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Worm: A Cuban American Odyssey
by Edel RodriguezFrom “America’s illustrator in chief” (Fast Company), a stunning graphic memoir of a childhood in Cuba, coming to America on the Mariel boatlift, and a defense of democracy, here and thereHailed for his iconic art on the cover of Time and on jumbotrons around the world, Edel Rodriguez is among the most prominent political artists of our age. Now for the first time, he draws his own life, revisiting his childhood in Cuba and his family’s passage on the infamous Mariel boatlift.When Edel was nine, Fidel Castro announced his surprising decision to let 125,000 traitors of the revolution, or “worms,” leave the country. The faltering economy and Edel’s family’s vocal discomfort with government surveillance had made their daily lives on a farm outside Havana precarious, and they secretly planned to leave. But before that happened, a dozen soldiers confiscated their home and property and imprisoned them in a detention center near the port of Mariel, where they were held with dissidents and criminals before being marched to a flotilla that miraculously deposited them, overnight, in Florida.Through vivid, stirring art, Worm tells a story of a boyhood in the midst of the Cold War, a family’s displacement in exile, and their tenacious longing for those they left behind. It also recounts the coming-of-age of an artist and activist, who, witnessing American’s turn from democracy to extremism, struggles to differentiate his adoptive country from the dictatorship he fled. Confronting questions of patriotism and the liminal nature of belonging, Edel Rodriguez ultimately celebrates the immigrants, maligned and overlooked, who guard and invigorate American freedom.
Worthy
by Jada Pinkett Smith**Time magazine most anticipated books of 2023** **Parade magazine must-read books by celebrities 2023**"I went through so many emotions reading this book. Reconnecting to one's ancestors and truly feeling, not only hearing, their stories are fertile ground for true ecstatic embodiment of the self. We have to know where we've been to see where we're going." -Will Smith"[Smith] is candid and honest... For the first time she reveals the truth behind [the] happy images. An incredible read." -Hoda Kotb, The Today ShowA gripping, at times painfully honest, and ultimately inspirational memoir from global superstar and creator of the Red Table Talk series Jada Pinkett Smith. Jada Pinkett Smith was living what many would view as a fairy-tale of Hollywood success. But appearances can be deceiving, and as she felt more and more separated from her sense of self, emotional turmoil took hold. Sparing no detail, Worthy chronicles her life—from a rebellious youth running the Baltimore streets as an observer and participant in the drug trade, to the deep bond she shared with Tupac Shakur from the moment they met, to her move to Los Angeles and the successful career she built on her own terms, to becoming the wife of superstar Will Smith and mother to Jaden, Willow and bonus-mom to Trey . A rollercoaster from the depths of suicidal depression to the heights of self-acceptance and spiritual healing, Worthy is a woman’s journey to finding herself again. In a media driven landscape that crafts narratives for our celebrities, Smith shares herself in an intimate conversation with readers. She answers questions about her difficult childhood, her marriage, her parenting style, her career choices, and the intense scrutiny that followed “the slap.” An impactful and rare memoir that engages and educates, Worthy shows why adhering to the status quo has never been the plan for Jada Pinkett Smith and why labels and stories crafted by others strip women of their authenticity. Worthy teaches us who Jada is, and how to embrace our most lovable qualities. Complete with thought-provoking writing prompts and meditations on how to discover who we really are and nourish our self-worth.
Wound: A Novel
by Oksana VasyakinaFor fans of Maggie Nelson and Eileen Myles, the lyrical and deeply moving story of a young queer woman&’s journey across Russia to inter her mother&’s ashes and to understand her sexuality, femininity, and griefFrom one of Russia&’s most exciting new voices, Wound follows a young lesbian poet on a journey from Moscow to her hometown in Siberia, where she has promised to bury her mother&’s ashes. Woven throughout this fascinating travel narrative are harrowing and at times sublime memories of her childhood and her sexual and artistic awakening. As she carefully documents her grief and interrogates her past, the narrator of Oksana Vasyakina&’s autobiographical novel meditates on queerness, death, and love and finds new words for understanding her relationship with her mother, her country, her sexuality, and her identity as an artist.A sensual, whip-smart account of the complicated dynamics of queer life in present-day Siberia and Moscow, Wound is also in conversation with feminist thinkers and artists, including Susan Sontag, Louise Bourgeois, and Monique Wittig, locating Vasyakina&’s work in a rich and exciting international literary tradition.
