Biography: general Books
Guernica Editions,Canada The Archeology of a Good Ragù: Discovering
Book SynopsisThe Archeology of a Good Ragù offers a unique take on the recovery narrative. A damaged but savvy author finds new wholeness by way of a fascinating old city: Naples, Italy. John Domini's exploration of the place— little known to North Americans, yet rich in culture and challenge— draws on decades of research, living with local friends and family. His work has appeared previously in the New York Times and elsewhere, and he's published award-winning Neapolitan novels. This memoir will take readers into the back alleys and hidden beaches. It will examine intricacies of both romance and crime, and provide insight into the latest Naples immigrants, African refugees. Overall, Archeology of a Good Ragù turns the city into a prism that throws its colors across both urban and spiritual experience, everywhere.Trade ReviewJohn Domini's The Archeology of a Good Ragù is a warm and rollicking account of a writer tracing lineages through time, and deep into the heart of Naples, in order to find a path back to himself--and to gain a more robust understanding of his roots. In the layered and complex city of Naples, meditations on art, romance, masculinity, violence, and family secrets collide in this captivating memoir. -- Laura van den Berg, author of The Third Hotel and I Hold a Wolf By The EarsI readily confess to a hot passion for John Domini's memoir, The Archeology of a Good Ragù -- his inspired sentences like switchback staircases, his paragraphs sipped like the finest grappa, his chapters a Mediterranean feast. Domini devours Naples, its magic and sensuality and ambiguity, with a gastronome's vitality, and if you told me Mr. Domini and Elena Ferrante are cousins, I'd say, Of course! -- Bob Shacochis, author of The Woman Who Lost Her SoulWe lovers of Naples are like a secret guild or a society of amateur gourmands. For us, then, John Domini-- another prodigal spiritual son of the city-- serves up an elaborate Neapolitan dessert which will expand things other than the waistline. -- Lawrence Osborne, author of Beautiful Animals and The Ballad of a Small PlayerThe Archeology of a Good Ragù offers lively and illuminating insights about both the city of Naples and the process of discovering your roots. John Domini's exquisite prose braids together past and present, revealing the rich strands of memory that connect world history, urban lore, family narratives, and personal transformation. A stirring, remarkable, and multifaceted memoir. -- Jeff Jackson, author of Destroy All MonstersNeither archeology nor autobiography, so much as "an attempt to capture the aroma, flavors, and sounds of the city's cobblestones. Call it an extended meditation on the Neapolitan. -- Brevity
£15.15
Guernica Editions,Canada ...and along came Alexis Volume 32
Book SynopsisAnd Along Came Alexis is a book about choices and consequences. The author's youngest daughter, Alexis, was born in 1978 with multiple disabilities, including blindness, an intractable seizure disorder and spastic quadriplegia. The choice to keep her at home despite medical advice resulted in a limiting of career opportunities for her parents and educational and other enrichment opportunities for her siblings. However, it also introduced the family to a whole community of earnest and interesting people dealing with similar challenges that they would never have known otherwise, and it provided rich perspectives on a different way of living. As for Alexis, she thrived far better than had been predicted and developed into a sweet, trusting person with a clear sense of self and an appreciation for the people in her life. The book describes the story of her life to date from her mother's viewpoint: its victories and setbacks, its grim moments and its funny moments. Overall, it is a positive story, demonstrating what is possible, even under very challenging circumstances.
