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Singing to A Bulldog
by Anson WilliamsGrowing up in 1950s California, young Anson William Heimlich showed very little promise. Clumsy, unsure of himself, and made to feel like a failure by his disappointed artist of a dad, Anson started working odd jobs as a teenager to help support his family. His boss at one of these jobs, an aging African-American janitor named Willie, unexpectedly became a mentor--and the lessons he taught young Anson proved to be invaluable throughout his subsequent career as an actor, director, and entrepreneur. In Singing to a Bulldog, Anson Williams (as he came to be known) relates both these lessons and the never-before-revealed stories of the many seminal TV series he has worked on and the famous (and not-so-famous) folks he's encountered during his 40 years in Hollywood, including: * being directed by Steven Spielberg in his first dramatic role * getting kidnapped by Gerald Ford's daughter at the White House * subbing for Sammy Davis, Jr., as a headliner with Bill Cosby * being humbled by Sunny, a young volunteer for the Cerebral Palsy National Organization * mentoring Shailene Woodley on the set of The Secret Life of the American Teenager and many more. This compelling read has a cross-generational and broad appeal, combining all the fun of a celebrity memoir with the emotional impact of an inspirational bestseller. With Singing to a Bulldog, Anson Williams brings his gift of storytelling to a new medium in a book that is sure to touch readers' hearts and lives as profoundly as Willie once touched his.
Single AF Cocktails: Drinks for Bad B*tches
by Ariana MadixCelebrate reality television star and beloved bartender Ariana Madix&’s journey from heartbreak to empowerment with 60 high-drama cocktails that are as strong and inspiring as she is. When Ariana Madix famously discovered her partner was unfaithful, the incident—known as Scandoval—captivated audiences worldwide. She has now reclaimed her power, channeling her pain into a resounding statement of strength and resilience in Single AF Cocktails, a collection of alluring drinks that follow the trajectory of a relationship that starts beautifully but ends in disaster. The newly solo Ariana serves up her own recipes and perspective in a unique exploration of the stages of a doomed relationship. In her own words, Ariana takes back the narrative of her very public breakup while inspiring others to find inner strength in their own troubles. Each drink tells part of the story from her point of view, from when she first met her ex, through the insidious affair and its painful aftermath, and to her present state, coming out the other side, stronger than before. Cleverly categorized into relationship-inspired sections—Honeymoon Phase, Betrayal, Devastation, Resilience, and Ad Astra—Single AF Cocktails offers a range of boozy concoctions for whatever your mood, from when you feel like burning it all down to when it&’s time to rally your ride-or-die squad. You&’ll find recipes like Rumors, with dark crème de cassis that floats on top of the drink before bleeding into the spirits below, the way lies may find their way into your relationship, or We Ride at Dawn, a big, bold mezcal margarita that&’s equal parts power and healing. Full of stunning, powerful photography and never-before-told stories, Single AF Cocktails is a singular experience for the reader as they ride the rollercoaster of Ariana&’s story alongside her. Whether you&’re a longtime fan or a newcomer to Ariana&’s world, Single AF Cocktails promises a captivating and cathartic experience for all.
Single State of Mind
by Andi Dorfman<P>Andi Dorfman, breakout star of ABC’s The Bachelorette and New York Times bestselling author of It’s Not Okay, returns with this new collection of her adventures as a still-single gal surviving and thriving in New York City.Sharing moments like finding her first New York apartment (the front door broke so she had to use the fire escape), her first dates on “celebrity Tinder” and finally, watching her ex-fiancé propose to another woman on Bachelor in Paradise, Andi Dorfman doesn’t shy away from pulling back the curtain on the life of a reality star who’s returned to reality. <P>Dorfman’s supremely relatable personality has inspired incredible devotion from her fans, who follow her every move on social media. Filled with a mix of romantic mishaps, city adventures, and, of course, plenty of insider Bachelor details, Andi’s new book is Sex and the City for the reality TV generation. <P><b>A New York Times Bestseller</b>
Single White Monk: Tales of Death, Failure, and Bad Sex (Although Not Necessarily in that Order)
by Shozan Jack HaubnerThink the life of a Zen monk is all serenity, peace, and austerity? Think again. Here, Shozan Jack Haubner gives an often-hilarious, always-candid account of what it’s really like behind those monastery walls. Haubner’s adventures include memories of his dysfunctional Midwestern family that drove him ultimately to declare, “I think I should be a monk!” to a madcap account of the night he got stoned and snuck out of the monastery, alongside more sobering accounts such as his life-threatening brush with illness, the profound impact of a dear friend’s death, and reflections on the controversy that rocked his Zen community. That he finds timeless wisdom in both the tragic and the absurd is a tribute to Haubner's gifts as a writer and humorist, and to his clear insights into the nature of self and what the practice of Zen is all about.
