Collection: Biography & Memoir

What does nothing sound like? An offbeat history of John Cage's 4'33", a musical composition of blank bars, illustrated by Caldecott Medalist Chris Raschka.

One night in 1952, master pianist David Tudor took the stage in a barnlike concert hall called the Maverick. A packed audience waited with bated breath for him to start playing. Little did they know that the performance had already begun.

A rain patters.
A tree rustles.
An audience stirs.

David was performing John Cage's 4'33", whose purpose is to amplify the ambient sounds of whatever venue it inhabits. That shocking first performance earned 4'33" plenty of haters; and yet the piece endures, "performed" by the smallest garage bands and the grandest symphonies alike, year after year. Its fans hear what John Cage hoped we would hear: "Nothing" is never silent, and you don't need a creative genius, a concert hall, or even a piano to hear something worthwhile. All you have to do is stop and listen.

Nicholas Day's text is reverent with a healthy drop of humor, warm and refined; two-time Caldecott Medalist Chris Raschka's childlike pencil-on-watercolor artwork is uninhibited and electrifying, with all the visionary spirit of the work it chronicles. Guaranteed to spark generative thought and lively debate among readers of all ages, Nothing is not to be missed.

A Junior Library Guild Gold Standard Selection

Stars of All Time highlights both iconic pioneers of world soccer, including Pelé, Johan Cruyff, and Maradona, and more recent all-star players, such as Messi and Ronaldo. Young readers will learn about where each player grew up, how he made it to the top, and what makes his playing style unique. Filled with facts and illustrations, showcasing the most exciting players of the past and present, this book will wow both the soccer novice and the passionate fan.

The 52 micro-memoirs in genre-defying Heating & Cooling offer bright glimpses into a richly lived life, combining the compression of poetry with the truth-telling of nonfiction into one heartfelt, celebratory book. Alternatingly wistful and wry, ranging from childhood recollections to quirky cultural observations, these micro-memoirs build on one another to shape a life from unexpectedly illuminating moments.

Waterman is the first comprehensive biography of Duke Kahanamoku (1890-1968): swimmer, surfer, Olympic gold medalist, Hawaiian icon, waterman.

Long before Michael Phelps and Mark Spitz made their splashes in the pool, Kahanamoku emerged from the backwaters of Waikiki to become America's first superstar Olympic swimmer. The original "human fish" set dozens of world records and topped the world rankings for more than a decade. Kahanamoku used his Olympic renown to introduce the sport of "surf-riding," an activity unknown beyond the Hawaiian Islands, to the world. No American athlete has influenced two sports as profoundly as Kahanamoku did, and yet he remains an enigmatic and underappreciated figure: a dark-skinned Pacific Islander who encountered and overcame racism and ignorance long before the likes of Joe Louis, Jesse Owens, and Jackie Robinson.

Kahanamoku's connection to his homeland was equally important. He was born when Hawaii was an independent kingdom; he served as the sheriff of Honolulu during Pearl Harbor and World War II and as a globetrotting "Ambassador of Aloha" afterward.

In Waterman award-winning journalist David Davis examines the remarkable life of Duke Kahanamoku, in and out of the water.

Part of the Penguin Orange Collection, a limited-run series of twelve influential and beloved American classics in a bold series design offering a modern take on the iconic Penguin paperback

Winner of the 2016 AIGA + Design Observer 50 Books 50 Covers competition

For the seventieth anniversary of Penguin Classics, the Penguin Orange Collection celebrates the heritage of Penguin's iconic book design with twelve influential American literary classics representing the breadth and diversity of the Penguin Classics library. These collectible editions are dressed in the iconic orange and white tri-band cover design, first created in 1935, while french flaps, high-quality paper, and striking cover illustrations provide the cutting-edge design treatment that is the signature of Penguin Classics Deluxe Editions today.

The Snow Leopard

In 1973, Peter Matthiessen and field biologist George Schaller traveled high into the remote mountains of Nepal to study the Himalayan blue sheep and possibly glimpse the rare and beautiful snow leopard. Matthiessen, a student of Zen Buddhism, was also on a spiritual quest to find the Lama of Shey at the ancient shrine on Crystal Mountain. The result is a remarkable account of a journey both physical and spiritual, as the arduous climb yields to Matthiessen a deepening Buddhist understanding of reality, suffering, impermanence, and beauty.

The New York Times bestselling author of My Vanishing Country examines the modern political landscape and policies that are impacting Black families and communities and offers solutions for a better tomorrow.

In late May in 2020, while discussing the murder of George Floyd on CNN, Bakari Sellers spoke from the heart sharing devastating insight that touched millions around the world: "It's just so much pain. You get so tired. We have black children. I have a 15-year-old daughter. I mean, what do I tell her? I'm raising a son. I have no idea what to tell him. It's just--it's hard being black in this country when your life is not valued and people are worried about the protesters and the looters. And it's just people who are frustrated for far too long and not have their voices heard."

