The Comeback Kid will be the first biography of Robert Downey Jr. A Detailed and authoritative account of the life, career, stardom and controversy of Robert Downey JR – one of Hollywood’s most popular, and gifted, actors of recent times. A behind-the-scenes look on the making of his most famous and infamous movies, talking to the people closest to him, from actors and directors to those he has encountered during his trips to the dark side. “I’ve always felt like an outsider in this industry. Because I’m so insane I guess.” – Robert Downey Jr. Robert Downey Jr’s life isn’t a movie – but it could be. Now one of the biggest box office stars in the world thanks to Iron Man and Sherlock Holmes, he’s come a long way since his early days as a rising actor amidst the Brat Pack of the Eighties, as well as stints on Saturday Night Live and Ally McBeal. His incredible journey has also encompassed prison and drug addiction – experiences which left him just one bad choice away from death. Funny, definitive and entertaining, this is the first book that dares to glimpse inside the psyche of a brilliant and complex icon of our times.

From his first role as a cherubic five-year old through Iron Man 2 and the films yet to come, a look at the life and career one of Hollywood's most surprising leading men Robert Downey Jr. has become one of Hollywood's most shining, distinctive stars thanks to scene-stealing roles in films like Iron Man, Zodiac, and Sherlock Holmes. This book takes an in-depth, insightful look at his work in front of the camera as well as his life behind the spotlight. It reveals details of his film debut at age five playing a puppy in his father's underground cult film, his attempt at becoming a comedian during an ill-fated stint as a Saturday Night Live cast member, how he burst onto the scene with his moving performance in Less than Zero, and how he charmed Hollywood with his Oscar-nominated turn as troubled funny man Charlie Chaplin. With a life that has had more twist and turns than the plots of some of his acclaimed movies, Robert Downey Jr.'s journey from hellraiser to Hollywood royalty is shocking, moving, funny, and inspirational.

Robert Downey Jr. may be best known as Iron Man, but his career as an actor stretches back to the 1970s and features several Oscar-quality roles. He has worked with a wide range of innovative directors from Oliver Stone and Robert Altman to Richard Linklater and Shane Black, and has played punk kids, detectives, journalists and even a serial killer. This collection of new essays examines, in roughly chronological order, more than 25 of Downey's best performances in films as diverse as Less Than Zero, Chaplin, Natural Born Killers, A Scanner Darkly, The Soloist and Tropic Thunder. Including a biography, chronology and filmography, the book highlights the inseparability of the actor's biography from his works and from the unique combination of talents he brings to his roles.

Robert Downey Jr. is one of the most famous and influential actors in Hollywood. Since 2008, he has been at the center of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, but the road to his role as Iron Man was difficult. Readers discover how he has become an inspiration to those who are struggling with personal demons, especially substance abuse, and how he overcame those struggles to return to the spotlight. Through sidebars, annotated quotations, and full-color photographs, this book allows readers to gain a deeper appreciation for Robert Downey Jr.'s acting skills and personal resilience.

This title examines the fascinating life of Robert Downey Jr. Readers will learn about Downey's childhood, family, education, rise to fame, his trouble with drugs, and his time in rehab . Colorful graphics, oversize photos, and informative sidebars accompany easy-to-read, compelling text that explores how Downey's interest in acting led to leading roles in movies that include The Pickup Artist, Sherlock Holmes, which earned him a Golden Globe, and Iron Man. Features include a table of contents, glossary, selected bibliography, Web links, source notes, and an index, plus a timeline and fun facts. Aligned to Common Core Standards and correlated to state standards. Essential Library is an imprint of Abdo Publishing, a division of ABDO.

