Recently appearing before the world at the Opening Ceremonies of the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing, 26-year-old Lang Lang is one of classical music's greatest young stars. The son of two parents whose own musical ambitions were thwarted by the Cultural Revolution, Lang was a piano prodigy, winning the Shenyang Piano Competiton at the age of five. He faced enormous pressure to succeed from his parents, yet he has managed to meet--and possibly even surpass--their expectations as he has performed to great acclaim with orchestras around the world. Discover Lang Lang's rags-to-riches story in this exciting memoir.

When he's not writing Pulitzer Prize-winning novels like Lonesome Dove, Larry McMurtry can often be found indulging his intense bibliomania. Raised with little access to books, McMurtry discovered the joys of literature as a young man, and since then, he has both owned and managed bookstores and become a prominent collector with a personal library of over 28,000 volumes. In this memoir, McMurty shares his personal experiences with books against the backdrop of American book and reading culture. Kirkus Reviews calls Books "a pleasant amble in Bookland and a treat for the bookishly inclined, as well as for McMurtry buffs."

In the bestselling memoir We Were Soldiers Once…And Young (which was made into a 2002 movie starring Mel Gibson), former Lieutenant Colonel Harold Moore and UPI reporter Joseph Galloway provided a gripping, eyewitness account of the 1965 battle at Ia Drang during the Vietnam War, which resulted in a key U.S. victory despite heavy casualties. Now, in We Are Soldiers Still, called a "stellar sequel" by Publishers Weekly, Moore and Galloway travel back to the bloody battlefield and reconnect with ten American veterans of the fighting as well as with two of the former enemy commanders.

Nancy Pelosi has done her share of ground breaking: the first daughter of a United States congressman to become a congresswoman herself, Pelosi also became the first female Speaker of the House in January 2007, making her the most powerful woman in U.S. history. In Know Your Power, Pelosi recounts details of her personal life, including her Catholic upbringing in Maryland and her marriage to Paul Pelosi, as well as her political life, from her work for the California Democratic Party to her current position. Throughout the book, she shares the wisdom she has gained as she has served her country and fought to break down long-held barriers.

September 5, 1638. Just as the planets orbit the sun, so life in 17th-century France revolved around Louis XIV, the illustrious Sun King, who reigned with nearly absolute power for over 72 years. In Love and Louis XIV, renowned royal biographer Antonia Fraser explores Louis' fascinating relationships with women, including his mother, Anne of Austria; his wife, the Spanish Infanta Maria Teresa; and his long string of mistresses. In the process, she also discusses the sexual culture of the royal court as well as Louis' conflict between his amorous lifestyle and his pious allegiance to the Catholic Church, which condemned such immoral behavior.

September 7, 1533. When 25-year-old Elizabeth I ascended to the throne of England, most of her subjects thought she would soon marry and then leave the ruling to her husband. But contrary to expectations, Elizabeth remained single and devoted her time to her duties as queen, presiding over England’s Golden Age. Bestselling biographer Alison Weir, who has chronicled Tudor life in books such as The Wives of Henry VIII, provides an intimate look into Elizabeth's personal life, discussing in fascinating detail the reasons why she never married as well as the mysterious death of Amy Robsart, the wife of her great love, the Earl of Leicester.

September 15, 1254. When he was just a teenager, Marco Polo embarked on a journey that would last 24 years. Together with his father and uncle, Polo left his Venetian home and traveled the Silk Road all the way to Xanadu (now Beijing), the home of Genghis Khan's grandson, Kublai Khan. Polo served the great Mongol emperor until the latter's death; only then did he return to Venice and eventually record the details of his extraordinary journey. Laurence Bergreen, author of the acclaimed Over the Edge of the World, both traces Polo's legendary adventure and weighs its veracity in this enthralling work that's part biography, part travelogue.

September 26, 1888. Poems such as “The Waste Land” and “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” have cemented T.S. Eliot's reputation as one of the 20th century's greatest English-speaking poets. Born and educated in America, Eliot later became a British citizen, preferring life abroad but noting that the "emotional springs" of his work come from his home country. In T.S. Eliot, author Lyndall Gordon, who has previously written two slimmer biographies of Eliot, examines the poet’s literary output and achievements as a critic in addition to exploring his less successful personal life, including his relationships with women and recent allegations of both anti-Semitism and misogyny.

Edith Hahn was a Jewish law student in Vienna when Germany annexed Austria in 1938, sending Edith first to a ghetto and then to a labor camp. Eventually, she obtained a copy of a non-Jewish friend's identification papers and started an undercover life for herself in Munich. She married a Nazi officer (to whom she confessed her true identity) and masqueraded as a typical German hausfrau in order to escape detection. Though she suffered from nearly paralyzing fear as she fought to hide her true identity, Edith's efforts kept her and her baby daughter safe until the war's end.

Established by the Nazis as a propaganda tool in 1933, the all-Jewish Kulturbund Orchestra was nonetheless a source of hope and inspiration to German Jews--though it may also have given many of them a false sense of security. The orchestra played for eight years before most of its members were sent to concentration camps; in The Inextinguishable Symphony, Martin Goldsmith, a National Public Radio commentator, recounts the tragic history of the orchestra as well as the more intimate story of his parents, both of whom played in it until they managed to escape to America in 1941. Kirkus Reviews calls the book "a remarkable story."

When young Daniel Mendelsohn entered a room, his resemblance to his great-uncle Shmiel could bring his elderly relatives to tears. But all Daniel knew about Shmiel was that he and his family were "killed by the Nazis" during World War II. In 2001, a grown Daniel decided to find out what really happened to his missing relatives. His journey of discovery, which took him to a dozen countries on three different continents, led not just to a knowledge of Shmiel's fate, but also to a greater understanding of himself, his family, and his religion. In a starred review, Booklist calls The Lost "a finely wrought, multi-faceted narrative."

First published in 1945 but initially suppressed by Poland's Communist government, Wladyslaw Szpilman’s memoir of his struggle to survive in Warsaw during World War II makes for chilling--yet inspiring--reading. A pianist with Polish Radio, Szpilman witnessed the deportation of his entire family; he alone remained in Warsaw, spending years hiding throughout the city and narrowly escaping capture. Ironically, Szpilman would not have survived without the help of a sympathetic German officer who secretly provided him with supplies until his unit was reassigned. In 2002, The Pianist was made into an Academy Award-winning movie directed by Roman Polanski and starring Adrien Brody.