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Words Without Borders: The World Through the Eyes of Writers
by Alane Salierno Mason Dedi Felman Samantha Schnee Andre Dubus IIIFeaturing the work of more than 28 writers from upwards of 20 countries, Words without Borders: The World through the Eyes of Writers transports us to the frontiers of the new literature for the twenty-first century. In these pages, some of the most accomplished writers in world literature--among them Edwidge Danticat, Ha Jin, Cynthia Ozick, Javier Marias, and Nobel laureates Wole Soyinka, Günter Grass, Czeslaw Milosz, Wislawa Szymborska, and Naguib Mahfouz--have stepped forward to introduce us to dazzling literary talents virtually unknown to readers of English. Most of their work--short stories, poems, essays, and excerpts from novels--appears here in English for the first time. The Chilean writer Ariel Dorfman introduces us to a story of extraordinary poise and spiritual intelligence by the Argentinian writer Juan Forn. The Romanian writer Norman Manea shares with us the sexy, sinister, and thrillingly avant garde fiction of his homeland's leading female novelist. The Indian writer Amit Chaudhuri spotlights the Bengali writer Parashuram, whose hilarious comedy of manners imagines what might have happened if Britain had been colonized by Bengal. And Roberto Calasso writes admiringly of his fellow Italian Giorgio Manganelli, whose piece celebrates the Indian city of Madurai. Every piece here--be it from the Americas, Africa, Europe, the Middle East, South Asia, East Asia, Southeast Asia, or the Caribbean--is a discovery, a colorful thread in a global weave of literary exchange. Edited by Samantha Schnee, Alane Salierno Mason, and Dedi Felman.
Words Without Music: A Memoir
by Philip GlassThe long-awaited memoir by "the most prolific and popular of all contemporary composers" (New York Times). A world-renowned composer of symphonies, operas, and film scores, Philip Glass has, almost single-handedly, crafted the dominant sound of late-twentieth-century classical music. Yet here in Words Without Music, he creates an entirely new and unexpected voice, that of a born storyteller and an acutely insightful chronicler, whose behind-the-scenes recollections allow readers to experience those moments of creative fusion when life so magically merged with art. "If you go to New York City to study music, you'll end up like your uncle Henry," Glass's mother warned her incautious and curious nineteen-year-old son. It was the early summer of 1956, and Ida Glass was concerned that her precocious Philip, already a graduate of the University of Chicago, would end up an itinerant musician, playing in vaudeville houses and dance halls all over the country, just like his cigar-smoking, bantamweight uncle. One could hardly blame Mrs. Glass for worrying that her teenage son would end up as a musical vagabond after initially failing to get into Juilliard. Yet, the transformation of a young man from budding musical prodigy to world-renowned composer is the story of this commanding memoir. From his childhood in post-World War II Baltimore to his student days in Chicago, at Juilliard, and his first journey to Paris, where he studied under the formidable Nadia Boulanger, Glass movingly recalls his early mentors, while reconstructing the places that helped shape his artistic consciousness. From a life-changing trip to India, where he met with gurus and first learned of Gandhi's Salt March, to the gritty streets of New York in the 1970s, where the composer returned, working day jobs as a furniture mover, cabbie, and an unlicensed plumber, Glass leads the life of a Parisian bohemian artist, only now transported to late-twentieth-century America. Yet even after Glass's talent was first widely recognized with the sensational premiere of Einstein on the Beach in 1976, even after he stopped renewing his hack license and gained international recognition for operatic works like Satyagraha, Orphée, and Akhnaten, the son of a Baltimore record store owner never abandoned his earliest universal ideals throughout his memorable collaborations with Allen Ginsberg, Ravi Shankar, Robert Wilson, Doris Lessing, Martin Scorsese, and many others, all of the highest artistic order. Few major composers are celebrated as writers, but Philip Glass, in this loving and slyly humorous autobiography, breaks across genres and re-creates, here in words, the thrill that results from artistic creation. Words Without Music ultimately affirms the power of music to change the world.
