When they first exchanged vows, Lisa promised to be with her husband “till death do us part.” But how many couples stop and think about what that truly means? Worth Fighting For is a remarkably candid look at what losing a partner really entails—how to care for him or her, how to make it through each day without falling into despair, and how to move forward in the second half of your life when the person you spent the first half with is gone.

For the first time, Lisa Niemi Swayze shares the details of Patrick’s twenty-one-month battle with Stage IV pancreatic cancer, and she describes his last days, when she simply tried to keep him comfortable. She writes with heartbreaking honesty about her grief in the aftermath of Patrick’s death, and she openly discusses the challenges that the years without him have posed.

While this is an emotionally honest and un-flinching depiction of illness and loss, it is also a hopeful and life-affirming exploration of the power of the human spirit. Lisa shows that no matter how dark the prospect of another day may seem, there are always reserves of strength to call upon. She writes, “I tell you, I am a different person now. One who has been thrown into the fire and forged.” Like The Year of Magical Thinking and A Widow’s Story, this book is both a tribute to a marriage and a celebration of the healing power that each day holds, even in the most difficult of circumstances.

Based on ten years of original, exclusive interviews with the man himself and conversations with a legion of musical associates like Queens of the Stone Age frontman Josh Homme, DC punk legend Ian MacKaye, and “Nevermind” producer Butch Vig, this is Grohl’s story. He speaks candidly and honestly about Kurt Cobain, the arguments that almost tore Nirvana apart, the feuds that threatened to derail the Foo Fighters’s global success, and the dark days that almost caused him to quit music for good.

Dave Grohl has emerged as one of the most recognizable and respected musicians in the world. He is the last true hero to emerge from the American underground. “This Is a Call” vividly recounts this incredible rock ‘n’ roll journey.

The authors studied all the available documents relating to Van Gogh, as well as the relevant literature and archives. They also frequently consulted with Van Gogh specialists around the world. As a leading centre of expertise, the Van Gogh Museum made a major contribution to this project. Furthermore, two of its staff members provided comments on the first draft of the manuscript.

Intriguing new perspectives
The publication of this biography represents a major contribution to our understanding of Vincent van Gogh’s life and work, with intriguing new perspectives.

The biography offers an original point of view on the life, character, and motivations of Vincent van Gogh. The authors also propose a new explanation of the cause of Van Gogh’s death, suggesting that it was manslaughter or murder, rather than suicide as previously thought.

Not a suicide, but a killing?
After analysing and interpreting all the known facts about Van Gogh’s death, Naifeh and Smith conclude that the bullet which ended Van Gogh’s life was not shot by the artist himself, but by somebody else. Until now, it was generally assumed that Van Gogh had committed suicide; in fact, his was one of the most legendary suicides in art history.

Leo Jansen, a curator at the Van Gogh Museum, comments, ‘Obviously, this is a dramatic new claim about the cause of Van Gogh’s death that will generate a great deal of discussion. There have always been unresolved issues surrounding Van Gogh’s suicide, including such fundamental issues as the place of the incident and why Van Gogh decided to commit suicide just then. What is more, the gun was never found. Naifeh and Smith re-evaluate the known facts and present the hypothesis that two boys were involved in a mysterious incident that led to the fatal shot. This is an intriguing interpretation, but plenty of questions remain unanswered; for example, Naifeh and Smith suggest that the perpetrator(s) made off with Van Gogh’s painting materials after the incident, but that would only have raised suspicions. The Van Gogh Museum therefore believes that, all things considered, it would be premature to rule out suicide as the cause of death.’

Drawing on newly available archival material, including Sophia’s unpublished memoir, Alexandra Popoff presents a dramatically different and accurate portrait of the woman and the marriage. This lively, well-researched biography demonstrates that, contrary to popular belief, Sophia was remarkably supportive of Tolstoy and was, in fact, key to his fame.

