From the Publisher: Twenty years ago Natalie Goldberg's classic, Writing Down the Bones, broke new ground in its approach to writing as a practice. Now, Old Friend from Far Away-her first book since Writing Down the Bones to focus solely on writing-reaffirms Goldberg's status as a foremost teacher of writing, and completely transforms the practice of writing memoir. To write memoir, we must first know how to remember. Through timed, associative, and meditative exercises, Old Friend from Far Away guides you to the attentive state of thought in which you discover and open forgotten doors of memory. At once a beautifully written celebration of the memoir form, an innovative course full of practical teachings, and a deeply affecting meditation on consciousness, love, life, and death, Old Friend welcomes aspiring writers of all levels and encourages them to find their unique voice to tell their stories. Goldberg's enormously popular workshops have given countless students the ability to heed the call to write. Old Friend from Far Away recreates her trademark workshop style with its terse, demanding writing "sprints" that train the hand and mind to quicken their pace and give up conscious control. These exercises divert the eye from the obvious and redirect it to the tactile details we miss, the embarrassments we pass over, and the complications we overlook in the blur of everyday living. Goldberg writes, "No one says it, but writing induces the state of love." Old Friend from Far Away guides us into that state of love, where heightened attention and a rhythm of focus allow the patterns and details of the past to emerge on the page. Millions of Americans want to write about their lives. With Old Friend as the road map for getting started and following through, writers and readers will gain a deeper understanding of their own minds, learn to connect with their senses in order to find the detail and truth that give their written words power and authenticity, and unfold the natural structure of the stories they carry within. An absolute joy to read, it is a profound affirmation of the capacity of the written word to remember the past, free us from it, and forever transform the way we think about ourselves and our lives. Like Writing Down the Bones, it will become an old friend to which readers return again and again.

Finalist for the Pulitzer Prize (Biography) A New York Times bestseller, this “epic and elegant” biography ( Wall Street Journal ) profoundly recasts our understanding of the Vietnam War. Praised as a “superb scholarly achievement” ( Foreign Policy ), The Road Not Taken confirms Max Boot’s role as a “master chronicler” ( Washington Times ) of American military affairs. Through dozens of interviews and never-before-seen documents, Boot rescues Edward Lansdale (1908–1987) from historical ignominy to “restore a sense of proportion” to this “political Svengali, or ‘Lawrence of Asia’ ”( The New Yorker ). Boot demonstrates how Lansdale, the man said to be the fictional model for Graham Greene’s The Quiet American , pioneered a “hearts and minds” diplomacy, first in the Philippines and then in Vietnam. Bringing a tragic complexity to Lansdale and a nuanced analysis to his visionary foreign policy, Boot suggests Vietnam could have been different had we only listened. With contemporary reverberations in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Syria, The Road Not Taken is a “judicious and absorbing” ( New York Times Book Review ) biography of lasting historical consequence.

When the Beatles touched down in New York on February 7, 1964 for their first visit to America, they brought with them a sound that hadn't been heard before. By the time they returned to England two weeks later, major changes in music, fashion, the record industry, and the image of an entire generation had been set into motion. Coming less than three months after the assassination of President Kennedy, the Beatles' visit helped rouse the country out of mourning. A breathless and condescending media concentrated on the band's hairstyles and their adoring fans, but their enduring importance lay in their music, their wit, and style, a disconnect that signaled the beginning of the generation gap. In this intriguing cultural history, Martin Goldsmith examines how and why the Beatles struck such a lasting chord.

Comedian Lewis Black unleashes his trademark subversive wit while recounting his own life story in his New York Times bestselling memoir. You've seen him on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart offering up his trademark angry observational humor on everything from politics to pop culture. You've seen his energetic stand-up performances on HBO, Comedy Central, and in venues across the globe. Now, for the first time, Lewis Black translates his volcanic eruptions into book form in Nothing's Sacred, a collection of rants against stupidity and authority, which oftentimes go hand in hand. With subversive wit and intellectual honesty, Lewis examines the events of his life that shaped his antiauthoritarian point of view and developed his comedic perspective. Growing up in 1950s suburbia when father knew best and there was a sitcom to prove it, he began to regard authority with a jaundiced eye at an early age. And as that sentiment grew stronger with each passing year, so did his ability to hone in on the absurd. True to form, he puts common sense above ideology and distills hilarious, biting commentary on all things politically and culturally relevant. "No one is safe from Lewis Black's comic missiles." ( New York Times ) You have been warned....

