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  The Leonard Bernstein Letters

  Leonard Bernstein

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  “With their intellectual brilliance, humor and wonderful eye for detail, Leonard Bernstein’s letters blow all biographies out of the water.”—The Economist (2013 Book of the Year)   Leonard Bernstein was a charismatic and versatile musician—a brilliant conductor who attained international superstar status, and a gifted composer of Broadway musicals (West Side Story), symphonies (Age of Anxiety), choral works (Chichester Psalms), film scores (On the Waterfront), and much more. Bernstein was also an enthusiastic letter writer, and this book is the first to present a wide-ranging selection of his correspondence. The letters have been selected for the insights they offer into the passions of his life—musical and personal—and the extravagant scope of his musical and extra-musical activities.     Bernstein’s letters tell much about this complex man, his collaborators, his mentors, and others close to him. His galaxy of correspondents encompassed, among others, Aaron Copland, Stephen Sondheim, Jerome Robbins, Thornton Wilder, Boris Pasternak, Bette Davis, Adolph Green, Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, and family members including his wife Felicia and his sister Shirley. The majority of these letters have never been published before. They have been carefully chosen to demonstrate the breadth of Bernstein’s musical interests, his constant struggle to find the time to compose, his turbulent and complex sexuality, his political activities, and his endless capacity for hard work. Beyond all this, these writings provide a glimpse of the man behind the legends: his humanity, warmth, volatility, intellectual brilliance, wonderful eye for descriptive detail, and humor.   “The correspondence from and to the remarkable conductor is full of pleasure and insights.”—The New York Times Book Review (Editors’ Choice)   “Exhaustive, thrilling [and] indispensable.”—USA Today (starred review)

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  Carmilla

  Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu

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  Carmilla published in 1872 was one of the first vampire novels and is certainly among the most sensuous with its strong lesbian overtones. It is a classic Gothic novella set deep in the enchanted forests of Styria; a land still haunted by superstition and of course vampires. Carmilla predates fellow Irishman Bram Stoker's Dracula by twenty-five years, and reading both, you will see the influence of Carmilla on Dracula. This edition has notes and an introduction by Tony Walker, who narrates the audiobook version and who is the producer of the Classic Ghost Stories Podcast.

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  Epilepsy - Live or Die

  Gavin Hogarth

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  Through humour and observation, Epilepsy: Live or Die shows how the author has had his life shaped by epilepsy. He believes that awareness is the key to understanding and through this book hopes to inform and gently educate people about those living with the condition.

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  A Shostakovich Casebook

  Malcolm Hamrick Brown

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  A collection of writings analyzing the controversial 1979 posthumous memoirs of the great Russian composer at their significance. 
   
  In 1979, the alleged memoirs of legendary composer Dmitry Shostakovich (1906–1975) were published as Testimony: The Memoirs of Dmitry Shostakovich As Related to and Edited by Solomon Volkov. Since its appearance, however, Testimony has been the focus of controversy in Shostakovich studies as doubts were raised concerning its authenticity and the role of its editor, Volkov, in creating the book. 
   
  A Shostakovich Casebook presents twenty-five essays, interviews, newspaper articles, and reviews—many newly available since the collapse of the Soviet Union—that review the “case” of Shostakovich. In addition to authoritatively reassessing Testimony’s genesis and reception, the authors in this book address issues of political influence on musical creativity and the role of the artist within a totalitarian society. Internationally known contributors include Richard Taruskin, Laurel E. Fay, and Irina Antonovna Shostakovich, the composer’s widow. This volume combines a balanced reconsideration of the Testimony controversy with an examination of what the controversy signifies for all music historians, performers, and thoughtful listeners. 
   
  Praise for A Shostakovich Casebook 
   
  “A major event . . . This Casebook is not only about Volkov’s Testimony, it is about music old and new in the 20th century, about the cultural legacy of one of that century’s most extravagant social experiments, and what we have to learn from them, not only what they ought to learn from us.” —Caryl Emerson, Princeton University

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  Boyd - The Fighter Pilot Who...

  Robert Coram

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  John Boyd may be the most remarkable unsung hero in all of American military history. Some remember him as the greatest U.S. fighter pilot ever-the man who, in simulated air-to-air combat, defeated every challenger in less than forty seconds. Some recall him as the father of our country's most legendary fighter aircraft-the F-15 and F-16. Still others think of Boyd as the most influential military theorist since Sun Tzu. They know only half the story.Boyd, more than any other person, saved fighter aviation from the predations of the Strategic Air Command. His manual of fighter tactics changed the way every air force in the world flies and fights. He discovered a physical theory that forever altered the way fighter planes were designed. Later in life, he developed a theory of military strategy that has been adopted throughout the world and even applied to business models for maximizing efficiency. On a personal level, Boyd rarely met a general he couldn't offend. He was loud, abrasive, and profane. A man of daring, ferocious passion and intractable stubbornness, he was that most American of heroes-a rebel who cared not for his reputation or fortune but for his country.

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  Chaplain Turner's War

  Moni Basu

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  An award-winning journalist portrays life and faith on the frontlines of the Iraq War through the experience of a US Army chaplain.   The US mission in Iraq ended Dec. 18, 2011, as the last American soldiers climbed into trucks and headed south through the desert towards Kuwait. Nearly 4,500 American troops died in the Iraq war. More than 30,000 others were physically wounded. Countless others live with scars that can’t be seen. While medics and doctors heal the physical scars of the wounded, the military employs a select few to heal the hearts, minds, and souls of soldiers—all of whom are changed forever by war. In January 2008, Atlanta Journal-Constitution international reporter Moni Basu began documenting life at war and at home with Darren Turner, a chaplain in the US Army. Chaplain Turner served as the emotional support system of U.S. soldiers more accustomed to toughing it out than opening up.   For the first time ever, the entire series of Ms. Basu’s articles on Chaplain Turner have been collected into one book. There have been few looks into one of this nation’s most controversial wars that have been as honest, heartbreaking, and inspiring as Chaplain Turner’s War. The experiences of the young men and women Chaplain Turner served speak with a clarity and force that is relatable to readers of any religion and of any opinion about the Iraq War. It is a story of people’s lives who are so often taken for granted as steely warriors, and so rarely appreciated as heroes returning home with a lifetime of emotional weight.

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