2342 results for "Memoir"

Shalom, friend: the life and legacy of Yitzchak Rabin

David Phillip Horovitz
Written by reporters of the magazine Jerusalem report, this biography includes authoritative interviews from those who knew Rabin well on the political, military and personal levels. it highlights his role in the history of modern from a current perspective. included are views on rabin's ascendancy to icon status after death. (non-fiction category). includes 48 photos
Newmarket Press 1996-06-01 314 pages

David Beckham's Soccer Skills

David Beckham
Judging by the number of youth leagues, soccer is America's game. And with international soccer star David Beckham under contract to the Los Angeles Galaxy, that future seems a lot closer. As perfectly timed as one of his trademark penalty kicks, David Beckham's Soccer Skills takes young players to the next level. This illustrated book utilizes teaching techniques perfected at the David Beckham Academy for aspiring players.
Unknown 2010-01-01 160 pages

Why Orwell Matters

Christopher Hitchens
Christopher Hitchens assesses the life, the achievements, and the myth of the great political writer and participant George Orwell. In his emulative and contrarian style, Hitchens is both admiring and aggressive, sympathetic yet critical, taking true measure of his subject as hero and problem. Answering both the detractors and the false claimants, Hitchens tears down the facade of sainthood erected by the hagiographers and rebuts the critics point by point. He examines Orwell and his perspectives on fascism, empire, feminism, and Englishness, as well as his outlook on America, a country and culture towards which he exhibited much ambivalence.
MJF Books 2002 211 pages

At Large and At Small Familiar Essays

Anne Fadiman
In At Large and At Small , Anne Fadiman returns to one of her favorite genres, the familiar essay—a beloved and hallowed literary tradition recognized for both its intellectual breadth and its miniaturist focus on everyday experiences. With the combination of humor and erudition that has distinguished her as one of our finest essayists, Fadiman draws us into twelve of her personal obsessions: from her slightly sinister childhood enthusiasm for catching butterflies to her monumental crush on Charles Lamb, from her wistfulness for the days of letter-writing to the challenges and rewards of moving from the city to the country. Many of these essays were composed "under the influence" of the subject at hand. Fadiman ingests a shocking amount of ice cream and divulges her passion for Häagen-Dazs Chocolate Chocolate Chip and her brother's homemade Liquid Nitrogen Kahlúa Coffee (recipe included); she sustains a terrific caffeine buzz while recounting Balzac's coffee addiction; and she stays up till dawn to write about being a night owl, examining the rhythms of our circadian clocks and sharing such insomnia cures as her father's nocturnal word games and Lewis Carroll's mathematical puzzles. At Large and At Small is a brilliant and delightful collection of essays that harkens a revival of a long-cherished genre.
Macmillan 2008-05-27 220 pages

INHERIT THE TRUTH 1939-1945 : THE DOCUMENTED EXPERIENCES OF A SURVIVOR OF AUSCHWITZ AND BELSEN

Lasker-Wallfisch, Anita
Told in her own words, this is the incredible true story of one young woman's survival of Auschwitz and Belsen because she happened to play the cello. Although my head was shaved and I had a number on my arm, I had not lost my identity totally. I may no longer have had a name, but I was identifiable ... I was 'the cellist'. When eighteen-year-old Anita arrived at Auschwitz, she found herself plucked from the Nazi death machine by a twist of fate: she played the cello, and the camp orchestra needed a cellist. Now the last living survivor of the Auschwitz Women's Orchestra, this is her story told in her own words. Like so many German Jewish schoolgirls, Anita had been busy with her studies and ambitions when her everyday life began to turn by degrees into one of unimaginable horror. School was cancelled, her parents were summoned for deportation, and when she and her sister, Renate, attempted to escape to France, they were arrested and imprisoned. Through her sharp-etched memories, alongside family letters, photos, and other historical documents, Inherit the Truth leads us into one of humanity's darkest chapters, where we are forced to confront the fragility of the line between civilisation and barbarity. Marking the eightieth anniversary of her arrival in the UK after her release from Belsen concentration camp, Anita Lasker-Fallfisch's account of her and her sister's survival of both Auschwitz and Belsen is a testament to their remarkable courage, resilience, ingenuity and luck. This edition includes a new foreword from Philippe Sands.
FABER AND FABER 2026-04-23 272 pages

