Hardcover Nonfiction

by Mitch Albom · Doubleday

by the Rock with Joe Layden · ReganBooks/HarperCollins

The Rock says. . . "Know your damn role--and shut your mouth!" But that simple catch-phrase, embraced by the millions ñand the millions--of The Rock's fans, can't begin to capture the spirit and larger-than-life personality of the most electrifying man in sports-entertainment." In this action-packed, revealing and outrageously funny memoir, World Wrestling Federation Superstar The Rock recounts his life in and out of the ring with unapologetic honesty and inimitable style. From his boyhood days traveling around the world with his father (professional wrestler Rocky Johnson) to his years as a football player at the University of Miami to his meteoric rise through the ranks of the Federation, The Rock Says. . .chronicles in vivid detail the life story of one of sports-entertainment's most innovative and best-loved personalities. The Rock recalls his injury-plagued career at Miami and a subsequent foray to the Great White North, where he discovered that in Canada being a professional football player is not exactly a glamorous life. After a few months of sleeping on putrid, stained mattresses that he dug out of the garbage and subsisting on nothing but plain spaghetti, "D.J." ditched his cleats forever and set his sights on the path of his father and grandfather--wrestling. Performing first in the minors as plain old Dwayne Johnson, then as "Flex Kavana" and later as "Rocky Maivia," he quickly became one of the World Wrestling Federation's hopefuls. But no matter how he tried to get over with the fans, the stadiums greeted him with chants of "Rocky sucks! Rocky sucks!" He then adopted the brash persona of The Rock--a snorting, spitting, snotting, swearing son-of-a-bitch with the soul of a smart-ass comic and the body of an Adonis--and he found his true calling as the "People's Champion." The Rock will take fans on a guided tour of big-time professional wrestling, a highly competitive business in which a handful of gifted and lucky performers dominate, and all others dream of a moment in the spotlight. He provides a breathtaking, minute-by-minute account of Wrestle Mania, the Super Bowl of pro wrestling, including an intimate backstage look at rehearsals with his opponent, Stone Cold Steve Austin. And he discusses in heartfelt detail the loss of his friend and co-worker, Owen Hart. Filled with genuinely touching stories of love and strife, hilarious anecdotes, inside accounts of an industry whose machinations have long been shrouded in secrecy and dozens of previously unpublished photographs from The Rock's personal collection, The Rock Says. . .is--as The Rock himself might put it--"the coolest thing since the other side of the pillow if you smell what The Rock is cookin'."

by Thomas J. Stanley · Andrews McMeel

by Frank McCourt · Scribner

Frank McCourt's glorious childhood memoir, Angela's Ashes, has been loved and celebrated by readers everywhere for its spirit, its wit and its profound humanity. A tale of redemption, in which storytelling itself is the source of salvation, it won the National Book Critics Circle Award, the Los Angeles Times Book Award and the Pulitzer Prize. Rarely has a book so swiftly found its place on the literary landscape. And now we have 'Tis, the story of Frank's American journey from impoverished immigrant to brilliant teacher and raconteur. Frank lands in New York at age nineteen, in the company of a priest he meets on the boat. He gets a job at the Biltmore Hotel, where he immediately encounters the vivid hierarchies of this "classless country," and then is drafted into the army and is sent to Germany to train dogs and type reports. It is Frank's incomparable voice -- his uncanny humor and his astonishing ear for dialogue -- that renders these experiences spellbinding. When Frank returns to America in 1953, he works on the docks, always resisting what everyone tells him, that men and women who have dreamed and toiled for years to get to America should "stick to their own kind" once they arrive. Somehow, Frank knows that he should be getting an education, and though he left school at fourteen, he talks his way into New York University. There, he falls in love with the quintessential Yankee, long-legged and blonde, and tries to live his dream. But it is not until he starts to teach -- and to write -- that Frank finds his place in the world. The same vulnerable but invincible spirit that captured the hearts of readers in Angela's Ashes comes of age. As Malcolm Jones said in his Newsweek review of Angela's Ashes, "It is only the best storyteller who can so beguile his readers that he leaves them wanting more when he is done...and McCourt proves himself one of the very best." Frank McCourt's 'Tis is one of the most eagerly awaited books of our time, and it is a masterpiece.

by John McCain with Mark Salter · Random House

A testament to the power of human endurance, Faith of My Fathers is the story of three men who fought for their country with courage and emerged with their honor intact.

