Acclaimed poet Elizabeth Alexander finds herself at an existential crossroads after the sudden death of her husband. Channeling her poetic sensibilities into a rich, lucid prose, she tells a love story that is, itself, a story of loss. Reflecting on the beauty of her married life, the trauma of her husband's death, and the solace found in caring for her two teenage sons, Alexander universalizes a very personal quest for meaning and acceptance in the...

Best known for his work among our nation's poorest children, Jonathan Kozol now tells the story of his father's life and extraordinary career as a noted specialist in neurological and psychiatric disorders of the brain.

The captivating, little-known hidden history of a group of women whose remarkable contributions to the burgeoning field of astronomy forever changed our understanding of the stars and our place in the universe.

Jahren has built three laboratories in which she's studied trees, flowers, seeds, and soil. She tells about her childhood in rural Minnesota with an uncompromising mother and a father who encouraged hours of play in his classroom's labs; about how she found a sanctuary in science, and the disappointments, triumphs and exhilarating discoveries of scientific work. Yet at the core of this book is the story of a relationship Jahren forged with Bill, who...

For readers of Anne Lamott, Abigail Thomas, and Ayelet Waldman, a post-divorce memoir, one woman's story of starting over at 60-in youth-obsessed, beauty-obsessed Hollywood. After the death of her best friend, the loss of her life's savings, and the collapse of her once-happy marriage, Meredith Maran leaves her San Francisco freelance writer's life for a 9-to-5 job in Los Angeles. Determined to rebuild not only her savings but herself while relishing...

Margaret Bragg does not own a single cookbook. She measures by "dabs" and "smidgens" and "tads" and "you know, hon, just some." Her notion of farm-to-table is a flatbed truck. Many of her recipes, recorded here for the first time, pre-date the Civil War-- handed down skillet by skillet from one generation of Braggs to the next. Here Rick Bragg finally preserves his heritage by telling stories that framed his mother's cooking and education, from childhood...

A top law school graduate struggling with suicidal thoughts and an eating disorder describes her reluctant participation in a therapeutic support group that taught her the meaning of human connection and intimacy. Tate had just been named the top student in her law school class and finally had her eating disorder under control. Why then was she envisioning putting an end to the isolation and sadness that still plagued her despite her achievements?...

A biography of Queen Elizabeth II's husband, and father, grandfather, and great-grandfather of the next three kings of England. From his early childhood in Paris among aristocrats and his mother's battle with schizophrenia to his distinctive military service during World War II and marriage to Elizabeth in 1947, Philip's life is chronicled and reveals his many faces--as a father, a philanthropist, a philanderer, and a statesman. -- Adapted from Amazon.com The...

"Rock stars. Whatever those words mean to you, chances are, they owe a debt to Led Zeppelin. No one before or since has lived the dream quite like Jimmy Page, Robert Plant, John Paul Jones, and John Bonham. In Led Zeppelin, Bob Spitz takes their full measure, for good and sometimes for ill, separating the myth from the reality with the connoisseurship and storytelling flair that are his trademarks. From the opening notes of their first album, the...

"From award-winning actor and food obsessive Stanley Tucci comes an intimate and charming memoir of life in and out of the kitchen"-- "Stanley Tucci grew up in an Italian American family that spent every night around the kitchen table. Taste is a reflection on the intersection of food and life, filled with anecdotes about his growing up in Westchester, New York; preparing for and shooting the foodie films Big Night and Julie & Julia; falling in love...