Tracy Kidder

Two old men in a little room. Together they represent some one hundred and sixty years of memory, of hope and achievement and sorrow - of life. They are residents of Linda Manor, a nursing home. What will become of them now? Once again, in the humble materials of daily life, Tracy Kidder - the author of House and Among Schoolchildren - has discovered a story of breathtaking intensity and depth. Old Friends introduces us to Lou Freed and Joe Torchio,...

Watches the construction of a new house from its architectural conception to moving day

We all know what is wrong with today's schools-or do we? Tracy Kidder spent a year in a fifth grade class in Holyoke, Massachusetts. The teacher is excellent, but something else is very wrong. Kidder skillfully presents the problems and leaves the listener to ponder the solutions.

" ... Kidder reveals the sheer abundance of life contained within a town's narrow boundaries. Does the kind of small town that many Americans came from, and long for, still exist? Kidder says yes, although not quite in the form we may imagine. A book about civilization in microcosm ... "--Dust jacket.

"When he graduated from Harvard Medical School, Jim O'Connell was asked by the medical school Dean to spend one year setting up a program to care for the homeless population in Boston. It became Jim O'Connell's life calling, to help people known as "rough sleepers." For the past three decades, Dr. O'Connell has run the Boston Healthcare for the Homeless Program, which he helped to create. Affiliated with Massachusetts General Hospital, the program...

Traces the efforts of Dr. Paul Farmer to transform healthcare on a global scale, documenting his visits to some of the world's most impoverished regions and the unconventional methods that enabled him to improve and save lives.

"Like Paul Farmer in Mountains Beyond Mountains, Paul English grew up poor, in working-class Boston, but as Tracy Kidder writes, he had "a mind for the age that was coming." Brilliant, reckless, endlessly energetic, Paul English, after Kayak sold for $2 billion, asked himself: What comes next? Start another company? Use his new wealth to make a difference in the world? With a riveting, page-turning narrative and unmatched storytelling skill, Kidder...