In this powerful and persuasive book, Sellers expands on the issues he addressed in his New York Times bestseller My Vanishing Country, examining national politics and policies that deeply impact not only Black people in his home state of South Carolina but the lives of millions of African Americans in communities across the nation. Four years later, Sellers has an answer to the question he raised on CNN, offering much-needed prescriptions to help all Black American lives.

Sellers explores inequities in healthcare, education, early childhood education, and policing, drawing on interviews with numerous thought leaders such as pioneering voting rights and poverty activist the Rev. William Barber, and Ben Crump, the civil rights legend who successfully uses the law to achieve justice for people of color in racially charged cases. He also shares his thoughts on conservative media and the forces and dark money behind firebrands such as Tucker Carlson. This thoughtful and practical work is a timely meditation on the state of our world today and how we can all play a part in making it better for tomorrow.

"Readers will be fascinated. . . . A haunting reminder of how precious democracy is."--Kirkus Reviews

The inspiring true story of the Zalli family, forced to rebuild their lives in a new, uncertain land

Born in poverty-stricken Albania, twin sisters Argita and Detina Zalli always dreamed of becoming doctors. But when the government collapsed, plunging the country into anarchy and civil war, the twins' dream unraveled along with their homeland.

Their parents were determined to find a way to leave and save their daughters' futures--not to mention their very lives. After several dangerous attempts, they finally escaped, only to be thrust into a new nightmare as refugees.

With grit and determination, they fought their way forward. When tragedy struck yet again, threatening what they held most dear, the girls had to come to terms with the high price they had all paid to survive.

In Good Morning, Hope, Argita and Detina share their harrowing story of courage and resilience. It was the strength of their family, particularly the sisters' unbreakable bond as twins, that nurtured and sustained them throughout their perilous ordeal.

MÁS DE UN MILLÓN DE EJEMPLARES VENDIDOS

NOMBRADO UNO DE LOS MEJORES LIBROS DEL AÑO POR Michiko Kakutani, New York Times - USA Today - San Francisco Chronicle - NPR - Esquire - Newsday - Booklist

La impresionante trayectoria de Trevor Noah, desde su infancia en Sudáfrica durante el apartheid hasta el escritorio de The Daily Show, comenzó con un acto criminal: su nacimiento. Trevor nació de un padre suizo blanco y una madre Xhosa negra, en una época de la historia sudafricana en que tal unión era castigada con cinco años de prisión. Como prueba viviente de la indiscreción de sus padres, Trevor permaneció los primeros años de su vida bajo el estricto resguardo de su madre, quien se veía obligada a tomar medidas extremas --y, a veces, absurdas-- para ocultar a Trevor de un gobierno que podría, en cualquier momento, llevárselo.

Prohibido nacer es la historia de un niño travieso que se convierte en un joven inquieto mientras lucha por encontrarse a sí mismo en un mundo en el que nunca se suponía que debía existir. También es la historia de la relación de ese joven con su intrépida, rebelde y ferviente madre religiosa: su compañera de equipo, una mujer decidida a salvar a su hijo del ciclo de pobreza, violencia y abuso que en última instancia amenazaría su propia vida.

ENGLISH DESCRIPTION

#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER - The compelling, inspiring, and comically sublime story of one man's coming-of-age, set during the twilight of apartheid and the tumultuous days of freedom that followed

NAMED ONE OF PASTE'S BEST MEMOIRS OF THE DECADE - NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY Michiko Kakutani, New York Times - USA Today - San Francisco Chronicle - NPR - Esquire - Newsday - Booklist

Trevor Noah's unlikely path from apartheid South Africa to the desk of The Daily Show began with a criminal act: his birth. Trevor was born to a white Swiss father and a black Xhosa mother at a time when such a union was punishable by five years in prison. Living proof of his parents' indiscretion, Trevor was kept mostly indoors for the earliest years of his life, bound by the extreme and often absurd measures his mother took to hide him from a government that could, at any moment, steal him away. Finally liberated by the end of South Africa's tyrannical white rule, Trevor and his mother set forth on a grand adventure, living openly and freely and embracing the opportunities won by a centuries-long struggle.

Born a Crime is the story of a mischievous young boy who grows into a restless young man as he struggles to find himself in a world where he was never supposed to exist. It is also the story of that young man's relationship with his fearless, rebellious, and fervently religious mother--his teammate, a woman determined to save her son from the cycle of poverty, violence, and abuse that would ultimately threaten her own life.

