Monty Roberts is a real life horse whisperer- an American original whose gentle training methods reveal the depth of communication possible between man and animal. He can take a wild, high-strung horse who has never before been handled and persuade that horse to accept a bridle, saddle, and rider in thirty minutes. HIs powers may seem like magic, but his amazing "horse sense" is based on a lifetime of experience. Roberts started riding at the age of two, and at the age of thirteen he went alone into the high deserts of Nevada to study mustangs in the wild. What he learned there changed his life forever. Monty Roberts has spent his whole life working with horses- schooling them, listening to them, and learning their ancient equine language. In The Man Who Listens to Horses, he tells about his early days as a rodeo rider in California, his problems with his violent horse trainer father, who was unwilling to accept Monty's unconventional training methods, his friendship with James Dean, his struggle to be accepted in the professional horse-training community, and the invitation that changed his life- to demonstrate his method of "join-up" to the Queen of England. From his groundbreaking work with horses, Roberts has acquired an unprecedented understanding of nonverbal communication, an understanding that applies to human relationships as well. He has shown that between parent and child, employee and employer (he's worked with over 250 corporations, including General Motors, IBM, Disney, and Merrill Lynch) and abuser and abused, there are forms of communication far stronger than the spoken word and that they are accessible to all who will learn to listen. This inspirational and gentle man, first introduced to the American public on Dateline NBC, is part James Herrior, part Bill Gates, and part John Wayne. And his story is one you will never forget.
Setting / LocationLondon & UK
Story EraModern Era
Protagonist / CoreThe man who listens to horses Lead Character
With a new introduction on Werner Herzog’s film entitled The Grizzly ManTimothy Treadwell, self-styled “bear whisperer” dared to live among the grizzlies, seeking to overturn the perception of them as dangerously aggressive animals. When he and his girlfriend were mauled in October 2003, it created a media sensation.In The Grizzly Maze, Nick Jans, a seasoned outdoor writer with a quarter century of experience writing about Alaska and bears, traces Treadwell’s rise from unknown waiter in California to celebrity, providing a moving portrait of the man whose controversial ideas and behavior earned him the scorn of hunters, the adoration of animal lovers and the skepticism of naturalists. BACKCOVER: “Intensely imagistic, artfully controlled prose . . . behind the building tension of Treadwell’s path to oblivion, a stunning landscape looms.”—Newsday
Using letters, diaries, and family legend, Frances Osborne explores the life of Idina, her enigmatic great-grandmother, following her from Edwardian London to the hills of Kenya, where she reigned over the scandalous antics of the 'Happy Valley set'" - Back cover.
"Novelist, essayist, satirist, and iconoclast, Mordecai Richler was one of Canada's most skilled and popular writers. Controversial too. His early novels outraged some in Montreal's Jewish community and his later non-fiction work outraged some Quebec nationalists. But from the beginning, his tremendous talent was indisputable and such literary triumphs as The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz and, later, Barney's Version cemented his reputation as a brilliant, gutsy writer both in Canada and internationally. His death in July 2001 prompted tributes from around the world that acknowledged his humour, intellect, and irrepressible curmudgeonliness." "In The Last Honest Man Michael Posner has deftly woven hundreds of personal, intimate memories of Richler into a rich biography of the writer's life. Through the words of his family and friends, colleagues and rivals, editors, writers, filmmakers, drinking pals, and others, a complex picture of the writer emerges, one that captures him in all his guises: the grumpy and the high-spirited man, the observer and the engaged, the generous and the distanced, the enthusiastic and the sardonic, the man as consummately at ease in the Ritz Hotel as in his favourite Montreal watering hole, Winnie's, but awkward in crowded social situations." "Drawing on 150 interviews conducted in London, Montreal, Toronto, New York, and Los Angeles - and on richler's own letters and writings - Michael Posner has composed an unconventional biography, one that delivers a wonderful and highly textured portrait of this multifaceted artist. Book jacket."--Jacket.
During his lifetime, Alan Jay Lerner received every imaginable award in American musical theater, and rightly so: As the lyricist of such astonishing Broadway successes as Brigadoon, My Fair Lady, Gigi, and Camelot, he was one of its architects. He was also one of its last greats, never quite able to regain his footing once the face of Broadway changed for good in the 1960s. Here, noted scholar of musical theater Edward Jablonski tells the story of Lerner's career and of his personal life, filling in the cracks purposely left open in Lerner's own autobiography. A well-off child of the Depression, Lerner was born in New York City, the son of the founder and president of Lerner Stores. Following an education in England and at Harvard, he ended up in New York, where he wrote advertising copy, radio scripts, and spring gambols for the Lambs Club. While lunching at the Lambs one day, he was approached by composer Frederick Loewe, who asked Lerner if he would like to work with him - and thus began a celebrated collaboration. Lerner also worked with a roll call of Broadway's and Hollywood's best, with varying degrees of success: Fred Astaire and Jane Powell (Royal Wedding), Kurt Weill (Love Life), Burton Lane (On a Clear Day You Can See Forever), Leonard Bernstein (1600 Pennsylvania Avenue), and, of course, Rex Harrison and Julie Andrews (My Fair Lady). He experienced the vertiginous highs of being at Broadway's pinnacle: My Fair Lady ran for 2,717 performances in New York, establishing Lerner's reputation as a master of urbane, highly literate songwriting. But when his money ran out - as did the Broadway for which he had been born - his life soured, and, by all accounts, it was something he himself failed to realize. Compelled to keep working by a nervous drive and a stubborn perfectionism, Lerner in later years wrote lyrics for some famously troubled productions. His personal life became just as tangled: All eight of his marriages ended in acrimonious and well-publicized dissolutions, and he was an anxiety-ridden spendthrift to the end.
The man who listens to horses by Monty Roberts | Literally Just Books