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Too Many Mothers: A Memoir Of An East End Childhood
by Roberta TaylorRoberta Taylor has written a bittersweet and ultimately unforgettable memoir of her early life in South London in the fifties. Too Many Mothers is a portrait of an embattled family at war with itself and the outside world. From petty crime to pet monkeys, tender romance to emotional blackmail, illegitimacy, adoption and even murder. You won't be able to put this book down!Read by Roberta Taylor(p) 2006 Orion Publishing Group
Too Many Notes, Mr. Mozart
by Robert BarnardMystery fans will be delighted with this charming and whimsical alternative history in the form of a murder mystery. Germany, 1830. Wolfgang Gottlieb (he prefers the German form of his name) Mozart is getting on in years, but is still remarkably spry for his age. And things are looking up when he is asked to give piano lessons to the young Princess Victoria. He is less sure of his good fortune, however, when the princess, during her first lesson, makes a most unusual demand of him. And things go from bad to dangerous when she becomes heir apparent to the throne and seems destined to be the victim of a tug-of-love between the new king, William IV, and her unwise mother, the Dutchess of Kent. When the king's brood of illegitimate children, the FitzClarences, join in, the situation rapidly gets alarming overtones, and when one of the guests at a Windsor Castle reception finds that drinking out of other people's glasses can have fatal consequences, Mr. Mozart has to face up to the fact that someone may have designs on his rather enchanting new pupil.
Too Many Tears
by Fiona DoyleAs heard on BBC Radio 4's Woman's Hour'Ireland and its people know that Fiona Doyle is a trailblazer' Sunday Independent'A wrenching read ... Doyle resists giving her story a Hollywood gloss' Irish Independent'[A] hopeful, horrific read' Ray D'Arcy, Today FM'A testament to her resolve and courage. A remarkable story by a remarkable woman' Irish Times'Always inspirational' National Women's Council of Ireland @NWCI'Fiona Doyle is a hero' Roisin Ingle @roisiningle'Well worth reading' Colette Fitzpatrick, MidWeek, TV3Too Many Tears is the moving and inspiring story of how Fiona Doyle came through the agony and humiliation of being sexually abused by her father, how she foudn the strength to seek justice, and how she coped when, at the final hurdle, it appeared that he was about to escape prison.For as long as she can remember, and well into her teens, Fiona's father raped and abused her. Her mother blamed Fiona for leading him on. The effects on her life were catastrophic.Fiona first reported her father, Patrick O'Brien, to the authorities in the early nineties but the police investigation went nowhere. She made a second complaint in 2010 and this time, it appeared, O'Brien would face the consequences of his crimes . He, pleaded guilty to sexually assaulting his daughter and Fiona assumed the next time she came to court, he would be going to jail.Instead, shockingly, having suspended nine years of a twelve-year sentence, the judge released O'Brien on bail. Three days later, following a national outcry and questions in parliament, the presiding judge expressed his 'profound regret' to Fiona Doyle and sent O'Brien to jail.Too Many Tears is Fiona Doyle's story of abuse and its aftermath - the turmoil and isolation she experienced as a child and young girl, the devastating price she continued to pay in her adult life, and how finally she had the courage and tenacity to take on her father - and the authorities - to make him face up to what he had done. It is a startling and inspiring story of survival and hope against the odds.
