Flesh and Blood


C.K. Williams - 1987
    K. Williams, was awarded the 1987 National Book Critics Circle Award for Poetry. Reviewing it in The New York Times Book Review, Edward Hirsch noted that the book's compression and exactitude gave it "the feeling of a contemporary sonnet sequence." Hirsch added: "Like Berryman's Dream Songs or Lowell's Notebooks, Mr. Williams's short poems are shapely yet open-minded and self-generative, loosely improvisational though with an underlying formal necesity."

Love Letters


A.R. Gurney - 1989
    Romantically attached, they continue to exchange letters through the boarding school and college years—where Andy goes on to excel at Yale and law school, while Melissa flunks out of a series of "good schools." While Andy is off at war Melissa marries, but her attachment to Andy remains strong and she continues to keep in touch as he marries, becomes a successful attorney, gets involved in politics and, eventually, is elected to the U.S. Senate. Meanwhile, her marriage in tatters, Melissa dabbles in art and gigolos, drinks more than she should, and becomes estranged from her children. Eventually she and Andy do become involved in a brief affair, but it is really too late for both of them. However Andy's last letter, written to her mother after Melissa's untimely death, makes it eloquently clear how much they really meant, and gave to, each other over the years—physically apart, perhaps, but spiritually as close as only true lovers can be.

Please Be with Me: A Song for My Father, Duane Allman


Galadrielle Allman - 2014
    Playing was her father—Duane Allman, who would become one of the most influential and sought-after musicians of his time. Just a few short years into his remarkable career, he was killed in a motorcycle accident at the age of twenty-four. His daughter was two years old.   Galadrielle was raised in the shadow of his loss and his fame. Her mother sought solace in a bohemian life. Friends and family found it too painful to talk about Duane. Galadrielle listened intently to his music, read articles about him, steeped herself in the mythic stories, and yet the spotlight rendered him too simple and too perfect to know. She felt a strange kinship to the fans who longed for him, but she needed to know more. It took her many years to accept that his life and his legacy were hers, and when she did, she began to ask for stories—from family, fellow musicians, friends—and they began to flow.   Galadrielle Allman’s memoir is at once a rapturous, riveting, and intimate account of one of the greatest guitar prodigies of all time, the story of the birth of a band that redefined the American musical landscape, and a tender inquiry of a daughter searching for her father in the memories of others.Praise for Please Be with Me  “Duane Allman was my big brother, my partner, my best friend. I thought I knew everything there was to know about him, but Galadrielle’s deep and insightful book came as a revelation to me, as it will to everyone who reads it.”—Gregg Allman“Poignant and illuminating . . . brings Duane Allman to life in a way that no other biography will ever be able to do.”—BookPage   “Galadrielle Allman offers a moving and poetic portrait of her late father.”—Rolling Stone   “[Allman’s] descriptions and scenes are vivid, even cinematic. . . . The pleasure of reading Please Be With Me lies as much in its lyrical prose as in its insider anecdotes.”—Newsweek   “An elegantly written, heartfelt account.” —The Atlanta Journal-Constitution   “Evokes a wistful, elegiac atmosphere; fans of the ’70s music scene may find it indispensable.” —San Jose Mercury News “A compelling and intimate portrait of Duane.”—The Hollywood Reporter   “Illuminating.”—Kirkus Reviews   “Frequently touching . . . Readers will come away feeling more connected to the man and his music.”—Publishers Weekly“The most moving music biography I’ve ever read. Better than that, Galadrielle has uncovered the heart and motivations, the desolation and saving graces, of the man, and lays it plain in a born-to-write southern voice. She has looked into absence, and from it she has salvaged two hearts: her father’s and her own.”—Mikal Gilmore, author of Shot in the Heart

Inventing America: Jefferson's Declaration of Independence


Garry Wills - 1978
    Although Jefferson has long been idealized as a champion of individual rights, Wills argues that in fact his vision was one in which interdependence, not self-interest, lay at the foundation of society.

