Biographies & True Stories Books

An old pond; a frog jumps in: the sound of water Basho This comprehensive introduction to Japan's best-loved haiku poets is the perfect book for anyone wanting to learn about haiku. Compiled and with commentary by William Scott Wilson, the book...

The Bolognese naturalist Ulisse Aldrovandi was a prolific writer, polymath and prodigious collector who amassed the largest collection of naturalia in sixteenth-century Europe, as well as hundreds of coloured drawings detailing them. Many of these...

Ford Madox Ford (18731939) lived among several of the most important artists and writers of his time. Raised by Pre-Raphaelites and friends with Henry James, H. G. Wells, and Joseph Conrad, Ford was a leading figure of the avant-garde in pre-WWI London,...

A critical biography of one of the most celebrated prose stylists in early modern English.This book provides an overview of the life and work of the scandalous Renaissance writer Thomas Nashe (1567c.1600), whose writings led to the closure of theaters...

A critical biography of Ren Descartes, whose first principle ("I think therefore I am.") reshaped modern philosophy. Often called 'the father of modern philosophy', Ren Descartes' contributions to philosophy, mathematics and natural science set the...

In this new book, David Ellis traces Byron's life from rented lodgings in Aberdeen to the crumbling splendours of Newstead Abbey and then on to his grand tour of the East. Describing his exile from England after a disastrous marriage, and subsequent...

Mysterious, esoteric, and baffling, John Ashbery is notorious for the seeming difficulty of his work. But Ashbery is also entertaining, humorous, even charming, and ever responsive to his shifting social and political contexts. This biography charts...

Once every generation there is a Chosen One, who will stand between humanity and darkness.But why is the Chosen One so often a teenager? Why do only children get swept through portals to save the fantastic world on the other side? Whose idea was it to...

From the legendary vice-chairman of Berkshire Hathaway, lessons in investment strategy, philanthropy, and living a rational and ethical life."A timeless classic that will change how you approach life. There is a billion-dollar education inside this book...

In this anthology of microliterature over forty writers explore the theme of play - from carefree diversions to fateful games of chance. Here you will find talented writers playing seriously with words, revelling in irreverence and debunking received...

From the 1930s to the 1970s, in New York and in Paris, daring publishers and writers were producing banned pornographic literature. The books were written by young, impecunious writers, poets, and artists, many anonymously. Most of these pornographers...

Get inside the head of Rihanna: musician, fashion designer, and business mogul.This collection of quotes has been curated from Rihanna's numerous public statements - interviews, books, social media posts, television appearances, and more. It's a...

The inspiring story of a young Mexican immigrant who became a renowned neurosurgeon.Today he is known as Dr. Q, an internationally renowned neurosurgeon and neuroscientist who leads cutting-edge research to cure brain cancer. But not too long ago, he was...

This celebrated memoir, one of the most notable literary debuts of 2023 tells of a young woman's coming-of-age in the bohemian '90s, as her adolescence gives way to a struggle with dissociative disorder.Alice Carrire tells the story of her unconventional...

A collection of personal essays detailing the life and achievements of a renowned environmental hero and activist.Mr. Mindbomb is a chronology of the significant events of Bob Hunter's life, written chapter by chapter by those who knew him. Where one...

At 6-foot-7 and 285 pounds, Aaron Judge emerged as the biggest story in baseball in 2017 with his monstrous home runs and record-breaking ability. A three-sport athlete in high school and a Division I ballplayer at Fresno State, the Californian was...

Whether you hike, bike, camp, climb, hunt, ride, paddle, paint, garden-whatever way you get out and enjoy nature, you leave an impact on the outdoors every time you step out your front door. Every step your boots take down dusty trails, every bolt your...

Bev Stohl ran the MIT office of the renowned linguist and social critic Noam Chomsky for nearly two and a half decades. This is her account of those years, working next to a man described by theNew York Timesas "arguably the most important intellectual...

Brian May, Roger Taylor, and Freddie Mercury form one of the greatest rock bands in the world. Under the leadership of its charismatic singer, Queen is a planetary success for each hit with its decadent shows, inimitable aesthetics, and style...

Martha Shelley didn't start out in life wanting to become a gay activist, or an activist of any kind. The daughter of Jewish refugees and undocumented immigrants in New York City, she grew up during the Red Scare of the late 1940s and 1950s, was...

From the depths of the '70s rock 'n' roll excesses through unimaginable personal losses to an inspiring late-life transformation, Cidny Bullens's story is an utterly compelling journey about living and singing with your authentic voice.An androgynous...

Lisa Cornwell never shied away from standing up to bullies.When she was a freshman in college, she saw a manhit a woman in the face with a closed fist while aparalyzed crowd stood by and watched. Secondslater, she took matters into her own hands-with...

Originally published by Thomas Dunne Books in 2016; hardcover sold 3,000 copies The remarkable story of a series of murders that occurred in a remote corner of the Arctic in 1941 About people, technology, and the loss of connection to our natural...

From the global successes of My Beautiful Laundrette and The Buddha of Suburbia, through to late masterpieces such as The Nothing, Hanif Kureishi is one of Britain's most popular and versatile writers.Drawing on Kureishi's unexplored personal archive,...

