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The Logos Story: The Extraordinary Ministry of the Ship Named Logos
by Elaine RhotonAt 11:55 p.m. on January 4, 1988, all those aboard the Logos were jolted by the impact. The sound of the ship scraping rock struck fear in the hearts of the ship's crew. Captain Jonathan Stewart wished he were somewhere else. But this was reality. The Logos had run aground off the coast of Chile. Despite all efforts of the crew and the Chilean navy, the ship began to list badly. For the Logos it was the beginning of the end. In the Logos Story you will learn about the extraordinary ministry of Operation Mobilization's Logos—a vessel that for eighteen years made more than 400 port visits to 258 different ports in 103 countries. Because of the various outreach ministries of the Logos, millions of people were impacted and thousands indicated a decision to commit their lives to Jesus Christ.
The Lois Wilson Story: When Love is not Enough, The Biography of the Cofounder of Al-Anon.
by William G BorchertNow a Hallmark Hall of Fame special, "When Love is Not Enough: The Lois Wilson Story, " this is the biography of Al-Anon creator and wife of AA cofounder Bill W.Lois Wilson, the wife of Alcoholics Anonymous cofounder Bill W., knew better than anyone that families, friends, and loved ones of alcoholics are also affected and need informed support and advice. The Lois Wilson Story: When Love Is Not Enough is both a testament to Wilson's spirit and a guiding light for those whose lives parallel hers."Bill Borchert came into my life during our astounding screen collaboration in My Name is Bill W. What a joy to revisit this friendship in his new achievement, The Lois Wilson Story. Bill Borchert will always be a seminal part of my life and now millions of others will get to appreciate his selfless devotion to the woman who founded Al-Anon and her mesmerizing story. Bravo, my friend." Emmy A ward-winning actor (My Name is Bill W.) James Woods"Bill Borchert shares the intimate recollections of Lois Wilson in an authentic and powerful tale of helplessness, hope, and fulfillment. This view of Lois' life with Bill Wilson and the birth and nurturing of the Twelve Step movement is awesome and rewarding. It is a page-turning read and a tribute to Lois, cofounder of Al-Anon, and her passion to bring healing to everyone affected by the family disease of alcoholism." -Johnny Allen, President/CEO, The Johnson Institute"The story that would complement that of Bill W's had yet to be written. And now, William Borchert has done the job. Borchert begins his book with an easy-flowing, active tense, almost fictional style that keeps you riveted on Lois and her love story. It's well done. I'll be reading and utilizing for research the Borchert story for many years." Dick B. (a pseudonym) Writer, Historian, retired Attorney, Author of 25 published titles on the history and spiritual roots of A.A.
The London Blue Plaque Guide: 4th Edition
by Nick RennisonConnecting people with places, London’s distinctive Blue Plaque scheme highlights the buildings where some of the most remarkable men and women in our history and culture have lived and worked. From Richard Burton to Karl Marx, Marie Stopes to Jimi Hendrix, this fully updated 4th edition of The London Blue Plaque Guide has over 900 entries and provides an essential companion to the famous people who have made their homes in the city. It includes updated maps and a useful list of names by profession as well as location. As the definitive guide to the fascinating historical figures who have lived in London, it will be invaluable to residents and tourists alike.
