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Louie Anderson

Dear Dad: Letters from an Adult Child

Editura: Penguin Books

Anul aparitiei: 1991

Comedian Louie Anderson grew up in a household held hostage by the unpredictable and violent behavior of an alcoholic father. In letters that are poignant and often angry, yet touched with the humor that characterizes his monologues, Dear Dad chronicles Anderson's hard journey from shame and fear to understanding. Anderson's many appearances on The Tonight Show, his specials on HBO and Showtime, and his concerts across the country have won him wide acclaim. But when he found that, despite his considerable success as a comic, he felt no relief from his pain, Anderson entered therapy and joined an Adult Children of Alcoholics group. Only then was he able to break a lifelong pattern of denial. Includes an introduction by Anderson and a selection of letters from Dear Dad readers about their own experiences. "Compelling, tender, funny, and well-written. . . . I respect Louie's courage for talking so openly. Writing the book may have helped the writer in his healing process, but it will also assist readers in theirs."--Melody Beattie, author of Codependent No More

James Boswell, Samuel Johnson

The Life of Samuel Johnson

Editura: Penguin Books

Anul aparitiei: 1979

The most celebrated English biography is a group portrait in which extraordinary man paints the picture of a dozen moreAt the centre of a brilliant circle which included Burke, Reynolds, Garrick, Fanny Burney and even George III, Boswell captures the powerful, troubled and witty figure of Samuel Johnson, who towers above them all. Yet this is also an intimate picture of domestic life, which mingles the greatest talkers of a talkative age with the hero's humbler friends in a picture which is, before all things, humane. As a young man about London, James Boswell was obsessed by literature, and, on a fateful day in 1763, he attached himself with unswerving tenacity to the dominant literary figure of his age the splendidly rotund, articulate, and humane Dr Samuel Johnson. What followed was the most famous of friendships between writers and the bais for the remarkable documentation contained in Boswell's Life of Samuel Johnson, the greatest and most compelling of all biographies. For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best ...

Norah Vincent

Self-Made Man: One Woman's Year Disguised as a Man

Editura: Penguin Books

Anul aparitiei: 2007

A journalist's provocative and spellbinding account of her eighteen months spent disguised as a man. Norah Vincent became an instant media sensation with the publication of Self-Made Man, her take on just how hard it is to be a man, even in a man's world. Following in the tradition of John Howard Griffin (Black Like Me), Vincent spent a year and a half disguised as her male alter ego, Ned, exploring what men are like when women aren't around. As Ned, she joined a bowling team, took a high-octane sales job, went on dates with women (and men), visited strip clubs, and even managed to infiltrate a monastery and a men's therapy group. At once thought-provoking and pure fun to read, Self-Made Man is a sympathetic and thrilling tour de force of immersion journalism.

Gordon S. Wood

Revolutionary Characters: What Made the Founders Different

Editura: Penguin Books

Anul aparitiei: 2007

In this brilliantly illuminating group portrait of the men who came to be known as the Founding Fathers, the incomparable Gordon Wood has written a book that seriously asks, "What made these men great?" and shows us, among many other things, just how much character did in fact matter. The life of each--Washington, Adams, Jefferson, Franklin, Hamilton, Madison, Paine--is presented individually as well as collectively, but the thread that binds these portraits together is the idea of character as a lived reality. They were members of the first generation in history that was self-consciously self-made men who understood that the arc of lives, as of nations, is one of moral progress.

June Cross

Secret Daughter: A Mixed-Race Daughter and the Mother Who Gave Her Away

Editura: Penguin Group(CA)

Anul aparitiei: 2007

June Cross was born in 1954 to Norma Booth, a glamorous, aspiring white actress, and James "Stump" Cross, a well-known black comedian. Sent by her mother to be raised by black friends when she was four years old and could no longer pass as white, June was plunged into the pain and confusion of a family divided by race. Secret Daughter tells her story of survival. It traces June's astonishing discoveries about her mother and about her own fierce determination to thrive. This is an inspiring testimony to the endurance of love between mother and daughter, a child and her adoptive parents, and the power of community.

