-Titulo Original : Finding Latinx In Search Of The Voices Redefining Latino Identity-Fabricante : Vintage-Descripcion Original: Latinos across the United States are redefining identities, pushing boundaries, and awakening politically in powerful and surprising ways. Many-Afrolatino, indigenous, Muslim, queer and undocumented, living in large cities and small towns-are voices who have been chronically overlooked in how the diverse population of almost sixty million Latinos in the U.S. has been represented. No longer. In this empowering cross-country travelogue, journalist and activist Paola Ramos embarks on a journey to find the communities of people defining the controversial term, “Latinx.” She introduces us to the indigenous Oaxacans who rebuilt the main street in a post-industrial town in upstate New York, the “Las Poderosas” who fight for reproductive rights in Texas, the musicians in Milwaukee whose beats reassure others of their belonging, as well as drag queens, environmental activists, farmworkers, and the migrants detained at our border. Drawing on intensive field research as well as her own personal story, Ramos chronicles how “Latinx” has given rise to a sense of collectivity and solidarity among Latinos unseen in this country for decades.A vital and inspiring work of reportage, Finding Latinx calls on all of us to expand our understanding of what it means to be Latino and what it means to be American. The first step towards change, writes Ramos, is for us to recognize who we are. Review A journey towards the long-overdue representation of Latinx people through the term Latinx, inspiring a collective sense of identity and solidarity.-Marie ClairePaola Ramos explores Latinx identity and makes a case for why it is important that we as a community find a term that evolves with us as a community. She believes and demonstrates in her book how the term Latinx might be the best term that captures our wide spectrum of stories and histories.-PopsugarCrucial. . . . A long-overdue examination of identity and belonging while living as Latinx in the US. From farm workers to drag queens, from Oaxacan to Muslim, the people Ramos highlights illustrate the complexity, diversity and beauty of Latin@s from coast to coast. -Ms. MagazinePaola Ramos is the voice for the millennial and younger Latinx generation, and Finding Latinx proves just that. . . . Ramos writes with candor and empathy. . . . In these stories, we celebrate the depth and bounty of our culture, language, and history. This is the book Ive needed my whole life.-Michelle Molanzo, Buzzfeed, Great Books to Read this FallRamos chronicles how “Latinx” has given rise to a sense of collectivity and solidarity among Latinos unseen in this country for decades, asking the reader to expand their understanding of what it means to be Latino and what it means to be American.-Fortune, 5 New Books to Read in October“Ramos compels us to reconsider our understanding of what it means to belong. . . . Finding Latinx guides readers into a deeper understanding of who we are at our core and on the margins, nuanced identities that compose the great American mosaic.” -Stacey Abrams “Paola Ramos knows how to listen, how to put herself in someone else’s shoes, and how to be an ally. With this book, she affirms the power of our diversity and identity, helping us understand that ‘Latinx’ is a label we can all fit into.” -Ilia Calderon, co-anchor of Univision News “The story of the dynamism, beauty and power of a community that is transforming what it means to be American.” -Ai-jen Poo, co-founder and Executive Director of the National Domestic Workers AllianceIn her debut book, [Ramos] gives voice to a rapidly growing American demographic.... her passion is evident. -Kirkus Reviews About the Author Paola Ramos is a host and correspondent for VICE and VICE News, as well as a contributor to Telemundo News and MSNBC. Ramos was the deputy director of Hispanic media for Hillary Clinton’s 2016 presidential campaign and a political appointee during the Barack Obama a...

-Titulo Original : A Writer At War A Soviet Journalist With The Red Army, 1941-1945-Fabricante : Vintage-Descripcion Original: When the Germans invaded Russia in 1941, Vasily Grossman became a special correspondent for the Red Star, the Soviet Armys newspaper, and reported from the frontlines of the war. A Writer at War depicts in vivid detail the crushing conditions on the Eastern Front, and the lives and deaths of soldiers and civilians alike. Witnessing some of the most savage fighting of the war, Grossman saw firsthand the repeated early defeats of the Red Army, the brutal street fighting in Stalingrad, the Battle of Kursk (the largest tank engagement in history), the defense of Moscow, the battles in Ukraine, the atrocities at Treblinka, and much more. Antony Beevor and Luba Vinogradova have taken Grossmans raw notebooks, and fashioned them into a gripping narrative providing one of the most even-handed descriptions --at once unflinching and sensitive -- we have ever had of what Grossman called “the ruthless truth of war.” Review “A first-rate volume of war reporting that belongs with the best work of writers like Ernie Pyle, A. J. Liebling and John Hersey. . . . Convey[s] the taste, the smell and the sounds of the front lines.”-The New York Times Book Review“Overwhelmingly powerful. [Grossman’s] combination of passion and detail, of patriotic fervor and journalistic objectivity, makes A Writer at War one of the greatest documents of World War II.”-The New York Sun“Gripping...[has] the immediacy of eyewitness observation, but also the novelists sensitivity to the men and women whose lives and deaths he was recording.”-The Boston Globe “Excellent...Grossman, like Isaac Babel twenty years before him, lifts war correspondence to new heights.”-Literary Review About the Author VASILY GROSSMAN was born in 1905. In 1941 he became a war reporter for the Red Army newspaper Red Star and came to be regarded as a legendary war hero. Life and Fate, his masterpiece, was considered a threat to the totalitarian regime, and Grossman was told that there was no chance of the novel being published for another 200 years. Grossman died in 1964. ANTONY BEEVORs books include Stalingrad and The Fall of Berlin 1945, which has been translated into 25 languages. DR. LUBA VINOGRADOVA is a researcher, translator, and freelance journalist. She has worked with Antony Beevor on his three most recent books. Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved. ONEBaptism of FireHitlers invasion of the Soviet Union began in the early hours of 22 June 1941. Stalin, refusing to believe that he could be tricked, had rejected more than eighty warnings. Although the Soviet dictator did not collapse until later, he was so disorientated on discovering the truth that the announcement on the wireless at midday was made by his foreign minister, Vyacheslav Molotov, in a wooden voice. The people of the Soviet Union proved rather more robust than their leaders. They queued to volunteer for the front.Vasily Grossman, bespectacled, overweight and leaning on a walking stick, was dejected when the recruiting station turned him down. He should not have been surprised, considering his unimpressive physical state. Grossman was only in his mid-thirties, yet the girls in the next-door apartment called him `uncle.Over the next few weeks he tried to get any form of employment he could which was connected with the war. The Soviet authorities, meanwhile, gave little accurate information on what was happening at the front. Nothing was said of the German forces, more than three million strong, dividing the Red Army with armoured thrusts, then capturing hundreds of thousands of prisoners in encirclements. Only the names of towns mentioned in official bulletins revealed how rapidly the enemy was advancing.Grossman had put off urging his mother to abandon the town of Berdichev in the Ukraine. His second wife, Olga Mikhailovna Guber, convinced him that they had no room for her. Then, before Grossman realised fully what was happening, the German Six...

-Titulo Original : Letters To A Young Poet-Fabricante : Vintage-Descripcion Original: Review The common reader will be delighted by Stephen Mitchell’s new translation of that slim and beloved volume by Rilke, Letters to a Young Poet . . . the best yet.--Los Angeles Times The ten letters collected here are arguably the most famous and beloved letters of our century. Written when Rainer Maria Rilke was himself still a young man with most of his greatest work before him, they are addressed to a student who had sent Rilke some of his work, asking for advice about becoming a writer. The two never met, but over a period of several years Rilke wrote him these ten letters, which have been enjoyed by hundreds of thousands of readers for what Stephen Mitchell calls the vibrant and deeply felt experience of life that informs them. From the Inside Flap Letters written over a period of several years on the vocation of writing by a poet whose greatest work was still to come. From the Back Cover Letters written over a period of several years on the vocation of writing by a poet whose greatest work was still to come. About the Author Rainer Marie Rilke, the great Austro-German poet, was the author of many works including Duino Elegies and Sonnets to Orpheus.Stephen Mitchells translations include Ahead of All Parting: The Selected Poetry of Rainer Maria Rilke, The Book of Job, Tao Te Ching, and, most recently, Bhagavad-Gita. He lives in California. Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved. Paris February 17, 1903 Dear Sir, Your letter arrived just a few days ago. I want to thank you for the great confidence you have placed in me. That is all I can do. I cannot discuss your verses; for any attempt at criticism would be foreign to me. Nothing touches a work of art so little as words of criticism: they always result in more or less fortunate misunderstandings. Things arent all so tangible and sayable as people would usually have us believe; most experiences are unsayable, they happen in a space that no word has ever entered, and more unsayable than all other things are works of art, those mysterious existences, who life endures beside our own small, transitory life. With this note as a preface, may I just tell you that your verses have no style of their own, although they do have silent and hidden beginnings or something personal. I feel this most clearly in the last poem, My Soul. There, something of your own is trying to become word and melody. And in the lovely poem To Leopardi a kind of kinship with that great, solitary figure does perhaps appear. Nevertheless, the poems are not yet anything in themselves, not yet anything independent, even the last one and the one to Leopardi. Your kind letter, which accompanied them, managed to make clear to me various fault that I felt in reading your verses, though I am not able to name them specifically. You ask whether your verses are any good. You ask me. You have asked others before this. You send them to magazines. You compare them with other poems, and you are upset when certain editors reject your work. Now (since you have said you want my advice) I beg you to stop doing that sort of thing. You are looking outside, and that is what you should most avoid right now. No one can advise you or help you-no one. There is only one thing you should do. Go into yourself. Find out the reason that commands you to write; see whether it has spread its root into the very depths of your heart; confess to yourself whether you would have to die if you were forbidden to write. This most of all: ask yourself in the most silent hour of your night: must I write? Dig into yourself for a deep answer. And is this answer rings out in assent, if you meet this solemn question with a strong, simple I must, then build your life in accordance with this necessity; your whole life, even into its humblest and most indifferent hour, must become a sign and witness to this impulse...

