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A Maze of Grace: A Memoir of Second Chances
by Trish RyanIn her first book, Trish Ryan chronicled the ways in which finding faith lead her to the happily-ever-after ending that had eluded her for so long. Only it wasn't an ending. It was a beginning. In A MAZE OF GRACE, Ryan picks up where she left off, sharing the early years of her marriage, and the challenges that both shaped and startled her: temptations regarding fidelity, the anxiety of shifting body image, the awkward nature of following Jesus in a decidedly secular family and city, and struggles (depression, trying to conceive) that made her wonder if God had lost her file. With appealing candor, Ryan sweeps the reader into her life and ponders questions and issues that we all face, dropping nuggets of wisdom along the way that are sure to inspire, encourage and help readers from all walks of life.
A Meaning For Wife
by Mark YakichYour wife is killed by a cashew (anaphylactic shock), but there isn't time to grieve because your toddler son is always at your heels--wanting to be fed, to be played with, or to sleep next to you all night long. A change of pace seems necessary, so you decide to visit your parents in order to attend your twenty-year high school reunion. What begins as a weekend getaway quickly becomes a theater for dealing with the past--a past that you will have to re-imagine in order to have any hope of a future for you and your son. Told in second person, A Meaning for Wife is the story of a man trying to come to terms with the sudden death of his wife, the aging parents he has long avoided, and the tribulations of single parenthood. Mark Yakich is the author of two poetry collections, Unrelated Individuals Forming A Group Waiting to Cross (Penguin Books, 2004) and The Importance of Peeling Potatoes in Ukraine (Penguin Books, 2008). He lives in New Orleans, Louisiana, where he teaches English at Loyola University.
A Measure of Intelligence: One Mother's Reckoning with the IQ Test
by Pepper StetlerIn a quest to advocate for her daughter, Pepper Stetler uncovers the dark history of the IQ test, leading her to question what exactly we are measuring when we measure intelligence. When Pepper Stetler learned that her daughter, Louisa, who has Down Syndrome, would be required to take periodic IQ tests to secure support in school, she asked a simple question: Why? The hunt for an answer set Stetler on a winding, often dark investigation into how the IQ came to be the "irrefutable" standard for measuring intelligence. Blending a mother's love and dedication to her daughter with incisive historical and cultural analysis, A Measure of Intelligence investigates the origins of the IQ test and its influence on our oppressive culture of high stakes testing. As she unravels the history of the IQ--exposing its roots in eugenics, racism, xenophobia, and ableism--Stetler realizes that the desire to quantify intelligence is closely tied to the desire to segregate society. A Measure of Intelligence is at once a mother's determined quest, a demand for a fundamental reevaluation of how we understand an individual's perceived potential, and a recognition of what we miss when we judge one another by this warped scale.
A Measured Life: The Times and Places of an Orphaned Intellectual
by Richard HoggartRichard Hoggart's book, The Uses of Literacy, established his reputation as a uniquely sensitive and observant chronicler of English working-class life. This pioneering work, first published in 1957, examines changes in the life and values of the English working class in response to mass media. It maps out a new methodology in cultural studies based around interdisciplinary and a concern with how textsin this case, mass publicationsare stitched into the patterns of lived experience. Mixing personal memoir with social history and cultural critique. The Uses of Literacy anticipates recent interest in modes of cultural analysts that refuse to hide the author behind the mask of objective social scientific technique. In its method and in its rich accumulation of the detail of working-class life, this volume remains useful and absorbing.
A Medieval Life (SparkNotes Literature Guide Series)
by SparkNotesA Medieval Life (SparkNotes Literature Guide) by Judith M. Bennett Making the reading experience fun! Created by Harvard students for students everywhere, SparkNotes is a new breed of study guide: smarter, better, faster. Geared to what today's students need to know, SparkNotes provides: *Chapter-by-chapter analysis *Explanations of key themes, motifs, and symbols *A review quiz and essay topicsLively and accessible, these guides are perfect for late-night studying and writing papers
A Memoir
by Tim Pat CooganFrom the personal to the political, this is the much-awaited memoir from Tim Pat Coogan.Ireland's best-known journalist, broadcaster, historian and bestselling biographer Tim Pat Coogan has not only reported the news - he's been the news. Through the Irish Press, where he served as editor for twenty years, he is renowned for bringing social and political change to Ireland. He went on to play a vital role in bringing the IRA/Sinn Fein to the peace talks table, and has always been uniquely placed to comment authoritatively - if not controversially - on all aspects of Irish current affairs.From personal to political, his revelatory memoir gives genuine insight into the life and high-profile career of a man at the centre of Irish politics and society.
