For ten weeks David Brudnoy, Boston's most popular and erudite conservativeradio-talk-show host, had been off the air. When he signed back on, hisfaithful following was prepared for the usual dose of wry humor, Clintonbashing, and brilliant banter. What they got instead was an electrifyinghourlong monologue, unprecedented in the freewheeling world of talk radio, during which Brudnoy confessed, I am a fifty-four-year-old homosexual...I wassuffering the first attack of HIV--the AIDS virus. What followed was an outpouring of support and devotion from an audience notknown for its tolerance of gay issues. With his story, Brudnoy has crossed thatgreat abyss where the personal and political meet. From his near-halcyon youthas an only child growing up in a small Minnesota town to his heady days as astudent at Yale, he recounts with equal doses of humor and candor a coming ofage that, in fits and starts, eventually recognized a sexual preference for menand a political tendency toward the right. Ruminating on matters that rangefrom his own mortality to TV, radio, friends, family, romance, and politics, Life Is Not a Rehearsal offers up the kind of trenchant and intelligentinsights that are Brudnoy's hallmark.A graduate of Yale with a major in Japanese, David Brudnoy went to graduateschool at Harvard (East Asian studies) before getting his Ph.D. in Americanintellectual history at Brandeis. In 1976 he won a full-time talk radio slot atBoston's WHDH, then moved to WRKO in 1981, finally going on to the region'spowerhouse, WBZ, in 1986. In addition to his hugely successful radio show onWBZ, he is a TV commentator, film critic, newspaper essayist on politics andtravel, and teacher ofjournalism at Boston University. Life Is Not a Rehearsal shows that conservatism is not conformity--or aprejudice or a mere establishmentarian life. Conservatism is about fighting forliberty and embracing responsibility, about war and love if you will. DavidBrudnoy is certainly a veteran of both. --P. J. O'Rourke, author of Give War a Chance David Brudnoy tells the personal story behind the public story of hisremarkable life and extraordinary career. He gives us a memoir that willbenefit many others across the country learning to live with AIDS. --Senator Edward M. KennedyThis is a book about love, loyalty, and the nurturing bonds of family andfriendship. And, it is also a book about the coming of age of a brave andhonorable man who has faced the looming spectre of death with the samecourageous honesty that so many of us have long admired in him. --Sherwin B. Nuland, M.D., author of How We Die In this no-holds-barred memoir, Boston's outspoken, conservative, libertarian, gay, agnostically Jewish, living-with-AIDS, college professor and media iconproves once and for all the inadequacy of labels when it comes to defining alife. Life Is Not a Rehearsal is the story of David Brudnoy as only hecould tell it, with characteristic candor, humor, and the self-awareness of onewho has teetered on the edge, gone over the cliff, and lived to tell. And tellhe does --William F. Weld

Product Description Offers an amusing and nostalgic look at the personalities who frequented a Baltimore diner in the late 1950s, in an account inspired by the 1982 hit movie "Diner" From Publishers Weekly Life for teenagers like the author--a son of Russian-Jewish immigrants and himself former director of Maryland's Drug Abuse Administration, who grew up in Northwest Baltimore's "melting pot" in the '50s--is said to center on the neutral turf of a playground, where rival ethnic gangs vie for city sports championships. In the first and best part of his reminiscence and report, Silverman sketches a refreshing cast of characters who hung out at the diner of the title and were featured in the 1982 movie Diner , directed by classmate Barry Levinson. Their youthful, sometimes hilarious but not-so-harmless high jinks and status-enhancing sexual exploits, boastfully recounted in pithy and irreverent language, masked more valuable, often lasting male camaraderie. Like a faithful class secretary, the author follows a group of scattered diner alumni, updating their activities through the '80s. The most colorful chronicles tell of professional fulfillment as pizza chain owners, rabbis and the perhaps less reputable, but still eventful, lives of mavericks, gamblers, drug users and dealers. Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Just Say Yes, perhaps the first marijuana memoir ever published, is a positive account of long-term cannabis use. With ruthless honesty and deadpan humor, the author observes the effect of weed upon every aspect of her life: marriage, motherhood, friendship, work, sport, sex. As John Updike wrote about Hiller's short story collection, Skin, this is "good, brave and joyful writing." Ten years after its first publication, the updated edition of Just Say Yes addresses the changing status of cannabis in America and includes a foreword by Steve DeAngelo. "This funny, wry and very candid memoir purports to be a Confession of an American Pot-Smoker but is really a cultural/personal history of the past fifty years. The narrative progresses backward, and not only the past but innocence itself is recaptured." -Phillip Lopate, Nonfiction Director, MFA Writing Program, Columbia University "Likely to loosen up fellow smokers, while adding a personal take to the public discussion of cannabis." -Kirkus Reviews "Brilliant, important, and beautifully written." -Betsy Prioleau, author of Seductress and Swoon

