 groundbreaking portrait of Kerouac as a young artist—from the award-winning author of Minor Characters 

In The Voice is All, Joyce Johnson, author of her classic memoir, Door Wide Open, about her relationship with Jack Kerouac, brilliantly peels away layers of the Kerouac legend to show how, caught between two cultures and two languages, he forged a voice to contain his dualities.  Looking more deeply than previous biographers into how Kerouac’s French Canadian background enriched his prose and gave him a unique outsider’s vision of America, she  tracks his development from boyhood through the phenomenal breakthroughs of 1951 that resulted in the composition of On the Road, followed by Visions of Cody. By illuminating Kerouac’s early choice to sacrifice everything to his work, The Voice Is All deals with him on his own terms and puts the tragic contradictions of his nature and his complex relationships into perspective.
Review
Praise for The Voice Is All


“Spectacular…definitely the Kerouac book for our time…traces the birth of a literary genius and dispels many of the Kerouac myths:  that he wrote from memory, not the imagination, and that he wrote spontaneously and without revising…The Voice is All has a lot going for it, including the author’s own confidence-inspiring voice that plunges readers into the maelstrom of Kerouac’s intensely creative and yet intensely self-destructive life, and then pulls readers back and provides much needed detachment…Johnson knows how to create suspense and weave the complex lives of her characters into a narrative that rumbles along…her own voice is eloquent, her prose clear and crisp.” —Jonah Raskin, The San Francisco Chronicle


“A major new biography that traces the gradual emergence of the voice that came to define Kerouac’s distinctive style of autobiographical fiction…Johnson redirects our focus to Kerouac’s writing – an aspect that has been overshadowed by his legend…she suggests his internal struggle to navigate his mixed ethnic identity gave his prose a hard-earned depth and directness…By forcing us to reckon with Kerouac as a Franco-American author, Johnson has reminded us of the immense and often unseen burden of forging a life on the margins of two cultures – even for someone as emblematically American as Kerouac.” —Lauren Du Graf, thedailybeast.com
#biography #nonfiction #biography 

Heavy Hardcover (2 to 4 lbs)

Maine

The Lonely Victory of Jack Kerouac

A profile of the iconic author's early years offers insight into his efforts to bridge his dual cultural heritage while exploring how his French Canadian background enriched his prose.

The Voice is All

3801a763-1aa4-42ab-8824-3559c5dbc4b3-1

This book is brand new and ready to be loved! It has a beautiful hard cover and dust jacket both would display beautifully! 

Hardcover (1 to 2 lbs)

The Fallen Stones

Jasmine Guy

Light Hardcover (1 lb or less)

Colorado

Evolution of a Revolutionary

In this title, a legend in the civil rights and hip-hop movements speaks out for the first time in this memoir that takes readers from Afeni Shakur's Black Panther days through the life and death of her son, rap megastar Tupac Shakur.

*SIGNED* Afeni Shakur

2b7d4523-0417-47e6-a44e-c6faf1aac4cf-1

Joe Posnanski

First printing. Very good copy, tight and clean.

The book debuted at #1 on The New York Times Best Seller list for hardcover non-fiction best-seller.—Wikipedia 

New York

By America's premier sportswriter, written with full cooperation of Joe Paterno and his family, Paterno is the definitive account of the epic life of America's winningest college football coach. Published to coincide with Penn State football's first season without their legendary leader.

Joe Posnanski's biography of the late Penn State football coach Joe Paterno follows in the tradition of works by Richard Ben Cramer on Joe DiMaggio and David Maraniss on Vince Lombardi. Having gained unprecedented access to Paterno, as well as the coach's personal notes and files, Posnanski spent the last two years of Paterno's life covering the coach, on (and off) the field and through the scandal that ended Paterno's legendary career.

Joe Posnanski, who in 2012 was named the Best Sportswriter in America by the National Sportswriters and Sportscasters Hall of Fame, was with Paterno and his family as a horrific national scandal unfolded and Paterno was fired. Within three months, Paterno died of lung cancer, a tragic end to a life that was epic, influential, and operatic.

Paterno is the fullest description we will ever have of the man's character and career. In this honest and surprising portrait, Joe Posnanski brings new insight and understanding to one of the most controversial figures in America.

