In the stirring first volume of his presidential memoirs, Barack Obama tells the story of his improbable odyssey from young man searching for his identity to leader of the free world, describing in strikingly personal detail both his political education and the landmark moments of the first term of his historic presidency―a time of dramatic transformation and turmoil.

Obama takes readers on a compelling journey from his earliest political aspirations to the pivotal Iowa caucus victory that demonstrated the power of grassroots activism to the watershed night of November 4, 2008, when he was elected 44th president of the United States, becoming the first African American to hold the nation’s highest office.

Reflecting on the presidency, he offers a unique and thoughtful exploration of both the awesome reach and the limits of presidential power, as well as singular insights into the dynamics of U.S. partisan politics and international diplomacy.

A Promised Land is extraordinarily intimate and introspective―the story of one man’s bet with history, the faith of a community organizer tested on the world stage. Obama is candid about the forces that opposed him at home and abroad and bearing the expectation of a generation buoyed by messages of “hope and change”, and unafraid to reveal self-doubt and disappointment. Yet he never wavers from his belief that inside the great, ongoing American experiment, progress is always possible.

This beautifully written and powerful book captures Barack Obama’s conviction that democracy is not a gift from on high but something founded on empathy and common understanding and built together, day by day.

A powerful, candid, and richly detailed memoir from an American icon, revealing what life looks like after the presidency: triumphs, tribulations, and all.

On January 20, 2001, after nearly thirty years in politics—eight of them as president of the United States—Bill Clinton was suddenly a private citizen. Only fifty-four years old, full of energy and ideas, he wanted to make meaningful use of his skills, his relationships with world leaders, and all he’d learned in a lifetime of politics, but how? Just days after leaving the White House, the call came to aid victims of a devastating earthquake in India, and Clinton hit the ground running. Over the next two decades, he would create an enduring legacy of public service and advocacy work, from Indonesia to Louisiana, Northern Ireland to South Africa, and in the process reimagine philanthropy and redefine the impact a former president could have on the world.

Citizen is Clinton’s front-row, first-person chronicle of his postpresidential years and the most significant events of the twenty-first century, including 9/11 and the runup to the Iraq War, the Haiti earthquake, the Great Recession, the January 6 insurrection, and the enduring culture wars of our times. With clarity and compassion, he also weighs in on the unprecedented challenges brought on by a global pandemic, ongoing income inequality, a steadily warming planet, and authoritarian forces dedicated to weakening democracy. Yet Citizen is more than a political memoir. These pages capture Clinton in a rare and unforgettable light: not only as a celebrated former president and a foundation leader, but as a father, grandfather, and husband. He recounts his support for Hillary Clinton during her time as senator, secretary of state, and presidential candidate, and shares the frustration and pain of the 2016 election.

In this landmark publication, the highly anticipated follow-up to the best-selling My Life, Clinton pens an illuminating account of American democracy on a global stage, offering a frank reflection on the past and, with it, a fearless embrace of our future. Citizen is a self-portrait of equal parts eloquence, insight, and candor, a testament to one man’s unwavering commitment to family and nation.

On 11 June 2011, three days short of his sixth-ninth birthday, Jonathan Raban suffered a stroke which left him unable to use the right side of his body, wheelchair-bound in a rehab facility and endlessly frustrated by his newfound physical limitations. As he resisted the overbearing ministrations of the nurses helping him along the road to recovery, Raban began to reflect not only on the measure of his own life but the extraordinary story of his parents’ early marriage, conducted for three years by letter while his father fought in the Second World War.

Calvet's Web is a study of a circle of French antiquarians, naturalists, and bibliophiles in the period 1750-1810. By using the surviving correspondence of its members, Laurence Brockliss assembles a vivid picture of the French Republic of Letters in an era of rapid change, showing how the world of scholarship relates to the movement historians call the Enlightenment and how it is torn apart, then reconstructed, in the social and political turmoil of the French Revolution.

