Biographies & Memoirs

Based on more than forty interviews with Jobs conducted over two years—as well as interviews with more than a hundred family members, friends, adversaries, competitors, and colleagues—Walter Isaacson has written a riveting story of the roller-coaster life and searingly intense personality of a creative entrepreneur whose passion for perfection and ferocious drive revolutionized six industries: personal computers, animated movies, music, phones, tablet computing, and digital publishing.

At a time when America is seeking ways to sustain its innovative edge, and when societies around the world are trying to build digital-age economies, Jobs stands as the ultimate icon of inventiveness and applied imagination. He knew that the best way to create value in the twenty-first century was to connect creativity with technology. He built a company where leaps of the imagination were combined with remarkable feats of engineering.  

Although Jobs cooperated with this book, he asked for no control over what was written nor even the right to read it before it was published. He put nothing off-limits. He encouraged the people he knew to speak honestly. And Jobs speaks candidly, sometimes brutally so, about the people he worked with and competed against. His friends, foes, and colleagues provide an unvarnished view of the passions, perfectionism, obsessions, artistry, devilry, and compulsion for control that shaped his approach to business and the innovative products that resulted.

Driven by demons, Jobs could drive those around him to fury and despair. But his personality and products were interrelated, just as Apple’s hardware and software tended to be, as if part of an integrated system. His tale is instructive and cautionary, filled with lessons about innovation, character, leadership, and values.

Benjamin Franklin's Autobiography

Fictional adaptation of the Budville, NM murders by New Mexico crime historian, Don Bullis.

A haunting, evocative recounting of her life as a slave in North Carolina, and her final escape and emancipation, Jacobs' narrative, written between 1853 and 1858 and published in 1861, is one of the most important books ever written documenting the traumas and horrors of slavery in the antebellum South.

Over fifty years after the Emancipation Proclamation, Robert Sadler was sold into slavery at the age of five--by his own father. This is the no-holds-barred tale of those dark days, his quest for freedom, and the determination to serve others born out of his experience. It is a story of good triumphing over evil, of God's grace, and of an extraordinary life of ministry. An updated edition of a classic title.

An American classic, the story of beloved matriarch Marmee March and her four daughters -- domestic Meg, headstrong Jo, sensitive Beth, and artistic Amy -- was first published in 1868, and has never lost favor since. Marmee raises the March girls to womanhood while their father is serving as a chaplain in the Union Army during the Civil War. The caring family, mired in poverty but genteel and refined nonetheless, lives in New England and survives through snow and sisterly squabbles, love and laughter, pranks and plays, illnesses and courtships. Before becoming an author, Louisa May Alcott was a nurse during the Civil War. LITTLE WOMEN is her acknowledged masterpiece, with action and dialogue so charming and natural that it lacks any of the stuffiness usually associated with Victorian novels. The heartwarming story has even succeeded on screen, having been made many times into a successful motion picture.

On a May afternoon in 1943, an Army Air Forces bomber crashed into the Pacific Ocean and disappeared, leaving only a spray of debris and a slick of oil, gasoline, and blood.  Then, on the ocean surface, a face appeared.  It was that of a young lieutenant, the plane’s bombardier, who was struggling to a life raft and pulling himself aboard.  So began one of the most extraordinary odysseys of the Second World War.

The lieutenant’s name was Louis Zamperini.  In boyhood, he’d been a cunning and incorrigible delinquent, breaking into houses, brawling, and fleeing his home to ride the rails.  As a teenager, he had channeled his defiance into running, discovering a prodigious talent that had carried him to the Berlin Olympics and within sight of the four-minute mile.  But when war had come, the athlete had become an airman, embarking on a journey that led to his doomed flight, a tiny raft, and a drift into the unknown.