1st ed./1st * Paterno

3a809c7e-0926-4c1b-89ac-f005bec9daf4-1

#nonfiction #biography #obama #politica #nytbestseller #autobiography 

Heavy Paperback (2 to 4 lbs)

A Promised Land

873ab9b7-1688-42d6-a2d5-aaf32a51f858

William Taubman

Clean and tight. The dust jacket has a small tear and wear.

Finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award in Biography
Longlisted for the Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Nonfiction. 

His Life and Times

When Mikhail Gorbachev became the leader of the Soviet Union in 1985, the USSR was one of the world's two superpowers. By 1989, his liberal policies of perestroika and glasnost had permanently transformed Soviet Communism, and had made enemies of radicals on the right and left. By 1990 he, more than anyone else, had ended the Cold War, and in 1991, after barely escaping from a coup attempt, he unintentionally presided over the collapse of the Soviet Union he had tried to save. In the first comprehensive biography of the final Soviet leader, William Taubman shows how a peasant boy became the Soviet system's gravedigger, how he clambered to the top of a system designed to keep people like him down, how he found common ground with America's arch-conservative president Ronald Reagan, and how he permitted the USSR and its East European empire to break apart without using force to preserve them. Throughout, Taubman portrays the many sides of Gorbachev's unique character that, by Gorbachev's own admission, make him "difficult to understand." Was he in fact a truly great leader, or was he brought low in the end by his own shortcomings, as well as by the unyielding forces he faced?Drawing on interviews with Gorbachev himself, transcripts and documents from the Russian archives, and interviews with Kremlin aides and adversaries, as well as foreign leaders, Taubman's intensely personal portrait extends to Gorbachev's remarkable marriage to a woman he deeply loved, and to the family that they raised together. Nuanced and poignant, yet unsparing and honest, this sweeping account has all the amplitude of a great Russian novel.

Gorbachev * 2017 1st Ed /1st

fed87ca9-2dfb-4d14-9afe-5ec9fb36a816-1

#paperback #biography #nonfiction #lincoln #abrahamlincoln #newyorktimesbestseller #history 

New Hampshire

The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln

An analysis of Abraham Lincoln's political talents identifies the character strengths and abilities that enabled his successful election, in an account that also describes how he used the same abilities to rally former opponents in winning the Civil War.

Team of Rivals

e219a9c7-87ab-4eaf-9e89-ab1c1ba5a5f6-1

Dave Pelzer

#paperback #nonfiction #childcalledit #biography #fiction #autobiography #bodymindspirit #bestseller 

Light Paperback (1 lb or less)

One Child's Courage to Survive

Tells the story of a child's abuse at the hands of his alcoholic mother

A Child Called It

39dd8aeb-2bc8-4269-acc8-f401887793c4-1

#paperback #nonfiction #achildcalledit #fiction #selfhelp #psychology #biography #autobiography 

A Foster Child's Search for the Love of a Family

The author continues the story of his own child abuse, and his experiences being a foster child moving in and out of five different foster homes

The Lost Boy

877f0177-1d6e-47cb-9229-367fd671bef5-1

Jon Krakauer

This copy of Into the Wild has no cosmetic defects and is in great condition. It was a quick read that pulls on your heartstrings. #paperback #nonfiction #biography #intothewild #outdoors #favorites #aplang

Krakauer's page-turning bestseller explores a famed missing person mystery while unraveling the larger riddles it holds: the profound pull of the American wilderness on our imagination; the allure of high-risk activities to young men of a certain cast of mind; the complex, charged bond between fathers and sons.

"Terrifying... Eloquent... A heart-rending drama of human yearning." --New York Times

In April 1992 a young man from a well-to-do family hitchhiked to Alaska and walked alone into the wilderness north of Mt. McKinley. He had given $25,000 in savings to charity, abandoned his car and most of his possessions, burned all the cash in his wallet, and invented a new life for himself. Four months later, his decomposed body was found by a moose hunter. How Christopher Johnson McCandless came to die is the unforgettable story of Into the Wild.

