Collection: Biography & Memoir

Read Thoreau's most influential works in one stunning volume! With reflections on politics, simplicity, and independent living, Thoreau's writings ask readers to question the status quo and live in accordance with their principles.

A mix of memoir, travel and popular science, charting journeys across deserts, through jungles and up ice caps, to some of the most important volcanoes around the world

In this captivating book from one of the most influential geochemists in the field, Tamsin Mather takes us along on her globe-spanning excursions from Nicaragua to Hawaii, Santorini to Ethiopia and beyond. With warmth and lyricism, she explores the cultural roles volcanoes play throughout history, and the growing and evolving science behind their formation and eruptions.

Adventures in Volcanoland is an urgent and poetic exploration into the world's most mysterious geological mountains and how they make and shape our world.

In 1948 a childhood friend of Billy the Kid claimed Billy was still living and led investigators to a man in Texas known as William H. "Brushy Bill" Roberts. After iniitially denying it, Brushy finally agreed to confess his identity on the condition the investigator would help him obtain a pardon so he could die a free man. Over the course of several months Mr. Roberts provided many astounding proofs that he was the Kid of legend, including physical evidence and firsthand knowledge of many obscure aspects of the Kid's life. In addition, the investigator assisted Roberts with finding living acquaintances of Billy the Kid who signed sworn affidavits stating Roberts was the man they knew.

Now after more than 50 years Brushy's original story is available for the first time ever in paperback.

Elvis Style is a celebration of the aesthetic world of Elvis Presley. As one of the most significant pop icons of the 20^th century, Elvis' impact on the music world has been widely discussed and analysed. Surprisingly, however, his influence on design and fashion remains largely overlooked. Elvis Style investigates why Elvis was, and continues to be, an icon of style, focusing on his wonderfully expressive hairstyles, clothes, cars, and interiors. Elvis Style offers the reader an intriguing and insightful journey though the crazy, cool and at times kitsch world of a true megastar.

Contemporary design experts have been interviewed to offer fresh insights into Elvis' style choices. These include Sex and the City stylist Patricia Fields, costume designer Deborah Nadoolman Landis (Michael Jackson's Thriller) Oscar-winning costume designer Mark Bridges (The Artist), the British celebrity hairdresser Trevor Sorbie, Andy Lecompte (Madonna's hairstylist), Savile Row tailor Edward Sexton, Andy Spade (Jack Spade and Kate Spade brands) academics from the University of Mississippi, the Victoria & Albert Museum, George Barris (creator of the Bat-mobile and Elvis' personal car-customiser) and Hal Lansky of Lansky Brothers (Elvis' favourite tailoring house) who has also provided the foreword for Elvis Style.

Elvis Style includes around 150 photos, many of which are full colour and show rarely seen before Elvis-worn garments, interiors and cars from Elvis' extensive private collection.

Un libro de cuentos ilustrado que celebra la vida y el legado de Selena Quintanilla, la querida Reina de la Música Tejana.

Desde su etapa mas temprana, la joven Selena sabía como conectarse con la gente y unirlos con la música. Canta conmigo sigue su ascenso al estrellato, desde su puesto al frente de la banda familiar, cantando en rodeos y fiestas de quinceañera, hasta su presentación frente a miles en el Astrodomo de Houston. Los lectores jóvenes se sentirán empoderados por la dedicación de Selena--aprendiendo el idioma español aún siendo adolescente, diseñando su propio vestuario, y viajando por toda la nación, compartiendo con el mundo el orgullo por sus raíces mexico-americanas y su amor a la música y a la moda.

A moving and provocative graphic memoir exploring inherited trauma, family history, and the ever-shifting understanding of our own identities, for readers of Gender Queer and I Was Their American Dream.

Solomon Brager grew up with accounts of their great-grandparents' escape from Nazi Germany, told over and over until their understanding of self was bound up with the heroic details of their ancestors' exploits. Their great-grandmother related how her husband, a boxing champion, thrashed Joseph Goebbels and cleared beer halls of Nazis with his fists, how she broke him out of an internment camp and carried their children over the Pyrenees mountains. But that story was never the whole picture; zooming out, everything becomes more complicated.

Alongside the Levis' propulsive journey across Europe and to the United States, Brager distills fascinating research about the Holocaust and connected periods of colonial history. Heavyweight asks us to consider how the patterns of history emerge and reverberate, not as a simple chain of events but in haunting layers. Confronting the specters of violence as both historian and descendent, this book is an exploration of family mythology, intergenerational memory, and the mark the past makes on the present.

