NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER - NATIONAL BOOK AWARD WINNER - From one of America's iconic writers, a stunning book of electric honesty and passion that explores an intensely personal yet universal experience: a portrait of a marriage--and a life, in good times and bad--that will speak to anyone who has ever loved a husband or wife or child.
Several days before Christmas 2003, John Gregory Dunne and Joan Didion saw their only daughter, Quintana, fall ill with what seemed at first flu, then pneumonia, then complete septic shock. She was put into an induced coma and placed on life support. Days later--the night before New Year's Eve--the Dunnes were just sitting down to dinner after visiting the hospital when John Gregory Dunne suffered a massive and fatal coronary. In a second, this close, symbiotic partnership of forty years was over. Four weeks later, their daughter pulled through. Two months after that, arriving at LAX, she collapsed and underwent six hours of brain surgery at UCLA Medical Center to relieve a massive hematoma. This powerful book is Didion' s attempt to make sense of the "weeks and then months that cut loose any fixed idea I ever had about death, about illness ... about marriage and children and memory ... about the shallowness of sanity, about life itself.
An editor and writer's vivaciously entertaining, and often moving, chronicle of his year-long adventure with fifty great books (and two not-so-great ones)--a true story about reading that reminds us why we should all make time in our lives for books.
Nearing his fortieth birthday, author and critic Andy Miller realized he's not nearly as well read as he'd like to be. A devout book lover who somehow fell out of the habit of reading, he began to ponder the power of books to change an individual life--including his own--and to the define the sort of person he would like to be. Beginning with a copy of Bulgakov's Master and Margarita that he happens to find one day in a bookstore, he embarks on a literary odyssey of mindful reading and wry introspection. From Middlemarch to Anna Karenina to A Confederacy of Dunces, these are books Miller felt he should read; books he'd always wanted to read; books he'd previously started but hadn't finished; and books he'd lied about having read to impress people.
Combining memoir and literary criticism, The Year of Reading Dangerously is Miller's heartfelt, humorous, and honest examination of what it means to be a reader. Passionately believing that books deserve to be read, enjoyed, and debated in the real world, Miller documents his reading experiences and how they resonated in his daily life and ultimately his very sense of self. The result is a witty and insightful journey of discovery and soul-searching that celebrates the abiding miracle of the book and the power of reading.
The inspiring story of a pioneering program that is redefining urban young adults as economic assets, not deficits
During Gerald Chertavian s many years as a Big Brother, the former technology entrepreneur realized that our nation s "Opportunity Divide" strands millions of young, disadvantaged, yet motivated workers at the bottom of the job ladder. In 2000, Chertavian dedicated his life to closing that divide and Year Up was born.
Year Up is an intensive program that offers low income young adults training, mentorship, internships, and ultimately real jobs often with Fortune 500 companies. 85 percent of program graduates are employed or in full-time college within four months of graduation. Today, Year Up serves more than 1,300 students in nine cities across the nation.
Following a Year Up class from admissions through graduation, "A Year Up" lets students share in their own words the challenges, failures, and personal successes they ve experienced during their program year. This deeply moving and inspirational story also explains Chertavian s philosophy and the program s genesis, offering a road map for real change in our country and a beacon for young adults who want the opportunity to enter the economic mainstream."
A New York Times Book Review Editors' Choice The best-selling author of How Children Succeed returns with a powerful, mind-changing inquiry into higher education in the United States Does college still work? Is the system designed just to protect the privileged and leave everyone else behind? Or can a college education today provide real opportunity to young Americans seeking to improve their station in life? The Years That Matter Most tells the stories of students trying to find their way, with hope, joy, and frustration, through the application process and into college. Drawing on new research, the book reveals how the landscape of higher education has shifted in recent decades and exposes the hidden truths of how the system works and whom it works for. And it introduces us to the people who really make higher education go: admissions directors trying to balance the class and balance the budget, College Board officials scrambling to defend the SAT in the face of mounting evidence that it favors the wealthy, researchers working to unlock the mysteries of the college-student brain, and educators trying to transform potential dropouts into successful graduates. With insight, humor, and passion, Paul Tough takes readers on a journey from Ivy League seminar rooms to community college welding shops, from giant public flagship universities to tiny experimental storefront colleges. Whether you are facing your own decision about college or simply care about the American promise of social mobility, The Years That Matter Most will change the way you think--not just about higher education, but about the nation itself.
