A comprehensive, authoritative, in depth andentertaining biography of one of the greatest and most influentialfantasy authors in modern time, J.R.R. Tolkien. In this informed an entertaining account, renowned biographerMichael White delves into the little-known life of one of the mosttreasured and enduring authors of our time, J.R.R. Tolkien. In absorbing and revealing detail, White describes Tolkien'slife -- from his childhood years and the tragic early death of hisparents; his burgeoning romance with Edith Brett; fighting on thefront lines in WWII; his many years as an Oxford academic, wherethe idea of the Hobbit struck him while marking a term paper; tohis friendship with C.S. Lewis and the founding of the group "TheInklings"; and why The Lord of the Rings became the mostinfluential book in the late sixties counter-culture, one of themost respected and most-read trilogies ever written, and the centerof a major film phenomenon. With 16 pages of black and white photos.

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

Sir Alex announced his retirement as manager of ManchesterUnited after 27 years in the role. He has gone out in a blaze ofglory, with United winning the Premier League for the 13th time,and he is widely considered to be the greatest manager in thehistory of British football. Over the last quarter of a century there have been seismicchanges at Manchester United. The only constant element has beenthe quality of the manager's league-winning squad and United's runof success, which included winning the Champions League for asecond time in 2008. Sir Alex created a purposeful, but welcoming,and much envied culture at the club which has lasted the test oftime. Sir Alex saw Manchester United change from a conventionalfootball club to what is now a major business enterprise, and henever failed to move with the times. It was directly due to hisvision, energy and ability that he was able to build teams both onand off the pitch. He was a man-manager of phenomenal skill, andincreasingly he had to deal with global stars.

By the end of the First World War, Gabrielle 'Coco' Chanel hadrevolutionised women's dress. But dress was the most visible aspectof more profound changes she helped to bring about. During thecourse of her extraordinary and unconventional journey - fromabject poverty to a new kind of glamour - Chanel would help forgethe very idea of modern woman.Unearthing an astonishing life, thisremarkable biography shows how the most influential designer of hercentury became synonymous with a rebellious and progressive style.Her numerous liaisons, whose most poignant details have eluded allprevious biographers, were the stuff of legend. Witty, strange,mesmerizing, Chanel became muse, patron or mistress to some of thecentury's most celebrated artists, including Stravinsky, Picassoand Dali.Drawing on newly discovered love-letters, police records,and interviews, Lisa Chaney reveals the truth about Chanel's drughabit and lesbian affairs.She also answers definitively thelong-running question about Chanel's German lover: w

Since turning pro after a short stint at Stanford University,no one athlete has dominated their sport as Tiger Woods hasdominated the world of golf. His list of achievements andchampionships would fill pages. But how does he do it? In HOW I PLAY GOLF, through fabulous colorphotos, slow-motion photography, and plenty of text, Tiger talksabout his drives, his putting, his chip shots, his mental approachto the game, and much more more. This is the complete instructionalon how Tiger plays the game of golf. Tiger shares his thoughts on what he calls the game for alifetime. He reveals the five secrets he believes are responsiblefor his success -- a combination of physical, metaphysical, andpsychological practices he uses daily to keep his game in top shapeand to help him to transcend all the ups and downs of golf. Not many can play golf as well as Tiger does, but at least we canread how we can try to improve our game. This one singular volumecontains all the golf instruction that anyone wou

The riveting memoirs of the outstanding moral andpolitical leader of our time, A LONG WALK TO FREEDOM brilliantlyre-creates the drama of the experiences that helped shape NelsonMandela's destiny. Emotive, compelling and uplifting, A LONG WALKTO FREEDOM is the exhilarating story of an epic life; a story ofhardship, resilience and ultimate triumph told with the clarity andeloquence of a born leader. 'Burns with the luminosity of faith inthe invincible nature of human hope and dignity ...Unforgettable'Andre Brink 'Enthralling ...Mandela emulates the few greatpolitical leaders such as Lincoln and Gandhi, who go beyond mereconsensus and move out ahead of their followers to break newground' Donald Woods in the SUNDAY TIMES

David Beckham is the world's most famous football icon. In Maythis year he brought down the curtain on a hugely successfulplaying career that spanned two decades, during which he proudlywore the shirts of Manchester United, Real Madrid, LA Galaxy, ACMilan, Paris Saint-Germain, and England. He captained his countryon 58 occasions, winning 115 international caps in total, anEnglish record for an outfield player. His colourful and stellarcareer has been characterised by the emotional highs of great goalsand remarkable trophy successes around the world, as well as bymore than the occasional moment of set-back, disappointment anddespair, but through it all Beckham has emerged as a universallyadored figure, both inside and outside the game. Here, intimatelytalking us through 150 of his favourite images which define hisplaying days, he invites us behind the scenes of an incredible20-year footballing journey.

