And I Don't Want to Live This Life: A Mother's Story of Her Daughter's Murder


Deborah Spungen - 1983
    But for Deborah Spungen, the mother of Nancy, who was stabbed to death at the Chelsea Hotel, it was both a relief and a tragedy. Here is the incredible story of an infant who never stopped screaming, a toddler who attacked people, a teenager addicted to drugs, violence, and easy sex, a daughter completely out of control--who almost destroyed her parents' marriage and the happiness of the rest of her family.

Out of Captivity: Surviving 1,967 Days in the Colombian Jungle


Marc Gonsalves - 2009
    Dazed and shaken, they awoke battered and covered in blood with automatic rifles pointing at their faces. As of that moment they belonged to the terrorist organization known as the FARC, the military arm of the Colombia Communist Party established in the 1960s. Thus began five-and-a-half years of captivity as these three men struggled to survive the madness of their surroundings. Gonsalves, Howes, and Stansell recount their amazing tale of survival, friendship, and, ultimately, rescue in its entirety for the first time. Revealing the story of their crash, their horrific treatment at the hands of the FARC, what they witnessed as captives, and how they survived, the book provides vivid and gruesome firsthand accounts of their years in the jungle. In their own words, they detail the brutality they endured both physically and mentally at the hands of their captors, describing month-long, unrelenting 'starvation' marches while suffering broken bones, dehydration, exhaustion, and infection. They speak of months of solitary confinement and heavy chains wrapped around their necks that often left them wishing for death. Offering a glimpse inside one of the world's most notorious terrorist organizations, "Out of Captivity" tells the story of how far three Americans were willing to go as they fought to survive for themselves, their families, and each other, providing unflinching insight into: their plane crash into a FARC strategic meeting site, and the FARC's execution-style murders of their crewmembers Tom Janis and Luis Cruz; the U.S. counter-narcotics surveillance role in 'Plan Colombia', including their aerial flights for electronic eavesdropping and FARC communication interceptions; the clandestine role they played as U.S Government contractors in the War on Drugs; their five-and-a-half years of captivity, torture, and deprivation; and, their experiences with other hostages, including their fraught relationship with fellow captive Ingrid Betancourt. This title also provides insight into: how they learned to live off the jungle and survive in some of the world's harshest conditions; how their friendship helped each of them to survive; how spirituality played a role for each during different phases of their imprisonment; the FARC's leaders, activities, movements, and organization; their dramatic rescue by special military units on the ground in Colombia; the reintegration process and the emotional reunions with their families and loved ones; and, how captivity has changed them and what their lives are like seven-and-a-half months after being rescued.

The Sisters: The Saga of the Mitford Family


Mary S. Lovell - 2001
    Jessica was a Communist; Debo became the Duchess of Devonshire; Nancy was one of the best-selling novelists of her day; beautiful Diana married the Fascist leader Sir Oswald Mosley; and Unity , a close friend of Hitler, shot herself in the head when England and Germany declared war.

Unfollow: A Journey from Hatred to Hope


Megan Phelps-Roper - 2019
    A loving home, shared with squabbling siblings, overseen by devoted parents. Yet in other ways it was the precise opposite: a revolving door of TV camera crews and documentary makers, a world of extreme discipline, of siblings vanishing in the night.Megan Phelps-Roper was raised in the Westboro Baptist Church - the fire-and-brimstone religious sect at once aggressively homophobic and anti-Semitic, rejoiceful for AIDS and natural disasters, and notorious for its picketing the funerals of American soldiers. From her first public protest, aged five, to her instrumental role in spreading the church's invective via social media, her formative years brought their difficulties. But being reviled was not one of them. She was preaching God's truth. She was, in her words, 'all in'.In November 2012, at the age of twenty-six, she left the church, her family, and her life behind. Unfollow is a story about the rarest thing of all: a person changing their mind. It is a fascinating insight into a closed world of extreme belief, a biography of a complex family, and a hope-inspiring memoir of a young woman finding the courage to find compassion for others, as well as herself.

A Question of Character: A Life of John F. Kennedy


Thomas C. Reeves - 1991
    In A Question of Character John F. Kennedy's two lives—public and private—are examined to answer this timely question. Respected historian and biographer Thomas C. Reeves reveals discrepancies between JFK's public persona, which has reached mythic proportions, and his scandalous private behavior. Most illuminating is the constant theme of Joe Kennedy's almost total control of JFK's behavior and politics throughout most of his son's career. "The John Kennedy who emerges from these pages was not a man of good moral character. He was reared not to be good but to win." — Los Angeles TimesReeves has provided the most truthful and balanced assessment of John F. Kennedy to date. Written more in sorrow than in anger, A Question of Character explores the sensitive and difficult question of how people, and history itself, ought to judge the relationship between personal character and national leadership.

When I Was a Kid, This Was a Free Country


G. Gordon Liddy - 2002
    Gordon Liddy offers his unabashedly politically incorrect view on America.

Playing It My Way: My Autobiography


Sachin Tendulkar - 2014
    I knew that agreeing to write my story would need me to be completely honest, as that’s the way I have always played the game. It would require talking about a number of aspects I have not shared in public before. So here I am, at the end of my final innings, having taken that last walk back to the pavilion, ready to recount as many incidents as I can remember since first picking up a cricket bat as a child in Mumbai thirty-five years ago." - Sachin Tendulkar

Home: A Memoir of My Early Years


Julie Andrews Edwards - 2008
    But she has never told the story of her life before fame. Until now.In Home: A Memoir of My Early Years, Julie takes her readers on a warm, moving, and often humorous journey from a difficult upbringing in war-torn Britain to the brink of international stardom in America. Her memoir begins in 1935, when Julie was born to an aspiring vaudevillian mother and a teacher father, and takes readers to 1962, when Walt Disney himself saw her on Broadway and cast her as the world's most famous nanny.Along the way, she weathered the London Blitz of World War II; her parents' painful divorce; her mother's turbulent second marriage to Canadian tenor Ted Andrews, and a childhood spent on radio, in music halls, and giving concert performances all over England. Julie's professional career began at the age of twelve, and in 1948 she became the youngest solo performer ever to participate in a Royal Command Performance before the Queen. When only eighteen, she left home for the United States to make her Broadway debut in The Boy Friend, and thus began her meteoric rise to stardom.Home is filled with numerous anecdotes, including stories of performing in My Fair Lady with Rex Harrison on Broadway and in the West End, and in Camelot with Richard Burton on Broadway; her first marriage to famed set and costume designer Tony Walton, culminating with the birth of their daughter, Emma; and the call from Hollywood and what lay beyond.Julie Andrews' career has flourished over seven decades. From her legendary Broadway performances, to her roles in such iconic films as The Sound of Music, Mary Poppins, Thoroughly Modern Millie, Hawaii, 10, and The Princess Diaries, to her award-winning television appearances, multiple album releases, concert tours, international humanitarian work, best-selling children's books, and championship of literacy, Julie's influence spans generations. Today, she lives with her husband of thirty-eight years, the acclaimed writer/director Blake Edwards; they have five children and seven grandchildren.

Reflections: Life After the White House


Barbara Bush - 2003
    The author traces the eight years between the presidencies of her husband and son, discussing her charity work, relationships with her children and grandchildren, and her family's reactions to September 11 and its aftermath.

Wonderful Tonight


Pattie Boyd - 2007
    8-page color insert.