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    Knowing she would become a hunted woman, Edith tore the yellow star from her clothing and went underground, scavenging for food and searching each night for a safe place to sleep. Her boyfriend, Pepi, proved too terrified to help her, but a Christian friend was not: With the woman's identity papers in hand, Edith fled to Munich. There she met Werner Vetter, a Nazi party member who fell in love with her. And despite her protests and even her eventual confession that she was Jewish, he married her and kept her identity secret.In vivid, wrenching detail, Edith recalls a life of constant, almost paralyzing fear. She tells of German officials who casually questioned the lineage of her parents; of how, when giving birth to her daughter, she refused all painkillers, afraid that in an altered state of mind she might reveal her past; and of how, after her husband was captured by the Russians and sent to Siberia, Edith was bombed out of her house and had to hide in a closet with her daughter while drunken Russians soldiers raped women on the street.Yet despite the risk it posed to her life, Edith Hahn created a remarkable collective record of survival: She saved every set of real and falsified papers, letters she received from her lost love, Pepi, and photographs she managed to take inside labor camps. On exhibit at the Holocaust Museum in Washington, D.C., these hundreds of documents form the fabric of an epic story - complex, troubling, and ultimately triumphant.

    He has affirmed his innocence ever since--his case was made fully and famously in Peter Matthiessen's bestselling In the Spirit of Crazy Horse--and many remain convinced he was wrongly convicted. Prison Writings is a wise and unsettling book, both memoir and manifesto, chronicling his life in Leavenworth Prison in Kansas. Invoking the Sun Dance, in which pain leads one to a transcendent reality, Peltier explores his suffering and the insights it has borne him. He also locates his experience within the history of the American Indian peoples and their struggles to overcome the federal government's injustices.

    It belongs to award-winner Mark Spragg, and it's as passionate and umcompromising as the wilderness in northwest Wyoming in which he was born: the largest block of unfenced wilderness in the lower forty-eight states. Where Rivers Change Direction is a memoir of childhood spent on the oldest dude ranch in Wyoming—with a family struggling against the elements and against themselves, and with the wry and wise cowboy who taught him life's most important lessons.As the young Spragg undergoes the inexorable rites of passage that forge the heart and soul of man, he channels Peter Matthiessen and the novels of Ernest Hemingway in his truly unforgettable illuminations of the heartfelt yearnings, the unexpected wisdom, and the irrevocable truths that follow in his wake.

    Beyond the Sky and the Earth is an autobiographical work that details her experiences and transformations after spending three years in Bhutan. It is as much a book about Zeppa's day-to-day life in Bhutan as it is about the personal awakenings and realizations that she had while living there. Visitors to Bhutan, an increasingly hot tourist destination, are still few and far between, largely because of tight government restrictions on entry, visa requirements, and a law requiring tourists to spend at least $200 a day there. There aren't many books on Bhutan, and even fewer first-hand accounts of life there. Beyond the Sky and the Earth stands out as both an informative introduction to the people and culture of Bhutan and as a beautiful piece of travel literature set against the backdrop of one of the most remote and unspoiled places on earth. Zeppa recounts her experiences living abroad, such as learning to live without electricity and carrying on a forbidden affair with one of her students, in such a compelling way that even someone who has never left home will become entranced by her story and captivated by her unique experiences. Naturally, Zeppa experienced culture shock when she arrived in Bhutan. The hardships she encountered seemed insurmountable, and at first she thought she couldn't bear it and fantasized about returning to Canada. She had to learn a new language in order to communicate with her students, she had to learn to live on her own, and she had to learn to deal with homesickness. Perhaps her biggest challenge was learning how to reconcile her growing love for Bhutan with her nostalgia for her life in Canada, her family, and her fiancé. But after living among Bhutan's Himalayan peaks, lush valleys, colorful villages, and friendly people, and after gaining an appreciation for life in a place frozen in time, Zeppa realizes that she feels at home in Bhutan and wants to stay.Although to Zeppa Bhutan is a magical land, she cautions herself and the reader not to deem it "the last Shangri-La," as is often done by the lucky travelers who make their way through the red tape required for entry into the kingdom. Bhutan is not without its problems: it is an underdeveloped country plagued by the problems that affect many places cut off from modernity. There is infant mortality, illness, and poverty. There are also domestic and international tensions that stem from the government's stringent regulations intended to preserve the national culture. Among them are the prohibition of foreign television and a requirement that people wear the national dress, a kira for women and a gho for men.Few of us will ever get to see the place that was Zeppa's home. But her narrative is so clear and insightful that you easily feel as though you are sharing this portion of her life with her. Even if you haven't had the experience of living abroad, or if the prospect of a trip to the furthest reaches of Asia is not in your cards, Zeppa's book is a worthy read on many levels. From her powerful use of language to describe the superb beauty of Bhutan's landscape to her passionate description of her spellbinding relationship with her future husband, Beyond the Sky and the Earth draws readers in and takes them on her rocky ride to self-realization. When trying to explain to a friend what she finds appealing about Bhutan, Zeppa writes: "It takes a long time to find the true words, to put them in order, to tell the whole story. It is not just this or that, the mountains, the people, it is me and the way I can be here, the freedom to walk unafraid into the great dark night. It is a hundred thousand things and I could never trace or tell all the connections and reflections, the shadows and echoes and secret relations between them."But, in fact, Zeppa does tell the reader about these connections and reflections in a lyrical way. After reading the book, you will have a deep understanding, appreciation, and respect for Zeppa's strength of character and for the wonders of Bhutan.Beyond the Sky and the Earth is a delight to read in every way. Zeppa's beautiful prose, peppered alternately with funny observations and profound soul-searching, is a truly special and unique work that will leave you craving an adventure of your own.

    Since Operating Instructions and Bird by Bird, her fans have been waiting for her to write the book that explained how she came to the big-hearted, grateful, generous faith that she so often alluded to in her two earlier nonfiction books. The people in Anne Lamott's real life are like beloved characters in a favorite series for her readers: Her friend Pammy; her son, Sam; and the many funny and wise folks who attend her church are all familiar. And Traveling Mercies is a welcome return to those lives, as well as an introduction to new companions Lamott treats with the same candor, insight, and tenderness. Lamott's faith isn't about easy answers, which is part of what endears her to believers as well as nonbelievers. Against all odds, she came to believe in God, and then, even more miraculously, in herself. As she puts it, "My coming to faith did not start with a leap but rather a series of staggers." At once tough, personal, affectionate, wise, and very funny, Traveling Mercies tells in exuberant detail how Anne Lamott learned to shine the light of faith on the darkest part of ordinary life, exposing surprising pockets of meaning and hope.

