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Ignorance, Confidence, and Filthy-Rich Friends: The Business Adventures of Mark Twain, Chronic Speculator and Entrepreneur
Peter Krass,  
John Wiley   Hardcover, 288pp  $22.95   

Mark Twain was not only a legendary author and humorist; he was also a successful businessman in a variety of ventures. He founded his own publishing house where he made a killing of $2.5 million in todays dollars by publishing General Ulysses S. Grants memoirs. He was a venture capitalist who made significant investments in some 20 start-up firms and inventions. He was a Wall Street investor with a sizable stock portfolio. He was a pioneer in salesmanship, a brilliant public speaker, and a hard-nosed negotiator. He even set aside writing Huckleberry Finn to focus on his own inventions, which included a childrens game he patented in 1885 and a self-adhesive scrapbook that turned a profit. From this tremendous breadth of experience, Twain became a savvy businessman in his own right. This book will be a thorough look at Twain's life as a successful man of business.

Josephine Baker in Art and Life
Bennetta Jules-Rosette  
University of Illinois Press   Softcover, 304pp  $25.00   

Josephine Baker (1906-75) was a dancer, singer, actress, author, politician, militant, and philanthropist, whose images and cultural legacy have survived beyond the hundredth anniversary of her birth. Neither merely an exercise in postmodern deconstruction nor a traditional biography, Josephine Baker in Art and Life presents a critical cultural study of the life and art of the Franco-American performer whose appearances as the savage dancer Fatou shocked the world. Although the study remains firmly anchored in Josephine Baker's life and times, presenting and challenging carefully researched biographical facts, it also offers in-depth analyses of the images that she constructed and advanced. Bennetta Jules-Rosette explores Baker's far-ranging and dynamic career from a sociological and cultural perspective, using the tools of sociosemiotics to excavate the narratives, images, and representations that trace the story of her life and fit together as a cultural production.

In Memory of All That: The Life of George Gershwin
Joan Peyser,  
Hal Leonard   Softcover, 320pp  $17.95   

With the same intimate, insightful approach that made her Bernstein a best-seller, Joan Peyser has written a wholehearted appreciation of the musical genius that was George Gershwin.

Mozart: The Boy Who Changed the World with His Music
Marcus Weeks  
National Geographic   Hard, 64pp  $17.95   

For ages 8-12. At 5 years old, he composed a minuet. By six, he was performing for royalty. The compelling story of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart is a timeless tale of musical genius, its rewards, and its pitfalls. Author and musician Marcus Weeks takes us around Mozart's world--from the Royal courts of 18th century Europe to the opera houses and balls where Mozart enjoyed triumph and fame.

The Reluctant Mr. Darwin
David Quammen  
Norton   Hardcover, 192pp  $22.95   

Drawing from Charles Darwin's secret "transmutation" notebooks and his personal letters, Quammen has sketched a vivid life portrait of the man whose work never ceases to be controversial.

Reading Lolita in Tehran: A Memoir in Books
Azar Nafisi  
Random House   Softcover, 384pp  $14.95   

As Islamic morality squads staged arbitrary raids in Tehran, fundamentalists seized hold of the universities, and a blind censor stifled artistic expression, the girls in Azar Nafisi's living room risked removing their veils and immersed themselves in the worlds of Jane Austen, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Henry James, and Vladimir Nabokov.

My Life in France
Julia Child  
Knopf   Hard Cover, 336pp  $25.95   

In her own words, here is the captivating story of Julia Child's years in France, where she fell in love with French food and found 'her true calling.'

Teacher Man: A Memoir
Frank McCourt  
Simon & Schuster   Hardcover, 258pp  $26.00   

With all the wit, charm, irreverence, and poignancy that made Angela's Ashes and 'Tis so universally beloved, Frank McCourt tells his most exhilarating story yet - how he became a writer.

A Girl Named Zippy: Growing Up Small in Mooreland, Indiana
Haven Kimmel  
Broadway Books   Soft Cover, 304pp  $12.95   

In this loving memoir, Kimmel takes readers back in time to when small-town America was still in the innocent postwar period and treats readers to an appealing, and knowing, heroine.

Madam Secretary
Madeleine K. Albright  
Miramax   Hardcover, 576pp  $27.95   

Sure to be one of the signature books of the century, this is a tapestry both intimate and panoramic, personal and public, and a rich memoir of a powerful woman. Two 16-page photo inserts.

Will You Miss Me when I'm Gone?: The Carter Family and It's Legacy in American Music
Mark Zwonitze  
Simon & Schuster   Softcover, 432pp  $25.00   

The first major biography of the Carter Family, the musical pioneers who almost single-handedly established the sounds and traditions that grew into modern folk, country, and bluegrass music.

Dry: A Memoir
Augusten Burroughs  
St. Martin's Press   Hardcover, 293pp  $24.95   

You may not know it, but you've met Augusten Burroughs. When the ordinary person had two drinks, Augusten was circling the drain by having twelve. A memoir that's as moving as it is funny, as heartbreaking as it is real. Dry is the story of love, loss, and Starbucks as a higher power.

Living History
Hillary Rodham Clinton  
Simon & Schuster   Hardcover, 356pp  $28.00   

Hillary Rodham Clinton is known to hundreds of millions of people around the world. Yet few beyond her close friends and family have ever heard her account of her extraordinary journey. She writes with candor, humor and passion about her upbringing in suburban, middle-class America in the 1950s and her transformation from Goldwater Girl to student activist to controversial First Lady.

Seabiscuit: An American Legend
Laura Hillenbrand  
Random House   Softcover, 448pp  $15.95   

Seabiscuit was an unlikely champion: a roughhewn, undersized horse with a sad little tail and knees that wouldn't straighten all the way. But, thanks to the efforts of three men, Seabiscuit became one of the most spectacular performers in sports history. The rags-to-riches horse emerged as an American cultural icon, drawing an immense following and becoming the single biggest newsmaker of 1938 -- receiving more coverage than FDR or Hitler. Laura Hillenbrand beautifully renders this story of one horse's journey from also-ran to national luminary.