Just past seventy, Alex Witchel's smart, adoring, ultracapable mother began to exhibit signs of dementia. Her smart, adoring, ultracapable daughter reacted as she'd been raised: If something was broken, they would fix it. But medical reality undid that hope, and her mother continued to disappear in plain sight. So Witchel retreated to the kitchen, trying to reclaim her mother by cooking the comforting foods of her childhood.

Mark Bego's freshly updated biography traces Aretha Franklin's life and career from her start in a church choir, to becoming one of the twentieth century's most beloved singers. Every album, every accolade, every personal heartbreak is examined in this unfolding of Franklin's story. With detailed research and in-person interviews, including a rare one with the star herself, Bego gives us an understanding of what made Aretha the "Queen of Soul."

"From the moment of her ascension to the throne at age twenty-five, Queen Elizabeth II has been the object of unparalleled admiration and scrutiny. But through the fog of glamour and gossip, how well do we really know the world's most famous monarch? Drawing on numerous interviews and never-before-revealed documents, acclaimed biographer Sally Bedell Smith pulls back the curtain to show in extraordinary detail the public and private lives of one of...

"For four years, from the election of John Fitzgerald Kennedy in November 1960 until after the election of Lyndon Johnson in 1964, Clint Hill was the Secret Service agent assigned to guard the glamorous and intensely private Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy. During those four years, he went from being a reluctant guardian to a fiercely loyal watchdog and, in many ways, her closest friend"--

This is the heartfelt true story of a wife and mother's yearlong experience inviting one new guest (from senators to school teachers, artists to professional athletes) to dinner each week that her husband was deployed overseas. But the story isn't really about dinner. Or the military. It's a love story about marriage, motherhood, and the community that helped her raise three boys (one on the cusp of adolescence) in the absence of their father.

Identical twins Christa and Cara Parravani were raised up from poverty by a determined single mother. Gifted and beautiful, the girls sheltered each other from family violence and loss by inventing their own haven of creativity. They earned scholarships to a prestigious college, pursued careers in the arts, and paired off in early marriages. Then an act of brutality sent Cara into a downward spiral toward a shocking early death. Immediately at risk,...

"Life was pretty good for Linda Greenlaw. Her job and her lifestyle gave her the independence and freedom she so craved, she had a good relationship, and a blissful quiet home. And then one day the peace she so craved and valued that was an integral part of life on her beloved island was shattered. Enter Mariah, the fifteen-year-old niece of an island newcomer. She was a troubled girl from a broken home. In a startling and frightening turn of events,...

After more than forty years, Charles Manson continues to mystify and fascinate us. One of the most notorious criminals in American history, Manson and members of his mostly female commune killed nine people, including pregnant actress Sharon Tate. Now, drawing on new information, bestselling author Jeff Guinn tells the definitive story of how this ordinary delinquent became a murderer.

"On the morning of December 26, 2004, on the southern coast of Sri Lanka, Sonali Deraniyagala lost her parents, her husband, and her two young sons in the tsunami she miraculously survived. In this brave and searingly frank memoir, she describes those first horrifying moments and her long journey since. She has written an engrossing, unsentimental, beautifully poised account: as she struggles through the first months following the tragedy, furiously...

"When Molly Wizenberg married Brandon Pettit, she vowed always to support him, to work with him to make their hopes and dreams real. She evinced enthusiasm about Brandon's enthusiasms: building a violin, building a boat, and opening an ice cream store--none of which came to pass. So when Brandon started making plans to open a pizza restaurant, Molly felt sure that the restaurant would join the list of Brandon's abandoned projects. When she finally...