The pianist: the extraordinary story of one man's survival in Warsaw, 1939-45

Szpilman, Władysław
Memoirs of a Jew from Warsaw (1911-2000). He studied music in Berlin, and from 1933 worked as a pianist for the Polish radio. Describes the Nazi occupation of Warsaw and the anti-Jewish laws. In the early period of the ghetto, Szpilman worked as a pianist in one of the ghetto's cafés. In summer 1942, during the mass deportation, he was saved by a member of the Jewish police. After the abortive ghetto uprising in January 1943, he went over to the "Aryan side" and was helped by Poles, mainly prewar acquaintances. During the Warsaw uprising in summer-fall 1944, he was rescued by a German officer, Wilm Hosenfeld. Pp. 191-208 contain excerpts from Hosenfeld's diary, in which he describes the genocide of Jews in Warsaw. Pp. 209-222 contain an epilogue by Wolf Biermann, relating the story of Hosenfeld - he had saved a number of Poles and Jews even before he met Szpilman; he died in Soviet captivity.
Gollancz 1999 222 pages

Spelling It Like It Is

Tori Spelling
THE REALITY BEHIND REALITY TV—HOLLYWOOD’S FAVORITE MOM-STAR TELLS IT LIKE IT IS Tori Spelling is the first to admit that the “reality” behind her popular television show, Tori & Dean, isn’t always real. Not even Star Magazine could invent the true chaos that happens behind the scenes. Luckily, Tori is famously honest and self-deprecatingly funny when it comes to her personal life. She’s always Spelling It Like It Is… Life is never boring at Tori’s house, but since her New York Times bestselling memoirs sTORI Telling, Mommywood, and Uncharted terriTORI, things have been especially unpredictable: Finding out she was pregnant with her third baby after nearly vomiting live on the Home Shopping Network; trying to hide her fourth pregnancy so soon after giving birth (as her stylist said, “who would be that crazy?”); being rescued from a paparazzo by a mom lynch mob; stalking her celebrity neighbor; and allowing cameras to film every personal detail of her life—from the most challenging time in her marriage to the only time in six years when she really felt as though those cameras invaded her privacy. Tori shares these stories and many more with the usual humor, candor, and down-to-earth charm that her fans love. She also writes openly about her biggest challenges: the terrifying health problems surrounding her high-risk pregnancy with youngest son Finn, her guilt over missing baby Hattie’s early months because she was in the hospital on bed rest, her struggles (and failures) to live within her means after growing up in opulence, discovering how much she has in common with her late mega-producer father, Aaron Spelling, and falling in love with Dean all over again (hint: it didn’t happen at their vow renewal ceremony). After years of intimately revealing her everyday antics onscreen, Tori’s life is still full of surprises. Slowing down long enough to enjoy them? Now that’s another sTORI.
Simon and Schuster 2014-05-06 320 pages

The book of the courtesans: a catalogue of their virtues

Griffin, Susan
From Pulitzer-Prize-nominated author Susan Griffin comes an unprecedented, provocative look at the dazzling world of the West’s first independent women, whose lively liaisons brought them unspoken influence, wealth, and freedom. While they charmed some of Europe’s most illustrious men honing their social skills as well as their sexual ones, the great courtesans gained riches, power, education, and sexual freedom in a time when other women were denied all of these. From Imperia of sixteenth-century Rome, who personified the Renaissance ideal of beauty; Mme. de Pompadour, the arbiter of all things fashionable in eighteenth-century Paris and Versailles; Liane de Pougy, known in France during the Belle Epoque as “Our National Courtesan”; to Sarah Bernhardt, who, following in her mother’s footsteps, supported herself in her early career with a second profession, The Book of the Courtesans tells the life stories and intricacies of the lavish lifestyles of these women. Unlike their geisha counterparts, courtesans neither lived in brothels nor bent their wills to suit their suitors. They were strong- willed, autonomous, and plucky. An open secret, their presence can be felt throughout our culture. The muses who enflamed the hearts and imaginations of our most celebrated artists, they were also artists in their own right. They wrote poetry and novels, invented the cancan at the Moulin Rouge, and presented celebrated acts at the Folies Bergères. They helped to influence and shape the sensibility of modern literature, painting, and fashion. When Greek sculptor Praxiteles wanted to depict Venus he used a famous courtesan as a model, as in later centuries Titian, Veronese, Raphael, Giorgione, and Boucher did when they painted goddesses. When Marcel Proust was a young man it was the courtesan Laure Hayman who took him under her wing, introducing him to the right people, and providing inspiration for one of literature’s greatest masterpieces. And they often had considerable political influence too. When King Louis XV needed advice on foreign affairs or appointments of state he turned to Jeanne du Barry as well as Pompadour. In her witty and insightful prose, as Griffin celebrates these alluring and fascinating women, she restores a lost legacy of women’s history. She gives us the stories of these amazing women who, starting from impoverished or unimpressive beginnings, garnered chateaux, fine coaches, fabulous collections of jewelry, and even aristocratic titles along the way. And through a brilliant exploration of their extraordinary abilities, skills, and talents which Griffin playfully categorizes as their virtues "Timing, Beauty, Cheek, Brilliance, Gaiety, Grace, and Charm" her book explains how, while helping themselves, through their often outrageous, always entertaining examples, the great courtesans not only enriched our cultural heritage but helped to liberate women from the social, sexual, and economic strictures that confined them. Intensively researched and beautifully crafted, The Book of the Courtesans delves into scintillating but often hidden worlds, telling stories gleaned from many sources, including courtesans’ memoirs, presented along with stunning rare photographs to create memorable portraits of some of the most pivotal figures in women’s history.
Broadway Books 2001 269 pages

