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Wagner and the Creation of the Ring
by Michael DownesPart cultural history, part biography, this is the fascinating story of Richard Wagner&’s life, influences, gift for storytelling, and artistic revolution, culminating in the dramatic journey to write The Ring Cycle.The Ring Cycle is one of the most epic and compelling operas of the nineteenth century, created by a composer who was, alongside Dickens, Tolstoy, and Victor Hugo, also one of the century&’s master storytellers. But the story of how Richard Wagner created the work is one full of intrigue and triumphs against unlikely odds—as well as controversy, due to the composer&’s anti-semitic views and popularity with the Nazi party. In Wagner and the Creation of the Ring, Michael Downes combines cultural history and biography to recount the colorful, fascinating, and insightful journey behind the creation of The Ring and its mythology. He tells the story of how and why this extraordinary masterpiece came into being, why it takes the form it does, why it fascinates and obsesses so many—and horrifies others—and why it still matters today.
Wagner: Beyond Good and Evil
by John DeathridgeJohn Deathridge presents a different and critical view of Richard Wagner based on recent research that does not shy away from some unpalatable truths about this most controversial of composers in the canon of Western music.
Wagstaff: A Biography
by Philip GefterBiography on a grand cultural level, here is the long-awaited story of Sam Wagstaff and his indelible influence on the world of late-twentieth-century art. Sam Wagstaff, the legendary curator, collector, and patron of the arts, emerges as a cultural visionary in this groundbreaking biography. Even today remembered primarily as the mentor and lover of Robert Mapplethorpe, the once infamous photographer, Wagstaff, in fact, had an incalculable--and largely overlooked--influence on the world of contemporary art and photography, and on the evolution of gay identity in the latter part of the twentieth century. Born in New York City in 1921 into a notable family, Wagstaff followed an arc that was typical of a young man of his class. He attended both Hotchkiss and Yale, served in the navy, and would follow in step with his Ivy League classmates to the "gentleman's profession," as an ad executive on Madison Avenue. With his unmistakably good looks, he projected an aura of glamour and was cited by newspapers as one of the most eligible bachelors of the late 1940s. Such accounts proved deceiving, for Wagstaff was forced to live in the closet, his homosexuality only revealed to a small circle of friends. Increasingly uncomfortable with his career and this double life, he abandoned advertising, turned to the formal study of art history, and embarked on a radical personal transformation that was in perfect harmony with the tumultuous social, cultural, and sexual upheavals of the 1960s. Accordingly, Wagstaff became a curator, in 1961, at Hartford's Wadsworth Atheneum, where he mounted both "Black, White, and Gray"--the first museum show of minimal art--and the sculptor Tony Smith's first museum show, while lending his early support to artists Andy Warhol, Ray Johnson, and Richard Tuttle, among many others. Later, as a curator at the Detroit Institute of Arts, he brought the avant-garde to a regional museum, offending its more staid trustees in the process. After returning to New York City in 1972, the fifty-year-old Wagstaff met the twenty-five-year-old Queens-born Robert Mapplethorpe, then living with Patti Smith. What at first appeared to be a sexual dalliance became their now historic lifelong romance, in which Mapplethorpe would foster Wagstaff's own burgeoning interest in contemporary photography and Wagstaff would help secure Mapplethorpe's reputation in the art world. In spite of their profound class differences, the artistic union between the philanthropically inclined Wagstaff and the prodigiously talented Mapplethorpe would rival that of Stieglitz and O'Keefe, or Rivera and Kahlo, in their ability to help reshape contemporary art history. Positioning Wagstaff's personal life against the rise of photography as a major art form and the simultaneous formation of the gay rights movement, Philip Gefter's absorbing biography provides a searing portrait of New York just before and during the age of AIDS. The result is a definitive and memorable portrait of a man and an era.
Wahoo
by Richard O'KaneThe USS Wahoo's performance in sinking Japanese ships in the farthest reaches of the empire is legendary.From the Trade Paperback edition.