Wordsmith: How I Made My Dictionary
by Emile Littre T. K. GopalanWriter, physician, philosopher and lexicographer, Émile Littré was commissioned by Hachette in 1841 to compile a new dictionary of the French language. The work, finally started in 1845, took nearly 30 years to complete, during which period France went through a great deal of turbulence. Littré wrote this companion volume, a remarkable novella-length essay, Comment j?ai fait mon dictionnaire (`How I Made My Dictionary?), in 1880, which was translated and published for the first time in English in 1998 by a former Indian diplomat. The translation, now brought back into print by Hachette India, has been commended by Dictionaries, a journal of the Dictionary Society of North America, for being `accurate and conveying the original?s lively, intense effect.? This book is a vital philological addition to the study of words and language, and an insight into the remarkable men who made such study possible by embarking on epic ventures of the literary kind.
Wordsworth
by Juliet BarkerThe figure of William Wordsworth looms over the nineteenth century like a presiding genius. Sage, seer, and Poet Laureate, Wordsworth was revered by his Victorian contemporaries as a writer of tender, lyrical poetry, a controversial challenger of social and artistic convention, a devoted champion of country life, and the spiritual founder of the conservation movement. In this masterful work, the first biography to fully examine Wordsworth's entire life, critically acclaimed biographer Juliet Barker draws on unpublished sources to present a new picture of him as both public icon and private family man. Balancing meticulous research with engaging prose, she reveals not only the public figure who was courted and reviled in equal measure but also the complex, elusive, private citizen behind that image, vividly re-creating the intimacy of Wordsworth's domestic circle, showing the love, laughter, loyalty, and tragedies that bound them together. Wordsworth is a major biography of one of the world's foremost poets, and a rich, unforgettable portrait of a fascinating and fiercely passionate man.
The Wordsworths
by Mick ManningCelebrate William Wordsworth's 250th birthday with this beautiful retelling of his life.Produced to coincide with the 250th birthday of Wordsworth in 2020, this book adapts the lyrical diary of his sister, Dorothy Wordsworth, detailing their life together roaming the beautiful Lake District. Dorothy's works are now considered essential early examples of a women's role in literature, underpinnning her position as a female role model, as they confront issues spanning from social justice, the French revolution and nature.Lush Lake District and London landscapes, and carefully researched costumes bring the era to life, while extracts from longer works such as The Prelude tie into the national curriculum.
The Work: My Search for a Life That Matters
by Wes MooreThe acclaimed author of The Other Wes Moore continues his inspirational quest for a meaningful life and shares the powerful lessons--about self-discovery, service, and risk-taking--that led him to a new definition of success for our times. The Work is the story of how one young man traced a path through the world to find his life's purpose. Wes Moore graduated from a difficult childhood in the Bronx and Baltimore to an adult life that would find him at some of the most critical moments in our recent history: as a combat officer in Afghanistan; a White House fellow in a time of wars abroad and disasters at home; and a Wall Street banker during the financial crisis. In this insightful book, Moore shares the lessons he learned from people he met along the way--from the brave Afghan translator who taught him to find his fight, to the resilient young students in Katrina-ravaged Mississippi who showed him the true meaning of grit, to his late grandfather, who taught him to find grace in service. Moore also tells the stories of other twenty-first-century change-makers who've inspired him in his search, from Daniel Lubetzky, the founder of KIND, to Esther Benjamin, a Sri Lankan immigrant who rose to help lead the Peace Corps. What their lives--and his own misadventures and moments of illumination--reveal is that our truest work happens when we serve others, at the intersection between our gifts and our broken world. That's where we find the work that lasts. An intimate narrative about finding meaning in a volatile age, The Work will inspire readers to see how we can each find our own path to purpose and help create a better world.
Work and Other Sins: Life in New York City
by Charles LeduffWork and Other Sins is filled to burst with stories of the fascinating, one-of-a-kind characters who populate the modern metropolis. In these pages we meet a Long Island used-car salesman; a professional Santa; the men who change the light bulbs atop the Empire State Building; a Sinatra imitator; a retired Harlem chorus-line girl; a lighthouse keeper; a saloon priest; Latin lovers; a host of barroom regulars; and myriad others-all of whom present their take on working, drinking, gambling, dying, and countless other facts of life. Charlie LeDuff takes us to the watering holes, prisons, veterans' hospitals, firehouses, apartment buildings, baseball fields, and graveyards that make up the landscape of modern life. Also included is LeDuff's acclaimed series of articles on Squad One, the Brooklyn firehouse that suffered devastating losses on September 11, as well as his Pulitzer Prize-winning piece on workers in a North Carolina slaughterhouse. LeDuff captures the spirit of the people and places he profiles with a dead-on feel for character and idiom and his signature wry wit. But more than that, LeDuff lets his characters speak for themselves. What results is at turns riotous, dirt-under-the-nails, contemplative, salty, joyous, whiskey tinged-an utterly unique vision of life in the Big Apple and beyond.
