The author tells the story as told to him of Anne Hobbs, awoman who went to Alaska in the 1920's to teach, but who hadtrouble due to her kindness to the Indians there.

After Out on a Limb , MacLaine now offers more of her familybackground, with reproductions of parental game-playingconversations which must evoke poignant recognitions in children ofconflicting adults. Aided by spirit-guided acupuncture, she hasbeen recovering past-life experiences enabling her to deal withthis pain. Most moving is her meeting with her Higher Self, whichcontinues to guide her. Another colorful love affair in Paris andHollywood provides food for the gossip-column fans. More seriousare her ruminations on creative artistry, first as a dancer, thenas a movie star. Even readers put off by MacLaine's uncritical andwholehearted embrace of reincarnation will have to applaud hercandor and zest for discovering the meaning of her life. Jeanne S.Bagby, Tucson P.L., Ariz. Copyright 1985 Reed Business Information,Inc.

modern-day classic. "Gift from the Sea is like a shell itself inits small and perfect form . . . It tells of light and life andlove and the security that lies at the heart."--New York Times BookReview.

Jeanne Marie Laskas had a dream of fleeing her otherwise happyurban life for fresh air and open space — a dream she woulddiscover was about something more than that. But she never expectedher fantasy to come true — until a summer afternoon’s drive in thecountry. That’s when she and her boyfriend, Alex — owner of Marley thepoodle — stumble upon the place she thought existed only in herdreams. This pretty-as-a-picture-postcard farm with an Amish barn,a chestnut grove, and breathtaking vistas is real ... and for sale.And it’s where she knows her future begins. But buying a postcard — fifty acres of scenery — and living onit are two entirely different matters. With wit and wisdom, Laskaschronicles the heartwarming and heartbreaking stories of thecolorful two- and four-legged creatures she encounters onSweetwater Farm. Against a backdrop of brambles, a satellite dish, and sheep,she tells a tender, touching, and hilarious tale about life, love,and the unexpected complic

A PRESIDENTIAL DYNASTY. AN ARAB TERRORIST ATTACK. DEMOCRACYUNDER SIEGE. Mario Puzo envisioned it all in his eerily prescient1991 novel, The Fourth K. President Francis Xavier Kennedy is elected to office, in largepart, thanks to the legacy of his forebears–good looks, privilege,wealth–and is the very embodiment of youthful optimism. Too soon,however, he is beaten down by the political process and, disabusedof his ideals, he becomes a leader totally unlike what he has beenbefore. When his daughter becomes a pawn in a brutal terrorist plot,Kennedy, who has obsessively kept alive the memory of his uncles’assassinations, activates all his power to retaliate in a series ofviolent measures. As the explosive events unfold, the world andthose closest to him look on with both awe and horror.

Susan Loomis arrived in Paris twenty years ago with littlemore than a student loan and the contents of a suitcase to sustainher. But what began then as an apprenticeship at La Varenne Ecolede Cuisine evolved into a lifelong immersion in French cuisine andculture, culminating in permanent residency in 1994. "On Rue Tatin"chronicles her journey to an ancient little street in Louviers,one of Normandy's most picturesque towns. With lyrical prose andwry candor, Loomis recalls the miraculous restoration that she andher husband performed on the dilapidated convent they chose fortheir new residence. As its ochre and azure floor tiles emerged,challenges outside the dwelling mounted. From squatters to a surlypriest next door, along with a close-knit community wary ofoutsiders, Loomis tackled the social challenges head-on, throughpersistent dialogue-and baking. "On Rue Tatin "includes deliciousrecipes that evoke the essence of this region, such as Apple andThyme Tart, Duck Breast with Cider, and Braised Chicken i

As Angus Calder states in his introduction to this edition, 'Seven Pillars of Wisdom is one of the major statements about the fighting experience of the First World War'. Lawrence's younger brothers, Frank and Will, had been killed on the Western Front in 1915. Seven Pillars of Wisdom, written between 1919 and 1926,tells of the vastly different campaign against the Turks in the Middle East - one which encompasses gross acts of cruelty and revenge and ends in a welter of stink and corpses in the disgusting 'hospital' in Damascus. Seven Pillars of Wisdom is no Boys Own Paper tale of Imperial triumph, but a complex work of high literary aspiration which stands in the tradition of Melville and Dostoevsky, and alongside the writings of Yeats, Eliot and joyce.