Wainwright: The Biography
by Hunter DaviesThe classic biography of Alfred Wainwright.Alfred Wainwright's unique hand-drawn and hand-written PICTORIAL GUIDES TO THE LAKELAND FELLS have been an inspiration to walkers for over forty years. Yet despite many bestselling books and three television series, Wainwright remained an intensely private person. With full access to Alfred Wainwright's private letters and unpublished material, Hunter Davies reveals a man more passionate, witty and generous than readers of his guides have come to expect. His biography throws a new and surprising light on a man who has been an enigmatic and misunderstood person.
Wainwright: The Biography
by Hunter DaviesThe classic biography of Alfred Wainwright.Alfred Wainwright's unique hand-drawn and hand-written PICTORIAL GUIDES TO THE LAKELAND FELLS have been an inspiration to walkers for over forty years. Yet despite many bestselling books and three television series, Wainwright remained an intensely private person. With full access to Alfred Wainwright's private letters and unpublished material, Hunter Davies reveals a man more passionate, witty and generous than readers of his guides have come to expect. His biography throws a new and surprising light on a man who has been an enigmatic and misunderstood person.
Waist-High in the World: A Life Among the Nondisabled
by Nancy MairsIn a blend of intimate memoir and passionate advocacy, Nancy Mairs takes on the subject woven through all her writing: disability and its effect on life, work, and spirit.
Wait For Me!: Memoirs of the Youngest Mitford Sister
by Deborah DevonshireDeborah Devonshire is a natural writer with a knack for the telling phrase and for hitting the nail on the head. She tells the story of her upbringing, lovingly and wittily describing her parents (so memorably fictionalised by her sister Nancy); she talks candidly about her brother and sisters, and their politics (while not being at all political herself), finally setting the record straight. Throughout the book she writes brilliantly about the country and her deep attachment to it and those who live and work in it. As Duchess of Devonshire, Debo played an active role in restoring and overseeing the day-to-day running of the family houses and gardens, and in developing commercial enterprises at Chatsworth. She tells poignantly of the deaths of three of her children, as well as her husband's battle with alcohol addiction. Wait For Me is enthralling and a total joy, full of the author's sympathetic wit (which she is not afraid to use on herself).
Wait No More: One Family's Amazing Adoption Journey (Focus on the Family Books)
by John Rosati Kelly RosatiWould we just pass by Or would we be like the Good Samaritan who did something about the person in need right in front of him?" A little boy who needed a home. An infant girl who needed a mother's love. A toddler trapped in the insecurity of foster care. A tiny girl without a family. Kelly and John Rosati never expected to adopt four children from the U.S. foster care system. But God's plan for them turned out to be more extraordinary than they could have dreamed. As you follow Kelly and John on their amazing journey through the child welfare system, you'll be inspired by the story of how God brought their family together. And you'll be challenged by the desperate needs of children still waiting for families. Joining with her husband, John, to tell their story, Kelly Rosati, vice president of Community Outreach and cofounder of Focus on the Family's Wait No More® program, takes you behind the scenes to share her inspiration and passion for the project. The Rosati family's story is one of hope amid challenges, beauty from ashes, and faith that sustains. It's a beautiful picture of what family truly means
Wait Till Next Year: A Memoir
by Doris Kearns GoodwinThe book is a vivid description of life in Brooklyn New York at a time when this country was undergoing a great transition. It mingles everyday life with history giving a unique look into family and community life of the time.