-Titulo Original : Book Of Ages The Life And Opinions Of Jane Franklin-Fabricante : Vintage-Descripcion Original: Review **The New York Times 100 Notable Books of 2013****Barnes and Noble Best Books of 2013****Kirkus Best Books of 2013****Time Magazine #1 Nonfiction Book of 2013****The Week Best Nonfiction Books of 2013**“Jane Franklin’s indomitable voice and hungry, searching intellect shine through these pages; she will not be forgotten, and the world is richer for it.” -Time Magazine, Top 10 Nonfiction Books of the Year“Luminous….Lepore gives us a woman in the flesh, with no hints and hedges about what she must, or might, have felt….Jane emerges as witty, curious, and resilient in the face of unimaginable grief, yet she is not an unsung hero of the revolution, a forgotten Abigail Adams. Her importance, as Lepore’s portrait memorably shows, lies in her ordinariness-her learning thwarted by circumstance, but her intelligence shaped by her uniquely female experience. We may know about Jane Franklin only because of her famous brother, but he is not why she matters.” -Joanna Scutts, Washington Post“As she stitches together Jane’s story, Lepore gives us a side of Benjamin Franklin we have never seen-an evocative look at what life was like for most 18th-century women.” -Tina Jordan, Entertainment Weekly“Book of Ages is the name of Lepore’s extraordinary new book about Jane Franklin, but to call it simply a biography would be like calling Ben’s experiments with electricity mere kite flying….The end product is thrilling-an example of how a gifted scholar and writer can lift the obscure out of silence. In so doing, Lepore enriches our sense of everyday life and relationships and conversational styles in Colonial America. . . . The brilliance of Lepore’s book is that plain Jane’s story becomes every bit as gripping-and, in its own way, important-as Big Ben’s public triumphs.” -Maureen Corrigan, NPR“In this beautifully written double biography, Lepore brings into focus not just the life of Jane Franklin Mecom, alongside that of her brother, but illuminates the dynamic era through which they lived and gives us a birds’-eye view of history from the vantage point of a powerless woman who grew up in a Boston family alongside one of the 18th century’s greatest authors, entrepreneurs, scientists and statesmen….Remarkably, in the end Jane’s story comes to life; we know her or at least about her. But, in fact, we know her because her life is one that we recognize, perhaps better than that of her familiar brother. That is the brilliance of this book. . . . This lyrical and meditative book ranks familiarly as a history or biography, but is more than either. . . . It descends historiographically from Laurel Thatcher Ulrich’s “A Midwife’s Tale” as a classic and enduring tribute to an obscure woman, only this one also had a famous brother.” -Edith B. Gelles, San Francisco Chronicle“Ms. Lepore is a fantastic historian, and meticulous research brings this portrait to life. . . . In the hands of a less accomplished writer, Jane Franklin might have appeared merely a pale shadow in contrast to her brother’s accomplishments. But the portrait that emerges here is both frank and astute, an observant witness to the time.” -Madeleine Schwartz, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette“To stare at these siblings is to stare at sun and moon. But in Jill Lepore’s meticulously constructed biography, Book of Ages: The Life and Opinions of Jane Franklin, recently placed on the long list of nominees for the National Book Award in nonfiction, this moon casts a beguiling glow….Consistently first rate.” -Dwight Garner, The New York Times“This book is a tour de force that can only evoke admiration.” -Priscilla S. Taylor, The Washington Times“Go read Jill Lepore’s Book of Ages. A biography of Jane Franklin, Benjamin’s sister, it is simultaneously a fascinating look at early America, a meditation on one remarkable mind by another, and, implicitly, a biography of all the other Janes-history’s anonymous and overlooked women.” -Kathryn Schulz, New York Magazine“It is uncanny how vividly personal, ...

-Titulo Original : Working-Fabricante : Vintage-Descripcion Original: “One of the great reporters of our time and probably the greatest biographer.” -The Sunday Times (London)From the two-time Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Power Broker and The Years of Lyndon Johnson: an unprecedented gathering of vivid, candid, deeply moving recollections about his experiences researching and writing his acclaimed books.Now in paperback, Robert Caro gives us a glimpse into his own life and work in these evocatively written, personal pieces. He describes what it was like to interview the mighty Robert Moses and to begin discovering the extent of the political power Moses wielded; the combination of discouragement and exhilaration he felt confronting the vast holdings of the Lyndon B. Johnson Library in Austin, Texas; his encounters with witnesses, including longtime residents wrenchingly displaced by the construction of Moses Cross-Bronx Expressway and Lady Bird Johnson acknowledging the beauty and influence of one of LBJs mistresses. He gratefully remembers how, after years of working in solitude, he found a writers community at the New York Public Library, and details the ways he goes about planning and composing his books. Caro recalls the moments at which he came to understand that he wanted to write not just about the men who wielded power but about the people and the politics that were shaped by that power. And he talks about the importance to him of the writing itself, of how he tries to infuse it with a sense of place and mood to bring characters and situations to life on the page. Taken together, these reminiscences--some previously published, some written expressly for this book--bring into focus the passion, the wry self-deprecation, and the integrity with which this brilliant historian has always approached his work. Review “A short book that packs a big wallop . . . Stunningly incisive . . . James Boswell’s Life of Samuel Johnson is generally considered to be the finest biography in the English language . . . Robert Caro’s monumental works . . . are every bit as impressive as what Boswell achieved. Even more so, actually. . . Caro’s unrelenting pursuit of facts and his insights will leave you in awe . . . After reading this brief, brilliant book, one can only say, ‘Wow!’” -Steve Forbes, Forbes Magazine “Caro brings [Johnson] and his time to life with a set of literary strengths that are very different from each other but closely interlinked: the depth and quality of his research, his narrative gift, and his compassion . . . Compassion drives the research. The analysis, always rigorous, is also human . . . Caro is both historian and creative writer; like Tolstoy, relating his narrative to a single central vision while at the same time, in the words of Isaiah Berlin, pursuing ‘many ends, often unrelated and even contradictory.’ He creates character as a novelist does . . . And the roundness of character extends to a large cast, not just Johnson’s huge, domineering personality but other towering figures as well as ordinary American citizens . . . The result is a great biography that has both historical sweep and a feeling of being of the time . . . Long live Robert Caro.” -Kevin Stevens, Dublin Review of Books“Iridescent, so many brilliant refractions of light from his hard slog of discovering what life has really meant for the people in his narratives, the powerful and the powerless . . . Caro wanted the reader to feel for them, empathize with their ambitions and their torments. At 83, in book after book and now in this semi-memoir, he has succeeded to a breathtaking degree . . . How Caro finds what he needs to know . . . is par for the author’s tenacity, his charm and his investigative genius, no other word for it . . . Nearly 200 years ago, James Madison commanded that a people who mean to be their own governors must arm themselves with the power that knowledge gives. Robert Caro . . . has performed great deeds in that cause, but he has also meas...

-Titulo Original : True Notebooks A Writers Year At Juvenile Hall-Fabricante : Vintage-Descripcion Original: In 1997 Mark Salzman, bestselling author Iron and Silk and Lying Awake, paid a reluctant visit to a writing class at L.A.’s Central Juvenile Hall, a lockup for violent teenage offenders, many of them charged with murder. What he found so moved and astonished him that he began to teach there regularly. In voices of indelible emotional presence, the boys write about what led them to crime and about the lives that stretch ahead of them behind bars. We see them coming to terms with their crime-ridden pasts and searching for a reason to believe in their future selves. Insightful, comic, honest and tragic, True Notebooks is an object lesson in the redemptive power of writing. Review “Extraordinary. . . . Everything about this book seems perfect.” -San Francisco Chronicle “Fresh, galvanizing and articulate . . . a narrative that asks as many questions as it answers. Cogent, thoughtful and honest.” -The New York Times“One cannot read. . . and not be stirred . . . As moving as it is sparse, as revealing as it is concealing, as straightforward as it is complex.” -Los Angeles Times Book Review“Engaging. . . . Salzman creates a cast of lively, convincing, and hugely sympathetic characters and True Notebooks is filled with powerfully moving scenes.” -O, The Oprah Magazine From the Inside Flap In 1997 Mark Salzman, bestselling author Iron and Silk and Lying Awake, paid a reluctant visit to a writing class at L.A.s Central Juvenile Hall, a lockup for violent teenage offenders, many of them charged with murder. What he found so moved and astonished him that he began to teach there regularly. In voices of indelible emotional presence, the boys write about what led them to crime and about the lives that stretch ahead of them behind bars. We see them coming to terms with their crime-ridden pasts and searching for a reason to believe in their future selves. Insightful, comic, honest and tragic, True Notebooks is an object lesson in the redemptive power of writing. From the Back Cover In 1997 Mark Salzman, bestselling author Iron and Silk and Lying Awake, paid a reluctant visit to a writing class at L.A.s Central Juvenile Hall, a lockup for violent teenage offenders, many of them charged with murder. What he found so moved and astonished him that he began to teach there regularly. In voices of indelible emotional presence, the boys write about what led them to crime and about the lives that stretch ahead of them behind bars. We see them coming to terms with their crime-ridden pasts and searching for a reason to believe in their future selves. Insightful, comic, honest and tragic, True Notebooks is an object lesson in the redemptive power of writing. About the Author Mark Salzman is the author of Iron & Silk, an account of his two years in China; Lost in Place, a memoir; and the novels The Laughing Sutra, The Soloist, and Lying Awake. He lives in Los Angeles with his wife, the filmmaker Jessica Yu, and their daughter, Ava. Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved. 1.Somebody Mr. Jenkins unlocked the bolt and pushed the steel-frame door to K/L unit open with his shoulder.Look whos back. Nice trip?Very nice. I had just returned from my sisters wedding in Connecticut. Did we lose anybody while I was gone?Paulinos in the Box, but hell be back.Hey Mark! Whassup?Three of the boys in my juvenile hall writing class were already in the library, their folders and notepads spread out on the table. Toa, a seventeen-year-old Samoan with a linebackers build, stepped forward and gave me a hug. So you bring us any maple syrup, or what? he asked.Maple syrup?I know bout that cause a watchin Mr. Rogers when I was a kid.Raashads eyes opened wide. You seen that show too?Every kid seen that show, fool. Nothin else to do in the mornin cept break toys an shit.Yeah, I was always like, where that neighborhood at? Nobody got drunk or beat his ass or ...

