This is a story about a mother, two daughters, and two dogs. It’s also about Mozart and Mendelssohn, the piano and the violin, and how we made it to Carnegie Hall.This was supposed to be a story of how Chinese parents are better at raising kids than Western ones.But instead, it’s about a bitter clash of cultures, a fleeting taste of glory, and how I was humbled by a thirteen-year-old.From Publishers WeeklyChua (Day of Empire) imparts the secret behind the stereotypical Asian child’s phenomenal success: the Chinese mother. Chua promotes what has traditionally worked very well in raising children: strict, Old World, uncompromising values-and the parents don’t have to be Chinese. What they are, however, are different from what she sees as indulgent and permissive Western parents: stressing academic performance above all, never accepting a mediocre grade, insisting on drilling and practice, and instilling respect for authority. Chua and her Jewish husband (both are professors at Yale Law) raised two girls, and her account of their formative years achieving amazing success in school and music performance proves both a model and a cautionary tale. Sophia, the eldest, was dutiful and diligent, leapfrogging over her peers in academics and as a Suzuki piano student; Lulu was also gifted, but defiant, who excelled at the violin but eventually balked at her mother’s pushing. Chua’s efforts “not to raise a soft, entitled child” will strike American readers as a little scary-removing her children from school for extra practice, public shaming and insults, equating Western parenting with failure-but the results, she claims somewhat glibly in this frank, unapologetic report card, “were hard to quarrel with.”(Jan.)(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.Chua’s stated intent is to present the differences between Western and Chinese parenting styles by sharing experiences with her own children (now teenagers). As the daughter of Chinese immigrants, she is poised to contrast the two disparate styles, even as she points out that being a “Chinese Mother” can cross ethnic lines: it is more a state of mind than a genetic trait. Yet this is a deeply personal story about her two daughters and how their lives are shaped by such demands as Chua’s relentless insistence on straight A’s and daily hours of mandatory music practice, even while vacationing with grandparents. Readers may be stunned by Chua’s explanations of her hard-line style, and her meant-to-be humorous depictions of screaming matches intended to force greatness from her girls. She insists that Western children are no happier than Chinese ones, and that her daughters are the envy of neighbors and friends, because of their poise and musical, athletic, and academic accomplishments. Ironically, this may be read as a cautionary tale that asks just what price should be paid for achievement.—Colleen Mondor

One of Bustle’s 17 of the Best Nonfiction Books Coming in January 2017 and Men’s Journal’s 7 Best Books of January“Brilliant, real and readable.”—former U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine AlbrightA USA Today “New and Noteworthy” BookLisa Dickey traveled across the whole of Russia three times—in 1995, 2005 and 2015—making friends in eleven different cities, then coming back again and again to see how their lives had changed. Like the acclaimed British documentary series Seven Up!, she traces the ups and downs of ordinary people’s lives, in the process painting a deeply nuanced portrait of modern Russia.From the caretakers of a lighthouse in Vladivostok, to the Jewish community of Birobidzhan, to a farmer in Buryatia, to a group of gay friends in Novosibirsk, to a wealthy “New Russian” family in Chelyabinsk, to a rap star in Moscow, Dickey profiles a wide cross-section of people in one of the most fascinating, dynamic and important countries on Earth. Along the way, she explores dramatic changes in everything from technology to social norms, drinks copious amounts of vodka, and learns firsthand how the Russians really feel about Vladimir Putin.Including powerful photographs of people and places over time, and filled with wacky travel stories, unexpected twists, and keen insights, Bears in the Streets offers an unprecedented on-the-ground view of Russia today.