£17.95
Verso Books A Writer of Our Time: The Life and Work of John
Book SynopsisJohn Berger was one of the most influential thinkers and writers of postwar Europe. As a novelist, he won the Booker Prize in 1972, donating half his prize money to the Black Panthers; as a TV presenter he changed the way we looked at art in Ways of Seeing; as a storyteller and political activist he defended the rights and dignity of workers, migrants and the oppressed around the world. In 1953 he wrote: "Far from dragging politics into art, art has dragged me into politics." He remained a revolutionary up to his death in January, 2017. In A Writer of Our Time, Joshua Sperling places Berger's life and works within the historical narrative of postwar Britain and beyond. The book also explores, through the work, the larger questions that vexed a generation: the purpose of art, the nature of creative freedom, the meaning of commitment. Drawing on extensive interviews, close readings and a wealth of archival sources only recently made available, the book brings the many different faces of John Berger together and shows him as one of the most vital, and brilliant, thinkers and storytellers of our time.Trade ReviewA welcome intervention that does justice to the legacy of Berger's thought and work which has been criminally underappreciated in Britain. * Morning Star *Berger's talent for 'seeing all sides' of a thing, his incredible floating perspective, would have been worth less had he not used it to choose the right side. -- Sarah Nicole Prickett * Bookforum *
£19.00
Liverpool University Press At Eden’s Door: The Habsburg Jewish Life of Leon
Book SynopsisLeon Kellner was part of the intellectual and cultural elite of imperial Austria. Engaged in politics, a member of his regional parliament, and an essayist of repute, he was also a Zionist leader and confidant of Theodor Herzl. He created an institution for Jews’ cultural, educational, and social advancement modelled on London’s Toynbee Hall, which spread across east-central Europe to great effect. He was also an internationally recognized Shakespeare scholar. Yet for all this, today he is little known.How did someone born into a lower-middle-class Orthodox Jewish family from the province of Galicia come to gain such prominence in the Habsburg empire? Kellner’s is a thoroughly Habsburg Jewish story, spanning east and west and shaped by the empire’s history, politics, and culture. He was a singular character: a Galician Jew at home in Vienna and in Czernowitz, eyes towards Zion, yet content also in London, and never more so than when absorbed in the minutiae of Shakespeare’s texts. Kellner’s world was destroyed twice over: Habsburg Austria came to an end in 1918, east-central European Jewry in 1945. This biography recovers at least part of what was lost.Trade Review‘A fascinating and innovative investigation of the situation of the Jews in the Habsburg monarchy, based on material from archives and libraries in Vienna, Jerusalem, and New York.’ Antony Polonsky, Professor Emeritus of Holocaust Studies at Brandeis University‘The lives of individuals whom Jewish historiography has ignored, like Leon Kellner, teach us much about how Jews experienced larger historical currents. His life reflected two of the most distinctive trends in Habsburg Jewish history: the movement of Galician Jews to the imperial capital, and their upward mobility via education and literature. So despite Kellner’s obscurity, his historical trajectory is well known. This biography makes it concrete and specific, and in so doing deepens our understanding of the Habsburg Jewish world.’ Todd Endelman, Professor Emeritus of History at the University of Michigan, Ann ArborTable of ContentsIntroduction1. The Education of Young Leon2. The Making of an Intellectual3. Herzl and Zionism4. The Jewish Toynbee Hall5. The Czernowitz Years6. Post-Habsburg TwilightConclusionBibliographyIndex
£38.30
Xlibris Service Before Self: A Journey of Conviction,
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£18.04
Carcanet Press Ltd The Good Soldier
Book SynopsisFor nine years, John Dowell and his wife spend the summer season at a German spa town in the company of the respectable Ashburnhams. Behind the placid exteriors lie the destructive passions of men and women. This text includes biographical and critical apparatus.
£12.30
Independent Books Blue Skies and Dark Nights
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£19.95
Allen & Unwin After Everest: Inside the private world of Edmund
Book Synopsis'Well if you have a big life, a lot of stuff happens. Dad had a big life.' - Peter Hillary Edmund Hillary is a towering figure among adventurers. His conquest of Everest and his dedication to the welfare of the Nepalese people is well known. While much has been written about what Sir Edmund Hillary did, 'Ed', the man behind the legend, is less well known in large part because he controlled how his story was told. The years leading up to Everest and the other great adventures are remarkable enough, but it is the drama of Ed's later years that throws light onto the world of the private man: the death of his wife and daughter in an air crash, his remarriage to the widow of an old friend, and, finally, the falling out, after his own death, of family members and those in his inner circle. Ed's image was that of a simple, straightforward man, but in reality he was a complex bundle of paradoxes. He was an individualist who always worked with a team; a young loner who came to be loved by millions; a sometimes distant father who was seen as a surrogate parent by thousands of Nepalese; and a left-leaning thinker who accepted the highest order of chivalry from Queen Elizabeth II. This is the story of the man behind the legend.
£18.00
Thunder Bay Press Michigan All Hell Broke Loose: Experiences of Young People
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£14.36
Robert D. Reed Publishers Fiddletown Journal: Stories Of The Mother Lode
Book SynopsisAn exploration of gold panning adventures in the Mother Lode ( the Gold Country) in California. With humor, faith, optimism, and spirit, The Fiddletown Journal chronicles the daily struggles endured by miners of 1849 and it parodies the miners today. An inspiring story of five men who joined forces to search for gold. The book touches on the history of California's Gold Rush and many small mining towns A useful travel guide for anyone who wants to visit the Mother Lode towns, restaurants, shops, and casinos.
