Ingrid Betancourt, a senator and a presidential candidate in Colombia, grew up among diplomats, literati, and artists who congregated at her parents' elegant home in Paris, France. Her father served as Colombia's ambassador to UNESCO and her mother, a political activist, continued her work on behalf ... more »

When Jon Krakauer reached the summit of Mt. Everest in the early afternoon of May 10,1996, he hadn't slept in fifty-seven hours and was reeling from the brain-altering effects of oxygen depletion. As he turned to begin the perilous descent from 29,028 feet (roughly the cruising altitude of an Airbus ... more »

Benjamin Franklin is the Founding Father who winks at us. An ambitious urban entrepreneur who rose up the social ladder, from leather-aproned shopkeeper to dining with kings, he seems made of flesh rather than of marble. In bestselling author Walter Isaacson's vivid and witty full-scale biography, we ... more »

Paul Williams has been writing about pop music for decades, never flagging in his enthusiasm or his emotional and intellectual openness to the newest music. His insight into how it feels when we listen to certain performers or certain performances makes a connection between music and reading that is ... more »

You are six years old. Every day after school your father takes you to a sprawling castle filled with exotic animals, bowls of candy, and half-naked women catering to your every need. You have your own room. You have new friends. You have an uncle Hef who's always there for you. Welcome to the world ... more »

Boy meets dot-com, boy falls for dot-com, boy flees dot-com in horror. So goes one of the most perversely hilarious love stories you will ever read, one that blends tech culture, hero worship, cat litter, Albanian economics, venture capitalism, and free bagels into a surreal cocktail of delusion. In ... more »

Eminem: Kotzbrocken für die einen, rebellischer Held für die anderen. Kaum ein Musikkünstler hat je so stark polarisiert wie der 28-jährige amerikanische Rapper Eminem. Marshall Bruce Mathers III., so sein bürgerlicher Name, wuchs ohne Vater und unter ärmlichsten Bedingungen in den schlimmsten Gegenden ... more »

Whatever anyone thinks of Donald Trump, the truth is far more complex--and fascinating. Instead of society nightlife, most evenings he's at home watching TV and munching Oreos. He has a line of clothing and bottled water emblazoned with his image, yet he needed a loan from his siblings to stay afloat ... more »

It is with a kind of fear that I begin to write the history of my life. I have, as it were, a superstitious hesitation in lifting the veil that clings about my childhood like a golden mist. The task of writing an autobiography is a difficult one. When I try to classify my earliest impressions, I find ... more »

"What if you set off on a vacation trip in search of history--and your destination was the men who had been president?" Asking himself that tantalizing question, bestselling author and award-winning journalist Bob Greene embarked on a long journey across the breadth of the nation, hoping to ... more »

If you don't have the time to read, you don't have the time or the tools to write. In 1999, Stephen King began to write about his craft -- and his life. By midyear, a widely reported accident jeopardized the survival of both. And in his months of recovery, the link between writing and living became more ... more »

It started as a daydream. Poring over a map of the world at home one quiet Saturday afternoon, Ewan McGregor - actor and self-confessed bike nut - noticed that it was possible to ride all the way round the world, with just one short hop across the Bering Strait from Russia to Alaska. It was a revelation ... more »