Biography: general Books

Book SynopsisThe gritty, true blue story of two remarkable cops and an equally extraordinary nurse who provided the spirit and smarts that transformed Fear City into the safest big city in America.NEW YORK'S FINEST is the story of a city's transformation through the tireless efforts of Detective Steven McDonald, Nurse Justiniano, Jack Maple, and a host of hero cops-including the great niece of Jazz Age great Josephine Baker-the finest of The Finest.The son and grandson of cops, Officer McDonald was shot and paralyzed from the neck down while on patrol in 1986. The doctors said that if he did survive, he would be better off dead. It was then he came under the care of one Nurse Nina Justiniano. Where the teenage gunman was produced by the worst of Harlem's social ills, she personified its many graces, rescuing Steven from despair and urging him to transcend hate and bitterness.McDonald was then promoted to detective at the urging of NYPD Deputy Commissioner Jack Maple, a postal worker's son who sported a bow tie, Homburg hat, and two-tone shoes as he implemented transformative crime-fighting strategies to deter violent subway robberies. Coming up in the force, Maple had been routinely mocked for imagining the impossible: that Times Square would one day be a destination for families and tourists.Now, resentments and tensions are mounting in the same neighborhoods that most benefited from the careful consideration of officers like McDonald and Maple. But as NEW YORK'S FINEST illustrates, their legacies, and those of people like Nurse Justiniano, may well rescue New York City from its present state of unrest and struggle in the wake of protests and the pandemic.

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Book Synopsis“What did you have? A boy or a girl?” Kyl and Brent imagined it would be years before their child would identify with a gender. Until then… As a first-time parent, Kyl Myers had one aspect dialed in from the start: not being beholden to the boy-girl binary, disparities, or stereotypes from the day a child is born. With no wish to eliminate gender but rather gender discrimination, Kyl and her husband, Brent, ventured off on a parenting path less traveled. Raising a confident, compassionate, and self-aware person was all that mattered. In this illuminating memoir, Kyl delivers a liberating portrait of a family’s choice to dismantle the long-accepted and often-harmful social construct of what it means to be assigned a gender from birth. As a sociologist, Kyl explores the science of gender and sex and the adulthood gender inequities that start in childhood. As a loving parent, Kyl shares the joy of watching an amazing child named Zoomer develop their own agency to grow happily and healthily toward their own gender identity and expression. Candid and surprising, Raising Them is an inspiration to parents and to anyone open to understanding the limitless possibilities of being yourself.Trade Review“Frank and compassionate…An enlightening, much-needed resource for parents hoping to raise their children without limitations.” —Kirkus Reviews (starred review) “This book helps against prejudice…detailed insights…you just have to like the Courtney-Myers family…offers the chance for an informed discussion.” —Tages-Anzeiger (Switzerland)

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Book SynopsisA moving memoir of an inexplicable crime, a family’s loss, and a legacy preserved. Kim Wall was a thirty-year-old Swedish freelance journalist with a rising career. Then, in the summer of 2017, she followed a story that led to an eccentric inventor in Copenhagen. Instead of writing the next day’s headline, she’d become one. As the bizarre events of Kim’s murder unfolded, the world watched in shocked disbelief. For Kim’s distraught parents, Ingrid and Joachim, it was a devastating personal struggle. In the ensuing months, day by grueling day, they had to come to terms with their loss, process the global media attention, and endure the investigation and trial. In the end, they’d make certain that Kim would be seen not only as a victim but as a bright, funny, complicated, ethical, and selfless young woman—a loved and loving daughter, sister, fiancée, colleague, and friend. Kim Wall’s life and promise may have been cut short, but everything she stood for lives on in this emotional memoir of braving the worst of days, moving forward, and never forgetting.Trade Review“[Kim] packed a lifetime’s worth of experience into her 30 years…A tragically short life that will hopefully serve as inspiration.” —Kirkus Reviews “In this tender memoir, the parents of Swedish journalist Kim Wall recount their daughter’s exceptional life and her murder…The authors recall their anguish and pain during the year following their daughter’s death, but also celebrate her life and share their mission to develop a memorial fund to provide young female reporters with support for their work. This is a passionate portrait of a woman’s meaningful life and her contributions to journalism.” —Publishers Weekly “A Silenced Voice is a tapestry of past and present, at once a joyful chronicling of a life well lived and a family’s reckoning with that life being extinguished.” —Marie Claire “In a powerful memoir, Wall’s parents share how they navigated their grief in the aftermath of their daughter’s horrific death and the investigation and trial that followed. Though their subject matter is unthinkably sad, Ingrid and Joachim Wall focus on Kim and the life she led, sharing stories of her passions and ambitions as a journalist, partner and friend.” —TIME “Journalism grants a kind of license to curiosity, legitimizes it, gives it a professional guise…Kim used it to get herself around the world, to report from Cuba, Uganda, and North Korea. But her story also shows how tenuous, how fragile that feeling of permission can be…A Silenced Voice, translated from Swedish by Kathy Saranpa, is about everything else Kim was…If the law represents one form of justice, one of the promises of journalism is to enact another: doing justice to the people you write about, justice to the things they care about, justice to the person behind the story. A Silenced Voice is an exercise in that pained, loving, generous justice. It insists that the story of Kim’s murder include the details only parents remember: childhood ceramics projects, her favorite type of pen, the kinds of presents she brought her family home from travels around the world…The Walls are working to make sure that Kim Wall’s name will not be a warning, but a tag under ambitious investigative pieces, a line on resumes, a ticket, a calling card. Through it all you can see how desperately important it is for them, like it was for her, to get the story right.” —NPR.org “In their jointly written and heart-breaking memoir, Ingrid and Joachim Wall, the parents of murdered Swedish journalist Kim Wall, remember the trauma of their loss and honor the memory of their daughter. A delicate, brave, and beautiful rendering of unimaginable grief.” —CrimeReads