A Memoir
by Tim Pat CooganFrom the personal to the political, this is the much-awaited memoir from Tim Pat Coogan.Ireland's best-known journalist, broadcaster, historian and bestselling biographer Tim Pat Coogan has not only reported the news - he's been the news. Through the Irish Press, where he served as editor for twenty years, he is renowned for bringing social and political change to Ireland. He went on to play a vital role in bringing the IRA/Sinn Fein to the peace talks table, and has always been uniquely placed to comment authoritatively - if not controversially - on all aspects of Irish current affairs.From personal to political, his revelatory memoir gives genuine insight into the life and high-profile career of a man at the centre of Irish politics and society.
A Memoir of Mary Ann The Dominican Nuns of Our Lady of Perpetual Help Home
by Flannery O'Connor Dominican NunsRecounts the surprisingly rich years a lively, wise child spent as a cancer patient in a home run by Dominican nuns.
A Memoir of Misfortune
by Xiaokang SuSu Xiaokang had faced calamity before: in 1989, after the Tiananmen Square massacre, he became the object of a government manhunt and was forced to flee China, leaving behind his wife and young son. Eventually his family was allowed to join him in exile in the United States, and he believed the worst was behind him. Then a terrible automobile accident left his wife, Fu Li, unable to move or speak.In this remarkably honest account, Su, who blamed himself for his family's disaster, writes wrenchingly of his inner torment and despair. He describes the pain of living in exile, his desperate search for a miracle cure for Fu Li, and his bemusement at his teenage son's increasing Americanization. Above all, Su's moving memoir invites us along on a deeply personal odyssey, as a man who had once been at the center of an international political drama dedicates himself to the far more demanding task of remaking an emotional world for his wife and son.From the Trade Paperback edition.
A Memoir of My Former Self: A Life in Writing
by Hilary Mantel'I breathed in stories, as soon as I breathed in air. Sometimes I think I wasn't born, but I just came out of an ink blot.''Mantel's idiosyncratic and magisterial voice comes through on every page, carrying readers across an astonishing array of subject matter with ease. This is a treasure' Publishers Weekly As well as her celebrated career as a novelist, Hilary Mantel long contributed to newspapers and journals, unspooling stories from her own life and illuminating the world as she found it. This strand of her writing was an integral part of how she thought of herself. 'Ink is a generative fluid,' she explains. 'If you don't mean your words to breed consequences, don't write at all.' A Memoir of My Former Self collects the finest of this writing over four decades. Mantel's subjects are wide-ranging. She discusses nationalism and her own sense of belonging; our dream life flopping into our conscious life; the mythic legacy of Princess Diana; the many themes that feed into her novels - revolutionary France, psychics, Tudor England - and other novelists, from Jane Austen to V. S. Naipaul. She writes about her father and the man who replaced him; she writes fiercely and heartbreakingly about the battles with her health she endured as a young woman, and the stifling years she found herself living in Saudi Arabia. Here, too, is a selection of her film reviews - from When Harry Met Sally to RoboCop - and, published for the first time, her stunning Reith Lectures, which explore the process of art bringing history and the dead back to life.From her unique childhood to her all-consuming fascination with Thomas Cromwell that grew into the Wolf Hall Trilogy, A Memoir of My Former Self reveals the shape of Hilary Mantel's life in her own dazzling words, 'messages from people I used to be.' Compelling, often very funny, always luminous, it is essential reading from one of our greatest writers.'A smart, deft, meticulous, thoughtful writer, with such a grasp of the dark and spidery corners of human nature' Margaret Atwood
A Memoir of My Former Self: A Life in Writing
