| Search | About | Preferences | Interact | Help | |
| 150 million books. 1 search engine. | ||
› Find signed collectible books: 'American Soldier'
"When war comes, you look for certain special qualities in the people you'll be working with. General Tom Franks embodies those qualities: strength, experience, a keen mind, energy, honor, good humor, and a deep loyalty to his troops and to his country."Tom Franks is truly a soldier's soldier."
-- Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld
The Commander in Chief of the United States Central Command from July 2000 through July 2003, General Tommy Franks made history by leading American and Coalition forces to victory in Afghanistan and Iraq -- the decisive battles that launched the war on terrorism.
In this riveting memoir, General Franks retraces his journey from a small-town boyhood in Oklahoma and Midland, Texas, through a lifetime of military service -- including his heroic tour as an Artillery officer in Vietnam, where he was wounded three times. A reform-minded Cold War commander and a shrewd tactician during Operation Desert Storm, Franks took command of CENTCOM at the dawn of what he calls a "crease in history" -- becoming the senior American military officer in the most dangerous region on earth.
Now, drawing on his own recollections and military records declassified for this book, Franks offers the first true insider's account of the war on terrorism that has changed the world since September 11, 2001. He puts you in the Operations Center for the launch of Operation Enduring Freedom just weeks after 9/11, capturing its uncertain early days and the historic victory that followed. He traces his relationship with the demanding Donald Rumsfeld, as early tensions over the pace of the campaign gave way to a strong and friendly collaboration.
When President Bush focused world attention on the threat of Iraq, Franks seized the moment to implement a bold new vision of joint warfare in planning Operation Iraqi Freedom. Rejecting Desert Stormstyle massive troop deployment in favor of flexibility and speed, Franks was questioned by the defense establishment -- including Secretary of State Colin Powell. Yet his vision was proven on the ground: Within three weeks, Baghdad had fallen.
American Soldier is filled with revelation. Franks describes the covert diplomacy that helped him secure international cooperation for the war, and reveals the role of foreign leaders -- and a critical double agent code-named "April Fool" -- in the most successful military deception since D-Day in 1944. He speaks frankly of intelligence shortcomings that endangered our troops, and of the credible WMD threats -- including eleventh-hour warnings from Arab leaders -- that influenced every planning decision. He offers an unvarnished portrait of the "disruptive and divisive" Washington bureaucracy, and a candid assessment of the war's aftermath. Yet in the end, as American Soldier demonstrates, the battles in Afghanistan and Iraq remain heroic victories -- wars of liberation won by troops whose valor was "unequalled," Franks writes, "by anything in the annals of war."
Few individuals have the chance to contribute so much of themselves to the American story as General Tommy Franks. In American Soldier, he captures it all.
[via]› Find signed collectible books: 'Angela's Ashes'
"When I look back on my childhood, I wonder how I survived at all. It was, of course, a miserable childhood: the happy childhood is hardly worth your while. Worse than the ordinary miserable childhood is the miserable Irish childhood, and worse yet is the miserable Irish Catholic childhood. People everywhere brag or whimper about the woes of their early years, but nothing can compare with the Irish version: the poverty; the shiftless loquacious father; the pious defeated mother moaning by the fire; pompous priests; bullying shcoolmasters; the English and the terrible things they did to us for eight hundred long years. Above all we were wet!" So begins Frank McCourt's stunning memoir of his childhood in Ireland and America, a recollection of unvarnished truth and no self pity, of grinding poverty and indomitable spirit that will live in the memory long after the tape has ended. Now a major film directed by Alan Parker and starring Robert Carlyle and Emily Watson. [via]
More editions of Angela's Ashes:
› Find signed collectible books: 'The Autobiography of Malcolm X'
Malcolm X's searing memoir belongs on the small shelf of great autobiographies. The reasons are many: the blistering honesty with which he recounts his transformation from a bitter, self-destructive petty criminal into an articulate political activist, the continued relevance of his militant analysis of white racism, and his emphasis on self-respect and self-help for African Americans. And there's the vividness with which he depicts black popular culture--try as he might to criticize those lindy hops at Boston's Roseland dance hall from the perspective of his Muslim faith, he can't help but make them sound pretty wonderful. These are but a few examples. The Autobiography of Malcolm X limns an archetypal journey from ignorance and despair to knowledge and spiritual awakening. When Malcolm tells coauthor Alex Haley, "People don't realize how a man's whole life can be changed by one book," he voices the central belief underpinning every attempt to set down a personal story as an example for others. Although many believe his ethic was directly opposed to Martin Luther King Jr.'s during the civil rights struggle of the '60s, the two were not so different. Malcolm may have displayed a most un-Christian distaste for loving his enemies, but he understood with King that love of God and love of self are the necessary first steps on the road to freedom. --Wendy Smith [via]
More editions of The Autobiography of Malcolm X:
› Find signed collectible books: 'The Autobiography of Malcolm X'
Malcolm X's searing memoir belongs on the small shelf of great autobiographies. The reasons are many: the blistering honesty with which he recounts his transformation from a bitter, self-destructive petty criminal into an articulate political activist, the continued relevance of his militant analysis of white racism, and his emphasis on self-respect and self-help for African Americans. And there's the vividness with which he depicts black popular culture--try as he might to criticize those lindy hops at Boston's Roseland dance hall from the perspective of his Muslim faith, he can't help but make them sound pretty wonderful. These are but a few examples. The Autobiography of Malcolm X limns an archetypal journey from ignorance and despair to knowledge and spiritual awakening. When Malcolm tells coauthor Alex Haley, "People don't realize how a man's whole life can be changed by one book," he voices the central belief underpinning every attempt to set down a personal story as an example for others. Although many believe his ethic was directly opposed to Martin Luther King Jr.'s during the civil rights struggle of the '60s, the two were not so different. Malcolm may have displayed a most un-Christian distaste for loving his enemies, but he understood with King that love of God and love of self are the necessary first steps on the road to freedom. --Wendy Smith [via]