Single and Dating: Confessions of a Pragmatic Mystic
by Jacquie VaiSex...Love...Spirituality...Race...Self-Awakening... December 21st, 2012 marked a pivotal moment in humanity’s evolution: the end of the Mayan calendar. Some feared that time, believing it to be the end of the world. But according to many mystics, the end of the Mayan calendar marked the entrance into the Golden Age, a time where humans would begin to awaken and experience a deeper level of self-awareness and experience a more expanded way of connecting with others. Old systems and old ways of understanding self and relating to others would start to break down, making room for new ways to connect. Single and Dating: Beyond the Mayan Calendar is about one lady’s journey into womanhood as humanity enters the Golden Age. Stepping into womanhood is an adventure enough, but add to that the awakening of the new era, and it can make for many interesting stories. This book is a confessional. It is one woman’s experiences as she tries to understand herself on many dimensions: as a sexual being, as a spiritual being, as a black woman, and as a young divorced mother.
Single, Gay, Christian: A Personal Journey of Faith and Sexual Identity
by Gregory Coles2017 Foreword INDIES Award FinalistIn an age where neither society nor the church knows what to do with gay Christians, Greg Coles tells his own story.
Single-Minded: My Life in Business
by Claude LittnerThe story of a high-stakes careerClaude Littner is best known as the mercilessly tough interviewer on the BBC's award-winning The Apprentice. His abrupt style and zero-tolerance policy on nonsense have become the highlights of every series. But what is he like in real business?Single-Minded reveals the story of Claude's varied career and the turbulent years that shaped him. From being told at school that he would never amount to anything to his current status as a boardroom heavyweight both on-screen and off it, success has never come easy. Claude's complex, fascinating work has taken him into many different industries and countries, encompassing retail start-ups; knife-edge company rescue missions; the bruising rough-and-tumble of Premier League football; facing down French trade unions; taking on Texan oil barons in multi-million-dollar deals; and, in the private sphere, conquering life-threatening illness.Told with characteristic candour and disarming modesty, Single-Minded is an unflinching account of a remarkable career in the spotlight.
Single-Minded: My Life in Business
by Claude LittnerThe story of a high-stakes careerClaude Littner is best known as the mercilessly tough interviewer on the BBC's award-winning The Apprentice. His abrupt style and zero-tolerance policy on nonsense have become the highlights of every series. But what is he like in real business?SINGLE-MINDED reveals the story of Claude's varied career and the turbulent years that shaped him. From being told at school he would never amount to anything to his current status as a boardroom heavyweight both on-screen and off it, success has never come easy. Claude's complex, fascinating work has taken him into many different industries and countries, encompassing:- retail start-ups- knife-edge company rescue missions- the bruising rough-and-tumble of Premier League football- facing down French trade unions- taking on Texan oil barons in multi-million-dollar deals- and, in the private sphere, conquering life-threatening illnessAs Lord Sugar writes in the foreword to Claude's story, the book 'should be recommended reading for anyone who aspires to make their way in business . . . It is instructive and entertaining, providing an interesting insight into the ups and downs of business life and how single-mindedness, openness and determination can yield dividends both financial and personal.'