Too Marvellous For Words
by Julie WelchMidnight feasts in dorms, jolly japes with chums, pranks on mad teachers and no boys whatsoever: THE REAL MALORY TOWERS LIFE from award-winning writer, Julie Welch. ‘As we spilled from the train we could hear loud revving and smell exhaust fumes, and there in the forecourt was a coach waiting to drop us all off at our various houses. I’d been living for this moment since I’d arrived at the school; since before that. . . We were all schoolgirls everywhere, past, present and future, real and imagined. We were Darrell and her chums at Malory Towers – except the school in front of me wasn’t quite the picture I had imagined. Suddenly I had this out-of-nowhere, waking up from a coma moment, as if I had been whisked away by a tornado or washed up by shipwreck on an unknown shore. Where was I? How did I get here? I was on my own, and now I would have to survive. . .' Too Marvellous for Words! is the wonderfully evocative and entertaining memoir of life in an all-girls boarding school in Suffolk in the early 1960s. Award-winning writer Julie Welch remembers her time spent at Felixstowe College, a long-lost world of arcane rules and happenings, when the headmistress and the Head of Science raced each other on public roads in their sports cars, and when having meringues for birthday tea instead of plain cake was branded ‘disgraceful’. As the social morals of post-war Britain collided with those of the decadent 1960s, Julie and her fellow pupils discovered Radio Caroline, fashion and the facts of life at the same time as playing lacrosse derbies, attending classical music concerts and sea-bathing.The years spent at Felixstowe College made a lasting impression on the girls who boarded there. Amidst all the fun, deeply emotional attachments were made, with some girls – whose parents were remote or absent – finding support from their classmates that they didn't get at home.Too Marvellous for Words! is the real Malory Towers life, full of character and charm, and serviing as both a memoir and a fascinating social history of a way of English life lived by 'young ladies' some 50 years ago.
Too Much
by Tom Allen'An extraordinary portrait of a son navigating his way through grief and loss in real time. Funny, candid, and measured' GRAHAM NORTONHappily settled in a new relationship and with a dream house of his own, comedian Tom Allen had finally moved on from the arrested development of millennial life and could at last call himself an adult.But when his father died suddenly in late 2021, Tom's newfound independence was rocked by a fresh set of challenges, and he began to find solace in the past (and his new vegetable patch). Told through snapshots from Tom's busy life - whether reflecting on the campness of funeral customs, muddy lockdown walks in unsuitable footwear or just reminiscing on his childhood obsession with Patricia Routledge - Too Much is a hilarious joyride of stories as well as an emotional ode to Tom's beloved dad, and a touching manifesto on how to navigate the complexities of grief. With moving honesty and wit, Tom writes beautifully about those days, weeks and months following his family's loss, and about how bewildering the practicalities of life can be in the wake of an upheaval - those moments, really, when everything can start to feel a bit too much...'Hilarious and poignant' JO BRAND
Too Much
by Tom Allen'An extraordinary portrait of a son navigating his way through grief and loss in real time. Funny, candid, and measured' GRAHAM NORTONHappily settled in a new relationship and with a dream house of his own, comedian Tom Allen had finally moved on from the arrested development of millennial life and could at last call himself an adult.But when his father died suddenly in late 2021, Tom's newfound independence was rocked by a fresh set of challenges, and he began to find solace in the past (and his new vegetable patch). Told through snapshots from Tom's busy life - whether reflecting on the campness of funeral customs, muddy lockdown walks in unsuitable footwear or just reminiscing on his childhood obsession with Patricia Routledge - Too Much is a hilarious joyride of stories as well as an emotional ode to Tom's beloved dad, and a touching manifesto on how to navigate the complexities of grief. With moving honesty and wit, Tom writes beautifully about those days, weeks and months following his family's loss, and about how bewildering the practicalities of life can be in the wake of an upheaval - those moments, really, when everything can start to feel a bit too much...'Hilarious and poignant' JO BRAND
Too Much
by Tom Allen'An extraordinary portrait of a son navigating his way through grief and loss in real time. Funny, candid, and measured' GRAHAM NORTONHappily settled in a new relationship and with a dream house of his own, comedian Tom Allen had finally moved on from the arrested development of millennial life and could at last call himself an adult.But when his father died suddenly in late 2021, Tom's newfound independence was rocked by a fresh set of challenges, and he began to find solace in the past (and his new vegetable patch). Told through snapshots from Tom's busy life - whether reflecting on the campness of funeral customs, muddy lockdown walks in unsuitable footwear or just reminiscing on his childhood obsession with Patricia Routledge - Too Much is a hilarious joyride of stories as well as an emotional ode to Tom's beloved dad, and a touching manifesto on how to navigate the complexities of grief.With moving honesty and wit, Tom writes beautifully about those days, weeks and months following his family's loss, and about how bewildering the practicalities of life can be in the wake of an upheaval - those moments, really, when everything can start to feel a bit too much...'Hilarious and poignant' JO BRAND
