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The Hairy Hikers: A Coast-to-Coast Trek Along the French Pyrenees
by David Le VayFuelled by a mid-life crisis and the need to escape modern life, David and Rob set out to walk from the Atlantic to the Mediterranean. This humorous and often poignant account of their coast-to-coast trek along the French Pyrenees, reveals the history and geography along the way and will appeal to all walkers and admirers of human endeavour.
The Hairy Hikers: A Coast-to-Coast Trek Along the French Pyrenees
by David Le VayFuelled by a mid-life crisis and the need to escape modern life, David and Rob set out to walk from the Atlantic to the Mediterranean. This humorous and often poignant account of their coast-to-coast trek along the French Pyrenees, reveals the history and geography along the way and will appeal to all walkers and admirers of human endeavour.
Facing the Yorkshire Ripper: The Art of Survival
by Mo LeaDecades after her brutal attack by the notorious serial killer, an artist tells her story of survival and recovery in this uplifting memoir.Mo Lea was a young art student in Leeds when her life was changed forever by a deadly assault. On October 25th, 1980, serial killer Peter Sutcliffe attacked her with a hammer and stabbed her with a screwdriver. Surviving with a fractured skull and PTSD, Mo spent years wrestling with a morbid narrative that cast her as a victim. Now Mo offers a fresh perspective on her life, sharing valuable insight into her successful recovery process. While art had always been important to her, it became a vital outlet for exploring her pain, her anger, and her ultimate triumph over them. Drawing a meticulous portrait of Sutcliffe, she then found catharsis in tearing it to bits—ripping up the Ripper.In candid words and stirring illustrations, Mo reclaims her own story, telling of her journey from tragic despair to calmness and acceptance.
Wondering Who You Are: A Memoir
by Sonya LeaIn exploring her husband's traumatic brain injury and loss of memory, Sonya Lea has written a memoir that is both a powerful look at perseverance in the face of trauma and a surprising exploration into what lies beyond our fragile identities. In the twenty-third year of their marriage, Sonya Lea's husband, Richard, went in for surgery to treat a rare appendix cancer. When he came out, he had no recollection of their life together: how they met, their wedding day, the births of their two children. All of it was gone, along with the rockier parts of their past--her drinking, his anger. Richard could now hardly speak, emote, or create memories from moment to moment. Who he'd been no longer was. Wondering Who You Are braids the story of Sonya and Richard's relationship, those memories that he could no longer conjure, together with his fateful days in the hospital--the internal bleeding, the near-death experience, and eventual traumatic brain injury. It follows the couple through his recovery as they struggle with his treatment, and through a marriage no longer grounded on decades of shared experience. As they build a fresh life together, as Richard develops a new personality, Sonya is forced to question her own assumptions, beliefs, and desires, her place in the marriage and her way of being in the world. With radical candor and honesty, Sonya Lea has written a memoir that is both a powerful look at perseverance in the face of trauma and a surprising exploration into what lies beyond our fragile identities.
The Wonderful Country: A Novel (The\texas Tradition Ser. #No. 33)
by Tom LeaOriginally published in 1952, Tom Lea’s The Wonderful Country opens as mejicano pistolero Martín Bredi is returning to El Puerto (El Paso) after a fourteen-year absence. Bredi carries a gun for the Chihuahuan warlord Cipriano Castro and is on Castro’s business in Texas. Fourteen years earlier—shortly after the end of the Civil War—when he was the boy Martin Brady, he killed the man who murdered his father and fled to Mexico where he became Martín Bredi.Back in Texas Brady breaks a leg; then he falls in love with a married woman while recuperating; and, finally, to right another wrong, he kills a man. When Brady/Bredi returns to Mexico, the Castros distrust him as an American. He becomes a man without a country.The Wonderful Country clearly depicts life along the Texas-Mexico border of a century-and-a-half ago, when Texas and Mexico were being settled and tamed.
