indian teenager launched into fame and moving rapidly from a national to an international stage. . . . Chopra Jonas weaves in her personal struggles and family tragedies, thus revealing the depth behind her self-assurance and resilience.”-Booklist “A lively memoir from a hardworking entertainer.”-Kirkus Reviews About the Author Priyanka Chopra Jonas is a multi-award-winning actor and producer and one of the most recognized personalities in the world. A former Miss World, she made her movie debut in 2002 and has appeared in more than sixty films produced in India and the United States. In 2015 she made history as the first Indian-born actor to lead an American network TV series when she starred in the ABC drama Quantico. For her work during her longtime association with UNICEF, Chopra Jonas was awarded the prestigious Danny Kaye Humanitarian Award in 2019. She lives in Los Angeles with her husband, Nick, and Diana, Gino, and Panda, their three dogs. Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved. PrefaceI’m sitting in a meditative pose. In Sanskrit it’s called Sukhasana, or “Happy Pose.” Spine straight, shins crossed, shoulders pulled back, and chest pulled upward, I’m taking slow, focused breaths to bring all my attention to my center. The slow breathing calms my mind so that I can now tackle life’s challenges.Kidding.I am, in reality, likely sitting on the set of my latest film project, or on a plane, or slumped in a hair and makeup chair. My breathing is erratic from the four espresso shots I’ve inhaled in the past half hour while simultaneously wolfing down some form of comfort food that’s probably not the ...

-Titulo Original : Feel Your Way Through A Book Of Poetry-Fabricante : Ballantine Books-Descripcion Original: NATIONAL BESTSELLER * The personal and poignant debut poetry collection from the award-winning singer, songwriter, and producer revolves around the emotions, struggles, and experiences of finding your voice and confidence as a woman. “I’ve realized that some feelings can’t be turned into a song . . . so I’ve started writing poems. Just like my songs, they are personal and honest. Just like my songs, they have hooks and rhymes. Just like my songs, they talk about what it’s like to be twenty-something trying to navigate a wildly beautiful and broken world.” Deeply emotional and candid, Feel Your Way Through explores the challenges and celebrates the experiences faced by Kelsea Ballerini as she navigates the twists and turns of growing into a woman today. In this book of original poetry, Ballerini addresses themes of family, relationships, body image, self-love, sexuality, and the lessons of youth. Her poems speak to the often harsh, and sometimes beautiful, onset of womanhood. Honest, humble, and ultimately hopeful, this collection reveals a new dimension of Ballerini’s artistry and talent. About the Author Kelsea Ballerini is an award-winning singer, songwriter, and producer. She made history as the only female country artist to log three consecutive number one singles from a debut album. Ballerini has garnered two Grammy Award nominations, won two ACM Awards, and picked up the iHeartRadio Music Awards honor for “Best New Country Artist” in addition to other accolades. Thus far, she has achieved thirteen gold, platinum, and multiplatinum RIAA single and album certifications, six career number one singles at country radio, and global streams totaling more than three billion to date. Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved. I.Never Burn the Bookour life is a story, albeit clichefull of fairytale and fantasy hooks firework feelingsturned burns beyond healingbut never burn the booknovelty moments all coming up rosesthen the kings turn into the crooksbut there’s healing in timingso just keep on writingand never burn the bookadventures abundant but stuck in redundantsmall towns and homebody nooksbut now isn’t laterthere’s much more blank paperso never burn the bookall growing older and brushing less shoulderswith what-ifs of chances untookthe chapters seem soberbut the story’s not overso never burn the bookwe can refont the title and repaint the coverrevise the way that it looksbut your life on these pagesis one for the agesso never burn the boo...

