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SAS Great Escapes Three: Gripping True Escape Stories Executed by World War Two Heroes
by Damien Lewis'Damien Lewis is both a meticulous historian and a born storyteller' Lee ChildFIVE OF THE MOST DARING ESCAPES CARRIED OUT BY THE SAS DURING WORLD WAR TWOSAS Great Escapes Three recounts how warriors of the world's most famous fighting force, the SAS, carried out five of the most daring escapes of World War Two. Ranging from the very birth of the SAS, to the post D-Day battles for Nazi-occupied Europe, these gripping true stories cover some of the most iconic operations of the regiment, and its key characters, while also including untold tales of courage and endurance beyond compare.Told in classic Damien Lewis style, each account plunges the reader into the escapees' experiences - sharing the most terrifying yet astounding moments of their lives. They include unimaginable accounts of survival in the face of staggering odds, episodes of nerve-wracking bluff and deception, plus knife-edge ambushes withenemy forces hell-bent on wreaking vengeance.In this new volume of incredible special forces feats, bestselling author Damien Lewis has worked closely with World War Two veterans and the families of those portrayed, accessing wartime diaries, letters, mission reports, interrogation transcripts and more, to relate how the men of the SAS were hunted by the enemy and forced to fight their way out of certain death or capture. Around every corner, upon every decision and every movement lurked the possibility of discovery. Yet with every step, breath and turn taken, these fugitives epitomized the do-or-die spirit of the SAS to overcome.
Saul Bellow: "I Was a Jew and an American and a Writer" (The Modern Jewish Experience)
by Gerald SorinSaul Bellow: "I Was a Jew and an American and a Writer" offers a fresh and original perspective on the life and works of Saul Bellow, the Nobel Prize winner in Literature in 1976. Author Gerald Sorin emphasizes Bellow's Jewish identity as fundamental to his being and the content and meaning of his fiction. Bellow's work from the 1940s to 2000, when he wrote his last novel at the age of 84, centers on the command in Deuteronomy to "Choose life" as distinct from nihilistic withdrawal and the defense of meaninglessness.Although Bellow disdained the label of "American Jewish Writer," Sorin conjectures that he was an outstanding representative of the classification. Bellow and the characters in his fiction not only choose life but also explore what it means to live a good life, however difficult that may be to define, and regardless of how much harder it is to achieve. For Sorin, Bellow realized that at least two obstacles stood in the way: the imperfection of the world and the frailty of the human pursuer.Saul Bellow: "I Was a Jew and an American and a Writer" provides a new and insightful narrative of the life and works of Saul Bellow. By using Bellow's deeply internalized Jewishness and his remarkable imagination and creativity as a lens, Sorin examines how he captured the shifting atmosphere of postwar American culture.
Savarkar and the Making of Hindutva
by Janaki BakhleA monumental intellectual history of the pivotal figure of Hindu nationalismVinayak Damodar Savarkar (1883–1966) was an intellectual, ideologue, and anticolonial nationalist leader in India&’s struggle for independence from British colonial rule, one whose anti-Muslim writings exploited India&’s tensions in pursuit of Hindu majority rule. Savarkar and the Making of Hindutva is the first comprehensive intellectual history of one of the most contentious political thinkers of the twentieth century.Janaki Bakhle examines the full range of Savarkar&’s voluminous writings in his native language of Marathi, from political and historical works to poetry, essays, and speeches. She reveals the complexities in the various positions he took as a champion of the beleaguered Hindu community, an anticaste progressive, an erudite if polemical historian, a pioneering advocate for women&’s dignity, and a patriotic poet. This critical examination of Savarkar&’s thought shows that Hindutva is as much about the aesthetic experiences that have been attached to the idea of India itself as it is a militant political program that has targeted the Muslim community in pursuit of power in postcolonial India.By bringing to light the many legends surrounding Savarkar, Bakhle shows how this figure from a provincial locality in colonial India rose to world-historical importance. Savarkar and the Making of Hindutva also uncovers the vast hagiographic literature that has kept alive the myth of Savarkar as a uniquely brave, brilliant, and learned revolutionary leader of the Hindu nation.