The stories collected here are by turns hilarious, dramatic, and deeply affecting. Whether subsisting on caterpillars for dinner during hard times, being thrown from a moving car during an attempted kidnapping, or just trying to survive the life-and-death pitfalls of dating in high school, Trevor illuminates his curious world with an incisive wit and unflinching honesty. His stories weave together to form a moving and searingly funny portrait of a boy making his way through a damaged world in a dangerous time, armed only with a keen sense of humor and a mother's unconventional, unconditional love.

Nothing happens to any man which he is not formed by nature to bear.

Throughout his life, the great Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius would write down personal notes ranging from a single sentence to several pages on his observations in his everyday life. These notes, written originally in Greek, would be the basis for how he could improve himself and his stature amongst his peer, and how he would conduct himself in the world. After his death, these notes were collected to form one volume titled Meditations. Separated into twelve chapters, Marcus Aurelius's famous philosophical work provides a clear insight into the stoic philosophy that was prevalent during the Roman Empire. Presented here is the unmodified 1862 George Long translation published under the original title The Thoughts of the Emperor M. Aurelius Antoninus. This translation was greatly esteemed, for it kept a faithful direct translation of the original Greek text.

George Long: Born November 4th, 1800, in Lancashire, England, George Long was a Cambridge-educated scholar, historian, and linguist of Latin and Greek. He directly contributed to the translations and commentary of works from antiquity previously without scholarly editions, including Cicero's Orations, Meditations by Marcus Aurelius, and Discourses of Epictetus, among many others. He died in 1879.

Marcus Aurelius: Born in A.D. 121, Marcus Aurelius was the Roman Emperor from A.D. 161 to A.D. 180. He is widely recognized as the last of the "Five Good Emperors," and was the last emperor of the Roman Empire's "Pax Romana" age, a time of relative peace and stability. Contemporary biographers call Marcus Aurelius "the philosopher" for his book on philosophy titled Meditations. He had 14 descendents, including his successor Commodus. He died in 180 A.D.

Build focus, boost attention, and stay calm with activities and strategies based in mindfulness for teens

Between friends, school, home life, and everything else going on, life can be overwhelming during your teenage years. But practicing mindfulness for teens can help you keep your cool, stay focused, and be present in any situation-even the difficult ones.

The Mindfulness Workbook for Teens is full of exercises, strategies, and meditations to help you practice mindfulness so you can cultivate peace and achieve balance in your life no matter what's going on. Learn practical methods for mindful test-taking, moving through strong emotions, navigating relationships with parents and peers, and much more.

This engaging workbook about mindfulness for teens includes:

• Mindfulness 101-Learn about what mindfulness for teens is (and isn't), the changes that are happening in the teenage brain, the power of staying present, and beyond.
• Real-life scenarios-See how mindfulness for teens works in real life with strategies that are built around real situations you might be going through, like stress about your grades, the pressure to fit in and be liked, and more.
• Room to reflect-Get plenty of space to write about your experiences while you're completing the activities so you can reflect on your growth.

Navigate your teenage years with a calm and focused perspective-these practical tools and exercises based in mindfulness for teens will show you how!

A comprehensive history of the 1972 Andes Flight disaster.'A perfect complement to my 1974 book Alive.' Piers Paul ReadCOLOUR EDITION, 571 pages and 275 images. Also available in MONOCHROME. 13^th October 1972. A Uruguayan Air Force plane, commissioned for a civilian flight, crashes in the Andes. Among the forty passengers are a first-division rugby team, accompanied by family and friends. Hindered by treacherous conditions, the search and rescue efforts cannot locate the wreckage, and are abandoned after eight days.Ten weeks later, two unkempt boys are spotted by a muleteer high in the Chilean foothills. One throws a note to him, across a mountain torrent: I come from a plane that fell in the mountains... In the plane there are still fourteen injured people...

Drawing on extensive original research, the author sheds new light on this extraordinary story from a perspective of fifty years, expanding on events before, during, and after the ordeal. His retelling is enriched by the accounts of those who didn't return from the mountain, related through the eyes of their families, bringing much-needed balance to a story which has largely focused on the survivors.

John Guiver's comprehensive account, which includes an in-depth look at the world from which the passengers came and an analysis of the possible causes of the accident, is a fundamental contribution to the history of this famous event.

"a tour de force of comics" (Ed Park, The New York Times)

One of the Top Ten Graphic Novels of 2020, as chosen by the American Library Association

One of the Best Books of 2020, as chosen by Publishers Weekly

"Fortunately for readers of this raw and intimate graphic memoir, Terry never fully lets go of his youthful vulnerability. . . . Reckoning with sobriety requires connection and humility, as Terry makes the case for with sincerity and beauty, as he ties his recovery to his spiritual homecoming." --Starred Review, Publishers Weekly

A brutally honest but charming look at the pain of childhood and the alienation and anxiety of early adulthood.

