For as long as anyone can remember, a man named Luca Turin has had an uncanny relationship with smells. He has been compared to the hero of Patrick Suskinds novel Perfume, but his story is in fact stranger, because it is true. It concerns how he made use of his powerful gifts to solve one of the last ... more »

A fascinating collection of essays from twenty-seven of the world's most interesting scientists about the moments and events in their childhoods that set them on the paths that would define their lives. What makes a child decide to become a scientist? oFor Robert Sapolsky--Stanford professor of biology ... more »

Als die Dokumentarfilmerin Siba Shakib in einem afghanischen Flüchtlingslager Shirin-Gol begegnet, sieht sie nur den blauen Ganzkörperschleier, hinter dem die Frauen Afghanistans ihren Körper verstecken müssen. Doch als sie die ruhige weiche Stimme Shirin-Gols hört, spürt sie eine Kraft, die sie nicht ... more »

Gordon Parks, acclaimed photographer, filmmaker, composer, and author of fiction and nonfiction, has participated in, been witness to, and documented many of the major events in the twentieth and the twenty-first centuries. Born in Fort Scott, Kansas, on November 30, 1912, he left home at age fifteen ... more »

Bestselling author Connie May Fowler tells her own extraordinary story for the first time-the harrowing years of her childhood followed by the abusive relationship she endured as a young woman-and how the unconditional love of her dog helped her escape her physical and emotional bonds. Before Women Had ... more »

Nearly a decade ago Frank McCourt became an unlikely star when, at the age of sixty-six, he burst onto the literary scene with Angela's Ashes, the Pulitzer Prize -- winning memoir of his childhood in Limerick, Ireland. Then came 'Tis, his glorious account of his early years in New York. Now, here at ... more »

Musician, composer, producer, arranger, and pioneering entrepreneur Quincy Jones has lived large and worked for five decades alongside the superstars of music and entertainment -- including Frank Sinatra, Michael Jackson, Steven Spielberg, Oprah Winfrey, Ray Charles, Will Smith, and dozens of others ... more »

From the internationally bestselling author and beloved actress comes a brilliantly fun-loving and inspiring story of unconditional love. Shirley MacLaine has found a perfect love in the furry bundle of irresistible canine charms that is Terry. With her winning terrier ways and an endless wellspring ... more »

In 2003, the world will celebrate the 50th anniversary of Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay's historic ascent of Mount Everest, an event which became a defining moment in twentieth-century adventure and which delivered fame and glory to the men who took part in it. All, perhaps, except Tenzing, who, ... more »

Robert E. Rubin spent twenty-six years at Goldman Sachs, rising to co-senior partner, before becoming director of the White House National Economic Council from 1993 to 1995, and U.S. Treasury Secretary from 1995 to 1999. He is currently a director of Citigroup. He and his wife, Judy, live in New York ... more »

In 1986, as part of the crusade to make the Sudan one Muslim nation, Islamic militia from the north raided a marketplace in the Christian south, slaughtered villagers and abducted small children--including the then seven-year old Francis Bok. Bok's captor was a wealthy Muslim farmer, who kept him as ... more »

What if the protagonist in that age-old tale--boy goes to war, comes back a man--were a female? Shutterbabe, Deborah Copaken Kogan's remarkable debut, is just that: the story of a twenty-two-year-old girl from Potomac, Maryland, who goes off to photograph wars and comes back, four years and one too many ... more »