The Lone Brit on 13: A Prisoner's Hell in Spain's Toughest Jail
by Christopher ChanceThe Lone Brit on 13 is a gripping true story of violence, degradation and adventure penned in the confines of a grim Malaga prison cell. Imprisoned for drug-smuggling, the lone Brit on Wing 13, Chance, reveals the horrors he experienced among cut-throat villains and screws in the netherworld of the Spanish prison system.Chance takes to writing in his dank prison cell in an attempt to escape his surroundings and recalls various episodes in his life: his time serving as a soldier in Thailand and Malaysia; his involvement with the 3 Para snatch-squad in the 1970s Belfast; and his subsequent descent into drug dealing and trafficking, which culminated in a high-speed boat chase and his imprisonment in a top-security Spanish prison. While inside, Chance fought his way to the surface of a cesspool of iniquitous scumbags using his fists: the only effective means of being understood in an environment of desecrated morality and non-existent integrity. With predators lurking everywhere, Chance had to be constantly on guard and in order to survive he had to be mentally prepared to inflict the necessary violent retribution on any would-be attacker or racist thug. As the sole British inmate, Chance was a prime target for the intimidating Spanish hardmen who thrived on cruelty and treachery. But his martial arts skills and Samurai philosophy proved to be more than a match for the aggressors. Once a respected and successful businessman admired by his peers - he had operated his own martial arts business in Spain before being jailed - Chance took one wrong turn in life and lost everything except the love and support of his loyal wife.
The Lone Samurai: The Life of Miyamoto Musashi
by William Scott WilsonMiyamoto Musashi (1584?1645) was the legendary samurai known throughout the world as a master swordsman, spiritual seeker, and author of the classic book on strategy, the Book of Five Rings. Over 350 years after his death, Musashi and his legacy still fascinate us and continue to inspire artists, authors, and filmmakers. Here, respected translator and expert on samurai culture William Scott Wilson has created both a vivid account of a fascinating period in feudal Japan and a portrait of the courageous, iconoclastic samurai who wrestled with philosophical and spiritual ideas that are as relevant today as they were in his time. For Musashi, the way of the martial arts was about mastery of the mind rather than simply technical prowess--and it is this path to mastery that is the core teaching in his Book of Five Rings. This volume includes supplemental material on Musashi's legacy as a martial arts icon, his impact on literature and film, and the influence of his Book of Five Rings.
The Loneliest Americans
by Jay Caspian KangA riveting blend of family history and original reportage that explores—and reimagines—Asian American identity in a Black and white world&“A smart, vulnerable, and incisive exploration of what it means for this brilliant and honest writer—a child of Korean immigrants—to assimilate and aspire while being critical of his membership in his community of origin, in his political tribe, and in America.&”—Min Jin Lee, author of Pachinko In 1965, a new immigration law lifted a century of restrictions against Asian immigrants to the United States. Nobody, including the lawmakers who passed the bill, expected it to transform the country&’s demographics. But over the next four decades, millions arrived, including Jay Caspian Kang&’s parents, grandparents, aunts, and uncles. They came with almost no understanding of their new home, much less the history of &“Asian America&” that was supposed to define them. The Loneliest Americans is the unforgettable story of Kang and his family as they move from a housing project in Cambridge to an idyllic college town in the South and eventually to the West Coast. Their story unfolds against the backdrop of a rapidly expanding Asian America, as millions more immigrants, many of them working-class or undocumented, stream into the country. At the same time, upwardly mobile urban professionals have struggled to reconcile their parents&’ assimilationist goals with membership in a multicultural elite—all while trying to carve out a new kind of belonging for their own children, who are neither white nor truly &“people of color.&” Kang recognizes this existential loneliness in himself and in other Asian Americans who try to locate themselves in the country&’s racial binary. There are the businessmen turning Flushing into a center of immigrant wealth; the casualties of the Los Angeles riots; the impoverished parents in New York City who believe that admission to the city&’s exam schools is the only way out; the men&’s right&’s activists on Reddit ranting about intermarriage; and the handful of protesters who show up at Black Lives Matter rallies holding &“Yellow Peril Supports Black Power&” signs. Kang&’s exquisitely crafted book brings these lonely parallel climbers together amid a wave of anti-Asian violence. In response, he calls for a new form of immigrant solidarity—one rooted not in bubble tea and elite college admissions but in the struggles of refugees and the working class.