Ahead of Zamperini lay thousands of miles of open ocean, leaping sharks, a foundering raft, thirst and starvation, enemy aircraft, and, beyond, a trial even greater.  Driven to the limits of endurance, Zamperini would answer desperation with ingenuity; suffering with hope, resolve, and humor; brutality with rebellion.  His fate, whether triumph or tragedy, would be suspended on the fraying wire of his will.

In her long-awaited new book, Laura Hillenbrand writes with the same rich and vivid narrative voice she displayed in Seabiscuit.  Telling an unforgettable story of a man’s journey into extremity, Unbroken is a testament to the resilience of the human mind, body, and spirit.


From the Hardcover edition.

"The Bridge Never Crossed is the incredible story of George Burk's survival of a tragic plane crash, the unlikely series of events that saved his life, and his inspirational refusal to die . . . George has spent the balance of his life sharing what he has learned about work, leadership, faith, and the true meaning of 'quality of life'. He believes that angels walk among us. I believe that George is one of them." Joe Howard, Fire Chief, Rowlett, Texas "[George Burk's] determination and professionalism are examples for all of us to follow." A. M. Gray, General, U. S. Marine Corps, Commandant of the Marine Corps "What would happen if your life was a living hell? Read this book. George Burk has been to hell. Sharing his experiences and putting into perspective the precious commodity called 'life'. George shows us that when there are two outs in the bottom of the ninth, the game is far from over." Michael Kazyak, Dow Corning, Midland, Michigan "Thank you, George, for sharing your journey with us. You do make a difference in people's lives . . . I know, because you've made a difference in mine." Helen L. Campbell, Executive Director, State Firemen's & Fire Marshals' Association of Texas "Reading his book will rekindle your emotions, enhance your perspective, and very possibly change your life." Buck Riley, Basketball Coach, Adrian College, Adrian, Michigan "I thought I was going to be writing about a plane crash victim who had survived. Instead, I wrote about a survivor who had triumphed . . . Burk survived by reaching deep inside himself to a place he never knew existed and finding an energy he never knew he had. It is a place he has tapped many times since the crash. With characteristic courage, enthusiasm, and compassion, Burk shares his story, so that we may find our special place, too." Deborah Weisberg, Reporter, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

The book has no illustrations or index. Purchasers are entitled to a free trial membership in the General Books Club where they can select from more than a million books without charge. Subjects: Voyages around the world; Christian Science; Mississippi River; Biography

He is the deadliest American sniper ever, called “the devil” by the enemies he hunted and “the legend” by his Navy SEAL brothers . . .

From 1999 to 2009, U.S. Navy SEAL Chris Kyle recorded the most career sniper kills in United States military history. The Pentagon has officially confirmed more than 150 of Kyles kills (the previous American record was 109), but it has declined to verify the astonishing total number for this book. Iraqi insurgents feared Kyle so much they named him al-Shaitan (“the devil”) and placed a bounty on his head. Kyle earned legendary status among his fellow SEALs, Marines, and U.S. Army soldiers, whom he protected with deadly accuracy from rooftops and stealth positions. Gripping and unforgettable, Kyle’s masterful account of his extraordinary battlefield experiences ranks as one of the great war memoirs of all time.

A native Texan who learned to shoot on childhood hunting trips with his father, Kyle was a champion saddle-bronc rider prior to joining the Navy. After 9/11, he was thrust onto the front lines of the War on Terror, and soon found his calling as a world-class sniper who performed best under fire. He recorded a personal-record 2,100-yard kill shot outside Baghdad; in Fallujah, Kyle braved heavy fire to rescue a group of Marines trapped on a street; in Ramadi, he stared down insurgents with his pistol in close combat. Kyle talks honestly about the pain of war—of twice being shot and experiencing the tragic deaths of two close friends.

American Sniper also honors Kyles fellow warriors, who raised hell on and off the battlefield. And in moving first-person accounts throughout, Kyles wife, Taya, speaks openly about the strains of war on their marriage and children, as well as on Chris.

Adrenaline-charged and deeply personal, American Sniper is a thrilling eyewitness account of war that only one man could tell.