Work Hard. Be Nice.: How Two Inspired Teachers Created the Most Promising Schools in America
by Jay MathewsWhen Mike Feinberg and Dave Levin signed up for Teach for America right after college and found themselves utter failures in the classroom, they vowed to remake themselves into superior educators. They did that—and more. In their early twenties, by sheer force of talent and determination never to take no for an answer, they created a wildly successful fifth-grade experience that would grow into the Knowledge Is Power Program (KIPP), which today includes sixty-six schools in nineteen states and the District of Columbia. KIPP schools incorporate what Feinberg and Levin learned from America's best, most charismatic teachers: lessons need to be lively; school days need to be longer (the KIPP day is nine and a half hours); the completion of homework has to be sacrosanct (KIPP teachers are available by telephone day and night). Chants, songs, and slogans such as "Work hard, be nice" energize the program. Illuminating the ups and downs of the KIPP founders and their students, Mathews gives us something quite rare: a hopeful book about education.
'Work Hard, Study...and Keep Out of Politics!': Adventures and Lessons from an Unexpected Public Life
by James Robert BakerThe real inside story of why Gerald Ford did not ask Ronald Reagan to be his running mate in 1976-and why Reagan did not pick Ford in 1980; the battle over Florida 2000; the aborted White House job switch that inadvertently opened the door to the Iran-Contra scandal; the Bush campaign's wish that Dan Quayle would offer to resign from the ticket in 1992; the White House turmoil in the dark days following the Reagan assassination attempt; and a great deal more . . . White House Chief of Staff (twice), Secretary of State, Secretary of the Treasury, and campaign chairman for three different candidates in five successive presidential campaigns-few people have lived and breathed politics as deeply as James Baker. Now, with candor and Texas-style storytelling, and not a few surprises, he takes us into his thirty-five years behind the scenes. None of it was planned. His grandfather, the "Captain," drilled this advice into him: "Work hard, study . . . and keep out of politics!" Then a personal tragedy changed the life of a forty-year-old Texas Democratic lawyer and he never looked back. From campaign horsetrading, which sometimes got rough ("Politics ain't beanbag," says Baker), to the inner councils of the Reagan and Bush administrations to the controversies of today, Baker offers frank talk and spellbinding narratives, along with personal appraisals of six presidents and a constellation of others. It was a long, unexpected journey from Houston, Texas, to Washington, D.C.-and you'll want to travel it with him.
Work in Progress: Risking Failure, Surviving Success
by Michael D. Eisner Tony SchwartzWith candor and insight, the chairman and CEO of The Walt Disney Company describes his successes, his well-known failures, and the principles that have guided his career.
Work in Progress: Unconventional Thoughts on Designing an Extraordinary Life
by Steve Ford Leanne FordHow did a couple of quirky siblings from suburban Pittsburgh end up as the king and queen of eclectic-design chic with their own HGTV show? They never let fear get in the way of a great idea. Leanne and Steve Ford share their secrets for how to turn dreams into reality.Leanne and Steve were middle-class kids growing up in Pittsburgh in the 80s and 90s. There was nothing particularly glamorous or unusual about their lives as kids. Leanne was a shy, stubborn child who lived a rich life in her own imagination. Steve was outdoorsy and offbeat and was bullied mercilessly at school for being different. Their parents, grounded in faith and always encouraging of both creativity and hard work, gave them the confidence and the encouragement they needed to pursue the often difficult creative life. Leanne’s slogan as a child was, “My name is Leanne. If I want to, I can.”Leanne studied clothing design and pulled gigs at fashion houses in New York and as a stylist to country music stars in Nashville before she found her true passion: interior design. Steve threw himself into kayaking and snowboarding and opening his own men’s clothing store in Pittsburgh. And then their individual passions converged when Leanne asked Steve to help renovate her bathroom. There was magic in their collaboration, and they began renovating for clients in Pittsburgh—creating unique, authentic spaces that manage to feel both chic and completely obtainable—before catching the eye of producers at HGTV.Leanne and Steve share the details of their journey, including the beliefs that have inspired them and the experiences that have challenged them along the way.