-Titulo Original : Dont Sleep, There Are Snakes Life And Language In The Amazonian Jungle (vintage Departures)-Fabricante : Vintage-Descripcion Original: About the Author Daniel L. Everett is the Chair of Languages, Literatures, and Cultures at Illinois State University. Part passionate memoir, part scientific exploration, a life-changing tale set among a small tribe of Amazonian Indians in Brazil that offers a riveting look into the nature of language, thought, and life itself.Immensely interesting and deeply moving.... One of the best books I have read.-Lucy Dodwell, New ScientistA riveting account of the astonishing experiences and discoveries made by linguist Daniel Everett while he lived with the Piraha, a small tribe of Amazonian Indians in central Brazil.Daniel Everett arrived among the Piraha with his wife and three young children hoping to convert the tribe to Christianity. Everett quickly became obsessed with their language and its cultural and linguistic implications. The Piraha have no counting system, no fixed terms for color, no concept of war, and no personal property. Everett was so impressed with their peaceful way of life that he eventually lost faith in the God hed hoped to introduce to them, and instead devoted his life to the science of linguistics. Review Absorbing.... Shares its authors best traits: perseverance, insight, humor and humility. Both the Pirahas and their interpreter make splendid company.-The Plain DealerImmensely interesting and deeply moving.... One of the best books I have read.-Lucy Dodwell, New ScientistA story of language and faith along the sweeping banks of the Maici River.... Verdict: Read.-TimeDestined to become a classic of popular enthnography.-The Independent, LondonA genuine and engrossing book that is both sharp and intuitive; it closes around you and reaches inside you, controlling your every thought and movement as you read it.... Impossible to forget.-Sacramento Book ReviewThree stars.... [A] spiritual adventure story.-PeopleA fascinating look into the lives of the Piraha, an Amazonian community of hunter-gatherers.-The Minneapolis Star TribuneDont Sleep, There Are Snakes makes the rain forest sound like a magic mushroom.-Harpers MagazineA riveting account of a Christian missionary converted to the viewpoint of the Amazonian Indians he had intended to evangelize.-The Huntsville TimesVivid.... The book is fascinating.... May serve to bring the furor of linguistics and language research to readers who otherwise never catch sight of it.-ScienceIn this fascinating and candid account of life with the Piraha, Everett describes how he learned to speak fluent Piraha (pausing occasionally to club the snakes that harassed him in his Amazonian office). He also explains his discoveries about the language-findings that have kicked off more than one academic brouhaha.--Publishers Weekly (Signature Review)Rich account of fieldwork among a tribe of hunter-gatherers in Brazil . . . introduce[s] non-specialists to the fascinating ongoing debate about the origin of languages. . . . Everetts experiences and findings fairly explode from these pages and will reverberate in the minds of readers.-Kirkus Reviews (Starred Review)Dan Everett has written an excellent book. First, it is a very powerful autobiographical account of his stay with the Piraha in the jungles of the Amazon basin. Second, it is a brilliant piece of ethnographical description of life among the Piraha. And third, and perhaps most important in the long run, his data and his conclusions about the language of the Piraha run dead counter to the prevailing orthodoxy in linguistics. If he is right, he will permanently change our conception of human language.-John Searle, Slusser Professor of Philosophy, University of California, BerkeleyDan Everett is the most interesting man I have ever met. This story about his life among the Pirahas is a fascinating read. His observations and claims about the culture and language of the Pirahas are astounding. Whether or not all of his hypotheses turn out to be cor...

-Titulo Original : Greetings From Bury Park A Memoir-Fabricante : Vintage-Descripcion Original: From Publishers Weekly In this uneven memoir, British TV and radio journalist Manzoor describes growing up in Britain in the 70s and 80s by way of his love affair with the music of Bruce Springsteen. Only two years old when he emigrated from Pakistan, Manzoor was torn between the demands of his traditional family and the seductions of mainstream culture. His discovery of Springsteen at age 16 gave Manzoor a personal muse who allowed him to bridge the gulf separating the two worlds. For Manzoor, Springsteens lyrics about alienation, isolation and generational misunderstandings addressed perfectly his inchoate feelings of rebellion and guilt. In Springsteen Nation, Manzoor found a culture that transcended his own divided loyalties and accepted him as just another fan. Its an intriguing hook, but one Manzoor handles awkwardly. Springsteen barely appears in the first 90 pages or so, which cover the family leaving Pakistan, Manzoors fathers death and his siblings marriages. The early material seems rushed and is standard immigrant memoir fare-tales of suffering in the old country and shame in the new; antipathy toward the stern, workaholic father and the too-late realization of all they had in common. Some of the later episodes such as Manzoors first trip to America-where he sells encyclopedias door-to-door-show real energy, but theyre a long time coming. The division of the book into semi-discrete essays also tends to rob the narrative of unity and impact, and the 9/11 coda feels tacked on. (Apr.) Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. The inspiration for the smash Sundance hit, soon to be a major motion picture, Blinded by the Light: The acclaimed memoir about the power of Bruce Springsteens music on a young Pakistani boy growing up in Britain in the 1970s. Sarfraz Manzoor was two years old when, in 1974, he emigrated from Pakistan to Britain with his mother, brother, and sister. Sarfraz spent his teenage years in a constant battle, trying to reconcile being both British and Muslim, trying to fit in at school and at home. But it was when his best friend introduced him to the music of Bruce Springsteen that his life changed completely. From the age of sixteen on, after the moment he heard the harmonica and opening lines to “The River,” Springsteen became his personal muse, a lens through which he was able to view the rest of his life. Both a tribute to Springsteen and a story of personal discovery, Greetings from Bury Park is a warm, irreverent, and exceptionally perceptive memoir about how music transcends religion and race. From Booklist This outstanding piece of scholarship and clear writing will answer most questions and lay to rest most legends about the famous Confederate submarine, the first of its kind to sink an enemy warship. The man Hunley, it appears, was more entrepreneur than engineer, and all three of his submarines were intended to be privateers. The most sophisticated and his namesake was, however, taken over by the Confederate army at the behest of General Beauregard. It eventually drowned its inventor and finally disappeared off Charleston while sinking a Union blockader. Located in 1995 and salvaged in 2000, the Hunley is now undergoing an exhaustive examination by marine archeologists that suggests it was made with considerably more technical sophistication than had been believed. The research that went into this book was also exhaustive (it is also unbiased), but it doesn’t make the book exhausting. Altogether, “the secret hope of the Confederacy” is now a good deal less secret, and Civil War collections can fill many gaps with a single purchase. --Roland Green Review Charming and affectionate. . . . [The novel] rises above the predictable coming-of-age genre on the strength of Manzoors unflinching honesty and his unique world view. . . . You dont have to be a Springsteen fan to enjoy t...

