John Houseman describes with extraordinary self-knowledge and grace a life full of fantastic episodes that took him from a bizarre childhood to a seemingly hopeless and conventional business career to his brilliant debut in the world of the theater.

Joel Chasnoff is twenty-four years old, an American, and the graduate of an Ivy League university. But when his career as a stand-up comic fails to get off the ground, Chasnoff decides it's time for a serious change of pace. Leaving behind his amenity-laden Brooklyn apartment for a plane ticket to Israel, Joel trades in the comforts of being a stereotypical American Jewish male for an Uzi, dog tags (with his name misspelled), and serious mental and physical abuse at the hands of the Israeli Army.

""What I wanted after college was a job and my own apartment, but what I needed was a good comeuppance, and that's what I got." " When Dave Itzkoff graduated from Princeton in 1998-the first member of his family to earn a college degree-he expected to be rewarded with a career, and a life, that mattered. Instead, he ended up convinced that he was selling the entire institution of manhood down the river. After a series of personal and professional experiences stripped him of any lingering sense of entitlement, Itzkoff found himself working as an editor at Maxim, the pugnacious frontrunner in a new breed of men's periodicals dubbed "lad magazines." There, he was initiated into a culture of heavily retouched girlie pictorials, dirty jokes, disingenuous sex advice, and shopping guides for expensive electronic gadgetry. And as Maxim continued its inexorable rise to become the most successful men's magazine in modern publishing history, Itzkoff was left wondering what his work-and his life-really meant. Lads is the hilarious, heartbreaking story of Dave Itzkoff's efforts to define himself as a man while working at a magazine that was purveying a vision of young manhood-a state of perpetual adolescence-that was seductive to all but viable for none. Lads takes us deep inside one young man's struggle with identity, responsibility, and sexuality, in an unsparingly candid account of how men really relate to one another, as fathers and sons, as employers and employees, as colleagues and friends. Lads is trenchant. Lads is perceptive. Lads is alarmingly funny. This is an unforgettable debut from a young writer of astounding talent. "From the Hardcover edition."

In the 1960s, amid political upheaval and anti-war protests, a growing number of young Americans were creating their own visionary revolution by "tuning in, turning on, and dropping out." Cannabis was king, and the sacred mushrooms "psilocybin" and LSD were "tripping" the minds of thousands, led by psychologist/guru/pitchman Dr. Timothy Leary, the pied piper of the psychedelic drug scene.

Now available in paperback for the first time, with a new introduction, the poignant and insightful memoir from Yossi Klein Halevi, the award-winning journalist and author of the acclaimed Like Dreamers—a coming-of-age story about a traumatic family history, radical politics, and spiritual transformation that speaks to a new generation struggling to understand what it means to be Jewish in America. The child of a Holocaust survivor, Yossi Klein Halevi grew up in 1960s Brooklyn perceiving reality through the lens of his family’s brutal past. Increasingly identifying with their history of suffering, he regarded the non-Jewish world with fear and loathing. Determined to take action—and seek retribution—he became a disciple of the late rabbi Meir Kahane and a member of the radical fringe of the American Jewish community. In this wry and moving account, Halevi explores the deep-rooted anger of his adolescence and early adulthood that fueled his increasingly aggressive activism. He reveals how he started to question his beliefs—and his self-inflicted suffering as a hostage of history—and see the world from his own clear perspective. As a journalist and author, Halevi has dedicated himself to fostering interfaith reconciliation. Memoirs of a Jewish Extremist explains how such a transformation can happen—giving hope that peaceful coexistence between faiths is possible.

The Los Angeles Times once called investigative lawyer Terry Lenzner “one of the most powerful and dreaded private investigators in the world.” In his fifty-year career, Lenzner has worked with politicians, celebrities, governments, and corporations worldwide; with a steadfast commitment to the truth, he has uncovered facts that have shaped policy and influenced major legal battles. In this captivating memoir, Lenzner speaks about his varied career and high-profile cases for the first time. At the Justice Department in 1964, he investigated the murder of three civil rights workers—an infamous event that inspired the film Mississippi Burning . He led the national Legal Services Program for the poor, prosecuted organized crime in New York, defended peace activist Philip Berrigan, and represented CIA operative Sid Gottlieb. As a counsel to the Senate Watergate Committee, Lenzner investigated Nixon’s dirty tricks and followed the money trail that led to the Watergate burglary and cover-up. He was the first person to deliver a congressional subpoena to a sitting U.S. president. He uncovered cost overruns of the Alaska oil pipeline, helped identify the Unabomber, investigated the circumstances of Princess Diana’s death, and cleared Hugo Chavez of false corruption charges. Lenzner also worked with President Clinton’s defense team during the impeachment hearings. The Investigator is a riveting personal account: Lenzner astounds with anecdotes of scandal and intrigue, offers lessons in investigative methods, and provides an eye-opening look behind some of the most talked-about media stories and world events of our time.

