An avid gun collector yet an anti-war activist, a popular economics professor and a wife-swapping nudist, a leftist and a lifelong fan of the British Empire who would occasionally don an authentic pith helmet and imitate Michael Caine’s performance as the heroic Lieutenant Gonville Bromhead in the bloody war film Zulu, he was a man who could knock his young son down the stairs one day and the next cry about putting the family’s aged dog to sleep. Such is the contradictory figure at the center of this astonishingly candid and shocking memoir. As a young adult, Birkenhead reacted to his volatile childhood by forgetting its worst moments. He adopted all the trappings of normalcy, threw himself into a career as an actor, landing parts in Broadway plays like Brighton Beach Memoirs and Broadway Bound, both by Neil Simon, and found himself often playing characters who were angry at their fathers. Yet he discovered that he was sleepwalking through life, on occasion falling into rages that reminded him of his father. Then at thirty-one, eleven years after his parents’ divorce, Birkenhead told his mother about his recurring dream of flying down the stairs of their house as a young boy. She revealed that it wasn’t a dream, but a memory from his early childhood of being carried rapidly down the stairs by his mom after his father had pointed a gun at them. The revelation about the dream sparked the painful yet necessary process of examining his childhood and of ultimately moving beyond it, forcing Birkenhead to finally confront his father in a way that released him and his family from this complicated legacy. Combining the terror and wit of Running with Scissors, the poignancy and sense of place of The Tender Bar, with the sparkling prose of Oh the Glory of It All, Gonville is light on its feet even as it deals in the darkest of family tales. A harrowing and often humorous story of a son coming to terms with his alternately charming, cruel, generous, and violent father.

    Kick-start your metabolism into high gear with Bob Greene's revolutionary new exercise and health program!

    This comprehensive approach shows the 50 essential core workout exercises that will build strength and endurance in the key core muscles for cycling—no gym membership required.Professional cyclist Tom Danielson used to have a bad back. He shifted in the saddle, never comfortable, often riding in pain. Hearing that core strength could help his back, he started doing crunches, which made matters worse. He turned to personal trainer Allison Westfahl for a new approach. Danielson and Westfahl developed all-new core exercises to build core strength specifically for cycling, curing Danielson’s back problems. Better yet, Danielson found that stronger core muscles boosted his pedaling efficiency and climbing power.Using Danielson’s core exercises, cyclists of all abilities will enjoy faster, pain-free riding. Cyclists will perform simple exercises using their own body weight to build strength in the low back, hips, abs, chest, and shoulders without adding unwanted bulk and without weights, machines, or a gym membership. Each Core Advantage exercise complements the motions of riding a bike so cyclists strengthen the right muscles that stabilize and support the body, improving efficiency and reducing the fatigue that can lead to overuse injuries and pain in the back, neck, and shoulders.Beginner, intermediate, and advanced training plans will help bike racers, century riders, and weekend warriors to build core strength throughout the season. Each plan features warm-up stretches and 15 core exercises grouped into workouts for injury resistance, better posture, improved stability and bike handling, endurance, and power. Westfahl explains the goal for each exercise, which Danielson models in clear photographs.Riding a bike takes more than leg strength. Now Tom Danielson’s Core Advantage lays out the core strengthening routines that enable longer, faster rides.

    Fresh from a guest spot on Oprah where he taught yoga to the masses, Rodney Yee is well-known around the world and travels extensively both nationally and worldwide to teach weekend workshops, week-long teacher training workshops, and yoga retreats.For the first time ever, Rodney Yee explains in writing his highly popular and successful approach to yoga. Yoga: The Poetry of the Body is an introduction to the practice of yoga in both its physical and spiritual aspects. Using more than 400 beautiful black-and-white photos, this book takes beginners, as well as more advanced students, step-by-step through 8 full yoga practices based on 45 of the most basic yoga poses. Using thought-provoking student-teacher dialogs, Rodney makes abstract concepts come alive, thereby allowing readers to better understand and appreciate the essence of yoga. All in all, this book presents a wonderful and stimulating journey into the world of yoga that reflects both the way Rodney teaches and his personal philosophy. It is sure to please yoga enthusiasts everywhere.