Gifted and versatile, Sophia assisted Tolstoy during the writing of War and Peace and Anna Karenina. Having modeled his most memorable female characters on her, Tolstoy admired his wife’s boundless energy, which he called “the force of life.” Sophia’s letters, never before translated, illuminate the couple’s true relationship and provide insights into Tolstoy’s creative laboratory. Although long portrayed as an elitist and hysterical countess, Sophia was in reality a practical, independent-minded, generous, and talented woman who shared Tolstoy’s important values and his capacity for work. Mother of thirteen, she participated in Tolstoy’s causes and managed all business a airs.

Popoff describes in haunting detail the intrusion into their marriage by Tolstoy’s religious disciple Vladimir Chertkov, who controlled Tolstoy at the end of his life and led a smear campaign against Sophia, branding her evil and mad. She is still judged by Chertkov’s false accounts, which dismissed her valuable achievements and contributions.

During his later religious phase, Tolstoy renounced his property and copyright, and Sophia had to become the breadwinner. She published Tolstoy’s collected works and supported their large family. Despite the pressures of her demanding life, she realized her own talents as a writer, photographer, translator, and aspiring artist.

This vigorous, engrossing biography presents in fascinating depth and detail the many ways in which Sophia Tolstoy enriched the life and work of one of the world’s most revered authors.

His name was Segatashya. He was a shepherd born into a penniless and illiterate pagan family in the most remote region of Rwanda. He never attended school, never saw a bible, and never set foot in a church. Then one summer day in 1982 while the 15-year-old was resting beneath a shade tree, Jesus Christ paid him a visit. Jesus asked the startled young man if he’d be willing to go on a mission to remind mankind how to live a life that leads to heaven.

Segatashya accepted the assignment on one condition: that Jesus answer all his questions-and all the questions of those he met on his travels-about faith, religion, the purpose of life, and the nature of heaven and hell. Jesus agreed to the boy’s terms, and Segatashya set off on what would become one of the most miraculous journeys in modern history. Although he was often accused of being a charlatan and beaten as a result, Segatashya’s innocent heart and powerful spiritual wisdom quickly won over even the most cynical of critics. Soon, this teenage boy who had never learned to read or write was discussing theology with leading biblical scholars and advising pastors and priests of all denominations. He became so famous in Rwanda that the Catholic Church investigated his story. The doctors and psychiatrists who examined Segatashya all agreed that they were witnessing a miracle. His words and simple truths converted thousands of hearts and souls wherever he went.

Before his death during the 1994 Rwandan genocide, Segatashya continued his travels and conversations with Jesus for eight years, asking Him what we all want to know: Why were we created? Why must we suffer? Why do bad things happen to good people? When will the world end? Is there life after death? How do we get to Heaven? The answers to these and many other momentous, life-changing questions are revealed in this riveting book, which is the first full account of Segatashya’s remarkable life story. Written with grace, passion, and loving humor by Immaculée Ilibagiza, Segatashya’s close friend and a survivor of the Rwandan holocaust herself, this truly inspirational work is certain to move you in profound ways.

No matter what your faith or religious beliefs, Segatashya’s words will bring you comfort and joy, and prepare your heart for this life . . . and for life everlasting.

Immaculée Ilibagiza was born in Rwanda and studied electronic and mechanical engineering at the National University. She lost most of her family during the 1994 genocide. Four years later, she emigrated to the United States and began working at the United Nations in New York City. She is now a full-time public speaker and writer. In 2007 she established the Left to Tell Charitable Fund, which helps support Rwandan orphans.

Immaculée holds honorary doctoral degrees from The University of Notre Dame and Saint John’s University, and was awarded The Mahatma Gandhi International Award for Reconciliation and Peace 2007. She is the author, with Steve Erwin, of LEFT TO TELL: Discovering God Amidst the Rwandan Holocaust.

Please visit www.LeftToTell.com for more about Immaculée.

The project is born on 2008 from the idea of 4 young people from Turin (Italy) and since then it’s been spread internationally in a lot of countries. The storyteller gives his/her support spontaneously and in the respect of the local law, he/she is completely free to decide the argument of the video and audio-interviews that are collected in one or more episodes.

The chosen tool to convey these memories is the network to indicate the youth-oriented perspective of this social project intended to share the tradition to the next generations. In a word, it’s the online version of the stories that the grandparents were used to tell their grandchildren. The collection and classification of the stories make people able to create path and view contents in a friendly-easy way.

