New Memoirs

Burned-out after years of doing development work around the world, William Powers spent a season in a 12-foot-by-12-foot cabin off the grid in North Carolina, as recounted in his award-winning memoir Twelve by Twelve. Could he live a similarly minimalist life in the heart of New York City? To find out, Powers and his wife jettisoned 80 percent of their stuff, left their 2,000-square-foot Queens townhouse, and moved into a 350-square-foot "micro-apartment" in Greenwich Village.

In 1971, Newsweek heralded The Last Picture Show as "the most impressive work by a young American director since Citizen Kane." Indeed, few filmmakers rivaled Peter Bogdanovich's popularity over the next decade. Riding the success of What's Up, Doc? (1972) and Paper Moon (1973), Bogdanovich became a bona fide celebrity, making regular appearances in his own movie trailers, occasionally hosting late-night television shows, and publicly advocating for mentors John Ford and Howard Hawks.

The heart of Generation Chef is the story of Jonah Miller, who at age 24 attempts to fulfill a lifelong dream by opening the Basque restaurant Huertas in New York City, still the high-stakes center of the restaurant business for an ambitious young chef. Miller, a rising star who has been named to the 30-Under-30 list of both Forbes and Zagat, quits his job as a sous chef, creates a business plan, lines up investors, leases a space, hires a staff, and gets ready to put his reputation and his future on the line.

Fearless, sharp-eyed and handsome, Matthew Flinders was one of the greatest of all maritime adventurers and undertook one of the most important voyages of discovery – to circumnavigate and map the famed Great Southern Land. Together with his Aboriginal interpreter and guide, Kuringgai man Bungaree, and his beloved rescue cat Trim, Flinders explored the furthest reaches of Australia and meticulously recorded its rugged coastlines on maps so accurate they are still used today.

Lachlan Macquarie is credited with shaping Australia's destiny, transforming a harsh, foreboding penal colony into an agricultural powerhouse and ultimately a prosperous society. He also helped shape Australia's national character. An egalitarian at heart, Macquarie saw boundless potential in Britain's refuse, and under his rule many former convicts went on to become successful administrators, land owners and businesspeople.

Shocking real-life stories of murderous women who used rat poison to rid themselves of husbands and other inconvenient family members. After World War II, Sydney experienced a crime wave that was chillingly calculated. Discontent mixed with despair, greed with callous disregard. Women who had lost their wartime freedoms headed back into the kitchen with sinister intent and the household poison thallium, normally used to kill rats, was repurposed to kill husbands and other inconvenient family members.

Heath Ledger rapidly rose to fame to become one of the most acclaimed actors of our time. Although his career was brief, spanning little over 10 years, he shot up like a rising star. People still remember his innovative portrayal of the Joker and so many other roles with awe.

When I set off for Australia, I had no idea what I would find. There were moments of pure joy, times of struggle, and situations that, looking back, were downright ridiculous. Through it all, I found something I hadn't even realized I was looking for. As a teenager, I watched Australia's Bicentennial celebrations and felt something click. I didn't just want to visit—I needed to go. Over a decade later, after university and a stressful first job, I finally made it happen. I packed my bags, left everything familiar behind, and entered a year of the unknown. Inside, you'll find: • ...

When Harold Ross founded The New Yorker in 1925, he described it as a “comic weekly.” And although it has become much more than that, it has remained true in its irreverent heart to the founder’s description, publishing the most illustrious literary humorists of the modern era. This anthology gathers together, for the first time, the funniest work of more than seventy New Yorker contributors.

A recollection of the GOP party years from Rudy Giuliani and George Pataki to George W. Bush as the candidate journeys through the rough and tumble world of New York politics.Join our candidate as he guides us through the sometimes comic ups and downs of 1990s New York Republican politics while battling an illness in Homeric fashion.