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,

Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio lived the darkest and mostdangerous life of any of the great painters. The worlds of Milan,Rome and Naples through which Caravaggio moved and which AndrewGraham-Dixon describes brilliantly in this book, are those ofcardinals and whores, prayer and violence. On the streetssurrounding the churches and palaces, brawls and sword fights wereregular occurrences. In the course of this desperate lifeCaravaggio created the most dramatic paintings of his age, usingordinary men and women - often prostitutes and the very poor - tomodel for his depictions of classic religious scenes. AndrewGraham-Dixon's exceptionally illuminating readings of Caravaggio'spictures, which are the heart of the book, show very clearly how hecreated their drama, immediacy and humanity, and how completely hedeparted from the conventions of his time.

The #1 New York Times bestseller! Michael Jackson’s one and only autobiography – his life, in his words. With original Foreword by Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, a new Introduction by Motown founder Berry Gordy, and an Afterword by Michael Jackson’s editor and publisher, Shaye Areheart. “I’ve always wanted to be able to tell stories, you know, stories that came from my soul. I’d like to sit by a fire and tell people stories – make them see pictures, make them cry and laugh, take them anywhere emotionally with something as deceptively simple as words. I’d like to tell tales to move their souls and transform them. I’ve always wanted to be able to do that. Imagine how the great writers must feel, knowing they have that power. I sometimes feel I could do it. It’s something I’d like to develop. In a way, songwriting uses the same skills, creates the emotional highs and lows, but the story is a sketch. It’s quicksilver. There are very few books written on the art of storytelling, how to gri

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.

The philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau burst unexpectedly ontothe eighteenth-century literary scene as a provocateur whose workselectrified readers. An autodidact who had not written anything ofsignificance by age thirty, Rousseau seemed an unlikely candidateto become one of the most influential thinkers in history. Yet thepower of his ideas is felt to this day in our political and sociallives. In a masterly and definitive biography, Leo Damrosch traces theextraordinary life of Rousseau with novelistic verve. He presentsRousseau's books -- The Social Contract, one of the greatest workson political theory; Emile, a groundbreaking treatise on education;and the Confessions, which created the genre of introspectiveautobiography -- as works uncannily alive and provocative eventoday. Jean-Jacques Rousseau offers a vivid portrait of thevisionary’s tumultuous life.

A secret life, A tragic death, A towering legacy. 有人这样形容他：“他英年早逝却成就颇丰，他的研究让他青史留名”。他就是阿兰?图灵，二十世纪的一位伟大人物。然而，在70年代之前，他的名字还不为人知，因为他在破译德国英格玛(enigma)密码机方面的贡献还没有被公开。图灵的故事令人着迷，而在他自杀之后，他的名气不降反升，因为人们更加深刻地认识到他对逻辑学、数学、计算、人工智能以及计算生物学所做出的贡献。为纪念图灵诞辰一百周年，特将图灵母亲所著的传记再版。数学家马丁?戴维斯为该版重新作序，另外此版还附上了首次公布的图灵哥哥的回忆录。但哥哥的回忆录和图灵母亲的传记之间的差别透露出了矛盾，也可以使读者从新的角度了解图灵本人，以及图灵和家人的关系。 阿兰?图灵传奇的一生虽引人注意，但了解他生平详情的人并不多。他的母

The outrageous exploits of one of this century's greatestscientific minds and a legendary American original. In thisphenomenal national bestseller, the Nobel Prize-winning physicistRichard P. Feynman recounts in his inimitable voice his adventurestrading ideas on atomic physics with Einstein and Bohr and ideas ongambling with Nick the Greek, painting a naked female toreador,accompanying a ballet on his bongo drums and much else of aneyebrow-raising and hilarious nature. A New York Times bestseller; more than 500,000 copies sold.