Saving Our Service Academies: My Battle with, and for, the US Naval Academy to Make Thinking Officers
by Bruce FlemingOnce proud citadels of virtue, the US military academies have lost their way and are running on fumes. They need to be fixed before it&’s too late.Saving Our Service Academies covers one man&’s unrelenting thirty-year fight with the military bureaucracy to instill qualities of force and thoughtfulness in officers-to-be, to show young men how to be adults with other men and women, and to show young women how to deal with the men. Bruce Fleming has spent over thirty years teaching midshipmen and future officers at the US Naval Academy in Annapolis. This position was both a dream job and a nightmare for the enthusiastic, athletic, young Fleming. He found, in the thousands of midshipmen he taught, mentored, and exercised with for three decades, a heartbreaking waste of potential, as promising officers-to-be lapsed into apathy and cynicism because of the dispiriting reality behind the gleaming facade of the Naval Academy. What happened to duty, honor, and country at Annapolis? These values have disappeared in the wake of changes in the world, such as the rise of ROTC and the increase in expense of civilian colleges (the service academies are free to the students), and in the attempt to use the service academies as experiments in trendy social engineering. A staunch advocate for military strength, Fleming shows how the smoke and mirrors of service academies produce officers who are taught to say &“SIR, YES SIR&” rather than to have the guts to say things their commanding officer doesn&’t want to hear. Is that why the US hasn&’t won a war since World War II? By writing op-eds about the waste, fraud, and abuse of government (and taxpayer) money, Fleming put a target on his back that the USNA administration used to fire him in 2018, despite being a tenured civilian professor. He was reinstated by a federal judge in 2019. The service academies are government programs that no longer fill the needs for which they were created, and so like all government programs, can be re-examined. Indeed, as Fleming argues, they teach blind obedience in officers rather than informed and respectful questioning, and so sap our military strength rather than increasing it. They need to be re-imagined not as stand-alone undergraduate institutions that wall off future officers in an increasingly untenable isolation from the country they are to defend, but either be combined with the officer commissioning sources that currently produce over 80 percent of our new officers, or re-purposed to post-civilian college training institutions.
Say More: Lessons from Work, the White House, and the World
by Jen PsakiINSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER Former White House Press Secretary and current MSNBC host Jen Psaki shares the surprising lessons she&’s learned on her path to success and offers unique yet universal advice about how to be a more effective communicator in any situation.Not many White House Press Secretaries capture the nation&’s interest the way Jen Psaki did. Refreshingly candid and clear, Psaki quickly became known for her ability to break through the noise and successfully deliver her message. In her highly anticipated book, Psaki shares her journey to the Briefing Room and beyond, taking readers along the campaign trail, to the State Department, and inside the White House under two Presidents. With her signature wit, Psaki writes about reporting to bosses from the hot-tempered Rahm Emanuel to the coolly intellectual Barack Obama to the surprisingly tenderhearted John Kerry. She also talks about her time working closely with President Joe Biden from the start of his administration to set a new tone for the country, restoring a sense of calm and respect for the role of the media in our Democracy. Since leaving the White House, Psaki&’s star has continued to rise. She launched a highly rated show on MSNBC and was so successful that in just six months she was given an additional primetime Monday slot, ahead of Rachel Maddow. And Psaki&’s work doesn&’t end at the office. She is the mother of two young children and shares her stories about the journey of communicating as a parent: During one bedtime briefing, her young daughter asked the question, &“Why do wars start?&”, which Jen carefully explained and then got a follow up: &“Have you ever seen a unicorn?&” In Say More, Psaki explains her straightforward approach to communication, walking readers through difficult conversations as well as moments where humor saves the day—whether it is with preschoolers, partners, or presidents. She addresses the best ways to give and receive feedback, how to connect with your audience, how to listen actively, and much more. Say More is the book Psaki wishes she had when she started her career, and is a trove of entertaining, essential lessons from one of the most prominent voices in American politics today.
