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The Best Jokes Minnie Pearl Ever Told: (Plus some that she overheard!)
by Kevin KenworthyFrom the stage of the Grand Ole Opry to concert halls around the world, and on television's Hee Haw and Prime Time Country, Cousin Minnie Pearl entertained fans and friends with her stories about Grinder's Switch and her jokes. Now you can recall the best of them, such as . . .This week we decided we'd better take Brother up to Nashville and try to get him a job. So I took him to one of the places and the man said he'd give Brother a job. He said, "I can start you at thity dollars a week and in five years you'll get two hundred!" Brother said, "That's fine. I'll be back in five years!" Mr. Smith, a seventy-five-year-old multimillionaire, just married a young, beautiful eighteen-year-old girl. A friend asked, "How did you get an eighteen-year-old to marry you when you're seventy-five?" The man said, "I told her I was ninety-five!" Also included are memories of Minnie by . . .Porter Wagoner, Ralph Emery, Bill Anderson, Johnny Russell, Little Jimmy Dickens, Jimmy C. Newman
Betsy Ross: American Patriot (Revolutionary War Leaders Series)
by Susan Martins-MillerCompelling portraits of American history's most notable male and female leaders. Includes informative sidebars; Interesting, easy-to-understand content; Complements school curriculum. When George Washington needed a symbol for the new nation, he turned to Ross to sew the American flag.
Betty Shabazz: Sharing the Vision of Malcolm X
by Laura S. JeffreyProfiles the life of Betty Shabazz, the widow of Malcolm X, discussing her life as the wife of the outspoken civil rights leader and her role in the civil rights movement after his death.
The Big Bang: Brown v. Board of Education and Beyond: The Autobiography of Oliver W. Hill, Sr.
by Oliver W. Hill Sr.The Big Bang: Brown v. Board of Education and Beyond: The Autobiography of Oliver W. Hill, Sr.
Big Men, Little People: The Leaders Who Defined Africa
by Alec Russell<p>The Sixties were a heady time for Africans. All over the continent colonial flags were being lowered and Africans looked forward to freedom and a glittering future. But for most of the continent the last forty years have been a shattering experience. Since independence Africans have been terribly betrayed by the Europeans, the superpowers, and tragically, by their own leaders. <p>Can a new generation of leaders turn the tide? Will they learn from their predecessors' mistakes and fuel a new African renaissance? Or is Africa doomed to further decades of turmoil? <p>In this witty and informative book, Alec Russell answers these questions by telling the stories of his encounters with Africa's Big Men. Each one represents a theme which has shaped the continent: Mobutu Sese Seko of Zaire, the "King of Kleptocracy" whose staggering corruption crippled Zaire; Jonas Savimbi, the life-long guerrilla and symbol of the Cold War's destructive legacy on the continent; the quixotic Hastings Banda, the ultimate product of colonialism; and, of course, Nelson Mandela, symbol of reconciliation and hope for an entire continent. <p>By any measure, this has been a terrible century for Africa. However Russell detects signs of hope in the fledgling human rights troupe he encounters deep in the steamy heart of the Congolese jungle and in the group of journalists keeping Moi's tottering regime in Kenya on its toes. <p>Big Men, Little People is a vividly written portrait of a continent, which avoids the usual stereotypes and dire prophecies and entertains from start to finish.</p>
Billie Holiday: Wishing on the Moon