Immediately after graduating from college in 1991, McCandless had roamed through the West and Southwest on a vision quest like those made by his heroes Jack London and John Muir. In the Mojave Desert he abandoned his car, stripped it of its license plates, and burned all of his cash. He would give himself a new name, Alexander Supertramp, and, unencumbered by money and belongings, he would be free to wallow in the raw, unfiltered experiences that nature presented. Craving a blank spot on the map, McCandless simply threw the maps away. Leaving behind his desperate parents and sister, he vanished into the wild.

Jon Krakauer constructs a clarifying prism through which he reassembles the disquieting facts of McCandless's short life. Admitting an interst that borders on obsession, he searches for the clues to the drives and desires that propelled McCandless. 

When McCandless's innocent mistakes turn out to be irreversible and fatal, he becomes the stuff of tabloid headlines and is dismissed for his naiveté, pretensions, and hubris. He is said to have had a death wish but wanting to die is a very different thing from being compelled to look over the edge. Krakauer brings McCandless's uncompromising pilgrimage out of the shadows, and the peril, adversity, and renunciation sought by this enigmatic young man are illuminated with a rare understanding--and not an ounce of sentimentality. Mesmerizing, heartbreaking, Into the Wild is a tour de force. The power and luminosity of Jon Krakauer's stoytelling blaze through every page.

Into the Wild

f4a56ed4-675f-42bd-a9e6-0b52210b0b5b-1

Holly Madison

Curious Adventures and Cautionary Tales of a Former Playboy Bunny

A former girlfriend of Hugh Hefner describes how her years inside the Playboy Mansion went from a fairytale of A-list celebrity parties to an oppressive regime of strict rules, scheduled sex, and a total loss of identity, so much so that she even contemplated suicide.

Down the Rabbit Hole

cfa1bfdc-809d-4f64-a878-114737c816de-1

#hardcover #biography #nonfiction #autobiography #apple #stevejobs #tech 
This book is pre-owned in good condition with minor scratches and wear. 

California

Draws on more than forty interviews with Steve Jobs, as well as interviews with family members, friends, competitors, and colleagues to offer a look at the co-founder and leading creative force behind the Apple computer company.

Steve Jobs

5ea1c1b9-cb39-4a29-ac6b-9f761170744e-1

Natasha Sizlo

There’s a little crease in the dust jacket but after that it’s perfectly fine

Paperback (1 to 2 lbs)

Florida

A Memoir of Love, Loss, and Destiny

Propulsive, touching, and darkly funny, All Signs Point to Paris is the story of one woman's search for a second chance at love. A surprising astrology reading sends Natasha Sizlo--divorced, broke, freshly heartbroken, and reeling from her father's death--on an unexpected but magical journey to France, in pursuit of a man born on a particular date in a particular place: November 2, 1968 in Paris.

Divorced, broke, and heartsick, it seems like things can't get worse for Natasha Sizlo--then she learns her beloved father is dying.

So when she's gifted a session with LA's most sought-after astrologist, Natasha has nothing to lose. She doesn't believe in astrology, but the reading is eerily, impossibly accurate. As her misgivings give way, Natasha asks about her emotionally unavailable, yet terribly handsome ex-boyfriend, the one she can't seem to get over.

To Natasha's surprise, the astrologist tells her he is The One. His birthdate and birthplace--November 2, 1968 in Paris, France--line up with Natasha's astrological point of destiny. The word husband comes up in the reading.

Natasha feels faint. Was her ex really the big soul love she was destined for?

Then, she has a lightning bolt of an idea: he couldn't possibly be the only available man born on November 2, 1968 in Paris. Her soulmate is still out there--she just has to find him.

All Signs Point to Paris

eb91b005-434c-43f8-a169-1f9aca60f40a-1

Maggie Smith

A Memoir

"[Smith]...reminds you that you can...survive deep loss, sink into life's deep beauty, and constantly, constantly make yourself new." --Glennon Doyle, #1 New York Times bestselling author

The bestselling poet and author of the "powerful" (People) and "luminous" (Newsweek) Keep Moving offers a lush and heartrending memoir exploring coming of age in your middle age.

"Life, like a poem, is a series of choices."

