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books tagged “Biography” (biography)
books tagged “Biography”
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1994 American Guide to U.S. Coinsby Charles F. French, John AdlerISBN 0671781243 (0-671-78124-3)
Softcover, Simon & Schuster
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A. A. Milne: His Lifeby Ann ThwaiteISBN 0394587243 (0-394-58724-3)
Hardcover, Random House Publishing Group
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› Find signed collectible books: 'A. A. Milne: His Life'Book summary:A study of the life of A.A.Milne, from his childhood, when he was educated at his father's school Henley House and taught by H.G.Wells, through his early days on "Granta" and "Punch", to the flowering of his careeer in the 1920s and 1930s. Milne wrote a series of West End plays, including "Mr Pim Passes By", and numbered among his friends P.G.Wodehouse and J.M.Barrie. It was for his son, born in 1920, that Milne wrote the four great children's books of his maturity: "When We Were Very Young", "Now We are Six", "Winnie the Pooh" and "The House at Pooh Corner". Revealing Milne's complexity, this biography tells of his strong political feelings, his often difficult personal relationships, and how his successful children's books became an almost intolerable burden. Ann Thwaite was awarded the 1990 Whitbread Biography of The Year for this book. [via]
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Aliveby Piers Paul ReadISBN 039701001X (0-397-01001-X)
Hardcover, Lippincott Williams & Wilkins
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Alive'Book summary:In October 1972 an aircraft carrying a party of Uruguayan rugby players and their friends took off from Argentina to fly over the Andes to Chile. It crashed in the mountains in dense cloud, and some of the 45 passengers were killed. The survivors soon realized, by listening to their transistor radio, that the search party had been called off because nobody could be expected to survive at that altitude in so savage a climate. As the days passed, weakened by starvation and sub-zero temperatures, they had to face the inescapable truth - that, in order to survive, they must eat the flesh of their dead companions. How these young men finally sent out "expeditionaries" to brave the Andean peaks and how, after appalling hardships, they achieved rescue and returned to civilization 72 days after the crash, is recounted in this tale of human courage and triumph. The author is a novelist whose books include "The Free Frenchman" and "On the Third Day". [via]
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Assassination Vacationby Sarah VowellISBN 074326004X (0-7432-6004-X)
Softcover, Simon & Schuster
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Assassination Vacation'Book summary:A New York Times Bestseller
Sarah Vowell exposes the glorious conundrums of American history and culture with wit, probity, and an irreverent sense of humor. From Buffalo to Alaska, Washington to the Dry Tortugas, she visits locations immortalized and influenced by the spilling of politically important blood. The resulting narrative is the disturbing and fascinating story of how American death has been manipulated by popular culture. [via]
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Autobiographyby Bertrand RussellISBN 041522862X (0-415-22862-X)
Softcover, Routledge
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Autobiography of a Faceby Lucy GrealyISBN 0395657806 (0-395-65780-6)
Hardcover, Houghton Mifflin
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The Beatlesby Hunter DaviesISBN 0393315711 (0-393-31571-1)
Softcover, W W Norton & Co Inc
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The Beatles: The Authorised Biographyby Hunter DaviesISBN 0434176044 (0-434-17604-4)
Hardcover, Heinemann
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› Find signed collectible books: 'The Beatles: The Authorised Biography'Book summary:Theres only one book that ever truly got inside the Beatles and this is it. The landmark, worldwide bestseller that has grown with the Beatles ever since. During 1967 and 1968 Hunter Davies spent eighteen months with the Beatles at the peak of their powers as they defined a generation and rewrote popular music. As their only ever authorised biographer he had unparalleled access not just to John, Paul, George and Ringo but to friends, family and colleagues. There when it mattered, he collected a wealth of intimate and revealing material that still makes this the classic Beatles book the one all other biographers look to. Hunter Davies remained close with the band and as such has had access to more information over the years. This 40th anniversary edition contains new material which has never been revealed before, from the author's archives and from the Beatles themselves, that will bring new insights to their legend. [via]
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Beethoven's Hairby Russell MartinISBN 076790351X (0-7679-0351-X)
Softcover, Bantam Dell Pub Group
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Beethoven's Hair'Book summary:A well-publicized 1994 Sotheby's auction listed, among other musical artifacts and ephemera on the block, a lock of Beethoven's hair. The high-bidders of the hair, two Beethoven enthusiasts, were easy enough to identify by their oddball names: one was a doctor named Che Guevara, the other a retired real estate developer named Ira Brilliant. But the real story, as author Russell Martin attempts to explain in this book, is how did the lock end up on the auction block? More important, can we learn anything from a 175-year-old snippet of hair? Somehow, author Russell Martin attempts to weave biographical information about Beethoven's life with scientific findings about his hair (the two buyers had the lock DNA-tested), as well as trace the path the hair took, from the great composer's head right into the present.
It's a tall order and one at which Martin partially succeeds. His facts about Beethoven and Ferdinand Hiller (the original keeper of the lock) are solid, but he hypothesizes at length about how the hair ended up in a small port town in Denmark during the Nazi occupation. Likewise, he spends nearly the entire second half of the book describing the lives of Guevara and Brilliant, occasionally sounding more like a press agent than a journalist. Subtitled "An Extraordinary Historical Odyssey and a Musical Mystery Solved," Beethoven's Hair doesn't truly solve any musical mysteries, but it is a fascinating, original read for Beethoven-philes who want to learn a little bit more about their favorite composer. --Jason Verlinde [via]
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Beethoven's Hair: An Extraordinary Historical Odyssey and a Scientific Mystery Solvedby Russell MartinISBN 0767903501 (0-7679-0350-1)
Hardcover, Broadway Books
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Beethoven's Hair: An Extraordinary Historical Odyssey and a Scientific Mystery Solved'Book summary:A well-publicized 1994 Sotheby's auction listed, among other musical artifacts and ephemera on the block, a lock of Beethoven's hair. The high-bidders of the hair, two Beethoven enthusiasts, were easy enough to identify by their oddball names: one was a doctor named Che Guevara, the other a retired real estate developer named Ira Brilliant. But the real story, as author Russell Martin attempts to explain in this book, is how did the lock end up on the auction block? More important, can we learn anything from a 175-year-old snippet of hair? Somehow, author Russell Martin attempts to weave biographical information about Beethoven's life with scientific findings about his hair (the two buyers had the lock DNA-tested), as well as trace the path the hair took, from the great composer's head right into the present.