"Over two decades, Brett Favre was as compelling a figure as any in the National Football League. He alone was 'Must-See TV.' In Gunslinger, Jeff Pearlman provides an extraordinary look at every facet of the life of a man who performed on sport's grandest stage and who had one helluva time along the way."--Al Michaels In Gunslinger, Jeff Pearlman tells Brett Favre's story for the first time, charting his unparalleled journey from a rough rural childhood and lackluster high school football career to landing the last scholarship at Southern Mississippi, to a car accident that nearly took his life, and eventually to the NFL and Green Bay, where he restored the Packers to greatness and inspired a fan base as passionate as any in the game. Yet he struggled with demons: addiction, infidelity, the loss of his father, and a fraught, painfully prolonged exit from the game he loved, a game he couldn't bear to leave. Gritty and revelatory, Gunslinger is a big sports biography of the highest order, a fascinating portrait of the man with the rocket arm whose life has been one of triumph, fame, tragedy, embarrassment, and--ultimately--redemption. "The compelling, complete story of his legend, and his faults."--Chicago Tribune

Finalist for the 1997 National Book Award for Nonfiction Jamaica Kincaid’s brother Devon Drew died of AIDS on January 19, 1996, at the age of thirty-three. Kincaid’s incantatory, poetic, and often shockingly frank recounting of her brother’s life and death is also a story of her family on the island of Antigua, a constellation centered on the powerful, sometimes threatening figure of the writer’s mother. My Brother is an unblinking record of a life that ended too early, and it speaks volumes about the difficult truths at the heart of all families.

Cat behaviorist and star of Animal Planet's hit television show My Cat from Hell , Jackson Galaxy, a.k.a. "Cat Daddy," isn't what you might expect for a cat expert (as The New York Times noted, with his goatee and tattoos, he "looks like a Hells Angel"). Yet Galaxy's ability to connect with even the most troubled felines -- not to mention the stressed-out humans living in their wake -- is awe-inspiring. In this book, Galaxy tells the poignant story of his thirteen-year relationship with a petite gray-and-white short-haired cat named Benny, and gives singular advice for living with, caring for, and loving the feline in your home. When Benny arrived in his life, Galaxy was a down-and-out rock musician with not too much more going on than a part-time job at an animal shelter and a drug problem. Benny's previous owner brought the cat to the shelter in a cardboard box to give him up. Benny had seen better days --- his pelvis had just been shattered by the wheels of a car -- and his owner insisted he'd been "unbondable" from day one. Nothing could have been further from the truth. An inspiring account of two broken beings who fixed each other, Cat Daddy is laced throughout with Galaxy's amazing "Cat Mojo" advice for understanding what cats need most from us humans in order to live happier, healthier lives.

From the #1 national bestselling author of When Bad Things Happen to Good People— “a lifetime of wisdom from someone who has studied, suffered, celebrated, and through it all, taught an entire generation" (Rabbi David Wolpe, author of Why Faith Matters). In this compassionate and deeply personal work, Rabbi Harold S. Kushner distills his experiences as a twenty-first-century rabbi into nine essential takeaways. Offering readers a lifetime’s worth of spiritual food for thought, pragmatic advice, and strength for trying times, he gives fresh, vital insight into belief, conscience, mercy, and more. Grounded in Kushner’s brilliant readings of scripture, history, and popular culture, Nine Essential Things I’ve Learned About Life is practical, illuminating, and compulsory advice for living a good life.

