Best Books

The former Clinton advisor draws on his long relationship with the former president to reveal the true personality of Bill Clinton hidden behind the distortions of his autobiography, 'My Life.'

Advance praise from Kweisi Mfume, President and CEO, NAACP 'Herein breathes the universal genius Benjamin Banneker —— mathematician, astronomer, diarist, and sage. Biographer Charles Cerami mines the available data, eschews the apocryphal, and renders his subject human. Captured completely is the flowering genius of a largely home-schooled boy wonder, exhibiting mathematical wizardry while devouring the Bible, Plato, Epictetus, and virtually every other extant tome. The fabled memory that could have reproduced L’Enfant’s plan for the entire District of Columbia becomes palpable and real. We understand how the pragmatic farmer who was imbued with Quaker ideology endured decades of ignominious racism with overt equanimity while haunted by incessant night terrors. We comprehend the heroism of the man whose very existence refuted Thomas Jefferson’s notorious public denial of black intellect in Notes on Virginia when, speaking truth to power, Banneker launched an anti-slavery epistle at the ambivalent and duplicitous Jefferson. We are enraged at the account of arsonists setting fire on the day of Banneker’s funeral to the small, rustic log cabin where the genius had labored in solitude among his instruments, papers, and books. We are grateful to Charles Cerami, who has resurrected the spirit of a neglected giant and gifted us with a biography nearly two centuries overdue.' 'Like Benjamin Banneker, Charles Cerami presents the product of his research in a modest yet compelling manner. Cerami engagingly writes about both Banneker the genius and Banneker the man–a thought-provoking read.' – Raymond G. Dobard, Ph.D., Professor of Art, Howard University, and coauthor of Hidden in Plain View: A Secret story of Quilts and the Underground Railroad

A National Book Award finalist presents the story of the tumultuous life of the Baroque Italian artist, offering insight into how he defined the aesthetic conventions of his time to create realistic portraits of everyday people and natural subjects. 40,000 first printing.

In 1991 Clinton Heylin published what was considered the most definitive biography of Bob Dylan available. In 2001 he completely revised and reworked this hugely acclaimed book, adding new sections, substantially reworking text, and bringing the story up-to-date with Dylan's explosive career in 2000. 'Bob Dylan: Behind the Shades Revisited follows the story of Dylan from his humble beginnings in Minnesota to his arrival in New York in 1961, his subsequent rise in the folk pantheon of Greenwich Village in the early '60s, and his cataclysmic folk-rock metamorphosis at the Newport Folk Festival in 1965. In the succeeding eighteen months, Dylan released 'Highway 61 Revisited and 'Blonde on Blonde, and embarked on the legendary 1966 World Tour that culminated with an unforgettable concert at the Royal Albert Hall. Heylin details it all, along with the true story of Dylan's motorcycle accident, his remarkable reemergence in the mid-'70s, the only exacting account of his controversial conversion to born-again Christianity, the Neverending Tour, and yet another incre

Janis Joplin's sister uses newly discovered letters to chronicle the singer's life, discussing her restless teen years, involvement in the hippie scene at Haight-Ashbury, sexual experimentation, drug use, and career. Reprint. 25,000 first printing.