In the spring of 1884 Ulysses S. Grant heeded the advice of MarkTwain and finally agreed to write his memoirs. Little did Grant orTwain realize that this seemingly straightforward decision wouldprofoundly alter not only both their lives but the course ofAmerican literature. Over the next fifteen months, as the two menbecame close friends and intimate collaborators, Grant racedagainst the spread of cancer to compose a triumphant account of hislife and times—while Twain struggled to complete and publish hisgreatest novel, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn . Inthis deeply moving and meticulously researched book, veteran writerMark Perry reconstructs the heady months when Grant and Twaininspired and cajoled each other to create two quintessentiallyAmerican masterpieces. In a bold and colorful narrative, Perry recounts the early careersof these two giants, traces their quest for fame and elusivefortunes, and then follows the series of events that brought themtogether as friends. The reason Grant let Twain talk

At the end of herbestselling memoir "Eat, Pray, Love", Elizabeth Gilbert fell inlove with Felipe -- a Brazilian-born man of Australian citizenshipwho'd been living in Indonesia when they met. Resettling inAmerica, the couple swore eternal fidelity to each other, but alsoswore to never, ever, under any circumstances get legally married.(Both survivors of difficult divorces. Enough said.) But providenceintervened one day in the form of the U.S. government, who -- afterunexpectedly detaining Felipe at an American border crossing --gave the couple a choice: they could either get married, or Felipewould never be allowed to enter the country again. Having beeneffectively sentenced to wed, Gilbert tackled her fears of marriageby delving completely into this topic, trying with all her might todiscover (through historical research, interviews and much personalreflection) what this stubbornly enduring old institution actuallyis. The result is "Committed" - a witty and intelligentcontemplation of marriage that de

A swashbuckling Texan, a teller of tall tales, a womanizer,and a renegade, Fred Cuny spent his life in countries rent by war,famine, and natural disasters, saving many thousands of livesthrough his innovative and sometimes controversial methods ofrelief work. Cuny earned his nickname "Master of Disaster" for hisexploits in Kurdistan, Somalia, and Bosnia. But when he arrived inthe rogue Russian republic of Chechnya in the spring of 1995,raring to go and eager to put his ample funds from George Soros togood use, he found himself in the midst of an unimaginably savagewar of independence, unlike any he had ever before encountered.Shortly thereafter, he disappeared in the war-rocked highlands,never to be seen again. Who was Cuny really working for? Was he a CIA spy? Who killedhim, and why? In search of the answers, Scott Anderson traveled toChechnya on a hazardous journey that started as as a magazineassignment and ended as a personal mission. The result is agalvanizing adventure story, a chilling pic

MARVELOUS . . . BREATHTAKING. --The New York Times Book Review "MAILER SHINES . . . Explaining Kennedy's assassination throughthe flaws in Oswald's character has been attempted before, notablyby Gerald Posner in Case Closed and Don Delillo in Libra. Butneither handled Oswald with the kind of dexterity and literaryimagination that Mailer here supplies in great force. . . .Oswald's Tale weaves a story not only about Oswald or Kennedy'sdeath but about the culture surrounding the assassination, one thatremains replete with miscomprehensions, unraveled threads and lackof resolution: All of which makes Oswald's Tale more true-to-lifethan any fact-driven treatise could hope to be. . . . VintageMailer." --The Philadelphia Inquirer "FASCINATING . . . A MASTER STORYTELLER . . . Mailer gives us ourclearest, deepest view of Oswald yet. . . . Inside three pages youare utterly absorbed." --Detroit Free Press "MAILER AT HIS BEST . . . LIVELY AND CONVINCING . . .EXTREMELY LUCI

Born into the turmoil of mid-sixties San Francisco, the daughterof a flower child and a surfer, Joelle Fraser grew up with nobedtime, no boundaries, and no father. But “dads” she had inabundance, as her mother worked her way through boyfriends andhusbands, caught between the traditional rules of her upbringingand the new freedoms of the “me generation” and women’s lib. Movingevery few months, from houseboats and beach shacks to run-downapartments, Joelle came to learn that a woman’s life, free or not,is played out on men’s territory. Set in northern California, Hawaii, and the small coastal towns ofOregon, Fraser’s engrossing memoir captures this centerlesschildhood in wonderfully vivid, frank writing, then goes on to showhow a legacy like this affects a girl as she grows up. Pretty,blond, precociously aware of her own sexuality, Joelle was drawn tomen early, eager to unlock their mysteries. Working in bars,prisons, and firing ranges, she liked to hang out where theycongregated. To her the on

In this elegant collection of essays, one of modernliterature's most enchanting masters reminisces about Italy'santifascist resistance and the whirl of ideas that blossomed in thepost-war era. In America, Calvino follows Nixon's election hopeswhile marvelling at colour television and American cars, butdescribes with loathing his first experience of mass racism, whenhe is lucky enough to meet Martin Luther King in Alabama. He alsowrites brilliant short pieces on his Italian dialect, the final dayof the Second World War, and the rich joys of living inParis. A stylish assortment of memoir and wit, Hermit in Paris includesthe very finest of Calvino's superb work.