£8.95
Schreiber Publishing Stepchildren of Mother Russia
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£20.79
Fons Vitae,US Meatyard/Merton: Photographing Thomas Merton
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£16.96
Pushcart Press Her Father: A Memoir
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£13.50
Pushcart Press His Son: A Memoir
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£13.50
Other Press LLC Lacan in America
Book SynopsisThis interdisciplinary compilation of essays is a welcome tonic for the “jet lag” or cultural gap between Lacanian discourse''s warm reception in Latin countries and the resistance Lacanian clinical applications have met with in the Anglophone world. Lacan in America illuminates important and dynamic debates within a cultural context that Lacan himself has modified. Rather than a made-simple approach, this dynamic collection invokes some of the hesitations, contradictions, and evolutions that appear to be the most exciting part of his legacy, in “polylogical” discussions by “Lacanians” who are not averse to a critical reexamination of major concepts or textual and political issues. Topics include: a regressive sexual science and a “postmodern condition,” technological mediation through seduction and resistance, the partisan issues beneath some of the resistances met by Lacanian discourse, and Lacan''s revelations as responses to Freudian riddles.Demonstrating the vitality of Lacanian thought and its impact on disciplines, from mathematics to gay/lesbian studies, Lacan in America works to edify the fruit of Lacan''s endless revision, an infinitely propagated transfiguration of his search for the meanings of truth. “Lucid and nonpartisan?[this collection] successfully takes the ideas and issues at the heart of Lacan''s work and legacy and reinspects them through the lens offered by their transportation across the Atlantic, illustrating what has happened to them in their translation--and mistranslation--into and through American intellectual and cultural life.”-Daniel Gunn, Department of Comparative Literature and English, The American University of Paris
£21.50
Brepols N.V. Picturing Ludwig Burchard, 1886-1960: A Rubens
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£91.52
Baraka Books Dying to Live: A Rwandan Family's Five-Year
Book SynopsisPierre-Claver Ndacyayisenga was teaching history in Kigali, Rwanda, when he was forced to flee to the neighbouring Congo with his wife and three children. Thus began a harrowing five-year voyage of survival during which they travelled thousands of miles on foot from one refugee camp to another. Lacking food and water, they were often robbed, sometimes raped, and constantly pursued and bombed by shadowy armed soldiers with sophisticated weapons and aerial surveillance information. This brilliant and touching book is the story of one family among the more than 300,000 refugees—many of whom did not survive. For those wishing to understand the war in the Congo, this must-read will restore the humanity and the right to mourn for hundreds of thousands of Rwandans dispersed throughout the world.Trade ReviewNdacyayisenga’s memoir offers an important look at a piece of African history that most of the world was unaware of, or chose to ignore, while it was happening . . . The book is informative for readers interested in refugee issues, but it will have a broader appeal to those interested in history and justice." —Publishers Weekly
£16.96
Awa Press Helen Kelly: Her Life
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£33.20
Awa Press Driving To Treblinka: A Long Search For A Lost
Book SynopsisPainstakingly uncovers information about the author’s father’s large Warsaw family and their fate at the hands of the Nazis. This unforgettable narrative is a deep reflection on the meaning of family, the trauma of loss, and the insistence of memory. It asks the question: Is it better to know, or more bearable not to?
£23.70
Hallie Ford Museum of Art,US Manuel Izquierdo: Myth, Nature, and Renewal
Book SynopsisManuel Izquierdo (1925-2009) was a major talent and charismatic personality in Oregon’s modern art movement in the second half of the twentieth century. This book traces his compelling story of poverty-stricken origins in Madrid, his introduction to woodworking by his cabinet-maker grandfather, his childhood escape from Spain following the Spanish Civil War and emigration from France during World War II, and his life as a sculptor and printmaker in Portland from the 1940s to the twenty-first century. Inspired by mythology, nature, and art ranging Goya to Surrealism, Izquierdo’s work is sometimes somber, often festive, and always fascinating with a combination of tradition, modern art, and a world view informed by his odyssey from war-torn Europe to the Pacific Northwest.
£999.99
Hallie Ford Museum of Art,US Marie Watt: Lodge
Book SynopsisMarie Watt is an American artist who lives and works in Brooklyn, New York, and Portland, Oregon. Born in 1967 to the son of Wyoming ranchers and a daughter of the Turtle Clan of the Seneca Nation (Haudenosaunee), she identifies herself as "half cowboy and half Indian." Formally, her work draws from Indigenous design principles, oral tradition, personal experience, and western art history. Her approach to art-making is shaped by the proto-feminism of Haudenosaunee matrilineal custom, political work by Native artists in the '60s, a discourse on multiculturalism, Abstract Expressionism, and Pop Art, as well as a strong belief in interaction with her audience. Like Jasper Johns, she is interested in "things that the mind already knows." Unlike the Pop artists, she uses a vocabulary of natural materials (stone, corn husks, wool, cedar) and forms (blankets, pillows, bridges) that are universal to human experience and noncommercial in character. Marie Watt: Lodge offers the first comprehensive view of her work, covering a period extending from the mid-1990s to the present.