Schoolboy: The Untold Journey of a Yankees Hero
by Waite Hoyt Tim MannersWaite &“Schoolboy&” Hoyt&’s improbable baseball journey began when the 1915 New York Giants signed him as a high school junior, for no pay and a five-dollar bonus. After nearly having both his hands amputated and cavorting with men twice his age in the hardscrabble Minor Leagues, he somehow ended up the best pitcher for the New York Yankees in the 1920s. Based on a trove of Hoyt&’s writings and interview transcripts, Tim Manners has reanimated the baseball legend&’s untold story, entirely in Hoyt&’s own words. Schoolboy dives straight into early twentieth-century America and the birth of modern-day baseball, as well as Hoyt&’s defining conflict: Should he have pursued something more respectable than being the best pitcher on the 1927 New York Yankees, arguably the greatest baseball team of all time? Over his twenty-three-year professional baseball career, Hoyt won 237 big league games across 3,845 ⅔ innings—and one locker room brawl with Babe Ruth. He also became a vaudeville star who swapped dirty jokes with Mae West and drank champagne with Al Capone, a philosophizer who bonded with Lou Gehrig over the meaning of life, and a funeral director who left a body chilling in his trunk while pitching an afternoon game at Yankee Stadium. Hoyt shares his thoughts on famous moments in the golden age of baseball history; assesses baseball legends, including Ty Cobb, Stan Musial, and Pete Rose; and describes the strategies of baseball managers John McGraw, Miller Huggins, and Connie Mack. He writes at length about the art of pitching and how the game and its players changed—and didn&’t—over his lifetime. After retiring from baseball at thirty-eight and coming to terms with his alcoholism, Hoyt found some happiness as a family man and a beloved, pioneering Cincinnati Reds radio sportscaster with a Websterian vocabulary spiked with a Brooklyn accent. When Hoyt died in 1984 his foremost legacy may have been as a raconteur who punctuated his life story with awe-inspiring and jaw-dropping anecdotes. In Schoolboy he never flinches from an unsparing account of his remarkable and paradoxical eighty-four-year odyssey.
The Search for Reagan: The Appealing Intellectual Conservatism of Ronald Reagan
by Craig ShirleyNever before has anyone explored the mind, soul, and heart of Ronald Reagan. The Search for Reagan explores the challenges and controversies in Reagan&’s life and how he successfully dealt with each, depicting a man who was never as conservative as some conservatives wanted him to be, but rather as conservative as he was comfortable being—a man who wanted to win on his own terms and integrity.Ronald Reagan was a singularly unique man and conservative who championed a wildly successful revolution—leading to more freedom and less government for the American people and to the fall of communism, while boosting American morale, which had been his three big goals. He was the first president in many years who believed optimism from the Oval Office had a direct bearing on the affairs of the nation. As a consequence, he left office more popular than when he entered with a whopping 73 percent approval. He is beloved even today as his presidential library is visited far more than any other presidential library, by more than five million people each year. He understood that American conservatism was based upon the individual and not the group. He is still regarded as one of the most admired men in America. The range of Reagan scholarship by virtue of books sold about him continues to grow. In his presidency, he solved the mystery of high inflation that had bedeviled his predecessor, high interest rates, and high gas prices. He created over twenty million new jobs, and the number of American millionares grew from 4,414 to 34,944. He quite literally changed our world for the better and is considered by most historians to be one of our four greatest presidents, along with George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, and Franklin Roosevelt.
A Seat at the Table: The Life and Times of Shirley Chisholm
by Glenn L. StarksWhen Shirley Chisholm was asked why she would dare run for president, her response was, why not her? Shirley Anita St. Hill Chisholm rose from being the child of immigrants to the United States to running for the highest office in the land. Her achievement in doing this as a Black woman was not in spite of her background but rather because of it. She became both the first African American woman elected to the US Congress and the first female African American of a major political party to make a serious run for president of the United States. She persevered by being steadfast in her political convictions and unwillingness to compromise on the issues she believed in. Chisholm directly challenged the political establishment and was successful because she galvanized women, minorities, young people, and the poor not only in her home district in Brooklyn, New York, but across the country. She was that catalyst for change who gave a political voice to so many segments of society who were, up until that time, ignored: women, minorities, the young, members of the gay community, domestic and agricultural workers, and the poor. Her run for the presidency in 1972 was a win in terms of her forging a unified grassroots campaign in which the voices of the previously voiceless joined together for a single cause of voting for someone who supported their diverse but collective interests.As many historians have pointed out, without Shirley Chisholm there may not have been a Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, or Kamala Harris.