After graduating from the University of Texas in 1965, Carol Schwartz, born in Mississippi and raised in Midland, Texas, visited Washington, D.C. She was due to be married in Austin in January and had a job teaching special education there. After a very tough childhood, a happier, less stressful life stood before her. But things changed--with Carol doing the changing. As she puts it, "A magnetic pull drew me to D.C." Carol began a journey that took her away from the familiar to D.C. and the dynamic world of local politics. Then a Republican in a city where Democrats made up nearly 80% of voters, she ran for Mayor and nearly beat Marion Barry in 1994 in the closest Mayoral election in the city's history. In Quite A Life: From Defeat to Defeat ... and Back, Carol talks about growing up on the poor side of the tracks in that small West Texas town, where she was made to work starting from age eight in the family store. There were only a few Jewish families and some prejudice. Carol was often responsible, beginning at age six, for caring for her beloved older brother and only sibling Johnny, who was intellectually disabled. And sadly, she was also the target of a brilliant but full-of-rage father. Carol describes life with her own family--her three kids and husband David, who suffered from severe depression. But despite that, he went from being a child of a limited-means family with student loans to becoming one of the more successful attorneys in a city made up of them. Depression, though, and Jack Daniels ultimately caused David's tragic death when the children were teenagers. Although wounded from her childhood, she leapt over ongoing insecurity and fear to run for the D.C. Board of Education in 1974, where she became an outspoken member and leader. Carol fought against the tide to help create Banneker Academic High School and usher in educational reforms 40 years ago when it was unfashionable and took lots of courage to do it--and which led to test scores increasing. On the D.C. Council starting in 1985, she was a lone voice against bloated budgets that eventually led the city to the financial brink. Carol became an ethical watchdog in a government that too often battled corruption. Spotting government sweetheart deals, she helped root them out as a guardian of taxpayer dollars. And she spearheaded the unanimous passage of sick and safe leave for private sector workers, making D.C. the second jurisdiction in the country to have it. In doing so, she went from being a best friend of business to being viciously targeted by that community. Her passion for the city and its residents inspired her to run for Mayor several times in spite of the odds. But she picked herself up after defeat--as her tough childhood had trained her to do--and kept on ... All the while she championed wins on behalf of the city and its residents in her continuing Council career. Community responsibility has been a lifelong clarion call for Carol. She has volunteered to battle for people with HIV/AIDS and other marginalized groups, and served for nearly two decades on the Board of the Whitman-Walker Clinic, which was at the forefront of that crisis. She became the first woman president of the Metropolitan Police Boys and Girls Clubs in its 61-year history. Her volunteer work of 50 years has touched many people, animals and organizations, and continues. Now an Independent and always a straight-shooter, Carol talks about her life with characteristic candor and her opinions with unbridled honesty--and usually with humor. As Carol says, "If you want someone to give you a sugar-coated synopsis of a life, go elsewhere. But if you want an outspoken personal autobiography--with pictures galore--that also talks about the history of D.C. since Home Rule, gives you behind-the-scenes accounts of chaotic campaigns, as well as the inner-workings of government--all rolled together--come on this ride with me." It's a journey of wins and defeats, and coming back with hope.

