2342 results for "Memoir"

Delicious! A Novel

Ruth Reichl
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • “Reichl’s compulsively readable novel is a treat for anyone who loves a warm, character-packed tale—a delectable mix of flavor, fantasy, and emotional comfort food.”— O: The Oprah Magazine The debut novel from the beloved food critic and author of The Paris Novel, featuring an exclusive conversation between Ruth Reichl and Emily Giffin Billie Breslin has traveled far from her home in California to take a job at Delicious! , New York’s most iconic food magazine. At first, Billie feels like a fish out of water—until she is welcomed by the magazine’s colorful staff and seduced by the vibrant downtown food scene. Then an unexpected turn of events leads Billie to a miraculous discovery. In a hidden room in the magazine’s library, she finds a cache of letters written during World War II by Lulu Swan, a plucky twelve-year-old, to the legendary chef James Beard. Lulu’s letters provide Billie with a richer understanding of history and inspire Billie to come to terms with her fears and her ability to open her heart to love. Through her bestselling memoirs, including Tender at the Bone and Comfort Me with Apples, Ruth Reichl has achieved a special place in readers’ hearts. Now, with this magical novel, she has created a sumptuous world that will enchant you.
Random House Publishing Group 2015-05-12 416 pages

The Mayor of MacDougal Street [2013 Edition] A Memoir

Dave Van Ronk,Elijah Wald
Dave Van Ronk (1936-2002) was one of the founding figures of the 1960s folk revival, but he was far more than that. A pioneer of modern acoustic blues, a fine songwriter and arranger, a powerful singer, and one of the most influential guitarists of the '60s, he was also a marvelous storyteller, a peerless musical historian, and one of the most quotable figures on the Village scene. Featuring encounters with young stars-to-be like Bob Dylan and Joni Mitchell, The Mayor of MacDougal Street is a vivid evocation of a singular time and place--a feast not only for fans of folk music and blues, but for anyone interested in the music, politics, and spirit of a revolutionary period in American culture.
Hachette Books 2013-10-15 272 pages

Stephen Hawking

Mlodinow, Leonard
An icon of the last fifty years, Stephen Hawking seems to encapsulate genius- not since Albert Einstein has a scientific figure held such a position in popular consciousness. In this enthralling memoir, writer and physicist Leonard Mlodinow tells the story of his friend and their friendship, offering an intimate account of this giant of science. The two met in 2003, when Stephen asked Leonard if he would consider writing a book with him, the follow up to the bestselling A Brief History of Time. As they spent years working on a second book, The Grand Design, they forged a deep connection and Leonard gained a much better understanding of Stephen's daily life and struggles, as well as his compassion and good humour. Together they obsessed over the perfect sentence, debated the physics, and occasionally punted on Cambridge's waterways with champagne and strawberries. In time, Leonard was able to finish Stephen's jokes, chide his sporadic mischief, and learn how the hardships of his illness helped forge that unique perspective on the universe. By weaving together their shared story with a clear-sighted portrayal of Hawking's scientific achievements, Mlodinow creates a beautiful portrait of Stephen Hawking as a brilliant, impish and generous man whose life was not only exceptional but also genuinely inspiring.
Allen Lane 2020 219 pages

Happy People Are Annoying

Josh Peck
A wonderfully candid memoir from one of the most recognizable faces of a generation, actor, writer, Youtuber, and television superstar, Josh Peck. In his warm and inspiring book, Josh reflects on the many stumbles and silver linings of his life and traces a zigzagging path to redemption. Written with such impressive detail and aching honesty, Happy People are Annoying is full of surprising life lessons for anyone seeking to accept their past and make peace with the complicated face in the mirror. Josh Peck rose to near-instant fame when he starred for four seasons as the comedic center of Nickelodeon's hit show Drake & Josh. However, while he tried to maintain his role as the funniest, happiest kid in every room, Josh struggled alone with the kind of rising anger and plummeting confidence that quietly took over his life. For the first time, Josh reflects on his late teens and early twenties. Raised by a single mother, and coming of age under a spotlight that could be both invigorating and cruel, Josh filled the cratering hole in his self-worth with copious amounts of food, television, drugs, and all of the other trappings of young stardom. Until he realized the only person standing in his way...was himself. Today, with a string of lead roles on hit television shows and movies, and one of the most enviable and dedicated fanbases on the internet, Josh Peck is more than happy, he's finally, enthusiastically content. Happy People are Annoying is the culmination of years of learning, growing, and finding bright spots in the scary parts of life. Written with the kind of humor, strength of character, and unwavering self-awareness only someone who has mastered their ego can muster, this memoir reminds us of the life-changing freedom on the other side of acceptance.
HarperCollins Publishers 2022-05-09 256 pages