Besides, The Bank of Memories is also a community that generates contents, keeps update the members by sending newsletters, communicates by social media, votes and gives comments of videos, organizes training courses and prepares projects for companies, associations and local administrations.

November 2010: the renewal of the project
After 2 years and a half of development of this international project, the time of evolution is coming out. The most important changes are related on the website, completely reviewed from a graphic and funcional point of view.
Especially two new aspects have been introduced:

1) New formats for recording memories
Video-interviews have been integrated with audio-interviews. This choice has been taken in response to an increasing demand of people interested in going backward on the time in which videos were not available. At the same time this new implementation provides a new helpful tool to collect stories also to people no friendly with editing videos. The opportunity to upload pictures is also a new way to integrate the stories-voices with suggestive emotional images.

2) More customization
Dedicated sections and paths can provide a more customized website in which the storyteller and the video/audio-reporter or “memories’hunters” are able to create personal pages to view, collect and share easily their memories and their activities.

Memoro – The Bank of Memories in the World
Since the beginning, the project is been considered as an international initiative based on the concept of memory as an universal value. The translation of the website and the collection of the local memories are essential activities for
the start up of a local Memoro.

It’s possible to access to each local Memoro from an international home page: www.memoro.org

Nowadays the existing local entities of Memoro are present in the following countries:

- Italy – Puerto Rico
- Germany – Venezuela
- Spain – U.S.A.
- France – Japan
- U.K. – Cameroon
- Argentina

The next opening countries are: Switzerland, Belgium, Poland, Greece, Morocco, Namibia, Malawi, Sweden, Australia, China, etc.

The numbers
One of the main targets is “restoring the value of memory”. Replace the importance of elders in the society is very important to protect and transmit their knowledge, wisdom and experiences to the next generations. Numbers and results demonstrate how the value of memory is still live in the world.

- 6,000 online videos corresponding to 22 days uninterrupted view
- over 1000 videos generated by users
- over 5,000,000 pageviews
- over 3,500,000 displayed videos
- over 34 years of memory’s transferred time (total time of viewed videos)
- over 17,000 referred links

Homepage: www.memoro.org
The Memoro Project

As he wrote in liner notes of his instrumental guitar album, Play, his first guitar was a gift from his grandpa when Brad was only eight. Brad quickly learned that no matter how he changed and evolved, the guitar was his only real constant. When life gets intense, he says, “there are some people who drink, who seek counseling, eat, or watch TV, cry, sleep, and so on. I play.”

Included in the book will be sidebars from a wide array of musical stars who know and love Brad. In these sidebars, this host of guitar and musical gods will share their take on Brad or stories of their favorite memories about him.

At a time when America is seeking ways to sustain its innovative edge, and when societies around the world are trying to build digital-age economies, Jobs stands as the ultimate icon of inventiveness and applied imagination. He knew that the best way to create value in the twenty-first century was to connect creativity with technology. He built a company where leaps of the imagination were combined with remarkable feats of engineering.

Although Jobs cooperated with this book, he asked for no control over what was written nor even the right to read it before it was published. He put nothing off-limits. He encouraged the people he knew to speak honestly. And Jobs speaks candidly, sometimes brutally so, about the people he worked with and competed against. His friends, foes, and colleagues provide an unvarnished view of the passions, perfectionism, obsessions, artistry, devilry, and compulsion for control that shaped his approach to business and the innovative products that resulted.

Driven by demons, Jobs could drive those around him to fury and despair. But his personality and products were interrelated, just as Apple’s hardware and software tended to be, as if part of an integrated system. His tale is instructive and cautionary, filled with lessons about innovation, character, leadership, and values.