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Book SynopsisAn enthralling biography about one of the most intriguing women of the Victorian age: the first self-invented international social celebrity. Lola Montez was one of the most celebrated and notorious women of the nineteenth century. A raven-haired Andalusian who performed her scandalous “Spider Dance” in the greatest performance halls across Europe, she dazzled and beguiled all who met her with her astonishing beauty, sexuality, and shocking disregard for propriety. But Lola was an impostor, a self-invention. Born Eliza Gilbert, the beautiful Irish wild child escaped a stifling marriage and reimagined herself as Lola the Sevillian flamenco dancer and noblewoman, choosing a life of adventure, fame, sex, and scandal rather than submitting to the strictures of her era. Lola cast her spell on the European aristocracy and the most famous intellectuals and artists of the time, including Alexandre Dumas, Franz Liszt, and George Sand, and became the obsession of King Ludwig I of Bavaria. She then set out for the New World, arriving in San Francisco at the height of the gold rush, where she lived like a pioneer and performed for rowdy miners before making her way to New York. There, her inevitable downfall was every bit as dramatic as her rise. Yet there was one final reinvention to come for the most defiant woman of the Victorian age—a woman known as a “savage beauty” who was idolized, romanticized, vilified, truly known by no one, and a century ahead of her time.Trade Review“Breezy, emphatic…This twisty chronicle of one woman’s quest for independence is mesmerizing.” —Publishers Weekly

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Book SynopsisAn award-winning biography of one of the first undercover journalists—a pioneering Swedish woman who lived a fascinating life of adventure and forbidden love and who changed journalism forever. Born in 1891 in Stockholm, Ester Blenda Nordström defied stereotypes from an early age. She wore trousers, smoked a pipe, and rode motorbikes, much to the chagrin of her esteemed family. As a young woman, she captivated the public as Sweden’s first investigative journalist. Ester’s real passion was uncovering the truth, which she did by inhabiting the lives of others. Under an assumed identity, she toiled as a Swedish milkmaid on a farm, lived for six months with the Indigenous Scandinavian Sami people, and journeyed to America alongside poor emigrants aspiring to a better life. She saved villages from starvation during the Finnish Civil War and joined an expedition to study volcanoes in Siberia. Her groundbreaking reports were received by a spellbound audience and would change journalism forever. But just as Ester’s star was rising, her forbidden love affair with a woman ended in heartbreak, nearly destroying her. Her spectacular adventures and untamed heart concealed an inner turmoil that threatened to silence her powerful voice, but Ester’s life and spirit were ultimately irrepressible. Life in Every Breath brings Ester’s story back to the fore—and showcases one of the most fascinating women of the twentieth century.Trade ReviewPraise for Life in Every Breath “Journalist Bremmer debuts with a tantalizing biography of Sweden’s first investigative reporter, Ester Blenda Nordström…Richly textured and vividly told, this is an intriguing portrait of a pioneering woman and her era.” —Publishers Weekly “Despite her fame, time has made Nordström fade into obscurity, but Bremmer does her justice with a story that remains relevant and captivating today.” —Shondaland International Praise for Life in Every Breath “The strongest biography I have read in a long time, not only because I fell for Ester Blenda’s life-embracing charm early on but more so that Bremmer handles sensitive material in the best way…A book like this, if there is any justice in the literary world, will be richly hailed and rewarded.” —Svenska Dagbladet “Rich, fun, educational…the best title of the year.” —Dagens Nyheter “Life in Every Breath is such a wonderfully straightforward portrait…Fatima Bremmer’s biography is a triumph, both because of her prose and because Blenda Nordström’s life resembles a fantastic melodrama.” —Aftonbladet

