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Loves of Yulian: Mother and Me, Part III
by Julian PadowiczLoves of Yulian is the poignant conclusion to the three-part memoir recounting the author's harrowing WWII escape from occupied Poland to America. After fleeing over the Carpathian Mountains into Hungary, eight-year-old Yulian and his resourceful but self-involved mother, Barbara, are on board a ship to Rio de Janeiro to await their turn for immigration to the United States. A former Warsaw socialite, Barbara has no marketable skills, only her looks, wits and courage. Paying their way by selling the diamonds she had concealed in her clothing, they land in Brazil with only the diamond engagement ring on her finger. Somehow, it must finance both their stay and eventual passage to New York.Yulian, a sensitive Jewish boy raised by an overprotective, devoutly Catholic nanny, has difficulty interacting with other children and concludes that God is punishing him for abandoning Judaism. Complicating matters, he falls in love with a beautiful, but significantly older, fellow refugee, Irenka, who has been hired to take him to the beach. When his mother meets a man she truly cares for, Yulian hopes he has finally found his long-sought-after father figure. But Barbara's European upper-class values clash with her suitor's Latin ardor, leaving Yulian in the middle of a misaligned courtship, which he desperately wants to set right.Eventually, Yulian resolves his spiritual issues with the help of a celebrated Polish poet and his own teddy bear. His ambitious mother, however, must choose between a man she truly loves and her future in America.
Love's Work
by Michael Wood Gillian RoseLove's Work is at once a memoir and a book of philosophy. Written by the English philosopher Gillian Rose as she was dying of cancer, it is a book about both the fallibility and endurance of love, love that becomes real and endures through an ongoing reckoning with its own limitations. Rose looks back on her childhood, the complications of her parents' divorce and her dyslexia, and her deep and divided feelings about what it means to be Jewish. She tells the stories of several friends also laboring under the sentence of death. From the sometimes conflicting vantage points of her own and her friends' tales, she seeks to work out (seeks, because the work can never be complete--to be alive means to be incomplete) a distinctive outlook on life, one that will do justice to our yearning both for autonomy and for connection to others. With droll self knowledge ("I am highly qualified in unhappy love affairs," Rose writes, "My earliest unhappy love affair was with Roy Rogers") and with unsettling wisdom ("To live, to love, is to be failed"), Rose has written a beautiful, tender, tough, and intricately wrought survival kit packed with necessary but unanswerable questions.
Lovesick Blues: The Life of Hank Williams
by Paul HemphillBiography of the quintessential country music singer and songwriter
Lovesick Blues
by Paul HemphillHank Williams is not just one of America's greatest songwriters but also one of the most enigmatic - a raw poet from the rolling pine woods of south Alabama whose anguished lyrics were celebrated from the clamorous roadhouses of the Deep South all the way to Carnegie Hall. It was a wonder that Hiram ('Hank') Williams ever made it to adulthood at all. Unschooled, virtually fatherless, an alcoholic by his early teens and unlucky in love, Hank was destined for a life in the sawmills and the railyards until he began writing about what he saw and felt. His songs ran the gamut - unrequited love, honky-tonking, loneliness - and they played as well in the fighting and dancing clubs spread across the American outback as on television's 'Your Hit Parade'. He was country, but he wasn't, dozens of his titles crossing over to the pop charts in a career that lasted only six years. He died as he had lived: drunk and drugged, alone in the back seat of a Cadillac convertible, an outcast being chauffered through the snow and ice to play a gig on New Year's Day of 1953, gone at the age of twenty-nine. Paul Hemphill, born and raised in Alabama, has written a fascinating interpretative biography of Hank Williams, with the kind of soul and understanding that other books about him have lacked. Whence the pain and despair? Why the booze and pills? Where did his genius come from? How did he know everything he wrote about? These are the questions it seeks to answer.
