Biography & Autobiography

Tanqueray

10,000.00

She is a woman as fabulous, unbowed, and irresistible as the city she lives in.

Meet TANQUERAY.

In 2019, Humans of New York featured a photo of a woman in an outrageous fur coat and hat she made herself. She instantly captured the attention of millions. Her name is Stephanie Johnson, but she’s better known to HONY followers as ‘Tanqueray,’ a born performer who was once one of the best-known burlesque dancers in New York City. Reeling from a brutal childhood, immersed in a world of go-go dancers and hustlers, dirty cops and gangsters, Stephanie was determined to become the fiercest thing the city had ever seen. And she succeeded.

Real, raw, and unapologetically honest, this is the full story of Tanqueray as told by Brandon Stanton – a book filled with never-before-told stories of Tanqueray’s struggles and triumphs through good times and bad, personal photos from her own collection, and glimpses of New York City from back in the day when the name ‘Tanqueray’ was on everyone’s lips.

Slash

6,500.00

rom one of the greatest rock guitarists of our era comes a memoir that redefines sex, drugs, and rock ‘n’ roll.

For the first time ever, Slash tells the tale that has yet to be told from the inside: how the legendary band Guns N’ Roses came together, how they wrote the music that defined an era, how they survived insane, never-ending tours, how they survived themselves, and, ultimately, how it all fell apart. Slash is a window into the world of the notoriously private guitarist and a front seat on the roller-coaster ride that was one of history’s greatest rock ‘n’ roll machines, always on the edge of self-destruction, even at the pinnacle of its success. Slash is everything Slash is: funny, honest, ingenious, inspiring, jaw-dropping . . . and, in a word, excessive.

Vibrate Higher

7,000.00

Before Talib Kweli became a world-renowned hip-hop artist, he was a Brooklyn kid who liked to cut class, spit rhymes, and wander the streets of Greenwich Village with a motley crew of artists, rappers, and DJs who found hip-hop more inspiring than their textbooks (much to the chagrin of the educator parents who had given their son an Afrocentric name in hope of securing for him a more traditional sense of pride and purpose). Kweli’s was the first generation to grow up with hip-hop as established culture―a genre of music that has expanded to include its own pantheon of heroes, rich history and politics, and distinct worldview.

Eventually, childhood friendships turned into collaborations, and Kweli gained notoriety as a rapper in his own right. From collaborating with some of hip-hop’s greatest―including Mos Def, Common, Kanye West, Pharrell Williams, and Kendrick Lamar―to selling books out of the oldest African-American bookstore in Brooklyn, ultimately leaving his record label, and taking control of his own recording career, Kweli tells the winding, always compelling story of the people and events that shaped his own life as well as the culture of hip-hop that informs American culture at large.

Vibrate Higher illuminates Talib Kweli’s upbringing and artistic success, but so too does it give life to hip-hop as a political force―one that galvanized the Movement for Black Lives and serves a continual channel for resistance against the rising tide of white nationalism.

The Bright Side

6,500.00

Cathrin Bradbury’s seemingly stable world implodes in the space of a few months. Her beloved parents die; her marriage limps to an end after twenty-five years; her heavily mortgaged house turns against her; and a promising new romance ends in crushing disappointment. Never one to slow down for self-reflection, Bradbury now suddenly finds herself in her fifties, stone still, and crumbling to rubble in the midst of so much turmoil.

But the wrecking ball tearing her existence apart has cleared the way for a new path (or three or four) to open up. As a distraught Bradbury navigates these setbacks and heartbreak, she discovers welcome surprises and unexpected upsides revealing themselves as well. After 20 years of upheaval and estrangement, her troubled brother makes an astounding recovery to health and sobriety; she is reunited with her closest childhood friend after decades of absence; and Bradbury and her four siblings feel their way to becoming a new kind of family without their parents. She discovers that the path of profound change is steep, the view obscured, but there’s light ahead—if you’re brave enough to look for it.

Cathartic, hilarious, and deeply moving, The Bright Side proves that every situation has a silver lining—even when it’s just the duct tape holding the fragments of your life together.

Wendy’s Got The Heat

6,000.00

Wendy Williams is the kind of media personality that artists love because she builds them up—and fear because she can bring them down. She’s interviewed many of the biggest names in entertainment—Jennifer Lopez, Whitney Houston, and Queen Latifah among them—and is known for her ability to disarm and get them to reveal their secrets.

Known as both a “shock jock diva” and “the biggest mouth in New York,” Wendy Williams is always at the top of her game, whether she’s doing commentary for the VH1 Fashion Awards or giving romantic advice. But there’s more to the Queen of Urban Radio than meets the mike. Wendy’s Got the Heat is her story—about growing up in a predominately white suburb, recovering from drug addiction, struggling to launch a successful career in one of the most male-dominated media industries—and it’s by turns painful, hilarious, triumphant, and totally true.

Unbound

7,500.00

From the founder and activist behind one of the largest movements of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, the “me too” movement, Tarana Burke debuts a powerful memoir about her own journey to saying those two simple yet infinitely powerful words―me too―and how she brought empathy back to an entire generation in one of the largest cultural events in American history.

