- Table View
- List View
My Beautiful Genome: Exposing Our Genetic Future, One Quirk at a Time
by Lone FrankWhat if you could predict your future - which political party you will vote for, what kind of person you will marry, which disease will end your life, whether your blue mood will fester into something more troubling, even debilitating. Would you want to know? Taking a uniquely intimate and cheeky approach to the personal genomics revolution, internationally acclaimed science writer Lone Frank swabs up her genetic code to explore who any of us are in the days when a catalogue of your full six billion DNA building blocks is available for $10,000 and the local Walgreens offers genetic screening tests to anyone. She challenges the august Nobel Prize winners and the hyperactive business mavericks who are pushing to map and decipher every fetus's genome within the next decade. She tests the potential to detect diseases early, as well as our capacity to develop chronic anxieties when our DNA is seen as a death sentence. She ponders whether personality, including her own above-average irritability and non-conformity, can really be reduced to biochemistry. And she prods the psychologists who hope to uncover just how much or how little our environment will matter in the new genetic century - a quest made all the more gripping as Frank considers her family's and her own struggles with depression. At turns compellingly candid and irreverently insightful, Frank provides the first truly personal account of the new science of consumer-led genomics - and to what extent our genes determine our destiny. Lone Frank is the author of The Neurotourist: Postcards from the Edge of Brain Science (ISBN 9781851687961). She holds a PhD in neurobiology and was previously a research scientist working in the biotechnology industry in the United States. An award-winning science journalist and TV documentary presenter, she has written for such publicationsn as Scientific American, Science, and Nature Biotechnology and is a frequent speaker at venues including Harvard Medical School, the Library of Congress, the Royal Society, and TED.
My Beautiful Idol
by Pete GallThe author of My Beautiful Idol is on a quest to be successful-in a lucrative job at an advertising agency, in ministry work, even in his relationships. And in a futile attempt to control the sources of love and security, he has turned these things into idols he can keep in his soul's back pocket. He pulls the idols out when he feels vulnerable and defenseless, and hides them again when things are going well. But the idols keep failing-even when he turns to his own Christian faith. In a creative narrative style rooted in raw honesty, My Beautiful Idol invites readers to identify with the young would-be Christian hero as he seeks God, and as he hides from God. Far from reducing complex matters to simplistic formulas, Pete Gall weaves together stories both sublime and wretched, ego-building and humbling, humorous and painful, and successfully celebrates the messiness of faith, the importance of validating truth, and the unscripted nature of experiencing a God who is intimately involved in all of life.
My Beautiful Struggle
by Jordan BoneA girl with her whole life ahead of her. A terrible accident. An inspiring story of triumph over trauma. Aged 15, Jordan was a happy-go-lucky girl; having fun with friends and loving life. In one fateful moment, everything changed. A car accident left her paralysed from the chest down and shocked her into deep depression. She was on the brink of giving up. But gradually Jordan realised there is hope beyond utter devastation, and life beyond disability.Painstakingly re-learning how to apply her beloved make-up, Jordan began to rebuild her sense of self and empowerment. Her body may have been broken but her spirit was not. She is now a successful beauty blogger and her journey of positivity inspires millions around the world.MY BEAUTIFUL STRUGGLE is the incredible true story of how one young woman overcame immense challenges, of inner strength that lies beneath outer beauty, of how to believe in yourself and find the light when it feels like all hope is gone.
My Beautiful Struggle
by Jordan Bone<P>Aged 15, Jordan Bone got into a car with friends. She would never walk again. Paralysed from the chest down, her life was changed forever. Becoming depressed and feeling like life wasn't worth living, these weren't the teenage years that Jordan had envisaged. <P>However, slowly but surely, she began to get herself out of the darkness. With a little help from the internet, Jordan started to embrace positive thinking and embarked on a personal journey to get her confidence - and her life - back. Eleven years on from the accident, Jordan creates her own beauty tutorials on YouTube and has a range of successful brand partnerships. She has reclaimed her life and her independence and now wants to share her inspirational story with others and is telling it through different aspects of beauty. This isn't a book about looking good on the surface, this is a story of inner strength, believing in yourself and finding motivation when you feel like all hope is gone.