by Hilary MantelTHE FINAL BOOK FROM ONE OF OUR GREATEST WRITERS In addition to her celebrated career as a novelist, Hilary Mantel contributed for years to newspapers and journals, unspooling stories from her own life and illuminating the world as she found it. “Ink is a generative fluid,” she explains. “If you don’t mean your words to breed consequences, don’t write at all.” A Memoir of My Former Self collects the finest of this writing over four decades.Her subjects are wide-ranging, sharply observed, and beautifully rendered. She discusses nationalism and her own sense of belonging; our dream life popping into our conscious life; the mythic legacy of Princess Diana; the many themes that feed into her novels—revolutionary France, psychics, Tudor England; and other novelists, from Jane Austen to V.S. Naipaul. She writes about her father and the man who replaced him; she writes fiercely and heartbreakingly about the battles with her health that she endured as a young woman, and the stifling years she found herself living in Saudi Arabia. Here, too, is her legendary essay “Royal Bodies,” on our endless fascination with the current royal family.From her unusual childhood to her all-consuming interest in Thomas Cromwell that grew into the Wolf Hall trilogy, A Memoir of My Former Self reveals the shape of Hilary Mantel’s life in her own luminous words, through “messages from people I used to be.” Filled with her singular wit and wisdom, it is essential reading from one of our greatest writers.
A Memoir of My Former Self: A Life in Writing
by Hilary MantelTHE FINAL BOOK FROM ONE OF OUR GREATEST WRITERSIn addition to her celebrated career as a novelist, Hilary Mantel contributed for years to newspapers and journals, unspooling stories from her own life and illuminating the world as she found it. “Ink is a generative fluid,” she explains. “If you don’t mean your words to breed consequences, don’t write at all.” A Memoir of My Former Self collects the finest of this writing over four decades. Her subjects are wide-ranging, sharply observed, and beautifully rendered. She discusses nationalism and her own sense of belonging; our dream life popping into our conscious life; the mythic legacy of Princess Diana; the many themes that feed into her novels—revolutionary France, psychics, Tudor England; and other novelists, from Jane Austen to V.S. Naipaul. She writes about her father and the man who replaced him; she writes fiercely and heartbreakingly about the battles with her health that she endured as a young woman, and the stifling years she found herself living in Saudi Arabia. Here, too, is her legendary essay “Royal Bodies,” on our endless fascination with the current royal family. From her unusual childhood to her all-consuming interest in Thomas Cromwell that grew into the Wolf Hall trilogy, A Memoir of My Former Self reveals the shape of Hilary Mantel’s life in her own luminous words, through “messages from people I used to be.” Filled with her singular wit and wisdom, it is essential reading from one of our greatest writers.
A Memoir of the Missile Age: One Man's Journey
by Vitaly Leonidovich KatayevVitaly Leonidovich Katayev was an eyewitness to history as he saw the arms race accelerating at an absurd and inexplicable pace, and he understood why. His perspective was from inside the Soviet system, in an office that was devoted to analysis of arms control and defense matters in the Central Committee of the Soviet Communist Party and later in an interdepartmental working group. Vitaly Katayev was a skilled designer and an acute observer. His recollections in this book, along with documents he deposited at the Hoover Institution Library and Archives, offer an extraordinary window into Soviet decisions and calculations. This monograph shows how Soviet leaders were often hobbled by a poor understanding of what was happening in the United States, but it also demonstrates that Americans, too, had a weak grasp of what was happening in Moscow, before and after Mikhail Gorbachev came to power. The misunderstandings on both sides were a symptom of the deepest chasm of the Cold War and A Memoir of the Missile Age provides a valuable key with which to open the Soviet black box.