It's a tall order and one at which Martin partially succeeds. His facts about Beethoven and Ferdinand Hiller (the original keeper of the lock) are solid, but he hypothesizes at length about how the hair ended up in a small port town in Denmark during the Nazi occupation. Likewise, he spends nearly the entire second half of the book describing the lives of Guevara and Brilliant, occasionally sounding more like a press agent than a journalist. Subtitled "An Extraordinary Historical Odyssey and a Musical Mystery Solved," Beethoven's Hair doesn't truly solve any musical mysteries, but it is a fascinating, original read for Beethoven-philes who want to learn a little bit more about their favorite composer. --Jason Verlinde [via]
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Bismarck : The Man and the Statesmanby A. J. P. TaylorISBN 0750932740 (0-7509-3274-0)
Softcover, Sutton Publishing
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Bismarck : The Man and the Statesman'Book summary:Treating Bismarck as a man of his time, the author surveys his political policy and actions as well as investigating the psychology of a man whose life and achievements continue to be a source of controversy. [via]
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Bismarck:the Man and the Statesman: The Man and the Statesmanby A.J.P. TaylorISBN 0450001245 (0-450-00124-5)
Hardcover, New English Library
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Bismarck, the Man and the Statesmanby Alan John Percivale TaylorISBN 0394703871 (0-394-70387-1)
Softcover, Random House Inc
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Bismarck, the Man and the Statesman'Book summary:J.P.Taylor broke new ground in this study, first published in 1955, of one of the most influential figures in Germany's history. Treating Bismarck as a man of his times, he surveys his political policy and actions, as well as investigating the psychology of a man whose life and achievements continue to be a subject of controversy. [via]
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Byron: Child of Passion, Fool of Fameby Benita EislerISBN 0679740856 (0-679-74085-6)
Softcover, Random House Inc
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Byron: Child of Passion, Fool of Fame'Book summary:"Obscured by the freedom fighter, fashion leader, fallen angel, and literary bad boy, Byron the great poet has tended to be forgotten," writes Benita Eisler in the closing chapter of her monumental biography, which goes a long way toward depicting George Gordon, Lord Byron (1788-1824) in a more balanced fashion. Even in his own era, when the first edition of Childe Harold's Pilgrimage sold out in three days, whispers of incest, homosexuality, and--far worse in Tory England--political radicalism grew so insistent that they drove Byron out of his homeland. Eisler's comprehensive narrative does ample justice to the impassioned love affairs that made him notorious, from his voluptuous half-sister, Augusta Leigh, to the erratic and vengeful Lady Caroline Lamb, who famously described him as "mad, bad, and dangerous to know." Let's face it, those juicy stories are half the reason we want to read about Byron, but Eisler gives us the other half, too, reminding her readers with lengthy quotes and intelligent exegesis that Don Juan is one of the greatest poems in English, and Byron one of the most influential and important poets. Her impeccably researched text is lucid about Byron's beliefs, candid about his faults, and persuasively ardent about his genius. --Wendy Smith [via]
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Carrington: A Lifeby Gretchen Holbrook GerzinaISBN 039331328X (0-393-31328-X)
Softcover, W W Norton & Co Inc
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Constantine the Great: The Man and His Timesby Michael GrantISBN 0684195208 (0-684-19520-8)
Hardcover, Simon & Schuster
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The Cross and the Switchbladeby David R. WilkersonISBN 0515090255 (0-515-09025-5)
Softcover, Berkley Pub Group
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› Find signed collectible books: 'The Cross and the Switchblade'Book summary:The astonishing true story of Wilkerson's outreach to New York teens trapped by drugs and gangs. Over 14 million copies in print! [via]
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The Cross and the Switchbladeby John Sherrill, Elizabeth Sherrill, David R. WilkersonISBN 0800780094 (0-8007-8009-4)
Softcover, Baker Pub Group
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› Find signed collectible books: 'The Cross and the Switchblade'Book summary:The tortured face of a young killer, one of seven boys on trial for a brutal murder, started country preacher David Wilkerson on his lonely crusade to the most dangerous streets in the world. Violent gangs ruled by warlords, drug pushers and pimps held the streets of New York's ghettoes in an iron grip. It was into this world that David Wilkerson stepped, armed only with the simple message of God's love and the promise of the Holy Spirit's power. Then the miracles began to happen... The Cross and the Switchblade is one of the most inspiring and challenging true stories of all time. It has sold millions of copies throughout the world and has been made into a feature film. [via]
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Eleanor Roosevelt: 1884-1933by Blanche Wiesen CookISBN 067080486X (0-670-80486-X)
Hardcover, Penguin Group USA
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Eleanor Roosevelt: 1884-1933'Book summary:Interesting read! [via]
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Elizabeth Gaskell: A Habit of Storiesby Jenny UglowISBN 0571151825 (0-571-15182-5)
Hardcover, Faber and Faber
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God: A Biographyby Jack MilesISBN 0679743685 (0-679-74368-5)
Softcover, Random House Inc
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› Find signed collectible books: 'God: A Biography'Book summary:Treating the Bible as a literary text is a standard approach in certain areas of scholarship. Jack Miles' innovation is to treat God as the main protagonist of this literary work, and to analyze his "character" as revealed in the text. Miles, a former Jesuit who studied in Rome and Jerusalem, and has a doctorate in Near Eastern languages, analyzed the Hebrew Bible (for the most part like the Old Testament, but ordered differently) to arrive at his literary exegesis. This God, it is clear, is certainly a complex character. Undoubtedly male, but possessed of seemingly multiple personalities, He is alternately creator/destroyer, protector/executioner, and warrior/lawgiver. Miles' "reading" of God, whose proactive role at the beginning develops into a passive silent presence, is entertaining, thoughtful and a worthy winner of the 1996 Pulitzer Prize. [via]