Too Much Is Not Enough: A Memoir of Fumbling Toward Adulthood
by Andrew RannellsFrom the star of Broadway's The Book of Mormon and HBO's Girls, the heartfelt and hilarious coming-of-age memoir of a Midwestern boy surviving bad auditions, bad relationships, and some really bad highlights as he chases his dreams in New York CityWhen Andrew Rannells left Nebraska for New York City in 1997, he, like many young hopefuls, saw the city as a chance to break free. To start over. To transform the fiercely ambitious but sexually confused teenager he saw in the mirror into the Broadway leading man of his dreams.In Too Much Is Not Enough, Rannells takes us on the journey of a twentysomething hungry to experience everything New York has to offer: new friends, wild nights, great art, standing ovations. At the heart of his hunger lies a powerful drive to reconcile the boy he was when he left Omaha with the man he desperately wants to be.As Rannells fumbles his way towards the Great White Way, he also shares the drama of failed auditions and behind-the-curtain romances, the heartbreak of losing his father at the height of his struggle, and the exhilaration of making his Broadway debut in Hairspray at the age of twenty-six. Along the way, he learns that you never really leave your past—or your family—behind; that the most painful, and perversely motivating, jobs are the ones you almost get; and that sometimes the most memorable nights with friends are marked not by the trendy club you danced at but by the recap over diner food afterward.Honest and hilarious, Too Much Is Not Enough is an unforgettable look at love, loss, and the powerful forces that determine who we become.
Too Much and Never Enough: How My Family Created the World's Most Dangerous Man
by Mary L. TrumpIn this revelatory, authoritative portrait of Donald J. Trump and the toxic family that made him, Mary L. Trump, a trained clinical psychologist and Donald’s only niece, shines a bright light on the dark history of their family in order to explain how her uncle became the man who now threatens the world’s health, economic security, and social fabric. <p><p>Mary Trump spent much of her childhood in her grandparents’ large, imposing house in the heart of Queens, New York, where Donald and his four siblings grew up. She describes a nightmare of traumas, destructive relationships, and a tragic combination of neglect and abuse. She explains how specific events and general family patterns created the damaged man who currently occupies the Oval Office, including the strange and harmful relationship between Fred Trump and his two oldest sons, Fred Jr. and Donald. <p>A firsthand witness to countless holiday meals and interactions, Mary brings an incisive wit and unexpected humor to sometimes grim, often confounding family events. She recounts in unsparing detail everything from her uncle Donald&’s place in the family spotlight and Ivana’s penchant for regifting to her grandmother’s frequent injuries and illnesses and the appalling way Donald, Fred Trump’s favorite son, dismissed and derided him when he began to succumb to Alzheimer’s. <p>Numerous pundits, armchair psychologists, and journalists have sought to parse Donald J. Trump's lethal flaws. Mary L. Trump has the education, insight, and intimate familiarity needed to reveal what makes Donald, and the rest of her clan, tick. She alone can recount this fascinating, unnerving saga, not just because of her insider&’s perspective but also because she is the only Trump willing to tell the truth about one of the world’s most powerful and dysfunctional families. <p> <b>A New York Times Bestseller</b>
Too Much and Never Enough: How My Family Created the World's Most Dangerous Man
by Mary L. TrumpIn this revelatory, authoritative portrait of Donald J. Trump and the toxic family that made him, Mary L. Trump, a trained clinical psychologist and Donald’s only niece, shines a bright light on the dark history of their family in order to explain how her uncle became the man who now threatens the world’s health, economic security and social fabric. Mary Trump spent much of her childhood in her grandparents’ large, imposing house in New York, where Donald and his four siblings grew up. She describes a nightmare of traumas, destructive relationships and a tragic combination of neglect and abuse. She explains how specific events and general family patterns created the damaged man who currently occupies the Oval Office, including the strange and harmful relationship between Fred Trump and his two oldest sons, Fred Jr. and Donald. A first-hand witness, Mary brings an incisive wit and unexpected humour to sometimes grim, often confounding family events. She recounts in unsparing detail everything from her uncle Donald’s place in the family spotlight and Ivana’s penchant for regifting to her grandmother’s frequent injuries and illnesses and the appalling way Donald, Fred Trump’s favourite son, dismissed and derided him when he began to succumb to Alzheimer’s. Numerous pundits, armchair psychologists and journalists have sought to explain Donald Trump’s lethal flaws. Mary Trump has the education, insight and intimate familiarity needed to reveal what makes Donald, and the rest of her clan, tick. She alone can recount this fascinating, unnerving saga, not just because of her insider’s perspective but also because she is the only Trump willing to tell the truth about one of the world’s most powerful and dysfunctional families.