A chance encounter in Spain in 1959 brought young Irishreporter Valerie Danby-Smith face to face with Ernest Hemingway.The interview was awkward and brief, but before it ended somethinghad clicked into place. For the next two years, Valerie devoted herlife to Hemingway and his wife, Mary, traveling with them throughbeloved old haunts in Spain and France and living with them duringthe tumultuous final months in Cuba. In name a personal secretary,but in reality a confidante and sharer of the great man’s secretsand sorrows, Valerie literally came of age in the company of one ofthe greatest literary lions of the twentieth century. Five years after his death, Valerie became a Hemingway herselfwhen she married the writer’s estranged son Gregory. Now, at last,she tells the story of the incredible years she spent with thisextravagantly talented and tragically doomed family. In prose of brilliant clarity and stinging candor, Valerie evokesthe magic and the pathos of Papa Hemingway

When the first Superman movie came out I was frequently asked'What is a hero?' I remember the glib response I repeated somany times. My answer was that a hero is someone who commitsa courageous action without considering the consequences--a soldierwho crawls out of a foxhole to drag an injured buddy tosafety. And I also meant individuals who are slightly largerthan life: Houdini and Lindbergh, John Wayne, JFK, and JoeDiMaggio. Now my definition is completely different. Ithink a hero is an ordinary individual who finds strength topersevere and endure in spite of overwhelming obstacles: afifteen-year-old boy who landed on his head while wrestling withhis brother, leaving him barely able to swallow or speak; TravisRoy, paralyzed in the first thirty seconds of a hockey game in hisfreshman year at college. These are real heroes, and so arethe families and friends who have stood by them." The whole world held its breath when Christopher Reeve struggledfor life on Memorial Day, 1995. On the

Universally known and admired as a peacemaker, DagHammarskj?ld concealed a remarkable intense inner life which herecorded over several decades in this journal of poems andspiritual meditations, left to be published after his death. Adramatic account of spiritual struggle, Markings has inspiredhundreds of thousands of readers since it was first published in1964. Markings is distinctive, as W.H. Auden remarks in hisforeword, as a record of "the attempt by a professional man ofaction to unite in one life the via activa and the viacontemplativa." It reflects its author's efforts to live his creed,his belief that all men are equally the children of God and thatfaith and love require of him a life of selfless service to others.For Hammarskj?ld, "the road to holiness necessarily passes throughthe world of action." Markings is not only a fascinating glimpse ofthe mind of a great man, but also a moving spiritual classic thathas left its mark on generations of readers.

THE LIBRARY OF CONTEMPORARY THOUGHT is a groundbreaking serieswhere America's finest writers and most brilliant minds tackletoday's most provocative, fascinating, and relevant issues.Striking and daring, creative and important, these original voiceson matters political, social, economic, and cultural, willenlighten, comfort, entertain, enrage, and ignite healthy debateacross the country.

In this extraordinary memoir, one of the best young writers inAmerica today transforms into a work of art the darkest passageimaginable in a young woman's life: an obsessive love affairbetween father and daughter that began when Kathryn Harrison,twenty years old, was reunited with a parent whose absence hadhaunted her youth. Exquisitely and hypnotically written, like a bold and terrifyingdream, The Kiss is breathtaking in its honesty and in the power andbeauty of its creation. A story both of taboo and of familycomplicity in breaking taboo, The Kiss is also about love -- aboutthe most primal of love triangles, the one that ensnares a childbetween mother and father. From the Hardcover edition.

"Franklin''s is one of the greatest autobiographies inliterature, and towers over other autobiographies as Franklintowered over other men." -William Dean Howells

Meredith Hall's moving but unsentimental memoir begins in1965, when she becomes pregnant at sixteen. Shunned by her insularNew Hampshire community, she is then kicked out of the house by hermother. Her father and stepmother reluctantly take her in, hidingher before they finally banish her altogether. After giving herbaby up for adoption, Hall wanders recklessly through the MiddleEast, where she survives by selling her possessions and finally herblood. She returns to New England and stitches together a life thatencircles her silenced and invisible grief. When he is twenty-one,her lost son finds her. Hall learns that he grew up in grittypoverty with an abusive father—in her own father's hometown. Theirreunion is tender, turbulent, and ultimately redemptive. Hall'sparents never ask for her forgiveness, yet as they age, she offersthem her love. What sets Without a Map apart is the way in whichloss and betrayal evolve into compassion, and compassion intowisdom.

After losing her entire family to the Nazis at age 13, AliciaAppleman-Jurman went on to save the lives of thousands of Jews,offering them her own courage and hope in a time of upheaval andtragedy. Not since The Diary of Anne Frank has a young voice sovividly expressed the capacity for humanity and heroism in the faceof Nazi brutality. HC: Bantam.

The first complete, unvarnished history of Southern rock’slegendary and most popular band, from its members’ hardscrabbleboyhoods in Jacksonville, Florida and their rise to worldwide fameto the tragic plane crash that killed the founder and the band’srise again from the ashes. In the summer of 1964 Jacksonville, Florida teenager Ronnie VanZant and some of his friends hatched the idea of forming a band toplay covers of the Rolling Stones, Beatles, Yardbirds and thecountry and blues-rock music they had grown to love. Naming theirband after Leonard Skinner, the gym teacher at Robert E. Lee SeniorHigh School who constantly badgered the long-haired aspiringmusicians to get haircuts, they were soon playing gigs at parties,and bars throughout the South. During the next decade LynyrdSkynyrd grew into the most critically acclaimed and commerciallysuccessful of the rock bands to emerge from the South since theAllman Brothers. Their hits “Free Bird” and “Sweet Home Alabama”became classics. The