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Significant Others: Creativity And Intimate Partnership (Interplay Ser.)
by Whitney ChadwickBiographies of artists and writers have traditionally presented an individual's lone struggle for self-expression. In this book, critics and historians, challenge these assumptions in a series of essays that focus on artist and writer couples who have shared sexual and artistic bonds. Featuring duos such as Auguste Rodin and Camille Claudel, Sonia and Robert Delaunay, Vanessa Bell and Duncan Grant, and Jasper Johns and Robert Ruaschenberg, this book combines biography with evaluation of each partner's work in the context of the relationship.
Significant Zero: Heroes, Villains, and the Fight for Art and Soul in Video Games
by Walt WilliamsFrom the award-winning videogame writer behind Spec Ops: The Line comes an exclusive behind-the-scenes look at how today’s blockbuster video games are made.When his satirical musings in a college newspaper got him discharged from the Air Force, it became clear to Walt Williams that his destiny in life was to be a writer—he just never thought he’d end up writing video games, let alone working on some of the most successful franchises in the industry—Bioshock, Civilization, Borderlands, and Mafia among others. Williams pulls back the curtain on an astonishingly profitable industry that has put its stamp on pop culture and yet is little known to those outside its walls. In his reflective yet comically-observant voice, Williams walks you through his unlikely and at times inglorious rise within one of the world’s top gaming companies, exposing an industry abundant in brain power and out-sized egos, but struggling to stay innovative. Significant Zero also provides clear-eyed criticism of the industry’s addiction to violence and explains how the role of the narrative designer—the poor soul responsible for harmonizing gameplay with storylines—is crucial for expanding the scope of video games into more immersive and emotional experiences. Significant Zero offers a rare look inside this fascinating, billion-dollar industry and a path forward for its talented men and women—gamers and nongamers alike—that imagines how video games might inspire the best in all of us.
Signifying Bodies
by G. Thomas Couser"Thomas Couser'sSignifying Bodiescomes at a crucial moment when debates about physician assisted suicide, genetic engineering, and neo-natal screening are raising the question of what constitutes a 'life worth living' for persons with disabilities. Couser's work engages these debates by exploring the extensive number of personal narratives by or about persons with disabilities. As Couser brilliantly demonstrates through synoptic readings, these works challenge the 'preferred rhetorics' by which such narratives are usually written (triumphalist, gothic, nostalgic) while making visible the variegated nature of embodied life. " ---Michael Davidson, University of California, San Diego "Signifying Bodiesshows us that life writing about disability is . . . everywhere. . . . From obituary to documentary film to ethnography to literary memoir to the law, the book casts a wide net, detailing how various written and filmed responses to disability both enact and resist conventional narrative patterns. [This] not only broadens our idea about where to look for life writing, but also demonstrates how thoroughly stereotypes about disability mediate our social and artistic languages---even when an author has (so-called) the best intentions. " ---Susannah B. Mintz, Skidmore College Memoirs have enjoyed great popularity in recent years, experiencing significant sales, prominent reviews, and diverse readerships. Signifying Bodiesshows that at the heart of the memoir phenomenon is our fascination with writing that focuses on what it means to live in, or be, an anomalous body---in other words, what it means to be disabled. Previous literary accounts of the disabled body have often portrayed it as a stable entity possibly signifying moral deviance or divine disfavor, but contemporary writers with disabilities are defining themselves and depicting their bodies in new ways. Using the insights of disability studies and source material ranging from the Old and New Testaments to the works of authors like Lucy Grealy and Simi Linton and including contemporary films such asMillion Dollar Baby, G. Thomas Couser sheds light on a broader cultural phenomenon, exploring topics such as the ethical issues involved in disability memoirs, the rhetorical patterns they frequently employ, and the complex relationship between disability narrative and disability law. G. Thomas Couser is Professor of English at Hofstra University.
