"The ... talent agent behind such superstars as Groucho Marx, Blondie, and Raquel Welch chronicles his life and career in the entertainment industry, discussing such topics as his Jewish childhood in Long Island, his international travels at the sides of half a century of celebrities, and the time he was punched by Janice Joplin"--NoveList.

In 1965, when psychologists Sandra and Daryl Bem met and married, they were determined to function as truly egalitarian partners and also to raise their children in accordance with gender-liberated, anti-homophobic, and sex-positive feminist ideals. During the next ten years, they exuberantly shared the details of their daily lives in both public lectures and the mass media in order to provide at least one concrete example of an alternative to the traditional heterosexual family. In the 1990s, Sandra Bem also published an award-winning book, The Lenses of Gender , which spelled out the feminist theory behind their feminist practices. This second book by Sandra Bem, an autobiographical account of the Bems` nearly thirty-year marriage, is both a personal history of the Bems` past and a social history of a key period in feminism`s past. It is also a look into feminism`s future, because the Bems` children, Emily and Jeremy, now in their early twenties, speak at length in the book as well. Bem analyzes what aspects of family background and psychological makeup led her and Daryl to bond so immediately and to become gender pioneers. She describes the egalitarianism and feminist child-rearing that they invented for their private needs and tells how these family agendas were transformed into public feminist discourse. Finally she reassesses this early feminist union now that the marriage has come to an end and the children are young adults, evaluating (with the help of lengthy interviews with Emily and Jeremy and a brief epilogue by Daryl) what the Bems` experiences--both positive and negative--have to say about the viability and necessity of nontraditional gender arrangements in society today.

A candid, anecdotal account of Davis's further adventures in Hollywood picks up where Yes I Can! left off, recalling wild Vegas nights with the "rat pack," philosophical discussions with Bogart, and love advice from Porfirio Rubirosa

"The extraordinary story of the Nazi-era scientific genius who discovered how cancer cells eat-and what it means for how we should. The Nobel laureate Otto Warburg-a cousin of the famous finance Warburgs-was widely regarded in his day as one of the most important biochemists of the twentieth century, a man whose research was integral to humanity's understanding of cancer. He was also among the most despised figures in Nazi Germany. As a Jewish homosexual living openly with his male partner, Warburg represented all that the Third Reich abhorred. Yet Hitler and his top advisors dreaded cancer, and protected Warburg in the hope that he could cure it"--

"The autobiography of the first designated hitter to play in the MLB-now in paperback! On April 6, 1973, Ron Blomberg took a swing at home plate that changed baseball history. Through a quirk of fate the young Jewish Yankee became the first designated hitter to play an MLB game. At the time, George Steinbrenner had just taken control of the Bronx Bombers, the National League was still refusing to adopt the DH rule, and New Yorkers were pinning their hopes on a new generation of players. In this heart-warming autobiography, now in paperback, Blomberg relives the moment that made his career and the countless experiences before and after that helped boost him to legendary heights. In Designated Hebrew Blomberg recounts a time when baseball, and America itself, were changing. Before Blomberg arrived in New York, the Yankees only employed three Jews in the entire organization. Though his career goals were eventually thwarted by injury, Blomberg still represented hope and pride to millions of Americans across the country. This unforgettable story is the journey of one man as he learns to balance life, religion, and ultimately, baseball"--

The story of five top graduates of Annapolis--Oliver North, Bud McFarlane, John Poindexter, John McCain, and Jim Webb--who served heroically in Vietnam and rose to national prominence during the Reagan years sheds new light on a generation. 35,000 first printing.

Who's Who in Nazi Germany looks at the individuals who influenced every aspect of life in Nazi Germany. It covers a representative cross-section of German society from 1933-1945, and includes: * Nazi Party leaders; SS, Wehrmacht and Gestapo personalities; civil service and diplomatic personnel * industrialists, churchmen, intellectuals, artists, entertainers and sports personalities * Resistance leaders, political dissidents, critics and victims of the regime * extensive biographical information on each figure extending into the post-war period * analysis of their role and significance in Nazi Germany * an accessible, easy to use A-Z layout * a glossary and comprehensive bibliography.

