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Long Shot
by Sylvia HarrisSeabiscuit meets Manic when Sylvia Harris, a single mother crippled by her struggles with bipolar depression, discovers the healing, calming effect of horses. Alcohol. Lithium. Buddhist chanting. To quiet the voices in her mind, Sylvia Harris tried all of the above. At times, her manic behavior led her to dress up as a cowgirl and show off her imaginary rope skills in the middle of a quaint Northern California village, or spend the night in a torpor of fear awaiting the alien invasion she knew was on the horizon. At its worst, it led her to look for love in all the wrong places and create a family she had difficulty caring for. Although she sometimes found temporary relief and brief moments of calm, darkness always followed. At the nadir of her twenty-year battle with bipolar depression, Harris found salvation in the most unlikely of places: Cardinal Farm, an equine ranch outside of Orlando, Florida. Harris had always been drawn to animals, but she had no idea of the healing power she would discover while working with horses. And though she still experienced raging highs and destabilizing lows, eventually-through grooming, caring for, and, against all odds, racing horses-she was able to find stability and, ultimately, joy. With an unflinching eye toward her weaknesses and the pain that her life decisions have inflicted on others, Harris examines the ravaging power of her bipolar behavior and the magical power of horses, showing us how the mythic interspecies connection between humans and these magnificent animals continues to astonish and inspire.
Long Shot: Never Too Small to Dream Big
by Chris PaulNBA star Chris Paul tells of being one of the shortest 8-year-olds trying out for the team, and how he didn't let that adversity stop him.
Long Shot
by Mike Piazza Lonnie WheelerMike Piazza was selected by the Los Angeles Dodgers in the 62nd round of the 1988 baseball draft as a "courtesy pick." The Dodgers never expected him to play for them--or anyone else. Mike had other ideas. Overcoming his detractors, he became the National League rookie of the year in 1993, broke the record for season batting average by a catcher, holds the record for career home runs at his position, and was selected as an All Star twelve times. Mike was groomed for baseball success by his ambitious, self-made father in Pennsylvania, a classic father-son American-dream story. With the Dodgers, Piazza established himself as baseball's premier offensive catcher; but the team never seemed willing to recognize him as the franchise player he was. He joined the Mets and led them to the memorable 2000 World Series with their cross-town rivals, the Yankees. Mike tells the story behind his dramatic confrontation with Roger Clemens in that series. He addresses the steroid controversy that hovered around him and Major League Baseball during his time and provides valuable perspective on the subject. Mike also addresses the rumors of being gay and describes the thrill of his game-winning home run on September 21, 2001, the first baseball game played in New York after the 9/11 tragedy. Along the way, he tells terrific stories about teammates and rivals that baseball fans will devour. Long Shot is written with insight, candor, humor, and charm. It's surprising and inspiring, one of the great sports autobiographies.
Long Shot: The Triumphs and Struggles of an NBA Freedom Fighter
by Dave Zirin Rory Fanning Craig HodgesFrom Michael Jordan to George Bush Sr. Craig Hodges has never been shy about speaking truth to power. In this well-told, passionate, and historically literate memoir Hodges, a two-time NBA champion and world famous three-point shooter, shares the triumphs and struggles of a life long quest to improve the condition of the Black community.
A Long Silence: Memories of a German Refugee Child 1941-1958
by Sabina De Werth NeuAfter more than sixty years, the nightmarish sufferings of so many victims of Germany's Nazi regime have been documented extensively. Rarely, however, does one hear about the experiences of German children during World War II. Coming of age amidst the chaos, brutality, and destruction of war in their homeland, they had no understanding of what was happening around them and often suffered severe trauma and physical abuse. They too became victims of the madness perpetrated by the totalitarian state. This haunting memoir tells the riveting story of one such German child. Born in Berlin in 1941, Sabina de Werth Neu knew little during her earliest years except the hardships and fear of a war refugee. She and her two sisters and mother were often on the run and sometimes homeless in the bombed-out cities of wartime Germany. At times they lived in near-starvation conditions. And as the Allies stormed through the crumbling German defenses, the mother and children were raped and beaten by marauding Russian soldiers. After the war, like so many Germans, they wrapped themselves in a cloak of deafening silence about their recent national and personal history, determined to forget the past. The result was that Sabina spent much of her time wrestling with shame and bouts of crippling depression. Finally, after decades of silence, she could no longer suppress the memories and began reconstructing her young life by writing down what had previously seemed unspeakable. Illustrated by vintage black-and-white family photographs, the book is filled with poignant scenes: her abused but courageous mother desperately trying to protect her children through the worst, the sickening horror of viewing Holocaust footage on newsreels shortly after the war, the welcome sight of American troops bringing hot meals to local schools, and the glimmer of hope finally offered by the Marshall Plan, which the author feels was crucial to her own survival and that of Germany as a whole. This book not only recalls the experiences of a now-distant war, but also brings to mind the disrupting realities of present-day refugee children. There is perhaps no more damning indictment of war than to read about its effects on children, its helpless victims.