The Loneliness Files
by Athena Dixon“I was blown away not only by the writing, but by the adventurous and expansive concept stretched out across these essays. The Loneliness Files has a real opportunity to reshape and redefine what a cohesive, braided, essay collection can be.”—Hanif Abdurraqib, Tin House Editor-at-Large What does it mean to be a body behind a screen, lost in the hustle of an online world? In our age of digital hyper-connection, Athena Dixon invites us to consider this question with depth, heart, and ferocity, investigating the gaps that technology cannot fill and confronting a lifetime of loneliness. Living alone as a middle-aged woman without children or pets and working forty hours a week from home, more than three hundred fifty miles from her family and friends, Dixon begins watching mystery videos on YouTube, listening to true crime podcasts, and playing video game walk-throughs just to hear another human voice. She discovers the story of Joyce Carol Vincent, a woman who died alone, her body remaining in front of a glowing television set for three years before the world finally noticed. Searching for connection, Dixon plumbs the depths of communal loneliness, asking essential questions of herself and all of us: How have her past decisions left her so alone? Are we, as humans, linked by a shared loneliness? How do we see the world and our place in it? And finally, how do we find our way back to each other? Searing and searching, The Loneliness Files is a groundbreaking memoir in essays that ultimately brings us together in its piercing, revelatory examination of how and why it is that we break apart.
The Lonely End of the Rink
by Grant LawrenceDeeply personal yet incredibly witty, this memoir about Grant Lawrence's relationship with hockey passes back and forth between tales of his life and a fascinating history of hockey, complete with lively anecdotes about the many colorful characters of the NHL. <P><P>Through Lawrence's early life, he struggled with the idea of hockey. An undersized child who wore thick glasses and knee-braces, he understood what it was like to be in the attack zone of the hockey-obsessed jocks at his school. For Lawrence, bullying and the violent game of hockey seemed to go hand-in-hand. Yet he was also enamored with the sport and eventually learned that playing goalie on a hockey team isn't all that different from playing in a band, and that artistically-minded wimps can find just as much joy in the game as their meathead counterparts.
The Lonely Hunter: How Our Search for Love Is Broken: A Memoir
by Aimée LutkinWhen can we say we&’ll be single forever—and that&’s okay? One woman questions our society&’s pathologizing of loneliness in this crackling, incisive blend of memoir and cultural reporting. &“The Lonely Hunter challenged everything I assumed about the nature of loneliness and what it means to lead an authentic life.&”—Doree Shafrir, author of Thanks for Waiting and Startup: A NovelONE OF THE MOST ANTICIPATED BOOKS OF 2022—Cosmopolitan, She ReadsOne evening, thirtysomething writer Aimée Lutkin found herself at a dinner party surrounded by couples. When the conversation turned to her love life, Lutkin stated simply, &“I don&’t really know if I&’m going to date anyone ever again. Some people are just alone forever.&” Her friends rushed to assure her that love comes when you least expect it and to make recommendations for new dating apps. But Lutkin wondered, Why, when there are more unmarried adults than ever before, is there so much pressure to couple up? Why does everyone treat me as though my real life won&’t start until I find a partner? Isn&’t this my real life, the one I&’m living right now? Is there something wrong with me, or is there something wrong with our culture? Over the course of the next year, Lutkin set out to answer these questions and to see if there really was some trick to escaping loneliness. She went on hundreds of dates; read the sociologists, authors, and relationship experts exploring singlehood and loneliness; dove into the wellness industrial complex; tossed it all aside to binge-watch Netflix and eat nachos; and probed the capitalist structures that make alternative family arrangements nearly impossible.Chock-full of razor-sharp observations and poignant moments of vulnerability, The Lonely Hunter is a stirring account of one woman&’s experience of being alone and a revealing exposé of our culture&’s deep biases against the uncoupled. Blazingly smart, insightful, and full of heart, this is a book for anyone determined to make, follow, and break their own rules.