Singled Out: The True Story of Glenn Burke
by Andrew Maraniss*"[An] excellent exercise in narrative nonfiction." --Booklist (starred review)From New York Times bestselling author Andrew Maraniss comes the remarkable true story of Glenn Burke, a "hidden figure" in the history of sports: the inventor of the high five and the first openly gay MLB player. Perfect for fans of Steve Sheinkin and Daniel James Brown. On October 2nd, 1977, Glenn Burke, outfielder for the Los Angeles Dodgers, made history without even swinging a bat. When his teammate Dusty Baker hit a historic home run, Glenn enthusiastically congratulated him with the first ever high five. But Glenn also made history in another way--he was the first openly gay MLB player. While he did not come out publicly until after his playing days were over, Glenn's sexuality was known to his teammates, family, and friends. His MLB career would be cut short after only three years, but his legacy and impact on the athletic and LGBTQIA+ community would resonate for years to come. New York Times bestselling author Andrew Maraniss tells the story of Glenn Burke: from his childhood growing up in Oakland, his journey to the MLB and the World Series, the joy in discovering who he really was, to more difficult times: facing injury, addiction, and the AIDS epidemic.Packed with black-and-white photographs and thoroughly researched, never-before-seen details about Glenn's life, Singled Out is the fascinating story of a trailblazer in sports--and the history and culture that shaped the world around him.Praise for Singled Out:"A compelling narrative . . . This is a meticulously researched history of the ways queer culture in the &’70s intersected with baseball, Blackness, and larger culture wars, with one man at their center." --Kirkus Reviews
Singular Intimacies: Becoming a Doctor at Bellevue
by Danielle OfriIn a series of fifteen essays, Ofri traces her evolution as a physician, from frightened medical student to confident senior resident. Her training is conducted at Bellevue in Manhattan, where she treats a vast cross-section of society. Each essay focuses on her treatment of and interactions with a particular patient, and shows her emotional growth as well as her acquisition of medical knowledge. In the course of the book Ofri struggles to come to terms with her own helplessness before the inevitability of death.
Singular Intimacies: Becoming a Doctor at Bellevue
by Danielle OfriSingular Intimacies is the story of becoming a doctor by immersion at New York's Bellevue Hospital, the oldest public hospital in the country. When Danielle Ofri first enters the doors as a medical student, she is immediately plunged into the teeming world of urban medicine. It is here that Dr. Ofri develops a profound instinct for healing and, above all, learns to navigate the tangled vulnerabilities of doctor and patient.From the Trade Paperback edition.
Singular Sensation: The Triumph of Broadway
by Michael Riedel&“Fun and gossipy.&” —The Wall Street Journal * &“A masterful history.&” —Publishers Weekly (starred review) * &“Engaging.&” —Newsweek A &“brisk, insightful, and deliciously detailed take&” (Kirkus Reviews) on a transformative decade on Broadway, featuring behind-the-scenes accounts of shows such as Rent, Angels in America, Chicago, The Lion King, and The Producers—shows that changed the history of the American theater. The 1990s was a decade of profound change on Broadway. At the dawn of the nineties, the British invasion of Broadway was in full swing, as musical spectacles like Les Miserables, Cats, and The Phantom of the Opera dominated the box office. But Andrew Lloyd Webber&’s Sunset Boulevard soon spelled the end of this era and ushered in a new wave of American musicals, beginning with the ascendance of an unlikely show by a struggling writer who reimagined Puccini&’s opera La Bohème as the smash Broadway show Rent. American musical comedy made its grand return, culminating in The Producers, while plays, always an endangered species on Broadway, staged a powerful comeback with Tony Kushner&’s Angels in America. A different breed of producers rose up to challenge the grip theater owners had long held on Broadway, and corporations began to see how much money could be made from live theater. And just as Broadway had clawed its way back into the mainstream of American popular culture, the September 11 attacks struck fear into the heart of Americans who thought Times Square might be the next target. But Broadway was back in business just two days later, buoyed by talented theater people intent on bringing New Yorkers together and supporting the economics of an injured city. &“Told with all the wit and style readers could wish for&” (Booklist) Michael Riedel presents the drama behind every mega-hit or shocking flop. From the bitter feuds to the surprising collaborations, all the intrigue of a revolutionary era in the Theater District is packed into Singular Sensation. Broadway has triumphs and disasters, but the show always goes on.
