Art & Literature

An inspiring, honest and intimate memoir about family, love and rising from the ashes.

Paddy Gower has spent decades telling New Zealanders' stories. Now, he's telling his.

Thoreau's classic account of the solitary life describes his attempts to simplify his life and sort out his priorities by living alone in a cabin beside Walden Pond for nearly two years....

Wilbur Smith has lived an incredible life of adventure, and now he shares the extraordinary true stories that have inspired his fiction....

Antony Penrose's tribute to his mother, Lee Miller, brings to life a uniquely talented woman and the turbulent times in which she lived.

From the acclaimed and best-selling biographer Jonathan Bate comes a luminous new exploration of Shakespeare and how his themes can untangle comedy and tragedy, learning and loving in our modern lives....

The extraordinary story of the creative and romantic partnership between Robert Louis Stevenson and his wife and muse, Fanny Van de Grift, A Wilder Shore unfolds with all the richness and complexity of a timeless epic.

From one of the 20th century's great writers comes one of the finest autobiographies of our time....

With this dynamic and engaging recording, you can listen to beloved poet and philosopher John O'Donohue as he shares stories and experiences from Ireland that gave rise to his body of writing—and inspired his acclaimed book Anam Cara....

In April 1992 a young man from a well-to-do family hitchhiked to Alaska and walked alone into the wilderness north of Mt. McKinley....

Stefan Zweig's memoir, The World of Yesterday, recalls the golden age of prewar Europe - its seeming permanence, its promise and its devastating fall with the onset of two world wars....

Never before has a member of the Packer family co-operated with a writer to tell their story. In his biography The Price of Fortune, one of the nation's richest and most psychoanalyzed men opens up in an attempt to make sense of his roller-coaster life....

Published posthumously in 1964, A Moveable Feast remains one of Ernest Hemingway's most beloved works....

Everyone knows Steve Madden's name and his shoes, but few are familiar with his story. In this raw, intimate, and ultimately inspiring book, Madden holds nothing back as he shares what it took to get here and the lessons he's learned along the way....

Christos Tsiolkas spent a year of 'discovery and rediscovery' reading Patrick White. In this passionate and original book, he shows how the Nobel Prize winner's work still speaks to us....

You may not know it, but you've met Augusten Burroughs. You've seen him on the street, in bars, on the subway, at restaurants...

Britain's national icon, Michael Parkinson reads his long-awaited autobiography....

Tracey Emin is an internationally renowned artist. Here she discusses her life and achievements in a series of interviews from the BBC radio and TV archives....

Longtime collaborators John Luther Adams and author Barry Lopez discuss their work....

Brilliantly compiled and edited, and filled with detail and anecdote, Daily Rituals is irresistible, addictive, magically inspiring....

His second major venture into nonfiction (after Death in the Afternoon, 1932), Green Hills of Africa is Ernest Hemingway's lyrical journal....

At once an inviting travel book and an insightful reflection on his parents' marriage, Paradise is Larry McMurtry's most original and personal work to date...

If you ever struggle with your connection to God (or whether you even feel connected to a faith at all!), you're not alone. Especially in our modern world, with its relentless, never-ending news cycle, we can all grapple with such questions....

A quarter of a century after the plane crash that claimed the lives of John F. Kennedy Jr., his wife Carolyn, and her sister Lauren, the magnitude of this tragedy remains fresh. Yet, Carolyn is still an enigmatic figure, a woman whose life in the spotlight was besieged with misogyny and cruelty.

When Abigail Thomas’s husband, Rich, was hit by a car, his brain shattered. Subject to rages, terrors, and hallucinations, he must live the rest of his life in an institution....

In the six lectures of The Great Gatsby at 100, you will join Sheila Liming of Champlain College to revisit the context and culture of the Roaring ‘20s, which inspired the story of the mysterious Jay Gatsby and his disastrous pursuit of Daisy Buchanan. As you’ll discover, while Gatsby is framed as a love story, it’s also a story of the American experience, revealing the unspoken rules of wealth and class and the false promises of self-made success in a world of Old Money privilege.

From the age of twelve, Alison Mau wanted to be a journalist like her father. He was a beer-swilling, straight-talking Aussie who was rough around the edges but could quote passages of Hamlet at will. He taught Ali everything—from how to skin a rabbit and throw a punch to how to craft a sharp sentence—and she craved his validation as she navigated the sexist badlands of Australian print and television journalism through the 1980s and '90s.

"Recuerdo la mañana en que conocí a Octavio Paz. Fue el 11 de marzo de 1976, en el Panteón Jardín, cuando un grupo de amigos despedíamos al gran ensayista Daniel Cosío Villegas [...] Me acerqué a él para proponerle la publicación en su revista Plural de un ensayo mío sobre el ilustre liberal recién desaparecido. Días después, mi nombre apareció junto al suyo, pero nunca sospeché que ese vínculo sería permanente."