Too Much of Life: The Complete Cronicas
by Clarice LispectorIn the magnificent feast of Clarice Lispector’s books, her crônicas—short, intensely vivid newspaper pieces—are the delicious canapés The things I’ve learned from taxi drivers would be enough to fill a book. They know a lot: they really do get around. I may know a lot about Antonioni that they don’t know. Or maybe they do even when they don’t. There are various ways of knowing by not-knowing. I know: it happens to me too. The crônica, a literary genre peculiar to Brazilian newspapers, allows writers (or even soccer stars) to address a wide readership on any theme they like. Chatty, mystical, intimate, flirtatious, and revelatory, Clarice Lispector’s pieces for the Saturday edition of Rio’s leading paper, the Jornal do Brasil, from 1967 to 1973, take the forms of memories, essays, aphorisms, and serialized stories. Endlessly delightful, her insights make one sit up and think, whether about children or social ills or pets or society women or the business of writing or love. This new, large, and beautifully translated volume, Too Much of Life: The Complete Crônicas presents a new aspect of the great writer—at once off the cuff and spot on.
Too Much of Not Enough: A Memoir
by Jane PollakJane Pollak spent most of her life “looking for a family.” Raised by a mother who was emotionally unavailable, she grew up believing that love came from performance rather than from being seen, heard, and acknowledged for her true self. It followed that she married an extrovert who performed for his students and yet was unable to connect with his wife. In this poignant, instructive memoir, Pollak investigates the roots of misguided love and paints a picture of what it means to live a satisfied life. Her tale starts in the couples’ counseling office, where her soon-to-be ex-husband drops the bomb that he’s seeing someone else. From there, Jane goes on to find self-empowerment through her La Leche League group, her career as an artist, her travels around the world, her journey through twelve-step recovery, and her experiences while dating in her sixties. At last, she forges a blissful life on her own in Manhattan, conducting business and enjoying time with a committed partner. Inspiring and deeply relatable, Too Much of Not Enough Lessons I Learned to Become Myself is a primer on how to be the proactive agent of one’s own best path.
Too Much to Dream: A Psychedelic American Boyhood
by Peter Coyote Peter BebergalGrowing up in the suburbs of Boston and raised on secular Judaism, Cocoa Puffs, and Gilligan's Island, Peter Bebergal was barely in his teens when the ancient desire to finding higher spiritual meaning in the universe struck. Already schooled in mysticism by way of comic books, Dungeons & Dragons, and Carlos Castaneda, he turned to hallucinogens, convinced they would provide a path to illumination.Was this profound desire for God-a god he believed that could only be apprehended by an extreme state of altered consciousness-simply a side effect of the drugs? Or was it a deeper human longing that was manifesting itself, even on a country club golf course at the edge of a strip mall?Too Much to Dream places Bebergal's story within the cultural history of hallucinogens, American fascination with mysticism, and the complex relationship between drug addiction, popular culture, rock 'n' roll, occultism, and psychology. With a captivating foreword by Peter Coyote, and interviews with writers, artists, and psychologists such as Dennis McKenna, James Fadima, Arik Roper, Jim Woodring, and Mark Tulin, Bebergal offers a groundbreaking exploration of drugs, religion, and the craving for spirituality entrenched in America's youth.
