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What would possess a gifted young man recently graduated from college to literally walk away from his life? Noted outdoor writer and mountaineer Jon Krakauer tackles that question in his reporting on Chris McCandless, whose emaciated body was found in an abandoned bus in the Alaskan wilderness in 1992.

Described by friends and relatives as smart, literate, compassionate and funny, did McCandless simply read too much Thoreau and Jack London and lose sight of the dangers of heading into the wilderness alone? Krakauer, whose own adventures have taken him to the perilous heights of Everest, provides some answers by exploring the pull the outdoors, seductive yet often dangerous, has had on his own life. --Amazon.com

Amazon.com

"God, he was a smart kid..." So why did Christopher McCandless trade a bright future--a college education, material comfort, uncommon ability and charm--for death by starvation in an abandoned bus in the woods of Alaska? This is the question that Jon Krakauer's book tries to answer. While it doesn't?cannot?answer the question with certainty, Into the Wild does shed considerable light along the way. Not only about McCandless's "Alaskan odyssey," but also the forces that drive people to drop out of society and test themselves in other ways. Krakauer quotes Wallace Stegner's writing on a young man who similarly disappeared in the Utah desert in the 1930s: "At 18, in a dream, he saw himself ... wandering through the romantic waste places of the world. No man with any of the juices of boyhood in him has forgotten those dreams." Into the Wild shows that McCandless, while extreme, was hardly unique; the author makes the hermit into one of us, something McCandless himself could never pull off. By book's end, McCandless isn't merely a newspaper clipping, but a sympathetic, oddly magnetic personality. Whether he was "a courageous idealist, or a reckless idiot," you won't soon forget Christopher McCandless.

Produktbeschreibung

An old man, a young man, and life''s greatest lesson
Erscheinungsjahr: 2006
Gewicht: 110 gr / Abmessung: 17,5 cm
Von Albom, Mitch

Dieses ungewöhnliche Buch berichtet von der außergewöhnlichen Beziehung zwischen Mitch und seinem ehemaligen College-Professor Morrie Schwartz. Als Mitch erfährt, dass sein Mentor schwer erkrankt ist, besucht er ihn von da an jeden Dienstag. In diesen Dienstagsgesprächen lernt Mitch in einer letzten "Vorlesung", die Welt mit ganz anderen Augen zu sehen.

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Aus der Amazon.de-Redaktion

Dieser Titel ist in englischer Sprache.
Diese wahre Geschichte von der Liebe zwischen einem spirituellen Mentor und seinem Schüler ist aus vielen Gründen in der Bestsellerliste nach oben geschossen. Zum einen erinnert sie uns an die Zuneigung und Dankbarkeit, die viele von uns immer noch für die bedeutenden Mentoren unserer Vergangenheit hegen. Zum anderen spielt sie eine Phantasie durch, die vielen von uns im Kopf herumspukt: diese Leute wieder aufzusuchen, um ihnen zu sagen, was sie uns bedeutet haben, und vielleicht sogar die Beziehung wieder aufzunehmen. Außerdem lernen wir Morrie Schwartz kennen -- einen einmaligen Professor, den der Autor als eine Kreuzung zwischen einem biblischen Propheten und einem Weihnachtself beschreibt. Und schließlich werden wir in die intimen Momente der letzten Tage von Morrie eingeweiht, als er wegen einer unheilbaren Krankheit im Sterben liegt. Sogar auf seinem Sterbebett schafft es dieser ehrwürdige Mensch mit seinen funkelnden Augen, uns alles über ein bewußtes und gehaltvolles Leben beizubringen. Alle Achtung vor dem Autor und anerkannten Sportkolumnisten Mitch Albom, der uns diese universell-rührende Geschichte mit soviel Charme und Bescheidenheit erzählt. --Gail Hudson

Der Titelheld Morrie ist Morrie Schwartz, der 20 Jahre zuvor Alboms Universitätsprofessor gewesen war. Albom sah zufällig ein Interview mit Morrie in der Sendung Nightline, was schließlich dazu führte, daß er wieder mit seinem alten Lehrer, Freund und "Coach" zusammentraf. Albom, ein erfolgreicher Sportjournalist, kämpfte zu dieser Zeit damit, seine Unzufriedenheit mit seinem eigenen Leben und seiner Karriere zu definieren. Morrie, andererseits, litt nach einem gehaltvollen Leben voller Freunde, Familie, Unterrichten und Musik an der tödlichen Lou-Gehrig-Krankheit, ein lähmendes Leiden, das seine Aktivitäten von Tag zu Tag mehr einschränkte. Albom war einer von hunderten von früheren Studenten und Bekannten, die von weither kamen, um Morrie in den letzten Monaten seines Lebens zu besuchen.

