World Books - Find Biography Books
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The Last Castle: The Epic Story of Love, Loss, and American Royalty in the Nation's Largest Home From the author of the New York Times bestseller The Girls of Atomic City comes the fascinating true story behind the magnificent Gilded Age mansion Biltmore-the largest, grandest residence ever built in the United States. Buy Book |
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Elon Musk: Tesla, SpaceX, and the Quest for a Fantastic Future In the spirit of Steve Jobs and Moneyball, Elon Musk is both an illuminating and authorized look at the extraordinary life of one of Silicon Valley's most exciting, unpredictable, and ambitious entrepreneurs - a real-life Tony Stark - and a fascinating exploration of the renewal of American invention and its new makers. Elon Musk spotlights the technology and vision of Elon Musk, the renowned entrepreneur and innovator behind SpaceX, Tesla, and SolarCity, who sold one of his Internet companies, PayPal, for $1.5 billion. Ashlee Vance captures the full spectacle and arc of the genius' life and work, from his tumultuous upbringing in South Africa and flight to the United States to his dramatic technical innovations and entrepreneurial pursuits. Vance uses Musk's story to explore one of the pressing questions of our age: Can the nation of inventors and creators who led the modern world for a century still compete in an age of fierce global competition? He argues that Musk - one of the most unusual and striking figures in American business history - is a contemporary, visionary amalgam of legendary inventors and industrialists, including Thomas Edison, Henry Ford, Howard Hughes, and Steve Jobs. More than any other entrepreneur today, Musk has dedicated his energies and his own vast fortune to inventing a future that is as rich and far reaching as the visionaries of the golden age of science- Buy Book |
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Leonardo da Vinci The author of the acclaimed best sellers Benjamin Franklin, Einstein, and Steve Jobs delivers an engrossing biography of Leonardo da Vinci, the world's most creative genius. Leonardo da Vinci created the two most famous paintings in history, The Last Supper and the Mona Lisa. But in his own mind, he was just as much a man of science and engineering. With a passion that sometimes became obsessive, he pursued innovative studies of anatomy, fossils, birds, the heart, flying machines, botany, geology, and weaponry. His ability to stand at the crossroads of the humanities and the sciences, made iconic by his drawing of Vitruvian Man, made him history's most creative genius. Now Walter Isaacson brings Leonardo da Vinci to life, showing why we have much to learn from him. His combination of science, art, technology, and imagination remains an enduring recipe for creativity. So, too, was his ease at being a bit of a misfit: illegitimate, gay, vegetarian, left-handed, easily distracted, and at times heretical. His relentless curiosity should remind us of the importance of instilling, in both ourselves and our children, not just received knowledge but a willingness to question it - to be imaginative and, like talented misfits and rebels in any era, to think different. Buy Book |
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Do You Feel Like I Do?: A Memoir A revelatory memoir by rock icon and legendary guitarist Peter Frampton. Do You Feel Like I Do? is the incredible story of Peter Frampton's positively resilient life and career told in his own words for the first time. His groundbreaking album Frampton Comes Alive! spawned three top-20 singles and sold 8 million copies the year it was released (over 17 million to date) and was inducted into the GRAMMY Hall of Fame in January. Frampton was on a path to stardom from an early age. By 22, he was touring incessantly and making use of the talk box which would become his signature guitar effect. "I started playing music so young that I sometimes feel I've lived more than one lifetime already," says Frampton. Buy Book |
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Becoming Grammy Award Winner, Best Spoken Word Album, 2020 Number one New York Times best seller Oprah's Book Club Pick NAACP Image Award Winner An intimate, powerful, and inspiring memoir by the former first lady of the United States In a life filled with meaning and accomplishment, Michelle Obama has emerged as one of the most iconic and compelling women of our era. As first lady of the United States of America - the first African American to serve in that role - she helped create the most welcoming and inclusive White House in history while also establishing herself as a powerful advocate for women and girls in the US and around the world, dramatically changing the ways that families pursue healthier and more active lives, and standing with her husband as he led America through some of its most harrowing moments. Along the way, she showed us a few dance moves, crushed Carpool Karaoke, and raised two down-to-earth daughters under an unforgiving media glare. In her memoir, a work of deep reflection and mesmerizing storytelling, Michelle Obama invites listeners into her world, chronicling the experiences that have shaped her - from her childhood on the South Side of Chicago to her years as an executive balancing the demands of motherhood and work to her time spent at the world's most famous address. With unerring honesty and lively wit, she describes her triumphs and her disappointments, both public and private, telling her full story as she has lived it - in her own words and on her own terms. Warm, wise, and revelatory, Becoming is the deeply personal reckoning of a woman of soul and substance who has steadily defied expectations - and whose story inspires us to do the same. Buy Book |