The Long Snapper: A Second Chance, a Super Bowl, a Lesson for Life
by Jeffrey MarxWritten by Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Jeffrey Marx, The Long Snapper chronicles one of the most improbable and inspirational sports stories of our time. Marx, the New York Times bestselling author of Season of Life, tells of Brian Kinchen’s remarkable journey from Bible teacher to New England Patriot to Super Bowl champion in this transcendent tale of football and faith.
Long Storm
by Ernest HaycoxHIS FAMOUS NOVEL OF THE CIVIL WAR—THE BLOODY STRUGGLE FOR THE RICHES OF THE WILD NORTHWEST AND THE DESPERATE FIGHT OF A MAN AND WOMAN TO HOLD IT FOR THE UNION.IN THE CIVIL WAR the Copperheads almost took over the state of Oregon. Big Adam Musick, river-boat pilot, went out to stop them.He caught Ringrose, the Copperhead leader, holed up in a dark warehouse beside the flooding river.“I came to get you, Ringrose,” Musick said.“God damn you!” Ringrose shouted. The floor jumped as his gun went off, and Musick felt the heat of the bullet. Then he tackled Ringrose around the knees and they went crashing together down the flimsy stairway into the waist-deep water.Musick was on top of his enemy, choking him, holding him under to drown. Ringrose was everything he hated. Then he remembered. This wasn’t just his fight. This was his country’s war and Ringrose should hang for a traitor, not die by one man’s hand.“LONG STORM—HAYCOX AT HIS BEST!”—The New York Times“The Old Frontier, the rough-and-ready life of the times—the historical novel at its best!”—BOSTON HERALDTHROUGH THE LONG STORM OF THE CIVIL WAR, THE FOUR SAVAGE YEARS THAT SPLIT THE UNION, THE RICH NORTHWEST WAS A DEFENSELESS PRIZE FOR EITHER NORTH OR SOUTHPortland, Oregon, was a town with five thousand inhabitants and fifty-five saloons, high-toned hotels and brothels, gaudy girl-shows and a fancy residential section, plank sidewalks and mud streets.Every day more gold prospectors poured into town, and with them came guns and secret agents from the Confederacy, supplies from the Copperheads who were determined to turn Oregon into a slave state. Only one man, Adam Musick, tough riverboat captain, saw the danger to the Union cause...Ernest Haycox, all-time great writer of the Old West, gives us this big, full-bodied novel, crammed with action and people...
