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.

It's hard to think of a CEO that commands as much respect as Jack Welch. Under his leadership, General Electric reinvented itself several times over by integrating new and innovative practices into its many lines of business. In Jack: Straight from the Gut, Welch, with the help of Business Week journalist John Byrne, recounts his career and the style of management that helped to make GE one of the most successful companies of the last century. Beginning with Welch's childhood in Salem, Massachusetts, the book quickly progresses from his first job in GE's plastics division to his ambitious rise up the GE corporate ladder, which culminated in 1981. What comes across most in this autobiography is Welch's passion for business as well as his remarkable directness and intolerance of what he calls "superficial congeniality"--a dislike that would help earn him the nickname "Neutron Jack." In spite of its 496 pages, Jack: Straight from the Gut is a quick read that any student or manager would do well to consider. High

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

A breakaway bestseller since its first printing, AllSouls takes us deep into Michael Patrick MacDonald's Southie,the proudly insular neighborhood with the highest concentration ofwhite poverty in America. Rocked by Whitey Bulger's crime schemesand busing riots, MacDonald's Southie is populated by sharply hewncharacters like his Ma, a miniskirted, accordion-playing singlemother who endures the deaths of four of her eleven children.Nearly suffocated by his grief and his community's code of silence,MacDonald tells his family story here with gritty but movinghonesty.

In the years following his and Francis Crick’s toweringdiscovery of DNA, James Watson was obsessed with finding twothings: RNA and a wife. Genes, Girls, and Gamow is the marvelouschronicle of those pursuits. Watson effortlessly glides between hisheartbreaking and sometimes hilarious debacles in the field of loveand his heady inquiries in the field of science. He also reflectswith touching candor on some of science’s other titans, from fellowNobelists Linus Pauling and the incorrigible Richard Feynman toRussian physicist George Gamow, who loved whiskey, limericks, andcard tricks as much as he did molecules and genes. What emerges isa refreshingly human portrait of a group of geniuses and a candid,often surprising account of how science is done.

After two thousand years of flawed history, here at last is amagnificent new biography of Mary Magdalene that draws her out ofthe shadows of history and restores her to her rightful place ofimportance in Christianity.Throughout history, Mary Magdalene hasbeen both revered and reviled, a woman who has taken on manyforms—witch, whore, the incarnation of the eternal feminine, thedevoted companion (and perhaps even the wife) of Jesus. In thisbrilliant new biography, Bruce Chilton, a renowned biblicalscholar, offers the first complete and authoritative portrait ofthis fascinating woman. Through groundbreaking interpretations ofancient texts, Chilton shows that Mary played a central role inJesus’ ministry and was a seminal figure in the creation ofChristianity. Chilton’s de*ions of who Mary Magdalene was and what she didchallenge the male-dominated history of Christianity familiar tomost readers. Placing Mary within the traditions of Jewish femalesavants, Chilton presents a visionary figure who was fully imm

For the past twenty-five years, no one has been better atrevealing secrets than Oprah Winfrey. On what is arguably the mostinflu?ential show in television history, she has gotten herguests—often the biggest celebrities in the world—to bare theirlove lives, explore their painful pasts, admit theirtransgressions, reveal their pleasures, and explore their demons.In turn, Oprah has repeatedly allowed her audience to share in herown life story, opening up about the sexual abuse in her past anddiscussing her romantic relationships, her weight problems, herspiritual beliefs, her charitable donations, and her strongly heldviews on the state of the world. After a quarter of a century of the Oprah-ization of America, canthere be any more secrets left to reveal? Yes. Because Oprah has met her match. Kitty Kelley has, over the same period of time, fear?lessly andrelentlessly investigated and written about the world’s mostrevered icons: Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, Frank Sinatra, NancyReagan,

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.