My Beloved Monster: Masha, the Half-Wild Rescue Cat Who Rescued Me
by Caleb CarrCaleb Carr has had special relationships with cats since he was a young boy in a turbulent household, famously peopled by the founding members of the Beat Generation, where his steadiest companions were the adopted cats that lived with him both in the city and the country. As an adult, he has had many close feline companions, with relationships that have outlasted most of his human ones. But only after building a three-story home in rural, upstate New York did he enter into the most extraordinary of all of his cat pairings: Masha, a Siberian Forest cat who had been abandoned as a kitten, and was languishing in a shelter when Caleb met her. She had hissed and fought off all previous carers and potential adopters, but somehow, she chose Caleb as her savior. <P><P> For the seventeen years that followed, Caleb and Masha were inseparable. Masha ruled the house and the extensive, dangerous surrounding fields and forests. When she was hurt, only Caleb could help her. When he suffered long-standing physical ailments, Masha knew what to do. Caleb’s life-long study of the literature of cat behavior, and his years of experience with previous cats, helped him decode much of Masha’s inner life. But their bond went far beyond academic studies and experience. The story of Caleb and Masha is an inspiring and life-affirming relationship for readers of all backgrounds and interests—a love story like no other. <p> <b>New York Times Bestseller</b>
My Beloved World
by Sonia SotomayorThe first Hispanic and third woman appointed to the United States Supreme Court, Sonia Sotomayor has become an instant American icon. Now, with a candor and intimacy never undertaken by a sitting Justice, she recounts her life from a Bronx housing project to the federal bench, a journey that offers an inspiring testament to her own extraordinary determination and the power of believing in oneself. Here is the story of a precarious childhood, with an alcoholic father (who would die when she was nine) and a devoted but overburdened mother, and of the refuge a little girl took from the turmoil at home with her passionately spirited paternal grandmother. <P><P> But it was when she was diagnosed with juvenile diabetes that the precocious Sonia recognized she must ultimately depend on herself. She would learn to give herself the insulin shots she needed to survive and soon imagined a path to a different life. With only television characters for her professional role models, and little understanding of what was involved, she determined to become a lawyer, a dream that would sustain her on an unlikely course, from valedictorian of her high school class to the highest honors at Princeton, Yale Law School, the New York County District Attorney's office, private practice, and appointment to the Federal District Court before the age of forty. Along the way we see how she was shaped by her invaluable mentors, a failed marriage, and the modern version of extended family she has created from cherished friends and their children. Through her still-astonished eyes, America's infinite possibilities are envisioned anew in this warm and honest book, destined to become a classic of self-invention and self-discovery.
My Berlin Kitchen: A Love Story (with Recipes)
by Luisa WeissThe Wednesday Chef cooks her heart out, finds her way home, and shares her recipes with usIt takes courage to turn your life upside down, especially when everyone is telling you how lucky you are. But sometimes what seems right can feel deeply wrong. My Berlin Kitchen tells the story of how one thoroughly confused, kitchen-mad perfectionist broke off her engagement to a handsome New Yorker, quit her dream job, and found her way to a new life, a new man, and a new home in Berlin--one recipe at a time.Luisa Weiss grew up with a divided heart, shuttling back and forth between her father in Boston and her Italian mother in Berlin. She was always yearning for home--until she found a new home in the kitchen. Luisa started clipping recipes in college and was a cookbook editor in New York when she decided to bake, roast, and stew her way through her by then unwieldy collection over the course of one tumultuous year. The blog she wrote to document her adventures in (and out) of the kitchen, The Wednesday Chef, soon became a sensation. But she never stopped hankering for Berlin. Luisa will seduce you with her stories of foraging for plums in abandoned orchards, battling with white asparagus at the tail end of the season, orchestrating a three-family Thanksgiving in Berlin, and mending her broken heart with batches (and batches) of impossible German Christmas cookies. Fans of her award-winning blog will know the happy ending, but anyone who enjoyed Julie and Julia will laugh and cheer and cook alongside Luisa as she takes us into her heart and tells us how she gave up everything only to find love waiting where she least expected it.
