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."

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

“Buried as a g while tha whole world remembers me” –Tupac Shakur, from “Until the End ofTime” Tupac Shakur was larger than life. A giftedrapper, actor, and poet, he was fearless, prolific, andcontroversial–and often said that he never expected to live pastthe age of thirty. He was right. On September 13, 1996, he died ofgunshot wounds at age twenty-five. But even ten years after Tupac’stragic passing, the impact of his life and talent continues toflourish. Lauded as one of the greatest hip-hop artists of alltime, Tupac has sold more than sixty-seven million recordsworldwide, making him the top-selling rapper ever. How Long Will They Mourn Me? celebrates Tupac’sunforgettable life–his rise to fame; his tumultuous dark sidemarked by sex, drugs, and violence; and the indelible legacy heleft behind. Although Tupac’s murder remains unsolved, the spiritof this legendary artist is far from forgotten. How long will wemourn him? Fans worldwide will grieve his untimely death for a longti

From the moment it was first published in The New Yorker, thisbrilliant work of literary criticism aroused great attention. JanetMalcolm brings her shrewd intelligence to bear on the legend ofSylvia Plath and the wildly productive industry of Plathbiographies. Features a new Afterword by Malcolm.

What happens when a coffee-drinking, cigarette-smoking,steak-eating twenty-five-year-old atheist decides it is time to getin touch with her spiritual side? Not what you’d expect… When Suzanne Morrison decides to travel to Bali for a two-monthyoga retreat, she wants nothing more than to be transformed from atwenty-five-year-old with a crippling fear of death into herenchanting yoga teacher, Indra—a woman who seems to have found itall: love, self, and God. But things don’t go quite as expected. Once in Bali, she finds thather beloved yoga teacher and all of her yogamates wake up everymorning to drink a large, steaming mug…of their own urine. Sugar isa mortal sin. Spirits inhabit kitchen appliances. And the more shetries to find her higher self, the more she faces her cynical,egomaniacal, cigarette-, wine-, and chocolate-craving lowerself. Yoga Bitch chronicles Suzanne’s hilarious adventures andmisadventures as an aspiring yogi who might be just a bit tooskeptical to drink the Kool-Aid. But along th

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.

Who are the pivotal figures in American history, the men andwomen who have helped shape us as a people and have influenced howwe perceive ourselves as Americans? In this companion to hispopular 1001 Events That Made America, Alan Axelrod looks into allareas of our collective past and highlights the famous as well asthe infamous, the virtuous as well as the notorious, from thenation’s earliest days to the present. Serving up history in lively, accessible bites, the book presentsa Who’s Who in American politics, arts, science, business,religion, and pop culture, along with concise explanations of eachfigure’s historical significance. Featured personalities range fromJesse James to Al Capone, Harriet Beecher Stowe to Betty Friedan,George Washington to George W. Bush, Harriet Tubman to MartinLuther King, Jr., Stephen Foster to Elvis, John L. Sullivan toMuhammad Ali, Edwin Booth to Marlon Brando, Washington Irving toThomas Pynchon, and John Jacob Astor to Bill Gates. Packed with informatio

"Be more Irish than Harvard," inscribed Robert Frost in the book of poetry he gave to John F. Kennedy at the 1961 presidential inauguration. With these simple words, Frost hit upon the experience that defined America's favorite political dynasty for over five generations: their Irish Catholicism. Drawing on groundbreaking research both here and abroad, acclaimed journalist Thomas Maier shows how their cultural background molded the Kennedy family to the core-both bolstering stunning successes and coloring spectacular tragedies. Casting new light on the Kennedys' struggles with race, anti-Semitism, the sexual mores of the Catholic Church, and even on John F. Kennedy's A Nation of Immigrants, the result is a revelatory glimpse at a remarkable intersection of private beliefs and public politics-and a spellbinding, uniquely American epic.

Offers a remarkable perspective on how a brutal mobster couldlead a sweet home life as a suburban dad.” —New York Times “One of the most searing volumes ever written about the mob .. . An] unforgettable memoir.” —Publishers Weekly “Admirers of Mafia fiction . . . should enjoy DeMeo’s attemptto strip off the gaudy veneer of what is, what was, and [what]always will be very dirty business.” —Detroit Free Press

Jeanne Marie Laskas had a dream of fleeing her otherwise happyurban life for fresh air and open space — a dream she woulddiscover was about something more than that. But she never expectedher fantasy to come true — until a summer afternoon’s drive in thecountry. That’s when she and her boyfriend, Alex — owner of Marley thepoodle — stumble upon the place she thought existed only in herdreams. This pretty-as-a-picture-postcard farm with an Amish barn,a chestnut grove, and breathtaking vistas is real ... and for sale.And it’s where she knows her future begins. But buying a postcard — fifty acres of scenery — and living onit are two entirely different matters. With wit and wisdom, Laskaschronicles the heartwarming and heartbreaking stories of thecolorful two- and four-legged creatures she encounters onSweetwater Farm. Against a backdrop of brambles, a satellite dish, and sheep,she tells a tender, touching, and hilarious tale about life, love,and the unexpected complic