A Long Strange Trip: The Inside History of the Grateful Dead
by Dennis McnallyThe complete history of one of the most long-lived and legendary bands in rock history, written by its official historian and publicist--a must-have chronicle for all Dead Heads, and for students of rock and the 1960s' counterculture. From 1965 to 1995, the Grateful Dead flourished as one of the most beloved, unusual, and accomplished musical entities to ever grace American culture. The creative synchronicity among Jerry Garcia, Bob Weir, Phil Lesh, Bill Kreutzmann, Mickey Hart, and Ron "Pigpen" McKernan exploded out of the artistic ferment of the early sixties' roots and folk scene, providing the soundtrack for the Dionysian revels of the counterculture. To those in the know, the Dead was an ongoing tour de force: a band whose constant commitment to exploring new realms lay at the center of a thirty-year journey through an ever-shifting array of musical, cultural, and mental landscapes. Dennis McNally, the band's historian and publicist for more than twenty years, takes readers back through the Dead's history in A Long Strange Trip. In a kaleidoscopic narrative, McNally not only chronicles their experiences in a fascinatingly detailed fashion, but veers off into side trips on the band's intricate stage setup, the magic of the Grateful Dead concert experience, or metaphysical musings excerpted from a conversation among band members. He brings to vivid life the Dead's early days in late-sixties San Francisco--an era of astounding creativity and change that reverberates to this day. Here we see the group at its most raw and powerful, playing as the house band at Ken Kesey's acid tests, mingling with such legendary psychonauts as Neal Cassady and Owsley "Bear" Stanley, and performing the alchemical experiments, both live and in the studio, that produced some of their most searing and evocative music. But McNally carries the Dead's saga through the seventies and into the more recent years of constant touring and incessant musical exploration, which have cemented a unique bond between performers and audience, and created the business enterprise that is much more a family than a corporation. Written with the same zeal and spirit that the Grateful Dead brought to its music for more than thirty years, the book takes readers on a personal tour through the band's inner circle, highlighting its frenetic and very human faces. A Long Strange Trip is not only a wide-ranging cultural history, it is a definitive musical biography.
The Long Surrender
by Burke DavisA panoramic and spellbinding history of the last days of the Confederacy and the flight, capture, and imprisonment of Jefferson Davis In April 1865, Richmond fell to the Union army and Gen. Robert E. Lee surrendered to his Northern counterpart, Ulysses S. Grant, at the Appomattox Court House. But the Civil War was far from over. Determined to keep Confederate dreams of secession alive, President Jefferson Davis and his cabinet fled the burning capital city. With Union troops in pursuit, the fugitives rallied loyalists across the South and made plans to escape to Cuba. In the aftermath of President Abraham Lincoln's assassination, a $100,000 bounty was placed on Davis's head. Finally captured in Irwinville, Georgia, the former US senator and secretary of war became a prisoner of the American government. The harsh treatment he received would inflame tensions between North and South for years to come. Meticulously researched and brilliantly told, The Long Surrender brings these dramatic events to vivid, unforgettable life and paints a fascinating portrait of Davis, one of history's most enigmatic figures. By shining a light on this forgotten chapter of the Civil War, bestselling author Burke Davis examines the lasting impact of America's bloodiest conflict on the national character.
Long, Tall Lincoln (I Can Read Level 2)
by Jennifer DusslingAbraham Lincoln didn’t look like a president. He didn’t always act like a president, either—he liked to wrestle with his sons and tell jokes. But he always fought for fairness, freedom, and unity.Beginning readers will learn about the milestones in Abraham Lincoln’s life in this Level Two I Can Read biography, which combines a traditional, illustrated narrative with historical photographs at the back of book. Complete with a timeline, photographs, and little-known facts about the United States’ sixteenth president: the long and tall Abraham Lincoln.Long, Tall Lincoln is a Level Two I Can Read, geared for kids who read on their own but still need a little help.
Long Tall Lincoln (I Can Read Level 2 Ser.)
by Jennifer DusslingAbraham Lincoln didn't look like a president. He didn't always act like a president, either-he liked to wrestle with his sons and tell jokes. But he always fought for fairness, freedom, and unity. Beginning readers will learn about the milestones in Abraham Lincoln's life in this Level Two I Can Read biography, which combines a traditional, illustrated narrative with historical photographs at the back of book. Complete with a timeline, photographs, and little-known facts about the United States' sixteenth president: the long and tall Abraham Lincoln. Long, Tall Lincoln is a Level Two I Can Read, geared for kids who read on their own but still need a little help.
A Long Time Coming: A Lyrical Biography of Race in America from Ona Judge to Barack Obama
by Ray Anthony ShepardThis YA biography-in-verse of six important Black Americans from different eras, including Ona Judge, Frederick Douglass, Harriet Tubman, Ida B. Wells, Martin Luther King Jr., and Barack Obama, chronicles the diverse ways each fought racism and shows how much—and how little—has changed for Black Americans since our country&’s founding.Full of daring escapes, deep emotion, and subtle lessons on how racism operates, A LONG TIME COMING reveals the universal importance of its subjects&’ struggles for justice. From freedom seeker Ona Judge, who fled her enslavement by America&’s first president, to Barack Obama, the first Black president, all of Shepard&’s protagonists fight valiantly for justice for themselves and all Black Americans in any way that they can. But it is also a highly personal book, as Shepard — whose maternal grandfather was enslaved — shows how the grand sweep of history has touched his life, reflecting on how much progress has been made against racism, while also exhorting readers to complete the vast work that remains to be done.