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Book SynopsisShe was everything everyone else wanted her to be. Until she followed her own path. Helena Rho was six years old when her family left Seoul, Korea, for America and its opportunities. Years later, her Korean-ness behind her, Helena had everything a model minority was supposed to want: she was married to a white American doctor and had a beautiful home, two children, and a career as an assistant professor of pediatrics. For decades she fulfilled the expectations of others. All the while Helena kept silent about the traumas—both professional and personal—that left her anxious yet determined to escape. It would take a catastrophic event for Helena to abandon her career at the age of forty, recover her Korean identity, and set in motion a journey of self-discovery. In her powerful and moving memoir, Helena Rho reveals the courage it took to break away from the path that was laid out for her, to assert her presence, and to discover the freedom and joy of finally being herself.Trade ReviewAn Amazon Best Book of the Month: Nonfiction “A poignant, personal, sometimes painful chronicle of self-awareness and understanding.” —Kirkus Reviews “As she takes us across three continents, from childhood to middle age, Helena Rho shares the raw truth of what it’s meant to strive for decades to be a good daughter, sister, mother, wife, and physician, all the while navigating the contradictory demands of Eastern and Western cultures. This is a powerfully heartfelt story about seeking the gravity of a place to belong while overcoming regrets and losses along the way. Her honesty is searing and, in the end, inspiring.” —Julia Glass, author of Vigil Harbor and the National Book Award–winning Three Junes “In her devastating memoir, American Seoul, Helena Rho underscores the central truth of being alive: that while we are often helpless to prevent our suffering at the hands of others, we are not helpless to reimagine ourselves, to invent ourselves anew. There are second acts in American lives, and Rho beautifully teaches us what living means after the anguish. She is among the rarest of memoirists who can alchemize experience into art.” —William Giraldi, author of The Hero’s Body “A compelling coming-of-age story of women confronting clashing cultures and helpless alienation written with passion and heroic honesty.” —Lee Gutkind, editor and founder of Creative Nonfiction magazine “In her riveting debut memoir, American Seoul, Helena Rho writes, ‘Perhaps everyone has a flaming wreckage of a life. We can choose to watch it burn. Or we can take the jagged pieces and make a new life with the repaired seams evident, stark and startling and beautiful.’ Here in my margin, I wrote, ‘Ars memoria,’ by which I meant, This is what a memoirist does—what the best memoirists do: they cauterize their words in those flames. Here in this passage, Rho foreshadows herself, for she has written her life as a book that is stark and startling and beautiful.” —Julie Marie Wade, author of Wishbone: A Memoir in Fractures and Just an Ordinary Woman Breathing “American Seoul is a redemptive, often harrowing, and irresistible memoir. Helena Rho handles the complexities of deceit, betrayal, and dire family secrets with intelligence, grace, and courage. Just when you think things can’t get worse, they get worse. But Helena clears the wreckage and moves on to become the person, the writer, she dreamed of being. This is a story so good, so exquisitely told, you’ll want to stand up and cheer when you’ve finished.” —John Dufresne, author of No Regrets, Coyote “A heart-filled, hard-won, and transcendent story of immigration and the generations after by a woman raised in a culture of high expectations. Exhausted, emotionally drained, and suffering from personal and intergenerational trauma, the author must also navigate rivers of the many personal, cultural, and professional ideals of what it means to be strong and confident, humble and self-sacrificing. Successful. Rho became a doctor—for others—and then a writer—for herself—and in making that choice created a way to remake her life. She wrote her way back to her Korean-ness, to wholeness, to becoming Heeseon again, and in doing so brings us all back to wholeness, compassion, and kindness.” —Jenny Forrester, author of Narrow River, Wide Sky “Helena Rho’s American Seoul is the triumphant story of one woman’s fight to reclaim herself, her body, her Korean identity, and her right to tell her story. Rho shows us the cost of being a daughter in a family that prefers sons, a Korean immigrant in an America that celebrates whiteness, and a doctor when her heart longed for a life in the arts. Thankfully, Rho bravely challenged and ultimately discarded the toxic ideas that almost broke her body and her spirit. American Seoul is a gift to the world and a light for anyone still searching for a way out of a life that chafes the spirit.” —Christie Tate, New York Times bestselling author of Group “Helena Rho’s strength is unmistakable from the first pages of her ferocious memoir. Weaving threads of love, trauma, family, and the sometimes long, long journey toward home, Rho shows us how we can be made and unmade and made again. American Seoul is an unflinching chronicle of womanhood, motherhood, and selfhood, told with stark honesty and grace. This book is aria, howl, and lullaby—an unforgettable song.” —Chelsea Biondolillo, author of The Skinned Bird “In her moving memoir, American Seoul, Helena Rho writes unflinchingly about misogyny, racism, and abuse. Her beautiful prose fuels a clear-eyed exploration of her life and its joys and challenges. A memorable debut.” —Cari Luna, author of The Revolution of Every Day “American Seoul is a memoir that uncovers the in-between moments of a life—the shock of a car accident and the fluidity of a mind on the move in the milliseconds of the collision; the speculative spaces of the past in Korea to understand the frailties of parents; the abuse one endures and the trauma that shadows. Helena Rho shares her multiple lives: daughter, mother, wife, doctor, woman. It is a breathtaking tango that circles cultural identity, self-doubt and worth, and the vulnerabilities of living in a country that gives little and takes a lot.” —Ira Sukrungruang, author of This Jade World “Helena Rho’s American Seoul is as breathtaking as it is wise. This is the story of one brave woman’s journey through family, culture, and identity. In the journey from discipline and intellect to compassion and creativity, Helena generously maps out for us how much can be taken as well as how much can be given when one must escape cultural and familial inscription in order to live fully, love fully, and thrive. Sometimes stepping off the path takes more than a leap of faith. Sometimes the leap takes your whole heart.” —Lidia Yuknavitch, author of The Chronology of Water