The Lonely Life: An Autobiography
by Bette DavisOriginally published in 1962, The Lonely Life is legendary silver screen actress Bette Davis's lively and riveting account of her life, loves, and marriages--now in ebook for the first time, and updated with an afterword she wrote just before her death. As Davis says in the opening lines of her classic memoir: "I have always been driven by some distant music--a battle hymn, no doubt--for I have been at war from the beginning. I rode into the field with sword gleaming and standard flying. I was going to conquer the world." A bold, unapologetic book by a unique and formidable woman, The Lonely Life details the first fifty-plus years of Davis's life--her Yankee childhood, her rise to stardom in Hollywood, the birth of her beloved children, and the uncompromising choices she made along the way to succeed. The book was updated with new material in the 1980s, bringing the story up to the end of Davis's life--all the heartbreak, all the drama, and all the love she experienced at every stage of her extraordinary life. The Lonely Life proves conclusively that the legendary image of Bette Davis is not a fable but a marvelous reality.
The Lonely Soldier: The Private War of Women Serving in Iraq
by Helen BenedictMore American women have fought and died in Iraq than in any war since World War Two, yet as soldiers they are still painfully alone. In Iraq, only one in ten troops is a woman, and she often serves in a unit with few other women or none at all. This isolation, along with the military's deep-seated hostility toward women, causes problems that many female soldiers find as hard to cope with as war itself: degradation, sexual persecution by their comrades, and loneliness, instead of the camaraderie that every soldier depends on for comfort and survival. As one female soldier said, "I ended up waging my own war against an enemy dressed in the same uniform as mine. " InThe Lonely Soldier, Benedict tells the stories of five women who fought in Iraq between 2003 and 2006. She follows them from their childhoods to their enlistments, then takes them through their training, to war and home again, all the while setting the war's events in context. We meet Jen, white and from a working-class town in the heartland, who still shakes from her wartime traumas; Abbie, who rebelled against a household of liberal Democrats by enlisting in the National Guard; Mickiela, a Mexican American who grew up with a family entangled in L. A. gangs; Terris, an African American mother from D. C. whose childhood was torn by violence; and Eli PaintedCrow, who joined the military to follow Native American tradition and to escape a life of Faulknerian hardship. Between these stories, Benedict weaves those of the forty other Iraq War veterans she interviewed, illuminating the complex issues of war and misogyny, class, race, homophobia, and post-traumatic stress disorder. Each of these stories is unique, yet collectively they add up to a heartbreaking picture of the sacrifices women soldiers are making for this country. Benedict ends by showing how these women came to face the truth of war and by offering suggestions for how the military can improve conditions for female soldiers--including distributing women more evenly throughout units and rejecting male recruits with records of violence against women. Humanizing, urgent, and powerful,The Lonely Soldieris a clarion call for change.
The Lonely Stories: 22 Celebrated Writers on the Joys & Struggles of Being Alone
by Natalie Eve GarrettA collection of essays about the joys and struggles of being alone by 22 literary writers including: Lev Grossman, Jhumpa Lahiri, Lena Dunham, Jesmyn Ward, Yiyun Li, and Anthony DoerrIf you&’re feeling lonely or if you&’ve ever felt unseen, if you&’re emboldened by solitude or secretly longing for it: Welcome to The Lonely Stories. This cathartic collection of essays illuminates an experience that so few of us openly discuss. Some stories are heartbreaking, such as Jesmyn Ward&’s reckoning with the loss of her husband and Dina Nayeri&’s reflection on immigrating to a foreign country. Others are witty, such as Lev Grossman&’s rueful tale of heading to the woods or Anthony Doerr&’s struggles with internet addiction. Still others celebrate the clarity of solitude, like Claire Dederer&’s journey toward sobriety and Lidia Yuknavitch&’s sensual look at desire. Thoughtful and affirming, The Lonely Stories reveals the complexities of an emotion we&’ve all felt—reminding us that we're not alone. Contributors include: • Megan Giddings • Claire Dederer • Imani Perry • Jeffery Renard Allen • Maggie Shipstead • Emily Raboteau • Lev Grossman • Lena Dunham • Yiyun Li • Anthony Doerr • Helena Fitzgerald • Maile Meloy • Aja Gabel • Jean Kwok • Amy Shearn • Peter Ho Davies • Maya Shanbhag Lang • Jhumpa Lahiri • Jesmyn Ward • Lidia Yuknavitch • Dina Nayeri • Melissa Febos
The Lonely Veteran's Guide to Companionship (Living Out: Gay and Lesbian Autobiog)