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Grantby Jean Edward SmithISBN 0684849275 (0-684-84927-5)
Softcover, Simon & Schuster
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Grant'Book summary:Ulysses S. Grant was the first four-star general in the history of the United States Army and the only president between Andrew Jackson and Woodrow Wilson to serve eight consecutive years in the White House. As general in chief, Grant revolutionized modern warfare. Rather than capture enemy territory or march on Southern cities, he concentrated on engaging and defeating the Confederate armies in the field, and he pursued that strategy relentlessly. As president, he brought stability to the country after years of war and upheaval. He tried to carry out the policies of Abraham Lincoln, the man he admired above all others, and to a considerable degree he succeeded. Yet today, Grant is remembered as a brilliant general but a failed president. In this comprehensive biography, Jean Edward Smith reconciles these conflicting assessments of Grant's life. He argues convincingly that Grant is greatly underrated as a president. Following the turmoil of Andrew Johnson's administration, Grant guided the nation through the post- Civil War era, overseeing Reconstruction of the South and enforcing the freedoms of new African-American citizens. His presidential accomplishments were as considerable as his military victories, says Smith, for the same strength of character that made him successful on the battlefield also characterized his years in the White House. Grant was the most unlikely of military heroes: a great soldier who disliked the army and longed for a civilian career. After graduating from West Point, he served with distinction in the Mexican War. Following the war he grew stale on frontier garrison postings, despaired for his absent wife and children, and began drinking heavily. Heresigned from the army in 1854, failed at farming and other business endeavors, and was working as a clerk in the family leathergoods store when the Civil War began. [via]
Groucho, Harpo, Chico and Sometimes Zeppo: A History of the Marx Brothers and a Satire on the Rest of the Worldby Joe AdamsonISBN 0671470728 (0-671-47072-8)
Softcover, Simon & Schuster
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- Groucho, Harpo, Chico and Sometimes Zeppo: A History of the Marx Brothers and a Satire on the Rest of the World: ISBN 0671214586 (0-671-21458-6)
Hardcover, Simon and Schuster - Groucho, Harpo, Chico and Sometimes Zeppo: A History of the Marx Brothers and a Satire on the Rest of the World: ISBN 0671470728 (0-671-47072-8)
Softcover, Simon & Schuster
- Groucho, Harpo, Chico and Sometimes Zeppo: A History of the Marx Brothers and a Satire on the Rest of the World: ISBN 0671214586 (0-671-21458-6)
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Growing Upby Russell BakerISBN 0451168380 (0-451-16838-0)
Softcover, New Amer Library
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Growing Up'Book summary:Russell Baker won the 1982 Pulitzer Prize for this biography/autobiography about growing up in the backwoods of Virginia, in a New Jersey Commuter town, and in the Depression-shadowed urban landscape of Baltimore, all happening between the world wars. Baker introduces us to the people that impacted his early life, and he also discusses powerful love, awkward sex, and courage in the face of adversity. The Great Depression provided the backdrop against success, and to help his mother and family through it, he delivered papers and hustled subscriptions of the Saturday Evening Post, which introduced him to bullies, mentors, and heroes who faced national disaster with hard work and good cheer. [via]
Helen and Teacher: The Story of Helen Keller and Anne Sullivan Macyby Joseph P. LashISBN 0440036542 (0-440-03654-2)
Hardcover, Delacorte Press
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Helen Kellerby Margaret DavidsonISBN 0590424041 (0-590-42404-1)
Softcover, Scholastic
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Helen Keller'Book summary:The bestselling biography of Helen Keller and how, with the commitment and lifelong friendship of Anne Sullivan, she learned to talk, read, and eventually graduate from college with honors. [via]
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A Hope in the Unseen: An American Odyssey from the Inner City to the Ivy Leagueby Ron SuskindISBN 0767901266 (0-7679-0126-6)
Softcover, Bantam Dell Pub Group
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› Find signed collectible books: 'A Hope in the Unseen: An American Odyssey from the Inner City to the Ivy League'Book summary:Ron Suskind won the Pulitzer Prize for feature writing in 1995 for his stories on Cedric Jennings, a talented black teenager struggling to succeed in one of the worst public high schools in Washington, D.C. Suskind has expanded those features into a full-length nonfiction narrative, following Jennings beyond his high-school graduation to Brown University, and in the tradition of Leon Dash's Rosa Lee and Alex Kotlowitz's There Are No Children Here, delivers a compelling story on the struggles of inner-city life in modern America. While it appears to have a happy ending (with Jennings earning a B average in his sophomore year), A Hope in the Unseen is not without a few caveats (at times, Jennings feels profoundly alienated from his white peers). Trite as it may sound to say, this book teaches a lesson about the virtue of perseverance, and it's definitely worth reading. --John J. Miller [via]
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The Illustrated Lark Rise to Candlefordby Flora ThompsonISBN 0712601104 (0-7126-0110-4)
Hardcover, Century Commnctns Unltd
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› Find signed collectible books: 'The Illustrated Lark Rise to Candleford'Book summary:Flora Thompson's memoirs of a childhood spent in the Oxfordshire hamlet of Juniper in the 1880s. [via]
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In Code: A Mathematical Journeyby Sarah Flannery, David FlanneryISBN 0761123849 (0-7611-2384-9)
Hardcover, Workman Pub Co
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› Find signed collectible books: 'In Code: A Mathematical Journey'Book summary:In January 1999, Sarah Flannery, a sports-loving teenager from Blarney in County Cork, Ireland was awarded Ireland's Young Scientist of the Year for her extraordinary research and discoveries in Internet cryptography. The following day, her story began appearing in Irish papers and soon after was splashed across the front page of the London Times, complete with a photo of Sarah and a caption calling her "brilliant." Just 16, she was a mathematician with an international reputation.