Buzz Bissinger, Lebron James

Lebron's Dream Team: How Five Friends Made History

Editura: Penguin Books

Anul aparitiei: 2010

The DREAM TEAM was a bunch of kids from Akron, Ohio-LeBron James and his best friends-who first met on a youth basketball team of the same name when they were ten and eleven years old. United by their love of the game and their yearning for companionship, they quickly forged a bond which would carry them through thick and thin (a lot of thin) and, at last, to the brink of a national championship. They were a motley group who faced challenges all too typical of inner-city America. LeBron grew up without a father and had moved with his mother more than a dozen times by the age of 10. Willie McGee, the quiet one, had left both his parents behind in Chicago to be raised by his older brother in Akron. Dru Joyce was outspoken, and his dad, who was ever-present, would end up coaching all five of the boys in high school. Sian Cotton, who also played football, was the happy-go-lucky enforcer, while Romeo Travis was unhappy, bitter, even surly, until he finally opened himself up to the bond his team mates offered. In the summer after seventh grade, the DREAM TEAM tasted glory when they qualified for a national championship tournament in Memphis. But they lost their focus, and had to go home ...

Dalia Jurgensen

Spiced: A Pastry Chef's True Stories of Trials by Fire, After-Hours Exploits, and What Really Goes on in the Kitchen

Editura: Berkley Publishing Group

Anul aparitiei: 2010

Read Dahlia Jurgensen's posts on the Penguin Blog. A clever and affectionate glimpse at the truth about what goes on behind that swinging door, full of "great insider stuff" (Anthony Bourdain) Life in a restaurant kitchen is strenuous and exciting, while its inhabitants are...unique. In this testosterone-laden atmosphere, Dalia Jurgensen tirelessly pursued her dream of becoming a chef, working her way up though New York's top restaurants. In her deliciously entertaining memoir, she divulges the dynamics between cooks and waiters, chefs and food critics, and heated affairs between staff members. Written with sincere love for the industry, this is a candid insider's tour from the unique perspective of an acclaimed pastry chef.

G. I. Gurdjieff

Meetings with Remarkable Men

Editura: Penguin Books

Anul aparitiei: 1991

Meetings with Remarkable Men, G. I. Gurdjieff's autobiographical account of his youth and early travels, has become something of a legend since it was first published in 1963. A compulsive "read" in the tradition of adventure narratives, but suffused with Gurdjieff's unique perspective on life, it is organized around portraits of remarkable men and women who aided Gurdjieff's search for hidden knowledge or accompanied him on his journeys in remote parts of the Near East and Central Asia. This is a book of lives, not doctrines, although readers will long value Gurdjieff's accounts of conversations with sages. Meetings conveys a haunting sense of what it means to live fully--with conscience, with purpose, and with heart. Among the remarkable individuals whom the reader will come to know are Gurdjieff's father (a traditional bard), a Russian prince dedicated to the search for Truth, a Christian missionary who entered a World Brotherhood deep in Asia, and a woman who escaped white slavery to become a trusted member of Gurdjieff's group of fellow seekers. Gurdjieff's account of their attitudes in the face of external challenges and in the search to understand the mysteries of life is ...

William Golding

Lord of the Flies: Great Books Edition

Editura: Penguin Books

Anul aparitiei: 1999

Lord of the Flies remains as provocative today as when it was first published in 1954, igniting passionate debate with its startling, brutal portrait of human nature. Though critically acclaimed, it was largely ignored upon its initial publication. Yet soon it became a cult favorite among both students and literary critics who compared it to J.D. Salinger's The Catcher in the Rye in its influence on modern thought and literature. William Golding's compelling story about a group of very ordinary small boys marooned on a coral island has become a modern classic. At first it seems as though it is all going to be great fun; but the fun before long becomes furious and life on the island turns into a nightmare of panic and death. As ordinary standards of behaviour collapse, the whole world the boys know collapses with them--the world of cricket and homework and adventure stories--and another world is revealed beneath, primitive and terrible. Labeled a parable, an allegory, a myth, a morality tale, a parody, a political treatise, even a vision of the apocalypse, Lord of the Flies has established itself as a true classic. "Lord of the Flies is one of my favorite books. That was a big ...

Franz Kafka

The Metamorphosis: Great Books Edition

Editura: Penguin Books

Anul aparitiei: 2000

With the opening sentence of The Metamorphosis Franz Kafka introduced modern man to his interior condition. After awaking to discover he has been transformed into an enormous insect, Gregor Samsa becomes an object of disgrace to his family and is left to hide away within the confines of his room. An imaginative parable about human alienation, The Metamorphosis is also an absurdly comic tale whose narrative effects remain revolutionary today.Kafka's profound and humorous exploration of alienation and authority is found in the other fictional pieces he published during his lifetime, all collected in this edition. Included are Meditation, a group of Kafka's early studies; "The Judgement", his most powerful statement on the father-son conflict; "The Stoker", the first chapter of the unfinished novel Amerika; "In the Penal Colony", perhaps Kafka's most disturbing piece; A Country Doctor, tales written just before he contracted tuberculosis; the story "The Coal-Scuttle Rider"; and A Fasting-Artist, Kafka's final collection of stories, published just before his death. Together, these works reveal the breadth of Kafka's literary vision and the extraordinary imaginative depth of his ...