My Berlin Kitchen: A Love Story, with Recipes
by Luisa WeissThe Wednesday Chef cooks her heart out, finds her way home, and shares her recipes with us It takes courage to turn your life upside down, especially when everyone is telling you how lucky you are. But sometimes what seems right can feel deeply wrong. My Berlin Kitchen tells the story of how one thoroughly confused, kitchen-mad perfectionist broke off her engagement to a handsome New Yorker, quit her dream job, and found her way to a new life, a new man, and a new home in Berlin—one recipe at a time. Luisa Weiss grew up with a divided heart, shuttling back and forth between her father in Boston and her Italian mother in Berlin. She was always yearning for home—until she found a new home in the kitchen. Luisa started clipping recipes in college and was a cookbook editor in New York when she decided to bake, roast, and stew her way through her by then unwieldy collection over the course of one tumultuous year. The blog she wrote to document her adventures in (and out) of the kitchen, The Wednesday Chef, soon became a sensation. But she never stopped hankering for Berlin. Luisa will seduce you with her stories of foraging for plums in abandoned orchards, battling with white asparagus at the tail end of the season, orchestrating a three-family Thanksgiving in Berlin, and mending her broken heart with batches (and batches) of impossible German Christmas cookies. Fans of her award-winning blog will know the happy ending, but anyone who enjoyed Julie and Julia will laugh and cheer and cook alongside Luisa as she takes us into her heart and tells us how she gave up everything only to find love waiting where she least expected it. .
My Best Friend is a Wookie
by Tony PacittiIn a galaxy far, far away a geek was born.So begins the real-life hero's journey of Jedi Knight wannabe Tony Pacitti. In this hilarious coming-of-age memoir, Tony shows how Star Wars has served as a source of comfort, guidance, and wisdom in his life. From the first thunderous boom of John William's score, seven-year-old Tony takes on Star Wars as his moral compass, his mentor, even his psychologist. Like his hero Luke Skywalker, Tony must then overcome Stormtrooper bullies, Lando turncoats, and Emperor Palpatine authority figures and embrace his own geekiness to grow into a man worthy of riding shotgun with Chewie. With the sense of humor of Han Solo, the willpower of Luke Skywalker, and the wisdom of a (much younger) Yoda, Pacitti uses the Force to follow his heart, overcome obstacles, and live a life worthy of a Jedi knight, endearing Star Wars fans everywhere in the process!
My Best Friend is a Wookie: One Boy's Journey to Find His Place in the Galaxy
by Tony PacittiIn a galaxy far, far away a geek was born.So begins the real-life hero's journey of Jedi Knight wannabe Tony Pacitti. In this hilarious coming-of-age memoir, Tony shows how Star Wars has served as a source of comfort, guidance, and wisdom in his life. From the first thunderous boom of John William's score, seven-year-old Tony takes on Star Wars as his moral compass, his mentor, even his psychologist. Like his hero Luke Skywalker, Tony must then overcome Stormtrooper bullies, Lando turncoats, and Emperor Palpatine authority figures and embrace his own geekiness to grow into a man worthy of riding shotgun with Chewie.With the sense of humor of Han Solo, the willpower of Luke Skywalker, and the wisdom of a (much younger) Yoda, Pacitti uses the Force to follow his heart, overcome obstacles, and live a life worthy of a Jedi knight, endearing Star Wars fans everywhere in the process!
My Best Friend is a Wookiee
by Tony Pacitti"In a galaxy far, far away a geek was born. "So begins the real-life hero s journey of Jedi Knight wannabe Tony Pacitti. In this hilarious coming-of-age memoir, Tony shows how "Star Wars" has served as a source of comfort, guidance, and wisdom in his life. From the first thunderous boom of John William s score, seven-year-old Tony takes on "Star Wars" as his moral compass, his mentor, even his psychologist. Like his hero Luke Skywalker, Tony must then overcome Stormtrooper bullies, Lando turncoats, and Emperor Palpatine authority figures and embrace his own geekiness to grow into a man worthy of riding shotgun with Chewie. With the sense of humor of Han Solo, the willpower of Luke Skywalker, and the wisdom of a (much younger) Yoda, Pacitti uses the Force to follow his heart, overcome obstacles, and live a life worthy of a Jedi knight, endearing "Star Wars" fans everywhere in the process
MY BEST FRIENDS FUNERAL
by Roger W. ThompsonThere's a certain kind of lost a boy feelsin this world without a father. Tim felt it. I felt it. And we realized our onlyway out would be together.In an openhearted memoir of faith on the fringe, Roger Thompsonmeditateson the life and premature death of his best friend and business partner, TimGarrety, cofounder of Skate Street Ventura. Roger and Tim's twenty-year friendship was forged inthe surf and on the streets of 1980s California. Together they hazarded countlesswaves and every rite of passage--from guitars to girls to God--and influenced the lives of thousands ofskateboarders, musicians, surfers, and otherwise disconnected youth in theprocess. With unrestrainedhonesty and a punk-rock soundtrack, MyBest Friend's Funeral is a memoir of friendship, doubt, surfing, and thecomplex relationships between fathers and sons. Iflife has ever left you feeling abandoned--or if you simply prefer a rock show toa sermon--My Best Friend's Funeral is a memoir you won't want to miss, and aconfirmation that you are never alone.
