Mao's last dancer
Li Cunxin
A poor child living in poverty is chosen out of millions of children to attend Madame Mao's dancing ballet. His life drastically shifted from living in poverty to studying dance.

by Susan Swingler (2014)
"Susan Swingler is the stepdaughter of one of Australia's most revered writers - Elizabeth Jolley. Abandoned by her father, Leonard, at the age of four, Susan had no contact with the Jolley family until they found and reclaimed her at the age of 21. Why they were kept apart is the subject of this startling new memoir. The House of Fiction tells the story of Swingler's quest to find her father. As she painstakingly traces clues to a better understanding of Leonard, she inadvertently unravels an intricate fiction created by Elizabeth to protect those she loves. A story that sheds a new and surprising light on one of Australia's most important writers, it is also an intimate and deeply moving memoir of a daughter's quest to discover her absent father"--Publisher's description.
Li Cunxin
A poor child living in poverty is chosen out of millions of children to attend Madame Mao's dancing ballet. His life drastically shifted from living in poverty to studying dance.
Lisa Tracy
After their mother's death, Lisa Tracy and her sister, Jeanne, are left to contend with several households' worth of furniture and memorabilia. What starts as an exercise in information gathering designed to boost the estate's resale value at auction evolves into the discovery that the roots of our passion for acquisition often lie not in shallow materialism but in our desire to possess the most treasured commodity of all- a connection to the past. These travels open her eyes to a rich family history characterized by duty, hardship, honor, and devotion ... qualities embodied in the very items she intends to sell. Offers an offbeat and intriguing mix of cultural anthropology, Antiques Roadshow Americana, and military history and lore.
Chuck Barris
The creator of The Gong Show, The Dating Game, and other television game shows describes his career and shares a tongue-in-cheek glimpse of his personal life.
Jane C. Beck
"A daughter of freed African American slaves, Daisy Turner became a living repository of history. The family narrative entrusted to her--'a well-polished artifact, an heirloom that had been carefully preserved'--began among the Yoruba in West Africa and continued with her own long lifetime. In 1983, folklorist Jane Beck began to interview Turner, then one hundred years old and still relating four generations of oral history. In her book Daisy Turner's Kin, Beck uses Turner's storytelling to build the Turner family saga, using as its foundation the oft-repeated touchstone stories at the heart of their experiences: the abduction into slavery of Turner's African ancestors; Daisy's father learning to read; his return as a soldier to his former plantation to kill the overseer; Daisy's childhood stand against racism; and her family's life in Vermont. Beck weaves in historical research and offers a folklorist's perspective on oral history and the hazards and uses of memory."--Page 4 of cover.