Lovesong: Becoming a Jew
by Julius LesterJulius Lester was born the son of a black Methodist minister in the south. His book Lovesong is a beautifully written account of his spiritual journey away from the conventions of his Southern heritage and Methodist upbringing, culminating in his personal self-discovery through a conversion to Judaism.Growing up in the turbulent civil rights era South, Lester was often discouraged by the disconnectedness between the promises of religion and the realities of his life. He used the outlets available to him to try to come to grips with this split and somehow reconcile the injustices he was witnessing with the purity of religion. He became a controversial writer and commentator, siding with neither blacks nor whites in his unconventional viewpoints. He became a luminal figure of the times, outside of the conventional labels of race, religion, politics, or philosophy.Lester's spiritual quest would take him through the existential landscape of his Southern, Christian upbringing, into his ancestry, winding through some of the holiest places on the planet and into the spiritual depths of the world's major religious cultures. His odyssey of faith would unexpectedly lead him to discovering Judaism as his true spiritual calling.
Lovie: The Story of a Southern Midwife and an Unlikely Friendship (Documentary Arts and Culture, Published in association with the Center for Documentary Studies at Duke University)
by Lisa YargerFrom 1950 to 2001, Lovie Beard Shelton practiced midwifery in eastern North Carolina homes, delivering some 4,000 babies to black, white, Mennonite, and hippie women; to those too poor to afford a hospital birth; and to a few rich enough to have any kind of delivery they pleased. Her life, which was about giving life, was conspicuously marked by loss, including the untimely death of her husband and the murder of her son.Lovie is a provocative chronicle of Shelton's life and work, which spanned enormous changes in midwifery and in the ways women give birth. In this artful exploration of documentary fieldwork, Lisa Yarger confronts the choices involved in producing an authentic portrait of a woman who is at once loner and self-styled folk hero. Fully embracing the difficulties of telling a true story, Yarger is able to get at the story of telling the story. As Lovie describes her calling, we meet a woman who sees herself working in partnership with God and who must wrestle with the question of what happens when a woman who has devoted her life to service, to doing God's work, ages out of usefulness. When I'm no longer a midwife, who am I? Facing retirement and a host of health issues, Lovie attempts to fit together the jagged pieces of her life as she prepares for one final home birth.
Lovin' Bloom
by Heather KranenburgWith his stunning good looks and dreamy brown eyes, British heartthrob Orlando Bloom has captured Hollywood’s spotlight—and the adoration of girls everywhere. After his award-winning performance in the Lord of the Rings trilogy, Orlando made audiences swoon as a swashbuckling hero in The Pirates of the Caribbean. What lies ahead for this handsome Brit? With lead roles in the upcoming films Troy and Kingdom of Heaven, Orlando is poised to bloom big-time. Yet how did this charming young man make it from the stages of London to movie screens around the world? Lovin’ Bloom traces Orlando’s path to superstardom. Along the way you’ll discover everything you’ve ever wanted to know—including his favorite sports, the music he craves, his Hollywood crushes, and behind-the-scenes info from his films. There’s little doubt why his legion of fans voted Orlando Bloom one of Teen People’s twenty-five hottest stars of 2002—and the best is yet to come! From the Paperback edition.
Loving Amy
by Janis Winehouse"Amy was one of those rare people who made an impact . . . She was a bundle of emotions, at times adorable and at times unbearable. . . . Amy's passing did not follow a clear line. It was jumbled, and her life was unfinished--not life's natural order at all. She left no answers, only questions, and in the years since her death I've found myself trying to make sense of the frayed ends of her extraordinary existence." Arguably the most gifted artist of her generation, Amy Winehouse died tragically young, aged just twenty-seven. With a worldwide fan base and millions of record sales to her name, she should have had the world at her feet. Yet in the years prior to her death, she battled with addiction and was frequently the subject of lurid tabloid headlines.Amy's mother, Janis, knew her in a way that no one else did. In this warm, poignant, and at times heartbreaking memoir, she tells the full story of the daughter she loved so much. As the world watched the rise of a superstar, then the free fall of an addict to her tragic death, Janis simply saw her Amy: the daughter she'd given birth to, the girl she'd raised and stood by despite her unruly behavior, the girl whose body she was forced to identify two days after her death--and the girl she's grieved for every day since. Including rare photographs and extracts from Amy's childhood journals, Loving Amy offers a new and intimate perspective on the life and untimely death of a musical icon.
