Every extra pound tells a story . . . At five four and 230 pounds, film critic Jami Bernard took the plunge into what she half-jokingly calls "the heart of darkness"- her innermost self, where, by confronting a past both funny and painful, she was able to let go of those pounds, one by one, week after week. At the end of this intensely personal, bitterly humorous journey, she had lost seventy-five of them. Jami chronicled her weight loss in the New York Daily News , where she was a film critic for thirteen years. This book goes behind the scenes to tell the unvarnished truth of what it's like to live large in a body-obsessed culture that takes no prisoners. Here is the reality of weight loss: a stock-market chart of crazy gains and losses, a crumb trail of doomed relationships, the terrors of pleasure, and the best pizza this side of Naples. With a sharp wit and the confident, easy style that makes her a nationally known critic and champion of women's issues, Jami candidly explores the secret world of fat people-their fears, bodies, clothing; their forbidden love affair with food; and what it's like to leave that all behind and emerge thin again on the other side. Moving, sometimes shocking, and always mordantly funny, The Incredible Shrinking Critic takes it all off-seventy-five pounds and counting.

Who better to give us the message that we can all stay vibrant, exuberant, engaged, involved, and relevant than the world's most recognizable Noo Yawker, the man who, perhaps more than anyone else, has come to epitomize the active, with-it, no-quit, in-your-face, gritty New York spirit: the Honorable Edward I. Koch? In this lively primer, the colorful three-term mayor of New York City and noted television and radio personality, columnist, and commentator, offers anecdotal evidence to suggest that the healthiest outlook on advancing age is to keep active at the work you love.

Dr. Bernard Lown conveys in this book the excitement of the occasion, including the famous incident when a member of the audience had a heart attack and the two cardiologists, Lown and Chazov, worked together to resuscitate the man.

From the bestselling author of The Red Tent and Good Harbor , a collection of intimate, autobiographical reflections on the milestones, revelations, and balancing acts of life as a wife, mother, friend, and member of a religious community. Before The Red Tent won her international literary acclaim, Anita Diamant was a columnist in Boston. Over the course of twenty years, she wrote essays that reflected the shape and evolution of her life, as well as the trends of her generation. In the end, her musings about love and marriage, birth and death, nature versus nurture, politics and religion—and everything from female friendships to quitting smoking—have created a public diary of the progress of her life that resonated deeply with her readers. Now, Pitching My Tent collects the finest columns of a writer who is a reporter by training and a storyteller by heart, all revised and enriched with new material. Personal, inspiring, and often funny, Pitching My Tent displays the warmth, humor, and wisdom that Diamant's legions of fans have come to cherish.

Weisstein was a brilliant, zesty original — hilarious, irrepressibly bold, a daring, joyful mischief-maker. In both her scientific work and her political essays she questioned all the sacred pieties, accepting no orthodoxy without challenge. This volume of her non-scientific articles restores to prominence her rightful place as one of the Left’s most audacious figures. “For years, I’ve been trying to explain that Naomi Weisstein was great at everything, from science and music to writing and friendship. If she hadn’t existed, no one could have invented her. Now, Martin Duberman has collected her essays, so you, too, can discover her.” — Gloria Steinem “Naomi was a force of nature … May the next generation carry on her spirit!”—Heather Booth, founder of JANE “Naomi Weisstein fearlessly challenged bigotry and ignorance … Fortunately for us, her longtime close friend and comrade, esteemed historian Martin Duberman, has assembled and annotated her scattered essays. Weisstein, a multifaceted woman, upended the status quo and paved the way.” — Marcia Gallo, author, Different Daughters “Naomi Weisstein’s ideas suffused the women’s liberation movement of the 1960s and 70s with a revolutionary vision … Eloquent, funny and relentlessly honest … she contributed a brilliant critique of hierarchical power relations and the ideologies that justified them.” — Amy Kesselman, Professor Emerita, Women’s Studies, SUNY, New Paltz “Powerful argument coupled with mischievous wit …Viva Naomi!" — Alix Kates Shulman, author, Memoirs of an Ex-Prom Queen

On Stendhal: "The study of human nature, 'the observation of the human heart and its passions, ' was his constant preoccupation. But where could he study the passions better than in himself? Though he lived exuberantly, submitting himself to experience... he went on incessantly writing down everything that happened to him just as it happened. he even led to perform some remarkable experiments upon himself.He laid claim to having been a soldier, a man of fortune, a great lover, a society wit, a diplomat, a traveler, and even, sometimes, a revolutionary conspirator. "Fifty years after his death he becomes one of the demigods of the world's letters, taking his place in the ranks of the great social writers who appeared toward the end of the last century. his manner of life itself has fascinated whole regiments of literary scholars in France, Italy and Germany in the last forty years." -Matthew Josephson, From the Introduction (1946) "Like Josephson's Victor Hugo, it is the best and most comprehensive English study of its subject, a careful collection of material, skillfully assembled and organized...When Freud read Stendhal's memoirs of his childhood and adolescence he called them 'a manifestation of psychological genius.' Stendhal, he saw, had been a Freudian some 70 years before Freud himself."-TIME Magazine (1946)