If Kennedy lived: the first and second terms of President John F. Kennedy : an alternate history

Greenfield, Jeff
From one of the country's most brilliant political commentators, the national bestselling author of Then Everything Changed , comes an extraordinary, thought-provoking look at John F. Kennedy's presidency - after November 22nd 1963. In Then Everything Changed , Jeff Greenfield created a 'riveting' ( The New York Times ), 'captivating' (Doris Kearns Goodwin) exploration of three modern political alternate histories. Based on memoirs, histories, oral histories, fresh reporting, and his own deep knowledge of the players, the book looked at the tiny hinges of history - and the extraordinary changes that would have resulted if they had gone another way. Now Greenfield presents his most compelling narrative of all, about the historical event that has rivited us for fifty years. What if John F. Kennedy had not been killed on that fateful day? What would the 1964 campaign have looked like? Would changes have been made to the ticket? How would a Kennedy second term have approached Vietnam, civil rights, the Cold War? What would Kennedy have had to give up - and what would he have gained? With powerful enemies against him, would his indiscreet private life finally have become public? How would his health issues have affected his presidency? And what small turns of fate in the days and years before Dallas might have kept him from ever reaching the White House in the first place? As in Then Everything Changed , the answers Greenfield provides, the scenarios he develops, are startlingly realistic, rich in detail, shocking in their projections, but always deeply, remarkably plausible - and a pure delight to read. It is a tour de force of American political history. Acclaim for Then Everything Changed 'Shrewdly written, often riveting, gripping . . . Thanks to Mr. Greenfield's own familiarity with American politics and a lot of energetic research, he turns these twists of fate into accelerating historical snowballs that rumble through our recent history, altering the social landscape in ways both small and large.' Michiko Kakutani, The New York Times 'Not only thoughtful and sophisticated, but marked by the author's enthusiasm. Greenfield is having fun here, and you can feel it on every page. His scenarios are relentlessly grounded in plausibility. This is a book political junkies will adore.' Bryan Burrough, The Washington Post 'Satisfying, entertaining, insightful. The key to Greenfield's success is that he knows his politics and the strengths and weaknesses of leaders. Greenfield's storytelling is compelling and his research superb.' The Miami Herald 'Historians have long been tantalized by the what-ifs of history. In the hands of this tremendously gifted storyteller, Then Everything Changed will captivate the reader every step along the way.' Doris Kearns Goodwin 'You expect intelligence and a devilish sense of humor and a profound knowledge of political history from Jeff Greenfield. But there is a deeper, haunting quality to this book as well. By adding a simple twist of fate, Greenfield brings fresh - and exhilarating - insights to the history of our times.' Joe Klein, columnist, Time 'Jeff Greenfield has taken the 'what-if' game and turned it into something else entirely - a trio of thought-provoking, interesting, and downright clever scenarios that remind us just how much individuals do matter.' Bob Schieffer, moderator, Face the Nation
G. P. Putnam's Sons 2013 249 pages

