Collection: Biography & Memoir

The summation of a distinguished career in writing fiction, writing for film, travel writing, and teaching, Wordman is a source book for emerging writers and a memorable set of reflections upon a life spent as a journalist, author, and teacher.

"United across centuries, these women's voices open doors to lost worlds and make them seem familiar. A modern classic." --Alison Weir

A captivating collection of extracts from women's diaries, looking back over four centuries to discover how women's experience--of men and children, sex and shopping, work and the natural world--has changed down the years. And, of course, how it hasn't.

In this fascinating anthology, with a selection of entries for every day of the year, you'll find Lady Anne Clifford in the seventeenth century and Loran Hurscot in the twentieth both stoically recording the demands of an unreasonable husband; Joan Wyndham and Anne Frank (at much the same time, but in wildly different settings) describing their first experiences with sex; and Anne Lister in the eighteenth-century north of England exploring her love affairs with women alongside Alice Walker in twentieth-century California.

From Barbara Pym purchasing daring lingerie and Virginia Woolf relishing her new haircut to Sylvia Plath chronicling her ups and her downs and a stoical Amelia Stewart Knight on the pioneer trail, this book contains a rich mix of incredibly well-known diarists and more obscure ones, and often the voices echoing down the centuries sound eerily familiar today.

"Own It is a must-have survival guide that you can come back to time and again for immediate inspiration from the heart and soul of the trailblazing business leader and creative genius that is DVF!" - Whitney Wolfe Herd, CEO and Founder of Bumble

"Many books describe paths to success, but only Own It helps us to find our own. My friend Diane von Furstenberg gives us the biggest gift: faith in our uniqueness." - Gloria Steinem, writer, activist and feminist organizer

The entrepreneur and philanthropist presents her A-Z guide and manifesto for personal growth and for turning problems into assets

Internationally renowned fashion designer and philanthropist Diane von Furstenberg shares her accessible, empowering manifesto. In an easy-to-navigate A-Z format, Own It is her blueprint for enjoying both personal and professional growth at any age. "The secret of life is one thing: own it. Own our imperfections. Own our vulnerability; it becomes our strength. Whatever the challenge is, own it. Owning it is the first step to everything."

A fascinating memoir from the Bake Off Winner, BBC's Strictly Come Dancing Runner Up and popular TV Baker

Well-known as the third-series winner of The Great British Bake Off and runner up of Strictly in 2021 with his same-sex dancing partner Johannes Radebe, John Whaite's personal story is a complicated narrative that embraces coming out on Bake Off, his ongoing body dysmorphia and bulimia as well as mental health challenges and a changing relationship with his mother, particularly after the break-up of his parents marriage.

Each chapter takes an element of food or culture and loops it back to John's northern upbringing above a fish and chip shop which instilled a strong a work ethic, as well as using baking as a form of meditation. He also talks about how gay people in the 1990s had to choreograph their every move depending on the people they were surrounded by to ensure they were protected - the dance on eggshells - and how Strictly changed his life and relationship with his long-term partner, Paul, for the good.

A compelling memoir that focuses on the intersectionality of race and sexuality experienced by a gay Asian man living in a white world.

Born to Chinese-Cambodian parents in France, Jean-Baptiste Phou has pursued a diverse artistic career since 2008. Through his public views and artistic works, he has focused mainly on the experiences of Asians in France. Up until now, he's always been careful not to raise issues of sexuality--in particular, his homosexuality.

In this searing memoir, Phou faces his fears and shame to examine the role his ethnic origin has played in the construction of his sexual identity and his romantic relationships in a predominantly white environment. An astute observer of the various ways in which his body has been perceived, Phou explores how these perceptions have shaped his relationship with himself and others. How does a marginalized person develop emotionally and build, reclaim, and express their sexuality? Drawing on various works of history, sociology, gender studies, literature, and popular culture, Phou sensitively examines various strategies developed in response to this question.

Being gay in a largely straight world is difficult but being Asian within this sexual minority can be a doubly oppressive experience. Coming Out of My Skin deftly tackles this challenge and aspires for a reconciliation that can empower people of sexual and racial minorities to joyfully inhabit their bodies.

When people think of baseball trailblazers, their minds immediately go to Jackie Robinson. He was the man who broke the color barrier, appearing in 1947 for the Brooklyn Dodgers, and would go on to a Hall of Fame career. His number 42 is retired throughout baseball, and every year MLB holds "Jackie Robinson Day" across the league.

But he was far from the only trailblazer. That same year, a twenty-three-year-old Larry Doby appeared in a game for the Cleveland Indians. He is essentially known as the second African American to break the color barrier, and was the first to appear in the American League (as the Dodgers are in the National League).

While Robinson is always the one to be spoken about, Doby was just as good in the field and at the plate. In fact, he was a 9x All-Star, a World Series champion (being the first African American, along with teammate Satchel Paige, to win a World Series), home run and batting champ, and was inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 1998 after an incredible 13-year MLB career. He is, and will always be, one of the greatest players in baseball history.

Beginning his professional baseball career at the tender age of eighteen, he would play five years for the Newark Eagles of the Negro Leagues. In between, he spent two years out of baseball, defending his country in World War II as a member of the US Navy.

While Robinson had instant success with the Dodgers, Doby struggled off the bat. Having to endure immense racism (from fans, other ballplayers, and even teammates), disrespect, and threats on his life (and that of his family), it did not take until the following year, 1948, before he truly emerged as one of the best players in the game.

Written by esteemed author Jerry Izenberg--who saw Doby play with the Eagles as a youngster and would build a lifelong friendship with the ballplayer--Larry Doby is the real, raw story of perseverance and determination in the face of immense hatred.

Including in-depth research, to go along with personal accounts and numerous one-on-one interviews, Izenberg delivers an incredible tale that gives Doby his due as one of the all-time greats, while also sharing the struggles, trials, and tribulations of being a black man in a white country.

With Major League Baseball finally incorporating the records and stats of those in the Negro Leagues, Doby's story is one that is long-overdo, shedding light on what it was like playing baseball and being black in the 1940s and '50s, and how hard work and determination was key to rising above all the hate and becoming one of the greatest to ever play the game

This first picture book biography of Erno Rubik, creator of the Rubik's Cube, reveals the obsession, imagination, and engineering process behind the creation of a bestselling puzzle that will celebrate its 50th anniversary in 2024.

In 2023, the world record for solving the Rubik's Cube was broken by Max Park, who finished in 3.13 seconds!

And then there's you. Did you ever get so frustrated with a Rubik's Cube that you wanted to pull it apart and put it back together in order? Were you to do so, you'd see how cleverly one of the world's most popular toys is assembled. Working together, the 26 pieces combine to make 43 quintillion possible configurations--but only one solution.

A solitary child, Erno Rubik grew up in post-World War II Hungary obsessed with puzzles, art, nature, and the underlying patterns and structures. He became a professor of art, architecture, and design, who was still fascinated with how objects work together, sometimes becoming greater than their components. In a quest to help his students understand three-dimensional objects and how they move--not to mention a desire to entertain himself--he fashioned a cube whose pieces twisted and turned without breaking, and unexpectedly invented the Rubik's Cube, the most popular puzzle in history, which will celebrate its 50th anniversary in 2024.

What is the price of honor? It took ten years for Vietnam War nurse Diane Carlson Evans to answer that question--and the answer was a heavy one.

In 1983, when Evans came up with the vision for the first-ever memorial on the National Mall to honor women who'd worn a military uniform, she wouldn't be deterred. She remembered not only her sister veterans, but also the hundreds of young wounded men she had cared for, as she expressed during a Congressional hearing in Washington, D.C.: "Women didn't have to enter military service, but we stepped up to serve believing we belonged with our brothers-in-arms and now we belong with them at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial. If they belong there, we belong there. We were there for them then. We mattered."

In the end, those wounded soldiers who had survived proved to be there for their sisters-in-arms, joining their fight for honor in Evans' journey of combating unforeseen bureaucratic obstacles and facing mean-spirited opposition. Her impassioned story of serving in Vietnam is a crucial backstory to her fight to honor the women she served beside. She details the gritty and high-intensity experience of being a nurse in the midst of combat and becomes an unlikely hero who ultimately serves her country again as a formidable force in her daunting quest for honor and justice.

KAMALA HARRIS

Kamala Harris' life encapsulates a fascinating journey, one that represents the country's growing diversity and multiculturalism, which began in earnest during the 1960s. She was born to a family for whom social justice and engagement with political causes were never seen as fringe issues but rather informed their daily life.

With this upbringing, it's no surprise that Kamala Harris would one day enter politics. While her career is far from over, she has already achieved a great deal, including becoming the first woman to reach the position of Vice President of the United States.

This book covers Kamala's life and career to-date, detailing her childhood, education, career, and political views, as well as discussing what may be in store for her next!

A moving coming-of-age memoir in the vein of Unorthodox and Educated, about one young woman's desperate attempt to protect her children and family while also embracing her queer identity in a controlling Hasidic community.

Growing up in the Hasidic community of Brooklyn's Borough Park, Sara Glass knew one painful truth: what was expected of her and what she desperately wanted were impossibly opposed. Tormented by her attraction to women and trapped in a loveless arranged marriage, she found herself unable to conform to her religious upbringing and soon, she made the difficult decision to walk away from the world she knew.

Sara's journey to self-acceptance began with the challenging battle for a divorce and custody of her children, an act that left her on the verge of estrangement from her family and community. Controlled by the fear of losing custody of her two children, she forced herself to remain loyal to the compulsory heteronormativity baked into Hasidic Judaism and married again. But after suffering profound loss and a shocking sexual assault, Sara decided to finally be completely true to herself.

Kissing Girls on Shabbat is not only a love letter to Glass's children, herself, and her family--it is an unflinching window into the world of ultra-conservative Orthodox Jewish communities and an inspiring celebration of learning to love yourself.

Growing up in suburban Cleveland, Judah Leblang felt a deep connection with his Uncle Jerry, an orally-educated deaf man who lived an isolated life between the deaf and hearing worlds. Like Jerry, Leblang felt different too, struggling with his sexuality and trying to find his place in society, finally coming out in the mid-1980s. Many years later, after working in the Deaf Community and later, losing much of his own hearing, the author goes on a quest to understand his late uncle and to give him a voice--this man who died of a heart attack at 44, and who remained a mystery to those around him, encased in his silent world.

When you're the only Black kid in the honors program or (any program) at your mostly white high school, or one of a handful of Black graduate students in your PhD program, or one of two African American women on the faculty at your Pac-10 employer, it's not your gender non-conformity that sets you apart from your peers. In those environments, your Blackness is the first thing people notice about you. Still, there are other ways of being different--and feeling different--that can't be attributed to race, especially if you're one of the people whose awareness of the unwritten rules of what it means to be a boy or a girl (or a man or a woman) is tempered by the fact that most of those rules don't feel quite right.

In Gender Studies: True Confessions of an Accidental Outlaw, Ajuan Mance gives comic treatment to the challenges, complexities, and occasional absurdity of life at the crossroads of race, gender, and geekiness. This graphic memoir answers important questions like: How many preschoolers have to mistake you for your dad before you actually start to forget your own name; if a Black girl is awful at double-dutch jump rope is it a reflection on her gender identity, racial identity, or both; and is viola player a gender or just a sexual orientation? Ajuan Mance's comic Gender Confessions take up each of these questions and more, as it invites to share in those moments that mark the path of a gender explorer.

El libro más personal, íntimo y revelador de Jorge Ramos en casi cien columnas y tres puentes.

"Jorge Ramos [...] es una persona íntegra y de esas hay muy pocas en este mundo. A leer estas páginas de su memoria me entero de algunos secretos, me entretengo, me conmuevo y me reencuentro con el amigo de siempre, con el periodista que me pone al día sobre el acontecer y me recuerda los valores morales que suelen perderse en el ruido de la existencia cotidiana." Isabel Allende

Sabías que Jorge Ramos estuvo a punto de ser atleta olímpico, o concertista de guitarra clásica? O que su primer trabajo en Estados Unidos fue de mesero, ganando 15 dólares al día?

Así veo las cosas reúne los textos más personales y literarios escritos por Jorge Ramos a lo largo de cuatro décadas: desde sus primeros artículos en México sobre desastres naturales o sobre la guerra en Centroamérica, hasta sus reflexiones semanales sobre cuestiones como la familia, la tecnología, el oficio de periodista, el lado humano de sus viajes como reportero, sus queridas mascotas, o incluso temas tan personales como su nariz...

Esta íntima selección de columnas está ligada en el tiempo por tres "puentes" inéditos, que ofrecen al lector una visión sin tapujos de la historia personal de Jorge Ramos, en donde se presenta como nunca antes lo hemos visto, mostrando su lado más vulnerable: como papá, hijo, migrante, y hasta como el guardián de su adorada gatita, Lola.

"A mis 66 años, este libro es una especie de legado. Cuento mi historia a través de las columnas más simbólicas y representativas que he escrito. Aquí te cuento de mi familia: de mis hijos, de mis mejores amigos y de la Jechu (así le decimos a mi mamá); de lo que he aprendido como periodista: las coberturas noticiosas que me han dejado cicatrices, del resentimiento ante los que abusan de su poder; del trauma y las oportunidades de ser inmigrante; de mis guerras (internas y externas), del miedo a morir; de mis grandes pérdidas y hasta mis mayores alegrías. Aquí hay muchas cosas que nunca te conté."

ENGLISH DESCRIPTION

From the most renowned Spanish-speaking news anchor
comes his most personal and intimate book yet. This memoir
is truly a look into Jorge Ramos as he has never been seen
before.

Through this very personal selection of columns spanning from
1982 into the present day, Jorge Ramos offers readers a front-row
seat in his life. Through a chronological account of his beginnings
as a reporter and delving behind-the-scenes of his most
dangerous and controversial journalistic pieces, Ramos also lets
us see his most vulnerable self: as a dad, a son, a migrant, and
the guardian of his faithful cat, Lola.

Taking from previously published columns, this book is a powerful
testament to Jorge Ramos' legacy as a reporter, migrant, and
father.

Having spent ten summers on the Blackfeet Indian Reservation near Glacier National Park, part of her doctoral fieldwork for a PhD in Native American Art History, forty-two-year-old Lynne Spriggs thinks of Montana as her healing place. When she moves to "Big Sky Country" from the East Coast in a quest to reset her life, she has high hopes for what awaits her.

Great Falls, a farming and military town in central Montana, is not what Lynne imagined when she decided to leave city life behind. But her dream of being more connected to nature in the American West comes alive when she meets Harrison, a handsome rancher thirteen years her senior. Wary but curious, with her dog Willow by her side, she leans into the seasonal rhythms of Harrison's hidden valley and opens her heart to a wild language that moves beyond words. In a modern world where listening is rare, Elk Love explores an intimate place where loneliness gives way to wonder, where the natural world speaks of what matters most.

Bobby Clarke, Bernie Parent, and Dave Schultz may have been the heart and soul of the Philadelphia Flyers' iconic Broad Street Bullies teams on the way to two Stanley Cup victories-- but Joe "Thundermouth" Watson was the voice and conscience.

From using frozen horse turds as pucks in his native Smithers, British Columbia, through his fourteen-year NHL playing career--including two All-Star selections--to suiting up regularly for the Flyers Alumni Team deep into his seventies, Watson may be the ultimate hockey lifer. With an unmistakable voice that boomed as loud as the hits he laid on opposing forwards, Watson was a fixture of 1970s hockey just as the league was becoming the NHL that we know today--growing from six teams when he joined in 1964 to twenty-one by the time he retired in 1979.

Along the way, he roomed with Bobby Orr, became part of one of the first sibling tandems in NHL history, and scored the dramatic shorthanded goal against the powerhouse 1976 Red Army team that--as legendary coach Fred Shero joked--"set Russian hockey back twenty years." In retirement, he couldn't leave the game alone-- cementing his status as a Philly legend by serving as a top advertising executive in the Flyers front office for more than four decades, creating and running a thriving alumni program, and eventually being inducted into the team's Hall of Fame.

As much a love letter to the sport of ice hockey as it is a memoir of life on and off the ice, Thundermouth is an old-fashioned sporting autobiography and a riveting snapshot of a time--as Bernie Parent might say--when hockey was hockey.

From award-winning New Yorker cartoonist Ken Krimstein, a brilliant graphic narrative revealing the pivotal year in Prague when Einstein became "Einstein," Kafka became "Kafka," and everything changed forever.

During the year that Prague was home to both Albert Einstein and Franz Kafka from 1911-1912, the trajectory of the two men's lives wove together in uncanny ways-as did their shared desire to tackle the world's biggest questions in Europe's strangest city. Tying the literary, scientific, and geographic centers of the world together for a single year, Einstein in Kafkaland tells an untold story of two of the modern era's defining figures, each brought to vivid life with stunning artwork in Krimstein's signature style, as they battle God for truth in a cosmic universe against the backdrop of Prague's intricacies and mysteries.

For Einstein, his lost year spent in Prague became a critical bridge that connected months of failure and frustration, almost led him to "blow up" his greatest insights, and then led to the breakthrough thinking that set him on the path to what many have called "the greatest scientific discovery of all time." By researching his public statements, papers, lectures, and letters from this period, as well as the events of a planet electrifying itself into modernity, and aligning them with Kafka's very thorough diary, Krimstein animates their innovation through the city that harbored it. Einstein in Kafkaland shows how, by the time Einstein left Prague after many false starts and blind alleys, he had finally uncovered the way to his General Theory of Relativity, and how, after many similar false starts and blind alleys, Kafka produced his first masterpiece, The Judgment-both casting an irrevocable spell that would define modern reality, a world where art and science merge in inevitable, irreplaceable ways.