More editions of The Autobiography of Malcolm X:

› Find signed collectible books: 'The Color of Water'
Order this book ... and please don't be put off by its pallid subtitle, A Black Man's Tribute to His White Mother, which doesn't begin to do justice to the utterly unique and moving story contained within. The Color of Water tells the remarkable story of Ruth McBride Jordan, the two good men she married, and the 12 good children she raised. Jordan, born Rachel Shilsky, a Polish Jew, immigrated to America soon after birth; as an adult she moved to New York City, leaving her family and faith behind in Virginia. Jordan met and married a black man, making her isolation even more profound. The book is a success story, a testament to one woman's true heart, solid values, and indomitable will. Ruth Jordan battled not only racism but also poverty to raise her children and, despite being sorely tested, never wavered. In telling her story--along with her son's--The Color of Water addresses racial identity with compassion, insight, and realism. It is, in a word, inspiring, and you will finish it with unalloyed admiration for a flawed but remarkable individual. And, perhaps, a little more faith in us all. [via]
More editions of The Color of Water:
› Find signed collectible books: 'The Color of Water: A Black Man's Tribute to His White Mother'
Order this book ... and please don't be put off by its pallid subtitle, A Black Man's Tribute to His White Mother, which doesn't begin to do justice to the utterly unique and moving story contained within. The Color of Water tells the remarkable story of Ruth McBride Jordan, the two good men she married, and the 12 good children she raised. Jordan, born Rachel Shilsky, a Polish Jew, immigrated to America soon after birth; as an adult she moved to New York City, leaving her family and faith behind in Virginia. Jordan met and married a black man, making her isolation even more profound. The book is a success story, a testament to one woman's true heart, solid values, and indomitable will. Ruth Jordan battled not only racism but also poverty to raise her children and, despite being sorely tested, never wavered. In telling her story--along with her son's--The Color of Water addresses racial identity with compassion, insight, and realism. It is, in a word, inspiring, and you will finish it with unalloyed admiration for a flawed but remarkable individual. And, perhaps, a little more faith in us all. [via]
More editions of The Color of Water: A Black Man's Tribute to His White Mother:
› Find signed collectible books: 'Diario'
More editions of Diario:
› Find signed collectible books: 'Eleanor of Aquitaine: A Life'
Renowned in her time for being the most beautiful woman in europe, the wife of two kings and mother of three, eleanor of aquitaine was one of the great heroines of the middle ages. Despite the fact she lived in an age in which women were regarded as little more than chattel, eleanor managed to defy convention as she exercised power in the political sphere and crucial influence over her husbands and sons. In this beautifully written new biography, alison weir, author of five widely acclaimed chronicles of england's royal rulers, paints a vibrant portrait of this truly exceptional woman, and provides new insights into her intimate life.born in 1122 into the sophisticated and cultured court of poitiers, eleanor came of age in a world of luxury, intrigue, bloody combat, and unbridled ambition. At only fifteen, she inherited one of the great fortunes of europe--the prize duchy of aquitaine--yet her father had been shrewd enough to realize that her future security lay in a powerful marriage. Consequently the sensual duchess submitted to a union with the handsome but sexually withholding louis vii, the teenage king of france. The marriage endured for fifteen fraught years, until eleanor finally succeeded in having it annulled--only to enter an even stormier match with the aggressively virile, hot-tempered henry of anjou, who would soon ascend to the english throne as henry ii.as weir traces the fascinating intersection of public and private lives in europe's twelfth-century courts, eleanor comes to life as a complex, boldly original woman who transcended the mores of society. Eventually, after enduring henry's flagrant infidelities, she showed herself a formidable and dangerous enemy of the king's interests by plotting to overthrow him with their sons henry, richard, and geoffrey. [via]
More editions of Eleanor of Aquitaine: A Life:
› Find signed collectible books: 'Galileo's Daughter'
Everyone knows that Galileo Galilei dropped cannonballs off the leaning tower of Pisa, developed the first reliable telescope, and was convicted by the Inquisition for holding a heretical belief--that the earth revolved around the sun. But did you know he had a daughter? In Galileo's Daughter, Dava Sobel (author of the bestselling Longitude) tells the story of the famous scientist and his illegitimate daughter, Sister Maria Celeste. Sobel bases her book on 124 surviving letters to the scientist from the nun, whom Galileo described as "a woman of exquisite mind, singular goodness, and tenderly attached to me." Their loving correspondence revealed much about their world: the agonies of the bubonic plague, the hardships of monastic life, even Galileo's occasional forgetfulness ("The little basket, which I sent you recently with several pastries, is not mine, and therefore I wish you to return it to me").
While Galileo tangled with the Church, Maria Celeste--whose adopted name was a tribute to her father's fascination with the heavens--provided moral and emotional support with her frequent letters, approving of his work because she knew the depth of his faith. As Sobel notes, "It is difficult today ... to see the Earth at the center of the Universe. Yet that is where Galileo found it." With her fluid prose and graceful turn of phrase, Sobel breathes life into Galileo, his daughter, and the earth-centered world in which they lived. --Sunny Delaney [via]
› Find signed collectible books: 'Galileo's Daughter: A Historical Memoir of Science, Faith, and Love'
Everyone knows that Galileo Galilei dropped cannonballs off the leaning tower of Pisa, developed the first reliable telescope, and was convicted by the Inquisition for holding a heretical belief--that the earth revolved around the sun. But did you know he had a daughter? In Galileo's Daughter, Dava Sobel (author of the bestselling Longitude) tells the story of the famous scientist and his illegitimate daughter, Sister Maria Celeste. Sobel bases her book on 124 surviving letters to the scientist from the nun, whom Galileo described as "a woman of exquisite mind, singular goodness, and tenderly attached to me." Their loving correspondence revealed much about their world: the agonies of the bubonic plague, the hardships of monastic life, even Galileo's occasional forgetfulness ("The little basket, which I sent you recently with several pastries, is not mine, and therefore I wish you to return it to me").
