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The Prison Break, the Manhunt, the Inside Story   In June 2015, two vicious convicted murderers broke out of the Clinton Correctional Facility in Dannemora, in New York’s North Country, launching the most extensive manhunt in state history. Aided by prison employee Joyce Mitchell, double murderer Richard Matt and cop-killer David Sweat slipped out of their cells, followed a network of tunnels and pipes under the thirty-foot prison wall, and climbed out of a manhole to freedom.   For three weeks, the residents of local communities were virtual prisoners in their own homes as law enforcement from across the nation swept the rural wilderness near the Canadian border. The manhunt made front-page headlines—as did the prison sex scandal involving both inmates and Joyce Mitchell—and culminated in a dramatic and bloody standoff.   Now Charles A. Gardner—a lifelong resident of the community and a former correction officer who began his training at Clinton and ultimately oversaw the training of staff in twelve prisons, including Clinton—tells the whole story from an insider's point of view.   From the lax ethics and sexual hunger that drove Joyce Mitchell to fraternize with Matt and Sweat, smuggle them tools, and offer to be their getaway driver, to the state budget cuts that paved the way for prison corruption, to the brave and tireless efforts to bring the escaped killers to justice, Dannemora is a gripping account of the circumstances that led to the bold breakout and the twenty-three-day search that culminated in one man dead, and one man back in custody—and lingering questions about those who set the deadly drama in motion. |
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Can an epic adventure succeed without a hero? Andra Watkins needs a wingman to help her become the first living person to walk the historic 444-mile Natchez Trace as the pioneers did. Fifteen miles of rugged highway each day for thirty-four days. After striking-out with everyone in her life, she settles upon her disinterested eighty-year-old father. And his gas. The sleep apnea machine and self-scratching. Sharing a bathroom with a man whose gut obliterates his aim. Her father is every grown child’s nightmare of embarrassing behavior. They’ve never gotten along. As Watkins trudges America's forgotten highway, she loses herself in despair and pain. Her tenuous connection to her father unravels in a series of epic misunderstandings. Will they finish the trip and turn ‘I wish I had’ into ‘I’m glad I did?’ Or will they kill each other? Not Without My Father: One Woman’s 444-Mile Walk of the Natchez Trace is a New York Times best selling memoir for everyone who suffers from shattered dreams and dysfunctional relationships. If you like Cheryl Strayed, Bill Bryson, or Elizabeth Gilbert, you’ll love this humorous, heartbreaking memoir from New York Times best selling author Andra Watkins. Buy Not Without My Father today and discover your next favorite read! |
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For readers of The Glass Castle and Wild, a stunning new memoir about family, loss and the struggle for a better future #1 International Bestseller Tara Westover was seventeen when she first set foot in a classroom. Instead of traditional lessons, she grew up learning how to stew herbs into medicine, scavenging in the family scrap yard and helping her family prepare for the apocalypse. She had no birth certificate and no medical records and had never been enrolled in school. Westover’s mother proved a marvel at concocting folk remedies for many ailments. As Tara developed her own coping mechanisms, little by little, she started to realize that what her family was offering didn’t have to be her only education. Her first day of university was her first day in school—ever—and she would eventually win an esteemed fellowship from Cambridge and graduate with a PhD in intellectual history and political thought. |
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INSTANT #1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER In his first and only official autobiography, music icon Elton John reveals the truth about his extraordinary life, from his rollercoaster lifestyle as shown in the film Rocketman , to becoming a living legend. Christened Reginald Dwight, he was a shy boy with Buddy Holly glasses who grew up in the London suburb of Pinner and dreamed of becoming a pop star. By the age of twenty-three he was performing his first gig in America, facing an astonished audience in his bright yellow dungarees, a star-spangled T-shirt, and boots with wings. Elton John had arrived and the music world would never be the same again. His life has been full of drama, from the early rejection of his work with song-writing partner Bernie Taupin to spinning out of control as a chart-topping superstar; from half-heartedly trying to drown himself in his LA swimming pool to disco-dancing with Princess Diana and Queen Elizabeth; from friendships with John Lennon, Freddie Mercury, and George Michael to setting up his AIDS Foundation to conquering Broadway with Aida , The Lion King , and Billy Elliot the Musical . All the while Elton was hiding a drug addiction that would grip him for over a decade. In Me , Elton also writes powerfully about getting clean and changing his life, about finding love with David Furnish and becoming a father. In a voice that is warm, humble, and open, this is Elton on his music and his relationships, his passions and his mistakes. This is a story that will stay with you by a living legend. |