The Surprising Story of Hedy Lamarr, “The Most Beautiful Girl in the World”As a teenage actress in 1920s Austria, performing on the stage and in film in light comedies and musicals, Hedy Kiesler, with her exotic beauty, was heralded across Europe by her mentor, Max Reinhardt. However, it was her nude scene, and surprising dramatic ability, in Ecstasy that made her a star. Ecstasy’s notoriety followed her for the rest of her life. She married one of Austria’s most successful and wealthy munitions barons, giving up her career for what seemed at first a fairy-tale existence. Instead, as war clouds loomed in the mid-1930s, Hedy discovered that she was trapped in a loveless marriage to a controlling, ruthless man who befriended Mussolini, sold armaments to Hitler, yet hid his own Jewish heritage to become an “honorary Aryan.”She fled her husband and escaped to Hollywood, where M-G-M changed her name to Hedy Lamarr and she became one of film’s most glamorous stars. She worked with such renowned directors as King Vidor, Victor Fleming, and Cecil B. DeMille, and appeared opposite such respected actors as Clark Gable, Spencer Tracy, John Garfield, and James Stewart. But as her career waned, her personal problems and legal wranglings cast lingering shadows over her former image. It wasn’t until decades later that the world was stunned to learn of her unexpected role as the inventor of a technology that has become an essential part of everything from military weaponry to cell phones—proof that Hedy Lamarr was far more than merely Delilah to Victor Mature’s Samson. She demonstrated a creativity and an intelligence she had always possessed.Stephen Michael Shearer’s in-depth and meticulously researched biography, written with the cooperation of Hedy’s children, intimate friends, and colleagues, separates the truths from the rumors, the facts from the fables, about Hedy Lamarr, to reveal the life and character of one of classic Hollywood’s most beautiful and remarkable women.

Beauty is Convulsive is a biographical meditation on one of the twentieth century's most compelling and famous artists, Frida Kahlo (1907–1954).At the age of nineteen, Kahlo's life was transformed when the bus in which she was riding was hit by a trolley car. Pierced by a steel handrail and broken in many places, she entered a long period of convalescence during which she began to paint self-portraits. In 1928, at twenty-one, she joined the Communist Party and came to know Diego Rivera. The forty-one-year-old Rivera, Mexico's most famous painter, was impressed by the force of Kahlo's personality and by the authenticity of her art, and the two soon married. Though they were devoted to each other, intermittent affairs on both sides, Frida's grief over her inability to bear a child, and her frequent illnesses made the marriage tumultuous. This prose poem is typical Maso-vigorous, daring, always original. She brings together parts of Kahlo's biography, her letters, medical documents, and her diaries with language that is often as erotic and colorful as Kahlo's paintings."Maso's precise and poetic prose… brims with emotion, imagination, intelligence, and beauty." — Review of Contemporary Fiction"… a supple, discerning, and haunting prose poem, a biographical meditation that elegantly charts Kahlo’s epic resiliency, artistic daring, unrelenting suffering, soul-saving 'sense of the ridiculous,' and glorious defiance. Maso’s spare yet lyric tribute, a genuine communion, is a welcome antidote to the mawkishness and sensationalism that is starting to blur our appreciation for Kahlo’s pioneering art and incandescent spirit." — Booklist

«Becoming» – одна из самых ожидаемых книг этого года. Искренние и вдохновляющие мемуары бывшей первой леди Соединенных Штатов Америки уже проданы тиражом более 3 миллионов экземпляров, переведены на 32 языка и 10 месяцев возглавляют самый престижный книжный рейтинг Amazon.В своей книге Мишель Обама впервые делится сокровенными моментами своего брака – когда она пыталась балансировать между работой и личной жизнью, а также стремительно развивающейся политической карьерой мужа. Мы становимся свидетелями приватных бесед супругов, идем плечом к плечу с автором по великолепным залам Белого дома и сопровождаем Мишель Обаму в поездках по всей стране.«Перед первой леди Америка предстает без прикрас. Я бывала на аукционах в частных домах, больше похожих на музеи, где стояли ванны из драгоценных камней. Видела семьи, которые потеряли все в урагане Катрина и были до слез благодарны получить в дар хотя бы работающие холодильник и плиту. Я встречала лицемеров и лгунов. Но также встречала и учителей, жен военнослужащих и многих других людей, настолько сильных духом, что я с трудом верила своим глазам».Рассказывая свою историю честно и смело, автор заставляет каждого из нас задуматься: кто я и какова моя история?