"This annotated edition of Holocaust survivor Sara Nomberg-Przytyk's postwar memoir follows her life as an investigative journalist during the emergence and deterioration of the communist state in Poland. Once a devoted communist herself, Nomberg-Przytyk recounts how antisemitism and government corruption shattered her illusions"--

Roger Kahn is one of America's foremost sportswriters. After successful seasons as a newspaperman and magazine writer, he burst onto the national scene in 1972 with his memorable bestseller, The Boys of Summer, a work that went beyond sports and captured the minds and hearts of millions across the country. Now in his eighth decade, Kahn has again written a book for the hearts and minds of his readers. Chronicling his own life, Into My Own is Kahn's reflection on the eight people who shaped him as a man, a father, and a writer. In this poignant self-portrait, Kahn begins with his childhood in Brooklyn, reared on the verses of Homer, Shakespeare, Housman, and Millay---a curriculum set by his mother, and one that would influence his career with words. He combined his intellectual upbringing with his inherent passion for baseball, and began his sportswriting career under the legendary Stanley Woodward at the New York Herald Tribune . This lent Kahn the opportunity to interview and develop friendships with Pee Wee Reese and Jackie Robinson--men he knew and admired for reasons far beyond their baseball abilities. Kahn's writing is by no means limited to his sports coverage, and on the political front he devotes chapters to Eugene McCarthy and Barry Goldwater, whom he interviewed for the Saturday Evening Post ---two diverse men in a turbulent era who championed their distinct versions of idealism. The Post had earlier sent Kahn to interview poet Robert Frost at his home in Vermont, a rare opportunity for any journalist, and one that resulted in the development of a marked friendship between two men of words. Perhaps most touching is his account, straightforward but abrim with love, of the life and death---at twenty-three---of his scholar-athlete son, Roger Laurence Kahn. Into My Own is the touching memoir of an unassuming man, whose great love of baseball and literature led him into extraordinary experiences, opportunities, and friendships. Even amidst great family tragedy and personal difficulty, Kahn has prevailed---amongst poets, writers, politicians, and most of all, ballplayers. Praise for Roger Kahn: "As a kid, I loved sports first and writing second, and loved everything Roger Kahn wrote. As an adult, I love writing first and sports second, and love Roger Kahn even more." ---Pulitzer Prize winner, David Maraniss "He can epitomize a player with a single swing of the pen." --- Time magazine "Roger Kahn is the best baseball writer in the business." ---Stephen Jay Gould, New York Review of Books "A work of high moral purpose and great poetic accomplishment. The finest American book on sports." ---James Michener on The Boys of Summer "Kahn has the almost unfair gift of easy, graceful writing." --- Boston Herald

The geographic, spiritual, and intellectual journeys of Nahum N. Glatzer (1903-1990)―prolific scholar, Brandeis University professor, and editor of the Schocken publishing house―reveal a rich cultural ambiance that no longer exists, as well as a breadth of perspective and learning that remains enviable in our time. This collection of 78 memoir entries, written as a document for his family, offers personal glimpses of Nahum Glatzer which complement his scholarship. Episodes and vignettes in chronological sequence recount the decisive events of his travels from Bodenbach to Boston and from strict Orthodoxy to a more historical, cultural, and aesthetic understanding of Judaism. Anecdotal and at times humorous accounts of some of the many outstanding personalities Glatzer knew and interacted with, including Martin Buber and Franz Rosenzweig, two of the leading German-Jewish thinkers of the twentieth century. Glatzer also relates a variety of his experiences and expressions of faith, both personal and social. The events themselves become moments of religious psychology or theological insight. For Glatzer, as for Rosenzweig, the world was transformed by speech and the realities brought into existence through it. Michael Fishbane’s detailed introduction sets these memoirs, from the final decades of Glatzer’s life, in the context of his life and work. A preface by Judith Glatzer Wechsler offers personal reflections on the character of her father and his work.

This memoir, written as fiction, but based on fact, describes the fear-filled efforts of a pair of Polish adolescents, brother and sister, to survive in secrecy and constant anxiety in Lvov at a time when Jews were being rounded up and sent to the Ghetto - or worse. They have only their false identity papers, their few trusted contacts and their own wits to help them conceal their Jewish background and keep one step ahead of the German authorities. Miriam Akavia, who experienced at first hand similar terrors and anxieties, skillfully conveys the fluctuations in mood from the natural optimism and high spirits of youth to the painfully learned caution and dissembling forced upon them by their situation.