Loving and Leaving a Church: A Pastor's Journey
by Barbara MeloshBarbara Melosh's story was a common one. A second-career seminarian, she arrived at her first pastorate brimming with enthusiasm and high hopes. The blue-collar congregation to which she'd been called had a glorious past but an uncertain future. Certain that she could turn around its slow yet undeniable slide into decline, Melosh inaugurated a number of church growth and outreach programs. Most of these efforts had little effect, and the ones that did seem to work soon suffered reverse outcomes and eventual demise. In the end, Melosh had to conclude that the members of the congregation liked their church the way it was and that she could not drag them into a future they did not want. <P><P> Yet while the congregation failed to change itself, Melosh notes, it succeeded in changing her. Simply put, it made her a pastor. At times heartbreaking and hilarious, Loving and Leaving a Church offers a glimpse into the challenges and opportunities of ministry in a mainline church.
Loving and Leaving the Good Life
by Helen NearingHelen and Scott Nearing, authors of "Living the Good Life" and many other bestselling books, lived together for 53 years until Scott's death at age 100. "Loving and Leaving the Good Life" is Helen's testimonial to their life together and to what they stood for: self-sufficiency, generosity, social justice, and peace. In 1932, after deciding it would be better to be poor in the country than in the city, Helen and Scott moved from New York City to Vermont. The Nearings moved to Maine in 1953, where they continued their hard physical work as homesteaders and their intense intellectual work promoting social justice. "Loving and Leaving the Good Life" is a vivid self-portrait of an independent, committed and gifted woman. It is also an eloquent statement of what it means to grow old and to face death quietly, peacefully, and in control. At 88, Helen seems content to be nearing the end of her good life. As she puts it, "To have partaken of and to have given love is the greatest of life's rewards. There seems never an end to the loving that goes on forever and ever. Loving and leaving are part of living. " Helen's death in 1995 at the age of 92 marks the end of an era. Yet as Helen writes in her remarkable memoir, "When one door closes, another opens. " As we search for a new understanding of the relationships between death and life, this book provides profound insights into the question of how we age and die.
Loving and Leaving Washington: Reflections on Public Service
by John YochelsonJohn Yochelson was seventeen when he first heard President Kennedy’s call, “Ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country.” Responding to the call to public service, he had a front-row seat from the mid-1970s through the mid-1990s, when the power game in Washington was played across party lines. Loving and Leaving Washington is his inside account of the lives of public servants from the perspective of a lifelong moderate. The Center for Strategic and International Studies brought Yochelson into close contact with such heavyweights as Henry Kissinger and Federal Reserve chairman Paul Volcker; work with the Council on Competitiveness kept him at the center of action. But the rise of bare-knuckled partisanship soured him on DC. In 2001 he left power politics to fight for a cause that he believed in, launching a San Diego–based nonprofit to increase the participation of women and underrepresented minorities in science and engineering. Funding realities and family ties, however, drew him back to the Beltway. The bittersweet experience of disengaging from and returning to Washington prompted Yochelson’s candid look at the loss of middle ground in U.S. politics and the decline of public trust in government. In this illuminating memoir, he reflects on the current generation’s dedication to their country and considers the rewards, limitations, and uncertain future of public service.
Loving and Losing You, Azaylia: My Inspirational Daughter and our Unbreakable Bond
by Safiyya Vorajee'Azaylia was guiding me every day and I loved being able to look up to the sky and tell her: "I want to be like you, Azaylia. You're my hero and my inspiration. You taught me this, princess. Thank you."'Safiyya Vorajee and Ashley Cain's beautiful baby daughter, Azaylia, was eight weeks old when she was diagnosed with leukaemia. Six months later, Azaylia's parents had to say their final goodbyes. Sharing her story in full for the first time, Safiyya hopes to bring comfort to others, to show mothers the strength they possess and to honour Azaylia's life in every way she can.
Loving before Loving: A Marriage in Black and White
by Joan Steinau LesterCommitted to the struggle for civil rights, in the late 1950s Joan Steinau marched and protested as a white ally and young woman coming to terms with her own racism. She fell in love and married a fellow activist, the Black writer Julius Lester, establishing a partnership that was long and multifaceted but not free of the politics of race and gender. As the women’s movement dawned, feminism helped Lester find her voice, her pansexuality, and the courage to be herself. Braiding intellectual, personal, and political history, Lester tells the story of a writer and activist fighting for love and justice before, during, and after the Supreme Court’s 1967 decision striking down bans on interracial marriage in Loving v. Virginia. She describes her own shifts in consciousness, from an activist climbing police barricades by day and reading and writing late into the night to a woman navigating the coming-out process in midlife, before finding the publishing success she had dreamed of. Speaking candidly about every facet of her life, Lester illuminates her journey to fulfillment and healing.