The Wreck: A Daughter's Memoir of Becoming a Mother
by Cassandra JacksonEqual parts investigative and deeply introspective, The Wreck is a profound memoir about recognizing the echoes of history within ourselves, and the alchemy of turning inherited grief into renewal.There is a secret that young Cassandra Jackson doesn&’t know, and it&’s evident in the way her father cries her name out in his sleep. Through awkward encounters with family, she comes to realize that she is named after her father's niece, and looks eerily like the child&’s mother, both of whom were killed in a car wreck along with her father's beloved mother, and—as she soon discovers—his first wife. Cassandra learns to keep silent about the wreck, but soon learns there is no way to outpace the claw-like grip of her family&’s past trauma.In this luminous memoir, Jackson attempts to unearth her lost family, while also creating a new one--only to discover little progress separates the past from the present. As she moves back and forth between her girlhood and her journey to motherhood, Jackson reveals the chilling parallels between the harrowing inhumanity of Jim Crow medical care and the toxic discrimination that undergirds healthcare in the United States today. But as she traces the cascading effects of loss punctuated by racism, she also discovers a powerful legacy of fearless love and furious perseverance that she hopes to extend to a new generation.Lyrical, urgent, and wise, this is an unforgettable story of reclaiming the past to reclaim ourselves.
Wrecking Crew: Demolishing The Case Against Steven Avery
by John FerakUpdated 5th Anniversary Edition Including Exclusive Interview with Steve Avery In 2016-17, while working for the USA TODAY NETWORK's Wisconsin Investigative Team, author John Ferak wrote dozens of articles examining the murder case against Steven Avery, who had already beaten one wrongful conviction only to be charged again with the murder of Teresa Halbach in 2005. This case captured global attention through the Netflix documentary "Making A Murderer." In this anniversary edition of WRECKING CREW: Demolishing the Case Against Steven Avery, Ferak not only lays out in meticulous detail the post-conviction strategy of Kathleen Zellner, the high-profile, high-octane lawyer fighting to free Avery but also includes a new "Five Years Later" section. This update provides fresh insights and developments in Avery's ongoing legal battle. Additionally, this special edition features an exclusive epilogue: a November 2023 interview with Steven Avery. For this book, Zellner, arguably America's most successful wrongful conviction attorney, granted Ferak unprecedented access to the exhaustive pro bono efforts she and her small suburban Chicago law firm have invested in a man she believes to be wrongfully ensnared by Manitowoc County's unscrupulous justice system. This anniversary edition offers new revelations and a comprehensive look at a case that continues to stir public debate and demand justice.
Writers and Missionaries: Essays on the Radical Imagination
by Adam ShatzWhat does it mean to be a politically committed writer?Through a close reading of the lives and works of some of the greatest intellectuals of recent times, Adam Shatz asks: do writers have an ethical imperative to question injustice? How can one remain a dispassionate thinker when involved in the cut and thrust of politics? And, in an age of horror and crisis, what does it mean to be a committed writer?Shatz interrogates the major figures of twentieth and twenty-first century thought and finds within their lives and work the roots of our present intellectual and geopolitical situation. Charting the role of the committed intellectual through the work of Jean-Paul Sartre on the Algerian War and Edward Said's lifelong solidarity with the Palestinian people, to Fouad Ajami's role as the "native informant" for pro-intervention cause in the lead-up to the invasion of Iraq, alongside philosophers and critics Roland Barthes, Jacques Derrida and Claude Lévi-Strauss and the novelists Michel Houllebecq and Richard Wright, each struggled to reconcile their writing and their politics, their thought and their commitments. Writers and Missionaries is an erudite and incisive work of intellectual elucidation and biographical enquiry that demands that we interrogate anew the relation of thought and action in the struggle for a more just world.
