“The most comprehensive and authoritative study ofWashington’s military career ever written.” –Joseph J. Ellis, author of His Excellency: GeorgeWashington Based largely on George Washington’s personal papers, thisengrossing book paints a vivid, factual portrait of Washington thesoldier. An expert in military history, Edward Lengel demonstratesthat the “secret” to Washington’s excellence lay in hiscompleteness, in how he united the military, political, andpersonal skills necessary to lead a nation in war and peace.Despite being an “imperfect commander”–and at times even atactically suspect one–Washington nevertheless possessed therequisite combination of vision, integrity, talents, and goodfortune to lead America to victory in its war for independence. Atonce informative and engaging, and filled with some eye-openingrevelations about Washington, the American Revolution, and the verynature of military command, General George Washington is a bookthat reintroduces reader
The only thing the writers in this book have in common is thatthey've exchanged sex for money. They're PhDs and dropouts, soccermoms and jailbirds, $2,500-a-night call girls and $10 crack hos,and everything in between. This anthology lends a voice to anunderrepresented population that is simultaneously reviled andworshipped. Hos, Hookers, Call Girls, and Rent Boys is a collection of shortmemoirs, rants, confessions, nightmares, journalism, and poetrycovering life, love, work, family, and yes, sex. The editors gatherpieces from the world of industrial sex, including contributionsfrom art-porn priestess Dr. Annie Sprinkle, best-selling memoiristDavid Henry Sterry (Chicken: Self-Portrait of a Young Man forRent), sex activist and musical diva Candye Kane, women and menright off the streets, girls participating in the first-everNational Summit of Commercially Sexually Exploited Youth, and RuthMorgan Thomas, one of the organizers of the European Sex Work,Human Rights, and Migration Conference. Se
The definitive story of one of the greatest dynasties inbaseball history, Joe Torre's New York Yankees. When Joe Torre took over as manager of the Yankees in 1996, theyhad not won a World Series title in eighteen years. In that timeseventeen others had tried to take the helm of America’s mostfamous baseball team. Each one was fired by George Steinbrenner.After twelve triumphant seasons—with twelve straight playoffappearances, six pennants, and four World Series titles—Torre leftthe Yankees as the most beloved manager in baseball. But dealingwith players like Jason Giambi, A-Rod, Derek Jeter, Mariano Rivera,Roger Clemens, and Randy Johnson is what managing is all about.Here, for the first time, Joe Torre and Tom Verducci take readersinside the dugout, the clubhouse, and the front office, showingwhat it took to keep the Yankees on top of the baseball world.
An enraged man abducts his estranged wife and child, holes upin a secluded mountain cabin, threatening to kill them both. Aright wing survivalist amasses a cache of weapons and resists callsto surrender. A drug trafficker barricades himself and his familyin a railroad car, and begins shooting. A cult leader in Waco,Texas faces the FBI in an armed stand-off that leaves many dead ina fiery blaze. A sniper, claiming to be God, terrorizes the DCmetropolitan area. For most of us, these are events we hear abouton the news. For Gary Noesner, head of the FBI’s groundbreakingCrisis Negotiation Unit, it was just another day on the job. In Stalling for Time, Noesner takes readers on a heart-poundingtour through many of the most famous hostage crises of the pastthirty years. Specially trained in non-violent confrontation andcommunication techniques, Noesner’s unit successfully defused manypotentially volatile standoffs, but perhaps their most hard-wonvictory was earning the recognition and respect of the
Paris. The name alone conjures images of chestnut-linedboulevards, sidewalk cafés, breathtaking fa?ades around everycorner--in short, an exquisite romanticism that has captured theAmerican imagination for as long as there have beenAmericans. In 1995, Adam Gopnik, his wife, and their infant son left thefamiliar comforts and hassles of New York City for the urbaneglamour of the City of Light. Gopnik is a longtime New Yorkerwriter, and the magazine has sent its writers to Paris fordecades--but his was above all a personal pilgrimage to the placethat had for so long been the undisputed capital of everythingcultural and beautiful. It was also the opportunity to raise achild who would know what it was to romp in the Luxembourg Gardens,to enjoy a croque monsieur in a Left Bank café--a child (andperhaps a father, too) who would have a grasp of that Parisiansense of style we Americans find so elusive. So, in the grand tradition of the American abroad, Gopnik walkedthe paths of the Tuileries, enjoy
