"The acclaimed and beloved author of Hourglass now gives us a new memoir about identity, paternity, and family secrets--a real-time exploration of the staggering discovery she made last year about her father, and her struggle to piece together the hidden the story of her own life"--

In this memoir, the author shares her observations about her daughter as well as her own thoughts and fears about having children and growing old, in a personal account that discusses her daughter's wedding and her feelings of failure as a parent. It opens on July 26, 2010, as Didion thinks back to Quintana's wedding in New York seven years before. Today would be her wedding anniversary. This fact triggers vivid snapshots of Quintana's childhood,...

Documents the author's road trip across twenty-first-century America, where he shared personal encounters with homeless people, country performers, and readers and writers from all walks of life.

In chronicling the development and demise of the different relationships he's had while living in New York, Augusten Burroughs examines what it means to be in love, what it means to be in lust, and what it means to be figuring it all out.

"It has been one hundred years since Agatha Christie wrote her first novel and created the formidable Hercule Poirot. A brilliant and award winning biographer, Laura Thompson now turns her sharp eye to Agatha Christie. Arguably the greatest crime writer in the world, Christie's books still sell over four million copies each year-- more than thirty years after her death-- and it shows no signs of slowing. But who was the woman behind these mystifying,...

Traces the life and achievements of classic novelist Daphne du Maurier, sharing creative insights into the master writer's life at different ages and her enduring influence in literature. "Though Daphne du Maurier's most famous work, Rebecca, is beloved across the world, she remains one of the most enigmatic British novelists, her heart's secrets as shrouded in darkness as the tales she told. Tatiana de Rosnay, fascinated by du Maurier since childhood,...

Overview: Charles Dickens: A Life gives full measure to Dickens's heroic stature-his huge virtues both as a writer and as a human being- while observing his failings in both respects with an unblinking eye. Renowned literary biographer Claire Tomalin crafts a story worthy of Dickens's own pen, a comedy that turns to tragedy as the very qualities that made him great-his indomitable energy, boldness, imagination, and showmanship-finally destroyed him....

A biography of nineteenth-century Russian novelist Leo Tolstoy, discussing his childhood and youth, his stint in the military, his discovery of Europe, his relationships, and his writing.

"Anne Lamott writes about community, family and faith in essays that are wise, irreverent, funny and poignant--a style that has become her trademark. Now in Small Victories, Lamott has once again written a brilliant and insightful book that offers a message of hope that celebrates the triumph of light over the darkness in our lives. Our victories over hardships and pain may be small, they may be infrequent, but they keep us going and they often come...