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A House in the Mountains: The Women Who Liberated Italy from Fascism (The\resistance Quartet Ser. #4)
by Caroline MooreheadThe extraordinary story of four courageous women who helped form the Italian Resistance against the Nazis and the Fascists during the Second World War.In the late summer of 1943, when Italy changed sides in WWII and the Germans, now their enemies, occupied the north of the country, an Italian Resistance was born. Ada, Frida, Silvia and Bianca were four young Piedmontese women who joined the Resistance, living secretively in the mountains surrounding Turin. They were not alone. Between 1943 and 1945, as the Allies battled their way north, thousands of men and women throughout occupied Italy rose up and fought to liberate their country from the German invaders and their Fascist collaborators. What made the partisan war all the more extraordinary was the number of women in its ranks. The bloody civil war that ensued across the country pitted neighbour against neighbour, and brought out the best and worst in Italian society. The courage shown by the partisans was exemplary, and eventually bound them together as a coherent fighting force. And the women's contribution was invaluable--they fought, carried messages and weapons, provided safe houses, laid mines and took prisoners. Ada's house deep in the mountains became a meeting place and refuge for many of them. The death rattle of Mussolini's two decades of Fascist rule--with its corruption, greed and anti-Semitism--was unrelentingly violent and brutal, but for the partisan women it was also a time of camaraderie and equality, pride and optimism. They would prove, to themselves and to the world, what resolve, tenacity and above all exceptional courage could achieve.
A House in the Sky
by Sara Corbett Amanda LindhoutThe spectacularly dramatic memoir of a woman whose curiosity about the world led her from rural Canada to imperiled and dangerous countries on every continent, and then into fifteen months of harrowing captivity in Somalia--a story of courage, resilience, and extraordinary grace.At the age of eighteen, Amanda Lindhout moved from her hardscrabble Alberta hometown to the big city--Calgary--and worked as a cocktail waitress, saving her tips so she could travel the globe. As a child, she escaped a violent household by paging through National Geographic and imagining herself in its exotic locales. Now she would see those places for real. She backpacked through Latin America, Laos, Bangladesh, and India, and emboldened by each experience, went on to travel solo across Sudan, Syria, and Pakistan. In war-ridden Afghanistan and Iraq she carved out a fledgling career as a TV reporter. And then, in August 2008, she traveled to Mogadishu, Somalia--"the most dangerous place on earth"--to report on the fighting there. On her fourth day in the country, she and photojournalist Nigel Brennan were abducted by a group of masked men along a dusty road. An astoundingly intimate and harrowing account of Lindhout's fifteen months as a captive, A House in the Sky illuminates the psychology, motivations, and desperate extremism of her young guards and the men in charge of them. She is kept in chains, nearly starved, and subjected to unthinkable abuse. She survives by imagining herself in a "house in the sky," looking down at the woman shackled below, and finding strength and hope in the power of her own mind. Lindhout's decision, upon her release, to counter the violence she endured by founding an organization to help the Somali people rebuild their country through education is a wrenching testament to the capacity of the human spirit and an astonishing portrait of the power of compassion and forgiveness.
A House in the Sky
by Sara Corbett Amanda LindhoutBREAKING NEWS: Amanda Lindhout's lead kidnapper, Ali Omar Ader, has been caught. Amanda Lindhout wrote about her fifteen month abduction in Somalia in A House in the Sky. It is the New York Times bestselling memoir of a woman whose curiosity led her to the world's most remote places and then into captivity: "Exquisitely told...A young woman's harrowing coming-of-age story and an extraordinary narrative of forgiveness and spiritual triumph" (The New York Times Book Review).As a child, Amanda Lindhout escaped a violent household by paging through issues of National Geographic and imagining herself visiting its exotic locales. At the age of nineteen, working as a cocktail waitress, she began saving her tips so she could travel the globe. Aspiring to understand the world and live a significant life, she backpacked through Latin America, Laos, Bangladesh, and India, and emboldened by each adventure, went on to Sudan, Syria, and Pakistan. In war-ridden Afghanistan and Iraq she carved out a fledgling career as a television reporter. And then, in August 2008, she traveled to Somalia--"the most dangerous place on earth." On her fourth day, she was abducted by a group of masked men along a dusty road. Held hostage for 460 days, Amanda survives on memory--every lush detail of the world she experienced in her life before captivity--and on strategy, fortitude, and hope. When she is most desperate, she visits a house in the sky, high above the woman kept in chains, in the dark. Vivid and suspenseful, as artfully written as the finest novel, A House in the Sky is "a searingly unsentimental account. Ultimately it is compassion--for her naïve younger self, for her kidnappers--that becomes the key to Lindhout's survival" (O, The Oprah Magazine).