Giacometti: A Biography


James Lord - 1985
    From modest beginnings in a Swiss village, Giacometti went on to flourish in the picturesque milieu of prewar Paris and then to achieve international acclaim in the fifties and sixties. Picasso, Balthus, Samuel Beckett, Stravinsky and Sartre have parts in his story, along with flamboyant art dealers, whores, shady drifters, unscrupulous collectors, poets and thieves. Women were a complex yet important element of his life--particularly his wife, Annette, and his last mistress and model, Caroline--as was the intimate relationship he shared with his brother Diego, who was both Alberto's confidant and collaborator.James Lord was personally acquainted with Giacometti and his entourage, and combines firsthand experience with a unique knowledge gathered during many years of observation and research. In this exceptional biography Lord unfolds the personal history of a man who managed to achieve a heroic destiny by remaining utterly true to himself and to his calling.Giacometti: A Biography was nominated for the National Book Critics Circle Award. James Lord has subsequently published three volumes of memoirs. In recognition of his contribution to French culture he has been made an officer of the Legion of Honour.

Harriet Beecher Stowe


Joan D. Hedrick - 1994
    But I feel now that the time is come when even a woman or a child who can speak a word for freedom and humanity is bound to speak." Thus did Harriet Beecher Stowe announce her decision to begin work on what would become one of the most influential novels ever written. The subject she had hesitated to "meddle with" was slavery, and the novel, of course, was Uncle Tom's Cabin. Still debated today for its portrayal of African Americans and its unresolved place in the literary canon, Stowe's best-known work was first published in weekly installments from June 5, 1851 to April 1, 1852. It caused such a stir in both the North and South, and even in Great Britain, that when Stowe met President Lincoln in 1862 he is said to have greeted her with the words, "So you are the little woman who wrote the book that created this great war!" In this landmark book, the first full-scale biography of Harriet Beecher Stowe in over fifty years, Joan D. Hedrick tells the absorbing story of this gifted, complex, and contradictory woman. Hedrick takes readers into the multi-layered world of nineteenth-century morals and mores, exploring the influence of then-popular ideas of "true womanhood" on Stowe's upbringing as a member of the outspoken Beecher clan, and her eventful life as a writer and shaper of public opinion who was also a mother of seven. It offers a lively record of the flourishing parlor societies that launched and sustained Stowe throughout the 44 years of her career, and the harsh physical realities that governed so many women's lives. The epidemics, high infant mortality, and often disastrous medicalpractices of the day are portrayed in moving detail, against the backdrop of western expansion, the great social upheaval accompanying the abolitionist movement, and the entry of women into public life. Here are Stowe's public triumphs, both before and after the Civil War, and t

The Incompleat Nifft


Michael Shea - 2000
    Once Nifft and Barnar were hired by the ghost of a dead woman to kidnap the man who betrayed her and drag him down to hell to join her. A simple task — or so they thought at first....Another time, the pair lucked into an even more lucrative proposition, when they were shipwrecked on the way to work in Costard's sap mine — very dangerous and sometimes nauseating work far below ground and were hired by Bunt to bring back twenty gills of the ichor exuded only by the monstrous insectile queen. It seemed like easy money — they wouldn't have to go to hell Of course, the best laid plans sometimes do go astray, but this time they were sure they would...make a killing.Publisher's Note: Parts of this work were previously published as "Nifft the Lean" and "The Mines of Behemoth."

The Last Night of Ballyhoo


Alfred Uhry - 1997
    The newest play by the author of the Pulitzer Prize-winning Driving Miss Daisy.

The Last Billable Hour


Susan Wolfe - 1989
     T&S is a hot firm making a bid to be a major national player when Leo Slyde—the company’s chief rainmaker, its king of the “billable hour”—is found stabbed to death in his corner office. It falls to T&S’s brightest, most unjustifiably insecure young associate Howard Rickover to conduct a risky “inside job” for homicide detective Sarah Nelson. But can Howard flush out a wily murderer among lawyers who do not make it their practice to be caught unprepared—and still keep up with an associate’s impossible workload? "Susan Wolfe is at her best depicting—and spoofing—the glitzy law firm scene. A lawyer herself, she serves her damages with skill and obvious glee." —The New York Times Book Review "A world of captivating corruption...with a delicate blend of malice, suspense and sharp psychology, Wolfe winds up her story with a scene that explodes a number of myths." —San Francisco Chronicle

Life Is Short (No Pun Intended): Love, Laughter, and Learning to Enjoy Every Moment


Jennifer Arnold - 2015
    Though they both have dwarfism, they have knocked down every obstacle they have encountered together with a positive, can-do attitude. The show has featured the lives of Jennifer (a respected neonatologist) and Bill (a successful entrepreneur) from their marriage in 2009, to the launch of their pet shop, to the adoption of their children, to Jen’s overcoming cancer.Now, for the first time Jen and Bill are letting readers into their private lives with behind-the-scenes, never-before-told stories about how they fell in love, what inspires them, and the passions that drive their success. Jen and Bill have a simple purpose in life: make the world a better place through encouragement and education. A must-have for fans of the show or anyone who has ever faced a difficult challenge, Life Is Short (No Pun Intended) gives readers a glance at what inspires these positive people to approach life with such optimism and share their lives with the public every day.

