“Mom loved adages, quotes, slogans. There were always little reminders pasted on the kitchen wall. For example, the word THINK. I found THINK thumbtacked on a bulletin board in her darkroom. I saw it Scotch-taped on a pencil box she’d collaged. I even found a pamphlet titled THINK on her bedside table. Mom liked to THINK.”
 
So begins Diane Keaton’s unforgettable memoir about her mother and herself. In it you will meet the woman known to tens of millions as Annie Hall, but you will also meet, and fall in love with, her mother, the loving, complicated, always thinking Dorothy Hall. To write about herself, Diane realized she had to write about her mother, too, and how their bond came to define both their lives. And so, in a remarkable act of creation, Diane not only reveals herself to us, she also lets us meet in intimate detail her mother. Throughout her life, Dorothy kept eighty-five journals—literally thousands of pages—in which she wrote about her marriage, her children, and, most probingly, about herself. Dorothy also recorded memorable stories about Diane’s grandparents. Diane has sorted through all these pages to paint an unflinching portrait of her mother—a woman restless with intellectual and creative energy struggling to find an outlet for her talents—as well as her entire family, recounting a story that spans four generations and nearly a hundred years.

More than just the autobiography of a legendary actress, Then Again is a book about a very American family with very American dreams. Diane will remind you of yourself, and her bonds with her family will remind you of your own relationships with those you love the most.

A raw, poignant, and often hilarious look inside the troubled life and mind of an American comic icon

From his harrowing childhood filled with physical and emotional abuse, to a lifetime of alcoholism and self-mutilation, psychiatric hospitalizations and misdiagnoses, to the peak of fame and success as the longest-tenured cast member of Saturday Night Live (where his hilarious dead-on impressions of Bill Clinton, Dick Cheney, Chris Matthews, and a hundred other prominent figures ushered him to the peak of stardom), Darrell Hammond delves into the darkest corners of his life, both in front of and behind the camera, with brutal honesty and fierce comic wit.

Greg Heffley has always been in a hurry to grow up. But is getting older really all it’s cracked up to be?

 

Greg suddenly finds himself dealing with the pressures of boy-girl parties, increased responsibilities, and even the awkward changes that come with getting older—all without his best friend, Rowley, at his side. Can Greg make it through on his own? Or will he have to face the “ugly truth”?

He believed the dog was immortal.

So begins Susan Orlean’s sweeping, powerfully moving story of Rin Tin Tin’s journey from orphaned puppy to movie star and international icon. From the moment in 1918 when Corporal Lee Duncan discovers Rin Tin Tin on a World War I battlefield, he recognizes something in the pup that he needs to share with the world. Rin Tin Tin’s improbable introduction to Hollywood leads to the dog’s first blockbuster film and over time, the many radio programs, movies, and television shows that follow. The canine hero’s legacy is cemented by Duncan and a small group of others who devote their lives to keeping him and his descendants alive.

    

At its heart, Rin Tin Tin is a poignant exploration of the enduring bond between humans and animals. But it is also a richly textured history of twentieth-century entertainment and entrepreneurship and the changing role of dogs in the American family and society. Almost ten years in the making, Susan Orlean’s first original book since The Orchid Thief is a tour de force of history, human interest, and masterful storytelling—the ultimate must-read for anyone who loves great dogs or great yarns.

Sure, he’s an excitable guy.
Sure, he loves to complain.
But Regis Philbin loves life . . . and with the wildly unpredictable one he’s led so far, who wouldn’t? After five decades in show business—and nearly 17,000 unforgettable hours on television—he has a lifetime’s worth of stories to share.

In this entertaining memoir, the irrepressible Reege—consummate talk-show host, man-about-town, loving husband, father, and yes, obsessive sports fan—looks back at his years in show business. How I Got This Way is filled with stories of lessons learned—and elbows rubbed—with extraordinary, and often unsuspecting, teachers: David Letterman; Donald Trump; George Clooney; Howard Stern; Jack Nicholson; legendary Notre Dame coaches Frank Leahy, Ara Parseghian, and Lou Holtz; and, of course, longtime cohosts Kathie Lee Gifford and Kelly “Pippa” Ripa; as well as his own lovely wife, Joy—to name just a few.

Whether he’s revealing what really drove him “bonkers” on the set of Seinfeld, how he survived the first known bomb scare on live TV, what Jack Nicholson said about his beautiful leading ladies during their guys’ night out together, or poignant memories of his last moments with his idol and dear friend, Jack Paar, Regis packs every page with his signature heart, wit, dynamic energy, and gratitude for everything life has brought him.