    They planned their future together, secure in the belief that their love could survive anything, even Hitler. Then, in March 1944, the Germans invaded Hungary.Here is the moving and dramatic account of one woman's courage in the face of war, and of a love that spanned three decades. From the agony of separation to the horrors of a concentration camp, from her marriage to Otto Schimmel, an Auschwitz survivor who promised her a new life in America, through the joy and struggle of raising a family, Betty never forgot her first love. Then, in 1975, she returned to Budapest and saw someone across a crowded room...To See You Again is Betty Schimmel's wrenching memoir of survival and sacrifice, of love lost and love found. A true story that unfolds with all the suspense of a novel, it is one that will not soon be forgotten.

    Born in 1953, Malika Oufkir was the eldest daughter of General Oufkir, the King of Morocco's closest aide. Adopted by the king at the age of five, Malika spent most of her childhood and adolescence in the seclusion of the court harem, one of the most eligible heiresses in the kingdom, surrounded by luxury and extraordinary privilege. Then, on August 16, 1972, her father was arrested and executed after an attempt to assassinate the king. Malika, her five younger brothers and sisters. and her mother were immediately imprisoned in a desert penal colony. After fifteen years, the last ten of which they spent locked up in solitary cells, the Oufkir children managed to dig a tunnel with their bare hands and make an audacious escape. Recaptured after five days, Malika was finally able to leave Morocco and begin a new life in exile in 1996. A heartrending account in the face of extreme deprivation and the courage with which one family faced its fate, Stolen Lives is an unforgettable story of one woman's journey to freedom.

    It is the story of the unspeakable terror and the visceral, ecstatic thrill of combat, and the lives and dreams laid to waste by the bloodiest conflict that Europe has witnessed since the Second World War. Born into a distinguished military family, Loyd was raised on the stories of his ancestors' exploits and grew up fascinated with war. Unsatisfied by a brief career in the British Army, he set out for the killing fields in Bosnia. It was there--in the midst of the roar of battle and the life-and-death struggle among the Serbs, Croatians, and Bosnian Muslims--that he would discover humanity at its worst and best. Profoundly shocking, poetic, and ultimately redemptive, this is an uncompromising look at the brutality of war and its terrifyingly seductive power.

    When the marriage fell apart, she decided to stay on in neighboring Rwanda, as the manager of a flower plantation. Land of a Thousand Hills is Carr's thrilling memoir of her life in Rwanda--a love affair with a country and a people that has spanned half a century. During those years, she has experienced everything from stalking leopards to rampaging elephants, drought, the mysterious murder of her friend Dian Fossey, and near-bankruptcy. She has chugged up the Congo River on a paddle-wheel steamboat, been serenaded by pygmies, and witnessed firsthand the collapse of colonialism. Following 1994's Hutu-Tutsi genocide, Carr turned her plantation into a shelter for the lost and orphaned children-work she continues to this day, at the age of eighty-seven.

    Nominated for the Edgar Award for best true-crime book of the year, it also marked the debut of an audaciously talented writer, James St. James, who himself had been a club kid and close friend and confidant of Michael Alig, the young man convicted of killing the drug dealer known as Angel. Now the book has been brought to the screen as Party Monster, with Macaulay Culkin playing killer Michael Alig and Seth Green as author/celebutante James St. James.

    Cameron West... First of all, for those of you who have read First Person Plural, thank you. Rikki, Kyle, and I have been very moved by the kind words many of you have sent, and for the stories some of you have shared about overcoming your own challenges.I'd like to share something with you that Leonardo da Vinci wrote, which I think of as "Leonardo's Rule." He said, "Every object yields to effort." I remind myself of that every day, and when I'm having a difficult time, Rikki reminds me that this rule applies not only to the obstacles "out there," but to the more important ones-the ones we face in our own minds. Rikki lives by Leonardo's Rule; it comes to her naturally. Even though they are Leonardo's words, it is Rikki's actions that guide me and inspire me to work toward becoming a healthier and better person.

    Adeline's affluent, powerful family considers her bad luck after her mother dies giving birth to her. Life does not get any easier when her father remarries. She and her siblings are subjected to the disdain of her stepmother, while her stepbrother and stepsister are spoiled. Although Adeline wins prizes at school, they are not enough to compensate for what she really yearns for -- the love and understanding of her family.Following the success of the critically acclaimed adult bestseller Falling Leaves, this memoir is a moving telling of the classic Cinderella story, with Adeline Yen Mah providing her own courageous voice.

    In All Souls, MacDonald takes us deep into the secret heart of Southie. With radiant insight, he opens up a contradictory world, where residents are besieged by gangs and crime but refuse to admit any problems, remaining fiercely loyal to their community. MacDonald also introduces us to the unforgettable people who inhabit this proud neighborhood. We meet his mother, Ma MacDonald, an accordion-playing, spiked-heel-wearing, indomitable mother to all; Whitey Bulger, the lord of Southie, gangster and father figure, protector and punisher; and Michael's beloved siblings, nearly half of whom were lost forever to drugs, murder, or suicide.MacDonald’s story is ultimately one of overcoming the racist, classist ideology he was born into. It's also a searing portrayal of life in a poor, white neighborhood plagued by violence and crime and deeply in denial about it.

    In The Kid, Savage tells a no-holds-barred, high-energy story of an ordinary American couple who wants to have a baby. Except that in this case the couple happens to be Dan and his boyfriend. That fact, in the face of a society enormously uneasy with gay adoption, makes for an edgy, entertaining, and illuminating read. When Dan and his boyfriend are finally presented with an infant badly in need of parenting, they find themselves caught up in a drama that extends well beyond the confines of their immediate world. A story about confronting homophobia, falling in love, getting older, and getting a little bit smarter, The Kid is a book about the very human desire to have a family.

    A self-confessed "chubby smart bookish sissy with glasses and a Southern accent," Doty grew up on the move, the family following his father's engineering work across America-from Tennessee to Arizona, Florida to California. A lyrical, heartbreaking comedy of one family's dissolution through the corrosive powers of alcohol, sorrow, and thwarted desire, Firebird is also a wry evocation of childhood's pleasures and terrors, a comic tour of American suburban life, and a testament to the transformative power of art.