The Most Important Thing

Howard Marks
Legendary investor Howard Marks is chairman and co-founder of Oaktree Capital Management, which has $100 billion under management. He is sought out by the world's leading value investors and his client memos brim with insightful commentary and a time-tested, fundamental philosophy. Now for the first time, readers can benefit from Mark's wisdom, concentrated into a single lifetime of experience and study, The Most Important Thing explains the keys to successful investment and the pitfalls that can destroy capital or ruin a career. Utilising passages from his memos to illustrate his ideas, Marks teaches by example, detailing the development of an investment philosophy that fully acknowledges the complexities of investing and the perils of the financial world. Brilliantly applying insight to today's volatile markets, Marks offers a volume that is part memoir, part creed, with a number of broad takeaways.
HarperCollins Publishers India 2018-08-25 194 pages

Elvis and Gladys

Elaine Dundy
Who on the planet doesn't know that Elvis Presley gave electrifying performances and enthralled millions? Who doesn't know that he was the King of Rock 'n' Roll? But who knows that the King himself lived in the thrall of one dominant person? This was Gladys Smith Presley, his protective, indulgent, beloved mother. Elvis and Gladys , one of the best researched and most acclaimed books on Elvis's early life, reconstructs the extraordinary role Gladys played in her son's formative years. Uncovering facts not seen by other biographers, Elvis and Gladys reconstructs for the first time the history of the mother and son's devoted relationship and reveals new information about Elvis--his Cherokee ancestry, his boyhood obsession with comic books, and his early compulsion to rescue his family from poverty. Coming to life in the compelling narrative is the poignant story of a unique boy and the maternal tie that bound him. It is at once an intimate psychological portrait of a tragic relationship and a mesmerizing tale of the early years of an international idol. "For once, a legend is presented to us by the mind and heart of a literate, careful biographer who cares," wrote Liz Smith in the New York Daily News when Elvis and Gladys was originally published in 1985. This is the book, Smith says, "for any Elvis lover who wants to know more about what made Presley the man he was and the mama's boy he became." The Boston Globe called this thoughtful, informative biography of one of popular music's most enduring stars "nothing less than the best Elvis book yet." Elaine Dundy is the author of several books of fiction and nonfiction, including The Dud Avocado ; Finch, Bloody Finch ; Ferriday, Louisiana ; and the memoir Life Itself!
Random House Publishing Group 1986-04 386 pages

Life will be the death of me: ...and you, too!

Handler, Chelsea
"In a haze of vape smoke on a rare windy night in LA in the fall of 2016, Chelsea Handler daydreams about what life will be like with a woman in the White House. And then, Donald Trump happens. In a torpor of despair, she decides that she's had enough of the privileged bubble she's lived in--a bubble within a bubble--and that it's time to make some changes, both in her personal life and in the world at large. At home, she embarks on a 'Year of Self-Sufficiency'--learning how to work the remote, how to pick up dog shit, where to find the toaster. She meets her match in an earnest, brainy psychiatrist and enters into therapy, prepared to do the heavy lifting required to look within and make sense of a childhood marked by love and loss and to figure out why people are afraid of her. She becomes politically active--finding her voice as an advocate for change, having difficult conversations, and energizing her base. In the process, she develops a healthy fixation on Special Counsel Robert Mueller and, through unflinching self-reflection and psychological excavation, she unearths some glittering truths that light up the road ahead. This is a thrillingly honest, insightful, and deeply, darkly funny memoir that is the perfect read for this moment in time"--
Spiegel & Grau 2019-04-09 239 pages