Writing Black Beauty: Anna Sewell, the Creation of a Novel, and the Story of Animal Rights
by Celia BrayfieldThe story of a remarkable woman who wrote a novel that not only became a classic, but also changed the way human society views and treats animals. Born in 1829 to a young Quaker couple, Anna Sewell grew up in poverty in London. She was fourteen when she fell and injured her ankle, which left her permanently disabled. Rejecting the life of a Victorian invalid, she developed an extraordinary empathy with horses, learning to ride side-saddle and to drive a small carriage. Rebellious and independent-minded, Anna suffered periods of severe depression as a young woman. She left the Quaker movement, but remained close friends with the women writers and abolitionists who had been empowered by its liberal principles. It was not until she became terminally ill, aged 51, that she found the courage to write her own book. Tragically, she died just five months after the book was published in 1877. Black Beauty is now recognised as the first anthropomorphic novel, and it had an extraordinary emotional impact on readers of all ages. After modest success in Britain, it was taken up by a charismatic American, George Thorndike Angell, a campaigner against animal cruelty who made it one of the bestselling novels of all time. Using newly discovered archive material, Celia Brayfield shows Anna Sewell developing the extraordinary resilience to overcome her disability, rouse the conscience of Victorian Britain and make her mark upon the world.
The Writing School
by Miranda France'Both extremely funny and deeply sad, The Writing School examines how and why we tell our own stories. It's beautifully written and structured, compelling, wise and fabulously readable' Lissa Evans'The Writing School is an extraordinary book. It is funny, exhilarating, heart-breaking and passionate. Its delicate pulsing themes are held like a bird in the writer's confident, gentle hand' Katharine Norbury'Life, with its unexpected troughs and highs, the disciplines of teaching a creative writing course and the shadow of a family tragedy provide the focus for a memoir that brims with humour, honesty and intelligence. The Writing School taught me a lot' Elizabeth BuchanA creative writing course is a chance for reinvention. When author Miranda France sets off to teach at a residential writing school in a remote valley, she expects to meet a group of aspiring writers with the usual mix of hope and unrealised ambitions, talents and motivation.Tensions are bound to emerge over the course of the week they spend together: personalities will clash, egos will need to be tamed or gently encouraged. What France doesn't expect, as she takes her tutees through a series of exercises designed to help them explore different aspects of their writing, is that a ghost from her own life will join them.As the daily drama of the writing school unfurls, so memories resurface concerning a death that profoundly shaped the author's world when she was a teenager. Soon France's memories interweave with her present task of thinking about writing and storytelling, and she too becomes a student: asking, what is to be done with our memories of those we have lost? What is behind the urge to put lives into words? And is it ever right to tell another person's story?A delightful and unusual blend of storytelling and memoir, packed full of literary anecdote and insight from the author's own experience as well as that of other writers and poets, The Writing School is a moving and often very funny book about why people write, as well as being a uniquely generous masterclass on the art of writing itself.
Wyoming Peace Officer: An Autobiography
by Joe LeForsJoseph “Joe” S. LeFors was a U.S. Deputy Marshal who pursued several train robbers and other outlaws in the northwest.Born in Paris, Texas, in 1865, LeFors grew up to be a cowboy, and after driving a herd to Wyoming in 1885, he stayed there. Later he would become an inspector-detective responsible for tracking stolen cattle in Wyoming and Montana. In the process, he was involved in several gunfights. In 1899, he rode with a posse sent to capture those responsible for the Willcox Train Robbery and was appointed as a U.S. Deputy Marshal the same year. In this capacity, he pursued several train robbers and other outlaws in the northwest.In 1901, he became famous for arresting and documenting a confession from the former lawman turned hired killer, Tom Horn. Horn was later tried and sentenced to death. and hanged. In 1902, Lefors allegedly worked for the Iron Mountain Ranch Company in Helena, Montana, to infiltrate a gang of cattle rustlers. However, he was unsuccessful in aiding the gang and was fired in 1904.Afterward, little is known about his life other than he died on October 1, 1940, and is buried in the Willow Grove Cemetery in Buffalo, Wyoming.-Kathy Alexander.
