This is a personal history of the twentieth century as seen through the eyes of Edith Kurzweil, author, teacher, editor of Partisan Review, and a recent recipient of the National Medal of Humanities. The book opens with Kurzweil early adolescence in Vienna during the Nazi takeover. It ends with the author finding herself in the new century. In between, she kept moving on and interrogating the world around her. The reader follows Kurzweil on her perilous journey, at the age of fourteen, to Belgium, through France, Spain, and Portugal, alone with her younger brother. Her fantasies of reunion with her parents in New York kept her going but came to naught: she had not expected to fall from a wealthy childhood into the life of the working-class poor, as a millinery apprentice or a diamond cutter. Instead of entering college life, she eventually became a conventional American housewife. Unhappy and anxious, she anticipated the social changes in America, and returned to Europe with her second husband and her two children. She arrived at the beginning of the Italian miracle--its post-war revitalization. In Milan she met many Americans as an active member of its community and of the British-American club. After personal tragedy she returned to New York, and only then pursued her early intellectual ambitions. The author eventually became a professor of sociology and quickly climbed up the academic ladder. Just as she had been as a little girl, she still "wanted to know everything," beginning with her study of Italian entrepreneurs and going on to European history and French thought, to psychoanalysis and anti-Semitism. Her early writings prompted William Phillips, co-founder and editor of Partisan Review, to invite her into the elite circle of New York intellectuals. She worked alongside him, first as a reader, then as executive editor, and took over the editorship of the legendary journal during its final period. Kurzweil's journey was one of courage, and of emotional and intellectual growth. Full Circle will be of interest to intellectual and cultural historians, literary and Holocaust scholars, and American studies specialists.

"In her trusted loaded-up minivan 'Minnie,' E.A. Hanks follows the same route as a long-ago road trip with her mother in an attempt to better understand the complicated woman who gave her life. Along the way, as she follows her mother's diaries and her own recollections of the route, she begins to uncover secrets--some unexpectedly wonderful, and others darker and more violent than she ever imagined--that bring more questions than answers. From the quiet expanses of White Sands National Park to the bustling streets of New Orleans, and the Texas-Mexico border to the swamps of the Florida panhandle, she interacts with the amazing breadth and diversity of the people that call these places home. Reckoning with the past, the present, her memories, and herself, Hanks brings us along a ... voyage towards understanding how the stories we tell about the places we're from ultimately become the stories we tell about the people we are"--

Best known as General Counsel of the Canadian Civil Liberties Association, a position he held for over 40 years, A. Alan Borovoy was at the centre of many of the most profound and difficult public debates of last half century. In At the Barricades, Borovoy reflects on the events that have shaped the Canadian political legal landscape from the Cold War of the 1950s and 60s to the “war on terrorism” in the 21st century. Along the way he provides a first-hand account of Québec’s FLQ crisis of 1970, the protests regarding the abortion controversy, the battles over free speech, hate speech, and pornography, and the struggles to protect the rights of Aboriginal peoples, the economically disadvantaged, and victims of police misconduct. This book recounts the life of an activist; always principled and compassionate, usually controversial, often very funny, and never dull. It should be read by anyone who is interested in how we got to where we are today and concerned about where we are going.

One afternoon in December 1992, Yuri Lotman sat down to dictate to his assistant. These sessions were spread out over that winter and into the spring of 1993—the final spring of Lotman's life. The result is this book of memories and recollections. Five sections concern a single anecdote or theme—lice on the front, an encounter with a hare, a "totally Bulgakovian" episode, a visit from the KGB, Tartu School politics. The remaining two sections supply the narrative backbone of the memoir, focusing on the passage of time: school and frontline life, the end of the war, and postwar university life. --

Walter Laqueur has been writing and teaching for over six decades, primarily in the fields of twentieth century history and politics, always as a shrewd and thoughtful generalist in an age of specialization. In this engaging memoir, Laqueur focuses on the political and historical events that shaped his thinking and that have inspired his intellectual work throughout his life. He discusses living and attending school under Nazism; Marxism, the Soviet Union, and the part he played in Cold War politics; and the image his generation had of Zionism, Israel, and the Middle East. Laqueur shares his views on beltway politics and think tanks, and concludes with a look at guerrilla warfare and terrorism, and the future of Europe.

