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A Black Boy at Eton (Black Britain: Writing Back #11)
by Dillibe Onyeama'The story [Onyeama] had to tell was so gripping and shocking, it wouldn't let me go . . . A remarkably well-written memoir' Bernardine Evaristo, from the IntroductionDillibe was the second black boy to study at Eton - joining in 1965 - and the first to complete his education there. Written at just 21, this is a deeply personal, revelatory account of the racism he endured during his time as a student at the prestigious institution. He tells in vivid detail of his own background as the son of a Nigerian judge at the International Court of Justice at The Hague, of his arrival at the school, of the curriculum, of his reception by other boys (and masters), and of his punishments. He tells, too, of the cruel racial prejudice and his reactions to it, and of the alienation and stereotyping he faced at such a young age. A Black Boy at Eton is a searing, ground-breaking book displaying the deep psychological effects of colonialism and racism.A title in the Black Britain: Writing Back series - selected by Booker Prize-winning author Bernardine Evaristo, this series rediscovers and celebrates pioneering books depicting black Britain that remap the nation.
House of Fields: Memories of a Rural Education
by Anne-Marie OomenThe follow-up to Pulling Down the Barn, House of Fields is a collection of evocative personal essays that recall the many facets of a young girl's formal and informal education in rural Michigan.
Love, Sex, and 4-H (Made in Michigan Writers Series)
by Anne-Marie OomenAs the 1960s dawned in small-town Michigan, Anne-Marie Oomen was a naive farm girl whose mother was determined to keep her out of trouble--by keeping her in 4-H. In Love, Sex, and 4-H, Oomen sets the wholesomeness of her domestic lessons in 4-H club from 1959 to 1969 against the political and sexual revolution of the time. Between sewing her first dish towel and finishing the yellow dress she wears to senior prom, Oomen brings readers along as she falls in and out of love, wins her first prize, learns to kiss, survives her first heartbreak, and makes almost all of her clothes. Love, Sex, and 4-H begins as Oomen struggles to sew a straight seam and works hard to embody the 4-H pledge of loyalty, service, and better living. But even as she wins her first modeling competition and masters more difficult stitches and patterns, Oomen finds that she is not immune to the chaos of the outside world. After the Kennedy assassination, the Cuban Missile Crisis, and her own short stay in a convent, Oomen encounters the biggest change of all--public school. In this new world of school dances, short skirts, and raging hormones, Oomen's orderly life will be complicated by her first kiss, first boyfriend, first store-bought dress, and finally, first love. All the while, she must negotiate her mother's expectations, her identity as a good 4-H girl, and her awareness of growing social and political unrest. Oomen brings an insightful and humorous eye to her evolving sexuality, religious beliefs, and sense of self. Fans of memoir will appreciate the honest portrayal of growing up between rebellion and tradition in Love, Sex, and 4-H.
Pulling Down the Barn: Memories of a Rural Childhood
by Anne-Marie OomenBlending artful language and style with the dirt, blood, and sweat of farm life, this collection of essays tells a moving story of growing up in rural Michigan.
In My Hands: Memories of a Holocaust Rescuer
by Irene Gut Opdyke Jennifer ArmstrongIRENE GUT WAS just 17 in 1939, when the Germans and Russians devoured her native Poland. Just a girl, really. But a girl who saw evil and chose to defy it."No matter how many Holocaust stories one has read, this one is a must, for its impact is so powerful."--School Library Journal, StarredA Book Sense Top Ten PickA Publisher's Weekly Choice of the Year's Best Books A Booklist Editors Choice
In My Hands
by Irene Gut Opdyke Jennifer ArmstrongAn utterly amazing, true, first-person account of one girlÂ's experience in wartime. Irene Gut Opdyke was a Catholic Polish nursing student when WWII broke out. She soon became mired in the horrors of central Europe as, at various times, a partisan, a refugee, a housekeeper to the Nazis and, over all, as a heroine. She singlehandedly saved the lives of at least 16 Jewish people from the Holocaust. Now living in America and aged 77, Irene, with the help of a respected historical novelist, has told her story with all the power and passion that such a remarkable history can inspire.
