Other books that might interest you

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  A Complicated Passion - The Life...

  Carrie Rickey

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  Over the course of her sixty-five-year career, the longest of any female filmmaker, Agnès Varda (1928–2019) wrote and directed some of the most acclaimed films of her era, from her tour de force Cléo from 5 to 7 (1962), a classic of modernist cinema, to the beloved documentary The Gleaners and I (2000) four decades later. She helped to define the French New Wave, inspired an entire generation of filmmakers, and was recognized with major awards at the Cannes, Berlin, and Venice Film Festivals, as well as an honorary Oscar at the Academy Awards. 
   
   
   
  In this lively biography, Carrie Rickey explores the "complicated passions" that informed Varda's charmed life and indelible work. Rickey traces Varda's three remarkable careers—as still photographer, as filmmaker, and as installation artist. She explains how Varda was a pioneer in blurring the lines between documentary and fiction, using the latest digital technology and carving a path for women in the movie industry. She demonstrates how Varda was years ahead of her time in addressing sexism, abortion, labor exploitation, immigrant rights, and race relations with candor and incisiveness. And she delves into Varda's incredibly rich social life with figures such as Harrison Ford, Jean-Luc Godard, Jim Morrison, Susan Sontag, and Andy Warhol, and her nearly forty-year marriage to the celebrated director Jacques Demy.

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  Lord Byron and Ada Lovelace: The...

  Charles River Editors

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  Lord Byron’s very name conjures up visions of the Romantic movement and outlandishly dressed bohemians, for if Alfred, Lord Tennyson was the poetic darling of the masses, Byron was the hero of the hedonists. While the traditional English literary hero was a nobleman rescuing a damsel in distress, Byron created the anti-hero, a man plagued by self-doubt and hidden sorrow. At the same time, his hero was also capable of facing reality once he had wrestled through his own angst, and even of occasionally acting nobly in the great tradition of the author’s Puritan forebears.  
  If Byron himself was eclectic in his tastes and character, his poetry was even more so, for he could feature satiric pieces poking fun at the status quo and historical renditions of ancient battles fought with nobility and valor, all in the same volume. Like so many other writers, he used poetry to explore his own most deeply guarded secrets, in one poem playing in first person the dramatic hero and in another the troubled penitent. He was sometimes funny, sometimes lyrical, and sometimes verbose, but he was always interesting, and that is what allowed him to become one of the most famous writers of all time, almost against his own will, and despite his premature death. 
  	Charles Babbage and Ada Lovelace were the first to conceive the notion of a programmable and automatic universal computer, which, on top of its ability to calculate any mathematical equation at an unmatched speed, could also be used for a seemingly infinite number of other applications. In other words, they envisioned the precursor to the modern computer. It was certainly an unusual path for any woman, and she managed to do so before an incredibly premature death. Augusta Ada King, Countess of Lovelace, died in 1852 at the age of 36, but during her short and tumultuous life, she was one of the first to recognize that computers could do far more than complex calculations.

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  My Sailing Life - Exploring the...

  Peter J Faulkner

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  A young man builds a yacht and sets sail from New Zealand across the notorious Tasman Sea. His yacht survives her torrid maiden voyage and he is relieved to find himself diving among the wonders of the Great Barrier Reef, encountering sharks,manta rays, turtles, whales and orca.

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  Killers of Illusions

  Juan Majorel

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  Killers of Illusions is a narrative audiobook based on possible true events, told from the perspective of an adult who reconstructs his childhood marked by violence, fear, and abandonment. 
  Mariano was seven years old when he understood that home could be a dangerous place. The house, dilapidated and oppressive, was not a refuge but a constant scene of tension. His violent, alcoholic father imposed terror as a form of control. His fragile and absent mother tried to protect her children, but never fully succeeded. In that environment, Mariano and his siblings learned far too soon to be silent, to hide, to survive. 
  Over the years, the violence doesn't disappear: it transforms. Reports, separations, moves, court orders that fall short, forced visits, imposed silences, and adults who look the other way. While the system fails, the children grow up carrying invisible wounds that manifest in their bodies, their behavior, and the way they relate to the world. 
  Narrated with a raw, restrained, and profoundly human tone, this book avoids cheap sensationalism and morbid curiosity. It explores memory from the distance of time, respecting both a child's perception of events and the adult reflection that follows. The story unfolds toward an inevitable conclusion, where the past violently intrudes, forcing a confrontation with what could never be resolved. 
  "Killers of Illusions" is not merely the story of a shattered childhood. It is a testament to the consequences of silence, the fragility of relationships, the failure of the system, and the long road of naming and confronting past experiences to avoid repeating them.

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  Silent Valor - One Man's Vietnam...

  Rick Greenberg

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  A young Marine deployed to Vietnam finds terror, danger, and death, but also courage, loyalty, and brotherhood. This intense, gritty tale of the Vietnam War, in a setting depicted so vividly you can almost feel the jungle heat, it will draw you in and won't let go. 
   
   
   
  Silent Valor recreates what happened to Lance Corporal Don Talbot and the squad members of Echo Two in their attempt to save fellow Marines surrounded by the North Vietnamese Army. 
   
   
   
  This touching true story will please listeners interested in the Vietnam War and all those who find inspiration in examples of courage under fire.

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  No One Has Seen It All - Lessons...

  Betty Halbreich, Rebecca Paley,...

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  From the New York City legend, bestselling author, and iconic stylist Betty Halbreich comes this wise and witty collection of guidance from her 96 years to help people of all ages look, feel, and live their best. For half a century, Betty Halbreich curated wardrobes and bore witness to the vicissitudes of life as Bergdorf Goodman’s original personal shopper. Of course, visitors to the store were awed by a 96-year-old woman who still held down a nine-to-five, let alone one in the youth-obsessed industry of fashion. But age is only half the story: Betty built that career by giving encouraging yet deeply honest advice. Much of it was about what to wear, but her insight was by no means relegated only to matters of the closet. She was known for her good taste on many levels, from her immaculate Park Avenue apartment of 70-plus years to the fashion stars she helped discover and the looks she styled for iconic series like Sex and the City and Gossip Girl. In short, Betty was in the unique position to dispense useful prescriptions on how to look good and live well at any age. This collection of her writings from the last five years of her life contains her signature firm and frank guidance on relationships, careers, style, etiquette, and keeping house, as well as eloquent reflections on aging, solitude, and modern life. The result is a definitive dispatch from a powerful woman who always held her head up high, inspiring you to do the same.

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