Sink: A Memoir
by Joseph Earl ThomasONE OF THE NEW YORK TIMES'S 100 NOTABLE BOOKS OF 2023, BET'S FAVORITE MEMOIRS OF 2023, AND ELECTRIC LITERATURE'S FAVORITE BOOKS OF 2023 "A brilliant and brilliantly different" (Kiese Laymon), wrenching and redemptive coming-of-age memoir about the difficulty of growing up in a hazardous home and the glory of finding salvation in geek culture. Stranded within an ever-shifting family&’s desperate but volatile attempts to love, saddled with a mercurial mother mired in crack addiction, and demeaned daily for his perceived weakness, Joseph Earl Thomas grew up feeling he was under constant threat. Roaches fell from the ceiling, colonizing bowls of noodles and cereal boxes. Fists and palms pounded down at school and at home, leaving welts that ached long after they disappeared. An inescapable hunger gnawed at his frequently empty stomach, and requests for food were often met with indifference if not open hostility. Deemed too unlike the other boys to ever gain the acceptance he so desperately desired, he began to escape into fantasy and virtual worlds, wells of happiness in a childhood assailed on all sides. In a series of exacting and fierce vignettes, Thomas guides readers through the unceasing cruelty that defined his circumstances, laying bare the depths of his loneliness and illuminating the vital reprieve geek culture offered him. With remarkable tenderness and devastating clarity, he explores how lessons of toxic masculinity were drilled into his body and the way the cycle of violence permeated the very fabric of his environment. Even in the depths of isolation, there were unexpected moments of joy carved out, from summers where he was freed from the injurious structures of his surroundings to the first glimpses of kinship he caught on his journey to becoming a Pokémon master. SINK follows Thomas's coming-of-age towards an understanding of what it means to lose the desire to fit in—with his immediate peers, turbulent family, or the world—and how good it feels to build community, love, and salvation on your own terms.
Sinkhole: A Legacy of Suicide
by Juliet PattersonA sublimely elegant, fractured reckoning with the legacy and inheritance of suicide in one American family. In 2009, Juliet Patterson was recovering from a serious car accident when she learned her father had died by suicide. His death was part of a disturbing pattern in her family. Her father’s father had taken his own life; so had her mother’s. Over the weeks and months that followed, grieving and in physical pain, Patterson kept returning to one question: Why? Why had her family lost so many men, so many fathers, and what lay beneath the silence that had taken hold? In three graceful movements, Patterson explores these questions. In the winter of her father’s death, she struggles to make sense of the loss—sifting through the few belongings he left behind, looking to signs and symbols for meaning. As the spring thaw comes, she and her mother depart Minnesota for her father’s burial in her parents’ hometown of Pittsburg, Kansas. A once-prosperous town of promise and of violence, against people and the land, Pittsburg is now literally undermined by abandoned claims and sinkholes. There, Patterson carefully gathers evidence and radically imagines the final days of the grandfathers—one a fiery pro-labor politician, the other a melancholy businessman—she never knew. And finally, she returns to her father: to the haunting subjects of goodbyes, of loss, and of how to break the cycle. A stunning elegy that vividly enacts Emily Dickinson’s dictum to “tell it slant,” Sinkhole richly layers personal, familial, political, and environmental histories to provide not answers but essential, heartbreaking truth.
Sinking in the Swamp: How Trump's Minions and Misfits Poisoned Washington
by Lachlan Markay Asawin SuebsaengAn eyewitness account of Donald Trump's clown car of lieutenants and lackeys who have polluted the corridors of power with their unprecedented awfulness.Two of Washington's most meddlesome reporters take readers on a deep dive into the murky underworld of President Trump's Washington, dishing the hilarious and frightening dirt on the charlatans, conspiracy theorists, ideologues, and run-of-the-mill con artists who have infected the highest echelons of American political power.For the past three years, reporting from the White House, the Trump hotel, and other dens of intrigue and influence, Lachlan Markay and Asawin Suebsaeng have revealed the sordid shenanigans of a rogue's gallery of Trumpworld incompetents and improbable A-listers -- earning them angry denunciations (or at least some vexed side-eye) from Trumpists such as the actor Jon Voight and Trump's former campaign czar and renowned obfuscator Corey Lewandowski as well as requisite threats of physical violence and ruin. Sinking in the Swamp will similarly pull no punches. Everyone from assorted Trump family members to Stephen Miller, Sean Hannity, and Diamond & Silk to Trumpworld's even more obscure accomplices will be plumbed, prodded, and exposed for their roles in the most shambolic moment in modern American political history. When they go low, Swin and Lachlan are right there with them, recorders running and notebooks at the ready.Sinking in the Swamp is an uncompromising account of the financial and moral degradation of our capital, told with righteous indignation and through the lens of key power players and foot soldiers whose own antics have often escaped the notice of the overworked press corps.As the 2020 election approaches, this page-turning, letting-it-all-hang-out narrative shows how the nation got to this nadir, tracing the story back to years before Trump's improbable run for the White House and cataloguing the stomach-turning moments that followed.
