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Biography / Autobiography
Lawrence of Arabia's heroism during the Arab revolt and his disgust at the subsequent betrayal of the Arabs in the postwar negotiations have become the stuff of legend. But T. E. Lawrence's adventures in the Levant began long before the outbreak of war. This intimate biography is the first to focus on Lawrence in his twenties, the untold story of the awkward archaeologist from Oxford who, on first visiting The East, fell in love with Arab culture and found his life's mission.
Few people realize that Lawrence's classic autobiography, Seven Pillars of Wisdom, was not the first book to carry that iconic title. Lawrence himself burned his original draft. Anthony Sattin here uncovers the story Lawrence wanted to conceal: the truth of his birth, his tortuous relationship with a dominant mother, his deep affection for an Arab boy, and the personal reasons that drove him from student to spy.
Drawing on surviving letters, diaries, and accounts from close confidantes, Sattin brings a biographer's eye for detail and a travel writer's verve to Lawrence's extraordinary journeys through the region with which his name is forever connected. In a masterful parallel narrative, The Young T. E. Lawrence charts the maturation of the man and the incipient countries he treasured, both coming of age at a time when the world's foundations were coming undone.
An encouraging and inspiring true story on how a boy from India overcame a difficult childhood and devastating hand injuries and became one of the most prolific cardiac surgeons in U.S. history.
Leaving a life marked by crippling setbacks and his father's doubt, in 1967 a twenty-something doctor from India arrived in America with only five dollars and the desire to claim his American dream. The journey still awaiting Dr. Arun K. Singh would be unparalleled. Faced with an entirely new culture, racism, and the lasting effects of disabling childhood injuries, through hard work and perseverance he overcame all odds. Now having performed over 15,000 open heart surgeries, more than nearly every surgeon in history, Dr. Singh reflects on his most memorable patients and his incredible personal life. Shared for the first time, these intimate and uplifting accounts, along with photos, will have you cheering for the underdog and appreciating the enduring determination of the human spirit.
Engaging, funny, and unflinching essays about coming of age as a transplant patient and living each day as a gift
Adina Talve-Goodman was born with a congenital heart condition and survived multiple operations over the course of her childhood, including a heart transplant at age nineteen. In these seven essays, she tells the story of her chronic illness and her youthful search for love and meaning, never forgetting that her adult life is tied to the loss of another person--the donor of her transplanted heart.
Whether writing about the experience of taking her old heart home from the hospital (and passing it around the Thanksgiving table), a summer camp for young transplant patients, or a memorable night on the town, Talve-Goodman's writing is filled with curiosity, humor, and compassion. Published posthumously, Your Hearts, Your Scars is the work of a writer wise beyond her years, a moving reflection on chance and gratitude, and a testament to hope and kindness.
A modern-day fairy tale, Your Voice in My Head is a stunning memoir, clear-eyed and shot through with wit. In her unique voice, Emma Forrest explores the highs and lows of love and the heartbreak of loss.
This gutsy collection offers a brilliant reflection on life as a young lesbian and breast cancer survivor. Through discussions of madness, religion, gender and feminism, Allison Gruber captivates with heartbreaking candor and wit. From her teenage Dian Fossey to her Virginia Woolf of Drama Club, the author invites us into a world of brash, bookish hilarity, as she navigates an unusual life, interrupted. In You're Not Edith, Gruber asks herself how best to live and finds answers big enough for all of us.
The woman behind the icon known as the undisputed Queen of Halloween, reveals her full story, filled with intimate bombshells, told by the bombshell herself. The paperback includes 32 new images and an original poem composed by Cassandra when she was 16, perfect for fans to collect.
At only eighteen months old, Cassandra Peterson reached for a pot on the stove and doused herself in boiling water, resulting in third-degree burns over 35 percent of her body. She miraculously survived, but burned and scarred, the impact would stay with her and become an obstacle she was determined to overcome. Cassandra left home at fourteen and supported herself as a go-go dancer. By age seventeen, she was performing as a showgirl in Las Vegas. Then a chance encounter with the "King" himself, Elvis Presley, inspired her to travel to Europe where she worked in film and toured Italy as lead singer of a band. She eventually made her way to Los Angeles, where she joined the famed comedy improv group, The Groundlings.
In 1981, as a struggling actress considered past her prime, Cassandra auditioned for a local LA station as hostess for their late-night horror movies. She got the job as "Elvira," never imagining it would lead to fame and a forty-year career. Yours Cruelly, Elvira is an unforgettably wild memoir. Cassandra doesn't shy away from revealing exactly who she is and how she overcame seemingly insurmountable odds. Always original and sometimes outrageous, her story is loaded with twists, travails, revelry, and downright shocking experiences. It is the candid, often hilarious, and sometimes heartbreaking tale of a Midwest farm girl's long, strange trip to become the world's sexiest, sassiest Halloween icon.