In his memoir, we are invited to walk through the life of the author, Jim Terry, as he struggles to find security and comfort in an often hostile environment. Between the Ho-Chunk community of his Native American family in Wisconsin and his schoolmates in the Chicago suburbs, he tries in vain to fit in and eventually turns to alcohol to provide an escape from increasing loneliness and alienation. Terry also shares with the reader in exquisite detail the process by which he finds hope and gets sober, as well as the powerful experience of finding something to believe in and to belong to at the Dakota Access Pipeline resistance at Standing Rock.

In this Time Top 100 Book of the Year, the National Book Award finalist and New York Times bestselling author of Heartland "analyzes how Dolly Parton's songs--and success--have embodied feminism for working-class women" (People).

Growing up amid Kansas wheat fields and airplane factories, Sarah Smarsh witnessed firsthand the particular vulnerabilities--and strengths--of women in working poverty. Meanwhile, country songs by female artists played in the background, telling powerful stories about life, men, hard times, and surviving. In her family, she writes, "country music was foremost a language among women. It's how we talked to each other in a place where feelings aren't discussed." And no one provided that language better than Dolly Parton.

In this "tribute to the woman who continues to demonstrate that feminism comes in coats of many colors," Smarsh tells readers how Parton's songs have validated women who go unheard: the poor woman, the pregnant teenager, the struggling mother disparaged as "trailer trash." Parton's broader career--from singing on the front porch of her family's cabin in the Great Smoky Mountains to achieving stardom in Nashville and Hollywood, from "girl singer" managed by powerful men to self-made mogul of business and philanthropy--offers a springboard to examining the intersections of gender, class, and culture.

Infused with Smarsh's trademark insight, intelligence, and humanity, this is "an ambitious book" (The New Republic) about the icon Dolly Parton and an "in-depth examination into gender and class and what it means to be a woman and a working-class hero that feels particularly important right now" (Refinery29).

In 2020, quarterback Josh Allen led the Buffalo Bills to their first division title in 25 years. Allen grew up on a farm in California and starred at the University of Wyoming before joining the NFL.

An immersive blend of chicken-keeping memoir and culture reporting by a journalist who accidentally became obsessed with her flock.

Since first domesticating the chicken thousands of years ago, humans have become exceptionally adept at raising them for food. Yet most people rarely interact with chickens or know much about them. In Under the Henfluence, culture reporter Tove Danovich explores the lives of these quirky, mysterious birds who stole her heart the moment her first box of chicks arrived at the post office.

From a hatchery in Iowa to a chicken show in Ohio to a rooster rescue in Minnesota, Danovich interviews the people breeding, training, healing, and, most importantly, adoring chickens. With more than 26 billion chickens living on industrial farms around the world, they're easy to dismiss as just another dinner ingredient. Yet Danovich's reporting reveals the hidden cleverness, quiet sweetness, and irresistible personalities of these birds, as well as the complex human-chicken relationship that has evolved over centuries. This glimpse into the lives of backyard chickens doesn't just help us to understand chickens better--it also casts light back on ourselves and what we've ignored throughout the explosive growth of industrial agriculture. Woven with delightful and sometimes heartbreaking anecdotes from Danovich's own henhouse, Under the Henfluence proves that chickens are so much more than what they bring to the table.

In this memoir, iconic singer Linda Ronstadt weaves together a captivating story of her origins in Tucson, Arizona, and her rise to stardom in the Southern California music scene of the 1960s and '70s.

Tracing the timeline of her remarkable life, Linda Ronstadt, whose forty-five year career has encompassed a wide array of musical styles, weaves together a captivating story of her origins in Tucson, Arizona, and her rise to stardom in the Southern California music scene of the 1960s and '70s.

Linda Ronstadt was born into a musical family, and her childhood was filled with everything from Gilbert and Sullivan to Mexican folk music to jazz and opera. Her artistic curiosity blossomed early, and she and her siblings began performing their own music for anyone who would listen. Now, in this beautifully crafted memoir, Ronstadt tells the story of her wide-ranging and utterly unique musical journey.

Ronstadt arrived in Los Angeles just as the folkrock movement was beginning to bloom, setting the stage for the development of country-rock. As part of the coterie of like-minded artists who played at the famed Troubadour club in West Hollywood, she helped define the musical style that dominated American music in the 1970s. One of her early backup bands went on to become the Eagles, and Linda went on to become the most successful female artist of the decade.

In Simple Dreams, Ronstadt reveals the eclectic and fascinating journey that led to her long-lasting success, including stories behind many of her beloved songs. And she describes it all in a voice as beautiful as the one that sang "Heart Like a Wheel"--longing, graceful, and authentic.