Chasing Utopia: The Future of the Kibbutz in a Divided Israel
by David LeachA fascinating, non-partisan exploration of an incendiary regionSay the word “Israel” today and it sparks images of walls and rockets and a bloody conflict without end. Yet for decades, the symbol of the Jewish State was the noble pioneer draining the swamps and making the deserts bloom: the legendary kibbutznik. So what ever happened to the pioneers’ dream of founding a socialist utopia in the land called Palestine?Chasing Utopia: The Future of the Kibbutz in a Divided Israel draws readers into the quest for answers to the defining political conflict of our era. Acclaimed author David Leach revisits his raucous memories of life as a kibbutz volunteer and returns to meet a new generation of Jewish and Arab citizens struggling to forge a better future together. Crisscrossing the nation, Leach chronicles the controversial decline of Israel’s kibbutz movement and witnesses a renaissance of the original vision for a peaceable utopia in unexpected corners of the Promised Land. Chasing Utopia is an entertaining and enlightening portrait of a divided nation where hope persists against the odds.
The Films of Denys Arcand (Global Film Directors)
by Jim LeachDenys Arcand is best known outside Canada for three films that were nominated for Academy Awards for Best Foreign-Language Film: The Decline of the American Empire (1986), Jesus of Montreal (1989), and The Barbarian Invasions (2003), the last of which won the Award. Yet Arcand has been making films since the early 1960s. When he started making films, Quebec was rapidly transforming from a relatively homogeneous community, united by its Catholic faith and French language and culture, into a more fragmented modern society. The Films of Denys Arcand sheds light on how Arcand addressed the impact of these changes from the 1960s, when the long-drawn-out debate on Quebec's possible separation from the rest of Canada began, to the present, in which the traditional cultural heritage has been further fragmented by the increasing presence of diasporic communities. His career and films offer an ideal case study for exploring the contradictions and tensions that have shaped Quebec cinema and culture in a period of increasing globalization and technological change.
In the Shadow of the Dreamchild: The Myth and Reality of Lewis Carroll
by Karoline LeachA revolutionary and much-acclaimed study of the work and motives of the Alice In Wonderland authorThis is the most significant biographical work on the author of Alice In Wonderland to be published in recent years, and this new edition marks the 150th anniversary of the publication of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. Karoline Leach's study contends that Carroll was far from being emotionally--and sexually--obsessed with female children and his "muse" Alice Liddell. She tells the strange story of how the false image of Carroll came into being and how he adored--and was adored by--women of all ages and enjoyed adult relationships that woud have scandalized the Victorian age in which he lived. The author gained access to unpublished evidence from the family archive, as well as letters and diaries, that led her to uncover Carroll's secret passion for another member of "Alice's" family. In The Shadow of The Dreamchild is a radical re-evaluation of the life and work of one of England's most mysterious literary figures, and the revised edition expands on Leach's important research.
Lives in Limbo: Voices of Refugees Under Temporary Protection
by Michael Leach Fethi MansouriIn this book, 35 refugees, all temporary protection visa (TPV) holders and mostly from Iraq and Afghanistan, talk directly about their quest for asylum in Australia. They provide poignant details of persecution in their home country, their journey to Australia, prolonged periods of mandatory detention, and life under Australia's controversial temporary protection regime.
Sam Steele: An Officer and a Gentleman
by Norman S. LeachA GLOBE AND MAIL BESTSELLER Had there been no Sam Steele, it has been observed, Hollywood would have had to invent him. Born into the comparative stability of the Victorian era's Pax Britannica, Steele lived to witness the postwar turmoil of the Lost Generation. From humble beginnings in what is now Bracebridge, Ontario, to his knighthood in England two years before his death in 1919, Steele's life epitomized the themes of personal adventure, service to crown and country, and the zeal for modernization and social order that characterized nineteenth-century Canada within the British Empire. Steele's long and storied career threaded through many pivotal moments in Canada’s settlement and development history: the Fenian raids, the expansion of law and order (on horseback and sporting red serge) across the North-West Territories, the exile of Sitting Bull into Canada, the construction of the national railway that welded together the nation, Riel's Rebellion, the Klondike Gold Rush and opening of the North, the Boer War, and the Canada's coming of age during the First World War.
