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"A witty, tender memoir of a son's journey home to care for his irascible mother--a tale of secrets, silences, and enduring love. When George Hodgman leaves Manhattan for his hometown of Paris, Missouri, he finds himself--an unlikely caretaker and near-lethal cook--in a head-on collision with his aging mother, Betty, a woman of wit and will. Will George lure her into assisted living? When hell freezes over. He can't bring himself to force her from...
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"A spirited, wry, and utterly original memoir about one woman's struggle to make her way and set up a life after doctors discover a hole the size of a plum in her brain. The summer before she was set to head out-of-state to pursue her MFA, twenty-seven-year-old Cole Cohen submitted herself to a battery of tests. For as long as she could remember, she'd struggled with a series of learning disabilities that made it nearly impossible to judge time and...
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A child of the Rhodesian wars and daughter of two deeply complicated parents, Alexandra Fuller is no stranger to pain. But the disintegration of Fuller's own marriage leaves her shattered. Looking to pick up the pieces of her life, she finally confronts the tough questions about her past, about the American man she married, and about the family she left behind in Africa. A breathtaking achievement, Leaving Before the Rains Come is a memoir of such...
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"No one does glamour, severity, girlish charm or tight-lipped witticism better than Dame Maggie Smith, one of Britain's best-loved actors. This new biography shines the stage lights on the life and work of a truly remarkable performer, one whose career spans six decades. From her days as a star of West End comedy and revue, Dame Maggie would cross paths with those of the greatest actors, playwrights, and directors of the era. Whether stealing scenes...
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We can hardly imagine a Britain without Elizabeth II. Yet for much of her early life, the young princess did not know what her future would hold. Kate Williams reveals how the 25-year-old accidental queen carved out a lasting role for herself amid the changes of the 20th century.
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"History was made at the 2015 Belmont Stakes when American Pharoah won the Triple Crown, the first since Affirmed in 1978. As magnificent as the champion is, the team behind him has been all too human while on the road to immortality. Written by an award-winning New York Times sportswriter, American Pharoah is the definitive account not only of how the ethereal colt won the Kentucky Derby, Preakness, and Belmont Stakes, but how he changed lives. Through...
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Evenly divided between a book about Smith's process and her life, first as a Southern mountain child and, later, as the parent of a schizophrenic child, this book is interesting and compelling. Despite being surrounded by loving family and being blessed with an active imagination, Lee copes with a mentally ill mother. Later, her son's mental illness and early death brings her to the breaking point but she is saved by her writing.
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"When Isabel meets Edward, both are at a crossroads: he wants to follow his late wife to the grave, and she is ready to give up on love. Thinking she is merely helping out her friend, Edward's daughter--who lives far away and asked her to check in on her nonagenarian dad in New York--Isabel has no idea that the man in the kitchen baking the sublime roast chicken and light-as-air apricot soufflé will end up changing her life. As Edward and Isabel...
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After crossing paths on the set of The Man from U.N.C.L.E, William Shatner and Leonard Nimoy saw each other through personal and professional highs and lows over the course of half a century. Leonard is a uniquely heartfelt book written by one legendary actor in celebration of another.
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"Joel Grey, the Academy Award-winning master of ceremonies in Cabaret, finally tells his remarkable life story. Born Joel David Katz to a wild and woolly Jewish-American family in 1930's Cleveland, Joel began his life in the theater at the age of nine, starring in local productions of touring Broadway hits. He was hooked, and the search for the spotlight took him from the Cleveland Playhouse to seedy, gangster-filled nightclubs in Chicago, and finally...
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The touching, triumphant story of a young black man's journey from violence and despair to one of the world's most elite artistic institutions. In 2011, at the age of twenty-four, Ryan won a nationwide competition hosted by New York's Metropolitan Opera. Today, he is a rising star performing major roles at the Met and Europe's most prestigious opera houses.
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"A family history of surpassing beauty and power: Ian Buruma's account of his grandparents' enduring love through the terror and separation of two world wars. During the almost six years England was at war with Nazi Germany, Winifred and Bernard Schlesinger, Ian Buruma's grandparents, and the film director John Schlesinger's parents, were, like so many others, thoroughly sundered from each other. Their only recourse was to write letters back and forth....
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"Bobby Kennedy was a personal hero to a multitude of Americans. As the train carrying his body headed to Washington, whites and blacks alike stood along the tracks, saluting him. They loved him as a fellow patriot who believed a great country could also be a good one. Chris Matthews, the host of MSNBC's Hardball, has discovered what made him who he was...Drawing on extensive research and intimate interviews, Matthews shines a light on all the important...
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In 1994, Nelson Mandela became the first president of a democratic South Africa, committed to serving only a single five-year term. During his presidency, he and his government ensured that all of South Africa's citizens became equal before the law, and laid the foundation for turning a country riven by centuries of colonialism and apartheid into a fully functioning democracy. This volume draws on the memoir Mandela began as he prepared to leave office....
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This is the story of Napal, who brought Jason Morgan back from the brink. It is the story of a funny, lovable dog's power to heal a family and teach a wounded man how to be a true father. Humorous, intensely moving, and uplifting, this tale will lift every heart.
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Henry Fonda and James Stewart were two of the biggest stars in Hollywood for forty years. They became friends and then roommates as stage actors in New York, and when they began making films in Hollywood, they roomed together again. Between them they made such memorable films as The Grapes of Wrath, Mister Roberts, Twelve Angry Men, and On Golden Pond; and Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, Destry Rides Again, The Philadelphia Story, It's a Wonderful Life,...
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At thirty-seven, Sheila Kohler received the news that her sister Maxine, only two years older, was killed when her husband drove off a deserted road in Johannesburg. Stunned, she flew home determined to find answers. Flashing back to their storybook childhood at the family estate, Kohler evokes a bond between sisters that changes but never breaks.
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Millions of readers of Little House on the Prairie believe they know Laura Ingalls--the pioneer girl who survived blizzards and near-starvation on the Great Plains, and the woman who wrote the famous autobiographical books. But the true saga of her life has never been fully told. Now, drawing on unpublished manuscripts, letters, diaries, and land and financial records, Caroline Fraser--the editor of the Library of America edition of the Little House...
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"Equal parts memoir and cultural history, from acclaimed comic stylist and professional hobbyist Henry Alford comes a hilarious journey through the world of dance that will inform, entertain and leave readers tapping their toes. When Henry Alford wrote about his experience with a Zumba class for The New York Times, little did he realize that it was the start of something much bigger. Dance would grow and take on many roles for Henry: exercise, confidence...
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A heartwarming memoir of a family that refused to give up. When twenty-two-year-old Susan Stachler was diagnosed with cancer, her mother, Laura, was struck by deja vu. The same illness that took her sister's life was threatening to take her daughter's too. Heartbroken but steadfast, Laura pledged to help Susan through the worst of her treatments. When they discovered that Laura's homemade ginger cookies soothed the side effects of Susan's chemotherapy,...