X Platoon
by Steve Heaney, MC Damien LewisFor three decades one of the most secretive units in the British military has been a mystery force known as X Platoon.Officially there was no X Platoon. The forty men in its elite number were specially selected from across the Armed Forces, at which point they simply ceased to exist. X Platoon had no budget, no weaponry, no vehicles and no kit - apart from what its men could beg, borrow or steal from other military units.For the first time a highly decorated veteran of this specialised force - otherwise known as the Pathfinders - reveals its unique story. Steve Heaney became one of the youngest ever to pass Selection, the gruelling trial of elite forces, and was at the cutting edge of X Platoon operations - serving on anti-narcotics operations in the Central American jungles, on missions hunting war criminals in the Balkans, and being sent to spy on and wage war against the Russians.The first non-officer in the unit's history to be award the Military Cross, Steve Heaney reveals the extraordinary work undertaken by this secret band of brothers.
XOXO, Cody: An Opinionated Homosexual's Guide to Self-Love, Relationships, and Tactful Pettiness
by Cody RigsbyThe beloved Peloton instructor chronicles his journey from small-town North Carolina to New York City stardom in an empowering story that reveals his secret to success: not taking yourself-or life-too seriously.Cody Rigsby has a lot of opinions: Kevin is the hottest Backstreet Boy; grape jelly is a crime against nature; if you wear flip-flops in New York City, you do not love yourself. But if there is one opinion-one truth-that he holds above all others, it's that we shouldn't let the fear of looking stupid or being judged hold us back from living our best lives.Cody didn't always feel this way. In XOXO, Cody, he opens up about his journey toward accepting himself, from growing up gay and poor in the South to his migration to New York City, where he went from broke-ass dancer to fitness icon. He intimately details what it was like to lose both his father and best friend to addiction and how he began to repair his relationship with his mom as an adult. He recounts his time working at a nightclub on the Lower East Side and his decision to audition for Peloton on a whim, and dishes about competing against Sporty Spice on Dancing with the Stars.With raw and inspiring stories about learning how to handle the scary sh*t, XOXO, Cody is a bold and heartfelt reminder that sometimes laughing at yourself is the best medicine. Remember: It ain't that deep, boo.(P) 2023 Random House Audio
XOXO, Cody: An Opinionated Homosexual's Guide to Self-Love, Relationships, and Tactful Pettiness
by Cody RigsbyThe beloved Peloton instructor chronicles his journey from small-town North Carolina to New York City stardom in an empowering story that reveals his secret to success: not taking yourself-or life-too seriously.Cody Rigsby has a lot of opinions: Kevin is the hottest Backstreet Boy; grape jelly is a crime against nature; if you wear flip-flops in New York City, you do not love yourself. But if there is one opinion-one truth-that he holds above all others, it's that we shouldn't let the fear of looking stupid or being judged hold us back from living our best lives.Cody didn't always feel this way. In XOXO, Cody, he opens up about his journey toward accepting himself, from growing up gay and poor in the South to his migration to New York City, where he went from broke-ass dancer to fitness icon. He intimately details what it was like to lose both his father and best friend to addiction and how he began to repair his relationship with his mom as an adult. He recounts his time working at a nightclub on the Lower East Side and his decision to audition for Peloton on a whim, and dishes about competing against Sporty Spice on Dancing with the Stars.With raw and inspiring stories about learning how to handle the scary sh*t, XOXO, Cody is a bold and heartfelt reminder that sometimes laughing at yourself is the best medicine. Remember: It ain't that deep, boo.
XOXO, Cody: An Opinionated Homosexual's Guide to Self-Love, Relationships, and Tactful Pettiness
by Cody RigsbyThe beloved Peloton instructor chronicles his journey from small-town North Carolina to New York City stardom in an empowering story that reveals his secret to success: not taking yourself—or life—too seriously.&“Reading XOXO, Cody is like hanging out with that friend who makes you laugh and can open up their heart to you.&”—Phoebe Robinson, New York Times bestselling author of Please Don&’t Sit on My Bed in Your Outside ClothesCody Rigsby has a lot of opinions: Kevin is the hottest Backstreet Boy; grape jelly is a crime against nature; if you wear flip-flops in New York City, you do not love yourself. But if there is one opinion—one truth—that he holds above all others, it&’s that we shouldn&’t let the fear of looking stupid or being judged hold us back from living our best lives. Cody didn&’t always feel this way. In XOXO, Cody, he opens up about his journey toward accepting himself, from growing up gay and poor in the South to his migration to New York City, where he went from broke-ass dancer to fitness icon. He intimately details what it was like to lose both his father and best friend to addiction and how he began to repair his relationship with his mom as an adult. He recounts his time working at a nightclub on the Lower East Side and his decision to audition for Peloton on a whim, and dishes about competing against Sporty Spice on Dancing with the Stars.With raw and inspiring stories about learning how to handle the scary sh*t, XOXO, Cody is a bold and heartfelt reminder that sometimes laughing at yourself is the best medicine. Remember: It ain&’t that deep, boo.