by Donald ClarkeCertainly no singer has been more mythologized and more misunderstood than Billie Holiday, who helped to create much of the mystique herself with her autobiography, Lady Sings the Blues. "Now, finally, we have a definitive biography," said Booklist of Donald Clarke's Billie Holiday, "by a deeply compassionate, respectful, and open-minded biographer [whose] portrait embraces every facet of Holiday's paradoxical nature, from her fierceness to her vulnerability, her childlikeness to her innate elegance and amazing strength. " Clarke was given unrivaled access to a treasure trove of interviews from the 1970s-interviews with those who knew Lady Day from her childhood in the streets and good-time houses of Baltimore through the early days of success in New York and into the years of fame, right up to her tragic decline and death at the age of forty-four. Clarke uses these interviews to separate fact from fiction and, in the words of the Seattle Times, "finally sets us straight. . . evoking her world in all its anguish, triumph, force and irony. " Newsday called this "a thoroughly riveting account of Holiday and her milieu. " The New York Times raved that it "may be the most thoroughly valuable of the many books on Holiday," and Helen Oakley Dance in JazzTimes said, "We should probably have to wait a long time for another life of Billie Holiday to supersede Donald Clarke's achievement. "
The Biograph Girl: A Novel of Hollywood Then and Now
by William J. MannAward-winning author William J. Mann blends fact and fiction in this unconventional novel about the nature of celebrity The Biograph Girl is Florence Lawrence, who gets her first big break in vaudeville as a tiny tot who can whistle like a man. By 1910 she&’s a legendary movie star, pursued by thousands of rabid fans. Just a few short decades later, she&’s all but forgotten, reduced to walk-ons at MGM. In 1938 she kills herself by ingesting a lethal dose of ant paste. Fast-forward fifty-nine years. A 107-year-old woman named Flo Bridgewood is discovered in a Catholic nursing home in Buffalo. Could the feisty chain smoker with the red satin bow in her hair be America&’s former sweetheart? Florence Lawrence is dead . . . isn&’t she? And if not, then whose body is in her grave? That&’s what journalist Richard Sheehan wants to find out as he and his identical twin brother, Ben, a documentary filmmaker, decide to cash in on a decades-old mystery. Sharing the stage is Flo herself, whose story is the stuff of Hollywood fantasy. A provocative melding of fact and fiction, The Biograph Girl is about what it means to be a celebrity—then and now.
Bishop of the Resistance: The Life of Eivind Berggrav, Bishop of Oslo
by Edwin RobertsonThe role played by the Bishop of Oslo, especially during the Second World War.
A Bishop's Tale: Mathias Hovius Among His Flock in Seventeenth-century Flanders
by Craig Harline Eddy PutDrawn from the rare journal of the Archbishop of Mechelen from 1596 to 1620, this biography sheds light on the colorful life of Mathias Hovius, as well as the key events and characters of the Catholic Reformation period. The authors relate the stories of monks, nuns, priests, pilgrims, peasant women, saints, and others. 24 illustrations.
Black Angel: The Life of Arshile Gorky
by Nouritza MatossianA biography of the Armenian painter that “adds immeasurable to the interest of [his] art . . . Carefully researched, well written, [and] enlightening” (The New York Review of Books). In this first full-scale biography, Nouritza Matossian charts the mysterious and tragic life of Arshile Gorky, one of the most influential painters of the twentieth century. Born Manoug Adoian in Armenia, he survived the Turkish genocide of 1915 before coming to America, where he posed as a cousin of the famous Russian author Maxim Gorky. One of the first abstract expressionists, Gorky became a major figure of the New York School, which included de Kooning, Rothko, Pollock, and others. But after a devastating series of illnesses, injuries, and personal setbacks, he committed suicide at the age of forty-six. In Black Angel, arts journalist Matossian analyzes Gorky’s personal letters, as well as other new source material. She writes with authority, insight, and compassion about the powerful influence Gorky’s life and Armenian heritage had upon his painting.
