Thom Gossom

Light Hardcover (1 lb or less)

Missouri

Gossom did not set out to be a groundbreaker. He did not apply to Auburn University with the goal of being the first black athlete to graduate from the almost all-white college. He just knew he wanted to play football-- and he wanted to play football at Auburn. When he was accepted in 1970 and fought for his place on the team, he became a part of history.

Walk-On

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Oregon

Friendship, Strength, and Recovery after Boston's Worst Day

Four lives brought together in a deadly moment prove that being in the wrong place at the worst time can lead to life's biggest adventures and most important relationships

As Roseann Sdoia waited to watch her friend cross the finish line of the Boston Marathon in 2013, she had no idea her life was about to change-that in a matter of minutes she would look up from the sidewalk, burned and deaf, staring at her detached foot, screaming for help amid the smoke and blood.

In the chaos of the minutes that followed, three people would enter Roseann's life and change it forever. The first was Shores Salter, a college student who, when the bomb went off, instinctively ran into the smoke while his friends ran away. He found Roseann lying on the sidewalk and, using a belt as a tourniquet, literally saved her life that day. Then, Boston police officer Shana Cottone arrived on the scene and began screaming desperately at passing ambulances, all full, before finally commandeering an empty paddy wagon. Just then a giant appeared, in the form of Boston firefighter Mike Materia, who carefully lifted her into the fetid paddy wagon. He climbed in and held her burned hand all the way to the hospital. Since that day, he hasn't left her side, and today they are planning their life together.

Perfect Strangers is about recovery, about choosing joy and human connection over anger and resentment, and most of all, it's about an unlikely but enduring friendship that grew out of the tragedy of Boston's worst day.

Perfect Strangers

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Hardcover (1 to 2 lbs)

Maryland

A Memoir

The author describes his coming of age as a teacher, storyteller, and writer, a personal journey during which he spent fifteen years finding his voice in the classroom, and came to terms with the undervalued importance of teaching.

Teacher Man

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Rated a very respectable 3.8 out of 5 on Goodreads.
New, hard cover book that does have a ripple across the top of the front jacket cover.￼ 

One Man's Discovery of Beauty and Truth in Times of Crisis

The publisher and editor of the influential "Crisis" magazine tells for the first time his story of how his conservative upbringing led him to convert to Roman Catholicism.

An American Conversion

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Ali Vincent

How Being the Biggest Loser Won Me Back My Life

When Ali Vincent was selected to be a contestant on the hit NBC show The Biggest Loser, her weight was at an alltime high of 234 pounds-and her life had reached an all-time low. Like millions of Americans, Ali struggled for years with poor eating habits, family problems, stress, and low-self-esteem. After years of being afraid, ashamed, and unhappy, she resolved to change her life, once and for all- to lose weight, get healthy, and pursue her dreams. Before she was even offered a spot on The Biggest Loser campus, Ali made up her mind that she was going to not only drop the weight- but win the competition. In her bedroom at The Biggest Loser ranch, Ali rang a little bell she kept on her bedside table each night before she went to sleep and again when she awoke in the morning, repeating the phrase that had become her mantra- Believe it, be it. Seven months later, she emerged from the grueling competition as its first-ever female champion, claiming the title, the grand prize and, most of all-winning back her life. In Believe It, Be It, Ali shares for the first time her intimate story of personal and physical transformation and provides a rare glimpse inside life at the famous Biggest Loser ranch. Ali also shares the weight-loss strategies, eating habits, and workout tips that helped her lose-and keep off-more than 100 pounds. For anyone who has ever battled with weight loss or struggled to accept themselves for who they are, Ali Vincent's story provides hope that a happier, healthier, more fulfilling life is within reach. It all begins with believing that it's possible. Believe it, and be it.

Believe It, Be It

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New Jersey

In Life and Leadership

It Worked for Me

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Love, Morgenthau, and Me

"Lucinda Franks recounts her marriage to Robert Morgenthau, Jr., a man decades her senior who subscribes to a vastly different lifestyle"--