Long Time Leaving: Dispatches from Up South
by Roy Blount Jr.In this irreverent, eminently quotable book, Roy Blount Jr. focuses on his own dueling loyalties across the great American divide. Scholarly, biting, raunchy, and affable, Blount's musings may not end our Civil War, but they do clarify and aptly complicate divisive delusions on both sides of the longstanding national rift. A comic ode to American variety, Long Time Leaving is an assault on Northern and Southern complacency from one of the most celebrated essayists of our time.
Long Time, No See
by Beth FinkeLong Time, No See is certainly an inspiring story, but Beth Finke does not aim to inspire. Eschewing reassuring platitudes and sensational pleas for sympathy, she charts her struggles with juvenile diabetes, blindness, and a host of other hardships, sharing her feelings of despair and frustration as well as her hard-won triumphs. Rejecting the label "courageous," she prefers to describe herself using the phrase her mother invoked in times of difficulty: "She did what she had to do." With unflinching candor and acerbic wit, Finke chronicles the progress of the juvenile diabetes that left her blind at the age of twenty-six as well as the seemingly endless spiral of adversity that followed. First she was forced out of her professional job. Then she bore a multiply handicapped son. But she kept moving forward, confronting marital and financial problems and persevering through a rocky training period with a seeing-eye dog. Finke's life story and her commanding knowledge of her situation give readers a clear understanding of diabetes, blindness, and the issues faced by parents of children with significant disabilities. Because she has taken care to include accurate medical information as well as personal memoir, Long Time, No See serves as an excellent resource for others in similar situations and for professionals who deal with disabled adults or children.
Long Time, No See
by Beth FinkeLong Time, No See is certainly an inspiring story, but Beth Finke does not aim to inspire. Eschewing reassuring platitudes and sensational pleas for sympathy, she charts her struggles with juvenile diabetes, blindness, and a host of other hardships, sharing her feelings of despair and frustration as well as her hard-won triumphs. Rejecting the label "courageous," she prefers to describe herself using the phrase her mother invoked in times of difficulty: "She did what she had to do. " With unflinching candor and acerbic wit, Finke chronicles the progress of the juvenile diabetes that left her blind at the age of twenty-six as well as the seemingly endless spiral of adversity that followed. First she was forced out of her professional job. Then she bore a multiply handicapped son. But she kept moving forward, confronting marital and financial problems and persevering through a rocky training period with a seeing-eye dog. Finke's life story and her commanding knowledge of her situation give readers a clear understanding of diabetes, blindness, and the issues faced by parents of children with significant disabilities. Because she has taken care to include accurate medical information as well as personal memoir, Long Time, No See serves as an excellent resource for others in similar situations and for professionals who deal with disabled adults or children.
The Long Trail: My Life in the West
by Ian TysonA Canadian icon on his longstanding love of the West and his life in "one of the last true cowboy countries on either side of the border.""I live on a ranch about six miles east of the town of Longview and the old Cowboy Trail in the foothills of the Rockies. On a perfect day, like today, I can't imagine being anywhere else in the world. Of course, I'm not going to say there aren't those other days when you think, 'What am I doing here?' It's beautiful country and it can be brutally tough as well." --Ian TysonIan Tyson's journey to the West began in the unlikely city of Victoria, BC, where he rode his dad's horses on the weekends and met cowboys in the pages of Will James's books, and eventually followed that cowboy dream to rodeo competition. Laid up after breaking a leg, he learned the guitar, and drifted east, becoming a key songwriter and performer in the folk revival movement. But the West always beckoned, and when his marriage to his partner and collaborator Sylvia broke up and the music scene threatened to grind him down, he retreated to a ranch and work with cutting horses. Soon, he'd bought a ranch in Alberta and found a new voice as the renowned Western Revival singer-songwriter and horseman he is today. This book is Ian's reflection on that journey...From the Hardcover edition.
