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Before I Had the Words: On Being a Transgender Young Adult
by Skylar KergilAt the beginning of his physical transition from female to male, then-seventeen-year-old Skylar Kergil posted his first video on YouTube. In the months and years that followed, he recorded weekly update videos about the physical and emotional changes he experienced. Skylar’s openness and positivity attracted thousands of viewers, who followed along as his voice deepened and his body changed shape. Through surgeries and recovery, highs and lows, from high school to college to the real world, Skylar welcomed others on his journey.Before I Had the Words is the story of what came before the videos and what happened behind the scenes. From early childhood memories to the changes and confusion brought by adolescence, Skylar reflects on coming of age while struggling to understand his gender. As humorous as it is heartbreaking and as informative as it is entertaining, this memoir provides an intimate look at the experience of transitioning from one gender to another. Skylar opens up about the long path to gaining his family’s acceptance and to accepting himself, sharing stories along the way about smaller challenges like choosing a new name and learning to shave without eyebrow mishaps. Revealing entries from the author’s personal journals as well as interviews with members of his family lend remarkable depth to Skylar’s story. A groundbreaking chronicle of change, loss, discovery, pain, and relief, Before I Had the Words brings new meaning to the phrase “formative years.”
Before I Was a Critic I Was a Human Being
by Amy FungIn that moment, I felt closer to whiteness than not. I was completely complicit and didn’t think twice about entering a space that could cover their walls with images of contemporary Indigenous perspectives, but exclude their physical bodies from entering and experiencing. In that moment, I felt like a real Canadian.Before I Was a Critic I Was a Human Being is the debut collection of nonfiction essays by Amy Fung. In it, Fung takes a closer examination at Canada's mythologies of multiculturalism, settler colonialism, and identity through the lens of a national art critic.Following the tangents of a foreign-born perspective and the complexities and complicities in participating in ongoing acts of colonial violence, the book as a whole takes the form of a very long land acknowledgement. Taken individually, each essay roots itself in the learning and unlearning process of a first generation settler immigrant as she unfurls each region's sense of place and identity
Before Jackie Robinson: The Transcendent Role of Black Sporting Pioneers
by Gerald R. GemsWhile the accomplishments and influence of Jack Johnson, Joe Louis, Jesse Owens, Jackie Robinson, and Muhammad Ali are doubtless impressive solely on their merits, these luminaries of the black sporting experience did not emerge spontaneously. Their rise was part of a gradual evolution in social and power relations in American culture between the 1890s and 1940s that included athletes such as jockey Isaac Murphy, barnstorming pilot Bessie Coleman, and golfer Teddy Rhodes. The contributions of these early athletes to our broader collective history, and their heroic confrontations with the entrenched racism of their times, helped bring about the incremental changes that after 1945 allowed for sports to be more fully integrated.Before Jackie Robinson details and analyzes the lives of these lesser-known but important athletes within the broader history of black liberation. These figures not only excelled in their given sports but also transcended class and racial divides in making inroads into popular culture despite the societal restrictions placed on them. They were also among the first athletes to blur the line between athletics, entertainment, and celebrity culture. This volume presents a more nuanced account of early African American athletes’ lives and their ongoing struggle for acceptance, relevance, and personal and group identity.
Before John Was a Jazz Giant: A Song of John Coltrane
by Sean Qualls Carole WeatherfordYoung John Coltrane was all ears. And there was a lot to hear growing up in the South in the 1930s: preachers praying, music on the radio, the bustling of the household. These vivid noises shaped John's own sound as a musician. Carole Boston Weatherford and Sean Qualls have composed an amazingly rich hymn to the childhood of jazz legend John Coltrane. Before John Was a Jazz Giantis a 2009 Coretta Scott King Illustrator Honor Book and a 2009 Bank Street - Best Children's Book of the Year. Lexile Measure: AD1090L
Before Marilyn
by Michelle Morgan Astrid FranseBefore Marilyn tells the story of Marilyn Monroe's modelling career, during which time she was signed to the famous Blue Book Agency in Hollywood. The head of the agency, Miss Emmeline Snively, saw potential in the young woman and kept detailed records and correspondence throughout their professional relationship and beyond. On the day of Monroe's funeral, Snively gave an interview from her office, talking about the girl she had discovered, before announcing, rather dramatically, that she was closing the lid on her Marilyn Monroe archive that day - to 'lock it away forever'. This archive was purchased by Astrid Franse, and together with bestselling Marilyn Monroe biographer Michelle Morgan they draw on this collection of never-before-seen documents, letters and much, much more. Before Marilyn explores an aspect of Monroe's life that has never been fully revealed - by charting every modelling job she did, and illustrating the text with rare and unpublished photographs of the young model and her mentor.
