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  A Bold Fresh Piece of Humanity

 
A Bold Fresh Piece of Humanity under Biographies in The Books Store
Price: $26.00
Sale: $13.00
 
Manufacturer: Broadway
Number of Items: 1
 
 
Binding: Hardcover
Author: Bill O'Reilly
Publisher: Broadway
Dewey Decimal Number: 070.92
Publication Date: 2008-09-23
Reading Level: 272
 
Description:

The year was 1957, the month September, and I had just turned eight years old. Dwight Eisenhower was President, but in my life it was the diminutive, intense Sister Mary Lurana who ruled, at least in the third-grade class where I was held captive. For reasons you will soon understand, my parents had remanded me to the penal institution of St. Brigid’s School in Westbury, New York, a cruel and unusual punishment if there ever was one.

Already, I had barely survived my first two years at St. Brigid’s because I was, well, a little nitwit. Not satisfied with memorizing the Baltimore Catechism’s fine prose, which featured passages like “God made me to show his goodness and to make me happy with him in heaven,” I was constantly annoying my classmates and, of course, the no-nonsense Sister Lurana. With sixty overactive students in her class, she was understandably short on patience. For survival, she had also become quick on the draw.

Then it happened. One day I blurted out some dumb remark, and Sister Lurana was on me like a panther. Her black habit blocked out all distractions as she leaned down, looked me in the eye, and uttered words I have never forgotten: “William, you are a bold, fresh piece of humanity.”

And she was dead-on.

One day in 1957, in the third-grade classroom of St. Brigid’s parochial school, an exasperated Sister Mary Lurana bent over a restless young William O’Reilly and said, “William, you are a bold, fresh piece of humanity.” Little did she know that she was, early in his career as a troublemaker, defining the essence of Bill O’Reilly and providing him with the title of his brash and entertaining issues-based memoir.

And this time it’s personal. In his most intimate book yet, O’Reilly goes back in time to examine the people, places, and experiences that launched him on his journey from working-class kid to immensely influential television personality and bestselling author. Readers will learn how his traditional outlook was formed in the crucible of his family, his neighborhood, his church, and his schools, and how his views on America’s proper role in the world emerged from covering four wars on five continents over three-plus decades as a news correspondent. What will delight his numerous fans and surprise many others is the humor and self-deprecation with which he handles one of his core subjects: himself, and just how O’Reilly became O’Reilly.


 

  The Glass Castle: A Memoir

 
The Glass Castle: A Memoir under Biographies in The Books Store
Price: $15.00
Sale: $3.38
 
Manufacturer: Scribner
Number of Items: 1
 
 
Binding: Paperback
Author: Jeannette Walls
Publisher: Scribner
Dewey Decimal Number: 362.82092
Publication Date: 2006-01-09
Reading Level: 288
 
Description: Jeannette Walls's father always called her "Mountain Goat" and there's perhaps no more apt nickname for a girl who navigated a sheer and towering cliff of childhood both daily and stoically. In The Glass Castle, Walls chronicles her upbringing at the hands of eccentric, nomadic parents--Rose Mary, her frustrated-artist mother, and Rex, her brilliant, alcoholic father. To call the elder Walls's childrearing style laissez faire would be putting it mildly. As Rose Mary and Rex, motivated by whims and paranoia, uprooted their kids time and again, the youngsters (Walls, her brother and two sisters) were left largely to their own devices. But while Rex and Rose Mary firmly believed children learned best from their own mistakes, they themselves never seemed to do so, repeating the same disastrous patterns that eventually landed them on the streets. Walls describes in fascinating detail what it was to be a child in this family, from the embarrassing (wearing shoes held together with safety pins; using markers to color her skin in an effort to camouflage holes in her pants) to the horrific (being told, after a creepy uncle pleasured himself in close proximity, that sexual assault is a crime of perception; and being pimped by her father at a bar). Though Walls has well earned the right to complain, at no point does she play the victim. In fact, Walls' removed, nonjudgmental stance is initially startling, since many of the circumstances she describes could be categorized as abusive (and unquestioningly neglectful). But on the contrary, Walls respects her parents' knack for making hardships feel like adventures, and her love for them--despite their overwhelming self-absorption--resonates from cover to cover. --Brangien Davis

 

  Audition: A Memoir

 
Audition: A Memoir under Biographies in The Books Store
Price: $29.95
Sale: $14.93
 
Manufacturer: Knopf
Number of Items: 1
 
 
Binding: Hardcover
Author: Barbara Walters
Publisher: Knopf
Dewey Decimal Number: 070.92
Publication Date: 2008-05-06
Reading Level: 624
 
Description: Young people starting out in television sometimes say to me: “I want to be you.” My stock reply is always: “Then you have to take the whole package.”