The Last Negroes At Harvard

7,500.00

In the fall of 1959, Harvard recruited an unprecedented eighteen “Negro” boys as an early form of affirmative action. Four years later they would graduate as African Americans. Some fifty years later, one of these trailblazing Harvard grads, Kent Garrett, would begin to reconnect with his classmates and explore their vastly different backgrounds, lives, and what their time at Harvard meant.

Garrett and his partner Jeanne Ellsworth recount how these eighteen youths broke new ground, with ramifications that extended far past the iconic Yard. By the time they were seniors, they would have demonstrated against national injustice and grappled with the racism of academia, had dinner with Malcolm X and fought alongside their African national classmates for the right to form a Black students’ organization.

Part memoir, part group portrait, and part narrative history of the intersection between the civil rights movement and higher education, this is the remarkable story of brilliant, singular boys whose identities were changed at and by Harvard, and who, in turn, changed Harvard.

Boyhood

5,500.00

Coetzee grew up in a new development north of Cape Town, tormented by guilt and fear. With a father he despised, and a mother he both adored and resented, he led a double life—the brilliant and well-behaved student at school, the princely despot at home, always terrified of losing his mother’s love. His first encounters with literature, the awakenings of sexual desire, and a growing awareness of apartheid left him with baffling questions; and only in his love of the high veld (“farms are places of freedom, of life”) could he find a sense of belonging. Bold and telling, this masterly evocation of a young boy’s life is the book Coetzee’s many admirers have been waiting for, but never could have expected.

Che: A Revolutionary Life

8,000.00

Che Guevara’s legend is unmatched in the modern world. Since his assassination in 1967 at the age of thirty-nine, the Argentine revolutionary has become an internationally recognized icon, as revered as he is controversial. As a Marxist ideologue who sought to end global inequality by bringing down the American capitalist empire through armed guerrilla warfare, Che has few rivals in the Cold War era as an apostle of revolutionary change. In Che: A Revolutionary Life, Jon Lee Anderson and José Hernández present the man behind the myth, creating a complex and human portrait of this passionate idealist.

Adapted from Jon Lee Anderson’s definitive masterwork, Che vividly transports us from young Ernesto’s medical school days as a sensitive asthmatic to the battlefields of the Cuban revolution, from his place of power alongside Castro, to his disastrous sojourn in the Congo, and his violent end in Bolivia. Through renowned Mexican artist José Hernández’s drawings we feel the bullets wing past the head of the young rebel in Cuba, we smell the thick smoke of his and Castro’s cigars, and scrutinize his proud face as he’s called “Comandante” for the first time. With astonishing precision, color, and drama, Anderson and Hernández’s Che makes us a witness to the revolutionary life and times of Che Guevara.

I Have Walked With The Living God

6,500.00

This book shows that a walk with God can be exhilarating, rewarding, and full of promise. Your fears will fade in the presence of the Living God.

Many know Pat Robertson as the founder of the Christian Broadcasting Network whose programs have inspired faith in thousands of viewers. But Robertson’s ministry extends beyond CBN: he founded Operation Blessing which continues to provide hunger relief, safe water, orphan care, disaster relief, medical care, and development to communities in every US state and in over ninety countries. Robertson also organized The American Center for Law & Justice which has protected the rights of pro-life demonstrators as well as religious groups and individuals.

In this heartwarmingly honest account, Robertson gives you an inside look at his life and legacy, and shares about the power that dwells behind what’s visible. Packed with explosive truths about the reality of God, I Have Walked With the Living God lays bare Robertson’s deepest feelings about a God who brings miracles into the daily lives of those who trust Him. Discover what God can do when one hard-headed businessman meets the supernatural.

Cack-Handed

7,000.00

The British comedian of Nigerian heritage and co-executive producer and writer of the CBS hit series Bob Hearts Abishola chronicles her odyssey to get to America and break into Hollywood in this lively and humorous memoir.

According to family superstition, Gina Yashere was born to fulfill the dreams of her grandmother Patience. The powerful first wife of a wealthy businessman, Patience was poisoned by her jealous sister-wives and marked with a spot on her neck. From birth, Gina carried a similar birthmark—a sign that she was her grandmother’s chosen heir, and would fulfill Patience’s dreams. Gina would learn to speak perfect English, live unfettered by men or children, work a man’s job, and travel the world with a free spirit.

Is she the reincarnation of her grandmother? Maybe. Gina isn’t ruling anything out. In Cack-Handed, she recalls her intergenerational journey to success foretold by her grandmother and fulfilled thousands of miles from home. This hilarious memoir tells the story of how from growing up as a child of Nigerian immigrants in working class London, running from skinheads, and her overprotective Mom, Gina went on to become the first female engineer with the UK branch of Otis, the largest elevator company in the world, where she went through a baptism of fire from her racist and sexist co-workers. Not believing her life was difficult enough, she later left engineering to become a stand up comic, appearing on numerous television shows and becoming one of the top comedians in the UK, before giving it all up to move to the US, a dream she’d had since she was six years old, watching American kids on television, riding cool bicycles, and solving crimes.

