From Ann Wroe, a biographer of the first rank, comes astartlingly original look at one of the greatest poets in theWestern tradition. Being Shelley aims to turn the poet's life inside out: ratherthan tracing the external events of his life, she tracks the innerjourney of a spirit struggling to create. In her quest tounderstand the radically unconventional Shelley, Wroe pursues thequestions that consumed the poet himself. Shelley sought to freeand empower the entire human race; his revolution was meant toshatter illusions, shock men and women with new visions, find truelove and liberty—and take everyone with him. Now, for the firsttime, this passionate quest is put at the center of his life. Theresult is a Shelley who has never been seen in biographybefore.
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。
An erudite history of medicine...a welcome addition to anymedical collection. -- Booklist How does medical science advance? Popular historians would have usbelieve that a few heroic individuals, possessing superhumantalents, lead an unselfish quest to better the human condition. Butas renowned Yale surgeon and medical historian Sherwin B. Nulandshows in this brilliant collection of linked life portraits, thetheory bears little resemblance to the truth. Through the centuries, the men and women Who have shaped theworld of medicine have been not only very human people but alsovery much the products of their own times and places. Presentingcompelling studies of great medical innovators and pioneers,Doctors gives us the extraordinary story of the development ofmodern medicine -- told through the lives of thephysician-scientists whose deeds and determination paved the way.Ranging from the legendary Father of Medicine, Hippocrates, toAndreas Vesalius, whose Renaissance masterwork on anatomy offeredinval
Steven Gerrard is a hero to millions, not only as the inspirational captain of Liverpool FC, but as a key member of the England team. Here, for the first time, he tells the story of his lifelong obsession with football, in an honest and revealing book which captures the extraordinary camaraderie, the soul-destroying tensions and the high-octane thrills of the modern game as never before. He speaks for the first time about the torturous will-he-won't-he Chelsea rumours and his undying passion for Liverpool. We experience first-hand the highs of winning in Istanbul and elsewhere, as well as the occasional lows of being parted from his much-loved family and friends. And of course, the book contains a full blow-by-blow account of England's world cup campaign in Germany 2006.
Michael Servetus is one of those hidden figureheads of historywho is remembered not for his name, but for the revolutionary deedsthat stand in his place. Both a scientist and a freethinkingtheologian, Servetus is credited with the discovery of pulmonarycirculation in the human body as well as the authorship of apolemical masterpiece that cost him his life. The ChrisitianismiRestituto, a heretical work of biblical scholarship, written in1553, aimed to refute the orthodox Christianity that Servetus' oldcolleague, John Calvin, supported. After the book spread throughthe ranks of Protestant hierarchy, Servetus was tried andagonizingly burned at the stake, the last known copy of theRestitutio chained to his leg. Servetus's execution is significant because it marked a turningpoint in the quest for freedom of expression, due largely to thedevelopment of the printing press and the proliferation of books inRenaissance Europe. Three copies of the Restitutio managed tosurvive the burning, despite every effo
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.
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.
Fidel Castro is perhaps the most charismatic and controversialhead of state in modern times. A dictatorial pariah to some, he hasbecome a hero and inspiration for many of the world's poor,defiantly charting an independent and revolutionary path for Cubaover nearly half a century. Numerous attempts have been made to get Castro to tell his ownstory. But only now, in the twilight of his years, has he beenprepared to set out the details of his remarkable biography for theworld to read. This book is nothing less than his living testament.As he told reporters, his desire to finish checking its text wasthe one thing that kept him going through his recent illness. Hepresented a copy of the book in its Spanish edition to his compadrePresident Hugo Chávez of Venezuela. In these pages, Castro narrates a compelling chronicle thatspans the harshness of his elementary school teachers; the earlyfailures of the revolution; his intense comradeship with CheGuevara and their astonishing, against-all-odds victory over thedic
I AM AMERICA (AND SO CAN YOU!) is Stephen Colbert's attempt to wedge his brain between hardback covers. In plain conversational language, not to mention the occasional grunt and/or whistle, Stephen explains his take on the most pressing concerns of our culture: Faith, Family, Politics...Hygiene.
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.
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
Barack Obama is arguably the most dynamic political figure to grace the American stage since John F. Kennedy. His meteoric rise from promise to power has stunned even the cynics and inspired a legion of devout followers. For anyone who wants to know more about the man who would be president, David Mendell's Obama is essential reading. Mendell, who has covered Obama for the Chicago Tribune since the beginning of Obama's campaign for the Senate, had far-reaching access to the senator, the details of which he shares in this compelling biography. Positioning Obama as the savior of a fumbling Democratic party, Mendell shows how Obama conquered Illinois politics and paved the way brick by brick for a galvanizing, historic presidential run. With exclusive contributions by family members and advisers, and details on Obama's voting record, this is a complete, complex, and revealing portrait, a must read for anyone interested in American politics in general and Senator Barack Obama in particular.
