Alexandra Aldrich, a direct descendant of John Jacob Astor, tells the story of her eccentric, fractured family; her 1980s childhood of bohemian neglect in the squalid attic of Rokeby, the family’s Hudson Valley Mansion; and her brave escape from the clan. Aldrich reaches back to the Gilded Age when the Astor legacy began to come undone, leaving the Aldrich branch of the family penniless and squabbling over what was left.

Before Georgetown physics professor Francis Slakey set out to climb the highest mountain on every continent and surf every ocean, he had shut himself off from other people. But as his journey veered dangerously off course, everything about him began to change. TO THE LAST BREATH depicts the quest that leads Slakey around the globe, almost takes his life, challenges his fiercely held beliefs, and opens his heart.

Gilbert King shines new light on remarkable civil rights crusader Thurgood Marshall, setting his rich and driving narrative against the heroic backdrop of a case that U.S. Supreme Court justice Robert Jackson decried as “one of the best examples of one of the worst menaces to American justice.”

A NATURAL WOMAN chronicles Carole King's extraordinary life, drawing readers into her musical world, including her phenomenally successful #1 album Tapestry, and into her journey as a performer, mother, wife and present-day activist.

One of the first books to explore firsthand the challenges of living with autism, CARLY'S VOICE brings readers inside a once-secret world and in the company of an inspiring young woman who has found her voice and her mission.

Born into a prominent, sophisticated Jewish family who spend time in Europe and live in the Middle East, author Jean Naggar’s coming-of-age memoir tells the story of her protected youth in an exotic multicultural milieu.

When both of her parents die of cancer, Claire Bidwell Smith finds herself alone in the world and inconsolable at the revelation that suddenly she is no one's special person. It is only when Claire eventually falls in love, marries and becomes a mother that she emerges from the fog of grief.

Writer and social critic Margaret Fuller (1810–1850) was perhaps the most famous American woman of her generation. But she was also plagued by self-doubt. John Matteson captures Fuller’s longing to become ever better, reflected by the changing lives she led.

In EXPLAINING TRADITIONS, Simon J. Bronner discusses the underlying reasons for the continuing significance of traditions, delving into their social and psychological roles in everyday life.

In 1957, a photograph was taken of a black high school girl walking stoically in front of Little Rock Central High School, being screamed at by a white girl. In this gripping book, David Margolick recounts how the photograph has unexpectedly followed both women throughout their lives.