While Galileo tangled with the Church, Maria Celeste--whose adopted name was a tribute to her father's fascination with the heavens--provided moral and emotional support with her frequent letters, approving of his work because she knew the depth of his faith. As Sobel notes, "It is difficult today ... to see the Earth at the center of the Universe. Yet that is where Galileo found it." With her fluid prose and graceful turn of phrase, Sobel breathes life into Galileo, his daughter, and the earth-centered world in which they lived. --Sunny Delaney [via]
More editions of Galileo's Daughter: A Historical Memoir of Science, Faith, and Love:
› Find signed collectible books: 'Georgiana: Duchess of Devonshire'
Georgiana Spencer was, in a sense, an 18th-century It Girl. She came from one of England's richest and most landed families (the late Princess Diana was a Spencer too) and married into another. She was beautiful, sensitive, and extravagant--drugs, drink, high-profile love affairs, and even gambling counted among her favorite leisure-time activities. Nonetheless, she quickly moved from a world dominated by social parties to one focused on political parties. The duchess was an intimate of ministers and princes, and she canvassed assiduously for the Whig cause, most famously in the Westminster election of 1784. By turns she was caricatured and fawned on by the press, and she provided the inspiration for the character of Lady Teazle in Richard Sheridan's famous play The School for Scandal. But her weaknesses marked the last part of her life. By 1784, for one, Georgiana owed "many, many, many thousands," and her creditors dogged her until her death.
Biographer Amanda Foreman describes astutely the mess that surrounded the personal relationships of the aristocratic subculture (Georgiana and the duke engaged for many years in a ménage à trois with Lady Elizabeth Fraser, who inveigled her way into the duke's bed and the duchess's heart). Foreman is, by her own admission, a little in love with her subject, which can lead to occasional lapses of perspective, but generally it adds zest to a narrative built on, rather than burdened by, scholarship, that is at once accessible and learned. An impressive debut, in every sense. --David Vincent, Amazon.co.uk [via]
More editions of Georgiana: Duchess of Devonshire:
› Find signed collectible books: 'Good Bye to All That: An Autobiography'
The quintessential memoir of the generation of Englishmen who suffered in World War I is among the bitterest autobiographies ever written. Robert Graves's stripped-to-the-bone prose seethes with contempt for his class, his country, his military superiors, and the civilians who mindlessly cheered the carnage from the safety of home. His portrait of the stupidity and petty cruelties endemic in England's elite schools is almost as scathing as his depiction of trench warfare. Nothing could equal Graves's bone-chilling litany of meaningless death, horrific encounters with gruesomely decaying corpses, and even more appalling confrontations with the callousness and arrogance of the military command. Yet this scarifying book is consistently enthralling. Graves is a superb storyteller, and there's clearly something liberating about burning all your bridges at 34 (his age when Good-Bye to All That was first published in 1929). He conveys that feeling of exhilaration to his readers in a pell-mell rush of words that remains supremely lucid. Better known as a poet, historical novelist, and critic, Graves in this one work seems more like an English Hemingway, paring his prose to the minimum and eschewing all editorializing because it would bring him down to the level of the phrase- and war-mongers he despises. --Wendy Smith [via]
More editions of Good-Bye to All That:

› Find signed collectible books: 'Hermit of Peking: The Hidden Life of Sir Edmund Backhouse'
Sir Edmund Backhouse lived like a hermit, but swindled millions in fake deals. A witty piece of historical sleuthing. [via]
More editions of Hermit of Peking: The Hidden Life of Sir Edmund Backhouse:
› Find signed collectible books: 'If Chins Could Kill: Confessions of A B Movie Actor'
More editions of If Chins Could Kill: Confessions of A B Movie Actor:
› Find signed collectible books: 'In the Eye of the Storm: The Life of General H. Norman Schwarzkopf'
General Norman Schwartzkopf has done much to bridge the gap between America's military establishment and the general public that was the legacy of the wars in Vietnam and elsewhere. Drawing on interviews with Schwartzkopf's family, friends and colleagues, as well as conversations with the General himself, this book provides an account of his life, from childhood in New Jersey and Iran, through student days, military training, Vietnam and Grenada, to his leadership of the Allied forces in the Gulf War. The story culminates with his acclaimed development and implementation of Operation Desert Storm, the success of which shot him to worldwide fame. [via]
More editions of In the Eye of the Storm: The Life of General H. Norman Schwarzkopf:
› Find signed collectible books: 'J. R. R. Tolkien: Author of the Century'
More editions of J. R. R. Tolkien: Author of the Century:

› Find signed collectible books: 'James Boswell's Life of Johnson: An Edition of the Original Manuscript'
More editions of James Boswell's Life of Johnson: An Edition of the Original Manuscript:
› Find signed collectible books: 'James Boswell's Life of Johnson: An Edition of the Original Manuscript in Four Volumes, 1766-1776'
Marshall Waingrow's opus magnum is not a corrected edition of the printed text of Boswell's Life of Johnson. Rather, Waingrow presents an edition of the manuscript which enables us to follow Boswell's compositional process through successive revisions. [via]
More editions of James Boswell's Life of Johnson: An Edition of the Original Manuscript in Four Volumes, 1766-1776:
› Find signed collectible books: 'John Adams'
Left to his own devices, John Adams might have lived out his days as a Massachusetts country lawyer, devoted to his family and friends. As it was, events swiftly overtook him, and Adams--who, David McCullough writes, was "not a man of the world" and not fond of politics--came to greatness as the second president of the United States, and one of the most distinguished of a generation of revolutionary leaders. He found reason to dislike sectarian wrangling even more in the aftermath of war, when Federalist and anti-Federalist factions vied bitterly for power, introducing scandal into an administration beset by other difficulties--including pirates on the high seas, conflict with France and England, and all the public controversy attendant in building a nation.