Long Train Runnin': Our Story of The Doobie Brothers
by Pat Simmons Tom JohnstonFor the first time, the incredible true story of the legendary band, The Doobie Brothers, written by founding members Pat Simmons and Tom Johnston.Only a very few rock bands have had the longevity, success, and drama of The Doobie Brothers. Born out of late 1960s NorCal, and led by Pat Simmons and Tom Johnston, they stood alongside their contemporaries The Grateful Dead, The Allman Brothers, and many others as an iconic American rock band. The train was rolling along, hits were flowing like wine, and arenas were packed with fans who wanted to see them live...then Tom Johnston, the band’s front man and lead guitarist, became ill and had to leave.The Doobies' train came to a screeching halt. All of a sudden the band started contemplating the end of the road only seven years into their career, just as things were taking off. But Pat Simmons made sure they were far from the end and began the process of keeping the band together through most of the next decade.A soul-steeped backup singer for Steely Dan named Michael McDonald took a shot at singing some of the Doobies' songs on tour, and all of a sudden a new chapter in the Doobie Brothers' story began. The band expanded their sound and had even more hits with their new front addition. Tom recovered from his health issues, but the band had moved on. When it came time for a reunion concert in the ’80s, Tom got the call and was back in the mix. Led once again by Pat and Tom, The Doobie Brothers have been touring ever since and maintain a massive fan base the world over.Never before have Pat and Tom shared their story, in their own words. In Long Train Runnin’ they’ll change that.
The Long Voyage
by Malcolm CowleyCritic, poet, editor, chronicler of the "lost generation," and elder statesman of the Republic of Letters, Malcolm Cowley (1898-1989) was an eloquent witness to much of twentieth-century American literary and political life. These letters, the vast majority previously unpublished, provide an indelible self-portrait of Cowley and his time, and make possible a full appreciation of his long and varied career. Perhaps no other writer aided the careers of so many poets and novelists. Faulkner, Fitzgerald, Hemingway, Kerouac, Tillie Olsen, and John Cheever are among the many authors Cowley knew and whose work he supported. A poet himself, Cowley enjoyed the company of writers and knew how to encourage, entertain, and when necessary scold them. At the center of his epistolary life were his friendships with Kenneth Burke, Allen Tate, Conrad Aiken, and Edmund Wilson. By turns serious and thoughtful, humorous and gossipy, Cowley's letters to these and other correspondents display his keen literary judgment and ability to navigate the world of publishing. The letters also illuminate Cowley's reluctance to speak out against Stalin and the Moscow Trials when he was on staff at The New Republic--and the consequences of his agonized evasions. His radical past would continue to haunt him into the Cold War era, as he became caught up in the notorious "Lowell Affair" and was summoned to testify in the Alger Hiss trials. Hans Bak supplies helpful notes and a preface that assesses Cowley's career, and Robert Cowley contributes a moving foreword about his father.
A Long Voyage to the Moon: The Life of Naval Aviator and Apollo 17 Astronaut Ron Evans (Outward Odyssey: A People's History of Spaceflight)
by Geoffrey BowmanAs command module pilot of Apollo 17, the last crewed flight to the moon, Ron Evans combined precision flying and painstaking geological observation with moments of delight and enthusiasm. On his way to the launchpad, he literally jumped for joy in his spacesuit. Emerging from the command module to conduct his crucial spacewalk, he exclaimed, &“Hot diggity dog!&” and waved a greeting to his family. As a patriotic American in charge of command module America, Evans was nicknamed &“Captain America&” by his fellow crew members. Born in 1933 in St. Francis, Kansas, Evans distinguished himself academically and athletically in school, earned degrees in electrical engineering and aeronautical engineering, and became a naval aviator and a combat flight instructor. He was one of the few astronauts who served in combat during the Vietnam War, flying more than a hundred missions off the deck of the USS Ticonderoga, the same aircraft carrier that would recover him and his fellow astronauts after the splashdown of Apollo 17. Evans&’s astronaut career spans the Apollo missions and beyond. He served on the support crews for 1, 7, and 11 and on the Apollo 14 backup crew before being selected for Apollo 17 and flying on the final moon mission in 1972. He next trained with Soviet cosmonauts as backup command module pilot for the 1975 Apollo-Soyuz mission and carried out early work on the space shuttle program. Evans then left NASA to pursue a business career. He died suddenly in 1990 at the age of fifty-six.