The Secret Lives of Booksellers and Librarians: Their stories are better than the bestsellers
by James Patterson Matt EversmannTo be a bookseller or librarian… <P> You have to play detective. <P> Be a treasure hunter. A matchmaker. An advocate. A visionary. <P> A person who creates “book joy” by pulling a book from a shelf, handing it to someone and saying, “You’ve got to read this. You’re going to love it.” <P><P> Step inside The Secret Lives of Booksellers and Librarians and enter a world where you can feed your curiosities, discover new voices, find whatever you want or require. This place has the magic of rainbows and unicorns, but it's also a business. The book business. <P><P> Meet the smart and talented people who live between the pages—and who can’t wait to help you find your next favorite book. <p> <b>New York Times Bestseller</b>
The Secret Mind of Bertha Pappenheim: The Woman Who Invented Freud's Talking Cure
by Gabriel BrownsteinThe story of a patient who changed the world, and the mystery of her illness. In 1880, young Bertha Pappenheim got strangely ill—she lost her ability to control her voice and her body. She was treated by Sigmund Freud&’s mentor, Josef Breuer, who diagnosed her with &“hysteria.&” Together, Pappenheim and Breuer developed what she called &“the talking cure&”—talking out memories to eliminate symptoms. Freud renamed her &“Anna O&” and appropriated her ideas to form the theory of psychoanalysis. All his life, he told lies about her. For over a century, writers have argued about her illness and cure. In this unusual work of science, history, and psychology, Brownstein does more than describe the controversies surrounding this extraordinary woman. He brings Pappenheim to life—a brilliant feminist thinker, a crusader against human trafficking, and a pioneer—in the hustling and heady world of nineteenth-century Vienna. At the same time, he tells a parallel story that is playing out in leading medical centers today, about patients who suffer symptoms very much like Pappenheim&’s, and about the doctors who are trying to cure them—the story of the neuroscience of a condition now called FND.The Secret Mind of Bertha Pappenheim argues for the healing art of listening and describes the new &“talking cures&” emerging out of neuroscience today.
Seeds of Hope: My Journey of Self-Discovery in the Medical Cannabis Business
by Dr. Oludare Odumosu Patrick O'DonnellAn immigrant's story of leadership, innovation, and humanity in cannabis medicine.Seeds of Hope is an eye-opening memoir of self-discovery and entrepreneurship set against a backdrop of the war on drugs. It&’s also a story of the transformative power of medical cannabis and its potential to revolutionize the healthcare industry. Written by Dr. Oludare Odumosu, MPH, PhD, it takes readers on a personal journey as he progresses from &“just say no&” to become one of the leading voices in the global cannabinoid space. Dr. Odumosu explores the history of cannabis and the devastating effects of the War on Drugs on cannabis medicine, addiction, and the minority community. He shares his personal experience in cannabis medicine and entrepreneurship, including fears, frustrations, and triumphs, as he and his team run an ever-changing gauntlet of state and federal rules and regulations.Seeds of Hope is a must-read for anyone interested in the transformative power of medical cannabis, including aspiring entrepreneurs. It&’s also an inspiring memoir that offers hope, insights, and lessons learned on leadership, success, and achieving one&’s dreams.