A brilliant lawyer, a leader of the Civil Rights movement, and the first African-American justice of the US Supreme Court. A strong-willed boy, Marshall grew up in Baltimore, MD with the guidance of his parents who believed in the power of equality, education, and the importance of hard work. His determination carried him through law school at Howard University where he graduated at the top of his class. Marshall worked for the NAACP (National Association for ther Advancement of Colored People) and was the first African American to win a case before the United States Supreme Court. He argued thirty-two cases before the Supreme Court—winning twenty-nine. His greatest court victory was the case of Brown vs. Board of Education of Topek a—a turning point in the battle against segregation. Ultimately, Marshall would be appointed as a justice on the Supreme Court. When he retired in 1991, he was called a true American hero and the most significant lawyer of his time. For almost thirty years, David Adler’s Picture Book Biography series has profiled famous people who changed the world. Colorful, kid-friendly illustrations combine with Adler’s “expert mixtures of facts and personality” ( Booklist ) to introduce young readers to history through compelling biographies of presidents, heroes, inventors, explorers, and adventurers. These books are ideal for first and second graders interested in history or who need reliable sources for school book reports.

A "stunning" (Hanif Abdurraqib), "unputdownable" (Mary Karr) meditation on queerness, family, and desire. How do you know if you are transgender? How do you know if what you want and feel is real? How do you know whether to believe yourself? Cyrus Dunham's life always felt like a series of imitations--lovable little girl, daughter, sister, young gay woman. But in a culture of relentless self-branding, and in a family subject to the intrusions and objectifications that attend fame, dissociation can come to feel normal. A Lambda Literary Award finalist, Dunham's fearless, searching debut brings us inside the chrysalis of a transition inflected as much by whiteness and proximity to wealth as by gender, asking us to bear witness to an uncertain and exhilarating process that troubles our most basic assumptions about identity. Written with disarming emotional intensity in a voice uniquely his , A Year Without a Name is a potent, thrillingly unresolved meditation on queerness, family, and selfhood. Named a Most Anticipated Book of the season by: Time NYLON Vogue ELLE Buzzfeed Bustle O Magazine Harper's Bazaar

Carl Bernstein' s stunning portrait of Hillary Rodham Clinton shows us, as nothing else has, the true trajectory of her life and career with its zigzag bursts of risks taken and safety sought. Marshaling all the skills and energy that propelled his history-making Pulitzer Prize reporting on Watergate, Bernstein gives us the most detailed, sophisticated, comprehensive, and revealing account we have had of the complex human being and political meteor who has already helped define one presidency and may well become, herself, the woman in charge of another. We see the shaping of Hillary as a self-described mind conservative and heart liberal -- her ostensibly idyllic Midwestern girlhood (her mother a nurturer, but her father a disciplinarian, harsher than she has acknowledged); her early development of deep religious feelings; her curiosity fueled by dedicated teachers, by exposure to Martin Luther King Jr., by the ferment of the sixties, and, above all, by a desire to change the world. At Wellesley, we watch Hillary, a Republican turned Democrat, thriving in the new sky' s-the-limit freedom for women, already perceived as a spokeswoman for her generation, her commencement speech celebrated in Life magazine. And the book takes us to Yale Law School as Hillary meets and falls in love with Bill Clinton and cancels her dream to go her own way, to New York or Washington, tying her fortune, instead, to his in Arkansas. Bernstein clarifies the often amazing dynamic of their marriage, shows us the extent to which Hillary has been instrumental in the triumphs and troubles of Bill Clinton' s governorship and presidency, and sheds light on her ownpolitical brilliance and her blind spots-- especially her suspicion and mishandling of the press and her overt hostility to the opposition that clouded her entry into the capital. He untangles her relationship to Whitewater, Troopergate, and Travelgate. He leads us to understand the failure of her health care initiative. In the emotional and political chaos of the Lewinsky affair we see Hillary, despite her immense hurt and anger, standing by her husband-- evoking a rising wave of sympathy from a public previously cool to her. It helps carry her into the Senate, where she applies the political lessons she has learned. It is now her time. As she decides to run for president, her husband now her valued aide, she has one more chance to fulfill her ambition for herself-- to change the world. In his preparation for A Woman in Charge, Bernstein reexamined everything pertinent written about and by Hillary Clinton. He interviewed some two hundred of her colleagues, friends, and enemies and was allowed unique access to the candid record of the 1992 presidential campaign kept by Hillary' s best friend, Diane Blair. He has given us a book that enables us, at last, to address the questions Americans are insistently-- even obsessively-- asking about Hillary Clinton: What is her character? What is her political philosophy? Who is she? What can we expect of her?