A Hole in the World: Finding Hope in Rituals of Grief and Healing
by Amanda Held OpeltIn a raw and inspiring reflection on grief--selected by Publishers Weekly as one of the best books of the year--a mourning sister processes her personal story of loss by exploring the history of bereavement customs. When Amanda Held Opelt suffered a season of loss—including three miscarriages and the unexpected death of her sister, New York Times bestselling writer Rachel Held Evans—she was confronted with sorrow she didn't know to how face. Opelt struggled to process her grief and accept the reality of the pain in the world. She also wrestled with some unexpectedly difficult questions: What does it mean to truly grieve and to grieve well? Why is it so hard to move on? Why didn&’t my faith prepare me for this kind of pain? And what am I supposed to do now? Her search for answers led her to discover that generations past embraced rituals that served as vessels for pain and aided in the process of grieving and healing. Today, many of these traditions have been lost as religious practice declines, cultures amalgamate, death is sanitized, and pain is averted. In this raw and authentic memoir of bereavement, Opelt explores the history of human grief practices and how previous generations have journeyed through periods of suffering. She explores grief rituals and customs from various cultures, including: the Irish tradition of keening, or wailing in grief, which teaches her that healing can only begin when we dive headfirst into our grief the Victorian tradition of post-mortem photographs and how we struggle to recall a loved one as they were the Jewish tradition of sitting shiva, which reminds her to rest in the strength of her community even when God feels absent the tradition of mourning clothing, which set the bereaved apart in society for a time, allowing them space to honor their grief As Opelt explores each bereavement practice, it gives her a framework for processing her own pain. She shares how, in spite of her doubt and anger, God met her in the midst of sorrow and grieved along with her, and shows that when we carefully and honestly attend to our losses, we are able to expand our capacity for love, faith, and healing.
Zora Neale Hurston on Florida Food: Recipes, Remedies & Simple Pleasures (American Palate)
by Frederick Douglass OpieExplore the African American foodways of early 20th century Florida through the life, work, and recipes of a celebrated author and Sunshine State native. Author and anthropologist Zora Neale Hurston did for Florida what William Faulkner did for Mississippi, providing insight into a state&’s history and culture through various styles of writing. In this book, historian Fred Opie explores food as a recurring theme in Hurston&’s life and work. Beginning with her childhood in Eatonville, Florida, and the foodways of her family, Opie goes on to explore Hurston&’s ethnographic recording of dishes and recipes as well as natural food remedies. In other chapters, Opie examines African American foodways across Florida, including the importance of poultry and the social and political aspects of barbecue. Through simple dishes and recipes, foods prepared for everyday meals as well as special occasions, Opie offers a unique view of both Hurston and the food traditions in early twentieth-century Florida.
An Apache Life-Way: The Economic, Social, and Religious Institutions of the Chiricahua Indians
by Morris Edward OplerA majority of ethnographer Morris Edward Opler’s research was done on Native American groups of the American Southwest. He studied specifically the Chiricahua Indians, who were the subjects of one of his most famous books, An Apache Life-Way: The Economic, Social, and Religious Institutions of the Chiricahua Indians. Opler studied many Native American groups, but the Apache were a main focus of his.An Apache Life-Way traces the life of an Apache year by year. Rather than a history, the book explains the day-to-day Apache experience, detailing the chronological order of one’s life. The lifestyle described in the book is from a time before the Americans started the long era of hostile interactions with the Apache.The people designated as “Apache” in this book are those who spoke the Apache language in the area that is now New Mexico, Arizona, Sonora, and Chihuahua. There were many smaller sub-groups that populated these areas, three of them different groups of the Chiricahua Apache.An Apache Life-Way is divided into several main parts: Childhood; Maturation; Social Relations of Adults; Folk Beliefs, Medical Practice, and Shamanism; Maintenance of the Household; Marital and Sexual Life; The Round of Life; Political Organization and Status; and Death, Mourning, and the Underworld. Each section is divided into more specific subcategories that explore each phase of life and the rituals associated with it.Originally published in 1941, An Apache Life-Way remains one of the most important and innovative studies of south-western Native Americans.“First-class...in the best ethnographic tradition. It fills a great gap in our anthropological knowledge and...deserves to be one of the most used of American tribal records.”—Ruth Benedict, author of Patterns of Culture
Myths and Legends of the Lipan Apache Indians