Black Boy [Seventy-fifth Anniversary Edition] (P. S. Ser.)
by Richard WrightA special 75th anniversary edition of Richard Wright's powerful and unforgettable memoir, with a new foreword by John Edgar Wideman and an afterword by Malcolm Wright, the author’s grandson.When it exploded onto the literary scene in 1945, Black Boy was both praised and condemned. Orville Prescott of the New York Times wrote that “if enough such books are written, if enough millions of people read them maybe, someday, in the fullness of time, there will be a greater understanding and a more true democracy.” Yet from 1975 to 1978, Black Boy was banned in schools throughout the United States for “obscenity” and “instigating hatred between the races.”Wright’s once controversial, now celebrated autobiography measures the raw brutality of the Jim Crow South against the sheer desperate will it took to survive as a black boy. Enduring poverty, hunger, fear, abuse, and hatred while growing up in the woods of Mississippi, Wright lied, stole, and raged at those around him—whites indifferent, pitying, or cruel and blacks resentful of anyone trying to rise above their circumstances. Desperate for a different way of life, he may his way north, eventually arriving in Chicago, where he forged a new path and began his career as a writer. At the end of Black Boy, Wright sits poised with pencil in hand, determined to “hurl words into this darkness and wait for an echo.” Seventy-five year later, his words continue to reverberate. “To read Black Boy is to stare into the heart of darkness,” John Edgar Wideman writes in his foreword. “Not the dark heart Conrad searched for in Congo jungles but the beating heart I bear.” One of the great American memoirs, Wright’s account is a poignant record of struggle and endurance—a seminal literary work that illuminates our own time.
Black Mass
by Dick Lehr Gerard O'NeillTwo boys - John Connolly and James "Whitley" Bulger - grew up together on the streets of South Boston. Decades later, in the mid-1970s, they would meet again. By then, Connolly was a major figure in the FBI's Boston office and Whitley had become godfather of the Irish mob. Connolly had an idea, a scheme that might bring Bulger into the FBI fold and John Connolly into the Bureau's big leagues. But Bulger had other plans. "Black Mass" is the story of what happened beween them - a dark deal to trade secrets and take down Boston's Italian Mafia in exchange for "immunity" - that spiralled out of control, leading to murders, drug dealing and racketeering indictments. Ultimately, in what would become the biggest internal scandal in the history of the FBI, Bulger would find himself at the top of the FBI's Ten Most Wanted List. Told in gripping narrative style by the "Boston Globe" reporters who covered the case from the beginning, "Black Mass" is a riveting epic crime story that is also a book about Irish America, about the pull of place, and about the ties that bind.
Black Sheep One
by Bruce GambleBlack Sheep One is the first biography of legendary warrior and World War II hero Gregory Boyington. In 1936, Boyington became an aviation cadet and earned the "wings of gold" of a naval aviator. After only a short period on active duty, however, he was "encouraged" to resign from the Marine Corps due to his unconventional behavior. Remarkably, this inauspicious beginning was just the prologue to a heroic career as an American fighter pilot and innovative combat leader. With the onset of World War II, when skilled pilots were in demand, he became the commander of an ad hoc squadron of flying leathernecks. Led by Medal of Honor winner Boyington, the legendary Black Sheep set a blistering pace of aerial victories against the enemy.Though many have observed that when the shooting stops, combat heroes typically just fade away, nothing could be further from the truth for Boyington. Blessed with inveterate luck, the stubbornly independent Boyington lived a life that went beyond what even the most imaginative might expect. Exhaustively researched and richly detailed, here is the complete story of this American original.From the Paperback edition.
The Black Soldier: 1492 to the Present
by Catherine ClintonBlack soldiers have fought and died in the Americas for centuries, an unbroken chain of warriors stretching back nearly five hundred years. Yet their contribution to our nation's history has been neglected, and the battles they've had to fight against racism and prejudice have often been as challenging as facing the enemy on the field of battle. In this exciting story of African American heroism, Catherine Clinton traces the history of the black soldier, from the first African explorers who accompanied Columbus to African Americans who took up arms in the American Revolution and the Civil War, to those who served their country from the Montana frontier to the sands of Desert Storm. Their heroic tales show that while black soldiers were once systematically ignored in the armed forces, earning little praise and often dying for a nation that granted them few rights, with each successive opportunity to prove themselves in combat and in the ranks, black men and women have risen to the occasion and distinguished themselves. Ultimately it was the sacrifices of these valiant soldiers that led to today's fully integrated armed services.