    She was born into a large family in rural Romania?and grew up feisty and willing to fight back physically against anti-Semitism from other schoolchildren. She defied her father' s orders to turn down a scholarship that took her to Bucharest, and got herself expelled from that school when she responded to a priest/teacher' s vicious diatribe against the Jews by hurling a bottle of ink at him?After a series of incidents that ranged from dramatic escapes to a year in a forced labor detachment, Sara ended up in Ravensbruck, a women' s concentration camp, Aand? managed to survive?she tells this story with style and power." --Kirkus Reviews

    That journey takes the acclaimed author of Cowboys Are My Weakness and Waltzing the Cat across five continents, through forty whitewater rivers, over three thousand miles of backcountry hiking trails, on more than four hundred planes. But whatever her destination -- the Alaskan outback or the mountains of Bhutan -- these are the starting points for her personal emotional journey. Through her stories we meet some good dogs, a few good men, and the occasional grizzly. Ultimately, Houston's adventures -- and her clear-eyed reflections upon them -- prove what she has always suspected: fiction has nothing on real life.

    But when war suddenly breaks out as her family is crossing the Atlantic, they realize returning to the United States isn’t an option. They arrive in Berlin as enemy aliens.Eleanor tries to maintain her American identity as she feels herself pulled into the turbulent life roiling around her. She and her brother are enrolled in German schools and in Hitler’s Youth (a requirement). She fervently hopes for an Allied victory, yet for years she must try to survive the Allied bombs shattering her neighborhood. Her family faces separations, bombings, hunger, the final fierce battle for Berlin, the Russian invasion, and the terrors of Soviet occupancy.This compelling story is heart-racing at times and immerses readers in a first-hand account of Nazi Germany, surviving World War II as a civilian, and immigration.

    Kaye detailed the first eighteen years of her life in India and England and introduced readers to her love affair with India. She brought to life its people, scents, vibrant colors, and breathtaking landscapes. In the second volume, Golden Afternoon, she happily returned to her beloved India after years in a British boarding school. New to the glories of the Delhi social season, M.M. Kaye recounted her delightful exploits as a vivacious young woman in Raj society.Now, in Enchanted Evening, M.M. Kaye is a young woman forced to leave her cherished home in India when her father takes a new post in china. Though at first disoriented by the unfamiliar customs and confusing protocol of her new surroundings, it is in China that she discovers the pleasures that come from independence. Coming into her own as a painter, Kaye first meets with artistic success in China and then moves to cramped quarters in London's South Kensington neighborhood, where she begins to flourish as a writer.With vivid descriptions and the wisdom that comes with age, M.M. Kaye looks back on the years she spent as a young woman in a world as yet unmarked by World War II's devastation.

    Full of poinant insights into his most personal relationships, this moving account traces how the author was shaped as much by his family's secrets as by its celebrations.Within the innermost chambers of his consciousness, Buechner, in his characteristically self-searching style, explores the mysteries and truths behind his deepest connections to family, friends, and mentors. Extraordinarily moving, this memoir follows not chronology but the converging paths of Buechner's imagination and memory.Buechner invites us into his library-his own Magic Kingdom, Surrounded by his beloved books and treasures, we discover how they serve as the gateway to Buechner's mind and heart. He draws the reader into his recollections, moving seamlessly from reminiscence to contemplation. Buechner recounts events such as the tragic suicide of his father and its continual fallout on his life, intimate and little-known details about his deep friendship with the late poet James Merrill, and his ongoing struggle to understand the complexities of his relationship to his mother.This cast of characters comprised of Buechner's relatives and loved ones is brought to vibrant life by his peerless writing and capacity to probe the depths of his own consciousness. Buechner visits his past with an honest eye and a heart open to the most painful and life-altering of realizations. heartbreaking and enlightening, The Eyes of the Heart is a treasure for any who have ever pondered the meaning and mystery of their own past.As "one of our finest writers," according to author Annie Dillard, Frederick Buechner provides yet another chapter in the tale of his life in this gripping memoir tracing the complicated roots and path of his inner life and family, with their multitude of intersections." The Eyes of the Heart stands as a touching testimonial to the significance of kinship to the author as well as to the legions of readers who have come to regard him as one of their own.

    Resisting easy responses to issues of dependence, desire, and mortality, she warily commits to a male therapist who shares little of her cultural and intellectual world.Although not without pain, their improvised relationship is as unexpectedly pleasurable as her writing is unconventional: Sedgwick combines dialogue, verse, and even her therapist's notes to explore her interior life--and delivers a delicate and tender account of how we arrive at love.

    His mission was straightforward: to help the refugees who had settled in the sprawling slums of Nairobi, Kenya, to begin small businesses and earn a living. He imagined that he would be teaching them much, and he did. But the Kenyans and refugees with whom the author worked - from Rwanda, Somalia, Sudan, Uganda, Ethiopia - would end up teaching him much more about life, about survival and faith, and about love and friendship.

    It wasn't until she was an adult, practicing law in Boston, that she discovered her parents were Jewish--Holocaust survivors living invented lives. Not even their names were their own. In this powerful memoir, Helen Fremont delves into the secrets that held her family in a bond of silence for more than four decades, recounting with heartbreaking clarity a remarkable tale of survival, as vivid as fiction but with the resonance of truth.Driven to uncover their roots, Fremont and her sister pieced together an astonishing story: of Siberian Gulags and Italian royalty, of concentration camps and buried lives. After Long Silence is about the devastating price of hiding the truth; about families; about the steps we take, foolish or wise, to protect ourselves and our loved ones. No one who reads this book can be unmoved, or fail to understand the seductive, damaging power of secrets.What Fremont and her sister discover is an astonishing story: one of Siberian gulags and Italian royalty, of concentration camps and buried lives. AFTER LONG SILENCE is about the devastating price of hiding the truth; about families; about the steps we take, foolish or wise, to protect ourselves and our loved ones. No one who reads this book can be unmoved, or fail to understand the seductive, damaging power of secrets. -->

    Who hasn't dreamed of chucking it all to live a traveling life? Yet two months after Kate and her husband Dave leave home to live on the road, she awakes in the grips of a seizure. The diagnosis of a brain tumor comes at a terrible time: It is their first-year wedding anniversary, and they have no home. Soon, though, this medical adventure becomes integral to their journey. Paralleling this story are Kate's painful and often humorous exploits of body, mind, and spirit--including frank explorations of her life as a sexual iconoclast, caregiver to dying parents, and inspired but overwhelmed teacher who longs to write. Kate Evans' brave and honest memoir explores how transformation is our nature. Call It Wonder reveals how the mind is an alchemist. Through our thoughts, we can transform insecurity to freedom, uncertainty to wonder.

    

    Highway 1, hidden from Florida-bound vacationers by the hedge at the edge of the road and by hulks of old cars and stacks of blown-out tires. Ecology of a Cracker Childhood tells how a childhood spent in rural isolation and steeped in religious fundamentalism grew into a passion to save the almost vanished longleaf pine ecosystem that once covered the South. In language at once colloquial, elegiac, and informative, Ray redeems two Souths.