Wait Till Next Year: A Memoir (Wheeler Large Print Book Ser.)
by Doris Kearns GoodwinBy the award-winning author of Team of Rivals and The Bully Pulpit, Wait Till Next Year is Doris Kearns Goodwin’s touching memoir of growing up in love with her family and baseball.Set in the suburbs of New York in the 1950s, Wait Till Next Year re-creates the postwar era, when the corner store was a place to share stories and neighborhoods were equally divided between Dodger, Giant, and Yankee fans. We meet the people who most influenced Goodwin’s early life: her mother, who taught her the joy of books but whose debilitating illness left her housebound: and her father, who taught her the joy of baseball and to root for the Dodgers of Jackie Robinson, Roy Campanella, Pee Wee Reese, Duke Snider, and Gil Hodges. Most important, Goodwin describes with eloquence how the Dodgers’ leaving Brooklyn in 1957, and the death of her mother soon after, marked both the end of an era and, for her, the end of childhood.
Wait Until Tomorrow: A Daughter's Memoir
by Pat MacenultyLike all mothers, mine had a set of maxims that she thought were important to impart to me: if you can't say anything nice, then don't say anything at all (unless it's irresistibly funny); it's as easy to fall in love with a rich man as it is with a poor man (a nice idea in theory); if you want to commit suicide, wait until tomorrow (advice which has, it turns out, saved my life).Like many daughters of elderly parents, Pat MacEnulty finds herself in a maze of healthcare negotiations and discoveries when her mother can no longer care for herself. Pat's mother, who stood by her through her darkest years as a drug addict, was a small-town icon as a composer, pianist, organist, and musical director. She is suddenly unable to be the accomplished, independent person she once was. Now Pat has two goals: to help her daughter avoid the mistakes that derailed her own life, and to see her mother's masterpiece, "An American Requiem," find a new life and a new audience in her mother's lifetime. Along the way, Pat rediscovers her own strength, humor, and rebelliousness at the most unlikely moments.Pat MacEnulty is the author of four novels, including Sweet Fire, and a collection of short stories. She is also a teacher, workshop leader, writing coach, and freelance editor. She lives in Charlotte, North Carolina.
Wait for Me!: Memoirs
by Charlotte Mosley Deborah MitfordThe autobiography of one of Britain's most beloved figures, last of the Mitford sisters, renowned writer and social figure. Deborah Mitford, Duchess of Devonshire, is the youngest of the famously witty brood of six daughters and one son that included the writers Jessica and Nancy, who wrote, when Deborah was born, "How disgusting of the poor darling to go and be a girl." Deborah's effervescent memoir Wait for Me! chronicles her remarkable life, from an eccentric but happy childhood roaming the Oxfordshire countryside, to tea with Adolf Hitler and her sister Unity in 1937, to her marriage to Andrew Cavendish, the second son of the Duke of Devonshire. Her life changed utterly with his unexpected inheritance of the title and vast estates after the wartime death of his brother, who had married "Kick" Kennedy, the beloved sister of John F. Kennedy. Her friendship with that family would last through triumph and tragedy.In 1959, the Duchess and her family took up residence in Chatsworth, the four-hundred-year-old family seat, with its incomparable collections of paintings, tapestry, and sculpture—the combined accumulations of generations of tastemakers. Neglected due to the economies of two world wars and punitive inheritance taxes, the great house soon came to life again under the careful attention of the Duchess. It is regarded as one of England's most loved and popular historic houses.Wait for Me! is written with intense warmth, charm, and perception. A unique portrait of an age of tumult, splendor, and change, it is also an unprecedented look at the rhythms of life inside one of the great aristocratic families of England. With its razor-sharp portraits of the Duchess's many friends and cohorts—politicians, writers, artists, sportsmen—it is truly irresistible reading, and will join the shelf of Mitford classics to delight readers for years to come.
Wait, It Gets Worse: Love, Death, and My Transformation from Control Freak to Human Being
by Lydia SlabyLydia Slaby was 33 years old and had everything she believed would make her happy: three fancy private school degrees, a successful husband who was in the inner circles of Barack Obama's presidential campaign, a high-paying job as an attorney—even an enviable yoga practice. But under the surface Lydia's life was in free fall. Her new marriage was one argument after another, she had a job she never wanted, and for some reason she had begun to rapidly lose weight, eventually turning a strange shade of yellowish-green. When she made a doctor's appointment to talk about the toll of extreme stress, she was instead admitted with a diagnosis of lymphoma. As a cancer survivor, Lydia tries to piece back together her marriage, her career, and her own worth. It's an imperfect rebirth, but perfection is something she must abandon if she is to find a new, calm, healthy life. With a voice that is wise, irreverent, and filled with sharp humor, this is a story about following all the rules only to learn the hard way that control is an illusion and that love will save your life.