Signing Their Lives Away: The Fame and Misfortune of the Men Who Signed the Declaration of Independence
by Denise Kiernan Joseph D'AgneseIn July 1776, fifty-six men risked their lives and livelihood to defy the British and sign the most important document in the history of the United States and yet how many of them do we actually remember?Signing Their Lives Awayintroduces readers to the eclectic group of statesmen, soldiers, criminals, and crackpots who were chosen to sign this historic document and the many strange fates that awaited them. Some died from war-related injuries; others had their homes and farms seized by British soldiers; a few rose to the highest levels of U. S. government (ten signers were later elected to Congress). George Wythe was murdered by his nephew; Button Gwinnet was killed in a duel; and of course Sam Adams went on to fame and fortune as a patriot/brewer. Complete with a reversible parchment jacket (offering a facsimile of the Declaration on the reverse),Signing Their Lives Awayprovides an entertaining and enlightening narrative for history buffs of all ages.
Signing Their Rights Away: The Fame and Misfortune of the Men Who Signed the United States Constitution
by Denise Kiernan Joseph D'AgneseUnfold Book Jacket for a Full-Color Reproduction of the U.S. ConstitutionWith their book Signing Their Lives Away, Denise Kiernan and Joseph D'Agnese introduced readers to the 56 statesmen (and occasional scoundrels!) who signed the Declaration of Independence. Now they've turned their attention to the 39 men who met in the summer of 1787 and put their names to the U.S. Constitution. Signing Their Rights Away chronicles a moment in American history when our elected officials knew how to compromise--and put aside personal gain for the greater good of the nation. These men were just as quirky and flawed as the elected officials we have today: Hugh Williamson believed in aliens, Robert Morris went to prison, Jonathan Dayton stole $18,000 from Congress, and Thomas Mifflin was ruined by alcohol. Yet somehow these imperfect men managed to craft the world's most perfect Constitution. With 39 mini-biographies and a reversible dust jacket that unfolds into a poster of the original document, Signing Their Rights Away offers an entertaining and enlightening narrative for history buffs of all ages.From the Hardcover edition.
Signor Marconi's Magic Box: The Most Remarkable Invention Of The 19th Century & The Amateur Inventor Whose Genius Sparked A Revo
by Gavin WeightmanThe world at the turn of the twentieth century was in the throes of "Marconi-mania"-brought on by an incredible invention that no one could quite explain, and by a dapper and eccentric figure (who would one day win the newly minted Nobel Prize) at the center of it all. At a time when the telephone, telegraph, and electricity made the whole world wonder just what science would think of next, the startling answer had come in 1896 in the form of two mysterious wooden boxes containing a device Marconi had rigged up to transmit messages "through the ether. " It was the birth of the radio, and no scientist in Europe or America, not even Marconi himself, could at first explain how it worked. . . it just did. Here is a rich portrait of the man and his era-a captivating tale of British blowhards, American con artists, and Marconi himself-a character par excellence, who eventually winds up a virtual prisoner of his worldwide fame and fortune.
Signs and Secrets of the Messiah Bible Study Guide plus Streaming Video: A Fresh Look at the Miracles of Jesus in the Gospel of John
by Rabbi Jason SobelDoes God Still Perform Miracles Today?It&’s a question many ask when they read about the wonders God performs in the Bible. In this five-session video Bible study (video streaming included), Rabbi Jason Sobel invites you into a whole new way of seeing the miraculous wonders of Jesus. You&’ll study the miracles recorded in the Gospel of John—along with biblical culture and ancient texts from a Jewish perspective—to learn how Jesus takes the ordinary and turns it into something extraordinary.Journey with Rabbi Sobel—author of Mysteries of the Messiah—into the intricate details of the Messiah&’s miracles, and discover how they have meanings, often hidden from a modern audience, that give us insights into the way God still works in our lives today.This study guide has everything you need for a full Bible study experience, including:The study guide itself—with discussion and reflection questions, video notes, and a leader's guide.An individual access code to stream all video sessions online. (DVD also available separately.)Sessions and video run times:Signs and Secrets of Transformation (20:00)Signs and Secrets of the New Birth (21:00)Signs and Secrets of Healing (21:00)Signs and Secrets of Multiplication (21:30)Signs and Secrets of Fullness (20:00) Streaming video access code included. Access code subject to expiration after 12/31/2028. Code may be redeemed only by the recipient of this package. Code may not be transferred or sold separately from this package. Internet connection required. Void where prohibited, taxed, or restricted by law. Additional offer details inside
Signs and Secrets of the Messiah: A Fresh Look at the Miracles of Jesus