In conversation with works by Rebecca Hall, Nora Krug, Rutu Modan, and Leela Corman, Heavyweight will contribute to the collective work of Holocaust studies and the chronicle of woven human stories.

Hailed by ESPN as the world's most famous female basketball player, Brittney Griner, the dunking phenom and national sensation who is shattering stereotypes and breaking boundaries, now shares her coming-of-age story, revealing how she found her strength to overcome bullies and to embrace her authentic self.

Brittney Griner, the No. 1 pick in the 2013 WNBA Draft, is a once-in-a-generation player, possessing a combination of size and athleticism never before seen in the women's game. But "the sport's most transformative figure" (Sports Illustrated) is equally famous for making headlines off the court, for speaking out on issues of gender, sexuality, body image and self-esteem.

At 6'8", with an 88-inch wingspan and a size 17 shoe (men's), the Phoenix Mercury star has heard every vicious insult in the book, enduring years of taunting that began in middle school and continues to this day. Through the highs and lows, Griner has learned to remain true to herself, rising above the haters trying to take her down.

In her heartfelt memoir, she reflects on painful episodes in her life and describes how she came to celebrate what makes her unique--inspiring lessons she now shares. Filled with all the humor and personality Griner has become known for, In My Skin is more than a glimpse into one of the most original personalities in sports; it's also a powerful call to readers to be true to themselves, to love who they are on the inside and out.

With a 8 pages of photos.

Born in the rural south in the late 1950's, Midge Noble was raised in a household with strict parents and fundamentalist religious beliefs. Attending parties or movies was not allowed. Her paternal grandfather, Paw Paw, a fire and brimstone Advent Christian preacher, believed the Bible was the literal word of God and condemned homosexuals to hell. As a teen, Noble felt a calling for missionary work but grew up with a conflicted view of God and the Church. She always felt that somehow she was different, but couldn't quite put her finger on why. In this frank and heartfelt memoir, Noble recounts her childhood years and her struggles as a young adult with her faith and true identity. Doubting herself and her choices, her inner turmoil manifested itself as bulimia and anorexia, and denial and harsh judgment of her feelings. She didn't come out to herself as gay until she was thirty years old. Noble's poignant journey to reclaim her Christian faith shows that a relationship with the God of your understanding is possible, no matter what you've been taught to the contrary. Honesty and learning to trust your inner guidance are critical for healthy emotional and social development. For anyone questioning how they can reconcile their faith and their sexual identity, Noble's inspiring book is a light to shine the way.

If you like stories that have happy endings inspite of hard and painful beginnings and your looking for hope in this unstable world then this is the book for you.

You are enough

You have always been enough

You will always be enough

Because your creator says so

From Simone Biles to Larisa Latynina, gymnasts have been among the greatest athletes in the world. Irresistible photographs and text perfect for striving readers introduce these athletes. Readers will discover which gymnasts were undefeated winners, past and present record holders, and what it takes to be a gymnastics superstar.

A memoir of poems and art, Coming Out Party chronicles poet and author Rebecca Bendheim's queer coming of age journey -- from first crushes and toxic homo-erotic friendships, to coming out and secret flings, to finding queer community and falling in love for the first time. Coming Out Party is a fierce, funny, and deeply personal celebration of the strength it takes to break down the protective walls we've built-and embrace our truest selves.

A frank and entertaining memoir--from the daughter of Edward Said--now in paperback.

The daughter of the famous intellectual and outspoken Palestinian advocate Edward Said and a sophisticated Lebanese mother, Najla Said grew up in New York City, confused and conflicted about her cultural background and identity. Said knew that her parents identified deeply with their homelands, but growing up in a Manhattan world that was defined largely by class and conformity, she felt unsure about who she was supposed to be, and was often in denial of the differences she sensed between her family and those around her. She may have been born a Palestinian Lebanese American, but Said denied her true roots, even to herself--until, ultimately, the psychological toll of her self-hatred began to threaten her health.

As she grew older, she eventually came to see herself, her passions, and her identity more clearly. Today she is a voice for second-generation Arab Americans nationwide.

In this jaw-dropping, darkly comedic memoir, a young woman comes of age in a dysfunctional Asian family whose members blamed their woes on ghosts and demons when in fact they should have been on anti-psychotic meds.

Lindsay Wong grew up with a paranoid schizophrenic grandmother and a mother who was deeply afraid of the "woo-woo"--Chinese ghosts who come to visit in times of personal turmoil. From a young age, she witnessed the woo-woo's sinister effects; at the age of six, she found herself living in the food court of her suburban mall, which her mother saw as a safe haven because they could hide there from dead people, and on a camping trip, her mother tried to light Lindsay's foot on fire to rid her of the woo-woo.