Facing surgery to remove a brain tumor, former Sacramento City Councilman Steve Cohn wrote this memoir chronicling his life's story, from his grandfather's daring escape from the Russian Army in Ukraine during World War I and Cohn's childhood growing up in mid-century Missouri, to his adult life in Northern California, where he raised a family and began a long career as an attorney for the nation's most progressive electric utility and a civic leader for "America's Most Livable City." Cohn was one of the longest serving City Council members in the history of Sacramento, dating back to the California Capital's founding during the Gold Rush in 1849. Cohn's memoir shines a light on how local politics was played, for better or worse, during some of the Capital's most controversial battles over the last 25 years, including the saga of the Sacramento Kings NBA basketball team and the building of a new Downtown arena. Cohn's memoir also tells the inside story of some of the Council's toughest decisions to change the City's development pattern from its post-war suburban, automobile-oriented past to a more sustainable vision of Sacramento as "America's Most Livable City."

A memoir of spiritualism and self-discovery from the acclaimed, award-winning author At fifty, Alix Kates Shulman, author of the celebrated feminist novel, Memoirs of an Ex-Prom Queen , left a city life dense with political activism, family and literary community, and went to live alone on an island off the coast of Maine. On a windswept beach, in a cabin with no plumbing, power, or telephone, she found that she was learning to live all over again. In this luminous, spirited book, she charts her subsequent path as she learned not simply the joys of meditative solitude, but to integrate her new awareness into a busy, committed, even hectic mainland life. “A ten-year voyage of discovery . . . Shulman's honesty and sense of inquiry carry us with her all the way--could even, if we were willing, change our lives.” — San Francisco Sunday Examiner & Chronicle

Alexandra "Al" Silber seems to have everything a teenager could want: brilliance, beauty, and talent in spades. But when her beloved father dies after a decade-long battle with cancer when she is just a teenager, it feels like the end of everything. Lost in grief, Al and her mother hardly know where to begin with the rest of their lives. Into this grieving house burst Al's three friends from theater camp, determined to help out as only drama students know how--and they're moving in for the duration. Over the course of that winter, the now five-strong household will do battle with everything Death can throw at them--meddling relatives, merciless bureaucracy, soul-sapping sadness, the endless Tupperware. They will learn (almost) everything about love and will eventually return to the world, altered in different ways by their time in a home by a river. Told with raw passion, candor, and wit, White Hot Grief Parade is an ode to the restorative power of family and friendship--and the unbreakable bond, even in death, between father and daughter.

"Nearly all of us either have had or have heard of an experience in which a soul already departed reaches back to us who have been left behind.... Sometimes, it's no more than a whisper, a familiar smell in the air, or just the feeling of presence as vivid as when the loved one was still alive. These moments are just that...moments, a glimpse behind the veil; not a letter from heaven, but a postcard." (Dan Gordon, Postcards from Heaven) A postcard from heaven is not a revelation from on high -- rather, it's "a whisper, a familiar smell in the air, or just the feeling of presence" of someone who's passed away. It is just enough of a message to imply that what we call life is not ended by what we call death. Dan Gordon has been receiving these postcards all his life -- from his father, his older brother, and his son Zaki, who was killed in a car accident when he was only twenty-two. Postcards from Heaven is the beautiful, inspirational memoir of four generations of a remarkable family and how they remain interconnected, a part of one another's stories, even after passing to the other side. Here is the span of his father's long life, moving and funny, from the Russian Revolution to his improbable Depression-era courtship of a woman named Goddess -- Gordon's mother -- to his spiritual later years in Israel; his incorrigible older brother's mischievous magic, able to find humor even in cancer treatment; and his brilliant son, a natural storyteller who looked destined to follow his father into the movie business. These are the stories of their lives on earth as well as after death. Full of humor, compassion, and love, Postcards from Heaven comforts and assures us that those we loved can reach back to those of us still on earth -- and, if only we are attentive enough to listen, we can hear them say, Got here safe. It's really beautiful. Much love, till we meet again.

Personal narratives of a British officer on the Western front during World War I.

Kahane, father of Olympia Press founder Maurice Girodias, recalls his life and his incredible publishing run in Paris from '31-39.

