NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY HARPER’S BAZAAR • In this candid memoir, featuring a foreword by Barbra Streisand, renowned designer Donna Karan shares intimate details about her lonely childhood, her four-plus decades in the fashion industry, her two marriages, motherhood, and her ongoing quest for self-acceptance and spiritual peace. Donna Karan was born into the fashion business—her father was a tailor, and her mother was a showroom model and Seventh Avenue saleswoman—yet Karan dreamed of becoming a dancer like Martha Graham or a singer like Barbra Streisand. Fashion was her destiny, though. My Journey traces Karan’s early days as an intern at Anne Klein, the creation of her Seven Easy Pieces (which forever changed the way working women dressed), and the meteoric rise of her company. Along with juicy industry stories, Karan candidly discusses her difficult mother and traumatic childhood, her turbulent romantic life, all the loved ones she has lost over the years, and the personal awakening that occurred just as she reached the height of professional and financial success. That awakening set Karan down a path of spiritual discovery and self-improvement. From est to Kabbalah, from silent retreats to leech therapy, Karan tried everything to find, as she writes, “calm in the chaos.” But she also reveals how a chaotic life, fueled by endless curiosity and childlike impulses, helped her design seminal collections season after season for global powerhouse brands Donna Karan New York and DKNY. She also details how she has channeled her creativity (and her urge to solve problems and nurture others) into philanthropic work, particularly her early outspoken advocacy for AIDS awareness and research, and the creation of her Urban Zen Foundation, focusing on integrated healthcare and education as well as preservation of culture, which led to her current efforts in Haiti. Karan’s life has been crowded with glamorous characters and adventures around the world. But she sometimes still feels like that awkward teen from Long Island who never fit in—which makes her all the more endearing. Brimming with Karan’s infectious energy, My Journey is about much more than the fashion world: It is the story of a young woman whose vision and hard work made her a role model for women everywhere—a woman who dreamed big, fought to have it all, broke the rules, and loved passionately along the way. Praise for My Journey “By turns moving, insightful, and hilarious, yet always, always heartfelt . . . When you’re a true force of fashion, nothing holds you back.” — Vogue “When Donna Karan stepped down . . . it was the end of an era, so consider this autobiography her parting gift. . . . Expect a holistic view of the woman behind one of the most influential American labels.” — StyleCaster “Donna’s creativity and passion as a committed philanthropist are matched only by her gift for friendship. Whether she’s making the world more beautiful or giving a Haitian artisan the tools to create a sustainable business, Donna has always led with great heart and wonderful humor.” —President Bill Clinton “What we take for granted often comes from the most revolutionary of sources. In New York in the 1980s, no one was more radical than Donna Karan. She created a way of dressing that was womanly, practical, and empowering.” —Anna Wintour “An extraordinary personal, professional, and spiritual life . . . defined by Donna’s incredible resilience, her inward search for calm in the midst of success, and her insistence on always following her heart.” —Arianna Huffington

A tribute to writer Susan Sontag and her final battle with cancer, written by her son, relates the human experience of being close to someone who is gravely ill and evaluates the current state of cancer research and treatment.

One of art's purest challenges is to translate a human being into words. "The New Yorker" has met this challenge more successfully and more originally than any other modern American journal. It has indelibly shaped the genre known as the "Profile." Starting with light-fantastic evocations of glamorous and idiosyncratic figures of the twenties and thirties, such as Henry Luce and Isadora Duncan, and continuing to the present, with complex pictures of such contemporaries as Mikhail Baryshnikov and Richard Pryor, this collection of New Yorker Profiles presents readers with a portrait gallery of some of the most prominent figures of the twentieth century. These Profiles are literary-journalistic investigations into character and accomplishment, motive and madness, beauty and ugliness, and are unrivalled in their range, their variety of style, and their embrace of humanity.

"[This book] examines the lives, legal careers, and legacies of the eight Jews who have served or who currently serve as justices of the U.S. Supreme Court: Louis D. Brandeis, Benjamin Cardozo, Felix Frankfurter, Arthur Goldberg, Abe Fortas, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Stephen G. Breyer, and Elena Kagan. David Dalin discusses the relationship that these Jewish justices have had with the presidents who appointed them, and given the judges' Jewish background, investigates the antisemitism some of the justices encountered in their ascent within the legal profession before their appointment, as well as the role that antisemitism played in the attendant political debates and Senate confirmation battles. Other topics and themes include the changing role of Jews within the American legal profession and the views and judicial opinions of each of the justices on freedom of speech, freedom of religion, the death penalty, the right to privacy, gender equality, and the rights of criminal defendants, among other issues."--Publisher's website.

