A crucial figure in the creation of our national parks system and a far-seeing prophet of environmental awareness who founded the Sierra Club in 1892, he was also a master of natural description who evoked with unique power and intimacy the untrammeled landscapes of the American West. The Library of America’s Nature Writings collects his most significant and best-loved works in a single volume.The Story of My Boyhood and Youth (1913) is Muir’s memoir of growing up by the sea in Scotland, of coming to America with his family at age eleven, and of his early fascination with the natural world. My First Summer in the Sierra (1911) is his famous account of the spiritual awakening he experienced when, in 1869, he first encountered the mountains and valleys of central California, of which he wrote: “Bathed in such beauty, watching the expressions ever varying on the faces of the mountains, watching the stars, which here have a glory that the lowlander never dreams of, watching the circling seasons, listening to the songs of the waters and winds and birds, would be endless pleasure…. No other place has ever so overwhelmingly attracted me as this hospitable, Godful wilderness.”The natural history classic The Mountains of California (1894) draws on half a lifetime of exploration of the High Sierra country to celebrate and evoke the region’s lakes, forests, flowers, and animals, its glaciers, storms, floods, and geological formations, in a masterpiece of observation and poetic description: “After ten years spent in the heart of it … it still seems to me above all others the Range of Light, the most divinely beautiful of all the mountain-chains I have ever seen.”Stickeen (1909), Muir’s most popular book, is the affectionate story of his adventure with a dog in Alaska. Rounding out the volume is a rich selection of essays—including “Yosemite Glaciers,” “God’s First Temples,” “Snow-Storm on Mount Shasta,” “The American Forests,” and the late appeal “Save the Redwoods”—highlighting various aspects of his career: his exploration of the Grand Canyon and of what became Yosemite and Yellowstone national parks, his successful crusades to preserve the wilderness, his early walking tour to Florida, and the Alaska journey of 1879.

    Thanks to the now famous YouTube video he made for her 35th birthday, he captured the world′s attention.Many of us didn′t know Kristian but we were so inspired by him that we felt like we did.His story is a lasting legacy to a brief but blessed life that will inspire others to know that even in the darkest moments, the light can shine through.

    Years of listening to other people's stories of going through tough times, hoping to overcome difficult odds, or trying to find a way to make a difference in the world brought Edward Grinnan to the undersanding that personal change is vital to achieving success. In each chaper of this book, he weaves the tales of other people with his own story to reveal how each of us can learn about the keys to powerful personal change. He shows these principles at work in his own personal struggle with alcoholism, and how he has learned through his own missteps to accept change and become the person he was meant to be.

    He can be elegant as a slow blues." The Nick Tosches Reader is the author's own selection of his best work over the past thirty years, including fiction, poetry, interviews, rock writing, investigative journalism, and criticism. First published in major magazines, obscure underground periodicals, and his own best-selling books, many of these selections deal with rock 'n' roll and cultural icons—but there are also pieces on everything from William Faulkner to organized crime to heavyweight boxing, including the Vanity Fair feature that gave rise to Tosches's major new book on Sonny Liston, published by Little, Brown. Here is "a unique and darkly impressionistic cultural history" of the last three decades as only Nick Tosches could write it.

    A personal selection of the best interviews from eight classic books by America's much-loved pre-eminent oral historian, Studs Terkel.

    Based on his column in the acclaimed magazine "mental_floss," this collection of conversations is incredibly funny, but each interview is also based on serious research, so in addition to laughing, readers actually learn real history. "The Dead Guy Interviews" includes discussions with: Alexander the Great Beethoven Napol?on Bonaparte Buddha Julius Caesar Caligula George Washington Carver Catherine the Great Winston Churchill Cleopatra Confucius Crazy Horse Salvador Dal? Charles Darwin Emily Dickinson Albert Einstein Benjamin Franklin Sigmund Freud Genghis Khan Vincent van Gogh Henry VIII J. Edgar Hoover Harry Houdini Thomas Jefferson Joan of Arc Robert Johnson Frida Kahlo Leonardo da Vinci Abraham Lincoln Mao Tse-tung Karl Marx Michelangelo Montezuma Mozart Nostradamus Edgar Allan Poe William Shakespeare Sun Tzu Mae West Oscar Wilde