Encyclopedia of an ordinary life

Rosenthal, Amy Krouse
A memoir in bite-size chunks from the author of the viral Modern Love column “You May Want to Marry My Husband.” “[Rosenthal] shines her generous light of humanity on the seemingly humdrum moments of life and shows how delightfully precious they actually are.” — The Chicago Sun-Times How do you conjure a life? Give the truest account of what you saw, felt, learned, loved, strived for? For Amy Krouse Rosenthal, the surprising answer came in the form of an encyclopedia. In Encyclopedia of an Ordinary Life she has ingeniously adapted this centuries-old format for conveying knowledge into a poignant, wise, often funny, fully realized memoir. Using mostly short entries organized from A to Z, many of which are cross-referenced, Rosenthal captures in wonderful and episodic detail the moments, observations, and emotions that comprise a contemporary life. Start anywhere—preferably at the beginning—and see how one young woman’s alphabetized existence can open up and define the world in new and unexpected ways. An ordinary life, perhaps, but an extraordinary book.
Three Rivers 2006 240 pages

Little Weirds

Jenny Slate
Step into Jenny Slate's wild imagination in this "magical" (Mindy Kaling), "delicious" (Amy Sedaris), and "poignant" (John Mulaney) New York Times bestseller about love, heartbreak, and being alive -- "this book is something new and wonderful" (George Saunders). You may "know" Jenny Slate from her Netflix special, Stage Fright , as the creator of Marcel the Shell, or as the star of "Obvious Child." But you don't really know Jenny Slate until you get bonked on the head by her absolutely singular writing style. To see the world through Jenny's eyes is to see it as though for the first time, shimmering with strangeness and possibility. As she will remind you, we live on an ancient ball that rotates around a bigger ball made up of lights and gasses that are science gasses, not farts (don't be immature). Heartbreak, confusion, and misogyny stalk this blue-green sphere, yes, but it is also a place of wild delight and unconstrained vitality, a place where we can start living as soon as we are born, and we can be born at any time. In her dazzling, impossible-to-categorize debut, Jenny channels the pain and beauty of life in writing so fresh, so new, and so burstingly alive, we catch her vision like a fever and bring it back out into the bright day with us, where everything has changed. One of Vanity Fair' s Great Quarantine Reads.
Little Brown 2020-11-24 240 pages

Gabby (Large Print Edition)

Gabrielle Giffords
Few people will forget January 8, 2011, the day Gabrielle Giffords was shot by a deranged gunman while addressing her constituents at an Arizona Safeway. The tragedy riveted millions of Americans, as will A story of Courage and Hope. The popular congresswoman and husband, Mark Kelly, collaborated with renowned author Jeffrey Zaslow to take readers inside the hospital rooms and speech therapy sessions where Gabby fought to regain her life. But it is, perhaps, the love story between the congresswoman and Mark Kelly--an astronaut and American hero in his own right
Scribner 2011-01-01 628 pages

The woman I wanted to be

Von Furstenberg, Diane
One of the most influential, admired, and innovative women of our time: fashion designer, philanthropist, wife, mother, and grandmother, Diane von Furstenberg offers a book about becoming the woman she wanted to be. Diane von Furstenberg started out with a suitcase full of jersey dresses and an idea of who she wanted to be—in her words, “the kind of woman who is independent and who doesn’t rely on a man to pay her bills.” She has since become that woman, establishing herself as a global brand and a major force in the fashion industry, all the while raising a family and maintaining “my children are my greatest creation.” In The Woman I Wanted to Be , von Furstenberg reflects on her extraordinary life—from childhood in Brussels to her days as a young, jet-set princess, to creating the dress that came to symbolize independence and power for an entire generation of women. With remarkable honesty and wisdom, von Furstenberg mines the rich territory of what it means to be a woman. She opens up about her family and career, overcoming cancer, building a global brand, and devoting herself to empowering other women, writing, “I want every woman to know that she can be the woman she wants to be.”
Simon & Schuster 2014-10-28 239 pages

