Charles Dickens is one of England's best-loved authors.

A literary phenomenon in his own time, his is still immensely popular across the globe, nearly 150 years after his death.

Walter Dexter's classic biography of Dickens, first published in 1937 examines Dickens' life as a journalist, a writer, an actor and, perhaps most importantly, as a reader.

Dickens had great presence on the stage, and the readings he organised of passages of his novels were always a sell-out success.

No-one could bring to life Dickens' characters, with all their humour, sympathy, darkness and light, like Dickens could himself.

He became a celebrity, not just for his serialised, and increasingly popular novels, but for his performance art.

Walter Dexter reflects on Dickens' life to illuminate what shaped the man behind the novels, and what influences he drew from to create his infamous characters.

This short biography is essential reading for anyone wanting to learn more about Charles Dickens the man, the author, and the actor.

Walter Dexter (1877-1944) devoted his leisure time to studying Charles Dickens. He became a member of the Dickens Fellowship in 1905 and spent much of his spare time in travelling throughout England seeking to identify towns, villages and other scenes associated with the life and writing of his favourite author. Relinquishing the Honorary Treasurer of the Dickens Fellowship, a post he had held for some years, he became editor of Fellowship's magazine 'The Dickensian' in 1925 and he held the post until his death. He was also the first Honorary Secretary of the Dickens Fellowship Dramatic Society, formed in 1905. He had also been one of the joint editors, along with Arthur Waugh, Sir Hugh Walpole and Thomas Hatton, of the splendid Nonesuch Editions of Dickens' works and had been solely responsible for the monumental undertaking of preparing three volumes of Dickens' letters, the most complete collection ever made to that time, running to almost 2500 pages. After his death a Walter Dexter Memorial Fund was established to ensure that his name would be associated in perpetuity with The Dickens House at Doughty Street, as he was closely associated, with B W Matz, in the concept of securing the House as a centre, a museum, and a library from which to foster the love of the novelist and his works.

Albion Press is an imprint of Endeavour Press, the UK's leading independent digital publisher. For more information on our titles please sign up to our newsletter at www.endeavourpress.com. Each week you will receive updates on free and discounted ebooks. Follow us on Twitter: @EndeavourPress and on Facebook via http://on.fb.me/1HweQV7. We are always interested in hearing from our readers. Endeavour Press believes that the future is now.

Winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award for Autobiography
A New York Times 2016 Notable Book
National Best Seller
Named one of TIME magazine’s "100 Most Influential People"
An Amazon Top 20 Best Book of 2016
A Washington Post Best Memoir of 2016
A TIME and Entertainment Weekly Best Book of 2016

An illuminating debut memoir of a woman in science; a moving portrait of a longtime friendship; and a stunningly fresh look at plants that will forever change how you see the natural world
 
Acclaimed scientist Hope Jahren has built three laboratories in which she’s studied trees, flowers, seeds, and soil. Her first book is a revelatory treatise on plant life—but it is also so much more.

Lab Girl is a book about work, love, and the mountains that can be moved when those two things come together. It is told through Jahren’s remarkable stories: about her childhood in rural Minnesota with an uncompromising mother and a father who encouraged hours of play in his classroom’s labs; about how she found a sanctuary in science, and learned to perform lab work done “with both the heart and the hands”; and about the inevitable disappointments, but also the triumphs and exhilarating discoveries, of scientific work.

Yet at the core of this book is the story of a relationship Jahren forged with a brilliant, wounded man named Bill, who becomes her lab partner and best friend. Their sometimes rogue adventures in science take them from the Midwest across the United States and back again, over the Atlantic to the ever-light skies of the North Pole and to tropical Hawaii, where she and her lab currently make their home.

Jahren’s probing look at plants, her astonishing tenacity of spirit, and her acute insights on nature enliven every page of this extraordinary book. Lab Girl opens your eyes to the beautiful, sophisticated mechanisms within every leaf, blade of grass, and flower petal. Here is an eloquent demonstration of what can happen when you find the stamina, passion, and sense of sacrifice needed to make a life out of what you truly love, as you discover along the way the person you were meant to be.