The Long Walk: A Story of War and the Life That Follows
by Brian CastnerIn the tradition of Michael Herr's Dispatches and works by such masters of the memoir as Mary Karr and Tobias Wolff, a powerful account of war and homecoming.Brian Castner served three tours of duty in the Middle East, two of them as the commander of an Explosive Ordnance Disposal unit in Iraq. Days and nights he and his team--his brothers--would venture forth in heavily armed convoys from their Forward Operating Base to engage in the nerve-racking yet strangely exhilarating work of either disarming the deadly improvised explosive devices that had been discovered, or picking up the pieces when the alert came too late. They relied on an army of remote-controlled cameras and robots, but if that technology failed, a technician would have to don the eighty-pound Kevlar suit, take the Long Walk up to the bomb, and disarm it by hand. This lethal game of cat and mouse was, and continues to be, the real war within America's wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. But The Long Walk is not just about battle itself. It is also an unflinching portrayal of the toll war exacts on the men and women who are fighting it. When Castner returned home to his wife and family, he began a struggle with a no less insidious foe, an unshakable feeling of fear and confusion and survivor's guilt that he terms The Crazy. His thrilling, heartbreaking, stunningly honest book immerses the reader in two harrowing and simultaneous realities: the terror and excitement and camaraderie of combat, and the lonely battle against the enemy within--the haunting memories that will not fade, the survival instincts that will not switch off. After enduring what he has endured, can there ever again be such a thing as "normal"? The Long Walk will hook you from the very first sentence, and it will stay with you long after its final gripping page has been turned.From the Hardcover edition.
The Long Walk: The True Story of a Trek to Freedom
by Slavomir Rawicz"I hope "The Long Walk" will remain as a memorial to all those who live and die for freedom, and for all those who for many reasons could not speak for themselves." --Slavomir Rawicz In 1941, the author and six other fellow prisoners escaped a Soviet labor camp in Yakutsk--a camp where enduring hunger, cold, untended wounds, untreated illnesses, and avoiding daily executions were everyday feats. Their march--over thousands of miles by foot--out of Siberia, through China, the Gobi Desert, Tibet, and over the Himalayas to British India is a remarkable statement about man's desire to be free.
The Long Walk: The True Story of a Trek to Freedom
by Slavomir RawiczSlavomir Rawicz was a young Polish cavalry officer. On 19th November 1939 he was arrested by the Russians and after brutal interrogation he was sentenced to 25 years in the Gulags. After a three month journey to Siberia in the depths of winter he escaped with six companions, realising that to stay in the camp meant almost certain death. In June 1941 they crossed the trans-Siberian railway and headed south, climbing into Tibet and freedom nine months later in March 1942 after travelling on foot through some of the harshest regions in the world, including the Gobi Desert. First published in 1956, this is one of the world's greatest true stories of adventure, survival and escape, has been the inspiration for the film The Way Back, directed by Peter Weir and starring Colin Farrell and Ed Harris.
The Long Walk: The True Story of a Trek to Freedom
by Slavomir Rawicz'I hope The Long Walk will remain as a memorial to all those who live and die for freedom, and for all those who for many reasons could not speak for themselves'Slavomir RawiczSlavomir Rawicz was a young Polish cavalry officer. On 19 November 1939 he was arrested by the Russians and after brutal interrogation he was sentenced to twenty-five years in a gulag.After a three-month journey in the dead of winter to Siberia, life in a Soviet labour camp meant enduring hunger, extreme cold, untreated wounds and illnesses and facing the daily risk of arbitrary execution. Realising that to remain meant almost certain death, Rawicz, along with six companions, escaped. In June 1941, they crossed the trans-Siberian railway and headed south, climbing into Tibet and freedom in British India nine months later, in March 1942, having travelled over four thousand miles on foot through some of the harshest regions in the world, including the Gobi Desert, Tibet and the Himalayas.First published in 1956, this is one of the greatest true stories of escape, adventure and survival against all odds. In 2010, a film, The Way Back, based on the book, directed by six-time Academy Award-nominee Peter Weir (Master and Commander, The Truman Show, and The Dead Poets Society) was released. It starred Colin Farrell, Jim Sturgess and Ed Harris.
