Biography: general Books

Book SynopsisFirst, legal secretary Teri Maness is found murdered in her Witchita town house in the summer of 1989. Two weeks later, Joan Butler disappears from her Overland Park apartment. Days later, roommates Christine Rusch and Theresa Brown of Lenexa are reported missing. Without a trace, they were suddenly gone. Panic and fear gripped Witchita and Kansas CIty as the realization slow sank in . . . a serial killer was on the loose. What finally linked the handsome, charismatic Richard Grissom to the murders? What was it about Grissoms's secret past that convinced investigators that he was capable of such heinous crimes? In Suddenly Gone, author Dan Mitrione, a former FBI agent, takes readers into one of the most exhaustive manhunts in Kansas history. With exacting precision, Mitrione shows the investigation unfolding, as uncovers information never before made public. Mitrione's story is ultimately one of tragedy, but it's also a story of love and commitment from family, friends, and investigators—all on a mission to find out why four young women were Suddenly Gone.

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Book SynopsisNow reprinted, this revealing autobiography includes a prologue and epilogue written by two of the author's sons, Leeroy and Peter, who have pieced together more of this poignant love and life story. Nora's father, as Director General of the Soviet Foreign Office based in Moscow, is purged by Stalin, leaving his young daughter without kith or kin. The State forces her to meet up with diplomats and foreigners to report back with any information on their activities. One of her targets is John Murray, a cypher (code writer/decoder) at the British Embassy in Moscow. However, by falling in love with him she is classified as a traitor, arrested and imprisoned. John achieves her release by Stalin. In 1939, John and others of the Embassy staff are evacuated when the German army enters Moscow's suburbs. He is sent to Archangel, leaving Nora alone in his John's embassy quarters. With only forged papers, she begins a terrifying 1,000 kilometer journey to the desolate wastes of the Arctic port to bid farewell to John. Instead, they decide to marry; this and their eventual escape to safety and happiness in England shapes a thrilling climax to this true story.Trade ReviewTimes Literary Supplement: The real story is in the simple, graphic and almost entirely persuasive account of her observations as a member of a highly privileged caste in Soviet society. Oxford Mail: A woman of infinite ingenuity, persistence and great courage. The book would make an admirable film on the lines of "Odette". Yorkshire Observer: As a work of fiction one would have regarded it as highly exciting and admirably constructed. Yet, astonishingly, every word is true. Yorkshire Evening Press: How she fell in love and married the man she was forced to spy on is admirably told, but nothing could be more thrilling than her ultimate escape from the secret police. Yorkshire Post: Told with a simplicity that carries conviction, and with a narrative skill that makes it as absorbing as any novel. Aberdeen Express: A remarkable story of personal courage. The revelations are grim and often terrifying. Birmingham Gazette: A curious story, dramatic, moving and always interesting. Cambridge Daily News: A curious human story. Good Housekeeper: Told without melodrama or hysterics and indeed with a calmness and sympathy that is surprising. The story is of an immensely courageous woman.

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Book SynopsisIn Pursuit of Composite Beauty is a study of the life and thought of Yanagi Soetsu (1889-1961), known primarily as the founder of Japan's mingei (folk crafts) movement. Yanagi was a thinker who believed that world peace could not be achieved by 'painting the world in one single colour'.Before and during World War II, when Japan was invading Asia and enforcing its cultural assimilation policy in its colonies and occupied territories, Yanagi aspired to realise a world in which multiple races and cultures could coexist. His pacifist thought rests on the idea of 'composite beauty', an ideal of creating a world in which heterogeneous entities can accept their differences and learn from each other.Tracing Yanagi's intellectual development, this insightful and comprehensive book presents a positive reevaluation of the contemporary significance of his thought from the viewpoint of international relations, shedding light on the ways to achieve interdependence and mutual respect.

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Book SynopsisSeparated from her true love at the age of 18, Liz dreamt of the day he would return to marry her, but fate had other plans. Thirty-seven years later, Liz answers the telephone to hear a voice from the past that still has the power to stop her in her tracks. A true story of love lost and found, this personal memoir journeys across continents and decades to relate the details of the couple's original love affair and their reunion years later. Poignant and romantic, this story is a testament to the extraordinary powers of the heart.