Too Much: How Victorian Constraints Still Bind Women Today
by Rachel Vorona CoteLacing cultural criticism, Victorian literature, and storytelling together, "TOO MUCH spills over: with intellect, with sparkling prose, and with the brainy arguments of Vorona Cote, who posits that women are all, in some way or another, still susceptible to being called too much." (Esmé Weijun Wang)A weeping woman is a monster. So too is a fat woman, a horny woman, a woman shrieking with laughter. Women who are one or more of these things have heard, or perhaps simply intuited, that we are repugnantly excessive, that we have taken illicit liberties to feel or fuck or eat with abandon. After bellowing like a barn animal in orgasm, hoovering a plate of mashed potatoes, or spraying out spit in the heat of expostulation, we've flinched-ugh, that was so gross. I am so gross. On rare occasions, we might revel in our excess--belting out anthems with our friends over karaoke, perhaps--but in the company of less sympathetic souls, our uncertainty always returns. A woman who is Too Much is a woman who reacts to the world with ardent intensity is a woman familiar to lashes of shame and disapproval, from within as well as without. Written in the tradition of Shrill, Dead Girls, Sex Object and other frank books about the female gaze, TOO MUCH encourages women to reconsider the beauty of their excesses-emotional, physical, and spiritual. Rachel Vorona Cote braids cultural criticism, theory, and storytelling together in her exploration of how culture grinds away our bodies, souls, and sexualities, forcing us into smaller lives than we desire. An erstwhile Victorian scholar, she sees many parallels between that era's fixation on women's "hysterical" behavior and our modern policing of the same; in the space of her writing, you're as likely to encounter Jane Eyre and Lizzie Bennet as you are Britney Spears and Lana Del Rey. This book will tell the story of how women, from then and now, have learned to draw power from their reservoirs of feeling, all that makes us "Too Much."
Too Narrow to Swing a Cat: Going Nowhere in Particular on the English Waterways
by Steve HaywoodSteve has a new member of crew aboard his narrowboat – but maybe not the kind he’d have wanted if he’d known the trouble she’d cause. Kit, an untidy bundle of feline fur, joins him on a mission to discover lost parts of England, cruising the canals and visiting picturesque towns and waterway festivals along the way.
Too Narrow to Swing a Cat: Going Nowhere in Particular on the English Waterways
by Steve HaywoodSteve has a new member of crew aboard his narrowboat – but maybe not the kind he’d have wanted if he’d known the trouble she’d cause. Kit, an untidy bundle of feline fur, joins him on a mission to discover lost parts of England, cruising the canals and visiting picturesque towns and waterway festivals along the way.