-Titulo Original : Uncle Tungsten Memories Of A Chemical Boyhood-Fabricante : Vintage-Descripcion Original: Long before Oliver Sacks became a distinguished neurologist and bestselling writer, he was a small English boy fascinated by metals-also by chemical reactions (the louder and smellier the better), photography, squids and cuttlefish, H.G. Wells, and the periodic table. In this endlessly charming and eloquent memoir, the author of The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat and Awakenings chronicles his love affair with science and the magnificently odd and sometimes harrowing childhood in which that love affair unfolded.In Uncle Tungsten we meet Sacks’ extraordinary family, from his surgeon mother (who introduces the fourteen-year-old Oliver to the art of human dissection) and his father, a family doctor who imbues in his son an early enthusiasm for housecalls, to his “Uncle Tungsten,” whose factory produces tungsten-filament lightbulbs. We follow the young Oliver as he is exiled at the age of six to a grim, sadistic boarding school to escape the London Blitz, and later watch as he sets about passionately reliving the exploits of his chemical heroes-in his own home laboratory. Uncle Tungsten is a crystalline view of a brilliant young mind springing to life, a story of growing up which is by turns elegiac, comic, and wistful, full of the electrifying joy of discovery. From The New Yorker As a child of wartime England, Sacks shored himself up against the horrors of the political world by learning all he could about the world of science. In this memoir, he emphasizes the sensuous dimensions of scientific inquiry. Copyright © 2005 The New Yorker Review “A rare gem…. Fresh, joyous, wistful, generous, and tough-minded.”-The New York Times Book Review“This book underlies everything else Dr. Sacks has written, and is worthy to stand with the great scientific memoirs, for it’s passion, its insight, its sense of history and its felicity.” -Paul Theroux“Fired by Sacks’s enthusiasm-obviously genuine, impossible to feign-bursting forth in all directions. . . .The book recounts the growth of a formidable young mind opening up to the order and beauty of the material world.” -Newsday“Sack’s study of a mind [is] as tough as tungsten, as fluid as mercury . . . as precious as gold.” -The Seattle Times From the Inside Flap Long before Oliver Sacks became a distinguished neurologist and bestselling writer, he was a small English boy fascinated by metals?also by chemical reactions (the louder and smellier the better), photography, squids and cuttlefish, H.G. Wells, and the periodic table. In this endlessly charming and eloquent memoir, the author of The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat and Awakenings chronicles his love affair with science and the magnificently odd and sometimes harrowing childhood in which that love affair unfolded.In Uncle Tungsten we meet Sacks? extraordinary family, from his surgeon mother (who introduces the fourteen-year-old Oliver to the art of human dissection) and his father, a family doctor who imbues in his son an early enthusiasm for housecalls, to his ?Uncle Tungsten,? whose factory produces tungsten-filament lightbulbs. We follow the young Oliver as he is exiled at the age of six to a grim, sadistic boarding school to escape the London Blitz, and later watch as he sets about passionately reliving the exploits of his chemical heroes?in his own home laboratory. Uncle Tungsten is a crystalline view of a brilliant young mind springing to life, a story of growing up which is by turns elegiac, comic, and wistful, full of the electrifying joy of discovery. From the Back Cover Long before Oliver Sacks became a distinguished neurologist and bestselling writer, he was a small English boy fascinated by metals-also by chemical reactions (the louder and smellier the better), photography, squids and cuttlefish, H.G. Wells, and the periodic table. In this endlessly charming and eloquent memoir, the author of The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat and Awakenings chronic...

-Titulo Original : The Journalist And The Murderer-Fabricante : Vintage-Descripcion Original: A seminal work and examination of the psychopathology of journalism. Using a strange and unprecedented lawsuit by a convicted murder againt the journalist who wrote a book about his crime, Malcolm delves into the always uneasy, sometimes tragic relationship that exists between journalist and subject. Featuring the real-life lawsuit of Jeffrey MacDonald, a convicted murderer, against Joe McGinniss, the author of Fatal Vision.In Malcolms view, neither journalist nor subject can avoid the moral impasse that is built into the journalistic situation. When the text first appeared, as a two-part article in The New Yorker, its thesis seemed so radical and its irony so pitiless that journalists across the country reacted as if stung.Her book is a work of journalism as well as an essay on journalism: it at once exemplifies and dissects its subject. In her interviews with the leading and subsidiary characters in the MacDonald-McGinniss case -- the principals, their lawyers, the members of the jury, and the various persons who testified as expert witnesses at the trial -- Malcolm is always aware of herself as a player in a game that, as she points out, she cannot lose. The journalist-subject encounter has always troubled journalists, but never before has it been looked at so unflinchingly and so ruefully. Hovering over the narrative -- and always on the edge of the readers consciousness -- is the MacDonald murder case itself, which imparts to the book an atmosphere of anxiety and uncanniness. The Journalist and the Murderer derives from and reflects many of the dominant intellectual concerns of our time, and it will have a particular appeal for those who cherish the odd, the off-center, and the unsolved. From Publishers Weekly In a work that sparked controversy when it first appeared in the New Yorker, Malcolm suggests that journalist Joe McGinniss may have betrayed convicted murderer Jeffrey MacDonald in McGinnisss bestselling book Fatal Vision. Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc. Review It is not with regard to journalism but with regard to the making of works of art that Malcoms important book gathers its inspiration, its breathtaking rhetorical velocity, and its great truth. -David Rieff, Los Angeles Times From the Inside Flap In two previous books, Janet Malcolm explored the hidden sides of, respectively, institutional psychoanalysis and Freudian biography. In this book, she examines the psychopathology of journalism. Using a strange and unprecedented lawsuit as her larger-than-life example -- the lawsuit of Jeffrey MacDonald, a convicted murderer, against Joe McGinniss, the author of Fatal Vision, a book about the crime -- she delves into the always uneasy, sometimes tragic relationship that exists between journalist and subject. In Malcolms view, neither journalist nor subject can avoid the moral impasse that is built into the journalistic situation. When the text first appeared, as a two-part article in The New Yorker, its thesis seemed so radical and its irony so pitiless that journalists across the country reacted as if stung. Her book is a work of journalism as well as an essay on journalism: it at once exemplifies and dissects its subject. In her interviews with the leading and subsidiary characters in the MacDonald-McGinniss case -- the principals, their lawyers, the members of the jury, and the various persons who testified as expert witnesses at the trial -- Malcolm is always aware of herself as a player in a game that, as she points out, she cannot lose. The journalist-subject encounter has always troubled journalists, but never before has it been looked at so unflinchingly and so ruefully. Hovering over the narrative -- and always on the edge of the readers consciousness -- is the MacDonald murder case itself, which imparts to the book an atmosphere of anxiety and uncanniness. The Journalist and the Murderer derives from and reflects many of the do...

-Titulo Original : Margaret Thatcher The Authorized Biography Volume I From Grantham To The Falklands-Fabricante : Vintage-Descripcion Original: Review “A masterpiece of clear and intelligent writing…Margaret Thatcher: From Grantham to the Falklands is already one of the great classic political biographies.” -John O’Sullivan, The Weekly Standard“It’s an incredible level of access….Margaret Thatcher: From Grantham to the Falklands is the first of two volumes, and it presents a remarkable and richly detailed portrait.” -Craig Fehrman, Boston Globe “Thatcher was a remarkable politician and Moore does justice to her distinctive qualities.” -David Runciman, London Review of Books“Moore presents us with enough new material to offer a fresh, even vulnerable person behind the mythology…Moore’s writing is often elegant and vivid, particularly when he escapes the burden of authorized biographer by turning to commentary on Thatcher’s behavior and decisions.” -Jane Merrick, TheIndependent“Charles Moore gives a unique insight into his iconic subject…Startling.” -Richard Preston, The Telegraph “A notable landmark…meticulously researched and gracefully expounded…It is not the only biography to appear so opportunely, but Moore writes with greater freedom, insight, and objectivity…Both ideologically and personally, we now have a better understanding of the remarkable figure who became Britain’s first woman prime minister.” -Peter Clark, Financial Times “Highly readable.” -Joe Murphy, London Evening Standard “[Moore] is not afraid to address the contradictions and tease out the inconsistencies of his subject. Nor to be critical, sometimes deeply so. The result is to paint a much more multidimensional portrait of Thatcher than the caricature heroine adored by the right or the devil incarnate loathed by the left…The prose is intricate, elegant and laced with dry humor…immensely adds to our knowledge and understanding of the longest-reigning prime minister of the democratic age.” -Andrew Rawnsley, The Observer “Moore has produced a biography so masterly-so packed with fascinating detail, with such a strong narrative drive, propelled by a central character who is at the same time both very bizarre and very conventional-that it comes as close as biography can come to being a work of art…Friends and foes of Thatcher, and agnostics and sceptics too, will all find plenty on which to feast. On virtually every page there is a revelation that, had it been known at the time, would have blasted all the rest of the news off the front pages…This book is a triumph of diligence. Moore interviewed 315 people, and was clearly blessed with the knack of getting them to open up. Ribald insults, gossip, political secrets, private grievances and funny stories-many of them very, very funny-fly off every page. But it is also a triumph of narrative art and human understanding, at its centre a peculiar force of nature, never to be repeated…one of the greatest political biographies ever written.” -The Daily Mail“[Moore] has discharged the first part of his commission superbly. He has marshalled a huge range of sources, many of them new, without letting himself be swamped… He has spoken to practically everyone who ever had anything to do with her, and interweaves their recollections skilfully to bring out wider themes… If the second volume, charting her mounting hubris and eventual nemesis, maintains this quality it will be a tremendous achievement.” -John Campbell, TheIndependent “The authorized, remarkably evenhanded biography of the grimly divisive, late Iron Lady of Britain…Well balanced. We look forward to the planned sequel.” “Moore’s pace, his fascination, and his command of detail never slacken. This is a masterly piece of work.” -Matthew Parris, The Times “Charles Moore is the perfect biographer: thorough, empathetic, enquiring, and eloquent. This is the portrayal of a life well-lived, explored in a book well-written.” -Sunday Express “A life’s work of research and interviewing.” -Independent on Sunday “An immensely readable account of the greatest political life of the second half of the 20t...