And now, at last, the most important woman in the history of television journalism gives us that “whole package,” in her inspiring and riveting memoir. After more than forty years of interviewing heads of state, world leaders, movie stars, criminals, murderers, inspirational figures, and celebrities of all kinds, Barbara Walters has turned her gift for examination onto herself to reveal the forces that shaped her extraordinary life.

Barbara Walters’s perception of the world was formed at a very early age. Her father, Lou Walters, was the owner and creative mind behind the legendary Latin Quarter nightclub, and it was his risk-taking lifestyle that gave Barbara her first taste of glamour. It also made her aware of the ups and downs, the insecurities, and even the tragedies that can occur when someone is willing to take great risks, for Lou Walters didn’t just make several fortunes—he also lost them. Barbara learned early about the damage that such an existence can do to relationships—between husband and wife as well as between parent and child. Through her roller-coaster ride of a childhood, Barbara had a close companion, her mentally challenged sister, Jackie. True, Jackie taught her younger sister much about patience and compassion, but Barbara also writes honestly about the resentment she often felt having a sister who was so “different” and the guilt that still haunts her.

All of this—the financial responsibility for her family, the fear, the love—played a large part in the choices she made as she grew up: the friendships she developed, the relationships she had, the marriages she tried to make work. Ultimately, thanks to her drive, combined with a decent amount of luck, she began a career in television. And what a career it has been! Against great odds, Barbara has made it to the top of a male-dominated industry. She was the first woman cohost of the Today show, the first female network news coanchor, the host and producer of countless top-rated Specials, the star of 20/20, and the creator and cohost of The View. She has not just interviewed the world’s most fascinating figures, she has become a part of their world. These are just a few of the names that play a key role in Barbara’s life, career, and book: Yasir Arafat, Warren Beatty, Menachem Begin, George H. W. Bush, George W. Bush, Jimmy Carter, Fidel Castro, Hugo Chávez, Bill and Hillary Clinton, Roy Cohn, the Dalai Lama, Princess Diana, Katharine Hepburn, King Hussein, Angelina Jolie, Henry Kissinger, Monica Lewinsky, Richard Nixon, Rosie O’Donnell, Christopher Reeve, Anwar Sadat, John Wayne . . . the list goes on and on.

Barbara Walters has spent a lifetime auditioning: for her bosses at the TV networks, for millions of viewers, for the most famous people in the world, and even for her own daughter, with whom she has had a difficult but ultimately quite wonderful and moving relationship. This book, in some ways, is her final audition, as she fully opens up both her private and public lives. In doing so, she has given us a story that is heartbreaking and honest, surprising and fun, sometimes startling, and always fascinating.

 

  Big Russ and Me: Father and Son: Lessons of Life

 
Big Russ and Me: Father and Son: Lessons of Life under Biographies in The Books Store
Price: $13.95
Sale: $5.79
 
Manufacturer: Miramax
Number of Items: 1
 
 
Binding: Paperback
Author: Tim Russert
Publisher: Miramax
Dewey Decimal Number: 070.92
Publication Date: 2005-05-11
Reading Level: 352
 
Description: Veteran newsman and Meet the Press moderator Tim Russert is known for his direct and unpretentious style and in this charming memoir he explains why. Russert's father is profiled as a plainspoken World War II veteran who worked two blue-collar jobs while raising four kids in South Buffalo but the elder Russert's lessons on how to live an honest, disciplined, and ethical life are shown to be universal. Big Russ and Me, a sort of Greatest Generation meets Tuesdays with Morrie, could easily have become a sentimental pile of mush with a son wistfully recalling the wisdom of his beloved dad. But both Russerts are far too down-to-earth to let that happen and the emotional content of the book is made more direct, accessible, and palatable because of it. The relationship between father and son, contrary to what one would think of as essential to a riveting memoir, seems completely healthy and positive as Tim, the academically gifted kid and later the esteemed TV star and political operative relies on his old man, a career sanitation worker and newspaper truck driver, for advice. Big Russ and Me also traces Russert's life from working-class kid to one of broadcast journalism's top interviewers by introducing various influential figures who guided him along the way, including Jesuit teachers, nuns, his dad's drinking buddies, and, most notably, the late New York Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan, whom Russert helped get elected in 1976. Plenty of entertaining anecdotes are served up along the way from schoolyard pranks to an attempt to book Pope John Paul II on the Today Show. Though not likely to revolutionize modern thought, Big Russ and Me will provide fathers and sons a chance to reflect on lessons learned between generations. --Charlie Williams

 

  La dieta del Gordo

 
La dieta del Gordo under Biographies in The Books Store
Price: $18.95
Sale: $11.22
 
Manufacturer: Grijalbo
Number of Items: 1
 
 
Binding: Paperback
Author: Raul De Molina
Publisher: Grijalbo
Dewey Decimal Number: 613.25
Publication Date: 2008-10-07
Reading Level: 192
 
Description: Raúl de Molina siempre había sido gordo y esto no le molestaba ni lo acomplejaba; al contrario, era un gordo feliz. Sin enbargo, tras librar una batalla contra el cáncer, tomó conciencia de que debía bajar de peso y que esto sólo podría lograrlo cambiando radicalmente su alimentación.