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Book SynopsisA history of mystic resistance and liberation and of five women who transcended the expected to transform America. For centuries, women who emerge as mystic leaders have played vital roles in American culture. For just as long, they’ve been subjugated and ridiculed. Today, women and others across the nation are once again turning to their mystic powers to #HexThePatriarchy and help fight the forces that seem bent on relegating them to second-class citizenry. Amid this tumult, Lucile Scott looks to the past and the stories of five women over three centuries to form an ancestral spiritual coven: Marie Laveau, the Voodoo Queen of New Orleans; Cora L. V. Scott, nineteenth-century Spiritualist superstar; Helena Blavatsky, mother of Theosophy; Zsuzsanna Budapest, feminist witch and founder of Dianic Wicca; and Marianne Williamson, presidential candidate and preacher of the New Age Gospel of Love. Each, in their own ways, defied masculine preconceptions about power. A scathing queer feminist history and a personal quest for transcendence, An American Covenant opens our eyes to the paths forged by women who inspired the nation in their own times—and who will no longer be forgotten or silenced in ours.Trade ReviewAn Autostraddle fall book to look out for A Lambda Literary most anticipated LGBTQ book of October “Journalist Scott delivers an in-depth look at five ‘feminist mystics’ from American history in her provocative debut…[and] reveals how the female leaders of these movements have risen to prominence and been repressed by the powers that be…In addition to biographical sketches of each woman, Scott provides the historical context for their movements, and details her own search for identity and spiritual solace amid personal turmoil…Scott writes with blunt honesty, a sharp eye for detail, and a strong sense of purpose. The result is an impassioned tribute to the perseverance and radicalism of female spiritual leaders in America.” —Publishers Weekly “In a moment when witches are going mainstream and stepping up to hex corrupt and powerful men, Lucile Scott’s An American Covenant, which centers on five witchy women who influenced American spirituality and culture, couldn’t be more timely to read.” —Bustle “[An American Covenant]’s narrative is focused, its prose is sharp, and the timing of its release—on the eve of an election that has millions worrying over the nation’s soul—is impeccable.” —Washington Independent Review of Books “This book is about another kind of sisterhood: the witchy kind. A reporter on human rights and international health, writer Scott brings her journalist skills to rendering the lives of five ‘mystic’ women who each shaped American culture in some way. Marie Laveau, Cora L. V. Scott, Helena Blavatsky, Zsuzsanna Budapest, and Marianne Williamson all spoke—and hexed—truth to power. Even though they lived over the span of 300 years and weren’t actually in a coven together, Scott argues that these five women all powerfully defied the patriarchy, and makes a compelling case for knowing their fascinating stories.” —Shondaland “Poetic and vulnerable…With An American Covenant, Lucile Scott has unearthed and cohered tales of a particular feminine and queer counterculture across centuries, deftly navigating historical storytelling in which many details have moldered with the years.” —Guernica Magazine “An American Covenant is potent, important, invigorating and even a little spooky. In this delicious blend of memoir and ethnography, Scott has taken us down a rabbit hole that old, crusty, colonial history books should’ve given us should they only have been so honest. I devoured this book, learned a great deal about little known people who shaped the world fiercely, and even discovered a good bit about myself. This is one hell of a book!” —Mira Ptacin, award-winning author of Poor Your Soul and The In-Betweens: The Spiritualists, Mediums, and Legends of Camp Etna “As someone who’s long tried to resist the ‘woo,’ An American Covenant was an eye opening and delightful read. It beautifully strikes a balance between modern day feminism and ancient mysticism that gives all of us permission to embrace the unknown to better shape today’s world.” —Franchesca Ramsey, host of MTV Decoded and author of Well, That Escalated Quickly “Journalist Lucile Scott writes the way Van Gough painted; with swirling use of vivid, colorful prose lavished onto a canvas of dreamy sequences, An American Covenant culminates into a gorgeous work of art worthy of its own exhibition. Scott escorts us along her time-traveling journey, breathing new life into pathways long since forgotten, while showcasing five spectacular women—all mystics, whose influence on our history and inroads into dismantling the patriarchal power structure have never been fully honored. Until now. An absolutely enchanting and enlightening read.” —Victoria Laurie, New York Times bestselling author of Ghoul Interrupted and Ghouls, Ghouls, Ghouls “[Lucile] is the Anthony Bourdain of mysticism.” —Brian Vines, BRIC Media “Lucile Scott has her finger on an important pulse point, a hidden history that flows like a through line in American history. Women mystics have been a transformative underground from our earliest beginnings…and it continues.” —Marianne Williason, author of A Return to Love and A Politics of Love

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Book SynopsisA memoir of struggle, acceptance and empowerment.

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Book SynopsisA rigorously researched biography of the founder of modern magick, as well as a study of the occult, sexuality, Eastern religion, and more The name “Aleister Crowley” instantly conjures visions of diabolic ceremonies and orgiastic indulgences—and while the sardonic Crowley would perhaps be the last to challenge such a view, he was also much more than “the Beast,” as this authoritative biography shows. Perdurabo—entitled after the magical name Crowley chose when inducted into the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn—traces Crowley’s remarkable journey from his birth as the only son of a wealthy lay preacher to his death in a boarding house as the world’s foremost authority on magick. Along the way, he rebels against his conservative religious upbringing; befriends famous artists, writers, and philosophers (and becomes a poet himself); is attacked for his practice of “the black arts”; and teaches that science and magick can work together. While seeking to spread his infamous philosophy of, “Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law,” Crowley becomes one of the most notorious figures of his day. Based on Richard Kaczynski’s twenty years of research, and including previously unpublished biographical details, Perdurabo paints a memorable portrait of the man who inspired the counterculture and influenced generations of artists, punks, wiccans, and other denizens of the demimonde.

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Book SynopsisThe authoritative biography of the 60s countercultural icon who wrote SCUM Manifesto, shot Andy Warhol, and made an unforgettable mark on feminist history.Too drastic, too crazy, too "out there," too early, too late, too damaged, too much—Valerie Solanas has been dismissed but never forgotten. She has become, unwittingly, a figurehead for women''s unexpressed rage, and stands at the center of many worlds. She inhabited Andy Warhol''s Factory scene, circulated among feminists and the countercultural underground, charged men money for conversation, despised "daddy''s girls," and outlined a vision for radical gender dystopia.Known for shooting Andy Warhol in 1968 and for writing the polemical diatribe SCUM Manifesto, Solanas is one of the most famous women of her era. SCUM Manifesto—which predicted ATMs, test-tube babies, the Internet, and artificial insemination long before they existed—has sold more copies, and has been translated into more languages, than nearly all other feminist texts of its time.Shockingly little work has interrogated Solanas''s life. This book is the first biography about Solanas, including original interviews with family, friends (and enemies), and numerous living Warhol associates. It reveals surprising details about her life: the children nearly no one knew she had, her drive for control over her own writing and copyright, and her elusive personal and professional relationships.Valerie Solanas reveals the tragic, remarkable life of an iconic figure. It is “not only a remarkable biographical feat but also a delicate navigation of an unwieldy, demanding, and complex life story” (BOMB Magazine).

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Book SynopsisThe revered Buddhist teacher examines the life of Guru Rinpoche and the awakened state of mind known as "crazy wisdom"Chögyam Trungpa describes "crazy wisdom" as an innocent state of mind that has the quality of early morning—fresh, sparkling, and completely awake. This fascinating book examines the life of Padmasambhava, or Guru Rinpoche—the revered Indian teacher who brought Buddhism to Tibet—to illustrate the principle of crazy wisdom. From this profound point of view, spiritual practice does not provide comfortable answers to pain or confusion. On the contrary, painful emotions can be appreciated as a challenging opportunity for new discovery. In particular, the author discusses meditation as a practical way to uncover one''s own innate wisdom.