-Titulo Original : The Minds Eye-Fabricante : Vintage-Descripcion Original: With compassion and insight, Dr. Oliver Sacks again illuminates the mysteries of the brain by introducing us to some remarkable characters, including Pat, who remains a vivacious communicator despite the stroke that deprives her of speech, and Howard, a novelist who loses the ability to read. Sacks investigates those who can see perfectly well but are unable to recognize faces, even those of their own children. He describes totally blind people who navigate by touch and smell; and others who, ironically, become hyper-visual. Finally, he recounts his own battle with an eye tumor and the strange visual symptoms it caused. As he has done in classics like The Man Who Mistook his Wife for a Hat and Awakenings, Dr. Sacks shows us that medicine is both an art and a science, and that our ability to imagine what it is to see with another persons mind is what makes us truly human. Review Remarkably graceful . . . Sacks would seem to be the ideal doctor: observant but accepting, thorough but tender, training his full attention on one patient at a time.” -The New York Times Book Review“Elaborate and gorgeously detailed. . . . Again and again, Sacks invites readers to imagine their way into minds unlike their own, encouraging a radical form of empathy.” -Los Angeles Times “Sacks has taken the patient history-the most basic tool of medicine-and turned it into art.” -The New York Review of Books“Once again, Sacks explores our shared condition through a series of vivid characters. . . . The Minds Eye is a collection of essays [with] a remarkably graceful coherence of theme, tone and approach.” -The New York Times Book Review “Frank and moving. . . . His books resonate because they reveal as much about the force of character as they do about neurology.” -Nature “Rich with the sort of observation and insight that makes Sacks’s writing satisfying. . . . Sacks shows us knowledge, discipline, and imagination confronting the terrors of illness and loss. . . . Readers may never take the view of a sunrise or of their child’s smile the same way again.” -Boston Globe “From first phrase to final sentence, Dr. Sacks will draw you into a fascinating mental landscape that will leave you in awe of its strange, often spiritual and exquisite pathways.” -Bookpage “Another masterpiece of phenomenological description by our most gifted and humane chronicler of neurological disorders. . . . Sacks effortlessly blends his teaching of neurology with the most sensitive descriptions of the ways in which our individual brains yield the most extraordinary variety of human experience.” -New Scientist Sacks the doctor once again dramatises the most strange and thrilling scientific and cultural issue of our time - the nature of the human mind - through the simple act of telling stories. And he does so with avuncular good nature, even in the midst of his own agonies. Read him for endless consolation -- Literary Review “Extraordinary. . . . An elegant mixture of case history and street-level observations of the struggles of those afflicted with visual disorders.” -San Francisco Chronicle “Brilliantly described cases. . . . The reader comes away with numinous feelings of wonder, mysticism, and gratitude. What more can one want from any book? ” -Science “Is there anyone who’s done more to elucidate the ability in disability than Oliver Sacks?. . . . In Sacks’ world, even with great loss there are fascinating compensations.” -People “Unfailingly wise, humane and edifying. . . . The Mind’s Eye is a welcome addition to the rich repository of Sacks’ collected works.” -The Oregonian “Inspiring. . . . [Sacks is] as cogent and elegant as ever. . . . Sacks raises a number of fascinating questions about vision, thinking, reading and writing. . . . Erudite yet lucid.” -Minneapolis Star Tribune “Stellar. . . . Dazzling. . . . Sacks writes with a dexterous clarity that illuminates the incredibly complex neurological conditions he studies, and l...

-Titulo Original : Everything In Its Place First Loves And Last Tales-Fabricante : Vintage-Descripcion Original: From the best-selling author of Gratitude and On the Move, a final volume of essays that showcase Sackss broad range of interests-from his passion for ferns, swimming, and horsetails, to his final case histories exploring schizophrenia, dementia, and Alzheimers.Oliver Sacks, scientist and storyteller, is beloved by readers for his neurological case histories and his fascination and familiarity with human behavior at its most unexpected and unfamiliar. Everything in Its Place is a celebration of Sackss myriad interests, told with his characteristic compassion and erudition, and in his luminous prose. Review “Wonderfully odd . . . Life bursts through all of Oliver Sacks’s writing. He was and will remain a brilliant singularity. It’s hard to call to mind one dull passage in his work-one dull sentence, for that matter . . .”-Daniel Menaker, The New York Times Book ReviewMagical . . . [Everything in Its Place] showcases the neurologists infinitely curious mind.-People Magazine“Extraordinarily touching-not lacking in his habitual energy and driven curiosity, but somehow vulnerable, even fragile . . . [He was] an unusual boy, one who had, as he puts it, an “overwhelming sense of Truth and Beauty” . . . and it becomes increasingly clear that Sacks was that boy to the very end of his days, engaging, eagerly and with a never-ending sense of wonder, not only with science but with its history and the people who made it . . . Our best chance for the future, we may feel, is that there may be others among us like this uncommon, passionate, and enlightened man . . .”-Simon Callow, The New York Review of Books“Eclectic and satisfying . . . Informative and engaging . . . Sacks writes with his characteristic compassion and attention to detail. . . This final posthumous collection provides one last peek into the author’s generous, curious, and brilliant mind.”-Library Journal“Sacks further secures his legacy with this most recent collection of his work . . . The Shakespeare of science writing might suffice, but Sacks ultimately defies comparison to bygone or even contemporary authors. As readers we can rejoice that, while cancer may have claimed his body, his voice continues to ring out.”-The ScientistEverything in Its Placeis a wondrous read in its entirety, irradiating Sacks’s kaleidoscopic curiosity across subjects. . .”-Maria Popova, Brain Pickings“A fitting coda to an exemplary literary and medical career, displaying the essential humanity and spaciousness of mind that his readers have long come to expect . . . with a voice, breadth of curiosity and kinship with life all his own . . . passionate . . . [and] engrossing . . . [Sacks] will be keenly missed, not only for the elegance and potency of his writing, but for his critically important championing of science in an age of science denial . . . Warm, edifying, highly personal essays.”-The Charleston Post and Courier“If you are not already familiar with the writing of Oliver Sacks, this volume is a lovely way to acquaint yourself with it . . . Sacks is a humanist author, one who has an amazing capacity to inspire awe and reawaken the reader to the beauty of the smallest and often most unforgotten, disenfranchised aspects of life on earth. Above all, his greatest strength is how he skillfully allows the non-specialist to deeply delve into the field of neurological study. He is an author with a sense of constant questioning and bewilderment at the complexity of human existence. His writing is beautifully crafted and profound.”-New York Journal of Books“It’s not hard to see why Oliver Sacks captivated the world . . . Without waiting for the evidence to come in, you know that a better book of essays-one that is funnier and sneakier and more grave-will certainly not be published this year.”-The Saturday Paper“A postscript to a brilliant career . . . full of curiosity and awe . . . Whether discussing botany or the intricacies of the brain, Sacks writes wi...

-Titulo Original : Custers Trials A Life On The Frontier Of A New America-Fabricante : Vintage-Descripcion Original: Review WINNER 2016 - Pulitzer Prize for HistoryFINALIST 2016 - National Book Critics Circle AwardsFINALIST 2016 - California Book AwardFINALIST 2016 - Mark Lynton History PrizeLONGLIST 2016 - Plutarch AwardWINNER 2016 - Western Writers of America Golden Spur AwardWINNER 2016 - William H. Seward Award for Excellence in Civil War BiographyFINALIST 2015 - Guggenheim-Lehrman Prize in Military HistoryBookPage Best Books of 2015St. Louis Post-Dispatch Best of 2015“If anyone could make a reader forget Custer’s last stand, at least for a few hundred pages at a time, it would be T.J. Stiles. . . . Stiles is a serious and accomplished biographer, but he is more than that. He is a skilled writer, with the rare ability to take years of far-ranging research and boil it down until he has a story that is illuminating and, at its best, captivating.” -The New York Times Book Review“Epic, ambitious. . . . [Stiles] scrupulously avoids caricature. . . . Stiles’s accomplishment is to show that, within the context of Custer’s life, the Battle of Little Bighorn really was an epilogue.” -The Wall Street Journal“If you want to understand how Custers character became his fate, then Stiless book is the one to read before any other.” -Thomas Powers, The New York Review of Books“[This] sympathetic biography attempts to demythologize and reassess a complicated figure. . . . Stiles captures his subject with verve.” -The New Yorker“In this deft portrait, Stiles restores Custer as a three-dimensional figure. . . . [Stiles’s] prodigious knowledge of 19th-century institutions is on display throughout Custer’s Trials. He is able to situate Custer in the shifting culture of the Civil War and its aftermath in a way no other biography has achieved. . . . Stiles’s Custer is life-size.” -The Washington Post“This energetic biography puts emphasis on the years in between Custer’s Civil War heroics and his infamous Last Stand. Stiles is neither sympathetic nor unsympathetic in his treatment of Custer’s profound need for attention.” -The St. Louis Post-Dispatch“Riveting. . . . [Stiles] has given us a different way to look at the flesh-and-blood man and his times.” -Minneapolis Star-TribuneCusters Trials is exemplary in every way, replete with instances of detailed scholarship and compelling analysis, dense with psychological insight, and written in a tight, adroit style. -The Wichita Eagle Custer was the product of an America which changed more dramatically during his brief life than at any time in its history, except for the present sorry epoch, and Stiles, who can write, and also research, recounts how those times shaped him and, in the process, demolishes some of the Custer despisers’ (there are many, and I am one) most cherished myths. . . . Terrific. -Field & StreamStiles portrays a complex and deeply flawed man. . . . Stiles biography is a long, detailed, well-researched but highly readable account. -The Denver Post “Engaging… A teeming portrait of the birth of modern America-and a gripping account of Custers role in it.” -San Jose Mercury News “A nuanced, complex and convincing portrait of the man.” -San Francisco Chronicle “Rousing. . . . An immersive, emphatic, bloody and very assured book.” -Newsday“A good and meaty biography.” -Christian Science Monitor“T.J. Stiles portrays Custer in the context of his time, and the man who emerges is much more than merely a martyr or a fool. . . . [Stiles] goes furthest in exploring [Custer’s] contribution to Union victory during the Civil War and the difficulties he faced adjusting to the world that he helped to create.” -The Daily Beast[Stiless] biography is thorough, engrossing and fair. Custer is seen as a man wearing many faces, some good, some not. The author has done a commendable job drawing out from other sources to write a balanced account of a misunderstood historical figure. A read. -San Francisco Book Review “Spectacular . . . a satisfying portrait of a complex, controversial military man… ...