Timeless

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Jim Norton

WhenNew York Timesbestselling author and comedian Jim Norton isn't paying for massages with happy endings, or pretending to be fooled by transsexuals he picks up, he spends his time wondering what certain people would look like on fire...What do Heather Mills, the Reverend Al Sharpton, and Dr. Phil have in common? Jim Norton hates their guts. And he probably hates yours, too, especially if you're a New York Yankee, Starbucks employee, or Steve Martin.In thirty-five hilarious essays,New York Timesbestselling author and comedian Jim Norton spews bile on the people he loathes. Enjoy his blistering attacks on Derek Jeter, Hillary Clinton, fatso Al Roker, and mush-mouthed Jesse Jackson. It's utterly hilarious -- and utterly relatable if you've ever bitten a stranger's face or thrown a bottle through the TV screen while watching the news.But don't think Jim just dishes loads of shit on his self-proclaimed enemies; he is equally atrocious to himself. He savages himself for his humiliating days as a white homeboy, his balletlike spins in the outfield during a little league game, and his embarrassingly botched attempt at a celebrity shout-out while taping his new HBO stand-up series.Uncomfortably honest,I Hate Your Gutsis probably the best example of emotional vomiting you'll ever read. But there is hope; at the end of each essay, Jim generously offers helpful suggestions as to how the offender can make things right again: Eliot Spitzer: If you run for re-election, instead of shaking hands with voters, let them smell your fingers.Reverend Al Sharpton: The next time you feel the need to protest, do so dressed as an elk in Ted Nugent's backyard.Hillary Clinton: When you absolutely must make a point of laughing publicly, don't fake it. Just think of something that genuinely makes you laugh, like lowering taxes or any random male having his penis cut off.For the legions of devoted fans who know Jim Norton for his raw, sometimes brutal comedy,I Hate Your Gutsis what you've been waiting for. But even more important -- it's a great book to read while taking a shit.

I Hate Your Guts

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Passion and Property in Manhattan

An investigation into the secretive world of Manhattan luxury real estate offers insight into the workings of carriage-trade brokers, co-op boards, and the homes of such figures as Jerry Seinfeld, Barbra Streisand, and Tommy Hilfiger.

The Sky's the Limit

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Katharine Hepburn

Illinois

Stories of My Life

Photographs from Hepburn's personal collection highlight the candid memoirs of the life, long career, friendships, and loves of the legendary Hollywood actress

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New York

The author describes her life in the contemporary American West and the skills she developed to survive in a man's world as she details her experiences with blizzards, prairie fires, and extreme isolation in the harsh western landscape.

Breaking Clean

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Rated a respectable 3.8 out of 5 on Goodreads.
Hardcover book in like new condition with the exception of a slight ripple across the top and bottom of the jacket cover from shelving

Lies That Chelsea Handler Told Me

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Embracing Risk to Change the World

Becoming a Dangerous Woman

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Heavy Hardcover (2 to 4 lbs)

Hard Choices 

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Defending America at the United Nations and Abroad

Surrender Is Not an Option

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Frank McCourt

Minnesota

The #1 New York Times bestselling sequel to the beloved Pulitzer Prize-winning classic memoir, Angela’s Ashes, about McCourt’s coming of age as an immigrant in America. Frank McCourt's glorious childhood memoir, Angela's Ashes, has been loved and celebrated by readers everywhere for its spirit, its wit and its profound humanity. A tale of redemption, in which storytelling itself is the source of salvation, it won the National Book Critics Circle Award, the Los Angeles Times Book Award and the Pulitzer Prize. Rarely has a book so swiftly found its place on the literary landscape. And now we have 'Tis, the story of Frank's American journey from impoverished immigrant to brilliant teacher and raconteur. Frank lands in New York at age nineteen, in the company of a priest he meets on the boat. He gets a job at the Biltmore Hotel, where he immediately encounters the vivid hierarchies of this "classless country," and then is drafted into the army and is sent to Germany to train dogs and type reports. It is Frank's incomparable voice -- his uncanny humor and his astonishing ear for dialogue -- that renders these experiences spellbinding. When Frank returns to America in 1953, he works on the docks, always resisting what everyone tells him, that men and women who have dreamed and toiled for years to get to America should "stick to their own kind" once they arrive. Somehow, Frank knows that he should be getting an education, and though he left school at fourteen, he talks his way into New York University. There, he falls in love with the quintessential Yankee, long-legged and blonde, and tries to live his dream. But it is not until he starts to teach -- and to write -- that Frank finds his place in the world. The same vulnerable but invincible spirit that captured the hearts of readers in Angela's Ashes comes of age. As Malcolm Jones said in his Newsweek review of Angela's Ashes, "It is only the best storyteller who can so beguile his readers that he leaves them wanting more when he is done...and McCourt proves himself one of the very best." Frank McCourt's 'Tis is one of the most eagerly awaited books of our time, and it is a masterpiece.

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Amber Tamblyn

Alabama

Coming of Age in a Time of Rage and Revolution

A passionate and deeply personal exploration of feminism during divisive times from one of the founders of Time's Up: actor, filmmaker, and activist Amber Tamblyn.