During the golden years of the; 50's 60's and 70's, Carl Davis, was one of Chicago's hottest music producers and record executives to ever blaze the trails of Chicago's renowned Record Row. This action packed memoir chronicles his rise to prominence and power in a dazzling yet cut-throat music business where only the strongest survived. Mastering the art of cutting a deal to the artistry of cutting wax, Davis' visionary leadership helped forge the legendary Chicago-Sound. From the stage of Chicago's famed Regal Theatre to the bright lights of concert venues throughout the world, his artists were some of the brightest stars of our time. No longer an unsung hero, this autobiography punctuates the tireless efforts and the timeless contributions of one of America's greatest music producers and record company executives. To many he was a friend, to others a businessman, but to his artists and fans throughout the world - he is and will always be - the man behind the music.

PREFACE. THE Author of this very practical treatise on Scotch Loch - Fishing desires clearly that it may be of use to all who had it. He does not pretend to have written anything new, but to have attempted to put what he has to say in as readable a form as possible. Everything in the way of the history and habits of fish has been studiously avoided, and technicalities have been used as sparingly as possible. The writing of this book has afforded him pleasure in his leisure moments, and that pleasure would be much increased if he knew that the perusal of it would create any bond of sympathy between himself and the angling community in general. This section is interleaved with blank shects for the readers notes. The Author need hardly say that any suggestions addressed to the case of the publishers, will meet with consideration in a future edition. We do not pretend to write or enlarge upon a new subject. Much has been said and written-and well said and written too on the art of fishing but loch-fishing has been rather looked upon as a second-rate performance, and to dispel this idea is one of the objects for which this present treatise has been written. Far be it from us to say anything against fishing, lawfully practised in any form but many pent up in our large towns will bear us out when me say that, on the whole, a days loch-fishing is the most convenient. One great matter is, that the loch-fisher is depend- ent on nothing but enough wind to curl the water, -and on a large loch it is very seldom that a dead calm prevails all day, -and can make his arrangements for a day, weeks beforehand whereas the stream- fisher is dependent for a good take on the state of the water and however pleasant and easy it may be for one living near the banks of a good trout stream or river, it is quite another matter to arrange for a days river-fishing, if one is looking forward to a holiday at a date some weeks ahead. Providence may favour the expectant angler with a good day, and the water in order but experience has taught most of us that the good days are in the minority, and that, as is the case with our rapid running streams, -such as many of our northern streams are, -the water is either too large or too small, unless, as previously remarked, you live near at hand, and can catch it at its best. A common belief in regard to loch-fishing is, that the tyro and the experienced angler have nearly the same chance in fishing, -the one from the stern and the other from the bow of the same boat. Of all the absurd beliefs as to loch-fishing, this is one of the most absurd. Try it. Give the tyro either end of the boat he likes give him a cast of ally flies he may fancy, or even a cast similar to those which a crack may be using and if he catches one for every three the other has, he may consider himself very lucky. Of course there are lochs where the fish are not abundant, and a beginner may come across as many as an older fisher but we speak of lochs where there are fish to be caught, and where each has a fair chance. Again, it is said that the boatman has as much to do with catching trout in a loch as the angler. Well, we dont deny that. In an untried loch it is necessary to have the guidance of a good boatman but the same argument holds good as to stream-fishing...

If the new generation is not told accurate information, then not only will the new generation and the generations that follow be misguided but, more importantly, the policy makers of the future will be making decisions based on mis-assessments. There are three areas in which the truth of the past has been tragically misrepresented: The actions of the President, the role of the media, and the buried legacy of the South Vietnamese, the Laotians, the Cambodians and, of course, the Americans who gave their lives for the liberty of others. There is no higher morality than dying for the well-being of a stranger, and that is what they did. Their enemies were not only on the battlefield: many of their enemies are still revising the history of those days, either to justify their past actions, or to cloak their consciences, or they simply don't know the truth because they have been bombarded by those who rejected it. Their recorded words and fictionalized images are, at best, what they think is true, and at worst, are meant to deceive you.

