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Irish St. Louis (Images of America)
by David A. LossosIt's quite unlikely that Pierre Laclede and Auguste Chouteau could have comprehended the scope of their undertaking in 1764 when they laid out the settlement on the western banks of the Mississippi that was to become the metropolis of St. Louis. Founded by the French, governed by the Spanish, and heavily populated by the English and Germans, the role that the Irish had in making St. Louis what it is today is often overlooked. The Irish are steeped in tradition, and that trait did not leave the Irish immigrants when they arrived in St. Louis and called this place home. Like many other cities in America, the heritage of Ireland is alive and well in St. Louis. This book visually captures their Irish spirit, and portrays a few of the Irish "movers and shakers" alongside the "Irish commoner" in their new and challenging lives here in St. Louis.
Irish Saints (Vision Series #63)
by Robert T. Reilly[from dust jacket flaps:] Vision Books * Winner of The Thomas More Assn'n Medal The history of Ireland, like that of many lands, is studded with the names of canonized saints and other good people who have proven that sanctity spans all times. In telling the stories of Patrick and Brigid, the navigator Brendan, missionaries Columcille and Columban, martyrs Laurence O'Toole and Blessed Oliver Plunkett, Mother McAuley and her Sisters of Mercy, the saintly layman Matt Talbot, Father Theobald Mathew, and Bishop Galvin who so long resisted the Communist onslaught in China, Robert Reilly illumines Ireland's history, her people, and the land itself. The Irish saints whose stories are told in this book are "saints" in the broad religious sense. Some have been canonized by the Church; others, though not formally saints, are nonetheless saintly. This rich collection of biographies is for Catholic youngsters from 9 to 15. THE AUTHOR Robert T. Reilly is Director for Special Resources at The Creighton University in Omaha, Nebraska. He has an M.A. from Boston University and has taught Irish Literature, of which he has a large collection. Among his previous books are Red Hugh, Prince of Donegal, Massacre at Oak Hollow, and Rebels in the Shadows. Mr. Reilly is the father of nine children. [He has survived captivity by the Germans and held as a prisoner of war.]
Irish Rogues, Rascals and Scoundrels
by Padraic O'FarrellFrom the back cover, "A rogue can be a dishonest or unprincipled person but more often he is a 'likable rogue' i.e. a rascal and a scoundrel tolerated for his fun and his penchant for taking the harm out of his indiscretions by some redeeming act. Our history has thrown up a variety of rogues and scoundrels. The likable rogue, the impish rascal, the schemer, the hypocritical plamás and the downright cad--each genre is represented in Padraic O'Farrell's collection which includes the Sham Squire, Lord Haw-Haw, Alfie Byrne, Jack Doyle, 'Kruger', Madams of Monto and other fascinating characters." Born in Co. Kildare in 1932, Padraic O'Farrell lives with his family in Mullingar, Co. Westmeath. He has published 23 books, including Proverbs and Sayings: Gems of Irish Wisdom and How the Irish Speak English. He has scripted revues for professionals and amateurs and writes humorous features and theatre columns for various publications including The Irish Times, Theatre Ireland, Irish Stage and Screen and Etudes Irland. Contains three pages of notes.
Iris and Her Friends: A Memoir of Memory and Desire
by John BayleyA timeless work that will bring healing to anyone dealing with the loss of a loved one. John Bayley began writing Iris and Her Friends, a companion to the New York Times bestseller Elegy for Iris, late at night while his wife, the beloved novelist Iris Murdoch, succumbed to Alzheimer's Disease. As Iris was losing her memory, Bayley was flooded with vivid recollections of his own. In lyrical reverie, Bayley recreates the unforgettable scenes of his youth, from his birth to a civil servant in colonial India to his long romance with Iris and its heartbreaking end. This is the transcendent work of a brilliant man, whose examination of the tragedies and joys of his own life will give readers great healing insight. John Bayley's Iris and Her Friends is nothing less than a classic of true love and sorrow. "Love makes every beautifully formed sentence, every generously shared moment, shimmer and sing."--Donna Seaman, Los Angeles Times Book Review
Iris Origo: Marchesa of Val d'Orcia
by Caroline MooreheadIris Origo was one of those rare characters who, despite being born with a platinum spoon in her mouth, went on to accomplish great things. In Origo's case, she managed to add light & color to everything she touched & left for posterity a legacy of work, biography, autobiography, & literary criticism that have become recognized as classics of their kind.