Groucho And Me

Groucho Marx
First published in the US in 1959 by Bernard Geis Associates, New York. The "Me" in the title is a comparatively unknown Marx named Julius (1895-1977), who, under the nom de plume of Groucho, enjoyed a sensational career on Broadway and in Hollywood with such comedy classics as Animal Crackers, Monkey Business, Horse Feathers, Duck Soup, A Night at the Opera, and A Day at the Races. His solo career included work as a film actor, television game show emcee, and author of The Groucho Letters, Memoirs of a Mangy Lover, and his classic autobiography, Groucho and Me. With impeccable timing, outrageous humor, irreverent wit, and a superb sense of the ridiculous, Groucho tells the saga of the Marx Brothers: the poverty of their childhood in New York's Upper East Side; the crooked world of small-time vaudeville (where they learned to carry blackjacks); how a pretzel magnate and the graceless dancer of his dreams led to the Marx Brothers' first Broadway hit, I'll Say She Is!, how the stock market crash in 1929 proved a godsend for Groucho (even though he lost nearly a quarter of a million dollars); the adventures of the Marx Brothers in Hollywood, the making of their hilarious films, and Groucho's triumphant television series, You Bet Your Life!. Here is the life and lunatic times of the great eccentric genius, Groucho, a.k.a. Julius Henry Marx. "The book is never less than readable and its glimpses of American show business at its least glamorous are simple, true and sometimes rather touching."-Times Literary Supplement "My advice is to ration yourself to a chapter a night-it's that delectable."-Chicago Sunday Tribune
Must Have Books 2023-04-20 170 pages

Auschwitz

Dwork, Deborah
Auschwitz, 1270 to the Present elucidates how the prewar ordinary town of Auschwitz became Germany's most lethal killing site step by step and in stages: a transformation wrought by human beings, mostly German and mostly male. Who were the men who conceived, created, and constructed the killing facility? What were they thinking as they inched their way to iniquity? Using the hundreds of architectural plans for the camp that the Germans, in their haste, forgot to destroy, as well as blueprints and papers in municipal, provincial, and federal archives, Deborah Dwork and Robert Jan van Pelt show that the town of Auschwitz and the camp of that name were the centerpiece of Himmler's ambitious project to recover the German legacy of the Teutonic Knights and Frederick the Great in Nazi-ruled Poland. Analyzing the close ties between the 700-year history of the town and the five-year evolution of the concentration camp in its suburbs, Dwork and van Pelt offer an absolutely new and compelling interpretation of the origins and development of the death camp at Auschwitz. And drawing on oral histories of survivors, memoirs, depositions, and diaries, the authors explore the ever more murderous impact of these changes on the inmates' daily lives.
W.W. Norton & Co 2008 479 pages

The business of books: how international conglomerates took over publishing and changed the way we read

Schiffrin, André
Post-war American publishing has been ruthlessly transformed since André Schiffrin joined its ranks in 1956. Gone is a plethora of small but prestigious houses that often put ideas before profit in their publishing decisions, sometimes even deliberately. Now six behemoths share 80% of the market and profit margin is all. André Schiffrin can write about these changes with authority because he witnessed them from inside a conglomerate, as head of Pantheon, co-founded by his father, bought (and sold) by Random House. And he can write about them with candor because he is no longer on the inside, having quit corporate publishing in disgust to set up a flourishing independent house, The New Press. Schiffrin’s evident affection for his authors sparkles throughout a story woven around publishing the work of those such as Studs Terkel, Noam Chomsky, Gunnar Myrdal, George Kennan, Juliet Mitchell, R. D. Laing, Eric Hobsbawm and E.P.Thompson. Part-memoir, part-history, here is an account of the collapsing standards of contemporary publishing that is irascible, acute and passionate. An engaging counterpoint to recent, celebratory memoirs of the industry written by those with more stock options and fewer scruples than Schiffrin, The Business of Books warns of the danger to adventurous, intelligent publishing in the bullring of today’s marketplace.
Verso 2000 178 pages

Roman Year A Memoir

André Aciman
The author of Call Me by Your Name returns with a deeply romantic memoir of his time in Rome while on the cusp of adulthood. In Roman Year , André Aciman captures the period of his adolescence that began when he and his family first set foot in Rome, after being expelled from Egypt. Though Aciman’s family had been well-off in Alexandria, all vestiges of their status vanished when they fled, and the author, his younger brother, and his deaf mother moved into a rented apartment in Rome’s Via Clelia. Though dejected, Aciman’s mother and brother found their way into life in Rome, while Aciman, still unmoored, burrowed into his bedroom to read one book after the other. The world of novels eventually allowed him to open up to the city and, through them, discover the beating heart of the Eternal City. Aciman’s time in Rome did not last long before he and his family moved across the ocean, but by the time they did, he was leaving behind a city he loved. In this memoir, the author, a genius of “the poetry of the place” (John Domini, The Boston Globe ), conjures the sights, smells, tastes, and people of Rome as only he can. Aciman captures, as if in amber, a living portrait of himself on the brink of adulthood and the city he worshipped at that pivotal moment. Roman Year is a treasure, unearthed by one of our greatest prose stylists.
Picador 2025-10-21 368 pages