“Dickens was my great hero — my “Chief” — in the pleasant bygone days when we were “on the road” together — by day and by night, week after week, month after month, right through the English and American tours”

One of the most famous and best-loved English writers of the nineteenth century, Charles Dickens is the author of such familiar tales as Oliver Twist, David Copperfield, A Christmas Carol, and The Pickwick Papers.

He is less well-known, however, for the several Reading tours he undertook in the years prior to his death, breathing life into his works for his readers from Glasgow to Washington, DC.

Charles Dickens As I Knew Him intimately reveals the Dickens behind the writer, depicting a man devoted to his work and determined to satisfy his audience despite severe and ongoing health problems.

Told from the perspective of his manager, George Dolby, Dickens is shown as a man of many facets, whose seeming serious nature was often interrupted by moments of levity, and whose intense passion in reading his works captivated audiences in multiple countries.

Yet Dolby’s tale is woven through with the overhanging menace of Dickens’s illness and eventual death.

The devotion Dickens poured into his final two Reading tours — in America, and then in England, Scotland, and Ireland — so severely damaged his health that it soon became clear that nothing but giving up the tours would have any hope of restoring his vigour.

But Dickens was determined: for himself, for his audience, and for his publishers, he insisted upon continuing until he was at death’s door.

Dickens’s end is a matter of history, but Dolby’s account of the final years of the writer’s life offers a glimpse into a side of a great man not often seen.

Praise for Charles Dickens As I Knew Him

‘Dolby was Dickens’ sometime manager and this is as intimate, as vivid, as deeply moving (and sometimes as deeply funny) as anything ever written about the great man.’ – Simon Callow, author of Charles Dickens

George Dolby (1831-1900) served as Charles Dickens’s third manager, scouting out and organising the author’s second Reading Tour to America as well as his Farewell Tour throughout England, Ireland, and Scotland. Prior to working with Dickens, Dolby was a Theatre Manager.

"It is not my intention in my prison diary to discuss the constitutional or legal question of arbitrary arrests and imprisonment of non-combatants, but to present to my readers a picture of the daily routine of prison life as I saw it, together with incidents related to me by fellow-prisoners..."

Originally published in 1911, James J. Williamson's Prison Life in the Old Capitol tracks his time served as a prisoner in the Old Capitol Prison in Washington D.C during the time of the American Civil War. Throughout this memoir, Williamson presents a true picture of the daily life and routine observed by those in the prison as William himself saw it. William’s diary of prison life is given added scope through his appended facts concerning the treatment of prisoners of war during the period, claiming that in giving a frank and honest account prejudice and hostile feeling may be overcome and a reunion may be achieved by ‘all those who have the peace and prosperity of the country at heart’. Were these the true intentions of the memoir? Or did Williamson pen the work as a propagandist celebration of the Confederate lives lost and a damnation of the North’s actions following their victory? Read on, and decide for yourself…

James J. Williamson was one of Mosby's Rangers in the Confederate Army during the American Civil War, who was arrested and imprisoned for a stint in Old Capitol prison. His other works include the often studied part-Confederate memoir, part-biography of the 43rd Battalion Virginia Cavalry, Mosby’s Rangers.

Albion Press is an imprint of Endeavour Press, the UK's leading independent digital publisher. For more information on our titles please sign up to our newsletter at www.endeavourpress.com. Each week you will receive updates on free and discounted ebooks. Follow us on Twitter: @EndeavourPress and on Facebook via http://on.fb.me/1HweQV7. We are always interested in hearing from our readers. Endeavour Press believes that the future is now.

#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • PULITZER PRIZE FINALIST • This inspiring, exquisitely observed memoir finds hope and beauty in the face of insurmountable odds as an idealistic young neurosurgeon attempts to answer the question What makes a life worth living?

NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY
The New York Times Book Review • People • NPR • The Washington Post • Slate • Harper’s Bazaar • Esquire • Time Out New York • Publishers Weekly • BookPage

Finalist for the PEN Center USA Literary Award in Creative Nonfiction and the Books for a Better Life Award in Inspirational Memoir

At the age of thirty-six, on the verge of completing a decade’s worth of training as a neurosurgeon, Paul Kalanithi was diagnosed with stage IV lung cancer. One day he was a doctor treating the dying, and the next he was a patient struggling to live. And just like that, the future he and his wife had imagined evaporated. When Breath Becomes Air chronicles Kalanithi’s transformation from a naïve medical student “possessed,” as he wrote, “by the question of what, given that all organisms die, makes a virtuous and meaningful life” into a neurosurgeon at Stanford working in the brain, the most critical place for human identity, and finally into a patient and new father confronting his own mortality.

What makes life worth living in the face of death? What do you do when the future, no longer a ladder toward your goals in life, flattens out into a perpetual present? What does it mean to have a child, to nurture a new life as another fades away? These are some of the questions Kalanithi wrestles with in this profoundly moving, exquisitely observed memoir.

Paul Kalanithi died in March 2015, while working on this book, yet his words live on as a guide and a gift to us all. “I began to realize that coming face to face with my own mortality, in a sense, had changed nothing and everything,” he wrote. “Seven words from Samuel Beckett began to repeat in my head: ‘I can’t go on. I’ll go on.’” When Breath Becomes Air is an unforgettable, life-affirming reflection on the challenge of facing death and on the relationship between doctor and patient, from a brilliant writer who became both.

Praise for When Breath Becomes Air

“I guarantee that finishing this book and then forgetting about it is simply not an option. . . . Part of this book’s tremendous impact comes from the obvious fact that its author was such a brilliant polymath. And part comes from the way he conveys what happened to him—passionately working and striving, deferring gratification, waiting to live, learning to die—so well.”—Janet Maslin, The New York Times

“An emotional investment well worth making: a moving and thoughtful memoir of family, medicine and literature. It is, despite its grim undertone, accidentally inspiring.”—The Washington Post

“Possesses the gravity and wisdom of an ancient Greek tragedy . . . [Kalanithi] delivers his chronicle in austere, beautiful prose. The book brims with insightful reflections on mortality that are especially poignant coming from a trained physician familiar with what lies ahead.”—The Boston Globe

“Devastating and spectacular . . . [Kalanithi] is so likeable, so relatable, and so humble, that you become immersed in his world and forget where it’s all heading.”—USA Today

“From the forest depths there burst forth the terrible uproar of battle. The deep tones of the cannon marked time to the incessant roll of musketry, which, like the explosion of long strings of fire-crackers, ran along the whole line where the contestants retreated or advanced to the attack…”

Recollections of a Private is a vibrant and exhilarating account of what life was like as an ordinary Union soldier in the Army of the Potomac. Unusually for an account of the Civil War of the mid-1800s, Warren Lee Goss describes with detail life behind-the-scenes in the soldiers’ camps, lending as much detail to these prosaic but intimate scenes as to the violent battle scenes. Grave accounts of skirmishes, campaigns, human losses, injuries are juxtaposed with humorous interjections about the diets of mules – did you know “they eat anything, including canal boats and rubber blankets”? – or snippets of the playful conversations between the young men. These lend this Civil War account an unparalleled sense of honesty. Bursting with vivid, colourful details about life interacting with civilians, both friend and foe, the perils of marching through mud, and the heart-stopping first experiences on the battle-field, Goss’s writing is sure to transport you back in time with his eye-opening, frank-yet-funny recollections.

Albion Press is an imprint of Endeavour Press, the UK's leading independent digital publisher. For more information on our titles please sign up to our newsletter at www.endeavourpress.com. Each week you will receive updates on free and discounted ebooks. Follow us on Twitter: @EndeavourPress and on Facebook via http://on.fb.me/1HweQV7. We are always interested in hearing from our readers. Endeavour Press believes that the future is now.

In April 1861 war was declared between the Union and the Confederacy.

When the news came it made Fletcher nervous, as he was working but didn’t want to miss his chance to enlist; reaching an agreement, he began his journey the following day.

Two years later, on the third day at Gettysburg, Fletcher recalls how he became temporarily afflicted with a “bad case of cowardly horror” following the order to prepare to charge.

But Fletcher could also be a restless man and was brave to a fault, frequently seeking permission for dangerous raids or patrols in the lulls between battles.