The Yards Between Us: A Memoir of Life, Love, and Football
by R. K. RussellIn 2019, Russell, or "Russ," as his friends and family call him, broke the mold when he came out as bisexual and reclaimed his life and his identity as an athlete in an essay and exclusive interview for ESPN. Now, in his powerful memoir, The Yards Between Us, he shares his full story and explores his love of football, his attraction to both men and women, the devastating challenge of keeping his sexuality secret, the tension between his private and public lives, and the importance of crashing through barriers. Russell dips back in time to Buffalo, New York, the tragic loss of his stepfather, his early life as a shy kid struggling with the expectations on a Black boy, his move to conservative Dallas, the pull between his quiet nature and his athletic ability, and an uncertain adolescence in which his love for the game meant he had to hide things about himself. From being bullied to fighting back, his first kiss and middle school love, his first moment understanding his own physical talent, the moment he truly fell in love with football after his mom brought him to his first NFL game, college at Purdue, being drafted by his hometown team, and then on to seasons with he Dallas Cowboys and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, The Yards Between Us traces the highs and lows of Russell's life and career. Over time, the secret of his sexuality weighed heavier and heavier. Finally, he had a deep understanding that it was time to make a change. In Los Angeles, Russell fell in love, and it was the final push he needed to stand up for all the different parts of who he is--a professional athlete, a writer, a son, a friend, a lover, a bisexual Black man. In the years since his coming out, Russell has become an advocate for LGBTQ+ rights by working with the NFL, HRC (Human Rights Campaign), and GLAAD. R. K. Russell's memoir shows us the power, the love, and the life-changing force of embracing who you are--and fighting to make space so others can do the same. R. K. RUSSELL is a former professional football player in the NFL, a social justice advocate, a published poet, an essayist, and an artist. A decorated defensive end who has played for the Dallas Cowboys and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, he has sacked Hall of Famers and gone up against the fiercest competitors at the height of their game. Since coming out, he has written about his experience as a Black queer man in sports for the New York Times, the Guardian, the Los Angeles Times, and Out magazine, among others. He was included in the prestigious Out100 List in 2019. He lives in Los Angeles.
Yeah, Nah!: A celebration of life and the words that make us who we are
by William McInnesHave you ever bunged it on?Behaved like a drongo?Added mayo to a story?Lost your Reg Grundies?Join bestselling storyteller William McInnes as he offers his own take on our colourful and colloquial way with words. From the simpler times of childhood to today's testing (and unprecedented!) times, or when we're wasting time, enjoying sporting times or hitting the big time, Australians have a turn of phrase for every situation. Our love of plain speaking communicates the essence of the thing to our mates, to those in the know - and to those who should know better.Part memoir, part manifesto, this warm, witty, poignant and laugh-out-loud funny collection will have you thinking about what you say, how you say it and what that really says about us as a nation. Praise for the writing of William McInnes'Warm and engaging . . . feels a little bit like home' Daily Telegraph'If there is a quintessence of Australia at its best, William McInnes has distilled it' The Age'Warm, nostalgic, funny and undeniably Australian' Sydney Morning Herald
A Year and a Day: An Experiment in Essays
by Phillip LopateA compelling celebration of the power of the essay, this collection of 47 writings offers a glimpse into the mind of a modern-day Montaigne as he reflects on the miscellany of daily life—movies and art, friends and family—over the course of a single year.The essay is the most pluckily pedestrian and blithely transgressive of literary genres, the one that is most at large and in need, picking through the accumulated disjecta of daily life and personal and social history to take what it needs and remake it as it sees fit. It is, at its lively best, quite indifferent to the claims of style, fashion, theory, and respectability, provoking and inspiring through the pleasure of surprise. In 2016, Philip Lopate, who has been writing essays and thinking about the essay for decades now, turned his attention to one of the essay's offshoots, the blog, a form by that time already thick, as he knew, with virtual dust. Lopate committed to writing a weekly blog about, really, whatever over the course of a year, a quicker pace of delivery than he'd ever undertaken and one that carried the risk of all too regularly falling short. What emerged was A Year and a Day, a collection of forty-seven essays best characterized as a single essay a year in the making, a virtuosic (if never showy) demonstration of the essay's range and reach, meandering, looping back, pressing reset, forging on. Lopate's topics along the way include family, James Baldwin, a trip to China, Agnes Martin, Abbas Kiarostami, the resistible rise of Donald Trump, death, desire, and the tribulations, small and large, of daily life. What results is at once a self-portrait, a picture of the times, and a splendid new elaboration of what the essay can be.