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Narrated in the tradition of Tolstoy's confessional trilogy and Nabokov's autobiog­raphy, Leaving Russia: A Jewish Story is a searing account of growing up a Jewish refusenik, of a young poet's rebellion against totalitarian culture, and of Soviet fantasies of the West during the Cold War. Shrayer's remembrances ore set against a rich backdrop of politics, travel, and ethnic conflict on the brink of the Soviet empire's collapse. His moving story offers generous doses of humor and tenderness, counterbalanced with longing and violence.

Joseph Epstein demonstrates time and again his talent for taking nearly any subject and polishing it into a gem of sparkling wit and fascination. In Narcissus Leaves the Pool, he displays his signature verve and charm in sixteen agile, entertaining pieces. Among his targets in this collection are name-dropping, talent versus genius, the cult of youthfulness, and the information revolution.

A wise, witty, and humane autobiography filled with a passionate curiosity about the people--and meaning--of America. "One Man's America is at once a stirring account of a young immigrant becoming an American, a personal history of the major milestones of the late twentieth century, a fascinating insider's view of the most widely read news magazine in the world, and a warm and loving family saga. Here also is the remarkable success story of a boy driven from his native Vienna by the Nazis and returning years later as an ambassador; of a copy boy who rose to become editor of "Time magazine. During his long and distinguished career in journalism, Grunwald knew, befriended, and feuded with some of the greatest figures on the world stage, from Whitaker Chambers and Marilyn Monroe to John F. Kennedy and Henry Kissinger to Ronald Reagan and Fidel Castro. But the immense power his position allowed him was tempered by a fierce desire to know everything he could about the mores and folkways of the whole United States, Main Street bankers and student radicals alike, through whom he sought to understand the heart of his adopted country. "One Man's America is, above all, a hymn to the ever-turbulent, ever-changing land of America.

Strange is not a word he should use (it’s not quite politically correct), but sometimes Joel Yanofsky can think of no other way to describe life with his son, Jonah—life with autism. Jonah is “on the spectrum” of Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD), but knowing the correct terminology makes it no easier for Yanofsky to understand his ten-year-old son’s complicated relationship with the world. While his wife, Cynthia, an art therapist, assumed the burden of researching ASD and investigating effective treatments for Jonah, Yanofsky tried other approaches. In this funny and moving account of a year in their life together, he chronicles his struggle to enter his son’s world using the materials he knows best: self-help books, feel-good memoirs, and literary classics ranging from the Old Testament to Dr. Seuss, as well as knock-knock jokes, riddles, and puns—all the wacky routines Yanofsky calls schtick. Told with candour, insight, and compassion, Bad Animals is not only about autism; it’s about the things that make life worth living.

Capturing a behind-the-scenes glimpse into the world of science fiction, this unique autobiography by Robert Silverberg shows how famous stories in this genre were conceived and written. Chronicling his career as one of the most important American science fiction writers of the 20th century, this account reveals how he rose to prominence as the pulp era was ending--and the genre was beginning to take on a more sophisticated tone--to eventually be named a Grand Master by the Science Fiction Writers of America. Stating that this will be his only autobiographical work, Silverberg's book includes rare photos, ephemera from his own archives, and a complete bibliography of his works, from novels and short story collections to nonfiction.

My Less Than Secret Life is the companion volume to Jonathan Ames's first memoirish endeavor, "the mildly perverted and wildly amusing" (Vanity Fair) What's Not to Love? This collection of the cult author's fiction and essays includes Ames's public diary, the bi-weekly columns he penned for the New York Press. The entries of this diary are a record of his mad adventures: his ill-fated debut as an amateur boxer fighting as ‘The Herring Wonder', a faltering liaison with a Cuban prostitute, his public outing of George Plimpton as a Jew, his discussion with Eve Ensler about his dear friend The Mangina, a renegade mission as a Jew into the heart of Waspy Maine, and other such harrowing escapades. Whether trying to round up a partner for an orgy, politely assisting in an animal sacrifice, or scamming tickets to the WWF's Royal Rumble for his son, Jonathan Ames proves himself a ballsier Everyman whose transgressions and compassionate meditations will satisfy the voyeur and encourage the halfhearted. But be warned. As Jonathan says, "I don't like to be a bad influence. It's bad enough that I have influence over myself." "...Ames has always been one of my favorite contemporary writers ... for his ... fearless commitment to the most demanding psychosexual comedies."—Rick Moody

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS: A Cultural Memoir and Other Essays is a collection of previously unpublished writing by National Post columnist Barbara Kay. This wide-ranging selection includes original essays - notably the title essay, a mini-memoir of the cultural and intellectual influences that shaped Kay's worldview - as well as a discursive ramble through the bizarre subculture of the pit bull advocacy movement. In between, readers familiar with Kay's weekly columns over the last ten years will find elaborated commentaries on her niche subjects: the negative impact of feminism on our public institutions and families, the erosion of academic integrity in the universities and our politically correct "rights" culture's sub-version of social and civic reciprocity in Canadian communities.