by Morris Edward OplerLipan Apache are Southern Athabaskan (Apachean) Native Americans whose traditional territory included present-day Texas, New Mexico, Colorado, and the northern Mexican states of Chihuahua, Nuevo León, Coahuila, and Tamaulipas, prior to the 17th century.Present-day Lipan live mostly throughout the U.S. Southwest, in Texas, New Mexico, and the San Carlos Apache Indian Reservation in Arizona, as well as with the Mescalero tribe on the Mescalero Reservation in New Mexico; some currently live in urban and rural areas throughout North America (Mexico, United States, and Canada).“The myths and tales of this volume are of particular significance, perhaps, because they have reference to a tribe about which there is almost no published ethnographic material. The Lipan Apache were scattered and all but annihilated on the eve of the Southwestern reservation period. The survivors found refuge with other groups, and, except for a brief notice by Gatshet, they have been overlooked or neglected while investigations of numerically larger peoples have proceeded.“It is gratifying, therefore, to be able to present a fairly full collection of Lipan folklore, and to be in a position to report that this collection does much to illuminate the relations of Southern Athabaskan-speaking tribes and the movements of aboriginal populations in the American Southwest.“The myths and tales of this volume were recorded during the summer of 1935.”—Claremont Colleges
Sinatra and Me: In the Wee Small Hours
by Tony Oppedisano Mary Jane RossAn intimate, revealing portrait of Frank Sinatra—from the man closest to the famous singer during the last decade of his life.More than a hundred books have been written about legendary crooner and actor Frank Sinatra. Every detail of his life seems to captivate: his career, his romantic relationships, his personality, his businesses, his style. But a hard-to-pin-down quality has always clung to him—a certain elusiveness that emerges again and again in retrospective depictions. Until now. From Sinatra&’s closest confidant and an eventual member of his management team, Tony Oppedisano, comes an extraordinarily intimate look at the singing idol. Deep into the night, for more than two thousand nights, Frank and Tony would converse—about music, family, friends, great loves, achievements and successes, failures and disappointments, the lives they&’d led, the lives they wished they&’d led. In these full-disclosure conversations, Sinatra spoke of his close yet complex relationship with his father, his conflicts with record companies, his carousing in Vegas, his love affairs with some of the most beautiful women of his era, his triumphs on some of the world&’s biggest stages, his complicated relationships with his talented children, and, most important, his dedication to his craft. Toward the end, no one was closer to the singer than Oppedisano, who kept his own rooms at the Sinatra residences for many years, often brokered difficult conversations between family members, and held the superstar entertainer&’s hand when he drew his last breath. Featuring never-before-seen photos and offering startlingly fresh anecdotes and new revelations that center on some of the most famous people of the past fifty years—including Jackie Kennedy, Marilyn Monroe, Sam Giancana, Madonna, and Bono—Sinatra and Me pulls back the curtain to reveal a man whom history has, in many ways, gotten wrong.
Meaning a Life: An Autobiography
by Mary OppenA classic of twentieth-century American autobiography now back in print with previously unpublished material from the author’s archive First published in 1978, Mary Oppen’s seminal Meaning a Life has been largely unavailable for decades. Written in her sixties, her first and only prose book recounts, with honesty, depth, and conviction, her fiercely independent life—“a twentieth-century American romance,” as Yang describes it in the new introduction, “of consciousness on the open road; a book of travel where the autobiographer is not the usual singular self at the center of the story but the union of two individuals.” Oppen tells the story of growing up with three brothers in the frontier towns of Kalispell, Montana, and Grants Pass, Oregon, determined to escape the trap of “a meaningless life with birth and death in a biological repetition.” That escape happens in the fall of 1926, when she meets another student in her college poetry class, George Oppen. She is expelled for breaking curfew, and from then on the two face the world intertwined: living a life of conversation, hitchhiking across the US, sailing from the Great Lakes to New York City, meeting fellow poets and artists, starting a small press with Zukofsky and Pound, traveling by horse and cart through France, and fighting fascism through the Great Depression. Mary Oppen writes movingly of both her inner life and external events, of the inconsolable pain of suffering multiple stillbirths, of her husband fighting on the front lines during WWII while she struggled to care for their baby daughter, of fleeing to Mexico to avoid persecution for their political activities. This expanded edition includes a new section of prose and poetry that deepens Oppen’s radiantly incisive memoir with further memories, travels, and reflections.