Iris Apfel: Accidental Icon
by Iris ApfelFrom the fashion icon, “a joyous, colorful collection of photographs; drawings; reflections; and personal mottos on marriage, business, fame and style” (Boca Raton Observer).The late great Iris Apfel was a woman who transcended time and trends—one of the most original and dynamic personalities in the worlds of fashion, textiles, and interior design. Written a few years before her passing at age 102, this is a lavishly illustrated memoir in which she shares her musings, anecdotes, and incomparable wisdom.As the cofounder with her husband of Old World Weavers, an international textile manufacturing company that specialized in reproducing antique fabrics, she served a prestigious clientele including Greta Garbo, Estee Lauder, Montgomery Clift, and Joan Rivers. She also acted as a restoration consultant and replicated fabric for the White House over nine presidential administrations. Iris’s worldwide travels and devotion to flea markets inspired her work and fueled her passion for collecting fashion and accessories. In 2005, she was the first living person who was not a designer to have her clothing and accessories exhibited at the Costume Institute at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, a blockbuster show that catapulted her to fame and a career as a model, muse, and collaborator for renowned brands from Citroen to Tag Heuer. In 2015, acclaimed director Albert Maysles released Iris, his Emmy Award-nominated documentary, to a global audience.This celebratory volume captures her unique joie de vivre and features 180 full-color and black-and-white photos and illustrations—presented in the same improvisational, multifaceted style that made Iris a much-loved legend. “It’s hard to resist this self-proclaimed ‘geriatric starlet.’ With her owlish glasses, loud prints and necklaces upon necklaces, even in her 90s, Apfel is a fashion icon who combines a memoir with photos of the vibrant contents of her closets.” —The New York Times Book Review
Iris Apfel: A Little Golden Book Biography (Little Golden Book)
by Deborah BlumenthalHelp your little one dream big with a Little Golden Book biography about Iris Apfel, the style icon and beloved tastemaker known for her eclectic eyewear! Little Golden Book biographies are the perfect introduction to nonfiction for preschoolers.This Little Golden Book about Iris Apfel—businessperson, interior designer, and fashion icon who has captivated the world with her colorful and unique style—is an inspiring read-aloud for young children.Look for more Little Golden Book biographies: • Misty Copeland • Frida Kahlo • Bob Ross • Queen Elizabeth II • Harriet Tubman
Irena's Children: Young Readers Edition; A True Story of Courage
by Tilar J. Mazzeo Mary Cronk FarrellFrom New York Times bestselling author Tilar Mazzeo comes the extraordinary and long forgotten story of Irena Sendler--the "female Oskar Schindler"--who took staggering risks to save 2,500 children from death and deportation in Nazi-occupied Poland during World War II--now adapted for a younger audience.Irena Sendler was a young Polish woman living in Warsaw during World War II with an incredible story of survival and selflessness. And she's been long forgotten by history. Until now. This young readers edition of Irena's Children tells Irena's unbelievable story set during one of the worst times in modern history. With guts of steel and unfaltering bravery, Irena smuggled thousands of children out of the walled Jewish ghetto in toolboxes and coffins, snuck them under overcoats at checkpoints, and slipped them through the dank sewers and into secret passages that led to abandoned buildings, where she convinced her friends and underground resistance network to hide them. In this heroic tale of survival and resilience in the face of impossible odds, Tilar Mazzeo and adapter Mary Cronk Farrell share the true story of this bold and brave woman, overlooked by history, who risked her life to save innocent children from the horrors of the Holocaust.
