New Biographies Memoirs

When leading Princeton physicist Paul Steinhardt began working in the 1980s, scientists thought they knew all the conceivable forms of matter. The Second Kind of Impossible is the story of Steinhardt’s 35-year-long quest to challenge conventional wisdom. It begins with a curious geometric pattern that inspires two theoretical physicists to propose a radically new type of matter - one that raises the possibility of new materials with never-before-seen properties but that violates laws set in stone for centuries.

When Lanfranco ‘Frankie’ Dettori arrived on British shores in 1985, aged just 14, he couldn’t speak a word of English. Having left school just a year earlier, he was eager to become a stable boy and apprentice jockey, following in the footsteps of his father. This was his first, but certainly not his last, leap of faith. Despite his slight size, Frankie’s impact upon the British racing scene was immediate and significant.

Telling the remarkable tale of a man who is still remembered on the streets of New Orleans and in the hearts of professional-wrestling fans, this book aims to restore the overlooked Junkyard Dog to his proper place in the history books. In 1979, Sylvester Ritter, also known as the Junkyard Dog, managed to break one of the final color barriers in the sport by becoming the first Black wrestler named undisputed top star of his promotion, and this biography reveals all the famous feuds and business back stories that made him a wrestling legend.

The story of Mohandas Gandhi, one of the world's best-loved and most important promoters of freedom and justice, fascinates every generation. Thrown off a South African train for sitting in a "whites only" compartment, Gandhi resolved to oppose injustice wherever he encountered it. His life of resistance led him to a remarkable philosophy of nonviolence that culminated in the freedom struggle in India.

Growing up in Seale, Alabama as a Black Queer kid, then attending the Rhode Island School of Design as an undergraduate, Jon Key hungered to see himself in the fields of Art and Design. But in lectures, critiques, and in the books he read, he struggled to see and learn about people who intersected with his identity or who GOT him. So he started asking himself questions: What did it mean to be a graphic designer with his point of view? What did it mean to be a Black graphic designer?

Bob Schlegel grew up on a struggling family farm, and like his entrepreneurial father, he took charge of his destiny by starting his own businesses - often more than one at a time. He and his wife Myrna partnered together in their early endeavors and raised a family of entrepreneurs. Their diverse startups included a chain of 15 superior nursing and retirement centers, as well as the nation's leading manufacturer of paving stones and landscaping materials.

Arthur Taylor is New Zealand's best known, most influential and colourful career criminal. A household name, he was paroled from prison in 2019 after more than 38 years behind bars. His life story is nothing short of remarkable. He has more than 150 convictions ranging from bank robberies to fraud, theft, escaping and having weapons and explosives.

"This book is in part a detective story. After 9/11 I knew, if I needed further reinforcement, that we are living in a new world - the world of a global capitalist economy that is vastly more flexible, resilient, open, self-correcting, and fast-changing than it was even a quarter century earlier. It's a world that presents us with enormous new possibilities but also enormous new challenges. The Age of Turbulence is my attempt to understand the nature of this new world." (Alan Greenspan)

Truman Capote’s best-selling book In Cold Blood has captivated worldwide audiences for over 50 years. It is a gripping story about the consequences of a trivial robbery gone terribly wrong in a remote village of western Kansas. But what if robbery was not the motive at all but something more sinister? And why would the Kansas Bureau of Investigation press the attorney general to launch a ruthless four-year legal battle to prevent fresh details of the state’s most famous crime from being made public, so many years after the case had been solved?

Philip II is not only the most famous king in Spanish history, but one of the most famous monarchs in English history: the man who married Mary Tudor and later launched the Spanish Armada against her sister Elizabeth I. This compelling biography of the most powerful European monarch of his day begins with his conception (1526) and ends with his ascent to Paradise (1603), two occurrences surprisingly well documented by contemporaries. Eminent historian Geoffrey Parker draws on four decades of research on Philip as well as a recent, extraordinary archival discovery - a trove of 3,000 documents in vaults in New York City....

The true life story of Michael Elihu Colby and his childhood days at Manhattan's Algonquin Hotel. His grandparents Mary and Ben B. Bodne had traded their Southern oil fortune for the legendary but faded Algonquin and restored the hotel's former glory. Their efforts led to a remarkable renaissance and attracted an overflow of celebrities from the ridiculous to the sublime.