The Riverton Rifle
by Reggie Leach Bobby Clarke"It all comes down to making the right life choices," says the NHL's legendary Reggie Leach, and this intimate biography lays bare the decisions that led him to become one of the best snipers in hockey history. Nicknamed the Riverton Rifle for his thrilling speed and deadly shooting skills, Leach overcame a childhood marked by poverty and racism to rise through the NHL, playing for the Stanley Cup-winning 1975 Philadelphia Flyers. Through Leach's own recollections, The Riverton Rifle traces his trajectory from humble beginnings to NHL stardom, and follows the dramatic fall caused by his drinking problem and his subsequent rebirth as a successful businessman, family man, and pillar of the Aboriginal community.
Before & After: Living and Eating Well After Weight-Loss Surgery
by Susan Maria LeachAt 278 pounds, Susan Maria Leach couldn't lie in bed without gasping for air, wasn't able to fit into a restaurant booth, and could barely buckle the belt in an airplane seat. It would have been easier to allow life to pass her by than to continue fighting her weight problem, but she made the difficult decision to take back control. In 2001, Susan underwent gastric bypass surgery and started on a journey that would not only cut her body weight in half but would change her life. Before & After is both a memoir and a cookbook—an intimate account of Leach's own transformation as well as a guide for those who have undergone or are considering the procedure. As Leach has learned in the six years since her operation, weight-loss surgery is not an event with a finish line or a goal weight—it is the beginning of a new way of life.This edition of Before & After has been updated with all that Leach has learned on her post-op journey. It includes a foreword by Leach's surgeon, advice from a nutritionist, answers to more frequently asked questions about weight-loss surgery, a whole chapter on meal plans for different post-operative stages, suggested menus for early food stages, additional questions and answers affecting longer-term post-ops, and new information about products that have entered the marketplace. Most notably, this edition showcases a wealth of new recipes that utilize the latest in light and healthy ingredients for smart and savory results, including everything from Asian Meatballs with Peanut Sauce and Turkey Tenderloin with Apple Chipotle Chutney to sugar-free Pistachio Gelato and Lemon Almond Sponge Cake. Each recipe makes about four servings, but includes a measured serving for WLS people along with a calorie/carb/fat/protein count. Leach has recipes for every step of the way, from tastes-like-the-real-thing milk shakes for those first post-op days to an entire Thanksgiving menu.Before & After is a journal of Leach's own inspirational story, where she shares her ups and downs, her tips and techniques, but mostly it's a book of hope for anyone who has a serious weight problem.
Cloris: My Autobiography
by Cloris LeachmanShe received two Emmy Awards as the irrepressible Phyllis on The Mary Tyler Moor Show. . .she won an Oscar for her supporting role as a frustrated housewife in The Last Picture Show. . .she delighted audiences with her deliciously villainous turns as Frau Blucher in Young Frankenstein and Nurse Diesel in High Anxiety. . .and she earned even more award nominations playing a hard-drinking grandmother in Spanglish.Now, for the first time, the incomparable Cloris Leachman reflects on her amazing life and illustrious career. . .From her hometown in Des Moines, Iowa, (where she first saw Katharine Hepburn perform on stage, never imagining they would one day do Shakespeare together) to the bright lights of Broadway and the television studios of L.A., Cloris's journey has been filled with laughter and tears, marriage and motherhood, tragedy and triumph. Along the way, she shares wonderfully revealing anecdotes about Marlon Brando, Meryl Streep, Dianne Keaton, Sissy Spacek, Paul Newman, Steve McQueen, the Kennedy family, and many more. Funny, frank, brilliant, and altogether human, this is the real Cloris Leachman as you've never seen her before.Sparkling praise for Cloris!"Funny, gimlet-eyed and unpretentious--someone get this woman a talk show." --Kirkus Reviews"She lives what she preaches." --Library Journal
Galerius and the Will of Diocletian (Roman Imperial Biographies)
by William Lewis LeadbetterDrawing from a variety of sources - literary, visual, archaeological; papyri, inscriptions and coins – the author studies the nature of Diocletian’s imperial strategy, his wars, his religious views and his abdication. The author also examines Galerius’ endeavour to take control of Diocletian’s empire, his failures and successes, against the backdrop of Constantine’s remorseless drive to power. The first comprehensive study of the Emperor Galerius, this book offers an innovative analysis of his reign as both Caesar and Augustus, using his changing relationship with Diocletian as the principal key to unlock the complex imperial politics of the period.