The newest addition to the acclaimed Story in Photographs series illuminates the history of perhaps the most dynamic political couple on the planet: Bill and Hillary Clinton.ÿThe Clintons takes a fascinating look, through words and more than 220 images, at Bill's and Hillary's early lives, their personal and professional relationship, and their tumultuous but ultimately successful marriage. It examines Bill's difficult childhood and Hillary's evolution from Republican to Democrat; the couple's life in Arkansas when Bill was the nation's youngest governor and Hillary a corporate lawyer; the White House years when Bill balanced the budget and Hillary redefined the role of First Lady, and they weathered an impeachment scandal; and, finally, Hillary's run for president and her achievements as Secretary of State. This lavish volume features an artful combination of iconic images, rare photographs, insightful captions, notable speeches, and poignant quotes, as well as a foreword by Hardball host and John F. Kennedy biographer Chris Matthews.

An introduction to the life of the Commander in Chief of the Confederate Army during the Civil War.

From legendary Olympic gold medalist Dara Torres comes a motivational, inspirational memoir about staying fit, aging gracefully, and pursuing your dreams. Dara Torres captured the hearts and minds of Americans of all ages when she launched her Olympic comeback as a new mother at the age of forty-one - years after she had retired from competitive swimming and eight years since her last Olympics. When she took three silver medals in Beijing - including a heartbreaking .01-second finish behind the gold medalist in the women's 50-meter freestyle - America loved her all the more for her astonishing achievement and her good-natured acceptance of the results. Now, in Age Is Just a Number, Dara reveals how the dream of an Olympic comeback first came to her - when she was months into her first, hard-won pregnancy. With humor and candor, Dara recounts how she returned to serious training - while nursing her infant daughter and contending with her beloved father's long battle with cancer. Dara talks frankly about diving back in for this comeback; about being an older athlete in a younger athletes' game; about competition, doubt, and belief; about working through pain and uncertainty; and finally - about seizing the moment and, most important, never giving up. A truly self-made legend, her story will resonate with women of all ages - and with anyone daring to entertain a seemingly impossible dream.

"A gifted and audacious writer confronts her lifelong battle with depression and her search for release This Close to Happy is the rare, vividly personal account of what it feels like to suffer from clinical depression, written from a woman's perspective and informed by an acute understanding of the implications of this disease over a lifetime. Taking off from essays on depression she has written for The New Yorker and The New York Times Magazine, Daphne Merkin casts her eye back to her beginnings to try to sort out the root causes of her affliction. She recounts the travails of growing up in a large, affluent family where there was a paucity of love and of basics such as food and clothing despite the presence of a chauffeur and a cook. She goes on to recount her early hospitalization for depression in poignant detail, as well as her complex relationship with her mercurial, withholding mother. Along the way Merkin also discusses her early, redemptive love of reading and gradual emergence as a writer. She eventually marries, has a child, and suffers severe postpartum depression, for which she is again hospitalized. Merkin also discusses her visits to various therapists and psychopharmocologists, which enables her to probe the causes of depression and its various treatments. The book ends in the present, where the writer has learned how to navigate her depression, if not "cure" it, after a third hospitalization in the wake of her mother's death."--