A prominent New Jersey doctor and members of a notorious outlaw motorcycle gang transform the doctor's office into a drug ring, pumping thousands of highly addictive opioid pain pills onto the streets in exchange for cash. Everything was going smoothly until one person discovered their plan: the doctor's wife. When she threatened to divorce him, the doctor's unholy alliance with his partners in crime turned deadly, and the doctor hired a hitman to kill her.

From one of the country’s most recognizable journalists: How becoming a grandmother transforms a woman’s life. After four decades as a reporter, Lesley Stahl’s most vivid and transformative experience of her life was not covering the White House, interviewing heads of state, or researching stories at 60 Minutes. It was becoming a grandmother. She was hit with a jolt of joy so intense and unexpected, she wanted to “investigate” it - as though it were a news flash.

Previous histories have focused on the KGB, leaving military intelligence and the special service - which specialized in codes and ciphers - lurking in the shadows. Drawing on previously neglected Russian sources, Haslam reveals how both were in fact crucial to the survival of the Soviet state. This was especially true after Stalin's death in 1953, as the Cold War heated up and dedicated Communist agents the regime had relied upon - Klaus Fuchs, the Rosenbergs, Donald Maclean - were betrayed.

Have you ever wanted to live a truly awesome life? In this compelling guide to fearless, creative living, Tae Yun Kim, a martial arts great grandmaster, shows that no matter what your age or background, culture, or career, you don't have to settle for anything less than awesome in your life. Dr. Tae Yun Kim began her training at the age of seven, defying 5,000 years of tradition prohibiting girls from learning the martial arts in South Korea. Against all odds, she became the first female martial artist in South Korea and one of the highest-ranking martial artists in the world.

This long-awaited translation of Confessions, which Stephen Greenblatt describes as central to the legacy of Adam and Eve, enlivens the beguiling world of late antiquity. No modern, well-versed literature lover can call her education complete without having listened to Augustine’s Confessions. One of the most original works of world literature, it is the first autobiography ever written, influencing writers from Montaigne to Rousseau, Virginia Woolf to Gertrude Stein.

On June 22, 1954, in the depth of a southern winter, teenage friends Juliet Hulme and Pauline Parker went for a walk in a park with Pauline's mother. Half an hour later the girls returned alone. Honorah Parker lay in a sea of blood on a lonely track. She had been savagely murdered. In this mesmerizing audiobook, lawyer and true-crime writer Peter Graham tells the whole story for the first time, giving a brilliant account of the murder and ensuing trial, dramatic revelations about the fates of Juliet Hulme and Pauline Parker after their release from prison and their strange lives today.

In 1902, newly-married Jeannie Gunn (Mrs Aeneas Gunn) left the security and comfort of her Melbourne home to travel to the depths of the Northern Territory, Australia, where her husband had been appointed manager of 'The Elsey', a large cattle station. One of the very few white women in the area, she was at first resented by people on and around the station, till her warmth and spirit won their affection and respect. This is her moving and simple account of her life amidst the beauty and cruelty of the land.

For over a century, the Ned Kelly legend has grown and grown. He's become Australia's Robin Hood, and leader of a colonial Irish resistance. How much of the legend is true? This is the real story of the hunt for the Kelly Gang over two long years. As gripping as any police procedural, it is an account of poorly trained officers unfamiliar with the terrain, in pursuit of the most dangerous men in the state. By recounting the story from the perspective of the law, David Dufty gets to the heart of the story and finds answers to many unresolved questions.

امتاز غورباتشوف منذ طفولته بمهاراته التنظيمية العالية وتفانيه الكبير أثناء العمل، وأبدى ميلًا للعمل في المجال السياسي، ومع تقدمه في السن ازداد شغفه بالعمل السياسي وأصبح عضوًا بارزًا في الحزب الشيوعي الأمر الذي يعني انخراطه في المجال السياسي في سنٍّ مبكرة جدًا وسرعان ما ترقى في المسؤوليات الحزبية ليصبح أصغر رؤساء حكومات الأقاليم في البلاد عام 1970.