Plutarch's Lives, written at the beginning of the second century A.D., is a brilliant social history of the ancient world by one of the greatest biographers and moralists of all time. In what is by far his most famous and influential ...

Plutarch's influential writings on the ancient world. Plutarch's parallel biographies of the great men in Greek and Roman history are cornerstones of European literature, drawn on by countless writers since the Renaissance. This sel...

Celebrated for her award-winning political columns, criticism, and poetry, Katha Pollitt offers something new in this poignant, hilarious, and sometimes outrageous collection of stories drawn from her own life. With deep feeling and s...

A GREAT AMERICAN SUCCESS STORY . . . AN ENDEARING AND WELL-WRITTEN BOOK.'--The New York Times Book ReviewColin Powell is the embodiment of the American dream. He was born in Harlem to immigrant parents from Jamaica. He knew the rough ...

Exploring French women's passion for looking and feeling good, a British expatriate explains the secrets of French beauty, describing how French women achieve maximum effect with the least amount of effort through their passion for fa...

While Mark Twain remains one of our most quintessentially American writers, the actual boyhood experiences that fueled his most enduring literature remained largely unexplored—until now. Twain's early years were a decidedly un-innoc...

Francine Prose's life of Caravaggio evokes the genius of this great artist through a brilliant reading of his paintings. Caravaggio defied the aesthetic conventions of his time; his use of ordinary people, realistically portrayed-stre...

"This story will compel you to both laugh and cry, just as the title promises. May we all bring Nora's honesty, passion and hope to our lives." — Lena Dunhamcomedy = tragedy + time/roseTwenty-seven-year-old Nora McInerny...

"Sonia Purnell has at long last given Clementine Churchill the biography she deserves. Sensitive yet clear-eyed, Clementine tells the fascinating story of a complex woman struggling to maintain her own identity while serving as t...

I n 1967, Jim Purtell left his small Midwestern town to join the U.S. Army. He did so at a time when the country was pro-Vietnam and serving seemed an honorable thing to do. Little did he know that the tide would turn a mere six month...

The year is 1981. The U.S. space shuttle Columbia takes its first flight. Ronald Reagan becomes president and Muhammad Ali officially retires with 55 wins. "Raiders of the Lost Ark" debuts in theatres, the term "Interne...

In his book Joy Bliss This, William Quigley tells the story of becoming a teacher, a journey he never planned to take, and one that was filled with repeated failure from the start. At his lowest point, when he had fallen the farthest ...

Dizzy with grief after a shattering breakup, Kristen did what any sensible thirty-nine-year-old woman would do: she fled, abandoning her well-ordered life in metropolitan Boston and impulsively relocating to a college town in North Ca...

A woman who worries about carrying a .38 special in her purse, nearly drowns in a desert canyon, flies into the war in Bosnia, dances with the FBI, tells Geraldo he shouldn t put guests in hotel rooms with rats and spends time with mu...

Quickly becoming a cornerstone of Holocaust historiography—a devastatingly stark memoir from one of the lone survivors of Treblinka.Why do some live while so many others perish? Tiny children,old men, beautiful girls. In the gas cha...

The "entertaining and enlightening" (Stephen King) final word on the genius and mischief of the Ramones, told by the man who created the beat behind their iconic music and lived to tell about it.When punk rock reared its spi...

b"Beth Raymer's crackling, hilarious memoir ricochets through the gambling underworld in Las Vegas, and is peopled with all manner of lovable wack-jobs, none of whom is quite as wacky—or lovable—as Raymer herself."—Mar...

In an eloquent, deeply personal and moving book, beloved NPR radio host Diane Rehm speaks about the death of her husband of fifty-four years—and of her struggle to reconstruct her life without him.John Rehm was 74 when he was diagno...

Jelly's Blues recounts the tumultuous life of Jelly Roll Morton (ca., 18851941). A virtuoso pianist with a larger-than-life personality, he composed such influential early jazz pieces as 'King Porter Stomp' and 'New Orleans Blues.' Ho...

NEW YORK TIMESBESTSELLER - Trailblazing food writer and beloved restaurant critic Ruth Reichl took the job (and the risk) of a lifetime when she entered the high-stakes world of magazine publishing. Now, for the first time, she chroni...

The classic account of growing up gay in America.'The best little boy in the world never had wet dreams or masturbated; he always topped his class, honored mom and dad, deferred to elders and excelled in sports . . . . The best little...

By 'the foremost Jacksonian scholar of our time' (New York Times), the critically acclaimed and most concise biography of Andrew Jackson that takes a comprehensive look at the political, personal, and military life of our seventh pres...

PERFECTIONIST MOM TAKES DOING IT ALL TO THE NEXT LEVEL AS THE WORLD'S WORST ATTEMPTED SWINGER Waiting in line to use the bathroom in a fancy New York City sex club is just like waiting to use the bathroom anywhere else. Well, anywher...

A gripping account of the Second World War, from the perspective of a young tank commander.In 1944, David Render was a nineteen-year-old second lieutenant fresh from Sandhurst when he was sent to France. Joining the Sherwood Rangers Y...

Tom Reynolds is an ambulance worker. On any given day he can be attacked by strangers, sworn at by motorists, puked on, covered in blood, and other much more unpleasant substances. He could help to deliver a baby in the morning and wi...

After stumbling upon a tiny orphanage in rural Tanzania, Susanne Rheault knew her life was about to change.From walking with lions in the bush to dodging bombs in Tanzania's largest city, psychologist Susanne Rheault recounts with can...

In January of 2010, a wide-eyed English grad went from peddling software in NYC to understudying the lead role in Wicked the musical -- her first professional theater gig (ever). Unnaturally Green is the humorous account of the entire...

"Richardson never pulls his punches in these vivid descriptions." --Publishers WeeklyCaught in the Chinese counterattack at Unsan-one of the deadliest American battles of the Cold War Era-Colonel Bill Richardson led an Al...

A young woman moves across an ocean to uncover the truth about her grandparents' mysterious estrangement and pieces together the extraordinary story of their wartime experiences  In 1948, after surviving World War II by escaping Nazi...

"Number One" was a phrase my father—and, for that matter, my mother—repeated time and time again. It was a phrase spoken by my parents' friends and by their friends' children. Whenever adults discussed the great Chinese ...