The rare book dealers who delighted readers with the history of their bookselling days in "Old Books, Rare Friends" now offer the other side of their story -- an intimate look at the joys of a relationship that has lasted more than half a century. When their friendship and business partnership began in the 1940s, Leona Rostenberg and Madeleine Stern were pioneers in a man's world. Now approaching their nineties, the duo, who -- among their many discoveries -- unearthed Louisa May Alcott's pseudonymous blood-and-thunder stories, remains a vibrant institution in the rare book trade, even as the Internet changes their field -- and their community -- forever. After publishing "Old Books, Rare Friends," Rostenberg and Stern received a flood of fan mail asking about their personal lives, and they have responded with poignant honesty and the warmth for which they are famous, as they reflect on their lives and their remarkable partnership. "Bookends" recounts their fascinating histories: family backgrounds, business adventures, the men they did not marry, and their approach to the bittersweet trials of aging. More than just a dual memoir, "Bookends" is also a chronicle of the cultural changes of twentieth-century American life and a loving farewell to the golden age of book collecting. Filled with wisdom and humor, this volume is a tribute to Rostenberg and Stern's passion for the written word -- and for life itself. Catching us off guard with their candor, they offer their insights regarding their business, their way of life, and their worldview. Above all, they present the story of a special relationship. At a time when people find it increasingly difficult to connect, here wehave the seamless story of a shared life. It is the unique product of an earlier time, yet it is a timeless reflection on the very nature of friendship. Though their fantastic partnership is un-reproducible, the ideal they have established, for the integration of one life so completely with another, contains lessons for all of us. Without husband or children they created a loving home when this was uncharted territory for women. They nurtured a business and life partnership that has lasted more than half a century and has only gotten stronger with time. When the passing years began to claim one's hearing and the other's sight, they became each other's eyes and ears. A meditation on aging and togetherness, this book is also the narrative of two pioneering single, Jewish women making their way in tandem through a world largely organized to keep them in their place. It is a gentle, wise story, told in their inimitable style, sparse, unadorned, and honest. Their affirmations supersede their uncertainties. As they write, "Bookends support books and come in pairs...If the word encapsulates our past, it looks also to the future, and to the books -- lived together, written together -- that will follow." They confront the challenges of aging in a no-nonsense tone, and, in facing them, give us an ideal of enduring human friendship that can't help but touch the heart.

This English-language translation of the autobiography of Gabriela Brimmer (1947-2000) tells an amazing story in three voices. Gaby, who had cerebral palsy, communicated largely by typing with her left foot on an electric typewriter, and also by using that foot to point at letters and numbers on an "alphabet board" at the base of her wheelchair. She gained admission to Mexico City public schools, attended the prestigious National Autonomous University of Mexico, and became a key figure in launching Mexico's disability rights movement. Brimmer was raised by her parents, Austrian Jews who fled the Nazis in the late 1930s, and a devoted Mexican caregiver, Florencia Morales Sanchez. Renowned writer Elena Poniatowska structured this text by alternating Gaby's voice with those of her mother, Sari, and Florencia. Memorable not just as the memoir of an extraordinary woman, but as a unique and imaginative form of autobiographical writing, the volume opens with a foreword by Judith E. Heumann and Jorge Pineda, and features a new introduction by Lauri Umansky and afterword by Avital Bloch providing additional context about Gaby's life and writing, as well as disability, women's, and Jewish/Mexican history.

A bestseller in Germany, Michael Wieck's account of his childhood in Königsberg recalls a German city obliterated by fire-bombing during the Second World War. As the child of a Jewish mother and Gentile father, Wieck was persecuted first as a "certified Jew" by the Nazis, then as a German by the Russian occupiers, including horrific internment in the Rothenstein concentration camp. His emigration to the West in 1948 marked the end of the 408-year history of the Jewish community in Königsberg. From the earliest delights of a childhood filled with music, family, and the smell of pines and the sea, Wieck retraces his life. He tells of his school days and their sudden end, the shock of Kristallnacht, his Aunt Fanny being sent by train to a destination unknown, the chemical factory where Jewish workers gradually disappeared, the bombs falling on Königsberg. The Russian occupation was anything but the expected delivery from the horrors of the war. In the midst of privation, savagery, and death, there were moments of absurdity, and Wieck powerfully depicts them in this unforgettable memoir.