My Black Country: A Journey Through Country Music's Black Past, Present, and Future
by Alice RandallAlice Randall, award-winning professor, songwriter, and author with a &“lively, engaging, and often wise&” (The New York Times Book Review) voice, offers a lyrical, introspective, and unforgettable account of her past and her search for the first family of Black country music.Country music had brought Randall and her activist mother together and even gave Randall a singular distinction in American music history: she is the first Black woman to cowrite a number one country hit, Trisha Yearwood&’s &“XXX&’s and OOO&’s&”. Randall found inspiration and comfort in the sounds and history of the first family of Black country music: DeFord Bailey, Lil Hardin, Ray Charles, Charley Pride, and Herb Jeffries who, together, made up a community of Black Americans rising through hard times to create simple beauty, true joy, and sometimes profound eccentricity. What emerges in My Black Country is a celebration of the most American of music genres and the radical joy in realizing the power of Black influence on American culture. As country music goes through a fresh renaissance today, with a new wave of Black artists enjoying success, My Black Country is the perfect gift for longtime country fans and a vibrant introduction to a new generation of listeners who previously were not invited to give the genre a chance.
My Bloody Life: The Making of a Latin King
by Reymundo SanchezLooking for an escape from childhood abuse, Reymundo Sanchez turned away from school and baseball to drugs, alcohol, and then sex, and was left to fend for himself before age 14. The Latin Kings, one of the largest and most notorious street gangs in America, became his refuge and his world, but its violence cost him friends, freedom, self-respect, and nearly his life. This is a raw and powerful odyssey through the ranks of the new mafia, where the only people more dangerous than rival gangs are members of your own gang, who in one breath will say they'll die for you and in the next will order your assassination.
My Body: Emily Ratajkowski's deeply honest and personal exploration of what it means to be a woman today
by Emily RatajkowskiA deeply honest investigation of what it means to be a woman and a commodity from Emily Ratajkowski, the archetypal, multi-hyphenate celebrity of our time._______________'This is the book for every woman trying to place their body on the map of consumption vs control, and every woman who wants to better understand her impulses. It left me much changed' - Lena Dunham'I read these pages, breathless with recognition, and the thrill of reading a new voice telling it like it is' - Dani Shapiro'Emily Ratajkowski's first essay collection needs to be read by everyone [...] both page-turning and moving as hell' - Amy Schumer'A slow, complicated indictment of a profession and the people who propel it [...] it will deliver a more nuanced and introspective rendering of her interior than those who come to it with those surface interests might expect' - Vogue'Ratajkowski brings nuanced insight to questions about empowerment versus commodification of women's bodies and sexuality. Blending cultural criticism and personal stories, My Body is smart and powerful' - Time Magazine'Raw, nuanced and beautifully written. A moving and enlightening experience to join a woman openly exploring such deep parts of her physical self via the written word. A truly impressive debut' - Emma Gannon_______________Emily Ratajkowski is an acclaimed model and actress, an engaged political progressive, a formidable entrepreneur, a global social media phenomenon, and now, a writer. Rocketing to world fame at age twenty-one, Ratajkowski sparked both praise and furor with the provocative display of her body as an unapologetic statement of feminist empowerment. The subsequent evolution in her thinking about our culture's commodification of women is the subject of this book.My Body is a profoundly personal exploration of feminism, sexuality, and power, of men's treatment of women and women's rationalizations for accepting that treatment. These essays chronicle moments from Ratajkowski's life while investigating the culture's fetishization of girls and female beauty, its obsession with and contempt for women's sexuality, the perverse dynamics of the fashion and film industries, and the grey area between consent and abuse.Nuanced, unflinching, and incisive, My Body marks the debut of a fierce writer brimming with courage and intelligence.