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Oprah's Book Club Summer 2018 Selection The Instant New York Times Bestseller A powerful, revealing story of hope, love, justice, and the power of reading by a man who spent thirty years on death row for a crime he didn't commit. “An amazing and heartwarming story, it restores our faith in the inherent goodness of humanity.” —Archbishop Desmond Tutu In 1985, Anthony Ray Hinton was arrested and charged with two counts of capital murder in Alabama. Stunned, confused, and only twenty–nine years old, Hinton knew that it was a case of mistaken identity and believed that the truth would prove his innocence and ultimately set him free. But with no money and a different system of justice for a poor black man in the South, Hinton was sentenced to death by electrocution. He spent his first three years on Death Row at Holman State Prison in agonizing silence—full of despair and anger toward all those who had sent an innocent man to his death. But as Hinton realized and accepted his fate, he resolved not only to survive, but find a way to live on Death Row. For the next twenty–seven years he was a beacon—transforming not only his own spirit, but those of his fellow inmates, fifty–four of whom were executed mere feet from his cell. With the help of civil rights attorney and bestselling author of Just Mercy, Bryan Stevenson, Hinton won his release in 2015. With a foreword by Stevenson, The Sun Does Shine is an extraordinary testament to the power of hope sustained through the darkest times. Destined to be a classic memoir of wrongful imprisonment and freedom won, Hinton’s memoir tells his dramatic thirty–year journey and shows how you can take away a man’s freedom, but you can’t take away his imagination, humor, or joy. |
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Doctor Max Jacobson, whom the Secret Service under President John F. Kennedy code-named “Dr. Feelgood,” developed a unique “energy formula” that altered the paths of some of the twentieth century’s most iconic figures, including President and Jackie Kennedy, Marilyn Monroe, Frank Sinatra, and Elvis. JFK received his first injection (a special mix of “vitamins and hormones,” according to Jacobson) just before his first debate with Vice President Richard Nixon. The shot into JFK’s throat not only cured his laryngitis, but also diminished the pain in his back, allowed him to stand up straighter, and invigorated the tired candidate. Kennedy demolished Nixon in that first debate and turned a tide of skepticism about Kennedy into an audience that appreciated his energy and crispness. What JFK didn’t know then was that the injections were actually powerful doses of a combination of highly addictive liquid methamphetamine and steroids. Author and researcher Rick Lertzman and New York Times bestselling author Bill Birnes reveal heretofore unpublished material about the mysterious Dr. Feelgood. Through well-researched prose and interviews with celebrities including George Clooney, Jerry Lewis, Yogi Berra, and Sid Caesar, the authors reveal Jacobson’s vast influence on events such as the assassination of JFK, the Cuban Missile Crisis, the Kennedy-Khrushchev Vienna Summit, the murder of Marilyn Monroe, the filming of the C. B. DeMille classic The Ten Commandments , and the work of many of the great artists of that era. Jacobson destroyed the lives of several famous patients in the entertainment industry and accidentally killed his own wife, Nina, with an overdose of his formula. |
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An intimate, powerful, and inspiring memoir by the former First Lady of the United States   #1  NEW YORK TIMES  BESTSELLER • OPRAH’S BOOK CLUB PICK • NAACP IMAGE AWARD WINNER In a life filled with meaning and accomplishment, Michelle Obama has emerged as one of the most iconic and compelling women of our era. As First Lady of the United States of America—the first African American to serve in that role—she helped create the most welcoming and inclusive White House in history, while also establishing herself as a powerful advocate for women and girls in the U.S. and around the world, dramatically changing the ways that families pursue healthier and more active lives, and standing with her husband as he led America through some of its most harrowing moments. Along the way, she showed us a few dance moves, crushed Carpool Karaoke, and raised two down-to-earth daughters under an unforgiving media glare.   