2009 年全美*时装盛宴 维多利亚的秘密冠军凯莉在文中讲述了自己从初入行成为模特,到一举拿下维秘冠军,以及后愿淡泊名利回归平静生活的全部心路历程。 而在金钱名利物欲熏心的现在,许多年轻人未必还能做到保持一颗平淡的心来控制自己的生活节奏。 而在《我不是天使》里,这位曾经的维秘冠军,被全美看好的未来之星,凯莉给所有爱美爱漂亮追求明星梦的女孩们分享自己的建议和经历,也揭露了这个残酷的行业里一些不被外人所知的现实。
From Hermione Lee, the internationally acclaimed, award-winningbiographer of Virginia Woolf and Willa Cather , comesa superb reexamination of one of the most famous American women ofletters. Delving into heretofore untapped sources, Lee does away with theimage of the snobbish bluestocking and gives us a new EdithWharton-tough, startlingly modern, as brilliant and complex as herfiction. Born into a wealthy family, Wharton left America as anadult and eventually chose to create a life in France. Her renownednovels and stories have become classics of American literature, butas Lee shows, Wharton's own life, filled with success and scandal,was as intriguing as those of her heroines. Bridging two centuriesand two very different sensibilities, Wharton here comes to life inthe skillful hands of one of the great literary biographers of ourtime.
In her acclaimed collections Happy Family and Music Minus One,Jane Shore traced her life from childhood to coming of age toparenthood. Now, in A Yes-or-No Answer, Shore etches thepersistence of the past in a life that has moved into a mature newphase as a member of the baby boom generation. Recalling her Jewishchildhood in New Jersey, living in the apartment above the family'sclothing store, Shore lovingly imagines her parents, now gone,reunited with relatives over a Scrabble board in the afterlife. Thepoet's teenage daughter sorts through the "vintage" clothes of hermother's own hippie days. Cherished items left behind -- an addressbook, a piano, an easy chair, a favorite doll -- continue to hauntthe living. The poems in A Yes-or-No Answer dignify memory throughprecise detail, with a voice that will resonate for a generation ata crossroads.
The long-awaited second volume of the best Churchill biographyreveals the true portrait of this ambitious world leader.Discussion centers on the alarm he sounded about the terrible plotbeing hatched inside Hitler's deranged mind. Two 8-page photosinserts.
The first account—prodigiously researched, richly detailed—ofthe last remarkable twenty-five years of the life and art of one ofAmerica’s greatest and most beloved musical icons. Much has been written about Louis Armstrong, but most of itfocuses on the early and middle stages of his long career. Now,Ricky Riccardi—jazz scholar and musician—takes an in-depth look atthe years in which Armstrong was often dismissed as a buffoon?ish,if popular, entertainer, and shows us instead the inventiveness anddepth of expression that his music evinced during this time. These are the years (from after World War II until his death in1971) when Armstrong entertained crowds around the world andrecorded his highest-charting hits, including “Mack the Knife” and“Hello, Dolly”; years when he collaborated with, among others, EllaFitzgerald, Duke Ellington, and Dave Brubeck; when he recorded withstrings and big bands, and, of course, with the All-Stars, hisprimary performing ensemble for more than
“Number One” was a phrase my father—and, for that matter, mymother—repeated time and time again. It was a phrase spoken by myparents’ friends and by their friends’ children. Whenever adultsdiscussed the great Chinese painters and sculptors from the ancientdynasties, there was always a single artist named as Number One.There was the Number One leader of a manufacturing plant, theNumber One worker, the Number One scientist, the Number One carmechanic. In the culture of my childhood, being best waseverything. It was the goal that drove us, the motivation that gavelife meaning. And if, by chance or fate or the blessings of thegenerous universe, you were a child in whom talent was evident,Number One became your mantra. It became mine. I never begged myparents to take off the pressure. I accepted it; I even enjoyed it.It was a game, this contest among aspiring pianists, and although Imay have been shy, I was bold, even at age five, when faced with afield of rivals. Born in China to parents whose mu
Sex, intrigue and adultery in the world of high politics andhuge wealth in late eighteenth-century England. Georgiana, Duchessof Devonshire, was one of the most flamboyant and influential womenof the eighteenth century. The great-great-great-great aunt ofDiana, Princess of Wales, she was variously a compulsive gambler, apolitical savante and operator of the highest order, a drug addict,an adulteress and the darling of the common people. Thisauthoritative, utterly absorbing book presents a mesmerizingpicture of a fascinating world of political and sexual intrigues,grand houses, huge parties, glamour and great wealth -- always onthe edge of being squandered by the excesses and scandals ofindividuals. Georgiana's extraordinary life has now been made intoa major film - starring Keira Knightley and Ralph Fiennes - whichis due for release in summer 2008. --This text refers to the Paperback edition.