Over the course of a remarkable sixteen-year correspondence, Echols and Davis grew to know each other, fall in love, and marry all without ever being able to touch each other freely or be alone together. In "Yours for Eternity," their extraordinary letters provide a singular portrait of their marriage, from the first, heady days of discovery to the final, painful months before Echols s release. Through postscripts and footnotes, Echols and Davis describe how they overcame the enormous challenges and heartbreaks throughout the years personal setbacks, legal complications, and much more. "Yours for Eternity" reveals a relationship unfolding in the most exceptional of circumstances. Powerful and incredibly intimate, it is a modern-day love story for the ages."
"Profound, overwhelmingly moving . . . a richly complex love story." -- New York Times
Acclaimed biographer Nancy Milford brings to life the tormented, elusive personality of Zelda Sayre and clarifies as never before Zelda's relationship with her husband F. Scott Fitzgerald--tracing the inner disintegration of a gifted, despairing woman, torn by the clash between her husband's career and her own talent.
Zelda Sayre's stormy life spanned from notoriety as a spirited Southern beauty to success as a gifted novelist and international celebrity at the side of her husband, F. Scott Fitzgerald. Zelda and Fitzgerald were one of the most visible couples of the Jazz Age, inhabiting and creating around them a world of excitement, romance, art, and promise. Yet their tumultuous relationship precipitated a descent into depression and mental instability for Zelda, leaving her to spend the final twenty years of her life in hospital care, until a fire at a sanitarium claimed her life.
Incorporating years of exhaustive research and interviews, Milford illuminates Zelda's nuanced and elusive personality, giving character to both her artistic vibrancy and to her catastrophic collapse.
This is the life story of Al Lynch in his own words -- an American hero who is now one of only 72 living Medal of Honor recipients. This is the story of a happy boy growing up in Chicagoland's South Side industrial neighborhoods. His early happiness was almost eradicated by several years of intense bullying, though he found ways to overcome that experience. This is the story of an aimless young man whose prospects of following in his father's foot-steps as a blue-collar tradesman were cut short by the Vietnam War and by his personal search for something greater than himself. This is the story of a man whose meandering military career, and his life up to that point, came into sharp focus when, in a deadly firefight in Vietnam, he rushed to rescue three wounded troopers in no man's land. He was urged to leave the wounded and return to a safe position. But Lynch refused to retreat in order to stay with his troopers despite having every reason to believe he would die that afternoon. Because of these actions, he is a hero.
This is also the story of the many troubling consequences of surviving battles while others died, sometimes tragically due to friendly fi re or the random violence of an aimless war. This is the story of a man whose sense of honesty and independence has been honed over a lifetime of mistakes and victories toward always doing the right thing, no matter the cost. And this is the story of a man who learned that independence can be a selfish burden, and that life is not only about helping others, but allowing others to help him. So this is a story of a man who overcame the dragons of PTSD with the help of his family and friends, and by being honest with himself. Al Lynch has written a story that speaks to all of us -- one doesn't have to be a war hero to be wounded by life. By the writing of Zero to Hero, Al shows us the stuff of which heroes are made.
Randall Lane never set out to become a Wall Street power broker. But during the decade he calls the Zeroes, he started a small magazine company that put him near the white-hot center of the biggest boom in history. Almost by accident, a man who drove a beat-up Subaru and lived in a rented walk-up became the go-to guy for big shots with nine-figure incomes.
Lane's saga began with a simple idea: a glossy magazine exclusively for and about traders, which would treat them like rock stars and entice them to splurge on luxury goods. "Trader Monthly" was an instant hit around the world. Wall Streeters loved the spotlight, and advertisers like Gulfstream, Maybach, and Bulgari loved the marketing opportunity.
To accelerate the buzz, Lane's staff threw parties featuring celebrities, premium steaks, cigars, and top-shelf vodka. Nothing was too expensive or too outrageous. Private jets in Napa Valley. Casino nights in London. And $1,000-a- seat boxing matches in New York, where traders from Goldman Sachs and Bear Stearns pounded each other in front of tuxedoed throngs.
Before long, Wall Street's rich and powerful trusted Lane as a fellow insider- the guy who could turn an anonymous trader into a cover model and media darling. And the rest of the world sought him out as a way to tap into Wall Street's riches. As he emptied his bank account to help keep his little company afloat, he became a nexus for the absurd. Traders who turned 9/11 and Hurricane Katrina into multimillion-dollar windfalls. John McCain closing out the craps tables during an all-night gambling binge. Pop artist Peter Max hustling hundreds of thousands of dollars by selling traders paint-by-numbers portraits. Al Gore, John Travolta, Moby. Corrupt Caribbean rulers, the mobsters from "Goodfellas," the pope. And a retired baseball star turned market guru named Lenny Dykstra, whose rise and fall was a great metaphor for the decade. All played roles in Lane's increasingly surreal world.
When the crash of 2008 hit, Lane's company and life savings were destroyed along with the high-flying traders and dealmakers his magazines exalted. But Lane walked away with something more lasting: an incredible true story, told by a skilled writer and reporter who sat squarely in the middle of one of the critical periods in modern financial and cultural history. People will turn to "The Zeroes" for many years to come, to find out what the era was "really" like.