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Book SynopsisAt the age of 44, renowned comedian Richard Lewis found himself on a gurney in the ER, toxic with alcohol, and hallucinating from excess cocaine use. The same neuroses and dysfunctions that had been the basis for his successful stage persona and inspired his best material had, it seemed, turned on him. How he got there, how he finally got on the road to recovery, and how he copes with being Richard Lewis sober on a daily basis are the subjects of this very funny, deeply honest, inspiring, but very untreacly book. USA Today called it "candid and inspirational., A journey through Lewis' personal Inferno to eventual salvation."Trade Review"Imagine my surprise when I realized soon after starting this book that the one person to whom I had confided my deepest and most intimate thoughts was a raging alcoholic. I now know more about him than I do about me. A most unfortunate development." Larry David"

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Book SynopsisWritten by the renowned British historian who has been described as both utterly thorough and humanely delicate, Jeremy Black offers a guided tour through the mind of Agatha Christie and life during the Great World Wars. His incomparable treatment of literary craft developing alongside global military engagement nearly overshadows the natural draw of the crime drama that is the subject of his book. Indeed, the “prurience and sensationalism” of crime is not as exciting as Black’s aptitude for drawing the reality from the fiction (and periphery sources), giving Christie a much louder voice than she might ever have dreamed. If Christie is also moralist and mirror to her times, Black here plays his part as the detective and reveals layers of previously unmined truths in her stories. Hercule Poirot as a character is masterfully imagined, but Black shows us how he is inseparable from Christie’s turbulent and changing world. He also illuminates significant social commentary in Christie’s fiction, and in so doing Black often uses his authority to vindicate Christie’s work from hastily, at times stupidly, applied labels and interpretations. He is especially magnificent in his chapters, “Xenophobia” and “The Sixties.” Black nevertheless gives due recognition to Christie’s critics when they have something relevant and reasonable to say, and hence the reader finds yet another service in Black’s comprehensive review of the reviewers over the expanse of Christie’s writing career. For all this, Black proves himself to be a worthy history-teller because he can aptly ‘detect’ the meaning of stories that seeks to answer the past and guide the present. His erudition runs much deeper than his ability to navigate the stores of resources available on the subject, and the reader gets a glimpse of this early on when in the introduction he proffers his own defense for writing about the importance of a Hercule Poirot. Black writes, “the notion of crime had a moral component from the outset, and notably so in terms of the struggle between Good and Evil, and in the detection of the latter. Indeed, it is this detection that is the basis of the most powerful strand of detection story, because Evil disguises its purposes. It has to do so in a world and humanity made fundamentally benign and moral by God.” The Golden Age of detective novels represents much more than a triumph of a literary genre. It is in its own right a story of how the challenge to address the problem of evil was accepted. Its convergence with the plot-rich narrative of the twentieth century in the modern age renders Black’s account a thrilling masterpiece, seducing historians to read fiction and crime junkies to read more history.

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Book SynopsisBaroness Maria Ignatievna Zakrevskaya Benckendorff Budberg hailed from the Russian aristocracy and lived in the lap of luxury—until the Bolshevik Revolution forced her to live by her wits. Thereafter her existence was a story of connivance and stratagem, a succession of unlikely twists and turns. Intimately involved in the mysterious Lockhart affair, a conspiracy which almost brought down the fledgling Soviet state, mistress to Maxim Gorky and then to H.G. Wells, Moura was a woman of enormous energy, intelligence, and charm whose deepest passion was undoubtedly the mythologization of her own life.Recognized as one of the great masters of Russian twentieth-century fiction, Nina Berberova here proves again that she is the unsurpassed chronicler of the lives of Soviet émigrés. In Moura Budberg, a woman who shrouded the facts of her life in fiction, Berberova finds the ideal material from which to craft a triumph of literary portraiture, a book as engaging and as full of life and incident as any one of her celebrated novels.

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Book SynopsisOn April 19, 1967, Air Force Colonel Leo Thorsness was on a mission over North Vietnam when his wingman was shot down by an enemy MiG, which then lined up for a gunnery pass on the two American pilots who had bailed out. Although his F 105 was not designed for aerial combat, Thorsness engaged the MiG and destroyed it. Spotting four more MiGs, he fought his way through a barrage of North Vietnamese SAMs to engage them too, shooting down one and driving off the others. For this action, Thorsness was awarded the Medal of Honor. But he didn't learn about it until years later--by a "tap code" coming through prison walls--because on April 30, Thorsness was shot down, captured, and transported to the Hanoi Hilton. Surviving Hell recounts a six-year captivity marked by hours of brutal torture and days of agonizing boredom. With a novelist's eye for character and detail, Thorsness describes how he and other American POWs strove to keep their humanity. Thrown into solitary confinement for refusing to bow down to his captors, for instance, he disciplined his mind by memorizing long passages of poetry that other prisoners sent him by tap code. Filled with hope and humor, Surviving Hell is an eloquent story of resistance and survival. No other book about American POWs has described so well the strategies these remarkable men used in their daily effort to maintain their dignity. With resilience and resourcefulness, they waged war by other means in the darkest days of a long captivity.Table of Contents1 Medal of Honor Mission 2 Shot Down 3 What I Brought With Me 4 Down the Mountain 5 Tap Code 6 A Day in the Life of 7 Dinnertime 8 Bad Medicine 9 Walking Home 10 The Medal of Honor 11 Solo 12 The Question of Freedom 13 Boredom 14 Prison Science 15 The Lord's Prayer 16 Hanoi Hilton Extension Courses 17 The Home Front 18 Prison Talk 19 Mike's Flag 20 Christmas 1972 21 Leaving Hell 22 Home Index

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Book SynopsisWhy did Henri Cartier-Bresson nearly have a posthumous exhibition while still alive? What led Stephen Shore to work with color? Why was Sophie Calle accused of stealing Vermeer’s The Concert ? And what is Susan Meiselas’s take on Instagram and the future of online storytelling? Aperture Conversations presents a selection of interviews pulled from Aperture’s publishing history, highlighting critical dialogue between photographers, esteemed critics, curators, editors, and artists from 1985 to the present day. Emerging talent along with well-established photographers discuss their work openly and examine the future of the medium. Through the history of Aperture’s booklist, online platform, and Aperture magazine, Aperture Conversations celebrates the artist’s voice, collaborations, and the photography community at large.