In Code is a heartwarming story that will have readers cheering Sarah on. Originally published in England and co-written with her mathematician father, David Flannery, In Code is "a wonderfully moving story . . . about the thrill of the mathematical chase" (Nature) and "a paean to intellectual adventure" (Times Educational Supplement). A memoir in mathematics, it is all about how a girl next door, nurtured by her family, moved from the simple math puzzles that were the staple of dinnertime conversation to prime numbers, the Sieve of Eratosthenes, Fermat's Little Theorem, Googols-- and finally into her breathtaking algorithm. Parallel with each step is a modest girl's own self-discovery--her values, her burning curiosity, the joy of persistence, and, above all, her love for her family. [via]More editions of In Code: A Mathematical Journey:
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Jack: Straight from the Gutby John A. Byrne, Jack WelchISBN 0446690686 (0-446-69068-6)
Softcover, Grand Central Pub
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Jack: Straight from the Gut'Book summary:As CEO of General Electric for the past twenty years, he has built its market cap by more than $450 billion and established himself as the most admired business leader in the world. His championing of initiatives like Six Sigma quality, globalization, and e-business have helped define the modern corporation. At the same time, he's a gutsy boss who has forged a unique philosophy and an operating system that relies on a "boundaryless" sharing of ideas, an intense focus on people, and an informal, give-and-take style that makes bureaucracy the enemy. In anecdotal detail and with self-effacing humor, Jack Welch gives us the people (most notably his Irish mother) who shaped his life and the big hits and the big misses that characterized his career. Starting at GE in 1960 as an engineer earning $10,500, Jack learned the need for "getting out of the pile" when his first raise was the same as everyone else's. He stayed out of the corporate bureaucracy while running a $2 billion collection of GE businesses-in a sweater and blue jeans-out of a Hilton in Pittsfield, Massachusetts. After avoiding GE's Fairfield, Connecticut, headquarters for years, Jack was eventually summoned by then Chairman Reg Jones, who was planning his succession. There ensued one of the most painful parts of his career-Jack's dark-horse struggle, filled with political tension, to make it to the CEO's chair. A hug from Reg confirmed Jack was the new boss-and started the GE transformation. Welch walks us through the "Neutron Jack" years, when GE's employment rolls fell by more than 100,000 as part of a strategy to "fix, sell, or close" each business...and how he used the purchase of RCA to provide a foundation for the company's future earnings. There were mistakes, too-and Jack confronts them openly. In "Too Full of Myself," he describes one of the biggest blunders: the purchase of Kidder Peabody, which ran counter to GE's culture. [via]
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Jack: Straight from the Gutby Jack WelchISBN 0446613649 (0-446-61364-9)
Softcover, Warner Books Inc
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Jane Austen: A Biographyby Elizabeth JenkinsISBN 0575400579 (0-575-40057-9)
Hardcover, Indigo
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Jarhead: A Marine's Chronicle of the Gulf War and Other Battlesby Anthony SwoffordISBN 0743287215 (0-7432-8721-5)
Softcover, Simon & Schuster
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Jarhead: A Marine's Chronicle of the Gulf War And Other Battles'Book summary:In his New York Times bestselling chronicle of military life, Anthony Swofford weaves his experiences in war with vivid accounts of boot camp, reflections on the mythos of the marines, and remembrances of battles with lovers and family. When the U.S. Marines -- or "jarheads" -- were sent to Saudi Arabia in 1990 for the first Gulf War, Anthony Swofford was there. He lived in sand for six months; he was punished by boredom and fear; he considered suicide, pulled a gun on a fellow marine, and was targeted by both enemy and friendly fire. As engagement with the Iraqis drew near, he was forced to consider what it means to be an American, a soldier, a son of a soldier, and a man. [via]
More editions of Jarhead: A Marine's Chronicle of the Gulf War and Other Battles:
- Jarhead: A Marine's Chronicle of the Gulf War and Other Battles: ISBN 0743244915 (0-7432-4491-5)
Softcover, Simon & Schuster - Jarhead: A Marine's Chronicle of the Gulf War and Other Battles: ISBN 0743235355 (0-7432-3535-5)
Hardcover, Simon & Schuster - Jarhead: A Marine's Chronicle of the Gulf War And Other Battles: ISBN 0743287215 (0-7432-8721-5)
Softcover, Simon & Schuster
- Jarhead: A Marine's Chronicle of the Gulf War and Other Battles: ISBN 0743244915 (0-7432-4491-5)
Jesusby A. N. WilsonISBN 0393326330 (0-393-32633-0)
Softcover, W W Norton & Co Inc
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Jesus : A Lifeby A. N. WilsonISBN 0449908070 (0-449-90807-0)
Softcover, Random House Publishing Group
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Johann Sebastian Bach: The Learned Musicianby Christoph WolffISBN 0393322564 (0-393-32256-4)
Softcover, W W Norton & Co Inc
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John Maynard Keynes: A Biography Hope Betrayed, 1883-1920by Robert Jacob Alexander SkidelskyISBN 0670408107 (0-670-40810-7)