    He was the first North American to summit Mount Everest. As the first manager and employee, and ultimately the CEO, of fledgling Recreational Equipment, Inc. (REI), he guided the company through years of record-setting growth. He guided Bobby Kennedy up the newly named Mount Kennedy, helping him to become the first person to summit the Canadian peak. He lead the first and only International Peace Climb, which put climbers from the U.S., Russia, and China on the summit of Everest in the name of world peace.Contrary to what many people might think, Jim Whittaker's career neither began nor culminated with that famous first ascent of Everest. His achievement on Everest and his many successes before and after are, rather, the natural outcome of a life driven by a passion for outdoor adventure combined with strong leadership qualities and a commitment to making a difference. In A Life on the Edge, readers will discover a true hero -- someone who inspires others to seek challenges in their own lives.

    We see the dimensions of a human struggle often kept hidden from view. While there are an estimated twelve million rape survivors in the United States, rape is still unspeakable, left out of our personal and cultural conversation. In Telling, Francisco has found a language for the secret grief carried by men and women who have survived rape.

    Karesh is a globetrotting vet who makes house calls in exotic places. The founding director of the Wildlife Conservation Society's Field Veterinary Program, Karesh shares some of his fascinating, and dangerous, encounters in the wild.

    

    He became acting CO for No 92 Squadron at Biggin Hill and led over sixty operations, achieving the highest success rate of any squadron in the Battle of Britain. In May 1943 Britan joined Desert Air Force in Malta and took command of 244 Wing. At this time he was confirmed Flight Lieutenant, acting Squadron Leader, acting Wing Commander and at twenty-five was one of the youngest Group Captains in the Royal Air Force. Brian Kingcome may have been the last Battle of Britain pilot of repute to put his extraordinary story into print; looked upon by other members of his squadron as possibly their finest pilot, his nonetheless unassuming memoirs are related with a subtle and compassionate regard for a generation who were, as he felt, born to a specific task. Britan's memoirs have been edited and introduced by Peter Ford, ex-National Serviceman in Malaya.

    With wrenching dramatic intensity, it captures the character and the mind of an extraordinary talent -- from his days as a struggling young writer in Greenwich Village, through the turbulent Vietnam era, to his years as a professor of English literature at Berkeley. This is an unforgettable portrait of an artist in the world -- from one of the most acclaimed authors of our time.

    A compelling and intimate exploration of the complexity of a bicultural immigrant experience, To See and See Again traces three generations of an Iranian (and Iranian-American) family undergoing a century of change--from the author's grandfather, a feudal lord with two wives; to her father, a freespirited architect who marries an American pop singer; to Bahrampour herself, who grows up balanced precariously between two cultures and comes of age watching them clash on the nightly news.

    This account of his early life reveals how it influenced his books Orientalism and Culture and Imperialism. Edward Said was born in Jerusalem and brought up in Cairo, spending every summer in the Lebanese mountain village of Dhour el Shweir, until he was 'banished' to America in 1951. This work is a mixture of emotional archaeology and memory, exploring an essentially irrecoverable past. As ill health sets him thinking about endings, Edward Said returns to his beginnings in this personal memoir of his ferociously demanding 'Victorian' father and his adored, inspiring, yet ambivalent mother.

    Now in From a Wooden Canoe, he turns his attention to old passions and discovers new reasons to appreciate them.This engaging collection explores the quintessential American sports of canoeing and camping and pays tribute to the things worth keeping, from wooden canoes to pocket knives to cast-iron skillets. At a deeper level, it is about respect - for our possessions, for the natural world, for ourselves - and about the pleasures of a life well spent.From a Wooden Canoe is a celebration of the good things and the simple pleasures of life outdoors. It is a book to be treasured, to be read on winter evenings and rainy afternoons, and to be kept handy on a cabin shelf.

    The Cowboy Way is an enthralling and intensely personal account of his year spent in open country—a book that expertly weaves together past and present into a vibrant and colorful tapestry of a vanishing way of life. At once a celebration of a breathtaking land both dangerous and nourishing, and a clear-eyed appreciation of the men—and women—who work it, David McCumber's remarkable story forever alters our long-held perceptions of the "Roy Rogers" cowboy with real-life experiences and hard economic truths.In February of his forty-fourth year, journalist David McCumber signed on as a hand on rancher Bill Galt's expansive Birch Creek spread in Montana. The Cowboy Way is an enthralling and intensely personal account of his year spent in open country—a book that expertly weaves together past and present into a vibrant and colorful tapestry of a vanishing way of life. At once a celebration of a breathtaking land both dangerous and nourishing, and a clear-eyed appreciation of the men—and women—who work it, David McCumber's remarkable story forever alters our long-held perceptions of the "Roy Rogers" cowboy with real-life experiences and hard economic truths.

    It is at once a vividly detailed memoir and a richly researched work of scholarship that deftly weaves accounts of Wamba's multinational childhood in Boston, Massachusetts, and Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, with enlightening analyses of history, music, literature, religion, and politics.Whether writing about his dissident father's imprisonment by Zaire's dictator Mobutu Sese Seko or discussing Martin Luther King, Jr., and Michael Jackson, Wamba examines the complexity of relationships within the international black community and tackles misperceptions on both sides of the ocean.

    Simon's same willingness to open his heart to the reader permeates The Play Goes On. This second act takes the reader from the mid-1970s to the present, a period in which Simon wrote some of his most popular and critically acclaimed plays, including the Brighton Beach trilogy and Lost in Yonkers, for which he won the Pulitzer Prize. Simon experienced enormous professional success during this time, but in his personal life he struggled to find that same sense of happiness and satisfaction. After the death of his first wife, he and his two young daughters left New York for Hollywood. There he remarried, and when that foundered he remarried again. Told with his characteristic humor and unflinching sense of irony, The Play Goes On is rich with stories of how Simon's art came to imitate his life. Simon's forty-plus plays make up a body of work that is a long-running memoir in its own right, yet here, in a deeper and more personal book than his first volume, Simon offers a revealing look at an artist in crisis but still able and willing to laugh at himself.

    Joseph Monninger thought the worst when Nellie, his loyal golden retriever, became ill.  Home Waters is the story of the road trip that Monninger decided to embark on with Nellie, traveling out West to revisit their favorite mountain haunts and trout streams.  Expecting this to be their final excursion together, Monninger maps a course that includes the Wind River Range in Wyoming, the Bighorn River in Montana, and Henry Ford's River in Idaho.Painting a loving portrait of his canine companion and the joys of fishing, Monninger recalls the life events that Nellie has seen him through and describes how, oblivious to her presumed health problems, Nellie contentedly watches bison at Yellowstone, chases a coyote, and falls head over heels for a Chesapeake retriever named Chunky.  Combining the charm of John Steinbeck's Travels with Charley with the unsentimental storytelling of A River Runs Through It, Home Waters is a delightful story of a beautiful friendship--one that is, in the end, renewed rather than ended.