Before Memory Fades: An Autobiography
by Fali S. NarimanBefore Memory Fades by Fali S. Nariman is a revelatory, comprehensive and perceptive autobiography – candid, compelling and authoritative.Internationally admired and respected, Fali S. Nariman is a senior advocate of the Supreme Court of India. He began his career at the Bombay High Court in November 1950, and has since been active in the legal profession. Over the years, he has held several prestigious posts at both the national and international levels. He became a Member of Parliament (Rajya Sabha) in November 1999. He is the recipient of the Padma Bhushan (1991) and the Padma Vibhushan (2007). Starting with his formative years, when he had the good fortune to interact with many eminent judges and advocates, Fali S. Nariman moves on to deal with a wide variety of important subjects, such as, the sanctity of the Indian Constitution and attempts to tamper with it. crucial cases that have made a decisive impact on the nation, especially on the interpretation of the law, the relationship between the political class and the judiciary, the cancer of corruption and how to combat this menace, the author outlines measures to restore the now-low credibility of the legal profession, he also delineates his role in several high-profile cases. In recognition of his track record, the Government of India nominated him to the Rajya Sabha. He describes the highlights of his tenure there. Both members of the legal profession and the lay reader will find the contents informative and useful.
Before Night Falls: A Memoir (Penguin Vitae)
by Reinaldo ArenasThe shocking memoir by visionary Cuban writer Reinaldo Arenas "is a book above all about being free," said The New York Review of Books--sexually, politically, artistically. Arenas recounts a stunning odyssey from his poverty-stricken childhood in rural Cuba and his adolescence as a rebel fighting for Castro, through his supression as a writer, imprisonment as a homosexual, his flight from Cuba via the Mariel boat lift, and his subsequent life and the events leading to his death in New York. In what The Miami Herald calls his "deathbed ode to eroticism," Arenas breaks through the code of secrecy and silence that protects the privileged in a state where homosexuality is a political crime. Recorded in simple, straightforward prose, this is the true story of the Kafkaesque life and world re-created in the author's acclaimed novels.
Before She was Harriet
by Lesa Cline-RansomeWho was Harriet Tubman before she was Harriet?We know her today as Harriet Tubman, but in her lifetime she was called by many names. As General Tubman she was a Union spy. As Moses she led hundreds to freedom on the Underground Railroad. As Minty she was a slave whose spirit could not be broken. As Araminta she was a young girl whose father showed her the stars and the first steps on the path to freedom.An evocative poem and stunning watercolors come together to honor a woman of humble origins whose courage and compassion make her a larger than life hero.A lush and lyrical biography of Harriet Tubman, written in verse and illustrated by James Ransome, winner of the Coretta Scott King medal for The Creation.A Junior Library Guild SelectionA Coretta Scott King Honor BookA Christopher Award winnerA Jane Addams Children's Honor BookA Booklist "Top of the List" selection
Before Sunday: The Life Stories of the Bloody Sunday Victims
by Jennifer FausIn this poignant account, we are introduced to the victims of the day that has come to be known as Bloody Sunday. On January 30th, 1972, the British Army deployed the 1st Parachute Regiment to conduct an arrest operation in Derry during a Northern Ireland Civil Rights Association march. Twenty-six civil rights protesters were shot, and 14 died--a photographer, a golfer, a student, a prankster, and 10 other boys and men who we learn are very much like any fathers, sons, brothers, and friends. Featuring personal and striking images, their stories will be of note to people all around the world.
