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Biography, Memoir, Essays Books in this online selection represent only a sliver of what we offer in the store. If you've got a particular book in mind and want to check on its availability, call us at 415-362-8193.

<<< 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 >>>     sort list by title | author Just Like Someone Without Mental Illness Only More So A Memoir Mark Vonnegut, M.D. More than thirty years after the publication of his acclaimed memoir The Eden Express, Mark Vonnegut continues his story in this searingly funny, iconoclastic account of coping with mental illness, finding his calling, and learning that willpower... Alfred Jarry A Pataphysical Life Alastair Brotchie When Alfred Jarry died in 1907 at the age of thirty-four, he was a legendary figure in Paris--but this had more to do with his bohemian lifestyle and scandalous behavior than his literary achievements. A century later, Jarry is firmly established as... Charlie Chan The Untold Story of the Honorable Detective and His Rendezvous with American History Yunte Huang Shortlisted for the 2010 National Book Critics Circle Award in Biography and the 2011 Edgar Award for Best Critical/Biographical Book: "An ingenious and absorbing book. . . . It will permanently change the way we tell this troubled yet gripping... Hitch-22 A Memoir Christopher Hitchens Over the course of his 60 years, Christopher Hitchens has been a citizen of both the United States and the United Kingdom. He has been both a socialist opposed to the war in Vietnam and a supporter of the U.S. war against Islamic extremism in Iraq. He... Ten Years That Shook the City San Francisco 1968-1978 Chris Carlsson The alliances, programs, and goals of a historic decade that continues to shape SF and the world. Role Models John Waters Here, from the incomparable John Waters, is a paean to the power of subversive inspiration that will delight, amuse, enrich—and happily horrify—readers everywhere. Role Models is, in fact, a self-portrait told through intimate profiles of favorite... Confessions of a Young Novelist (The Richard Ellmann Lectures in Modern Literature) Umberto Eco Umberto Eco published his first novel, The Name of the Rose, in 1980, when he was nearly fifty. In these "confessions," the author, now in his late seventies, looks back on his long career as a theorist and his more recent work as a novelist... The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks Rebecca Skloot Her name was Henrietta Lacks, but scientists know her as HeLa. She was a poor Southern tobacco farmer who worked the same land as her slave ancestors, yet her cells—taken without her knowledge—became one of the most important tools in medicine. The... Dreams in a Time of War A Childhood Memoir Ngugi Wa'Thiong'O Born in 1938 in rural Kenya, Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o came of age in the shadow of World War II, amidst the terrible bloodshed in the war between the Mau Mau and the British. The son of a man whose four wives bore him more than a score of children, young... Like Shaking Hands with God A Conversation about Writing Kurt Vonnegut, Lee Stringer In Like Shaking Hands with God, two distinguished writers—separated by age, race, upbringing, and education, but sharing common goals and aspirations—talk about the place where the lives they lead meet the art they practice. That these two writers... Fate, Time, and Language An Essay on Free Will David Foster Wallace, Steven M. Cahn, Maureen Eckert In 1962, the philosopher Richard Taylor used six commonly accepted presuppositions to imply that human beings have no control over the future. David Foster Wallace not only took issue with Taylor's method, which, according to him, scrambled the... White Hand Society The Psychedelic Partnership of Timothy Leary & Allen Ginsberg Peter Conners How Allen Ginsberg and Timothy Leary launched the psychedelic revolution together: the inside story. Just Kids Patti Smith Winner of the National Book Award. Just Kids illuminates the impressive lover of literature that Patti Smith is. Her memoir will be of particular interest to City Lights enthusiasts as she is our quintessential reader, a fan of the Surrealists... The Education of a British-Protected Child Essays Chinua Achebe From the celebrated author of Things Fall Apart comes a new collection of autobiographical essays—his first new book in more than twenty years. Chinua Achebe's characteristically eloquent and nuanced voice is everywhere present in these seventeen... <<< 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 >>>