    In Thirsting for God, you will encounter in each of these 365 daily readings the woman who yearned to know God above all else and whose words point the way for those who long to quench that same thirst.

    Whether she is describing her restricted but romantic courtship with Rashid -- when letters were like dates, like "whispers on the slow, blue-light dance floor" -- or riding the bus upstate with the other wives and girlfriends, Asha Bandele creates haunting images and reflections so powerful and unique that they beg to be reread and savored. At the same time that she recalls the extreme ups and downs that accompany a relationship constantly scrutinized by guards and surveillance cameras, she confronts her own dark secrets and sadness. The love of a man with an ugly past but a firm belief in redemption is what heals her broken spirit and grants her the courage and confidence to embrace life again. This is a love story extraordinary in its circumstances but universal in its message. With unblinking honesty, Asha Bandele writes about the tenuous balance of power upon which most relationships rest, the deep needs that bring two people together, the jealousy and insecurity that can drive them apart. But most of all, The Prisoner's Wife reminds us why we love -- what we give up for it and what we receive from it.

    With the soul of a true satirist, Campbell combines Scripture and homespun humor in a deceptively simple style that belies the seriousness of his intent: to deflate the pompous, indict the hypocritical, and expose the self-righteous.

    Ths story of a father's search for truth after his son's murder, "Gone Boy" offers a commanding inquiry into guns, violence, and manhood in America.

    This beautifully illustrated book contains a personal portrayal of each of their stories, exclusive interviews, and simple and elegant photography by Dean Freeman.

    160 photos.

    I am Captain of as good, and true a band of patriots as ever rallied under the star spangled banner."—Rufus R. Dawes. A Full Blown Yankee of the Iron Brigade combines the personal experiences of Rufus R. Dawes with a history of the regiment in which he served. The Iron Brigade was the only all-Western brigade that fought in the eastern armies of the Union and was perhaps the most distinguished of the Federal brigades. Dawes is credited with a keen sense of observation and a fresh and vivid style. Seldom absent from the field during his entire three-and-a-half-year term, he chronicled Second Bull Run, Antietam, Fredericksburg, Chan-cellorsville, Gettysburg, the Wilderness campaign, Cold Harbor, and the Petersburg lines. Perhaps most remarkable is the well-honed sense of humor he displayed about both the war and himself. Dawes’s sophisticated account of significant military organizations and events improves our understanding of the epic of the Civil War.

    Based upon lectures given at the 1962 Ecumenical Study Conference of the United Christian Youth Movement, 'Count It All Joy' offers meditations on major themes from the book of James, such as the juxtaposition of faith and good works in the Christian life.

    Throughout, his poems appear in counterpoint to his prose. A fresh look at the work and inspiration of a remarkable writer.

    William Karesh, D.V.M., wildlife veterinarian and adventurer extraordinaire. From the jungles of the Amazon, to the golden savannas of Africa, to the rocky and unforgiving shores of Patagonia, Dr. Karesh manages an extraordinary medical practice. A healer of international renown, his patients are often as ferociously-toothed as they are difficult to subdue. As creator and head of the one-of-a-kind International Field Veterinary Program for the Wildlife Conservation Society, Karesh's days and nights are devoted to the catching of crocodiles, the examining of orangutans, and the tagging of tigers. An adventurer whose commitment to conservation is as fierce as the landscapes and animals he encounters, his exploits put fictional characters to shame.

    As he describes takeoffs, knee hangs, and thrilling midair catches, Keen imparts moving revelations about risk-taking, trust, bravado, living more passionately, true strength, falling, and letting go. Guiding us on a remarkable inner journey through the "circus of the mind," Learning to Fly reveals the grace of ascending in body and spirit--and living with levity.

    When Conover’s request to shadow a recruit at the New York State Corrections Officer Academy was denied, he decided to apply for a job as a prison officer. So begins his odyssey at Sing Sing, once a model prison but now the state’s most troubled maximum-security facility. The result of his year there is this remarkable look at one of America’s most dangerous prisons, where drugs, gang wars, and sex are rampant, and where the line between violator and violated is often unclear.

    In his many voyages, the Scottish-born John Nichol circumnavigated the globe, visiting every inhabited continent. He participated in many of the greatest events of exploration and adventure. He battled pirates, traded with Native Americans and fought for the British Navy in the American and French Revolutions; he also travelled on the first female convict ship to Australia, was entertained in Hawaii by the king's court, days after the murder of Captain James Cook, and witnessed the horrors of the slave system in Jamaica.

    However, Robert Klose, who is single, wanted a son so badly that he faced down the opposition and overcame seemingly insurmountable barriers to realize his goal. The story of his quest for a son is detailed in this intimate personal account.The frustrating truth he reports is that most adoption agencies seem unsure of how to respond to a single man's application. During the three years that it took for him to proceed through the adoption maze, Klose met resistance and dead ends at every attempt. Happenstance finally led him to Russia, where he found the child of his dreams in a Moscow orphanage, a Russian boy named Alyosha.This is the first book to be written by a single man adopting from abroad. The narrative of his quest serves as an instructional firsthand manual for single men wishing to adopt. It details the prospective father's heightening sense of anticipation as he untangles bureaucratic snarls and addresses cultural differences involved in adopting a foreign child.When he arrives in Russia, he supposes the adoption will be a matter of following cut-and-dried procedures. Instead, his difficulties are only beginning. Although he meets kind and generous Russians, his encounter with the child welfare system in Moscow turns out to be both chaotic and bizarre. However, his dogged ordeal pays off more bountifully than he ever could have hoped. In the end he comes face to face with a little boy who changes his life forever.

    Then the Nightmare Began.As a young man in his twenties with an insatiable thirst for money and power, Jorge Valdés worked his way up inside Colombia's powerful Medellin drug cartel. His key position as head of U.S. operations brought him into direct contact with presidents, generals, Hollywood celebrities, hired killers, and kidnappers. This Cuban immigrant, raised in poverty, was living the high life in more ways than one. Then an incredible thing happened: Jorge Valdés encountered a person much more powerful than the strongest drug lord, someone who offered something more satisfying than women, drugs, money, prestige, or power.Coming Clean: The True Story of a Cocaine Drug Lord and His Unexpected Encounter with God offers an insider's view of the drug industry and the greed that drives it. More important, it weaves a compelling story of forgiveness, renewal, and hope.