A House in the Sky: A Memoir
by Sara Corbett Amanda LindhoutBREAKING NEWS: Amanda Lindhout's lead kidnapper, Ali Omar Ader, has been caught. Amanda Lindhout wrote about her fifteen month abduction in Somalia in A House in the Sky. It is the New York Times bestselling memoir of a woman whose curiosity led her to the world's most remote places and then into captivity: "Exquisitely told...A young woman's harrowing coming-of-age story and an extraordinary narrative of forgiveness and spiritual triumph" (The New York Times Book Review).As a child, Amanda Lindhout escaped a violent household by paging through issues of National Geographic and imagining herself visiting its exotic locales. At the age of nineteen, working as a cocktail waitress, she began saving her tips so she could travel the globe. Aspiring to understand the world and live a significant life, she backpacked through Latin America, Laos, Bangladesh, and India, and emboldened by each adventure, went on to Sudan, Syria, and Pakistan. In war-ridden Afghanistan and Iraq she carved out a fledgling career as a television reporter. And then, in August 2008, she traveled to Somalia--"the most dangerous place on earth." On her fourth day, she was abducted by a group of masked men along a dusty road. Held hostage for 460 days, Amanda survives on memory--every lush detail of the world she experienced in her life before captivity--and on strategy, fortitude, and hope. When she is most desperate, she visits a house in the sky, high above the woman kept in chains, in the dark. Vivid and suspenseful, as artfully written as the finest novel, A House in the Sky is "a searingly unsentimental account. Ultimately it is compassion--for her naïve younger self, for her kidnappers--that becomes the key to Lindhout's survival" (O, The Oprah Magazine).
A House is Not a Home
by Rachel Rubin Polly AdlerPolly Adler's "house"―the brothel that gave this best-selling 1953 autobiography its title―was a major site of New York City underworld activity from the 1920s through the 1940s. Adler's notorious Lexington Avenue house of prostitution functioned as a sort of social club for New York's gangsters and a variety of other celebrities, including Robert Benchley and his friend Dorothy Parker. According to one New York tabloid, it made Adler's name "synonymous with sin." <P><P> This new edition of Adler's autobiography brings back into print a book that was a mass phenomenon, in both hardback and paperback, when it was first published. A self-consciously literary work, A House Is Not a Home provides an informal social history of immigrant mobility, prostitution, Jewish life in New York, police dishonesty, the "white slavery" scare of the early twentieth century, and political corruption. <P><P> Adler's story fills an important gap in the history of immigrant life, urban experience, and organized crime in New York City. While most other accounts of the New York underworld focus on the lives of men, from Herbert Asbury's Gangs of New York through more recent works on Jewish and Italian gangsters, this book brings women's lives and problems to the forefront. <P><P> A House Is Not a Home is compellingly readable and was popular enough to draw Hollywood's attention in the early 1960s―leading to a film starring Shelley Winters as Adler. The book has been largely forgotten in the ensuing decades, lost both to its initial audience of general readers and to scholars in women's studies, immigration history, and autobiography who are likely to find it a treasure trove. Now, with a new introduction by Rachel Rubin that contextualizes Adler's life and literary achievement, A House Is Not a Home is again available to the many readers who have come to understand such "marginal" life stories as a special refraction of the more typical American success narrative.