The first full-length portrait of the marriage of Abraham and Mary Todd Lincoln in more than fifty years, The Lincolns is a fascinating new work of American history by Daniel Mark Epstein, an award-winning biographer and poet known for his passionate understanding of the Civil War period. Although the private lives of political couples have in our era become front-page news, the true story of this extraordinary and tragic first family has never been fully told. The Lincolns eclipses earlier accounts with riveting new information that makes husband and wife, president and first lady, come alive in all their proud accomplishments and earthy humanity. Epstein gives a fresh close-up view of the couple’s life in Springfield, Illinois (of their twenty-two years of marriage, all but six were spent there). We witness the troubled courtship of an aristocratic and bewitching Southern belle and a struggling young lawyer who concealed his great ambition with self-deprecating humor; the excitement and confusion of the newlyweds as they begin their marriage in a small room above a tavern, and the early signs of Mary’s instability and Lincoln’s moodiness; their joyful creation of a home on the edge of town as Lincoln builds his law practice and makes his first forays into politics. We discover their consuming ambition as Lincoln achieves celebrity status during his famed debates with Stephen A. Douglas, which lead to Lincoln’s election to the presidency. The Lincolns’ ascent to the White House brought both dazzling power and the slow, secret unraveling of the couple’s unique bond. The Lincolns dramatizes certain well-known events with stunning new immediacy: Mary’s shopping sprees, her defrauding of the public treasury to increase her budget, and her jealousy, which made enemies for her and problems for the president. Yet she was also a brilliant hostess who transformed the shabby White House into a social center crucial to the Union’s success. After the death of their little boy, not a year after Lincoln took office, Mary turned for solace to spirit mediums, but her grief drove her to the edge of madness. In the end, there was little left of the Lincolns’ relationship save their enduring devotion to each other and to their surviving children. Written with enormous sweep and striking imagery, The Lincolns is an unforgettable epic set at the center of a crucial American administration. It is also a heartbreaking story of how time and adversity can change people, and of how power corrupts not only morals but affections. Daniel Mark Epstein’s The Lincolns makes two immortal American figures seem as real and human as the rest of us.

What will the post-Trump return to democracy in America look like, and what are its historical antecedents? National political correspondent and award-winning author D. D. Guttenplan’s The Next Republic is an extraordinarily intense and wide-ranging exploration of how democracy rises and falls in America. The Next Republic introduces us to some of the organizers and politicians who are helping to bring about change in America, like new labor activist JANE McALEVEY; racial justice campaigner (and mayor of Jackson, Mississippi) CHOKWE ANTAR LUMUMBA; environmental activist (and chair of the Nebraska Democratic Party) JANE KLEEB; Chicago’s first openly gay Latino public official, CARLOS RAMIREZ-ROSA; Justice Democrats communications director WALEED SHAHID; communications director for Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s 2020 campaign CORBIN TRENT; and anti-corruption crusader ZEPHYR TEACHOUT. Guttenplan juxtaposes this new social movement with chapters on key transitions in our nation’s history: the Whiskey Rebellion, the Lincoln Republic, and the Roosevelt Republic. Altogether, Guttenplan deeply fathoms the great American problem that is our democracy, and the prospects for its resurgence. Both unyielding and resoundingly hopeful, The New Republic foresees the post-Trump era as one that may not only restore American values, but also see a radical new transformation of them to match the new challenges we face as a nation.

These are the reflections of a nonagenarian polymath describing the shift from a fifty-year-long career as a world-famous chemist to a subsequent twenty-five-year immersion in "science-in-fiction" and "science-in-theater," a change virtually unique among contemporary scientists. Sharply self-critical yet full of humor, this autobiographical account covers themes such as the future of sex in an age of technological reproduction, the history of the Pill seen through the eyes of one of its inventors, innovative--even unique--pedagogic experiments, the insoluble homelessness of a refugee, suicide, and art collecting.--Adapted from publisher description

These are the reflections of a nonagenarian polymath describing the shift from a fifty-year-long career as a world-famous chemist to a subsequent twenty-five-year immersion in "science-in-fiction" and "science-in-theater," a change virtually unique among contemporary scientists. Sharply self-critical yet full of humor, this autobiographical account covers themes such as the future of sex in an age of technological reproduction, the history of the Pill seen through the eyes of one of its inventors, innovative--even unique--pedagogic experiments, the insoluble homelessness of a refugee, suicide, and art collecting.--Adapted from publisher description