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Book SynopsisA multifaceted career-spanning collection from famed activist and journalist David Harris David Harris is a reporter, a clear-eyed idealist, an American dissident, and, as these selected pieces reveal, a writer of great character and empathy. Harris gained national recognition as an undergraduate for his opposition to the Vietnam War and was imprisoned for two years when he refused to comply with the draft. His writings trace a bright throughline of care for and attention to outsiders, the downtrodden, and those who demand change, and these eighteen pieces of long-form journalism, essays, and opinion writings remain startlingly relevant to the world we face today. This career-spanning collection of writings by an always-independent journalist follow Harris from his early days as a prominent leader of the resistance to the Vietnam War, through regular contributions to many publications, including Rolling Stone and the New York Times, and on into the twenty-first century.Born in Fresno and elected student body president of Stanford University in 1966, Harris has always had an undeniably Californian point of view—he imagines the future with an open heart and mind and pursues stories out of genuine curiosity, embedding himself among striking farmworkers, marijuana growers, the homeless on LA’s skid row, and occasionally, redwood trees. Inspiring, clarifying, and fearless, his abiding and lucid patriotism insists that our country live up to its own ideals.Trade Review“David Harris writes like Hemingway would have wanted to—hard, no tricks, pungent, but without Papa’s shoehorning his judgments on everyone’s courage and manhood into his characters’ mouths. This collection of fine pieces perfectly embodies his high moral purpose without lecture or cant. Don’t miss a word he writes.”—PETER COYOTE “This wide-ranging and incisive anthology conveys the spirit of the 1960s and ’70s.”—Publishers Weekly “The author is idealistic in that he believes that the more Americans know about themselves, the better we would be as a people. This idealism is tonic to the common ignorance in American life today. This book would be good reading for those seeking the hard life of an activist and involved citizen. Harris is a fine writer.”—San Francisco Book Review “David Harris’s new collection is a rich buffet of American life in the last few decades, with a tasty array of side dishes from other parts of the world. His curiosity is omnivorous, his sense of humor and irony constant, and his sympathies always with the outliers and the dispossessed. He has no illusions and no pretense to objectivity. I wish we had more journalists like him.”—ADAM HOCHSCHILD, author of Rebel Cinderella: From Rags to Riches to Radical, the Epic Journey of Rose Pastor Stokes “David Harris raises a passionate voice and takes a hard look at justice and injustice in the promised land, his America. He is a writer and a crusader in a grand tradition. I am proud that he got his start at Rolling Stone, where he learned his chops and earned his stripes. His stories, and his own journey, are essential stories of our times.”—JANN WENNER “A powerful, deeply moving portrait of a generation, beautifully written and filled with wisdom and love for his country, David Harris’s My Country ’Tis of Thee should be read by every American.”—RON KOVIC, author of Born on the Fourth of July “David Harris is renowned and honored for his courage and his deep conviction for doing the right thing, no matter the consequences. But that is not only what makes this reporter’s memoir so special. Harris is a writer of sheer beauty, often elegiac; someone whose intelligence is matched by the grace of his prose. He is engaged and engaging, intimate and unpretentious. You will be at ease with the book, as he is with himself.”—SEYMOUR HERSH “Can you be charming and hard hitting at the same time? Well, after reading David Harris’s new book, I’d say definitely yes. And I’d add to the list empathy, sensual intelligence, and an apparently fearless habit of telling the truth.”—SUSAN GRIFFIN “There are journalists, there are intellectuals, and there are political activists. David Harris’s collection makes clear that he is all three, as well as brave, smart, occasionally funny, and simultaneously subversive and patriotic.”—VICTOR NAVASKYTable of ContentsTable of Contents Acknowledgements Introduction I Picked Prison Ask a Marine Our War The Bloody End Behind America's Marijuana high Busted in Mexico The Battle of Coachella Valley Bitter Harvest The Vampires of Skid Row A Child of 'The Land' Michael Murphy and the True Home Field Advantage What Makes David Harris run? São Paulo: Megacity Metamorphosis The agony of the Kurds My Redwood Confession About the Author Note on Type