    "Like Tosca, Charles Henri Ford has lived for art and love...a masterpiece"---Edmund White

    In this book, Laurel Holliday explores how far society has come as she presents 38 African Americans who share their experiences.

    By tums touching and hilarious, Paper Hero provides a personal look at Depression era life, as the Hale family chases an elusive prosperity from town to town across the West Cross Timbers of Texas. Difficult though the times were -- with the frequent absence of his traveling salesman father and several periods of real hardship -- there was much to smile at, too. In his graceful prose Hale renders vividly for us his youthful delight at games like tin-can shinny; his rueful discomfort at the limitations church membership placed on a growing boy's freedom of expression; his admiration for his father's joyous showmanship and for his mother's ability to draw comfort from the beauty of ordinary things. Also, for the first time in print he talks about his lifelong aversion to mirrors and the reason for it. Hale's style, clear and musical in its rhythms, evocative of laughter and pain within a single paragraph, is a masterful achievement masked by its deceptive simplicity. Every page of this remarkable book breathes with humanity and heart.

    Her dignity and perseverance in bringing her husband's killer to justice - a battle she waged for more than thirty years - have made her an inspiration and role model for millions of women of all ages and races. Yet few people know the private side of this most remarkable of public lives, a side that Myrlie Evers-Williams shares for the first time in Watch Me Fly. Here is a moving and vivid portrait of a childhood within a family of proud, determined Mississippi women; of the harrowing dangers her family faced during the civil rights struggle; of her efforts as a single mother to raise three children while attending college, efforts that left her battling depression; of her opening her heart to another wonderful man, only to lose him to cancer; and of her path from business and civic careers to her brilliant leadership of the NAACP through scandal to a newfound vitality. Watch Me Fly is not just a traditional memoir, however, but what Myrlie Evers-Williams calls an "instructive autobiography, " a book that links her memories to the wisdom she has gained over the years.

    King and introduction by Jimmy Buffett. Last year Jimmy Buffett was on the bestseller lists for months. One of Buffet's chapters is about Jerry Jeff Walker, who practically changed the course of Buffett's career.A brilliant entertainer, well-read and outspoken, Walker is Austin's poet laureate and a pal to fellow musical outlaws Willie Nelson and Waylon Jennings. Walker writes poetically of the night he penned his great hit song, "Mr. Bo Jangles," as he sat with "Bo" in a New Orleans jail. ("Mr. Bo Jangles" became Sammy Davis Jr.'s theme song.)This a fascinating, riveting and fun-to-read study of a budding star in the wild and crazy 1960s and 1970s, a ramblin' singer living on the edge, a true modern-day minstrel who changed his identity and his life through youthful happenstance. And it is the story of a man who, with the aid of wife Susan, matured into a respected singer-songwriter who now earns a mint with his own recording company, Tried and True Music. Walker today is a rebel with several causes.Two presidents, Clinton and Bush, have named Walker among their favorite singers. Jerry Jeff Walker truly has a great story to tell -- about a generation lost, about America. Walker routinely packs in the fans wherever he and his Lost Gonzo Band play. His furiously loyal cult-fan mailing base includes more than 50,000 addresses.

    Mao Zedong's Cultural Revolution engulfed millions of Chinese citizens, and the Red Guard enforced Mao's brutal communist regime. Chen's family belonged to the despised landlord class, and his father and grandfather were routinely beaten and sent to labor camps, the family of eight left without a breadwinner. Despite this background of poverty and danger, and Da Chen grows up to be resilient, tough, and funny, learning how to defend himself and how to work toward his future. By the final pages, when his says his last goodbyes to his father and boards the bus to Beijing to attend college, Da Chen has become a hopeful man astonishing in his resilience and cheerful strength.

    Now, his only child gives us an extraordinary memoir-a book that reveals the Gary Cooper only she knew. Illustrated throughout with 175 photographs, including many never-before-published family pictures, Maria Cooper Janis' heartfelt book offers an unprecedented look at her father's private side, from his Montana boyhood and his Hollywood home life to his friendships with Ernest Heming way, Pablo Picasso, and Jimmy Stewart, among others. Filled with anecdotes that capture the off-screen humor and warmth of this avid outdoorsman and great humanitarian, Gary Cooper Off Camera is an unforgettable portrait of a great star and a beloved father. 175 photographs in duotone, 911/2 x 11"

    Floyd allows the reader into his heart as he grapples with the interior emotions that question the goodness of God in the midst of unbearable grief. With honesty and candor, this loving father openly reveals the depths of his pain as he struggles to maintain his faith and provide leadership for the rest of his family.Ultimately a story of profound hope and healing, A Grief Unveiled offers encouragement and empathy not only to those who have experienced the agony of parental bereavement, but to anyone who has suffered a loss.

    32 photos.

    Nova leads the reader into his courtship, marriage, the birth of his children, and his life as a father, husband, writer, friend, citizen, and angler. Just as the author observes the life of the elusive and beautiful brook trout in the tea-colored streams, he finds interconnections to his daily life--he teaches his daughter to build an igloo; he deals with the disappointment of a very public mean-spirited review of his much-anticipated novel; he gazes at his wife-to-be in her hammock by a stream; he finds himself the victim of a random blackmailer. Unpredictable and keenly observed, Nova leads us through the terrain of the life of an artist. The constants are the stream and the brook trout whic offer both respite from the demands of his life and a wellspring of inspiration and strength. It is a paean to nature and the beauty of the brook trout. This autobiography is a reprint and expansion of Nova's highly regarded memoir originally published in 1999. This new edition includes substantial sections of new work and an introduction by Ann Beattie.

    It is also a complex portrait of Spain under Franco. The author explores the patterns of love, sacrifice, and forbearance that mark not only her own life but those of many other Spanish women she has known.

    . .) yet grown ever more attached to the experience?These 33 essays hold the answer. Scott Huler's nostalgic memoirs, and his interviews with Browns legends and other fans, uncover those essential, special elements of shared experience that define what being a Browns fan has meant for us all.It's about pride. It's about desire, tempered by crushing disappointment. It's about tradition, and learning how to root for the home team at your father's side. It's about rivalry and electrifying victory. It's about longing--for a return to past championships, for future glory. It's about heart. It's about all that, and much more.This odyssey takes Browns fans back to some wonderful places. It revives some truly heartbreaking moments. And it looks to the future with great hope. If you're Brown, you'll enjoy the ride.

    The inspiring story of Pastor Peter Rumachik, inprisoned over eighteen years in the Soviet Gulag for preaching the Gospel.