-Titulo Original : Hill Women Finding Family And A Way Forward In The Appalachian Mountains-Fabricante : Ballantine Books-Descripcion Original: After rising from poverty to earn two Ivy League degrees, an Appalachian lawyer pays tribute to the strong “hill women” who raised and inspired her, and whose values have the potential to rejuvenate a struggling region.“Destined to be compared to Hillbilly Elegy and Educated.”-BookPage (starred review) “Poverty is enmeshed with pride in these stories of survival.”-Associated Press Nestled in the Appalachian mountains, Owsley County is one of the poorest counties in both Kentucky and the country. Buildings are crumbling and fields sit vacant, as tobacco farming and coal mining decline. But strong women are finding creative ways to subsist in their hollers in the hills. Cassie Chambers grew up in these hollers and, through the women who raised her, she traces her own path out of and back into the Kentucky mountains. Chambers’s Granny was a child bride who rose before dawn every morning to raise seven children. Despite her poverty, she wouldn’t hesitate to give the last bite of pie or vegetables from her garden to a struggling neighbor. Her two daughters took very different paths: strong-willed Ruth-the hardest-working tobacco farmer in the county-stayed on the family farm, while spirited Wilma-the sixth child-became the first in the family to graduate from high school, then moved an hour away for college. Married at nineteen and pregnant with Cassie a few months later, Wilma beat the odds to finish school. She raised her daughter to think she could move mountains, like the ones that kept her safe but also isolated her from the larger world. Cassie would spend much of her childhood with Granny and Ruth in the hills of Owsley County, both while Wilma was in college and after. With her “hill women” values guiding her, Cassie went on to graduate from Harvard Law. But while the Ivy League gave her knowledge and opportunities, its privileged world felt far from her reality, and she moved back home to help her fellow rural Kentucky women by providing free legal services. Appalachian women face issues that are all too common: domestic violence, the opioid crisis, a world that seems more divided by the day. But they are also community leaders, keeping their towns together in the face of a system that continually fails them. With nuance and heart, Chambers uses these women’s stories paired with her own journey to break down the myth of the hillbilly and illuminate a region whose poor communities, especially women, can lead it into the future. Review “Hill Women is a gritty, warm love letter to Appalachian communities and the resourceful womenwho lead them. . . . [It] feels especially urgent now, in our post-2016, post-Hillbilly ElegyAmerica. In a sense, Chambers is responding to the ‘bootstraps’ narrative of J. D. Vance’s controversial memoir, which has been criticized for blaming Appalachians for their own circumstances. Hill Women shows an Appalachia that Hillbilly Elegy obscured.”-Slate“Engaging . . . With humility and humor, Chambers tells not just her own story, but those of her parents, grandparents and other kin, as well as those of her clients, women who struggle to get schooling and work, escape abusive relationships and raise their children despite poverty, isolation, the opioid epidemic and a legal system that makes every action and transaction especially difficult. . . . Chambers’ story is especially effective because she tells it without outrage or indignation, rather with gratitude and pride. . . . Hill Women is a fine memoir that shines light on an American region far too often denigrated and stereotyped.”-Minneapolis Star Tribune“In Hill Women, Chambers . . . break[s] down myths about the region and reveal[s] just how strong its people are.”-Nashville Lifestyles“Cassie Chambers tells the story of the women in the mountains of Kentucky who nurtured her, as well as her own journey to become a fierce defender of Appalachian women. This is a book that teaches us about service and gratitude, ...

-Titulo Original : A Pirate Looks At Fifty-Fabricante : Ballantine Books-Descripcion Original: For the millions of fans of Jimmy Buffetts music as well as his bestselling books, Tales From Margaritaville and Where Is Joe Merchant?, here is the ultimate Jimmy Buffett philosophy on life and how to live it. As hard as it is to believe, the irrepressible Jimmy Buffett has hit the half-century mark and, in A PIRATE LOOKS AT 50, he brings us along on the remarkable journey which he took through the Southern hemisphere to celebrate this landmark birthday. Jimmy takes us from the legendary pirate coves of the Florida Keys to the ruins of ancient Cartegena. Along the way, we hear a tale or two of how he got his start in New Orleans, how he discovered his passion for flying planes, and how he almost died in a watery crash in Nantucket harbor. We follow Jimmy to jungle outposts in Costa Rica and on a meandering trip down the Amazon, through hair-raising negotiations with gun-toting customs officials and a 3-year-old aspiring co-pilot. And he is the inimitable Jimmy Buffett through it all. For Parrotheads, for armchair adventurers, and for anyone who appreciates a good yarn and a hearty laugh, here is the ultimate backstage pass -- youll read the kind of stories Jimmy usually reserves for his closest friends and youll see a wonderful, wacky life through eyes of the man whos lived it. A PIRATE LOOKS AT 50 is a breath of fresh air and a ingenious manual for getting to 50 . . . and beyond. Review Jimmy Buffett has gregarious charm . . . and a bottomless well of stories to tell. . . . Reading A Pirate Looks at Fifty is like sitting with Buffett at a beachside bar, listening to him spin tales . . . discourse on life . . . and share nifty bits of geography and history.