In the 150 years since the end of the Civil War and the ratification of the Thirteenth Amendment, the story of race and America has remained a brutally simple one, written on flesh: it is the story of the black body, exploited to create the country’s foundational wealth, violently segregated to unite a nation after a civil war, and, today, still disproportionately threatened, locked up and killed in the streets. What is it like to inhabit a black body and find a way to live within it? And how can America reckon with its fraught racial history?Between the World and Me is Ta-Nehisi Coates' attempt to answer those questions, presented in the form of a letter to his adolescent son. Coates shares with his son — and readers — the story of his own awakening to the truth about history and race through a series of revelatory experiences: immersion in nationalist mythology as a child; engagement with history, poetry and love at Howard University; travels to Civil War battlefields and the South Side of Chicago; a journey to France that reorients his sense of the world; and pilgrimages to the homes of mothers whose children’s lives have been taken as American plunder. Taken together, these stories map a winding path towards a kind of liberation — a journey from fear and confusion, to a full and honest understanding of the world as it is.Masterfully woven from lyrical personal narrative, reimagined history, and fresh, emotionally charged reportage, Between the World and Me offers a powerful new framework for understanding America’s history and current crisis, and a transcendent vision for a way forward.Ta-Nehisi Coates is a national correspondent for the Atlantic and the author of the memoir The Beautiful Struggle. Coates has received the National Magazine Award, the Hillman Prize for Opinion and Analysis Journalism, and the George Polk Award for his Atlantic cover story ‘The Case for Reparations’. He lives in New York with his wife and son.

Книга "Billy's Blues — Истории из жизни Билли Новика" это повесть о мальчике Диме из Купчино, который превращается в известного половине страны музыканта Билли, лидера группы "Billy's Band". Она выросла из бесчисленных интервью с Билли и другими музыкантами группы и получилась такой, какой получилась. В ней угрюмые 90-е с концертами в переходах, нулевые с первыми альбомами и выступлением на новогоднем огоньке и то, что есть сейчас и пока никак не называется.Билли книга нравится, мне тоже. Хорошо, если тех, кто ее прочитает будет больше.

Книга "Billy's Blues - Истории из жизни Билли Новика" это повесть о мальчике Диме из Купчино, который превращается в известного половине страны музыканта Билли, лидера группы "Billy's Band". Она выросла из бесчисленных интервью с Билли и другими музыкантами группы и получилась такой, какой получилась. В ней угрюмые 90-е с концертами в переходах, нулевые с первыми альбомами и выступлением на новогоднем огоньке и то, что есть сейчас и пока никак не называется. Билли книга нравится, мне тоже. Хорошо, если тех, кто ее прочитает будет больше.

A young woman’s heady encounter with the new Russia, as she and the country thrill to their first taste of freedom

It is September 1991 and the dismantling of the Soviet Union is under way. In Voronezh, a provincial town famous for its loamy black earth, a sense of lightheartedness—part fear, part exhilaration—pervades. The people conquer uncertainty, hunger, and -20 degree temperatures by drinking huge quantities of black-market vodka and reveling in their new-found sexual freedom.

Black Earth City is Charlotte Hobson’s record of this tumultuous time. An irresistible guide, she brings us into the cramped, rundown Hostel No. 4, where international students and locals congregate. We meet Yakov, who blows half-a-million rubles on a taxi to see a girl in Minsk; Lola, who sleeps with her peers for a share of their dinner; Viktor, with his brutal memories of military service; and Mitya, Hobson’s wild and optimistic lover whose gradual disillusion—and dissolution—mirrors his country’s dramatic lurch from euphoria to despair.

At once loving and sharp-edged, tender and brave, Black Earth City reveals a world and a woman as they open up to life.