Exit Right
by Daniel OppenheimerA provocative, intimate look at the evolution of America's political soul through the lives of six political figures--from Whittaker Chambers to Christopher Hitchens--who abandoned the left and joined the right.In Exit Right, Daniel Oppenheimer tells the stories of six major political figures whose journeys away from the left reshaped the contours of American politics in the twentieth century. By going deep into the minds of six apostates--Whittaker Chambers, James Burnham, Ronald Reagan, Norman Podhoretz, David Horowitz, and Christopher Hitchens--Oppenheimer offers an unusually intimate history of the American left, and the right's reaction. Oppenheimer is a brilliant new voice in political history who has woven together the past century's most important movements into a single book that reveals the roots of American politics. Through the eyes of his six subjects, we see America grow, stumble, and forge ahead--from World War I up through the Great Depression and World War II, from the Red Scare up through the Civil Rights Movement, and from the birth of neoconservatism up through 9/11 and the dawn of the Iraq War. At its core, Exit Right is a book that asks profound questions about why and how we come to believe politically at all--on the left or the right. Each of these six lives challenges us to ask where our own beliefs come from, and what it might take to change them. At a time of sky-high partisanship, Oppenheimer breaks down the boundaries that divide us and investigates the deeper origins of our politics. This is a book that will resonate with readers on the left and the right--as well as those stuck somewhere in the middle.
House of Hilton
by Jerry OppenheimerThis intimate, shocking—and thoroughly unauthorized—portrait of the Hiltons chronicles the family’s amazing odyssey from poverty and obscurity to glory and glamour. From Conrad Hilton, the eccentric “innkeeper to the world” who built a global empire beginning with a fleabag in a dusty Texas backwater, to Paris Hilton, his great-granddaughter, whose fame took off with a sex video, House of Hilton is the unauthorized, eye-popping portrait of one of America’s most outrageous dynasties. If you want to know how Paris Hilton became who she is, you have to know where she came from. From scores of candid and exclusive interviews, from private documents and public records, New York Times bestselling author Jerry Oppenheimer has dug deeply into her paternal and maternal family roots to reveal the often shocking, tragic, and comic lives that helped shape the world’s most famous and fabulous “celebutante. ” The cast of characters includes Paris’s maternal grandmother, a materialistic “stage mother from hell. ” There is Paris’s maternal grandfather, who became an alcoholic housepainter. The life of Paris’s mother, Kathy Hilton, groomed by her mother to be a star and marry rich, is candidly revealed, too, as is that of Paris’s father, Rick, Conrad’s grandson. Paris’s tabloid antics are truly in the Hilton tradition. Set against a glittery Hollywood backdrop—with appearances by stars like Elizabeth Taylor, Zsa Zsa Gabor, Natalie Wood, and Joan Collins—House of Hilton brings to light a cornucopia of closely held Hilton family secrets and sexual peccadilloes, such as the many affairs and the nightclub-brawling, boozing, and pill-popping life of Paris’s great-uncle, Nick Hilton. The story of his hellish marriage to Liz Taylor alone rivals any of today’s Hollywood breakups. Behind it all was Conrad Hilton, who built his worldwide empire through the Great Depression while others were jumping out of windows. A devout Catholic publicly, his personal life was that of an unrepentant sinner. His first marriage was to Mary Barron Hilton, a sexy, hard-drinking, gambling Kentucky teenager half Conrad’s age. Wife number two was the gorgeous Zsa Zsa, who, like Paris, was famous for being famous. Their tumultuous marriage and headline-making divorce are revealed here in all their juicy glory. In all,House of Hiltonis a gripping American saga, from the fire and passions that built a business empire to the debauchery and amorality passed on from one generation to the next. From the Hardcover edition.