"Comprehensive and intelligently organized. . . . Jazz aficionados . . . should be grateful to have so much good writing on the subject in one place."-- The New York Times Book Review "Alluring. . . . Capture[s] much of the breadth of the music, as well as the passionate debates it has stirred, more vividly than any other jazz anthology to date."-- Chicago Tribune No musical idiom has inspired more fine writing than jazz, and nowhere has that writing been presented with greater comprehensiveness and taste than in this glorious collection. In Reading Jazz , editor Robert Gottlieb combs through eighty years of autobiography, reportage, and criticism by the music's greatest players, commentators, and fans to create what is at once a monumental tapestry of jazz history and testimony to the elegance, vigor, and variety of jazz writing. Here are Jelly Roll Morton, recalling the whorehouse piano players of New Orleans in 1902; Whitney Balliett, profiling clarinetist Pee Wee Russell; poet Philip Larkin, with an eloquently dyspeptic jeremiad against bop. Here, too, are the voices of Billie Holiday and Charles Mingus, Albert Murray and Leonard Bernstein, Stanley Crouch and LeRoi Jones, reminiscing, analyzing, celebrating, and settling scores. For anyone who loves the music--or the music of great prose--Reading Jazz is indispensable. "The ideal gift for jazzniks and boppers everywhere. . . . It gathers the best and most varied jazz writing of more than a century."-- Sunday Times (London)

After editing The Columbia Review, staging plays at Cambridge, and a stint in the greeting-card department of Macy's, Robert Gottlieb stumbled into a job at Simon and Schuster. By the time he left to run Alfred A. Knopf a dozen years later, he was the editor in chief, having discovered and edited Catch-22 and The American Way of Death, among other bestsellers. At Knopf, Gottlieb edited a long list of authors, including Toni Morrison, John Cheever, Doris Lessing, John le Carré, Michael Crichton, Lauren Bacall, Katharine Graham, Robert Caro, Nora Ephron, and Bill Clinton -- not to mention Bruno Bettelheim and Miss Piggy. In Avid Reader, Gottlieb writes about succeeding William Shawn as the editor of The New Yorker, and the challenges and satisfactions of running America's preeminent magazine. Sixty years after joining Simon and Schuster, Gottlieb is still at it -- editing, anthologizing, and, to his surprise, writing.

" In this sweeping memoir, Novak offers a full account of his involvement in the Valerie Plame CIA leak affair, while also telling the story of his remarkable life and career, a singular journey through a half century of stories, scandals, and personal encounters with Washington's most powerful and colorful people. Novak has been a Washington insider since the days when the place was a sleepy southern town and journalism was built on shoe leather and the ability to cultivate and keep sources (not to mention the ability to hold one's liquor). He has covered every president since Truman, known (personally and professionally) virtually all the big movers and shakers in DC, and broken a number of the biggest stories. Here, he puts it all into perspective. He also reveals the extraordinary transformations that have fundamentally remade Washington, politics, and journalism--and his own role in those transformations.--From publisher description.

First time in paperback, with a new Introduction and final chapter World affairs expert and intrepid travel journalist Robert D. Kaplan braved the dangers of war-ravaged Afghanistan in the 1980s, living among the mujahidin—the “soldiers of god”—whose unwavering devotion to Islam fueled their mission to oust the formidable Soviet invaders. In Soldiers of God we follow Kaplan’s extraordinary journey and learn how the thwarted Soviet invasion gave rise to the ruthless Taliban and the defining international conflagration of the twenty-first century. Kaplan returns a decade later and brings to life a lawless frontier. What he reveals is astonishing: teeming refugee camps on the deeply contentious Pakistan-Afghanistan border; a war front that combines primitive fighters with the most technologically advanced weapons known to man; rigorous Islamic indoctrination academies; a land of minefields plagued by drought, fierce tribalism, insurmountable ethnic and religious divisions, an abysmal literacy rate, and legions of war orphans who seek stability in military brotherhood. Traveling alongside Islamic guerrilla fighters, sharing their food, observing their piety in the face of deprivation, and witnessing their determination, Kaplan offers a unique opportunity to increase our understanding of a people and a country that are at the center of world events.

In 1942, a dashing young man who liked nothing so much as a heated game of poker, a good bottle of scotch, and the company of a pretty girl hopped a merchant ship to England. He was Robert Capa, the brilliant and daring photojournalist, and Collier's magazine had put him on assignment to photograph the war raging in Europe. In these pages, Capa recounts his terrifying journey through the darkest battles of World War II and shares his memories of the men and women of the Allied forces who befriended, amused, and captivated him along the way. His photographs are masterpieces -- John G. Morris, Magnum Photos' first executive editor, called Capa "the century's greatest battlefield photographer" -- and his writing is by turns riotously funny and deeply moving. From Sicily to London, Normandy to Algiers, Capa experienced some of the most trying conditions imaginable, yet his compassion and wit shine on every page of this book. Charming and profound, Slightly Out of Focus is a marvelous memoir told in words and pictures by an extraordinary man.