Born into the turmoil of mid-sixties San Francisco, the daughterof a flower child and a surfer, Joelle Fraser grew up with nobedtime, no boundaries, and no father. But “dads” she had inabundance, as her mother worked her way through boyfriends andhusbands, caught between the traditional rules of her upbringingand the new freedoms of the “me generation” and women’s lib. Movingevery few months, from houseboats and beach shacks to run-downapartments, Joelle came to learn that a woman’s life, free or not,is played out on men’s territory. Set in northern California, Hawaii, and the small coastal towns ofOregon, Fraser’s engrossing memoir captures this centerlesschildhood in wonderfully vivid, frank writing, then goes on to showhow a legacy like this affects a girl as she grows up. Pretty,blond, precociously aware of her own sexuality, Joelle was drawn tomen early, eager to unlock their mysteries. Working in bars,prisons, and firing ranges, she liked to hang out where theycongregated. To her the on

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

THE LIBRARY OF CONTEMPORARY THOUGHT is a groundbreaking serieswhere America's finest writers and most brilliant minds tackletoday's most provocative, fascinating, and relevant issues.Striking and daring, creative and important, these original voiceson matters political, social, economic, and cultural, willenlighten, comfort, entertain, enrage, and ignite healthy debateacross the country.

Anna Quindlen first visited London from a chair in hersuburban Philadelphia home—in one of her beloved childhood mysterynovels. She has been back to London countless times since, throughthe pages of books and in person, and now, in Imagined London, shetakes her own readers on a tour of this greatest of literarycities. While New York, Paris, and Dublin are also vividly portrayed infiction, it is London, Quindlen argues, that has always been thestar, both because of the primacy of English literature and thespecificity of city de*ions. She bases her view of the city onher own detailed literary map, tracking the footsteps of herfavorite characters: the places where Evelyn Waugh's bright youngthings danced until dawn, or where Lydia Bennett eloped with thedastardly Wickham. In Imagined London, Quindlen walks through the city, movingwithin blocks from the great books of the 19th century to thedetective novels of the 20th to the new modernist tradition of the21st. With wit and cha

To illuminate the mysterious greatness of Anton Chekhov'swritings, Janet Malcolm takes on three roles: literary critic,biographer, and journalist. Her close readings of the stories andplays are interwoven with episodes from Chekhov's life and framedby an account of Malcolm's journey to St. Petersburg, Moscow, andYalta. She writes of Chekhov's childhood, his relationships, histravels, his early success, and his self-imposed "exile"--alwayswith an eye to connecting them to themes and characters in hiswork. Lovers of Chekhov as well as those new to his work will betransfixed by "Reading Chekhov."

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.

I tell of a time, a place, and a way of life long gone. For manyyears I have had the urge to describe that treasure trove, lest itvanish forever. So, partly in response to the basic human instinctto share feelings and experiences, and partly for the sheer joy andexcitement of it all, I report on my early life. It was quite aromp. So begins Mildred Kalish’s story of growing upon her grandparents’ Iowa farm during the depths of the GreatDepression. With her father banished from the household formysterious transgressions, five-year-old Mildred and her familycould easily have been overwhelmed by the challenge of simplytrying to survive. This, however, is not a tale of suffering. Kalish counts herself among the lucky of thatera. She had caring grandparents who possessed—and valiantly triedto impose—all the pioneer virtues of their forebears, teachers whoinspired and befriended her, and a barnyard full of animals readyto be tamed and loved. She and her siblings and their cousins fromthe farm across

After her astonishing testimony in the Clarence Thomashearings, Anita Hill ceased to be a private citizen and became apublic figure at the white-hot center of an intense national debateon how men and women relate to each other in the workplace. Thatdebate led to ground-breaking court decisions and major shifts incorporate policies that have had a profound effect on ourlives--and on Anita Hill's life. Now, with remarkable insight andtotal candor, Anita Hill reflects on events before, during, andafter the hearings, offering for the first time a complete accountthat sheds startling new light on this watershed event.Only afterreading her moving recollection of her childhood on her family'sOklahoma farm can we fully appreciate the values that enabled herto withstand the harsh scrutiny she endured during the hearings andfor years afterward. Only after reading her detailed narrative ofthe Senate Judiciary proceedings do we reach a new understanding ofhow Washington--and the media--rush to judgment. And only a

“Powerful. . . . A challenging, disturbing portrait of ademocratic hero, and an equally challenging case study of thedemocratic system.” —The New York Times “Rich in insight into Jackson’s personality. . . . Burstein makesfair on his promise to look dispassionately at this most passionateof presidents. . . . A very readable, insightful analysis into thecharacter and evolution of the American republic.” —PlainDealer “Excellent. . . . A must-read for anyone interested in thepresidency or early American history.” –Flint Journal “A useful, persuasively critical account of the development ofJackson’s self-image as an honorable patriarch and champion ofrighteous government..” —The Washington Post Book World “Impressive. . . . Persuasive. . . . Argues that the times shapedJackson and thrust him into the White House as the first ‘commoner’elected president because he so personified the young nation’sbold, brash spirit and s

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

“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.

Universally known and admired as a peacemaker, DagHammarskj?ld concealed a remarkable intense inner life which herecorded over several decades in this journal of poems andspiritual meditations, left to be published after his death. Adramatic account of spiritual struggle, Markings has inspiredhundreds of thousands of readers since it was first published in1964. Markings is distinctive, as W.H. Auden remarks in hisforeword, as a record of "the attempt by a professional man ofaction to unite in one life the via activa and the viacontemplativa." It reflects its author's efforts to live his creed,his belief that all men are equally the children of God and thatfaith and love require of him a life of selfless service to others.For Hammarskj?ld, "the road to holiness necessarily passes throughthe world of action." Markings is not only a fascinating glimpse ofthe mind of a great man, but also a moving spiritual classic thathas left its mark on generations of readers.

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