The Kardashians: An American Drama
by Jerry OppenheimerFrom the New York Times bestselling author of Crazy Rich comes a blockbuster unauthorized biography of one of the most famous and ubiquitous family dynasties in contemporary culture: The Kardashians.Secrets and scandals of the Kardashians, so closely held that not even hard core fans have heard about them, are finally exposed in New York Times bestselling author Jerry Oppenheimer's forensic dissection of the infamous reality TV clan. From the curious life of patriarch Robert Kardashian, whose family meatpacking business was tainted by scandal, to “momager” Kris Jenner’s top-secret plan for the future, The Kardashians reveals the untold, definitive story based on two years of investigative reporting and scores of candid, on-the-record interviews, ranging from childhood friends to powerful business associates, who break their silence for the first time. In the decade since the Kardashians first appeared on the scene, millions of speculative words have been written about their drama-filled lives. But most has been tabloid hype and gossip column fantasy. Until now. Oppenheimer has written revelatory books on such international icons as the Clintons, the Kennedys, the Hiltons and more, and now comes The Kardashians, the true story that will make headlines and shock even the most loyal fans.
Martha Stewart - Just Desserts: The Unauthorized Biography
by Jerry OppenheimerDomestic Goddess Martha Stewart, once considered the epitome of perfection, has done a one-eighty. At the height of her game, as the head of a billion dollar corporation, she's been indicted in a shocking criminal insider trading case, and if convicted, the undisputed "doyenne of style" could be imprisoned.
Seinfeld: The Making of an American Icon
by Jerry OppenheimerThe never-before-told story of how Jerry Seinfeld made his dream come true -- of how this very ambitious, extremely driven, compulsively perfectionistic carefully worked his way up through the knock-down-drag-out world of stand-up comedy as it began to explode in the mid-1970s, & how he went on to co-create in the late 80s what is considered to be the most successful TV sitcom in its history. From the start, Jerry has been extremely private about all aspects of his personal life. For more than a year, Oppenheimer conducted in-depth interviews with scores of Jerry s closes friends, family members, bus. assoc., lovers, & fellow comedians who spoke candidly, painting a riveting portrait of the beloved & talented comedian.
Laughs, Luck...and Lucy: How I Came to Create the Most Popular Sitcom of All Time
by Jess Oppenheimer Gregg OppenheimerLaughs indeed as Jess Oppenheimer charts his rise from radio station gofer to inventor of the sitcom, as he winds up writing--then producing--Lucille Ball's show, first on radio, then on television. Luck, too, as the author recounts the good fortune that has him, within minutes of arrival in Hollywood, sitting down at a lunch counter and getting a tip that secures a job within days and a career for life. Ironic, too, that this inveterate TV writer had to be cajoled for years to set down these Hollywood heyday memoirs. He never finished, and it was left to son Gregg to complete the book.
The Remarkable Rise of Eliza Jumel: A Story of Marriage and Money in the Early Republic
by Margaret OppenheimerThe notorious life and times of one of the wealthiest women in 19th-century America Born into grinding poverty, Eliza Jumel was raised in a brothel, indentured as a servant, and confined to a workhouse when her mother was in jail. Yet by the end of her life, "Madame Jumel" was one of the richest women in New York, with servants of her own and mansions in Manhattan and Saratoga Springs. During her remarkable life, she acquired a fortune from her first husband, a French merchant, and almost lost it to her second, the notorious vice president Aaron Burr. Divorcing Burr amid lurid charges of adultery, Jumel lived on triumphantly to the age of 90, astutely managing her property and public persona. After her death, while family members extolled her virtues, claimants to her estate painted a different picture: of a prostitute, the mother of George Washington's illegitimate son, and a wife who ruthlessly defrauded her husband and perhaps even plotted his death. With this book, author Margaret A. Oppenheimer draws from archival documents and court filings, many untouched since the 1800s, to tell the true and full story of Eliza Jumel.