Archaeological historian Amara Thornton of the University of London, and Classical archaeologist Katy Soar from the University of Winchester have curated a selection of twelve outstanding short stories encompassing horror, ghosts, hauntings, and...

The great Romantic poet Lord Byron starved himself compulsively for most of his life. His behaviour mystified his friends and other witnesses, yet he never imagined he was ill. Instead, he rationalised his behaviour as a fight for spiritual freedom and...

In the last years of his life, the writer Amos Oz talked regularly with Shira Hadad, who worked closely with him as the editor of his final novel, Judas. These candid, uninhibited dialogues show a side of Oz that few ever saw. What Makes an Apple?...

'A faker,' said Orson Welles, 'makes fools of the experts. So, who's the expert? Who's the faker?'Griffith Review 79 lifts the curtain on fakes, frauds and forgeries. Treading the tightrope between art and...

Our political leaders spend their careers spinning their images and polishing their achievements; Michael Cockerell has spent his professional life stripping off the gloss. Over fifty years, he has gained unrivalled access to the secret chambers of...

Lively, incendiary, and inspiring, No Harmless Power follows the life of Nestor Makhno, who organized a seven-million-strong anarchist polity during the Russian Civil War and developed Platformist anarchism during his exile in Paris as well as advising...

**AVanity FairBest Book of 2022****Mosaic Magazine Best Book of 2022**The untold story of Leonard Cohen's concert tour to the front lines of the Yom Kippur War, including never-before-seen selections from an unfinished manuscript by Cohen and rare...

Edited by Rebecca Brewer, formerly of Ace/Roc (Penguin Random House), Giving the Devil His Due features sixteen major names and rising stars in Fantasy, Science Fiction, and Horror today. 'In Giving the Devil His Due, sixteen of speculative...

A powerful and provocative collection of essays that offers poignant reflections on living between society's most charged, politicized, and intractably polar spaces - between black and white, rich and poor, thin and fat.Savala Nolan knows what...

Based on exclusive interviews with the United Nations Secretary-General himself, this is the first book to explain how Antnio Guterres thinks and operates, in an era of renewed great power competition and rising nationalism. The UN leader was re-elected...

You want to know why dying is like orgasm? Blayney Colmore, thirty years an Episcopal priest and life escort, explains: Does death make hash of all our efforts? Is there a dimension beyond what we know? Can normal people access it? As we burn down our...

In Drawing/Breath: Inhales and Exhales on Body and Word, PEN/Bellwether Prize-winning writer Gayle Brandeis' essays explore both the writing life and the embodied life, along with potent intersection between the two. From the title essay investigating...

Death stalks a quartet of girls or is it the other way around?A simple, elemental story of a group of adorable, little girls evading the specter of Death perfectly complements Gabriel Howell's poetic diary/manifesto/wishlist. What looks like a Victorian...

All Of Us Together In The End is a lyrical examination of transformation after loss, by a writer the New York Times calls "irresistible" and "utterly convincing."Vollmer's family memoir shimmers with wonder and enchantment and begins with the death of...

A charming guide to Japan in comic-book form!For comic-book artist Audry Nicklin, visiting Japan was the trip of a lifetime. Armed with her watercolors and accompanied by her husband, Connor, she explored Hiroshima and its Peace Memorial Park; the famous...

A funny and intimate travelogue of one woman's unexpected adventures in Japan.French illustrator Julie Blanchin-Fujita arrived in Tokyo for what she thought would be a one-year stint, and ended up never leaving. In this graphic novel-style memoir she...

This book tells the story of Kazuo Odachi who - in 1943, when he was just 16 years-old-joined the Imperial Japanese Navy to become a pilot. A year later, he was unknowingly assigned to the Kamikaze Special Attack Corps - a group of airmen whose mission...

When Arrazola accepts a month long artist's residency in the Japanese capital, she has little idea of what to expect but gamely packs her paints and pencils and seizes the opportunity to create an illustrated diary of her time there, filling the pages of...

Ryunosuke Akutagawa rose from humble beginnings to become one of the most influential modern Japanese writers. He is known as 'the father of the Japanese short story' and 'Rashmon is his best-known work. Presented with a new...

From Serial to The Jinx to Making a Murderer, true crime fever is sweeping America. But how does crime-and punishment-differ in other cultures? True Crime Japan offers a close-up look at this little-documented aspect of...

The most famous work in all of Japanese classical literature, the KonjakuMonogatari Shu is as integral a part of its nation's culture as Canterbury Talesand The Inferno are of ours. In Japanese Tales from Times Past, the editors andtranslators have...

First published in 1686, Five Women Who Loved Love was an immediate bestseller in the bawdy, life-loving world that was Genroku Japan. And the novel's popularity has, if anything, increased with the years, making it today a classic like Boccaccio's...

This modern classic, written in 1913, was the source for the highly acclaimed film, The Mistress In The Wild Geese, prominent Japanese novelist Ogai Mori offers a poignant story of unfulfilled love, set against the background of the...

The first publication of Thomas Putze's performances in one volume: full-on physical exertion guaranteed. Presented in English and German.Thomas Putze, born 1968 in Augsburg, is at first glance a true 'art maniac'. His roughly hewn and impertinent...