Con mucho esfuerzo y fuerza de voluntad, y ante el asombro y orgullo de sus familiares y de los adeptos a su programa El Gordo y la Flaca, ha bajado 70 libras en ocho meses sin la necesidad de medicamentos ni operaciones; lo ha logrado con ejercicio y modificando sus hábitos alimentícios.

Por primera vez, el afamado presentador de televisión comparte en forma abierta e íntima una mezcla de circunstancias familiares y de trabajo que siempre convirtieron la comida en uno de sus más grandes placeres, sin saber el efecto que esto tendría en su salud. Sin perder su sentido de humor, “El Gordo”, como lo siguen llamando cariñosamente, guía al lector sobre los factores básicos para lograr este objectivo: “¿Qué debes comer?”, “¿Cuántas veces al día puedes comer?” y “¿En qué cantidades?”

Ademá, el libro incluye un menú tipo, una rutina de ejercicios básica, un listado de alimentos que no deben faltar en tu dispensa, así como consejos prácticos y útiles para mantenerse en forma y evitar el tan temido “rebote”.

 

  Dispatches from the Edge: A Memoir of War, Disasters, and Survival

 
Dispatches from the Edge: A Memoir of War, Disasters, and Survival under Biographies in The Books Store
Price: $13.95
Sale: $1.91
 
Manufacturer: Harper Paperbacks
Number of Items: 1
 
 
Binding: Paperback
Author: Anderson Cooper
Publisher: Harper Paperbacks
Dewey Decimal Number: 070.92
Publication Date: 2007-05-01
Reading Level: 240
 
Description: In 2005, two tragedies--the Asian tsunami and Hurricane Katrina--turned CNN reporter Anderson Cooper into a media celebrity. Dispatches from the Edge, Cooper's memoir of "war, disasters and survival," is a brief but powerful chronicle of Cooper's ascent to stardom and his struggle with his own tragedies and demons. Cooper was 10 years old when his father, Wyatt Cooper, died during heart bypass surgery. He was 20 when his beloved older brother, Carter, committed suicide by jumping off his mother's penthouse balcony (his mother, by the way, being Gloria Vanderbilt). The losses profoundly affected Cooper, who fled home after college to work as a freelance journalist for Channel One, the classroom news service. Covering tragedies in far-flung places like Burma, Vietnam, and Somalia, Cooper quickly learned that "as a journalist, no matter ... how respectful you are, part of your brain remains focused on how to capture the horror you see, how to package it, present it to others." Cooper's description of these horrors, from war-ravaged Baghdad to famine-wracked Niger, is poignant but surprisingly unsentimental. In Niger, Cooper writes, he is chagrined, then resigned, when he catches himself looking for the "worst cases" to commit to film. "They die, I live. It's the way of the world," he writes. In the final section of Dispatches, Cooper describes covering Hurricane Katrina, the story that made him famous. The transcript of his showdown with Louisiana Sen. Mary Landrieu (in which Cooper tells Landrieu people in New Orleans are "ashamed of what is happening in this country right now") is worth the price of admission on its own. Cooper's memoir leaves some questions unanswered--there's frustratingly little about his personal life, for example--but remains a vivid, modest self-portrait by a man who is proving himself to be an admirable, courageous leader in a medium that could use more like him. --Erica C. Barnett

 

  Private Parts

 
Private Parts under Biographies in The Books Store
Price: $7.99
Sale: $7.99
 
Manufacturer: Pocket
Number of Items: 1
 
 
Binding: Mass Market Paperback
Author: Howard Stern
Publisher: Pocket
Dewey Decimal Number: 791.44028092
Publication Date: 1997-03-01
Reading Level: 688
 
Description: It has been said that you either love or loathe Howard Stern, but it's quite possible to love and loathe him after reading this autobiography. Stern sets out to offend as many people as possible (and he succeeds admirably), but two things prevent this book, and Stern, from becoming unbearable. First, he is as candid about himself as he is about the people he attacks. He describes his tortured adolescence, his physical inadequacies, and his sexual proclivities in such breathtaking detail that it's hard not to like the guy. Stern also avoids the bitterness that characterizes many of the "shock-radio" DJs who have attempted to follow in his footsteps. He can be cruel, but he generally reserves cruelty for people whose fame makes them open targets, and the way he dismantles the whole idea of "celebrity" is hilarious. Howard Stern is like the kid at school who could fart the national anthem--you can't help but laugh at what he does, even though you know you shouldn't.