Self-Portraits: Stories
by Osamu DazaiBringing together novelist Osamu Dazai’s best autobiographical shorts in a single, slim volume, Self-Portraits shows the legendary writer at his best—and worst “Art dies the moment it acquires authority.” So said Japan’s quintessential rebel writer Osamu Dazai, who, disgusted with the hypocrisy of every kind of establishment, from the nation’s obsolete aristocracy to its posturing, warmongering generals, went his own way, even when that meant his death—and the death of others. Faced with pressure to conform, he declared his individuality to the world—in all its self-involved, self-conscious, and self-hating glory. “Art,” he wrote, “is ‘I.’” In these short stories, collected and translated by Ralph McCarthy, we can see just how closely Dazai’s life mirrored his art, and vice versa, as the writer/narrator falls from grace, rises to fame, and falls again. Addiction, debt, shame, and despair dogged Dazai until his self-inflicted death, and yet despite all the lies and deception he resorted to in life, there is an almost fanatical honesty to his writing. And that has made him a hero to generations of readers who see laid bare, in his works, the painful, impossible contradictions inherent in the universal commandment of social life—fit in and do as you are told—as well as the possibility, however desperate, of defiance. Long out of print, these stories will be a revelation to the legions of new fans of No Longer Human, The Setting Sun, and The Flowers of Buffoonery.
Send Me: The True Story of a Mother at War
by Marty Skovlund Jr. Joe KentThe extraordinary story of American special operator and trailblazer Shannon Kent, who hunted high value targets on classified missions in the most dangerous locales on earth while trying to balance her life as a wife and mother. Of the 1.3 million active-duty service members in the US military, only a tiny fraction are selected as “operators.” Shannon Kent was one of the first women to serve at this level and was widely recognized as one of the best.Shannon served as a Navy cryptologic technician, responsible for signals intelligence and electronic warfare, but her proficiency with language set her apart. She was assigned to a unit so secretive that its name can’t even be printed here, where she worked clandestinely to hunt the most wanted terrorists in the world.Send Me is Shannon’s heroic life story, revealing the truth of both her work and the challenges she faced while trying to raise a family with her husband Joe, himself a Special Forces soldier. He and Shannon met in a war zone, their love forged during a special operations training course, their dedication spanning multiple combat deployments and the birth of their two boys.It is the legacy of an extraordinary woman who rose to the apex of the military, working with the most elite forces in the world, lifting the veil from the life of a Special Forces family to share their duty, sacrifice, and humanity.
Serial Killers: Shocking True Stories of the World's Most Barbaric Murderers
by Jamie KingA gripping true crime compendium of some of the world's most infamous and shocking mass murderers, such as John Wayne Gacy, the Boston Strangler, the Moors murderers and Harold Shipman, as well as some lesser-known figures. This book not only relates the disturbing events that transpired but also delves into the psychology of the perpetrators.
Servo: Tales from the Graveyard Shift
by David GoodwinAn odyssey of drive-offs, spiked slurpees, stale sausage rolls and sleep-deprived madness.Most of us have done our time in the retail trenches, but service stations are undoubtedly the frontline, as Melburnian David Goodwin found out when he started working the weekend graveyard shift at his local servo.From his very first night shift, David absorbed a consistent level of mind-bending lunacy, encountering everything from giant shoplifting bees and balaclava-clad goons hurling cordial-filled water bombs from the sunroof of their BMW, to anarcho-goths high on MDMA releasing large rats into the store from their matching Harry Potter backpacks.Over the years, David grew to love his mad servo, handing out free pies and chocolate bars on the sly as he grew a backbone and became street smart. Amidst the unrelenting chaos, he eventually made it out of the servo circus - and lived to tell the tale.For anyone who's ever toiled under the unforgiving fluorescent lights of a customer service job, SERVO is a side-splitting and darkly mesmeric coming-of-age story from behind the anti-jump wire that will have you gritting your teeth, then cackling at the absurdity, idiocy and utterly beguiling strangeness of those who only come out at night.