In her memoir, a work of deep reflection and mesmerizing storytelling, Michelle Obama invites readers into her world, chronicling the experiences that have shaped her—from her childhood on the South Side of Chicago to her years as an executive balancing the demands of motherhood and work, to her time spent at the world’s most famous address. With unerring honesty and lively wit, she describes her triumphs and her disappointments, both public and private, telling her full story as she has lived it—in her own words and on her own terms. Warm, wise, and revelatory, Becoming is the deeply personal reckoning of a woman of soul and substance who has steadily defied expectations—and whose story inspires us to do the same. |
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For David Goggins, childhood was a nightmare - poverty, prejudice, and physical abuse colored his days and haunted his nights. But through self-discipline, mental toughness, and hard work, Goggins transformed himself from a depressed, overweight young man with no future into a U.S. Armed Forces icon and one of the world's top endurance athletes. The only man in history to complete elite training as a Navy SEAL, Army Ranger, and Air Force Tactical Air Controller, he went on to set records in numerous endurance events, inspiring Outside magazine to name him The Fittest (Real) Man in America. In Can't Hurt Me, he shares his astonishing life story and reveals that most of us tap into only 40% of our capabilities. Goggins calls this The 40% Rule, and his story illuminates a path that anyone can follow to push past pain, demolish fear, and reach their full potential. |
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INSTANT #1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER Famed American actress Demi Moore at last tells her own story in a surprisingly intimate and emotionally charged memoir. For decades, Demi Moore has been synonymous with celebrity. From iconic film roles to high-profile relationships, Moore has never been far from the spotlight—or the headlines. Even as Demi was becoming the highest paid actress in Hollywood, however, she was always outrunning her past, just one step ahead of the doubts and insecurities that defined her childhood. Throughout her rise to fame and during some of the most pivotal moments of her life, Demi battled addiction, body image issues, and childhood trauma that would follow her for years—all while juggling a skyrocketing career and at times negative public perception.  As her success grew, Demi found herself questioning if she belonged in Hollywood, if she was a good mother, a good actress—and, always, if she was simply good enough. As much as her story is about adversity, it is also about tremendous resilience. In this deeply candid and reflective memoir, Demi pulls back the curtain and opens up about her career and personal life—laying bare her tumultuous relationship with her mother, her marriages, her struggles balancing stardom with raising a family, and her journey toward open heartedness. Inside Out is a story of survival, success, and surrender—a wrenchingly honest portrayal of one woman’s at once ordinary and iconic life. |
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A quietly affecting and laugh-out-loud funny immigrant memoir tells the story of a girl and her family as they flee Vietnam to America in the 1980s. "This memoir is gripping and well crafted...Beautifully written" - Publishers Weekly  BookLife Prize (FINALIST, #1 Memoir in 2018)      "An engaging tale of coming to America and becoming an American." - James Taranto, Op-Ed editor of  The Wall Street Journal    "Heartrending and funny" -  Voice of America Press Conference USA     "The story is authentic, powerful, sad and beautiful...a very easy read" - John Migueis, msw, lcsw of  My Hope Therapy Services   Featured memoir at  Morristown Festival of Books 2018 |
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NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER In this follow-up to her critically acclaimed memoir, Home , Julie Andrews shares reflections on her astonishing career, including such classics as Mary Poppins , The Sound of Music , and Victor/Victoria . In Home , the number one New York Times international bestseller, Julie Andrews recounted her difficult childhood and her emergence as an acclaimed singer and performer on the stage. With this second memoir, Home Work: A Memoir of My Hollywood Years , Andrews picks up the story with her arrival in Hollywood and her phenomenal rise to fame in her earliest films-- Mary Poppins and The Sound of Music . Andrews describes her years in the film industry -- from the incredible highs to the challenging