--Time Fulfilling his peripatetic pirate lifestyle fantasies, rocker Jimmy Buffett took his family on a three-week trek around the Caribbean in celebration of his 50th. His colorful travelogue is interspersed with memoirs of his youth and music career--both of which revolve around his continuing search for the perfect fishing spot. But Buffett also imparts useful understandings gained from childhood through parenthood, and a valuable account of what it was like growing up in the 50s.--USA TodayThe fun-loving Man from Margaritaville parses his hell-bent half-century.--PeopleBuffett takes the occasion of his fiftieth birthday to tell us about himself, and he does so with candor and modesty. The person who emerges is not the sort of rock star who trashes hotel rooms and slugs paparazzi, but a charming, decent, wry, kind, and contemplative man . . . . Buffetts evocation of the languid, louche Key West of the 1970s draws on the same well of affection as his best songs.--The New York Times Book ReviewAmericas . . . good-time guy joins Hemingway, Dr. Seuss, and Steinbeck as one of the few who have topped both the fiction and nonfiction bestseller lists.--Rolling Stone From the Inside Flap For the millions of fans of Jimmy Buffetts music as well as his bestselling books, Tales From Margaritaville and Where Is Joe Merchant?, here is the ultimate Jimmy Buffett philosophy on life and how to live it. As hard as it is to believe, the irrepressible Jimmy Buffett has hit the half-century mark and, in A PIRATE LOOKS AT 50, he brings us along on the remarkable journey which he took through the Southern hemisphere to celebrate this landmark birthday. Jimmy takes us from the legendary pirate coves of the Florida Keys to the ruins of ancient Cartegena. Along the way, we hear a tale or two of how he got his start in New Orleans, how he discovered his passion for flying planes, and how he almost died in a watery crash in Nantucket harbor. We follow Jimmy to jungle outposts in Costa Rica and on a meandering trip down the Amazon, through hair-raising negotiations with gun-toting customs officials and a 3-year-old aspiring co-pilot. And he is the inimitable Jimmy Buffett through it all. For Parr...

-Titulo Original : Spearhead An American Tank Gunner, His Enemy, And A Collision Of Lives In World War Ii-Fabricante : Ballantine Books-Descripcion Original: THE NEW YORK TIMES, WALL STREET JOURNAL, LOS ANGELES TIMES, AND USA TODAY BESTSELLER “A band of brothers in an American tank . . . Makos drops the reader back into the Pershing’s turret and dials up a battle scene to rival the peak moments of Fury.”-The Wall Street JournalFrom the author of the international bestseller A Higher Call comes the riveting World War II story of an American tank gunner’s journey into the heart of the Third Reich, where he will meet destiny in an iconic armor duel-and forge an enduring bond with his enemy. When Clarence Smoyer is assigned to the gunner’s seat of his Sherman tank, his crewmates discover that the gentle giant from Pennsylvania has a hidden talent: He’s a natural-born shooter. At first, Clarence and his fellow crews in the legendary 3rd Armored Division-“Spearhead”-thought their tanks were invincible. Then they met the German Panther, with a gun so murderous it could shoot through one Sherman and into the next. Soon a pattern emerged: The lead tank always gets hit. After Clarence sees his friends cut down breaching the West Wall and holding the line in the Battle of the Bulge, he and his crew are given a weapon with the power to avenge their fallen brothers: the Pershing, a state-of-the-art “super tank,” one of twenty in the European theater. But with it comes a harrowing new responsibility: Now they will spearhead every attack. That’s how Clarence, the corporal from coal country, finds himself leading the U.S. Army into its largest urban battle of the European war, the fight for Cologne, the “Fortress City” of Germany. Battling through the ruins, Clarence will engage the fearsome Panther in a duel immortalized by an army cameraman. And he will square off with Gustav Schaefer, a teenager behind the trigger in a Panzer IV tank, whose crew has been sent on a suicide mission to stop the Americans. As Clarence and Gustav trade fire down a long boulevard, they are taken by surprise by a tragic mistake of war. What happens next will haunt Clarence to the modern day, drawing him back to Cologne to do the unthinkable: to face his enemy, one last time.Praise for Spearhead“A detailed, gripping account . . . the remarkable story of two tank crewmen, from opposite sides of the conflict, who endure the grisly nature of tank warfare.”-USA Today (four out of four stars)“Strong and dramatic . . . Makos established himself as a meticulous researcher who’s equally adept at spinning a good old-fashioned yarn. . . . For a World War II aficionado, it will read like a dream.”-Associated Press Review “A band of brothers in an American tank . . . Makos drops the reader back into the Pershing’s turret and dials up a battle scene to rival the peak moments of Fury. . . . A thoroughly enjoyable battle story, and a tribute to the everyman warrior.”-Jonathan W. Jordan, The Wall Street Journal“A detailed, gripping account . . . the remarkable story of two tank crewmen, from opposite sides of the conflict, who endure the grisly nature of tank warfare.”-George Petras, USA Today (four out of four stars)“This singular book is redolent with war. I cannot remember another narrative in which my abiding sensory experience was tasting grit and smelling smoke so often.”-Philip Kopper, The Washington Times“Engrossing . . . a war story and a mystery.”-CNN“An amazing book.” -Fox News“A superb book that combines a firsthand look at war with a story of healing.”-Sandra Dallas, The Denver Post “Strong and dramatic . . . Makos established himself as a meticulous researcher who’s equally adept at spinning a good old-fashioned yarn. . . . For a World War II aficionado, it will read like a dream.”-Kim Curtis, Associated Press “This is narrative history at its best, told by a master storyteller.”-Col. Cole Kingseed, Army magazine“Well-written and fast-paced, Spearhead is the story of a band of brothers from the 3rd Armored and is highly recommended.”-American Rifleman magazine“[A] dramatic, haunti...