Loving Edie: How a Dog Afraid of Everything Taught Me to Be Brave
by Meredith MayFrom the author of The Honey Bus comes a wild and emotional memoir of family and self-discovery, featuring a lovable golden retriever named Edie Meredith May had a difficult childhood, with a mother who was physically present but emotionally absent. She learned early on to fend for herself, and never had to care for anyone else. When she and her wife, Jenn, adopt Edie, a sweet golden retriever puppy with saucer brown eyes and buttery white fur, Edie wins their hearts immediately. But it isn&’t long after Edie joins the family that the problems begin. Edie is an unusually anxious dog. She cowers around most people and the slightest noise sends her into a frenzy. Edie&’s fears become so intense that Meredith and Jenn can&’t leave the house. Is this normal puppy behavior or something more? Meredith grows determined to fix Edie, but what will she do if Edie can&’t be fixed? In this poignant and heartfelt memoir, Meredith shares her unforgettable journey with Edie, and the lessons about selflessness and unconditional love that she learns along the way. From treating Edie with CBD gummies to visiting a dog medium, Meredith shows just how far she is willing to go to save her dog. But maybe Edie is secretly the one doing the saving—if Meredith will only open her heart.
Loving Emma: A Story of Reluctant Motherhood
by Carol OrtlipMost memoirs speak of family, innocence lost, secrets hidden and later unearthed--or of discoveries that can heal as well as scar. Loving Emma is such a story. It will appeal to all of us who have been a part of a complicated family, who have had to reach into ourselves for the strength and courage to rise to the challenges that face us. Loving Emma is a rich and candid account of one woman's struggle to be a parent. About to turn fifty, she is asked to take in and raise her partner Gemma's six-year-old niece. Unwilling and resentful of the task at the start, the author ultimately triumphs over adversity--and tells her tale with tenderness, humor, and blunt honesty. It is also the story of how women nurture children in a culture that is not always supportive, but in a community that always is. Carol A. Ortlip handles the topics of midlife crises, substance abuse, and problems of child-rearing with great aplomb. Carol A. Ortlip, a special education teacher, has held a variety of jobs, from crab-fisher in Alaska to horse-drawn cab driver in Manhattan. She is the author of We Became Like a Hand: A Story of Five Sisters(2002), a family memoir of sisterhood. She lives near Brattleboro, Vermont.
Loving Frank: A Novel
by Nancy HoranHistorical fiction about Frank Lloyd Wright and his affair with one of his client's wives, that scandalized Chicago society in the early 1900s.
Loving Frank: A Novel (Playaway Adult Fiction Ser.)
by Nancy HoranI have been standing on the side of life, watching it float by. I want to swim in the river. I want to feel the current. So writes Mamah Borthwick Cheney in her diary as she struggles to justify her clandestine love affair with Frank Lloyd Wright. Four years earlier, in 1903, Mamah and her husband, Edwin, had commissioned the renowned architect to design a new home for them. During the construction of the house, a powerful attraction developed between Mamah and Frank, and in time the lovers, each married with children, embarked on a course that would shock Chicago society and forever change their lives. In this ambitious debut novel, fact and fiction blend together brilliantly. While scholars have largely relegated Mamah to a footnote in the life of America's greatest architect, author Nancy Horan gives full weight to their dramatic love story and illuminates Cheney's profound influence on Wright. Drawing on years of research, Horan weaves little-known facts into a compelling narrative, vividly portraying the conflicts and struggles of a woman forced to choose between the roles of mother, wife, lover, and intellectual. Horan's Mamah is a woman seeking to find her own place, her own creative calling in the world. Mamah's is an unforgettable journey marked by choices that reshape her notions of love and responsibility, leading inexorably ultimately lead to this novel's stunning conclusion. Elegantly written and remarkably rich in detail, Loving Frank is a fitting tribute to a courageous woman, a national icon, and their timeless love story. BONUS: This edition includes an excerpt from Nancy Horan's Under the Wide and Starry Sky.