    Previously held up as an icon of purity, Bergman's fall shocked her legions of American fans. Growing up in Hollywood, Jessica Malloy watches as her PR executive father helps make Ingrid a star at Selznick Studio. Over years of fleeting interactions with the actress, Jesse comes to idolize Ingrid, who she considered not only the epitome of elegance and integrity, but also the picture-perfect mother, an area where her own difficult mom falls short. In a heated era of McCarthyism and extreme censorship, Ingrid's affair sets off an international scandal that robs seventeen-year-old Jesse of her childhood hero. When the stress placed on Jesse's father begins to reveal hidden truths about the Malloy family, Jesse's eyes are opened to the complex realities of life--and love. Beautifully written and deeply moving, The Hollywood Daughter is an intimate novel of self-discovery that evokes a Hollywood sparkling with glamour and vivid drama. From the Hardcover edition.

    'Running Well' shows runners how to minimise the risks of injury and other problems by showing the difference between training and straining, avoiding overtraining, varying speed and distance, keeping the running muscles strong and supple and honing technique.

    When respected American jewelry historian, Kate Kirby, receives a call about the Cheapside jewels, she knows she’s on the brink of the experience of a lifetime. But the trip to London forces Kate to explore secrets that have long been buried by her own family. Back in Boston, Kate has uncovered a series of sketches in her great-grandmother’s papers linking her suffragette great-grandmother Essie to the Cheapside collection. Could these sketches hold the key to Essie’s secret life in Edwardian London? In the summer of 1912, impoverished Irish immigrant Essie Murphy happens to be visiting her brother when a workman’s pickaxe strikes through the floor of an old tenement house in Cheapside, near St. Paul’s Cathedral in London. The workmen uncover a stash of treasure—from Ottoman pendants to Elizabethan and Jacobean gems—and then the finds disappear again! Could these jewels—one in particular—change the fortunes of Essie and her sisters? Together with photographer Marcus Holt, Kate Kirby chases the history of the Cheapside gems and jewels, especially the story of a small diamond champlevé enamel ring. Soon, everything Kate believes about her family, gemology, and herself will be threatened. Based on a fascinating true story, The Lost Jewels is a riveting historical fiction novel that will captivate readers from the beginning to the unforgettable, surprising end.

    But the recent death of her father has so devastated her that her mother wants her to remain home in Baltimore to recover. Phoebe wants to return to New York, not only to chase the glamorous life she so desperately craves but also to confront Ivan, the older man who painfully wronged her.With her best friend Carmen, she escapes to the East Village, disappearing into an underworld haunted by artists, It Girls, and lost souls trying to party their pain away. Carmen juggles her junkie-poet boyfriend and a sexy painter while, as Astrid the Star Girl, Phoebe tells fortunes in a nightclub and plots her revenge on Ivan.When the intoxicating brew of sex, drugs, and self-destruction leads Phoebe to betray her friend, Carmen disappears, and Phoebe begins an unstoppable descent into darkness. She may have a chance to save herself—and Carmen, if she can find her—but to do it she must face what’s hiding in the shadows she’s been running from—within her heart and in the dangerous midnight streets.

    She soon discovers she has a talent for long-distance running and trains for her first marathon. . She loves it – and soon sets her sights on the 2005 Melbourne Marathon. When she finishes in under three hours and in third place, Vanessa is offered commercial sponsorships and attracts the attentions of elite coaches. Instead of enjoying her win however, she is driven to improve her performance. She pushes her body harder and further, determined to become the best runner she can be. Despite her increasing success and her own training as a physiotherapist she soon finds herself trapped in a spiral of extreme dieting and exercise in order to improve her performances and maintain her ‘fit and healthy’ look.Ignoring the growing concern of her family and friends, Vanessa denies there is anything unhealthy about her fitness training, until the day she finds her body has started rebelling against her …A compelling story about the dangers of overexercising and chasing perfection in a society that rewards and applauds the fastest and the fittest.