21: Bringing Down the House: The Inside Story of Six M.I.T. Students Who Took Vegas for Millions [21 BRINGING DOWN THE HOUS-]

Mezrich, Ben
In the "Greed Is Good" 1980s, a group of MIT geniuses decided to break the bank at Las Vegas. Utilizing their own mathematical wizardry and large doses of moxie, these six co-conspirators legally beat Vegas' largest casinos out of more than $3 million in less than two years. Harvard University graduate/thriller author Ben Mezrich has recomposed their story, an arresting hybrid of Liar's Poker, The Cuckoo's Egg, and Ocean's Eleven . Taut action and close calls.
Free Press 2008-02-01 288 pages

Easy street (the hard way): a memoir

Perlman, Ron
The engaging, passionate, always-honest, and often-hilarious memoir of actor Ron Perlman—his triumphant story of perseverance and determination navigating the slippery slopes of Hollywood, with a foreword by Guillermo del Toro Ron Perlman was a kid who had a myriad of self-image issues, yet he triumphed in an industry that trades on image and self-confidence. He landed a leading role in Quest for Fire , won a Golden Globe for Beauty and the Beast , and played the title role in two Hellboy movies, becoming along the way an icon among sci-fi and comic book fans worldwide. In Easy Street (the Hard Way) , Ron shares his life story, starting with his up-by-your-bootstraps background in New York's Washington Heights. He sheds light on his life as a working actor; offers behind-the-scenes insight into the working styles of directors, including Jean-Jacques Annaud, Jean-Pierre Jeunet, and Guillermo del Toro ( Hellboy and the Academy Award-winning Pan's Labyrinth ); and provides a peek into Hollywood, where he's encountered Marlon Brando, Sean Connery, Frank Sinatra, Sammy Davis, Jr., and others. He also turns his eye on the trajectory of American culture—the good and the bad—as observed by a man who started out in a mom-and-pop world where the arts were disseminated by individuals rather than corporations. Ron's memoir will inspire anyone who has ever dared to dream and offers a roadmap to the next generation of dreamers.
Da Capo Press 2015-10-13 328 pages

Dinners with Ruth: a memoir on the power of friendships

Totenberg, Nina
"Celebrated NPR correspondent Nina Totenberg delivers an extraordinary memoir of her personal successes, struggles, and life-affirming relationships, including her remarkable friendship of nearly fifty years with Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. Four years before Nina Totenberg started working at NPR, where she cemented her legacy as a prize-winning reporter, and nearly twenty-two years before Ruth Bader Ginsburg was appointed to the Supreme Court, Nina called Ruth. A reporter for The National Observer, Nina was curious about Ruth's legal brief, asking the Supreme Court to do something revolutionary: declare a law that discriminated "on the basis of sex" to be unconstitutional. In a time when women were fired for becoming pregnant and often could not apply for credit cards or get a mortgage, Ruth patiently explained her argument. That call launched a nearly fifty-year friendship. Dinners with Ruth is an extraordinary account of two women who paved the way for future generations by tearing down professional and legal barriers. It is also an intimate memoir of the power of friendships as women began to pry open career doors and transform the workplace. At the story's heart is one, special relationship: Ruth and Nina saw each other not only through personal joys, but also illness, loss, and widowhood. Ruth drew Nina out of grief during the devastating illness and eventual death of Nina's first husband; twelve years later, Nina would reciprocate when Ruth's beloved husband died. They shared a love of opera and shopping, as they instinctively understood that clothes were armor for women who wanted to be taken seriously in a workplace dominated by men. During Ruth's last year, they shared so many small dinners that Saturdays were "reserved for Ruth" in Nina's house. Dinners with Ruth also weaves together personal portraits of other fascinating women and men from Nina's life, including her cherished NPR colleagues Cokie Roberts and Linda Wertheimer; her beloved husbands; her friendships with multiple Supreme Court Justices, including Lewis Powell, William Brennan, and Antonin Scalia, and Nina's own family--her father, the legendary violinist Roman Totenberg, and her "best friends," her sisters. Inspiring and revelatory, Dinners with Ruth is a moving story of the joy of friendship" --
Simon & Schuster 2024-03-05 304 pages