 

  A Walk Across America

 
A Walk Across America under Biographies in The Books Store
Price: $14.00
Sale: $4.95
 
Manufacturer: Harper Paperbacks
Number of Items: 1
 
 
Binding: Paperback
Author: Peter Jenkins
Publisher: Harper Paperbacks
Edition: 1
Dewey Decimal Number: 917.304926
Publication Date: 2001-09
Reading Level: 320
 
Description:

Twenty-five years ago, a disillusioned young man set out on a walk across America. This is the book he wrote about that journey -- a classic account of the reawakening of his faith in himself and his country.

"I started out searching for myself and my country," Peter Jenkins writes, "and found both." In this timeless classic, Jenkins describes how disillusionment with society in the 1970s drove him out onto the road on a walk across America. His experiences remain as sharp and telling today as they were twenty-five years ago -- from the timeless secrets of life, learned from a mountain-dwelling hermit, to the stir he caused by staying with a black family in North Carolina, to his hours of intense labor in Southern mills. Many, many miles later, he learned lessons about his country and himself that resonate to this day -- and will inspire a new generation to get out, hit the road and explore.


 

  Always By My Side: A Father's Grace and a Sports Journey Unlike Any Other

 
Always By My Side: A Father's Grace and a Sports Journey Unlike Any Other under Biographies in The Books Store
Price: $26.00
Sale: $4.93
 
Manufacturer: Gotham
Number of Items: 1
 
 
Binding: Hardcover
Author: Jim Nantz
Publisher: Gotham
Dewey Decimal Number: 070.449796092
Publication Date: 2008-05-06
Reading Level: 273
 
Description: In the bestselling tradition of Big Russ and Me, America’s most visible sports commentator tells the stories of some of the most dramatic moments in American sports and pays tribute to the man who inspired him to pursue his broadcasting dream— his beloved father, who has fallen victim to the ravages of Alzheimer’s disease.

Vividly written in exciting, you-are-there replay, Always by My Side gives readers an insider’s look into an unprecedented sixty-three-day stretch from February to April of 2007 when Jim Nantz became the first broadcaster to call the Super Bowl, the Final Four, and the Masters. Because Nantz was unable to share the voyage with his dad, however, this remarkable journey through America’s premier sporting events took on a bittersweet tinge. Nonetheless, the devoted son felt his father’s presence every step of the way, and used this championship odyssey to celebrate the people, venues, and moments that tapped into all the goodness that his dad—and his dad’s generation— represent.

In recounting the highlights of more than two thrilling decades with CBS Sports, this broadcasting hall of famer recalls the legends of the industry—Dick Enberg, Curt Gowdy, Jim McKay, Chris Schenkel, Pat Summerall, Jack Whitaker, and others—who sparked his imagination and shaped his style.

Always by My Side traces Nantz’s career, from creating his own imaginary studio as a boy to his college days rooming with future PGA Tour golfers Fred Couples and Blaine McCallister to his successful network audition at age twenty-six. Along the way, readers are treated to an array of memories, including Nantz’s special relationship with the former president George H. W. Bush, as well as his friendships with such sports royalty as Arnold Palmer, Jack Nicklaus, Tiger Woods, Phil Mickelson, Peyton Manning, Tony Dungy, Tom Brady, Bill Belichick, Mike Krzyzewski, John Wooden, and many others. Poignant stories that explore the theme of fathers and sons who have bonded through a common love of sports complete this sparkling narrative.

Always by My Side promises to be the most cherished Father’s Day gift of the year.

 

  Roasting in Hell's Kitchen: Temper Tantrums, F Words, and the Pursuit of Perfection

 
Roasting in Hell's Kitchen: Temper Tantrums, F Words, and the Pursuit of Perfection under Biographies in The Books Store
Price: $13.95
Sale: $7.80
 
Manufacturer: Harper Paperbacks
Number of Items: 1
 
 
Binding: Paperback
Author: Gordon Ramsay
Publisher: Harper Paperbacks
Dewey Decimal Number: 641.5092
Publication Date: 2007-03-01
Reading Level: 288
 
Description:

Everyone thinks they know the real Gordon Ramsay: rude, loud, pathologically driven, stubborn as hell.

Now, for the first time, the world's most famous—and infamous—chef tells the inside story of his life: his difficult childhood, his father's alcoholism and violence, his brother's heroin addiction, his short-circuited soccer career, and his fanatical pursuit of gastronomic perfection—everything that helped mold him into the culinary talent and media powerhouse that he is today. He also dishes the dirt on the rich and famous, and takes you behind the scenes of some of the great restaurants.

Honest, outrageous, and intensely personal, Roasting in Hell's Kitchen will not only change your perception of Gordon Ramsay but that of the cutthroat world of haute cuisine as well.


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