-Titulo Original : In Pharaohs Army Memories Of The Lost War-Fabricante : Vintage-Descripcion Original: Review In This Boys Life Tobias Wolf created an unforgettable memoir of an American childhood. Now he gives us a precisely and sometimes pitilessly remembered account of his young manhood - a young manhood that become entangled in the tragic adventure that was Vietnam. Mordantly funny, searingly honest, In Pharoahs Army is a war memoir in the tradition of George Orwell and Michael Herr. Whether he is evoking the blind carnage of the Tet offensive, the theatrics of his fellow Americans, or the unraveling of his own illusions, Wolff brings to this work the same uncanny eye for detail, pitiless candor and mordant wit that made This Boys Life a modern classic. From Publishers Weekly Wolffs memoir of his disillusioning experience as a soldier in Vietnam was a finalist for the NBA. Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc. Review Painful...powerful...brilliant. The book is remarkable in its language, which is as supple and distilled as any contemporary American writers; in its economy; in its structure; and, most of all, in its candor, humor, and generosity of spirit...By every measure of feeling and technique, its a magnificent and sobering achievement. -- Chicago Tribune From the Inside Flap Whether he is evoking the blind carnage of the Tet offensive, the theatrics of his fellow Americans, or the unraveling of his own illusions, Wolff brings to this work the same uncanny eye for detail, pitiless candor and mordant wit that made This Boys Life a modern classic. About the Author Tobias Wolff lives in Northern California and teaches at Stanford University. He has received the Rea Award for excellence in the short story, the Los Angeles Times Book Prize, and the PEN/Faulkner Award...

-Titulo Original : Genius The Life And Science Of Richard Feynman-Fabricante : Vintage-Descripcion Original: To his colleagues, Richard Feynman was not so much a genius as he was a full-blown magician: someone who “does things that nobody else could do and that seem completely unexpected.” The path he cleared for twentieth-century physics led from the making of the atomic bomb to a Nobel Prize-winning theory of quantam electrodynamics to his devastating expose of the Challenger space shuttle disaster. At the same time, the ebullient Feynman established a reputation as an eccentric showman, a master safe cracker and bongo player, and a wizard of seduction.Now James Gleick, author of the bestselling Chaos, unravels teh dense skein of Feynman‘s thought as well as the paradoxes of his character in a biography-which was nominated for a National Book Award-of outstanding lucidity and compassion. Review If youve read any of Richard Feynmans wonderful autobiographies you may think that a biography of Feynman would be a waste of your time. Wrong! Gleicks Genius is a masterpiece of scientific biography--and an inspiration to anyone in pursuit of their own fulfillment as a person of genius. Deservedly nominated for a National Book Award, underservedly passed over by the committee in the face of tough competition, and very deservedly a book that you must read. Review [A] rare, jewel-like biography... terrifically readable. It achieves an almost perfect balance between the physicists work and his life... Gleick [is a] consummate craftsman. -- Washington Post Book World From the Inside Flap From the author of the national bestseller Chaos comes an outstanding biography of one of the most dazzling and flamboyant scientists of the 20th century that not only paints a highly attractive portrait of Feynman but also . . . makes for a stimulating adventure in the annals of science (The New York Times). 16 pages of photos. From the Back Cover hor of the national bestseller Chaos comes an outstanding biography of one of the most dazzling and flamboyant scientists of the 20th century that not only paints a highly attractive portrait of Feynman but also . . . makes for a stimulating adventure in the annals of science (The New York Times). 16 pages of photos. About the Author JAMES GLEICK is our leading chronicler of science and technology, the best-selling author of Chaos: Making a New Science, Isaac Newton, and The Information: A History, a Theory, a Flood. His books have been translated into thirty languages. around...

-Titulo Original : The Hemlock Cup Socrates, Athens And The Search For The Good Life-Fabricante : Vintage-Descripcion Original: From the celebrated British author and historian: a brilliant new book combining historical inquiry and storytelling elan to paint an unprecedentedly vivid portrait of Socrates and the Golden Age of classical Athens. We think the way we do because Socrates thought the way he did; in his unwavering commitment to truth and in the example of his own life, he set the standard for all subsequent Western philosophy. And yet, for twenty-five centuries, he has remained an enigma: a man who left no written legacy and about whom everything we know is hearsay. His life spanned “seventy of the busiest, most wonderful and tragic years in Athenian history.” Athens in the fifth century B.C. was a city devastated by war, but, at the same time, transformed by the burgeoning process of democracy. Drawing on the latest sources-archaeological, topographical, and textual-Hughes re-creates the streets where Socrates walked, to place him there, and to illuminate for us the world as he experienced it. Review “Fascinating. . . . What Bettany Hughes provides is something vital: a life and times of Socrates that is so richly textured, flavorful and atmospheric that it makes human this most enigmatic of all philosophers. By the end of her book, we can almost see and smell the man, with all of his quirks and foibles and questioning brilliance.” -Walter Isaacson, The New York Times Book Review“Bettany Hughes’ biography is far more than just that: this tour de force is a vivid political and social history of Athens in the 5th century BC. Hughes evokes a city steeped in change, looking past the Golden Age of democracy, new wealth and power to the reality of a century tempered by war and infighting. With the plan of his life as a backbone, the book covers the whole experience of 5th-century Athenians, yet paints a picture of Socrates as a marvellous eccentric, paddling the streets barefoot, conversing with strangers and refusing to conform . . . this approach produces an extremely exciting narrative. Descriptions of Athens’ legal system aren’t dry but dripping with colour; the city itself is dirty, smelly, defiantly alive. And what other historian has spared a thought for the buttock pain of ancient jurors sat on hard stone seats in court? This is not a study of Socrates’ philosophy but his world. As thought-provoking as it is thrilling, the book is a beacon for the relevance and interest of classics today.” -The Times (London) “Bettany Hughes’s terrifically readable life of Socrates is more than just a life; it is also an evocation and explanation of the world that created him, and over which he would come to have such influence. . . . The Hemlock Cup makes a vivid and persuasive case for the study of Socrates as a valuable means to understanding how our way of thinking about our own world came to be, and a guide to how we might understand it better.” -The Independent on Sunday (UK) “A beguiling book. . . . Hughes triumphs again. This is history, and historical reconstruction, exactly as it should be written. . . . The Socrates Hughes creates is ultimately a towering yet intensely human figure. He lives and speaks again in these pages: It’s a singular accomplishment.” -The Washington Post “Delightful . . . Hughes presents a high-octane account of Socrates and his age. . . . Do read this book, both because of its marvelous storytelling and because it will stimulate a desire to learn more about the ancient world.” -The Wall Street Journal “Bettany Hughes has done it again; she brings to life not only Socrates himself but the whole of Periclean Athens. Here is a work of dazzling erudition which remains hugely readable-what more can one ask?” -John Julius Norwich, author of Byzantium “No one before Bettany Hughes, a highly accomplished communicator, has thought to weave Socrates’s examined life into quite so rich and dense a tapestry of democratic Athens’s teeming high-cultural and mundane experience. . . . Hughes’s enormo...

-Titulo Original : Travels With Herodotus (vintage International)-Fabricante : Vintage-Descripcion Original: From the renowned journalist comes this intimate account of his years in the field, traveling for the first time beyond the Iron Curtain to India, China, Ethiopia, and other exotic locales.In the 1950s, Ryszard Kapuscinski finished university in Poland and became a foreign correspondent, hoping to go abroad - perhaps to Czechoslovakia. Instead, he was sent to India - the first stop on a decades-long tour of the world that took Kapuscinski from Iran to El Salvador, from Angola to Armenia. Revisiting his memories of traveling the globe with a copy of Herodotus Histories in tow, Kapuscinski describes his awakening to the intricacies and idiosyncrasies of new environments, and how the words of the Greek historiographer helped shape his own view of an increasingly globalized world. Written with supreme eloquence and a constant eye to the global undercurrents that have shaped the last half-century, Travels with Herodotus is an exceptional chronicle of one mans journey across continents. Review “Luminous. . . . Like Herodotus, Ryszard Kapuscinski was a reporter, a historian, an adventurer and, truly, an artist.” -The Wall Street Journal“Enchanting. . . . Underneath its shimmering prose beats the unquiet heart of a fundamentally decent man and an uncommonly gifted observer. . . . It has a startling clarity and power.” -The New Republic“A work of art: so eloquent, so simple, that you find yourself marveling at its prose….a travel book that all students of writing and of literature ought to read.” -The Washington Post Book World About the Author Ryszard Kapuscinski, Polands most celebrated foreign correspondent, was born in 1932. After graduating with a degree in history from Warsaw University, he was sent to India, Pakistan, and Afghanistan to report for the Polish news, which began his lifelong fascination with the Third World. During his four decades reporting on Asia, Latin America, and Africa, he befriended Che Guevara, Salvador Allende, and Patrice Lumumba; witnessed twentyseven coups and revolutions; and was sentenced to death four times. He died in 2007.His earlier books--Shah of Shahs, The Emperor, Imperium, Another Day of Life, The Soccer War, and Shadow of the Sun--have been translated into nineteen languages. Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved. CROSSING THE BORDERBefore Herodotus sets out on his travels, ascending rocky paths, sailing a ship over the seas, riding on horseback through the wilds of Asia; before he happens upon the mistrustful Scythians, discovers the wonders of Babylon, and plumbs the mysteries of the Nile; before he experiences a hundred different places and sees a thousand inconceivable things, he will appear for a moment in a lecture on ancient Greece, which Professor Biezunska-Malowist delivers twice weekly to the first-year students in Warsaw Universitys department of history.He will appear and just as quickly vanish.He will disappear so completely that now, years later, when I look through my notes from those classes, I do not find his name. There are Aeschylus and Pericles, Sappho and Socrates, Heraclitus and Plato; but no Herodotus. And yet we took such careful notes. They were our only source of information. The war had ended six years earlier, and the city lay in ruins. Libraries had gone up in flames, we had no textbooks, no books at all to speak of.The professor has a calm, soft, even voice. Her dark, attentive eyes regard us through thick lenses with marked curiosity. Sitting at a high lectern, she has before her a hundred young people the majority of whom have no idea that Solon was great, do not know the cause of Antigones despair, and could not explain how Themistocles lured the Persians into a trap.If truth be told, we didnt even quite know where Greece was or, for that matter, that a contemporary country by that name had a past so remarkable and extraordinary as to merit studying at university. We were children...