Work in Progress
by Connor FrantaIn this intimate memoir of life beyond the camera, Connor Franta shares the lessons he has learned on his journey from small-town boy to Internet sensation--so far. Here, Connor offers a look at his Midwestern upbringing as one of four children in the home and one of five in the classroom; his struggles with identity, body image, and sexuality in his teen years; and his decision to finally pursue his creative and artistic passions in his early twenties, setting up his thrilling career as a YouTube personality, philanthropist, entrepreneur, and tastemaker. Exploring his past with insight and humor, his present with humility, and his future with hope, Connor reveals his private struggles while providing heartfelt words of wisdom for young adults. His words will resonate with anyone coming of age in the digital era, but at the core is a timeless message for people of all ages: don't be afraid to be yourself and to go after what you truly want. This full-colour collection includes photography and childhood clippings provided by Connor and is a must-have for anyone inspired by his journey.
A Work in Progress: A Memoir
by Connor FrantaIn this intimate memoir of life beyond the camera, Connor Franta shares the lessons he has learned on his journey from small-town boy to Internet sensation—so far. Here, Connor offers a look at his Midwestern upbringing as one of four children in the home and one of five in the classroom; his struggles with identity, body image, and sexuality in his teen years; and his decision to finally pursue his creative and artistic passions in his early twenties, setting up his thrilling career as a YouTube personality, philanthropist, entrepreneur, and tastemaker.
The Work Is Innocent
by Rafael YglesiasA funny, candid look at the beginning of a promising literary career launched remarkably earlyBeing a teenage literary prodigy is hard. Richard Goodman may have a book contract at seventeen, but his parents don&’t respect his opinions, he can&’t lose his virginity, and his ego inflates and deflates with every breath. Even when Richard receives the attention he craves, he finds that fame and fortune can&’t deliver him from his own flaws. The Work Is Innocent is Yglesias&’s fictional take on his own freakishly precocious literary coming-out as a teen. Written with startlingly self-assured prose and unflinching self-awareness, this novel explores the hilarious and harrowing complications of youthful success. This ebook features a new illustrated biography of Rafael Yglesias, including rare photos and never-before-seen documents from the author&’s personal collection.
The Work of the Zoo Doctors at the San Diego Zoo (Zoo World)
by Georgeanne IrvineDescribes the work of the veterinarians at the San Diego Zoo as they treat sick and injured animals and work to save species through conservation and breeding programs. Other books by this author are available in this library.
Work Wife: The Power of Female Friendship to Drive Successful Businesses
by Erica Cerulo Claire MazurGet inspired by the women who discovered that working with your best friend can be the secret to professional success—and maybe even the future of business—from the co-founders of the website Of a Kind. When Erica Cerulo and Claire Mazur met in college in 2002, they bonded instantly. Fast-forward to 2010, when they founded the popular fashion and design website Of a Kind. Now, in their first book, Cerulo and Mazur bring to light the unique power of female friendship to fuel successful businesses. Drawing on their own experiences, as well as the stories of other thriving “work wives,” they highlight the ways in which vulnerability, openness, and compassion—qualities central to so many women’s relationships—lend themselves to professional accomplishment and innovation. Featuring interviews with work wives such as Amanda Hesser and Merrill Stubbs of the influential food community site Food52, Ann Friedman, Aminatou Sow, and Gina Delvac of the hit podcast Call Your Girlfriend, and Misty May-Treanor and Kerri Walsh Jennings of Olympic volleyball fame, Work Wife addresses a range of topics vital to successful partnerships, such as being co-bosses, tackling disagreements, dealing with money, and accommodating motherhood. Demonstrating how female partnerships in the office are productive, progressive, and empowering, Cerulo and Mazur offer an invaluable roadmap for a feminist reimagining of the workplace. Fun, enlightening, and informative, Work Wife is a celebration of female friendship and collaboration, proving that it's not just feasible but fruitful to mix BFFs with business.
Worker In The Light
by William J. Birnes George NooryGeorge Noory has woven his life's work into both an amazing memoir and a miraculous key that you can use to unlock the secret to your own sensual transcendence.
