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Fifty years ago, in the fall of 1957, two thirteen-year-old boys were enrolled at an elite, boys-only New England boarding school. One of them, descended from wealth and eminence, would go on to Yale, then to a career as a navy officer and Vietnam war hero, and finally to the U.S. Senate, from where he would fall just short of the White House. The other was a scholarship student, a misfit giant of a boy from a Pennsylvania farm town who would suffer shameful debasements at the hands of his classmates, then go on to a solitary and largely anonymous life as a salesman of encyclopedias and trailer parts--before dying, alone, twelve months after his classmate's narrow loss on Election Day 2004. It is around these two figures, John Kerry and a boy known here only as Arthur, the bookends of a class of one hundred boys, that Geoffrey Douglas--himself a member of that boarding-school class--builds this remarkable memoir. His portrait of their lives and the lives of five others in that class--two more Vietnam veterans with vastly divergent stories, a federal judge, a gay New York artist who struggled for years to find his place in the world, and Douglas himself--offers a memorable look back to a generation caught between the expectations of their fathers and the sometimes terrifying pulls of a society driven by war, defiance, and self-doubt. The class of 1962 was not so different from any other, with its share of swaggerers and shining stars, outcasts and scholarship students. Its distinction was in its timing: at the precise threshold of the cultural and political upheavals of the late 1960s. The world these boys had been trained to enter and to lead, a world very similar to their fathers', would be exploded and recast almost at the moment of their entrance--forcing choices whose consequences were sometimes lifelong. Douglas's chronicle of those times and choices is both a capsule history of an era and a literary tour de force.
America's beloved "Today" show personality Willard Scott--along with celebrities and ordinary people--shares the unique and special joys of being a grandparent.
From the bestselling author of "Get Clark Smart" comes this valuable new resource enabling parents to pass "Clark Smart" skills for saving and spending wisely on to kids of every age.
A hilarious look at what life was really like inside Saturday Night Live. Jay Mohr moved to New York City to pursue his dream of stand-up stardom, and was thrust into the stardom on Saturday Night Live. What followed were two unbelievable, gruelling, and exciting years of keeping pace with his talented cast mates and airtime.
Life hasn't been a bed of roses for Londoner Molly Taylor lately. Newly divorced and struggling to find a new home and a way to support her three boys, she's stunned when her beloved Aunt Helena dies and leaves her Harrington Hall, a three-hundred-year-old manor house on the Devon coast, where Molly grew up. But does Molly really want to run a bed-and-breakfast in an old house where the only thing that doesn't need urgent attention is Aunt Helena's beautiful rose garden? Or care for Uncle Bertie, an eccentric former navy officer with a cliff-top cannon? Or Betty, his rude parrot that bites whomever annoys it? Yet Molly's best friend Lola is all for the plan. "My heart bleeds. Your very own beach, the beautiful house, and Helena's garden. All you have to do is grill a bit of bacon."But with Molly's conniving brother running the family hotel nearby, the return of a high school flame with ulterior motives, and three sons whose idea of a new country life seems to involve vast quantities of mud, this is not going to be easy. And then Harrington Hall begins to work its magic, and the roses start to bloom...Warm, witty, and chock-full of quintessential British charm, A GOOD YEAR FOR THE ROSES is a story for anyone who has ever dreamed of starting over...with or without bacon.
Selected by bestselling author Joey Green, a collection of 400 quotes by Marx and Lennon, juxtaposed to reveal their hilarious similarities No, not THAT Marx and Lenin! Here's a much funnier and artistically talented pair from history. Revolutionaries in their own rights, John Lennon and Groucho Marx did not share much common ground with their Communist namesakes, or even with each other. Where they do overlap is through their very humorous and irreverent takes on life. Editor Joey Green brings together a collection of more than 400 Groucho Marx and John Lennon sayings, juxtaposed to emphasize their hysterical and unexpected similarities.