Irena's Children: The Extraordinary Story of the Woman Who Saved 2,500 Children from the Warsaw Ghetto
by Tilar J. MazzeoOne of Kirkus Reviews' Ten Most Anticipated Nonfiction Books of Fall 2016 From the New York Times bestselling author of The Widow Clicquot comes an extraordinary and gripping account of Irena Sendler--the "female Oskar Schindler"--who took staggering risks to save 2,500 children from death and deportation in Nazi-occupied Poland during World War II.In 1942, one young social worker, Irena Sendler, was granted access to the Warsaw ghetto as a public health specialist. While there, she reached out to the trapped Jewish families, going from door to door and asking the parents to trust her with their young children. She started smuggling them out of the walled district, convincing her friends and neighbors to hide them. Driven to extreme measures and with the help of a network of local tradesmen, ghetto residents, and her star-crossed lover in the Jewish resistance, Irena ultimately smuggled thousands of children past the Nazis. She made dangerous trips through the city's sewers, hid children in coffins, snuck them under overcoats at checkpoints, and slipped them through secret passages in abandoned buildings. But Irena did something even more astonishing at immense personal risk: she kept secret lists buried in bottles under an old apple tree in a friend's back garden. On them were the names and true identities of those Jewish children, recorded with the hope that their relatives could find them after the war. She could not have known that more than ninety percent of their families would perish. In Irena's Children, Tilar Mazzeo tells the incredible story of this courageous and brave woman who risked her life to save innocent children from the Holocaust--a truly heroic tale of survival, resilience, and redemption.
Ireland's Saint: The Essential Biography of St. Patrick
by Jon M. Sweeney J. B. BuryExplore Patrick's place in history, the spread of Christianity beyond the Roman Empire, how Patrick first came to Ireland, the influence of the earlier Palladius on Patrick's work, political and social conditions at that time, and the spiritual battles with the Druids. This 21st century edition includes notes from other notable biographers, mystics, historians, and storytellers of Ireland and is an ideal place to begin any exploration of this much loved but little-known saint.[This book was previously published in hardcover and trade paperback and is now available in this smaller format, with a new cover design, for the first time.]
Ireland's Eye: Travels
by Mark JarmanOn August 22, 1922, near Macroom, County Cork, a single bullet from an unknown gunman killed Michael Collins, the Commander-in-Chief of the Irish Free State Army. The day Collins was buried, businesses across Dublin shut down as thousands lined the streets to pay their respects. And on that day, Michael Lyons, a cooper from the Guinness factory taking advantage of the day off, drowned quietly in Dublin's Royal Canal. In Ireland's Eye, Mark Anthony Jarman uses this confluence -- a famous death and an obscure death -- as the starting point for a meditation on the intertwined history of a nation and his pursuit of the circumstances of his grandfather's drowning. Thwarted by family gossip, aunts who can't drive shift, cousins more interested in pubs than lore, and his own fascination with the many Irelands that have been, Jarman finds what he's seeking despite, or perhaps because of, the antics and the unreliable histories. What he reconfigures is a revelation, and an enchanting and engrossing read.
Ireland Awakening (Colportage Library #233)
by Eva Stuart WattEva Stuart Watt creates a memoir of her days in Ireland. Often sacrificing comfort and safety, she spends her time with the youth of the day living out the love of God. See how God provides and blesses a life that is given away.
Ireland Awakening (Colportage Library #233)
by Eva Stuart WattEva Stuart Watt creates a memoir of her days in Ireland. Often sacrificing comfort and safety, she spends her time with the youth of the day living out the love of God. See how God provides and blesses a life that is given away.
Iraqigirl: Diary of a Teenage Girl in Iraq
by Elizabeth Wrigley-FieldHadiya began her blog just under a year and a half into the U.S. occupation of Iraq. She writes from Mosul, a diverse city with many Sunni Muslims, like Hadiya's family. Mosul has become one center of resistance to the occupation. Hadiya's name is not really Hadiya. We have used pseudonyms for every Iraqi in this story because each of their lives could be in danger if they were identified. But Hadiya is a real teenager in Mosul, and this is her story.