by Rabbi Jason SobelAre you or someone you love desperate for a miracle? As witnessed through Scripture, the God who was and is and is to come has been performing miracles from the beginning of time—so you can trust that Jesus wants to do something miraculous in your life today.In this follow-up to his book Mysteries of the Messiah, Rabbi Jason Sobel dives deep into Scripture, biblical culture, and ancient texts to help you better understand the truths and the power behind God&’s miracles, and to increase your faith that Jesus can perform miracles in your life. By taking a deeper look at Yeshua&’s miracles, Rabbi Jason reveals promises for all Christ followers based on miracles throughout Scripture:Jesus takes the ordinary and turns it into something extraordinary, because He wants you to live out of His overflow (He turned water into wine).Jesus wants to renew you so that He can do something new in you (He revealed to Nicodemus the miracle of rebirth).You can stop wandering aimlessly or feeling stuck in your current situation, but instead experience abundant life and healing (He healed the man at the Pool of Bethesda).God wants to bless you abundantly so you, in turn, can bless others and sow into His kingdom (Jesus multiplied the loaves and fish). As you go on this journey with Rabbi Jason, a Messianic Jew, he is praying that God will lead you to new insights and breakthroughs in your life. And as God reveals Himself to you in a fresh and powerful way, you will be filled with a sense of His presence and shalom.
Signs and Wonders: Dispatches from a time of beauty and loss
by Delia FalconerThe celebrated, Walkley Award-winning author on how global warming is changing not only our climate but our culture. Beautifully observed, brilliantly argued and deeply felt, these essays show that our emotions, our art, our relationships with the generations around us – all the delicate networks that make us who we are – have already been transformed. In Signs and Wonders, Falconer explores how it feels to live as a reader, a writer, a lover of nature and a mother of small children in an era of profound ecological change. Building on Falconer&’s two acclaimed essays, &‘Signs and Wonders&’ and the Walkley Award-winning &‘The Opposite of Glamour&’, Signs and Wonders is a pioneering examination of how we are changing our culture, language and imaginations along with our climate. Is a mammoth emerging from the permafrost beautiful or terrifying? How is our imagination affected when something that used to be ordinary – like a car windscreen smeared with insects – becomes unimaginable? What can the disappearance of the paragraph from much contemporary writing tell us about what&’s happening in the modern mind? Scientists write about a 'great acceleration' in human impact on the natural world. Signs and Wonders shows that we are also in a period of profound cultural acceleration, which is just as dynamic, strange, extreme and, sometimes, beautiful. Ranging from an &‘unnatural&’ history of coal to the effect of a large fur seal turning up in the park below her apartment, this book is a searching and poetic examination of the ways we are thinking about how, and why, to live now. &‘Only the finest of writers can hope to convey the mercurial nature of the times we are living though: the sense of slippage; of terror and beauty. Falconer is such a writer. Signs and Wonders is an essential collection.&’ Sophie Cunningham, author of City of Trees &‘Delia Falconer is one of the best writers working today, and in Signs and Wonders she demonstrates everything that makes her writing so necessary. Brave, beautiful, and breathtaking in its elegance and intelligence, it is, quite simply, a marvel.&’ James Bradley &‘Scintillating. Delia Falconer is at the peak of her powers as a critic, and as an observer of the natural world. Signs and Wonders looks outward from Sydney, and from literature, to trace the contours of our environmental moment.&’ Rebecca Giggs, author of Fathoms
Signs of Hope: How Small Acts of Love Can Change Your World
by Amy WolffChanging the world--or at least your corner of it--is easier than you think.With so much suffering in our communities and in the world, it can feel impossible to make an impact. "What good can I possibly do?" we ask. Amy Wolff, a busy mom and small business owner, often felt this way--and didn't feel qualified to connect and uplift others. But one day, after hearing about several suicides and suicide attempts in her community, she printed 20 yard signs with hopeful messages and anonymously placed them throughout her city. This small action sparked a global movement of encouragement, hope, and love, which spread to 50 states and 27 countries in just 18 months. Signs of Hope is an intimate collection of stories from Amy's personal life, as well as people impacted by the movement, about the power of hope and love in the midst of suffering. This book discusses:The drain of compassion fatigueWhy we should show up imperfectly to help othersHow to claim hope for ourselvesPractical ideas of how to respond to sufferingStrategies of how to love people who are "different"Resilience when love-spreading efforts backfireHow to raise a compassionate generationThe science of hopeSigns of Hope is your catalyst for doing something today . . . because there's no perfect time to help others. The time is now.