Blackbird: A Childhood Lost and Found
by Jennifer LauckWith the startling emotional immediacy of a fractured family photo album, Jennifer Lauck's incandescent memoir is the story of an ordinary girl growing up at the turn of the 1970s and the truly extraordinary circumstances of a childhood lost. Wrenching and unforgettable, Blackbird will carry your heart away.The house on Mary Street was home to Jennifer; her older brother B.J.; their hardworking father, who smelled like aftershave and read her Snow White; and their mother, who called her little daughter Sunshine and embraced Jackie Kennedy's sense of style. Through a child's eyes, the skies of Carson City were forever blue, and life was perfect -- a world of Barbies, Bewitched, and the Beatles. Even her mother's pain from her mysterious illness could be patted away with hairspray, powder, and a kiss on the cheek....But soon, everything Jennifer has come to love and rely on begins to crumble, sending her on a roller coaster of loss and loneliness. In a world unhinged by tragedy, where beautiful mothers die and families are warped by more than they can bear, a young girl must transcend a landscape of pain and mistreatment to discover her richest resource: her own unshakable will to survive.
Blackbird
by Jennifer LauckTo young Jenny, the house on Mary Street was home -- the place where she was loved, a blue-sky world of Barbies, Bewitched, and the Beatles. Even her mother's pain from her mysterious illness could be patted away with powder and a kiss on the cheek. But when everything that Jenny had come to rely on begins to crumble, an odyssey of loss, loneliness, and a child's will to survive takes flight....
Blackjack-34: One Deadly Day of Courage, Carnage, and Ultimate Sacrifice for the Mobile Guerrilla Force in Vietnam
by James C. Donahue"Here we go, I said to myself as my system electrified with the familiar rush of adrenaline." An elite unit armed to the teeth, the Mobile Guerrilla Force was America's only real guerrilla force in Vietnam. These men operated for weeks at a time--springing ambushes, destroying base camps, and gathering vital intelligence--in steamy, triple-canopied jungles ruled by the VC and NVA. On July 18, 1967, Special Forces medic James Donahue and his platoon were on a mission, code-named Blackjack-34, to locate enemy units for the 1st Infantry to destroy. But instead a crack enemy battalion found them. Now Donahue bears witness to the bloody events of that day and the exceptional grit and determination of his teammates. BLACKJACK-34 is a magnificent tribute to the warriors of Mobile Guerrilla Force--their courage, heroism, and willingness to make the ultimate sacrifice.From the Paperback edition.
The Blessed Abyss: Inmate #6582 in Ravensbrück Concentration Camp for Women
by Hester Baer Elizabeth R. Baer Nanda HerbermannOn February 4, 1941, Nanda Herbermann, a German Catholic writer and editor, was arrested by the Gestapo in Münster, Germany. Accused of collaboration with the Catholic movement, Herbermann was deported to Ravensbrück Concentration Camp for Women in July 1941 and later released upon direct orders from Heinrich Himmler on March 19, 1943. Although she was instructed by the Gestapo not to reveal information about the camp, Herbermann soon began to record her memories of her experiences. The Blessed Abyss was originally published in German under the imprint of the Allied occupation forces in 1946, and it now appears in English for the first time. Hester Baer and Elizabeth Baer include an extensive introduction that situates Herbermann's work within current debates about gender and the Holocaust and provides historical and biographical information about Herbermann, Ravensbrück, and the Third Reich.
Blonde
by Joyce Carol OatesFrom her days as an orphan sent from foster home to foster home to the days when she was President John F. Kennedy's companion, this is a fictionalized account of Marilyn Monroe.