lows. Not only does she discuss her work in now-classic films and her collaborations with giants of cinema and television, she also unveils her personal story of adjusting to a new and often daunting world, dealing with the demands of unimaginable success, being a new mother, the end of her first marriage, embracing two stepchildren, adopting two more children, and falling in love with the brilliant and mercurial Blake Edwards. The pair worked together in numerous films, including Victor/Victoria , the gender-bending comedy that garnered multiple Oscar nominations. Cowritten with her daughter, Emma Walton Hamilton, and told with Andrews's trademark charm and candor, Home Work takes us on a rare and intimate journey into an extraordinary life that is funny, heartrending, and inspiring. |
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#1  NEW YORK TIMES  BESTSELLER • PULITZER PRIZE FINALIST • T his inspiring, exquisitely observed memoir finds hope and beauty in the face of insurmountable odds as an idealistic young neurosurgeon attempts to answer the question  What makes a life worth living? NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY   The New York Times Book Review • People • NPR • The Washington Post • Slate • Harper’s Bazaar • Time Out New York • Publishers Weekly • BookPage Finalist for the PEN Center USA Literary Award in Creative Nonfiction and the Books for a Better Life Award in Inspirational Memoir At the age of thirty-six, on the verge of completing a decade’s worth of training as a neurosurgeon, Paul Kalanithi was diagnosed with stage IV lung cancer. One day he was a doctor treating the dying, and the next he was a patient struggling to live. And just like that, the future he and his wife had imagined evaporated. When Breath Becomes Air chronicles Kalanithi’s transformation from a naïve medical student “possessed,” as he wrote, “by the question of what, given that all organisms die, makes a virtuous and meaningful life” into a neurosurgeon at Stanford working in the brain, the most critical place for human identity, and finally into a patient and new father confronting his own mortality. What makes life worth living in the face of death? What do you do when the future, no longer a ladder toward your goals in life, flattens out into a perpetual present? What does it mean to have a child, to nurture a new life as another fades away? These are some of the questions Kalanithi wrestles with in this profoundly moving, exquisitely observed memoir. Paul Kalanithi died in March 2015, while working on this book, yet his words live on as a guide and a gift to us all. “I began to realize that coming face to face with my own mortality, in a sense, had changed nothing and everything,” he wrote. “Seven words from Samuel Beckett began to repeat in my head: ‘I can’t go on. I’ll go on.’” When Breath Becomes Air is an unforgettable, life-affirming reflection on the challenge of facing death and on the relationship between doctor and patient, from a brilliant writer who became both. |
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Près de trente-cinq ans après la dissolution du mythique groupe Harmonium, Serge Fiori se livre à Louise Thériault, qui dresse de lui un portrait tout en nuances, plein d’empathie mais jamais complaisant. Grâce à des dizaines d’heures d’entrevues – tant avec Fiori lui-même qu’avec ceux qui ont jalonné sa vie personnelle et professionnelle –, l’auteure nous relate, depuis son enfance italienne jusqu’à l’éclosion de son immense talent, comment Serge est devenu Fiori, comment Harmonium est né et a vécu, dans un Québec en pleine effervescence culturelle et politique. Sa relation à son père et à sa mère, sa peur de la folie, sa spiritualité, son rapport complexe aux autres musiciens, son engagement politique, le culte de la personnalité que lui vouent ses admirateurs et qui le dépasse, les raisons de son retrait de la vie publique; rien n’échappe à la plume tout en finesse de Louise Thériault, qui fut son amoureuse, puis son amie et sa confidente. Elle nous raconte la carrière désormais dans l’ombre que mène Serge Fiori depuis cette rupture, depuis qu’il s’est «enlevé du chemin», rongé par le doute et l’angoisse, et sa vie personnelle jusqu’à aujourd’hui. Un portrait fascinant, un plongeon au cœur de l’âme et de la fragilité d’un homme qui a consacré sa vie à la musique, mais dont l’ego n’a jamais atteint l’immense ampleur de son talent. |