Hardcover, Penguin Group USA
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John Maynard Keynes: Fighting for Britain, 1937-1946by Royall Tyler, Robert SkidelskyISBN 0670030228 (0-670-03022-8)
Hardcover, Penguin USA
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› Find signed collectible books: 'John Maynard Keynes: Fighting for Britain, 1937-1946'Book summary:The first two volumes of Robert Skidelsky's definitive and consummate biography of John Maynard Keynes were hailed as publishing events on both sides of the Atlantic. Already published to acclaim in Britain, this third and final volume covers Keynes's later years from 1937 to his death in 1946. During this period, Keynes's outstanding contribution to the financing of Britain's war effort, to the building of the postwar economic order, and his role in Britain's struggle to preserve its independence within the Atlantic alliance solidified the economist's lasting importance in twentieth-century history. Skidelsky lucidly explains Keynes's economic theories and masterfully evokes the complexities of his personality. The book abounds in lively anecdotes and memorable portraits, notably that of his devoted wife, Lydia Lopokova, whose eccentric but utterly logical post-Keynesian existence is charted in a delightful epilogue. Insightful and intelligent, this is a work that tells the story of a passionate and determined visionary and provides an invaluable overview of issues that remain at the center of international political and economic debate. [via]
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Ladies and Gentlemen - Lenny Bruce!!by Lawrence Schiller, Albert Harry GoldmanISBN 0394462742 (0-394-46274-2)
Hardcover, Random House
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Leonardo Da Vinciby Kenneth ClarkISBN 0670809101 (0-670-80910-1)
Hardcover, Penguin Group USA
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Leonardo Da Vinci'Book summary:Explains some basic techniques of Da Vinci by analyzing several of his better-known paintings. [via]
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Man's Search for Meaningby Viktor E. FranklISBN 0671023373 (0-671-02337-3)
Softcover, Pocket Books
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Man's Search for Meaning'Book summary:Man's Search for Meaning by Viktor E. Frankl is among the most influential works of psychiatric literature since Freud. The book begins with a lengthy, austere, and deeply moving personal essay about Frankl's imprisonment in Auschwitz and other concentration camps for five years, and his struggle during this time to find reasons to live. The second part of the book, called "Logotherapy in a Nutshell," describes the psychotherapeutic method that Frankl pioneered as a result of his experiences in the concentration camps. Freud believed that sexual instincts and urges were the driving force of humanity's life; Frankl, by contrast, believes that man's deepest desire is to search for meaning and purpose. Frankl's logotherapy, therefore, is much more compatible with Western religions than Freudian psychotherapy. This is a fascinating, sophisticated, and very human book. At times, Frankl's personal and professional discourses merge into a style of tremendous power. "Our generation is realistic, for we have come to know man as he really is," Frankl writes. "After all, man is that being who invented the gas chambers of Auschwitz; however, he is also that being who entered those gas chambers upright, with the Lord's Prayer or the Shema Yisrael on his lips." [via]
More editions of Man's Search for Meaning:
- Man's Search for Meaning: An Introduction to Logotherapy: ISBN 0671244221 (0-671-24422-1)
Softcover, Simon & Schuster - Man's Search for Meaning: ISBN 067166736X (0-671-66736-X)
Softcover, Pocket Books - Man's Search for Meaning: ISBN 0671834657 (0-671-83465-7)
Softcover, Pocket Books - Man's Search for Meaning: ISBN 0671646702 (0-671-64670-2)
Hardcover, Pocket Books - Man's Search for Meaning: ISBN 0671023373 (0-671-02337-3)
Softcover, Pocket Books
- Man's Search for Meaning: An Introduction to Logotherapy: ISBN 0671244221 (0-671-24422-1)
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Man's Search for Ultimate Meaningby Viktor E. FranklISBN 0738203548 (0-7382-0354-8)
Softcover, Perseus Books Group
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Man's Search for Ultimate Meaning'Book summary:Viktor Frankl, author of the smash bestseller Man's Search for Meaning, offers a more straightforward alternative to traditional Freudian psychoanalysis: one's problems may be rooted in a failure to find a meaning in life beyond one's interior world. The basis for his interpretation, however, is not so straightforward. It lies in Frankl's existential analysis, plumbing for the reasons that people have repressed their consciences, their love, their creativity. By legitimizing a spiritual aspect of the human mind, Frankl has separated us definitively from the animal kingdom, but it is still up to each of us to rise to our human potential. [via]
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Marie Antoinette: The Portrait of an Average Womanby Stefan ZweigISBN 0517553422 (0-517-55342-2)
Softcover, Random House Value Pub
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![[???]: Martin Heidegger: Between Good and Evil](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/P/0674387104.01._SL160_SCLZZZZZZZ__.jpg "Martin Heidegger: Between Good and Evil (0674387104) by [???]")