The Life of Kingsley Amis
by Zachary LeaderThis comprehensive biography of British comic novelist Kingsley Amis (1922-1995) draws on interviews with those who knew him, his fiction and poetry, memoirs, and letters to describe his life. Leader (English literature, U. of Roehampton, UK) uses six themes to construct the narrative: the influence of his early upbringing, aggression in his character and writings, his energy, his sense of writing as craft or profession, his issues with distinctions between high and low culture and love of popular forms, and his obsession with egotism, selfishness, and inconsiderateness. He also discusses his writing methods and the relationship of his writings to his contemporaries. Annotation ©2007 Book News, Inc. , Portland, OR (booknews. com)
The Life of Saul Bellow
by Zachary LeaderFor much of his adult life, Saul Bellow was the most acclaimed novelist in America, the winner of, among other awards, the Nobel Prize in Literature, three National Book Awards, and the Pulitzer Prize. The Life of Saul Bellow, by the literary scholar and biographer Zachary Leader, marks the centenary of Bellow's birth as well as the tenth anniversary of his death. It draws on unprecedented access to Bellow's papers, including much previously restricted material, as well as interviews with more than 150 of the novelist's relatives, close friends, colleagues, and lovers, a number of whom have never spoken to researchers before. Through detailed exploration of Bellow's writings, and the private history that informed them, Leader chronicles a singular life in letters, offering original and nuanced accounts not only of the novelist's development and rise to eminence, but of his many identities--as writer, polemicist, husband, father, Chicagoan, Jew, American. The biography will be published in two volumes. The first volume, To Fame and Fortune: 1915-1964, traces Bellow's Russian roots; his birth and early childhood in Quebec; his years in Chicago; his travels in Mexico, Europe, and Israel; the first three of his five marriages; and the novels from Dangling Man and The Adventures of Augie March to the best-selling Herzog. New light is shed on Bellow's fellow writers, including Ralph Ellison, John Berryman, Lionel Trilling, and Philip Roth, and on his turbulent and influential life away from the desk, which was as full of incident as his fiction. Bellow emerges as a compelling character, and Leader's powerful accounts of his writings, published and unpublished, forward the case for his being, as the critic James Wood puts it, "the greatest of American prose stylists in the twentieth century."
The Life of Saul Bellow: To Fame and Fortune, 1915-1964
by Zachary LeaderFor much of his adult life, Saul Bellow was the most acclaimed novelist in America, the winner of, among other awards, the Nobel Prize in Literature, three National Book Awards, and the Pulitzer Prize. The Life of Saul Bellow, by the literary scholar and biographer Zachary Leader, marks the centenary of Bellow's birth as well as the tenth anniversary of his death. It draws on unprecedented access to Bellow's papers, including much previously restricted material, as well as interviews with more than 150 of the novelist's relatives, close friends, colleagues, and lovers, a number of whom have never spoken to researchers before. Through detailed exploration of Bellow's writings, and the private history that informed them, Leader chronicles a singular life in letters, offering original and nuanced accounts not only of the novelist's development and rise to eminence, but of his many identities--as writer, polemicist, husband, father, Chicagoan, Jew, American. The biography will be published in two volumes. The first volume, To Fame and Fortune: 1915-1964, traces Bellow's Russian roots; his birth and early childhood in Quebec; his years in Chicago; his travels in Mexico, Europe, and Israel; the first three of his five marriages; and the novels from Dangling Man and The Adventures of Augie March to the best-selling Herzog. New light is shed on Bellow's fellow writers, including Ralph Ellison, John Berryman, Lionel Trilling, and Philip Roth, and on his turbulent and influential life away from the desk, which was as full of incident as his fiction. Bellow emerges as a compelling character, and Leader's powerful accounts of his writings, published and unpublished, forward the case for his being, as the critic James Wood puts it, "the greatest of American prose stylists in the twentieth century."