Блестящая биография Black Sabbath – такая же безумная, как жгучий темперамент легендарной группы, «жесткая» в неизбежном драматизме, как риффы Тони Айомми, крышесносная, как все то, что десятки раз заставляло великого и ужасного Оззи балансировать на волоске между жизнью и смертью. Всемирно известный музыкальный журналист Мик Уолл владеет редким даром передавать читателям уникальный стиль и настроение музыкантов, а также проводить серьезные исследования, гарантирующие самые подробные и правдивые факты из личной жизни участников. Книга содержит нецензурную брань.

Блестящая биография Black Sabbath — такая же безумная, как жгучий темперамент легендарной группы, «жесткая» в неизбежном драматизме, как риффы Тони Айомми, крышесносная, как все то, что десятки раз заставляло великого и ужасного Оззи балансировать на волоске между жизнью и смертью. Всемирно известный музыкальный журналист Мик Уолл владеет редким даром передавать читателям уникальный стиль и настроение музыкантов, а также проводить серьезные исследования, гарантирующие самые подробные и правдивые факты из личной жизни участников.Книга содержит нецензурную брань.

Džons VirapensBlakusparādība: NāveBijušā farmācijas industrijas darbinieka grēksūdzeŠī grāmata atsedz farmācijas indus­trijas aizkulises un atklāj šokējošus faktus: korupciju, krāpšanos zāļu re­ģistrācijas procesā, negodīgu tirgvedību un nepietiekami pārbaudītu medikamentu izraisītas blakusparādības… Visu šo negāciju iemesls ir vienkāršs: nauda.Vai zinājāt, ka… *…lielās farmācijas korporācijas ik gadu tērē milzu naudu, lai pār­liecinātu ārstus parakstīt konkrētā uzņēmuma ražojumus?…arī sabiedrībā pazīstami zinātnieki un ārsti dažkārt tiek piekukuļoti ar dārgiem ceļojumiem, dāvanām un naudu?…ar daudzām zālēm ir veikti tikai īstermiņa klīniskie pētījumi? …ir medikamenti, kuru reģistrācijā sava loma bijusi kukuļošanai? …farmācijas industrija pati izgudro slimības un reklamē tās īpašās kampaņās, lai palielinātu medikamentu noietu?…farmācijas industrija par saviem upuriem arvien biežāk izvēlas bērnus?Dr. Džons Virapens 35 gadus strādājis dažādos starptautiskos farmā­cijas uzņēmumos. Savas karjeras augstākajā punktā viņš bijis uzņē­muma EliLilly Zviedrijas pārstāvniecības ģenerāldirektors. Dr. Virapens lieliski pārzina zāļu ražotāju izmantotās negodīgās tirgvedības meto­des un zāļu reģistrācijas procesa netīro pusi. Kad sirdsapziņa un doma par mazā dēlēna nākotni vairs neļauj Virapenam klusēt, viņš saraksta šo grāmatu, kas katram liks padomāt divreiz, pirms ķerties pie kārtējās tabletes.īpaša pateicībamanai ģimenei, kas pacieta mani laikā, kad rakstīju šo grāmatu.Es veltu šo grāmatu neskaitāmajiem farmācijas industrijas upuriem un visiem tiem bērniem, kuri, cerams, nekad nekļūs par lielo farmācijas uzņēmumu izmēģinājuma trusīšiem, kas rij vienu tableti pēc otras. Ceru, ka ar šīm atmiņām varēšu sekmēt šo bērnu brīvību.īpašs paldies Klārkam Beikeram un institūtam The Office of Medical and Scientific Justice, Inc. ( www.OMST.org ).No angļu valodas tulkojis Māris BaltiņšNoskannējis grāmatu un failu izveidojis Imants Ločmelis