A memoir by the woman who knew Bob Marley best--his wife, Rita. Rita Marley grew up in the slums of Trench Town, Jamaica. Abandoned by her mother at a very young age, she was raised by her aunt. Music ran in Rita's family, and even as a child her talent for singing was pronounced. By the age of 18, Rita was an unwed mother, and it was then that she met Bob Marley at a recording studio in Trench Town. Bob and Rita became close friends, fell in love, and soon, she and her girlfriends were singing backup for the Wailers. At the ages of 21 and 19, Bob and Rita were married. The rest is history: Bob Marley and the Wailers set Jamaica and the world on fire. But while Rita displayed blazing courage, joy, and an indisputable devotion to her husband, life with Bob was not easy. There were his liaisons with other women--some of which produced children and were conducted under Rita's roof. The press repeatedly reported that Bob was unmarried to preserve his "image." But Rita kept her self-respect, and when Bob succumbed to cancer in 1981, she was at his side. In the years that followed, she became a force in her own right -- as the Bob Marley Foundation's spokesperson and a performer in her reggae group, the I-Three. Written with author Hettie Jones, No Woman No Cry is a no-holds-barred account of life with one of the most famous musicians of all time. In No Woman No Cry, readers will learn about the never-before-told details of Bob Marley's life, including: How Rita practiced subsistence farming when first married to Bob to have food for her family.How Rita rode her bicycle into town with copies of Bob's latest songs to sell.How Rita worked as a housekeeper in Delaware to help support her family when her children were young.Why Rita chose to befriend some of the women with whom Bob had affairs and to give them advice on rearing the children they had with Bob.The story of the attack on Bob which almost killed the two of them. ·Bob's last wishes, dreams, and hopes, as well as the details of his death, such as who came to the funeral (and who didn't).
When Jason moves in with Bev, it's supposed to be temporary. But then Daisy the Chihuahua comes to stay. Just two-and-a-half pounds when they adopt her, Daisy is a charmer. And soon, an eater. Hot on her heels comes Elvis the pug, and then, of course, their puppies! Instead of losing her baby weight, after giving birth to four puppies, Daisy gets even chubbier and soon outgrows even her fattest fat sweaters. Bev and Jason decide it's time for everyone, including the two of them, to pull together, lead a healthier life-style -- and in the process become a family (albeit an unconventional one).Please Don't Feed the Daisy is the wickedly funny, remarkably useful story of their journey toward becoming that family, and a fit one to boot. Packed with yummy, fun, diet- and earth-friendly recipes for both dogs and people, as well as training tips and the Happily Ever After Maintenance Plan, this is a heartwarming and healthy tale for dog- (and food-) lovers everywhere.
A groundbreaking history of the Nazi research institute whose work helped lead to the extermination of millionsIn 1935, Heinrich Himmler established a Nazi research institute called The Ahnenerbe, whose mission was to send teams of scholars around the world to search for proof of Ancient Aryan conquests. But history was not their most important focus. Rather, the Ahnenerbe was an essential part of Himmler's master plan for the Final Solution. The findings of the institute were used to convince armies of SS men that they were entitled to slaughter Jews and other groups. And Himmler also hoped to use the research as a blueprint for the breeding of a new Europe in a racially purer mold.The Master Plan is a groundbreaking expos of the work of German scientists and scholars who allowed their research to be warped to justify extermination, and who directly participated in the slaughter--many of whom resumed their academic positions at war's end. It is based on Heather Pringle's extensive original research, including previously ignored archival material and unpublished photographs, and interviews with living members of the institute and their survivors.A sweeping history told with the drama of fiction, The Master Plan is at once horrifying, transfixing, and monumentally important to our comprehension of how something as unimaginable as the Holocaust could have progressed from fantasy to reality.
A noted journalist offers a funny, nostalgic, autobiographical slice of American life and a moving look at World War II from the perspective of a child far away from the fighting, but very conscious of the reverberations.
The first novel by the author of acclaimed national bestseller The Sunday Wife, now reissued in paperback. In a small Alabama town in Zion County, life is finally looking up for 20-year-old Donnette Sullivan. Having just inherited her aunt's old house and beauty shop, she's taken over the business. Her husband, Tim, recently crippled in an accident, is beginning to cope not only with his disability but also with the loss of his dreams. Once a promising artist who gave up art for sports, Tim paints a sign for Donnette's new shop, Making Waves, that causes ripples throughout the small southern community. In a sequence of events -- sometimes funny, sometimes tragic -- the lives of Donnette, Tim, and others in their small circle of family and friends are unavoidably affected. Once the waves of change surge through Zion County, the lives of its people are forever altered.
From the assassination of the Archduke, through Hitler's rise and demise, to Saddam Hussein's doomed invasion of Kuwait -- Military Blunders is a blow-by-blow account of this century's most ill-fated military events. What were they and why did they happen?
The text of the true original journal of Major Damon J. "Rocky" Gause, documenting the longest escape in U.S. military history from the Phillipines to Australia during World War II, with an introduction by his son Damon L. Gause, Jr.
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