Signs of Life
by Natalie TaylorSigns of Life is Natalie Taylor's story. It starts the day her husband dies and ends sixteen months later on her son's first birthday. Natalie's journey from wife to widow to mother is heartbreaking, blackly funny and will move you to laughter and tears as she makes it across that finish line. And you have no doubt she will make it because Natalie is a warrior and a woman to cheer for. Intelligent, witty and moving, this is the very best kind of indie movie in a book. A book to delight, to treasure and to press into the hands of your best friend.
Signs of Life
by Natalie TaylorSigns of Life is Natalie Taylor's story. It starts the day her husband dies and ends sixteen months later on her son's first birthday. Natalie's journey from wife to widow to mother is heartbreaking, blackly funny and will move you to laughter and tears as she makes it across that finish line. And you have no doubt she will make it because Natalie is a warrior and a woman to cheer for. Intelligent, witty and moving, this is the very best kind of indie movie in a book. A book to delight, to treasure and to press into the hands of your best friend.
Signs of Life, Love, and Other Miracles
by Stephanie Ager Kirz"Signs of Life, Love and other Miracles" by author Stephanie Kirz is a moving tale of Lost Love that is found in special moments throughout the world
Signs of Life: A Doctor's Journey to the Ends Of The Earth
by Stephen FabesA young doctor cycles around the world and discovers how societies treat their most vulnerable, in this thought-provoking and witty medical odysseyWhen Stephen Fabes left his job as an emergency-room doctor and set out to cycle around the world, frontline medicine quickly faded from his mind. The daily challenges of life on the road stack up as he navigates deserts—coaxing a few more miles from &‘Ol&’ Patchy&’ (his most faithful innertube)—and learns to live with the seeming constant threat posed by local wildlife, be it mangy dogs in Indonesia, grizzly bears in Alaska, or, in Australia, the common death adder, three words he was dismayed to find exist in sequence. But leaving medicine behind was not as easy as it seems. As Stephen crossed continents—on a journey that would take six years and cover more than 53,000 miles—he finds people whose health has suffered through exile, stigma, or circumstance and others, whose lives have been saved through kindness and community. After encountering a frozen body of a monk in the Himalayas, he is drawn ever more to healthcare at the margins of the world, to crumbling sanitoriums and refugee camps, to city dumps and war-torn hospital wards. In this gripping blend of true adventure and medical narrative, Stephen learns the value of listening to lives—not just solving diagnostic puzzles. Signs of Life challenges us to see care for the sick as a duty born of our compassion and our humanity.
Signs of Survival: A Memoir of the Holocaust
by Joshua M. Greene Renee HartmanRENEE: I was ten years old then, and my sister was eight. The responsibility was on me to warn everyone when the soldiers were coming because my sister and both my parents were deaf.I was my family's ears.Meet Renee and Herta, two sisters who faced the unimaginable -- together. This is their true story.As Jews living in 1940s Czechoslovakia, Renee, Herta, and their parents were in immediate danger when the Holocaust came to their door. As the only hearing person in her family, Renee had to alert her parents and sister whenever the sound of Nazi boots approached their home so they could hide.But soon their parents were tragically taken away, and the two sisters went on the run, desperate to find a safe place to hide. Eventually they, too, would be captured and taken to the concentration camp Bergen-Belsen. Communicating in sign language and relying on each other for strength in the midst of illness, death, and starvation, Renee and Herta would have to fight to survive the darkest of times.This gripping memoir, told in a vivid "oral history" format, is a testament to the power of sisterhood and love, and now more than ever a reminder of how important it is to honor the past, and keep telling our own stories.