In her memoir You Could Make This Place Beautiful, poet Maggie Smith explores the disintegration of her marriage and her renewed commitment to herself in lyrical vignettes that shine, hard and clear as jewels. The book begins with one woman's personal, particular heartbreak, but its circles widen into a reckoning with contemporary womanhood, traditional gender roles, and the power dynamics that persist even in many progressive homes. With the spirit of self-inquiry and empathy she's known for, Smith interweaves snapshots of a life with meditations on secrets, anger, forgiveness, and narrative itself. The power of these pieces is cumulative: page after page, they build into a larger interrogation of family, work, and patriarchy.

You Could Make This Place Beautiful, like the work of Deborah Levy, Rachel Cusk, and Gina Frangello, is an unflinching look at what it means to live and write our own lives. It is a story about a mother's fierce and constant love for her children, and a woman's love and regard for herself. Above all, this memoir is an argument for possibility. With a poet's attention to language and an innovative approach to the genre, Smith reveals how, in the aftermath of loss, we can discover our power and make something new. Something beautiful.

You Could Make This Place Beautiful

993a8572-7d0a-4077-9f65-c0c158d317c3-1

Augusten Burroughs

From the beloved #1 New York Times bestselling author comes an intimate look at the driving forces in one man’s life. With Augusten's unique and singular observations and his own unabashed way of detailing both the horrific and the humorous, Lust & Wonder is a hilariously frank memoir that his legions of fans have been waiting for. His story began in Running with Scissors, endured through Dry, and continues with this memoir, the capstone to the life of Augusten Burroughs. Funny, sweet, alarming, and ultimately, moving and tender, Lust & Wonder is an experience of a book that will resonate with anyone who has loved and lost and loved again.

Lust and Wonder

96511b3c-d2c8-49fe-9086-fd577e761f64

Linda Lear

James Rebanks

Michigan

A Life in Nature

In this now classic biography, reissued in a new edition for the 150th anniversary of Beatrix Potter's birth, Linda Lear offers the astonishing portrait of an extraordinary woman who gave us some of the most beloved children's books of all time.

Potter found freedom from her conventional Victorian upbringing in the countryside. Nature inspired her imagination as an artist and scientific illustrator, but The Tale of Peter Rabbit brought her fame, financial success, and the promise of happiness when she fell in love with her editor Norman Warne. After his tragic and untimely death, Potter embraced a new life as the owner of Hill Top Farm in the English Lake District and a second chance at happiness. As a visionary landowner, successful farmer and sheep-breeder, she was able to preserve the landscape that had inspired her art.

Beatrix Potter: A Life in Nature reveals a lively, independent, and passionate woman, whose art was timeless, and whose generosity left an indelible imprint on the countryside. This anniversary edition is complete with a brand new foreword by James Rebanks, the Lake District shepherd and social media sensation who chronicles his world on Twitter and in his wonderful book, "A Shepherd's Life".

Beatrix Potter-A Life In Nature 

fa251e87-a325-4f22-8da2-83439a2574e7-1

Saul K. Padover

Publication 1980. Shows age in pages being darker 

North Carolina

An Intimate Biography

Karl Marx

f78bbc23-054b-43fc-92c4-30b88be7f2f4-0

Hillary Rodham Clinton

Very good clean tight copy. Very good dust jacket. First edition, first printing. 

Hillary Clinton's candid reflections about the key moments during her time as Secretary of State, as well as her thoughts about how to navigate the challenges of the 21st century.

1st ed./1st * Hard Choices

68a57789-be72-4886-b194-5f0649f5902e-1

This biography details the life of the amazing inventer Nickola Tesla. Including his childhood and adult life in America and includes many illustrations and photographs of his inventions.

Tesla master of lightning 

Her True Story in Her Own Words

A Commemorative Edition with new material including "Her Own Words". c1997.

Diana

dd0a58a6-125e-4a1e-b542-8847da7bd044

Anne Frank

Susan Massotty

The Definitive Edition

Compelling and candid, this diary introduced the world to a girl filled with the emotional concerns of a typical teenager, but living in stifling and terrifying circumstances.

