Category: Autobiography

By Salman Rushdie

No dia 14 de Fevereiro de 1989, Dia dos Namorados, Salman recebeu um telefonema de uma jornalista da BBC a dizer-lhe que fora «condenado à morte» pelo aiatola Khomeini. period a primeira vez que ouvia a palavra fatwa. O seu crime? Ter escrito um romance intitulado Os Versículos Satânicos, que period acusado de ser «contra o Islão, o Profeta e o Alcorão». Assim começa a extraordinária história de um escritor obrigado a passar à clandestinidade, mudando de casa para casa, com a presença constante de uma equipa de proteção policial armada. Pediram-lhe que escolhesse um pseudónimo pelo qual a polícia pudesse tratá-lo. Ele pensou nos escritores de que mais gostava e em combinações dos seus nomes; ocorreram-lhe então Conrad e Tchékhov - Joseph Anton. Como vivem um escritor e a sua família com a ameaça de assassínio durante mais de nove anos? Como continua ele a trabalhar? Como se apaixona e desapaixona? Como é que o desespero molda os seus pensamentos e acções, como e porquê tropeça, como aprende a ripostar? Nestas notáveis memórias, Rushdie narra pela primeira vez essa história: a história de uma das batalhas cruciais do nosso pace pela liberdade de expressão. Fala das realidades, umas vezes sinistras, outras cómicas, da coabitação com polícias armados e dos estreitos laços que se forjaram com os seus protetores; da sua luta para obter o apoio e a compreensão de governos, chefes de serviços de informações, editores, jornalistas e colegas escritores; e de como recuperou a liberdade. Este é um livro de excecional franqueza e honestidade, empolgante, provocatório, comovente e de important importância. Porque aquilo que aconteceu a Salman Rushdie foi o primeiro ato de um drama que continua a desenrolar-se todos os dias algures no mundo.

By Reggie Jackson, Kevin Baker

A soul-baring, brutally candid, and richly eventful memoir of the 2 years—1977 and 1978—when Reggie Jackson went from outcast to Yankee legend

In the spring of 1977 Reggie Jackson must have been on most sensible of the realm. the easiest participant of the Oakland A’s dynasty, which received 3 immediately international sequence, he used to be the 1st big-money loose agent, wooed and flattered through George Steinbrenner into coming to the hot York Yankees, which hadn’t received a global sequence considering 1962. yet Reggie used to be approximately to benefit, as he writes during this vibrant and dazzling memoir, that till his preliminary event at the Yankees “I didn’t understand what by myself meant.”
     His supervisor, the mercurial, alcoholic, and pugilistic Billy Martin, by no means sought after him at the staff and permit Reggie—and the remainder of the team—know it. so much of his new teammates, green with envy of his agreement, have been aloof at top and adverse at worst. Brash and outspoken, yet unused to the ferocity of latest York’s tabloid tradition, Reggie hadn’t learned how rumor and offhand comments can develop into screaming destructive headlines—especially for a black athlete with a multimillion-dollar agreement. Sickened by means of Martin’s anti-Semitism, his rages, and his particularly public disparagement of his new celebrity, ostracized by way of his teammates, and despairing of the way he was once stereotyped within the press, Reggie had lengthy talks together with his father approximately quitting. issues hit backside while Martin plotted to humiliate him in the course of a nationally televised online game opposed to the purple Sox. It appeared as though an excellent occupation were derailed.
     yet then: Reggie vowed to persevere; his satisfaction, paintings ethic, and skill might triumph over Martin’s approximately sociopathic hatred. steadily, he might win over the enthusiasts, then his teammates, because the Yankees surged to the pennant. And one magical autumn night, he turned “Mr. October” in a global sequence functionality for the a while. He idea his travails have been over—until the subsequent season whilst the madness all started again.
     Becoming Mr. October is a revelatory self-portrait of a baseball icon on the top of his public popularity and personal pain. packed with revealing anecdotes in regards to the infamous “Bronx Zoo” Yankees of the overdue Seventies and bluntly sincere portrayals of his teammates and rivals, this is often eye-opening baseball historical past as could be instructed in basic terms via the fellow who lived it.

