More a biography of Mozart's music than a study of the man himself, Sadie's final opus—he died this year after publishing some 30 books—should delight musicologists but puzzle general readers. Not only is the music Sadie's primary interest, he does not believe it reveals anything, necessarily, about its composer. Indeed, he reminds readers not to impose contemporary values on Mozart's era. "Romantic eyes," for example, might see certain minor-key compositions as expressions of Mozart's grief over his mother's death, but Sadie argues that there's "no real reason to imagine that he used his music as [a] vehicle for the expression of his own personal feelings." Likewise, modern critics expect to see a certain type of progress in Mozart's oeuvre, with subsequent works building and elaborating former ones, in ways alien to Mozart on his contemporaries. Sadie is deft at situating various styles of musical composition in their cultural context: preferences for serious vs. comic opera, shorter vs. longer works, e

This book charts the life and achievements of the boy from Tupelo, Mississippi, from his first taste of fame in the early 1950s to his untimely death in 1977. Over 400 fabulous photographs document the important events in his life and career. The pictures are accompanied by informative captions, adding context and depth to his amazing story, and an appendix of facts and figures sets out his remarkable achievements in the music industry. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

Who was Richard Nixon?The most amaxing thing about the man was not what he did as president,but that he became president at all.Using thousands of new interviews and recently discovered of declassifited documents and tapes,Richard Reeves's President Nixon offers a surprising portrait of a brilliant and contradictory man. "I have decided my major role is moral leadership," Nixon wrote in 1972 in one of his myriad memos to himself. (As Reeves writes, "Whatever else he accomplished, Richard Nixon produced more paper and tape than any president before or since.") That resolution quickly collapsed; instead, as the Vietnam War shaded into defeat and protests at home mounted, Nixon sank into a siege mentality, seeing himself as a lone crusader at war with the rest of the world. Reeves examines the cat-and-mouse quality of Nixon's relations with his inner circle and family, as well as the excruciating collapse of national leadership in the wake of missteps, miscalculations, and sheer crimes. Rigorous and thoughtf

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.

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,

国际读书网站Goodreads评选的 2013年度*传记类作品. "I come from a country that was created at midnight. When I almost died it was just after midday." When the Taliban took control of the Swat Valley in Pakistan, one girl spoke out. Malala Yousafzai refused to be silenced and fought for her right to an education. On Tuesday, October 9, 2012, when she was fifteen, she almost paid the ultimate price. She was shot in the head at point-blank range while riding the bus home from school, and few expected her to survive. Instead, Malala's miraculous recovery has taken her on an extraordinary journey from a remote valley in northern Pakistan to the halls of the United Nations in New York. At sixteen, she became a global symbol of peaceful protest and the youngest nominee ever for the Nobel Peace Prize. I AM MALALA is the remarkable tale of a family uprooted by global terrorism, of the fight for girls' education, of a father who, himself a school owner, championed and e

IndexGr 5-7--First published in Britain, these two slim overviews of the composers' lives have visually interesting page layouts with plenty of full-color drawings, photographs, and engravings to catch readers' eyes. Sidebars give additional details on people, historical events, and artistic movements mentioned in the text. While the highly attractive presentations might lift these titles from being strictly report fodder to the level of general interest, the narratives are not easy reading. The historical references and vocabulary make them appropriate for an older audience than the 32-page format might suggest. Of the two, Introducing Mozart is the more compelling. The "divine boy" is a far more fascinating figure than the pious Bach. While both books place their subjects in context of their times and make a case for their stature and continued relevance in a modern world, readers with the sophistication to handle these introductions will want more substantive treatments. 作者简介： Roland

Murakami's fascinating thoughts on running, training and life in general. Written in 2007

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

“With customary grace and firm control of an intricate plot, L’Engle has created another irresistible novel about familiar characters, the Austin family. Vicky, 16, narrates the climactic events with Grandfather Eaton on a New England island, where he is living his last days.”—Publishers Weekly “L’Engle has the magic storytelling gift that makes it a pleasure to lose yourself in her spell.”—Newsweek “L’Engle writes eloquently about death and life with provocative passages that linger in the thoughts of the perceptive.”—Booklist, Starred Review After a tumultuous year in New York City, the Austins are spending the summer on the small island where their grandfather lives. He’s very sick, and watching his condition deteriorate as the summer passes is almost more than Vicky can bear. To complicate matters, she finds herself as the center of attention for three very different boys. Zachary Grey, the troubled and reckless boy Vicky met last summer, wants her all to h

Get up close and personal with Tim Duncan, one of the NBA's biggest stars! In 2003 he helped lead the San Antonio Spurs to their first ever NBA Championship. In 2004 Duncan and the Spurs capped the season with anothe visit to the playoffs. And 2005 promises to be another great year for Tim and the team. Find out all there is to know this superstar!

After two delicious excursions into the raunchy glitter of the Hollywood star machine (Hollywood Wives and Hollywood Husbands), Collins nose-dives precipitously - with a sloppy, near-perfunctory tale of three pop-music heroes and the devious mogul who controls their lives. Kinky record-magnate Marcus Citroen and his sleek wife, Nova (a former prostitute who puts up with his taste for violent sex), live on a fantastic Malibu estate that contains three separate mansions and has enough room for - well, for a fund-raising party for Governor Jack Highland. Virtually ordered to perform are three of Marcus' top stars: libidinous English singer Kris Phoenix, who rises from hauling his ashes to oblige; top black performer Bobby Mandella; and young pop sensation Rafealla, who has made a Faustian deal with Citroen. In a series of long, obvious flashbacks that clumsily cut away from dramatic moments and derail all suspense, the reader learns: that Bobby Mandella's affair with Nova resulted in his being hurled from a 14-s

No matter how long or how hard they strive, no matter how extensive their education as a species, no matter what they experience of the small heavens and larger hells they create for themselves, it seems that humans are destined to see their technological accomplishments always exceed their ability to understand themselves. Certainly there was no understanding, no meeting of the minds, on the world called Aquila Major. There was only the devastation of one mind-set by another. Proof of it took the form of a statue fashioned of advanced, reinforced preformata resin. It was an imposing piece of work, for all that it had been reproduced by its originators on many other worlds. Too many other worlds, according to some. Not nearly enough, according to those who had put it in place, its massive footing firmly rammed into the resistant soil of Aquila Major. It was a Conquest Icon of the Necromongers. Over five hundred meters tall, it gaped openmouthed at the utter desolation and wreckage that spre