£19.79
CavanKerry Press Italian Blood: A Memoir
Book SynopsisA memoir dealing with the aftermath of abuse. “I’ve heard that some volcanic eruptions are soft with oozing streams of lava dancing down the side of the volcano like a Las Vegas chorus line. My father’s eruptions were quick, like bricks being thrown through a window.” Denise Tolan’s memoir-in-essay traces the legacy of violence in an Italian American family, showing how abuse reverberates both in the body and mind of a family. The book’s first part, “Blood is Not Water,” lays out how the origins of violence can infect the roots of a family tree. The second part, “Good Blood Doesn’t Lie,” shows what grows from those roots. Italian Blood is a raw, heartbreaking series of essays where everything is connected through literal and metaphorical blood. These essays offer a connection to anyone who suffered childhood shame, violence, or fear and provide reassurance that they are not alone.Trade Review“Tolan spares no one in this taut, clear-eyed, immensely moving memoir, least of all her ‘Little Miss Perfect’ self. A daughter/mother dialogue, a case study of paternal rage and brutality, an indictment of patriarchy and a survivor’s chronicle all in one, Italian Blood offers page after page of hard-won insights, salted with black humor. Read it straight through and let the haunting begin.” * Kat Meads, author of "Dear DeeDee" *Table of ContentsPrima Parte: Il Sangue Non e Acqua / Part One: Blood is Not WaterNever Two Without the ThreeDivisible by ThirteenMalocchio (The Curse)My Mother Tells MeSeconda Parte: Buon Sangue Non Mente / Part Two: Good Blood Doesn’t LieBetrayed by BloodThings That Go BoomThe Underside of NormalVisiting RenaTerza Parte: Echi del Mio Sangue / Part 3. Echoes of My BloodMercury RisingA Very Short History of AbuseSnake Light
£16.15
Robert D. Reed Publishers Travels in Place: A Journey Into Memory Loss
Book SynopsisTravels in Place is the tender memoir of a daughter's reflections as she loses her beloved mother to dementia. The work promotes the radical notion that some things in life are not ours to fix-which does not mean that we either run from them or stand helpless amid decline and suffering. Faced with the often heartbreaking, sometimes humorous situations of patients suffering severe memory loss and dementia, the author urges us to leave fruitless efforts to go farther and do more and instead to trust ourselves to be more.Through her story, the author leads us to understand that as caregivers to patients with Alzheimer's-like diseases, we may not be able to cure the symptoms, restore past or future, or even always make the present bearable. But we can learn to go deeper into ourselves, explore the evolving relationship more thoroughly where we are, and openly embrace its moments with honesty and love. Thus will the reader find the power to transform even these difficult travels into a life-giving journey.
£14.20
Robert D. Reed Publishers Hobo Sapien: Freight Train Hopping Tao and Zen
Book SynopsisGarrison Keillor meets Jack Kerouac meets Mahatma Gandhi in this wry, roadwise scripture. Hobo Sapien is a series of freight train parables born out of the author's twelve-plus years riding freight trains, combined with lessons learned in his seven-year stint as a Self-Realization Fellowship monk, plus the added bonus of fascinating railroad history. Non-fiction readers buy books to learn something, for reference, or to be entertained. Hobo Sapien fills all three bills. Readers will get a unique immersion into the underground world of the hobo. The spiritual takes are written with a subtle humor that helps the medicine go down. It is not your parent's self-help book.Armchair adventurers, rail fans, spiritual seekers, and academia nuts will all gather intriguing information from this missive. It is vastly different from other hobo books because of its unparalleled combination of adventure, rail history, humor, and spirituality. The author's background is also unique and varied. Not many hobos have gone from Yale to rail or from hunk to monk.
£11.35
Trine Day From an Office Building with a High-Powered
Book SynopsisThe personal and professional story of a former FBI agent, this is the journey Don Adams has taken over the past 50 years that has connected him to the assassination of the 35th president of the United States. On November 13, 1963, Adams was given a priority assignment to investigate Joseph Milteer, a man who had made threats to assassinate the president. Two weeks later John F. Kennedy was dead, and Agent Adams was instructed to locate and question Milteer. Adams, however, was only allowed to ask the suspect five specific questions before being told to release him. He was puzzled by the bizarre orders but thought nothing more of it until years later when he read a report that stated that not only had Joseph Milteer made threats against the president, but also that he claimed Kennedy would be killed from an office building with a high-powered rifle. Since that time, Adams has compiled evidence and research from every avenue available to him, including his experiences in Georgia and Dallas FBI offices, to produce this compelling investigation that may just raise more questions than answers.