Wounded on numerous occasions, Fletcher became incapacitated for further infantry service and was transferred to the cavalry, where he would serve for the rest of the war.

It was during this time that he was taken prisoner by Union troops, and Fletcher’s account of his capture, and the formation and execution of his escape plan is worthy of a classic thriller.

With its combination of straightforward prose and unexpected philosophising, Rebel Private is an arresting account of one line soldier’s experience.

William Andrew Fletcher (1839-1915) was a lumberman, scout and soldier from Louisiana. In 1856 the family moved to Texas, and five years later he enlisted in the Confederate Army. Serving throughout the Civil War, he survived and returned to Texas, where he later married and raised a family.

The battle for the skies of Britain has just begun.

At the outbreak of the Second World War D. M. Crook, of No. 609 Squadron AAF, was at Yeadon, still undergoing his training; by the winter of 1939-40, he had his wings.

Successfully applying to return to his Squadron, then on defence duties in northern England, Crook began to familiarise himself with their new fighter: the Spitfire.

Soon they were posted to RAF Northolt, and it was at this time that Crook, much to his chagrin, was left grounded, undergoing knee surgery as they flew over Dunkirk.

Following the Allied evacuation from France, Crook returned to the air and found himself facing the relentless sorties as the skies above Britain transformed into a battlefield.

In one particularly frank passage, Crook recounts how he mistakenly shot down a Blenheim, going on to illustrate how easy it was for pilots to misidentify aircraft.

‘Spitfire Pilot’ is a remarkable account of one officer’s life in 609 Squadron, the excitement, the anxieties and the camaraderie, during one of the most famous battles of the Second World War.

‘Crook and his colleagues committed acts of unimaginable bravery against the German aircraft. Many did not make it and the author describes the ansence they leave in the squadron with great poignancy. His descriptions of aerial conflict will rarely be bettered.’ Magazine

'A brilliant first-hand account of the life of a fighter pilot before and during the Battle of Britain.' - Spectator

'A unique personal insight into one of the crucial periods of the war ... I cannot recommend this highly enough.' - World War II Magazine

Flt. Lt. David Moore Crook, D.F.C. (1914-1944) was commissioned into the Auxiliary Air Force in September 1938, as an Acting Pilot Officer. In May 1940 he was promoted Pilot Officer, in December of the same year Flight Officer, before reaching the rank of Flight Lieutenant a year later. One of ‘The Few’ who fought in the Battle of Britain, where he won the D.F.C., in December 1944 he failed to return to base: his Spitfire was reported to have dived into the sea. He is commemorated on the Runnymede Memorial.

On 27th May 1940, with the Battle of France all but lost, one of the greatest undertakings of the Second World War began: the evacuation of Dunkirk.

Nine days later, the hastily assembled armada of over eight hundred vessels had rescued nearly 340,000 Allied soldiers from across the Channel and brought them back to England.

A prominent memory in the U.K., sometimes the contribution of the French, Dutch and Belgians alongside the Royal Navy, Merchant Navy and other ship owners is overlooked, as are the pocket defences that distracted attention from Dunkirk, at Calais, Lille and Amiens.

In ‘The Epic of Dunkirk’ Chatterton does not merely tell one story but many, drawn from these different viewpoints: only when woven together can the memory we know be produced.

A keen sailor and former serviceman, Chatterton’s account of the “Miracle of Dunkirk” is a rare narrative history, not only easily accessible but offering a detailed, informed insight.

Edward Keble Chatterton (1878-1944) was a sailor and prolific writer from Sheffield. His voyages across the English Channel, to the Netherlands, around the Mediterranean and through the French canals led to many articles and books. Joining the R.N.V.R. at the outbreak of WWI he commanded a motor launch flotilla, leaving the service in 1919 as a Lieutenant Commander. Between the wars his output included works about model ships, juvenile novels, and narrative histories of naval events; from 1939, his writing focused upon WWII.
 

Napoleon was one of the world’s greatest generals.

He conquered from Spain to the borders of Russia and dominated the international scene of early nineteenth century Europe.

But what were the factors that changed the young Corsican boy into a powerful leader?