By Jesse Fink

Winning Sydney-based sportswriter Jesse Fink used to be on the peak of his specialist profession whilst his spouse of 10 years left him and walked into the palms of a brand new guy. in a single fell swoop he misplaced his ally, his soulmate, his kinfolk, his identification. His wife's new lover even bought his puppy. What was once a trip of emotional salvation, own reinvention and sexual adventuring that took him from considering slicing his wrists to slumbering with 1000s of women.
Fink's look for love and enjoyment observed him bounce headlong into the freewheeling yet occasionally harmful global of on-line courting. He visited brothels and therapeutic massage parlours. He crossed the Pacific for doomed affairs with a burlesque dancer and a high-class escort.

By Mike Tyson, Larry Sloman

“Undisputed Truth is uncooked, robust and disturbing—a head-spinning tackle Mr. Tyson's life.” (Wall highway Journal)
 
Philosopher, Broadway headliner, fighter, felon—Mike Tyson has defied stereotypes, expectancies, and many traditional knowledge in the course of his 3 a long time within the public eye. Bullied as a boy within the hardest, poorest local in Brooklyn, Tyson grew as much as develop into essentially the most ferocious boxers of all time—and the youngest heavyweight champion ever. yet his brilliance within the ring was once usually compromised through reckless habit. Yet—even after hitting rock bottom—the guy who as soon as admitted being addicted “to every little thing” fought his long ago, reaching victorious good fortune as an actor and newfound happiness and balance as a father and husband. Brutal, sincere, uncooked, and infrequently hilarious, Undisputed Truth is the singular trip of an inspiring American unique.

By Kevin Crossley-Holland

By Vladimir Nabokov

Communicate, reminiscence, first released in 1951 as Conclusive Evidence after which assiduously revised in 1966, is a sublime and wealthy evocation of Nabokov's lifestyles and instances, whilst it bargains incisive insights into his significant works, together with Lolita, Pnin, Despair, The Gift, The genuine lifetime of Sebastian Knight, and The Defense.

In the Segregated Deep South, whilst Lynching and Klansmen and Jim Crow legislation governed, there stood a line of foot squaddies able to sacrifice their lives for the best to vote, to go into rooms marked 'White Only,' and to reside with basic dignity. They have been known as Freedom Riders, and Thomas M. Armstrong was once one in every of them. this is often his story.

Autobiography of a Freedom Rider information Armstrong's burning have to create social switch for his fellow black voters. This richly woven memoir, which strains again to his great-grandparents as freed slaves, examines the historical past of the Civil Rights move, the devastating own repercussions Armstrong continued for being a champion of these rights, the candy style of innovative development some time past fifty years, and a glance forward on the paintings nonetheless to be done.

By Emma Craigie

Helga's youth because the eldest of 5 young children in Germany's First relations has been a gilded one, accompanying her mom and dad to events and rallies, relocating among town and their idyllic state property. however the battle has replaced every thing. And now, as defeat closes in at the Germans, Helga needs to circulate right into a bunker within the center of Berlin together with her relations and key participants of the crumbling Nazi management - to be with their liked Hitler. there's chocolate cake for tea on a daily basis with Uncle chief, yet Helga can't aid noticing that each one isn't good one of the grown-ups. As every day passes, her underground international turns into more and more demanding and unusual. There are tears and shouting at the back of slammed doorways, and whilst even the warriors who've been guarding them take their go away, Helga is confronted with a poor fact. maybe her excellent adolescence has no longer been all that it seemed...

Since Catelynn Lowell and Tyler Baltierra shared their tale of teenybopper being pregnant and adoption at the MTV's sixteen and Pregnant and teenage mother, they have been recognized for his or her inspiring dedication to becoming up correct. among their adventure putting their first daughter for adoption, and their fight to deal with difficulties of their households, Catelynn and Tyler have been challenged in each possible manner. yet opposed to all odds, the adolescence sweethearts rose above the disorder to turn into dependable adults whose tale has encouraged many others.

How did troublemaking children from the trailer park make it throughout the typhoon of family members disorder, youngster being pregnant, and adoption with no letting pass of one another? What gave them the power to beat the chaos in their lives and move directly to turn into humans their little ones might be happy with? And what particularly occurred whilst the cameras were not there?

Now, of their debut ebook, Catelynn and Tyler inform the tale of their personal phrases ... and so they depart not anything out. From the wild habit that went down sooner than MTV to their reviews studying and educating approximately adoption, Catelynn and Tyler lay all of it out at the desk. Open, sincere, uncooked, and actual, Conquering Chaos is an important examine youngsters who beat the chances and used their victories to offer wish to others.