IraqiGirl: Diary of a Teenage Girl in Iraq
by IraqigirlI feel that I have been sleeping all my life and I have woken up and opened my eyes to the world. A beautiful world! But impossible to live in.These are the words of fifteen-year-old Hadiya, blogging from the city of Mosul, Iraq, to let the world know what life is really like as the military occupation of her country unfolds. In many ways, her life is familiar. She worries about exams and enjoys watching Friends during the rare hours that the electricity in her neighborhood is running.But the horrors of war surround her everywhere—weeklong curfews, relatives killed, and friends whose families are forced to flee their homes. With black humor and unflinching honesty, Hadiya shares the painful stories of lives changed forever. “Let’s go back,” she writes, “to my un-normal life.”With her intimate reflections on family, friendship, and community, IraqiGirl also allows us to witness the determination of one girl not only to survive, but to create, amidst the devastation of war, a future worth living for."Hadiya's authentically teenage voice, emotional struggles and concerns make her story all the more resonant." —Publishers Weekly“Despite all the news coverage about the war in Iraq, very little is reported about how it affects the daily lives of ordinary citizens. A highschooler in the city of Mosul fills in the gap with this compilation of her blog posts about living under U.S. occupation. She writes in English because she wants to reach Americans, and in stark specifics, she records the terrifying dangers of car bombs on her street and American warplanes overhead, as well as her everyday struggles to concentrate on homework when there is no water and electricity at home. Her tone is balanced: she does not hate Americans, and although she never supported Saddam Hussein, she wonders why he was executed... Readers will appreciate the details about family, friends, school, and reading Harry Potter, as well as the ever-present big issues for which there are no simple answers." —Hazel Rochman, Booklist“IraqiGirl has poured reflections of her daily life into her blog, reaching all over the cyber-world from her home in northern Iraq. She writes about the universals of teen life—school, family, TV, food, Harry Potter—but always against the background of sudden explosions, outbursts of gunfire, carbombs, death.… [A]n important addition to multicultural literature.” —Elsa Marston, author of Santa Claus in Baghdad and Other Stories About Teens in the Arab World“A book as relevant to adults as teenagers and children. Hadiya’s clear, simple language conveys the feelings of a teenager, offering a glimpse into the daily life of a professional middle-class Iraqi family in an ancient-modern city subjected to a brutal occupation.”—Haifa Zangana, author of City of Widows: An Iraqi Woman's Account of War and Resistance
Iran Awakening: One Woman's Journey to Reclaim Her Life and Country
by Azadeh Moaveni Shirin EbadiThe moving, inspiring memoir of one of the great women of our times, Shirin Ebadi, winner of the 2003 Nobel Peace Prize and advocate for the oppressed, whose spirit has remained strong in the face of political persecution and despite the challenges she has faced raising a family while pursuing her work. Best known in this country as the lawyer working tirelessly on behalf of Canadian photojournalist, Zara Kazemi -- raped, tortured and murdered in Iran -- Dr. Ebadi offers us a vivid picture of the struggles of one woman against the system. The book movingly chronicles her childhood in a loving, untraditional family, her upbringing before the Revolution in 1979 that toppled the Shah, her marriage and her religious faith, as well as her life as a mother and lawyer battling an oppressive regime in the courts while bringing up her girls at home. Outspoken, controversial, Shirin Ebadi is one of the most fascinating women today. She rose quickly to become the first female judge in the country; but when the religious authorities declared women unfit to serve as judges she was demoted to clerk in the courtroom she had once presided over. She eventually fought her way back as a human rights lawyer, defending women and children in politically charged cases that most lawyers were afraid to represent. She has been arrested and been the target of assassination, but through it all has spoken out with quiet bravery on behalf of the victims of injustice and discrimination and become a powerful voice for change, almost universally embraced as a hero. Her memoir is a gripping story -- a must-read for anyone interested in Zara Kazemi's case, in the life of a remarkable woman, or in understanding the political and religious upheaval in our world.