Leonidas Polk is one of the most fascinating figures of the Civil War. Consecrated as a bishop of the Episcopal Church and commissioned as a general into the Confederate army, Polk's life in both spheres blended into a unique historical composite. Polk was a man with deep religious convictions but equally committed to the Confederate cause. He baptized soldiers on the eve of bloody battles, administered last rites and even presided over officers' weddings, all while leading his soldiers into battle. Historian Cheryl White examines the life of this soldier-saint and the legacy of a man who unquestionably brought the first viable and lively Protestant presence to Louisiana and yet represents the politics of one of the darkest periods in American history.

Holocaust survivor Eddie Jaku made a vow to smile every day and now believes he is the ‘happiest man on earth’. In his inspirational memoir, he pays tribute to those who were lost by telling his story and sharing his wisdom.

Life can be beautiful if you make it beautiful. It is up to you.

Eddie Jaku always considered himself a German first, a Jew second. He was proud of his country. But all of that changed in November 1938, when he was beaten, arrested and taken to a concentration camp.

Over the next seven years, Eddie faced unimaginable horrors every day, first in Buchenwald, then in Auschwitz, then on a Nazi death march. He lost family, friends, his country.

The Happiest Man on Earth is a powerful, heartbreaking and ultimately hopeful memoir of how happiness can be found even in the darkest of times.

In vergeelde foto’s van drie dekades gelede staan oopgesigseuns vol bravade voor Ratel-gevegsvoertuie. Hierdie dienspligtiges van 61 Gemeganiseerde Bataljongroep staan aan die begin van hul reis diep in Angola in om vir volk en vaderland te gaan veg.

In ’n bloedige geveg op Valentynsdag 1988 en in die doodsakker by Tumpo sou hul jeugdige onskuld egter sneuwel. In die hitte van die gevegte kom die besef: Nou gaan dit nie oor ideologie nie, maar om oorlewing.

Ná die oorlog gaan die lewe voort, maar die vrae en geestelike letsels wyk nie. In 2018 keer ’n groep van dié ouddienspligtiges terug na Cuito Cuanavale op soek na afsluiting - en om die wrak te vind van die Ratel waarin ’n makker op die laaste dag van die oorlog gesterf het.

Die Brug vertel van hul reis van jong man na veteraan en gee ook ’n stem aan die vroue in hul lewe. Dit is ’n verhaal van ontnugtering, maar ook van trotse kameraderie en genesing.

This is the first complete biography of one of the most brilliant fifteenth-century monarchs, Alfonso V of Aragon. Ryder traces Alfonso's life from his childhood in the chivalric world of Castile to the newly-acquired states of Aragon and his subsequent accession to the Aragonese throne. In addition to being a shrewd politician, Alfonso is revealed to have been an accomplished diplomat, acutely aware of the power of commerce, and one of the greatest patrons of the early Renaissance. He brought humanism to life in Southern Italy and made his court the most brilliant in Europe. Offering not only an insightful look at Alfonso's life but a vivid portrait of political and cultural life during his reign, this volume will hold special appeal for scholars and students of early modern European history, fifteenth-century Italian and Spanish history, and Renaissance studies.

Julian Jansen, author of bestselling true crime books like The De Salze Murders, tells the Devené Nel story.

As Rapport’s crime reporter, Julian Jansen has written about the case from the start. He draws on his extensive contacts in the police and interviews with friends and family to reconstruct the events leading to the tragedy, and to honour the murdered young girl. He also investigates the failures of the state and draws lessons on how it can be prevented from happening again.

'Living with him was like living at the centre of the universe. It was electrifying and humbling, blissful and destructive, all at the same time.'

Paris, 1936. When Dora Maar, a talented French photographer, painter and poet, is introduced to Pablo Picasso, she is mesmerized by his dark and intense stare. Drawn to his volcanic creativity, it isn't long before she embarks on a passionate relationship with the Spanish artist that sometimes includes sadism and masochism, and ultimately pushes her to the edge.

The Paris Muse is the fictionalized retelling of this disturbing love story, as we follow Dora on her journey of self-discovery and expression. Set in Paris and the French Riviera, where Dora and Pablo spent their holidays with their glamorous artist friends, it provides a fascinating insight into how Picasso was a genius who side-stepped the rules in his human relationships as he did in his art. Much to Dora's torment, he refused to divorce his wife and conducted affairs with Dora's friends. The Spanish Civil War made him depressed and violent, an angst that culminated in his acclaimed painting 'Guernica', which Dora documented as he painted.