E.M. Forster

Howards End

Editura: Penguin Books

Anul aparitiei: 2000

A meticulously-observed drama of class warfare, E.M. Forster's Howards End explores the conflict inherent within English society, unveiling the character of a nation as never before. This Penguin Classics edition includes an introduction and notes by David Lodge. 'Only connect...' A chance acquaintance brings together the preposterous bourgeois Wilcox family and the clever, cultured and idealistic Schlegel sisters. As clear-eyed Margaret develops a friendship with Mrs Wilcox, the impetuous Helen brings into their midst a young bank clerk named Leonard Bast, who lives at the edge of poverty and ruin. When Mrs Wilcox dies, her family discovers that she wants to leave her country home, Howards End, to Margaret. Thus as Forster sets in motion a chain of events that will entangle three different families, he brilliantly portrays their aspirations to personal and social harmony. David Lodge's introduction provides an absorbing and eloquent overture to the 1910 novel that established Forster's reputation as an important writer, and that he himself later referred to as 'my best novel'. This edition also contains a note on the text, suggestions for further reading, and explanatory notes. E. ...

E.M. Forster

A Room with a View

Editura: Penguin Books

Anul aparitiei: 2000

E.M. Forster's vision of love struggling to assert itself in spite of the rigid class boundaries of Edwardian England, A Room with a View contains an introduction by Malcolm Bradbury in Penguin Classics. Visiting Florence with her prim and proper cousin Charlotte as a chaperone, Lucy Honeychurch meets the unconventional, lower-class Mr Emerson and his son, George. Upon her return to England, Lucy becomes engaged to the supercilious Cecil Vyse, but she finds herself increasingly torn between the expectations of the world in which she moves and the passionate yearnings of her heart. More than a love story, A Room with a View (1908) is a penetrating social comedy and a brilliant study of contrasts - in values, social class, and cultural perspectives - and the ingenuity of fate. In his sparkling introduction Malcolm Bradbury notes that A Room with a View 'was the work where Forster laid down most of his key themes, the place where he displayed both his warmth and sharpness, and developed his famous light style.' This edition also contains suggestions for further reading and explanatory notes. E. M. Forster (1879-1970) was a noted English author and critic and a member of the Bloomsbury ...

H. Rider Haggard

King Solomon's Mines

Editura: Penguin Books

Anul aparitiei: 2008

The first great "Lost World" action-adventure, a precursor to Indiana Jones H. Rider Haggard's King Solomon's Mines has entertained generations of readers since its first publication in 1885. Following a mysterious map of dubious reliability, a small group of men trek into southern Africa in search of a lost friend-and a lost treasure, the fabled mines of King Solomon. Led by the English adventurer and fortune hunter Allan Quartermain, they discover a frozen corpse, survive untold dangers in remote mountains and deserts, and encounter the merciless King Twala en route to the legendary hoard of diamonds. For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.

Charles Dickens

Bleak House

Editura: Penguin Books

Anul aparitiei: 2003

Charles Dickens's masterful assault on the injustices of the British legal system As the interminable case of 'Jarndyce and Jarndyce' grinds its way through the Court of Chancery, it draws together a disparate group of people: Ada and Richard Clare, whose inheritance is gradually being devoured by legal costs; Esther Summerson, a ward of court, whose parentage is a source of deepening mystery; the menacing lawyer Tulkinghorn; the determined sleuth Inspector Bucket; and even Jo, the destitute little crossing-sweeper. A savage, but often comic, indictment of a society that is rotten to the core, Bleak House is one of Dickens's most ambitious novels, with a range that extends from the drawing rooms of the aristocracy to the poorest of London slums. This edition follows the first book edition of 1853, and includes all the original illustrations by 'Phiz', as well as appendices on the Chancery and spontaneous combustion. In his preface, Terry Eagleton examines characterisation and considers Bleak House as an early work of detective fiction. For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700 ...

