1472 results for "Biography"

Subculture vulture: a memoir in six scenes

Kasher, Moshe
"After bottoming out, being institutionalized, and getting sober all by the tender age of fifteen, Moshe Kasher found himself asking: OK, so what else is out there? Over the ensuing decades, he found his way to the answer: a lot. From his current vantage point as a successful stand-up comic, Kasher looks back on his years careening from subculture to subculture, and he immerses readers in the hilariously strange nuances of each of the scenes he's found himself in. Immediately after getting sober, Kasher began serving as the self-appointed sheriff of his Young People's AA group. He then went on to start his own club-promoting business from scratch in the heart of the 90s California rave scene, and later became a security guard at Burning Man. Once, he caught a man who worked as a coyote at the US border sneaking punk kids into the festival as a side hustle. A child of deaf adults, he's also served as a sign language interpreter, and once helped an angry client cuss out a police officer. Later in life, Kasher went on to reconnect with his Jewish heritage after the death of his father, and now has a booming career as a stand-up comic"--
Random House 2024-01-30 301 pages

Find me the votes: a hard-charging Georgia prosecutor, a rogue president, and the plot to steal an American election

Isikoff, Michael,Klaidman, Daniel
"In Find Me the Votes, two years of immersive reporting by Isikoff and Klaidman has produced the most authoritative and dramatic account yet of a defeated president's conspiracy to overturn the 2020 election and how a local Georgia prosecutor--a daughter of the civil rights movement--decided to indict him and his allies for his desperate attempt to hold on to power. From the beginning, Fani Willis saw Donald Trump's crimes as a voting rights case, and an attempt by the former president to deprive the citizens of Georgia of the franchise, a right for which her forebears had bled. Isikoff and Klaidman take us deep inside both the nerve center of Trump's effort to steal the election and the DA's team of prosecutors as they build their case against the president. Their reporting reveals new information on the plot to criminally seize voting equipment in several states; Sidney Powell's attempt to obtain preemptive pardons from Trump; and revelatory communications between the president and his co-conspirators. We see the prosecution take shape in Willis's office in the face of heinous threats of violent retaliation from Trump's supporters. With blockbuster original reporting and exclusive access to thousands of secret documents, emails, text messages, and audio recordings, Find Me the Votes is investigative journalism at its finest. The authors also conducted exclusive interviews with key sources in the Trump conspiracy, as well as with the president's top targets, including Georgia secretary of state Brad Raffensperger and the Fulton County DA's team-featuring hours of interviews with Fani Willis herself. This is riveting contemporary history, and a lasting account of the prosecution of a president who tested the rule of law as no president ever had before. Isikoff and Klaidman have written a story for the ages."--
12/Twelve 2024 329 pages

Iron ambition: my life with Cus D'Amato

Tyson, Mike,Sloman, Larry
"From the former heavyweight champion and New York Times-bestselling memoirist comes an intimate look at the life and leadership lessons of Cus D'Amato, the legendary boxing trainer and Mike Tyson's surrogate father. When Cus D'Amato first saw thirteen-year-old Mike Tyson spar in the ring, he proclaimed, "That's the heavyweight champion of the world." D'Amato, who had previously managed the careers of world champions Floyd Patterson and Jose Torres, would go on to train the young Tyson and raise him as a son. D'Amato died a year before Tyson became the youngest heavyweight champion in history. In Tyson's bestselling memoir Undisputed Truth, he recounted the role D'Amato played in his formative years, adopting him at age sixteen after his mother died and shaping him both physically and mentally after Tyson had spent years living in fear and poverty. In Iron Ambition, Tyson elaborates on the life lessons that D'Amato passed down to him, and reflects on how the trainer's words of wisdom continue to resonate with him outside the ring. The book also chronicles Cus's courageous fight against the mobsters who controlled boxing, revealing more than we've ever known about this singular cultural figure"--
Blue Rider Press 2017 465 pages

Sunshine girl: an unexpected life

Margulies, Julianna
"Known for her outstanding performances on The Good Wife and ER, Julianna Margulies now unleashes her sharp talent with a powerful debut memoir chronicling her life and her work, examining from within, her journey from chaos to calm. "When an actor is on a long running television show, especially when the writing is superb as was the case with The Good Wife, the character becomes a second skin; they grow as you grow, they change as you change. Being an actress gives me the luxury of discovering myself. All the feelings that came up from playing Alicia allowed me to look back at my life and tap into my own vulnerability. My personal fear of the unknown reared its ugly head as I studied this character, most likely stemming from the ever-present unpredictability of my childhood." - From the Introduction An apple-cheeked bubbly child, Julianna Margulies was bestowed the nickname "Sunshine Girl" by her mother at an early age. Raised between two divorced parents, often on different continents, Julianna quickly learned how to be of value to her eccentric mother and her absent father. Raised in fairly unconventional ways in various homes in Paris, England, New York, and New Hampshire, Julianna's role among the turmoil and uncertainty that her parents generated, was to comfort those around her, find organization among the disorder, and eventually make her way in the world as a young adult and eventually an Award-winning actress. Along the way, there were failed romances, difficult choices, and overwhelming rejections. But there was also the moment that fate, faith, and talent assembled in a perfect storm that lead to the roles of a lifetime, both professionally and personally. Sunshine Girl is an accomplished coming of age story that offers readers a rich sense of relatability as well as the intimate details of a life unimagined"--
Ballantine Books 2021 236 pages