Overshadowed by the lustrous presidents Washington and Jefferson, who bracketed his tenure in office, Adams emerges from McCullough's brilliant biography as a truly heroic figure--not only for his significant role in the American Revolution but also for maintaining his personal integrity in its strife-filled aftermath. McCullough spends much of his narrative examining the troubled friendship between Adams and Jefferson, who had in common a love for books and ideas but differed on almost every other imaginable point. Reading his pages, it is easy to imagine the two as alter egos. (Strangely, both died on the same day, the 50th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence.) But McCullough also considers Adams in his own light, and the portrait that emerges is altogether fascinating. --Gregory McNamee [via]
› Find signed collectible books: 'Las Cenizas De Angela: Una Memoria/Angela's Ashes a Memoir'
More editions of Las Cenizas De Angela: Una Memoria/Angela's Ashes a Memoir:
› Find signed collectible books: 'A Life of Johnson'
James Boswell is for some the ideal scribe, for others a sycophantic toady. Edmund Wilson, for example, memorably labeled him "a vain and pushing diarist." Boswell can even be seen as someone unconsciously intent on undermining his idol in sonorous, balanced sentences. Early on in his massive Life, he puts all manner of ideas into our heads with his boobish attempts to clear the youthful Johnson of potential impropriety: "His juvenile attachments to the fair sex were, however, very transient; and it is certain that he formed no criminal connection whatsoever." And while it's often tempting to ignore Boswell's more personal intrusions and delight solely in the melancholic master's words and deeds, there are suchdelightful admissions as, "I was at this time so occupied, shall I call it? or so dissipated, by the amusements of London that our next meeting was not till Saturday, June 25..."
Samuel Johnson was born in 1709 and died in 1784--a long life, though one marred by depression and fear of death. On April 20, 1764, for example, he declared, "I would consent to have a limb amputated to recover my spirits." Many of the quotes Boswell includes are a sort of greatest hits: Johnson's definitions of oats and lexicographer, his love for his cat Hodge, as well as thousands of bon, and mal, mots. ("Patriotism is the last refuge of the scoundrel"; "Sir, a woman's preaching is like a dog's walking on his hinder legs. It is not done well; but you are surprized to find it done at all.") But there are also many unfamiliar pleasures--Boswell's accounts of Johnson's literary industry, including the Dictionary, The Rambler, and Lives of the Poets; Johnson's singular loathing for Scotland and France; and the surprising hints of revelry. Awakened at 3 AM by friends, he greets them with, "What, is it you, you dogs! I'll have a frisk with you." This at age 42. Johnson's final years were marked by pain and loneliness but certainly no loss of wit. [via]
› Find signed collectible books: 'The Life of Samuel Johnson'
James Boswell is for some the ideal scribe, for others a sycophantic toady. Edmund Wilson memorably labeled him "a vain and pushing diarist." Boswell can even be seen as someone unconsciously intent on undermining his idol in sonorous, balanced sentences. Early on in his massive Life, he puts all manner of ideas into our heads with his boobish attempts to clear the youthful Johnson of potential impropriety: "His juvenile attachments to the fair sex were, however, very transient; and it is certain that he formed no criminal connection whatsoever." And while it's often tempting to ignore Boswell's more personal intrusions and delight solely in the melancholic master's words and deeds, there are delightful admissions as, "I was at this time so occupied, shall I call it? or so dissipated, by the amusements of London that our next meeting was not till Saturday, June 25..."
Samuel Johnson was born in 1709 and died in 1784--a long life, though one marred by depression and fear of death. On April 20, 1764, for example, he declared, "I would consent to have a limb amputated to recover my spirits." Many of the quotes Boswell includes are a sort of greatest hits: Johnson's definitions of oats and lexicographer, his love for his cat Hodge, as well as thousands of bon, and mal, mots. ("Patriotism is the last refuge of the scoundrel"; "Sir, a woman's preaching is like a dog's walking on his hinder legs. It is not done well; but you are surprized to find it done at all.") But there are also many unfamiliar pleasures--Boswell's accounts of Johnson's literary industry, including the Dictionary, The Rambler and Lives of the Poets; Johnson's singular loathing for Scotland and France; and the surprising hints of revelry. Awakened at 3 AM by friends, he greets them with, "What, is it you, you dogs! I'll have a frisk with you." This at age 42. Johnson's final years were marked by pain and loneliness but certainly no loss of wit. [via]
More editions of The Life of Samuel Johnson:
› Find signed collectible books: 'Life of Samuel Johnson L.L.d'
James Boswell is for some the ideal scribe, for others a sycophantic toady. Edmund Wilson, for example, memorably labeled him "a vain and pushing diarist." Boswell can even be seen as someone unconsciously intent on undermining his idol in sonorous, balanced sentences. Early on in his massive Life, he puts all manner of ideas into our heads with his boobish attempts to clear the youthful Johnson of potential impropriety: "His juvenile attachments to the fair sex were, however, very transient; and it is certain that he formed no criminal connection whatsoever." And while it's often tempting to ignore Boswell's more personal intrusions and delight solely in the melancholic master's words and deeds, there are suchdelightful admissions as, "I was at this time so occupied, shall I call it? or so dissipated, by the amusements of London that our next meeting was not till Saturday, June 25..."