    Through these essays emerges a portrait of a mother, scholar, fly fisher, and gardener living each role with furious passion.

    This is the beginning of a journey of discovery and remembrance as Sal is forced to reconstruct his life as it really happened, including some of his most difficult years at Boys Town in Nebraska.As an adult, Sal tried to rise above his turbulent past in an aggressive quest for power and money. Successes soon led to failures. Eventually, a wise friend convinces Sal to go back to his roots and look for the good experiences and valuable lessons he learned as a nine-year-old orphan.

    Domestic violence, thriving after abuse

    Elkhanan Elkes was elected as the leader of the Kovno Ghetto, Lithuania -- one of the few ghettos led by a council chosen by the Jewish community. Reluctantly accepting the post, Dr. Elkes embarked on an agonizing crusade to preserve civic structure in the face of relentless, murderous pressure, and to save as many lives as possible, eventually laying down his own life in a hunger strike in Dachau in October 1944. Dr. Elkes's last letter and testament, written to his children before he died, is included in this memoir, as well as pen-and-ink illustrations sketched by Esther Lurie while in the ghetto.

    But she would never get the eggroll she'd longed for; she went into labor in the restaurant. Sixteen hours later, her youngest son Milton T. Simmons was born. And so begins the saga of fitness guru Richard Simmons and his lifelong love affair with food.Along the way he's helped millions of Americans with their battle of weight loss. Many know him through his groundbreaking infomercial products like Deal-A-Meal, Get Down the Pounds, and his exciting new Move, Groove, and Lost program. Still more have enjoyed his best-selling low-fat cookbooks Farewell to Fat and Sweetie Pie.

    It is an insider's view of the effect the wars had on ordinary Germans. As a native German, the author takes us from her youth through the much-staged rise & fall of Hitler & his Nazi Party, World War II & the devastating postwar years, up to the Berlin Wall. Through her you will experience the air raids & intense bombing of Berlin, the ever-present hunger, the Soviet invasion & other day-to-day struggles. Yet she also entertains the reader with her witty style & the many jokes about the Third Reich. Her stories demonstrate that war unites as much as it divides and that history is embedded in the lives of individuals, not in textbooks. And throughout, the human spirit prevails since Laughter Wasn't Rationed.

    Psychic Keen discovered a side of the former Beatle that few have ever experienced.

    What drew them together was their dismay over the traditional vocabulary of the medical establishment that "attacks" the healing process as if it were a war and their search for emotional balance and spiritual anchors. Through their personal stories, they develop a new framework for the stages of illness and an accompanying language with which to discuss it. Instead of addressing illness as combat with victims and survivors, theirs is a language of relationship, spirit, and integration.

    The Duc de Saint-Simon was a man of political skill and influence at the heart of the royal court, and this is the first volume in his skilfully written memoirs of the time.

    It's an uncompromising expose that names names, points fingers, and confesses to sins as it reveals the decisions, mistakes, competition, and crimes that brought the tabloid TV genre from a local show to a national phenomenon -- and the tawdry mix of scandal and sleaze that destroyed it.

    I do not care for cities, and so I live in the forest on a ridge over Wildcat Creek, a bold stream that flows, half a mile away, into the Oconee River. . . . Our house is halfway down the ridge, just before it plummets sharply to the creek. I have found archaic chert scrapers on our property, more recent potsherds with intricate decorations. I say that we own these seven acres, but we’re really just passing through.With his opening lines Philip Lee Williams defines the territory of this intricate and lyrical memoir: life with his young family on the ridge, his coming of age, and the legacy of his southern family. That legacy, which includes a love of literature, a passion for music, and an insatiable curiosity about the natural world, also includes a defective heart valve.Crossing Wildcat Ridge combines the drama of Williams’s open-heart surgery with contemplative essays on the natural world. The gentle counterpoint between the two elements illuminates both in remarkable and profound ways. Confronting his mortality, the author struggles to determine his place in the world. His sober consideration of things left undone is juxtaposed with the contemplation of a mound of fire ants: “There is no uncertainty in that world; each knows his job, doesn’t know why, can’t ask. None knows he will die.” As the author slips into depression during his postoperative recovery, he studies the flora and fauna of the ridge, its lights and shadows, the dunes beneath the waters of the creek. With poetic imagery, he shares not only his crystalline observations of nature but also their healing effects--how he learns to receive the gift of a mockingbird’s song, how the tracks of elusive woodland creatures bolster his faith in the existence of things we cannot see, how sensory memories reconnect him to the boy he was and the man he hopes to be.All thinking, feeling adults search for the right path to self-discovery. Philip Lee Williams’s luminous account of his journey is one satisfying and effective road map.

    At nine, Satish renounced the world, left his home in rural India, and joined a wandering brotherhood of beggar monks until an inner voice guided hin to Gandhi's vision of a peaceful world. His inspiring journy led him to settle in England, where he became one of the leaders with E. F. Schumacher of the "small is beautiful" movement and the guiding spirit behind a number of ecological, spiritual, and educational ventures.Written with elegance, "Path Without Destination"is the exhilarating account of Satish Kumar's extraordinary life. At nine, Satish renounced the world, left his home in rural India, and joined a wandering brotherhood of beggar monks until an inner voice guided hin to Gandhi's vision of a peaceful world. His inspiring journy led him to settle in England, where he became one of the leaders with E. F. Schumacher of the "small is beautiful" movement and the guiding spirit behind a number of ecological, spiritual, and educational ventures.

    In one of the most captivating stories of childhood yet to emerge from Northern Ireland, The Faloorie Man traces the early years of Martin McBride, a young Catholic boy growing up on the streets of post-war Belfast. Stark, funny, at times heart-wrenching, Martins coming of age story is set against sectarian division. As he emerges from the cocoon of his family, he faces an uncertain world: the shocking discovery of the difference between boys and girls, the unprovoked fighting on the schoolyard, the torture of education, the doubtful pleasure of illicit sex, and the accidental discovery of a darkly hidden truth.