The eccentricities take a dark turn, however, when her aunt, suffering from a psychotic breakdown, holds the city of Vancouver hostage for eight hours when she threatens to jump off a bridge. And when Lindsay herself starts to experience symptoms of the woo-woo herself, she wonders whether she will suffer the same fate as her family.

On one hand a witty and touching memoir about the Asian immigrant experience, and on the other a harrowing and honest depiction of the vagaries of mental illness, The Woo-Woo is a gut-wrenching and beguiling manual for surviving family, and oneself.

Luis Rodriguez, author of the award-winning and bestselling classic memoir Always Running, chronicles his harrowing journey from a drugged-out gang member to one of the most revered figures in Chicano literature.

Hundreds of thousands of readers came to know Luis J. Rodriguez through his fearless classic, Always Running, which chronicled his early life as a young Chicano gang member surviving the dangerous streets of East Los Angeles. The long-awaited follow-up, It Calls You Back is the equally harrowing story of Rodriguez starting over, at age eighteen, after leaving gang life--the only life he really knew.

The book opens with Rodriguez's final stint in jail as a teenager and follows his struggle to kick heroin, renounce his former life, and search for meaningful work. He describes with heartbreaking honesty his challenges as a father, and his difficulty leaving his rages and addictions completely behind. Even as he breaks with "la vida loca" and begins to discover success as a writer and an activist, Rodriguez finds that his past--the crimes, the drugs, the things he'd seen and done--has a way of calling him back.

When his oldest son is sent to prison for attempted murder, Rodriguez is forced to confront his shortcomings as a father, and to acknowledge how and why his own history is repeating itself, right before his eyes.

Deeply insightful and beautifully written, It Calls You Back is an odyssey through love, addiction, revolutions, and healing.

For Readers of Heavy, Punch Me Up to The Gods, and A Little Devil in America, a beautiful, painful, and soaring tribute to everything that Black men are and can be.

Growing up in the Bronx, Joél Leon was taught that being soft, being vulnerable, could end your life. Shaped by a singular view of Black masculinity espoused by the media, by family and friends, and by society, he learned instead to care about the gold around his neck and the number of bills in his wallet. He absorbed the "facts" that white was always right and Black men were seen as threatening or great for comic relief but never worthy of the opening credits. It wasn't until years later that Joél understood he didn't have to be defined by these things.

Now, in a collection of wide-ranging essays, he takes readers from his upbringing in the Bronx to his life raising two little girls of his own, unraveling those narratives to arrive at a deeper understanding of who he is as a son, friend, partner, and father. Traversing both the serious and lighthearted, from contemplating male beauty standards and his belly to his decision to seek therapy to the difficulties of making co-parenting work, Joél cracks open his heart to reveal his multitudes.

"I learned that being Black is an all-encompassing everything...To be Black, to be a Black man in the era I grew up in, was easily everything and nothing at once."

Crafted like an album, each essay is a single that stands alone yet reverberates throughout the entire collection. Pieces like "How to Make a Black Friend." consider challenging, delightful and absurd moments in relationships, while others like "Sensitive Thugs All Need Hugs" and "All Gold Everything" ponder the collective harms of society's lens.

With incisive, searing prose, Everything and Nothing at Once deconstructs what it means to be a Black man in America.

BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR: The New York Times - The Washington Post - Fortune - Bloomberg

From two of America's most revered political journalists comes the definitive biography of legendary White House chief of staff and secretary of state James A. Baker III: the man who ran Washington when Washington ran the world.

For a quarter century, from the end of Watergate to the aftermath of the Cold War, no Republican won the presidency or ran the White House without the advice of James Addison Baker III. A scion of Texas aristocracy who became George H. W. Bush's tennis partner, Baker had never worked in Washington until a devastating family tragedy struck when he was thirty-nine. Within a few years, he was leading Gerald Ford's campaign and would go on to manage a total of five presidential races and win a sixth for George W. Bush in a Florida recount. He ran Ronald Reagan's White House and became the most consequential secretary of state since Henry Kissinger. Ruthlessly partisan during campaign season, Baker became an indispensable dealmaker after the election. He negotiated with Democrats at home and Soviets abroad, rewrote the tax code, assembled the coalition that won the Gulf War, brokered the reunification of Germany, and helped bring a decades-long nuclear superpower standoff to an end.

Brilliantly crafted by Peter Baker of The New York Times and Susan Glasser of The New Yorker, The Man Who Ran Washington is a page-turning study in the acquisition, exercise, and preservation of power in late twentieth-century America and the story of Washington when Washington ran the world. Their masterly biography is necessary reading and destined to become a classic.