Hardcover Nonfiction

by Mitch Albom · Doubleday

by Cokie Roberts · Morrow

by Christopher Reeve · Random House

When the first Superman movie came out I was frequently asked 'What is a hero?' I remember the glib response I repeated so many times. My answer was that a hero is someone who commits a courageous action without considering the consequences--a soldier who crawls out of a foxhole to drag an injured buddy to safety. And I also meant individuals who are slightly larger than life: Houdini and Lindbergh, John Wayne, JFK, and Joe DiMaggio. Now my definition is completely different. I think a hero is an ordinary individual who finds strength to persevere and endure in spite of overwhelming obstacles: a fifteen-year-old boy who landed on his head while wrestling with his brother, leaving him barely able to swallow or speak; Travis Roy, paralyzed in the first thirty seconds of a hockey game in his freshman year at college. These are real heroes, and so are the families and friends who have stood by them." The whole world held its breath when Christopher Reeve struggled for life on Memorial Day, 1995. On the third jump of a riding competition, Reeve was thrown headfirst from his horse in an accident that broke his neck and left him unable to move or breathe. In the years since then, Reeve has not only survived, but has fought for himself, for his family, and for the hundreds of thousands of people with spinal cord injuries in the United States and around the world. And he has written Still Me, the heartbreaking, funny, courageous, and hopeful story of his life. Chris describes his early success on Broadway opposite the legendary Katherine Hepburn, the adventure of filming Superman on the streets of New York, and how the movie made him a star. He continued to move regularly between film acting and theater work in New York, Los Angeles, and at the WIlliamstown Theatre Festival in the Berkshires. Reunited with his Bostonians director, James Ivory, in 1992, he traveled to England to work with Emma Thompson and Anthony Hopkins in The Remains of the Day. The Man who cannot move has not stopped moving. He has established a charitable foundation to raise awareness and money for research on spinal cord injuries. His work as director of the HBO film In the Gloaming earned him an Emmy nomination, one of five that the film received. His speeches at the Democratic National Convention and the Academy Awards inspired people around the country and the world. He has testified before Congress on behalf of health insurance legislation, lobbied for increased federal funding for spinal cord research, and developed a working relationship with President Clinton. With dignity and sensitivity, he describes the journey he has made--physically, emotionally, spiritually. He explores his complex relationship with his parents, his efforts to remain a devoted husband and father, and his continuing and heroic battle to rebuild his life. This is the determined, passionate story of one man, a gifted actor and star, and how he and his family came to grips with the kind of devastating, unexplainable shock that fate can bring to any of us. Chris and Dana Reeve have gathered the will and the spirit to create a new life, one responsive and engaged and focused on the future. From the Hardcover edition.

by Monty Roberts · Random House

by Frank McCourt · Scribner

<b><i>Angela's Ashes</i>, imbued on every page with Frank McCourt's astounding humor and compassion, is a glorious book that bears all the marks of a classic.</b><br><br><i>"When I look back on my childhood I wonder how I managed to survive at all. It was, of course, a miserable childhood: the happy childhood is hardly worth your while. Worse than the ordinary miserable childhood is the miserable Irish childhood, and worse yet is the miserable Irish Catholic childhood."</i><br> <br> So begins the luminous memoir of Frank McCourt, born in Depression-era Brooklyn to recent Irish immigrants and raised in the slums of Limerick, Ireland. Frank's mother, Angela, has no money to feed the children since Frank's father, Malachy, rarely works, and when he does he drinks his wages. Yet Malachy -- exasperating, irresponsible and beguiling-- does nurture in Frank an appetite for the one thing he can provide: a story. Frank lives for his father's tales of Cuchulain, who saved Ireland, and of the Angel on the Seventh Step, who brings his mother babies. Perhaps it is story that accounts for Frank's survival. Wearing rags for diapers, begging a pig's head for Christmas dinner and gathering coal from the roadside to light a fire, Frank endures poverty, near-starvation and the casual cruelty of relatives and neighbors--yet lives to tell his tale with eloquence, exuberance and remarkable forgiveness.

by Thomas Cahill · Talese/ Doubleday

by Thomas J. Stanley and William D. Danko · Longstreet

Can you spot the millionaire next door? Who are the rich in this country? What do they do? Where do they shop? What do they drive? How do they invest? Where did their ancestors come from? How did they get rich? Can I ever become one of them? Get the answers in The Millionaire Next Door, the never-before-told story about wealth in America. You'll be surprised at what you find out. "Why aren't I as wealthy as I should be?" Many people ask this question of themselves all the time. Often they are hard-working, well-educated, middle-to-high-income people. Why, then, are so few affluent? The answer lies in The Millionaire Next Door: The Surprising Secrets of America's wealthy. According to authors Thomas J. Stanley and William D. Danko, most people have it all wrong about how you become wealthy in America. It is seldom inheritance or advanced degrees or even intelligence that builds fortunes in this country. Wealth in America is more often the result of hard work, diligent savings, and living below your means. - Jacket.