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Book SynopsisShow-business legend Dick Van Dyke is living proof that life does get better the longer you live it. Who better to offer instruction, advice, and humour than someone who's entering his ninth decade with a jaunty two-step? Van Dyke isn't just a born song-and-dance man his irrepressible belief in embracing the moment and unleashing his inner child has proved to be the ultimate elixir of youth. When he was injured during the filming of Chitty Chitty Bang Bang , his doctor warned him he'd be using a walker within seven years, but Dick performed a soft shoe right there and never looked back.In Keep Moving , Dick Van Dyke offers his own playful anecdotes and advice, as well as insights from his brother, actor Jerry Van Dyke his friend and creator of The Dick Van Dyke Show , Carl Reiner and other spirited friends and family. Whether he's describing the pleasure he takes in his habitual visits to the grocery store how he met his late-in-life-love Arlene or how he sprung back, livelier than ever, from a near-death experience, Dick's optimistic outlook is an invigorating tonic for anyone who needs a reminder that life should be lived with enthusiasm despite what the calendar says. You don't have to act your age. You don't even have to feel it. And if it does attempt to elbow its way into your life, you do not have to pay attention. If I am out shopping and hear music playing in a store, I start to dance. If I want to sing, I sing. I read books and get excited about new ideas. I enjoy myself. I don't think about the way I am supposed to act at my age - or at any age. As far as I know, there is no manual for old age. There is no test you have to pass. There is no way you have to behave. There is no such thing as'age appropriate.'When people ask my secret to staying youthful at an age when getting up and down from your chair on your own is considered an accomplishment, you know what I tell them?'Keep moving.'"- Dick Van DykeTrade Review"Dick Van Dyke has been in our collective consciousness a very long time, from Chitty Chitty Bang Bang and Mary Poppins, to Diagnosis: Murder and The Dick Van Dyke Show. What's the secret to staying young? The popular movie and television stars [says] it's about attitude and staying active...and has a new book to prove it." -- NPR Weekend Edition "In this follow-up to his memoir, My Lucky Life In and Out of Show Business (2011), song-and-dance man Van Dyke relishes his approaching 90th birthday and shares some tips for readers on reaching and enjoying that venerable age...this is determinedly upbeat stuff." -- Kirkus Reviews "Multitalented...[Dick Van Dyke] shares his vast store of knowledge in a memoir that offers tips and truths about...[how to] make living an achievement." -- The Sacramento Bee

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Book Synopsis2017 is the 50th anniversary of The Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund and Karisoke Research Center in Rwanda. Three astounding women scientists have in recent years penetrated the jungles of Africa and Borneo to observe, nurture, and defend humanity's closest cousins. Jane Goodall has worked with the chimpanzees of Gombe for nearly 50 years; Diane Fossey died in 1985 defending the mountain gorillas of Rwanda; and Biruté Galdikas lives in intimate proximity to the orangutans of Borneo. All three began their work as protégées of the great Anglo-African archeologist Louis Leakey, and each spent years in the field, allowing the apes to become their familiars--and ultimately waging battles to save them from extinction in the wild. Their combined accomplishments have been mind-blowing, as Goodall, Fossey, and Galdikas forever changed how we think of our closest evolutionary relatives, of ourselves, and of how to conduct good science. From the personal to the primate, Sy Montgomery--acclaimed author of The Soul of an Octopus and The Good Good Pig--explores the science, wisdom, and living experience of three of the greatest scientists of the twentieth century. Trade ReviewPublishers Weekly- In this study of three great female primatologists, science journalist Montgomery moves beyond biography into ethology, taking a step that goes well beyond even her subjects' research. Goodall, Fossey and Galdikas each made a similar leap, the author contends, moving from observers and recorders to an almost shamanistic quest to enter the world of the apes they studied. These personal transformations are sketchily supported with anecdotes from the field, personal interviews and even a jarring account of an attempt to contact Fossey, after her death, via channeling. Montgomery adds little to Farley Mowat's 1988 biography of Fossey, Woman in the Mists , but she offers a few fresh angles on Goodall, Galdikas and other characters, human and ape, met before in their books. In an epilogue, Montgomery offers the intriguing view of these scientists as pioneers of a particularly female way of scientific knowing that deserves fuller argument than three portraits allow. Photos. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title."This is a book about how love--the power that moves us beyond us and our own self interest to form relationships with an 'other'--can transform lives and worlds.... Author Montgomery brings an admirable grace and kindness to her treatment of the three women's lives and work, affording them, in many ways, the same dignity and respect they offered to the animals they observed and card for so deeply.... It is worth reading simply as expert storytelling, animated by particular and passionate writing."--Cape Cod TimesTable of ContentsPart 1. Nurturers: 1. Biruté Galdikas and Supinah 2. Jane Goodall and Flo 3. Dian Fossey and Digit Part 2. Scientists: 4. The prodigal faith of Louis Leakey 5. "Science with a capital S" 6. The sacrifice of Nyiramachabelli 7. A study in patience Part 3. Warriors: 8. Crusader: The moral dilemma of Jane Goodall 9. Sorceress: The madness of Dian Fossey 10. Diplomat: The politics of Birute Galdikas Epilogue: Shamans

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Book SynopsisRosa Luxemburg is revered as one of the leading socialists of the early 20th century, whose vision for justice and equality continues to resonate throughout workers movements today. Paul Frêlich was one of the founding members of the German Communist Party and a close comrade of Luxemburg's. Striking a balance between personal insight and political analysis, he traces Rosa's development from a humble Polish girl to the most important leader of the German Communist Party.

