To illuminate the mysterious greatness of Anton Chekhov'swritings, Janet Malcolm takes on three roles: literary critic,biographer, and journalist. Her close readings of the stories andplays are interwoven with episodes from Chekhov's life and framedby an account of Malcolm's journey to St. Petersburg, Moscow, andYalta. She writes of Chekhov's childhood, his relationships, histravels, his early success, and his self-imposed "exile"--alwayswith an eye to connecting them to themes and characters in hiswork. Lovers of Chekhov as well as those new to his work will betransfixed by "Reading Chekhov."

At the age of seventeen, Marco Martinez was a thug At the age of twenty-two, he was a hero Hard Corps tells the story of a young man’s incredibletransformation from gun-toting gang member to recipient of the NavyCross, the second-highest honor a U.S. Marine can receive. Gritty,riveting, and ultimately inspiring, Hard Corps captures the“ooh-rah” spirit of the U.S. Marine Corps and the grueling life onthe front lines.

The New York Times Bestseller That Reads Like a Back-PorchConversation with Reba! In a dazzling career, Reba McEntire has become a true countrysuperstar--and a trailblazing businesswoman with her own multimediaentertainment corporation. Yet she is a rare celebrity who is alsobeloved by her millions of fans for the way she lives her life. ForReba has balanced the demands of career and family, succeeded inshow business without sacrificing her values, and kept up with thetimes without abandoning her country roots. Here Reba writes about the roles a modern woman tries to fill,roles as many and varied as the fabric pieces of an heirloom quilt.Facing the challenges of being a wife, mother, stepmother,daughter, sister, performer, executive, community member, andChristian, Reba has found inspiration and comfort in the values ofher past as an Oklahoma ranch girl. In this generous and wise book,she shows how you can keep traditional values fresh and vital inyour own search for a fulfilling life. Whether you read it

Award-winning author Jeanne Marie Laskas has charmed anddelighted readers with her heartwarming and hilarious tales of lifeon Sweetwater Farm. Now she offers her most personal and mostdeeply felt memoir yet as she embarks on her greatest, mostterrifying, most rewarding endeavor of all…. A good mother, writes Jeanne Marie Laskas in her latest reportfrom Sweetwater Farm, would have bought a house in the suburbs witha cul-de-sac for her kids to ride bikes around instead of aramshackle house in the middle of nowhere with a rooster. With thewryly observed self-doubt all mothers and mothers-to-be willinstantly recognize, Laskas offers a poignant andlaugh-out-loud-funny meditation on that greatest–and mostimpossible–of all life’s journeys: motherhood. What is it, she muses, that’s so exhausting about being a mom?You’d think raising two little girls would be a breeze compared todealing with the barely controlled anarchy of “attack” roosters,feuding neighbors, and a scheme to turn

He was one of pro football’s most beloved and respected stars,admired not only by NFL fans and his own teammates, but by hisopponents as well. Super Bowl champion; six time Pro Bowler; NFLComeback Player of the Year; NFL Man of the Year; fifth all-timeleading rusher in the NFL; future Hall of Famer; now NBC Sportscommentator. You may think you know Jerome Bettis, but you don’t. In The Bus, Jerome Bettis tells his full, unvarnished story forthe first time--from his sometimes troubled childhood in inner-cityDetroit to his difficult transition at Notre Dame, to a pro coachwho almost caused him to quit the game, to a trade for the agesthat resulted in ten glorious seasons with the PittsburghSteelers. As a chunky child wearing glasses, Jerome’s only sports-relatedaspiration was to become a professional bowler. But growing up inone of the roughest neighborhoods in Detroit, he eventually foundhis escape on the high school football field, thanks to thedevotion of hard-working parents, a

In Fifty Acres and a Poodle, Jeanne Marie Laskas described howshe survived her first hilariously tumultuous year at SweetwaterFarm. Now she returns with a funny, touching, and personal newmemoir of what happens after your dream comes true... With a picture-postcard farm, a wonderfulmarriage, two mules, and a new refrigerator that spits crushed ice,what more can a girl ask for? That’s precisely the question JeanneMarie asks herself as she and Alex settle into their new life atSweetwater Farm. Two years ago they left the city behind for a lifefilled with the practical, often comical, lessons of living closeto the land—and they never looked back. Yet when her strong-willedmom is hospitalized with a sudden and mysterious paralysis, JeanneMarie rushes home to Philadelphia and her extended, sometimeschaotic, but always loving family. It’s there that she realizeswhat is still missing from her life: a family of her own. Now it’sa matter of bringing up the subject to her husband, Alex, fifteenyears older

Pat Summitt, head coach of the Tennessee Lady Vols, is aphenomenon in women's basketball. Her ferociously competitive teamshave won three NCAA championships in a row--1996, 1997, and 1998.The 1997-98 Lady Vols posted a historic 39-0 record, prompting theNew York Times, among many others, to proclaim them "the bestwomen's college team ever." Now, in this groundbreakingmotivational book, Pat Summitt presents her formula for success,which she calls the "Definite Dozen System." In each of the book'stwelve chapters, Summitt talks about one of the system'sprinciples--such as responsibility, discipline, and loyalty--andshows how you apply it to your own situation. Along the way, sheuses her own remarkable story as a vehicle for explaining howanyone can transform herself through ambition. Pat Summitt willmotivate you to achieve in sports, business, and the most importantgame of all--life.

“I cannot go anywhere in America without people wanting to sharetheir wartime experiences....The stories and the lessons haveemerged from long-forgotten letters home, from reunions of oldbuddies and outfits, from unpublished diaries and home-publishedmemoirs....As the stories in this album of memories remind us, ittruly was an American experience, from the centers of power to themost humble corners of the land.” —Tom Brokaw In this beautiful American family album of stories from theGreatest Generation, the history of life as it was lived during theDepression and World War II comes alive and is preserved inpeople’s own words. Photographs and time lines also commemorateimportant dates and events. An Army Air Corps veteran who enlistedin 1941 at age seventeen writes to describe the Bataan Death March.A black nurse tells of her encounter with wartime segregation.Other members of the Greatest Generation describe their war—in suchhistoric episodes as Guadalcanal, the D-Day invasion, the Battle ofthe Bul

In 1955, Garcia Marquez was working for El Espectador, a newspaper in Bogota, when in February of that year eight crew members of the Caldas, a Colombian destroyer, were washed overboard and disappeared. Ten days later one of them turned up, barely alive, on a deserted beach in northern Colombia. This book, which originally appeared as a series of newspaper articles, is Garcia Marquez's account of that sailor's ordeal. Translated by Randolf Hogan.