Die 14 Dienstagsbesuche, die ihrem Wiedersehen folgten, schickten Albom -- und so wird es auch seinen Lesern gehen -- auf eine Reise, die ihm wieder die Augen öffnete für die Dinge, die ein Leben erfüllt machen. Die Geschichte ist in einem journalistischen Stil geschrieben, der niemals in Pathos übergeht. --Brenda Pittsley

Amazon.co.uk

This true story about the love between a spiritual mentor and his pupil has soared to the bestseller list for many reasons. For starters, it reminds us of the affection and gratitude that many of us still feel for the significant mentors of our past. It also plays out a fantasy many of us have entertained: what would it be like to look those people up again, tell them how much they meant to us, maybe even resume the mentorship? And we meet Morrie Schwartz--a one of a kind professor, whom the author describes as looking like a cross between a biblical prophet and Christmas elf. Finally, we are privy to intimate moments of Morrie's final days as he lies dying from a terminal illness. Even on his deathbed, this twinkling-eyed mensch manages to teach us all about living robustly and fully. Kudos to author and acclaimed sports columnist Mitch Albom for telling this universally touching story with such grace and humility. --Gail Hudson

Amazon.com

No one but Mitch Albom could have read Tuesdays with Morrie so effectively. As the author of this inspirational true story, Albom uses verbal inflection in exactly the right places to evoke humor, empathy, and emotion. It's an honest reading, and the underlying timbre of private memory pushes it past mere recitation to pure storytelling.

The titular Morrie was Morrie Schwartz, Albom's university professor 20 years before the events being narrated. An accidental viewing of an interview with Morrie on Nightline led Albom to become reunited with his old teacher, friend, and "coach" at a time when Albom, a successful sportswriter, was struggling to define dissatisfactions with his own life and career. Morrie, on the other hand, after a rich life filled with friends, family, teaching, and music, was dying from Lou Gehrig's disease, a crippling illness that diminished his activities daily. Albom was one of hundreds of former students and acquaintances who traveled great distances to visit Morrie in the final months of his life.

The 14 Tuesday visits that followed their reunion took Albom--and will take listeners with him--on a journey of reawakening to life's best rewards. The story is told in a journalistic style that never crosses into pathos. That a professional writer can write well is not surprising, but Albom also reads well, with clear enunciation and a talent for mimicry. Another reader might have interpreted the professor's aphorisms as droll humor or wrung a wrong note at an inappropriate moment, making the story a maudlin tearjerker; instead it is read for what it is, a tribute to a remarkable teacher. (Running time: four hours, three cassettes) --Brenda Pittsley

Produktbeschreibung

The Autobiography
Erscheinungsjahr: 2008
photos.
Gewicht: 425 gr / Abmessung: 17,5 cm
Von Mandela, Nelson

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The famously taciturn South African president reveals much of himself in Long Walk to Freedom. A good deal of this autobiography was written secretly while Mandela was imprisoned for 27 years on Robben Island by South Africa's apartheid regime. Among the book's interesting revelations is Mandela's ambivalence toward his lifetime of devotion to public works. It cost him two marriages and kept him distant from a family life he might otherwise have cherished. Long Walk to Freedom also discloses a strong and generous spirit that refused to be broken under the most trying circumstances--a spirit in which just about everybody can find something to admire. --Amazon.com

Amazon.co.uk

Love him or loathe him, you've got to admit it, Richard Branson has drive. And guts. And enough ambition to sink a battleship--or perhaps that should be a jumbo jet--or even a whole company of jumbos if the Virgin Atlantic/British Airways debacle (which takes up a huge chunk of this already huge tome) is anything to go by.

Branson's autobiography makes immensely fascinating reading. Whatever you think of Britain's most famous entrepreneur, the odds are that you will enjoy reading his autobiography. You may snort at descriptions of his "poor" childhood--spent eating bread and dripping while living in a house the majority of us visit on Bank Holidays and attending a "minor" public school. You may groan at memories of early initiative tests: how about being ejected from the family car and told by his mother to find his way home--at the age of four? You may flinch at accounts of his early business days as an unwashed, unshod, hippy magazine publisher living en famille with his staff in the crypt of a West London church. But, all in all, you'll get to understand where the guy's coming from--man.

And, like the man himself, there's no holds barred here. Richard bares his soul, from childhood, school days (cheating at exams), loves and losses (lost one wife when a spot of wife-swapping went drastically wrong--for him), death-defying adventures (yes, the balloons are all there), to the rise and rise of the Virgin empire. His interviews for Student magazine and the early days of Virgin Music read like a chronicle of popular music and culture in the late 20th century. Famous names bounce off every page. Prepare to be enthralled by the life and times of a walking publicity machine. --Carey Green