Workhorse: My Sublime and Absurd Years in New York City's Restaurant Scene
by Kim ReedA razor-sharp look at one woman&’s nearly two decades in the New York City restaurant, including her time working with Joe Bastianich, and what happens when your job consumes your life.By day, Kim Reed was a social worker to the homebound elderly in Brooklyn Heights. By night, she scrambled into Manhattan to hostess at Babbo, where even the Pope would have had trouble scoring a reservation, and A-list celebrities squeezed through the jam-packed entryway like everyone else. Despite her whirlwind fifteen-hour workdays, Kim remained up to her eyeballs in grad school debt. Her training—problem solving, crisis intervention, dealing with unpredictable people and random situations—made her the ideal assistant for the volatile Joe Bastianich, a hard-partying, &“What's next?&” food and wine entrepreneur. He rose to fame in Italy as a TV star while Kim planned parties, fielded calls, and negotiated deals from two phones on the go. Decadent food, summers in Milan, and a reservation racket that paid in designer bags and champagne were fun only inasmuch as they filled the void left by being always on call and on edge. In a blink, the years passed, and one day Kim looked up and realized that everything she wanted beyond her job—friends, a relationship, a family, a weekend without twenty ominous emails dropping into her inbox—was out of reach. Workhorse is a deep-dive into coming of age in the chaos of New York City&’s foodie craze and an all-too-relatable look at what happens when your job takes over your identity, and when a scandal upends your understanding of where you work and what you do.. After spending years making the impossible possible for someone else, Kim realized she had to do the same for herself.
The Workhorse of Helmand: A Chinook Crewman's Account of Operations in Afghanistan & Iraq
by Michael FryAs a RAF Chinook crewman, Mick Fry’s exposure to Afghanistan spanned over 10 years and countless deployments, from watching 9/11 unfold in Australia, leaving the deck of HMS Ocean off the coast of Pakistan under the cover of darkness all the way through numerous fighting seasons and the chaos of Helmand Province. The Chinook helicopter was the workhorse of the British Military operations in Afghanistan, and the crews from RAF Odiham were confronted by their own mortality on an almost daily basis as they worked tirelessly and skillfully to support the troops on the ground. Whether it was taking part in air assault missions against a determined enemy, or extracting casualties from the battlefield under fire, and in a life or death race against time, Mick witnessed both the best and worst of humanity on a daily basis. His story is both gripping and confronting. It takes the reader on a journey through combat operations in both Iraq and Afghanistan. The Author paints a gritty picture of repeated operational deployments, balancing harrowing scenes and the ever present threat of death with the humor and camaraderie of comrades and the exhilaration of surviving Taliban RPG’s and AK47 fire.
Working: Researching, Interviewing, Writing
by Robert A. Caro&“One of the great reporters of our time and probably the greatest biographer.&” —The Sunday Times (London)From the two-time Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Power Broker and The Years of Lyndon Johnson: an unprecedented gathering of vivid, candid, deeply moving recollections about his experiences researching and writing his acclaimed books.Now in paperback, Robert Caro gives us a glimpse into his own life and work in these evocatively written, personal pieces. He describes what it was like to interview the mighty Robert Moses and to begin discovering the extent of the political power Moses wielded; the combination of discouragement and exhilaration he felt confronting the vast holdings of the Lyndon B. Johnson Library in Austin, Texas; his encounters with witnesses, including longtime residents wrenchingly displaced by the construction of Moses' Cross-Bronx Expressway and Lady Bird Johnson acknowledging the beauty and influence of one of LBJ's mistresses. He gratefully remembers how, after years of working in solitude, he found a writers' community at the New York Public Library, and details the ways he goes about planning and composing his books.Caro recalls the moments at which he came to understand that he wanted to write not just about the men who wielded power but about the people and the politics that were shaped by that power. And he talks about the importance to him of the writing itself, of how he tries to infuse it with a sense of place and mood to bring characters and situations to life on the page. Taken together, these reminiscences—some previously published, some written expressly for this book—bring into focus the passion, the wry self-deprecation, and the integrity with which this brilliant historian has always approached his work.To understand more about Robert Caro's research, see the Sony Pictures Classic documentary &“Turn Every Page.&”
A Working-Class Family Ages Badly