The best minds: a story of friendship, madness, and the tragedy of good intentions

Rosen, Jonathan
"When the Rosens moved to New Rochelle in 1973, Jonathan Rosen and Michael Laudor seemed destined to become inseparable. The boys, both children of college professors, grew up on the same street in intellectually vibrant homes shaped by ideas, liberal Jewish culture, the trauma of the Holocaust, and a shared love of basketball and standup comedy. But the two best friends were also keen competitors bearing the same great expectations, and when Michael and Jonathan both got into Yale, they seemed set to ascend to the heights of the American meritocratic elite. Leaving Jonathan behind, Michael blazed through college in three years, graduating summa cum laude and landing a top-flight consulting job for far more money than their parents had ever made. But all wasn't as it seemed. One day, Jonathan received the fateful call: Michael had suffered a serious psychotic break and was institutionalized at a New York City psychiatric hospital where he was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia. He would stay there for nine months before transitioning to a halfway house. Facing the prospect of a life spent bagging groceries, Michael decided to play the one card left to him: just before his break, he had been accepted to Yale Law School, and now, against all odds, he planned to enroll. Still struggling mightily with schizophrenia, Michael made it through the top law school in the country. His extraordinary story soon made the front page of the New York Times; an agent sold his memoir to a major publisher for a large sum; Ron Howard swept in to acquire film rights, with Brad Pitt set to star. It was all a dream come true for Michael and his tirelessly supportive girlfriend Carrie. But then, the unimaginable happened: in the grip of an unshakable paranoid fantasy, Michael stabbed Carrie to death with a kitchen knife. To this day, Michael Laudor remains confined to a maximum-security forensic hospital in upstate New York. The Best Minds is Jonathan Rosen's brilliant and heartbreaking account of what happened to Michael Laudor, and why. Exploring the dramatic transformation of American culture and of society's relationship to mental illness in the second half of the twentieth century, this is a story about the power and limits of the bonds of family, friendship, and community, the lure of the American dream and the promise of academic achievement. At times tender and hilarious, and at times harrowing and almost unbearably sad, The Best Minds is an extreme version of a story that is tragically familiar to all too many. In the hands of a writer of Jonathan Rosen's gifts and dedication, its significance will echo widely"--
Penguin Press 2024-04-16 562 pages

Stay interesting: I don't always tell stories about my life, but when I do they're true and amazing

Goldsmith, Jonathan,Gray, Geoffrey
"What makes a life truly interesting? Is it the people you meet? The risks you take? The adventures you remember? Jonathan Goldsmith has many answers to that question. For years he was a struggling actor in New York and Los Angeles, with experiencesthat included competing for roles with Dustin Hoffman, getting shot by John Wayne, drinking with Tennessee Williams, and sailing the high seas with Fernando Lamas, never mind romancing many lovely ladies along the way. However, it wasn't all fun and games for Jonathan. Frustrated with his career, he left Hollywood for other adventures in business and life. But then, a fascinating opportunity came his way--a chance to star in a new campaign for Dos Equis beer. A role he was sure he wasn't right for, but he gave it a shot all the same. Which led to the role that would bring him the success that had so long eluded him--that of "The Most Interesting Man in the World." A memoir told through a series of adventures and the lessons he's learned and wants to pass on, Stay Interesting is a truly daring and bold tale, and a manifesto about taking chances, not giving up, making courageous choices, and living a truly adventurous, and always interesting life"--
Dutton 2017-06-13 305 pages

How to make love like a porn star: a cautionary tale

Jameson, Jenna
In the underbelly of Las Vegas, a cesspool of warring biker gangs and seedy strip clubs, gawky, brace-faced Jenna Massoli was transformed into the bombshell Jenna Jameson. Today, Jenna is the biggest star in the history of adult movies, consistently ranked as one of the most beautiful women alive. But behind the glamour and the meteoric rise to fame was a path paved with tragedy and heartbreak. As a teenager—drawn into a dark and chaotic world where rape, abuse, and murder were commonplace—Jenna began her rapid downward spiral of addiction and degradation . . . while at the same time becoming the porn world's biggest crossover success story. Her intimate memoir, How to Make Love Like a Porn Star , is a shocking sexual history, an insider's guide to the secret workings of the billion-dollar adult film industry, and a gripping thriller that probes deeply into Jenna's dark past. Mix in hilarious anecdotes, adrenaline-pumping triumphs, and photos from Jenna's private collection, and you have a tell-all autobiography unlike any other.
HarperCollins 2005 288 pages