A hilarious book by Richard M. Cohen, the New York Times bestselling author of Blindsided and Strong at the Broken Places , about living with his wife, Meredith Vieira, and her band of difficult dogs. “Has a couple ever gone to war or a spouse moved to another country because a pet came between them? Have two people other than my wife and me ever had such opposing feelings when it comes to domestic animals?” So wonders Richard M. Cohen, who has endured the beasts his wife, Meredith Vieira, has brought into the house to enrich their lives. Despite her unshakable affection for these furry creatures, the various animals have destroyed the serenity of a once calm household. Friends watch in stunned silence as the family frantically struggles to keep peace in this lawless land. Delivery people have fled in fear. Guests have cowered or simply laughed at the hideous shrieks, the current mutt’s stab at intimidation. Then there are the cats that think they are ferocious jungle creatures. Weary of having animals run the show, Richard is fed up. These animals are destroying a home, and the life of one simple soul who seeks only peace and quiet. The King has been overthrown. The Queen and her court have taken over. That would be Meredith and her minions. I Want to Kill the Dog is more than a countercultural ode to those weary of the pet pedestal. It is a portrait of a marriage and of the redemptive power of humor and family when banishing the beast is not an option.

This definitive work on Joyce's life has been revised and expanded to include the discovery of much primary material - including a new love affair, Boswellian records of his brother's conversations by Stanislaus Joyce, a limerick about Samuel Beckett, a dream notebook, previously unknown letters, and much more.

This autobiography and self-help book by the performer and comedy writer examines how the author's ability to laugh got her through the rough times of her life and includes the personal weight-loss programs of dozens of stars

"An introduction to the life and thought of Kurt Gödel, who transformed our conception of math forever"--Provided by publisher.

"Professor Richard Alpert's star fell fast. To the dismay of his wealthy Boston family, he got fired from Harvard over experimental use of psychedelics with his psychology students. In 1967, he traveled to India to lick his wounds and find himself. And he did, at Neem Karoli Baba's ashram, in a direct encounter with unconditional, unlimited divine love. He returned to America as Baba Ram Dass, countercultural activist for expanded human consciousness. As a spiritual guide, at the bedside of the dying, and as a stroke survivor, he has always been ahead of his time, pulling the world along behind him. The author of over a dozen books, he now shares for the very first time the full story of how his life of service intersected with an era of profound cultural upheaval. From the details of his groundbreaking research in psychedelics to his bumpy path to becoming a spiritual icon, from his struggles with his sexual identity to what it was like to find out in his late 70s that he was a father and grandfather, Ram Dass traces the pivotal points of his life against the backdrop of a mind opened by drugs, and a heart opened by a guru. Ram Dass brought America yoga, the use of psychedelics in psychotherapy, and a revolution in how we relate to death and dying. He has opened the door to the most important and healthiest conversations about the heart and mind in our culture. With this book, he opens his heart and mind to us"--

"Quiara Alegria Hudes was the sharp-eyed girl on the stairs while her family danced in her grandmother's tight South Philly kitchen, "frizzy hair cut short, bangs teased into stiff clouds, sweat glistening in the summer fog, pamper-butt babies weaving between legs." Quiara was awed by her aunts and uncles and cousins, but haunted by the secrets of the family and the unspoken stories of the barrio -- even as she tried to find her own voice in the sea of language around her, written and spoken, English and Spanish, bodies and books, Western art and sacred altars. Her family became her private pantheon, a gathering of powerful orishas with tragic wounds and she vowed to tell their stories--but first she'd have to get off the stairs and join the dance; she'd have to find her langauge. This is an inspired exploration of home, family, memory, and belonging, narrated by the obsessed girl who fought to become an artist so she could capture the world she loved in all its wild and delicate beauty"--

“Dray captures the genius and ingenuity of Franklin’s scientific thinking and then does something even more fascinating: He shows how science shaped his diplomacy, politics, and Enlightenment philosophy.” –Walter Isaacson, author of Benjamin Franklin: An American Life Today we think of Benjamin Franklin as a founder of American independence who also dabbled in science. But in Franklin’s day, the era of Enlightenment, long before he was an eminent statesman, he was famous for his revolutionary scientific work. Pulitzer Prize finalist Philip Dray uses the evolution of Franklin’s scientific curiosity and empirical thinking as a metaphor for America’s struggle to establish its fundamental values. He recounts how Franklin unlocked one of the greatest natural mysteries of his day, the seemingly unknowable powers of lightning and electricity. Rich in historical detail and based on numerous primary sources, Stealing God’s Thunder is a fascinating original look at one of our most beloved and complex founding fathers.