Sigrid Rides: The Story of an Extraordinary Friendship and An Adventure on Two Wheels
by Travis NelsonFeaturing SIGRID SPEAKS - find out what those hisses, miaows and purrs really mean! When Travis Nelson arrived in London, he expected to embark on a new life and a new job. Coming from California, he'd uprooted his wife and his cat, Sigrid, and planned to be here for the long haul. Then Covid-19 struck. Travis's new job vanished as the company cut staff. For two years, and through successive lockdowns, he was stuck in limbo in an unfamiliar city, trying to find his way.To keep himself occupied, Travis set out to discover his adoptive home. He bought a bike and began cycling through London's streets and parks with his unusual travelling companion, Sigrid - his deaf, Norwegian Forest cat - who came along for the ride. But what started as a way of injecting routine and purpose into Travis's life in stressful times, created an internet sensation. When Travis began posting videos of the pair's rides on social media, he drew in another community of people looking for moments of joy in an anxious world.In this charming memoir, Travis charts his adventures with Sigrid. He unlocks a hidden London seen only from cyclist's viewpoint, as well as finding friendship and hope. Most of all, it is the story of one man's relationship with his feline companion - one that has given him direction and a sense of belonging at a time when he felt lost.(p) 2023 Octopus Publishing Group
Sigrid Rides: The Story of an Extraordinary Friendship and An Adventure on Two Wheels
by Travis Nelson'A one-man, one-cat mission to cheer people up' - The Mirror When Travis Nelson arrived in London, he expected to embark on a new life and a new job. Coming from California, he'd uprooted his wife and his cat, Sigrid, and planned to be here for the long haul. Then Covid-19 struck. Travis's new job vanished as the company cut staff. For two years, and through successive lockdowns, he was stuck in limbo in an unfamiliar city, trying to find his way.To keep himself occupied, Travis set out to discover his adoptive home. He bought a bike and began cycling through London's streets and parks with his unusual travelling companion, Sigrid - his deaf, Norwegian Forest cat - who came along for the ride. But what started as a way of injecting routine and purpose into Travis's life in stressful times, created an internet sensation. When Travis began posting videos of the pair's rides on social media, he drew in another community of people looking for moments of joy in an anxious world.In this charming memoir, Travis charts his adventures with Sigrid. He unlocks a hidden London seen only from cyclist's viewpoint, as well as finding friendship and hope. Most of all, it is the story of one man's relationship with his feline companion - one that has given him direction and a sense of belonging at a time when he felt lost.
Sigrid Rides: The Story of an Extraordinary Friendship and An Adventure on Two Wheels
by Travis Nelson'A one-man, one-cat mission to cheer people up' - The Mirror When Travis Nelson arrived in London, he expected to embark on a new life and a new job. Coming from California, he'd uprooted his wife and his cat, Sigrid, and planned to be here for the long haul. Then Covid-19 struck. Travis's new job vanished as the company cut staff. For two years, and through successive lockdowns, he was stuck in limbo in an unfamiliar city, trying to find his way.To keep himself occupied, Travis set out to discover his adoptive home. He bought a bike and began cycling through London's streets and parks with his unusual travelling companion, Sigrid - his deaf, Norwegian Forest cat - who came along for the ride. But what started as a way of injecting routine and purpose into Travis's life in stressful times, created an internet sensation. When Travis began posting videos of the pair's rides on social media, he drew in another community of people looking for moments of joy in an anxious world.In this charming memoir, Travis charts his adventures with Sigrid. He unlocks a hidden London seen only from cyclist's viewpoint, as well as finding friendship and hope. Most of all, it is the story of one man's relationship with his feline companion - one that has given him direction and a sense of belonging at a time when he felt lost.