Sinner Takes All
by Tera Patrick Carrie BorzilloThe world's #1 porn star strips down about life, love, and everything in between. Tera Patrick wasn't always Tera Patrick. Once upon a time she was a gangly, teenaged bookworm named Linda Ann Hopkins, obsessed with serial killers and Marilyn Monroe and determined to make men all over the world one day desire her. And she succeeded: Today she sits atop the porn world and runs her own multimillion-dollar empire. Sinner Takes All is a sexy and deeply personal memoir in which Tera bares all about baring all. Tera discusses leaving home as a teen to work as an international fashion model, losing her virginity at age fourteen to a man twice her age, working as a nurse at a senior citizen's home, her on- and off-screen sexual escapades, and the emotional obstacles that she's had to overcome, including a strained relationship with her mother, deadbeat boyfriends, and a suicide attempt that led to a stint in a locked-down psych ward. An honest and naked look at a one-of-a-kind life, Sinner Takes All is a riveting memoir of the making of a modern sex goddess.
Sins of Fathers: A Spectacular Break from a Dark Criminal Past
by Michael Emmett‘Michael is living proof that love always has the power to bring you home.’ Charlie Mackesy‘s A cracking read. Really gets to the bottom of the madness of a man fighting his demons. ’Ray Winstone‘ His life may have had its ups and downs, but it is wonderful example of God’s transforming power.&’ Nicky Gumbel, Vicar of HTB & pioneer of ALPHA ‘Take it from me, Michael got up to some mischief. And to find some peace at the end of it all! You really need to hear this story.&’ Former London Crime Boss Growing up, Michael wanted nothing more than to follow in his dad’s footsteps and join the family business. Aged 18, he did just that and entered into the glamourous, dangerous world of organised crime.Michael&’s father, a career criminal and contemporary of the infamous Krays, was a wayward role model. Soon Michael’s criminal activities were funding a reckless lifestyle of drugs, sex, and violence. But the high couldn’t last. In 1993 both men were arrested for their involvement in a £13-million smuggling operation. Michael was sentenced to twelve years, serving time in the same prison as his dad. Inside HMP Exeter, Michael found something he had never expected: answers. A chance encounter in the prison chapel led to an experience that would shake the foundations of his life. This is a true story of trauma and transformation, one man’s search for redemption, and the struggle to become the father he never had.
Sins of My Father: A Daughter, a Cult, a Wild Unravelling
by Lily DunnWhen Lily Dunn was just six years old, her father left the family home to follow his guru to India, trading domestic life for clothes dyed in oranges and reds and the promise of enlightenment with the cult of Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh. Since then he has been a mystery to her. She grew up enthralled by the image of him; effervescent, ambitious and elusive, a writer, publisher and entrepreneur, a man who would appear with gifts from faraway places, and with whom she spent the long, hot summers of her teenage years in Italy, in the company of his wild and wealthy friends.Yet he was also a compulsive liar, a delinquent, a man who abandoned his responsibilities in a pursuit of transcendence that took him from sex addiction, via the Rajneesh cult, to a relentless chase of money, which ended in ruin and finally addiction to alcohol and prescription drugs.A detective story that charts two colliding narratives, Sins of My Father is a daughter's attempt to unravel the mysteries of a father who believed himself to be beyond reproach. A dazzling work of literary memoir, it asks how deep legacies of shame and trauma run, and if we can reconcile unconditional love with irreparable damage.
Sins of My Father: A Daughter, a Cult, a Wild Unravelling
by Lily DunnWhen Lily Dunn was just six years old, her father left the family home to follow his guru to India, trading domestic life for clothes dyed in oranges and reds and the promise of enlightenment with the cult of Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh. Since then he has been a mystery to her. She grew up enthralled by the image of him; effervescent, ambitious and elusive, a writer, publisher and entrepreneur, a man who would appear with gifts from faraway places, and with whom she spent the long, hot summers of her teenage years in Italy, in the company of his wild and wealthy friends.Yet he was also a compulsive liar, a delinquent, a man who abandoned his responsibilities in a pursuit of transcendence that took him from sex addiction, via the Rajneesh cult, to a relentless chase of money, which ended in ruin and finally addiction to alcohol and prescription drugs.A detective story that charts two colliding narratives, Sins of My Father is a daughter's attempt to unravel the mysteries of a father who believed himself to be beyond reproach. A dazzling work of literary memoir, it asks how deep legacies of shame and trauma run, and if we can reconcile unconditional love with irreparable damage.