The Year My Family Unravelled
by Cynthia DearbornCynthia Dearborn is struggling to convince her father, who has vascular dementia, to move into an aged care facility. He won't budge. Further complicating matters is the fact that Cynthia lives in Sydney, and her father in Seattle. Truth be told, it suits her to live halfway around the world from her family.Cynthia's attempts to get her father and stepmother into care, and to protect them from themselves and each other, drive this compelling memoir. But braided in is a deeply moving and surprising backstory about Cynthia's tumultuous childhood and the difficult relationships she had with both parents.The Year My Family Unravelled continues to surprise right to the last page. Despite heavy subject matter - mental decline, illness, abuse, death - this is a memoir of buoyancy and hope. Ultimately, it is a story about redemption, self-worth, and the tangled and often contradictory impulses of love.
Year of No Garbage: Recycling Lies, Plastic Problems, and One Woman's Trashy Journey to Zero Waste
by Eve O. Schaub"Eve&’s brave and honest experiment reveals the shocking impact of the throwaway society we&’ve become and at the same time showing small ways we can all do better.&” —Rebecca Prince-Ruiz, founder of Plastic Free JulyYear of No Garbage is Super Size Me meets the environmental movement. In this book Eve O. Schaub, humorist and stunt memoirist extraordinaire, tackles her most difficult challenge to date: garbage. Convincing her husband and two daughters to go along with her, Schaub attempts the seemingly impossible: living in the modern world without creating any trash at all. For an entire year. And- as it turns out- during a pandemic. In the process, Schaub learns some startling things: that modern recycling is broken, and single stream recycling is a lie. That flushable wipes aren&’t flushable and compostables aren&’t compostable. That plastic drives climate change, fosters racism, and is poisoning the environment and our bodies at alarming rates, as microplastics are being found everywhere, from the top of Mount Everest to the placenta of unborn babies. If you&’ve ever thought twice about that plastic straw in your drink, you&’re gonna want to read this book.
The Year of Sitting Dangerously: My Garden Safari
by Simon BarnesFrom the acclaimed author of Rewild Yourself comes a brilliant new book that reveals the natural joys to be discovered on your doorstep. In the autumn of 2020, Simon Barnes should have been leading a safari in Zambia, but Covid restrictions meant his plans had to be put on hold. Instead, he embarked on the only voyage of discovery that was still open to him. He walked to a folding chair at the bottom of his garden, and sat down. His itinerary: to sit in that very same spot every day for a year and to see - and hear - what happened all around him. It would be a stationary garden safari; his year of sitting dangerously had begun. For the next twelve months, he would watch as the world around him changed day by day. Gradually, he began to see his surroundings in a new way; by restricting himself, he opened up new horizons, growing even closer to a world he thought he already knew so well.The Year of Sitting Dangerously is a wonderfully evocative read; it inspires the reader to pay closer attention to the marvels that surround us all, and is packed with handy tips to help bring nature even closer to us.