Samuel Johnson was born in 1709 and died in 1784--a long life, though one marred by depression and fear of death. On April 20, 1764, for example, he declared, "I would consent to have a limb amputated to recover my spirits." Many of the quotes Boswell includes are a sort of greatest hits: Johnson's definitions of oats and lexicographer, his love for his cat Hodge, as well as thousands of bon, and mal, mots. ("Patriotism is the last refuge of the scoundrel"; "Sir, a woman's preaching is like a dog's walking on his hinder legs. It is not done well; but you are surprized to find it done at all.") But there are also many unfamiliar pleasures--Boswell's accounts of Johnson's literary industry, including the Dictionary, The Rambler, and Lives of the Poets; Johnson's singular loathing for Scotland and France; and the surprising hints of revelry. Awakened at 3 AM by friends, he greets them with, "What, is it you, you dogs! I'll have a frisk with you." This at age 42. Johnson's final years were marked by pain and loneliness but certainly no loss of wit. [via]
More editions of Life of Samuel Johnson L.L.d:
› Find signed collectible books: 'Living History'
As with most books written by politicians while in office (or at least aiming for one), Living History is, first and foremost, safe. There are interesting observations and anecdotes, the writing is engaging, and there is enough inside scoop to appeal to those looking for a bit of gossip, but there are no bombshells here and it is doubtful the book will change many minds about this polarizing figure. This does not mean the work is without merit, however, for Hillary Clinton has much to say about her experience as first lady, which is the primary focus of the book. Those interested in these experiences and her commentary on them will find the book worth reading; those looking for revelations will be disappointed.
Beginning with a brief outline of her childhood, college years, introduction to politics, and her courtship with Bill Clinton, Clinton covers a wide variety of topics: life on the campaign trail, her troubled tenure as leader of the President's Task Force on National Health Care Reform, meeting with foreign leaders, and her work on human rights, to name a few. By necessity, she also addresses the various scandals that plagued the administration, from Travelgate to Whitewater to impeachment, though she does not go into great detail about each one; rather, she seems content to simply state her case and move on without trying to settle too many old scores.
Along the way, she offers many apologies, though perhaps not the kind some would expect. She does not shy away from her "vast right-wing conspiracy" comment, for instance, though she does wish that she had expressed herself differently. Regarding the Monica Lewinsky scandal, she maintains that her husband initially lied to her, as he did the rest of the country, and did not come clean until two days prior to his grand jury testimony. Calling his betrayal "the most devastating, shocking and hurtful experience of my life," she explains what the aftermath was like personally and why she has elected to stand by her man. In all, Living History is an informative book that goes a long way toward humanizing one of the most recognizable, and controversial, women of our age. Shawn Carkonen [via]
More editions of Living History:
› Find signed collectible books: 'The Magehound'
More editions of The Magehound:
› Find signed collectible books: 'Mi vida en rose / Me Talk Pretty One Day'
More editions of Mi vida en rose / Me Talk Pretty One Day:

› Find signed collectible books: 'My American Journey'
The story of Colin Powell is the classic American story, or at least, it's what we like to think the classic American story should be. The son of hard-working Jamaican immigrants, Powell was born in Harlem, grew up in the racially integrated South Bronx, attended the City College of New York, joined the R.O.T.C. and discovered his passion for things military. After stints in Korea, Vietnam and Germany he made his most important marks in the Pentagon bureaucracy, cultivating civilian and military contacts and advancing above his colleagues on an express ride through the ranks. As the ultimate insider, Powell is coveted by both political parties, but questions his own ability to switch from military hero to politician. [via]
More editions of My American Journey: An Autobiography:
› Find signed collectible books: 'My Life'
Loved and reviled, respected and resented, Bill Clinton is one of the more polarizing and complex politicians of our age. As the 42nd President, he presided over a period of dizzying economic growth and technological progress, and achieved such foreign policy successes as the ratification of NAFTA, helping to bring several former Eastern Bloc nations into NATO, and assisting China's entrance into the World Trade Organization. His time in office was also marked by a string of scandals, most notably the Monica Lewinsky debacle and the subsequent impeachment trial, which largely overshadowed his triumphs.
Just 53 years old when he left office, Clinton continues to keep a high profile, having formed the William J. Clinton Presidential Foundation to focus on the battle against HIV/AIDS around the world; racial, ethnic, and religious reconciliation; economic empowerment of poor people; nd leadership development and citizen service. His memoir, My Life, due out on June 30, 2004, is an opportunity for Clinton to reveal his political philosophy and perspective on past events as well as a chance to influence his own place in history. [via]
› Find signed collectible books: 'Speak, Memory'
Even if you already own Nabokov's earthy, otherworldly account of his astounding life, you must buy this 1999 edition. And if you've never read Speak, Memory, you must do so at once. This volume is essential because it includes the unpublished last chapter, a pseudo-review comparing Speak, Memory with another, nonexistent memoir called When Lilacs Last. (That title refers to Whitman's poem on Lincoln's assassination and to the lilacs of Nabokov's childhood home) Chapter 16 is a key to what the imaginary reviewer accurately calls a "unique freak as autobiographies go," revealing its novel-like nature and unifying themes and images (chess, puzzles, spirals, jewels, rainbows, exile, the stained-glass shadow patterns that the future casts on the present). Maybe Nabokov thought he gave too much away, and one sees the formal superiority of ending the book with chapter 15. But the added essay is a gem that dazzles and illuminates.