Kunsang thought she would never leave Tibet. One of the country’s youngest Buddhist nuns, she grew up in a remote mountain village where, as a teenager, she entered the local nunnery. Though simple, Kunsang’s life gave her all she needed: a oneness with nature and a sense of the spiritual in all things. She married a monk, had two children, and lived in peace and prayer. But not for long. There was a saying in Tibet: “When the iron bird flies and horses run on wheels, the Tibetan people will be scattered like ants across the face of the earth.” The Chinese invasion of Tibet in 1950 changed everything. When soldiers arrived at her mountain monastery, destroying everything in their path, Kunsang and her family fled across the Himalayas only to spend years in Indian refugee camps. She lost both her husband and her youngest child on that journey, but the future held an extraordinary turn of events that would forever change her life–the arrival in the refugee camps of a cultured young Swiss man long fascinated with Tibet. Martin Brauen will fall instantly in love with Kunsang’s young daughter, Sonam, eventually winning her heart and hand, and taking mother and daughter with him to Switzerland, where Yangzom will be born.

Many stories lie hidden until the right person arrives to tell them. In rescuing the story of her now 90-year-old inspirational grandmother and her mother, Yangzom Brauen has given us a book full of love, courage, and triumph,as well as allowing us a rare and vivid glimpse of life in rural Tibet before the arrival of the Chinese. Most importantly, though, ACROSS MANY MOUNTAINS is a testament to three strong, determined women who are linked by an unbreakable family bond. 

Praise

“This book paints a vivid picture of Tibetan experience over the last eight decades, one of the most difficult periods in our history. Through the personal stories of three women from one Tibetan family, it recalls the imposition of Chinese rule in Tibet and the subsequent efforts of many Tibetans to preserve their identity and treasured values in exile.”— His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama

“A moving reminder that the consequences of the Chinese invasion of Tibet continue down to this day.  A lovely memoir of three generations of Tibetan women.”~ Oliver Stone

“The lives of three women embody a tragic Tibetan era — at once grim and uplifting.  A necessary book.”–Colin Thubron, author of To A Mountain in Tibet, Shadow of the Silk Road, and In Siberia

“Yangzom Brauen’s Across Many Mountains held my rapt attention from beginning to end. It is the saga that finally tells in vivid human terms the real story of the Chinese destruction of Tibet, the sixty-one-year long, continuing Tibetan holocaust and diaspora. It is historically, emotionally, humanly real, and no one can read it without opening a place in their heart for these long-suffering, brave, and yet joyful individuals. I heartily recommend this wonderful book.” –Robert A. F. Thurman, Professor, Columbia University; author of The Central Philosophy of Tibet, Wisdom and Compassion and Why the Dalai Lama Matters

The journey of the refugee–Cuban, Vietnamese, Libyan, Darfurian, and in the old days of the Cold War, East German and Hungarian–has special resonance for Americans because this country has provided sanctuary for refugees as far back as its founding. The drama is that of life and death and survival in exile. This stunning memoir is vivid and compelling, a clear-eyed rendering of the experience. A must read.”–Diane Wolff, author of Tibet Unconquered: An Epic Struggle for Freedom

“Yanzom Brauen recounts a gripping true story of her family and has kept alive the dreams of her grandmother.”–Kehdroob Thondup, co-author of Dalai Lama, My Son

“A multi-generational saga stitched together from memories passed down from her grandmother, Yangzom Brauen’s Across Many Mountains has the tragic, epic quality of Kenji Mizoguchi’s cinematic masterpiece, The Life of Oharu. With unadorned prose that is both searing and laced with verisimilitude, Brauen has written a book centered on the extraordinary journey of her grandmother that is one of both human suffering and perseverance in the face of it. Across Many Mountains is nothing short of a celebration of the human spirit.”–Rex Pickett, author of Vertical and Sideways

“The story of Kunsang and Sonam and Yangzom touches my heart because it brings back memories of life in Old Tibet.  It tells the world exactly what it means to be a Tibetan refugee who loves her homeland deeply but at the same time is capable of adapting to life in the Western World.  The courage and integrity and endurance of Kunsang and Sonam are astounding. I thank Yangzom for telling their story. I recommend this book to anyone who wishes to know about the real situation in Tibet.”–Arjia Rinpoche, Director, Tibetan Mongolian Buddhist Cultural Center and author of Surviving the Dragon