by Ron Chernow · Random House

Tác giả Chernow tìm hiểu về John D. Rockefeller dựa trên ba quan điểm chính: người đàn ông của gia đình, gã khổng lồ trong kinh doanh và nhà từ thiện hào phóng 1/ Cuốn sách dày 1155 trang chia thành 35 chương là 35 nấc thang trong cuộc đời của Rockefeller, đưa bạn lần theo dấu chân của John D. Rockefeller từ khi ông còn là một cậu bé quê mùa gầy còm cho tới khi trở thành ông trùm của Tập đoàn Standard Oil, nắm giữ quyền vị tỷ phú đầu tiên của nước Mỹ. 2/ Trong khi cung cấp bằng chứng mới về các hoạt động sai trái của Rockefeller, Chernow cũng loại bỏ định kiến ​​về con quái vật máu lạnh, tham lam để phác họa một bức chân dung con người khó hiểu, kỳ quặc, đối lập. Vừa là một người máy hoàn hảo không tì vết ở thái cực này, nhưng lại là lưỡi lê máy chém ở thái cực kia. 3/ Câu chuyện của John D. Rockefeller gắn liền với những thời khắc quan trọng trong lịch sử nước Mỹ, giai đoạn diễn ra sự chuyển đổi mạnh mẽ sau Nội chiến từ doanh nghiệp nhỏ sang sự phát triển của các tập đoàn khổng lồ làm thay đổi kinh tế đất nước. 4/ Bức tranh đa sắc thái về một người đàn ông hấp dẫn, phức tạp cùng những tiết lộ về những vụ bê bối trong gia đình, bi kịch và những bất hạnh chưa từng được đưa ra ánh sáng 5/ Triết lý kinh doanh của Rockefeller và những chiếc chìa khóa đã giúp cho vị tỷ phú đầu tiên của nước Mỹ cách mạng hóa nền công nghiệp dầu mỏ cũng như đưa ông đến với sự giàu có và danh tiếng lưu truyền tận ngày hôm nay

by James Van Praagh · Dutton

by John Berendt · Random House

by Daniel Petrocelli with Peter Knobler · Crown

by Nuala O'Faolain · Holt

by Neale Donald Walsch · Putnam

In a world where organized religion fails to resonate with a growing number of people, Neale Donald Walsch's Conversations with God offers a refreshing and thought-provoking alternative. Delve into thought-provoking discussions on free speech, creativity, and discernment, as Walsch's empathetic and empowering words guide you towards a life of inner harmony and awakening. Unveiling the secrets to unlocking your true potential, this timeless classic explores the profound connection between humanity and the divine presence. With unwavering honesty and startling clarity, Walsch invites you to embrace love over fear, reminding you that you hold the power to transform your reality.

by Edward O. Wilson · Knopf

Examines the fundamental unity of all knowledge and the need to search for consilience--the proof that everything in our world is organized in terms of a small number of natural laws that comprises all learning.

by Bill Bryson · Broadway

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • The classic chronicle of a “terribly misguided and terribly funny” (The Washington Post) hike of the Appalachian Trail, from the author of A Short History of Nearly Everything and The Body “The best way of escaping into nature.”—The New York Times Back in America after twenty years in Britain, Bill Bryson decided to reacquaint himself with his native country by walking the 2,100-mile Appalachian Trail, which stretches from Georgia to Maine. The AT offers an astonishing landscape of silent forests and sparkling lakes—and to a writer with the comic genius of Bill Bryson, it also provides endless opportunities to witness the majestic silliness of his fellow human beings. For a start there’s the gloriously out-of-shape Stephen Katz, a buddy from Iowa along for the walk. But A Walk in the Woods is more than just a laugh-out-loud hike. Bryson’s acute eye is a wise witness to this beautiful but fragile trail, and as he tells its fascinating history, he makes a moving plea for the conservation of America’s last great wilderness. An adventure, a comedy, and a celebration, A Walk in the Woods is a modern classic of travel literature. NOW A MAJOR MOTION PICTURE

by Sebastian Junger · Norton

"There is nothing imaginary about Junger's book; it is all terrifyingly, awesomely real." —Los Angeles Times It was the storm of the century, boasting waves over one hundred feet high—a tempest created by so rare a combination of factors that meteorologists deemed it "the perfect storm." In a book that has become a classic, Sebastian Junger explores the history of the fishing industry, the science of storms, and the candid accounts of the people whose lives the storm touched. The Perfect Storm is a real-life thriller that makes us feel like we've been caught, helpless, in the grip of a force of nature beyond our understanding or control. Winner of the American Library Association's 1998 Alex Award.