Waiter Rant: Thanks for the Tip—Confessions of a Cynical Waiter
by Steve DublanicaAccording to The Waiter, eighty percent of customers are nice people just looking for something to eat. The remaining twenty percent, however, are socially maladjusted psychopaths. Waiter Rant offers the server's unique point of view, replete with tales of customer stupidity, arrogant misbehavior, and unseen bits of human grace transpiring in the most unlikely places. Through outrageous stories, The Waiter reveals the secrets to getting good service, proper tipping etiquette, and how to keep him from spitting in your food. The Waiter also shares his ongoing struggle, at age thirty-eight, to figure out if he can finally leave the first job at which he's truly thrived.
Waiting For Snow In Havana
by Carlos EireA childhood in a privileged household in 1950s Havana was joyous and cruel, like any other-but with certain differences. The neighbour's monkey was liable to escape and run across your roof. Surfing was conducted by driving cars across the breakwater. Lizards and firecrackers made frequent contact. Carlos Eire's childhood was a little different from most. His father was convinced he had been Louis XVI in a past life. At school, classmates with fathers in the Batista government were attended by chauffeurs and bodyguards. At a home crammed with artifacts and paintings, portraits of Jesus spoke to him in dreams and nightmares. Then, in January 1959, the world changes: Batista is suddenly gone, a cigar-smoking guerrilla has taken his place, and Christmas is cancelled. The echo of firing squads is everywhere. And, one by one, the author's schoolmates begin to disappear-spirited away to the United States. Carlos will end up there himself, without his parents, never to see his father again. Narrated with the urgency of a confession, WAITING FOR SNOW IN HAVANA is both an ode to a paradise lost and an exorcism. More than that, it captures the terrible beauty of those times in our lives when we are certain we have died-and then are somehow, miraculously, reborn.
Waiting In The Wings: Portrait Of A Queer Motherhood
by Cherríe MoragaCherrie Moraga, the celebrated Chicana lesbian writer, has crafted a jewel of a book in Waiting In The Wings: Portrait of a Queer Motherhood. This is the story of "one small human being's struggle for survival", the author's two-and-one-half pound premature baby boy.
Waiting Wives
by Donna MoreauIn 1964, as the first B-52s took flight in what would become America's longest combat mission, an old Air Force base on the plains of Kansas became Schilling Manor -- the only base ever to be set aside for the wives and children of soldiers assigned to Vietnam. Author Donna Moreau was the daughter of one such waiting wife, and here she writes of growing up at a time when The Flintstones were interrupted with news of firefights, fraggings, and protests, when the evening news announced death tolls along with the weather forecasts. The women and children of Schilling Manor fought on the emotional front of the war. It was not a front composed of battle plans and bullets. Their enemies were fear, loneliness, lack of information, and the slow tick of time. Waiting Wives: The Story of Schilling Manor, Home Front to the Vietnam War tells the story of the last generation of hat-and-glove military wives called upon by their country to pack without question, to follow without comment, and to wait quietly with a smile. A heartfelt book that focuses on this other, hidden side of war, Waiting Wives is a narrative investigation of an extraordinary group of women. A compelling memoir and domestic drama, Waiting Wives is also the story of a country in the midst of change, of a country at war with a war.
