Sorry about the way this post is displayed. Have no idea why it is all in orange. Was not able to correct
The first Hispanic and
third woman appointed to the United States Supreme Court, Sonia
Sotomayor has become an instant American icon. Now, with a candor and
intimacy never undertaken by a sitting Justice, she recounts her life
from a Bronx housing project to the federal bench, a journey that
offers an inspiring testament to her own extraordinary determination
and the power of believing in oneself.
The #1 New York Times bestseller from David McCullough, two-time winner of the Pulitzer Prize—the dramatic story-behind-the-story about the courageous brothers who taught the world how to fly—Wilbur and Orville Wright.
On a winter day in 1903, in the Outer Banks of North Carolina, two brothers—bicycle mechanics from Dayton, Ohio—changed history. But it would take the world some time to believe that the age of flight had begun, with the first powered machine carrying a pilot.
Orville and Wilbur Wright were men of exceptional courage and determination, and of far-ranging intellectual interests and ceaseless curiosity. When they worked together, no problem seemed to be insurmountable. Wilbur was unquestionably a genius. Orville had such mechanical ingenuity as few had ever seen. That they had no more than a public high school education and little money never stopped them in their mission to take to the air. Nothing did, not even the self-evident reality that every time they took off, they risked being killed.
In this “enjoyable, fast-paced tale” (The Economist), master historian David McCullough “shows as never before how two Ohio boys from a remarkable family taught the world to fly” (The Washington Post) and “captures the marvel of what the Wrights accomplished” (The Wall Street Journal). He draws on the extensive Wright family papers to profile not only the brothers but their sister, Katharine, without whom things might well have gone differently for them. Essential reading, this is “a story of timeless importance, told with uncommon empathy and fluency…about what might be the most astonishing feat mankind has ever accomplished…The Wright Brothers soars” (The New York Times Book Review).
4.5 out of 5 stars
30
customer reviews
"Malcolm Harris offers up an exciting, persuasive argument that young people are not, in fact, monsters. An excellent gift for NPR-listening elders who appreciate a good debate and could use a little sympathy for the millennial."―New York Magazine
The New Yorker
"When will someone stick up for millennials? We have been sheltered by our parents, swindled by our universities, deadened by our therapists, and for all this our reward has been glib condescension from the boomer press. Rising to our defense is Harris, a familiar provocateur from the internet's left flank. Harris contends that America has stiffed our generation...He brings a fresh, contrarian eye to some of the usual data points...As generational advocates go, we could do worse than Harris."―New York Times Book Review.
3.9 out of 5 stars
376
customer reviews
Brilliantly evoking the long-vanished world of masters and servants portrayed in Downton Abbey and Upstairs, Downstairs, Margaret Powell's classic memoir of her time in service, Below Stairs, is the remarkable true story of an indomitable woman who, though she served in the great houses of England, never stopped aiming high. Powell first arrived at the servants' entrance of one of those great houses in the 1920s. As a kitchen maid – the lowest of the low – she entered an entirely new world; one of stoves to be blacked, vegetables to be scrubbed, mistresses to be appeased, and bootlaces to be ironed. Work started at 5.30am and went on until after dark. It was a far cry from her childhood on the beaches of Hove, where money and food were scarce, but warmth and laughter never were. Yet from the gentleman with a penchant for stroking the housemaids' curlers, to raucous tea-dances with errand boys, to the heartbreaking story of Agnes the pregnant under-parlormaid, fired for being seduced by her mistress's nephew, Margaret's tales of her time in service are told with wit, warmth, and a sharp eye for the prejudices of her situation. Margaret Powell's true story of a life spent in service is a fascinating "downstairs" portrait of the glittering, long-gone worlds behind the closed doors of Downton Abbey and 165 Eaton Place.
4.7 out of 5 stars
8,211
customer reviews
My Beloved World
4.6 out of 5 stars 2,295 customer reviews
The first Hispanic and
third woman appointed to the United States Supreme Court, Sonia
Sotomayor has become an instant American icon. Now, with a candor and
intimacy never undertaken by a sitting Justice, she recounts her life
from a Bronx housing project to the federal bench, a journey that
offers an inspiring testament to her own extraordinary determination
and the power of believing in oneself.