A House of My Own
by Sandra CisnerosFrom the author of The House on Mango Street, a richly illustrated compilation of true stories and nonfiction pieces that, taken together, form a jigsaw autobiography--an intimate album of a beloved literary legend. From the Chicago neighborhoods where she grew up and set her groundbreaking The House on Mango Street to her abode in Mexico in a region where "my ancestors lived for centuries," the places Sandra Cisneros has lived have provided inspiration for her now-classic works of fiction and poetry. But a house of her own, where she could truly take root, has eluded her. With this collection--spanning three decades, and including never-before-published work--Cisneros has come home at last. Ranging from the private (her parents' loving and tempestuous marriage) to the political (a rallying cry for one woman's liberty in Sarajevo) to the literary (a tribute to Marguerite Duras), and written with her trademark lyricism, these signature pieces recall transformative memories as well as reveal her defining artistic and intellectual influences. Poignant, honest, deeply moving, this is an exuberant celebration of a life in writing lived to the fullest.From the Hardcover edition.
A House of My Own: Stories from My Life
by Sandra CisnerosFrom the author of The House on Mango Street, a richly illustrated compilation of true stories and nonfiction pieces that, taken together, form a jigsaw autobiography--an intimate album of a beloved literary legend. From the Chicago neighborhoods where she grew up and set her groundbreaking The House on Mango Street to her abode in Mexico in a region where "my ancestors lived for centuries," the places Sandra Cisneros has lived have provided inspiration for her now-classic works of fiction and poetry. But a house of her own, where she could truly take root, has eluded her. With this collection--spanning three decades, and including never-before-published work--Cisneros has come home at last. Ranging from the private (her parents' loving and tempestuous marriage) to the political (a rallying cry for one woman's liberty in Sarajevo) to the literary (a tribute to Marguerite Duras), and written with her trademark lyricism, these signature pieces recall transformative memories as well as reveal her defining artistic and intellectual influences. Poignant, honest, deeply moving, this is an exuberant celebration of a life in writing lived to the fullest.From the Hardcover edition.
A House with No Roof: After My Father's Assassination, A Memoir
by Rebecca WilsonIn 1966, Rebecca Wilson's father, a Union Leader and civil rights activist, was assassinated on the street in San Francisco. Rebecca—known throughout as "Becky"—was three years old. A House with No Roof is Wilson's gripping memoir of how the murder of her father propelled her family into a life–long search for solace and understanding.Following her father's death, Becky's mother, Barbara, desperate for closure and peace, uproots the family and moves to Bolinas, California. In this small, coastal town of hippies, artists, and "burnouts," the family continues to unravel. To cope, Barbara turns to art and hangs a banner that loudly declares, "Wilsons are Bold." But she still succumbs to her grief, neglecting her children in her wake. Becky's brother turns to drugs while her beautiful sister chooses a life on the road and becomes pregnant. As Becky fumbles and hurtles toward adulthood herself, she comes to learn the full truth of her father's death—a truth that threatens to steal her sanity and break her spirit.Told with humor and candor—and with love and family devotion at its heart—A House with No Roof is a brave account of one daughter's struggle to survive.
A Human Love Story: Journeys to the Heart (Human Love Stories Ser.)