As the encroaching darkness suffocates their relationship - a darkness that escalates once the Second World War begins and the Nazis invade the country - Dora has a nervous breakdown and is hospitalized.

Atmospheric, intense and moving, The Paris Muse is an astonishing read that ensures that this talented, often overlooked woman who gave her life to Picasso is no longer a footnote.

Eleanor Roosevelt's character was shaped by the history and culture of the Hudson Valley. More than that, Eleanor Roosevelt loved the Hudson Valley. A woman who knew and cared for the whole world chose this place, Val-Kill, as her home in a cottage by a stream. Eleanor Roosevelt: A Hudson Valley Remembrance reflects her unaffected simplicity and caring interest in her neighbors' concerns. Remembered by friends, colleagues, neighbors, and young people, these qualities inspired a community-based group to lead efforts to save her home in 1977 as the country's first national historic site dedicated to a First Lady. The Eleanor Roosevelt Center at Val-Kill continues her work on issues that affect life today.

The powerful and moving memoir of a fearless political opposition leader who paid the ultimate price for his beliefs.

Alexei Navalny began writing PATRIOT shortly after his near-fatal poisoning in 2020. It is the full story of his life: his youth, his call to activism, his marriage and family, his commitment to challenging a world super-power determined to silence him, and his total conviction that change cannot be resisted – and will come.

In vivid, page-turning detail, including never-before-seen correspondence from prison, Navalny recounts, among other things, his political career, the many attempts on his life, and the lives of the people closest to him, and the relentless campaign he and his team waged against an increasingly dictatorial regime.

Written with the passion, wit, candour and bravery for which he was justly acclaimed, PATRIOT is Navalny’s final letter to the world: a moving account of his last years spent in the most brutal prison on earth; a reminder of why the principles of individual freedom matter so deeply; and a rousing call to continue the work for which he sacrificed his life.

‘Life has no meaning unless it’s lived for the benefit of future generations’

Crafted from original interviews, American Heroes tells the vivid, authentic stories of the veterans who give themselves – and even their lives – serving in overseas conflict from World War Two to Korea, Vietnam, Iraq and Afghanistan.

Outnumbered, under pressure and under fire, these men and women exhibited extraordinary selflessness, camaraderie and patriotism. For their service and sacrifice, they earned the US military’s highest awards for valour.

In this powerful collection of never-before-told stories, James Patterson and First Sergeant U.S. Army (Ret.) Matt Eversmann salute America’s most courageous military heroes.

In 38 Londres Street, Philippe Sands blends personal memoir, historical detective work and gripping courtroom drama to probe a secret double story of mass murder, one that reveals a shocking thread that links the horrors of the 1940s with those of our own times.

The house at 38 Londres Street is home to the legacies of two men whose personal stories span continents, nationalities and decades of atrocity: Augusto Pinochet, President of Chile, and Walther Rauff, a Nazi SS officer responsible for the use of gas vans.

On the run from justice at the end of the Second World War, Rauff crosses the ocean to southern Chile. He settles in Punta Arenas, Patagonia, managing a king crab cannery at the end of the world. But there are whispers about this discreet and self-possessed German - rumours of a second career with Pinochet's secret intelligence service, the dreaded DINA.

In 1998, Pinochet is in a London medical clinic when the police enter his room and arrest him on charges of crimes against humanity and genocide. Philippe Sands is called to advise the former head of state on his claim to immunity, but will instead represent a human rights organisation against him. Years later, Sands makes a discovery while working on another book which reignites his interest in the case and leads to a decades-long investigation into Pinochet's crimes, his unexpected connection to Rauff and the former Nazi's possible connection to Chile's disappeared.

Marion is proverbially the great master of strategy?the wily fox of the swamps?never to be caught, never to be followed, ?yet always at hand, with unconjectured promptness, at the moment when he is least feared and is least to be expected. South Carolina's ?Swamp Fox, ? Francis Marion, is one of the most celebrated figures of the American Revolution. Marion's cunning exploits in the Southern theater of the Revolution earned him national renown and a place in history as an American hero and master of modern guerilla warfare. Although dozens of works have been written about Marion's life over the years, this biography -- written by William Gilmore Simms, South Carolina's greatest author -- remains the best. First published in 1844, The Life of Francis Marion was Simms's most commercially successful work of nonfiction. It offers a treatment of Marion's life that is unparalleled in its scope and accuracy, all in Simms's inimitable style.