£19.76
Trine Day A Memoir of Injustice: By the Younger Brother of
Book SynopsisIncluding previously undisclosed information on one of the most significant and mysterious events in modern American history, this account debunks the myth that James Earl Ray was a racist and documents his actual location on one of the critical days leading up to the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. The memoir also reveals photographs of James Earl Ray when he was ill in prison and gives the key to a code used by the brothers in planning a prison break. Presenting a mesmerizing perspective on the manipulation of the media in reporting on race relations, the working middle class, and the U.S. criminal justice system, this account broadcasts an urgent call to action to correct some of the many injustices that surround these events, such as the U.S. government's refusal to rigorously test the alleged murder weapon, and encourages support for new federal legislation.
£16.16
Catapult We Were Flying to Chicago
Book SynopsisIn this striking debut collection, characters find unexpected moments of profound insight while navigating daily life.Clouther’s first collection of stories shows an 'old' talent—meaning, his sophistication in treatment and technique and his wise observations of the human condition have the feel of an author who has the experience of several story collections behind him.—Booklist, starred reviewSharply observed.—Toronto StarThe 10 entries in Clouther’s debut collection all display a sure-handed grasp of craft.—Publishers WeeklyIn this striking debut collection, characters find unexpected moments of profound insight while navigating the monotony of daily life. Here we find a man who drives to the wrong mountain, a hubcap cleaner who moonlights as a karaoke star, and a deliveryman whose urgent letters have no willing recipient. While lulled by the deceptively simple rhythm of the ordinary, Kevin Clouther offers the instant before momentous change—the view over the cliff, the intake of breath before a decision, a glimpse of stark vulnerability, of faith and hope.
£11.56
Catapult Margaret the First: A Novel
Book SynopsisA Lit Hub Best Book of 2016 • One of Electric Literature's Best Novels of 2016 • An Entropy Best Book of 2016“The duchess herself would be delighted at her resurrection in Margaret the First...Dutton expertly captures the pathos of a woman whose happiness is furrowed with the anxiety of underacknowledgment.” —Katharine Grant, The New York Times Book ReviewMargaret the First dramatizes the life of Margaret Cavendish, the shy, gifted, and wildly unconventional 17th-century Duchess. The eccentric Margaret wrote and published volumes of poems, philosophy, feminist plays, and utopian science fiction at a time when being a writer was not an option open to women. As one of the Queen's attendants and the daughter of prominent Royalists, she was exiled to France when King Charles I was overthrown. As the English Civil War raged on, Margaret met and married William Cavendish, who encouraged her writing and her desire for a career. After the War, her work earned her both fame and infamy in England: at the dawn of daily newspapers, she was Mad Madge, an original tabloid celebrity. Yet Margaret was also the first woman to be invited to the Royal Society of London—a mainstay of the Scientific Revolution—and the last for another two hundred years.Margaret the First is very much a contemporary novel set in the past. Written with lucid precision and sharp cuts through narrative time, it is a gorgeous and wholly new approach to imagining the life of a historical woman.In Margaret the First, there is plenty of room for play. Dutton’s work serves to emphasize the ambiguities of archival proof, restoring historical narratives to what they have perhapsalways already been: provoking and serious fantasies,convincing reconstructions, true fictions.”—Lucy Ives, The New Yorker “Danielle Dutton engagingly embellishes the life of Margaret the First, the infamousDuchess of Newcastle-upon-Tyne.” —Vanity Fair
£999.99
Catapult The Middlepause: On Life After Youth
Book SynopsisIn The Middlepause Benjamin deftly and brilliantly examines the losses and unexpected gains she experienced in menopause. Menopause is a mind and body shift as monumental and universal as puberty, yet far less often discussed, especially in public, which is what makes Benjamin's work here so urgently necessary. —Kate Tuttle, The Los Angeles TimesThe Middlepause offers a vision of contentment in middle age, without sentiment or delusion. Marina Benjamin weighs the losses and opportunities of our middle years, taking inspiration from literature, science, philosophy, and her own experience. Spurred by her surgical propulsion into a sudden menopause, she finds ways to move forward while maintaining clear-eyed acknowledgment of the challenges of aging. Attending to complicated elderly parents and a teenaged daughter, experiencing bereavement, her own health woes, and a fresh impetus to give, Benjamin emerges into a new definition of herself as daughter, mother, citizen, and woman.Among The Middlepause's many wise observations about no longer being young: I am discovering that I care less about what other people think. My needs are leaner and my storehouse fuller. It is not possible to fully appreciate what it means to age without attending to what the body knows. . . . I have always had a knee-jerk distaste for the idea that age is all in the mind. You need a cohort of peers to go through the aging process with you. A cackle of crones! A cavalry! Marina Benjamin's memoir will serve as a comfort, a companion to women going through the too-seldom-spoken of physical and mental changes in middle age and beyond.