You have to consult biographies like Brian Boyd's for the full, remarkable facts of Nabokov's life. A millionaire at 17 (his sister danced in Diaghilev gowns with Fabergé gems at the Winter Palace), repeatedly exiled, forced to bust out of one chrysalis after another into new lives, the writer retained only the infinite wealth of his memory and art. This book is a mosaic shaped by a mind so metaphorical that, as a babe, Nabokov perceived letters as colors, the alphabet as a rainbow.
The loss of his father is at Speak, Memory's core. This memoir is worth owning for a single paragraph alone, about the sight of Nabokov senior being tossed aloft by grateful peasants he'd been generous to--a dozen or so with locked arms flinging him up in a hip-hip-hooray ritual.
There, for an instant, the figure of my father in his wind-rippled white summer suit would be displayed, gloriously sprawled in midair.... Thrice, to the mighty heave-ho of his invisible tossers, he would fly up ... and then there he would be, on his last and loftiest flight, reclining, as if for good, against the cobalt blue of the summer noon, like one of those paradisiac personages who comfortably soar, with such a wealth of folds in their garments, on the vaulted ceiling of a church while below, one by one, the wax tapers in mortal hands light up to make a swarm of minute flames in the mist of incense, and the priest chants of eternal repose, and funeral lilies conceal the face of whoever lies there, among the swimming lights, in the open coffin.Nabokov recaptures the paradise of his youth, and acquits himself of the coldness of which some accuse him. He plays literary games, but he plays for keeps. --Tim Appelo [via]
› Find signed collectible books: 'Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman!'
A series of anecdotes shouldn't by rights add up to an autobiography, but that's just one of the many pieces of received wisdom that Nobel Prize-winning physicist Richard Feynman (1918-88) cheerfully ignores in his engagingly eccentric book, a bestseller ever since its initial publication in 1985. Fiercely independent (read the chapter entitled "Judging Books by Their Covers"), intolerant of stupidity even when it comes packaged as high intellectualism (check out "Is Electricity Fire?"), unafraid to offend (see "You Just Ask Them?"), Feynman informs by entertaining. It's possible to enjoy Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman simply as a bunch of hilarious yarns with the smart-alecky author as know-it-all hero. At some point, however, attentive readers realize that underneath all the merriment simmers a running commentary on what constitutes authentic knowledge: learning by understanding, not by rote; refusal to give up on seemingly insoluble problems; and total disrespect for fancy ideas that have no grounding in the real world. Feynman himself had all these qualities in spades, and they come through with vigor and verve in his no-bull prose. No wonder his students--and readers around the world--adored him. --Wendy Smith [via]
More editions of Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman!:
› Find signed collectible books: 'Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman!: Adventures of a Curious Character'
A series of anecdotes shouldn't by rights add up to an autobiography, but that's just one of the many pieces of received wisdom that Nobel Prize-winning physicist Richard Feynman (1918-88) cheerfully ignores in his engagingly eccentric book, a bestseller ever since its initial publication in 1985. Fiercely independent (read the chapter entitled "Judging Books by Their Covers"), intolerant of stupidity even when it comes packaged as high intellectualism (check out "Is Electricity Fire?"), unafraid to offend (see "You Just Ask Them?"), Feynman informs by entertaining. It's possible to enjoy Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman simply as a bunch of hilarious yarns with the smart-alecky author as know-it-all hero. At some point, however, attentive readers realize that underneath all the merriment simmers a running commentary on what constitutes authentic knowledge: learning by understanding, not by rote; refusal to give up on seemingly insoluble problems; and total disrespect for fancy ideas that have no grounding in the real world. Feynman himself had all these qualities in spades, and they come through with vigor and verve in his no-bull prose. No wonder his students--and readers around the world--adored him. --Wendy Smith [via]
More editions of Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman!: Adventures of a Curious Character:
› Find signed collectible books: 'Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman!: Adventures of a Curious Character'
A series of anecdotes shouldn't by rights add up to an autobiography, but that's just one of the many pieces of received wisdom that Nobel Prize-winning physicist Richard Feynman (1918-88) cheerfully ignores in his engagingly eccentric book, a bestseller ever since its initial publication in 1985. Fiercely independent (read the chapter entitled "Judging Books by Their Covers"), intolerant of stupidity even when it comes packaged as high intellectualism (check out "Is Electricity Fire?"), unafraid to offend (see "You Just Ask Them?"), Feynman informs by entertaining. It's possible to enjoy Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman simply as a bunch of hilarious yarns with the smart-alecky author as know-it-all hero. At some point, however, attentive readers realize that underneath all the merriment simmers a running commentary on what constitutes authentic knowledge: learning by understanding, not by rote; refusal to give up on seemingly insoluble problems; and total disrespect for fancy ideas that have no grounding in the real world. Feynman himself had all these qualities in spades, and they come through with vigor and verve in his no-bull prose. No wonder his students--and readers around the world--adored him. --Wendy Smith [via]
More editions of Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman!: Adventures of a Curious Character:
› Find signed collectible books: 'Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman!: Adventures of a Curious Character'
A series of anecdotes shouldn't by rights add up to an autobiography, but that's just one of the many pieces of received wisdom that Nobel Prize-winning physicist Richard Feynman (1918-88) cheerfully ignores in his engagingly eccentric book, a bestseller ever since its initial publication in 1985. Fiercely independent (read the chapter entitled "Judging Books by Their Covers"), intolerant of stupidity even when it comes packaged as high intellectualism (check out "Is Electricity Fire?"), unafraid to offend (see "You Just Ask Them?"), Feynman informs by entertaining. It's possible to enjoy Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman simply as a bunch of hilarious yarns with the smart-alecky author as know-it-all hero. At some point, however, attentive readers realize that underneath all the merriment simmers a running commentary on what constitutes authentic knowledge: learning by understanding, not by rote; refusal to give up on seemingly insoluble problems; and total disrespect for fancy ideas that have no grounding in the real world. Feynman himself had all these qualities in spades, and they come through with vigor and verve in his no-bull prose. No wonder his students--and readers around the world--adored him. --Wendy Smith [via]
More editions of Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman!: Adventures of a Curious Character:
› Find signed collectible books: 'Theodore Rex'
In this lively biography, Edmund Morris returns to the gifted, energetic, and thoroughly controversial man whom the novelist Henry James called "King Theodore." In his two terms as president of the United States, Roosevelt forged an American empire, and he behaved as if it was his destiny. In this sequel to his Pulitzer Prize-winning biography The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt, Morris charts Roosevelt's accomplishments: the acquisition of the Panama Canal and the Philippines, the creation of national parks and monuments, and more. "Collaring Capital and Labor in either hand," Morris writes, Roosevelt made few friends, but he usually got what he wanted--and earned an enduring place in history.