"A work of personal upheaval and political reckoning."--Rebecca Traister, New York Times bestselling author of Good and Mad
 
Amber Tamblyn has emerged as an outspoken advocate for women's rights. But she wasn't always so bold and self-possessed. In her late twenties, after a particularly low period fueled by rejection and disillusionment, she grabbed hold of her own destiny and entered into what she calls an Era of Ignition--a time of self-reflection that follows in the wake of personal upheaval and leads us to challenge the status quo. In the process of undergoing this metamorphosis, she realized that our country is going through an Era of Ignition of its own, and she set about agitating for change by initiating a dialogue about gender inequality.
 
In this deeply personal exploration of modern feminism, she addresses misogyny and discrimination, reproductive rights and sexual assault, white feminism and pay parity--all through the lens of her own experiences as well as those of her Sisters in Solidarity. At once an intimate meditation and a public reckoning, Era of Ignition is a galvanizing feminist manifesto that is required reading for anyone who wants to help change the world for the better.

Era of Ignition

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Jose Eugenio Soares

Clifford E. Landers

A burlesque smorgasbord of international high jinks—the “biography” of a hapless, twelve-fingered, would-be assassin who lurches from Sarajevo to Paris to Hollywood to Chicago to Rio, leaving high-stakes chaos in his wake. Our hero, Dimitri Borja Korozec, is born in the late 1800s to a Brazilian contortionist mother and a fanatically nationalist Serbian linotypist father. Dimitri enrolls in a training school for assassins, where he excels—except for his troubling propensity for fouling things up at the last moment. Part Carlos the Jackal, part Woody Allen’s Zelig, part Inspector Clouseau, and part Forrest Gump, Dimitri is a schlemiel of an assassin and anarchist who can’t seem to kill anyone. He does, however, cause enough mayhem to help start World War I, spread Spanish influenza to the American continent, and unintentionally trigger various other significant events of the twentieth century by slipping and falling, misreading signs, and misunderstanding instructions. Along the way Dimitri runs into—and, sometimes, nearly over—a diverse cast of bit players: Mata Hari, Al Capone, Carmen Miranda, Marie Curie, Pablo Picasso, Jean Cocteau, Irving Thalberg, George Raft, and even Aleister Crowley make their appearances. Jô Soares weaves the lives of his characters in and out of modern history, creating odd synchronicities, uncanny coincidences, and the impression that this “biography” might almost be true. True or not, it’s a laugh-out-loud romp that provides an intriguing new perspective on the history and major figures of our time, blurring the line between fact and fiction—a line which, had he encountered it on his way to an assassination, Dimitri would most certainly have tripped over.

Twelve Fingers

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Hardcover book in like new condition with the exception of a small ripple on the top of the jacket cover. #memoir #frankmccourt #angelasashes #autobiography #biography #bestselling-author

Jennifer Arnold

Understanding Our Dogs by Understanding How They See the World

The author, a trainer of service dogs, presents insights into the capabilities, intelligence, and sensitivity of dogs, and discusses the relationship between dogs and humans; and helps humans in understanding dogs by understanding how they see the world.

Through a Dog's Eyes

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A Memoir of Love, Family, and Flowers

In this lyrical and deeply moving memoir, one of America's most revered actresses weaves stories of her adventures and travels with her mother, while reflecting on the beautiful spirit that persists even in the face of her mother's struggle with Alzheimer's disease.

Marcia Gay Harden knew at a young age that her life would be anything but ordinary. One of five lively children born to two Texas natives--Beverly, a proper Dallas lady, and Thad, a young naval officer--she always had a knack for storytelling, role-playing, and adventure. As a military family, the Hardens moved often, and their travels eventually took them to Yokohama, off the coast of Japan, during the Vietnam War era. It was here that Beverly, amid the many challenges of raising her family abroad, found her own self-expression in ikebana, the ancient Japanese art of flower arranging.

Using the philosophy of ikebana as her starting point, Marcia Gay Harden intertwines the seasons of her mother's life with her own journey from precocious young girl to budding artist in New York City to Academy Award-winning actress. With a razor-sharp wit, as well as the kind of emotional honesty that has made her performances resonate with audiences worldwide, Marcia captures the joys and losses of life even as her precious mother gracefully strives to maintain her identity while coming to grips with Alzheimer's disease.

Powerful and incredibly stirring, The Seasons of My Mother illustrates the unforgettable vulnerability and beauty of motherhood, as Marcia does what Beverly can no longer do: she remembers.