£15.27
Catapult Guesswork: A Reckoning With Loss
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£14.39
Catapult Beyond the High Blue Air: A Memoir
Book Synopsis“Like The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion, Beyond the High Blue Air is a spare, sharp memoir about the speed with which a comfortable existence can be blighted by grief.” —Bee Wilson, The Sunday Times Lu Spinney’s memoir Beyond the High Blue Air is at once a portrait of the fearlessness of familial love and the profound dilemma posed by modern medicine. When Spinney’s twenty-nine-year-old son, Miles, flies up on his snowboard, “he knows he is not in control as he is taken by force up the ramp,” writes his mother, “skewing sideways as his board clips the edge and then he is hurtling, spinning up, up into the free blue sky ahead . . .” He lands hard on the ice and falls into a coma. Thus begins the erratic loss—Miles first in a coma and then trapped in a fluctuating state of minimal consciousness—that unravels over the next five years. Spinney, her husband, and three other children put their lives on hold to tend to Miles at various hospitals and finally in a care home. They hold out hope that he will be returned to them. With blunt precision, Spinney chronicles her family’s intimate experience. And yet, as personal a book as this is, it offers universal meaning, presenting an eloquent and piercing description of what it feels to witness an intimate become unfamiliar. This is a story about ambiguous loss: the disappearance of someone who is still there. Three quarters of the way through, however, Spinney’s story takes a turn. The family and, to the degree that he can communicate, Miles himself come to view ending his life as the only possible release from the prison of his body and mind. Spinney, cutting her last thread of hope, wishes for her son to die. And yet, even as she allows this difficult revelation to settle, she learns that this is not her decision to make. Because Miles is diagnosed as being in a “minimally conscious state” rather than a “persistent vegetative state,” there is no legal way to bring about his death, a bewildering paradox that Spinney navigates with compassion and wisdom. This profound book encompasses the lyrical revelations of a memoir like Jean-Dominique Bauby’s The Diving Bell and the Butterfly as well as the crucial medical and moral insights of a book such as Atul Gawande’s Being Mortal.
£12.34
Catapult Landslide: True Stories
Book Synopsis“Landslide is that rare book that somehow succeeds in being both knowing and open-hearted, both formally sly and emotionally direct. Its timeless subjects—grief, storytelling, the giving up of childish things—are rendered in ways that are as movingly honest as they are probing and unfamiliar. A swift, compelling read.” —Adam Haslett, author of Imagine Me GoneMinna Zallman Proctor's Landslide is a captivating collection of interconnected personal essays. These “true stories” explore the author’s complicated relationship with her mother—who was diagnosed with cancer at age fifty-seven and died fifteen years later—and the ways in which their connection was long the “prime mover” of Proctor’s life, the subtle force coursing beneath her adulthood. As such, these vibrant essays also narrate the trials and triumphs of Proctor’s own life—shifting between America and Italy (and loving “being a foreigner, the constant sense of unfamiliarity that supplanted all of my expectations and disappointments”), her bumpy first marriage, the profound pleasure she takes in motherhood, and the confounding experience of trying to arrange a Jewish burial for her “Jewish, not quite Jewish” mother. Proctor has an integrity and humor that is never extinguished despite life’s mounting difficulties. She also slyly questions her own narrative throughout. “Not having told this story before means I never fixed many details in my memory,” she writes. “[I] have to rely on flashes, the transparent stills that hang in my mind, made of smell, the way the light casts, the wind on skin.” The essays in this book are a sharply intelligent exploration of what happens when death and divorce unmoor you from certainties, and about the unreliable stories we tell ourselves, and others, in order to live.
£12.34
Fulcrum Inc.,US Bass Reeves: Tales of the Talented Tenth, Volume
Book SynopsisTales of the Talented Tenth, Volume One tells the story of Bass Reeves, an escaped slave who became one of the most successful lawman of the old west. Volume I chronicles his life from winning shooting matches in early childhood to traveling with his master, living with Native Americans in Indian Territory, and finally becoming a U.S. Marshal.
