This book tells the story of the wives, children, extended families, and pets as well as the presidents who have lived in the White House, a lively look at how presidential families learned to cope with the demands and grandeur imposed on them and worked to create a home in a beloved but often stifling national monument. Its residents quickly learn that in return for its many perks, the White House makes its own demands--while it enhances their status,...

The popular LGBTQ advice columnist and writer presents a memoir-in-essays chronicling his journey growing up as a queer, mixed-race kid in America's heartland to becoming the "Chicano Carrie Bradshaw" of his generation. The first time someone called Brammer "Papi" was on the gay hookup app Grindr. At first he took this as white-guy speak for "hey, handsome." What started as a racialized moniker given to him on the hookup app soon became the inspiration...

This collection--at once insightful, funny and sad--digs into the psyche of the nation's capital. Marjorie Williams knew Washington from top to bottom. Beloved for her sharp analysis, elegant prose and exceptional ability to intuit character, Williams wrote political profiles for the Washington Post and Vanity Fair that came to be considered the final word on the capital's most powerful figures. Her accounts of playing ping-pong with Richard Darman,...

Presents biographical information on the American presidents, from George Washington to Barack Obama, providing excerpts of their speeches and an analysis of their term in office.

"Carefully selected by the creative minds at The Moth, and adapted to the page to preserve the raw energy of live storytelling, OCCASIONAL MAGIC features voices familiar and new. Alongside Adam Gopnik, Krista Tippett, Andrew Solomon, Rosanne Cash, Ophira Eisenberg, and Wang Ping, storytellers from around the world share times when, in the face of challenging situations, they found moments of beauty, wonder, and clarity, shedding light on their lives...

A veteran Oxford heart surgeon imparts the hard-won lessons of a life lived on the brink, sharing the stories of remarkable cases from his career while revealing why heart procedures have never become routine.

"Ziwe made a name for herself by asking guests like Alyssa Milano, Fran Lebowitz, and Chet Hanks direct questions. In Black Friend, she turns her incisive perspective on both herself and the culture at large. Throughout the book, Ziwe combines pop-culture commentary and personal stories, which grapple with her own (mis)understanding of identity. From a hilarious case of mistaken identity via a jumbotron to a terrifying fight-or-flight encounter in...

"Two-time Pulitzer Prize-winner Gene Weingarten explores the events of a random day in U.S. history, offering a diorama of American life that illuminates all that has changed--and all that hasn't--in the past three decades. On New Year's Day 2013, two-time Pulitzer Prize-winner Gene Weingarten asked three strangers to, literally, pluck a day, month, and year from a hat. That day--chosen completely at random--turned out to be Sunday, December 28, 1986,...