Just over two hundred years ago as Napoleon was defeated by the Allied forces at Waterloo there lay a packet of papers on his desk in the Tuileries, sealed with the Imperial arms.

This packet fell into the possession of Cardinal Fesch who took it to Rome, but he never had the curiosity to open it, and it remained sealed and tied up till his death, on 13 May 1839.

A great many years later it was eventually opened and the astonishing documents revealed.

They were a collection of papers that Napoleon had covering his boyhood and youth.

Using this remarkable source material Oscar Browning was able to produce the first English language account of Napoleon’s formative years, from his birth in 1769 through to when he made himself known on the political map of Europe at the siege of Toulon in 1793.

There he had led his men over the earthworks guarding the city and had been instrumental in the capture of the city by using his artillery to destroy several warships anchored in Toulon’s harbour, forcing them to retreat.

It was the first of many victories for Napoleon.

‘Valuable addition to Napoleonic literature’ The Guardian

Oscar Browning (1837-1923) was housemaster at Eton College before lecturing at King’s College, Cambridge from the 1880s. He was an editor of political memoirs and dispatches of the late eighteenth century, and also wrote about Peter the Great and Dante. After writing his biography of Napoleon’s early years, he retired to Rome. More than this, he is infamous for his inclusion in Virginia Woolf’s A Room of One’s Own.

Albion Press is an imprint of Endeavour Press, the UK's leading independent digital publisher. For more information on our titles please sign up to our newsletter at www.endeavourpress.com. Each week you will receive updates on free and discounted ebooks. Follow us on Twitter: @EndeavourPress and on Facebook via http://on.fb.me/1HweQV7. We are always interested in hearing from our readers. Endeavour Press believes that the future is now.

Journal of the Waterloo Campaign is one of the most eloquent and impressive first-hand accounts of Napoleon Bonaparte’s dramatic demise.

It is a true classic of the literature of the Napoleonic Wars.

Taking us from the lulls and hard marching in Belgium and France, to the battle of Quatre Bras (where Mercer fired a few rounds at Napoleon himself), and finally to the ferocious fighting at Waterloo and Mercer’s own bold contribution to the larger Allied victory.

'The book is essential for any study of the Waterloo campaign' – Philip J. Haythornthwaite, leading military historian.

Captain Cavalie Mercer (1783-1868), commander of G troop of the Royal Horse Artillery in Wellington’s army, was a skilled writer who recorded the day’s events each evening in vivid and poetic detail. Never before or since has the experience of the entire campaign been brought so thoroughly to life.

Albion Press is an imprint of Endeavour Press, the UK's leading independent digital publisher. For more information on our titles please sign up to our newsletter at www.endeavourpress.com. Each week you will receive updates on free and discounted ebooks. Follow us on Twitter: @EndeavourPress and on Facebook via http://on.fb.me/1HweQV7. We are always interested in hearing from our readers. Endeavour Press believes that the future is now.

After plunging Europe into a terrible war, Napoleon died on Saint Helena in 1821.

Five years later his contemporary Sir Walter Scott wrote a brilliant debunking biography that stirred up international controversy for its thundering assault on the Napoleon legend.

It so inflamed the French that Napoleon’s most-trusted general challenged Scott to a duel.

Originally designed on a grand scale in nine volumes and over a million words, Scott’s monumental work is published again in one concise volume.

This new edition retains his first-hand insights, elegant construction, page-turning writing and painstaking attention to detail, while selecting the parts that provide a fresh and authoritative take on Napoleon (including the ill-fated march to Moscow) for the modern historian.

Published simultaneously in German, French, Italian and Spanish, the book was an international phenomenon.

Scott’s research took advantage of privileged access to government papers as well as those of the main players, including the Duke of Wellington and important French generals.

His life of Napoleon stands out not least because of his skilful portrayal of genuine people in both the smallest and most significant events.

‘Delightful...Walter Scott recalls to me the incidents on which through life I have mediated, and the influence of which is still in daily operation’ – Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Sir Walter Scott (15 August 1771-21 September 1832) was a lawyer, poet, translator, historian and novelist. His classics works, such as Ivanhoe and Waverley, remain in print today. He was two years younger than Napoleon, whose biography was the only historical work he ever wrote. It was to inspire the approach of later historians Lord Macaulay and Thomas Carlyle.