by Matt Hopwood&“An archive of real-life stories about all aspects of human relationships&” curated by a man traveling on foot throughout Scotland (BBC Arts). Matt Hopwood set off with just a small bag and a walking stick, no possessions and an open mind to walk many hundreds of miles the length and breadth of the country. He relied entirely on the generosity of strangers for shelter and asked people to tell him their transforming stories. They did. All of these deeply enthralling, profoundly honest stories weave a web of tenderness, connection, compassion and community. For some people their love story will span decades and tell a tale of romantic love evolving through the passing years. Others&’ stories express fleeting moments of connection, care, concern. Most love stories are marked by sadness and loss. Some stories are concerned with maternal and paternal love, others with a love of place, a visceral connection with spirit through landscape. Love stories also connect deeply with our identities, in how we belong and how we are welcomed in society. Each story is different. Each beautiful. Each valuable.&“A delicately woven tapestry of human life, collected by a stranger who offered an ear to listen without judgment and who has the depth of soul to interpret the complicated layers of love.&” —from the foreword by Clare Balding&“This thoughtfully presented lexicon of love contains honest accounts from men and women of all ages and offers an antidote to a life where it can be surprisingly hard to say &‘I love you.&’&”—The Wee Review
A Humane Economy: The Social Framework of the Free Market
by Wilhelm Röpke&“A Humane Economy is like a seminar on integral freedom conducted by a professor of uncommon brilliance.&” —Wall Street Journal&“If any person in our contemporary world is entitled to a hearing it is Wilhelm Röpke.&” —New York TimesA Humane Economy offers one of the most accessible and compelling explanations of how economies operate ever written. The masterwork of the great twentieth-century economist Wilhelm Röpke, this book presents a sweeping, brilliant exposition of market mechanics and moral philosophy.Röpke cuts through the jargon and statistics that make most economic writing so obscure and confusing. Over and over, the great Swiss economist stresses one simple point: you cannot separate economic principles from human behavior.Röpke&’s observations are as relevant today as when they were first set forth a half century ago. He clearly demonstrates how those societies that have embraced free-market principles have achieved phenomenal economic success—and how those that cling to theories of economic centralization endure stagnation and persistent poverty.A Humane Economy shows how economic processes and government policies influence our behavior and choices—to the betterment or detriment of life in those vital and highly fragile human structures we call communities. &“It is the precept of ethical and humane behavior, no less than of political wisdom,&” Röpke reminds us, &“to adapt economic policy to man, not man to economic policy.&”
A Humble Companion
by Laurie Graham&“A portrait of the riotous, tragicomic, dysfunctional, bonkers Royal family of poor George III. . . . Fascinating, very, very funny, ultimately humane.&” —Marian Keyes, international bestselling author When Nellie Welche is appointed companion to Princess Sophia, her family is delighted. It&’s more than her father, steward to the Prince of Wales, ever imagined for his daughter. But once Nellie begins spending her days in close quarters with the royal family, she discovers the world within the palace is not at all what she expected. Rather than attending royal balls and society events, Princess Sofy and her sisters live in isolation. There&’s also affable King George III, whose struggles with madness only deepen the privacy in which the royals must live. Over the course of a lifetime, Sofy and Nellie become inseparable. But as Sofy&’s dearest friend, Nellie is also the keeper of her secrets—until the scandal that threatens their relationship . . . and the reputation of the House of Hanover. &“Funny, fascinating and profoundly moving.&” —Freya North, international bestselling author of The Turning Point &“A delightfully smart and sophisticated historical novelist.&” —The Sunday Times &“Every page is a joy to read.&” —Daily Mail
A Hundred And One Days: A Baghdad Journal - from the bestselling author of The Bookseller of Kabul
by Asne SeierstadA fascinating, personal and insightful account of the Iraq war from the bestselling author of THE BOOKSELLER OF KABULIn January 2003 Åsne Seierstad entered Baghdad on a ten-day visa. She was to stay for over three months, reporting on the war and its aftermath. A Hundred and One Days is her compelling account of a city under siege, and a fascinating insight into the life of a foreign correspondent. An award-winning writer, Seierstad brilliantly details the frustrations and dangers journalists faced trying to uncover the truth behind the all-pervasive propaganda. She also offers a unique portrait of Baghdad and its people, trying to go about their daily business under the constant threat of attack. Seierstad's passionate and erudite book conveys both the drama and the tragedy of her one hundred and one days in a city at war.'Åsne Seierstad is the supreme non-fiction writer of her generation' Luke Harding