One climbed to the very top of the social ladder, the otherchose to live among tramps. One was a celebrity at twenty-three,the other virtually unknown until his dying days. One wasright-wing and religious, the other a socialist and an atheist.Yet, as this ingenious and important new book reveals, at the heartof their lives and writing, Evelyn Waugh and George Orwell wereessentially the same man. Orwell is best known for "Animal Farm"and "1984," Waugh for "Brideshead Revisited" and comic novels like"Scoop" and "Vile Bodies." How ever different they may seem, thesetwo towering figures of twentieth-century literature are linked forthe first time in this engaging and unconventional biography, whichgoes beyond the story of their amazing lives to reach the core oftheir beliefs-a shared vision that was startlingly prescient aboutour own troubled times. Both Waugh and Orwell were born in 1903,into the same comfortable stratum of England's class-obsessedsociety. But at first glance they seem to have lived
“I had prepared a life plan that included ten years ofwandering, later years studying medicine. . . . All that's in thepast, the only thing that's clear is that the ten years ofwandering might grow longer . . . but it will now be of an entirelydifferent type from the one I dreamed of, and when I arrive in anew country it will not be to go to museums and look at ruins,because that still interests me, but also to join the struggle ofthe people.” – Che Guevara, in a letter to his mother, 1956 Assembled from two separate books written by Che's father, this isa vivid and intimate account of the formative years of an icon.Ernesto Guevara Lynch describes the people and personal events thatshaped the development of his son's revolutionary worldview, fromhis childhood in a bourgeois Argentinian home to the moment hejoined Castro to train for the invasion of Cuba in 1956. It alsoincludes, available for the first time in the United States, Che'sdiary of his trip around Northern Argentina in 1950. YoungChe is
Neil Young is one of rock and roll’s most important andenigmatic figures, a legend from the sixties who is still hugelyinfluential today. He has never granted a writer access to hisinner life – until now. Based on six years of interviews with morethan three hundred of Young’s associates, and on more than fiftyhours of interviews with Young himself, Shakey is a fascinating,prodigious account of the singer’s life and career. Jimmy McDonoughfollows Young from his childhood in Canada to his cofounding ofBuffalo Springfield to the huge success of Crosby, Stills, Nash andYoung to his comeback in the nineties. Filled withnever-before-published words directly from the artist himself,Shakey is an essential addition to the top shelf of rockbiographies.
When he was born in BIenheim Palace.1mperial B ritainstood at the splendid pinnacle of her power.Yet within a feW yearsthe Empi re would hover on the brink of a catastrophjC new era.Hereare the fi rst fifty—eight years of the remarkable man whose courageous vision guided the destiny of those darkly troubledtimes—and who Iooms today as one of the greatest figu res of ou rcentu ry.