Brown: The Last Discovery of America


Richard Rodríguez - 2002
    Rodriguez argues that America has been brown since its inception-since the moment the African and the European met within the Indian eye. But more than simply a book about race, Brown is about America in the broadest sense-a look at what our country is, full of surprising observations by a writer who is a marvelous stylist as well as a trenchant observer and thinker.

Lights Out


Peter Abrahams - 1994
    Now he has three prison murders under his belt, and comes out a dangerous man. Although he wants to stay clean, Eddie is haunted by the nightmares of his past--corruption, greed, and a stunning betrayal--which are on a collision course with his present. (July)

Deal: My Three Decades of Drumming, Dreams, and Drugs with the Grateful Dead


Bill Kreutzmann - 2015
    For thirty years, beginning in the hippie scene of San Francisco in 1965, they were a musical institution, the original jam band that broke new ground in so many ways. From the music to their live concert sound systems and fan recordings, they were forward-thinking champions of artistic control and outlaw artists who marched to the beat of their own drums.In Deal, Bill Kreutzmann, one of their founding members and drummer for every one of their over 2,300 concerts has written an unflinching and wild account of playing in the greatest improvisational band of all time. Everything a rock music fan would expect is here, but what sets this apart is Bill's incredible life of adventure that was at the heart of the Grateful Dead experience. This was a band that knew no limits and Bill lived life to the fullest, pushing the boundaries of drugs, drums and high times, through devastating tragedy and remarkable triumph.But at this book's beating heart is the music--theirs and others. Some of the greatest musicians and concerts were a part of the Grateful Dead's career, from sharing the stage with Janis Joplin, Bob Dylan, and The Who, to playing in the Acid Tests, The Monterey Pop Festival, Woodstock and Altamont. Bill's life is a chronicle of American music and pop culture history and his epic personal journey is one of sonic discovery and thrilling experiences.

Farewell, Fred Voodoo: A Letter from Haiti


Amy Wilentz - 2013
    The Rainy Season, Amy Wilentz’s award-winning 1989 portrait of Haiti after the fall of Jean-Claude Duvalier, was praised in the NY Times Book Review as “a remarkable account of a journalist’s transformation by her subject.” In her relationship with the country since then, she's witnessed more than one magical transformation. Now, with Farewell, Fred Voodoo, she portrays the extraordinary people living in this stark place. She traces the country’s history from its slave plantations thru its turbulent revolutionary history, its kick-up-the-dirt guerrilla movements, its totalitarian dynasty that ruled for decades & its long, troubled relationship with the USA. Yet thru a history of hardship shines Haiti’s creative culture—its African traditions, French inheritance & uncanny resilience, a strength often confused with resignation. Haiti emerged from the 2010 earthquake like a powerful spirit. This book describes the country’s day-to-day struggle & its relationship to outsiders who come to help out. There are human-rights reporters gone awry, movie stars turned aid workers, priests & musicians running for president, doctors turned diplomats. A former US president works as a house builder & voodoo priests try to control elections. A foreign correspondent on a simple story becomes over time a lover of Haiti, pursuing the essence of this beautiful, confounding land into its darkest & brightest corners. Farewell, Fred Voodoo is a spiritual journey into the heart of the human soul. Haiti has found an author of astonishing wit, sympathy & eloquence.

Boswell's Presumptuous Task: The Making of the Life of Dr. Johnson


Adam Sisman - 2000
    Yet Boswell himself has generally been considered little more than an idiot and condemned by posterity as a lecher and drunk. How could such a fool have written such a book? With great wit, Adam Sisman here tells the story of Boswell's presumptuous task-the making of the greatest biography of all time. Sisman traces the friendship between Boswell and Samuel Johnson, his great mentor, and provides a fascinating account of Boswell's seven-year struggle to write The Life of Samuel Johnson.