-Titulo Original : Devotion An Epic Story Of Heroism, Friendship, And Sacrifice-Fabricante : Ballantine Books-Descripcion Original: THE NATIONAL BESTSELLER * SOON TO BE A MAJOR MOTION PICTURE * From America’s “forgotten war” in Korea comes an unforgettable tale of courage by the author of A Higher Call. “In the spirit of Unbroken and The Boys in the Boat comes Devotion.”-Associated Press * “Aerial drama at its best-fast, powerful, and moving.”-Erik LarsonDevotion tells the inspirational story of the U.S. Navy’s most famous aviation duo, Lieutenant Tom Hudner and Ensign Jesse Brown, and the Marines they fought to defend. A white New Englander from the country-club scene, Tom passed up Harvard to fly fighters for his country. An African American sharecropper’s son from Mississippi, Jesse became the navy’s first black carrier pilot, defending a nation that wouldn’t even serve him in a bar. While much of America remained divided by segregation, Jesse and Tom joined forces as wingmen in Fighter Squadron 32. Adam Makos takes us into the cockpit as these bold young aviators cut their teeth at the world’s most dangerous job-landing on the deck of an aircraft carrier-a line of work that Jesse’s young wife, Daisy, struggles to accept. Deployed to the Mediterranean, Tom and Jesse meet the Fleet Marines, boys like PFC “Red” Parkinson, a farm kid from the Catskills. In between war games in the sun, the young men revel on the Riviera, partying with millionaires and even befriending the Hollywood starlet Elizabeth Taylor. Then comes the conflict that no one expected: the Korean War. Devotion takes us soaring overhead with Tom and Jesse, and into the foxholes with Red and the Marines as they battle a North Korean invasion. As the fury of the fighting escalates and the Marines are cornered at the Chosin Reservoir, Tom and Jesse fly, guns blazing, to try and save them. When one of the duo is shot down behind enemy lines and pinned in his burning plane, the other faces an unthinkable choice: watch his friend die or attempt history’s most audacious one-man rescue mission. A tug-at-the-heartstrings tale of bravery and selflessness, Devotion asks: How far would you go to save a friend? Review “Riveting . . . a meticulously researched and moving account.”-USA Today“An inspiring tale . . . portrayed by [Adam] Makos in sharp, fact-filled prose and with strong reporting.”-Los Angeles Times “[A] must-read.”-New York Post “Stirring.”-Parade “A masterful storyteller . . . [Makos brings] Devotion to life with amazing vividness. . . . [It] reads like a dream. The perfectly paced story cruises along in the fast lane-when you’re finished, you’ll want to start all over again.”-Associated Press“A delight to read . . . Devotion is a story you will not forget.”-The Washington Times“My great respect for Tom Hudner knows no bounds. He is a true hero; and in reading this book, you will understand why I feel that way.”-President George H. W. Bush “This is aerial drama at its best-fast, powerful, and moving.”-Erik Larson, New York Times bestselling author of The Splendid and the Vile “Lovingly rendered and meticulously researched, here is a tale of true friendship across the racial divide. Though it concerns a famously cold battle in the Korean War, make no mistake: Devotion will warm your heart.”-Hampton Sides, New York Times bestselling author of Ghost Soldiers and In the Kingdom of Ice “At last, the Korean War has its epic, a story that will stay with you long after you close this book.”-Eric Blehm, New York Times bestselling author of Fearless and Legend“In this beautifully written book, Adam Makos reveals a long-lost story of heroism set in the frozen realm of North Korea. You won’t be able to put it down.”-Joseph L. Galloway, co-author of the #1 New York Times bestseller We Were Soldiers Once . . . and Young “Adam Makos immerses you in a story so crisp that you’ll forget you’re reading a book. Prepare to be swept away.”-Michael Tougias, co-author of The Finest Hours “Once again, Adam Makos demonstrates himself as a rising star in historical no...