A Hundred And One Days: A Baghdad Journal - from the bestselling author of The Bookseller of Kabul
by x Asne SeierstadA fascinating, personal and insightful account of the Iraq war from the bestselling author of THE BOOKSELLER OF KABULIn January 2003 Åsne Seierstad entered Baghdad on a ten-day visa. She was to stay for over three months, reporting on the war and its aftermath. A Hundred and One Days is her compelling account of a city under siege, and a fascinating insight into the life of a foreign correspondent. An award-winning writer, Seierstad brilliantly details the frustrations and dangers journalists faced trying to uncover the truth behind the all-pervasive propaganda. She also offers a unique portrait of Baghdad and its people, trying to go about their daily business under the constant threat of attack. Seierstad's passionate and erudite book conveys both the drama and the tragedy of her one hundred and one days in a city at war.'Åsne Seierstad is the supreme non-fiction writer of her generation' Luke Harding
A Hundred Thousand White Stones
by Kunsang Dolma Evan DennoA Hundred Thousand White Stones is one young Tibetan woman's fearlessly told story of longing and change. Kunsang Dolma writes with unvarnished candor of the hardships she experienced as a girl in Tibet, violations as a refugee nun in India, and struggles as an immigrant and new mother in America. Yet even in tribulation, she finds levity and never descends to self-pity. We watch in wonder as her unlikely choices and remarkable persistence bring her into ever-widening circles, finding love and a family in the process, and finally bringing her back to her childhood home. A Hundred Thousand White Stones offers an honest assessment of what is gained in pursuing life in the developed world and what is lost.
A Hundred and One Days: A Baghdad Journal
by Asne SeierstadFor one hundred and one days Asne Seierstad worked as a reporter in Baghdad. <P><P>Always in search of a story far less obvious than the American military invasion, Seierstad brings to life the world behind the headlines in this compelling- and heartbreaking-account of her time among the people of Iraq. From the moment she first arrived in Baghdad on a ten-day visa, she was determined to unearth the modern secrets of an ancient place and to find out how the Iraqi people really live. What do people miss most when their world changes overnight? What do they choose to say when they can suddenly say what they like? Seierstad reveals what life is like for everyday people under the constant threat of attack- first from the Iraqi government and later from American bombs. Displaying the novelist's eye and lyrical storytelling that have won her awards around the world, Seierstad here brings to life an unforgettable cast of characters, from foreign press apparatchik Uday, to Zahra, a mother of three, to Aliya, the guide and translator who becomes a friend. Putting their trust in a European woman with no obvious agenda, these and other Iraqis speak for themselves, to tell the stories we never see on the evening news.
A Hundred or More Hidden Things: The Life and Films of Vincente Minnelli
by Mark GriffinIn this biography, Griffin, a writer and reviewer, traces the life and films of filmmaker Vincente Minelli (1903-1986), director of Meet Me in St. Louis, An American in Paris, and Gigi. Drawing from interviews with actors, colleagues, and friends (but neither of his daughters), Griffin recounts his childhood, unconventional upbringing, ambiguous sexuality, the autobiographical nature of his work, his work with famous actors, his many films, his family secrets, his marriages, including to Judy Garland, and his relationship with daughter Liza Minelli. Annotation ©2010 Book News, Inc. , Portland, OR (booknews. com)
A Hunger for Learning: A Story about Booker T. Washington
by Gwenyth SwainAs a small child, Booker T. Washington longed to learn how to read and write, but slaves weren't allowed to go to school. When the Civil War ended, Booker was free. He persuaded teachers at the Hampton Institute to let him work at their school in exchange for classes. Booker did so well that Hampton's principal recommended him to start up a new school in Alabama. Brick by brick, Washington and his students built Tuskegee Institute, which became one of the nation's most respected colleges for black students. Dedicating his life to education, Booker T. Washington was one of the most important African American leaders of his time.