Martin Heidegger: Between Good and EvilISBN 0674387104 (0-674-38710-4)
Softcover, Harvard Univ Pr
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Martin Heidegger: Between Good and Evilby Rudiger Safranski, Ewald OsersISBN 0674387090 (0-674-38709-0)
Hardcover, Harvard Univ Pr
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Mary Shelleyby Muriel SparkISBN 0452009510 (0-452-00951-0)
Softcover, Penguin USA
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Max Perkins: Editor of Geniusby A. Scott BergISBN 0671681745 (0-671-68174-5)
Softcover, Pocket Books
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Memory Babe: A Critical Biography of Jack Kerouacby Gerald NicosiaISBN 0520085698 (0-520-08569-8)
Softcover, Univ of California Pr
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Mussolini : A Biographyby Denis M. SmithISBN 0394716582 (0-394-71658-2)
Softcover, Knopf Publishing Group
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Mussolini : A Biography'Book summary:fresh and convincing as the leading historian of modern italy in the english speaking world the autor is uniquely qualified for his task while his book may not be psychohistory in the strict sense of the term there hovers in the background of his account the sort of informed professional understanding that has inspired the best work in that centre. [via]
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Mussolini: A Biographyby Dennis MacK SmithISBN 0394506944 (0-394-50694-4)
Hardcover, Random House Inc
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My Dark Places: An L.A. Crime Memoirby James EllroyISBN 0679762051 (0-679-76205-1)
Softcover, Random House Inc
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› Find signed collectible books: 'My Dark Places: An L.A. Crime Memoir'Book summary:James Ellroy's trademark is his language: it is sometimes caustically funny and always brazen. When he's hitting on all cylinders, as he is in My Dark Places, his style makes punchy rhythms out of short sentences using lingo such as "scoot" (dollar), "trim" (sex), and "brace" (to interrogate). But the premise for My Dark Places is what makes it especially compelling: Ellroy goes back to his own childhood to investigate the central mystery behind his obsession with violence against women--the death of his mother when he was 10 years old. It's hard to imagine a more psychologically treacherous, more self-exposing way in which to write about true crime. The New York Times calls it a "strenuously involving book.... Early on, Mr. Ellroy makes a promise to his dead mother that seems maudlin at first: 'I want to give you breath.' But he's done just that and--on occasion--taken ours away." [via]
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Paul: The Mind of the Apostleby A. N. WilsonISBN 0393317609 (0-393-31760-9)
Softcover, W W Norton & Co Inc
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Paul: The Mind of the Apostle'Book summary:A.N. Wilson, who has written revisionist biographies of Jesus, Tolstoy, and C.S. Lewis, trains his critical eye on the first self-identified Christian writer in Paul: The Mind of the Apostle. Wilson's book may purport to be a biography of Paul, but it is really an argument about the origin and nature of Christianity. His premise is that "Jesus was a devoted Jew who did not seek to found a new religion, but to call his followers to a stricter observance of Judaism." It was Paul, not Jesus, who exemplified the central tensions of Christianity. ("Jewish or non-Jewish? Roman or anti-Roman? Apocalyptic or practical?") And according to Wilson, it was Paul who first claimed Jesus' divinity and called Jesus the messiah. Wilson's argument, though heterodox, is no hatchet-job. Paul may be "widely regarded as someone who distorted the original message of Christianity, by adding 'theology' to the supposedly simple message of love Jesus preached," but Wilson sees Paul as "a prophet of liberty, whose visionary sense of the importance of the inner life anticipates the Romantic poets more than the rule-books of the Inquisition." Wilson concludes that Christianity is "an institutionalised distortion of Paul's thought, the inevitable consequence of the world having lasted ... more than nineteen hundred years longer than he predicted." Wilson's prose is just this lively and provocative throughout, and his observations are always skeptical and forgiving: "Paul did not imagine that there would be such a thing as Christianity, or Christian civilization, any more than Jesus did." --Michael Joseph Gross [via]
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Prime Obsession: Bernhard Riemann and the Greatest Unsolved Problem in Mathematicsby John DerbyshireISBN 0452285259 (0-452-28525-9)
Softcover, Penguin Group USA
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Prime Obsession: Bernhard Riemann and the Greatest Unsolved Problem in Mathematics'Book summary:Bernhard Riemann was an underdog of sorts, a malnourished son of a parson who grew up to be the author of one of mathematics' greatest problems. In Prime Obsession, John Derbyshire deals brilliantly with both Riemann's life and that problem: proof of the conjecture, "All non-trivial zeros of the zeta function have real part one-half." Though the statement itself parses as nonsense to anyone but a mathematician, Derbyshire walks readers through the decades of reasoning that led to the Riemann Hypothesis in such a way as to clear it up perfectly. Riemann himself never proved the statement, and it remains unsolved to this day. Prime Obsession offers alternating chapters of step-by-step math and a history of 19th-century European intellectual life, letting readers take a breather between chunks of well-written information. Derbyshire's style is accessible but not dumbed-down, thorough but not heavy-handed. This is among the best popular treatments of an obscure mathematical idea, inviting readers to explore the theory without insisting on page after page of formulae.
In 2000, the Clay Mathematics Institute offered a one-million-dollar prize to anyone who could prove the Riemann Hypothesis, but luminaries like David Hilbert, G.H. Hardy, Alan Turing, André Weil, and Freeman Dyson have all tried before. Will the Riemann Hypothesis ever be proved? "One day we shall know," writes Derbyshire, and he makes the effort seem very worthwhile. --Therese Littleton [via]More editions of Prime Obsession: Bernhard Riemann and the Greatest Unsolved Problem in Mathematics:
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Rebel with a Causeby Franklin GrahamISBN 0785271708 (0-7852-7170-8)
Softcover, Thomas Nelson Inc
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Rebel With a Cause'Book summary:President of Samaritan's Purse and son of acclaimed evangelist Billy Graham, Franklin Graham offers his life story, from his childhood through his rebellious teenage years to his ministry of today. [via]
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Rembrandt's Eyesby Simon Schama, Rembrandt Harmenszoon Van RijnISBN 067940256X (0-679-40256-X)
Hardcover, Random House Inc
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Rembrandt's Eyes'Book summary:For Rembrandt as for Shakespeare, all the world was indeed a stage, and he knew in exhaustive detail the tactics of its performance: the strutting and mincing; the wardrobe and the face paint; the full repertoire of gesture and grimace; the flutter of hands and the roll of the eyes; the belly laugh and the half-stifled sob. He knew what it looked like to seduce, to intimidate, to wheedle, and to console; to strike a pose or preach a sermon; to shake a fist or uncover a breast; how to sin and how to atone; how to commit murder and how to commit suicide. No artist had ever been so fascinated by the fashioning of personae, beginning with his own. No painter ever looked with such unsparing intelligence or such bottomless compassion at our entrances and our exits and the whole rowdy show in between.