A collection of eccentric, addictive, and uproarious stories that combine family, race, gender, class, and country, Cack-Handed reveals how Gina’s unconventional upbringing became the foundation of her successful career as an international comedian.

The Reason I Jump

6,000.00

You’ve never read a book like The Reason I Jump. Written by Naoki Higashida, a very smart, very self-aware, and very charming thirteen-year-old boy with autism, it is a one-of-a-kind memoir that demonstrates how an autistic mind thinks, feels, perceives, and responds in ways few of us can imagine. Parents and family members who never thought they could get inside the head of their autistic loved one at last have a way to break through to the curious, subtle, and complex life within.

Using an alphabet grid to painstakingly construct words, sentences, and thoughts that he is unable to speak out loud, Naoki answers even the most delicate questions that people want to know. Questions such as: “Why do people with autism talk so loudly and weirdly?” “Why do you line up your toy cars and blocks?” “Why don’t you make eye contact when you’re talking?” and “What’s the reason you jump?” (Naoki’s answer: “When I’m jumping, it’s as if my feelings are going upward to the sky.”) With disarming honesty and a generous heart, Naoki shares his unique point of view on not only autism but life itself. His insights—into the mystery of words, the wonders of laughter, and the elusiveness of memory—are so startling, so strange, and so powerful that you will never look at the world the same way again.

Audrey Hepburn: An Elegant Spirit

7,000.00

She dazzled millions as Gigi. Eliza Doolittle. Holly Golightly. But to her most adoring fan, Audrey Hepburn was best known for her role as “Mummy.”

In this heartfelt tribute to his mother, Sean Hepburn Ferrer offers a rare and intimate glimpse into the life of one of Hollywood’s brightest stars. Audrey Hepburn, An Elegant Spirit is a stunning compilation of nearly 300 photographs, many straight from the family album and never before published; archival documents, personal correspondence, and mementos; even paintings and illustrations from the actress herself.

Sean tells Audrey Hepburn’s remarkable story, from her childhood in war-torn Holland to the height of her fame to her autumn years far from the camera and the crush of the paparazzi. Sean introduces us to someone whose grace, charm, and beauty were matched only by her insecurity about her appearance and talent, and who used her hard-won recognition as a means to help children less fortunate than her own. With this unique biography, Sean celebrates his mother’s history and humanity

There Was A Country

7,000.00

For more than forty years, Chinua Achebe maintained a considered silence on the events of the Nigerian civil war, also known as the Biafran War, of 1967–1970, addressing them only obliquely through his poetry. Decades in the making, There Was a Country is a towering account of one of modern Africa’s most disastrous events, from a writer whose words and courage left an enduring stamp on world literature. A marriage of history and memoir, vivid firsthand observation and decades of research and reflection, There Was a Country is a work whose wisdom and compassion remind us of Chinua Achebe’s place as one of the great literary and moral voices of our age.

The Boot Room Boys

30,000.00

The Boot Room story starts in 1959 when Bill Shankly arrived and converted a 12 x 12storage room into a meeting place for him and his coaches, a move that had momentous consequences, both for the Club and British football.

Fans in the Kop will remember the heart-stopping extra time of the 1965 FA Cup Final, and the jubilation of winning the treble in 1984. But what was the common thread during Liverpool’s glory years? It was the Boot Room.

Lifelong Liverpool supporter and editor of legendary fanzine The End, Peter Hooton takes us back into that old storage room, where first Shankly, then Paisley, Fagan and Dalglish in succession, drank tea, analysed, strategized, selected and deselected, and built the most successful British club in Europe in the 20th Century.

Illustrated throughout with powerful never-before-seen images from the Mirror, the Echo and the Liverpool Post, Peter Hooton sheds new light on the story behind Liverpool FC ‘s most exulted era, and celebrates a city flourishing around it.

Act Like You Got Some Sense: And Other Things My Daughters Taught Me

7,500.00

Jamie Foxx has won an Academy Award and a Grammy Award, laughed with sitting presidents, and partied with the biggest names in hip-hop. But he is most proud of his role as father to two very independent young women, Corinne and Anelise. Jamie might not always know what he’s doing when it comes to raising girls—especially when they talk to him about TikTok (PlikPlok?) and don’t share his enthusiasm for flashy Rolls Royces—but he does his best to show up for them every single day.

Luckily, he has a strong example to follow: his beloved late grandmother, Estelle Marie Talley. Jamie learned everything he knows about parenting from the fierce woman who raised him: As he puts it, she’s “Madea before Tyler Perry put on the pumps and the gray wig.”

In Act Like You Got Some Sense—a title inspired by Estelle—Jamie shares up close and personal stories about the tough love and old-school values he learned growing up in the small town of Terrell, Texas; his early days trying to make it in Hollywood; the joys and challenges of achieving stardom; and how each phase of his life shaped his parenting journey. Hilarious, poignant, and always brutally honest, this is Jamie Foxx like we’ve never seen him before.

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