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|  | The Gulag Archipelago, 1918-1956 by Aleksandr I. Solzhenitsyn, Thomas P. Whitney
The greatest and most powerful single indictment of a political regime ever to be leveled in modern times . New York Review of Books Gulag II is both a powerful chronicle of brutal abuses and at the same time a testament to the tensile strength of the human spirit . Newsweek Here the extended metaphor of the archipelago is joined by an image that informed Solzhenitsyn's novel The Cancer Ward. Evoking his own experience of cancer, he perceives the camps as a tumor that, in metastasizing, infected the whole nation with its poison. ... Solzhenitsyn believes that the individual, armed with Truth and Right alone, can move tyrants, subvert power and alter the course of history . New York Times Review AUTHOR: Aleksandr I. Solzhenitsyn, Thomas P. Whitney
PUBLISHER: Westview Press
FORMAT: Paperback
CATEGORY: Biographies 
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 | Talent for Genius by Nancy Schoenberger, Sam Kashner
Oscar Levant was the Amadeus of Hollywood, the Oscar Wilde of Broadway - and the most wildly self-destructive personality ever to become a household name. An astonishingly gifted concert pianist, composer, film and stage presence, radio and television raconteur, insult wit, and bestselling author, Levant steered a maniacally masochistic course through seven glorious decades. His death in 1972, at the age of sixty-five, left the entertainment community shocked - largely with amazement that a four-pack-a-day smoker with a history of drug abuse and mental illness had lasted as long as Levant did. He made a national reputation for himself in the late 1930s as a brash, brilliant expert on radio's famed quiz show Information, Please!, and as a fine concert pianist and the premier interpreter of George Gershwin's concert works. He appeared in thirteen films, usually as a best friend/ Oscar Levant type. He played Gene Kelly's sidekick in An American in Paris and a lovable hypochondriac in The Band Wagon, and in the film biography Rhapsody in Blue he literally played himself: Oscar Levant, best friend to George Gershwin, a role he knew all too well. His hero worship of Gershwin stunted his confidence as a songwriter and a serious composer, though one of his pop songs, Blame It on My Youth , has become a standard, and Arnold Schoenberg, Aaron Copeland, and Virgil Thomson all thought Levant an immensely gifted composer. Levant's addiction to Demerol following a heart attack in the early 1950s led to nearly a decade of drug dependency. Already hobbled by complex superstitions meant to ward off the terrors of performing, Levant was almost destroyed by his addictions. But his intense neurosisdidn't keep him from appearing on television to talk about it. His uncensored comments on The Jack Paar Show and on his own local Los Angeles talk show made national news. A Talent for Genius, the result of exhausting research and hundreds of hours of interviews, is a profoundly revealing AUTHOR: Nancy Schoenberger, Sam Kashner
PUBLISHER: Silman-James Press
FORMAT: Paperback
CATEGORY: Biographies
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 | The Invention That Changed the World by Robert Buderi
The story begins in September 1940, with the arrival in Washington of a team of British scientists bearing England's most closely guarded technological secrets, and among them a revolutionary new source of microwave energy. At MIT's Radiation Lab, a colorful band of brilliant American scientists joined them in the 'wizard war' to transform the British invention into the radars that were instrumental in winning World War II. The author then chronicles the scientists' extraordinary postwar accomplishments. AUTHOR: Robert Buderi
PUBLISHER: Simon & Schuster Adult Publishing Group
FORMAT: Paperback
CATEGORY: Biographies
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 | The Seven Storey Mountain by Thomas Merton, Wolfram Kandinsky
Merton's classic account of the intense and brilliant young man who becomes restless in his life, and goes on a quest for faith and peace that leads him first to Catholicism and then to a Trappist monastery. AUTHOR: Thomas Merton, Wolfram Kandinsky
PUBLISHER: Harcourt Trade Publishers
FORMAT: Paperback
CATEGORY: Biographies
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 | Stevie Ray Vaughan by Joe N. Patoski
His blistering guitar playing breathed life back into the blues. Performing night after night - from his early teens to his tragic death at age thirty-five, in tiny pass-the-hat clubs and before thousands in huge arenas - Stevie Ray Vaughan fused blazing technique with deep soul in a manner unrivaled since the days of Jimi Hendrix. The genuineness and passion of his music moved millions. It nearly saved his life. Stevie Ray Vaughan: Caught in the Crossfire is the first biography of this meteoric guitar hero. Emerging from the hotbed of Texas blues, Stevie Ray Vaughan developed his unique style early on, in competition with his older brother, Jimmie Vaughan, founder of the Fabulous Thunderbirds - a competition that shaped much of Stevie's life. Fueled by drugs and alcohol through a thousand one-night stands, he lived at a fever pitch that nearly destroyed him. Musically exhausted and close to collapse, in his final years Stevie Ray mustered the courage to overcome his addictions, finding strength and inspiration in a new emotional openness. His death in a freak helicopter crash in 1990 silenced one of the great musical talents of our time. Stevie Ray Vaughan: Caught in the Crossfire reveals Stevie Ray Vaughan's life in all its remarkable, sometimes unsavory detail. It also brings to life the rich world of Texas music out of which he grew, and captures the staggering dimensions of his musical legacy. It will stand as the definitive biographical portrait of Stevie Ray. AUTHOR: Joe N. Patoski
PUBLISHER: Little, Brown & Company
FORMAT: Paperback
CATEGORY: Biographies
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 | Inner City Miracle by Blair S. Walker, Greg Mathis
Description not available.The star of the popular television show Judge Mathis describes his rise from Detroit housing projects, gang life, and delinquency; his mother's help in turning his life around; his education; his role as the youngest judge in Michigan history; and his new career on TV. AUTHOR: Blair S. Walker, Greg Mathis
PUBLISHER: Ballantine Books
FORMAT: Hardcover
CATEGORY: Biographies
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