In When Everything Beyond the Walls Is Wild, Lilace Mellin Guignard draws from emblematic moments and relationships in her own life to explore issues of gender, recreation, and environmental conservation. Born into a suburban family, Guignard wanted to get up close and personal with iconic American landscapes, but social pressures and cautionary tales told her that these spaces were not meant for her as a woman. Refusing to stay indoors and “safe", Guignard drove cross-country with her dog, worked as a river guide, and set out to climb Mount Whitney.

Gough Whitlam: charismatic, inspirational, a trailblazer. There has been no one like him in our nation's public life—a dynamic and visionary leader determined to modernise Australia, who ushered in a new era and left a lasting legacy. But Whitlam's immense self-belief, mistakes and misjudgements, blunders and blind spots were truly Shakespearean and help explain his downfall.

Arthur Taylor is New Zealand's best known, most influential and colourful career criminal. A household name, he was paroled from prison in 2019 after more than 38 years behind bars. His life story is nothing short of remarkable. He has more than 150 convictions ranging from bank robberies to fraud, theft, escaping and having weapons and explosives.

In this bold, momentous work, the Pope - in his first book written as Benedict XVI - seeks to salvage the person of Jesus from recent 'popular' depictions and to restore Jesus' true identity as discovered in the Gospels. Through his brilliance as a theologian and his personal conviction as a believer, the Pope shares a rich, compelling, flesh-and-blood portrait of Jesus and incites us to encounter, face-to-face, the central figure of the Christian faith.

Gough Whitlam: charismatic, inspirational, a trailblazer. There has been no one like him in our nation's public life - a dynamic and visionary leader determined to modernise Australia, who ushered in a new era and left a lasting legacy. But Whitlam's immense self-belief, mistakes and misjudgements, blunders and blind spots were truly Shakespearean and help explain his downfall.

A story of love, war, and life as a Jewish immigrant in the squalid factories and lively dance halls of New York’s Garment District in the 1930s, My Mother’s Wars is the memoir Lillian Faderman's mother was never able to write. The daughter delves into her mother's past to tell the story of a Latvian girl who left her village for America with dreams of a life on the stage and encountered the realities of her new world: the battles she was forced to fight as a woman, an immigrant worker, and a Jew with family left behind in Hitler’s deadly path.

In 1895, a 22-year-old Italian seamstress named Maria Barbella was accused of murdering her lover, Domenico Cataldo, after he seduced her and broke his promise to marry her. Following a sensational trial filled with inept lawyers, dishonest reporters and editors, and a crooked judge repaying political favors, the illiterate immigrant became the first woman sentenced to the newly invented electric chair at Sing Sing, where she was also the first female prisoner. Enter Cora Slocomb, who launched the first campaign against the death penalty to save Maria.

Rowena’s community is called the Silversmiths and is settled in Romania. Although the ones who stayed behind were made slaves in the 19th century and were deported during World War II, they never gave up on their country. Listen carefully to hear the great-great-grandmother’s song, enslaved in her youth. Close your eyes, and see the caravan where Rowena’s grandmother was born. See the slum of Alexandria, where her mother grew up. Bathe yourself in the enticing smells of a Gypsy dinner of what is allowed or forbidden for these Romani women.

The eighteenth-century hanging of a schoolteacher for concealing the birth of a child out of wedlock has appeared in local legend over the last few centuries, but the full account of Ruth's story has never been told. Drawing on over two years of investigative research, author Carolyn Marvin brings to light the dramatic details of Ruth's life and the cruel injustice of colonial Portsmouth's moral code. As Marvin uncovers the real flesh-and-blood woman who suffered the ultimate punishment, her listeners come to understand Ruth as an individual and a woman of her time.

A New Formation is not a book about football and racism. Jacobs and his co-contributors—including authors Musa Okwonga and Aniefiok Ekpoudom and sports broadcaster Jeanette Kwakye MBE—eschew the standard frameworks of trauma and oppression that are foisted upon Black narratives and seek to move beyond discussions of diversity, identity and representation. Featuring interviews with legendary players such as Ian Wright, Anita Asante and Andy Cole, they draw upon broader social and cultural history to examine Black footballers in contexts larger than themselves.