Sex with a Brain Injury: On Concussion and Recovery
by Annie LiontasFor readers of Meghan O&’Rourke&’s The Invisible Kingdom, Esmé Weijun Wang&’s The Collected Schizophrenias, and Melissa Febos&’s Girlhood, a powerful and deeply personal memoir in essays that sheds light on the silent epidemic of head trauma.Annie Liontas suffered multiple concussions in her thirties. In Sex with a Brain Injury, she writes about what it means to be one of the &“walking wounded,&” facing her fear, her rage, her physical suffering, and the effects of head trauma on her marriage and other relationships. Forced to reckon with her own queer mother&’s battle with addiction, Liontas finds echoes in their pain. Liontas weaves history, philosophy, and personal accounts to interrogate and expand representations of mental health, ability, and disability—particularly in relation to women and the LGBT community. She uncovers the surprising legacy of brain injury, examining its role in culture, the criminal justice system, and through historical figures like Henry VIII and Harriet Tubman. Encountering Liontas&’s sharp, affecting prose, the reader can imagine this kind of pain, and having to claw one&’s way back to a new normal. The hidden gift of injury, Liontas writes, is the ability to connect with others. For the millions of people who have suffered from concussions and for those who have endeavored to support loved ones through the painful and often baffling experience of head trauma, this astonishing and compassionate narrative offers insight and hope in equal measure.
The Sex You Want: A Shameless Journey to Deep Intimacy, Honest Pleasure, and a Life You Love
by Rena MartineYou Deserve Great SexWhen it comes to relationships, our society has plenty of expectations. We're supposed to know how to speak up for ourselves in bed, be caring partners, and, of course, love ourselves first. But no one tells us how to actually do all those things, and we are left feeling unsatisfied, confused, and ashamed when we don't measure up.Former Deputy District Attorney Rena Martine was in that position. After rejecting the ideal white-picket fence life, she embarked on a journey to redefine intimacy in a way that felt true. In the years that followed, Rena defied all of society's sexual norms, built a presence as a global women's intimacy coach, and created the intimate life she craved.Now she brings those experiences to you! With no-holds-barred honesty, stories from real-life women, and sparkling humor, THE SEX YOU WANT will help you:Build a secure relationship with your most important partner—YOURSELFGet in touch with YOUR expectations for relationships so you can date more intentionallyDemystify lifestyle practices outside of the heterosexual-monogamous-vanilla box with frank discussions of female sexual fluidity, kink, and ethical non-monogamyFind apps, products, and communities to satisfy any curiosityBring deep intimacy and exciting variety into your bedroom and beyondWhen it comes to intimacy, vulnerability, and connection, you'll find that no two women are alike. THE SEX YOU WANT replaces cookie-cutter advice with powerful self-discovery tools to help you make friends with your own confidence and curiosity, build rock-solid relationships, and embrace what YOU love!
Shake It Up, Baby!: The Rise of Beatlemania and the Mayhem of 1963
by Ken McNabA vivid, captivating account of the Beatles&’s musical transformation throughout the pivotal year of 1963, as the world became caught up in the maelstrom of Beatlemania and its far-reaching cultural impact. The Beatles broke up more than half a century ago, yet millions around the globe are still drawn to the legacy of four lads from Liverpool. From the carefree innocence of "A Hard Day's Night" to the experimental psychedelia of "Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds,&” their message of love, peace, and hope still resonates. In Shake It Up, Baby! we go back to the start—to 1963, when they went from playing in small clubs in the remote Scottish Highlands to four number one singles, two number one albums, three national tours, and being besieged by thousands of fans at gigs all over Britain. Ken McNab tells the story through gripping, exclusive eye-witness accounts from those who were there: the Beatlemaniacs, the journalists, broadcasters, and television producers who were scrambling to make sense of it all—and the other bands who could only watch in awe as the Beatles went from bottom of the bill to headline act to the biggest band on the planet, forever transforming musical history.