Loving Large: A Mother's Rare Disease Memoir
by Patti M. HallIf not me, then who will save my child? A mother must confront the unthinkable when her son is diagnosed with a rare medical condition. Patti M. Hall’s life is pitched into an abyss of uncertainty when a golf ball–sized tumour is discovered in her teenage son’s head and he is diagnosed with gigantism, a disease of both legend and stigma. After scrambling to access a handful of medical experts in the field, Patti learns that her son could grow uncontrollably, his mobility could be permanently limited, and his life could be cut short without timely and aggressive treatment. Patti’s attention shifts fully to her son, away from her relationships as well as her own career and health. Her new normal sees her step into a dozen additional roles, including nurse, researcher, advocate, risk assessor, and promise maker, while she struggles and fails to rebuild her life as a recently divorced woman. In Loving Large, Patti discovers that resilience is learned and that the changes experienced in the aftermath of crisis can often create the greatest opportunities.
Loving my lying, dying, cheating husband: A memoir of a whirlwind romance gone wrong
by Kerstin PilzKerstin is childless by choice and married to her job when Gianni, a charming Italian, turns her life into a champagne-coloured fairy tale.Soon after their runaway wedding, Gianni is diagnosed with cancer and Kerstin becomes his dedicated carer. But when she discovers that he has been cheating on her all through their relationship, she is faced with a difficult choice: walk away, or continue to care for the man who betrayed her. She turns first to wine and then to therapy, eventually ending up in a Buddhist monastery. There she realises that finding a new way of loving her lying, dying husband might offer a chance to grow from her pain rather than be crushed by it - and to avoid liver damage.Written with wisdom, humour and unfailing kindness, this is a life-affirming tale of one woman's search for better ways to love, grieve and forgive.
Loving Our Own Bones: Rethinking disability in an ableist world
by Julia Watts BelserOpen the Bible, and disability is everywhere. Moses stutters and thinks himself unable to answer God's call. Isaac's blindness lets his wife trick him into bestowing his blessing on his younger son. Jesus heals the sick the blind, the paralyzed, and the possessed. For centuries, these stories have been told and retold by commentators who treat disability as misfortune, as a metaphor for spiritual incapacity, or as a challenge to be overcome.Loving Our Own Bones turns that perspective on its head. Drawing insights from the hard-won wisdom of disabled folks who've forged difference into fierce and luminous cultural dissent, Belser offers fresh and unexpected readings of familiar biblical stories, showing how disability wisdom can guide us all toward a powerful reckoning with the complexities of the flesh. She talks back to biblical commentators who traffic in disability stigma and shame, challenging interpretations that demean disabled people and diminish the vitality of disabled lives. And she shows how Sabbath rest can be a powerful counter to the relentless demand for productivity, an act of spiritual resistance in a culture that makes work the signal measure of our worth.With both a lyrical love of tradition and incisive political analysis, Belser braids spiritual perspectives together with keen activist insights-inviting readers to claim the power and promise of spiritual dissent, to nourish their own souls through the revolutionary art of radical self-love.
Loving Pablo, Hating Escobar
by Virginia VallejoNow a major motion picture! Pablo Escobar was one of the most terrifying criminal minds of the last century. In the decade before his death in 1993, he reigned as the head of a multinational cocaine industry and brought the Colombian state to its knees, killing thousands of politicians, media personalities, police, and unarmed citizens.In the 1980s, Virginia Vallejo was Colombia’s most famous television celebrity: a top-rated anchorwoman and a twice-divorced socialite who had been courted by the country’s four wealthiest men. In 1982, she interviewed Pablo Escobar on her news program, and soon after, they began a discreet—albeit stormy—romantic relationship. During their five-year affair, Escobar would show Vallejo the vulnerability of presidents, senators, and military leaders seeking to profit from the drug trade. From Vallejo’s privileged perspective and her ability to navigate the global corridors of wealth and high society, Escobar gained the insight to master his manipulation ofColombia’s powerful elite and media.Loving Pablo, Hating Escobar chronicles the birth of Colombia’s drug cartels: the kidnappers, the guerilla groups, and the paramilitary organizations. It is, above everything, a great love story—a deep and painful journeythrough a forbidden relationship—that gives us an intimate vision of thelegendary drug baron who left his mark on Colombia, Latin America, the United States, and the world forever.