Albion Press is an imprint of Endeavour Press.

Endeavour Press is the UK’s leading independent publisher of digital books.

”A storehouse for all future writers of modern history” Athenaeum

Originally published in 1896, Thomas Power O’Connor’s intimate portrait of Napoleon covers everything from his military campaigns to his questionable table manners.

Far from a stuffy account of Napoleon’s battles and governance, O’Connor’s conversational style reveals the man behind the Emperor. This biography remains an important addition to the study of Napoleon with its personal and, at times, visceral details of the public and private life of the Emperor.

Examining contemporary French sources such as Hippolyte Taine, and with quotations from those closest to Napoleon such as Claude François Méneval, Étienne-Denis Pasquier and Josephine, O’Connor’s depiction of Napoleon is informative and entertaining in style, and far-reaching in scope.

As O’Connor guides the reader through these sources – either from devotees or detractors of Napoleon – a conflicting portrayal of the man arises that can only be expected from such a divisive and monumental figure. Brilliant but volatile, domineering but juvenile, but always – the violence of his campaigns appears rooted in his chaotic personality.

Nevertheless, O’Connor shows that one link remains unbroken throughout Napoleon’s life: his fierce ambition.

Perhaps this is what drew the leader of the United Irish League and the “Father of the House of Commons” to his subject.

T. P. O’Connor (1848-1929) was a journalist and MP. His mastery of French and German led him to report from the Franco-Prussian War following his sub-editorship of The Daily Telegraph. He was elected into the House of Commons in 1880 and was then continuously re-elected for 49 years and 215 days running as a proponent for Home Rule and Irish nationalism.

(Applause Books). Rita Lakin was a pioneer a female scriptwriter in the early 1960s when Hollywood television was exclusively male. For years, in creative meetings she was literally "the only woman in the room." In this breezy but heartfelt remembrance, Lakin takes readers to a long-forgotten time when women were not considered worthy or welcome at the creative table. Widowed with three young children, she talked herself into a secretarial job at Universal Studios in 1962, despite being unable to type or take dictation. With guts, skill, and humor, she rose from secretary to freelancer, to staff writer, to producer, to executive producer and showrunner, meeting hundreds of famous and infamous show biz legends along the way during her long and unexpected career. She introduced many women into the business and was a feminist before she even knew she was one. The general public did not know her name, but Lakin touched the lives of millions of viewers week after week, year after year. The relevance of her personal journey charming yet occasionally shocking will be an eye-opener to present-day who take for granted the abundance of female creative talent in today's Hollywood.

The International Bestseller

"Consistently entertaining...Honesty is abundantly apparent here--a quality as rare and commendable in elite surgeons as one suspects it is in memoirists." —The Guardian

"Disarmingly frank storytelling...his reflections on death and dying equal those in Atul Gawande's excellent Being Mortal." —The Economist

Henry Marsh has spent a lifetime operating on the surgical frontline. There have been exhilarating highs and devastating lows, but his love for the practice of neurosurgery has never wavered.

Following the publication of his celebrated New York Times bestseller Do No Harm, Marsh retired from his full-time job in England to work pro bono in Ukraine and Nepal. In Admissions he describes the difficulties of working in these troubled, impoverished countries and the further insights it has given him into the practice of medicine.

Marsh also faces up to the burden of responsibility that can come with trying to reduce human suffering. Unearthing memories of his early days as a medical student, and the experiences that shaped him as a young surgeon, he explores the difficulties of a profession that deals in probabilities rather than certainties, and where the overwhelming urge to prolong life can come at a tragic cost for patients and those who love them.

Reflecting on what forty years of handling the human brain has taught him, Marsh finds a different purpose in life as he approaches the end of his professional career and a fresh understanding of what matters to us all in the end.

“Promise Me, Dad is a brisk, often uplifting read, a consequence of its author’s congenital jollity and irrepressible candor.”
- Vanity Fair

A deeply moving memoir about the year that would forever change both a family and a country.