Waiting at Joe's
by Deeny Kaplan LorberThey’ve served the rich, the famous, and the infamous, ranging from Madonna and Al Capone to Amelia Earhart and Bill Clinton. They’ve escorted patrons to their cars during the cocaine wars and sent trays of food from the kitchen to high profile patrons via Secret Service agents. They work at the second-highest grossing restaurant in the United States--one of the most coveted jobs in the business. They are the waiters of Joe’s Stone Crab, a one-of-a-kind South Florida landmark.Joe’s Stone Crab opened in Miami Beach in 1913 as a modest restaurant situated behind the apartment of owners Joe and Jennie Weiss. Miami Beach, not yet a city, could be accessed only by ferry. Stone crabs weren’t even on the menu. A lot has changed in the past century: Joe’s Stone Crab boasts locations in Chicago and Las Vegas, and people travel across the globe to dine on its signature stone crabs, a delicacy often mimicked but never matched by countless other restaurants.Throughout its history, Joe’s has never accepted reservations. The anticipation and camaraderie in waiting two to three hours for a table has become as much a part of the dining experience as the exquisite food. Along the way, Joe’s has gained a reputation for excellent service provided by its extremely dedicated, talented, and loyal wait staff.A chance to serve at Joe’s is one of the most sought-after jobs in the restaurant business. Staff members are paid extremely fair wages, compensated with retirement packages, and receive generous time off. It’s not unusual to encounter a waiter who has been at Joe’s for fifteen or twenty years. Some have stayed on for upward of thirty, forty, and even fifty. Bonds between coworkers are strong, and some are so proud of their home-away-from-home that some waiters even request to be buried in the front courtyard at Joe’s for all of eternity.By giving voice to these unsung individuals, Deeny Kaplan Lorber reveals the inner workings of Joe’s in this collection of fascinating, intimate vignettes. Go behind the scenes of a thriving business that treats both staff and customers like family. For one hundred years, Miami natives and tourists alike have waited and dined alongside celebrities including Frank Sinatra, Muhammad Ali, Dan Marino, and Jennifer Lopez. There’s no other place in the world quite like Joe’s Stone Crab; this is the story of the waiters, not the wait.
Waiting for Birdy
by Catherine NewmanTo fifty thousand readers, Catherine Newman is the beloved author of "Bringing Up Ben & Birdy," a weekly column on babycenter. com. Now in the delightfully candid, outlandishly funny Waiting for Birdy, Newman charts the year she anticipated the birth of her second child while also coping with the realities of raising a toddler. As she navigates life with her existentially curious and heartbreakingly sweet three-year-old, and her doozy of a pregnancy, she lends her irresistibly unique voice to the secret thoughts and fears of parents everywhere. Filled with quirky warmth and razor-sharp wit, Waiting for Birdy captures the universal wonder, terror, humor, and tenderness of raising a family. On the web: http://www. babycenter. com, http://www. parentcenter. com
Waiting for Birdy: A Year of Frantic Tedium, Improbable Grace, and the Wild Magic of Growing a Family
by Catherine NewmanTo fifty thousand readers, Catherine Newman is the beloved author of "Bringing Up Ben & Birdy," a weekly column on babycenter.com. Now in the delightfully candid, outlandishly funny Waiting for Birdy, Newman charts the year she anticipated the birth of her second child while also coping with the realities of raising a toddler. As she navigates life with her existentially curious and heartbreakingly sweet three-year-old, and her doozy of a pregnancy, she lends her irresistibly unique voice to the secret thoughts and fears of parents everywhere. Filled with quirky warmth and razor-sharp wit, Waiting for Birdy captures the universal wonder, terror, humor, and tenderness of raising a family.On the web: http://www.babycenter.com, http://www.parentcenter.com
Waiting for Britney Spears: A True Story, Allegedly