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Book SynopsisCan Yi-Fu Tuan, one of the world's most decorated geographers, from the aspen glow of retirement and a distinguished career, hold the interest of young readers who themselves are just now embarking on their own sojourns into the larger world? The question is all the more important for Professor Tuan, because the topic of his last book, his 'last launch,' is human life itself---what it means to be human and how we humans can reach our full potential in the brief period we live on Earth.Professor Tuan, like the curious child on a familiar beach, has decided to make his last launch a personal voyage in which he sends messages to the young in a bottle presented as a book. Securely corked, the bottle is cast into the vast sea before finding its resting ground in the hands of a young reader, who discovers the bottle on a foreign shore. Contained within the bottle are sixteen messages never before published. They represent Professor Tuan's last conversation, his last meal, with his readers, young and old.The messages that Professor Tuan has presented involve his final thoughts about childhood and education, about comprehending the relationship between space, place, and time, about understanding social reality and our attitudes toward nature and religion. But, ultimately, The Last Launch is about goodness and the Good, a recurrent theme in the master scholar's work.Although we humans, by nature, are flawed beings, Professor Tuan affirms that we are also the most subtly complex beings in the solar system, if not in the Milky Way. All of us are endowed with keen senses and some with even keener minds that enable us to savor the wonders of this world that is our only home. Moreover, we humans are, by nature, moral beings who find fulfillment and happiness in doing good. Since evil--as the fact of suffering, misfortune, and wrongdoing--does not disdain from inflicting the slightest hurt or harm, we must not miss any opportunity to do good, Professor Tuan urges, however inconsequential the doing may seem at the time.In a final reflection, Professor Tuan offers the following: that, in living a life fully, one senses that we are engaged in something larger than ourselves, that we may well be in a cosmic struggle for life in which there is no trifling player among us. Everyone and everything on Earth counts. Thus, doing good in one's life is the ultimate form of human love and caring. If we do not embrace this truth, is it because we fear the responsibility and accountability of doing good? Such are the questions to be found in Professor Tuan's bottle, to be answered in his last launch. Lucky is the person forever young in spirit who picks up the bottle on the beach and reads and listens to its contents.Distributed for George F. Thompson Publishing.

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Book SynopsisPagan Kennedy first captured the hearts of America with her personal zine Pagan's Head. Drawing from this source, she presents not only the zine-world standards, but also includes some helpful dating tips, such as "Pretend to go to the bathroom and never come back." Cruise through this book only if you want an extremely entertaining read and the opportunity to develop an unhealthy fixation on the fabulous Ms. Kennedy. Originally published in 1997, this new edition features "Where are they now" updates.Trade Review"Pagan is that nutty, fun-loving, friendly, bicycle-riding, committed-to-recycling, pop-culture-crazed creature we thought the media had invented so it could use the label 'Generation X' only she really exists." Mademoiselle