Whether you're a Transylvania University basketball fan or not, if you're a Kentuckian, you know Don Lane. As a coach and educator, and also through his popular basketball camps, Coach Lane has taught, counseled, and encouraged thousands of young people to become what he calls "builders," making a positive difference in the world by living useful and happy lives. Now in the Lane Way, Coach Lane takes readers through his own extraordinary life. Starting with the work ethic he l;earned in the tobacco fields with his father and brothers, and guided by a strong belief in the power of education and an unwavering faith in God, he built an outstanding career over more than three decades at Transy. With insight, wisdom and humor, Coach Lane relates stories about his players, his strategies, his coaching style and philosophy, and the triumphs and setbacks of each season. He also generously shares with us life lessons he's drawn from 80 years of a life truly well lived. - From the back cover.

Memoirs of Wilo (Wolf) Ungar, a Jew born in 1913 in Krasne, near Tarnopol. In September 1939 he was drafted into the Polish Army; notes the anti-Jewish mood of Poles after the Polish defeat. He fled to Lvov, where the Nazi invasion caught up with him in July 1941. Describes Nazi measures against the Jews and life in the ghetto. Ungar's wife and newly-born child perished during the Nazi "action" in June 1942. He lived on "Aryan papers" in the vicinity of Lvov and later fled to Warsaw. From there he moved to Nowy Dwór, northwest of Warsaw, and before March 1943 was interned in the ghetto there. He fled and returned to Lvov. Having been exposed as a Jew, he narrowly escaped being sent to the Janowska camp; he was hidden by a Ukrainian woman until the liberation. He tried to enlist in the Polish army in Lvov in 1944, but was rejected as a Jew. After the war he emigrated to the USA.

Uncensored, uncontained, and thoroughly demented, the memoirs of Paul Krassner are back in an updated and expanded edition. Paul Krassner, “father of the underground press” (People magazine), founder of the Realist, political radical, Yippie, and award-winning stand-up satirist, shares his stark raving adventures with the likes of Lenny Bruce, Abbie Hoffman, Norman Mailer, Ken Kesey, Groucho Marx, and Squeaky Fromme, revealing the patriarch of counterculture’s ultimate, intimate, uproarious life on the fringes of society. Whether he’s writing about his friendship with controversial comic Lenny Bruce, introducing Groucho Marx to LSD, his investigation of Scientology, or John Kennedy’s cadaver, no subject is too sacred to be skewered by Krassner. And yet his stories are soulful and philosophical, always authentic to his iconoclastic brand of personal journalism. As Art Spiegelman said, “Krassner is one of the best minds of his generational to be destroyed by madness, starving, hysterical, naked—but mainly hysterical. His true wacky, wackily true autobiography is the definitive book on the sixties.”

Memoirs of Friedman, born in 1936 in Budapest, whose hasidic family survived in and around his native city, thanks to their luck or Divine providence, and their abilities - including his father's skillful forging of fake documents, the daring of his young aunts, and the acting ability of his mother and himself. Friedman, his mother, and baby brother survived posing as non-Jews in Buda, while most of the city's Jews were in danger in Pest. He pretended to be mentally ill due to the absence of a father serving in the Hungarian army, while his father was actually sheltered in the "glass house". Includes a brief account of how one aunt escaped on the Kasztner train. One sister was hidden in a convent until the Jewish children were found by the Gestapo, but she was saved by the ingenuity of her aunt Irene. Another sister was hidden in the countryside, discovered by the fascists, and rescued by her Aunt Edith. One relative survived by pretending to be a Gypsy violinist; another found refuge in a mental hospital. Friedman's grandmother escaped from a death march. Relates some of the horrors of life under the Arrow Cross, and the difficulty of remaining alive until the Russians liberated the city.

Memoirs of a Jew born in 1927 in Halle. In 1938, together with other Jews of Polish origin, she and her family were deported to Poland; they settled in Mielec. Describes the Nazi occupation and the establishment of a ghetto. In March 1942 most of the ghetto's inhabitants were transferred to other ghettos or concentration camps. Eber and her family were sent to the Dębica ghetto, but she soon escaped. She found shelter with a Polish family, and hid in a chicken coop for almost two years. Her father was shot in a labor camp. After the war Eber discovered that her mother and sister had been saved by Oskar Schindler. In 1948, after living in a DP camp in Germany, Eber emigrated to the USA.

"Hadassah Lieberman's memoirs, telling the story of her experience as the child of Holocaust survivors, of being an immigrant in America, making a career as a working woman, experiencing divorce, and re-marriage as the wife of a US senator"--