Carole Gene Marer spent her girlhood dreaming of meeting Rock Hudson, but when she finally had the chance—on her second date with her future husband, television mogul Aaron Spelling—she was so shy she hid all night in the powder room. How Candy morphed from that quiet girl into a seemingly-confident, stylish trophy wife, mistress of the largest house in Los Angeles (70,000 square feet when you count the attic) is at the heart of Stories from Candyland . The life Candy created for her family—her husband and children Tori and Randy—was fabulous, over-the-top, and often magical. So what if California Christmases don’t come with snow? Let’s make some on the tennis court! How do we take a cross-country family vacation with a dad who doesn’t fly? By private train car, of course (with an extra for the fifty-two pieces of luggage). The kids want to dress up for Halloween? No problem, why not call in Nolan Miller to design their costumes? Candy had a hand in some of the most beloved television shows of all time (she once stopped production on “Dynasty” because Krystle Carrington’s engagement ring was not spectacular enough), has entertained half of Hollywood in epic fashion, and lives an enviable life. But under all the fun and showmanship lies a more interesting character, still wrestling with some of the insecurities of her ingénue self. Oprah threw her into a major panic with a discussion of hoarding. A lifelong humming habit evolved as a unique coping mechanism. And there’s nothing like being defined as, “well, you know, complicated” by your daughter on television and in her own book. Stories from Candyland sparkles with glamour and grand gestures. But it also satisfies with some more intimate Candy concerns: why being a perfect wife and mother was so important to her, how cooking and cleaning can keep the home fires burning, why collections matter, and whether dogs are better judges of people than people are. Visit Candyland in these pages and get a glimpse of a generous, glittering world revealing many of its surprising and funny secrets for the first time.

To commemorate the sixtieth anniversary of the breaking of baseball's color barrier, an exploration of Jackie Robinson's impact and legacy by the people whose lives were transformed by his courage. When Robinson joined the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1947, he forever changed the game of baseball--and America itself. Sportswriter Fussman traces Robinson's enormous legacy in sports, politics, and the civil rights movement through the men (and women) who came after him. With moving and intimate interviews of more than one hundred former major league players of African-American descent, as well as such luminaries as Jimmy Carter, Muhammad Ali, and Walter Cronkite, among others, this book recalls the day one man altered history for so many, and the history that followed.--From publisher description.

"In 2009, at the peak of the financial crisis, AIG - the American insurance behemoth - was sinking fast. It was the peg upon which the nation hung its ire and resentment during the financial crisis: the pinnacle of Wall Street arrogance and greed. When Bob Benmosche climbed aboard as CEO, it was widely assumed that he would go down with his ship. In mere months, he turned things around, pulling AIG from the brink of financial collapse and restoring its profitability. Before three years were up, AIG had fully repaid its staggering debt to the U.S. government - with interest.Good for the Money is an unyielding leader's memoir of a career spent fixing companies through thoughtful, unconventional strategy. With his brash, no-holds-barred approach to the job, Benmosche restored AIG's employee morale and good name. His is a story of perseverance, told with refreshing irreverence in unpretentious terms.Called "an American hero" by Andrew Ross Sorkin, author of Too Big to Fail, Benmosche was a self-made man who never forgot what life is like for the nation's 99-percent; again and again, he pushed back against obstinate colleagues to salvage American jobs and industry. Good for the Money affords you a front-row seat for Benmosche's heated battles with major players from Geithner to Obama to Cuomo, and offers incomparable lessons in leadership from the legendary CEO who changed the way Wall Street does business"--

NBC News correspondent Betty Rollin, glamorous, successful, and happily married, had it all -- and then she learned that she had a malignant tumor in her breast. Written with wit, warmth, and soul searching honesty, First, You Cry is the inspiring, true story about how one woman transformed the most terrifying ordeal of her life into a new beginning. Now with a new introduction and epilogue, this unique memoir serves as a fascinating retrospective of the twenty-five years since Rollin's first mastectomy and, given the continuing threat of breast cancer, tells a story that will inform all women as it touches them with its honesty and even, humor.

W-3 is a small psychiatric ward in a large university hospital, a world of pills and passes dispensed by an all-powerful staff, a world of veteran patients with grab-bags of tricks, a world of dishevelled, moment-to-moment existence on the edge of permanence. Bette Howland was one of those patients. In 1968, Howland was thirty-one, a single mother of two young sons, struggling to support her family on the part-time salary of a librarian; and labouring day and night at her typewriter to be a writer. One afternoon, while staying at her friend Saul Bellow’s apartment, she swallowed a bottle of pills. W-3 is a vivid -- and often surprisingly funny -- portrait of the extraordinary community of Ward 3 and a record of a defining moment in a writer’s life. The book itself would be her salvation: she wrote herself out of the grave.