Too Scared To Cry: And other true stories from the nation's favourite foster carer (A Maggie Hartley Foster Carer Story)
by Maggie HartleyA heartbreaking and inspiring collection of true fostering stories perfect for fans of Cathy Glass and Rosie Lewis. Contains previously published stories Too Scared To Cry, The Girl No One Wanted and A Family For Christmas - brought together in this heartwarming and inspiring collection for the first time. *****Maggie Hartley is one of the UK's most prolific foster mothers. This inspiring collection includes three heartbreaking, true short stories about the children who have passed through Maggie's care. TOO SCARED TO CRYWhen Ben and Damien arrive on Maggie's doorstep, the two toddlers are too scared to speak. More disturbingly still, their baby half-brother Noah is completely unresponsive - he doesn't smile or play or crawl. The three siblings have been conditioned to be seen and not heard, and it's up to Maggie to unpick what has caused this terrible void. THE GIRL NO ONE WANTEDEleven-year-old Leanne is out of control. With over forty placements in her short life, no local foster carers are willing to take in this angry and damaged little girl. Maggie is Leanne's only hope, and her last chance. If this placement fails, Leanne will be put in a secure unit. Where most others would simply walk away, Maggie refuses to give up on the little girl who's never known love. A FAMILY FOR CHRISTMASA tragic accident leaves the life of toddler Edward changed forever and his family wracked with guilt. Maggie must help this family grieve for the son they've lost and learn to love the little boy he is now. But will Edward have a family to go home to at Christmas?These heartwarming and inspiring short stories show the power of a foster mother's love, and her determination to help the children who come into her care.Note: These stories have previously been published as individual ebooks. True stories of foster care and adoption and one foster mother's attempts to help the children in her care heal from abuse, neglect and trauma.
Too Scared To Cry: And other true stories from the nation's favourite foster carer (A Maggie Hartley Foster Carer Story)
by Maggie HartleyMaggie Hartley is one of the UK's most prolific foster mothers. This inspiring collection includes three heartbreaking, true short stories about the children who have passed through Maggie's care. TOO SCARED TO CRYWhen Ben and Damien arrive on Maggie's doorstep, the two toddlers are too scared to speak. More disturbingly still, their baby half-brother Noah is completely unresponsive - he doesn't smile or play or crawl. The three siblings have been conditioned to be seen and not heard, and it's up to Maggie to unpick what has caused this terrible void. THE GIRL NO ONE WANTEDEleven-year-old Leanne is out of control. With over forty placements in her short life, no local foster carers are willing to take in this angry and damaged little girl. Maggie is Leanne's only hope, and her last chance. If this placement fails, Leanne will be put in a secure unit. Where most others would simply walk away, Maggie refuses to give up on the little girl who's never known love. A FAMILY FOR CHRISTMASA tragic accident leaves the life of toddler Edward changed forever and his family wracked with guilt. Maggie must help this family grieve for the son they've lost and learn to love the little boy he is now. But will Edward have a family to go home to at Christmas?These heartwarming and inspiring short stories show the power of a foster mother's love, and her determination to help the children who come into her care.Note: These stories have previously been published as individual ebooks.
Too Scared To Cry: And other true stories from the nations favourite foster carer
by Maggie HartleyMaggie Hartley is one of the UK's most prolific foster mothers. This inspiring collection includes three heartbreaking, true short stories about the children who have passed through Maggie's care. TOO SCARED TO CRYWhen Ben and Damien arrive on Maggie's doorstep, the two toddlers are too scared to speak. More disturbingly still, their baby half-brother Noah is completely unresponsive - he doesn't smile or play or crawl. The three siblings have been conditioned to be seen and not heard, and it's up to Maggie to unpick what has caused this terrible void. THE GIRL NO ONE WANTEDEleven-year-old Leanne is out of control. With over forty placements in her short life, no local foster carers are willing to take in this angry and damaged little girl. Maggie is Leanne's only hope, and her last chance. If this placement fails, Leanne will be put in a secure unit. Where most others would simply walk away, Maggie refuses to give up on the little girl who's never known love. A FAMILY FOR CHRISTMASA tragic accident leaves the life of toddler Edward changed forever and his family wracked with guilt. Maggie must help this family grieve for the son they've lost and learn to love the little boy he is now. But will Edward have a family to go home to at Christmas?These heartwarming and inspiring short stories show the power of a foster mother's love, and her determination to help the children who come into her care.Note: These stories have previously been published as individual ebooks.