Directed by James Burrows: five decades of stories from the legendary director of Taxi, Cheers, Frasier, Friends, Will & Grace, and more

Burrows, James
"From the director of The Mary Tyler Moore Show, Taxi, Cheers, Frasier, Friends, and Will & Grace comes an insightful and nostalgic memoir that offers a bounty of behind-the-scenes moments from our favorite shows, peeling away the layers behind how a successful sitcom comes together--and stays that way. In Directed by James Burrows, the legendary talent not only provides backstories into the genesis and casting of the dozens of great sitcoms he directed, Burrows also offers insight into how these memorable shows are created, how they get on the air, and how the cast and crew continue to develop and grow each season, all coupled with tales of his challenges, career victories, and defeats, as well as advice for those who aspire to direct. All this from the man who helped launch the careers of Ted Danson, Kelsey Grammer, Woody Harrelson, Jennifer Aniston, Debra Messing, and Melissa McCarthy. Readers will discover the childhood and young adult influences and experiences that inspired Burrows, including, first and foremost, his father, legendary playwright and Broadway director Abe Burrows. Directed by James Burrows explores Burrows's journey in theater and television, including his first gigs in "the family business" in the late 1960s, his start working on Broadway and regional theater, directing, stage managing, and building sets. Hoping that his theatrical experience could be transferable to TV directing, he applied for a job with The Mary Tyler Moore Show. From there, he became a sought-after television director. His major break came with Taxi, for which he directed more than half of the series. Forming a partnership with writers/producers Glen and Les Charles, he then co-created the mega-hit Cheers, directing most of its episodes. Burrows went on to direct the pilots and multiple episodes of Frasier, Friends, Mike & Molly, The Big Bang Theory, and Two and a Half Men, plus all 246 episodes of Will & Grace and episodes of more than a hundred other shows. A heart-and-soul master class in sitcom, Directed by James Burrows reveals what it truly takes to get a laugh"--
Ballantine Books 2022-06-07 352 pages

Voices of a people's history of the United States

Zinn, Howard
Selected testimonies to living history—speeches, letters, poems, songs—offered by the people who make history happen, but are often left out of history books: women, workers, nonwhites. Featuring introductions to the original texts by Howard Zinn. New voices featured in this 10th Anniversary Edition include Chelsea Manning, speaking after her 35-year prison sentence); Naomi Klein, speaking from the Occupy Wall Street encampment in Liberty Square; a member of Dream Defenders, a youth organization that confronts systemic racial inequality; members of the Undocumented Youth movement, who occupied, marched, and demonstrated in support of the DREAM Act; a member of the Day Laborers movement; Chicago Teachers Union strikers; and several critics of the Obama administration, including Glenn Greenwald, on governmental secrecy.
Seven Stories Press 2014-11-11 696 pages

Pour your heart into it: how Starbucks built a company one cup at a time

Schultz, Howard
The success of Starbucks Coffee Company is one of the most amazing business stories in decades. What started as a single store on Seattle's waterfront has grown into the largest coffee chain on the planet. Just as remarkable as this incredible growth is the fact that Starbucks has managed to maintain its renowned commitment to product excellence and employee satisfaction.Marketers, managers, and aspiring entrepreneurs will discover how to turn passion into profit in this definitive chronicle of the company that "has changed everything... from our tastes to our language to the face of Main Street" (Fortune).
Hyperion 1997 351 pages

Edith Wharton

Lee, Hermione
Biographer Lee gives us a new Edith Wharton--tough, startlingly modern, as brilliant and complex as her fiction. Born in 1862, Wharton escaped the suffocating fate of the well-born female, traveled adventurously in Europe and eventually settled in France. She developed a forceful literary professionalism and thrived in a luminous society that included Bernard Berenson, Aldous Huxley and most famously Henry James, who here emerges more as peer than as master. Wharton's life was fed by nonliterary enthusiasms as well: houses and gardens, relief efforts during the Great War, and the culture of the Old World, which she never tired of absorbing. Yet intimacy eluded her: unhappily married and childless, her one brush with passion came and went in midlife, an affair intimately recounted here. Lee interweaves Wharton's life with the evolution of her writing, the full scope of which shows her to be far more daring than her stereotype as lapidarian chronicler of the Gilded Age.--From publisher description.
Alfred A. Knopf 2007 869 pages