From one of our most powerful writers, a work of stunning frankness about losing a daughter. Richly textured with bits of her own childhood and married life with her husband, John Gregory Dunne, and daughter, Quintana Roo, this new book by Joan Didion examines her thoughts, fears, and doubts regarding having children, illness, and growing old.Blue Nights opens on July 26, 2010, as Didion thinks back to Quintana’s wedding in New York seven years before. Today would be her wedding anniversary. This fact triggers vivid snapshots of Quintana’s childhood — in Malibu, in Brentwood, at school in Holmby Hills. Reflecting on her daughter but also on her role as a parent, Didion asks the candid questions any parent might about how she feels she failed either because cues were not taken or perhaps displaced. “How could I have missed what was clearly there to be seen?” Finally, perhaps we all remain unknown to each other. Seamlessly woven in are incidents Didion sees as underscoring her own age, something she finds hard to acknowledge, much less accept.Blue Nights—the long, light evening hours that signal the summer solstice, “the opposite of the dying of the brightness, but also its warning”—like The Year of Magical Thinking before it, is an iconic book of incisive and electric honesty, haunting and profoundly moving.

Here is a refreshingly different sort of yachting book — not the memoirs of some super-tough global adventurer or seawise master mariner, but an account of how one of the most demanding of all sea voyages, the Observer Singlehanded Transatlantic Race, was taken on by a yachtsman who was starting virtually from scratch. Eighteen months before the start of the race, Stuart Woods was nearly thirty-seven (“approaching my prime, really”), overweight (“not actually fat, mind you, just a bit heavy”), and not very fit (“It has always been my belief that strenuous exercise destroys the tissues”). He had never held a sextant or sailed a yacht single-handed. The only boat he had ever owned was an eleven-foot plywood dinghy (“At the Mirror Nationals we came twenty-ninth out of sixty boats. It was my finest hour”).

This is his entertaining account of how he learned to sail; how he absorbed enough navigation, learned enough seamanship, and acquired enough practical experience to convince a demanding Race Committee that he was not mad or a fool; how he chose his designer, his yacht, and his boatyard; and. finally, how he fared in the Big Race.

This book should not be missed by any yachtsman who is struggling to raise enough courage to leave harbor, by any dinghy sailor who aspires to bigger things; or by anybody who has ever stood on a shore, watched a sailboat go by, and wondered what it’s all about.

«BMW» и «Varta» являются символами, представляющими мощь немецкой экономики в мире. Но вряд ли кто-нибудь знает, что нити этих фирм сходятся в руках одной единственной семьи: крупнейшей промышленной династии Германии. Опираясь на предпринимательский талант и политическое чутье, четыре ее поколения создали настоящую империю, и их успех является наглядным примером сочетания семейных традиций, экономики и власти в Германии. При этом они сумели остаться незаметными. Рюдигер Юнгблут впервые публикует захватывающую историю семьи Квандт.

For more than twenty years Louise Erdrich has dazzled readers with the intricately wrought, deeply poetic novels which have won her a place among today's finest writers. Her nonfiction is equally eloquent, and this lovely memoir offers a vivid glimpse of the landscape, the people, and the long tradition of storytelling that give her work its magical, elemental force.In a small boat like those her Native American ancestors have used for countless generations, she travels to Ojibwe home ground, the islands of Lake of the Woods in southern Ontario. Her only companions are her new baby and the baby's father, an Ojibwe spiritual leader, on a pilgrimage to the sacred rock paintings their people have venerated for centuries as mystical "teaching and dream guides," and where even today Ojibwe leave offerings of tobacco in token of their power. With these paintings as backdrop, Erdrich summons to life the Ojibwe's spirits and songs, their language and sorrows, and the tales that are in their blood, echoing through her own family's very contemporary American lives and shaping her vision of the wider world. Thoughtful, moving, and wonderfully well observed, her meditation evokes ancient wisdom, modern ways, and the universal human concerns we all share."This book is a treasure and a delight."-"Minneapolis Star Tribune"