Iran Awakening: A Memoir of Revolution and Hope
by Azadeh Moaveni Shirin EbadiA NEW YORK TIMES NOTABLE BOOKThe moving, inspiring memoir of one of the great women of our times, Shirin Ebadi, winner of the 2003 Nobel Peace Prize and advocate for the oppressed, whose spirit has remained strong in the face of political persecution and despite the challenges she has faced raising a family while pursuing her work. Best known in this country as the lawyer working tirelessly on behalf of Canadian photojournalist, Zara Kazemi--raped, tortured and murdered in Iran--Dr. Ebadi offers us a vivid picture of the struggles of one woman against the system. The book movingly chronicles her childhood in a loving, untraditional family, her upbringing before the Revolution in 1979 that toppled the Shah, her marriage and her religious faith, as well as her life as a mother and lawyer battling an oppressive regime in the courts while bringing up her girls at home. Outspoken, controversial, Shirin Ebadi is one of the most fascinating women today. She rose quickly to become the first female judge in the country; but when the religious authorities declared women unfit to serve as judges she was demoted to clerk in the courtroom she had once presided over. She eventually fought her way back as a human rights lawyer, defending women and children in politically charged cases that most lawyers were afraid to represent. She has been arrested and been the target of assassination, but through it all has spoken out with quiet bravery on behalf of the victims of injustice and discrimination and become a powerful voice for change, almost universally embraced as a hero. Her memoir is a gripping story--a must-read for anyone interested in Zara Kazemi's case, in the life of a remarkable woman, or in understanding the political and religious upheaval in our world.Praise for Shirin Ebadi and Iran Awakening "This is the riveting story of an amazing and very brave woman living through some quite turbulent times. And she emerges with head unbowed."--Archbishop Desmond Tutu "The safety and freedom of citizens in democracies is irretrievably bound with the safety and freedom of people like Shirin Ebadi who are fighting to reassert the best achievements of mankind: universal human rights. One of the staunchest advocates for human rights in her country and beyond, Ms. Ebadi, herself a devout Muslim, represents hope for many in Muslim societies that Islam and democracy are indeed compatible."--Azar Nafisi "A moving portrait of a life lived in truth."--The New York Times Book Review "A riveting account of a brave, lonely struggle . . . [Iran Awakening] reads like a police thriller, its drama heightened by Ebadi's determination to keep up the quotidian aspects of her family life."--The Washington Post Book World "A must read . . . may be the most important book you could read this year."--Seattle Post-Intelligencer "As a testament to how a single, inspired voice can rise above the cacophony . . . the book should be required reading."--The Nation "Some of her admirers in Iran call her a woman of steel. Sure, the Iranian human rights champion also has a heart of gold. But it is Shirin Ebadi's unbending will that explains how she has become the conscience of the Islamic Republic."--Time "[Ebadi] has come forward with professional force and unflagging courage, and she has defied any danger to her own safety. She is truly a woman of the people!"--Ole Danbolt Mjos, chairman of the Norwegian Nobel CommitteeFrom the Hardcover edition.
Ira's Shakespeare Dream
by Glenda ArmandThe inspiring biography of Ira Aldridge, a Black actor who overcame racism to become one of the greatest Shakespearean actors of the nineteenth century.Ira Aldridge dreamed of being on stage one day and performing the great works of William Shakespeare. He spent every chance he had at the local theaters, memorizing each actor's lines. He knew he could be a great Shakespearean actor if only given the chance. But in the early 1800s, only white actors were allowed to perform Shakespeare. Ira's only option was to perform musical numbers at the all-black theater in New York city. Despite being discouraged by his teacher and father, Ira determinedly pursued his dream and set off to England, the land of Shakespeare. There, Ira honed his acting skills and eventually performed at the acclaimed Theatre Royal Haymarket. Through perseverance and determination, Ira became one of the most celebrated Shakespearean actors throughout Europe. Illustrated by award-winning artist Floyd Cooper, Ira's Shakespeare Dream is a captivating tribute to the inspiring life of Ira Aldridge, and to the renowned works of William Shakespeare.
Ira Hayes: The Akimel O'odham Warrior, World War II, and the Price of Heroism
by Tom HolmThe gripping, forgotten tale of Ira Hayes—a Native American icon and World War II legend who famously helped raise the flag at Iwo Jima but spent the latter half of his life haunted by being a war hero. IRA HAYES tells the story of Ira Hamilton Hayes from the perspective of a Native American combat veteran of the Vietnam generation. Hayes, along with five other Marines, was captured in Joe Rosenthal&’s iconic photograph of raising the stars and stripes on Mount Suribachi during the battle for the Japanese Island of Iwo Jima. The photograph was the inspiration and model for the U.S. Marine Corps War Memorial in Arlington. Between the time he helped raise that flag and his death—and beyond—he was the subject of more newspaper columns than any other Native person. He was hailed as a hero and maligned as a chronic alcoholic unable to take care of himself. IRA HAYES explores these fluctuating views of Ira Hayes. It reveals that they were primarily the product of American misconceptions about Native people, the nature of combat, and even alcoholism. Like most surviving veterans of combat, Ira did not think of himself as a heroic figure. There can be no doubt that Ira suffered from PTSD, which is a compound of survivor&’s guilt, the shock of seeing death, especially of one&’s friends, and the isolation brought on by feeling that no one could understand what he had been through. Ira&’s life has been a subject of two motion pictures and a television drama. All these dramas sympathize with him, but ultimately fail to see his binge drinking as his way of temporarily escaping the melancholy, the rage he felt, his sense of betrayal, and the sheer boredom of peacetime. IRA HAYES breaks apart the complexities of Ira&’s short life in honor of all Native veterans who have been to war in the service of the United States. This is equally their story.
