New Biographies Memoirs

Deemed scandalous at the time of its publication in 1944, Emily Hahn's now classic memoir of her years in China remains remarkable for her insights into a tumultuous period and her frankness about her personal exploits. A proud feminist and fearless traveler, she set out for China in 1935 and stayed through the early years of the Second Sino-Japanese War, wandering, carousing, living, loving - and writing. Many of the pieces in China to Me were first published as the work of a roving reporter in the New Yorker. All are shot through with riveting and humanizing detail.

If you want to uncover the secrets of one of the most notorious criminal organizations in American history, then you need to listen to this audiobook. Within these chapters is a riveting and in-depth exploration of the shadowy history of the DeCavalcante family, from their origins to their ultimate downfall.

This audiobook is a story of recovery and self-discovery with ups and downs, struggles, and successes. The journey starts with an introduction that sets the context for a series of chapters describing the physical and emotional aspects of the recovery.

Most scholars consider Melanchthon to be a Reformation enigma. He, the developer of the Reformation doctrine of forensic justification, is contrarily condemned as a synergist. Known well as the Protestant preceptor of Germany, he was Martin Luther's lifelong friend, colleague, teacher of Greek, and fellow reformer. Upon arriving at Wittenberg, Melanchthon was a theologian neither by trade nor by training. He was a classically trained expert in classical languages, neo-Latin poet, textbook author, Greek scholar, humanist, and above all, an educator

Since its founding by Joseph Papp in the 1950s, The Public Theater has been an American artistic leader defined by its breadth of programming, from Hair and A Chorus Line, to Free Shakespeare in the Park. With the recent critical and financial success of Fun Home and Hamilton, and its emphasis on new play development, The Public's contemporary history has been equally remarkable, even as world crises and social changes have tested the mettle of its foundation of accessible and "radically inclusive" theatre for all.

The first 100 days of Franklin Roosevelt's presidency are justly famous, viewed as a period of political action without equal in American history. Yet as historian David B. Woolner reveals, the end of FDR's presidency might very well surpass it in drama and consequence. Drawing on new evidence, Woolner shows how FDR used every ounce of his diminishing energy to pursue the things that mattered most to him: the establishment of the United Nations, the reinvigoration of the New Deal, the possibility of a Jewish homeland in Palestine, and more.

Was murder part of the game? Seventeen-year-old Kat McDonough grew up with theater in her blood - and a penchant for make-believe. More than a decade older, Seth Mazzaglia was well-known in the community theater circle of Portsmouth, New Hampshire. He, too, had a rich inner life - and he soon had Kat convinced that they were soul mates. To intensify their bond, Seth lured Kat into a world of violent sex and role-playing, where she was his slave. Enter Lizzi Marriott, the new girl in town. And when she accepts an invitation to Kat and Seth's apartment....

In Future Perfect, Victoria Loustalot draws on her own personal experience to launch a broader inquiry into the phenomena of psychics, shamans, astrologers, and their fans. Through historical documents and interviews with clairvoyants, seers, and their believers, Victoria opens herself up to the modern mystical complex in cultures and cities around the globe. She pays close attention to what they have to tell us about how we choose to live, what we might be missing out on in the process, and what in the world we’re supposed to do with all that information.

The Pacific with Sam Neill is the companion audiobook to the Foxtel documentary series of the same name, in which actor and raconteur Sam Neill takes a deeply personal, present-day voyage to map his own understanding of James Cook, Europe's greatest navigator, and the immense Pacific Ocean itself. Voyaging on a wide variety on vessels, from container ships to fishing trawlers and sailing boats, Sam crosses the length and breadth of the largest ocean in the world to experience for himself a contemporary journey in Cook's footsteps.

In December 1832 a farmer found the body of a pregnant young woman hanging near a haystack outside a New England mill town. When news spread that Methodist preacher Ephraim Avery was accused of murdering Sarah Maria Cornell, a factory worker, the case gave the public everything they found irresistible: sexually charged violence, adultery, the hypocrisy of a church leader, secrecy and mystery, and suspicions of insanity. Murder in a Mill Town tells the story of how a local crime quickly turned into a national scandal that became America's first "trial of the century."