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The instant New York Times bestseller A chance encounter at a summer party on Martha’s Vineyard blossomed into an improbable but enduring friendship. Carly Simon and Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis made an unlikely pair—Carly, a free and artistic spirit still reeling from her recent divorce, searching for meaning, new love, and an anchor; and Jackie, one of the most celebrated, meticulous, unknowable women in American history. Nonetheless, over the next decade their lives merged in inextricable and complex ways, and they forged a connection deeper than either could ever have foreseen. The time they spent together—lingering lunches and creative collaborations, nights out on the town and movie dates—brought a welcome lightness and comfort to their days, but their conversations often veered into more profound territory as they helped each other navigate the shifting waters of life lived, publicly, in the wake of great love and great loss. An intimate, vulnerable, and insightful portrait of the bond that grew between two iconic and starkly different American women, Carly Simon’s Touched by the Sun is a chronicle, in loving detail, of the late friendship she and Jackie shared. It is a meditation on the ways someone can unexpectedly enter our lives and change its course, as well as a celebration of kinship in all its many forms. "In Touched by the Sun , Simon reveals an easy-going, playful side of [Jackie] that most people never saw — sneaking a smoke during intermission at the opera, frolicking in the ocean off the Vineyard . . . The woman who would later edit several of Simon’s children’s books was 'just fun to be around.'" —Juliet Pennington, The Boston Globe |
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In this extraordinary and inspiring debut memoir, Jesse Thistle, once a high school dropout and now a rising Indigenous scholar, chronicles his life on the streets and how he overcame trauma and addiction to discover the truth about who he is. If I can just make it to the next minute...then I might have a chance to live; I might have a chance to be something more than just a struggling crackhead. From the Ashes is a remarkable memoir about hope and resilience, and a revelatory look into the life of a Métis-Cree man who refused to give up. Abandoned by his parents as a toddler, Jesse Thistle briefly found himself in the foster-care system with his two brothers, cut off from all they had known. Eventually the children landed in the home of their paternal grandparents, whose tough-love attitudes quickly resulted in conflicts. Throughout it all, the ghost of Jesse’s drug-addicted father haunted the halls of the house and the memories of every family member. Struggling with all that had happened, Jesse succumbed to a self-destructive cycle of drug and alcohol addiction and petty crime, spending more than a decade on and off the streets, often homeless. Finally, he realized he would die unless he turned his life around. In this heart-warming and heart-wrenching memoir, Jesse Thistle writes honestly and fearlessly about his painful past, the abuse he endured, and how he uncovered the truth about his parents. Through sheer perseverance and education—and newfound love—he found his way back into the circle of his Indigenous culture and family. An eloquent exploration of the impact of prejudice and racism, From the Ashes is, in the end, about how love and support can help us find happiness despite the odds. |
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The instant New York Times bestseller. "An instant classic of investigative journalism...‘All the President’s Men’ for the Me Too era." — Carlos Lozada, The Washington Post From the Pulitzer Prize-winning reporters who broke the news of Harvey Weinstein's sexual harassment and abuse for the New York Times , Jodi Kantor and Megan Twohey, the thrilling untold story of their investigation and its consequences for the #MeToo movement For many years, reporters had tried to get to the truth about Harvey Weinstein’s treatment of women. Rumors of wrongdoing had long circulated. But in 2017, when Jodi Kantor and Megan Twohey began their investigation into the prominent Hollywood producer for the New York Times , his name was still synonymous with power. During months of confidential interviews with top actresses, former Weinstein employees, and other sources, many disturbing and long-buried allegations were unearthed, and a web of onerous secret payouts and nondisclosure agreements was revealed. These shadowy settlements had long been used to hide sexual harassment and abuse, but with a breakthrough reporting technique Kantor and Twohey helped to expose it. But Weinstein had evaded scrutiny in the past, and he was not going down without a fight; he employed a team of high-profile lawyers, private investigators, and other allies to thwart the investigation. When Kantor and Twohey were finally able to convince some sources to go on the record, a dramatic final showdown between Weinstein and the New York Times was set in motion.   