In November 2014, thirteen members of the Biden family gathered on Nantucket for Thanksgiving, a tradition they had been celebrating for the past forty years; it was the one constant in what had become a hectic, scrutinized, and overscheduled life. The Thanksgiving holiday was a much-needed respite, a time to connect, a time to reflect on what the year had brought, and what the future might hold. But this year felt different from all those that had come before. Joe and Jill Biden's eldest son, Beau, had been diagnosed with a malignant brain tumor fifteen months earlier, and his survival was uncertain. "Promise me, Dad," Beau had told his father. "Give me your word that no matter what happens, you’re going to be all right." Joe Biden gave him his word.

Promise Me, Dad chronicles the year that followed, which would be the most momentous and challenging in Joe Biden’s extraordinary life and career. Vice President Biden traveled more than a hundred thousand miles that year, across the world, dealing with crises in Ukraine, Central America, and Iraq. When a call came from New York, or Capitol Hill, or Kyiv, or Baghdad—“Joe, I need your help”—he responded. For twelve months, while Beau fought for and then lost his life, the vice president balanced the twin imperatives of living up to his responsibilities to his country and his responsibilities to his family. And never far away was the insistent and urgent question of whether he should seek the presidency in 2016.

The year brought real triumph and accomplishment, and wrenching pain. But even in the worst times, Biden was able to lean on the strength of his long, deep bonds with his family, on his faith, and on his deepening friendship with the man in the Oval Office, Barack Obama.

Writing with poignancy and immediacy, Joe Biden allows readers to feel the urgency of each moment, to experience the days when he felt unable to move forward as well as the days when he felt like he could not afford to stop.

This is a book written not just by the vice president, but by a father, grandfather, friend, and husband. Promise Me, Dad is a story of how family and friendships sustain us and how hope, purpose, and action can guide us through the pain of personal loss into the light of a new future.

A portrait of a woman, an era, and a profession: the first thoroughly researched biography of Meryl Streep—the “Iron Lady” of acting, nominated for nineteen Oscars and winner of three—that explores her beginnings as a young woman of the 1970s grappling with love, feminism, and her astonishing talent.

In 1975 Meryl Streep, a promising young graduate of the Yale School of Drama, was finding her place in the New York theater scene. Burning with talent and ambition, she was like dozens of aspiring actors of the time—a twenty-something beauty who rode her bike everywhere, kept a diary, napped before performances, and stayed out late “talking about acting with actors in actors’ bars.” Yet Meryl stood apart from her peers. In her first season in New York, she won attention-getting parts in back-to-back Broadway plays, a Tony Award nomination, and two roles in Shakespeare in the Park productions. Even then, people said, “Her. Again.”

Her Again is an intimate look at the artistic coming-of-age of the greatest actress of her generation, from the homecoming float at her suburban New Jersey high school, through her early days on the stage at Vassar College and the Yale School of Drama during its golden years, to her star-making roles in The Deer Hunter, Manhattan, and Kramer vs. Kramer. New Yorker contributor Michael Schulman brings into focus Meryl’s heady rise to stardom on the New York stage; her passionate, tragically short-lived love affair with fellow actor John Cazale; her marriage to sculptor Don Gummer; and her evolution as a young woman of the 1970s wrestling with changing ideas of feminism, marriage, love, and sacrifice.

Featuring eight pages of black-and-white photos, this captivating story of the making of one of the most revered artistic careers of our time reveals a gifted young woman coming into her extraordinary talents at a time of immense transformation, offering a rare glimpse into the life of the actress long before she became an icon.

The #1 New York Times Bestseller

A hilarious, thoughtful, and in-depth exploration of the pleasures and perils of modern romance from Aziz Ansari, the star of Master of None and one of this generation’s sharpest comedic voices

At some point, every one of us embarks on a journey to find love. We meet people, date, get into and out of relationships, all with the hope of finding someone with whom we share a deep connection. This seems standard now, but it’s wildly different from what people did even just decades ago. Single people today have more romantic options than at any point in human history. With technology, our abilities to connect with and sort through these options are staggering. So why are so many people frustrated?

Some of our problems are unique to our time. “Why did this guy just text me an emoji of a pizza?” “Should I go out with this girl even though she listed Combos as one of her favorite snack foods? Combos?!” “My girlfriend just got a message from some dude named Nathan. Who’s Nathan? Did he just send her a photo of his penis? Should I check just to be sure?” 