by Bronson LemerIn this collection of interrelated essays, Bronson Lemer explores companionship through the lens of a queer veteran, focusing on the difficulty of forming true connections with others, including a “battle buddy” during basic training, the people he meets while teaching in China, and the spirit of a long-dead older sister. Lemer uses lessons from popular culture and literature—the globe-trotting exploits of fictional criminal Carmen Sandiego, the sexual exploration in Baldwin’s Giovanni’s Room, the expatriate longing in Hemingway’s A Moveable Feast, just to name a few—as a means to think more broadly about the role of the outsider and how we navigate aimlessness while searching for stability and meaning. Lemer’s distinct take on the veteran’s story boldly engages the intersection of military narratives and queer culture, including examinations into the role of thirst traps in contemporary dating culture, the fears of long-term health damage caused by military service, and the ways in which intimate relationships can lead to a loss of self. Taken together, his essays illustrate how one queer veteran managed to carve out a path that led him, however awkwardly at times, closer to the person he wanted to be.
The Lonely War: One Woman's Account of the Struggle for Modern Iran
by Nazila FathiAs a nine-year-old Tehrani schoolgirl during the Iranian Revolution, Nazila Fathi watched her country change before her eyes. The revolutionaries--most of them poor, uneducated, and radicalized--seized jobs, housing, and positions of power, transforming Iranian society practically overnight. But this socioeconomic revolution had an unintended effect. As Fathi shows, the forces unleashed in 1979 inadvertently created a robust Iranian middle class, one that today hungers for more personal freedoms and a renewed relationship with the outside world. And unless an international confrontation allows Iranian leaders to justify an internal crackdown, this internal pressure for reform will soon set the country on a more stable track. In The Lonely War, Fathi describes Iran’s awakening alongside her own, revealing how moderates are retaking the country--and how foreign powers can aid their progress.
The Long Accomplishment: A Memoir of Hope and Struggle in Matrimony
by Rick Moody“[A] moving, funny, hauntingly brilliant memoir about marriage.” —Caroline Leavitt, The San Francisco Chronicle Rick Moody, the award-winning author of The Ice Storm, shares the harrowing true story of the first year of his second marriage in this eventful, month-by-month accountAt this story’s start, Moody, a recovering alcoholic and sexual compulsive with a history of depression, is also the divorced father of a beloved little girl and a man in love; his answer to the question “Would you like to be in a committed relationship?” is, fully and for the first time in his life, “Yes.” And so his second marriage begins as he emerges, humbly and with tender hopes, from the wreckage of his past, only to be battered by a stormy sea of external troubles—miscarriages, the deaths of friends, and robberies, just for starters. As Moody has put it, "this is a story in which a lot of bad luck is the daily fare of the protagonists, but in which they are also in love.” To Moody’s astonishment, matrimony turns out to be the site of strength in hard times, a vessel infinitely tougher and more durable than any boat these two participants would have traveled by alone. Love buoys the couple, lifting them above their hardships, and the reader is buoyed along with them.
The Long Alliance: The Imperfect Union of Joe Biden and Barack Obama
by Gabriel DebenedettiNew York Magazine national correspondent Gabriel Debenedetti reveals an inside look at the historically close, complicated, occasionally co-dependent, and at-times uncertain relationship between Joe Biden and Barack Obama.Delving far deeper than the simplistic “bromance” narrative that’s long held the public eye, The Long Alliance reveals the past, present, and future of the unusual partnership, detailing its development, its twists and turns, its ruptures and reunions, and its path to this pivotal moment for each man’s legacy.The true story of this relationship, from 2003 into 2022, is significantly more layered and consequential than is widely understood. The original mismatch between the veteran Washington traditionalist and the once-in-a-generation outsider has transformed repeatedly in ways that have molded not just four different presidential campaigns and two different political parties, but also wars, a devastating near-depression, movements for social equality, and the fight for the future of American democracy. The bond between them has been, at various times over the past two decades, tense, affectionate, nonexistent, and ironclad — but it has always been surprising. Now it is shaping a second presidential administration, and the future of the world as we know it.