    In her revealing family memoir, DeSalvo sifts through painful memories to give voice to all that remained unspoken and unresolved in her life: a mother's psychotic depression, a father's rage and violent rigidity, a sister's early depression and eventual suicide, and emerging memories of childhood incest. At times humorous and often brutally candid, DeSalvo also delves through the more recent conflicts posed by marriage, motherhood, and the crisis that started her on the path of her life's work: becoming a writer in order to excavate the meaning of her life and community.In Vertigo, Louise DeSalvo paints a striking picture of the easy freedom of the husband and fatherless world of working-class Hoboken, New Jersey, the neighborhood of her early childhood, where mothers and children had an unaccustomed say in the running of their lives while men were off defending their country, but were jolted back into submission when World War II ended. Hoboken was not a place where girls were encouraged to develop their minds, or their independent spirits, yet it is that tenement-dotted city with its pulse and energy, wonderful Italian pastry, and sidewalk roller-skating contests, and not suburban Ridgefield, where the family moves when Louise is seven, that claims Louise’s heart.Written with an honesty that is as rare as it is unsettling, Vertigo also speaks to broader truths about the impact of ethnicity, class, and gender in American life. Offering inspiration and a healthy dose of subversion, this personal story of a writer’s life is also a study of the alchemy between lived experience and creativity, and the life-transforming possibilities of this process.

    Inside you'll find Steyn's take on Ronald Reagan, Idi Amin, the Princess of Wales, Bob Hope, Madame Chiang Kai-shek, Artie Shaw and Pope John Paul II - plus Zimbabwe's Reverend Canaan Banana, Scotty from Star Trek, Nixon's secretary and Gershwin's girlfriend. It's the passing parade of our times, from presidents and prime ministers to the guy who invented Cool Whip.

    The home was unkempt and rubbish was littered all over the floor. Dirty nappies were piled up in a corner of the room, which made the room have an awful stench. None of Jacksons bottles were being sterilised before use, and the water that was to make up the formula was tap water….straight from the tap and unboiled."

    The Patty Duke Show. Valley of the Dolls. Those perennial film and television titles still reverberate with audiences entranced with Academy Award-winning film actress and Broadway and television icon Patty Duke. Patty first gained national attention and praise playing Helen Keller in both the Broadway stage and film versions of The Miracle Worker. As identical cousins on The Patty Duke Show, her name became an American household word. Her later work in Valley of the Dolls, Me, Natalie, My Sweet Charlie, a later television remake of The Miracle Worker, and dozens of other productions established her as one of America's leading actresses. Patty's previous autobiographical works, Call Me Anna and A Brilliant Madness, achieved New York Times bestseller status. Now, her indelible show business legacy echoes enduringly with untold stories of her six-decade career and the legends of her time, including Richard Burton, Laurence Olivier, Helen Hayes, Fred Astaire, Anne Bancroft, Judy Garland, President John F. Kennedy, Helen Keller, Margaret Cho, Garth Brooks, Gloria Vanderbilt, Lucille Ball, Darren Criss, Richard Crenna, Patricia Neal, Liza Minnelli, and Helen Hunt. For the first time, Patty also talks openly of her friendship with actress Sharon Tate and her grisly murder at the hands of Charles Manson. Illustrated with over 70 rare photos from both Patty Duke's career and personal life, many never before published and from her personal collection. About William J. Jankowski: Since receiving his degree from Widener University, he has been interviewed for such publications as USA Today, and consulted on biographical television specials about Patty Duke's work for A&E, ABC, Lifetime, and E! This is his first book. "Patty Duke was one of the most talented actresses I ever worked with. Her first hand account of anecdotes on her Hollywood career is a must read. This book is both fascinating and touching." - Tab Hunter

    But Crissy's path to success was far from easy. Born and bred in the backstreets of Liverpool, her poor but idyllic young life was plunged into darkness at the age of eight, when her grandfather began to abuse her both physically and sexually. Pregnant and married to a violent bully at sixteen it seemed that trouble and turmoil would always stalk her. Having finally escaped her violent marriage, Crissy began to turn her life around. She tells of her first experience as a performer when a friend bet her that she wouldn't enter a stand-up competition - she ended up being runner up in the north west region. Establishing herself on the comedy circuit she was then cast in Ladybird Ladybird for which she won Best Actress at the Berlin Film Festival. From there, Crissy became a familiar face on television, landing roles in a host of popular programmes including Brazen Hussies, alongside Julie Walters. This is a candid, harrowing and often hilarious memoir. Crissy has been through some of the most shocking experiences imaginable, but what really shines through from every page, is her indomitable, wicked sense of humour. By turns harrowing and laugh-out-loud funny, this is one of the most astonishing books you will ever read.

