In this work, the author, a biographer provides a portrait of the father of our nation, dashing forever the stereotype of a stolid, unemotional man, and revealing an astute and surprising portrait of a canny political genius who knew how to inspire people.

At loose ends with her daughter leaving home and her husband on the road, Sue Halpern decided to give herself and Pransky, her under-occupied Labradoodle, a new leash -- er, lease -- on life by getting the two of them certified as a therapy dog team. Smart, spirited, and instinctively compassionate, Pransky turned out to be not only a terrific therapist but an unerring moral compass. And little by little, their adventures expanded and illuminated...

Like all mothers, Emily Rapp had big plans for her first and only son, Ronan. He would be smart, loyal, physically fearless, and level-headed, but fun. Then Ronan was diagnosed at nine months old with Tay-Sachs disease. Not expected to live beyond three, Ronan would be stalled at a developmental level of six months. In this story of a mother's journey through grief and beyond it, Rapp shares the wisdom to be gained from parenting without a future....

"Wendy Lesser's extraordinary alertness, intelligence, and curiosity have made her one of America's most significant cultural critics," writes Stephen Greenblatt. In Why I Read, Lesser draws on a lifetime of pleasure reading and decades of editing one of the most distinguished literary magazines in the country, The Threepenny Review, to describe her love of literature. As Lesser writes in her prologue, "Reading can result in boredom or transcendence,...

"In the tradition of M.F.K. Fisher and Peter Mayle, this enchantingly warm and witty memoir follows American-born Katherine Wilson on her adventures abroad, where a three-month rite of passage in Naples turns into a permanent embrace of this boisterous city on the Mediterranean. It is all thanks to a surprising romance, a new passion for food, and a spirited woman who will become her mother-in-law--and teach her to laugh, to seize joy, and to love"-- "When...

Lynne Cox was a super athlete who broke many world records, among them swimming the English Channel at 15, being the first woman to swim across Cook Strait (15.2 miles) between the North and South Islands of New Zealand, and the first to swim off Antarctica in 32-degree water -- for 25 minutes! -- all without a wetsuit. And that's where "Swimming in the Sink" begins -- at a laboratory at the University of London, with Cox's hand in cold water, hooked...