Back from the Living Dead, first published in 1945, is the first-hand account of Army Air Corps Major Burt Bank's experiences as part of the Bataan Death March and his subsequent prison camp experiences in Camp O'Donnell, Davao Penal Colony, and Cabanatuan, Philippines. In January 1945, Bank was part of the group of surviving POWs freed by U.S. Army Rangers. Back from the Living Dead was one of the first post-war accounts detailing the Death March and prisoner of war atrocities. Author Bertram Bank (1914-2009), from Tuscaloosa, Alabama, would go on to serve in Alabama's House of Representatives and Senate, and was also the founder of the Alabama Football Radio Network.

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.

"A rapturous, witty, and passionate memoir ... Violin Dreams is not only the story of a man becoming an artist, it’s a history of twentieth-century music.” -- John Guare, Tony Award-winning playwright Arnold Steinhardt, for more than forty years an international soloist and the first violinist of the Guarneri String Quartet, brings warmth, wit, and fascinating insider details to the story of his lifelong obsession with the violin, that most seductive and stunningly beautiful instrument. His story is rich with vivid scenes: the terror inflicted by his early violin teachers, the sensual pleasure involved in the pursuit of the perfect violin, the charged atmosphere of high-level competitions. Steinhardt describes Bach’s Chaconne as the holy grail for the solo violin, and he illuminates, from the perspective of an ardent owner of a great Storioni violin, the history and mysteries of the renowned Italian violinmakers. Violin Dreams includes a remarkable CD recording of Steinhardt performing Bach’s Partita in D Minor as a young violinist forty years ago and playing the same piece especially for this book. A conversation between the author and Alan Alda on the differences between the two performances is included in the liner notes.

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.

"In our brave new world, techno-evolution is often decried as the death knell of the written word. Award-winning author Andrei Codrescu demolishes this doomsday provocation in Bibliodeath: My Archives (With Life in Footnotes). Our moment of bibliodeath marks a tectonic shift under the ocean of human consciousness and the written word. As words migrate from the book into other means of transport, we are "privy to ... the passage of the soul from one body into another, a reincarnation that is not a meta-physics." A suspenseful meditation planted in a bed of alluring stories-cum-footnotes, Codrescu wades into the bibliodeath waters to examine his own evolution as a writer. From the poetic lines of an unlined notebook in 1960s Romania to the founding of Exquisite Corpse in 1983 to his ongoing commentary on NPR's All Things Considered, his journey is an archive of reinvention. Codrescu's literal Archives and his unsentimental and savage faith in reinvention take in the history of the literate world, the transformation of the printed word, and language itself. This picaresque adventure of a mind at work spans the fin-de-siécle to the 21st century, as the bibliodeath of one medium meets the birth of the next. The evolution of technology must deal with the indomitable bond between language and the human being. In the story of Codrescu, "leaving the traces of one's passage is worth the labor of a lifetime."--Back cover.

From his conversation with the conservative William F. Buckley on PBS to his testimony at the Chicago Seven trial to his passionate riffs on Cezanne, Blake, Whitman, and Pound, the interviews collected in Spontaneous Mind , chronologically arranged and in some cases previously unpublished, were conducted throughout Allen Ginsberg's long career. From the late 1950s to the mid-1990s, Ginsberg speaks frankly about his life, his work, and major events, allowing us to hear once again the impassioned voice of one of the most influential literary and cultural figures of our time.

Want to know how to become an overnight success? ...in only 38 years? "A Gift of Laughter", the autobiography of comedian Allan Sherman, tells in his own words how he became an overnight success in only 38 years. First he struggled as a free-lance writer. Later he produced television shows like the long-running hit "I've Got a Secret" (which he co-created). Then, on one fateful night, after picking up his unemployment check, he recorded an album of parodies called "My Son, the Folk Singer", which sold over one million copies, and became the fastest-selling album of all time. His next two albums also became smash hits, making him the only artist ever to have three consecutive Billboard #1 albums. His third album, "My Son, the Nut" contained the hit single "Hello, Muddah! Hello, Fadduh! - A Letter from Camp Granada" -- a summer camp anthem which is still being sung 50+ years later. Sherman sang at Carnegie Hall - twice! And the Hollywood Bowl - twice! He guest-hosted The Tonight Show, performed with and conducted The Boston Pops (notable because he can't read music ), entertained Presidents and Supreme Court Justices and millions of regular folk.