The Diary of a Young Girl

a877384e-3ca0-42c1-983a-549e9fb4e90c

Ronald Kessler

Joseph P. Kennedy and the Dynasty He Founded

From the New York Times bestselling author of 20 books about the Secret Service, FBI, and CIA comes the detailed account of the life and times of the ambitious, powerful, masterfully manipulative Joseph Patrick Kennedy.

For all his wealth and power, Joe Kennedy was not a happy man. He also had no shame. What he cared about was having power. Through the political dynasty that he founded, he achieved that for generations to come. If he hurt and corrupted others in the process, no one had the courage to challenge him.

The results are the myths that continue to enshrine the Kennedy family and maintain it as a national obsessions. This book explodes those myths. Utilizing extensive research and interviews with Kennedy family members and their intimates, speaking on record for the first time, Kessler reveals stunning details of Joseph Kennedy's enormous accomplishments and the terrible personal losses he suffered.

The Sins of the Father

e2658810-98f4-46b0-a931-ff152158b5fd-1

This book has been read but remains in excellent condition. Pages are clean and not marred by notes or folds.

Minnesota

A Teenager's Story of Longing for Acceptance and Friendship

The author reveals the story of his struggle through the challenges of adolescence, detailing the taunting he endured from bullies, the joys of making his first real friends, and his quest to escape his difficult home life.

SIGNED The Privilege of Youth

3085ffad-9c71-4b44-b082-7ee2d2ff567e-1

Doris Christopher

This book has been read but remains in excellent condition. Pages are clean and not marred by notes or folds. 

The Story of One of America's Most Beloved Companies

The Pampered Chefis Doris Christopher’s extraordinary account of how she turned an innovative concept and $3,000 investment into a business with annual sales approaching the billion-dollar mark. It is packed with real-life lessons and inspiring insights for small-business owners and aspiring entrepreneurs. In 1980 Doris Christopher, a former home economist and teacher, was itching to get back into the workforce after an eight-year hiatus as a stay-at-home mom. Drawing on her personal and professional expertise, and determined to make cooking easier and more convenient for families, she started selling high-quality kitchen tools through cooking demonstrations to groups of women in their homes. Today, the company she started in her basement, The Pampered Chef, is celebrating its twenty-fifth anniversary and has grown into a corporation (now owned by Berkshire Hathaway) with tens of thousands of independent Kitchen Consultants who present more than a million Kitchen Shows a year, attended by more than 12 million people. The Pampered Chefis the story of the vision, energy, hard work, and chutzpah that drove Christopher and her company to the height of success. She describes her early days as a “one-woman show,” chronicles the company’s gradual expansion, its challenges and growing popularity, and the process, offers invaluable advice and sound strategies on how to found and grow a business, including: • Hard learned lessons for start-up entrepreneurs • How to create a business concept and set your priorities • Knowing when to expand and when to slow growth so that demand doesn’t overwhelm your operations or supplies • How to counter the naysayers and deal with adversity Today, as at the company’s founding, achieving a better balance between work and family remains central to The Pampered Chef’s mission.The Pampered Chefbrings Christopher’s recipe for success to women, and men, everywhere.

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Joyce Johnson

The Voice is All

Diana Marcum

The Fallen Stones

Jasmine Guy

*SIGNED* Afeni Shakur

Joe Posnanski

1st ed./1st * Paterno

Barack Obama

A Promised Land

William Taubman

Gorbachev * 2017 1st Ed /1st

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Team of Rivals

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A Child Called It

Dave Pelzer

The Lost Boy

Jon Krakauer

Into the Wild

Holly Madison

Down the Rabbit Hole

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Steve Jobs

Natasha Sizlo

All Signs Point to Paris

Maggie Smith

You Could Make This Place Beautiful

Augusten Burroughs

Lust and Wonder

Linda Lear; James Rebanks

Beatrix Potter-A Life In Nature

Saul K. Padover

Karl Marx

Hillary Rodham Clinton

1st ed./1st * Hard Choices

Margaret chaney & Robert Uth

Tesla master of lightning

Andrew Morton

Diana

Anne Frank; Susan Massotty

The Diary of a Young Girl

Ronald Kessler

The Sins of the Father

Dave Pelzer

SIGNED The Privilege of Youth

Doris Christopher

SIGNED The Pampered Chef

SIGNED Afeni Shakur