Long Walk Home: Reflections on Bruce Springsteen
by Natalie Adler Eric Alterman Regina Barreca Nancy Bishop Dermot Bolger Peter Ames Carlin Jefferson Cowie Jim Cullen Joel Dinerstein Gillian G. Gaar Martyn Joseph Deepa Iyer Greil Marcus Louis Masur Paul Muldoon Lauren Onkey Richard Russo A. O. Scott Colleen Sheehy Wesley Stace Frank Stefanko Irwin Streight Wayne Swan David L. Ulin Elijah Wald Daniel Wolff Kenneth WomackBruce Springsteen might be the quintessential American rock musician but his songs have resonated with fans from all walks of life and from all over the world. This unique collection features reflections from a diverse array of writers who explain what Springsteen means to them and describe how they have been moved, shaped, and challenged by his music. Contributors to Long Walk Home include novelists like Richard Russo, rock critics like Greil Marcus and Gillian Gaar, and other noted Springsteen scholars and fans such as A. O. Scott, Peter Ames Carlin, and Paul Muldoon. They reveal how Springsteen’s albums served as the soundtrack to their lives while also exploring the meaning of his music and the lessons it offers its listeners. The stories in this collection range from the tale of how “Growin’ Up” helped a lonely Indian girl adjust to life in the American South to the saga of a group of young Australians who turned to Born to Run to cope with their country’s 1975 constitutional crisis. These essays examine the big questions at the heart of Springsteen’s music, demonstrating the ways his songs have resonated for millions of listeners for nearly five decades. Commemorating the Boss’s seventieth birthday, Long Walk Home explores Springsteen’s legacy and provides a stirring set of testimonials that illustrate why his music matters.
Long Walk to Freedom: The Autobiography of Nelson Mandela
by Nelson MandelaNelson Mandela is one of the great moral and political leaders of our time: an international hero whose lifelong dedication to the fight against racial oppression in South Africa won him the Nobel Peace Prize and the presidency of his country. Since his triumphant release in 1990 from more than a quarter-century of imprisonment, Mandela has been at the center of the most compelling and inspiring political drama in the world. As president of the African National Congress and head of South Africa's antiapartheid movement, he was instrumental in moving the nation toward multiracial government and majority rule. He is revered everywhere as a vital force in the fight for human rights and racial equality.Long Walk to Freedom is his moving and exhilarating autobiography, a book destined to take its place among the finest memoirs of history's greatest figures. Here for the first time, Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela tells the extraordinary story of his life -- an epic of struggle, setback, renewed hope, and ultimate triumph, which has, until now, been virtually unknown to most of the world. The foster son of a Thembu chief, Mandela was raised in the traditional, tribal culture of his ancestors, but at an early age learned the modern, inescapable reality of what came to be called apartheid, one of the most powerful and effective systems of oppression ever conceived. In classically elegant and engrossing prose, he tells of his early years as an impoverished student and law clerk in Johannesburg, of his slow political awakening, and of his pivotal role in the rebirth of a stagnant ANC and the formation of its Youth League in the 1950s. He describes the struggle to reconcile his political activity with his devotion to his family, the anguished breakup of his first marriage, and the painful separations from his children. He brings vividly to life the escalating political warfare in the fifties between the ANC and the government, culminating in his dramatic escapades as an underground leader and the notorious Rivonia Trial of 1964, at which he was sentenced to life imprisonment. He recounts the surprisingly eventful twenty-seven years in prison and the complex, delicate negotiations that led both to his freedom and to the beginning of the end of apartheid. Finally he provides the ultimate inside account of the unforgettable events since his release that produced at last a free, multiracial democracy in South Africa. To millions of people around the world, Nelson Mandela stands, as no other living figure does, for the triumph of dignity and hope over despair and hatred, of self-discipline and love over persecution and evil. Long Walk to Freedom embodies that spirit in a book for all time.