New Biographies

"In this powerful, epic biography, David McCullough unfolds the adventurous life journey of John Adams, the brilliant, fiercely independent, often irascible, always honest Yankee patriot who spared nothing in his zeal for the American Revolution; who rose to become the second president of the United States and saved the country from blundering into an unnecessary war; who was learned beyond all but a few and regarded by some as "out of his senses"; and whose marriage to the wise and valiant Abig

"Cairo, 1942: If you had asked a British officer who Colonel Clarke was, they would have been able to point him out: always ready with a drink and a story, he was a well-known figure in the local bars. If you then asked what he did, you would have less success. Those who knew didn't tell, and almost no one really knew at all. Clarke thought of himself as developing a new kind of weapon. Its components? Rumour, stagecraft, a sense of fun. Its target? The mind of Erwin Rommel, Hitler's greatest ge

"On the morning of October 25, 1944, in the waters off Samar, a small flotilla of US Navy ships encountered a Japanese fleet superior in both vessels and firepower. Aboard the USS Johnston, Capt. Ernest Evans seized the moment, ordering his destroyer to steam forward and attack. Heavily out-gunned, Evans and his sailors fired torpedo after torpedo, all the while maneuvering to dodge enemy shells, as two other American destroyers joined the fight. It was a valiant last stand for Capt. Evans, one

"A candid and moving autobiography by the 'Black Widow' of billiards. Jeanette Lee was 18 years old when she walked into a New York City pool hall and became enamored by the elegant geometry of the game. Before long, she was an unmistakable figure on the international competition circuit, dressed head-to-toe in black, stalking the billiards table and gazing down her cue as if tracking her prey. In this new memoir, the woman nicknamed 'The Black Widow' opens up about her legendary career and the

"By the early 1960s nearly everybody paying attention to country music agreed that George Jones was the greatest country singer of all time. After taking honky-tonk rockers like 'White Lightning' all the way up the country charts, he revealed himself to be an unmatched virtuoso on 'She Thinks I Still Care,' thus cementing his status as a living legend. That's where the trouble started. Only at this new level of fame did Jones realize he suffered from extreme stage fright. His method of dealing w

"From Washington to Jefferson, Lincoln to Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Kennedy to Nixon, Reagan to Obama and Biden, the 45 United States presidents have left lasting impacts on our nation. Some of their legacies continue today, some are justly forgotten, and some have changed as America has changed. ... The authors' ... research has uncovered never before seen historical facts based on private correspondence and newly discovered documentation, such as George Washington's troubled relationship with

"This is the story of the garden: my first, and perhaps my last. I started it at the age of 64. I'm 68 now. The garden brings me satisfaction, beauty, astonishment, joy. The garden also requires an inordinate amount of worry and work. When I started out, I thought simply to put my creative energy into arranging a bunch of plants. I didn't know the garden would overtake my life. I didn't know the garden would help teach me how to order my day, pray, let go, love my neighbor, die."--Page 4 of cove

"Rocks are the record of our creative planet reinventing itself for four billion years. Nothing is ever lost, just transformed. Marcia Bjornerud's life as a geologist has coincided with an extraordinary period of discovery. From an insular girlhood in rural Wisconsin, she found her way to an unlikely career studying mountains in remote parts of the world. As one of few women in her field, she witnessed the shift in our understanding of the Earth, from solid object to an entity in a constant stat

John (Jack) Downey, Jr., was a new Yale graduate in the post-World War II years who, like other Yale grads, was recruited by the young CIA. He joined the Agency and was sent to Japan in 1952, during the Korean War. In a violation of protocol, he took part in an air drop that failed and was captured over China. His sources on the ground had been compromised, and his identity was known. Although he first tried to deny who he was, he eventually admitted the truth. But government policy forbade ever

"A sweeping biography of one of the most influential and successful business-women in American history, BECOMING ELIZABETH ARDEN opens the Red Door to a world of wealth, glamor, and the profitable business of beauty Elizabeth Arden was a household name on six continents and a millionaire several times over before her death in 1966. Arden counted British royalty and social elites from the overlapping worlds of New York, Hollywood, London, and Paris among her clients. She revolutionized skin care

"From a marine biologist and co-founder of Minorities in Shark Sciences, a powerful debut memoir: the uplifting story of a young Black scientist's challenging journey to flourish outside the traditional confines of academia, inspired by her innate connection to nature's most misunderstood animal-the shark. You never forget your first shark. For Jasmin Graham, it was a little bonnethead, a type of hammerhead shark: three feet long, gray with a white underbelly, rough-skinned, strongly muscled, an

The Kennedy name has long been synonymous with wealth, power, glamor, and--above all else--integrity. But this carefully constructed veneer hides a dark truth: the pattern of Kennedy men physically and psychologically abusing women and girls, leaving a trail of ruin and death in each generation's wake. Through decades of scandal after scandal--from sexual assaults to reputational slander, suicides to manslaughter--the family and their defenders have kept the Kennedy brand intact. Now, in Ask Not