A Memoir of the Warsaw Uprising
by Madeline G. Levine Miron BialoszewskiOn August 1, 1944, Miron Białoszewski, later to gain renown as one of Poland's most innovative poets, went out to run an errand for his mother and ran into history. With Soviet forces on the outskirts of Warsaw, the Polish capital revolted against five years of Nazi occupation, an uprising that began in a spirit of heroic optimism. Sixty-three days later it came to a tragic end. The Nazis suppressed the insurgents ruthlessly, reducing Warsaw to rubble while slaughtering some 200,000 people, mostly through mass executions. The Red Army simply looked on.Białoszewski's blow-by-blow account of the uprising brings it alive in all its desperate urgency. Here we are in the shoes of a young man slipping back and forth under German fire, dodging sniper bullets, collapsing with exhaustion, rescuing the wounded, burying the dead. An indispensable and unforgettable act of witness, A Memoir of the Warsaw Uprising is also a major work of literature. Białoszewski writes in short, stabbing, splintered, breathless sentences attuned to "the glaring identity of 'now.'" His pages are full of a white-knuckled poetry that resists the very destruction it records.Madeline G. Levine has extensively revised her 1977 translation, and passages that were unpublishable in Communist Poland have been restored.the force of the inhuman Nazi machine could not--and cannot--obliterate.
A Mended and Broken Heart: The Life and Love of Francis of Assisi
by MurrayFrancis of Assisi is Catholicism's most popular saint. Tens of millions of spiritual seekers summon his name and example. But the real Francis-both his complicated personality and his complex theology-have been misunderstood for centuries. In 1228, Pope Gregory IX rushed to canonize St. Francis only two years after his death. Soon thereafter, the Church eliminated significant aspects of his biography from the public record. For Francis's early life was defined by his profligacy; shortly before dying, Francis himself warned his brothers: "Don't be too quick to canonize me. I am perfectly capable of fathering a child. " In A Mended and Broken Heart, journalist Wendy Murray slices through the bowdlerized version of Francis's life promoted within the Catholic tradition and reveals instead a saint who was in every way also a real man. Murray stresses in particular the crucial but completely neglected role that Clare of Assisi played in Francis's life, both pre- and postconversion, and his theology. A profoundly humane portrait of a misunderstood saint, A Mended and Broken Heart makes a powerful case that St. Francis's life and thought make him a role model for religious seekers of every faith.
A Mending at the Edge: A Novel (Change and Cherish #3)
by Jane Kirkpatrick"Of all the things I left in Willapa, hope is what I missed the most. " So begins this story of one woman's restoration from personal grief to the meaning of community. Based on the life of German-American Emma Wagner Giesy, the only woman sent to the Oregon Territory in the 1850s to help found a communal society, award-winning author Jane Kirkpatrick shows how landscape, relationships, spirituality and artistry poignantly reflect a woman's desire to weave a unique and meaningful legacy from the threads of an ordinary life. While set in the historical past, it's a story for our own time answering the question:Can threads of an isolated life weave a legacy of purpose in community?
A Mennonite in Russia
by Harvey L. DyckIn the lives of ordinary people are the truths of history. Such truths abound in the diaries of Jacob Epp, a Russian Mennonite school-teacher, lay minister, farmer, and village secretary in southern Ukraine. This abridged translation of his diaries offers a remarkably vivid picture of Mennonite community life in Imperial Russia during a period of troubled change. Epp's writings reveal a skilled and honest diarist of deep feelings, and tell a human story that no conventional historical account could hope to equal.The diaries overflow with the details of his workaday world. Family, village, church, and community routines are broken by trips to market, visits to other Mennonite settlements, and a memorable steamer voyage to boomtown Odessa on the Black Sea. He chronicles his long-time involvement in an unusual Imperial experiment in which Mennonites were "model farmers" in Jewish villages.Harvey L. Dyck places the diaries in their historical, ethnocultural, social, religious, economic, and political settings. Based on archival research, interviews, travels, and consultations with other scholars, his detailed and perceptive introduction and analysis trace Jacob Epp's life and present a sketch and interpretation of his larger family, community, and Imperial world.With striking clarity the diaries and introduction together re-create a time and way of life marked by controversy and flux. They reflect significant facets of the experience of ethno-religious minorities in Imperial Russia and of the development of the southern Ukrainian frontier. Above all, they fill significant missing pages of the great community-centred story of Russian Mennonite life.This book is richly illustrated with maps, black-and-white photographs, and watercolour paintings by Cornelius Hildebrand, Jacob Epp's former village school pupil and later brother-in-law.