Brief encounters with the enemy: fiction

Sayrafiezadeh, Saïd
"The first short story collection from a writer who calls to mind such luminaries as Denis Johnson, George Saunders, and Nathan Englander When The New Yorker published a short story by Saïd Sayrafiezadeh in 2010, it marked the emergence of a startling new voice in fiction. In this astonishing new book, Sayrafiezadeh conjures up a nameless American city and its unmoored denizens: a call-center employee jealous of the attention lavished on a co-worker newly returned from a foreign war; a history teacher dealing with a classroom of maliciously indifferent students; a grocery store janitor caught up in a romantic relationship with a kleptomaniac customer. These men's struggles and fleeting triumphs--with women, with cruel bosses, with the morning commute--are transformed into storytelling that is both universally resonant and wonderfully strange. Sometimes the effect is hilarious, as when a would-be suitor tries to take his sheltered, religious date on a "Love Boat" carnival ride. Other times it's devastating, as in the unforgettable story that gives the book its title: A soldier on his last routine patrol on a deserted mountain path finally encounters "the enemy" he's long sought a glimpse of. Upon giving the author the Whiting Writers' Award for his memoir, When Skateboards Will Be Free, the judges hailed his writing as "intelligent, funny, utterly unsmug and unpreening." These fiercely original stories show their author employing his considerable gifts to offer a lens on our collective dreams and anxieties, casting them in a revelatory new light. Advance praise for Brief Encounters with the Enemy "Saïd Sayrafiezadeh is a masterly storyteller, working from deep in the American grain. This is a splendid fiction debut."--Philip Gourevitch, author of The Ballad of Abu Ghraib "In this beautiful collection, we see the wages of war, brought very close to home."--Dani Shapiro, author of Devotion "Bizarre and compelling and painfully funny, and something else, too: important."--John Wray, author of Lowboy "A vivid collection about the indignities and consolations of dead-end jobs, the joy of a stolen kiss, and the mysteries of friendship."--Nathaniel Rich, author of Odds Against Tomorrow "Saïd Sayrafiezadeh is a slyly subversive absurdist whose true subject is the deeply serious matter of our obligations to one another as human beings."--John Burnham Schwartz, author of Northwest Corner "Fun, moving, and reads like the work of a master."--Darin Strauss, author of Half a Life "Gritty, compelling stories about our embattled working class. This is a thrilling report from the trenches."--Edmund White, author of Jack Holmes and His Friend "Perfectly calibrated, laced with hard-earned moments of vulnerability, rendered in language that is at once plainspoken and lyrical."--Teddy Wayne, author of The Love Song of Jonny Valentine"--
The Dial Press 2013 223 pages

Groundwork: autobiographical writings, 1979-2012

Auster, Paul
"Paul Auster has spent his fifty-year writing career examining what it means to be truly alive. And now, for the first time ever, in this newly self-curated collection, Auster stitches together various autobiographical writings to lay bare the trajectory of both his personal life and sense of self. From his breakout memoir, The Invention of Solitude, which solidified Auster's reputation as a canonical voice in American letters, to excerpts from his later memoirs, Winter Journal and Report from the Interior, readers are ushered into the inner workings of Auster's self-development. His sweeping recollection winds through the halls of Columbia University during the turbulent 1960s and into life as a young poet-turned-novelist, then dives headfirst into the realities that accompany aging today. Along the way, Auster continually challenges the notion of what autobiography can be, inverting the form through fragmentation and, ultimately, illustrating firsthand the brilliance behind "one of the great writers of our time" (San Francisco Chronicle)"--
Picador 2020-05-05 639 pages

Hemingway and me: letters, anecdotes, and memories of a life-changing friendship

Lyons, Jeffrey
"When Ernest Hemingway died on July 2, 1961, Mary Hemingway asked the Hemingway's good friend, journalist Leonard Lyons, to announce the death of the Nobel Prize-winner to stunned readers and admirer everywhere. Both Hemingways admired Lyons for his fidelity to the truth, that "he would get the story right." (As it turns out the "truth" was not quite what it seemed, since Mary initially denied that her husband's death was suicide.) This memoir recounts the quarter-century long friendship between Hemingway and Leonard Lyons, which eventually came to include Lyons's wife and three sons. In this short book Jeffrey Lyons recounts visits to Hemingway in Cuba (where "Papa" first taught him how to shoot a gun) as well as nights out with the great writer at such popular New York watering holes as the Stork Club and Toots Shor's. Throughout the book Hemingway comes across as a hard-working, generous, and thoughtful man of letters, and not the gruff, hard drinking beast perpetually looking for a fight that he was often perceived as. This is a book about friendship, loyalty, and trust between a famed novelist and a working journalist and his family"--
Lyons Press 2021-05-01 140 pages