Here is the story of a
precarious childhood, with an alcoholic father (who would die when
she was nine) and a devoted but overburdened mother, and of the
refuge a little girl took from the turmoil at home with her
passionately spirited paternal grandmother. But it was when she was
diagnosed with juvenile diabetes that the precocious Sonia recognized
she must ultimately depend on herself. She would learn to give
herself the insulin shots she needed to survive and soon imagined a
path to a different life. With only television characters for her
professional role models, and little understanding of what was
involved, she determined to become a lawyer, a dream that would
sustain her on an unlikely course, from valedictorian of her high
school class to the highest honors at Princeton, Yale Law School, the
New York County District Attorney’s office, private practice, and
appointment to the Federal District Court before the age of forty.
Along the way we see how she was shaped by her invaluable mentors, a
failed marriage, and the modern version of extended family she has
created from cherished friends and their children. Through her
still-astonished eyes, America’s infinite possibilities are
envisioned anew in this warm and honest book, destined to become a
classic of self-invention and self-discovery.
The Wright Brothers
by David
McCullough (Author)
4.6 out of 5 stars
5,389
customer reviews
The #1 New York Times bestseller from David McCullough, two-time winner of the Pulitzer Prize—the dramatic story-behind-the-story about the courageous brothers who taught the world how to fly—Wilbur and Orville Wright.
On a winter day in 1903, in the Outer Banks of North Carolina, two brothers—bicycle mechanics from Dayton, Ohio—changed history. But it would take the world some time to believe that the age of flight had begun, with the first powered machine carrying a pilot.
Orville and Wilbur Wright were men of exceptional courage and determination, and of far-ranging intellectual interests and ceaseless curiosity. When they worked together, no problem seemed to be insurmountable. Wilbur was unquestionably a genius. Orville had such mechanical ingenuity as few had ever seen. That they had no more than a public high school education and little money never stopped them in their mission to take to the air. Nothing did, not even the self-evident reality that every time they took off, they risked being killed.
In this “enjoyable, fast-paced tale” (The Economist), master historian David McCullough “shows as never before how two Ohio boys from a remarkable family taught the world to fly” (The Washington Post) and “captures the marvel of what the Wrights accomplished” (The Wall Street Journal). He draws on the extensive Wright family papers to profile not only the brothers but their sister, Katharine, without whom things might well have gone differently for them. Essential reading, this is “a story of timeless importance, told with uncommon empathy and fluency…about what might be the most astonishing feat mankind has ever accomplished…The Wright Brothers soars” (The New York Times Book Review).
Kids These Days: Human Capital and the Making of Millennials
by Malcolm
Harris (Author)
Review
"A landmark...Harris is a peerless observer of the harrowing economic costs of 'meritocracy'."―n+1"Malcolm Harris offers up an exciting, persuasive argument that young people are not, in fact, monsters. An excellent gift for NPR-listening elders who appreciate a good debate and could use a little sympathy for the millennial."―New York Magazine
The New Yorker
"When will someone stick up for millennials? We have been sheltered by our parents, swindled by our universities, deadened by our therapists, and for all this our reward has been glib condescension from the boomer press. Rising to our defense is Harris, a familiar provocateur from the internet's left flank. Harris contends that America has stiffed our generation...He brings a fresh, contrarian eye to some of the usual data points...As generational advocates go, we could do worse than Harris."―New York Times Book Review.