DOYLE'S WORLD is no ordinary biography about one of the world's most influential writers. It is instead a work that deciphers in particular the cryptic origins and actual scientific methods used by fiction's most famous consulting detective Sherlock Holmes—and a work that provides a detailed look into the psyche and working life of Holmes’ creator, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. The book follows Doyle’s entire illustrious literary career, with emphasis on the Sherlock Holmes mysteries as they evolved from the late 1880s to the early 1900s.

虐待、いじめ、家庭内暴力、無理心中未遂 毒母との38 年の愛憎を描いた壮絶ノンフィクション

Joan Didion (December 5, 1934 - December 23, 2021), born in Sacramento, California, was an American author, screenwriter, and journalist. Her writing during the 1960s through the late 1970s engaged audiences in the realities of the counterculture of the 1960s, the Hollywood lifestyle, and the history and culture of California.

For half a century, Betty Halbreich curated wardrobes and bore witness to the vicissitudes of life as Bergdorf Goodman’s original personal shopper. Of course, visitors to the store were awed by a 96-year-old woman who still held down a nine-to-five, let alone one in the youth-obsessed industry of fashion. But age is only half the story: Betty built that career by giving encouraging yet deeply honest advice. Much of it was about what to wear, but her insight was by no means relegated only to matters of the closet.

Joan Didion (December 5, 1934-December 23, 2021), born in Sacramento, California, was an American author, screenwriter, and journalist. Her writing during the 1960s through the late 1970s engaged audiences in the realities of the counterculture of the 1960s, the Hollywood lifestyle, and the history and culture of California.

Summer in Paris, 1783. The Louvre steps, too hot and no breeze, the air electric with the heady anticipation of a coming storm: the year's Royal Salon. Men and women of every estate are united under art: to love it, to despise it, to gossip endlessly about it. Exhibiting at the Royal Salon was not for the faint of heart, and it was never intended for women. Enter Adélaïde Labille-Guiard . . . Born in Paris in 1749, Adélaïde Labille-Guiard rose from shopkeeper's daughter to an official portraitist of the royal court—only to have her achievements reduced to ash by the French Revolution

What happens when magazine editors behave worse than the celebrities they feature? Shock, comedy, and farce, expertly chronicled in Jeremy Murphy's Too Good to Fact Check, a firsthand account of his ten years traveling with stars as the editor of a glossy magazine. In between taking Julianna Marguiles to the Côte d'Azur, Neil Patrick Harris aboard the Orient Express, and LL Cool J to Paris among other locales, the author lived a wild, decadent life that rivaled anyone he was covering, and recounts the most outrageous moments in colorful, candid detail.

Why do people keep deep secrets about their lives and ancestry? In Family Declassified, Katherine Fennelly applies her expertise as a social science researcher to answer this question regarding her maternal grandfather, a Jewish Hungarian immigrant who arrived in the US one hundred years ago.

James Baldwin (1924–1987) was a pivotal figure of the twentieth century, an influential author, intellectual, and activist who led a celebrated public life—and whose words and image and persona remain current in our culture. Baldwin's many incarnations have reemerged in the digital age as Baldwin's work becomes a touchstone for a new generation. It is the private, vulnerable, and messier Baldwin—the man behind the prophet and the online meme—who is the focus of this book.

"Ein Glücksfall ausgereifter Erzählkunst" (Rüdiger Görner). In der letzten Erzählung Stefan Zweigs – sie erschien nur wenige Monate vor seinem Freitod im Exil in Brasilien – treffen bei einem Schachspiel auf einem Passagierdampfer die Kontrahenten auch völlig unterschiedlicher Kulturen aufeinander. Der Großmeister Czentovic, machtbewußt, mit schlichtem Gemüt und nur an Bereicherung interessiert, steht dem rätselhaften Dr. B. gegenüber, der als ehemaliger Vermögensverwalter des österreichischen Adels und Klerus, in Gefangenschaft der Nationalsozialisten geriet.

Cea mai cunoscută carte a Oliviei Laing, Orașul solitar este un text radiant despre singurătate, mecanismele care o provoacă și despre cum ne putem doza resursele interioare pentru a-i face față. Apelând la biografiile și creațiile unor artiști precum Edward Hopper, Andy Warhol, Henry Darger sau David Wojnarowicz, Laing documentează o călătorie filozofică în care singurătatea devine insula fiecăruia dintre noi, iar povestirea ne poartă, pagină cu pagină, mai aproape de centru.

Sir Nigel Thompson walked to school around the bomb craters of the London Blitz—it made him want to build things, rather than knock them down. After studying structural engineering in Africa, he worked on hospitals and theaters in London, and later headed the team that designed University of Qatar. He went on to design Embankment Place, a massive office complex built over London’s Charing Cross railway station. Turning from building to rebuilding, he explored construction opportunities for British firms during the Gulf War, in Kuwait’s still-burning oil fields.