The Long Beach Gay Trials: A History of Injustice (True Crime)
by Gerrie SchipskeHow Long Beach caused the death of John A. Lamb. Immediately after his 1914 election as mayor of Long Beach, Louis Napoleon Whealton fired the chief of police and raided the city treasury. To replenish the funds, Mayor Whealton concocted a scheme to collect fines from any male “who made advances toward other men.” Two special police officers entrapped and arrested thirty-one men, dragging them before a judge to pay up or risk a public trial. When one victim refused to play along, newspapers were quick to publish the names of everyone accused, including local pharmacist and popular churchman John A. Lamb. His suicide made headlines, but the city continued to target gay men well into this century. Author and historian Gerrie Schipske uncovers the story of a tragic death with far-reaching consequences in Long Beach.
The Long Embrace: Raymond Chandler and the Woman He Loved
by Judith FreemanRaymond Chandler was among the most original and enduring crime novelists of the twentieth century. Yet much of his pre-writing life, including his unconventional marriage, has remained shrouded in mystery. In this compelling, wholly original book, Judith Freeman sets out to solve the puzzle of who Chandler was and how he became the writer who would create in Philip Marlowe an icon of American culture. Visiting Chandler's many homes and apartments, Freeman uncovers vestiges of the Los Angeles that was Chandler's terrain and inspiration for his imagination. She also uncovers the life of Cissy Pascal, the older, twice-divorced woman Chandler married in 1924. A revelation of a marriage that was a wellspring of need, illusion, and creativity, The Long Embrace provides us with a more complete picture of Raymond Chandler's life and art than any we have had before.
The Long Field: Wales and the Presence of Absence, a Memoir
by Pamela PetroFor readers of H Is for Hawk, an intimate memoir of belonging and loss and a mesmerizing travelogue through the landscapes and language of WalesHiraeth is a Welsh word that's famously hard to translate. Literally, it can mean "long field" but generally translates into English, inadequately, as "homesickness." At heart, hiraeth suggests something like a bone-deep longing for an irretrievable place, person, or time—an acute awareness of the presence of absence. In The Long Field, Pamela Petro braids essential hiraeth stories of Wales with tales from her own life—as an American who found an ancient home in Wales, as a gay woman, as the survivor of a terrible AMTRAK train crash, and as the daughter of a parent with dementia. Through the pull and tangle of these stories and her travels throughout Wales, hiraeth takes on radical new meanings. There is traditional hiraeth of place and home, but also queer hiraeth; and hiraeth triggered by technology, immigration, ecological crises, and our new divisive politics. On this journey, the notion begins to morph from a uniquely Welsh experience to a universal human condition, from deep longing to the creative responses to loss that Petro sees as the genius of Welsh culture. It becomes a tool to understand ourselves in our time. A finalist for the Wales Book of the Year Award and named to the Telegraph's and Financial Times's Top 10 lists for travel writing, The Long Field is an unforgettable exploration of &“the hidden contours of the human heart.&”
The Long Game: A Memoir
by Mitch McconnellIn October 1984, a hard-charging Kentucky politician waited excitedly for President Ronald Reagan to arrive at a presidential rally in Louisville. In the midst of a tough Senate campaign against an incumbent Democrat, the young Republican hoped Reagan's endorsement would give a much-needed boost to his insurgent campaign. He even had a camera crew ready to capture the president's words for a TV commercial he planned to air during the campaign's final stretch. Alas, when Reagan finally stepped to the microphone, he smiled for the crowd and declared: "I'm happy to be here with my good friend, Mitch O'Donnell." That was hardly Mitch McConnell's first setback, and far from his last. But as he learned when running his very first campaign for student body president in high school, you don't have to be the most popular, the most athletic, or even the luckiest kid to win. You just need to run the best campaign. So he swallowed hard, put his head down, and kept going. Four weeks later, in the biggest upset of the year, his dream of being a US senator came true--by a margin of about one vote per precinct. By persevering, he'd be the only Republican in the country to beat an incumbent Democratic US senator. McConnell learned patience and fortitude during his post-World