National Book Award winner Jonathan Kozol is best known for his fifty years of work among our nation’s poorest and most vulnerable children. Now, in the most personal book of his career, he tells the story of his father’s life and work as a nationally noted specialist in disorders of the brain and his astonishing ability, at the onset of Alzheimer’s disease, to explain the causes of his sickness and then to narrate, step-by-step, his slow descent into dementia. Dr. Harry Kozol was born in Boston in 1906. Classically trained at Harvard and Johns Hopkins, he was an unusually intuitive clinician with a special gift for diagnosing interwoven elements of neurological and psychiatric illnesses in highly complicated and creative people. “One of the most intense relationships of his career,” his son recalls, “was with Eugene O’Neill, who moved to Boston in the last years of his life so my father could examine him and talk with him almost every day.” At a later stage in his career, he evaluated criminal defendants including Patricia Hearst and the Boston Strangler, Albert H. DeSalvo, who described to him in detail what was going through his mind while he was killing thirteen women. But The Theft of Memory is not primarily about a doctor’s public life. The heart of the book lies in the bond between a father and his son and the ways that bond intensified even as Harry’s verbal skills and cogency progressively abandoned him. “Somehow,” the author says, “all those hours that we spent trying to fathom something that he wanted to express, or summon up a vivid piece of seemingly lost memory that still brought a smile to his eyes, left me with a deeper sense of intimate connection with my father than I’d ever felt before.” Lyrical and stirring, The Theft of Memory is at once a tender tribute to a father from his son and a richly colored portrait of a devoted doctor who lived more than a century.

The first officer since George Washington to become a four-star general in the United States Army, Ulysses S. Grant was a man who managed to end the Civil War on a note of grace, and was the only president between Andrew Jackson and Woodrow Wilson to serve eight consecutive years in the White House. The son of an Ohio tanner, he has long been remembered as a brilliant general but a failed president whose second term ended in financial and political scandal. But now acclaimed, bestselling author Michael Korda offers a dramatic reconsideration of the man, his life, and his presidency. Ulysses S. Grant is an evenhanded and stirring portrait of a flawed leader who nevertheless ably guided America through a pivotal juncture in its history.

Soon to be an Apple feature movie directed by CODA’ s Sian Heder and starring BAFTA-nominated actress Ruth Madeley as Judy Heumann "This important book will help ensure that every person gets a chance to live up to their full potential and will always have a place at the table.”—Hillary Clinton "Her life story as an activist will enlighten readers everywhere.”—Gloria Steinem "Her fierce advocacy and work changing the laws around disability rights have undeniably paved the way for me to achieve what I have today. . . . A must-read.”—Ali Stroker, Tony Award–winning actress One of the most influential disability rights activists in US history tells her personal story of fighting for the right to receive an education, have a job, and just be human A story of fighting to belong in a world that wasn’t built for all of us and of one woman’s activism—from the streets of Brooklyn and San Francisco to inside the halls of Washington— Being Heumann recounts Judy Heumann’s lifelong battle to achieve respect, acceptance, and inclusion in society. Paralyzed from polio at eighteen months, Judy’s struggle for equality began early in life. From fighting to attend grade school after being described as a “fire hazard” to later winning a lawsuit against the New York City school system for denying her a teacher’s license because of her paralysis, Judy’s actions set a precedent that fundamentally improved rights for disabled people. As a young woman, Judy rolled her wheelchair through the doors of the US Department of Health, Education, and Welfare in San Francisco as a leader of the Section 504 Sit-In, the longest takeover of a governmental building in US history. Working with a community of over 150 disabled activists and allies, Judy successfully pressured the Carter administration to implement protections for disabled peoples’ rights, sparking a national movement and leading to the creation of the Americans with Disabilities Act. Candid, intimate, and irreverent, Judy Heumann’s memoir about resistance to exclusion invites readers to imagine and make real a world in which we all belong.