• Literature & Fiction | Historical Fiction
• Entertainment | Movies | Movie Tie-In

One of the darkest moments in French history occurred in 1942 Paris when French officials rounded up over 10,000 Jews and placed them in local camps. Eventually over 8,000 were sent off to German concentration camps. Paris, July 1942: Ten-year-old Sarah is brutally arrested with her family by the French police in the Vel' d'Hiv' roundup, but not before she locks her younger brother in a cupboard in the family's apartment, thinking that she will be back within a few hours. After realizing she will not be allowed to go home, Sarah does whatever she can to get back to her brother.

In  Sarah's Key, Tatiana de Rosnay's U.S. debut fictionalizes the 1942 Paris roundups and deportations, in which thousands of Jewish families were arrested, held at the Vélodrome d'Hiver outside the city, then transported to Auschwitz.

Julia Jarmond is an American journalist in Paris, who is asked by her editor to cover the 60th anniversary of the Vél' d'Hiv' roundups. Julia learns that the apartment she plans to move into was previously occupied by Wladyslaw and Rywka Starzynski, the  parents of 10-year-old Sarah and four-year-old Michel, a Jewish family who were deported some 60 years before. Julia resolves to find out what happened to the former occupants. The more Julia discovers—especially about Sarah, the only member of the Starzynski family to survive—the more she uncovers about Bertrand's family, about France and, finally, herself. The novel, which is De Rosnay's 10th--but her first written in English, her first language--has been translated into 15 languages.

One person wrote, "In  Sarah's Key,"  a journalist embarks on a story about the Holocaust and discovers connections between the past, her present marriage and her unborn child. Beginning as an article on the 1942 roundup of Jews in France as they were sent off to Auschwitz, it soon becomes a journey of self-discovery, as she stumbles upon a terrible secret of a family forced out of their home and a young girl called Sarah who makes an impulsive decision to leave her younger brother locked in a cupboard. This is a story of a journalist's quest to dig up the lives of others and unleash the truth, but it also shows the price of these actions. Sarah's Key takes readers from Paris to Brooklyn to Florence and ultimately to the center of the heart, showing that even the truth has its cost, and that sadness, as much as we try to unlock it, can never be erased.

Another person said, "A journalist named Julia is on assignment to write a story on this black day in France's past in which Jews were deported. When Julia moves into father-in-law's childhood apartment, she realizes that it once belonged to the Strazynski family, and their daughter Sarah.  Through careful investigation, she stumbles onto a trail of long-hidden family secrets that connect her to Sarah. Julia finds herself compelled to retrace the girl's ordeal, from that terrible term in the Vel d'Hiv', to the camps, and beyond. As she probes into Sarah's past, Julia begins to question her own place in France, and to reevaluate her marriage and her life. Tatiana de Rosnay offers us a brilliantly subtle, compelling portrait of France under occupation and reveals the taboos and silence that surround this painful episode."

Business & Investing | Management & Leadership | Management
Sports | Baseball
Sports | Biographies
Entertainment | Movies | Movie-Tie-In*
Sabermetrics; Statistics; Management; Sports Books; Oakland Athletics baseball team; Economic aspects of baseball (United States); Baseball Players (Salaries, etc.); Scouting

Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game  is about the Oakland Athletics baseball team and its general manager Billy Beane. Its focus is the team's analytical, evidence-based, sabermetric approach to assembling a competitive baseball team, despite Oakland's disadvantaged revenue situation.

* Moneyball  is a 2011 biographical sports drama film directed by Bennett Miller and distributed by Columbia Pictures. The film, based on Michael Lewis's book, is an account of the Oakland Athletics baseball team's 2002 season and their general manager Bill Bean's attempts to assemble a competitive team. In the film, Beane (Brad Pitt) and assistant GM Peter Brand (Jonah Hill), faced with the franchise's unfavorable financial situation, take a sophisticated sabermetric approach towards scouting and analyzing players, acquiring "submarine" pitcher Chad Bradford (Casey Bond) and former catcher Scott Hatteberg (Chris Pratt) and winning 20 consecutive games, an American League record. The film was featured at the 2011 Toronto International Film Festival and was released on September 23, 2011 to critical acclaim. Moneyball  was nominated for six Academy Awards including Best Actor and Best Picture.

• Biographies & Memoirs | Personal Memoirs
• Biographies & Memoirs | Women
• Biographies & Memoirs | Travel
• Entertainment | Movies | Movie-Tie-In*

A celebrated writer pens an irresistible, candid, and eloquent account of her pursuit of worldly pleasure, spiritual devotion, and what she really wanted out of life.

Annotation: A celebrated writer pens an irresistible, candid, and eloquent account of her pursuit of worldly pleasure, spiritual devotion, and what she really wanted out of life.  