Isaacson, assistant managing editor of Time , has produced much more than another unauthorized biography, giving extensive insights into the younger years of Heinz Kissinger in Bavaria and how they shaped his character, his style in dealing with others, and his worldview. Over 150 interviews with Kissinger intimates, enemies, subordinates, and the man himself generate a less-than-flattering portrayal of the man behind the intellect and the myths. Isaacson covers Kissinger's Americanization, his use of Harvard ties to enhance his career, his forays into the stratosphere of the Council on Foreign Relations (NY), and his Washington years and exploits. He also examines Kissinger's ill-fated negotiations with the North Vietnamese, empire building as national security assistant, shuttle diplomacy in the Middle East, arms control efforts, and later years as private citizen and consultant. While there are other excellent Kissinger biographies (Stephen Graubard's Kissinger , LJ 6/1/73; John Stoessinger's Henry Kissing
With the utterance of a single line—“Doctor Livingstone, Ipresume?”—a remote meeting in the heart of Africa was transformedinto one of the most famous encounters in exploration history. Butthe true story behind Dr. David Livingstone and journalist HenryMorton Stanley is one that has escaped telling. Into Africa is anextraordinarily researched account of a thrilling adventure—definedby alarming foolishness, intense courage, and raw humanachievement. In the mid-1860s, exploration had reached a plateau. The seasand continents had been mapped, the globe circumnavigated. Yet onevexing puzzle remained unsolved: what was the source of the mightyNile river? Aiming to settle the mystery once and for all, GreatBritain called upon its legendary explorer, Dr. David Livingstone,who had spent years in Africa as a missionary. In March 1866,Livingstone steered a massive expedition into the heart of Africa.In his path lay nearly impenetrable, uncharted terrain, hostilecannibals, and deadly predators. W
From the moment Jacqueline du Pré first held a cello at the ageof five, it was clear she had an extraordinary gift. At sixteen,when she made her professional debut, she was hailed as one of theworld's most talented and exciting musicians. But ten years later,she stopped playing virtually overnight, when multiple sclerosisremoved the feeling in her hands just before a concert. It tookfourteen more years for the crippling disease to take its finaltoll. In this uniquely revealing biography,Hilary and Piers du Pré have re-created the life they shared withtheir sister in astonishing personal detail, unveiling the privateworld behind the public face. With warmth and candor they recountJackie's blissful love of the cello, her marriage to the conductorDaniel Barenboim, her compulsions, her suffering, and, above all,the price exacted by her talent on the whole family. For proud asthey were of Jackie's enormous success, none of them was preparedfor the profound impact her genius would have on each of theirlives
An inspiring story of one doctor’s struggle in a war-tornvillage in the heart of Sudan In 2007, James Maskalyk, newly recruited byDoctors Without Borders, set out for the contested border town ofAbyei, Sudan. An emergency physician drawn to the ravaged parts ofthe world, Maskalyk spent six months treating malnourishedchildren, coping with a measles epidemic, watching for war, andstruggling to meet overwhelming needs with few resources. Six Months in Sudan began as a blog thatMaskalyk wrote from his hut in Sudan in an attempt to bring hisfamily and friends closer to his experiences on the medical frontline of one of the poorest and most fragile places on earth. It isthe story of the doctors, nurses, and countless volunteers wholeave their homes behind to ease the suffering of others, and it isthe story of the people of Abyei, who endure its hardship becauseit is the only home they have. A memoir of volunteerism that recalls Three Cupsof Tea, Six Months in Sudan is written with humanity, convicti
In this fascinating and meticulously researched book,bestselling historian Arthur Herman sheds new light on two of themost universally recognizable icons of the twentieth century, andreveals how their forty-year rivalry sealed the fate of India andthe British Empire. They were born worlds apart: Winston Churchill to Britain’s mostglamorous aristocratic family, Mohandas Gandhi to a piousmiddle-class household in a provincial town in India. Yet ArthurHerman reveals how their lives and careers became intertwined asthe twentieth century unfolded. Both men would go on to lead theirnations through harrowing trials and two world wars—and becomelocked in a fierce contest of wills that would decide the fates ofcountries, continents, and ultimately an empire. Here is a sweepingepic with a fascinating supporting cast, and a brilliant narrativeparable of two men whose great successes were always haunted bypersonal failure—and whose final moments of triumph wereovershadowed by the loss of what they held
He squared off against Caesar and was friends with youngBrutus. He advised the legendary Pompey on his somewhat botchedtransition from military hero to politician. He lambasted MarkAntony and was master of the smear campaign, as feared for his witas he was for exposing his opponents? sexual peccadilloes.Brilliant, voluble, cranky, a genius of political manipulation butalso a true patriot and idealist, Cicero was Rome?s most fearedpolitician, one of the greatest lawyers and statesmen of all times.Machiavelli, Queen Elizabeth, John Adams and Winston Churchill allstudied his example. No man has loomed larger in the politicalhistory of mankind. In this dynamic and engaging biography, Anthony Everittplunges us into the fascinating, scandal-ridden world of ancientRome in its most glorious heyday. Accessible to us through hislegendary speeches but also through an unrivaled collection ofunguarded letters to his close friend Atticus, Cicero comes to lifein these pages as a witty and cunning political ope