Sins of the Fathers: A Novel
by Herbert J. Stern Alan A. WinterIn the tradition of Herman Wouk, author of Winds of War and War and Remembrance, the novel Sins of the Fathers is the thoroughly researched historical sequel to Wolf. History hinged on a call as the German high command waited for Hitler&’s order to invade Czechoslovakia. That was the signal that would launch their revolt to bring down the Reich. Every detail of the coup was in place. Access roads to Berlin would be blocked. The city sealed. Communication centers taken. A commando squad―sixty hand-picked men―were ready to storm the Chancellery and seize Hitler. The only open question: to try Hitler as a traitor or execute him on the spot.Sins of the Fathers is the eye-opening novel―based on historical facts―of the efforts of German military leaders, career civil servants, and clergy to solicit England&’s assistance to bring down the tyrant in 1938. When Prime Minster Neville Chamberlain refused to meet with them, they turned to Winston Churchill, who secretly supported their cause. Armed with a strongly worded letter from the future prime minister, they waited for Hitler&’s telephone call ordering German troops to invade Czechoslovakia―the signal for their uprising. But the call did not come. Instead, Prime Minister Chamberlain went to Hitler&’s apartment in Munich only to bow to the dictator&’s will. The invasion was over before it began―and with that, so was the coup. Flying home, Chamberlain announced he had obtained &“peace for our times.&”Sins of the Fathers―the sequel to Wolf about Hitler&’s rise to power―tells the dramatic true story of the foolish prime minister that undermined the coup to topple the regime, delivered Czechoslovakia to Hitler, saved the Führer&’s life, and paved the road to World War II.
Sins of the Son
by Carlton StowersIn this “astounding autobiography,” a celebrated true crime author delves into a tragic murder committed by his own son (Publishers Weekly).As a single father raising two sons, Carlton Stowers did his best to instill in his boys a healthy sense of right and wrong. But with Anson, his oldest, it would prove to be an ongoing uphill battle. At a young age, Anson became involved with a number of illicit activities, including drugs, forgery, and theft.After each jail stay, Anson would vow to get clean and start anew. But then he crossed a fatal line. Twenty-five years old and strung-out on amphetamines, Anson brutally murdered his young ex-wife.In a brave, honest, and moving work, bestselling true-crime writer Carlton Stowers examines the downfall of his eldest son, once a happy child full of promise, now a convicted murderer serving a sixty-year sentence. With a reporter’s shrewdness and a father’s heart, Stowers presents a true story of two lives irrevocably lost, and of one man struggle to understand.Introduction by Jonathan Kellerman
Sinéad O'Connor: and Other Conversations (The Last Interview Series)
by Kristin Hersh Melville HouseA significant collection of interviews with the defiant, controversial, and ground-breaking singer, songwriter, and activist throughout her turbulent career . . .&“It&’s not like I got up in the morning and said, &‘Okay, now let&’s start a new controversy&’.&” -- Sinéad O&’ConnorSinéad O'Connor&’s music — both in her songwriting and in her beautiful voice —addressed both emotional despair and incandescent joy with glorious ardor. But she may have been just as well known for her outspokenness. This collection of interviews covers the entire span of O'Connor's career, from the early days to her last interview. From giddy teenager to seasoned superstar, she speaks candidly about her meteoric rise to fame, and recounts what happened when she ripped up a photo of Pope John Paul II on live television in an act of protest. Unguarded and unpredictable, O'Connor was a woman who electrified the globe: imaginative, opinionated, and eloquent.
