Love Letters

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Bob Greene

"Journalist Bob Greene embarked on a long journey across the breadth of the nation, hoping to spend time with Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford, Jimmy Carter, George Bush and Ronald Reagan. The result of his odyssey is Fraternity." "Rich with the sounds of the presidents' own voices, Fraternity is a story destined to be read and enjoyed not just now, but far into the future as Americans think about who we are as a people." "Here is Nixon, in an unmarked office high above Manhattan, explaining the reason for his solitary walks through New York streets at 5:30 every morning. Here is Carter, riding in a Secret Service van, recalling the sting of his family's being mocked for their rural Southern heritage, even after he had won the White House. Here is Ford, beside a golf course fairway, laughing at his startled discovery that of all his presidential papers, the one worth the most on the open market was a letter from a woman who tried to kill him. Here is Bush, on the road with his son, remembering his despair and anger at encountering a swastika carved into the sand behind an elegant resort on American soil. And here is Nancy Reagan, in a Beverly Hills hotel, on the haunting first night she must stand in for her husband after the announcement of his illness." "A travelogue of the national spirit that chronicles a quest stretching over fifteen years and starring the biggest names in the modern American saga, this is living history of the most human kind."--BOOK JACKET.

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Pat O'Brien

"Growing up, Pat O'Brien was the skinny Midwestern kid with the divorced parents and the alcoholic father. He drove himself to the University of South Dakota after finishing his last late-night shift and moved in while his roommate was asleep. His life was unceremonious--until he was picked up in the student center by a professor who envisioned his future as the household television name he would become. From that day forward, Pat's life became anything but ordinary: from afternoons in the late Bobby Kennedy's living room with Muhammad Ali, to Rangers games in President Bush's suite, to the drugs and drinking and party lifestyle of Los Angeles. Over the course of his career, Pat has met everyone: the Beatles, the Kennedys, Neil Young, and Magic Johnson. In I'll Be Back Right After This, Pat reveals the highs and lows of life spent sharing the mic with the world's most rich and famous"--

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Jock Soto

In June 2005 Jock Soto, age 40, gave his farewell performance as a principal dancer with the New York City Ballet. The program capped one of the most storied careers in ballet history--an ascent that began when Soto was just three years old. After retiring, Soto was determined to embrace a new future, teaching at the School of American Ballet, but he found himself obsessed with questions about his past. This book weaves together the diverse strands of Soto's life: being the offspring of a Puerto Rican-Navajo couple, the gay son of a fiercely macho man, a naive teenager from the desert running in the sophisticated art world of New York, and a driven artist by day and hard-core party animal by night. Soto recalls his professional relationships with such icons as George Balanchine, Christopher Wheeldon, Darci Kistler, and Lourdes Lopez, and shares his love of food in recipes marking the pivotal moments in his story.--From publisher description.

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Will Darbyshire

This Modern Love is a unique crowd-sourced book of letters, stories, and photographs about the state of modern romance by YouTuber Will Darbyshire. Seeking closure after a tough break-up, Will Darbyshire was driven to strike up an intimate conversation with his online audience. Posting a series of questions, Will asked his followers to share their innermost thoughts about their relationship experiences, in the form of hand-written letters, poems, photographs, and emails. After 6 months and over 15,000 heartfelt submissions later, from over 100 countries, This Modern Love collects these letters together to form a compendium of 21st century love, structured into the beginning, middle and end of a relationship. Tender, funny and cathartic, This Modern Love is a compelling portrait of individual desires, resentments and fears that reminds us that, whether we're in or out of love, we're not alone.