"An unflinching memoir about childhood, food, books, and our ability to see, become, and protect ourselves"--

The great-great-great granddaughter of Cornelius Vanderbilt gives readers a grand tour of the world of wealth and WASPish peculiarity, in her irreverent and darkly humorous memoir.

A family saga and a magical self-portrait of a writer who witnessed the birth of a nation and lived through its turbulent history. A Tale of Love and Darkness is the story of a boy who grows up in war torn Jerusalem, in a small apartment crowded with books in twelve languages. The story of an adolescent whose life changes forever with his mother's suicide. The story of a man who leaves the constraints of his family to join a kibbutz, change his name,...

"HOLLYWOOD PARK is a remarkable memoir of a tumultuous life. Mikel Jollett was born into one of the country's most infamous cults, and subjected to a childhood filled with poverty, addiction, and emotional abuse. Yet, ultimately, his is a story of fierce love and family loyalty told in a raw, poetic voice that signals the emergence of a uniquely gifted writer. We were never young. We were just too afraid of ourselves. No one told us who we were or...

Provides a fictional account of the childhood of the woman responsible for the founding of the Girl Scouts of America.

After her immigrant father's suicide, her mother leaves her daughters in an orphanage and later sends for them to grow up at the Taylor, Alaska, roadhouse her mother runs.

William Dean Howells spent scarcely a year in the classroom, but his father's newspaper offices afforded an invaluable education. In this charming memoir, Howells recalls, "I could set type very well, and at ten years and onward till journalism became my university, the printing office was mainly my school."

"Holding her stuffed toy chimpanzee, young Jane Goodall observes nature, reads Tarzan books, and dreams of living in Africa and helping animals. Includes biographical information on the prominent zoologist" -- Title page verso.

"Young Benjamin Franklin wants to be a sailor, but his father won't hear of it. The other trades he tried bored him through and through. But each time he fails to find a career, he took some important bit of knowledge with him, and that tendency is exactly what made him the versatile genius we remember today."--Provided by publisher

A creative legend about the father of the world's freat religions.