My Body
by Emily RatajkowskiA deeply honest investigation of what it means to be a woman and a commodity from Emily Ratajkowski, the archetypal, multi-hyphenate celebrity of our time.Emily Ratajkowski is an acclaimed model and actress, an engaged political progressive, a formidable entrepreneur, a global social media phenomenon, and now, a writer. Rocketing to world fame at age twenty-one, Ratajkowski sparked both praise and furor with the provocative display of her body as an unapologetic statement of feminist empowerment. The subsequent evolution in her thinking about our culture's commodification of women is the subject of this book.My Body is a profoundly personal exploration of feminism, sexuality, and power, of men's treatment of women and women's rationalizations for accepting that treatment. These essays chronicle moments from Ratajkowski's life while investigating the culture's fetishization of girls and female beauty, its obsession with and contempt for women's sexuality, the perverse dynamics of the fashion and film industries, and the grey area between consent and abuse.Nuanced, unflinching, and incisive, My Body marks the debut of a fierce writer brimming with courage and intelligence.(P)2021 Macmillan Audio
My Body
by Emily RatajkowskiA deeply honest investigation of what it means to be a woman and a commodity from Emily Ratajkowski, the archetypal, multi-hyphenate celebrity of our time. <p><p> Emily Ratajkowski is an acclaimed model and actress, an engaged political progressive, a formidable entrepreneur, a global social media phenomenon, and now, a writer. Rocketing to world fame at age twenty-one, Ratajkowski sparked both praise and furor with the provocative display of her body as an unapologetic statement of feminist empowerment. The subsequent evolution in her thinking about our culture’s commodification of women is the subject of this book. My Body is a profoundly personal exploration of feminism, sexuality, and power, of men's treatment of women and women's rationalizations for accepting that treatment. These essays chronicle moments from Ratajkowski’s life while investigating the culture’s fetishization of girls and female beauty, its obsession with and contempt for women’s sexuality, the perverse dynamics of the fashion and film industries, and the gray area between consent and abuse. <p><p> Nuanced, fierce, and incisive, My Body marks the debut of a writer brimming with courage and intelligence. <P><P><B>A New York Times Best Seller</b>
My Body Created a Human: A Love Story
by Emma AhlqvistThis graphic novel–style memoir about the weirdness and wonder of pregnancy and early motherhood is told with humor, frankness, and honesty. The perfect gift for new parents, parents-to-be, or anyone interested in the experience of bringing a new human into today's world. Emma Ahlqvist's graphic memoir about the birth and early moments of raising her first child is a wry and resonant portrayal of both the challenges and excitement of pregnancy, birth, breastfeeding, and embracing the experience of motherhood. Told through black-and-white drawings and short, frank captions, Ahlqvist considers everything from lactation woes to anxieties about late-stage capitalism and global warming, with drawings centered on the gendered division of labor, her efforts to maintain a professional and artistic life after having a baby, and the genuine rewards of bringing a child into the world. Unflinching, relatable, and funny, My Body Created a Human portrays the stress and joys of parenthood—without the rose-colored glasses—and invites laughter, empathic nods, and exclamations of "You too?" Organized into thematic chapters like "Postpartum" and "A Mother and an Artist," Ahlqvist's drawings can be enjoyed all at once, or browsed and savored during late-night and early-morning wake-ups.