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Book Synopsis“You know, I actually think about that an awful lot, like, what is our purpose in life? Why am I here? I always think about some little kid being like, ‘What’d you do with your life?’ And me being like, ‘Well, I sold a bunch of floors.’” These are the words of Bjarki Thor Gunnarsson, the young man who manufactures the widest, purest, most metaphorical pine floorboards on the planet. At least, that’s what Matthew Clark believes. Set mostly in rural Maine, Bjarki, Not Bjarki is an expansive book. It is a standard work of journalism, describing with nuance and humanity the people and processes that transform the forest into your floor. It is also a meditation on what it means to know another person and to connect with them, especially in an increasingly polarized America. And it is a ghost story about marriage. It is an inquiry into the limits of language and certainty, a rumination on North American colonization, masculinity, gift cards, crab rangoon, bald eagles, and wood, all of it told in an exciting, energized, and original prose. Bjarki turns out to be someone quite different from whom the author had hoped. A new pine floor buckles. A coyote is shot. A diamond is lost. How do we make sense of the world and of ourselves, especially when the floor beneath us is so unstable; when nothing is quite what we had hoped it would be?Trade Review“Matthew Clark has refinished the floorboards of America with so gently glimmering a new sheen of myth that the smartest among us will immediately invest in the cushiest of slippers for fear of muffling their stories again. Bjarki, Not Bjarki is a masterfully ecstatic, surprising, and humane debut.”—John D’Agata“In Bjarki, Not Bjarki, Matthew Clark is trying to write about everything all at once: love and heartbreak and loss; wood and work and loneliness; friendship and privilege, masculinity and honesty and the sad limitations of both. This is a story that is overflowing with thought and reflection, abundant in self-examination, excessively self-critical, overburdened by its ownership of the past. The result: a lyrical eruption of bittersweet joy, created by a writer who is totally fine in a rapturous state of being lost. Bjarki, Not Bjarki is a lot like the state (Maine) where Clark’s story takes place: full of contradictions and wilderness, always committed to the impossible question of what it means to be a free and honest person in the world. Matthew Clark is a writer who swings for all the fences.”—Jaed Coffin, author, Roughhouse Friday“At the edges of this finely told tale hangs a fog of dark matter (troubles in love, misinformation, guns, insurrection, a jokey racism) while at the center stands a lumber mill in Maine, where men practice a useful craft (as best they can) and befriend one another (ditto). If the fog surrounding them (and us) is ever to lift it will be thanks to voices as attentive, amusing, and generous as that of Matthew Clark. Bjarki, Not Bjarki is the kind of book we need right now.”—Lewis Hyde“Unlike so many of us, Matthew Clark refuses to concede defeat at the hands of our country’s yawning cultural and political divisions. In Bjarki, Not Bjarki, he shows that empathy must be built on actual understanding, and his writing has the self-awareness, the freshness, and the beauty to help us all understand.”—Jeremy Eichler, author, Time’s Echo: The Second World War, the Holocaust, and the Music of Remembrance

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Book SynopsisThe first-ever biography with selected writings of one of the greatest Indian Buddhist masters in history.Few figures in the history of Buddhism in Tibet have had as far-reaching and profound an influence as the Indian scholar and adept Atiśa Dīpaṃkara (982–1054). Originally from Bengal, Atiśa was a tantric Buddhist master during Vajrayana Buddhism’s flowering in India and traveled extensively, eventually spending the remaining twelve years of his life revitalizing Buddhism in Tibet. Revered by all the schools of Tibetan Buddhism, Atiśa and his students founded what came to be known as the Kadam school, whose teachings have influenced countless Buddhist masters. These teachings, cherished by all major traditions, are preserved by the Geluk in particular, the school of the Dalai Lamas.         Although Atiśa was an influential practitioner and scholar of Tantra, he is best known for introducing many of the core Mahayana teachings that are widely practiced throughout the Tibetan Buddhist world, including the Stages of the Path to Awakening and Mind Training (lojong), as well as having contributed to highly influential commentaries on Madhyamaka that synthesize various schools of thought. This succinct biography of Atiśa’s life, together with a collection of translations, represents for the first time the full range of Atiśa’s contribution to Buddhism. As the most comprehensive work available on this essential Buddhist figure, this book is an indispensable resource for scholars and Buddhist practitioners alike.

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Book SynopsisOver the past three years, the notorious @GSElevator Twitter feed has offered a hilarious, shamelessly voyeuristic look into the real world of international finance. Hundreds of thousands followed the account, Goldman Sachs launched an internal investigation, and when the true identity of the man behind it all was revealed, it created a national media sensation - but that's only part of the story. Where @GSElevator captured the essence of the banking elite with curated jokes and submissions overheard by readers, Straight to Hell adds John LeFevre's own story - an unapologetic and darkly funny account of a career as a globe-conquering investment banker spanning New York, London, and Hong Kong. Straight to Hell pulls back the curtain on a world that is both hated and envied, taking readers from the trading floors and roadshows to private planes and after-hours overindulgence. Full of shocking lawlessness, boyish antics, and win-at-all-costs schemes, this is the definitive take on the deviant, dysfunctional, and absolutely excessive world of finance.Trade ReviewMakes the Wolf of Wall St look like a pussycat. * Daily Mail *LeFevre is a pretty loathsome human being. * The Times *His story reads like a frat boy's fever dream of the high-flying life: morning drinking, late-night drinking, and drinking all the hours in between. * Publishers Weekly *[A] sleazy catalogue of vice. * Wall Street Journal *Details midday cocaine binges, dodgy deals and epic booze benders that make movie The Wolf Of Wall Street look like a poodle. * The Sun *This book is going to annoy and offend a lot of people, with good reason. * Euromoney.com *

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Book SynopsisWhen Natascha Wodin’s mother died, Natascha was only ten years old—too young to find out what her mother had experienced during World War II. All the little girl knew was that they were detritus, human debris left over from the war. Years later, Natascha set out on a quest to find out what happened to her mother during that time. Why had they lived in a camp for “displaced persons”? Where did her mother come from? What had she experienced? The one thing she knew is that her parents had to leave Mariupol in Ukraine for Germany as part of the Nazi forced labor program in 1943. Armed with this limited knowledge, Natascha resolved to piece together the puzzle of her family’s past. The result is a highly praised, beautiful piece of prose that has drawn comparisons to W. G. Sebald in its approach. Like Sebald, Natascha’s aim is to reclaim the stories of those who can no longer speak for themselves. The author is not only in search of her own family’s history, but she is also aware that she is charting unmarked territory: accounts of the plight of forced laborers and displaced persons are still a rarity within literature about World War II and its atrocities. Natascha’s personal homage to her mother’s life story is an important lyrical memorial for the thousands of Eastern Europeans who were forced to leave their homes and work in Germany during the war, and a moving reflection of the plight of displaced peoples throughout the ages. This is a darkly radiant account of one person’s fate, developing momentous emotive power—its subject serves as a proxy for the fate of millions.

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Book SynopsisA fascinating collection of pivotal interviews with the most influential leader of the Civil Rights Movement.

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Book SynopsisThe first-ever collection of interviews with the tortured but ground breaking singer.

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