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Mrs. Nixon
A Novelist Imagines a Life
A literary assessment of the former First Lady from the perspective of a short story master draws on a wealth of sources to reconstruct her worldview, covering her early experiences as a community theater actress and her marriage to the 37th president.
News and Reviews
Marbles
Mania, Depression, Michelangelo, & Me
An artist describes her bipolar disorder diagnosis and her struggles with mental stability while discussing other artists and creative people throughout history who were also labeled as "crazy" — including Vincent van Gogh, Georgia O'Keeffe and Sylvia Plath.
News and Reviews
Who I Am
A Memoir
The rock 'n' roll legend and founding member of The Who presents a candid biography that reveals his struggles with drugs, sex and the ghosts of his troubled past, while detailing the band's meteoric rise to international fame and fortune.NPR Bestseller
News and Reviews
The Entertainer
Movies, Magic, and My Father's Twentieth Century
Margaret Talbot's new book traces the rise of popular entertainment over the past 100 years as reflected by the career of her father, actor Lyle Talbot, who worked as a traveling performer before advancing to regular roles in film and television.
News and Reviews
Fiction Ruined My Family
A deeply funny and bittersweet memoir of having grown up in an eccentric family of faded wealth and gentility in which the father's failed dreams of being a writer put the family in the poor-house, drove the mother to weepy alcoholism and provided author Jeanne Darst with a highly unusual approach to life — and a wicked sense of humor.
News and Reviews
Da Vinci's Ghost
Genius, Obsession, and How Leonardo Created the World in His Own Image
Da Vinci's Ghost recounts the intellectual journey behind the creation of Leonardo da Vinci's Vitruvian Man and how the drawing represents the momentous period in Western history when the Middle Ages gave way to the Renaissance.
News and Reviews
Oddly Normal
One Family's Struggle to Help Their Teenage Son Come to Terms With His Sexuality
Sharing his family's own struggles within a culture that is quickly changing, a national correspondent for The New York Times and father of a gay teen offers crucial lessons about helping gay kids and how to cope in a potentially hostile world.
News and Reviews
Elsewhere
A Memoir
The Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Empire Falls presents an upbeat personal account of his youth, his parents and the 1950s upstate New York town they struggled to escape. He recounts the encroaching poverty and illness that challenged everyday life and the dreams his mother instilled that inspired his career.NPR Bestseller
News and Reviews
Rin Tin Tin
The Life And The Legend
Susan Orlean chronicles the rise of the iconic German shepherd character, sharing the stories of the real World War I dog and canine performer and exploring Rin Tin Tin's relevance in military and popular culture. NPR Bestseller
News and Reviews
Kurt Vonnegut
Letters
Including previously unpublished material, a compilation of personal correspondences written over a 60-year period offers insight into the iconic American author's literary personality, his experiences as a German POW, his struggles with fame and the inspirations for his famous books.
News and Reviews
God, If You're Not Up There, I'm F- - - - -
Tales Of Stand-up, Saturday Night Live, And Other Mind-altering Mayhem
This candid, no-holds-barred glimpse into the troubled life of the longest- tenured cast member of Saturday Night Live reveals a man, haunted by abuse, who fought for both his sobriety and sanity to become an American comic genius.
News and Reviews
How I Got This Way
A beloved TV icon shares the secrets to success and happiness as he has learned them from his innumerable celebrity encounters, friendships and relationships with his loving wife and family.
News and Reviews
Thornton Wilder
A Life
Drawn from thousands of pages of letters, journals, manuscripts and other documents, this biography of playwright and novelist Thornton Wilder explores his public persona, his private relationships and his complicated family.
News and Reviews
Escape Velocity
A Charles Portis Miscellany
Escape Velocity is a new collection of pieces by Arkansas novelist Charles Portis, best known for his 1968 Western, True Grit. The collection is edited by Jay Jennings.
News and Reviews
Running Ransom Road
Confronting The Past, One Marathon At A Time
A sober alcoholic documents his 18-month effort to run marathons in the cities where he once lived and engaged in abusive behaviors, assessing the redemptive benefits of running and the stories of fellow addicts who pursued similar dreams.
News and Reviews
And So It Goes
Kurt Vonnegut: A Life
An authorized portrait of the influential twentieth-century American writer draws on first-person accounts and Vonnegut's private letters while offering insight into his youth, the inspirations for his work, and his enduring literary impact.