The Year of the Cat: A Love Story: 'Tender and uplifting' Stylist
by Rhiannon Lucy CosslettA smart and wonderfully tender story of how adopting a kitten during lockdown helped Rhiannon dare to stop worrying and start living.When Rhiannon fell in love with, and eventually married her flatmate, she imagined they might one day move on. But this is London in the age of generation rent, and so they share their home with a succession of friends and strangers while saving for a life less makeshift.The desire for a baby is never far from the surface, but can she be sure that she will ever be free of the anxiety she has experienced since an attack in the street one night? And after a childhood spent caring for her autistic brother, does she really want to devote herself to motherhood?Moving through the seasons over the course of lockdown, The Year of the Cat nimbly charts the way a kitten called Mackerel walked into Rhiannon's home and heart, and taught her to face down her fears and appreciate quite how much love she had to offer.'What a rare gift Rhiannon Lucy Cosslett possesses: expansive compassion, empathy and warmth, and a scalpel precision with words' Emma Forrest'A superbly written, special book' Olivia Sudjic'Conjures a heady, terrifying time in beautiful detail' Nell Frizzell(P) 2023 Headline Publishing Group Ltd
The Year of the Cat: A Love Story
by Rhiannon Lucy Cosslett'A brave process of healing and self reconstruction' Observer'Simply one of the best writers working today. Here's to family, to glamour, and to love' Nell Frizzell, author of The Panic YearsI looked around at my flat, at the woodchip wallpaper and scuffed furniture, and realised that I did have a life after all. What it didn't have in it was a cat.When Rhiannon fell in love with, and eventually married her flatmate, she imagined they might one day move on. But this is London in the age of generation rent, and so they share their home with a succession of friends and strangers while saving for a life less makeshift. The desire for a baby is never far from the surface, but can she be sure that she will ever be free of the anxiety she has experienced since an attack in the street one night? And after a childhood spent caring for her autistic brother does she really want to devote herself to motherhood?Moving through the seasons over the course of lockdown, The Year of the Cat nimbly charts the way a kitten called Mackerel walked into Rhiannon's home and heart, and taught her to face down her fears and appreciate quite how much love she had to offer.'A superbly written, special book' Olivia Sudjic, author of Asylum Road'Beautifully captures that liminal period before any life-changing decision' New Statesman
The Yellow Pad: Making Better Decisions in an Uncertain World
by Robert E. RubinRobert Rubin, former secretary of the Treasury and co-chairman of Goldman Sachs, shares thoughts on decision-making developed over more than six decades in markets, business, government, and politics, and offers readers an astute and original guide for navigating uncertain timesIn 1958, as a college sophomore, Robert Rubin took a class that changed his life. The class was introduction to philosophy, and the professor, Raphael Demos, instilled in his students an idea that was simple yet profound: There is no such thing as certainty. For Rubin, this led to a critically important question: How can we make sound decisions in a fundamentally uncertain world?While serving in some of the most significant roles in markets, business, and government, Rubin has grappled with that question. Time and again, when faced with a high-stakes decision, he turned to his most trusted tool: a simple yellow legal pad. Rubin&’s yellow pad (or more recently, his iPad) became an expression of a larger decision-making philosophy that has both lasted and shaped a lifetime. In The Yellow Pad, Rubin lays out that philosophy with depth and detail, and presents a compelling intellectual framework for confronting some of the most difficult issues we face today.The Yellow Pad contains a former Treasury secretary&’s approach to economic policymaking. A former Goldman Sachs senior partner&’s approach to personal investing and understanding risk. A former director of the National Economic Council&’s approach to managing people in both private- and public-sector organizations. And much more. Yet despite his lifetime of experiences, Rubin remains refreshingly open-minded, interested in exploring ideas rather than promoting ideologies. With its combination of wisdom and relevance, The Yellow Pad is an essential guide for anyone looking to make better decisions in life, work, and public policy.