"I don't know a more complicated, original protagonist in literature than Lissa Yellow Bird, or a more dogged reporter in American journalism than Sierra Crane Murdoch."--William Finnegan, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Barbarian Days NOMINATED FOR THE EDGAR(R) AWARD - NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY The New York Times Book Review - NPR - Publishers Weekly When Lissa Yellow Bird was released from prison in 2009, she found her home, the Fort Berthold Indian Reservation in North Dakota, transformed by the Bakken oil boom. In her absence, the landscape had been altered beyond recognition, her tribal government swayed by corporate interests, and her community burdened by a surge in violence and addiction. Three years later, when Lissa learned that a young white oil worker, Kristopher "KC" Clarke, had disappeared from his reservation worksite, she became particularly concerned. No one knew where Clarke had gone, and few people were actively looking for him. Yellow Bird traces Lissa's steps as she obsessively hunts for clues to Clarke's disappearance. She navigates two worlds--that of her own tribe, changed by its newfound wealth, and that of the non-Native oilmen, down on their luck, who have come to find work on the heels of the economic recession. Her pursuit of Clarke is also a pursuit of redemption, as Lissa atones for her own crimes and reckons with generations of trauma. Yellow Bird is an exquisitely written, masterfully reported story about a search for justice and a remarkable portrait of a complex woman who is smart, funny, eloquent, compassionate, and--when it serves her cause--manipulative. Drawing on eight years of immersive investigation, Sierra Crane Murdoch has produced a profound examination of the legacy of systematic violence inflicted on a tribal nation and a tale of extraordinary healing.
"I cannot remember when I read a book with such delight." Paul Yamazaki, City Lights Bookstore
"November, a dark, rainy Tuesday, late afternoon. This is my ideal time to be in a bookstore. The shortened light of the afternoon and the idleness and hush of the hour gather everything close, the shelves and the books and the few other customers who graze head-bent in the narrow aisles. I've come to find a book."
In "The Yellow-Lighted Bookshop," Buzbee, a former bookseller and sales representative, celebrates the unique experience of the bookstore the smell and touch of books, getting lost in the deep canyons of shelves, and the silent community of readers. He shares his passion for books, which began with ordering through "The Weekly Reader "in grade school. Interwoven throughout is a
fascinating historical account of the bookseller's trade from the great Alexandria library with an estimated one million papyrus scrolls to Sylvia Beach's famous Paris bookstore, Shakespeare and Company, which led to the extraordinary effort to publish and sell James Joyce's "Ulysses "during the 1920s.
Rich with anecdotes, "The Yellow-Lighted Bookshop "is the perfect choice for those who relish the enduring pleasures of spending an afternoon finding just the right book."
Recently single, Danny is alone and on a road to nowhere. One day on that road, a stranger on a bus tells him to say "yes" more. A months-long journey that changes not only Danny's life but perhaps the world ensues.
Soon after vowing to be more open, Danny wins $45,000 and becomes a television executive, far above his level of experience or ability ("just because I said 'yes' a lot in meetings I wasn't supposed to be in"). He becomes a minister. Falls afoul of psychotropic drugs. Gives spare change to anyone who asks. Invents things. Travels the globe. Vows to help the son of a murdered sultan escape Oman with forty million dollars ("It's not an Internet scam -- it's a cry for help"). But not every yes is an instant ticket to newfound wealth and happiness.
Just as Danny grows closer to a woman for whom he holds strong feelings, his ex-girlfriend asks if he would mind if she dated someone new. "Yes." Things get more complicated when he sees her and her new beau. Being polite, the man asks Danny if he'd like to join them for dinner. "Yes." At a night club, another man asks Danny if he wants a smack in the mouth for looking at his girlfriend: "Er, yes?"
"Yes Man" introduces a world where a bit of optimism can make a person a television personality. A simple trip to the record store can be rerouted to the center of the Social Acupuncture Peace Movement. An unwanted e-mail can lead to the creation of an undroppable spoon. Feeling hungry can result in eating curry down the street from Jesus.But perhaps most important, a little fearlessness can lead to a remarkably loving relationship.
"Yes Man" is more than one excitable man's ramblings of seemingly inconsequential events. It's more than even the most elegant of memoirs. It is proof that a little bit of openness and generosity can allow the human spirit to triumph.
This fascinating collection of case studies from neuropsychiatrist Perminder Sachdev offers unparalleled insight into the intricate processes of the human brain. From golfer's yip (involuntary wrist movements) and Tourette's syndrome to phantom limbs and anorexia nervosa, these case studies reveal the latest research on brain disorders and injuries as well as the challenges they pose for both doctor and patient. Drawn from decades of treating patients, these ten stories include some of the author's most difficult and rewarding cases.
Engagingly written and reflecting both Sachdev's empathy for the patients and his ability to explain complex science, this highly readable book will appeal to anyone interested in the mysterious workings of the human brain.