Miserable at an elegant day school for girls, Victoria Coren finds an escape in the mysterious world of poker. Twenty years later, she has won a million dollars and forgotten to have children. What price adventure? This is a true story of happiness and heartbreak, smoke and mirrors, bright lights and shady characters. It is a memoir of friendship and belonging, love and loss. It might also teach you how to win a million . . .

Tom Mangold is known to millions as the face of BBC television's flagship current affairs programme Panorama. His memoir, Splashed, is packed with revelations about some of the stories which made the headlines during his long journey from print to Panorama. His intent was to uncover some of the more raucous and downright absurd events that marked his life in journalism alongside some of the more serious work which made his name. He describes his national service in Germany through his years in the '50s on Fleet Street's most ruthless newspapers, a period where cheque book journalism ruled and shamelessness could be viewed as a major skill for any would-be journalist. Mangold then moves on to his illustrious career at the BBC, where he developed a reputation for his war reporting and his involvement in a series of major investigations. He then moved to the Panorama team where he worked for twenty-six years.Mangold takes us backstage at Panorama and reveals a world not quite as serious as the stories it broadcast each and every week.From world exclusives with fallen women to chaotic interviews with Presidents, Splashed unveils significant revelations about some of the stories which made the headlines during his long journey from print to Panorama.

Brownmiller, feminist author and a network television newswriter during the Vietnam era, recounts her journeys in Vietnam in the grand tradition of Evelyn Waugh and Graham Greene, combining reportage, memoir, and adventure in a portrait of a people and a country we have fought but never known. Her descriptions of her encounters with Buddhist monks, Hanoi nightlife, and Saigon markets are interspersed with political insights on the country's history and current situation. Annotation copyright Book News, Inc. Portland, Or.

A sophisticated coming-of-age memoir tracing a modern Holly Golightly from girl- to womanhood and from fantasy to realityFrom the glittering skyscrapers of Manhattan's media elite to the slacker haven of a fashionably low-rent L. A. bar, Strawberry Saroyan traces her journey not only from girl- to womanhood, but from fantasy to reality. A powerful and profoundly post-modern coming of age story, with a voice reminiscent of Liz Phair one moment and Mary McCarthy the next, Girl Walks into a Bar explores Saroyan's struggle not only with who she is and who she wants to be, but also who she is in the context of what she's supposed to embody: the iconic media-promulgated 'girl', a 21st-century version of Audrey Hepburn standing outside Tiffany's looking at diamonds. episodes of Saroyan's life and brings them to the page as a filmmaker might, zeroing in on the crucial 'scenes': losing her virginity, starting her own riot grrly magazine, falling in dysfunctional love. Yet all the while, she's trailed by that other black-clad girl, the Platonic ideal of so many modern young women's fantasies. Will they ever meet? That question lies at the heart of Saroyan's genre-bending meoir. Girl Walks into a Bar promises to be one of the most memorable debuts of the year. Strawberry Saroyan was born in 1970 and grew up in California. After graduating from Barnard, she was an editor at Conde Nast Traveler. Her writing has appeared in Salon, Elle and Vogue. She lives in Los Angeles.

A hysterical memoir of growing up as a husky . . . plump . . .heavy-set . . . OK, FAT! child, who struggled with weight problems through adulthood, Stephen Furst shares his tips and recipes for how he went from an out-of-control 320-pound person with diabetes, to his lean, mean, low-fat eating machine of 175. A self-help cookbook of epic proportions­­or actually, epic portions­­filled with all kinds of tips and anecdotes, it includes everything from real recipes (such as cheesecake, soup, and pasta) to how to get through the holidays without killing yourself instead of your relatives. You've tried everything else­­try laughing your way to better health. Stephen Furst has been an actor for the past 23 years, starring in the classic movie comedy Animal House and two multiaward-winning television series­­"St. Elsewhere" and "Babylon 5 ."

