Family Biography

In "The Five Families of New York," Mafia Library presents a gripping account of the ascension and decline of New York's foremost crime syndicates, from the legendary Lucky Luciano to the notorious Paul Castellano and John Gotti, and beyond. Through vivid storytelling, the book chronicles the relentless assault waged against these five families over two decades, a campaign that stands as the most successful law enforcement effort of the last century.

Michael and Mary Shelley are Christian fanatics who loathe their fellow Australians - especially their foul language, reckless indulgence in alcohol, and obsession with idiotic ball sports. Lenore and Tom Blaine are working-class Queensland publicans raising a large family in a raucous, loving, rugby-league-obsessed home. There's just one problem. The Blaines are foster parents to three of the Shelleys' children, who were removed from Michael and Mary as infants. And the Shelleys are prepared to do anything to get them back. Anything.

During some of the darkest days of the Royal Family, Sophie, Duchess of Edinburgh, has quietly risen to become the respected and much-loved face of a family in turmoil. In this inspiring biography, bestselling author Sean Smith tells the remarkable story of Sophie Rhys-Jones; a young woman with...

Based partly on the author's experience, partly on her in-depth interviews, and partly on a questionnaire she developed with psychologist Holly Barrett to which almost 600 women responded, Father Loss provides the clearest portrait yet of a very special group of women. As a group, they express their insecurities ("Sometimes I wonder if I'll ever be able to love a man totally...because that would mean I didn't love my father anymore." - Leslie).

Brought to you by Penguin. From the relentless media scrutiny and controversies of their 2022 Caribbean Tour to the shock cancer diagnoses of both the Princess of Wales and the King, this captivating biography by acclaimed royal journalist Russell Myers intimately traces the story of William and...

Until Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney opened her studio on Eight Street in Manhattan in 1914 - which evolved into the Whitney Museum almost two decades later - there were few art museums in the United States, let alone galleries for contemporary artists to exhibit their work. When the mansions of the wealthy cried out for art they sought it from Europe, then the art capital of the world. It was in her tiny sculptor’s studio in Greenwich Village that Whitney began holding exhibitions of contemporary American Artists. This remarkable effort by a scion of America’s wealthiest family helped to change the way art was cultivated in America.

In the late 1970s Ondaatje returned to his native island of Sri Lanka. As he records his journey through the drug-like heat and intoxicating fragrances of that "pendant off the ear of India", Ondaatje simultaneously retraces the baroque mythology of his Dutch-Ceylonese family. An inspired travel narrative and family memoir by an exceptional writer.

Sean Szeps had wanted to be a mum since the age of four when he fell in love with Mrs Potts, the motherly teapot in Beauty and the Beast. But there was just one problem – he was not, in fact, a woman. But when he was swept off his feet by a handsome Australian man in New York City, Szeps's dreams of marriage and parenthood seemed – for the very first time – within reach. There were just a few little things still standing in his way – outdated marriage laws, hundreds of thousands of dollars, and a healthy dose of internalised homophobia.

Family Business: Gier, Geld, Geheimnisse erzählt die Geschichten großer Familien und schillernder Dynastien. Die Schwestern Anna Dushime und Amélia Umuhire geben Einblicke in das Innere von Familien, die über Jahrzehnte oder gar Jahrhunderte Unternehmen und Imperien gelenkt haben. Denn die ganz großen Dramen der Weltgeschichte um Macht, Geld und Einfluss spielen sich nicht selten in Familien ab.

Every novelist dreams of it--writing the book that rockets to the top of the bestseller lists. Now, they can see how it's done, up close, in an audiobook by an agent who has sold manuscripts that turned into hits. Here Albert Zuckerman covers the essential elements of the blockbuster novel and...

“A gutsy success story” (The New York Times Book Review) about one tenacious woman’s journey to escape rural poverty and create a billion-dollar farming business—without ever leaving the land she loves The youngest of her parents’ combined twenty-one children, Sarah Frey grew up on a...

Sam Vincent is a twenty-something writer in the inner suburbs, scrabbling to make ends meet, when he gets a call from his mother: his father has stuck his hand in a woodchipper, but ‘not to worry–it wasn’t like that scene in Fargo or anything’. When Sam returns to the family farm to help out, his life takes a new and unexpected direction.

After a lifetime beside his sister, a brother has six weeks to keep one final promise. When an unexpected diagnosis brought Nancy home for hospice, the doctor gave her about six weeks. For her brother Bill, those weeks became more than a countdown. They became the final chapter in a family story shaped by duty, silence, erased women, hidden labor, and weight carried quietly from one generation to the next.

Random House presents the audiobook edition of Logical Family: A Memoir, written and read by Armistead Maupin. Born in the mid-twentieth century and raised in the heart of conservative North Carolina, Armistead Maupin lost his virginity to another man “on the very spot where the first shots of...

Some months before, my husband, three children and I had casually unzipped and discarded our comfortable Australian lifestyle and slipped on life in the country of haute couture. On arrival, there was no celebrity designer waiting for us, ready to pin and fit our new life to us; so we threw it on and wore it loosely, tightly, uncomfortably, any old how—until we learned for ourselves how to trim, hem and stitch à la française. This book is testament to the joyous, but not always easy, journey that we took along the way.

Debutante of the year. Able politician. Femme fatale. Just some of the many labels attached to the irrepressible, controversial Raine Spencer: Countess, socialite and stepmother to Diana, Princess of Wales. But who was the real Raine? What was hidden behind the immaculately manicured public façade and her overwhelmingly negative tabloid image? From her childhood days as daughter of romantic novelist powerhouse, Barbara Cartland, to Westminster councillor and wife of Earl Spencer, Three Times a Countess recounts Raine's compelling and glamorous life.

The Jan Broberg Story tells the winding tale of the Brobergs, a church-going, Idaho family that falls prey to a sociopathic neighbor who will stop at nothing to be with their young daughter. Robert Berchtold, furniture store owner and family man, coaxes his way into the Broberg’s life, meticulously building their trust and bonding with their young girls. One day, Robert offers to take their 12-year-old daughter, Jan, horseback riding, only he doesn’t return her home.

Some adventures begin with a carefully laid plan. Others begin with a fractured rib, a rucksack full of wedding clothes, and a 24-mile hike through the Tuscan hills. Award-winning adventurer Anna McNuff is back with a second collection of Bedtime Adventure Stories for Grown-Ups—and this time, it's complicated. Adventure now comes with children, curveballs, and considerably less sleep. Join her for an inspiring collection of stories including: Paradise Prison: What happens when your dream Thai adventure starts with an accidental quarantine and a man in camel-coloured Speedos?

You've responded to God's call?surrendering yourself to His will?and now your life will never be the same. By becoming a follower of Jesus Christ, you've not only secured an eternal home in heaven, but you've also begun a one-on-one relationship with the Maker of the universe! When you received...

At just four years old, Reza Farahan left Iran for what was supposed to be a quick family trip to Los Angeles. But while he was soaking up the California sun, revolution erupted back home, and Reza's short stay turned into permanent exile. Caught between cultures, identities, and expectations, Reza was an outsider in every sense of the word. He was a half-Muslim, half-Jewish, gay Persian kid just trying to survive 1980s America―a place that saw him as a threat, even when all he wanted was to belong. But with an unapologetic spirit and bold personality, Reza was never destined to simply fit in.