More than three centuries after his death, Rembrandt remains the most deeply loved of all the great masters of painting, his face so familiar to us from the self-portraits painted at every stage in his life, yet still so mysterious. As with Shakespeare, the facts of his life are hard to come by: the Leiden miller's son who briefly found fame in Amsterdam, whose genius was fitfully recognized by his contemporaries, who fell into bankruptcy and died in poverty. So there is probably no painter whose life has engendered more legends, nor to whom more unlikely pictures have been attributed (a process now undergoing rigorous reversal). Rembrandt's Eyes, about which Simon Schama has been thinking for more than twenty years, shows that the true biography of Rembrandt is to be discovered in his pictures. Through a succession of superbly incisive descriptions and interpretations of Rembrandt's paintings threaded into this narrative, he allows us to see Rembrandt's life clearly and to think about it afresh.
But this book moves far beyond the bounds of conventional biography or art history. With extraordinary imaginative sympathy, Schama conjures up the world in which Rembrandt moved -- its sounds, smells, and tastes as well as its politics; the influences on him of the wars of the Protestant United Provinces against Spain, of the extreme Calvinism of his native Leiden, of the demands of patrons and the ambitions of contemporaries; the importance of his beloved Saskia and, after her death (Rembrandt was later forced to sell her grave, so complete was his ruin), of his mistress Hendrickje Stoffels; and, above all, the profound effect on him of the great master of the immediately preceding generation, the Catholic painter from Antwerp, Peter Paul Rubens:
"the prince of painters and the painter of princes" with whom Rembrandt was obsessed for the first part of his life, and whose career was the shaping force that drove Rembrandt to test the farthest reaches of his own originality.
Rembrandt's Eyes shows us why Rembrandt is such a thrilling painter, so revolutionary in his art, so penetrating of the hearts of those who have looked for three hundred years at his pictures. Above all, Schama's understanding of Rembrandt's mind and the dynamic of his life allows him to re-create Rembrandt's life on the page. Through a combination of scholarship and literary skill, Schama allows us to actually see that life through Rembrandt's own eyes. In overcoming the paucity of conventional historical evidence, it is the most intelligently true biography of Rembrandt that has been written, and the most dazzling achievement to date of the art historian whose work has been hailed as "marvelously rich and eloquent" . . . "rare, imaginative" . . . "provocative" . . . "astoundingly learned with verve, humor, and an unflagging sense of delight" . . . that of "a master
storyteller . . . and "a master of history."*
*From the New York Times Book Review, Time, The New York Times, The Independent on Sunday, and Nature. [via]More editions of Rembrandt's Eyes:
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Robert Kennedy: His Lifeby Evan ThomasISBN 0743203291 (0-7432-0329-1)
Softcover, Touchstone Books
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Robert Kennedy: His Life'Book summary:In the nation's varied memory, Robert Kennedy is a contradictory figure, a hard-bullying McCarthyite obsessed with Hoffa and Castro but also a gentle, poetry-reading herald of a new age bent on stopping the Vietnam War and lifting up the poor. As Evan Thomas (The Wise Men and Man to See) writes, both liberals and conservatives have their own spin on his legacy, with predictably different visions of what he would have done if he had lived to be our 37th president. As it turns out, none of the Good Bobby/Bad Bobby projections are right, and none are completely wrong either. In sorting through the myths and the truths, Thomas provides a detailed portrait of a man centrally engaged in most of the important issues of the postwar era, and concludes that the best way to understand him is "fear":
He was brave because he was afraid. His monsters were too large and close at hand to simply flee. He had to turn and fight them.... He became a one-man underground, honeycombed with hidden passages, speaking in code, trusting no one completely, ready to face the firing squad--but also knowing when to slip away to fight again another day. Although he affected simplicity and directness, he became an extraordinarily complicated and subtle man. His shaking hands and reedy voice, his groping for words as well as meaning, his occasional resort to subterfuge, do not diminish his daring. Precisely because he was fearful and self-doubting, his story is an epic of courage.