Nothing could have prepared Kantor and Twohey for what followed the publication of their initial Weinstein story on October 5, 2017. Within days, a veritable Pandora’s box of sexual harassment and abuse was opened. Women all over the world came forward with their own traumatic stories. Over the next twelve months, hundreds of men from every walk of life and industry were outed following allegations of wrongdoing. But did too much change—or not enough? Those questions hung in the air months later as Brett Kavanaugh was nominated to the Supreme Court, and Christine Blasey Ford came forward to testify that he had assaulted her decades earlier. Kantor and Twohey, who had unique access to Ford and her team, bring to light the odyssey that led her to come forward, the overwhelming forces that came to bear on her, and what happened after she shared her allegation with the world.   In the tradition of great investigative journalism, She Said tells a thrilling story about the power of truth, with shocking new information from hidden sources. Kantor and Twohey describe not only the consequences of their reporting for the #MeToo movement, but the inspiring and affecting journeys of the women who spoke up—for the sake of other women, for future generations, and for themselves. |
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Now a major motion picture from Lionsgate starring Brie Larson, Woody Harrelson, and Naomi Watts. MORE THAN SEVEN YEARS ON THE NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER LIST The perennially bestselling, extraordinary, one-of-a-kind, “nothing short of spectacular” ( Entertainment Weekly ) memoir from one of the world’s most gifted storytellers. The Glass Castle is a remarkable memoir of resilience and redemption, and a revelatory look into a family at once deeply dysfunctional and uniquely vibrant. When sober, Jeannette’s brilliant and charismatic father captured his children’s imagination, teaching them physics, geology, and how to embrace life fearlessly. But when he drank, he was dishonest and destructive. Her mother was a free spirit who abhorred the idea of domesticity and didn’t want the responsibility of raising a family. The Walls children learned to take care of themselves. They fed, clothed, and protected one another, and eventually found their way to New York. Their parents followed them, choosing to be homeless even as their children prospered. The Glass Castle is truly astonishing—a memoir permeated by the intense love of a peculiar but loyal family. |
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The powerful coming-of-age story of an ultra-Orthodox child who was born to become a rabbinic leader and instead became a woman Abby Stein was raised in a Hasidic Jewish community in Brooklyn, isolated in a culture that lives according to the laws and practices of eighteenth-century Eastern Europe, speaking only Yiddish and Hebrew and shunning modern life. Stein was born as the first son in a dynastic rabbinical family, poised to become a leader of the next generation of Hasidic Jews. But Abby felt certain at a young age that she was a girl. She suppressed her desire for a new body while looking for answers wherever she could find them, from forbidden religious texts to smuggled secular examinations of faith. Finally, she orchestrated a personal exodus from ultra-Orthodox manhood to mainstream femininity-a radical choice that forced her to leave her home, her family, her way of life. Powerful in the truths it reveals about biology, culture, faith, and identity, Becoming Eve poses the enduring question: How far will you go to become the person you were meant to be? |
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Depuis ses premiers matchs disputés sur une patinoire de fortune à Landrienne, en Abitibi, où il a passé son enfance, Serge Savard a été animé par une seule passion: celle du hockey. Dans ce récit biographique, l’athlète et homme d’affaires qui a évolué au sein de l’organisation du Canadien de Montréal pendant 33 ans nous entraîne dans les coulisses d’une carrière plus grande que nature. Sous la plume habile du journaliste Philippe Cantin, il revient sur les moments forts, les hauts comme les bas, qui l’ont façonné comme joueur – de ses années d’apprentissage en tant que recrue jusqu’à sa retraite du Canadien – et, plus tard, comme directeur général du club. Cet ouvrage captivant et abondamment documenté dresse le portrait de la riche histoire du hockey au Québec à travers la vie d’un homme qui en a été l’un des témoins les plus privilégiés. |