A Metaphoric Mind: Selected Writings of Joseph Couture
by Ruth Couture Virginia McgowanDr. Joseph Couture (1930–2007), known affectionately as "Dr. Joe," stood at the centre of some of the greatest political, social, and intellectual struggles of Aboriginal peoples in contemporary Canada. A profound thinker and writer, as well as a gifted orator, he easily walked two paths, as a respected Elder and traditional healer and as an educational psychologist, one of the first Aboriginal people in Canada to receive a PhD. His work challenged and transformed long-held views of Canada's Indigenous peoples, and his vision and leadership gave direction to many of the current fields of Aboriginal scholarship. His influence extended into numerous areas—education, addictions and mental health treatment, community development, restorative justice, and federal correctional programming for Aboriginal peoples. With a foreword by Lewis Cardinal, A Metaphoric Mind brings together for the first time key works selected from among Dr. Joe's writings, published and unpublished. Spanning nearly thirty years, the essays invite us to share in his transformative legacy through a series of encounters, with Aboriginal spirituality and ancestral ways of knowing, with Elders and their teachings, with education and its role in politicization, self-determination, and social change, and with the restorative process and the meaning of Native healing.
A Middle East Mosaic
by Bernard LewisHarris (political science, U. of Otago, New Zealand) outlines the history of the eastern Mediterranean littoral now occupied by Israel, Palestine, Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, and Turkey. After setting out its strategic geography, he narrates the periods of Rome, Islam, Byzantium, crusaders, Mamluks, and Ottomans. Then he discusses the 20th century. He includes a glossary without pronunciation guides. Only names are indexed. Annotation (c)2003 Book News, Inc. , Portland, OR (booknews. com)
A Midwife's Tale: The Life of Martha Ballard, Based on Her Diary, 1785-1812 (Sparknotes Literature Guide Ser.)
by Laurel Thatcher UlrichPULITZER PRIZE WINNER • Drawing on the diaries of one woman in eighteenth-century Maine, "A truly talented historian unravels the fascinating life of a community that is so foreign, and yet so similar to our own" (The New York Times Book Review).Between 1785 and 1812 a midwife and healer named Martha Ballard kept a diary that recorded her arduous work (in 27 years she attended 816 births) as well as her domestic life in Hallowell, Maine. On the basis of that diary, Laurel Thatcher Ulrich gives us an intimate and densely imagined portrait, not only of the industrious and reticent Martha Ballard but of her society. At once lively and impeccably scholarly, A Midwife's Tale is a triumph of history on a human scale.
A Mighty Fortress: Lead Bomber Over Europe
by Chuck Alling&“In a fascinating way, Chuck Alling recalls his days as a pilot flying B-17s over Germany. He is truly a member of &‘The Greatest Generation&’&” (Former Pres. George H.W. Bush). A Mighty Fortress is the personal account of the captain and crew of a lead bomber in the enormous formation raids made by the Eighth Air Force during the last few months of the Second World War. It is an extraordinary tale of heroism and bravery on the part of the entire crew of just one B-17 amongst hundreds—but the one B-17 that meant most to them. Having flown twenty-seven missions before the war ended, Alling tells what it was like to be there, in the skies over enemy territory, constantly on the lookout for German fighters; of the enormity of some of the raids they were part of and the consequences for those on the ground; of the planes around them that fell out of the sky under enemy attack; of the horror and the determination to succeed. From a recipient of the Distinguished Flying Cross and the Air Medal with four Oak Leaf Clusters, this book gives a unique insight into the lives of one crew of one plane as the war neared its end.
A Mighty Heart: The Brave Life and Death of My Husband, Danny Pearl
by Sarah Crichton Mariane PearlFor five weeks the world waited for news about Danny Pearl, the Wall Street Journal reporter who was kidnapped in Karachi, Pakistan... And then came the broadcast of his shocking murder. The complete account of his abduction, the intense effort to rescue him, and the aftermath are told here-- in astonishing detail, and with courage and insight-- by his surviving wife, Mariane. A Mighty Heart is the unforgettable story of two journalists who fell in love with their work-- and with each other. Together, Mariane and Danny Pearl traveled across the globe, dedicated to journalism that increases the understanding of international politics and of ethnic and religious conflict. In the end, Danny was caught in the dangerous fissure where warring cultures, politics, and ideologies collide. A Mighty Heart is both a portrait of a partnership built on the ideals of love, truth, and justice and a critical look at the methods and structure of the Al Qaeda network.