    Cole's harrowing account of his life spent in the ER and on the battlegrounds, fighting to save lives. In addition to his gripping stories of treating victims of gunshot wounds, stabbings, attempted suicides, flesh-eating bacteria, car crashes, industrial accidents, murder, and war, the book also covers the years during Cole's residency training when he was faced with 120-hour work weeks, excessive sleep deprivation, and the pressures of having to manage people dying of traumatic injury, often with little support.Unlike the authors of other medical memoirs, Cole trained to be a surgeon in the military and served as a physician member of a Marine Corps reconnaissance unit, United States Special Operations Command (USSOCOM), and on a Navy Reserve SEAL team. From treating war casualties in Afghanistan and Iraq to his experiences as a civilian trauma surgeon treating alcoholics, drug addicts, criminals, and the mentally deranged, TRAUMA is an intense look at one man's commitment to his country and to those most desperately in need of aid.

    Every thought you had. Every word that someone says.You remember that the sky was cloudless, and the day was hot and thick with humidity. You remember it was a day that totally changed what you believed your life would be.I had one of those days… My story of being a writer begins the day I vowed I would never write.I’m going to warn you now that this book is not going to be a “straight line journey”. I don’t believe anyone’s life is a straight journey. I believe we all travel many twisted roads to get to where we are right now. We experience things we don’t believe are significant – only appreciating their significance years later when we are able to look back and see how each event fits into the grand puzzle of our complicated lives. It could be that my journey is more twisted than most, but if that is true it’s what was necessary to prepare me to write.I savor and appreciate every moment now; even the ones I thought would destroy me. I truly never thought I would never write this book because I am a very private person. A conversation with the person I trust most in the world convinced me to change my mind. She convinced me my readers deserved to hear the story of just how The Bregdan Chronicles came to be.You’ll learn about the day I decided to never write again. And, the bedridden period of my life that finally made me write my first book.You’ll learn about my years of living with a prejudiced family, enduring the bigotry and rioting of the Charlotte school system in the 60’s & 70’s, and my defiance that taught me the truth.You’ll learn the family secret that almost devastated me when I discovered it. You’ll learn just why I decided to write about the Civil War & Reconstruction.

    These memoirs take him from enjoying the odd cold beer sailing peacefully across the Indian Ocean to being trapped in a war zone. Here he sees life at sea changing from the leisurely days of general cargoes to the hectic computerised containerships. He seems to have done it all – rescuing drug runners from the ice, dredging aggregates in the North Sea and finally skippering a ‘steamer’ on a tranquil lake. This volume is the second of Bob’s memoirs covering his service as master on a wide variety of ships. The first book ‘I think I’ll go to sea’ relates to his experiences climbing up through the ranks. In this book he has to flee the USA to avoid arrest for drug smuggling, assists rescuing a ship’s crew when their ship sinks in pack ice and gets stuck in the middle of the Iraq/Iran war. He also experiences alcohol free ships which take away the pleasure of his ‘cold beer’

    The Nazis had overrun a great deal of the continent, bent on the domination of the world and the annihilation of an entire people. The death camps, unknown to most outside Europe, claimed more than six millions Jews during that time. Some endured -- and most have breathtaking stories of survival. Why they survived when so many perished is a matter of coincidence, luck, the will to live and the courage and sacrifice of many others. The full scope of that sacrifice will never be completely chronicled, it is just too vast. "Good-bye for Always, The Triumph of the Innocents" is the story of the youngest members of the Widerman family, who moved to Paris from Poland, only to be caught up in the horror of the Nazi occupation. In 1942, Cecile and Betty Widerman began a journey into the belly of the worst beast mankind has to offer. For two years they were literally one step ahead of death, as Nazi cruelty sought to envelop them as it had millions of others. How they survived, why they survived and who nearly gave their own lives to protect them is a story of inspiration and will that is sure to live forever.