Ira Gershwin: A Life in Words
by Michael OwenThe man behind some of the most memorable lyrics in the Great American Songbook steps from behind his brother’s shadow. The first lyricist to win the Pulitzer Prize, Ira Gershwin (1896–1983) has been hailed as one of the masters of the Great American Songbook, a period which covers songs written largely for Broadway and Hollywood from the 1920s to the 1950s. Now, in the first full-length biography devoted to his life, Michael Owen brings Ira out at last from the long shadow cast by his younger and more famous brother George. Drawing on extensive archival sources and often using Ira’s own words, Owen has crafted a rich portrait of the modest man who penned the words to many of America’s best-loved songs, like “Fascinating Rhythm,” “Embraceable You,” and “They Can’t Take That Away from Me.” These fruits of Ira’s lyric genius sprang from the simplest of seeds: a hand-drawn weekly created for a cousin, an amateur newspaper co-written with friend and future lyricist Yip Harburg, columns in the school papers at Townsend Harris High School and, later, City College of New York. The details of his early literary efforts demonstrate both his developing ambition and the early signs of his talent. But while the road to becoming a successful lyricist was neither short nor smooth, it did lead Ira to the greatest creative partnership of his life. George and Ira Gershwin collaborated on a string of hit Broadway shows in the 1920s and 1930s that resulted in popular and financial success and spawned a long string of songs that have become classics. Owen offers fascinating glimpses of their creative process, drawing on Ira’s diaries and other contemporary sources, as well as the close relationship between the two brothers. Hollywood soon beckons and the brothers head west to California to work in the movie business. Greater fame and fortune seem right around the corner. George Gershwin died in a Los Angeles hospital in July 1937. He was only 38 years old. His death marked a stark dividing line in Ira’s life, and from that point on much of his time and energy was devoted to the management of his brother’s estate and the care of his legacy. Accustomed to living in his brother’s shadow, it now threatened to overwhelm him. He worked to balance all the administrative tasks with a new series of collaborations with composers like Kurt Weill, Jerome Kern, Harry Warren, and Harold Arlen. Ira’s last Broadway work was in 1946, and several films and a book project—a collection of his lyrics with the stories behind them—occupied his later years along with the ongoing management of George’s affairs. Ira Gershwin’s work with George left an enduring mark on American culture, as recognized by the Library of Congress in 2007 when it established the Gershwin Prize for Popular Song, which has been awarded to artists like Paul Simon, Carole King, Tony Bennett, Paul McCartney, and Elton John. In Ira Gershwin: A Life in Words, Michael Owen brings the publicity shy lyricist into the spotlight he deserves.
Ira Fistell's Mark Twain: Three Encounters
by Ira FistellAn analysis of Mark Twain through his most famous writings.