A Hungry Heart: A Memoir
by Gordon ParksGordon Parks, acclaimed photographer, filmmaker, composer, and author of fiction and nonfiction, has participated in, been witness to, and documented many of the major events in the twentieth and the twenty-first centuries. Born in Fort Scott, Kansas, on November 30, 1912, he left home at age fifteen when his mother passed away. For the next twelve years, he lived in Minneapolis, Minnesota, working as a piano player, bus boy, Civilian Conservation Corpsman, and professional basketball player before taking up photography in the late 1930s and moving to Chicago. He was awarded the first Julius Rosenwald Fellowship in photography in 1942 and chose to work with Roy Stryker at the Farm Security Administration (FSA) in Washington, D. C. During World War II, he was an Office of War Information (OWI) correspondent. He photographed fashion for Vogue and Glamour before joining the staff of Life in 1949 and remained a photojournalist for the magazine until 1969. He also became famous in the late 1960s for his stories on Black revolutionaries, later incorporated into his book Born Black. He was a founder and editorial director of Essence magazine from 1970 to 1973. His film career began in 1961 when he wrote and directed a documentary, Flavio. He received an Emmy Award for another documentary, Diary of a Harlem Family, in 1968. He produced and directed Hollywood films including The Learning Tree, Shaft, Shaft's Big Score, The Super Cops, and Leadbelly. He is first and foremost a celebrated photojournalist and fine art photographer whose work, collected and exhibited worldwide, is emblematic of American culture. In A Hungry Heart, he reaches into the corridors of his memory and recounts the people and events that shaped him: from growing up poor on the Kansas prairie to withstanding the unbearably cold winters of Minnesota to living on the edge of starvation in Harlem during the Depression. He more than survived the challenges and crises of his life; he thrived and has become one of the most celebrated and diversely talented figures in American culture.
A Hunter's Confession
by David CarpenterA Hunter's Confession tells the story of hunting in David Carpenter's life, including the reasons he once loved it and the reasons he no longer pursues it. When he was a boy, Carpenter and his father and brother would head out along the side roads and into the prairie marshlands searching for duck, grouse, and partridge. As a young man, he began skulking around the bushes with his hunting buddies and trudging through groves of larch, alpine fir, and willow in search of elk. Later, hunting became a form of therapy, a way to ward off melancholy and depression. In the end, as a result of a dramatic experience after shooting a grouse, Carpenter gave up hunting for good.Winding through this personal narrative is Carpenter's exploration of the history of hunting, subsistence hunting versus hunting for sport, trophy hunting, and the meaning of the hunt for those who have written about it most eloquently. Are wild creatures somehow our property? How is the sport hunter different from the hunter who must kill game to survive? Is there some sort of bridge that might connect aboriginal hunters to non-aboriginal hunters? Why do many hunters feel most fully alive when they
A Hymn for Eternity: The Story of Wallace Hartley, Titanic Bandmaster
by Yvonne CarrollThe band playing ‘Nearer my God to Thee’ as the ship went down is probably one of the most famous stories relating to the Titanic. The bravery of the band and their leader, Wallace Hartley, is one of the endearing stories to come out of the worst disaster to happen to a British passenger liner. Who comprised the band? Who was Wallace Hartley and where did he come from? Not much has been written about this enigmatic band leader or of his part in the tragedy, beyond a few mentions in the many books on the disaster. But he was one of the most important characters in the story of Titanic. Yvonne Speak has spent years researching the life story of Wallace Hartley and has conducted interviews with remaining members of his family. Here she tells his story and remembers this most British of heroes.
A Is For Abigail: An Almanac Of Amazing American Women
by Lynne Cheney Robin Preiss GlasserLynne Cheney and Robin Preiss Glasser collaborated on America: A Patriotic Primer, which captured the imagination of American children and became a national best-seller. Now they turn their hands to A is for Abigail: An Almanac of Amazing American Women and bring the great women of American history to life. Filled to the brim with words and pictures that celebrate the remarkable (although often unmarked) achievements of American women, this is a book to relish and to read again and again. <p><p> Mothers, daughters, schoolchildren, generations of families -- everyone -- will take Abigail Adams's words to heart and "remember the ladies" once they read the stories of these astonishing, astounding, amazing American women.