Even after repeated boom and bust cycles on Wall Street, it’s still possible to make real money in the stock market—provided investors take a disciplined approach to investing. Personal finance expert, bestselling author, and host of CNBC’s Mad Money Jim Cramer shows how ordinary investors can prosper, no matter the climate on Wall Street. How do we find hot stocks without getting burned? How do we fatten our portfolios and stay financially healthy? In Jim Cramer ’ s Real Money , financial expert Jim Cramer explains how to invest wisely in chaotic times, and he does so in plain English in a style that is as much fun as investing is—or should be, when it’s done right. For starters, Cramer recommends devoting a portion of your assets to speculation. Everyone wants to find the big winners that can bring outsized gains, and Cramer explains how to allocate your portfolio so that you can afford to take this kind of risk wisely. He explains why “buy and hold” is a losing philosophy: For Cramer, it’s “buy and homework.” If you can’t spend an hour a week researching each of your stocks, then you should hand off your portfolio to a mutual fund—and Cramer identifies the very few mutual funds that he’d recommend. Cramer reveals his Ten Commandments of Trading (Commandment #5: Tips are for waiters), explains why he’s not afraid to compare investing to gambling (and tells you which book on gambling you should read to become a better investor), and discloses his Twenty-Five Rules of Investing (Rule #4: Look for broken stocks, not broken companies). Detailed yet approachable, Cramer shows how to compare stock prices in a way that you can understand, how to spot market tops and bottoms, how to know when to sell, how to rotate among cyclical stocks to catch the big moves, and much more. Jim Cramer’s Real Money is filled with insider advice that really works, information that Cramer himself used to make millions during his fourteen-year career on Wall Street. Written in Cramer’s distinctive turbocharged style, this is every investor’s guide to what you really must know to make big money in the stock market.

No Fear Shakespeare gives you the complete text of "Twelfth Night" on the left-hand page, side-by-side with an easy-to-understand translation on the right. Each No Fear Shakespeare contains

The Last Word on David Beckham There is only one David Beckham -- and it's not always the one you read about in the newspapers and magazines or see in the movies. From humble East End London beginnings, the boy with prodigious soccer skills grew up to be one of the most gifted athletes of his generation as well as a sex symbol and fashion icon. Along the way he married Spice Girl Victoria "Posh" Adams, and together they inhabit a celebrity whirlwind of Diana-esque proportions. In Both Feet on the Ground, David talks candidly about the perils of fame (his wife and son were the targets of a notorious kidnapping plot and he is the subject of almost daily tabloid rumors); the struggle to balance his roles as a devoted husband and besotted father with his globetrotting existence as an international soccer star; the behind-the-scenes stories of his most memorable and heartbreaking (if only he could retake that infamous penalty kick against Portugal in Euro 2004) career moments; the controversy surrounding his first year at Real Madrid after his $41 million transfer from Manchester United, the storied English team he joined as a teenager and led for more than a decade; and, finally, his love of America, where he plans to start a soccer school and perhaps, one day, even play professionally. Both Feet on the Ground is David Beckham's own extraordinary story, told by the man who knows him best -- David Beckham.

A quick search on the net reveals some 2,400,000 sites about the 23-year-old socialite who is famous for doing little and baring little. But what is it about Paris Hilton that continues to fascinate everyone worldwide and why do or should we care? (oh, but we do). Paris has teamed up with entertainment/fashion/beauty/celebrity writer Merle Ginsberg and Jeff Vespa, Paris's fave photographer, to write her autobiography CONFESSIONS OF AN HEIRESS: A TONGUE-IN-CHIC PEEK AT LIFE BEHIND THE POSE. There are chapters on sister Nicky, the jet/set life, and Paris's cavalcade of paramours including Rick Salomon and the notorious sex tape that "has made me change my life. I used to have fun and dress up and that was my life. But now I'm moving on, I've grown up a lot." Wow. CONFESSIONS OF AN HEIRESS also include a section on how to tell if a guy is only interested in your money. "If they offer to pay for dinner, that's a good sign," Paris advises. "But if they talk about how 'you're so rich,' if they do stuff like that, I can tell they like money more than they like me. But I think girls are more gold-diggers than guys." Ouch. CONFESSIONS OF AN HEIRESS doesn't just include Paris's thoughts on men and money. She also weighs in on nutrition ("Never drink Diet Coke. Diet Coke is for fat people.") and the hardships of travel ("Having a stewardess spill something on you can totally ruin your flight. I hate rude stewardesses. It's like, 'Hello, I'm paying, be nice to me.'"). Like, hello, we think they're called flight attendants now.