Biography genre books (521)


191.

Infidel by Ayaan Hirsi Ali EN

Rating: 5 (4 votes)
Country: Africa / Somalia flag Somalia
Description:
Ayaan Hirsi Ali tells her life story. An advocate for free speech and women's rights, Hirsi Ali lives under armed protection because of her outspoken criticism of the Islamic faith in which she was raised.

192.

Inside the Battle of Algiers by Zohra Drif EN

0 Ratings
Country: Africa / Algeria flag Algeria
Description:
This gripping insider's account chronicles how and why a young woman in 1950s Algiers joined the armed wing of Algeria's national liberation movement to combat her country's French occupiers. When the movement's leaders turned to Drif and her female colleagues to conduct attacks in retaliation for French aggression against the local population, they leapt at the chance. Their actions were later portrayed in Gillo Pontecorvo's famed film The Battle of Algiers. When first published in French in 2013, this intimate memoir was met with great acclaim and no small amount of controversy. It is essent... continue

193.

Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer EN

Rating: 4 (3 votes)
Description:
In April 1992, a young man from a well-to-do family hitchhikes to Alaska and walks alone into the wilderness north of Mt. McKinley. Four months later, his decomposed body is found by a moose hunter. How Chris McCandless came to die is the unforgettable story of Into the Wild.

194.

Into Thin Air : A Personal Account of the Mount Everest Disaster by Jon Krakauer EN

Rating: 5 (7 votes)
Description:
When Jon Krakauer reached the summit of Mt. Everest in the early afternoon of May 10, 1996, he hadn't slept in fifty-seven hours and was reeling from the brain-altering effects of oxygen depletion. As he turned to begin his long, dangerous descent from 29,028 feet, twenty other climbers were still pushing doggedly toward the top. No one had noticed that the sky had begun to fill with clouds. Six hours later and 3,000 feet lower, in 70-knot winds and blinding snow, Krakauer collapsed in his tent, freezing, hallucinating from exhaustion and hypoxia, but safe. The following morning, he learned th... continue

195.

Io sono vivo, voi siete morti by Emmanuel Carrère IT

Rating: 3 (1 vote)
Country: Europe / France flag France
Description:
«Da adolescente» scrive Emmanuel Carrère nel "Regno" «sono stato un lettore appassionato di Dick e, a differenza della maggior parte delle passioni adolescenziali, questa non si è mai affievolita. Ho riletto a intervalli regolari "Ubik", "Le tre stimmate di Palmer Eldritch", "Un oscuro scrutare", "Noi marziani", "La svastica sul sole". Consideravo – e considero tuttora – il loro autore una specie di Dostoevskij della nostra epoca». A trentacinque anni, spinto da questa inesausta passione, Carrère decise di raccontare la vita, vissuta e sognata, di Philip K. Dick. Il risultato fu questo libro, ... continue

196.

Iran Awakening by Shirin Ebadi EN

0 Ratings
Country: Asia / Iran flag Iran
Description:
In This Remarkable Book, Shirin Ebadi, Iranian Human Rights Lawyer And Activist, And Nobel Peace Prize Laureate, Tells Her Extraordinary Story.Dr Ebadi Is A Tireless Voice For Reform In Her Native Iran, Where She Argues For A New Interpretation Of Islamic Law In Harmony With Vital Human Rights Such As Democracy, Equality Before The Law, Religious Freedom And Freedom Of Speech. She Is Known For Defending Dissident Figures, And For The Establishment Of A Number Of Non-Profit Grassroots Organisations Dedicated To Human Rights. In 2003 She Became The First Muslim Woman, And The First Iranian, To B... continue

197.

Island of the Lost : An Extraordinary Story of Survival at the Edge of the World by Joan Druett EN

0 Ratings
Description:
“Riveting.” —The New York Times Book Review Hundreds of miles from civilization, two ships wreck on opposite ends of the same deserted island in this true story of human nature at its best—and at its worst. It is 1864, and Captain Thomas Musgrave’s schooner, the Grafton, has just wrecked on Auckland Island, a forbidding piece of land 285 miles south of New Zealand. Battered by year-round freezing rain and constant winds, it is one of the most inhospitable places on earth. To be shipwrecked there means almost certain death. Incredibly, at the same time on the opposite end of the island, another... continue

198.

Istanbul: Memories and the City by Orhan Pamuk EN

Rating: 4 (2 votes)
Country: Asia / Turkey flag Turkey
Description:
From the Nobel Prize winner and acclaimed author of My Name is Red comes a portrait of Istanbul by its foremost writer, revealing the melancholy that comes of living amid the ruins of a lost empire. "Delightful, profound, marvelously origina.... Pamuk tells the story of the city through the eyes of memory." —The Washington Post Book World A shimmering evocation, by turns intimate and panoramic, of one of the world’s great cities, by its foremost writer. Orhan Pamuk was born in Istanbul and still lives in the family apartment building where his mother first held him in her arms. His portrait of... continue