Eva was arrested by the Nazis on her fifteenth birthday andsent to Auschwitz. Her survival depended on endless strokes ofluck, her own determination and the love and protection of hermother Fritzi, who was deported with her. When Auschwitz was liberated, Eva and Fritzi began the longjourney home. They searched desperately for Eva's father andbrother, from whom they had been separated. The news came somemonths later. Tragically, both men had been killed. Before the war, in Amsterdam, Eva had become friendly with ayoung girl called Anne Frank. Though their fates were verydifferent, Eva's life was set to be entwined with her friend's forever more, after her mother Fritzi married Anne's father Otto Frankin 1953. This is a searingly honest account of how an ordinary personsurvived the Holocaust. Eva's memories and de*ions areheartbreakingly clear, her account brings the horror as close as itcan possibly be. But this is also an exploration of what happened next, of Eva'sstruggle to live with herself after t

Since his release from prison in 1990, Nelson Mandela hasemerged as the world's most significant moral leader since Gandhi.As president of the African National Congress and spiritualfigurehead of the anti-apartheid movement, he was instrumental inmoving South Africa towards black-majority rule. He is reveredthroughout the world as a vital force for human rights and racialequality. Mandela's riveting memoirs, A LONG WALK TO FREEDOM , werefirst published in 1994 to universal acclaim. This excitingillustrated edition now portrays his life in words and pictures.Vivid de*ions of his childhood environment, earlyJohannesburg, life in the townships, Robben Island and the events,protests, historic trials and acts of vengeance that forged hisdestiny are now accompanied by haunting and dramatic photographsthat illuminate his story in an unforgettable way.

Modern views of Columbus are overshadowed by guilt about pastconquests. Credit for discovering the New World, we are told,belongs to its original inhabitants rather than any European, andColumbus gave those inhabitants nothing apart from death, diseaseand destruction. Yet for the Old World of Europe the four voyagesof Columbus brought revelation where before there had been onlymyths and guesswork. People had thought it was only the greatdistance that made it impossible to reach Asia sailing west fromSpain. No one had predicted that a vast continent stood in the way.And indeed, for Columbus himself, the revolution of understandingwas too much to comprehend. He had counted on a new route to Asiathat would bring him glory, riches and titles, and the thought ofan unknown and undeveloped continent held no attractions. Thetrials and disappointments of the great explorer are graphicallydetailed in this biography first published in 1828, when WashingtonIrving was America's most famous writer.

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

With the passing of this great movie star, philanthropist,and-bona fide, in her day-living legend, it is our pleasure as muchas our duty to celebrate her glorious life. Our cameras weretrained on Liz since National Velvet, and our splendid archive ofphotography needs to be seen-by you, her fans, right now, in thismoment. Elizabeth first appeared on LIFE's cover when she was barely ateenager, and last graced the cover when she trusted LIFE to tellthe story of her late-in-life brain surgery with taste andaccuracy. In between there was all the rest: the child-star days,the early marriages, the sensational movies, the incredible dramathat was "Liz and Dick," the later success on the Broadway stage,the transition to regal presence: benefactor, Dame Commander of theOrder of the British Empire, American icon. It is all in the pages of this special commemorative book.

"Team of Rivals" is a brilliant, multi-million sellingbiography, now the inspiration for a major Stephen Spielberg filmstarring Daniel Day-Lewis. "A wonderful book ...a remarkable studyin leadership". (Barack Obama). "The most uplifting book that Ihave read in the last two decades. Sensational". (Jon Snow). "Teamof Rivals" shows how Abraham Lincoln saved Civil War-torn Americaby appointing his fiercest rivals to key cabinet positions. As wellas a thrilling piece of narrative history, it's an inspiring studyof one of the greatest leaders the world has ever seen. "I have notenjoyed a history book as much for years". (Robert Harris). "Abrilliant book...I couldn't get enough of it". (Sir Alex Ferguson)."A fabulously engrossing, exciting narrative in the grand old style...overflowing with colour and character". (Dominic Sandbrook). "Aportrait of Lincoln as a virtuosic politician and managerialgenius". (Michiko Kakutani, "New York Times").

Marine General Tony Zinni was known as the "Warrior Diplomat"during his nearly forty years of service. As a soldier, hiscredentials were impeccable, whether leading troops in Vietnam,commanding hair-raising rescue operations in Somalia, or-asCommander-in-Chief of CENTCOM-directing strikes against Iraq and AlQaeda. But it was as a peacemaker that he made just as great amark-conducting dangerous troubleshooting missions all over Africa,Asia, and Europe; and then serving as Secretary of State ColinPowell's special envoy to the Middle East, before disagreementsover the 2003 Iraq War and its probable aftermath caused him toresign. This is his story-and that of his beloved Marine Corps-from thecauldron of Vietnam to the realities of the post-9/11 military, astold by none other than Tom Clancy.