Miał ledwie dwadzieścia dwa lata, gdy w 1940 roku trafił do obozu. Przesiedział tam pięć lat. Był dzieckiem warszawskiej ulicy, cwaniakiem, od najmłodszych lat zahartowanym w bójkach, obdarzonym dużym sprytem i humorem. Był twardy, postanowił, że się nie da – i udało mu się. Przeżył, choć wrócił z gruźlicą i zmarł na nią w 1963 roku.Obozowe przeżycia opisał w książce Pięć lat kacetu i od razu stał się sławny. Wszyscy orzekli, że to wielki samorodny talent. Miał wówczas lat czterdzieści. Wysoki, mocno zbudowany, lekko pochylony do przodu, jakby szykował się do skoku, z zadziornym spojrzeniem – po prostu kozak. Tam, „na dole", na Czerniakowie -jak sam mówił – tylko kozaki się liczyły. Zarabiał piosenkami warszawskiej ulicy, stał się modny, ludzie chętnie go słuchali.W 1959 roku napisał książkę o latach swego dzieciństwa i młodości BOSO, ALE W OSTROGACH. „Wiesz, jaki jestem – mówił o sobie -boso, ale w ostrogach". Przywołał w niej świat przedwojennej Warszawy, ukazał historię obyczaju z przedmieścia, namalował barwne postaci swojej grandy, w której „kapować nie wolno, skarżyć nie wolno, odegrać się wolno". „Grzesiuk lubi popisywać się krzepą- pisał Wojciech Żukrowski – prostuje się wewnętrznie, mogąc komuś dać po łbie, sam też bierze cięgi, ale nie skomli, tylko idzie w kąt lizać rany i poprzysięgać wyrównanie rachunku. Jest w nim jakaś romantyczna szlachetność. Nie odgrywa się za swoje niepowodzenia na słabszych, przestrzega zasad walki. Czytając niektóre karty, ma się ochotę go uściskać, klepnąć po przyjacielsku, dodać otuchy: Nie daj się, trzymaj się twardo". I trzyma się!BOSO, ALE W OSTROGACH miało już kilkanaście wydań i wciąż zdobywa czytelników.

One day in 2009, twenty-four-year-old Susannah Cahalan woke up alone in a strange hospital room, strapped to her bed, under guard, and unable to move or speak. A wristband marked her as a “flight risk,” and her medical records—chronicling a monthlong hospital stay of which she had no memory at all—showed hallucinations, violence, and dangerous instability. Only weeks earlier, Susannah had been on the threshold of a new, adult life: a healthy, ambitious college grad a few months into her first serious relationship and a promising career as a cub reporter at a major New York newspaper. Who was the stranger who had taken over her body? What was happening to her mind?In this swift and breathtaking narrative, Susannah tells the astonishing true story of her inexplicable descent into madness and the brilliant, lifesaving diagnosis that nearly didn’t happen. A team of doctors would spend a month—and more than a million dollars—trying desperately to pin down a medical explanation for what had gone wrong. Meanwhile, as the days passed and her family, boyfriend, and friends helplessly stood watch by her bed, she began to move inexorably through psychosis into catatonia and, ultimately, toward death. Yet even as this period nearly tore her family apart, it offered an extraordinary testament to their faith in Susannah and their refusal to let her go.Then, at the last minute, celebrated neurologist Souhel Najjar joined her team and, with the help of a lucky, ingenious test, saved her life. He recognized the symptoms of a newly discovered autoimmune disorder in which the body attacks the brain, a disease now thought to be tied to both schizophrenia and autism, and perhaps the root of “demonic possessions” throughout history.Far more than simply a riveting read and a crackling medical mystery, Brain on Fire is the powerful account of one woman’s struggle to recapture her identity and to rediscover herself among the fragments left behind. Using all her considerable journalistic skills, and building from hospital records and surveillance video, interviews with family and friends, and excerpts from the deeply moving journal her father kept during her illness, Susannah pieces together the story of her “lost month” to write an unforgettable memoir about memory and identity, faith and love. It is an important, profoundly compelling tale of survival and perseverance that is destined to become a classic.