The Life of Saul Bellow: Love and Strife, 1965-2005
by Zachary LeaderWhen this second volume of The Life of Saul Bellow opens, Bellow, at forty-nine, is at the pinnacle of American letters - rich, famous, critically acclaimed. The expected trajectory is one of decline: volume 1, rise; volume 2, fall. Bellow never fell, producing some of his greatest fiction (Mr Sammler's Planet, Humboldt's Gift, all his best stories), winning two more National Book Awards, a Pulitzer Prize, and the Nobel Prize. At eighty, he wrote his last story; at eighty-five, he wrote Ravelstein. In this volume, his life away from the desk, including his love life, is if anything more dramatic than in volume 1. In the public sphere, he is embroiled in controversy over foreign affairs, race, religion, education, social policy, the state of culture, the fate of the novel. Bellow's relations with women were often fraught. In the 1960s he was compulsively promiscuous (even as he inveighed against sexual liberation). The women he pursued, the ones he married and those with whom he had affairs, were intelligent, attractive and strong-willed. At eighty-five he fathered his fourth child, a daughter, with his fifth wife. His three sons, whom he loved, could be as volatile as he was, and their relations with their father were often troubled.Although an early and engaged supporter of civil rights, in the second half of his life Bellow was angered by the excesses of Black Power. An opponent of cultural relativism, he exercised great influence in literary and intellectual circles, advising a host of institutes and foundations, helping those he approved of, hindering those of whom he disapproved. In making his case, he could be cutting and rude; he could also be charming, loyal, and funny. Bellow's heroic energy and will are clear to the very end of his life. His immense achievement and its cost, to himself and others, are also clear.
Kiss: The Official Authorized Biography
by David Leaf Ken SharpWith unprecedented access to all four members of KISS-including their private archive of 30 years of photographs-here is the complete story of one of the most influential hard rock bands of all time. Dressed like leather-clad rock 'n' roll warriors from another planet and adorned in colorful greasepaint, KISS has sold more than 80 million albums and transfixed audiences around the world. In this shockingly revealing and comprehensive biography, the group unveils all the previously untold details of their struggling birth in New York City, to the breakthrough success of their seminal 1975 album, Alive!, to the triumphant reunion that propelled them right back to the highest ranks of music superstardom.
The Art of Perception: Memoirs of a Life in PR
by Robert LeafRobert Leaf is the father of modern international public relations and this is the memoir of a man who has been at the forefront of the PR industry for almost 50 years The Art of Perception is the memoir of Robert Leaf, the man who is considered to be the all-time leader in the field of international public relations. As the international CEO of Burson-Marsteller, which became the world's largest PR firm during his tenure, he was the first executive to bring PR to the Soviet Union during the Cold War and established the first official Chinese government PR firm. He started the first international PR firm in the Middle East and opened offices throughout the world. He has advised governments, major corporations, and leading individuals, and has been involved in some of the biggest news stories of the time. Now, in a changing world of 24-hour news cycles in which global disasters are shared on the most personal levels and events make it from smartphone to headline news in seconds, the need to manage perceptions has never been more essential for corporations and individuals. In a memoir that is as entertaining as it is informative, Leaf shares his unique experiences in a book that is essential reading for communicators, business professionals, and anyone who would like to improve their skills in the art of managing perceptions.
Minnesota's Geologist: The Life of Newton Horace Winchell
by Sue LeafThe story of the scientist who first mapped Minnesota&’s geology, set against the backdrop of early scientific inquiry in the state At twenty, Newton Horace Winchell declared, &“I know nothing about rocks.&” At twenty-five, he decided to make them his life&’s work. As a young geologist tasked with heading the Minnesota Geological and Natural History Survey, Winchell (1839–1914) charted the prehistory of the region, its era of inland seas, its volcanic activity, and its several ice ages—laying the foundation for the monumental five-volume Geology of Minnesota. Tracing Winchell&’s remarkable path from impoverished fifteen-year-old schoolteacher to a leading light of an emerging scientific field, Minnesota&’s Geologist also recreates the heady early days of scientific inquiry in Minnesota, a time when one man&’s determination and passion for learning could unlock the secrets of the state&’s distant past and present landscape.Traveling by horse and cart, by sailboat and birchbark canoe, Winchell and his group surveyed rock outcrops, river valleys, basalt formations on Lake Superior, and the vast Red River Valley. He studied petrology at the Sorbonne in Paris, bringing cutting-edge knowledge to bear on the volcanic rocks of the Arrowhead region. As a founder of the American Geological Society and founding editor of American Geologist, the first journal for professional geologists, Winchell was the driving force behind scientific endeavor in early state history, serving as mentor to many young scientists and presiding over a household—the Winchell House, located on the University of Minnesota&’s present-day mall—that was a nexus of intellectual ferment. His life story, told here for the first time, draws an intimate picture of this influential scientist, set against a backdrop of Minnesota&’s geological complexity and splendor.