Before The Badge: Growing Up In Alaska--Short Stories
by Andy AndersonAt 16 years of age I quit school and moved to Alaska. I was a kid in a man's world and for the next 15 years I took on a myriad of jobs to survive. I had some harrowing experiences and I lived a very exciting life during that time period. Being born on a farm, I was introduced to the operation of equipment at a very young age and I found myself working in jobs that involved machinery and its operation. In 1979 I became a Police Officer and my career lasted nearly 32 years. The seven short stories in Before The Badge outline many of my life's experiences between 1964 and 1979. It tells of a young man's life as he is becoming a man and, when doing so, gets involved in many things which are educational, exciting and at times, life threatening. The seven stories are all true.
Before Their Time: A Memoir
by Robert Kotlowitzin this memoir of his experiences as a teenage infantryman in the US Third Army during World War II, Kotlowitz brings to life the harrowing story of the massacre of his platoon in northeastern France, in which he--by playing dead--was the only one to survive. 208 pp. 15,000 print.From the Hardcover edition.
Before There Was Mozart: The Story of Joseph Boulogne, Chevalier de Saint-George
by James E. Ransome Lesa Cline-RansomeThe musical superstar of 18th-century France was Joseph Boulogne--a black man. This inspiring story tells how Joseph, the only child of a black slave and her white master, becomes "the most accomplished man in Europe." After traveling from his native West Indies to study music in Paris, young Joseph is taunted about his skin color. Despite his classmates' cruel words, he continues to devote himself to his violin, eventually becoming conductor of a whole orchestra. Joseph begins composing his own operas, which everyone acknowledges to be magnifique. But will he ever reach his dream of performing for the king and queen of France? This lushly illustrated book by Lesa Cline-Ransome and James E. Ransome introduces us to a talented musician and an overlooked figure in black history.
Before Versailles
by Karleen Koen"A grand yet intimate look at the Sun King, a tale rich with detail and action. "—Library Journal(Starred Review, one of the best historical novels of the year)Before Versailles transports you to a world of secret passions and plots, a world of duplicity and malice. . . a world that created one of the best–known monarchs to grace the French throne. At the most decisive time in the young king's life, Louis XIV can taste the danger. His court teems with greed and corruption, the wrong woman draws him into a wrenching love affair, and a mysterious boy in an iron mask haunts the woods. The untried ruler is coming into his own in 1661, and Louis XIV must face what he is willing to sacrifice for honor and for love. Meticulously researched and gorgeously brought to life by New York Timesbestselling author Karleen Koen, Before Versaillesoffers up a sumptuous, authentic exploration of a time that forged a man into a king. Praise for Before Versailles:"In this magnificently written and researched novel, Karleen Koen brings to vibrant life the early years and loves of the future Sun King. "—Jean M. Auel, author of The Clan of the Cave Bearand the Land of Painted Caves"A baroque cornucopia spilling over with intrigue, passion, jealousy, ambition, and rich historical detail, Before Versailles offers a glittering glimpse of the crucial months that shaped Louis XIV into Europe's most powerful monarch. "—Eleanor Herman, author of Sex with Kings
Before Wallis: Edward VIII's Other Women
by Rachel TretheweyWallis Simpson is known as the woman who stole the king’s heart and rocked the monarchy – but she was not Edward VIII’s first or only love. This book is about the women he adored before Wallis dominated his life. There was Rosemary Leveson-Gower, the girl he wanted to marry and who would have been the perfect match for a future king; and the Prince’s long-term mistress, Freda Dudley Ward, who exerted a pull almost equal to Wallis over her lover, but abided by the rules of the game and never expected to marry him. Then there was Thelma Furness, his twice-married American lover, who enjoyed a domestic life with him, but realised it could not last forever and demanded nothing more than to be his mistress – and fatefully introduced him to Wallis. In each love affair, Edward behaved like a cross between a little boy lost and a spoilt child craving affection, resorting to emotional blackmail to keep his lovers with him. Each of the three women in this book could have changed the course of history. By examining their lives and impact on the heir to the throne, we question whether he ever really wanted to be king.
Before We Was We: Madness by Madness
by Lee Thompson Mike Barson Mark Bedford Chris Foreman Graham McPherson Cathal Smyth Dan WoodgateNew Foreword by Irvine Welsh.In Before We Was We Madness tell us how they became them. A story of seven originals, whose collective graft, energy and talent took them from the sweaty depths of the Hope and Anchor's basement to the Top of the Pops studio.In their own words they each look back on shared adventures. Playing music together, riding freight trains, spraying graffiti and stealing records. Walking in one another's footsteps by day and rising up through the city's exploding pub music scene by night. Before We Was We is irreverent, funny and full of character. Just like them.