    In relating his love affair with the food that has sustained him for more than three-quarters of a century, Leon Hale recreates for us the tables of Texas and the South enjoyed by our parents and grandparents—and if we are lucky, ourselves. They were filled with solid, nurturing fare like chicken and dumplings, cornbread with Jersey butter, chicken-fried steak, green beans glistening with bacon drippings, and homemade fried pies—tables glowing with the memory of good times and good friends. America’s way of eating has evolved, of course, and Hale’s passion for food has evolved with it. Today his pleasures run to more healthful fare: jalapeno turkey burgers on whole grain buns, blue corn dinner pancakes with black beans, the world’s best sweet pepper omelette. From the day in Bryan when he invented blackened chicken to his bachelor apartment adventures making pot roast and “the Soupwich”—a lunch-time staple—Hale has been a producer of unusual dishes. But he is only an occasional cook. For the most part he has been on the consuming end, as he recalls some of the beloved figures whose signature dishes he still longs for: his mother-in-law, “Mimi” Vick, and her Christmas ambrosia; Mary Elizabeth Adams and her world-class fried chicken; Marie Moore’s guacamole salad accompanied by fried Matagorda oysters—a holiday tradition. Or Mary Helen Hale’s Texas cheese dip, which became the Hale family’s all-purpose comfort food. With memories of cooks who learned their craft in the late 1800s, Supper Time serves as a kind of food history of twentieth century Texas. Forgotten staples of the 1920s like chow-chow give way to Forties’ Spam sandwiches, Sixties’ backyard barbecues—where neighbors would piggy-back a pork chop or two on the grill if Hale was cooking—and eventually to today’s low fat but satisfying dishes like turkey breast meat loaf with skinny mashed potatoes. This is an intimate, unforgettable portrait of a man, his friends, family, and his time, full of personal preferences, brimming with memory and affection, enriched by family recipes, old and new. And Hale tells his story with the self-deprecating humor, wit, and grace for which he is celebrated.

    Dorothy Sucher explores both her corner of Vermont and the many aspects of gardening - the satisfaction of shaping a landscape, the spirit of generosity in a land-based community, and the individuality expressed in a neighbour's flowerbeds.

    A significant and revealing feature of London's literary life lies in his introspective observations on the craft of writing, brought together in this collection of essays, reviews, letters, and autobiographical writings. London's public role as a daring, carefree man of action has obscured the shrewd, disciplined, and methodical writer whose practical reflections and meditations on his profession provide a vivid portrait of the literary industry in turn-of-the-century America. For this edition, a significant amount of new material has been added.Reviews of the First Edition"Dale Walker has rendered a valuable service in his painstaking collection of London's writings about writers. He has included 43 selections, 20 of which are previously uncollected: 13 essays, and excerpts from London's two autobiographical works. The result is a remarkably comprehensive view of London 'the writer's writer.'"—American Literary Realism"An absorbing account of how hard the writer worked to learn his craft. . . . We find a master prose stylist concerned with problems of selectivity and concrete issues of tone, form, atmosphere, and point of view."—Modern Philology"A remarkable collection. . . . This is a firsthand look at a writer's honest and forthright opinions on his craft."—Los Angeles Times

    With essays by leading breast cancer authority Susan Love, art critic James Yood, and Sigler herself.

    As her journey begins, Christine Wicker knows God primarily as "the source you never get to interview." Despite this, she pursues Him anyway and begins to glimpse a God she hasn't dared hope might exist. She finds Him in unlikely places--the ceremony of a Wiccan coven, an East German shop window, a Northern Ireland breakfast table. To her grumpy amazement, she also finds Him in a place she swore she would never again look--the confines of a Southern Baptist church. It's a hard trip with surprising turns, but in the end Wicker finds a faith that answers the soul's call without ignoring the world's realities.

    The author combines the stories of her youth with historical fact to create rich and diverse narratives, telling the story of the people who have shaped the land.

    Voluntarily confined to a sparsely furnished room amid the bustle of Istanbul, Michaela Özelsel will occupy her time with reading the Qur'an and works of Rumi and Ibn 'Arabi, and with praying and practicing the powerful Sufi exercise known as zhikr, the rhythmic repetition of names of God or other sacred formulas, accompanied by movements of the head or body. In intimate detail Dr. Özelsel shares her experiences as she strives to attain true "Islam" in its meaning of surrender or unconditional acceptance of the will of God. Her daily journal ranges over the frustrations of noisy neighbors, power outages, and a poorly heated room; her inner longings, doubts, and memories of the life course that has brought her to this moment; and the most inspirational philosophical insights, dreams and visions, and ecstatic raptures. The second half of the book is devoted to the author's psychological and cultural commentary on her experiences, including observations about the methods of Sufi schooling, sexuality and spirituality, and the relationship with the spiritual guide. Forty Days is unique in the literature of spiritual education because it is informed by her knowledge of contemporary research from several disciplines, thus creating a bridge between ancient wisdom and scientific investigation.

    Fortunately, he proved to be as natural a storyteller as he was a sailor. Before the Wind has been hailed as a superb contribution to seafaring literature, alongside such books as Two Years Before the Mast and the novels of Patrick O'Brian. Both Tyng's life and the way he recounts his years at sea are full of wonder: He survives shipwrecks, squalls, and pirates. He makes and loses fortunes in tea, sugar, and cotton. He meets Lord Byron as well as the British princess (later queen) Victoria. Sailors, armchair travelers, history buffs, and lovers of pulse-quickening maritime stories will find this book as seductive as the siren song of the sea.

    In this award-winning book, Richard Bangs recounts his dramatic expedition to raft Ethiopa's unrun River Tekeze.

    He offers his account of governing in the early 1990s, up to Yeltsin's cliffhanger re-election in 1996.

    First published in 1999, it gathers photographs by Helmut Newton and his wife, the actress and photographer June Newton, who worked under the pseudonym Alice Springs. The collection is arranged into five sections, alternating the gaze between Newton and Spring s own tender internal world of Us, and the glamorous encounters of their social and professional milieu - Them. The Us sections of the book reveal the pair s portraits of each other and themselves, as startling in their moments of vulnerability as they are infectious in their episodes of joy. We see the pair pensive, weary, or roaring with laughter. Alice photographs Helmut on set with his models, in the shower, and in stilettos. Helmut captures Alice in the kitchen, in costume, and hanging up the washing in the nude. Along the way, we are alerted to the frailties and intimacies that make up a long-term partnership and that coexisted with the high-voltage glamour for which Newton is renowned. The particular power of the pictures is to locate as much magnetism and beauty in an aging, ailing partner (Helmut in the hospital, Alice adjusting her spectacles), as in the pristine physiques of a Newton fashion shoot.In the concluding Them section, Newton and Springs each turn their lens on the same, typically famous, subjects, including Catherine Deneuve, Charlotte Rampling, David Hockney, Dennis Hopper, Karl Lagerfeld, and Timothy Leary. While Newton casts these subjects with his unique brand of statuesque allure, Springs deploys a softer focus to find something more suggestive, delicate, or playful.As we move from, in Newton s words, truth and simplicity to editorializing, through youth and age, love and sex, and the public and private spheres, Us and Them offers not only an elegant example of independent visions within a shared life, but also a tender and inspiring chronicle of love through passing time.Text in English, French, and German"