Publisher: Random House
Check Library Catalog Pub Date: 09/24/2013
ISBN-13: 9780385350778
ISBN-10: 0385350775

In Levels of Life, author Julian Barnes, winner of the 2011 Man Booker prize for his novel The Sense of an Ending, mourns his wife's death, first indirectly expressing the love they shared through elegant essays that celebrate the love between 19th-century aeronauts and their passion for flight itself. Finally, Barnes more directly addresses his grief, describing briefly the illness and death of his wife, Pat Kavanagh, and considering at greater length his emotions and the universality of loss and loneliness. Though very different from memoirs of loss that more immediately and directly express the authors' feelings, Barnes' essays unite readers with his own emotions, providing a poetic catharsis on both universal and personal levels.

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Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Check Library Catalog Pub Date: 09/03/2013
ISBN-13: 9781476711843
ISBN-10: 1476711844

Hanns Alexander was a German Jew who fled to Britain in 1938 and joined the British Army; in 1945 he was a member of the British War Claims Investigation Team. Rudolf Höss was the Kommandant of Auschwitz, where over a million Jews were murdered. In Hanns and Rudolf, author Thomas Harding, a great-nephew of Alexander, recounts in detail the lives of both men in the 1930s and '40s, bringing the narrative gradually to the point where Alexander captures Höss. Including Höss' confession and additional details about tracking and arresting Nazi war criminals, Hanns and Rudolf provides a gripping biography of the two men and a compelling piece of World War II history.

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Publisher: Ballantine Books
Check Library Catalog Pub Date: 09/24/2013
ISBN-13: 9780345526113
ISBN-10: 0345526112

Jim Henson, inventor of the style of puppet he called "Muppets," began working in television as soon as he found an opportunity, in 1955. Joining forces with artist Jane Nebel, whom he later married, Henson enthusiastically developed a puppeteering style that eventually landed him on Sesame Street -- a PBS television program that brought Henson, the Muppet frog Kermit, collaborator Frank Oz, and many others world-wide admiration. Biographer Brian Jay Jones offers the first complete biography of Henson, detailing his personal life as well as the nature of his creative genius and his drive to success. Fans of the Muppets, of television and motion picture artistry, and of Henson himself will find Jim Henson both compelling and informative.

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Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Check Library Catalog Pub Date: 09/10/2013
ISBN-13: 9781451645606
ISBN-10: 1451645600

Canadian journalist Amanda Lindhout had an avid desire to travel from the time she was young, and after visiting parts of Asia began a journalism career with a stint in Iraq. Persuading her friend Nigel to join her, she went on to Somalia, where they were kidnapped by bandits who demanded impossible sums for ransom and kept Lindhout shackled, starved, and in filthy conditions for ten months. A House in the Sky, written with journalist Sara Corbett, details her ordeal and explains how she found the strength to persevere. Kirkus Reviews calls this, in a starred review, a "gut-wrenching, beautifully written, memorable book."

First Chapter  

Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Check Library Catalog Pub Date: 09/17/2013
ISBN-13: 9781451668728
ISBN-10: 1451668724

Singer Linda Ronstadt has led an amazingly normal life for someone so talented and successful. Recalling her childhood in Arizona and her family's musical heritage, her early singing work, her award-winning solo career, and her collaboration and friendships with such musicians as Rubén Fuentes, Dolly Parton, and Emmylou Harris, Simple Dreams focuses on music and what it means to Ronstadt. She discusses her reasons for choosing different paths, some of which her friends considered too risky but most of which brought her personal satisfaction and popular and critical acclaim. This engaging and illuminating memoir will please fans of Ronstadt and anyone interested in contemporary musical history.

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Publisher: Random House
Check Library Catalog Pub Date: 01/27/2009
ISBN-13: 9780307382023
ISBN-10: 0307382028

Secret Service Agent Abraham Bolden met President John F. Kennedy in 1961 and later joined the White House security detail, where he was the first African American. Bolden endured racist abuse from some of the other agents and was also disturbed by the general culture of the Service, which he found slack. After President Kennedy's assassination, Bolden questioned whether the Service had done its job effectively, but was prevented from pursuing his inquiries by false bribery charges resulting in a term in prison. Drawing both on his own records and memories and on official government documents, Bolden recounts his experiences as a pioneering African American in this "astonishing tale of aborted justice" (Kirkus Reviews).

Publisher: Thomas Dunne Books
Check Library Catalog Pub Date: 07/19/2011
ISBN-13: 9781250001948
ISBN-10: 1250001943

Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy, widowed by the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, later married Aristotle Onassis. After his death in 1975, Jackie O, as she became known, went to work as an editor at Viking Press, shepherding several books to publication before moving to Doubleday. In all she edited nearly 100 books, many of them reflecting her personal interests. Jackie avoided publicity to the extent possible and didn't let her celebrity hinder her work. Drawing on a variety of sources, especially interviews with many of her former colleagues, author Greg Lawrence paints a portrait of a hard-working, modest, and effective editor. For another recent biography focused on her editing work, read William Kuhn's Reading Jackie.

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Publisher: Penguin Press
Check Library Catalog Pub Date: 11/13/2012
ISBN-13: 9781594203763
ISBN-10: 1594203768

Joseph P. Kennedy, father of nine children, including President John F. Kennedy and Senators Robert and Edward, was himself a legend before his sons rose to high political office. In The Patriarch, historian and biographer David Nasaw depicts a man whose own political activities attracted both admiration and resentment; he considers various characterizations of Joseph Kennedy, Sr., such as his alleged anti-Semitism and accusations of bootlegging, and compares them to evidence in the actual records. Offering conclusions about the public aspects of the senior Kennedy's life, Nasaw also depicts a private man whose main concerns were the security of his family and guarding his private fortune. Booklist calls this a "fascinating" book that "makes a major contribution to Kennedy history."

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Publisher: Henry Holt and Company
Check Library Catalog Pub Date: 06/05/2012
ISBN-13: 9780805095302
ISBN-10: 0805095306

Sargent Shriver, brother-in-law of President John F. Kennedy and first director of the Peace Corps, spent his life in public service, founding Head Start and Job Corps and coordinating President Lyndon Johnson's War on Poverty. Shriver's private interactions were also notable for being consistently kind and principled -- he really was "a good man." In this memoir focused on the elder Shriver, his son, author Mark Shriver, also considers the course of his own life in the shadow of the Kennedy clan and comes to terms with himself as a distinct and independent personality. For more on the life and career of Sargent Shriver, read Scott Stossel's biography, Sarge.

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Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Check Library Catalog Pub Date: 08/27/2002
ISBN-13: 9780743203296
ISBN-10: 0743203291

"This is the story of an unpromising boy who died as he was becoming a great man," says author Evan Thomas in the prologue to this masterful biography of Robert F. Kennedy. Thomas discusses RFK's relationship with his brother, JFK, and other members of the Kennedy clan; paints a fully realized portrait of Bobby's shy, empathetic, cunning, and sometimes arrogant persona; details his involvement in civil rights, the Cold War, and other events of the 1960s; and recounts his presidential campaign and assassination. Anyone wanting to know more about one of history's great what-ifs or the Kennedy family should read this book.

First Chapter