    That number controlled her life until one day she went for a walk that changed everything. A little bit memoir and a whole lot of advice, 1 Year, 100 Pounds follows Whitney’s journey to battle obesity, negative self-image, and peer ridicule. Through following a healthy diet and exercise routine, Whitney shed the pounds without pills, trainers, or surgery. And along the way, she discovered the confidence to love her body. Reviewed by experts in the fields of diet, health, and fitness, with a foreword by Dr. Joseph Colella, a leading bariatric surgeon who endorses Whitney’s method of healthy weight loss over surgery, 1 Year, 100 Pounds is a personal guidebook packed with tips for making healthy food choices, easy exercises, and inspiration that empowers you to change your own life.

    The book also explores overtraining, mental preparation, and time management. This revised edition includes a new chapter on transition training and equipment.

    Drawing on more than 40,000 survey responses from her global online community, as well as extensive research and her experience as a trainer, Kayla addresses what stops us from following through on our health and fitness goals. In her second book, The Bikini Body Motivation & Habits Guide, Kayla explores how you can overcome those obstacles, set goals and stick to a long-term plan for better health. Inside, you'll find helpful checklists and templates, a 28-day meal plan, more than 200 simple and delicious recipes, shopping lists and a downloadable 28-day workout poster. Let global fitness phenomenon Kayla show you how YOU can stick to a plan for long-term health."In this book, I give you the keys to achieving your goals and show you how to use motivation to create healthy habits that will stick." This is a specially formatted fixed-layout ebook that retains the look and feel of the print book.

    But despite all the attention, gluten confusion still reigns.Enter cardiologist Arthur Agatston, MD, author of the groundbreaking The South Beach Diet. With that book, Dr. Agatston ended the diet debates and cleared up the high-carb versus low-carb confusion. In The South Beach Diet Gluten Solution, he does the same for gluten, demystifying the effects of the difficult-to-digest protein in wheat and some other grains.The truth is, not everyone needs to give up gluten permanently—nor does doing so guarantee weight loss. With Dr. Agatston's phased Gluten Solution Program, based on proven South Beach Diet eating principles, you'll be able to determine your own level of gluten sensitivity—and you'll drop up to 10 pounds in just two weeks.What makes Dr. Agatston's approach unique is that he shows you how to become gluten aware, not gluten phobic. He shares his own personal journey to gluten awareness and explores the latest research to determine the real connection between gluten and health. He explains that a number of factors, including our vast overconsumption of highly processed grains, have increased the incidence of gluten sensitivity and celiac disease. These conditions contribute to a host of health issues, including brain fog, mood swings, digestive disorders, joint pain, and skin problems. You can find relief from these and other symptoms by following the South Beach Diet Gluten Solution Program.With detailed daily meal plans, tips for traveling and dining out, inspiring stories, and 20 delicious recipes (that sacrifice neither taste nor health), The South Beach Diet Gluten Solution gives you everything you need to feel great, lose weight, and navigate the gluten-free world with ease.

    Easy-to-follow steps gradually build the reader's abilities. Includes expert tips on nutrition, reducing stress with exercise, avoiding and treating injuries, and entering and winning various competitions.

    A sparkling new novel from #1 New York Times bestselling author Fern Michaels is exactly what you need to get in the spirit of the season. Christmas is more than just a celebration for Lauren Montgomery. For generations, it’s been her family’s livelihood. Their Christmas shop, Razzle Dazzle Décor, has seen seasonal fads come and go, but there’s one trend they can’t escape. Online superstores are swallowing their sales, and this Christmas season will need to be their best ever if the store is to stay in business. To help keep the shop afloat, Lauren also has a sideline, writing biographies for business figures. She’s thrilled when her literary agent contacts her with a new proposal—before learning that the subject will be none other than John Gerald Giompalo. He’s the titan behind Globalgoods.com, the online retailer that has spelled doom for hundreds of small businesses just like Razzle Dazzle Décor. Despite her misgivings, Lauren travels to Seattle to confer with the mogul, and is caught off guard when his son, John Jr., attends the meeting too. Handsome, intelligent, and deeply kind, he’s perfect—apart from the fact that he’s part of the company threatening everything Lauren loves. As her deadline, and Christmas, draw closer, Lauren knows that there’s more than her family’s shop at stake. Her heart is, too. But there’s no better time than the holidays to make a secret wish on the brightest star you see—and let the season’s magic take hold.