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Né dans un quartier défavorisé de Trois-Rivières, élevé par son père, Steve Bégin doit apprendre très tôt à se débrouiller par lui-même. Le matériel n’est peut-être pas au rendez-vous, mais le bonheur, oui! Le turbulent garçon trouve dans le sport l’exutoire qu’il lui faut pour évacuer son inépuisable énergie. S’il excelle au hockey, personne ne lui promet toutefois un grand avenir. Mais Steve, lui, sait déjà qu’il jouera un jour dans la Ligue nationale, et rien ni personne ne l’empêchera de réaliser son rêve… De Calgary à Boston en passant par Montréal, sous les couleurs du Canadien, Steve a marqué les gens par sa ténacité, son courage, son intensité et son engagement dans la communauté. Il nous fait découvrir de l’intérieur la réalité du hockey professionnel comme peu d’ouvrages l’avaient réussi jusque-là, non seulement au niveau de la LNH, mais aussi des circuits inférieurs comme la LHJMQ et la Ligue américaine. Mieux qu’une biographie, ce livre est un récit de vie. Grâce à la complicité et la plume alerte de Luc Gélinas, Steve se raconte dans ses propres mots, sans détour, avec l’émotion et la franchise qu’on lui connaît. Au début de chaque chapitre, le psychologue Sylvain Guimond tire du cheminement de Steve des leçons qui transcendent le sport et sauront inspirer tous les lecteurs. Enfin, les témoignages de douze compagnons de route de Steve apportent une dimension supplémentaire à son parcours. Débordant le simple cadre du hockey, le récit aborde aussi l’amour de Steve pour sa famille, son après-carrière et l’obtention de son diplôme d’études secondaires à 40 ans, offrant ainsi un panorama complet de cet être aussi inspirant qu’attachant. |
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A memoir of food and friendship “combining the warm-heartedness of Tuesdays with Morrie with the sensual splendor of Julie and Julia ” ( Booklist , starred review). Isabel Vincent first arrives at Edward’s New York apartment to check on him as a favor to his daughter. She has no idea that the nonagenarian baking a sublime roast chicken and a light-as-air apricot soufflé will end up changing her life. But their meeting comes at a moment of transition for each of them: Edward wants nothing more than to follow his late wife to the grave, while Isabel is watching her marriage unravel. As Edward and Isabel meet weekly for the glorious dinners that Edward prepares, he shares so much more than his recipes for apple galette or the perfect martini, or even his tips for deboning poultry. Edward teaches Isabel the art of slowing down, taking the time to think through her own life—cutting it back to the bone and examining the guts, no matter how messy that proves to be. Dinner with Edward is a book about love and nourishment, and about how dinner with a friend can, in the words of M. F. K. Fisher, “sustain us against the hungers of the world.” “A rare, beautifully crafted memoir that leaves you exhilarated.” —Rosemary Sullivan, author of Stalin’s Daughter “This is a memoir to treasure.” — Booklist (starred review) |
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Amaryllis Fox's riveting memoir tells the story of her ten years in the most elite clandestine ops unit of the CIA, hunting the world's most dangerous terrorists in sixteen countries while falling in love and giving birth to a daughter. Amaryllis Fox was in her last year as an undergraduate at Oxford studying ancient languages and theoretical physics when her writing mentor, Daniel Pearl, was captured and beheaded. Galvanized by this brutality, she applied to a Master's program in conflict and terrorism at Georgetown's School of Foreign Service, where she created an algorithm that predicted, with uncanny certainty, the likelihood of a terrorist cell arising in any village around the world. At 21, she was recruited by the CIA. Her first assignment was reading and analyzing hundreds of classified cables a day from foreign governments and synthesizing them into daily briefs for the President. Her next assignment was at the Iraq desk in the Counterterrorism center. At 22, she was fast-tracked into advanced operations training, sent from Langley to "the Farm," where she lived for six months in a simulated world learning how to use a glock, how to get out of flexicuffs while locked in the trunk of a car, how to withstand torture, and the best ways to commit suicide in case of captivity. At the end of this training she was deployed as a spy under non-official cover--the most difficult and coveted job in the field--as an art dealer specializing in tribal and Indigenous art, and sent to infiltrate terrorist networks in remote areas of the Middle East and Asia. Life Undercover is exhilarating, intimate, fiercely intelligent--an impossible-to-put-down record of an extraordinary life, and of Amaryllis Fox's astonishing courage and passion. |