War II youth in Alabama. His mother helped him beat polio by leading him through long, aching exercises every day for two years. His father taught him the importance of standing up to bullies, even if it meant taking the occasional punch. It turned out to be the perfect childhood for a future Senate majority leader. "In the line of work I would choose, compromise is key, but I'd come to find that certain times required me to invoke the fighting spirit both of my parents instilled in me." The Long Game is the candid, behind-the-scenes memoir of a man famous for his discretion. For more than three decades, McConnell has worked steadily to advance conservative values, including limited government, individual liberty, fiscal prudence, and a strong national defense. But he has always cared much more about moving the ball forward than about who gets the credit.Even in recent years, when some of his colleagues seem obsessed with maintaining and cultivating their images in a twenty-four-hour news cycle, McConnell focuses on how today's controversies will affect the country in a year, or two, or ten. Now McConnell reveals what he really thinks about the rivalry between the Senate and the House; the players and the stakes involved when a group of political opportunists tried to hijack the Tea Party movement; and key figures such as Barack Obama, Joe Biden, and Harry Reid. He tells the inside story of the battle against Obamacare and other fights to protect the US Constitution against further encroachment by an out-of-control White House that's stuck in a permanent campaign. He explains the real causes of the chronic gridlock that has so many voters enraged, his ongoing efforts to restore the US Senate's indispensable dual role as a brake on excess and a tool for national consensus, and what ordinary citizens have a right to expect from Washington. In today's atmosphere of impatience and instant gratification, McConnell still believes the Founders knew best when they instituted a government with checks and balances. As he writes, "In the end, the goal isn't a perfectly running congressional machine or a party without blemish or inner turmoil. The goal is to allow the country to work out its differences freely and energetically, confident that the institutions the Founders left us are capable of accommodating the disputes and disagreements that arise in a nation as big and diverse and open as ours."From the Hardcover edition.
The Long Goodbye
by Meghan O'RourkeWhat is it like to mourn today, in a culture that has largely set aside rituals that acknowledge grief? After her mother died of cancer at the age of fifty-five, Meghan O'Rourke found that nothing had prepared her for the intensity of her sorrow. She began to create a record of her interior life as a mourner, trying to capture the paradox of grief--its monumental agony and microscopic intimacies--an endeavor that ultimately bloomed into a profound look at how caring for her mother during her illness changed and strengthened their bond. With lyricism and unswerving candor, The Long Goodbye captures the fleeting moments of joy that make up a life and the way memory can lead us out of the jagged darkness of loss. Effortlessly blending research and reflection, the personal and the universal, it is a love letter from a daughter to a mother that will touch any reader who has felt the powerful ties of familial love.
The Long Goodbye
by Meghan O'RourkeFrom one of America's foremost young literary voices, a transcendent portrait of the unbearable anguish of grief and the enduring power of familial love. What does it mean to mourn today, in a culture that has largely set aside rituals that acknowledge grief? After her mother died of cancer at the age of fifty-five, Meghan O'Rourke found that nothing had prepared her for the intensity of her sorrow. In the first anguished days, she began to create a record of her interior life as a mourner, trying to capture the paradox of grief-its monumental agony and microscopic intimacies-an endeavor that ultimately bloomed into a profound look at how caring for her mother during her illness changed and strengthened their bond. O'Rourke's story is one of a life gone off the rails, of how watching her mother's illness-and separating from her husband-left her fundamentally altered. But it is also one of resilience, as she observes her family persevere even in the face of immeasurable loss. With lyricism and unswerving candor, The Long Goodbye conveys the fleeting moments of joy that make up a life, and the way memory can lead us out of the jagged darkness of loss. Effortlessly blending research and reflection, the personal and the universal, it is not only an exceptional memoir, but a necessary one.