Morris combines a fine command of the era's big issues with an appreciation for the daily minutiae involved in governing a nation. Less controversially inventive, but no less readable, than the Ronald Reagan biography Dutch, Theodore Rex gives readers new reason both to admire and fault an American phenomenon. --Gregory McNamee [via]
› Find signed collectible books: 'Truman'
This warm biography of Harry Truman is both an historical evaluation of his presidency and a paean to the man's rock-solid American values. Truman was a compromise candidate for vice president, almost an accidental president after Roosevelt's death 12 weeks into his second term. Truman's stunning come-from-behind victory in the 1948 election showed how his personal qualities of integrity and straightforwardness were appreciated by ordinary Americans, perhaps, as McCullough notes, because he was one himself. His presidency was dominated by enormously controversial issues: he dropped the atomic bomb on Japan, established anti-Communism as the bedrock of American foreign policy, and sent U.S. troops into the Korean War. In this winner of the 1993 Pulitzer Prize, McCullough argues that history has validated most of Truman's war-time and Cold War decisions. [via]
› Find signed collectible books: 'Tuesdays With Morrie: An Old Man, a Young Man, and Lifes Greatest Lesson'
Maybe it was a grandparent, or a teacher or a colleague. Someone older, patient and wise, who understood you when you were young and searching, and gave you sound advice to help you make your way through it. For Mitch Albom, that person was Morrie Schwartz, his college professor from nearly twenty years ago. Maybe, like Mitch, you lost track of this mentor as you made your way, and the insights faded. Wouldn't you like to see that person again, ask the bigger questions that still haunt you? Mitch Albom had that second chance. He rediscovered Morrie in the last months of the older man's life. Knowing he was dying of ALS - or motor neurone disease - MItch visited Morrie in his study every Tuesday, just as they used to back in college. Their rekindled relationship turned into one final 'class': lessons in how to live. TUESDAYS WITH MORRIE is a magical chronicle of their time together, through which Mitch shares Morrie's lasting gift with the world. [via]
More editions of Tuesdays With Morrie: An Old Man, a Young Man, and Lifes Greatest Lesson:
› Find signed collectible books: 'Antes Que Anochezca'
El 7 de diciembre de 1990 el escritor cubano Reinaldo Arenas, en fase terminal del SIDA, se suicidaba en Nueva York dejando este estremecedor testimonio personal y politico, que termino apenas unos dias antes de poner fin a su vida. Arenas, en efecto, reunia las tres condiciones mas idoneas para convertirse en uno de los muchos opositores engendrados por los dirigentes cubanos: ser escritor, homosexual y disidente. [via]
More editions of Antes Que Anochezca:
› Find signed collectible books: 'Cenizas de Angela /Angela's Ashes'
More editions of Cenizas de Angela /Angela's Ashes:
› Find signed collectible books: 'Las Cenizas De Angela: Una Memoria/Angela's Ashes a Memoir'
En cada pagina abunda el incomparable sentido del humor y la compasion de Frank McCourt. Con todas las cualidades de una obra clasica, "Las cenizas de Angela" esta ahora disponible en edicion rustica en espanol. Esta autobiografia ganadora del Premio Pulitzer y de gran exito de ventas internatcional trasciende las fronteras culturales y linguisticas con su narracion sobre la infancia, la pobreza y las relaciones familiares. [via]
More editions of Las Cenizas De Angela: Una Memoria/Angela's Ashes a Memoir:
› Find signed collectible books: 'Diario / Diary'
Anne Frank's diary is a modern classic, the living testimony of a Jewish girl caught in the nightmare horror of Hitler's Final Solution. Her extraordinary story can be read in over 50 languages, and millions of copies are in print in various editions throughout the world. [via]
More editions of Diario / Diary:
› Find signed collectible books: 'Diario De Ana Frank/Diary of Anne Frank'
Tras la invasion de Holanda, los Frank, comerciantes judios alemanes emigrados a Amsterdam en 1933, se ocultaron de la Gestapo en una buhardilla anexa al edificio donde el padre de Ana tenia sus oficinas. Estas ocho personas permanecieron recluidas desde junio de 1942 hasta agosto de 1944, fecha en que fueron detenidos y enviados a diversos campos de concentracion. En esta buhardilla y en las mas precarias condiciones, Ana, a la sazon una nina de trece anos, escribio un estremecedor Diario: un testimonio unico en su genero sobre el horror y la barbarie nazi, y sobre los sentimientos y experiencias de la propia Ana y de sus acompanantes. Ana murio en el campo de Bergen-Belsen en marzo de 1945. Su Diario nunca morira. [via]
More editions of Diario De Ana Frank/Diary of Anne Frank:
› Find signed collectible books: 'En Mil Pedazos/a Million Pieces'
Intense, unpredictable, and instantly engaging, A Million Little Pieces is a story of drug and alcohol abuse and rehabilitation as it has never been told before. Recounted in visceral, kinetic prose, and crafted with a forthrightness that rejects goodness, cynicism, and self-pity, it brings us face-to-face with a provocative new understanding of the nature of addiction and the meaning of recovery. A Million Little Pieces is the fight between one young mans will and the ever-tempting chemical trip to oblivion, the fight to survive on his own terms, for reasons close to his own heart.