She was, indeed, the People's Princess. She belonged to them,and was beloved by them. For some reason that cannot be pinneddown, this pretty young woman of the aristocracy, who married intoroyalty, connected with the common folk in a way that was uniqueand extraordinary. The people cared for and cared about Diana, andwhen she was killed in a tragic car accident in Paris, theoutpouring of grief-not just in England, but globally-wasoverwhelming. To commemorate the 50th anniversary of DianaSpencer's birth, LIFE has assembled a celebratory chronicle of hertoo short but constantly vibrant time in the public eye. In familyphotos, we re visit Diana's youth and then, quickly enough, thereis her courtship by Prince Charles. The Wedding of the Centuryreally was that, an opulent extravaganza at St. Paul's that seemeda fairy tale, even unto the Glass Coach. LIFE was on the job at thetime and in our pages appeared defining pictures from the day, aswell as behind the scenes shots taken by the royals themselves.Those
The epic life and times of one of the most important politicalfigures in our history. He was the Great Compromiser, a canny and colorful legislator andleader whose life mirrors the story of America from its foundinguntil the eve of the Civil War. Speaker of the House, senator,secretary of state, five-time presidential candidate, and idol tothe young Abraham Lincoln, Henry Clay is captured in full at lastin this rich and sweeping biography that vividly portrays all thedrama of his times. David S. Heidler and Jeanne T. Heidler present Clay in his earlyyears as a precocious, witty, and optimistic Virginia boy, raisedon a farm, who at the age of twenty transformed himself frombumpkin to attorney—a shrewd and sincere defender of the ordinaryman who would be his eventual political base. The authors revealClay’s tumultuous career in Washington, one that transformed thecapital and the country. Nicknamed “the Western Star,” Clay becamethe youngest Speaker of the House shortly before the War of 1812and tran
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
Barbara Leaming's Marilyn Monroe is a complex, sympatheticportrait that will forever change the way we view the most enduringicon of America sexuality. To those who think they have heard allthere is to hear about Marilyn Monroe, think again. Leaming's booktells a brand-new tale of sexual, psychological, and politicalintrigue of the highest order. Told for the first time in all itscomplexity, this is a compelling portrait of a woman at the centerof a drama with immensely high stakes, a drama in which the otherplayers are some of the most fascinating characters from the worldsof movies, theater, and politics. It is a book that shines a brightlight on one of the most tumultuous, frightening, and excitingperiods in American culture. Basing her research on new interviews and on thousands of primarydocuments--including revealing letters by Arthur Miller, EliaKazan, John Huston, Laurence Olivier, Tennessee Williams, DarrylZanuck, Marilyn's psychiatrist Dr. Ralph Greenson, and manyothers--Leaming has rec
Book De*ion Here, firmly rooted in her own social setting for the first time,is the real Jane Austen--the shy woman willing to challengeconvention, the woman of no pretensions who nevertheless calledherself "formidable," a woman who could be frivolous and yet sufferfrom black depressions, who showed unfailing loyalty and, in theconduct of her own life, unfailing bravery. In an act ofunderstanding and brilliant synthesis, Claire Tomalin reveals JaneAusten with a clarity never before achieved, one which makes uslook upon her novels with fresh and even greater admiration. The world she wrote about--that place of civility and reassuringstability--was never quite her own. As Tomalin shows, Jane Austen'sfamily existed on the very fringe of the world she described in herfiction, struggling to get ahead with little money and no land inthe competitive society of Georgian England, sometimes succeedingbut often failing with painful consequences. New research in familypapers has yielded a rich, tragico
Country music superstar Trace Adkins isn’t exactly known forholding back what’s on his mind. And if the millions of albums he’ssold are any indication, when Trace talks, people listen. Now, in APersonal Stand, Trace Adkins delivers his maverick manifesto onpolitics, personal responsibility, fame, parenting, being true toyourself, hard work, and the way things oughta be. In his inimitable pull-no-punches style, Trace gives us the stateof the union as he sees it, from the lessons of his boyhood insmall-town Louisiana to what he’s learned headlining concertsaround the world. Trace has worked oil rigs in the Gulf of Mexico,been shot in the heart, been inducted into the Grand Ole Opry, andbraved perhaps the greatest challenge of all: being the father offive daughters. And shaped by these experiences, he’s soundingoff. ? I’m incredibly frustrated with the state of American politics. Ifthere were a viable third party, I’d seriously consider joiningit. ? If anybody wonders who the good guys are and w
Gothic, mysterious, theatrical, fatally flawed, and dazzling,the life of Edgar Allan Poe, one of America’s greatest and mostversatile writers, is the ideal subject for Peter Ackroyd. Poewrote lyrical poetry and macabre psychological melodramas; inventedthe first fictional detective; and produced pioneering works ofscience fiction and fantasy. His innovative style, images, andthemes had a tremendous impact on European romanticism, symbolism,and surrealism, and continue to influence writers today. In this essential addition to his canon of acclaimed biographies,Peter Ackroyd explores Poe’s literary accomplishments and legacyagainst the background of his erratic, dramatic, and sometimessordid life. Ackroyd chronicles Poe’s difficult childhood, hisbumpy academic and military careers, and his complex relationshipswith women, including his marriage to his thirteen-year-old cousin.He describes Poe’s much-written-about problems with gambling andalcohol with sympathy and insight, showing their connections toP