The Seasons of My Mother

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Nearly True Tales from a Life

With a voice as disarmingly bold, funny, and unsentimental as its author, a thoroughly unconventional memoir that shatters the myth of the tragic disabled life Harriet McBryde Johnson isn't sure, but she thinks one of her earliest memories was learning that she will die. The message came from a maudlin TV commercial for the Muscular Dystrophy Association that featured a boy who looked a lot like her. Then as now, Johnson tended to draw her own conclusions. In secret, she carried the knowledge of her mortality with her and tried to sort out what it meant. By the time she realized she wasn't a dying child, she was living a grown-up life, intensely engaged with people, politics, work, struggle, and community.Due to a congenital neuromuscular disease, Johnson has never been able to walk, dress, or bathe without assistance. With help, however, she manages to take on the world. From the streets of Havana, where she covers an international disability rights conference, to the floor of the Democratic National Convention in Chicago, to an auditorium at Princeton, where she defends her right to live against philosopher Peter Singer, she lives a life on her own terms. And along the way, she defies and debunks every popular assumption about disability.This unconventional memoir opens with a lyrical meditation on death and ends with a surprising sermon on pleasure. In between, we get the tales Johnson most enjoys telling from her own life. This is not a book "about disability" but it will surprise anyone who has ever imagined that life with a severe disability is inherently worse than another kind of life.

Too Late to Die Young

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The former First Lady recounts the exciting and often poignant events in her life, from her secret engagement to George Bush, to the loss of her three-year-old daughter to leukemia, to daily life at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.

Barbara Bush: A Memoir

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On an Irish Island is a love letter to a vanished way of life, in which Robert Kanigel, the highly praised author of The Man Who Knew Infinity and The One Best Way, tells the story of the Great Blasket, a wildly beautiful island off the west coast of Ireland, renowned during the early twentieth century for the rich communal life of its residents and the unadulterated Irish they spoke. With the Irish language vanishing all through the rest of Ireland, the Great Blasket became a magnet for scholars and writers drawn there during the Gaelic renaissance--and the scene for a memorable clash of cultures between modern life and an older, sometimes sweeter world slipping away.
 
Kanigel introduces us to the playwright John Millington Synge, some of whose characters in The Playboy of the Western World, were inspired by his time on the isl∧ Carl Marstrander, a Norwegian linguist who gave his place on Norway's Olympic team for a summer on the Blasket; Marie-Louise Sjoestedt, a Celtic studies scholar fresh from the Sorbon≠ and central to the story, George Thomson, a British classicist whose involvement with the island and its people we follow from his first visit as a twenty-year-old to the end of his life.
 
On the island, they met a colorful coterie of men and women with whom they formed lifelong and life-changing friendships. There's Tomás O'Crohan, a stoic fisherman, one of the few islanders who could read and write Irish, who tutored many of the incomers in the language's formidable intricacies and became the Blasket's first published writer; Maurice O'Sullivan, a good-natured prankster and teller of stories, whose memoir, Twenty Years A-Growing, became an Irish classic; and Peig Sayers, whose endless repertoire of earthy tales left listeners spellbound.
 
As we get to know these men and women, we become immersed in the vivid culture of the islanders, their hard lives of fishing and farming matched by their love of singing, dancing, and talk. Yet, sadly, we watch them leave the island, the village becoming uninhabited by 1953. The story of the Great Blasket is one of struggle--between the call of modernity and the tug of Ireland's ancient ways, between the promise of emigration and the peculiar warmth of island life amid its physical isolation. But ultimately it is a tribute to the strength and beauty of a people who, tucked away from the rest of civilization, kept alive a nation's past, and to the newcomers and islanders alike who brought the island's remarkable story to the larger world.

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Thom Gossom

Walk-On

Roseann Sdoia; Jennifer Jordan (As told to)

Perfect Strangers

Frank McCourt

Teacher Man

Deal Wyatt Hudson

An American Conversion

Ali Vincent

Believe It, Be It

Colin Powell

It Worked for Me

Lucinda Franks

Timeless

Jim Norton

I Hate Your Guts

Steven Gaines

The Sky's the Limit

Katharine Hepburn

Me

Judy Blunt

Breaking Clean

Chelsea Handler (Introduction by); Chelsea's Family, Friends, and Other Victims

Lies That Chelsea Handler Told Me

Pat Mitchell

Becoming a Dangerous Woman

Hillary Clinton

Hard Choices

John Bolton

Surrender Is Not an Option

Frank McCourt

Tis

Amber Tamblyn

Era of Ignition

Jose Eugenio Soares; Clifford E. Landers

Twelve Fingers

Frank McCourt

Tis

Jennifer Arnold

Through a Dog's Eyes

Marcia Gay Harden

The Seasons of My Mother

Harriet McBryde Johnson

Too Late to Die Young

Barbara Bush

Barbara Bush: A Memoir

Robert Kanigel

On an Irish Island