IrRational Music
by Elliott SharpA memoir and manifesto by a pivotal figure at the junction of rock, the avant-garde, and an ever-widening spiral of art, theater, film, and dance.For over five decades, Elliott Sharp has been engaged in a quest at once quixotic and down to earth: to take the music he hears in his inner ear and bring it to life in the real world. In this vivid memoir and manifesto, Sharp takes us along on that quest, through some of the most rugged, anarchically fertile cultural terrain of our time. Sharp, a mainstay of the New York Downtown scene beginning in the 1980s, has been a pivotal figure at the junction of rock, experimental music, and an ever-widening spiral of art, theater, film, and dance. Rooted in blues, rock, jazz, and the twentieth-century avant-garde, Sharp's innovative music has encompassed fractal geometry, chaos theory, algorithms, genetic metaphors, and new strategies for graphic notation.In IrRational Music, Sharp dodges fake cowboys' real bullets by the side of a highway near Colby, Kansas; is called on the carpet by a prickly, pompadoured Morton Feldman (&“Improvisation… I don't buy it&”); segues from Zen tea to single malt with an elfin John Cage; conjures an extraterrestrial opera from a group of high-school students in Munich; and—back in his own high-school days—looks up from strumming Van Morrison's &“Gloria&” in Manny's Music on 48th Street to see Jimi Hendrix smiling benignly upon him. A mix of tales from the road with thoughts on music, art, politics, technology, and the process of thinking itself, IrRational Music is a glimpse inside the mind of one of our most exacting, exciting creative artists.
Ir-rev-rend: Christianity Without the Pretense. Faith Without the Façade
by Greg SurrattIr-rev-rend (ir REV rund) noun1. a pastor who is somewhat critical of what is generally accepted or respected2. a pastor who is trying to make sense of life, love, the church and other confusing things from a slightly satirical point of view; an irreverent sense of humor.3. a "normal" guy pursuing GodWhatever you may think about the "typical" pastor, throw it out. Do they make bad decisions? Yes. Commit sin and experience severed relationships? Yes and yes. Pastor Greg Surratt is not perfect, and he unashamedly tells the stories that have strengthened his faith. He writes that the choice to follow Christ is never clean, is often scary, is usually clothed in mystery, and is always an adventure.For some people, God appears in dark, dirty, lonely, or just plain odd places. Greg found God while huddled under a grand piano, hiding from overzealous friends and family trying to accost him during an altar call at a Pentecostal revival. So began a life of sharing stories of God's endlessly creative and often surprising work and seeing God's transforming power in unexpected ways. Despite years of vocational ministry, Greg never underestimates the power of divine/human encounters in some of teh least "churchy' places on earth.Humorous, insightful, and challenging, IR-REV-REND is a revealing and joyous look at real-life Christian living. As Greg himself affirms, if God can use his missteps and blunders, God can use anybody's.
Iphigenia in Forest Hills
by Janet Malcolm"Astringent and absorbing. . . Iphigenia in Forest Hillscasts, from its first pages, a genuine spell -- the kind of spell to which Ms. Malcolm's admirers (and I am one) have become addicted. " --Dwight Garner,New York Times "She couldn't have done it and she must have done it. " This is the enigma at the heart of Janet Malcolm's riveting new book about a murder trial in the insular Bukharan-Jewish community of Forest Hills, Queens, that captured national attention. The defendant, Mazoltuv Borukhova, a beautiful young physician, is accused of hiring an assassin to kill her estranged husband, Daniel Malakov, a respected orthodontist, in the presence of their four-year old child. The prosecutor calls it an act of vengeance: just weeks before Malakov was killed in cold blood, he was given custody of Michelle for inexplicable reasons. It is the "Dickensian ordeal" of Borukhova's innocent child that drives Malcolm's inquiry. With the intellectual and emotional precision for which she is known, Malcolm looks at the trial--"a contest between competing narratives"--from every conceivable angle. It is the chasm between our ideals of justice and the human factors that influence every trial--from divergent lawyering abilities to the nature of jury selection, the malleability of evidence, and the disposition of the judge--that is perhaps most striking. Surely one of the most keenly observed trial books ever written,Iphigenia in Forest Hillsis ultimately about character and "reasonable doubt. " As Jeffrey Rosen writes, it is "as suspenseful and exciting as a detective story, with all the moral and intellectual interest of a great novel. " "Iphigenia in Forest Hillsis another dazzling triumph from Janet Malcolm. Here, as always, Malcolm's work inspires the best kind of disquiet in a reader--the obligation to think. " --Jeffrey Toobin, author ofThe Nine: Inside the Secret World of the Supreme Court "A remarkable achievement that ranks with Malcolm's greatest books. Her scrupulous reporting and interviews with protagonists on both sides of the trial make her own narrative as suspenseful and exciting as a detective story, with all the moral and intellectual interest of a great novel. " --Jeffrey Rosen, author ofThe Supreme Court: The Personalities and Rivalries that Defined America