by Mick Foley · ReganBooks/ HarperCollins

This Book is Not for the Squeamish No. This is the autobiography of the Hardcore Legend, Mick Foley. Some wrestling fans claim that "Foley is God." You're about to find out why. Mick Foley is a nice man. A family man. He loves his son, Dewey, his daughter, Noelle, and his beautiful wife, Colette. He loves amusement parks, eating ice cream in bed, and watching Nickelodeon. So, how to explain his participation in Japanese Death Matches, which replace the ring ropes with barbed wire, cover the mats with glittering gold thumbtacks, and feature C4 explosives scattered throughout the ring? How to explain the barbed--wire scars that zigzag across his body, the second-degree burn tissue that is a memento of an exploding C4, and the missing ear that was ripped clean off his head during a bout? And how to explain how, after losing his ear, he then continued his match? Here is an intimate glimpse into Mick Foley's mind, his history, his passions, and what some might call his pathology. No ghostwriter. Not "as told to." Straight from the twisted genius behind Cactus Jack, Dude Love, and Mankind---deciphered from 760 pages of maniacally handwritten notebook paper--comes a tale of blood, sweat, tears, and still more blood. You'll chuckle at Mick's early back-yard wrestling antics and homemade wrestling movies. You'll be amazed by the inside scoop on legends in the business like Terry Funk, Harley Race, Abdullah the Butcher, and Ric Flair. You'll squirm as Mick describes his incredible risks in the ring and his grisly, mind--numbing injuries. Finally, you will cheer with true admiration as arguably the hardest-working, most dedicated, and most heroic man in sports-entertainment beats all the odds and takes home the prize he had been told all along he would never, ever get: the World Wrestling Federation Championship belt.

by Dave Eggers · Simon & Schuster

by Charles M. Schulz; edited by David Larkin · HarperCollins

This book honors the art of the author & lets readers relive the life & times of the most beloved - & the most widely syndicated - comic strip in history, from its infancy in 1950 right through glorious middle age. Watch as your favorite characters grow into their most popular incarnations - Charlie Brown as tenacious baseball manager; Lucy as psychiatrist; Snoopy as Flying Ace; Linus as acolyte of the Great Pumpkin. One hundred ninety-two pages of two-color strips & 64 pages of four-color Sunday strips (more than 1,000 strips in all) & photographs are rounded out by Schulz's own comments (offering rare insight into the mind behind the mayhem). Annotation. Will Charlie Brown ever get to kick the footballs? Will Schroeder finally return Lucy's love? Will Linus give up his security blanket? Will Peppermint Party ever pass a test? And, most importantly will Snoopy--that canine literary ace--ever be published? "To take a blank piece of paper and draw characters that people love and worry about is extremely satisfying. It really does not matter what you are called or where your work is placed as long as it brings some kind of joy to some person some place."

by Tom Brokaw · Random House

In this superb book, Tom Brokaw goes out into America, to tell through the stories of individual men and women the story of a generation - America's citizen heroes and heroines who came of age during the Great Depression and the Second World War and went on to build modern America. This was a generation united by common values - by duty, honour, courage, service and love of family and country. Here you'll meet people like Charles Van Gorder, who set up during D-Day a MASH-like medical facility in the middle of the fighting, and then came home to create a clinic and hospital in his hometown. You'll hear ex-President George Bush talk about how, as a Navy Air Corps combat pilot, one of his assignments was to read the mail of the enlisted men under him, to be sure no sensitive military information would be compromised. You'll meet Trudy Elion, winner of the Nobel Prize in medicine, one of the many women in this book who found fulfilling careers in the changed society as a result of the war. And you'll meet Martha Putney, one of the first black women to serve in the newly formed WACs. In the spirit of Band of Brothers, The Greatest Generation tells the stories of ordinary men and women caught up in extraordinary events - individuals united by a common purpose - working, living and dying in the service of their country.

by the Dalai Lama and Howard C. Cutler · Riverhead

In this unique and important book, one of the world's great spiritual leaders offers his practical wisdom and advice on how we can overcome everyday human problems and achieve lasting happiness. The Art of Happiness is a highly accessible guide for a western audience, combining the Dalai Lama's eastern spiritual tradition with Dr Howard C. Cutler's western perspective. Covering all key areas of human experience, they apply the principles of Tibetan Buddhism to everyday problems and reveal how one can find balance and complete spiritual and mental freedom. For the many who wish to understand more about the Dalai Lama's approach to living, there has never been a book which brings his beliefs so vividly into the real world.