by Jeff WeissAN LA TIMES BESTSELLER. Named a Most Anticipated Book by People, Vulture, A.V. Club and OurCulture."Like a J.D. Salinger novel rolled in Hunter S. Thompson's hallucinogen dust." —Ann Powers, author of Travelling: On the Path of Joni Mitchell"[Waiting for Britney Spears] transformed and transported me." ―Hanif Abdurraqib, author of There's Always This YearA frenetic, gonzo account of Britney Spears’s historic rise and equally tragic fall told by an iconoclastic music journalist.America, 2003: A country at war, its shiny veneer beginning to crack. Von Dutch and The Simple Life dominate. And on the cover of every magazine, a twenty-one-year-old pop star named Britney Spears. Tracking her every move for a third-tier gossip rag in Los Angeles was an unknown young writer taking whatever job he could while pursuing his distant literary dreams. He'd instead become an eyewitness to the slow tragedy of a changing nation, represented in spirit by “the coy it-girl at the end of history.”Years later, after finally establishing himself as a celebrated journalist, Jeff Weiss presents Waiting for Britney Spears, a gonzo, nostalgic, and “allegedly true” recounting of his years as a tabloid spy in the lurid underbelly of Los Angeles. Weiss follows America’s sweetheart through Vegas superclubs and Malibu car chases, annulled marriages and soul-crushing legal battles, all the way to Britney’s infamous 2007 VMA performance. As Weiss lives through the chaos leading to Britney’s conservatorship, he observes, with peerless style, cringe-inducing fashion waves, destructive celebrity surveillance, and a country whose decline is embodied by the devastating downturn of its former golden child.With the narrative flair that established him as a singular chronicler of modern pop culture, Weiss goes for broke in Waiting for Britney Spears, a descent into a neon hall of mirrors reflecting our obsession with fame, morality, and the mystery of what really happened to the last great pop star.
Waiting for Buddy Guy: Chicago Blues at the Crossroads
by Alan HarperIn the late 1970s and early 1980s, British blues fan Alan Harper became a transatlantic pilgrim to Chicago. "I've come here to listen to the blues," he told an American customs agent at the airport, and listen he did, to the music in its many styles, and to the men and women who lived it in the city's changing blues scene. Harper's eloquent memoir conjures the smoky redoubts of men like harmonica virtuoso Big Walter Horton and pianist Sunnyland Slim. Venturing from stageside to kitchen tables to the shotgun seat of a 1973 Eldorado, Harper listens to performers and others recollect memories of triumphs earned and chances forever lost, of deep wells of pain and soaring flights of inspiration. Harper also chronicles a time of change, as an up-tempo, whites-friendly blues eclipsed what had come before, and old Southern-born black players held court one last time before an all-conquering generation of young guitar aces took center stage.
Waiting for First Light: My Ongoing Battle with PTSD
by Romeo Dallaire<p>At the heart of <i>Waiting for First Light</i> is a no-holds-barred self-portrait of a top political and military figure whose nights are invaded by despair, but who at first light faces the day with the renewed desire to make a difference in the world. <p>Roméo Dallaire, traumatized by witnessing genocide on an imponderable scale in Rwanda, reflects in these pages on the nature of PTSD and the impact of that deep wound on his life since 1994, and on how he motivates himself and others to humanitarian work despite his constant struggle. Though he had been a leader in peace and in war at all levels up to deputy commander of the Canadian Army, his PTSD led to his medical dismissal from the Canadian Forces in April 2000, a blow that almost killed him. But he crawled out of the hole he fell into after he had to take off the uniform, and he has been inspiring people to give their all to multiple missions ever since, from ending genocide to eradicating the use of child soldiers to revolutionizing officer training so that our soldiers can better deal with the muddy reality of modern conflict zones and to revolutionizing our thinking about the changing nature of conflict itself. <p>His new book is as compelling and original an account of suffering and endurance as Joan Didion's <i>The Year of Magical Thinking</i> and William Styron's <i>Darkness Visible</i>.</p>
Waiting for Grace
by Holly L. SpringerThis book continues the story of one woman's experiences in recovering from a near fatal brain aneurysm. Learning how to cope with the new person challenges the author daily. However, learning to live with the unique person she now has become with the help of new insights allows a new perspective on life, to which others may relate.