Rising dramatically above all other skyscrapers at the tip of Manhattan, the World Trade Center symbolized New York. From any direction the Towers were lodestars, Manhattan's local mountains. Nearly a decade after the dark events of 9/11, New Yorkers continue to come to terms with the tragedy, and to reminisce about the views of the Towers they once had from their homes and offices. Visitors, too, are remembering how the WTC looked as they approached Manhattan by car, plane, or from the water. As we mourn for the terrible loss of life, we also want to remember. The 72 images of the World Trade Center presented in this book depict a New York we once knew, one we are now working to rebuild. For more than two decades, practically since the Twin Towers were erected, Sonja Bullaty and Angelo Lomeo have been photographing these awesome buildings. The pictures featured here portray the WTC from all directions, starting with views from the east at dawn, and ending with evening views from the west. There are captivating panoramas from Brooklyn, Lower Manhattan, New Jersey, and uptown, taken in all seasons, as well as a section showing the grand Plaza at the center of the buildings. Together, they create an unforgettable portrait of the Twin Towers. Introducing this extraordinary collection of photographs, Paul Goldberger's text evokes the Towers and the city they came to symbolize. He recalls how they evolved in the public mind, targets of criticism to beloved American icons. He explains their architectural significance and explores their visceral meaning to New Yorkers. In contrast to books depicting the disaster and the days following it, this photographic memoir will be welcomed by all of us— New Yorkers and visitors alike — who yearn to remember the way the city was. A portion of the book's proceeds are donated to the Twin Towers Scholarship Program care of Scholarship America.

In this moving and often astonishing memoir, Nobel Peace Prize winner and former Israeli prime minister Shimon Peres undertakes something most unusual: an imaginary voyage with Theodor Herzl, the great Zionist theorist and spiritual father of Israel.

(Limelight). From Booklist: Actor-director-producer Leonard has a real gift for storytelling that he displays to the fullest in a breezy, readable memoir of his life in show business. Starting out as an actor in 1930s New York in such forgotten hit plays as Hotel Alimony, Fly Away Home , and Kiss the Boys Goodbye , Leonard had the foresight and financial need to leap first to radio and movies, then to television, in which he created or produced such rerun perennials as Make Room for Daddy, The Andy Griffith Show , and the controversial (for its time) I Spy . Along the way, Leonard met lots and lots of fascinating people--John Garfield, Jack Benny, Danny Thomas, Carl Reiner, and Bill Cosby, to mention a few of the dozens about whom Leonard has a funny story or three to tell. Some of these stories are well known, such as those of the closeness of the writers, actors, and staff of The Dick Van Dyke Show ; others are not, such as those of Leonard's various, sometimes dangerous, adventures around the world while filming I Spy . Jack Helbig

"Sasson Somekh's memoir takes shape like a series of telling snapshots from another time and place. The time is the 1930s and '40s and the place, Iraq, where Somekh and his family were part of the country's then-flourishing Jewish community. The book offers an intimate view of this milieu and manages both to describe vividly the young Somekh's intellectual and emotional growth and to map the now-vanished world of Baghdad's book stalls and literary cafes, its Arabic-speaking Jewish bank clerks, outdoor movies at the Cinema Diana, and bonfires by the Tigris. As the pieces of Somekh's unsentimental memoir accumulate, they also mount in meaning. The book celebrates the ups and downs of Iraqi Jewish life as it also portrays the eventual dissolution of the community in the early 1950s."--Jacket.

"A memoir about showbiz in the early 20th century that travels from the theaters of Vienna, Prague, and Berlin, to Hollywood during the golden age, complete with encounters with Franz Kafka, Albert Einstein, and Greta Garbo along the way. Salka Viertel's autobiography tells of a brilliant, creative, and well-connected woman's pilgrimage through the darkest years of the twentieth century, a journey that would take her from a remote province of the Austro-Hungarian Empire to Hollywood. The Kindness of Strangers is, to quote the New Yorker writer S. N. Behrman, "a very rich book. It provides a panorama of the dissolving civilizations of the twentieth century. In all of them the author lived at the apex of their culture and artistic aristocracies. Her childhood. is an entrancing idyll. In Berlin, in Prague, in Vienna, there appears Karl Kraus, Kafka, Rilke, Robert Musil, Schoenberg, Einstein, Alban Berg. There is the suffering and disruption of the First World War and the suffering and agony after it, which is described with such intimacy and vividness that you endure these terrible years with the author. Then comes the migration to Hollywood, where Salka's house on Maybery Road becomes a kind of Pantheon for the gathered artists, musicians, and writers. It seems to me that no one has ever described Hollywood and the life of writers there with such verve.""--