-Titulo Original : Jesse James Last Rebel Of The Civil War-Fabricante : Vintage-Descripcion Original: Review So carefully researched, persuasive, and illuminating that it is likely to reshape permanently our understanding of its subjects life and times. -The New York Times Book ReviewAfter reading this biography . . . can doubt that the driving force of Jesse Jamess career was persistent Confederate ideology and loyalty. . . . [Stiles writes] vigorously, eloquently, persuasively. -James M. McPherson, The New York Review of BooksIntricate, far-reaching. . . . A fascinating revisionist biography.” -TheNew York TimesIn this excellent account, T.J. Stiles shows James to be a southerner, not a westerner; a Confederate, not a cowboy. . . . [He] masterfully strips James bare. -The Economist“Elegantly rendered and compelling.” -Jay Winik, Washington Post Book WorldStiles has combed a wealth of contemporary sources and imbues this story with the drama it deserves.” -Eric Foner, Los Angeles Times“[A] bold, myth-bashing account of the brutal life and times of the outlaw-icon.” -Boston GlobeCarries the reader scrupulously through James’s violent, violent life. . . . When Stiles, in his subtitle, calls Jesse James the ‘last rebel fo the Civil War; he correctly definies the theme that ruled Jesse’s life. -Larry McMurtry, The New Republic“A fascinating challnge to old legends.” -The Dallas Morning News“A dazzling work of American history. . . . James emerges, stripped of his Robin Hood folk mythology, as a more complex and pivotal figure than earlier histories have allowed.” -Sunday Times [London]“Arresting and powerful.” -The Richmond-Times Dispatch This gripping biography of one of the most famous American outlaws clarifies the development of modern violence and proves that the simplistic Jesse James of western movies fall far short of the historical mark. -Milwaukee Journal SentinelPerhaps the finest book ever written about this American legend.” -Salon “The book is quite simply outstanding. . . . [Stiles is] a writer whose allegiance is not with the easy and obvious but with the subtle and definiantly humane.” -GuardianAs gracefully written as a novel, and convincingly argued throughout, this is biography at its finest. -BookpageStiles spent four years examining James’s deadliest weapon: his politics. . . . James emerges as no mere robber, but as a proslavery terrorist who remains wildly misunderstood. -Time Out“In hard-eyed, exhilaratingly physcial language . . . T. J. Stiles takes us beyond the usual interpretation of the outlaw’s notorious life and into a far more challenging understanding of the man.” -The Bloomsbury Review “Wonderful. . . . An important new biography.” -John Mack Faragher, Raleigh News & Observer In this brilliant biography T. J. Stiles offers a new understanding of the legendary outlaw Jesse James. Although he has often been portrayed as a Robin Hood of the old west, in this ground-breaking work Stiles places James within the context of the bloody conflicts of the Civil War to reveal a much more complicated and significant figure. Raised in a fiercely pro-slavery household in bitterly divided Misssouri, at age sixteen James became a bushwhacker, one of the savage Confederate guerrillas that terrorized the border states. After the end of the war, James continued his campaign of robbery and murder into the brutal era of reconstruction, when his reckless daring, his partisan pronouncements, and his alliance with the sympathetic editor John Newman Edwards placed him squarely at the forefront of the former Confederates’ bid to recapture political power. With meticulous research and vivid accounts of the dramatic adventures of the famous gunman, T. J. Stiles shows how he resembles not the apolitical hero of legend, but rather a figure ready to use violence to command attention for a political cause-in many ways, a forerunner of the modern terrorist. From the Inside Flap In this brilliant biography T. J. Stiles offers a new understanding of the legendar...

-Titulo Original : All Gods Children Need Traveling Shoes-Fabricante : Vintage-Descripcion Original: In 1962 the poet, musician, and performer Maya Angelou claimed another piece of her identity by moving to Ghana, joining a community of Revolutionist Returnees inspired by the promise of pan-Africanism. All Gods Children Need Walking Shoes is her lyrical and acutely perceptive exploration of what it means to be an African American on the mother continent, where color no longer matters but where American-ness keeps asserting itself in ways both puzzling and heartbreaking. As it builds on the personal narrative of I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings and Gather Together in My Name, this book confirms Maya Angelou’s stature as one of the most gifted autobiographers of our time. Review An important document drawing more much-needed attention to the hidden history of a people both African and American. -Los Angeles Times Book ReviewThis is a superb account by a great woman who has embraced a difficult destiny with rare intelligence and infectious joie de vivre. -The Boston Globe Maya Angelou regards the world and herself with intelligence and wit; she records the events of her life with style and grace. -The Washington Post Book World Angelous journey into Africa is a journey into herself, into that part of every Afro-Americans soul that is still wedded to Africa, that still yearns for a home. -Chicago Tribune Book World From the Publisher An important document drawing more much-needed attention to the hidden history of a people both African and American.--Los Angeles Times Book Review From the Inside Flap Thoroughly enjoyable . . . an important document drawing more much-needed attention to the hidden history of a people both African and American.--Los Angeles Times Book Review. From the Back Cover Thoroughly enjoyable. . . An important document drawing more much-needed attention to the hidden history of a people both African and American. --Los Angeles Times Book ReviewMaya Angelou regards the world and herself with intelligence and wit; she records the events of her life with style and grace. --Washington Post Book WorldAngelous journey into Africa is a journey into herself, into that part of every Afro-Americans soul that is still wedded to Africa, that still yearns for a home. --Chicago Tribune Book World About the Author Poet, writer, performer, teacher, and director Maya Angelou was raised in Stamps, Arkansas, and then moved to San Francisco. In addition to her bestselling autobiographies, beginning with I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, she also wrote a cookbook, Hallelujah! The Welcome Table, and five poetry collections, including I Shall Not Be Moved and Shaker, Why Don’t You Sing? She died in 2014...

-Titulo Original : Albert Speer His Battle With Truth-Fabricante : Vintage-Descripcion Original: Albert Speer was not only Hitlers architect and armaments minister, but the Fuhrers closest friend--his unhappy love. Speer was one of the few defendants at the Nuremberg Trials to take responsibility for Nazi war crimes, even as he denied knowledge of the Holocaust. Now this enigma of a man is unveiled in a monumental biography by a writer who came to know Speer intimately in his final years. Out of hundreds of hours of interviews, Sereny unravels the threads of Speers personality: the genius that made him indispensable to the German war machine, the conscience that drove him to repent, and the emotional wounds that made him susceptible to Hitlers lethal magnetism. Read as an inside account of the Third Reich, or as a revelatory unsparing yet compassionate study of the human capacity for evil, Albert Speer: His Battle with Truth is a triumph.Fascinating...Not only a major addition to our knowledge of the Third Reich, but a stunning attempt to understand the nature of good and evil.--NewsdayMore than a biography...It also constitutes a perceptive re-examination of the mysterious appeal of Adolf Hitler.--San Francisco Chronicle From Publishers Weekly Based on extensive firsthand interviews, this biography of the late Nazi Speer probes the nature of good and evil. Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc. Review The effect is stunning--a veritable Rashomon of Nazi genocide . . . -- The New York Times Book Review, Claudia Koonz From the Inside Flap Albert Speer was not only Hitlers architect and armaments minister, but the Fuhrers closest friend--his unhappy love. Speer was one of the few defendants at the Nuremberg Trials to take responsibility for Nazi war crimes, even as he denied knowledge of the Holocaust. Now this enigma of a man is unveiled in a monumental biography by a writer who came to know Speer intimately in his final years. Out of hundreds of hours of interviews, Sereny unravels the threads of Speers personality: the genius that made him indispensable to the German war machine, the conscience that drove him to repent, and the emotional wounds that made him susceptible to Hitlers lethal magnetism. Read as an inside account of the Third Reich, or as a revelatory unsparing yet compassionate study of the human capacity for evil, Albert Speer: His Battle with Truth is a triumph.Fascinating...Not only a major addition to our knowledge of the Third Reich, but a stunning attempt to understand the nature of good and evil.--NewsdayMore than a biography...It also constitutes a perceptive re-examination of the mysterious appeal of Adolf Hitler.--San Francisco Chronicle From the Back Cover Albert Speer was not only Hitlers architect and armaments minister, but the Fuhrers closest friend--his unhappy love. Speer was one of the few defendants at the Nuremberg Trials to take responsibility for Nazi war crimes, even as he denied knowledge of the Holocaust. Now this enigma of a man is unveiled in a monumental biography by a writer who came to know Speer intimately in his final years. Out of hundreds of hours of interviews, Sereny unravels the threads of Speers personality: the genius that made him indispensable to the German war machine, the conscience that drove him to repent, and the emotional wounds that made him susceptible to Hitlers lethal magnetism. Read as an inside account of the Third Reich, or as a revelatory unsparing yet compassionate study of the human capacity for evil, Albert Speer: His Battle with Truth is a triumph.Fascinating...Not only a major addition to our knowledge of the Third Reich, but a stunning attempt to understand the nature of good and evil.--NewsdayMore than a biography...It also constitutes a perceptive re-examination of the mysterious appeal of Adolf Hitler.--San Francisco Chronicle About the Author Gitta Sereny was one of Europes foremost journalists with a special interest and expertis...