Portage
by Sue LeafWhen as a child she first saw a canoe gliding on Lake Alexander in central Minnesota, Sue Leaf was mesmerized. The enchantment stayed with her and shimmers throughout this book as we join Leaf and her family in canoeing the waterways of North America, always on the lookout for the good life amid the splendors and surprises of the natural world.The journey begins with a trip to the border lakes of the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness, then wanders into the many beautiful little rivers of Minnesota and Wisconsin, the provincial parks of Canada, the Louisiana bayou, and the arid West. A biologist and birder, Leaf considers natural history and geology, noticing which plants are growing along the water and which birds are flitting among the branches. Traveling the routes of the Ojibwe, voyageurs, and map-making explorers, she reflects on the region's history, peopling her pages with Lewis and Clark, Jean Lafitte, Henry Schoolcraft, and Canada's Group of Seven artists. Part travelogue, part natural and cultural history, Portage is the memoir of one family's thirty-five-year venture into the watery expanse of the world. Through sunny days and stormy hours and a few hair-raising moments, Sue and her husband, Tom, celebrate anniversaries on the water; haul their four kids along on family adventures; and occasionally make the paddle a social outing with friends. Along the way they contend with their own human nature: they run rapids when it would have been wiser to portage, take portages and learn truths about aging, avoid portages and ponder risk-taking. Through it all, out in the open, in the wild, in the blue, exploring the river means encountering life--good decisions and missed chances, risks and surprises, and the inevitable changes that occur as a family canoes through time and learns what it means to be human in this natural world.
Dirty River: A Queer Femme of Color Dreaming Her Way Home
by Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-SamarasinhaIn 1996, poet Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha ran away from America with two backpacks and ended up in Canada, where she discovered queer anarchopunk love and revolution, yet remained haunted by the reasons she left home in the first place. This passionate and riveting memoir is a mixtape of dreams and nightmares, of immigration court lineups and queer South Asian dance nights; it reveals how a disabled queer woman of color and abuse survivor navigates the dirty river of the past and, as the subtitle suggests, "dreams her way home."Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha's poetry book Love Cake won a Lambda Literary Award.
Elizabeth I: Collected Works
by Leah S. Marcus, Janel Mueller, and Mary Beth RoseThis long-awaited and masterfully edited volume contains nearly all of the writings of Queen Elizabeth I: the clumsy letters of childhood, the early speeches of a fledgling queen, and the prayers and poetry of the monarch's later years. The first collection of its kind, Elizabeth I reveals brilliance on two counts: that of the Queen, a dazzling writer and a leading intellect of the English Renaissance, and that of the editors, whose copious annotations make the book not only essential to scholars but accessible to general readers as well. "This collection shines a light onto the character and experience of one of the most interesting of monarchs. . . . We are likely never to get a closer or clearer look at her. An intriguing and intense portrait of a woman who figures so importantly in the birth of our modern world."—Publishers Weekly "An admirable scholarly edition of the queen's literary output. . . . This anthology will excite scholars of Elizabethan history, but there is something here for all of us who revel in the English language."—John Cooper, Washington Times "Substantial, scholarly, but accessible. . . . An invaluable work of reference."—Patrick Collinson, London Review of Books "In a single extraordinary volume . . . Marcus and her coeditors have collected the Virgin Queen's letters, speeches, poems and prayers. . . . An impressive, heavily footnoted volume."—Library Journal "This excellent anthology of [Elizabeth's] speeches, poems, prayers and letters demonstrates her virtuosity and afford the reader a penetrating insight into her 'wiles and understandings.'"—Anne Somerset, New Statesman "Here then is the only trustworthy collection of the various genres of Elizabeth's writings. . . . A fine edition which will be indispensable to all those interested in Elizabeth I and her reign."—Susan Doran, History "In the torrent of words about her, the queen's own words have been hard to find. . . . [This] volume is a major scholarly achievement that makes Elizabeth's mind much more accessible than before. . . . A veritable feast of material in different genres."—David Norbrook, The New Republic