In classical anthropology, subjects of study are seen as vulnerable while their observers are instructed to remain detached and objective. Yet with the emergence during the last decade of a group of anthropologists with recognizable connections to the cultures in which they work, the lines between participant and observer, insider and outsider are no longer so easily drawn. In The Vulnerable Observer, the award-winning anthropologist Ruth Behar offers a new theory and practice for this humanistic anthropology. No longer looking over others' shoulders, she becomes one of the subjects of study as she reflects upon the observer as well as the observed. Eloquently interweaving ethnography and memoir, Ruth Behar reflects on fieldwork in Spain, Cuba, and the United States through her personal stories of loss as a young Cuban Jewish immigrant. Beginning with a poignant essay exploring the refuge she found in her fieldwork as her grandfather died, she proposes an anthropology that is lived and written in a personal voice in the hope that it will lead us toward greater depth of understanding and feeling for those about whom we write

Ronald Radosh's earliest memory is of being trundled off to May Day celebrations by his communist parents with a Soviet flag stuck in his baby carriage. Then came education at New York's ''little red schoolhouse.'' Summers at ''commie camp.'' And college at the University of Wisconsin where he became a founding father of the New Left. Commies is a brilliant memoir of growing up in the culture of radicalism. But it also about the hard decisions faced by those professing a radical faith. For Radosh himself, the crisis came when he concluded in his authoritative book on Julius and Ethel Rosenberg that the couple (on whose behalf he had demonstrated as a boy) had indeed been guilty of spying. Attacked as a ''traitor,'' Radosh began to question his political commitments. His disillusionment climaxed in the 1980s when he traveled through Central America as a journalist and historian and ran into his old comrades there still searching for the revolution. One journalist calls Ronald Radosh ''the Zelig of the American Left, seen everywhere and knowing everyone.'' Humorous and tragic, filled with anecdote and personality, Commies is a trip log of his journey, the most intimate look yet at the experience of a radical generation.

During a career spanning more than forty years, the award-winning journalist and broadcaster Robin Lustig has lived in, worked in and reported from more than eighty countries. Now, in Is Anything Happening?, he tells the inside story of the triumphs and disasters he experienced along the way. He describes coming under fire in Pakistan and crashing the bongs of Big Ben on Remembrance Sunday. He was in Berlin on the day Germany was re-unified, and in Moscow for the final day of the Soviet Union. He also met some of the world's most revered, and reviled, political leaders, from Nelson Mandela to the 'butcher of Bosnia', Radovan Karadzic. And Lustig famously presented a special news programme covering the sudden death of Diana, Princess of Wales, just hours after the announcement was made. In this highly personal memoir, both funny and poignant, Lustig describes growing up as the son of refugees from Nazi Germany, retracing the journeys of his immigrant forebears, and standing on the very spot where his grandmother was murdered by a Nazi death squad in 1941. After more than thirty years of reporting from and about the Middle East - including three years based in Jerusalem for The Observer - he reflects on the continuing conflict between Israelis and Palestinians and reaches a startling and controversial conclusion: that the establishment of the state of Israel in 1948 may well have been a mistake for both Jews and non-Jews.

With lively style, good humor and insight, Robin Hemley helps you turn all that you experience into fresh and powerful fiction. By learning to "reimagine," you'll focus on translating real-world people and events into characters and scenes that happen on paper for the first time. You'll think "what if" instead of "what is" in order to take control of your material and cut loose the inhibitions of real life. In these pages, you'll learn how to hone your observation skills and fill your journal with rich and vivid details. (Because, as Hemley writes, "Life is in the details, and so is good fiction.") You'll see how to decide which ideas to bring to fiction and which ones to let go. And you'll learn how to: find the right form - novel, short story, vignette, memoir - for the story you want to tell; use "triggers" to start your reader's imagination rolling; keep your fiction emotionally honest by making the right choices between "the way it happened" and what the story dictates (ask "Is it believable?", not "Did it happen?"); create composites of real people and places that fit the unique needs of your story and empower your imagination; focus your fiction. Make sure everything, every character counts - and eliminate "people who sit at the end of the bar without a role to play"; fictionalize - ethically and legally - other people's stories. Learn your rights as a writer versus their rights to privacy. (Can you use actual names? When do you need to get permission?) To illustrate how writers feed their fiction with reality, Hemley uses examples from his own work and from fiction masters of yesterday and today. At the end of each chapter, challenging exercises help you apply the basic theories and push them even further. An adventurous read, Turning Life Into Fiction will help you create fiction that's just as strange and wonderful and "real" as the life that inspires it.