Other books that might interest you

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  Robert Shaw - An Actor's Life on...

  Christopher Shaw Myers

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  "Go for the Jaws, stay for the Shaws." —Nat Segaloff, author of The Exorcist Legacy 
   
   
   
  Robert Shaw unforgettably commanded attention as the weathered seaman Captain Quint in the blockbuster sensation, Jaws. But what came before and after that landmark film is as dramatic as the hunt for the great white shark itself. 
   
   
   
  Capturing the many facets of the vibrant, generous, and sometimes polarizing man is his nephew, Christopher, who explores the forces that shaped a dynamic personality—including Robert's indomitable mother, his deeply troubled father, and his activist sister, Joanna, with whom Robert shared an unbreakable bond. Out of the traumatic events of their childhood in the Orkney Islands and Cornwall, Mrs. Shaw pushed her children to pursue their dreams. For Robert, that dream was acting and writing. 
   
   
   
  Despite a storied career on the British and American stage—as both performer and playwright—and a string of hit films including From Russia with Love, A Man for All Seasons, The Sting, and The Taking of Pelham One Two Three, international celebrity eluded Robert . . . until he was summoned to star in "a little horror film" called Jaws.

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  On Becoming an American Writer -...

  James Alan McPherson, Anthony...

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  Discover the unique mind and humane vision of an under-recognized American author. Encompassing themes of race, education, fame, law, and America’s past and future, these essays are James Alan McPherson at his most prescient and invaluable. 
  Born in segregated 1940s Georgia, McPherson graduated from Harvard Law School only to give up law and become a writer. In 1978, he became the first Black author to win the Pulitzer Prize for fiction. But all the while, McPherson was also writing and publishing nonfiction that stand beside contemporaries such as James Baldwin and Joan Didion, as this collection amply proves. 
  These essays range from McPherson’s profile of comedian Richard Pryor on the cusp of his stardom; a moving tribute to his mentor, Ralph Ellison; a near-fatal battle with viral meningitis; and the story of how McPherson became a reluctant landlord to an elderly Black woman and her family. 
  There are meditations on family as the author travels to Disneyland with his daughter, on the nuances of a neighborhood debate about naming a street after Malcolm X or Dr. Martin Luther King, and, throughout, those connections that make us most deeply human—including connections between writer and listener. 
  This collection is for anyone seeking a better understanding of our world and a connection to a wise and wickedly funny writer who speaks with forceful relevance and clarity across the decades.

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  My River Beneath - A Life of...

  Hugh Coppen

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  **Read by the author** 
   
  *My River Beneath* is a deeply personal memoir of adventure, curiosity and discovery. Through a lifetime of remarkable experiences, Hugh Coppen uncovers the pattern that has quietly shaped his life and invites listeners to recognize their own. 
   
  From growing up in Africa to flying airplanes, racing cars, whitewater rafting, raising a family, leading international businesses and leading safaris in the African wilderness, Hugh's journey spans continents and careers. Along the way, he discovers that these seemingly unrelated experiences were all shaped by the same quiet pattern, the 'river' running beneath his life. 
   
  Warm, engaging and read in Hugh's own conversational style, this audiobook is more than a memoir. It feels like spending an evening listening to a trusted friend share the stories, challenges and insights of a life lived with curiosity, courage and an enduring desire to make a difference. 
   
  Filled with humor, adventure, heartbreak and moments of quiet reflection, *My River Beneath* is an invitation to look beyond the events of your own life and recognize the pattern that has quietly shaped your own life.. 
   
  Whether you're standing at a crossroads, wondering what's next, or simply enjoy true stories well told, this audiobook will stay with you long after the final chapter.

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  Influencing Hemingway - People...

  Nancy W Sindelar

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  Ernest Hemingway embraced adventure and courted glamorous friends while writing articles, novels, and short stories that captivated the world. Hemingway’s personal relationships and experiences influenced the content of his fiction, while the progression of places where the author chose to live and work shaped his style and rituals of writing. Whether revisiting the Italian front in A Farewell to Arms, recounting a Pamplona bull run in The Sun Also Rises, or depicting a Cuban fishing village in The Old Man and the Sea, setting played an important part in Hemingway’s fiction. The author also drew on real people—parents, friends, and fellow writers, among others—to create memorable characters in his short stories and novels.   In Influencing Hemingway: The People and Places That Shaped His Life and Work Nancy W. Sindelar introduces the reader to the individuals who played significant roles in Hemingway’s development as both a man and as an artist—as well as the environments that had a profound impact on the a

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  A Rare Recording of Robert...

  Robert Wadlow

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  Robert Pershing Wadlow (February 22, 1918 to July 15, 1940), also known as the Alton Giant, and the Giant of Illinois, was born and raised in Alton, Illinois. He is the tallest person in recorded history for whom there is irrefutable evidence. Wadlow's height was 8 ft 11.1 in (2.72 m) while his weight reached 439 lbs (199 kg) at his death at age 22. His great size and his continued growth in adulthood were due to hypertrophy of his pituitary gland, which results in an abnormally high level of human growth hormone (HGH). The following audio recordings are from a 1937 New York radio interview, a 1937 Ripley's Believe It or Not radio interview, and outtakes from 1930 film footage of Wadlow as a 12 year-old.

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  The Child Who Never Spoke - 23 ½...

  Cristina Nehring

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  In 2009 Cristina Nehring's brilliant first book, A Vindication of Love, was featured on the cover of the New York Times Book Review. An important new voice had appeared in American letters. Just as suddenly, Nehring seemed to disappear—only to reemerge like a bolt from the blue. 
   
   
   
  "One of the most graceful, tender and wise books I have ever read." —Christina Hoff Sommers, Senior Fellow Emeritus, American Enterprise Institute 
   
   
    
  "Yes, there are lessons to be taken from these pages, hard-won lessons wrung from Cristina Nehring's ongoing odyssey as the single mother of a Down syndrome child and spun into lyric wisdom. But The Child Who Never Spoke: 23 ½ Lessons in Fragility is more than a guidebook to the uses and unexpected gifts of adversity. It is a love story, an adventure tale, an impetuous travelog, and a suspenseful medical saga (you can almost hear the hospital beeps in the background, the shuffle of footsteps down the halls) borne along by Nehring's buoyant breadth of spirit and the unbreakable bond with her daughter Eurydice. And the writing! So elegant and intimate. It's like hearing from a cherished friend after way too long." —James Wolcott, author of the memoir Lucking Out and the essay collection Critical Mass 
   
   
   
  "In 2009 Cristina Nehring's brilliant first book, A Vindication of Love, was featured on the cover of the New York Times Book Review. An important new voice had appeared in American letters. Then just as suddenly Nehring seemed to disappear. Now unexpectedly from Paris comes a heartbreaking and tender memoir, The Child Who Never Spoke, that explains her years of silence. These "lessons in fragility" tell of Nehring's unexpected pregnancy and birth of a "special child," a baby girl with Down's syndrome in its most extreme form. Forthright, profound, and passionate, this new book is also a vindication of love. Although it tells a story full of sorrow, The Child Who Never Spoke is a not a sad book but a profound and joyous testament to the love between a mother and daughter." —Dana Gioia, California poet laureate and author of Can Poetry Matter?

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