Before You Judge Me: The Triumph and Tragedy of Michael Jackson's Last Days
by David Ritz Tavis SmileyA powerful chronicle of the sixteen weeks leading up to King of Pop Michael Jackson's deathMichael Jackson's final months were like the rest of his short and legendary life: filled with deep lows and soaring highs, a constant hunt for privacy, and the pressure and fame that made him socially fragile and almost--ultimately--unable to live. With the insight and compassion that he brought to his bestselling telling of Martin Luther King, Jr.'s final year, Tavis Smiley provides a glimpse into the superstar's life in this emotional, honest, yet celebratory book. Readers will witness Jackson's campaign to recharge his career--hiring and firing managers and advisors, turning to and away from family members, fighting depression and drug dependency--while his one goal remained: to mount the most spectacular series of shows the world had ever seen. BEFORE YOU JUDGE ME is a humanizing look at Jackson's last days.
Before and After the Book Deal: A Writer's Guide to Finishing, Publishing, Promoting, and Surviving Your First Book
by Courtney MaumEverything you’ve ever wanted to know about publishing but were too afraid to ask is right here in this funny, candid guide written by an acclaimed author.There are countless books on the market about how to write better but very few books on how to break into the marketplace with your first book. Cutting through the noise (and very mixed advice) online, while both dispelling rumors and remaining positive, Courtney Maum's Before and After the Book Deal is a one–of–a–kind resource that can help you get your book published.Before and After the Book Deal: A Writer's Guide to Finishing, Publishing, Promoting, and Surviving Your First Book has over 150 contributors from all walks of the industry, including international bestselling authors Anthony Doerr, Roxane Gay, Garth Greenwell, Lisa Ko, R. O. Kwon, Rebecca Makkai, and Ottessa Moshfegh, alongside cult favorites Sarah Gerard, Melissa Febos, Mitchell S. Jackson, and Mira Jacob.Agents, film scouts, film producers, translators, disability and minority activists, and power agents and editors also weigh in, offering advice and sharing intimate anecdotes about even the most taboo topics in the industry. Their wisdom will help aspiring authors find a foothold in the publishing world and navigate the challenges of life before and after publication with sanity and grace.Are MFA programs worth the time and money? How do people actually sit down and finish a novel? Did you get a good advance? What do you do when you feel envious of other writers? And why the heck aren’t your friends saying anything about your book? Covering questions ranging from the logistical to the existential (and everything in between), Before and After the Book Deal is the definitive guide for anyone who has ever wanted to know what it’s really like to be an author.
Before and After: the incredible real-life story behind the heart-breaking bestseller Before We Were Yours
by Lisa Wingate Judy ChristieThe incredible and heart-breaking true stories of victims of a notorious adoption scandal - inspired by No.1 bestselling novel Before We Were YoursFrom the 1920s to 1950, Georgia Tann ran a corrupt baby business at the Tennessee Children's Home Society in Memphis. She offered up more than 5,000 orphans tailored to the wish lists of eager parents - hiding the fact that many weren't orphans at all, but stolen sons and daughters of poor families, desperate single mothers, and women told in maternity wards that their babies had died.In Before and After, many survivors set out to trace their roots and find their birth families. Before and AFter includes moving and shocking accounts of the ways in which adoptees were separated from their first families. Often raised as only children, many have joyfully reunited with siblings in the final decades of their lives. There are stories of first meetings that are all the sweeter and more intense for time missed, and of families from very different social backgrounds reaching out to embrace brothers, sisters, and cousins. WHAT READERS ARE SAYING ABOUT BEFORE AND AFTER'What a truly amazing book' *****'Riveting' *****'Captivating and emotional' *****'A real tear-jerker' *****
Before and After: the incredible real-life story behind the heart-breaking bestseller Before We Were Yours
