Results 41 to 45 of 45 | « previous
- Every man for himself and God against all : a memoir / by Herzog, Werner,1942-author.; Hofmann, Michael,1970-translator.; translation of:Herzog, Werner,1942-Jeder für sich und Gott gegen alle.English.;
- "Legendary filmmaker and celebrated author Werner Herzog tells in his inimitable voice the story of his epic artistic career in a long-awaited memoir that is as inventive and daring as anything he has done before. Werner Herzog was born in September 1942 in Munich, Germany, at a turning point in the Second World War. Soon Germany would be defeated and a new world would have to be made out the rubble and horrors of the war. Fleeing the Allied bombing raids, Herzog's mother took him and his older brother to a remote, rustic part of Bavaria where he would spend much of his childhood hungry, without running water, in deep poverty. It was there, as the new postwar order was emerging, that one of the most visionary filmmakers of the next seven decades was formed. Herzog made his first film in 1961 at age 19, and the wildly productive working life that followed--spanning the seven continents and encompassing both documentary and fiction--was an adventure as grand and otherworldly as any depicted in his many classic films, from early features Aguirre and Nosferatu, to Fitzcarraldo and later documentaries such as Grizzly Man and Cave of Forgotten Dreams. Every Man for Himself and God Against All is at once a firsthand personal record of one of the great and self-invented lives of our time, and a singular literary masterpiece that will enthrall fans old and new alike. In a hypnotic swirl of memory, Herzog untangles and relives his most important experiences and inspirations, telling the full story of his life for the first and only time"--
- Subjects: Biographies.; Autobiographies.; Herzog, Werner, 1942-; Motion picture producers and directors;
- Book of lives [text (large print)] : a memoir of sorts / by Atwood, Margaret,1939-author.;
- Includes bibliographical references and index."The long-awaited memoir of one of the most lauded and influential writers of our time, from her peripatetic childhood in Northern Ontario, through the writing of her seminal novel The Handmaid's Tale in occupied East Berlin, to her position today as revered truth-teller and literary icon. From the moment she published her first collection of poetry in 1966 -- sweeping up our most prestigious literary award while still a graduate student in Victorian literature at Harvard -- Margaret Atwood has been ahead of her time. Raised by ruggedly independent, scientifically minded parents (her father was a forest entomologist, her mother a former schoolteacher), Atwood spent half of every year in the deep forests of Quebec, living in tents or in houses hand-hewn by her father. Thrilling and unfettered, it was also isolating (on celebrating her eighth birthday: "It sounds forlorn. It was forlorn. It gets more forlorn.") and occasionally terrifying (alone for days with a 42-year-old pregnant mother, with no means of transportation or communication). From this unconventional origin, Atwood unspools her life story, linking seminal moments to the books that have shaped the literary landscapes of our time, from the cruel year that spawned Cat's Eye to the Orwellian 1980s of Berlin, where conversations between writers were quickly ushered outdoors to evade the listening devices in any Westerner's home or hotel room. Chronicling oddball early jobs (teaching English to engineering students in a Quonset hut), a faltering early marriage, the bohemian gatherings and literary infighting of a generation of writers finding their voice, to her magical life with the wildly charismatic writer Graeme Gibson and their only daughter, Atwood shares the stories, anecdotes, behind-the-scenes machinations, and turning points that have made her one of the most important writers of her era"--
- Subjects: Biographies.; Autobiographies.; Large print books.; Personal narratives.; Atwood, Margaret, 1939-; Fiction; Novelists, Canadian; Novelists, Canadian; Authors, Canadian (English); Authors, Canadian (English);
- Bleaker house : chasing my novel to the end of the world / by Stevens, Nell,1985-author.;
- "On a frozen island in the Falklands, with only penguins for company, a young would-be writer struggles to craft a debut novel ... and instead writes a funny, clever, moving memoir that heralds the arrival of a fresh new literary talent. Twenty-seven-year-old Nell Stevens was determined to write a novel, but somehow life kept getting in the way. Then came an irresistible opportunity: she won a fellowship to spend three months, all expenses paid, anywhere in the world to research and write a book. Did she choose a glittering metropolis, a romantic village, an exotic paradise? Um, no. Nell chose Bleaker Island, a snowy, windswept pile of rock off the Falklands. There, in a guesthouse where she would be the only guest, she imagined she could finally rid herself of distractions and write her 2,500 words a day. In three months, surely she'd have a novel, right? It's true that there aren't many distractions on Bleaker, other than sheep, penguins, paranoia and the weather. But as Nell gets to work on her novel--a delightful Dickensian fiction she calls Bleaker House--she discovers that an excruciatingly erratic Internet connection and 1100 calories a day (as much food as she could carry in her suitcase, budgeted to the raisin) are far from ideal conditions for literary production. With deft humour, this memoir traces Nell's island days and slowly reveals details of the life and people she has left behind in pursuit of her art. They pop up in her novel, as well, as memoir and novel start to reflect one another. It seems that there is nowhere Nell can run--neither a remote island nor the pages of her notebook--to escape herself. A whimsical, entertaining, thought-provoking blend of memoir and travelogue, laced with tongue-in-cheek writing advice, Bleaker House brilliantly captures the hopes, fears, self-torture and humour of being young and yearning to make a creative life. With winning honesty and wit, Nell's race to finish her book emerges as a fascinating narrative in its own right."--