Blonde: A Novel (Ldp Litterature Ser.)
by Joyce Carol Oates«Oates sabe que ya has visto a Marilyn Monroe. La reconocerías en cualquier parte. Tantas imágenes, tantas historias que ya han echado raíces en tu mente. Pero su fuerza y su talento consiste en limitarse a señalar los detalles y traerla de vuelta a la vida, a ella y a todo el siglo: la muchacha desnuda, el terciopelo rojo, las plantas de sus pies.»Bethany Schneider, Newsday «Socorro, siento que la Vida se acerca.» Marilyn Monroe era puro fuego, sexualidad a flor de piel, romances turbulentos; pero también era frágil, una mujer asustada y repleta de inseguridades que buscaba en otros -el Ex Deportista, el Dramaturgo o el Presidente- ese amor que ella misma se negaba. Una artista emblemática cargada de conflictos y temores, de pasiones desatadas; una niña que no dejó de huir hacia delante, y llegó a burlar a la propia muerte para convertirse en leyenda. Tras una exhaustiva documentación, Joyce Carol Oates redibuja la vida interior de Norma Jeane Baker -la pequeña sin padre, la mujer dependiente de tranquilizantes y estimulantes, la malograda actriz y amante- y a su «Amiga Mágica del Espejo», la idolatrada rubia que el mundo llegó a conocer como Marilyn Monroe. ** Premio Ja! Bilbao por el «modernísimo humor negro» de su obra. La crítica ha dicho...«Dramática, provocativa e inquietantemente sugerente, Blonde es tan explosiva como su protagonista, la legendaria Marilyn Monroe. En una prosa impresionista de elevada potencia, Oates crea un retrato sorprendente y conmovedor de la estrella mítica y de la sociedad que la creó y le falló.»Publishers Weekly «Oates nos hace vivir la vida de Marilyn Monroe. Y es un verdadero infierno. Y es brillante. Porque nos querremos arrancar los ojos para dejar de mirar, y es imposible.»Ann Patchett, The Times «Oates rebosa testosterona, y su último libro es agresivo y atrevido. Quiere que miremos a un personaje mítico con nuevos ojos, pero no con los de la cámara, sino con nuestros ojos más humanos.»Philip Weiss, New York Observer «En lo referente a Marilyn Monroe, el público siempre se quedaba en el exterior y miraba hacia el interior, pero he aquí que en esta nueva y apasionante novela, Blonde, Joyce Carol Oates revierte ese proceso al plantarse en el interior de la torturada psique de la actriz para rematar un retrato perturbadoramente íntimo.»John Thomas, Playboy «Oates se libera de los corsés de una renarración periodística de hechos archiconocidos y crea con verdadera maestría una potente tragedia norteamericana profundamente inquietante.»Susan Tekulve, Book Magazine «Una novela que nos va ganando y absorbiendo a medida que vamos pasando las páginas hasta seducirnos por completo.»Jason S. Polley, Revista Arcadia «Un libro potente e hipnótico.»Elaine Showalter, Literary Review «La obra más importante de la prolífica carrera de Oates.»Dan Cryer, Newsday «Una magnífica obra, escrita con parte de esa frenética inspiración con la que Marilyn Monroe vivió su vida. Si no ha leído aún a Joyce Carol Oates, no lo deje por más tiempo. Empiece aquí y ahora.»Susan Jeffreys, The Independent
Bob Hawke: The Complete Biography
by Blanche d’AlpugetTo mark Bob Hawke&’s extraordinary life and legacy, this master work brings together the story of the man in full in a definitive hardback commemorative biography. Bob Hawke began life as a good Christian boy from a teetotal family, became a wild, drinking, womanising student, a Rhodes Scholar, a champion of workers, a folk hero recognised throughout the country, a dynamic politician who was elected four times as Australia&’s Prime Minister - and transformed his country. He was our longest serving Labor Prime Minister and considered by many our greatest. By the early 1980s Australia was on the road to becoming &‘the poor white trash of Asia&’. Hawke as prime minister, with Paul Keating as treasurer, changed all that. Australia became a forward-looking and humane country whose voice commanded respect on the international stage. Hawke was an environmentalist before it was fashionable, he loathed racism, helped end apartheid in South Africa, sent ministers to end the war in Cambodia, foresaw that China would become a great world power and established the first Chinese investment in an iron ore mine in Australia. His journey from the manse of a small South Australian country town to the palaces of Europe, Asia and the United States is the odyssey of a leader it is hard to imagine we will ever see the like of again - a man of towering passions and commitment to causes, and an unshakeable love of humanity.