Bram Stoker

Dracula

Editura: Penguin Books

Anul aparitiei: 2003

Bram Stoker's peerless tale of desperate battle against a powerful, ancient vampire When Jonathan Harker visits Transylvania to help Count Dracula purchase a London house, he makes horrifying discoveries in his client's castle. Soon afterwards, disturbing incidents unfold in England: a ship runs aground on the shores of Whitby, its crew vanished; beautiful Lucy Westenra slowly succumbs to a mysterious, wasting illness, her blood drained away; and the lunatic Renfield raves about the imminent arrival of his 'master'. In the ensuing battle of wills between the sinister Count and a determined group of adversaries - led by the intrepid vampire hunter Abraham van Helsing - Bram Stoker created a masterpiece of the horror genre, probing into questions of identity, sanity and the dark corners of Victorian sexuality and desire. For this completely updated edition, Maurice Hindle has revised his introduction, list of further reading and notes, and added two appendices: Stoker's essay on censorship and his interview with Winston Churchill, both published in 1908. Christopher Frayling's preface discusses the significance and the influences that contributed to his creation of the Dracula myth. ...

Fyodor Dostoyevsky

Demons

Editura: Penguin Books

Anul aparitiei: 2008

A superb new translation of Dostoyevsky's chilling and prophetic novel of revolutionary fanaticism Pyotr and Stavrogin are the leaders of a Russian revolutionary cell. Their aim is to overthrow the Tsar, destroy society, and seize power for themselves. Together they train terrorists who are willing to lay down their lives to accomplish their goals. But when the group is threatened with exposure, will their recruits be willing to kill one of their own to cover their tracks? Savage and powerful yet lively and often comic, Demons was inspired by a real-life political murder and is a scathing and eerily prescient indictment of those who use violence to serve their beliefs.

John Markoff

What the Dormouse Said: How the Sixties Counterculture Shaped the Personal Computer Industry

Editura: Penguin Books

Anul aparitiei: 2006

Most histories of the personal computer industry focus on technology or business. John Markoff s landmark book is about the culture and consciousness behind the first PCs the culture being counter and the consciousness expanded, sometimes chemically. It s a brilliant evocation of Stanford, California, in the 1960s and 70s, where a group of visionaries set out to turn computers into a means for freeing minds and information. In these pages one encounters Ken Kesey and the phone hacker Cap n Crunch, est and LSD, The Whole Earth Catalog and the Homebrew Computer Lab. What the Dormouse Said is a poignant, funny, and inspiring book by one of the smartest technology writers around."

Donna Leon

Through a Glass, Darkly

Editura: Penguin Group(CA)

Anul aparitiei: 2007

Commissario Brunetti and his assistant Vianello secure the release of an environmental protester, only to be faced by the fury of the man's father-in-law, a cantankerous glass factory owner, in this fascinating novel that combines politics and culture.

Kevin Phillips

American Theocracy: The Peril and Politics of Radical Religion, Oil, and Borrowed Money in the 21st Century

Editura: Penguin Group(CA)

Anul aparitiei: 2007

An explosive examination of the coalition of forces that threatens the nation, from the bestselling author of American Dynasty In his two most recent bestselling books, American Dynasty and Wealth and Democracy, Kevin Phillips established himself as a powerful critic of the political and economic forces that ruleand imperilthe United States, tracing the ever more alarming path of the emerging Republican majority's rise to power. Now Phillips takes an uncompromising view of the current age of global overreach, fundamentalist religion, diminishing resources, and ballooning debt under the GOP majority. With an eye to the past and a searing vision of the future, Phillips confirms what too many Americans are still unwilling to admit about the depth of our misgovernment. "

Harvey Rachlin

Scandals, Vandals, and Da Vincis: A Gallery of Remarkable Art Tales

Editura: Penguin Group(CA)

Anul aparitiei: 2007

The secret histories of the world's most famous masterpieces Caravaggios, Rembrandts, Monets--the works of immortal artists such as these are indelibly imprinted in the public mind; they are priceless masterpieces whose beauty, artistry, and emotional impact have inspired admiration, awe, and envy through the centuries. Yet behind many of these brilliant paintings and sculptures are fascinating, unique histories. In Scandals, Vandals, and da Vincis, award-winning writer Harvey Rachlin relates in exciting detail how nearly thirty of these works came to be created and how they survived burglary, forgery, revolutions, ransoms, vandals, scandals, religious sects, and shipwrecks to eventually come to their current resting places