by Juno Roche'Delicate and devastating. Up there with the best of them.' HANNAH LOWE, WINNER OF THE COSTA PRIZE'Roche is a charming, unflinchingly honest guide on a journey that's as funny as it is heart-breaking.' JUNO DAWSONHow does an untrained eye recognise the process of dying, when your mind is fixed firmly on living?A radically honest and uplifting memoir about defying death and learning to live.Juno Roche was born into a working-class family in London in the sixties, who dabbled in minor crime. For their father, violence and love lived together; for their mother, addiction was the only way to survive. School was a respite, but shortly after beginning their university course Juno was diagnosed with HIV, then a death sentence.Juno is a survivor; they outlived their diagnosis, got a degree and became an artist. But however hard you try to take the kid out of the family, some scars go too deep; trying to run from AIDS and their childhood threw Juno into dark years of serious drug addiction, addiction often financed by sex work.Running from home eventually took Juno across the sea to a tiny village in Spain, surrounded by mountains. Only once they found a quiet little house with an olive tree in the garden did Juno start to wonder if they had run too far, and whether they have really been searching for a family all along.In an incredibly honest and brave book, Juno takes us through the moments of their life: Mum sending Christmas cards containing Valium, drug withdrawal on a River Nile cruise, overcoming their father's violence and finding their dream house in Spain. Showing immense resilience, Juno's memoir is a book about what it means to stay alive.Emotional, tragic and incredibly funny, A Working-Class Family Ages Badly is an unforgettable must-read memoir for anyone who loves Educated, Deborah Levy and Motherwell.'Full of heart, wit and charm. I'm obsessed with this book.' Travis Alabanza 'So gripping, I had to make myself slow down to appreciate the quality of the writing. Such a powerful story and so beautifully written.' Paul Burston'Utterly unique. Nobody can write with warmth and confrontation the way Juno can.' Tom Rasmussen'Compassionate, dreamlike and deeply moving.' CN Lester 'Should be read by everyone.' Irenosen Okojie 'Juno has always been a literary voice like no one else, scathingly honest and endlessly expansive.' Amelia Abraham
A Working-Class Family Ages Badly: 'Remarkable' The Observer (Karen Pirie #13)
by Juno Roche'An incredibly honest tale of survival, escape and resilience' The Observer 'Roche is a charming, unflinchingly honest guide on a journey that's as funny as it is heart-breaking.' JUNO DAWSONHow does an untrained eye recognise the process of dying, when your mind is fixed firmly on living?A radically honest and uplifting memoir about defying death and learning to live.Juno Roche was born into a working-class family in London in the sixties, who dabbled in minor crime. For their father, violence and love lived together; for their mother, addiction was the only way to survive. School was a respite, but shortly after beginning their university course Juno was diagnosed with HIV, then a death sentence.Juno is a survivor; they outlived their diagnosis, got a degree and became an artist. But however hard you try to take the kid out of the family, some scars go too deep; trying to run from AIDS and their childhood threw Juno into dark years of serious drug addiction, addiction often financed by sex work.Running from home eventually took Juno across the sea to a tiny village in Spain, surrounded by mountains. Only once they found a quiet little house with an olive tree in the garden did Juno start to wonder if they had run too far, and whether they have really been searching for a family all along.In an incredibly honest and brave book, Juno takes us through the moments of their life: Mum sending Christmas cards containing Valium, drug withdrawal on a River Nile cruise, overcoming their father's violence and finding their dream house in Spain. Showing immense resilience, Juno's memoir is a book about what it means to stay alive.Emotional, tragic and incredibly funny, A Working-Class Family Ages Badly is an unforgettable must-read memoir for anyone who loves Educated, Deborah Levy and Motherwell.'Delicate and devastating. Up there with the best of them.' HANNAH LOWE, WINNER OF THE COSTA PRIZE'Full of heart, wit and charm. I'm obsessed with this book.' Travis Alabanza 'So gripping, I had to make myself slow down to appreciate the quality of the writing. Such a powerful story and so beautifully written.' Paul Burston'Utterly unique. Nobody can write with warmth and confrontation the way Juno can.' Tom Rasmussen'Compassionate, dreamlike and deeply moving.' CN Lester 'Should be read by everyone.' Irenosen Okojie 'Juno has always been a literary voice like no one else, scathingly honest and endlessly expansive.' Amelia Abraham
Working Class Mystic
by Gary TilleryJohn Lennon called himself a working class hero. George Harrison was a working class mystic. Born in Liverpool as the son of a bus conductor and a shop assistant, for the first six years of his life he lived in a house with no indoor bathroom. This book gives an honest, in-depth view of his personal journey from his blue-collar childhood to his role as a world-famous spiritual icon.Author Gary Tillery's approach is warmly human, free of the fawning but insolent tone of most rock biographers. He frankly discusses the role of drugs in leading Harrison to mystical insight but emphasizes that he soon renounced psychedelics as a means to the spiritual path. It was with conscious commitment that Harrison journeyed to India, studied sitar with Ravi Shankar, practiced yoga, learned meditation from the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, and became a devotee of Hinduism. George worked hard to subdue his own ego and to understand the truth beyond appearances. He preferred to keep a low profile, but his empathy for suffering people led him to spearhead the first rock-and-roll super event for charity. And despite his wealth and fame, he was always delighted to slip on overalls and join in manual labor on his grounds. At ease with holy men discussing the Upanishads and the Bhagavad Gita, he was ever the bloke from Liverpool whose father drove a bus, whose brothers were tradesmen, and who had worked himself as an apprentice electrician until the day destiny called.Tillery's engaging narrative depicts Harrison as a sincere seeker who acted out of genuine care for humanity and used his celebrity to be of service in the world. Fans of all generations will treasure this book for the inspiring portrayal it gives of their beloved "quiet" Beatle.