My Body in Pieces
by Marie-Noëlle HébertA deeply emotional graphic memoir of a young woman’s struggles with self-esteem and body image issues.All Marie-Noëlle wants is to be thin and beautiful. She wishes that her thighs were slimmer, that her stomach lay flatter. Maybe then her parents wouldn’t make fun of her eating habits at family dinners, the girls at school wouldn’t call her ugly, and the boy she likes would ask her out. This all-too-relatable memoir follows Marie-Noëlle from childhood to her twenties, as she navigates what it means to be born into a body that doesn’t fall within society’s beauty standards.When, as a young teen, Marie-Noëlle begins a fitness regime in an effort to change her body, her obsession with her weight and size only grows and she begins having suicidal thoughts. Fortunately for Marie-Noëlle, a friend points her in the direction of therapy, and slowly, she begins to realize that she doesn’t need the approval of others to feel whole.Marie-Noëlle Hébert’s debut graphic memoir is visually stunning and drawn entirely in graphite pencil, depicting a deeply personal and emotional journey that encourages us to all be ourselves without apology. Key Text Featuresgraphic novelcomic style
My Body Is a Book of Rules
by Elissa Washuta"A candid, autobiographical scrapbook from a young woman navigating manic depression....A fever dream of darkly personal memories and musings from the shadowy corners of sexual violence and mental illness." <p><p>As Elissa Washuta makes the transition from college kid to independent adult, she finds herself overwhelmed by the calamities piling up in her brain. When her mood-stabilizing medications aren't threatening her life, they're shoving her from depression to mania and back in the space of an hour. Her crisis of American Indian identity bleeds into other areas of self-doubt; mental illness, sexual trauma, ethnic identity, and independence become intertwined. Sifting through the scraps of her past in seventeen formally inventive chapters, Washuta aligns the strictures of her Catholic school education with Cosmopolitan's mandates for womanhood, views memories through the distorting lens of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, and contrasts her bipolar highs and lows with those of Britney Spears and Kurt Cobain. <p><p>Built on the bones of fundamental identity questions as contorted by a distressed brain, My Body Is a Book of Rules pulls no punches in its self-deprecating and ferocious look at human fallibility. This debut memoir from the independent publisher Red Hen Press isn't for the faint of heart. Washuta's honest and lyrical language as well as her subject matter—her struggles with bipolar disorder and coping with the effects of rape—will gut you, but it's the rawness of this work that makes it worth reading. Washuta's form, including revised psychiatrists' notes, annotated research papers on the use of the term "hooking up," summaries of prescription medications, and a Match.com profile, is inventive and invites the reader into the author's chaotic brain. The book perfectly articulates the difficulties navigating the path toward adulthood while coping with trauma and mental illness.
My Body Is Yours
by Michael V. SmithMichael V. Smith is a multi-talented force of nature: a novelist, poet, improv comic, filmmaker, drag queen, performance artist, and occasional clown. In this, his first work of nonfiction, Michael traces his early years as an inadequate male--a fey kid growing up in a small town amid a blue-collar family; a sissy; an insecure teenager desperate to disappear; and an obsessive writer-performer, drawn to compulsions of alcohol, sex, reading, spending, work, and art as many means to cope and heal.Drawing on his work as an artist whose work focuses on our preconceived notions about the body, this disarming and intriguing memoir questions what it means to be human. Michael asks: How can we know what a man is? How might understanding gender as metaphor be a tool for a deeper understanding of identity? In coming to terms with his past failures at masculinity, Michael offers a new way of thinking about breaking out of gender norms, and breaking free of a hurtful past.Michael V. Smith won the inaugural Dayne Ogilvie Prize for Emerging LGBT Writers from the Writers Trust of Canada for his first novel, Cumberland. He's since published two poetry books and a second novel, Progress. He teaches creative writing in the faculty of creative and critical studies at University of British Columbia's Okanagan campus.