Dan Savage: The First Gay Celebrity
by Mark OppenheimerThere are many Dan Savages: the author of the Savage Love advice column, syndicated around the country; the radio essayist beloved by This American Life fans; the author of a best-selling book about his gay marriage, and another about his son's open adoption; the prankster who ruined Rick Santorum's life; and the founder of the "It Gets Better" anti-bullying campaign. But never before have we glimpsed Savage's whole life, from his Catholic-school days, raised by a Chicago cop and a housewife, to his current role as a unique American character. For he is unique: while there are many gay and lesbian celebrities, nearly all of them, from Ellen DeGeneres to Elton John, began their careers in the closet. Savage, on the other hand, has always been out and proud. He is thus a pivotal figure in LGBTQ history -- and a fascinating man, brought vividly to life in this thrilling e-book.
Wisenheimer
by Mark OppenheimerHave you ever met a child who talked like an adult? Who knew big words and how to use them? Was he a charmer or an insufferable smart aleck--or maybe both? Mark Oppenheimer was just such a boy, his talent for language a curse as much as a blessing. But when he got to junior high, Oppenheimer discovered an outlet for his loquaciousness: the debate team. Frank and comical, Wisenheimer chronicles the travails of a hyperarticulate child who finds salvation in the heady world of competitive oratory. In stirring prose, Oppenheimer describes what it was like to have a gift with no useful application. Unlike math or music prodigies, he had no way to showcase his unique skill, except to speak like a miniature adult--a trick some found impressive but others found irritating. Frustrated and isolated, Oppenheimer used his powers for ill--he became a wisenheimer, pushing his peers and teachers away. Then, in junior high, he discovered the world he was meant for: the debate club. His skill with language was finally being channeled, refined, and honed into something beautiful. As Oppenheimer blossomed as a person, he also became a world-champion high school and college debater. His journey from loneliness to fulfillment affords a fascinating inside look at the extraordinary subculture of world-class high school debate and at the power of language to change one's life. Oppenheimer writes movingly about the art of rhetoric, of his passion for it, and of the inspiration he derived from debating and watching others do it. This smart, funny memoir not only reveals a strange, compelling subculture, it also offers a broader discussion of the splendor and power of language and of the social and developmental hazards of being a gifted child. Finally, it looks with hope at our present age, in which oratory is once again an important force in American culture. Revealing, touching, and entertaining, Wisenheimer offers a brilliant portrait of the rarefied world of high school and college debate--and of what it's like to grow up talkative in America.
Wisenheimer: A Childhood Subject to Debate
by Mark OppenheimerHave you ever met a child who talked like an adult? Who knew big words and how to use them? Was he a charmer or an insufferable smart aleck--or maybe both? Mark Oppenheimer was just such a boy, his talent for language a curse as much as a blessing. But when he got to junior high, Oppenheimer discovered an outlet for his loquaciousness: the debate team. Frank and comical, Wisenheimer chronicles the travails of a hyperarticulate child who finds salvation in the heady world of competitive oratory. In stirring prose, Oppenheimer describes what it was like to have a gift with no useful application. Unlike math or music prodigies, he had no way to showcase his unique skill, except to speak like a miniature adult--a trick some found impressive but others found irritating. Frustrated and isolated, Oppenheimer used his powers for ill--he became a wisenheimer, pushing his peers and teachers away. Then, in junior high, he discovered the world he was meant for: the debate club. His skill with language was finally being channeled, refined, and honed into something beautiful. As Oppenheimer blossomed as a person, he also became a world-champion high school and college debater. His journey from loneliness to fulfillment affords a fascinating inside look at the extraordinary subculture of world-class high school debate and at the power of language to change one's life. Oppenheimer writes movingly about the art of rhetoric, of his passion for it, and of the inspiration he derived from debating and watching others do it. This smart, funny memoir not only reveals a strange, compelling subculture, it also offers a broader discussion of the splendor and power of language and of the social and developmental hazards of being a gifted child. Finally, it looks with hope at our present age, in which oratory is once again an important force in American culture. Revealing, touching, and entertaining, Wisenheimer offers a brilliant portrait of the rarefied world of high school and college debate--and of what it's like to grow up talkative in America.