Too Scared to Cry: A True Short Story
by Maggie HartleyA digital short story from author and foster carer Maggie Hartley. Also contains a sneak peek chapter from Maggie's highly anticipated debut memoir, TINY PRISONERS.Brothers Ben and Damien are shockingly quiet when they arrive on Maggie's doorstep. They don't shout or play like normal three and four year olds. They hardly dare make a sound, so much have they been conditioned to be 'seen and not heard' by their mother and controlling stepfather.More disturbingly, their little baby half-brother Noah is completely unresponsive. He doesn't play, he doesn't smile, he doesn't crawl - he doesn't even cry. In a state of blankness brought about by emotional neglect, poor baby Noah is disconnected from the world. Maggie has never seen such a young life so affected before. Yet with time, love and care, Maggie gradually unpicks what has caused this terrible void. She teaches the children to play and laugh and to not be afraid to make noise. We see Ben, Damien and Noah take steps towards a positive future and their journey reaches a happy conclusion when they are adopted by a loving family. With love and affection, they are no longer scared to be themselves. They are free to make their voices heard.
Too Scared to Cry: A True Short Story
by Maggie HartleyA digital short story from author and foster carer Maggie Hartley. Also contains a sneak peek chapter from Maggie's highly anticipated debut memoir, TINY PRISONERS.Brothers Ben and Damien are shockingly quiet when they arrive on Maggie's doorstep. They don't shout or play like normal three and four year olds. They hardly dare make a sound, so much have they been conditioned to be 'seen and not heard' by their mother and controlling stepfather.More disturbingly, their little baby half-brother Noah is completely unresponsive. He doesn't play, he doesn't smile, he doesn't crawl - he doesn't even cry. In a state of blankness brought about by emotional neglect, poor baby Noah is disconnected from the world. Maggie has never seen such a young life so affected before. Yet with time, love and care, Maggie gradually unpicks what has caused this terrible void. She teaches the children to play and laugh and to not be afraid to make noise. We see Ben, Damien and Noah take steps towards a positive future and their journey reaches a happy conclusion when they are adopted by a loving family. With love and affection, they are no longer scared to be themselves. They are free to make their voices heard.
Too Scared to Tell
by Cathy GlassThe true story of a 6-year-old boy with a dreadful secret. Oskar’s school teacher raises the alarm. Oskar’s mother is abroad and he has been left in the care of ‘friends’, but has been arriving in school hungry, unkempt, and with bruises on his arms, legs and body. Experienced foster carer Cathy Glass is asked to look after him, but as the weeks pass her concerns deepen. Oskar is far too quiet for a child of six and is clearly scared of something or someone. And who are those men parked outside his school watching him?
Too Soon to Say Goodbye (Thorndike Biography Ser.)
by Art BuchwaldWhen doctors told Art Buchwald that his kidneys were kaput, the renowned humorist declined dialysis and checked into a Washington, D.C., hospice to live out his final days. Months later, "The Man Who Wouldn't Die" was still there, feeling good, holding court in a nonstop "salon" for his family and dozens of famous friends, and confronting things you usually don't talk about before you die; he even jokes about them. Here Buchwald shares not only his remarkable experience--as dozens of old pals from Ethel Kennedy to John Glenn to the Queen of Swaziland join the party--but also his whole wonderful life: his first love, an early brush with death in a foxhole on Eniwetok Atoll, his fourteen champagne years in Paris, fame as a columnist syndicated in hundreds of newspapers, and his incarnation as hospice superstar. Buchwald also shares his sorrows: coping with an absent mother, childhood in a foster home, and separation from his wife, Ann. He plans his funeral (with a priest, a rabbi, and Billy Graham, to cover all the bases) and strategizes how to land a big obituary in The New York Times ("Make sure no head of state or Nobel Prize winner dies on the same day"). He describes how he and a few of his famous friends finagled cut-rate burial plots on Martha's Vineyard and how he acquired a Picasso drawing without really trying. What we have here is a national treasure, the complete Buchwald, uncertain of where the next days or weeks may take him but unfazed by the inevitable, living life to the fullest, with frankness, dignity, and humor. "[Art Buchwald] has given his friends, their families, and his audiences so many laughs and so much joy through the years that that alone would be an enduring legacy. But Art has never been just about the quick laugh. His humor is a road map to essential truths and insights that might otherwise have eluded us." -Tom Brokaw.