£20.66
Amphorae Publishing Group, LLC Without a Second Thought: A Memoir of Life in
Book SynopsisDiane knew nothing about the Spanish Civil War, and the only thing she knew about the dictator Franco was that Alberto, the worldly, successful Spanish engineer she wanted to marry, called him "benevolent." Set in the 1960s and 70s, the adventure of this Spanish/American marriage during the final years of the Franco regime could only be told by someone who lived it. And for the most part loved it. Diane filled her letters home with happy anecdotes about affectionate in-laws, a fascinating language, the Byzantine bureaucracy, and doormen she thought were out to get her. But underneath the comfortable exterior lingered vague images of Franco's police and ghosts of the Civil War—the war no one spoke about, or mentioned only superficially, except for Alberto, who had recounted his harrowing experience as a teenager fleeing the siege of Madrid. It was Alberto's increasingly alarming behavior that made her fear for her marriage, and ultimately made her fear for the safety of her daughters. When she saw no other way out, she dealt with the fear the only way she knew how. The story is told with humor and heartache and an enduring love for Spain.
£15.15
Museyon Guides Inspired!
Book SynopsisDiscover the fascinating true stories behind the world's most famous works of art, literature, music and film, complete with historical images. What real-life hero inspired the literary adventures of the Count of Monte Cristo and the Three Musketeers? How many women paid a steep price for being Picasso's muse? Why did author Conan Doyle dream of murdering his biggest creation, Sherlock Holmes? What force drove George Lucas to create Star Wars? Full of tragedy and humour, the 20 stories included in this book explore the lesser-known facts about the world's most Inspired! lives, from Mata Hari to Salvador Dali, from Bonnie and Clyde to Andy Warhol. 'Inspired!' is an easy-to-read, entertaining book for everyone interested in art, history, film and extraordinary human stories. AUTHOR: Maria Bukhonina is a world traveller, writer and television producer. She is a co-creator and executive producer of the television program Booze Traveler, which explores cultures around the world through their native libations. In this book, Maria continues to explore her favourite subjects of creativity, destiny and the power of human spirit. 60 images
£15.29
Hay House Inc Undefeated: Confessions of a Tibetan Warrior
Book SynopsisThe remarkable memoirs of Paljor Thondup, a Tibetan freedom fighter who was inspired by the Dalai Lama to renounce his duty of blood vengeance, become a peace warrior and conquer the inner enemy.After losing his family in a deadly ambush, Paljor Thondup made the decision to respond not with violence and revenge, but with compassion and forgiveness.The active resistance to the Chinese invasion of Tibet coalesced into a guerrilla army of freedom fighters, the Chushi Gangdruk. In the 1950s, China's Red Army and communist cadres systematically slaughtered hundreds of thousands of Tibetans in Amdo and Kham, seeking to enslave the survivors.Paljor Thondup's diehard Khampa family rose up to repel the invaders. The leaders hated the ongoing heroic raiding by his family, and finally slaughtered them all - only Paljor and his close cousin Dupa survived. Hearing his father's dying wishes, Paljor put down his weapons and changed his life, migrating to India to seek help from the Dalai Lama. Paljor and Dupa then began a modern education, to continue the struggle for Tibet as businessmen.
£17.99
Parallax Press Bent: How Yoga Saved My Ass
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£14.39
Pelican Publishing Company Simon of New Orleans
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£38.25
Robert D. Reed Publishers Teaching School is a Scream!: Confessions of a
Book SynopsisWhat do you do when you don't know what to do?While Teaching School is a Scream! is a helping guidebook designed to fill a desperate need for substitute teachers in school districts all over America, the sound advice inside this work should also help new school teachers, parents, grandparents, homeschoolers, Scout Leaders, Sunday School teachers, and anyone wishing to deal intelligently with school-age children. A second purpose of this book is to alert and educate anyone who wants to earn good/great money without giving up their life. In memoir form, Scream follows the career path of a person unprepared for teaching above the kindergarten level. You will experience the stress, incompetence, joys, successes, and despairs of someone who had to teach since she spent their two sons' college fund on a house with a swimming pool. The Appendix provide concrete ideas for art, music, games, seatwork, rewards, and corrections. An emphasis is devoted to a level-by-level exploration of "What to do when you don't know what to do." In spite of the title, the author finds better ways to deal with her students in lieu of screaming. She discovers "diffusion" and develops many techniques which she shares in detail. Every school district should have copies of Teaching School is a Scream! readily available for teachers and subs. This gave me a "shot in the arm" of enthusiasm and empowerment. It also brought back a lot of wonderful memories. Full of ideas, I can hardly wait to implement them. ~ Estela Ohashi, Substitute Teacher since 1996 This engaging book is filled with Judy Woods-Knight's wisdom born of experience and practical ideas coupled with emphases on the importance of humor