Now an HBO Limited Series from Executive Producers Park Chan-wook and Robert Downey Jr., Streaming Exclusively on Max Winner of the 2016 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction Winner of the 2016 Edgar Award for Best First Novel Winner of the 2016 Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Fiction One of TIME’s 100 Best Mystery and Thriller Books of All Time “[A] remarkable debut novel.” —Philip Caputo, New York Times Book Review (cover review) Winner of the 2016 Pulitzer Prize, a startling debut novel from a powerful new voice featuring one of the most remarkable narrators of recent fiction: a conflicted subversive and idealist working as a double agent in the aftermath of the Vietnam War. The winner of the 2016 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, as well as seven other awards, The Sympathizer is the breakthrough novel of the year. With the pace and suspense of a thriller and prose that has been compared to Graham Greene and Saul Bellow, The Sympathizer is a sweeping epic of love and betrayal. The narrator, a communist double agent, is a “man of two minds,” a half-French, half-Vietnamese army captain who arranges to come to America after the Fall of Saigon, and while building a new life with other Vietnamese refugees in Los Angeles is secretly reporting back to his communist superiors in Vietnam. The Sympathizer is a blistering exploration of identity and America, a gripping espionage novel, and a powerful story of love and friendship.

In 1977 the FBI under J Edgar Hoover concerned itself mainly with bank robbers and communists. When Jack Brennan and Jim Wedick, two rookie agents, decide to investigate the biggest white-colour criminal in the world, Phil Kitzer Jr, they are forced to invent the undercover investigation as they go. This is the incredible globetrotting story of a case, a criminal and a friendship that changed the role of the FBI forever.

INSTANT USA TODAY BESTSELLER “Witty and macabre.”—Caroline Kepnes "Slick and chilling."—Megan Miranda “A perfect summer book.”—NPR USA Today bestselling author Samantha Downing is back with her latest sneaky thriller set at a prestigious private school—complete with interfering parents, overeager students, and one teacher who just wants to teach them all a lesson… Teddy Crutcher has won Teacher of the Year at the elite Belmont Academy, home to the best and brightest. He says his wife couldn’t be more proud—though no one has seen her in a while. Teddy really can’t be bothered with a few mysterious deaths on campus that are looking more and more like murder, or with the student digging a little too deep into Teddy’s personal life. His main focus is pushing these kids to their full academic potential. All he wants is for his colleagues—and the endlessly meddlesome parents—to stay out of his way. If not, well, they’ll get what they deserve. It’s really too bad that sometimes excellence comes at such a high cost.

Who are we, and where do we come from? The fundamental drive to answer these questions is at the heart of Finding Your Roots, the companion book to the hit PBS documentary series. As scholar Henry Louis Gates Jr. clearly demonstrates, the tools of cutting-edge genomics and deep genealogical research now allow us to learn more about our roots and look further back in time than ever before. In the second season, Gates's investigation takes on the personal and genealogical histories of more than twenty luminaries, including Ken Burns, Stephen King, Derek Jeter, Governor Deval Patrick, Valerie Jarrett, and Sally Field. As Gates interlaces these moving stories of immigration, assimilation, strife, and success, he provides practical information for amateur genealogists just beginning archival research on their own families' roots and details the advances in genetic research now available to the public. The result is an illuminating exploration of who we are, how we lost track of our roots, and how we can find them again.

'Joyous, wise, reassuring and laugh-out-loud funny. I love these two women so much.' Elizabeth Day 'I can say with full confidence that Jane Garvey and Fi Glover are the two funniest women on planet earth right now.' Dolly Alderton 'A book like no other. Honest and very, very funny. Some bits made me want to cheer - a sentence on parenting teenage girls was so good I may get it tattooed on myself, possibly in Hebrew.' Sara Cox 'You'll laugh, you'll nod your head so vigorously in agreement that you'll end up with whiplash and you'll buy a copy of this book for all your friends for Christmas. If you loved the late, great Victoria Wood, then you'll love Fi and Jane too.' Red magazine Award-winning broadcasters Fi Glover and Jane Garvey don't claim to have all the answers (what was the question?), but in these hilarious and perceptive essays they take modern life by its elasticated waist and give it a brisk going over with a stiff brush. They riff together on the chuff of life, from pet deaths to broadcasting hierarchies, via the importance of hair dye, the perils and pleasures of judging other women, and the perplexing overconfidence of chino-wearing middle-aged white men named Roger. Did I Say That Out Loud? covers essential life skills (never buy an acrylic jumper, always decline the offer of a limoncello), ponders the prudence of orgasm merchandise and suggests the disconcerting possibility that Christmas is a hereditary disease, passed down the maternal line. At a time of constant uncertainty, what we all need is the wisdom of two women who haven't got a clue what's going on either.