Sikunder Burnes: Master of the Great Game
by Craig MurrayA biography that &“restore[s] this remarkable young man to his rightful position as a leading figure in Scotland&’s contribution to our imperial history&” (The Scottish Review). This is an astonishing true tale of espionage, journeys in disguise, secret messages, double agents, assassinations and sexual intrigue. Alexander Burnes was one of the most accomplished spies Britain ever produced and the main antagonist of the Great Game as Britain strove with Russia for control of Central Asia and the routes to the Raj. There are many lessons for the present day in this tale of the folly of invading Afghanistan and Anglo-Russian tensions in the Caucasus. Murray&’s meticulous study has unearthed original manuscripts from Montrose to Mumbai to put together a detailed study of how British secret agents operated in India. The story of Burnes&’ life has a cast of extraordinary figures, including Queen Victoria, King William IV, Earl Grey, Benjamin Disraeli, Lola Montez, John Stuart Mill and Karl Marx. Among the unexpected discoveries are that Alexander and his brother James invented the myths about the Knights Templars and Scottish Freemasons which are the foundation of the Da Vinci Code; and that the most famous nineteenth-century scholar of Afghanistan was a double agent for Russia.&“An important re-evaluation of this most intriguing figure.&” —William Dalrymple, bestselling author of The Anarchy&“Murray&’s book is a terrific read. He has done full justice to the life of a remarkable British hero, without ignoring his faults.&” —Daily Mail &“A fascinating book . . . his research has been prodigious, both in libraries and on foot. He knows a huge amount about Burnes&’s life and work.&” —The Scotsman
Silence Was Salvation
by Cathy A. FriersonRoughly ten million children were victims of political repression in the Soviet Union during the Stalinist era, the sons and daughters of peasants, workers, scientists, physicians, and political leaders considered by the regime to be dangerous to the political order. Ten grown victims, who as children suffered banishment, starvation, disease, anti-Semitism, and trauma resulting from their parents’ condemnation and arrest, now freely share their stories The result is a powerful and moving oral history that will profoundly deepen the reader’s understanding of life in the U. S. S. R. under the despotic reign of Joseph Stalin.
Silence and Noise
by RichmondA fresh new voice in American Buddhism -- a twenty-nine-year-old raised among Buddhists in California -- offers wisdom for both longtime practitioners and a new generation of students in this fascinating memoir of his Zen upbringing. Over half a century ago, when the first Zen Masters came to America, eager young students in search of enlightenment flocked to hear their teachings. Many, like Ivan Richmond's parents, became Buddhist teachers themselves while raising their children at monasteries and retreat centers. Growing up in the seventies in the deliberate silence of a Buddhist community, young Ivan knew only the hippies and redwoods of Northern California. When his family left in 1983, he became an immigrant in his own country, suddenly entering a mainstream society that was full of paradox and pop culture, uncertainty and noise. This is the story of his struggle to find peace amidst the chaos. Whether dispensing kernels of Buddhist insight taught to him as a child or reflecting on the merits of rock concerts, Richmond narrates his emergence from seclusion with a sensitivity that is often touching, frequently funny, and always honest. The story of the powerfully resonant journey of this foot soldier in the front lines of American Buddhism is an essential read for anyone interested in the current state of Zen in America.
Silence and Silences
by Wallis Wilde-MenozziA meditation on the infinite search for meanings in silence, from Wallis Wilde-Menozzi, the author of The Other Side of the Tiber and Mother Tongue.We need quiet to feel nothing, to hear silence that brings back proportion and the beauty of not knowing except for the outlines of what we live every day. Something inner settles. The right to silence unmediated by social judgment. Sitting at a table in an empty kitchen, peeling an apple, I wait for its next transformation. For a few seconds, the red, mottled, dangling skin unwinds what happened to it on earth.Wallis Wilde-Menozzi set out to touch silence for brief experiences of what is real. In images, dreams, and actions, the challenge leads to her heart as a writer. The pages of Silence and Silences form a vast tapestry of meanings shaped by many forces outside personal circumstance. Moving closer, the reader notices intricacies that shift when touched. As the writer steps aside, there is cosmic joy, biological truth, historical injustice. The reader finds women’s voices and women’s silences, sees Agnes Martin’s thin, fine lines and D. H. Lawrence’s artful letters, and becomes a part of Wilde-Menozzi’s examination of the ever-changing self. COVID-19 thrusts itself into the unbounded narrative, and isolation brings with it a new kind of stillness. As Wilde-Menozzi writes, “Reading a book is a way of withdrawing into silence. It is a way of seeing and listening, of pulling back from what is happening at that very moment.” The author has created a record of how we tell ourselves stories, how we think and how we know. Above all, she has made silence a presence as rich as time on the page and given readers space to discover what that means to a life.