Shakespeare, or, The Man Who Pays the Rent
by Judi Dench Brendan O'HeaTaking a curtain call with a live snake in her wig... Cavorting naked through the Warwickshire countryside painted green... <P> Acting opposite a child with a pumpkin on his head... <P> These are just a few of the things Dame Judi Dench has done in the name of Shakespeare. <P><P> For the very first time, Judi opens up about every Shakespearean role she has played throughout her seven-decade career, from Lady Macbeth and Titania to Ophelia and Cleopatra. In a series of intimate conversations with actor & director Brendan O'Hea, she guides us through Shakespeare's plays with incisive clarity, revealing the secrets of her rehearsal process and inviting us to share in her triumphs, disasters, and backstage shenanigans. <P><P> Interspersed with vignettes on audiences, critics, company spirit and rehearsal room etiquette, she serves up priceless revelations on everything from the craft of speaking in verse to her personal interpretations of some of Shakespeare's most famous scenes, all brightened by her mischievous sense of humour, striking level of honesty and a peppering of hilarious anecdotes, many of which have remained under lock and key until now. <P><P> Instructive and witty, provocative and inspiring, this is ultimately Judi's love letter to Shakespeare, or rather, The Man Who Pays The Rent. <p> <b>New York Times Bestseller</b>
Shakespeare's Sisters: Four Women Who Wrote the Renaissance
by Ramie Targoff'An outstanding revisionist portrait of an age' Telegraph'Targoff tells their stories with vim and vigour' i Paper'[A] fascinating excavation of four intellectual powerhouse women' Tina Brown, New York Times Discover the lives and work of four ambitious Renaissance women who, against all odds, made themselves heard-and read-in the time of ShakespeareIn an innovative and engaging narrative of everyday life in Shakespeare's England, Ramie Targoff carries us from the sumptuous coronation of Queen Elizabeth in the mid-16th century into the private lives of four women writers working at a time when women were legally the property of men. Some readers may have heard of Mary Sidney, accomplished poet and sister of the famous Sir Philip Sidney, but few will have heard of Aemilia Lanyer, the first woman in the 17th century to publish a book of original poetry, which offered a feminist take on the crucifixion, or Elizabeth Cary, who published the first original play by a woman, about the plight of the Jewish princess Mariam. Then there was Anne Clifford, a lifelong diarist, who fought for decades against a patriarchy that tried to rob her of her land in one of England's most infamous inheritance battles. These women had husbands and children to care for and little support for their art, yet against all odds they defined themselves as writers, finding rooms of their own where doors had been shut for centuries. Targoff flings them open to uncover the treasures left by these extraordinary women; in the process, she helps us see the Renaissance in a fresh light, creating a richer understanding of history and offering a much-needed female perspective on life in Shakespeare's day.
Shakespeare's Sisters: Four Women Who Wrote the Renaissance
by Ramie TargoffDiscover the lives and work of four ambitious Renaissancewomen who, against all odds, made themselves heard-and read-in the time of ShakespeareIn an innovative and engaging narrative of everyday life in Shakespeare's England, Ramie Targoff carries us from the sumptuous coronation of Queen Elizabeth in the mid-16th century into the private lives of four women writers working at a time when women were legally the property of men. Some readers may have heard of Mary Sidney, accomplished poet and sister of the famous Sir Philip Sidney, but few will have heard of Aemilia Lanyer, the first woman in the 17th century to publish a book of original poetry, which offered a feminist take on the crucifixion, or Elizabeth Cary, who published the first original play by a woman, about the plight of the Jewish princess Mariam. Then there was Anne Clifford, a lifelong diarist, who fought for decades against a patriarchy that tried to rob her of her land in one of England's most infamous inheritance battles. These women had husbands and children to care for and little support for their art, yet against all odds they defined themselves as writers, finding rooms of their own where doors had been shut for centuries. Targoff flings them open to uncover the treasures left by these extraordinary women; in the process, she helps us see the Renaissance in a fresh light, creating a richer understanding of history and offering a much-needed female perspective on life in Shakespeare's day.