Moja vas nekoc
by Tanja Čoprež Cristiano ParafioritiGalati Mamertino, majhno gorsko središče, potopljeno v park Gorovja Nebrodi, kjer iz vsakega zidu pronicajo spomini pretekle dni: Moja vas nekoč nam pomaga podoživeti ravno delček teh spominov. Vse skozi pripovedi nam pisatelj živo predstavlja realne ljudi, opojne vonjave in stare okuse na osnovi opisov njegovega otroštva na Siciliji. Iz teh strani pronica tihi glas juga, ki ga duši topost vdanosti in otožnosti, ampak tudi ljubezen do preteklih časov, do krvave in revne zemlje, ki so jo izčrpale in ranile revščina, krivica in izseljevanje, ki pa še vedno živi v spominih odhajajočih ljudi. Vse to se vtisne v spomin in se zasidra v srce, ustvari čustveno gmoto, ki prekipeva in poplavlja v obliki besed, misli in podob nekega preteklega časa, dne ali trenutka ter še vedno vznemirja.
It's A Wonderful World: Inspiring Stories About Ordinary People and God's Grace
by Jill Opstal-PopaIt’s a Wonderful World is a celebration of ordinary people whose lives cross in extraordinary ways at different parts of the world. Coming to the end of their own strength, and unsure of what to do next, the characters discover God’s plan through His marvelous matchless grace in receiving the revelation of Jesus and what he can do, and how He heals and changes lives. Shown in the past lives of Jill’s grandmothers, and Paul’s grandparents, a binding of the generations together can be seen in their ordinary circumstances, mistakes, second chances, victories and joys. Looking back at how older generations struggled with their human desires, fears, and challenges, helps one to embrace his or her humanity, in order to then receive the supernatural solutions needed in everyday life. The stories of Paul and Jill’s journey will compel one to look beyond himself to the greater needs of this world with its devastating happenings, and how with the collaboration of everyone, the world can be changed one life at a time. The reader may shed a tear, laugh out loud and just feel good reading about underdogs becoming champions, orphans placed in a family, and victories won despite impossible odds. True stories are used throughout this biography to inspire as well as to entertain with a light sense of humor. The author would like to convey that everyone is important, though from different backgrounds and walks of life, and that children are beloved by God and should be treasured, defended, and cherished, regardless the situations that they have come from. Children can have a new beginning and a new happy home or “Lar Feliz”. From the poor simple life of Romania, to the advanced culture of the Netherlands, to the wild developing Brazil, the reader will be able to explore new cultures and lands through the eyes of the author. Cultural differences will be discussed, when they sometimes collide, and when they find a beautiful harmony of working together for the Kingdom of God. The true hero is someone who tries when everyone else gives up and building a team or an army is more valuable than standing out alone. Love, grace, adventure, friendship, marriage, courage, romance, and faith are aspects of the lives of these ordinary people. God loves the world, the people in it with their failings, sorrows, disappointments, and imperfections, so much that He gave His son, Jesus which cost Him everything because He loves the world.
Marie Curie for Kids: Her Life and Scientific Discoveries, with 21 Activities and Experiments
by Amy O'QuinnMarie Curie, renowned for her work on radioactivity, was the first woman to win a Nobel Prize, the first person to win in two fields (chemistry and physics), and the first woman to hold a chair position at the Sorbonne. Marie Curie for Kids details Curie's remarkable life, from her childhood under a repressive czar in Poland to her tireless work supporting herself through college to meeting her ideal match in scientist Pierre Curie to her revolutionary research. Kids learn how Curie quietly flouted societal norms, working in full partnership with her husband while also teaching and raising two daughters. Scientific concepts are presented in a clear, accessible way, and a range of activities--from making Polish pierogies to exploring magnetism to using electrolysis to split water--allow for exploration of Curie's life, times, and work.