- Subjects: Autobiographies.; Biographies.; Stevens, Nell, 1985-; Stevens, Nell, 1985-; Authors, English; Authorship.;
- Pluck : a memoir of a Newfoundland childhood and the raucous, terrible, amazing journey to becoming a novelist / by Morrissey, Donna,1956-author.;
- "A deeply personal account of love's restorative ability as it leads renowned novelist Donna Morrissey through mental illness, family death, and despair to becoming a writer--told with charm and inimitable humour. When Donna Morrissey left the only home she had ever known, an isolated Newfoundland settlement, at age 16, she was ready for adventure. She had grown up without television or telephones but had absorbed the tragic stories and comic yarns of her close-knit family and community. The death of her infant brother marked the family, and years later, Morrissey suffers devastating guilt about the accidental death of her teenage brother, whom she'd enticed to join her in the oilfields. Her misery was compounded by her own misdiagnosis of a terminal illness, all of which contributed to crippling anxiety and an actual diagnosis of PTSD. Many of those events and themes would eventually be transformed and recast as fictional gold in Morrissey's novels. In another writer's hands, Morrissey's account of her personal story could easily be a tragedy. Instead, she combines darkness and light, levity and sadness into her tale, as her indomitable spirit and humour sustain her. Morrissey's path takes her from the drudgery of being a grocery clerk (who occasionally enlivens her shift with recreational drugs) to western oilfields, to marriage and divorce and working in a fish-processing plant to support herself and her two young children. Throughout her struggles, she nourishes a love of learning and language. Morrissey layers her account of her life with stories of those who came before her, a breed rarely seen in the modern world. It centers around iron-willed women: mothers and daughters, wives, sisters, teachers and mentors who find the support, the wind for their wings, outside the bounds given to them by nature. And it is a mysterious older woman she meets in Halifax who eventually unleashes the writer that Morrissey is destined to become. An inspiring and insightful memoir, Pluck illustrates that even when you find yourself unravelling, you can find a way to spin the yarns that will save you--and delight readers everywhere."--
- Subjects: Biographies.; Autobiographies.; Morrissey, Donna, 1956-; Anxiety disorders; Brothers; Novelists, Canadian (English);
- D-Day Girls The Spies Who Armed the Resistance, Sabotaged the Nazis, and Helped Win World War II [electronic resource] : by Rose, Sarah.aut; cloudLibrary;
- NATIONAL BESTSELLER • The dramatic, untold history of the heroic women recruited by Britain’s elite spy agency to help pave the way for Allied victory in World War II “Gripping. Spies, romance, Gestapo thugs, blown-up trains, courage, and treachery (lots of treachery)—and all of it true.”—Erik Larson, author of The Devil in the White City and Dead Wake In 1942, the Allies were losing, Germany seemed unstoppable, and every able man in England was on the front lines. To “set Europe ablaze,” in the words of Winston Churchill, the Special Operations Executive  (SOE), whose spies were trained in everything from demolition to sharpshooting, was forced to do something unprecedented: recruit women. Thirty-nine answered the call, leaving their lives and families to become saboteurs in France. In D-Day Girls, Sarah Rose draws on recently de­classified files, diaries, and oral histories to tell the thrilling story of three of these remarkable women. There’s Andrée Borrel, a scrappy and streetwise Parisian who blew up power lines with the Gestapo hot on her heels; Odette Sansom, an unhappily married suburban mother who saw the SOE as her ticket out of domestic life and into a meaningful adventure; and Lise de Baissac, a fiercely independent member of French colonial high society and the SOE’s unflap­pable “queen.” Together, they destroyed train lines, ambushed Nazis, plotted prison breaks, and gathered crucial intelligence—laying the groundwork for the D-Day invasion that proved to be the turning point in the war. Rigorously researched and written with razor-sharp wit, D-Day Girls is an inspiring story for our own moment of resistance: a reminder of what courage—and the energy of politically animated women—can accomplish when the stakes seem incalculably high. Praise for D-Day Girls “Rigorously researched . . . [a] thriller in the form of a non-fiction book.”—Refinery29 “Equal parts espionage-romance thriller and historical narrative, D-Day Girls traces the lives and secret activities of the 39 women who answered the call to infiltrate France. . . . While chronicling the James Bond-worthy missions and love affairs of these women, Rose vividly captures the broken landscape of war.”—The Washington Post “Gripping history . . . thoroughly researched and written as smoothly as a good thriller, this is a mesmerizing story of creativity, perseverance, and astonishing heroism.”—Publishers Weekly (starred review)
- Subjects: Electronic books.; Women; World War II; Intelligence & Espionage;
- © 2019., Crown,
Results 41 to 45 of 45 | « previous