A Is for American: Letters and Other Characters in the Newly United States
by Jill LeporeLepore (history, Boston U.) sketches the character of seven men, from Noah Webster (1758-1843) to Alexander Graham Bell (1847-1922) who have in common their belief that letters, alphabets, syllabaries, signs, and codes hold nations together. She portrays them grappling with the fear of disunity from revolution to reconstruction. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)
A Jane Austen Christmas
by Carlo DevitoFilled with the remarkable wit and insight of one of the world's most cherished authors, A Jane Austen Christmas gives readers insight into Austen's life through little-known stories about how she and her family celebrated the treasured holiday season. Carlo DeVito provides an intimate portrait of Austen's most cherished Christmas memories with her family: from the gift of her first writing desk, to her first love and heartbreak, to her brewing mead and beer in time for the holidays. Along the way readers will spend a holiday in the Austen house, celebrate Jane's birthday, meet the inspiration for more than a dozen characters, attend the Christmastide series of balls, and learn how to make family's favorite recipes and dedicate a novel to the Prince Regent. Remarkably fresh and supremely entertaining, A Jane Austen Christmas brings Austen's world to life as never before.
A Jane Austen Education: How Six Novels Taught Me About Love, Friendship, and the Things That Really Matter
by William DeresiewiczAn eloquent memoir of a young man's life transformed by literature. In A Jane Austen Education, Austen scholar William Deresiewicz turns to the author's novels to reveal the remarkable life lessons hidden within. With humor and candor, Deresiewicz employs his own experiences to demonstrate the enduring power of Austen's teachings. Progressing from his days as an immature student to a happily married man, Deresiewicz's A Jane Austen Education is the story of one man's discovery of the world outside himself. A self-styled intellectual rebel dedicated to writers such as James Joyce and Joseph Conrad, Deresiewicz never thought Austen's novels would have anything to offer him. But when he was assigned to read Emma as a graduate student at Columbia, something extraordinary happened. Austen's devotion to the everyday, and her belief in the value of ordinary lives, ignited something in Deresiewicz. He began viewing the world through Austen's eyes and treating those around him as generously as Austen treated her characters. Along the way, Deresiewicz was amazed to discover that the people in his life developed the depth and richness of literary characters-that his own life had suddenly acquired all the fascination of a novel. His real education had finally begun. Weaving his own story-and Austen's-around the ones her novels tell, Deresiewicz shows how her books are both about education and themselves an education. Her heroines learn about friendship and feeling, staying young and being good, and, of course, love. As they grow up, they learn lessons that are imparted to Austen's reader, who learns and grows by their sides. A Jane Austen Education is a testament to the transformative power of literature, a celebration of Austen's mastery, and a joy to read. Whether for a newcomer to Austen or a lifelong devotee, Deresiewicz brings fresh insights to the novelist and her beloved works. Ultimately, Austen's world becomes indelibly entwined with our own, showing the relevance of her message and the triumph of her vision.Watch a Video
A Jazz Age Murder in Northwest Indiana: The Tragic Betrayal of Nettie Diamond (True Crime Ser.)
by Jane Simon AmmesonGold digging, adultery, and a slaying on Valentine&’s Day, 1923, in this &“juicy . . . page-turner&” of a true crime story (Chicago Tribune). It was a Roaring Twenties fatal attraction. Nettie Herskovitz was wealthy and widowed when she met Harry Diamond. The attentive, irresistibly sexy twenty-three-year-old suitor would become Nettie&’s fifth husband. He was also a bootlegger, pimp, and first-class hustler who thought he&’d wed a goldmine. What Harry found instead was a fiercely independent older woman who was nobody&’s fool for long. Then, on February 14, 1923, Harry tried to secure his inheritance by shooting Nettie four times, once at point blank range to the head. He blamed the crime on their teenage African American chauffeur. Harry might have gotten away with it, if not for one little oversight. Nettie wasn&’t dead. With its combination of sin, sex, high-society scandal, and even the interference of the Ku Klux Klan, the case against the movie-star handsome Harry Diamond moved beyond tabloid fodder to become the most sensational trial of the era.