-Titulo Original : The Good Good Pig The Extraordinary Life Of Christopher Hogwood-Fabricante : Ballantine Books-Descripcion Original: In loving yet unsentimental prose, Sy Montgomery captures the richness that animals bring to the human experience. Sometimes it takes a too-smart-for-his-own-good pig to open our eyes to what most matters in life.”-John Grogan, author of Marley & Me: Life and Love with the World’s Worst DogA naturalist who spent months at a time living on her own among wild creatures in remote jungles, Sy Montgomery had always felt more comfortable with animals than with people. So she gladly opened her heart to a sick piglet who had been crowded away from nourishing meals by his stronger siblings. Yet Sy had no inkling that this piglet, later named Christopher Hogwood, would not only survive but flourish-and she soon found herself engaged with her small-town community in ways she had never dreamed possible. Unexpectedly, Christopher provided this peripatetic traveler with something she had sought all her life: an anchor (eventually weighing 750 pounds) to family and home. The Good Good Pig celebrates Christopher Hogwood in all his glory, from his inauspicious infancy to hog heaven in rural New Hampshire, where his boundless zest for life and his large, loving heart made him absolute monarch over a (mostly) peaceable kingdom. At first, his domain included only Sy’s cosseted hens and her beautiful border collie, Tess. Then the neighbors began fetching Christopher home from his unauthorized jaunts, the little girls next door started giving him warm, soapy baths, and the villagers brought him delicious leftovers. His intelligence and fame increased along with his girth. He was featured in USA Today and on several National Public Radio environmental programs. On election day, some voters even wrote in Christopher’s name on their ballots. But as this enchanting book describes, Christopher Hogwood’s influence extended far beyond celebrity; for he was, as a friend said, a great big Buddha master. Sy reveals what she and others learned from this generous soul who just so happened to be a pig-lessons about self-acceptance, the meaning of family, the value of community, and the pleasures of the sweet green Earth. The Good Good Pig provides proof that with love, almost anything is possible. Review “I wasn’t sure what to expect when I picked up Sy Montgomery’s story of Christopher the pig. What I found was a charming, touching, funny, and ultimately very powerful tale of an extraordinary, even complicated pig and his impact on some very loving, perceptive, and extraordinary people. This story is heartwarming but packs a wallop.” -Jon Katz, author of Katz on Dogs “I love this book! It takes us into the world of one pig with such delicacy, such gentleness and yet such depth, that you will never be able to look a pig in the eye again without recognizing the unique person living within. You become somebody who sees why Sy Montgomery loved a pig beyond all measure.” -Jeffrey Masson, Ph.D., author of When Elephants Weep “Move over, Wilbur, there’s a new pig on the block. Sy Montgomery has conjured a pure classic for the animal lover’s soul. Poetic, insightful, funny, and deeply moving, The Good Good Pig is as hard to define as it is to put down. Who else but Sy Montgomery could introduce you to a hog and give you a such glimpse of heaven?” -Vicki Croke, author of The Lady and the Panda “This is a book not so much about a barnyard animal as about relationships, in all their messy, joyous, and heartbreaking complexity. In loving yet unsentimental prose, Sy Montgomery captures the richness that animals bring to the human experience. Sometimes it takes a too-smart-for-his-own-good pig to open our eyes to what most matters in life. The Good Good Pig is a good, good book, beautifully rendered and filled with wondrous surprises.”-John Grogan, author of Marley & Me: Life and Love with the World’s Worst Dog About the Author Sy Montgomery is a naturalist, author, documentary scriptwriter, and radio commentator who write...