Bone
by Marion WoodmanOn November 7, 1993, Marion Woodman was diagnosed with uterine cancer. Here, in journal form, is the story of her illness, her healing process, and her acceptance of life and death. Breathtakingly honest about the factors she feels contributed to her cancer, Woodman also explains how she drew upon every resource-physical and spiritual-available to her to come to terms with her illness. Dreams and imagery, self-reflection and body work, and both traditional and alternative medicine play distinctive roles in Woodman's recovery. Her personal treasury of art, photographs, and quotations-from Dickinson to Blake to Rumi-embellish this unique chronicle of a very personal journey toward transformation. .
Bones of the Master: A Journey to Secret Mongolia
by George CraneIn 1959 a young monk named Tsung Tsai (Ancestor Wisdom) escapes the Red Army troops that destroy his monastery, and flees alone three thousand miles across a China swept by chaos and famine. Knowing his fellow monks are dead, himself starving and hunted, he is sustained by his mission: to carry on the teachings of his Buddhist meditation master, who was too old to leave with his disciple. Nearly forty years later Tsung Tsai -- now an old master himself -- persuades his American neighbor, maverick poet George Crane, to travel with him back to his birthplace at the edge of the Gobi Desert. They are unlikely companions. Crane seeks freedom, adventure, sensation. Tsung Tsai is determined to find his master's grave and plant the seeds of a spiritual renewal in China. As their search culminates in a torturous climb to a remote mountain cave, it becomes clear that this seemingly quixotic quest may cost both men's lives.
Borges and His Fiction: A Guide to His Mind and Art (Texas Pan American Series)
by Gene H. Bell-VilladaThe acclaimed author of García Márquez delivers &“a compulsively readable account of the life and works of our greatest . . . writer of fantasy&” (New York Daily News). Since its first publication in 1981, Borges and His Fiction has introduced the life and works of this Argentinian master-writer to an entire generation of students, high school and college teachers, and general readers. Responding to a steady demand for an updated edition, Gene H. Bell-Villada has significantly revised and expanded the book to incorporate new information that has become available since Borges&’ death in 1986. In particular, he offers a more complete look at Borges and Peronism and Borges&’ personal experiences of love and mysticism, as well as revised interpretations of some of Borges&’ stories. As before, the book is divided into three sections that examine Borges&’ life, his stories in Ficciones and El Aleph, and his place in world literature. &“Of the scores of Borges studies by now published in English, Bell-Villada&’s excellent book stands out as one of the freshest and most generally helpful . . . Lay readers and specialists alike will find his book a valuable and highly readable companion to Ficciones and El Aleph.&” —Choice
Born in the Delta: Reflections on the Making of a Southern White Sensibility
by Margaret Jones BolsterliIn this gracefully written memoir, Margaret Jones Bolsterli recounts her experiences as a lively, observant girl coming of age on an Arkansas cotton farm during the 1930s and 1940s. The Mississippi River's broad, flat floodplain provides the setting for her vivid strokes of memory and history each portraying key elements of the "southern sensibility. " Bolsterli's themes include the southerner's strong sense of place, the penchant for stories rather than true dialog, a caste system based on formality and race, the underlying current of violence, and the repressive function of evangelical religion. She also examines manners, the patriarchal family structure, the "southern belle" concept, and the persistence of the memory of the Civil War. A fascinating chapter on food indicates how African and European customs are melded in southern cuisine to include chicken, pork, "cracklin' bread," gravy and biscuits, field peas, turnip greens, butter beans, devil's food cake, and dill pickles. Comparable to Shirley Abbott's Womenfolks, Born in the Delta is a valuable resource for those interested in southern history and culture, as well as readers who just enjoy a good story, well-told.