Below Stairs: The Classic Kitchen Maid's Memoir That Inspired Upstairs, Downstairs and Downton Abbey
by Margaret
Powell (Author)
Brilliantly evoking the long-vanished world of masters and servants portrayed in Downton Abbey and Upstairs, Downstairs, Margaret Powell's classic memoir of her time in service, Below Stairs, is the remarkable true story of an indomitable woman who, though she served in the great houses of England, never stopped aiming high. Powell first arrived at the servants' entrance of one of those great houses in the 1920s. As a kitchen maid – the lowest of the low – she entered an entirely new world; one of stoves to be blacked, vegetables to be scrubbed, mistresses to be appeased, and bootlaces to be ironed. Work started at 5.30am and went on until after dark. It was a far cry from her childhood on the beaches of Hove, where money and food were scarce, but warmth and laughter never were. Yet from the gentleman with a penchant for stroking the housemaids' curlers, to raucous tea-dances with errand boys, to the heartbreaking story of Agnes the pregnant under-parlormaid, fired for being seduced by her mistress's nephew, Margaret's tales of her time in service are told with wit, warmth, and a sharp eye for the prejudices of her situation. Margaret Powell's true story of a life spent in service is a fascinating "downstairs" portrait of the glittering, long-gone worlds behind the closed doors of Downton Abbey and 165 Eaton Place.
A Gentleman in Moscow: A Novel Kindle Edition
by Amor
Towles (Author)
“The
book is like a salve. I think the world feels disordered right now.
The count’s refinement and genteel nature are exactly what we’re
longing for.” —Ann Patchett
“How delightful that in an era as crude as ours this finely composed novel stretches out with old-World elegance.” —The Washington Post
He can’t leave his hotel. You won’t want to.
From the New York Times bestselling author of Rules of Civility—a transporting novel about a man who is ordered to spend the rest of his life inside a luxury hotel.
In 1922, Count Alexander Rostov is deemed an unrepentant aristocrat by a Bolshevik tribunal, and is sentenced to house arrest in the Metropol, a grand hotel across the street from the Kremlin. Rostov, an indomitable man of erudition and wit, has never worked a day in his life, and must now live in an attic room while some of the most tumultuous decades in Russian history are unfolding outside the hotel’s doors. Unexpectedly, his reduced circumstances provide him entry into a much larger world of emotional discovery.
Brimming with humor, a glittering cast of characters, and one beautifully rendered scene after another, this singular novel casts a spell as it relates the count’s endeavor to gain a deeper understanding of what it means to be a man of purpose.
Soon to be a major television series starring five-time Academy Award® nominee Kenneth Branagh.
“And the intrigue! . . . [A Gentleman in Moscow] is laced with sparkling threads (they will tie up) and tokens (they will matter): special keys, secret compartments, gold coins, vials of coveted liquid, old-fashioned pistols, duels and scars, hidden assignations (discreet and smoky), stolen passports, a ruby necklace, mysterious letters on elegant hotel stationery . . . a luscious stage set, backdrop for a downright Casablanca-like drama.” —The San Francisco Chronicle
“How delightful that in an era as crude as ours this finely composed novel stretches out with old-World elegance.” —The Washington Post
He can’t leave his hotel. You won’t want to.
From the New York Times bestselling author of Rules of Civility—a transporting novel about a man who is ordered to spend the rest of his life inside a luxury hotel.
In 1922, Count Alexander Rostov is deemed an unrepentant aristocrat by a Bolshevik tribunal, and is sentenced to house arrest in the Metropol, a grand hotel across the street from the Kremlin. Rostov, an indomitable man of erudition and wit, has never worked a day in his life, and must now live in an attic room while some of the most tumultuous decades in Russian history are unfolding outside the hotel’s doors. Unexpectedly, his reduced circumstances provide him entry into a much larger world of emotional discovery.
Brimming with humor, a glittering cast of characters, and one beautifully rendered scene after another, this singular novel casts a spell as it relates the count’s endeavor to gain a deeper understanding of what it means to be a man of purpose.
Soon to be a major television series starring five-time Academy Award® nominee Kenneth Branagh.
“And the intrigue! . . . [A Gentleman in Moscow] is laced with sparkling threads (they will tie up) and tokens (they will matter): special keys, secret compartments, gold coins, vials of coveted liquid, old-fashioned pistols, duels and scars, hidden assignations (discreet and smoky), stolen passports, a ruby necklace, mysterious letters on elegant hotel stationery . . . a luscious stage set, backdrop for a downright Casablanca-like drama.” —The San Francisco Chronicle
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