Sheikh Abdullah: The Caged Lion of Kashmir
by Chitralekha ZutshiA compelling biography of Sheikh Abdullah, the charismatic, combative, and controversial Kashmiri politician Written by the leading historian of modern Kashmir, this is a comprehensive portrayal of one of the most enigmatic politicians in modern South Asia, Sheikh Muhammad Abdullah, known as the Lion of Kashmir. Abdullah (1905–1982) devoted much of his life to mobilizing Kashmiris to assert their rights, to trying to achieve a fair resolution for their politically contested state, to shaping its turbulent relationship with India, and to bridging the divide between India and Pakistan. Although he forged ties with the Indian National Congress, Abdullah&’s support for Kashmir&’s accession to India and his advocacy for a more autonomous position for the state within the Indian Union complicated his relationship with India and led to his fall from grace, arrest, and imprisonment. In 1975 he reached a compromise with India that alienated generations of Kashmiris for whose self-determination he had long fought. The people of Kashmir, India, and Pakistan continue to grapple with and contest his legacy. Zutshi&’s rigorously researched and elegantly crafted biography brings this complex figure to life and offers a window onto the political fissures of twentieth-century South Asia more broadly.
Shift: A Memoir of Identity and Other Illusions (American Lives)
by Penny GuisingerPenny Guisinger was not always attracted to women. In Shift she recounts formative relationships with women and men, including the marriage that produced her two children and ultimately ended in part due to her affair with her now-wife. Beginning her story as straight and ending as queer, she struggles to make sense of how her identity changed so profoundly while leaving her feeling like the same person she&’s always been. While covering pivotal periods of her life, including previous relationships and raising her children across the chasm of divorce, Guisinger reaches for quantum physics, music theory, planetary harmonics, palmistry, and more to interrogate her experiences. This personal story plays out against the backdrop of the national debate on same-sex marriage, in rural, easternmost Maine, where Guisinger watched her neighbors vote against the validity of her family.Shift examines sexual and romantic fluidity while wrestling with the ways past and present mingle rather than staying in linear narratives. Under scrutiny, Guisinger&’s sense of her own identity becomes like a Mobius strip or Penrose triangle—an optical illusion that challenges the dimensions and possibilities of the world.
Shopkeeping: Stories, Advice, and Observations
by Peter MillerA love letter to the small shop, and shop owners everywhere, by beloved bookseller Peter Miller.For more than four decades, Peter Miller has run a design bookshop that shares his name in Seattle. He has also written three of his own books, manuals about cooking and about food and about eating together. In Shopkeeping, Miller writes for the first time about his other love: shopkeeping."There is a tradition of shopkeeping, a tradition of codes, etiquette, and customs. For the most part, it is an oral history, passed along, person to person. You learn to be a retailer—not by going to college, but by going to work. You learn from people who have learned how to run a shop." [from the Introduction]Over ten chapters, Miller crafts stories from the bookshop floor with wry humor and skillful storytelling. Readers will laugh out loud as they come to understand along the way that small shops characterize our towns and cities, making them unique, special, and worth visiting and living near. An essay collection for book and bookshop lovers, small business owners, and Seattle natives, transplants, and visitors, Shopkeeping captures the art and heart of running a local shop cherished by the community that surrounds it.
Show Me Where It Hurts: Manifesting Illness and Impairment in Graphic Pathography (Graphic Medicine)
by Monica ChiuIn Show Me Where It Hurts, Monica Chiu argues that graphic pathography—long-form comics by and about subjects who suffer from disease or are impaired—re-vitalizes and re-visions various negatively affected corporeal states through hand-drawn images. By the body and for the body, the medium is subversive and reparative, and it stands in contradistinction to clinical accounts of illness that tend to disembody or objectify the subject.Employing affect theory, spatial theory, vital materialism, and approaches from race and ethnic studies, women and gender studies, disability studies, and comics studies, Chiu provides readings of recently published graphic pathography. Chiu argues that these kinds of subjective graphic stories, by virtue of their narrative and descriptive strengths, provide a form of resistance to the authoritative voice of biomedicine and serve as a tool to foster important change in the face of social and economic inequities when it comes to questions of health and healthcare. Show Me Where It Hurts reads what already has been manifested on the comics page and invites more of what demands expression.Pathbreaking and provocative, this book will appeal to scholars and students of the medical humanities, comics studies, race and ethnic studies, disability studies, and women and gender studies.