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Book SynopsisSpanning four seasons, 10 countries, three teaching jobs, and countless buses, Patagonian Road chronicles Kate McCahill’s solo journey from Guatemala to Argentina. In her struggles with language, romance, culture, service, and homesickness, she personifies a growing culture of women for whom travel is not a path to love but to meaningful work, rare inspiration, and profound self-discovery. Following Paul Theroux's route from his 1979 travelogue, McCahill transports the reader from a classroom in a Quito barrio to a dingy room in an El Salvadorian brothel, and from the neighborhoods of Buenos Aires to the heights of the Peruvian Andes. A testament to courage, solitude, and the rewards of taking risks, Patagonian Road proves that discovery, clarity, and simplicity remain possible in the 21st century, and that travel holds an enduring capacity to transform.Trade Review"Kate McCahill is a blues traveler, singing for citizens of the world who have no public voice. She depicts beauty within despair, allowing us to hear a comforting melody in an unsettling breeze and see the gorgeous colors within a bruise. If a feeling of loneliness pervades her essays, so do feelings of wonder and pleasure. It's simply impossible not to share her joyful and frequently bewildering sensations of travel." --Sascha Feinstein, author, Black Pearls"Oh, what a stunning and gorgeous book this is, and one I can't wait to gift my daughter when she's ready. The story of a young woman's year-long trip through the long and winding highways, foot-paths, city streets and dusty back roads of Central and South America, Patagonian Road reminded me of my own journeys and made me pine for the ones I never had. It also expanded my understanding of what the journey is--McCahill's rich and vivid and complex tapestry of landscape, culture, geography, ecology, and economics, shows us, lyrically and with great tenderness, how the individual is part and parcel of a much larger whole, and how we can't find ourselves without finding the world outside ourselves. I lived and breathed every place this book touched down and when I turned the last page my heart ached for the journey's end." --Robin MacArthur, author, Half Wild: Stories"Elegantly written and beautifully observed, McCahill's journey takes her across mountains and cities, into the reaches of culture and history, and into the self. Much of this is experienced from the seat of a bus, surrounded by a sea of humanity, both part of and an observer of the passing scene. A love affair is lost, new ways of being are found, and the adventurous McCahill turns herself not just not an intrepid traveler but into a fearless writer. By turns charming, scary, vivid, and reflective--Flung is a treat for the reader who need not buy a ticket but only open its pages to be transported." --Miriam Sagan, author, Black Rainbow and Searching for a Mustard Seed: One Young Widow's Unconventional Story"With her Lonely Planet guide in one hand and Paul Theroux in the other, Kate McCahill backpacks from Guatemala to Buenos Aires losing love and finding a whirlwind assortment of ex-pats, aid workers, travel junkies, and locals. Patagonian Road is a millennial's adventure story, roughing it in the age of Skype and cell phones, through a Latin America still in recovery from decades of revolution, American meddling, and authoritarian misrule." --Douglas Glover, author and editor, Numéro Cinq"Vivid . . . insightful . . . A beautiful debut." Kirstin Valdez Quade, author, Night at the Fiestas"A compelling addition to the growing genre of solo travelogues by women who end their journeys stronger, more self-aware, and more connected to the world." Emily Dziuban, Booklist"This welcome (and timely) call to explore foreign borders as well as our own comfort zones is highly recommended." Benjamin Malczewski, Library Journal

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Book SynopsisThe son of Japanese immigrants, Kenny Higashi works on his family's vegetable farm near the town of Spearfish in the Black Hills of South Dakota. Kenny loves his family, their farm, and his hometown. He cheerfully volunteers for extra jobs.Then Japan attacks Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, and everything changes.Thousands of Japanese American families are forced out of their homes into guarded camps. Kenny's community comes together in support of his family, but soon two soldiers arrive. Kenny or his brother must join the United States Army or his whole family will be forced to move into a camp. Kenny volunteers for duty.Kenneth Ray Higashi joins the 100th Infantry Battalion, which becomes part of the 442nd Regimental Combat Team during World War II. His battalion is made up of Nisei like him, young men born to Japanese American immigrants. The unit's motto is ""Go For Broke." They are brave and loyal soldiers who volunteer for extra duties.Author Lauren R. Harris, who knew Kenny Higashi, transforms his memories of his hometown and the war into a story of community, hope, and determination. Illustrator Felicia Hoshino transports readers from the heartland of the United States to European battlefields.

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Book SynopsisThis is Fay Webern's masterful chronicle of a youth spent in one of New York City's most vibrant immigrant communities during the harsh years of the Great Depression and The Second World War. Its forty-two beautifully sculpted episodes not only conjure into vivid existence a complete world, but reveal something of the bedrock of the author's inner being, in which the irreducible hardness, the 'is'-ness, of reality may be felt: the burden of survival; the 'stone in the heart'; the daily concerns, serious or frivolous, erected on it; and at the same time, always, flying above, indomitable, the muse of poetic imagination and the 'spirit of defiance. This is a joyous, magnificent achievement -- an extraordinarily truthful and moving work of art, both radically personal and universal, utterly transcending the category of memoir.

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