Too Strong to Be Broken: The Life of Edward J. Driving Hawk (American Indian Lives)
by Edward J. Driving Hawk Virginia Driving SneveToo Strong to Be Broken explores the dynamic life of Edward J. Driving Hawk, a Vietnam and Korean War veteran, chairman of the Rosebud Sioux Tribe, former president of the National Congress of American Indians, husband, father, recovered alcoholic, and convicted felon. Driving Hawk&’s story begins with his childhood on the rural plains of South Dakota, then follows him as he travels back and forth to Asia for two wars and journeys across the Midwest and Southwest. In his positions of leadership back in the United States, Driving Hawk acted in the best interest of his community, even when sparring with South Dakota governor Bill Janklow and the FBI. After retiring from public service, he started a construction business and helped create the United States Reservation Bank and Trust. Unfortunately, a key participant in the bank embezzled millions and fled, leaving Driving Hawk to take the blame. Rather than plead guilty to a crime he did not commit, the seventy-four-year-old grandfather went to prison for a year and a day, even as he suffered the debilitating effects of Agent Orange. Driving Hawk fully believes that the spirits of his departed ancestors watched out for him during his twenty-year career in the U.S. Air Force, including his exposure to Agent Orange, and throughout his life as he survived surgeries, strokes, a tornado, a plane crash, and alcoholism. With the help of his sister, Virginia Driving Hawk Sneve, Driving Hawk recounts his life&’s story alongside his wife, Carmen, and their five children.
Too Useful to Sacrifice: Reconsidering George B. McClellan’s Generalship in the Maryland Campaign from South Mountain to Antietam
by Steven R. StotelmyerThe importance of Robert E. Lee’s first movement north of the Potomac River in September 1862 is difficult to overstate. After his string of successes in Virginia, a decisive Confederate victory in Maryland or Pennsylvania may well have spun the war in an entirely different direction. Why he and his Virginia army did not find success across the Potomac was due in large measure to the generalship of George B. McClellan, as Steven Stotelmyer ably demonstrates in Too Useful to Sacrifice: Reconsidering George B. McClellan’s Generalship in the Maryland Campaign from South Mountain to Antietam, now available in paperback. History has typecast McClellan as the slow and overly cautious general who allowed opportunities to slip through his grasp and Lee’s battered army to escape. Stotelmyer disagrees and argues persuasively that he deserves significant credit for moving quickly, acting decisively, and defeating and turning back the South’s most able general. He accomplishes this with five comprehensive chapters, each dedicated to a specific major issue of the campaign: Fallacies Regarding the Lost Orders Antietam: The Sequel to South Mountain All the Injury Possible: The Day between South Mountain and Antietam General John Pope at Antietam and the Politics behind the Myth of the Unused Reserves Supplies and Demands: The Demise of General George B. McClellan Was McClellan’s response to the discovery of Lee’s Lost Orders really as slow and inept as we have been led to believe? Although routinely dismissed as a small prelude to the main event at Antietam, was the real Confederate high tide in Maryland the fight on South Mountain? Is the criticism leveled against McClellan for not rapidly pursuing Lee’s army after the victory on South Mountain warranted? Did McClellan really fail to make good use of his reserves in the bloody fighting on September 17? Finally, what is the true story behind McClellan’s apparent “failure” to pursue the defeated Confederate army after Antietam that convinced President Lincoln to sack him? In Too Useful to Sacrifice, Stotelmyer combines extensive primary research, smooth prose, and a keen appreciation for the infrastructure and capabilities of the terrain of nineteenth century Maryland. The result is one of the most eye-opening and groundbreaking essay collections in modern memory. Readers will never look at this campaign the same way again. By the time they close this book, most readers will agree Lincoln had no need to continue his search for a capable army commander because he already had one.