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Educated: A Memoir #1 NEW YORK TIMES WALL STREET JOURNAL, AND BOSTON GLOBE BESTSELLER NAMED ONE OF THE TEN BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY THE NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW - ONE OF PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA'S FAVORITE BOOKS OF THE YEAR - BILL GATES'S HOLIDAY READING LIST - FINALIST FOR THE NATIONAL BOOK CRITICS CIRCLES AWARD IN AUTOBIOGRAPHY - FINALIST FOR THE NATIONAL BOOK CRITICS CIRCLE'S JOHN LEONARD PRIZE FOR BEST FIRST BOOK - FINALIST FOR THE PEN/JEAN STEIN BOOK AWARD - FINALIST FOR THE LOS ANGELES BOOK PRIZE Buy Book |
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Edison Although Thomas Alva Edison was the most famous American of his time, and remains an international name today, he is mostly remembered only for the gift of universal electric light. His invention of the first practical incandescent lamp 140 years ago so dazzled the world-already reeling from his invention of the phonograph and dozens of other revolutionary devices-that it cast a shadow over his later achievements. In all, this near-deaf genius ("I haven't heard a bird sing since I was twelve years old") patented 1,093 inventions, not including others, such as the X-ray fluoroscope, that he left unlicensed for the benefit of medicine. One of the achievements of this staggering new biography, the first major life of Edison in more than twenty years, is that it portrays the unknown Edison-the philosopher, the futurist, the chemist, the botanist, the wartime defense adviser, the founder of nearly 250 companies-as fully as it deconstructs the Edison of mythological memory. Edmund Morris, winner of the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award, brings to the task all the interpretive acuity and literary elegance that distinguished his previous biographies of Theodore Roosevelt, Ronald Reagan, and Ludwig van Beethoven. A trained musician, Morris is especially well equipped to recount Edison's fifty-year obsession with recording technology and his pioneering advances in the synchronization of movies and sound. Morris sweeps aside conspiratorial theories positing an enmity between Edison and Nikola Tesla and presents proof of their mutually admiring, if wary, relationship. Buy Book |
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Churchill: Walking with Destiny In this landmark biography of Winston Churchill based on extensive new material, the true genius of the man, statesman, and leader can finally be fully seen and understood - by the best-selling, award-winning author of Napoleon and The Storm of War Buy Book |
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Acid for the Children: A Memoir In Acid for the Children, Flea takes readers on a deeply personal and revealing tour of his formative years, spanning from Australia to the New York City suburbs to, finally, Los Angeles. Through hilarious anecdotes, poetical meditations, and occasional flights of fantasy, Flea deftly chronicles the experiences that forged him as an artist, a musician, and a young man. His dreamy, jazz-inflected prose makes the Los Angeles of the 1970s and 80s come to gritty, glorious life, including the potential for fun, danger, mayhem, or inspiration that lurked around every corner. It is here that young Flea, looking to escape a turbulent home, found family in a community of musicians, artists, and junkies who also lived on the fringe. He spent most of his time partying and committing petty crimes. But it was in music where he found a higher meaning, a place to channel his frustration, loneliness, and love. This left him open to the life-changing moment when he and his best friends, soul brothers, and partners-in-mischief came up with the idea to start their own band, which became the Red Hot Chili Peppers. Buy Book |
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The Accidental President: Harry S. Truman and the Four Months That Changed the World Heroes are often defined as ordinary characters who get pushed into extraordinary circumstances, and through courage and a dash of luck, cement their place in history. Chosen as FDRs fourth-term vice president for his well-praised work ethic, good judgment, and lack of enemies, Harry S. Truman was the prototypical ordinary man. That is, until he was shockingly thrust in over his head after FDR's sudden death. The first four months of Truman's administration saw the founding of the United Nations, the fall of Berlin, victory at Okinawa, firebombings in Tokyo, the first atomic explosion, the Nazi surrender, the liberation of concentration camps, the mass starvation in Europe, the Potsdam Conference, the controversial decision to bomb Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the surrender of imperial Japan, and finally, the end of World War II and the rise of the Cold War. No other president had ever faced so much in such a short period of time. The Accidental President escorts readers into the situation room with Truman during a tumultuous, history-making 120 days, when the stakes were high and the challenges even higher. Buy Book |