Yiddishlands: A Memoir, Second Edition
by David G. RoskiesThis lively and irreverent memoir explores the settings where Yiddish—a language of song, rebellion, and eternal longing—has thrived: in the cabaret and café, the kitchen and classroom, the literary salon and mystical commune, the partisan brigade and on pilgrimage to Poland. Inspired by his mother’s recitations of their family saga in his youth, author David Roskies uncovers a tale of survival, intrigue, sacrifice, and divided loyalties that began over 4,000 miles away and two generations ago. A careful reconstruction of the details of his parents’ escape from Europe at the outbreak of the Second World War is juxtaposed with his personal odyssey in the postwar center of Yiddish culture that was Montreal. Roskies embarks on a search for other speakers of his mother tongue with very different stories to tell, which takes him on a journey through the upheavals of 1960s America, the struggle for Soviet Jewry, the Six-Day War and Yom Kippur War, the fall of the Iron Curtain, and the revival of Jewish life here, there, and everywhere. Along the way, he encounters great Yiddish poets and their widows, survivors of the Holocaust, artists, actors, scholars, and teachers. Yiddishlands is essential reading for students of the recent Jewish past and the living Yiddish present.
Yo soy la mujer del comandante: Rosario Murillo, la eternamente leal
by Carlos Salinas Maldonado“He estado por mucho tiempo bajo la sombra de Daniel, sometida a los rigores del gobierno, sumisa, atada, enclaustrada en unos requerimientos asfixiantes dictados por el poder. No, yo ya no soy esa Rosario”. Rosario Murillo Zambrana, aquella poeta combativa de los años de la malograda Revolución sandinista es, ahora, la mujer de la que depende en parte el poder de Daniel Ortega, viejo guerrillero devenido en dictador. Mística, indómita, brutal, violenta, este relato cuenta la transformación de una mujer que anhelaba el amor, que siempre ha creído en el poder de la magia, en un personaje grotesco, enfermo de poder. El relato se basa en largas entrevistas de Carlos Salinas Maldonado, sus apuntes tras años de seguir al personaje,observarlo, escucharlo, escribir sobre Rosario Murillo. También se sostiene en la denuncia de su hija, Zoilamérica Narváez, contra Daniel Ortega por violación. Recoge información de fuentes cercanas en su momento a Murillo, que han pedido el anonimato. Los hechos son reales, aunque la protagonista parezca emerger de la mejor ficción literaria
Yoga of Sound: The Life and Teachings of the Celestial Songman, Swami Nada Brahmananda
by Michael GrossoA guide to harnessing the vibration that created the universe for healing and spiritual awakening• Shares profound lessons from Swami Nada Brahmananda, a master of the yoga of sound and vibration• Centers on three life-enhancing themes: controlling the mind, diet and practices conducive to healing and perfect health, and how music can be used to transform consciousness and enrich our spiritual life• Also paints a vivid portrait of New York City in the 1970s and its underground arts and music sceneNot long after obtaining his Ph.D. in philosophy from Columbia University in 1971, Michael Grosso had an extraordinary experience in Greenwich Village, New York, that led him to realize he needed to balance his overly intellectual life with music. He met Swami Nada Brahmananda, a former court musician for the King of Mysore, famous throughout India for being a master of Taan music and sound yoga as well as for his supernatural control of his body. Grosso began studying with Swami Nada and found his life profoundly changed. Sharing the lessons of Swami Nada Brahmananda as well as painting a vivid portrait of New York City in the 1970s—and its vibrant and chaotic underground arts and music scene—Grosso explores Swami Nada&’s Indian yoga of sacred sound in depth. He reveals how the tradition centers on the sound or vibration that created the universe, its personal cultivation, and its power to heal, enlighten, and offer insight about how to live in the Kali Yuga, the Age of Conflict. Grosso also examines the siddhis, or extraordinary powers, that can arise from this work, detailing the otherworldly abilities of his master. The lessons that Grosso shares center on three life-enhancing themes: controlling the mind, which provides the very essence of a happy life; diet and practices conducive to healing and perfect health—Swami Nada himself never knew a day of sickness in all of his 97 years; and how music in all its forms can be used to transform consciousness and enrich our spiritual life. Revealing Swami Nada Brahmananda as the very embodiment of a Celestial Songman, Grosso shows how, by practicing the yoga of sound, we can embody Swami Nada&’s greatest lesson of all: that we can all learn to make music from the discordant notes of our lives and sing our way out of the Kali Yuga.