“Yangzom Brauen’s Across Many Mountains, a triumphant tale of three generations of Tibetan women as they journey from Tibet to Switzerland, teaches us that there is much to learn from those who persevere in the face of injustice and the unknown. The courage of these women as they cross borders and learn the language of survival gives us insight into a country that remains a mystery to many, as well as enlightens the even vaster landscape of the human heart.”–Kim Sunée, New York Times bestselling author of Trail of Crumbs: Hunger, Love, and the Search for Home

“An absorbing, multilayered account of the evolution of an enduring culture.”–Kirkus Reviews
 
“If this was a movie you might accuse the writers of taking too many liberties with the truth. How could a young nun and young monk marry as Tibetan Buddhists? How could their young daughter survive the perils of a dangerous escape through the snow covered Himalayas and go on to marry a dashing Swiss academic? And then their daughter becomes the perfect blend of freedom activist and gorgeous Hollywood starlet–it defies belief. But not only is the tale that Yangzom Brauen weaves of three very different yet integrally connected generations a satisfying read, I guarantee that you will learn more about the struggle for Tibetan independence, the complexities of the Tibet-China relationship, and the principles of Tibetan Buddhism than you will glean from any Westerners’ account. If you value exceptional storytelling, I urge you to read this book. If you care about human rights, women’s issues and world peace, you must read this book.”–Christal Smith, The Huffington Post

“…a lyrical account of how cultures can mesh and enrich each other.” — Bookreporter

About Yangzom Brauen
Born in 1980 to a Swiss father and Tibetan mother,YANGZOM BRAUEN is an actress, model, and political activist. She lives in both Los Angeles and Berlin and has appeared in a number of German and American films. She is also very active in the Free Tibet movement, making regular radio broadcasts about Tibet and organizing public demonstrations against the Chinese occupation of Tibet.

Visit her Web site at www.yangzombrauen.com

Belafonte grew up, poverty-ridden, in Harlem and Jamaica. His mother was a complex woman—caring but withdrawn, eternally angry and rarely satisfied. His father was distant and physically abusive. It was not an easy life, but it instilled in young Harry the hard-nosed toughness of the city and the resilient spirit of the Caribbean lifestyle. It also gave him the drive to make good and channel his anger into actions that were positive and life-affirming. His journey led to the U.S. Navy during World War II, where he encountered an onslaught of racism but also fell in love with the woman he eventually married. After the war he moved back to Harlem, where he drifted between odd jobs until he saw his first stage play—and found the life he wanted to lead. Theater opened up a whole new world, one that was artistic and political and made him realize that not only did he have a need to express himself, he had a lot to express.

He began as an actor—and has always thought of himself as such—but was quickly spotted in a musical, began a tentative nightclub career, and soon was on a meteoric rise to become one of the world’s most popular singers. Belafonte was never content to simply be an entertainer, however. Even at enormous personal cost, he could not shy away from activism. At first it was a question of personal dignity: breaking down racial barriers that had never been broken before, achieving an enduring popularity with both white and black audiences. Then his activism broadened to a lifelong, passionate involvement at the heart of the civil rights movement and countless other political and social causes. The sections on the rise of the civil rights movement are perhaps the most moving in the book: his close friendship with Martin Luther King, Jr.; his role as a conduit between Dr. King and the Kennedys; his up-close involvement with the demonstrations and awareness of the hatred and potential violence around him; his devastation at Dr. King’s death and his continuing fight for what he believes is right.

But My Song is far more than the history of a movement. It is a very personal look at the people in that movement and the world in which Belafonte has long moved. He has befriended many beloved and important figures in both entertainment and politics—Paul Robeson, Eleanor Roosevelt, Sidney Poitier, John F. Kennedy, Marlon Brando, Robert Kennedy, Nelson Mandela, Fidel Castro, Tony Bennett, Bill Clinton—and writes about them with the same exceptional candor with which he reveals himself on every page. This is a book that pulls no punches, and turns both a loving and critical eye on our country’s cultural past.

As both an artist and an activist, Belafonte has touched countless lives. With My Song, he has found yet another way to entertain and inspire us. It is an electrifying memoir from a remarkable man.