This beautifully written, heartfelt memoir touched a nerve among both readers and reviewers. In Eat, Pray, Love, Elizabeth Gilbert tells how she made the difficult choice to leave behind all the trappings of modern American success (marriage, house in the country, career) and find, instead, what she truly wanted from life. Setting out for a year to study three different aspects of her nature amid three different cultures, Gilbert explored the art of pleasure in Italy and the art of devotion in India, and then a balance between the two on the Indonesian island of Bali. By turns rapturous and rueful, this wise and funny author (whom Booklist calls "Anne Lamott's** hip, yoga-practicing, footloose younger sister") is poised to garner yet more adoring fans.

* Eat Pray Love  is a 2010 comedy-drama film starring Julia Roberts as Elizabeth Gilbert, based on Gilbert's best-selling memoir of the same name.  The film was co-written and directed by Ryan Murphy. It opened in the United States on Aug. 13, 2010.

** Ann Lamott is a novelist and non-fiction writer. She is also a political activist, public speaker and writing teacher. Based in the San Francisco Bay Area, her nonfiction works are largely autobiographical. Marked by their self-deprecating humor and openness, Lamott's writings cover such subjects as alcoholism, being a single mother, depression and Christianity.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:  Elizabeth Gilbert is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Eat, Pray, Love, as well as the short story collection, Pilgrims--a finalist for the PEN/Hemingway Award, and winner of the 1999 John C. Zacharis First Book Award from Ploughshares.  A Pushcart Prize winner and National Magazine Award-nominated journalist, Gilbert works as writer-at-large for GQ. Her journalism has been published in Harper's Bazaar, Spin, and The New York Times Magazine, and her stories have appeared in Esquire, Story, and the Paris Review. 

 

 

Thank you for taking this journey with us. We hope this book brings a new awareness of the opportunity we have to help those with autism learn to communicate and realize their ambitions. People with autism have the potential to achieve great things, but only when given the appropriate support and education. This is why the Golden Hat Foundation was formed. All author proceeds from this book go directly to the Golden Hat Foundation. With your help, we can change the world for people with autism. For more information about the Golden Hat Foundation and ways you can help, please visit our website: www.goldenhatfoundation.org

“I simply couldn’t conceive of how devastating it would be not to be able to hear my children’s voices. Not to be able to communicate with them, to hear them learn, grow, and express themselves verbally. How fortunate, how blessed I am. This overwhelmed me. I can talk to my children, I can respond to their needs and comfort them when they tell me they are unwell. I can tell them stories and hear them tell theirs.”

Kate Winslet

Imagine what it would be like not to be able to communicate with those we love. For many individuals living with nonverbal autism and their families, this is their everyday reality. The Golden Hat is an intimate response to this reality created by Kate Winslet, Margret Ericsdottir, and her son Keli, who has nonverbal autism.

Kate and Margret’s stories, their personal email correspondence, and Keli’s poetry give us a profound insight into the world of those living with autism. Kate has shared this story with some of the world’s most famous people, posing the question: “What is important to you to express?” Their responses are a collection of intimate self-portraits and unique quotes. Among them are:

Christina Aguilera

Zac Efron

Julianne Moore

Maria Sharapova

Kobe Bryant

James Franco

Rosie O’Donnell

Ben Stiller

Michael Caine

Ricky Gervais

Michael Phelps

Meryl Streep

Kim Cattrall

Tom Hanks

John C. Reilly

Justin Timberlake

George Clooney

Elton John

Tim Robbins

Naomi Watts

Leonardo DiCaprio

Jude Law

Kristin Scott Thomas

Oprah Winfrey

Put together by Kate, Margret, and the dedicated team who work daily on the Golden Hat Foundation, this project has been a labor of love.

All the author proceeds from this groundbreaking book will benefit the Golden Hat Foundation, founded by Kate Winslet and Margret Ericsdottir to build innovative living campuses for people with autism and raise public awareness of their intellectual capabilities.

Water for Elephants  is a gritty and compelling novel of star-crossed lovers, set in the circus world in the 1930's. Bestselling author, Sara Gruen ("Riding Lessons") brings this story that is sensual and charged with dark secrets involving love, murder, and a majestic heroine (Rosie the Elephant).

When Jacob Jankowski was a young man, he was tossed by fate onto a rickety train that was home to the Benzini Brothers Most Spectacular Show on Earth.   It was the early part of the great Depression. Jacob was a veterinary student, just shy of his degree, so they put him in charge of caring for the circus menagerie. For Jacob, the circus world would be both his salvation and a living hell. The story is told by Jacob--now elderly--looking back on what happened.

Jacob met the beautiful equestrian star Marlena. She was married to August, a charismatic but twisted animal trainer. And of course there was Rosie--an untrainable elephant who was the great gray hope for the third-rate traveling show—the new act that was going to be the salvation of the circus. The only problem was, Rosie didn't have an act—in fact, she couldn't even follow instructions. The bond that grew between Jacob and Marlena and Rosie was one of love and trust, and ultimately, it was their only hope for survival.