by Lisa Wingate Judy ChristieThe incredible and heart-breaking true stories of victims of a notorious adoption scandal - inspired by No.1 bestselling novel Before We Were YoursFrom the 1920s to 1950, Georgia Tann ran a corrupt baby business at the Tennessee Children's Home Society in Memphis. She offered up more than 5,000 orphans tailored to the wish lists of eager parents - hiding the fact that many weren't orphans at all, but stolen sons and daughters of poor families, desperate single mothers, and women told in maternity wards that their babies had died.In Before and After, many survivors set out to trace their roots and find their birth families. Before and AFter includes moving and shocking accounts of the ways in which adoptees were separated from their first families. Often raised as only children, many have joyfully reunited with siblings in the final decades of their lives. There are stories of first meetings that are all the sweeter and more intense for time missed, and of families from very different social backgrounds reaching out to embrace brothers, sisters, and cousins.WHAT READERS ARE SAYING ABOUT BEFORE AND AFTER'What a truly amazing book' *****'Riveting' *****'Captivating and emotional' *****'A real tear-jerker' *****(P) 2019 Random House Audio
Before the Big Bang: The Origin of the Universe and What Lies Beyond
by Laura Mersini-HoughtonA revolutionary new account of our universe’s creation—and a breathtaking exploration of the landscape from which we sprang—from one of the world’s most celebrated cosmologistsWhat came before the Big Bang, and what exists outside of the universe it created? Until recently, scientists could only guess at what lay past the edge of space-time. However, as pioneering theoretical physicist Laura Mersini-Houghton explains, new scientific tools are now giving us the ability to peer beyond the limits of our universe and to test our theories about what is there. And what we are finding is upending everything we thought we knew about the cosmos and our place in it.Mersini-Houghton is no stranger to boundaries—or to pushing through them. As a child growing up in Communist Albania, she discovered a universe beyond her walled-off world through the study of math and science, and through music. As a female cosmologist in a male-dominated field, she transcended the limits that society and her profession tried to place on her. And as a trailblazing researcher, she helped to revolutionize the study of our universe by revealing that, far from living in a cosmic Albania, with a world that ends at its borders, we are part of a larger family of universes—a multiverse—that holds wonders we are only beginning to unlock. Mersini-Houghton’s groundbreaking research suggests that we sit in a quantum landscape whose peaks and valleys hide a multitude of other universes, and even hold the secret to the origins of existence itself. Recent evidence has revealed the signatures of such sibling universes in our own night sky, confirming Mersini-Houghton’s theoretical work and offering humbling evidence that our universe is just one member of an unending cosmic family.The incredible scientific saga of one woman’s mind-expanding journey through the multiverse, Before the Big Bang will reshape our understanding of humanity’s place in the unfathomable vastness of the cosmos.
Before the Bluestockings (Routledge Revivals)
by Ada WallasFirst published in 1929, Before the Bluestockings is a study of the individual lives and the position of educated Englishwomen from the Restoration to the end of the first third of the eighteenth century. The question is approached not only from the women’s point of view—Hannah Woolley, Mary Astell and Elizabeth Elstob—but also records the views of contemporary observers like Lord Halifax, John Locke, George Ballard and Sir Richard Steele.
Before the Dawn: An Autobiography
by Gerry Adams&“In this compelling memoir of his early life, the president of Sinn Féin . . . recalls the development of the modern &‘Troubles&’ in Northern Ireland&” (Kirkus). Gerry Adams was the president of Sinn Féin, the political wing of the Irish Republican Amy, for more than thirty years. In this autobiography of his early life, he shares a personal account of the political unrest and violence of the 1970s and 80s. He opens up about his imprisonment, secret talks with the British government, his leadership role in Sinn Féin, and the tragic hunger strike by imprisoned IRA prisoners in 1981. Born in 1948, Adams vividly recalls growing up in the working-class Ballymurphy district of West Belfast, where he became involved in the civil rights campaign in the late 1960s. When the unionist regime responded to the protests with violence, the situation exploded into conflict. Adams recounts his growing radicalization, his relationship with the IRA, and the British use of secret courts to condemn republicans. Adams was a political prisoner who spent a total of five years in the notorious Long Kesh prison camp. Though he opposed the hunger strike, Adams was instrumental in the mass campaign of support which saw Bobby Sands elected to British Parliament and Ciaran Doherty and Kevin Agnew elected to Irish Parliament. First published in 1996, this edition contains a new introduction and epilogue written by the author, covering Adams&’s family, Brexit, and the peace process.