Description in Spanish: Imagina que te despiertas en un avión. No tienes ni idea de dónde has estado ni de adónde vas. No recuerdas nada de las dos últimas semanas. Imagina que te faltan cuatro dientes, que tienes la nariz rota y una herida en la mejilla. Imagina que vas sin cartera, sin dinero, y no tienes trabajo. Imagina que te está buscando la policía. Imagina que eres alcohólico desde hace diez años y adicto al crack desde hace tres. ¿Qué harías?
A los veintitrés años, James Frey ingresó en un centro de desintoxicación. Destruido física y mentalmente de forma casi irremediable, debía enfrentarse a una difícil decisión: aceptar que no llegaría a cumplir los veinticuatro, o cambiar drásticamente el curso de su vida. Rodeado de pacientes en la misma situación entre los que había un juez, un pandillero, un boxeador que había sido campeón mundial y una frágil ex prostituta, Frey luchó contra el dogma de «Cómo recuperarse» para conseguir encontrar su propio camino, y decidir qué futuro, si le esperaba alguno, era el que quería alcanzar.
Aclamado por la crítica como todo un fenómeno literario y best seller desde los primeros días de su publicación, En mil pedazos es el testimonio inusualmente sincero de un hombre cuyo furioso impulso de autodestrucción sólo es comparable a su inagotable deseo de sobrevivir. [via]
More editions of En Mil Pedazos/a Million Pieces:
› Find signed collectible books: 'Encuentros Con Morrie'
En marzo de 1995, el escritor Mitch Albom viajó cerca de mil kilómetros para pasar una tarde con un hombre moribundo -Morrie Schwartz, su antiguo profesor de sociología- y encontró algo que no se esperaba. Aunque Schwartz estaba reducido a una silla de ruedas y se encontraba en las fases finales de una terrible enfermedad, estaba viviendo uno de los momentos más productivos de su vida: trabajando en un libro de aforismos, rodeado de amigos y estudiantes, difundiendo su sabiduría a través de un conocido programa de televisión. "Entonces pensé", dice Albom, "yo tengo 37 años y estoy en perfecto estado de salud. Él tiene 78 y se está muriendo; sin embargo, él parece definitivamente más feliz y satisfecho".
Éste fue el inicio de la serie de encuentros que dieron lugar a este libro y que constituyen la mayor lección que alguien puede recibir. En sus encuentros, que siempre tienen lugar los martes, Morrie y Mitch hablan sobre todas las cosas importantes de la vida, pero sobre todo Morrie comparte con su antiguo alumno lo que ha aprendido de la vida desde el momento en que supo que iba a morir. Y su mensaje, para sorpresa de todos, es una lección de optimismo, entereza, amor y generosidad. Al final, como dice Albom, "Encuentros con Morrie no es en absoluto un libro acerca de la muerte. Es un libro acerca de cómo vivir bien y encontrar la satisfacción".
"Mientras nos queramos unos a otros y tengamos presente el sentimiento del amor que tuvimos, podemos morir sin irnos del todo. Todo el amor que uno creó queda allí. Todos los recuerdos siguen allí. Uno sigue viviendo en los corazones de todos los que tocó y quiso mientras estuvo aquí... La muerte es el final de una vida, pero no de una relación", le dice Morrie a Mitch, en uno de sus últimos encuentros. [via]
More editions of Encuentros Con Morrie:
› Find signed collectible books: 'Historia Viva / Living History'
FonoLibro se enorgullece en presentar el audiolibro el bestseller "Historia Viva" de Hillary Rodham Clinton, en una excelente producción con una hermosa música.
En Historia Viva, Hillary Rodham Clinton describe con franqueza, humor, pasión sobre su formación como mujer durante una agitada época de cambios sociales y políticos en los Estados Unidos y sobre sus años en la Casa Blanca. Cuenta la historia de su aventura de treinta años en el amor y la política junto a Bill Clinton, en la que logró sobrevivir a traiciones personales, investigaciones partidistas sin tregua y el escrutinio constante del público. Y ofrece también un reflejo claro de sus ideas y opiniones acerca de los temas políticos de mayor actualidad: salud, relaciones internacionales, derechos humanos, de la mujer y mucho más. Historia Viva, un audiolibro íntimo, poderoso e inspirador, captura la esencia de esta mujer excepcional y el proceso arduo a través del cual llegó a definirse y encontrar su propia voz como madre, esposa y una de las figuras más formidables en la historia de la política estadounidense.
"Historia Viva es la vida de la ex primera dama de los Estados Unidos. Y, como era de esperarse, habla de todo: desde como conoció a Bill Clinton hasta su sorpresa y enojo cuando se enteró del romance con Mónica Lewinsky. Es el libro de una mujer fuerte, que quiere dejar atrás el pasado, porque su futuro pudiera estar algún día, otra vez en la Casa Blanca." Jorge Ramos, autor, periodista. [via]More editions of Historia Viva / Living History:
› Find signed collectible books: 'Leer Lolita En Teheran'
More editions of Leer Lolita En Teheran:

› Find signed collectible books: 'Het Achterhuis: Dagboekbrieven 12 Juni 1942-1 Augustus 1944'
More editions of Het Achterhuis: Dagboekbrieven 12 Juni 1942-1 Augustus 1944:
