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Elizabeth and Mary: Cousins, Rivals, Queens
by Jane Dunn
This is the first biography of the fateful relationship between Elizabeth l and Mary Queen of Scots. Distinguished historian and biographer Jane Dunn reveals an extraordinary story of two rival queens reigning in one isle, both with a right to the throne of England, both embodying opposing qualities of character, ideals of womanliness and divinely-ordained kingship.
It is a story of sex and power, recklessness, passion and political intrigue in a period of history that was as dark and dangerous as it was dazzling.
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David Beckham: My Side
by David Beckham, Tom Watt
David Beckham is one of the world's foremost media icons, his popularity transcending sport and cultural divides. This is his own in-depth account of his career to date, for Manchester United and England, his childhood, family and personal life, and the full story of his transfer to Real Madrid.
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Serious: The Autobiography
by John McEnroe
Also titled You Cannot Be Serious. McEnroe at his most personal, a no-holds-barred examination of contemporary tennis, his championship seasons, his cantankerous on-court behavior, his marriage to Tatum O'Neal, his current roles as a devoted father, husband to pop star Patty Smyth, senior tennis tour player, and controversial television commentator, and much more.
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Blue Latitudes
by Tony Horwitz
Tony Horwitz vividly recounts Cook's voyages and the exotic scenes the captain encountered: tropical orgies, taboo rituals, cannibal feasts, human sacrifice.
He also relives Cook's adventures by traveling in the captain's wake to such places as
Tahiti, Savage Island, and the Great Barrier Reef; along the way, he discovers Cook's
embattled legacy in the present day. Signing on as a working crewman aboard a replica of
Cook's vessel, Horwitz experiences the thrill and terror of sailing a tall ship. He also
explores Cook the man: an impoverished farm boy who broke through the barriers of his
class and time to become the greatest navigator in British history. This book bears the title "Into the Blue" in
the UK/European edition.
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Biographies and Autobiographies
Wife in the North
by Judith O'Reilly
Maybe hormones ate her brain. How else did Judith's husband persuade her to give up her career and move from her beloved London to Northumberland with two toddlers in tow? Pregnant with number 3, Judith is about to discover that there are one or two things about life in the country that no one told her about: that she'd be making friends with people who believed in the four horsemen of the apocalypse; that running out of petrol could be a near death experience and that the closest thing to an ethnic minority would be a redhead. Judith tries to do that simple thing that women do, make hers a happy family. A family that might live happily ever after. Possibly even up North.
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The Mitfords: Letters Between Six Sisters
by Charlotte Mosley
The Mitfords became myth in their own time: the great wits and beauties of their age, they were immoderate in their passions for ideas and
people. Virtually spanning the century, these letters between the sisters - alternately touching and explosive - constitute a superb social
chronicle, and explore with disarming intimacy their shifting relationships. As editor Charlotte Mosley notes, not since the Brontes has a single
family written so much about themselves, or been so written about. Their letters are widely recognized to contain the best of their writing.
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Closing the Distance: Chasing a Father's Olympic Fencing Legacy
by Jeff Bukantz
Closing The Distance is a memoir that reveals the trials and tribulations Jeff Bukantz encountered while following in his father's legendary footsteps. Throughout the book, the author provides insight about the highs and lows of competing in the Olympics, including inside stories about the 2004 Athens Olympic Games where he led the American Fencing Team to its first gold medal in 100 years. Besides the unique experiences of the author, the memoir takes a heart-warming look at the powerful force of family and the competitive human spirit.
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Read an excerpt from
Benjamin Franklin : An American Life
by Walter Isaacson
Benjamin Franklin is the Founding Father who winks at us. An ambitious urban entrepreneur who rose up the social ladder, from leather-aproned shopkeeper to dining with kings, he seems made of flesh rather than of marble. In bestselling author Walter Isaacson's vivid and witty full-scale biography, we discover why Franklin seems to turn to us from history's stage with eyes that twinkle from behind his new-fangled spectacles. By bringing Franklin to life, Isaacson shows how he helped to define both his own time and ours.
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Kate Remembered
by A. Scott Berg
For seven decades Katharine Hepburn played a leading role in the popular culture of the twentieth century - reigning as an admired actress, a beloved movie star, and a treasured icon of the modern American woman. She also remained one of the most private of all the public figures of her time.
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Living History
by Hillary Clinton
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Dereliction of Duty: The Eyewitness Account of How Bill Clinton Endangered America's Long-Term National Security
by Robert Patterson
Here is the ultimate insider's account from the highest and most sensitive levels of the Clinton administration, revealing how the irresponsible use of power can lead to a terrible price paid by all Americans.
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Portrait of a Killer: Jack the Ripper - Case Closed
by Patricia Cornwell
Using the firsthand expertise she has gained through writing the bestselling Dr Kay Scarpetta novels, Patricia Cornwell utilizes the demanding methods of
modern forensic investigation to re-examine the evidence in the Jack the Ripper murders.
These include state-of-the-art DNA testing on various materials, computer enhancement of
watermarks and expert examinations of hand-writing, paper, inks and other relics. She also
uses her knowledge of profiling on the possible suspects, as well as consulting experts in the field. On presenting her conclusions to a very senior
Metropolitan Police officer she learns that had the investigators of the time been
presented with the facts she has unearthed, her suspect would definitely have been
arrested and would probably have faced trial. Naming the killer as the artist, Walter
Sickert, Cornwell details the reasons and evidence for this conclusion.
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A Million Little Pieces
by Bill Cullen
At the age of twenty-three, James Frey woke up on a plane to find his four front teeth had been knocked out. His nose was broken and there was a hole through his cheek. He had no idea where the plane was headed or what had happened over the preceding two weeks. He had been an alcoholic for ten years and a crack addict for three. When he checked into a treatment facility shortly thereafter, he was told he could either stop using or die before he reached twenty-four.
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The Year of Magical Thinking
by Joan Didion
From one of America’s iconic writers, a stunning book of electric honesty and passion. Joan Didion explores an intensely personal yet universal experience: a portrait of a marriage–and a life, in good times and bad - that will speak to anyone who has ever loved a husband or wife or child.
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Six Wives: The Queens of Henry VIII
by David Starkey
Take a look at the wives of Henry VIII: Catherine of Aragon, pious Catholic princess and mother of Mary Tudor; Anne Boleyn, the pretty Lutheran with whom Henry was madly in love; Jane Seymour, whose submissiveness was in such contrast to Anne's vampish style and who gave Henry his longed-for son; Anne of Cleves, who was declared so plain by the now grossly overweight Henry; Catherine Howard, the "flirty child" whose adulteries made a fool of the ageing king; and Catherine Parr, a shrewd Protestant bluestocking who eventually outlived him. In this study of Henry VIII's six queens, Starkey draws on the letters, artefacts and documents of the period, concentrating on the rituals of diplomacy, marriage, pregnancy and private religion, to give a richly textured picture of daily life at the Tudor court from the woman's point of view.
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Sharon Osbourne Extreme: My Autobiography
by Sharon Osbourne (Covers vary)
A devoted wife and mother, businesswoman, TV star and award-winning producer, Sharon Osbourne has, in her own words, 'lived fifty lives in fifty years'. From her extraordinary childhood as the daughter of infamous rock manager Don Arden, to managing and marrying rock legend Ozzy Osbourne, to her own rising fame on shows such as "The Osbournes" and "The X Factor", Sharon Osbourne has experienced tremendous highs and devastating lows. She has earned her reputation by overcoming seemingly insurmountable obstacles with her honesty, charm, sense of humour, great instincts, and keen eye for business. Now she will reveal the truth behind the headlines in her characteristically frank, intimate and articulate way. Her story will, undoubtedly, be the autobiography of the year.
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According to the Rolling Stones: The Autobiography
by Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, Charlie Watts, Ronnie Wood
A comprehensive reference section including discography, and chronology, studded with the Stones' personal comments on the music and memories, completes this must-read volume. Here, in their own words and images, is the life and work of a band which has played the soundtrack of our lives for the last forty years.
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Mao: The Unknown Story
by Jung Chang, Jon Halliday
Jung Chang's Wild Swans was an extraordinary bestseller throughout the world, selling more than 10 million copies and reaching a wider readership than any other book about China. Now she and her husband Jon Halliday have written a groundbreaking biography of Mao Tse-tung. Based on a decade of research, and on interviews with many of Mao's close circle in China who have never talked before - and with virtually everyone outside China who had significant dealings with him - this is the most authoritative life of Mao ever written.
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My Life
by Bill Clinton
Former President Bill Clinton’s My Life is the strikingly candid portrait of a global leader who decided in early life to devote his intellectual and political gifts, and his extraordinary capacity for hard work, to serving the public. It is the fullest, most concretely detailed, most nuanced account of a presidency ever written, and a testament to the positive impact on America and on the world of his work and his ideals
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Stalin: The Court of the Red Tsar
by Simon Sebag Montefiore
Fifty years after his death, Stalin remains one of the creators of our world. The scale of his crimes has made him, along with Hitler, the very personification of evil. Yet while we know much about Hitler, Stalin and his regime remain mysterious. Now, in this enthralling history of Stalin's imperial court, the fear and betrayal, privilege and debauchery, family life and murderous brutality are brought blazingly to life.
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Not Fade Away
by Laurence Shames, Peter Barton
Some people are born to lead and destined to teach - not by precept, but by the example of living life to the fullest. Peter Barton was that kind of person.
He protested at Columbia University in the 1960s, played soul music at Harlem's Apollo Theater, spent time as a ski bum and a craps dealer, and eventually emerged from Harvard Business School to become a central figure in the creation of cable television. In the prime of his life, happily married and the father of three young children, Peter came face to face with the biggest challenge in a life filled with risk-taking and direction-changing. Diagnosed with cancer, he began a journey both frightening and appalling, yet also full of wonder and discovery.
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Shattered Love: A Memoir
by Richard Chamberlain
In Shattered Love, Richard Chamberlain recounts his fascinating journey as an impressionable boy growing up in postwar California who stumbled into the Hollywood of big studios, big money, and big personas. Through long days on the set and glittering evenings on the town with Joan Crawford, Princess Margaret, Elizabeth Taylor, and a cast of other colorful characters, Chamberlain gamely and tirelessly played his Golden Boy role. As time passed, however, he longed to reconcile his deepest self with his public persona -- including his sexual orientation, a secret he has guarded until now. With candor, honesty, and wit, Shattered Love captures Chamberlain's poignant struggle to come to terms with the truths in his life -- from his tumultuous relationship with his troubled father to his lifelong quest to find spiritual truth in everyday life.
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