Bu biyografilerde daha önce eserlerini okuduğunuz yazarların hayatlarındaki enteresan ayrıntıları, belki aklınızda kalmış bir mısra veya cümlede o yazarın hayatının hangi sırrının saklı olduğunu keşfedeceksiniz.

From grinding as an unpaid intern, to becoming a glitzy (but overworked) fashion editor, Christian Allaire writes with feeling about the struggle to find his place—and community—in the highly exclusive world of fashion. And he recounts, with great candour, the difficulty of balancing his ambitions with the often-inaccurate perceptions—including his own—of his culture’s place in the realm of fashion. Full of joy, honesty, adversity, and great clothes, From the Rez to the Runway is a gripping memoir about how to achieve your dreams—and elevate others—while always remaining true to yourself.

Ein kurzer, aber prägnanter amüsanter Essay über Michelangelo und zwei ganz kurze über Giotto und Cimabue. Die Liebe zum Ausdruck des Schrecklichen hat laut Stendhal in Michelangelo seine Vollendung gefunden, da das Teuflische und Böse innerhalb (natürlich nicht nur) der christlichen Religion fester Bestandteil ist und er gezwungen war innerhalb dieser Schwarz-Weiß-Systematik seine dankbaren Motive auszuwählen. Michelangelo wurde am 6. März 1475 in Caprese, Toskana geboren und verstarb am 18. Februar 1564 in Rom. Er war ein italienischer Maler, Bildhauer und Baumeister.

Camille Claudel la transgressive, la sculptrice de génie, l’artiste sulfureuse et maudite, l’amante libre de Rodin, basculant dans la folie, enfermée à l’asile durant les trente dernières années de sa vie. Artiste trop avance sur son temps, elle s’affranchit de toutes les règles, de toutes les conventions sociales. Son œuvre sera sa vie. Outre qu’elle a sculpté avec acharnement durant trente ans, elle a été, quasiment toute sa vie, une épistolière assidue. Des lettres, elle en a écrit des centaines, et nombreuses sont celles perdues ou détruites.

Frank Lloyd Wright (June 8, 1867 to April 9, 1959), born in Richland Center, Wisconsin, was an American architect, designer, writer, and educator. He designed more than 1,000 structures over a creative period of 70 years. Wright played a key role in the architectural movements of the twentieth century, influencing architects worldwide through his works and mentoring hundreds of apprentices in his Taliesin Fellowship. Wright believed in designing in harmony with humanity and the environment, a philosophy he called organic architecture.

"Hätte Hegel seine ganze Logik geschrieben und im Vorwort gesagt, daß sie nur ein gedankliches Experiment sei, in welchem er sich obendrein an vielen Stellen vor etwas gedrückt hat, dann wäre er wohl der größte Denker gewesen, der jemals gelebt hat. Nun ist er nur komisch." Die Abneigung Kierkegaards gegen das Hegelsche System oder gegen Systematiker überhaupt stellt ihn in eine Linie mit verwandten Denkern "freien Geistes" - von den Gnostikern bis zu Nietzsche.

Heines philosophisches Denken, das Denken eines wahrhaft "freien Geistes" und seine respektlos poetische Religiosität sollen, in enger Zusammenschau mit dem Bild seiner Persönlichkeit, in diesem Hörbuch besonders herausgestellt werden. "Nach mehrmaligem Durchstudieren des Kantschen Hauptwerkes glaube ich zu erkennen, daß die Polemik gegen jene bestehenden Beweise für das Dasein Gottes überall hervorlauscht, und ich würde sie weitläufiger besprechen, wenn mich nicht ein religiöses Gefühl davon abhielte.

Мы снова и снова гуляем по залам музеев и любуемся прекрасными произведениями живописи, подолгу вглядываясь в каждое полотно. Нам кажутся такими чарующими великолепные портреты, натюрморты и пейзажи и поэтому личности знаменитых художников кажутся нам безупречными, они для нас – образчики чистоты и красоты. Мы ведь привыкли воспринимать знаменитых художников через небольшие пояснения к их картинам и краткие биографические сведения, которые не сложно отыскать в библиотеках и на просторах интернета. Это делает их образы почти бесплотными.

This is the never-before-told story of a unique time in San Francisco as well as in book industry history, when Bay Area small presses—armed with arrogance and personal computers—took the publishing field. At Foghorn Press, Vicki Morgan was an ambitious woman publisher, young and brash, coming-of-age while quixotically building a book publishing company from scratch with her eccentric brother to help.

Вадим Храппа — писатель и радиожурналист. Многие его хорошо знают по радиопрограмме "Чисто по-русски", в которой он рассказывал о тонкостях русского языка. Например, как из века в век преобразовывались и становились языковым явлением слова и выражения, что они означали, каким образом были связаны с историей нашей культуры. Почему восторг — административный, а легендарное яблоко — Адамово? Каково прослыть белой вороной? Есть ли смысл строить воздушные замки? Что такое "абракадабра" и что общего у конфет и конфетти? Какой тон называют "менторским"? Книга В.