As Australia sank into the darkest days of the Great Depression, a succession of bloody mysteries grabbed headlines and gripped the country. The Hammer Horror, The Bungendore Bones, The Park Demon, The Human Glove and The Pyjama Girl—these were just some of the grisly cases that had to be solved by the Sydney detectives of The Murder Squad. The Murder Squad reopens the files on Australia's most chilling forgotten crimes to ask who was guilty, who was innocent, and whether some cops were as dangerous as the monsters they were hunting.

In a world increasingly shaped by fear, division, and rising authoritarianism, Finding My Humanity is a timely memoir that invites us back to what connects us most—our mutual capacity for love, empathy, and courage - indeed our shared humanity. Ryan Ubuntu Olson's journey begins in rural Colorado, where he wrestles with his identity in a community that offers little space for difference. As a queer young man navigating isolation, discrimination, and heartbreak, he is forced to reckon with what it means to live authentically in the face of rejection.

As John Freeman writes in California Rewritten, "Literature of so many kinds and so many genres from so many different types of people—at the highest level—has been coming out of California and from Californians for decades now." Freeman, one of the sharpest editors working today, has followed the evolution of California's literary life since his teenage years in Sacramento. In over fifty essays inspired by his hosting of Alta Journal's popular California Book Club, he offers an essential road map to California literature now.

After his interest was piqued by a 19th-century photo of a camel train in a country town, Ryan Butta found himself on the trail of Australia’s earliest Afghan camel-drivers. Separating the bulldust from the bush poetry, he reveals the breadth and depth of white Australian protectionism and prejudice. Told with flair and authority, this gritty alternative history defies the standard horse-powered folklore to reveal the untold debt this country owes to humble dromedaries, their drivers and those who brought them here.

From an early age, Margaret Fuller provoked and dazzled New England’s intellectual elite. Her famous Conversations changed women’s sense of how they could think and live; her editorship of the Transcendentalist literary journal the Dial shaped American Romanticism. Now, Megan Marshall, whose acclaimed The Peabody Sisters "discovered" three fascinating women, has done it again: No biography of Fuller has made her ideas so alive or her life so moving.

Using exclusive interviews with Suu Kyi since her release from 15 years of house arrest, as well as recently disclosed diplomatic cables, Pederson uncovers new facets to Suu Kyi's extraordinary story. The Burma Spring also reveals the extraordinary steps taken by First Lady Laura Bush to help Suu Kyi, as well as how former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton injected new momentum into Burma's democratic rebirth.

Forty, chronically single, and up an extra 20 pounds, TV news producer Stephanie Krikorian fell victim to the Great Recession, finding herself suddenly unemployed. One unwanted pregnancy away from being a Lifetime Original Movie, Stephanie had to reinvent herself...and fast. So, to keep her head above water, she started ghostwriting self-help and diet books for a variety of well-known experts. However, she didn't just write each book she took on, she lived it - chanting, journaling, reflecting, reframing - whatever it took to get deep into the heart of each project.

"Jess Phoenix's work encompasses science and representation in such a delightful melding that it could only come from as spry and playful a soul as hers! Open this book and jump into the volcano!" —Patton Oswalt As a volcanologist, natural hazards expert, and founder of Blueprint Earth, Jess...

No one likes to diet, but this book will encourage and inspire listeners with its positive, practical, and purposeful stories of dieting and fitness. You'll find hope, help, and hints on getting fit and staying healthy in these stories from those who have been there, done that, and maintained it. Stories about wake-up calls and realizations, moving more and eating better, self-esteem and support, will motivate any listener looking to start fresh or needing a boost.

The eighteenth-century hanging of a schoolteacher for concealing the birth of a child out of wedlock has appeared in local legend over the last few centuries, but the full account of Ruth's story has never been told. Drawing on over two years of investigative research, author Carolyn Marvin brings to light the dramatic details of Ruth's life and the cruel injustice of colonial Portsmouth's moral code. As Marvin uncovers the real flesh-and-blood woman who suffered the ultimate punishment, her listeners come to understand Ruth as an individual and a woman of her time.