-Titulo Original : Spearhead: An American Tank Gunner, His Enemy, And A Collision Of Lives In World War II-Fabricante : Ballantine Books-Descripcion Original: THE NEW YORK TIMES, WALL STREET JOURNAL, LOS ANGELES TIMES, AND USA TODAY BESTSELLER “A band of brothers in an American tank . . . Makos drops the reader back into the Pershing’s turret and dials up a battle scene to rival the peak moments of Fury.”-The Wall Street JournalFrom the author of the international bestseller A Higher Call comes the riveting World War II story of an American tank gunner’s journey into the heart of the Third Reich, where he will meet destiny in an iconic armor duel-and forge an enduring bond with his enemy. When Clarence Smoyer is assigned to the gunner’s seat of his Sherman tank, his crewmates discover that the gentle giant from Pennsylvania has a hidden talent: He’s a natural-born shooter. At first, Clarence and his fellow crews in the legendary 3rd Armored Division-“Spearhead”-thought their tanks were invincible. Then they met the German Panther, with a gun so murderous it could shoot through one Sherman and into the next. Soon a pattern emerged: The lead tank always gets hit. After Clarence sees his friends cut down breaching the West Wall and holding the line in the Battle of the Bulge, he and his crew are given a weapon with the power to avenge their fallen brothers: the Pershing, a state-of-the-art “super tank,” one of twenty in the European theater. But with it comes a harrowing new responsibility: Now they will spearhead every attack. That’s how Clarence, the corporal from coal country, finds himself leading the U.S. Army into its largest urban battle of the European war, the fight for Cologne, the “Fortress City” of Germany. Battling through the ruins, Clarence will engage the fearsome Panther in a duel immortalized by an army cameraman. And he will square off with Gustav Schaefer, a teenager behind the trigger in a Panzer IV tank, whose crew has been sent on a suicide mission to stop the Americans. As Clarence and Gustav trade fire down a long boulevard, they are taken by surprise by a tragic mistake of war. What happens next will haunt Clarence to the modern day, drawing him back to Cologne to do the unthinkable: to face his enemy, one last time.Praise for Spearhead“A detailed, gripping account . . . the remarkable story of two tank crewmen, from opposite sides of the conflict, who endure the grisly nature of tank warfare.”-USA Today (four out of four stars)“Strong and dramatic . . . Makos established himself as a meticulous researcher who’s equally adept at spinning a good old-fashioned yarn. . . . For a World War II aficionado, it will read like a dream.”-Associated Press Review “A band of brothers in an American tank . . . Makos drops the reader back into the Pershing’s turret and dials up a battle scene to rival the peak moments of Fury. . . . A thoroughly enjoyable battle story, and a tribute to the everyman warrior.”-Jonathan W. Jordan, The Wall Street Journal“A detailed, gripping account . . . the remarkable story of two tank crewmen, from opposite sides of the conflict, who endure the grisly nature of tank warfare.”-George Petras, USA Today (four out of four stars)“This singular book is redolent with war. I cannot remember another narrative in which my abiding sensory experience was tasting grit and smelling smoke so often.”-Philip Kopper, The Washington Times“Engrossing . . . a war story and a mystery.”-CNN“An amazing book.” -Fox News“A superb book that combines a firsthand look at war with a story of healing.”-Sandra Dallas, The Denver Post “Strong and dramatic . . . Makos established himself as a meticulous researcher who’s equally adept at spinning a good old-fashioned yarn. . . . For a World War II aficionado, it will read like a dream.”-Kim Curtis, Associated Press “This is narrative history at its best, told by a master storyteller.”-Col. Cole Kingseed, Army magazine“Well-written and fast-paced, Spearhead is the story of a band of brothers from the 3rd Armored and is highly recommended.”-American Rifleman magazine“[A] dramatic, haunti...

-Titulo Original : How Good Do You Want To Be? A Champions Tips On How To Lead And Succeed At Work And In Life-Fabricante : Ballantine Books-Descripcion Original: He guided LSU to its first football championship in forty-five years. He turned down countless offers from professional teams to stay with the job he loves. Now Nick Saban reveals the secrets that will help you lead and succeed at work and in life.Excellence doesn’t happen overnight. It comes from hard work, consistency, the drive to be the best, and a passion for what you do. Few understand this better than Nick Saban, the hottest college football coach in the game. Now, inHow Good Do You Want to Be?, Saban shares his winning philosophy for creating and inspiring success.In more than three decades as a player and coach, Saban has learned much about life and leadership, both on the field and off. Working alongside some of the game’s legends, including Super Bowl winner Bill Belichick and coaching legend Jerry Glanville, he saw firsthand how great leaders encourage greatness in others. In this candid, insightful guide, he shares such acquired wisdom as* Organization, Organization, Organization Create an environment where everybody knows his or her responsibilities-and each is responsible to the entire group.* Motivate to DominateUnderstand the psychology of teams and individuals, and use that knowledge to breed success.* No Other Way than RightPractice ethics and values-and demand the same from your team.* Look in the MirrorMaintain an understanding of who you are by knowing your strengths and your weaknesses.How Good Do You Want to Be? is more than the story of how Nick Saban motivates his staff and players to excel-it is also the memoir of one of America’s most successful coaches. Filled with instructive anecdotes and illuminated by never-before-told stories of his life and career, this is a book that challenges and inspires us all to be our best. About the Author The winner of numerous National Coach of the Year honors, Nick Saban is the head football coach at Louisiana State University. In 2004, he coached the Tigers to a 13 -1 season and the BCS College Football national championship. He lives in Baton Rouge with his wife and two children.Brian Curtis is the author of Every Week a Season: A Journey Inside Big-Time College Football and The Men of March: A Season Inside the Lives of College Basketball Coaches. A former reporter for Fox Sports Net, he is now a host and analyst on College Sports Television. He and his wife, Tamara, live in New York City. Visit his website at briancurtis.us. Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved. Part 1The Making of ChampionsThe 2003 SeasonBecoming a champion is not an easy process, and the 2003 season is a great example of how it is done. By focusing on what it takes to get there, and not on getting there, our LSU team was able to win the BCS national title. All along the way, we as coaches imparted ideas, philosophies, and practices that helped shape the team. The story of our championship is exciting, but just as important are the lessons we learned and taught along the way. To make sure these stand out, I’ve highlighted them for you.Most people think that the Louisiana State University football team won the national championship on the night of January 4, 2004, at the Nokia Sugar Bowl in New Orleans. They believe that because we were the better team that night against Oklahoma-because we had better players making bigger plays and coaches making better moves-we won the championship. But I tend to disagree. I think we actually won the national title almost four hundred days earlier in Little Rock, Arkansas.After we captured the Southeastern Conference (SEC) championship in 2001, expectations were obviously quite high in Baton Rouge for our 2002 squad. We were led by strong seniors, including Bradie James, and gifted underclassmen, including quarterbacks Matt Mauck and Marcus Randall and receivers Michael Clayton and Devery Henderson. We certainly were going to miss the seniors’ abilities and leadership, but I thought we had a...

-Titulo Original : The Cartiers The Untold Story Of The Family Behind The Jewelry Empire-Fabricante : Ballantine Books-Descripcion Original: “A dynamic group biography studded with design history and high-society dash . . . [This] elegantly wrought narrative bears the Cartier hallmark.”-The EconomistThe captivating story of the family behind the Cartier empire and the three brothers who turned their grandfather’s humble Parisian jewelry store into a global luxury icon-as told by a great-granddaughter with exclusive access to long-lost family archives“Ms. Cartier Brickell has done her grandfather proud.”-The Wall Street Journal The Cartiers is the revealing tale of a jewelry dynasty-four generations, from revolutionary France to the 1970s. At its heart are the three Cartier brothers whose motto was “Never copy, only create” and who made their family firm internationally famous in the early days of the twentieth century, thanks to their unique and complementary talents: Louis, the visionary designer who created the first men’s wristwatch to help an aviator friend tell the time without taking his hands off the controls of his flying machine; Pierre, the master dealmaker who bought the New York headquarters on Fifth Avenue for a double-stranded natural pearl necklace; and Jacques, the globe-trotting gemstone expert whose travels to India gave Cartier access to the world’s best rubies, emeralds, and sapphires, inspiring the celebrated Tutti Frutti jewelry. Francesca Cartier Brickell, whose great-grandfather was the youngest of the brothers, has traveled the world researching her family’s history, tracking down those connected with her ancestors and discovering long-lost pieces of the puzzle along the way. Now she reveals never-before-told dramas, romances, intrigues, betrayals, and more. The Cartiers also offers a behind-the-scenes look at the firm’s most iconic jewelry-the notoriously cursed Hope Diamond, the Romanov emeralds, the classic panther pieces-and the long line of stars from the worlds of fashion, film, and royalty who wore them, from Indian maharajas and Russian grand duchesses to Wallis Simpson, Coco Chanel, and Elizabeth Taylor. Published in the two-hundredth anniversary year of the birth of the dynasty’s founder, Louis-François Cartier, this book is a magnificent, definitive, epic social history shown through the deeply personal lens of one legendary family. Review “[Brickell’s grandfather’s] accounts are the beating heart of The Cartiers, elevating this from a company story to a human story-one even the unadorned will read with pleasure.”-The New York Times Book Review“[A] hard-to-put-down account of the generations of the Cartiers and the famed jewels of the global dynasty.”-Forbes“Artfully documented . . . The story of the Cartier family is the story of wealth creation in the 19th and 20th centuries as it moved in waves from country to country.”-BloombergSelected among “The Best Gifts to Give Your Sister for the Holidays”-Harper’s Bazaar“A thoroughly researched and enjoyable family business history that should appeal to history buffs and lovers of high-end fashion and jewelry alike.”-Library Journal“In glittering . . . prose, Francesca Cartier Brickell excavates lost family archives and shares with us how three brothers turned a small Parisian ship into a worldwide icon of love and luxury. Part family story, part jewelry-lover’s dream, part history-this gem . . . of a book will have a little something for everyone.”-LitHub“[A] fascinating history written by a scion of Louis-Francçois Cartier . . . With diplomacy, artistry, originality, and a clear love of their work, the saga of the three Cartier brothers and their descendants is as lush as their jewels.”-Read It Forward“This is an incredible monograph that chronicles the rise and family dynamics of one of the most prestigious and internationally known jewelry brands linked to the family that built it ‘brick by brick.’ Ms. Brickell . . . proffers a very detailed and somewhat intimate story of the Cartiers. . . . Whether she is writing about the ascension of the brand...