One day it happens: the dreaded event that will change your life forever. For Alix Kates Shulman, it happened in a remote seaside cabin on a coastal Maine island—where the very isolation that makes for a perfect artist's retreat can also put life at risk. Shulman woke to find that her beloved husband had fallen the nine feet from their sleeping loft and was lying on the floor below, deathly still. Though Scott would survive, he suffered an injury that left him seriously brain impaired. He was the same—but not the same. In this elegant memoir, Shulman describes the ongoing anxieties and risks—and surprising rewards—she experiences as she reorganizes her world to care for her husband and discovers that what might have seemed a life sentence to some has evolved into something unexpectedly rich.

A biographical excavation of one of the world’s great, troubled cities A remarkable view of one of the world’s most beloved and troubled cities, Adina Hoffman’s Till We Have Built Jerusalem is a gripping and intimate journey into the very different lives of three architects who helped shape modern Jerusalem. The book unfolds as an excavation. It opens with the 1934 arrival in Jerusalem of the celebrated Berlin architect Erich Mendelsohn, a refugee from Hitler’s Germany who must reckon with a complex new Middle Eastern reality. Next we meet Austen St. Barbe Harrison, Palestine’s chief government architect from 1922 to 1937. Steeped in the traditions of Byzantine and Islamic building, this “most private of public servants” finds himself working under the often stifling and violent conditions of British rule. And in the riveting final section, Hoffman herself sets out through the battered streets of today’s Jerusalem searching for traces of a possibly Greek, possibly Arab architect named Spyro Houris. Once a fixture on the local scene, Houris is now utterly forgotten, though his grand Armenian-tile-clad buildings still stand, a ghostly testimony to the cultural fluidity that has historically characterized Jerusalem at its best. A beautifully written rumination on memory and forgetting, place and displacement, Till We Have Built Jerusalem uncovers the ramifying layers of one great city’s buried history as it asks what it means, everywhere, to be foreign and to belong.

Four Weeks in the Trenches is a classic World War One biography by the great violinist, Fritz Kreisler. The first war book actually written by a man who has served at the front in WW1 was written by a famous violinist. The material is presented with vigor and simplicity. One of the phenomena of war--the sudden transformation of the highly emotional, neurotic man of literary or artistic pursuits, accustomed to an atmosphere of refinement, culture, and luxury, into a primeval savage in the space of a few days--interests the author.

The first volume of his autobiography covers the first 26 years of Koestler€™s life, ending with his joining the Communist Party in 1931. Written with zest, joie de vivre and frankness, it is a fascinating self-portrait of a remarkable young man at the heart of the events that shaped the twentieth century.

""Open Every Door"" by Zelda Popkin is a novel about a young girl named Sarah who grows up in a small town in the early 1900s. Despite her humble beginnings, Sarah is determined to make something of herself and escape the limitations of her small town. She dreams of becoming a writer and attending college, but her family and community hold her back with their traditional values and expectations.As Sarah navigates the challenges of growing up and pursuing her dreams, she also grapples with issues of identity and belonging. She feels torn between her desire to fit in and be accepted by her community, and her need to be true to herself and follow her own path.Throughout the novel, Sarah encounters a variety of characters who help shape her journey, including a supportive teacher, a rebellious friend, and a mysterious stranger who offers her a glimpse of a different world. As she learns to navigate these relationships and find her own voice, Sarah discovers that the key to unlocking her potential is to open every door and embrace every opportunity that comes her way.""Open Every Door"" is a coming-of-age story that explores themes of identity, ambition, and the power of perseverance. It is a poignant and inspiring tale that will resonate with readers of all ages and backgrounds.This scarce antiquarian book is a facsimile reprint of the old original and may contain some imperfections such as library marks and notations. Because we believe this work is culturally important, we have made it available as part of our commitment for protecting, preserving, and promoting the world's literature in affordable, high quality, modern editions, that are true to their original work.