But the transformation of our romantic lives can’t be explained by technology alone. In a short period of time, the whole culture of finding love has changed dramatically. A few decades ago, people would find a decent person who lived in their neighborhood. Their families would meet and, after deciding neither party seemed like a murderer, they would get married and soon have a kid, all by the time they were twenty-four. Today, people marry later than ever and spend years of their lives on a quest to find the perfect person, a soul mate.

For years, Aziz Ansari has been aiming his comic insight at modern romance, but for Modern Romance, the book, he decided he needed to take things to another level. He teamed up with NYU sociologist Eric Klinenberg and designed a massive research project, including hundreds of interviews and focus groups conducted everywhere from Tokyo to Buenos Aires to Wichita. They analyzed behavioral data and surveys and created their own online research forum on Reddit, which drew thousands of messages. They enlisted the world’s leading social scientists, including Andrew Cherlin, Eli Finkel, Helen Fisher, Sheena Iyengar, Barry Schwartz, Sherry Turkle, and Robb Willer. The result is unlike any social science or humor book we’ve seen before.

In Modern Romance, Ansari combines his irreverent humor with cutting-edge social science to give us an unforgettable tour of our new romantic world.

#1 New York Times Bestseller

"Amy Schumer's book will make you love her even more. For a comedian of unbridled (and generally hilarious) causticity, Schumer has written a probing, confessional, unguarded, and, yes, majorly humanizing non-memoir, a book that trades less on sarcasm, and more on emotional resonance." —Vogue

"The Girl with the Lower Back Tattoo is an alternatingly meditative, sexually explicit, side-splittingly hilarious, heart-wrenching, disturbing, passionately political, and always staggeringly authentic ride through the highs and lows of the comedic powerhouse's life to date." —Harper's Bazaar

"This is your happy hour with Amy Schumer...It's Bossypants meets Trainwreck meets your long weekend." —TheSkimm

“Amy’s got your back. She’s in your corner. She’s an honesty bomb. And she’s coming for you.”
—Actress Tilda Swinton and Trainwreck co-star

The Emmy Award-winning comedian, actress, writer, and star of Inside Amy Schumer and the acclaimed film Trainwreck has taken the entertainment world by storm with her winning blend of smart, satirical humor. Now, Amy Schumer has written a refreshingly candid and uproariously funny collection of (extremely) personal and observational essays.

In The Girl with the Lower Back Tattoo, Amy mines her past for stories about her teenage years, her family, relationships, and sex and shares the experiences that have shaped who she is—a woman with the courage to bare her soul to stand up for what she believes in, all while making us laugh.

Ranging from the raucous to the romantic, the heartfelt to the harrowing, this highly entertaining and universally appealing collection is the literary equivalent of a night out with your best friend—an unforgettable and fun adventure that you wish could last forever. Whether she’s experiencing lust-at-first-sight while in the airport security line, sharing her own views on love and marriage, admitting to being an introvert, or discovering her cross-fit instructor’s secret bad habit, Amy Schumer proves to be a bighearted, brave, and thoughtful storyteller that will leave you nodding your head in recognition, laughing out loud, and sobbing uncontrollably—but only because it’s over.

Dr. P. J. Miller's story is unique. Growing up in New York City, who would have thought that he’d complete his veterinary degree at the Royal School of Veterinary Studies in Edinburgh, Scotland? In Cute Poodles, Sweet Old Ladies & Hugs, Dr. Miller has assembled a "greatest hits" of veterinary tales—stories that include colorful clients, wisecracking hospital staff, and pets that aren't always friendly.

Cute Poodles, Sweet Old Ladies & Hugs provides a humorous look at what Dr. Miller went through to become a veterinarian and his daily life as a doctor, told only as a typical New Yorker could. Underneath the humor, Dr. Miller gives a glimpse of how strong and emotional the human-animal bond can be, becoming an instant must-read for any aspiring veterinary professional or animal lover that wants to know what it is really like to be a veterinarian.

See his website for further information about the book and for more veterinary tales http://www.yodrmiller.com/