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Every Man a Hero: A Memoir of D-Day, the First Wave at Omaha Beach, and a World at War Seventy-five years ago, he hit Omaha Beach with the first wave. Now Ray Lambert, ninety-eight years old, delivers one of the most remarkable memoirs of our time, a tour-de-force of remembrance evoking his role as a decorated World War II medic who risked his life to save the heroes of D-Day. At five a.m. on June 6, 1944, U.S. Army Staff Sergeant Ray Lambert worked his way through a throng of nervous soldiers to a wind-swept deck on a troopship off the coast of Normandy, France. A familiar voice cut through the wind and rumble of the ship's engines. "Ray!" called his brother, Bill. Ray, head of a medical team for the First Division's famed 16th Infantry Regiment, had already won a silver star in 1943 for running through German lines to rescue trapped men, one of countless rescues he'd made in North Africa and Sicily. "This is going to be the worst yet," Ray told his brother, who served alongside him throughout the war. "If I don't make it," said Bill, "take care of my family." "I will," said Ray. He thought about his wife and son-a boy he had yet to see. "Same for me." The words were barely out of Ray's mouth when a shout came from below. To the landing craft! The brothers parted. Their destinies lay ten miles away, on the bloodiest shore of Normandy, a plot of Omaha Beach ironically code named "Easy Red." Less than five hours later, after saving dozens of lives and being wounded at least three separate times, Ray would lose consciousness in the shallow water of the beach under heavy fire. He would wake on the deck of a landing ship to find his battered brother clinging to life next to him. Every Man a Hero is the unforgettable story not only of what happened in the incredible and desperate hours on Omaha Beach, but of the bravery and courage that preceded them, throughout the Second World War-from the sands of Africa, through the treacherous mountain passes of Sicily, and beyond to the greatest military victory the world has ever known. Buy Book |
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Freddie Mercury: A Life, In His Own Words Freddie Mercury: A Life, In His Own Words" is the nearest thing to Freddie's autobiography as it is possible to achieve. A moving, witty, often irreverent collection of quotes (or interview transcript) from the man himself, covering an extraordinary life, meticulously edited together by Queen's long time archivists, with a Foreword by Freddie's mum. An essential read not just for fans of Queen and their iconic frontman, but anyone intrigued to know more about one of music's most endearing and enduring performers. Freddie rarely talked about himself to others, and so the relatively few interviews he did agree to - carefully compiled for this book, and some of them unpublished until now - provide an intriguing insight into a man who outwardly exuded confidence and arrogance, but behind the public perception, spent periods alone and searching for happiness. The truth was that Freddie was painfully shy and uncomfortable in the company of anyone who might intrude upon his famous 'royal family' of close friends and invited guests. The book covers Freddie's origins and history, many and various subjects in between, and of course covers the fascinating journey of Queen, all from his unique perspective. Spurred on by their almost uncontrollable ambitious and forthright front man, Queen succeeded in becoming one of the biggest bands on the planet. The story describes how on many occasions the group almost broke up, but was always kept together by their shared love of breaching musical boundaries. Freddie's own personal story is one of pursuing a dream, dealing with wealth and fame, looking back and having no regrets, reflecting on getting old, his legacy, and death. A man determined to succeed to the point of willing to be "frivolous and preposterous" to win over an audience - "I love the feeling of it. It's greater than sex!" But as the pages turn, we see a Freddie Mercury gradually changing the priorities in his life to one more sedate and necessarily changed by the cloud of the HIV/AIDS virus beginning to shadow the gay community. For a man who seldom spoke, in "A Life, In His Own Words", Freddie says it all: "There are times when I wake up and I think, "My God! I wish I wasn't Freddie Mercury today." In 20 chapters, 194 pages and nearly 73,000 words - and 45 years in the making - Freddie covers it all, and then some! And he does it, of course, in his own inimitable, unpredictable, invariably funny, often poignant, and always entertaining way. "I love the fact that I make people happy, in any form. Even if it's just half an hour of their lives, if I can make them feel lucky or make them feel good, or bring a smile to a sour face, that to me is worthwhile. Buy Book |
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Me: Elton John Official Autobiography In his first and only official autobiography, music icon Elton John reveals the truth about his extraordinary life, from his rollercoaster lifestyle as shown in the film Rocketman, to becoming a living legend. Christened Reginald Dwight, he was a shy boy with Buddy Holly glasses who grew up in the London suburb of Pinner and dreamed of becoming a pop star. By the age of twenty-three he was performing his first gig in America, facing an astonished audience in his bright yellow dungarees, a star-spangled T-shirt, and boots with wings. Elton John had arrived and the music world would never be the same again. His life has been full of drama, from the early rejection of his work with song-writing partner Bernie Taupin to spinning out of control as a chart-topping superstar; from half-heartedly trying to drown himself in his LA swimming pool to disco-dancing with Princess Diana and Queen Elizabeth; from friendships with John Lennon, Freddie Mercury, and George Michael to setting up his AIDS Foundation to conquering Broadway with Aida, The Lion King, and Billy Elliot the Musical. All the while Elton was hiding a drug addiction that would grip him for over a decade. In Me, Elton also writes powerfully about getting clean and changing his life, about finding love with David Furnish and becoming a father. In a voice that is warm, humble, and open, this is Elton on his music and his relationships, his passions and his mistakes. This is a story that will stay with you by a living legend. Buy Book |