Sipping Dom Pérignon Through A Straw (Father Anselm Novels #13)
by Eddie Ndopu'Uncompromising... A masterful writer poised for even more great success' - Forest Whitaker, Academy award-winning actorA memoir, penned with one good finger, about being profoundly disabled and profoundly successful.Global humanitarian Eddie Ndopu was born with spinal muscular atrophy, a rare degenerative motor neuron disease affecting his mobility. He was told that he wouldn't live beyond age five and yet, Ndopu thrived. He grew up loving pop music and haute couture, lip syncing to the latest hits, and was the only wheelchair user at his school, where he flourished academically. By his late teens, he had become a sought-after speaker, travelling the world to give talks on disability justice. When he is later accepted on a full scholarship into Oxford University, he soon learns that it's not just the medical community he must defy - it's the educational one too. In Sipping Dom Pérignon Through a Straw, we follow Ndopu, sporting his oversized, bejewelled sunglasses, as he scales the mountain of success, only to find exclusion, discrimination, and neglect waiting for him on the other side. As he soars professionally, sipping champagne with world leaders, he continues to feel the loneliness and pressure of being the only one in the room. Determined to carve out his place in the world, he must challenge bias at the highest echelons of power and prestige. Searing, vulnerable and inspiring, Ndopu's remarkable journey to reach beyond ableism, reminds us never to let anyone else define our limits.'Unflinching honesty and vulnerability... Prepare to be moved, enlightened, and profoundly touched' Sabrina Dhowre Elba, actress, model and UN Goodwill Ambassador
Sipping Dom Pérignon Through A Straw (Father Anselm Novels #13)
by Eddie NdopuAn inspirational and truly intersectional memoir from global humanitarian and social justice advocate Eddie Ndopu-a queer, Black wheelchair user and one of the UN Secretary-General's 17 Advocates for the SDGs.There are many more examples throughout my life where, if I had listened to people who told me to be comfortable with merely existing, I would now be a shrunken version of myself. I would not have emerged as one of Amnesty International's most influential campaigners straight out of college. I would not have gone on to graduate from Oxford. I would not have been appointed as a United Nations SDG Advocate. I would be eating mashed-up vegetables instead of drinking Dom Pérignon through a straw.Eddie Ndopu was born in 1990 with Spinal Muscular Atrophy (SMA), a rare degenerative motor-neuron disease, and told that he wouldn't live beyond age five. Now, thirty-one years old and stronger than ever, he continues to celebrate each turn around the sun as an existential defiance of the odds.Having fought his way through South Africa's archaic and ableist school system, Eddie became the first-ever disabled African to be given a full scholarship to Oxford University. Gay, Black and a wheelchair user, he is now an eminent thought-leader and holds positions at two of the most important organizations on the planet: the United Nations and the World Economic Forum.From flirting with diplomats on dancefloors to wearing lipstick to board meetings, Eddie has spent his life challenging the bias of those who occupy the highest echelons of power and prestige. Through redefining the boundaries of identity and ability, Sipping Dom Pérignon Through a Straw is Eddie's odds-obliterating story that illustrates what true leadership can look like and reminds us to never forget that you are bigger and more expansive than the space you currently occupy.(P) 2023 Hachette Audio
Sipping Dom Pérignon Through a Straw: Reimagining Success as a Disabled Achiever
by Eddie NdopuApple's Best Books of August 2023 A memoir penned with one good finger, Ndopu writes about being profoundly disabled and profoundly successful. Global humanitarian Eddie Ndopu was born with spinal muscular atrophy, a rare degenerative motor neuron disease affecting his mobility. He was told that he wouldn&’t live beyond age five and yet, Ndopu thrived. He grew up loving pop music, lip syncing the latest hits, and watching The Bold and the Beautiful for the haute couture, and was the only wheelchair user at his school, where he flourished academically. By his late teens, he had become a sought after speaker, travelling the world to address audiences about disability justice. Ndopu was ecstatic when he was later accepted on a full scholarship into one of the world's most prestigious schools, Oxford University. But he soon learns that it's not just the medical community he must thwart— it's the educational one too. In Sipping Dom Pérignon Through a Straw, we follow Ndopu, sporting his oversized, bejewelled sunglasses, as he scales the mountain of success, only to find exclusion, discrimination, and neglect waiting for him on the other side. Like every other student, Ndopu tries to keep up appearances—dashing to and from his public policy lectures before meeting for cocktails with his squad, all while campaigning to become student body president. Privately, however, Ndopu faces obstacles that are all too familiar to people with disabilities, yet remain unnoticed by most people. With the revolving door of care aides, hefty bills, and a lack of support from the university, Ndopu feels alienated by his environment. As he soars professionally, sipping champagne with world leaders, he continues to feel the loneliness and pressure of being the only one in the room. Determined to carve out his place in the world, he must challenge bias at the highest echelons of power and prestige. But as the pressure mounts, Ndopu must find his stride or collapse under the crushing weight of ableism. Written with his one good finger, this evocative, searing, and vulnerable prose will leave you spellbound by Ndopu&’s remarkable journey to reach beyond ableism, reminding us of our own capacity for resilience.