and above all, a genuine desire to serve young minds in need of the best any teacher can deliver. ~ Gail C. Ferguson Psychologist, Author of Cracking the Intuition CodeMemoir/Education/Self-HelpTrade ReviewEvery school district should have copies of Teaching School is a Scream! readily available for teachers and subs. This gave me a shot in the arm of enthusiasm and empowerment. It also brought back a lot of wonderful memories. Full of ideas, I can hardly wait to implement them. -- Estela Ohashi, Substitute Teacher since 1996This engaging book is filled with Judy Woods-Knights wisdom born of experience and practical ideas coupled with emphases on the importance of humor and above all, a genuine desire to serve young minds in need of the best any teacher can deliver. -- Gail C Ferguson Psychologist, Author of Cracking the Intuition Code
£11.35
Robert D. Reed Publishers Degree of Normal: A Woman's Journey Out of
Book SynopsisAt her mother's funeral, Jocelyn makes a startling discovery—she has an aunt, her mother's sister. Not only does this woman offer college-student Jocelyn much needed employment, but Aunt Paula holds the key to unlocking family secrets, secrets Jocelyn needs to confront.With the help of her best friend Alex, Jocelyn begins a journey of knocking down inner walls she has erected from years of abuse. The question is—will those broken walls free her or bury her? And what about this new-found aunt, a restaurateur/artist who signs her paintings "Charlie"?In this psychological novel, enter the world of trauma survival through dissociation and redemption through love and courage. This mental health issue (Dissociative Identity Disorder) is complex and a difficult topic to undertake in a fictional book. I applaud the author for taking on this subject. ~ Dr. Debra Johnson, MDTrade ReviewThis mental health issue (Dissociative Identity Disorder) is complex and a difficult topic to undertake in a fictional book. I applaud the author for taking on this subject. -- Dr Debra Johnson, MD
£14.20
Amberjack Publishing Company Life Detonated: The True Story of a Widow and a
Book Synopsis"A raw, somber emotional journey that concludes with hope and a measure of forgiveness." - Kirkus Reviews The gripping true story of Kathleen Murray, a young mother whose life was changed on September 11, 1976 when her husband, Brian Murray, a NYPD bomb disposal expert, was killed by a terrorist's bomb. It details her childhood in the Bronx, her journey out of poverty with Brian's help, and her own determination to take care of her two young sons after Brian's death. While Kathleen heals, she launches a lawsuit against the city of New York to find out the real reason the bomb exploded, and at the same time begins a relationship through letters with one of the hijackers, Julie Busic. All the while, Kathleen becomes one of the founders of Survivors of the Shield, a group that advocates for and provides support and assistance to the spouses and children of New York City police officers killed in the line of duty.
£21.24
Univ of Louisiana at Lafayette Jean Laffite Revealed: Unraveling One of
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£999.99
Apollo Publishers Raised a Warrior: A Memoir of Soccer, Grit, and
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£17.99
Catapult Before and After the Book Deal: A Writer's Guide
Book SynopsisEverything you’ve ever wanted to know about publishing but were too afraid to ask is right here in this funny, candid guide written by an acclaimed authorThere are countless books on the market about how to write better but very few books on how to break into the marketplace with your first book. Cutting through the noise (and very mixed advice) online, while both dispelling rumors and remaining positive, Courtney Maum's Before and After the Book Deal is a one–of–a–kind resource that can help you get your book published.Before and After the Book Deal: A Writer's Guide to Finishing, Publishing, Promoting, and Surviving Your First Book has over 150 contributors from all walks of the industry, including international bestselling authors Anthony Doerr, Roxane Gay, Garth Greenwell, Lisa Ko, R. O. Kwon, Rebecca Makkai, and Ottessa Moshfegh, alongside cult favorites Sarah Gerard, Melissa Febos, Mitchell S. Jackson, and Mira Jacob.Agents, film scouts, film producers, translators, disability and minority activists, and power agents and editors also weigh in, offering advice and sharing intimate anecdotes about even the most taboo topics in the industry. Their wisdom will help aspiring authors find a foothold in the publishing world and navigate the challenges of life before and after publication with sanity and grace.Are MFA programs worth the time and money? How do people actually sit down and finish a novel? Did you get a good advance? What do you do when you feel envious of other writers? And why the heck aren’t your friends saying anything about your book? Covering questions ranging from the logistical to the existential (and everything in between), Before and After the Book Deal is the definitive guide for anyone who has ever wanted to know what it’s really like to be an author.
£12.99
Catapult Love Is an Ex-Country: A Memoir
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£20.80
Belt Publishing A Pandemic in Residence: Essays from a Detroit
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£14.41
Wisdom Editions This Sucks!: I Want to Live
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£13.00
Belt Publishing Arab Indianapolis
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£25.50