Water for Elephants  is surprising, poignant, and funny, a rare novel with a story so engrossing, you may be reluctant to put it down; with characters so engaging, they continue to live long after the last page has been turned; with a world built of wonder, a world so real, one starts to breathe its air…

MOVIE TIE-IN: Water for Elephants, the movie, is based on Sara Gruen’s novel of the same name. It is being released April 22, 2011.  Water for Elephants was directed by Francis Lawrence and stars Robert Pattinson as Jacob Jankowski, Reese Witherspoon as Marlena and Christopher Waltz as August. Hal Holbrook plays the older Jacob  Jankowski.  Other cast members include Mark Povinelli as Kinko/Walter, Jim Norton as Camel, Scott MacDonald as Blackie, James Frain as Rosie’s caretaker, Ken Foree as Earl and Paul Schneider as Charlie O’Brien.

Rosamond Bernier has lived an unusually full life—remarkable for its vividness and diversity of experience—and she has known many (one is tempted to say all) of the greatest artists and composers of the twentieth century.

In Some of My Lives, Bernier has made a kind of literary scrapbook from an extraordinary array of writings, ranging from diary entries to her many contributions to the art journal L’OEIL, which she cofounded in 1955. The result is a multifaceted self-portrait of a life informed and surrounded by the arts.

Through the stories of her encounters with some of the twentieth century’s great artists and composers—including Pablo Picasso, Leonard Bernstein, Max Ernst, Aaron Copeland, Malcolm Lowry, and Karl Lagerfeld—we come to understand the sheer richness of Bernier’s experiences, interactions, and memories. The result is pithy, hilarious, and wise—a richly rewarding chronicle of many lives fully lived.

Sports | Biographies
Biographies & Memoirs | Memoirs
Sports | Football (American)
Entertainment | Movies | Movie-Tie-In

BOOK TYPE: Paperback

Michael Oher, the football star made famous in the hit film (and book) The Blind Side, reflects on how far he has come from the circumstances of his youth. He shares his personal account of his story, in this inspirational New York Times bestseller.

Looking back on how he went from being a homeless child in Memphis to playing in the NFL, Michael talks about the goals he had to break out of the cycle of poverty, addiction, and hopelessness that trapped his family. Eventually he grasped onto football as his ticket out and worked hard to make his dream into a reality. With his adoptive family, the Touhys, and other influential people in mind, he describes the absolute necessity of seeking out positive role models and good friends who share the same values to achieve one's dreams.

Sharing untold stories of heartache, determination, courage, and love, I Beat the Odds: From Homelessness, to The Blind Side, and Beyond is an incredibly rousing tale of one young man's quest to achieve the American dream.

 

• Literature & Fiction | Genre Fiction | Historical Fiction
• Literature & Fiction | World Literature | Australia & New Zealand
• Entertainment | Movies | Movie-Tie-In*
• Apartheid; coming of age stories; inspirational stories

In this magical novel, an irresistible boy tells the story of his survival and coming of age against the background of South Africa during and just after World War II.

The Power of One begins with the main character, Peekay, heading off to boarding school, away from his beloved nanny, and into the arms of Boers (Dutch, also called Afrikaners), who not only despise him for being British but despise him as a human being. While at boarding school, Peekay is ridiculed, but promises himself that he'll never cry again. Peekay comes to realize the horrible riff that lies between the Dutch and the British. After leaving boarding school, Peekay encounters a man who teaches him about some of the essentials of what he believed was the power of one, and from that man (a Boer) he discovers his love of boxing, which becomes his obsession. Becoming Welterweight Champion of the World becomes his goal and his life. This is the idea behind the power of one, and the introduction of the story. From there, the book tells about the many people Peekay encounters throughout his life and the influence they have upon him and what he believes is the power of one. This novel is beautifully written, combining wit, humor, drama, and the everyday troubles of life, yet managing to get its message across and entertain the reader. It's an incredible novel that gives the reader a vision of South Africa before and during the terror that was Apartheid.

* This book was made into a film that was released in 1992. The Power of One is based on the 1989 novel of the same name by Bryce Courtenay. The film was directed and edited by John G. Avildsen and stars Stephen Dorff, John Gielgud, Morgan-Freeman, Armin Mueller-Stahl, and Daniel Craig in one of his early roles. If you have not seen the film, you might look for it after reading this book.

A tragic, spiritual portrait of a perfect English butler and his reaction to his fading insular world in post-war England. A wonderful, wonderful book.

Ideal for Introduction to American Cinema courses, American Film History courses, and Introductory Film Appreciation courses focused on American Film, this text offers a cultural examination of the American movie-making industry, with particular attention paid to the economic and aesthetic institution of Hollywood.