Fully documented and highly detailed, this is the biographythat Sinatra tried but failed to stop. A runaway #1 bestseller. HC:Bantam. (Nonfiction)

"Perhaps Mr. Stearn's greatest achievement . . . is that hehas given his subject such universality. The reader is left withthe firm conviction, not that Edgar Cayce was a unique'odd-man-out,' but that he spoke for the sleeping prophet that liesdormant in every human being." -- Noel Langley The life and story of Edgar Cayce is one of the most compellingin metaphysical literature. For more than forty years, the"Sleeping Prophet" closed his eyes, entered into an altered stateof consciousness, and spoke to the very heart and spirit ofhumankind on subjects such as health, healing, dreams, prophecy,meditation, and reincarnation. Now in a 30th Anniversary SpecialEdition printing, Edgar Cayce: The Sleeping Prophet is afascinating biography that will hold the reader spellbound andleaving him or her in wonder at the the potential of humankind. -- Midwest Book Review --This text refers to an out ofprint or unavailable edition of this title.

In Going Within, MacLaine asks tough questions of and givesgood advice to the spiritual seeker. She has suffered, felt sorrowand anger, stress, fear, and anxiety, yet she has never allowedherself to be defined by her negative emotions. Instead she asks,"If we are not in harmony with ourselves, how can we possibly be inharmony with anyone else, much less the world that we inhabit?"MacLaine celebrates the independence that comes with therecognition of all emotions, both negative and positive. MacLainehas created many memorable roles as an actress but ironicallyyounger adults may be more familiar with her work as a memoiristand spiritual seeker. In Out on a Limb, MacLaine reveals an intenseand secretive loving relationship with a prominent politician,which sparked her quest for self-discovery. Fans of the actress'searlier works will be aware of her love of the journey. Herde*ions of her travels from Stockholm to Hawaii to Peru willstimulate even the most sedate armchair traveler wanting to seemore of the

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.

"A true emotional phenomenon...Entertaining...Of particularinterest to fans will be the evolution of Johnson's relationshipwith Bird, his great karmic partner in the game." NEW YORK NEWSDAY He's faced challenges all of his life, butnow Magic Johnson faces the biggest challenge of all, his own bravebattle with HIV. In this dramatic, exciting, and inspirationalautobiography, Magic Johnson allows readers into his life, into histirumphs and tragedies on and off the court. In his own exuberantstyle, he tells readers of the friends and family who've beenconstant supporters and the basketball greats he's worked with.It's all here, the glory and the pain the character, charisma, andcourage of the hero called Magic. AN ALTERNATE SELECTION OF THE BOOK-OF-THE-MONTHCLUB

Dennis Rodman shoots from the lip as he talks about everythingfrom the NBA and his game, his sexuality, dating, his wild flingwith superstar Madonna, and morality. Reprint."

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

“You keep fighting, okay?” I whispered. “We’re in thistogether. You and me. You’re not alone. You hear me? You are notalone. ” 5:38 p.m. It was the precise moment Sean Manning was born and thetime each year that his mother wished him happy birthday. But justbefore he turned twenty-seven, their tradition collapsed. A heartattack landed his mom in the hospital and uprooted Manning from hislife in New York. What followed was a testament to a family’sindestructible bond—a life-changing odyssey that broke a boy andmade a man—captured here in Manning’s indelible memoir.

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

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

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

Hillary Rodham Clinton is known to hundreds of millions ofpeople around the world. Yet few beyond her close friends andfamily have ever heard her account of her extraordinary journey.She writes with candor, humor and passion about her upbringing insuburban, middle-class America in the 1950s and her transformationfrom Goldwater Girl to student activist to controversial FirstLady. Living History is her revealing memoir of life through theWhite House years. It is also her chronicle of living history withBill Clinton, a thirty-year adventure in love and politics thatsurvives personal betrayal, relentless partisan investigations andconstant public scrutiny. Hillary Rodham Clinton came of age during a time of tumultuoussocial and political change in America. Like many women of hergeneration, she grew up with choices and opportunities unknown toher mother or grandmother. She charted her own course throughunexplored terrain -- responding to the changing times and her owninternal compass -- and became an

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.

If you had to give America a voice, it’s been said more thanonce, that voice would be Willie Nelson’s. For more than fiftyyears, he’s taken the stuff of his life—the good and the bad—andmade from it a body of work that has become a permanent part of ourmusical heritage and kept us company through the good and the badof our own lives. So it’s fitting, and cause for celebration, thathe has finally set down in his own words a book that does justiceto his great gifts as a storyteller. In The Facts of Life ,Willie Nelson reflects on what has mattered to him in life and whathasn’t. He also tells some great dirty jokes. The result is a bookas wise and hilarious as its author.