All but my life

Klein, Gerda Weissmann
All But My Life is the unforgettable story of Gerda Weissmann Klein's six-year ordeal as a victim of Nazi cruelty. From her comfortable home in Bielitz (present-day Bielsko) in Poland to her miraculous survival and her liberation by American troops--including the man who was to become her husband--in Volary, Czechoslovakia, in 1945, Gerda takes the reader on a terrifying journey. Gerda's serene and idyllic childhood is shattered when Nazis march into Poland on September 3, 1939. Although the Weissmanns were permitted to live for a while in the basement of their home, they were eventually separated and sent to German labor camps. Over the next few years Gerda experienced the slow, inexorable stripping away of "all but her life." By the end of the war she had lost her parents, brother, home, possessions, and community; even the dear friends she made in the labor camps, with whom she had shared so many hardships, were dead. Despite her horrifying experiences, Klein conveys great strength of spirit and faith in humanity. In the darkness of the camps, Gerda and her young friends manage to create a community of friendship and love. Although stripped of the essence of life, they were able to survive the barbarity of their captors. Gerda's beautifully written story gives an invaluable message to everyone. It introduces them to last century's terrible history of devastation and prejudice, yet offers them hope that the effects of hatred can be overcome.
Hill and Wang 2019-11-19 289 pages

Things that make white people uncomfortable

Bennett, Michael,Zirin, Dave
"Defensive lineman Michael Bennett adds his voice to discussions of racism and police violence, Black athletes and their relationship to powerful institutions like the NCAA and the NFL, the role of protest in history, and the responsibilities of athletes as role models to speak out against injustice. Following in the footsteps of activist-athletes from Muhammad Ali to Colin Kaepernick, Bennett demonstrates his outspoken leadership both on and off the field."--Provided by publisher.
Haymarket Books 2018 220 pages

Coreyography: a memoir

Feldman, Corey
"A deeply personal and revealing memoir and Hollywood-survival story by The Lost Boys and Stand By Me star We all know Corey Feldman from such iconic movies as Stand by Me, Gremlins, The Goonies, and The Lost Boys. Growing up onscreen, he exuded tough guy edge with a heart of gold. And he lived the life that went along with his success: he palled around with Michael Jackson, dated Drew Barrymore, and was best friends with Corey Haim (aka "the other Corey"). But now that two of those close friends--Haim and Jackson--have passed away, along with others, Corey has decided that it's time to come clean about his past, a past that included physical, drug, and sexual abuse, a dysfunctional family from whom he was emancipated at age fifteen, and a stint in rehab. He will zone in on his close friendship with Haim: the two actors shared a darker story of abuse, which led to Haim's lifelong battle with various addictions and his eventual death. Through it all, Corey has overcome the worst traps that have ensnared so many others of his generation, others who have not made it to where he is today--still acting, a touring musician, and a loving father. At the same time, he still fights for his career and his health, every single day. Coreyography is a tale of survival and redemption"--
St. Martin's Press 2013 280 pages

Taking the stand: my life in the law

Dershowitz, Alan M.
#1 New York Times bestselling author Alan Dershowitz recounts his extraordinary coming of age in this legal autobiography, as well as the cases that have changed American jurisprudence over the past fifty years, most of which he has personally been involved in. “Overflowing with fascinating and funny vignettes involving his cases and clients, and probing and provocative insights into contemporary legal controversies.”— The Boston Globe Alan Dershowitz, the preeminent defense lawyer in America today, has been called the “winningest appellate criminal defense lawyer in history.” A professor at Harvard Law School since the age of twenty-five, he has led or been part of the defense team for such storied clients as Bill Clinton, Julian Assange, O. J. Simpson, Claus von Bülow, Mia Farrow, Jeffrey MacDonald, Patty Hearst, Mike Tyson, and countless others. In Taking the Stand, Dershowitz describes his evolution as a lawyer—from a C-minus student in Yeshiva High School to the youngest full professor in the history of Harvard Law School. In his #1 New York Times bestselling book Chutzpah, Alan described his Jewish life. In Taking the Stand, he looks at the people and events that have helped to shape his ideas about the law. He describes his formative years as a clerk for the United States Court of Appeals and the Supreme Court. In the course of his career, he confronts the challenges of First Amendment law, the ongoing tension between individual freedom and national security, the questionable science often employed to prosecute accused murderers, the evolution of civil rights—and why the abortion rights debate in society hasn’t moved forward since Roe v. Wade . Filled with unforgettable cases and inside legal “baseball,” Taking the Stand is a deeply personal account of one of the legendary legal minds of our time.
Broadway Books 2019-03-26 547 pages