by Molly Ivins and Lou Dubose · Random House

When it comes to reporting on politics, nobody does it smarter or funnier than bestselling author Molly Ivins. In Shrub, Ivins focuses her Texas-size smarts on the biggest politician in her home state: George Walker Bush, or "Shrub," as Ivins has nicknamed Bush the Younger. A candidate of vague speeches and an ambiguous platform, Bush leads the pack of GOP 2000 presidential hopefuls; "Dubya" could very well be our next president. What voters need now is an original, smart, and accessible analysis of Bush--one that leaves the "youthful indiscretions" to the tabloids and gets to the heart of his policies and motivations. Ivins is the perfect woman for the job. With her trademark wit and down-home wisdom, Molly Ivins shares three pieces of advice on judging a politician: "The first is to look at the record. The second is to look at the record. And third, look at the record." In this book, Ivins takes a good, hard look at the record of the man who could be the leader of the free world. Beginning with his post-college military career, Ivins tracks Dubya's winding, sometimes unlikely path from a failed congressional bid to a two-term governorship. Bush has made plenty of friends and supporters along the way, including Texas oil barons, evangelist Billy Graham, and co-investors in the Texas Rangers baseball team. "You would have to work at it to dislike the man," she writes. But for all of Bush's likeability, Ivins points to a disconcerting lack of political passion from this ascending presidential candidate. In her words, "If you think his daddy had trouble with 'the vision thing, ' wait till you meet this one." Witty, trenchant, and on target, Ivins gives asingularly perceptive and entertaining analysis of George W. Bush. To head to the voting booth without it would be downright un-American. From Shrub: The Short but Happy Political Life of George W. Bush " The past is prologue in politics. If a politician is left, right, weak, strong, given to the waffle or the flip-flop, or, as sometimes happens, an able soul who performs well under pressure, all that will be in the record." , Bush's welfare record: "Texas pols like to 'git tuff' on crime, welfare, commies, and other bad stuff. Bush proposed to git tuff on welfare recipients by ending the allowance for each additional child--which in Texas is $38 a month." , Bush and the Christian right: "Bush has learned to dance with the Christian right. It has been interesting and amusing to watch the process. Interesting because it's sometimes hard to tell who's leading and who's following; amusing because when a scion of Old Yankee money gets together with a televangelist with too much Elvis, the result is swell entertainment." , Bush's environmental record: Since Governor Bush's election, Texas air quality has been rated the worst in the nation, leading all fifty states in overall toxic releases, recognized carcinogens in the air, cancer risk, and ten other categories of pollutants. , Bush's military career: "Bush was promoted as the Texas Air National Guard's anti-drug poster boy, one of life's little ironies given the difficulty he has had answering cocaine questions all these years later. 'George Walker Bush is one member of the younger generation who doesn't get his kicks from pot or hashish or speed, ' reads a Guard press release of 1970. 'Oh, he gets high, all right, but not from narcotics.'"

by Cokie Roberts and Steve Roberts · Morrow

The authors, both journalists, reflect on their marriage and the state of marriage in America.

by Tom Brokaw · Random House

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • A heartwarming gift for the holidays—a powerful selection of the letters Tom Brokaw received in response to his towering #1 bestseller The Greatest Generation. “When I wrote about the men and women who came out of the Depression, who won great victories and made lasting sacrifices in World War II and then returned home to begin building the world we have today—the people I called the Greatest Generation—it was my way of saying thank you. But I was not prepared for the avalanche of letters and responses touched off by that book. I had written a book about America, and now America was writing back.”—Tom Brokaw In the phenomenal bestseller The Greatest Generation, Tom Brokaw paid affecting tribute to those who gave the world so much—and who left an enduring legacy of courage and conviction. The Greatest Generation Speaks collects the vast outpouring of letters Brokaw received from men and women eager to share their intensely personal stories of a momentous time in America’s history. Some letters tell of the front during the war, others recall loved ones in harm’s way in distant places. They offer first-hand accounts of battles, poignant reflections on loneliness, exuberant expressions of love, and somber feelings of loss. As Brokaw notes, “If we are to heed the past to prepare for the future, we should listen to these quiet voices of a generation that speaks to us of duty and honor, sacrifice and accomplishment. I hope more of their stories will be preserved and cherished as reminders of all that we owe them and all that we can learn from them.”

by Amanda Foreman · Random House

by John Colapinto · HarperCollins

In 1967, after a baby boy suffered a botched circumcision, his desperate family agreed to a radical treatment. On the advice of an expert, the boy was surgically altered to live life as a girl. This is story of his life.

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.