-Titulo Original : The Zhivago Affair The Kremlin, The Cia, And The Battle Over A Forbidden Book-Fabricante : Vintage-Descripcion Original: The Zhivago Affair is the dramatic, never-before-told story-drawing on newly declassified files-of how a forbidden book became a secret CIA weapon in the ideological battle between East and West.In May 1956, an Italian publishing scout went to a village outside Moscow to visit Russia’s greatest living poet, Boris Pasternak. He left carrying the manuscript of Pasternak’s only novel, suppressed by Soviet authorities. From there the life of this extraordinary book entered the realm of the spy novel. The CIA published a Russian-language edition of Doctor Zhivago and smuggled it into the Soviet Union. Copies were devoured in Moscow and Leningrad, sold on the black market, and passed from friend to friend. Pasternak’s funeral in 1960 was attended by thousands who defied their government to bid him farewell, and his example launched the great tradition of the Soviet writer-dissident. First to obtain CIA files providing proof of the agency’s involvement, Peter Finn and Petra Couvee take us back to a remarkable Cold War era when literature had the power to stir the world.(With 8 pages of black-and-white illustrations.) Review “Beautifully crafted and scrupulously researched. . . . A kind of intellectual thriller. . . . Well-paced and exciting.” -Alan Furst, The Washington Post “A fascinating book that is thoroughly researched, extraordinarily accurate in its factual details, judicious in its judgments, and destined to remain the definitive work on the subject for a very long time to come.” -New York Review of Books“Riveting, well-researched . . . Reads like a literary thriller.” -The New Republic“A rich and unanticipated story. . . . Finn and Couvee’s poignant depiction of Pasternak is the book’s greatest strength.” -The Daily Beast“A work of deep historical research that reads a little like Le Carre. . . . The authors show how both sides in the Cold War used literary prestige as a weapon without resorting to cheap moral equivalency.” -New York“An informative, fascinating, and often moving account of personal courage, espionage and propaganda, and the role of literature in the political struggle for the hearts and minds of people.” -Huffington Post “Thrilling. . . . Deftly combining biography, cultural history and literary tittle-tattle, [Finn and Couvee] have shone a light on a shadowy operation. . . . Crushingly poignant.” -Newsday“Fascinating. . . . The story of how Doctor Zhivago helped disrupt the Soviet Union holds some intriguing implications for the present and future of cultural conflict.” -The Atlantic “A remarkable story and fully sourced book, the scholarship peerless but never eclipsing one amazingly humanist story of a towering figure.” -New York Journal of Books“The authors persuasively argue that the ripples from the publication of this single book affected not only the author, his family and his friends, but also changed the balance of power in the world during a critical period.” - Columbus Dispatch “A galloping page-turner and a stark picture of a nation ruled by terror and unreason, which reads like a sinister rewrite of Alice in Wonderland.” -Sunday Times (London)“Extraordinary. . . . There is much to think about in The Zhivago Affair: the nature of genius; the terror that leads people to betray friends; and, above all, the potency of fiction. . . . The Zhivago Affair reveals the story of that triumph with vibrant authenticity and calm analysis.” -The Independent on Sunday (London)“Excellent, superbly researched, and as exciting in its way as any Cold War thriller. Pasternak himself emerges clearly and strongly in all his complexity. This was the most important literary controversy of the post-war world, and Finn and Couvee have presented it with immense care and colour. The aftermath of the affair still has resonance even now.” -John Simpson, BBC News “Finn and Couvee deal objectively with the characters involved and tell the story with exceptional vivacity.” -Literary Review “...

-Titulo Original : Travels (vintage Departures)-Fabricante : Vintage-Descripcion Original: About the Author Michael Crichton was born in Chicago in 1942. His novels include Timeline, Jurassic Park, and The Andromeda Strain. He was also the creator of the television series ER. One of the most popular writers in the world, his books have been made into thirteen films, and translated in thirty-six languages. He died in 2008. From the bestselling author of Jurassic Park, Timeline, and Sphere comes a deeply personal memoir full of fascinating adventures as he travels everywhere from the Mayan pyramids to Kilimanjaro. Fueled by a powerful curiosity-and by a need to see, feel, and hear, firsthand and close-up-Michael Crichtons journeys have carried him into worlds diverse and compelling-swimming with mud sharks in Tahiti, tracking wild animals through the jungle of Rwanda. This is a record of those travels-an exhilarating quest across the familiar and exotic frontiers of the outer world, a determined odyssey into the unfathomable, spiritual depths of the inner world. It is an adventure of risk and rejuvenation, terror and wonder, as exciting as Michael Crichtons many masterful and widely heralded works of fiction...

-Titulo Original : Lenin The Man, The Dictator, And The Master Of Terror-Fabricante : Vintage-Descripcion Original: Victor Sebestyens riveting biography of Vladimir Ilyich Lenin-the first major biography in English in nearly two decades-is not only a political examination of one of the most important historical figures of the twentieth century but also a fascinating portrait of Lenin the man.Brought up in comfort and with a passion for hunting and fishing, chess, and the English classics, Lenin was radicalized after the execution of his brother in 1887. Sebestyen traces the story from Lenins early years to his long exile in Europe and return to Petrograd in 1917 to lead the first Communist revolution in history. Uniquely, Sebestyen has discovered that throughout Lenins life his closest relationships were with his mother, his sisters, his wife, and his mistress. The long-suppressed story told here of the love triangle that Lenin had with his wife, Nadezhda Krupskaya, and his beautiful, married mistress and comrade, Inessa Armand, reveals a more complicated character than that of the coldly one-dimensional leader of the Bolshevik Revolution.With Lenins personal papers and those of other leading political figures now available, Sebestyen gives is new details that bring to life the dramatic and gripping story of how Lenin seized power in a coup and ran his revolutionary state. The product of a violent, tyrannical, and corrupt Russia, he chillingly authorized the deaths of thousands of people and created a system based on the idea that political terror against opponents was justified for a greater ideal. An old comrade what had once admired him said that Lenin desired the good . . . but created evil. This included his invention of Stalin, who would take Lenins system of the gulag and the secret police to horrifying new heights.In Lenin, Victor Sebestyen has written a brilliant portrait of this dictator as a complex and ruthless figure, and he also brings to light important new revelations about the Russian Revolution, a pivotal point in modern history.(With 16 pages of black-and-white photographs) Review “Sebestyen has managed to produce a first-rate thriller by detailing the cynicism and murderous ambition of the founder of the Soviet Union.” -The New York Times Book Review, “100 Notable Books of 2017” “An accessible, fair, and marvelously written biography…For anyone interested in an introduction to the world’s greatest revolutionary that draws on the latest research, Mr. Sebestyen’s Lenin would be the place to start.” -Douglas Smith, The Wall Street Journal“Can first-rate history read like a thriller? With Lenin: The Man, the Dictator and the Master of Terror, the journalist Victor Sebestyen has pulled off this rarest of feats . . . How did he do it? Start with a Russian version of “House of Cards” and behold Vladimir Ilyich Lenin pre-empt Frank Underwood’s cynicism and murderous ambition by 100 years. Add meticulous research by digging into Soviet archives, including those locked away until recently. Plow through 9.5 million words of Lenin’s “Collected Works.” Finally, apply a scriptwriter’s knack for drama and suspense that needs no ludicrous cliffhangers to enthrall history buffs and professionals alike.”-Josef Joffe, The New York Times Book ReviewIntriguing-Karl Ove Knausgaard, The New York TimesThe absence of a post-Soviet Lenin biography has finally been corrected, with this brilliant and compelling portrait of the Soviet state’s founder…Sebestyen covers Lenin as a private person as well as a thinker and revolutionary… [this] superb biography is a commentary on how, with even the best of intentions, adoption of a revolutionary ideology can lead to a living hell.”-Ronald Radosh, The National Review“Lenin is the best biography I’ve read in years. It takes Victor Sebestyen less than five pages to perform the hardest of all literary tricks: making the person he’s writing about seem like a familiar human being.”-Bob Blaisdell, The Christian Science Monitor “An illuminating new biography of the ...