RFK was born after the chosen siblings had been established in the Kennedy clan. He originally had low standing in the family hierarchy. Thomas describes how the "runt" of the family, the one not born and raised for power and whose only ambition was to please the father who ignored him, turned into the essential son, the defender of the family and mediator between Joe Sr. and JFK. He fleshes out Bobby's role in JFK's campaigns, his testy relations with Martin Luther King, his middle-ground stance on integration, his performance during the Cuban missile crisis, and his genuine concern for the poor. He reveals the truth behind such events as the vice-presidential appointment of Lyndon Johnson as well as the famous calls from the Kennedy brothers, which got Martin Luther King out of jail. He also tries to untangle the webs obscuring the Kennedys' involvement in Castro assassination plots, their relations with Marilyn Monroe, and RFK's guilt over his brother's death. And finally, he, too, speculates on what kind of president one of history's great what-ifs might have made. The picture he paints--of a sensitive, courageous, and determined man on the verge of achieving greatness--is more complex and human than any we've had before, and reminds us again of the tragedy of RFK's death. --Lesley Reed [via]
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Shout!: The Beatles in Their Generationby Philip NormanISBN 0743235657 (0-7432-3565-7)
Softcover, Simon & Schuster
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Shout!: The Beatles in Their Generation'Book summary:The intimate chronicle of the history we thought we knew. Over a hundred photographs never before seen. [via]
More editions of Shout!: The Beatles in Their Generation:
- Shout! the Beatles in Their Generation: ISBN 0446322555 (0-446-32255-5)
Softcover, Grand Central Pub - Shout!: The Beatles in Their Generation: ISBN 0671432532 (0-671-43253-2)
Softcover, Simon & Schuster - Shout!: The Beatles in Their Generation: ISBN 0684830671 (0-684-83067-1)
Softcover, Simon & Schuster - Shout!: The Beatles in Their Generation: ISBN 0743235657 (0-7432-3565-7)
Softcover, Simon & Schuster
- Shout! the Beatles in Their Generation: ISBN 0446322555 (0-446-32255-5)
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Sojourner Truth: A Life, a Symbolby Nell Irvin PainterISBN 0393317080 (0-393-31708-0)
Softcover, W W Norton & Co Inc
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Sojourner Truth: A Life, a Symbol'Book summary:Though she was born into slavery and subjected to physical and sexual abuse by her owners, Sojourner Truth, who eventually fled the South for the promise of the North, came to represent the power of individual strength and perseverance. She championed the disadvantaged--black in the South, women in the North--yet spent much of her free life with middle-class whites, who supported her, yet never failed to remind her that she was a second class citizen. Slowly, but surely, Sojourner climbed from beneath the weight of slavery, secured respect for herself, and utilized the distinction of her race to become not only a symbol for black women, but for the feminist movement as a whole. [via]
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A Sorrow in Our Heart: The Life of Tecumsehby Allan W. EckertISBN 055356174X (0-553-56174-X)
Softcover, Bantam Books
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- A Sorrow in Our Heart: The Life of Tecumseh: ISBN 0553080237 (0-553-08023-7)
Hardcover, Bantam Books - Sorrow in Our Heart: The Life of Tecumseh/Limited Edition: ISBN 0553088637 (0-553-08863-7)
Hardcover, Bantam Dell Pub Group - A Sorrow in Our Heart: The Life of Tecumseh: ISBN 055356174X (0-553-56174-X)
Softcover, Bantam Books
- A Sorrow in Our Heart: The Life of Tecumseh: ISBN 0553080237 (0-553-08023-7)
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Stalin: Breaker of Nationsby Robert ConquestISBN 0670840890 (0-670-84089-0)
Hardcover, Penguin Group USA
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Stalin: Breaker of Nations'Book summary:Robert Conquest is the foremost authority on the Stalinist period of Soviet history. The culmination of a lifetime's work, this book is a masterly portrait of a man who 'perhaps more than any other determined the course of the twentieth century'. Conquest focuses on Stalin's terrifying character, perhaps the closest to a monster that humankind has ever produced. Stalin emerges as a man 'unnatural' and 'unreal', who gave his personal authority to the slaughter of millions, but whose vanity demanded their adulation. Most surprisingly, Conquest demonstrates that Stalin's astounding power was not the reward of ability; it was the creation of a man whose mind was 'of profound mediocrity, melded with superhuman willpower'.'There is no one better qualified to write Stalin's life than Robert Conquest, who in his many books about the Stalinist era has told the story with such intimacy, expertise and passion...Conquest tells the tale with an informed hatred for his subject, and a fine sense of irony which makes this book indispensable reading' A.N. Wilson, Evening Standard [via]
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Ted Hughes: The Life of a Poetby Elaine FeinsteinISBN 0393323625 (0-393-32362-5)
Softcover, W W Norton & Co Inc
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Timebends: A Lifeby Arthur MillerISBN 0413414809 (0-413-41480-9)
Hardcover, Methuen
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Waiting for the Party: The Life of Frances Hodgson Burnett 1849-1924by Ann ThwaiteISBN 0436521504 (0-436-52150-4)
Hardcover, Secker & Warburg
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Writing Homeby Alan BennettISBN 0571232418 (0-571-23241-8)
Hardcover, Faber and Faber
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A Year in Provenceby Peter Mayle, Judith ClancyISBN 0679731148 (0-679-73114-8)
Softcover, Random House Inc
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› Find signed collectible books: 'A Year in Provence'Book summary:Who hasn't dreamed, on a mundane Monday or frowzy Friday, of chucking it all in and packing off to the south of France? Provençal cookbooks and guidebooks entice with provocatively fresh salads and azure skies, but is it really all Côtes-du-Rhône and fleur-de-lis? Author Peter Mayle answers that question with wit, warmth, and wicked candor in A Year in Provence, the chronicle of his own foray into Provençal domesticity.
Beginning, appropriately enough, on New Year's Day with a divine luncheon in a quaint restaurant, Mayle sets the scene and pits his British sensibilities against it. "We had talked about it during the long gray winters and the damp green summers," he writes, "looked with an addict's longing at photographs of village markets and vineyards, dreamed of being woken up by the sun slanting through the bedroom window." He describes in loving detail the charming, 200-year-old farmhouse at the base of the Lubéron Mountains, its thick stone walls and well-tended vines, its wine cave and wells, its shade trees and swimming pool--its lack of central heating. Indeed, not 10 pages into the book, reality comes crashing into conflict with the idyll when the Mistral, that frigid wind that ravages the Rhône valley in winter, cracks the pipes, rips tiles from the roof, and tears a window from its hinges. And that's just January.
In prose that skips along lightly, Mayle records the highlights of each month, from the aberration of snow in February and the algae-filled swimming pool of March through the tourist invasions and unpredictable renovations of the summer months to a quiet Christmas alone. Throughout the book, he paints colorful portraits of his neighbors, the Provençaux grocers and butchers and farmers who amuse, confuse, and befuddle him at every turn. A Year in Provence is part memoir, part homeowner's manual, part travelogue, and all charming fun. --L.A. Smith [via]
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