Silenced No More: Surviving My Journey to Hell and Back
by Sarah RansomeSarah Ransome was recruited into Jeffrey Epstein's network when she was 22, during her first months in Manhattan, and in America. Her desire to network in hopes of getting into the Fashion Institute of Technology were destroyed overnight and Sarah found herself imprisoned by a web of co-conspirators on an island. “Though my own story is centered on sexual abuse, all trauma lives in the body. It changes the shape of one’s soul. By sharing my testimony—by using my book as a platform to start an evocative conversation, among all readers, and particularly among women—I hope to see both minds and laws changed. More than anything, I want to encourage a culture in which women, even if they haven’t led the perfect lives, even if they’re not proud of every one of their choices, still feel the right to stand in their truth. That, in these years, is what I’m still learning to do.”After enduring unimaginable trauma, Sarah bravely pulls back the curtain on a hell that only those who entered it can truly testify to. Her eloquent, inspiring, and detailed testimony completely changes our understanding of the depths and depravity of this complex and morally bankrupt sex-trafficking ring and gives us hope for how the power of words can heal and transform.
Silenced by Sound: The Music Meritocracy Myth
by Ian BrennanPopular culture has woven itself into the social fabric of our lives, penetrating people's homes and haunting their psyches through images and earworms. Justice, at most levels, is something the average citizen may have little influence upon, leaving us feeling helpless and complacent. But pop music is a neglected arena where concrete change can occur—by exercising active and thoughtful choices to reject the low-hanging, omnipresent corporate fruit, we begin to rebalance the world, one engaged listener at a time.Silenced by Sound is a powerful exploration of the challenges facing art, music, and media. Ian Brennan delves into his personal story to address the inequity of distribution in the arts and demonstrates that there are millions of talented people around the world more gifted than the superstars for whom billions of dollars are spent to promote the delusion that they have been blessed with unique genius.Silenced by Sound is defined by muscular, terse, and poetic verse, and a nonlinear format rife with how-to tips and anecdotes. The narrative is driven and made corporeal via the author's ongoing field-recording chronicles, his memoir-like reveries, and the striking photographs that accompany these projects. After reading it, you'll never hear quite the same again.
Silences So Deep: Music, Solitude, Alaska
by John Luther Adams"[An] illuminating memoir." —Corinna da Fonseca-Wollheim, The New York TimesThe story of a composer's life in the Alaskan wilderness and a meditation on making art in a landscape acutely threatened by climate changeIn the summer of 1975, the composer John Luther Adams, then a twenty-two-year-old graduate of CalArts, boarded a flight to Alaska. So began a journey into the mountains, forests, and tundra of the far north—and across distinctive mental and aural terrain—that would last for the next forty years. Silences So Deep is Adams’s account of these formative decades—and of what it’s like to live alone in the frozen woods, composing music by day and spending one’s evenings with a raucous crew of poets, philosophers, and fishermen. From adolescent loves—Edgard Varèse and Frank Zappa—to mature preoccupations with the natural world that inform such works as The Wind in High Places, Adams details the influences that have allowed him to emerge as one of the most celebrated and recognizable composers of our time. Silences So Deep is also a memoir of solitude enriched by friendships with the likes of the conductor Gordon Wright and the poet John Haines, both of whom had a singular impact on Adams’s life. Whether describing the travails of environmental activism in the midst of an oil boom or midwinter conversations in a communal sauna, Adams writes with a voice both playful and meditative, one that evokes the particular beauty of the Alaskan landscape and the people who call it home.Ultimately, this book is also the story of Adams’s difficult decision to leave a rapidly warming Alaska and to strike out for new topographies and sources of inspiration. In its attentiveness to the challenges of life in the wilderness, to the demands of making art in an age of climate crisis, and to the pleasures of intellectual fellowship, Silences So Deep is a singularly rich account of a creative life.