Before the Fires: An Oral History of African American Life in the Bronx from the 1930s to the 1960s
by Mark D. Naison Bob GumbsPeople associate the South Bronx with gangs, violence, drugs, crime, burned-out buildings, and poverty. This is the message that has been driven into their heads over the years by the media. As Howard Cosell famously said during the 1977 World’s Series at Yankee Stadium, “There it is, ladies and gentlemen, the Bronx is burning.” In this new book, Naison and Gumbs provide a completely different picture of the South Bronx through interviews with residents who lived here from the 1930s to the 1960s.In the early 1930s, word began to spread among economically secure black families in Harlem that there were spacious apartments for rent in the Morrisania section of the Bronx. Landlords in that community, desperate to fill their rent rolls and avoid foreclosure, began putting up signs in their windows and in advertisements in New York’s black newspapers that said, “We rent to select colored families,” by which they meant families with a securely employed wage earner and light complexions. Black families who fit these criteria began renting apartments by the score. Thus began a period of about twenty years during which the Bronx served as a borough of hope and unlimited possibilities for upwardly mobile black families.Chronicling a time when African Americans were suspended between the best and worst possibilities of New York City, Before the Fires tells the personal stories of seventeen men and women who lived in the South Bronx before the social and economic decline of the area that began in the late 1960s. Located on a hill hovering over one of the borough’s largest industrial districts, Morrisania offered black migrants from Harlem, the South, and the Caribbean an opportunity to raise children in a neighborhood that had better schools, strong churches, better shopping, less crime, and clean air. This culturally rich neighborhood also boasted some of the most vibrant music venues in all of New York City, giving rise to such music titans as Lou Donaldson, Valerie Capers, Herbie Hancock, Eddie Palmieri, Donald Byrd, Elmo Hope, Henry “Red” Allen, Bobby Sanabria, Valerie Simpson, Maxine Sullivan, the Chantels, the Chords, and Jimmy Owens.Alternately analytical and poetic, but all rich in detail, these inspiring interviews describe growing up and living in vibrant black and multiracial Bronx communities whose contours have rarely graced the pages of histories of the Bronx or black New York City. Capturing the excitement of growing up in this stimulating and culturally diverse environment, Before the Fires is filled with the optimism of the period and the heartache of what was shattered in the urban crisis and the burning of the Bronx.
Before the Knife
by Carolyn SlaughterIn this unforgettable memoir, acclaimed novelist Carolyn Slaughter recalls her childhood in Africa and how the land itself released her from a rage that threatened to destroy her. For Carolyn Slaughter, who grew up in Botswana in the 1950s, it was the Kalahari Desert that made life bearable. Her father was a cruel and violent district commissioner during the last days of British colonial rule, and their family’s stiff English facade masked an unspeakable household secret. But out in the bush, the intensity of the air and the beauty of the landscape touched her with a kind of feverish grace. She would disappear for hours to watch the flat brown river with its water lilies and crocodiles; the thorn trees and the flocks of flamingos; the local women with their babies strapped to their backs. Filled with the majesty and splendor of the ever-changing desert,Before The Knife is the deeply moving story of a girl who endured and transcended her family’s violence to emerge an impassioned observer and explicator of her world.
Before the Legend: The Rise of Bob Marley
by Christopher John FarleyBob Marley was a reggae superstar, a musical prophet who brought the sound of the Third World to the entire globe. Before the Legend: The Rise of Bob Marley goes beyond the myth of Marley to bring you the private side of a man few people ever really knew. Drawing from original interviews with the people closest to Marleyincluding his widow, Rita, his mother, Cedella, his bandmate and childhood friend, Bunny Wailer, his producer Chris Blackwell, and many others—Legend paints an entirely fresh picture of one of the most enduring musical artists of our times. This is a portrait of an artist as a young man, from his birth in the tiny town of Nine Miles in the hills of Jamaica, to the making of his debut international record, "Catch a Fire." We see Marley on the tough streets of Trench Town before he found stardom, struggling to find his way in music, in love and in life, and we take the wild ride with him to worldwide acceptance and adoration. From the acclaimed journalist, Christopher John Farely, the author of the bestselling AALIYAH and the reporter who broke the story on Dave Chappelle's retreat to South Africa, Legend is bursting with fresh insights into Marley and Jamaica, and is the definitive story of Marley's early days.