Working Class Mystic
by Gary TilleryJohn Lennon called himself a working class hero. George Harrison was a working class mystic. Born in Liverpool as the son of a bus conductor and a shop assistant, for the first six years of his life he lived in a house with no indoor bathroom. This book gives an honest, in-depth view of his personal journey from his blue-collar childhood to his role as a world-famous spiritual icon.Author Gary Tillery's approach is warmly human, free of the fawning but insolent tone of most rock biographers. He frankly discusses the role of drugs in leading Harrison to mystical insight but emphasizes that he soon renounced psychedelics as a means to the spiritual path. It was with conscious commitment that Harrison journeyed to India, studied sitar with Ravi Shankar, practiced yoga, learned meditation from the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, and became a devotee of Hinduism. George worked hard to subdue his own ego and to understand the truth beyond appearances. He preferred to keep a low profile, but his empathy for suffering people led him to spearhead the first rock-and-roll super event for charity. And despite his wealth and fame, he was always delighted to slip on overalls and join in manual labor on his grounds. At ease with holy men discussing the Upanishads and the Bhagavad Gita, he was ever the bloke from Liverpool whose father drove a bus, whose brothers were tradesmen, and who had worked himself as an apprentice electrician until the day destiny called. Tillery's engaging narrative depicts Harrison as a sincere seeker who acted out of genuine care for humanity and used his celebrity to be of service in the world. Fans of all generations will treasure this book for the inspiring portrayal it gives of their beloved "quiet" Beatle.
The Working Class Republican: Ronald Reagan and the Return of Blue-Collar Conservatism
by Henry OlsenIn this sure to be controversial book in the vein of The Forgotten Man, a political analyst argues that conservative icon Ronald Reagan was not an enemy of Franklin Delano Roosevelt and the New Deal, but his true heir and the popular program’s ultimate savior.Conventional political wisdom views the two most consequential presidents of the twentieth-century—FDR and Ronald Reagan—as ideological opposites. FDR is hailed as the champion of big-government progressivism manifested in the New Deal. Reagan is seen as the crusader for conservatism dedicated to small government and free markets. But Henry Olsen argues that this assumption is wrong.In Ronald Reagan: New Deal Republican, Olsen contends that the historical record clearly shows that Franklin Roosevelt and the New Deal itself were more conservative than either Democrats or Republicans believe, and that Ronald Reagan was more progressive than most contemporary Republicans understand. Olsen cuts through political mythology to set the record straight, revealing how Reagan—a longtime Democrat until FDR’s successors lost his vision in the 1960s—saw himself as FDR’s natural heir, carrying forward the basic promises of the New Deal: that every American deserves comfort, dignity, and respect provided they work to the best of their ability. Olsen corrects faulty assumptions driving today’s politics. Conservative Republican political victories over the last thirty years have not been a rejection of the New Deal’s promises, he demonstrates, but rather a representation of the electorate’s desire for their success—which Americans see as fulfilling the vision of the nation’s founding. For the good of all citizens and the GOP, he implores Republicans to once again become a party of "FDR Conservatives"—to rediscover and support the basic elements of FDR (and Reagan’s) vision.