Boris Johnson has always been larger than life. Controversial, untrammelled by the normal rules of politics, his route to becoming Britain’s prime minister included a landmark career as a journalist, two terms as London’s mayor, leading the Vote Leave Brexit campaign and acting as foreign secretary. He won the largest Tory majority since 1987 when he went to the polls in December 2019 for a mandate to ‘Get Brexit Done’ – only to have his administration hit by the global Covid pandemic and toppled in a Tory putsch.

Unleashed is his account of his time in politics, and a book that shatters the mould of the modern prime ministerial memoir. Written in his inimitable style, it is honest, unrestrained and deeply revealing about the politician who has dominated our times.

This is his story of the fifteen years since he trounced Ken Livingstone at the polls to become mayor of London. Riots, tackling knife crime, bikes, buses, the London Olympics, and so much more. He writes about his role in Brexit, takes readers through all the big decisions and his reasons for taking them, and describes how he nearly died from Covid.

Underlying everything in the book is his view that the UK is an extraordinary country and should have an exceptional future. These are the reflections of a political leader who believes fundamentally in levelling up – that there are millions of people in Britain who do not have the present they need or the future they deserve, and that it is the first job of politicians to put this right.

It is all here. From soup to nuts, warts and all. As a journalist he was famed as a blurter of unsayable truths, and he has drawn again on this quality for the book. About people, policies, mistakes and triumphs. This is it – the reality as he saw it: unvarnished, unlocked, unleashed.

In The Syndicate of Twenty-two Natives Lindiwe Sangweni-Siddo offers an elegy to her father, the late Professor Stan Sangweni, which explores the personal saga of a family’s lineage rooted in eZuka on Suspence Farm, Newcastle, in what is now northern KwaZulu-Natal.

In turn, Prof Sangweni opens a window into a past where his grandfather, with foresight and ingenuity, became part of The Syndicate of Twenty-two Natives, a group that secured land for their families, including his family of seven wives, and for succeeding generations at a time when Black people in South Africa were being systematically dispossessed of their land.

While packing up her father’s study as her parents prepare to move from their home after 27 years, Lindiwe and her father uncover his lifelong collection of documents and pictures that detail the intricacies of his life as a devoted family man, an ANC veteran and anti-apartheid activist, a pioneer of public service excellence in post-apartheid South Africa and an inveterate stickler for detail in every aspect of his life. Inspiring, often humorous, occasionally cataclysmically disruptive and generally victorious, this memoir is a tribute and a testament to the enduring legacy of those who pave the way amidst the trials of history for future generations.

In this poignant memoir, Lesley Lysaght unravels the complex tapestry of her childhood in colonial Rhodesia, now Zimbabwe. At its heart is Silas, the man she called Sekuru—grandfather—who cared for her as a child and shaped her worldview.

Separated by war and politics, Lesley spends decades searching for Silas across continents. Her journey weaves through Zimbabwe’s tumultuous history, from white minority rule to independence and beyond.

More than a personal quest, Sekuru is a meditation on love that transcends racial boundaries, the lasting impacts of colonialism, and the power of human connection. As Lesley reconciles her privileged upbringing with her evolving understanding of injustice, she grapples with questions of identity, belonging, and responsibility.

Lyrical and introspective, Sekuru offers a unique perspective on family, race relations, and the enduring bonds that define us.

Ken Thompson served as Sarasota's city manager from 1950 to 1988, making him the longest-serving manager in United States history. During these years, Sarasota experienced a population explosion and an unprecedented modernization of city services. The city moved from a sleepy little town to an independent city with an identifiable economy. This period of growth gave residents a vastly improved bayfront that included Island Park and the Marina Jack development and saw the creation of the current city hall and the Van Wetzel Theater. In thirty-eight years, Sarasota moved from the Circus City to the multifaceted city it is today. Follow well-known Sarasota historian Jeff LaHurd as he recounts the sometimes controversial era of Sarasota's greatest growth.