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The harrowing true story of abduction and survival from the courageous young woman who lived it—now the subject of a Lifetime original movie, I Am Elizabeth Smart. In this memoir, Elizabeth Smart reveals how she survived and the secret to forging a new life in the wake of a brutal crime. On June 5, 2002, fourteen-year-old Elizabeth Smart, the daughter of a close-knit Mormon family, was taken from her home in the middle of the night by religious fanatic Brian David Mitchell and his wife, Wanda Barzee. Elizabeth was kept chained, dressed in disguise, repeatedly raped, and told she and her family would be killed if she tried to escape. After her rescue on March 12, 2003, she rejoined her family and worked to pick up the pieces of her life. With My Story, Elizabeth tells of the constant fear she endured every hour, her courageous determination to maintain hope, and how she devised a plan to manipulate her captors and convinced them to return to Utah, where she was rescued minutes after arriving. Smart explains how her faith helped her stay sane in the midst of a nightmare and how she found the strength to confront her captors at their trial and see that justice was served. In the years after her rescue, Smart transformed from victim to advocate, traveling the country and working to educate, inspire and foster change. She has created a foundation to help prevent crimes against children and is a frequent public speaker. She and her husband, Matthew Gilmour, now have two children. |
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In the 1960s, when women were neither accepted nor encouraged to enter the world of finance, Jean Hough Davey became one of the first women in North America to be licensed as a stockbroker. Propelled by sheer wit and determination, Jean was a pioneer who rose to the highest levels of her profession, eventually becoming Vice President and Director of ScotiaMcLeod. But while she was publicly lauded, she struggled to maintain equilibrium in her personal life, drowning in an emotionally abusive marriage to Hockey Night in Canada kingpin Ted Hough, and finally summoning up the courage to leave and find true love. The Only Woman in the Room is Jean Hough Davey’s moving account of an exceptional life. In this candid memoir, she shares the many lessons she’s learned about how women can—and must—set themselves up for success in every area of their lives, even when the odds are not in their favour. * * * * * * * Jean Hough Davey’s career in finance spanned a period of almost 50 years, the first decade of which she was in a category of one—the “only woman in the room.” As one of the first female licensed stockbrokers in North America, her remarkable ascent to the highest levels on Bay Street began in the early 1960s, the era of the three-martini lunch and the domination of the old boys’ club, a time when women were barely accepted and rarely encouraged to pursue careers in the investment industry. Before Gloria Steinem came on the scene and well before women started to “lean in,” Jean was making her way in what was “a man’s world,” propelling herself forward with style and determination. By the time she retired in 2004, she was a Vice President and Director of ScotiaMcLeod®, a division of Scotia Capital Inc., and a member of Scotiabank, Canada’s international bank and a leading financial services provider in North America with assets of $896 billion (as at October 31, 2016 ). Jean Hough Davey now divides her time between Toronto and the Florida Keys. * * * * * * * Praise for The Only Woman in the Room: “A gripping read, sure to inspire every woman to follow her dreams.” —M.C. Domovitch, author of Scorpio’s Kiss and Scar Tissue “This book is both inspirational and disheartening—the story of one woman’s fierce determination to succeed as an investment broker, in an industry dominated by male indifference. That she succeeded is admirable, but indicative that we have a way to go.” —Tom Kierans, past president of McLeod Young Weir (later ScotiaMcLeod) “As a lifelong business woman, I am always interested in stories about female trailblazers. The Only Woman in the Room is exactly that and so much more. Jean’s engaging memoir of how she propelled herself forward in life is so relatable for women like me and, no doubt, women of all ages. And if you love fashion as both Jean and I do, it’s even better! A really great read.” —Milli Gould LL.D. and Founder, Milli Ltd. “The Only Woman in the Room is captivating and rewarding. Jean Davey’s memoir is a study in dignity and grit. It is an inspiring tale of a woman overcoming discrimination, proving courage and resolve can triumph.” —Arthur Birsh, Chairman of PLAYBILL Magazine |
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Britain and the world were shocked in October 1966 by live television pictures coming from a small mining village in Wales. They showed a human tragedy unfolding after thousands of tons of coal waste fell from a mountainside onto its primary school and surrounding houses. The majority of the 144 people killed were children under 12. After more than 50 years the survivors of that disaster -- among the worst in Britain's peacetime history -- still live with painful memories and all-too-real after effects. In this first ever oral history of the tragedy, people who were there tell their stories, some speaking publicly for the first time. Built around 27 extensive interviews, Surviving Aberfan is a story of official neglect and betrayal, horror and great sadness. But it also demonstrates how courage, hope and effort can rebuild a devastated community and move forward. |