Loving Pablo, Hating Escobar
by Virginia VallejoA revealing memoir of Colombian television journalist Virginia Vallejo's affair with the "King of Cocaine," notorious Medellín drug lord, Pablo Escobar. Soon to be a major motion picture starring Javier Bardem and Penelope Cruz. At 33, Virginia Vallejo was media elite. A renowned anchorwoman and socialite, and a model who appeared on magazine covers worldwide, Vallejo was the darling of Colombia's most powerful politicians and billionaires. Meeting Pablo Escobar in 1983, and becoming his mistress for many years, she witnessed the rise of a drug empire that was characterized by Escobar's far-reaching political corruption, his extraordinary wealth, and a network of violent crime that lasted until his death in 1993. In this highly personal and insightful story, Vallejo characterizes the duality of Escobar's charm and charisma as a benefactor to the people of Colombia, and the repulsion of his criminal actions as a tyrannical terrorist and enemy of many world leaders. Told from the present day perspective, and reflecting on her cooperation with the US Department of Justice, in 2006, as she testified against high-ranking Colombian ministers on trial for conspiracy and murder, Vallejo offers a compelling work of intimate reflection and critical journalism--a unique perspective on the Colombian drug wars and the endlessly fascinating figure, Pablo Escobar.
Loving Peter: My Life with Peter Cook and Dudley Moore
by Judy Cook Angela LevinJudy Huxtable, a beautiful Swinging Sixties model and actress, met and fell in love with Peter Cook in 1967. They were together during the memorable hit shows 'Behind the Fridge' and 'Derek and Clive', divorcing in 1989. Being intimate with Peter meant that Judy was inevitably close to Peter's comic partner, Dudley Moore, and they all formed an extraordinary bond. She was in a unique position to observe the special relationship that Peter and Dud shared, and the rivalry that existed between them.In LOVING PETER, Judy gives a perceptive and poignant account of the Peter Cook that only she knew. She writes with a mix of humour, insight and sadness about one of the funniest, most enigmatic and troubled men on the planet. She describes what he was like as a husband, performer, friend, father and man and gives an inside view of what really made him tick; why he seemed to want to destroy those he loved the most; how he succumbed to the destructive forces of drink and drugs; and how he and Dudley really got on.
Loving Peter: My life with Peter Cook and Dudley Moore
by Judy Cook Angela LevinJudy Huxtable, a beautiful Swinging Sixties model and actress, met and fell in love with Peter Cook in 1967. They were together during the memorable hit shows 'Behind the Fridge' and 'Derek and Clive', divorcing in 1989. Being intimate with Peter meant that Judy was inevitably close to Peter's comic partner, Dudley Moore, and they all formed an extraordinary bond. She was in a unique position to observe the special relationship that Peter and Dud shared, and the rivalry that existed between them.In LOVING PETER, Judy gives a perceptive and poignant account of the Peter Cook that only she knew. She writes with a mix of humour, insight and sadness about one of the funniest, most enigmatic and troubled men on the planet. She describes what he was like as a husband, performer, friend, father and man and gives an inside view of what really made him tick; why he seemed to want to destroy those he loved the most; how he succumbed to the destructive forces of drink and drugs; and how he and Dudley really got on.
Loving Rachel: A Family's Journey from Grief
by Jane BernsteinIn 1983, Jane Bernstein had everything she ever wanted: a healthy four-year-old daughter, Charlotte; a happy marriage; a highly praised first novel; and a brand new baby, Rachel. But by the time Rachel was six weeks old, a neuro-ophthalmologist told Jane and her husband that their baby was blind. Although there was some hope that Rachel might gain partial vision as she grew, her condition was one that often resulted in seizure disorders and intellectual impairment. So began a series of medical and emotional setbacks that were to plague Rachel and her parents and strain their marriage to the breaking point. Spanning the first four years of Rachel’s life, Loving Rachel is a heartbreaking chronicle of a marriage and a compelling story of parental love told with searing honesty and surprising humor.