My Body Politic: A Memoir
by Simi Linton"I read My Body Politic with admiration, sometimes for the pain that all but wept on the page, again for sheer exuberant friendships, for self-discovery, political imagination, and pluck. . . . Wonderful! In a dark time, a gift of hope. -Daniel Berrigan, S. J. "The struggles, joys, and political awakening of a firecracker of a narrator. . . . Linton has succeeded in creating a life both rich and enviable. With her crackle, irreverence, and intelligence, it's clear that the author would never be willing to settle. . . . Wholly enjoyable. " -Kirkus Reviews "Linton is a passionate guide to a world many outsiders, and even insiders, find difficult to navigate. . . . In this volume, she recounts her personal odyssey, from flower child . . . to disability-rights/human rights activist. " -Publishers Weekly "Witty, original, and political without being politically correct, introducing us to a cast of funny, brave, remarkable characters (including the professional dancer with one leg) who have changed the way that 'walkies' understand disability. By the time Linton tells you about the first time she was dancing in her wheelchair, you will feel like dancing, too. " ---Carol Tavris, author of Anger: The Misunderstood Emotion "This astonishing book has perfect pitch. It is filled with wit and passion. Linton shows us how she learned to 'absorb disability,' and to pilot a new and interesting body. With verve and wonder, she discovers her body's pleasures, hungers, surprises, hurts, strengths, limits, and uses. " -Rosemarie Garland-Thomson, author of Extraordinary Bodies: Figuring Physical Disability in American Culture and Literature "An extraordinarily readable account of life in the fast lane. . . a brilliant autobiography and a great read. " -Sander L. Gilman, author of Fat Boys: A Slim Book While hitchhiking from Boston to Washington, D. C. , in 1971 to protest the war in Vietnam, Simi Linton was involved in a car accident that paralyzed her legs and took the lives of her young husband and her best friend. Her memoir begins with her struggle to regain physical and emotional strength and to resume her life in the world. Then Linton takes us on the road she traveled (with stops in Berkeley, Paris, Havana) and back to her home in Manhattan, as she learns what it means to be a disabled person in America. Linton eventually completed a Ph. D. , remarried, and began teaching at Hunter College. Along the way she became deeply committed to the disability rights movement and to the people she joined forces with. The stories in My Body Politic are populated with richly drawn portraits of Linton's disabled comrades, people of conviction and lusty exuberance who dance, play-and organize--with passion and commitment. My Body Politic begins in the midst of the turmoil over Vietnam and concludes with a meditation on the U. S. involvement in the current war in Iraq and the war's wounded veterans. While a memoir of the author's gradual political awakening, My Body Politic is filled with adventure, celebration, and rock and roll-Salvador Dali, James Brown, and Jimi Hendrix all make cameo appearances. Linton weaves a tale that shows disability to be an ordinary part of the twists and turns of life and, simultaneously, a unique vantage point on the world.
My Bondage and My Freedom
by David W. Blight Frederick DouglassBorn into slavery in 1818, Frederick Douglass escaped to freedom and became a passionate advocate for abolition and social change and the foremost spokesperson for the nation’s enslaved African American population in the years preceding the Civil War. My Bondage and My Freedom is Douglass’s masterful recounting of his remarkable life and a fiery condemnation of a political and social system that would reduce people to property and keep an entire race in chains. This classic is revisited with a new introduction and annotations by celebrated Douglass scholar David W. Blight. Blight situates the book within the politics of the 1850s and illuminates how My Bondage represents Douglass as a mature, confident, powerful writer who crafted some of the most unforgettable metaphors of slavery and freedom—indeed of basic human universal aspirations for freedom—anywhere in the English language.
My Bondage and My Freedom: The Givens Collection (African American)
by Frederick Douglass"I have never placed my opposition to slavery on a basis so narrow as my own enslavement, but rather upon the indestructible and unchangeable laws of human nature, every one of which is perpetually and flagrantly violated by the slave system." -- Frederick DouglassBorn and brought up in slavery, Frederick Douglass (1818-1895) experienced the horrors of bondage but gained freedom and world renown as a lecturer, editor, and one of the most important men behind the American abolitionist movement. This book is the deeply moving story of his life -- as a slave, and as a free man.Douglass wrote three autobiographies, of which the 1855 edition is the most detailed on his life as a slave. In it, readers are not spared the fullest and most graphic descriptions of the cruelty of slavery. Douglass describes his life on a Maryland plantation: the excitement and danger of teaching himself to read and write, his demoralization under a cruel master, and his daring escape.In the second part of his tale, Douglass, now a fugitive, settles in Massachusetts and joins the anti-slavery movement. He recounts his travels to the British Isles and his first taste of freedom without prejudice, and his return to America to work as spokesman for his oppressed people. In addition to recording his sufferings and his protests, Douglass also provides a keen analysis of the effects of slavery on its victims as well as on society at large.
My Bondage and My Freedom: The Givens Collection (Tale Blazers: American Literature Series)
by Frederick DouglassA deep meditation on the implications of slavery, race, and freedom, as well as a study of one man's perspective and how he intersects with the nation in which he lives, My Bondage and My Freedom is a powerful look at pre-Civil Wars America. Frederick Douglass—abolitionist, journalist, orator, and one of the most powerful voices to emerge from the American civil rights movement—transforms himself from slave to fugitive to reformer, leaving behind a legacy of social, intellectual, and political thought. Penguin Random House Canada is proud to bring you classic works of literature in e-book form, with the highest quality production values. Find more today and rediscover books you never knew you loved.