-Titulo Original : The Perfect Horse The Daring U.s. Mission To Rescue The Priceless Stallions Kidnapped By The Nazis-Fabricante : Ballantine Books-Descripcion Original: NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * From the author of The Eighty-Dollar Champion, the remarkable story of the heroic rescue of priceless horses in the closing days of World War IIWINNER OF THE PEN AWARD FOR RESEARCH NONFICTION In the chaotic last days of the war, a small troop of battle-weary American soldiers captures a German spy and makes an astonishing find-his briefcase is empty but for photos of beautiful white horses that have been stolen and kept on a secret farm behind enemy lines. Hitler has stockpiled the world’s finest purebreds in order to breed the perfect military machine-an equine master race. But with the starving Russian army closing in, the animals are in imminent danger of being slaughtered for food. With only hours to spare, one of the U.S. Army’s last great cavalrymen, Colonel Hank Reed, makes a bold decision-with General George Patton’s blessing-to mount a covert rescue operation. Racing against time, Reed’s small but determined force of soldiers, aided by several turncoat Germans, steals across enemy lines in a last-ditch effort to save the horses. Pulling together this multistranded story, Elizabeth Letts introduces us to an unforgettable cast of characters: Alois Podhajsky, director of the famed Spanish Riding School of Vienna, a former Olympic medalist who is forced to flee the bomb-ravaged Austrian capital with his entire stable in tow; Gustav Rau, Hitler’s imperious chief of horse breeding, a proponent of eugenics who dreams of genetically engineering the perfect warhorse for Germany; and Tom Stewart, a senator’s son who makes a daring moonlight ride on a white stallion to secure the farm’s surrender. A compelling account for animal lovers and World War II buffs alike, The Perfect Horse tells for the first time the full story of these events. Elizabeth Letts’s exhilarating tale of behind-enemy-lines adventure, courage, and sacrifice brings to life one of the most inspiring chapters in the annals of human valor.Praise for The Perfect Horse “Winningly readable . . . Letts captures both the personalities and the stakes of this daring mission with such a sharp ear for drama that the whole second half of the book reads like a WWII thriller dreamed up by Alan Furst or Len Deighton. . . . The right director could make a Hollywood classic out of this fairy tale.”-The Christian Science Monitor “Letts, a lifelong equestrienne, eloquently brings together the many facets of this unlikely, poignant story underscoring the love and respect of man for horses.”-Kirkus Reviews Review “Winningly readable . . . Letts captures both the personalities and the stakes of this daring mission with such a sharp ear for drama that the whole second half of the book reads like a WWII thriller dreamed up by Alan Furst or Len Deighton. . . . The right director could make a Hollywood classic out of this fairy tale.”-The Christian Science Monitor“Hard to put down . . . One need not be an equestrian or horse lover in order to appreciate this story.”-New York Journal of Books “The Perfect Horse raises the narrative bar. Applying her skills as a researcher, storyteller and horsewoman, Letts provides context that makes this account spellbinding.”-Culturess “A wholly original, illuminating perspective on the war The Perfect Horse tells a fascinating story of bravery and benevolence that has gone far too long without reaching an audience. Full of action, heartbreak and well-developed characters, it has everything needed to be adapted into an outstanding war movie. To anyone with a love of horses or other animals, Letts’ fantastic, almost humanizing characterizations of some of the horses will make this book an instant favorite. And to history buffs, The Perfect Horse provides a totally fresh look at WWII that can’t be found anywhere else.”-Bookreporter “An absorbing history of an unusual rescue mission in the closing days of the war in Europe . . . Letts does an excellent job of bringing the various players t...