James Patterson shows how a boy from small-town New York made it to literary stardom.

Inspired by Didion's own words and informed by those whose lives she shaped, an acclaimed journalist takes us on an illustrated journey through Didion's life, revealing the world as it was seen through the eyes of one of the most revered and influential writers.

"In middle age, Ehrenreich came across the journal she had kept during her tumultuous adolescence and set out to reconstruct that quest, which had taken her to the study of science and through a cataclysmic series of uncanny--or as she later learned to call them, "mystical"-experiences. A staunch atheist and rationalist, she is profoundly shaken by the implications of her life-long search. Part memoir, part philosophical and spiritual inquiry, Living...

A classic survey of the practice of treating life-threatening illnesses through humor and patient participation draws on the author's experience of collaborating with his doctor to combat an irreversible disease using a combination of laughter therapy and bolstering the body's natural resources. Reprint.

In 1978, in the tailwind of the Golden Age of air travel, flight attendants were the epitome of glamor and sophistication. Fresh out of college and hungry to experience the world, Ann Hood joined their ranks. She carved chateaubriand in the first-class cabin, found romance on layovers in London and Lisbon, and walked more than a million miles in high heels, smiling as she served thousands of passengers. She flew through the start of deregulation,...

""Any story that starts will also end." As a writer, Ann Patchett knows what the outcome of her fiction will be. Life, however, often takes turns we do not see coming. Patchett ponders this truth in these wise essays that afford a fresh and intimate look into her mind and heart. At the center of These Precious Days is the title essay, a surprising and moving meditation on an unexpected friendship that explores "what it means to be seen, to find someone...