The Long Goodbye: A Memoir
by Meghan O'RourkeMeghan O'Rourke was thirty-two when her mother died of cancer on Christmas Day, 2008. As a writer, even in the depths of her grief, she was fascinated by what she observed of herself in the aftermath: the rage she felt, not only at what had happened to her mother, but also at the inability of people to acknowledge her pain; her sense that the meaning of her life had changed fundamentally with the loss of a parent; the way that the reassuringly familiar often became somehow completely new and strange. The Long Goodbye interleaves personal recollections of her much-loved mother with an examination of what it means to grieve in a society which no longer has the rituals - or even, most of the time, the desire - to engage with grief, to understand it, and to let it do both its worst - and its best.
The Long Goodbye: Lessons on humanity from the grips of Alzheimer’s
by Keri KitayA powerful mix of memoir and hard-earned knowledge, in The Long Goodbye, Keri Kitay charts her family's poignant and devastating journey after their mother was diagnosed with early onset Alzheimer's disease. When Keri Kitay's mother, Terry, was diagnosed with early-onset Alzheimer's disease, nothing could have prepared her family for what lay ahead. The diagnosis and the years that followed rocked their world in unimaginable ways.In this powerful mix of memoir and hard-earned knowledge, Keri charts her family's journey: what life was like before Alzheimer's, the early signs that everybody missed, the day they got the shattering news, coming to terms with the grim prognosis . . . and most devastatingly, witnessing the woman they knew and loved slowly fade away.Poignant and moving, The Long Goodbye is a stirring account of losing a parent to the ravages of an unforgiving disease and a heartfelt exploration of what it means to face this with grace and dignity.This is a story about ordinary family ties which became extraordinary through necessity, about unbreakable bonds and unconditional love, and what holds us close even in the most heartbreaking of circumstances.'A significant resource for anyone faced with dementia' PROFESSOR HENRY BRODATY
The Long Goodbye: Memories Of My Father
by Patti DavisRonald Reagan's daughter writes with a moving openness about losing her father to Alzheimer's disease. The simplicity with which she reveals the intensity, the rush, the flow of her feelings encompasses all the surprises and complexities that ambush us when death gradually, unstoppably invades life.In The Long Goodbye, Patti Davis describes losing her father to Alzheimer's disease, saying goodbye in stages, helpless against the onslaught of a disease that steals what is most precious-a person's memory. "Alzheimer's," she writes, "snips away at the threads, a slow unraveling, a steady retreat; as a witness all you can do is watch, cry, and whisper a soft stream of goodbyes."She writes of needing to be reunited at forty-two with her mother ("she had wept as much as I over our long, embittered war"), of regaining what they had spent decades demolishing; a truce was necessary to bring together a splintered family, a few weeks before her father released his letter telling the country and the world of his illness . . .The author delves into her memories to touch her father again, to hear his voice, to keep alive the years she had with him.She writes as if past and present were coming together, of her memories as a child, holding her father's hand, and as a young woman whose hand is being given away in marriage by her father . . . of her father teaching her to ride a bicycle, of the moment when he let her go and she went off on her own . . . of his teaching her the difference between a hawk and a buzzard . . . of the family summer vacations at a rented beach house-each of them tan, her father looking like the athlete he was, with a swimmer's broad shoulders and lean torso. . . . She writes of how her father never resisted solitude, in fact was born for it, of that strange reserve that made people reach for him. . . . She recalls him sitting at his desk, writing, staring out the window . . . and she writes about the toll of the disease itself, the look in her father's eyes, and her efforts to reel him back to her. Moving . . . honest . . . an illuminating portrait of grief, of a man, a disease, and a woman and her father.From the Hardcover edition.