A Mighty Long Way (Adapted for Young Readers): My Journey to Justice at Little Rock Central High School
by Carlotta Walls LaNier Lisa Frazier PageFollow the story of Carlotta Walls LaNier, who in 1957 at the age of fourteen was one of nine black students who integrated the all-white Little Rock Central High School and became known as the Little Rock Nine.At fourteen years old, Carlotta Walls was the youngest member of the Little Rock Nine. The journey to integration in a place deeply against it would not be not easy. Yet Carlotta, her family, and the other eight students and their families answered the call to be part of the desegregation order issued by the US Supreme Court in its 1954 Brown v. Board of Education case. As angry mobs protested, the students were escorted into Little Rock Central High School by escorts from the 101st Airborne Division, which had been called in by then-president Dwight D. Eisenhower to ensure their safety. The effort needed to get through that first year in high school was monumental, but Carlotta held strong. Ultimately, she became the first Black female ever to walk across the Central High stage and receive a diploma. The Little Rock Nine experienced traumatic and life-changing events not only as a group but also as individuals, each with a distinct personality and a different story. This is Carlotta's courageous story.
A Mighty Long Way: My Journey to Justice at Little Rock Central High School
by Carlotta Walls Lanier Lisa Frazier PageWhen fourteen-year-old Carlotta Walls walked up the stairs of Little Rock Central High School on September 25, 1957, she and eight other black students only wanted to make it to class. But the journey of the Little Rock Nine,o as they came to be known, would lead the nation on an even longer and much more turbulent path, one that would challenge prevailing attitudes, break down barriers, and forever change the landscape of America. Descended from a line of proud black landowners and businessmen, Carlotta was raised to believe that education was the key to success. She embraced learning and excelled in her studies at the black schools she attended throughout the 1950s. With Brown v. Board of Education erasing the color divide in classrooms across the country, the teenager volunteered to be among the first black studentsuof whom she was the youngestuto integrate nearby Central High School, considered one of the nation's best academic institutions. But for Carlotta and her eight comrades, simply getting through the door was the first of many trials. Angry mobs of white students and their parents hurled taunts, insults, and threats. Arkansas's governor used the National Guard to bar the black students from entering the school. Finally, President Dwight D. Eisenhower was forced to send in the 101st Airborne to establish order and escort the Nine into the building. That was just the start of a heartbreaking three-year journey for Carlotta, who would see her home bombed, a crime for which her own father was a suspect and for which a friend of Carlotta's was ultimately jailedualbeit wrongly, in Carlotta's eyes. But she persevered to the victorious end: her graduation from Central. Breaking her silence at last and sharing her story for the first time, Carlotta Walls has written an inspiring, thoroughly engrossing memoir that is not only a testament to the power of one to make a difference but also of the sacrifices made by families and communities that found themselves a part of history. Complete with compelling photographs of the time, A Mighty Long Way shines a light on this watershed moment in civil rights history and shows that determination, fortitude, and the ability to change the world are not exclusive to a few special people but are inherent within us all.
A Mighty Purpose
by Adam FifieldThe inspiring story of how the iconoclastic humanitarian Jim Grant succeeded in saving the lives of tens of millions of children through his extraordinary ability to win over world leaders Nicholas Kristof hailed Jim Grant as a man who "probably saved more lives than were destroyed by Hitler, Mao, and Stalin combined." Nominated by President Jimmy Carter to head UNICEF, Grant ran the United Nations agency from 1980 to 1995 and became the most powerful advocate for children the world has ever seen. To ensure that even children trapped by war received health care and immunizations, he brokered humanitarian ceasefires by exploiting the political self-interests of presidents and warlords alike. Grant at first met fierce resistance at the United Nations and in his own organization, and some thought his ideas were crazy and dangerous. But as he kept toppling obstacle after obstacle, he eventually won over even his most stubborn detractors. Grant spearheaded a historic surge in worldwide childhood immunization rates and launched a movement that profoundly altered the face of global health and international development.